A mother lay dying—her dry lips thirsting for something to refresh them. By her bedside stood her little daughter, about ten years old.
Suddenly the thought struck the little girl: "I have seen such beautiful grapes in the hothouses of the king's gardens; I'll go and ask how much one bunch would cost. Oh! if I could just get one bunch for Mother!"
She slipped away in a hurry, and soon reached the first gate. The sentry on guard asked her errand. "I must see the king," said the little girl.
"Impossible!" replied the stern soldier.
"But Mother is dying," she pleaded.
"I can let no one pass these gates," was the reply. The poor child's heart sank, and she burst into tears.
Just at that moment the king's son himself rode up, and touched with the child's grief, inquired into the case. Turning to her he said, "Well, and what do you want with the king?"
"Please, sir, Mother's dying, and I wanted to know what you would charge for one bunch of grapes? Mother's so thirsty." Her tears flowed faster and faster.
Telling her to follow him, he led her to one of the vines, and cutting a fine bunch of the rich fruit, he gave it to the astonished child, saying, "My father gives-he does not sell."
It is the same with spiritual things. We cannot earn or buy salvation. Eternal life is the gift of God. "I give unto them eternal life." John 10:28.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. "The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. "The Just for the unjust." 1 Peter 3:18.