THE RUNAWAY KNOCK

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1880

THE RUNAWAY KNOCK.

"TEACHER," said a bright, earnest-faced boy, "why is it that so many prayers are unanswered? I do not understand. The Bible says, 'Ask, and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you,' but it seems to me a great many knock and are not admitted."

"Did you never sit by your cheerful parlor fire," said the teacher, "on some dark evening, and hear a knocking at the door? Going to answer the summons, have you not sometimes looked out into the darkness, seeing nothing, but hearing the pattering feet of some mischievous boy, who knocked but did not wish to enter, and therefore ran away? Thus it is often with us. We ask for blessings, but we do not really expect them; we knock, but do not wish to enter; we fear that Jesus will not hear us, will not admit us, and so we go away."

"Ah, I see," said the earnest-faced boy, his eyes shining with the new light dawning in his soul, "Jesus cannot be expected to answer run-away knocks. I mean to keep knocking until he cannot help opening the door."