“I put a New Testament among your books for the very same reasons and with the very same hopes that made me write an easy account of it for you when you were a little child.  Because it is the best book that ever was or ever will be in the world.  And because it teaches you the best lessons by which any human creature who tries to be truthful and faithful to duty can possibly be guided.  As your brothers have gone away, one by one, I have written to each such words as I am now writing to you and have entreated them all to guide themselves by this book, putting aside the interpretations and inventions of men.  Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying your own private prayers, night and morning.  I have never abandoned it myself, and I know the comfort of it.”

Now that we are done reading this letter it does not sound like advice at all, does it.  It is all so wholesome and sturdy that we feel like speaking right out loud, “Thank you, Mr. Dickens, thank you very much.”

MEMORY VERSE, Psalm 119:  9

    “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways?  By taking heed
    thereto according to thy word.”

MEMORY HYMN [205]

    "Lamp of our feet."

IF I WERE A BOY AGAIN

Chicago University, one of the great schools of America and the world, received its impetus from the tireless energy and brilliant leadership of its great President, Dr. Harper.  After his death there was found among his papers a memorandum which read as follows: 

“If I were a boy again I would strive to find out from goods books how good men lived.

“If I were a boy again I would study the Bible even more than I did.  I would make it a mental companion.  The Bible is a necessity for every boy.

“If I were a boy again I would more and more cultivate the company of those older whose graces of person and mind would help me on in my good work.  I would always seek good company.

“If I were a boy again I would study the life and character of our Saviour, persistently, that I might become more and more like unto him.”

Now President Harper was a great, wise and good man.  If he felt that he would do certain things were he a boy again, surely the rest of us could improve upon our boyhood years had we the chance.

If I were a boy again I would be more attentive to Church and Sunday School and the things that were taught me there.  If I were a boy again I would get my day school lessons with greater care.  If I were a boy again I would be more obedient to and more thoughtful of my parents.

Why should I talk like this, for I cannot be a boy again?  But you boys have your boyhood.  It is a present reality.  Let President Harper teach you.  Be the boy he pictures.

MEMORY VERSE, Psalm 103:  1-5

    “Bless the Lord, O my soul ... who satisfieth thy mouth with good
    things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”