SUGGESTIONS:--A lantern of any kind may be used.
If one of the old-fashioned tin lanterns, perforated with holes through which the light was to shine, is available it would add greatly to the curiosity and interest of the children, although these are now very rare, as they were in use a half century ago.
After "driving to church", and after preaching by the children and the reading of the following sermon on lanterns, a few j.a.panese lanterns--one for each of the children--would enable the parents to form a little torch-light procession (although no lighted candles need be in the lanterns). After marching through the different rooms, give the children a talk upon the conditions existing in heathen lands like China and j.a.pan, and the changes which are being wrought through the introduction of Christianity and the work of the missionaries.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Old Lantern.]
I DO not believe that there is a boy or girl here to-day who could tell me what this thing is, that I hold in my hand. It is a lantern, a very different lantern possibly, from those which any of you have ever seen.
This is the kind of lantern that your grandfather and my grandfather used many years ago, in the days when they did not have lamps, and gas, and electric lights, and such things as we enjoy to-day. When I was a small boy in the country we used to have only candles. Later on in life, I remember when they first had fluid lamps, and then kerosene oil, and then gas, and then, as we have it now, electric lights.
In the second congregation to which I ministered, there was an old gentleman who had one of these lanterns. He lived some distance from the church, and very dark nights you could always see him coming across the hill, carrying this strange lantern. After the candle was lighted and placed inside, the light shone out through these small holes, and if the wind blew very hard, the light was liable to be blown out.
Now, here is a better lantern. David says of G.o.d"s Word, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." On a dark night in the country, you could not go out of doors and move about without running up against a tree, or the fence, or falling into the ditch, or soon finding yourself involved in serious difficulties; and on this account people in the country carry a lantern at night. In the Eastern countries where Jesus lived, where they did not have gas and electric lamps to light the streets, when people went out at night they always carried a lantern.
And so David said, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Ps. cxix: 105.)
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Coming Across the Hill Carrying this Strange Lantern."]
When people go out of doors into the darkness with a lantern they do not hold it way up high, but hold it down near their feet, so that they can see the path, and it enables them to walk with security and safety.
Sometimes there are men who have gone to college, and have learned Latin and Greek, have studied the sciences and philosophy, and they think they have learned a very great deal. Perhaps afterwards they have studied medicine and become physicians, or have read law and become lawyers, and they think that they are able with all they know to find the true path of blessing through life. They think they have light enough of themselves. They do not seem to know that all about them there is a darkness of great mystery; that sin and death and destruction lurk all along their way through life, and that their pathway is full of snares, and pitfalls, and dangers, but they try to walk with the little light that there is in the human understanding.
There is another cla.s.s of men who go through college and who may, perchance, study much, and the more they study the more they come to realize how little they know, and how much there is beyond them that they do not understand at all. With the little light of human understanding they comprehend how very dense and dark are the mysteries all about them, and so in order that they may walk safely through life, and come at last to the city of eternal safety, they take G.o.d"s Word "as a lamp to their feet." Just the same as a person in the country carries a lamp in order that he may find his path, so these good people take the Word of G.o.d and they make it the lamp unto their feet, and the light unto their path.
Boys and girls often look at learned men and women and think that when they get to be as old and to know as much as these people, that then they will know everything. But that is a great mistake. The more we know and the more learned we are, the more we discover that there is still further beyond us that which we do not understand. No one has ever been able to tell how the bread and the meat and potatoes and other food which we eat is made to sustain our life, how it is converted into and made a part of ourselves. How on our heads these things become, or are changed into hair, on the ends of our fingers to nails, and how other parts become flesh, and bone and eyes and ears and teeth. n.o.body can understand how the ground in the garden can be changed by some life principle into fruit and vegetables and flowers and hundreds of different things, and yet all this wonderful variety, all growing out of the very same soil, or ground as we call it.
And so as you grow older and become more and more learned you will come more and more to appreciate how much there is that you can never understand. There is mystery all about us, and we all need the light of divine truth, the light of G.o.d"s Word, the Bible as a light to guide us through the darkness and the mysteries that are all about us.
If you have ever been in the country upon a dark night and have seen the railway engine come dashing along, with the great headlight that throws the rays of light far down along the track enabling the engineer to see very far ahead of him, you would understand what the Bible purposes to do for us, when G.o.d says that He will make it a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path.
As you grow older, and sorrow and sickness and trials come to you, you will need G.o.d"s Word to be a lamp unto your feet. And when at last the messenger of death shall come and summon you into G.o.d"s presence, and you go through "the valley of the shadow of death," you will then need this lamp for your feet, and you will need the Lord Jesus Christ with you, that you may lean upon Him and that you may say as David did: "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." May G.o.d give you this light through the journey of this life, and bring you to that city of light and life on high.
QUESTIONS.--Why did the people of the East carry lanterns at night? What did David call the Bible?
Should the lantern be held above the head, or down near the feet? Which is the best light to our spiritual pathway, human wisdom or Divine revelation? Which is the safer light for us to follow, books which men write, or the book which G.o.d has given us? Can we understand all that we find in the book of nature? Can we understand all that we find in the book of revelation? Do they both have the same author? Is G.o.d infinitely greater than man? Does this explain to you why we cannot understand all that G.o.d has done or said?
Can we put a bushel basket into a quart measure?--the smaller can not contain the larger.
CANDLES.
HOW TO REFLECT, OBSCURE, OR EXTINGUISH THE LIGHT.
SUGGESTIONS:--A candle, a silver dollar, a large-necked bottle and a flask-shaped bottle are the objects used. It will add to the interest of the children if the parent will show the simple experiments of placing the bottle over the candle to ill.u.s.trate how quickly the light is extinguished as the oxygen is exhausted. The same is the result when a light is hid under a bushel.
The flame may also be concealed by the dollar; and in a darkened room a polished piece of metal or a small looking-gla.s.s will show how the light can be reflected by money properly used in Christ"s cause.
MY LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN: To-day I have brought some candles in order to ill.u.s.trate the text, "Ye are the light of the world." In a previous sermon I have shown you how all the light in the world is derived from the sun, and how all the light in the spiritual world is derived from Jesus Christ. Now, to-day I want to show you that we can extinguish this light. While we cannot prevent the sun from shining, or put out the light there is in the sun, yet we can extinguish, or put out the light of a candle. We can blow out the light, we can turn off the gas, we can cut off the electrical current, and thus prevent the carbon from burning and giving light. Just the same as the firemen can extinguish a large fire that is making a great blaze in the midst of a dark night, so we can put out these several lights.
Before this candle, which I hold in my hand, can be of any service to me in giving light, it must first itself be lighted. So it is with every person who is born into this world. He has no light in himself. Before ever he can exert any influence for good upon others, or let any Christian light shine, he must come to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive this light. He must be lighted from above. But now after the candle has been lighted, suppose that I take this silver dollar which I hold in my hand, and place it in front of the light, you will see immediately how it makes it impossible for the light to shine out in front of the dollar. Those who are sitting down there in front of me cannot see this light. The light is entirely concealed by the dollar. So some people allow the love of money to gather around their hearts, until at last their money is placed between them and the people whom G.o.d intends that they should benefit and bless in this world. Instead of being a help, their money is only a hindrance to their Christian life. They love their money so much that they permit the poor to go hungry, the dest.i.tute to be unblessed, and the Church to be without the money necessary to carry on its work. They allow the heathen to die in their ignorance. Selfishly grasping their money, they neglect to do that for which G.o.d has given them the means and the money.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Light Obscured by Money.]
I believe that money is a good thing. The Bible says that it is the _love_ of money, the undue love of it, that is the root of all evil.
Money itself is a blessing and not a curse; therefore I want to show you how this dollar can be made to help in making this light shine even more brightly. You will see that if I have this side of the dollar ground off and polished, so that it is very smooth and bright like a little looking-gla.s.s, and then place it back of the candle, instead of acting as it did when I placed the dollar between you and the candle, it will then reflect the light and throw the rays of light out further than they could otherwise shine. It helps to accomplish for the candle the same important service which the great reflector does when placed behind the lamp in the headlight of the railway engine, throwing the light way down the track in advance of the coming of the train.
In the same way, when a Christian has money, you see how he can readily use it in such a way as to enable him to accomplish a very great and grand work in the world. The man who has lots of money and has a consecrated heart, and who is willing to use his money to help him in his work for Christ, will be able to accomplish very much more than the man who has no money. He can use his money in such a way that it will enable him to cast a light in many a dark corner of the earth, to bring light in many a desolate home, and to cast the rays of his Christian influence even across the ocean into benighted heathen lands. In this way his money can be used as I could use this dollar if it were polished, and thus carry his influence to the ends of the earth and to the end of time, and become a great blessing to himself and to others for all eternity.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Money as a Reflector.]
Jesus said, "Men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle-stick that it may give light to all that are in the house."
There are some people who do not like to let their light shine for Christ. They do not want others to know that they are Christians. They do not want others to know that they are trying to be good. And so they seek to conceal their light, to hide it, as Jesus says, "under a bushel." If you were to light a candle and put it under a bushel, or under a box, the box would prevent it from shining, and therefore you would not know that there was any light at all in the room.
But I want to show you, by the aid of this large necked bottle, what is the effect of our trying to hide our light. I have chosen this bottle because you can see through it, and observe what is going on inside of this gla.s.s bushel or bottle. The neck being very large, you can readily see that the light is not absolutely smothered. Now, when I place this bottle over the light, you will see how very quickly it begins to grow dim, and then more dim until it dies out altogether. There, you see, it has gone out already! Just as quickly as it burns out from the air in the bottle the oxygen which it contains, the light dies, because it has nothing to feed upon. If I had not placed this bottle over it, it would have continued to burn.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Light Under a Bushel.]
Just so it is with those who try to hide their light under a bushel.
After the light has been placed there, it gradually grows more faint, and more faint, and then goes out in darkness. You can never be a Christian if you are ashamed of Christ. You must be willing to let your light shine; you must be willing to confess Christ before men; you must be willing to have other boys and girls know that you are a Christian, and that you are trying to do right. Then with G.o.d"s help you will succeed. But if you try to hide your light under a bushel, you will never succeed in being a Christian.
Here is another bottle. I am sure that the shape of this bottle will suggest to you the kind of stuff which is oftentimes sold in this kind of a flask. Sometimes when young men have given their hearts to Christ, and young women too for that matter, they go out in company and are invited to take a drink of wine or a drink of beer, or something else, and without any purpose or thought of ever becoming a drunkard, often they soon form the habit of drinking. Soon they have formed a love for the taste of liquor, and before ever they know it, like hundreds of thousands of others who have preceded them, they have become fond of liquor, and are on a fair road to become drunkards. As soon as a young man starts out in this direction he takes the road that leads down to death and destruction, and the love of G.o.d which he had in his heart soon dies out. Let me place this bottle over the candle. You will now see how the candle begins to grow dim, and the light shines more and more dim, after a very few seconds, you will find that it goes out in darkness, the same as it did under the other bottle.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A Dangerous Bottle.]
Let me say to you, always carefully avoid the terrible and destructive influences of drink, of which this bottle is the symbol. If you want to keep the love of G.o.d in your heart you must never, never take the first step which leads toward the love of liquor, toward intemperance and a drunkard"s grave.
QUESTIONS.--Can an unlighted candle give light?
Can a candle light itself? Who must first give us the light if we are to be a light to the world?
Can the light of the candle shine through a silver dollar? If a silver dollar is polished like a little looking-gla.s.s and placed behind the light, what does it do? Does this suggest how we can use our money to send the light to the heathen? Under what kind of a measure does the Bible warn against hiding our light? When people light a candle, do they put it under a bushel or on a candlestick? If it is put under a bushel what is the result? Is that the result with people who are ashamed to be known as Christians? Does intoxicating drink often put out the light of Christian people? How can all persons avoid the use of liquor? (By never taking the first gla.s.s.)
[Ill.u.s.tration]
A BROKEN CHAIN.
BREAKING THE WHOLE LAW.
SUGGESTION:--A chain of any kind, even a watch chain, will answer. Children could use paste-board and cut out ten links to represent the Ten Commandments. These links could be numbered and the older children could be asked to repeat the Ten Commandments in their order.
MY LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN: I have here a chain; it is very strong indeed.
It has ten links in it. You will remember how that, more than three thousand years ago, G.o.d gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
These Ten Commandments are often called the Decalogue, because there are ten of them; the Greek word _deka_ means ten.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A Broken Chain.]
Now the Bible tells us that "whosoever will keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (James ii:10.)
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Suspended Over the Edge of a Great Rock."]