A ROUGH-LOOKING man, employed as a cattle driver, came to a missionary in India one day bringing with him his little girl about eight years of age.
“This is my daughter,” he said, “and I want you to please take her into your mission. I have learned something about Jesus and I have given up worshiping idols, I want my little girl to learn about Jesus too.
They took her in but she appeared as a very unpromising scholar. Ragged and dirty, she seemed as dull and unteachable as the cattle she had helped to drive. The entire change of life was at first hard for her to bear.
But under the Lord’s good hand, love and kindness began to have their effects. She began to take a great interest in the school exercises and in the Sunday school classes. Before a year had passed away it was evident that a great change had taken place in her. The Spirit of God was at work in her heart. She was gentle and loving in her tender and manner, and she was neat and tidy in her dress and ways.
One day she came to the missionary and earnestly desired to be baptized. She understood well what it meant. She gave good evidence that she had truly been “born again” and that she was a real little Christian. The missionary suggested she might better wait a while, but she replied: “I am not strong and may not have long to live. I want others to know that I am a Christian before I go to be with Jesus.”
So she was baptized by the name of Jane. Then not long after she came to ask if she might go and visit her people. It was a long journey of several days. When they asked her why she wished to go so far, she answered: “They do not know about Jesus, and I want to tell them what a Saviour I have found in Him. My grandmother is old and she can’t live much longer. I want to tell her about Jesus before she dies. There is someone going to my village tomorrow and he says he will take care of me. Please let me go and in fourteen days I will come back again.”
So they let her go. True to her word fourteen days later she returned.
As she entered the missionary’s study her little face was beaming, and joyfully she exclaimed, “I’m so glad I went. I was just in time. Grandma lived only three days after I got there. But I told her about Jesus. I prayed with her and read to her out of my Testament. Before she died she said, “I believe in Jesus.” So I know she has gone to heaven, and O I’m so glad I went!”
Not too long after that little Jane was taken very sick and it seemed that the Lord was going to take His little lamb to Himself. Shortly bore she left this world, the missionary asked her, “Are you happy, Jane?”
“O yes,” she replied joyfully. “Are you afraid to die, Jane?” “O no! I’m going to be with Jesus!
It’s all joy!” These were the last words she uttered before she passed into the blissful presence of her Saviour.
ML-11/18/1973