IT was four o'clock on a bright Sunday afternoon, the last hymn had been sung, and the children were all eager to be let out of school, when the superintendent said, " We should be so glad if any boy or girl would stay with us to a short prayer meeting we are going to have this afternoon."
Several children remained, and amongst them a bright-faced little maid of about twelve.
She knelt very quietly in a corner, with her face buried in her little brown hands, whilst the short, earnest prayers were being offered up, and then tried to slip away without being noticed, but her teacher laid a hand on her shoulder, and said, kindly, "Why won't you trust Jesus, Dorothy?” The child laughingly shook off the detaining hand, and darted into the street. Then the little face grew very grave, and Dorothy said wearily to herself, “That’s what they all say, 'Why won't you trust Jesus?' and they can't see how all the time I am longing to know Him, but I can't understand it. I don't know the way to be saved. I wish I did—oh, I wish I did."
Late that night Dorothy went up to her little room. All the evening she had tried to be her usual cheerful I self; but there was such an aching in her heart, poor child—she was seeking the Good Shepherd, and she knew not where to look for Him.
Kneeling down by the window, she laid her head upon the sill, and let the tears flow. “Oh, if Jesus was here, if He lived on earth now," she thought,” I would go straight to Him, and tell Him all about it. I would tell Him that I cannot understand how to be saved, and He would help me to find out the way."
Suddenly a bright thought came—" Wasn't Jesus there all the time with her in her little room? Even though she could not see Him, mightn't she speak with Him just the same? Why hadn't she thought of it before? "And there, in the deepening twilight, Dorothy told Jesus all—how unhappy she was, and how she longed to be saved.
Long she knelt there—she had so much to tell the Lord Jesus-and when she at last got up from her knees the little face was perfectly radiant with happiness. Jesus had taken the trouble all away; she had had found the way to Him at last. M. S.