What convicted him? I will tell what I think convicted him, though I
could not teach it dogmatically but I think it was the Saviour's
prayer. When the Lord Jesus cried out from the very depths of His
soul, "Father, forgive them," conviction flashed into his heart. He
must have said, "Why, this is more than a man; He has got a very
different spirit from me. I could not ask God to forgive them. I would
call down fire from heaven to consume them, and I would call upon God
to smite them with blindness as Elijah did, and I would sweep them
from this mountain if I had the power." That's what he must have
thought as he heard the piercing cry go up, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do." Ah, it was love that broke his heart. In
those days, when they crucified a man, they used to scourge him. This
poor man had been taken into the court, and tried and condemned by the
judge; but that had not broken his heart. He had been led forth and
scourged; but that had not broken his heart. And now they had nailed
him to the cross; but even that had not broken his heart. There he is
reviling his God. But when he saw that loving Saviour, he got a
glimpse of His love, and that one glimpse broke his heart.
I heard of a young man once who was very hardhearted. His father loved
him as he loved his own life. He had tried everything he could to win
that prodigal boy back. When his father was dying, they sent for him;
but he refused to come. But after his father's death, he returned home
to attend the funeral; but not a tear fell from his eyes. He followed
that father to his resting-place, and never dropped a tear over his
grave. But when they got home, and the will was read, they found that
father had not forgotten his prodigal boy, but had remembered him
kindly in his will; and that proof of the father's love just broke his
heart. And so I think it must have been with the thief when he heard
the Saviour crying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do"; it pierced like an arrow down into his heart, and he was
convicted.