ONE cool rainy day when father had gone to town the cows broke through the pasture fence and went into the corn field, bound to have their fill of fodder, which would not have been good for them in such a green condition and in the quantity they would eat.
Mother discovered the raiders and quickly set out to put them back in the pasture. Little brother was quite content to play in the house, but sister, who was old enough to have understood that mother knew best, was very contrary and naughty. She insisted that she must go; she did not want to be left in the house.
Since there was no time to be lost in getting the cows, mother took her disobedient little daughter as far as the empty granary and locked her inside. It was dark and cold, and the child was afraid of the mice. It seemed a long time to the little prisoner locked up in the dark, with her mother gone. Although she felt very thankful to be let out, I fear she did not acknowledge the justice of her mother’s way of dealing with her naughtiness until long afterward.
This brief punishment has since seemed both a comparison and a contrast to something incomparably worse and unending. What would it be like to be locked, not in the gray darkness of a frame building, out of mother’s presence for a short time, but in the “blackness of darkness,” banished from the presence of God, and that forever and ever? There will be no rebellion then, for each one in that unspeakable hell will fully realize his own guilt and the justice of God in sending him there.
The troublesome little girl could have had fun along with her younger brother, if she had been reconciled to her mother’s desire that she remain in the house. So, in our relationship to God for eternity, if we will but become reconciled to Him through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, His blessed Son, whom He sent to die for us, we shall spend that eternity in the glory with the Lord Himself. May none of our readers continue rebellious to God in refusing or neglecting to obey Him in accepting Jesus.
“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.” Rom. 5:1010For 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 5:10).
ML-02/17/1935