Its youthful hopes and fond desires Upon His loving breast. I'll give my mind to Jesus, I'll give my strength to Jesus, I'll give my time to Jesus: Oh that each hour might be Fill'd up with holy work for Him Who spent His life for me. I'll give my wealth to Jesus: Dear Lord, accept and bless." V. Little Idolaters. Fade, fade each earthly joy, Jesus is mine. Dark is the wilderness, Earth has no resting-place, Jesus alone can bless, Tempt not my soul away, Here would I ever stay, Jesus is mine. Perishing things of clay, Born but for one brief day, Pass from my heart away, Jesus is mine." LITTLE IDOLATERS. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."—1 JOHN v. 21. HERE are a great many kinds of idols in this world. Some are carved out of wood or stone or clay, and some of gold or silver; some grow in the fields, some run in the woods or swim in the rivers; some are ugly, and some are beautiful ; some we eat and drink, and some we wear, and some we play with; some we carry in our pockets ; and some of them are flesh and blood, just like ourselves. I could hardly begin to tell how you many idols there are in India and China and Africa and America. Perhaps we shall find that we have them in our own houses; and for aught I know, even in the Sabbath-school room and the pews where God is worshipped. For the word idol means just this, anything that we love more than we love God. Here is one kind of idol. It came from Africa. What a horrible-looking thing it is, with its great wild eyes and black face, and big, ugly mouth, that looks as if it were ready to eat you up! And yet what a little, contemptible thing to worship, and call by the great name of GOD! I suppose David had seen some such object as this when he wrote those words in the 115th Psalm: "They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throats." And was not David right when he said, "They that make them are like unto them, and so is every one that trusteth in them?" Oh, when we think that there are millions of children who every night and morning get down on their little knees and say their prayers to pieces of wood or stone, how anxious we all should be to send them the Bible and the missionary, and teach them to look up to the true God, and pray, "Our Father who art in heaven!" And do not forget that every penny and every prayer can do something to teach those poor ignorant little children to keep themselves from idols. But I pray God that you may do more than this. Is there not some boy or girl who reads these pages who will become a missionary of Jesus Christ, and when he or she has grown up, cross the ocean, and carry this blessed gospel to the heathen, and preach to them from these words of God, "Keep yourselves from idols?" I hope so. And here is another kind of idol. What is it? Why, only a doll. Who ever heard of worshipping |