God desires the death of no one. He has made salvation possible without violating the self-will which is in bondage to sin. His sacrificial effort is illustrated by a true story found in English Literature.
A young man committed murder back in the days of Edward IV. He was sentenced to be executed at sundown, at the ringing of the Curfew Bell.
The young man was engaged to be married to a young woman (Blanche Heriot) who loved him very much - so much that she went to the King and begged him to spare the life of her betrothed lover.
“No,” said Edward, “I can’t spare his life, he is guilty. He must die at sundown - at the ringing of the bell.”
On the day of the scheduled execution, she went again to the king again with her plea, but the answer was the same - “He will die tonight - at the sound of curfew at sundown.”
Wondering how she could save her lover, the young woman left the king’s palace. A mad thought came to her mind. She rushed to the church where the bell announcing curfew was located. When she heard the old sexton come to ring the bell, she went up into the belfry and took hold of the bell’s clapper.
When the old sexton came, he had difficulty in getting the bell to start ringing. Although deaf, he knew by the tug of the rope that he was ringing the bell. Instead, the young lady was being bruised and crushed as she hung onto the bell.
Then finally the old sexton, who couldn’t hear the bell but was so accustomed to ringing it that he thought it was ringing, stopped and went back home.
The young woman stumbled down from the belfry, and as she left the church, she met the messengers coming from the scene of the would-be execution to find out why the curfew bell had not rung. She held up her bleeding hands and explained what she had done.
“I did it because I loved him,” she said. They took her to the king for punishment.
When he heard her story and saw her broken body, he said with tears pouring down his cheeks, “If you love him enough to give your life for him, Curfew will never ring for his execution. Your lover will live.”
Because Christ died for our sins on Calvary, everyone who repents of sin and trusts Him for salvation has God’s promise that no ‘curfew bell’ will ever ring to condemn him or her to death.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Gospel of St. John 15:13 - the Apostle of Love
