I should like, dear children, to tell you a little story that was told to me, and I do trust and pray that God may use it to lead some of you just to trust Jesus now.
I was sitting at the door of a house in a little town one bright day, enjoying the fresh country air, when I saw a woman coming up the street leaning on her husband’s arm. She was not old, but walked with great difficulty, and was evidently suffering. She stopped near me, and was thankful to have a comfortable chair brought out, and to rest before going home, about ten minutes’ walk further on.
After she recovered a little, she told me she had suffered from rheumatism for eighteen years, and that her illness was incurable, and gave her great pain.
Her face was not, however, unhappy-looking, and I wondered if she was looking to God, who is “a very present help in trouble.” So I asked her if she knew what it was to have Jesus near her in her trouble, as her Saviour and Friend.
“O! yes,” she replied brightly; “and what you are saying makes me think of a little story I once heard,
“A person who was anxious about her soul, and wanted to be saved, said to a friend, ‘I am seeking Jesus.’
“‘You need not do that,’ replied her friend, ‘for He is close beside you, just waiting for you to accept His offer, and to take Him as your Saviour.’
“And so He is always,” said the dear woman, as she rose and said goodbye, and went on her way home.
Now that you have heard my little story will you, dear child, who are not yet saved, take it to heart, and just take Jesus as your Saviour at this very moment?
He is near you today and will save you. Tomorrow may be too late. Listen to His Word,
And for you, happy little Christian, who know Jesus as your Saviour, will you tell this little story to some of your little friends? that they, too, may find Jesus near, and, accepting His offer of salvation, be saved; for He has said,
ML 02/18/1945