IT WAS little Ada’s third birthday, and scampering into her mother’s room, she showed her the presents she had already received from her brothers and sisters and her nurse.
One by one she laid them on the table, and then suddenly she knelt down and said, “O Lord Jesus, I do thank You for all the nice things what You have given me. I thank You for my doll, and my little workbox, and for all my things. And oh, Lord Jesus, I thank You, that You was punished instead of me. Amen.”
Then she got up and looked gravely at her mother and said, “You see I ‘membered about His being punished.”
She had often spoken of Him before, but from this time she spoke of Him continually, to those in the house, to playmates, and neighbors. To her mother she said sometimes, “I am going to be with Jesus. Soon I shall be gone; you will look for me, but there will be no Ada, but you mustn’t mind, for shall be with Jesus,”
“Lovers of pleasure,” rather than “lovers of God,” tell me — Where?
Prayerless, careless, pleasure seeker —Where?
Neglecters of so great salvation — Where?
Rejecters of the grace of a Saviour God — Where?
And so it was. Nine months later the Lord Jesus took His little lamb to be with Himself. What she had said was a comfort to her mother.
The story of little Ada was printed and translated into other languages, and found its way into many strange places. The Lord had taken His little servant home, but He still meant to work by her down here.
One day the story of Ada was given to an old lady who had always been kind and religious, but she was frightened when she thought of dying, “God must punish sin, and I have many sins to remember,” she said. After reading the story, her fears and doubts passed away forever. “For now,” she said, “I see that Jesus has been punished instead of me, and while I was once afraid of dying, I now look forward to it; for I’m going to be with Jesus, and am very happy.”
Soon came the glad tidings too, that others had found joy and peace through the words of the little child — some in the slums of London, another the daughter of a thief; some in homes which the world would call bright and beautiful. In one wealthy home in a faraway land, a young man was dying after years of suffering, “You will be glad to hear,” a friend wrote to Ada’s mother, “that little Ada’s words seemed to come to him from heaven, and to bring him perfect peace and joy. He passed away, saying that he would be happy forever with Jesus, who had died for him.”
Someone who had read the little story wrote a poem about it, and each verse ended: “Jesus was punished instead of me.” About twenty years after that birthday, a little boy learned these verses. This little boy’s uncle did not care for the things of God and boasted that he never troubled himself about “religious nonsense.” But one day he became ill, and when the little boy visited him, he said, “Say me some of your poetry.” The little boy began to repeat the verses he liked so much, about little Ada.
“What is that?” his uncle said, stopping him suddenly. “Jesus was pushed instead of me? What does it mean? Why did Ada say that?”
“She said it because it really happened,” the little boy answered. “Jesus was punished instead. It’s in the Bible.”
His uncle could not believe it was in the Bible, but told the little fellow to get his mother to show it to him. She came and read, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24). “Christ also hash once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3;18, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5). She read him many more Scriptures, and then the uncle exclaimed, “If this really happened, I am saved!”
“It did really happen, and if you will believe it, you are saved,” the mother replied. And from that moment the scoffing unbeliever was a new creature in Christ Jesus. Four years later he was dying, but he said, “I am going to Him who died for me. Bring me the little book, and put it into my hand. I want to die with that story in my hand, because it was Ada who led me to Jesus.”
May it be with the reader as it was with those in our story. Believe the message that Jesus died for you; then you’ll be saved and know that you are on your way to heaven.
“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” John 20: 31.
ML-06/19/1960