"_To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise_."
"_He saved others-He saved others--Himself He cannot save!_" Amidst
the din of discordant voices, this taunt sounded out clear and loud, and
fell upon the ears of a dying thief. Perhaps, as so often happens now, the
Devil over-reached himself even then, and the strange words made the poor
criminal think. "_'Others'--'others'--He saves others--then why not
me?_" Presently he answered the railing unbelief of his fellow-prisoner;
and then, in the simple language of faith, said to the Saviour: "Lord,
remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom."
Jesus Christ's reply is one of the great landmarks of the Bible. It
denotes the boundary line of the long ages of dimness and indefiniteness
about two things--_assurance of salvation in this life, and certainty of
immediate blessedness in the life to come_. "To-day shalt thou be with
Me in Paradise!" There is nothing like it in all the Scriptures. It is as
though great gates, long closed, were suddenly thrown wide open, and we
saw before our eyes that some one passed in where none had ever trodden
before. The whole freedom and glory of the Gospel is illustrated at one
stroke. Here is the Salvation of The Salvation Army! To-day--without any
ceremonies, baptisms, communions, confirmations, without the mediation of
any priest or the intervention of any sacraments--such things would indeed
have been only an impertinence there--to-day, "TO-DAY shalt thou be with
ME." Indeed the gates are open wide at last!
But the great lesson of the words lies rather in their revelation of
_our Lord's instant accessibility to this poor felon_. His nearness
of heart; His complete confidence in His own wonderful power to save; His
readiness of response--for it may be said that He leaps to meet this first
repentant soul--are all revealed to us. But it is the fact that, amid that
awful conflict, His ear was open to another's cry--and such
another!--which appeals most to my own heart. With those blessed words of
hope and peace in my ears, how can I ever fear that one could be so vile,
so far away, so nearly lost, as to cry in vain? Nay, Lord, it cannot be.