A little one had just returned home from her Sunday school, where a servant of Christ had been addressing several hundred children. She ran up to her father—one of those careless, indifferent sort of men—one who does nobody any harm (so he thinks), and is quite satisfied with himself — spending the Lord’s Dav over his newspaper.
“Father,” said this little one, “What’s wages?”
“What’s wages? Why wages is what I bring home on Saturday nights, and give to mother to buy all sorts of things for the house — your clothes, too.”
“Father, what’s the wages of sin?” “Nonsense, child, where did you hear this stuff?”
“But, father, what’s the wages of sin? Shall I tell ‘ee, father? The wages of sin is death, father!”
Turning to his wife, he angrily said, “I won’t have this child go to that school any more, to bring home such things as this.”
“Father,” persisted the little one, “shall I tell ‘ee where they pays them wages?”
“No, never mind, I don’t want to know?”
“Father, the devil pays them wages in hell, father.”
The father now is at last aroused as to his sinful condition, and turning to his wife, says, in a subdued voice, “If thee’ll rock th’ cradle, I’ll go to meeting tonight.”
He went, and “the day” alone will declare the result of the arrow which his little girl was used of God to shoot into her father’s conscience.
May the quaint, but startling questions put by this little girl to her father, arouse you, my dear children.
The servant of Christ had been addressing the children on that last verse of Romans 6, and what laid hold of this little lamb was the first part of that verse, “The wages of sin is death.” Another Scripture (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)) reads, But after this the judgment:” and after the judgment,
What an awfully solemn connection and result those three verses present—DEATH., JUDGEMENT., HELL.
May you, through His grace, give up “wages” and accept God’s “gift,” and so instead of “death” and its “after this the judgment,” you possess “eternal life” in Christ, and the result of this is, “When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:44When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4).
Ponder these solemn contrasts, WAGES—GIFT.
DEATH—LIFE.
LAKE OF FIRE—GLORY.
May you give up the “wages” and accept the “gift” — the Lord Jesus Christ, NOW.
ML 08/05/1945