After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
—Rev. 7:9, 10
5220 Richest Man Asks Wisest Man
The richest man in the world, Croesus, once asked the wisest man in the world, Thales, “What is God?” The philosopher asked for a day in which to deliberate, and then for another, and then for another, and another, and another—and at length confessed that he was not able to answer, that the longer he deliberated, the more difficult it was for him to frame an answer.
The fiery Tertullian, the early Church Father, eagerly seized upon this incident and said it was an example of the world’s ignorance of God outside of Christ. “There,” he exclaimed, “is the wisest man in the world, and he cannot tell you who God is. But the most ignorant mechanic among the Christians knows God, and is able to make him known unto others.”
5221 Friendly Chief Fell In Between
Colonel Byrd, of Virginia, fell into the hands of the Cherokees, and was condemned to death. In the tribe was a chief who had before been his friend. At the approach of the executioners, the Indian threw himself upon the intended victim, saying, “This man is my friend; before you can get at him, you must kill me.” This saved him.
5222 Peace Child
In a book entitled Peace Child, Don Richardson records the moving account of how the Sawi people of Irian Jaya came to understand salvation through Jesus Christ. For many months he and his family sought for some way to communicate the gospel to this tribe. Then they discovered the key for which they had been praying. All demonstrations of kindness expressed by the Sawi were regarded with suspicion except one act. If a father gave his own son to his enemy, his sacrificial deed showed that he could be trusted! Furthermore, everyone who touched that child was brought into a friendly relationship with the father. The Sawi were then taught that in a similar way God’s beloved Son could bring them eternal peace.
—Our Daily Bread
5223 Lincoln’s Substitute
In Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, there is the grave of a Civil War soldier. The stone bears the date of his birth and death, and then these words: “Abraham Lincoln’s substitute.” In the woe and anguish of the war, realizing that thousand upon thousands were falling in his place on the field of battle, Lincoln chose to honor one particular soldier as his substitute and make him a symbol, as it were, of the fact that the soldiers who perished in battle were dying that others might live.
5224 Substitute At Palmyra
In Palmyra on October 17, 1862, during the war an informer in the town disappeared and the commander-in-charge ordered ten men to be shot in reprisal.
Several men were being detained in Palmyra jail as prisoners- of-war at that time, and ten men were selected from among them. Of this number, one was Wm. T. Humphrey, that father of several children, whose wife pleaded for his release. Because of her physical condition and because Humphrey was the father of several children, the commanding officer struck his name off, and substituted the name of Hiram Smith, a young man without a family. Smith gave his consent and stated that perhaps it were better for a single man to die rather than a man with a family.
At Mt. Pleasant Church cemetery in Mt. Salem Association is a stone erected with an inscription which reads:
This monument
is dedicated to the
memory of
Hiram Smith.
The hero that sleeps beneath the sod here
Who was shot at Palmyra,
Oct. 17, 1862, as a substitute for
Wm. T. Humphrey, my father.
—G. W. Humphrey
5225 Substitute At Auschwitz
In October 1972, a crowd of 150,000 Europeans gathered between the barracks and crematories of the Auschwitz extermination camp to honor a man who gave his life to save a fellow prisoner. The martyr was Rev. Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest, who stepped forward to take the place of Sgt. Franciszek Gajowniczek. It happened in July 1941. Gajowniczek had been selected at random by Nazi guards to die.
When the victim pleaded for his life, so that he might see his wife and children, the priest stepped forward and offered to take the doomed man’s place. Rev. Kolbe told the guards that he was alone in the world and would be willing to die instead of the sergeant. A few weeks later Rev. Kolbe died from starvation and a dose of carbolic acid.
Gajowniczek survived the rigors of Auschwitz and was reunited with his loved ones at the end of the war. At the 1972 ceremonies he spoke with moving simplicity. He said he wanted to express his thanks for the gift of life he received, and wanted to honor Rev. Kolbe for his heroic sacrifice.
—David S. McCarthy
5226 The Twice-Saved Churchill
A wealthy family in England, took their children to the country. The children went swimming in a pool. One of the boys began to drown. The son of the gardener jumped in and rescued the helpless one. The grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do for the youthful hero. The gardener said his son wanted to go to college—”He wants to be a doctor.” “We’ll be glad to pay his way through,” they told him.
When Winston Churchill was striken with pneumonia after the Teheran Conference, the King of England instructed that the best doctor be found to save the Prime Minister. The doctor was Mr. Fleming, the developer of penicillin. “Rarely,” said Churchill to Fleming, “has one man owed his life twice to the same rescuer.” It was Fleming who saved Churchill in that pool.
5227 King’s Son In His Arms
Plutarch tells us that when Themistocles in the hour of his exile wished to be reconciled with Admetus, king of the Molossians, who he had previously offended, he took the king’s son in his arms and kneeled down before the household gods. The plea was successful. In fact it was the only one the Molossians looked upon as not to be refused, and so the philosopher found a refuge among them.
—Walter Baxendale
5228 In Love With God’s Son
It is an oft-told story, but its moral points up a great truth. There was an extremely wealthy man who possessed vast treasures of art. The man had one son who was an ordinary boy, and who passed away in late adolescence. Having loved the lad deeply, the sorrowing father died of a broken heart only a few weeks later.
The father’s will provided that everything would be sold by auction and, strangely, the father stipulated that an oil painting of his son was to be the first item offered by the auctioneer. Large crowds came to bid on the widely-reputed collection of art. In keeping with the proviso of the will, the boy’s portrait was first held up for bids. No one cared about the deceased boy. Not until several moments had passed did an old negro servant, who had always loved the boy, place a seventy-five-cent bid.
The picture was at once sold to the negro, there being no further bids registered. Then the dramatic moment came; the sale was stopped, as the will had further provided that anyone who loved the son enough to buy his portrait should receive everything in the father’s house.
—Kenneth L. Miles
5229 Engineer’s Son At Apex
Pliny relates a story of the setting up of an obelisk. The stone was to stand ninety-nine feet in height; 20,000 workmen were to pull at the rope and to work the hoisting apparatus. There was great responsibility and risk in the operation. The king resorted to a singular expedient to ensure the best attention and skill from the engineer. He ordered the engineer’s own son to be bound to the apex, so that his heart as well as his head should be under the sternest tension.
The kingdom of Christ in our homes and in our churches is the great spiritual erection of our times. Our own sons are bound to the obelisk; our children will share the fate controlled by our fidelity. We cannot escape this fearful issue.
—F. E. Clark
5230 Under Niagara’s Waters
At Niagara, the American Falls takes its dizzy leap over a precipice of 160 feet. Between the face of that precipice and the great overleaping sheet of water, which forms the falls, there is a vacant space called the Cave of the Winds. The guides robe you from head to feet in rubber garments and go before you to lead the way. You follow slowly and cautiously as they make their way literally under the falls. Finally you reach your stopping point. There, as you stand, thousands of tons of water are rushing over that precipice, with a thunderous roar and blinding splash of spray and mist.
If you were down there where it falls you would be crushed to death in an instant by its savage impact. But though you stand in a spot of great seeming peril, you are perfectly safe; for this great veil of watery death passes over you and spends its fury on the jagged rocks beneath. You are safe because you are a passed-over man. It is a picture of the redemption which is in Christ for us.
—Albert Mygatt
5231 Ladder Plus Man’s Body
The Sailor’s Home, in Liverpool, was once on fire at night and a great cry of “Fire!” was raised. When the people assembled they saw in the upper stories some men crying for help. The fire escape did not nearly reach where the men were. A long ladder was brought and put against the burning building; but it was too short.
A British sailor in the crowd soon rushed up the ladder, balanced himself on the uppermost round with his foot, and seized the windowsill with his hands, and shouted: “Quick men, scramble over my body, on the ladder, and down you go.” One by one the men came down until all were saved, and then the sailor came down, his face burnt, his hair singed, and his fingers blistered; but he had saved the men. That ladder went a long way; but before the men could be saved it needed the length of a man.
—Charles Leach
5232 The Burned Spot
When men see that a prairie fire is coming, what do they do? Not the fleetest horse can escape it. They just take a match and light the grass around them. They take their stand in the burnt district, and are safe. They hear the flames roar as they come along, but they do not fear. They do not even tremble as the ocean of flames surges around them, for over the place where they stand the fire has already passed and there is no danger. And there is one spot on earth that God has swept over. Nineteen hundred years ago the storm burst on Calvary, and the Son of God took it onto his open bosom; and now, if we take our stand by the open cross, we are safe for time and eternity.
—D. L. Moody
5233 Troy’s Single Entrance
It is said that the ancient city of Troy had but one entrance, and from whatever direction the travelers approached the city they could not enter except through that one legally-appointed entrance. There is but one way that will lead us into the presence of God, that is Christ. “I am the way, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” “So walk ye” in that way. (Jn. 14:6)
—J. H. Bomberger
5234 Ark’s One Door
In the morning, when the ark-door was opened, an observer might see a pair of golden eagles in the sky. But glancing downward, one might see creeping along, a pair of snails, a pair of snakes, a pair of worms. There were pairs of creeping creatures as well as pairs of flying creatures. But there was only one entrance for them all. The eagle must come down to enter it, and the worm must crawl up to it.
—Spurgeon
5235 Epigram On Salvation
• Oh, that someone would arise, man or god, to show us God.
—Socrates
• A boy was in danger of being drowned while bathing in a river. Seeing a traveler on the bank, he called to him for help; but the man started to lecture him on his rashness. “Rescue me now,” cried the boy, “you can lecture me later on when I am safe.”
—Fables of Aesop
See also: Belief ; Blood, The ; Conversion ; Sin ; II Pet. 3:9.