The Happy Sunday Afternoon

SOME years since, in one of the larger towns of the West of England, a faithful servant of the Lord labored earnestly to win souls to Christ, and his efforts were much blessed, especially among those belonging to one of the Sunday-schools of that town. Among the scholars was E., the son of Christian parents, whose brothers and sisters were also the Lord's. E. was often very anxious to be a Christian, and when his parents' friends were speaking to each other of the things of God he sometimes felt as though he would do anything if he could but partake in their joys, but he was very careful, through pride of heart, to hide his anxiety from those around him.
Many in the school, and also some of the boys in E.'s class, were brought by God to rejoice in the knowledge of the forgiveness of their sins, but E. remained unsaved and unhappy. One Sunday he left home for school, feeling utterly wretched. He had been very naughty that day, and had been punished, and was feeling the service of the devil to be hard, and was longing to know what real happiness and peace were! While waiting for the address—for there was to be an address in the school that afternoon—
E. thought, "The Bible says God answers prayer: why not ask Him to send some word to me this very afternoon?”
Acting upon the thought, he leant forward and prayed earnestly for salvation that afternoon. He sat during the address anxiously waiting for and expecting some word which would bring peace to his troubled heart, but none came! Now, instead of believing what God says of all the work for salvation being done by Christ, he was looking for something which should change his heart and give him rest.
The address was finished, and E. remained very wretched. Some of the school remained to pray, and then any who really desired salvation were asked to signify that they wished to be prayed for. E. longed to do so then, but the fear of what those around him might say prevented him.
The meeting was over, and the Tempter began to fill E.'s mind with hard thoughts of God, saying to him, "You will never be saved. You asked God to save you this afternoon, and He says He answers prayer, but He hasn't answered yours, so you may just as well give up all thoughts of it!”
While these thoughts were passing through his mind Mr. M, who had addressed the school, came up, and said to E., You are Christ's, are you not? "E.'s only answer could be" No." Mr. M. then drew him aside to a seat, saying," I thought you were a Christian. Tell me, do you believe you are a sinner, and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down here on earth and died for sinners? "All this poor E. did believe, and then Mr. M. said to him," What is to prevent your being saved NOW?”
At once the light from God flashed in on E.'s soul; the Holy Spirit opened his heart to receive what God says, and he saw there was indeed no reason why he should not be saved. Christ had done everything: he had only to accept Christ and to thank God. He knew that Jesus was his Saviour, who once was dead, but is now alive again-that there was nothing left for him to do but to thank and praise the Lord who had died for him.
Some time has passed by since that happy Sunday afternoon, and since that time E. has only found how faithful Jesus is.
Dear reader, listen to this simple story of that happy Sunday afternoon when God brought to Himself the writer of this story.
E—r. H.
Bible Lessons for the Little Ones
(Read Matt. 8:23-28; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-26.)
IT was in the city of Capernaum, which you can find in the map on the western shore of the sea of Galilee, that the Lord Jesus had done so many gracious works of power during that day of which we were reading a little while ago. You remember how He healed the beloved servant of the Roman captain by His word, without seeing or touching him, and how, when He came into Peter's house, where his wife's mother lay very ill, He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then I am sure you have not forgotten what happened at sunset on that day, when so many sick people, and people over whom Satan had gained dreadful power, were brought to the Lord, and healed every one.
We cannot wonder that all the people ran together, and crowded round to see such wonderful things. When the Lord saw the great crowd, He told His disciples that He would like to pass over to the other side of the lake; so they took Him, just as He was, in the ship. We do not know what boat this was; but there was a little ship in which the Lord and His disciples had before crossed the water, and in which Jesus had sat while He taught the crowds of people who stood on the shore listening to Him. Other little ships were with this one, as they set out on their voyage, but they may have parted company during the night, for we only hear of the one in which Jesus and His disciples were going across the lake.
Have you ever been out in a small boat when the waves have been rising all round her, and the boat, which seemed so strong and safe while it was calm, tossing like a cork, up and down, backwards and forwards, on the deep, deep sea? If you have, you will know a little how the disciples were tossed about that night, in their boat on the lake of Galilee.
When they pushed off from the shore perhaps the lovely light of the sunset was still falling upon the water, and the little waves were murmuring softly as the boat glided through them. But, as night came on, all was changed. Storms come very suddenly upon that lake. The winds gather among the mountains, and then sweep down and make the water, which had been before so gentle, rise in angry waves. So it was on this night. There came down a storm of wind on the lake; the boat was covered with the waves, and they leaped up the sides, and beat into it, until it was filled with water. Would not you have been afraid if you had been there? I am sure you would, for strong men that night were trembling and crying out for fear. You know the verse which says—
"And all but One were sore afraid
Of sinking in the deep—
His head was on a pillow laid,
And He was fast asleep.”
You know that that One who slept a quiet sleep while the wind and water raged around Him was the Lord Jesus, the One who had made them, and was their Lord. A little while before, He had said to a man who wished to come with Him, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man path not where to lay His head," and now that head, so often weary, was laid down upon the cushion of the boat, and Jesus slept.
The disciples used often to ask the Lord to help them, and so now that they were, as they thought, in such danger, they turned to Him at once, and, with a cry they awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us: we perish." And again they cried in their fear, "Master, Master! carest thou not that we perish?”
I once knew a little boy of nine years old, who was surprised that the disciples should have been in such fear, and should have thought they were perishing. When he was reading about it, he stopped and looked up, and said, wonderingly, "But their boat couldn't sink with Him in it." That was true, and it is a beautiful thing to know that we never can be anything but safe with the Lord Jesus. With Him in the boat, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, and the rest were just as safe in that night of storm as they were after the angry waters had sunk to rest, hushed to stillness by His word.
I want you to notice those three words which Christ spoke to the sea. He rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, "Peace; be still!" Just the very moment when He spoke those words, a wonderful change came. The wind did not blow less loudly, and the sea grow a little quieter, as it does when we say that the tempest is over; but the wind ceased, and there was a great calm, and all at once, in perfect quiet, the little boat lay at rest upon the lake. All the tossing was over, and all the fear of perishing was taken from the hearts of the disciples. After a storm is quite over, it is a long time, sometimes more than a day and night, before the water is quiet again, but this storm changed into a great calm at once.
The Lord Jesus was sorry that the disciples whom He loved so much, and who had been with Him all the day before seeing His wonderful works, had not understood yet that they might trust Him. While they looked at one another and said, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" and while the sight of His power filled them with fear, He said to them, “Why are ye fearful, ye of little faith?” He did not say they had no faith, for He knew where to find, deep in their hearts, that faith in Him which God had given them, and so He asked them again," Where is your faith? "The Lord may often ask the same question now to those whom He has taught to trust Him, but who, when some great storm of trouble comes, forget that He is with them in the storm and darkness, and cry out for fear, instead of waiting until He rises to say," Peace; be still!”