Jack Mason, the Old Sailor | Page 7

have been built a very
long time. I hardly know how long, but it was a great while before
Christ was born.
I went to the top of the largest pyramid, and went all over it. It was one
of the strangest things I ever saw. Some people think that the pyramids
were built to bury kings in, when they died. If they were not built for
that, I am sure I cannot tell what they were built for.
There is another odd thing in that country, not far from the pyramids. It
is called a Sphinx. I know you will say that the name must be as odd as
the thing is itself. Well, it is odd, sure enough. The Sphinx is a very
large rock, made to look just like a lion with a man's head. It is as large
as the house I live in. There is nothing but the head out of the ground. It
was all out of the ground once, when it was first made, but the sand has
now covered up that part which looks like a lion.
A great while ago, people used to call such things as these gods. They

used to pray to the Sphinx, just as if it was a god--just as if it could hear
anybody pray, the same as God does.
[Illustration]

THE WHIRLPOOL.
You have seen little whirlpools in the brook, I suppose. I once saw a
very large one, a great deal larger than any you ever saw in the brook. It
was in the North Sea. This whirlpool does mischief sometimes. When
vessels happen to get on the edge of it, they begin to go round and
round, all the time coming near the middle of the whirlpool. When the
captain of the vessel knows that he is in the whirlpool, he can get his
vessel out, if it has just begun to go round. But after it has been in a
while, he cannot get out. The vessel keeps going round and round. The
people on board hear the roar of the whirlpool. It is too late to get away.
By and by, the water draws the vessel down. It is dashed to pieces, and
all who were in it are lost!
I have known little boys and girls get into a whirlpool, too; a different
kind of a whirlpool, to be sure, but a great deal worse than this one in
the North Sea. I mean the whirlpool of sin. When they first began to be
wicked--when they first began to go round in the whirlpool--they went
round very slowly. They could very easily have got out then, if they
had tried, and if they had prayed to God to help them. But they did not
try. So they kept growing worse and worse. They went round swifter
and swifter. By and by, they got so far into the whirlpool that they
could not get out. It was too late. They were lost--dashed to pieces on
the rocks, in the whirlpool of sin!
Little boy! little girl! take care that you do not venture even to the edge
of this whirlpool. Give your heart to God, while you are young, and
pray to him to keep you from sin, and to lead you to heaven.

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