THE other day I saw in this little magazine a story entitled “Olive’s Dream,” and I daresay those who read it, would like to hear how a little girl learned to know Jesus through reading that very same story. It was a good many years ago now, before the puffing, snorting engine, with its long line of cars, had found its way across the west ern prairies. Where towns and villages and tail elevators now stand, you only saw wild woods, or lonely prairies, with here and there a small log house, sur rounded by a few fields.
In one of these scattered cottages lived the little girl I am going to tell you about. She was a dark-eyed, brown-skinned child, for she had Indian blood in her, but she was as gay and bright as the sunbeams that dance among the leaves and flowers. She had never known any home, but the little log house, near the big woods, and she listened with wonder to all the stories her father could tell of faraway England, with its immense cities and many interesting pal aces and museums. But Tina was quite content with her own home, and I do not think she would have changed for any other. Perhaps however, I should not say that she was quite contented; like most other people, she desired one thing she did not possess.
Some desire money, or land, or fine clothes, or even nice things to eat, and what they desire they generally try hard to obtain. The Lord Jesus said when He was down here, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” I will tell you what little Tina longed for. It was a great big doll. She had never had a doll of any kind, and at eight years old, it was little wonder she had a great desire for one.
Her father, who loved his little daughter very tenderly promised to buy her the nicest doll he could find, at the first opportunity, but time passed on, and the much wished for toy did not arrive. The summer went by, and first autumn and then winter came, and with the cold winds, and biting frost of a northern winter Tina took sick. At first they treated it lightly, but soon it became a very serious matter, and her parents grew more and more alarmed. There was no kind doctor nearby to consult, but one stormy night the anxious father made his way through drifts and wind to the house of a friend, perhaps five miles away.
“Do come back with me,” he said, to the mother of the family, “and see what you think of the child.” This lady did not hesitate on account of the cold or the storm. She was soon warmly wrapped up, and ready to start. She took some little books with her, and one of them was the pretty story of “Olive’s Dream.” Tina could not read and she had never been to Sunday-school, or to any place where she could learn of Jesus, but now as she lay on her sick bed, she listened eagerly as her mother read again and again the little books the lady had brought. But the one she liked best was the story of little Olive. She, too, longed to enter the bright and beautiful home, where Olive wished to go, and she, too, felt the weight of sin. She knew she could not make herself fit for that glorious home. She could never wash one spot of sin away, and oh, what rest and peace it gave her to hear of One who had given His life for her, and now was inviting her to come to Him, and have all her sins washed away. She accepted His invitation, with the simple faith of a little child and rested on His finished word. And now she took more and more pleasure in hearing of Jesus, and never wearied of listening to her mother, as she read to her either from the Bible, or from the little books. Day by day she grew weaker, and the doctor who came many, many miles to see her, told her sorrowing parents that she could not be long with them.
Do you think Tina was frightened or unhappy? No, she was quite ready to go to be with Jesus, and constantly talk ed of being with Him. Her father longing to please her, drove over thirty miles to the nearest town, and there he bought for her the long wished for doll. It was very large, and had fine clothes on, but when Tina had looked at it she turned away, saying, “Put it at the end of my bed, I cannot play with it now,” and there it remained until the dear little girl passed away to be in a brighter, hap pier home, to be gathered in the arms of One who loved her even better than father or mother, to hold in her little hands a harp of gold instead of a longed for dolly. Dear little children, do you ever think what a happy home Jesus has prepared in heaven? Do you ever think what a wonderful welcome is there for you? Do you ever think of the Savior up there, who still bears in His hands and feet the marks of what He has suffered in order to make a way into that home for every little child, who is willing to come?
It was very hard for Tina’s father and mother to have to lay her body in the little graveyard, but when it was all over and the father had to go once more with a sorrowful heart to his work, the lonely mother turned to the Scriptures and there sought to find the comfort her little darling had found, and the Lord Jesus who knows every seeking soul, soon revealed Himself to her, too, and she was able in the midst of her sorrow, to rejoice in the knowledge of her sins being forgiven. “FOR HE SATIS FIETH THE LONGING SOUL, AND FILLETH THE HUNGRY SOUL WITH GOODNESS.” Psa. 107:99For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. (Psalm 107:9).
Messages of God’s Love 1/6/1907