I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, | 
 Princeton, N. J. S_ 
 
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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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 PRESENTED BY 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 
 T\L. 
 
 
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 ii 
 
 T Jl E RIBBON RUO M. Pilffe 102. 
 
PLAIX THOUGHTS 
 
 ABOUT 
 
 GREAT AND GOOD THINGS 
 
 FOR 
 
 LITTLE BOYS AXD GIRLS; 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM S. PLLMER. D. D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1849, 
 
 By Alexander W. Mitchell, M. D. 
 
 In the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the 
 Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 What a Fool said 9 
 
 The Matchless One IT 
 
 How to learn much 25 
 
 Angels and Men 33 
 
 Who rales the W T orld? 41 
 
 Time and Eternity 49 
 
 God will punish Sin 56 
 
 Some strange Things 63 
 
 Something still stranger 72 
 
 A Pain in the Head 79 
 
 A Chapter of Sayings 83 
 
 They were both wrong .96 
 
 The Ribbon Room 102 
 
 The Lost Pocket-Book 106 
 
 Edwin and his Teacher 109 
 
 Acorns make Oaks 119 
 
TO MY LITTLE FRIENDS. 
 
 I wish you health, because without it 
 you cannot grow strong in body or 
 mind, and so be useful in the world. I 
 wish you joy, because it makes me sad 
 to see a child sad. I wish you a 
 new heart, because your old heart is 
 naughty and bad. It will plague you 
 as long as it rules you. It w T ill ruin 
 you, if you do not get rid of it. 
 These are my three wishes about you. 
 When I was a child I once thought 
 that no one cared for my soul, and I 
 wept. I was wrong, for many prayed 
 for me. You may have the same 
 thoughts. But you are wrong. The 
 pious often pray for you. Some have 
 written good books for you. I hope 
 you read them. I send you this book 
 in the hope that it will do you good. 
 
8 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 We, who are old, will soon be dead, 
 and you must take our places. I pray- 
 that you may do, and get more good 
 than we have. It often makes us sad 
 to see that we are not wiser and better. 
 You must pray for yourselves. God 
 can bless you. He alone can save you. 
 Give him your hearts. Hate every 
 false way and all vain thoughts. Look 
 to Jesus. He is the best friend anv of 
 us have. He died for us. Love your 
 Bible. Do as it tells you; and when 
 you die, you shall go where good chil- 
 dren, good men, good angels, and the 
 good Jesus dwell. So I bid you good- 
 bye. 
 
PLAIN THOUGHTS. 
 
 WHAT A FOOL SAID. 
 
 David often tells us what God said. This 
 is always good. Now and then he tells us 
 what he himself said. This is often, but not 
 always good. He once said, " all men are 
 liars." That is not true. Even David ad- 
 mits that he said it "in haste." We ought 
 to think well before we speak at all. At 
 least once he tells us what a fool said: "The 
 fool hath said in his heart there is no God." 
 None but a fool would say that. None can 
 tell what a fool will say. It is his trade to 
 think, and say, and do things which have no 
 truth nor sense in them. It is always well 
 to know ivlio says and does things. Thieves 
 will steal ; rogues will cheat ; liars will not 
 tell the truth. He who brags will tell big 
 stories of himself; and a fool will speak folly. 
 Keep that in mind. 
 2 
 
10 WHAT A FOOL SAID. 
 
 Some say that the word "fool," in this 
 place, means a bad man. I think so too. 
 He who has sense enough about other things, 
 and yet speaks of God just like a fool, must 
 be a bad man. Some men are so bad, that 
 they talk and act as if they were stark mad. 
 They hate all good men and good things. 
 They spread nets for their own feet. , They 
 dig pits and fall into them. They love death. 
 They would not be so foolish^ if they were 
 not so wicked. They do wrong, and then 
 they think wrong. The more one sins, the 
 less able is he to have right thoughts. 
 
 Such a man said, "there is no God." 
 Where did he learn that? How could he 
 know so much ? If a man has not lived in 
 every age, how does he know but that at 
 some time there was proof that God is, and 
 proof that would have shut his mouth ? If 
 he has not been in all places, the place he 
 has not been in may make even fools say, 
 there is a God. If he does not know all 
 beings in all worlds, the one whom he does 
 not know, may be a God. If he does not 
 know all truth, the truth which he does not 
 know, may be that there is a God. If he 
 
WHAT A POOL SAID. 11 
 
 does not know all causes, the cause which he 
 does not know, may be a God. In short, 
 one must know all things, must be in all 
 places, must fill all worlds, must be a God 
 himself, and thus shut out any other God, 
 before he can know that there is no God. 
 No man whose heart was not so bad as to 
 make a fool of him, would dare to say, 
 " there is no God." 
 
 "Why should he say so? What good can 
 it do to speak so much like a fool ? No man 
 will be made wise or good by such words. 
 Men are bad enough now. If all men 
 thought that there was no God, earth would 
 soon be as bad as hell. We might sigh, and 
 groan, and weep, and howl, but we would 
 not pray. To whom should we pray? Now, 
 we can call on God in the day of trouble, 
 and he will hear us, and send us help. But 
 if all said there was no God, none would 
 pray. I would not pray, if I did not think 
 there was a God. W^ould you? You would 
 be a fool if you did; and what a world of 
 woe this would be, if there was no prayer 
 going up to God ! 
 
 But there is a God. Yes, there is. No 
 
12 WHAT A FOOL SAID. 
 
 man should doubt it. Even the heathen 
 know that; they have very wrong ideas of 
 him, and take very absurd ways to please 
 him; but they know that he is. There is 
 proof every where. 
 
 Did you see that steamboat? She ran 
 fifteen miles in an hour. She made the 
 water foam at her bow. Did she make her- 
 self? Does she move herself? Could she 
 keep the channel, and turn the points of the 
 bars, and run so safely, if there were no men 
 to make the fires, work the engine, and steer 
 her? You say, No. Very well, then; if 
 that boat did not make herself, did the world 
 make itself? If she does not move and steer 
 herself, how can the world move and guide 
 itself? 
 
 Have you seen the railroad cars? How 
 fast they go ! Some of them run sixty miles 
 an hour. It almost makes one's hair stand 
 on end to be near the track, when they pass 
 at full speed. They make a great noise. 
 Did you ever hear any one say, that no one 
 made the road, or the cars ? If you did, I 
 know you set him down for a fool. You 
 would not ride in the cars, if you did not 
 
WHAT A FOOL SAID. 13 
 
 know that there was a man, who knew what 
 he was about, standing by the engine to 
 keep all right. But all your life you have 
 been riding on n world, which is more than 
 eight thousand miles through, and twenty- 
 five thousand miles round. It has been mov- 
 * 
 
 ing more than sixty thousand miles every 
 hour since it was made. Yet it makes no 
 noise, but goes quietly on. Can you think 
 that this great world can go so fast and so 
 safely without some one to hold it up, and 
 guide it? It hangs upon nothing. There 
 are no rails laid down for it to run upon, yet 
 it follows the same track every year, and 
 turns quite around every day. It does not 
 stop. It does not tire. There is no noise, 
 because there is no jar. Gould it move so, 
 if there was no God? 
 
 If a man should say that the book which 
 you hold in your hand, was made by chance ; 
 that no one wrote it, or printed it, or bound it, 
 would you believe him ? No. How then can 
 any one believe that the heavens full of stars 
 made themselves; or that the leaves, and 
 birds, and beasts, and fishes, and flies, and 
 flowers, all came by chance, and had no maker ? 
 2* 
 
14 WHAT A FOOL SAID. 
 
 He cannot think so, unless he is the kind of 
 man called by David a fool. Every thing in 
 us, except our wicked hearts, and every thing 
 around us, except fools, clearly say that 
 there is a God. Even the fool is a proof that 
 there is a God, who made him, and who is 
 good to him. If God did not make him, who 
 did ? And if God were not very good, He 
 would strike him dead, and send him to hell 
 at once for saying such wicked words- 
 There are three ways of saying that 
 " there is no God:" 
 
 1. Some say so in words. There are not 
 many such. But I have seen two men, who 
 said so. One of them died in the year 1848 
 in great fear. I do not wonder he was afraid. 
 When God leaves a man in his sins, he will 
 say any thing, and soon go to ruin. I never 
 saw a woman, who said there was no God. 
 I hope I never shall. I should not like to 
 see a female so wicked. If you hear any one 
 say, " there is no God," get away from him. 
 He is vile. Yet do not hate him, but pity 
 him, and pray for him ; ask God to have 
 mercy on him. You may be sure that he 
 does not pray for himself. 
 
WHAT A FOOL SAID. 15 
 
 2. Some say in their hearts that " there is 
 no God." This is the way in which the fool 
 said it. Such men teish there was no God. 
 "The wish is father to the thought." Such 
 love sin, and mean to live in sin. Yet they 
 fear that God will punish them for sin ; then 
 they wish there was "no God" to deal with 
 them. I have seen many such, I fear. They 
 did not speak out their wishes ; but they had 
 them. Vain wishes! and they know them 
 to be vain. If they do not know it now, 
 they shall know it. God never dies; he 
 never grows old; he lives for ever. They 
 may wish on, but God will live on. 
 
 3. Others say by their deeds that "there is 
 no God." That is, they live and act just as 
 they would like to do, if there was " no God." 
 They do not pray to him, except when they 
 are full of fears. I knew a man to live fifty 
 years, and he never asked a blessing at his 
 table, nor prayed with his family. If such 
 do not curse God, yet they do not praise 
 him. Like the swine eating acorns under 
 the oak tree, they are busy with what they 
 find, but never look up to see where it comes 
 from. They do not serve God ; but they 
 
16 WHAT A FOOL SAID. 
 
 serve the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
 God is not in all their thoughts. They 
 make all their plans as if they owed nothing 
 to God. They do not love his word, even if 
 they read it. They do not love God. They 
 love gain, and gold, and fame, and fun, but 
 they do not love God at all. They hate him. 
 They do not keep his law. They do not 
 repent of their sins against him. They have 
 not as much that looks like a show of piety 
 as the lost angels have; for "the devils be- 
 lieve that there is a God, and tremble." But 
 these men neither rejoice, nor tremble, when 
 they think there is a God. Or, if they have 
 some fears, they soon act as vilely as ever. 
 There are many such. The world is full of 
 them. Many of them know a great deal, 
 but they do not know God. They do not 
 like to retain God in their knowledge. Many 
 of them have farms, and houses, and money ; 
 but they are poor. They are without hope, 
 and without God in the world. Some of 
 them are called great, and rise high; but 
 they will soon sink to the lowest hell. Their 
 state is fearful. Are you one of them ? 
 Would not you live very much as you do, if 
 
THE MATCHLESS OXE. 17 
 
 you thought that there was no God? Do 
 you love God ? 
 
 THE MATCHLESS ONE. 
 
 !Theiie never was a gun, a ship, or a house 
 so large that there might not have been others 
 as large ? or even larger. Each had its match, 
 or might have had it somewhere. A man 
 may be very strong, or wise, or good, yet 
 some one may be found, who is as much so. 
 But there is none like God. Good men are 
 sometimes said to be like him, because, in 
 their measure, they love the things which he 
 loves, and hate the things which he hates. 
 A candle is like the sun, thus far — they both 
 give light. A dew-drop is like the ocean, in 
 so far as they are both wet. Wind from a 
 bellows is like a tempest ; both of them are 
 air in motion. Yet no one would gravely 
 compare one of these small things with one 
 of these great things, except in the low sense 
 just stated. Neither can we liken any one 
 to God. He has no match, no equal. Let 
 us see. 
 
18 THE MATCHLESS ONE. 
 
 1. He is the Creator; all others are crea- 
 tures. There is no wider nor deeper gulf 
 than that which lies between Him who made 
 all, and all that was made. We all live, 
 move, and have our being in God. He does 
 not depend on us. We all depend on him. 
 We cannot live without him. He lived mil- 
 lions of ages before men or angels were 
 made. His name is, "I am." Man's name 
 is, "worm of the dust." God's life is like 
 himself, without change, and without cause. 
 He has life in himself. 
 
 2. God can do all things. He can make 
 worlds and destroy them too. We can do 
 neither. He can make something out of 
 nothing. We cannot; angels cannot. He 
 can make the earth reel and stagger like a 
 drunken man. We cannot move it. He 
 hangs the earth upon nothing. We cannot 
 hang an apple or a feather upon nothing. 
 He can change a bad man into a good man. 
 All men and angels cannot do that. " Who 
 is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth in- 
 iquity ?" I know the pope and his priests, 
 and some priests among the heathen, say 
 they can forgive sins, but they can do no 
 
THE MATCHLESS ONE. 19 
 
 such thing. "Who can forgive sins but God 
 only?" Peter did not pretend to forgive 
 Simon Magus, but told him to pray to God 
 for pardon. 
 
 3. God knows all things. No one else 
 knows much. No man nor angel knows 
 when the day of judgment will be. Jesus 
 Christ said so. Yet God knows it, for he 
 has set the day. No man, nor angel knows 
 the mind of God in any matter, but as God 
 teaches him. Yet God knows his own mind. 
 No creature knows the human heart. But 
 God searches it through and through. He 
 knows our hearts better than we know each 
 other's faces. We know what a man has 
 said after he has spoken, but God knows 
 what a man will say before he speaks. We 
 know things by learning them; God knows 
 things without learning them. He always 
 knew all things. We forget many things; 
 God never forgets any thing. To him nothing 
 is new, nothing is old; to us almost every 
 thing is new or old. "Known unto God are 
 all his works from the beginning.' ' 
 
 4. God is good in himself. If any one 
 else is good, it is because God has made and 
 
20 THE MATCHLESS ONE. 
 
 kept him so. God is so holy that the hea- 
 vens are not clean in his sight. No race of 
 beings loved sin, when God made them. Yet 
 "none is good, save one, that is God." 
 None pities and shows mercy like God. He 
 blesses like a God; he blots out so many 
 sins of so many sinners in so free a way, that 
 there is none like him. He never calls up 
 an old sin that once has been buried. Peter 
 thought that he was doing very well when he 
 spoke of forgiving his brother seven times; 
 and that is more than most men do. But 
 God blots out sins that are like a thick cloud, 
 and are more than the hairs of our head. 
 " God is love." If he were not, we should 
 all sink to hell without hope. 
 
 5. God is the judge of all. Men and an- 
 gels, good and bad, will all be judged by him. 
 But " he gives not an account of any of his 
 affairs. " We may not even try to tell what 
 is in a man's heart, except from what he 
 says and does. " Judge not, that ye be not 
 judged." "Who art thou, that judgest an- 
 other man's servant? To his own master 
 he standeth or falleth." But God is of right 
 the "Judge of all." He will judge "the 
 
THE MATCHLESS ONE. 21 
 
 secrets of men." He ought to do it. He is 
 the only one, who is fit to do it, or -who can 
 do it right. I am glad God is to be the 
 judge. There will be no mistakes in the day 
 of doom, for he shall be on the throne. 
 
 6. God is now and ever will be the source 
 of all joy. He can make us happy in him- 
 self alone. If there were none but God and 
 one man, that man might be full of joy in 
 his Maker. God often makes men the means, 
 but not the fountain of joy to each other. 
 None can be happy, if God leaves him. Some 
 great and good men think that all the pain 
 of the lost will come to them from God's 
 wholly leaving them. This may not be so. 
 But surely if God goes away from a man, 
 never to come back, and never to smile on 
 him again, he is undone. The great bliss of 
 the holy ones in heaven is, and always will 
 be, that God is their portion. God can make 
 us happy ; but we cannot make him happy. 
 He was as blessed before he had made us, as 
 he is now, or ever will be. 
 
 7. God never changes; all his creatures 
 change. Of our bodies, it is well said, "we 
 all do fade as a leaf." Our minds change. 
 
 3 
 
ZZ THE MATCHLESS ONE. 
 
 Our plans change. Every thing around us 
 changes. Wicked men and devils grow worse 
 and worse ; holy men and angels are growing 
 more and more wise, and holy, and happy. 
 Their hearts are getting larger, and they can 
 hold more bliss. The seasons change also. 
 The very rocks are growing harder, or crum- 
 bling away. But God is the Lord. He 
 changes not. God is far above us in all 
 things. I cannot tell all now. Read and 
 learn. If these things be so, then it is plain 
 that, 
 
 1. We ought not to think of God as we do 
 of any other ; for there is none like him. To 
 think that God is like man, is a great sin. 
 He says so. Don't you do it. God is not 
 man that he should lie, or repent, or be un- 
 just. God is a pure spirit, and has no body. 
 The gods of the heathen have eyes, but see 
 not; our God has no eyes, yet he sees all 
 things. Idols have ears, but they hear not; 
 our God has no ears, but he hears the lowest 
 whisper. They have hands, but they cannot 
 make or do any thing; He has no hands, and 
 yet He made and can do all things. They 
 have feet, but cannot move; He has no feet, 
 
THE MATCHLESS Off*. 23 
 
 yet he walks on the face of the sea, and on 
 the wings of the wind. It is no sin to make 
 a picture or statue of a man to remind us of 
 him ; but it is a great sin to make any image 
 or likeness of God. He says so. See Exo- 
 dus. 20th chapter 4th and oth verses. 
 
 2. If God is such a being, then none 
 should be loved and feared as he should be. 
 We should love him with all our hearts, and 
 with all our souls, and with all -our minds. 
 We must love our neighbours as ourselves; 
 but we must love God more than we love 
 ourselves and our neighbours too. We must 
 cheerfully do what our parents, teachers, and 
 rulers command us, if it be lawful; but if 
 they bid us do a wicked thing, we may not 
 do it even to save our lives. He who thus 
 saves his life, shall lose it. 
 
 3. If God be such a God, then he can save 
 us from sin, and guilt, and wrath, and hell. 
 He can make us joyful even in sorrow ; He 
 can wash us and cleanse us ; He can keep us 
 from falling ; He can pay back to us all we 
 give up for him. Others may laugh at us 
 for praying, and singing hymns, and keeping 
 the Sabbath; but such are poor sinful worms. 
 
24 THE MATCHLESS ONE. 
 
 I know a little boy at school, who would not 
 fight, but often read his Bible and prayed 
 alone. The other boys laughed at him, and 
 cried out, " Here is a little Christian. " But 
 that did not hurt him. He is now a good 
 minister of Christ, and when he dies, Christ 
 will reward him for not being led by shame 
 to deny the Saviour. 
 
 4. Be not much afraid of any man, if you 
 act right. * "The fear of man bringeth a 
 snare.'' All men are mere worms. The 
 most they can do is to kill the body. But 
 God can cast both soul and body into hell. 
 "Fear him; yea, I say unto you, fear him." 
 When John Knox died, a great man made a 
 speech before they put the body in the grave. 
 The speech was not long, but very good. 
 This was the whole of it : " There lies he 
 who never feared the face of man." 
 
 5. If false gods can neither see, nor hear, 
 nor save, we ought to send the gospel to the 
 heathen. I hope you pray for them. Would 
 not you like to go and teach them ? Think 
 of it. 
 
25 
 
 HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 
 
 You can learn some things at home, some 
 at school, and some at church. If you wish 
 to learn many things, you must read. I wish 
 all boys and girls loved to read. A good book 
 is a good thing. It is worth more than gold. 
 The best book is the best thing you ever did 
 see. It came from God. Holy men wrote 
 it as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
 The Bible is worth all the other books in the 
 world. It is full of truth, and has no error 
 in it. It gives great light. It shows the safe 
 path through the world, and the safe way out 
 of the world. It tells of the greatest things, 
 and the wisest things, and the sweetest things. 
 It tells us much about two other worlds be- 
 sides this. 
 
 "Were you ever at a school where the deaf 
 and dumb are taught ? If you were, you have 
 seen them, with their smiling faces and bright 
 eyes, standing at their black boards with 
 chalk in their hands, ready to write. Some 
 time. since, a man went to such a school and 
 saw a little deaf mute boy. He asked, " How 
 3* 
 
26 HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 
 
 come this world to exist with all that is in 
 it?" The boy wrote, "In the beginning 
 God made the heavens and the earth." The 
 next question was, "Are all men good and 
 holy ?" The boy wrote, " We have all sinned 
 and come short of the glory of God." The 
 man then asked, " How comes it to pass that 
 we all die?" The boy wrote, "Death passed 
 upon all men, for that all have sinned." The 
 next question was, "How then can we be 
 saved?" The boy wrote, "It is a faithful 
 saying and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
 sinners, of whom I am chief." The man 
 then said, "Most other boys can hear and 
 speak; how came you to be deaf and dumb?" 
 The mute wrote, "Even so, Father, for so it 
 seemed good in thy sight." You say that 
 boy knew much, and answered discreetly. 
 So he did. But all his answers are found in 
 the Bible. I have read many books written 
 by great men in Greece and Borne, but I 
 never learned as much from them about the 
 creation, the fall of man, the cause of death, 
 the way of life, and the right way to. feel, 
 and to speak of God, when he afflicts us, as 
 
HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 27 
 
 this little mute knew. There is no book like 
 the Bible. It tells us so plainly of the greatest 
 things. 
 
 You never saw as good a story as that of 
 Joseph any where but in the Bible. And all 
 parts of God's word give us the very light we 
 need. A poor Hindoo was dying. He thought 
 "where shall I go after death?" He asked 
 his priest, who had come to see him, "What 
 will become of me?" The priest said, "0 
 you will live in some other body." "And 
 where shall I go then?" said he. "Into 
 another," said the priest. "And where 
 then?" said the dying man. "Into an- 
 other, and so on through many, many 
 more," said the priest. The poor man looked 
 beyond all these, and said, "Where shall I 
 go last of all?" The priest could say no 
 more, and the poor man died with none to 
 tell him. The Bible tells us, that when a 
 man dies his "soul returns to God, who gave 
 it." It answers such great questions in the 
 best way. I wonder men do not love it more. 
 It is full of truth. 
 
 It tells us better than all other books how 
 we should act. Many play the fool just be- 
 cause they will not read or heed what it says. 
 
28 HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 
 
 A man spends half his life in toil to get 
 riches, and the other half in care to keep 
 them. He is afraid lest he should lose all 
 he has. Of what use is it to him ? He can- 
 not eat more or sleep better than the poor 
 man. Nay, he cannot sleep as well. He is 
 afraid of thieves. He fears changes. He 
 fears every thing; but he does not fear God, 
 and he loses his own soul. God once spoke 
 to such a man and said, "Thou fool!" Why 
 was he a fool ? Because he did not know or 
 care what the Bible says: "Love not the 
 world, neither the things that are in the 
 world." "Lay not up for yourselves trea- 
 sures upon earth." "Seek first the kingdom 
 of God." 
 
 The word of God shows us how we ought 
 to speak. The Bible says, "a fool will utter 
 all his mind." If you see a man telling all 
 he knows, you know now what to think of 
 Lim.. The Bible says, "Bless and curse not;" 
 "Swear not at all;" "In many words there 
 wanteth not sin;" "Keep thy tongue from 
 guile, and thy lips from speaking lies." The 
 rules which the Bible gives for ruling the 
 tongue, are the best in the world. He who 
 knows and keeps them, must lead a safe and 
 
HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 29 
 
 quiet life. The tongue is a wild beast. It 
 must be held in, or it will do much harm. 
 The word of God shows how this can best be 
 done. Read it. 
 
 The Bible also shows us how we ought to 
 think and feel. It goes to the heart. If that 
 is right, all the rest will soon be right. That 
 is the best book which teaches us the faults 
 of our hearts and minds, and puts us right 
 there. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so 
 is he." "Keep thy heart with all diligence, 
 for out of it are the issues of life." 
 
 The Scriptures are able to make us wise 
 unto salvation. They show us our sins and 
 our Saviour too. They make us see our 
 guilt and the way to flee from the wrath to 
 come. They point to Christ, and say that 
 he is "the way, the truth, and the life." 
 They tell us how he has saved many. They 
 make us sure that he will save others. They 
 say He is willing to save all that come to 
 God by Him. They urge us to come to 
 Christ. We never can be saved in any other 
 way. 
 
 They show us how we may die in peace. 
 A little girl in India was dying. She had 
 
30 HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 
 
 learned much truth from her Christian 
 friends. Looking at a kind lady, who had 
 taught her, she said, "lam dying, but I am 
 not afraid to die ; for Christ will call me up 
 to heaven. He has taken away all my sins, 
 and I wish to die now, that I may go and 
 see him. I love Jesus more than I love any 
 one else." She had hid God's word in her 
 heart. The Holy Ghost had taught her 
 what the word of God meant. Many a child, 
 that had heard of Jesus, has been as happy 
 in death as the little Hindoo girl was. 
 
 As the Bible came from God, it is full of 
 goodness, wisdom and truth. It is above all 
 price, and above all praise. How do you 
 treat it ? It may be that you would not like 
 to tell. I can tell you how you ought to 
 use it. 
 
 You ought to thank God for it, and you 
 ought to prize it very highly. It is worth 
 more than all precious stones. No man is 
 wise or good but as the word of God makes 
 him so. Never tear your Bible. Love it. 
 Do not sell it, unless you can get another. 
 
 It would be well to get much of it by heart, 
 so that you can say it when alone. I hope 
 
HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 31 
 
 you have so learned much of it. A wicked 
 priest found a little boy with a Bible and 
 burned it. The boy said: "I know all 
 Christ's sermon on the mount by heart, and 
 you cannot burn that." 
 
 You should read the Bible much. Some 
 have good Bibles, but they keep them out of 
 sight, and do not often look into them. 
 •That is a poor way. The Bible will do you 
 no good, unless you know what it teaches. 
 It must be studied. Read it often, and with 
 care. 
 
 Pray to God to teach you the true sense 
 of that blessed book. David was a great 
 man. Yet how often does he pray, " Teach 
 me thy statutes." "Open thou mine eyes, 
 that I may behold wondrous things out of 
 thy law." God can teach his word so as no 
 man can. Ask him to guide you. 
 
 Receive the Bible not as the word of man, 
 but as it is in truth, the word of God. Kever 
 dispute against the truth of God. Let your 
 heart open and take firm hold of all the truth 
 you learn. He who does not love the truth, 
 cannot be saved. 
 
 Live by the truth. Let your hopes and 
 
32 HOW TO LEARN MUCH. 
 
 fears, your joys and sorrows, your heart and 
 life, your mind and tongue, be ruled by the 
 Bible. Its truths are for use, and not merely 
 for talk. Do as it directs. 
 
 Will you not now resolve thus ? 
 
 1. I will keep my Bible near me and take 
 good care of it. 
 
 2. I will read some of it every night and 
 morning. 
 
 3. I will pray God to fix its truths in my 
 heart. 
 
 4. I will try to shun all that the Bible 
 forbids. 
 
 5. I will try to do all that the Bible re- 
 quires. 
 
 6. I will never make fun of any part of 
 the Bible. 
 
 7. I will ask questions of those who can 
 teach me what the Bible means. 
 
 8. I will try to come to Christ, as the 
 Bible says I must. I need just such a Sa- 
 viour as Jesus is. that I may find him, 
 or rather be found of him, and be found in 
 him. 
 
33 
 
 AXGELS AND MEN. 
 
 So far as we know, there are but two race? 
 of beings who can know and love God. These 
 are angels and men. I will tell you some 
 things about them. But I cannot tell yon 
 all that I might, if you were older. Yet I 
 do not know much myself. All that any one 
 knows of the angels, and most that any one 
 knows of men, is learned from the Bible. 
 But I can tell you some things. 
 
 I. "We do not know when God made any 
 of the angels. He made them all before he 
 made man, but how long before, no man or. 
 earth knows. Xor do we know whether God 
 made all the angels at once. Some think he 
 did, and he may have done so, but no man 
 can prove it. Xor do we know whether at 
 the last day there will be more angels than 
 men, or more men than angels, or whether 
 there will be as many of one race as of the 
 other. The word of God does not settle any 
 of these points, except that angels were made 
 before men. 
 
 II. In some points angels and men are 
 
 4 
 
34 ANGELS AND MEN. 
 
 alike. Angels are not born. They were all 
 made without being born. "They neither 
 marry, nor are given in marriage." They 
 are not male and female. Angels have but 
 one nature. They are spirits without bodies. 
 Ever since the first man, the human race is 
 born, is male and female, and all men have 
 two natures. One is the body ; the other is 
 the soul. Men grow old and weak. But 
 angels do not. When Christ rose from the 
 dead, an angel was seen in the tomb, and 
 although we know that he was then more 
 than four thousand years old, yet he looked 
 like a " young man." There have been some 
 great men. But the least angel is greater 
 than any mere man. All of them "excel in 
 strength.'' As long as man lives in the 
 body, he stays all the time in one world. 
 But angels pass from one world to another 
 all the time. Jacob saw a ladder reaching 
 from earth to heaven, and the angels of God 
 ascending and descending. That ladder has 
 never been taken away. Men never help 
 the angels, but the angels often help men. 
 One of them came and strengthened Christ 
 in his agony. "Are they not all ministering 
 
ANGELS AND MEN. 35 
 
 spirits sent forth to minister to them who 
 shall be heirs of salvation?" This is spoken 
 of all the good angels. 
 
 III. But we know that angels and men 
 are by nature alike in some things. They 
 are all creatures. God made them every one. 
 There was a time when there was not one of 
 them. They all depend on God. They can- 
 not live except as He holds them up. God 
 also made tliem holy, just, pure, and true. 
 He made man upright. He made the angels 
 upright. God also made them all to have 
 life for ever. They will all outlive the sun. 
 They will live as long as God shall live. 
 They will live because he will keep them in 
 life. When God made the angels he put 
 them all on trial. And when he made man, 
 he put him on trial too. But he did not try 
 them alike. He tried every angel by him- 
 self. If he stood, he stood for none but him- 
 self. If he fell, he fell for himself alone. 
 But Adam acted both for himself and for all 
 mere men who should ever be born. If he 
 stood, they should stand. If he fell, they 
 should fall. We do not know how long 
 either angels or men were kept on trial ; but 
 
6b ANGELS AND MEN. 
 
 we do know that many angels fell. How 
 many, no man can tell. It may have been a 
 third. It may have been more. It may 
 have been less. But legions of them fell. 
 And Adam fell, and with him we all fell too. 
 "By one man sin entered into the world, 
 and death by sin." " Through the offence 
 of one, many be dead." "By one man's 
 offence, death reigned by one." "By the 
 offence of one, judgment came upon all men 
 to condemnation." "By one man's disobe- 
 dience, many were made sinners." "In 
 Adam all die." The same law was given to 
 angels and men. It called for perfect love. 
 All were bound to obey it with all the heart. 
 But some angels did not keep the law. 
 Neither did man. They fell into sin, and 
 thus they fell under the curse of God, and 
 became children of wrath. As soon as 
 angels sinned, God drove them out of hea- 
 ven. As soon as man sinned, God drove 
 him out of Eden. Nor did he ever let either 
 of them return to their first home. Sin in 
 an angel, and sin in a man is the same 
 thing. It consists in not being holy and 
 pure, as the law of God requires. 
 
ANGELS AXD MEN. 37 
 
 IV. But God did not treat sinning man 
 and sinning angels in the same way. If you 
 ask, why? I cannot tell. It was not be- 
 cause God could not have saved lost angels, 
 if he had chosen to do so. If Christ had, by 
 the will of God, taken on him the nature of 
 angels, he might have been their Saviour. 
 But he did not. Such was not God's plan. 
 Nor did God offer mercy to lost man, be- 
 cause he was better than lost angels. The 
 angels were older and by nature higher and 
 greater than man. It is a strange fact that 
 the lojad-stone will not attract gold and silver, 
 which are precious metals: but it will attract 
 iron, which is a base metal. So the love of 
 God did not turn to those high fallen beings ; 
 but it turned to man, who is the lowest and 
 the last creature that has reason, and that 
 shall live for ever. God did not owe man 
 any mercy. The sentence of death on him 
 was as just as on the angels that fell. If any 
 still ask, Why did God pity wicked man and 
 not sinning angels ? or, Why did he not 
 destroy both? or, Why did he not save 
 both? I can only say: "Even so, Father, 
 for so it seemed good in thy sight." God 
 4* 
 
38 ANGELS AND MEN. 
 
 had reasons. He has good reasons for all 
 he does. But he has not told us what his 
 reasons in this case were. I do not know 
 that we ever shall know them. To guess at 
 them i3 wicked. " Secret things belong unto 
 the Lord, our God; but things which are 
 revealed belong unto us, and unto our chil- 
 dren/ ' This matter is not revealed, and so 
 does not belong to us. 
 
 V. But what love did God show to sinful 
 man, that he did not show to sinful angels ? 
 Much every way. The first time God spoke 
 to man after his sin, he freely promised a 
 Saviour to him. But he never gave to sin- 
 ning angels any reason to hope for a Saviour. 
 Indeed he never has spoken one word of love 
 to them since they fell. But he has spoken 
 many precious things to poor sinful men. 
 The Bible is full of them. Nor did God 
 ever fail to keep his word. In due time the 
 Father sent his Son to die for men. He 
 bore our sins. He carried our sorrows. He 
 died for us. He died not for the angels. 
 He died in our place. To fallen men, not 
 to fallen angels, is the Spirit- of God sent to 
 give them new hearts. No gospel is preached 
 
ANGELS AXD MEN. 39 
 
 in hell. There are no means of grace there. 
 There is one thing I never could see into. 
 It is this. How can men be so wicked as to 
 hate Jesus Christ, and not come to him for 
 life, after he has died for them? I know 
 well enough why fallen angels are not saved. 
 There is no mercy for them. God offers 
 them none. But I know men, who have 
 heard the pure gospel for forty years, and 
 yet they do not love Christ. Sin must be 
 very strong, and the heart very hard, and 
 the will very proud, when men will not love 
 the Lord Jesus. Such will at last lie down 
 in "hell-fire prepared for the devil and his 
 angels." It is strange that men will seek to 
 go to the prison built for devils. 
 
 VI. But holy angels and holy men will all 
 meet at last. Christ is the Lord of angels, 
 though he is not their Redeemer. He is 
 both the Lord and Redeemer of the saints. 
 Thomas said to him: "My Lord, and my 
 God." Christ is the Head of all holy angels 
 and men. He is their Chief. He is their 
 Captain. All of them love and worship him. 
 He binds them all fast in one household. 
 There is but "one family" of holy creatures ; 
 
40 ANGELS AND MEN. 
 
 and Christ is Lord of all. Angels love the 
 saints even here. Angels and all the saints 
 who have left this world, have their home 
 together. They live by the river of the 
 water of life. They eat of the fruit of the 
 tree of life. They sing praises to God and 
 the Lamb day and night. The world they 
 live in is called heaven. It is the first and 
 the best world ever made. It is a blessed 
 place. If we die in faith, and hope, and 
 love, we shall go there. All who are there 
 are full of love. One outshines all the rest. 
 It is Jesus with the scars upon him. He 
 wears a crown of thorns no more. IJe is 
 brighter than the sun. He welcomes all his 
 people to his house. How happy they must 
 be ! There is no pride, nor anger, nor any 
 sin, nor sickness, nor death there; no thief, 
 nor liar, nor any wicked person enters there. 
 All sing the same song at times. But sin- 
 ners saved by grace sing "unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins." 
 The angels cannot sing that, but they love 
 to hear it. How I should love to hear those 
 songs. Would not you? The babes, and 
 children, and old saints, who have been 
 
WHO RULES THE WORLD? 41 
 
 washed in the blood of Jesus, all sing. None 
 are silent. "We ought to learn to sing of 
 Jesus here, that we may sing of him as soon 
 as we die. Every one who is, by divine 
 grace, made fit for heaven, will go there as 
 soon as he dies. 
 
 WHO RULES THE WORLD? 
 
 For any thing I see there might as well 
 be no God, as a God who should not know, 
 and see, and care, how things go on in the 
 world. The idols of the heathen are of that 
 sort, and they are nothing. " He that planted 
 the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed 
 the eye, shall he not see ? he that teacheth 
 man knowledge, shall he not know?" Our 
 God never slumbers, nor sleeps, nor goes on 
 a journey. He is ever awake, and his ear 
 is open to the cry of his people. He never 
 grows weary. He is never sick. He faint eth 
 not. His eyes are in every place, beholding 
 the evil and the good. He is not like "the 
 ostrich, which leaveth her eggs in the earth, 
 
42 WHO RULES THE WORLD? 
 
 * 
 
 and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth 
 that the foot may crush them, or that the 
 wild beast may break them.'' But He is 
 like the hen, that gathereth her chickens 
 under her wings, and keeps them dry, and 
 warm, and safe. The Lord God is a sun and 
 a shield. He rules this world. He rules all 
 things and all worlds. The Bible says so : 
 "His kingdom ruleth over all." 
 
 He rules each thing. He numbers the 
 very hairs of our heads. He takes care of 
 little insects, and fishes, and birds. "Not a 
 sparrow falleth without his notice." He calls 
 all the stars by their names, and there are 
 known to be more than five hundred millions 
 of them. He spreads the clouds in the hea- 
 ven. He is the father of the rain. He 
 makes the grass to grow upon the moun- 
 tains. "He clothes the grass." He gives 
 food to the beast and to the young ravens. 
 He gives snow like wool. He scatters the 
 hoar-frost like ashes. Who can stand before 
 his cold? He hunts the prey for the lion. 
 He sends out the wild ass free. He gives 
 the goodly plumage to the peacocks. He 
 gives to the horse his strength, and clothes his 
 
WHO RULES THE WORLD? 43 
 
 neck with thunder. He shuts up the sea 
 with doors, so tha^t it breaks not forth. He 
 enters into the springs of the sea. He knows 
 the place and the bounds of light and of 
 darkness. He gives rain and fruitful sea- 
 sons, and fills men's hearts with food and 
 gladness. Angels, men, sun, moon, stars, 
 the heavens, the waters above us, the waters 
 beneath us, dragons, fire, hail, snow, vapour, 
 stormy winds, mountains, hills, trees, beasts, 
 cattle, creeping things, flying fowl, kings, all 
 people, young men and maidens, old men 
 and children, lightning and earthquakes, war 
 and peace, disease and death, and heaven and 
 hell, are all ruled by God. He never lets 
 any thing go out of his reach, or beyond his 
 grasp. He holds the wind in his fist. So 
 that the race is not to the swift, nor the 
 battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, 
 nor riches to the prudent, nor favour to men 
 of skill; but God lifts up and puts down 
 whom he will. He causes men to rise or fall, 
 to be rich or poor, to be strong or weak, to 
 gain or lose. The side God is on always 
 succeeds, always conquers. So that a horse 
 is a vain thing for safety, and a host is no 
 
44 WHO RULES THE WORLD? 
 
 defence, and God has no pleasure in the legs 
 of a man. 
 
 God rules even chance. " The lot is cast 
 into the lap ; but the whole disposing thereof 
 is of the Lord." To us there is much 
 chance. " Time and chance happeneth to 
 all men." But to God there is no chance. 
 All falls out by a wise plan. When God 
 had made up his mind to take wicked Ahab 
 out of the world, he did not send any one to 
 take aim at him, but "a man drew a bow at 
 a venture, and smote him between the joints 
 of the harness," and he died. God can save 
 one's life, even if men do shoot at him. An 
 Indian shot seventeen times at Washington 
 in Braddock's defeat, but he did not hurt 
 him. The Indian said the Great Spirit 
 would not let that man be hit. When David 
 was old, he said, " Thou hast covered my 
 head in the day of battle." 
 
 Cyrus was king of Persia and took Baby- 
 lon. Long before he was born, God thus 
 wrote to him by name: "I am the Lord, 
 there is no God besides me. I girded thee 
 though thou hast not known me. I form the 
 light, and create darkness; I make peace 
 
WHO RULES THE WORLD? 45 
 
 and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these 
 things." Isa. xlv. 5, 7. " Shall there be 
 evil in a city and the Lord hath not done 
 it? Amos, iii. 6. Even devils are subject 
 unto God. Death is his servant. He holds 
 the keys of death and of hell. He opens 
 and none can shut. He shuts and none can 
 open. " Behold, God is great." 
 
 He rules all men, great and small, good 
 and bad. "The king's heart is in the hand 
 of the Lord." Prov. xxi. 1. He turns it, 
 just as a man turns the little streams of 
 water brought into his garden to water it. 
 This is often done in Asia. A man makes 
 the water run any way he pleases. Just so 
 God turns the king's heart. "A man's heart 
 deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his 
 steps." "Man's goings are of the Lord? 
 how can a man then understand his own 
 way?" So that good Jeremiah said: "0 
 Lord, I know that the way of man is not in 
 himself: it is not in man that walketh, to 
 direct his steps." If a man hate and vex 
 us, it is because God lets him loose upon us ; 
 for "when a man's ways please the Lord, he 
 5 
 
46 WHO RULES THE WORLD? 
 
 maketh even his enemies to be at peace with 
 him." Prov. xvi. 7. When God planted the 
 Jews in Canaan, he told them that all, who 
 were able, must go up to the holy city three 
 times every year to worship him. They had 
 wicked foes all around them. These often 
 made war on them. But God said: "Nei- 
 ther shall any man desire thy land, when 
 thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord 
 thy God thrice in the year." Ex. xxxiv. 24. 
 God can cause the wicked not to wish us any 
 harm, and yet they may be free agents. So 
 God led Absalom and all his men to choose 
 foolish rather than wise counsel. 2 Sam. 
 xvii. 14. When God will, "he turns the 
 wise men backward." Isa. xliv. 25. God 
 uses the wicked as a man uses a sword, a 
 rod, an axe, or a saw. Ps. xvii. 10, Isa. x. 
 15. He makes bad men punish themselves. 
 Ps. ix. 15, 16. He lets them punish each 
 other. Isa. x. 5, 6, 7, 12. "He makes the 
 wrath of man to praise him, and the remain- 
 der of wrath he will restrain." He let bad 
 men and Satan combine to put Christ to 
 death. But life, and joy, and hope spring 
 from that death. The death of Christ was 
 
WHO RULES THE WORLD? 47 
 
 the most dreadful blow God ever gave to 
 Satan's power. 
 
 God rules the world in a way that is holy, 
 wise, just, and good. His way is always 
 better than ours. His way is perfect. We 
 cannot help him rule the world. God never 
 errs, never does wrong. He makes no mis- 
 takes. 
 
 And he alone rules. The devil is not the 
 owner of this world. He is "the ruler of 
 the darkness of this world, " that is, he leads 
 men who are in darkness, and who love sin ; 
 but he cannot lead them further than God 
 permits. Satan himself is bound with a 
 chain. He could not touch a hair of Job's 
 head till God gave him leave. Chance is 
 not the ruler of this world. Chance is blind, 
 and knows nothing, and is nothing. God 
 alone rules the world. He is all, and in all, 
 and through all, and over all. 
 
 If these things be so, then we ought to 
 believe them, and hold them fast. Let us 
 never doubt that God reigns. This is a 
 great truth. To know it will guide and help 
 us much. 
 
 But we must not try to be wise in thi3 
 
48 WHO RULES THE WORLD ? 
 
 matter, but by taking God's word as true, 
 and by seeing what he does. We must not 
 try to reason out every thing. We will get 
 lost if we do. Those who cannot swim 
 must not go into deep water. God's ruling 
 the world is a deep matter. His path is 
 in the sea. His ways are past finding out. 
 He says, "Be still and know that I am 
 God." 
 
 It is a great comfort that God rules the 
 world. I am glad of that. Are not you ? 
 If we are sick, or sad, or poor, or lose our 
 friends, it is God who afflicts us. He says : 
 " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." 
 Luther said, " Smite, Lord, if thou lovest 
 me." We need not fear any man if God 
 rules. Those three good young men said: 
 " We are not careful to answer thee in this 
 matter. If it be so, our God, whom we 
 serve, is able to deliver us from the burning 
 fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of 
 thine hand, king. But if not, be it known 
 to thee, king, that we will not serve thy 
 gods." That was a good answer. God kept 
 them safe. The fire did not burn them. 
 The Son of God was with them. If you 
 
TIME AXD ETERNITY. 49 
 
 have time, you would do well to read the 
 third chapter of Daniel. 
 
 Let us put our souls, our lives, and all we 
 care for, in the hands of God. Let us leave 
 all with him. He brings light out of dark- 
 ness, joy out of sorrow, and good out of evil. 
 He is too strong for all his foes to stand up 
 against him. He is too wise to let bad men 
 defeat his plans. He is too good to be 
 unkind. He is as tender as a shepherd, a 
 father, a nurse, a mother. He spreads his 
 wings over us. by day and by night. He 
 gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let us 
 praise him for the past. Let us trust him 
 for the time to come. He has done all 
 things well. He will do all things well. 
 He will guide us, and teach us, and hold us 
 up, and keep us as the apple of his eye, if 
 we but trust in him. The best thing we can 
 do is to fear, love, obey, and trust in him. 
 
 TIME AND ETERNITY. 
 
 A lady once looked into a book and i 
 a word which made her much afraid. She 
 5* 
 
50 TIME AND ETERNITY. 
 
 could not sleep that night: she tossed and 
 groaned. She was a gay woman. She 
 loved life. She loved this world. She did 
 not wish to leave this world. The word she 
 saw in the book was "eternity." It is a 
 solemn word. I do not wonder that it fills 
 the minds of sinners with fear. Yet the 
 pious do not hate the word. They think of 
 it often. They love to think of it. 
 
 But what is eternity ? It is a sea which 
 has no shore, a race that is never all run, a 
 river that has no spring and no mouth, yet 
 always flows. It is the life-time of God, who 
 was and is, and is to come. " He inhabits 
 eternity." It is for ever and ever. It is du- 
 ration without a bound. None but God fully 
 knows what it is. We know it is not time 
 told by hours, days, months, years, and ages. 
 We speak of an eternity past and of an eter- 
 nity to come. Yet there are not two. But 
 we so speak, because we are at a loss for 
 words. We go back, back, back, until our 
 minds tire, but we come not to any point 
 where eternity began. We go on, on, on, 
 until we can go no further, and yet there is 
 no end. 
 
TIME AND ETERNITY. 51 
 
 I was once in a school for the blind. The 
 teacher gave this sum to one of the boys. 
 He was to work it out in his mind. " A 
 pile of sand is ten feet high, ten feet wide, 
 and seventy feet long. Each cubic inch 
 contains ten thousand grains. A bird comes 
 every thousand years and takes away one 
 grain at a time. How long will it take to 
 carry away all the sand?" The little blind 
 boy soon gave the answer, which was, that 
 it would take 120,960,000,000,000 years. 
 What a long row of figures ! It means one 
 hundred and twenty trillions and nine hun- 
 dred and sixty billions. Now put all the 
 sand on the sea-shore into one heap, and let 
 a bird take away one grain every thousand 
 years till all is gone, and yet that would not 
 be the end of eternity. Eternity has no end. 
 
 Some of the ancients tried to give some 
 idea of eternity by drawing a circle. A cir- 
 cle "has no end. In that it is like eternity. 
 But in no other respect. We can measure 
 all circles. But we cannot measure eternity. 
 None but God knows what it is. 
 
 There are three kinds of beings. One 
 kind lives in time only. This is true of 
 
52 TIME AND ETERNITY. 
 
 birds, and fishes, and beasts. They come 
 into life in time. They die, and that is the 
 last of them. Their end is in time. 
 
 Another kind comes into life in time, but 
 shall live always. Such are angels and men, 
 good and bad. Men's bodies may die, but 
 shall live again. But their souls live on, 
 and on, and on, for ever. Nor do angels 
 ever cease to live. All angels and all men 
 shall live as long as God lives. 
 
 The third kind of being is God, who 
 always was, and always shall be. He had 
 no beginning. He was before all worlds. 
 He is both from everlasting and to everlast- 
 ing. Man is not from everlasting, but he is 
 to everlasting. Beasts, and birds, and 
 fishes are neither from everlasting nor to 
 everlasting. They belong to time only, and 
 most of them to a very small part of it. 
 Thus God is one by himself. There is none 
 like him. 
 
 Time is very short. I have often thought 
 that time was like the Isthmus of Panama, 
 which is a narrow piece of land. On one 
 side is the Pacific Ocean ; and on the other 
 is the Atlantic. Time is like that strip of 
 
TIME AXD ETERNITY. 53 
 
 land. It lies between an eternity past and 
 an eternity to come. 
 
 Lo ! on a narrow neck of land, 
 'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand, 
 
 Yet how insensible : 
 A point of time, a moment's spsce, 
 Removes me to yon heavenly place, 
 
 Or shuts me up in hell. 
 
 Time is very short. It will soon all be 
 gone. It is like a cloud, or a vapour, that 
 vanishes away. It is a moment. It is a 
 little moment. It is like a weaver's shuttle. 
 It flies so fast you cannot see it. It is like 
 a man riding post. It stops for nobody. 
 The sun and moon once stood still, but time 
 never stood still. The shadow on the sun- 
 dial of Ahaz once went back fifteen degrees ; 
 but time never went back a second. Time 
 will soon be all gone, and gone for ever. A 
 mighty angel will stand upon the land and 
 the sea, and lift his hand to heaven, and 
 swear, that time shall be no more. Yet 
 long before he shall do so, time to you and 
 to me will be no more. Death is the end of 
 time to men. You need not kill time. It 
 will soon be gone without such folly. Some 
 
54 TIME AND ETERNITY. 
 
 sleep too much, some play too much, some 
 spend their days in trifles. what folly ! 
 A young man dying, heard the clock strike, 
 and said : " time, it is right thou shouldst 
 strike thy murderer to the heart." 
 
 If man is to live for ever, how much is his 
 soul worth ? Who can tell ? Man cannot. 
 Angels cannot. None but God knows the 
 worth of a soul. It is worth more than all 
 the houses, and lands, and gold, and silver 
 on earth. Yet how little do some think of 
 their souls ! I once heard a boy praying. 
 And what do you think he prayed for ? He 
 asked God to damn his soul. He is dead, 
 and if God heard his prayer, where is he 
 now ? To lose the soul is the worst thing 
 that could come on any man. To save the 
 soul is one of God's greatest works. It cost 
 the death of Christ. The pains of hell and 
 the joys of heaven will never end. 
 
 These things deeply concern us. We 
 should thank God for telling us of them. 
 Stars may fall, kings may be put down, 
 wars may rage, the earth may shake, and we 
 be none the better, and none the worse. 
 But we must take care what we say, and do, 
 
TIME AXD ETERNITY. 55 
 
 and think, and feel. For what a man sows 
 in this world, that shall he reap in the next* 
 
 It is not all of life to live, 
 Nor all of death to die. 
 
 God has told us so. There is no doubt 
 about it. Let us thank him for not let- 
 ting us live in the dark on these great 
 matters. 
 
 If this life is so short, and the next life is 
 so long, we ought not to mind our pains and 
 sorrows much. If God is our God, we shall 
 soon cease to weep, or even sigh. There is 
 no pain in heaven. We can bear almost 
 any thing, if it will soon be over. Let us 
 never be very sad at any thing, which will 
 not make us sad in the next life. He who 
 loves God, is God's son, and shall be heir of 
 all things. 
 
 Those, who live in sin, and laugh at holy 
 things, will not laugh long. They will soon 
 weep and howl. They may get what they 
 wish here. But their sad day will come. 
 They have no God. They have no good 
 hope through grace. 0, that they would 
 think of these things, and lay them to 
 
56 GOD WILL PUNISH SIN. 
 
 heart! I fear some of them never will. 
 But I wish they would. 
 
 All agree that it is a solemn thing to die. 
 But I think it is a solemn thing to live. 
 How wise and holy we ought to be ! How 
 we should watch and pray, fight against sin, 
 and strive to live unto God ! Soon we must 
 all go to our long home, and come back no 
 more! Are we ready? Have we made 
 peace with God? Is Jesus Christ all our 
 hope? Have our hearts been changed? 
 Do we love to pray? Do we love to sing 
 and speak God's praises? Do we love the 
 Sabbath-day? Is God in all our thoughts? 
 Do we hate all sin ? Are we like Christ ? 
 
 GOD WILL PUNISH SUNT. 
 
 " My mind is my own, and I will think 
 what I please; my tongue is my own, and I 
 will say what I please; my hands are my 
 own, and I will do what I please," said one, 
 who loved to live in sin. He was in two 
 errors. 1. His mind, and tongue, and hands 
 
GOD WILL PUXISH SIN. 57 
 
 were not his own. God made them, and 
 owned them. God had a right to them all. 
 2. If they had been his own, he still had no 
 right to do wrong with them. A cane may 
 be mine, but that does not give me a right to 
 strike other people with it. We owe much 
 to ourselves. We owe more to the public. 
 "We owe all to God. He, who does not feel 
 that this is so, and does not live by the law 
 of God, commits sin. Sin is evil. It is the 
 worst evil. God ought to punish it. God 
 will punish it. I shall prove that he will 
 punish it. 
 
 1. He can punish it if he chooses. He 
 knows all sin, and what it deserves. He 
 can find out every sinner. Find him out ! 
 He need not seek him at all. He always 
 sees him, and holds him in his hand. No- 
 thing is too hard for God. He cast the 
 fallen angels into hell. He brought down 
 Pharaoh and all his host in the Red sea. 
 He holds the winds in his fist. He rules the 
 world. He has all power. He is at no loss 
 for might or means. 
 
 2. God is holy and just, and so he hates 
 sin. Of course, then, he will punish it. He 
 
 6 
 
58 GOD WILL PUNISH SIN. 
 
 is so set against sin, that he never did, and 
 he never will forgive one sin, but at the cost 
 of Christ's death. He says he hates sin, 
 and we know he does, and so we know he 
 will punish it. 
 
 3. He says he will punish it. These are 
 some of the texts: "Their feet shall slide in 
 due time:" " Be sure your sin will find you 
 out:" "If ye will not yet for all this hearken 
 unto me, then will I punish you seven times 
 more for your sins:" "I will punish the 
 world for their evil." He says the same 
 thing again and again in many ways. He 
 says he will "rain snares, fire and brim- 
 stone" on the wicked. These are very awful 
 words. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
 Some say, God is too good to punish sin. 
 But if he is too good to punish it, I should 
 think he would be too good to say that he 
 will punish it. Besides, to punish sin is a 
 great proof that God m good. All good men 
 say it is right that he should do so. It is 
 only bad men, who love sin, who say God 
 ought not to punish the wicked. 
 
 4. God has punished sin. He sent a 
 storm of fire and brimstone on the cities of 
 
GOD WILL PUNISH SIX. 59 
 
 the plain, and in one day took away all those 
 guilty people. At one time he drowned all 
 mankind, except eight souls. He has sent 
 the sword, and other curses, on many cities 
 and nations. He has built that great prison 
 called hell, as a place of punishment. The 
 rich man, who lived without God in the 
 world, was hardly dead, until "in hell he 
 lifted up his eyes, being in torments. " Sin 
 and sorrow go together. Some men, who 
 live in sin, seem to go on smoothly. But 
 they only seem to do so. They have stings 
 of conscience. " The wicked flee when no 
 man pursueth." "A dreadful sound is in 
 his ears." He is often afraid of his own 
 shadow. He fears the dark. He fears 
 death. Or if he has so hard a heart that he 
 fears not here, God will deal with him in the 
 next world. There "their worm dieth not, 
 and their fire is not quenched. " There all 
 who make or love a lie shall have their part 
 in the lake of fire. 
 
 5. Sin is so evil, that it ought to be 
 punished. It is the worst thing in all the 
 world. It is the cause of all other evils. It 
 ruins man, and makes him as a beast. It 
 
Oil GOD WILL PUNISH SIN. 
 
 turned angels into devils. It brings the 
 best things into contempt. It makes men 
 hate God. It digs every grave. It makes 
 every tear to flow. It puts up the wrong. 
 It puts down the right. It is worse than all 
 other evils, worse than war, famine, or the 
 plague. It fills earth with sorrow, and hell 
 with wailings. 
 
 If sin be so bad, then — 1. We ought 
 to watch and pray against it. We should 
 take all care not to fall into any form of 
 it. No man ever took too much heed not 
 to sin. Some have been too much afraid of 
 water, or of men, or of pain, or of death, 
 but no man was ever too much afraid of sin. 
 Our great danger is, that we neither dread 
 nor hate it as we should. We may safely 
 abhor it. We must cry to God to keep us 
 from it. 
 
 2. We can tell whether a man, or a boy, 
 or a book, or a girl, do us good or harm, if 
 we can tell what they make us think of sin. 
 "Eools make a mock at Bin." Some mock 
 at it in words, some in deeds, and some in 
 books. Nor is it safe for us to be with such 
 persons, nor to read such books. 
 
GOD WILL PUNISH SIX. 61 
 
 3. How good was God to give us his Son! 
 Were it not for Christ, sin would be the 
 ruin of us all. Sin has two evils in it. 
 There is a curse in it. This curse is awful. 
 It is the curse of the holy God. But 
 " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
 the law, being made a curse for us." He 
 bore the curse due for our sins in his own 
 body on the tree. He bore the sin of many. 
 How little do we think of him ! Nothing so 
 much makes a good man doubt whether he 
 has a new heart, as his want of more love to 
 Christ. I wonder men love him so little. 
 His love in dying for us has no equal. I 
 never have heard any thing like it. I once 
 heard a plain man preach on the text, " God 
 so loved the world that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
 him, might not perish but have everlasting 
 life." When he came to speak of God giving 
 his only begotten Son, * he said, there was 
 once a city in a state of siege. And there 
 was a famine in the city. The bread was all 
 gone. A man and woman had nine children, 
 and they thought they would all die. So 
 the father and mother talked to each other, 
 6* 
 
62 GOD WILL PUNISH SIN. 
 
 and at last they agreed that it was better to 
 take the life of one child, and cook and eat 
 it, than to let all die. So the man said to 
 his wife, Which child shall we kill? The 
 wife said, she could never see the oldest one 
 die, for he was the image of his father. The 
 next child was a girl, who had often been 
 sick. Towards her the hearts of her parents 
 were very tender. You know 
 
 " The bird, that we nurse, is the bird that we love :" 
 
 And they could not kill her. So they 
 went over the list of all the nine. But they 
 could not find one which they were willing to 
 see die, even to save the life of the rest. 
 "Now," said the preacher, "God had but 
 one Son, and he loved him more than any 
 father or mother ever loved a son,- and yet 
 he freely gave him up to die, not for his 
 friends, but for his foes. 0! here is love 
 indeed." The preacher said this in a tender 
 manner. Many wept, but whether they 
 turned from sin and loved Christ, I do not 
 know. I hope some of them did. I know 
 all of them ought to have done so. Don't 
 you think so ? 
 
SOME STRANGE THINGS. 63 
 
 The other thing in sin, is its spot. It puts 
 a deep and red stain on our souls. Some 
 people think that the stain of blood shed in 
 murder on a floor will never wash out. Per- 
 haps they are wrong. But all the tears that 
 man can shed, and all the water in the 
 world, will not wash out the stain of sin. It 
 defiles the soul in the worst way. It is the 
 only thing that makes a soul ugly. God has 
 sent his Holy Spirit to cleanse our hearts by 
 the blood of Jesus. That good Spirit is full 
 of love. He has mercy on us, comes to us, 
 calls us, and weans us from sin. There is 
 none that can cleanse us but God's Spirit. 
 We should think of these things daily, and 
 ask God not to leave us. If he take his 
 Holy Spirit from us, we shall be vile, and 
 base, and filthy for ever. 
 
 SOME STRANGE THINGS. 
 
 A little boy asked me one day, what was 
 the strangest thing I ever saw. I love to 
 hear such questions from a child. So I 
 
64 SOME STRANGE THINGS. 
 
 talked with him a while about many things, 
 that were quite strange, and told him I did 
 not know which was the most so. 
 
 But I have thought more on the matter, 
 and I think I can now tell. I think man is 
 the strangest of all things I ever saw. He 
 has a body and a soul. They can live to- 
 gether, and the soul can live by itself. This 
 body is very curious. It was made so. 
 The human hand is the best engine I ever 
 saw. With it a man can strike a blow, or 
 throw a stone, or lift a weight. With it one 
 can write, or sew, or knit, or cut, or hold on, 
 or let go. He can climb up or down trees 
 or ropes ; he can saw, or hammer, or sweep, 
 or rub, or scrape, or chop, or fire a gun, or 
 drive a plane, or split a rock or a log. Our 
 hands help^us to walk and to ride. Indeed, I 
 have never seen any thing that could be put 
 to so many uses as the hand of man. There 
 is his heart too. It beats all day, and all 
 night, and all his life, while he eats, and 
 while he sleeps. It beats just as well when 
 he does not think of it as when he does. It 
 drives the blood to the very ends of his fin- 
 gers and toes, and draws it back again, and 
 
SOME STRANGE THINGS. 65 
 
 makes it pure and good, and then drives it 
 through the whole body again. Man's brain 
 is very strange also. It is acted on by all 
 that he sees, and hears, and smells, and tastes, 
 and feels. 
 
 But his soul is yet more strange. It can 
 think, reason, remember, imagine, love, hate, 
 fear, hope, be glad and be sorry. It can 
 hold vast stores of wisdom and truth. It 
 can measure the distance from the earth to 
 the sun. It has told the size of the sun and 
 moon. It can make prose and poetry. It 
 can love God, and be wise. It can hate him, 
 and be a fool. 
 
 This body and soul are bound closely to- 
 gether, yet they are not alike. The body is 
 gross. You can weigh it, and measure it, 
 and divide it. It has parts. It is matter. 
 But the soul is spirit. You cannot see it, or 
 weigh it, or divide it. Yet the soul and 
 body suit each other very well. The body 
 cannot love the soul, because the body is but 
 dust and ashes. But the soul loves the 
 body. "No man ever yet hated his own 
 flesh." The soul and body cease to live to- 
 gether at death, but they will join each 
 other at the last great day. 
 
bb SOME STRANGE THINGS. 
 
 Nor is this all. The soul and body may 
 part any moment. One man died laughing 
 at a picture of an old woman which he had 
 made. Some die of joy. Many die of 
 grief. Some die from hard work, and many 
 from hard study, and still more from hard 
 drinking. Some are killed by sloth. Some 
 die of wounds. Many die of disease. Some 
 die young, and some die old. The sting of 
 a bee, or the scratch of a pin may take life. 
 
 Our life contains a thousand springs, 
 
 And dies if one be gone; 
 Strange that a harp of thousand strings, 
 
 Should keep in tune so long. 
 
 I do not wonder that one said: "I am fear- 
 fully and wonderfully made : marvellous are 
 thy works, and that my soul knoweth right 
 well." Ps. cxxxix. 14. 
 
 But man is a sinner, a great sinner. He 
 sins against God. He sins all the time. 
 He even hates God. To hate an enemy is 
 bad ; to hate a friend is worse ; but to hate 
 God is worst of all. God is man's best 
 friend. God has done more for each man, 
 than all men have done for Him. If men do 
 hate God, it must be, as the Bible says, 
 
SOME STRANGE THINGS. 67 
 
 "without a cause. " If men die sinners, 
 they will sin always. When men die, God 
 says ; " He that is unjust, let him be unjust 
 still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy 
 Still." Men cannot be born again after 
 they die. It is then too late to pray and 
 turn to God. 
 
 And a very little thing may make us 
 think it right to live in sin, because we love- 
 it. One bad book has ruined thousands. 
 One bad boy has taught many others to lie, 
 and steal, and cheat, and curse, and swear, 
 and so live in sin, and die in sin, and be lost 
 for ever. Sometimes a word seems to make 
 men worse. Even a look has made a man 
 bold in sin. 
 
 Besides, a thing once done can never be 
 undone. We may repent of it, and cease to 
 do it ; and God in love for Christ's sake may 
 forgive it. But it cannot be undone. God 
 will bring every secret thing into judgment, 
 whether it be good or evil. Nor will a man's 
 being sorry for a thing always keep it from 
 doing harm. Many have taught vice to 
 others, and been sorry for it. But the 
 change in the teacher did not reform the 
 taught. 
 
68 SOME STRANGE THINGS. 
 
 Bad men wax worse and worse every day. 
 As long as sin lives in us, it grows stronger. 
 We may begin with a little, but if God lets 
 us alone, we will surely go from bad to 
 worse. The worse men are, the more apt 
 they are to think well of themselves. They 
 are made blind, and dull, and stupid, by 
 sin. All wicked persons are nigh unto hell, 
 and their end is to be burned. Yet see how 
 they shut their eyes, and go on, even when 
 warned. How stupid men are, more so than 
 an ox or an ass. For "the ox knoweth his 
 owner, and the ass his master's crib, but my 
 people doth not know, Israel doth not con- 
 sider." " Yea, the stork in the heaven know- 
 eth her appointed times, and the turtle, and 
 the crane, and the swallow observe the time 
 of their coming; but my people," says God, 
 "know not the judgment of the Lord." 
 
 The brutes obey their God, 
 And bow their necks to men ; 
 
 But we more base, more brutish things, 
 Reject his easy reign. 
 
 We are strange creatures. We love not 
 the most lovely things. We hate not the 
 
SOME STRANGE THINGS. 69 
 
 most hateful things. We fear not the most 
 fearful things. Nor are we won by the most 
 •winning things. God commands, but; we 
 obey not. He calls, but we hearken not. 
 He threatens, but we tremble not. He in- 
 vites, but we go not. He offers life, and we 
 refuse it. He points us to Jesus, and we 
 turn away from him. He says, "Why will 
 ye die?" And we can give no good reason, 
 but we go on in sin. He shows us hell, and 
 begs us to avoid it, but we rush madly on. 
 Is it not strange that the wicked love death, 
 hate their own souls, flee from mercy, and 
 dig into hell? Man cannot save himself. 
 None but Christ can save him. But man 
 can and does destroy himself. Man cannot 
 raise himself to heaven, but he can work his 
 way to hell. There is something in sin which 
 I cannot explain. It is strange. It is folly. 
 It is madness. It hurts none so much as him 
 who commits it. It is the only thing that 
 ever does much hurt any man. Yet sinners 
 love it, nurse it in their hearts, and will not 
 let it go. If any boy ever asks me again, 
 what is the strangest thing I ever saw, I 
 mean to tell him that I think the man who 
 T 
 
70 SOME STRANGE THINGS. 
 
 lives in sin, when he knows better, is the 
 strangest of all things I ever saw. But I 
 hope that you, who read this book, will not 
 live in sin one hour more. It is time to quit 
 it. Yes, it is high time to forsake sin. 
 "Cease to do evil; learn to do well." "Seek 
 ye the Lord while he may be found ; call ye 
 upon him while he is near." He is very 
 near now, but soon he may leave you. And 
 if you die in sin, he will always be so far off, 
 that he will not hear you any more. I wish 
 you would pray to him with all your heart. 
 If you would, he would hear and save you. 
 If you are old enough to know what you are 
 reading, you are old enough to come to 
 Christ. He is waiting to be gracious to you. 
 He says, "I love them that love me: and 
 those that seek me early shall find me." 
 Kind Saviour, draw men, draw us to thee; 
 make us willing in the day of thy power. 
 He says, "My son, give me thy heart." You 
 ought to give him your heart. No one is so 
 worthy of it. No one has been so kind to 
 you as he has. He is God's dear Son, and 
 man's great Saviour. "Will you love him ? 
 
SOME STRANGE THINGS. 71 
 
 You cannot love him, if you love sin. You 
 cannot love him without a new heart. 
 
 How just it will be in God to send away 
 from the light of his face all who hate him. 
 He will send away none else. He is able to 
 save, and he will save all who now come to 
 him through Jesus Christ. But he will save 
 none others. He is a holy God, and he 
 hates all sin. He never was pleased, and he 
 never will be pleased, with sinners. 
 
 Think, too, he may call you to his bar any 
 day. You have no lease for your life. You 
 cannot tell what an hour may bring forth. 
 This may be your last day on earth. What 
 you do, do quickly. Be in earnest. Flee for 
 your life. Look not behind you. Tarry not 
 an hour. Remember Lot's wife. Go now to 
 Christ. Say. 
 
 I can but perish if I go ; 
 
 I am resolved to try, 
 For if I stay away, I know 
 
 I must for ever die. 
 
 Yes, if you stay away, you must for ever 
 die. There is no doubt about it. come, 
 and welcome, to Jesus Christ. 
 
72 
 
 SOMETHING STILL STRANGER. 
 
 There are strange things told every where. 
 Strange sights may be seen in every city and 
 country. Man is the strangest being I ever 
 saw. But God is the greatest wonder I ever 
 heard of. I have told you a little of him. 
 But the greatest wonder in God is his love 
 to sinners, at least it seems so to me. The 
 Apostle John saw many miracles on earth, 
 and wonders in heaven, yet he says: "Be- 
 hold, what manner of love the Father hath 
 bestowed on us, that we should be called the 
 sons of God!" I do not wonder that, when 
 speaking on such a subject, he said, "Be- 
 hold !" He adds that, so great is this love, that 
 " the world knoweth us not." If God loved 
 us so as to make us poets, orators, generals, 
 or kings, the world would know us. It knew 
 Homer, and Cicero, and Caesar, and Bona- 
 parte, in all their greatness. But it " knows 
 not the sons of God." The reason is because 
 it "knows not God," who loves sinners so as 
 to make sons of them. 
 
 I once heard a man in the pulpit say, that 
 
SOMETHING STILL STRANGER. 73 
 
 he did not know which were the greatest, our 
 sins, or God's mercies. It seems to me he 
 did not know much. He was hardly fit to 
 preach, or he would not have said that. Our 
 sins are very great. They are far greater 
 than any man ever saw them to be. But if 
 God's mercies had not been greater than our 
 sins, we should all now be in hell. That is 
 certain. Our sins rise like the mountains 
 towards heaven. But God's mercies are 
 above the heavens. Our sins are the acts 
 of worms. His mercies are the mercies of a 
 God. We are less than the least of all his 
 mercies. Man is vile, but "God is love." 
 
 "When the Lord Jesus, who is "the ex- 
 press image" of God, was upon earth, he said 
 and did many things to let men see that he 
 loved them, and that God loved them, even 
 if they had sinned much. I cannot tell you 
 all that he said and did to this end. I will 
 just give you a few verses from the Tth chap* 
 ter of Luke. "And one of the Pharisees 
 desired Jesus that he would eat with him. 
 And he went into the Pharisee's house, and 
 sat down to meat. And behold, a woman in 
 the city, which was a sinner, when she knew 
 7* 
 
74 SOMETHING STILL STRANGER, 
 
 that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's 
 house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 
 and stood at his feet behind him weeping, 
 and began to wash his feet with tears, and 
 did wipe them with the hairs of her head, 
 and kissed his feet, and anointed them with 
 the ointment. Now, when the Pharisee which 
 had bidden him, saw it, he spake within him- 
 self, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, 
 would have known who, and what manner of 
 woman this is that toucheth him : for she is 
 a sinner. And Jesus, answering, said unto 
 him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto 
 thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There 
 was a certain creditor, which had two debt- 
 ors: the one owed five hundred pence, and 
 the other fifty. And when they had nothing 
 to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell 
 me, therefore, which of them will love him 
 most ? Simon answered and said, I suppose 
 that he, to whom he forgave most. And he 
 said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 
 And he turned to the woman, and said unto 
 Simon, Seest thou this woman ? I entered 
 into thine house, thou gavest me no water 
 for my feet: but she hath washed my feet 
 
SOMETHING STILL STRANGER. 75 
 
 with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of 
 her head. Thou gavest me no kiss : but this 
 woman, since the time I came in, hath not 
 ceased to kiss my feet. Mine head with oil 
 thou didst not anoint : but this woman hath 
 anointed my feet with ointment. Vf herefore, 
 I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, 
 are forgiven; for she loved much: but to 
 whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 
 And he said unto her, Thy sins are for- 
 given." 
 
 I think this is one of the sweetest parts of 
 all the Bible. It suits my case so well. 
 Does it not suit you? I would rather feel 
 like this poor woman than have all the good 
 works of all the men who ever lived, as a 
 ground of my hope in God. I had a friend 
 who loved Christ, and not long before he 
 died, he told them how to bury him, and what 
 to put on his grave stone. Besides his name 
 and age there were these words, "A sinner 
 saved by grace." I like that very much. 
 To be saved by grace is not merely the only 
 way, but it is also the lest way for us to be 
 saved. It suits us exactly. 
 
 The business of Christ is with sinners. 
 
76 SOMETHING STILL STRANGER. 
 
 He receives such. He came "to seek and to 
 save that which was lost." He was "full 
 of grace," as well as " of truth." He never 
 has rejected any sinner that came to him 
 humbly. Yet he is no more loving than the 
 Father or the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ 
 did not come into the world to make the 
 Father love us. No : " God so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son." 
 The Holy Spirit too is tender, and gentle, 
 and loving. When he came down upon 
 Christ at his baptism, it was like a dove. 
 And you know the dove is the very gentlest 
 of all creatures. So that the love and mercy 
 shown to sinners is from the Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost. We feel a nearness to 
 Christ because he took our nature on him. 
 But all the persons of the Godhead love and 
 pity sinners. Let me tell you some of the 
 fruits of God's love. 
 
 1. The Father gave the Son. There 
 never was such a Father. There never was 
 such a Son. There never was such a gift 
 made even by God. 
 
 2. The Son gave his face to smiting and 
 spitting, his head to a crown of thorns, his 
 
SOMETHING STILL STRANGER. 77 
 
 body to the cross, and his soul a sacrifice for 
 sins. He wept, and bled, and died, not for 
 himself, but for us enemies. 
 
 8. The Holy Spirit comes into our hearts, 
 calls us, renews us, works in us faith, and 
 love, and hope, and joy, and peace, and 
 repentance. 
 
 4. Out of love God pardons millions of 
 sinners. He forgives many, many sins in 
 all who are saved. He does all this freely, 
 " without money and without price." He 
 has pardoned more men, and forgiven in 
 each of them more and greater sins, than all 
 men ever did. 
 
 5. Out of mere mercy he gives to men 
 new hearts, and he keeps them from the 
 evil that is in the world. He guides them, 
 cheers them, makes them patient in sorrows, 
 and happy in death. 
 
 6. Of his mere love, he gives heaven for a 
 home to all that love him. I do not know 
 much about heaven. Xo man does. But 
 there is nothing in it that would give pain, 
 and there is in it all that would give pleasure 
 to one who had a holy heart. " The Lamb is 
 the light thereof.'' Heaven is full of joy? 
 
78 SOMETHING STILL STRANGER. 
 
 full of songs of praise, full of glory. There 
 are many there who died before they were 
 half as old as you. If you should die to-day, 
 are you fit to go there ? Have you got a new 
 heart? Do you love Christ? Do you love 
 all the commandments? Do you love the 
 Sabbath? Do you love your enemies? 
 Christ loved his foes and died for them. 
 There never was such a friend as Jesus 
 Christ. I wish all loved him. There never 
 was such love as the love of God to men. I 
 have seen a beautiful hymn about God's 
 love. You may never have seen it. So I 
 will put it in. I wish you would learn it, 
 and learn to sing it. Here it is. 
 
 Love divine, all love excelling", 
 
 Joy of heaven, to earth come down ; 
 Fix in us thy humble dwelling", 
 
 All thy faithful mercies crown. 
 Jesus, thou art all compassion, 
 
 Pure, unbounded love thou art; 
 Visit us with thy salvation, 
 
 Enter every longing heart. 
 
 Breathe, O ! breathe thy loving Spirit, 
 
 Into every troubled breast ; 
 Let us all in thee inherit, 
 
 Let us find thy promised rest : 
 
A PAIN IX THE HEAD. 79 
 
 Take away the love of sinning, 
 
 Alpha and Omega be, 
 End of faith, as its beginning, 
 
 Set our hearts at liberty. 
 
 Come, almighty to deliver, 
 
 Let us all thy life receive, 
 Suddenly return, and never, 
 
 Never more thy temples leave. 
 Thee we would be always blessing, 
 
 Serve thee as thine hosts above ; 
 Pray, and praise thee without ceasing, 
 
 Glory in thy precious love. 
 
 Finish then thy new creation, 
 
 Pure, unspotted may we be : 
 Let us see our whole salvation 
 
 Perfectly secured by thee ; 
 Changed from glory into glory, 
 
 Till in heaven we take our place ; 
 Till we cast our crowns before thee, 
 
 Lost in wonder, love and praise. 
 
 A PAIX IX THE HEAD. 
 
 I love to be with good and happy children. 
 It makes my old heart glad to see them 
 merry. I love to read of them too. I shall 
 always be glad that I have read of some 
 
80 A PAIN IN THE HEAD. 
 
 good children. I like the way the Bible 
 speaks of children. There was little Moses 
 in the basket in the river. How God took 
 care of him! There was Samuel with his 
 little new coat, which his mother made for 
 him every year. There was Timothy too, 
 getting his lesson in the Bible, with his 
 mother and grandmother to help him. 
 
 One story in the Bible I always did like, 
 although it is about a child that died. It is 
 this: "And it fell on a day, that Elisha 
 passed to Shunem, where was a great 
 woman; and she constrained him to eat 
 bread. And so it was, that as oft as he 
 passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. 
 And she said unto her husband, Behold now, 
 I perceive that this is a holy man of God, 
 which passeth by us continually. Let us 
 make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the 
 wall: and let us set for him there a bed, and 
 a table, and a stool, and a candlestick ; and 
 it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he 
 shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day, 
 that he came thither, and he turned into the 
 chamber, and lay there. And he said to 
 Gehazi, his servant, Call this Shunammite. 
 
A PAIX IN THE HEAD. 81 
 
 And when he had called her, she stood 
 before him. And he said unto him, Say 
 now unto her, Behold, thou hast been care- 
 ful for us with all this care ; what is to be 
 done for thee ? Wouldest thou be spoken for 
 to the king, or to the captain of the host ? 
 And she answered, I dwell among mine own 
 people. And he said, What then is to be 
 done for her ? And Gehazi answered, 
 Verily, she hath no child, and her husband is 
 old. And he said, Call her. And when he 
 had called her, she stood at the door. And 
 he said, About this season, according to the 
 time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And 
 she said, Nay, my Lord, thou man of God, 
 do not lie unto thy handmaid. And the 
 woman conceived, and bare a son at that 
 n that Elisha had said unto her, accord- 
 ing to the time of life. And when the child 
 was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out 
 to his father to the reapers. And he said 
 unto his father, My head ! my head ! And 
 he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. 
 And when he had taken him, and brought 
 him to his mother, he sat on her knees till 
 noon, and then died. And she went up, and 
 
82 A PAIN IN THE HEAD. 
 
 laid him on the bed of the man of God, and 
 shut the door upon him, and went out. And 
 she called unto her husband, and said, Send 
 me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and 
 one of the asses, that I may run to the man 
 of God, and come again. And he said, 
 Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day ? it is 
 neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she 
 said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an 
 ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go 
 forward; slack not thy riding for me, except 
 I bid thee. So she went, and came unto the 
 man of God to Mount Carmel. And it 
 came to pass, when the man of God saw 
 her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his ser- 
 vant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. 
 Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say 
 unto her, Is it well with thee ? is it well with 
 thy husband? is it well with the child? 
 And she answered, It is well. And when 
 she came to the man of God to the hill, she 
 caught him by the feet; but Gehazi came 
 near to thrust her away. And the man of 
 God said, Let her alone; for her soul is 
 vexed within her : and the Lord hath hid it 
 from me, and hath not told me. Then she 
 
A PAIN IN THE HEAD. 83 
 
 said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I 
 not say, Do not deceive me ? Then he said 
 to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my 
 staff in thy hand, and go thy way: if thou 
 meet any man, salute him not ; and if any 
 salute thee, answer him not again: and 
 lay my staff upon the face of the child. 
 And the mother of the child said, As the 
 Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will 
 not leave thee. And he arose, and followed 
 her. And Gehazi passed on before them, 
 and laid the staff upon the face of the child ; 
 but there was neither voice nor hearing. 
 Wherefore he went again to meet him,. and 
 told him, saying, The child is not awaked. 
 And when Elisha was come into the house, 
 the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. 
 He went in therefore, and shut the door 
 upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. 
 And he went up, and lay upon the child, 
 and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his 
 eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his 
 hands : and he stretched himself upon the 
 child ; and the flesh of the child waxed 
 warm. Then he returned, and walked in 
 the house to and fro ; and went up, and 
 
84 A PAIN IN THE HEAD. 
 
 stretched himself upon him : and the child 
 sneezed seven times, and the child opened 
 his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, 
 Call this Shunammite. So he called her. 
 And when she was come in unto him, he 
 said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, 
 and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the 
 ground, and took up her son, and went out." 
 2 Kings iv. 8-37. 
 
 I think this is a very good story. It is 
 very well told. I could not tell it so well if 
 I were to try a week. It is very fine. I will 
 tell you some of my thoughts about it. 
 
 1. We all ought to be glad to have good 
 men come to see us at our own houses. Here 
 was a "great woman," but she was glad to 
 have the man of God with her. All great 
 folks are not wicked, though it does spoil 
 many to be great. It makes them proud, 
 and pride is a great sin. This woman and 
 her husband too loved to have Elisha there. 
 Children should be glad to have good people 
 come to see them. Those who love God, love 
 children, and will pray for them. 
 
 2. People ought not to make much ado 
 when God's ministers come to see them. 
 
A PAIN IN THE HEAD. 85 
 
 This woman gave the man of God a bed, a 
 table, a stool, and a candlestick. She gave 
 him what he needed, but she did not show off 
 her pretty things. Elisha did not wish to 
 see her finery, and she did not care to 
 show it. 
 
 3. Nobody ever did a kind thing to a good 
 man, but God took notice of it and was 
 pleased with it. God gave this woman a 
 child for her goodness to his servant. Even 
 a cup of cold water shall meet with a reward. 
 
 4. But a child may be sick. Even a child 
 that is given by God to us for our kindness 
 to his people, may be sick. This woman's 
 child was sick. It is said here that he " was 
 grown." But it does not mean that he was 
 grown to be a man, but that he was grown 
 enough to go to the field. He was a child, 
 and he was sick. Have not you been sick? 
 Did you never see a sick child? I have seen 
 many. Some are sick in the head, some in 
 the heart, some with fever, and some in other 
 ways. This little boy cried, "My head! my 
 head!" He had a dreadful pain in the head. 
 
 5. A child may be very sick. This one 
 
86 A PAIN IS THE HEAD. 
 
 was. It may be that you have been so sick 
 that you could not sit up. 
 
 6. A child of pious parents may be very 
 sick. Piety will keep us from all pain in the 
 next world, but not in this. God sends pain 
 on the best men in this world to make them 
 fit for heaven. 
 
 7. A child may die. I have seen some 
 die. I have seen more after they were dead. 
 Very many die young. Half that are born 
 into this world, are said to die before they 
 are seven years old. They may be very 
 dear to their parents, as this child was to 
 his, but still they may die. Death has 
 reigned even over infants ever since Adam 
 fell. 
 
 8. A child may die suddenly. This boy 
 was well in the morning when he went into 
 the field. But at noon of the same day he 
 was dead. It is a sad day when even a child 
 dies. It fills a whole family with sorrow. 
 The mother of this boy was sad, but she did 
 not scream and howl as some do. She acted 
 right. Yet the stroke was heavy. The death 
 was very sudden. 
 
 9. She had faith in God, and went to the 
 
A PAIN IX THE HEAD. 87 
 
 man of God. But she did not say any foolish 
 thing. She argued, she pleaded, she gained 
 her point. God, who gave her the child at 
 first, brought him to life again. God kills 
 and makes alive. 
 
 You too may be sick. If you should be, 
 do not fret and be cross. Be sweet. Take 
 your medicine when it is given you. Be 
 patient. Do not make the worst of every 
 thing. Be thankful to God for what is still 
 left you. You have a good doctor, a good 
 nurse, a good bed, and many good things. 
 Do not scold at servants when they are doing 
 their best. To be sick is a bad thing. But to 
 be sick and cross too, is still worse. "When 
 sick, as when well, pray to God. Ask others 
 to pray for you. If you can, read or hear 
 some of the word of God. Give your heart 
 to Christ. Ask him to give you a new heart. 
 Pray God to make you what you ought to be. 
 Ask him to help you to say, "Not my will, 
 but thine be done, God." t If you have 
 been sick, but are now well, do not soon 
 forget it. Thank God for all the health you 
 have. Live to his honour. 
 
 You may die, and that very soon. I do 
 
88 A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 
 
 not know that you will, but I am sure you 
 may. Are you ready? Have you made 
 peace with God? Have you taken Jesus 
 Christ for all and in all? Have you been 
 born again ? No one can be saved without a 
 change of heart. It is a dreadful thing to 
 die in sin. Even if you love God, you may 
 die, but then you will go to heaven. There 
 are many in heaven younger than you are. 
 
 Babes thither caught from womb and breast, 
 Claim right to sing above the rest, 
 Because they found the happy shore, 
 They never saw nor sought before. 
 
 If babes may be saved, so may you. You 
 are old enough to seek God. You ought to 
 seek him now. Then, if you die, you will be 
 saved. 
 
 A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 
 
 Even a child is known by his doings. 
 Better is a poor and wise child, than an 
 old and foolish king. 
 
 Childhood and youth are vanity. 
 
A CHAPTER OF SAYIXGS. 89 
 
 Suffer little children, and forbid them not, 
 to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom 
 of heaven. 
 
 The flower of youth is never so beautiful 
 as when, like the heliotrope, it bends and 
 bows its head to the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 Bad boys bid fair to be bad men. 
 
 He, who loves danger, shall perish therein. 
 
 A clear conscience is the best defence. 
 
 He, that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 
 
 Very few know when and how to say, Yes, 
 and No, 
 
 Tell me with whom you go, and I will tell 
 you who you are. 
 
 A liar ought to have a good memory. 
 
 Love not sleep lest thou come to poverty. 
 
 Reading makes a learned man, writing a 
 correct man, speaking a ready man, and 
 thinking a great man. 
 
 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. 
 
 A fool will utter all his mind. 
 
 "We have two eyes and two ears, but only 
 one tongue. See and hear much, and speak 
 little. 
 
 We have two hands and two feet, but only 
 one soul. Then take care of that. 
 
90 A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 
 
 A wise son maketh a glad father. 
 
 It is as sport to a fool to do mischief. 
 
 He, who hates his book, loves the rod. 
 
 He, who hates his brother, is a murderer. 
 
 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. 
 
 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 wisdom. 
 
 Leave off strife before you begin it. 
 
 He, who seeks revenge, keeps his wounds 
 always bleeding. 
 
 Anger resteth in the bosom of fools. 
 
 Pride leads to prison. 
 
 Great men have little to hope for, and 
 much to fear. 
 
 There is no man that sinneth not. 
 
 God forbid that I should glory save in the 
 cross of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
 
 A rolling stone gathers no moss. 
 
 Never set the house on fire, that you may 
 roast an egg. 
 
 Let not thy heart envy sinners. 
 
 He, who does as well as he knows how, 
 will know more. 
 
 Those, who are fond of strong drink, love 
 red eyes. 
 
A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 91 
 
 Bats, owls, and evil thoughts, love the twi- 
 light. 
 
 To be without a new heart, is to hate God. 
 
 It would be better not to be born, than not 
 to be born again. 
 
 He who does not love truth, will soon not 
 know it. 
 
 The heaven of heavens cannot contain 
 God. 
 
 No man knows how deep the sea is. 
 
 All human faces are alike, or we could not 
 tell a man from a brute. 
 
 No two faces are quite alike, or we could 
 not tell one from another. 
 
 No one wants snow in summer. 
 
 There is a time for all things. 
 
 Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, 
 forsake not. 
 
 He, that trusteth in his own heart, is a 
 fool. 
 
 It is more blessed to give than to receive. 
 
 The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not 
 want. 
 
 As a dog who has no master, so is a man 
 who has no wisdom. 
 
 A penny saved is two-pence gained. 
 
92 A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 
 
 Abhor that which is evil. 
 
 Cleave to that which is good. 
 
 Seekest thou great things? Seek them 
 not. 
 
 A life of ease is a life of sin. 
 
 Hunger is the best sauce, and labour 
 makes all meats good. 
 
 He, who never unbends his bow, will not 
 be able to shoot well. 
 
 What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul ? 
 
 No man sinks to the lowest vices in a day. 
 
 He, who lies down wise, will not awake a 
 fool. 
 
 Every narrow way is not the way to hea- 
 ven. 
 
 Some men are poor here, and poorer here- 
 after. 
 
 Cowards are commonly cruel. 
 
 The man who shall be President of the 
 United States in the year 1899, is now 
 probably a poor boy, struggling with hard- 
 ships, but mastering them. 
 
 Great men are not always wise. 
 
 No one was ever a loser by doing his duty 
 to his parents. 
 
A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 93 
 
 A good name is better than great riches. 
 
 Two green sticks and a dry one will make 
 a fire. 
 
 To love one's self more than God, is the 
 sin of all who have not been born again. 
 
 The ox knows his owner. Do you know 
 yours ? 
 
 Those who are vain of fine dress are trying 
 to be peacocks. 
 
 Seek the Lord while he may be found. 
 
 Cunning is crooked wisdom. 
 
 A cock is better pleased with a grain of 
 corn than a gem. 
 
 Some seem so good that they are good for 
 nothing. 
 
 A double-minded man is unstable in all 
 his ways. 
 
 Envy has no holidays. 
 
 Thorns and briers prick and scratch, be- 
 cause that is all they can do. 
 
 He who tells lies is brave towards God, 
 and a coward towards men. 
 
 Many friends are like rats who forsake a 
 sinking ship. 
 
 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 
 
94 A CHAPTER OF SAYINGS. 
 
 More men worship the rising than the set- 
 ting sun. 
 
 He, who has a friend, bears only half his 
 own griefs. 
 
 Wounds cannot be cured without search- 
 ing. 
 
 To say all is well is easy ; to make all well 
 is hard. 
 
 A life of piety is the only truly happy 
 life. 
 
 It never troubles a wolf how many sheep 
 there are. 
 
 Fear God and keep his commandments; 
 for this is the whole duty of man. 
 
 Some books are to be tasted, others to be 
 swallowed, and some few to be chewed and 
 digested. 
 
 As a dove among hawks, so is a good child 
 among the bad. 
 
 Possess your souls in patience. 
 
 There is no worse disease than bone in the 
 heart. 
 
 God does most for kings; but kings do 
 least for God. 
 
 The power of thought chiefly points out a 
 man from a brute. 
 
A CHAPTER OF SAYIXGS. 95 
 
 The habit of thought chiefly points out a 
 wise man from a fool. 
 
 Those "who are men at twelve, will ever 
 after be boys. 
 
 He, who lives to learn, will learn to live. 
 
 The more you feed a calf, the bigger calf 
 it is. 
 
 Seek first the kingdom of God. 
 
 An idle boy will make a mean old man. 
 
 If you cannot trust your mother, it is 
 madness to trust any one else. 
 
 The kite cannot fly up except as it is held 
 down. 
 
 He, that is down, needs fear no fall. 
 
 There is a bottom to every pit but the pit 
 of wo'e. 
 
 Heaven is no hive for drones. 
 
 Hell is the truth seen too late. 
 
 He that knoweth to do good, and doeth it 
 not, to him it is sin. 
 
 A good conscience is good company. 
 
 He is a free man who serves God. 
 
96 
 
 THEY WERE BOTH WRONG. 
 
 John was a poor boy. He seldom had 
 any money. Sometimes he did not have a 
 cent for a year. He one day met Charles, 
 who had a knife. It was not worth much, 
 but Charles praised it a great deal. At last 
 he said, " John, you may have this knife for 
 twelve and a half cents. You may pay me 
 when you can. I will wait three months 
 with you." John thought three months w T as 
 a long time, and so he took the knife. But 
 he got no money in three months, nor in 
 four. Charles often asked him to pay, but 
 John always said he had no money. ' This 
 was true. But John did not say it in a 
 very pleasant way. One day Charles said, 
 "You must pay me." John said, "I can- 
 not," and then added a few words as if he 
 might never pay. Charles was strong and 
 threw John down, and beat him, and tore 
 his coat. John then said he would pay 
 soon. But he had no money, and no way of 
 getting any. And Charles would not take 
 back the knife. So they had a fight when- 
 
THEY WERE BOTH WROXG. 97 
 
 ever they met, and John would make a new 
 promise! After a long time, John got the 
 money and paid it. Then he and Charles 
 did not fight any more, but were good 
 friends. Now I will tell you what I think of 
 this matter. 
 
 1. I think Charles did wrong in praising 
 his own knife so much. He made it seem a 
 great thing in John's eyes. He did not tell 
 any very great lie about it, but he said too 
 much in praise of it. 
 
 2. Charles did wrong in selling it to John, 
 when he knew John was poor, and hardly 
 had any way of getting money. He knew 
 he would get John into trouble. He was 
 older than John, and ought not to have led 
 him into the bargain. 
 
 3. Charles did wrong in not taking back 
 the knife, when it was all John had to give. 
 'Twas not kind in him to refuse it. I think 
 he had not learned those pretty lines : 
 
 " What mercy I to others show, 
 That mercy show to me." 
 
 Christ said, "Blessed are the merciful, for 
 they shall obtain mercy." God has said, 
 9* 
 
1)8 THEY WERE BOTH WRONG. 
 
 " He shall have judgment without mercy, 
 that hath showed no mercy." If is very 
 wrong to urge people to buy things, and 
 then to vex them for not paying us. 
 
 4. Charles did wrong in fighting John 
 about it. He was strong, and fought him 
 hard. Even little boys hurt each other 
 when they fight. It is very wicked to put 
 boys to fighting. We should all try to do 
 good and not harm to each other. 
 
 " But man, whose heaven-erected face, 
 
 The smiles of love adorn ; 
 Man's inhumanity to man, 
 
 Makes countless thousands mourn." 
 
 To be hard with one who owes us is very 
 wicked. How could such an one pray, 
 "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our 
 debtors ?" Jesus Christ said, "Therefore is 
 the kingdom of heaven likened unto a cer- 
 tain king which would take account of his 
 servants. And when he began to reckon, 
 one was brought unto him which owed ten 
 thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had 
 not to pay, his lord commanded him to be 
 sold, and his wife and children, and all that 
 he had, and payment to be made. The ser- 
 
THEY WERE BOTH WRONG. 99 
 
 vant therefore fell down, and worshipped 
 him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, 
 and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of 
 that servant was moved with compassion, 
 and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 
 But the same servant went out, and found 
 one of his fellow-servants, which owed him 
 an hundred pence: and he laid hands on 
 him, and took him by the throat, saying, 
 Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow- 
 servant fell down at his feet, and besought 
 him, saying, Have patience with me, and I 
 will pay thee all. And he would not : but 
 went and cast him into prison, till he should 
 pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants 
 saw what was done, they were very sorry, 
 and came and told unto their lord all that 
 was done. Then his lord, after that he had 
 called him, said unto him, thou wicked 
 servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because 
 thou desiredst me: shouldst thou not also 
 have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, 
 even as I have had pity on thee ? And his 
 lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tor- 
 mentors, till he should pay all that was due 
 unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly 
 
100 THEY WERE BOTH WRONG. 
 
 Father do also unto you, if ye from your 
 hearts forgive not every one his brother 
 their trespasses." Matt, xviii. 23-35. 
 But John was to blame too. 
 
 1. He ought not to have bought the knife. 
 He did not really need it. Any thing is 
 dear to us at any price if we do not need it. 
 John had no right to take Charles's knife 
 without seeing some clear way of paying for 
 it. It is not honest to buy, unless we know 
 at the time how we can pay. When Charles 
 praised the knife, John should have said, " I 
 have no money, and no way of getting it 
 that I know of. I will not take it." " Owe 
 no man any thing." " The rich ruleth over 
 the poor, and the borrower is servant to the 
 lender." Pay-day and the day of death will 
 be sure to come. 
 
 2. When Charles urged John to pay, John 
 should not have used rough words. He should 
 have been mild and kind. He should not have 
 spoken as if he meant never to pay. " Once 
 a debt always a debt till it is paid," is a good 
 rule. 
 
 3. John ought not to have made so many 
 promises when he knew not whether he could 
 
THEY WERE BOTH WRONG. 101 
 
 keep them. It was a kind of lying. Every 
 kind of lie defiles the conscience, and dis- 
 pleases God. 
 
 But both the boys did right in being good 
 friends after the thing was settled. John did 
 not hate Charles, and Charles never cast it 
 up to John that he was poor, or had not paid 
 him sooner. It is very bad to bear grudges. 
 To fight is very bad. But to bear old hatred 
 is even worse. John and Charles are old men 
 now, and have large families, but they have 
 been very friendly ever since. But Charles 
 has never become a Christian. He loves 
 money very much. It seems to grow on 
 him. " The love of money is the root of all 
 evil." I fear it will be so with many. If 
 you love money you cannot love God. The 
 Bible says, "If any man love the world, the 
 love of the Father is not in him/' John is 
 very much a man of his word. He is very 
 careful not to make any more foolish bar- 
 gains. I hope he loves God. He reads the 
 Bible, and prays with his family. He keeps 
 his word now, but he is very careful how he 
 makes promises. 
 
102 
 
 THE RIBBON ROOM. 
 
 Katy's mother was sickly, but she was 
 pious, and brought up her children well. 
 Katy was a good child, and loved her mother, 
 and did all she could to help her. . Katy was 
 a great hand at sweeping the house, and 
 putting things nice. When she was about 
 eleven years old, a man came to her father's 
 with some trunks full of ribbons. There he 
 got a room, put up some shelves, and opened 
 his ribbons. He wished to sell them to the 
 people of the town. He kept the room open 
 four or five hours every day. He got Katy 
 to dust and sweep the room for him, and told 
 her he would pay her for it. He knew she 
 was a good girl, and he gave her the key to 
 go in alone. But one day after she had swept 
 the room and made all nice, she stopped a 
 moment to look at the things. All at once 
 the ribbons looked so pretty ; she thought 
 she had never seen any thing so fine before. 
 One bolt of ribbon after another filled her 
 eye. At last Satan put the thought into her 
 mind, to take some of them. She looked for a 
 
THE RIBBON ROOM. 108 
 
 moment longer, and thought of these words, 
 " Thou shalt not steal." She was full of fear, 
 fled from the room, locked the door, went 
 alone and thanked God for not letting her 
 steal. She also asked God to keep her in all 
 time to come. She did not tell any one of 
 this great trial till she was an old lady. But 
 after that day, she always got her mother to 
 go with her into the ribbon room, when she 
 went to fix it. If she had stolen, it would no 
 doubt have been found out. People would 
 always have called her thief. They would 
 not have thought of her age, nor the charms 
 which ribbons have to a little child. 
 
 But what could she have done with them, 
 if she had taken them ? She could not have 
 worn them, for that would have been to tell 
 she was a thief. Xor could she have sold 
 them, or given them away, for then people 
 would have asked, Where did you get them ? 
 She could not have hid them, for her mother 
 no doubt often looked into her drawers. 
 Thieves often steal what they have no use 
 for. I have known them to steal old iron. 
 They have more trouble in hiding stolen 
 things, than they are worth. But the worst 
 
104 THE RIBBON ROOM. 
 
 thing in stealing, is that it is wicked. God 
 hates all theft. He never can love those 
 who love the price of sin. Thieves and liars, 
 if they do not repent and turn to God, must 
 all perish. Hell is a dreadful place. All 
 the vile will be there. There is no place in 
 this world as bad as hell is. There God 
 pours the vials of his wrath on the wicked, 
 and they weep, and howl, and gnash their 
 teeth always. 
 
 I wish here to say a few things more. 
 
 1. It is not right to put a child in any 
 place where it will be too much tried. Peo- 
 ple may think a child better than it is. We 
 are all poor creatures, and easily fall into 
 sin. Both the mind and principles of a 
 child are w T eak. If he does not fall into sin, 
 he may still suffer a great deal in his mind. 
 
 2. Children should learn to pray. Who, 
 more than a child, needs to cry daily, 
 "Lead us not into temptation ?" Every 
 child should offer that prayer every day. 
 God alone can keep any one from doing the 
 worst things. Do you ask God to keep 
 you ? He alone is able to do it. 
 
 3. When tempted, let us try to find a way 
 
THE RIBBON ROOM. 105 
 
 of escape. Katy fled from danger, and 
 Satan fled from her. It was when Eve "saw 
 that the tree was good for food, and that it 
 was pleasant to the eyes, that she took of 
 the fruit and did eat." Never look at things 
 forbidden. Never listen to things forbidden. 
 Never smell things forbidden. " Touch 
 not, taste not, handle not," is the Bible rule. 
 
 4. Katy was right in thanking God for 
 not letting her steal. If we have been kept 
 from doing the worst things, we have been 
 kept by God. If he be not a wall of fire 
 round about us, we shall surely fall. "Hold 
 thou me up, and I shall be safe." 
 
 5. It is always best to do right. It gives 
 us pleasure as often as we think of it. It 
 gives us such peace of mind. If you can 
 always do right, you need not fear. God 
 will take care of you. He took care of 
 Katy. AYhen the man paid her, she felt she 
 had a right to the money. She was always 
 glad that she had been able to do right. 
 
 10 
 
106 
 
 THE LOST POCKET-BOOK. 
 
 Richakd and Francis were born in New 
 England, but their parents went to live in 
 the far West. There they kept up their 
 good ways. They did not forget God. They 
 read his word, kept his Sabbaths, and prayed 
 night and morning. Both these parents did 
 all they could to teach their boys the ways 
 of God. 
 
 One day the boys were coming from school, 
 and met two men riding. The boys stopped 
 and made a polite bow to the strangers. 
 One of the men said a kind word to them. 
 The other said, "Did you get whipped to- 
 day?" and then he laughed. Richard said 
 nothing because he saw the man was rude. 
 But Francis said, "No, sir;" so they passed 
 on. The boys had not gone far till they 
 found some papers and an open pocket-book 
 in the road. They took them up, and soon 
 were at home. They told their mother all 
 that had passed. She looked at the papers, 
 and saw that one name was on them all. She 
 also saw in the pocket-book two rolls of 
 
THE LOST POCKET-BOOK. 107 
 
 money. Just then her husband came m. 
 He counted the money and found it to be 
 near two hundred dollars. He heard all the 
 facts in the case, and said he was sorry any 
 one had lost the money, Francis said, " the 
 man who lost it must feel very badly." 
 
 Just then a man was going by. By him 
 word was sent that some money had been 
 found. He told it to all, along the road. 
 About dark, he came to a tavern, where the 
 two men, who had met the boys, had stopped. 
 He there told of the money. Soon the man, 
 who had spoken rudely to the boys, said, " I 
 have lost my money, and papers, and pocket- 
 book. And I was just going to pay for my 
 land." 
 
 He was about to start back; but it was 
 dark, and they told him his money was safe 
 at that house. So he went to bed, but did 
 not sleep much. He was up very early, and 
 set off to go back eight miles. He got there 
 soon after the sun rose, and told his errand. 
 He also told his name, and said what money 
 and papers he had lost. So it was clear that 
 he was the owner, and all was promptly given 
 to him. He was very glad. 
 
108 THE LOST POCKET-BOOK. 
 
 He then said he would pay them for find- 
 ing and keeping it, and held out ten dollars 
 to the father of the boys. But he would not 
 have it. He then offered five dollars to each 
 of the boys. This was much money for 
 them. But they would not have it. At this 
 the man looked as if he were hurt, and said, 
 " This is very strange." But the father 
 said, "We have only done our duty. We 
 are poor, but we cannot lose our good name." 
 " Then," said the man, " I have done very 
 wrong. I spoke rudely to your boys, when 
 I met them yesterday. I am very sorry." 
 He seemed to feel what he said. 
 
 In a few minutes he left the house. He 
 told every one how well he had been treated. 
 He said those boys would not come to a bad 
 end, and that he never saw such people. 
 This is my story. 
 
 Now, I hope you will make up your mind 
 to these things, viz : 
 
 1. Never be rude to any one, not even to 
 a little boy, or a stranger. Treat every one 
 kindly. You may soon need their good 
 will. 
 
 2. If you ever find any thing, give early 
 
EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 109 
 
 notice of it. Let the owner know where 
 he can get it, if he will prove that it is his. 
 If you know who he is, send him word. If 
 you do not know who he is, give notice to all 
 the public. And restore it without reward. 
 
 EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 
 
 Edwin was not a very bad boy. He was 
 not easily made angry. He would bear a 
 great deal sometimes. He loved to laugh. 
 With some of his playmates he never had a 
 cross word. Yet he was in no wise better 
 than he ought to have been. In some things 
 he came far short. When he saw one wrong 
 him, and take no step towards doing him 
 justice, his heart was not meek. It was, in 
 truth, frightful to see him angry. I once saw 
 him, when I thought he would have killed a 
 boy. I still think he would, had not one 
 caught his arm. He was about to strike with 
 the heavy leg of a bench. Yet he was almost 
 always very friendly. The boys loved him. 
 He would give away his last apple or almond. 
 He was smart and gay, and full of life. Some 
 10* 
 
110 EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 
 
 of his teachers still live to praise him. But 
 one of his teachers, who is now dead, did not 
 like him. He was a good scholar, and made 
 some good scholars. But he was passionate 
 and cruel. He would both praise and punish 
 without reason. He belonged to one church, 
 and Edwin's parents to another. This, it 
 was thought, made him not feel so kindly to 
 Edwin. His temper was quick. He loved 
 and hated without cause. He would often 
 fret. He would whip in spite. I have heard 
 him praise the bad as much as the good. He 
 was a member of a church, and at times very 
 zealous. It is no part of my business to 
 judge him. He was not my servant. But he 
 had some ugly ways. I have seen some men, 
 who seemed to have grace enough for two 
 common men, but not half enough for them- 
 selves. Even when this teacher did right, he 
 often did it in an ugly way. He did not seem 
 to think of those words of Scripture, " Let 
 not your good be evil spoken of." His 
 prayers were long and loud. Yet he may 
 have been a truly good man. 
 
 When he found fault, it was in harsh words. 
 He was not kind and gentle. When he chided,, 
 
EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. Ill 
 
 le railed and stormed. Yet I have often 
 thought he was sorry for these things. Per- 
 haps he was. God knows. He was often 
 rough towards Edwin. He would laugh at 
 him and hurt his feelings. He struck him 
 three or four times very hard, and for no 
 good cause. Once he whipped him cruelly. 
 Edwin was manly, and did not easily weep. 
 This made his teacher seem to dislike him. 
 At least we thought so. For a while Edwin 
 carried him apples, but at last he brought no 
 more. Yet he did not tell his parents about 
 the way he was treated, until the school was 
 broken up. 
 
 At the end of three months, the teacher 
 went away from that place to one nearly a 
 hundred miles off. Edwin and many others 
 were glad he was gone. He may have done 
 better there. I hope he did. Edwin still 
 thought of him, but he did not forgive him. 
 He hated not only his ways, but his person too. 
 He that hates another is a murderer. Edwin 
 •ought to have let it pass away from his mind. 
 He had a spite against his old teacher. But 
 -what could he do? He was but a child, and 
 the man was far away. His thoughts were 
 
112 EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 
 
 busy. At last he said to himself: "I will 
 write him a letter, tell him that I am his 
 friend, and that there are bad stories about 
 him, and that he must come and see about 
 them ; but I will not put my own name to it, 
 and I will date it at the place where my 
 teacher lived some years ago." So he wrote 
 the letter in his best hand, and spelt every word 
 as well as if he had been a man. He put it 
 in a cover, and directed it to the postmaster 
 of the town where it was dated, asking him 
 to forward it. But he was not easy when he 
 was doing all this. His heart smote him. He 
 trembled as he went to the post-office. As 
 soon as he dropped the letter into the box, he 
 ran till he got around the corner. Of course 
 he did not pay the postage. He had hardly 
 done this, when he wished he had not done it. 
 He was afraid he would be found out. 
 
 His fears were just. His old teacher knew 
 his hand. For some cause he had kept a copy- 
 book of each of his scholars. He thus and 
 from memory knew Edwin's writing. The 
 letter and cover, and all were sent to a friend 
 of the teacher living where Edwin lived. The 
 teacher told his friend who had written it, as 
 
EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 113 
 
 he thought. This friend told Edwin, and 
 showed him the letter. Edwin could not 
 deny his guilt. He was in a world of trou- 
 bles. He did not know what the law was, 
 and feared he might be put in jail. Shame 
 and fear both held him back from telling his 
 father, so as to get good advice. He now 
 began to reap the fruit of his sin. He did 
 not sleep well. He had bad dreams. He 
 could not fix his mind on his book. He did 
 not seem to care for his food. He was too 
 proud yet to pray about it. At one time he 
 told the man who had the letter, that he had 
 sent it just out of fun. But when asked 
 wherein was the fun, he could not tell. Edwin 
 once said he loved his old teacher very much, 
 but that was not so, and he knew it. When 
 asked about the bad rumours at the town 
 where the letter was dated, he had to say, 
 that he knew none, and had heard none. 
 
 At last the man who had the letter said : 
 "You are but a child." (Edwin was not yet 
 eleven years old.) "I hope you are sorry 
 for what you have done. I will not tell any 
 one, if you will do better. I will stop the 
 matter here." The tears came in Edwin's 
 
114 EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 
 
 eyes, and he thanked the man. He also 
 said he would never do such a thing again. 
 I think he has kept his word. Edwin sel- 
 dom had much money, but he had fifty cents 
 at this time, and he laid that down saying, 
 "this will pay all the postages." The man 
 said, "I do not want it." But Edwin said, 
 "You must keep it;" and he went away, 
 leaving it on the table. It just paid the 
 whole amount, including one letter yet to be 
 written. 
 
 Edwin now began to feel better. He was 
 serious, but he was happy. He saw this bad 
 affair brought to an end. And he had done 
 right in paying the money which others had 
 paid for his wrong. Postage was then more 
 than double what it is now. I will now tell 
 you what I think of these things. I will 
 speak first of the teacher. 
 
 1. Whether he was a good man, I do not 
 know. It is a sad thing that some men seem 
 good one hour, and bad the next. Our busi- 
 ness is not to judge them, but to take good 
 heed not to be like them. 
 
 2. Those are poor members of any church 
 of Christ, who have bad feelings to members 
 
EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 115 
 
 of other churches. It is sad to see how a 
 mere name sways some people. I should not 
 like to be found hating any good man of any 
 name, or of no name. 
 
 3. This man was not fit to be a teacher. 
 He had not rule enough over himself to fit 
 him to rule others. He showed partiality 
 also. The people did right in keeping him 
 but one quarter. 
 
 But I must say much about Edwin. 
 
 1. Though he had some very good traits, 
 yet he had some great faults. He was com- 
 monly frank and open, yet you have seen 
 how sly and cunning he tried to be. He 
 was generous, and yet he was spiteful. He 
 bore malice for a long time, at least in this 
 one case. He was commonly friendly, but 
 it was a wonder that he did not kill a boy, 
 when he was not ten years old. I do not 
 mean to say that all anger is sinful. The 
 Bible says, "Be ye angry and sin not. ,r 
 But it also says, "Let not the sun go down 
 upon your wrath." Many suns went down 
 on Edwin's anger against his teacher. He 
 sinned there. Christ said: "That whoso- 
 ever is angry with his brother without a 
 
116 EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 
 
 cause shall be in danger of the judgment.' ' 
 God is often said to be "slow to anger." 
 Let us try to be like him. "Anger resteth 
 in the bosom of fools," not of the wise. 
 "An angry man stirreth up strife." 
 
 2. God is very good in holding us back 
 from great sins. If Edwin had killed that 
 boy, how great a sin it would have been! 
 How his conscience would have tormented 
 him for life ! He never would have got over 
 it. God is good to us all in the way of 
 restraint. We should think of this and be 
 humbled. Our hearts are very vile. 
 
 3. Edwin sinned in sending the letter. 
 He had no right to make his old teacher pay 
 postage on that letter. If he had had any 
 right feelings, he would have paid the post- 
 age at first. Christ says, "He that is 
 unjust in the least is unjust also in much." 
 Every one knows that no man would be 
 willing to pay money for letters, if he knew 
 that they had no name to them. Again, 
 writing a letter at one place, and dating it at 
 another, was writing a known falsehood. Is 
 any thing likely to end well, which begins 
 with an untruth ? In the letter he said, "I 
 
EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 117 
 
 am your friend. " That was not true, and 
 he knew it. He also told him that bad 
 stories were told of him in a place where he 
 did not know that any thing was said of him. 
 Here was another lie. After he was found 
 out, he said he did it in fun. This was not 
 true. This was a very bad affair from first 
 to last. 
 
 4. People cannot sin and pray both. 
 They may sin and keep up a form of prayer. 
 But they cannot sin with the heart and pray 
 with the heart too. Edwin found it so. 
 Even in his trouble he could not pray. 
 
 5. I hope all who read this story, will 
 now settle it in their minds that they will 
 never write any letter without putting their 
 own name to it. I think it is a sin to do so. 
 It may wound one who is already in deep 
 sorrow. It may make him suspect those 
 who are not guilty. It cuts him off from all 
 fair chance to defend himself. It may give 
 him much trouble for no good. It is a mean 
 and cowardly thing. If there is any attempt 
 in it to deceive, it is a great sin. Never 
 write an anonymous letter. 
 
 6. Edwin did right in paying the fifty 
 
 11 
 
118 EDWIN AND HIS TEACHER. 
 
 cents. It was due to others. He had at 
 times a strong sense of honour. When he 
 acted it out he did right. He always felt 
 best when he did as honour required. We 
 all ought to pay, as far as we are able, every 
 cent that any body loses by our doing wrong. 
 " Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to 
 satisfy his soul when he is hungry ; but if he 
 be found, he shall restore seven-fold ; he 
 shall give all the substance of his house." 
 Prov. vi. 30, 31. As soon as Zaccheus 
 loved Christ, he began to restore money to 
 those whom he had cheated. We must do 
 the same as far as we can. 
 
 7. Unless we repent and obtain pardon by 
 the blood of Jesus, all our sins will meet us 
 at the last day, just as Edwin's letter met 
 him, when he did not wish to see it. Edwin 
 could not deny his guilt. Neither will we be 
 able to deny ours, if we die in sin. "Be 
 sure your sin will find you out." " Every 
 mouth will be stopped, and all the world will 
 become guilty before God." The last day 
 will be a great day indeed. 
 
 8. It is well always to have this truth be- 
 fore our minds: "Thou, God, seest me." 
 
ACORNS MAKE OAKS. 119 
 
 It would save us from many a sinful act and 
 word. I knew a minister once who had these 
 words in large letters hanging over his man- 
 tel. Whether you hang them up on a card 
 or not, try to keep them in mind. 
 
 ACORNS MAKE OAKS. 
 
 Every thing has a nature. Oaks do not 
 grow from chestnuts. They spring only from 
 acorns. Neither corn nor barley ever grow 
 from the seed of wheat. Grapes never grow 
 on thorns. Thistles never bear figs. God, 
 angels, men, children, all have natures. 
 
 But this is not all. A kitten will be a cat ; 
 a lamb will be a sheep ; and a puppy will be 
 a dog, if they each live long enough. This 
 is quite plain. John Bunyan has written an 
 account of "the life and death of Mr. Bad- 
 man. " And he says, that "from a child he 
 was very bad." Bad boys are not apt to 
 make good men. Good boys are not apt to 
 make bad men. Boys sometimes seem to be 
 good for a while, but you do not know their 
 
120 ACORNS MAKE OAKS. 
 
 hearts and deeds, or you would not call them 
 good. When they grow up, and all at once 
 seem to turn out badly, you may be sure that 
 is not the first time they have been in great 
 sin. A lady in Hartford, Connecticut, has 
 written much pretty poetry and prose too. 
 Her name is Mrs. Sigourney. She has told 
 the world about "the boy that became a 
 traitor. " She says: " There are few things 
 more disgraceful in children, than to be cruel 
 to those harmless creatures, which are not 
 able to defend themselves. If I see a child 
 pull off the wings of an insect, or throw stones 
 at a toad, or take pains to set his foot upon 
 a worm — I am sure there is something wrong 
 about him, or that he has not been well 
 instructed. There was once a boy that loved 
 to give pain to every thing that came in his 
 way, over which he could get any power. 
 He would take the eggs from the mourning 
 robin, and torture the unfledged sparrow. 
 Cats and dogs, the peaceable cow, and the 
 faithful horse, he delighted to worry and dis- 
 tress. I do not like to tell you of the many 
 cruel things that he did. He was told that 
 such deeds were wrong. An excellent lady, 
 
ACORNS MAKE OAKS. 121 
 
 with whom he used to live, used to warn and 
 reprove him for his evil conduct. But he did 
 not reform. When he grew up, he became a 
 seedier. He was never sorry to see men 
 wounded, and blood running upon the earth. 
 He became so wicked as to lay a plan to 
 betray his country, and sell it into the hands 
 of the enemy. This is to be a traitor. But 
 he was discovered and fled. He never 
 dared to return to his native land, but lived 
 despised, and died miserably in a foreign 
 clime. Such was the end of the cruel boy, 
 who loved to give pain to animals. His name 
 was Benedict Arnold. He was born at Nor- 
 wich, in Connecticut, and the beautiful city 
 of his birth is ashamed of his memory.'' 
 
 Bad boys will be very apt to make bad 
 men, for the very reason that acorns make 
 oaks. That is, nature will show itself, and 
 grow stronger and stronger. Even the grace 
 of God in the heart does not make a bad tree 
 bring forth good fruit. That is not the way 
 that grace works. Xo ; it makes the tree 
 good, and then the fruit is good also. It 
 puts the heart right, and then the thoughts, 
 and words, and deeds are right also. This 
 
122 ACORNS MAKE OAKS. 
 
 is God's way. When a watch does not keep 
 good time, men do not try to make it run well 
 by putting the hands back or forward. They 
 try to get all things right within. Then the 
 hands go well of course. 
 
 Perhaps there hardly ever was a worse 
 man than the Roman emperor, Domitian. 
 He delighted in seeing others suffer. He 
 was one of the most cruel foes the early 
 Christians had. How did he become so vile? 
 By killing flies with a bodkin when he was 
 young. When he got older, flies were not 
 big enough for him. He wished to see men, 
 and women, and children suffer. If you are 
 a cruel boy, you will probably be a cruel 
 man. If you are a pouting girl, you will be 
 very apt to be a cross old woman. Take care 
 what you do, but most of all, take heed what 
 you are, when you are young. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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