Read Ebook: The Little Child's Book of Divinity or Grandmamma's Stories about Bible Doctrines by Macduff John R John Ross

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Ebook has 184 lines and 17823 words, and 4 pages

"Oh how peaceful, and safe, and joyous," exclaimed Emma, "must the justified sinner be!"

"Yes, truly," replied her grandmother. "He has nothing to fear. On the great day of judgment, however many his enemies and accusers may be, he can look around him on all of them, and exclaim, with the great apostle, 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is GOD THAT JUSTIFIETH; who is he that condemneth?' Here is a beautiful verse of a hymn I should like you to learn by heart," she added, repeating twice over to little Emma the following lines:--

"'Jesus! Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress, 'Mid flaming worlds, in these array'd, With joy I shall lift up my head!'"

THIRD NIGHT.

"Are you ready now?" said little Emma, coming skipping into her grandmother's room. "I have just finished learning my verses in Romans, and I so weary to hear about some more Scripture doctrines."

"I am quite ready," said her grandmamma; "but it would make me happy, before I begin, to hear you repeat whatever verses you have been committing to memory to-night."

So saying, Emma stood by her grandmother's chair, and, without a mistake, repeated from the 10th to the 15th verse of the eighth chapter of Romans. The last one was this, "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!"

"I am happy, my dear child," said old Mrs Allan, "that these have been your verses to-night, as they refer to the very subject I should like now to speak to you about.

"You remember what I explained to you last Sabbath?"

"Oh, no. I have often wondered what that word can mean, and I long to hear from you."

"It is true, my dear," said her grandmother; "but by nature none of us are in the family of God; we are called 'children of wrath;' 'children of the devil;' 'enemies!' God puts a very solemn and striking question about us--'How shall I set thee among the children?' He sees that we are such poor miserable sinners, that if He had dealt with us as we have deserved for our sins, we should have been for ever 'children of wrath!'"

"What, then, could have made God adopt us into His family?" said little Emma.

"You are right, my darling; and do you remember the name of an aged disciple of Jesus who delighted more than all the rest to speak of God's love? And perhaps you remember, too, what he says about this adopting love of God?"

Little Emma quickly turned up her Bible, and read as follows:--"Beloved, now are we the sons of God!"

"How kind in God," said Emma, with the tear in her eye, "to love sinners so much, and deal with them so tenderly! I think this, too, explains my favourite story in the gospel--does it not, grandmamma?"

"Oh! I shall love to read that parable more than ever," said Emma. "I don't think any earthly father would have been so kind to an ungrateful son. But you often tell me that 'God's ways are not as man's ways;' and it is surely so in this.

"That is a very natural question, my dear, and I shall do what I can to answer you. Let me ask you another question. What are your feelings towards your earthly parents?"

"I love them," said Emma, "very much; I try to do what they bid me, and I am always unhappy when I do anything that vexes or hurts them."

"It is the very same, my dear," said her grandmother, "with the children of God. If you are really a child of God, you will love Him, and try to do all His will, and be unhappy whenever you sin against Him or displease Him."

"I will tell you another thing, grandmamma," interrupted the little girl; "I am never happy when I am far away from my father, or when my father is far away from me. Sometimes he has to go away for many days to a distance, and I so weary for his coming back. I think and speak of him all the day long; and once I remember, when I was a week away at aunt Fanny's, I so longed to get back again to be with him."

"Well, dear child, you have just given another mark by which you may know if you are a child of God. Do you love your Heavenly Father's presence? Do you love prayer, which brings you always near Him? and are you always unhappy when you forget prayer, which drives you away from God; or commit sin, which drives God away from you?"

"Oh, yes, dear grandmamma, I think I can say I am; but then, I often sin, and I fear"--

"Stop, my dear child," said the old lady. "Remember, it is a great cause of grief to the true child of God, that the power of sin is so strong in his heart, and that the devil is so often tempting him."

FOURTH NIGHT.

"I fear I weary you, grandmamma," said little Emma, as she opened the room-door on the following Sabbath, and resumed her accustomed seat by the good old lady's side--"I fear I weary you, coming so often to hear your nice explanations of Bible doctrines; but you have already enabled me to understand a great deal I never knew before, and have made my Sabbath evenings so happy!"

"I assure you, you have made me happy too, my dear child," said Mrs Allan, wiping the tear that was rolling down her withered cheek. "I can truly say, I have no greater joy than to talk to you about these glorious truths. I will soon be in that silent place," continued she, pointing, as she was closing her shutters for the night, to the churchyard, on which the moon was then shining; "but it makes me happy to think, that when you can hear my voice no more, you will remember, with joy, the Sabbath evenings we have spent together. Happy, dear Emma, will it be," her face brightening as she spoke, "if we meet to speak of these blessed truths in the better Sabbath in heaven!"

Emma was about to reply, when her grandmother took her by the hand, and said, with a kindly smile, "Well, dearest, and what would you have me talk to you about to-night?"

"Stay, my dear," interrupted her grandmother; "that is the very subject I was thinking of. You could not have named a better; and if you will give me all your attention, I shall try to open up this great doctrine to you as simply as I can.

"I don't think so," replied Emma.

"Indeed, grandmamma," replied Emma, "it is such a long and difficult word, that I am ashamed to tell, though I have often heard it mentioned in Mr R--'s sermon, I never understood it aright."

"You should never be ashamed, my dear, to ask those older than yourself to explain Bible difficulties to you. Many grow up to be big people, in great ignorance, owing to this false shame."

"But must every one have this entire change of heart before he can be saved?"

"Yes, dearest, it is a doctrine many don't like to believe, or to hear about, because they think it makes the way to heaven too strait and narrow; but do you remember anything Jesus said about it, when He was speaking to inquiring Nicodemus?"

"Oh, yes," said Emma, "you have put me in mind of the verse now--'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"

"A great deal more," replied her grandmother. "Let me ask you," said she to Emma, "two questions, which may help to explain the matter to you. If a king pardoned a rebel, and if that rebel still hated his sovereign, and sought to kill him, would it be safe for the king to receive the ungrateful rebel into his palace?"

"No!" replied Emma.

"Well, dearest, what would require to be done to make it safe for the king to keep company with the rebel he had pardoned; and the father to take the son to live with him in his own household?"

"If they had changed and better hearts," said Emma.

"Yes, my dear child," said the other ; "and even if the sinner could get into heaven with his sinful, unchanged, unconverted heart, could he be happy?"

"I don't think," said Emma, "he could; he would be miserable in that holy place, amid holy angels and a holy God. I see quite well now the truth of what Jesus says, 'Except ye be converted, ye cannot enter in the kingdom of heaven.'

"Like every other thing in salvation," replied the old lady, "this great change of heart and life is the work of God; and though all the glorious Trinity are engaged in producing it, it is more especially brought about by the agency of the third person in the blessed Godhead--the Holy Ghost."

"But how do you know when it takes place?" continued Emma. "Are we aware of the time when the Holy Spirit works this great change?"

"Then it takes a long time, grandmamma, before a sinner's heart can be changed?"

The good old lady kissed her little grandchild, putting two pieces of paper at what she had so marked. Emma, saying "Good-night," ran up-stairs with her Bible in her hand, and, having shut her door, read to herself, before she knelt down to her evening prayer, these two verses:--

FIFTH NIGHT.

"I am now ready for you," said old Mrs Allan, as little Emma was waiting anxiously for the time when she might again seat herself by her grandmother's chair. "What am I to tell you about to-night?"

"I have been thinking," replied Emma, "if you have no more to explain about the great work in the soul of the believer, that I should like to hear more of that glorious Being to whom the sinner owes all the precious blessings you have been telling me of."

"I shall gladly do so, my dear child. It is a delightful subject to converse upon the Person, Offices, and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor."

"This, my child," replied her grandmother, "is the great mystery of godliness, 'God manifest in the flesh,'--but it is a glorious mystery; and happy shall I be to speak to you upon it.

"But is he not spoken of," said Emma, "also as the Son of Man?"

"I think, too," said Emma, "it is a blessed thought that our great Redeemer was a man. If He had been God only, He could not have felt for us in the way He can do as the 'Son of Man.'"

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