PLAYING with a number of others in the streets, a dirty ragged little boy was knocked down and run over by a passing cart.
A lady owning a large fortune, with a splendid house and grounds nearby, was passing in her carriage. She stopped, picked him up, took him home, washed, dressed, cared for, nursed, and adopted him; he became her child, and lived in that magnificent house as his own.
Had the dirty child tried to get into that house he would have failed to do so; his dirty ways, habits, dress, were all against him; the servants would have turned him out, and treated him with contempt. But now he was there by right, he was adopted—made one of the family, an heir to the lady’s fortune whose heart had gone out after him.
This is a faint picture of what takes place with the sinner saved through grace. He is washed, sanctified, adopted, made an heir of God—taken from the lowest, and set amongst the highest. O dear young friends, how wondrous are God’s ways of mercy and grace!
Then within His home He led me,
Brought me where the feast was spread,
Made me eat with Him, my Father,
I who begged for bondsman’s bread.
Not a suppliant at His gateway
But a son within His home;
To the love, the joy, the singing,
To the glory I am come.
ML 06/11/1916