I AM going to tell you of a little girl, whom I we will call Susie, who still lives, and as she is a constant reader of FAITHFUL WORDS, it is thought best not to publish her real name. Little Susie was the eldest but one of a large family, and, we are glad to say, felt never so happy as when she could be of some use to her mother, and of course she found many opportunities for usefulness. Susie wanted to love the Lord Jesus, and often tried to please Him; but, do you know, she had one very great fault, which often led her into trouble, and caused her friends great anxiety. Susie was very self-willed, and therefore often disobedient, especially in what she considered trifling things. In giving you the history of one day’s doings, we shall be able to show how one act of disobedience could cause a whole family a great deal of distress.
So I hope all children who read this will obey their parents in the least things; for the Bible says, “He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.”
The father of Susie was a grocer in a town about one hundred miles from London. At the time of which we are writing little Susie was about five years of age, but as she had three little brothers younger than herself she thought she was almost a woman, and would sometimes inform the servant that she “thought it quite time those children went to bed” — of course not including herself. When the girl was busy Susie was sometimes allowed to hold baby, so of course she felt herself very important.
It was a very busy morning; a poor woman who sometimes helped in the sewing was stitching away vigorously. The servant was hard at work as usual, and Susie’s mother was bathing baby, who was not well. All at once Susie heard her mother say to the servant, “Oh, Mary! we cannot go on for the want of some more calico, and I do not know how to spare you to get it.” Then up jumped Susie, who was playing with little Herbert. “Oh! mamma, do please let me go; I went with Mary for the last, and I know the shop very well.”
Her mother smiled at the sparkling eyes and excited manner of her little daughter, but looked at the child doubtfully. “My dear, I should be afraid to trust you alone, and neither Mrs. Jordan nor Mary can be spared, and your brother is at school.”
“Mamma, do trust me this once. You shall see how quick I will be, and I will not go near any horses,” promised the child; for Susie thought how grand it would feel to go shopping all by herself.
“If my little girl will only make haste, and not stay to look in the windows, there will be no danger,” replied Susie’s mother; and this little Susie promised to do, so taking her little bag, with a purse and the money, she started on her errand.
“Mamma says children should do as their father and mother tells them; and that is one way of pleasing the great God; so I will not stay on the way, but will be very good,” said Susie to herself.
Susie reached the shop, paid the money, received the calico, and was starting back at a run, when something in a window attracted her attention. “Oh! what a lovely large doll,” she exclaimed; “I must just have one peep at it. What dear blue eyes and pretty hair, and what a beautiful dress! I must have my doll’s next dress made like that.” So Susie forgot her mother’s order, not to stay looking in the windows. She intended only to have one peep and then to run on; but Susie was passionately fond of dolls, and the temptation to stay a little longer was great. Ah! dear young friends, never take even one look at a forbidden object. To do wrong one minute, makes it quite easy to do wrong half an hour; and that makes it easier to sin a day at a time; and so we may sin our life away, unless arrested by divine mercy. Always shun what are called little sins! In the sight of God, all sin is great! and no sin can be little.
After wishing that her mother could buy her the beautiful doll, Susie began to remember that she had promised her mother not to look in the windows; and here she was acting an untruth! So she started off down the first street, and ran as fast as she could for a long time, till at last she had to stop for want of breath. After resting a time, Susie started again, and did not stay, until, weary and puzzled, she sank upon a doorstep, and began to think. “I wonder where the turning is, I don’t remember seeing these houses before. What if I came down the wrong street; there were two streets by the shop where that pretty doll was. Oh! dear, I wish I had not stayed to look in the window I but it does no good to sit here. Mamma wants the calico, and I must go.”
So the child rose from the doorstep, where she had been sitting; but, instead of asking someone to tell her the right way, she kept walking on down the same street, staring sometimes at the people she passed, and wishing they knew how lonely she felt. But she did not like to speak to strangers, for she was timid and shy. At last, bitterly stole over her young mind the conviction that she was indeed lost, for she was getting out of the town; the houses were not nearly so close together, and looked very strange to the little girl, who peered anxiously into the face of every person she met, to see if they looked kind; for then Susie felt she could tell them she had lost her way. But to her fancy, each one looked busy, or as if thinking of something; and when the poor child tried to summon courage to speak to any one, they would pass by without so much as a look, much less a word.
And all this time, our little stray lamb was weeping quietly, and longing to get somewhere, all by herself, where she could unburden her poor broken heart. Some little reader may think Susie a very silly child, since she did not inquire the way home at once; but twenty-five years ago, children had not the freedom of manners which they have now. So poor Susie still dragged her aching legs along; her bosom was wet with the many tears which had been coursing down, when no one seemed to be looking. She was now on a common, about two miles from the town, and dropping down upon a bank, with her face hidden by her pinafore, the child gave way to a passion of sobs and tears, talking to herself all the time. “Oh! dear, dear! I shall never see them at home any more. I would ask the great God to take me back, but perhaps He would not hear; for the Bible says, ‘Children, obey your parents,’ and oh, mamma darling! I shall never see you again!”
This thought was too much for the already over-excited child, who now lay upon the grass, too exhausted and stupefied to know that a gentleman on horseback had stopped, and in a loud voice was asking why the child was lying there.
Hastily rising, Susie gave one look into the face of the gentleman, and in a despairing voice exclaimed, “I’ve lost my way, please, sir.”
“Poor little dear!” replied the gentleman. “Did you come through that turnpike gate yonder? Well, then, you must go right through it, back again, and ask the first person you see to take you home. Will you?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Susie; and, added the kind gentleman as he galloped away, “I wish I could take you myself.”
The little girl walked back through the turnpike, intending to do just as the gentleman had bidden her, but the minds of the child was so bewildered by excitement, and her eyes so swollen with crying, that she could not recollect which way she had come, but wandered on again in a hopeless, aimless way for several more weary hours.
Tears seemed all gone now. Susie had not tasted food since morning, yet she felt no hunger, although already the shades of evening were beginning to fall. One only thought occupied the mind of the little wanderer, and it was a hope to find a quiet spot and there lie down and die! At last the weary child laid herself under a hedge, and tried to compose herself to some sort of rest. But her little brain was too excited, and she fell to wondering if they were looking for her at home, and visions of a cozy room, a pleasant fire, and a well-arranged tea table, passed quickly through the active mind of the little girl. She was still full of conjectures, when a woman who was carrying a basket stopped, and shaking Susie said, “Little girl what are you waiting for; isn’t it time you were at home?”
“I am lost,” said Susie sadly, with trembling lip.
“Poor little crater!” exclaimed the old woman, taking the child in her arms and gazing kindly in her face; “come with me, my little lamb.”
Susie heaved a great sigh of relief, and trusted the kind-hearted woman at once, who carried the little girl into the bar of a public-house not far distant. “Here,” said she to the landlord, “I have found this poor little child on the common; she seems to be half dead, and says she lives in K —, and has been lost since morning! Do you think anybody here would know her, or take her home?”
The child shrank behind the shawl of the woman, as all the men declared they did not know where to take her, until in the parlor they at last found a traveler, who questioned Susie, and then declared he knew her parents well. So said the kind man, “I shall take her at once, for they will be in a dreadful way.”
Susie’s heart beat high with hope as she willingly allowed the stranger to carry her, until they saw the lights of the town; then the kind man was highly amused by a request from Susie to be allowed to walk, and her telling him she knew the way now, and would not trouble the gentleman to go any farther!
My readers can guess what joy there was when the kind stranger walked into the shop belonging to Susie’s father leading the little girl by the hand. There stood her mother, half fainting with sorrow, and there also was the kind pastor, who had all the afternoon been helping to find Susie. Not one of them ever forgot that day! and on the following Lord’s Day the minister preached about finding the lost sheep: “Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep which was lost.”
And when Susie heard him speak of the joy of angels over the repentance of a sinner, and of the joy of parents at the return of a lost child, the little girl looked up with tears and prayed that she might never be a wanderer from her Father’s house above.
Dear children, we have all gone astray from God! From our birth until now we have wandered in the paths of sin, which lead to destruction. But the loving Father in Heaven has sent after us His Son, to serve and to save that which was lost! He came after us; He died to save us! and to save us from sin, and the disobedience which in us all naturally, for we are all born ire sin. Jesus is the name of the Son of God, He will save all who believe what He says, and who trust themselves to Him.
We cannot take ourselves home to God, but Jesus Christ, the “Son of Man, came to seek and to save the lost!” Like the kind man who would not leave the proud little girl until he saw her safe home; so our tender faithful Jesus will never leave nor forsake us, until He has brought us safe through all the trials and difficulties of this world, until we are safe home in Heaven. Dear children, and whoever else reads this story will you let Jesus lead you home?