Have you ever seen a manget?” Peter asked his sister one day. Out of his pocket he took one that looked like a horse-shoe. Most of it was painted red, but the two ends were bare. Peter emptied a little box of nails on the floor, and said:
“I am going to pick up those nails without using my fingers.” He touched the nails with the magnet, and they stuck to it. Then he lifted them up, and knocked them into the box.
Just then the children’s father appeared.
“Your magnet reminds me of a verse in the Bible,” he said. “Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus,
‘And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto Me:’” John 12:32.
Father then explained that the Lord Jesus was “lifted up” on the cross in order that He might be the Saviour of the world, and that all who believe, are drawn to Him, as the nails were drawn to the manget. God the Father is drawing men and women, and boys and girls, to His Son Who is so willing to receive them, for He said,
“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me: and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37,44.
Peter’s sister, Joan, now wished to use the magnet. She took some brass buttons from her mother’s work-basket, and touched them with the magnet, but nothing happened.
“Your magnet has gone wrong,” she siad in a disappointed voice
No said Peter, “my magnet will only pick up things made of iron or steel.”
The children’s father then told them that before He went back to heaven, the Lord Jesus promised to come again to receive all that are His, and take them into heaven with Himself. At any moment He may come down from heaven, and at the same instant every one who has been drawn to Him in faith will be “caught up ... . to meet the Lord in the air: and so ... be forever with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). Those who have not accepted Him as Saviour, will be left behind like the brass buttons which the magnet did not raise. How necessary then for every boy and girl to make sure at once that they are among those who love the Lord Jesus, and that they will be drawn up to meet Him when He comes!
“Let me show you another magnet,” said the father, and he took a mariner’s compass from his pocket. “This is what I use when at sea. It is simply a magnetic needle swinging over a card on which all the points of the compass are marked.” Then he shook it gently, and the children watched the swinging magnet until it came slowly to rest. “As the needle always points to the north the man at the wheel is able to steer the ship in the proper direction.”
The children then listened as their father told them that, just as sailors need a compass to conduct the ship on a right course, so we need a guide for our journey through life. God has provided this for us in His Word: the Bible points out God’s way of salvation so plainly. The Lord Jesus said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” John 14:6.
When you come to Him, He becomes your Saviour and Friend. Then with a glad and thankful heart you will be able to sing,
“I’ve found a Friend, O! such a Friend,
He loved me ere I knew Him:
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.”
ML 08/30/1942