I heard Brother I., when preaching tell this little story and I thought I would tell it to you. He said when he was a little boy he was sometimes naughty and needed a whipping. His dear father who was a wise man, and who loved his little boy too well to allow him' to do wrong, would lay the rod upon him and he would cry out with pain.
In the street near the house, a number of little vagabonds used to gather together to play. But I must tell you what vagabonds were. They were very poor and had no homes but slept in empty barrels or anywhere they could find a place where the policeman would not find them. These boys sometimes heard little Paul crying while he was being punished, and the next time they met him in the street they would laugh at him and say,
"You got a flogging didn't you? O yes, we heard you crying," and with such taunts they made him feel so ashamed that he said sometimes he almost wished he had no father, for those boys who had no one to care for them, never got any whippings.
But all! children, when the warm bright still went to rest, and the night came down cold and dark, and people sought their homes, these poor little boys had no home to which they could go, while little Paul had a father's heart and a mother's arms of love waiting for him.
And now little ones what does this little tale teach us? Let us see if we can tell.
Children who are following the Lord Jesus often have trials, for Satan tries to make it hard for them; while those who are serving Satan, often have things very nice, so they say to the Christian,
“Why do you try to please God? Come with us and have a good time."
Dear little friends, they are like those street boys; they are vagabonds, and pretty soon when the night of God's wrath comes upon this poor world, they will find themselves with no home, but will be cast into the outer darkness. While for us who believe:
We know there's a bright and glorious home,
Away in the heaven high,
Where all the redeemed shall with Jesus
So you'll he there and I.
Messages of God’s Love 12/16/1934