IGGING 
 
 DITCHES 
 
 FREDERICK B. COWL 
 
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 Cowl , Frederick B. 
 Digging ditches 
 
DIGGING DITCHES 
 
DIGGING DITCHES 
 
 
 ©tber Sennona to Bo^e anb 61110 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. FREDERICK B. COWL 
 
 NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
 CINCINNATI : CURTS & JENNINGS 
 
TO 
 
 THE BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
 OF 
 
 CROUCH HILL, LONDON 
 
 WHOSE ATTENTIVE HEARING HAS MANY TIMES 
 
 ENCOURAGED THE PREACHER 
 
 TO PREACH AGAIN 
 
PKEFACE 
 
 Eleven years ago, when I was associated with the 
 Woodhouse Moor Wesleyan Church, Leeds, the Sunday 
 school workers requested that something should be 
 done by the minister for the children in the Sunday 
 morning service. In response to that request, I 
 undertook a separate sermon for the children. This 
 I have continued to the present time, with a growing 
 sense of the necessity for something to be done, but 
 not always sure what it was best to do. The sermons 
 in this volume are some of the fruit of that work. 
 They were spoken not always to the younger children, 
 and never to the older ones, with no pretence to 
 literary style, but with a supreme consideration for 
 the actual life of the boys and girls to whom they 
 were addressed, than whom I have never found more 
 attentive and responsive hearers. 
 
 JvZy 1896. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 S)igging Witches i3 
 
 "Make this valley fuU of ditches." 
 
 2 Kings iii. 16. 
 
 3fuU H)ltcbe6 18 
 
 "That valley shall be filled with water." 
 
 •2 Kings iii. 17. 
 
 Woing ®ur :Bc6t 23 
 
 ** She hath done what she could." 
 
 Ma UK xiv. 8. 
 
 IC)ur6e:=Making 27 
 
 "Make for yourselves purses which wax not old." 
 
 Luke xii. 33 (R.V.). 
 
 Cla^'/iRoDelluiQ 34 
 
 "He made it again another vessel." 
 
 Jeb. xviii. 4. 
 
 1be&0e*JSrea?ier6 39 
 
 "Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him." 
 
 ECCLES. X. 8. 
 
 "CSlooDsCBatberers 44 
 
 ' ' The children gather wood. " 
 
 Jer. vii. 8. 
 
lO CONTENTS 
 
 PA9E 
 
 B Cbance Brrow 49 
 
 ' ' And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and 
 smote the King of Israel between the joints of the 
 harness." 1 Kings xxii. 34. 
 
 Xittle b^ Xittle 54 
 
 "He that is faithful in a very little is faitliful also in 
 much." Luke xvi. 10 (R.V.). 
 
 /Iftlmics 59 
 
 " Imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good." 
 
 3 John 11 (R. v.). 
 
 B ©ooD Cops 64 
 
 " Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 1 (R.V.). 
 
 ^be Door 69 
 
 "Jesus said ... I am the door of the sheep." 
 
 John x. 7. 
 
 SiDes 74 
 
 " The Lord is on my side ; I will not fear." 
 
 Ps. cxviii. 6. 
 
 Secrets 79 
 
 " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." 
 
 Ps. XXV. 14. 
 
 mot /iRine-Mboee? 84 
 
 " Ye are not your own ; for ye were bought with a j^rice." 
 
 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. 
 
 Bias! JSorroweD 89 
 
 "Alas, master ! for it was borroAved." 
 
 2 Kings vi. 5. 
 
 Sparrows . 94 
 
 Matt. x. 29 and Luke xii. 6. 
 
 ®10 Sboes anD ClouteD . . . . . ioo 
 
 "And old shoes and clouted upon their feet." 
 
 Joshua ix. 5. 
 
CONTENTS TT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Xost SblclDs 107 
 
 ' ■ And lie took away all the sliields of gold whicli Solomon 
 had made." 1 Kings xiv. 26. 
 
 Bpples of (3olC> ...... 113 
 
 "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of 
 silver." Prov. xxv. 11 (R.V.). 
 
 Second . 118 
 
 " I shall be next unto thee." 
 
 1 Sam. xxiii. 17. 
 
 B IRlDMe 124 
 
 "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the 
 strong came forth sweetness." 
 
 Judges xiv. 14. 
 
 Clean 1ban^5 i30 
 
 "He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and 
 stronger." Job xvii. 9. 
 
 B ipure Ibcart ...... 135 
 
 "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart." 
 
 Ps. xxiv. 4. 
 
 Copper iDrecious as (BolD . . . . . 140 
 
 " Two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold." 
 
 Ezra viii. 27 (P.V.). 
 
 Strafgbt Bvva^ . . ... . .146 
 
 " And straightway they left the nets and followed Him." 
 
 Mark i. 18. 
 
 2)00 151 
 
 " Beware of the dogs.' 
 
 Phil. iii. 2 (R.V.). 
 
 IRemember . .... 155 
 
 "Remember Jesus Christ." 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 8 (R.V.). 
 
Dlaatn^ Bitcbes 
 
 **Make this valley full of ditches." 
 
 2 Kings iii. 16. 
 
 There is a stirring soldier story in connection with 
 this verse which I will, in a few words, tell you. 
 
 Mesha, king of Moab, had to pay a large tribute of 
 wool to the king of Israel. After the death of Ahab, 
 he rebelled and withheld the tribute. Then Jehoram, 
 king of Israel, persuaded the kings of Judah and 
 Edom to go with him against Mesha. After a march 
 of seven days, they came to the valley which divided 
 Edom from Moab. They depended upon finding water 
 in this valley, and brought, therefore, no supply with 
 them ; but when the soldiers got to their camping- 
 ground, weary and thirsty, they found the stream dried 
 up. Too exhausted to retreat, and too thirsty to fight, 
 with their enemies in view on the opposite hills, 
 Jehoram foolishly and complainingly said, " Alas, that 
 the Lord hath called these three kings together, to 
 deliver them into the hand of Moab." 
 
 But the king of Judah was a better man, and asked 
 whether there was not a prophet of the Lord, so that 
 they might inquire of the Lord through him. Sturdy 
 
14 DIGGING DITCHES 
 
 Elisha was there, and to him the three kings went. 
 He reproved Jehoram for coming, because he was 
 wicked, and did not think of God when things were 
 prosperous. 
 
 Is it not mean, boys and girls, to come to God only 
 when we are in trouble, and forget Him at other times ? 
 Let none of us do this. 
 
 However, for the sake of Jehoshaphat, the good man 
 of the three (good people are worth having in our 
 company), Elisha asked the Lord what they were to 
 do. The answer God gave him was, that they were to 
 make the valley full of ditches ; because, though there 
 would be no sign or sound of rain, yet the valley would 
 be full of water, and they should drink themselves, and 
 their cattle, and their beasts. And then the Lord would 
 deliver their enemies into their hand. 
 
 Now, the picture I want you to see and remember 
 
 15 that of these thirsty soldiers digging ditches in this 
 dry valley ; and as you look at them, remember — 
 
 First. What we are to be. 
 
 We must all be diggers. Everything worth having has 
 to be worked for. Getting knowledge is like digging ; 
 for lessons, as boys and girls well know, have to be 
 learned. There are a few clever boys in every school, 
 who seem as if lessons come naturally to them, and the 
 first place in the class is as easy to them as the last 
 place to another. But these are exceptions. The 
 surest way to the top is by hard work — getting our 
 spade in and digging like thirsty soldiers. The duffer 
 
DIGGING DITCHES 15 
 
 is the boy without spade. The prize-winner is the 
 boy with spade, who has dug hard. 
 
 Becoming good is like digging. When we pray, read 
 our Bibles, try to do right, we are diggers. If we 
 are lazy about goodness, we shall no more become good 
 than we shall become wise if we don't learn lessons. 
 
 Once during the American revolution a little squad 
 of soldiers were trying to lift a heavy beam to its place. 
 The officer in charge was giving loud orders. A 
 gentlemau in private dress came by and asked the 
 officer why he didn't help. " Sir," said he, " I am a 
 corporal." The gentleman took off his coat, helped the 
 soldiers, and then, turning to the corporal, said, 
 " When you have another such job, send for the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, and he will come and help you again." 
 
 Orders, of course, must be given, but we must not be 
 above work — whoever we are, let us be amongst the 
 diggers. 
 
 By learning and reading and thinking, by prayer 
 and Bible and sermon, let us make the valley of our 
 life full of trenches for the rain to fill. 
 
 Secondly^ some ditches which we must dig. 
 
 («) The lesson ditch. 
 
 Old men say to us, " Learn, learn all you can while 
 young.** So say I, though not old yet. Learn not 
 merely from school-books, but from other books, and 
 not merely from books, but from people and from 
 nature also ; for birds and flowers, sky and sea, 
 mountain and valley, have many lessons to teach, 
 
i6 DIGGING DITCHES 
 
 Make, then, as many ditches as time will let you. 
 When I was a small boy at school, Latin seemed very 
 dry and hard, so I asked the headmaster to let me 
 give it up, as I should not need it. He said, " No, keep 
 on with it ; you don't know what use it may be." The 
 first thing I wanted after school-days was my bit of 
 Latin that I had worked hard at until I liked it, and 
 so the Latin ditch was not in vain. 
 
 (5) Obedience is a ditch we must dig. It is tiresome 
 not to be allowed to do as we like, but it is best. Let 
 us learn to obey, though we can't always see the use of 
 it. We shall be thirsty soldiers all our life unless we 
 have dug a deep, deep ditch of obedience. 
 
 As some boys were playing marbles, the rain came 
 on. Fred, one of the youngest, said, " I must go home ; 
 mother said I must not go out in the rain." " Your 
 mother — fudge ! the rain won't hurt you any more than 
 it will us," shouted the others. " I'll not disobey my 
 mother for any of you," was the quick reply. 
 
 That is the kind of ditch to dig. God will fill it by 
 and by with His own rain. 
 
 (c) Faith is another ditch for our valley. Let us 
 learn to think about God and to believe in Him ; 
 read what He says about Himself in the Bible; and 
 find out what He is like in the life of Jesus, until our 
 hearts can trust in Him. 
 
 This is the most important ditch of aU, and we shall 
 need it more than any other by and by. 
 
 There are many Bible trenches we may dig to feed 
 
DIGGING DITCHES 17 
 
 this faith-ditch. When we learn Ps. xxiii., Isa. liii., 
 John xiv. and xv., 1 Cor. xiii., we are digging precious 
 ditches. 
 
 A very little friend of mine has begun her digging 
 early, for she is not three years old. When her nurse 
 asked her the other day whom she, loved, her reply was, 
 " I love Jesus ; do 00, Nana ? " 
 
 We cannot dig ditches of love and trust too soon or 
 too deep. 
 
 Let us all make our " Valley full of ditches," and by 
 and by we bhall find them filled with rain. 
 
jfull Bitcbes 
 
 "That valley shall be filled with water." 
 
 2 Kings iii. 17. 
 
 There were no clouds telling of rain, no wind that had 
 the sound of rain in it, and the valley was very dry. 
 How tired those soldiers must have got of their ditch - 
 digging ! And most likely some of them became cross 
 as well. But God had said, " Make the valley full of 
 ditches," because though they should " not see wind 
 neither see rain, yet that valley should be filled with 
 water." 
 
 And so it was. During the night, as the tired diggers 
 slept, rain fell up among the hills, and came rushing in 
 a mountain torrent down the valley, filling up all their 
 trenches, and then away it went. 
 
 So it will be, boys and girls, in reference to the 
 ditches of which we were speaking in our last sermon. 
 They shall be filled. 
 
 1. Our Home ditches will fill. 
 
 The best and happiest men have had to thank God 
 for the ditches they had to dig at home. 
 
 When they have gone out into the world, and have 
 had to obey masters, to be at work punctually, and to 
 
 IS 
 
FULL DITCHES 19 
 
 do things with exact care, they have said, " Thank God, 
 my mother made me obey, taught me to be thorough, 
 and to keep time." 
 
 " There," said Harry, throwing down the shoe-brush 
 " that'll do. My shoes don't look very bright, but no 
 matter. Who cares ? " 
 
 " My boy," said his father, who had overheard 
 what he said to himself, "your shoes look 
 wretchedly. Pick up the brush, and make them 
 shine. When you have finished, come into the 
 house." 
 
 He made them shine, and went to his father, who 
 said, " I have a little story to tell you. [ once knew a 
 poor boy, whose mother taught him that whatever is 
 worth doing is worth doing well. This boy went out 
 to service in a gentleman's family, and he took pains to 
 do everything well, no matter how unimportant it 
 seemed. His employer was pleased, and took him into 
 his shop. So he advanced from step to step, until he 
 became a clerk, and then a partner in the business. 
 He is now a rich man, and anxious that his son Harry 
 should learn to practise the rule which made him 
 prosper." 
 
 " Why, father, were you a poor boy once ? " 
 
 " Yes, my son, so poor that I had to go out to service, 
 and black boots, and wait at table, and do any 
 menial service that was required of me. By doing little 
 things well, I was soon trusted with more important 
 ones." 
 
20 FULL DITCHES 
 
 So the ditch he dug at home, which at the time 
 seemed no use, was filled with prosperity. 
 
 2. School ditches will fill also. 
 
 Lessons are often hard, but some of the hardest, if we 
 work hard at them, will become very enjoyable. And 
 then knowledge will be like God's rain filling the lesson 
 ditch. 
 
 To know, and be able to do because we know, will be 
 to have a 'very full ditch. 
 
 Who would care to be a dunce? Who would 
 like to stand on the form wearing a tall cap 
 because he didn't know anything ? But the dunce 
 is the boy who has not dug any ditches. If we 
 dig them, knowledge will fill them. Don't mind, 
 then, the hard school-digging, for the reward will 
 come. 
 
 3. Bible ditches will fill. 
 
 In later life, when duties are many, sorrows heavy, 
 and temptations severe, the promises and precepts 
 we have stored away in childhood will come back to 
 help and cheer us. 
 
 We are inclined to say now, " What's the use of so 
 much praying and reading ? " Dig away, and some day 
 you will say, " God has filled my ditch." 
 
 Kindness, too, is a trench which will be filled some day. 
 
 I will tell you a story of a ditch well filled. Many 
 years ago, a lady, sitting in the coach which ran be- 
 tween Glasgow and Greenock, noticed, when just past 
 Bishopton, a barefooted, tired boy struggling along the 
 
FULL DITCHES 21 
 
 road. She paid for a seat for him on the coach. At 
 Greenock she asked him what he was going to do. 
 He said he wished to be a sailor. She gave him 
 half a crown, and wished him well. Twenty years 
 afterwards the coach was going to Glasgow, and near 
 Bishopton one of the passengers, a sea captain, saw 
 an old lady wearily walking along the road. He paid 
 for a seat for her. While the horses were changed at 
 Bishopton, the captain talked to her, and she thanked 
 him for his kindness. He told her how, twenty years 
 ago, a lady gave him a seat and paid for it. "Well 
 do I remember that," said she. " I am that lady, 
 reduced to poverty by the doings of a prodigal son." 
 " I," said the captain, " have been successful, and 
 am retiring home to live on my fortune; and from 
 this day I shall bind myself and heirs to supply 
 you with twenty-five pounds per annum till your 
 death." 
 
 Thus the old lady's ditch of kindness was — after 
 twenty years — filled. 
 
 God will reward all our true and earnest digging ; 
 and the promise of that reward should cheer us to dig. 
 
 These soldiers were helped in their hard digging by 
 this promise of rain. So all workers are cheered by 
 the promise of reward. The farmer ploughs and 
 sows, because God has promised that harvest shall 
 not cease. I have seen children by the sea digging 
 deep, long ditches with ever so much care, though 
 there was no water in them. But they knew 
 
22 FULL DITCHES 
 
 the tide would soon be coming in. And what 
 joy when the first wave reached their first 
 trench ! 
 
 When you are busy at home or in school, in work for 
 yourself or others, remember the promise, " The valley 
 shall be filled with water." 
 
Doing ®ur Best 
 
 ** She hath done what she could." 
 
 Mark xiv. 8. 
 
 Mary, the sister of Lazarus, had just simply brought an 
 alabaster cruse of precious ointment, and after Eastern 
 fashion, poured it over Christ's head. In this way 
 she showed her love to Him. Some of the people 
 thought it foolish and wasteful. The cruse was worth 
 about ten pounds, and could have been sold and the 
 money given to the poor. 
 
 But Christ would not have her blamed, and said 
 that throughout the world her act should be spoken 
 of. Why ? Christ could have done without the 
 anointing very well. He had not counted how much 
 it was worth. He loved the deed, because she had 
 done her best. 
 
 This answers two important questions in the life of 
 each one of us — namely. How can we get on ? and 
 how can we win the approval of those about us ? 
 
 1. There are many things we cannot do we should 
 like to do, but we can do our best. 
 
 " If I could paint Hke a Dor^, I would paint," says 
 one. " If I could play cricket like Grace, I should be 
 
24 DOING OUR BEST 
 
 a cricketer," says another. " If I could learn like the 
 cleverest in the class, I should work hard," says a third. 
 
 And so we don't paint or cricket or work, because 
 we can't be of the first ones. But that is not the way 
 at all. The great thing is that we should do our 
 best, and we shall be sure to accomplish something 
 worth while. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone was giving the prizes at a 
 Wimbledon school, he asked the boys this question, 
 " If you were told to jump, what would you do ? " 
 The eager reply of the boys was, " We would jump as 
 high as ever we could." 
 
 Yes, that's it. Not as high as Smith the champion, 
 but " as high as ever we could." That is doing their 
 best. It is only when we do things lazily and slovenly 
 that we need be ashamed of them. . 
 
 There was a member of the House of Commons who 
 had risen from very lowly life by his diligence and 
 perseverance, and made for himself an honourable 
 name. He was taunted one day by a man of higher 
 birth, who ought to have had better manners, with his 
 humble origin. "I remember," said he, "when you 
 blacked my father's boots." "Well, sir," was the 
 gentlemanly reply, " did I not do it well .? " 
 
 He was not ashamed of his boot-cleaning, since he 
 knew he did his best at it. 
 
 Boys and girls, always remember that the lowliest 
 service is high and honourable, if we bring a true spirit 
 to it and do our level best. 
 
DOING OUR BEST 25 
 
 2. Another thing Christ's defence of Mary proves; 
 that it was not the deed itself that made it approved, 
 but because it was the best she could do. 
 
 If the cruse had been worth much less, and yet her 
 best, Christ would have loved it equally. You re- 
 member His praise of the poor woman who gave only 
 two mites. But they were her best, and Christ there- 
 fore approved them more than the greater gifts. 
 
 If we do a great thing which is not our best, it is 
 small. Someone looking over the map you have drawn 
 at school says, " It is very good," but the master, 
 standing by, says, " No ; it would have been good for a 
 lower boy in the class, but he could have done better." 
 
 If, on the other hand, your best is small, it is really 
 great. I have a bird worked in wool by a tiny girl. 
 If you saw it, you might say it was poor work. But, 
 knowing the worker, I say, " No, it is very, very good." 
 
 In the Flower Service the children brought wonder- 
 ful flowers, — flowers arranged in baskets and in 
 bunches charmingly; and presently a poor little un- 
 kempt child brings a very few wild flowers, unarranged 
 and untied. The child is as great a contrast to the 
 other children as are her flowers to theirs. But as I 
 see her coming, I understand her need, and feel sure 
 that the dear Christ is saying, " She hath done what 
 she could," and that He loves her tiny gift, because it 
 is her best. 
 
 A prince went into his vineyard to examine it. He 
 came to the peach tree and said, " What are you doing 
 
26 DOING OUR BEST 
 
 for me?" The tree said, "In the spring I give my 
 blossoms and fill the air with fragrance, and on my 
 boughs hang the fruit which men will gather and carry 
 into the palace for you." "Well done!" said the 
 prince. To the chestnut he said, "What are you 
 doing ? " "I am making nests for the birds, and 
 shelter cattle with my leaves and spreading branches." 
 " Well done ! " said the prince. Then he went down to 
 the meadow, and asked the grass what it was doing' 
 " We are giving up our lives for others, for your sheep 
 and cattle, that they may be nourished " ; and the prince 
 said, " Well done ! " Last of all, he asked the tiny daisy 
 what it was doing, and the daisy said, " Nothing, nothing. 
 I cannot make a nesting-place for the birds, and I 
 cannot give shelter to the cattle, and I cannot send 
 fruit into the palace, and I cannot even give food for 
 the sheep and the cows — they do not w^ant me in the 
 meadow. All I can do is to be the best little daisy I 
 can be." And the prince bent down and kissed the 
 daisy, and said, " There is oione letter than thon!' 
 
 Do not let us be discouraged if we cannot do what 
 some others do, or if we have not what others have. 
 Be, and do your best. 
 
 "That man is blest 
 Who does his best, 
 And leaves the rest, 
 And doesn't worry." 
 
"Make for yourselves purses which wax not old." 
 
 Luke xii. 33 (R.V.). 
 
 Something we are to make both by ourselves, and for 
 ourselves. What boy or girl is there who has not 
 had the joy of making something all by them- 
 selves ? 
 
 Do you not remember the joy you felt when you 
 finished your first piece of woolwork all by your- 
 self ? 
 
 I have seen more boys than one with knife, hammer, 
 and saw, boat-building on their own account. And 
 when out of a rough piece of wood there came a 
 somewhat shapeful boat, what joy the builder felt ! 
 He looks at it with pride and says, " Not so bad." The 
 keel is not quite even nor the mast quite straight, and 
 on the water she lists a little, but none of these 
 imperfections mar much the joy of having made some- 
 thing, nor the pride with which he shows it to his 
 sister, saying, " I made it all myself, and no one 
 helped me." 
 
 27 
 
28 PURSE^MAKING 
 
 And then something for ourselves. Not selfishly 
 or greedily, but something we need. Girls understand 
 better than boys the joy of having made, for instance, 
 the first garment for themselves, which saves toil and 
 expense to someone else. 
 
 So Christ's beautiful saying reminds us of these 
 two things, Made by myself and for myself. 
 
 Let me ask you to think about two things. First, 
 What -we are to make ; and secondly , Why we are to 
 make it. 
 
 First, What we are to make. 
 
 " Make for yourselves purses." I don't think I ever 
 knew anyone fond of making purses. I have known 
 them make marble-bags and book-bags, but never a 
 purse. Whether it is that purses are so cheap, 
 it is not worth the trouble to make our own ; 
 or that money is so scarce we do not like to risk 
 it in a self-made purse, I don't know. But there 
 is the fact that few people make their own 
 purses. 
 
 Christ wants us to be busy purse-making. The 
 kind of purse Christ means is suggested to us in the 
 following words — " that wax not old." I asked a little 
 maiden if she knew the meaning of " wax " and her 
 quick, sprightly reply was, " Oh yes ; my doll is made 
 of wax." But that is not quite the meaning here. 
 We should say, in our modern English, " purses that 
 grow not old." 
 
 Then we may be quite sure Christ does not mean 
 
PURSE-MAKING 29 
 
 ordinary purses. Did any of my young friends ever 
 know a purse that would keep always new ? No ; we 
 can get purses of various material — leather or paper, 
 silk or wool, cotton or velvet, ivory or tortoiseshell, 
 purses of all sizes and shapes, and they are all 
 alike in this, that they grow old. They become 
 dirty and faded, holey and insecure, so that by 
 and by you throw them aside for others, newer and 
 better. 
 
 But the purses Christ speaks of never get old. 
 What are they? Where can we get material from 
 to make them ? 
 
 Look at Christ's verse and you have the answer. 
 " Sell that ye have and give alms," says Christ. As if 
 all they gave away to others would be like making 
 ever-new purses. 
 
 It means more than that, but it is enough at present 
 for boys and girls to remember that by doing good to 
 others, by cheering and helping those about us, we 
 are " making purses which wax not old." Every kind 
 word, each unselfish deed is like such a purse. Instead 
 of spending all your money on yourself at Christmas, 
 you sent a doll to the poor cripple child in the city ; 
 instead of taking your innings at cricket, you gave it 
 up to another who had been unlucky in not getting a 
 game ; instead of going out to play, you stayed in and 
 read to your sick mother; instead of spending the 
 sixpence given you on some white mice which you 
 much wished to have, you gave it to the poor children's 
 
30 PURSE-MAKING 
 
 country holiday fund. All these are purses which 
 never grow old. 
 
 Secondly, Why make these purses ? 
 
 What do you make any purses for? To carry 
 money when you can get it. An empty purse is 
 not much use, — indeed, it is one of the most useless 
 things I know of. Too small for marbles and 
 tops, for needles and cotton, for sweets and cake, it 
 is made so thoroughly for money, and money only, 
 that you don't seem able to make any other use 
 of it. 
 
 The purses Christ wants us to make "for our- 
 selves" are to carry money too — gold, silver, and 
 copper. 
 
 The kind deed for another is the purse, remember. 
 Now, when we have done it, it brings us pleasure. 
 There are few joys in life like that of giving joy. The 
 boy who heartily gives up his innings for another, 
 enjoys it more than if he went in himself. This is 
 the copper in our purse. 
 
 But our kind deed gave joy and pleasure to the one 
 for whom it was done. How the cripple child clapped 
 her hands over the doll you sent ! The knowledge of 
 that is the silver in our purse. 
 
 But Christ said, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of 
 these least, ye did it unto Me." And so He approves 
 our deed of kindness. The knowledge of that is the 
 gold in our purse. 
 
 A kind deed well done will never be like an empty 
 
PURSE-MAKING 31 
 
 purse ; there will be in it more gold than silver, more 
 silver than copper. And that is the way we like our 
 purses to be filled. 
 
 A university student was walking one day with his 
 professor, when they saw by a gate a coat and a pair 
 of old shoes. The owner, a poor man, was working 
 in the field close by. 
 
 "Let us hide his shoes," said the student, "and 
 hide ourselves behind these bushes, and watch to see 
 his perplexity when he cannot find them." 
 
 "My dear friend," said the professor, "we must 
 never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. 
 But you are rich, and may give yourself a much 
 greater pleasure. Put a crown piece, if you have 
 them, in each shoe, and tlun we will hide our- 
 selves." 
 
 He did so, and they watched behind the bush. 
 Presently out the man came. He put on his coat, 
 threw oft" one field boot and thrust his foot into a shoe. 
 Something hard hurt his toe. Thinking, I doubt not, 
 some wilful boy had put in a stone, he turned up the 
 shoe and shook out a crown piece. He picked it up, 
 looked at it again and again, then about on all sides 
 to see who had done it, but could see no one, while 
 all the time four earnest eyes were staring at him from 
 behind the bush. When the second shoe produced 
 another crown piece, his astonishment was very great, 
 and his feelings quite overcame him. "Who can 
 have done this?" So, because he could see no 
 
32 PURSE-MAKING 
 
 one, he knelt down in the grass and he thanked 
 God, telUng Him about his sick wife and needy chil- 
 dren, and how poor he was. I have never seen the 
 words of his prayer, but I can imagine what it would 
 be like. 
 
 A great, great joy came into the student's heart, 
 and tears ran down his face ; while the professor said 
 to him, " Now, are you not better pleased than if you 
 had played your intended trick ? " 
 
 "You have taught me a lesson that I shall never 
 forget. I feel now the truth of the words which I 
 never before understood—' It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive.'" 
 
 That was a purse rich in the three coins. 
 
 The great difficulty about purses is not that they 
 become old, but that they are so empty. It is so 
 difficult to get money to put into them. 
 
 Let your purse be as full as you can. The 
 kind deed not merely done, but well done. We 
 do some things so poorly that they are almost — 
 if not quite — empty purses : they neither bring 
 nor give much pleasure, nor do they win God's 
 approval. 
 
 Speaking about these purses, once, in one of our 
 beautiful cities, a bright little maid of about seven 
 was in the congregation. Her auntie was to be married 
 during the week, and she was going to give her a new 
 white dress. When at home, the Little one said, 
 "Auntie, I shan't give you a white dress. I shall 
 
PURSE-MAKING 33 
 
 give you a lovely new purse instead, full of new 
 gold." 
 
 May many '' lovely new purses " full of new money 
 — copper and silver and gold —be yours, bo3\s and 
 girls. Auieu. 
 
"He made it again another vessel." 
 
 Jer. xviii. 4. 
 
 There is a very pretty picture in this text. The 
 prophet was told by God to go down from the temple 
 into the valley, where the potters were at work, and, 
 while he watched the potter, God would speak to him. 
 So he went down to the potter's house, and there he 
 was at work. He had a large wheel fixed on an 
 upright post, with a wooden disc in the middle, on 
 which he placed his clay. Then the wheel was made 
 to revolve either by hand, or by means of a treadle, 
 and while it was spinning round, the potter, with his 
 deft fingers and hands, moulded the clay as he wished. 
 The prophet noticed that sometimes the vessel the 
 potter was moulding was marred. There was a flaw in 
 the clay, or perhaps he had not taken quite enough, or 
 maybe a little false pressure had spoiled the vessel. 
 Then the potter crushed the clay again into a shapeless 
 mass, and, beginning afresh, fashioned it into another 
 vessel, in some cases a different one altogether from 
 that he had first intended. 
 
 We can all understand this very well. We have 
 
CLA Y-MODELLING 35 
 
 many of us seen a potter at work, and if not, we have 
 all tried our hands at clay modelling for ourselves, and 
 know its difficulty. We have tried to make an 
 elephant or a cow, a dog or a man. And how often 
 after much work, we have had to double up our clay 
 and begin again. 
 
 Hence we can all see this text : " When the vessel 
 that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of 
 the potter, he made it again another vessel." 
 
 Leaving the lesson which God had to teach Jeremiah 
 from this scene in the potter's house, we may learn 
 three things. 
 
 1. We are all like clay-modellers. Our life, with its 
 heart and mind and soul, is the clay which we are to 
 model into good character. We may say that the 
 character which we have to make is the beautiful and 
 precious vase which we model for God. 
 
 You would never think, when you see the lump of 
 clay on the wheel disc, that the potter could make any- 
 thing elegant out of it. But we know that if he is 
 skilful he can. So can we out of our life. But 
 we shall have to mould it. We don't become good 
 by chance. "You cannot dream yourself into a 
 character. You must hammer and forge yourself 
 one." 
 
 Yes, if we are to be pure, just, loving, honourable. 
 God-fearing, we shall have to take pains and pray 
 about it. 
 
 We know that lessons won't be known without 
 
36 CLA Y-MODELLING 
 
 learning, and we may be sure guodness won't be ours 
 without trying. 
 
 The word " character " is from the Greek. It is used 
 by them to express the impress made on a coin or seal 
 by the die or mould. The head of the Queen on your 
 penny is the " character." So in the old meaning of the 
 word, our character is the impress we leave on ourselves 
 by good or bad modelling. 
 
 2. We model after a pattern. The potter has either 
 a vase before him or a pattern in his eye by which he 
 does his present work. 
 
 "Have you," said a boy to me, "a picture of an 
 elephant ? " " What do you want it for ? " "I want 
 to mould one." Very good, for the boy who thinks he 
 knows what an elephant is like, because he has seen one 
 a few times, will find how little he knows when he 
 conies to model one in real clay. 
 
 In our character-modelling we need a pattern. We 
 have it in our knowledge of goodness. All tJiat we 
 know to be beautiful and right may serve us as 
 pattern to work by. 
 
 But our knowledge may be imperfect, so we need 
 another and better pattern as well. Jesus Christ is our 
 true Model. We have to try and make our life as much 
 like His as we can. 
 
 And while we are trying to do this, we must not 
 forget that He is helping and working with us, and 
 that if we give ourselves to Him, what we cannot do 
 He will. And thus working together with us, there 
 
CLA Y-MODELLING 37 
 
 will be left on our life the glorious impress of 
 Christ. 
 
 3. Our vessel may be marred. The best worker has 
 sometimes to begin again. When we have been clay- 
 modelling and finished our elephant, you could scarcely 
 tell what it was ; trunk and tail were so much alike, you 
 could not tell which end was head or tail. You felt 
 disappointed, but you began again. 
 
 It is so in character-modelling. We do not take 
 enough clay — not enough time and care and love — to 
 finish our vessel. We are at times Ijad workers. Care- 
 lessness, sin, folly, sadly spoil our work. 
 
 As we get older, clay-modelling seems to get more 
 difficult, because we see so much better what it ought 
 to be. Faults we did not detect when we were younger 
 now we see. 
 
 What shall we do ? Give up clay-modelling ? No, 
 never. Try again. And if you can't make just the 
 vessel you thought, make another, and by and by 
 you will be able to make the one you desire most of 
 all. 
 
 It is recorded of Wedgwood that he was trying 
 to make an imitation of the Portland Vase in the 
 form of jasper ware. In the soft clay the vases 
 were done to perfection, but when they came out 
 of the oven they were spoiled. This went on for six 
 months. Then one of the workmen said to Wedgwood 
 in despair, "Master, we have drawn the oven again, 
 and we haven't got a single good vase." The master's 
 
38 CLA Y-MO BELLING 
 
 reply was, "Well, you have had your wages, haven't 
 you ? Go on" 
 
 They did go on, and shortly after, they succeeded, 
 and the celebrated vase was produced. 
 
 •'If you don't succeed at first, 
 Try, try again." 
 
 And then, when we have finished our clay-modelling, 
 we shall be able to bring to God a character- vase which 
 He will prize. 
 
 Be good modellers, boys and girls, and God will help 
 you more and more. 
 
 A child once asked Charles Kingsley to write a song 
 for her, and this was what he wrote — 
 
 " My fairest Child, I have no song to give you ; 
 No lark could pipe in skies so dull and grey ; 
 Yet, if you will, one quiet hint I'll leave you 
 For every day. 
 
 ' ' I'll tell you how to sing a clearer carol 
 
 Than lark who hails the dawn or breezy down ; 
 To earn yourself a purer poet's laurel 
 
 Than Shakespeare's crown : 
 
 " Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever : 
 Do lovel}'^ things, not dream them, all day long; 
 And so make Life and Death, and that For Ever 
 One grand, sweet song." 
 
1be^ae=BveaF:et0 
 
 "Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him." 
 
 ECCLES. X. 8. 
 
 Serpents hide away from you. They coil themselves 
 up amongst the bracken and long grass ; sometimes at 
 the bottom of the hedge, or in a hole, or amongst the 
 stones, you may see their bright eyes as they rest in 
 the sun. The hedge of which the text speaks would 
 be a stone wall, an old wall, the crannies of which are 
 the favourite haunts of serpents, so that when men 
 are engaged pulling such a wall down, they have to 
 be careful lest a serpent bite them. 
 
 Amos speaks of a man going into his house, leaning 
 his hand on the wall, and a serpent bites him. This 
 would be a mud wall, ever liable to crack and break 
 and not so compact as ours, where therefore serpents 
 could lie. 
 
 I daresay, if you turned over the dry stone wall of 
 any orchard or vineyard in Palestine, you would find 
 snakes. And I know some boys who would love to 
 hunt for them. 
 
 Our text speaks of the man who is taking down 
 the old wall, and the serpent bites him. The hedge- 
 
40 HEDGE-BREAKERS 
 
 breaker of the verse is the man who is trying to make 
 things better in his city by pulling down some of 
 the old abominations. He is what we to-day call a 
 Eeformer. Now the writer warns him that " Whoso 
 breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him." If he 
 tries to pull down the old hedge and put a better one 
 in its place, he must not wonder if he suffers. 
 
 And in that sense the text has something to say to 
 boys and girls well worth their hearing. We must try 
 and do all the good we can, and whenever we find oufc 
 any evil, pull it down and put good in its place. But 
 old evils, like old walls, have many nasty things in 
 them that bite. 
 
 If, for instance, you find cheating going on in the 
 class or on the playground, and you do your best to 
 stop it, and get everyone to do the right, you won't 
 find it easy. Some may call you nicknames, others 
 may try to get you into trouble. 
 
 But we must not give up because good-doing is 
 difficult. Some of those who have served their country 
 most nobly have suffered most. 
 
 But it is another kind of hedge-breaking that I 
 want to speak to you about. He that breaketh 
 through a hedge, when he ought not, a serpent shall 
 bite him. 
 
 God has put three hedges about our life, which we 
 are liable to break through. 
 
 1. The Home Hedge. 
 
 The law of mother and father is like God's fence 
 
HEDGE-BREAKERS 41 
 
 about our life. The rule of home, which says we must 
 not go out without leave, and must come in at a 
 certain time ; which sends us to bed, and makes us 
 get up; which decides what friends we shall have, 
 and the kind of games we shall play, — all this is 
 God's hedge about our child life. 
 
 We don't always like the hedge, and are often 
 tempted to break through it. If ever any of you 
 should be so tempted, remember the text. 
 
 This incident was sent to me from America recently : 
 
 There is in the State prison at Stillwater, Minnesota 
 a young man sentenced to a life imprisonment. His 
 parents were cultured Christian people who possessed 
 abundant means, and Charles was educated in the best 
 colleges our country affords. 
 
 "After graduating from Johns Hopkins University, 
 he wanted to perfect his knowledge of chemistry and 
 went to the University of Berlin for that purpose. 
 
 " Charles had always been a wayward boy, and while 
 abroad, fell in with a wild set of young men. With 
 his impulsive natm^e, it was hard to withstand tempta- 
 tion, and he soon drifted from bad to worse. On his 
 return to America, his parents were nearly heart- 
 broken at the change, and the mother died soon 
 afterwards. 
 
 " One day, in a drunken- frenzy, he committed a crime 
 that brought the punishment stated above. 
 
 "Not long ago, in conversation with him, a friend 
 asked him what he considered the first step that 
 
42 HEDGE-BREA KERS 
 
 led him to the downward road. This was his 
 reply: 
 
 " ' Nothing more or less than disobedience to my 
 'parents! " 
 
 2. The School Hedge. 
 
 School is the place of discipline, learning, and sport 
 Its laws are punctuality, obedience, industry. We 
 must not copy, must not cheat, must not play at work 
 and ever so much more, well known to all schoolboys 
 and girls. " What's the use of it all ? " we sometimes 
 say. It is a hedge about our life, helping us to get 
 knowledge and become wise, and be successful in the 
 world. Don't break through it. Playing truant 
 cheating, laziness, these are hedge-breaking; and a 
 serpent will bite us. 
 
 3. The Conscience Hedge. 
 
 A boy, going home through the fields on a hot day> 
 was lounging round a pond, when at the side he 
 saw a frog sitting up as still and quiet as frogs only 
 sit. His bright eyes were shining in the sun, which 
 Mr. Frog was evidently greatly enjoying. The boy 
 had a stick, of course, and as he saw the frog's head, a 
 tempting target, up went the stick to strike. While, 
 like the golf-player, he was taking aim, something 
 within him said, " Don't, don't," and he didn't. Why 
 indeed should he hurt the helpless, harmless creature ? 
 At home he told his mother, asking her, "What was 
 it that said, Don't"? She replied, "Well, my boy 
 learned men call that ' conscience/ but I call it God's 
 
HEDGE-BREAKERS 43 
 
 Voice. It will often speak to you. If you pay atten- 
 tion to it, the voice will grow clearer, but if you do not 
 regard and obey that voice, it will gradually leave off 
 speaking to you, and leave you to go your own way." 
 
 Yes, it is just so, boys and girls. Keep this hedge, 
 and it will fend us from wrong, and help us to do 
 right. Break through it, and the serpent will bite us. 
 
 And serpents' bites are cruel, deadly things. 
 
 Let us make this our rule, never to break through 
 the hedges of our life. And when we are old, we shall 
 be thanlvful and glad. 
 
XKIloot)*6atberers 
 
 "The children gather wood." 
 
 Jer. vii. 18. 
 
 Who hasn't seen the stick-gatherers in the country or 
 in the woods near town. Women with aprons full, 
 children drai^ging fallen branches, and with arms full of 
 sticks, and sometimes men with sacks filled to the top. 
 
 Ever since sticks fell, people have gathered them, 
 When Ehjah met the poor widow who had only a 
 handful of meal left, and a very little oil in the 
 house, she was gathering sticks. And so poor was 
 she, and her requirements so small, that she said she 
 was " gathering two sticks," meaning a very small 
 quantity (1 Kings xvii. 12). 
 
 You will remember about one stick-gatherer who 
 went about his work on a Sunday, and what befel him 
 (Num. XV. 32). 
 
 So our text speaks of a far-away day, when, in the 
 worship of the " Queen of Heaven," the children were 
 the stick-gatherers. The people had become wicked and 
 idolatrous, and they thought they would have good 
 harvests and plenty of grapes if they could be on good 
 terms with the deity represented by the sun and the 
 
WOOD-GATHERERS 45 
 
 moon, so they worshipped the sun as Baal, and the 
 moon as " Queen of Pleaven." 
 
 In this latter worship they offered sweet cakes made 
 round like the full moon, and covered with lights. 
 These cakes were burned in her honour. There were 
 three things in the preparation of the cakes — the sticks, 
 the fire, and the dough. The fathers made the fire to 
 cook the cake, the mothers kneaded the paste, and the 
 children gathered the wood for the fire. Thus father 
 mother, and child each had their share in the pre- 
 paration for the worship of the " Queen of Heaven." 
 
 It is very rarely that in the religions of the world 
 there is any place for children. A sorrowing mother 
 in China brought her little girl to the missionary, 
 and asked him to take it. He asked her why, and her 
 reply was, " Because yours is the only God who cares 
 for children." 
 
 There is much truth in that : the religion of Christ is 
 the religion of childhood as wxll as of men and women. 
 
 Let me ask you to learn from these young wood- 
 gatherers. 
 
 1. Children may be Christ's vjorsM'ppeTs. In the 
 worship of Christ, far nobler and happier than that of 
 the " Queen of Heaven," the young are found. 
 
 Christ loves our friendship, our love, our adoration, 
 and our prayer. He is so gentle and good. His service 
 is so simple, that we need not wait until we are men 
 and women before we become His sincere worshippers, 
 
 Christ has sympathy with the thoughts and joys of 
 
46 WOOD-GA THERERS 
 
 our childhood. And from our earliest life we have 
 something within that responds to Christ. 
 
 In Sunday school a teacher asked her class how soon 
 they thought we might give our hearts to God. The 
 answers w^ere many, and all mentioned some particular 
 age (ten, nine, twelve, and so on), except one, and her 
 reply, by far the truest and best, was — 
 
 " As soon as luefeel that we are sinners, and knovj who 
 God is." 
 
 At whatever age that knowledge comes, when we are 
 three or four or five or six years old, we may become 
 Christ's worshippers. 
 
 We belong to Him even before we feel that we are 
 sinners and know who God is. And if, immediately we 
 come to feel sin, we acknowledge ourselves as God's, 
 and trust in Him as our Saviour and Father, then we 
 may be amongst His worshippers all our life. 
 
 Many of the best and most useful people in the world 
 began to serve God for themselves very early. 
 
 Old Polycarp, who was martyred when ninety-five 
 years of age, said he had served God eighty-six years. 
 
 Matthew Henry the commentator began to love God 
 when he was not quite eleven years old. 
 
 Isaac Watts, the lovely singer, before he was nine ; 
 and Jonathan Edwards, the American philosopher and 
 theologian, thought he began to love God before he was 
 seven. 
 
 Let no boy or girl think that they are too young to 
 be among Christ's earnest lovers. 
 
WOOD- GA THERERS 47 
 
 2. Children may be Christ's workers. These 
 children in Israel gathered the sticks for their 
 queen. 
 
 We have no fire to make for Christ, but we can be 
 His wood-gatherers in other and much brighter ways. 
 
 1. We can bring to Him our own Ixart service. 
 
 Our love and praise and prayer we can offer Him. 
 
 You sing sometimes — 
 
 " Saviour, blessed Saviour I 
 
 Listen while \ve sing. 
 Hearts and voices raising 
 
 Praises to our King. 
 All we have to offer, 
 
 All we hope to be. 
 Body, soul, and spirit, 
 
 Now we yield to Thee." 
 
 That is wood-gathering for Christ in a high and 
 happy sense. 
 
 o. Doing little things for Christ. 
 
 Some of you are missionary collectors. That is like 
 gathering sticks. Eemember, as you go your round 
 collecting, that each penny you get is like a stick 
 gathered for Christ, which He will accept. 
 
 Then, better still, we may try to get others to love 
 Christ, or help those who do love Him. Sometimes a 
 tiny word from us amongst our schoolfellows and friends 
 may make others think. And our faithfulness to 
 Christ will certainly help others to be true to Him. If 
 ever you help a little friend to find Christ, you will be 
 in the most wondrous sense a wood-gatherer for Him. 
 
48 WOOD-GATHERERS 
 
 Now, I am sure none of yon would object to gather 
 sticks for mother if she needed them. You would walk 
 miles along the lanes and sides of the fields to bring 
 home a good armful. 
 
 And why ? Because mother has done so much for 
 us, and we love her ? Yes, that is true. But also 
 because we ought to — it is our duty to help mother. 
 
 Much more will we be wood-gatherers for Christ. 
 We can all do something for Him. 
 
 Once in a English shipyard a large vessel was being 
 launched. The wedges had been knocked away, but 
 the ship did not go. Amongst the many who were 
 trying to get the ship to move was a boy. Someone in 
 the crowd laughed at him. His reply was, " I can push 
 a pound." Quite so, and that was worth doing. 
 
 I remember, when I was a boy living by the seaside, 
 helping the boatmen to pull up their pleasure-boats. 
 No. 14 was my favourite. I couldn't pull much, but I 
 did my best, and the skipper of the boat one day gave 
 me a free sail. I put in my pound, and that was better 
 than nothing. 
 
 If we cannot gather as much as some do for Christ, 
 let us all do what we can. 
 
 " The children gather wood." 
 
H Cbance Brrow^ 
 
 ** And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and smote the king 
 of Israel between the joints of the harness." — 1 Kings xxii. 34. 
 
 When Ahab, king of Israel, conquered Benhadad the 
 king of Syria at Aphek, he spared liim on condition 
 that he would give up all the cities which his father 
 had taken. But Benhadad failed to keep his promise, 
 so far as Eamoth-Gilead was concerned. Hence, when 
 Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, was visiting Ahab, he 
 promised to help him take Kamoth - Gilead. With 
 their combined forces they marched against Benhadad. 
 Ahab, fearing that his enemy would make a mark of 
 him, disguised himself, that is, took off his royal robes 
 and went into the battle as a common soldier, while 
 Jehoshaphat went in his own robes. The Syrian king 
 did exactly what Ahab thought he would. He told 
 his captains to fight with no one, small or great, save 
 only with the king of Israel, thinking, I suppose, 
 that if he could kill the king, he would easily conquer 
 the subjects. The captains saw Jehoshaphat with his 
 royal robes and said, " Surely this is the king," and 
 turned aside to fight against him. Then Jehoshaphat 
 4 
 
50 A CHANCE ARROW 
 
 made it known that he was not Ahab, so they ceased 
 pursuing him. 
 
 Search as they would, these thirty-two captains 
 could not find the man they wanted, upon finding 
 whom the battle was to turn. Then one of the soldiers, 
 taking aim at one of the enemy, draws his bowstring 
 to his ear, and away flies the arrow. He hits the man 
 he was aiming at, taking him as a common soldier. 
 The arrow pierced through at the joints between the 
 l)reastplate and lower armour, and brought down, not 
 a common soldier, but the King of Israel, 
 
 Thus, what the captains with their special commission 
 failed to do, this non-commissioned man did. 
 
 In our words and deeds we are often like this Syrian 
 soldier, shooting chance arrows, — arrows well aimed at 
 something, but striking a target we had not expected. 
 
 1. It is often so in the things loe do. Some of the 
 greatest consequences come out of the smallest deeds. 
 
 There is a boy blowing soap-bubbles, as I suppose 
 we all have done. He thought of nothing much but 
 the beauty and size of the bubble, and how long it 
 would last before it would burst. But Newton, the 
 great philosopher, watched him, and was helped to 
 some of his most important discoveries in optical 
 instruments. Yes, much may come even out of our 
 bubble-blowing. 
 
 When the Danes were invading Scotland, they pre- 
 pared for a night attack on the sleeping garrison. 
 When near, they crept along barefoot, and had 
 
A CHANCE ARROW 
 
 51 
 
 almost reached the spot, when one of the Danish 
 soldiers stepped on a great thistle, which made him cry 
 out. The cry aroused the sleepers, and all sprang to 
 arms, with the result that the Danes were driven l)ack. 
 
 I believe that the idea of printing was first suggested 
 by a man cutting his name in the bark of a tree, and 
 then getting an impression of it on paper which he 
 placed over it. 
 
 You will all be able to recall many other instances 
 of the same fact, that often the small chance deeds of 
 life work the greatest results. The most important 
 arrow of all shot on this battlefield was the one of our 
 text, and the archer thought nothing about it. 
 
 These chance arrows are shot hy us when we are 
 doing things about which we say, " Oh, it's no use'' If 
 anyone had told this man of our text that he might 
 likely shoot the king and win the battle, he would 
 have laughed at the idea and said, " Not I." 
 
 We often can't see how we can do a particular thing, 
 and therefore don't try. Some of tliose vvho have won 
 the greatest distinction in school, when they began 
 would have said, if questioned, " It is not much use 
 for me to try, I am not clever." Never mind, shoot 
 the arrow you have got, and who can tell what it will 
 lead to. 
 
 When we say about something, " it doesn't matter," 
 we may be shooting an arrow which will matter very 
 much. The boy cheating at marbles, the girl careless 
 about her friendships, the young man giving up church- 
 
52 ^ A CHANCE ARROW 
 
 going, and a host of others, say, " Oh, it doesn't matter " 
 But the arrow hits a mark we did not expect. 
 
 A brother and sister were strolling through a field 
 and came upon a nest of rabbits. The sister was 
 delighted with the pretty little things, but the brother 
 laughed at her, seized the rabbits, tormented them, 
 and then threw them up in the air, letting them fall 
 and kill themselves. He enjoyed this cruel pastime, 
 though his sister besought him with many tears not 
 to do it. Ten years afterwards he was hung for shoot- 
 ing a farmer, while poaching. He said to his sister, 
 almost heartbroken, "Do you remember the nest of 
 rabbits ten years ago, how you begged and prayed, 
 and I ridiculed ? I verily believe that from that day 
 God forsook me, and left me to follow my own inclina- 
 tions. If I had yielded to your tears then, you and I 
 would not be weeping these bitter tears now." 
 
 What did a rabbit matter? But the cruel deed 
 mattered everything. 
 
 2. We are often like this soldier in tlu words we 
 speak. 
 
 We say perhaps a wrong word without thinking 
 about it, and our younger brother hears and never 
 forgets it. 
 
 The unkind word escapes our lips without any 
 purpose in our heart to really hurt anybody, but it 
 goes like a poisoned arrow into another heart. 
 
 It is just as true of the good words of our life. 
 
 The minister prepares carefully what he wants to 
 
A CHANCE ARROW 53 
 
 speak to the people, but it is sometimes the unprepared 
 word that does the good. One who had very joyously 
 found Christ said to her minister afterwards, in explain- 
 ing it to him, " It was that word ' trust ' that did it." 
 He would not have thought of that chance word being 
 the helping one. 
 
 Shoot all the chance arrows of kind, helping words 
 you can, for you never know what tliey may do. 
 
 A lady bought a paper of a ragged, dirty newsboy, 
 and with a smile dropped a few extra pennies into his 
 sooty hand, saying, " Buy you a pair of mittens ; aren't 
 you cold ? " He rephed, " Not since you smiled." 
 
 So even a smile may be like a chance arrow, carrying 
 not death, but joy and cheer. 
 
 Let us learn, boys and girls, from our Syrian soldier, 
 that there are really no unimportant deeds or words. 
 
 A deed is great not always in itself, but in what it 
 accomplishes. And those we think the least of are 
 sometimes the most serious. Therefore, be careful 
 about the chance words and deeds. 
 
Xtttle b^ Xlttle 
 
 '* He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much." 
 
 LuKExvi. 10 (R.V.). 
 
 If we mind the greater things of life, avoiding the evil 
 and doing the good, we think that the smaller things 
 will take care of themselves, and we shall be good. 
 But it is not so. If you saw a man putting his cart 
 before the horse, and yet expecting to go the way he 
 wished, you would say, " What a foolish man ! " But 
 that is what we do when we think that big things are 
 important, and little ones don't matter. Christ says if 
 we are faithful in very little things, we shall be faithful 
 in great ones. 
 
 How do we come to write well ? We don't begin by 
 making sentences, or words, or even letters. Our first 
 work is in straight lines (which are often anything but 
 straight) and " pothooks," then letters, then words, and 
 then sentences. And after all this, many people 
 manage to write what very few can read, because they 
 are not faithful in the little things of writing. 
 
 And so it is in duty and character. We learn to do 
 well, and we become good by fidelity in the very little 
 
 things. 
 
 54 
 
LITTLE B V LITTLE 55 
 
 We look forward to the time when we shall be men 
 and women, with our own purse and watch, and when, 
 as we think, w^e shall be our own master. But these 
 are not the most important and enjoyable things. The 
 greatest thing is, that we are honourable men and 
 women, for without honour all else will be vain. 
 Christ's saying is to teach us how to become honourable. 
 
 Now^ let us think about this. 
 
 1. In those qualities which make character, w^e 
 must be faithful in very little. 
 
 No one has good character who is not truthful 
 Liars are made by carelessness in very little things. 
 They begin by telling half truths, or by keeping silent 
 when they ought to speak, or by acting little lies, as 
 when a boy puts his hymn-book before his face, his 
 lips moving as if he were singing, while yet he is 
 talking to his neighbour. A schoolboy once said to 
 his master, " I never didn't do it." He knew that two 
 negatives make an affirmative, and thought the master 
 wouldn't detect his deception. Of course he did, and 
 gave him double strokes for the two negatives. 
 
 Truth is built up by care in the smallest things. 
 
 Two boys stood side by side in the market, one 
 selling melons and fruit, the other selling oysters and 
 fish. Boy A had sold out all but one large melon, 
 when a customer came admiring it and asking the 
 price. 
 
 "The melon is the last I have, sir, and though it 
 looks very fair, there is an unsound spot on tlie other 
 
56 LITTLE BY LITTLE 
 
 side." The gentleman declined the melon, and, turning 
 to boy B, said, " Are those oysters fresh ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, fresh this morning," — meaning that they 
 were put on his stall that morning. A purchase was 
 made. Then, turning to his friend, he said — 
 
 " What a fool you were to show the gentleman that 
 spot in the melon ! He would never have looked at it 
 until he had gone away." 
 
 " I would not," said the other, " tell a lie, or act one 
 either, for twice what I have earned this morning. 
 Besides, I shall be better off in the end, for I have 
 gained a customer and you have lost one." 
 
 The gentleman never went to the fish-stall again, 
 but was a regular customer of the fruit-boy's. 
 
 All true men honour truth, and we shall become 
 truthful men and women by being " faithful in very 
 little." 
 
 This is the way also concerning honesty. Thieves 
 are not made all at once, they begin in littles. If you 
 knew the history of many dishonest men, who lose 
 their positions in later life, you would find that as 
 children they had not been faithful in little things. 
 
 He would steal first from his mother's cupboard, 
 saying, " It's only a biscuit, and it's mother's " ; then he 
 would purloin marbles from his schoolfellows; then, 
 when change was given in excess, he kept it instead of 
 taking it back ; then, when out in the world, he took 
 greater things, and — you know the rest. 
 
 2. There are two respects in which Christ's saying 
 
LITTLE B Y LITTLE 57 
 
 should be remembered by us, so far as duty is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 We must obey God, but unless we have learned to 
 obey one another and our parents, we are not very 
 likely to obey God. You may be sure that he who 
 breaks his mother's law will break God's too. 
 
 We hope to get to heaven, to enjoy its pleasures and 
 know its friends. But unless we are faithful in the 
 things of earth, our chance of heaven is very small. 
 Do you think God will give us the things of the Better 
 Life, if we have spoiled the things of this ? There are 
 many passages which teach us that the award of 
 heaven will be given according to our use of earth. 
 
 I have known people very fond of attending 
 religious meetings and singing hymns, who were very 
 unkind and unjust to their friends. 
 
 They forgot that he who is " faithful in very little, is 
 faithful also in much." 
 
 So, boys and girls, if we are wise, we shall work from 
 the httle things to the greater ones, knowing that if 
 we take care of the pence, the pounds will take care of 
 themselves. 
 
 A friend once saw IVIichael Angelo at work on one 
 of his statues. Some time afterwards he saw him 
 again, and said, seeing so little done, " Have you been 
 idle since I saw you last ? " 
 
 " By no means," replied the sculptor. " I have re- 
 touched this part and polished that ; I have softened 
 this feature and brought out that muscle ; I have given 
 
58 LITTLE BY LITTLE 
 
 more expression to this lip, and more energy to this 
 
 limb." 
 
 " Well, well," said the friend, " all these are trifles." 
 " It may be so," replied Angelo ; " but recollect that 
 
 trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle." 
 If we work thus in trying to be good and to do right, 
 
 we shall complete our work, noble in God's sight, and 
 
 He will say, " Thou hast been faithful over a few 
 
 things ; I will set thee over many things ; enter thou 
 
 into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
/IIMmlC5 
 
 ** Imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good." 
 
 3 John 11 (E.V.). 
 
 There is in nature what is called mimicry, — the copy- 
 ing of something else. A little fellow brought to me 
 a sprig of gooseberry, and asked me if I could find a 
 caterpillar on it. Expecting some very little rogue to 
 be somewhere on the leaves, I gave it up. But there 
 it was, an inch and a half long, stretched from one twig 
 to another, just the colour and size and shape of the 
 gooseberry stem, and quite as motionless. It was a 
 mimic. 
 
 In the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, 
 there is a case with many of these mimics in. There 
 are stick insects : long, lean things with strange legs, 
 looking exactly like the twigs on which they stand; 
 butterflies, with the upper side of their wings beauti- 
 fully coloured, but with the under side (that which, 
 when they rest, is visible) almost exactly like the 
 leaves on which they alight, so that their enemies shall 
 not see them ; moths, with their hind-wings brilliantly 
 coloured, so that they are visible in flight, but with 
 their fore- wings much the colour of the bark of the 
 
 69 
 
6o MIMICS 
 
 tree which they frequent, because they rest, not with 
 their wings upright as the butterflies do, but folded 
 down Hke a roof ; butterflies and moths of one species 
 hke those of another whose colours are a protection 
 for them against their foes. 
 
 So animals will copy one another. One going a 
 particular way, all will follow. A flock of sheep were 
 going down a street. One of the foremost came 
 suddenly upon a doorstep and jumped to get out of 
 its way, and then all the following sheep jumped, 
 though few of them were anywhere near the step. 
 
 I said to a child who was laughing, " What are you 
 laughing at?" "Nothing," was the reply. Why do 
 you think she laughed ? Because others were laugh- 
 ing, though she did not understand why. 
 
 Yes, there is in all of us a wonderful power of 
 mimicry, of making ourselves like other people. In- 
 deed, I think, we are nearly all of us just a copy of 
 someone else. 
 
 Now good, kind John tells us what sort of mimics 
 we are to be ; what we are to imitate. 
 
 1. Not that which is evil. 
 
 We shall scarcely ever know anyone in whose life 
 there is not some imperfection or some evil. Never 
 copy it. 
 
 The funny thing is, that we are all more inclined to 
 copy the evil than the good. We are more drawn to 
 imitate the scholar who comes late to school than the 
 one who is always in time. 
 
MIMICS 6i 
 
 Slang words, bad words, idle words are much ofteuer 
 copied than good words. 
 
 To some natures cruelty is more attractive than 
 kindness, so that, for one who will protest against 
 bullying the small boy who can't knock his bully down, 
 there are twenty who will approve. 
 
 Perhaps evil is easier than good ; and if so, that is 
 one reason why we should not follow it. 
 
 It seems more manly and courageous to imitate evil. 
 Little boys think that it looks quite big to have a small 
 pipe in their mouth. But it isn't at all big, it is only 
 very foohsh. I only know one other creature which 
 looks quite as foolish, and that is a monkey dressed up 
 in boy's clothes, with a man's pipe in its mouth. 
 
 No, there is nothing brave or wise or manly in 
 imitating that which is evil. St. John says, Don't do 
 it. And we can understand why : because we become 
 what we copy. A boy copies the ways of bad boys, 
 and he becomes a bad man. Our mimicry becomes a 
 part of ourselves ; so that if people don't know our copy, 
 they think that it is our own real self that they see. 
 
 2. But tliat which is good. 
 
 There is much we may and should copy. We acquire 
 the best parts of our character by imitating the good 
 points of others. Find out the good and follow it. 
 
 If you see a boy who will rather be laughed at and 
 mocked than disobey his mother, imitate him. 
 
 If you find a girl who will go with one pleasure less, 
 that someone else may have one, copy her. 
 
62 MIMICS 
 
 If you see a boy who will ratlier lose his place in 
 class than tell a lie, follow him. Or if you know one 
 who, wiien he left home, said his prayers, though all 
 in the same room ridiculed and pelted him with slippers 
 and pillows, imitate him. 
 
 Wlierever you find gentleness, truth, sincerity, kind- 
 ness, goodness, or suchlike, imitate it. 
 
 We learn to do our best things by copying. Some 
 of you like painting. Now, how will you become a 
 good painter ? By carefully copying good things, either 
 from nature or from other pictures. 
 
 And so very largely do we become good and noble. 
 
 There is a beautiful verse in St. Paul to help us in 
 this copying work of ours. He said once to the Cor- 
 inthians, " Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of 
 Christ" (1 Cor. xi. 1). 
 
 We are to imitate others, so far as they are hke 
 Christ. We have noble lives about us: boys and 
 girls at school who are above mean and dirty things ; 
 people who love Christ tenderly. Let us try to be like 
 them. But, most of all, Christ Himself is to be our 
 copy. Imitate Him. 
 
 Tradition says that when King Wenceslaus of 
 Bohemia was going, one bitter winter's night, to the 
 church in which he worshipped, the little page who 
 followed him began to faint and fall. The king, 
 hearing his cry and learning his difficulty, called out 
 to him, " Put thy feet into my footprints, and all shall 
 ])e well." The boy did so, and all was well. 
 
MIMICS 63 
 
 Put thy feet into Christ's footprints, and all will 
 indeed be well. 
 
 "Be ye imitators of God, as beloved children." 
 Avoid bad company, wrong words, evil deeds. Try 
 to copy that which is good, especially those who are 
 good, more especially Jesus Christ, who has nothing in 
 Him not to be copied, and who will Himself help us 
 to copy all that He was. 
 
" Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 1 (K.V.). 
 
 In our last sermon we were talking about mimicry, 
 how we all imitate others, and how much our life is 
 made by what we thus imitate. 
 
 But there is another lesson for us to learn ; namely, 
 that while we are all copying somebody, somebody is 
 copying us. That we are not merely copiers, but 
 copies. 
 
 I don't know how soon we become such, but it must 
 be very early. Perhaps you are, say three years old, 
 but the baby of the home will copy you — your voice, 
 your manners, your noises. How soon the little child 
 will repeat the tone of the street cries, or the shake of 
 your head, even before she can speak one word. 
 
 And so older ones are always copies for younger 
 ones. The great responsibility of being the older 
 sister or brother in the home, the senior girl or boy in 
 the school class, is that the younger ones will copy 
 us. 
 
 But it doesn't always go by age. Older ones often 
 copy younger ones ; and the older people get, the more 
 
 64 
 
A GOOD copy 6s 
 
 inclined they are to copy the good things even in the 
 youngest. 
 
 Strong ones are copies for the weaker. The dux of 
 the class, the best athlete in the school, the leader in 
 games, these stand out prominently as copies for others. 
 
 So that we all come in and belong to the class of 
 those who are being copied. 
 
 The great thing is to be a good copy. We know the 
 importance of this in music and painting and writing. 
 No teacher would place before us an indifferent writing 
 example to copy. It is very important, if we are to 
 have a good " hand," the style we learn from should be 
 good. 
 
 So it is in our life : the important thing is that our 
 influence should be good; that when others copy us, 
 they shall be the better for it, and not the worse. 
 
 This is what Paul speaks of in the text — "Be ye 
 imitators of me, even as I am of Christ." " Try to be 
 like me : try to do as I do in the world of men, try to 
 mimic the example of my life." 
 
 He felt that Christ was so much to him, and had so 
 influenced his character and moulded his conduct, that 
 so far he was a good copy for others. He could read 
 the writing of Christ on his heart and life. He did 
 this in many ways, but when he wrote these words, he 
 did it in two ways. First, Christ had given him a new 
 and wonderful consideration for others. " I please all 
 men, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the 
 many, that they may be saved." 
 
66 A GOOD COPY 
 
 He laid out his life for other people, not simply to 
 help their pleasure and happiness, but to further their 
 higher interests in salvation, that they might escape 
 from their sins, and love God. 
 
 Christ saved him from selfishness and from forgetting 
 the hest interests of others. 
 
 And secondly, Christ had given him a new zeal for 
 God. " Do all to the glory of God." 
 
 He tried to remember God in all he did and said, 
 and the honour or dishonour he might bring to His 
 name. 
 
 Thus, in love for men and zeal for God, in which he 
 was a follower of Christ, he felt that he was a good 
 copy for others. 
 
 This is the way still to make our lives worth 
 imitating. Let us copy Christ, and then we need not 
 fear others copying us. Let us do our level best to 
 make ourselves as beautiful, as helpful, and as cheering 
 as we can to others. 
 
 I will mention only one consideration which should 
 urge up to this. 
 
 Think how much good we may do if we are good 
 copies. 
 
 By a word or a deed we may injure a boy's or a girl's 
 whole life, or (and this is the bright side) we may be 
 of lifelong worth to it. 
 
 " This," says the headmaster of Harrow School, " is 
 the service which every true boy renders to his school 
 Not that he does something or says something, but that 
 
A GOOD COPY 67 
 
 he is something which all other boys may wish to 
 be. 
 
 *The greatest gift the hero leaves his race 
 Is to have been a hero.'" 
 
 That is his one imperishable benefaction, and there is 
 none that can ever divest him of it. The whole spirit 
 and tone of a cricket eleven may be changed and made 
 splendid by one good fellow in it. 
 
 Many a brother has been kept from evil by the 
 remembrance of his sister. 
 
 Many a little fellow down at heart has been cheered 
 into new deed by the example of his schooKellow. 
 
 Dr. Kewton tells of two boys who slept together. 
 One of them had been trained to kneel down every 
 night before getting into bed, and say his prayer in an 
 audible voice, and to repeat a text of Scripture which 
 his mother taught him. 
 
 The first time he slept with the other boy, who never 
 said any prayers, he was tempted to jump into bed, as his 
 companion did, without praying. But he thought that 
 would be cowardly and mean, and said to himself, " I 
 am not afraid to do what my mother taught me ; I am 
 not afraid for anyone to know that I pray to God. I'll 
 do as I have been taught to do." And he did. When 
 both had become old men, he who as a boy had not 
 prayed, sent for his old friend, as he lay on his death- 
 bed, to come and see him. He had for years now been 
 serving God, and he told his friend that it was his 
 prayer and text so faithfully said every night, when 
 
68 A GOOD COPY 
 
 they were boys together, which led him to become a 
 Christian. He repeated the prayer and verse, word 
 for word, and with his dying lips thanked him for his 
 example, for that had saved his soul. 
 
 That is being a good copy, which others, following, 
 may find their way to God, and have life made noble 
 and happy. 
 
 Eemember, boys and girls, that we cannot be what we 
 are without influencing others for good or ill. Let us 
 try never to do anything which would injure others, 
 if they imitated us. This is the question we may ask 
 ourselves, " What sort of a copy am I ? " 
 
 And if only we love Christ and seek to do His will, 
 we need have no fear in asking the question, because 
 He will write some of His own letters on. our life. 
 
Ube Door 
 
 ** Jesus said ... I am the door of the sheep.** 
 
 John x. 7. 
 
 How important the door is ! What would a 
 house be without one ? Did you ever know a 
 builder build such a house ? And how important 
 that the door should open when necessary ! Perhaps 
 some of us have come home and found the door 
 fast, while we had no key to open it: what trouble 
 then! 
 
 And equally important, too, that it should be closed 
 when necessary. I heard one night the house bell 
 ringing, and then the step of a man in the hall, and 
 then his voice call, " Hallo ! anyone there ? " I soon let 
 him know that I was there, and wanted to know who 
 he was and why he was there (though I had a shrewd 
 guess who it was). " You have left your front door 
 unfastened, sir," said the constable. Ah ! that does 
 not do in places where thieves come. There are times 
 when it is as important for the door to be fast as that 
 at other times it should open. 
 
 Now, Jesus said, " I am the door of the sheep." Not, 
 you see, a house door, but the fold door for the sheep. 
 
70 THE DOOR 
 
 The Eastern sheepfold is walled round with a high 
 wall, hence the necessity for a door. 
 
 There are two things about this door we should 
 consider. 
 
 First y the use of the door. 
 
 " Bj Me," said Christ, " if any man enter in he shall 
 be saved, and shall go in and out, and shall find 
 pasture." 
 
 {a) The door is the way in. 
 
 After the day's feeding, the shepherd brings home 
 his sheep, so that for the night they may rest safely in 
 the fold. He could not leave them in the wilderness 
 (the pasture ground) or on the hillside because of wild 
 beasts, such as wolves and lions, that prowl about, and 
 robbers that steal. Hence the Eastern shepherd carried 
 a staff or crook, with which he guided and encouraged 
 his sheep, and also a club (called "rod" in the 
 shepherds' Psalm, the 23rd) with a spiked head, by 
 means of which he drove off wolves and robbers. 
 
 And hence the need of the walled fold, that the 
 sheep in peril from many foes may be safe and enjoy 
 their rest. 
 
 We are like sheep with many enemies, and Jesus is 
 our door into safety. Sin is like a hungry wolf — Satan 
 is like a robber. 
 
 A small boy came one day very earnestly to his 
 father with this queer question : " Father, is Satan 
 bigger than I am ? " " Yes, my boy," said the father. 
 
 " Is he bigger than you, father ? " 
 
THE DOOR 71 
 
 " Yes, my boy, he is bigger than your father." 
 
 The laddie looked much surprised and very thought- 
 ful, and then asked — 
 
 " Is he bigger than Jesus ? " 
 
 "No, Jesus is bigger than he is," answered the 
 father. 
 
 " Then," said the little fellow, with a smile, " I am 
 not afraid of him." 
 
 We need not be afraid of any, because we have 
 perfect safety through Jesus the door. 
 
 (&) The door is also the icay out. 
 
 In the morning the shepherds call their sheep and 
 lead them out to pasture — beside the " waters of rest 
 and the pastures of grass." 
 
 So Christ says, " By Me they shall go out and find 
 pasture." 
 
 Mr. Wells says : " A sultan once promised to spare 
 the life of his enemy if he gave up his sword. When 
 the disarmed warrior asked for food, the sultan replied, 
 ' I promised to save your life, but not to feed you,' and 
 left his prisoner to die of starvation." 
 
 Unspeakably mean, was it not ? Christ does not 
 simply protect us from our enemies — He feeds us also. 
 He is the door to safety, to abundance, and to rich 
 pasturage. All our souls need, Christ gives. So that 
 our life is satisfied. Do we need help for duty ? He 
 gives it. Joy to make us glad ? He gives it. Pleasure 
 to brighten life ? He gives it. 
 
 He satisfies all our desires. Boys and girls must 
 
72 THE DOOR 
 
 not think that Christ's service is all giving up things 
 we like : it is receiving all that makes life good and 
 glad. 
 
 Think of a sheep v^ithout any food or any drink! 
 That is v^^hat life is like witliout Christ. 
 
 Christ is not the door to sadness and misery and 
 tears, but to everything that is rich and good in life. 
 When we speak of anyone "going in and out" of a 
 place, we mean that they have the free use of it. If 
 they want to go in, they can, or if they wish to go out, 
 they can. 
 
 So Christ is the way " in and out " to safety and 
 abundance. Whenever we are in fear, we can find 
 safety in Him ; or hungry, we can find satisfaction 
 without any hindrance. We may be at home with 
 Christ, so as to go in and out at pleasure. 
 
 Secondly. Now one word about our using the, door. 
 
 Who may use the door ? A door is not made for 
 just anyone. It is made to let in and out all who 
 ought to use it, and keep out all the rest — " the door of 
 the sheep.'' If Mr. Wolf comes, even with a sheep's skin 
 on his back, he won't get through. The door is closed 
 fast to the wolf. 
 
 If we are wicked and don't care about Christ, the 
 door won't be open for us. But if we wish to be good, 
 to give up our sins ; and if we trust in Christ to save 
 us from our sins and to feed us, then the door opens 
 wide. 
 
 To everyone, to anyone who comes tired, sorrowful, 
 
THE DOOR 73 
 
 and needy to Christ, the door to salvation will 
 immediately open. 
 
 What key opens it ? 
 
 The golden key is trust. Trust Christ to be what 
 He says He is, and He will be. 
 
 We use this key in prayer. 
 
 When you have done wrong, pray to be forgiven, and 
 trust in Christ, and you will find that He delights in 
 mercy. When you need help against temptation or in 
 duty, ask and trust, and the help will be given. 
 
 There are some doors we could never open. Have 
 you not seen large heavy doors that no child like you 
 could move ? Doors of learning, of wealth, of influence 
 we may never go through, but the Door of Grace into 
 Salvation opens to everyone who will trust. 
 
 " Jesus, I will trust Thee." 
 
"The Lord is on my side ; I will not fear." 
 
 Ps. cxviii. 6. 
 
 We all know what sides are. In many of our games 
 the first thing is to get sides. And success depends 
 very largely on who is on our side. If we can get the 
 best bowler or the best bat in the cricket match, we 
 think we shall win. I can well remember, as a school- 
 boy, how anxious we were to have the first choice when 
 making a side. 
 
 This is true all through our life. The joy and worth 
 of home are made by those who are on our side. To 
 have everyone in the home against us would be sad 
 indeed. When we are wanting anything very much, 
 and can say, "Mother approves," we are a long way 
 towards getting w^hat we want, and we know it. I 
 know some little girls who always try to keep father 
 on their side. 
 
 What a difference it makes at school whether we feel 
 that our teacher is for or against us. If we have been 
 diligent and obedient, so that we are sure of her favour, 
 we can do some very hard work without fear. 
 
 So there are sides in religion, in character-winning. 
 
 74 
 
SIDES 75 
 
 What we can become in goodness depends on who is 
 on our side. In our contest against sin and trouble, 
 the side on which God is conquers. 
 
 If we can say, when we are trying to be good and to 
 do good, " the Lord is on my side," then we know that 
 we shall succeed, and we may also say, " I will not fear." 
 
 Then wliose side is God on ? He is not on everybody's 
 side in the name sense. There is a verse that says, " The 
 face of the Lord is against them that do evil" (Ps. 
 xxxiv. 16). 
 
 He is merciful to all, and will forgive whenever we 
 turn to Him. But wicked people cannot say, " The 
 Lord is on my side." 
 
 Who can say so ? 
 
 1. All little children. We remember Christ's dear 
 word, " Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for 
 of such is the kingdom of heaven." When we have 
 not learned to sin and to choose evil ways, we may be 
 quite sure the Lord is on our side. 
 
 2. God is on the side of all who seek Him. We 
 soon become conscious of sin in our hearts, but- when 
 we turn to God in confession and prayer and trust, we 
 need not fear. A verse in one of the best known 
 psalms says : " The sacrifices of God are a broken 
 spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, God, Thou 
 wilt not despise " (li. 17). 
 
 This beautiful allegory was told by a dervish to a 
 traveller in the East. " Every man has two angels — 
 one on his right shoulder and another on his left. 
 
76 SIDES 
 
 When he does anything good, the angel on his right 
 shoulder writes it down in his book and seals it, because 
 good done is done for ever. When he has done evil, 
 the angel on his left shoulder writes it down : he waits 
 till midnight ; if before that time the man bows down 
 his head and exclaims, ' Gracious Allah, I have sinned ; 
 forgive me ! ' the angel rubs it out with a sponge ; if 
 not, at midnight he seals it, and the angel on the man's 
 right shoulder weeps." 
 
 We shall never come to God through Christ, saying, 
 " Gracious Father, I have sinned, forgive me for Christ's 
 sake " but God will be on our side to pardon. 
 
 3. God is on the side of all who try to do right. 
 
 Whenever we are doing the best we can to be to 
 others what we ought to be — for instance, a good sister 
 in the home — to do to others what we should like them 
 to do to us ; 
 
 Whenever we are trying to conquer our evil tempers, 
 — to be kind and gentle instead of rough and angry ; 
 
 Whenever we are in a position that to tell the truth 
 will cost us much, and we are therefore tempted to lie, 
 but we are still resolute for the truth ; 
 
 Whenever duty of any kind is difficult, but we try 
 our best to do it ; — 
 
 Then, in all these things and others like them, God is 
 on our side to help and give us the victory. 
 
 When David was watching his flock, and a lion or 
 bear came and carried off a lamb, he went after him, 
 caught him by the beard, smote him and slew him, and 
 
SIDES 77 
 
 delivered the lamb. We do not know how many lions 
 and bears he thus slew, but it was not an uncommon 
 experience for the shepherd youth. He never failed 
 because God was on his side, and he knew it. Then 
 when he came to the greater task of mc eting Goliath, 
 the mighty man of war, he did not fear at all, but said, 
 " The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the hon 
 and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me 
 out of the hand of this Philistine." 
 
 What is the advantage of having God on our side ? 
 " I will not fear." 
 
 It makes us bold and glad. I have heard boys say 
 before a game, "We shall win. So-and-so is playing 
 to-day." 
 
 God's is always the winning side, and if He is with 
 us, we need fear no failure or foe. 
 
 The little blind girl holding her father's hand goes 
 along through the crowded city street with its hundred 
 perils, in perfect confidence. Why ? Because of the 
 one who is with her. 
 
 A tiny boy was sent upstairs to fetch something for 
 his mother. He went out of the lighted room into the 
 dark hall. The gas was not lighted either in the lower 
 or upper hall. He felt a bit frightened at first, then 
 up the stairs he climbed, saying to himself all the way, 
 " Mamma loves me — she do ! " He got back safely to 
 his mother, and she asked him why he said those words 
 over and over to himself as he went upstairs. " 'Cause 
 it helped me to get through the dark — that's why." 
 
78 SIDES 
 
 While his mother was there, and he was sure of her 
 love, he did not mind so much. 
 
 So, God's love and presence being sure, we need not 
 fear. 
 
 Let us all get on God's side, that we may all have 
 II im on ours. 
 
Secrets 
 
 " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.* 
 
 Ps. XXV. 14. 
 
 We all know something about secrets, for wlio hasn't 
 some to tell and some to keep ? If you see two little 
 heads close together, one pair of lips moving earnestly, 
 and one pair of eyes looking very much interested, and 
 helping the owner to listen attentively, and then you 
 hear the speaker say, "You won't tell anybody, will 
 you ? " you know that a secret has passed between 
 the two little heads. 
 
 Now our text speaks of God's secret, and those to 
 whom He tells it. 
 
 1. What God's secret is. 
 
 God has a great many secrets which He keeps to 
 Himself, — " It is not for you to know," He says, — but 
 others which He tells. 
 
 The first is that of His love. The words in the 
 verse really mean the love, tlie friendship of the Lord. 
 
 Love is always a secret. People whisper when they 
 say anything about it. If you want to tell your 
 mother that you love her, you don't sliout it across the 
 room, but you go close to her ear and say, " Mother, I 
 
8o SECRETS 
 
 want to tell you a secret." Then she listens, and you 
 just say, " I love you," and she looks as pleased as if 
 you had brought her ever so costly a present. 
 
 So in Jesus God is whispering to us, I — love — you, 
 though a great many never hear this secret. 
 
 God tells us, by His Spirit in our hearts, the great 
 secret of His love. 
 
 T daresay there are many secrets you would much 
 like to know ; but the best in all the world is this of 
 God's love. 
 
 God has also secrets of grace to tell us. 
 
 He said to His people of old time, " I am thy God, 
 I will strengthen thee : yea, I will help thee." We 
 shall find this, too, wlien we need forgiveness because of 
 sin. He will pardon. When we need help for our 
 school work, or our playtime, in our sorrow or trouble, 
 God will give it. 
 
 A poor little humpbacked boy was walking his 
 weary way, his hands on his knees to help keep up his 
 bent, burdened body. He passed by some boys playing 
 marbles, — strong, straight, and gay they were. " Hey ! 
 I say, tell us who put the pack on your back ? Here, 
 let's carry it for you," said these cruel boys, while they 
 caught hold of the cripple with the intention of carry- 
 ing him, and having some fun. Could you think of 
 anything more mean and cowardly ? Boys and girls, 
 never increase by taunt or deed the sorrow of those 
 already sad enough by physical imperfection. The 
 poor laddie twisted himself free from their cruel grasp, 
 
SECRETS 8 1 
 
 and turning his pale face on them with a look of dumb 
 patience in his large, wistful eyes, he answered their 
 taunting question and said, " God put it there, and He 
 helps me to carry it every day" 
 
 The boys slunk back to their marbles, and let him 
 go on his way, to live out as best he could his crippled 
 life, with this daily help of God. He had learned God's 
 secret of help, which the boys at marbles knew 
 nothing of. 
 
 God has secrets of happiness to whisper to us if we 
 will listen. 
 
 We all like to be happy. I never knew anyone who 
 did not try in some way to be happy. But sometimes 
 those who try most are the saddest, because they 
 go the wrong way to work. This boy thinks if he has 
 plenty of cricket, and all else that he wants, he will be 
 happy. This girl thinks if she has all the nice dress 
 she desires, plenty of friends, and lots of parties, then 
 how happy she will be ! 
 
 But it does not follow. We may have all these, and 
 not be happy. God teaches us the real secret of happi- 
 ness. " Happy," said Christ, " are the pure in heart." 
 Goodness is the truest and most lasting joy. Unless 
 we are good, happiness won't be much for us. 
 
 Then, after this, our greatest joys may be found in 
 helping others. The old legend says that a king who 
 loved his boy very much, gave him everything he 
 could to make him happy — pictures, toys, books; a 
 lovely pony to ride, and a row-boat for the lake; 
 
 6 
 
82 SECRETS 
 
 servants and teachers. Yet he was not happy. A 
 magician came to the court one day, and promised for 
 a large sum to make the prince happy. The price was 
 agreed upon and paid. The magician took the boy into 
 a private room, wrote something with a white substance 
 on white paper. Then he gave the boy a candle, 
 telling him to light it and hold it under the paper, and 
 see what he could read. 
 
 He did so, and the white letters turned into blue 
 ones, and he read — 
 
 " Do a kindness to someone every day" 
 
 The prince tried the secret, and became the happiest 
 boy in the realm. 
 
 Yes, for young and old, be good, do good, is the 
 double secret of happiness. 
 
 2. To whom does God tell His secrets ? 
 
 We don't tell ours to any or everybody, do we ? 
 Some, who can't keep a secret, tell theirs to a great 
 many. We think we know what no one else does, and 
 twenty other people are thinking the same. That isn't 
 like secret- telling, is it ? It is to one true friend we 
 tell our secret. God does not tell His to just anyone 
 — "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him" 
 To fear God does not mean to be frightened for Him, 
 but to oley Him, to do what we know God wants us to 
 do, and not to do what God disapproves. 
 
 To those who obey Him God tells His secret. 
 
 Thereisone thing in which God's secrets are unlil^e ours 
 — we may tell them ; He never says to us, " Dont tell," 
 
SECRETS 83 
 
 When Christ cured the two blind men and sent 
 them away seeing, He told them that no one was to 
 know it. But when they had got away, they could not 
 keep the glorious secret, but spread abroad His fame in 
 all the country. How difficult for them not to tell ! 
 Christ had special reasons for wishing to be quiet, but 
 those reasons are past, and He lays no such secrecy on 
 us. He says rather, " Go home to thy friends, and tell 
 them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." 
 
IKlot /OMne-mboee? 
 
 "Ye are not your own ; for ye were bought with a price." 
 
 1 Cor vi. 19, 20. 
 
 Mine and yours are two of the first words we come 
 to understand. Having something of my own is one 
 of life's first pleasures. At home we very soon come 
 to have our own things ; my toys, my books. Can any 
 of you tell how soon you said with pleasure, " That is 
 mine ? " or how proud you felt when you could say, " I 
 have a book of my very own ? " I think one of the 
 first hard lessons of baby life is to learn what is not 
 theirs. Babies wish to have everything that they like, 
 and don't know how much about " yours," if they do 
 about " mine." 
 
 Then in our bigger life we have more and more to 
 remember what is not ours. 
 
 And that is what our short text speaks about. First, 
 what is not ours, and, secondly, why it isn't ours. 
 
 1. Not mine. 
 
 " Ye are not your own." 
 
 Just as everything belongs to someone, so does 
 everybody. 
 
 The policeman, seeing a lost child crying in the street, 
 
 84 
 
NO T MINE - WHOSE ? 85 
 
 asks her, " What is your name ? whom do you belong 
 to ? " Through many tears the httle one replies, " My 
 name is Dot, and I belong to mother." Quite right, 
 though the answer doesn't help the policeman much. 
 The wee child is only five years old, but she will belong 
 to her mother just as truly when she is fifty In a 
 very happy sense we belong to one another, and so are 
 not our ov/n. But that is not what the text means. 
 Not my own ? Then whose am I ? Paul says we 
 belong to God. 
 
 Not mine, but God's. 
 
 People sometimes think that whatever else they have 
 not, they have themselves, and they can do as they like 
 with that. 
 
 "Eyes and ears, hands and feet, these anyhow are 
 mine — can't I do what I like with them ? " No, because 
 we are not our own, but God's. 
 
 What a difference it makes whom we belono; to ! 
 
 Two boys were walking in the street together, 
 engaged in very earnest talk, one doing nearly all the 
 listening. The talker was telling his friend about his 
 father — how kind he was, what long walks he took 
 him, and what lovely things he bought him, and how 
 many pennies he gave him. Presently the listener, quite 
 overcome with this wonderful story, said, with a saddish 
 tone in his voice, " I wish your father was my father." 
 
 Yes, it makes such a difference who our father is. 
 It is good to belong to a good father, but it is better 
 still to belong to God, and we all are His. 
 
86 NOT MINE-^ WHOSE f 
 
 2. Why not mine ? 
 
 We possess things in many ways. Sometimes they 
 are given to us. " That is mine, it was given to me," 
 we say. 
 
 Or we make a thing, and thus it becomes ours, " that 
 is my boat, I made it myself." But we hear people 
 say also, " That is mine, / hought it and 'paid for it." 
 Thus the thing is ours by purchase. So we are God's, 
 " Ye were bought with a price." 
 
 What was the price ? " Not with corruptible things, 
 with silver or gold, but with precious blood . . . even 
 the blood of Christ " (1 Pet. i. 18). Christ's life was 
 the price paid. 
 
 By sin we have become slaves of sin, enemies of God, 
 liable to pimishment by the law of God. Christ gave 
 Himself to God (especially on the cross), so that we 
 might be again God's children. " Ye are not your own, 
 for ye were bought with a price." 
 
 Christ paid the price for us. How good of Him! 
 What do you boys and girls think of it ? If a friend 
 buys you something, you say, ** How kind of her ! I do 
 love her." But she has only given money — Christ gave 
 life and all. 
 
 On the 12th August 1893 there was a railway 
 accident near Pontypridd in South Wales. Some were 
 killed and many injured. Under the wreckage, in great 
 danger of being crushed to death, was a boy who was 
 rescued. When he was fairly out, and began to realise 
 that he was saved, he looked gratefully at his rescuer, 
 
NO T MINE— WHOSE f 87 
 
 put his hand in his pocket and drew out a halfpenny 
 and offered it to him, saying, "Please take this halfpenny, 
 it's all I've got, and you do deserve it too." 
 
 The halfpenny was taken in remembrance of the 
 gratitude of the lad, who received twopence in return. 
 
 What would you give to Christ because, in order to 
 save us and make us God's children, He gave Himself ? 
 He wants our trust, our love, our obedience. And He 
 "does deserve it too." Let us give it all, and He 
 will give us back more than we give in joy, pleasure, 
 and goodness. 
 
 In the old slave days, before Abraham Lincoln's slave 
 emancipation, there was in the slave auction in New 
 Orleans a beautiful mulatto girl put up. The bids 
 rose from 500 dollars to 700, then a voice outside the 
 crowd called 750 dollars. Higher and higher the bids 
 went, until, at 1450 dollars, the stranger got the girl. 
 He turned out to be a Northerner, and she hated the 
 thought of becoming his slave. The next morning he 
 called at the house where she was. She said sadly, " Sir, 
 I am ready to go with you." " But I do not want you 
 to go with me. Look over this,** handing her the paper 
 of her freedom. " I bought you that you might be free." 
 She exclaimed, " You bought me that I might be free ? 
 Am I free ? Free ? Can I do as I like with myself ? " 
 He answered, " Yes, you are free." Then she said, with 
 sobs of joy, " Oh, sir, I will go with you and be your 
 servant for evermore." 
 
 There is perhaps not one of my boy and girl friends 
 
88 NO T MINE— WHOSE f 
 
 who would not have said just the same. How much 
 more should we promise Christ our lovingest service ? 
 
 Let us remember, then, that we are not our own 
 because Christ has bought us. We must let God have 
 us. 
 
 If we took anything out of someone's house and did 
 not return it, you know what we should be. And if 
 ?/e use our life as God does not wish, if we do not use 
 all for Him because it is His, what then shall we be ? 
 
 Let God have His own by living to love and serve 
 Him. " Glorify God therefore in your body." 
 
Bias ! JBorroweb 
 
 ** Alas, master ! for it was borrowed." 
 
 2 Kings vi. 5. 
 
 There were schools in Israel established by the 
 prophets for the teaching and training of the yoving 
 men. During Elisha's life he used to visit them at 
 regular intervals. There was one such school at 
 Jericho, and when Elisha was visiting it on the 
 occasion before us, the " sons of tlie prophets " (the 
 students) said to him, " The place where we dwell before 
 thee" (that is, the place where they assembled to hear 
 his teaching — what we should call the schoolroom) " is 
 too strait for us " ; and so they asked permission to 
 make a larger place. They wished to go to Jordan, about 
 five miles distant, where in the valley plenty of trees 
 were to be found, and there make it. The arrans^ement 
 they suggested was that each man should cut a beam 
 and carry it to the place of building. Elisha gave his 
 consent, and was sending them off when they said, 
 " Consent to go with us," and so the loved master went 
 with them. 
 
 Such a school excursion as anyone might greatly 
 enjoy ! They had mostly to borrow their axes for the 
 
90 ALAS! BORROWED 
 
 wood-cuttiiig. And now they are at work. Merry 
 work it is, for none of them understand tree-felling. 
 Some get their beam off quickly, but here is one who 
 has a tough one to chop at, and it does not come away. 
 Swing, swing, goes his axe, and the chips fly. Then of 
 a sudden away goes the axe-head, and with a great 
 splash sinks in Jordan. 
 
 Elisha was near by, and the novice wood-cutter, 
 looking at his headless handle, exclaimed, "Alas, my 
 master ! for it was borrowed." 
 
 The master was so sorry for his student that he went 
 with him to the place and used the special power God 
 had given him to recover the lost head. The iron rose 
 to the stick the prophet threw into the water, and the 
 young man took it and placed it again on the handle. 
 
 I like this young man's concern about the borrowed 
 axe. He was troubled so much because it was borrowed. 
 Let him teach us — 
 
 1. We have all many things lent to us. We soon 
 become borrowers. Toys, books, and other things 
 which we have not of our own, we frequently get 
 others to lend us. But in more serious things we are 
 borrowers. 
 
 Homey with its care, love, and many joys, is lent to us. 
 
 Our name, which we may honour or dishonour, is lent. 
 
 Most of all, life is God's great loan. Every day is 
 like a polished axe-head lent by God, that we may do 
 good work with it. School-days, play-days, work-days, 
 are all lent. 
 
ALAS! BORROWED 91 
 
 Our nature, its power to love and to enjoy, to be 
 good and to be evil, to think and to work, is lent to us. 
 
 The world, with its hills and valleys, trees and flowers, 
 birds and butterflies, sunshine and shower, is also lent 
 to us for a little time. 
 
 2. Borrowed things have to he returned. What you 
 buy you may keep, but what you borrow you must 
 give back. 
 
 If anyone lends you a house, you must leave it when 
 the time is up in good condition. Or if one lends you 
 a book, you must take it back when done with. 
 
 And this is very true of the great loans granted to 
 us by God. 
 
 The home God has lent us must be returned by a 
 faithful fulfilment of all its duties. 
 
 Days, when idleness fills them, are like lost axe-heads. 
 
 If we sin against our nature, we are neglecting to 
 bring back to God what He has lent. 
 
 We are tempted sometimes to be careless with what 
 is borrowed. I have heard little voices say, "Oh, it 
 doesn't matter, it isn't ours." If the book were ours, 
 we should cover it to take care of the bhiding, but 
 because it is a library book, we don't mind. 
 
 Carelessness is the great destroyer of lent things. 
 
 3. Borrowed things may he lost. They get sometimes 
 amongst our own, and we forget them. 
 
 By m.isfortune we may lose them. Look high and 
 low and you can't find the borrowed toy. " Where can 
 it be ? " No one knows. 
 
92 ALAS/ BORROWED 
 
 In both these ways we may lose God's lent things. 
 We are so accustomed to home, to smishine, to pleasure, 
 that we forget God has lent them only. 
 
 We are also often like Elisha's student, who in using 
 liis axe, lost it. 
 
 Who does not know what it is to feel that after he 
 lias tried hard to use a day well, it has seemed at the 
 end quite lost. 
 
 Lost thmgs may be found. Elisha, out of his great 
 sympathy for the student, helped him to find the lost 
 head. How excitingr the search must have been ! I 
 
 o 
 
 should like to have stood on the bank alongside of this 
 boy, so grieved because of his loss, and seen him watch 
 the up-coming of the iron. How glad he would be to 
 have it securely in his hand again ! The sorrow of 
 losing was great, but the joy of finding was great also. 
 
 The more valuable the thing lost, the greater the 
 joy when found. 
 
 There are always plenty of people to help us find the 
 borrowed lost things. If we have lost any of our 
 good name or character, there are many to help us 
 regain it. When we say, " Come and help me find what 
 I have lost," there will be no want of willing hands. 
 And the one to help us most of all will be Christ. 
 
 Does it matter what we do with our borrowed thmgs ? 
 Yes ; to lose them finally will be sorrow, to bring them 
 back will be joy. We can imagine this young man's 
 delight when he returned, — perhaps to some cottager 
 of whom he had borrowed the axe, — saying, " Here is 
 
ALAS/ BORROWED 93 
 
 the axe you lent me; 1 feared once I should never 
 bring it back, but Elisha helped me, and here it is." So 
 we shall have the approval of the one who has lent 
 precious things to us. 
 
 A little newsboy in America, six years of age, was 
 run over in the street. The poor little injured fellow 
 cried for his mother. When she came, he said, " I've 
 saved 'em, mother — I've saved 'em aU. Here they are." 
 In his clenched hands were ten cents. 
 
 Let us try to be like the newsboy over all that God 
 has lent us. 
 
 If we can say to God, " I've saved 'em all," the day 
 will be a very happy one to us when we see Cxod. 
 
Sparrows 
 
 (Matt. X. 29 ; Luke xii. 6.) 
 
 There are two sayings of Christ's about sparrows 
 that are full of teaching and encouragement. Here 
 is one — 
 
 " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not 
 one of them shall fall on the ground without your 
 Father" (Matt. x. 29). 
 
 This is the other — 
 
 "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, 
 and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of 
 God" (Luke xii. 6). 
 
 In the first saying, Christ refers to the catching of 
 sparrows for sale. 
 
 However they are caught, whether struck by stick 
 or stone, or taken in the net, Christ says, " Not one of 
 them shall fall on the ground without your Father." 
 
 In Christ's country the little birds were generally 
 netted, as they are in England to-day. I well re- 
 member as a boy seeing the linnet-catchers in Norfolk. 
 They had a double net spread on the ground, which by 
 means of a string they could pull over upon the unwary 
 
 94 
 
SPARROWS 95 
 
 birds. In the midst of the ground, covered by the net, 
 they had a bird tied by its leg to a stick which they 
 were able to raise when they wished, and thus make the 
 bird flutter as if flying. Then two or three songsters 
 were placed near by, and groundsel was strewn about. 
 Thus tempted birds on the wing would come down, 
 and then the fowler would pull his net over them. 
 
 But, according to Christ's word, God knew and 
 cared for each one thus taken. 
 
 In the other saying Christ refers to the cheapness of 
 sparrows when sold, " five for two farthings " (perhaps 
 about equal to our penny). The first text says they 
 sold " two for one farthing." Those who could afford 
 to spend a penny got one bird thrown in. Christ had 
 seen these little creatures spitted on sticks — twenty 
 on a stick — being sold in the marketplace to the poor 
 people for food. I have no doubt He had heard the 
 poor bargaining over them, and He said, " Not one of 
 them is forgotten." Poor little dead cheap things, and 
 yet God remembers each one. 
 
 We all love the birds. Spring and early summer 
 owe much to them. The flowers would scarcely seem 
 as beautiful if our bird friends were not here also. 
 
 But there are two things that I want you to notice 
 about God's love of the birds. He loves the common 
 ones, and each one. 
 
 First, God cares for the common birds — birds that 
 are caught not because of their feathers or their song, 
 but because they can be sold for food. 
 
96 SPARROWS 
 
 God knows and loves the birds with fine feather 
 and delightful song, but he does not forget the dull- 
 coloured, simple-voiced sparrow. And I think we can 
 easily understand why this is so. The bird-life is not 
 made up of colour and song merely, and the tiny life 
 of the sparrow is as needy, as real, and as eventful as 
 that of the rarer birds. God looks at the life, and 
 therefore does not forget or neglect a bird because it 
 is common. 
 
 Let us learn this. We think much about uncommon 
 things. We like birds that are rare because they are 
 few, or beautiful because of their gay feathers, or 
 delightful because of their rich song. The peacock 
 with his spreading tail, the kingfisher with his bright 
 blue back, the nightingale with his full song, the 
 blackbird with his loud morning call, the chiff-chaff 
 with his delicate form and rousing "call to arms." 
 All these and many more such we notice and love; 
 but who cares for the sparrow, except to throw a 
 stone at him ? We ought to, for he would be greatly 
 missed in town, and he too has his little life to 
 live. 
 
 Those are the happiest and most useful people who 
 have learned to prize the commonest things of life, and 
 do well its most ordinary duties. 
 
 If also God cares for common birds, we may be sure 
 He cares for common people. The rich, the clever, the 
 good, God loves ; but we cannot be so little, or dull, 
 or poor, for God to forget us. 
 
SPARROWS 97 
 
 Secondly, God cares for each sparrov: — " Not one is 
 forgotten." I wonder how many sparrows there are 
 in the world. God knows every one, and He cares for 
 each. This is the way God loves and works. He does 
 not love a crowd, but an individual. He loves all, by 
 loving each ; He feeds all, by feeding each one. This 
 is true about ourselves. God knows not merely all 
 boys and girls, but me. He loves all, but He loves mc. 
 
 Let us, too, be like God as far as we can. We think 
 much of great numbers, don't w^e ? A swarm of bees, 
 2i flock of birds, a crowd of people, attract us. When 
 we see the swallows assembling in late September or 
 early October, before they migrate to their warmer 
 home, we wonder at their numbers. But we care 
 nothing for one. 
 
 The boy who keeps rabbits will see to them very 
 attentively while he has many, but when only one is 
 left, he forgets it. We say, " Only one." 
 
 We speak an unkind word and then say, " It was 
 only one" or do a wrong deed, or go to a wrong place, 
 and again we say, " Only one — only once." 
 
 God knows the worth and the power of one, and we 
 must not forget. 1 beside makes 10, while 1 away 
 from the side of leaves nothing. Wonderful little 
 figure this one is ! 
 
 Don't be careless about one word, or deed or habit. 
 So Christ teaches us that God cares for birds, and 
 common birds. Let us do the same. 
 
 Let country boys protect them during the nesting 
 
98 SPARROWS 
 
 season. Don't destroy their nests, or take all their 
 eggs, or hurt their young ; and persuade every boy 
 you know to be kind to them in these respects. 
 
 Let girls do all they can to coax mothers not to buy 
 little birds to put in hats, because they look very 
 ridiculous, and their slaughter for this purpose is very 
 sad and cruel. 
 
 Let neither boy nor girl throw stones at the birds, 
 for they are God's, and He knows. Be one and all 
 bird protectors. 
 
 A kind-hearted farmer who loved the birds had his 
 reward in a wonderful manner. His little girl Patty 
 wandered at harvest-time into the field where her 
 father and his men were reaping corn. She saw them 
 at the farther side of the big field, and tried to catch 
 their eye, but could not, and so sat on a sheaf. Then 
 a bird flew up out of the standing corn. She went to 
 see if there was a nest, and found it with three little 
 birdies in. Patty sat down in the long corn and 
 talked to them. All the time the clicking machine 
 with its sharp knives was coming on. And when near 
 to where Patty was, tlie farmer said to one of his men, 
 " Here, Tom, come and hold the team. There is a lark's 
 nest somewhere near the old tree yonder ; I will hunt 
 it up, and you can drive round so as not to hurt the 
 birds." Beside the nest he found his own bright little 
 birdie ; picked her up and kissed her, thanking God for 
 the birds that had saved her. He might have thanked 
 God that He h.-id tauuiit him to care for the birds. 
 
SPARKClVS 99 
 
 Christ speaks of God's care for them, that we may 
 be sure of His love for us. If God cares for sparrow.^, 
 with their wee life and short history, how much more 
 for us v/ith our greater life. 
 
 Here are a few verses from " The Sparrow's Song," 
 which beautifully express this — 
 
 " I'm only a little sparrow, 
 A bird of low degree ; 
 My life is of little value, 
 
 But the dear Lord cares for me. 
 
 I know there are many sparrows ; 
 
 All over the world they are found ; 
 But our Heavenly Father knoweth 
 
 When one falls to the ground. 
 
 I fly through the thickest forest, 
 
 I alight on many a spray ; 
 I have no chart or compass. 
 
 But I never lose my way. 
 
 I just fold my wings at nightfall 
 
 Wherever I happen to be ; 
 For the Father is always watching: 
 
 No harm can happen to me. 
 
 I am only a little sparrow, 
 
 A bird of low degree, 
 I>ut I know that the Father loves me. 
 
 Dost thou know His love for tliee ? " 
 
©l^ Shoce an^ dlonteb 
 
 And (»lil .slmcs ;ui(l rIouLed ilpou \\h'.\v foot." 
 
 Josii. ix. 5. 
 
 Tf we had seen these men of Gibeoii, with tliese old 
 iiiciided sliocs on tlieir feet, we sliould have said, 
 "'i'lic.y have coim; so t';M' thiit they liave worn out tlieir 
 shoes oil Llic road, and li.id to mend — clout — tliem!" 
 And that is JKst the impression tliey wanted to make 
 on Josliua and his people. Tlie stmy is a very funny 
 one. 
 
 Josliua had just begun his inaveh into the Promised 
 Land. He. had tal<en two large cities and been most 
 victorious. WIkmi the kings beyond Jordan heard 
 of .loslnia's succ(^sses, they gathered tluMiistdves 
 tog(U-her to light. There were; six kings with their 
 armies, lint iJie men of (libeon thought they would 
 try jinother phiii. h'al-her than light, they would get 
 -loslnia, to make a covenant with them. 'J'o do this 
 they must make him believe that they lived a long 
 way off. And so they ])ut old sacks on their asses, 
 took wine-skins old and rent, old clothes, dj-y and 
 mouldy bread, and old shoes and clouted. 
 
 doshua was very suspicious (»f tlnMU, and said. But 
 
OT.n SHOES AND ci.oc ri'.n 
 
 loi 
 
 ^.(•iliiii.s y..n <lw('Il ■•i.inniia „h ; Imw sli:ill wo in.M.kc a, 
 (•(»v('iia.Ml with you ';' 
 
 And Mu'ii \\\vy snJ.I all kiu'ls of plausihl.' Miii.-s, and. 
 pnintin- t,<. llu-ir cnn.lili.a., sai.l tJ.at iJicy Imd l-akn. 
 Uhmi- iMvad Ih.I, and now it was dry and mouldy; 
 (,lM>i,- wineskins wcic n.-w, Imt now rent; and "our 
 oaiiucnts a,nd our sl.oes arc i.c-om.' <.ld l.y lvil^^^l. of 
 the vciy lon<j; journey." 
 
 .)(»sliua, said notliin^'; to Cod al.out it, and made a, 
 covenant with them. Then at th.- end ..I' thr.-e days 
 h(. discovered the dreeption, and made tlieni slaves lor 
 rver, to hew wood and to draw wa.ter Idr the li<ais<' 
 (,!' Cod. 
 
 r,.,ys and <^irls, never wear old shoes and clouted, 
 
 1,0 make helieve. 
 
 All tlx' lies do not come licm the tou'Mie : we may 
 .,,,.(,;,, |„> just a,s suivly and casdy a,s tell one, and we 
 ii,ic as icaJly lia,iH when W(r <|o. 
 
 I kn<'W a. wood-Heller who always carried two hundles 
 of sticks, and sa,id when he ••ainc to the donr, "'I'hcs.' 
 are the hist I ha.vc." Ihd, all the time he had a, l)i<< 
 sackful ut the end of the sti'cct. That wa,s ''old HhocH 
 and cIouUmI." 
 
 A hoy a,sked a, friend of niim' h.r a, penny, the exa.ct 
 sum lie lU'cdcd to huy a, hat. So it was when he left 
 l„.me, hut lH^a,sked tw.'.nty people f<.r tha,t |)(Miny, and 
 
 got it. 
 
 A hoy smokin;^r hccs his hi.tlicr cominj!;: out comcH 
 the pipe, a!i(l iid-o his pock(^t, a,n<l he meets his father 
 
I02 OLD SHOES AND CLOUTED 
 
 as if he loved him, and were really the boy the father 
 thinks him to be. 
 
 All this is like old shoes and clouted on our feet. 
 Whenever we are pretending to be what we are not, 
 or to be doing what we are not really doing, we are 
 acting like these men of Gibeon. 
 
 Let me give four reasons why we should not make 
 believe. 
 
 1. It is mean. 
 
 The schoolboy does not like to be called a sneak. 
 He would far rather suffer a thrashing, or bear false 
 blame. To make believe is sneaking. It is degrad- 
 ing both to ourselves and in the sight of others, and 
 very unfair. If we are once found out, no one will 
 trust us. 
 
 Aristotle, one of the great philosophers, was once 
 asked what a man could gain by telling a lie, and he 
 replied, "Never to be credited when he speaks the 
 truth." 
 
 You may be sure that Joshua and his people would 
 be pretty wary about the men of Gibeon, after their 
 trick. 
 
 One of the saddest things that can befall us is to 
 get the character of a deceiver, and therefore not to be 
 trusted. 
 
 2. It ivill out 
 
 Only three days, and their deception was discovered. 
 Just a chance report came to Joshua that they liad 
 not come from a long distance, but were his neigh- 
 
OLD SHOES AND CLOUTED 103 
 
 hours and dwelt near to him. They had managed 
 everything cleverly thus far, and then some person, 
 unknown and unsuspected, " tells." 
 
 Yes, we can't hide much. In most strange and 
 unexpected ways people find out when our old shoes 
 are not genuine. Eemember Gehazi. The wealthy 
 Syrian captain was cured of his leprosy through Elisha, 
 and pressed the man of God to receive a present. 
 This he stoutly declined. Gehazi saw the Syrian go 
 away with his treasures and chariots, and was greatly 
 disappointed. 
 
 So, on the pretence that two young men had unex- 
 pectedly come from the hills, and his master would be 
 glad of something for them, he ran after the "rich 
 stranger" and asked for a talent of silver, and two 
 changes of raiment. 
 
 Naaman gave him one talent more than he asked, 
 and sent two servants to carry the present. This very 
 much increased Gehazi's difficulty, lest his master 
 should see these servants. So when they got to the 
 hill, just before the house came into view he let them 
 go, and he hid the present in some secret place ; then 
 he went over the brow of the hill, into the house, 
 and stood before his master as if nothing had 
 happened. How great his surprise when he found 
 that all was known ! Even the hill and his clever- 
 ness had not prevented the master knowing. "And 
 he went out from his presence a leper as white as 
 snow." 
 
I04 OLD SHOES AND CLOUTED 
 
 We shall be found out sooner or later. 
 
 3. We know, if no one else does. 
 
 A little girl in her Sunday school repeated the 23rd 
 Psalm. A visitor who was present was so pleased 
 with the way in which she did it, that he gave her a 
 shilling. Great was the child's joy over the shilling, 
 all her own. The visitor noticed this, and, guessing 
 that she would spend it as soon as she could, said to 
 her, " I see a great many shops open, though it is God's 
 day. You must on no account spend that coin in any 
 of them to-day, but keep it till to-morrow. You 
 understand, I won't be present to see you, but there 
 is One who will see you, and find out at once if you 
 break the Sabbath day." The child was silent, her 
 dark, thoughtful eye was turned up to the speaker's 
 face as if she knew what he meant, and had taken 
 it all in. 
 
 " Who will see j^ou ? " he asked, thinking he knew 
 quite well what she would answer. " Myself will see 
 ME," was her unexpected, but splendid reply. " Myself 
 will see me." Do you think that would matter ? Yes, 
 very much indeed. It is terrible to hate oneself, to 
 despise oneself, because — though no one else knows 
 — we know that we have done mean and wicked 
 things. 
 
 And, boys and girls, it comes to that sooner or later. 
 We can bear the liate of other -, if we know that we 
 have done right, but the very love of our friends 
 becomes a burden to us when we know that we have 
 
OLD SHOES AND CLOUTED 105 
 
 done wrong. The good opinion other people form of 
 us is like a poisoned arrow when we know that we 
 have deceived them. Don't make an enemy of your- 
 self by wearing old shoes and clouted to make 
 believe. 
 
 4. God knows. 
 
 When these men were getting together their old 
 clothes, their rent bottles, their mouldy bread, and 
 their old shoes, hoping, thinking, saying, " jSTo one will 
 know," — someone knew. 
 
 When they inspected one another in their strange 
 guise, and felt pleased with the effective display (for 
 they looked just like men who had come off a very 
 long journey), they did not remember that other eyes 
 were there. 
 
 When they thought within themselves, " Surely we 
 shall succeed ; Joshua and his people won't find out," 
 they forgot there was One who is " not mocked." 
 
 Brother and sister were carrying a basket of cakes 
 to their grandmother. Nearly all children love cakes, 
 and these two did. Presently they peeped through 
 the half-open lid, to see what they were like. Then 
 they opened it wide. Then they wondered what they 
 would taste like, and they counted them carefully. 
 " So many, we might eat one, just one, and no one will 
 know. Perhaps mother didn't count them, and surely 
 grandmother won't." 
 
 I rather think they would have eaten one, had not 
 the sister asked a very awkward question — " Can't God 
 
io6 OLD SHOES AND CLOUTED 
 
 count ? " Down went the lid, and away the little folk ! 
 ran to grandmother's. 
 
 Yes, that is it. God counts, and though no one else 
 may know, and we "don't care," God knows, and to 
 
 Him "lying lips are abomination," and so are lying ; 
 
 feet. I 
 
 "When, then, you are tempted to act like these men i 
 
 with their old shoes, remember them and their fate, i 
 
 and be straight. I 
 
%05t Sblelbs 
 
 " Anfl he took away nil tlie shields of gokl which Solomon had made.' 
 
 1 Kings xiv. 26. 
 
 There is a very interesting history in connection with 
 these shields. When Solomon was making his throne 
 and drinking vessels and other wondrons things, he 
 made also two hundred targets (shields large enough to 
 cover the w^hole body), which he overlaid with gold, 
 six hundred shekels going to each target. Besides these, 
 he made three hundred shields, which he overlaid also 
 with gold, giving about three hundred shekels to each 
 shield. 
 
 He put these shields in his armoury, which he called 
 "the house of the forest of Lebanon." He probably 
 gave it this name because the pillars of the house came 
 from the cedar forests of Lebanon. He used the shields 
 on great state occasions. 
 
 In the fifth year of Eehoboam's reign, Shishak, king 
 of Egypt, came against Jerusalem, and amongst other 
 valuable things he took away " all the shields of gold 
 which Solomon had made." The king made in their 
 stead brass shields ; and when he went to the house of 
 God, the native troops carried them in state. But 
 
io8 LOST SHIELDS 
 
 they were never like Solomon's costly shields , 
 however they looked, they were but brass instead of 
 gold. Here is a parable of life that we may learn 
 together* 
 
 Childhood gives to all of us golden shields of char- 
 acter to protect us against sin and temptation. If we 
 keep our shields, we shall grow in goodness and beauty 
 until we are '' full-grown men in Christ." Trust, truth- 
 fulness, simplicity, love, obedience, happiness, are six 
 of our most important shields. 
 
 But temptation comes ; sin the great destroyer arises, 
 and we are liable to lose them all. The history of some 
 people from childhood to manhood is just a record of 
 the loss of their shields. An artist who wanted a model 
 of innocence saw one day a happy, bonnie boy playing 
 by the stream side. That, said the artist, is Innocence. 
 He coaxed the laddie to be his model, and painted him 
 kneeling with his hands clasped in prayer, and got a 
 very successful picture. Years passed away, and the 
 artist became an old man. He had often thought he 
 should like a companion picture, giving the other side 
 of life — Guilt. He went to the prison and selected the 
 most repulsive man there. His eye was that of a 
 culprit, his countenance with lines of guilt which spoke 
 of his degraded life. He served v>^ell the painter's 
 purpose. When he came to question him about his 
 history, he found, to his great surprise, that it was he 
 who, as a lovely boy, had been his model of Innocence. 
 Thus the artist had the two ends of life — the innocent, 
 
LOST SHIELDS 109 
 
 happy boy at the brook ; the hard, debased man in the 
 prison. 
 
 A^Tiat had he done ? Lost all his shields of character 
 with which he began life, — truth, simplicity, honesty, 
 obedience, happiness had all gone. But he need not 
 have lost one. By trust in Christ, by prayer, by care, 
 he should have kept them all. 
 
 Now let us look at some shields which we may lose 
 but can keep. 
 
 1. Siw.plicity is like a golden shield. 
 
 As children we love the simple, the beautiful, the 
 natural things. We have at first no " airs " ; foolish 
 pride has not come to us. But as we grow older, we 
 have to fight for our shield. 
 
 The tempter Pride comes to us, as we get to have 
 things of our own, and to know the world so full of 
 many vanities. Then, unless we keep our shield, we 
 shall come to think much of ourselves because we know 
 a little more than somebody else, or live in a bigger 
 house than they. There will arise a great temptation 
 (especially to my girl friends) to be vain about dress 
 to think much more about what we put on than about 
 what we are; to spend time on foolish dressing that 
 we ought to spend in doing good to others. 
 
 I know nothing quite so foolish as the love of dress. 
 How many I have known very sensitive about a pretty 
 dress, but very forgetful of pretty deeds. 
 
no LOST SHIELDS 
 
 2. Obedience, is another precious shield. 
 
 One of Ufe's first and best lessons is this obedience. 
 It seems irksome to carry, and we feel that we would 
 much rather do as we like. But that would be a sad 
 loss of shield. If we are to keep the law of our 
 country, we must learn to keep that of liome and school. 
 If we are to do God's will, we must learn to do that of 
 those above us here. If ever we are to rule truly, we 
 must first learn to serve, for it is obedience that leads 
 to all true kingship. 
 
 But this is one of the first sliields stolen fruni us. 
 We begin to feel that we are too big to obey. Big 
 boys sometimes think it beneath their dignity to obey 
 their mother. Then we soon make excuses: Wliat 
 does it matter ? " " l^o one will know ; " '' Just once ; " 
 and so we lose our shield. 
 
 3. Truthfulness is indeed a shield of gold. 
 
 There are some who do not know much about it, and 
 others who do not care ; but most of us begin life by 
 feeling that we ought to tell the truth. We have a 
 natural scorn for a lie. Nothing makes us so indignant 
 as to be suspected of untruthfulness. To sneak is 
 mean, but to lie is meaner. 
 
 Let us, at all cost, keep this shield. We are very 
 Hable to lose it. We are tempted not to be particular 
 about littU things ; to tell only a half truth, to hesitate 
 or prevaricate. When a lie would serve us, and perhaps 
 save us some present trouble, we are in great peril of 
 losing our shield. David did this once. He had just 
 
LOST SHIELDS in 
 
 said good-bye to Jonathan and gone to Nob. Ahime- 
 lech the priest was afraid to see him alone, and asked 
 him how it was. David was sorely pressed by hunger, 
 and had no weapon. Then, in order to get bread and 
 sword from the priest, he said the king had sent him 
 on a secret mission. He got bread and Goliath's sword. 
 But he lied, and in the loss of his shield endless trouble 
 came : the priests were slain ; Saul sinned ; and David 
 brought longer exile upon himself. 
 
 Never let anything rob you of your truthfulness. 
 There is a beautiful story told of a mother in an 
 Eastern land who sent out her boy to begin life in a 
 distant city. She sewed inside his waistcoat forty gold 
 dinars. 
 
 Her last counsel to him was to seek and to follow 
 always the truth. On his way, he had to cross a part 
 of the desert infested by robbers. One of these came 
 galloping up and sternly asked, " Boy, what money 
 have you got ? " "I have forty gold dinars sewed up 
 in my waistcoat." The Bedouin burst into a fit of 
 laughter, thinking the boy was joking. Turning his 
 horse, he galloped back to his troop. By and by a 
 comrade came asking the same question, and, getting 
 the same answer, he went back, thinking it a joke 
 also. Then their leader came, and got the same answer. 
 Leaping off his horse, he felt the boy's clothes till he 
 counted the forty coins. "What made you tell the 
 truth, my boy ? " he asked. " My God, and my mother, 
 sir," was the reply. Bravo, laddie ! Did the robbers 
 
112 LOST SHIELDS 
 
 take his money ? No, they let hhn go, and he pros- 
 pered in the city whither he went. 
 
 So all our other shields may be lost. Envy and 
 jealousy will rob us of love; selfishness and sin will 
 take away joy; doubt and fear will destroy trust. 
 
 Let us ask two questions. 
 
 1. How can we keep our shields ? 
 
 Be quite sure that we need not lose one. There is 
 no necessity to be worse when we are old than we were 
 when young. The sadness of these lines should not be 
 ours — 
 
 "... Now 'tis little joy 
 To know I'm farther off from heaven 
 Than when I was a bo}^" 
 
 By prayer, by care, and by faith in Christ as our Saviour 
 and Friend, we shall keep our shields. 
 
 2. If we lose a shield, what then ? 
 
 Eehoboam made brass ones instead of the gold. Shall 
 we ? Ko, we can win back the lost ones. By repent- 
 ing of our sins, chat is, telling God about them, and 
 asking Him to forgive them ; by consecration, that is, 
 giving up our sins and giving ourselves to God, we 
 shall win back the shields we have lost. 
 
 Never lose one ; but, if you do, get it back quickly. 
 
Hpples of 6ol^ 
 
 ** A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver." 
 
 Prov. XXV. 11 (R.V.). 
 
 This is a pretty verse, speaking to us about the import- 
 ance of our words. " What does a word matter ! " we 
 often say. The wise man says it is — if fitly spoken — 
 like an apple of gold in a basket of silver. By " apples 
 of gold " the text does not mean apples made of gold, 
 but golden-coloured fruit. You know that when people 
 are writing poetry, they don't always call a thing exactly 
 what it is, but name it from what it is like. And so, 
 because of the rich colour and beauty of this fruit, the 
 poet calls it " apples of gold " — meaning perhaps some 
 kind of orange. Our poet sees this delicious fruit being 
 carried in silver baskets, beautiful and valuable because 
 of their metal and their chaste workmanship. 
 
 So that we have not merely rich fruit, but lovely 
 baskets to carry it in. Fruit good to eat and pleasantly 
 served. 
 
 " Words," says the poet, " fitly spoken," are like this 
 gulden fruit in the silver basket. What words could 
 he mean ? 
 
 1. Words which are fit in themselves — right words. 
 
 8 
 
114 APPLES OF GOLD 
 
 We may be quite sure that there are many worda 
 that are not like this, and have no silver basket. 
 
 Slang may be like the crab-apple, but it is not the 
 golden apple. How out of place " crabs " v^ould be in 
 a silver basket. 
 
 Tale-bearing, slander, swearing are certainly not in 
 our basket. Nor are careless words, spoken often only 
 in jest. No ; only right ones are like apples of gold. 
 
 A boy, the son of a poor labourer, was one day bowl- 
 ing a round stone in the road for fun. It struck against 
 another stone in front of a cottage, rose up, and then 
 crashed through the window. The man was at hom.e, 
 and very soon at the door to see who had done it. 
 Finding the small boy in the road, he asked him 
 whether he knew who had broken the window. What 
 do you think he said — " That boy who has just run 
 round the corner " ? No, no, but like a man he 
 answered, " I did, but I will pay for it," and then he 
 told how it happened. 
 
 The cottager looked at him, surprised at his truthful- 
 ness, and said, " You shall not pay it all. You have 
 neither run away nor told a lie, and although I am poor, 
 T will bear half the loss myself." 
 
 The poor boy said words that were like apples of 
 gold in a basket of silver. 
 
 Thus all true words, all kind words, all words of 
 repentance and prayer, of sincerity and resolution, of 
 wisdom and love, may be such as our text speaks 
 of. 
 
APPLES OF GOLD 1 1 5 
 
 2. Bufc the text means also rigjit words said in a 
 right way. 
 
 It matters much what we say, and much also how we 
 say it. Kind words may be so roughly spoken that they 
 lose all their kindness, and severe words may be so 
 gently spoken that they do not sting overmuch. 
 
 When a black boy was asked by the missionary, 
 " Who are the meek ? " his reply was, " Those who give 
 soft answers to rough questions." 
 
 We so often spoil words by speaking them wrongly. 
 
 A boy went to apply for a situation. 
 
 " Can you write a good hand ? " the governor asked. 
 
 "Yaas." 
 
 " Good at figures ? " 
 
 " Yaas." 
 
 "Know the city well?" 
 
 " Yaas." 
 
 " That will do. I don't want you," answered the 
 merchant. 
 
 " But," said a friend when the boy had gone, " I 
 know the lad to be an honest, industrious boy; why 
 don't you give him a chance ? " 
 
 " Because he hasn't learned to say ' Yes, sir,' and ' No, 
 sir.' If he answers me as he did when applying for a 
 situation, how will he answer customers after being 
 here a month ? *' 
 
 So he lost the first situation he applied for because 
 he hadn't learned about the worth of a word " fitly 
 spoken." 
 
ii6 APPLES OF GOLD 
 
 Thus our text, with its beautiful picture of the golclen 
 fruit in silver baskets, teaches us the great worth of our 
 words, when good themselves and when well said. 
 
 There is a short prayer which we should all pray — 
 
 " Set a watch, Lord, before my mouth ; keep the 
 door of my lips." 
 
 Mind your words, boys and girls, and God will help 
 you. 
 
 " Sir," said a lad coming down to one of the wharves 
 in Boston, and addressing a well-known merchant — 
 " Sir, have you any berth on your ship ? I want to 
 earn something." 
 
 " What can you do ? " asked the gentleman. 
 
 " I can try my best to do whatever I am put to do," 
 answered the boy. 
 
 " What have you done ? " 
 
 " I have sawn and split all mother's wood for nigh 
 on two years." 
 
 " What have you not done ? " asked the gentleman, 
 who was a queer sort of a questioner. 
 
 "Well, sir," answered the boy, after a moment's 
 pause, " I have not whispered in school once for a 
 whole year." 
 
 " That's enough," said the gentleman ; " you may ship 
 aboard this vessel, and I hope to see you the master of 
 her some day. A boy who can master a wood-pile and 
 bridle his tongue must be made of good stuff." 
 
 We could master the wood-pile; let us try also to 
 master our tongue. 
 
APPLES OF GOLD 117 
 
 Will Carle ton says in his First Settlers Story — 
 
 " Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds ; 
 You can't do that way when you're flying words. 
 Things that we think may sometimes fall back dead ; 
 But God Himself can't kill them when they're said." 
 
 "Kind words never die." And every word fitly 
 spoken is like an apple of gold in a basket of silver. 
 
Secon^ 
 
 **I shall be next unto thee." 
 
 1 Sam. xxiii. 17. 
 
 What a kind, unselfish soul Jonathan was. His love 
 and care for David we all admire. We have a sweet 
 little picture of him here. David was keeping out of 
 Saul's way because he was " seeking his life," and was 
 getting evidently afraid and weary of being hunted. 
 Jonathan met him in a wood (or perhaps a place called 
 Horesh) privately, and tried to cheer him. He told 
 him not to fear, " for the hand of Saul my father shall 
 not find thee ; and thou shalt be king over Israel. And 
 I shall be next unto thee." 
 
 These were cheery, manly words, and there were, I 
 doubt not, many more such. Jonathan meant what he 
 said, and quite believed he would have the joy of seeing 
 his friend on the throne. But before that time good, 
 kind Jonathan was killed in battle, and we are not 
 told that they ever met again after Horesh. If they 
 had known it was their last meeting, Jonathan could 
 not have said nobler words, or more surely have 
 " strengthened David's hand in God." 
 
 Here was the king's son, next to the throne by 
 
 118 
 
SECOND 119 
 
 birth, doing all he could to encourage the shepherd's 
 son to the highest place, while he is quite content to 
 be second. 
 
 This is one of the things we all have to learn — namely, 
 liovj to take second "place gracefully. 
 
 There is a right ambition we all feel which makes us 
 wish to be first. The school worker, if he is worth 
 much, strives for the top place in class. The racer 
 runs hard to come in first, and is glad when the winning 
 cheer greets him. So it should be. 
 
 But we cannot always be first, and the great thing 
 then is, like Jonathan, to see someone above us, before 
 us, in the coveted place, without being angry or jealous 
 or sulky. He is happy, indeed, who, without giving up 
 true ambition, can say, " I shall be next," with all good 
 feeling. 
 
 In the first place, I want you to remember that 
 there are times when we miiBt be next. 
 
 At home we have to take second place sometimes. 
 The younger give place to the elders naturally. The 
 visitor is always before those of the home. Our 
 little guest must have first choice of everything, 
 first turn at every game, first seat at table, first gift 
 in presents; and we of the home should gladly be 
 next. 
 
 There is the cleverer boy in our own class, who, 
 do what we will, takes first place. Perhaps he 
 does not work harder than you do, but you can't beat 
 him. 
 
I20 SECOND 
 
 Examination time comes, as come it will. You have 
 been working very hard all the term to come out first. 
 And when the list comes, you are down, and the one 
 you feared is at the top. Now is the time to take 
 second place cheerfully. 
 
 A girl the other day said to her successful rival, 
 " I hate you for getting first." If she had possessed 
 Jonathan's fine spirit, she would have said, " I tried 
 hard to beat you, but you have fairly beaten me, and I 
 congratulate you." 
 
 We cannot help people being older, and richer and 
 cleverer and stronger than we are, so let us learn the 
 simple gladness of being a good second. 
 
 Then let us remember, also, that there are times 
 when we may choose to be second. 
 
 Jonathan was very likely the eldest of the king's 
 sons, and had perhaps the natural claim to the throne. 
 But because God has chosen David the peasant to be 
 king, Jonathan gladly gives way, with a generous pride 
 in his lowly friend's prospect, which is very praise- 
 worthy. 
 
 So he takes second place, not because he must, but 
 because he would. 
 
 Let me give you two further beautiful illustrations of 
 this. Dr. Blow many years ago (he died 1708) was 
 organist of Westminster Abbey. After holding this 
 high position for eleven years, he gave it up of his own 
 accord to one of his pupils, then only twenty-two 
 years of age. He did tiiis because he considered that 
 
SECOND 121 
 
 he was more accomplished than himself, and therefore 
 better able to serve the church as organist. This dis- 
 tinguished pupil worked for fifteen years, when he 
 died, the Doctor all the while rejoicing greatly in his 
 success. After his death, Dr. Blow again took his old 
 place. 
 
 This was truly great : the position was his, but, 
 for the sake of the cause he had at heart, he took 
 second place. There are many causes and interests 
 about us all that that are greater than we are, and 
 for their sake we must sometimes consent to be 
 second. 
 
 I read a noble story from Mr. Howatt, showing how 
 a boy can be both high-minded and unselfish for the 
 sake of another. 
 
 Jamie Pettigrew and Willie Hunter were the clever 
 boys in Mr. Howatt's school class, and used " to run 
 neck and neck for the prizes." Examination day came 
 again. Jamie and "Willie were left last in th * field. 
 Jamie missed question after question, which Willie 
 answered, and he got the prize, 
 
 " I," says Mr. Howatt, " went home with Jamie that 
 night, and instead of being cast down at losing the prize, 
 he seemed rather to be mighty glad. I couldn't under- 
 stand it. 
 
 " ' Why, Jamie,' I said, ' you could have answered 
 some of those questions ; I know you could.' 
 
 " * Of course I could ! ' ho said, with a laugh. 
 
 " ' Then why didn't you ? ' I asked. 
 
122 SECOND 
 
 " He wouldn't answer for a while, but I kept 
 pressing and pressing him, till at last he turned round, 
 with such a strange, kind look in his bonnie brown 
 eyes. 
 
 " * Look here,' he said ; ' how could I help it ? There's 
 poor Willie — his mother died last week, and if it 
 hadn't been Examination Daj, he wouldn't have been 
 at school. Do you think I was going to be so mean as 
 to take a prize from a poor fellow who had just lost 
 his mother ? ' " 
 
 Bravo, laddie ! a good speech that ; and second 
 was a good place, if not the noblest of any in all the 
 school that day. 
 
 Love for others, which Christ gives us, will often 
 prompt us to be second, when we might, if we would, 
 be first. 
 
 So you see in how many ways our text applies to us, 
 and what a great lesson it teaches. Much of our joy, 
 and the pleasure others will find in us depend upon 
 our learning this lesson. 
 
 A boy said to me, " It's easy to be second — the diffi- 
 culty is to get first." As he meant it, he was quite right. 
 It is easier to go down than up. But it is not easy for 
 one who wants to be first to take second place with 
 good grace. 
 
 There are some boys who can't get out at cricket 
 or go down in class, without bad temper — some girls 
 who can't bear anyone else to be preferred or asked 
 out to tea, without being jealous. 
 
SECOND 123 
 
 Eemember Jonathan, boys and girls, and when you 
 can't be first, or when love prompts you to give up first 
 place, take second with good heart and true. Christ 
 did it for us. " Though rich, He became poor, that 
 through His poverty we might become rich." 
 
" Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came 
 forth sweetness." Judges xiv. 14, 
 
 A very interesting riddle comes to us from North 
 Germany, which I fancy few of us could guess, try as 
 we would. 
 
 The judges offered a woman her husband's life, if she 
 could make a riddle which they could not guess. She 
 made one as follows : — 
 
 '* As hithervvards on iny way I s 
 I took the living out of the dead. 
 Six were thus of the seven tli made quit: — 
 To rede my riddle, my lords, 'tis iit." 
 
 They " gave it up," and the husband was spared. And 
 what do you think the answer was ? On her way to 
 the court the woman found the carcase of a horse in 
 which a bird had built its nest and hatched six young 
 ones. These she took away, and thus " six were of the 
 seventh made quit." 
 
 Just such a riddle was this of Samson's. He put it 
 to the guests assembled at his wedding, and gave them 
 seven days to guess it in. But they could not guess it. 
 And I don't think they ever would, had they not got 
 
 124 
 
A RIDDLE 125 
 
 the answer from Samson's wife, who teased him until 
 he told it her. Then, before the sun went down on the 
 seventh day, they answered, " What is sweeter than 
 honey ? and what is stronger than a lion ? " 
 
 A right answer, though they had got it in a mean way. 
 
 Where did Samson find his riddle first of all ? He 
 made it. And thus. 
 
 One day, going with his father and mother to 
 Timnath visiting, he went ahead of his parents, being 
 so much younger and faster than they. He rambled 
 amongst the vines which grew on the hillsides, when 
 suddenly a young lion sprang out and roared against 
 him, desiring to have him. But there came upon 
 Samson a spirit of courage and strength, so that he 
 seized the lion and rent him like the cook rends the 
 kid. He had no weapon, and thought so little of it 
 that he did not tell his mother. 
 
 Then, about a year afterwards, going along the same 
 road, he turned aside to see the dead lion, and there in 
 the body, dried hard and made sweet by the sun, bees 
 had deposited their honey, some of which he took and 
 ate as he went. 
 
 Hence his riddle — " Out of the eater came forth meat, 
 and out of the strong came forth sweetness." So his 
 dead lion served him not only for a riddle, but gave 
 him honey. 
 
 We may learn that every victory we win will yield us 
 some good. Sin and temptation are the lions about our 
 way which we must kill. 
 
126 A KIDDLE 
 
 The errand boy going on his ^vay sees boys playing 
 marbles. He is tempted to put down his basket and 
 to sit on the handle to watch the game. That is a 
 loitering lion which he should kill, rather than kill his 
 master's time and make people cross because the goods 
 are not delivered. 
 
 At school one is tempted to love play-time so much 
 that he hates work and won't do it. We should kill 
 laziness, and we shall find that duty done is one of the 
 sweetest pleasures. Idleness conquered will be like a 
 dead lion with honey in it. 
 
 We are tempted to selfishness and greediness. This 
 lion likes to keep all for himself, and he growds 
 savagely if another comes near to his bone. 
 
 When I was at a little country school in Lincoln- 
 shire, we used to have hampers from home. Such 
 hampers were they ! Cakes, sweets, fruit, and all 
 kinds of things dear to a schoolboy's heart. How 
 eagerly we used to watch for the carrier's cart ! But 
 the rule was that we should share the contents with 
 our schoolfellows, lest we should be greedy. And there 
 was certainly as much pleasure in sharing as in eating. 
 
 The way to kill the greediness is to share what we 
 have with others. 
 
 ** I have a plum cake, the whole is my own. 
 And no one will know if I eat it alone — 
 But what if the cake be so sweet and so nice? 
 I daresay poor Jack would be glad of a slice. 
 My treat he shall share, a large slice shall be his ; 
 For to eat all one's self — how selfish it is 1 " 
 
A RIDDLE 127 
 
 The prizes of conquest are many. Each victory over 
 sin and temptation will make us stronger to conquer 
 again. 
 
 Then we shall have also the joys of conquest. There 
 is no gladness so great as that of doing right, and no 
 pleasure so pure as that of conquering some untrue or 
 unkind or selfish feeling in our hearts. 
 
 If you have made a good score afe cricket, or done 
 specially well in your music, you know the pleasure it 
 brings. Thus " out of the strong will come forth 
 sweetness." 
 
 Let us never forget that right has more pleasures 
 than anything else in the world, that virtue has more 
 honey than vice. "Wee Willie Winkie" tells this 
 pretty story : — 
 
 The " blue-line " street-car stopped at the corner, and 
 an anxious-looking young woman put a small boy inside. 
 
 "Now, Bob," she said, as she hurried out to the 
 platform again, " don't lose that note I gave you ; don't 
 take it out of your pocket at all." 
 
 " No'm," said the little man, looking wistfully after 
 his mother as the conductor pulled the strap, the driver 
 unscrewed the brake, and the horses, shaking their 
 bells, trotted off with the car. 
 
 "What's your name, Bob?" asked a mischievous- 
 looking young man sitting beside him. 
 
 " Eobert Culleu Deems," he answered. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " 
 
128 A RIDDLE 
 
 " To my grandma's." 
 
 " Let me see that note in your pocket." 
 
 The look of innocent surprise in the round face ought 
 to have shamed the boy's tormentor, but he only said 
 again, " Let me see it." 
 
 " I tan't," said Eobert Cullen Deems. 
 
 " See here, if you don't, I'll scare the horses and 
 make them run away." 
 
 The little boy cast an apprehensive look at the belled 
 horses, and shook his head. 
 
 " Here, Bob, I'll give this peach if you'll pull that 
 note half-way out of your pocket." 
 
 The boy did not reply, but some of the older people 
 looked angry. 
 
 " I say, chum, I'll give you this whole bag of peaches 
 if you will just show me the corner of your note," said 
 the tempter. 
 
 The child turned away, as if he did not wish to 
 hear any more, but the young man opened the bag 
 and held it just where he could see and smell the 
 luscious fruit. 
 
 A look of distress came into the boy's face ; I believe 
 Bob was afraid to trust himself, and when a man left 
 his seat on the other end to get off the car, the little 
 boy slid quickly down, left the temptation behind, 
 and climbed into the vacant place. 
 
 A pair of prettily -gloved hands began almost uncon- 
 sciously to clap, and then everyljody clapped and 
 applauded until it might have alarmed Bob, if a young 
 
A RIDDLE 129 
 
 lady sitting by had not slipped her arm around hiiii 
 and said — 
 
 " Tell your mamma that we all congratulate her 
 upon having a little man strong enough to resist 
 temptation and wise enough to run away from it." 
 
 I doubt if that lono- hard messaire ever reached Bob's 
 mother ; but no matter, the note got to his grand- 
 mother without ever coming out of his pocket. And 
 sturdy Bob had rich reward in doing right. 
 
 There is one other thing about Samson's success that 
 I want you specially to remember — " the Spirit of tlie 
 Lord came mightily upon him." Why was this ? 
 Because " he had notliing in his hand." He had no 
 arrow, no club, no sword wherevvith he could kill the 
 lion. The Spirit of God made him strong enough to 
 do it without weapon. We can't kill sin and tempta- 
 tion by ourselves ; we must ask God to help us, and He 
 always will. 
 
 Wlien Samson was a small boy, it is said, " the child 
 *grew, and the Lord blessed him." 
 
 The Lord will bless us if we remember Him. and 
 pray. 
 
Clean Ibanbs 
 
 'He that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stionger." 
 
 Joe xvii. 9. 
 
 One's hands will get dirty at play or at work. Children 
 whose playground is the street come home with hands 
 like sweeps, and no wonder ! Boys who work in dirty 
 trades get their hands dirty, and who could help it ? 
 But no one likes dirty hands if they are at all clean 
 people. Father comes home from work, and one of 
 the first things he does is to wash his hands. Mothers 
 like clean hands, I know. When we come home from 
 school, one of her first questions before we come to her 
 snow-white table is, " Are your hands clean ? " And 
 before we can turn into our clean, white beds, the rule 
 is that our hands shall be clean. And surely boys and 
 girls won't get not to mind whether their hands are 
 clean or dirty, though I have known some boys who 
 didn't at all dislike dirty hands. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, boys and girls, like clean hands, 
 and so does God. He speaks a good deal in His Word 
 about them. One of the beautiful short psalms, 
 speaking about those who shall stand in God's holy 
 place, speaks of them first of all as having clean 
 
CLEAN HANDS 131 
 
 lijiucls. God ^YOll't have in His holy place any dirty 
 hands. 
 
 And the text l)efore us speaks about tlie worth of 
 clean hands — " He that hath clean hands shall be 
 stronger and stronger'' 
 
 T need scarcely say that this does not mean clean 
 hands in the ordinary sense; they may have some of 
 the dirt of play and of honest work, and yet be clean 
 bauds in the meaning of the text. 
 
 1. In the Bible by clean hands is meant nearly 
 always honest hands — hands that have not taken bribes, 
 or what does not belong to them. 
 
 If anyone has done wrong, and he comes to you and 
 says, " I will give you a penny not to tell," that is a 
 bribe, and the hand that takes it is not clean. 
 
 Hands that never steal are so far clean. I was tauglit 
 as a boy — 
 
 *' It is a siu to stecal a pin, 
 And so much more a greater thing." 
 
 To take a pin, a pear, a flower, a marble that is not 
 ours is to have dirty hands. 
 
 They begin to get soiled by little things. A boy 
 puts his hand through the railings to take flowers, and 
 then, when he is older, into the master's till to take 
 money. 
 
 But we must remember that God won't have dirty 
 hands in His place, nor will they bring us any good. 
 
 2. Kind hands are clean hands. Fingers may be 
 used to pinch your sister, or to untie the knots in her 
 
132 CLEAN HANDS 
 
 string. Hands may be made into fists to fight with, 
 or spread out for the help of others : Uke the boy 
 who guided across the busy street the woman 
 
 '* Who was old, and feeble, and grey, 
 And bent with the chill of the winter's day." 
 
 Our hands are more Uable to become dirty in 
 reference to the dumb creatures about us than in any 
 other way. 
 
 The hand that pushes the cat into the stream, or 
 throws the stone at the street dog, the fingers that 
 pull legs from flies, and stick pins into cockchafers, are 
 not clean. God cares for these things very much, and 
 looks that our hands shall be clean in kindness to 
 them. 
 
 3. Busy hands are clean. We all remember the old 
 saying— 
 
 *' Satan finds some mischief still 
 For idle hands to do." 
 
 The Italians have a proverb which sa3\s, "He that 
 labours is tempted by one devil ; he tliat is idle by a 
 thousand." There is much truth in this. The hands 
 that are most likely to be kept clean are those busily 
 engaged upon some useful work. Our fingers are 
 useful instruments of the v/ill, and by the help of tools, 
 such as the needle and the saw, can make wonderful 
 things. Let your hands be busy. Sew the garment, 
 weed the garden, make the mouse-cage. Let them 
 carry fiowers to the sick, or help the tired child in the 
 
 street with her big bundle. 
 
CLEAN HANDS 133 
 
 4. Consecrated hands are clean. When Paul speaks 
 about men praying, he says, **I desire that the men 
 pray in every place, lifting up holij hands." 
 
 The hands come into our prayer specially. The 
 Jews and early Christians raised their palms towards 
 heaven, indicating the offering of their petition and 
 their readiness to receive what God had to give. We 
 fold our hands in token of our submission to God. 
 I think at first the uplifting of the hands — "the 
 instruments of our necessities " — was a giving of them 
 to God. They were held up in token that they were 
 His. Thus the hands that had been kept free from 
 violence and impurity were "holy," and were lifted 
 up to God. 
 
 Let our prayer be — 
 
 " Take my hands, and let them move 
 At the impulse of Thy love," 
 
 There is no surer way of keeping them clean. 
 
 And our text speaks also of the value of clean hands. 
 He who has them shall be stronger and stronger. 
 Knowing his hands are clean, he will have that clear 
 conscience which makes men so strong and joyous. 
 
 Boys with clean hands w^on't have to skulk and put 
 them in their pockets lest anyone sees them. They 
 don't fear about being found out. How pleased we are 
 to hold out hands when asked if they are clean when 
 we know that they are ! A good conscience, boys and 
 girls, is a tower of strength to us. 
 
 Let us all see to it that our hands are clean, for 
 
134 CLEAN HANDS 
 
 God won't have dirty ones. I remember in a public 
 library where they lent books to be read in the room, 
 there was a notice on the walls that the hands must 
 be clean. If anyone went for a book who had not 
 kept the rule, the attendant would refuse the boolv 
 until the hands were washed. I saw once quite a big- 
 fellow sent off to wash his hands. 
 
 In God's holy place all hands juust be clean. 
 
 But supposing we have got them dirty, what shall 
 we do ? Can we wash our hands if unkindness, dis- 
 honesty, or impurity has soiled them ? Yes, v/e must 
 ask God to forgive, to help us to do better, and then 
 keep them clean by taking care. 
 
 " I will wash my hands in innocency, 
 So will I compass Thine altar, Lord." 
 
 Play- dirt, work-dirt, easily conies off, and though sin- 
 dirt is more difficult to remove, yet it can be washed 
 away. 
 
H pure Ibeart 
 
 "He that hath clean hands and a i^ure heart." 
 
 Ps. xxiv. 4. 
 
 In our last sermon we were speaking about clean hands. 
 Now I want you to think about pure hearts. 
 
 The hymn in which the text is found is a very beauti- 
 ful one. The ark of Jehovah, which lias been for about 
 three months in the house of Obed-Edom, is being taken 
 to Jerusalem in great pomp. The wonderful procession 
 of king and priests and people wound up the mountain- 
 side to the city. As they went they sang this 24tli 
 Psalm as a kind of choral hymn. All the people 
 sang together the first and second verses, and then one 
 choir sang this question— 
 
 "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? 
 Who shall stand in His holy place." 
 
 And another choir answered — 
 
 ** He that is of clean hands, and pnre of heart." 
 
 Then, as they neared the " old grey fortress," they all 
 sent up a mighty sound of song — 
 
 ** Lift up your heads, ye gates I " 
 
136 A PURE HEART 
 
 Then priests and Levites witliin the city asked in song— 
 
 "Who is this King of gloiyT' 
 
 And the people burst out again in triumphant strains — • 
 
 " The Lord strong and mighty, 
 The Lord mighty in battle." 
 
 So they joyously bear the ark to the holy place, where 
 all who stand must have clean hands and pure hearts. 
 We said before that clean liands arc honest, kind, busy, 
 and holy hands. Let us now see what pure hearts are. 
 
 1. They are loving hearts. 
 
 They love good desires, good deeds, good people, and, 
 above all, tliey love God. 
 
 When we have pure hearts, we love to pray. We 
 do not simply say our prayers because we have to do 
 so, but because we like to do so. We love play, it is 
 true, and ought to as long as we are young, but we 
 must not love playing instead of praying. 
 
 Bad people don't love people because they are good. 
 " Birds of a feather flock together," says the old proverb. 
 You can generally tell the character of a girl or boy 
 by the company they keep. Pure-hearted boys won't 
 like the company of those who use bad words and do 
 base things. 
 
 God, too, we love, when our hearts are clean. His 
 will and His ways we approve. 
 
 2. They are hating hearts also. 
 
 When a girl was asked if she had a new heart, her 
 reply was, " Yes, I hope so, because I love the thin^^s 
 
A PURE HEART 137 
 
 which I used to hate, and hate what I used to 
 love." 
 
 Yes, quite so. Badness is hateful to us when our 
 hearts are right. Sin is ugly, and only ugly, when we 
 have really learned to love good. If ever we are 
 beginning to think lightly of sin, to feel that it is 
 rather jolly, to prefer coarse vv'ords to gentle ones, lies 
 to truth, it is because our hearts are not pure. 
 
 3. Pure hearts are new hearts. 
 
 We have none of us in ourselves all we need to make 
 our hearts pure. We all have our good points, traits 
 of character that commend us to others. But we have 
 also traits of evil. Hence we must have new hearts 
 given to us by God. That is, we need God's Spirit to 
 create in us new loves, and renew our will to do right, 
 and to cleanse our hearts from evil. 
 
 Hence the prayer we all know so well — " Create in 
 me a clean heart, God," and the great promise — 
 " A new heart also will I give you." 
 
 The Eev. E. Pay son Hammond, a great child -lover, 
 tells this story. One day a boy, scarcely four years old, 
 came running to his mother and said, " Mamma, I said 
 a naughty word ; I sweared, I did." 
 
 " Did you ? " she said. " Come here, then, and I will 
 get some clean water and a rag and some soap, and 
 wash your mouth out." 
 
 She then carefully went to work, and washed his 
 mouth out thoroughly, and when she pressed her finger 
 down into his throat in a half-clioking way, he said — 
 
138 A PURE HEART 
 
 " What are you doing that for ? " 
 
 " Because I want to get down into your heart, and 
 wash your heart out, but I see that I can't do that, so 
 you will have to ask God to do that for you." 
 
 " How can God do it ? " 
 
 " I do not know. He does not tell me." 
 
 " I know it came from the heart, because I thought 
 the naughty word before I said it. But will He do it 
 if I ask Him." 
 
 " Yes, He will. He promises to do so." 
 
 " Then I will ask Him." 
 
 Away he went to his room, and, kneeling down, he 
 said — 
 
 " God, I said a naughty word. I sweared, I did. 
 Mamma has washed my mouth out, but she can't wash 
 my heart out. God, please wash my heart out. For 
 Jesus' sake. Amen." 
 
 If some of the words in this prayer seem strange, 
 you must remember that he was only a very little 
 fellow. Years afterwards, the mother said that her boy 
 was changed from that day. God gave him a new 
 heart that kept him from bad words. 
 
 God will do the same for us, if we ask. We can't 
 make them pure ourselves. If my watch goes wrong, 
 I don't try to repair it myself It is so delicate and 
 intricate that I should spoil it, so I take it to the 
 watchmaker. 
 
 Why do you think clean hands and pure hearts are 
 thus joined together in the text ? Because they have 
 
A PURE HEART 139 
 
 much to do with one another in the life. The surest 
 way to secure clean hands is to have a pure heart. If 
 my hands are cruel, it is because my heart is cruel. 
 As the wee boy said, " I tlwurjlit the naughty word 
 before I said it." 
 
 The hands of the clock do not go by themselves. If 
 they are out of time, or stop, no one thinks of blaming 
 them. We know there must be something wrong with 
 the works. Spring and wheels within make them go, 
 or cause them to stop. 
 
 So with our life : the heart regulates the hands. 
 
 Here the pure heart is our greatest need for every 
 day, and for God's holy place. Through the old gates 
 of Jerusalem some, I daresay, went into the holy place 
 who were not either clean of hand or pure of heart, but 
 nothing unclean can enter the holier city. 
 
 " There shall in no wise enter into it anvthins 
 unclean." 
 
 We shall not get to heaven, if our hearts are not new. 
 
 God's best gift is the pure heart, and if we go to 
 God, He will keep His promise, and give us it. 
 
 A rabbi asked his pupils this question — " What is the 
 best thing for a man to possess ? " I wonder what 
 answer we should give ? Well, listen to theirs. One 
 said, " A kind nature " ; another, " A good companion " ; 
 another, " A good neighbour " ; but another, named 
 Eleazer, said, " A good heart." 
 
 " I like your answer best, Eleazer," said the dear 
 master, "/or it includes all the rest J' 
 
Copper iPrectous as Golb 
 
 "Two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold." 
 
 EzRAviii. 27 (R.V.). 
 
 These were amongst the vessels of God's house which 
 Ezra restored. There were there costly bowls of 
 gold and beautiful vessels of silver, and amongst them 
 two vessels of fine copper, or, as the Ee vised Version 
 reads, " fine bright brass," precious as gold. 
 
 Any boy or girl, if asked whether gold or copper was 
 the more valuable, would answer " Gold," and if offered 
 a new penny or an old sovereign, would choose the latter. 
 And so the bowl of gold, however small, would be worth 
 more than the vessel of brass, however great in the 
 common sense of worth. But the word " precious " 
 refers not so much to the metal the vessels were made 
 of as to the usefulness of the vessels themselves. We 
 might say " two vessels of fine copper, desirable as gold." 
 
 For the work of God's house they were as necessary 
 as the silver and gold vessels. There may also be a 
 reference to their form ; so exquisite were they in work- 
 manship that the only way to speak of them was 
 " precious as gold." 
 
 Now these vessels of common metal amono-st those 
 
cor PER PRECIOUS AS GOLD 141 
 
 of more precious metal stand to me for the everyday, 
 trilling things of life well done. 
 
 Miss Yonge has written a book called A Book of 
 Golden Deeds. In it she tells of the wonderful and 
 heroic but rare thmgs which people have done, and are 
 worth remembering. Here is one of a French officer 
 in the Seven Years' War. France had taken the side 
 of Austria, you remember, against Germany. Louis XV. 
 had sent a French army into Germany. This officer 
 was sent out alone into a wood to reconnoitre. 
 Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a number of 
 soldiers whose bayonets pricked his breast, and a voice 
 whispered in his ear, " Make the slightest noise, and you 
 are a dead man." In a moment he understood it. The 
 enemy were advancing to surprise the French, and 
 would be upon them when night was further advanced. 
 He did not hesitate a moment, but shouted his loudest, 
 " Here, Auvergne ! Here are the enemy ! " 
 
 By the time his cry reached the ears of his men, he 
 was dead, but his death saved the army. That is worth 
 telling and recording among the "Golden Deeds." I 
 doubt not that we should all like to be on that roll of 
 illustrious ones for some great deed nobly done. 
 
 But there is another book, not yet written, in wliicli 
 we may all be enrolled. I should call it "A Buok of 
 Common Deeds well done." We don't keep such a book, 
 but God does. 
 
 Let me illustrate what I mean. 
 
 If your brother fell into the river, and you jumped in 
 
142 COPPER PRECIOUS AS GOLD 
 
 and rescued him, that would be like a golden deed 
 which your schoolfellows would talk about, and for 
 which they would, perhaps, give you an innings at cricket. 
 
 But to play with your little brotlier when he wants 
 a game and you don't : to be kind to him when he is 
 cross ; to cheer his tears away when he is in sorrow, 
 is like doing copper deeds. No one save our mother 
 talks about them, but before her and God they are 
 precious as gold. 
 
 The noblest everywhere are those who are not above 
 doing the least things. 
 
 He who shines in the field, but is mean in the home, 
 is a despicable character. 
 
 He who turns up when there is anything big to do, 
 but " can't bother " when it is something commonplace 
 tliat won't bring him any special pleasure or credit, is 
 a very little-souled creature. 
 
 Don't forget the vessels of copper. 
 
 Let us remember also the form of the copper. It 
 was " fine," or, taking the verse as read, " tine bright 
 brass." What is that ? Polished, made to shine, like 
 the co])per kettles in Yorkshire cottages. They were 
 not made of dim, unprepared metal. This speaks to us 
 about the way in which we are to do our common deeds. 
 
 They are to be polished. There are three ways 
 particidarly in which we can make the smallest deed 
 sliine like " fine bright brass." 
 
 1. By gentleness, 
 
 Eudeness, roughness will spoil any deed. As three 
 
COPPER PRECIOUS AS GOLD 143 
 
 boys went home from school in the snow, they saw an 
 old organ-grinder who wore a top hat. What a target ! 
 One, two, three snowballs, and the hat rolled into the 
 snow. Did the old grinder swear and turn cross ? No, 
 he smiled and said, "Now I'll play you a tune to make 
 you merry." 
 
 A small thing, but splendidly done. 
 
 2. By cheerfulness. 
 
 To do a thing as if you were o])liged to, and were 
 cross about it, is to have the metal very unpolished. 
 And to do a disagreeable thing grumpily is to make it 
 more and more disagreeable. 
 
 You come home from school, and are about to go out 
 f(^r a game when mother calls, wanting you for an 
 errand or some little reasonable service. If you reply, 
 " Yes, mother," as if you were very much disappointed 
 and very cross, the copper is not at all polished ; but if 
 you reply, " Yes, mother," in a cheery tone which says, " I 
 will do anything for you," that is like " fine bright brass." 
 
 Yes, cheerfulness makes the hardest duty easier and 
 the smallest service fine. 
 
 3. Unselfishness is also a wonderful polisher. 
 When we are bestowing our little gifts upon others, 
 
 our giving is often like unpolished copper. When, for 
 instance, you give what you have grown tired of or don't 
 like or don't want, that is better than not giving at all, 
 but it is not the best gift. When we give what we 
 should very much like to keep, then our gift is like the 
 " fine copper." 
 
144 COPPER PRECIOUS AS GOLD 
 
 Two farthings, when they are all ourstore and given 
 in a true spirit, may be — Christ said once they were — 
 " precious as gold," while two sovereigns may not be 
 worth a flint stone when given in another way. 
 
 It was breaking-up day, and the school sports w^ere 
 fixed for two o'clock. Eichie left home in good time 
 to start in the first race for a pair of running-shoes and 
 a cricket-cap. On his way he found a letter by the 
 roadside. On the envelope above the address was 
 Immediate. Someone had evidently intended to put it 
 in the pillar-box for twelve o'clock clearance. The 
 General Post-Office, where it must go if it was to be 
 delivered that day, was a long way off, and he would 
 have to run hard to get there and back in time for his 
 race, and then, tired with the run, he might lose it. 
 Eichie hesitated, and then, thinking the letter might 
 1)0 very important to someone, away he ran. In the 
 race he made a good start, but Willie Webb beat him 
 at the finish. Eichie was sorely disappointed, and 
 went home not sure whether tlie letter was worth this 
 loss. During the night Mi's. Webb's stacks were on 
 fire, and Eichie with his father went to help put it 
 out. In her fear and trouble Mrs. Webb said, " I 
 renewed the insurance only to-day." Then Willie said 
 to Eichie, " Whatever shall I do ? I lost the letter." 
 Eichie asked what it was like, and then said, " Don't 
 worry, old fellow. I found it, and posted it for you." 
 And thus Mrs. Webb got her insurance, and she gave 
 Eichie the best cricket - cap and running - shoes that 
 
COPPER PRECIOUS AS GOLD 145 
 
 could be bought. So his little unselfish deed was like 
 the vessel of " fine copper, precious as gold." 
 
 If then we cannot do wonderful things, let us do the 
 common things wonderfully. Gideon was busy " beat- 
 ing out wheat in the winepress " when God's call to the 
 highest service for his country came to him. The 
 commonplace duty led to the greatest honour. Never 
 slight the little things. 
 
 Dr. Eichard Newton tells us that the most beautiful 
 stained glass window in Lincoln Cathedral was made 
 by an apprentice out of little pieces of glass that had 
 been thrown aside by his master as useless. The lines 
 that someone has written about this window are worth 
 remembering in connection with our subject of the 
 copper deeds. 
 
 *' Great things are made of fragments .small, 
 Small things are germs of great ; 
 And, of earth's stately temples, all 
 To fi-agments owe their weight. 
 
 Tliis window, peer of all the rest, 
 
 Of fragments small is wrought ; 
 Of fragments that the artist deemed 
 
 Unworthy of his thought. 
 
 And thus may we, of little things, 
 
 Kind words and gentle deeds, 
 Aid wealth or beauty to our lives 
 
 Which greater acts exceeds. 
 
 Each victory o'er a sinful tiionglit. 
 
 Each action true and pure, 
 Is, 'mid our life's engi-aving, wrought 
 
 In tints that shall endure." 
 
 10 
 
StralQbt Bwa^ 
 
 "And straiglitway they left the nets and followed Him." 
 
 Mark i. 18. 
 
 Two brothers, fishermen, were busy at their work, just 
 as busy and earnest as fishermen coiild be. They were 
 both casting a net and drawing in their fish. Tlien 
 along the shore, where the tiny waves washed up the 
 shingle, Jesus was seen walking. He said to the 
 brothers, " Come after Me, and I will make you to 
 become fishers of men." And directly t'ney left boat 
 and nets, work and fish, and followed Him. 
 
 I daresay there are some boys and girls who wonder 
 at this, and think if they had a boat and nets they 
 wouldn't leave them and follow Christ. Yes, it does 
 seem strange at first, but let us think about it and see 
 what there is in it. We will consider first what they 
 did, then why they did it, and then how they did it. 
 
 1. What they did. 
 
 " They left the nets." 
 
 This means very much to these fishers. The nets 
 were their means of livelihood. But that word is too 
 long — they got their bread by fishing with their nets, 
 and in leaving them they were leaving their business. 
 
STRAIGHT AWAY 147 
 
 The nets were the most they could leave, and they did 
 not hesitate to leave them. 
 
 Before we boys and girls can become Christians — if 
 we are not such already — there is something we have 
 to leave. When the voice of Christ comes to us, it 
 says, " have all and follow Me." We have not to give 
 up home or school or business, pleasure or play, but 
 everything that keeps us from being Christians. 
 
 We must leave bad habits and bad companions, 
 naughty words and naughty deeds. All sin we have 
 to leave to follow Christ. To begin to love Christ we 
 must begin to give up sin. 
 
 Then in Christ's service we often have to leave much 
 else. ]Many have given up home and pleasure to do 
 good to others for Christ's sake. That call may come 
 to some of you some day. 
 
 Like these brother fishers, whatever Christ bids us 
 leave, let us do it. 
 
 2. Why they did it. 
 
 " And folloiued Him." These words carry the secret 
 of their great giving up. Think again liow much they 
 left, and then remember that they did it for sake of 
 " following Him." 
 
 Christ and His service were worth more to them 
 than boats and nets. They would have the friendship 
 of Christ Himself. And that would be worth a good 
 many nets. Jesus seemed worth more to these fishers 
 than anything else in the world. And so they quickly 
 left what they were doing and followed Him. 
 
148 STRAIGHT A IVA V 
 
 Now, boys and girls, this is just true for all of us. 
 Christ is better than anything else life has. Nothing 
 brings so much joy and pleasure and good into our life 
 as Christ. 
 
 Then they would have also Christ's service : " I will 
 make you to become fishers of men." Christ was going 
 to make them of use to other men. And that was 
 better than the best fishing. 
 
 I think, boys and girls, that the greatest joy in 
 being Christ's lovers is that we can help others to 
 be good. 
 
 You all know how very, very often bad boys and girls 
 make others bad. Ministers and teachers warn us 
 against evil companions, because they will make us 
 evil. It is just as true that good people make others 
 good. Goodness is far stronger and more attractive 
 than badness. When we belong to Christ, He uses our 
 life to help others and to save them. 
 
 Thus, when these brothers thought of their boats 
 and nets and fishing, and of Christ and His service, 
 they left all and followed Him. 
 
 If I offered to give a sovereign for each penny you 
 liave, would you be long in deciding to give up the 
 penny ? If anyone would make such an offer to me, I 
 should quickly hunt up all my pennies and get them 
 changed. 
 
 It is much like that when we leave anything for 
 Christ. We are exchanging our pence for sovereigns. 
 Wc may give up much, but we shall always get more. 
 
STRAIGHT A WA V 149 
 
 3. IToiv they did it. 
 
 " And straightway." This is a good word and worth 
 remembering. It means immediately, " on the spot," 
 as we say sometimes ; or straight away. They did not 
 hesitate or loiter or wonder, but followed straight 
 away. 
 
 It IS always best to do the right at once. The nasty 
 little spoilers of life are well known to us. " Wait a 
 minute," says the boy wdien his mother calls. " I am 
 going to," says another, who knows he ought to have 
 done something long ago. " I will by and by," says a 
 third, who is excusing neglect of present duty. These 
 are like little foxes that spoil the grapes. We shall 
 never do anything much in life if we let them into our 
 vineyard. 
 
 No, the splendid word is straight aivay for every- 
 thing. The great successes of life are won by men 
 and women who don't wait, but do the duty of the 
 moment at once. 
 
 It is said that Dr. Adam Clarke, who was himself a 
 scholar, had a neighbour, a scholar also. They both 
 learned overnight that the bookseller had a rare Greek 
 Testament for sale, and tliey both (unknown to one 
 another) made up their minds to purchase it if possible. 
 The neighbour hastened over his breakfast, and went 
 to the shop, sure that he must be the first customer of 
 the day, and asked to see the rare book. " You are too 
 late," said the bookseller. " Impossible ! " said the 
 scholar. '' I have only just had my brea.kfa^t, and 
 
r 50 S TRAIGHT A WA Y 
 
 have come straight away." "Yes," said the bookseller; 
 " but Dr. Clarke came hefore hreakfasty 
 
 " Before breakfast " got the coveted book. " Straight- 
 way they left the nets and followed Him." 
 
 It is not so true of anything else as of following 
 Christ — that the best way to do it is straight away. 
 
Beware of the dogs." 
 
 Phil. iii. 2 (R.V.). 
 
 We should scarcely expect to find such a text, but 
 here it is. And wliat can it mean ? Well, let us see. 
 
 Dogs in St. Paul's day were not exactly hke our dogs. 
 He did not feel about them as we do. AVe keep them 
 in the house, and feed them, and nurse and pet them. 
 But when Paul wrote, they were a bit of a nuisance 
 and a danger also. Big, masterless, savage dogs prowled 
 about the villages and cities, seeking their food. They 
 would snap, and snarl, and bite, so that you needed a 
 strong stick, and to be on your guard. 
 
 And so, when St. Paul wanted to warn his friends 
 against people who were unkind, cruel, and hurtful, he 
 thought about these stray dogs, and said, " Beware of 
 the dogs." 
 
 And the text has a voice for us to-day, for just as 
 these dogs ran about the streets hither and thither, 
 looking this way and that, ever ready to snap and bite, 
 so there are people about school and playground, street 
 and workplace, who are like them, and the text would 
 say Beware of the bovs and girls who will bite you. 
 
152 DOGS 
 
 1. Boys to mind, 
 
 (a) Sly dogs. — Boys, for instance, who will tempt 
 you to loiter on your way to school or as you are going 
 an errand. They say it doesn't matter if you are a little 
 late. 
 
 Beware of those tempting boys and girls who entice 
 us to do wrong, promising us all sorts of nice things 
 if only we won't be so particular. They tempt us often 
 to break the rule of home Avhich says we are not to go 
 to certain places and we are to be in at certain times. 
 "What does it matter? Mothers don't know every- 
 thing," says our sly, tempting dog. I never knew a 
 mother who said or thought she did know everything, 
 but I am quite sure she knows more than we do, and 
 that her law is very good. 
 
 So whenever anyone is tempting you not to care 
 then remember this text, '' Beware of the dogs." 
 
 (b) Savage dogs. — There are some boys and girls 
 who are like savage dogs. They use bad words, they 
 do nasty and dirty things. Beware of them, for they 
 will injure you, and will never be content until you do 
 as they do. Of all evil things, evil companions are the 
 most evil. 
 
 Beware of anybody and everybody round about you 
 who would try to do you harm. There are many sortSj 
 rough and smooth, sly and savage. But the most 
 dangerous of all is the sly dog. He wags his tail as if 
 pleased to see you, and when you go to stroke him, he 
 snaps at you. 
 
DOGS 153 
 
 2. Why " beware of the dogs " ? Because they bite 
 and bring us no good. 
 
 A father brought his boy six red, round, ripe apples, 
 just such as the boy loved. He looked at them with 
 boyish delight. "Six" said he ; "thank you very much !" 
 Then he was going to stow them away where we put 
 all our treasures of the moment — string, top, knife, 
 marbles, nails, and coppers, with a few sweets on 
 occasion. 
 
 " No, no," said the father ; " you must not put them 
 in your pocket." " Then I'll eat them." " No ; put 
 them in the cupboard." " In the cupboard ? " exclaimed 
 the disappointed laddie. There he had to place them. 
 A nice little group they were. Then the father gave 
 him another, and said, " Put this one with them." " But 
 ill's rotten, and will spoil the others." But he had to do 
 it. A nasty one amongst six rosy, ripe ones. And 
 there they stayed until he was told he might have 
 them. Then he found the nasty one had made them 
 all nasty. " There," he said ; " I knew it would be so." 
 " And so did I," said the father. " And my boy will 
 find, if he will play with bad boys who swear and steal, 
 they will spoil him too." 
 
 You see what the father meant by his lesson. If 
 you don't want your apples spoiled, keep them away 
 from the bad one. And if you don't want yourself 
 spoiled, keep away from bad boys and girls. 
 
 A man had a board by his dog-kennel with the words 
 " Beware of the dog " painted in very large letters. A 
 
154 DOGS 
 
 friend said to him, "I suppose you have had that 
 written in such big letters, that he who runs may 
 read, have you ? " " No," he said, " I have not. I 
 have put it in good big letters, that he who reads may 
 run." 
 
 Boys and girls, if ever you find anyone try to make 
 you say a bad word or do a mean, bad thing, then have 
 this text before you in big, big letters — 
 
 " Beware of the Dogs." 
 
IRemember 
 
 Eemember Jesus Christ. 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 8 (R.V.). 
 
 We should never forget our best friends, though we do 
 so sometimes. The boy who thinks of his schoolfellow 
 who gave him his first knife forgets the friend who 
 bound up his cut finger. We think more of those who 
 please us than those who help us. Hence, people who 
 give us things are remembered after those who have 
 taught us are forgotten. Those who bring us presents 
 occasionally are thought of, while those who are always 
 giving to us what we most need are unremembered. 
 Thus is it that auntie often gets thanks, while mother 
 gets none. 
 
 We must not forget our best friends, and certainly 
 v/e must never forget Him who is more than friend. 
 
 Paul tells Timothy to " remember Jesus Christ,*' and 
 I am sure he would say so to every boy and girl to-day. 
 
 Here, then, is a pleasant duty — " Eemember Christ." 
 
 That is, think about Him. You boys and girls who 
 read have come across many men and women who have 
 impressed your mind, and you think of them long after 
 the reading. Who does not remember St. George, who 
 
 155 
 
156 REMEMBER 
 
 slew the dragon ? Or Kobinson Crusoe, who cared for 
 " Friday " ? So also we think about the great characters 
 of history, King Alfred, Nelson, Gordon, and many 
 others. Let us think about the greatest of them all, 
 Jesus Christ. Never was one like Him. What won- 
 derful things He did ! What wise and kind words He 
 spoke ! The verse tells Timothy what particularly he 
 was to think about. " Jesus Christ risen from the dead." 
 
 The people killed Him on the cruel cross. Kind 
 hands buried Him in the new grave, before which the 
 soldiers rolled a big stone, so that no one should steal 
 the body. But in the morning the grave was empty. 
 Jesus had risen, and He saw and talked with His 
 disciples many times. Thus they knew that He was 
 the Son of God, and not a deceiver, as the people said ; 
 their Saviour, and not a mere man like one of them- 
 selves. " Eemember also," says Paul, " Jesus Christ of 
 the seed of David." He was the one whom God had 
 promised to give to them. And He shared their nature 
 as well as being God. He was King of heaven, but 
 also babe of Bethlehem. He could work miracles, 
 making blind people see and dead people live ; but He 
 had been a boy, with play and lessons like other boys. 
 Though God, He came and shared our lot. " Though 
 rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we . . . might 
 become rich." 
 
 Let us read and think about Him. But to remember 
 Christ is TO love Him and be tkue to Him. 
 
 The remembrance Christ Himself loves most of all is 
 
REMEMBER 157 
 
 our love. The boy remembers his mother most who 
 loves her best. And he loves her best who is careful 
 to do her will, who does what she would like, and 
 avoids what she would disapprove. 
 
 When John Paton, who became the great missionary, 
 left his home to go to Glasgow, forty miles had to be 
 done on foot. His father walked with him the first six 
 miles, and then they parted. The father and son were 
 very dear to one another, and the parting was a sorrow- 
 ful one. " God bless you, my son ; your father's God 
 prosper you and keep you from all evil," said the father. 
 
 After going some distance, John climbed the dyke 
 to see if his father was standing where he left him. 
 At the same moment the father climbed the dyke to 
 see his son. John saw him get down. " I watched," 
 he says, " through blinding tears till his form faded 
 from my gaze ; and then, hastening on my way, vowed 
 deeply and oft, hy the help of God, to live and act so as 
 never to grieve or dishonour such a father and mother as 
 He had given me." That was the right way to remember 
 his father and mother. 
 
 So, boys and girls, should we remember Christ. Act 
 so as never to grieve Him or dishonour His name. 
 
 Paul tells Timothy to remember Christ, not simply 
 because gratitude for what Christ had done for him 
 should make him remember. He was speaking to him 
 about " suffering hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus 
 Christ " : so that he might be a good soldier he would 
 have him remember Christ. 
 
158 REMEMBER 
 
 Wlien we are tempted to do wrong, when we are in 
 sorrow, when duty is difficult, when joys are many, 
 remember Jesus Christ. Eemember that He is near, 
 that He is our Saviour, and that He will help us. 
 
 Whoever else you forget, don't forget Christ. We 
 have never seen Him, but He sees us. We do not hear 
 Him coming, but He is always with us. His gifts are 
 bestowed every day, but they are the most precious of 
 all we have. If Christ did not remember us, we should 
 not have much to make our lives happy. 
 
 A mother was talking to her little girl about loving 
 God. The child replied, " Mother, I have never seen 
 God, how can I love Him ? " A few days afterwards 
 she received a lovely book from a friend. What 
 pictures there were in that book ! The more she 
 turned over the leaves, the happier the wee maid felt, 
 until at last she exclaimed, " Oh, mother, how I do love 
 the good lady that sent me this book ! " 
 
 " But you never saw her, my dear," said her mother. 
 
 " No," answered the child ; " but I love her because 
 she has sent me this present." So the child loved and 
 remembered the lady whom she had never seen because 
 of what she had sent her, Christ gave Himself for us. 
 All the blessings of life come to us through Him, and 
 in the future life He will give us much more. 
 
 Boys and girls, " Remember Jesus Christ." 
 
 THE END.