WHILE preaching in a town, I was much struck with the earnest attention of a little girl about ten years old, and when the address was over I made my way to her to try and find out if she was at peace with God; in the knowledge that her sins were forgiven. I asked,
“Do you know the Lord Jesus?”
She looked up with a bright smile and answered, “Yes; at least I know that Jesus died for me.”
“It is very blessed to know that,” said I; “but how can you be so very sure that the Son of God came down into the world and died on the cross for a little child like you?”
“God says He died for sinners, and I am, a great sinner,” she said, very solemnly.
“Yes, dear child, it is written in His blessed word,
‘God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’; and again,
‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’
He has shown you what a sinner. you are, and now you see that you must believe what God has said. So your sins are all forgiven?”
For a moment there was no answer, and the tears filled her eyes. At last she said;
“I am afraid not.”
“What!” I said, “can it be possible that you know that Jesus has died for you, and yet do not know that you are forgiven?”
She looked up with an expression of deep anxiety, as though she would find out what I meant, for, like many, she had truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but she did not know what His work had done for her. She had been attracted to Jesus; her heart had opened to His love, like the dear woman in Luke 7, but she had yet to hear Him say, “Thy sins are forgiven; thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
So I asked, “Why did the Lord Jesus die for you?”
“To save me,” was her prompt reply. “But why must He have died to save you?”
She thought a moment, and then said very solemnly, “Because He bore my sins on the cross.”
“Where were your sins, then, when Jesus hung on the cross?”
“On Him.”
“Yes,” I said, “for ‘the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’ And where are they now?”
She had almost said. “On Him still,” but checked herself, and was silent.
“Think of where He is now,” I said. She answered at once, “He has risen and gone into heaven.”
“Where, then, are your sins?”
“They are gone,” was the dear child’s happy answer.
Her difficulty was over now. She saw that He who was delivered for her offences had been raised again for her justification; and, being justified by faith, she had peace through Him.
After a little further talk with her, she was called away. On reaching her home, she ran to her mother, a dear Christian woman, then unable to leave the house, and threw her arms around her neck, saying,
“I shall go to be with Jesus too, mama.” She was startled, and wanted to know what it all meant.
“My sins are all gone. Jesus, who bore them on the cross, is now at the right hand of God, and, don’t you see, mama, they could not be on Him there.”
Years have passed since then, and the risen Christ at the right hand of God has been the ground of a peace that never could be disturbed.
ML 05/25/1924