Parker's Second Reader Part 18

LESSON XL.

_King Edward and his Bible._--MRS. L.H. SIGOURNEY.

1. I will tell you a little story about a young and good king. He was king of England more than two hundred and eighty years ago. His name was Edward, and, because there had been five kings before him of the name of Edward, he was called Edward the Sixth.

2. He was only nine years old when he began to reign. He was early taught to be good, by pious teachers, and he loved to do what they told him would please G.o.d. He had a great reverence for the Bible, which he knew contained the words of his Father in heaven.

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3. Once, when he was quite a young child, he was playing with some children about his own age. He wished much to reach something which was above his head. To a.s.sist him, they laid a large, thick book in a chair, for him to step on. Just as he was putting his foot upon it, he discovered it to be the Bible.

4. Drawing back, he took it in his arms, kissed it, and returned it to its place. Turning to his little playmates, he said, with a serious face,--"Shall I dare to tread under my feet that which G.o.d has commanded me to keep in my heart?"

5. This pious king never forgot his prayers. Though the people with whom he lived were continually anxious to amuse him, and show him some new thing, they never could induce him to omit his daily devotions.

6. One day he heard that one of his teachers was sick. Immediately, he retired to pray for him. Coming from his prayers, he said, with a cheerful countenance, "I think there is hope that he will recover. I have this morning earnestly begged of G.o.d to spare him to us."

7. After his teacher became well, he was told of this; and he very much loved the young king for remembering him in his prayers.

8. Edward the Sixth died when he was sixteen years old. He was beloved by all, for his goodness and piety. His mind was calm and serene in his sickness.

9. If you are not tired of my story, I will tell you part of a prayer which he used often to say, when on his dying bed.

10. "My Lord G.o.d, if thou wilt deliver me from this miserable life, take me among thy chosen. Yet not my will, but thy will, be done. Lord, I commit my spirit unto thee. Thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee. Yet, if thou shouldst send me life and health, grant that I may truly serve thee."

11. Children, you should do like King Edward, reverence your Bible, and love to pray to G.o.d.

LESSON XLI.

_What does it Mean to be Tempted._--M.H., IN THE ROSE-BUD.

1. "Mother," said little Frank, "I wish you would tell me what it means to be tempted. I heard you say, the other day, that people are tempted to do many wicked things;--pray tell me, mother, if such a little boy as I am is ever tempted?"

2. "Yes, my child, every day you live; and when I have told you what temptation is, I think you will confess that you have not only been tempted, but often yielded to temptation.

3. "To be tempted, means to be drawn by the offer of present pleasure to do what is wrong. There are many kinds of temptation, and I think you will understand me better if I give you an instance.

4. "You know, my dear Frank, that both your father and I have forbidden your going to the pond where your cousin Henry was drowned, because we think it very dangerous for you to venture there. But you also know that the other day you went, and suffered severely afterward for your disobedience."

5. "Yes, mother," said Frank; "but then I should not have gone, if William Brown had not showed me his pretty ship, just as I was coming out of school, and asked me to go see him launch it; and oh, mother, if you had only seen it!

6. "It had masts and sails, just like a _real_ ship; and on the deck a little man, which William called the captain. And then, when it was on the water, it sailed along so sweetly!--the pond was as smooth as a looking-gla.s.s, so that we could see two little ships all the time.

7. "I didn't think of disobeying you, mother; I only thought of the pretty ship, and that there could be no harm in seeing William sail it."--"The harm, my dear son (as you call it)," said his mother, "was not in sailing the boat,--this is an innocent pleasure in itself; but it was doing it after it had been forbidden by your parents, that made it wrong.

8. "The temptation to disobedience came in the form of a little ship.

You were drawn by it to the pond, the forbidden spot. You saw it sail gayly off, and stood on the bank delighted."

9. "But, mother," interrupted Frank, "I shouldn't have got into the water and muddied my clothes, if the little ship hadn't got tangled in the weeds; and the boys all shouted, Clear her! Clear her! and I couldn't help stepping in, I was so near; and my foot slipped, and I fell in."

10. "Yes," said his mother, "and but for a.s.sistance of your play-fellows, you might have been drowned. But G.o.d, whose eye was upon you all the while, saw fit to spare you; and how thankful you ought to be that he did not take you away in your disobedience!

11. "You now see how you were tempted, first to go with William Brown to the pond, and then to step into the water; which shows how one temptation leads to another. But did not something within you, my son, tell you, while there, that you were doing wrong to disobey your parents?"

12. "No, mother; I do not recollect that it did. I'm sure I did not think a word about it till I was alone in bed, and was asking my heavenly Father to take care of me. Then something seemed to say, 'Frank, you have done wrong to-day.'

13. "And I felt how wicked I had been, and could not ask G.o.d to forgive me till I had confessed all to you. I knew you were away when I came home, and I thought you hadn't returned.

14. "I was so unhappy that I called Betsy, and told her how I felt. She told me it was an accident, and no matter at all; that she had taken care of my clothes, and she believed you would never know anything about it.

15. "But all this was no comfort to me; the something within would not be quiet. If it had spoken to me in the same way when I first saw the little ship, I think I should not have gone to the pond."

16. "Frank," said his mother, "this something within, which is conscience, did then speak, but you did not listen to its voice. The voice of temptation was louder, and you obeyed it, just as you followed some noisy boys, the other day, though I was calling to you, 'Frank, come back.'

17. "I spoke louder than usual, and at any other time you would have heard my voice; but you were too much attracted by the boys to listen to me.

18. "Temptation makes us deaf to the voice within; and yielding to temptation, as you see, my son, leads us into sin; and this is why we pray, in the Lord's prayer, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,' which is sin, for there is no greater evil than sin.

19. "It is to keep us from this great evil that G.o.d has given us this voice within, to warn us not to follow temptation, though the sin appear but a trifling one, and though it hold out the promise of pleasure, as the little ship did."

LESSON XLII.

_The same subject, continued._

1. "I will name some of the temptations to which little boys are a good deal exposed, and yield to without thinking, and sometimes without knowing to what they may lead.

2. "Sometimes the temptation to steal comes in the form of some beautiful fruit; perhaps in his father's garden, which he has been forbidden to touch; or perhaps in an orchard far from the eye of the owner, where he might take it without fear of being seen; and he says to himself, 'No one will ever know it; I will take only a few.'

3. "But does he forget that the eye of G.o.d is upon him, and does he not hear the voice of conscience saying, 'Thou shalt not steal!' He would shudder to be called a thief; but taking what does not belong to us, be it ever so small a thing, is stealing.

4. "And when detected, he is tempted to lie, to conceal his fault and avoid punishment; and here again we see how one sin leads to another.

The temptations to cruelty are many. Sometimes they appear in the form of a bird's nest, placed by a fond and loving mother on the high bough of a tree, to secure her young brood from danger.

5. "The boy, in his rambles in the woods, sees the nest, climbs the tree, and, though the little birds are too feeble to fly, and the anxious mother flutters round, as if to entreat the cruel boy to spare her little ones, he is unmindful of her tenderness, and, thinking only of his prize, bears it off to his companions, who enjoy it with him.

6. "Here is a sinful feeling indulged, which, if not subdued, may lead to murder. I wish you to remember, my dear boy, that it is by allowing ourselves to commit little sins that we become great sinners.

7. "You would be frightened if you could have placed before you a picture of the course of sin. You would exclaim, What a monster!--he must never come near me,--it is dangerous even to look on him! Let me entreat you, then, my son, to guard against temptation.

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