Some time ago in Edinburgh two gentlemen were standing at the door of an hotel one very cold day, when a little boy with a poor thin blue face, his bare feet red with cold, and with nothing to cover him but a bundle of rags, came and said, "Please, sir, buy some matches." "No, don't want any," the gentleman said. "But they are only a penny a box," the poor little fellow pleaded. "Yes, but you see we don't want a box," the gentleman said again. "Then I'll give you two for a penny," the boy said at last. And so to get rid of him the gentleman who tells the story says, I bought a box of him. But then I found I had no change, and so I said I would buy a box tomorrow. "Oh do buy them to-night, if you please," the boy again pleaded, "I will run and get you the change, for I'm very hungry." So I gave him the shilling, and off he started. I waited for him, but no boy came. Then I thought I had lost my shilling; still there was that in the boy's face I trusted, and I did not like to think ill of him. Late in the evening I was told a boy wanted to see me. When he was brought in, I found it was a smaller brother of the boy that had got my shilling, but if possible still more ragged and poor and thin. He stood for a moment diving into his rags, and then said, "Are you the gentleman that bought the matches from Sandie?" "Yes." "Well, then, here's fourpence out of your shilling; Sandie can't come, he's very ill; a cart ran over him, and knocked him down, and he lost his cap and his matches and your sevenpence, and both his legs are broken, and the doctor says he'll die, and that's all." And then, putting the fourpence on the table, the poor child broke out into great sobs. So I fed the little man, and went with him to see Sandie. The two poor little things lived alone, father and mother both dead. Poor Sandie lay on a bundle of shavings; he knew me as soon as I came in, and having told me how his legs were broken, he added, as his eyes fell on his little brother, "Oh Reuby, little Reuby! I'm sure I'm dying, and who'll take care of you when I am gone?" Then I took his hand and said, I would always take care of Reuby. He understood me, and had just strength enough left to look up at me, as if to thank me; the light went out of his blue eyes. And in a moment--
"He lay within the light of God
Like a babe upon the breast,
Where the wicked cease from troubling
And the weary are at rest."
That story was told in the noblest church of our great city. It was reported in the papers the following day. And I have no hesitation in saying that beautiful as are the words in which it is told, and wonderful as the effect may have been on the hearts of those who heard it, it was a sight far more wonderful than any we can imagine, when that story was told in the courts of the kingdom of heaven.
Reader, think of little Sandie when you are tempted to say you are honest, and ask yourself the question, "Can I lay my hand upon my heart and say, My God, I am honest indeed, honest as that poor child was, honest before my neighbours, honest before Thee."
BEARING THE CROSS.
"'Take up thy cross,' the Saviour said,
If thou would'st My disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake,
And humbly follow after Me.
'Take up thy cross,' nor heed the shame,
Nor let thy foolish pride rebel:
Thy Lord for thee the Cross endured,
To save thy soul from death and hell!
'Take up thy cross,' and follow Christ--
Nor think till death to lay it down;
For only he who bears the cross,
May hope to wear the glorious crown!"
C. W. Everest.
Bearing the cross, or self-denial, as it is sometimes called, forms a necessary part of the daily life of every Christian man. Every one of us can give up something for the good of others. A rich man is called upon to give up one thing, a poor man another. But let none think that his riches or his poverty, as the case may be, will excuse him from bearing the cross of Christ. And indeed in the heart of any true servant of God, there will be no wish to shirk the hard and disagreeable part of His service. His heart will be so filled with love and devotion to Christ, that he will gladly bear the cross, "despising the shame." It may be we are called upon to give up our time to go and see a sick neighbour, or it may be we are asked to do a neighbour a good turn by going on an errand for them when we wish to go elsewhere. But whatever it may be, it is certain that opportunities for practising self-denial occur in the lives of us all. "If any man will come after Me"--Christ has told us--"let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me[#]." There is the command, now hear the promise made to such as fulfil the command,--"and where I am, there shall also My servant be[#]."
[#] S. Matt. xvi. 24.
[#] S. John xii. 26.
Self-denial may be in very simplest matters, and yet be quite as acceptable to Christ as would be the most costly gifts bestowed by the rich upon His service. You remember when Jesus was on earth, how one day He was sitting over against the Treasury, and as He sat there He kept taking notice of all the pieces of money that were cast into the Treasury. Now there happened to come by some very rich people, and they put large sums into the box, and passed on their way. And again others came, and they too being rich, "cast in much." But after awhile there came by one who is described as "a certain poor widow;" and "she cast in all she had, even all her living." How much it cost her to give that one farthing Jesus Christ knew well. Instead of keeping it to spend upon her own needs, she brought it up to the temple Treasury and gave it back to God. And that is just what you must do. I do not say it is necessary, or even right, that people should in these days give everything they possess to God. In one sense indeed we ought to give up all we have to the service of Christ; I mean by this that we ought at all times to be ready to part with things earthly, if they interfere with the cross we are called upon to bear. And I do say that we ought to deny ourselves some little comfort or pleasure, and make a rule of giving the money that we should thus have spent upon ourselves to the service of Almighty God.