SUGGESTION:--Bread, rolls or biscuit can be used if thought necessary, and these can be used for refreshments later.
If the children are tired of "driving to church"
in an imaginary carriage, let them drive in an imaginary sleigh, with imaginary bells, amid winter scenes.
MY LITTLE FRIENDS: I am sure that every boy and girl in this room knows what it is to be hungry. It is a part of our childhood experience to feel hungry almost every day. While the body is growing there is almost a constant demand for nourishment and food.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Loaf of Bread, Roll and Biscuit. ]
We have here a small loaf of bread; it is called a Vienna roll, and here is a small biscuit. Now, this is bread, only it is baked in small loaves. As people all over the world have hunger, so bread in one form or another has become the universal food of the world. When in the Lord"s Prayer we ask G.o.d to "give us this day our daily bread," we mean not simply bread made of flour, but we mean necessary food, food of all kinds; and so the word bread has come to be used to signify all kinds of wholesome food. G.o.d gives us our food day by day, just the same as each morning the manna rained down from heaven for the Children of Israel while they were journeying through the desert. G.o.d does not send it to us in just the same way, but each day He furnishes us a sufficient amount of food to sustain our bodies.
Now, as there is universal physical hunger, and as G.o.d has made provision to supply the food necessary to satisfy the hunger of the body; so there is a universal hunger of the soul, and G.o.d has also made provision to satisfy this universal hunger of our higher spiritual nature. In the sixth chapter of the Gospel by St. John, you will find much said about the food for the higher, the spiritual nature. Jesus said, "Verily, verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of G.o.d is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world."
The body is sustained by the food which grows up out of the earth, because the body is earthy. But to sustain the higher and spiritual nature of man, which is from heaven, the food is sent down from heaven, and therefore Jesus says of Himself that He is "The bread of G.o.d which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world," "I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." And in the forty-eighth verse of that same chapter He says, "I am the bread of life; your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plants Reaching Out Toward the Light.]
Now, when you desire to be good, when you desire to live like Christ, you desire to know more concerning Him; and when you desire to read G.o.d"s Word, and to learn of that which is holy and good and right, then you have this spiritual hunger. That is the kind of hunger of which Jesus was speaking in this chapter. The presence of Jesus in the soul and the knowledge of Him that is given in the Bible is the best kind of food for our spiritual nature. This was the kind of spiritual food upon which Joseph fed when he lived in the midst of idolatrous Egypt. It was upon these spiritual truths that David and Daniel and Paul and Luther fed daily, and this nourished their spiritual natures. I trust you all have this hunger for the bread of life. Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
Did you ever see a plant growing at the window in a crock and observe how it bends or reaches out toward the light? If you turn the crock around so that the plant bends inward toward the room, after a day or two you go to the plant and it will have changed its direction, and instead of bending into the room, it will be bending out toward the window. Now this plant feeds on the light from the sun, and on that account it reaches out toward the sun. So if you hunger after that which is good, you will reach out after G.o.d, just as the plant reaches out after the sun.
This kind of bread which I hold in my hand costs something. Flour costs several dollars a barrel, and bread from five to ten cents a loaf. In times of famine bread has sometimes been sold at many hundreds of dollars for one single loaf. But the bread of life is free; it costs nothing. Everybody can have spiritual food for the simple asking for it.
Therefore it is that we go to G.o.d in prayer and ask Him for every good and helpful grace and blessing; that we ask Him for His presence in our hearts, and to make us good, and to help us to become like Christ.
But there are some who have this hunger after that which is good, but they do not know about G.o.d and about the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not have any Bibles. Therefore it is my duty and your duty to send them the bread of everlasting life. It is for this purpose that we give our money for missions so that missionaries may be sent to them to tell them of G.o.d and His love, and of Jesus Christ the Saviour, and to take them the Bible.
In order that we may be strengthened by bread, it is necessary that we should eat it, and that we should a.s.similate it or make it part of our own bodies, in order that we may become strong, otherwise we would die of hunger in the midst of great store-houses of food. So men and women die spiritually in the midst of churches, in the midst of Bibles, Bible influences, and Bible privileges; yes, die without Christ. In order that our spiritual natures may be fed with spiritual food, we have every Christian influence in our homes, we have the Sunday-school and the Catechetical cla.s.s, and the Church with its preaching service, and prayer-meetings and other services. If you desire to be good, you must study your Bibles, go to Sunday-school and to church, and seek to know all you possibly can concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive Him into your hearts, and live a Christian life by His aid and the grace which G.o.d will grant you from day to day.
QUESTIONS.--Do all boys and girls get hungry? What food is most universally used in the world? Does the body require food every day? Why? Do we have a spiritual nature as well as a physical nature? Is there a spiritual hunger as well as a physical hunger? Will food which satisfies the physical Hunger satisfy the spiritual hunger? Who does the Bible say is the "bread of life"? Can we obtain food for the body without buying it either with money or effort? Must Jesus, the spiritual food, be bought? Can salvation be purchased? If G.o.d did not give it to us could we ever pay for it? Where can we learn most about this spiritual hunger and about the "bread" which came down from Heaven? How shall we send the Bread of Life to the people in heathen lands?
THE STONE.
THE NATURAL AND CHANGED HEART.
SUGGESTION:--Objects: A small cobble stone and a larger one, to represent the heart of a child and the heart of an adult, and a pin with which to p.r.i.c.k the stone and p.r.i.c.k the hand.
[Ill.u.s.tration: p.r.i.c.king a Stone. ]
NOW, boys and girls, I have here a stone, which because of its peculiar shape reminds me of the human heart. But if I take a pin and p.r.i.c.k this stone it has no feeling whatever. If I take this pin and p.r.i.c.k the back of my hand, I feel it immediately. It is very unpleasant. Indeed, I do not like to endure it, but this stone has no feeling. If I were to love this stone, the stone would never be conscious of it. I might bestow great gifts upon this stone, I might purchase fruit for it, and everything that you and I might love for food; the finest clothing also, the most costly lands and houses, or we might even bestow upon it very great honor, and yet this stone would know nothing of it. It would always be insensible of all that I might do for it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: p.r.i.c.king the Hand.]
Now the Bible represents the natural heart as being wicked. We are told in the Bible that our hearts have no feeling; that G.o.d loves us, and yet that we do not appreciate it; that G.o.d bestows upon us our daily food, and that He clothes us, and blesses us with every good, and has provided for us mansions in the skies, and that He desires to give us everlasting salvation. He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, and yet with the natural heart no one ever loves G.o.d, or appreciates anything that He has done for us. And so G.o.d desires, as He tells us in the Bible, to take away, out of our flesh this heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh, so that we may appreciate and love Him in return for all that He has done for us.
The heart is spoken of in the Bible as the seat of the affections, and therefore it is that G.o.d desires us to have a new heart, a changed heart, a heart that can love Him. The Bible says that each one is to keep his heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
We are told also that "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
[Ill.u.s.tration: a.s.saulting the City of Child-Soul.]
Many years ago in England there was a man by the name of John Bunyan. I suppose you have all heard of his wonderful book ent.i.tled the "Pilgrim"s Progress." I hope that many of you have read it. All of you should read it, if you have not yet done so. Get your mother or father to read it for you, if you cannot read it yourself.
This man Bunyan also wrote a book ent.i.tled the "Holy War." In this book he represents the human soul or the human heart as a city, and calls it the "City of Mansoul." This city has various gates, and at all these gates the enemy is trying to gain admission into the city, so that he may capture it. It is, indeed, a very apt ill.u.s.tration of the human heart. Do you know that your heart is like a city, and that Satan is trying to capture and to get possession of it? Indeed, he may already have possession of it. And when G.o.d by His grace shall come and cast out Satan and all his evil companions, they will come back and try to get into the city again. They will come to the various gates of the city; for your heart has various avenues of approach, which may be called gates. There is eye-gate. Satan comes and he appeals to you and tries to get into your heart through the eye. Bad pictures that are posted upon the bulletin boards along our streets, and wicked things upon which you and I ought not to look--worthless papers, bad books--these Satan desires to have us look upon, and in that way get evil thoughts into our minds and wicked purposes into our hearts, so that he can once more get possession of our hearts.
Then he comes to ear-gate, and tries to get into our hearts through our ears. There are wicked songs, and bad stories, and wicked words that men pour into our ears, even when we walk along the streets. And so Satan tries to get into our hearts through ear-gate, and he tries to get into our hearts through what I will call mouth-gate. He tempts our appet.i.te, and would have us eat things which would injure us, or to drink that which would harm us. And so he tries to get a boy to smoke, or to drink, if at first only beer, or something else, until at last Satan makes a drunkard of him. So Satan would get into the heart through mouth-gate.
And when he cannot get into the heart through mouth-gate, or any other way, he oftentimes approaches mouth-gate by way of nose-gate. By the smell of something that is pleasant he tempts the appet.i.te, and thus would lead us astray.
And then he would also approach our hearts through the sense of feeling.
There are many wicked things that Satan tempts people to do in order to give them pleasure, and so he seeks to get into their hearts, and to get entire control of them, and in that way to get G.o.d out of their hearts.
The best thing that you and I can do, is to accept of G.o.d"s invitation, where He says, "My son, give me thine heart." I trust that you will give your heart earnestly and fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will take away this heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. He will keep your heart securely for you, if you will only give it fully to Him.
QUESTIONS.--Does the stone have any feeling? Are our natural hearts like a stone? Can a human heart that is insensible like a stone be conscious of G.o.d"s love? Who offers to give us a heart that will be conscious of G.o.d"s love? Who wrote the book picturing the human heart like a city? Who is trying to capture this city? Through what gates does Satan try to enter? How does he try to get into Eye-Gate? How does he try to get into Ear-Gate? How does he try to get into Mouth-Gate?
Can you tell any other methods that he tries? To whom had we better surrender the city of our soul?
If we commit the city of our soul to G.o.d, will He protect and defend it? Is there any other way of safety?
THE POLISHED STONE.
PERFECTION THROUGH SUFFERING.
SUGGESTIONS:--A piece of polished stone, or a polished jewel, or piece of polished metal will answer for the object to be used.
MY LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN: I trust you are all trying to be good, and perhaps while you have been trying to be a follower of Jesus you have desired many things and hoped that G.o.d would give them to you, because you were trying to do right, and yet, perhaps, you have been disappointed because G.o.d did not grant your wish. You have been seeking to be faithful, and yet, perhaps, sickness has come to you, or disappointment and sorrow. Perhaps sickness and death have come into your family. Your papa or your mamma has been taken away by death, and you have been left very sad and lonely, and you have come to wonder how it is, if G.o.d loves you, that He does not grant you just what you wish, and that He permits sickness and sorrow and bereavement to come to you and to your home.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Stones Being Prepared for a Great Building
Copyrighted 1911 by Sylva.n.u.s Stall.]
When you have looked about you, you have seen many good people who have been in much distress, oftentimes in poverty, afflicted with sickness, bereaved of their loved ones, and left in great sorrow and disappointment. When you have taken up your Bible you have found that the same was true many hundreds of years ago. David was greatly afflicted. Paul had his thorn in the flesh. The disciples were often cast into prison, and it is very likely that all of them were put to death, as their Master had been before them.
Now I want to ill.u.s.trate to you to-day why G.o.d permits sorrow and affliction to come to us. I have here two stones, both taken out of the same quarry. This one is polished and has a very beautiful surface. It is very beautiful, not only to look at, but it would be beautiful in any place you might choose to put it. This other is rough and jagged, and not at all pleasant, either to handle or to look upon. This rough stone can be made useful, but it would be no more useful than any other rough and unsightly stone. It would do very well to place in the foundation of a building, to be all covered up with mortar and have other stones laid on top of it; to be built in the foundation down below the ground, where no one would ever see it. But it would be of no special value in its present condition for anything other than that.
I think this polished stone may very properly represent Christian people. For long, long years this stone had been lying peacefully and quietly in its rocky bed. But one day a man who purposed to build a very beautiful palace came along, and he found that the great rocks in a certain portion of the country contained stone that could be polished very beautifully. They could therefore be made very useful in constructing his palace or cathedral. So he sent a large number of men to the quarry and they began to drill great holes in the rock. Now, if these rocks had any feeling you can see at once that they would object to having such great holes drilled into their sides, because it would hurt a great deal. But after the men had the holes drilled they put powder in them and blasted off great pieces of these rocks. Then these great blocks were hauled away and placed in the hands of stone masons, who began with chisels and mallets to cut and carve. After that, with some fine sand or emery, or something of that kind, other men ground and polished the face of the stone until it became very beautiful.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Stones Being Polished.]
Now, if these stones had had feeling, you can see at once that they would have objected to being chiselled and cut, and carved, and ground, and polished. This process would have hurt so much that the stones would have cried out, and asked to be delivered from such a painful process.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "The Beautiful Angel Was Carved Out."]
It is related of Michael Angelo, that one day he was pa.s.sing a quarry where large blocks of beautiful marble were being taken out. In one large block he saw a beautiful angel. He ordered the block to be taken to his studio, or the place where he studied and worked. And then he put his men at work to chisel off the rough corners, and thus to deliver the angel out of the rough pieces by which it was surrounded. After many days and weeks, and perhaps months of working, in which this large block of marble had to submit to a great deal of chiselling and carving, and cutting, and polishing; lo! and behold, the beautiful angel was all carved out and stood complete and perfect. It was polished and was made very beautiful, and when it was set up, it was the delight of every one who looked upon it. But all this, you easily see, was only made possible by that cutting and carving, which would have been very painful to the marble if it had been possessed of feeling.