10.20- THE TIME I WAS ARRESTED

 10.20-

THE TIME I WAS ARRESTED  

 

When I was a little boy two years of age, my mother died. When I was four years of age, my father died. I was living here and there and was a sinner. I was to be fourteen years of age the tenth of the coming March. It was Christmas week, and I was caught in sin and put under arrest and dragged into court. I did not cry. I had cried all the tears out of my head. My bones had pulled out of their sockets.

I tried

to look at the judge. I wished that I could faint. I was guilty. I did not have a friend. I was miserable, and they packed the courthouse. They looked at me and then at the judge. Their faces said, "Judge, give him the full benefit of the law and save trouble later on." It looked as if the whole universe was down on me. By and by a clerk stood up and said, "The court is open." The judge said, "Has this boy any one to represent him?" I did not know the meaning of this. I thought that fellow was the one who was going to take me out and hang me. They said, "No." I was hopeful. The judge said to a lawyer, "I appoint you to take this boy's case." He walked through the crowd, pushed the policeman aside, and took me into a room. I slunk into a corner. I thought he was going to drag me to execution. But I saw tears under his eyelids. He sat down and slipped his arm around me. It was the tenderest touch I ever felt, and it drew me to him. "My little friend, are you guilty?" he asked. I could not have lied to him to save the world. He gave me a little squeeze. My bones slipped back into their sockets, and I began to breathe. I said, "Yes sir, I am guilty, and lots more they don't know about." I was in for a clean breast. When I looked at him, I could not lie. I had found a friend. I could feel he was a friend. I feel his hand yet. Oh, it was a wonderful touch on an orphan child. He said, "Don't you think we had better confess guilty and throw you· on the mercy of the court?" I did not know what that meant, but I thought if it would throw you on the mercy of the court it was best. I said, "Please, sir, throw me on the mercy of the court." He put his hand on my head, and I put out my dirty, claw-like fingers and grabbed his coat tail; and the feeling came to me, If I hang on to his coat, he will pull me through. He came to the judge and said, "Please, Your Honor, it has been my privilege to practice before the bar for many years. I have noticed that when the ends of justice can be secured and society can be protected, it is Your Honor's custom to show mercy. I stand with this trembling orphan child, without father or mother, home or friend, to beg of Your Honor's mercy. His heart was broken. He confesses with readiness his sin. He pleads for forgive­ness." I grabbed some more coat. I thought that was a great speech. It was just an introductory remark. He spoke until silence fell everywhere. He spoke until the most beautiful

language filled every comer of the court. He spoke until old men wept. He spoke until my policeman was brushing tears from his cheeks. He spoke until he said, "If you will show compassion to this orphan child, I pledge, Your Honor, ru look after his education and give to society a useful citizen." He spoke until my heart burst within me for love and admi­ration for my Friend. If I could but put my ragged coat sleeves around his neck and kiss his cheek one time, they could take me and hang me, and I would die happy. He spoke and said, "My Father." That shot through me. The judge had appointed his own son to plead for me! "M y Father, the intentness of my love for my little client comes out of the fact that he is my Brother." I wasn't much on mathematics, but I could see at once that if the judge on the bench was the Father of the attorney, and the attorney was my Brother, then the judge was my Father, too. I gave a shout. I made a leap, and the Judge stood up and said, "Re­joice, for the lost is found, and the dead is alive." And all the people in that courthouse began to say, "Glory!" I· need not tell you that scene was not in a courthouse, but it was in an old church. Jesus pleaded my case, and revealed to me that God was my Father. It went to my heart, as an orphan boy, and I could say, "My Father, which art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name." Jesus came to reveal God: to reveal that God is love, that God is merciful, that God is compassion, that God is a Saviour, that whosoever cometh shall not come in vain, but there is mercy and salvation free for all. -H. C. Morrison

 Romans 5.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.