“I hardly know just how to say it,” he began with some hesitation, “but it’s about the school and the new boys I’ll meet there.  I don’t know what sort of fellows they are, and I—­you know, Grandma Elsie, I’m trying to be a Christian, and I—­I’m afraid if they are not the right sort of boys, they—­I might be weak enough to be led wrong as I have been before.”

“Yes, my dear boy, I understand you; you fear you may fall before temptation and so bring dishonor upon your profession.  And doubtless so you will if you trust only in your own strength.  But if, feeling that to be but weakness, you cling closely to Christ, seeking strength and wisdom from Him, He will enable you to stand.

“The apostle says, ‘When I am weak, then am I strong,’ and the promise is, ’God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.’”

“Thank you, Grandma Elsie; I’ll try to do it,” he said thoughtfully.  “I’m glad that promise is in the Bible.”

“Yes; it has often been a comfort to me,” she said, “as which of His great and precious promises has not?  Max, my dear boy, never be ashamed or afraid to show your colors; stand up for Jesus always, whether at home or abroad, in the company of His friends or His foes.

“The acknowledgment that you are His follower, bound to obey His commands, may expose you to ridicule, scorn, and contempt; but if you are a good soldier of Jesus Christ, you will bear all that and more rather than deny Him.”

“Oh, Grandma Elsie! could I ever do that?” he exclaimed with emotion.

“Peter did, you remember, though he had been so sure before the temptation came that he would rather die with his Master than deny Him.”

“My father’s son ought to be very brave,” remarked Max after a moment’s thoughtful silence, half unconsciously thinking aloud.  “I am quite sure papa would face death any time rather than desert his colors, whether for God or his country.”

Elsie smiled kindly, approvingly upon the boy.  It pleased her well to see how proud and fond he was of his father; how thoroughly he believed in him as the personification of all that was good and great and noble.

“I’m not nearly so brave,” Max went on; “but, as papa says, the promises are mine just as much as his, and neither of us can stand except in the strength that God gives to those that look to Him for help in every hour of temptation.

“Besides, Grandma Elsie, I’ll not have death to fear as Peter had.  Yet I’m not sure that it isn’t as hard, sometimes, to stand up against ridicule.”

“Yes; I believe some do find it so; many a man or boy has been found, in the hour of trial, so lacking in true moral courage—­which is courage of the highest kind—­as to choose to throw away his own life or that of another rather than risk being jeered at as a coward.  Ah, Max, I hope you will always be brave enough to do right even at the risk of being deemed a coward by such as ’love the praise of men more than the praise of God.’”