Imatges de pàgina
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Take, then, ye toiling and troubled ones, the comfort offered you. Food is of no use to the hungry, if they only look at it, and do not eat; so you will be no happier or stronger if you only read the words of promised help; act upon them daily, hourly; "send to the King directly you have a little tangle,"—"in everything,' "in all your care. Only take Him at His word, and you will find Him true to His word: "the crooked places will be made straight, and the rough places plain"; "and the peace of God will keep your hearts and minds."

THE DYING SOLDIER.

N July, 1863, after the battle of Gettysburg, in the United States, for miles in all directions from the field of combat, buildings of every kind were converted into temporary hospitals. Not only dwellings, churches, schoolhouses, and workshops were taken, but the huge barns belonging to the rich Pennsylvania farmers were likewise so used.

In one of those immense structures, nearly one hundred wounded soldiers were carefully nursed in clean cots properly arranged in rows. Men who could not enter the ranks, and delicately-reared women, both married and single, hastened to the scene of duty and engaged as volunteer nurses. Seated beside the bed of a young soldier, scarcely twenty years of age, was a venerable old man whose silvery locks betokened that the weight of years was upon him. Feeling well assured that his young friend was near the end of his earthly career, the old gentleman took from his satchel a pocket Bible. Before, however, he had had time to open it, the youth cried out, "Away with your Bible; I do not believe one word of it. Since joining the army my messmates have opened my eyes, and I believe that it is a cunningly devised fable. It may do for children and women, but not for

men."

Those who heard the foolish words were greatly shocked. The sad, sorrowful look of the old man will never be effaced from their memory. For some minutes his white head was bowed, so that his face was concealed from view. When he again looked up, the tears were coursing down his wrinkled cheeks. As soon as he could get control of his voice, he spoke to the young man in substance as follows:

"O John! I am thinking of the day when the news reached our village of the serious reverse our army sustained on the bloody field of Bull Run. I recollect the hour when you came into the house and told your mother, my only sister, whom I was then visiting, that you had volunteered and were going to the front.

Her grief-stricken face is now before me.

For some minutes she sat speechless; then, falling upon her knees, as you must remember, she uttered that soul-stirring prayer to God in behalf of you, her only son. She asked the dear Saviour to keep you from harm and return you in safety to her; but if the will of God was otherwise, that your precious soul should be saved; and that if she never more should meet you in this life, she might in glory. Your mother's prayer was heard, as I fully believe, by the prayerhearing God. I can never therefore believe that the silly, idle, language of infidel men around the camp-fires can make so powerful an impression upon your mind as to efface the good counsel and fervent prayers of your sainted mother. When she and you bade each other that tearful farewell, both expected to meet again, sooner or later, on earth. That, alas! can never be. Two weeks ago we bore her beloved remains to the tomb. I could not tell you this before, and but for what has happened would not have told you now. Her last words were addressed to me. She said: 'Go to the army of the Potomac, and seek out my darling John. Tell him that I died with prayers upon my lips for him. Tell him that the mother whom he so fondly loved, who was so devoted to him, believes that God has heard and will answer her prayers in behalf of her dear boy. Tell him that seven times each day since he left home she has prayed specially for his salvation. Tell him she sends him this holy Bible; that she has marked special texts which she believes he will read because his mother marked them.

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Tell him my last request is that he will look to Jesus and pray for himself, and then all will be well for time and for eternity; then only can his mother's prayers be answered, and her darling be saved. Tell him that his mother has only gone on a little before him that he must, sooner or later, follow her to the other world; and tell him that she knows that his manly heart will yet swell with tender emotions of grateful love towards the Saviour who died for sinners, died for His enemies that all who believe in Him may be saved.'

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The heart-rending cries of the young soldier caused his uncle to cease speaking and to close the mother's message. Every eye there was weeping; every heart melted with sympathy. Each Christian joined in prayer with the old man for the conversion of that only child, so soon to join his mother. At last, after a severe struggle the stubborn will was subdued; and truly might it have been said of him, "Behold, he prayeth! Within three days from the time we first had our attention called to him by the foregoing incident he had paid the debt of nature. Before his spirit left its tenement of clay, he gave evidence of a hopeful change of heart, closing life with these words upon his lips: "Oh, how happily to me have my mother's prayers been answered!"

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"CALL UPON ME, AND I WILL ANSWER THEE, AND SHOW THEE GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS WHICH THOU KNOWEST NOT."

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WRITING THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

THEREFORE, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

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Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds. But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things; whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts."

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PRISONS DO NOT EXCLUDE GOD.

TRONG are the walls around me,

That hold me all the day;
But they who thus have bound me
Cannot keep God away:
My very dungeon walls are dear,
Because the God I love is here.

They know, who thus oppress me, "Tis hard to be alone,

But know not One can bless me,

Who comes through bars and stone; He makes my dungeon's darkness bright,

And fills my bosom with delight.

Thy love, O God, restores me
From sighs and tears to praise;
And deep my soul adores Thee,

Nor thinks of time or place.
I ask no more in good or ill,
But union with Thy holy will.

'Tis that which makes my treasure;
'Tis that which brings me gain;
Converting woe to pleasure,

And reaping joy from pain.
Oh! 'tis enough, whate'er befal,
To know that God is all in all.

[Madame Guyon, the writer of these lines, was imprisoned about ten years in the Bastile and other French prisons for holding doctrines contrary to the Church of Rome. During her imprisonment, she employed herself chiefly in writing hymns.]

A PRAYER FOR OUR CHILDREN.

ESUS, Thou wast once a child,
Meek, obedient, pure, and mild;
Such may our dear children be!
Teach them, Lord, to follow Thee.
Thou didst grow in grace and truth
Up from infancy to youth;
May we, Lord, our children see,
Striving thus to copy Thee.

Subject to Thy parents' word,

When their least command was heard,
May we, Lord, our children see
Thus obedient unto Thee.
At Thy heavenly Father's voice,
Thou in duty didst rejoice;
Changed by grace, O Lord, would we
See our children follow Thee!
From the MOTHERS' ALMANACK for 1876.

OUR CHILDREN.

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RAIN up a child in the way he should go." I would that this injunction were engraven on the heart of every one of you who may be a mother! Has it ever occurred to you to remember what a charge of responsibility is laid upon you by God when he gives you a child? The child is yours,-yours to tend, to mould, to educate; and, rely upon it, he will be very much what you make him. According to the seed we implant in his little pliable heart, so will the fruit be. The laws of nature teach us this. Sow good grain in the earth, and good grain will spring from it; flowers will come up flowers if we plant them, yielding in return their beauty and their perfume. But, if we plant noxious and poisonous plants, they can but come up such: if we plant nothing, but let the ground run to waste, there will be a desert of bare earth or a crop of ugly weeds. Jesus Christ Himself asks us whether we can grow grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles.

In every other respect a child is specially trained. He is taught to ride, to dance, to read, to write. He would never learn to read and write of himself. A child can thump upon the keys of a piano with his fingers, but he cannot play on it and bring out its harmony unless he learns how to play. Look at the process of his education,-how that goes on, step by step, from teacher to teacher. How much patient instruction,-and through how many years and degrees is that instruction necessary, before he is deemed fit to go out and take his part in life! Try and think of any calling-any business, trade, profession-which does not require special training-up to, and much practice, before it can be exercised. I know of none. A 'prentice-artisan takes seven years to learn his craft; a doctor must go through his books and his lectures and his hospitals, stage by stage; a statesman must begin at the foot of the political ladder to acquire the experience necessary to work his way to the top. Nothing can be acquired without going through some special training for it,-without work, practice, labour. Put a landsman to navigate a ship to the opposite side of the world; where would he and the ship soon be? But a practised sailor will take her out and home in safety.

Even so. There is only one thing that we do not train our children for, and that is,-heaven. Most carefully and anxiously do we educate them for this world,-and it is quite right that we should, but not at all for the next. We cultivate, as it is our bounden duty to do, the intellect and the physical powers and the mental capacities; but we let alone the soul. That is left (save perhaps for some little elementary instruction) to run along of itself, to take its own chance. And yet, heaven is to be our final home,

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