PERSECUTION. That is a big word. Do you know, what it means? Ruth was finding out.
Ruth had been a happy little Christian for three whole months. She had been saved on her tenth birthday. So although she was a ten year old girl she was only a three months old babe in the family of God.
Ruth's home was with her grandmother. Grandmother had given her some very precious Scripture texts and mottoes to hang up in her own little room. One of them was her "Rules For Today."
"Do nothing that you would not like to be doing when Jesus comes."
"Go to no place where you would not like to be found when Jesus comes."
"Say nothing that you would not like to be saying when Jesus comes."
Ruth earnestly tried to remember those things. It was easy at home with grandmother to help her, but at school it was quite difficult. Her playmates did not understand. Even her teacher did not seem to understand. And her dearest friend Emily was the worst of all.
Emily and Ruth had always been chums. Ruth so longed to have her friend with her in seeking to live for Christ. But Emily would have none of it. It seemed she even tried to make Ruth stumble and fall.
One day the trials had been harder than usual. Ruth ran home from school, and shut herself in her room. Then what do you think she did?
She snatched down her lovely mottoes, and turned them every one face to the wall. Then she threw herself on the bed, and cried and cried. She did not even hear her grandmother's soft tap on the door.
After a while Ruth got up and wiped her eyes. Now she felt a little ashamed of herself, Then she looked at the wall,— and then she truly was ashamed.
"O, O!" Ruth gasped, "how could I do such a thing!"
She went quickly and turned the mottoes back as they should be. Then she cried again, but in an entirely different way. The tears just rolled down her cheeks as she knelt by her bed, and told her Lord all about it. Pretty soon she went to find her grandmother.
Grandmother sat in her low rocker by the window, She smiled lovingly at her granddaughter, Ruth brought a stool, and sat down close to grandmother's knee.
"And how is my little girl?" asked grandmother.
"She is a very naughty girl, grandmother," answered Ruth with a little tremble in her voice.
"Well, we are all naughty children sometimes," said grandmother. "How much patience the dear Lord has with us!"
"O, not you, grandmother," cried Ruth quickly. "You never had a naughty thought, did you?"
"Yes, dearie, many of them, I am sorry to say. You know, when we are born into God's family, and the lovely new nature is given to us, our old naughty nature still remains with us, and it gets us into trouble whenever it can."
"I—I guess that explains what I did," said Ruth after a minutes thought. And she told how she had turned her mottoes to the wall.
"Do you think the Lord will forgive me?" asked Ruth.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," quoted grandmother,
"I did confess, grandma. I told Him all about it," said Ruth.
"Then He has forgiven you. His Word says so, and that settles the question."
"But grandmother, I don't want Emily and the others to hate me. What can I do?"
"They hated our Lord. They crucified Him, Are we better than He? We may expect them to hate us," said grandmother reverently.
"We can pray for them, dearie. Have you asked the Lord to make Emily His child?"
"I am afraid I haven't, much," confessed Ruth. "But I am going to now every day. Won't it be lovely when Emily is saved too!"
That evening when Ruth went to her room, she found a new text hanging near her dresser. It was this:
Messages of God’s Love 2/23/1930