“You like the cross, then you shall have it!” Martin, a sturdy teenage boy, was told by his father. Accordingly he was taken to a room at the top of the house and tied by his wrists and ankles to a cross made of two beams? What could he have done to be punished like this?
When Martin was quite young his father, although he hated Christianity, sent him to a Christian school, but with a stern warning against “false teaching.” The boy hadn’t been long at school, hover, when something puzzled him. If, as his father had said, the teaching of Jesus Christ was so wicked, how was it that these Christian folk were so truthful and so kind and helpful.
During an epidemic of cholera it was only the teachers and boys of the school who cleared away the filth of the streets, though the people jeered at them. As he heard the story of the gospel and saw it, too, in the lives of the Christians he was immensely impressed.
What finally won the heart of Martin were the words on a picture of the cross: “I did this all for thee; what have you done for Me?” He could not forget it. After a day or two thinking it over soberly, he went to the principal’s study and told him he wanted to give his life to Christ. The principal reminded him that he ran the risk of suffering and possibly death. He replied in not much more than a whisper that he trusted he was ready for that. He was just 16 then!
Martin went right home and told his parents that he had decided to follow Christ. Just as he feared his father was terribly angry, while his mother pleaded with him not to “disgrace the family.” But he was not moved by either of these threats or entreaties, and then it was that his father and brothers dragged him up to the top room and tied him to that wooden cross.
After some time they brought him down and promised him food and money, but still he would not give in. They brought in one of the leading men of the town to argue with him, but the man got so angry with him that he thrashed him, and the boy was sent up to his prison again.
Two weeks later Martin’s father had a remarkable dream in which he saw an angel come to him and said, “Why are you persecuting your son? Send him back to school.” So to everyone’s astonishment, Martin turned up at school again and got a rousing welcome from everyone.
The effect of the dream faded, however, and Martin was again severely persecuted at home. Then he managed to escape and again showed up at school. He was lodged in the hospital, and three of the school’s best boxers formed his body guard on the way to and from school. One day he was nearly recaptured but almost the whole student body turned out to the rescue, though for three hours an angry crowd besieged the school.
Eventually Martin got away and was taken to a High School in another city. There as a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ he was baptized and took the name of Samuel. He did well at his studies and got his B.A. degree at the university.
Martin went on faithfully for the Lord. What inspired him was what Jesus had done for him.
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
What Christ Jesus did for Martin, he has done for us—He died for sinners. And when we think of this, of the judgment He bore that our sins deserved, surely He is worthy of our best, our all.
ML-05/06/1979