I will tell you what happened to me when I was perhaps nine or ten years of age.
I was very fond of a pocket-knife; and I know you will have your favorite playthings; it may be a whip, or a top, or marbles; or if you are a little girl, it will most likely be a doll; one as large, and as fine as you can get.
I was born in a country town, where I could run into the woods to play; and there I found plenty of use for my pocket-knife, in cutting fine sticks; peeling their bark off in various patterns, and cutting their heads in various shapes. But unfortunately for my comfort, I often in my carelessness lost my knife; and so it was on this occasion.
My father had been so kind as to buy me a new one, and I felt very proud of it. I think it was given with the instruction to take care of it, and if it was lost, I must not have another. But off I went in high glee to try my new knife in the woods.
I ran about among the long grass and weeds; selected the finest switches out of the brushwood, and having got as many as I wanted, I turned homeward, with my little bundle of sticks.
When near the end of the wood, wanting my knife again, I found to my great sorrow that I had it not. It was not in any of my pockets it was not in my bundle of sticks. It was lost; lost among the long grass and weeds; where I did not know.
Now the thought struck me that I had lost another knife. I had lost the new and pretty knife my father had bought and given me, with instructions to take care of it. I had lost, as I thought, my last knife, And I had very little hope of finding it again among the green weeds, having been rambling up and down, here and there, I could not, to many yards, tell where.
I sorrowed almost to despair, when a thought struck me,
“Well, though I don’t know where it is, yet I am sure the Lord does, and can direct me to find it, so I will pray to Him before I start off in my search.”
I looked round about, to see if there was any person near, and then knelt down behind a tree, and prayed thus,
“O gracious God, I have come to a great loss, as Thou knowest, in having lost my knife; neither do I know where to seek it, but Thou knowest, and therefore I beseech Thee to direct me to where it is, for Christ’s sake.”
Having risen from my knees, I started in search, with my heart somewhat lightened by the hope that the Lord would lead me to where it was. Having proceeded a short distance in the path, I turned aside, and looking about, my eye caught sight of the knife, lying open, as I had been last using it.
Well, you may be sure I was ready to dance for joy; neither did I forget Him who I believe had directed me to it; and the least return I could make Him, would be to thank and praise Him for it.
Looking all round again (for you must know I should have felt a little ashamed had any one seen me kneeling in prayer) but seeing no one, I knelt down beside the trunk of a tree, and returned thanks to God, in something like the following words, and with tears of gratitude in my eyes,
“O my gracious God, I now thank Thee for having heard and answered my prayer, and directed me to the place where I have found that which was lost. O, give me grace, that I may be Thine forever; for Christ’s sake. Amen.”
Then, pocketing my treasure, away I went home, with a glad heart.
ML 08/13/1944