For the Little Ones.
A poor woman, who knew not the Lord Jesus Christ, had a dear little girl who attended a school where, by the Lord’s blessing on the labors of her teacher, she was brought to believe in Jesus. In the place where this woman and her child lived, the Roman Catholics were very active in trying to bring people to their religion, and as they were not so successful with grown-up people as they wished, because those who had heard even ever so little of the truth, could not easily be persuaded to believe the mummeries and superstitions of popery, they made great efforts to get hold of poor children, thinking they could more readily lead them to worship images and believe their wicked falsehoods. One morning they called upon this woman and offered to give her a blanket and a cotton dress, if she would consent to send her little girl to their school. The miserable woman, caring nothing for the soul of her poor child, consented. Was it not a shocking thing for a mother to do? to sell her child, as it were, to those who, as she well knew, would bring her up in a false religion; and all for the sake of a blanket and a cotton dress! It is plain that she valued these trifles more than the soul of her little one nay, further, that she actually preferred a cotton dress and a blanket to Christ the Son of God!
How forcibly this reminds us of the soldiers at the crucifixion, who, after they had nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross, “took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part,” carefully dividing his clothing among them, while for himself they did not care. They despised Jesus, the Son of God, and preferred his worn clothes to himself! And, as if to make this plainer still, we are told that his “coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be.” Yes; they could nail the blessed One to a cross, they could rend his gracious hands with nails; but they said of an old coat, “Let us not rend it.” They could crucify the Lord of glory, and “cast him out,” then, turning their backs on HIM, they could struggle for the possession of his coat! What contempt to pour upon the head of the Son of God.! What stronger proof could they give of the wickedness of the heart? Had it not been for that precious blood which was poured out for sin, surely the judgment of God must have fallen at once on their most guilty heads. Thus the very wickedness of these men shows out the value of the blood.; for because of that, they were spared from instant judgment, that so they might have opportunity to repent. And had not this woman the same wicked heart that those soldiers had? Yes; for she showed that she thought less of Christ than of a blanket and a cotton dress. “Ah!” you will say, “I would not be so wicked as that.” But have you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ yet? Have you come to him, and learned to love him? If not, are you not very much like them? You are fond of toys and other things, and no doubt sometimes take a good deal of trouble, in your way, to get them, and thus show how very much in earnest you are to obtain them; but have you ever yet been as much in earnest to get Christ? If not, what does it prove? Why, that just as the soldiers were so much in earnest to get the coat, that they cast lots for it to see whose it should be, so you are in earnest in getting almost anything rather than Christ! Just as this woman liked a blanket and a cotton dress better than Christ, so you like toys and such like things so much better than Jesus, that you are in earnest to get the one, but not to get the other!
Well, then, are you not just like them? Now I want you to think about this, and if you find it is all too true, go to Jesus at once, and kneel down to him and tell him how wicked you have been, and believe him when he says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Feeling your sinfulness, believe God when he says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
But I must tell you the rest of the story about the little girl and her bad mother. When little Mary came home, her mother told her what she had promised the papists to do. Poor Mary begged her mother not to send her to the popish school, but she would not listen. “You must get ready to go tomorrow morning at ten o’clock,” said her hardhearted mother. On hearing this, little Mary turned as pale as death, and, falling down upon her knees, prayed thus: “Dear Lord Jesus, I know you are my Saviour, and that you love me, then do not let me go to the popish school, where I shall be taught to kneel to images, and become a papist let me rather die than be a papist.” Then she went to bed. In the morning her mother called her early to get up and get ready for the Romish school, but she did not answer. Again she called, still louder, “Mary, get up;” but in vain. Running upstairs to see what was the matter, you may guess what she felt when she saw by the cold pale face that lay upturned upon the pillow that her little Mary was dead! The Lord had heard her cry, and to save her from the evil into which false teachers would lead her, he had taken her home to himself. Happy little Mary! her arms lay folded over her bosom, a smile of peace was on her loving face — her spirit was with Jesus.
Should you be as ready to die as she was, if called away tonight? She was no better than you are in herself, but she believed in the Lord. Jesus Christ, and his blood had washed away her sins, and so made her ready and fit for heaven.