The Governor's Pardon

By Harold Smith

My story today is about a young man and a governor's pardon. This young man was playing cards one day, really gambling. He shouldn't have been doing that. And he lost bad, and he picked up a revolver and he shot the man that he lost to. He got mad and shot and killed him. He was arrested and tried and sentenced to hang. But because he was really before that, a good boy, all of his relatives and friends and everybody, they tried to get the governor to give him a pardon. At last the governor, who was a Christian himself, saw so many petitions sent in for a pardon, he decided he'd give him a pardon. He was going to do more than that. He wrote the pardon out, and he said, "I'm going to take it to the boy myself". So he got dressed up, and he went, but not dressed up as the governor, he dressed up like a clergyman. And he went, and he went into the prison, into the death row where the young man was waiting to die. And as soon as the young man saw him, he said, "Get out of here! Get out of here! I don't want to see you! I've had 6 or 7 of your kind already, I've got all the religion I want! Get going! But the governor said, "Wait a minute young man, I've got some good news for you!" "I don't want to hear it, don't want to hear a word, just get out of here, before I call the warden and have you put out!" You see, the young man didn't know that he was the governor, he thought he was some clergyman coming to talk to him about the Lord. And the governor tried his best, but the young man just wouldn't listen. Finally, the governor went out, sort of sad and heavy-hearted, he went out. In a few moments, the warden came in and said, "Well young man, I see you had a visit from the governor". "The Governor?!", he said. "That man dressed like a clergyman, was that the governor?" he said. "Oh yes, that was the governor". Ooh, he got busy, this young man, he sat down and wrote to the governor, and he said, "Dear Governor, I owe you an apology. I'm so sorry the way I treated you", and so on. And the governor received the letter. And he wrote on the back, "I'm no longer interested in your case". The young man went out to die, but just before he died, he said, "People, I'm dying. Not because I killed a man, not because I'm a murderer, I'm dying because I refused the governor's pardon, I wouldn't accept the governor's pardon". And my friends, if you die in your sins it's because you won't receive the pardon that the Lord Jesus is offering to you. He died to save you from your sins. He offers you a full and a free pardon. Will you be like the young man, saying "Get out of here, I don't want it"? Or will you take the Savior and the pardon, and be saved today. Do it, and be saved today!