The circus was over, and a building on the lot had fallen into the hands of Christian workers. It was late Saturday night before they obtained possession; and as a service was to be held on the following Lord's Day, much had to be done. Things hardly helpful to spiritual meditation must be covered up. Texts must be hung, and seats arranged. The ladders were just being put away, and the friends leaving for their homes, when the good schoolmaster hurried up with a large text.
"Too late," said someone. But he pleaded hard: "Do put it up somewhere! I have worked at it many days, praying over every letter. I am sure it will be blessed.”
Over the door was a vacant space, and there the text was placed— white letters on a red ground— "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." The schoolmaster was satisfied, and in the darkness of that night he sent up many a petition that the Word of the Lord might be owned.
Sunday afternoon came, and with it a large crowd surged into the circus building. Among these was a man and his wife, who stepped in to see what a change had been made in the old place. Their eyes roamed hither and thither, until at length the text was noticed.
"What's that over the door?" said the man. "It wasn't there before.”
His wife read out the words— "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
The singing, the sermon, the service, made little impression on the couple, but the schoolmaster's text lodged in the man's mind.
"Sin," thought the man. "I have experienced that in my own heart and life. 'Cleansing.' That is what I need, to have all this filth removed, and to be made pure. Is such a thing possible?" He repeated the text, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Could he be included in that little word "US?”
He began to think seriously of these things. Sin after sin came up before his mind, but over all stretched the blessed text, "The blood of Jesus Christ His 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).
Blood represented punishment— and punishment cleared the culprit from guilt! So, he reasoned, if Christ was punished for his guilt, that punishment and the blood then shed could cleanse all the sin that was against him in God's sight. In simple faith he believed the blessed word, and rejoiced in his newfound peace.