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Gospel Brochure, Large Print, 14-Point Type
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“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.
Willie Lear lived near Palmyra, Missouri. In 1862, he was still a young man about 18 years old. Like most of those who lived in his neighborhood, he sympathized with the South in the Civil War which was then dividing the people of Missouri. The Union forces were occupying Palmyra and were seeking to maintain control of the area. Outrages were committed on both sides, and many indefensible deeds are recorded in the local histories of those sad times. Union soldiers were shot down from behind bushes, and Union men were driven away from their homes—and otherwise badly treated.
To avenge these things, and to check them, the Federal commander arrested and imprisoned a large number of citizens. They were all charged with being “guerillas,” and, after trial by court martial, were all sentenced to be shot. Willie Lear was among that number. After issuing this condemnation, the general decided to select ten of the number of those condemned for immediate execution, and to reserve the remainder for either hope of pardon if the outrages in the neighborhood ceased, or for future punishment if they did not cease.
These ten men were drawn by lot. Willie Lear was not of this number. A neighbor of Lear’s who was among the number to be shot, was very distressed at the thought of his situation. He was the father of a large family, a poor man, and the thought of the helpless condition in which he would leave his loved ones was very distressing to him. Lear saw this, and it deeply moved him. He stepped forward to the commanding officer and offered to take his neighbor’s place.
The officer had no objection. The order had been issued that ten men of the number should be shot, and if that number was made up, the law would be satisfied. The neighbor, with the deepest gratitude accepted Lear as his substitute; and so, by the acquiescence of the three parties concerned, the representative of the law, the one condemned by the law, and the satisfier of the law by substitution, the matter was settled.
Willie Lear took the place of his friend in line with the nine men drawn up before a detachment prepared with loaded rifles, and at the command, “Fire!” he fell with the others, riddled with bullets, his blood soaking the earth.
As the man for whom Willie died looked at the blood, and at Willie’s bloody body, what do you suppose he might think or say? Isn’t it likely that, with streaming eyes, he might say, “He died for me! I owe my life to him! Oh that I could do anything to show my gratitude to the one who has done so much for me!”
If he were asked how it was that he was delivered from the sentence that was hanging over him, would he be likely to ignore the work of his substitute by talking about the importance of some fancied work of his own in the acceptance of his substitute? Would he say, “Oh, I was saved by my faith, and by my determination to live a better life? It is all a matter of faith and the development of character.”? Would he have been so ungrateful as to leave out all mention of noble Willie Lear taking his place as the sole provision for his escape? If he would rather talk about himself than about brave Willie Lear, he was not worth dying for; and it would have been a curse to his family and the community, that he was spared.
But no, he would never return such answers. He could not treat the act of his friend with such indifference. Men for whom Christ died on the cross may (and often do) talk that way; but this man never did. He never grew tired of telling how Willie Lear had saved him; and he gladly acknowledged his obligation to him.
Reader, do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins? Do you believe that because He died for your sins, and because you have accepted Him that your sins are forgiven? Believing in Him, are you confessing Him and striving to show your gratitude by a life consecrated to His service? Oh, let us who are Christ’s never tire of telling the story of redemption by His blood! Let us never rob Him of His glory as our personal Saviour and Redeemer, by attributing our salvation from sin and our hope of eternal life to anything else than His death upon the cross for our sins.
We greatly err when we think that any other gospel, or any other form of the gospel, will be more successful in reaching men, no matter what they are or who they are. No man can be saved without the power of God being put forth to save him; and, as God has decreed that “the preaching of the cross is the power of God,” we must, if we would see men saved, preach the cross. And the meaning of that is, “This is my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Christ is the sinner’s substitute. He is worthy of our full trust and of our complete devotion.
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24.
Major D. W. Whittle