~~The Talk.~~
"As we go out upon the street today everybody seems to be happy and full of laughter and good cheer. People who usually pa.s.s us by without speaking at all or who merely nod without as much as a smile, act today as if they knew us very well; they smile real widely and say "Merry Christmas!" just as heartily as they know how, and we respond to the greeting with a "Same to you!" with an inner feeling of friendliness that somehow surprises us. It is a time when nearly every heart is warmed, and we find our greatest joy in seeing how happy we can make other folks. In every home where children are to be found--and there the Christmas spirit is the merriest--we see the stocking all hung in a row, and we are just as anxious to fill them as the owners are to have them filled. [Draw the three stockings, completing Fig. 9.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 9]
"Here they are. And when Susie and Johnnie and little Bob come scrambling downstairs on Christmas morning their eyes sparkle with delight and our hearts warm with Christmas gladness as we join in their merriment.
"But there are other homes. And other stockings--stockings not so warm, not so good--stockings that are darned and patched and worn like this. [With broad side of black crayon change the stockings of Fig. 9 to resemble those of Fig. 10.] In the atmosphere of Christmas joy in our own comfortable homes, do we sometimes over-look the boys and girls in the poorer homes who won"t have much of a Christmas unless we fill these poor, patched little stockings with gifts to show that someone cares? I don"t believe there is a boy or a girl here who is selfish enough to refuse to do such a little thing to bring a glad Christmas into a poor home. All we need is to be told where to go and what to do. [Doubtless you will have planned a way for the children to give remembrances to the poor; this may be presented in a word at this time, reserving the details for the close.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 10]
""At Christmastide the open hand Scatters its bounties o"er sea and land; And none are left to grieve alone, For Love is Heaven and claims its own."
"Truly, the Christmas spirit is upon us today. But stop--! Will it vanish tomorrow? Will we forget to be kind to those about us next week, next month, next summer? Will we forget that these same little worn, patched stockings are there in the same needy homes, and that the boys and girls may need our friendship and help more when it is summer than they do now when so many willing hands are extended to help them?
"I hope we shall not forget. Let us remember that the best gifts, ofttimes, are not those which we can see and touch. The truest gifts are those of love and companionship and service--the same fellowship which Jesus gave to the poor when he was among men. It seems as if His heart always went out to those in need, and He helped them, not with gifts which fade and wear out and are soon cast aside, but with words and deeds which told them that He would be a true friend even to the end of the world. "Christianity," says Henry Drummond, "wants nothing so much as sunny people, and the old are hungering more for love than for bread. The Oil of Joy is very cheap, and if you can help the poor with the Garment of Praise, it will be better than blankets."
Dr. Henry D. Chapin expresses the same thought when he says, "The cry of the ages is more for fraternity than for charity. If one exists, the other will follow, or, better still, will not be needed."
"Says J. R. Miller, "Wanting to have a friend is altogether different from wanting to be a friend. The former is mere natural human craving. The latter is the life of Christ in the soul."
"At no better time than today can we choose to plant again the seed of true friendship in our hearts. Let us cultivate it and nurture it until it blooms forth into friendship for everyone who may be helped by the love of Christ through us."
THE KEY TO FAILURE --Temperance Day --Appet.i.te
Strong Drink Opens the Gate to Destruction and Bars the Way to Success.
THE LESSON--That strong drink robs its victims of the ability to solve the problems of life.
This temperance lesson deals with the curse of strong drink in especial reference to its connection with the material success of the individual. Specific opinions of several well-known representative men are quoted.
~~The Talk.~~
"Nearly every man carries in his pocket a bunch of keys. [Write the word "Key," completing Fig. 11.] When a professional man, for instance, reaches his office in the morning, he may unlock his office door with one key; with another key he may unlock his desk; with another he may unlock a drawer in the desk; and then, having opened his safe, he may use still another key to unlock his strong box. At night he may look carefully to see that each of these things is again carefully locked before he goes home. And so, we see, keys are for two purposes--to unlock and to lock.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 11]
"Most keys are made of metal and are in our own keeping and subject to our own will, but there is another key of which I shall speak, which goes before many a man, working entirely independent of him. And as it goes, it locks the doors which he wishes to enter, and it unlocks many another door which he does not want to enter and forces him to go through it. I will draw the picture of this key. [Starting at the final stroke of the letter Y, continue the line, and ending with the letters W-H-I-S. Then add the lines to complete Fig. 12.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 12]
"Let us see for a moment what this key does. It locks the door to health and opens the door to disease. Sir Andrew Clark, one of England"s greatest physicians, says: "I am speaking solemnly and carefully in the presence of truth, and I will tell you that I am considerably within the mark when I say to you that, going the round of my hospital wards today, _seven out of every ten_ owed their ill-health to strong drink."
"And again: This key bars and locks the way to good positions, where men may earn the money needed to keep themselves and their families provided with the necessities of life. Many of the great corporations are refusing to hire men who drink. Whiskey has locked the door to opportunity for them. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, operating one of the greatest systems in the world, has issued a statement to the men who run the trains on its lines which includes these words: "Taking one drink of intoxicating liquor is like running pa.s.sed the red light. It is unsafe. The possible line between safety and danger in the use of alcoholic drink is dangerously unstable. _Safety_ lies back of _total abstinence_. The normal man has no legitimate use for alcohol as a beverage, and he has no right to render himself abnormal by its use when lives are dependent upon his efficiency.
None but normal men should run railway trains. The traveling public has unqualified right to demand and expect none less safe." This statement deals, not with the moral side, but with the fact that a man who drinks unfits himself for any position of responsibility, especially if entrusted with human life.
"This key also locks and bars the way to a life of purity and honor. Says the chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary, Dr. Starr: "The records show that 1,250 persons have been received into this inst.i.tution during eighteen months; of these, 930 acknowledged themselves to have been intemperate." And the Ma.s.sachusetts Bureau of Labor adds the statement that of 27,000 crimes committed in that state, eight out of every ten were due to intemperate habits, or occurred while the criminal was under the influence of liquor.
"We need not go further to show that this key is truly the key to failure--failure in the attempt to attain to anything pure, right and honorable.
"No one knows this better than the manufacturer of strong drink. "The handwriting is on the wall," says T.M. Gilmore, president of the Model License League. "Our trade today is on trial before the bar of public sentiment, and unless it can be successfully defended before that bar, I want to see it go down forever."
"In no better way can we help to bring this victorious end than by lending our every influence to cause the world to turn to the true Christian life, for then follows "love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." Paul does not say, "Shun that which is evil;" he says _abhor_ it. May this ever be our att.i.tude toward this giant evil."
A BUSY LIFE --Pluck and Luck --Industry
A Plucky American Boy Whom the Whole World Delights to Honor.
THE LESSON--That pluck and perseverance and a "Try--Try--Again"
Spirit can laugh at obstacles and change them into stepping stones.
The following talk may suggest to many of the younger hearers the secret of the true greatness of Benjamin Franklin, who is considered by many our foremost American.
~~The Talk.~~
"Some people trust to luck to carry them through the world. Like d.i.c.kens" Micawber, they"re "always waiting for something to turn up."
I have heard of a man who was so pleased at finding a big horseshoe that he placed it over his bedroom door. The next morning, as he closed the door, he jarred the horseshoe from its place and it fell and struck him such a blow on the head that he was in the hospital for a week. Such results as this are likely to come when we depend upon luck. Let us remember that luck never figures in G.o.d"s calculations.
"I have seen people looking for something like this in their front yards. [Quickly draw the outlines of the four-leaf clover in black, and fill in the outlines with broad sweeps of green. With black, trace the veins lightly, and then put in the letters to spell "Luck." This completes Fig. 13.] What is it? Yes, a four-leaf clover. And when I saw them looking for it, I thought that they could have been doing a great deal more good by pulling the weeds in their back yards.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 13]
"But today we shall talk about a boy who never depended upon luck at all. This boy had a pair of sharp eyes, and whenever he saw anything to do, he did it. His name was Benjamin Franklin. Did you ever hear of him? Yes, I thought so. This boy worked for his older brother in a printing office in Boston, but the brother used to flog him and treat him roughly. Benjamin knew that they could never get along well together, so he went away to Philadelphia.
"In this great city he saw many things which other boys before him had not seen. He saw that the printing art had wonderful possibilities in it; he studied and worked hard to improve the business, and today all of the printers call him the father of the art of printing. He saw that he ought to know other languages besides English, and so he became a master of French, Italian and Latin--and luck" hadn"t a thing to do with it! He saw on every hand many chances to help other people. This prompted him to organize the first police force and the first fire company in the United Colonies; he organized a military company; he paved the streets of Philadelphia and taught the people how to keep them clean; he founded a hospital; he invented the first practical stove; he accepted many public positions in his earlier years, including that of member of the general a.s.sembly of the colonies, deputy postmaster of Philadelphia and commissioner to treat with the Indians.
"He saw that the common people should have a better chance to get an education, and so he published for many years Poor Richard"s Almanac, which provided them with much that they should have known; he founded the first circulating library, helped to establish the University of Pennsylvania, and brought into existence the American Philosophical Society.
"He saw the lightning, just as millions before him had done; but, unlike the others, he believed the brilliant display was the evidence of a great and unseen power--electricity. By the use of his now famous kite and key he proved it to be so, and for a time he was the only man in the world who knew what lightning really is.
"He saw at the time of the impending Revolutionary war the need of someone to go to England to intercede in the interests of the colonies; and so, when the choice fell upon him, he did not shirk the responsibility.
"He saw many later duties which caused him to become a member of the Continental Congress which made George Washington the commander-in-chief of the Colonial army; he helped to write the Declaration of Independence; he was a commissioner of peace to confer with the British General Howe; he was a member of the commission to seek the aid of France; he was America"s first postmaster general.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 14]
"_Did Benjamin Franklin depend upon luck?_ Never! His was, rather, a five-leaf clover, like this: [Quickly add the fifth leaf to the drawing, and insert the letter P, completing Fig. 14.] "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," says the Bible, "do it with thy might." I believe Benjamin Franklin fulfilled this command; and we can do it ourselves, if we will. He never stopped to "knock on wood" to prevent bad luck! He had better sense. And I hope we have, too."
THE KEG and the BUCKET --Temperance Day --Purity
A Temperance Talk Devoted to the Teaching of the Principles of Purity of Life.