A LITTLE boy, who was much concerned lest he should not reach heaven, came to a minister, and earnestly inquired of him the way of salvation.
The minister was struck with the child’s eagerness, and after telling him of God’s goodness and readiness to receive the young and old to His rest above, he bade the child run quickly home and kneel down and pray earnestly to be received for Christ’s sake.
With a mournful voice the little fellow said, “O, sir, but suppose I should die before I reach home?”
The minister, who felt rebuked at the child’s simple answer, readily caught the lesson God would teach him.
“You are right, my child,” he said at once, “and I am wrong. I ought not to have bidden you go home and pray to be saved, but, as the Scripture, God’s own Word, shows us, I should have told you, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’”
To be assured of salvation was the longing of that simple-hearted child; and God, through the lips of the minister, met his desire. He at last gave him a text as God’s own Word, and he believed it simply, and found rest.
Has our dear reader this child’s earnestness? And do those precious words, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” satisfy your heart, and give you joy and peace through believing it?
ML 10/07/1917