Catharine Shaw

“ It is—to take Jesus to be our Saviour.
To ask Him to wash away our sins; to help us to be pure, and good; to be our light in our darkest hours; to be our joy, our life, and our happiness, if we have taken Him for our own Saviour. ”

“ And you strive and strive for these things, and like the merchant-man, you seek them, as he did his pearls.
And you girls—what do you think most about?
To be a girl-guide? To be top of your class? To be elected "captain" in your school? To be a clever artist, or a good musician?
And then with older people? All the world seems after fame, or riches, or pleasure, more things than I can count; and like the merchant-man, they value them very much.
But one day this merchant-man comes across a man who offers him the most beautiful pearl he has ever seen. ”

“ And for this race, the "looking unto Jesus" is the safety and the joy of it.
Satan loves to tempt us, and at our first failure, perhaps he says, "You will never do it; give it up!"
But Jesus our Saviour says to you, "Do not be discouraged; do not think of Satan, but think of ME. Remember, for the joy that was before ME, I endured to die on the Cross for your sakes, and I am the Author and the Finisher of your faith." ”

“ For Jesus says that when anyone is sorry and comes back to God to be forgiven, the angels in Heaven rejoice!
Jesus tells us of a shepherd in that Eastern land who had a hundred sheep—and everybody who heard Him tell this beautiful parable of the Good Shepherd, would instantly recognize it as true of what happened all around them—of the shepherd, who on counting his sheep at night, might find one of them missing. ”

“ When He saw their faith—the faith of those men who had brought the sick man to Jesus—He said to the poor trembling invalid, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee!"
And then when the people wondered very much at Jesus being able to forgive sins, He showed them His great power, by making the sick man quite well the very next moment. ”

“ If the shepherd is away, and a hired man has to take care of them, the hireling runs away if he hears the roar of a wild beast, or even if he sees a storm coming.
But our Lord Jesus says to us, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." ”

“ Ah, if you do, you have not thought what it is to be in the boat with Jesus!
When He commands, He makes it possible for us to obey. You will find that out, children, the more you love and trust Him.
So they let down the net; and now they enclosed such an immense number of fishes that their net began to break, and they were obliged to beckon to their partners, who were in the other ship, to come and help them.
And they filled both of the ships so full that they began to sink.
Then Simon Peter fell down at the feet of Jesus, and told Him that he felt himself to be too sinful to be near Him. ”

“ But Jesus never turns away because we are sinful; He comforted Simon Peter with the loving words we so often read in the Bible; He said, "Fear not!"
Then Jesus told Simon that he should be a fisher of men; that meant, that he should draw people into the Kingdom of Heaven. ”

“ So when we remember how full of love God is, we can go to Him at any moment, and tell Him what we need. It may be forgiveness; or it may be help in some trouble; or comfort in some disappointment; or ease in some bad pain. Yes, He says, "Ask!"
And when God says, "Seek" and "Knock," He expects you to be looking for an answer. He does not always answer at once; He waits to see if we are in earnest in what we are asking. He says, "Men ought always to pray and not to faint."
Our Lord Jesus tells us a beautiful little story about knocking and asking, in the 11th of Luke, verse 5. ”

“ YOU have heard of the Olympic games which were practised in old times, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and you may have seen pictures of the old ruins of the Colosseum at Rome, with its tiers and tiers of seats all round, so that thousands of people could witness the things that went on in the arena. Some very cruel things; but some, on the other hand, were simply men racing with all their might to receive a great prize. ”

“ This race that we are to run, is to try to please God in our everyday life! And he again reminds us that we must lay aside every weight (like those runners did of old) and the sin that so easily besets us, and we must run with patience the race set before us. ”

“ Children, there comes to us a great choice to-day! Shall we accept the invitation to take the Lord Jesus into our hearts?
If we do, we shall try to please Him, and our lives here will be filled with blessing; and Eternal Life will be ours.
VI. "MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE" JOHN 10.27
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." John 10.27.
THIS is a picture of an Eastern shepherd, leading his sheep on the mountains.
He loves his sheep, he knows every one of them; he leads them, and they follow him. ”

“ WHEN our Lord Jesus was on earth, He did so many kind and loving things, and made so many people well who were sick, that the multitude followed Him about everywhere, so that sometimes Jesus and His disciples had not even time to eat.
One day when He was by the Lake of Gennesaret (which is sometimes called the Sea of Galilee) the people pressed so close to Him that seeing two small ships drawn up on the shore, Jesus entered one of these, and asked the owner to put his ship a little way from the land, so that He might speak to the people where they all could hear. ”

“ Jesus often went to their home when He was staying at Jerusalem, and they loved Him very much, and He loved them dearly, too.
Only a little time before our Lord Jesus died on the Cross, and while He was some distance away from Bethany, Lazarus was taken very ill, and his sisters sent in haste to Jesus to beg Him to come and heal their brother. ”

“ So to-day, with this sweet prayer in our minds, we can remember that there is a place in the heart of each one of us, which we can keep for Jesus!
We can think of His love to us; we can love Him in return; and worship Him every day we live.
And if we make room for Jesus in our hearts here, we shall find by and by, that He will give us "a crown of glory, that fadeth not away."
II. THE GOOD SAMARITAN [LUKE 10.30]
THERE was once a lonely man walking in Palestine on the long mountainous road between Jerusalem and Jericho. ”

“ The Grapes represent the people all over the world, whom He wants to have in His Heavenly Home.
The Labourers are God's own people, whom He tells to go and get in the harvest.
God calls each one of us who love Him, to be a labourer in His Kingdom.
AN EASTERN PLOUGH
To each one, when the day is ended, the Lord will give us our own reward, and He gives us great promises to encourage us. ”

“ But at length there was a traveller who was making the same journey; and he saw the poor man lying there dying, and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and a great pity filled his heart. So he quickly went to his side, and bound up his wounds ”

“ And when Simon Peter and his partners, James and John, had brought their ships to land, they left everything, and followed Jesus.
And they became, very soon, His three chief disciples; and were privileged to be with Him on the mountain when He was transfigured, and heard God speak from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him."
VIII. THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE LOST SHEEP [LUKE 15.4]
IN this story we have a peep of what happens on earth, and another peep of what happens in Heaven. ”