ONE OF GOD'S ENGINES.
HOW hard can you pull? " inquired grandpa Larue, holding Maurice by the two hands; "let me see how hard you can pull."
"I can pull hard; " said Maurice, "I can pull very hard."
"Ah, indeed? So you can, so you can. You are quite strong." Maurice was pleased to hear grandpa say that he was strong; boys like to be thought strong.
Maurice was not a large boy, he was only nine years old, but he was large for his age.
"I wonder how many pounds you can pull."
"I do not know, sir; a great many, I think. I can pull Jemmy Westcott on the sled," and Maurice began to feel very proud.
"Pull Jemmy Westcott? Why, that must be a pull. I am glad you are a strong boy."
"So am I, grandpa," said Maurice, leaping over a stool and leaping back again.
"Come here," said grandpa, taking both his hands again; "what makes you so strong, Maurice?"
Maurice threw back his head and smiled, and began thinking what to answer, but he could not seem to find just the right words.
"Maurice, you are strong, because God made you so," said grandpa; "your strength is a power, which God has given you. When God gives us strength of body and mind, he expects us to pull a great deal."
“Does he? " inquired Maurice, a little perplexed; "what does he want me to pull?"
"Your body is the engine, your spirit is the fire; you are one of God's engines. God will show you what to pull."
Maurice was not sure that he quite understood.
"Who made you Maurice?"
"God made me, grandpa."
"Everything that is made, is made for some use, or purpose. If a man makes anything, he makes it for some purpose, does he not?"
"Yes, grandpa."
"If God makes a boy, he makes him for some purpose."
Maurice had never thought that God had made him for any special use.
"You are one of God's engines. He kindled a fire in you, and made you have strength, that is, he gave you life and mind and health, and made you all in good running order like a first class engine."
Maurice laughed at this. He could hardly forbear puffing and playing pull off with a train.
"Now the important part is to have God himself run you. A good many of God's engines do a great deal of damage, ruin a great many other engines and are destroyed themselves, because they like to run by themselves, or because they have the great Spirit of Evil to run them."
Maurice thought this was all very strange, he had never before thought himself at all like an engine.
"Grandpa, when you say God's engines,' do you mean people?" he asked.
"Yes, I mean people. Now, what would become of that engine over there, if it should be left to run by itself?"
"I think it would run into the twelve o'clock up train, unless switched off until the twelve o'clock goes by."
"And suppose it did not run into any train, what would become of it?"
“Oh, it would whiz off the track going around the curve, or run smash into another engine or into a depot."
"Then you do not think it could run by itself "
"I know it could not, grandpa."
"Neither can God's engines run by themselves, although they sometimes think they can; but suppose somebody should run that train who would prefer to see it broken in pieces, and who did not want it to go over the right road, that would be as bad as running by itself, don't you think so? "
"Yes, sir; I think it would."
"So it is very bad, and very dangerous, for God's engines to be run by that wicked one, who wants to see them go: off the track, and come to evil."
Maurice smiled brightly. He saw what grandpa meant."
"God must run his own engines if they are to go on the right road, and at the right speed, then they will come safely to the depot by-and-by."
"Do you mean heaven, grandpa?
Yes, I mean heaven. God only can run his engines into that depot."
"Am I really and for true one of God's engines, grandpa?"
"Yes, Maurice, he has made you a good stout little engine. He wants to run his little engine himself, and put certain loads on for it to pull, and he wants to bring it by-and-by, to the depot safe and sound."
"I want him to run it, grandpa," said Maurice, gently.
"Then he will, my boy; he will so;" and grandpa wiped his eyes, and laid his hand lovingly on Maurice's head.
"How shall I get him to run it, grandpa?"
"Ask him."
"Maurice had always been taught to pray, but this seemed such a new, strange prayer."
"Ask him, and then be sure, whatever comes or goes, that you do just as he wants you to do."
"And what will I pull, grandpa?—it is so funny to be an engine."
"Pull or push whatever God lays on or before you."
"I do not understand that."
"Suppose you see a boy carrying a load, and laugh at him, and tease him as be goes, would that be doing as God's engine should?—it would be better to give him a lift. Suppose you help a strong boy annoy or injure a little, weak boy, would that be using your strength as one of God's engines should?—it would be better to help the weak boy. If papa or mamma gives you something unpleasant or difficult to do, how should you act as God's engine ? You will pull the load, that is, do the difficult or unpleasant thing. Whenever you use your strength of body or mind, in doing something which is right, which you know God will approve, you are moving a little of the burden which he has given you to pull or to push. All the little duties, belonging to every day, make up
the load which God intended you to push or pull when he made you and gave you strength of body and of mind. Every time you do the slightest thing which you know to be right, you are pleasing him, and doing the work he intended you for."
"If I do not want to study my lesson, but just do it because it is right, is that moving any of the load, grandpa "
"Exactly."
"And if we want to do a thing very much, and do not do it because it is wrong, is that anything?"
"It is giving the best proof in the world that you want God to run his engine, and will not run it yourself, or have the wicked spirit to run it.
To have God run the engine is to do right, no matter what comes; to always do right in spite of everything."
"But boys make mistakes sometimes when they do not mean to."
"God does not leave the engine if a boy makes a mistake when he does not mean to; but we must try not to make mistakes."
Maurice was looking very thoughtfully up in grandpa's face.
"God has put power in you, little boy, just as the engineer puts power in the engine when he puts the fire and water in it. God has put a strong power in you; now make sure, all your life, that you are using that power for God, and doing the things he wants you to do, and then you will be safe all the way as you go, and God will bring you to the end of your road all right."
N. Y. Observer