ALL RUBBED OUT.
T AM sure you will like to listen to a story of a girl I once knew. She was not a dear child, as some little girls, but had a cross temper, and was not a happy little maiden. But the scripture says, “There is none righteous, no, not one...
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Even if a little child be spoken of, this solemn "all" includes it, as much as grown up persons. Little children are often cross and wilful, they do unkind things, and hit one another, and make faces at one another, and show in their ways that " all have sinned" as much as grown up persons show by their naughty ways that they have sinned. So when I tell you that little Rosie was not a good child, I do not wish you to think that you are any better than she was.
One day Rosie's mother told me that her little child was not at all a good girl, and as she did so Rosie sat in her chair frowning, because she did not like me to know all about her ways.
When we were quite alone we had a little talk about the Lord Jesus; how good He was when a little child on earth—how He grew up to be a man, and was kind to everyone, though people were wicked and cruel to Him; how He let men nail His hands and feet to the dreadful cross of wood, and how He hung there, but did not say an angry word—oh, no—but prayed to His Father for His murderers; how He rose up from the dead, and came out of the grave very soon after He was buried, and went back to heaven, where He still prays to His Father for His people who live in this wicked world. Little Rosie liked very much to hear about the holy and blessed Jesus, and she said, “Do you think Jesus can make me a good girl?”
"Yes," I said, "I am sure He can, and He will do so if you ask Him.”
“I am a very wicked girl," she said; "so please will you ask Jesus for me?”
Then we both knelt down, and I prayed a little while to the Lord Jesus in heaven, and then I said— “You ask Him yourself, my child.”
After a little silence, Rosie said—
“Do give me a new heart; do take my wicked heart away; forgive all my sins—let the blood You shed on the cross wash them away now. Amen.”
Some time after this, as soon as she saw me, the little girl said—
“I know now all my sins are gone; Jesus did take them all away.”
I told her I should like to know all she had to tell me, and she said, "If mother will help me I will tell you." The mother and little Rosie then said that one day there was a little sum written on the slate, and Rosie could not work it, but put the figures down all wrong. Then her mother crossed it up and down, and the little child was very sad, and began to cry—"Do rub it out; do take the sponge, and I am sure the sponge will rub it out.”
So the mother took the sponge and rubbed the figures out; and the little girl looked so glad, and said, "Now, mother, you cannot see it, and I cannot see it, and no one can see it." The tears were dried, and she sat down for a little while, then she said—
“That is how Jesus rubbed out all my sins. I had done all wrong things—none right—and when I cried and asked Him to rub them out He did. Now He cannot see them, and the angels cannot see them, and I cannot and you cannot see them, and no one will see them any more." Then the little girl and her mother stopped.
Now I must tell you that since the Lord Jesus has spoken to the heart of little Rosie, she seeks to be a gentle and kind child. Her ways are quite different from what they were, and her life is changed. She is good and unselfish to her little brother, and tries to be obedient to her mother. And, dear children, you know that it is by such ways as these that we show that we belong to the Lord Jesus.
E. P.