The Doctor bent gravely over his young patient—a young girl—as he carefully examined her. The anxious parents waited to hear the verdict.
Alas! it held out little, if any hope. The words sounded more like a death sentence than anything else.
“Only a miracle can save the child,” he said.
The young patient’s sister, a child near her own age, happened to overhear the doctor’s statement. With the simplicity and ignorance and faith of the little girl, she rushed out of the house, and made her way to the nearest grocery.
The man behind the counter looked at the little maiden inquiringly.
“Please, I want to buy a miracle,” she said.
“A miracle, my little girl, we don’t keep miracles here,” he said, with an amused smile.
But the matter was one of life and death to the girl. Her sister was dying. Only a miracle could save her sister’s life. A miracle she must get somehow or other.
So she tried another grocery with the same result. Baffled, she began to think. Would not a Drug store be more likely to supply a miracle than a grocery? It was a case of illness, and perhaps a miracle was some kind of medicine.
So to the chemist she went, and asked to be supplied with a miracle, The chemist too, was amused, at the unusual request. He kept no such thing as a miracle in stock.
The little girl was bitterly disappointed at the barren result of her efforts. Her voice was, tremulous, and the tears stood in her eyes.
A man in the store, noticing her deep grief, inquired kindly the cause of her distress. She explained how ill her sister was; and told him what the doctor’s verdict was, that only a miracle could save her, and how anxious she was to get a miracle.
The man requested the little girl to take him to her parent’s house. She did so. The man explained to the parents how he had become deeply interested in the case, that he happened to be a specialist, and requested that he might see the child.
Doubtless medical etiquette was arranged for, and the great specialist saw the sick daughter, told the parents an operation, similar to the one he had just performed, and for which he has come specially would be successful in saying their daughter’s life, that his ordinary fee was one hundred dollars, but that he would gladly perform the operation free, if the parents would consent.
Needless to say, the parents gratefully accepted the specialist’s generous offer, the operation was successfully performed, and the child recovered to the great joy of her sister. The miracle was performed.
How God looked down on the anguish of the little sister’s soul and pitied her ignorance in seeking to buy a miracle, and arranged in His own wonderful way to give her one.
Would she ever forget such a, wonderful interposition of God, or ever cease to be grateful to Him? Every sight of her sister would serve to keep the miracle vividly before her mind.
But now I want to remind my young readers of another case where only a miracle can save, and that is your own case and mine.
Death to the body is the result of—SIN; but that is not all— “AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT.”
Read the following verses, and you will see what I say is true.
Only a miracle can save us. We cannot buy a miracle. That is certain.
But the miracle has been performed—the miracle of the Son of God becoming man, and dying to atone for sin.
As the old hymn puts it:—
“For man, O! miracle of grace, For man the Saviour bled.”
And then another miracle must be performed. There is first the great general miracle of the death of Christ, whereby He became a Ransom for all.
And then there must be the special and particular miracle of your receiving Christ as your own Saviour, and thus obtaining the blessing of salvation for yourself. Has this happened with you? You may be saved and that just now, if only you put your trust in the Lord Jesus. Why not do so now? Remember only a miracle can save.
ML 01/28/1940