FRED IN THE ARMY.
FRED thought he would like to be a soldier. He had read in history about the great wars of Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon. He never lost a chance to see a military parade. The sound of the drum and fife set his feet and hands going in time to the quick movement, and he was longing for the time when he should be old enough to be a soldier himself. Fred's mother did not like these martial tastes of her boy. She thought war was a terrible thing. She could not bear to think that men who ought to help one another should do all they could to fight and kill those to whom life was as sweet and friends as dear as to themselves.
One day Fred said to her, "Mother, when I get older, I mean to be a soldier."
"You are old enough to be a soldier now," answered his mother, with a smile.
"Why, mother, what do you mean by that?"
asked Fred, in amazement. "You know I am only thirteen years old, and I could not think of being a soldier until I am eighteen or twenty at least. Perhaps you mean that I could be a drummer-boy, for I was reading in my war history about some drummer-boys who were only twelve; but it seems to me that the drummer-boys don't have very much to do."
"We are now at peace with the world," said his mother, "and our soldiers do not have to fight; but there is a war which is going on now. It is a war, which always has been going on, and I think it never will stop."
"What war is that, mother? I am sure I didn't know that there was any great war in the world anywhere now."
"I mean the war against sin," said she. "And in this war I want very much to have you a soldier, enlisted on the right side. You know we are all on one side or the other."
"Well, mother," said the frank-hearted boy, "I believe I should like to be a soldier in that war,
and of course I want to be on the right side; but sometimes it is hard to tell which the right side is."
"No, my son," said the kind mother; "the right side is that of Jesus Christ, and I want you
to be on his side."
Youth's World.
"My son," said Leigh Richmond, "remember you must die, and you may die soon, very soon.
If you are to die a boy, you must look for a boy's religion, a boy's knowledge, a boy's faith, a boy's
Saviour, a boy's salvation; or else a boy's ignorance, a boy's obstinacy, a boys Unbelief, a boy's
idolatry, a boy's destruction. Remember all this, and beware of sin; dread the sinfulness of an un-changed heart; pray for a new one; pray for grace and pardon, and a mind conformed to the image of Christ."