ONE day, while I was out for a walk with a friend, I saw a large clock in the distance. I at once realized that there was something wrong with this clock, for I could not tell the time by it! As we got closer, I soon saw that the clock had no hands! Then that clock seemed to teach me a lesson, for I thought, how like many boys and girls it really was! That clock may have been quite all right inside. Perhaps, if I had listened carefully, I should have heard it ticking away, but the outside was all wrong! There are many people who really love the Lord Jesus inwardly, but they have never told anybody about it. They have never confessed Him as their Savior, and so are like a good clock without any hands!
Then there is another type of clock which we see sometimes in toy shops. These are very different from the one we have been speaking about already, because they have two hands, but no works! They will never go! It is very sad to be like this sort of clock. It means that I may appear to be all right, but I lack the real source of power inside me! It is a solemn thing to go on just outwardly, when other people (and perhaps ourselves, too) may think that we belong to the Lord Jesus, when really we have never definitely put our trust in Him. Remember, that "man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
But now, there is a third type of clock and this is where the works and hands are all complete. No one can mistake a clock like this! It would surely speak to us of those people who not only know in their hearts that they belong to Jesus, but who delight to tell others about Him, so that they may be brought to know Him, too. The Scripture says, "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." If you are one of those happy people who know that Jesus has saved them, then just tell others about it, too, and be like the clocks which have hands outside as witnesses to the power which lies behind them.
G. H. S. P.