DEAR Children: I wish to tell you a true story, which a gentleman once told, while speaking on the importance of prayer.
An English gentleman had occasion to visit the town, where his two little sons were attending a boarding school. Their father asked the master of the school to allow the boys to come down to the hotel, to have dinner with him, which was, as you may believe, a great pleasure for the boys. At the table an acquaintance joined them, and began to read a letter which he had just received from his wife, and enclosed was a letter from his little four year old child. This little letter he showed with much pleasure.
“Now,” said the father of the two boys, “I notice three things in this letter,” much to the astonishment of the others, for who could read the scribbling of a child four years of age? “In the first place, we understand there was life or else there could be no scribbling. Then there must be relationship, or else the child could not have written. Last of all there was liberty.” All of us know what this liberty is, with our dear parents.
After dinner the gentleman took his two sons to his room to pray with them, which was customary when with their papa. The father prayed first, then the elder boy, and after waiting a long time on the younger one, he began like this: “Dear Lord Jesus, I don’t know what to say, but it is all scribbled over. Amen.”
Now, dear little ones, you will learn from this story, how the Lord Jesus is delighted with even the weakest prayer. He knows what is in our hearts and if we do not have words to tell it out, yet we can just confess it to Jesus and He will be glad, like the father, who received the scribbled letter from his dear little child. How Jesus loves to have us come often in the day to tell Him of all our little troubles, and often we forget to thank Him for His kind care, but yet He never forgets us. He came down from glory and died for us; now He has gone back to prepare that home for us. While we wait for our Lord Jesus to come to take us home to be forever with Himself, let us never forget to be often in prayer, for it pleases the Lord Jesus to have us frequently speaking to Him.
E. J. M.
ONE of our little S. S. boys—not yet eight years old—said to me one day, “I wish you would send John 5:3939Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39), and ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ to the paper.” I asked him why he wished to have those verses sent to the paper. His answer was, “So everybody can see them.” I said, “Do you think they are very nice verses?” He replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
This dear boy has learned to love the Lord Jesus, and he takes pleasure in God’s word. Let me give you John 5:3939Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39), which he wished sent to the paper: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me.” How many of you have learned to search the Scriptures? R.
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Matt. 5:4444But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44)
ML 08/13/1899