HE was only a youth, who spent his days serving in the little general store close to his home in a quiet French village. There was nothing much of the soldier about his appearance, and yet when this terrible war broke out he was called up to serve. Away he went, but no stir was made over him. His mother grieved, but the rest of the village soon forgot him.
The weeks rolled by, and not much was heard of his regiment. At last, however, they came into touch with the foe, and one of the first things that happened was the capture of Jean by a German patrol on the outskirts of a village, which the French were advancing to take. He was taken to a farmhouse at the head of the main street on that side of the village towards which his fellow-countrymen were approaching.
Planning to ambush the French force in the streets of the village, and never suspecting that this quiet and mild-looking soldier-lad 'understood their language, the Germans discussed the whole project within his hearing. This put him upon his mettle. His one idea was, "How shall I warn and save my friends?”
It was a difficult business. He balanced the matter in his mind. The window of the room in which he was looked out on to the very street by which his comrades would enter, yet if he attempted to shout a warning to them through it he would certainly be shot. If he saved them he could not save himself. On the other hand, if he wished to save himself, he could not save them, and even then the Germans might shoot him after all. He made up his mind what he would do.
It was well that he was not long in deciding, for there was no time to be lost. Soon the first French soldiers began to enter the street, and the brave lad surprised his captors by springing to the window, and before he could be stopped he had shouted a warning message to his fellow-countrymen, which put them on their guard, enabling them to avoid the ambush, and so directly led to the capture of the village by the French.
Later in the day, when the last German in the place had either been killed or taken prisoner, the French began to search for the lad who had warned them. They found his body in the farmhouse, riddled with German bullets, and though it was necessary that they should immediately advance, yet they snatched the time to hastily dig a grave, and reverently laying his poor body in it, they made and erected a rough wooden cross, on which they scrawled words which might in English be aptly rendered: "He saved others. Himself he could not save." It was a fine tribute to a brave lad, who laid down his life for his friends.
In so acting this French lad reached the limit of human love. To find anything to surpass it we must turn from the human to the divine.
Let us turn to the divine, my reader, for, depend upon it, that is what we need. It may not be yours to shed your blood in the shell-swept trench, or sink beneath the ocean-wave in some desperate naval contest; you may reach your end and gently breathe out your life upon a bed of down. Still you need it. You need what is DIVINE. You need divine love to hold your heart in its mighty embrace, and a divinely-wrought redemption upon which to rest your soul for eternity. You need, in one word, CHRIST as your personal Savior.
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), and this saying is declared to be faithful and worthy of all acceptation; worthy, therefore, of yours. The saving of sinners was no light matter; it entailed taking their place, bearing their judgment, dying that they might live. All this the Lord Jesus has done for you.
When he was hanging upon the cross the religious leaders of the Jews mocked Him with bitter sarcasm, saying: He saved others; Himself He cannot save." Their words were true, though not in the sense in which they intended them. They spoke them in bitter scorn. They meant that His salvation of others was just a delusion, proved by the fact that now He was unable to save Himself. The truth was that He had saved many, and was going to save yet millions more beside, and that in order to do this it was needful that He should sacrifice Himself. He could not save others AND Himself; therefore He suffered that others might go free.
For you He bore upon the cross the penalty of sin. For you He died. For you and for your justification He rose again. No touching epitaph was ever inscribed upon His grave.
There was no time for it; death could not hold Him. He lives to-day, to be your Savior and your Lord. Do you not love Him for it? Will you not at once accept Him as yours?
But remember Christ has died in vain, so far as you are concerned, if you do not accept Him as your personal Savior. You must have a personal link with Him. Make no mistake on this score, I entreat you. In accepting Him you become a child of God.
“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12.) You are then no longer a subject of the kingdom of darkness, but are in, the kingdom of God's dear Son. "'The Father... bath delivered us [believers] from the power of darkness, and bath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son." (Col. 1:13.) Owning such allegiance as this, come what may, you will be happy indeed. F. B. H.