 |
| Click to enlarge and download the largest available size. |
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” John 3: 14-15
"Mother, see what I found in the library just now!" exclaimed Annie as she approached her mother, carrying a large, gauzy-winged moth on her finger. "Where did it come from? and how did it get in there?"
"Call Herbert and come with me, and I'll finish the story I began to tell you some days ago." said the mother, as she went to the library and took down the cocoon from the corner in which it had been hanging.
"Now, children, I told you that a caterpillar spun this cocoon last fall, shutting itself up inside. Then it went to sleep, or apparently died. It has lain in this little casket, as we might call it, all these months - sometimes covered with the snow, sometimes rocked by the cold winds and beating rains.
"It was not dead, however. All this time that it was apparently lifeless, there was a change taking place in its body.
 |
| The caterpillar. |
''A certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the armor." I Kings 22:34
 |
| "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate." Psalm 127:5 |
About twenty-seven hundred years ago there was a king of Israel named Ahab. One day he went out with his army to fight against the Syrians. Now, Ahab was a coward. He was afraid that when the Syrians saw him they would try to kill him because he was the king of Israel. So he took off the fine armor and the plumed helmet that kings always wore in battle and put on the armor of an ordinary soldier. He did this so that the Syrians would not know who he was. By and by the battle was being fought and the Syrians looked around for Ahab, but they could not find him.
Off there in the Syrian army was a soldier with a bow and a quiver of arrows. He tightened his bowstring, took an arrow and put it against the string and looked for an Israelite to shoot at. He did not see any very near him so he just shot off that arrow into the air, not at anything in particular.
That is what we mean by drawing a bow at a venture. Let me tell you what became of that arrow. It went up and over and down, and hit the king of Israel who was trying so hard not to be killed that day. There was a place in the armor where the girdle and the breastplate came together, a little joint, and in there the arrow went and killed King Ahab.
The man in the Syrian army did not mean to do that. It is likely that he never knew as long as he lived that his arrow had killed the king.
Did you ever hear boys and girls say, "I didn't mean to"? When we start out we very seldom mean to do wrong. How is it, then, that we are so often guilty of doing evil things?
There was a story, that I read once in an old school book, of a workman who was busy building a ship. He came upon a wormy plank in a pile of lumber. He ought not to have put it into the ship, but he thought to himself, '' It is only one small plank and it will not matter." So he put it in and forgot all about it. After a while the ship was finished and went to sea. For years it did well, and then it was found that the timbers were eaten with worms. They tried to repair it but it became worse and worse, till one day while out at sea it began to leak badly. They tried to pump out the water, but it came in faster than they could get it out, and the crew only saved themselves by taking to the boats. It was that one wormy plank that caused the loss of that valuable ship. The man who put it in there did not mean to sink the ship, any more than that soldier meant to kill the king, but he did.
Some of the little things, that we do not mean to do, are those that most hurt others. The Prophet Jeremiah says that the tongue is like an arrow. It is often like the arrow of this soldier. It does what we do not mean it to do.
There was a story in one of our papers about a poor girl in one of our great cities. Her father had been killed, and she was working for her living, and trying to support her mother and her little sisters and brothers. It took so much for all this that she did not have anything left to buy pretty clothes with. Some of the girls in the shop where she worked made fun of her shabby dress. She was very sensitive and thought about it till her mind became affected. Then she ran off and jumped into the river. Those thoughtless girls did not mean to hurt her feelings. Their tongues were like that arrow. They killed when they did not mean to.
Good words are as arrows too. One of the great ministers of this country tells of crossing the ocean one summer. On the ship was a lawyer, the attorney-general of his state. One night the minister was passing the lawyer's stateroom. The door was open, and as he looked in he saw him reading his Bible. Just then the lawyer looked up and saw the minister and said, " Come in," and he went in. ''I am very glad," said the minister," to see you reading the Bible." ''Yes," said the other, " I read it through at least once each year. I did not know much about this book till a few years ago. One day a little girl said to me, ''Judge, have you ever read the Bible through?'' I said, ''No, have you?'' She said, ''Yes, of course I have.'' That set me thinking. I said to myself, ''Here I am, the attorney-general of this state, and I have never read through the book upon which our whole civilization rests.'' For pure shame I went and read it to the end, and I have never failed once each year to go through it again."
That little girl's arrow had hit the judge. Be sure that the words you speak are good words, so that when they hit, they will help instead of hurt. Hutchison.
I Thank Thee
by Rose Waldo
I'm Thankful, Lord, as I can be
That I can sing sweet songs to Thee.
I thank Thee for Thy loving care
And for the privilege of prayer.
I thank Thee, Lord, that I can say
My thankfulness to Thee each day.
I thank Thee, Lord, and love Thee, too,
For helping me with all I do
At home, and with my work at school.
I thank Thee for the Golden Rule
That helps me know the loving way
To treat my playmates everyday.
I thank Thee, Lord, that I can know
They love protects me and will show
How perfect gifts come from above,
But thank Thee most, dear God, for love.
"And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit
and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who
were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."Acts 10:38
The New Testament tells us many things about Jesus after He became a man. It does not say much about the child Jesus, so we ought to study and treasure very carefully everything that is said about His boyhood.
What kind of a place did Jesus live in when He was a boy? It was a very small town and a very poor and very dirty town. The streets were so narrow in some places that a woman could reach her hand out of her window on one side of the street, and shake hands with the woman, who was standing in her window, on the other side of the street. If a cart or a camel came along one of those narrow, dark streets, the children had to run into the houses to get out of the way.
The streets were also very dirty. There were no sewers then, or garbage wagons, and there was rubbish and filth everywhere.
The only time that the streets were cleaned was when it rained very hard.
Jesus lived in a very poor little house. The walls were bare and there was almost no furniture. He had none of the comfortable and pretty things that you have in your homes. He was a very poor boy. There were no beds or chairs in His home, and when He went to sleep at night He lay on the floor on a little rug.
Nowadays sometimes we hear boys and girls grumble and complain because they haven't as much as some one else, but there is not one of you who has not a better home, and more to make you contented than Jesus had when He was a little child.
What did Jesus do when He was a child? I think that He did pretty much the same things that boys do now. He was like every other healthy boy. He loved to run and play and have a good time. Some of the games that we play now are thousands of years old. "Hide-and-seek," "fox and geese," and some of our other out-of-door games, were played in Nazareth in the time of Jesus, and I have no doubt that some of the very games that you enjoy so much, Jesus used to play long ago when He was on earth.
But Jesus did something beside play. We are told that He went about doing good. That means that everywhere He went He tried to make people happier by helping them.
There was an old English admiral, long ago, who always carried with him a pocketful of acorns. Whenever a chance came he would plant one. Some one asked him why he did it. He replied, "I want to have plenty of oak trees to make ships for my country."
Wouldn't it be a fine thing for every one of us to carry goodness and happiness about with us, and leave a little everywhere we go? That was what Jesus did. " He went about doing good."
There was a man of whom I heard, who rode out every evening from business to his home in a railroad train. There isn't much fun in standing every day for three-quarters of an hour on a crowded train. But this man has a good time doing it. Let me tell you how he does it. Every day there are many people on that train who have to stand. Among them are tired women, and old men, who cannot hurry enough to get there before all the seats are taken. This man said to himself: ''I am big and strong and every night, when the rush comes for seats, I am going to get a good seat and hold it for someone who needs it more than I do."
So every evening when the crowd pushes through the gate, he is one of the first on the train, and always gets a good seat. Then when it is crowded he gives that seat to the most tired person that he can see, who has not been able to get there in time to find one.
He said, "I used to think hard of the railroad because they do not give us enough seats to go around in the rush hours, but I am glad of it now, for it gives me a fine chance to help some one else."
There is a little verse that we all ought to know, said to have been written by William Penn, "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not neglect it, or defer it, for I shall not pass this way again." Hutchison.
Do good for others "He went over to him...he took care of him."
Luke 10:34
