Finally, in closing this magazine for the year, we thank God for the mercies He has vouchsafed us in connection with it. We who write, and you who read, must strive honestly day by day to do our work in this world, as in the sight of God and not in the sight of men. Full of imperfections it is, and will be; but if it is attempted in an honest and good heart, the blessing of God will accompany it, and it will produce fruit to His glory. We will now wish our young readers, each one of them, very heartily, A MERRY CHRISTMAS, And trust that at this anniversary of the birthday of the Great Teacher Who first taught the noble lesson of love to mankind, they will think upon it with more seriousness, and show forth their love to Christ by loving their brothers and sisters, parents and schoolfellows, neighbours and friends; for "if we love not our brother whom we have seen, how shall we love God Whom we have not seen?" Lay Sermons. No. 10.-ON LOVE. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples; if ye have love one to another."-St. John xiii., 34, 35. FOUNDER of a religion gives forth a great command; and he makes obedience to this command a condition of discipleship: "If ye have love to one another, ye are My disciples; if ye have not love to one another, ye are not My disciples." By this statement, we know of a certainty that people who hate their neighbours are not Christians. They may attend church or chapel regularly; they may give money to build churches or chapels; they may feed the poor, and support hospitals: but Christ says plainly that because they do not love their neighbours they are not His disciples, and that He will not own them in the last day. Boys and girls should think of this. The greatest commandment the Master gave is that we should love one another. If your master or mistress gave you an order, above all others, you would think a good deal of it, and regard those children as very wicked who set it at nought. And very wicked indeed are those children who, in spite of Christ's great commandment, cherish feelings of hatred towards their neighbours. There are bad people in the world, and they do things sometimes to make us hate them. We long to hurt them, in return for the injury they have done us. But here steps in Christ, and says, "No! I command you not! The wicked Jews injured Me worse than the very worst of these enemies of yours hurt you, and I prayed to the Father that He would forgive them. If I could forgive those who put Me to a most cruel and shameful death, surely you can forgive those who only annoy you with little spiteful acts." So we must make our choice: if we gratify our hate we must not wear Christ's name, for we are none of His. If it is sweeter to have our revenge than to remain in Christ's sheepfold, we must choose the one and refuse the other. Judas Iscariot thought it was sweeter to have his money than his Saviour; but almost immediately he repented, and, despairing of forgiveness, went and hanged himself. This love, which our Lord commands, must show itself in actions. It will not do, as St. James says, to say to people, “I should like you to be warmed and fed," and yet at the same time give them neither food nor coals. The great proof of the love of Christ was His dying for us. We must show that we love our neighbours by helping them as much as we can. We can help them in various ways: we can give food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, comfort to the sorrowful, instruction to the ignorant, advice to the foolish. People in high society are very ambitious to be presented to the Queen. Sometimes the Queen is not well enough to receive the large numbers who wish to be introduced to her, and then the Prince of Wales or some other member of the Royal Family acts in her stead, and persons presented to them are considered as having been presented to the Queen. Now if Jesus Christ were here on this earth, and you heard He was hungry, would you not rush to give Him food? or, if you heard He was suffering from cold and nakedness, would you not rush to offer Him clothes? Well, just as the Queen regards people who are presented to the Prince of Wales as presented to herself, so Jesus Christ regards every kind action done to a Christian man or woman for His sake, as though it were actually done to Him. Each day, therefore, that we help any of Christ's followers, we are helping Christ. If any poor Christian wants bread, and Christians who have bread do not help him, it is Christ Himself they are leaving hungry! If any poor Christian shivers with cold this winter from want of clothes, the rich Christians of that district are leaving Christ naked! Those dreadful words used by our Lord in the Gospel show how thoroughly He will keep to His word, and disown all people who break this His great commandment: "Then shall He say unto them on His left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and His angels; for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not. Then shall they also answer Him, saying: Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or athirst, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee ? Then shall He answer them, saying: Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me." AGESILAUS, when one told him there was one that did excellently imitate a nightingale, and would have had him hear him, said, "Why, I have heard the nightingale herself." ALEXANDER, when his father wished him to run for the prize of the Olympian games (for he was very swift), answered, he would, if he might run with kings. BION was sailing, and there fell out a great tempest, and the mariners, who were wicked and dissolute fellows, called upon the gods; but Bion said to them, "Peace; let them not know you are here." Poems to be Remembered. No. 4.-To A MOUNTAIN DAISY ; On turning one down with the plough, in April, 1786. The poet, ploughing one day in the field in April, by accident uprooted a daisy. He is sorry that this modest little flower has met with him at such an unfortunate time, for the share is upon it before he can hope to save it. The rude, rough iron cutting it from its homely bed in the earth is far different from the "bonnie lark" playing with it when he alights on the ground! Andersen, in his "Tales for Children," in the "Story of the Daisy" imagines that the lark has a strong affection for this flower, and that, neglecting the splendid garden flowers, it delights to visit it in its humble bed. W EE, modest, crimson-tippéd flower, To spare thee now is past my power, Thou bonnie gem. Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet, Wi' speckled breast, When upward-springing, blythe, to greet The purpling east. But The biting north winds blew fiercely over the fields when the daisy was born, so that a less hardy flower would have been frightened to come forth. quietly and cheerfully the little daisy raised its meek head aloft. Our showy garden flowers require high walls to shelter them from the fierce winds; the poor daisy is forced to be content with a clod or a stone, by the side of which it blossoms, and forms the only ornament of the stubble field. There it spread its snowy bosom to the sun, and modestly raised its head from the earth; but now the ploughshare has laid it low, and it will never blossom more. Cauld blew the bitter-biting north Amid the storm, Scarce reared above the parent earth Thy tender form. The flaunting flowers our gardens yield O' clod or stane, Adorns the histie stibble-field Unseen, alane. (Bield, shelter; histie, dry.) There are people in the living world around him who meet with this sad fate of the daisy-cut off before its time, and laid soiled in the dust. The artless maid, ruined by her betrayer; the simple bard, wanting skill to direct his course through the ocean of life, and at last overwhelmed by the billows; the good man, oppressed by human pride, and driven to the very brink of misery, till Death affords him release: these resemble the daisy, inasmuch as by some shameful tyranny or some unlucky accident their days are shortened, Such is the fate of artless maid, And guileless trust, Till she, like thee, all soiled, is laid Low i' the dust. Such is the fate of simple bard, On life's rough ocean luckless starred ! Of prudent lore, Till billows rage, and gales blow hard, And whelm him o'er ! Such fate to suffering worth is given, To misery's brink; Nor can the poet forbear including himself in the melancholy reflection. He, Burns, foresaw that the fate of the daisy was soon to be his own. The ploughshare of Ruin would drive over him, depriving him of life, and the weight of the furrow would be upon him when his body was lowered into the earth. Even thou who mourn'st the daisy's fate, Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives, elate, Full on thy bloom, Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight Shall be thy doom. ROBERT BURNS. [Those who appreciate this manner of opening up the meaning of po try to children, will find the most popular poems in the language so dealt with in John Heywood's Explanatory Book of Standard Poetry, 160 pages, price One Shilling.1 |