(To Christian Children.)
I WISH I had some money to give to God,” said Susie; “but I haven’t any.”
“God does not expect you to give Him what you have not,” said her papa, “but you have other things besides money. When we get home I will read something to you, which will make you see plainly what you may give to God.”
So after dinner they went to the library, and Susie’s papa took down a large book and made Susie read aloud, “I have this day been before God, and have given myself— all that I am and have—to God; so that I am in no respect my own. I have no right to this body, or any of its members; no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these ears; I have given myself clean away.”
“These are the words of a great and good man, who is now in heaven. Now you see what you have to give to God, my darling Susie.”
Susie looked at her hands and at her feet, and was silent. At last she said in a low voice, half to herself:
“I don’t believe God wants them.” Her papa heard her. “He does want them, and; He is looking at you now to see whether you will give them to Him, or keep them for yourself. If you give them to Him, you will be careful never to let them do anything naughty, and will teach them to do every good thing they can. If you keep them for yourself they will be likely to do wrong and to get into mischief.”
“Have you given yours to Him, Papa?” “Yes, indeed, long ago.”
“Are you glad?”
“Yes, very glad.”
Susie was still silent, she did not quite understand what it all meant.
“If you give your tongue to God,” said her papa, “you will not allow it to speak unkind angry words, or tell tales, or speak an untruth, or anything that would grieve God’s Holy Spirit.”
“I think I’ll give Him my tongue,” said Susie.
“And if you give God your hands you will watch them, and keep them from touching things that do not belong to, them. You will not let them be idle, but will keep them busy about something.”
“Well, then, I’ll give Him my hands,”
“And if you give Him your feet, you never will let them carry you where you ought not to go, and if you give Him your eyes, you will never, never let them look at anything you know He would not like to look at, if He were by your side.”
Then they knelt down together, and Susie’s papa prayed to God to bless all they had been saying, and to accept all she had now promised to give Him, and to keep her from ever forgetting her promise, but to make it her rule in all she said, and all she did, all she saw, and all she heard to remember— “I am not my own.”
And then he taught these lines:
“Oh, that mine eyes might closed be
To what concerns me not to see;
That deafness might possess my ear,
To what concerns me not to hear.
That truth my tongue might ever tie
From ever speaking foolishly,
That no vain thought might ever rest
Or be conceived within my breast;
That by each word and deed and thought
Glory may to my God be brought.”
ML 11/29/1903