A NEW Zealand girl was taken to England to be educated. She became a true Christian while there. When she was about to return, some of her play-mates tried to dissuade her. They said, “Why go back to New Zealand? You are accustomed to England now. You love its shady lands and clover fields. It suits your health. Besides, you may be shipwrecked on the ocean. You may be killed and eaten by your own people; everybody will have forgotten you.”
“What,” she said, “do you think I could keep the good news to myself? Do you think that I could be content with having got pardon, and peace, and eternal life for myself, and not go and tell my dear father and mother how they may get it, too? I would go if I had to swim there.”
Now, O Lord, we ask Thy blessing,
On the words which we have read:
Precious words! on which Thy children
Have, by Thee, been often fed—
Feed us, likewise,
For we have to Jesus fled.
Should a heart before Thee, Father,
Know not Thee, or Thy sweet love,
Oh, attract that heart to Jesus,
Never more from Him to rove—
Gracious Father,
Let us all Thy goodness prove.
ML 05/08/1904