I AM quite sure that little boys and girls like to read about animals, such as dogs and horses. Dogs are especial favorites with children, because they are so friendly and so fond of those they know. You never yet saw a dog unkind to his master’s child, did you? If anybody wanted to hurt the child, he would fight for him if he were ever so little; so then it is no wonder that children are fond of dogs, for really they deserve it.
Now, I am going to tell you about a dog who did a very kind thing, not to his master’s child, but to an entire stranger whom he had never seen before.
A gentleman was lately amusing himself with his retriever, near Southwark-bridge, by throwing a stick into the water for the dog to fetch. While he was doing this, a little boy of about eight years of age was playing on the steps of the bridge, and somehow managed to slip, and tumble into the river. It was twelve feet deep where the poor boy fell in, and he was unable to swim. Nobody saw him, and no help was near, but just at that moment this gentleman threw his stick into the water again, and the dog plunged after it, Neither the dog nor his master had seen the poor boy tumble, but as the dog was going after the stick he happened to catch sight of the boy struggling for life in the deep river, and without a moment’s hesitation, quite of his own accord, he left the stick and hurried to the rescue of the drowning child. He struck out with all his might, panting and striving to reach the boy in time before he should sink for the last time. Just as the poor child came up once more, he seized him by the collar of his jacket, and, keeping his head above water, swam away with him to the steps, where he dragged, and pulled, and hauled until he got him ashore in safety.
Now, what do you think of that? Was he not a good creature? No one told him to save the boy, nor did the boy ask him to do so; it was all done of his own good will, just because he loved little children, I suppose, and for no other reason.
The boy was not much hurt, and soon got up and hurried home to change his wet clothes. I do not know whether he thanked the kind, good dog or not; I dare say he never stopped to think of that, but just got home as quickly as he could.
Ah! that reminds me of some little boys and girls who never stop to think about One who did more to save them than this good dog did for the boy—One who came from heaven itself, plunged into untold sorrows and sufferings down here, and then went to the cross, and there died—yes, died, to save both old and young, by bearing on His own blessed head the judgment due to them as sinners!
Of course you know Who I mean, for you cannot have read FAITHFUL WORDS without knowing. Who is it of whom believers say, by faith, “He loved me and gave Himself for me”? Who is it “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree;” who came to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” and then rose again and “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high”? It was God’s eternal Son, the blessed Jesus. Do you know Him? Do you love Him? I hope you do. If you do not love Him, I am sure it is because you do not know Him, for none can know without loving One so precious. But if you have indeed believed in the Lord Jesus Christ unto everlasting life, then you can say, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
None ever asked Him to come and save us. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world,” and He “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.” You see it was all love that did it, and “God is love.” We were perishing, but “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Will you think of these things whenever you remember “THE DROWNING BOY”? J. K. L.