THE well-known evangelist, Dr. E. P. Hammond, tells the following story; and even though you may have heard it or read it before, you will be glad of the privilege of reading it again.
COME with me, young friends, and look at these two pictures — one of a wild gipsy girl, and another of the Lord Jesus, who “gave Himself for us.” The gipsy girl lived the wild life of her tribe, and had been called in by a German painter, that he might paint her pretty face. She had never been in an artist’s studio before, and did not fail to notice on the other side of the room an unfinished painting of the crucifixion of our Lord.
One day she asked, “Master, who is that hanging there?”
“That is Jesus Christ,” replied the painter, carelessly.
“But was He a bad man, that they treated Him so cruelly?”
“O, no; He was the best man that ever lived.”
“Tell me more about Him.” And so he did, though half unwilling to do so.
Day by day, as this young gipsy girl came into the studio to have her picture painted, her face was fixed upon this painting of Christ. As the last sitting was over, and as she was turning to leave the room, she whispered: “Master, how can you help loving Him who, you say, has died for you? If anybody had loved me like that, O, I’d like to die for him!” And then, with a sad heart, she went back to her people.
And the painter? He was struck as with an arrow. God’s Spirit sent the words home to his heart. He sought out a mission preacher who could tell him of Jesus, and in the little mission room he fell on his knees, and covering his face with his hands, confessed before God’s blessed Son how for many years he had neglected Him and sinned against Him; and looking to God for pardon, he gave his life to Him.
His life was filled with a new joy, and he then became a worker for Christ. He put aside the half-finished picture, in which he had only thought of depicting the sufferings of Christ, and began a fresh one, with his heart full of fresh love toward the Saviour who had died for him. He felt that the Lord helped him as never before.
When the painting was finished, it was placed in the gallery at Dusseldorf. Crowds came to gaze upon it. To one heart at least that story went home, for beneath the picture the painter had placed the words:
“I did all this for thee.
What hast thou done for Me?”
Count Zinzendorf tells us that he felt he would not be able to answer very much, and prayed to the Saviour to draw him into the communion of His sufferings. Though I believe Zinzendorf became a Christian when he was a child, yet the sight of this painting led him to live for the Lord as he had not done before. As the father of the United Brethren in Moravia, we know how well he kept his promise.
The gipsy girl came to see the picture, too; and the artist, happening to be there, found her weeping before it.
“O, master!” she cried, “He died for you, I know; but did He die for me — a poor gipsy girl?”
And now this painter, knowing by experience something about the love of Jesus, could, out of a full heart, and with a deep interest in that dying Saviour, tell her, as he could not have done before, the story of His sufferings and death in our stead; and pointing to the picture, he said: “Yes, He died for you. I love Him now. Won’t you?”
With tears in her eyes, she asked: “Did He really die for a poor gipsy girl? Then I will love Him, too.”
Some time after, a stranger came to him with a message from a gipsy girl, who was dying, to ask him to come to her, as she wished at once to see him. He went, following the guide to the forest; and there, in a poor hut, lay the gipsy girl. It was his old friend, no longer in her dark beauty, but pale and wan and dying. Her eyes were closed; but when she heard his voice, she opened them, and, with a smile, she slowly said: “O master — I know now! He — died — for — me. I — love — Him — and — I — am — going — to — live — with — Him.” And thus she died.
We do not need any picture of the crucifixion. The simple Bible story of Christ’s death for us is enough to melt our hearts. Only let us, each one, be sure that we can say of the Lord Jesus, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me, and now I love Him.” If we do, the next thing will be that we shall47hear Him saying to us, as He did to Count Zinzendorf:
“I did all this for thee.
What hast thou done for Me?”
Thus, if we are Christians, will our love for Christ grow stronger day by day, and we shall find something to do for Him who has done so much for us.
But what shall I say to those of you who have never loved Jesus? You see, this gipsy girl had never heard of Christ; but you have heard of Him all your life, and yet have turned away from Him many times. She could not believe that He really loved her, and had taken the punishment she deserved on account of her sins.
But when she stood weeping before the crucifixion of Christ in that picture-gallery, and the artist explained to her how it was that, because He was wounded for our transgressions (Isa. 53:4-6), God could forgive our sins, then it seems that she trusted in Christ and found peace by believing in Him.
Will not you, young friend, do the same? Then you will be fitted to live the life of a happy Christian, and you, too, can say: “I know He died for me. I love Him, and I hope by and by to live with Him in His kingdom.”
May I repeat to you the question of this gipsy girl to the German painter: “How can you help loving Him who died for you?”