Ladder to Heaven.
A certain man, an office bearer in the church which he attended, had a dream one night. He dreamed that he saw a ladder, standing on the earth but apparently stretching up to the sky. He dreamed that he was ascending this ladder, and that its steps were composed of all the good things that he had done. When he thought of all the services that he had attended, he felt he was ascending rapidly. Then he thought of all the money he had contributed to the offertories, and that made him feel that he was getting quite near to heaven. But as he climbed he noticed that the ladder began to sway. He went on climbing, thinking of his good, moral life, and his gifts to the poor and needy but the ladder swayed more and more. It seemed to be getting top-heavy. By and by, as he continued climbing, the ladder fell to the ground with a crash, and the dreamer awoke with a cry on his lips: “My God! It was not hooked on at the top!”
Lamp of Christian Life.
In Southern Germany is a little chapel far up on a hill. It is called ‘The House of Many Lamps.’ It is said that 400 years ago a nobleman built it and purposely omitted to provide it with lights. “Each person must bring his own light,” he said. One asked: “What if someone does not bring one?” “Then some corner in God’s house will be dark,” he replied. To this day the villagers go up the hill to that chapel, each carrying his own lamp. Is our local church one of many lamps? Do we always bring our contribution of joy and worship?
Laughter—God’s.
S— was a tap dancer comedian.
He was a top-notcher, drew a large salary, and was greatly in demand. He lived a thoughtless, careless, heedless life and was interested only in making people laugh. His actions, his queer jests, and unusual quips kept the audience in an uproar.
But trouble came into his life. Those he loved the most grew to care for him the least. Sorrow filled his soul. Disappointment crushed his spirit; still he must make the people laugh in order to have an income.
One day he passed a store room. He heard music coming from this room. He heard a beautiful song which seemed to soothe his heart somewhat. He paused to listen but did not enter. The words struck home to his heart and reminded him most forcibly of his need of the Savior. He went to his room in the hotel, found a Bible, opened it at random since he did not know where to read, and found the second Psalm lying before his eyes. He read the Psalm and was greatly struck with verse four. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” He remembered that he was making the people laugh; that was his business. But this was strange. God would be laughing at him some day when distress overwhelmed his soul. Somehow or other, the Holy Spirit used this thought to send him to his knees and there he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ of Whom he had heard in his boyhood days.
Now he is making people’s hearts glad with his messages about his living Lord. He lost his position, he gave up his salary, but he has been loyal to the One who put a song in his heart.
Laughter—Its Danger.
A coroner’s jury decided that a hearty laugh over a dinner-table joke led to the death of a man in Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
“His stomach was filled with food,” said the coroner, “and created a pressure on his heart which caused it to stop beating when he leaned forward during his laugh.”
And so the poor man literally laughed himself to death. Others are actually laughing themselves to death spiritually. They are trying to get all the fun they can out of this life, and they care little about what happens to them after this brief life is over.
Law and Liberty.
In London streets may be seen three kinds of dog:
(1) The dog that has liberty but no law; the stray dog that runs about with no master and no home. It may think it is having a good time but it is liable any day to be caught by the police and killed.
(2) The dog that has law but no liberty. It is led by a chain fastened to a collar round its neck. It is always pulled back when it wants to run after other dogs, or across the street.
(3) The dog that knows the law of liberty. When taken out, he does not say: “Off I go, you see me no more.” He bounds to and fro, but ever returns to his master. To all appearances, he is as free as the air. Yet in reality he is bound by a stronger chain than any sold in an ironmonger’s shop, the invisible chain of affection.
Dr. A. T. SCHOFIELD
Leading Men to Christ.
Away over in China, in the province of Hunan, it was the custom of the missionaries at regular intervals to hold a service to which beggars were invited. It was customary at the close of each service to present each beggar with a gift, taking care to see that no man received two presents. At the close of one such service, almost the last to leave was an aged and totally blind man. It was pathetic to see the vacant stare as he held out his empty hands. First, he stretched them out in front of an attendant, but he had no gift for him. Then he stretched them out to another missionary, but he also had no gift. Then he stretched them out to another missionary, but he also had no gift. Again and again, the eager hands were stretched out, but his efforts were unavailing. At last, a young lady worker, perceiving the old man’s plight, laid a gentle hand on his arm and led him to the side of the one who was distributing the gifts. Thus she took the hand that groped and led it to the hand that gave. That is exactly what the preacher of the Gospel tries to do.
Learn How.
A small boy, skating, had many falls. A friend said to him: “You must be hurting yourself; why not come off?” Tears were rolling down the boy’s cheeks, but he struggled to his feet and said: “I didn’t get new skates to give up with. I got them to learn how with.”
Life—a Clock.
Our life is like the dial of a clock. The hands of God pass over us again and again. The short hand is the hand of discipline; the long hand is the hand of mercy. Slowly and surely the hand of discipline moves over us; but the hand of mercy, which moves over it, moves twelve times as swiftly. Both hands are fastened to one secure pivot—the unchanging heart of God, who is Love.
Life—a Controlled.
A negro on ship during the war was asked by another: “Whar you gwine?” The other answered: “I ain’t gwine. I’se being took!”
Life—a Crucified.
In South America some engineering works had to be abandoned because of malaria. Before leaving, the engineers set fire to a broad belt of land, hoping thus to cleanse the infected area. For months it was smoldering. Two years after, workmen returned to resume operations, and were surprised to find the blackened ground covered with a new and unknown type of plant with an exquisite blue flower, Specimens were gathered and sent to the Botanical Gardens at Washington and elsewhere, but no one could identify this apparent product of the action of the fire—a crucified, cauterized life.
H. ST. JOHN
Life—a Day at a Time.
“I can remember once,” says an old man, “when I was a little boy, helping mother to store away apples. I put my arms round ever so many of them and tried to carry them all. I managed for a step or two. Then out fell one, and another, and two or three more, till they were all rolling over the floor. Mother laughed. ‘Now, Daniel,’ she said, ‘I am going to teach you a lesson.’ So she put my little hands tight round one apple. ‘There,’ she said, ‘carry that, then fetch another.’” Don’t go trying to put your arms round a year! Nor even try to carry a whole week! Say to yourself: “Another day has come. Lord, help me to live it for Thee. Help me to cleanse my way and walk in Thy fear, just today.”
Life—Eagle.
A pair of captive eagles in U.S.A., captured when two weeks’ old, were kept in a large cage. They grew into huge birds. Some boys opened the cage when the owner was away. The eagles got out, but had never learned to fly. One fell into a stream, and both were killed by the boys. How different from eagle life as God planned it!
Life—Future Review of.
A rich landlord cruelly oppressed a poor widow. Her son, a boy of eight, knew. He became a painter, and painted a picture of the dark scene. Years after, he set it where the oppressor saw it. He turned pale, trembled, and offered to buy it at any cost.. There is an invisible painter depicting on his canvas all the passions and deeds of our history on earth. We must meet our earth-life again.
Bate’s Illustrations
Life—Hollow Attractions of.
Some workmen were excavating and came across a very old coffin. Lifting the lid, they saw the beautiful face of a lady. They bent their heads to examine more carefully such a wonderful example of preservation, and their very breath blew the face into dust. So much seems attractive, but a gust of wind from the realm of reality reveals its frailty.
Life—Influence of a Christian.
“Experience had proved over and over again that the most potent influence for spreading the saving truths of Christianity... was not the preaching of the missionary or his trained assistants, but the altered lives and humble witnessing of unsalaried, often illiterate, native brethren.”
Dr. W. CAMPBELL
Life—Lived for Others.
Browning has a story of one, Ferishta, who earnestly sought to know God’s will for his life. He saw an eagle circling round its nest, dropping food into the open mouth of an eaglet. He said: “I am to open my mouth wide, and God will fill it.” So he gave himself much to prayer and meditation. But all seemed to go wrong. He dreamed an angel came and asked what he was doing. Ferishta told him about the eagle and his conclusion. The angel said: “You have quite misunderstood. You are to be the eagle, not the eaglet. Go and live for the good of others.”
Life—Meaning of.
A preacher held up before his audience a text worked with silks on perforated cardboard, with its back towards the people. All they could see was a tangled mass of various colored silk threads. Then he turned the face of the text towards them and they read: “God is Love.”
Life—Pattern.
In the Palace of Justice, Rome, there is a remarkable room. The ceiling, walls and floors are covered with frescoes, strange, grotesque, and lacking in harmony; just a bewildering mass of confusion. But there is one spot on the floor where, when you stand there; everything falls into place, and the artist’s conception stands out in perfect perspective and beauty.
S. D. GORDON
Life—Plan of.
The engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge was confined to bed when the bridge was in process of construction. Day by day, looking from his window, he saw its piers rise, and the spider’s web of cables cunningly formed. It had all been planned, and held in his mind’s eye. And when it was finished, being asked how it looked, he said: “It is precisely what I expected it to be.”
Life—Possibilities for Christ.
An artist, imprisoned on a false charge, was allowed to have his brushes and paints, but had nothing on which to paint. He asked for something, and they tossed him an old, dirty handkerchief. On it he painted what he conceived to be the face of Jesus. When finished he showed it to a man. Its marvelous sweetness touched his heart and tears ran down his cheeks. What might Christ do with our poor soiled lives if we handed them over to Him?
Life—Proper Estimate of.
A Christian had a Latin word, ‘Linquenda,’ meaning ‘Someday I must leave it behind,’ inscribed in letters of gold above the portal of his house. That seems to be a suitable word to apply to everything that here below we call our own. Are you in possession of a house? Write Linquenda on it, someday I must leave it! Are you in possession of a safe with treasure? Write Linquenda on it, I must leave it! Student, write it over your library; shopkeeper, write it on your shop; captain, write it on your ship; bride, write it on your trousseau.
Life—Ruined.
A magnificent forest giant lay prostrate after a storm. The trunk was hollow. For years it had only been the shell of a tree. A worm had eaten its way into its heart, and laid its eggs. Soon hundreds of worms were eating away its life. When a man crashes, it is the result of a long process of self-indulgence in some sinful thing—an idol.
Life—Second-best.
D. L. Moody, when living at Evanston, asked his small daughter if she would like to go to Chicago with him. When there, she espied a basket full of little china dolls, 11 inches long, in the front of a store. She begged her father to buy her one. He said: “You don’t want one of these miserable little dolls.” She persisted, and finally he got one for her. Then he said, “Why do you think. I asked you to come to Chicago with me? To get you a big doll with flaxen hair and blue eyes; one that would go to sleep, and say Papa and Mama?”
“Oh, I should like that; do get one for me.”
“No; you have your little china doll. You have had your own way.”
Life—Something lacking in.
Two men, one a famous musician (a violinist), the other the inventor of the screw-propeller (for steamers) were friends in early life, but drifted apart, and did not meet again till both were famous. The musician invited the inventor to hear him play. He declined, saying he had no time to waste for music. Repeated invitations met with the same result. Finally the musician said: “If you won’t come, I’ll bring my violin down to your shop and play.” The inventor laughingly replied: “If you do, I’ll smash it to pieces.”
One day the musician called at the inventor’s workshop. He removed the strings and called the inventor’s attention to certain defects, asking about the scientific and acoustic principles involved. Finally, to illustrate his meaning and questions he replaced the strings and began to play. The workmen dropped their tools and listened with wonder. The musician played on and on. By and by the inventor lifted his bowed head. His eyes were moist, and he said softly: “Play on; don’t stop. I never knew before what it was that was lacking in my life.”
Life—Tangle Unraveled.
A story is told of a king who encouraged his people to weave, telling them to come to him in any difficulty. At the end of the day, all but one had made many mistakes. “How did you manage to do it so correctly?” they asked. “Because I went to the king directly I found a little tangle.”
Life—Under God’s Control.
You have stood in some great railway station and seen trains arriving and departing every few minutes and wondered perhaps at the quiet confidence of the driver as his engine rolled out into the darkness through a labyrinth of rails and crossings. But you understood why. Everything was laid down for him. He had only to obey his signal and keep his engine going. The track was laid. The care of the switches and signal lights was for others, not for him. His part was only to go forward, and stop when bidden. Someone will say, perhaps: “I don’t like that picture. It takes away my independence, my freedom of will. It leaves me little to say about my own life.” Well, suppose we change the picture. Imagine the train going out of the station without regard to any timetable, any prearrangement of time and track by which it shall proceed. Have you bettered the case? Is a man any better, more dignified, or more secure, striking out into the world on his own responsibility, and with only his own wisdom? What is the meaning of the innumerable wrecks that we encounter on every hand? There are no wrecks along the lines or in the lives in which God has complete control.
Life—Unyielding.
There was a farmer who, in his early days, was engaged in transport-riding. On one occasion he met a man who offered him a large farm in exchange for a wagon and span of oxen. It seemed a small thing to ask in exchange for a farm, but my friend did not consider the farm worth even that; so he hugged tightly his own little possession. Today, in his old age, he is in just a comfortable way, but no more. On what he believes to be the same despised farm, however, now stands the great and wealthy city of Johannesburg—the ‘Golden City.’ And it might have been my friend’s. It might have been—if only he had yielded his little all.
Life—Ways of.
Dr. Macmillan has left it on record that, when he was a boy, there were two ways of going to the village school. One was by dusty roads, the other through fields where sweet flowers grew. There was no need to ask a boy by which way he went to school. If he went by the road his shoes and clothes were dusty; if by the fields, he carried in his garments something of the fragrance of the flowers.
Life—Ways of.
Lot had to choose; so do we. We have ascended the hill YOUTH and tried to get a bird’s eye view of the plain called LIFE. Three main roads lead to it and through it. The WAY OF THE WORLD offers prospect of wealth, pleasure, ease. The conditions are, we must accept the world’s standards and values, and acknowledge her ruling on all questions of conduct. There is the WAY OF SELF. In this there are no restrictions; unhindered ‘self-expression,’ every choice and action dictated by self-interest. There is the WAY OF CHRIST; it may be a difficult path, one of reproach, self-denial, loss, but it is the way of peace and joy; of purpose in life which is really worthwhile; of His friendship and a great future reward.
Life—Well Directed.
A sea captain has his moments of anxiety, but he would never dream of relying on his feelings as to the course of his vessel. By the chart he judges where he ought to be; by the sun he judges where he is. And these tests may either confirm his feelings or reverse them.
GEO. CUTTING
Life—With and Without God.
Captain Prior of the Church. Army, was visiting prisoners in Maidstone Prison infirmary and was asked if he would like to see Horatio Bottomley. He asked Mr. Bottomley if he would mind if he told him the story of his conversion. “Not at all; fire away.” Captain Prior went on: “I was at a meeting in Bristol during a mission conducted by Canon Hay Aitken. I felt I must decide to accept the call of God, and came to Christ as my Savior.” Horatio Bottomley then said: “That is most remarkable; I was at that meeting and was impressed with the necessity of deciding. I decided to go my own way, and have lived my life without God. It has been a wasted life, as one without God must be.” “Would you be prepared to sign a statement to that effect?” “Yes,” and he wrote: “A life lived without God is a wasted life,” and signed it.
Lights in Line—Guidance of.
Near a big lighthouse a visitor saw a small, black iron pillar. “It also is a light-bearer,” said the keeper, “and in that iron basket at the top a fire is kept burning when the fishing boats are expected home.” “But surely,” said the visitor, “it cannot be necessary to have a small, insignificant light like that when there is this powerful light in the lighthouse.” “The little light,” replied the keeper, “helps to make even the lighthouse more useful. When the little light is in a line with the bright light, they know they are steering straight for the harbor entrance.”
Light—Moral Influence of.
Gaslight was first introduced in 1807, but was greatly opposed. It was, however, declared that it had done more for the reduction of crime than all the laws passed by Parliament since the days of King Alfred.
Light of the Holy Spirit.
A girl, aged sixteen, had suffered all her life from partial blindness. At last a delicate operation was performed, and she gained perfect sight. How strange everything seemed! One evening, a week after her recovery, she went into the open-air after nightfall. She quickly ran back into the house, the joy of a great discovery lighting up her face. “Oh, come out quickly,” she exclaimed, “and see what beautiful things have appeared in the sky.” Her friends hastily followed her out, wondering what she had seen. They saw nothing unusual. “What do you mean?” they asked her. “Look, don’t you see those bright things sparkling all over the sky?” “My dear child,” said one, “those are the stars.” Till her eyes were opened she had never seen them. Just so, God’s Holy Spirit is a bright and shining light. Not till He shines into men’s hearts can they see His truth, love, and holiness.
Light—Giving and Absorbing.
A man bought a radiolite watch, so that he might tell the time in the dark. The hands and figures were covered with some white substance. He tried it out in a dark closet, and the hands and figures could only be seen very dimly. That evening he laid it, face upward, under an electric light for three or four hours. When he switched off the light, hands and figures were blazing. During the night he looked at it several times. There was no doubt about its showing the time in the dark. But to give light, it had first to absorb light.
Light-Giving—Effect of Collective.
In the Province of Auckland, New Zealand, is to be found one of the natural wonders of the world. This is the Waitomo Cave, which is wonderfully rich in stalactite and stalagmite formations and is actually lighted by millions of glow-worms! Hundreds of tourists visit the cave every year to catch a glimpse of this amazing sight of living illumination made by Nature’s strange creatures, for the insects line the roof and do not twinkle. Glow-worms and fireflies are, of course, common enough in all tropical districts where it is sometimes possible to read a newspaper by the light they give off; but there is nothing on earth so marvelous as the New Zealand cave which is lighted by millions of little creatures.
The lesson is obvious. We may each have a very little light to give out, but if each Christian in a community shines in conjunction with the others there will be a brilliant glow which even the most adverse critic will not be able to gainsay.
Likeness to Christ.
A girl at a college in U.S.A. had beautiful auburn hair, and could sit down at a canvas with paint and brushes and sketch anything, so easily. The other girls asked: “How did you get that lovely head of hair?” And she would tell them what she washed it with, etc.
Then they asked how she did those sketches, and she said she practiced forever so long. One day her mother came to visit Dora. When she got off the train, here was the same auburn hair. The girls looked at Dora and said: “Now we know where you got it!” The mother sat in the room with her pencil, while three of the girls were singing, and made a perfect picture of them. They said: “Now we know where you got it!” One look at Christ will tell you where I got all I have!
PAUL RADER
Link—the Vital.
I once read of two workmen who, tired after their day’s work, arrived at a railway station and seated themselves in the first carriage they came to. After a few minutes a porter came along and said: “Go farther up the train, please.” Unwilling to be disturbed, they replied: “Why can’t we stay here?” “You can stay there if you like,” answered the porter, “but you won’t get anywhere, because you are not linked on to anything that matters.”
Litter of Life.
Sometimes when Spring is drawing on, a strange sight may be seen in some of the great forests of Eastern Europe. Great heaps of litter have accumulated, which choke the new, pulsing life below. The foresters set fire to all this dry litter. The trees are guarded against injury, while all the useless undergrowth and scattered leaves are burned up. When rain falls, millions of seedlings in the ground, no longer suffocated by the rubbish, spring up and carpet the ground with color and verdure. The blessing and help of God are always for us, but sometimes they are too suffocated by the things with which we are occupied for us to be able to respond. Then God helps by sending His fire, some fiery trial that consumes the rubbish, and frees the throbbing life of the soul.
Look—No Upward.
Walking by the seashore in St. Kitts, C. F. Brown noticed a peculiar appliance used for catching fish, a large wicker cage capable of holding many fish. There was a large opening in the middle. This ‘pot’ is placed in the sea with bait in it. Mr. Brown asked the fisherman: “Do they stay in it?” for it looked as if it were the easiest thing to get out again. They had only to look up and swim straight out. “Yes,” said the man, “but they never look up; they swim about in the pot and dash themselves against its side, but they never look up.”
Look up!
A young officer was going through his drill at the riding school; he had been lately converted. He was known as No. 2. As he was trotting round he heard the riding master call out: “No. 2, look up! Hold up your head, No. 2.” As the young officer pulled himself together and looked up, he thought: “Here is an unsaved man telling me, the son of a king, to look up! I will indeed look up and praise my Lord.” And so he did, from that moment on.
Lordship of Christ.
Jesus is sometimes trusted as Savior, but not fully recognized as Lord. He is taken on board more as a passenger than as Captain of the ship. The Captain has authority from stem to stern; everything about the vessel and her voyage is under his control.
C. A. COATES
Lord’s Supper—Appeal of the.
To a loving heart an appeal is as effective as a command. Thus, our practice in the frequency of breaking bread becomes a test of affection for the One we remember. Young men leaving home for war are asked by wives or mothers to write often. The test of true love is found in how often they do write home. A believer remarked that he thought every week was too often for Christians to come together to break bread in remembrance of the Lord’s death as it, would tend to become ‘common’. He thought once a quarter, or at the most once a month, was enough. This depends on one’s state of heart. Once a quarter is too often for some professing Christians; they prefer once a year at Christmas or Easter, if at all. It is like letters home. Once a week, or once a month, or once a year, reveals the state of true love or the lack of it.
Lord’s Supper—Attraction of the.
A man in the North of Canada walked alone, dependent on his gun, 275 miles to be present at the Lord’s Supper. For eighteen months he had had no opportunity. He could not go back by the land route. Right out on to the solid ice of Hudson’s Bay he struck. When night came he wrapped himself in his deerskin robe, and lay down on the ice. The second night he spent in the same way, and then got ashore, and reached ‘home’ after tramping 550 miles for this one purpose.
Lord’s Supper—Center of the.
A Spanish artist was painting a picture of the Supper. It was his object to throw all the sublimity of his art into the figure and countenance of the Master. But he put on the table in the foreground some chaste cups of great beauty. When his friends came to see the picture, every one said: “What beautiful cups!” “Ah,” said he, “I have made a mistake; the cups divert the gaze from the Master.” And he took his brush and effaced them from the canvas.
Lord’s Supper—Meaning of the.
A vessel on Lake Superior caught fire two miles from shore. The only means of escape was by the boats, but when filled almost to sinking, there were still left on board a man, his wife, and little daughter. He looked at the distance to the shore and said: “I think I can do it.” He got his wife to take hold of his shoulders with the child, and started to swim. After a while he was exhausted, and said: “I cannot save you both.” Without a word the wife loosened her hold and sank to her death. By tremendous effort he managed to keep the child afloat till they were rescued. In after years a young woman used to sit and gaze at a large portrait which hung on the wall at her home, and with tears in her eyes she would say to herself, “She gave her life for me.”
Lord’s Supper—Possible Tragedy of the.
When a former Queen of the Belgians died, her last words were: “My people no longer remember me; it is time to go.” What a tragedy!
Lost, and didn’t know it.
We were traveling over the prairie once, a small company of us, on a beautiful autumn day, entertaining one another with jest and story and song. The stretch of prairie seemed boundless. There was not a tree or shrub in the entire vision, not a living creature except a few birds and ourselves, and our team. Suddenly one of party caught at the reins and called on the driver to stop. “I believe we are lost,” he said, gravely, as he faced his companion, who was still smiling over some repartee. We stopped the horses and began to take account of our surroundings. After deliberate consultation, we were forced to agree that we were off the stage road which was the track to our destination, and probably, while occupied with our story-telling, we had let the horses take some abandoned wagon trail that branched off from it. We gazed helplessly about us. The sun was just going down. There was absolutely no sign of a house or of any mark of human habitation anywhere. We retraced our way in an effort to find the stage road, and after going back over fifteen miles, we found it, and reached our destination next morning. More than once during those fifteen miles, as we trudged at the head of the horses in order to keep to the faint outlines of that old wagon road, one of our party repeated the words, “We were lost all the time and didn’t know it.”
Lost without knowing it.
A Glasgow gentleman was crossing Argyle Street, in Glasgow, one day and saw the policeman on duty at the corner of Argyle Street and Stockwell Street laughing as heartily as the dignity of his position as an officer of the law would permit. Looking along Argyle Street in the direction in which the laughing policeman was looking the gentleman saw one of the policeman’s colleagues standing on the edge of the sidewalk, and written on his back in large letters was the word L-O-S-T.
A mischievous boy had caught the policeman sleeping on his beat and had written that ominous word on his big broad back, The gentleman who was a Christian, had some tracts in his pocket, and he approached the laughing policeman with a view to handing him a tract, but before he did so, he happened to glance at his back and to his amazement and amusement saw the same word, Lost, there. The little boy had made a good job of it, and had marked the two policemen with the one piece of chalk. The one policeman was laughing at the predicament of the other not knowing that he himself was in the same fix.
Love Brought by Jesus.
An acquaintance of the late Mrs. Astor, whose charities were as secret as they were wide, spoke of her habit of taking out friends who were ill or not able to afford the luxury of a drive. “She did not send the carriage,” remarked a friend. “She went with it. The drive was not a charity. It was a pleasure to herself.” Jesus did not send His love; He brought it.
Love—Drawn by.
A boy was asked: “Why do you go all the way across the city to that small Sunday School, when there are better ones much nearer?” “Well, you see,” was the reply, “they love a fellow over there.”
Love—Drawn by.
Christ is a wonderful bond of union, and we are drawn to Him. An aged man, standing fascinated in a picture gallery before a picture of Christ, murmured, as if to himself: “Bless Him; I love Him.” A stranger, standing near, overheard and said: “I love Him too,” and clasped his hand. A third caught the sentence and said, “I, too, love Him,” and soon in front of the picture there was a little group, utter strangers to one another, but clasping hands drawn together by their love to Christ.
Love—A Father’s.
Two men were talking. One had very wayward son. “How is your son,” asked the other. “Worse than ever, I’m afraid,” was the reply. “I wouldn’t have him in the house if he were mine,” answered the first. “No, nor would I, if he were yours, but you see, he’s mine.”
Love—its Reward.
A rich man in U.S.A. lost his only son. After the father’s death no will could be found. The State Attorney ordered his property to be sold, and the estate to be settled up. At the auction, an old woman, who had once nursed the boy, bought his picture for a shilling. One day, when repairing the back of it, she found a document. It was the old man’s will, leaving all his property to anybody who had loved his son well enough to buy his picture at the sale.
Love of God—Around Us.
An old woman lived in a cheerless, leaky cottage. A kind man thought he would make her a present of a couple of blankets. He took the parcel, but the old woman bade him begone. It appears she was very deaf. He untied the parcel and showed them to her. This made her more angry, and she said: “Why don’t you go away?” Then he took one, unfolded it and threw it round her. The meaning of it burst on her and she timidly said, “A gift?” He nodded. “For me?” she asked. Another nod. She felt the warmth of it, and laughed and cried for happiness, and grasped his hands and thanked him with all her heart. Let God wrap His love round you!
Love of God—its Depth.
When Nansen was searching for the North Pole he found very deep water. His line would not touch the bottom. He entered in his log book the date and length of line, adding, “Deeper than that.” One day he collected all the cord on the ship and made one long line, and again had to write: “Deeper than that.”
Christ said to His disciples: “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
A young lady who had a costly fan, one side of which was covered with a beautiful picture of the starry heavens, asked the Emperor William I, who lived and died in the last century, to write his name on that side of the fan. The Emperor, who was a Christian man and very old, took the fan, admired the painting, and said: “Yes, my lady, my earnest wish and prayer is that my name be written in heaven.” He then wrote his name across the starry sky on the fan.
Luminaries and the Light.
During an eclipse of the sun the stars came into sight. When the sun reappeared the stars vanished. In the absence of sun they are wonderful luminaries, but pale before the greater brightness of the sun.