It was a cold, dark evening in January. Snow had been falling a few hours before, making it difficult for walking, and the road being not very well lighted, and well out of the town, I could only walk on at a steady pace towards my destination.
Being a stranger I was not very sure of the nearest way to reach the street where the gospel preaching I desired to attend was to be held, so I thought it best to ask someone to tell me the way.
Not far behind me, and going in the same direction as myself was a young boy, so I waited a bit to allow him to overtake me. As he drew near he was humming a bright tune and appeared to be very happy.
I said to him,
“Can you tell me the way to—-Street?”
“O! yes,” he replied, “I am going that way myself.”
So we walked on together. After walking a little way in silence I thought I would ask him another question, and I think you who have been brought up by Christian parents and friends will suite agree that the question I desired to ask was a most important one, and I do not doubt most of you would be able to give me an answer. But I wonder how many could tell me about themselves what this dear boy was able to tell me, besides being able to give me a straight answer to what I was about to ask him. Are you really interested to know what my question to him was?
Well, do you think you could give an answer to the question I asked this happy boy? But, you say, you have not told us yet what it is. Listen, then, this is what I asked the lad, “Can you tell me the way to heaven?” “O! yes,” he replied, “I am on my way there myself.”
“Indeed,” said I, “and how do you know that you are on the way to heaven?”
“Don’t you see,” he answered, “there were a hundred sheep, and one of those sheep was lost, so the good Shepherd left the ninety and nine sheep and went after the one which was lost, and when He found it He put it on His shoulders and brought it home rejoicing. That was me,” said the boy brightly, “and I have been on His shoulders ever since, and He is taking me home to heaven.”
“When was it that the good Shepherd found you?” I asked the boy, as I was deeply interested and pleased to find him so happy.
“O! it was three years ago, when I was at a gospel service, that He found me, and I have been to the services ever since. How true are the words of the good Shepherd, ‘My sheep hear My voice ... .. and they follow Me.’”
I dare say most of you young readers would have been able to tell me the way to heaven,” had I asked any of you. But I wish you to ask yourself this question and give the answer to the Lord Jesus, Could I truly say I was on the way to heaven myself, like this boy we have been talking about?
I earnestly wish that you would really tell the Lord Jesus that you are the sheep gone astray and are lost. It is a dreadful thing to be lost. When we came into this world we were lost, and so the good Shepherd came to seek and to save the lost. No one can find the way to heaven without the good Shepherd.
If you are not saved, tell Him you are lost, and you want Him to find you, and He will hear your voice and know just where to find you, and when found He puts you upon His shoulders rejoicing. Then you will know what it is to be happy, truly happy, like the boy you have been reading about.
ML 02/13/1938