Cherub
Never delay until to-morrow what you can do to-day.
Never trouble others for what you can do yourself.
Never spend your money before you have it.
Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap.
Pride costs more than hunger, thirst, or cold.
We never repent of having eaten too little.
Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
How much pains have those evils cost us which never happened!
Take things always by their smooth handle.
When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.
Hear as little as possible spoken against others; and believe nothing of the kind, until you are absolutely forced to believe it.
Always believe that if you heard what may be said on the other side of the question, a very different account of the matter might be given.
Do to others what you would have them do to you.
1. Every child must have observed how much happier and more beloved some children are than others. There are some children whom you always love to be with. They are happy themselves, and they make you happy.
2. There are others, whose society you always avoid. The very expression of their countenances produces unpleasant feelings. They seem to have no friends.
3. No person can be happy without friends. The heart is formed for love, and cannot be happy without the opportunity of giving and receiving affection.
4. But you cannot receive affection, unless you will also give it. You cannot find others to love you, unless you will also love them. Love is only to be obtained by giving love in return. Hence the importance of cultivating a cheerful and obliging disposition. You cannot be happy without it.
5. I have sometimes heard a girl say, "I know that I am very unpopular at school." Now, this is a plain confession that she is very disobliging and unamiable in her disposition.
6. If your companions do not love you, it is your own fault. They cannot help loving you, if you will be kind and friendly. If you are not loved, it is a good evidence that you do not deserve to be loved. It is true, that a sense of duty may, at times, render it necessary for you to do that which will be displeasing to your companions.
7. But, if it is seen that you have a noble spirit, that you are above selfishness, that you are willing to make sacrifices of your own personal convenience to promote the happiness of your associates, you will never be in want of friends.
8. You must not regard it as yourmisfortunethat others do not love you, but yourfault. It is not beauty, it is not wealth, that will give you friends. Your heart must glow with kindness, if you would attract to yourself the esteem and affection of those by whom you are surrounded.
9. You are little aware how much the happiness of your whole life depends upon the cultivation of an affectionate and obliging disposition. If you will adopt the resolution that you will confer favors whenever you have an opportunity, you will certainly be surrounded by ardent friends.
10. Begin upon this principle in childhood, and act upon it through life, and you will make yourself happy, and promote the happiness of all within your influence.
11. You go to school on a cold winter morning. A bright fire is blazing upon the hearth, surrounded with boys struggling to get near it to warm themselves. After you get slightly warmed, another school-mate comes in, suffering with cold. "Here, James," you pleasantly call out to him, "I am almost warm; you may have my place."
12. As you slip aside to allow him to take your place at the fire, will he not feel that you are kind? The worst dispositioned boy in the world cannot help admiring such generosity.
13. And even though he be so ungrateful as to be unwilling to return the favor, you may depend upon it that he will be your friend as far as he is capable of friendship. If you will habitually act upon this principle, you will never want friends.
14. Suppose, some day, you were out with your companions, playing ball. After you had been playing for some time, another boy comes along. He cannot bechosen upon either side, for there is no one to match him. "Henry," you say, "you may take my place a little while, and I will rest."
15. You throw yourself down upon the grass, while Henry, fresh and vigorous, takes your bat and engages in the game. He knows that you gave up to accommodate him; and how can he help liking you for it?
16. The fact is, that neither man nor child can cultivate such a spirit of generosity and kindness, without attracting affection and esteem.
17. Look and see which of your companions have the most friends, and you will find that they are those who have this noble spirit,—who are willing to deny themselves, that they may make their associates happy.
18. This is not peculiar to childhood. It is the same in all periods of life. There is but one way to make friends; and that is, by being friendly to others.
19. Perhaps some child, who reads this, feels conscious of being disliked, and yet desires to have the affection of his companions. You ask me what you shall do. I will tell you.
20. I will give you an infallible rule. Do all in your power to make others happy.Be willing to make sacrifices of your own convenience, that you may promote the happiness of others.
21. This is the way to make friends, and the only way. When you are playing with your brothers and sisters at home, be always ready to give them more than their share of privileges.
22. Manifest an obliging disposition, and they cannot but regard you with affection. In all your intercourse with others, at home or abroad, let these feelings influence you, and you will receive a rich reward.
1. You have never disobeyed your parents, or your teachers, or any who have been placed in authority over you, without being uncomfortable and unhappy! Obedience, in a child, is one of the most necessary qualities; for it protects him from all the evils of his want of experience, and gives him the benefit of the experience of others.
2. One fine summer's day, I went tospend an afternoon at a house in the country, where some young people were enjoying a holiday.
3. They were running cheerfully up and down a meadow, covered over with yellow crocuses, and other flowers; and I looked on them with delight, while they gamboled and made posies, as they felt disposed.
"Here sister with sister roamed over the mead,And brother plucked flow'rets with brother;And playmates with playmates ran on with such speedThat the one tumbled over the other."
4. Now, they all had been told to keep away from the ditch at the bottom of the field; but, notwithstanding this injunction, one little urchin, of the name of Jarvis, seeing a flower in the hedge on the opposite bank, which he wished to gather, crept nearer and nearer to the ditch.
5. The closer he got to the flower, the more beautiful it appeared to be, and the stronger the temptation became to pluck it.
6. Now, what right had he to put himself in the way of temptation? The field, as I said before, was covered over with flowers; and that in the hedge was no better than the rest, only it was a forbidden flower, and when anything is forbidden it becomes, on that very account, a greater temptation to a disobedient heart.
7. Jarvis had gathered a whole handful of flowers before he saw the one growing in the hedge; but he threw all these away, so much was his mind set on getting the one which he wanted.
8. Unluckily for him, in getting down the bank, his foot slipped, and down he rolled into a bed of stinging nettles, at the bottom of the ditch, which fortunately happened to have in it but little water.
9. Jarvis screamed out with might and main, as he lay on his back; for, whichever way he turned, his cheeks and his fingers brushed against the nettles.
In nettles
10. His cries soon brought his companions around him; but, as they were all young, they knew not how to render himassistance, on account of the stinging nettles, and the depth of the ditch.
11. I ran to the spot, and pulled up Master Jarvis in a pretty pickle, his jacket and trowsers plastered with mud, and his hands and face covered with blotches.
12. Here was the fruit of disobedience! And as it was with Jarvis, so will it be with every one who acts disobediently.
13. Whenever you feel a temptation to disobey God; to disobey his holy word; to disobey the admonitions of your own conscience; to disobey your parents, your teachers, or any in authority over you,—be sure that a punishment awaits you, if you do not resist it.
14. As you are not able to resist it in your own strength, ask God's assistance for Christ's sake, and it will not be withheld. Now, remember Jarvis, and the bed of stinging nettles!
15. The Bible tells us very plainly how much God sets his face against disobedience. "The children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord."
16. "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." Nor is it disobedience to God that is alone hateful in his sight; for disobedience to parents is spoken of as an evil thing, too.
17. "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out, and the young eagles shall eat it."
18. But I cannot bear to think that you are disobedient! I would rather consider you obedient in all things, and encourage you in holding on your way, obeying the will of God, and the word of all in authority over you.
"The Lord rules over sea and land,And blest indeed are theyWho all his counsels understand,And his commands obey."
19. I have often been struck with the simplicity with which some children obey their parents. This tractable disposition is very amiable in a child.
20. It was no longer ago than last week, that, in crossing a field, I overtook three children: one, a little girl of about five years old, was on the foot-path, and, just as I came up, her brother called her to him, where he was in the field.
21. "No, William," said the little maid; "my mother told me not to go off the foot-path, and it would be very wicked to disobey my mother."
22. I caught the little creature up in my arms; and having a small neat book in my pocket, suitable for a child, I gave it to her, and told her to remember that the reason why I gave it was, that she had been obedient to her mother.
"Though cares on cares in parent hearts be piled,Great is that blessing—an obedient child!"
23. Without obedience there can be no order. The man must obey his master, the maid her mistress, and the scholar his teacher. If you attend a Sunday-school, whatever class you are in, be obedient to your instructors, or you will make but little progress. By obedience you will learn faster, secure the respect of those about you, and set a proper example to those younger than yourself.
24. If you are in a place of work, be obedient to your employer. Those make the best masters and mistresses who have been the most obedient servants; for the discharge of one duty disposes us to perform another.
25. The best way to qualify yourselves to act well when grown up, is to act well while you are children.
1. There is a certain fault which almost all children have in a greater or less degree. It is called by different names; sometimes it is termed wilfulness, sometimes pertinacity, and sometimes it receives the still harsher name of obstinacy.
2. Almost all our faults are owing to the perversion or abuse of propensities originally good; and perseverance, when carried too far, or expended upon unworthy objects, becomes a troublesome infirmity.
3. Louisa and Emily had both something of this infirmity, but differing both in degree and in its mode of operation.
4. What are calledlittle thingsdid not trouble Emily at all; and, on the contrary, they troubled Louisa very much.
5. But, when anything did seem peculiarly desirable to Emily,—when she set her heart upon having her own way,—she carried her perseverance to a degree which deserved to be called obstinacy.
6. She couldgive up, as children term it, with less effort, and more grace, than most others; but if anything determined her not to give up, she was immovable.
7. "You are almost always in the right," my daughter, her father once said to her, "and Heaven preserve you from error; for when you once fall into it, you will be too apt to persevere."
8. It happened, at one time, that she and Louisa were having some nice sun-bonnets made. Emily went for them at the time when they were to be finished, and finding only one completed, immediately appropriated it to herself, because she was really in greater need of it than Louisa, who had one that answered her purpose very well.
9. Louisa resented this, because that, being the eldest, she considered herself as having the first right; but Emily could not be persuaded to give up, although Louisa's equanimity was very much disturbed on that account.
10. If it had been proposed to her beforehand to let Louisa have the bonnet voluntarily, she would not have hesitated, for she was not selfish; but when Louisa claimed it as a right, she resisted.
11. Her mother afterwards told her that she should always avoid irritating the peculiar humors of her companions. "You," said she, "would not have minded waiting for the other bonnet a day or two, but to Louisa it was quite a serious evil."
12. And here let me remark upon the proneness which all children have to magnify the importance of little things. A strife often arises among them, about just nothing at all, from a mere spirit of competition.
Strife
13. One says, "This is my seat." Another, who would not else have thought of desiring that particular seat, immediately regards it in the light of a prize, and exclaims, "No, I meant to have that seat; and I had it just before you took it."
14. Half a dozen claimants will appear directly, and perhaps get into a serious quarrel; whereas, had the reply been, in the first instance, "Very well, let it be your seat," there would have been an end to the matter.
15. But to return to Louisa. She magnified a thousand little things, of every day occurrence, in such a manner as proved a very serious inconvenience to herself.
16. She wished to have her potato sliced, but never mashed. She could not bear to see a door open a single moment; and, even if she were at her meals, and the closet door happened to stand ajar, she would jump up and fly to shut it, with the speed of lightning.
17. She could notendurethe feeling of gloves; nor could she any better endure to have her hat tied. Her aunt bore with all these follies a while, and then deliberately resolved to counteract them.
18. Louisa at first thought this was very hard and unreasonable. "Why can't I have my potato sliced, Aunt Cleaveland?" said she; "what hurt can it do? And why can't I shut the door when it is open? is there any harm in that?"
19. "Not at all, my dear, in the thing itself," Mrs. Cleaveland replied; "but there is a great deal of evil in having your tranquillity disturbed by things of such small moment.
20. "If you allow yourself to be distressed by trifles now, how will you bear the real trials of life, which you must inevitably sustain, sooner or later?
21. "By and by, you will find out that your suffering from these sources is all imaginary, and then you will thank me for having restrained you.
22. "Now, here is this nice dish of mashed potatoes, which we have every day. If such a little hungry girl as you are, since you have breathed our healthy mountain air, cannot eat it, and with relish too, I am greatly mistaken; and, in process of time, I have no doubt you will cease to observe whether the door is open or shut."
23. On the first day of trial, Louisa just tasted the potato, and left the whole of it upon her plate. Her aunt took no notice of this. The next day, Louisa came in to dinner after a long walk, and was very hungry.
24. There was but one dish of meat upon the table, and it was of a kind which she did not much like; so, forgetting all her repugnance to mashed potato, she ate it very heartily.
25. Mrs. Cleaveland, however, forbore to take any notice of this change; and it was not until after several weeks had elapsed, and Louisa had ceased to think of the distinction between sliced potato and mashed potato, that her aunt reminded her of the importance which she had formerly attached to the former.
26. "Now, my dear Louisa," said Mrs. Cleaveland, "since you find the task is not so very difficult as you apprehended, promise me that you will try to cure yourself of all these little infirmities; for such I must term them.
27. "There is so much real suffering in life, that it is a pity to have any which is merely imaginary; and though, while you are a little girl, living with indulgent friends, your whims might all be gratified, a constant and uniform regard to them will be impossible by and by, when you are old enough to mingle with the world."
1. I will tell you a little story about a young and good king. He was king of England more than two hundred and eighty years ago. His name was Edward, and, because there had been five kings before him of the name of Edward, he was called Edward the Sixth.
2. He was only nine years old when he began to reign. He was early taught to be good, by pious teachers, and he loved to dowhat they told him would please God. He had a great reverence for the Bible, which he knew contained the words of his Father in heaven.
Child Edward
3. Once, when he was quite a young child, he was playing with some children about his own age. He wished much to reach something which was above his head. To assist him, they laid a large, thick book in a chair, for him to step on. Just as he was putting his foot upon it, he discovered it to be the Bible.
4. Drawing back, he took it in his arms, kissed it, and returned it to its place. Turning to his little playmates, he said, with a serious face,—"Shall I dare to treadunder my feet that which God has commanded me to keep in my heart?"
5. This pious king never forgot his prayers. Though the people with whom he lived were continually anxious to amuse him, and show him some new thing, they never could induce him to omit his daily devotions.
6. One day he heard that one of his teachers was sick. Immediately, he retired to pray for him. Coming from his prayers, he said, with a cheerful countenance, "I think there is hope that he will recover. I have this morning earnestly begged of God to spare him to us."
7. After his teacher became well, he was told of this; and he very much loved the young king for remembering him in his prayers.
8. Edward the Sixth died when he was sixteen years old. He was beloved by all, for his goodness and piety. His mind was calm and serene in his sickness.
9. If you are not tired of my story, I will tell you part of a prayer which he used often to say, when on his dying bed.
10. "My Lord God, if thou wilt deliver me from this miserable life, take me among thy chosen. Yet not my will, but thy will, be done. Lord, I commit my spirit unto thee. Thou knowest how happy it werefor me to be with thee. Yet, if thou shouldst send me life and health, grant that I may truly serve thee."
11. Children, you should do like King Edward, reverence your Bible, and love to pray to God.
1. "Mother," said little Frank, "I wish you would tell me what it means to be tempted. I heard you say, the other day, that people are tempted to do many wicked things;—pray tell me, mother, if such a little boy as I am is ever tempted?"
2. "Yes, my child, every day you live; and when I have told you what temptation is, I think you will confess that you have not only been tempted, but often yielded to temptation.
3. "To be tempted, means to be drawn by the offer of present pleasure to do what is wrong. There are many kinds of temptation, and I think you will understand me better if I give you an instance.
4. "You know, my dear Frank, that both your father and I have forbidden yourgoing to the pond where your cousin Henry was drowned, because we think it very dangerous for you to venture there. But you also know that the other day you went, and suffered severely afterward for your disobedience."
5. "Yes, mother," said Frank; "but then I should not have gone, if William Brown had not showed me his pretty ship, just as I was coming out of school, and asked me to go see him launch it; and oh, mother, if you had only seen it!
6. "It had masts and sails, just like arealship; and on the deck a little man, which William called the captain. And then, when it was on the water, it sailed along so sweetly!—the pond was as smooth as a looking-glass, so that we could see two little ships all the time.
7. "I didn't think of disobeying you, mother; I only thought of the pretty ship, and that there could be no harm in seeing William sail it."—"The harm, my dear son (as you call it)," said his mother, "was not in sailing the boat,—this is an innocent pleasure in itself; but it was doing it after it had been forbidden by your parents, that made it wrong.
8. "The temptation to disobedience came in the form of a little ship. You were drawn by it to the pond, the forbidden spot. You saw it sail gayly off, and stood on the bank delighted."
9. "But, mother," interrupted Frank, "I shouldn't have got into the water and muddied my clothes, if the little ship hadn't got tangled in the weeds; and the boys all shouted, Clear her! Clear her! and I couldn't help stepping in, I was so near; and my foot slipped, and I fell in."
10. "Yes," said his mother, "and but for assistance of your play-fellows, you might have been drowned. But God, whose eye was upon you all the while, saw fit to spare you; and how thankful you ought to be that he did not take you away in your disobedience!
11. "You now see how you were tempted, first to go with William Brown to the pond, and then to step into the water; which shows how one temptation leads to another. But did not something within you, my son, tell you, while there, that you were doing wrong to disobey your parents?"
12. "No, mother; I do not recollect that it did. I'm sure I did not think a word about it till I was alone in bed, and was asking my heavenly Father to take care of me. Then something seemed to say, 'Frank, you have done wrong to-day.'
13. "And I felt how wicked I had been,and could not ask God to forgive me till I had confessed all to you. I knew you were away when I came home, and I thought you hadn't returned.
14. "I was so unhappy that I called Betsy, and told her how I felt. She told me it was an accident, and no matter at all; that she had taken care of my clothes, and she believed you would never know anything about it.
15. "But all this was no comfort to me; the something within would not be quiet. If it had spoken to me in the same way when I first saw the little ship, I think I should not have gone to the pond."
16. "Frank," said his mother, "this something within, which is conscience, did then speak, but you did not listen to its voice. The voice of temptation was louder, and you obeyed it, just as you followed some noisy boys, the other day, though I was calling to you, 'Frank, come back.'
17. "I spoke louder than usual, and at any other time you would have heard my voice; but you were too much attracted by the boys to listen to me.
18. "Temptation makes us deaf to the voice within; and yielding to temptation, as you see, my son, leads us into sin; and this is why we pray, in the Lord's prayer, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliverus from evil,' which is sin, for there is no greater evil than sin.
19. "It is to keep us from this great evil that God has given us this voice within, to warn us not to follow temptation, though the sin appear but a trifling one, and though it hold out the promise of pleasure, as the little ship did."
1. "I will name some of the temptations to which little boys are a good deal exposed, and yield to without thinking, and sometimes without knowing to what they may lead.
2. "Sometimes the temptation to steal comes in the form of some beautiful fruit; perhaps in his father's garden, which he has been forbidden to touch; or perhaps in an orchard far from the eye of the owner, where he might take it without fear of being seen; and he says to himself, 'No one will ever know it; I will take only a few.'
3. "But does he forget that the eye of God is upon him, and does he not hear the voice of conscience saying, 'Thou shalt notsteal!' He would shudder to be called a thief; but taking what does not belong to us, be it ever so small a thing, is stealing.
4. "And when detected, he is tempted to lie, to conceal his fault and avoid punishment; and here again we see how one sin leads to another. The temptations to cruelty are many. Sometimes they appear in the form of a bird's nest, placed by a fond and loving mother on the high bough of a tree, to secure her young brood from danger.
5. "The boy, in his rambles in the woods, sees the nest, climbs the tree, and, though the little birds are too feeble to fly, and the anxious mother flutters round, as if to entreat the cruel boy to spare her little ones, he is unmindful of her tenderness, and, thinking only of his prize, bears it off to his companions, who enjoy it with him.
6. "Here is a sinful feeling indulged, which, if not subdued, may lead to murder. I wish you to remember, my dear boy, that it is by allowing ourselves to commit little sins that we become great sinners.
7. "You would be frightened if you could have placed before you a picture of the course of sin. You would exclaim, What a monster!—he must never come near me,—it is dangerous even to look onhim! Let me entreat you, then, my son, to guard against temptation.
Up a Tree
8. "If you say to temptation, as you would to a wicked companion, who had often led you into mischief, 'Go away; I do not like your company,' temptation, though for a while it may plead to be indulged, will soon do as the wicked companion would, if often sent away with such a reproof, discontinue to come; or, if found in your company, will not harm you; for conscience, like a good friend, will be ever near; and your blessed Saviour, who has promised to help those who are tempted, will assist you to overcome temptation.
9. "I hope now you understand what itmeans to be tempted."—"I think I do, mother," said Frank, "and I thank you for telling me so much about temptation. I shall never again repeat the Lord's prayer without thinking what it means, and I hope God will keep me from the great evil of sin." He then kissed his mother, and she promised to tell him, some other time, how we are tempted by sinful thoughts.
Conversation with Mother
1. It was not long after Frank had the conversation with his mother upon thetemptation to sinful actions, that he claimed her promise to tell him how we may be tempted to sinful thoughts.
2. It was Sunday evening. Frank and his mother were sitting alone together at a window which opened upon a flower-garden, rich in the hues with which God has seen fit to adorn this beautiful part of creation.
3. "You have been at church to-day, my son," said his mother; "and to my eye you did nothing offensive, for you sat still during the sermon, and appeared engaged with your book during the prayers.
4. "I saw only theoutwardpart; but remember there was an eye of infinite purity looking upon your heart, and seeing the thoughts that were passing there. You only can tell if they were fit to meet that eye."
5. Frank looked down; for, like most children, he was not apt to examine either his thoughts or motives, but was well satisfied if he gained the approbation of his parents.
6. His mother, seeing he was struggling to disclose something, said, "You are an honest boy, Frank, and do not, I trust, wish to conceal the truth from your mother. If you have received my approbation for correct conduct, you certainly cannot enjoy it, if you feel that it is not deserved."
7. "That is what troubles me, mother," said Frank; "for, while I was sitting so still, and you thought I was attending to the sermon, I was all the while watching a pretty little dog, that was running from pew to pew, trying to find his master; and when he got on the pulpit step, and rolled off, I came so near laughing that I was obliged to put my handkerchief to my mouth, and make believe to cough.
8. "I kept my eye upon him till church was done, and thought, if I could see him at the door, I would try to make him follow me home, and keep him.
9. "I feel now, mother, that all this was very wrong, and that these naughty thoughts tempted me to break God's holy Sabbath."
10. "I am glad you feel this, my son; for, besides being sinful to desire to have the little dog, which was coveting what belonged to another, the time and place in which you indulged the thought was the breaking of that commandment which says, 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'"
11. "But, mother," asked Frank, impatiently, "how shall I keep these thoughts out? They come before I know it. Sometimes a boy has a new suit of clothes on, and I cannot help looking at him; andsometimes the girls will play with their gloves, and tie and untie their bonnets; and sometimes the little children get to sleep, and I can't help watching them, to see if they will not slip off the seat.
12. "I think, mother, if we did not sit in the gallery, I shouldn't see so many things to tempt me to wicked thoughts in church."
13. "If I really believed this myself, Frank, I should think it important to change our seat: but the mischief does not lie here; it is in your heart.
14. "If this were right, and you really loved God and his service, the thought of his presence would keep out these troublesome intruders; not altogether, my son, for the best of people are sometimes subject to wandering thoughts; but it is a temptation which they overcome, by turning their attention immediately to the services, and by taking their eyes from the object that drew away their thoughts from God."
1. "If some great king, who loved his people, and was continually giving themsome good things, should appoint a day when he would meet his subjects, rich and poor, young and old, and should declare to them how they may best please him; and a person should be appointed to read to them, from a book he had himself written, directions for their conduct; and that, as a reward for obedience, should promise they should be admitted to his palace, where nothing that could trouble them should ever be allowed to enter—"
2. "Why, mother," exclaimed Frank, "I should so admire to see a king, that I should be willing to do everything he required; and should be afraid, all the time, of doing something he did not like, while in his presence. I should keep looking at him all the time, to see if he were pleased;—but go on, mother."
3. "Well, my son, suppose this great person, who is also good, should keep a book in which he noted down all your actions, and even looks; and, on a certain day which he had appointed, and which was known to himself, should call together a great multitude of people, his friends and yours, and should read to them all that he had written there,—do you think you would be careless or indifferent what was written against your name?"
4. "O no, mother! I should be so anxious that I should want to hide myself, for fear something should be read that I should be ashamed of,—something very bad. But, mother, no king ever did this, that you know of. If he did, pray tell me more about him; and if his subjects were not all good and obedient."
5. "I have heard of a king, my son, who has done more than this; but not an earthly king. Earthly kings are limited in their power; for they are but men. But the king of whom I speak is the Lord of the whole earth."
6. "Do you mean God, mother?"—"I do, my son. You have told me how you should behave in the presence of an earthly king on the day he should appoint to meet his people; and would you treat with less reverence and respect him who is the King of kings and Lord of lords?
7. "Can you, on entering his house, say, 'The Lord is in his holy temple,' and feel no desire to meet him there; but allow any trifle that meets your eye to carry your thoughts away? Do you, when his holy book is read, feel no desire to hear the directions he has given to lead you to your heavenly home?
8. "And when the petitions are sent up imploring his blessings, and asking his forgiveness, have you none to offer? Areyou so blest as to have nothing to ask, and so good as to need no forgiveness?
9. "O my son, be careful how you neglect these gracious privileges! And when his ministers, whom he has appointed to declare his will,—to instruct you out of his word,—preach to you from the sacred pulpit, will you turn a deaf ear, and lose their instructions, and at the same time displease your heavenly Father?
10. "This great and powerful king is also your father and friend. He loves you more than any earthly friend. He is willing to hear all your petitions, and is even more ready to give than we are to ask. He has appointed one day in seven in which to meet us, and this is the Sabbath, about the keeping of which we are now talking.
11. "And he has also appointed a day in which he will judge the world, from the book which he has kept of our accounts.
12. "On that day there will be assembled a great multitude, which no man can number, out of every kindred and tongue; great and small, good and bad. You and I will be there, my son.
13. "There will be the minister and his people, the Sunday-school teacher and his scholars, all to receive either the sentence, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,' or, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting punishment.'"
14. Frank was moved by this representation of the consequences of his neglect of the duties he owed his heavenly Father, and said, "O, how sad it would be, how dreadful, if, on that day I should be sent to dwell forever where God is not, and where you and father are not!"
15. "Dreadful, indeed, my son, would be such a separation; and when you think of this, let it make you more earnest to serve and please God; for Jesus Christ, who came upon earth once to die for us all, and will come again to judge the earth, has gone to prepare mansions in heaven for those who love him, that they may dwell with him forever in perfect happiness.
16. "Let us now, my son, pray to our heavenly Father to prepare us for this blessedness, that where he is, there we may be also." Frank and his mother knelt together, and offered up the following prayer:—
PRAYER FOR GOOD THOUGHTS.
17. Almighty and most merciful Father! teach us thy will, that we may know how to please thee. Put good thoughts into our hearts, and right words into our lips, that our services may be such as thou wilt please to accept.
18. Forgive, we pray thee, the sins we have committed this day, in thought, word, or deed, and make us truly sorry on account of them. Help us to love thee more, and serve thee better, for the time to come.