THE ANCHOR.



Do you know what this picture is made to represent? 

It is an anchor. You have seen people fasten a horse to a hitching post, have you not? Well, this anchor is made of iron, and is used to fasten great ships on the ocean. A large rope, called a cable, is fastened to the anchor, and then the anchor is thrown overboard into the water. It sinks down, down, down, till it comes to the bottom of the ocean, and those great prongs you see in the picture that look like fishhooks, stick fast in the ground, and hold the ship from drifting away. It saves the ship many times in storms from being driven on to rocks where it would be broken in pieces. 

 The anchor is not always sure. Sometimes it does not hold in the ground, and sometimes the cable breaks which holds the ship to it. So you see it is not always to be relied upon in danger. But what has the Christian as an anchor that is always to be relied upon, and is called "both sure and steadfast"?

 See Heb. 6:19.




J. E. WHITE.




FORMATION OF CHARACTER.



 If you ever watched an icicle as it formed, you would have noticed how it froze, one drop at a time, until it was a foot long, or more. If the water was clean, the icicle remained clear, and it sparkled brightly in the sun; but if the water was slightly muddy, the icicle looked foul, and its beauty was spoiled. Just so our characters are formed. One little thought or feeling at a time adds its influence. If every thought be pure and right, the soul will be bright and lovely, and will sparkle with happiness; but if there be thoughts and feelings impure and wrong, the mind will be soiled, the character depraved and darkened, and there will be final deformity and wretchedness. How important, then, that we should be on our guard against every evil impulse and desire! 



Young Reaper.



Here it is:

A plate of apples was being passed around among a party of children. There was a fine red one at the top, which one little girl took.

"'How greedy you are,' said her next neighbor, ' to take the largest. I meant to have had that.'"


We want Jesus to be our anchor for we will never sink if He is, never.