(For the Little Ones.)
HAS the little reader ever been lost? The writer has been on more than one occasion. Perhaps, if the Lord tarries, he may have opportunity of relating each of these occasions to you in succession, for they are several but, as the last month of the old year has arrived, we must wait for the new year to do that. At present, one of these occasions must suffice. It was as follows. The writer, many years ago, lived in the country, a few miles out of London. He had been one day to see his friends in the suburbs of the great city, and, as night closed in, started for his home in Essex. It was a pleasant summer’s night when he set out, the stars were shining, the air was warm and yet refreshing, the sweet smell of numberless flowers came on the evening wind from many a garden, field, and hedgerow as he proceeded on his way; and altogether the walk was most delightful. As he neared his destination, it began to grow late, and, not wishing to keep the people up who were expecting him home, it occurred to him to take what I daresay you have often heard people call “a near cut,” across a wide common. Turning, therefore, off the well-known and pleasant road he had hitherto pursued, he went down a lane which, having high green hedges on either side that shut out the glimmering starlight, he found a very dark-some way. Nevertheless he persevered. He had never been in that lane before, and, although he had no doubt of being in the right direction, he resolved to make quite sure by asking the first person he met. Near the end of the dark lane he had the opportunity he sought. A man was just passing as he approached the wide common which lay stretched in the gloom before him.
“Am I right for such and such a place?” he inquired.
“Quite right,” replied the man. “Keep straight across the common, and don’t turn either one way or the other.” And, accompanying his words with a motion of his hand, he pointed out the exact direction which the inquirer was to take. Thanking him, the latter passed on. The clouds now began to gather across the summer night’s sky, and the starlight was obscured. But, sure of his road, and in haste to reach his destination, the wayfarer passed on. He had gone about half-way across the common at a rapid pace, when suddenly the light of the moon, which had risen shortly before, broke through the cloud-bank which had intercepted it, and fell full upon the path he was so hurriedly treading.
What do you think it revealed to him? A deep gravel-pit right in his way, and into which another step would have hurled him! One step more, and you, little reader, would never have read this paper, simply because it never would have been written. One step more! think of that. How near destruction, yet how utterly unconscious of it One step more, and plunging headlong into the deep gravel-pit, bruised and crushed to death, “the Lost” one would have been killed outright. But the light shining just in time saved him; and, turning instantly from the way he had pursued, he reached his home in safety.
Now, little reader, you know that “God made man upright.” He set him in the pleasant paths of innocency. The sweet smell of Eden’s flowers was all around him; Eden’s joys, Eden’s happiness were his. But, more than all else, the gracious God who had created him and all things, and then, as if to show his love, “planted a garden” for him (was not that kind?), was his God. But Adam transgressed; he turned from the pleasant paths of innocency; he went aside from God; he took the darksome way of disobedience; and ever since, man (you and I, and every one) has been by nature on the pathless common of this world’s ruin. Darkness has settled down upon him he knows not whither he is going his only natural guide, the only guide lie naturally follows, is his own heart, and that points him on the exact road to everlasting destruction; until “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” breaks upon his darkened understanding, he is going straight to ruin. Little reader, where are you going? If you are following the guiding’s of your own heart, you are in danger. One step more would have hurled the writer into death. One step more, and where may the reader be? Ask your parents. If they are Christians, they will be able to tell you at once whether you are in the way of everlasting life, or in “the paths of death.” If they are not believers, your question, and the awful thought of your danger, may arouse their attention to think of their own. Therefore ask them. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Has that light shined in your heart? If not, you are in danger. If not, it is because you have not looked to Jesus Christ. “Look unto me, and be ye saved,” says the Lord. Have you done so? Do you say “I don’t know”? Then you are in darkness; the pit is right in the path you are treading; don’t go on another day, don’t take another step till the Light shines. Do you think the writer would have gone on, if he had known there was a gravel-pit right in his path? No; he would have waited for light. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”