The children in today’s picture are helping themselves to the good things in the basket. Hungry, and seeing food that looks so good, they cannot resist the temptation to take some. They ought to be taking it home to mother instead. She would then give them their share. But they are just like many other children, and older people too, who sometimes yield to temptation.
Adam and Eve, the first man and woman who ever lived in this big world, were tempted to eat the fruit God had told them not to eat. They disobeyed God, and had to be put out of the garden of Eden.
Their children and grandchildren inherited the same sinful nature, and so on down through all the generations to our own. And “the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
Dear reader, no matter how good you think you are, you belong to the race of Adam, and you are a sinner. But God loves us, poor sinners, and does not want us to die in our sins. He does not want us to be lost forever.
So, at a terrible cost, He provided a way of salvation. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the righteous, to die on the cross. Jesus gave His life a ransom for our sins that we might escape the punishment we deserved.
As Adam brought death into the world, so Christ has brought salvation and life eternal to all who believe in Him.
If you are saved, it is not because you deserve salvation, or have earned it. It is the gift of God.
I trust that many of you young readers have accepted God’s wonderful gift, and know Jesus as your Saviour.
If you know Him and love Him, you will try to please Him. You will ask Him to keep you from temptation, and make you obedient children, —not doing the things that would displease your parents, as the children in the picture are doing.
ML 08/16/1931