IN a quiet chamber, remote from the busy rooms of the house, might have been seen day after day, many years ago, a little girl on her knees. Over her head the tiny window that lighted her retreat looked down upon green meadows and through the pleasant orchard leading to the village church, around which clustered farmhouses and other rustic buildings. But when she climbed up to look out, it was upwards rather than downwards that her gaze was directed.
The remembrance of her, surrounded as she was by loving parents, brothers, sisters, friends, recalls the simple old lines:
“Sleep, my babe, thy food and raiment,
House and home, thy friends provide;
And without thy care or payment
All thy wants are well supplied.”
All but one want!
Why did this dear child seek that retired spot, the only place where she would be undisturbed in a house so full of work and play? It was because she knew she had an undying soul, and wished to be quite certain it was saved. Often had she listened to God’s Word, but there never seemed to be a message for herself; therefore each day on her knees she besought the Lord Jesus to send her a messenger, yes, an angel direct from heaven to tell her she was saved, in order that she, might be quite sure.
But the Lord did not do what she desired, and so she remained in this sad uncertainty. Then came the prospect of a visit to L—, which was hailed as a possible means of drowning her sorrowful thoughts. But even there conscience allowed her no rest, while at the same time she would avoid the company of one who might have helped her with a word of loving inquiry or counsel.
Thus a year or two passed away, when from across the I—C—there arrived the news of a great awakening, and of many rejoicing in salvation through Christ. “Oh,” cried this little girl with the still hungering heart, “if only I were there, I too should be converted!”
Perhaps she did not know, or had forgotten, that precious promise, “Those that seek Me early shall find Me.” But at length the message did come direct to herself, not by an angelic messenger, but through one of God’s earthly servants who bear abroad the good tidings of salvation. A weary servant he was, coming to rest awhile at her father’s house, and little knowing that one panting heart among those assembled to hear him went away overflowing with joy. She now believed the love which God had to her. What was the mistake which this dear child for so many months had made?
Perhaps you know better than she did that angels do not now bring us God’s messages from heaven; though in other ways they do His pleasure in ministering for those who shall be heirs of salvation.
It is true that in earlier days they carried messages to Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, and others; but why not now to us? It is because God has revealed all His will, and given us the whole of His written Word. And I should like to write, not only upon paper, but upon the fleshy tables of your young hearts, those striking words written by the apostle Paul to his beloved Timothy: “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
It is needless in our day to wait or pray for an angel. What says the Scripture? “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
ML 02/11/1906