Really for Nothing.

Listen from:
• BibleTruthPublishers.com
NOT long ago a boy named Alfred was coming home from school, when he saw a man carrying a sack of papers. As he passed each house, he rolled up a paper and threw it into the yard. Alfred saw a paper fly on to his own porch, so as he went into the house he picked it up.
“Here’s an advertisement a man threw on our porch just now, Mamma,” he said, coming in where his mother was sewing. “Open it and read it to me,” she said. “I haven’t time. It may be something we want to know.”
So Alfred unfolded the paper, and this was the first thing he saw:
ANY BOY WHO COMES TO OUR BOYS’ CLOTHING DEPARTMENT ON SATURDAY MORNING, WILL BE GIVEN A KODAK, FREE.
He read this to his mother, and she said, “Why, if that’s so, you must go down. Read the rest, and see what it says.”
But though he read all there was on the paper, he found no more about the kodaks. It told of men’s and boys’ suits and overcoats on sale, cheap, and then there was the name of the store, and that was all.
“There isn’t another word but what is at the top of the paper,” he said. “Why do you want me to go, Mamma?”
“Because it says they are free. That store wouldn’t send out such a notice if it wasn’t so,” said the mother. “You go down in the morning, and you will have as good a chance as anyone.”
“Oh, they will want me to buy some clothes, a $5 overcoat, or something,” Alfred said. “Or else they will say there are none left, or it will be for just some boys they know, or who work for them.”
“There is nothing about buying clothing, or that they are to have a few, and it says they are for any boy. That means you, so you go.”
So on Saturday morning Alfred made his way into the store and found the boys’ clothing department. He kept thinking it would be a mistake, and he would be sent out of the store, until he got up to a big table, and there was a big pile of kodaks—all little ones—but they were real; he could see that. “Can those be really for nothing?” he thought. “They can’t be for every boy, they’re too good.”
Just then a man came up to him, and taking one of the kodaks off the table, handed it to Alfred with a smile. “That’s for you,” he said, as the boy hardly liked to hold out his hand for it, and as he said “Thank you” he saw a number of boys coming in. Everyone got a kodak, and Alfred went out again with quite a crowd of them. He told his mother when he went home with it, how glad he was that he had gone.
There is another notice I want to tell you about, one that has been sent to everybody in every place, not just to the boys of one city, like the other one. Do you know what it is? I mean the Bible—God’s notice.
Now, perhaps you are like Alfred was before he unfolded the paper—you have it, but you need to be told to “open and read it.” So if you open it at Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31), you will find how to get
SALVATION, FREE AND FOR YOU: “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED.”
There is something everybody wants—to know how to be saved from hell, and to be of sure of going to heaven. How are you to know it? The message says, believe. Is that all? Not pay for it? No. It says “freely.” Revelation 22.17.
Not work for it? No. “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephes. 2:99Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:9).
Perhaps you think, like Alfred, that it is only for some few people. No. It is “whosoever will.” Rev. 22:1717And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17). That means anybody that wants it.
You see, then, it is a gift, like the kodaks were; and see what a valuable gift it is: “The gift of God is eternal life.” Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23). Not something that will last a little while, or as long as you take care of it, but something that will last when even the world you live in will be all burned up! Think of it!
If you want to know who it is that sends the message, you will read: “There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour.” Isaiah 45:2121Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. (Isaiah 45:21). Surely we can say of Him, as Alfred’s mother said of the store, that “He wouldn’t send out such a message if it wasn’t so.”
Maybe someone says: “Well, if all you have to do is to believe, I want to know just what it means to ‘believe.’ “It means to know that all He says is true; that you cannot go to heaven, or help yourself to go to heaven, by anything that you can do, because you do wrong things, and you have a nature that likes to do wrong things, and God is holy and perfect. But He loves you and sent His Son to die for you, and His blood “cleanseth from all sin.” John 1:77The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:7). You need not wait till Saturday morning, like Alfred did, for “now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Cor. 6.2. Go at once, wherever you are, whoever you are, and you will find that “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6 :37.
E G.
ML 02/25/1900