WHEN FATHER COMES HOME.
When my father comes home in the evening
from work.
Then I will get up on his knee,
And tell him how many nice lessons I learn,
And show him how good I can be.
He shall hear what number I know how to
count;
I'll tell him what words I can spell;
And if I can learn something new every day,
I hope soon to read very well.
I'll repeat to him all the good verses I know,
And tell him how kind we must be
That we never must hurt little creatures at all
And he will be glad, and love me.
I'll tell him we always must try to please God,
And never be cruel or rude;
For God is the Father of all living things.
He cares for and blesses the good.
THE BLESSINGS
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
They the kingdom shall possess,
Rich in faith and heavenly blessings,
Let us ever forward press.
Blessed are the sad and mournful,
Weeping o'er their treasures gone
For the darkness gathered o'er them
Is the harbinger of morn.
Blessed are the meek and lowly,
They the green earth shall inherit;
Full of love, and peace, and gladness,
Fruits of God's most Holy Spirit.
Blessed they who thirst and hunger;
All their wants shall be supplied;
Never yet have been forsaken
They, who on their God relied.
Blessed they who, loving mercy,
Joy not in another's pain;
All the mercy shown to others
They shall for themselves obtain.
Blessed are the pure and prayerful.
Seeking God in every place;
They shall in their home eternal
See Him ever face to face.
Blessed are the good peace-makers,
For God's children they shall be;
Of His glory full partakers,
When from earth their spirits flee.
Blessed ye, when men revile you,
Treat you falsely for My sake;
For the prophets gone before you
Did the self-same treatment take.
Let us then be ever mindful
Of the precepts Christ has given;
So that when this life is over,
We may dwell with Him in heaven.
"You are my friends if you do what I command you."—John 15:14
What a friendly world this is! Sometimes we think it is a hard, cruel, selfish world, but it is not. It is a friendly world, full of friendly folk, who are looking around for love and friendship and happiness.
The world is just like a mirror. It reflects our moods. We ourselves make the image that we see in the glass. There is a little lake I know, lying in the woods far up in the Canadian wilderness, and there you hear the echo of every noise you make. If you are rowing a boat, you think you hear someone else keeping stroke with you. If you sing, you hear some one else singing. If you shout and scold the fish that has gotten away from you, some one else scolds and talks loud. That is just the way with the world. We live in a sort of echo-world and as we speak and think and act, so we are answered back.
One very hot summer day I was in the city of Cleveland. It was so hot that people were cross and I noticed a sign at the hotel desk which read, “Keep your temper, no one here wants it.” It was a wise word to tired and irritable travelers. The city was filled with delegates from all over the country, who were attending a convention, and the streets were thronged.
In that hot and hurried city I came on three friendly things. The first was a little kitten, asleep behind the window of a barber shop. It was a little grey kitten, with little spots of white on each foot, on its nose and at the end of its tail. It was lying in the sun, asleep with its head resting on one of its front feet, just like a little child lying asleep with its arm under its head, and its hand over its eyes. It was very pretty and a lot of people gathered in front of the window and smiled and talked together about the little kitten with its head pillowed on its arm, as it were. I walked up to the public square and saw a young woman standing in the midst of about a hundred pigeons. They were perched on her head, her shoulders, and were eating some grain out of her hands and from the ground near by. She had come there to feed them because she loved them and they were unafraid. Then, best of all, I came upon a fine “black beauty” police horse. There was no policeman to be seen, so there was nothing to fear. The horse was standing with his front feet away up on the sidewalk, as if looking in on the turtles and alligators playing in the city fountain. But that was not what he was doing. I soon found that out. He was a friendly horse and wanted to talk to the folks as they passed. Old ladies came and patted his nose. Old men came and scratched his forehead. He seemed to like that. Little children came and looked into his big open eyes. Girls came and pulled his ears, and a big boy after putting his arm around his neck and whispering something in his ear put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a beautiful red apple and Mr. Black Beauty said “Thank you” and in two bites the apple was gone.
Yes, this is a friendly world. But it is our own friendliness that makes it friendly. We get just what we give. Jesus came to make the world a friendly place. He spoke of the lilies of the field, and the birds of the air. He took the little children on His knee and was kind to all, to the poor, the blind, the sick, the sinful. To be like Jesus, we too must live the friendly life. And the laws of the friendly life are given in these simple but great words of Jesus:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit:
“Blessed are they that mourn:
“Blessed are the meek:
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
“Blessed are the merciful:
“Blessed are the pure in heart:
“Blessed are the peacemakers."
These are the laws of the friendly life. Kerr
LITTLE ACTS OF KINDNESS
Little acts of kindness,
Trifling though they are,
How they serve to brighten
This dark world of care!
Little acts of kindness,
Oh, how potent they,
To dispel the shadows
Of life's cloudy day.
Little acts of kindness,
How they cheer the heart!
What a world of gladness
Will a smile impart!
How a gentle accent
Calms the troubled soul.
When the waves of passion
O'er it wildly roll!
You may have around you
Sunshine, if you will,
Or a host of shadows.
Gloomy, - dreary, - chill.
If you want the sunshine,
Smile, though sad at heart;
To the poor and needy
Kindly aid impart.
To the soul-despairing
Breathe a hopeful word;
From your lips be only
Tones of kindness heard.
Ever give for anger.
Love and tenderness;
And, in blessing others.
You yourself will bless.
Little acts of kindness,
Nothing do they cost;
Yet when they are wanting,
Life's best charm is lost.
Little acts of kindness,
Richest gems of earth;
Though they seem but trifles,
Priceless is their worth.
THE BEAUTIFUL
The beautiful! the beautiful!
Where do we find it not?
It is an all-pervading grace,
And lighteth every spot.
It sparkles on the ocean wave,
It glitters in the dew ;
We see it in the glorious sky.
And in the floweret's hue.
On mountain-top, in valley deep,
We find its presence there;
The beautiful! the beautiful!
It liveth every where.
The glories of the noontide day.
The still and solemn night;
The changing seasons, - all can bring
Their tribute of delight.
There's beauty in the child's first smile:
And in that look of faith,
The Christian's last on earth, before
His eyes are closed in death.
And in the beings that we love,
Who have our tenderest care,
The beautiful! the beautiful!
How sweet to trace it there!
'Twas in the glance that God threw o'er
The young created earth;
When He proclaimed it very good,
The beautiful had birth.
Then who shall say this world is dull,
And all to sadness given.
While yet there grows on every side.
The smile that came from heaven?
If so much loveliness is sent
To grace our earthly home,
How beautiful! how beautiful!
Will be the world to come.
HARVEST-FIELD OF TIME
Children, all of us are gleaners
In the harvest-field of time;
Day by day the grain is ripening
For a sunnier clime.
Whether in the early morning,
Going forth with busy feet.
Or, as weary laborers, resting
'Mid the noon-day heat;
Let us strive, with cheerful spirits,
Each our duties to fulfill,
Till the time of harvest, - subject
To the Master's will.
Let us garner up sweet memories,
Bound with ties of love;
Pleasant thoughts to cheer the pathway
To our home above.
Trusting that these precious gleanings
Bound with loving hand,
May in golden sheaves be gathered
To the spirit land.
“Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one!”— Job 14:4
You have heard of the “Bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond.” Loch Lomond is one of the most beautiful lakes in Scotland and there is a very pretty song that is sung about it, which says:
Oh, you’ll take the high road
And I’ll take the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland before you,
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonny, bonny banks
Of Loch Lomond.”
Well, near Loch Lomond, on the mountainside there is a little lake called Fairy Loch. You know in Scotland loch means lake. If you look into the beautiful waters of this little lake you will see a great many colors. It looks as if the rainbow were playing in the water. The coloring, of course, comes from the strange tinted rocks and sands at the bottom, but that is not why it is called “Fairy Loch. ,, I will tell you why.
A long, long time ago, when the land was full of fancies and fairies people found that the fairies played around this little lake and that many strange and wonderful things were found there. They discovered that when garments were left by the water’s edge they changed to a different color, and that if they left something to be dyed, and a thread beside it showing what color was wanted next morning the garment was changed into that very color. One night a shepherd left on the edge of this little mountain lake the fleece of a black sheep and beside it he put a white woolen thread to show that he wished the black dyed white. The fairies were at their wits’ end. They could dye a white fleece black, or even red, or blue, or yellow, but they did not know how to change a black fleece into a white one, and in their despair they threw fleece, thread and all their colors into the lake and from that time on the lake has been called Fairy Loch and the water has a rainbow appearance. That is a very pretty story and it helps us to understand how difficult it is to make a black thing white. Job asked the question, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” which is the same as saying, “Who can make a black fleece white?”
Sometimes we can do it. Queen Victoria once went to see a great paper mill, and there she saw dirty and filthy looking rags. Then she saw the men take those rags and wash and clean them and make them into pure clean white paper. After she got home she received a beautiful box of fine white stationery, all engraved with her name. That was making black things white, and bringing a clean thing out of an unclean.
Sometimes nature can do it. You remember the old tale of Hercules, the strong man of Greece, turned the waters of the rivers Alpheus and Peneus into the foul and dirty stables of Augeas, king of Elis, and made them pure and clean and fresh in a single day. But sometimes neither man nor nature can bring a clean thing out of an unclean condition. Who can make a dark heart turn into something full of light? Who can make unclean thoughts clean? Who can change dark desires into pure Christ-like purposes? Only God can. God can change darkness into light, so we pray:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
Only God can cleanse us and make our hearts white and pure. He tells us that though our sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. When those who had been redeemed were seen the question was asked, “These that are arrayed in white robes, who are they and whence came they?” and the answer was given: “These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
God can do what men and nature and all the fairies in the world cannot do. He can make a dark thing light and can bring a clean thing out of something that is unclean. Kerr
“Bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond.”
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and
dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:
justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done,
without neglecting the others." Matthew 23:23
Jesus did not always speak sweet words. Sometimes His words had a sting in them. Seven times in one chapter in the Gospels He said “Woe to you,” and He was speaking to the leaders of the church.
Let us think of one of these “woes” of Jesus, He was speaking to the priests and scribes and Pharisees and He told them they were not a bit religious because they were putting little trifles in the place of important things. They were required by their law to give God a tenth of all they owned, and they were careful to do so. They not only gave God a tenth of all their cattle, property, and grain, but they gave Him also a tenth of their “mint, dill, and cummin.” You know what mint is. Sometimes we call it “spearmint,” and sometimes “peppermint,” and sometimes just “mint.” Well, mint and dill and cummin are little herbs, used for flavoring vegetables or chewing gum and for medicine and these people were so anxious about these three tiny things and were forgetful of the three big things called “judgment, mercy and faith.” They were willing to give God a tenth of everything but were unwilling to be true, to be kind, and to be gentle and loving to others. They were interested in little things. They forgot about the big things.
The other day I took my rod and reel and went off to hunt for some speckled trout away up in the hills of Pennsylvania. Were you ever there? It is a wonderful place. The great hills rise almost to the sky, and the little streams rush down the valleys in the springtime and there the most beautiful fish in the world play hide and seek with each other and with fishermen like myself. My brother and I had gone up to Kities to fish in Parker’s Run. We walked away up the valley about three miles, and there took off our shoes, and hid them under a log, and put on high rubber boots and then waded farther up the stream, perhaps three miles more.
When we came back with the trout we were very tired and sat down on the log to change our big rubber boots for our more comfortable shoes. When we looked under the log there were only three shoes. One of mine was gone. It was a very lonely place, and there were no burglars or bandits around. We looked for the missing shoe and found it some distance away. Some little animal, perhaps a porcupine, or groundhog or beaver, had found it and was carrying it off. It had scratched it a little and chewed the edges of the leather. The shoe was all right, but the interesting thing was that the lace was gone— gone completely. Either with its sharp toes, or with its sharper teeth, the sly little thief had unloosed the lace, hole by hole, and no trace of it was left. I have often wondered what it wanted with the lace. Perhaps it wanted to make a swing, or hammock out of it, or to use it to hang one of the other little animals that stole things from its nest in the ground. Anyway it took the lace and left the shoe. That’s what these cold-hearted dry-as-dust priests were doing, too. They took the little thing and left the important thing and that is just like taking the lace and leaving the shoe. We often do the same thing.
When we go to church, and listen to the word of God and the music, and the sermon and come away and talk about the soprano’s hat or the minister’s hands or the color of the pipes of the organ, we are taking the lace and leaving the shoe. One Sunday a little lad said to me, “Father, that was a good sermon.” I said, “Did you like it?” “Yes,” he said, “but did you ever count the number of pipes in the organ?” He had got hold of the lace that time for sure, but then he was only a little fellow, and what can very little boys do in church when the sermon is long and prosy but count the pipes in the organ or the buttons on the cushion in the pew?
When we read the Bible and instead of finding Jesus in it with His message of salvation and God’s wondrous love we are interested in what is the longest chapter and the shortest verse, and the numbers in the Book of Revelation or the wheels of Ezekiel, we are getting hold of the lace and missing the shoe. Do you understand?
When at home we are loved by our parents and everything is done for us, and we act mean and peevish, what are we doing but leaving the great fine things and running off with some selfish trifle. Jesus blamed the people to whom He said, “Woe,” for their neglect of the big things and not so much for their interest in little things. The best way is to take hold of both the little things and the big things. My little porcupine friend should have been off with both lace and shoe and made his nest for the winter out of them. Kerr
“These (little things) things ye should have done,” said Jesus, “and not have left the (big things) other undone.”
