WHAT a strange question to ask!
Well, listen, while I tell you the story that makes me ask it you, and then you will be able to answer me.
Amy was what people call a very good little girl; everyone told her so, and she quite believed it. But God saw more than those around her did, and she had yet to learn that though she might seem fair enough to others, He saw that down in the depths of her heart there was sin. This terrible thing sin was working, too, every day, in her thoughts, and words, and ways, showing that she was not fit for the holy God, though the loving friends around her found no fault.
Now God loved little Amy, so He took care to show her what she was in His sight. For, you see, it would have been of little use to tell her how that God had thought of the only way of saving naughty sinners by giving His own Son Jesus to die for them on the cross, while she did not really believe that she was a lost sinner, but was quite satisfied with herself.
Amy had a great many pretty story books, of which she was very fond. One was a special favorite; it was an allegory, that is, a story like a parable, with a hidden meaning and lesson in it. Now this allegory told of some children who had been given very bright and beautiful shields by the prince whom they served. These shields were so wonderfully made, that every fault or failing of their little bearers dimmed their brightness. The object of each child, therefore, was to be as good as possible, so that the shield might be kept just as brilliant and spotless as when the prince gave it.
Amy was delighted with this story; she wished she was one of those children, and had got a shield from the prince to keep bright, for being, as I told you, a very good little girl, she fancied how beautifully clean she would have kept it, and how that never a spot should have tarnished its surface.
“A piece of white cardboard will do quite as well as a shield,” thought she.
At once she got a nice large piece, intending to put a black mark for every fault of failure, and at the same time determining to keep it spotlessly white by her good behavior.
Do you think the cardboard kept clean very long? Could you keep a cardboard clean? That was my question at the beginning, and now you can answer it.
For the first few days Amy was very strict, marking with a little black dot every failure, and with a special large blot any untruthfulness, for that she had been taught was a very evil thing; and so it is, for we are told a lying tongue is an abomination to the Lord. (Prov. 6:16,1716These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, (Proverbs 6:16‑17).)
Poor little Amy! She had thought there would be so few marks on her white cardboard, but alas! they came thick and fast, and its pure spotless surface was getting sadly marred and dirtied. In dismay, she tried for the next few days how it would do to pass over the lesser faults, and only mark what she felt was very wrong. But still the black spots followed each other very quickly on the once white card; there was not room left to mark off many more such days, and Amy felt she could not trust herself to do any better than she had already done in those past sad days of failure. How horrible the sight of that card was to her now! She could not bear to look at it, and, disgusted and disappointed with herself, she threw it away.
But it was not of any use for Amy to throw away her dirty cardboard, as if that could put an end to all the many sin stains on it. Each one had been written down in God’s book, with very many more than she had marked. And if unforgiven she would be brought up before the great white throne at the last dreadful judgment day.
Through God’s grace Amy has long since found out that that blotted card was just a picture of her own poor sinning heart, that she was not the good child she had thought herself, but a naughty little sinner who had nothing in her fit for God.
In His tender mercy He did not let her discover what a poor weak child she was, only to vex and grieve her. He has taught her now that the blood of Jesus Christ, His own dear Son, cleanses from all sin; that that precious blood has washed away every spot, not only those marked on the dirty card, but the many more His holy eye alone had seen.
So now Amy is not afraid that her sins will come up at the judgment day, for she believes what Jesus has said, “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.”
Do you think that knowing she is forgiven, and is going to heaven, makes Amy less careful to watch her words and ways, than she was in the days when she thought she could keep her cardboard clean? Oh, no! she knows what it cost Jesus to wash away all those ugly black marks that her sins and naughtiness had made; she loves Him because He first loved her (1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)), and gave Himself for her, and she tries in everything to please Him, and not to grieve that Holy Spirit, by which she is sealed unto the day of redemption.
If you have found out, dear child, that you cannot keep your cardboard clean, let me tell you a little verse that may well make you glad, as it did me long ago—it is in the fifth of Romans, “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” D. & A. C.