“Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep which was lost.”
IT was a bright Sunday in July, and the bells of some of the neighbouring churches were ringing for afternoon service, as Susan Morley, after leaving her little brother and sister at the door of their school, made her way through some narrow bye-streets to the little ragged school that was so dear to her heart, and from which on Sunday afternoons for the last four years nothing had ever kept her absent.
It was a rough-looking place, which had formerly been used as a coal-shed; but loving hands had hung the walls with sweet texts and pictures, and transformed it into a pleasant-looking place within; while the humble appearance of its exterior had this advantage, that it attracted, while a grander building would have frightened away, the very class of children it was so desirable to get hold of.
A stranger going in that afternoon, as he looked round on the clean faces of the children, and marked their generally tidy appearance, and quiet orderly behaviour, might have questioned the fact of its being a ragged school. Very different was the appearance of the children who attended it ten years previously, when it was first opened through the loving thoughts and efforts of some kind friends who had laboured earnestly in behalf of the lost little ones; and very different was the neighbourhood generally then, from what it now was. Through those years of patient toil and prayer the earnest workers had seen, at first perhaps only dimly, here and there tokens for good to bid them not be weary in well-doing; but now, in looking back, they could feel how the good hand of their God had indeed been upon them, and multiplied the seed sown a hundredfold. To homes once sunk in darkness and ignorance had the blessed light been carried, and little children, taught of Jesus, had borne home to their parents the glad tidings of great joy, and taught the lips which first taught them to speak the words of eternal life. Thus had the wilderness been turned into a fruitful field; and in the day of the harvest those patient sowers shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.
As Susan opened the door of the school, a group of children followed her in; and on taking her place in the class, a little girl stepped forward, and curtseying, said: “Please, teacher, you told us last Sunday that we were to try and say ‘come’ to somebody else, and on the way here I saw two little girls standing at the corner of our street, and I asked them if they wouldn’t like to come to school with me, and hear what teacher would tell us about Jesus, and they said they’d like to come, only they’d got such ragged things, they didn’t like to come in, because, perhaps, the ladies would be angry, and send them away; but I said you didn’t mind how ragged we were, if only we came. But when they got near the school they looked frightened, and said they couldn’t come, unless so be I asked leave for them. Oh! can I fetch them in, teacher? I said I was sure you’d say ‘Yes.’”
The eager request was soon granted; and before many minutes the child returned, leading, one on either side of her, the poor children for whom she had pleaded. They were indeed ragged, and the sad, pinched look on both faces told of the privations they must have suffered. Susan spoke to them very kindly, and, gradually reassured by her gentle voice and manner, they gained confidence, and ventured to look round them. When prayers were over, and the other children had said their texts and hymns, Susan turned to the little strangers and asked them a few simple questions; amongst others, whether they had ever heard of heaven? The elder of the two looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, and then said, “Isn’t that the place where nobody wants nothing to eat or drink?”
Deeply touched by an answer which told so much, in a few short words, of the suffering and want with which they were evidently so early familiarised, but unwilling to show what she felt, Susan answered: “Quite right, dear; heaven is a place where nobody wants for anything; every one there is quite happy. But can you tell me how we may get there?”
No responsive word or look came this time from either of the little new-comers; but amongst Susan’s own children many a hand was held out, and when she made a sign to one of them to answer, a little girl named Jane Hardy said, “Please, teacher, for Jesus Christ’s sake.”