Two little downcast faces, the shrill tone’s of Nurse K—, and the pretty calendar torn to shreds in the waste-paper basket at once told me that something was wrong, as I entered the nursery one morning early in January. The story was soon told:—
A week previous the nurse had brought in the calendar in question, and hung it upon the nursery wall, with strict injunctions to the children not to touch it.
However, the elder of the two, a bright little fellow of eight, in a fit of anger, seized the almanac, and with the help of his sister, it was soon destroyed.
Now, fearing the consequences, they both denied having had anything to do with it; and it was long before I could induce them to confess their, fault.
Then with a few words as to the serious nature of the sin they had committed, and an entreaty to confess it to the Lord, and seek His forgiveness, instead of covering it up, the matter apparently was forgotten.
But not so. A few days later I was speaking of the Lord’s return, how He was coming very shortly to take His own to be “forever” with Himself, and added,
“This very day we may hear the assembling shout—
Here a little voice interrupted, saying,
“If Jesus comes today, He wouldn’t take me, would He?”
“Why not, dear?” I asked.
“Because I told that untruth about the calendar.”
Ah, dear children, have you ever thought that one untruth, one angry word, one sinful deed, if unconfessed and unforgiven, is enough to shut you out from that bright home above forever?
But how blessed to know that Jesus, by His death on the cross, has opened up a way in which you and I, though sinners, can be brought to God, made “whiter than snow” through the cleansing power. o f the precious blood.
So highly does God value that work, that His word declares that “by Him” (the Lord Jesus) “all that believe are justified from all things.”
I will just put this question to you:
“If Jesus were to come today, would He take you?”
Do not throw this paper aside, thinking “nobody can be sure about that.”
If you know anything of the blessedness of “iniquities forgiven” and “sins covered,” you most surely will be among that company which shall be “forever with the Lord.”
“The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17.
“Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.” Matt. 25:13.
ML 06/06/1943