IT is recorded in history that “when Damon was sentenced by Dionysius of Syracuse to die on a certain day, he begged permission in the interim to retire to his own country to set the affairs of his disconsolate family in order. This the tyrant intended peremptorily to refuse by granting it, as he conceived, on the impossible condition of his procuring someone to remain as hostage for his return under equal forfeiture of life. Pythias heard the conditions, and did not wait for an application on the part of Damon, but instantly offered himself as security for his friend, and, his offer being accepted, Damon was set at liberty.
“The fatal day arrived; Pythias was brought forth to the place of execution. Dionysius was already there; he was exalted on a moving throne, which was drawn by six white horses, and sat pensive and attentive to the prisoner. Pythias came; he vaulted lightly on the scaffold, and, after regarding for some time the apparatus for his death, he turned with a placid countenance and addressed the spectators. ‘My prayers are heard,’ he cried; ‘you know, my friends, that the winds have been contrary until yesterday. Damon could not come; he could not conquer impossibilities. He will be here tomorrow, and the blood which is shed today shall have ransomed the life of my friend. Oh! could I erase from your bosom every doubt, every mean suspicion upon the honor of the man for whom I am about to suffer, I should go to my death even as I would to my bridal feast. My friend will be found noble. He is now on his way, hurrying on, accusing himself and the adverse elements, but I hasten to prevent his speed. Executioner, do thine office!’ As he pronounced the last words, a buzz began to rise among the remotest of the people. A distant voice was heard, the crowd caught the words, and ‘Stop, stop the execution!’ was repeated by the whole assembly.
A man came at full speed; the throng gave way at his approach. He was mounted on a foaming steed. In an instant he was off his horse, on the scaffold, and had clasped Pythias in his arms. ‘You are safe,’ he cried; ‘you are safe, my friend.’ Pale, cold, and half-speechless in the arms of Damon, Pythias replied in broken accents — ‘Fatal haste, cruel impatience! what envious powers have wrought impossibilities in your favor? but I will not be wholly disappointed; since I cannot die to save, I will not survive you.’
“Dionysius heard, beheld, and considered all this with astonishment. His heart was touched — he wept — and leaving his throne he ascended the scaffold. ‘Live, live, ye incomparable pair,’ he cried, ‘and form me by your precepts, as ye have invited me by your example, to be worthy of the participation of so sacred a friendship.’”
The foregoing well known and touching story, dear reader, expresses the limit to which human love and friendship can go, for the Lord Jesus declares in His Word that “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:1313Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)). But I desire to draw your attention for a few moments to a “love that no thought can reach and that no tongue can teach,” for amongst men such love cannot be found. It is a love that “many waters could not quench, neither the floods drown” (Song of Sol. 8:77Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. (Song of Solomon 8:7)). And, mark you, reader, not for friends, not for those who had loved and who had done all that was possible to prove the sincerity of their love, but for those who were “alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works” (Col. 1:2121And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (Colossians 1:21)). “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). The utterly desperate character of those to whom God thus commends His love is further revealed (Rom. 3): “We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understarkleth, there is none that seeketh’ after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Their throat is an open sepulcher.
Their tongues use deceit.
Their lips conceal the poison of asps.
Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Their ways are ways of destruction and misery.
The state of those to whom this wonderful love of God is commended is simply abhorrent: “The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it: but wounds, and bruises; and putrefying sores” (Isa. 1:66From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:6)). Could anything be more repugnant, and yet such is the faithful portrait of man, whether Jew or Gentile, poor benighted heathen or polished philosopher, faithfully portrayed by the Spirit of God in the Bible. “There is no difference,” and what I wish to bring before you, as you peruse these pages, is the blessed truth that God’s love is commended to such as these, and, if unsaved, you are one of the company described above.
To you this love is commended, reader. How are you going to treat it? His love has been fully proved: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:1010Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)). The measure of God’s love was the giving of His only begotten Son; and the Lord Jesus Christ
“Came from Godhead’s fullest glory
Down to Calvary’s depth of woe”
that His love might be commended to such as you — that is, told out as fully, freely, and simply as God Himself can make it. Take it now, dear reader, and render to Him thanks, praise, and worship for such a wonderful love.
“Now this love unto all God commends,
Not one would His mercy pass by;
Whosoever shall call, there is pardon for all
In the love that gave Jesus to die.”
J. S.