The Gospel-24/7

The Precious Blood J. Wilbur Chapman

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TOPIC and SUBTOPIC: Consecration, As A Blood-Bought Slave.

TITLE: The Precious Blood

In the heart of Africa, it is related by an Englishman, that a slave procession passed by, and the king called out a poor slave who displeased him in some little way, ordered his men to put their arrows to their bowstrings and avenge the offense with his blood.

He went up to the native chief and begged for the poor slaves life, offered him a great deal of money and costly bribes, but the chief turned to him and said: "I don't want ivory, or slaves, or gold; I can go against yonder tribe and capture their stores and their villages; I want no favors from the white man; all I want is blood.

Then he ordered one of his men to pull his bow-string and discharge an arrow at the heart of the poor slave. The young man, with the instinct of a moment threw himself in front and held up his arm, and the next moment the arrow was quivering in the flesh of his own arm.

The black man was astonished. Then he pulled the arrow from his arm, and the blood flowed, and he said to the chief: "Here is blood; here is my blood; I give it for this poor slave, and I claim his life." The native chief had never seen such a spectacle before, and he was completely overcome by it.

He gave the slave to the white man. He said: "Yes, white man has bought him with his blood, and he shall be his." In a moment the poor slave threw himself at the feet of his deliverer, tears flowing down his face, and said: "O, white man, you have bought Lebe with your blood; Lebe (for that was his name) shall be your slave forever and ever." And ever after he could not make him take his liberty; wherever he went poor Lebe was beside him; no drudgery was too hard, no task too hopeless. He was bound by the mercy of his deliverer as his consecrated servant.

O, friends, if a poor savage heart can thus be bound by the wound of a strangers arm, what should you and I say for those deeper wounds in those two living hands and feet and the heart that was opened by the spear? If we believe that we are redeemed, how can we not be consecrated to him.

J. W. C. From Present Day Parables by J. Wilbur Chapman.