“Being Loved Back Again.”  Little Alice Lee sat in her rocking chair.  She was clasping a beautiful wax doll to her bosom, and singing sweet lullabies to it.  But every little while she looked wistfully at her mother.  She was busy writing, and had told Alice to keep as quiet as possible till she got through.

It seemed a long time to Alice; but after awhile her mother laid down her pen, and pushed aside her papers, and said:—­“Now I am through for to-day, Alice, and you can make as much noise as you please.”

In a moment Alice laid down her doll, and running to her mother, threw her arms round her neck, and nestled sweetly in her loving bosom.

“I’m so glad,” said Alice, “I wanted to love you so much, mamma.”

“Did you, darling?” and the mother clasped the little one tenderly in her arms.  “I am very glad that my little girl loves me;” replied her mother, “but I thought you were not very lonely while I was writing; you and dollie seemed to be having a good time together.”

“Yes, we had, mamma; but I always get tired of loving dollie after awhile.”

“Do you, dear?  Tell me why?”

“O, because she never loves me back again.”

“And is that why you love me?”

“That is one why, mamma; but not the first one, or the best one.”

“And what is the first, and best?”

“Why, mamma, can’t you guess?” and the little girl’s blue eyes grew very bright, as they gazed earnestly into her mother’s face.  “It’s because you loved me when I was too little to love you back; that’s why I love you so.”

And what a reason this is why we should love Jesus!  He loved us when we were too little to love him back.  The Bible says—­“We love him because he first loved us.”  He loved us before we knew him, or had ever heard of him.  He loved us before we were born.  Before the world was made Jesus thought of you and me, and loved us.  This is what he means when he says:—­“I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Jer. xxxi:  3.  This means a love that never had a beginning, and that will never have an end.  This is very wonderful.  And when we think of it, we may well sing out our thankfulness in the words of the hymn: 

  “I am glad that our Father in heaven
  Tells of his love in the Book he has given;
  Wonderful things in the Bible I see;
  This is the sweetest, that Jesus loves me. 
    I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
    Jesus loves—­even me”

And when we think of all the kind words and actions of Jesus, by which he showed his interest in little children, the first thing that we see in them is—­great love.

Now, let us take another look at this part of our Saviour’s life, and the second thing that we see in it is—­GREAT WISDOM.

It is wise to take care of the children and try to bring them to Jesus when young, because then they are easily controlled.