DEAR children, when I was a little child, I found in the Pine woods near my home a large rock. One side was steep and smooth, the other was quite rugged, so we could climb to the top. The shade was dense and the rock cool, even in the hot summer days. My sister and myself would often go there to read. It was a beautiful place. A dogwood tree with pure white blossoms grew over one end of the rock, and over all was the dark pine boughs. But as I grew older there came many days when 1 must help my father in the field and orchard nearby. How often then I longed for the cool shade on the top of that great rock. Sometimes a week would go by before I could get back to my cool retreat. I have not seen that rock since I was thirteen years of age, and that is many years ago. But, dear children, I have found another Rock where I can ever rest—Jesus my Lord. He has been to me as the “Shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” He has been “a refuge in time of storm.” And He is soon coming to take all who are His own to Himself. Who will be ready?H. B.
ML 07/30/1899