WHEN I was a little child of about five, I remember very well how we used to play in the garden all the long summer days, and how insects and toads, hedgehogs and beetles, were our playthings, besides the intense enjoyment of climbing trees, high swinging, and other delights.
But fond as we were of insects, I had the most shrinking fear of an earwig.
One day, I thought I felt something crawl down my neck, and in an agony I asked my little brothers and sisters, and I daresay our busy nurse, to see if they could find it. Nobody took any heed of my distress, till, in some way, I suppose, I came across my father.
I never had any reason to doubt his tenderness, and whether he guessed there was something wrong, or whether I ran to him and explained, I cannot now remember.
But what is indelibly impressed on my memory is this.
He took me at once to his room, and while cheeringly assuring me that even if it were an earwig, it would do me no harm, he began with the utmost tenderness to take off my frock, and to peep about my little shoulders; and still not finding it, he took off garment by garment, till he satisfied himself and me that no earwig was there. Then he dressed me again, and with comforted heart we went downstairs together.
Shall I ever forget that little childish scene? Does it not rise before me every time I read those tender words in the 103rd Psalm, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."
Now, what I want you all to remember, dear children, is this. Let this little picture of an earthly father's pity, help you to understand the Heavenly Father's pity.
We all have troubles and fears, difficulties and temptations. Some more, some less.
Let us take them to the pitying Heavenly Father. The difficulty or fear may be as unwarrantable as my dread of the earwig, or it may be a real danger or temptation which assails us. But whatever it is, trust the great Father's love. Tell Him all about it, ask Him to help you, as He knows best how; leave it in His Hands how to do it, and receive His assurance of peace when you have done all this.