(Continued.)
Last week we were hearing of a poor, little, lost child, and how helpless she was to find her way home, and were speaking too, of how everybody, even children, are lost. The Lord Jesus likened the sinner (and you know we are all sinners) to,a lost sheep, wandering farther and farther away from the Shepherd, but He did not end His story there; He told how the Shepherd went to look for the sheep, and did not cease looking until He found it. Has Jesus, the Good Shepherd found you, dear child, or are you still wandering away from Him? If you are, will you not ask Him to make you willing to be found?
I am sure little Janet Bruce was longing to be found. She was very unhappy with the gypsies; she missed the loving care of her kind mother; she missed the good food and comfortable bed she had been used to, and more than all, she shrank from the idle, wicked words she heard around her. She never heard the Bible read, nor did she even know when Sunday came. Was it any wonder that she grew thin and pale, and constantly fretted for her home? The gypsies saw how weak and sick the child was, and they began to fear that she would die, so they told her that in a short time they would be back again in the woods near her home, and then they would let her go home. Oh! what joyful news for the poor, lonely, little girl! How she counted the days and even hours. How long the time seemed! But it came at last. The woods were reached, and the gypsies showed Janet the pathway which led to her home. How quickly she went down it. Was she not going to her home, and mother? Do you remember how the prodigal son we spoke of last week, came back to his Father’s house, saying, “I, will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have sinned”?
Does any child who reads this paper long for the Father’s house, and the Father’s welcome? Then turn to God, and tell Him just that same story, “I have sinned.” Will He receive you? Did the Father receive that willful son? Did Janet’s mother receive her disobedient little girl? When Janet got out of the wood, she came to a field, where some men were reaping the wheat. They looked at the dirty, ragged child in surprise, but she exclaimed, “I am Janet Bruce, please take me to my mother.” And did they refuse? No, indeed, they made a seat of boughs, and put her on it and carried her towards her home,
Some went before—men, boys and women—and some followed after; others as they went, they sang aloud for And her mother—we cannot describe her feelings, as she clasped her beloved child once more in her arms. Did she wash her and change her clothes before she kissed her? No, that came afterwards. First, there was the welcome, and the joy, then the rags were taken off, and the child made fit for her mother’s house.
And in the parable we have been considering, it is just the same. We’ read, “When he was yet a great way off his Father saw him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”
Messages of God’s Love 10/4/1908