One Sunday evening a young man was walking to some place of amusement, when he was accosted by a stranger who pressed a note into his hand. Unfolding it at the next street light he read: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
A sneer passed over his handsome face as he threw the paper away and hurried on. But God had spoken, and would speak again, and again, and again, for truth bears repetition.
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow,' doesn't apply to me," he muttered. "I am an infidel, and do not believe in anything of the kind.
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Hang the thing; I can't get rid of it!
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Sins? Conscience? Yes, I acknowledge both, but I acknowledge neither a future nor a God, and therefore am not responsible. What do I care about having my sins made white, to use the figure, seeing that I owe no duties beyond those necessary to natural human existence?
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' I am an infidel!" With an oath he stamped his foot and continued the war of words with himself. "I don't believe in the Bible, the God of the Bible, the future, nor anything beyond the grave. So here's for a short life and a merry one.
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Confound it; I wish I could get that out of my head.
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' It is very forcible, very poetical. Certainly that Bible is a wonderful Book. Given, for the sake of argument, that it is true, and that a God exists, I can easily understand religious people who believe in a future, either of joy or suffering, clinging to such sentences with a tenacity proportioned to their belief. 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.'
"Admirable writing. Terse, forcible language. I wonder who wrote it? God, I suppose. God?— why there is no God! I forget myself. If I could only remember my principles, and how logical and well founded the arguments are which support them I should be all right.
“‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.' Confound the thing! Will nothing put a stop to this? There is a meeting hall, I may as well turn in."
He entered and was ushered into a seat near the door. A solemn silence reigned. The preacher had just read the text, then pausing for a moment he repeated it: " 'Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' " Isaiah 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18).
A room was always open for a short time after the service, for the reception of those whom the message of the Lord had touched. That evening, among the penitents, there was a young man who prayed, with tears: "Jesus, though my sins be dyed deeper than the deepest scarlet, do Thou now make them whiter than the purest snow."