{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14188/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14188","id":"gutenberg_14188","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14188","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Children's sermons"],"text":"Fifty-Two Story Talks\n\nTO BOYS AND GIRLS\n\n\nBY\n\nREV. HOWARD J. CHIDLEY, B.D.\n\nPASTOR TRINITY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,\n\nEAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY\n\n\n\nGARDEN CITY, NEW YORK\n\nDOUBLEDAY, DORAN & COMPANY, INC.\n\n\n\nCopyright, 1914 by\n\nGEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\nTO\n\nMY DAUGHTER\n\nElizabeth\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nNo department of Christian literature is of more importance for the\nfuture of the Church than that which seeks to enlist the children in the\nservice of Christ. Mr. Chidley, by his gifts and experience as a pastor\nand a teacher of the young, is eminently fitted to contribute towards\nthis most vital phase of Christian activity. His successful career in\nthe Central Congregational Church of Brooklyn, where I shared the\nprivilege of his valuable co-operation, and in the Trinity Church of\nEast Orange, New Jersey, of which he is now the beloved and honored\npastor, bespeak the merits of this series of addresses to Boys and\nGirls. They are at once an efficient protest against the Protestant\nneglect of the young and a remedy for that neglect. Parents,\ninstructors, and guardians of the juvenile members of our Churches will\nbe wise to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the teachings and\nexhortations presented here. It is a book of absorbing interest, and\nthe little folks and those of older years can not fail to be both\nprofited and delighted by it. The revolution in Christian thought\nconcerning the relation of children to the Church and the Kingdom of God\nis apparent on every page. Dr. Martineau averred that children do not\nrequire to be led so much as not to be misled, and in these \"Fifty-two\nStories\" we have a model application of his weighty aphorism. The\nreceptive and expansive hours of child nature are admirably considered,\nand what is here written has a direct bearing upon its spiritual\ndevelopment and welfare.\n\nS. PARKES CADMAN.\n\n      _The Parish House,_\n_Central Congregational Church,_\n  _Brooklyn, N.Y., March 2, 1914._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n                                      PAGE\nINTRODUCTION                          xiii\nA BIBLE RIDDLE                           3\nCLOSED GATES                             6\nHIRING A COACHMAN                        9\nTHE FIERCEST THING IN THE BIBLE         11\nSACRIFICE HITS                          13\nTHE LIBERTY OF OBEDIENCE                15\nCUTTING CORNERS                         18\nHABITS                                  20\nA LESSON IN COURTESY                    23\nLITTLE FOXES                            25\nA TRICKY OX                             28\n\"SHINE INSIDE\"                          30\nTHE STORM KING EAGLE                    33\nA DOG WHICH ATE THE BIBLE               35\nSTEAM AND SAILS                         37\nA FISH-STORY                            39\nOPPORTUNITY                             41\nGOD IS NOW HERE                         43\nDAVID LIVINGSTONE'S FAITH               45\nTHE HAPPY MAN                           47\nA SERMON FOR THE BOYS                   49\nTIRE-TROUBLE                            51\nWATCHING FOR IDLE BOYS                  53\nCHRIST AND THE DOG                      55\nTHE BOY WHO WAS TO BE MANAGER           58\nA TALE ABOUT WORDS                      61\nSUFFOCATED TREES                        64\nULYSSES AND THE SIRENS                  66\nPOISON-LABELS                           68\nLIES THAT WALK                          71\nWELLINGTON AND THE SOLDIER              73\nABRAHAM'S GUEST                         75\nABOUT GENEROSITY                        78\nSUN AND WIND                            80\nTHE BOY AND THE TURTLE                  82\nTHE BOY AND THE NICKEL                  84\nTHE THREE FATES                         86\nTHE INCH-WORM AND THE MOUNTAIN          88\nTHE FRENCH DRUMMER-BOY                  91\nA KING IN THE STUFF                     93\nBREAD AND WINE                          96\nTHE FIRST CHRISTMAS CAROL               98\nA HINT FROM A CARIBOU                  100\nTHE REPENTANCE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON       103\nEASTER                                 105\nTHE WHISPERING GALLERY                 108\nTHE HE-SAID GIRL                       111\nON DECK                                113\nTHE TERROR BY NIGHT                    116\nTHE BRAMBLE BUSH KING                  119\nWHERE IS HEAVEN?                       122\nTHE CHRISTIAN ARMY                     124\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nIn a certain Western university the president receives a salary of ten\nthousand dollars a year for training young men and young women, while\nnot many miles distant from that university is a stock-farm the\nsuperintendent of which receives a salary of twelve thousand dollars for\ntraining high-bred colts. That colt-trainer is at hand when the colt is\nfoaled, and before it rises to its feet has rubbed down its head and put\na halter upon it, so that from birth it shall be accustomed to the\nfeeling of the halter.\n\nFrom that time the training of the colt is not suspended for a moment.\nIf in training it to travel in harness a piece of paper should blow\nacross the training-course, causing the colt to shy, an assistant holds\nthe paper on the opposite side of the road, so that the animal shall\nhave the kink taken out of its nervous system and its tendency to shy\nagain in the same direction be at once corrected.\n\nThe old method was to allow a colt to run wild until two or three years\nof age, then \"break it in.\" The result was apt to be either a \"cowed\"\nanimal or a nervous horse.\n\nWould that we were manifesting as much wisdom in the religious training\nof our children as that horse-trainer. But unfortunately we are pursuing\nlargely the old method, allowing our children to get full of all sorts\nof mental kinks up through those first plastic three or four years, and\nthen handing them over to the church kindergarten-teacher for one hour a\nweek, expecting her to straighten out all these aberrations and give\nback to the parents a normally religious child.\n\nMany parents seem to assume that the child's brain is lying dormant\nduring those first few years, when, as a matter of fact, the child's\nmind during these years is most receptive, and expanding at a rate never\nafter equalled. The nervous system is receiving impressions which,\nthough in after-years the child has no _conscious_ memory of it, are yet\nindelibly chiselled there for good or ill.\n\nIt is high time that parents and religious teachers took more\ncognizance than they do of this fact.\n\nThere are other parents who deliberately refuse to give their children\nany religious training during this period for fear of \"unduly\ninfluencing\" them from the religious standpoint. This point of view is\nstated, whether seriously or not, in the following quotation from a\nrecent writer: \"I think it is a bad thing to be what is known as\n'brought up,' don't you? Why should we--poor, helpless little children,\nall soft and resistless--be squeezed and jammed into the iron bands of\nparental points of view? Why should we have points of view at all? Why\nnot for those few divine years when we are still so near God, leave us\njust to wonder? We are not given a chance. On our pulpy little minds our\nparents carve their opinions, and the mass slowly hardens, and all those\ndeep, narrow, up-and-down strokes harden with it, and the first thing\nthe best of us have to do on growing up is to waste precious time\nbeating at the things, to try to get them out. Surely the child of the\nmost admirable and wise parents is richer with his own faulty but\noriginal point of view than he would be fitted out with the choicest\nselections of maxims and conclusions that he did not have to think out\nfor himself. I could never be a schoolmistress. I should be afraid to\nteach the children. They know more than I do. They know how to be happy,\nhow to live from day to day, in godlike indifference to what may come\nnext. And is not trying to be happy the secret we spend our lives trying\nto guess? Why, then, should I, by forcing them to look through my stale\neyes, show them, as through a dreadful magnifying-glass, the terrific\npossibilities, the cruel explosiveness of what they had been lightly\ntossing across the daisies, and thinking they were only toys?\"\n\nAll of which sounds very pretty, but when simmered down, the wisdom, if\nwisdom it be, of a statement like that can be compressed into the old\nadage, \"Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise.\" But the point\nis that the world has pretty generally come to the conclusion that\nbliss is not necessarily the most healthful thing, either for adults or\nchildren. \"Soft and resistless!\" Precisely, there is the crux. If these\n\"soft and resistless\" minds do not receive good impressions they will\nreceive bad ones, and it is the part of wisdom to get the good in first.\nWhere a mind is \"to let,\" some sort of tenant is sure to occupy.\n\nColeridge put the case in a nutshell when an English deist inveighed\nbitterly against the rigid instruction of Christian homes. The deist\nsaid: \"Consider the helplessness of a little child. Before it has wisdom\nor judgment to decide for itself, it is prejudiced in favour of\nChristianity. How selfish is the parent who stamps his religious ideas\ninto a child's receptive nature, as a moulder stamps the hot iron with\nhis model! I shall prejudice my children neither for Christianity nor\nfor Buddhism, nor for Atheism, but allow them to wait for their mature\nyears. Then they can open the question and decide for themselves.\" Later\nColeridge led his friend into the garden, and then whimsically\nexclaimed: \"How selfish is the gardener to ruthlessly stamp his\nprejudice in favour of roses, violets and strawberries into a receptive\ngarden-bed. The time was when in April I pulled up the young weeds,--the\nparsley, the thistles,--and planted the garden-beds out with vegetables\nand flowers. Now I have decided to permit the garden to go until\nSeptember. Then the black clods can choose for themselves between\ncockleburrs, currants and strawberries.\" The deist saw the point.\n\nAnother weakness in our system of religious training for children is\nmanifest at the adolescence-period of the child. We have been in the\nhabit of allowing the child to consider the Bible-school as his church.\nWe send him to the Bible-school in his very early years, but make no\ndemands upon him as far as specific church-attendance is concerned. And\nat the kindergarten-period we are probably wise in this; for after the\nchild has attended kindergarten for an hour, it is too great a tax upon\nhim to require him to sit through an hour's church-service. But after\nthe kindergarten-period it seems to me the plain duty of parents to\nencourage the child to attend church, though not necessarily for the\nentire service; for if the child does not establish a church-going\n_habit_ during these plastic years, the probability is that he will\nnever form it. This partially explains why there is such a leakage\nbetween the Bible-school and the church. When the child gets \"too old\nfor Bible-school,\" not having formed the church-going habit, he is\nstranded\n\n  \"Between two worlds,\n  One dead, the other powerless to be born.\"\n\nAnd the result is he drifts away from the Church.\n\nIn the endeavour to remedy this situation in his own Church it has been\nthe custom of the writer to have all children from seven to twelve years\nof age in the Bible-school, which meets on Sunday morning before church,\nattend the morning worship for the first fifteen minutes. During this\ntime they hear the Call to Worship, the Invocation, the Lord's Prayer,\nthe Children's Sermon, and the Anthem by the choir. At the close of the\nanthem the children file out with their teachers as the adult\ncongregation rises for the Responsive Lesson. In this way the children\nare establishing a church-going habit, with the result that they early\nbegin to feel that something is wrong on Sunday if they have not been to\nchurch.\n\nA word as to the content of the sermons preached. I believe that a\nchild's religion ought to be largely of the motor type. That is, it\nshould be concerned with getting religion into the child's hands and\nfeet. In other words, it should seek to establish in him a habit of\nright-doing. For this reason his religion should be of the most\npractical sort, leaving the theory to come later. He should have\nsufficient theological pegs to hang his morality on, but he should be\ntroubled little with dogma. For this reason his religion will probably\nhave largely to do with the here and now. He cannot be much interested\nin an other-worldly religion. The normal child at this period will not\nsing with any great enthusiasm \"I want to be an angel.\" For this world\nis to him just then a very interesting and fascinating place. He is for\nthat reason ready also to admire men of action, and is wide open for\nthe influences of hero-worship. And while he cannot be argued into being\na Christian, for he is not sufficiently awake to logic; and while he\ncannot be coerced, for he possesses the dynamic of a locomotive combined\nwith the resistance of a mule, he can be magnetized into being a\nChristian if there is set as his teacher and example a virile, magnetic\nman. The boy will open his soul to him as he does his windows to welcome\nthe breath of May. Such considerations as these have determined the\ncontent of these sermons.\n\nThe author makes no claim to originality for much of the material\npresented, but he has given a new setting to old truths, a setting which\nexperience has proved to be interesting to the children of his own\ncongregation.\n\nIt may seem that the wording of some of these sermons is beyond the\ngrasp of the children for whom it was intended. Two things are to be\nnoted in this connection. First, a child resents being talked down to.\nHe soon detects a condescending smile and mock affability in a speaker.\nAnd when he detects these he closes the door of his heart against the\nmessage. Second, it is better to give the child something to grow to,\nprovided it is not too far beyond his grasp. But here again experience\nis the best criterion. The children who have heard these sermons have\nenjoyed them, and have carried their substance and lessons home with\nthem to repeat to older ears.\n\nThey are offered to the public, therefore, in the hope that they may\nsuggest a method, add a little to the scant supply of material for\nchildren's sermons, and serve to interest other children as well.\n\nH.J.C.\n\n_Orange, New Jersey._\n\n\n\n\nA BIBLE-RIDDLE\n\n\nBoys and girls are all fond of riddles, and I am sure you will be\nsurprised to know that there is one of the best riddles of all in the\nBible, one that is very hard to guess, and yet one that has a fine\nlesson in it when I tell you the answer.\n\nThis riddle was told by Samson on his wedding-day, and nobody would ever\nhave guessed it if his wife had not let the secret out.\n\nBut first I must tell where Samson got his riddle. Well, one day with\nhis father and mother he was walking down the road to the land where the\nPhilistines lived. And according to the story, a young lion rushed out\nat him from behind some bushes, and Samson, being a very strong man,\nbroke its jaws and killed it, and left its carcass behind some bushes by\nthe roadside.\n\nSome time afterward he was going down that road again, and he turned\naside to see what had become of the carcass. And what do you think he\nfound there? This: a swarm of wild bees had made their nest in that\ncarcass. Now, Samson was fond of honey, and he took the comb of honey\nwith him and ate it as he walked along the road. And as he walked he\nmade up this riddle: \"Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the\nstrong came forth sweetness.\" That means that out of this lion which\nwould have eaten him up he got something to eat, and out of this strong\nbeast he got something sweet.\n\nI suppose you will wonder what sort of lesson for boys and girls anyone\ncan draw from that. You say you will never meet a lion on the roadside.\n\nI am not so sure of that. I think boys and girls meet things every day\nthat are very much like lions. Of course, in these days we call them\ntemptations. But, then, they jump out at you very suddenly and\nunexpectedly sometimes. And they would devour your souls just as this\nlion would have eaten up Samson had he not killed it. And when you kill\na temptation by not giving way to it you can make a riddle just like\nSamson, and you can say, too, \"Out of the eater came forth meat, and out\nof the strong came forth sweetness.\" For just like Samson, every time\nyou come to the place where you have overcome a temptation,--it may be\nto say unkind things, or to be quick-tempered, or to be hateful,--you\nwill find that you will be stronger to overcome it next time. And the\nremembrance of how you were able to overcome your feelings will be\nsweet, just as that honey was to Samson. God says that if we trust Him,\n\"the young lion shall ye trample under foot.\"\n\n\n\n\nCLOSED GATES\n\n\nIf any of you boys and girls, while riding through a great city on an\nexpress train, ever chance to put your head out of the car-window and\nlook forward along the tracks, you will see several blocks ahead of the\ntrain people in carriages, on foot, and in street-cars crossing the\nrailway-tracks in great numbers, and it seems as if the train would have\nto stop, or else it would run over somebody. But the train never\nslackens speed. The engineer keeps on blowing the whistle, and the train\nthunders along at the usual rate.\n\nThen you will notice when you get near those crossings that all the\ngates are down and the railway-tracks are perfectly clear.\n\nThat is the way with many of the difficulties we face in life. We set\nout to do the thing our conscience tells us to do, and it seems as if\nthe road were full of obstructions. But you just go straight ahead,\ndetermined to do your duty, and lo, the hindrances disappear. When an\nearnest man goes right ahead, the crowd usually opens up to let him\nthrough.\n\nAs you get older and face the world you will find it looks like a great,\nfierce giant. But really its fierce look is caused by a false-face that\nit wears to frighten faint-hearted people. You go boldly up and take\nhold of his beard, as David faced the giant, and you will be surprised\nto find that not only the beard but the whole mask comes off in your\nhands, and there is a kindly countenance behind. For the world would\nrather see you succeed than fail.\n\nI heard of a young man the other day who went into an office in Chicago\nto sell a bill of goods. The man behind the desk was very brusque and\nfierce-looking, and snapped out, \"Well, what do you want here?\"\n\nThe young man promptly replied, \"I want first to be treated as a\ngentleman, and then I may talk business to you.\"\n\nThe other man dropped his fierce manner at once, and the young man sold\nhim a large bill of goods. The man behind the desk told him when he was\nleaving that he greeted strangers fiercely to try their mettle, and if\nthey ran away he concluded they weren't worth troubling with anyhow.\n\nAnd so I say to you, boys and girls, be sure in your own minds that you\nare doing right, then go boldly ahead, and you will find the gates down\nand the tracks clear. Let this be your motto:\n\n  \"Silken-handed stroke a nettle,\n    And it stings you for your pains.\n  Grasp it like a man of mettle,\n    And it soft as silk remains.\"\n\n\n\n\nHIRING A COACHMAN\n\n\nThere is a story that tells of a man who advertised for a coachman, and\nthree men answered the advertisement. They all made a good appearance,\nand the man was at a loss to know which one to choose.\n\nFinally he hit upon this scheme. There was a road near his house that\nran along the edge of a precipice. The man asked each one of these\ncoachmen in turn how close he could drive to the cliff without going\nover. The first said he could drive within six inches of it; the second\nsaid he could drive within two inches of it. When the third man was\nasked he said, \"I should keep away from it as far as possible.\"\n\nThe man said, \"You are the coachman I want.\"\n\nThe way that last coachman felt about the precipice is the way for boys\nand girls to feel about temptation. Some things that are wrong are like\nthin ice: they tempt you to see how far you can go, and the first thing\nyou know you are in. A boy, especially, is tempted to be what is known\nas a \"daredevil;\" that is, one who is not afraid of anything. But there\nis nothing in it, boys. That sort of thing is not courage: it is\nrashness, which is just another name for foolishness.\n\nShakespeare once said:\n\n  \"I dare do all that may become a man,\n  Who dares do more is none.\"\n\nThe really brave boy is not the one that blusters and brags: the brave\nboy is usually quiet, but, as we say, \"all there\" when the pinch really\ncomes.\n\nChrist was one of the bravest men the world ever knew, and yet He told\nus to be afraid, actually afraid, of things that hurt our souls.\n\nDo not see how near the fire you can go without getting scorched; don't\nsee how near sin you can go without getting caught. It is poor business.\nTake this as your motto when you are inclined to tamper with wrong: \"Who\neats with the devil needs a long-handled spoon.\" The farther you keep\naway from him, the better.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIERCEST THING IN THE BIBLE\n\n\nI suppose if I should ask you which is the fiercest animal mentioned in\nthe Bible, I should get many different answers. Some of you would say\nthe lion; some, the bear; some the panther; some, the wolf; and so on.\nBut none of these is right, and I will tell you why. All of these\nanimals can be tamed, more or less; but there is one fiercer thing than\nall these, and it cannot be tamed, so one of the apostles says.\n\nIt is kept behind two red doors and more than twenty white bars, and its\nname is spelled as follows: T-O-N-G-U-E. Yes, that is it, the tongue.\nJames says, \"The tongue can no man tame.\"\n\nIt is not only one of the fiercest things mentioned in the Bible, but it\nis also one of the crudest. I suppose you never thought that you could\nkill a person with your tongue, did you? And yet I have known some\npeople say such mean things about others that those people were killed\nas far as living in their town was concerned, and had to move away, for\nall their influence was dead.\n\nA pretty safe way when you are tempted to say anything unkind about\nanother boy or girl, who is not present, is to ask yourself if it is\nfair play, since the other cannot defend himself; for I know that you\nall want to play fair. That is the basis of all true sport.\n\nAnd then remember also that when once you have said an unkind thing you\ncannot take it back, for it lives on in spite of you.\n\nPerhaps you recollect the interesting idea which the old Hebrews had of\nthe separate existence of words as soon as they were spoken. A curse\nonce uttered could not be recalled because it now existed independently\nof the speaker. You remember the story of the blessing of Jacob by\nIsaac. Isaac could not give it to Esau, because it had passed beyond his\ncontrol.\n\n  \"Boys flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds;\n  You can't do that way when you're flying words,\n  Things that we think may sometimes fall back dead,\n  But God Himself can't kill them when they're said.\"\n\n\n\n\nSACRIFICE HITS\n\n\nI hope that all you boys play baseball, and that many of you are on\nbaseball teams. If you are, I suppose you know what is meant by a\nsacrifice hit.\n\nIt is called a \"sacrifice hit\" when the score is close and a player\ncomes to the bat, and, although he would like to make a run,\nnevertheless, for the sake of the man on the base, he makes a \"bunt,\" so\nthat, while the pitcher or shortstop runs up to get the ball and put him\nout on first base, the man on the bases may make another base.\n\nYou see, then, that instead of making what is called a \"grand-stand\nplay\" he just gives up his own glory for the sake of his team.\n\nDid you ever think that your parents are constantly making \"sacrifice\nhits\" for you? Whenever your mother goes without a new dress in order\nthat you may have a better suit of clothes; whenever your father gives\nup some pleasure to keep you in school, they are making a sacrifice hit\nfor you.\n\nAnd after all, boys and girls, that is about the only way the world has\never moved very far ahead. Socrates, an old Greek, made a sacrifice hit\nwhen he was put to death in prison with poison, because he wanted to\nmake the young men of Athens wiser. Martin Luther made a sacrifice hit\nwhen he went to Worms, although he feared the Pope would kill him. But\nhe was determined to get liberty for the people.\n\nBut the biggest sacrifice hit that was ever made was made by Christ when\nHe was crucified on Calvary, in order that the world might know that God\nwas a Father and loved His children.\n\nAnd every boy and girl who would follow in the footsteps of Christ, and\nwould be strong and noble, must be prepared to make sacrifice hits,--to\nforget themselves and do things for the sake of others. Jesus said, \"I\ncame not to be ministered unto, but to minister.\" And a minister is one\nwho serves, one who makes sacrifice hits.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIBERTY OF OBEDIENCE\n\n\nI know it would seem strange if I told you that every boy and girl has\nto be tied to something in order that he may be free. And yet that is\nthe exact truth.\n\nThe majority of you no doubt know what the multiplication-table is, and\nI am sure you have thought it a pretty disagreeable thing. Perhaps you\nhave wondered why seven times eight is always fifty-six, and why your\nteacher insists that it shall be that every time. You don't see why it\ncan't be fifty-five just once, or possibly fifty-seven. But, no, sir; it\nis _always_ fifty-six.\n\nWhen you get farther along in life I believe you will be glad to know\nthat seven times eight is _always_ fifty-six, whether you meet it in the\ngrocery-store, or in the bank, or in New York, or in Philadelphia, or in\nChina; for it will be a comfort to know that the multiplication-table\ndoes not change, like many other things, as you go from place to place.\nWhenever or wherever you meet it, it is always the same. Now, because\nyou were tied to that table as a boy or girl, you will be free to go\nwhere you like with it in after-life.\n\nThe same is true about riding a bicycle. You know that in order to be\nfree to ride a bicycle you must obey the rules of riding it; that is,\nwhen you are in danger of falling to the right you must turn the front\nwheel to the right. If you do not, you will fall off.\n\nHere again, you see, you must be tied in order to be free.\n\nYou will find that a rule all through life. That is why your parents and\nteachers lay down so many rules for you. It is not because they want to\nhedge you in and torment you, but that you may be free men and women\nlater.\n\nBoys and girls who are never tied up, sooner or later find that as men\nand women they are not free. Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, would\nnot be tied up to any rules as a girl. She was wilful and wild, so in\nlater life she caused the death of her husband and herself.\n\nThat same rule is even true of stars. Comets are tramp stars. They\nrefuse to be tied up, and they ramble about all over the sky. So they\nnever have trees and flowers on them. Our earth, on the other hand, is\ntied up to the sun and goes round it like a horse round a racetrack, and\nso it is bound by seasons and brings forth beautiful trees and flowers.\n\nAmong other disadvantages of being a comet is that comets are in danger\nof losing a great part of their substance every time they approach the\nsun. Halley's comet, which used to be such a wonderful sight, has\ndwindled away to a very great extent. When it came a few years ago\nscarcely any one saw it.\n\nSo it is always: to be really free and to grow you must be tied; and I\nhope that none of you children will ever be fretful when your parents\nand teachers make rules that you do not see the meaning of, but which\nare for your good.\n\n\n\n\nCUTTING CORNERS\n\n\nHave you boys and girls ever noticed how all the curbings at the corners\nof the streets in the city are worn smooth by drivers of carts and\nwagons trying to cut the corners as closely as possible?\n\nBut the principal thing to notice about those curbs is that you will\noften find on them the paint, sometimes red and sometimes black or\nyellow, scratched off the wheels of these carriages that are so anxious\nto cut corners. And the wheels that cut corners soon get to looking\nshabby from lack of paint.\n\nThat is the way it nearly always happens with people who try to cut\ncorners. I know boys and girls who try it in school.\n\nThey try to skim through by doing just as little work as possible. They\ncut the corners as closely as possible with their lessons, so that they\ncan have time for play. They do that with the work in subtraction, and\nthen, when they get into multiplication or division, they have all\nsorts of trouble. And soon their arithmetic looks very shabby indeed.\n\nOther boys and girls try to cut corners with the truth. They see just\nhow near a lie they can come, and yet keep within the bounds of truth.\nSomething inside tells them it is not quite fair. And again, when that\nhappens, they have rubbed some of the bright, beautiful paint, so to\nspeak, off their consciences. And before long their consciences get to\nbe quite shabby, and not at all new, and people begin to say that they\ndon't quite trust that boy or girl.\n\nAnd so I say to you, boys and girls, it does not pay to cut corners.\nGive yourselves plenty of room. Be open and fair and industrious. For\none who cuts close corners as a boy or girl, usually grows up into a\nvery small sort of man or woman.\n\n\n\n\nHABITS\n\n\nI wonder if I can make plain to you what a habit is. Have you ever seen\nmen laying concrete sidewalks here in the city, and they put boards\nacross to keep people from walking on the pavements before they were\nthoroughly dry? I am sure you have. These men keep people off the walk\nwhile it is soft because, if any one steps on it, then his footprints\nharden into the walk as it dries, and will always remain there.\n\nNow, boys' and girls' minds are just like those cement walks when they\nare wet and soft; and if you do a thing over and over again as a boy or\ngirl, you will make such a deep mark in your brains that when you grow\nup you cannot get the mark out, and you just keep on doing it, whether\nyou want to or not.\n\nWhen once you do a thing, it is easier to do it again. Even cloth and\npaper find it easier to do a thing a second time than the first. The\nsleeves of your dresses and coats fall into the same wrinkles and\ncreases every time you put them on. That is what we call the \"hang\" of a\ndress or coat. And if you fold a piece of paper once, it quickly gets\nthe habit of folding along the same crease again.\n\nAnd so you see that it is very important for you to get good habits as\nboys and girls, for first you make the habits, and then the habits make\nyou.\n\nYou have often seen a little brook running along between its banks and\nover its pebbly bed. Well, once there was no brook-bed there, but\ngradually, years ago, a little stream began to trickle through, and\nfinally it wore out a bed for itself. Now it cannot leave the bed if it\nwishes to. That is just what you do when you make a habit: you make a\ncourse which you will follow later in life.\n\nFirst you take the train, then the train takes you. First the stream\nmakes the bed, then the bed guides the stream.\n\nThey tell us that after we are thirty years of age we are little more\nthan a bundle of habits. I suppose thirty years seems a long way off\nfor you boys and girls, but you will reach it if you live. And there\nwill be men living somewhere who will hear the name that you boys now\nhave, and you are deciding now by the habits you make what sort of man\nhe is going to be. If you want him to be a good, honorable, strong man,\nbe sure you form good habits now.\n\n\n\n\nA LESSON IN COURTESY\n\n\nI read a story recently of how a young man got his start in life through\nbeing courteous. This young man was an assistant doorkeeper in the\ncapitol at Washington. His work was to direct people where they wanted\nto go in that great building.\n\nOne day he overheard a stranger ask one of the other doorkeepers for\nhelp in finding one of the senators from California. The doorkeeper\nanswered in a very discourteous way that it was none of his business\nwhere the senators were.\n\n\"But can't you help me?\" the stranger said. \"I was sent over here\nbecause he was seen to come this way.\"\n\n\"No, I can't,\" the doorkeeper answered. \"I have trouble enough looking\nafter the representatives.\"\n\nThe stranger was about to turn away when an assistant, who had overheard\nthe conversation, said: \"If you are from California, you have come a\nlong way, I will try to help you.\" Then he asked him to take a seat, and\nhurried off in search of the senator.\n\nHe soon brought him to the stranger, who then gave his card to the\ndoorkeeper and asked him to call at his hotel that evening.\n\nThat stranger was Collis P. Huntington, who was a great railroad\nofficial in those days.\n\nWhen the doorkeeper called upon him that night, Mr. Huntington offered\nhim a position at nearly twice the salary he was then receiving. He\naccepted the new position and was rapidly promoted from that time on.\n\nThe lesson I would have you learn from this is that you never know when\na good deed is going to return to you. I don't mean that you should be\ncourteous, expecting that you are going to be paid for it each time, for\nthe greatest pay for kindness is just the feeling that you have helped\nsomeone. As the old saying goes, \"Civility costs nothing,\" and on the\nother hand, you never gain anything by getting the ill-will of anybody\nor anything, even of a dog. Be courteous: it is the mark of a gentleman,\nof a lady, and it is often the passport to success.\n\n\n\n\nLITTLE FOXES\n\n\nIn far-off Syria, a country lying northeast of Palestine, the land in\nwhich Jesus was born, the farmers who keep vineyards are very much\ntroubled with foxes and bears, which destroy their crops at night. And\nso, to protect their vineyards, they build high stone-walls about them,\nand put broken bottles on the top to keep these animals out, much as\nsome people in this country who have orchards do, in order to keep out\nsmall boys.\n\nThese fences keep out the bears, because they cut themselves on the\nglass in trying to climb over, and they also keep out some of the foxes.\nBut after all, when the grapes are nearly ripe, the owners of the\nvineyards and their men are obliged to build platforms up above the\ntrellises, and stay there all night, in order to guard their crops.\nThese watchers manage very well with all the other wild animals\nexcepting the little foxes. They can see the big foxes and drive them\noff, but the little ones they cannot see, and so these destroy the\nvines. I suppose that it was an experience something like that which led\none of the Bible-writers to say that the little foxes destroy the vines.\n\nIt seems to me that this is very true with sins, too; it is the little\nsins that destroy us. When a big sin like stealing, lying or cheating\ncomes along we can see that easily enough, and we will not let it over\nthe fence into our lives. We drive it away, and are soon rid of it. But\nwhen the little sins come, like little foxes, we do not see them, and so\nthey get in and destroy our character.\n\nWhat are some of these little foxes? I think one is pride, which makes\nyou so conceited, because you live in a big house or have an automobile\nor fine clothes, that you will not speak to or play with other boys and\ngirls who have not quite such fine things, although they may be just as\nbright and just as good as you. Pride is a little fox that kills the\nvine of brotherliness which Christ planted in our hearts.\n\nThen another little fox is sulkiness. Sulkiness makes you frown and go\naway in a corner. It sucks up all the sunlight there is, and makes the\nworld very gray and dull, like a day in November. This fox kills the\nvine called \"peace\" which Christ planted.\n\nOne more little fox is jealousy. This makes boys and girls dislike\nothers who get higher marks than they in school, or who have more\nfriends, or better toys. It is one of the most destructive little foxes\nthere is, for it kills the best vine of all that Christ planted: that\nis, love.\n\nBe careful, then, boys and girls, of these little foxes, for they are\nworse than bears and big foxes, because they look so small and harmless,\nand slip by when you are not paying attention, but which destroy your\ncharacter as readily as the others.\n\n\n\n\nA TRICKY OX\n\n\nI want to tell you to-day about a tricky ox I once read about. I suppose\nyou will at once think that this ox was in a circus. But he wasn't. Far\nfrom it! It would have been better for some other cattle if he had been.\n\nThis ox is kept in the stockyards at Chicago. In those stockyards they\nkill thousands of cattle every year to give us beef to eat. When the\ncattle come to these stockyards they are not tame cattle like the cows\nwe see out in our pastures, but they are cattle that have pastured out\non the great broad prairies, and they have seen very few people. And for\nthat reason they are very timid and hard to get close to. So it is\ndifficult to get them near the pens where they want them.\n\nHere is where the tricky ox comes in. In one of those yards they keep a\nblack, short-tailed ox known as \"Bob,\" and he just walks along in an\nunconcerned way toward the pens, and he looks so calm and unafraid that\nthe other cattle just take confidence and follow along after him. And\nthen, before they know it, they are in a trap and can never get out. But\nin the meanwhile Bob has slipped away, to play the same trick on other\ncattle.\n\nThere are some boys and girls just like that ox. They are always urging\nother boys and girls on to do wrong things, telling them that they are\ncowards if they don't take the \"dare\" and do it, and showing how brave\nthey are. But when they have got you into a scrape, and the real\nbusiness of punishment begins, they can't be found anywhere: they have\nslipped out like old Bob.\n\nYou must be on the lookout for boys like that. Don't be afraid to be\ncalled a coward by them. Don't let them \"dare\" you to do things which\nyour conscience tells you are foolish or wrong. You will be a bigger\ncoward if you do these things because you are ashamed not to take the\ndare.\n\n\n\n\n\"SHINE INSIDE\"\n\n\nAs I was passing along the street the other day I saw on the window of a\nbootblack's parlour the words, \"Shine Inside.\"\n\nI want to turn these words around and make a motto of them for you boys\nand girls. For I think that if every boy and girl would shine inside,\nour homes, and the world in general, would be a much happier place.\n\nOf course there are some boys and girls who shine only on the _outside_.\nA little while ago I read a story about Byron, a great poet, of whom you\nwill learn later in school. A man said to Sir Walter Scott that he\nwished he might have seen Byron when he was alive. He said he had only\nseen a photograph of him. Scott said, \"Yes, the luster is there [in the\nphotograph], but it is not lighted up.\" Now, there are some boys' and\ngirls' faces that have a luster, but it is not lighted up.\n\nOr their faces are like a mirror that shines brightly only when there\nis sunlight or some other light falling upon it. The mirror only shines\noutside. The luster is not always lighted up. I know boys and girls who\nshine outside only when other boys and girls play the game which they\nwant them to play, or when they get the clothes they want to wear or the\nfood they want to eat, or when they are out in pleasant company. But\nwhen they don't have their own way, then their faces are very cloudy.\n\nBut the boy or girl who shines _inside_ is one who \"irons out his\nwrinkles with a smile\" even though things do not exactly please him, and\nhe thinks of other people instead of himself.\n\nNow, how can boys and girls shine inside so that they will always shine\noutside whether they have their own way or not? Well, you remember that\nthe Bible says that when Moses came down from the mountain his face\nshone, because he had been talking with God. That is the secret, boys\nand girls. When a man or a woman or a boy or a girl talks often enough\nwith God in prayer and asks to be made like Christ, then a light is\nlighted within him which causes his face to shine. You remember Christ\nsaid, \"I am the Light.\" Let Him into your heart, and you will shine\ninside.\n\n  \"The man worth while is the man with a smile\n    When everything goes dead wrong.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE STORM-KING EAGLE\n\n\nIf you have been up the Hudson River from New York to Albany by the\nday-boat, you will probably have noticed a high mountain on the\nright-hand side of the river by the name of Storm King.\n\nI want to tell you about an eagle that used to live there. He could be\nseen there almost any day soaring high above the mountain-peak. And many\na hunter had tried to shoot him. But he avoided them all. And how do you\nthink he did it? Did he hide from them? No. Just by flying so high that\nthe bullets could not reach him, or, if some chance bullet did reach\nhim, he was so far away that it just kissed his plumage and fell back to\nearth without doing him any harm.\n\nI wish that every boy and girl were as wise as that old eagle. That is\nalways the way to avoid being wounded by sins: just keep high up above\nthem. I mean by that, when you are tempted to do anything that is\nwrong, not to stop and argue with yourself whether you will get caught\nif you do it, or whether you will be happier if you do not do it, or any\nof these things by which you lose time. But just get right away from it:\nput it out of your mind.\n\nI suppose you will wonder how you can do that. I will tell you. You have\noften heard about \"wishing-caps,\" and how the people in fairy-stories\nput them on and just wish themselves wherever they want to be, and quick\nas a flash they are there. Well, there is a wishing-cap that every boy\nand girl can put on when he is tempted; it is this prayer, \"O God, help\nme not to do this thing which is wrong!\" And if you say that prayer, and\nbelieve God will help you, it will take you high out of reach of the\nsin, just as that old eagle flew high above reach of the bullets. For\nGod says that they who ask Him for help shall \"mount up on wings as\neagles.\"\n\n\n\n\nA DOG WHICH ATE THE BIBLE\n\n\nI heard an amusing story sometime ago about a savage in Africa who came\nto a missionary very much excited and told him that his dog had been\ncompletely spoiled as a watch-dog because he had chewed up and eaten a\nsmall New Testament he had happened to get hold of. He said that the dog\nwould never be of any more use because the New Testament which he had\nswallowed would take all the fight out of him, and he could no longer\nkeep wild animals away from the sheep.\n\nThat seems a strange notion for a grown-up man to get into his head,\ndoesn't it? And yet, boys and girls, I run across some young people even\nhere in America that think if they let Christ into their hearts it will\nmake them sort of \"wishy-washy\" and \"goody-goody,\" and not strong and\nrugged people.\n\nIt is true that to be a Christian does take some of the fight out of a\nperson, but it is the quarrelsome kind of fighting that has neither\nbeauty nor strength in it which it takes out of one. But when you come\nto read history you will find that some of our bravest soldiers were\nChristians. John Havelock, a British general who fought in India for the\nsake of his country, was called \"The Christian Warrior.\" Sir Oliver\nCromwell, who had to lead an army in England against the king, who was\nill-treating the people, had a body of soldiers under him who were\nChristians, and they were such good soldiers and so hard to defeat that\nthey were called \"Cromwell's Ironsides.\" Sometimes just before battle\nthese soldiers used to sing hymns and then pray on the battlefields. And\nbecause they were Christians it made better and braver soldiers of them.\n\nAnd so the truest kind of courage that any boy or girl can have is the\nkind that Christ gives. Paul tells all of us Christians to be \"good\nsoldiers.\" The Bible takes the wrong kind of fight out of you and puts\nthe right kind of fight into you, the fight for noble things.\n\n\n\n\nSTEAM AND SAILS\n\n\nAll the vessels on the oceans can be divided into two classes:\nsteamships and sailing vessels. The sailing vessels, as you know, set\ntheir broad white sails like wings to catch the favouring winds, and\nthen they go scudding across the seas like birds to their distant\nharbours. But when there is no wind these vessels must sometimes lie\nbecalmed, and do not move for days or sometimes weeks. The steamships,\non the other hand, do not depend upon the wind to drive them ahead.\nTheir power comes from great engines away down in the heart of the\nvessel. Even if the wind blows right in the face of the ship, it only\nmakes the boiler-fires burn faster and brighter, and she plunges ahead\nin spite of wind or tide.\n\nBoys and girls also can be divided into two classes, like ships. Some\ndepend upon other boys and girls to make them go; others have the \"go\"\nin themselves. These people with the \"go\" in themselves we call\n\"go-ahead\" sort of people. They are the boys and girls who become\nleaders. The others are followers.\n\nWhat the world most needs is these \"go-ahead\" people. There are plenty\nof people who go like a sailing vessel when there is something from the\noutside to send them along. I heard a man say the other day that another\nman was like \"a chip in a pan of milk;\" that is, he went only where he\nwas pushed.\n\nIf you want to have \"go\" in yourselves, try to think things out for\nyourselves. Don't do things just because somebody else does them. Don't\nwear things just because somebody else wears them. Don't say things just\nbecause somebody else says them. Paul says that people who are blown\nabout by every wind do not amount to much. I am sure of this, at least,\nthat I should rather be a steamship than a sailing vessel, that only\ngoes when a wind blows.\n\n\n\n\nA FISH-STORY\n\n\nA recent writer tells in one of his books of an experience he had as a\nboy when he went on a fishing-trip with his father.\n\nThey were wading along in brooks with their rubber-boots on. But\nsometimes the water was too deep for him, and he was in danger of\ngetting his feet wet by the water running in over the tops of his boots.\nWhen, however, they came to places like these, his father would take him\npig-a-back and carry him along, and then the boy would fish with his rod\nresting on his father's shoulder, and his line dangling in front. And\nthis writer says that he used to catch many fish in this way. Then he\nadds, \"How many of our best catches in life are made over someone's else\nshoulder?\"\n\nI think that fathers and mothers are always allowing their children to\nfish over their shoulders, don't you? When they send you to school to\nget an education, so that in later life you may enjoy good books, you\nare catching fish over their shoulders. When they give you money to\ntravel, so that you may know what a big, beautiful place the world is,\nyou are fishing over their shoulders. When they give you beautiful\nhomes, so that you shall have good friends and grow up thoughtful,\nwell-mannered men and women, you are fishing over their shoulders.\n\nIn fact, it seems to me that we should not catch many fish at all if it\nwere not for our loving, painstaking, unselfish parents.\n\nAnd don't you think we ought to be obedient and thoughtful of them when\nthey carry us along so uncomplainingly and rejoice in seeing us take in\nsuch beautiful catches from life?\n\n\n\n\nOPPORTUNITY\n\n\nHave you ever heard of a picture that was called \"Opportunity?\" It\nrepresents a person with a great deal of hair on her forehead, but none\non the back of her head. The meaning of the picture is this: When you\ncatch an opportunity as it _comes_, it is easy to hold; but once you let\nit get by you, it is very difficult to catch it again. It is something\nlike trying to catch a train that has just pulled out of the station.\n\nI used to live near a boy in Canada who did not like to go to school,\nand when the snow was deep and the weather was frosty he would find some\nexcuse by which he got his mother to let him stay at home. When he grew\nup he found out what he had missed by not getting an education, and he\ntried to make it up, but he could not. He was running after the train.\nHe soon got discouraged and gave up, and tried to get his living in some\nother way than by hard work. The last I heard of him he had just been\narrested for stealing.\n\nI have known other boys and girls who thought of joining the Church,\nbut they just kept putting it off and putting it off, thinking that any\ntime would do well enough. And then, as they got older, they felt that\nthey weren't good enough, or that some of their friends might not\napprove, and so they have grown up and have not yet joined, and each\nyear it keeps growing harder.\n\nThe two opportunities that you boys and girls ought to take \"by the\nforelock,\" as we say, are, first: in getting all the schooling you can\nwhile you have the chance. You will never have such a good opportunity\nagain, and if you let it slip you may never, never catch up. And second:\nin making as fine a start as you can in your Christian life by learning\nall you can about the Bible and by getting Christ's example into your\nhearts.\n\n\n\n\nGOD IS NOW HERE\n\n\nIn a sermon which Dean Stanley, an English minister, preached to\nchildren in Westminster Abbey, he told the following story: \"There was a\nlittle girl living with her grandfather. She was a good child, but he\nwas not a very good man; and one day, when she came back from school, he\nhad put in writing over her bed, 'God is nowhere,' for he did not\nbelieve in the good God, and he tried to make the little girl believe\nthe same as he.\n\n\"What did the little girl do? She had no eyes to see, no ears to hear\nwhat her grandfather tried to teach her. She was very small. She could\nonly read words of one syllable at a time; she rose above the bad\nmeaning which he had tried to put into her mind, because her little mind\ncould not do otherwise, and she read the words not 'God is nowhere,' but\n'God is now here.'\"\n\nAnd she was right. She was wiser than her gray-haired grandfather. For\nGod is now here. He is everywhere. And whenever even the smallest child\nspeaks to Him in the simplest prayer He hears the child's voice. God is\nnow here. That is a good motto for us to take with us to school, to keep\nus honest; to play, to keep us sweet; to our homes, to keep us\nunselfish.\n\n\n\n\nDAVID LIVINGSTONE'S FAITH\n\n\nNo doubt you have all heard of David Livingstone, the great missionary\nto Africa. I wish to tell you a story of his faith in Christ.\n\nHe was trying to cross one of the rivers of Africa one day with his\nlittle company of men, when the savages in that locality tried to\nprevent him. They gathered in large numbers with their spears and\npoisoned arrows and war-clubs, and blocked his way to the river.\nLivingstone and his little company were no match for these hostile\nwarriors, and it looked as if he and his men would be killed.\n\nThen he thought of a scheme of waiting till nightfall and of crossing\nover under cover of the darkness. But later that seemed to him a\ncowardly thing to do, and he tells us how the verse in the Bible came\nback to him in which Jesus says: \"All power is given unto Me in heaven\nand on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations ... and lo! I am\nwith you alway, even unto the end of the world.\"\n\nThe great missionary said of this verse: \"It is the word of a Gentleman\nof the most sacred and strictest honour, and there is an end on't. I\nfeel quite calm now, thank God.\"\n\nNext morning he crossed the river without any difficulty, although the\nbank was lined with savages armed to the teeth.\n\nI think that is always the way when we trust in Christ. He has promised\nnever to leave us nor forsake us, and we can rely upon His word.\n\n\n\n\nTHE HAPPY MAN\n\n\nOnce upon a time there was a king who was very rich, but very unhappy.\nHe had a beautiful marble palace, with extensive parks and grounds, fine\nhorses and carriages, but he was not happy.\n\nSo one day he called together his court-messengers, and sent them out\ninto the world, telling them to travel far and wide until they found a\nman who was happy beyond all others, and when they found him, to take\noff his shirt and bring it to him. For he thought that perhaps by\nwearing this shirt he might gain the happiness he sought.\n\nThe messengers went forth, and after a long search finally found a man\nwho seemed happier than all his fellows. And as he sat singing in the\nsunshine the king's messengers pounced upon him to take away his shirt;\nbut lo, when they took his coat off they found he had no shirt!\n\nThe story means this, that happiness does not depend upon what you have\nor have not. It comes from within, and not from without. If you have the\nright spirit you will have a song, riches or not. But if you have not\nthe right spirit you will not be happy, no matter what you have.\n\n\n\n\nA SERMON FOR THE BOYS\n\n\nA teacher said the other day that ninety boys out of every hundred who\nfail in grammar schools and high-schools smoke tobacco. He says also\nthat boys who smoke are nearly all unruly and disobedient in school. And\nhe says again, that boys who get their lessons well and stand high in\ngrammar-schools take lower marks in high-school if they begin to smoke\nin high-school. This ought to be enough to make any boy stop and think\nbefore he begins to smoke, for it shows that it not only hurts a boy's\nmind, but his morals also.\n\nI think the reason most boys take up smoking is not because they like\nit, but because their schoolmates do it, and they want to be one of \"the\ncrowd.\" When you boil that down it means either that a boy wants to be\nsmart, or else he has not courage enough to stand alone; that is, he is\na coward.\n\nYou would not think much of a boy who was about to enter a race and,\njust before he entered it, hurt his foot on purpose, so that he could\nnot run his best, would you? Well, that is just what every boy does who\nsmokes: it hinders him in the race of life. You ought not to smoke\nbefore you are twenty-one years old, because your body is not strong\nenough to stand it. The safest way is not to smoke at all, but at least\ndon't smoke until you get your growth.\n\n\n\n\nTIRE-TROUBLE\n\n\nPeople who own automobiles have a great deal to say about\n\"tire-trouble.\" There are a great many kinds of tire-trouble. In the\nfirst place, a tire often gets punctured by a nail running into it. Then\nthere are \"blow-outs\" caused by the inner tube giving way. Then there\nare leaky valves, by which the air slowly leaks out. There are also\nsand-blisters, caused by little particles of sand getting into the tire\nand making a swelling in it, which soon gives way. And finally tires may\nget rim-cut, which means that the steel rim which fastens them on wears\nthem through by rubbing. The result of these things is what is known as\na flat tire with all the air gone out, and the automobile bumps on the\nhard rim.\n\nBoys and girls have tire-troubles, too. I have seen boys and girls get\nso vexed about things that they just exploded in a burst of temper like\na blow-out in a tire. I have known them to run up against something\nsharp and difficult which took all the buoyancy out of them, just like a\nnail causing a puncture in a tire. I have known them to tell a lie,\nalthough nobody else knew it, and it bothered them so inside that it was\nlike sand on the inside of the tire causing a sand-blister. I have known\nthem to fret about things so that all their enthusiasm leaked away just\nas the tire that had a leaky valve. And finally I have known them to be\nrim-cut by associating with some sharp-tongued boy or girl. The result\nof all this was a flat tire, and these boys and girls just went bumping\nalong without any happiness or lightness of heart. They couldn't get\nanywhere with their work or their play.\n\nThe only cure that I know of for a boy or girl with a flat tire is more\nof God's uplifting strength.\n\nGod says that they who trust in Him shall run, and not be weary.\n\n\n\n\nWATCHING FOR IDLE BOYS\n\n\nProbably all boys and girls whisper in school if they think the teacher\nwill not catch them. Some teachers set boys and girls to watch one\nanother and to tell on one another when they see anyone whispering. I do\nnot think that is a fair thing to do, for it makes tell-tales of boys\nand girls. And tell-tales are never attractive.\n\nThe story I am going to relate to you is about a teacher who set the\npupils in a room to watch each other, and to tell if they caught anyone\nidle. One boy had a grudge against another, and he thought that now\nwould be the time to get even with him. So he watched carefully, and as\nsoon as he found the other boy idling he called the teacher's attention\nto it. Of course every boy and girl waited anxiously to see what the\nteacher would do. And then something unexpected happened. The teacher\nsaid to the tell-tale: \"So you saw this boy idling, did you?\"\n\n\"Yes, sir,\" quickly answered the boy.\n\n\"Then,\" said the teacher, \"what were you doing when you found him\nidling?\" The boy blushed, and hung his head. He not only had been caught\nidling himself, but playing a mean trick. That was a lesson for him: he\nnever watched for idle boys again. And it ought to be a lesson for us,\ntoo, when instead of attending to our own work, we neglect it, and try\nto get other people into trouble.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST AND THE DOG\n\n\nMy children's sermon to-day has to do with a legend. A legend is a story\nthat has come down to us from the olden times, but which cannot be\nproved to be true. This legend is about Christ.\n\nIt tells of how one day He was walking down a street in Jerusalem and\nsaw a company of people gathered about a dead dog in the street. Now,\ncity dogs in the land where Christ lived are not petted as they are in\nour own country. They act as scavengers, and live on whatever they can\npick up. They are shaggy and dirty and yellow. The people stone them and\nkick them, and do not call them by kind names.\n\nSo the people who had gathered about this dog were making unkind remarks\nabout it, saying how ugly it was, when Christ came up, and looking at\nthe dog, He said, \"But do you see what beautiful, even, white teeth he\nhas?\" Then, it is said, the people knew this must be Christ, who could\nfind something to praise even in a dog like that.\n\nBut that was the way Christ always dealt with people. He always saw\nsomething good in them. And when people knew that Christ saw something\ngood in them, they tried to live up to what He saw, and to be good.\n\nYou remember how Zaccheus, the little, short man who had been robbing\nthe people by collecting too much tax-money, climbed up into a sycamore\ntree to see Christ pass by. Christ told him that He was going to take\ndinner with him. And when Christ dined with him, Zaccheus felt that\nChrist thought he was better than he was, and he became so ashamed of\nwhat he had been doing that he went and gave the money back.\n\nAnd Christ's rule is a good rule for us to follow. If we wish people to\nbe good, we must look for the good things in them. If we _expect_ them\nto be good, they will _try_ to be good. There is a jailer in Chicago\nwho, when a man has served his term in jail, gives him a letter of\nrecommendation so that he can get a job. And the men who get these\nletters are ashamed to do wrong and to get into jail again, because of\nthe disappointment they will cause the jailer who believes in them.\n\nA girl once said to her mother, who was always finding something good\ninstead of bad to say of people, \"Mother, I believe you would have\nsomething good to say of the devil.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said her mother, \"we might all admire his perseverance.\"\n\nTry to see how many good things you can see in people. It's the best\ngame of all to play.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOY WHO WAS TO BE MANAGER\n\n\nA boy recently answered an advertisement of a certain firm in New York\nwhich wanted an office-boy. He went to the office, and as he was a\nbright, neat-looking boy, he made a good impression upon the manager.\nThe manager liked him and told him to report for work the following\nmorning.\n\nThe boy was about to leave the office in great glee, when the manager\ncalled him back and asked him to write his name, in order that he might\nsee whether or no he was a good writer. The boy wrote his name in such a\nmiserable scrawl that the manager could hardly read it, and he told the\nboy that he was very sorry, but he would be obliged to cancel his\nagreement, and could not take him on.\n\nHe then advised the boy to take lessons in penmanship, in order to\nimprove his writing.\n\n\"But,\" the boy said, \"why do I need to be a good penman? I'm going to be\na manager some day, and I'll have a stenographer to do my writing for\nme.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the man, \"that may be true. But before you get to be a\nmanager anywhere you will have to work up to it through a great many\nyears of lower positions, and you must learn to write.\" The boy could\nnot see why, and went to find work elsewhere, before improving his\nwriting.\n\nThere are a great many people just like that boy. They expect to be\nmanagers, superintendents, presidents, but they don't see that they must\nwork up to it, and every step must be faithfully and patiently taken.\n\nSome boys expect to be good at long division, and they do not take any\npains to learn subtraction thoroughly. Or they expect to be good in\nEnglish, and will not study grammar. They are like the boy in this\nstory.\n\nSome girls expect to appear like ladies, but they pay no attention to\nwhat their mothers say about neatness,--such as keeping their hair in\norder and their shoes clean. These girls are also like the boy of the\nstory.\n\nMost things worth while in life have to be worked for, and as you\ncannot well get upstairs at one jump, but must take the steps between\none by one, so the good things of life come by patiently filling in each\ntask with care and faithfulness. Then the big things will take care of\nthemselves.\n\n\n\n\nA TALE ABOUT WORDS\n\n\nBoys and girls like fairy-tales. So my sermon to-day is to be in that\nform. This fairy-tale comes from France, and it is told by Katherine\nPyle in her book, \"Fairy-Tales from Many Lands.\"\n\nA widow had two daughters. One was coarse and slovenly, with an ugly\ndisposition, but because she resembled her mother the woman loved her\nand thought her beautiful. The other daughter had hair like gold and a\ncomplexion like a pink rose, while her eyes were as blue as the sky. She\nwas sweet-tempered and kind, but her mother hated her, and gave her all\nthe hardest work to do and the poorest food to eat.\n\nOne day she gave her a heavy jug and sent her into the forest to bring\nwater for her sister. When the girl reached the spring she was tired and\nsad, and sat weeping on the stone. Presently a voice behind her asked\nfor a drink, and she turned and saw a withered old woman sitting there.\nSo she gently raised the jug to the woman's lips, and then refilled it\nand started home.\n\nBut the old woman called her back and said: \"Daughter, you have helped\none who is able to repay you for your kindness. Every word you speak\nshall be a pearl or a rose.\" The girl hastened home. Her mother met her\nwith scolding words, asking her why she had been so long. And when her\ndaughter explained to her, lo! every word she spoke was a pearl or a\nrose. The greedy old woman snatched up the pearls and left the roses.\n\nThen she called her other daughter,--the ugly one,--told her what had\nhappened, and said: \"Hasten, daughter! Take the silver pitcher and run\nto the fountain. If the fairy has given these for a drink from a jug,\nwhat will she give for a drink from a silver pitcher!\"\n\nThe girl sulked off to the fountain swinging the pitcher and loitering\nalong the way. When she reached there no old woman was in sight, but\nbeside the spring was a tall, beautiful young woman who asked her for a\ndrink. The ugly one replied, \"There is the pitcher, draw the water for\nyourself.\"\n\nWhen she was about to go, the young woman said sharply: \"Stop! the words\nthat fall from your lips are evil things, and they shall look like the\nthings they are. Every word you speak shall be a spider or a snake,\nuntil you learn to speak kindly.\"\n\nThe girl trudged off home scarcely thinking about what the woman said,\nlittle knowing that it was the same fairy who had spoken to her sister.\nBut when she began to answer her mother, spiders and snakes dropped from\nher lips, and she was very much frightened.\n\nI wonder whether our words would be pearls or spiders if we could see\nthem? Let us make them pearls.\n\n\n\n\nSUFFOCATED TREES\n\n\nWe sometimes hear of people being suffocated by gas, but it is not often\nwe hear of trees being suffocated.\n\nBut the other day I was walking down the street, and noticed that all\nthe trees on one side of the avenue for several blocks were dead. They\nlooked as if they had been fine, strong, healthy trees, and I could not\nunderstand why they had all died, until I was told that a gas-pipe\nbeneath their roots had leaked, and that the escaping gas had killed the\ntrees.\n\nI am sure you and I know people who are like those dead trees: they have\nbecome discouraged and wilted, and if you and I could dig down into\ntheir lives we should probably find something like that poisonous gas\nwhich has ruined them.\n\nSin is the most poisonous thing that gets into one's life.\n\nIf a boy or girl has done wrong and is hiding it from his father and\nhis mother, and his conscience is pricking him all the time, then he\ncannot be sunny and healthy like a growing tree. He becomes cross and\neasily provoked, and is sulky and wilted.\n\nIf you have done something wrong, which you ought to tell your parents\nabout, do not go to sleep until you have told them. If you do, you will\nwake in the morning with dread, and you will go around all day with a\ndull ache which will spoil all the sunshine. Moreover, if you begin\nkeeping secrets from your parents in this way you will have no one to\ncheck you in your misdeeds. Your parents may punish you, but they are\nthe best friends you have. And besides, there is no punishment like\nhiding a feeling of guilt. The next best thing after keeping from doing\nwrong is to own up to it in an honest way when you have done wrong. Many\na boy and girl would have been saved untold trouble if they had only\nbeen frank with their parents. One of the saddest days in any boy's or\ngirl's life is when they first keep a guilty secret from their parents.\n\n\n\n\nULYSSES AND THE SIRENS\n\n\nWhen you boys and girls get older and further along in school, you will\nprobably learn of a famous Greek whose name was Ulysses. He was noted as\na heroic seaman, who travelled over dangerous seas and into unknown\nlands.\n\nIn one of the seas where Ulysses sailed was an island known as the Isle\nof the Sirens. The sirens would attract sailors to their shores by\nbeautiful music. But when the sailors drew near the land they would\nirresistibly cast themselves into the sea, to their destruction.\n\nNow Ulysses had heard of the sirens through Circe, and he wanted to hear\nthe maidens sing, but he did not want to come within their power. So\nthis is the way he managed it. One day he put wax in the ears of all his\nsailors, so that they could not hear the music, and then had himself\nstrapped to the mast. Then he ordered the sailors to row near enough to\nthe island for him to hear the music. In this way he heard the singing,\nbut did not get caught.\n\nThat was a clever way of getting tempted, and yet not getting caught,\nwas it not? But someone has said in a joke it would have been better if\nUlysses had had an orchestra on board which would have made better music\nthan the sirens. Then neither Ulysses nor the sailors would have been\ntempted to go too near the dangerous isle.\n\nThat is a pretty good way of dealing with all kinds of temptation,--not\nby trying to keep temptation out, but by putting something more\nattractive in its place. If you are tempted to go to the moving\npictures, when you were told not to, do not simply stand around outside\nthe place with nothing else to do. Go off and play something which will\nbe more attractive than moving pictures. If you are told that you must\nnot go fishing, don't sulk around wishing that you could go. Just go at\nbaseball or something else, and soon you will have forgotten about the\nother thing.\n\nAlways put something else in the place of the thing you are not to do,\nand it will help you to overcome temptation.\n\n\n\n\nPOISON-LABELS\n\n\nYou have all seen bottles of poison, and you know when your father or\nmother buys poison from the druggist there is a label on the bottle\nmarked \"POISON\" in large letters, and on the label is a picture of a\nskull and crossbones. This is done to warn people from drinking the\npoison.\n\nNow, if a druggist were to put clear, pure water into a bottle, and put\na label marked \"Poison\" on it, no one would drink the water if he were\nchoking, for fear of being poisoned.\n\nAnd there are boys and girls just like that good, pure, fresh water with\nthe poison-label on it. They are good at heart. They are kind and\nunselfish and obedient, but nobody will have anything to do with them\nbecause they put such terrible poison-labels upon themselves.\n\nI will tell you what some of these poison-labels are which frighten\npeople away from boys and girls. One of them is slang. Now, of course,\nsome girls and boys who are inwardly little ladies and gentlemen use\nslang, but usually slang is used by low-bred people who have not words\nenough to say what they want to. And consequently when you use slang, if\npeople do not know that you are well-bred boys and girls, they think\nthat you are coarse and vulgar, and they will have nothing to do with\nyou.\n\nAnother poison-label that boys sometimes stick on is swearing. And of\ncourse that is always bad-mannered. Another is smoking. Another is bad\ncompany. I knew a boy who was really good at heart, but who persisted in\ngoing with bad boys, and no business man in town would take him into his\nbusiness because of that terrible label.\n\nGirls sometimes wear such poison-labels as forwardness; that is, they\nare always making themselves heard and seen. Others are proud. Others\nchew gum.\n\nI have not time to mention all of these different labels. You can think\nof them for yourselves. What I want to say is that it is too bad for\nsuch good, useful, well-intentioned and wholesome boys and girls to put\non labels which lead people to think less of them than they should\nthink. For by these things they spoil their chances of getting into the\ncompany of well-bred people.\n\n\n\n\nLIES THAT WALK\n\n\nWe usually think of a lie as a thing that is spoken. But there are other\nkinds of lies. Some girls that I once knew went to an office in New York\nand bought some labels with the pictures and names of hotels in Europe\nprinted on them. They pasted these on their suit-cases.\n\nNow, as you probably know, when people go to Europe some of the hotels\npaste labels on your suit-cases and trunks when they take your baggage\nto the station. Some people come home with their baggage quite covered\nover with these slips of paper, and one can easily see by these labels\nwhat a long distance the owners of the luggage have traveled.\n\nThese girls who bought those labels in New York, but had never been to\nEurope, were trying to make people believe that they, too, had traveled\nin foreign countries.\n\nOf course you know what that sort of deception means: it is telling a\nlie without speaking it.\n\nSo you see these lies went with the suit-cases. And wherever those\ngirls carried their bags, the lies walked along with them, and said to\neveryone who looked at them, \"Our owners have been to Europe.\"\n\nOf course, no self-respecting boy or girl would do such a thing. But you\nmust also be careful not to act falsehoods by pretending things in\nschool, or acting at home as if you don't know about things when you do.\nDon't try to fool _yourselves_, then you will not try to fool other\npeople.\n\n\n\n\nWELLINGTON AND THE SOLDIER\n\n\nNo boy likes to be called a coward, and some boys do things that are\ndangerous for fear that their friends will think they have no courage.\nSometimes it is more cowardly to do a dangerous thing like that than not\nto do it.\n\nDo not think that you are a coward because you are afraid of dangerous\nthings. Some of the bravest men the world ever saw have been afraid, but\nin spite of their fear they went firmly on.\n\nA story is told of Lord Wellington, a great English general, who saw a\nyoung man in his army who was white with fear just before a battle, and\nyet did not run away. Lord Wellington said: \"There is a brave man. He\nknows the danger, and yet he faces it.\" Another story is told of a\nsoldier who was making fun of a second who was badly frightened just\nbefore battle. The frightened soldier said to the other one: \"Yes, I am\nafraid. And if you were half as much afraid as I am, you would run\naway.\"\n\nThe lesson I want to draw is this, that it is not cowardly to be afraid\nof things which have danger in them. It is cowardly to run away if you\nought to face them. And if you ought not to face them it is cowardly to\ngo headlong into them, just because of some other boy's foolish dare.\n\nI remember a playmate who used to bite the heads off the fish he caught,\njust because another boy dared him to. It used to make him terribly\nsick, but he was too much of a coward not to do it. Some boys take up\nsmoking and drinking and swearing for the same reason. Any boy who does\nthat sort of thing is a coward.\n\n\n\n\nABRAHAM'S GUEST\n\n\nYou have all heard of Abraham, who went out from his home in Ur of the\nChaldees to find God. And you remember how he dwelt in tents, and had\nhundreds of cattle. And you know how good he was to his nephew, Lot.\n\nThere is a story told about Abraham which you will not find in the\nBible. Abraham received into his tent one day an aged traveler. After he\nhad invited the traveler to dine with him at his sunset meal, Abraham\nwent out to offer up his evening sacrifice to God. But the traveler\nwould not join him in prayer and thanksgiving. Abraham was angry because\nof the old man's lack of religion, and drove him from his tent.\n\nLater in the evening the angel of the Lord appeared to Abraham and asked\nhim why he had driven out the old man. Abraham replied:\n\n\"Lord, he refused to acknowledge Thee!\"\n\nThe Lord replied: \"What! I have borne with this old man for eighty\nyears, and you could not bear with him for two days!\" After that, so the\nstory goes, Abraham helped everyone who came along, no matter what his\nreligious belief might be.\n\nThat is a good story for boys and girls to remember when they feel that\nthey cannot forgive someone who has done them a wrong. What would become\nof you if God never forgave you when _you_ did wrong? It is this spirit\nof forgiveness that Christ means to teach us when He says in the Lord's\nPrayer, \"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.\" If, then, you\nsay that prayer and refuse to forgive anyone who has done you a wrong,\nyou mean that you want to have God act just as unforgiving with you as\nyou are with your enemies. That would be terrible,--to ask God not to\nforgive you. None of us would dare pray like that.\n\nYou remember Peter came to Christ once and asked how often we were to\nforgive people. Peter thought seven times was enough. But Christ said,\n\"No, you must forgive until seventy times seven.\" That would be four\nhundred and ninety times. Christ did not mean exactly that many times.\nBut He meant more times than you can think. That is, if you are a\nfollower of Christ you are to forgive a person as often as he is sorry\nfor having done you a wrong, and comes to you and asks your forgiveness.\n\n\n\n\nABOUT GENEROSITY\n\n\nWhen we speak of a person as being generous we usually think of someone\nwho gives his money, or whatever belongs to him, freely to others. But\ndid you ever think that people can be generous with their thoughts, too?\n\nLet me show you what I mean by that. There were once two boys who went\nto visit at a farm where they kept Shetland ponies, and of course both\nboys wanted to ride them. So one day they persuaded the man in charge of\nthe ponies to put the saddle on a handsome black one and lead him out\ninto the yard for them to mount. But when it came to actually getting on\nthe pony's back, the younger boy was afraid. Although the older boy\nurged him, he would not take a ride. Finally the other boy mounted and\nrode gaily off, and came back beaming with delight. But instead of being\nproud, and thinking the other boy cowardly, he went over to the younger\nlad and said: \"Now you get on. I know you can ride him.\" And when at\nlast the other did ride off, the older boy's eyes danced with delight,\nand he clapped his hands to encourage the younger boy. That is one of\nthe best forms of generosity.\n\nAnother illustration of it is when you are on a baseball or football\nteam, or in a contest of any sort, to be able to say when you are\nhonestly beaten that you were beaten by a better team. When you can say\nthat, it takes half the sting out of defeat and makes those who win\nadmire you more than ever.\n\nDon't be stingy with your thoughts about people. Always think the best\nabout others, and believe the best, and you will grow to be\nopen-hearted, friendly, lovable and big.\n\n\n\n\nSUN AND WIND\n\n\nOnce upon a time, according to an old fable, the sun and the northwind\nhad a contest to see which could take a man's coat off the more quickly.\n\nThe northwind tried first. It gathered together all its forces in its\nown corner of the earth, and then rushed forth upon this man who was\nwalking along a country-road. The wind blew and blew, and it seemed as\nif the traveller's coat would be blown from his back or torn to tatters.\nBut the harder the northwind blew the tighter the man drew his coat\nabout him, and the wind could not get it off his back. After it had\nspent all its force it gave up in despair.\n\nThen the sun had its turn. It came out without noise or violence like\nthe northwind. It did not whistle in the treetops nor bluster through\nthe bushes. It did not buffet nor struggle with the man. It just went on\npouring forth its heat. And it seemed as if it could never win, any\nmore than the northwind. But soon the traveller took out his\nhandkerchief and wiped the perspiration from his face. Then, before\nlong, he took off his hat. Soon he unbuttoned his coat, and finally he\ntook it off of his own accord. The sun had won the contest against the\nnorthwind!\n\nNow, a fable is meant to teach a lesson. The lesson of this fable is\nthat gentleness wins where only strength and rudeness fail. If some one\nhas done you a wrong, the way to deal with him is not to try to \"get\neven\" with him, as we say. Nor is the best way to get angry with him and\nscold him. The Bible tells us that the way to overcome your enemy is to\ndo good for evil, for it says by so doing you will \"heap coals of fire\nupon his head.\"\n\nUsually it is the weak people who bluster like the northwind, and storm\nand brag. Strong people are usually quiet. There is an old saying that\n\"if you are right you can afford to keep your temper, and if you are\nwrong you cannot afford to lose it.\" Be gentle. You will win more that\nway than by getting angry.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOY AND THE TURTLE\n\n\nTheodore Parker was one of the greatest preachers America ever had, and\nthis story is told of him as a boy. One day, as he was going across the\nfields, he came to a pond where he saw a small turtle sunning itself\nupon a stone which rose out of the water. The boy picked up a stick, and\nwas about to strike the turtle, when a voice within him said, \"Stop!\"\nHis arm paused in midair and, startled, he ran home to ask his mother\nwhat the voice meant. Tears came into his mother's eyes as she took the\nboy in her arms and told him that it was his conscience which had cried\n\"Stop!\" Then she told him that his conscience was the voice of God, and\nthat his moral safety depended upon his heeding that inner voice.\n\nThe same thing is true of all boys and girls. If you obey that inner\nvoice in questions of right and wrong, it will speak to you clearly.\n\nBut if you neglect it, it will grow silent, and you will be left in\ndarkness and in doubt as to what is right and wrong.\n\nSome people call this voice the \"inner light,\" and that is a very good\nname for it. Every time you walk by the light you put fresh oil in the\nlamp, and the light grows stronger and the way clearer.\n\nWhenever that inner voice speaks to you and tells you that a thing is\nwrong, don't argue with the voice and give reasons for doing the thing\nthat is wrong. Obey the voice at once, as Parker did, and it will save\nyou endless trouble.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BOY AND THE NICKEL\n\n\nA man once found a boy crying on the street, and asked the little chap\nwhat he was crying about. The child told him he had just lost a nickel.\nThe stranger gave him another, and then the boy began to cry again. This\ngreatly astonished the man, and he asked him why he was crying again.\nThe little chap said, \"Because, if I hadn't lost that other nickel, I'd\nhave two now.\"\n\nThat was, of course, a very foolish way to look at it, but that is the\nway a great many people look at things. This is what is called\ncovetousness. Covetous people always want something they have not, and\nso they are usually unhappy.\n\nThe way to be happy is to think of the things you have, and not of the\nthings you have not. A man was once told that C\u00e6sar was going to cause\nhim great unhappiness, and he replied that if C\u00e6sar could blot out the\nsun with a blanket he might make him unhappy. But if he had the sun to\nshine upon him, he would still be happy. We all have the sun to shine\nupon us, and other things a-plenty to be happy over, if we will just\ncount them up. Let us not be like the little boy crying about the nickel\nhe did not have.\n\n\n\n\nTHE THREE FATES\n\n\nBoys and girls in ancient Greece believed that there were three fates,\nin the form of three women seated above the clouds, who spun the thread\nof everyone's life, and cut it off with shears when death came.\n\nWe no longer believe in such things, but we still speak of fate. Boys\nand girls sometimes say that they are fated to fail in examinations, and\nso think they cannot help failing. But that is no more true than the\nbelief about the three women which the Grecian boys and girls held. As a\nmatter of fact, nothing outside of us makes evil things happen to us. We\nmake our own fates. Or shall I say, we _are_ our own fates? Someone has\nsaid, \"Our fates lie asleep along the roadside until we waken them.\"\nThat is very true, as I think I can show you by a story.\n\nNot long ago I was riding on a train up through Vermont. A boy came into\nthe car selling papers, books, candy, fruit, and other things. There\nwas a boy opposite me in the smoking-car who wanted to appear very smart\nand manly. He was smoking a cigar and looking very much traveled. The\ntrainboy offered him a book which had a bad title and worse pictures in\nit. But in front of this young chap sat two bright-faced,\ninnocent-looking boys who did not pretend to be anything but what they\nwere. The trainboy offered them salted peanuts. In front of those boys\nsat a fine, clean-looking, well-bred man. The trainboy offered him a\ngood, wholesome book.\n\nNow, three fates were in that car in the form of that trainboy, and each\nperson invited his own kind of fate by what he was in himself. That is\ntrue all through life. Be true, and you attract truth. Be evil, and you\nattract evil. Your fate is what you are.\n\n\n\n\nTHE INCH-WORM AND THE MOUNTAIN\n\n\nOut in the state of California there is a great valley known as the\nYosemite Valley, and here once lived a tribe of Indians who tried to\nexplain how the wonderful streams and trees and rocks came to be.\n\nThe story of one of the highest peaks, El Capitan, is very interesting.\nOne day some Indian boys went fishing in a beautiful lake in the\nYosemite, and after they had grown tired they lay down in the sun upon a\nrock beside the lake. They soon fell fast asleep. How long they slept\nthey did not know, but when they awoke they found that during their\nsleep the rock on which they lay had been stood on end, so that they\nwere now nearly a mile high in the air and had no means of getting down.\nThey were in a bad plight.\n\nBut the animals in the valley which were friendly to mountaineers saw\ntheir misfortune and held a conference as to how to help the boys get\ndown. They decided that the only thing to do was to try to climb up the\nface of the cliff. But the rock, was too steep, and so they tried to\njump up. First the raccoon tried it, then the bear, then the squirrel,\nthen the fox, and finally the mountain-goat. It was all to no avail,\nhowever, and they gave up in discouragement, and were about to leave the\nboys to perish, when the inch-worm came along and offered her services.\nThe animals laughed her to scorn. What could she do, with her\nsnail-pace, when they all, who were so fleet of foot, had to give it up!\n\nBut she would not be laughed out of her purpose, and she began to climb\nup the cliff. Slowly, inch by inch, she crawled up, so slowly that it\nseemed as if she would take a thousand years to get there. But as she\npassed crag after crag the animals below ceased making fun of her and\nbegan to shout encouragement. At last she reached the top. And then the\nGreat Spirit turned her into a huge butterfly so strong that she flew\ndown, with the boys on her back, to safety.\n\nThere is a verse in the Old Testament which says that the race is not\nalways to the swift, which means that it is not always the strongest who\nwin. It is the one who keeps at it. Many a bright boy fails in school\nbecause the lessons come so easily he does not work. Many a dull boy\nwins because he sticks to it and plods away.\n\nIf you are tempted to trust too much to your brightness, remember the\nanimals who made fun of the inch-worm. If you are dull, remember the\ninch-worm, take courage, and plod away. You will get there sometime.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FRENCH DRUMMER-BOY\n\n\nI want to tell you to-day of one of the bravest deeds ever done by a\nboy.\n\nIt happened this way. Back in the year 1793, when the French people were\nhaving trouble with their king and queen, and finally put them to death,\nthe rulers called in soldiers from other nations to help them against\ntheir own people. The foreign soldiers met the French troops before a\ntown called Maubeuge, and there a fierce battle was fought.\n\nThe fiercest part of the fighting was carried on against Hungarian\nGrenadiers, who held the market-place of the town. During this charge a\ndrummer-boy in the French army saw that his countrymen were having a\nhard time of it, so he slipped around back of these Hungarian soldiers\nto the other side of the market-place, right in the thick of the enemy,\nand there drummed the charge, in order to make his comrades think that\nsome of the French soldiers had already pushed through the enemy's\nranks, and so encourage the others to push on.\n\nMany years after, in digging up the ground about the market-place, the\nlittle bones of that drummer-boy were found buried alongside the bones\nof the tall Hungarian men amongst whom he had fallen. The French people\nhave put up a statue to his memory in the town of Avesnes, and he is\nshown still beating the charge on his drum, and looking out toward the\nfrontier whence the enemy of his people came.\n\n\n\n\nA KING IN THE STUFF\n\n\nIn the early days of the history of the children of Israel the people\nwere ruled by judges, and it was not until they saw the nations round\nabout them under the leadership of kings that they desired a king of\ntheir own. In spite of the warnings of the old prophet Samuel, they\ndemanded a king, and Samuel chose a young man, afterwards King Saul, to\nbe their ruler.\n\nBut when the people came together to make Saul King they could not find\nhim. They searched a long while, and finally God told them that Saul had\nhidden himself amongst the baggage. There they looked, and sure enough,\nas the old story says, there was a king \"hid in the stuff.\"\n\nThat was many hundreds of years ago, and kings are no longer made in\nthat way. But the story has a meaning still for every boy. There is\nstill a king hid in the stuff that goes to make up every boy. A great\nmany things about a boy in which he hides his kingship seem no better\nthan the worthless stuff in which Saul hid. There are mistakes,\noutbursts of temper, laziness, selfishness, impatience, deceit, and\ncruelty. But hidden beneath all that, God would have you remember that\nthere is still a king hid in the stuff.\n\nA story is told of the son of Louis XVI of France, whose father and\nmother were put to death by the people. He was thus left an orphan, and\nwas sent to live with a wicked man and woman who tried to teach him all\nmanner of wrongdoing. But when they tried to persuade him to do wrong,\nhe would refuse, and say that he was a king's son, and would some day be\nking himself, therefore he could not stoop so low.\n\nI wish every boy, when he is tempted to do some unmanly thing, would\nremember his kingship, too. You are not the son of an earthly king, but\nyou are each the son of a Heavenly King, and you, too, have the making\nof a king in you. You are too great to do mean things. There is an old\nhymn which runs like this:\n\n\"My Father is rich in houses and lands,\nHe holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands;\nOf rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold\nHe has gone to prepare us a mansion untold.\nI'm the child of a King, the child of a King,\nWith Jesus my Saviour, I'm the child of a King.\"\n\nAnd when you would do a mean thing, ask yourself if that is worthy of\nyour kingship. Remember also that only those who live Kingly lives are\nworthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\n\n\n\nBREAD AND WINE\n\n\nThis is Communion Sunday, when the Church celebrates what is known as\n\"the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.\" You remember that on the night\nbefore Christ was crucified He gathered His twelve disciples together\nthat He might have a quiet meal and talk with them. And it is that Last\nSupper, as it is known, which we call to mind when we observe Communion\nSunday.\n\nThe first Christians did not have communion on Sunday. They used to have\na common meal together on weekdays, and at a neighbour's house. At these\nmeals they would recall the sayings of Jesus and His loving deeds.\n\nBut Christ not only had the Last Supper with His disciples, and taught\nthem to remember Him in the breaking of the bread: He also gave them the\nlesson about the bread and the wine by which to remember Him.\n\nYou know how bread is made. Grains of wheat are put in the ground by the\nfarmer, and these grains give up their lives in order that other grains\nmay grow on the stalk at harvest-time. Then these grains are gathered\nin, and finally ground into flour. Christ also gave up His life just as\nthose first grains of wheat in the ground. And He meant to tell us by\nthe bread at communion that if we are to help other people we must be\nwilling to give up our own selfish desires for their sake.\n\nBy the wine at communion Christ meant to teach us that just as the\nbranch of a grapevine must be attached to the stalk before there can be\ngrapes, so you and I must keep close to Christ in order to be able to\nlive the life of unselfishness which shows that we are His followers. He\nsays: \"I am the vine, ye are the branches. Without me ye can do\nnothing.\"\n\nAfter Christ's death, whenever the disciples took their meal together,\nthey would think of Christ, and they would forgive one another and\nbecome more gentle and loving. Whenever we see the communion-table\nprepared, we also must think of Christ, forgive those who have wronged\nus, and try still harder to be unselfish and kind.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST CHRISTMAS CAROL\n\n\nIn England on Christmas eve boys and girls and men and women go about\nthe streets singing Christmas carols, or songs, at the doors of people's\nhouses, and the people for whom they sing give them tokens of their\ngood-will. The first verse of one of the oldest and best Christmas\ncarols is as follows:\n\n\"God rest you merry, gentlemen;\n  Let nothing you dismay,\nFor Christ was born of Mary\n  Upon a Christmas Day.\"\n\nThat is a very beautiful carol, but there is one still more beautiful.\nIt is the one the angels sang the night that Christ was born:\n\n\"Glory to God in the highest,\nPeace on earth to men of good-will.\"\n\nThis means that people who have good-will in their hearts toward other\npeople will have peace on earth. And how very true that is! People\ngenerally act toward us the same way in which we act toward them. If we\nare cross, others are cross; but if we are warmhearted and loving, then\npeople are warmhearted toward us. It is just like seeing your face in a\nlooking-glass. If you frown, the face in the mirror will frown. If your\nface is smiling, the one in the mirror will be smiling. That is another\nway of saying that you get what you give.\n\nChrist came into the world to teach us how to have good-will to men, and\nfrom our good-will to get happiness. Any boy or girl who faithfully\ntries to be like Christ, and to do as he believes Jesus would do if He\nwere in his place, will grow to have this good-will in his heart. Then\nsome day he will sing as the angels did, \"Glory to God in the highest,\"\nfor he will know God's peace. Christ said, \"Blessed are the\npeace-makers.\"\n\nHere is a verse for you to take as a motto:\n\n\"Where are you going? Never mind.\nJust follow the road that says, 'Be kind,'\nAnd do the duty that nearest you lies,\nFor that is the road to Paradise.\"\n\n\n\n\nA HINT FROM A CARIBOU\n\n\nThis is an animal-story. It is about a caribou. A caribou is a kind of\nreindeer, and lives in Canada.\n\nOne day a man was out in a stumpy pasture-field beside a woods in\nCanada, and he saw a mother caribou and her little calf feeding quietly\ndown in a valley nearby.\n\nHe was on a little hill some distance away, but the wind was blowing in\nthe direction of the caribou. Presently the mother caribou raised her\nhead, sniffed the air, and looked in the direction where the man was\nhidden behind a stump. She had caught the scent of a human being. That\nmeant danger to her calf. Soon the mother caribou, leaving her calf in\nthe valley, started in the direction of the man. He slipped from his\nhiding-place to another stump. On came the caribou till she reached the\nvery stump behind which the man had first hidden. There she smelled the\nground, and then a strange thing happened. She called her calf to her,\nhad it smell the ground, too, so as to get the scent of the man. When\nthat was done, she got behind that little caribou and butted it down the\nvalley as fast as it could go. Why did she do that? It was to teach her\ncalf that whenever it got that scent on the air, there was danger, and\nit must get away as quickly as possible.\n\nEver after that, even before the calf knew that this scent belonged to a\nman, or had seen a man, it would run away from it.\n\nYour parents are constantly doing for you what that mother caribou did\nfor her little one. When they tell you that such and such a thing is\nwrong, and you must not do it; when again they tell you there is danger\nin going to a certain place, or in chumming with a particular boy or\ngirl, they are again doing the same thing for you. And when they punish\nyou, as that mother caribou did her calf, it is because they know the\ndanger far better than you, and they know that your safety depends upon\nkeeping away from such things.\n\nThen, bye and bye, perhaps, as you grow older, you will begin to see\nfor yourself what the danger meant, just as the little caribou might\nsome day see a hunter for itself. And then you will no longer think your\nparents cruel or strict; you will be thankful that they were so wise and\nkind.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REPENTANCE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON\n\n\nWhen you begin to study English literature you will hear a great deal\nabout Samuel Johnson, who wrote one of the first English dictionaries,\nand was a great scholar. Johnson's father was a bookseller, who used to\nhave a little shop in the market-place, where he sold books on\nmarket-days. One day, when Johnson was a boy, his father took sick and\nasked Samuel to go to the market-place and sell books for him. Johnson\nwas ashamed of such work, and refused to go.\n\nBut many years afterward, when he had become an old man and was back on\na visit to his native village, he was missed from breakfast one morning\nby the friends with whom he was staying. On his return at supper-time he\ntold his friends how he had spent the day. It was fifty years ago that\nday when he had refused to help his father. He says: \"To do away with\nthe sin of this disobedience, I this day went in a post-chaise to\nUttoxeter, and going into the market at the time of high business,\nuncovered my head and stood with it bare an hour before the stall which\nmy father had formerly used, exposed to the sneers of standers-by and\nthe inclemency of the weather; a penance by which I trust I have\npropitiated Heaven for this only instance, I believe, of contumacy to my\nfather.\"\n\nThat is a story worth remembering when you are ashamed of doing\nsomething which your parents have asked you to do, perhaps to carry a\nparcel on the street or to mow the lawn. You will see sometime, I hope,\nthat all honest work, if it is well done, is a thing to be proud of,\ninstead of to be ashamed of. But it may be too late then. Your parents\nmay have died, and you, like Johnson, will come back with deep sorrow to\nthink how you had disobeyed and forsaken them when they needed you. The\nway to save yourselves such heartache is to be obedient to your parents\nas long as they live.\n\n\n\n\nEASTER\n\n\nOnce upon a time a Persian king was marching westward with a great army\nto fight against Greece. In the evening, after the army had encamped for\nthe night, someone found the king looking over the host of people spread\nout before him, and he was in tears. When he was asked the cause of his\nsadness, he replied that he had been thinking that one hundred years\nfrom that time not one of all these men in his army would be alive.\n\nThat was long before Christ lived, and had risen from the dead on Easter\nmorning. These people had no Easter. They did not believe in the sort of\neverlasting life in which we believe. And even long after the\nresurrection of Christ there were many people in Greece and Rome who had\nnot heard the wonderful news. Here is a letter that someone wrote over a\nhundred years after that first Easter to a mother whose son had just\ndied:\n\n     \"I was much grieved, and shed as many tears over your son as I did\n     over my own, and I did everything that was fitting, as so did my\n     whole family.... But still there is nothing one can do in the face\n     of such trouble. So I leave you to comfort yourselves. Good-bye.\"\n\nIf these people had known about our Easter they would not have felt so\nhopeless and sad. For since Christ has risen from the dead, we know that\nall who love Him and try to be like Him shall also rise from the dead,\nand be with Him in a life beyond the grave.\n\nHe said to His disciples before He was crucified: \"In my Father's house\nare many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to\nprepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will\ncome again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be\nalso.\" When we know this, then to die is not so terrible as it was to\nthe Persians and Greeks. It is like going to sleep in our home, and\nwaking up in a place much more beautiful than we had ever dreamed of,\nand being with Christ, the Friend of little children, forever. But we\nmust know Christ in this life if we are to enjoy His friendship in the\nnext.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WHISPERING GALLERY\n\n\nIf you ever go to London, one of the many buildings which will be\npointed out to you will be Saint Paul's Cathedral, which is capped by a\nwonderful dome. And if you ask the guide, he will show you in that dome\na strange room known as the \"Whispering Gallery.\" In this gallery your\nlowest whisper can be heard on the other side of the room, a great\ndistance away. It would be hard to tell secrets in a room like that.\n\nBut there is a still more wonderful whispering gallery than that. It is\nthe one which each one of us carries about in his own soul. In that\ngallery even things we _think_, whether we say them or not, are heard by\nGod, our Creator. No thought escapes Him. \"In Him we live, and move, and\nhave our being.\" If we \"take the wings of the morning, and fly to the\nuttermost parts of the earth,\" even there God is still.\n\nThis would be a very terrible thing to realize if all our thoughts were\nevil thoughts, unkind and unlovely. For then we should be like the man\nwho, when he was young, ill-treated his old father and mother. When he\ngrew up, this young man became very wealthy, and he used to carry candy\nin his pocket as he walked in the parks to give to the children, because\nhe wanted their love. But the children would take his candy, then\nscamper away like frightened squirrels, because something inside seemed\nto tell them that the man was not really kind at heart. Older people\nfelt the same way about him, and a chill came over them when they were\nwith him. So they avoided him. It would be unbearable to think that only\nour evil thoughts were open to God in that way.\n\nBut while God knows all the wickedness in our hearts, and we cannot hide\nanything from Him, God also knows the good thoughts that are whispered\nin the gallery of our soul. And when we wish ever so greatly that we\ncould do something to help somebody, but cannot do it; or when we would\nlike to be good, but are tripped up by some temptation, God knows then\nhow hard we try, and gives us credit for our effort, even though we fail\nto do what we wanted to.\n\nLet us remember the Whispering Gallery of the soul, then, and when we\nthink evil thoughts, even though we never tell them to our nearest\nfriend, let us be sure God knows them. And when we try hard to be good\nand to do good, but fail, let us also remember that God sees it, even\nthough none else knows. Our prayer each morning ought to be like the\npsalmist's: \"Let the words of my mouth, and the _meditations of my\nheart_ be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE HE-SAID GIRL\n\n\nSometimes, when I am walking along the street, I catch snatches of\nconversation as I pass by a group of little girls. And often I hear the\nphrase \"He said\" this, or \"He said\" that. There are girls who do not\nseem to talk about much else but what this boy or that boy has said, and\nthese girls I call \"he-said\" girls.\n\nNow, of course it is all right for girls to think about the boys. We\ncould not stop that if we would, and we would not stop it if we could.\nThe danger comes when a girl thinks of little else. The girl who begins\nby devoting all her thought to boys is apt to end by being a very\nunattractive and unpopular sort of woman. Every girl ought to get along\nwell with the girls of her own age as well as with the boys. There is\nsomething wrong with the girl who cannot get along with her girl\nfriends. And so I say to you that if you do not want to be thoroughly\nunhappy as a woman, try to win the friendship of girls as well as boys.\n\nA good plan for the \"he-said\" girl is to take her father as her ideal,\nand hero and lover. Then, as she grows to womanhood, she will not be\nsatisfied with any man who is not in some measure as good as her father.\nIn the meanwhile beware of being a \"he-said\" girl.\n\n\n\n\nON DECK\n\n\nWhen I was a boy I belonged to a baseball team in the village where I\nlived, and when we played games with a team from another village we had\na scorer who not only kept tally of the runs, but also told us who was\nto be the next at the bat. He would say, \"So-and-so is at the bat,\nSo-and-so is on deck.\" And when he told a boy he was \"on deck,\" that boy\nknew he was to be the next one at the bat.\n\nBoys and girls are always on deck, whether they are playing ball or not,\nfor a boy or girl never knows when he is going to be called upon to play\nsome part in the game called Life. And the strange thing about it is,\nthere is no scorer who tells you that you are on deck. So you never get\nany warning, and you may be on deck and not know it, and so miss your\nchance.\n\nSamuel, for instance, was a boy who used to close the curtains and put\nout the candles at night in the temple away back hundreds of years\nbefore Christ was born. One evening he had put out the lights and closed\nthe curtains, just the same as he had a hundred times before, and then\nlay down to sleep. He little thought that this particular day he was on\ndeck, and was to be called into the game by God. But that night God\ncalled him, and sent him on a very important errand that was to change\nhis whole life and the history of his people.\n\nAnd things like that are happening in America to-day. I read a story the\nother day of a young student who was overtaken by a rainstorm, and\nborrowed an umbrella of a lawyer. He returned it a few days later with a\nnote of thanks. Not long afterward he received a letter from the lawyer\noffering him a position in his office on account of his good\nhandwriting. The student took the position, kept on with his studies in\ncollege, and after he graduated from college went right along in that\noffice till he became a man of influence. He didn't know what it meant\nwhen he wrote that note. He was on deck.\n\nThe lesson that I want to draw is this: That you must be on the lookout\nand do well the things that come to you each day, for who knows but you\nmay be on deck that very day, and be called to play some important part?\nFor only those are called who are on deck; that is, ready to play. The\nboy or girl who does not do his work well day by day may miss his chance\nof being called to take some larger place in life when the times comes.\nTake this motto from the Old Testament: \"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to\ndo, do it with thy might.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE TERROR BY NIGHT\n\n\nIn some parts of Canada, where the country is still thinly settled by\npeople, wild animals are quite numerous. In one of these communities\nthere once lived a boy who was in the village late one night. He had\nbeen at the village-store, and had heard the men talking about a wildcat\nthat had been seen in that neighbourhood a short time before.\n\nThe boy was not a coward, but when he started for his home, three miles\naway, in the country, he was nervous. Nothing happened, however, until\nhe was climbing over a set of bars at the end of a lane leading through\na piece of woods near his home. Then he heard the bushes moving and\ntwigs crackling under the feet of some animal the other side of the\nlane-fence. He thought of the wildcat. He jumped to the ground, picked\nup a heavy stick he had seen under a tree on his way through that day\nand listened. Nearer and nearer came the rustling of the bushes, and\nevery little while he could hear an animal sniff the air. Finally it\ncame to the fence, clambered up opposite him. The boy raised his club\nand waited, and when the animal jumped down beside him, its eyes shining\nin the darkness, he struck with all his might. Off the beast went into\nthe darkness. All was silence again, and the boy stood listening and\ntrembling. Then from the top of a nearby hill he heard a dog howl with\npain. He found, next morning, that it was only a neighbour's dog that\nhad frightened him so.\n\nThat boy is not the only one who has seen things mistakenly, just\nbecause he was afraid. If you are dreading something, you will think\nthat everything that happens brings the thing you dread. Usually nothing\nhappens at all. The trouble was only in the person's mind, just as that\nwildcat was in the boy's mind, and so every noise he could not explain\nwas a wildcat.\n\nI am sure David must have known something about that fear when, as a\nboy, he watched his sheep out on the lonely hills at night. But David\nlearned that there was One who was able to protect him by night as well\nas by day. It was God. And so he wrote of God: \"He that keepeth thee\nwill not slumber. God is thy keeper. God is thy shade upon thy right\nhand. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the\narrow that flieth by day; for the pestilence that walketh in\ndarkness.... It shall not come nigh thee.\"\n\nLet us remember that no real harm can come to us unless it comes from\nwithin ourselves. God is our protector. In His love we can trust by day,\nand in His care we can lay us down to sleep at night without a fear.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BRAMBLE-BUSH KING\n\n\nThere is a story in the Old Testament which says that once upon a time\nthe trees gathered together to choose a king to rule over them.\n\nFirst they invited the olive-tree; but the olive-tree said it was too\nbusy bearing fruit. Then they asked the fig-tree to be king; but the\nfig-tree had its work to do, and also declined. Next they waited upon\nthe vine with an invitation; but, like the others, it did not wish to be\ntheir king.\n\nFinally the trees asked the bramble to accept the position, and the\nbramble gladly agreed. The first order it gave was for all the trees to\ntake shelter under its branches or be burned with fire. That sounds just\nlike a prickly, thorny, little bramble, does it not?\n\nThat is usually the way of people who like to lord it over other people\nwhen they have no ability for it. There are some who want to do so when\nthey are at a party. They want to be the hitching-post to which all the\npeople are tied when they talk. If the bramble takes the form of a boy,\nhe wants to be captain of his team, or he will not play. If it happens\nto be a girl, she insists upon everybody playing the game she wants, or\nshe will go home in a sulk. These people cannot agree long with anybody.\nThey are quarrelsome and peevish.\n\nSome boys and girls are like horses: they make good single-drivers, but\nthey will not work with anyone else. Some horses go well enough alone,\nbut when you hitch them with another horse they crowd, or bite, or kick\nit. They cannot \"go double,\" as we say. That is the bramble-nature\nshowing out in a horse.\n\nThis is a bad trait, whether you find it in a horse, a man or woman, a\nboy or girl. Christ says: \"You know the rulers of the Gentiles lord it\nover them. Not so shall it be among you; but whosoever would become\ngreat among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first\namong you shall be your servant.\" Jesus also said, \"I am meek and lowly\nin heart.\" So must all His followers be.\n\nIf you are getting any of the bramble-nature, and want to lord it over\neverybody, you had better give it up. Some of the unhappiest people in\nthe world are bramble-bush kings.\n\n\n\n\nWHERE IS HEAVEN?\n\n\nOur great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers used to talk much about\nwhere heaven was. And some thought it was up above the clouds, and\nothers thought it would be here on earth, after all the wickedness and\nselfishness were done away. Every one, however, used to think that the\nNew Jerusalem, with its pearly gates and golden streets, was a real\nplace like the cities of to-day.\n\nBut we think of heaven more as the feeling in our hearts when we are\nhappy from being with our friends, or when we have done right and\nunselfish things. We know what it is, then, to have heaven on earth. And\nwhen we have heaven on earth, we know pretty nearly what the real heaven\nis like.\n\nLet me show you what I mean. Not long ago a speaker in a rescue mission\nasked the children if they could tell him where heaven was. Immediately\na boy from the poorest section of the city sprang up, raised his hand\nand cried shrilly: \"I know; I know.\" \"Well, my boy, where is heaven?\"\nthe astonished leader asked. \"Back in our street since mother got\nacquainted with Jesus,\" was the answer.\n\nThat boy was on the right track. Whenever Christ comes into the heart\nthere comes with Him love and thoughtfulness of others. And when we do\nkind things for others, we find happiness for ourselves, and that is\nheaven. Christ says, \"If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will\ncome in to him and sup with him and he with me.\" That means, when we do\nthings that we believe Christ would like to have us do, then He comes in\nto sup with us. And when we feel Christ as our Companion, then it is\nheaven.\n\nWe may go to a beautiful place called heaven when we die, but it will be\nChrist who will make the place full of joy and gladness. And if we are\nto see Him in that land and enjoy that heaven, we must first make a\nheaven here on earth for ourselves and others by trying to please Him\nand to be like Him every day.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN ARMY\n\n\nSaint Paul, in writing to the Christians of his day, urges them to be\n\"good soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ.\" If every Christian is a\nsoldier, then the Church ought to be called \"the Christian Army.\" And\nthis makes plainer to us what it means to join the Church.\n\nArmies, as you know, are divided into regiments, and regiments into\ncompanies. Every soldier in the army belongs to a certain company. If a\nman said that he wanted to belong to the United States Army, but that he\ndid not want to join any particular regiment or company, but that he\nintended to be a soldier \"in general,\" people would laugh at him. He\nwould be like a man who took his gun and went out all alone to fight\nagainst Spain when we were at war with her. Or it would be as if a man\nin a city should say that he wanted to fight fire, but instead of\njoining a fire company, he would snatch up his pail and run alone to put\nout the fire every time there was an alarm.\n\nNow, in the Christian army there are also regiments and companies. The\ndifferent denominations, like the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the\nBaptists, the Congregationalists, and so on, are the regiments. The\nChurches like this and other Churches are the companies in the army.\n\nSo, when anyone says he wants to make war on wickedness and to bring in\nthe reign of love and peace and good-will which Christ started His\nChurch to fight for, we ask him to join one of the companies of the\nChristian army. That is, we ask him to join a Church.\n\nYou may ask if one cannot be a Christian outside of the Church. I\nanswer, Yes, he can. But he is very much like the man with his pail\nrunning to put out the fire, or the lone soldier. He can do better work\nif he works with others. Furthermore, Christ said, \"He that confesseth\nme before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven,\nand he that denieth me before men, him will I deny before my Father\nwhich is in heaven.\" In joining the Church you confess Christ.\n\nYou may ask me too, how old one should be before he can join the\nChristian army, known as the Church of God. I answer, there is no set\nage. Some boys and girls are ready to join before others. One little\ngirl who was going to join the Church was told by some of the members of\nher Sunday-school class that she wasn't old enough. She replied, \"Anyone\nwho is old enough to know right from wrong is old enough to join the\nChurch.\" If you are trying honestly day by day to be like Christ and to\ndo His will, and you wish to be a better soldier of the cross, then you\nare ready to join the Church.\n\nIn the Christian army there are old and young, rich and poor, wise and\nsimple, all under the one flag,--the banner of the Cross; all under the\none Captain,--even Jesus Christ. And the best thing about our Captain\nis, He has never lost a battle yet, and never will. All those who enlist\nunder His flag are sure to win, and to hear God's \"Well done.\"","title":"Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and Girls","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":21771}