SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9581, 4 August 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

"SAY IT LIKE JESUS DID." [BY MRS. HARVEY-JELLIE.] A solemn hush was over the house. In the room upstairs the light was shaded, and all was very still. Little Jetta, the dark-eyed "fairy queen" of the house, had ceased to laugh and-play, and was lying quietly there, with spirit hovering between two worlds. The faithful nurse had turned to prepare yet one more remedy, and the anxious father watched bis sleeping child. He was a prosperous man of business; but what just then was wealth or fame to him compared with the life of that treasure on which he doted ? A few strokes of his pen could command large sums of money; but no prescription, however carefully written, could secure what 'vas of vaster worth to him, the health and life of his beautiful child. Since his wife's death, tnree years before, all his devotion had been lavished on Jetta, the companion of his lonely hours. No thought of . personal religion ever passed through his mind; he was intent on selfish and worldly interests. But he could not say he bad not heard the Gospel; for, nestling in her father's arms, ~ that merry girl would prattle on and tell him sweet and touching tales she heard in the Sundayclass, and how Mr. Weston said it all, and he would not check her pretty talk. The teacher was a friend who lived near, and had begged that Jetta might join his infant class, and every week her young heart gathered in some new and precious thought, like seedlings into the good ground. " Father dear," said the. waking child, "can you say it just like teacher does?" " Yes, darling, anything you like; what is it?" , , , . " "You find it, then; my mark is in the place." Love claims swift obedience and, quickly taking up her , book, he read: " Suffer the little children to come unto i Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven," "No, not like that,'' she said, half-fret- I fully ; "he doesn't say it that way." "You are too ill to listen, dear; wait a little, and Mr. Weston will come and see you, and he shall say it." True to his promise, the teacher was soon there; and, sitting with the little hand in his, he asked if he should sing to her. "Please say those words again, and say them like Jesus did," she said. He remembered how interested she hr.d been in the verse, and what he said about it; and, with a momentary prayer that he might catch an echo of Christ's tone, he repeated it through slowly. A look of gladness spread over the countenance as he paused. " Now the last part again; it sounds so beautiful;" and he said, "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." " Does it make you happy to hear that, Jetta dear?" " Oh, yes, because you say it like Jesus did; and I know He means it all for me." It was mysteriously solemn that night, as the rich man sat alone with his sad thoughts. He would not leave the room, though there was nothing he could do, while the nurse kept silent watch; but when the massive clock in the hall chimed three the child awoke, and asked, "Where's father?" Instantly bending over her, she said, "Do try and say it like Jesus did; I must hear it again. He. felt then he would have given anything to have learned the secret of that tone, to be able to gratify the wish of one so precious; but, unused as he was to that book, he opened the Bible and read the verse, going over the last clause at her request. A faint smile, and she said, "That's just a little like it; you will say it like Jesus soon, father dear," and the fragile arms were clasped round his neck. " I will try, darling," he said, smoothing her soft black hair. » "I'm tired now. Ask teacher how; he knows; and kiss Jetta good night." Scarce able to control the passionate grief, he gazed helplessly on the pure white face; ana the nurse softly said the favourite verse that she might hear it once more; and the dry lips with effort whispered, "Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven," and she was gone. Three months of bitter experience passed by, and the ever-sounding words his child had loved began to hold a deeper meaning; and on that summer evening, as he gathered blossoms from Jetta's rose-tree to carry to her grave, he seemed to hear her voice, "You will say it like Jesus soon, father dear." The air was full of fragrance as he stood cy the love-reared monument, and all around was still. He laid the on the green : mound. A change. had come over him he I knew he was not the same. ' Things that 1 engrossed him were losing power, and a great uplifting influence was at work; and there, unseen, he thought, he turned his face upward, and with a groan he spoke. Was he praying? He could hardly tell; but he knew he felt a mighty outgoing frois his very soul that brought him strength and help, and he was lost to place and time till a sound recalled him, and he saw Jetta's teacher approaching. "I will not disturb you. I often come here; it cheers me in my work among the little ones." " Stay with me, Mr. Weston, you were my child's best friend; be mine. I begin to see the world within a world, a kingdom that is grand and everlasting. Wealth that is unreckoned in our banks; and to say it—' the Kingdom of Heaven'— Jesus did will explain everything, unfold all mysteries. But why must He take her Does He want them thus?" ■" - ■ . _ "No, He wants them here, if it is well; but He knows, and His way is right Would you have her here, and maybe miss the Kingdom ; or have her there, and by her going enter into its royal boundary, to know no separation for evermore? - For 'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The manly head was bowed upon the arm that rested on the marble tablet, and there was a long and solemn silence. Then a new light shone over his face; " and he said, as if speaking to his child," Yes, Jetta, 'tis beautiful, like Jesus said it, I have been slow to learn,' and then, raising himself, he turned his eyes upward and said reverently, " O God, the Kingdom of Heaven, I see and feel itsgrandeur now, let me enter in." The two walked hpme, talking in thankful strains of the way a little child had led her father < into Christ's Kingdom; and whenalone in the room where Jetta said, "You will soon say it like Jesus did," he felt ,he understood the child-like spirit that only can admit into the region where time and space make no barrier to soul communion, and where Jesus sets His subjects free. " • i'-'-i'i?";;';.; O highly-honoured workers in Sundayschool' or elsewhere, rejoice that ; you ' have the treasure of His Gospel. to unfold/and seek living power and greater zeal. Your task is glorious, its issues grand for time and eternity, and pray right earnestly to be able above all to " Say it like Jesus did." ,^ O bill Thy blessed Gospel go 11 " ;•, . Forth to each child of sin and woe,-, ; " That all Thy wondrous grace way know* ■ <> ' . Thy kingdom come. i