TALKS TO LITTLE FOLKS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1202, 15 March 1895, Page 11

TALKS TO LITTLE FOLKS.

By Rev. William Birch, D.D. «I THOUGHT GOD HAD FORGOTTEN ME 1” Nubie Wilson was only a mite of a child, whose mother had gone to heaven. When her father came home one evening he found Nubie in pain sitting in her little chair near the fire, and around her head and face a band of red flannel. Lifting Her in his arms he walked up and down the room soothing her, and then sat in the creaking rocking-chair, placing her cheek against his breast, saying, “ Little Nubie, do you hear my heart beating ?” “ Yes, father/’ she replied, “ it would be beautiful if iny ear didn’t ache!” After a while she asked, “ Father, can’t God send the pain away ?” “ Yes, darling, her/-father answered, “but I think He p wants you to bear it with patience; and, perhaps, He has sent me earlier home to comfort, you.” “ Yes, father; I didn’t think of that; I thought God had forgotten > me!*/ “ No, no, my darling; God has not forgotten you, but has given you strength to bear the pain.” “Yes, father;' and God has given you to me as well; isn’t He good to let me be your little girl ?” Nubie fell asleep, and for about two hours her father sat holding her, gently rocking in the chair until his arms grew stiff, when he carried Her to bed. As he was kissing her “good-night,” she beiDg, as he thought, asleep, Nubie put her arms around his neck, saying, “ Father, will you please kneel down and say my prayers for me, and tell God I'm very, very thankful that He answered my prayer in such a lovely way by sending you to me." Then she joined her hands like little Samuel’s in the picture, and her father said her prayers, while she repeated them after him, and was comforted. Several years ago, a picture was given me by a man whose life I had been the means«of saving. Let me describe it. It is a publichouse or hotel on a country road. It is night and a wintry storm of falling snow. On his way home, ridding bis pony, a farmer pulls up at the hotel, and goes inside to drink with cronies, he knows.are there, leaving his faithful beast outside in the cold. There the creature stands like a statue with an inch or two of snow on his back. The blind is down, but we see figures on it, and now between the gas-light and the blind the farmer’s shadow appears with his hack to the window, lifting his glass as if proposing a toast. Now we hear clapping of hands and thumps on the table with "glasses, and the farmer lifts his glass and drinks.

Yes; there is the farmer inside, comfortable and warm ; and here, outside, almost dead with cold and covered with snow, is tHe faithful pony, waiting, waiting ; but forgotten T.": , ’ ... . V Men may forget, but God never forgets us. Sometimes, it seems as if He had forgotten us, but it is only when our wrong conduct has numbed the feeling of His presence. * The other day, during the hurricane, the telegraph would not work, and when the electrician tested the wire he calculated that ther*‘ was a stoppage about 12.;, miles away. / A messenger was at once sent there, and found the wire broken. It was not ,tlie fault of the electricity, but of the wire. Likewise, neglect of our duty or wilful disobedience to what we know is God’s loving command breaks the spiritual wire between our ‘heavenly Father and us. •Only penitence can repair it. God loves us all the same, but our wrong conduct has broken the wire. God never leaves /any ; of; His little children. He is as - much : with us as electricity is with the broken wire. If we think God has forgotten us, it is because our wire is broken somewhere. Kneel in prayer and ask Him to show you where the stoppageis. It may be because you have lost’ Confidence in His care, or because you have been untruthful or unkind, or have neglected a duty in your power to perform. ■sp But when in play or at work, in school or ; at home, how sweet to know that God remembers us, and it strengthens us with truth and courage to* think that we lovingly obey Him.

Little folks, God never forgets us as the farmer forgot the pony. He answers our prayer as is best for us, as He answered little Nubie. Therefore, ask him to incline you to believe and obey.