The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 365, December 25, 1886Various
General
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 365, December 25, 1886
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
“Yes, the best kind of love; about Jesus,” we replied.
“Oh! I don’t know Him. I only love those I know,” he said, but he took
the book.
It is melancholy to see how many youths seem to know little of Him who
died to save them. One Easter Sunday we ventured to attack a knot of
them who were holiday-making. The pictures always attract, so they
were soon engaged in contemplating them.
“Is it about Jesus?” asked one.
“Yes.”
“Ah! He was a good man,” he continued.
“He was your Saviour, and mine,” we added.
“Do you believe it?” he inquired, with real earnestness.
“Yes; the little book will tell you so.”
What was the result? Who shall say?
We are sometimes astonished at the eagerness of the men and boys,
working in scores or even fifties, to secure the tract, leaflet, or
magazine. The supply rarely answers the demand, for even from the tops
of high houses in process of being built, we hear a shout of “Don’t
forget us, please,” while the workmen on _terra firma_ volunteer to
distribute as many as we can spare. All seize with avidity on _The
Child’s Companion_, for all, or most, have families at home, and
“something for the little ones” is a boon.
“I read them out while my wife sees to the house,” said one. “I can’t
afford to buy them, but I carry home all I can get.”
“I read it to father, and father reads it to mother, and mother reads
it to me,” was the satisfactory acknowledgment of a little girl who
came in for one.
“Here are two young gentlemen who would like to study them, I am sure,”
said a master mason, indicating his juvenile aids, he having accepted
one himself.
The other day we were arrested by an old man, a scavenger, who said
we couldn’t give him too many good books, for he loved them. “I was
fifty-two years without entering a place of worship,” he added. “I was
guard to a travelling wagon, and worked Sundays and weekdays. Four
years ago I had a bad illness, and a lady converted me. I promised God,
if He was pleased to restore me, that I would serve Him for the rest
of my days. I thought I was dying, but I got better, thanks be to Him;
and I have kept my word ever since. I have been to church three times a
Sunday, and to mission-hall twice a week. I have been on my knees night
and morning for twenty minutes, and I thank and praise the Lord.”
It is this Sunday working which is the cause of so much irreligion.
Turn where you will, those employed have the same tale to tell. They
all say that if only they could be ensured every other Sunday they
would be satisfied, but to have no Day of Rest was bad both for body
and soul. Indeed, one of them argued that the soul perished with the
body, and that he could prove it from Scripture. Here and there we find
men brave enough to refuse all Sunday work, and they say they have not
lost by it.
“I never turn a wheel on Sunday,” said a cabman. “Many of us stand out
against it, and all who do say they are better off than those who work.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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