LISTEN, little ones, and I will tell you about my own sweet sister Nellie. She was only twelve years old when she left us, yet, though I was myself younger and a very little child, I remember her, as though I saw her yesterday, sitting on a low chair by the fire, with her head resting on a pillow, for Nellie was very delicate during the last three years she was with us.
My mother observed, with ever increasing sorrow, Nellie’s small, pale face gradually get paler and thinner, and her once buoyant footsteps becoming shorter and slower. And when, at last, she could not leave her room, our mother watched over and nursed her as only a mother can. Even then Nellie used to talk about what she would do when she got well; until one day, she was unable to leave her bed, and then all at once, the truth that she was passing away from this world appeared to dawn upon her. The prospect was not fair to Nellie, for in all her short life she had not thought much about Him who was waiting to fold her in His arms and carry her in His bosom. She did not seem to know how to turn to Him.
As our mother was making up the fire, Nellie called to her, so sorrowfully, and said, “Mother, I am dying,” and then she added the dreadful words, “I am going to hell.”
I really cannot tell you, my dear ones, who was the most pained at that moment, my poor, distressed little sister, or her well-nigh heartbroken mother.
If Nellie had asked for something she fancied, our mother would have taken any trouble to get it for her; but her cry of despair filled the tender mother’s heart with the deepest sorrow, because she knew that Nellie wanted something which she herself could not give her. All a mother’s deep love could not save her child’s precious soul.
For fifteen or twenty minutes our mother stood still before the fire, fearing to move lest she should find her darling child dead.
Meanwhile her heart went up in earnest prayer to God, that He would make Nellie fit for His presence, by washing her in the precious blood of His only Son.
Our father had often told us of Jesus, how He had left His bright home above, and had come down into this world, and how He had died for sinners, and Nellie had loved to hear about the many mansions, and the white robes, and the tree of life, and all the beautiful things which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him, but she had not given her heart to Him. You see, dear ones, there must be a personal surrender of our hearts to Jesus Christ, for Him alone to save us.
This poor Nellie proved at the moment when she exclaimed, “Mother, I am dying; I am going to hell.” Another heard that cry! Jesus, who came to seek and to save the lost, was very gracious to Nellie at the voice of her cry. He knew her need of salvation, He had sought her, and, while her mother stood motionless before the fire, she was found of Him.
Then Nellie said, “Mother” —oh! how the tone of her voice was changed— “Mother! Jesus has saved me.”
Those five words turned all her mother’s sorrow into joy. There is joy in the presence of God over one sinner who repents. Hitherto, Nellie had heard the story of God’s love, in sending His well-beloved Son into this world to die for sinners, as a sweet tale which concerned the world in general, now she could say, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” I seem to hear again the glad tone of her voice, as she said to our father, when he came into her room in the evening, “Father, I am saved.”
“Oh! it is such joy,” she continued, in the same glad tone. “I thought I would get saved, and not let anyone know it, but I cannot keep it to myself if I would.”
Too weak to read herself, she never tired of hearing the old, old story, of Jesus and His love. “Tell me more about Jesus,” she would say. “It seems to me, if I get well, I shall never tire of telling people about Him.”
But Nellie was not to stay with us long.
One day she had been in great pain, which the Lord enabled her to bear very patiently. The pain continued until quite late in the evening, then suddenly it left her, and looking up, she said to our father, who was with her, “Heaven, heaven! So beautiful! so beautiful! I have no pain now, it is all peace. And oh! father, look, there is Jesus.”
With these words Nellie sank back, for in her eagerness and joy she had raised herself almost to a sitting posture, and never again did she talk of getting well, for when the sun’s first beams came softly in at the window, Nellie, dear Nellie, was at rest, where they have no need of the sun, for the Lamb is the light thereof.
I wonder if a dear child, who reads this, has not yet come to Jesus. If so, little one, come now. It seems to me that the dear Lord Jesus has a special love for children. He is just the same tender, loving Saviour now as when He bade the children so gently to come unto Him. It is such a sweet, real thing to belong to Jesus. You know He is coming again, perhaps very soon. You would not like the door to be shut before you get in, would you?
May you be numbered with Nellie amongst His jewels in that day, for His Name’s sake.
A. Q. T.