"For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” Romans 15:3
When we start in life one of the most important things to learn is to remember. We must try very hard not to forget the instruction of our parents, and the teachings of the Bible and the lessons we learn at school. All these things we must remember, if we are to grow up wise and good. But there are also many things that we must learn to forget. We must try to forget the wicked stories that we hear, and the evil pictures that we see, and all the mean and unkind things that we find out about other people. And there is something else that we must try to forget and that is‚ ourselves. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, suffering such awful agony, He did not think of Himself at all. It was only of the poor men who had fastened Him to the cross, and He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." There is a very good woman not very far from us. I heard someone say about her one day, ''She is the very best woman who ever lived." And then he went on to tell me why he thought so: "She never thinks about herself. It is always about others." What a fine thing to be said of anyone! If you want to be happy, and if you want to be loved by others, forget yourself, and you will be both.
This week I read the story of an old man in Japan. There was a little village at the foot of a high hill along the seashore, and up on that hill, high above the shore, the old man lived with his little grandson, who was ten years old. He had worked hard all his life and owned the little house where they lived.
One evening in June, 1896, he was standing in the doorway of his house with his grandson beside him. The day's work was done and they were looking out to sea, when all at once there came a great earthquake, such as they very often have in Japan. The house swayed and shook, but it didn't fall down, for they make their houses in Japan so they will stand up when earthquakes come. But the old man saw that the sea was running out, miles away from the shore. Long before when he was a young man he had seen the sea do that after an earthquake, and he knew just what was going to happen. The people in the village had seen the strange sight and ran down to the beach to look at it. The old man knew what they didn't know, that in a little while that sea would come rolling in, as a great tidal wave and destroy the whole village. So he called his grandson and told him to bring him a lighted torch. He took the torch and set fire to the thatch on the roof of his house. The little boy began to cry. He thought the earthquake had made his grandfather crazy. Down in the village the people saw the blaze and they came running up the hill. The fire bell began to ring and the people who were on the seashore ran back, too. Some young men were the first to reach the fire and they tried to put it out, but the old man would not let them.'' Let it burn," he said. ''I want the whole village here." The men thought it was very strange and asked the grandson about it. He said, "Grandfather is growing mad. I saw him set the house on fire on purpose." ''Yes," said the grandfather, "I did set it on fire. Are the people of the village all here?" They looked and told him that they were all there. "Now," said he, "look at the sea."They looked, and they saw the water like a great cliff, rolling in toward the land. On and on it came and swept over the village, and almost came up to where they were, and when the water went back there was not a sign of the village left. It was all gone. Then they knew why the old man had set fire to his house and burned up everything that he had. It was to save them. He never thought of himself and his hard work all his life to earn enough to own that house. He only thought of them.
That is what Jesus wants us to do, forget ourselves and think of others. S. N. Hutchison
"And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." Genesis 1:31
About two hundred years ago there was an English poet who wrote a little poem that we all ought to know:
'' He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast;
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small,
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
God made the animals and the birds, and He loves them because He has made them and He wants us to love them, too. We ought to love them for what they do for us. They serve us in more ways than I have time to tell you about. Think of the cow and the horse. The cow gives us milk and butter and cheese and meat, and leather for our shoes, and many other useful and necessary things, even in modern times. The horse, in the past, did much of our hard work for us. We cannot pay them in money, but we can repay them in kindness. If you see a man who is not kind to his faithful horse, you may be sure he is a man whom you could not trust very far. Long ago, in India the elephants did a great many things that horses do for people, and they did some things that horses couldn't do. The Indian mothers would sometimes leave their babies in charge of an elephant, and that big fellow took almost as good of care of them as if the human children were his own. One of the missionaries was telling of seeing a big elephant set to brush the flies off a sleeping child, with a little branch of a tree that he held in his trunk. All the time the big flies and insects were biting and stinging the elephant, but he for- got all about them taking care of that baby. Then we ought to love the animals because they love us. When I was in Holland I went to the city where the great Prince of Orange, William the Silent, was buried. There is a fine marble statue there of the prince, and at his feet there is a little dog with his head between his paws, carved out of marble. Later on we went to The Hague, the capital of Holland. There is another statue of the prince, and the dog is there too. I asked someone about the dog and he told me that hundreds of years ago when the prince lived there was a little dog that loved him very much. He went everywhere the prince went, and when William was murdered the little dog refused to eat and starved himself to death with grief. So whenever the people of Holland build a monument to their great hero they remember the little dog, too. If the animals do not love us it is because we are not kind to them. They always love us if we love them. And the birds, too, how tame they become if we are good to them! Jesus once said that not a sparrow ever falls to the ground without the Father. That is, God knows and cares for every one of the birds. When we see boys and men killing the little birds just for the pleasure of seeing them fall out of the trees, it would be a good thing, wouldn't it, if they could know that God sees every one of those birds fall, and knows who made it fall, too? The Jews have a lovely little legend. They say that when Moses was keeping the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, a lamb ran away and was lost. He ran after it, and at last he caught up with it. It was panting and footsore, and weary, and torn, and unable to go a step further. Moses said to the lamb, ''Did you think that I wanted to hurt you that you ran away from me? No, it was love that made me come after you, and in love I am going to lay you on my shoulder and take you back home." When God saw how kind Moses was to the little lamb He said, ''There is the very man I need to lead My people." So God made Moses the leader of Israel. If you wish to please God and form a gentle character be kind to the birds and the animals. S. N. Hutchison
The Hymn, "All things bright and beautiful", based upon the poem above and
"The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD." Job 1:12
While the children of Israel were on the way from Egypt to the land of Canaan they came one day to a valley, where there were a great many poisonous snakes. Many of the people were bitten and died. If one of the boys was out playing, all at once he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. Then it began to swell and before long he was dead. If one of the girls went to the spring to get some water for her mother, when she stooped over to dip up the water she felt a prick in her wrist, and saw a snake wriggling away in the grass, and knew then that she did not have very long to live. If one of the men went out to get some wood for the fire, the first thing he knew he would be bitten. These things were happening all the time, and there was no cure for the bite of these serpents. So the people went to Moses and asked him to do something, and Moses prayed to the Lord. God told Moses to make a serpent of brass and fasten it to the top of a long pole and set the pole up in the middle of the camp where every one could see it. If any one was bitten by a snake he was to look at that serpent on the pole, and he would not die. That seems like a strange thing for God to do, now doesn't it? Why didn't God just kill the snakes and be done with them? It seems as though that would have been the very best way to save the people. But no, God left those serpents there to teach the people several things. First He wanted them to be watchful. If you have ever been out in the woods where you are afraid of snakes, you know how very carefully you walk. You never put your foot down unless you know where you are putting it. Those snakes made you watchful. And He wanted to teach them to look up. That is why He put that serpent on the pole, that the people might not forget to look up to Him when they were in need or trouble. But now you say to me, "What has all this to do with Satan?" It has a great deal to do with him. Satan is said to be a serpent, and when we are thinking of him we are thinking of a serpent. Sometimes we ask this same question about him, ''Why does God let Satan live?" A boy said to me once, "Why doesn't God just kill old Satan and be done with him? What good is he anyway?'' Well, God lets Satan live for the same reason that He let those serpents live, that were biting and troubling the children of Israel in the wilderness. He wants to teach us to be watchful, to be careful of every step that we take and every word we speak, and every thought that we think. When people believe that Satan isn't around anywhere they become careless. God lets him live to make us better and stronger boys and girls and men and women. And He lets him live that we may look up to Him when we are in trouble. You know when people have no troubles they are very likely to forget about God. But when they are tempted and troubled then they think about Him and pray to Him. And God wants us to come to Him. God is going to attend to Satan sometime, but I am glad that He didn't do it before. He makes us plenty of trouble, but if we resist him he makes us stronger and better Christians. There is a story of a Frenchman who was shut up in the great prison of the Bastile many years ago. They put him into a lonely dungeon into which the light came just a little while each day through a tiny window high up in the wall. He never saw anyone, or heard a voice, and became very sad and depressed, with nothing to think about or to do. One day he saw a little plant beginning to sprout up between the stones of the cell. He watched that plant. There was nothing else for him to think about. As it grew day after day he learned to love it very much. He did not know what kind of a plant it was, whether it was a weed or a flower. He said to himself, ''I am going to watch that plant, and if it turns out to be an ugly weed then I will know that I am never going to get out of this prison alive. But if it is a lovely flower I will know that I am going to be released." One night he lay down to sleep and when he awoke in the morning there was a delicate fragrance in the cell. He jumped up from the straw on which he was lying, and went and looked, and there was a lovely little flower on the plant. When he saw it he called it ''mignonette," which means " little darling." Sure enough, a little while after they came and released him and he went away to his home again. And people who did not know about him used to wonder why he had the mignonette so much on the table in his home. Now God is watching every one of us to see just how we are enduring the temptations of Satan, whether we are going to turn out just weeds, or beautiful flowers that will bless and help the world. N. S. Hutchison.
"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may
be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and
produces wonderful results." James 5:16
One of the most beautiful stories that was ever told is the parable of the Prodigal Son. You all know the story. There was a young man who went away from home and did wrong. After a while he was sorry and came back and said to his father, ''Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son." That little speech that he made to his father was about the hardest thing he was called upon to do. Nobody likes to own up when he has done wrong. Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, once called on a boy in the freshman class to stand up and read in the schoolroom. The boy stood up, holding his book in his left hand. He told him to put the book in his right hand. The boy still held it in his left hand and Professor Blackie became angry and commanded him harshly to lay the book down and take it in the other hand. Just then the boy turned around and he saw that there was nothing but an empty sleeve on the right side. Dr. Blackie came down from the desk and going over to the boy he put his arm around him and said, "I am very sorry, my boy. I didn't know.'' And then he went back to his place and apologized to the class for his mistake. That was one thing about this great man that made the boys all love him. He was always ready to own up when he had made a blunder. Our text tells us to confess our faults one to another. If you have done wrong to some one else, to your father, or mother, or brother, or sister, or one of your friends, be manly or womanly enough to go and own up. That is the best and quickest way to make it right. I know a boy who lost his mother. After her death he was very sad. He said, "I did many things that I ought not to have done, and I always thought that some day I would go and tell mother that I was sorry, and now she is gone and I cannot." Most of the quarrels and troubles that separate people are brought about because there is someone who will not own up, when he knows that he is in the wrong. There was a man who accused his neighbor of taking something that belonged to him. They had a bitter quarrel and a lawsuit and plenty of trouble all around. One day while looking over some papers in his desk he found the one he had thought was stolen. His neighbor had not robbed him. It was all a mistake. He ought to have gone at once and confessed, but he was too proud to own up like a man and the quarrel went on for years. The bravest boys and girls are those who are not afraid to own up even when they know that they will have to suffer for it. Someone told me of a boy who had cheated in an examination. He handed in an almost perfect paper, and on commencement day was called up to receive the prize. He stepped up and said, ''Sir, I didn't earn it. I cheated. The prize belongs to someone else." That boy did wrong to cheat, but he was a brave boy to own up and take the punishment. That confession was worth more to him than the prize that he lost. Boys and girls, do not be afraid or ashamed to own up when you have done a wrong or dishonorable act. That is the first thing to make it right and to make yourselves right. "Confess your faults one to another." S. N. Hutchison
Kids talk about cheating: Why Kids Cheat (and why they shouldn't)
"...that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the
seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Genesis 22:17
In " The Pilgrim's Progress " we are told about the Hill Difficulty. It was a high, hard hill which every one had to climb, if he would make the most of his life. Of course there are some people who do not care whether they ever do any better or are any better. They are satisfied to stay at the bottom all their lives, but for the boy or girl who is seeking the best things, life is like the climbing of a hill that is steep and rough. There are two things that we all need if we are ever to reach the top. One is sand. When you hear some one say that a certain boy has plenty of "sand," you know what he means, but perhaps you do not know just where that expression came from. One of the greatest powers of which we know is that of the waves along the seashore. Half-way between Cape Henry and Virginia Beach there lies the wreck of a great ship, one hundred and fifty feet long. It was lifted by the waves and thrown high up on the beach. There is almost nothing that can stand before the power of the waves. If they make a bulkhead of piles or stone or concrete, it will last a few years and will then be undermined and washed away. Men have never found anything that can long hold the waves back. But God has made a bulkhead that the sea cannot pass. It is the sand. The sand can stand against the waves and it is the only thing we know that can. Sand in a boy or girl is the courage and power to stand up before things that are hard. It is the ability to say ''no" when temptation comes along, and to mean it. It is the power to take some hard work and stick to it and hold on till it is finished. You see someday a street-car starting up a long grade. Before the car begins to climb, the conductor takes a look at the sand box. He will not start up the hill unless there is plenty of sand in that box. Without sand the car will slip back before it reaches the top. Some boys never can play football. They have the weight, and the strength, and the speed, but they haven't the sand. And there are some people who never get anywhere in life. They have good bodies and plenty of brains and opportunity. But they lack sand. Now you are all starting out to climb the hill of life before you. Never forget that you must have sand. And there is something else that we need. Oftentimes we need help. We cannot do our work alone. There was a little boy who was trying to lift a heavy stone. He could not budge it. Just then his father came along and watched him. At last he said to the boy, "Are you using all your strength?""Yes'' answered the boy, ''I am using all of it.""No," said his father, "you are not using all of it." So the little fellow tried again, this time harder than ever, and he moved the stone a little, but still he could not lift it. His father said again to him, ''You are not using all of your strength." The boy said, "Yes, I am. Father.""No," said the father, "you haven't asked me to help yet." The boy had forgotten that his father's strength was his strength too, and that he could ask for it, and have it if he needed it. In the same way let us remember that God's strength is our strength, and that we can have that strength to help us if we need it. S. N. Hutchison
"He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name." Psalm 147:4
Do you think you could do that? Did you ever try to count the stars ? I have. When I was a boy in Canada, where the stars twinkle and shine so clearly, we used to watch for the first star, and the first one who saw it would say:
Star light, star bright, First star I've seen to-night?
Then we would see who could count the stars as they appeared. One, two, four, five, seven, eight, ten, twenty, fifty, eighty, and in a little while we all would be lost, both in arithmetic and in wonder. They call a man who watches and studies the stars an astronomer, and the astronomers have tried to count the stars, and partly by counting, and partly by guessing they tell us there must be between 2,000 and 3,000 millions of stars and each one is different, for one star differeth from another star in glory. We cannot count the stars, but God can. He counts them all and names them, for He made them and the stars are not little tiny sparks of fire, but great wonderful worlds. The great sun that lights and warms our world is just a star, and a little star. Every star we see in the sky is a sun, hundreds of times bigger than our sun. It is because they are so far away that they look so tiny and so small. Some of the stars in the Milky Way are a hundred thousand trillion miles away. Think of a hundred thousand trillion miles. Try and write out a hundred thousand trillion. You put down the figure 1 then you write 100, then 100,000, then 100,000,000, then you write 100,000,000,000, then you write a hundred thousand trillion like this, 100,000,000,000,000,000; and that is the distance some of the stars in the Milky Way are from our sun. The light that travels from some of these faraway stars takes millions of years to travel to our earth, and light travels fast, 186,000 miles a second. No wonder little ones like to look up into the sky on a clear cool night and say:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky.
When the blazing sun is set, And the grass with dew is wet, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Stars, just like boys and girls, are different. Each has its own way, and its own light. There are white stars, and yellow stars, and red stars. You have seen a white hot iron, and you know that when it begins to cool it gets yellow and then it gets red, and then it gets black. That is the way with stars, and perhaps the hottest stars are white. I do not know, but I like to think that just as God counts the stars and names them so he calls every boy and girl by name and cares for each one. We live in a big world but God is greater than sun and moon and stars. The Bible calls Jesus a star. It gives Him a star's name. It calls him "the bright and morning star." The morning star leads the world into the light of the new day and so Jesus leads us. The sailor is guided over the trackless sea by the stars. The traveler over the desert picks his path by the help of some star, so we too find our way to God by keeping our eyes on Jesus. There is a story of a young girl who had lost her way. She was lost not in the forest, or on the sea, but right in her own home. She had lost the way to peace, to happiness, and to a quiet heart. One night she had a dream. She was in a deep, deep pit, and there were no steps, no rope, nor ladder. She gave herself up for lost and then falling on her knees and looking up she saw a piece of blue sky and one star. When she saw the star she began to rise. It seemed so strange that she said, "Who is lifting me?" and looking down she found herself at the bottom. Again she saw the star and began to rise, but looked again to see who was lifting her and found herself at the bottom. A third time she fixed her eyes on the shining star, and kept looking until she found herself lifted out of the deep pit, and she was safe. Then she awoke and said, "I see it all now. I am not to look at myself, but at Jesus, the bright and morning star." When Sir Harry Lauder was in America he was walking with a father and a little boy down one of the streets of New York. It was in the days of the great war, when service flags with a star were hung in the windows. The little lad loved to point them out. "Look, father," he would say, "there's a home that has given a son to the war." "Look, father, there's another star." "Look, father, there are two stars." Then the lad, looking up at the Evening Star that had appeared in the sky, said, "And look, father, God too must have given a son, for there is a star in His window." Yes, God so loved the world that He gave Jesus. Kerr
The other day the newspapers were full of the strangest story I think I ever heard. It was the story of a man who forgot his own name, and forgot his friends and his home and his loved ones and wandered away farther and farther, day after day, and didn't know that he was lost and didn't know where he was going. He was not a poor, good-for-nothing man either, but was a man whom everybody in the city knew, a lawyer and a judge. He wandered far away into the country, living on little or nothing, begging for work, refusing to sit at the table with other people, and satisfied to eat just like a common, ordinary tramp (wanderer). At last he found work, very humble work, and was satisfied. All this time his wife and friends were worrying about him and thought he must be dead. But he had one friend who refused to think he was dead, and who searched for him day and night. At last he discovered traces of him, and one morning visited the factory where the lost man was sitting at a table making pearl buttons out of clam shells. Without waiting a moment, he went up to him and called him by his right name, and immediately the lost man recognized his friend, and knew where he was and remembered about his home. You can imagine how strange he felt, and how quickly he went with his friend, and how glad he was to get back to his own home and to his dear family. Somewhere in the Bible I have read a story something like this newspaper story. It is about a young man who left home one day, and never said where he was going, or what he was going to do, or when he would come back. He was rich and had beautiful clothes and many friends, but his money was soon spent and his good clothes soon became ragged, and the only work he could find was with a stranger who sent him out into the fields to feed the pigs. One day when he was in the field all alone, hungry and thirsty, he thought he heard some one call his name. He looked up and down and behind him and all around, but could see no one. He was sure he heard some one call his name, and the story says, " He came to himself," just like the man who was making the pearl buttons. Then he knew where he was, and without waiting to say good-bye he hurried home, and sure enough, his father was standing at the gate waiting and watching for him. You remember it was Jesus who told that story, and He told it to us so that we would understand that when we forget God and run away from Him we forget our own true name and run away from our best Friend. Hugh Kerr
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels with- out knowing it." Hebrews 13:2
Away back in the olden days before they had cheap shows and theaters with their bright lights and doubtful pictures, where for a penny or two an hour's ofttimes questionable entertainment may be had, the plain people who loved to see shows and act plays and at the same time arrange for entertainments that would help boys and girls and men and women to be better than they were, used to make up what they called miracle plays and mystery plays. The difference between a miracle play and a mystery play was this, that a miracle play always had to do with some saint whom the people liked to remember, while the mystery play was always about the Lord Jesus Himself. One of the greatest of the mystery plays is what is called the Passion Play, pictures of which doubtless you have all seen.
One of these mystery plays was about Eager-Heart, and it is about Eager-Heart that I want to tell you. Don't you think that is a pretty name? Do you think it was the name of a man or a woman, or a boy or a girl, or a horse or a dog or - well, what? Shall I tell you? Eager-Heart was the name of a beautiful woman. She had a little home far away in Germany. Just a little cottage home in a little village, but a sweet and happy home nevertheless. Well, it happened that the people of that village all expected the Great King to pass through their town on a certain night and every one was on the lookout for Him. When the wonderful night came Eager-Heart had her little home ready as if expecting the King for her guest. The lamp was lighted and the food was ready, and the bed was all prepared with beautiful, white, clean linen. While she was waiting some one came to the door and her heart beat fast, for she thought that perhaps the King had arrived and that He had come to her humble home. She opened the door quickly, but was so disappointed, for there at the door stood a poor, tired, cold woodman with his wife and his little shivering boy. They asked to be taken in and kept over the night. But Eager-Heart said, "Oh, not to-night, not to-night. I am expecting a friend, a dear friend, to-night ; come to-morrow night and next night, and next night too, but not to-night." Then the woodman, with a look of disappointment, said, " That is what they all say. No one will let us stay to-night. Every one is expecting a guest to-night, and there is no place for us." Eager-Heart was about to turn away, when she saw the face of the little child lifted to hers. It was the most beautiful face she had ever seen, and the next moment the three weary travelers were in her quiet, warm home and the little child was lying in the bed that had been made for the King. Then Eager-Heart, having made them comfortable, went out into the streets. She was so disappointed. She had had a dream that the King might perhaps be her guest that night, and now it could never, never be. But if she could not have the King in her own home she would go out to meet Him, and so, with her lamp in her hand, she went out into the streets and there she met the shepherds and the wise men searching for the King, and the Christmas star was leading them through the streets and a crowd of people were anxiously following. So Eager-Heart followed with the gathering crowd, and the star led them from street to street and from house to house until at last it led them back to the door of Eager-Heart's own home. "Not here, not here," said Eager-Heart; "it cannot be here; this is my own little humble home." But the wise men and the shepherds said that it must be that the King was in that home for the star stood low above the cottage, and so Eager-Heart opened the door and what a sight that was which she saw! The little home was all ablaze with light, for there in her own home was the Holy Family and on the snow-white bed was the infant King. She fell at His feet and worshiped and wondered. How surprised she was, and how glad she was, that she had opened her home to the poor, tired, weary travelers. I feel quite sure that you all understand the story and know what it means. I am half afraid to try to tell you what it means. But I will say this : Jesus often comes to us without telling us who He is. He wants to know if we are kind and sweet and loving to others, to the poor and to the old and to little children, and He tells us that when we are kind to others it is just the same as if we were kind to Him. Sometimes, too, when we have beautiful thoughts and see beautiful sights and hear beautiful things so that they make us wish to be beautiful in our own lives, I think it is Jesus who has come into our hearts. What a mistake it would be for us not to know Him and not let Him in. Let us all be like Eager-Heart and let Him in. Hugh Kerr
The foxes found rest And the birds their nest, In the shade of the forest tree But Thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God, In the deserts of Galilee; O come to ray heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near..." Isaiah 55:6
What would you think of a boy who kept an apple until it was rotten before he tried to eat it? What would you think of a girl who kept a rose until it wilted and faded before she tried to wear it? What would you think of a man who bought an automobile and never used it until it rusted? What would you think of boys and girls who waited until they were men and women before giving their hearts to the Lord Jesus? This is a story of a girl who did just that very thing. She thought she was not old enough, and she wished to have what she called a good time before she became a Christian. That was very foolish, as I will try to show you. The girl's name was Margaret, and she lived in the great city of St. Louis, where she had many friends and many places to go. One day her mother, whom she loved dearly, became ill, very ill‚and they had to call a nurse. The nurse was a very beautiful young lady and a lovely Christian, and she soon became much interested in Miss Margaret and her winning ways, and wondered why she had never given herself to the Lord Jesus. So she made up her mind that someday before she left she would talk to her about it. After her mother was much better, a friend sent in a bouquet of beautiful white carnations, and the nurse, who had been waiting for the best chance to speak to her little friend, said to her: "I think we will not take these flowers to your mother just now. They are so fresh and sweet and beautiful. Let us keep them here for a few days, and then we can take them to her room."Margaret's eyes opened wide and she looked at the nurse to see what she really meant. The nurse was getting the vase and the water for the flowers, and Margaret became very angry and indignant and told the nurse that she should do no such thing, but should take the beautiful flowers to her darling mother immediately. Without saying any more about the flowers and with the sweetest of smiles, the nurse put her arm around Margaret and said: " Yes, I think too that mother ought to have the flowers when they are sweetest and freshest, and we will take them to her soon; but don't you think also that God ought to have your life when it is at its best? And yet you are keeping your beautiful young life from Him and waiting until you are older, and then you think you will be willing to give Him some of the days that are not your very best." Do you think that was a good sermon? I know it was, but it didn't sound one little bit like a sermon, and I am not surprised in the least that Margaret immediately saw what the nurse meant and that very day gave her heart to Jesus. We are never too young to love Him, and boys and girls should learn to love Jesus just as sweetly and just as surely and just as early as they learn to love their own fathers and mothers in their own homes. Hugh Kerr
"But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give
you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and
walk!” Acts 3:6
Long, long ago there lived in Jerusalem a certain lame man. He was over forty years old, but he had never been able to walk at all. When other babies were learning to toddle he had lain still and quiet, not because he did not want to walk, but because his little feet and ankles were quite powerless. Later he had watched the boys at their merry games and longed to join them ; but his poor, useless legs would not bear him, and he was obliged just to look on and long. Then he had grown to be a man, and he had seen other men, strong and straight, go out to fight the world and earn their bread, and still he lay helpless; and as he was poor and could not work, his friends carried him daily and laid him at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple so that he might ask alms of those who were going in to pray. I do not know why he chose the Beautiful Gate. Perhaps because it was one of the main entrances. Many people passed that way, and he would be likely to receive a good deal of money. Perhaps it was because he liked to have something beautiful to look at, for the name seems to tell us that this gate was more beautiful than any of the others. At any rate, there he lay day after day, year after year, until he came to be a middle-aged man.
Then one morning he saw two men approaching. They were plainly clad and seemed to be poor men, but they had kind faces. Perhaps they might be able to spare him a few small coins. As they passed he stretched out a hand to ask for alms. The men stopped and looked at him steadily. This was something different from what usually happened. People had got so accustomed to seeing him there that they either passed him by unheeding or, barely glancing at him, dropped a coin into his hand. But these men stopped to look at him, and the elder one spoke. "Look on us," he said. And the lame man obeyed, expecting to receive a coin. But he was going to receive something that would be of more value to him than all the money in the world. "Silver and gold have I none," said the stranger, "but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Then he stretched out his hand to raise him up, and the lame man grasped it. Immediately strength came into his ankles and his feet, and springing up he stood and walked for the first time in his life. He went with the two strangers into the Temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people who saw him were filled with wonder, for they knew that this was the man who for long years had begged for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. You know that this is a true story, that the stranger who healed the lame man was none other than the apostle Peter. Now, if you forget all the rest of the story, I want you to try to remember just one little bit Peter's gift to the lame man. "Silver and gold have I none," he said, "but what I have, that give I thee." I think most boys and girls are a little like Peter. They haven't got any silver and gold to give; sometimes they haven't even any pennies. Well, perhaps they have something better. I don't say that it is not good to give pennies if you have them, especially if you have to give up something you want in parting with them, but there are some things worth more than money. This story of Peter and the lame man reminds me of an incident in the life of a great Russian author and prince, Count Tolstoy. One day, in the streets of Petrograd, he came upon a beggar who held out his hand and asked for alms. The count felt in all his pockets, but not a single coin could he find. But he had something with him that he carried always. He went to the beggar and said, "Brother, I have nothing, but I take your hand, and I love you." And the beggar, touched by the warm kind words, looked up in the count's face and said, " Thank you, brother, that also is a gift." That is a gift we can all give; is it not? The gift of love and kindness and sympathy. And it is a gift more precious than gold. Rev. Hastings
If any little word of mine May make a life the brighter, If any little song of mine May make a heart the lighter, God help me speak that little word. And take my bit of singing, And drop it in some lonely vale, To set the echoes ringing ! If any little love of mine May make a life the sweeter. If any little care of mine May make a friend's the fleeter, If any lift of mine may ease The burden of another, God give me love, and care, and strength To help my toiling brother.
"Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger." Psalm 8:2
"And they said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes, have you never read, "Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise;?" Matthew 21:16
This is a missionary story. I have often read it, and I know it is true. It happened in a little village, in an out-of-the-way corner of India, where a missionary had gone to baptize sixty or seventy men and women and to form them into a Christian church. When the service began the missionary noticed a boy about twelve years of age, sitting away back in the corner of the building, looking very much interested and listening with all his might. After he had baptized and received into the church all the grown-up men and women who had professed their faith in the Lord Jesus as their Savior, he was surprised to see this boy come forward and stand in front of the pulpit. The missionary said to him, "What, my lad, do you want to unite with the church and sit down to the Lord's Supper?" The boy said, "Yes, sir." The missionary looked at him lovingly, and said, "But you are very young, and I know nothing about you, and no one has taught you about the Christian faith, and after a while you may grow careless and indifferent. Perhaps it will be better for you to wait. I will be here again in less than a year, and if during that time you will study hard and prepare yourself, then, if you wish to unite with the church, I will receive you gladly." The boy said nothing, but turned away to his seat with a very sad heart, and the missionary saw that he was very, very much disappointed. Before the little fellow reached his seat, the missionary saw all the people standing up and they all began to talk at once. After a little while they allowed one man to speak for the rest, and he said: "Why, sir, this boy has taught us all we know about Jesus." And what he said proved to be the truth. That boy had learned the story of the Gospel at a mission school in a distant village, and had returned to his heathen home to tell the story of Jesus to his own people and to his friends. He read to them out of the New Testament until they too gave their hearts to God and were led to Jesus. So you see this little lad was really the minister of the village. Of course, I do not think that boys should preach like grown-up men, but I am sure if they love Jesus and live as He would like to have them live, kind and obedient and true, that they will be able to do more for Him than they could do, even if they were able to preach great, long, eloquent sermons. You know the Bible says, "A little child shall lead them." I want you to remember this verse for the text. I have known fathers and mothers with whom ministers and Sunday school teachers and elders and deacons seemed to have no influence, who were led to Jesus by their own little boy or girl. We sing sometimes, " Jesus wants me for a sunbeam," and I think a sunbeam is the most beautiful and most useful thing in all the world. Hugh Kerr
Sometimes God chooses the very young to speak His truth.
"But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves." James 1:22
Not all the heroes are in story-books. No, indeed. Some of them are living quite close to us, but we would hardly guess that they are heroes, because a real hero never tells about the splendid things he does. A real hero, you know, always keeps his heroism to himself. You can always be sure when a boy tells you about the great brave things he has done that he is a bully and not a hero. A hero never talks about himself. Here is a real hero story. It is about a boy who ran an elevator in an old shaky, shackly office building, in Philadelphia. The people who knew him called him Billy. He was a lean, freckle-faced boy, with red hair, and nobody guessed that Billy was a hero. But he was, as this story will show. One day the old building began to tremble and shake, and then one of the walls fell out and the crowd gathered in the street and looked up at the windows of the building where the men and women and little children were, and wondered what would become of them. But Billy never waited to wonder, but ran his old elevator up to the topmost story and came back with it crowded with frightened women and little children. He did that a second time, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth. Up and down he went for nine times until only one side of the building was standing and the shaft of the elevator was bare and was swaying to and fro like a tree in the wind. The policemen tried to drag the boy away from his post, and the great crowd cried for him to stop, but he pulled the chain and began to rise again to the upper floor. " There's two men up there yet," said Billy, and away he went to the top, facing death every minute, but never waiting to guess what the end might be. Then through the cloud of dust the old elevator was seen coming down and in it there were three people. As it touched the ground, the other wall fell out, but the two men and Billy came out into the street unhurt. You should have heard the people cheer! They knew then that Billy, with his red hair and his freckled face, was a hero, and they wanted to catch him and carry him on their shoulders and make him say a speech and take up a collection for him, but Billy could not be found anywhere. He had slipped off unnoticed through the crowd, for it was supper time, and he had gone home to his mother. This story does not need any sermon. If it did, all that the sermon could say would be: " Do things, don't talk about them. Do brave, kind, heroic, beautiful things, not because people see you, but because you are a hero at heart and because there are brave, kind, heroic, beautiful things to be done, and because God sees you." Hugh Kerr
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1
These words are the beginning of the greatest Book in the world. They are the first words of the first verse of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. The Jews call the book of Genesis " the Book of the Beginnings" because the first word in the Hebrew Bible is the word which our translators have rendered, " In the beginning." It is a splendid name. Genesis is a book of beginnings. It tells of the beginning of the world, of the beginning of man, of the beginning of the Jewish nation, of the beginning of God's promises. Now I think that our text is specially a text for boys and girls. You are all "beginnings" beginnings of men and women. But what kind of men and women you are going to be depends largely on how you begin So I want to say to you first - begin well. A good start means a tremendous lot in a race, and a good start means a tremendous lot in the race of life. Sometimes we are inclined to look upon the years of girlhood or boyhood as a time of waiting. The long, long years stretch out in front of us and it seems as if we never would grow up. But they are years of preparation too - the most important of our life. They are the years when we lay up stores of knowledge, stores of goodwill, stores of character. If you lose the opportunity of getting ready then, you will never make it up. A famous writer tells us that once, when he was a youth, he had a strange dream. He thought that he was an old, old man standing at a window on the last night of the year and looking out into the darkness. He saw a star falling from the sky and he exclaimed in unutterable sorrow, "That is myself!" For he had wasted and misspent his life, and he felt that he was no better than a wandering star that would presently be extinguished in the blackness of night. Then he cried out with a great longing, "Give, oh, give me back my youth!" At that moment the bells rang out to welcome the New Year and the youth awoke to find it was a dream. He had begun to follow wrong paths, but he was still young. Life with its glorious opportunities still lay before him. He could still make it something noble, something worth living. And, boys and girls, you have all got that magnificent opportunity - the opportunity to make something splendid of your lives. Don't wait longer to begin. Begin now. And the other thing I want to say to you is - begin with God. It follows from the first, for you can never begin well unless you begin with God. Will you look again at the text and notice the word that follows - " In the beginning - God." Yes, God is at the beginning of every beginning. There was a famous professor once who was giving a lesson to children about plants and flowers. He explained how the seeds became plants, how the plants became leaves and flowers, how the flowers developed seeds again. Then he went on to tell how all the different parts of a plant were built up of tiny cells, and how all these cells were filled with a wonderful substance called protoplasm, a substance which is contained in all living bodies and which makes them live and grow. Finally he said that no one knew what gave to protoplasm its power of living and growing. That was a closed door, and behind the door was unfathomable mystery. Then one of the children asked a question "Please, sir, does God live behind the door?" And that was the very best answer that could have been given. Behind every closed door, behind every beginning is - God. Behind the tiniest insect, behind the smallest blade of grass is God, and God is love. God is in the beginning of every beginning, and He wants to be in your beginning too. He made you, He made you for Himself, and you will never reach the full glory of your manhood or womanhood unless you take Him into your life. Do you want to make your life noble and grand, do you want to make the very best of it? Then take this as your motto - " In the beginning God." Rev. Hastings
"He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." Genesis 28:12
You know how it is when something you have seen during the day comes into your dreams at night. Only it comes into your dreams in the oddest way, and the most extraordinary things happen in connection with it. Well, the ladder of this morning's text was like that. Jacob, poor fellow, had been running away from home all day. He and his brother Esau had had a quarrel. Jacob had played a mean trick on Esau, and Esau was so furious that he had vowed to take Jacob's life. But Jacob's mother determined that she would prevent any such awful tragedy, so she sent off Jacob post haste to visit his uncle Laban. She sent him off in such a hurry that he had nothing but his staff for company. Jacob walked very fast all day, and when evening came and the stars shone out in the Eastern sky he found himself tired and footsore. His heart was aching as well as his feet, and he was miserably homesick. He found himself in a bare rocky valley, at the foot of a hill which rose in steps or terraces till it seemed to touch the stars. It was a desert spot, but Jacob was too weary to go farther. So he took one of the stones which were lying about, put it under his head for a pillow, and lay down on the bare ground. I've no doubt, grown man though he was, that he wet that stone pillow with a few tears before he fell asleep. When he did sleep he had a strange dream. He saw the terraced hillside above him, but instead of being a hillside it was now a shining flight of steps. The Bible uses the word " ladder," but what Jacob saw was more like a long staircase. Step after step it rose till it reached to heaven itself, and lo! his stone pillow was the lowest step of the flight. Up and down this wonderful staircase angels were constantly hurrying, as if they were busy carrying messages from earth to heaven, and back again from heaven to earth. Then Jacob discovered a greater marvel still. Somebody was bending over him, and speaking to him - Somebody who had evidently come down that shining staircase - and suddenly Jacob knew that the Somebody was God Himself. God spoke to the lonely traveler and made him promises - glorious promises - both for himself and for his children. And Jacob awoke a different man from him who had fallen asleep, for he had seen God and spoken with Him. The staircase of his dreams had brought him in touch with God. When Sir John Franklin, the famous Arctic explorer, was a little chap, some of his companions were discussing what they should do when they grew up to be men. Each was going to do something grander than the other. At last they came to John. They had all chosen so many fine actions that there seemed nothing left for him. But John was ready with his plan. "When I'm big," said he," I'm going to build a ladder so high that I shall be able to climb up to heaven." His friends all laughed at him, but we know that though he did not build that ladder he climbed the ladder of fame. He climbed it to its topmost rung when he laid down his life in a frozen land, trying to discover the North-West Passage. We cannot all climb Sir John Franklin's ladder of fame, but we can all climb Jacob's staircase, for it was a staircase of "discussions between God and man," which is just a grown-up way of saying it was a staircase of prayer. Yes, prayer is the staircase by which we can reach God, and by which He also can come down to us. By it we can send our thoughts and wishes up to Him like the angels ascending, and by it He can speak to us. For prayer is not merely our speaking to God; it is also God speaking to us. You will find that out some day when you are specially vexed or worried, and have sent your worries up the shining steps. You will feel, while you pray, as if God had descended by the staircase of your prayer and were bending over you to help and comfort you. Rev. Hastings
"...and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” Genesis 5:29
There was once a very little girl, so little as to be almost a baby, and she had a hot little temper which blazed out suddenly every now and then. One day when she had flown into a passion her father exclaimed, "Little spitfire!" Baby stopped and solemnly looked at him, but said nothing. The same day her mother received news which made her very sad, so sad that she could not help crying. Baby, who had a warm little heart as well as a warm little temper, was distressed too. She climbed on her mother's knee, put her arms round her mother's neck, and lisped, "Poo' Mummy, don't ky, don't ky!" And mother dried her tears at the touch of those clinging arms and hugged the tiny comforter and whispered, "Mother's little comfort." When Baby was dropping over to sleep that night she was heard repeating softly to herself, "Daddy's 'itta 'pitfire, Mummy's 'itta tumfort." And for many a day after if you asked her name she promptly replied, "Daddy's 'itta 'pitfire and Mummy's 'itta tumfort." Today I want to tell you of someone in the Bible who was both his father's and his mother's "little comfort." In fact his name just means "comfort," though the Hebrews pronounced it "Noah." The Bible doesn't tell us exactly why Lamech, Noah's father, called his little son " Comfort," but it gives us several hints, and we guess the rest. Noah's father and mother had evidently been having a hard struggle to make a living. They had toiled early and late and their hard work had not had great results. Perhaps the soil was at fault, perhaps a blight had fallen on the crops. Perhaps a flight of locusts had alighted on the fields and eaten up every green thing. We are not told. All we know is that they were feeling that they had struggled hard and had failed. And then, when they were feeling specially downhearted, God sent them their little son, and Lamech and his wife took new heart and fresh courage from God's gift to them. They felt that here was something that more than made up for all their disappointments, so they called him Noah, which means "Little Comfort." Can't you imagine Lamech talking to his wife and saying, "We shall try again for the sake of the boy. And this time we shall succeed"? And they would both go forward hopefully, looking to the time when baby Noah would be a big boy and ready to work along with them. But it was not only to his parents that Noah was a comfort. He was a comfort to God. Noah was born at a time when the people around were very wicked. They loved evil. They loved it to such an extent that they intentionally forgot God. They put Him out of their lives as if He did not exist, and they went their wicked way rejoicing in it, and trying hard just how wicked they could be. Among them all there was only one who remembered God and listened to His voice, and it was Noah. God's heart was nearly broken with the wickedness of the men whom He had created. Noah was His one comfort. By and by God saw that the only way to stop the terrible wickedness was to destroy the doers of it. And so, as you know, He sent the, flood and drowned the determined evildoers. But Noah and his family He saved alive in the ark. We too can be Noah's, boys and girls. We can comfort our fellow-men and we can comfort God. How can we comfort our fellow-men? In thousands of ways - big ways, and little ways, and middle-sized ways. We can begin with the little ways. We can begin to be Noah's at home. We can notice when father is tired or mother needs a helping hand. We can slip in and do our little bit to help. That will be acting Noah. We can take the little ones and amuse them for half an hour till mother gets a rest. We can run an errand for father or offer to post his letters. We can show little brother how to do that sum which he has already wiped out half a dozen times on his slate. We can mend little sister's doll and dry the tears which she has been shedding because its arm has come off. We can begin, I say, with the little ways; but we shall not end with them. If we begin with the little ways, we shall go on without knowing it to the big ways, and shall end, God helping us, by being a comfort to our day and generation. And we can comfort God. "That sounds strange," you say. "I always understood that God comforted His children. I didn't think He needed to be comforted Himself." That is just where you and many others make a mistake. God needs comfort. He needs it terribly. For after all, " comfort " is just another name for "love," and God hungers more than we can say, or think, or imagine for the love of His children on earth. He longs for it with a longing unspeakable. And the pity of it is that some people think God can get along quite nicely without them. Are you going to be God's " comforts " too, dear children? God hopes you are. Rev. Hastings
One of the first lessons that we learn after we begin to talk is to pray. Mr. Gladstone, one of the greatest men of all time, lived to be almost ninety years old, and he said that he had never gone to bed at night without kneeling down and praying that little prayer that his mother had taught him when he was a baby:
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake,
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take."
When we pray we talk to God. Where is God? Some one says, "God is in heaven." Yes, but He is here too. God is everywhere. He is in this room, and He is in your home, and along the street, and just everywhere. But some boy or girl says to me, ''How do I know that He is here? I cannot see Him." No, of course you cannot see Him. There are plenty of things that you are not able to see. You cannot see the wind that rattles the shutters and pulls up your kite. You cannot see the electricity that makes the cars go along the streets. God is a Spirit, and a spirit cannot be seen. When you pray, you need not be afraid that He will not hear, for He is always here by us when we speak. He is so close to us that He can hear the softest whispered-prayer that we ever utter.
If I were to ask every boy in this house to tell me what is the strongest thing in the whole world, probably each boy would tell me something different. One boy would say that an elephant is the strongest. Another would tell me that it is one of the big engines that haul those long trains of loaded cars across the Virginia mountains, and another boy might say that the mightiest thing in the whole world is one of those great battle-ships out there in Hampton Roads.
But there is something that is mightier than any of these. It is prayer.
If the big front door of this church were locked and you were to try to come in you could not open it. You might push and pull and get all your friends to help you, but you would not be able to move it. Just then a little girl comes down the street and says, " I can open that door." You say to her, "What, you open that door? You haven't half as much strength as I have, and we all of us together cannot open it." But the little girl takes a small piece of steel about as large as one of her fingers and puts it in the lock and gives it a little turn, and the door is open. That tiny key in the little girl's hand has done more than all of you together.
Prayer is the little key that unlocks the treasure house, where God keeps the good things that He has for those who love Him.
Those who have that key and use it receive wonderful things from God. Long ago in the land of Israel there was a great drought. There had been no rain for several years, and there was no water to drink. The Prophet Elijah went up to the top of a hill and prayed to God to send some rain. Then he sent his servant to see if there were any clouds in the sky. The servant came back and said that there was not one. But Elijah kept on praying, and after he had prayed seven times the servant came and told him that there was a cloud coming up, and very soon the rain began to fall.
That prayer of Elijah's had done more than all the power of the king could do. It had brought the rain. This is a key that every boy and girl can have and use if they will.
I know a man who came home late one night, and when he tried to open the door he found that he had lost the key. He tried to get into the house, but everything was fastened tight and he had to go back to the hotel for the night.
There are many people who cannot get into the treasure house of God's heart. They have lost the key. They have forgotten to pray. Whatever you do be sure not to lose the key. S. N. Hutchinson
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." James 4:3 ESV
God does not always give us what we ask in our prayers. If He did, it would not be well for us.
There was a young man in prison in New York a year or two ago for committing a great crime. I met an old man who had known that young man all his life. He said, "The trouble with that boy was that his father spoiled him. He gave him everything that he wanted. If the father had been a little wiser, the boy would not have been ruined."
Your fathers and mothers do not give you everything that you ask for. If they did, it would be a bad thing for you. And God deals in the same way with us. If He were to grant us everything that we ask, it would harm instead of help us.
Very often we ask Him to do something for us that we ought to do for ourselves.
When I was in school once in a while one of the boys would come to a problem that was very hard. After looking at it for a moment he would take it to his teacher and ask him to work it for him. The teacher would say to him, ''Now, my boy, it is not going to do you any good if I work this problem. You go back and see if you can solve it yourself."
That boy had been sent to school that his mind might grow strong by working hard problems and doing hard things. So his teacher did not do what he asked, but made him work it for himself. He wanted his teacher to do something for him that he ought to have done for himself.
If you ever pray to God asking Him to do something for you and He does not do it, ask yourself if it is not a problem that He wants you to work for yourself. We ought never to trouble God with things that we can do for ourselves.
Then sometimes boys and girls pray for clear weather. They are going on an excursion, perhaps, the next day, and they are afraid that it will rain, so they ask God to give them a clear, bright day. The next morning when they wake up the first sound that they hear is the rain coming down on the roof. They are disappointed, and they think that God has not heard their prayer. But God has a very large family to take care of, and He has to think about all His people. Out in the country there are thousands of farmers who have planted their fields and they are praying for rain to come and make the crops grow. If God were to answer your prayer and send sunshine every day there would be no rain and the farmers would have no fruit or grain, and there would be nothing to eat. God has to think of all His children, and if He sends you rain when you ask for sunshine, just think of all the blessings that the rain brings to the earth, the grain, and the fruit and the flowers.
I read once in a book of a parson who was asked by the people to pray to God for rain. Before he prayed, he thought he would find out what day would be the most convenient for the people to have it rain. Well, the women did not want it to rain on Monday, for that was wash-day, and Tuesday the market people wanted clear weather. Wednesday the farmers were going to cut their hay and Thursday they were planning to gather it in; Friday and Saturday it was something else, and of course the other ministers did not want it to rain Sunday. There was no day that suited everyone. So the parson went and asked the Lord to send the rain whenever He thought best, and that is the way He sends it.
Sometimes we are very selfish in our prayers. There was a boy who wanted a quarter very much to buy something that he needed, and he had no way of getting it, so he prayed that he might find a quarter. That seems like a harmless prayer, but it isn't so harmless as we think. If he were to find a quarter some one else would have first to lose it.
He was asking God to take the money out of the pocket of someone else, and put it into his. We must be sure that our prayers, if they were granted, do not make someone else suffer. If they do, God may not answer them.
We will all pray many times when God does not answer, and the reason is not that He does not hear us, but that we are asking for something that is not right, or is not best. Hutchinson
"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me..." John 5:39
You have all seen the building with the name ''Library " across the front. Perhaps the first time you saw that name you asked some one what a library is. You were told that a library is a collection of books. The Bible is a library. There are sixty-six books in it, and they are books of many different kinds. Some are history and some are biography; there are books of poetry and the letters of great men. You can find them all in this wonderful collection, which we call the Bible.
Some boy or girl says, " I have tried to read the Bible, and I cannot understand it, and I do not care to read anything that I cannot understand." But that is just because you have not looked in the right place in the Bible.
If you were to go to the City Library to get a book to read, you would not go to the room where the grown-up people get their books. You would go into the children's room where they have children's books, and you would ask for something that you can understand. The Bible is like that library. There are books there for men and women, and there are books for children. When you go into a library you do not take up the first book you come to and try to read that. If you do, of course you get one that you cannot understand. You ask some one who knows to tell you what to read. That is what you ought to do when you read your Bible. Ask your father or mother or teacher to show you where to find a book in the Bible that will interest you. Ask for the story of Joseph, or Samuel, or David, or Esther, or the child Jesus. If you will do this you will find that there is no other library in the whole world that has so many splendid stories in it for children as the Bible.
There are parts of the Bible that every boy and girl ought to know by heart. We all ought to be able to repeat by heart the Twenty-third Psalm, and the One Hundred and Third, the first part of the fifth chapter of Matthew, and Paul's chapter on love, the thirteenth of First Corinthians.
There are two things we should remember about the Bible. It was given to us to show us where to go. David once said, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a guide unto my path." Did you ever go walking in the country, where there are no bright streetlights? You tried to walk in the path but you could not see where you were going. First you bumped into a tree, and next stumbled into the gutter, till you said to yourself, "I must have a light." So you went back and lighted a lantern and started
out again. Now you have no trouble, for the lantern makes the path light for you. That is what David meant when he spoke of the Bible as a light for our feet. It shows us plainly where to go, and the reason boys and girls run into difficulties, and stumble and fall so often is because they have not taken the Light for their feet.
But there is still something else about this Bible. Paul said to Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." That means that the Bible will change our lives and make them like the life of Jesus.
Dr. Moffat, the great missionary to Africa, told the story of a shepherd boy who had become a Christian. He had been a very bad boy, but he learned to read the New Testament, and it made him gentle and kind and thoughtful of others.
One day he came to Dr. Moffat in great trouble, telling him that his big dog had found a piece of the New Testament and had eaten it. Dr. Moffat told him that it did not make any difference, that he would give him another Testament. But that did not seem to make the boy feel any better. "It is the dog that I care about," he said.
"Oh," said the missionary, "if your dog can crunch a big bone in his teeth, it will not hurt him to eat a little piece of paper."
''That isn't it," said the boy. "I was once a bad boy. If I had an enemy I hated him, and everything in me wanted to kill him. Then you gave me the Bible, and I read about Jesus, and I began to love my enemies, and now my big dog has got the Bible in him, and he will be loving the lions and letting them help themselves to the sheep."
That boy thought that because the Bible had changed him it would change his dog too.
It will not change dogs, but it will make boys and girls every day more like Jesus. Hutchinson
"As every man wisheth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7 (GNV)
The Native Americans of this country have a very pretty legend about the leaves and
the birds. They say that long, long ago when the Great Spirit was busy
making the earth beautiful, that everywhere he stepped, there the trees
and the plants and the flowers began to grow at once. The leaves of the
trees were very happy and sang songs all the day. But one morning the
wind came along and told the leaves that very soon they would fall from
the trees to the ground and would wither and die and be forgotten.
This
made the leaves very sad and they forgot for a little to sing. But by
and by, when they thought how happy it made the old tree to hear them,
they began to sing again and forgot all about what the wind had said.
But
sure enough one day in the Fall it became very cold. The wind blew and
the leaves began to loosen their hold on the tree, and to fall to the
ground. The tree had to give them up one by one till there was not a
single leaf left on the sad old tree.
As they lay
there, the Great Spirit came walking along that way. He saw the
beautiful, many colored leaves on the ground, and thought to himself, "What a pity to let those lovely things go to waste.'' So he determined
to make them live again. He gave to each leaf a pair of wings and taught
them to fly, and they became the birds. The red oak leaves became the
robin-redbreasts, and the yellow willow leaves became the yellow birds,
and the brown leaves became the sparrows and the swallows. What a flock
of them there were! And they flew off up into the trees again. The trees
had had to give them up, but they got them all back, and they were so much more beautiful than they were before.
Now
let me tell you what this legend teaches. It means that no one ever
gives up anything for God that He does not give him back something ever
so much better and more beautiful.
Once while Jesus
was here, there was a great host of very hungry people out in the
wilderness who had had nothing to eat all day. There were no stores
where they could buy, and they were too far away to go home.
Jesus
called the disciples and asked them to feed the people, but the
disciples had nothing to give them. Then the Lord commanded them to go
and see what they could find in the crowd. After a little they came back
and told Him that there was a small boy there who had five biscuits
and two small fish. The little boy's mother had given him some lunch
that morning when he came away from home, and he had not eaten it yet.
And that was all that they could find in that crowd of thousands of
people.
Jesus called the lad to Him and asked if he would give Him his lunch. The little boy
didn't want to at first. He was hungry himself, but the children all
loved Jesus and so he gave it to Him. And then what do you think that
Jesus did? He took that little boy's basket of lunch and He made it
more and more till there was enough to feed all those thousands of
hungry people. When they had all had enough, He called the little boy to
Him and gave him back what was left. There were twelve big baskets
full. There was so much that he couldn't carry it all. He had to ask
some of his friends to come and help him. He had given the Lord a
little, and the Lord had given him more than he could carry.
When
he went home that night and showed his mother all that Jesus had given
him, I am sure that he was very glad that he had been willing to give up
something for Jesus. Just think what that boy would have missed and
what those thousands of people would have missed if he had been selfish
and unwilling to let Jesus use what he had.
A good man
once said, ''I have lived many years and have had many experiences.
There has been much joy in my life and there has been a little sadness
with it too. But I have never made a single sacrifice for God which He
has not repaid many times."
Jesus never forgets a
sacrifice that has been made for Him. He remembers and gives back to the
boy or girl who has made it something far better than that which has
been given up. Hutchison
