A Little Tale for Little Readers.
I WILL tell you a story of a dear little lamb, whom Jesus, the “Good Shepherd,” gathered unto himself in glory. She was early brought to the Saviour, and she was early taken from this world. She told her companions that she sometimes fell asleep on these words: “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” She said she did not know how it was, but somehow she felt that Jesus was always near her. When seized with her last illness, and told that the doctors thought she could not live long, she looked quite composed, and said she could not love Jesus enough here, and that she should like to be with Jesus, and then she should love him as she ought. To her tender, watchful relative, she said, “I wonder you are looking so grave; I am surprised at it; for I think I am the happiest person in the house. I have every temporal comfort, and then I am going to be with Jesus.”
After a companion had been with her, she said, “Margaret quite entered into my happiness; she did not look grave, but smiled; that shows how much she loves me.”
When sitting one evening with her head resting on a pillow, she was asked, “Is there anything the matter, my darling?”
“Oh,” she said, “I am only weak. I am quite happy. Jesus has said — ‘Thou art mine.’”
Another day, when near her last, one said to her, “Have you been praying much today?”
“Yes,” she replied, “and I have been trying to praise too.”
“And what have you been praising for?”
“I praise God,” she said, “for all the comforts I have. I praise him for many kind friends. You know he is the foundation of all. And I praise him for taking a sinner to glory.”
O dear young friends, may you too believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you will be prepared either “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better,” or for the Lord’s coming to take all his own into the Father’s house (John 14)
Would you learn two or three lessons from the death of this little girl?
First — It is of the utmost importance to come to Christ now while you are young.
Secondly — It is the only way in order to be happy in sickness or in health.
Thirdly — It is everlasting life.
And Lastly — A sure and certain entrance into the New Jerusalem above.
May you then, dear young friends, obey the voice of Jesus, “Come unto me;” delay no longer, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
T. H.