LITTLE Paulina Schloss was at the Sunday-school treat in Georgetown, and enjoyed it as much as any of the others present She received as a prize a Bible, with which she was much delighted. The following Sunday she was at school, and in her accustomed seat, and appeared to be much interested in what her teacher spoke upon that afternoon, At the close of the school, she remained behind the others, to tell him that she would be leaving with her grandmamma and little cousin for Surinam on the coming Wednesday. The teacher then spoke to her of the uncertainty of life, and told her that “she might never live to reach Surinam, and would she be sure of going to heaven if the vessel should be wrecked?” Her reply was “Oh yes” He gave the child a little book, with which she was much pleased, and she promised to learn some hymns to say to him on her return. On reaching home, she related to her mother all that had been said, and told her “she was sure that her teacher loved her, but that Jesus loved her better; and that she would not be in the least afraid to die, but that she would like to go to be with Jesus.”
The mother then asked Paulina whether she wished to grieve her father and herself by wanting to die and leave them; to which she replied, “I love you, mamma, very much, but I love Jesus better.” The Sunday-school hymnbook was seldom out of her hand, and the few days previous to leaving Georgetown she was always singing and speaking of Jesus. They sailed on the day fixed, and at 12 o’clock at night, she began singing one of her favorite hymns, when she was told to go to sleep, as it was too late to be singing. But little Paulina replied, “Must I not sing God’s praises, grandmamma?”
In less than five minutes after that, a sudden squall struck the vessel, and having very little ballast, she heeled over, and all the passengers were launched into the deep. Four only were saved, one of them a friend of little Paulina’s father; and the last thing he says he remembers hearing was Paulina’s voice above the noise of the water, singing her little hymn, “The new Jerusalem.” This saved passenger was in the water from seven in the evening until one or two the next afternoon, and was then picked up by a passing steamer. He was clinging to some article washed from the deck.
Little ones, is your trust in the Saviour sure, like Paulina’s? Are you ready, should you be called, to die? You know not how sudden the call may be. Come to Jesus while it is called today.
w.