WHAT do you see in the picture today, dear children? It looks like a doctor visiting a sick patient, doesn’t it? What a funny looking little doctor he is, with his spectacles down at the end of his nose! As he slightly stoops he feels his patient’s pulse with one hand, while in the other he holds his watch and very gravely counts the pulse beats. In his haste he has not even taken time to remove his hat!
And what a funny patient, too! Puss lying quietly in the lap of her little mistress who is holding her very carefully and tenderly. The hobby horse is thrown aside; no care can be bestowed upon him now! All faces look sober as if the case was a grave one.
Dear children, this, you know, is but a picture, and is a picture that represents some little folks at their innocent play; but it speaks to us of sickness and death, which are both sad realities. There are few homes indeed into which sickness and death have not entered.
God gives us a most solemn word when He says: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
There are two things to which I would like to call your attention, in this verse. The first is the judgment which it tells us comes after death. I want to tell you from God’s word, dear young believer, that Jesus has suffered for your sins; He has borne the judgment for you, and you will never have to come into judgment. It is only those, who do not believe in Jesus who will have to stand before the dreadful judgment bar, and hear God’s sentence of condemnation against them because of their sins.
But there is something else I would have you notice in connection with this verse. While God says it is appointed unto men once to die, He does not say it is appointed to all men to die. One day we had this verse in Sunday school and were speaking of death being appointed unto men. One of our little boys held up his hand. His teacher said, “Well, Gerald what have you to say about it?” Gerald thoughtfully replied, “We will not all die, for Jesus is coming.” Was not that a nice answer for a little boy to give? He had been learning that God had appointed to man to die, but he knew that Jesus was coming and that when He comes He will take all His own to Himself, and they will not have to go through death. Little Gerald, thinking about this, knew that all would not have to die.
If Jesus comes soon, how many of my little readers will go with Him and never have to go through death? Or if the Lord tarry, and some of you die, will it be to fall asleep in Jesus and waken in the glory; or will it be for you to pass on to that awful judgment seat of Christ, where you will be judged according to your works and then be cast into the lake of fire!
R.
ML 08/19/1900