In a happy home, with loving parents, and all that could make their young lives happy, lived Alice and Mary W. Life seemed so bright to them, as they played among the flowers and trees in the garden, or sat by their mother’s side in the winter evenings, while she read or talked to them, that they scarcely ever thought of the possibility of any change coming to cloud their happiness.
Their mamma and papa often spoke to them of Jesus; how He came to die for His people’s sins, and might soon come again to take them to Himself, and Alice and Mary knew all about it, and could answer any questions that were asked them, very readily.
But it was only in their heads they knew it. Their hearts were untouched, and they would run away to play, and forget all about it.
One afternoon Mr. and Mrs. W. were obliged to go out, and, as they said “goodbye” to their little girls, they said they would be back by tea-time. The children played about merrily through the afternoon, and as tea-time came on, they placed themselves at the gate to watch for their parents.
An hour passed but there was no sign of them: and a servant came out to bid them come in to tea. They went in and sat down, but they did not care to eat or to talk. At last little Mary said,
“O, Alice, do you know what I have been thinking? supposing Jesus has come, and papa and mamma have gone, and we are left behind!”
“I was thinking the same thing, Mary; O! what shall we do? If Jesus has come, it is too late for us, we shall never see them anymore; what can we do?” Alice burst into tears.
“Let us see if we can find anyone to tell us,” said Mary. And the two children put on their hats, and opening the gate, went down the road.
The first person they met was a woman, who only stared at them in answer to their questions, and said she did not know what they meant.
“O,” said Mary, “she does not know anything about the Lord Jesus; He must have taken all the people who do know.” And their tears began to flow afresh.
You can imagine how much delighted they were, when a few minutes afterwards, they caught sight of their papa and mamma driving towards them. They had been detained in town, but had come home as soon as possible.
Alice and Mary never forgot that evening’s lesson; it was the means in God’s hands, of bringing them to Himself; and may you never forget it till you can sing with them,
“I am now a child of God,
For I’m washed in Jesus’ blood.”
And those who are not in Christ, dead or alive, will be left behind.
Dear children, have you ever thought what this means, and what it will be, if those you love were taken, and YOU were left, with nothing in prospect but the judgment, the undying worm, the quenchless fire?
ML 01/02/1938