A mother lay dying. She had been married a second time, and had a son whom her second husband did not like.
This mother sent for me and she said, "Now I am dying from consumption. I have been sick a long time, and since I have been lying here I have neglected my son. He has got into bad company, and he is very, very unkind and he has started swearing. Mr. Moody, I want you to promise me that when I am gone and he has no one to take care of him, that you will look after him."
I promised that I would, and soon after that the mother died. Now, all he had was a stepfather who did not care for him. No sooner was the lady buried than her son ran away and could not be found. The next Sunday I spoke to the children in my Sunday School and I asked them to look for him and if they found him to let me know.
For some time I heard nothing, but one day one of my scholars told me that the boy was a bell boy in a certain hotel. I found him there and spoke to him kindly about Christ, of his love for him, and of what He had done for him. The tears trickled down his cheeks. I asked the boy if he wanted to know Christ, and he told me he did.
A little boy was with me that night, and he got down upon his knees and prayed with the bell boy. I remember it well, for it was the night before the fourth of July and they were firing off cannon and sky-rockets into the midnight sky. The bell boy climbed up onto the flat roof of the hotel and called upon God for light, aid and comfort. Today, that boy is an active Christian young man and superintendent of a Sunday School. He is now leading others to Christ.
There is a work for you. Take these children by the hand and lead them to the cross of Christ. They can be gathered into our churches, and be a blessing to the Church of God.