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The text this electronic edition is based on was published before 1923 and is therefore in the public domain according to U.S. copyright law.
This work is part of the collection "Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America." The copies consulted in the creation of the electronic editions are owned by the Michigan State University Libraries and the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University. The works have been encoded in Tei.2 conformant markup. They are being made publicly accessible as an educational resource.
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A
Reuben Ramsay--Grandfather--The looking-glass--The unhappy boy--The lady--Helen--Frank and baby--Reuben not wanted--The new friend.
R
"What now, what now, my boy!"
"They--they--they don't want me," cried Reuben.
"Who don't want you?" said grandfather, looking at him through his glasses.
"The boys!" screamed Reuben: "they won't let me play; they call me a cross little rascal, and tell me to go home."
"Not much out of the way either," murmured grandfather, as he took up his paper again. "Nobody's to blame for not wanting you. Go look into the glass, boy, and see if you want yourself."
"Want myself!" thought Reuben, as he
stopped crying, and sat down; "that is queer. What if I
don't,
So Reuben posted into the keeping room,
where there was a long mirror, in which he could see
himself from top to toe. What a sight was here! A face
covered with all manner of dark lines, made of tears which
had been turned out of their course by dirty hands; eyes
that were dark and clear enough when they were made, but
which now looked like two radishes in a glass of muddy
water; a nose that might have gone for another radish,
only
"I'm sure," thought he, "be it
Reuben Ramsay or not,
So
Reuben sat down upon a chair, and covered his face with his
dirty hands, and cried as though his heart would break. He
did not roar and
Now it happened that a lady had been for
several days visiting Reuben's mother. This lady was very
fond of good children; but, somehow, she had never happened
to find out that a little care, and sympathy, and patience,
sometimes makes naughty children good: if she had known it,
no doubt she would have tried, for she was a good-hearted
lady, who loved to see people happy, and she had sense
enough to know that nobody
Mrs.
Ramsay knew that she said nothing about Reuben, but she did
not blame her; nobody but herself made any pretensions to
loving him: even Frank and Helen, though they did not call
him harsh names, always
Reuben knew that he was not beloved, and his
good mother had often told him why; but Reuben, like most
wicked people, thought the blame belonged to others. He
thought that his relatives
"I am a very unhappy boy," Reuben would say to himself; "nobody wants me. The teachers don't want me at school; the boys don't want me to play with them on the green; father don't want me in the store; grandfather don't want me in the library; Frank and Helen don't want me anywhere; mother don't want me in the nursery, because I scare the baby--the baby cries when he sees me; Becky don't want me in the kitchen; and Tom says that the horses kick the minute that I go into the stable."
So thought Reuben, day after
day, and even in the night would the poor boy wake up with
the bitter words on his tongue, "Nobody wants me--nobody
wants me:" but never, till the day on which he looked
into
The little boy was still upon the sofa, crying as though all was lost, when the lady visitor entered the room. Her only object in coming in was to get a book, which she had left there the night before. "That child is for ever crying," thought she, as she took the book, and turned toward the door; but, as she did so, Reuben's sobs (for he did not see her) smote upon her heart. She had never spoken to him, and could not remember his name; but she walked up to the sofa, and said, kindly, "What is the matter, little boy?"
At any other time
Reuben would have turned angrily away; but now
"Not want yourself!" said the lady; "why?"
"Because--because, ma'am, I have seen myself in the looking-glass. I am a bad-looking fellow, and I don't want myself."
The lady looked at
Reuben, and did not much wonder; though she could hardly
help smiling at the idea. She knew, however, that it is a
very important step toward getting a
"Do you
"I do indeed," said the
lady
Our best Helper--Respectable people--Dialogue--The mind's mirror--The new resolve--Christ Jesus once a little boy--Coming to him for help.
D
Children, as well as grown people,
should know that the great God is not far from any of us.
We can
As Reuben passed the mirror a second time, he did not even turn his eye, so afraid was he of seeing that bad-looking boy again.
"I think you had better stop," said the lady, "and see if you don't like yourself better now. It is true that your eyes are red and swollen with crying; but your face is clean, and you are, on the whole, a respectable-looking little boy."
"What
signifies being respectable,"
The lady took
Reuben's hand, and drew him close to her side: "My dear
boy," said she, "if you are truly respectable, people
"But," said Reuben, "you said, just now, that my clean face and hands made me look quite respectable."
"That is true,"
replied the lady; we have a respect for cleanliness, but we
don't want to limit our respect
"I don't feel so much ashamed," said Reuben, "to look at you, now that my face is washed; but still I don't feel happy."
The lady thought a moment, and then said, "When I asked you to wash your hands and face did you think it a foolish request?"
"No, indeed," replied the little boy; "how could I, when they needed washing so much?"
Reuben sat some time without speaking; he then asked the lady if it would not be best for him to go, first of all, to his mother, to tell her that he was at last tired of being a bad boy, and was now beginning, in good earnest, to be better.
"Have you ever done this?" asked the lady.
Reuben thought a moment, and then said that he
had. "It is of no use," continued he, sadly; "I have
promised my mother a great many times that I would try to
be better. Once I told her that I would be good for one
day, and came out of her chamber thinking that I should;
but before I was half way down stairs, I heard Becky
say,
"Well, my
little boy," said the lady, "you need not promise, but you
can try--try in a new way which I will tell you. The Lord
Jesus Christ was once a little boy
"It was very kind of him," said Reuben, wiping his eyes again. "I am sure that Jesus must have been a very good friend to little boys when he lived in this world."
"Ah yes, indeed!" said the lady; "none of us
ever had a better friend.
"You mean
"Yes," replied the lady, "and naughty ones too, or he would not try by his Spirit to make them good, that they might be fit to come and live with him; and you may be sure, my dear boy, that when he sees persons that don't want themselves because they are wicked, he is pleased, and all ready to help them."
"And
"If we want his help enough to ask for
it," said the lady: "if we feel, as the Bible says, that
'without him we can do nothing,' and believe that
"Then," said Reuben, "instead of going to my mother, and telling her that I mean to be good, I must go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask him to help me, when I try."
"Yes, dear," and the lady folded Reuben in her arms, and tenderly kissed his cheek.
The little boy did not venture to promise anything. He felt as all persons feel when they come to see themselves in the mind's mirror, very, very weak. So, when the lady bid him good morning, and was about leaving the room, Reuben caught her hand again, and asked her if she would help him.
"My dear
little boy," said the lady,
"Yes, yes," replied Reuben; "I don't mean help me to be good, but help me to come to Jesus Christ."
"You mean to ask me if I will pray for you, don't you?" said the lady.
"Yes, ma'am, pray for me, that is what I mean," said the little boy.
The lady was now sure that Reuben understood what she had been saying to him; and kissing his cheek again, she promised not to forget his request.
The family party--Unkind words--Adam--Reuben talks with father--Look steadily at the mind's mirror.
S
Several weeks
had now passed away, when one evening Frank and Helen were
playing at jack-straws.
"What is all this?" said the father, looking sternly over his book. "Frank! Helen! leave the room!"
Frank rudely shoved back his chair, his face
crimson with shame and anger, and left the room. Helen
"I am surprised," said Mrs. Ramsay: "it is quite uncommon for Frank and Helen to behave in this way!"
"It seems," replied the father, carelessly, "that they have some of 'old Adam,' after all."
Reuben sighed, and said that he was sorry.
"
Little Reuben felt grieved, and, in spite of himself, the tears came to his eyes. His mother saw them, and said, "Father has forgotten that Reuben is getting to be a good boy."
"Ah!" said Mr. Ramsay, "and so I had. Come here, Reuben, and tell me why you are sorry for Frank and Helen."
Reuben climbed
upon his father's knee, and told him how he had read a
great deal in his Testament lately; and how the Testament
said, that in
Mr. Ramsay was much surprised; but the tears came to the mother's eyes as she asked her little boy what that meant.
"I think it means," said Reuben, "that
Adam sinned against God, and then had a wicked heart. All
of us have wicked hearts, and I suppose that is what father
means by having 'old Adam.' If we don't get tired of these,
and come to Christ, all that is good will die out of our
hearts, and
"And what is that?" asked his father.
The little boy wondered that his father did not know, and asked him if he had never seen himself in that mirror.
"Perhaps so," replied Mr. Ramsay; "but I have forgotten it."
"Then, dear papa," said Reuben, "you never looked in. Nobody could forget that."
His father laughed, and said perhaps everybody
did not see so frightful a looking creature as his little
boy did. "You see, my son," continued Mr. Ramsay, "I have
always meant
"Your father, my son," said Mrs. Ramsay, "has never, knowingly, wronged any man. He was a tolerably good-natured boy, and has grown up to be a very respectable man. The mind's looking-glass must be a great magnifier, if it can make a very bad image from a mind like that."
"Well," said
Reuben, "I am but
"Kept it myself, dear!" said his father; "certainly, why not?"
Reuben thought a moment, and then said, "You
know that God tells us to give
Mr.
Ramsay made no reply to this. One glance into the mind's
mirror told him very plainly, that however good he might
be, he had never kept that commandment. If he had looked a
little longer, he would have seen that by breaking this
first, great commandment, he had broken all; and that in
his
The return--Death's doings--Happy meeting--Christian influence--Christ our Comforter.
Y
Mrs. Ramsay had long believed in Jesus as the resurrection and the life, and she hoped that Frank believed in him too; and the Bible says, "He that believeth in him, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" so Mrs. Ramsay did not mourn for Frank as Helen did.
"But where," said the lady, "is Mr. Ramsay and Reuben?"
"Ah!" replied the mother,
throwing
Reuben soon came
in--a tall, fine-looking boy--and you may be sure he
remembered the lady without an introduction. Children know
how well they love those who have been patient with their
faults, and taught them the way to be good; so I need not
tell them how affectionately Reuben pressed the hand of his
friend, and could hardly leave her side for a single moment
during the evening. A happy evening was that to all but
poor Helen. God had sent this deep affliction upon her,