I loved reading this account and wanted to share it here..the great evangelist D.L. Moody shares an experience he had as a schoolboy of the difference between law and grace:
“I was one of the first to break the rules of the school. We had a lady
teacher, and she asked me to stay behind. I thought the cane was coming
out again; and I was going to protest against it. I was quite in a
fighting mood. She took me alone. She sat down and began to talk to me
kindly. I thought that was worse than
the cane; I did not like it. I saw that she had not got any cane. She
said: “I have made up my mind that if I cannot control the school by
love, I will give it up. I will have no punishment; and if you love me,
try and keep the rules of the school.” I felt something right here in my
throat. I was not one to shed many tears; but they would come—I could
not keep them back. I said to her, “You will have no more trouble with
me;” and she did not. I learned more that winter than in the other three
put together. That was the difference between law and grace. Christ
says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” He takes us out from under
the law, and puts us under grace. Grace will break the hardest heart.
It was the love of God that prompted Him to send His only-begotten Son
into the world that He might save it. I suppose the thief had gone
through his trial unsoftened. Probably the law had hardened his heart.
But on the cross no doubt that touching prayer of the Saviour, “Father,
forgive them!” broke his heart, so that he cried, “Lord, remember me!”
He was brought to ask for mercy. I believe there is no man so far gone
but the grace of God will melt his heart.”
D.L. Moody
