p. 82 | Keep The Soul on Top

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 16, 1882

Keep The Soul on Top.

LITTLE Bertie Blynn had just finished his dinner. He was in the cozy library, keeping still for a few minutes after eating, according to his mother's rule. She got it from the family doctor, and a good rule it is. He had in his hand two fine apples—a rich red, and a green. His father sat at a window reading a newspaper. Presently he heard the child say:—

"Thank you, little master." Dropping his paper, he said,

"I thought we were alone, Bertie. Who was here just now?"

"Nobody, papa, only you and I."

"Didn't you say just now, 'Thank you, little master?'" The child did not answer at first, but laughed a shy laugh. Soon he said:—

"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me, if I tell you, papa."

"Well, you have just laughed; and why mayn't I?"

"But I mean you'll make fun of me."

"No, I won't make fun of you; but perhaps I'll have fun with you. That will help us digest our roast beef."

"I'll tell you about it, papa. I had eaten my red apple, and wanted to eat the green one too. Just then I remembered something I'd learned in school about eating, and I thought that one big apple was enough. My stomach will be glad if I don't give it the green one to grind. It seemed to me for a minute just as if it said to me, 'Thank you, little master;' but I know I said it myself."

"Bertie, what is it that Miss McLaren has been teaching you about eating?"

"She told us to be careful not to give our stomachs too much food to grind. If we do, she says, it will make bad blood, that will run up into our brains, and make them dull and stupid, so that we can't get our lessons well, and perhaps give us headaches, too. Miss McLaren says that sometimes, when she eats too much of something she likes very much, it seems almost as if her stomach moaned and complained; but when she denies herself, and don't eat too much, it seems as if it was thankful and glad."

"What more did Miss McLaren tell you about this matter?"

"She taught us a verse one day about keeping the soul on top. That wasn't just the word, but it's what it meant."

"Weren't these the words, 'I keep my body under?'"

"Oh, yes! that was it; but it means just the same. If I keep my body under, of course my soul is on top."

"Of course it is, my boy. Keep your soul on top, and you'll belong to the grandest style of man that walks the earth."

Bertie put on his coat and cap, and went away to school. His father took up the apple he had left behind on the table, and put it in his pocket. On his way home, late in the afternoon, he called at Miss McLaren's boarding-house. He gave her the apple, and told her all that Bertie had said.

She could not eat that apple. She wrapped it in rose-colored tissue-paper, and laid it in the drawer where she kept her dainty laces and nicest things. She had worked hard in school that day, and was very tired. At night, when her head was resting on its pillow, the moon looked in through the window, and saw tears of joy dropping on it from a sweet face.—Well Spring.