Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and Girls — John Shaqi
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
In a sermon which Dean Stanley, an English minister, preached to
children in Westminster Abbey, he told the following story: "There was a
little girl living with her grandfather. She was a good child, but he
was not a very good man; and one day, when she came back from school, he
had put in writing over her bed, 'God is nowhere,' for he did not
believe in the good God, and he tried to make the little girl believe
the same as he.
"What did the little girl do? She had no eyes to see, no ears to hear
what her grandfather tried to teach her. She was very small. She could
only read words of one syllable at a time; she rose above the bad
meaning which he had tried to put into her mind, because her little mind
could not do otherwise, and she read the words not 'God is nowhere,' but
'God is now here.'"
And she was right. She was wiser than her gray-haired grandfather. For
God is now here. He is everywhere. And whenever even the smallest child
speaks to Him in the simplest prayer He hears the child's voice. God is
now here. That is a good motto for us to take with us to school, to keep
us honest; to play, to keep us sweet; to our homes, to keep us
unselfish.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE'S FAITH
No doubt you have all heard of David Livingstone, the great missionary
to Africa. I wish to tell you a story of his faith in Christ.
He was trying to cross one of the rivers of Africa one day with his
little company of men, when the savages in that locality tried to
prevent him. They gathered in large numbers with their spears and
poisoned arrows and war-clubs, and blocked his way to the river.
Livingstone and his little company were no match for these hostile
warriors, and it looked as if he and his men would be killed.
Then he thought of a scheme of waiting till nightfall and of crossing
over under cover of the darkness. But later that seemed to him a
cowardly thing to do, and he tells us how the verse in the Bible came
back to him in which Jesus says: "All power is given unto Me in heaven
and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations ... and lo! I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
The great missionary said of this verse: "It is the word of a Gentleman
of the most sacred and strictest honour, and there is an end on't. I
feel quite calm now, thank God."
Next morning he crossed the river without any difficulty, although the
bank was lined with savages armed to the teeth.
I think that is always the way when we trust in Christ. He has promised
never to leave us nor forsake us, and we can rely upon His word.
THE HAPPY MAN
Once upon a time there was a king who was very rich, but very unhappy.
He had a beautiful marble palace, with extensive parks and grounds, fine
horses and carriages, but he was not happy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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