48. Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ

HE DIED FOR ME.—During the Civil War a farmer was drafted. He was much grieved on account of his motherless family, who would have no bread-winner in his absence. The day before he had to start, a young man, a neighbor, came, saying, “I will go instead of yon.” It seemed too good to be true; but the young fellow went, feeling that he was doing a noble thing, and all the village came out to bid him good-bye. In the first battle he was shot and killed. When the farmer saw the name of Charles Durham in the list of “missing,” he at once went to the battlefield, found the body of his friend, brought it to his village and placed it in the little graveyard, covering the grave with sod from his garden. He cut out a plain marble tablet, on which he carved an inscription with his own hand. Then he put the tablet on the grave, and when the villagers stooped to see the little monument they wept. It did not say much, but it deeply touched them; it said—”C. D. He died for me.”

CHRIST MUST BE GOD.—An American lady, named Prince, interested herself in the country of Japan, and four or five missionaries were sent out. After some time this lady offered to teach English to a young Japanese, and gave him the Gospel of John to translate. Shortly after, it was observed that he became agitated and restless, walking up and down the room. At last he asked: “Who is this Man about whom I am reading—this Jesus? You call Him a Man, but He must be a God.” The Word itself had forced upon him the conviction that Jesus was indeed God.

DREW VERY NEAR.—”He drew very near,” uttered a youthful believer near death. “Who drew near?” anxiously inquired a friend who was present. “Jesus,” she replied. “I felt just now as if He stood close beside me.” Soon after she was asked by her sister if she would like her to pray with her. She gladly assented. While she prayed the countenance of the dying one changed, the expression of supplication was succeeded by one of adoring contemplation. A glow suffused her features, then faded gradually away, and before her sister’s prayer was ended she was gone.

KING’S BLACK CROSS.—Louis XII., of Prance, had many enemies before he ascended the throne. When he became king he caused a list to be made of his persecutors, and marked against each of their names a large black cross. When this became known his enemies fled, because they thought it was a sign that he intended to punish them. But the King caused them to be recalled, with an assurance of pardon, and said that he had put a cross beside each name to remind him of the cross of Christ, that he might endeavor to follow the example of Him who prayed for His foes, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.”

FIRE, IF YOU DARE.—A man had been condemned in a Spanish court to be shot, but being an American citizen, and also of English birth, the consuls of the two countries interposed. They wrapped him up in their flags, covering him with the Stars and Stripes and. the Union Jack, and defied the executioners. “Now fire a shot if you dare, for if you do so, you defy the nations represented by those flags, and you will bring the powers of those two great empires upon you.” There stood the man, and before him the soldiery, and though a single shot might have ended his life, yet he was as safe wrapped in the flags as though encased in triple steel.