THERE was a great man who died, and after his death one of his servants said to another servant, “And where do you think our master went when he died?”
“Why, to heaven, of course,” was the reply.
“I think not,” said the first, shaking his head doubtfully.
“And why do you think not,” inquired the other, “was he not a good man, and do not all good men go to heaven?”
“Well, whenever our master was thinking of taking a journey to any place, he always talked about it a long time before, and made all necessary preparations before he started. But I never heard him say a word about going to heaven, and I am sure he never made any preparation.”
Children, we often hear it said that good people go to heaven when they die, and many people think that they are quite prepared to go there because they have been good during their life.
Well, if we are all bad, if we have all sinned, as God says we have, was it not exceedingly good of Him to send His Son into the world to suffer and die for us that we might live through Him?
Yes, indeed, it was marvelous goodness, but it was more than that. It was LOVE. And the reason that people are not saved is that they do not believe the love that God has toward them.
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”
This old man was not prepared to go to heaven, for he did not know the way. He did not know Jesus, and He is “the way.”
We must go to Jesus during our life, if we want to go to heaven when we reach the end of life. And going to heaven is simply going to be where Jesus is.
We cannot go to heaven just as we are, but we can go to Jesus, now, just as we are, for salvation, and He will make us fit for heaven by washing us from our sins in His own blood.
Perhaps, some children who read this paper may wonder how they can come to Jesus, now that He has gone up into heaven. We will refer to one verse of Scripture, which will make it clear.
By this we see that coming to Jesus and believing on Him are the same thing. When we hear His word and believe it, then we have believed on Him, then we have come to Him just as really as though He were here on earth in person.
His word invites us to come to Him; and it also declares that, if we do come to Him, He will in no wise cast us out.
ML 01/25/1903