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February 22

In the early days of the Salvation Army, when many English judges thought that the Army was nothing but a nuisance, the story is told of an Army lass who was in court on the charge of obstructing traffic. At the time, Frank Crossley was one of the panel of judges in Manchester police court, but he was not going to act in this particular case because the district in which the so-called offense took place was not within his jurisdiction.

When the girl’s case came up, however, that brilliant and renowned man got up from his eminent seat on the bench and walked over to the lonely, forlorn girl and stood beside her until her trial was finished.

In his first epistle, the apostle John asks of Christians that we avoid sin. “But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1John 2:1b–2).

I do not know what the final judgment was in the Salvation Army girl’s case, but any judge would have found it difficult to convict her with his fellow judge, the great Frank Crossley, standing alongside her.

Even so, in the court of eternity, the Lord Jesus stands alongside those who have committed their lives to Him. “I died,” He says, “that they may be forgiven.” Jesus, in a prayer for all believers, in part said this: “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John17: 25–26).

That’s the kind of an Advocate we have standing alongside.