A MOTHER took her boy one day to some high hills not far from where they lived. She said to him, “There’s a boy about your size, who lives up in those hills, and I would like you to speak to him.”
The little boy called out, “I don’t like you.”
Back came the answer, “I don’t like you.”
Again he shouted, “I think you are rude.”
At once came the reply, “I think you are rude.”
Then seeing that her little son did not like this, the lady said, “Say something kind instead.”
So this time he called out, “I’ll lend you some of my toys.”
The boy hidden in the hills replied, “I’ll lend you some of my toys.”
Then again, “I would like to come and play with you.”
As quick as thought came back the words, “I would like to come and play with you.”
Long before this, I can hear some of you say, “Why, it was only an echo.”
Right, it was only an echo, but even an echo can teach us some things that may help us all our lives if we will only listen.
Just as there came back to our young friend exactly the words he called out to the hillside, so you are going to get out of your life just what you put into it.
If you live without God and Christ, if you choose to be idle and selfish, with no care or thought for others, that is all in the years to come that life will hold for you.
But if, on the other hand, while still boys and girls, you hear and obey the call of the Lord Jesus, and seek to follow Him, your lives are going to be filled with many kind and noble deeds. Life will hold for you many joys and blessings from God Himself. And not this life only, but a long and blest eternity with the Lord Jesus in the Father’s house above will be your portion forever. Soon the Lord will come to call all His own away from earth to be with Himself. Then everything done for Him down here, every word spoken for Jesus, and every thought of Him, will have its reward in that day.
He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee
Like as a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities all them that are His—
Thinks of their needs, remembers their weakness;
Strong to protect, and tender He is.
Like as a mother comforts her darling,
Answers his crying with kind, loving tone,
Folds in her arms and carries and soothes him—
So the Lord loves and comforts His own.
Yet even they may fail or forsake us,
But as the heavens above us for height,
God’s perfect love, eternal, unchanging,
Never forgets by day or by night.
ML-09/21/1969