DEAR children, I am going to tell you about a little girl, called Kitty, and to what she owed her conversion. She is grown up now, and I shall tell you her story in her own words.
“I was an only child, and had dear, loving parents, who loved the Lord Jesus very much, for they knew He had loved them first (1 John 1:1919And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? (John 1:19)). This made them long to see Him, and, as is the case with grown-up people, as well as children, they talked a great deal of what they longed for, Thus it was with my dear parents. It seemed to me that they thought and talked of hardly anything else but the joy of meeting the Lord Jesus when He will come to take all who believe in Him to be with Him forever.
I had been taught the beautiful story of God's love to poor sinners, and knew it very well in my head, but my heart was as hard as a stone. All I cared for was to have some of the amusements of ' the world,' which I was told was a wicked place, and though I knew what the Scriptures said about it in 1 John 5:1919And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (1 John 5:19), yet I only the more longed for its pleasures. Two things which my parents were strict about, were smart dress and story books of which they did not approve. Now, I thought, ' the world ' was a most charming place, and I did love pretty dresses and bonnets, and of all things story books.
So you see, my dear young friends, how widely different my parents' thoughts and wishes were from mine. It reminds me of what God says about His thoughts and ways, and ours, in Isa. 55:88For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8). Oh! if that gracious and loving God and Father let us poor sinners go our own way and after our own thoughts, we should never be saved and made fit to live in that beautiful home He has prepared for us Himself, should we ? So we will thank Him, with all our hearts, that He had His own loving way with us poor sinners young and old.
But now to return to my story.
Just because I did not have my way I was very naughty and rebellious, and became a discontented, unhappy child; and I do not think there is anything more disagreeable to meet with anywhere, than an ill-tempered, ungrateful child. Do not you agree with me? Of course I caused my parents much sorrow and trouble. Well, as I have said, the second coming of the Lord Jesus was what I heard more about than anything else—at least, so I thought then. At family prayers, in the selection of a subject, or for a Bible reading, my father was sure to choose the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians or to the Thessalonians, or some portion that told of the coming of the Lord.
At last the constant thought of the Lord's coming became such a dreaded reality that I could not go to sleep peacefully, fearing that when I awoke I should find that all who were believers had been taken up to be with the Lord, and that I was left behind, for I knew how wicked I was. So you can imagine, dear children, what a miserable child I was. Much as I loved my parents, I dared not tell them, or anyone, how unhappy I was on this subject.
As time went on my dread increased. I went to bed early. My room was at the top of the house, and at times the greater part of the family would be out, attending religious services. The house was then very still, with not a sound to be heard. How often in my fright have I listened over the banisters for some sign of life, till I got into a sort of terror lest all had gone, and I was actually left behind. Suddenly a gleam of comfort came in the odd thought that surely, if the Lord Jesus had really come, the great clock in the hall would stop ticking. It was a great relief to my mind, when I heard it going on as usual, and I was comforted just for the time. But the next night, and the next, and the next, when bedtime came, the same dread returned. My play and my little pleasures during the day were spoiled, as I recollected that I should have to go to bed at night.
Time went on, and I was nearly grown up, when one Sunday evening I heard a sermon on Ex. 12:2323For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. (Exodus 12:23), which was used as the means for my being made ready to meet that blessed Lord Jesus, the thought of whose coming had so terrified me. I understood from the sermon that it was the same Lord, who promised to pass over every Israelite upon whose house the blood was sprinkled, who passes over, even now, every sinner who shelters under the blood of His Son, because His holy eyes rest on the precious blood of Christ. I was enabled to take God at His word, and to believe that I must be safe, because He had said so. Oh I how happy I was when I went home, and for the first time told my dear parents all I had feared and dreaded, and how the fear was all gone now, for I knew and believed that Jesus, my Savior, had ' first loved' me."
And now, my dear young readers, Kitty has lost those beloved ones who so cared for her when she was a child, indeed Kitty is almost an old woman herself. She loves to work for the Lord and to tell people of His "great love" while she is waiting and longing to be "caught up together” with all who are ready “to meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever with Him."
Will you read 1 Thess. 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17) and 18, and you shall see that what had been frightening little Kitty so long is the very best comfort the blessed Lord could give us? May the Lord bless every reader of FAITHFUL WORDS, and grant that not one may be missing when He calls every saved soul to dwell with Him forever.