"I SAY UNTO THEE TO-DAY."
By T. E. Bowen
THESE precious words of our Saviour, spoken to the dying thief, are often quoted as proof that Jesus and the thief went to Paradise that day; hence, every saint goes there at death. This sense is given the text by punctuation. Placing the comma (man's work anyway) after "to-day," instead of before, brings the word "to-day" to apply to the act of Christ's saying, rather than the time of the promise being fulfilled. But why make a point of this? Jesus never uttered an unnecessary word. Why then add "to-day"? In this very fact lies one of the most precious promises to sinners. That day was the most eventful ever chronicled by our shining orb. The Author of our world hung dying upon a cruel cross, that this sin spot in His Father's universe might not forever be blotted from existence. Insult, scorn, and abuse of every description were heaped upon Jesus on the way to and at Calvary. The thieves heard all this. They saw the religious leaders reviling this Man. The natural tendency is to join in with the popular sentiments. The impression about the cross was that Jesus was forsaken of God. Yet, amid it all, this doomed man in his mind connected evidences to such an extent that this was Christ, that he appealed to Him to save him when He should come into His kingdom. Can you imagine a more difficult place to seek pardon and salvation? Can you imagine God to be pleased under more forbidding circumstances in which to forgive a sinner's sins? Under all these circumstances of "to-day," a day when the destiny of the world trembled—even "to-day"! I say unto you, Your sins are forgiven. In Paradise you shall be, and I will be there too. Jesus hoped against hope, and, altho the heavens to Him seemed shut up that day, for the despairing cry from a rent heart was, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" that precious Spirit offered peace and forgiveness to one more burdened sinner before He yielded up His life. Should His death be eternal, He wanted the record to be made that that "day," so full of suffering to Himself because of our sins, His heart forgave His dying companion, and life, eternal life, was offered him. The promise of life is always a "to-day" promise. "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." No promise is for to-morrow. "To-day's" offer for life may be lost to-morrow, and lost forever. A "more convenient" time never comes than "to-day." Careless one, "to-day" listen for that voice; "to-day" harden not your hearts; "to-day" ask to be forgiven; and that same "to-day" shall record your sins forgiven, as on the day Jesus died, the thief found pardon and rest in coming to Him. T. E. BOWEN.