“God forbid that you should think so,” hastily interrupted Thorn. “All must strive for holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. The Bible abounds in passages that show that for the wilfully disobedient, who will not repent, the Lord’s despised mercy will but add to the punishment of their sin!”
“I do not quite understand this,” said William Browne.
“In order to explain to you how our salvation is only from the Lord, and yet that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, I will repeat to you a little allegory or parable. Remember that my tale is intended to convey a deeper meaning than what may at first sight appear; exert your minds to discover that meaning, I am telling you the history of man, I am telling you the history of yourselves.”
All the school listened with silence and attention, as, after a minute’s consideration, the teacher began.
“There was a great and powerful Sovereign, who ruled over an extensive kingdom. But wise and just as were his laws, formed to make all happy who obeyed them, there were rebels who rose against their King, broke his commands, despised his statutes, and most justly deserved the sentence of death pronounced upon them as traitors. Amongst these was a youth, whom I need not name, who, after having had judgment passed upon him, was confined in a prison named Condemnation, until the executioner, Justice, should be sent to carry out the sentence of the law.
“Very strong was his prison, very thick its walls; the grated window, through which the light scarcely came, forbade all hope of release. Sometimes the youth tried to flatter himself with the idea that his Sovereign was too merciful to destroy him; but then the sentence of the judge rose in his mind, he felt that Justice demanded his punishment. Then he sought amusement to drive away the fear of death, and sometimes succeeded in his miserable efforts to be gay; but still the thought of what was before him forced itself on his mind, and he never could be really happy.”
“A wretched state to be in,” observed Nayland.
“It is by nature the state of us all,” said Thorn. “We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; we are all sentenced, and justly sentenced; and but for the hopes of a better life beyond, what would this world be but a prison! But to return to the rebel in my story:—
“One night as, clothed in his dark and ragged attire, he was reflecting upon his unhappy fate, a bright light shone in his prison, and he beheld coming towards him a Friend—one whose kindness he had long neglected, but who had not forgotten him in his adversity. The garments worn by that Friend were white and spotless; there was no stain upon them; they were such as befitted one of high estate, of one of such rank that it might have been little expected that his foot would ever tread the dungeon of Condemnation!
“He addressed the young rebel in terms of love and pity. He told the condemned one that he had quitted everything, risked everything from pure love, to save him from the death which he had deserved. He warned him that Justice was about to enter that prison, to shed the blood of the prisoner within; that there was but one way of escape. If the rebel changed garments with his merciful visitor, put off his own rags to wear that white robe, he might yet make his way from the prison of Condemnation, and pass Justice himself in security! The Friend, moreover, told the rebel that by using the watchword Faith, even the guards at the outer door would suffer him to go free; and that he would find outside a guide most trusty and safe, who would lead him to a place of security. Then, as the prisoner, with trembling haste, made the needful exchange of dress, his heart throbbing with the hope of freedom, and, we may also trust, with gratitude to the merciful Being who was content to remain and suffer death in his stead, his Friend placed in his hand a paper, containing his last dying request to the sinner whom he had saved, and charged the youth, if not for his Preserver’s sake, yet for his own, to shun for ever those rebels who had led him into the guilt which was now to be atoned for at so fearful a price.”