CALENDAR FOR THE MONTH

Daily Bible Reading……… June 1st, Isaiah, chap. 22.
Memory Work………………… Galatians, chap. 1.
Good Reading………….. C. H. M. on Genesis, 100 pp.

Please note the Calendar given above. Our daily reading, a chapter a day, begins with Isaiah, chap. 22, on June 1st., and therefore on the last of the month will have reached chap. 51. Let us try to "keep step."

Memorizing is one of the best ways of improving the mind, and nothing is worth storing up as much as God's word. Probably you already have been doing some work of this kind, and know its value. But there are many who may be glad to unite with us in learning the entire Epistle to the Galatians, at the rate of a chapter a month. Begin promptly, and persevere until you have the whole first chapter in your mind. We won't have to do much urging after that. Better make it a verse a day, till the whole chapter is learned, and then some of you get together, and hear one another recite it. A little pocket-sized copy of the Epistle would make a nice prize. They can be had, bound up with a few other epistles. Let us hear how you succeed.

The next item on the Calendar is Good Reading. Have you ever read C. H. M.'s Notes on the Pentateuch ? If you have, all right ; I know you like them. But if you have not, let us begin June with a few pages. A little over three pages a day, hardly five minutes' work, will cover the 100 pages, which is our monthly allowance. It has been many years since I read it, and it made the Bible a new book to me. I expect to read it again with you, and we will pray for one another as we do it.

Do You Keep a Note Book ?

A note book is one of the best companions we can have. We can make it a sort of journal or diary, or we can simply use it to jot down all sorts of things- thoughts on our daily chapter or memory verses; outlines of addresses, or studies of our Sunday-school lesson. We can write out interesting accounts of conversions, etc. We can put down the names of those for whom we are praying, and note when the answers come. Do not try to make your note book too prim and systematic, but treat it like an old friend to whom you can tell anything. When you have filled one book, get another. They make interesting reading in later years. Carry your book with you in pocket or bag, and use a fountain pen preferably.

"Take Care of Him "

The Good Samaritan was not content with binding up the wounds of the man who had fallen among thieves. He brought him where he would be cared for. Are we like Him ? Or do we say, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " One of the saddest things is to see a young Christian drift. But it is equally sad to see others let him drift. You may say he or she is " not in your set," whatever that may mean; you may say they were not congenial, or that you didn't have time to look after them. But what will the Lord say if we do not take care of one another ? A story is told of two travelers who were overtaken by a dreadful snow-storm. For a while they pressed bravely alone, but gradually the cold began to deaden their feelings, and to lure them to that slumber from which there is no waking in this world. One of them saw the danger of his companion, and began to use all his efforts to arouse him, with happy success. But not only was the friend preserved, the one who had busied himself about him was also fully aroused. We cannot help others without being helped ourselves.

Summer-time

We are near the most delightful season of the year. No need to hurry indoors for fear of the cold; no early nightfall, but the long gloaming, inviting to pleasant walks, and all kinds of attractive things. Then there is the vacation, two weeks for the workers, and all summer for the school-folks. What are we going to do with our summer? I am hoping it is going to be a very enjoyable and healthful one. Some people get colder, as the weather gets warmer. Strange paradox, but true-not for you, I hope. If we begin to neglect the little routine duties, if we let it get too warm to go to meetings, beware!-we are getting cold. If we are not so careful where we go, with whom we associate, we are falling prey to summer-time diseases, which will leave their mark upon us after the bracing winter weather comes on. Summer-time is the best season for pen-air work-giving out tracts, attending open-air meetings, etc. Once we are happily engaged with these, there need be little fear of dull times. May your summer be a happy and useful one.

Team Work

A team of horses must pull together if their full strength is to be utilized. Did you ever see a team trying to start a heavy load ? First one pulls, and then the other. Finally the driver, by quiet control, a word to one horse that is holding back, a check on another that is plunging forward, gets them to pull together, and the load is drawn with ease. That is team work. Many a game of ball has been lost through lack of team work. The side with the strongest individual players may go down before the others who work unitedly under a recognized leader, and for the common end. Now if this is true in earthly things, it holds good equally in spiritual. We are members one of another, and members of the body of Christ. Therefore we are to work together, under our blessed Leader.

How?

Regular attendance at the meetings is one of the elementary kinds of team work. Did you ever attend a prayer meeting where, maybe, fifteen were present out of the hundred or more whose regular place of meeting it was ? Were all the absentees sick, or detained by important business, or household duties? Where were many of the young people ? It may be we would hear in explanation that this or that one "never attends the week meetings"-they are "dull" or "dry." Perhaps the voice of the young brothers is never heard in public prayer. Perhaps they never ask a question in the Bible Class or Reading Meeting. All this is lack of team work, and we need not be surprised if the state of the meeting reflects it.

The same truth applies in the Bible Class for the young or the Young Peoples' Meeting. Let each one be always present, unless it is out of the question, and each one ready publicly, or privately, to pray or participate. Let the absent ones be visited, not in an uppish way, but in real loving interest, and we will see things move.
In all our work and service let us beware of class distinctions – between young and old, between rich and poor, etc. A rope is made up of many strands, and they do not all begin at the same point; if they did, where would the rope be? Let us be "fitly joined together " (Did you ever read the little booklet, " Hebich's Tub " ? -if not, get it).

What Can I Do ?

You must ask this question of the proper Person. " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" is the way it is put in the Bible. We cannot put this or that work in someone's hands, and tell them to do that. The one who has saved us is the one who can give us our work. Let us then ask this question of Him.

But there are some hints and suggestions we can give one another, not as rules, but for your consideration. There are first the great private responsibilities -Bible-reading, prayer, self-judgment-things that are needed if we are to walk with God. Then there is the privilege of confessing the Lord before men. If we are long in a company, at work or otherwise, where they do not know that we are children of God, there is something the matter. Let us show our colors, not in an offensive, harsh way, of course, but clearly and unequivocally, and we will have a joy in our hearts that .amply will repay for any rebuff or suffering connected with it.

Coming next to what would be called more exactly " work," there is the steady giving away of tracts. I don't mean the broadcast handing out (which one may sometimes do),but one here and there, perhaps one or two a day, and gradually increasing as you felt enabled. Think of the foreigners all about us-Italians, Poles, and other nationalities. God has brought them to our very doors, it may be that they should be saved through us.

Then isn't there somebody that no one in particular is looking after? Some old person who is very lonely, some sick body who would be much cheered by a visit ?

There is plenty to do, if you really want to do it. But you must not be legal about it, must not be driven to it with the lash of a bad conscience. God wants your love, and your happy service flowing from that. "The love of Christ constraineth us."" Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, Rejoice."

Materials for Young People's Bible Class

First, Some young people, two to twenty in number.

Second, Bibles and note books.

Third, A teacher with a young heart.

Fourth, A convenient room, most any kind.

Fifth, A hunger for the Word.

Sixth, A spirit of reverence.

Seventh, Abiding faith in God.

Do you know where a class is needed ? Why not try to start one, by asking the Lord to lead ? Perhaps there is room for one in your own Sunday-school.

Correspondence