A lawyer had a cage hanging on the wall in his office in which was a starling. He had taught this little bird to answer when he called it. A boy named Charlie came in one morning. The lawyer left him there while he went out for a little. When he returned, the bird was gone. He asked the boy,
“Where is my bird?” Charlie replied that he did not know anything about it. The gentleman said, “But Charlie, that bird was in the cage when I went out. Now tell me where it is.”
Charlie declared he knew nothing about it; that the cage door was open, and he guessed the bird had flown out. The lawyer called out,
“Starling, where are you?” The bird spoke right out of the boy’s pocket, and said,
“Here I am.”
Ah, what a fix the boy was in. He had stolen the bird, and had hid it, as he thought, in a safe place, and told two lies to conceal his guilt, and now comes a voice from his own pocket that told the story of his guilt. It was testimony that could not be denied. The boy had nothing to say. The bird was a living witness that he was a thief and a liar.
The boy Charlie is only one of millions in this world. Examples of him are to be found in all classes of people; young, old, male and female. Every human being has a conscience, placed by the living God deep clown in the bosom of the soul.
As the bird answered when the lawyer called it, so when God speaks by His Word, every conscience answers, telling the same story of guilt and rebellion against Him,
Yet how strange that men, boys, women and girls, deceived by sin and Satan, foolishly think they can hide their guilt, and like Charlie make one excuse after another which, if honestly faced in God’s presence, are but wicked lies. Ah, clear reader, does not your conscience, in response to God’s convicting word, respond,
“I am here, guilty of thousands of sins?” This is the language of a repenting soul, and nothing short of this will satisfy a holy God. Then, turning to the Saviour, Jesus, find in Him the Refuge for your helpless soul.
Refuse Christ, and His precious atoning blood, and throughout the endless ages of eternity you shall learn the truthfulness of this very solemn verse,
By accepting Christ as your personal Saviour, you can sing with the redeemed.
ML 10/04/1936