M.-Ah, good! THE COLLIER BOY. pens every day in men's lives; but no one troubles himself about it. God has given us His holy law, by which we should live and act. But there is scarcely a thread that we have not broken. Cheating, lying, stealing, and many other sins are especially common. People will sit here from morning to night, and give all their attention to a piece of cloth, so that directly a thread breaks, in a moment they bind it together again. Yet they never think of the threads of the holy law of God which they have broken. This, I fear, never troubles them even for a moment." 95 It strikes me show them how they were daily forcibly that something like this hap-breaking God's righteous word, and neglecting the great salvation. But this is a lesson not for heathens only, but for all. Young and old, even in Christian lands, are thus sinning every day, against clearer light and richer grace than others. Dear reader, remember that you can never weave a robe of righteousness for yourself. Too many threads are daily broken, ever to be repaired by the skill or power of angels or men. But there is One who has done this for you-One who is made unto all that believe in Him, wisdom and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Make that glorious Saviour your choice and confidence, and you will be made "complete in Him.”Juvenile Missionary Magazine. While the missionary was making these remarks, several other people had come together, who took part in the conversation, and he was able to THE COLLIER BOY. "You all know," said a gentleman, addressing some children who worked in the mines in Yorkshire, "what it is to work down in the coal-pits, for many of you spend your days in them. There was some time ago a little fellow, not more than five or six years old, who was brought before some gentlemen to be questioned about his work; for they were thinking about passing those laws, which have been since made, to forbid such very little children working under ground. They asked him his age, then what he had to do. He answered, that every day, from five in the morning till five in the evening, he sat without a light, beside a little door in the mine, and when he heard one of the 'corves,' or boxes, come rumbling along, he opened the door by a piece of string 96 POETRY-COME TO JESUS. which he held in his hand. He was asked whether he had no way of amusing himself. Once he had caught a mouse, and this was quite an event in his life. But his chief, indeed his only way of amusing himself, was by begging of every one who came through the door, a piece of candleend, and then, when he had collected a sufficient number of pieces, he set light to them all. 'Well,' said the gentlemen, and when you have got a light, what do you do?' 'Oh,' said the little fellow, WHEN I GETS A LIGHT I SINGS. Now, my dear children, this is a simple, touching story; but there is a lesson I want you to learn from it, and it is this. We are met here to-day to think, hear, and learn about the poor heathen in distant lands, and they are like this poor child in the coalpit; they live in darkness, in utter Come to Jesus! little children, spiritual darkness. They are, the Bible tells us, 'sitting in darkness,' without God, without Christ, without hope. Now, the object of the missionaries is to take light to them, the light of the gospel; and the use of missionary meetings is to stir up people to help in this blessed work. You, my dear children, give your pennies, and your halfpennies, and they are like the little boy's candleends which he begged of the men as they passed. They go towards getting the light of the gospel spread among the heathen; and when they have heard and believed the glad tidings of salvation, they sing praises to Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvellous light, just as the child said he sang when he had got a light in his coal pit."— Children's Miss. Mag. Poetry. COME TO JESUS! Price 6d. per doz. or 3s. 6d. per 100; 20 copies sent free by post for 10d., paid in advance. Published by GALL & INGLIS, 6 George Street, Edinburgh. HOULSTON & WRIGHT, London. THE CHILDREN'S MISSIONARY NEWSPAPER, DESIGNED TO COMMUNICATE INTERESTING INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING THE MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF ALL EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS, IN LANGUAGE ADAPTED TO THE CAPACITIES OF CHILDREN. VOLUME XVIII.-1861. Edinburgh: GALL AND INGLIS. GLASGOW: G. GALLIE. LONDON: HOULSTON AND WRIGHT. |