PEOPLE are called courageous who are not afraid to fight and kill others, and a little boy is said to be “plucky” or courageous who will not let another boy torment him without fighting him.
A boy is said to be very plucky, too, when he will do dangerous things, or disobey, without fear of punishment, those who have authority over him at school; and we have known little boys to be called sneaks and cowards, because they were not courageous enough to disobey their parents.
But, dear children, all this is far, very far, from true courage. Doing what we know to be right, in the face of opposition and contempt, is true courage. To confess with our lips the Lord Jesus, and to pray to God before our companions, who may not love or fear Him, is also, true courage.
Listen, dear boys, while I tell you about a little boy who had this true courage. He was a weak, sickly boy, and had a meek, quiet, little face that great big, strong, rude boys laughed at, and called a baby face. He had, up to the time that I am going to tell you of, in consequence of ill health, been kept much at home, and had rarely been away from his mother’s side, and had mixed very little with other boys, hence was timid and awkward at most of the games that boys play, for which they laughed at him a good deal. He would not fight when ill-treated, or resent, in any way the unkindness of others; so that he was thought to be a coward, by boys who didn’t know what true courage was.
His father, up to his death, had taught him at home, but after that he was sent to a large boarding school. You can think what this would be for a weak, timid, little boy to be taken into, with no kind mother or friend near to watch over him.
Well, it is about his first night at the school that I want to tell you. Picture to yourselves a large room with over a dozen little beds in it, and as many boys laughing and talking, and undressing, preparatory to getting into these little beds, and not one of them once thinking of the God who made them, or of the kind Lord Jesus who died on the cross to save them; see them, when undressed, one by one getting into bed without bowing their knees in prayer. Do you think you would have been able, before them all, to kneel down by your bedside, before undressing, and pray? This little boy did. Yes, with trembling heart, he knelt before the Lord, and prayed to Him, as he had been accustomed to do at home in his own little room, where there was no one to see him, but the “Father who seeth in secret.”
Some of the rude boys laughed at him, and threw their slippers at him, and called him names to make him stop, but he just quietly went on praying to the Lord, and heeded them not. The next morning he did the same, and continued morning and night thus on his knees to confess the Lord Jesus. Nor was this all, other little boys who once had prayed at home, but had been afraid to do so before their companions at school, encouraged by his example, began again to pray, so that by the end of the half term, there were but three, out of that large room full of boys, who would not have been seen morning and night lifting their hearts on bended knees to the Lord. The true courage of the little, weak, meek-faced boy had communicated itself to others.
Dear children, I want you all to have this true courage, and never to be afraid to own the Lord Jesus by confessing Him, and praying before others where there is a need for it, as in the case of this little boy. The Lord Jesus says, “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 10:32.
Selected.
ML 09/23/1900