IN these days, when the postman’s knock is heard daily, if not hourly, at our door, it is difficult to think of the time when the receipt of a letter was a rare event. But such was the case, we know.
The first letter of which we read in the Bible was that which King David sent to his general, Joab. In the Old Testament there are messages sent by God through His prophets, besides other communications of His; in the New Testament we find letters or epistles.
You know there are different kinds of letters or epistles in the New Testament—some are written to private persons, others to companies of Christians, while others are written to God’s children generally. In the private letter we find matters spoken of which relate to the things that happened to the recipient of the letter, just as when our close friends write to us giving us advice and counsel. What they write relates to our difficulties or dangers, or may be our own private character.
Has God now ceased to send epistles or letters to men? No, for though He does not send any more epistles by the hands of His inspired servants, He sends out hundreds, yea, thousands of epistles, nevertheless. What are they? Some are boys, some are girls, some grown-up men and women! How can a boy or a girl be a letter? Just in this way. When you read your father’s letter to you, you say, “This is my father’s mind put down upon this sheet of paper, written with pen and ink,” and so when a Christian boy or girl comes to any one, that child is read just like your father’s letter, and it is said, “That child is really a Christian, for what he says and does shows what Christ wishes to be said and done.”
Now when you see the postman going his rounds, and dealing out the letters entrusted to his care, remember, dear Christian boys and girls, that you are Christ’s letters yourselves, sent by Him to people, that reading you, they may see how beautiful Christ must be.