“Oh yes, teacher, I do love Him.”
“Why do you love Him, dear?”
“Oh, teacher, because He died to save us from going to the dreadful place, and because He’s so good to us.”
“And do you know, dear, what the verse means when it says, ‘Those that seek Me early shall find Me’?”
“Early in the morning, teacher, before we think of anything else.”
“Yes, dear, we should think of Him as soon as we wake in the morning; our first thought should be of Him and His love; but it means something beside this—that while you are young, quite in the morning of life, you should seek Him as your Saviour and Friend, not wait till you are grown up, because you may never live till then, and the sweet promise is for children, ‘Those that seek Me early shall find Me.’ I hope little Bessie is beginning to seek Jesus early.”
“Yes, teacher; and I hope I shall see Him some day. I often lie awake at night; and through the chinks in the roof I sometimes see the stars, and they look so bright, and I know Jesus made them, and I say to myself, ‘Jesus’s home is brighter even than those stars; and maybe some day I shall get there, if my sins are washed away, and my naughty heart is made clean.’ And when the babies are cross, and my arm aches with nursing them, I sing my hymns and verses, and I forget I’m tired, and I feel so happy; but I do want to come to school again.”
Susan promised the child to see if she could persuade her mother to give her leave to return to the class; but bidding her, whether or not, to try to be gentle, obedient, and patient, and thus to show her love to the Lord Jesus, who had loved her with so great a love, she said good-bye to her, and made her way once more down the rickety staircase.
As she went down, she heard the little voice upstairs beginning to sing again the old favourite hymn; and with feelings of deep thankfulness she thought to herself, “Truly, of such is the kingdom of heaven;” so simply had this little child received the message of Christ’s love into her heart, and as a little palm-tree flourishing in the midst of a desert land, because its roots are watered by a hidden spring, was bringing forth in an ungodly home, and with every outward disadvantage, the fruit of holiness, to the glory and praise of God.
Susan made many efforts to see little Bessie’s stepmother, but without success. She went out to work early in the morning, and purposely avoided seeing her at other times. When Susan called at the house, little Bessie, if not out, was always locked into the room. But the child had many happy talks with her kind teacher through the closed door; and though not allowed to come back to the school, she learned, week after week, the verses which Susan slipped for her under the door, and was treasuring up in her heart a store of precious texts which no one could take away from her. After some time Susan managed to send her a Bible by little Jane, and the joy of the child at having one of her own was unbounded.