The little ant is not so foolish. For thousands of years the ant has always been wise and industrious. In the Book of Proverbs, written over twenty-five hundred years ago, Solomon tells us in the thirtieth chapter and twenty-fifth verse: "The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." And in the sixth chapter, sixth, seventh and eighth verses he says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." You have probably noticed the industry, activity and perseverance of these little ants. They attempt great things. Sometimes you will see one of these little insects carrying a burden which is several times larger than its own body. If they come to a stone, or a log, or some obstacle, over which they must carry their burden, if they do not succeed the first time, they will try again; and even though they should fall, or fail as much as a hundred times, they will persevere until they have accomplished their undertaking. If you watch them, you will see how rapidly they move. They are not lazy, they do not loiter along the way, but are always in a hurry. They work with energy and gather food during the summer, which they lay up for their supply during the winter. Whatever the little ant can gather, it carries home and lays up in store, not for itself alone, but all work together, each laboring for the good and well-being of all the others.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ants.]
This gra.s.shopper very fittingly represents the feeling and thought which come into the mind of every boy when he is at first required to work, to go to school and study, when he is being taught to be industrious and useful. When the days are pleasant, boys do not like to go to school.
When a pleasant Sunday morning comes in the springtime, they often wish to stay at home, to go out to the park, or to roam about the fields, and if most of the boys and girls had their own way about it, in the beginning, they would live pretty much like the gra.s.shopper. They would get what pleasure they could out of the days as they pa.s.s, grow up in ignorance and idleness, and in manhood and womanhood find themselves in poverty and want. I think that pretty much all boys and girls are naturally lazy, and that feeling can only be cured by being required to work, being compelled to go to school and study, and being kept persistently at it from week to week and year to year, until at last they learn to love to work. If the parents of the gra.s.shopper had not themselves been lazy and grown up in idleness, they would have taught the young gra.s.shopper that in the spring and summer he was to look forward to the wants and needs of the winter. The older ants always teach the young ants to work, and in that they are very wise.
Perhaps you have seen boys and girls who have learned to work, who are always very active, who seem always to be busy, but after all accomplish nothing of any moment in life. If we want to live to some purpose in this world, we must remember that we should have a purpose worthy of ourselves, and of the great Father in Heaven who has created us. After a few months and years the gra.s.shoppers and the ants and all the insects die, but you and I shall live on forever and ever. These bodies will be laid away in the grave, but our immortal spirits shall still continue to live. The stars in heaven which have been shining for thousands and thousands of years shall eventually grow pale. The sun itself shall cease to shine, and all the heavens and the universe about us shall be rolled together as a scroll. But these immortal spirits of yours and mine shall live on with G.o.d throughout all eternity. It is important, therefore, that our industry and our thought and our labor should not be for those things which perish with the using; that we should not simply lay up treasures which we must after a time go away and leave behind us in this world, but that we should lay up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; that where our treasure is, there our hearts may be also; and that we may possess and enjoy our treasure throughout all eternity.
I hope that every time you see a gra.s.shopper or an ant, you will remember the lesson which I have sought to teach you to-day.
QUESTIONS.--What is on the top of the Royal Exchange in London? Who built the Exchange? Why did he put the gra.s.shopper there? Tell all you can about the little boy and girl going through the field. What kind of boys and girls is like the gra.s.shopper? What does the gra.s.shopper do in summer? What happens to him when winter comes? Is the ant like the gra.s.shopper, or is he industrious? What does the Bible say about the ant? How does he spend the summer? Does he have food for winter use? Does each ant work for itself alone? Who teach the young ants to work? Do boys and girls all have to be taught to work? Do all people who are busy accomplish something worthy of their effort? What should we live for?
[Ill.u.s.tration]
BALANCES.
HOW G.o.d WEIGHS PEOPLE.
SUGGESTION:--Objects: A pair of ordinary balances.
A very good pair for ill.u.s.tration can easily be made from a piece of wood, a few strings and a couple of little paper boxes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Balances.]
DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: I suppose you have all stood on the scales and been weighed. I have here a pair of balances. This was doubtless one of the earliest kind of instruments with which people weighed different things, and it is the kind of scales which are still used when the greatest accuracy is desired. These are called a balance, because when I hold them by this string you will see that this end of the arm and that end of the arm are equal in length and equal in weight and they exactly balance each other. Now when I place anything in the pan on this end of the arm, and place a small weight in the pan on the opposite arm, and then lift the balance up, you will see how I can readily tell how much the piece of metal, or piece of wood, or whatever I have placed in the balances, weighs. In the drug stores they use this kind of scales to weigh medicines, and they can tell accurately the weight of a very small quant.i.ty. In the laboratory, or the place where medicines are made, they have this kind of scales that will weigh the smallest particle of dust; even a small piece of a hair laid on the scales can be weighed accurately.
In the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel we read about a king whose name was Belshazzar, who lived in the great city of Babylon, surrounded by a great wall three hundred feet high and eighty feet broad, and with a hundred gates of bra.s.s, twenty-five gates on each side of the city, and a street running from each of the gates upon the one side, straight across the city to each of the corresponding gates upon the opposite side, a distance of some twelve or fifteen miles; and then other streets crossing these first twenty-five streets, running between the gates which were upon the other two sides of the city. G.o.d had blessed this king of Babylon and given him great wealth and great power; but he became proud and defied G.o.d. One night he made a great feast and invited a thousand of his lords and the generals of his army, and sent for the golden vessels of the Temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought down from Jerusalem, and Belshazzar drank wine out of these sacred vessels of the Temple. And, like men and women when they drink liquor, they lost their reason, and they praised the G.o.ds of gold, and of silver, and bra.s.s, and iron, and wood, and of stone, and thus dishonored G.o.d; and there appeared in the banqueting hall the fingers of a man"s hand and wrote on the wall so that all might see and read it, and these were the words which were written before that wicked king: "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." (Daniel v: 27.)
Now you see that G.o.d weighs men and women, not for the purpose of telling how many pounds their bodies weigh, but He weighs their character, He weighs their conduct, He weighs their purposes, and He weighs their principles, and so He weighed Belshazzar, and He said of him and to him, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." G.o.d weighed Belshazzar as though he were placed in this side of the balance, and on the other side of the balance were placed all his opportunities, privileges and his blessings, and all that G.o.d had done for him. When G.o.d thus weighed him against all these things Belshazzar was found so light that he did not weigh as much as the privileges and blessings which G.o.d had given him, and therefore, G.o.d said that he was weighed in the balances and was found wanting.
In just this same way G.o.d weighs you and me, in order that we may see whether or not we weigh enough. Suppose we turn to the twentieth chapter of Exodus and there find what G.o.d requires of us. You will find that G.o.d says, "Thou shalt have no other G.o.ds before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy G.o.d am a jealous G.o.d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Thou Art Weighed in the Balances, and Art Found Wanting."]
Now suppose I place this requirement in one side of the balance, and then ask you to place your obedience to this requirement in the other side of the balance. I am sure there are a great many grown men and women who could not be weighed against this requirement. If a man loves money, so that he sacrifices his obedience to G.o.d, or sacrifices his character, or gives too large an amount of time to money-making, and money-getting; if his love of money is very great, you see how he makes money a sort of a G.o.d--that is, that he exalts his love of money above his love of G.o.d. In the same way a person can worship pleasure, and ease, and fame in such a way as to exalt these above G.o.d. Now any one who has done this, cannot be weighed against this requirement of G.o.d"s law without being found wanting.
If we take the next Commandment, it reads, "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy G.o.d in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Now anybody who has ever sworn cannot be weighed against this Commandment. A man who curses and swears is a very wicked man. I hope that none of you, boys or girls, will ever profane G.o.d"s name and disgrace yourself by swearing.
I want to caution you, also, against the use of by-words. Sometimes boys swear without knowing it; they say "By Jiminy." Now, the word "Gemini"
means "Twins," and refers to two heathen G.o.ds whose names were "Castor"
and "Pollux," and when boys use the expression, "By Jiminy," they are swearing by those two heathen G.o.ds. Jesus said, "Swear not at all."
(Matt. v: 34.) Then not only those who literally swear, but all those who use G.o.d"s name without reverence and who make light of sacred things break this Commandment. So you see that many are not able to be weighed against this Commandment.
Then take the next: "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy." There are many people who remember the Sabbath Day simply to make it the occasion of visiting, letter writing, and to enjoy a trip into the country, or in the park. They remember the Sabbath Day, but they do not remember it to keep it holy. So you see that you would not be able to be weighed against that requirement.
Now take the next: "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy G.o.d giveth thee." If G.o.d were to come into this community and weigh the boys and girls against this Commandment, how many do you think would be found to whom G.o.d would turn and say, as He did to Belshazzar: "Thou art weighed and art found wanting"? Any boy or girl who speaks of his father as "The old man," and of his mother as "The old woman"; any boy or girl who is disobedient; any girl who yesterday when mother asked her to dust the furniture, or any boy who when mother asked him yesterday to run upon an errand, grew petulant, and scowled and scolded, perhaps went out of the room and slammed the door behind them, all such boys and girls would be found wanting. You see how, with one after another of these Commandments, if G.o.d were to weigh us we would be found wanting.
If we take the other Commandments, "Thou shall not kill," anybody who has hated his brother in his heart; "Thou shall not commit adultery,"
any one who has harbored l.u.s.t in his heart; "Thou shall not steal"; "Thou shall not bear false witness"; "Thou shall not covet"; think of each of these and see how many times in your life you have broken them, if not in letter, yet in spirit.
Now, if you cannot be weighed against these different requirements and you have come short of them in the past, how can you expect to stand in the great Day of Judgment, when G.o.d shall take into account every idle word that we have ever uttered, every wicked thought; when we shall be weighed in the just balances of an infinite G.o.d? When G.o.d shall place these requirements upon one side of the balance, and you and I shall step in upon the other side of the balance, there is only one possible way in which we could then be heavy enough, and that is if we could have our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, to step into the balance with us, as He is willing to do, and G.o.d should accept the obedience and holiness of His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ in our stead. Unless you and I have Jesus Christ with us when we step into that balance, it will be said, "Thou art found wanting." Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your friend, and are you trying to serve Him? If you have not now made Him your friend, how can you hope to have His friendship then? May G.o.d help you to have Jesus as your friend in life, as well as in death; in this life as well as in the life to come, now while being tempted and tried in this world, as well as when being weighed in the next.
QUESTIONS.--What was the handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar"s feast? Does G.o.d weigh our bodies?
What does He weigh? Against what was Belshazzar weighed? What are we weighed against? Are we weighed against each commandment separately? Can a person who has sworn be weighed against the third commandment? Is the use of by-words swearing? Are we honoring our parents by speaking disrespectfully of them? Can we break a commandment in thought as well as in deed? Tell how. Will all these requirements over-balance us?
What must we do to make a proper balance? Is Christ willing to step into the scales with us?
[Ill.u.s.tration]
WHITE AND CHARRED STICKS.
GOOD AND BAD COMPANY.
SUGGESTION:--Objects: A few pine sticks, some charred; ink and water.
ALL boys and girls like to have companions, some one to play with, and therefore it is very wise that I should talk to you to-day about good and bad company.
First of all let me read some pa.s.sages from the Bible. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the unG.o.dly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." (Psalms i: 1.) "Forsake the foolish and live; and go in the way of understanding."
(Proverbs ix: 6.) But here is a pa.s.sage of Scripture which is exactly suited to my purpose to-day: "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." (Proverbs xiii: 20.)
When you go into a large library to select books you will always find that they are cla.s.sified. Some of the shelves have books of history, others have books of poetry, and so on throughout the entire library. In this way G.o.d has cla.s.sified different people in this text. One cla.s.s is called wise, and the others are called foolish. A companion of wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. In the same way there are good boys and bad boys, good girls and bad girls; and when you choose your companions it is important that you should choose them among the good, and not among the bad.
I think you will better understand the teaching of the text, when I show you this one stick that has been burned black, or charred, as we say.
Now here are several clean sticks which have not been burned, which are white and not tarnished. Let this black stick represent the boys who smoke, or chew, or swear, or lie, or deceive their parents; boys or girls who do not go to Sunday-school, who do not obey their parents, and who do not love G.o.d. These clean sticks will represent good boys and girls. Now suppose the good boys and girls choose the bad boys and girls as their companions and playmates; what do you think would be the result? I will mix these sticks together. I am sure that n.o.body would expect that the white sticks would transfer their purity and cleanness to this black stick. When I mix them, or rub them together, the black sticks get no whiter, but all the white sticks get blacker.
[Ill.u.s.tration: White and Charred Sticks.]
That is the way it always is with the boys who keep bad company. Instead of exerting a good influence, so as to reform and purify, and make good boys of the bad boys, the bad boys make bad boys of the good boys. At first the good boys are horrified at what they hear and see the bad boys say and do. After a while it ceases to be unpleasant to them. A little later they may possibly laugh at the bad boys, but after a while they will come to like the bad boys, and finally they will do as the bad boys do and become like them in conduct and in character.
Perhaps you have seen boys who like to take cork and burn it in the candle or fire, and then blacken their faces with it, so as to make them look like colored people. Now, it is not the best thing for a white boy to try to look like a colored boy, but if he does rub this black on his face, he can wash it off with soap and water. But when a good boy goes with bad boys and his character becomes tarnished and blackened, he cannot cleanse and purify it so easily. He not only gets a bad character but a bad reputation as well, both of which are very difficult to cleanse or to get rid of.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Gla.s.s of Water and Bottle of Ink.]
Now, here I have a gla.s.s of water and a bottle of ink. If I take and pour a half a teaspoonful of this water into the ink, it makes no particular difference in its color. But if I take only two or three drops of ink and mix them with the water, it discolors the entire gla.s.s of water at once. One or two good boys in the midst of many bad ones are likely to be influenced in a bad direction. This is especially true if the good boys have sought the bad boys as companions. Even one or two bad boys, placed in the midst of several good boys, may exert a very bad influence over them. I suppose you have all seen this ill.u.s.trated in the school room. You may have had a set of good boys, or a set of good girls in your cla.s.s, but some day a bad boy came to the school, or a bad girl joined the cla.s.s and they were frivolous, laughed and talked and were disorderly, disobeyed the teacher, played truant and did all kinds of naughtiness when in school, and it had its bad effect upon the entire cla.s.s, and sometimes even upon the entire school.
The text teaches us that we should avoid such foolish boys and foolish girls; boys and girls who do not obey G.o.d or revere the Bible, who do not listen to their consciences, nor do that which is right. Such should be avoided at all times, and in choosing our companions, we should always prefer those who will have an influence for good upon us socially, intellectually and morally.
The influence of bad companions will tend to destroy all our best interests physically, by leading to every kind of vice and evil; destroy us financially, by causing us to be inattentive to our work, causing us to prefer idleness and pleasure to labor and usefulness; destroy us morally, by making light of the teachings of the Bible, the importance of the Sunday-school and of the Church, the authority of father and mother and the wisdom of what they teach and require of us.
But in addition to all this, we should remember that those who are our companions upon earth, will be our companions in the world to come. If we go with the wicked and the profane here, we shall dwell with them forever in the world to come. If we desire to go to heaven and to be forever with those who are good and righteous, pure and holy; if we desire to be happy for ever and ever in the world to come, we must choose as our companions here, those who are living not for this present fleeting life, but who are living for the glory of G.o.d and who are trusting sincerely in Jesus Christ for everlasting salvation.
May G.o.d help us all to be wise and to walk with the wise, and not to be foolish and choose fools as our companions, both for time and eternity.