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The Runaway Knock

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 31, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 33.

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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 ever sit by your cheerful parlor fire,” said the teacher, “on some dark evening, and hear a loud knocking at the door? Going to answer the summons, have you not sometimes looked out into the darkness, seeing nothing, but hearing the pattering of some mischievous boys, who knocked, but did not wish to enter, and therefore ran away? Thus it is often with us. We ask for blessings, but do not really expect them; we fear that Jesus will not hear us, will not admit us, and so we go away.”
“Ah! I see,” said the boy, his eyes shining with the new light dawning in his soul; “Jesus cannot be expected to answer runaway knocks. I mean to keep knocking until he cannot help opening the door.”