You have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but God comes, and says, “I will pardon you. Come now, and let us reason together.” “Now” is one of the words of the Bible the devil is afraid of. He says, “Do not be in a hurry; there is plenty of time; do not be saved now.” He knows the influence of that word “now.” “To-morrow” is the devil’s word. The Lord’s word is “now.” God says, “Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Scarlet and crimson are two fast colours; you cannot get the colour out without destroying the garment. God says, “Though your sins be as scarlet and crimson, I will make them as wool and snow. I will do it.” That is the way God reasons. He puts the pardon in the face of the sinner the first thing. That is a queer way of reasoning, but God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; and so, my friends, if you want to be saved, the Lord says He will pardon you.
THE GOVERNOR IN THE CONDEMNED CELL.
A few years ago, when Pennsylvania had a Christian governor, there was a young man down in one of the counties who was arrested for murder. He was brought before the court, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. His friends thought there would be no trouble in getting a reprieve or pardon. Because the governor was a Christian man, they thought he would not sign the death-warrant. But he signed it. They called on the governor, and begged of him to pardon the young man. But the governor said, “No, the law must take its course, and the man must die.” I think the mother of the young man called on the governor and pleaded with him, but the governor stood firm, and said, “No, the man must die.” A few days before the man was executed, the governor took the train to the county where the man was imprisoned. He went to the sheriff of the county, and said to him, “I wish you to take me to that man’s cell, and leave me alone with him a little while, and do not tell him who I am till I am gone.” The governor went to the prison, and talked to the young man about his soul, and told him that although he was condemned by man to be executed, God would have mercy upon him and save him, if he would accept pardon from God. He preached Christ, and told him how Christ came to seek and to save sinners; and having explained as he best knew how the plan of salvation, he got down and prayed, and after praying he shook hands with him and bade him farewell. Some time after the sheriff passed by the condemned man’s cell, and he called him to the door of the cell, and said, “Who was that man that talked and prayed with me so kindly?” The sheriff said, “That was Governor Pollock.” The man turned deathly pale, and he threw up both his hands, and said, “Was that Governor Pollock? was that kind-hearted man the governor? Oh, sheriff, why did you not tell me? If I had known that was the governor, I would have fallen at his feet and asked for pardon; I would have pleaded for pardon and for my life. Oh, sir, the governor has been here, and I did not know it.”
RECONCILIATION.
Sinner, I have got good news to tell you. There is one greater than the governor here to-night, and He wants to pardon every one. He does not want you to go away condemned. He wants to bring you from under condemnation; to pardon every soul. Will you have the pardon, or will you despise the gift of God? Will you despise the mercy of God? Oh, this night, while God is beseeching you to be reconciled, let me join with your praying mother, with your praying father, with your godly minister, with your Sabbath-school teacher, and all your praying friends; let me join my voice with theirs to plead with you to-night to be reconciled. Make up your mind now, while I am speaking, that you will not cross your threshold until you are reconciled, and there will be joy in heaven to-night over your decision. Oh, may God bring hundreds to a decision to-night!
An Englishman told me some time ago a little story of reconciliation, which illustrates this truth. We want to preach the gospel of reconciliation; the good news that God is reconciled. God does not say He can do, but that He has done it. You must accept what He has done. The story is this: There was an Englishman who had an only son; and only sons are often petted, and humoured, and ruined. This boy became very headstrong, and very often he and his father had trouble. One day they had a quarrel, and the father was very angry, and so was the son; and the father said he wished the boy would leave home and never come back. The boy said he would go, and would not come into his father’s house again till he sent for him. The father said he would never send for him. Well, away went the boy. But when a father gives up a boy, a mother does not. You mothers will understand that, but the fathers may not. You know there is no love on earth so strong as a mother’s love. A great many things may separate a man and his wife; a great many things may separate a father from a son; but there is nothing in the wide world that can ever separate a true mother from her child. To be sure, there are some mothers that have drunk so much liquor that they have drunk up all their affection. But I am talking about a true mother; and she would not cast off her boy.
A MOTHER’S AFFECTION.
Well, this mother began to write and plead to the boy to write to his father first, and his father would forgive him; but the boy said, “I will never go home till father asks me.” She pleaded with the father, but the father said, “No, I will never ask him.”
At last the mother was brought down to her sickbed, broken-hearted, and when she was given up by the physicians to die, the husband, anxious to gratify her last wish, wanted to know if there was not anything he could do for her before she died. The mother gave him a look; he well knew what it meant. Then she said, “Yes, there is one thing you can do, you can send for my boy. That is the only wish on earth you can gratify. If you do not pity him and love him when I am dead and gone, who will?” “Well,” said the father, “I will send word to him that you want to see him.” “No,” she says, “you know he will not come for me. If ever I see him you must send for him.” At last the father went to his office and wrote a despatch in his own name, asking the boy to come home. As soon as he got the invitation from his father, he started off to see his dying mother. When he opened the door to go in he found his mother dying and his father by the bedside. The father heard the door open, and saw the boy, but instead of going to meet him he went to another part of the room, and refused to speak to him. His mother seized his hand—how she had longed to press it! She kissed him, and then said, “Now, my son, just speak to your father. You speak first, and it will all be over.” But the boy said, “No, mother, I will not speak to him until he speaks to me.” She took her husband’s hand in one hand and the boy’s in the other, and spent her dying moments and strength in trying to bring about a reconciliation. Just as she was expiring she could not speak, so she put the hand of the wayward boy into the hand of the father, and passed away. The boy looked at the mother, and the father at the wife; and at last the father’s heart broke, and he opened his arms, and took that boy to his bosom, and by that body they were reconciled. Sinner, that is only a faint type, a poor illustration, because God is not angry with you. God gives you Christ, and I bring you to-night to the dead body of Christ. I ask you to look at the wounds in His hands and feet, and the wound in His side. My friends, gaze upon His five wounds. And I ask you, “Will you not be reconciled?” When He left heaven, He went clear down to the manger that He might get hold of the vilest sinner, and put the hand of the wayward prodigal into that of the Father, and He died that you and I might be reconciled. If you take my advice, you will not go out of this hall to-night until you are reconciled. “Be ye reconciled.” Oh, this gospel of reconciliation! My friends, come home to-night. Your Father wants you to come. Say as the prodigal did of old, “I will arise and go to my father,” and there will be joy in heaven.