A soldier of the great Napoleon, who had a passionate regard for the Emperor and had followed him through many battles, rushed at length to the front for the last time—the enemy’s bullet lodged in his breast, and he was carried dying to the hospital.
The ball was deep in; and as the probe sought it in vain, the veteran, seemingly insensible to the agony, fixing his eyes upon the surgeon, exclaimed, “Probe deeper, sir, probe deeper, and you will find the Emperor!” Let the probe reach his very heart, and it would find not the bullet of the foe, but love to the master. Let his very soul be bared, and there, in his inmost being, his Emperor would be seen! And this—shall we term it admiration or love? —was for a despot, a man whose self-glory willed the death of thousands.
Christian! shall the soldier’s devotion for his chief speak to us? Let the Word of God be the probe. What does it discover in the depths of our heart?
Observe an aged man, a veteran, a soldier of Christ; he has warred a good warfare, he has fought a good fight, and his time is come. The Word of God probes into his inmost being, it penetrates between joints and marrow, and it reveals the secrets and intents of his heart. He cries, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Probe deeper than suffering, than self, and Christ shall be found in his heart! Christ, deeper down than anything else, the Christ who loved him, who gave Himself for him, who died to save him.
Christian reader, what does the probe discover in you?