Well, Bobbie,” I said to a little man of eight summers; “your mother tells me that you are saved. Is that so?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Come and tell me how it took place,” I said, and the dear child drew toward me, tears starting to his eyes as he did so.
“Was there any special verse in the Bible that God used to give you the peace you sought?” I asked of him.
“Yes,” he said; “it was— ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’” John 3:3030He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30).
“Very good,” I said; “and do you know, Bobbie, that you have everlasting life?”
“Yes,” he said.
But I thought after Bobbie had quoted this verse that in all likelihood he did not understand its meaning, and so I said to him
“But what is everlasting life, Bobbie?”
I fully expected to hear him say, “It means that I am saved,” or that “I have peace,” or that “I shall go to heaven when I die,” or some such answer. And all that would be true enough, but, to my delight, he said,
“It is the knowledge of the living and trite God!”
What a splendid answer to the question of eternal life from the lips of a babe in the family of God and a child of eight years of age!
This child knew that he had eternal life, and that it was much more than security from judgment. He said it was the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.
ML 04/24/1938