Willie Was a Real Neighbor
In my studies I came across this very moving story that was written up by the Moody Press in Chicago years and years ago. It was written by a Major D.W. Whittle entitled, "Willie Lear; The Substitute".
Willie Lear lived near Palmyra, Missouri. In 1862 he was a young man of about 18 years of age. Like most of those who lived in his neighborhood, he sympathized with the south in the Civil War; which was at that time in progress. The Union forces occupied Palmyra and had control of the district. Outrages were committed on both sides, and many indefensible deeds are recorded in the local histories of those said times. Union soldiers were shot down from behind hedges and Union men were driven away from their homes, and sometimes foully treated. To avenge these things, and to check them, the Federal commander arrested and imprisoned a large number of citizens. They were all charged with being "guerillas" and, after trial by court martial, were all sentenced to be shot. Willie Lear was among the number.
After this condemnation, the general decided to select ten of the number of those condemned for immediate execution, and reserve the remainder under hope of pardon if outrages in the neighborhood ceased, or for future punishment if not. These ten men were drawn by lot. Willie Lear was not of this number.
A neighbor of Lear's who was among the number to be shot, was terribly distressed at the thought of his situation. He was the father of a large family, a poor man, and the thought of the helpless condition in which he would leave his loved ones was very distressing to him.
Lear saw all this and it deeply moved him. He stepped forward to the commanding officer and offered to take his neighbor's place. The officer had no objection. The order had been issued that ten men of the number should be shot, and if that number was made up, the law would be satisfied. The neighbor with the deepest of gratitude accepted Lear as his substitute; and so, by the acquiesence of the three parties concerned, the representatie of the law, the condemned by th elaw, and the satisifier of the law by substitution, the matter was settled.
Willie Lear took the place of his friend in the line with the nine men drawn up before a detachment prepared with loaded rifles, and at the command, "Fire!" he, with the others, fell, riddled with bullets, his blood soaking the earth.
As the man for whom he died looked upon that blood, and beheld that mangled body, what would be his thought? Would he not say, with streaming eyes; "He died for me. I owe my life to him. O that I could do anything to show my gratitude to one who has done so much for me!"
If he were asked, "How is it that you are delivered from the sentence that was hanging over you?" would he be apt to ignore the work of his substitute by magnifying the importance of some fancied work of his own in the acceptance of the substitute? Would he say; "Oh, I was saved by my faith, and by my determination to live a better life. It is all by faith and development of character?" Would he have been so ungrateful as to leave out all mention of the death of that noble young man in his stead as the alone cause of his escape? If he wuold, he was not worthy dying for, and it was a curse to his family and the community that he was spared. But no. He never returned such answers. He could not treat the act of his friend with such indifference.
Men for whom Christ died on the cross talk that way; but this man never did. He never tired of telling how Willie Lear had saved him, and gladly acknowledged his obligation to him.
Should we do no less?
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. " 1 Peter 2:24