Little Kitty

DEAR children, I am going to tell you about a little girl, called Kitty, and to what she owed her conversion. She is grown up now, and I shall tell you her story in her own words.
“I was an only child, and had dear, loving parents, who loved the Lord Jesus very much, for they knew He had loved them first (1 John 1:19). This made them long to see Him, and, as is the case with grown-up people, as well as children, they talked a great deal of what they longed for, Thus it was with my dear parents. It seemed to me that they thought and talked of hardly anything else but the joy of meeting the Lord Jesus when He will come to take all who believe in Him to be with Him forever.
I had been taught the beautiful story of God's love to poor sinners, and knew it very well in my head, but my heart was as hard as a stone. All I cared for was to have some of the amusements of ' the world,' which I was told was a wicked place, and though I knew what the Scriptures said about it in 1 John 5:19, yet I only the more longed for its pleasures. Two things which my parents were strict about, were smart dress and story books of which they did not approve. Now, I thought, ' the world ' was a most charming place, and I did love pretty dresses and bonnets, and of all things story books.
So you see, my dear young friends, how widely different my parents' thoughts and wishes were from mine. It reminds me of what God says about His thoughts and ways, and ours, in Isa. 55:8. Oh! if that gracious and loving God and Father let us poor sinners go our own way and after our own thoughts, we should never be saved and made fit to live in that beautiful home He has prepared for us Himself, should we ? So we will thank Him, with all our hearts, that He had His own loving way with us poor sinners young and old.
But now to return to my story.
Just because I did not have my way I was very naughty and rebellious, and became a discontented, unhappy child; and I do not think there is anything more disagreeable to meet with anywhere, than an ill-tempered, un­grateful child. Do not you agree with me? Of course I caused my parents much sorrow and trouble. Well, as I have said, the second coming of the Lord Jesus was what I heard more about than anything else—at least, so I thought then. At family prayers, in the selection of a subject, or for a Bible reading, my father was sure to choose the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians or to the Thessalonians, or some portion that told of the coming of the Lord.
At last the constant thought of the Lord's coming became such a dreaded reality that I could not go to sleep peacefully, fearing that when I awoke I should find that all who were believers had been taken up to be with the Lord, and that I was left behind, for I knew how wicked I was. So you can imagine, dear children, what a miserable child I was. Much as I loved my parents, I dared not tell them, or anyone, how unhappy I was on this subject.
As time went on my dread increased. I went to bed early. My room was at the top of the house, and at times the greater part of the family would be out, attending religious services. The house was then very still, with not a sound to be heard. How often in my fright have I listened over the banisters for some sign of life, till I got into a sort of terror lest all had gone, and I was actually left behind. Suddenly a gleam of comfort came in the odd thought that surely, if the Lord Jesus had really come, the great clock in the hall would stop ticking. It was a great relief to my mind, when I heard it going on as usual, and I was comforted just for the time. But the next night, and the next, and the next, when bedtime came, the same dread returned. My play and my little pleasures during the day were spoiled, as I recollected that I should have to go to bed at night.
Time went on, and I was nearly grown up, when one Sunday evening I heard a sermon on Ex. 12:23, which was used as the means for my being made ready to meet that blessed Lord Jesus, the thought of whose coming had so terrified me. I understood from the sermon that it was the same Lord, who promised to pass over every Israelite upon whose house the blood was sprinkled, who passes over, even now, every sinner who shelters under the blood of His Son, because His holy eyes rest on the precious blood of Christ. I was enabled to take God at His word, and to believe that I must be safe, because He had said so. Oh I how happy I was when I went home, and for the first time told my dear parents all I had feared and dreaded, and how the fear was all gone now, for I knew and believed that Jesus, my Savior, had ' first loved' me."
And now, my dear young readers, Kitty has lost those beloved ones who so cared for her when she was a child, indeed Kitty is almost an old woman herself. She loves to work for the Lord and to tell people of His "great love" while she is waiting and longing to be "caught up together” with all who are ready “to meet the Lord in the air, and be for ever with Him."
Will you read 1 Thess. 4:17 and 18, and you shall see that what had been frightening little Kitty so long is the very best comfort the blessed Lord could give us? May the Lord bless every reader of FAITHFUL WORDS, and grant that not one may be missing when He calls every saved soul to dwell with Him forever.
Sketches of the Early Days of Christianity
FROM what we gather from the records of the early Church, in the first days of Chris­tianity, “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," professed the faith. In a very marked way the Chris­tian faith prevailed amongst the poor and the simple, and by the testimony of Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, rather than by the words of accredited wisdom, were souls won to God. “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con­found the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are”; and in a most remarkable way this was made evident in the first days of Christianity. But by degrees the Christian faith reached upwards in society, slaves led their masters to Christ, and the common people influenced those who were superior to them in education, hence the Christian faith extended not only over a large part of the world, but in a variety of circles, until it was impossible for the heathen govern­ments and rulers not to take it into account.
Christianity was an illegal religion, and was opposed by the state, and one which was frequently the object of the hatred of the mob. Early in the second century Christians generally came under the direct censure of the law, and were open to punishment. And though they were protected from unjust accu­sations, yet the law was such that at any time the Christian might be called to die for his faith, and in different localities there were severe persecutions, and many a martyr for Christ's Name earned the crown.
Whether the wise men, who at this time were to be found in the ranks of the Christians, advanced the truth of God by their arguments on the parallels existing between the teachings of the pagan philosophers and the truths taught by Christians, is more than doubtful, certainly if such arguments pleased the pagan world they could not benefit the Church of God. Light and darkness can have no fellowship. Whoever attempts to level up heathenism to true Christianity, merely succeeds in lowering Christianity. Tertullian's statement, “the human soul is naturally Christian," is one which practically denies the fall of man from God, and the salvation of God for man.
A very remarkable change had occurred in the heathen world about the time which we are now contemplating. Kindness and honor were largely accepted as right. The condition of slaves was amended, free labor gained ground, and institutions arose for the benefit of poor children. And in the emperor, Marcus Aurelius, Rome had one of her best rulers. He required of himself, that he should be just and true to others, and that he should follow the voice of his conscience, let men say what they would. He would spend days in investigating the right and wrong of a case, and he labored to do none an injury.
Let us then present to our minds heathenism in these favorable and amiable aspects, so absolutely different from the view which we presented in our last sketch, when the Em­peror Nero and the bloodthirsty brutality of his day were before us. What do we think heathen justice and kindness would say to the Christian faith? It was precisely when heathen society was in this kindly mood, and when tine emperor who ruled in Rome was so good, that the decree issued for the persecution of Chris­tians generally was more than before “bar­barously cruel." Such as should accuse Chris­tians were to have the property of the accused, with the result that the Christians, simply because they were Christians, were often exe­cuted with the grossest cruelty, and their pro­perty divided amongst their enemies.
Every horrible iniquity was falsely imputed to the Christian, so that to say, “I am a Chris-tiara," was undoubtedly to earn torture and death. The sword slew the Roman citizen who named the name of Christ, and those who could not claim the citizenship were cast to the wild beasts.
This awful persecution was general and wide­spread—indeed, the heathen exulted, that if one or two Christians were left wandering in secret they were being sought out to be pun­ished with death.
The times of refinement and kindliness had produced a deeper and more determined effort to get rid of the name of Christ from the earth than those of the most resolute profligacy.
What adds intensely to the awful character of this hatred to the living God is the fact that the movers and originators of the persecution knew the theory of the gospel. Christian books had been studied, Christian doctrines were understood. The hatred to God and His people of the amiable and kindly human mind proved the worst hatred of all.
The decree, enabling the accusers of the Christians to take their goods, which led to their general persecution, was followed by a period of partial ease, but only to be suc­ceeded in the year 250 by a persecution more terrible than before. The Emperor Decius attempted to bring back Rome to its ancient pagan splendor, and in so doing, sought to root out Christianity from the empire. All Christians, without exception, were required to perform the rites of the religion of the State. Should they refuse they were to be tortured into submission. The magistrates were to fix a date in all their localities, and on that day the Christians were to appear and to sacrifice to the gods.
Here we pause for a moment. The Church was not in those days the simple and holy living body of apostolic times. It was also, as it is in our day, divided in itself, and strange doctrines and heresies prevailed. There were those who lamented both the worldliness and the laxity that were so common, and, who be­fore this awful decree was issued, had antici­pated some great sorrow as a judgment from God upon His House.
The Church then, as now, numbered in its ranks hosts of merely nominal Christians, and, if the heathen temples were so largely deserted, the churches were largely filled with men who were at heart afar from Christ.
But when the decree was made, numbers has­tened to offer incense to the gods, while many, who in the terror of the awful hour dared neither sacrifice to the gods nor be sacrificed for Christ, were seized with horror, which often ended in madness.
But God overruled these evils to His own glory—the devil's sieve became the means of separating the chaff from the wheat, and for giving greater purity within the Church ; the policy of bloodshed failed, and the emperors recognized the failure ; the Church arose out of the fire, and prospered. Once more there was rest. Once more the numbers of the Christians increased. Old paganism in the Roman Empire was falling!
The persecution under Decius was even exceeded by that which commenced under Diocletian. This was the last great struggle of the heathen to overthrow Christianity in the Roman Empire. At this time it is com­puted that possibly a twentieth part of the people were Christian by profession—that is, they were not heathen—so that the Church was a great power of its own in opposition to heathenism. The edict commanded that all Christian churches should be destroyed, and Christian books burned. Thus was the axe laid to the roots of the tree of Christian knowledge.
Tortures of the most desperate cruelty were inflicted upon the Christians, and every effort was made to lead them to offer to the gods, even were the offerings but a grain of salt or a pinch of incense. Christians were slowly burned, limb by limb, and the bodies of those who were slain by other means were left exposed for the dogs to eat, and this continued with greater or less intensity for some years, until at length the then emperor had to own the failure of persecution to destroy the faith, and from his dying bed he issued an edict, which brought it to an end. This was A.D. 311. The policy of persecution had failed; wild beasts, fire and sword had but aided the growth of the Christian faith.