Images de page
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

June 1, 1868.] THE LITTLE GLEANER.

Dear gleaner, beware of the tales which abound
In these days of delusion and pride.

163

May the volume of truth be the guide of your youth,
To keep you from turning aside.

Romances may please, and excite your young
mind,

But a poison lies deeply concealed;
Their pages contain what will lead you
This fact has been clearly revealed.

to pain;

There is nothing opposed to the volume of God
That can stand in that terrible day

Of Jehovah's dread ire, when the earth is on fire,
And the sinner is fill'd with dismay.

But the word of our God shall for ever endure,
Though heaven and earth pass away;

Not a tittle shall fail, but His truth shall prevail,
And shine through eternity's day.

C. SPIRE.

THE TERRIFYING SURMISE NOTHING, save the essential truths of God's word, can give comfort and true peace, either living or dying. Whilst living, if men are not resting on the word of God, they can at least have no rest in denying it. The very fear lest the Bible be true is enough to mar all earthly enjoyment. A celebrated infidel said one day to a friend of his who had imbibed the same principles, "There is one thing that mars all the pleasures of my life."" "Indeed!" replied his friend, "what is that?" He answered, "I am afraid the Bible is true! If I I could know certainly that death is an eternal plete! But here is the thorn that stings me. This is the sword that pierces my very soul. If the Bible is true, I am lost for ever!"

G 2

EDITOR'S ADDRESS TO HIS YOUNG

FRIENDS.

THE snows of winter and the sunshine of summer make no difference to the LITTLE GLEANER. She sallies forth with her bundles with equal willingness from January to December. She arrives now, just as our readers begin to sniff the sweet odours of June roses, and to gaze on gay meadows covered with green and yellow, that soon must fall before the scythe of the mower. Before she starts, however, he that fills her bundle asks her to stop and let him put in an ear or two. He cannot forbear doing this out of affectionate concern for the wellbeing of his numerous readers.

Dear youthful readers, it is a kind of June morning with you. You are blooming like the buttercups in the meadows, and it is delightful to see you lift your healthy heads among us; and heartily do we wish for you all that can make you ornamental and useful to society. We rejoice to see the young walking in paths of sobriety, honesty, and industry, and are sure that what happiness is to be found in this sin-ruined world is to be found in such paths. "The way of transgressors is hard." Dear young ones, if you wish to find the path to misery, here it is the cigar, the alehouse, the dancing-room, the music-hall, the concert-room, the theatre, the racecourse, the fair, the feast, the wake, the immoral books, and all the whole category of Satan's bypaths, in which he leads the young to ruin, for time and for eternity. Oh, may you be enabled to fly from all such paths! These are the ways of evil men, and the word says, Go not in the way of evil men, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." But, if you inquire for the paths that lead to health, respectability, and happiness in this world, these are the paths :

66

1. Diligence-Industry and success are generally like the horse and the cart, the one draws the other after it.

2. Truthfulness.-What an escort on the way to respect and prosperity is a character for strict truthfulness. Such a harbinger before you cries, "Make way for this young man; he never tells nor acts a lie! Clear the way for this young woman; you may always believe every word that drops from her lips!"

3. Honesty.-A youth who will not and dare not defraud his employers either of time, labour, or property is always prized.

4. Sobriety. The young who are in health do not require medicines. And all intoxicating liquors are but drugs, exceedingly useful when needed and properly administered: but for the young and healthy to addict themselves to the use of them is a most pernicious habit and has ruined thousands upon thousands; while many a water-drinking sober young man, quietly pursuing his calling in the strength that God has given him, has grown up in life a comfort to his friends, a credit to himself, and an honour to humanity.

But I must not forget that my dear young friends are like the blooming buttercups that deck a meadow, and death, like the mower, even now may have his commission to cut you down. What thousands die in youth! If my reader should be amongst that number, where will his soul be? "Ye must be born again." Are you born again? "He that hath the Son of God hath life." Have you the Son of God? I am the Way," says Jesus. Are you in that way? "Look unto me, and be ye saved," says Jesus. Do you look to Jesus? Where I am," says Jesus,“ there shall also my servant be." Are you a servant of Jesus?

66

66

"Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. Have you come to Jesus ? Oh, these are questions of everlasting moment. Receive them as from a lover of your soul; and take your LITTLE GLEANER in some quiet corner and read all these questions over again ponder them seriously, and say to yourself, “İ must die; and, if I die without the new birth,

must perish. None but Jesus can save my soul." And oh, may such a course be the means of bringing you to your knees, an earnest suppliant at His feet who says, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

I must again, with a growing desire to be useful to you for time and for eternity, subscribe myself your willing working friend, THE EDITOR.

-880

LIVES TO TELL THE STORY.

NO. XI.

“Он, dear me,” said an old lady, as she entered my parlour in a very pretty village in the Isle of Ely. 'Oh, dear me, how bad my breath is! What can be the cause of it? It can't be my great age." "Well, what may be your age?" I inquired. "I can't say exactly, but I can remember being christened, and I know that's over ninety years ago." "Then you must be at least ninety-four or ninety-five years of age. And that is not a great age, eh?" "Well, my mother lived to be older than that, and her breath was not so bad."

Such was the commencement of a very pleasant afternoon and evening, being the last spent in company with the said old lady. And more than once we were astonished by hearing her exclaim, "What can be the cause? It's not my great age."

[ocr errors]

But

she was in what we call her dotage, or second childhood. Yet her God was good to her, verifying the promise, "And even to your old age, I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you; I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.' For, however deficient she might appear in general conversation, when we talked about her Lord and Master, she was as collected and correct, as though in the very prime of life.

دو

As I said, we spent a very pleasant afternoon and evening, and the dear old saint seemed peculiarly at home. But one thing seemed to trouble her. True it was but a little thing, but little things, ay, very little things, trouble us sometimes. She was afraid there would not be room for her to lie

"You

the grave with her husband, whenever the Lord shou call her home. I assured her there was room for her. How do you know?" she said. "Because I saw the give the last time it was opened, and remember very 11 that it was not full." saw my grave opener when? your sister." "You bury my sister ?" "Yes! don't you remember I buried her "Oh, dear me, I had forgotten it; what can make my memory so bad? it's not my great age." "Yes, but w

دو

66 When I buried

Lord doesn't forget." "It is a mercy," she replied, a mercy the "and now how glad I am I came to see you. Now I should like to tell you all about my funeral, and how I should like all my affairs arranged." And she gave me every particular, concluding by say. ing, "And if you should think of preaching a funeral sermon for me, I should like it to be from the words, 'Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest."" I promised, if God would help, I would try and do so, and we had some very nice conversation upon the rest that awaited her.

« PrécédentContinuer »