One, day my father brought home a magnet that looked very much like a little horseshoe, and gave it to us to play with. We used to have great fun with it, making, it pick up nails and screws and needles and all sorts of pieces of steel, but I think the thing I remember best about it was a lesson he once taught us about it.
He got some needles and some pins, and mixed them all up together, and then took the magnet and held it over the top of them. All the needles jumped up to meet the magnet, and all the pins were left bind. Can you tell me why this was, children?
O, you say, the needles were steel, and the pins were brass. Yes, that was it, though they both looked the same color outside, the inside of the pins was not right to be attracted by the magnet.
Now you know, dear children, if you and I are to go to be with the Lord Jesus, we must be right inside. We must be born again. Last night some children were singing that hymn,
We know there’s a bright and a glorious home,
Away in the heaven high,
Where all the redeemed shall with Jesus dwell;
But will you be there and I?”
I said to a little girl, “Will you be there, Flo?”
“O, yes,” she said, “I’ve always been a good girl. I’ll be there!”
She looked all right outside, but she was
There was another difference between the needles and the pins. The pins all had heads and the needles all had eyes. Now that is just the difference between a great many people who are not saved, and those who are. You know we use our heads for thinking, don’t we? So some child says,
“I think the way to get to heaven is by being good,” and so they use their heads and don’t get to heaven, because God says, “There is none that doeth good, no not one,” and instead of going God’s way, they go the way they think is right.
Now some other child, perhaps, has all eye—an eye of faith—and uses it to look to Jesus. God says,
“Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” Isaiah 45:22. I daresay you remember how, when the people in the wilderness were bitten with the fiery serpents, all they had to do was to look to the serpent of brass on the pole, and they were made better (Numbers 21). So Jesus says,
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even Cu must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:14-15.
That is how we look to Jesus, just believe in Him. We trust Him to take us to heaven, instead of trusting to what we think.
And now, dear child, which are you like, the pin that looks all right inside, but is not right inside? Are you trusting to being good, or something else you think of; or are you like the needle, with an eye to look to Jesus. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you eternal life?
“There is life in a look at the crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee; Then look sinner look, unto Him and be saved, Unto Him who was nailed to the tree. Look, look, look and live!”
ML 05/29/1938