In a cottage near the highway lived a Christian widow with her little boys, Charlie and Daniel. Daniel had been lame and sick from his birth, but he was a very patient little fellow.
His mother had taught him the Scriptures from his infancy, pointing him to Jesus the Saviour, and she had the precious proof that her boy was a child of God.
One day he called her to his bedside and said: “Mother, I’ve found Him.”
“Found Jesus, Danny? Have you trusted in Him?”
“Yes, Mother, I have; oh, how good He is. I am so happy and glad that Jesus saved me.”
One day a sedan stopped at the cottage and a little girl came to the door and asked for a drink of water. While there she told little Daniel that her father, although surrounded with comfort and wealth, was sick, too, and unhappy.
“Does he love Jesus?” asked Daniel.
“Love who? Jesus? Do you mean our Saviour? Oh, I don’t know, I expect He does. Do you love Jesus?”
“Oh, yes, I do, for Jesus loves me!” answered Daniel, “and He is by my bedside watching; so when I hold out my hands and whisper, ‘Jesus,’ His love covers me all over.”
“Oh, I wish my Daddy would see Him at his bedside,” said the girl, and she ran to her father, exclaiming: “Oh, father, that little sick boy in there says if you’ll only say ‘Jesus’ in your heart, He’ll be sure to come and make you forget your pain.”
The parents seemed struck with the words and the child continued: “Daddy, he looks so happy; though he has been always sick, he doesn’t mind it much, because in the night he sees Jesus standing by his bedside, and He fills his heart full of love, so that he doesn’t think of his pain. Now, Daddy, you say ‘Jesus,’ and perhaps He will come just like that to you.”
Deep down into the sick man’s conscience went these words, and they would not leave him all the way home. How could he say Jesus? He, the man of wealth and society, who had thought of nothing but the world and its pleasures? Almost any other name would seem less out of place on his lips. Yet, the voice of his child kept ringing in his ears: “Just say, Jesus.”
As time went on, dear little Daniel grew weaker every day, and it made his poor mother weep to think she must soon lose him—he had been so dear to her. Urged by his little daughter, the sick mad stopped in one day to see Daniel. After some conversation, the sick boy said to the girl’s father, “Don’t you know Jesus?”
The man was deeply affected and after some silence said: “I’m afraid I don’t know Jesus as you do, my boy.”
“It’s easy,” said Daniel with a bright smile,—“It’s good!” The words penetrated to the heart of the listener, also the feeling with which they were said.
“Easy for you, my boy, but not for me,” he replied.
“Why it’s only ‘Come unto Me,’ you know,” said Daniel; “Mother, please say the verse for the gentleman.”
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” said the mother. “It means a burdened conscience, weary of sin and weary of self.”
“Weary,” murmured the man, “weary, heavy laden, too, with sin and infirmities, both of body and mind.”
“Daddy wants to feel happy in the long dark night as you do,” said the little girl.
“That’s Jesus too,” answered the boy promptly. “That’s because He comes to me; and when I have the most pain, I can sing to myself softly my little hymn: “Jesus can make a dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are: While on His breast I lay my head, And breathe my life out sweetly there.”
“My dear boy,” said the man, “you have done me good. I see that all those who have lost all hope in the world can be happy and even triumphant. “Oh, for his faith!” he added, turning to the mother; “I would give my all to be able to lie serene and cheerful as he lies there today.”
“My dear sir, it need cost you nothing,” said the mother. “Salvation and peace are without money and without price. It is only, Look to Christ and live. We are not saved by our own works or great deeds, but simply by believing what Christ did when He died upon the cross.” (See Romans 5:1-101Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:1‑10); Ephesians 2:8,98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9).)
“Now, Daddy, can’t you say Jesus?” asked the little girl. The father burst into tears and had to leave the cottage, so they went home.
Little Daniel continued to grow weaker and one day he said: “Oh, Mother, Jesus is with me! It will be better for me to go to my heavenly home than to live here and suffer.” Not long after he was there with Jesus.
Sometime after, the sick father called his daughter and whispered, “Darling, I can say ‘Jesus’ now.”
“Oh, Daddy, I’m so glad!” cried the child, and kissed him. “And does Jesus come and talk with you?”
“Yes, darling, He talked with me all last night.”
“Now you will get well, won’t you?”
“No, dear, Daddy is going to heaven; Jesus will be with you and sometime you will come too,” he replied.
His earthly days drew to a close. He had requested that little Daniel, who had been the means of his conversion, be buried in his family grave plot. And now they were together—the rich and the poor, both just saying “Jesus.”
“They have gone to God,” said the preacher; “the little child and the strong man. ‘I have only to say Jesus in my heart,’ said the child. ‘I have been surrounded with every earthly good; but never have I known anything so blissful as the love of Christ that fills my soul in these dying moments,’ said the father.” —Abridged “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
ML-01/14/1979