THE LITTLE ONES --Cradle Roll Day --Teaching
A Word of Appreciation to the Parents on the Occasion of Cradle Roll Day.
THE LESSON--That the proper early home training of children for Christ will save future heartaches and anguish.
It is well to make of Cradle Roll Day an occasion of profit and inspiration to the parents of the little ones. Perhaps you don"t get a chance to speak to them very often. Your words to them on this occasion, when a day has been set aside for the special consideration of the children in whom their hearts and hopes are centered, will best serve their purpose if they are directed to make the parents feel sure that you, also, are deeply interested in their little ones.
~~The Talk.~~
"We are delighted today to see so many of our little Cradle Roll boys and girls--and we are just as pleased to look into the faces of their fathers and mothers. Why? Well, just because we want these parents to know that we love their children and that we are grateful to them for coming with them today to observe this happy time together.
"We want these fathers and mothers to know that while we are trying to teach the way of unselfishness and love to these older boys and girls, and while we are waiting for the time to come when these little visitors of today will be old enough to be with us regularly, we are convinced that the home training for seven days in the week is higher and more lasting than an hour of teaching in the Sunday school under the best of teachers. So it is with joy that we know that these parents are beginning with the babyhood of their children to tell them of Him who blessed the little ones and said, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." We are glad we may look forward to the time when we, in the Sunday school, may also have a part in this training.
"Let us hear a little story this morning: Once upon a time a young lad, while idly spending his time in a grove surrounding his eastern home, carved with his knife in the bark of a young birch tree three words which his mother had taught him to say. [As you continue the narrative, draw the small tree and merely indicate the words and the heart next referred to, completing Fig. 104.] The first word had three letters, the second had two letters and the third four letters. And around them he drew a little heart, as his mother had taught him to do. And when he had finished it, he ran away to his play and forgot all about it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 104]
"Years afterward, when he had grown to young manhood, he returned to the home which he had not seen for a long time. As he went once more to the grove, he came upon a birch tree and stopped to look at some words carved upon its bark, with a heart drawn about them. Memory carried him back to the days of his childhood--it was the same tree, grown big and strong, and with it the heart had grown large and the words were there strong and plain. They could not be removed without greatly marring the tree. Here are the heart and the words: [Add lines to revise Fig. 104 to Fig. 105.] As he looked upon the words, they thrilled him with tender emotions as he remembered that it was his mother who had taught him this beautiful sentiment. "If I had written there an unkind word," he reflected, "that, too, would have been as permanent and lasting."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 105]
"And now for the application: We are told that some fathers and mothers, through a false idea of what is of lasting good to their children, permit them, in their inexperience, to learn to do things in a way which will mean sorrow and anguish in the end. Of course, I understand that this could not ever happen to any of these fathers and mothers and these children! The application is for those who aren"t here! If the boy rebels against school, he will bless, in later years, the hand which made his attendance compulsory. If he can see no harm in the use of unkind or offensive words, but is compelled by a loving parent to turn his mind and his speech to lofty things, he will later bless that one who saved him from his error. If, in the years when he has grown through babyhood and childhood to youth, a strong, but gentle, hand bars for him the way which leads to evil companions and bad habits, he will praise and bless that restraining hand when the years of discretion show him how close was his step to the brink of a fatal precipice.
"With the same hand which bars the way to wrong must the parent write the words, "G.o.d is Love," on the heart of each little one. The clear, pure truth cannot be told too often. In after years, as memory brings these children back to your loving arms, back to their little downy beds, they will be comforted with the realization that the words have become so deep-seated that nothing can eradicate them, even after death has closed their eyelids.
"Some one has described the eyes of a child as "clear wells of undefiled thought," and G.o.d forbid that as their eyes are lifted to ours, full of innocence and confidence, we should give them anything but the purest, most helpful truth as Christ reveals it to us. We pledge ourselves earnestly to do this."
THE BURNED BOOK --Patience --Adversity
How Thomas Carlyle"s Work of Many Years Was Destroyed in a Few Seconds.
THE LESSON--That there is such a thing as success through patience, and that the Christian should so live that he may rejoice in his tribulations.
One of the crying needs of every-day life is the cultivation of patience. Modern life, with its hustle and bustle, and the ever-present contest for supremacy in its commercial and social phases, displays a growing unrest and nervousness. Patience is a rare quality which should be treasured and nurtured.
~~The Talk.~~
"Paul once wrote a letter to the church at Rome in which he said, "We glory in tribulations, also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of G.o.d is shed abroad in our hearts."
"But we"re not all like Paul. If we had been saying it, we might have put it this way: "We despair that we have tribulation, knowing that tribulations work impatience, and impatience discouragement, and discouragement makes us feel sure that G.o.d doesn"t care for us."
Nevertheless, just the opposite is true, for we know that "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth."
"Everybody has trouble. It comes to all of us in many forms. Ofttimes it is a blessing in disguise. If it were not so, we would not find so many of G.o.d"s people afflicted in the ways which the Scriptures describe. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and all of the great leaders of the New Testament, as well as of the Old, had their deep troubles and sorrows. And it is so today with G.o.d"s people.
"Patience is a virtue of which the poets sing. "How poor are they,"
says Shakespeare, "that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" And Milton said:
""Patience is more oft the exercise Of saints, the trial of their fort.i.tude."
"So, let us try always to understand, in the midst of seeming great trouble, that sorrow and trial have their place in our lives. Whether they are for good or for bad depends largely upon ourselves.
"I want to tell you the tragedy of a book--a great book. We all know of Thomas Carlyle"s great work, "The French Revolution." Of this wonderful production it has been said that "It is a history of the French Revolution and the poetry of it, both in one; and, on the whole, no work of greater genius, either historical or poetical, has been produced in England." I wonder if we have all heard of the tragedy of this great book and the sorrow which came to its author?
"One day, after Mr. Carlyle had finished the ma.n.u.script of the first volume of the work, completing the labors of months and years, and when he felt at last the relief which had tied his hands and his mind through this long period, he loaned the work to his close friend, John Stuart Mill. Before Mr. Mill had finished reading the ma.n.u.script, and as it lay scattered about his study, his servant girl, thinking the pages were nothing but waste paper, gathered them up and stuffed them into her kitchen fire! Thus was the labor of weary, toilsome years destroyed in a few moments. On his discovering the awful state of affairs, it was Mr. Mill"s duty to go to Mr. Carlyle"s home and break the news to him. Mr. Carlyle tells of the interview in these words: "How well do I remember that night when he came to tell Mrs. Carlyle and me, pale as Hector"s ghost, that my unfortunate first volume was burned. It was like a half sentence of death to both of us. We had to pretend to take it lightly, so dismal and ghastly was its horror!"
"If the description of the scene were to end here, I am sure that some of us would see only the darkest, gloomiest side. Let us make a sketch to ill.u.s.trate this condition. [Draw Fig. 106 complete.] But the description does not stop here. Carlyle goes on to tell how, with the sympathy of his wife, he began anew the great task, and, although it was, as he says, a "job" that nearly broke his heart, the result was a work superior in every way to his original effort, and he lived to rejoice in what he once considered to be a disastrous misfortune. He received ample reward for his overmastering patience!
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 106]
""If thou faint in the day of adversity," says the Psalmist, "thy strength is small." Remember this: _Every shadow has a light behind it!_ It is toward that light that the discouraged one must turn his face. Look up, not down! [Add lines to complete Fig. 107; the hair covers the face of Fig. 106.] No man ever saw the highest success who "looked down his nose" when trial came. Look up--like the man in the picture!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 107]
THE MAN WHO FINALLY HEARD --Kind Words --The Tongue
The Restoration of His Hearing Brought to Him Pain as Well as Pleasure.
THE LESSON--That we should guard well our tongues against speaking careless, useless or vulgar words.
This ill.u.s.tration is based on the actual experience of an Indiana man. It contains a lesson of such great importance that a chapter of one of the strongest moral epistles of the New Testament is devoted to it. The speaker would do well to study carefully the third chapter of the Epistle of James as a foundation for the preparation of the talk.
~~The Talk.~~
[Before beginning the talk, draw the picture of the man, completing Fig. 108.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 108]
"The face I have here drawn represents the portrait of a certain business man living in an Indiana town. Ever since the time of an illness in childhood this man had been almost totally deaf. For years he tried in vain to secure the aid which would restore to him his hearing, and during all the period of his boyhood and young manhood he could hear only those words which were spoken very distinctly, close to his ear. Sometimes he could hear the thunder and other loud, sharp sounds.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 109]
"Then, one day, came a great change! All at once he could hear almost perfectly. What a great time it was! Once more he heard the songs of the birds as he remembered them when he was a child; the voices of the members of his family and the voices of his friends, new and strange, came to him! What had brought the change? It was merely a new invention, by which a disc containing a diaphragm was placed over his ear. This diaphragm gathered the sound waves, just as the natural ear-drum was intended to do. The disc fitted over his ear, like this: [Add the disc and attachment, as in Fig. 109.] Was he happy? Of course he was--but soon it was noticed by those about him that his gladness seemed to fade away from his face and a kind of sadness took its place. [Add the lines about eye and mouth, completing Fig. 109.]
What was the matter? Some one asked him the question. And this was his answer--listen to it: "I never knew, during those years when I could not hear the sound of people"s voices, that those about me were so unkind to each other!"
""Unkind?"
""Yes," said he; "ever since my hearing was restored I have been surprised and pained and shocked to hear the careless words--the harmful words--which people speak concerning even those they love. I have thought about it a good deal and have made up my mind that the people do not speak these words because they always mean what they say, but because they have grown into the habit of saying unkind things. And the profanity! And the vulgarity! It is dreadful to listen to the language used by many men, and even boys, in their ordinary conversation!"
"The man had spoken a sad, sad truth. How careless we are! Even the best of us speak too many thoughtless, unkind words--words which may affect the entire after life of the one who is the subject of their utterance. And how many there are all about us who blaspheme the name of their Maker!
"All of us are familiar with the words of Shakespeare, who, in "Oth.e.l.lo," causes Iago to say that "he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor, indeed." Our slighting word may rob some one of his good name and leave him poor, indeed; while the kind word which rises to our lips, but remains unspoken, may r.e.t.a.r.d the progress of the person of whom we might have spoken it.