How is it With You?

A MOTHER and her little girls were playing some years ago at hide and seek together. When again it was the mother’s turn to hide, she having already tried several places only to be found out by the sharp eyes and ready wit of the little ones, sought a more secure hiding-place. A large empty packing-case stood upside down on the landing, and while the little girls were out of sight, she crept under it, and was thus completely hidden. The search began, and every place that the children could think of was looked into in vain. They peeped into the closets, crept under the beds, looked behind the doors, searched all the rooms, perhaps even glanced up the chimney, but nowhere could their mother be found. Again and again they renewed their search, but all in vain, until at last, convinced that no place had been left untried, their boisterous mirth sank into silent amazement, and they began to look wonderingly at each other. Now, although they were very young, they were not too young to understand a truth which their mother had taught them, namely, that believers are not to look for death, but for the coming of the Lord, and that although they may die before He comes, it is their happy privilege not to wait for that, but, having “turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,” to “WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN” (1 Thess. 1:9, 109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10)). They had also been taught that the coming of the Lord into the air (1 Thess. 4:1717Then 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 4:17)) for His own, may occur at any moment, and that when He does so come all believers raised or changed (1 Cor. 15:51, 5251Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑52)) will be caught away, and all others left behind (Matt. 25:11, 1211Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. 12But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. (Matthew 25:11‑12)). I am sorry to say that at this time these little girls were not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, for as yet the truths they had been taught seemed only to be held in the head, and not in the heart. But now, after having searched every place they could think of only to find that their mother was not there, they suddenly remembered the truth she had so carefully taught them as to the coming of the Lord, and the solemn consequences to all who are not “found in Him” at that moment, and as they stood together near the great packing-case in silent bewilderment and alarm, she from within her hiding-place heard them say to each other at last, “The Lord has come and mother is gone!” Of course she speedily put an end to their fears before they became too painful to bear, by coming out, to their glad surprise; but you may depend upon it those children never forgot the solemn lesson so unintentionally given, and by which an I all-important truth was pressed upon their young hearts in a moment of thoughtless play. I am glad to say they afterward found rest from all their fears in Him whose precious “blood cleanseth from all sin,” and now, as believers in Him, can look not with dread, but hope for His coming. How is it with you?