The Boy With 14,000 Sins

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Do you know how many sins you have?” I asked a boy, whom I knew, at the close of a Sunday afternoon service.
“No,” he replied, “I have never thought of it.”
“Well, suppose we try and find out. Do you think that you have committed three sins a day—one of thought, one of word, and one of deed?”
“O, I expect lots more than that,” he said.
“Well, then, we shall be quite safe in saying that you have committed three sins a day. How many is that for a year?”
He was not very quick at mental arithmetic, so I had to help him, and we discovered that he must have been guilty of more than one thousand sins a year.
“One thousand sins a year, Jimmy,” I said. “How many sins do you have?”
“Fourteen thousand,” he said, under his breath, and as the thought gripped him, it made him gasp.
“Jimmy,” I said, “that’s all I want to say to you today. Fourteen thousand sins, think of that!”
Jimmy told his chums, and they laughed; it was a rare joke, they thought, and Jimmy joined in the laughter. But when he got into bed that night, he did not laugh, for it seemed as though someone came close to him and whispered in his ear, “Fourteen thousand sins; Jimmy, think of that!” He bore it as long as he could, and at last he crept out of his bed in search of his father, and told him his trouble.
“I’ve got at least fourteen thousand sins,” he said, “and I do not know what to do with them.”
His father knew, and he told his boy of Christ Jesus, who came into the world to save sinners. He told him that though all are “like sheep that have gone astray,” and gone our own sinful way (Isa. 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)), the Lord laid upon Jesus, the great, great Saviour, the sins of us all. He showed him from the pages of the Bible that,
“The Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7), and that God can say of all who come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and rest in His sacrifice,
“Their sins and iniquities I will rember no more.” Hebrews 10:1717And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17).
Jimmy saw it all, and believed it, and went back to his bed a relieved and happy boy. The following Thursday he met me with a smiling face, and said, “They are all gone, sir.”
“What are all gone?” I asked him.
“All the fourteen thousand sins,” he answered, and then he told me all about it. It was a happy day for him.
“He was wounded for our tranressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 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).
ML 08/19/1945