No man cared for my soul (Psalm 142:4)

Source: Good News Magazine

Over one hundred years ago William McKinley, President of the United States of America, was assassinated. This heinous deed so appalled people throughout the land that, as a sign of mourning, all traffic was ordered to come to a standstill at the time of the burial. Thus at exactly 3 o’clock on the 19th September, 1904 all traffic stopped for five minutes. Machines in factories were turned off; people stood still in the streets. Even the telegraph was switched off. It was as if the nation’s heart had ceased to beat.

If that can happen on earth for a mortal, what must it have been in heaven when the Son of God suffering and dying on the cross cried out, “It is finished!” and bowed His head in death. By that sacrifice at Calvary God’s holy claims were met and the odour of Christ’s devotion rose up to God like a sweet smelling savour. What a shockwave must have gone through the realm of the dead when the Lord carried off that great victory over Satan and death! It was accompanied by signs: graves opened, the earth quaked and rocks were torn apart, so that the Roman cen­turion and his soldiers had to testify, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

But life on earth did not come to a stand­still. People didn’t stop working or talking when the One who had come from heaven to seek and to save the lost laid down His life. Nor do they today when they hear the mes­sage that God’s Son died for our sins on the cross.

But each one of us ought to stand still for a moment and ask ourselves what the cross means to us.