I DARESAY several of my readers know what it is to have lost something they valued greatly. How sad it made them! Well do they remember, too, the joy they had on finding the missing article, especially if it had been a gift from some valued friend or kind relative.
The writer remembers one bright morning coming across
A LOST BOOK
belonging to a boy. He found, it at the side of the road, near a telegraph-post. Very likely the boy had noticed the swallows clustering on the telegraph wires before going to a warmer climate. Or he might have been attracted by the blackberries, growing in tempting profusion near the spot, and so had forgotten all about his book. Do you not think the boy would be glad to get back his book, instead of paying for its loss?
The same day, calling at a cottage, we noticed worked on canvas, hanging on the wall some very important words as to
LOST TIME.
The object of the writer being to show the great value of time; how careful we should be to use it rightly, for wasted moments, like lost opportunities, never come our way again. Queen Elizabeth is said to have exclaimed when dying, "A million of gold for an hour of time!" But she had left the most important business of life too late. She might have thought her lofty position would exempt her from having to think of her sins; small and great must alike stand before God.
This brings us to another loss, of which, dear reader, if you are not already a believer, the writer desires to speak to you, in the words of another.
"To lose the wealth is much,
To lose the health is more;
To lose the soul is such a loss
As nothing can restore."
You have a soul. In Luke 15 we have the description by God's own Son of a LOST SOUL, looked at in three ways. Will you not read the chapter for yourself? In this scripture we have an account of a sinner who has learned himself a sinner in God's sight. God says, "All have sinned." We read in the opening verses of our chapter of a hundred sheep, and all means the whole hundred, but nearly ninty-nine out of a hundred are unwilling to own to this. All we deserve is to be shut out of God's presence for ever. What a dreadful thought! Do you believe what God says of you? Then listen. Jesus, who is the good Shepherd, has become a SEEKING SAVIOUR. He in grace came into the world to take out of it sinners to dwell in heaven for ever. He died upon the cross, shed His blood to save them. When a sinner believes in Him it gives joy to His heart,—a joy no words can express.
Messages of God’s Love 7/4/1926