NELLIE GRAY sat by the fireside alone. Her father and mother were dressing upstairs for a concert, and had refused to allow her to go with her companion, Getty Smith, to a children’s meeting, in the school-room close by. Nellie had pleaded to go that night, especially, as there was to be a missionary there from India, and with him, several girls who had once been heathen, but now knew and loved the Lord Jesus, and were not ashamed to confess Him as their Saviour and Lord.
Nellie’s parents loved the world, and I suppose they wanted to bring up their only child a worldling, and did not want her to be brought in contact with the Gospel of Christ, and those who love His Name. Nellie’s kitten sat on the rug by her side, looking now and again at Nellie, as if she wanted to share her sorrow.
All at once a happy thought struck Nellie. She wrote on a sheet of note paper, a very earnest request, to be allowed to go with Gerty to the school-room, and addressing it to her father in most affectionate terms, put it in an envelope, and tied it round Pussy’s neck with a piece of ribbon. Off ran Pussy upstairs, as if she knew the whole matter, and soon found her way to Mr. Gray’s room. He laughed as he untied the envelope from Pussy’s neck, and more still, when he saw that she stood as if waiting for an answer. Pussy’s letter had the desired effect, for Nellie’s father said to his wife,
“Let her go it will help to wile away the evening, and she cannot get much harm for once.”
Mr. Gray took his pencil and wrote his consent on the back of. Nellie’s letter, tied it carefully around. Pussy’s neck, and in a moment, she was off downstairs to Nellie: Nellie put on her hat and cloak, and in a few minutes, was walking arm in arm in the moonlight with Gerty, on the way to the school-room. I cannot tell you all that she saw and heard there, but that night, Nellie Gray’s heart was won by the love of Jesus, and she was saved.
A short time after, her father suddenly died, and she was left to be the comforter of her broken-hearted mother. The Lord used Nellie’s sweet voice, singing many of her favorite hymns to unlock her mother’s heart, and one of her first walks, was to the meeting in the school-room, where Nellie first heard of a Saviour’s love.
ML 08/08/1937