AS I sat in the office of a county jail, the governor handed me the execution book; and, turning over the pages, I read a long list of fifty or sixty executions. Against the name of each one who had suffered the extreme penalty of the law was recorded his age and a description of his personal appearance, as well as the crime for which he had been hanged.
In that sad list were the names of men and women, young and old. The offenses were various; amongst them were cases of theft and burglary, sheep-stealing and the receiving of stolen goods, besides many instances of murder, and others being implicated in murderous affrays. On some occasions the execution was of one man, for his own solitary crime; whereas in other cases, two, three, and as many as five, were all hanged together for their joint participation in some lawless act.
I turned from the prison execution book to read in a small book, which was on the table beside me, the account of another execution. But how widely different was this story from the one that I had previously been engaged with! Here was an account of Him of whom the Roman judge declared, “I find no fault in this Man, and nothing worthy of death is done by him;” and yet the insults of the Jewish rabble were poured upon Him, and the cruelty of the Roman soldiery made Him its victim. He is led from prison and from judgment, and going up tards Calvary, He carries His cross. And this was the Son of God Man’s heart being estranged from God, consequently every thought of man’s, and every action, and all that could come from his heart, were opposed to God; so that it was only for God’s beloved Son to be in the company of men, and at once the hatred of the natural mind against God found a suitable occasion for manifesting itself. And thus the Lord Jesus Christ became the very target for the malice and venom of man to level itself at “He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and ac a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” He was despised and rejected of men; He was buffeted and spit on, and scourged and crucified, and yet God, His Father, knew it all saw it all, and looked on. But why did He hear not the cry of His well-beloved, and why was He so far from helping Him? Because, in this scene of, man’s fearful enmity to God, there was also the grandest and most Marvelous display of God’s love to man.
Here was an execution — the Just taking the place of the unjust — Jesus, the Son of God, bearing the sinner’s sin, and suffering the full penalty due to the guilty, for “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” What a sight for angels, devils, and men!
In the execution book of the county jail I read the record of the executions of those who suffered for one particular offense. But here was the divine record of Him who suffered for many offenses, even for the many sins of many sinners. The murderers and thieves of whom I read were hanged for their own crimes, and they suffered, I suppose, justly; but here was the death of One, who bare the sins of others, who His own self bare sins in His own body on the tree that sinners might be eternally saved. Glorious news! Have you believed them?
“And did the holy and the Just,
The sov’reign of the skies,
Stoop down to man’s estate and dust
That guilty worms might rise?
Yes, the Redeemer left the throne,
The radiant throne on high;
Surprising mercy! love unknown!
To suffer, bleed, and die.
He took the guilty culprit’s place,
And suffered in his stead;
For man (O miracle of grace!)
For man the Saviour bled.”
ANON.