AS I toiled at my work, in the noisy whirl of machinery, one hot August day, through my heart rang the words of my little daughter Nellie
“Sing ‘Happy day! Happy day!’” That morning she had come as usual to our room for a little fun, and had found her mother singing something in which she could not join. She said,
“Sing, ‘Happy day,’ Mamma; sing ‘Happy day’.” Nellie is not quite three years old, but she has learned to sing,
“Happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.”
Perhaps some of you, dear children, may say,
“I also often sing. ‘Happy day’.” But stay; do you mean what you sing? Remember, it is when Jesus has washed Your sins away that the happy day begins.
Have you, dear children, had your sins washed away? All who go to heaven, whether young or old, are made whiter than snow, and unless you are washed in the precious blood of Jesus, which cleanseth from all sin, you will never enter the home of glory, nor swell the song of the ransomed in praise to Him.
Do not think, dear little ones, that by saying your prayers morning and evening, attending Sunday School regularly (good as these things are in their places), that you will save your souls. No, no; you must come to Jesus, and confess your sins to God, as David says in Psalm 32:55I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. (Psalm 32:5),
“I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
Then we shall receive the forgiveness which he speaks of in this verse.
Let me advise you not to rest satisfied until you know you are a child of God.
Thus amid the rattle of the machines, and in the heat of that August day, my heart kept time to the sweet song my baby girl raised before I left home:
“O happy day, that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Saviour and my God!
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad!
Now, let me ask you, in conclusion, “Shall my Saviour be your Saviour, too?”
ML 09/07/1924