THE STEPPING STONES.



A LITTLE girl was taking a walk one day with a friend, through beautiful fields, when they came, on their return home, to a wide but shallow stream they wished to cross. The bridge was a long way off, but there were good, tried steppingstones all the way over.

“Oh, I am afraid!" said the child.

"But you see the stones, dear; they hold out all the way across."

"But the water is so wide!" she said tearfully, looking up and down the stream.

"Yes, but it is very shallow. See how easily I can cross it." So, carefully picking her way, she went quite over, and then returned.

Very timidly the little girl entered the water. "Just one step at a time is all you have to take," said her kind guide.

So one step followed another the first few were the hardest to take and soon she was safe on the other shore, smiling at her fears.

"It was not so hard, after all," she said, looking back on the watery way. 

"Just one step at a time brought us safely over."

"Remember this walk, dear, when you have other hard things to do. Go forward, and the way will look easier and easier. When troubles come, as they are almost sure to do in this world, don't look at the waters before you, but at the steppingstones Jesus places for your feet. 'The thing that we feared' very often does not come upon us, or if it does, Jesus sends such comforts as we never could have imagined. Here is a strong, firm steppingstone that has often saved me from sinking: 'As thy days, so shall thy strength be.'"

There came many times in her after life when Mary remembered that day's lesson, and it brought cheer and peace to her soul. 


J. E. M.


In Child's World.