“LOOK, teacher,” said a big boy in my Sunday school class (we were alone, having come in early that afternoon), “look what I have had given me.”
It was a card painted in three colors black, red, and white.
“Yes,” said I. “that’s very nice, and what does it mean?”
He replied,
“The black part means sin, the red Christ’s blood, and the white when the sins are all put away.” Then he showed me the other side of the card, where were a number of verses relating to each color, and very clearly pointing out the way of salvation.
“Well, John,” I said, “you seem to understand your card very well, in which color are you?”
He answered solemnly, “In the black, teacher, but I don’t mean always to stop in there.”
“I’m glad of that, John,” I added, “but when are you going to get into the white?”
“When I’ve left off some of my old sins, teacher,” said he.
Ah! how many there are like are poor John, putting off the day of salvation, and trying to make themselves white or holy that God may receive them, instead of trusting in Jesus blood to put away the sins.
You see he knew that the red came between the black and the white, and yet Satan was blinding his eyes.
There is a well-known verse which says—
“If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.
Not the righteous;
Sinners, Jesus came to call”
Dear children, learn by John’s mistake. If by drooping old sins you could make yourselves fit for God, the red would be of no value, but we must learn to have God’s thoughts about Christ’s blood. It is the one of the things He calls precious— “redeemed ... with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18-1918Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19)).
Now, let each answer the question, “In which color are you?” And if you are still in the black remember the only way into the white is by Jesus’ blood—for “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6))
N.