Morning Bells; Or, Waking Thoughts for Little Ones

E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
Or,
To The Twin Brothers, Willie and Ethelbert With Aunt Fanny's Love.
Most of the readers of this little book will have already read Little Pillows . Those were given you to go to sleep upon night after night; sweet, soothing texts, that little hearts might rest upon.
But in the morning we want something to arouse us, and to help us to go brightly and bravely through the day. So here are Morning Bells to waken up the little hearts, and to remind them that we must not only rest in Jesus, but walk in Him. If the motto of Little Pillows might be Come to Jesus, the motto of Morning Bells might be Follow Jesus.
May He who loves the little ones bless this tiny effort to help them to follow Him day by day.
Thy holy child Jesus. --Acts iv. 30.
If I asked, How old are you? you would give an exact answer. Eight and a half; Just turned ten; Eleven next month. Now you have thought of God's holy child Jesus as a little baby, and as twelve years old in the temple, but did you ever think of Him as being exactly your own age? that He was once really just as old as you are this very day? He knows what it is to be eight, and nine, and ten years old, or whatever you may be. God's word has only told us this one thing about those years, that He was a holy child.
What is holy ? It is everything that is perfectly beautiful and good and lovable, without anything to spoil it. This is just what He was when He was your age. He was gentle and brave, and considerate and unselfish, noble and truthful, obedient and loving, kind and forgiving,--everything you can think of that you ever admired or loved in any one else was all found together in Him, and all this not only outside, but inside, for He was holy.
Why did He live all these holy child-years on earth instead of staying in heaven till it was time to come and die for you? One reason was, that He might leave you a beautiful example, so that you might wish to be like Him, and ask for the Holy Spirit to make you like Him. But the other was even more gracious and wonderful, it was that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is, that all this goodness and holiness might be reckoned to you, because you had not any of your own, and that God might smile on you for His sake , just as if you had been perfectly obedient, and truthful, and unselfish, and good, and give you Jesus Christ's reward, which you never deserved at all, but which He deserved for you.