Part 4

On the night previous to his execution, the kind relation who had first visited him in the prison, and brought him the first message of salvation, in bringing him the New Testament, and Mr. Gallachin, an excellent minister of the church, sat up with him. They endeavoured to sing a hymn, and, feeling the imperfection of the service, he said, “To-morrow I shall join in very different singing from this.” At half-past one in the morning, he fell into a kind of dozing stupor for an hour, but did not sleep. During that time he was heard repeating the fifty-first Psalm, and also repeatedly exclaiming, “Glory to the Lamb! glory to our Lord Jesus Christ!” and when he awoke, he said that he had seen glorious things in a dream. He also said, between sleeping and waking, as it appeared, “There is now, therefore, no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus.” At waking he requested that a hymn might be sung. The next morning Mr. Hall went to him at half-past six o’clock. When he entered his cell, Jolin said, “Oh, Mr. Hall, I am so glad to see you; I am so happy. I have slept four hours, and the rest of the night we have spent in such delightful conversation. I feel so strong, but I will wait patiently the Lord’s time.” The day before, I have observed, he thought the hours passed slowly, he was so anxious to depart and to be with Christ. Mr. Hall took occasion to warn him, that he had still a work to do. He must not only glorify his Saviour by his conduct, and by his patient resignation, but he must again speak a word of warning to those about him. And he assured him that he might be able to do more for the praise and honour of his Master in his death upon the scaffold, by bearing testimony to his own exceeding wickedness, and to the unsearchable mercy and love of Christ, than if he had died in a more private manner. To this he assented, and took the resolution of doing all in his power. “Great, indeed,” says Mr. Hall, “were the grace and support which he enjoyed. He felt sick at breakfast time, and could not eat; but, to oblige me, he said he would try. About nine o’clock his irons were taken off; and I could not help thinking of this as symbolical of that liberty which soon, when passed beyond this life, he would enjoy for ever in the presence of his Saviour. Jolin immediately proposed to me to kneel down and thank God for what he had done for him; saying, ‘I have always before prayed in bed; now I can go on my knees in the proper posture for a sinner.’ Oh, at this time, how deep were his confessions of sin, committed both in thought, word, and deed; his acknowledgment of mercy through Jesus Christ; his expressions of dependence upon Him for grace, to keep him in his fiery trial, and to open for him the kingdom of heaven! When he drank his milk, he said, ‘Oh! God, I thank thee that thou hast been so merciful and good to me, who have been so great a sinner!’ His hand was never cold, and his pulse was always regular to the end. I never witnessed one to whom the Lord was pleased to give a stronger faith, which was proved by his conduct to the last. He sat calmly speaking and listening till about half-past twelve; when he left the prison, leaning on me and Mr. Gallachin. An immense concourse of people presented itself at the prison gates, and their rush and noise were greater than we expected. The newspaper account says—‘He was calm and collected, walked with steadiness, and evinced throughout the most decorous firmness. We could not perceive that he trembled. His mind seemed quite absorbed in religious exercises; and, from all we can learn, there was good and satisfactory evidence that he was a true penitent, and relied on the Divine mercy.’”

As he was leaving the gaol he was heard to repeat the fourth verse of the twenty-third Psalm, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Mr. Hall continues: “The noise of the people prevented my being heard by Jolin, who walked as firmly as myself: I therefore opened my hymn-book, and pointed out to him the sufficiency of the Redeemer, in one of those hymns which I had previously chosen for his perusal. The hymn chosen was one beginning—

‘He lives, the great Redeemer lives! What joy the blest assurance gives! And now, before his Father, God, Pleads the full merit of his blood.

In every dark, distressful hour, When sin and Satan join their power, Let this dear hope repel the dart, That Jesus bears us on his heart.’

“He told me, that he did not mind the people, that they were poor worms; that he would endeavour to warn them from the scaffold, for they were standing on the brink of the pit. We mounted the steepest part of the gallows hill. He said, his Saviour had toiled up Calvary with a cross, which he ought to be thankful that he had not to bear; and that Jesus Christ had done this for _his_ sake, whereas, he was receiving the due reward of his transgression. This reflection seemed to give new wings to his exertions in pressing up the rock. I think that a worse place of ascent could not have been chosen. When we arrived at the summit, the Greffier read his sentence aloud, and Mr. Gallachin prayed most fervently with him in French. After the prayer, he ascended the platform with Mr. Gallachin and myself, and addressed the people in French, as you will see by the account in the newspaper. But the account is deficient in one most essential point. He urged the people by the _love_ of _Christ_, whom he had crucified, and whom they were crucifying by their sins.” The substance of his warning was on the subject of intemperance, Sabbath-breaking, the neglect of God and of religion; and it was addressed principally to parents and to the young. These warnings he twice delivered; once before, and once after the rope was fastened round his neck. “Although I do not accurately remember,” Mr. Hall continues, “the words of any of his speeches, I can safely say, that he expressed his conviction that the work which had taken place in his heart had been effected by no power or will of his own, but by a sovereign act of Divine grace. Jolin then read aloud some verses from the Testament, which sufficiently indicate the view which he took both of the nature of his change, and of the source from whence it sprang. They are taken from 1 Pet. i. 3–5: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.’ To these verses he was particularly partial. He then spoke to me, and told me that he had full confidence in the sufficiency of the blood of Christ to blot out all his sins; and that He who had loved him so much as to shed his blood for him, and had kept him to that hour stedfast and immoveable, would receive him into glory. When the cap was drawn over his face, I told him not to dread the momentary pain, for soon he would be in the presence of his Saviour. He pressed my hand, and said he was not afraid; for he knew that He would take him unto himself. I told him that I would pray that his sufferings might be short, and went down.” Mr. Gallachin then read a part of the Burial Service, until the fatal moment. His sufferings appeared not to be great, and were of brief duration. “Whilst I was in prayer,” Mr. Hall adds, “the drop fell, and our poor brother I knew had entered into the presence of his Redeemer. The women around me screamed out, ‘The Lord have mercy upon his poor soul!’ I could not but pray that their souls might find the same mercy. He died without a struggle. I never saw him after I pressed his hand when alive, as I ascended the hill through the crowd, and was spared seeing his mortal remains.”

Thus ended the course of a young man, whose history is a solemn memorial, not only of the awful effects of a bad education, and of the wretchedness of sin, but also of the wonderful compassion of God. Much of what has been narrated may appear almost incredible to some readers; and many of those, especially, who are justly suspicions of death-bed repentances, may be led to doubt how far the work of this young man’s conversion was complete, and whether, if he had been permitted to live, he would have lived as he has died. If, however, he was really converted in heart to God, the observation which he himself made must be applied to his own case: “The man that is fit to die is fit to live.” The same grace which brought him into the fold of Christ would have kept him in all his way; so that the enemy of his soul should not have overpowered him. And there is, as before mentioned, the most remarkable concurrence of testimony as to Jolin’s state at the time of his death. Not only Mr. Hall, Mr. Gallachin, and many others, bear witness to the facts; but the public voice has acknowledged the wonderful change which took place in him. One person, _not_ a believer in revelation, but who stood by Jolin on the gallows hill, and witnessed his conduct, came to a minister, and acknowledged, that “there must be something in religion to support a man in such a manner; and that he had therefore determined to attend a place of worship, and to bring up his children in the fear of God.” Mr. Hall says, “I have never had a doubt on my mind as to the reality of the change. His conduct in the court; his complete deadness to the things of time and sense, and this even when his friends seemed so anxious to save him from an ignominious death, were so many pleasing testimonies that he was really risen with Christ, and that his affections were set upon things above. God did indeed work mightily in him: though last, he was one of the first. He seemed so convinced of sin, and to have such simple dependence upon the truth and firm foundation of Christ’s promises, and he showed so abundantly that these feelings were not merely talked into his head, that I always returned delighted with my visit to him. I used to pray instantly with him that he might not be deceiving himself, nor be deceived by Satan, or any of us; and I can say, as far as I was capable of judging, that his was a real work of Divine grace.” The testimony of the editor of the Jersey newspaper, also, while it is beyond all suspicion of enthusiasm, and does not even exhibit the proof of a tolerably distinct view of the real foundation on which Jolin stood, is a most satisfactory testimony of the reality of this change. He says, “We are not amongst those who would hastily give credence to the genuineness of conversion in the cases of great criminals, or who approve of religious ecstasies in the short interval between the commission of dreadful enormities, and the violent death awarded by law; we do not think it desirable that, while so many good men, after a long life of exemplary piety, approach their last hour with solemn apprehensions, such as have lived in a course of profligate vice should boast of triumphant feelings and peculiar joy on their way to the scaffold, where they are to be suddenly compelled into the presence of their Creator and Divine Judge;—but, in the instance before us, we have much satisfaction in believing that a real change of heart had taken place, before a change of worlds was experienced. In his last days, Jolin evinced much solidity of mind on the subject most important to him: his conduct was marked by the most becoming propriety; and if he expressed a confident hope of acceptance before God, it was accompanied with humility, and, as far as man can judge, with sincere sorrow for his offences.” The rapid attainment of Divine knowledge, the simple belief of the truths of the Bible, the consistent walk in that which he believed to be the will of God, are fruits which can be ascribed only to the grace and Spirit of God. Where the Lord of all power and might is pleased to exercise his sovereignty, who shall say that the work of many years may not be produced in a few weeks; or, as in the case of the thief upon the cross, in a much shorter time? The case of the thief on the cross is one in which the probabilities, before-hand, of repentance, were not so great; and the evidences of his real conversion are scarcely more complete, except the incidental circumstance of the testimony of our Lord. Both of these criminals felt sorrow for their sins, confessed them to men, acknowledged them to God, and owned the justice of their condemnation; both testified the sincerity of their faith: but, if the thief did this under circumstances more trying to his sincerity than those of Jolin, it is also to be remembered, that he saw the Lord of life; and that to Jolin alone, therefore, the language applied, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” I know of no mark of true conversion which was absent from the case of Jolin. His faith was clear and strong. It lifted him above the world, and, wrought by love, it gave him courage, and zeal, and love. He went forward in implicit dependence upon Divine grace, and pursued, as was permitted him after his change, a holy, humble, consistent course; and, with the cap upon his head, and the rope round his neck, he could say with calmness, that “he was not afraid, for he knew that his Saviour would take him to himself.”

But it may still be said, How do we know that Jolin was sincere in all that he said, or that he was not under delusion in what he felt? To this question the reply has been, I think, already offered in these pages—by pointing to the workings of his mind, and the consistency of his conduct. And here we must leave the case till the last great day.

In the meanwhile, let us learn from this history, some of the lessons which it is calculated to teach.

The first of these is, the _misery and danger of a state of sin_. St. Paul, in describing the consequences of a state of sin, says, in an appeal to the Roman converts, (vi. 21,) “What part had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed; for the end of those things is death.” That is, sin yields no real _fruit_; it produces shame; and the end of it will be _death_. Every Christian feels the truth of this statement, as respects himself; and it is the case with all other men, although they know it not. What, for instance, is the usual fruit of drunkenness? disease, quarrelling, and loss of one kind or another. The drunkard is usually a blasphemer, hard-hearted, and cruel, as he proves himself to his wife and children, starving or ill-treating them to gratify his own lust. His habits of drunkenness make him a bad child, a bad neighbour, a disgrace in himself, and a plague to others. So it is more or less with the followers of every sin. Sin, then, brings no real fruit, and the end of it will be eternal death; for it is written, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God.” “As surely, therefore, as a man sows, so shall he also reap; he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.” How awful is the history of Jolin’s father! His life how disgraceful, his death how dreadful! Would the sinner who reads this be content to come to such an end? But to this, in his present state, he is every moment liable. Let the sinner remember, that he who called this poor wretch to judgment at a moment’s warning, may say to himself, “This night thy soul is required of thee.” The probability of thus dying is commonly passed over; and it is the hope of a sinner that he shall still live to repent, as Jolin did. Yet how great are the chances against this! Many a man has been deluded by such a hope, and perished in his transgression. He has looked to some case like this, or like that of the thief on the cross, and delayed his repentance, till, in an hour when he has not looked for it, he has been “driven away in his wickedness.” But in this, as it is said by an old writer, “The perverseness of our nature may be seen, in that this one case, that of the penitent thief, serveth us to looseness of life, in hope of the like: whereas, we might better reason, that is _but_ one, and that extraordinary; and besides this one, there is not one more in all the Bible; and that for this one that sped, a thousand thousands have missed. And what folly it is to put ourselves in a way in which so many have miscarried; to put ourselves in the hands of a physician, that hath murdered so many, going clean against our own sense and reason! Whereas, in other cases we always lean to that which is most ordinary, and conclude not the spring from _one_ swallow. It is as if a man should spur his ass till he speak, because Balaam’s ass did once speak; so grossly hath the devil bewitched us!” Let sinners, then, meditate upon their own state, and remember, at the same time, the appeal of the Almighty to them to turn again and repent. “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live? Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezek. xviii.) That text which first appeared to move Jolin to repentance, may speak to every other sinner—“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isa. i. 18.) The same words of encouragement may also speak to us, in the language of a merciful Saviour, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. ix. 13.) The same promises, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting life:” and again, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth,” (Luke xv. 10.) I would say then, again, in the language of Peter, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

A second point of consideration in this history is _the conversion of Jolin’s mind to a sense of religion_, _and the nature of his conversion_. Jolin’s early education, as far as reading and writing, had not been altogether neglected; and the daily misery his sins brought with them was not without its effect on his mind. But it is evident the work of regeneration, the first step in his after conversion, had not taken place before he came into prison. But when the Holy Spirit brought home the word of God to his heart, the change was rapidly effected. A conviction of the sinfulness of his nature and habits was at once deeply impressed upon his conscience; he waited to see the way of pardon by a crucified Redeemer, and the influence of the Holy Ghost immediately produced that change in his will and affections which always attends real conversion. His whole state of mind seemed almost miraculously changed: so that between the twenty-third and the twenty-sixth of the same month, in the judgment of his legal adviser and others, a complete renovation had taken place. In the former state he is described as in a distracted condition of mind, suffering unutterable anguish; the dread of death being uppermost in his thoughts: in the latter, he was calm, placid, resigned, and he had not one wish to live. {45}

Although it would be contrary to the facts and spirit of Scripture to say, that no conversions of this kind were real and complete, every one must acknowledge, that as conversion is ordinarily a gradual work, too much caution cannot be exercised as to a change accomplished as rapidly as this may appear to have been. It may, however, be truly said, that there was a remarkable absence of any thing like enthusiasm in his state. A dream which occurred in the commencement of his religious course will not be conceived to indicate a disordered imagination. For some nights he had been dreadfully agitated, and could not rest. “I dreamed,” he said, “that I was dragged over frightful precipices, till at last I was brought, as it were, into the presence of our Saviour, and there obtained mercy.” This dream so harmonized with the spirit of many passages of Scripture pointed out to him, that it was not unlikely to occur. In his case, as in every other, the first touch of religion on the soul was immediate; but the after stages of conversion were gradual—far more so than many others recorded in Scripture; and there was time to perceive the regular progress of growth in grace. This case, therefore, should not be confounded with what are commonly called instantaneous conversions, because although compressed into a short period every step of scriptural conversion may be traced in it. From first to last, Jolin was able to give a reason for the hope which was in him, and these reasons corresponded with the feelings and convictions described in the word of God. He felt those convictions of sin on which Scripture insists. He found, agreeably also to Scripture, nothing in his own state upon which he could depend for salvation; and, relying entirely on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, he found peace and joy in believing. In this manner, if his conversion proceeded rapidly, it was not wanting in any of those evidences which are the unquestioned fruits of the teaching of God. His conduct is the best, and indeed the only satisfactory commentary on the whole work.