A sixth lesson to be learned from this history, is the happy effects produced by the possession of true religion. In the case of Jolin, how speedily did it tranquillize and cheer his mind. It was like the word of its holy author, when he said, “Peace, be still, and there was a great calm.” Those who visited the chamber of death, where he dwelt, could not but feel a degree of surprise at their own feelings, when they remembered that they were with one who had been a drunkard and a murderer. But religion had softened his character, and created in him those genuine fruits which, as we are taught, spring from the work of the Holy Spirit. “The wilderness had become like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. Instead of the thorn had come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar had come up the myrtle-tree; to be for a name, and for an everlasting sign that should not be cut off.”
Lastly, there is a lesson of application to our own souls. It may be asked, What is the intimate acquaintance which we have had with the experience which this poor dying criminal passed through? He, being dead, may speak to many of his own age, who have, perhaps, had far greater advantages of education and example; or he may speak to those who have seen more years, and yet have not attained to that ripeness of faith, and that full assurance of hope, which made Jolin climb with such eagerness the gallows hill, and long for the time when he should be with Christ.
This history applies most emphatically to the case of young men; teaching them to avoid sin, even when it may have the sanction of parental example. The Bible, they must remember, and not men, especially ungodly men, should be their direction. By this law we shall all be judged, and must stand or fall. In Jolin’s last address, he said, “Avoid bad company, drinking spirits, vicious habits.” “I exhort young people not to violate the Sabbath, but to frequent church, and attend to their religious duties. Would that this tremendous example of punishment might lead every young person who hears it to inquire into his own state, and to remember how soon one act of sin may bring judgment upon him; and how tremendous will be his judgment, if, after this warning, he is found unprepared.”
This history also speaks most loudly and awfully to parents. “You see in me,” Jolin said from the scaffold, “the effect of bad education and example. From early youth I have been addicted to intemperance. My duty to God was never pointed out to me. Those who have children committed to their care, I beseech to send them regularly to church, and to the Sunday-school, and teach them their duty to God and man.” Let those, then, who are teaching Sabbath-breaking, swearing, passion, habits of drinking and vice, to their children, by their own example, look at the horrible instance of sin and its consequences, which this case presents—a parent, murdered, and a son hanged! from the effects of a father’s example! The case speaks for itself: and may the Holy Spirit enable us to learn the lesson which it teaches.
May we all who read or hear this account, apply its lessons to ourselves. Let us adore the astonishing love of God in the case of this poor outcast sinner; His sovereign power, His boundless mercy, His all-sufficient grace. May we seek to lay all the burden of our transgressions upon that Sacrifice in whom Jolin trusted. May we, with him, find the Holy Spirit making us as fit to live, as, we trust, he was fit to die: so that when we have fought the good fight, we shall receive the crown of glory, which, we may trust, this believing penitent has been called to wear in the presence of Him who gave him the victory, through his own blood.
LONDON:
IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.
Footnotes
[45] Durell’s account.