I WILL now tell you a true story of a little boy who trusted in God, and whose prayers were answered in time of need.
Little G. had a kind mother, who taught him that God knows and can do everything.
One day, with his two brothers, older and larger than he, for he was then only about twelve years old, he went to the woods to do some work. They took the team, and before going to work, they unhitched the horses. Little G. tied the younger horse to the wagon, but not very well, though with good intention. While they worked at a little distance from the horses, whence they could not see them, the young horse which G. had tied, got away, and when the three brothers came to start home at noon, the horse was nowhere to be seen; he was gone, with harness and bridle.
Then the two older brothers began to blame little G. for his carelessness, and went to look for the lost horse. They went about two miles off, and found nothing until they came back, when they found him nearby, but the bridle was lost, for the horse had wandered in the woods and lost it. Then they scolded still more poor little G. and sent him alone to seek the lost bridle.
The poor little fellow felt deeply the harshness of his brothers, and went away with his heart full of grief. But as he went he thought of God, and at once stopped, and said in his poor, grieved heart: “God can make me find it for He knows everything.” Thus, though he uttered not a word, his heart went up to God in anxious request, and when he had gone a little way, he turned to the left into the woods, where there was neither path nor track, and saw the lost bridle before his feet. This was nothing strange, for God saw in his heart his unuttered wish and faith, and turned his steps to the right place.
Two years had not quite passed away, when once more little G. stopped, with a heart full of grief, not for a lost bridle, and the displeasure of two brothers, but the grief of a burdened conscience; the grief of having offended a just and holy God, by a sinful life. He stopped now to be reminded of that precious message of a God of love: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him (Jesus) from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” He was conscious that he believed, and then and there he rejoiced in God his Saviour.
He said nothing for a little, but his cup of joy was filling up, and was soon to overflow in confession of the name of Jesus. One evening he remarked on the beauty of a hymn to his mother. This hymn expressed the joy of a heart delighting in the Lord, and, consequently, his mother asked him if this was his. I need not tell you the joy of his mother in hearing that her son was converted.
Young reader, have you ever asked anything of God? Have you believed in Jesus and received the remission of your sins? Little G. knew if he died in his sins he was lost, and would go to hell. He was sure of that, because he had often sinned, and because God said we must be born again.
Now our young friend G. is grown, and his mother is with the Lord. He is on earth to be the witness of a God who answers prayers. His delight is to tell the “old, old story of Jesus and His love.” Do you know the story, dear reader? “Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He died, the just for the unjust.” A young man who was sick and had found the Saviour, said: “Jesus died for me and washed me in His Own blood.” Are you washed in the blood of Jesus, washed as white as snow?
ML 03/19/1916