Chapter I: A Ticket for Each

"COME along, Auntie! The tea will not be in for a few minutes, and the fire is bright and the curtains are drawn. Just sit down and give us a twilight talk. It is New Year's day, and of course we want something to help us on our way."

Their Aunt smiled. She had come to stay with them for a long visit. The four gathered round her knew that she had passed through deep trials, and they also knew that she had come out of them nearer to the Celestial City, like "Christian" from "The Slough of Despond."

They did not guess that their love and sympathy helped her very much too.

"Well!" she said, brightly, "I was thinking this morning about God's promises, and I made up my mind to take one each day this year to live upon!"

"How do you mean?" asked Rose.

"Every morning to take some distinct promise, or assurance, out of the Bible, and think about it whenever I could, and remind God of it whenever I was in any difficulty. I'm going to call it my ticket!"

"Your 'ticket,' Auntie?" said Oswald, affectionately. "I do not believe you want a ticket to get into God's presence. Is that what you mean?"

The others smiled, and Aunt Ruth laughed a little.

"Well—it's just as well to have a ticket! The other day, do you remember? I went to a large concert. Inside was light and music, and friends; outside was cold, dull weather, and policemen and hall-keepers jealously guarding the way.

"I was glad to have a ticket then, I can tell you; and it struck me this morning that there is nothing Satan likes better than to say, as those hall-keepers did: 'This is not the way! Where's your ticket?'"

"And how is that like God's promises?" said Tom, bluntly.

"Like this. In God's presence is light and warmth and music. Satan would keep us outside; but when we can say to him 'God said so,' he has not a word to answer, and is obliged to let us pass!"

"I see!" said Tom.

"Let us all try this year to have a promise, or an assurance, every morning. I am sure it will bring happiness."

"Have you got one for to-day?" asked Jean, shyly.

"Yes," said Aunt Ruth, looking up. "It is 'Certainly I will be with thee.'"

"That's a ticket to a very good seat!" said Oswald, with his eyes shining. "I think your 'tickets' are a good idea, Auntie. We'll each see if we can't get some for ourselves."

"But are the promises always applicable?" asked Rose.

"I think I may say I have always found them so," said Aunt Ruth, "for when by a promise we get into God's presence, it is wonderful what a feast He spreads for us, 'enough and to spare'; worth all the trouble of getting in."

"Is it easy to find promises?" asked Tom, "For I should never know where to look."

"You would soon get used to it, especially as there are quite 30,000 promises in the Bible."

"Are there, Auntie?"

"Yes. Did you never hear the story of the old woman who put T.P. on pretty nearly every page of her Bible? Some one asked her what T. P. meant, and she said, with great satisfaction—'T. P., Tried and Proved. I've tried and proved every one of those promises, and found God faithful!'"

"I like that!" said Oswald. "Now let's get a promise each for to-day!"

"How would you like to have the same as mine?" said Aunt Ruth, "And to-morrow you can each get a fresh one for yourselves?"

This met with great approval, and Jean wrote on a strip of paper and slipped it into her Bible—

"Certainly I will be with thee!"