NOT a breath of air stirred the leaves of the palm trees, and the Indian sun streamed down on the bungalow where the missionary sat; and as he looked on the burnt-up garden, he thought of the poor heathen around him, whose hearts seemed as dry and barren as the ground before him. He knelt in prayer for them, and a few minutes afterwards he heard a knock at the door, and found a little dark-skinned girl standing in the passage. At first she was too frightened to speak; but after encouragement she said her mother had once lived at Bombay, and had heard there about a great God of the white people, who was good and kind, and cared for children. Three weeks previously her mother had died suddenly, and in her last words to the orphan had told her to try to find out more about this God.
Tears fell fast as she told how she had begged and prayed the great idol in the sacred grove to let her find this new God. “I’ve asked, and asked,” she said, “but he won’t give me anything. I don’t think he wants me to be happy or contented.”
Can you not imagine how overjoyed the missionary was to tell the little girl about his Heavenly Father, who loves to bless His children and give them true happiness? He read to her this text: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” At first she could not believe that this great God could love her, and that He would give her eternal life without any offering or sacrifice on her part. She had been taught all her life to offer to her idols, who are not expected to give unless they are well rewarded. The missionary’s wife took the child into the house, and taught her about Jesus, and very soon she came to Him, and He gave her eternal life.
That little girl has now grown into a tall woman. She is a Bible woman, and has twenty little native children under her care, whom she is trying to lead to the Good Shepherd. At the end of her schoolroom, in large red and black letters, is the text: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom;” and she often tells how, more than twenty years ago, the missionary taught her those words in that same house, and what a great blessing they have been to her.
Many white children in England think very much the same as did the little dark-skinned heathen girl; they think they must beg and beseech God before He will answer them, and that unless they pray long and earnestly enough, they cannot be saved. They forget that Jesus said, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It would be wages if we had to pray and toil to get it; it is a gift if we do nothing for it, and have only to accept it. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).)
An Italian fable tells of a lame boy who asked an olive tree to drop some of its fruit to him, promising if it did he would not let his little, brother break its branches any more. “I never stoop to bargain: I grow great by giving,” said the tree, as it showered down more olives than the lad could carry. Just so is it with God. He will not sell; He will not barter the priceless possession of His goodness; “eternal life is the gift of God.”