Behavior -- Juvenile fiction; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
Tip had never paid such close attention to anything in his life as he did
to Mr. Holbrook's words; after that they were very simple and plain
spoken, so that a child might understand them, and were about heaven,
that beautiful city of which Tip had heard and thought more during the
last three weeks than he ever had in his life before. His heart had been
in a constant Struggle with Satan, ever since that morning in the Sabbath
school. He didn't know enough to understand that it was Satan's evil
voice which was constantly persuading him that he could not be anybody,
that-he was only a poor, miserable, ragged boy, with nobody to help him,
nobody to show him what to do; that he might as well not try to be
anything but what he was; and he didn't know either that the other voice
in his heart which struggled with the evil counsel, which said to him,
"Other boys as poor and ignorant as you are have reformed; that Robert
did about whom the teacher told you; and then, if you don't, you will
never see that river nor the fountain, nor the streets of gold," was the
dear, loving voice of his Redeemer.
Now, as he listened to Mr. Holbrook, and heard how Johnny, little Johnny
whom he loved, had surely gone up there to be with Christ for ever, and
how Jesus, looking down on the father and mother, and the children who
were left, said to them, "I want you, too, to give Me your hearts, so
that when I gather My jewels I may come for you." The weak, struggling
resolves in his heart grew strong, and he said within himself, while the
tears fell slowly down his cheeks, "I will; I'll begin to-day."
The coffin-lid was screwed down, and Johnny's baby-face shut out from
them for ever. A man came forward and took the light burden in his arms,
and bore it out to the waggon; down the narrow street they drove, to the
burial-ground, which was not far away. They laid Johnny down to sleep
under the shade of a large old tree; and the grass waved softly, and the
birds sang low, and the angels surely sang in heaven, because another
little form was numbered among the thousands of children who stand
"around the Throne."
The people moved slowly from the grave,--all but Tip; he didn't want to
leave Johnny; he wanted to follow him, and he didn't know how. Mr.
Holbrook glanced back at the boy standing there alone, paused a moment,
then, turning back, laid his hand gently on Tip's shoulder.
"You can go up there too, my boy, if you will," he said, in a low,
kind tone.
Tip looked up quickly, then down again; he wanted to ask how--what he
should do; but his voice choked, he could not speak a word; and with the
earnest sentence, "God bless you, my little friend, and lead you to
Himself," Mr. Holbrook turned and left him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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