A RIDDLE.
MORE than 2500 years ago there lived in a small town a boy, who feared God, and loved His word. The whole world had given itself over to idolatry and to open godlessness. Therefore God could have nothing to do with it. But He had chosen out of it one people, to show by it that He is the eternal and true God. For this people He had had a book written, in which great things were promised, and to this people He gave a country, more fruitful and more pleasant than any other country. The people were few, and the country was not large.
God generally chooses small things show forth His power and His goodness in an especial way. He cared for this people. He gave them good laws. But, alas! They made an abuse of God’s goodness, and became, if possible, more wicked than the others. By degrees they forgot God so completely, that, when the little boy, of whom I am going to tell you, was born, there was not one copy to be found of the book, that God had written. And there were then but very few in the whole country, who had any love or fear for God. For this cause God decided to bring down a terrible judgment on this people. But there must be somebody who could bring a message from Him to the people, and tell them what was going to happen. There were many learned men in those days. But God did not choose them. He chose a little boy.
I have often thought, that God loved the little boy more than any of the others, and for this reason chose him to bring the message.
But when God told this boy, that he must leave his father’s house and stand before kings and priests, he was very much afraid.
“What can I do?” said he. “I am but a child. I cannot speak before these great men.”
But God would not deprive him of the honor of serving Him. He told the boy that all those great and important men could do nothing to him, “for,” said He, “I am with thee to deliver thee.”
It appears, that our boy from that moment was as brave as a lion. He met many hindrances in his path, and many evil men did him as much harm as they could, yet he did not once forsake God, or keep silence for fear of man.
What became of him? Hear his own words, spoken when he was an old man; after that he had undergone so much suffering, that stronger than he would have been crushed by it; after his message had been rejected, and he himself mocked and despised by those who should have honored him; after he had been in the stocks, had been thrown twice into prison and often in danger of his life; after all that, in the midst of a heartrending lamentation, he says to us: “The Lord is my portion, The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning.”
Can you now tell who this little prophet was, who was called so young, and who served his Master so faithfully?
ML-08/29/1920