IN a school in the north of England someone had done a serious wrong, and the headmaster had in vain tried to find out the culprit. He felt that, for the honor of the school, he must discover the wrong-doer; and so he assembled all the classes and, having made known to them the gravity of the offense, he asked the boys for their judgment as to what should be done. The boys all agreed that the offender deserved punishment.
Then the headmaster made an appeal to them, beseeching that the one who had done wrong should come forward and bear his punishment, but the appeal was without success.
The next morning the boys were gathered together again, and once more they listened to their headmaster as he pleaded that someone should own to the offense, confessing his failure, and be prepared to bear the penalty, but his entreaties found no answer.
On the third morning when the school once more assembled, the boys listened for the third time to the supplications of their head. He spoke to them of how the matter affected the name of the school, and of all that it meant to him as head, and again he asked for their decision as to the rightness of meting out punishment for such an offense. All agreed without faltering that the wrong was too serious to go uncorrected.
Then the old headmaster called upon his chief assistant and gave him a cane. The old man stretched out his own hand and waited. Seeing what was in the mind of his chief the teacher raised the cane above his head and brought it down on the outstretched hand.
The pain of the stroke caused the master to pull his hand to his side, but with tightened lips he raised it once more. The cane cut through the air a second time, but again was the trembling hand raised. The third stroke fell and then, as the arm was uplifted, a big boy, a boy from the top of the school, rushed forward sobbing and begging, as he confessed to being the wrong-doer, to be allowed to bear the rest of the penalty of his misdeeds.
Have you yet done what that boy in the North Country School did? When all men, women, and boys and girls lay under the displeasure of God for wrongdoing, the Lord Jesus came Himself to bear all the punishment, and He went to the Cross, to death itself, that you might never have to bear the penalty of your sins. "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).
I see that blessed Man go to the cross of Calvary to bear the penalty of sin and sins for me, and as I see Him do that, my heart is bowed and I confess to God all the sin and wrong of which I am guilty. Have you confessed to your part in it?
And do you know that He went there because He loved you, and wants your love?
Do you know the Lord Jesus loves you? I can say, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." Can you say that—"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me? " The one who first said these words, Gal. 2:20,20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) also says, "What shall we then say to these things? " Rom. 8:3131What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31). How long have you kept the Lord waiting for your answer? Such love as His demands an answer. The Lord is beseeching for a full answer; He says, "My son, give Me thine heart," Prov. 23:2626My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. (Proverbs 23:26).
He says it as the One who has sought you at a cost beyond your power to measure; He says it as the One who seeks a lost sheep "until He finds it"; He says it as the One who would go to Calvary that He might bring that sheep safely to His flock; He says to you now, "My son, give Me thine heart."
G. V. S.