Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and GirlsChidley, Howard J. (Howard James)
Religion
Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and Girls
Chidley, Howard J. (Howard James)
Children's sermons
I suppose you will wonder how you can do that. I will tell you. You have
often heard about "wishing-caps," and how the people in fairy-stories
put them on and just wish themselves wherever they want to be, and quick
as a flash they are there. Well, there is a wishing-cap that every boy
and girl can put on when he is tempted; it is this prayer, "O God, help
me not to do this thing which is wrong!" And if you say that prayer, and
believe God will help you, it will take you high out of reach of the
sin, just as that old eagle flew high above reach of the bullets. For
God says that they who ask Him for help shall "mount up on wings as
eagles."
A DOG WHICH ATE THE BIBLE
I heard an amusing story sometime ago about a savage in Africa who came
to a missionary very much excited and told him that his dog had been
completely spoiled as a watch-dog because he had chewed up and eaten a
small New Testament he had happened to get hold of. He said that the dog
would never be of any more use because the New Testament which he had
swallowed would take all the fight out of him, and he could no longer
keep wild animals away from the sheep.
That seems a strange notion for a grown-up man to get into his head,
doesn't it? And yet, boys and girls, I run across some young people even
here in America that think if they let Christ into their hearts it will
make them sort of "wishy-washy" and "goody-goody," and not strong and
rugged people.
It is true that to be a Christian does take some of the fight out of a
person, but it is the quarrelsome kind of fighting that has neither
beauty nor strength in it which it takes out of one. But when you come
to read history you will find that some of our bravest soldiers were
Christians. John Havelock, a British general who fought in India for the
sake of his country, was called "The Christian Warrior." Sir Oliver
Cromwell, who had to lead an army in England against the king, who was
ill-treating the people, had a body of soldiers under him who were
Christians, and they were such good soldiers and so hard to defeat that
they were called "Cromwell's Ironsides." Sometimes just before battle
these soldiers used to sing hymns and then pray on the battlefields. And
because they were Christians it made better and braver soldiers of them.
And so the truest kind of courage that any boy or girl can have is the
kind that Christ gives. Paul tells all of us Christians to be "good
soldiers." The Bible takes the wrong kind of fight out of you and puts
the right kind of fight into you, the fight for noble things.
STEAM AND SAILS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account