Encouragement explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Grace and Unmerited Favor

  The poem highlights that pardon and salvation are granted freely to the worst sinners—the thief, the jailer, Saul, and Manasseh—not because of merit but through faith and mercy.

• Prayer and Dependence on God

  The soul's only recourse is to cry out to Christ, who answers prayer; the examples of the thief and Manasseh show that prayer for mercy is met with forgiveness.

Characters to notice

• Jesus Christ

  The dying, risen Lord who answers prayer and grants immediate release from guilt to the vilest transgressor.

• The Thief

  The penitent thief on the cross who, though nigh to despair, was instantly made a saint and a son.

• Paul

  Formerly Saul, who persecuted the Lord's people but was received to favor and made a child of God.

• Manasseh

  The wicked king who filled Jerusalem with blood and defied the Lord, yet was pardoned when he cried for mercy.

Key passages

• “I owe a vast debt, And nothing can pay: I must go to prison Unless that dear Lord Who died and is risen His pity afford.”

  My soul is overwhelmed by grief and dismay because I owe an enormous debt that I cannot pay; I am doomed to spiritual imprisonment unless the dear Lord who died and rose again shows me mercy.

  The speaker acknowledges total inability to atone for sin and looks solely to Christ's resurrection power for deliverance.

• “When nail’d to the tree, He answer’d the pray’r Of one who, like me, Was nigh to despair; He did not upbraid him With all he had done, But instantly made him A saint and a son.”

  While hanging on the cross, Jesus answered the prayer of a man who, like me, was in despair; he did not rebuke him for his past sins but immediately transformed him into a saint and a child of God.

  The penitent thief's experience is used as a model of immediate and complete forgiveness, free from condemnation.

• “The jailor, I read, A pardon received: And how was he freed? He only believed: His case mine resembled⁠— Like me he was foul, Like me too he trembled, But faith made him whole.”

  I read that the jailer received pardon; he was freed simply by believing. His situation was like mine—he was guilty and trembling, but faith made him whole.

  The Philippian jailer's conversion illustrates that faith alone, apart from works, brings complete justification.

• “Though Saul in his youth, To madness enraged, Against the Lord’s truth And people engaged; Yet Jesus, the Saviour, Whom long he reviled, Received him to favour, And made him a child.”

  Although Saul in his youth was furiously enraged and fought against the Lord's truth and people, yet Jesus the Savior, whom he had long insulted, welcomed him into favor and made him a child of God.

  The conversion of Saul demonstrates that even the most hostile persecutor can be transformed by grace.

• “A foe to all good, In wickedness skill’d, Manasseh with blood Jerusalem fill’d; In evil long harden’d, The Lord he defied; Yet he too was pardon’d, When mercy he cried.”

  Manasseh, an enemy of all good and skilled in wickedness, filled Jerusalem with blood; he was long hardened in evil and defied the Lord, yet he too was pardoned when he cried for mercy.

  Manasseh's repentance shows that no sinner is beyond the reach of God's mercy when they sincerely call upon him.

• “Of sinners the chief, And viler than all, The jailor or thief, Manasseh or Saul: Since they were forgiven, Why should I despair While Christ is in heaven And still answers prayer?”

  If the chief of sinners—the jailer, the thief, Manasseh, or Saul—were forgiven, why should I despair while Christ is in heaven and still answers prayer?

  The poem concludes with a logical argument from the greater to the lesser: if the worst sinners were pardoned, then there is hope for any soul that cries out to Christ.