“BUT I am so unhappy, aunty,” said a little girl just seven years old.
I want to tell you, dear children, the cause of little May’s unhappiness, and how her trouble was removed, She and her little brother had gone with their grandfather and two aunts to the seaside for a short time, whilst their mother was away from home. On Sunday evening, May’s aunts thought they would take their niece and nephew with them to hear a sermon, and the children were delighted to go.
It was a solemn subject that the speaker chose that evening. You will find the verses upon which he spoke in the beginning of 2 Cor. 5, and I will tell you the question which he asked all his hearers: it was this— “Should you be afraid to die this night, if the Lord Jesus Christ were to call you to do so?”
Just then Aunt J. looked at her little niece, and saw her bright eyes full of tears.
“What is the matter, May?” she asked softly, but May would not tell her then, only her sweet face was turned yet more earnestly to the preacher, and I doubt if in all his audience he had a more eager listener than that little girl. Well the preaching came to an end, but not so May’s unhappiness, and when she reached home she confided to Aunt F. the cause of her grief.
What do you think it was, dear young friends? some childish disappointment or grief? Oh, no Something far deeper was troubling May, and fain would we see you unhappy on the same subject. Looking up into Aunt F.’s face, she said, while her tears burst forth in real earnest, “Oh, aunty, shall I go to heaven when I die?”
Aunt F. talked to her lovingly and earnestly, and told her that if she came to Jesus and trusted Him she would be happy, and would certainly go to be with Him by-and-by; and then Aunt J. knelt down with May, and when her sobs were quieter, she told the Lord all about her trouble, and how May longed to come to Him and be happy—wanted to be with Him forever in His bright home if she died; and then they rose from their knees, aunty kissed her sweet little niece, and May went to bed.
About half-an-hour afterward, her aunts peeped in at the door of May’s room, to see if all was quiet. May’s little brother was fast asleep, but she was wide awake, though it was getting quite late. Do you think she was unhappy still? Oh, no; the traces at tears were yet on her cheeks, but her face was bright now, and when she was asked what had made her happy, she just looked up and said sweetly, “You know.”
A little time after this May wrote Aunt J. a little letter. I will tell you what it said.
“My dear Aunty, I am not afraid to die now, for the Lord has saved me, and I am now quite sure I shall go to heaven when I die, because the Lord has saved me.
“From MAY.”
Perhaps some of you can write a better letter, but little May’s aunts thought it the very nicest one that could have been written, and it filled their hearts with joy and praise, so that they thanked the Lord for having brought little May to Himself.
And now, dear young friends, I would ask you affectionately and earnestly, Is little May’s Saviour your Saviour? Oh believe on Him, and you will find He will make you happy, as He has done the child about whom I have written. And if any of God’s children read this little paper, I would ask them to lift up their hearts in a short prayer for little May, that she may be preserved, “faultless and blameless,” till we are in that bright glory with the Lord Jesus, praising Him, “Who loved us, and gave Himself for us.” E. C. R