SOME years ago a little Hottentot girl died in South Africa. She had been going to a mission school. When she lay on her sick bed, the teacher visited her. The first thing that she said to him was,
“O, uncle, I am longing for home.” (The young Africans of that district are in the habit of calling their teachers uncle and aunt.) He answered her,
“You are at home, my dear; this is your home.”
“No,” she said, “I am longing for home. I am longing for home.” Then the teacher asked her,
“For what home then are you longing?” And again she cried out with earnestness,
“For the home of the narrow way.” Her sufferings increased. Her poor mother and all who stood round her bed, wept bitterly. For some moments she could not utter a word, but as soon as the pain was somewhat relieved, she said, repeating the words three times, as the custom is with these Africans, when they wish to speak with emphasis,
“Jesus receives sinners! SINNERS! SINNERS! Joy! joy! joy!”
That poor little girl knew the Lord Jesus as the Way, and her heart was flowing over with joy at the thought that He “receives sinners,” and casts no one out that comes to Him.
Her last hour had not come yet; the pain lessened, and for quite a time she was able to speak to her mother. Her last words were, “Father! into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Full of joy and peace she fell asleep in her Lord, to be forever with Him. She put to shame many in this privileged country, who tell us that they hope to go to heaven, and who forget or will not understand, that heaven is the home of the narrow way.
I ask you, dear readers! if you also, like this little Hottentot girl, believe that Jesus is the way, and the only way to God? He says,
You see then that Jesus is ready to bless you, that He is the same yesterday, today and through all eternity. I trust that you will at once seek refuge in Him, for it is now “the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.”
ML 05/14/1922