Lost

ONE day, many summers ago, a family of children of different ages and sizes, accompanied by their nurse, might have been seen walking near the outskirts of a large seaside town. The roads and turnings were all strange to them, for they were that very day removing to a new house, and they had already walked a long distance. They were passing a pretty public enclosure with iron railings all round it, except that here and there an opening was made without gates, so that anyone could enter. The sight of trees, blooming flowers, and shady seats, made one of the children, a little girl of about six years of age, wish to run in and see for herself what the pretty place was like. "No, no," said the nurse, "we must not stay now, but I daresay you will often be able to come here and play, for I don't think that we have much farther to go. Come along, dear.”
But the little girl did not choose to wait for her pleasure, or to mind what was said to her just then; so first looking and longing, and then lingering behind, she began to reason within herself—"What harm can there be in just running in for a minute? Oh, I must just see what it looks like inside. I'm sure I can easily catch them up again," and in she ran. Of course, when she was once within the enclosure, one thing after another caught her eye, here was a lovely flower, which must be smelt and peeped at more closely, and so the time slipped by, till the child suddenly remembered where she was, and ran out of the entrance, feeling rather frightened. When on the road again, she felt still more frightened, for no nurse, brothers or sisters, could she see anywhere! and what was worse, so many roads went this way and that way, that she could not possibly tell which one they had taken.
She ran first round this corner a little way, then round another, and so on, till she was hot and weary, and I need not add, tears were running down her cheeks. But all was in vain; so going back to the spot where she first started from, she stood there the very picture of misery, crying bitterly. She felt herself to be lost, and what was more, she had tried her utmost to help herself, and it was all of no use. Dear little readers, this child's condition at that time is exactly like yours now, if you are still unsaved. You, too, are lost, but do you know it and feel it? Do you grieve over it? Try as much as you may, you cannot of yourself find your way back to God the Father and the home above. You need someone to seek and save you, as did the little girl who was lost on the roadside.
While the child was still crying and sobbing, a bright-faced little girl just set free from school came running by, and she stopped and said kindly, "What is the matter, dear? are you hurt? What makes you cry so?" Then the little lost child told her pitiful tale.
“Oh, I am sorry for you; I wish I could stay with you and help you find your way, but my mother tells me always to go straight home from school, and I must not stay for anything on the way, and I must mind what mother says, you know.”
“Don't leave me again," cried the lost child; "I don't know what to do." After a moment's thought, the kind little girl said, "I know what I will do, you stay here, and I will run home as fast as I can and tell my mother, and perhaps then she will let me come back and help you"—but suddenly, a shout of delight, "Oh, there's my sister," was heard, and the elder sister of the lost child, who had been searching for her everywhere, came up. Some time had elapsed before the little girl had been missed, but great had been the sorrow of the nurse and the trouble of the mother. What rejoicings there were when the lost child was brought by her elder sister to the new home, how the kind mother clasped her little one with thankfulness to her bosom, even while speaking to her of her fault, which had caused so much alarm and sorrow!
It was that first look at the forbidden pleasure, then the desire, and then the act of disobedience, which had led to her being lost.
Are you among the lost ones who do not even know that they are lost? or are you lost, and knowing it, are you miserable on that account? If so, the Good Shepherd is seeking and will find you.
Or are you among the happy number of those found and saved ones, who are being led safely along to their new home, where will be eternal rejoicings?
E. G.