BETSY

(Concluded from last issue)

“Don’t you feel well, Betsy?” asked mother.

“Oh, I am all right mother! Why?”

“Because your eyes are so red. The minister has again preached about hell and condemnation, I suppose?”

“I wish you had been to church, mother, for the minister preached so divine.”

“Yes, he always preaches that way, we know,” said father. “Do not say another word about it, we understand everything.”

Betsy obeyed and after she had her cup of coffee, she took the Bible to again read the 20th chapter of St. John and also the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, which chapter the minister had also mentioned in his sermon.

After the noonday meal, father asked mother if she cared to go for a walk, but mother declined, saying she was still tired from the walk they had taken Sunday afternoon. “This afternoon we will stay at home and sit in the living room, from where we can watch the children jump rope. Betsy can also join them,” said mother.

“Play with the children, mother! such a big girl as I am. No, please, no.”

“What do you say? such a big girl! Come now, there are many bigger girls that play and jump rope, what girl does not like to do that?”

“Yes, mother, I used to like it also, but now I do not even think of it.”

“And why not. Come, come, I say that today you are going to change some of your ideas. Jump rope, I say and stay there awhile, there is no harm in that.”

“That is what I say,” said father. “I wish I could still play along.”

Betsy was now in a predicament, for her mother continued to insist that she play along and to the voice of mother also agreed the voice of Satan, who is a liar from the beginning and at once an inward voice said: “Come, do not object to everything! You are still young and if it was something else; but jump rope—mother is perfectly right, there is no harm in that.”

Poor Betsy—she listened to this misleading voice, went outside to jump rope with the children and did her best to appear cheerful; but try as she did, it did not help, for while she was busy playing it is as if she hears a voice saying: “Betsy, whom seeketh thou? Can you find Jesus here?” This voice makes her tremble. Instantly she throws the rope to the ground and runs from the children with her handkerchief to her eyes which were filled with tears. She flees and while doing so must hear her comrades call out: “You can never play with us anymore.”

That does not bother her in the least. Yes, she will admit she broke up the playing, but at that moment she clearly realized that the world and all its desires will pass away, but they that do the will of God will stay to all eternity.

Betsy came home weeping and mother who had seen her coming, awaited her at the door, for she suspected something was wrong. Mother and father were almost overcome when they asked her what the trouble was and she answered: “Oh, father and mother! without the Lord Jesus I am eternally lost, and by those who seek the pleasures of this world, it is impossible to find Him. Please do not be angry at me, I must find Jesus. And the way to find Him, said the preacher this morning, is upon our knees.”

Father and mother again tried to persuade her to keep her mind off these things, but whatever they did had no effect. Betsy stood fast in what she had said and the whole evening she could be washed in her tears.

The clock had not yet struck 10 o’clock and Betsy asked if she could go to bed, which request was granted her. Approximately one half hour had passed when Staalman said to his wife: “Sophie! do you hear that noise upstairs; I fear that our child will lose her senses.” “Yes,” answered mother, “I fear also, but what can we do about it?” “I regret very much,” said father, “that I permitted her to go and hear that ‘pious’ preacher this morning. Had she stayed at home, we would not have had this. But let us go upstairs quietly and watch what she is doing.” So father and mother crept quietly up the stairs and opened the door carefully, but suddenly stood still as if nailed to the floor. There, by the chair which stood by her bed lay Betsy upon her knees and loudly giving vent to her feelings in prayer to God.

“O, Lord!” she pleaded, while the tears streamed down her cheeks, “have mercy upon me and make me as a Mary.” And after she had pleaded her own cause to the Lord, she prayed earnestly that the Lord would also be merciful to father and mother and grant them a new Spirit.

When she prayed thus, the face of both father and mother took a different expression and they quietly closed the door and went downstairs.

Whether Staalman and his wife went to bed immediately we do not know, but this we can say that Betsy did not sleep a wink that night and father and mother evidently did not sleep much either, as Betsy could hear them talking together at various times of the night.

Arising from her knees and going to bed, she was obliged to again arise from her bed and fall on her knees and pour out her anxious heart to the Lord. Yes, Betsy was full of anxiety and very sad. Her sins rose as great mountains before her and the cold perspiration broke out on all sides. “Lost! lost!” was her sighing and groaning. “Righteous would thou be, O Lord! to cast me into outer darkness, for how many times hast Thou knocked at my conscience, without my having been concerned; listening to the voice of my parents more than to Thee. O Lord! can there still be mercy for me ? Lord Jesus ! will I hear Thy voice as a Mary, and with her, to fall at Thy feet and worship Thee out of the fulness of my heart?” Again we say: these were anxious times for the young girl, but she still must undergo many more anxious times, and consequently her face became very pale and drawn and father and mother feared that their daughter would become seriously ill. · Seized by this fear they treated her more kindly and even permitted her to go to Agnes Kleinhart’s home. And what do you suppose she requested her mother to do? This, to take the lace and other frills off her dress, for she said: “Why all this extraordinary finery for the body, which will presently go to the grave. We incense the Lord with all our style.”

Many anxious days and nights did Betsy have, but finally it pleased the Lord to condescend and come into her heart with the words: “See the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.” This gave her the assurance that the Lord Jesus had also died on the cross for her and arose from the dead. And then, weeping with joy she fell at the feet of her Saviour and with Mary cried out, “Master! lovely Master!”

From that time on, wherever she came or went, she was a true disciple of Jesus Christ who did not shame herself to admonish and warn when the necessity arose.

As time went on, things took a change for the better with her parents also. Instead of opposing the true religion as heretofore, they visited the churches where it was preached. Father Staalman found employment as a carpenter and after a short time he again went into business for himself. Instead of wearing the most modern and stylish suit, he dressed in accordance with his standing and on Sunday or any Christian holiday instead of going for a stroll after church, they remained at home. It was evident to Betsy that the Lord had heard her prayers for her parents and through the atonement of Jesus Christ as a result of which also the unregenerated and worldling are outwardly blessed, her parents were also blessed and often her words to father and mother were: “O! what an unspeakable privilege it would be, if in connection with the outward blessings, also the inward blessings would be granted to both of you.” And then she would add in an entreating voice: “O, dear parents! ask the Lord for that great privilege, for we have to do with a God who giveth abundantly and upbraideth not.”

Betsy has long since died. One time we met her, but then she was already married to a man who feared the Lord also. She also had a few children. While visiting her, she was putting her 4 year old daughter to bed and before doing so the child kneeled before a chair, folded her hands and repeated a prayer which her mother had taught her. After the child had shook our hand and bid us good night, we said to her mother: “What a lovely child you have,” whereupon the mother answered: “Yes, she sure is and what I must believe of her is, that she is a child loved by the Lord, for that child is so bound to my heart, I cannot express it in words.”

“A wonderful privilege for children who have converted parents,” we said.

“Yes,” she related, “that it is, but on the other hand, it is a greater responsibility for them if they perish, than for those children who have unregenerated parents.”

Then she went on to relate that she did not have this privilege. “Thus you see,” she said (when she came to the end of her narrative which we have related in these pages) “it is not in the rearing (not to belittle this responsibility) of a child to be plucked as a brand out of the fire. Shall anyone receive this Spirit, it shall only be by free Sovereign grace and if God works who shall turn Him?”

“Whom seeketh thou?” With this question, did Betsy by the grace of God, consider herself. Children! and also those who have since outgrown childhood and read this narrative, have you ever stopped to consider your state and condition? If not, oh, consider that you face a great eternity and terrible it will be to die outside of the communion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you not sought him here, have you not fallen before His holy feet—presently He shall appear on the clouds of Heaven tx judge the quick and the dead and then shall all nations bow down before Him. Then shall all see Him, also those who have pierced Him and then it shall be with those who would not have the Lord Jesus as their King: “Oh! that the mountains may fall upon us, and the hills cover us, before the face of the Lord!”

But then shall those terrible words be heard: “Cast him, cast her, in outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Therefore may you fall upon your knees and ask the Lord that He may have mercy upon your poor guilty soul and that your portion may be in the resurrected and glorified Saviour. But that you may do it yet today, for tomorrow—tomorrow, children! tomorrow men, ladies and our old folks! tomorrow the door of grace may be forever closed.

And to you, who have as Betsy, wept for Jesus as a Mary Magdalene, you have made a good, yes, the very best choice. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord also give you the courage and conviction to continually strive for His name and honor, which becomes all his true disciples. And therein He will lead you, when you come to Him as a sinner and seek all wisdom and strength in Him.

END

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