YOU cannot pass over without paying,” a man cried out, who was sitting in a small house close to the entrance of the bridge. “No one can cross over without paying.”
“But we have no money!”
“Well, children, I can’t help that. The ordinance forbids anyone passing over without paying.”
“But we want to go home.”
“Give, then, your pennies.”
“We have no pennies.—Must we stay here all night?
“O! what will our parents say?” and the children began to cry.
A man, who also wanted to cross the bridge, went to the little house, laid down his money, and took some steps forward, when he noticed the weeping children.
He stood still, spoke kindly to them, and was soon made acquainted with the cause of their tears.
He sat down next to them, and asked them: “My little friends, do you know the way to heaven?”
“The way to heaven!” they answered in astonishment.
“Yes.”
“The way to heaven! Well, sir, is that not prayer?” said one of them.
“Prayer?’ But when you asked the bridge-keeper to let you pass over the bridge, did he allow you?”
“No, for we are still here. Then perhaps it is tears?”
“But it seems to me, that you are weeping, and have your tears opened the gate of the bridge for you?”
“No, sir! but our asking, and our tears are still a proof that we want to cross the bridge and go home!”
“That’s true, but you are still at this side. What is necessary for you to get to the other side?”
“Well, sir, to pay the money.”
“And can’t you do that?”
“We haven’t a cent!”
“So you need somebody who will pay it instead of you.”
“O! sir, could you not do it?”
“Yes, my little friends, I could do it.
But it must be somebody who will do it.”
“O! you will too, won’t you, sir?”
“Yes, dear children, I can do it, and I will do it.”
The gentleman went back to the little house and paid for the children, who joyfully went over the bridge with him, thanking him again and again.
“Listen, my little friends!” said he, when they got to the other side, “you haven’t told me yet, what the way to heaven is.”
“O! yes, that’s true, sir, we forgot all about it.”
“And yet,” said one of them, a little boy, “it is something we ought to know. I should like to know the way.”
“O,” said the other, “didn’t Jesus say: I am the way?”
“Yes, my child! So you kn6w the way, but are you walking in it? Just now you knew the way home. but you didn’t get there.”
“O, because the barrier was closed.” “And what is the barrier that shuts out heaven from us?”
“Our sins, I think.”
“Yes, our sins; we have, through our sins, a large debt towards God, and we have nothing to pay. How is the Lord Jesus the way to heaven for us? What has He done for us?”
“He gave up His life,” said one of the boys.
“He died for us,” said another.
“He was crucified for sinners,” added a third.
“Are you then pardoned?”
“O, I don’t know about that,” said one of the children.
“You don’t know? But how can you believe that Jesus died for sinners, and you who are a sinner, do not believe, that He died for you, and opened the way to heaven. for you?”
“You mean, sir, that in the same way that you paid for us, so that we might pass over the bridge, so also We can go to heaven, because Jesus died for sinners?”
“Exactly so.”
“O! sir, what a happy thing!”
“Do you then believe that I paid for you?”
“But we saw it, the gate was opened, and we passed through it.”
“Well, now, my child, if you, through faith, look to Jesus, who died on the cross to pay our debt to God and to open the barrier that shut us out from heaven, then you are saved. The one, that through faith understands this truth, has the forgiveness of his sifts, great and many though they be; he is then cleansed’ by the blood of Jesus, and the way to heaven is open to him.”
“O, sir! how happy I am to ‘know this.”
“Is that so, in little friend? Then I hope, that from this day forth you will live for Him, who loved you so.”
“O! sir, how fortunate that you came here, and that you were so good as to tell us all this. Many thanks!”
The children went joyfully on their way.
Messages of God’s Love 6/19/1921