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 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 forhissake, 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 theloveofChrist, 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 whichhe 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 doubthow 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,nota 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 atolerably 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 theirfaith: 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, themisery 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 realfruit; it produces shame; and the end of it will bedeath. 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 lesswith 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 isbutone, 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 fromoneswallow. 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 toturn 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 isthe 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 ofpardon 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 thehope 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.
A third point worthy of consideration in the history of Jolin, is,the meansby which it pleased Godto open this young man’s mind; and this, I may venture to affirm, wasthe Holy Scriptures. It was the simple exhibition of the fifty-first Psalm, which at first seemed to expose his real state to him. It was the promises of the New Testament, and the types of the Old, which gave him his first clear notion of faith, and which conveyed to his mind a hope of pardon. The Scripture then became the subject of his meditation day and night. It was as a “lamp unto his feet, and a light unto his path; a treasure more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb.” The value of Scripture arising from its clearness, authority, and its peculiar power, under God, to fasten truth on the soul, are remarkably conspicuous in the case of this guilty person. He heard, marked, learned, and inwardly digested its all-important truths, and they made him wise unto salvation. But in connexion with this, and every other means employed, is to be noticed theinfluence of Divine grace. The Almighty power and sovereignty with which this was exercised, was frequently acknowledged, and continually felt by Jolin. He perceived it in all the remarkable circumstances of his life—in his various escapes from death—in his final allotment—in the events which occurred in the prison. And whilst all this distinguishing mercy was shown towards him, he could discover nothing in himselfwhich deserved any such remembrance at God’s hand. Why was he called, and not his father, was one of the points which first struck his attention on the visit of his friends. But to those around him some other circumstances, illustrating this influence, were perhaps more obvious than even to himself. The manner in which he was enabled to receive the truths of the gospel; the gift of spiritual understanding; the willing heart; the subdued spirit, and sanctified heart, were all circumstances to be referred only to the sovereign grace of Him who worketh in his people to will and to do of his good pleasure. “O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”
A fifth lesson to be learned from this history, is thebenefit of education. Here was a young man most unlikely to profit from the early instruction he had received; and to what account did it turn? In his worst times he was enabled to read the word of God, and this he was led to do in the tediousness of his sea watches. In his imprisonment, the blessings of his previous learning was incalculable. In his last exhortations on the scaffold, he pressed upon his youthful auditors the advantages of attendance upon a Sunday school, and the public means of instruction. It is impossible to say how much, or if any of the preparatory work of religion, had, by means of education, been going on in Jolin’s mind. But information had been given—a desire for instruction had been implanted—the wretchedness of a sinful course had been taught—the Scriptures had been read—the scaffolding, in fact, had been put together, by which the future edifice might be erected. How striking is the lesson of encouragement derived from this history, to those who are labouring in the school or in the prison. Who could have thought that in either case, as it concerned Jolin, the event would have been what it was? But who knows what the most untractable child may yet become, or how far the seed which is sown, may, even a long time hence, produce the desired fruit. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in theevening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that, or whether they shall both be alike good.” We may, in our efforts to instruct, meet with many disappointments, but it is plainly our duty to proceed, with becoming care indeed, but in the remembrance both of God’s almighty power to teach the heart, and of instances, such as this, in which that power has been so remarkably exerted. The state of prisoners is one which invites, as it has in general received the peculiar commiseration of our countrymen: men are often to be found there in Jolin’s state of mind. The prison is, perhaps, their first resting-place in a career of ignorance, and sin, and misery. The visitor may too often, in his researches, discover the man, as Mr. Pinel did Jolin, “without hope for this world or the next,” and may lead him to discoveries of what, perhaps, never entered his imagination. At all events, the circumstances of trial and affliction are those most favourable to seriousness of reflection; and this is the course by which the sinner is most often led, by the grace of God, to turn from the error of his ways, and to seek the hope offered in the Gospel. The event is always in the hand of Him who directs the heart. But, under all circumstances, we work with the blessing of the Almighty, and with his promise, that our labour shall not be in vain.
A sixth lesson to be learned from this history, is thehappy effects produced by the possession of true religion. In the case of Jolin, how speedily did it tranquillize and cheer his mind. It was like the word of its holy author, when he said, “Peace, be still, and there was a great calm.” Those who visited the chamber of death, where he dwelt, could not but feel a degree of surprise at their own feelings, when they remembered that they were with one who had been a drunkard and a murderer. But religion had softened his character, and created in him those genuine fruits which, as we are taught, spring from the work of the Holy Spirit. “The wilderness had become like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord. Instead of the thorn had come up the fir-tree,and instead of the briar had come up the myrtle-tree; to be for a name, and for an everlasting sign that should not be cut off.”
Lastly, thereis a lesson of application to our own souls. It may be asked, What is the intimate acquaintance which we have had with the experience which this poor dying criminal passed through? He, being dead, may speak to many of his own age, who have, perhaps, had far greater advantages of education and example; or he may speak to those who have seen more years, and yet have not attained to that ripeness of faith, and that full assurance of hope, which made Jolin climb with such eagerness the gallows hill, and long for the time when he should be with Christ.
This history applies most emphatically to the case ofyoung men; teaching them to avoid sin, even when it may have the sanction of parental example. The Bible, they must remember, and not men, especially ungodly men, should be their direction. By this law we shall all be judged, and must stand or fall. In Jolin’s last address, he said, “Avoid bad company, drinking spirits, vicious habits.” “I exhort young people not to violate the Sabbath, but to frequent church, and attend to their religious duties. Would that this tremendous example of punishment might lead every young person who hears it to inquire into his own state, and to remember how soon one act of sin may bring judgment upon him; and how tremendous will be his judgment, if, after this warning, he is found unprepared.”
This history also speaks most loudly and awfullyto parents. “You see in me,” Jolin said from the scaffold, “the effect of bad education and example. From early youth I have been addicted to intemperance. My duty to God was never pointed out to me. Those who have children committed to their care, I beseech to send them regularly to church, and to the Sunday-school, and teach them their duty to God and man.” Let those, then, who are teaching Sabbath-breaking, swearing, passion, habits of drinking and vice, to their children, by their own example,look at the horrible instance of sin and its consequences, which this case presents—a parent, murdered, and a son hanged! from theeffects of a father’s example! The case speaks for itself: and may the Holy Spirit enable us to learn the lesson which it teaches.
May we all who read or hear this account, apply its lessons to ourselves. Let us adore the astonishing love of God in the case of this poor outcast sinner; His sovereign power, His boundless mercy, His all-sufficient grace. May we seek to lay all the burden of our transgressions upon that Sacrifice in whom Jolin trusted. May we, with him, find the Holy Spirit making us as fit to live, as, we trust, he was fit to die: so that when we have fought the good fight, we shall receive the crown of glory, which, we may trust, this believing penitent has been called to wear in the presence of Him who gave him the victory, through his own blood.
LONDON:IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.
[45]Durell’s account.