YOU don’t get much for nothing, I’ll say you don’t,” said a little fellow, as he dived his hands down into both his pockets to see if there were, by some oversight, a little coin in one corner, but the discovery not turning out as he would have wished, a disconsolate look passed over his face, especially as he passed some stores with very tempting wares; and he could not help comparing himself to his master’s boxes that now and then went to the station with the large letters on them, “returned empty.”
He and a companion had been strolling in a park, and when weary he sat down to rest. Being a little boy from the country, and as he saw a choice of seats everywhere—the hard straight-backed wooden one, the more easy chair which one might have to oneself without being squeezed by a neighbor, and lastly, the more luxurious arm-chair, in which a boy might delight himself, he chose the latter, and certainly, by the manner and attitude in which the seat was occupied, you might have supposed the occupier to have been saying to himself,—
“I’m monarch of all I survey.”
But if he did so, he was awakened from his pleasant dreams by an unexpected person standing before him, and with a demand of “Tuppence, please.”
“Tuppence?” questioned the lounger, “what for?”
“For the arm-chair, sir,” replied the man who demanded the fee for the use of the chairs.
“Can’t I sit down where I like?” demanded the young autocrat, who thought he had but to choose and take.
“Certainly, sir,” replied the man, laying emphasis on the last word, “only you have to pay for it; penny for Windsor chairs—tuppence for arm-chairs.”
There was no getting away from the fact, but, terrible discovery! the pockets were empty, and if the elder one had not wherewith to meet the demand, I don’t know what might have happened. But the claims were duly met, and, as I said, the young gentleman gave expression to his feelings in the most decided manner, by saying,
“You don’t get much for nothing; I’ll say you don’t.”
No, my little friend, not even rest in a park, unless you take it very rough-and-ready; and the little adventure helped me to remind him that there was only real rest for soul and body without money and without price. Yet, to that place of rest, poor weary ones are invited, and then they want to “do” or “give”, whereas Jesus says, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” And it is not until we find our pockets empty, and how helpless we are to do anything, that we really consent to the help of another.
Remember, the rest that is offered to you, is without money and without price.
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isa. 55:11Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1).
ML 01/16/1927