THE LOST BOY.



MANY bright lights were shining from the windows of dwellings scattered among the hills and valleys of Pennsylvania one chilly night in October. At bed-time nearly all were put out; but in one small house, standing alone in the great forest some miles from any other, the light did not go out the whole long night; for from that home a boy had strayed away, and could not be found.

The news spread far and wide, and men came hurrying to join in the search for the missing one. Two days flew quickly by, and no tidings had come to the anxious father and mother. Still the search went on, the men anxiously peering into every nook and corner, and looking behind logs and trees for some trace or token of the boy.

Suddenly one of the men came upon him in the deep, dark forest. And as the light of his lantern revealed the boy standing before him, how he made the woods ring with shouts that the boy was found; and when he was restored to his father and mother, oh, what joy there was in that little home, more joy than in any other among the hills or in the valleys!

How glad the little boy was to go home; for although the woods were pleasant in the summer and when the sun shone, and he had friends with him, yet now when the trees were bare, and the winds blew cold, and he was alone with darkness over all, he found no pleasure, and home seemed the most pleasant spot on earth.

Dear children, try to understand when I tell you that this world is like the great, dark forest, and we are all lost in it, even as the little boy was lost in the woods, till Christ finds us; then if we are willing to go home (to Heaven) with Christ, what a shout goes up from all who love the Saviour! Reader, has not Christ found you, and asked you to go home with him? And will you not go?




 V.