A BOY who had become dissatisfied with his home and parents made up his mind that he could have a far happier life, if he had more freedom, as he supposed, and therefore decided to run away from home. Such boys have a costly lesson to learn, yet a most profitable one, for they do not know that home is the happiest, best place on earth. But they do learn it sometimes, after many a hard knock and experience. This unhappy boy finally succeeded in slipping away from home. He went out full of self-reliance and pride, not realizing that the world had nothing to give him, save a cold unfriendly welcome. And he soon proved the truth of this.
From the home he had left, there started out a sorrowful, broken-hearted mother, whose love for her boy could never die, though he acted so badly. She would search the world over to recover her disobedient, wayward son, though death itself should seem to defy her. Dear children, love is a most wonderful thing, and there are no bounds that can hold it, when it is in search of an object upon which it is set. “Love is strong as death . . . . . Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love. it would utterly be contemned.” Cant. 8:6, 7.
And, if we thus know a little of the nature and ways of love, then we know something about God, for “God is love.” It was the mighty love of God that led Jesus to suffer and die for us. “Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And, oh, what a love that is, children, for us to believe and rejoice in.
It was while this distressed mother was stopping at a boarding-house in the town of H—, that a boy came one day to the door begging for something to eat. He was hungry and forsaken, but was too proud to return home, and own how foolish and wrongly he had acted. The mother of this boy had come to H—, in search of him, not knowing where he was. She now sees him before her—a beggar. But they had met under these strange circumstances, and in an instant she had him clasped in her arms, reconciling him and consoling him. tie had learned his lesson, and gladly became reconciled to his dear mother, for he now knew, as never before, what love really was and what it could do.
Dear reader, I need hardly to apply the lesson, it is so plain. You and I must learn the same with a loving Saviour God, just as that boy did with his mother. And we must learn it now, while He is yet seeking and saving the lost. It will not be so after a while. Do you know that you are a wanderer away from God —lost? Do you know that your condition is like that of a beggar—a “beggar of the dung hill”? And do you also know that you are too proud to return to God and seek pardon? But He is seeking you in love; offers you salvation through the death of Jesus, and now asks you to become reconciled to Him.
What answer do you give Him? You cannot remain indifferent under the strong loving influence of His call. Do you receive Jesus, or do you reject Him? Do you believe, or do you believe not?
ML 01/11/1903