OUR picture illustrates what faith is. The little girl is stretching out her hand to receive the letter which the postman is stooping down to give her. When she has received the letter it will be her very own, and all the kind things which her father has said to her in it will be stored up in her heart.
The bible is God’s letter to us; it is full of the story of His love; in it the way of salvation and of happiness are plainly and simply told. And all its blessings are ours the moment we stretch out the hand of faith, and take God’s word as His very words to us. But is this letter for you? A little boy once ran up to a postman, saying, “Please give me a letter.” “I do not know you, little sir,” replied the good-natured man, smiling. “Do you know that I am the Queen’s servant, and may only give away my letters to the people they are meant for?” So the little boy ran back to his nurse, not very happy.
But God’s messengers carry about His letter of love, and at God’s bidding ask sinners to receive His word, so that you need not ask, as did the little boy, “Is it for me?” for God’s letter is addressed to you― “Unto you is this word of salvation sent” is written on the envelope as it were, and “whosoever” will may be saved.
Some time ago the postman brought me a letter, but I said, “No, I will not take in that letter.” I knew who sent it, and because I knew it would be filled with bad things I would not receive it. But God’s word is full of good things Yet how many treat God’s love in a similar way: they will not take it in. They will not receive His mercy! As it was with a sick man not long since, to whom a Christian said, “I have a message of love from God to you.” “Go away,” cried the man; “I neither want you nor any like you who talk about God.” This was a knock at the door of the heart, and an offering of the letter, but a sad, sad refusal to have it.
I saw a man going to every house in a town with letters, and several said to him, “As it is for everybody, it is too common for me.” So because they were so proud they would not receive the man’s letters. And God has the self-same word for rich and poor, old and young. “There is no difference” God says in His word. And pride often―very, very often―prevents the sinner being saved. Such as feel their sins long for God’s word of love, and to them the bible is most precious. When we receive a letter from one we love, do not we value it? and have you not said sometimes, “This is my own precious letter?” Have you said of the bible this is God’s own word to me? To my own very self. It is His word about His love to me; about the blood of Jesus that was shed for me; about my sins, all washed away in that blood. This is like the little girl taking the letter, reading it, and making her own all that her father says to her in it.
Has your heart taken in God’s great love to sinners? Have you stretched out your hand of faith and laid hold of His word as a word for you, your own self, so that you can say “God is my God, and Jesus is my Saviour?”