SOME time ago a missionary went to the far East and toiled and prayed for the good news of salvation to be received by the poor ignorant people that surrounded him. One day a little boy in his school came to him and asked that he might read the Bible all the next day, instead of learning his usual lessons.
“Why,” asked the kind-hearted missionary, “do you wish to read the Scriptures?”
“In order to become a disciple,” answered the dear little boy.
“Do you, then, wish to become a disciple while yet so young?”
“I do,” the child replied, “because young people die as well as others; and if I should die without becoming a Christian, I should go to hell; but if I become a Christian, I have nothing to fear.”
“What sins have you done?” asked the missionary, when the dear boy replied,
“I have neglected the true God, who has kept me by night and by day, and who has fed and clothed me all my life, and I, notwithstanding, have worshipped false gods.”
O, what a touching answer, dear young leader, from a little heathen boy! His greatest sorrow was not about lying or theft or disobedience, but that he had “NEGLECTED THE TRUE GOD.”
Alas, how many thousands of boys and girls in this gospel land are daily committing this great sin, without thinking it a sin at all! God, who has given them life, and food, and raiment, and loving parents, is quite forgotten, by them; and I know right well that Satan would give a hundred toys to shut that gracious, loving God out of their thoughts and hearts.
But life, and food, and raiment are not all that God has given—He has shown His love by a far greater gift than these, even the gift of His own well-beloved Son. For sin came into this world, and death by sin, and so God in grace gave Jesus from that bright heaven above to come down here and die for us.
And was not that a great gift? And would you, dear reader, like to forget the Giver of such a gift, and live day after day neglecting such a One? Ah, no! will you reply? If God has loved me with such a love I would forget Him no longer. —How true the words of the little Burman scholar, “Young people are exposed to death as well as others!” and if you die in your sins, Jesus has said,
“Where I go ye CANNOT come.”
Would not my young reader love to spend that long, long eternity with the Lord Jesus—to sing the new song, to be in the Father’s home, to share His smile forever and forever?
O, that bright, blessed, glorious home. I am sure you would all love that, and there is but one way of securing all that blessedness; the way the dying thief got it, and went that same day into paradise; the way every ransomed soul has secured it since that memorable day; and the way in which my dear young reader may get it even now, and that is, by resting in simple faith upon God’s own testimony given to us in 1 Cor. 15:3, 43For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:3‑4), that “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again, according to the Scriptures.”
Is there some little voice asks,
“And is that all I have to do to make this great salvation mine”?
Yes, that is all. Jesus has left nothing else for you to do, for upon the cross He said,
And if He finished the work, none can add anything more.
It is now but for you to accept, the gift of God, and give all the glory to Him, for He is worthy.
ML 04/30/1933