I hope noe of our little friends play with matches. If you see one on the floor, you should pick it up carefully, and take it to someone who knows how to put it away safely.
A little friend of mine was seen one day with her hand tied up; and what do you think was the matter? She was playing with a box of matches, which in some way caught fire, and burned the palm of her hand. Think what it might have been if her dress had been set on fire!
I am going to tell you a story of what happened at one time, and which shows how much mischief one match may do.
At seven o’clock one morning, the entire village of N. was burned to the ground, except two or three houses which were at some distance.
The cottages were, without, exception, built of wood, even roofed with wooden tiles; and the hot sun had already almost scorched the wood. In little more than an hour, nothing was left except smouldering ruins, the flames had spread with such rapidity.
The village, I was told, contained about eleven hundred inhabitants, who, alas! were able to save literally nothing; all they could do was to throw open the doors of the stables and cow houses, and the terrified creatures rushed out wildly, and many of them, I fear, perished.
The fire was caused—now listen, dear children—by the throwing away of a lighted match, most carelessly. A woman was carding a mattress, made of some kind of hair, and she stopped her work to make coffee on an alcohol lamp, throwing away the match—still lighted! And then you know what followed.
But there is another, and even sadder lesson to be learned from this very sad story. In the third chapter of the Epistle of James, we read,
“Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.”. James 3:5-85Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:5‑8).
Do you not know how one word sometimes provokes to anger, and leads to a quarrel, perhaps a fight. And no one can put out this awful fire—no one but He who said,
“I am meek and lowly in heart.” Math. 11:28-30.
Therefore, dear children, go to the Lord, and tell Him what you find in that naughty heart of yours; and then, if you feel the anger rising, ask Him to help you against it, and you will find what a blesng it is to live in peace, whether it be with your school-fellows, or in your own home—for, sad to say, even brothers and sisters sometimes quarrel among themselves.
And, above all, think how our sins cost the sufferings and death of the blessed Lord Jesus!
Should we not hate our sins and desire to be saved from them?
ML 12/07/1941