BOYS OF THE BIBLE. 287

Then all the happy children,
Did call and coax and cry,
Each to his own mud sparrow
“Fly as I bid you! fly!”—

But earthen were the sparrows,
And earth they did remain,
Except the one bird only
The little Christ had made.

Softly he leaned and whispered.
“Fly up to heaven, fly!” —

And swift his little sparrow
Went soaring to the sky.

And silent all the children,
Stood awe-struck looking on,

*Till deep into the heavens
The bird of earth had gone.

I like to think for playmate,
We have the Lord-Christ still,
And that above our weakness
He works his mighty will.

That all our little playthings,
Of earthen hopes and joys,
Shall be by His commandment

Changed into heavenly toys.

Our souls are like the sparrows,
Imprisoned in the clay:—

Bless Him who came to give them wings
To soar to heaven’s bright day.

If we call to mind the words of Jesus, spoken in after
years, the matchless parables he uttered, we shall be able to
see what kind of an observing boy he was.

Almost all those parable-sermons take us back to his
early, happy days in Nazareth. How he loved the flocks
and fields, how he pitied the wandering sheep, and perhaps
went many a time with some gentle Nazarene shepherd in
search of the lost sheep and bleating lambs that had escaped