Daily EncouragementSample

These words call to mind a personal testimony and a beautiful hymn. The testimony is that of Charles Simeon, who from 1782 was minister of Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge for over fifty years. His ministry there was profoundly significant, to say the least, and its wider influence is still felt today. He describes his conversion in this way:

In Passion Week, as I was reading Bishop Wilson on the Lord’s Supper, I met with an expression to the effect “That the Jews knew what they did, when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering.” The thought came into my mind, “What, may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an offering for me, that I may lay my sins on his head? Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my soul one moment longer.” Accordingly I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus.

The hymn is one of Isaac Watts’, in which these verses appear:

My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.

My soul looks back to see
The burdens Thou didst bear
When hanging on the cursed tree,
And know her guilt was there.