Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… A long time ago, a gentleman, a young man, was travelling in a coach, and opposite to him there sat a lady, and the lady had a very little girl on her lap, a very sweet pretty little girl. This young man was very much pleased with the little girl: he played with her, took great notice of her, he lent her his penknife to play with; and he sang to her, and he told her little stories; he liked her so exceedingly. When the coach arrived at the hotel where they were to stop, this little girl put her face close to the young man's, and said, "Does 'oo love Jesus?" The young man could not catch it, and so he asked, "What do you say, my dear?" She said again, "Does 'oo love Jesus?" He blushed, and went out of the coach, but he could not forget the question. There was a large party to dinner, but he could hear nothing but, "Does 'oo love Jesus?" After dinner, he went to play billiards, and while playing he could not forget it "Does 'oo love Jesus?" He went to bed, uncomfortable in his mind. When on his bed at night, in his wakeful moments and in his dreams, he could only hear the same question, "Does 'oo love Jesus?" The next day he had to meet a lady by appointment, he was still thinking about it, he could not forget it, but spoke a little out loud, and when the young lady came in, he said, "Does 'oo love Jesus?" She said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I forgot you were present. I was saying what a very little girl said to me yesterday, 'Does 'oo love Jesus?'" She said, "What did you say to her?" He replied, "I said nothing. I did not know what to say." So it went on. Five years afterwards, that gentleman was walking, I think it was through the city of Bath. As he was going along the streets, he saw at the window the very lady who had had the little girl on her lap. Seeing her, he could not help ringing the bell, and asked if he might speak to her. He introduced himself to her thus: "I am the gentleman you will remember, perhaps, who travelled with you in a coach some years since." She said, "I remember it quite well." He said, "Do you remember your little girl asking me a question?" She said, "I do, and I remember how confused you were about it." He said, "May I see that little girl?" The lady looked out of the window, she was crying. He said, "What! what! is she dead?" "Yes, yes," was the reply. "She is in heaven. But come with me, and I will show you her room. I will show you all her treasures." And the gentleman went into the room, and there he saw her Bible, and a great many prize books, very prettily bound; and he saw all her childish playthings, and the lady said, "That is all that is now left of my sweet Lettie." And the gentleman replied, "No, madam, that is not all that is left of her. I am left. I am left. I owe my soul to her. I was a wicked man when I first saw her, and I was living among other wicked people, and living a very bad life. But she said those words to me, and I never forgot them. And since that time I am quite changed. I am not the man I was. I am now God's. I can answer that question now. Don't say that all of little Lettie is gone." And now I say to you, and to everybody in this church, "Does 'oo love Jesus?" (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. |
    |