Some Day



 It is not safe to put off till some future time the duty of seeking an interest in Christ, nor is it enough merely to start in his service. Only those who "endure to the end" will be saved.

There are people who are always beginning, but who never reach an end. Do you know any such? Some new work is taken up with great zeal. For a little time it is pursued with eager interest, and then it grows tiresome, and presently it drops, and you hear no more about it.

"Some day," all the dropped stitches are to be picked up; "some day" all the wrongs are to be set to rights; "some day" all the neglected and waste places are to be made to blossom like the rose! 

When will that day come? It will need to be a very long day, will it not? Are you sure that you will be there when it comes? Perhaps when the long-looked-for "some day " dawns, you will not know it from any other day. There is a risk, you see, in "putting off" to another day.

Are any of our readers forming such a habit as we have hastily sketched? Don't do it! Make beginnings, but make endings as well. If the work that you have undertaken is difficult, so much the more reason why you should work hard, and so much the more will you rejoice over the end. Suppose it is not a perfect end. 

Make it as perfect as you can, and try to be satisfied with that until you can do better. Hold fast to the work in hand, whatever it may be, so that it be a right and true work, until it is completed, unless you can satisfy your conscience that it should be dropped.

The people who falter and begin over again, and finally conclude to try something else, are the ones who do not succeed. Do not join the ranks! Resolve to do what you attempt to do if it is at all possible, and so doing you will find each completed work a steppingstone to something higher.

If "to labor is to pray," then to labor perseveringly is to pray effectually.





M. A. D.


S.S. Classmate






Religion


Children sometimes imagine that religion is something gloomy and sad; but I think I can show you that this is not the case. The word religion means right feelings toward God. You all believe that there is a God. The earth with its myriad productions, adapted to the wants of man, the sun, the moon, and the stars twinkling in the firmament, all must have been formed by some mighty creative power. 

You have learned much concerning the wisdom and goodness of the great Creator and Designer whom we call God. "This God is our God." He is a being of power and of love.

You all know the story of Adam and Eve, how they sinned and were driven from Eden, thus dooming the whole human race to a death having no resurrection.

You have also heard how God's Son, Jesus Christ, came into this world and died for us, thus opening a way by which we can obtain everlasting life.

Unless Jesus returns to this earth in a few years, we must all die. The grave is a cold, dreary place; there is no light, no warmth there. You have doubtless had friends die. You have seen them close their eyes and lie, oh, so still! You have shuddered as you touched their clay-cold faces, and wondered what death meant.

By-and-by, when Jesus comes, he will unlock the dark chambers of death, and all the dead will come out of their graves. 

Those who, during their lives, were good and true and noble, will receive  “rich and unending rewards;" while those who were wicked will be burned up with devouring fire.

God has given us a book called the Bible, which tells us about the future.

The things I have mentioned are familiar to you, and I will not dwell upon them; but I want to call your attention to the importance of taking them home to your hearts. Religion concerns you. It means life or death, happiness or woe.

Every one of you must stand alone in this matter. No one but Jesus can help you or save you from an awful fate at last. 

Oh, the terrors of the Judgment day! When earth burns, and the whole sky is lighted up with a lurid glare, you will need shelter.

I do not wish to frighten you, my dear young friends, but these things are true. I want you to think of Christ as a dear friend. He loves you, and asks you to love him. If you love and serve him here, he will shield you from all harm hereafter.  I want to ask you one question: Have you right feelings toward God? Will you please learn this verse: "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.  "Think over the following sentences: That whosoever means me. If God loves me, I ought to love him. If I believe on Jesus, I shall live forever. As a friend, and one who loves little children, I ask you to think about these things.





 ELIZA H. MORTON.