THIS picture makes me think of a story I once read about a little girl named Alice and her little kittens. They were very pretty kitties like the ones in our picture, and were great pets. Alice watched them every day getting bigger and bigger and it seemed as though her heart loved them more and more. All the time she had to herself was spent in playing with her pets, and each morning and evening she shared her milk with them.
But one day when Alice was at school, a fierce dog got into the yard where her kittens were, and killed them. When the little girl found out they were dead, her grief was extreme, and for days she cried.
About a month later, a baby brother was born into Alice’s home and this drew her thoughts away from her kitties; she became so fond of baby that she was quite happy once more. Her little heart had again an object that occupied it; sometimes she was allowed to hold the dear wee one in her arms, and this was a great pleasure to her.
But this is a sad world, and baby was only six weeks old when it took ill and died, too. Poor Alice’s little heart seemed fairly broken now. The day that baby was buried, she threw herself into her mother’s arms and in a fit of weeping, cried out, “Oh mamma! mamma! the kind farmer gave me my kittens, and I loved them so, and they died; then God gave us a baby, and I loved it more than my kittens, and now it is dead; can’t you give me something to love that will never die?”
Her mamma pressed the little girl to her own sorrow-stricken breast and said “yes darling, I can tell you of ‘One who will never die.’” Alice listened eagerly while her mother told her of Jesus, and how by His death He had put away the sins of those who love Him, and that if she would give her heart to Him, He would give her ease and comfort, as well as tell her that all her sins were put away by His death. Then she would hear Him saying to her, “I AM HE THAT LIVETH AND WAS DEAD, AND BEHOLD I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE.” Rev. 1:1818I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18).
Alice had often heard this before, but it had never struck her in the way it did now. She felt how much she needed the One that says “I am alive forevermore,” and there and then, on her mother’s breast, she believed on Him, and began to love the “One that will never die.”
Think of all this carefully dear children: will you not follow Alice’s example and believe on Him who died on the cross for you? Give your heart to this “One who will never die.”
ML 06/16/1912