June 27

Scarred for Christ’s sake

“I have fought a good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7).
“These are they which came out of great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14).

Jesus will stand there, scars on His hands, scars on His feet, scars on His brow, scars over His heart, won in the great battle of redemption, and all Heaven will sob aloud with emotion and gratitude. Ignatius will stand there and point to the marks where the tooth and the paw of the lion seized him in the Coliseum. John Huss will show where the coals first scorched his foot on that day when his spirit took wing of flame and rose from Constance. Hugh McKail will point to the mark on the neck where the axe struck him. McMillan and Campbell and Freeman, the American missionaries, who, with their wives and children perished in the awful massacre at Cawnpore, will show where the daggers of the Sepoys struck them. The Waldenses will show where their bones were broken on that day when the Piedmontese soldiery pitched them over the rocks.


And all who have nursed the sick and cared for the poor will show the evidences of earthly exhaustion, and Christ shall wave His scarred hand over the scarred multitude, saying: “Ye suffered with Me on earth, now be glorified with Me in Heaven.” And the great organs of eternity will take up the chant, and St. John will sweep the keys with his fingers: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” But on that day what will be your chagrin and mine if it shall be told on the streets of Heaven that in this world we shrank back from all toil, from all hardship, from all fatigue? No battle-scars to show the glorified; not so much as one ridge on the palm of the hand to show that just once in all this great battle for God and the truth we clutched so tight and struck so hard that the hand clave to the sword.
—De Witt Talmage.

My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and strength to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles Who will now be my Rewarder. . . . So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.
—John Bunyan.

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