I WILL tell you first about the youngest, whose name was Anna, she loved the Lord from the time she knew right from wrong. When her mother used to call the children at 7 o’clock in the evening to go to bed, little Anna would run at once, and. getting on mamma’s knee would say, “Now mamma tell me something about Jesus before I go to bed.” And once or twice when mamma was called away by people coming in, and she left it to the nurse to put the little ones to bed, when she afterwards went to see her darlings, she found her little Anna weeping, because she had not heard as usual about her dear Lord Jesus.
Every morning after breakfast, mamma used to read the Bible with her children, and one morning when reading about our Saviour’s cruel death on the cross, to save us from our sins, and from the dreadful doom of the wicked, who won’t believe what God says to them, she exclaimed with much feeling:
“O! mamma, how much Jesus loved us; nobody could persuade themselves to die for another, except Jesus.”
When the weather was pleasant the children used to walk in the fields, and along the edge of the woods with their mother; they often gathered wild flowers, and Anna sometimes brought one to her mother, saying, “See what a beautiful flower God has made.” She appeared to see God in everything. When passing through a field where there were sheep, she would remark, “How very good of God to make wool grow on the sheep, to make nice warm clothes for us.”
One day, when the little girls were walking along the road, each holding one of her mother’s hands, their mother spoke to them, of the duty and privilege of praying to and praising God, at all times, and in all places. What she said was intended for Ellen, who was twenty months older than Anna. She thought Anna was too young to act on what she said, but she was quite mistaken, for she observed her go into a room and fasten the door inside, once, twice, sometimes three times a day, and when she noticed her coming out, her little face beamed with pleasure. This was going on for some time, when a circumstance occurred which made it necessary for her mother to speak to her about it. When asked why she shut herself into the room, she hung her head and blushed; but when urged to answer she said,
“It was to pray to God.”
When asked what she prayed for (how thankful that mother’s heartfelt to the Lord who had taught her dear child such precious truth), she answered.
“I pray to Him to teach me by His Spirit about Jesus, and to make me fit for heaven.”
Little Anna prayed also for others, and once when her mother was sick in bed and the nurse had put her and her little brother to bed, Anna sent Ellen to her mother to say, “that she hoped she would be better in the morning,” having brought back her mother’s answer. Anna sent her sister again to tell her, “that she was praying to God to make her well.”
One time when Anna was ill and suffering pain, she asked her mother to pray to God to take away her pains, which she did in a few short sentences—in a few minutes the dear child said,
“Mamma, God has made me better.” She soon fell asleep, and the first thing she said when she waked in the morning was,
“God has made me quite well.”
I will now tell you something of Ellen. When she was about nine years old, one morning, the children having repeated some verses of the Bible which they had committed to memory, and a portion of Scripture being read, their mother spoke to them of the Lord’s coming to take His people up to meet Him in the air; and she said,
“We don’t know when He may come; He might come even now, while we are speaking to each other.”
Ellen was greatly frightened, for she knew that she was a sinful little girl, and not fit to meet the Lord, and she trembled lest the Lord should come, and leave her behind. For some days she was very miserable; but God was so good to her. He made her feel and know that “the blood of Jesus Christ,” God’s own Son, had washed away all her sins. She was then very happy. The two little girls loved to talk to each other about Jesus.
Why have I told you all this, dear children? Because I hope the Lord may bless it to you, and make you long to be His dear children. Jesus wants you to be saved. He wants you to be happy. He wants you to live with Him in heaven, where all the dear children who love the Lord will be, whose sins were all forgiven, because Jesus died and shed His blood on the cross for them. When He was on earth, “He took little children in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.”
ML 06/25/1922