IT was in 1798. A band of insurgents were hiding in the Wicklow mountains, and were robbing and murdering the peaceful farmers of the counties of Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny and Wexford, and from time to time some of them were captured and put to death.
But the Viceroy, Lord Cornwallis, did not desire the death of these outlaws. He pitied them, and determined to try to save them and make them good and useful citizens.
So he bought a field at the foot of the Glen of Imale and promised that any rebel, no matter how blood-stained, who stepped into the field and laid down his weapons should receive a full pardon.
At first those men did not believe the good news. They thought it was a trap to catch them. But one of the worst of them resolved he would venture his fife upon the Viceroy’s promise. He came down the glen, he entered the field, he threw down his musket and pike, and, with beating heart, awaited the result. In a few moments a military officer appeared, asked the man his name, wrote it upon a paper, and handed the document to him. The man gave two eager looks at it—one to see if it bore at the top Lord Cornwallis’ signature, and the other to make sure that it had his own name in the body of it, and finding both names, he gave a leap for joy, and shouting, “I am pardoned!” he hastened up the glen to show his companions the pardon and to urge them to go down and trust themselves to the free-pardon field. They believed, they went down, they entered the field, they surrendered, and they were pardoned everyone.
The moral effect of the Vice-regal clemency was immediate and lasting. These men of cruelty, robbery and blood became industrious farmers, and from that time the countryside enjoyed peace and safety.
This incident in Irish history illustrates the Gospel. All men are rebels, and therefore guilty before God (Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)). Righteousness must judge evil. The judgment is death. God pities sinners. He is not willing that even one should perish. He therefore purchased “a pardon field” at the cost of the priceless life of His only-begotten Son, whose atoning death satisfied and vindicated all the claims of righteousness against the sinner, and in Him—but only in Him (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12))— the vilest find an assured forgiveness (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39)).
To obtain life and pardon the Irish rebel had nothing to do but accept the salvation promised. Not in a field of his own choosing, but of the Government’s choice. To choose another field would have been rebellion and not repentance, and would have ended in death. The sinner who truly repents accepts God’s way of life, and does not choose a way of his own, nor of man’s provision.
The outlaw was saved by faith. He believed the good news, he trusted himself to the royal field, and received the promised pardon. He had nothing to do, either to plan the pardon, or to add to it, or to purchase or merit it. Its power to save him from his evil life showed its moral value. If the clemency of an earthly prince had such ethical energy, what limit can be set to that of the Prince of princes?
The man was saved in a moment. Outside the field he was doomed to death; inside, he was saved. With one step he passed out of death into life. So was it in Genesis 7, and Exodus 12.
If in subsequent years he were asked did he not fear arrest and death, he would say “No,” for he was saved. And if asked how he knew he was saved, he would not point to his changed conduct nor to inward feelings of assurance, but he would produce the pardon and say: “This is the King’s pardon. It says I am pardoned and that satisfies me.”
The Word of God assures the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ that he is pardoned; and the believer needs no other, and asks for no other assurance.
George Williams, in Tales of the Mystic Way.