IT is a very hot morning, and a little girl, seated in the corner of a large schoolroom, tries in vain to fix her attention on the sum before her; for the last half-hour she has been trying, but somehow or other the figures will not come right. Presently, on looking up, she sees on the corner of the desk a book. Yes, it is the very one from which her sum was taken; just one glance, and she would be saved all the trouble of working it out! Rising hastily, she puts out her hand to take it, when she stops, saying half aloud, “What would Jesus do?” and back she goes to her corner, to try, try, try again. Almost at the same moment the bell is rung for the closing of the school, and the girls troop out, leaving Ada alone.
By-and-by the sum is finished, and off Ada runs, her own merry self again, “Oh, Lucy,” she says, to a gentle, fair girl, who is leaning against the gate, “how good of you to wait.”
“I should not have waited,” said Lucy, “had it not been for our motto.”
“And it was through the motto I remained in the school,” said Ada; and then she told Lucy of her temptation.
“So, Ada, you did not think of asking Jesus to help you with the sum?” said Lucy.
“Well, no. You see, I’m not half so good as you are, Lucy,” and she gave her friend’s arm a gentle squeeze; “sometimes I think I don’t love the Lord at all.”
“I don’t think that can be the case, Ada, for if you did not love Him, why should our motto, ‘What would Jesus do?’ have any influence over you? You see, dear, it is His love to us poor sinners we ought to think of, not ours to Him; for the moment we look away from Jesus to ourselves, then comes the doubting.”
The two girls had reached their homes, and their talk for the present was ended.
Years have passed on, the schoolgirls have grown up, and have gone out into the world. Ada has long been parted from her friend, and gentle Lucy often wonders how it is with her. After a long interval a letter came, telling Lucy how that, in the midst of sorrow, temptation, and sin, Ada is still kept in the narrow way, and that the motto of their school days, “What would Jesus do?” guides her still.
Dear boys and girls, I do not know you, but the Lord does, and He loves you, and asks you to give Him your hearts. May you each one be truly His, and then this motto, “What would Jesus do? Can be yours. J. P.