IN a little cottage on the high road an old woman lay dying. A little girl was sitting beside her bed, reading aloud the third chapter of John. She read on until she came to the sixteenth verse, when the old woman, who had been listening intently, stopped het. “Read that verse again,” she exclaimed. The child read again those wonderful words, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“Stop!” cried the old woman. “What does ‘whosoever’ mean? Tell me what that word is.”
The child hesitated, and said she did not know; so the old woman continued in eager, tremulous tones, “I must know what ‘whosoever’ means. Go out into the road, and ask the very first person you meet what it means.”
The child ran down the stairs, and stood at the cottage gate, shading her eyes with her hand, as she looked up and down the road, but there was no one in sight. At last she noticed something coming, and as it drew nearer, she saw it was a man on horseback. She ran to meet him. Seeing the child running towards him, he reined in his horse. “Please sir,” she said, “can you tell me what ‘whosoever’ means?”
The gentleman was surprised at the strange question, and looking down at the little, eager, up-turned face, he asked her why she wanted to know; but she only repeated her question; so he replied, “It means any one that likes.”
Repeating to herself over and over the answer, “Any one that likes, any one that likes,” the little girl ran back to the cottage, and up the stairs to the room where the old woman lay dying. As she came in, the old woman raised herself, and looked towards her. “What is it? tell me quick,” she said. “He says it means ‘anyone that likes,’” replied the child. “Read the verse again, and put that in,” said the feeble voice.
The child took the Bible, and read slowly, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that ‘any one that likes’ to believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The old woman clasped her trembling hands together, and with the tears rolling down her cheeks, she exclaimed with her weak, dying voice, “Thank God I like, thank God I like!”
Reader, do you “like” to believe in God’s Son? That is the only way of salvation. God offers eternal life to all who believe in the Lord Jesus. Will you take His free gift, and join that dying woman in thanking Him?
ML 06/02/1918