“OH! tell them that little bit.”
Many of us have read of the dying man who gave this charge concerning his relatives to one who stood beside his deathbed.
He wanted them all to be told that which had come as such a surprising consolation to himself, viz., that Christ had died in his stead on Calvary’s Cross! that Christ had died in the stead of every sinner who turns to God, and that His blood alone gives them title and fitness for heaven.
Some time previously he had been stirred up to see that he was a sinner, with a lost eternity before him. The anxious questions: “How could he get right with God?” “What must he do to be saved?” led him to attend many and various places where the gospel was preached, in the hope of getting these momentous questions answered, but he was disappointed.
Even if, in some rare cases, exhortations were given to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and to trust in Him as Saviour, the precious facts on which these appeals were based—the atoning death and blood shedding of Christ on the sinner’s behalf were not fully explained.
What was his joy and surprise when at length he heard for the first time what he called “that little bit” —
“HOW God can save, yet righteous be”;
that it was not the ground of any worth or merit of his, but because—
“The sin was on the Saviour laid;
’Tis in His blood sin’s debt is paid.
Stern Justice can demand no more,
And Mercy can dispense her store.
The sinner who believes is free—
Can say, ‘The Saviour died for me’;
Can point to the atoning blood and say,
‘THIS made my peace with God.’”
F. A.