After some days God, in His infinite mercy, did make Mr. Carpenter better. His wife’s heart overflowed with thankfulness to God.
When the doctor called again, Mr. Carpenter asked if he could have his little girl back again. The doctor promised that if he continued to improve he would soon have her. After a few days the little girl was brought home to see her father but the door said the visit must be for only a few minutes. But those few minutes were filled with eternal importance. She climbed on the bed and lay down beside her father. And her father’s heart, which was at enmity with God, softened with the tenderest emotions towards his dear little daughter.
“Well, my pet,” he asked, “where have you been while I have been sick?”
“Oh,” she said, “I have been so happy; the Masons have been so good to me. Mrs. Mason has taught me to read ever so many little words.”
The father listened with delight. Then he asked, “Could you read the words on that board at the foot of my bed?”
“Oh, yes, Father, let me try,” said the little girl; and she began to spell out the words and repeat them.
“G-O-D, God, I-S, is—.” She stopped, studied the next word, and then said excitedly, “Oh, Father, I’ve got it now——GOD IS NOW HERE,” and added, “Yes, Father, so He is, and He has been here all the time you have been sick.”
“You must go now, darling,” said the father in a low choking voice. Then as the door closed upon her, a burst of tears of repentance followed. And sounds which rejoiced the angels in heaven came from that sick man’s room — sounds of prayer, sounds of deep sorrow for sin. The prayers of the loving, Christian wife were answered. Satan was taken in his own trap: the very same letters he had tempted the sinner to write, were the selfsame letters used for that sinner’s salvation! How wonderful the way in which God works!
Mr. Carpenter now called on God for mercy. He realized what it was to be a lost sinner on the way to hell; he was brokenhearted before God. Now he eagerly asked that Mr. Mason might come to see him. The mister came at once and hearing of what had happened he told Mr. Carpenter that he had simply to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for him, that the Lord Jesus bore God’s punishment against sin. Right there in his room Mr. Carpenter took Jesus for his Saviour.
ML-07/15/1962