Meg and other poor children from a crowded street played in a vacant lot.
One day a kind man came by and talked with the children and asked if they would like to learn a song. It was not often these boys and girls had anyone show an interest in them, and they were pleased to repeat after him the words of a song, and soon knew the tune.
As Meg ran home she was singing the words she had just heard:
“There is rest for the weary, There is rest for you!”
She passed a door where a poor lame woman, called Nan, was sitting.
“What is that you say, child? A rest? Where is it? how could I get there?” Poor Nan had known little of rest in her hard life.
But Meg could not tell her where to get “the rest”, and went on to her own home.
The man came again to teach the children, and that time sang of a beautiful city. Meg could not listen to all he said, because she had the care of her baby sister, who cried. She pushed the baby’s cart along the street home, singing what she could of the pretty tune. Again the poor woman stopped Meg to learn if she had heard where “the rest” was.
Still Meg did not know, but she sang what she could remember of the new song:
“Beautiful Zion, built above
Beautiful City, that I love.”
But Meg could not tell where the fair city was. However, they both liked the pretty tunes and became good friends.
It was not long after this that a sister of the man who had talked with the children came to the playground, and Meg asked her if she could please come to tell the neighbor about the place to get “rest”.
The lady went with Meg to see old Nan, and gently told her that it was not a place on earth to go to, but, better far, the Lord Jesus was Himself the rest for every weary heart. And that He had said,
Nan had lived without thought of God since childhood, but now she eagerly listened to the story of His love in sending His Son, and of the Lord Jesus giving His life on the cross to save sinners. And the poor woman simply trusted to that wondrous love.
After that, the children went to Nan’s room and sat there when the lady came, and she taught them many songs and stories of the Lord Jesus. They often sang of the city where all who trust Jesus will be.
So you see how even a little girl helped to tell one who did not know of the love of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps you know, not part, but all of many pretty hymns, and could sing them to cheer someone, for God is ever ready to bless.
ML 09/18/1938