Part 1
Transcriber's notes: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
[Illustration]
Chats with Children
[Illustration]
AMY LE FEUVRE
Bishop Taylor Smith, the Evangelical British Chaplain-General, said: "Miss LE FEUVRE'S books need no introduction, they are always INSPIRING."
Books by
Amy le Feuvre
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PROBABLE SONS. HEATHER'S MISTRESS. TEDDY'S BUTTON. DWELL DEEP. DREAMIKINS. THE CARVED CUPBOARD. ERIC'S GOOD NEWS. A LITTLE LISTENER. A PUZZLING PAIR. A DAUGHTER OF THE SEA. THE DISCOVERY OF DAMARIS. CHILDREN OF THE CRESCENT. US, AND OUR CHARGE. MISS LAVENDER'S BOY. HAREBELL'S FRIEND. A THOUGHTLESS SEVEN. ON THE EDGE OF A MOOR. DICKY'S BROTHER. And many others.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CHAT I. Photo: Wallace, Sidmouth. "A Lovely Old Garden." _Frontispiece._]
Chats with
Children
or
Pearls for Young People
Strung from the Word of Truth
By
Amy le Feuvre
Author of "Probable Sons," "Teddy's Button," "Eric's Good News," etc.
WITH FOUR COLOURED AND EIGHT BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration]
PICKERING & INGLIS
14 PATERNOSTER ROW 229 BOTHWELL STREET LONDON, E.C.4 GLASGOW, C.2
And most Booksellers and Colporteurs
Made and Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS
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CHAT I. Outside and Inside
CHAT II. We are His Workmanship
CHAT III. The Way to Heaven
CHAT IV. A Knock at the Door
CHAT V. How to Tackle Giants
CHAT VI. A Free Gift
CHAT VII. To Be Ready
CHAT VIII. The Unknown Visitor
CHAT IX. Our Inheritance
The City Bright
Stories Illustrating Chats
Guide to Illustrations
Key to Bible Quotations
ILLUSTRATIONS
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Illustrations in Colour
THE POTTER'S WHEEL
A MEASURE OF MEAL
SELLING SPARROWS IN TEMPLE
WASHING FEET
Illustrations in Black and White
CHAT I. A LOVELY OLD GARDEN. Frontispiece.
CHAT I. AN INVALID BOY
CHAT II. A REAL TOY BOAT
CHAT II. GATHERING FRUIT
CHAT III. CHILDREN AND PET DOG
CHAT III. LOST BOY AND POLICEMAN
CHAT V. RAILWAY TRAIN AND STATION
CHAT VII. THINK ABOUT IT SERIOUSLY
Pictures for Painting
ARE PRINTED ON THE BACK OF BLACK PRINT.
Pictures to Paint—1. WHAT BIBLE SCENE IS THIS?
Pictures to Paint—2. WHAT BIBLE SCENE IS THIS?
Pictures to Paint—3. WHAT DOES THIS REPRESENT?
Pictures to Paint—4. WHO ARE THESE TWO PERSONS?
Pictures to Paint—5. WHAT BIBLE SCENE IS THIS?
Pictures to Paint—6. WHAT GREAT EVENT IS THIS?
Pictures to Paint—7. WHAT NEW TESTAMENT SCENE IS THIS?
[Illustration: CHAT I. "If your Body Is Hurt or Ill."]
[Illustration: Pictures to Paint—1. WHAT BIBLE SCENE IS THIS?]
CHATS WITH
CHILDREN
BY AMY LE FEUVRE
CHAT I
———
"Outside and Inside"
"Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16.7)
CHAT I
"Outside and Inside"
"Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16.7)
OUTSIDE and inside. How different they are! I remember a very ugly looking house, which I used to love as a little girl. It faced the street, with straight rows of windows, bare and square, and not a creeper or flower to be seen. But inside, what a delicious comfortable house it was! And a lovely old garden behind, hidden and surrounded by high walls. All the flowers, all the beautiful china and pictures, and pretty old-fashioned furniture were to be seen after you entered it, and not before. I have seen many pretty looking houses since, some quite charming with their gabled windows and creeper clad walls, yet some of them inside, are damp and ugly and uncomfortable.
When you go to a bookseller's to choose yourself a book do you choose it for its cover, or for the story inside? Some of the dryest dullest books have the most handsome binding, and some of the most thrilling stories are wrapped up in a very poor cover.
Which do you value most, the envelope, or the letter inside? Your purse, or the money that is in it? Do you like best the shell of a nut, or the kernel inside? Which is most important, the case of a clock or watch, or the works inside? Do you like the outside of your chocolate box best, or the chocolates inside?
Outside and inside! Nearly always the inside of a thing is the thing that matters. The outside is a mere case or covering for the treasure within.
So it is with us. We are so apt to judge people by the outside look of them. It is one of the pathetic facts in life, that pretty children, and beautiful girls, and handsome boys, get most love from the world around them. And yet their souls inside may not be nearly so beautiful as plain featured children. A crooked body may contain a lovely soul. A lovely body may contain a crooked and distorted soul. Outside and inside—how different they may be. Our verse says:
"Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
I want you to sit still for a few minutes and think about this. You have your outside, and your inside. Your body and your soul. Your body is simply a case for your soul, to be the means of moving and thinking and talking and acting as your soul desires. I am not going to confuse you by talking about your mind, or intellect, or spirit. We are composed of soul and body. Our souls are the only part of us that matters, for they can never die; our body may wear out, and die, drop away from us like an old garment, but our souls live on. They are the living part of us that God loves and guards, that He sent His only Son to die for, because He wanted them in Heaven above.
A great many people care for your body. Your parents rightly try to keep it in health. They send for a doctor if your body is hurt or ill. They feed it, and buy clothes for it. Nearly all the shops in a big town are selling things for your body. It needs a lot of things to keep it well. Food and drink, fires in winter, a soft bed at night for its rest and refreshment. Shelter from storm, shade from great heat.
Some of us take the greatest care of our bodies, but never, never think of the welfare of our souls. Now in these little chats with you, I want to get at your souls, to the inside thinking, loving part of you, to the bit of you that ought to be touching God and living with Him, whilst your bodies are running about and enjoying this beautiful earth.
God thinks most about your souls, or hearts, as they are often called in the Bible.
What kind of a soul have you?
You are taught to take care of your body, to feed it, to clothe it, not to do things which might hurt it. Your parents want your body to grow bigger and stronger every year.
Is your soul growing bigger and stronger too?
Are you feeding it? Does it get hurt or damaged?
Now it may be comparatively easy to take care of our bodies, but it is quite impossible for us to take care of our souls. There is only One Person who made them, and who knows just what they want, and has the right food to give them. This Person you know is God.
We are told that when our bodies die, our spirits or souls return to God who gave them to us. They belong to God. He is the only One who can keep them safely, and make them grow strong and beautiful. We may not all have beautiful bodies, but we can all have beautiful souls, if we hand them over to God to keep.
Is this difficult to do?
Let us talk about it a little.
The Devil wants to get possession of your souls to destroy them. He tries to keep us away from God because he knows that our souls will thrive and blossom into beauty, and be kept in perfect safety if we hand them over to God.
So he employs different means of keeping us far away from God.
He surrounds us with boys and girls who never think about their souls at all, and they persuade us that saying prayers and reading the Bible, and going to Church or Chapel, is all very dull and stupid. We must have a jolly time, and enjoy ourselves, and whatever we do, must never turn "pi," or be a prig.
Then lessons, and games, and treats all follow each other so quickly that we feel we haven't time to think about God.
We are too busy, too occupied, too full of interesting plans and purposes to think about our souls. The Devil takes care to keep us busy. What can we do? Only one thing. Come straight to the Lord Jesus Christ, kneel down in any quiet corner, ask Him when we go to bed at night, and when we get up in the morning to take our soul into His loving keeping.
He will do the rest. He will remind us just in time before we are going to give way to temper, before we're going to tell a lie; He will give us courage to stand up for the right, and to refuse to join in any wrong doing, and He will give us sunshine and happiness in our souls.
We are told that "He is able to keep what is committed to Him."
He will never fail us.
God has loved our souls so much that He sent Christ to save them from the Devil's hold and power. He will wash them in His precious Blood and hold them in His keeping till He calls them to the golden Unseen Land above.
Will you to-day give your soul, your heart to God? May He help you to do so.
[Illustration: CHAT II. "A Real Toy Boat."]
[Illustration: Pictures to Paint—2. WHAT BIBLE SCENE IS THIS?]
CHAT II
———
"His Workmanship"
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2.10)
[Illustration: THE POTTER. Jeremiah 18.2-4.]
CHAT II
"We are His Workmanship"
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2.10)
HAVE you ever made anything? I am sure you have. It may have only been a paper boat, or a doll's frock, but you were very proud of it at the time. Perhaps one of you may have made a real toy boat and taken it down to the pond to sail it. How anxious you were to see if it was a success or a failure! How pleased you were when some grown up person took it into his hand and looked at it, and said, "It does you credit!" Think how busy people are, all over the world, making things—watches, clocks, motors, aeroplanes, guns, books, pictures, machines of all sorts and sizes.
If you talk to them, you will soon find that they are all anxious about one thing, and that is for their work and invention to be a success, to fulfil the purpose for which they made it. They want their watches and clocks to keep good time, their motors and air machines to move swiftly and easily, and not to be failures. They don't want their inventions to lie useless and idle, and what is the good of them if they do that?
Almighty God has made this world and all the wonderful and beautiful things in it, but of all the things that He has made, the most precious in His sight is a human soul. There are a great many of us. Some are black, some are white, some are born in rich circumstances, some in poverty.
Some are strong. Some are weak. But we are all His workmanship, and He made us—each one of us for a purpose.
Ask yourself this question:
For what purpose did God make me? Why did He want me in the world?
This is quite certain. God put you in this world to carry out some work for Him. He made you for it. And He wants you to be a success and not a failure; He wants you to bring Him credit. As the Bible says, you were created for His glory. Have you brought God any glory by your life? Do people want to follow Christ because of you?
Now, does this seem impossible?
Have you a garden? And have you any fruit trees in it? If so, in the autumn you will expect fruit from them. A gardener once said to a lady who was walking round the garden of which he had charge:
"I always have success with my plants. I never keep anything that does not bring me credit. If plants don't flower as they ought, I pitch them away; if my apples won't bear, I root them up."
Ah! How good, and patient, and long-suffering is our Heavenly Father with His plants and fruit trees! What fruit are you bearing for Him? What sweet scented flowers are blossoming on your stalk? Have you been a failure or a success in His garden?
"His workmanship!"
Think of it when you are quarrelling and stamping with rage, when you're sulking, when you're telling untruths, and doing things in secret which you know you ought not to do.
God's workmanship! Did He make me for this? I am not bringing Him credit. I am bringing dishonour upon my Maker. I am like a watch that won't keep time, that is useless, that is no good to anyone.
There are several failures mentioned in the Bible.
There is the case of the "fig tree" that never bore any figs.
There were the "lamps without oil," the lamps that gave no light to the Virgins who held them.
There was the case of a watchman who was blind.
And there were "wells without water."
There are boys and girls now running about and enjoying themselves. Having a good time, and only thinking of pleasing themselves.
They are fruit trees in God's garden. Yet so far they have never brought Him fruit, though He comes again and again so patiently and lovingly, to see if there is any sign or beginning of fruit bearing.
They are lamps made to shine for their Master, but no light comes from them. They are useless.
They are wanted to be watchmen for God, looking out for the coming of their Master, telling others about Him and warning them of danger when it comes. But they see nothing. They are blind.
They are wells. Made by God to contain the Water of Life, and to be the means of refreshing and watering others. But they are dry and empty, or filled with rubbish, choked with refuse—and not a drop of water in them.
God's workmanship! And yet such a failure!
"Well," you say, "I can't help myself. It comes natural to me. I can't be good."
Do you want to be good? To be what God means you to be?
I heard a preacher once say that at the Judgment Day when we shall all have to appear before our Maker, it may be that a picture will be held up before us, a picture of what God meant us to be when He made us and put us in this world. And as we look upon it, and think of what we might have been, and what we have been, we shall be filled with horror, and regret, and remorse. The contrast will condemn us so utterly!
How can we be a success instead of a failure?
If a watch or machine goes wrong, the best thing is to take it back to its maker. He will put it right, even if he has to make it over again.
Dear boys and girls, if you take yourself back to your Maker, and put yourselves in His hands to be made what He wants you to be, He will do it.
The fact is, we were never meant to live a single day in this world without God helping and holding us. The Lord Jesus Christ came to die for our sins, but He also came to show us how to live in this world with God holding our hands.
Kneel down in some quiet corner by yourself, and ask God to take your soul into His keeping and never let you go. You don't know what a difference it will make in your life. You will not be less happy, but much more happy. And He will be able to teach you and show you your work day by day.
And if you do it, you will bring glory instead of dishonour upon the One who made you.
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
[Illustration: CHAT II. "In the Autumn you expect Fruit."]
[Illustration: Pictures to Paint—3. WHAT DOES THIS REPRESENT?]
CHAT III
———
The Way to Heaven
"I am the way . . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14.6)
CHAT III
The Way to Heaven
"I am the way . . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14.6)
JUST suppose one day that you were out for a walk, and you suddenly came upon a road you had never noticed before, and which had a sign-post at the corner of it saying:
"Way to Heaven."
Would you like to walk along it? I think a great many would. Some might say:
"I've been trying to get there all my life, but it's so difficult to find the way to it. And now here it is at last."
Perhaps you would say:
"I should like to feel I was on the way there, but I don't want to arrive there just yet. I mean to get there at last."
I don't think there is a single boy or girl in the world who would not like to feel certain that when they died, they would go to Heaven.
But if we want to get there when we die, we must start going along the road to it while we are alive.
Let us talk a little bit about Heaven.
Little children like it, because it sounds like a happy fairyland to them. Nobody to hurt them or quarrel with them, no darkness, lovely music, white robes, rivers and fruit trees, paths of gold. Nothing to be afraid of, no sickness, no pain, every one full of joy and happiness, lots of little angel children to play with. Who would not like to be there?
When you grow older you will still like to think of such a beautiful Heaven, but you will want to go there to meet your old friends, your parents, your brothers and sisters who have gone before you, and above all, you will want to meet your Saviour whom you have learnt to love.
Do you know the road to Heaven?
So many start out for it, and lose their way.
And I will tell you a secret.
Boys and girls are much nearer the Road when they are small, than when they get bigger.
It is easier to find when you are young, than when you grow up.
Do you remember a little verse in the Bible which says:
"I love them that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find Me."
What has this to do with the road to Heaven?
I will tell you in a few minutes.
Just before the Lord Jesus died He told His disciples He was going away from them to prepare a Place for them in God's House which is Heaven. He said: "You know where I am going, and you know the Way."
Thomas, one of the disciples, said in a puzzled sort of way:
"But we don't know where You are going, and how can we know the Way?"
Then Jesus said:
"I am the Way...no man cometh unto the Father but by Me."
He had told them this over and over again, but they did not seem to understand.
Just like us. So few people understand it.
Jesus had told them once before:
"I am the Door. By Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved."
So if the Lord Jesus is the Door into Heaven, and if He is the Way to Heaven, we have got to find Him, and He will take us safely into His Father's House.
How can we find Him?
I met a tiny boy once trotting along a busy street. He had no hat on, and was only about three years old. Suddenly a big dog sprang playfully on him. He screamed in terror and fled. I took him up in my arms, and he put his little arms round my neck and clung tightly to me.
"Take me home! Take me home!" he cried.
But he couldn't tell me where his home was, and I did not know. I put him down on the path again, when the dog was out of sight, hoping he would trot in the right direction. I asked several people if they knew him. No one did. I walked up one road with him and then another; and was afraid I would have to take him to the Police Station, when suddenly a young woman met us. She had come from his home, and was looking everywhere for him. I gave him into her charge, and he went away quite happily. I had tried to help him, but I was unable to do so. I could only hand him over to the one who knew the way.
The Lord Jesus Christ is always looking for boys and girls. They may ask grown up people, teachers, and preachers to help them, but they cannot take them to Heaven, they can only hand them over, as I did, to the One who is looking for them.
Jesus Christ is close to you. He came down to this world to be the Door from earth to Heaven. He died to open that Door wide to every one who comes to Him and trusts Him.
Will you come to Him to-day just as you are, and ask Him to take you by the hand and never leave go of you till you have arrived inside Heaven? He will do it. He has said: "Those that seek Me early shall find Me." "No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."
[Illustration: CHAT III. "A Big Dog."]
[Illustration: Pictures to Paint—4. WHO ARE THESE TWO PERSONS?]
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Way to Heaven.
Have you ever read the "Pilgrim's Progress?" Do you remember how safe Christiana and her children were when they had Mr. Greatheart walking in front of them to defend them from all dangers, and keep them in the right path to the Golden City?
I always felt so sorry for Christian because he had no Mr. Greatheart. We all have our Mr. Greatheart. It is the Lord Jesus Himself. He goes before us and leads us by the hand. It will be easy walking with Him. We shall be happy and safe. Oh, dear boys and girls, do come to Him; do take Him for your Mr. Greatheart. Do trust yourselves body and soul into His loving keeping.
Then you may be sure that you have found the Way to Heaven, and are walking in it.
CHAT IV
———
A Knock at the Door