BUSINESS led me near the court-house; the prison-van was driven up to the door, and a large crowd gathered round to watch the prisoners as they should be takes to the jail. One after another the prisoners were led out, each escorted by two policemen. The faces of most told plainly the sort of life they had led. The profligate and the abandoned were there, feeling for till moment that “the way of transgressors is hard.” (Prov. 13:1515Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is hard. (Proverbs 13:15).). But sin has its pleasures, and therefore its followers.
The last of the prisoners was unlike the others. He was young, his face was fair, he was neatly dressed, and as he saw the crowd gazing at him he hung his head in shame, and I observed the big tear stealing down his cheek. At that moment an aged man, whose hair was as white as snow, sprang out from the crowd clasped the prisoner in his arms, am sobbing as if his heart would break, cried “My son! my son! Oh, that I could die, and save you from this disgrace―from ruin―from the jail! Why have you used your old father thus? I told you of God, am of heaven, but you would not give heed and now they are taking you away―away! I shall go down broken-hearted to the grave.”
“Cheer up, father,” said the young man weeping. He was going to add more, but “Bring him away!” cried the officer, an with rough hands they thrust him into the van, the door was shut, and the old Max fell upon the pavement weeping.
As I turned away, wiping the tears from my own eyes, I thought, “Here is love, indeed! But there is no power in this love. The broken-hearted father cannot alter the young man’s condition. Into the prison-van and to the jail the guilty youth must go: the law must take its course. This love is not mighty to save.”
Darius, the king of Persia, made a decree that whosoever should ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of the king, would be cast into the den of lions.
But Daniel knew God, and the king’s decree was nothing to him. So, with his window open towards Jerusalem, Daniel prayed and gave thanks to God, three times a day, as before. The king loved Daniel, and labored hard to save him from the den, but the unbending laws of the Medes and Persians rendered his love powerless. He spent the night in fruitless sorrow and fasting. No joy; no sound of music was heard in his palace. But the king could not save. The law of the kingdom was more powerful than the love of the monarch. Love might weep, but the law triumphed, and Daniel was cast into the lions’ den. His love was not mighty to save.
But listen, dear friend, to the love which is mighty to save. The word of God has declared in awful solemnity, “The soul that sinneth it shall die!” There is no power which can alter the decree. England’s law could not be altered to ease the heart of the sorrowing father. The law of the Medes and Persians could not be altered to meet the wishes of the king, and not one jot or tittle of the holy requirements of Jehovah shall ever be set aside. You have sinned, judgment is pronounced upon you, the sentence must be executed.
But we tell you with gladness of love which is mighty to save―yes, to save you, the condemned sinner on the way to the eternal prison. We tell you of the Substitute―of Jesus who died, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
Yes! wonder of wonders! the offended, yet loving God gives His Son! “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).) Eternal and universal praise to His name! His love is mighty to save. He saw us in our ruin. But He found a Ransom; the debt is paid, the law magnified, sin condemned.
“When naught beside could ease us,
Or set our souls at large,
Thy holy work, Lord Jesus,
Secured a full discharge.”
Oh! beloved, unpardoned reader, the work is all: done: God has taken the offending thing out of the way, and He is now beseeching you to be reconciled to Himself.
His love is mighty to save. As a criminal under sentence of death, oh! receive the pardon that the hand of Divine mercy stretches out towards you. Believe that God is Love, that He gave His Son to die to satisfy His justice, and that His justice being met, we poor, guilty sinners may be freed for eve: from condemnation.
J. MCK.