IT WAS at a children’s meeting one night and supper was being served to a number of hungry boys and girls. Afterward there was a gospel address and some hymn singing.
Among those present that night was an old Christian, Mr. Jones, who made his living going about mending pots and pans and other things.
“May I say a word to the children about what is in this bundle?” he asked. Permission being given, he went up to the platform, with a very happy smile, and began to unwrap the brown paper covering. Then appeared a queer shaped object done up in newspaper. After that a clean cloth was carefully unwound. Amid perfect silence, the old fingers loosened yet one more piece of paper. Then upon the snowy cloth he laid — a large, rusty, dirty old kettle!
“Now, children,” said old Mr. Jones with a smile, “I will tell you the story of this rusty old thing. One day I was on my rounds shouting, ‘Pots to mend, bring them here; tins to solder, out they come.’ Then up runs pretty little Peggy Patten with this big tin kettle. I takes it, looks at its bent spout, and a crooked handle, I taps the bottom and the sides, then I says quite grave, ‘Tell your grana, Peggy, that it is past mending altogether. She needs a new kettle.’ "
The old man continued, “Young friends, Peggy, grandmother, and you and me, are just like this old tin kettle. We may patch and tinker up our crooked selves, a bit, stop a small hole here, solder up that big crack there, quite clever and educated like, but we’ll never, never make ourselves fit for the eyes of a holy God. Sin has eaten right into us: our only hope is in being “made new,” and in being renewed by the Holy Spirit.
“The Lord Jesus has told us ‘ye must be born again.’ That’s gospel truth: ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.’ As sure as a kind friend gave Peggy’s grandmother a brand new kettle, so sure will God give you a new heart, a new life, a new nature, and a new hope for time and eternity. All these and more are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take Him as your Saviour now, and you will enter upon that new life tonight.”
ML-10/29/1972