A preacher friend of the writer told him once that he had a little grandson
named Johnnie, who was about four years of age. One night he was crying bitterly from toothache.
All the family were sitting in the library, father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, and grown-up brothers and sisters. He went from one to the other, and reached out his little arms first for this one and then for that one, until he had made the entire round and started on the second journey.
He tried his fathers shoulder, his mothers breast, his sisters loving embrace, while a strong, big brother walked him up and down, and the grandfather rocked him.
But nothing would do, and nobody suited him. He in the course of ten minutes had been in the arms and sat on the lap of every one in the room, seeking rest and finding none.
After getting thus far in the story the preacher stopped a moment, fixed his eyes with an amused look upon us, and said, The laps were all right; the trouble was with the tooth of our little Johnnie!
This incident has a wonderful explanation in it of certain kinds of human conduct, and a tremendous application to those people whom nothing and nobody can please. They lay blame on individuals and circumstances, when the real explanation of their fault-finding and abusive speech is a morally diseased inward condition!
God has a large family who are well, but He has some children who are unwell. They think others are wrong
when the trouble is with their own aching tooth. --- Living Illustrations by B. Carradine.
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