NINE wee things—not one of them more than five years old-made up my little class last Sunday. But we said it was all the better, for once, as we could talk the more freely to one another.
Little Frank was the first to come up to say his Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd," and when he had done saying it I asked him who wrote that lovely Psalm. He could not tell me, however, and little Georgie said it was God, and little Bella that it was Jesus; that was all the answer I could get. So I told them it was King David, and that David when he was a boy was a shepherd lad, that he used to "mind sheep," as the children here would say. When I said this, little Willie said, "Our George do mind sheep; and sometimes the sheep’s do run away ever so far.”
“Yes, that's just what sheep often do, Willie," I said; "and it's what children do, too. Children are God's little lambs, for He made them, and they run away from Him. You have run away from God.”
The children looked grave, for I had said "You have run away from God" in a very earnest, solemn tone. "What is to become of you?" I added; "what are you to do?”
“Go back to 'im," they nearly all replied, earnestly.
“But how are you to do that? God is in heaven." They all looked puzzled for a few seconds; but presently little Bella said, "He'll come after us.”
“Yes, Bella, that's just it," I replied;" Jesus, the Son of God, came after us. He came all the way down from heaven to seek His lost sheep and lambs; and once He found some little lambs and big sheep—that is, you know, little children and their mothers; and He took the little ones up in His arms, because they were so little; that is what He always does, for the Bible says, "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.”
“God's arms is big," said little Georgie; "He could carry all we.”
“Yes," I said, "He can carry you all. But will you come to Him when He calls you? Will you stop running away, and say with your heart to Him what you so often say to me—
Lord Jesus, take me Thy breast,
And bless me, then I shall be blest'?”
“Yes, governess, yes," they all said, so gravely and earnestly that I felt they meant it.
Now, dear boy or girl, who may be reading this paper, I should like to speak just a little longer to you. Have you ever said to yourself, as David did in another of his Psalms, "I have gone astray, like a lost sheep"? Have you found this out yet? If you have not, oh, pray that God may show it you. Believe what God says in Psalm “Every one of them is gone back," and what Isaiah, His prophet, says in chap. la of his book: "All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way.”
You know that the Son of man, Jesus, has come to seek and to save that which was lost. You know, too, that He died to save sinners. He is the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep. He came after us, indeed. It is true He has gone back to heaven; but, every day He sends forth His hundreds, His thousands of under-shepherds, to feed His saved sheep, and to tell His lost ones that He came to seek and to save them.
Will you not turn round to the living One who died to save, and cry, "Behold, I come unto Thee?" E. B-r.