THE BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE.
SOMETIMES teachers keep a book containing the names of their pupils, and after each name the teacher, every night, places a number telling the deportment and scholarship of the day. In that book is set down every failure in lessons, and every instance of disobedience that comes to the teacher's knowledge. But there are many things that book does not tell. The teacher cannot know all that goes on in the schoolroom; and there are sins no one can see. The wicked thoughts, the mischievous plans, the acts which children would do if they dared, the feelings of anger, and hatred, and rebellion, and envy, and other evil passions, no human eye can see, no earthly pen can record. But there is an eye that sees it all, and a book of remembrance in which all is written. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good;" and in the day of Judgment the books will be opened, and all shall be "judged out of those things which are written in the books, according to their works."
Revelation 20:12.
If I should say, "All that never disobeyed their parents, or told a lie, or said a bad word; all who were never angry or saucy; all who never did wrong or thought evil in any way, may say, 'I’, "how many would speak? Not one in the world can say, "I have never sinned." And if every boy and girl who reads this should from this time never do anything naughty, or think any-thing sinful, still in God's book of remembrance those old sins would stand black and dreadful.
What can be done with the past? Cannot the fear of it recorded be removed?
O blessed, joyful hope! God will forgive the past. He will wash away your sins, when you earnestly ask it in Jesus' name.
Sometimes you have removed pencil marks with a rubber, leaving the page white and clean. The
Lord says: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
With perfectness unequaled by human cleansing, "the blood of Jesus Christ, His son, cleanseth us from all sin." And when the books are opened, those whose page is fair and clean, will enter into the golden city, and be happy for evermore.
—Little Christian.
PRAY AND HANG ON.
WHEN little Tom was six years old, he went into the forest one afternoon to meet the hired man, who was coming home with a load of wood.
The man placed master Tom on the top of the load, and drove homeward. Just before reaching the farm, the team went briskly down a steep hill.
When Tommy entered the house, his mother said:—
"Tommy, my dear, were you not frightened when the horses went trotting so swiftly down Crow Hill?"
"Yes, mother, a little," replied Tom, honestly;
"but I asked the Lord to help me, and hung on like a beaver."
Sensible Tom! He joined working with praying.
In all troubles ask God to help you, and help yourself with all your might.
HE who hath led will lead,
He who hath blessed will bless,
He who hath fed will feed;
Can he do less?
He fainteth not,
He faileth never,
So trust in Him,
Today, forever.
—Home Guardian.
DON'T FORGET.
A DEAR little girl had been taught to pray especially for her father.
He had been suddenly taken away.
Kneeling at her evening devotion, her voice faltered; and, as her pleading eyes met
her mother's, she sobbed,—"Oh, mother, I cannot leave him all out.
Let me thank God that I had a dear father once, so I can keep him in my prayers."
Many stricken hearts may learn a sweet lesson from this little child.
Let us remeinber to thank God for mercies past, as well as to ask for blessings for the future.