God has been speaking to us during the past year. Two mothers have gone to their long home, and ten of our children. Let us reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’ 1 Sam. iii. 9.

God speaks to us from the cradle, and the grave.

I. From the cradle, and says,

1. ‘Take this child, and nurse it for me.’ Exod. ii. 9.

2. Pray for it—train it—love it—comfort it.

3. He speaks in a voice of comfort from our cradles to our souls, if we are His people. ‘Mother, can you forget this sucking child? Yea, you may forget, yet will not I forget you.’ Isa. xlix. 15.

Again—Do you comfort your babe—do you soothe its fears? do you wipe its tears? Even so, believing mother, will God comfort you. Isa. lxvi. 13. Yes, even ‘wipe away all tears from your eyes.’

Oh! precious voice from the cradle to your soul!

II. God speaks from the grave—and says,

1. ‘Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayst be no longer steward.’ Luke, xvi. 2.

2. ‘Time is short.’

1 Cor. vii. 29. 1 Pet. iv. 7.

What a little life—gone as a spark!

You may die—your children may die—or Christ may come. Do not say, ‘to-morrow.’ Jam. iv. 13.

3. ‘Be ye also ready.’

Matt. xxiv. 44.4. Your child shall rise again.

‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ John, xi. 25. (See Burial Service.) Jer. xxxi. 16, 17.

If both parent and child are in Christ, what a blessed reunion, for He adds, ‘Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die!’

If it should be the Lord’s will during the coming year again to take many of our little ones from their mothers’ arms, and to lay them in His own bosom, may each sorrowing one amongst us be enabled to say in the spirit of true and loving submission, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’

LONDON:
Printed by John Strangeways, Castle St. Leicester Sq.