It is a very happy thing for us that the great God has mercifully promised in such numerous places in the Bible health and strength in our hour of need, for, indeed, we require it now more than ever I remember before; for, though we have everything we could want in this wretched little island, we seem doomed to pass our days here, never more to see everything we loved at home. But there is a heaven above, where there is to be no sorrow, where "tears shall be wiped away from every eye," and to this we must raise our hearts, trusting that God will renew our strength and make us strong to fulfil our duties until the time comes for us to meet them. We must pray to Him that we be not weary or faint in doing the work He has set before us, that we may be worthy of going to that place where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
ZOË'S SERMON.
"Oh! what great troubles and adversities hast Thou showed me, and yet didst Thou turn and refresh me."—Psalm lxxi. 8.
Ever since we left our happy home we have been troubled and tossed about. Many adversities have fallen upon us that we never thought could have happened. But God has willed it so, and for wise purposes. Perhaps He thought us too happy; perhaps it was necessary to do us good that we should be thus afflicted. Let us then not grieve, but look into our hearts to see our faults, and then we shall have so much to do that time will pass quickly, and we shall have peace and comfort in our minds beyond all other pleasure, the peace that our Heavenly Father gives to those who strive to please Him. This will make our little island like a paradise, preparing us for the happy and beautiful paradise where we shall meet all those we love so much.
WINNY'S SERMON.
"But God shall deliver the island of the innocent."—Job xxii. 30.
I think this is an island in which we now live, and I think that we who are in it are innocent people; therefore God will love us, and take care of us, for He tells us so in His Holy Book. Look at my text, and study it; there is a great promise, and nobody in the world, I am sure, wants such a promise so much as we poor lonely people do. Let us then be very innocent and good, and then we shall be certain that God means that holy promise, which I have written down as my text for us, and just as much as if He spoke it to us. And, though we are all alone here, we have our Bibles to teach us to be innocent people, and that's what no savages or heathen people have, and, therefore, we should rejoice and be glad, and sing a song of thankfulness. And now I think I have explained my text, and have only to say that we must often pray to our Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, because without His help we cannot be innocent people.
LILLY'S SERMON.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people."
When we look into the Holy Book of God, at every page we read something that does us good; that is, if our hearts are rightly turned towards God, so that we wish to do His will and not our own. Lo I opened my Bible at this place, and found my text, and think it very proper for us, for we do comfort each other, and God comforts us, and we have nothing to wish for, and nothing to want, except to see our homes once more. And, if God wills that we should return home, how happy and grateful shall we be, and if He does not, we have much to do here, especially in comforting each other, and, if we work cheerfully, without sorrow and grief, great shall be our reward in heaven.