MOST of us have read with a shudder some account of the Great Plague of 1665. Nowhere perhaps was greater desolation wrought by the malignant fury of this pestilence than in the remote village of Eyam in Derbyshire.
The infection was carried there in a box of old clothes sent from London in September of 1665. The tailor who received them sickened and died of the plague; other members of the household died, and then the pestilence began to spread.
The villagers, in the greatest alarm, prepared to leave their homes. Had they done so the surrounding country would have been doomed to a similar visitation, but chiefly through the influence and wisdom of the rector, the people were persuaded to remain. A circle marked out by stones was drawn round the village, and no one, from within or without, was permitted to cross the boundary line. The Duke of Devonshire supplied medicine, food, and other necessaries, which were left at certain places on the boundary and were fetched by the villagers.
Within this cordon of death the insatiable plague cried continually, “Give, give.” The church was closed, and the rector chose a rock in the valley from which to preach to his ever-diminishing flock. The burial service was no longer read over the dead, but the survivors hastily interred the victims in garden or field. Whole households perished. The plague was sometimes cruel even where it spared. For instance, one woman, having with her own hands laid her husband and six children in their graves, was left in utter loneliness to mourn her desolation.
Thus the plague raged until 295 of the 350 inhabitants of the village had perished. In October 1666 the last death occurred, and with the last victim “they buried the plague.”
This page from the book of history forcibly illustrates the remorseless and death-dealing character of sin. Yet the havoc wrought by the plague in Eyam, terrible though it was, pales into insignificance before the ravages of sin.
For sin is a disease attacking the soul. It has manifested itself in every corner of the earth, and it is impossible to find the man, the woman, or the child that can claim freedom from its pollution. Human remedies cannot heal the plague-spot of sin. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Now we have drawn this dark yet true picture of man’s condition that every eye may be turned to the Divine Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. The One who died upon the cross can alone save the sinner from death. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)),
Reader, hast thou obtained healing from the Lord for thy sin-stricken soul? No? We would entreat thee then to face the facts now brought before thee. Turn to the Saviour; He is saying to thee, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Wilt thou not accept with thankful heart this priceless blessing that He offers thee?
“Saved through the blood of Jesus,
Saved from all guilt and shame,
Saved is the soul that trusts Him,
Trusts in His precious name.”
M. L. B.