The
sin offering!
(Henry Law, "The Sin Offering"
This 'gem' is longer, but it is choice.
You might want to print it out and
keep it in your Bible.)
"He must bring to the Lord a young bull
without defect as a sin offering for
the
sin he has committed." Leviticus 4:3
Sin! The sound is brief, but it
presents a dark abyss of thought.
No mind can trace its birth.
No eye can see its death.
Before the worlds it scaled the
heavens, and dragged angels down.
In life's first dawn it entered
Eden and slew innocence.
It ends not with the end of time. It
ever rolls an ever deepening course.
Reader, think much of sin!
It is earth's death blow.
It marred the beauty of a beauteous
world. It stripped it of its lovely robe.
It caused the soil to harden; and the
leaves to wither and decay. It turned
fertility to weeds, and armed the brier
with its bristling thorns.
It made the clouds to blacken, and
the storm to rage. It raised the
tempest's roar, and plumed the
lightning with its forked wings.
It placed its foot upon a perfect work,
and left it a disordered wreck.
Reader, think much of sin!
It is man's ruin. It drove the soul from
peaceful fellowship with God. It changed
the loving child into a hardened rebel.
It robbed the mind of light.
It rendered reason a bewildered maze.
Sin made the heart . . .
a nest of unclean birds;
a spring of impure streams;
a whirlpool of tumultuous passions;
a hot bed of ungodly lusts;
a den of God defying schemes!
Sin is . . .
the malady;
the misery;
the shame
of our whole race!
It is the spring of every tear.
Each sigh, which rends the breast;
each frown, which ploughs the brow;
each pain, which racks the limbs,
are cradled in sins arms!
It is the mother of that mighty monster, death.
It digs each grave in every graveyard.
Each widow and each orphan tastes its gall.
It fills each hospital with sick.
It strews the battlefield with slain.
It is the core in every grief.
It is the worm which gnaws the root of peace.
Reader, think much of sin!
Its terrible destructions die not in the
grave. There is a region, where its full
blown torments reign.
It built the prison house of hell.
It kindled quenchless flames.
It forged the chains, which bind
lost sinners to their burning beds.
It sharpened the undying sting
of an upbraiding conscience.
It arms the jailer, Satan, with his scourge.
It bars the hopeless in that outer darkness,
where weeping ever weeps; and wailing ever
wails; and teeth forever gnash; and all is woe,
which knows no respite and no end.
Reader, here is a picture, in which all horrors
meet! Regard it with an earnest eye. No fiction
colors it. No power can over paint the terrible
reality. No artist's skill can represent a flame.
The dreadful truth exceeds report. The lost
writhe out eternity in fully learning the deserts
of sin!
Reader, think much of sin!
Though sin is death, the sinner need not
die.
There is a fortress of escape.
There is a remedy to heal these wounds.
What though your sins be as countless
as the sands? They all may disappear!
What though the dye of each be double
crimson? Each may be washed away!
The filth may all be cleansed!
The debts may be wiped out!
The soul may meet Jehovah's eye without one stain!
There is a way, by which the vilest may stand pure!
God's love decreed a plan. He willed a ransom,
and His Son achieved it. Let us draw nearer
to the amazing sight!
Each sin must bear its merited load of woe.
Each curse must be endured. Each violation
of the holy law must drink the dregs of
condemnation.
Jesus comes forth to help!
The guiltless One, takes the guilty place.
He stands as their ready and complete sin
offering.
He pays in anguish and in blood their every due.
Wrath is endured.
Penalties are paid.
Sufferings are suffered.
Agonies are agonized.
The work requires infinity of woe.
Infinity of woe is borne by Him.
Wrathful fury seized the soul of Jesus.
All torments dealt most fiercely with Him.
He suffered, until eternal vengeance asked no more.
Thus sin is fully punished.
Thus the redeemed are fully saved.
"For God made Christ, who never sinned,
to be the offering for our
sin, so that we
could be made right with God through Christ."
2 Cor. 5:21
Believer, your sins slew Christ!
They cannot now slay you.
His death is yours. Therefore you live.
God's smile is on you, not because you have
no sins, but because each has died in
Christ.
Reader, if you are one with Christ, hell pains
are past for you. If you are not, they still
remain. Alas! how shall you bear them!