One Sunday afternoon, as I was leaving our Sunday school room, I saw a little fellow lingering behind. He had forgotten where he lived, and as he did not belong to my class, I did not know his name or address.
“Can you point out the direction in which you live, my boy?”
“Oh, yes,” he said; “that is the way, sir.”
“Then take my hand and run along,” said I. Presently we came to a crossing. “Which is the way now?”
“That way,” he said.
“Are you quite sure?” I asked. “Yes, quite sure, sir.”
So we were soon trotting along again. After a few minutes I again asked him, “Are we in the right way?”
“Oh, yes; quite right,” he replied.
We now came to another crossing, and I said, “I feel sure that this cannot be the right way.” Then the little boy confessed that he did not know where he was. What was to be done? After a little consideration I decided to take him home with me, where he was happily enjoying some supper. But his parents were full of anxiety. His father had gone in search of him, and having learned that his boy had been seen with me, he hastened to my house, and I cannot tell you how happy he was to find his son.
The little boy had taken exactly the opposite direction to that which led to his home. He was lost, but self-confident. He did not cry, he was not troubled, and if left alone would have wandered until the shades of night had proved to him with terrible truth that he was lost. This is a picture of many children. They have a way of their own to be saved, and are confident that it is the right one. Some people say there are a great many ways of being saved, but God’s Word only tells us of one way, and if you are trying to be saved by any other way than through Jesus and what He has done, you are only getting farther and farther away from God. If you delay coming to Jesus, the long, dark, terrible night of judgment will overtake you, and then you cannot be saved at all.
ML 12/31/1961