Be Not Afraid. Stories from the New Testament., by Catharine Shaw

"Cherry's Choice," "Mother's Bible Stories,"
"Suffer Little Children," etc., etc.

By the Lake of Galilee there is rising ground, situated near several villages on the borders of the lake, where it is believed the Lord Jesus spoke those wonderful words which are called "The Sermon on the Mount."

Travellers who have been to this spot tell us that the rising, rocky ground, which is called "The Horns of Hattin," would be a most convenient place for any one who was speaking to large numbers of people. And it is here, it is thought, our Lord, "seeing the multitudes" who had followed Him from the villages beneath the mountain, spoke to them of the blessings which they might possess if they kept His words; and explained to them the duties which were laid upon those who loved Him, and the blessings in store for them.

In an earthly school, the children are told of the prizes which will be given for earnest endeavour; and each one on entering the school is able to read the list of these rewards, and the conditions which are attached to them.

We all understand more or less of this earthly competition—this great endeavour to do our best, to see some result of our hard work, to have the joy of receiving a prize or of earning the approbation of the master who helps us to the attainment of our ideal.

This is in an earthly school—now we are going to turn to the heavenly side of life.

So when our Lord Jesus Christ, from that rocky eminence raised above the multitude, spoke to them and said—

It seems to me that there is hidden in His words a Promise; and also a Way made plain, to obtain the Prize.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit"; and the promise is: "For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

"The poor in spirit" does not mean a weak man, but one who knows how likely he is to fail, and therefore does not trust in himself or his pride, but looks up into God's face, instead of into his own faulty doings.

In a little country town in the West of England, about a hundred years ago, there lived a man who was spoken of as "half-witted." He was a general favourite; but if, at any time, he was twitted by the boys, or good-humouredly questioned by older people, his invariable answer was—

Whatever else he had missed, he had learned the blessedness of being "poor in spirit," and his reward has been, for many a long day, an entrance into "the Kingdom of Heaven."

"Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

Ah! It is a sad thing to mourn! We know something about that in these sorrowful days. To lose the one whom we have loved so tenderly! To lose that which we have prized above any other earthly joy, and to know that it can never come back to us here!

And yet our Lord says: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."

So the weary, sorrowful heart must turn to Jesus! "He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds." "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." In Jesus is infinite comfort, if we will go to Him.

"Now the man Moses was very meek." He was so ready to be taught, and to do God's Will, that "the Lord spoke to him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend."

"The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His Way," we read in the twenty-fifth Psalm, and this was true of Moses; and in after years, he was allowed to come down from the glory of Heaven to talk with the Lord Jesus before His Crucifixion.

As to this "meekness," we often find in life that it is not to the ones who strive and struggle to get their own way that the blessing comes, but to those who in meekness wait patiently for the Lord; for He, Himself, was meek and lowly in heart, and He will give rest to our souls if we learn of Him.

"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."

If we turn to Jesus as the Bread of Life, and ask Him to fill us with the Water of Life, we shall find that "He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness."

Oh, let us pray for a merciful heart! To be generous to those in fault; to be kind to those who wrong us; to cultivate a fellow-feeling for all the suffering there is in the world, and to endeavour to do our little part in trying to alleviate it.

II. The Sermon on the Mount

"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple: and He that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them . . . and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children."

It is only as we strive day by day to remember to be loving and peaceful, that we shall attain to the honour of being called a "Peacemaker."

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

Let us think of the long Roll of Martyrs who have given their lives for Christ's sake! This blessedness can only be known, and the Prize obtained, by firm faith in God!

Those who have esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world have already entered into the recompense of the reward.

They had seen the promises of God afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

And this country is a heavenly one, and God is not ashamed to be called their God, and He has prepared for them a city. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!

"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake."

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

These troubles of His followers, which Jesus our Lord mentions, are all summed up in the words "for My sake."

And here, it seems to me, is a key which will open the prison doors of many a trial.

Our Lord tells us that whosoever will come after Him must take up his cross and follow Him.

And what was His yoke? It was doing the Heavenly Father's Will. Bearing that heavy, bitter Cross to redeem the world which God loved so much that He gave His Son. Leaving His glory in Heaven for thirty-three years, that He might show us how much the Father loved us, and to encourage us to work and bear for His sake.

"God, for Christ's sake," has forgiven us: and if in this world there comes to us reproach of suffering, "for His sake," shall we not meet it joyfully and patiently, remembering the words of this last Beatitude, "Great is your reward in Heaven"?

If there was one man more than another who was persecuted for Christ's sake, it was the Apostle Paul. Have you ever read the list of his sufferings?

"In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in death oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

"Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches."

And then, in another letter, he says "I can do all things through Christ, Which strengtheneth me."

All things! Then there is not a temptation, or a sorrow, or a disappointment, or a task, that is not included in that "all things" which the strength of Christ will enable us to do, and bear.

Those who follow and serve Jesus Christ here, have the present possession of exceeding joy; and as they follow Him, He leads them into the Exceeding Joy of the Great Reward in Heaven!

III. The Sermon on the Mount

You will find numbers of beautiful and suggestive lessons in the fifth to the seventh chapters of Matthew.

But I have not space to tell you a quarter of them; yet one thing seems to stand out before me as so wonderful, and so important, that I must on no account leave it out.

Our Lord Jesus explains to us that it is "after this manner" that we should pray; and I have known people who have found great blessing and great help in using this beautiful prayer, slowly and thoughtfully, each morning.

It is of no use just to say the words quickly, and think nothing about them! That is what our Lord calls "using vain repetitions, as the heathen do."

But to pray each separate petition slowly and reverently will surely bring you great blessing.

   "Our Father, which art in Heaven." Pause to think of His love and His majesty.

   "Hallowed be Thy Name." Ask to be enabled to honour Him all the day.

   "Thy Kingdom come." Ask to be helped to press forward that Kingdom, and to be ready for the Lord Jesus to come back.

   "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven." Ask that we may do that Will with all our hearts!

   "Give us this day our daily bread." Ask Him to send us our food, and to feed us also with heavenly Food: His love, His help, His grace.

   "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." Ask for pardon for ourselves, and a loving forgiving spirit towards other people.

   "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Ask that Jesus may be close to us in every trial, and conquer Satan for us, when he tries to make us fall.

   "For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen." God is our King, we are His subjects; He has all power, so that we can rely on His help; He has all glory, and will share it with us by and by, if we will yield ourselves to Him and obey Him. And this will be for ever and ever!

When the Lord Jesus had finished telling the disciples about praying, He went on to explain to them some of the beautiful things which they would find around them which would help them to trust in the Heavenly Father's love.

"Do not be anxious about what you will have to eat another day—look at the birds which fly round you! Are they anxious? They do not sow any seed; they do not reap the fields, and gather the grain into storehouses—yet your Father feeds them. Are not you of more value than they are?

"Do you make yourself grow? Can you make yourself taller? Is it not God Who does that for you?

"Think of—consider—the lilies of the field," He says, "how they grow! They do not work, they do not spin, and yet King Solomon, in all his glory, was not dressed like one of these lilies. So, if God clothes them like that, how much more will He give you clothes to wear!"

That is how the Lord spoke to those men and women and children who listened to Him on the mountain.

I was given a bunch of flowers the other day. I sat down at the table, and just thought of all this.

Could I make one of those? Think of the root, and the earth to grow it in! Think of the stalk, with its tiny little pipes and channels! Think of leaves all alike, and all on that plant getting nourished from the root. Consider the flowers—so white, so exquisitely made; each little flower a perfect bell. And then the scent—consider the scent of those lilies, which was exactly the same scent fifty years ago, and no other flower has exactly the same smell.

I "considered" it all, as our Lord had said, and I bowed my head and worshipped Him, Who liveth for ever and ever!

So if at any time a doubt or a faithless fear should enter your heart, just get a daisy, or a buttercup, or a blade of grass, and sit down and think Who made it; and trust Him better.

David says, in the eighth Psalm, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?"

Then our Lord goes on to say, in words like these: "Do not be anxious about what you will have to eat or drink, or what you are going to wear, for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things."

I have seen so many instances of God's love and care, both in my own life, and in that of other people!

There was a bed-ridden woman who was very poor. The district nurse said to her one morning, "My dear, we want a new bed-jacket, I think."

And the dear old invalid looked up brightly in answer: "My Heavenly Father will send me one, just when He thinks it is the right time," she said confidently.

She had sought the Kingdom of God first, and He had added to her "all her need."

IV. The Sermon on the Mount

As our Lord proceeded with the Sermon on that Mount, and as He looked into the anxious, eager faces of the multitude around Him, He revealed to them some of the deepest needs of our hearts.

His words are very simple, and the youngest child can understand a little about them.

If a father or a mother says, "Ask me when you next see me," the child is quite sure he will get his request!

Years ago, when I was quite a little girl, a favourite aunt tried to teach us all this lesson. When the grandchildren went to stay at that dear country house, they were told that on a Saturday they could ask their aunt for a "Saturday penny." She wanted to impress upon our minds that God loved us to ask for what He had promised! So as surely as we asked, however many there were of us, she gave what she had promised.

Well! Our Lord says "Ask." That shows that He knows we have some want in our hearts that we hardly are conscious of.

What is the need that hides down below everything else? It is forgiveness—to be assured that our sins are washed away.

But all these remedies fall short of the need. They do not go down to the root of the disease.

Suddenly we find the remembrance of some sin flashes into our thoughts and makes us miserable; or there is a defilement in our lives which we cannot get rid of by any of the means within our reach!

The words of Jesus Christ on the Mount, given so long ago, but of living power to-day, are—

"Ask! Ask of God." He seems to say, "Ask, and you shall receive!" Go to God for forgiveness. Ask Him to wash you clean and white in "the Blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanseth from all sin," and then you will be at peace, and life will be a different thing to you.

A woman who loses a piece of silver sweeps diligently till she finds it! A merchant seeking goodly pearls sells all he possesses to obtain Pearl of Great Price!

"Knock!" Do not just go to the door of God's storehouse of blessings and give a careless knock, and then turn away without even expecting an answer!

You see a boy delivering circulars down your road. He knocks and then runs on, and does not trouble himself further.

But there comes a needy man to one door. He has been told to come at any hour on any day, and he knocks.

There is no immediate answer. Shall he turn away? His need is so great that he knocks again. And still the answer is delayed.

So he goes on knocking; and by and by the master, who is alone in the house, comes to the door, and with words of welcome, he bids the needy man enter.

And inside the master's house there is a storehouse of blessings! More than the needy man can ask or think.

And the master showers warmth, and love, and food, and riches upon him, so that he goes on his way with every want supplied, and with promises of an endless supply.

The answer comes back to us, like sweet chimes from afar, in our Lord's own words—

And Jesus shows us what to do and what to avoid, if we want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

He says: "Enter ye in at the Strait Gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be which go in thereat because strait is the Gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto Life, and few there be that find it."

The Broad Way, looking so easy and attractive at first, is the way of sin, and leads downwards to destruction. The gate is wide open, and so tempting.

The entrance to it is narrow and strait, and the path needs courage and perseverance to walk in it bravely; but at the end there are "pleasures for evermore," and no more pain or sorrow or death, but Eternal Life! St. Paul says "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day."

Shall we not accept Him Who is Himself the Way? He is the Way, all along the path, let it be smooth or rough. He is the Truth, and will never deceive us. He is the Life, and in Jesus Christ it is reserved in Heaven for us.

V. The Last Supper

The Jewish Feast of the Passover drew near, and our dear Lord sent two of His disciples to prepare for it. He told them they were to go to a certain house in Jerusalem and they would find an upper room furnished; and there they were to make ready to eat the Passover, as all other Jewish men did at this season.

It will help us very much to understand this last supper of our Lord and Saviour if we go back and recall the circumstances of the first Passover supper fourteen hundred years before.

We read in the 12th of Exodus: "It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the Children of Israel in their generations."

You may remember that the children of Jacob had gone from Canaan into Egypt to buy food in a time of famine.

There they found their brother Joseph, whom they had sold as a slave, who now was the greatest lord in Pharaoh's kingdom.

Joseph was very kind to his brothers, and Pharaoh welcomed them and their father Jacob to stay in the land, and be nourished there.

But by and by there arose a king who did not remember Joseph, and he began to put burdens on these Children of Israel the Pharaohs, one after another, making them into slaves, till at last their bondage was so cruel that they turned to the Lord their God, and cried to Him to deliver them.

He raised up Moses; and at length there came a night—that wonderful night—when the whole multitude of the Children of Israel were delivered right out of Egypt!

God told Moses that on this night He was going to send a destroying angel through the land of Egypt, and that the firstborn of all the Egyptians and of every living thing was to be destroyed, as a great judgment.

He told them to take a lamb for each of their households, and to kill it and roast it and eat it that night in all their houses.

God told them that when they killed that lamb they were to save its blood in a basin, and take a bunch of hyssop and sprinkle that blood upon the lintel and on the side-posts of their doors; and He promised that if they did this, He would not allow the destroying angel to come near that house, and they would be perfectly safe. God said, "When I see the blood I will pass over you."

So during that night there was a dreadful cry in the land of Egypt, for in every house, where the blood had not been sprinkled, there was one lying dead!

The Egyptians were so terrified that they thrust out the Children of Israel—they and all their little ones escaped right out of the land of Egypt for ever! And this is why, the night before our Lord was crucified for us—the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world—He gathered His twelve disciples together, and sat down to eat that Feast with them in the upper room.

Jesus told them that, with great desire, He had desired to eat this Passover with them. He knew that to-morrow He would die.

And as they were eating, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and told them that one of them would betray Him.

Close to His side, leaning on His bosom, was the disciple whom Jesus loved; and Peter beckoned to him to ask the Lord who it would be who should betray Him?

So John, lying on Jesus' breast, whispered, "Who is it, Lord?" And Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I give a sop when I have dipped it." And he gave the sop to Judas Iscariot.

And as they were eating, Jesus "took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them saying, 'This is My Body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.' Likewise also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new testament in My Blood, which is shed for you.'"

St. Paul says, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the Feast."

And from that Last Supper before His death, till now, nearly for two thousand years, in one unbroken chain, week by week, those who love Christ have partaken of this Holy Feast, in remembrance of Him, till He shall come back again.

The Holy Supper was over. Judas had left them to go and betray his Master, and was gone out into the darkness. In that wonderful conversation, as Jesus talked with them for the last time, He told them many things, which they understood more clearly afterwards. He told them that He would not leave them comfortless, but would come to them; He told them that He was going to prepare a place for all who loved Him, in the many mansions of His Father's house.

And then they sang a hymn together—Jesus and His disciples—and after that they went into the Mount of Olives, where the Easter Passover moon was shining among the sombre trees; and there it was that Judas found Him, and betrayed Him to the multitude.

VI. Peter Denies His Lord; and the Risen Saviour Forgives

The time had come at length for our Lord Jesus Christ to go to the death which He had come to bear for us.

He had told His disciples that He would be betrayed, and given into the hands of the Jews; and that now all the prophecies in the Old Testament about Himself were going to be fulfilled.

The disciples had listened, but they could not believe that such dreadful things would really happen to Him.

On the very night that He was betrayed by Judas, the Lord told them that all of them would be offended because of Him that night; and would forsake Him, but that after He was risen from the grave, He would go before them into Galilee, where they should see Him again.

Then Peter answered: "Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended!"

Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice."

Still, Peter, confident in himself, and confident in his love for his Master, said that he would rather die with Him than deny Him! And so they all said.

But Peter had to find out, by bitter experience, that he was weak in himself; for when Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss in Gethsemane, and when the soldiers from the High Priest seized Him and too Him bound to Jerusalem, all the disciples forsook Him and fled!

Peter, however, followed Him afar off, right into the High Priest's palace; but the servants round the fire in the hall charged him with being one of the disciples, and their raillery, and the accusations of a maid, were Satan's wiles to cause Peter, to stumble and fall: and so he denied all knowledge of Jesus, with oaths and curses.

And at that moment the cock crew; and Peter remembered what Jesus had said: and horrified at what he had done, he hurried to the door; and as he went, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And he went out and wept bitterly.

Poor sorrowful Peter! Ah, no one can fathom what he went through that night, and the next awful day of the Crucifixion: and the two following days, when the Lord's Body lay in the grave, and Peter recalled with agony that he had forsaken Him when He needed his love most! We can only picture it to ourselves; but it must have been truly dreadful.

At length came the third day, when Jesus had told the disciples He would rise from the dead.

Their hearts were so heavy with grief, and so slow to take in what our Lord had so constantly told them, that they did not expect, when they visited the grave on that third day, to find it empty!

The women with their loving hearts were the first to reach the spot, carrying sweet spices to anoint their Lord!

They had expected to find His dearly loved Body lying in the grave—dead. Instead, they found the grave empty and a Vision of Angels!

They were so frightened that they were hurrying away, but the Angel who was sitting within the empty tomb told them not to be frightened, for though they sought Jesus of Nazareth Who was crucified, yet He was not there, for He was risen!

And then the Angel gave them this message from God: "Go tell His disciples, and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you."

Oh, the graciousness of the forgiveness of Jesus! Peter had said "he was not one of them," meaning not one of His disciples. And it may be, that if the Angel's message had only been "Go, tell His disciples," that Peter would have been utterly hopeless.

And we have another sweet assurance of the forgiving love of our God and Saviour.

We read, in the last chapter of Luke, that those two whom Jesus had met going to Emmaus after His Resurrection, had hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven that they had seen the Lord; and were greeted with the joyful news which the other disciples had also heard—that "the Lord was risen indeed, and had appeared to Simon Peter!"

But the fact is full of deepest comfort to all of us who so often grieve Him, that, in spite of Peter's sad denial, his risen Lord appeared to him, forgave him his sin, and restored him to his place among the others.

Thenceforward Peter became one of the most faithful of Christ's disciples; and when he preached that wonderful sermon at Pentecost, a few weeks afterwards, God gave him the honour of bringing three thousand souls to love and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was dead, but is alive again!

Many years afterwards, St. Paul mentions the name of Peter among the list of those who saw the Lord after His Resurrection. He calls him "Cephas;" but if you turn to the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, you will see that our Lord, when He makes Simon the son of Jonas one of His disciples, calls him Cephas, which means "a stone," or Peter; and I have read that Cephas means "a piece of Rock," and The Rock Itself—is Christ!

VII. "Father's Plan"

Now I want you to picture to yourselves an earthly father gathering his children around him before he took a journey.

He told them he would only be away a month, and at the end of that time it would be holiday time, and they could all prepare for a visit to the seaside.

He bade them get everything packed up; and he said he had engaged a house at a certain place, and had arranged with an experienced boatman to be at their service all day long.

He had hired a pony carriage for their mother, and everything was all ready when he should come home.

You can imagine how delighted the children were, and how they talked of nothing else but "Father's plan" for the whole month.

That visit to the seaside never came off. Instead, their father was detained in a foreign country for months and months; the lodgings were shut up, for the coast was in danger; the boatmen had to join the Navy; the holidays came, indeed, but an epidemic at the school spoilt all plans for many months, and the children had to learn, and so had the dear mother and father, what bitter disappointment means. And yet nothing seemed more certain than "Father's plan."

But there is One Whose Throne is above the highest Heavens; and when He plans, there is no mistake; no war can hinder it; no illness nor misfortune can prevent the carrying out of what He purposes.

In chapter xlvi, of Isaiah we read what God says about this, and it is a very solemn verse—

"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure . . . I have purposed it, I will also do it."

When we look into our Bibles, and begin to think about the things which God has told people beforehand, and which have come to pass, we are amazed to find how many there are, and how wonderful are the fulfilments.

The first Prophecy, and with it a great Promise, was given by God in the Garden of Eden.

When Adam and Eve were disobedient, and were tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit, God could not let them stay in that beautiful garden any longer, but He told Adam he must go and dig the ground. And God told Satan that he would be like a Serpent always, and eat dust; and then God gave this promise to Eve, that her Seed—that meant one of her children's children, long after, should bruise the head of the Serpent who had deceived her.

God sent His Son; and it was through the death of Jesus on the Cross that He destroyed the power of Satan; for those who turn to Jesus Christ for Salvation have Everlasting Life given them.

In the two thousand years after that promise in the Garden of Eden, there came to be a great many people on the earth, but most of them were very wicked, and at last God said that He would destroy the wicked people by a great Flood, in one hundred and twenty years.

So God told Noah He was going to send a Flood, and He instructed him to prepare an Ark, so that he and his family should be saved from the Flood.

But though it was such a long time that the Ark was being built, and God was very long-suffering, at last the day came when He told Noah to come into the Ark with his wife and children, and to take two, and in some cases seven pairs, of every living creature into the Ark with him.

Then "the Lord shut them in" safely, and the rain began, and never ceased till even the highest mountains were covered right up.

Thus the Word of the Lord, spoken one hundred and twenty years before, was fulfilled.

At length the rain stopped and the waters began to go down, and at last the Lord told Noah to come out of the Ark. So he and his family and all the living creatures came out; and Noah built an Altar, and the Lord accepted his sacrifice.

Then God gave a beautiful Promise and a beautiful Prophecy, and of both we see the constant fulfilment now.

The Promise was, that He would never send a Flood again: and the Prophecy was—"While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

And then God gave them the Token of His Promise, in putting His rainbow in the cloud whenever there is rain and the sun shines at the same time.

God said He would look upon the rainbow and remember His covenant not to send another Flood; and when we turn our eyes to that beautiful coloured arch above us, we can say reverently: "God is looking on that bow too."

The rain reminds us of the Flood; but the sunshine reminds us of God's love: and the rainbow itself reminds us that in that great love He gave His beloved Son. He is our rainbow of Promise.

VIII. Prophecy of the Jews: A Separate People

And when my children were little, I used to tell them that we should love the Jews, and be kind to them, and pray for them. For they are God's own dear people, and our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew, when He came to earth and took our human nature.

It is true that the Jews are scattered all over the world now for their unbelief and disobedience; but by and by, God tells us, they will be gathered in their sows land, and Jesus will reign over them as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

In Numbers xxiii. 9 we find a prophecy about the Jews. Balaam prophesied: "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations."

God separated them in various ways to be His own people. He promised to go with them; and He also gave them certain laws which they were to keep. They were not permitted to marry outside their own nation; they were only allowed to use certain animals for food, and the animals must be killed in a certain way, so that the blood was poured out. They were forbidden to worship idols, or to follow the practices of the nations round them.

They were to keep one a day week holy, and they were to go up to Jerusalem once a year to keep the Passover.

These rules kept them separate from all other peoples, and as long as they obeyed God they were abundantly prosperous.

Thus the prophecy spoken by Balaam so long ago, about the Jews being a people apart by themselves, is fulfilled to the very letter to-day.

Once when God was talking to Abraham, and promising to give the Land of Canaan to his children, He told him that they should be strangers in a land which was not theirs for four hundred years, and should be afflicted by those among whom they dwelt; but "also the nation whom they shall serve will I judge," said God, "and afterwards shall they come out with great substance."

The Children of Israel, who are now called the Jews, travelled from Canaan into Egypt to their brother Joseph, because, of the great famine, and lived in Egypt for four hundred and twenty years.

But when Joseph came to die, he called his brothers to his side and uttered this prophecy: "I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And Joseph took an oath of his brothers, saying: "God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence."

So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten years, and they embalmed and put him in a coffin in Egypt.

But when the time came for the children of Israel to be delivered from Egypt, as they escaped from their cruel task-masters, in all their hurry and confusion, Moses remembered to take the bones of Joseph with him; and as the Children of Israel wandered in the Wilderness, they bore that coffin with them, till at last they reached the land of Canaan which God had promised to give them. Here Joshua, who led the people after Moses' death, buried the bones of Joseph in Shechem, in a piece of ground which Jacob had bought before he was carried down into Egypt at the time of the famine.

Thus the prophecy uttered hundreds of years before was fulfilled to the very letter.

Many years had passed away, during which the Children of Israel had been governed by judges, and by the kings of Judah and Israel; but gradually the people got slack; they forgot the Lord that brought them out of the land of Egypt, and forsook His commandments and fell into idolatry and dreadful sin.

At length God told the Prophet Jeremiah that the sins of the people were so great that He must send Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to carry them away captives, and that they would serve him for seventy years, while the land of Canaan should be a desolation, and enjoy her Sabbaths.

Meanwhile God was very pitiful to His people whom He had had to punish, and He sent them this message through Jeremiah:—

"For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform My good work toward you, in causing you to return to this place."

God told Jeremiah to tell them to build houses and make families during that seventy years; to pray for their enemies, and to ask God to send them peace. And God heard their prayers; and when the seventy years were accomplished, He fulfilled the prophecy in a very wonderful way, by raising up Cyrus, King of Persia, to send the Jews back to rebuild God's Temple at Jerusalem. And Cyrus helped them in every way, even giving them back the sacred vessels of the House of God which Nebuchadnezzar had taken; and by encouraging his people to help the Jews by giving them silver and gold, and beasts to carry the treasures, and all that they needed.

Thus God fulfilled His own word, and the people returned at the end of the seventy years.

IX. "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord"

Seven hundred years before our Lord Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, the Prophet Isaiah foretold that a man would live in the wilderness, and would cry aloud, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God! . . . The grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever! . . . O Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" That was the prophecy, and we read the fulfilment in the Gospels of Matthew and John.

"In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judæa, and saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!"

Do you not think that John the Baptist must have felt greatly honoured to know that he was this messenger of the Lord?

He was the cousin of the Lord Jesus. And before John's birth, an angel told his father, Zacharias, that his name was to be John, and that he should be great in the sight of the Lord, and should preach in the spirit and power of Elijah, and make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

It was John the Baptist who, you remember, had the great honour of baptizing the Lord Jesus; and it was he who uttered one of the most wonderful sentences in the Bible: "Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world."

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came Wise Men from the east to Jerusalem"; and as they entered the city, their first question astonished everyone.

"Where is He that is born King of the Jews?" they asked. "For we have seen His star in the east, and we are come to worship Him."

Herod was the king then, placed there by the Romans, and he did not like to hear that there could be another king! He sent at once for the scribes, and demanded of them where Christ should be born. So they told him that Micah had prophesied in their Scriptures that Christ should be born in Bethlehem. And Herod was so anxious to make sure of this, that he sent the Wise Men to inquire in Bethlehem, and said he would come to worship Him.

And the Star moved before the Wise Men till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

Then the Wise Men saw the Holy Babe, with Mary, His mother; and they fell down and worshipped Him, and opened their treasures, and gave Him the precious gifts they had brought from the east.

In Isaiah vii. 14 the Jews were told that the mother of the Lord should be a virgin; and in Jeremiah xxiii. 5 that He should be of the royal house of David.

And now comes the fulfilment of all these prophecies off seven hundred years before.

Also God said by Micah He was "to be Ruler in Israel"; and in Isaiah xlix. 6 we have this great and further prophecy which embraces the whole world: "I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth."

So we think of our Lord Jesus Christ as the great Gift which God the Father gave to the world.

No wonder that the angel announced to the shepherds that it was tidings of great joy, which should be to all people! No wonder that the multitude of the Heavenly Host came down and joined in the Song of Praise, on that night when the glory from Heaven shone round about them all, and the earth received the Gift of the only begotten Son of the Father.

When the Lord Jesus began His ministry on earth He went into the synagogue at Nazareth, and stood up to read. The attendant handed Him the Roll containing the Prophecies of Isaiah; and the Lord found the place, and this is what He read:—

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And Jesus closed the book, and He gave it again to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him.

And He began to say unto them "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."

The Prophecy in Isaiah was written more than seven hundred years before! That day it was fulfilled!

The King of Glory had taken our human nature upon Him, that He might taste death for every man; and His first words as to His mission were, that He would preach the Gospel to the poor, and heal the brokenhearted!

Think how full of mercy His days were! How He gave the widow's only son, who was dead, back to her alive; how He healed the Roman soldier's servant, who was dear to him; how He touched the lepers and made them well; how He forgave the sins of the palsied man, and healed him; how He forgave Peter and restored him.

No wonder St. John in his Gospel says: "If all the things which Jesus did should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written!"

X. The Prophecy of a Suffering Messiah

There is a great deal said in the Old Testament about the Reign of Christ as King; but though the Jews read these Scriptures every Sabbath day, they did not notice that it was written in a number of places that before He was crowned King He was to suffer and die.

Why did He die? The reference quoted at the head of this page, written by Isaiah so long before, tells us why it was.

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

Jesus Himself said: "I lay down My life for the sheep . . . No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This Commandment have I received of My Father."

Isaiah tells us "He was despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." And when the council of the Jews had judged Him, and condemned Him to be worthy of death, they handed Him over to Pilate, the Roman governor, to execute the cruel death which they could not carry out themselves.

And so the soldiers mocked Him and platted that crown of thorns, and Pilate brought Him out wearing the royal robe that the soldiers had put upon Him in mockery. But not satisfied with the cruel death He was to die, Pilate ordered Him to be scourged, all the time protesting that he found no fault in Him.

Thus those words in Isaiah liii. 8 were fulfilled: "He was taken from prison and from judgment . . . for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken."

We read in Daniel that "The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself." And Zechariah says: "And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends."

As our Blessed Lord hung on that Cross "He was numbered with the transgressors," for two thieves were crucified with Him.

In the twenty-second Psalm we learn to understand a little of the anguish which made Him cry on the Cross: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was because "He bore our sins in His own Body on the tree."

But though all this came upon that beloved Son of God, in order that He might redeem the world, we have, in Isaiah liii. 10, a great and beautiful promise of the Resurrection, and of His afterwards reigning in glory as King:—

"When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."

"He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death." This was fulfilled when rich Joseph of Arimathæa buried Him in beautiful fine linen in his own new grave in that garden near Calvary.

Jesus rose from the dead. It was impossible that the Son of God should be holden of death.

The angel came down and rolled away the stone, and then told the frightened women that Jesus was not there, but was risen, "as He said."

All through the whole of the Bible it is "As He said." As God has said—so it will surely be.

Jesus told the disciples that He would ascend to His Father; and He led them out to Bethany and went up to Heaven in their sight.

He told them that the Father would send the Holy Spirit down, and that they were to wait for Him.

They did wait, and at the appointed time the Holy Spirit came, and is with us still, though we cannot see Him; He is our Comforter and Guide.

We have been dwelling on some of the Prophecies that have been fulfilled. There are numbers more yet to be fulfilled hereafter.

The central one of all is, Jesus Christ is coming again to take His people to be for ever with Him. He says: "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me."

In the fiftieth Psalm we have a wonderful Prophecy and the promise: "The mighty God . . . hath spoken . . . Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. Gather my saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by Sacrifice."

"I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.

"Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

XI. Sowing and Reaping

Our Lord Jesus Christ was sitting on Jacob's Well, waiting for the return of the disciples, who had gone to the nearest village to buy food.

It was mid-day, and the Syrian sun had been beating down on the wearied Lord of all the earth.

At the bottom of the steps, travellers tell us, leading down to "Jacob's Well," there is a small excavation or shelter between some overhanging stones, and here the dear Lord may have found a little shade while He waited.

A woman had come down these steps to draw water, and the Lord had spoken of the Living Water which He would give her if she asked Him; and then, after they had been talking a little while, she had left Jesus sitting there, and had hurried into the town to tell her neighbours that she had found the Messiah—the Christ.

While she was gone, the disciples returned and quickly offered food to their Lord.

But His reply astonished them. He said: "I have food to eat that you do not know of. My food is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work!"

While they had been away, wearied and hungry as He was, He had brought a sinful soul to realize her sin, and to find in Him her Saviour!

And then He said to them: "Are there not four months before the harvest? But lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.

"He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit to life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

You may say: "What does He mean by sowing?" In the winter you see the fields, over which the plough has been pulled by the patient horses, and the patient farmer. Then comes the man with a basket of seed, and he puts the grains carefully into the furrows, and covers them over, and goes on his way. Have you seen that?

Then comes the dew and the rain, the air and the sunshine, and the little seed grows and grows till, by and by, behold it is Harvest! And the golden grain is gathered into the safe garner!

This is the work God has given each one of us to do. To sow the Seed of the Word—to tell of the Love of Jesus!

Each one of us? Do you shrink, and say that you cannot—you so young and ignorant? Or you, perhaps, are too old and feeble to go into the world and spread His Word?

There are many ways of doing it. You can all pray, young or old, for the Seed to be blessed!

The children can work for the missionaries, and can save some of their pennies to put into the Missionary Box.

The old can spare some pennies, too—many or few, according to what they have—and can pray much, and encourage much, by showing ever a sure confidence that God will send the harvest by and by.

A few years ago, a sweet story was told me of this Seed-sowing. It was about a little Japanese boy; and he lived in Hakodate, and I have a photograph of him, taken when he was about eighteen.

When the Missionaries first heard of him he was a miserable little crippled invalid, for he had no legs, lying in the corner of a hut, neglected, dirty, hopeless. Nobody loved him, and he hated everybody. He spent his time in throwing stones at all who came near him, and saying wicked words, which were shocking to hear.

After a while these Missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Nettleship, heard of this poor boy, and went to see him. They told him of Jesus our Saviour, and how He loved him, and had given His life for him.

By and by this living Seed sank into the heart of the poor child, and a change came over him. He ceased to throw stones, he ceased to swear; and when the dear Missionaries offered to take care of him, he gladly went to them, and was with them for years. They called him Samuel, and he learnt to read and write, then helped them afterwards in their work. He learnt to play the concertina, and used to lead the hymns in the Sunday School; and he was full of joy and brightness.

The kind Missionaries made a loose Japanese robe for him, in which he could move about, and which covered up his poor maimed body. He learned to move about, swinging himself on his hands and arms, so that he could cross a room quite quickly; and they told me that his face was full of Heaven's sunshine.

I used to send him a book every year till his death; and he painted several beautiful Japanese pictures for me, which I keep as great treasures.

On one of these, he outlined these words in Japanese: "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Just before his loving friends had to leave Hakodate for a time, dear Samuel was taken "Home!" after a short but painless illness, so that he never missed the loving care he had had!

It seems to me that this simple story helps us to understand what "sowing" and "reaping" mean.

The full of joy of the "Reaping" will come by and by in Heaven; but a foretaste of it was surely in the hearts of those dear Missionaries who carried that Living Seed to that poor neglected child, and who saw him grow up into an earnest, devoted Christian!

XII. "There was no Room for Them in the Inn"

On the last Sunday before Christmas, a little girl sat at the back of a Church, holding in her hand a card which had just been given her, on which was a beautiful picture of a sweet young mother and a tiny babe.

It was a Children's Service, and the Clergyman was telling them about that card, and describing to them the Christmas story which we all love.

Presently he said: "Do any of you remember what my sermon was about this time last year?"

There was dead silence in the Church, and then the Clergyman saw in the very back, underneath the gallery, a hand raised up suddenly, in token that some one could answer his question.

And in the surprised silence a little girl rose to her feet and said in a clear, distinct voice, which reached every part of the Church:

"Yes!" said the Clergyman. "That was it! And you are a very good little girl to have told us so nicely, and to have remembered it all this time!"

So to-day, with this sweet thought in our minds, we can remember that there is a place in the heart of each one of us which we can keep for Jesus. We can think of His love to us, we can love Him in return, and worship Him every day we live.

And if we make room for Jesus in our hearts here, we shall find by and by He will give us "a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Now let us think about the picture which all the Children at the Service are holding in their hands, and looking at so earnestly.

They could see the Holy Babe and His mother. They could see some men, shepherds, bending down and worshipping this Holy Babe; and they see that this is not a beautiful Castle where a King would be born, with curtains, and bright carpet and pretty cradle; but instead it seems to be a sort of Cave, cut out of the side of a hill—a stable, with a manger for the food of the cattle, while straw is scattered on the ground, and there is an Eastern donkey, raising his head in wonder to see a babe lying in his manger!

How came those shepherds there? Do shepherds leave their sheep in the middle of the night to go to a stable more than a mile off to see a little new-born babe?

Ah! but it was something very wonderful that had happened in those dark fields at Bethlehem, which made the shepherds go.

They had been quietly watching their flocks, and perhaps looking out anxiously for the dawn, when suddenly, without any warning, an Angel came down to them from heaven, and the Glory of the Lord surrounded them with a great and wondrous light.

The shepherds were very frightened at first, but the Angel quickly reassured them by saying that he had brought very good news, which would be great joy to all people! For a Holy Babe was born in Bethlehem that night, Who had come to this earth to be the Saviour of the World!

Then the Angel told them that they would know his words were true, by finding the little Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

And, suddenly, a multitude of the heavenly host were with the Angel who had been sent first; and they all praised God, and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Then the angels all went back to heaven, and the shepherds turned to each other in solemn awe, and they said, "The Lord has made known to us a wonderful thing—let us go to Bethlehem and see for ourselves what has come to pass."

And there, in a lowly stable, they saw the Holy Babe who was sent to Mary on the morning of Christmas-day!

Months before this, the Angel Gabriel had been sent from heaven to tell Mary that she was to be the most blessed of all women, for the Holy Child who was to be given to her was to be called the Son of God.

Now He had come! And she laid Him—the Son of God—in the manger, because there was no room for Him in the Inn.

Why did Jesus come to earth? How could His Heavenly Father spare Him? He was very rich in heaven! But for our sakes He became poor, that we might be rich! That was why He came—for our sakes!

Many years ago, just after a very happy Christmas, one of my little girls came to me and said earnestly, "I love Jesus, Mother!"

"I was looking over my Christmas cards this morning," she said, "and it was this one—and, as I read the words, all at once I knew that He had come to save me!"

"God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

XIII. After His Resurrection

For forty days after the Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, He appeared to His disciples numbers of times.

St. Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of the First of Corinthians, gives us a list of the times that Jesus appeared. And the list is very wonderful. He says: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that He was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of about five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also."

St. Paul referred to the time when he had seen Jesus, and He had spoken to him on the way to Damascus.

The Lord did not live on this earth in those forty days as He had done before, but He was "the same Jesus" Who had been with them throughout His ministry. The same, and yet different. Now in His blessed hands and feet were the marks of the cruel nails of the cross. In His side was the wound which the soldier's wanton spear had made! And the Lord now came in and out among them with a Presence which was quite different from what they had known before, for He came to them when doors were shut and fastened, and He left them without passing through those doors; He simply vanished out of their sight.

The first evening of that Resurrection Day, when the disciples were assembled with closed doors for fear of the Jews, suddenly the Lord stood in their midst and said "Peace be unto you." And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side.

How very glad the disciples must have been when they saw that their Lord was alive!

But Thomas was not with them when Jesus came that time; and when, afterwards, the others told him that they had seen the Lord, he said to them: "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe!"

Jesus was not present when Thomas said all that, but He knew all about it, as you will see.

Eight days after, the disciples were again together in that upper room where they assembled, and Thomas was with them.

Then, though the doors were fast shut, Jesus came again and stood in the midst of them, and again He said "Peace be unto you."

Then He turned at once to Thomas, and said to him: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.

"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

And the Apostle John ends that wonderful account with these words: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through His Name."

The forty days that the Lord was going in and out among His disciples was nearly over. We read in the first chapter of the Acts the account of the last talk that the Lord had with them.

He had been explaining many things to them about the Kingdom of God, and telling them that they were to stay in Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit was sent down to them, which God the Father had promised when Jesus went back to Heaven.

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, and He is here with God's people now. It is He who whispers in our hearts and checks us if we do wrong. It is He who tells us about Jesus, and helps us to understand His forgiving love, and all He has done for us by His life and death.

We should pray earnestly that God would give us more of the Holy Spirit's presence and comfort.

The Lord told them that they were to be His witnesses all over the world, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins were to be preached in His Name among all nations.

Then He led them out as far as Bethany, which is just over the brow of the hill called the Mount of Olives.

And as they stood together there, He blessed them, and while He blessed them and they were looking at Him He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

"And while they looked stedfastly towards heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."

And it is this promise which should cheer us all in these dark days. St. Paul calls it "that blessed Hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!"

XIV. "Consider the Lilies"

Nazareth is a place of many flowers and of lovely views. From the hills around, those who go there can see peeps of the blue Mediterranean; and travellers tell us that the fields and hillsides are carpeted with countless flowers.

Here Jesus, our Lord, lived for thirty years. Here He wandered as a child, and grew up as a young man.

When at length the time came for Him to fulfil His great Mission, He came down to the cities round the Lake of Galilee.

For He had come from Heaven to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the sick and brokenhearted.

But more than all these things, He had come down from His home in Heaven to save sinners!

So when He came from Nazareth to the busy cities round the Lake, He began at once to heal the sick people, and to teach them about God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

One day He told the crowds who listened to Him about the little corn seeds growing up, and bearing numbers of seeds which would make the harvest by and by.

Another day He told them all about the lilies of the field, which they could see around them, but which they had never thought of "considering."

It means thinking about something; turning the matter over in our minds, till we understand its full meaning.

Who makes them grow? How do they get those delicate roots, those graceful green leaves, those sweet-smelling lovely flowers?

Every spring we see the daisies and the buttercups, the wild geraniums, the primroses and bluebells, and hundreds of other flowers, which come up in the fields and hedges, without our knowing that they were there!

Do you guess the answer? You know the answer; it is God who makes them grow, and come up for our joy.

And this wonderful thought helps us to understand the Resurrection; for by God's power the bodies of those who love Him, and who are lying in their graves, will rise to meet Jesus when He comes, and will bloom for ever in the lovely Paradise of God's Home.

But some people do not believe in the Resurrection: they put away the thought, and say they cannot see how it can be! And I am going to tell you a true story of a very curious thing that happened some few years ago.

A man who lived on the Continent—I do not remember the name of the town—was a great infidel; one who did not believe in God's power, or that there would be a resurrection of the dead by and by.

This man knew he must die some day, so he bought a grave in a certain spot, and he gave orders that when he died he was to be buried in that grave, and that a great stone was to be put over it. This stone was to be "clamped" at the corners with strong iron bands and bars, so that it could not be moved or taken away; and he ordered that certain words were to be cut on the stone deep and legible.

He left instructions, and money, to carry out all these plans; so that when he died there should be no mistake.

At length he did die, and was buried in that grave. All his instructions were carried out. The great stone was laid over him, bound with iron, and the stonemason cut words in the stone, just as he had said.

One day a gentleman came into my husband's office and laid a photograph down on his desk.

He said he had just returned from the Continent, and had bought this photograph there. And then he told my husband the story that I have told you about the iron-bound grave.

The iron bars were there, but they were bent and twisted in every direction; and the great stone was all broken to pieces, and lifted quite out of its place!

Yes, just the miracle of one of God's little living seeds, which He had allowed to be thrown into that grave!

For a seed-pod of a silver-birch tree had been shovelled in with the earth which was used to fill up the infidel's grave when he was buried.

The seed had taken root in the earth, and had grown and grown in the grave, till at last it became a strong silver-birch tree; and gradually the branches had burst the iron bars, and raised up the stones, and there was the infidel's grave laid open for everyone to see.

A photographer had heard of it and came among the sight-seers, and had taken the wonderful photograph, which my husband saw, and held in his own hand!

If we have Jesus for our Saviour, He is the Living Seed in our hearts; and when the time of the Resurrection comes for us, we shall rise, because His Life will be in us: and we shall go to be with Him, in joy, for ever.

XV. A Man Named Matthew

One day the Lord Jesus made His way to the lake-side, and near the water's edge He found a crowd of busy people.

Some of them were carrying heavy loads from the boats which were moored at the bottom of the steps; others were lifting down baskets of fruit or provisions, to put into the boats which were being emptied.

Everyone was busy, for those who brought goods in, or those carrying goods out across the lake, had to pay a toll or tax to the Roman Governors, and the men who collected the tax were on the look-out that no one should slip past without paying his toll; often the Publicans, as they were called, cheated the poor Jews very much.

Some Jews, who saw what a lot of money was made at this business, became tax-gatherers themselves, and they were despised and hated by their countrymen.

As Jesus neared the lake-side, and looked on the busy, eager crowd, as they thronged the place of Custom, He was looking for a man, a Jewish Publican, who was, as He knew, among that crowd.

Then the loving eyes of Jesus fell upon him as he sat writing down the money and putting it in safety in a bag.

This was the man Jesus wanted; this was the man who was to do His work, and be known as His servant, for nineteen hundred years, Matthew the Publican!

No! He left all, rose up, and followed Jesus! Matthew heard the call—and he obeyed.

And this is the decision that Jesus, our Lord, wants each one of us to make, young and old.

If we listen to His voice, if we will heed the pleading love in His eyes, an instant firmness will come to us, and, like Matthew, we shall "rise up, and follow him."

XVI. Calvary

A while ago, someone sent to me a most beautiful photograph of the Hill of Calvary, which is just outside Jerusalem on the northern side.

The photograph was so carefully done that you could plainly see why that little hill was called "The place of a skull," for when the sun shone in a certain direction the rocks had the appearance of a man's skull; and that was why it was called Calvary, which is the Latin for skull. And here they crucified the Lord of glory.

When we look at the picture of those three crosses, with Jesus, our Saviour, in the midst, our hearts seem to stand still, as we remember how He died for us.

Now, I am going to tell you a true story, which a nurse told me, about one of her patients.

One day she was visiting a man who had been ill for many months; and when his wife opened the door to her she exclaimed, "Oh, nurse! he is better! He has had such a wonderful dream!"

So the nurse hastened upstairs, and to her amazement the man's face was quite altered, and, instead of despair and suffering, he looked inexpressibly happy.

"Nurse!" he said. "Do you remember saying to me yesterday, 'Prepare to meet thy God'?

"But while I was thinking, ever so sorrowfully, about those words, I seemed to fall asleep; yet what I saw seemed happening before my eyes.

"I saw the Cross of our Saviour, set up in front of me, and He was nailed to that cross with cruel nails. And close to the cross, between me and it, I saw a great deep hole—and I found myself moving nearer and nearer to that dark pit.

"Then I knew that I should fall into it, because I was not prepared to meet God; and yet I could not but look on our Saviour's face, for tears rolled down it, and I did not like to see Him cry!

"So I said to someone standing by, 'Why does our Saviour cry?' and he said, 'Because you will fall into that pit. He is dying to save you, but you will not come to Him to be saved!'

"And I said, 'Oh dear Saviour, I do not want to make you cry, I will come and be saved! You shall not die in vain for me!'

"And then I began to wake from my dream, for my wife was shaking me by the arm, and she said, 'Smith, Smith, you are singing in your sleep!'

"And she answered, 'The hymn that was in the book nurse lent you, "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow!"'

"And so, nurse, I woke up; and I'm saying all the time, 'Wash me in the Blood of the Lamb, and I shall be whiter than snow!' For He is my Saviour now!"

XVII. The Good Shepherd, and the Sheep that was Lost

Now you must picture to yourselves an Eastern shepherd sitting among his sheep on the mountains.

He loves them! He knows every one of them; and in return they know him, and love him. They will not follow a stranger, nor come to him if he calls them.

I heard Mr. Moody say years ago that, when he was visiting at a farm in America, he asked his friend the farmer if he might go out to see his sheep.

He remembered those words in the tenth of St. John's Gospel: "And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers."

So he asked the farmer if he might stand behind a great tree where the sheep could not see him, and then he would copy the farmer's familiar call, and he would see if the sheep would come to him.

But when he gave the call, the sheep looked very frightened, and then they all turned tail, and ran away as far as they could go!

Yes—"they knew not the voice of a stranger!" But when the farmer, who was their shepherd too, and their master, gave the call, they turned back, and came up one by one to his side, expecting him to give them the food they longed for, and the love which day by day he lavished upon them.

This is a picture of the Eastern shepherd. He loves his sheep, as I told you; he calls them by name; he leads them out to green pastures.

If, in his absence, a hired man has to take care of them, the hireling runs away if he hears the roar of the wild beast, or sees a sudden storm coming up!

But the shepherd thinks first of his sheep. He leads them into a place of safety to escape the storm; he defends them against the wild beast with his own hand, and his own life!

Jesus is the Good Shepherd—all these good things of which I have told you belong to Him in fullness.

He calls His own sheep by name! He says to each one of you, however young you may be, your own, own name!

He calls you in loving, tender tones. He says, "Come to Me, and I will give you rest." He says to every one who will have Him as his Saviour, "I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine."

In the old days, when there was a High Priest, he had a breastplate on which was engraved the names of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel, and we are told in the fifteenth of Exodus that "they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord."

This is such a sweet thought: that our names, if we love Him, are on the heart of Jesus, in the glory!

We have been thinking about the happy flock who are with the shepherd, feeding in green pastures, lying down by still waters, preserved from enemies, taken to the safe fold at night.

But our Lord tells us this story of one, out of the hundred sheep that the Eastern shepherd has, who had wandered away!

Perhaps he had thought there were fairer pastures than those which the shepherd had brought him to? Perhaps he thought that the waters in another field were more sparkling than those still ones where the shepherd had so gently led them?

Whatever was the reason, one of these sheep wandered away. At first, perhaps, only a little way off just behind a rock, or round the other side of a wood. But the farther off he went, the easier it became to wander away!

At length came the dark night, and as the shepherd counted his hundred sheep into the fold, he found one was lost!

He left his ninety-nine in the fold, and hurried away into the wilderness to find the one which was lost.

Through the darkness of night; through the tangles and the briars; through the deep waters of the rushing stream, on he passed; and as he went, he repeated to himself words which seemed to dwell in his very heart—"until I find it"!

On he went, weary and worn, till at last in the silence of the deep night he heard a faint cry!

Then the shepherd called, and stood listening for the answer. And again came that faint cry, and the shepherd knew that somewhere near him, in the darkness, his lost sheep was lonely, helpless, and hopeless.

Then the shepherd's arms were stretched out to reach him, caught in the briars at the edge of an awful precipice. He leaned down over the abyss and stretched out his hands, and, regardless of the tearing thorns, he grasped his sheep, he disentangled the briars, and lifted it into safety.

But the sheep was so weary and faint that he could not walk, so the tender shepherd put him on to his shoulders, and brought him home rejoicing!

And Jesus, our Good Shepherd, says: "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth!"

XVIII. The Door of the Sheep

The Lord Jesus calls Himself by many wonderful and tender names in the New Testament. These are some of them.

Perhaps this last name of Jesus is a little difficult for you to understand; but I am told that those who have visited Palestine have seen the shepherd acting as the real door of the sheep!

When night comes on, the Eastern shepherd gathers his sheep from the mountains where they have been feeding, and he leads them to a safe place, called the fold, where perhaps, shut in by rocks, or by walls, or by the sides of some steep hill with the broken rocks around as a protection, he brings them to a spot where they may rest without fear.

Then, having counted them in, and having found that all are there, he places himself across the doorway, and bids his dear flock lie down, because while he is there as their door, no harm can come to them.

This is a little picture of how it is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can call Himself the Door of the Sheep.

I think He wanted His people—His sheep and His lambs—to understand that if He is the Door, that is their safety.

If they have entered by Him; if they have come to Him to be saved, and washed and made His own sheep, then they have entered by the door into the sheepfold, and are safe within it!

Satan may try to get in and snatch the sheep or the lambs, but if Jesus is their own Shepherd and Saviour, if they are truly His sheep and lambs, then they need fear no evil, for He says, "Because I live, ye shall live also."

Jesus is our Shepherd,
    Wiping every tear;
Folded in His bosom,
    What have we to fear?
Only let us follow
    Whither He doth lead,
To the thirsty desert,
    Or the dewy mead.

Jesus is our Shepherd:
    For the sheep He bled;
Every lamb is sprinkled
    With the blood He shed;
Then on each He setteth
    His own secret sign;
"They that have My Spirit,
    These," saith He, "are Mine."

Jesus is our Shepherd:
    Guarded by His arm,
Though the wolves may raven,
    None can do us harm;
When we tread death's valley,
    Dark with fearful gloom,
We will fear no evil,
    Victors o'er the tomb.

XIX. "In My Father's House are Many Mansions"

The very last evening that our dear Lord was on earth before His death, He and His twelve disciples were gathered together in that upper room to eat the Passover.

On the morrow he was to die! But though He had told the disciples very often of His death, they had failed to believe it.

Peter had said "That be far from Thee, Lord!" and had, like the other disciples, dismissed the fear from his thoughts.

It had only been a few days before this Passover night that Mary, the sister of Lazarus, had poured the sweet-smelling spikenard ointment on our Lord's Head at the supper table; and He, knowing all things that were coming to pass, said she had anointed His Body for His burial. But still, the listening disciples paid no heed.

The Passover supper was over, and Judas had left them and gone out into the darkness. If no one else expected the death of the Lord of Glory, Judas knew in his heart that he had sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and that the Jews would surely kill Him!

But Judas was gone out; and now our Lord turned to the eleven who were left, and began to comfort them, with words of strength and hope.

He had just told His over-confident disciple, Peter, that before the cock should crow in the morning he would thrice deny Him! And all the disciples were full of dismay at such a possibility.

So our Lord's first words, in His talk with His own, we read in the 14th of St. John's Gospel; and they come as a wonderful comfort to all sorrowing and fainting ones, from that holy hour down to this time which seems so hard to us! He said these words to His eleven disciples and to all who love Him: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me."

And then, because of the coming trials which He knew His disciples would have soon to pass through, He gives them the wonderful promise, which has comforted thousands and thousands of weary hearts since then: "In My Father's House are many Mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."

He seems in these words to say something like this: "My Father's House" is safely Above, where no storms can touch its security. It is an Everlasting abode—one that will not pass away with the ravages of time, or the thunders of war. It is an Everlasting Home; and I go to get it ready for each one of you.

He says: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also!"

So He bids us to look forward in the trials and sorrows which will come to all of us, as we pass through life to the Father's Everlasting Home—to His being there to get ready that Home for all who love Him—and then He promises to come back and fetch His people, and take them to be for ever with Himself!

John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had sat close to his Lord, and had leant on His breast, heard all these heart-cheering words, as Jesus uttered them. But little did he know, then, that he would be chosen to write all these lovely words down in his Gospel; nor that by and by he should be a prisoner for years in the rocky Isle of Patmos, and see glorious visions of "the Father's House, and the many Mansions."

There, in the loneliness and solitude, the glorified Saviour came to His loved disciple and said to him these wonderful words:

He told John that many sorrows and difficulties would beset His followers, but that those who overcome shall sit down with Him on His Throne, even as He had overcome and is seated with His Father on His Throne.

By and by, near the end of these wonderful Revelations, John was allowed to have a glimpse into Heaven itself, and he saw a vision of the many mansions which Jesus is preparing for us!

"And I John saw the Holy City . . . and I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

"And He that sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said unto me, 'Write: for these words are true and faithful.'"

More than six hundred years before these visions to John in Patmos, the Prophet Isaiah wrote—

"For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

And our Lord Jesus, in the Revelation, says to every one who reads these words—

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My Voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."

The entrance to that Everlasting Home is in listening to this loving Voice of Jesus Christ now, and by opening the door of our hearts, to let Him in!

XX. The Parable of the Two Builders

The Lord Jesus taught the people numbers of lessons about Himself, or His Heavenly Father, or about the Kingdom of Heaven, by drawing word-pictures: and we can learn the deepest truths that concern ourselves by reading them and thinking about them.

One of these that I am very fond of is a picture of two builders, and what became of the results of their building.

The first man was a wise man. He looked about him to find a sure and suitable foundation, and he built his house on a firm rock.

By and by bad weather came, and the rain poured down and the floods came and beat upon the house, but it stood firm, for it was founded upon a rock.

Our Lord Himself not only gives us the picture, but He gives us the explanation of this story first of all.

He says: "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Here were two men: they had heard that it was a wise thing to have a house to live in, and they both decided that they would begin at once to build.

The wise man thought it all over, and considered what ground would be suitable, what foundation would outlive the storms, and he decided it must be upon a rock, which stood high above the rivers, and was strong and enduring.

But the other man was careless. There was, perhaps, a pleasant spot nearer to him. The materials with which to build were easily carried to that spot, the sunshine flooded the landscape, and all looked fair and beautiful. So he hastened to build upon the sandy foundation, and soon his house was finished and he took possession.

But in that country there were frequently sudden violent storms; and one day such a storm overtook the two houses. The rain came in torrents, the winds blew, and they beat upon those two houses.

And because the foundation was unstable the house upon the sand began to slip and shake, and by and by cracked open, and fell to pieces, and lay in a ruin beneath the rushing flood.

And the house on the rock? Calm amidst the storm it stood firm. The rain came, and the wind blew and the floods rose, but it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock!

Do you want to answer that question which perhaps rises up in the depths of your own heart: What am I building up out of my life? And what foundation am I building upon?

There is a verse which tells us very distinctly the answer to that question, if we are asking it in our hearts—

If we come to Him, ask Him to take us just as we are—weak, sinful, unworthy—He will stretch forth His hand and grasp us, and "set our feet upon a Rock and establish our goings."

When once we have come to Christ for pardon, our feet are on the Rock: and then we can begin to build.

To do each day what will please Jesus. As He says when He begins this story of the Two Builders: "To hear these sayings of His and to do them," is the sure way of having a building that will last when the storms of life overtake us.

If you watch the people who bear trouble the best, who are patient in trial, hopeful in adversity, brave in difficulty, triumphant in death, you will find that it is they who have built on the Rock Jesus Christ, and have found that there is security and peace there.

Oh, what desolation to find that what you thought was all pleasant and bright will not last, but the insecure foundation melts away, and the hopes founded upon it fall to pieces.

If you have even a misgiving that you are not on the true Foundation, give up your earthly plans and make a fresh start.

The Arms of love and mercy are ready to embrace you, and one of those wonderful sayings of Jesus is: "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."

"The Foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal: The Lord knoweth them that are His."

XXI. The Labourers in the Harvest

In the Bible we have many vivid pictures in which God would teach us, by earthly things, concerning His heavenly things.

This Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard is one of these pictures. We have the account of it in the 20th chapter of Matthew.

There was an Eastern householder. He had great estates, and fields and vineyards, stretching far up on the hillsides, and kept with great care by his vine-dressers. By and by the grapes were ready for picking and the householder went out early in the morning to hire the labourers for his vineyard.

In those days there was a certain coin which was considered fair pay for a day's wages.

Some of you who read the story in the Bible may say, "A penny for a day's work!" But this is only because the money then was of such a different value from what it is now; and a Roman penny was worth nearly eight times what our penny is now, and was at that time the usual hire for a day's work.

So the lord of the vineyard went out early to engage the men to get in his harvest; and when he had agreed with them for a certain sum, he sent them into his vineyard.

By and by, about nine o'clock in the morning, he went out again; and seeing others standing idle in the market-place, he said to them: "Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you."

Then came twelve o'clock, and then three o'clock; and still the householder wanted more men to labour in his vineyard. As our Lord had said in another place, "The Harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few."

At length, at the last hour before sundown, the householder went out once more, and found others standing idle, and he said to them: "Why are you standing here idle all the day?"

So the householder said to them: "Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that ye shall receive."

And soon the short Eastern twilight came, and then, as a poet says: "The sun sinks, the stars rush out," and the day was over!

Then the lord of the vineyard said to his steward: "Call the labourers and give them their hire, beginning from the last ones even to the first."

So the last men came, who had worked only one hour, and they were each given the Roman penny.

But when the first ones, who were hired early in the morning, were given their money, they supposed that they should have received more for their long day's work. But they each received the Roman penny.

Then they began murmuring against the good man of the house, saying: "These last have only worked one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and heat of the day!"

But the lord of the vineyard explained to them that he had given each man what he had agreed upon; and that he had done them no wrong; for he said he had a right to do what he willed with his own money.

Now there are several things to learn from this picture story, and as I go along I think you will see them for yourselves.

The vines here represent the people in the world whom the Lord wants to store in His beautiful garner, the Heavenly Home, by and by.

The labourers are God's own people, whom He calls to bring those precious grapes into the garner.

To one, who is perhaps strong and able, He gives work that will last him the whole long day of a long life!

Of another, He asks half a lifetime—of another, a quarter of a lifetime; or only one short hour perhaps!

To each one, when the day is ended, the Lord will give His own reward. If the worker has been faithful in what has been given him to do, the Lord of the Harvest will say: "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord."

Little children can work for this Heavenly Lord. They can do little kindnesses for Christ's sake; they can try to be like Jesus. They can listen for God's commands like little Samuel, and obey Him when He speaks to them.

Some of the servants of the Lord of the Harvest have very hard and toilsome work to do. He has given them that to do, and He will surely give them their pay!

What is that pay? Not a Roman penny; not any earthly coins or rewards; but they are promised that if they are wise, and turn many to righteousness, they shall shine as the stars for ever and ever!

Does not this encourage us to do what we can to tell others of the love of Jesus Who died on the Cross that we might be saved?

We can all pray that God will call us to work for Him; and surely, if He does call and we listen to His Voice, He will teach us how to bring many to righteousness, and earn "the crown of glory that fadeth not away!"

XXII. As a Hen Gathereth Her Chickens

Not long before our dear Lord Jesus was crucified, He was walking one day in the streets of Jerusalem.

He had been telling the Scribes and Pharisees that they were trusting in their own goodness, but were far-off from the Kingdom of God.

His loving heart was filled with pity for those who would not come to Him to be saved.

Do you not remember how He had said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!"

He longed to have the poor, sorrowful people find joy and rest in Him. Had He not said at the very beginning of His teaching that He had come to bind up the brokenhearted?

So on this day as He passed along through the streets, He noticed a hen with her chickens round her. Perhaps He paused to watch them as they ran hither and thither. Perhaps He heard the hen give a sudden warning cry, and watched the little chickens respond to it by running with outstretched wings to the shelter of her feathers, beneath which they nestled serene and safe from all alarms.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" He exclaims, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

Do you not know how, sometimes, a mother holds out her arms to a child who has been naughty, but perhaps the child turns away and will not come back to the loving embrace?

Have you not seen how sad that mother's face has looked? "But ye would not!" goes to her heart.

And that is something like Jesus felt when sinners would not come to Him to be forgiven.

It was only a very little while after He had said those words about the hen and the chickens, and about "Ye would not," that He wept over Jerusalem as He came down from the Mount of Olives and came in sight of the beautiful city, and thought of all the sorrow that was coming upon it.

And as He wept He said, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes."

I think these sorrowful words of our dear Lord should sink into our hearts, and we should look up into His face now in the glory, and tell Him we will not grieve Him by our want of love!

Like those little chicks, at sight of danger, let us fly to Him; and He will receive us, and comfort us, and protect us.

God Himself says in the 91st Psalm: "He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust."

And we shall find, whether we are young or old, that whenever we put out trust in Jesus, He will surely come to our help!

Do not let Him have to say of us, as He said of those Jews in Jerusalem, "But ye would not!" But let us believe His love, and joyfully answer the dear Lord who loved us so—

I heard the Voice of Jesus say,
"Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
Thy head upon My breast!"
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.

I heard the Voice of Jesus say,
"Behold I freely give
The living water, thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live!"
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived
And now I live in Him.

XXIII. The Sower

One day when the Lord Jesus was staying near the Sea of Galilee, He went out with His disciples and sat by the side of the lake.

This lake is called by several names—the Sea of Galilee—the Sea of Tiberias—the Lake of Gennesaret—and it is one of the most interesting places which we read of in the Bible.

The Lord Jesus did many of His Wonderful works round the shores of this lake; and He often went across in the fishermen's boats from one side to the other.

It was on this lake that once He walked on the water. That was in the middle of the night, when the disciples were toiling at their oars and could not get to land because the wind was against them, that Jesus came to them, walking on the top of the waves.

Perhaps you say "How could He walk on water?" There is only one answer to that: "Because Jesus is the Son of God!"

Then it was sailing on this lake, that Jesus was asleep on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship; and the disciples awoke Him because there was a great storm, and they were very frightened and were afraid they would be drowned. So He rose up, and told the wind and the waves to stop their raging—saying to them "Peace! Be still!"

Could you do that? You shake your head. No, it would be of no use for you to tell the wind to stop blowing, would it? It was because Jesus is the Son of God, that He could do it.

The people who had been cured of their diseases, or who wanted to be cured, saw Him going out of the house where He was staying, and they followed Him down to the lake.

But as so many came crowding to Him, Jesus asked one of the fishermen to let Him sit in his boat, that He might speak to the people from there.

And as Jesus looked out on the fields behind the thronging multitude, His eyes rested on a man who was busily sowing the field with seed.

And Jesus said to the people "Look! There is a sower, who is going out to sow his seed!"

And then the Lord told them the story of the seeds, and His blessed words were something like this, so that even the little children who were standing by could understand.

The sower sets out from home, and he carries the seed in a basket, or perhaps wrapped up in a corner of his garment; and as he walks along the field, he throws handful after handful on to the ground.

Some seeds fall by the side of the path and the birds who are following him as he walks, and who watch what becomes of every handful he throws, fly down and pick up all they can see, and eat it up.

But the sower passes on, and some of his little seeds fall on stony places, where there is very little good earth; and when the seeds spring up and begin to grow, there is not enough earth for them to flourish, or to feed the little plants; and the sun gets hot, and they are scorched, and wither away.

But still the sower goes on sowing. And the next seeds fall among the bushes that grow by the path; and the little seeds get choked with the big, thorny bushes, and never grow up to be good plants, or to be of any use to anyone!

But at last the sower comes to a part of the field where the ground is good and soft.

He throws the handfuls now with joy! He knows there will be a harvest by and by! The seed sinks into the good ground, it takes root, and when the time of harvest comes, and the reapers come to gather the beautiful corn, there are heaps of sheaves; for some of these little seeds had grown up to bear a hundred other seeds! And some sixty, and some thirty!

When the Lord had done talking to the multitude, the disciples gathered round Him and asked Him why He had told them that story of the seeds—called a Parable.

Then Jesus explained to them that the seed that He had been talking about was the Word of God.

Those who try to tell other people about God, are like the Sower. And the ground is like our hearts.

Then Satan our great Enemy, like those birds in the Parable, watches eagerly where the seed falls, and tries to pick it up and carry it away! That is the "seed by the wayside."

Then there are "the stony places." That is when the Word of God is spoken to us, and our hearts are hard, and there is no deep, soft feeling in them; no love to God. And the little seeds get dry, and wither away!

But, children, if we feel our hearts are hard, let us turn to God quickly, and ask Him to send us His Holy Spirit to help us to love Him, and to make us grow up to bear fruit; and He will, if we ask Him.

Well, then, besides the two kinds I have told you about, some of the little seeds fall into ground that has other things growing in it.

They may be too much pleasure, too much enjoyment, too many toys, love of money, love of our own way—heaps of things in our hearts may choke God's good seed, and it may not grow up and bear fruit. Oh, how sad, if this should be so with our hearts! Let us ask God not to let them be overgrown with "thorns."

But at last the seed falls on to good ground. The Word of God comes to a heart which is ready to receive it. A heart which is longing for the Lord Jesus to live in it. Longing that His seed may grow and bear fruit, and that people may know that we love Jesus and want to please God.

Can you think of some of the things which can be called fruit, and show that Jesus is indeed living in your heart?

Are you loving? Do you try to be? Are you pure and good, and straight-forward in all your dealings with your companions?

Think of these things, and if the seed has really taken root in your heart, think of what a glorious harvest-time there will be by and by, when Jesus comes to gather all who have loved Him into the Father's eternal Harvest-home.

XXIV. The Ten Virgins

In the 24th of Matthew and the 44th verse our Lord tells His disciples about His promise to come back again, and He earnestly begged them to be watchful, reminding them that His coming would be very sudden.

He described how two would be in a field, and how one should be taken and the other left behind: and that two should be grinding flour with the mill-stones, and how one would be taken and the other would be left behind.

And then our Lord added this warning, "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come."

A father is perhaps going to take his children for a holiday in the country, and he says to them, "Be quite ready, children. I am going out to get a cab, and we must start the moment it comes, or we shall lose the train. Keep looking out for me, and be quite ready waiting. I do not want one of you to be left behind!"

Well, some of the children are very obedient, and they do exactly as they are told.

But one child thinks to herself, "There is plenty of time—Father has hardly got to the end of the road yet, and I do just want to finish this page of my book! Then I will dress in a hurry!"

But the page takes longer than she thought, and while she hastens upstairs to dress, the cab drives up, and she is not ready!

The father looks dreadfully sorry, for the train will not wait; and the little girl has to be left behind!

That is why our Lord says in that 24th Chapter, "Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh."

So after Jesus had urged them so earnestly to watch, and to be ready, He told them a story, which will help us all to understand what He meant.

"Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened unto ten virgins who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom," He said.

And five of these virgins were wise, and five were foolish. Those that were foolish took their lamps, but took no oil with them.

They wanted to meet the Bridegroom, but they forgot that perhaps He might come when it was dark night, and their lamps would be of no use unless there was oil in them.

It was not that they could not have obtained the oil; oh, no! But they were careless, and did not think.

So they all went out to meet the Bridegroom, some with oil, and some without it.

But it seemed a long time before the Bridegroom came, and all the virgins fell fast asleep while they waited.

But at midnight there was a sudden cry! But it was a sound of happy voices! "Behold the Bridegroom cometh!" the voices said joyfully.

Then the virgins waked out of their sleep, and they rose up and quickly trimmed their lamps.

But the foolish virgins found to their dismay that their lamps had gone out, and their little pitchers were empty!

But the wise virgins shook their heads, for they knew they must not give their oil away, or they would have none left for their own lamps to meet the Bridegroom.

And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came; and those who were ready went in with Him to the marriage; and the door was shut.

Afterwards the other virgins hurried back; and when they came to that closed door, they called with bitter longing and entreaty, "Lord, Lord open to us!"

But the Bridegroom answered in these sorrowful words which should be a warning to every one of us as we read them, "Verily I say unto you I know you not."

And the Lord Jesus would not have told it to us unless He had intended us to take a great warning from it.

The Oil spoken of in this Parable is a type or picture to help us to understand about the Holy Spirit.

For we must have the Holy Spirit in our hearts if we want to go in with Jesus to the Marriage supper, in Heaven.

When Jesus was baptized in Jordan, John saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, and resting upon Him.

Perhaps you ask, "Could those foolish virgins have had the oil?" Ah! Indeed they might! Evidently they could have bought the oil.

The Holy Spirit is given to us "without money and without price," for our Lord says, "How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."

Some years ago we had a young maid who could not understand how she was to find Jesus. I told her that if she would pray for the Holy Spirit, she would certainly be shown the way.

In ten days she came to me with a joyful face. "I did pray as you told me," she said, "and I have come to Jesus, and He is my Saviour."

XXV. The Good Samaritan

There was once a lonely man, walking in Palestine on the mountainous road between Jerusalem and Jericho.

He had no one with him, and his heart sank as he recalled the stories of the wild men who lived in the caves, and came out to rob unfortunate travellers who passed that way.

The silence was unbroken, and as he looked from side to side and hurried along, he began to hope that he might reach Jericho without mishap.

The road lay between steep hills and mountains, and there were sharp corners and jutting rocks all along the way, which would hide any number of the robbers who haunted the place.

But all his fears and all his anxious, watchful glances were of no use. Suddenly a band of thieves sprang out of their hiding-place behind him, and in a moment they surrounded him, robbed him of all his property, and, as he evidently resisted them with all his might, they not only robbed him, but cruelly wounded him, and then made off, leaving him by the roadside, half dead.

Sad indeed was his plight, lying there in the glaring sunshine, aching with pain and consumed with thirst. "Would no one come to help him?" he sadly thought.

Yes—he heard footsteps coming down the stony path, and as they drew nearer and nearer, his hope began to revive. Surely some kind man would take pity on him!

And then the steps came close to him, and at last, as he lifted his weary eyes, he saw one of the Jewish priests standing for an instant, arrested by the sad sight, but, when the priest saw him, he passed by on the other side of the road, and went away.

Presently another step was heard, and another man, a Jewish Levite, came along the road, and, catching sight of the wounded man, he came over and looked at him; but he, too, passed by on the other side.

But at length there was a traveller who was making the same journey, and he saw the poor man lying there dying; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. A great pity filled his heart. He could not bear to see him wounded and suffering.

So he quickly went to his side and bound up his wounds, putting on them the only salves he had with him, oil and wine, which would both soothe and heal the sores; and then he lifted him on to his own donkey, and walking by his side and doing everything he could for the poor man, he brought him at length to an Inn, where he made him as comfortable as ever he could, and stayed with him all night.

You can picture to yourself this kind traveller sitting quietly by the suffering stranger, and cheering him with kind words, and bidding him hope for better times, when he should be well again.

At length the morning came, and the traveller was obliged to proceed on his journey. So he called the Master of the Inn and gave him some money, and told him to take care of the stranger, and promised to repay the Innkeeper, when he returned, whatever he had spent in caring for the sick man.

Nov when the Lord Jesus told this story to the lawyer who had been questioning him, He turned to him and asked him, "Which do you think was a neighbour to this man that fell among the thieves?"

And now, I think, our Lord Jesus, who looks down from heaven at all that is happening here, says to each one of us, as we pass on our journey through this world—"Go thou, and do like that kind Samaritan."

And perhaps you say to yourself: "How can I? I do not see any wounded men that want help—I am only a boy, and nobody needs my care! I am only a girl, and I have lessons and work to do, and I have not got any neighbours, such as that story speaks of—people who want my help—I am only a little girl!"

Yes, that is natural for you to say to yourself, but just stop for a moment and think.

You have a brother who is a Scout! Is not he always looking out for opportunities to help others? Cannot you be a "Scout" for Jesus our King? Cannot you, whether you are boy or girl, do at least one kindness a day?

That invalid sister drops her ball of wool! Cannot you stop as you are racing out to play, to pick it up, and give her a sweet smile of cheer into the bargain?

That schoolfellow has a headache and cannot get his sums right. Could you not bend over him for a moment or two, and help him find out the mistake, and set him free to come out and play?

Oh, do not say in your heart, "He is nothing to me, I cannot help his troubles!" Do not be like the Priest and the Levite. Cheer up everyone you come across, and if you do this for Jesus your King, believe me, your life will be full of sunshine and joy.

Do one kind deed every day, and you will end in being, in very truth, like the Good Samaritan whom Jesus praised.

XXVI. No Wedding Garment

Our Lord told the people who listened to Him many wonderful stories, or parables, which were meant to sink deep into their hearts, to warn them lest they should sin, or to encourage them to be good.

He often told them stories about "the Kingdom of Heaven," for He wanted all who heard Him to enter into that Kingdom, and to share its everlasting joy.

The parable I am going to tell you to-day is one in which the Kingdom of Heaven was likened to a certain great King who made a marriage feast for his son.

He invited a great many guests, and when all was ready, he sent his servants to call them all to the wedding.

But the guests who were invited were so busy about their own affairs that they did not trouble to come to the King's house!

Then the King sent some more servants, with the message that everything was prepared for the feast, and to bid the guests to come to the marriage.

But they made light of the invitation! One went to his farm, and another to his business; and the rest treated the King's messengers very badly, and even killed some of them.

Then the King was very angry, and sent his armies against the men who had murdered his messengers.

Then the King said to his servants, "The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy: go instead into the highways, and bid all that you can find to come to the marriage."

So the servants went out, and gathered all they could find, and brought them to the King's Palace, both bad and good. And this time there were plenty of people who came to accept the invitation.

Then the King came in to see the guests, and his eyes fell on one of them who had not on a wedding garment.

I think it is plain from the story, as our Lord told it, that this man might have had a wedding garment if he had chosen to do so.

Doubtless the servants had beautiful clean garments ready in another room, which the King had provided for every guest to put on.

Then the King said to him: "Friend, how did you come in to the banquet without having a wedding garment?"

But the man was speechless; he had no answer to make; he had no excuse to offer. Perhaps he thought his own clothes were good enough for any wedding feast! Perhaps he had been angry with the servants for offering him the King's garment!

We are not told—we only know that unless he had that garment which had been provided, he could not taste of the King's feast.

The King ordered him to be sent away; and, in the dark night outside, how earnestly he must have wished that he had not been so proud, or so careless; and how he must have wept when he realized all he had missed.

I think that the Lord Jesus told this story as a solemn warning against some things which prevent people from entering the "Kingdom of Heaven."

These things are just as likely to prevent people now, as they were in the time that our Lord gave this parable to the multitude.

They think it is all very well to be invited to the Wedding-feast in the Kingdom of Heaven, but they have other things to do; and they esteem the servants of the King, who bring the message, as very troublesome persons, who had better mind their own business!

XXVII. Sowing the Tares

When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He taught many of His most wonderful lessons by means of Story-pictures, or Parables.

Perhaps you are older than some of your school-fellows, and the little ones gather round you and say "Tell us a story!"

So did the people to whom our Lord spoke. He often put a word-picture before their eyes, and it sank into their hearts, and they remembered it ever after.

I am going to tell you about one of these Parables which our Lord told to the listening multitudes.

This one was about "The Kingdom of Heaven." This is the word picture which he put before their eyes.

He said that the Kingdom of Heaven was like a man who had a field, and who sowed it with good seed.

But at night, under cover of the darkness, while men were asleep, there came an enemy into this field.

He carried a basket in his hands, and as he went up and down the field, he looked stealthily round him to make sure that no one was aware of his presence. And then he took handful after handful of seed from his basket and scattered it all over the field. Then he crept away in the darkness.

It was because he hated the owner of the field, and wished to destroy his beautiful harvest.

By and by the seeds began to grow, and the little blades came up green all over the field. Then the servants of the master of the field, looking closely at the crop, saw that some of the blades were of good wheat, but some looked like tares, which were of no use to anyone and only injured the wheat. So they hastened to the owner of the field, and they said, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field; how have the tares got there?"

I have read that when the little plants are young, the blades of the wheat and the blades of the tares are so much alike that it is difficult to tell them apart.

So the master of the field answered, "No; you had better not try to pull up the tares, lest you should pull up the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest; and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'Gather together the tares first, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

This is a story, as I said, of "The Kingdom of Heaven." And it is important to all of us, because we all live in that Kingdom. Our hearts ought to be God's throne here, we ought to be growing up as His Good Seed, to be gathered into His eternal Home when the Harvest comes!

You may not always live in England—you may go to Canada, or Australia, or France, or Germany!

But in this Kingdom of Heaven you may always abide, till the Harvest-day comes; and happy for you if you do!

Perhaps your Mother or your Teacher tells you of Jesus our Saviour, and of His love, and you long to be able to serve Him. You would like to be kind and loving to those round you; you are sorry when you do wrong, you are happy when you do right. That is the Good Seed taking root and growing in your heart!

You are not so happy; you do not wish to do good things so much; you even find yourself wanting to do wrong things! You find it hard to be loving; you want so much to do something you have been forbidden to do; you are sure no one will see you if you do wrong, and you say to yourself, "After all, it is such a little thing," or "It is only this once!"

Satan is our enemy. It is true we cannot see him, but he is near us all the same.

Like the enemy in the Parable, he creeps out when men are asleep—when you are off your guard—when you have forgotten to watch and to pray; and it is he who whispers to you that:

Ah! What must the little Christian boy do when he finds tares in the field of his heart? What must the little Christian girl do when she finds tares in God's Kingdom in her heart?

I think the best thing to do is to look up to Jesus instantly, and ask Him to conquer the great enemy for you. Say the Holy name Jesus softly to yourself, or out loud if you are alone, Satan, our great enemy, will run away, you will surely find.

XXVIII. The Prodigal Son

There was a man who had two sons. He loved them both very much, and did everything he could to make them happy.

But the younger son was restless, and got tired of being quietly at home. He had heard something about the world outside, and he thought it must be a very fine place by all accounts.

So one day he asked his father to divide what he had to leave to him and his brother, so that he might do as he liked with his share of it.

Not many days after, the younger son took his journey into a far country, and as he had no one there to guide him, and as he did not heed the advice of his dear father, he began to waste his money and get into evil ways.

Very soon he had spent all his father had given him, and had nothing left in his purse.

Up to this time he had thought he could do very well without his father, but now he began to be in want. It was so hard to be hungry, to find his clothes get ragged, and for his companions to forsake him. And it made him sad and afraid when he remembered that he had no house to sleep in, and no friends near.

By and by a farmer took pity on him, and hired him to go and feed his pigs; and he was so hungry that he could almost have eaten the pigs' food. But no one gave him anything.

At last as he sat dejectedly watching the pigs, he came to himself! He began to remember his dear home and his father's love. He no longer prided himself on what he could do, and what he could buy. He saw his behaviour in its true light. He told himself that he had been very naughty and very disobedient, and he began to be sorry.

And when he came to himself he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I, his son, am dying of hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and tell him I have sinned, and ask him to make me one of his servants."

His father had been very sad all the time his boy had been away. His heart had ached terribly, though his son had never thought of that.

Every day he looked out for his lost one, and watched for him along the roads and over the mountains till it grew too dark to see.

But one day, when the son was yet a great way off, his father saw him coming! Then the dear father ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said, "Father, I have sinned before Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son—"

But he could not get any further than that in what he meant to say! For his father's arms were round him, and his father's voice was saying in the old familiar tones, "Bring hither the best robe, and put it on him! And put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring here the fatted calf and let us make a feast; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!"

Children, we have here a picture of the way our loving Heavenly Father welcomes back those who have wandered from Him.

His heart is full of love; He grieves that we want to take our own way, and go far-off from Him.

But if we are sorry, and come back to His loving arms, we shall find that they will open to receive us; He will put the best robe upon us, and He will prepare a feast for us; and there shall be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting!

It is the Robe of Christ's righteousness. For Christ's sake, who has shed His precious blood to make us clean and white, we can be dressed in that perfect robe; and then we shall be fit to join in the feast and the rejoicings, which are coming by and by in heaven.

XXIX. The Pharisee and the Publican

Two men were wending their way towards God's Temple at Jerusalem, a Pharisee and a Publican.

There, on a hill, stood the beautiful building with its white marble pillars glistening in the sun; and as they walked along the hot roads towards God's House, their thoughts were very different.

They knew that God's Holy Presence was in that Temple to which they were going, and one of them thought with awe that he would soon be in the place where he would meet with God.

The other man was thinking entirely about himself, and nothing at all about God.

So they ascended the many steps leading up into the Temple, and at last stood within the Sacred House.

And then the Pharisee thought of how he understood all about God's law, and how he did not need anyone to teach him what was written in the Scriptures.

But he did not know two things which would have made him a different man—he did not know his own heart, and he did not know God's heart.

He did not know that his own heart was full of pride and love of self; he did not know that God's heart was full of pity and tender love towards sinful men who came to Him to be forgiven.

So the Pharisee began to pray. And when the Lord Jesus told us this story about him, He said "he stood and prayed thus with himself."

"God! I thank thee that I am not like other men! I am not one who exacts more than I should from others; I am not unjust or impure; or even like this Publican. I fast twice in every week, and I give tithes of everything I have."

He had not seen the vision of God! He had not come near to Him, nor waited to receive the answer to his words. He did not even know what he had missed!

He was a collector of the Roman taxes; and because of the frequent cheating of these publicans, they were hated by the Jews.

It was a calling which gave great opportunities for dishonesty, and when some of the Jews, for the sake of gain, engaged in it, they were despised and called traitors.

So this Publican, whom our Lord Jesus told about in this story, was evidently a Jew, as he among other Jews "went up into the Temple to pray."

And when he entered God's House, there stood the Pharisee praying; but the Publican, standing afar off, not full of his own good deeds, but feeling ashamed of his own sinfulness, would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smote his breast saying:

And our Lord turned to those who were listening to Him and said, "I tell you, this Publican went down to his house justified, rather than the other."

Do you wonder what it is to be justified? Should we not all like, when we have been naughty, or have done wrong, to know that we may go down, like the Publican did to his house, justified?

It means, I think, for a person to realise that some one greater and richer than himself has undertaken to set him free from his debt.

It means that we have come to God and told Him that we are very sorry we have been naughty, and have asked Him to have mercy upon us, and to forgive us for Jesus' sake.

Perhaps some boy gets into trouble at school, and owes something to another boy, which he has no means of paying.

So the boy who owes the money goes to his father. He knows he has done wrong, but he tells his father all about it, and asks him to help him. And the loving father sees to it all for him, and pays the debt.

The school-fellows know nothing about this, but they have heard about the debt, and they whisper to each other, and jeer when the boy comes near.

But to their surprise, he raises his head now! "My father has paid," he says, with shining eyes.

And it seems to me that that was how the Publican felt, when he had told God he was a sinner, and had asked for His mercy.

"This is a faithful saying . . . that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!"

XXX. An Uninvited Guest

One day the Lord Jesus was invited to dinner by a rich man whose name was Simon.

Perhaps this rich man asked Jesus to dinner because he wished to see Him do some miracle—something wonderful which no one else could do; or he may have imagined that people would think more of himself if he had Jesus for a guest; at any rate, by what we read afterwards, I am afraid Simon the Pharisee did not invite Jesus because he loved Him.

But there was somebody present at that feast who did love Jesus, but she was not invited.

In Eastern lands the houses are not shut up like our houses, but because it is so warm, the dining-rooms are often open to the air on one or two sides, or people take their meals in the cool shady courtyards.

When a great man makes a feast, people hear of it, and come round the house to look at what is going on.

In the city there lived a poor sinful and sorrowful woman who had learned to love the Lord Jesus: perhaps she had heard Him say these loving words, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

When this sorrowful woman heard that Jesus was gone to dinner at the Pharisee's house, she brought a little box made of alabaster, which was filled with some very sweet-smelling ointment, and she made her way into the open dining-hall, and when she saw where the Lord was sitting or reclining, as the custom was, on a sort of couch to the table, she came up, and stood behind Him!

And as she stood there and thought of all His love and compassion, she began to weep, and her tears fell down over His feet as He reclined at the table.

Then she wiped His feet with her hair, and anointed them with the sweet ointment.

But the Pharisee who had invited the Lord Jesus looked on with anger. He thought if Jesus were a great teacher, He would not have allowed a woman from the city to come and wash His feet with her tears.

But Jesus knows all our hearts, and He could see that the poor woman loved Him so much that she would go away and try never to grieve Him any more.

By and by He turned to Simon, and told him to look at this woman and compare her love with his.

Jesus said words something like this: "Simon, I was tired and dusty with my journey when I came in, and you did not give me water to bathe my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears; you did not offer me a kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet; you did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with precious ointment. She has loved me very much, because I have forgiven her very much."

And turning to the woman, Jesus said to her, "Thy sins are forgiven; . . . go in peace."

And we may have that joy too, if we come to Him with humble loving heart, and tell Him that we are sorry.

He never turns anyone away who comes to Him; so, dear little children, let us trust His loving heart, and though we know we are very unworthy, do not let us stay away for that, for Jesus longs that we may be forgiven, and so be able to go away "in peace."

XXXI. The Barren Fig Tree

I have seen a picture of a fig tree, and I want to describe it to you, that we may understand a little about one of our Lord's Parables.

There are a great many Parables in the New Testament: they are word-pictures to teach us God's great lessons.

At school your teacher has a large blackboard, and sometimes she sketches an object, and explains it to you, does she not?

One day she drew a cracked cup, the crack of which grew wider under her clever fingers, and she turned round and said to her class, "Is this cup of any use?" And there were plenty of "No's" from all over the room; but one child ventured "Perhaps it could be mended!"

And then the teacher gave a bright look, and she said, "Yes, Charlie, you are right! And so are the others with their 'No's' all over the room. For unless the cup is mended, it is of no use. The cup is a picture of our characters! If there is a flaw in them, a crack that gets wider and wider, then the cup is of no use, is it?"

"Yes," said the teacher; "but, if it could be mended—as Charlie said—then it could be used again. So what must we do, Charlie?"

She turned her face to the little boy, and a smile came over his features as he answered, "There's a china-mender comes down our road every week—he could do it!"

And the teacher smiled back. Did Charlie know that he had touched on a great truth? So she went on—

"Yes, we must 'have faith in God.' We must take our cracked cups, and our faulty characters, to the Great Mender, Jesus our Saviour, and ask Him to make us useful, serviceable little Christians!"

So now, I am going to make an imaginary blackboard and show you a branch of a fig tree!

Look at that fig growing out of the stalk; it is large, and oblong, and plump, and it is firmly fixed to the big branch.

And then, above and below it are little sprouting leaves, some just come out, some not yet burst from their little buds; and soon the fruit, which is already ripe, will be covered up by the leaves, as they grow larger and larger.

Then you come to the conclusion that the tree must be a barren tree, and you turn away sorry and disappointed.

And this is a little word-picture of the barren fig tree, about which our Lord gives us a Parable.

He was coming from Bethany, and it says He hungered. Perhaps the Lord Jesus had been up all night praying to His Father.

So, as He came near to the fig tree, He saw it was full of leaves; but when He got close to it, He found there were no figs under the leaves—it was barren.

And as He turned away He said, in the disciples' hearing, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever."

Just before this, the Lord came down the side of the Mount of Olives, and in turning a corner of the steep path a sight of the beautiful city of Jerusalem burst upon their view. It says in the Gospel of Luke—

"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes."

Jesus wept for all the sorrow that was coming on the beloved city, and because the Jews would not have Him as their Saviour.

The Jews ought to have known from their own Scriptures of the Old Testament, which they read every Sabbath, that on this very day it was foretold in the Book of Nehemiah, and also in Daniel and Zechariah, that the Messiah was to enter Jerusalem as King, meek and lowly, and riding on an ass's colt.

They were proud of their knowledge, and of their possession of God's Temple, and His Scriptures; but they had not fruit under the leaves of their pride and unbelief. They had even been plotting to kill Him. They had rejected Him in their hearts, and in a few days' time they were going to crucify Him!

The next day Jesus and His disciples passed by that fig tree again, and it had begun to wither and dry up; and the disciples said, "How soon is the fig tree withered!"

And the answer of our Lord must have astonished them. "Have faith in God!" He said.

Now, like the teacher with the blackboard, I want to gather up the lesson I have learned from this story—

Do not let our dear Lord, Who died for us, come and look into our hearts and find no fruit, but only leaves!

Do not let us be like the cracked and useless cup! But let us go to the great Healer and Mender and Cleanser of our poor characters, and ask Him to make us what He would like to see us.

The only way to get "mended" and to bear fruit instead of only leaves, is to go to Him Who died on the Cross to save us, and to find in Him forgiveness, strength, and peace.

XXXII. The Parable of the Talents

A Talent in our Lord's time was a piece of money of great value, of about £342, and in the story which Jesus told the disciples, a Talent was described as something precious which was given to the servants of a great lord, to trade with, while he was on a long journey.

To one servant this lord gave ten Talents to trade with; to another, five; to another, two; according to their several ability; and to another, one.

And what do you think the servant who had only one did with his Talent? He went away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money!

At length the time came for his return, and he called his servants and reckoned with them.

The one who had traded with ten Talents brought ten Talents more to his lord; and the man with five brought five more; and the man with two brought two more. And the lord was very pleased with these faithful servants, and said, "Well done!" to each of them, and gave them great rewards.

But at last there came the man who had only received one Talent; and as he spread the one Talent out before him, he said, "I knew that you were a hard master, so I was afraid, and went and hid your Talent in the earth. Lo! Then, you have what is yours!"

And the great lord was very grieved and angry with that wicked and idle servant, and he took the Talent from him and gave it to the one who had ten; and the faithless servant was cast out, and in the darkness he wept despairingly that he could never enter, as the others did, "into the joy of their lord."

And now I am going to tell you a true story to try and explain to you the meaning of these Talents in our present-day life.

I told you that to us, the Talent that Jesus spoke of is not money, but something more precious still, which we are given by God to trade with.

If we are God's servants, if we have taken Jesus Christ as our own Blessed Saviour, God expects us to try to get others to trust Him too, and so to multiply the Talents which He has given into our charge.

You will understand this a little better when you have read the true story I am going to tell you.

There was a lady taking a Journey a few years ago, and she had to pass through London and go to another terminus on her way.

She had one of God's "Talents" in her heart. She knew that Jesus Christ was a great and precious Saviour; and before she started on her journey she prayed:

Well, by the time she had reached London, she was tired, and when she got to the other terminus, as she went along the platform she saw a man sitting in a carriage alone. But she passed on; she thought she was too tired to speak to that man.

But her heart smote her; and after a moment she got out, and entered the carriage where the man, who appeared to be a foreman in some works, sat in the farthest corner.

They were soon off, and though she felt very nervous, she moved nearer to him, and made a remark on the beautiful sunset!

He answered: "Oh, I do not think of those things! I leave that to my wife and daughters! I and my sons read different things from that! We do very well with our lives, and leave them to theirs!"

The lady hardly knew what to answer. She felt she was not "up" in all these unbelieving questions of the day.

But then she bethought herself: "I wish I could think of some word of God that would suit his case! For the Word of God is living and powerful."

And like a flash, she remembered the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, and she said, "Did you ever hear this?" And found herself able to repeat it to him word for word:

"Two men went up into the Temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are . . .

"And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other."

As the lady finished that parable, which God had so wonderfully helped her to repeat, the train began to slow down at the next station. The man gathered up his things, came to her side and shook her hand warmly.

Whatever it is—let each one of us do what we can to tell others of God's love in giving us a Saviour; and if we do, surely—yes, surely—God will say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into the joy of your Lord!"

XXXIII. Hid in Three Measures of Meal

One day the Lord Jesus gave a very short Parable to His disciples of only one verse, but He would not have told it to us, if He had not intended us to learn a lesson from it.

I will copy the verse for you, because it is so very short, and then I will explain it afterwards.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

In the dictionary, leaven, or yeast, is described as something "which pervades a mass, and changes its nature."

And so we will think of it in that light, and try to draw out from it something which may help us every day.

If the Kingdom of Heaven is hidden in our hearts, then it ought to pervade our whole lives.

I have seen an untidy woman, and an untidy home, perfectly transformed by the love of God, and her desire to please Him.

A year or two ago, I knew a woman who had become rather fond of drink. All at once she found that if she wanted to enter into "the Kingdom of Heaven," that temptation must be left off. So she told the Lord Jesus all about it, and then she left it off in the strength which He gave her; and she said to me: "I have never taken any since!"

So she found, like many others whom I have known, that when "the Kingdom of Heaven" takes possession of our hearts, our whole nature becomes changed, and we try to live to God's glory!

In the same chapter in Matthew, the thirteenth, that has in it the Parable about the leaven, our Lord gives us another picture of "the Kingdom of Heaven."

He describes a man who was digging in a field; who came by chance upon a great treasure.

The man hastily covered up the ground, and went to the owner of the field, and asked him to let him buy the whole field.

The price was very high, but the man thought of the treasure, and he did not hesitate. He went back, and sold all that he had, and came and bought the field. He did not grudge it, for the treasure was worth everything he possessed!

He was a merchant; and he travelled to far-off countries seeking beautiful pearls.

At length he came across the most beautiful pearl he had ever seen—it was of great price.

This man did not hesitate either. He saw the value of that pearl, and he sold everything he had and bought it!

In the twenty-fifth of Matthew, Jesus gives us another Parable, and it is about His coming back; and I am sure you will like to hear that one, for you have perhaps seen pictures of those Ten Virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom, with little lamps in their hands?

Five of these Virgins were wise, and five were foolish. Why was it that some were wise and some not?

Perhaps you have a brother who has cycled into the country, and comes home later than you expected, and tired-out?

"Yes," he says, "I have had to walk my machine for half-a-dozen miles—my lamp went out, and there was not a shop to be seen!"

So the foolish Virgins took their lamps, but took no oil with them; but the wise took oil in their vessels, with their lamps.

The Bridegroom seemed long in coming, and they all fell asleep while they waited.

And at midnight there was a cry made: "Behold the Bridegroom cometh! Go ye out to meet Him!"

Then all the Virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are gone out."

But the wise answered that they must not do that, lest there should not be enough for them both; instead they advised the foolish Virgins to go and buy for themselves.

And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the marriage; and the door was shut.

Afterwards, when the other Virgins came back, they asked that the door might be opened; but the Bridegroom answered that He did not know them.

I am sure you will feel sad when you think that the foolish Virgins could not share in the Marriage Supper.

I think this is told us to warn us to ask God to give us His Holy Spirit in our hearts, which, like the oil in the little lamps, will show us the way, and keep us brightly shining for Him!

When He was on earth, He told His disciples over and over again to watch most earnestly for Him to come back.

He warned all of us who love Him, to be ready to open to Him if he knocks; to guard against being so bound up in the pleasures of life that the day of His return should take any of us by surprise.

"Watch therefore: for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Be not afraid

BE NOT AFRAID

I. The Sermon on the Mount