NOT many years ago there lived a lady named Jenny Lind, who had a most beautiful voice and sang often to thousands of charmed people. Her voice was so strong and yet so sweet, that she was considered one of the best singers in the world.
But suddenly she heard an incomparably sweeter voice, a voice from heaven, and she ceased her own singing to listen to the voice of Jesus, the Son of God. He spoke to her heart and told her that He had died for her, and was going to have her in His glorious home above forever, and that she might have the privilege of singing to Him for the rest of her life here. She responded gladly to His desire for her, and became His, body, soul, and spirit.
One day a friend found her by the sea with her Bible open on her knee and said: "Whatever made you give up your public singing at the very height of your fame?”
She answered simply, "When every day it made me think less of this," and Jenny touched her Bible, "and nothing at all of that," and she pointed to the blue sky above her, "what else could I do?”
Has any boy or girl reading this ever given up anything for such a good reason?
Jenny Lind knew the Bible and that it said, "Set your affections on things above, where Christ sitteth," and she would not let the glory of this world dim her appreciation of the world above.
She had purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. (Acts 2:2323Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:23).) She, like Moses, refused the glitter and glow and the fame of this world and chose that better part, to sit at the feet of Christ and learn from His teaching in His word, and she had deep joy in her heart, such as no earthly applause ever gave her.
Let us all beware of anything which spoils the freshness of the Bible, or hinders our longings for what is holy and eternal. Novel reading, the pictures, a life of sport, will do this and leave the spirit of the young Christian dry, barren and unhappy. Let us refuse the evil, and choose the good, every day of our lives, until we are safely with Christ forever.