No Other Gods (6)

With the Parlvliets (continued)

After a while Jennie also went with Elsie to church on Sunday. There Mr. Parlvliet would sometimes read a sermon. Jennie could not understand much but she sat still and listened attentively. Mr. Parlvliet and his wife had taken notice of this and then would say, “Jennie is so different from Elsie.”

One day Mrs. Parlvliet heard these two girls talking to each other. “Do you never ask the Lord for a new heart? You know you cannot die this way, and sometimes I am so afraid to die!” said Jennie.

Elsie answered, “We are still much too young to die.”

“Too young!” said Jennie, “What about John Bosman who was in the fifth grade; didn’t he die?”

“Yes, but he was sick so long,” Elsie continued.

When Mrs. Parlvliet told this to her husband, he said: “Let us be very careful, especially with children. Let us watch and wait to see what the Lord is pleased to do.”

Jennie especially liked to go to the catechism class. Elder Schuurman from the neighboring congregation came to catechize the children. With great seriousness he told them of the one thing needful for salvation. Tuesday afternoon came which would be the last catechetical lesson of the season. That afternoon Elder Schuurman was serious in his admonishing and could not leave the children go without a special word to them. “Children,” he said, “attempt to bend your knees before the Lord and ask Him to convert you as He converts all His people. What would it be if one of you were no longer alive after vacation season is past? If one of you were to die?” In this way this plain and humble man made himself free from these children who were entrusted to him. Could it be that they understood him? Only eternity will reveal this.

Jennie van het Hof could not rid herself of these words and went home under a deep impression of them. Elsie understood nothing of it. Jennie had no desire to play with her.

“Why not?” asked Elsie.

“Because my hand hurts me so,” was her answer. The day before she had fallen and received a small wound in her hand which seemed to pain her severely.

“Could I die from this?” asked Jennie.

“Are you so foolish, Jennie? Listen, you need not be afraid of that,” said Elsie lightly. Yet Jennie was concerned and afraid.

When Elsie came home, she related what had happened and also what Mr. Schuurman had said at the catechism class. “Well,” said Elsie, “I think Jennie is very silly to be afraid of dying from such a small cut.”

“No, Elsie,” said Mr. Parlvliet, “that is not silly of Jennie. We all, during our entire life, should be more concerned with the brevity of life; then we would not jump about so jolly and unconcerned.” The following morning Elsie was greatly shocked when she heard that Jennie was seriously ill and had fever. The doctor diagnosed it as a severe infection. As for Jennie herself, she was greatly distressed. Neither her father nor her mother understood her.

Mr. van het Hof said, “I cannot understand anything of it; the child never did so much evil that she should cry so much about her sins.”

As for Jennie, she knew better. “Must I ask Mr. Parlvliet to come and visit you, Jennie?” asked her mother.

“Oh, no, Mother, no!”

“Why not? Otherwise, you are so anxious to be in the company of those people.”

“Yes, but not now!” said Jennie, “I cannot meet the Parlvliets and… Oh, Mother, neither can I meet the Lord.” Jennie was fighting a conflict which flesh and blood can never grasp; neither could her father and mother understand it.

In the home of Mr. Parlvliet, a man lay wrestling for the cure of a child, yea, what is more, whether it would please the Lord to give grace to the sick child. It was midnight and Jennie did not improve. “Ma, Ma,” she called, “listen.”

Mrs. van het Hof stood immediately at her bedside. “Do you want a drink, Jennie?”

“No, Mother, I know not whether I dare to ask it.”

“Oh, my dear child, you may say it without fear; Mother will do anything for you.

“Would you be willing to call Mr. Parlvliet and Elsie, too?”

“But child, don’t you know that it is night; wouldn’t it be better to wait until the morning?”

“Oh, no, Mother, now; Mr. Parlvliet must come now!”

Although Mr. van het Hof never went to visit Mr. Parlvliet, the reason you can easily surmise—still he put on his coat and went to call him. Jennie was such an unusual child; she had always been so. If he wanted to take her somewhere—anyplace where another child would be happy to go—then she refused. Shortly afterward Mr. Parlvliet stood before the bed of Jennie.

“Jennie, why did you call me?” he asked.

Jennie grasped his hand and said, “I still wanted to thank you because you have always warned me so faithfully, and will you also thank Mr. Schuurman for me? I am going to die and I was so afraid to die because of my many sins which were as high as a mountain; yes, they reached to the heavens. So many times, I had asked the Lord for a new heart, whether He would take away my guilt and sin, but… this did not happen. Oh, Mr. Parlvliet, I then thought the Lord would never give me my desire, but now He has spoken these words to my heart: ‘Come now, and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ Then a quiet peace came into my heart. Before I never understood, but now I can grasp something of why the Lord Jesus had to be born in a stable, why He had to suffer and die…it was for me, yea, for my sins…”

Then she was quiet; she could say no more. Also, for Mr. Parlvliet this was so much. Was the Lord still pleased to hear and answer his supplication, and to be privileged to hear it from the mouth of this child? Yes, the Lord is a wonder-working God, and where grace is given, there it is given freely. Jennie bid farewell to Elsie in a very childlike way and also showed her the necessity of seeking the Lord. This was also too much for Elsie; she stood there weeping and realized that Jennie possessed something which she did not have. This was an hour which would never, no never, be forgotten. Would it have any beneficial results for Elsie? Ah, if the Lord comes not with the admonishments, then a person will go on in spite of everything.

Still, it was a great loss that she must lose her friend so suddenly. Because…Jennie died! Jennie lived only one more day in which she lay unconscious and then she was no more. When she was buried a few days later, the children stood there at her grave. Elder Schuurman spoke of the brevity of life but also of the necessity of true conversion. A special calling went out from this grave but also this message, that the Lord lives and still works with His Spirit.

(To be continued)

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