The Blood of Christ
“Charles Finney was preaching in a great revival in Detroit. After the service one night a man said, ‘I want you to go home with me, Mr. Finney.’ Some who knew the man said to Finney, do not go.’ But he went. When they came to the man’s house, the man walked in last, locked the door and pulled a revolver from his pocket. He said, ‘Do not be afraid, Mr. Finney, I am not going to shoot you. I heard you preach tonight about the Lord Jesus Christ. This revolver has killed four men. Is there any hope for a man like that?’
Mr. Finney replied, ‘The blood of jesus Christ His son cleaneth us from all sin.’
The man answered, ‘ah, but you do not understand, Mr. Finney. Down below this apartment where you are sitting there is a saloon. I have helped send men down the road to hell; I have helped men to rob their own babies of food and mile. Is there any hope for a man who would run a saloon?’
And Mr. Finney replied, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin!’
The man continued, ‘But you do not understand. I have been a gambler all of my life. I have spent my life taking money from people illegally. Is there any hope for a man like that?’
Mr. Finney said, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.’
The man persisted, ‘Across the street from this establishment there is a little home where there is a wife I have abused; a little girl who is disfigured. One night in a drunken stupor, I came home from gambling and drinking. She ran to put her arms around me and in my drunkenness I pushed her away from me, she hit the heater and is hopelessly disfigured. Is there any hope for a man like that?’
Mr. Finney said, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin!’
Mr. Finney soon thereafter left. The next morning the man stumbled across the street. He had not slept for he prayed all night. When he got into the house he stumbled up to his room. In a little while his wife said to the little girl, ‘tell your daddy it’s time for breakfast.’
She went upstairs and said, ‘Mama says it is time for breakfast.’
The man said, ‘Maggie, darling, I do not want any breakfast this morning.’
She ran back downstairs and said, ‘Mama, Daddy said he did not want any breakfast this morning and he called me darling!’
The mother said, ‘You mad a mistake; you heard him wrong. Go back up there an tell him it is time for breakfast.’
In a moment, however, the man came down, took that wife in his arms and his little girl upon his knee. ‘Oh Wife’ he wept, ‘I have sinned against you like few men have ever sinned against anyone, but last night I heard the preacher preach. I heard about Jesus and about the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all my sin. You have a new husband. Daughter, you have a new daddy’” (Vines, Ibid, pg. 47-49).