Grave Lessons v: Christ is the Cure

The 1754 gravestone of Elizabeth Whiteside at Rufford has upon it some verse, the concluding lines of which are

Sin is Ye Wound

Christ is Ye Cure

Many old stones have doggerel and sentiment on them; whether this was indicator of a pious life or just an artistic flourish, one cannot tell. But that couplet is the most important lesson one might read in that yard. Sin is not just a poor state of mind or a list of actions to avoid; it is a deep, gangrenous wound from which we are slowly dying. Christ, our great physician can cure its effects with His own shed blood, and can begin the process of healing its scars, partially in this world, and fully in the world to come.

Those who come not to Christ either think their wounds too negligible, or His healing unable to compete with the charlatans and quacks who would offer alternative medicine -that which never works.