MARY M — was the child of Christian parents. Her home was in the Australian bush. Naturally she was of a stiff, proud spirit. She had, however, learned from the lips of a godly teacher in the country Sunday school she attended, of the second coming of the Lord Jesus to take His people out of the world to Himself. No doubt she would also have learned much concerning His first coming in the centuries long past.
She would have been taught how that Jesus had left His bright eternal home above to come down to this sin-stricken world. That when He was here, what love and compassion moved Him to go about doing good to all, and finally led Him to Calvary and the cross with all its pain and shame, and there to suffer for sins, once, “the just for the unjust,” and “to give His life a ransom for many”.
Mary would no doubt have been well instructed in the present and eternal value of Christ’s death and atoning sacrifice, which has such virtue as to wash us from our sins, and to bring us into the blessed presence of God even now, and to fit us for the many mansions of His Father’s house.
All this she would have been taught, but it appears to have been more the solemn truth of Christ’s return to take His people to Himself that fixed itself, by the Spirit of God, in little Mary’s heart.
The kind teacher had told her young scholars that Christ might return at any moment, and that only those who were “ready” would go in to be forever with Him when He came, that then the door would be shut and forever closed to all who had neglected to obtain that which was essentially necessary to have in order to enter into that festal scene (Matt. 25; Isa. 4:1-31And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. 2In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 3And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: (Isaiah 4:1‑3)).
She had told the children that, being a Christian herself, she would be taken away from them; and that those who had fathers and mothers who also believed in Jesus, would lose them and be left behind in the world, unless the children had also taken Jesus for their Saviour.
All this truthful and faithful warning did not fall upon careless ears, for now Mary, hitherto coldly indifferent to it all, began to be very much concerned indeed about the state of her soul. Was she “ready”? she questioned with herself. If Jesus came, would she be really left behind?
Now it so happened on an occasion, that Mary’s mother had been called away from home, leaving the father and the other children alone in the house, and that meanwhile Mary herself had gone on some errand to a distant farmhouse, and was not aware of her mother’s absence from home. It happened also that her father, coming home from his work on the farm, and the evening being fine, had, after tea, taken the other children for a stroll into the bush.
Coming home after her errand was accomplished and not finding a single soul about the place, poor Mary was filled with intense concern. Her anxiety increased to excitement which knew no bounds.
She searched each room of the house, the barn, and outbuildings, all to no purpose. She “coo-eed.” Loudly she called for her father and mother! She called for her brothers by their names, Willie! Walter! but in vain. Wildly she ran to a near neighbor to see if, perhaps, they were there, but no — no one could tell her anything of them.
Oh the fear and dread that seized poor Mary’s heart! Could it be that Jesus had come and taken them away? Has He come, and shall I be left behind? Oh the horror of it!
But it was not so. Jesus still tarries while the long suffering of God waits as in the days of Noah, not willing that any should perish.
The door of mercy and salvation is still open. As yet is heard the kind invitation, “Come unto Me,” of Jesus. “I am the door,” said He; “by Me if any man enter in he shall be saved” (John 10).
Have you come in by that door, gentle reader? Come in ere it be too late. At His invitation, come in!
Soon after, Mary’s father and the rest of the family returned home, to the great joy and delight of her heart. But the lesson was not lost upon her. Her cold pride had received a rude shock, and soon after she poured out the sorrows of her heart in the willing ears of her Christian teacher, to whom she told of the terror that had seized her at the thought of being lost forever. Now she has given her heart to Jesus, and trusted Him with the eternal salvation of her soul. May you, reader, do likewise!
R. B. W.