“GOD loves you, but not your naughtiness," I said one day to a dear little girl during a conversation with her about the Lord.
A year passed away, and I was again visiting at her father's house, and saw my little friend.
“Does God love you?” I asked.
“Yes," she replied, with quiet confidence, and then added, gravely, " but He does not love my naughtiness."
"And who is the little girl with you, dear?" said I, as I saw a bright-eyed child of about five years of age standing by my little friend.
"This is cousin Carrie," she said, and presently the two little children were upon my knees, and we sat and talked of God, and of heaven.
"Well, little Carrie, and what do you know of the Lord Jesus?" I inquired.
“Oh, I know all about those things," she said quickly; “I go to the Sunday school, you know."
“Then, Carrie, you must tell me all that you know about the Lord Jesus, for that is what I love to hear."
“I do not know that I can tell you just now," she said, after a moment's pause, " but I know all about it, and I know I love Him."
" Now, Carrie, I will ask you a little question; Do you love the Lord Jesus so much that you would like to go to Him just now, or would you rather wait a long time, till you are grown up? "
The little child put her head on one side, and was very thoughtful. Presently she said, "I should like to go to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven; but I don't know—" She stopped for a moment, and then said,
“I should not like to go yet, because I don't know whether I could leave mamma and little Georgie."
“Carrie, my dear," said I, “your little answer only shows that you are like a good many grown-up persons—something is in your heart before your love to the Lord Jesus. But if you only knew how He loves you, you would not answer thus; if you only knew what pleasure He has in a little child like you, how the blessed Lord Jesus loves you, little Carrie, it would make all the difference."
Carrie became still more thoughtful. Then she suddenly exclaimed, “But I don't know that—nobody told me that—and that's the thing of it!"
So I began to
“Tell the story simply,
As to a little child,"
to this one of the Lord's little ones, of how He came from heaven, and died to save sinners, of how He lives in heaven to bless His people, and of how He is coming again to take all who are His to dwell with Him forever; and our little conversation came to an end for that day.
But the thought of the Lord so loving little Carrie filled the dear child's heart, and as she went home through the pleasant lanes and fields she talked all the way of what a wonderful thing it was that the Lord Jesus should love her, and of how she had never heard it before.
A few days afterward the little cousins were heard praying together under a hedge, for they wanted, they said, to speak to the Lord Jesus.
Little Carrie never forgot that day when she first believed how the Lord loved her; and now that years have rolled by it is our joy to see her walking before her friends as a bright Christian girl.
“We love Him because He first loved us." Remember these words of the beloved apostle John, dear children. W. G. H.