GEOGRAPHY FOR THE CHILDREN

I remember reading of a traveller who, about a century ago, climbed with the help of two swarthy Arabs to the top of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in Egypt. This Pyramid rises hundreds of feet above the desert and the view from the top in the morning sunshine must have been magnificent. What impressed the traveller most forcibly, however, was the sharp dividing line between the smiling and verdant valley of the river Nile on the one hand, and on the other hand the brown and barren desert stretching away westwards to the horizon.

This division could not possibly be observed from the low ground of the ups and downs of the desert's edge but, once the height was reached, all was clearly defined. The traveller, who was a Christian believer, remarked on the likeness of this to the dividing line between saved and unsaved persons, those who are alive to God and those who as yet do not know Him as a Saviour-God. Once we climb in our minds and spirits to the height of God's revelation of Himself in Christ Jesus, we trace on the one hand the verdant valley of the river of His grace bringing life, peace and joy to those who dwell on its banks. There is no middle ground, so that on the other hand there are those who refuse the Glad Tidings and remain separated from the happiness of being in the sunshine of God's love, brought to us by and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where do you dwell?

J.C.Evershed