I REMEMBER a story I heard when I was a boy. It was about a little girl who had been left alone in the house. Her mother, who was out in the yard, heard the child screaming, as if in great pain and terror. Running into the house she saw her little girl wrapped in flames, her dress having caught fire from the stove. The mother thought only of her suffering child, and through her efforts the flames were soon extinguished, the little girl escaping with a few slight burns.
But the poor mother was sadly burned; and when she recovered, her once fair face was covered with unsightly scars.
Time passed on; the little girl grew to be a young woman. One day when in a large store with her mother, she met a friend; this friend asked her if this woman was her mother. She replied, “No.” How sad to think she would deny the mother whose face had been marred in her efforts to save her life! Should she not have been proud of every scar on that dear mother’s face?
I think I hear some of my little readers say, “For shame!” Oh I but wait a moment children, those of you who believe in Jesus, Have you been asked by one of your friends if you were a Christian, and have you answered, “No,” because you were afraid your friend would laugh at you? Did you have a chance yesterday to tell some friend of Jesus and His love, and did you do it? Did you meet some children on the way to Sunday school and ask them to go with you?
If you did speak of Jesus as the sinner’s Friend, dear children, if you did bring some little ones with you to Sunday school, you will receive blessing from God, both now and in that coming day, for He always sees what is done for Him; and He never forgets.
If you did not speak for Him, if you did not ask the little ones to come to Sunday school, I would ask if you are proud of the One whose hands and feet were pierced for you; whose brow was pressed with the thorny crown; whose side was pierced with the soldier’s spear?
I ask you again, Are you proud of Him?
You sometimes read of little children who love to speak for Jesus, and you wish that you were like them, but you fail. Do you know why? It is because you are trying in your own strength. If you believe in Jesus and wish to be more like Him, go to Him in prayer and ask Him to make you more like Himself. Do not ask once only, but every time you pray, and may that be very often! If you speak for Him, and do all you can to please Him, you will receive a reward; but if you go with those who do not love the Lord Jesus, and enjoy their company, their sports, and their games, you deny Him, as the girl denied her mother.
Which will you do?
F. C. T.
ML 08/12/1900