A number of years ago a young woman left her home in the country to occupy a situation in a large town. Her widowed mother was very unwilling to part with her. She could not bear the thought of her daughter separated from her, in the midst of strangers, surrounded by innumerable temptations, with no friends at hand to sympathize or advise.
At last she consented, though with many misgivings and fears, arid Mary left the home of her childhood and girlhood to enter upon her duties in her new sphere of labor.
Week after week, warm and affectionate letters were interchanged and anxiously and eagerly read again and again.
The “postman’s knock”
was the sweetest and most welcome sound at the cottage door. The mother was always wearying for the succeeding letter, which to her was more and more welcome. Little matters, which to outsiders would appear trifling―matters relating to dress and company―were carefully noted by the mother. She wanted Mary to make her her confidante and adviser.
Time passed on, and the mother began to notice that her daughter’s letters were not so satisfactory as formerly. There was not that confidence placed in her as to advice in her plans and prospects. They began to get shorter, and less affectionate, until eventually.
she stopped writing altogether.
The poor widow’s heart sank within her. She did not know what to do, and, in her strait, cast her burden upon her “Burden-Bearer.” Day after day she prayed that He would guide and protect her girl.
Sad tidings reached the mother’s ears from the distant city―tidings which nearly broke her heart. She heard that her daughter had forgotten her loving words of warning and counsel; had forgotten her mother’s God, and so far forgotten herself that she had forsaken the paths of virtue and purity, and
Was leading a life of sin and shame.
On receipt of this mournful intelligence, she determined to seek her prodigal child, and bring her back. She at once set out to the scene of her daughter’s degradation. On reaching it, she endeavored to ascertain where she lived; but this was a difficult matter, as she had left her former lodgings. Day and night, into every conceivable place, did the poor heart-broken mother go in search of her erring child.
The language of her heart was―
“Come home! come home!
From the sin and shame.
From the sorrow and blame,
And the tempter that smiled,
O prodigal child,
Come home! come home!”
After days of fruitless search, a new thought flashed across her mind.
She went to a photographer’s
and got her portrait taken. Having secured a number of copies, she went to the principal public-houses, and asked permission to hang them on the walls. It was considered a very strange request; but seeing she was a respectable person, permission was granted. Some time after, the daughter, with a dissolute companion, walked into one of them. Her attention was attracted to the likeness on the wall. She said, “That looks like my mother!” She went nearer, and examined it more closely. “It is just my mother!” she exclaimed in amazement. At the foot of it she perceived that there was something written. She looked at it, and at once recognized the familiar handwriting, but was not prepared for the thought expressed in the words―
“Mary, I love thee still”
She could not stand this. She was prepared for upbraidings and reproaches, and expected nothing else; but to think that her mother had actually been searching for her in her haunts of sin and folly, and was willing to receive her back to the home of her childhood just as she was!―she could not understand it; and as she thought over the words, “Mary, I love thee still!” the days of her childhood and innocency came up before her, and all the hallowed home association―her mother’s prayers, tears, and loving counsels; and as she reflected on the difference between what she then was and what she now was, she completely broke down. The awful folly and sin of her evil ways were clearly and vividly brought up before her, and she at once determined to leave her companions in sin and
go back to her mother.
Great was the joy of the widow at the unexpected arrival of the long lost daughter; and better far, there was “joy in the presence of the angels of God,” for she became a humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ Dear reader, you cannot help feeling interested in this touching story of a mother’s love, and the manifestation of it in her desire to rescue her daughter from sin and degradation. A mother “may forget” her offspring, but God cannot forget poor lost sinners on their way to eternal destruction.
“From heaven His eye is downward bent,
Still ranging to and fro,
Where’er in this wide wilderness
There roams a child of woe.
“And when the rebel chooses wrath,
God wails his hapless lot,―
Deep breathing from His heart of love,
‘I would’, but ‘ye would not.’”
No human arm can relieve you from this curse, or remove God’s wrath from you; and should you continue in your present course, you must inevitably spend your eternity with the lost in hell. But there is a way of escape opened by God for you. He does not wish any one to perish, for it is written, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:1111Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)); He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:99The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)); He “will have all men to be saved.” (1 Tim. 2:44Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4).)
You may be laboring under the delusion that God is uninterested in your welfare, and not particularly anxious whether you go to heaven or hell. This is one of the vilest lies that Satan ever invented; and so long as he gets you to believe this, he is perfectly satisfied. Know more of God’s character as revealed in His Word, and you will find Him to be love. (1 John 4:88He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8).) “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.” (Job 22:2121Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee. (Job 22:21).)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jno. 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16),) What stronger proof could we wish of God’s love to this sin-cursed world? “So loved”! A “so” without a “such.” “Gave” ―unsolicited― “His only begotten Son” ―the only gift that was of avail, the only One through whom forgiveness could come, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” How simple! how Godlike! how free. Oh, what wondrously wondrous love!
“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
‘Twould drain the ocean dry,
Nor would the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.”
God “gave His only begotten Son,” and Jesus Christ, His Son, voluntarily “gave Himself a ransom for us.”
Follow this precious One from the manger to the grave, and we find Him fully and perfectly obeying every command and every word of God. In vain His bitterest enemies watched for a flaw in His character or conduct. See Him in Gethsemane’s garden, and listen to those words of immeasurable grief― “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Why that awful agony of soul that makes the sweat as blood fall in great drops on the ground? Follow Him from the garden into Pilate’s hall, and see Him mocked, scourged, and spit upon! Why does He thus suffer―the righteous, spotless One―and suffer silently? Because of your sin and mine, O fellow-sinner, He endured all this! On the cross, the cup of wrath was drained by Jesus, that the cup of salvation might be presented to us; thus we get to know something more of the exceeding evil of sin and the wondrous love of God.
Nature reveals God as a God of wisdom and power; death, as a God of judgment; and the cross, as a God of love. Gaze on that cross, my unsaved reader, and what does it say to thee?
“Sinner, I love thee”.
Jesus Christ is seeking to save thee. You may try to banish this thought from your mind, but―
“Tho’ you forget Him, and wander away,
Still He doth follow wherever you stray.”
He hath plunged into the devouring flood to rescue you. For you He exposed Himself to the lashings of that fearful tempest which expressed God’s displeasure at sin, and His determination to punish it. “All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me.” (Ps. 42:7.) Look to Him on the cross, the bleeding, suffering Lamb of God, dying because of thy sins. You may have been looking into your own cold, hard, wretched heart to get salvation out of it, and you could not, for it not there. God sends salvation down from heaven to you, through Jesus Christ. God gives it to you, and you have simply to take it as a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that was necessary for your salvation was finished on Calvary. The demands of the law have been fully met,―the claims of justice fully satisfied. God has sent His Spirit to make known to you the “good news.” For Jesus’ sake you are welcome now to the bosom of God.
All you need to do is to believe His Word, and enter at once into the enjoyment of the great salvation.
“He makes no hard conditions,
‘Tis only, “Look, and Live.”
JESUS is tenderly calling thee Home―
Calling Today! Calling Today!
Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam,
Farther and farther away?