DOCTOR VALPY, author of a number of classical text books, wrote the following lines as his confession of faith:
“In peace let me resign my breath,
And Thy salvation see;
My sins deserve eternal death,
But Jesus died for me.”
Valpy gave the words to Dr. Marsh, who put them over his study mantle shelf. The Earl of Roden saw them, and asked for a copy, which was readily given. Lord Roden put them over his mantle shelf. Gen. Taylor, a Waterloo hero, while staying with Earl Roden, was frequently observed to be gazing upon the words, until one day Earl Roden said, “I say, friend Taylor, I should think you know those lines by heart.”
“I do know them by heart,” said the General, indeed my very heart has grasped their meaning.”
Thus Gen. Taylor became a soldier of the cross. Gen. Taylor in turn gave the words to a British soldier as he was about to start for the war. While being visited on his deathbed by Dr. Marsh, he told the doctor that God had blessed, to his conversion, the lines that Gen. Taylor had given him.
It brought me to my Saviour and I die in peace,” he said.
Valpy’s verse contains a statement of ruin man’s and God’s remedy.
“My sins deserve eternal death.”
How terribly true! “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).) Do your sins, dear children deserve “eternal death?” Do you deserve to receive the “wages of sin?” Many confess that they are “sinners” in a general sense, but when pressed closely, they do not admit that they are bad enough to go to hell. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze. 18:2020The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20).) You have sinned, “For there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” (Eccl. 7:2020For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. (Ecclesiastes 7:20).) How, then, are you to obtain pardon? The last line of the verse gives the ground on which God bestows forgiveness.
“But Jesus died for me.”
This is the essence of the gospel. A negress used to put it thus:
“Me die, or He die,
He die, and me no die.”
“Jesus died for me!” What a wondrous fact! “He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).) He bore sin’s judgment, and died, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:14-1614And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For 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 3:14‑16).)
ML 10/22/1916