When I was a little boy, I lived in a happy little home among the fields and lanes of Devonshire. My father was a poor man, but he sent us to the village school to learn to read, and, better still, he read to us in the evening from the big Bible, and explained its lessons to our hearts.
Sometimes the Lady Isabella, from the big house on the hill, came to visit the school, to ask us questions. I remember one day she came with her little (laughter Miss Ina, and how hard we tried to look our best and answer correctly! She said we had done very well, and then little Miss Ina whispered that she would like to speak to us.
“Please Mr. Deane,” she said to the schoolmaster, “I would like you to give all the children a holiday tomorrow, as it is my birthday, Then I would like them al to he Park, and we shall have tea on the lawn at five o’clock.”
Mr. Deane bowed politely, and agreed at once. How we cheered as they drove away! I had seen the beautiful Park gardens from a distance, but the thought of going through the big gates and having tea there, made me wild with joy. My sister Minnie was delighted too, in her quiet way.
All next morning, I worried Mother with my impatience, but, sad to say, I didn’t care. Mother had a beautiful flower bed, with roses and geraniums, and she never liked us children to go near it, but that morning it seemed as if I just had to jump over something.
“Stand back, Minnie,” I said, “I’m going to jump over Mother’s rose tree.”
Mother was hanging out the clothes, and she called to me to stop, but I was a willful boy, and I went right on. Then it happened. My foot caught in a branch, and I fell right in the midst of the geraniums.
I was very sorry to see what I had done, and was wondering what I could do for Mother’s plants, when Minnie said, “Oh Johnnie, what will Father say?”
I had not thought of this. I went up to my room, and waited until I heard him open the garden gate. He noticed the flower bed at once and he called, “Mother, has Rover been here?”
I did not hear her answer, but he added, “Had you told him not to do it? Then he must not go to the Park today. My boy must obey his mother.”
My heart swelled up with angry feelings against my father. Oh it could not be true! Surely he would not keep me home for one disobedience. But I knew my father would not change his mind. I was a big boy, too, but I cried like a baby.
From the window, I saw Minnie kiss Mother goodbye as she left at three o’clock.” At last I crept out and walked up the lane as far as the Park wall. I climbed up on the wall, where I could see the merry party through the trees. There were white tables loaded with good things, and the servants walked about carrying baskets of sandwiches, cake and fruits. Then the schoolmaster called “Silence,” and all the children began to sing sweetly before beginning to eat. It all sounded so beautiful to the miserable, lonely boy on the wall, and I shall never forget how utterly “out of it all” I felt that day.
I came home about eight o’clock. Father was out, and I would have gone at once to my room but Mother called me to the kitchen. “Come here, Johnnie,” she said.
Then she put her arm around me and kissed me, and I broke down and cried, and said I was sorry I had spoiled her flowers.
“It isn’t that, John,” she said tenderly. “It’s your disobedience,—that’s sin in the sight of God. Johnnie lad, do you know that it was a sin against God to disobey your mother, and that, unless it is blotted out, God will have to shut you out from His feast and joy forever. That is why God sent His only Son, that is why He suffered and died on Calvary, and the blood flowed from His holy side, so that we might have the right to say, “He is my Saviour.”
Then she told me how often her heart was sad to think I had not confessed the Lord as my Saviour, and that I was still outside the joy that God has laid up above.
I never can forget that night. I did not much want to think of her words about God shutting me out from the joy and gladness above. Long afterwards, when she was laid in her grave, God broke down my stubborn heart, and I came to the Saviour of sinners and claimed Him as mine. At once I had the joy of salvation and the sweet peace He gives. It is a sweet thought that my mother’s prayers were answered; and God has saved her boy, in spite of his waywardness.
ML 10/21/1951