ONE rainy Sunday, too wet for Johnny to go to service, his parents left Allan at home, to take care of him. The playthings were all put away except kitty; so Johnny played with kitty until he made her angry by trying to take her up by the ears, as Allan took up his rabbits. Then she jumped out of the window, and Johnny saw her no more that morning.
“Allan,” he said, “I wish I could just go and look into my box of playthings. I won’t take out one. I just want to look at them; that wouldn’t be breaking the Sunday, would it?”
“It would be going into temptation,” said Allan; “and you know you prayed this morning, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’”
“Oh, dear,” sighed Johnny, “then I wish I was at church.”
“Come,” said Allan, “I will preach you a little sermon.”
“Well,” said Johnny, “I will listen.”
So Allan took the great Bible, and found this text, which was so easy that Johnny could read it himself. “I am the door.”
“Here is a little text for a little boy who is four years old,” said Allan, “for it has just four words in it, one for every year.”
“The first word is ‘I.’ That has only one letter in it. This means the Lord Jesus, the good Saviour, who loves little children.
“The second word is ‘am.’ That has two letters in it. When Jesus says, ‘I am the door,’ of course He doesn’t mean that He is a door like that you shut just now; but this little sermon is to show you how He is like a door.
“The third word is ‘the,’ which has three letters. Jesus says the door, because there is only one door into the kingdom of heaven.
“The fourth word is ‘door,’ which has four letters in it. A door lets people into the house; and if there was no door, they could not get in. So the Lord Jesus lets His people into the kingdom of heaven; and if it was not for Him, they could not get in at all. A door keeps out the rain, and the dogs, and the thieves, and so Jesus keeps away all evil and hurtful things out of His beautiful heaven.
“Now when you want to go into a house, you go straight to the door; and so, if we want to go into the kingdom of heaven, we must go to Jesus, and ask Him to let us in.”
So Allan knelt down, and little Johnny by him, and they prayed to the dear Lord to make them His own good children, so that they might go into His beautiful city when He comes.