Benny was a very little boy, so perhaps we need not wonder that he was not a very wise boy. He lived in a cozy little house, on a small farm, with his father and mother, several brothers, and a baby sister. All around Benny home stretched the wide prairie; covered in summer time with waving grass, and lovely flowers, roses of every shade of pink, grew in the greatest profusion, tall tiger lilies, yellow daisies, and many other flowers of every kind and color. Funny little gophers skipped in and out of their holes; field mice made their pretty nests in the tall plants, and now and then a harmless snake glided through the grass.
You will think that Benny had plenty of nice places to play in, but he did not care about any of these things; he soon got tired of picking wild flowers or chasing gophers, but one place he never wearied of. Can you guess what place it was? Well I do not believe you can. It was the big stable, in which his father kept a number of horses.
As soon as the little chap could walk, he toddled to the stable, and was more than once found asleep in the mangers. When he grew a little older, he spent his time playing with the harness, mixing up the pieces, buckling, and unbuckling the straps, until it was in such a tangle, it was hard to harness a horse. And how he loved the horses, he thought them nicer than any playfellows, and often he begged to be allowed to take his dinner or breakfast out, and eat it beside them.
“Mother,” he said one day, “I wish I was a horse.”
“Would you rather be a horse than a boy?” she enquired in surprise.
“Why, yes,” he answered, “ever so much rather. I wish, I do wish I could turn into a horse.”
Now, do you not think Benny was a foolish little boy? but as I said before, he was very young, only five years old.
Not long after Benny said this, a lady came to see his mother. She loved children and had a little Sunday school. While she was in the house, the little boy came in, and then his mother told the lady what a strange wish he had, and how he liked to be with the horses better than anything else.
“Why would you like to be a horse, Benny?” asked the lady.
“Well,” he said, “they are so pretty, and they can run so fast, and I love them.” Then the lady called the little fellow to her, and she said,
“Benny, when God made a man, He breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life, and a man will live forever and ever, but God did not breathe into the horse’s nostrils. When the horse dies, they dig a big hole, and put it into it, and that is the end of it, but when a man, or a little boy dies, that is not the end of him, his body is put in the grave, but the spirit, which God has given him, can never die; it goes on living forever and ever and ever, and some day God will open the grave of the little boy, and raise him up again; but the horse will never come out of his grave.” Benny was much pleased to hear this, and he asked:
“Where will the little boy go, when he comes out of the grave? Will he come back and live with his mother again?” But the lady shook her head.
“O, no,” she said, “I will tell you about it; there are two places, one is very happy and beautiful, and God lives there; and the other is very dark and very sad, and Satan will be there.”
“I would like to go to the happy place,” little Benny said, “may I?”
“Yes,” said the lady, “God wants you to come there, but He cannot have any naughty boys there,” Then Benny looked sad, for well he knew he was often naughty.
“But,” continued the lady, “God wants you so much to come and live with Him, that He sent His only Son into this world, and He was punished for all the naughty things you have done, was not that very kind of Him?”
Benny said, “Yes,” though I do not know how well he understood what he was told, but I am sure he thought about it, for he never again wished to be a horse. No, he felt glad that he was a boy.
Did you ever think what a wonderful thing it is to have a soul, that can never die? And have you ever asked yourself,
“Where would MY soul go, if I were to die?”
ML 06/12/1938