For Little, Readers.
JOSEPH was a good lad, and helped his brothers to feed their sheep in the field; but they were wicked men, and did what was wrong. We do not know what it was they did: perhaps they told Joseph not to let their father Jacob know. But he knew it would not be right to hide it from his father, and so he went and told him. It does not say that they hurt Joseph himself, or did anything to vex him; so it was not just going to his father to “tell tales” — that would have been as foolish and wrong then as it is now; but what they did was “evil,” and it was quite right of him not to keep it to himself.
I once knew some little children who used to do naughty things that they did not want their dear father to know, and they used to say to one another, “Don’t you tell father about me, and then I won’t tell of you.” Those were not good children, and if God had not been very gracious to them, and turned their hearts to Himself, I do not know what would have become of them. But they have now learned to love the Lord Jesus, and, as He has put all their sins away, they have nothing to hide.
Dear little one, be sure and never do things that you would not like for others to know. They are sure to come out some day, for God knows all about them. Adam and Eve, in the garden, when they could not see God, and forgot that He could see them, did what He had told them not to do; and then, when they heard Him calling to them in the cool of the evening, they were afraid, and tried to hide themselves among those same trees that God had given them that they might eat of their fruit and sit under their shadow. We must not forget that, although there may not be any brother Joseph to bring to our father the “evil report” of what we do, yet God Himself sees it all. No one else may be near to see us — it may, be in the middle of the night, when all is dark and quiet — but there is nothing hidden from the great God with whom we have to do. A man once asked where he should go, so as to be out of God’s sight; but he had to say, “Even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee” (Psa. 139:11, 1211If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. (Psalm 139:11‑12)). Think over this, dear little reader, and next month, if I am spared, I will try and say something more to you about’ Joseph and his brothers.
W. T.
THERE is an eye that never sleeps
Beneath the wing of night;
There is an ear that never shuts,
When sink the beams of light;
There is an arm that never tires
When human strength gives way;
There is a love that never fails
When earthly loves decay.