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In the History of Persia a very tender incident is related. Twelve men had been robbed and murdered under the very walls of the city. The King resolved that the crime should be traced out and all concerned in it put to death.
After a long search the guilty ones were found and their guilt established beyond a doubt. The King had sworn ... that they should be put to death.
The sentence had been passed and the day of their execution come.
Great efforts had been made to procure a pardon for the prisoners, but it was impossible, although they in some ways belonged to a branch of the King's family.
Among the men to be executed was a young man of great promise, scarcely twenty years of age. His very appearance drew universal interest and sympathy to him. Men and women were in tears, crying out, "can't this young man be pardoned?" But no way was seen. He was to be executed in a few hours. Just then a tender scene was witnessed; the father of this young man came rushing forward and was admitted to an interview with the King. He addressed the monarch in words something like these:
"You have sworn ... that these men should die, and it is just they should, but I who am not guilty, come here to ask a great favor; it is that I may die in my son's place. He is young and just betrothed in marriage, and has hardly tasted the sweets of existence. Oh, sir, be merciful! and let me be executed in his place. Let my son live to taste of the waters and till the ground of his ancestors! I will meet the just demands of the law for him. I know he is guilty and deserves it all, but I love him and will cheerfully die for him."
The monarch was deeply moved by the father's appeal but could not pardon without a suitable substitute, and so accepted this kind, loving father in the place of the son.
The son, wild and almost distracted with grief, plead with the king to reverse his decree to accept his father, and to inflict on him the doom he justly merited and save the life of his aged and innocent father. All hearts were melted at the scene. But the son was spared while the innocent father met the just demands of the law, and was executed instead of the son, and so the law of the kingdom of Persia was magnified and made honorable.
This father's love to the son was wonderful, but our Heavenly Father "commendeth his love to us" that while we were yet sinners, enemies, in open opposition to him, in giving his son to die for us. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And Jesus, knowing all he would suffer, freely offered himself for us, saying, "Father, here am I, send me." This was love beyond degree; it has no parallel. How can any one treat it indifferently.
"So strange, so boundless was the love
That pitied dying men;
The Father sent his equal Son
To give them life again."
-- A. B. Earle, From: "Incidents Used ... In His Meetings," published in 1888
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