And the Feet That Shall Walk There.
ROSIE lay upon her bed through the long summer days. She was too weak to hold a book in her thin little hands, or to knit socks for her father, as she had done at the beginning of her illness. Yet, if you had seen Rosie, I am sure you would have said she was a happy child. And what was the secret of her happiness? When she was a bright, active school-girl she had heard the voice of Jesus saying to her, “Come unto Me,” and she had obeyed the call. From that moment, Jesus became the Lord in her heart, and now that He was leading her into the dark valley of the shadow of death, Rosie could say, “I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”
This little girl loved the blue sky and the sweet flowers and the joyous songs of birds. Many a merry holiday she had spent in the green fields and pleasant woods with her school-fellows. This summer they had to go without her, but they often brought flowers to brighten her little room; and when Rosie was not in pain, she enjoyed hearing of their adventures.
One day, however, when Rosie’s chief friend, Fanny King, came into her room with a bright color in her cheeks, and her hands full of lovely pink and white roses and honeysuckle, and began telling of “such fun” they had had helping one another to reach up to the tall sprays, there came a shade over Rosie’s face, so that her little friend stopped suddenly― “Oh, I’m so sorry, dear; I wish I had not told you―only generally you like―” The rest of the sentence was smothered in a kiss that Rosie warmly returned, and she said, as her own sweet smile came back, “No, dear, don’t be sorry, I do like to hear where you’ve been. It was only for a minute I felt sad. Satan does tempt me so sometimes, when I think we shall never have the ok days again.”
Then the two children chatted together very lovingly, and when Fanny said “good bye,” the little invalid whispered, “Don’t think, darling, I want to get well, unless God pleases.” And when she saw the tears coming into her friend’s eyes, she added, very calmly. “You know, Fanny, don’t you, I’ve been happier here than ever I was before? Jesus seems so near me. And if He makes me so happy here, what will it be to be with Him always?”
There were days when Rosie could not talk and her mother was obliged to send away all kind friends who came to see her. But, whenever she could, she tried to speak for the Lord Jesus. The true light was shining into Rosie’s heart, and it shone out and made her a light bearer. This was one of her favorite hymns―
“Jesus bids us shine
With a pure, clear light;
Like a little candle
Burning in the night.
In this world of darkness,
So we must shine,
You in your small corner,
And in mine,
“Jesus bids us shine
First of all for Him;
Well He sees and knows it
If our light grow dim,
He looks down from heaven
To see us shine―
You in your small corner,
And I in mine.
“Jesus bids us shine
Upon all around
Many kinds of darkness
In the world abound.
Sin and want and sorrow,
So we must shine,
You in your small corner,
And I in mine,”
Rosie’s happiest time was when her father came home from his work. He would sit by her bedside and read to her out of her own little Bible. One evening she said, “Read, father dear, out of the Revelation, at the end of the Bible.” And he read ch. 21 until, when he came to vs. 21, his little daughter stopped him; “That verse again, please,” she said. When he had read it again, he waited to see what Rosie had to say. After a short pause, she said thoughtfully, “A golden street! How clean their feet must be who walk in it!
I do not know whether the dear little girl understood what the golden city represented (we are told in vs. 9), but it was a true thought she had of the perfect purity of heaven, and of those who shall be there. I have written it down, in the hope that Rosie, being dead, may yet speak to some children who shall read these pages.
“Bad children will not go to heaven,” you say; and you are right, so far. They cannot go to heaven while they continue bad. Selfish, greedy, and ill-tempered children are not loved or admired even in this world, where Satan reigns. They will not be admitted into heaven, which is God’s palace.
Every child of Adam is marked with the dark brand, Sinner — “good” children and “bad” children alike. “Is there no hope, then?” you will ask. None, in our way. But the Lord Jesus Christ “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
In that day, when the precious blood of the only-begotten Son of God was poured out, there was a cleansing Fountain opened; and for nearly two thousand years there have been men and women, and boys and girls, in country villages and in town courts and streets―yes, and in kings’ palaces―who have gone to that Fountain filthy and have come away “clean every whit.” They have learned to sing “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Dear “good” child, and dear “naughty” child, you must come to the Fountain to be cleansed, if you would tread upon that golden street of which little Rosie said, “How clean their feet must be who walk in it.”
When the leaves began to fall, and the reapers were busy reaping the golden corn, little Rosie was gathered to sleep in Christ. There is one light-bearer less in this dark world―who will take her place? Remember Rosie’s thought, and take care not to soil your feet after you have been washed in the Fountain. It is easily done and you can bring us glory to your Saviour while you have the least stain of sin upon your conscience.