“It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
I HAVE written some little pieces of poetry which have appeared in “My LITTLE FRIEND;” now I will write a short piece in prose. It shall be about a dear girl not quite nine years of age — my own little daughter, Grace, by name. Last spring she was so healthy, active, and strong, and delighted in being taken for long walks; but what she liked best was roaming over the green fields when the weather was dry, and picking the wild flowers whenever she found them. This spring it is very different with her; she has had a severe illness, and is just now recovering. We (her fond parents) were very anxious about her at one time, she became so weak and looked so thin and frail. We were reminded of the expression found in Isaiah, “We all do fade as a leaf;” and of the following pretty lines I had lately copied into my Bible: —
“A thousand summers kiss the lea, —
Only one the sheaf;
A thousand springs may deck the tree, —
Only one the leaf.”
But it was a great comfort to us to find that she never lost her interest in the Bible; but whenever her mother (who was nursing her and other children, all laid low in measles, day and night) came near with the Bible in her band, she smiled. Once when her mother was reading the 103rd Psalm, and had just finished the clauses, “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies,” she said in a faint whisper (for she could not speak otherwise, her throat being so sore), “That’s my favorite verse.” She had read this Psalm with her eldest sister on a Sunday afternoon before she was taken ill. She is so pleased to see the spring flowers that are brought into her in nice bunches, and likes the name of “God’s smiles” for them. A little while back her mother asked her if she would be afraid if she knew the Lord was now coming to fetch His people; she replied, “Oh no, mother, for He has forgiven all my sins.” I hope that every dear little girl and boy, who reads this, may, by His grace, be able to say the same.
B. H. G. W.