THE LITTLE GIRL 


  AND HER COPY.



A LITTLE girl went to writing-school. When she saw her copy, with every line so perfect, she said, "I can never write like that."

She looked steadfastly at the straight round lines so slim and graceful. Then she took up her pen, and timidly put it on the paper. Her hand trembled; she stopped, studied the copy, and began again. "I can but try," said the little girl; "I will do as well as I can."

She wrote half a page. The letters were crooked. What more could we expect from a first effort? The next scholar stretched across her desk and said, "What scraggy things you make!" Tears filled the little girl's eyes. She dreaded to have the teacher see her book. 

"He will be angry with me and scold," she said to herself.

But when the teacher came and looked, he smiled. "I see you are trying, my little girl," he said kindly, "and that is enough for me."

She took courage. Again and again she studied the beautiful copy. She wanted to know how every line went, how every letter was rounded and made. Then she took up her pen, and 'began to write. She wrote carefully, with the copy always before her. But oh, what slow work it was! Her letters straggled here, they crowded there, and some of them looked every way.

The little girl trembled at the step of the teacher. "I am afraid you will find fault with me," she said;  “my letters are not fit to be on the same page with the copy."

"I do not find fault with you," said the teacher, "because I do not look so much at what you do. By really trying, you make a little improvement every day; and a little improvement every day will enable you to reach excellence by-and-by." "Thank you, sir," said the little girl; and thus encouraged, she took up her pen with a greater spirit of application than before.

And so it is with the dear children who are trying to become like Jesus. God has given us a heavenly copy. He has given us his dear Son "for an example,” that we should follow his steps.  "He" did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." "He is altogether lovely," and "full of grace and truth."  And when you study his character, you say, "I can never, never reach that, I can never be like Jesus."

God does not expect you to become like his dear Son in a minute, or a day, or a year; but what pleases him is that you should love him, and try every day to follow his example. It is that disposition, which helps you to grow day by day, little by little, into his likeness, which God desires, to see. God loves you for trying, and will help you. 



Select