But there was more in Sydney Carton's experience than we have yet seen.
It happens that this great saying about _the Resurrection and the Life_
is not only Sydney Carton's text; it is Frank Bullen's text; and Frank
Bullen's experience may help us to a deeper perception of Sydney
Carton's. In his _With Christ at Sea_, Frank Bullen has a chapter
entitled 'The Dawn.' It is the chapter in which he describes his
conversion. He tells how, at a meeting held in a sail-loft at Port
Chalmers, in New Zealand, he was profoundly impressed. After the
service, a Christian worker--whom I myself knew well--engaged him in
conversation. He opened a New Testament and read these words: '_I am
the_ _Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in Me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall
never die._' The earnest little gentleman pointed out the insistence on
faith: the phrase '_believeth in Me_' occurs twice in the text: faith
and life go together. Would Frank Bullen exercise that faith?
'Every word spoken by the little man went right to my heart,' Mr. Bullen
assures us, 'and, when he ceased, there was an appeal in his eyes that
was even more eloquent than his words. But beyond the words and the look
was the interpretation of them to me by some mysterious agency beyond my
comprehension. For, in a moment, the hidden mystery was made clear to
me, and I said quietly, "I see, sir; and I believe!" "Let us thank God!"
answered the little man, and together we knelt down by the bench. There
was no extravagant joy, no glorious bursting into light and liberty,
such as I have read about as happening on those occasions; it was the
satisfaction of having found one's way after long groping in darkness
and misery--_the way that led to peace_.'
Now the question is: did those words--the words that came with such
power to Frank Bullen in the New Zealand sail-loft, and to Sydney Carton
in the Paris streets--have the same effect upon both? Did they lead both
of them to penitence and faith and peace? I think they did. Let us
return to Sydney Carton as the sun is rising on that memorable morning
on which he sees the text everywhere. He leaves the streets in which he
has wandered by moonlight and walks beside a stream.
'A trading-boat, with a sail of the softened color of a dead leaf,
glided into his view, floated by him, and died away. As its silent track
in the water disappeared, the prayer that had broken up out of his heart
for a merciful consideration of all his poor blindnesses and errors
ended in the words: "_I am the Resurrection and the Life._"'
'_He that believeth in Me ... whosoever believeth in Me!_'--the
insistent demand for faith.
'_He that believeth in Me!_'--Sydney Carton believed and found peace.
'_He that believeth in Me!_'--Frank Bullen believed and found peace.
Paul has a classical passage in which he shows that those who have
passed through experiences such as these, have themselves '_risen with
Christ into newness of life_.'
_Risen with Christ!_ They have found _the Resurrection_!
_Newness of life!_ They have found _the Life_!
In his _Death in the Desert_, Browning describes the attempts that were
made to revive the sinking man. It seemed quite hopeless. The most that
he would do was--
To smile a little, as a sleeper does,
If any dear one call him, touch his face--
And smiles and loves, but will not be disturbed.
Then, all at once, the boy who had been assisting in these proceedings,
moved by some swift inspiration, sprang from his knees and proclaimed a
text: '_I am the Resurrection and the Life!_' As if by magic,
consciousness revisited the prostrate form; the man opened his eyes; sat
up; stared about him; and then began to speak. A wondrous virtue seemed
to lurk in the majestic words that the boy recited. By that virtue
Sydney Carton, Frank Bullen, and a host of others passed from death into
life everlasting.
V
I began by saying that it is a great thing--a very great thing--to be
able to save those you love by dying for them.
I close by stating the companion truth. It is a great thing--a very
great thing--to have been died for.
On the last page of his book Dickens tells us what Sydney Carton would
have seen and said if, on the scaffold, it had been given him to read
the future.
'I see,' he would have exclaimed, 'I see the lives for which I lay down
my life--peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy--in that England which I
shall see no more. I see her with a child upon her bosom who bears my
name. I see that I hold _a sanctuary_ in all their hearts, and in the
hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman,
weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her
husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly
bed; and I know that each was not more honored and held sacred in the
other's soul than I was in the souls of both!'
'I see that I hold _a sanctuary in all their hearts_!'--it is a lovely
phrase.
It is a great thing--a very great thing--to have been died for!
Wherefore let each man be at some pains to build in his heart a
sanctuary to Him who, for us men and for our salvation, laid down His
life with a song!
V