^^.^V OF PR„^ 
 
 BV 4315 .B4 
 
 Bennett, Robinson Potter 
 
 Dunn, 1869- 
 What I tell my junior 
 
 con ere 2a t ijon 
 
3fttnior Congregation 
 
 A Series of Object Sermons Preached to the Junior 
 
 Congregation of Summit Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Germantown, Pa., by the Pastor 
 
 ROBINSON P. D. BENNETT, M.A. 
 
 For several years State Secretary of Junior Christian Endeavor 
 
 in the State of New Jersey, and for many years a 
 
 *' Children's Preacher " 
 
 Wiit^ an 3Jntroi»uction 6p 
 
 ALEXANDER HENRY, D. D. 
 
 Secretary of The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath- 
 School Work 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE WESTMINSTER PRESS 
 
 1913 
 
Copyright, 1912, by the Trustees of 
 
 The Presbyterian Board of PubUcation and 
 
 Sabbath-School Work 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This little manual of methods and material for 
 work with children in the services of the church, is 
 the result of several years of actual experience 
 with just such conditions as are mentioned herein, 
 and the sermons are the result of an attempt to 
 meet the child's needs in the morning service of 
 the church. The plans advocated have been tried 
 and approved, either by the author or by an 
 expert in this form of work. For many years 
 these ideas relative to the child at church have 
 been forming themselves in the author's mind and 
 heart, as he has dealt with children in Christian 
 Endeavor work, Sunday school, and church 
 services. The appended sermonettes are for the 
 most part original, and are an attempt to meet 
 the needs of pastors who have either no time or 
 no aptitude for such sermonic composition. 
 
 As a further reason for the publication of this 
 little book let me say, that in the perusal of many 
 books of sermons adapted to children, I find that 
 there are few published upon this side of the water. 
 It is with a desire to add to the American literature 
 
 3 
 
PREFACE 
 
 of the "Children's Church," and with a still greater 
 desire to see the inauguration of a "Children's 
 Church" in every Congregation of Christians, that 
 I commit this work to the hands of my brethren 
 in the ministry. 
 
 R. P. D. B. 
 
 Germantown, Pa., March, 191 2. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface 3 
 
 Introduction by Alexander Henry, D.D 7 
 
 The Motive 9 
 
 The Mission 19 
 
 The Method 25 
 
 The Material or the Message 28 
 
 The Railroad Frog 29 
 
 Smoothing Out the Bumps 34 
 
 The Funnel, the Sifter and the Sponge 37 
 
 Bolts and Hinges 41 
 
 The Bread of Life 44 
 
 Lifters and Leaners 47 
 
 Insulated Christians 50 
 
 The Girl on the Penny 53 
 
 Not so Funny Then 57 
 
 Phcebe 61 
 
 Palms or Garments? 64 
 
 The Crying Stones 68 
 
 How Jesus Came Down the Stairs 71 
 
 How TO See the Risen Jesus 74 
 
 Jesus, the Gardener 78 
 
 "Getting onto His Curves." 86 
 
 Lessons of the Target 90 
 
 Three Flowers of Freedom 93 
 
 Invisible Enemies 97 
 
 5 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 How TO Tell Poisons loo 
 
 Bubble Honors 104 
 
 The Three Sieves 107 
 
 The Lion, the Bear and the Serpent 109 
 
 Weighing Hearts 112 
 
 The Dangerous Shadow 115 
 
 Back in Harness 118 
 
 "Keyed up." 122 
 
 Picking Up the Buoys 126 
 
 Are You a Hobab? 130 
 
 Nature's Wreath Remains 135 
 
 Canned Good(s) 138 
 
 The Lesson of the Sundial 141 
 
 Two TO One 145 
 
 Salt 149 
 
 The Changed Cups 152 
 
 Christ's Sentinel 155 
 
 What Jesus Sees in Us i59 
 
 The Empty Seats 163 
 
 Who's Afraid? 166 
 
 Unappreciated Christmas Gifts 171 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Securing the attendance of the children at the 
 church services is a subject that is frequently dis- 
 cussed nowadays. 
 
 When we had the old "family pew," and the 
 family occupying it every Sunday morning, there 
 was no question of the presence of the children. 
 With the changing conditions of church life and 
 church services, however, the children have become 
 more conspicuous by their absence than by their 
 attendance. 
 
 Various plans have been proposed for bringing 
 the boys and girls to the preaching services. One 
 of these plans is known as "The Junior Congre- 
 gation." The youth of the congregation, under 
 the ages of ten or twelve years, are formed into a 
 congregation that is expected to attend the Sunday 
 morning service. 
 
 After the offering has been made, the pastor 
 preaches a brief sermon to the boys and girls, who 
 are seated, so far as possible, in the front pews. 
 Upon the conclusion of this sermon, a hymn is 
 sung; and during the singing any of the children 
 
 7 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 who desire to leave the church, or to sit with their 
 parents, are at liberty to do so. 
 
 This plan has been in operation several years in 
 Summit Presbyterian Church, German town. Pa. 
 The sermons found in this volume were preached to 
 the children at these services. It was my privilege 
 to hear a number of them, and I can bear testimony 
 to the fact that they were of interest to the adults 
 as well as to the children. On more than one 
 occasion it seemed to me that if the lessons con- 
 tained in these children's sermons were just the 
 lessons the fathers and mothers needed to learn. 
 
 Pastors who are preaching to the children will 
 find this book suggestive and helpful. It would 
 be a good plan for parents to get it and read a 
 chapter to their children on Sunday afternoon. 
 
 Alexander Henry. 
 
THE MOTIVE 
 
 The Junior Congregation is not a plan upon 
 paper. Its substance is not akin to the roseate 
 hues of an evanescent dawn. It is not the child 
 of a preacher's hoHday dreams. It is the real 
 thing. It has been put to the test of time, of 
 criticism, of monotonous methods and poor preach- 
 ing and has come out pure gold. It meets a need. 
 It gets the child. It saves the church. 
 
 The Junior Congregation is not a Christian En- 
 deavor Society. It is the church of Christ in 
 junior form. It is the church of Christ in the lives 
 of boys and girls. Its object is not to help the 
 church, its object is to be the church. It is an 
 attempt on the part of the church to realize in 
 the lives of the boys and girls the fact of their 
 union with the visible church in baptism. It is 
 not seeking to train children to work in the church 
 when they are grown, but to work in the church 
 now. 
 
 Its chief purpose is to draw the minds of the 
 children to the thought that above and beyond all 
 outside associations and societies, the chief organ 
 of the Saviour for the propagation of his kingdom 
 in the world is the church. 
 
 The name of this new organization in the his- 
 tory of Christian progress which is meeting the 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 real need in the church life of to-day, came from 
 the First Reformed Church of Brooklyn, being 
 given by the pastor. Rev. J. M. Farrar, D.D., 
 whose great heart and great physique as well have 
 ever been given to the children of his church. 
 
 In that church for many years there has been 
 the Organized Junior Congregation, the first to be 
 so organized in this country, or for all the author 
 knows in any other. 
 
 There is a powerful motive behind this partic- 
 ular branch of church activity. First. — There is 
 the poor training manifested in the members of 
 the church to-day. What pastor is not burdened 
 with the consciousness of insufficiency in the great 
 majority of his church members ? And in seeking 
 the reason for this deficiency may we not lawfully 
 say that it is largely due, among other things, to 
 the lateness of the hour of life at which they be- 
 gan to realize their responsibilities to the real 
 work of the church; and to the want of knowl- 
 edge as to the methods employed in the various 
 branches of the work of the church ? 
 
 I must confess that it was some time after my 
 union with the church that I came to know the 
 workings of those great boards of the church, 
 through whose instrumentality the real work of 
 the church is done. We begin in the primary 
 schools of our land to-day to teach the babes the 
 methods of our civil government. Then why 
 should we tarry till these impressible years are 
 10 
 
THE MOTIVE 
 
 gone to tell the child the methods of his Master's 
 kingdom, and to accustom him to the weekly 
 routine of church going and church working? 
 
 Second. — There is a reason in the lack of a proper 
 valuation placed by the present generation upon 
 the office of the Christian church. "Can't I be a 
 Christian without joining the church? " How many 
 times in a month do we pastors get heartsick over 
 the sentiment embodied in these words ? And do 
 we not know the sorrow of having a large meeting 
 of Christian Endeavorers file out from the lecture 
 room and go home while the empty seats at the 
 after evening service of the church call to them 
 in vain ? It is because there are so many excel- 
 lent organizations that are paralleling the life 
 and work of the church, that the Junior Congre- 
 gation has become a necessity. Is it not true 
 that doing the work of these organizations, which 
 are of course a part of the church life, the young 
 people feel it entirely unnecessary to enter into the 
 real fellowship of the church? 
 
 The sacraments are not valued as they once 
 were. And we often have the saddening spectacle 
 of pastors stuffing the mail boxes with pleading 
 circular letters, almost beseeching the Christians 
 to come to the table of their Lord. 
 
 And when it comes to the matter of benevolences, 
 it is not at all a difficult matter to conceal from our 
 left hand what our right hand doeth. When out 
 of a membership of three hundred about fifty per 
 
 11 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 cent contribute regularly to the church support; 
 and when out of a like membership only forty 
 units contribute to the boards of the church with 
 any regularity or system, is there not motive 
 enough for the careful and systematic indoctri- 
 nation of the children of the church in the matter 
 of their stewardship to God ? 
 
 The whole attitude of men and women to the 
 church as a means of grace is that of growing 
 indifference. There are few ''Sons of the Taber- 
 nacle" to-day as compared with the days of your 
 boyhood. The attractive power of the church as 
 a center toward which Christians naturally gravi- 
 tate is so much less in these days of numerous 
 societies and cults as to make the cultivation of 
 church life a feature in the religious training of 
 our boys and girls. To be able to present to the 
 coming generation a company of young men and 
 women who can honestly say "I must be in my 
 Father's house and about my Father's business" 
 and who would rather be doorkeepers in the church 
 of God than Past Grand Exalted Rulers of the 
 finest organization of men ever got together, 
 will be a service that will amply repay all the 
 energy the pastors of the present-day church 
 can expend. There is a body of men and women 
 in our churches who have been aptly dubbed 
 *'The Outer Church." They are the church that 
 surrounds the true church. They are attendants 
 at her services, they are contributors to her needs, 
 12 
 
THE MOTIVE 
 
 they are interested in her temporal progress. But 
 there the interest stops. They care not for her 
 sacraments. They will not join the inner circle 
 of her life. They will not share her responsibil- 
 ities. 
 
 A member of my congregation who had run the 
 gamut of churches from Friends* Meeting to High 
 Church Episcopacy, when asked why he did not 
 unite with the church he was now attending, 
 replied, "I have been to all of them, can agree 
 with none of them, and so I now sit on the fence 
 and watch them all pass by." Bear witness with 
 me, angels of the churches, that you deal with 
 many such. 
 
 Sitting outside your church proper you know 
 you have a miserable lot of Noah's carpenters, 
 who help to drive the financial nails to hold your 
 work together, but who, like Noah's carpenters, 
 will not come into the ark after they have helped 
 to build it. 
 
 It is in the field of this outer church that I can 
 glean sufficient motive for the establishment of a 
 Junior Congregation, which shall teach the children 
 of our churches that there is more in our church 
 duties, than *' sitting on the fence" and seeing 
 the thing go round. It is the unfortunate lack of 
 personal responsibility to all the services and 
 sacraments of the church, on the part of the 
 members of it that is responsible for what Dr. W. 
 J. Dawson calls "The Arrest of Christianity." 
 
 13 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Third.— Then there is the object lesson to be 
 seen in many churches of the conspicuousness of 
 the children emphasized by their absence. "Are 
 the children of professing Christians, " asks Dr. J. 
 M. Farrar," familiar with any door of the church 
 save the one into the Sunday-school room?" 
 For every five adults there should be at least one 
 child in the church. But in how many churches 
 is this ratio maintained? 
 
 So greatly has their absence from the services 
 of the church become a matter of course, that it 
 is not uncommon to hear it said of a church that 
 has a large attendance of the boys and girls — 
 "Why, how many children you have in your 
 congregation !" 
 
 There is a fearful fallacy deep-rooted in the minds 
 of many parents, that a child should never be urged 
 to go to church, for fear that in after years he may 
 acquire a distaste for church worship. 
 
 This makes the pastor's problem a harder one 
 and his responsibility more keen. He must 
 attract where parents refuse to compel. 
 
 Here then is another reason for the Junior Con- 
 gregation. "Back to the church" must be the 
 cry for children's work in these days, and the 
 Junior Congregation brings the children back. 
 
 Fourth. — There is the incentive brought by 
 the hopefulness of childhood. Bishop Brooks 
 used to say " He who helps a child, helps 
 humanity with a distinctness and an immediate- 
 
 14 
 
THE MOTIVE 
 
 ness that no other help given at any other time 
 can supply." 
 
 There is no age so rich in treasures to the future 
 of Christ's kingdom as that of childhood. And this 
 is the children's age. The norm of human life 
 in the olden days used to be the man. To-day the 
 norm of life is the child. In no age has it been so 
 true that ** the child is father of the man." 
 
 The sad fact, however, is that while the world 
 of science and education has realized this, the 
 church of Christ has not, except perhaps in the 
 realm of the Sunday school. 
 
 The church is following rather than leading in 
 the great work of the age for children. 
 
 There are to-day children's playgrounds for 
 which, as in Philadelphia recently, a whole city is 
 laid under tribute. There are children's libraries 
 in connection with every city library of any size 
 in this country. There are even, as in one or two 
 cities, children's theaters, where strictly juvenile 
 plays are put upon the boards. But it is only with- 
 in the last few years that we have had a chil- 
 dren's church. 
 
 The plea has been in many cases that we have 
 no room for them. It has for ages been the cry 
 of society. There was no room for the little new- 
 comer in the inn at Bethlehem. At a summer hotel 
 a little fellow was ordered off the piazza with the 
 remark that "this piazza is for grown people." 
 The little fellow looked longingly at the broad 
 
 15 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 veranda with its inviting coolness and smoothness 
 and said wistfully, "But hasn't it got any little 
 boy end?" 
 
 It is a sad state of affairs when a church has no 
 "Httle boy end," or corner. 
 
 Better knock out a partition or two and make 
 room for the hopefuls. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng of 
 St. George's Church, New York City, once said, 
 "When a choice must be made between the adult 
 and the child, I make it in favor of the child." 
 
 For the child is the church of the future. The 
 general secretary of the Industrial Christian 
 Alliance of New York writes: "From my point 
 of view, engaged in rescue work, I believe the 
 preventive work of a Junior Congregation, in 
 efficiently training the children in the development 
 of character will materially reduce the number of 
 men in such institutions as ours. I would like 
 to know how the church may be made to under- 
 stand this." 
 
 The hopefulness of the child as a candidate for 
 membership in the church of Christ ought to stim- 
 ulate every pastor to give more time to the 
 training of the children along the line of Christian 
 duty and church work. For we know that^ the 
 little ones slip into the fellowship of the church 
 most naturally and simply when they are drawn 
 toward it by wise and loving methods. They 
 come to realize discipleship so easily that he has 
 lost the golden moment who neglects gently to 
 
 16 
 
THE MOTIVE 
 
 urge them to it. It Is quite possible as we know 
 from actual experience to have the little ones come 
 to the pastor and eagerly ask, ** When can I join 
 the church ?" 
 
 Fellowship in the church as a rule is never 
 brought before the child mind with any degree 
 of definiteness. It is a matter that is shunted 
 off by parent and teacher to that vague and unreal 
 day "when you get old enough.'* The child heart 
 is a reverent heart, by nature, and if irreverence 
 be the bane of modern church worship, then where 
 would it be better to begin the training in that 
 quality which is so sadly lacking, than in the Junior 
 Congregation? The hopefulness of the child as 
 an instrument in soul-saving is not recognized by 
 the church as it should be. 
 
 One child church member conscientiously living 
 out its Christian life in a home will often be worth 
 a hundred sermons and innumerable pastoral visits. 
 There are many avenues to the human heart, 
 but often all are closed save those through which 
 a little child can find its way. And those who 
 resist the teaching of logical sermons have been led 
 to Christ by the influence of some child Christian. 
 
 E. P. Hammond, and other workers with the 
 child heart, have many touching tales to tell of the 
 power of a Christian child. The following is one: 
 
 One Sabbath evening the father of two little girls 
 who had united with the church, had placed one of 
 them upon each knee, to ask them what they had 
 
 17 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 heard at church that morning. He was not a pro- 
 fessing Christian. Looking full into the father's 
 face, the elder said, "Jesus must have loved us 
 very much to do that; don't you love him for it, 
 father?" They then went on to tell of the trials 
 and sufferings of Christ, and she asked again the 
 question — "Don't you love him for that, father?" 
 And when they had spoken of the death on the 
 cross, the little one asked for a third time, "Now 
 don't you love him, father?" 
 
 The father had to put the children down and go 
 out of the room to hide his emotions. He after- 
 wards confessed that he felt worse under the artless 
 questioning of the little ones than under any sermon 
 he ever had heard. He afterwards joined the 
 church. 
 
 The hopefulness of children as church members 
 lies, too, in their simple and unequivocal faith. Did 
 you ever make the experiment of going down the 
 aisle of a children's meeting and questioning the 
 little ones as to their discipleship? If so, you have 
 been pleased with the certainty and immediateness 
 of their replies. "Are you a Christian?" "No.'* 
 "Are you a Christian?" "Yes." There is no 
 hesitation. 
 
 The loyalty and affection of a child for the church 
 of which it is a member is a further incentive for 
 the gathering them into such sympathy with the 
 church, that they will eventually unite with its 
 communion. 
 
 18 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 The mission of the Junior Congregation is of 
 course the supplying of the deficiency in church 
 methods, and the lack in church life that gives 
 rise to these motives mentioned in the previous 
 chapter. 
 
 It is therefore not a substitute for any other 
 organization of the church's life, nor is it intended 
 to interfere with any of those most estimable 
 societies for the training of young hearts along the 
 line of Christian work. Its mission is apart from 
 these. They parallel the life of the church and 
 its worship ; the Junior Congregation is an integral 
 part of the church and its worship. While its 
 methods follow closely, of necessity, those of 
 Christian Endeavor societies and mission bands, 
 it is not intended to be merged into the Christian 
 Endeavor movement. 
 
 The one works for the church. The other is 
 the church at work. The distinction may be more 
 fancied than real, yet if the intent of the Junior 
 Congregation movement be carried out, the children 
 will be conscious of a part in the church life which 
 Christian Endeavor, no matter how excellent, 
 cannot supply. The Junior Endeavorer looks 
 forward to a day when he shall become a part of 
 the body of the church. The junior member of 
 
 19 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 the congregation is already a part of the body of 
 the church. 
 
 It is to teach the child that as a baptized member 
 of the visible church of Christ he has a real place 
 in its worship, its government and its life. The 
 mission of the Junior Congregation is also to foster 
 a love for church going, and for the house of 
 God. 
 
 Many a distracted parent has said to me: ''I do 
 so dislike to force my children to go to church, and 
 yet what am I to do? I fail to get them interested." 
 I think I know why. A back seat where the little 
 head can scarcely lift itself over the pew in front, 
 with such a sea of bonnets in his line of vision 
 that he cannot see the preacher. A long formal 
 service followed by a sermon in which there is 
 never a reference to the child nor an illustration 
 he can grasp. A glance occasionally from the 
 paternal relatives' corner that freezes the blood, 
 whenever tired nerves rebel and little feet shuffle 
 and kick the pew in front. 
 
 How many of you preachers and teachers who 
 read these lines, ever really "loved" the house of 
 God under such conditions? How many of you 
 would have given the contents of your boyish 
 pockets at that moment, no matter how full of 
 boyhood's treasures, to be free ? Be honest and 
 confess it. And yet strange as it may seem to 
 you, I have heard of children who eagerly asked 
 permission to attend divine worship, and who^ 
 
 20 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 meeting the preacher on the way, have stopped 
 him to ask him, "What's it goin' to be about to- 
 day?" But these children were members of a 
 Junior Congregation. 
 
 There is a mission which this organization holds 
 in training the young mind to listen to preaching. 
 I can blame no one for not being attentive 
 to that which is unintelligible. I recently listened 
 for five minutes to a lecture on Christian Science; 
 then I spent the remainder of the half hour count- 
 ing the pattern squares in the ceiling. 
 
 By training the young mind to listen to a logically 
 thought-out sermon with its heads and subheads, 
 its firstlies and secondlies and even the deadly 
 thirdly, but couched in such language, and illus- 
 trated in such form that it fixed the attention while 
 it instructed and filled the mind; and then getting 
 the child to write out an analysis of the same to 
 be brought in the following Sabbath, you give 
 the child a taste for sermon processes, and a knowl- 
 edge of how to hear and digest the truth that 
 will stay by him forever. And then it is their 
 sermon. Not for a moment does it belong to 
 mother or father, although I have learned that 
 both mother and father are children after all and 
 love best the thoughts that are preached to the 
 child. Because it is theirs they love it, and with 
 a child's loyalty deem it the best sermon the pastor 
 preaches. 
 
 There is a very definite need of teaching the 
 21 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 young to hear preaching. The excellent methods 
 of Christian Endeavor have been rather toward 
 practice than precept, and have given the pen- 
 dulum a swing toward doing rather than doctrine. 
 This is not by any means a wholesome attitude, 
 for it is carried to such excesses that the young 
 people after singing and reading verses in the 
 lecture room pass out in large numbers to their 
 homes, neglecting the church service where the 
 truth is preached. The very natural result is 
 that the real deep truths of the gospel, which 
 they have not been able to think out for them- 
 selves, they have not acquired. And as a conse- 
 quence the Christian life and the church life 
 become shallow, emotional, and without a solid 
 foundation. 
 
 Then the Junior Congregation has a mission in 
 the creation of a love in the heart of the child for 
 church work. We know the tendency in child 
 training to lead a child to its life's work through 
 the medium of play. One of the most precious 
 of books to me as a child was a volume highly 
 illustrated, and entitled *' Playing Trades." We 
 are all conscious of the value of this method. For 
 to everyone the work that becomes play is the 
 better done. Playing at church work, is a part of 
 the Junior idea. And who does not know the joy 
 that comes to a child who is conscious that he is 
 a part of a great undertaking, and is contributing 
 to its success, not from the outside as an onlooker, 
 22 
 
THE MISSION 
 
 but from the inside as a partaker. On one of the 
 Sound steamers a little fellow running about on 
 the upper deck had laid hold of the great tiller 
 that is carried attached to the rudderhead for use 
 in steering in an emergency. And as the great 
 helm moved to and fro it carried the little chap 
 with it. In the greatest glee he cried out to his 
 mother — " See, see, mother, I'm steering the 
 boat.'* To give the Junior even a hold on the 
 inner workings of the church, is to inspire in him 
 somewhat of the same zeal. 
 
 I can well recall the feeling of pride that came to 
 me in those blissful circus days of boyhood, to 
 feel that I was a part of the "Greatest Show on 
 Earth" because I was allowed to carry water for 
 the elephants. 
 
 For the members of the Junior Congregation, 
 to take up the offering of their own little band on 
 a Sabbath morning before the great church service, 
 to usher to their seats the newcomers among the 
 boys and girls, to hold their business and devo- 
 tional meetings and elect officers just such as are 
 elected at the annual business meetings of the 
 church, is a sufficient incentive to secure their in- 
 terest in the church and its life for years to come. 
 
 And in addition to all this the great missionary 
 interests of the church are to be helped. There is 
 of course a most useful and systematic training in 
 missions of the boys and girls in the Endeavor 
 societies and mission bands, but there is a sad 
 
 23 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 lack of loyalty in many of them to the great 
 channels of missionary work and life — the great 
 boards of the churches. More and more must 
 we emphasize the necessity of the support of these 
 regularly appointed channels through whose most 
 efficient agency the gifts of the churches are passed 
 on to the fields where the work is being done. It 
 is true of the denomination to which the writer be- 
 longs that no other religious denomination is so 
 eclectic in its method of giving as we, for every 
 charitable institution has a claim upon our gifts 
 while often the great boards must report serious 
 indebtedness. To train the children that the gifts 
 they make should go through the regularly appoint- 
 ed channels, is to breed a loyalty to their church 
 and is to protect in a most necessary manner the 
 authority and usefulness of the agencies of the 
 churches. This I believe the Junior Congrega- 
 tion will do. 
 
 Thus the mission of the Junior church might 
 be enlarged indefinitely as the needs of the church 
 present themselves, for whatever the duties of the 
 church member are to be, they can best be in- 
 stilled within him when he is a child. 
 
 24 
 
THE METHOD 
 
 As to the methods of dealing with such a Junior 
 Congregation as has been briefly described above, 
 we might for convenience divide our work into 
 two general parts. You will be concerned pri- 
 marily with your youthful congregation in the 
 services of the church, especially in the morning 
 service. And you will be engaged from time to 
 time with them in a more informal and more in- 
 timate relation in their little meetings, as a body 
 by themselves. 
 
 In the morning service of the church you will 
 have the greatest opportunity, for you will stand 
 before them as you stand before their elders as the 
 prophet of God with a message for the child heart 
 from the Master. It will be the severest test- 
 ing you will have the whole week. It will also 
 be the most blessed ten minutes in all your 
 seven days. 
 
 For methods I care little. You will exercise 
 your own judgment in the method of getting the 
 message into the child. But if experience of others 
 will help you, you will have the children seated 
 before you in the first rows of pews. If there 
 are not pews enough to accommodate the little 
 ones, go in debt for more, or bring in the chapel 
 chairs. But have them together and before you. 
 
 25 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 And if you are half a man, the sight of that array 
 of sweetness and Hght will make you a preacher in 
 spite of yourself. The boyish heart is chivalrous, so 
 you will have boy ushers to seat the young ladies 
 as they come in. Four of them can take up the 
 offering, and I miss my estimate of the children if 
 they will not feel a swelling pride as they stand 
 with the ushers of the church while the pastor 
 asks God's blessing upon their gifts. Let the gifts 
 be made in tiny numbered envelopes, for the 
 Juniors desire to be regular contributors to the 
 church. 
 
 And then you will preach to them. Yes I must 
 use the word, but with its sternness all removed. 
 You will be the child's interpreter as Jesus speaks 
 to their hearts. And you must know their lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Oh, those blessed ten minutes, never exceeded 
 without loss — what a preparation for the message 
 for their parents by and by! 
 
 Then you will sing their hymn, and they will 
 pass out. 
 
 Sometimes they will sing in chorus before the 
 "great congregation." Sometimes there will be 
 a whole morning devoted to them. But they will 
 go to their homes in the consciousness of having 
 been in God's house and that God's minister has 
 brought God's message to them. 
 
 Then perhaps you have given them textbooks 
 in which to keep record of the sermon preached. 
 
 26 
 
THE METHOD 
 
 There will be a great day, when at the end of 
 every quarter, these books are returned and ex- 
 amined and some one of the many smiling faces 
 will be doubly radiant as the owner comes forward 
 before the grown-ups to get the prize for the best 
 kept book, or to receive the reward for having 
 written the best outline of a special sermon preached 
 to the children that they might learn the method 
 of properly listening to preaching. Varied as the 
 mind of man are the methods with our boys and 
 girls at church. 
 
 If we gather them for a meeting we shall 
 see to it that the whole organization of a local 
 church of the denomination to which they belong 
 is represented to them in miniature. There will 
 needs be deacons and elders and trustees; dea- 
 conesses and boards and societies. There will be 
 a prayer meeting, and a board meeting. In short, 
 every branch of the church's activities can be rep- 
 resented in these gatherings of the Juniors during 
 the week. Christian Endeavor methods may 
 prevail, but the main ideal is to get the boys and 
 girls to understand that they are a part of the great 
 church at work and acquaint them with the real 
 activities of church life. 
 
 27 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 THE MATERIAL OR THE MESSAGE 
 
 Under this head I have gathered together a set 
 of sermons preached to my own congregation of 
 boys and girls. And in so doing I have tried to 
 give only those that seemed to reach and in- 
 fluence the child heart. They are not intended to 
 be exhaustive, but only suggestive — mere outlines 
 upon which to build complete sermons. 
 
 28 
 
THE RAILROAD FROG 
 
 Text — Job 23:10. "He knoweth the way that I take." 
 Object — A railroad frog, or one from a child's toy railway. 
 
 My Dear Young Travelers: 
 
 To-day marks the beginning of a new journey in 
 that great tour of "Life" that you are all making. 
 What can I say to you as you are starting? What 
 advice can I give you as I look back at you from 
 the place to which some of the older of us have come, 
 and as we see you getting on the train just where 
 we once got on? 
 
 The other day I was coming out from town on 
 the railroad and when we reached the car yards 
 in the western part of the city we went over an 
 innumerable number of tracks and switches all 
 running together like the threads of a spider's web. 
 We crossed and recrossed and rattled over switch 
 after switch till we finally got on the right track 
 toward home. How we did it seemed, as one 
 looked at it, a mystery that no one could ex- 
 plain. How that train going at full speed, never 
 slowing up, found its way out of that ''mystic 
 maze" of tracks and finally got to our station, 
 seemed as we sat in the cars, like doing the 
 impossible. 
 
 29 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 But it was very easy. Why? Because at each 
 crossing was a "frog," — Hke this, only made of 
 steel and much larger, with a point running in 
 between the rails that caught the flange of the 
 wheels and turned them in the proper courses. 
 And because these *' cross frogs" were there we 
 got out of the tangle of rails and so at last to our 
 station. I think of your young lives at the be- 
 ginning of this new year, as the starting of so many 
 trains of cars all moving off together. Paul 
 likened our lives to a race, but in these days of 
 rapid travel we may think of our lives as a train. 
 You leave the station at the first day of the year, 
 and with a full head of steam on you move out on 
 the tracks. It is not long before you get into the 
 tangle of ways. There are a hundred paths and 
 a hundred tracks, and you get confused and do 
 not know just which way you are going, and you 
 get a little anxious as to where you are coming out. 
 But you can go on, for there is a " frog" just ahead 
 which the Great Train Master has put there and 
 when you come to it, it will turn you on to the right 
 track. This frog that I am speaking of, my young 
 fellow voyagers, is the purpose of God for you. 
 To-day we make many "resolutions" but few of 
 them will be kept, for we cannot foresee just what 
 is coming in the journey. But God knows. He 
 knows just where he has put the "frog" of his will 
 for you. And when you come to it, your train 
 will slide safely over onto the track where he wants 
 
 30 
 
THE RAILROAD FROG 
 
 you to be. That is what Job meant when he said 
 to us in our new-year text — "He knoweth the 
 way that I take." 
 
 Now if God has put these frogs of his purposes 
 in our Hne, our part is simply to go on. How 
 funny it would be if an engineer should get out of 
 his cab at every frog and sit down and wonder 
 why it was put there. That's the business of the 
 superintendent of the road. 
 
 But let me ask a moment — what is it that 
 makes it possible for the frog to turn the train in 
 the right track? 
 
 It is that part of the wheel which falls below 
 the rail, which we call the ''flange." That little 
 flange runs into the grooves of the frog and guides 
 the cars to their destination. And I think that 
 each of us should see as we start this new-year 
 journey, that the flanges of our trains are strong. 
 What shall we call them? " Trust,'' I think. 
 Sometimes the flanges are not perfect and do not 
 follow the frog, and then there is an awful accident 
 and men and women and children are killed. And 
 sometimes we do not want to follow God's pur- 
 poses, and are not willing that he should guide us. 
 God puts a frog in our way and we jump it and get 
 off the track. But, oh! what a comfortable feeling 
 we can have if we know that the flanges are all 
 right, and we can sit in our seats and bump, and 
 bump over the rails and know that it's all right and 
 we shall come out. When I was in the Catacombs 
 
 31 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 of Rome — way down among the old dead saints — 
 there was a monk that guided us through the 
 narrow and criss-cross paths, all so pitchy dark 
 and dismal, and I thought of this text, and how 
 glad was I that the monk knew the way that we 
 were to take. 
 
 Here is a pretty little story of trust. 
 
 Some years ago I took my little boy to church. 
 The pavements were very slippery and although 
 the boy boasted that he could walk alone, he 
 frequently fell, and it was not till he placed his 
 hand in mine that he could walk without the 
 danger of falling. The day after Christmas he 
 said to me "Father, yesterday the Devil tried 
 to make me eat candy that mother said I musn't 
 touch; but he couldn't do it, although I did 
 want it." 
 
 I reminded him of the walk we took the previous 
 Sunday, and asked him if he remembered how 
 hard it was to stand up and how often he fell; 
 and also how it was that he finally managed to 
 stand and walk along safely. *'Yes, I remember 
 it all," he said; "I put my hand in yours, 
 father." 
 
 And then I said, "And now, my boy, when 
 the Devil tempts you to do wrong, how will you 
 be able to stand and walk upright?" And the little 
 fellow answered reverently, "I'll put my hand in 
 God's." 
 
 Is that what you boys and girls are willing 
 32 
 
THE RAILROAD FROG 
 
 to do? *'He knoweth the way that you take." 
 Yes, for he has planned every bit of the line. So 
 just keep up your full head of steam and go right 
 along and let God steer you where he wants you 
 to be. 
 
 33 
 
SMOOTHING OUT THE BUMPS 
 
 Text — Luke 3 : 5. "And the rough ways shall be made 
 smooth." 
 Object— A file. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 If you have travelled on the trolley cars much 
 in our city you have probably noticed the jolting 
 that one gets when the wheels of the car hit the 
 cracks at the joints of the rails. And if you live 
 on a street where trolleys run, you have found it 
 difficult on a summer's night to get to sleep be- 
 cause of the constant thump, thump of the wheels 
 over these bumps. 
 
 But if you could go out very late at night on 
 some of the streets, you would see men very 
 busily engaged in drawing back and forth over 
 these joints huge files worked by two men, one of 
 whom pushed and one pulled. On inquiring, you 
 would find that they are smoothing out these 
 bumps, and making the passage from one rail to 
 the other less painful to the rider, and less disturb- 
 ing to the sleeper. 
 
 What a benevolent lot of men they seemed to 
 me as I saw them. Engaged in rubbing out 
 bumps while others sleep. Smoothing the paths of 
 others whom perhaps they would never see. And 
 
 34 
 
SMOOTHING OUT THE BUMPS 
 
 you have never thought, for I never had before, 
 what a host of men and women in this great weary 
 world are engaged in getting rid of the bumps and 
 smoothing the path for others. There are the 
 railroad section hands that keep the tracks level. 
 There is the engineer that runs the steam roller 
 in front of your home to make the road smooth 
 for driving. Yes, and there is the teacher staying 
 after school to help ''little Bill" over the hard 
 places. And best of all there is mother working her 
 dear hands off to make life easier for her boy and 
 girl. 
 
 Now our text tells us that John the Baptist 
 was coming to tell of the kingdom of Jesus and to 
 smooth things out in the lives of men so that that 
 kingdom of love might come. For the progress 
 of that kingdom of Jesus means always a smoothing 
 out of the bumps and unevennesses of life. It 
 means hospitals for the sick, and homes for the 
 poor, and orphanages for the little ones and the 
 doing away with war and strife. 
 
 So when Jesus comes into our hearts we must 
 at once get rid of all the bumps, and smooth out 
 the path for others in the world about us who 
 have got to travel its highways. 
 
 We must try each day to smooth mother's path, 
 and teacher's path, and little sister's or brother's 
 path ; and to make life a little better for our play- 
 mates and for those who are in need. 
 
 And then, too, we can, like John the Baptist, 
 35 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 make the way easier for our dear Lord and 
 Master, Jesus. 
 
 When President Garfield was so very ill after 
 the bullet of the assassin had laid him low, the 
 doctors said he must get to the sea. So willing 
 hands worked night and day laying a track from 
 Long Branch to Elberon that his car in which 
 he was being borne might not have to be changed 
 for a carriage, that he might be moved from the 
 White House in Washington to the seashore 
 without a jar. 
 
 And so ought we to work, my young laborers, to 
 build a smooth and happy highway along which 
 our King can move. 
 
 Some time ago a gentleman did me a kindness, 
 and when I thanked him he said, " Oh, it is nothing! 
 I am in this world to make it move a little more 
 smoothly if I can." What a blessed mission! 
 The other night on one of the great Long Island 
 Sound steamers I watched the oiler reaching out 
 over the great pistons, and as each came round he 
 dropped one drop of oil on the hot bearings — to 
 make them run without friction. 
 
 What a happy office one has in life who makes 
 it his or her business to make things run smoothly. 
 
 36 
 
THE FUNNEL, THE SIFTER AND THE 
 SPONGE. 
 
 Text — Ps. 119 : II. " Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 
 that I might not sin against thee." 
 
 Objects — A funnel, a sifter and a sponge. 
 
 My Dear Young Hearers: 
 
 Here are some curious objects from the house- 
 hold which may serve us this morning to illustrate 
 the proper and improper ways of treating the word 
 of God that is preached to us each Sunday from 
 this pulpit and taught to us in the Sunday school. 
 I have a funnel, a sifter for flour and a sponge. 
 
 There are some of us who hear the word of God 
 after the manner of the funnel. The use of this 
 useful utensil in the kitchen you all know. When 
 mother wants to pour from a large vessel into a 
 small, the narrow neck of this funnel and its broad 
 top make such a thing possible. All goes through 
 nicely without spilling a drop, or leaving any 
 behind. Now some of you boys and girls are apt 
 to treat God's word much as the water that passes 
 through the funnel. You let it all go through 
 easily. Sometimes we say that "it goes in one 
 ear and out of the other." We sit and listen to 
 all that is said, but none of it sticks. It all runs 
 through. By Sunday night it has all gone and we 
 could hardly tell mother when we got home what 
 
 37 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 the text was. Or perhaps as wc listen and take it all 
 in we say to ourselves — "That was a fine sermon for 
 Joe," or ** That truth was a good one for Mary," 
 and we let it run right through us for whom it 
 was really meant, hoping that Joe or Mary will 
 hear it and heed it. Now when we do that we 
 are what we might call "funnel hearers," not 
 the kind of hearers that the Psalmist speaks 
 of here. 
 
 Then there are some of us who hear the word of 
 God after the manner of the sifter. You have seen 
 the cook sifting flour for her bread-making. Some 
 of it goes through, and a little stays behind. But 
 that which stays behind is usually lumps and dirt, 
 and is thrown away. The good goes through. 
 So it is that some of us hear the word of God. We 
 keep the dirt or tlie useless part and let all the 
 good go through. Not that any of the word of 
 God is wholly useless, but we often keep and re- 
 member the things that are not important. Some 
 study the Bible only to find the flaws in it. 
 Some stud>- onK' to find the peculiar passages in 
 it. Some hunt to find out the shortest and longest 
 verses. One old man was one day sitting ponder- 
 ing on the word of God and a passerby said to him, 
 ''Well, my brother, what have you found in the 
 book to-day that interests you?" And the old man 
 looking up eagerly replied, "I have found that 
 I have two more sheep than Job had." But God 
 did not mean us to use his word tliat way. It is 
 
THE FUNNEL, THE SIFTER AND THE SPONGE 
 
 filled with messages that are to do us good if we 
 receive them and live them. We are not to sift 
 out the best and keep the merely pleasurable or 
 curious. Such people we might call "sifter 
 hearers." 
 
 Then there are some who hear the word of God 
 after the manner of the sponge. Now when we 
 dip the sponge in water, it soaks up the water and 
 instead of letting it go through, it holds it. Every 
 little pore of the sponge takes its share and keeps 
 it. And we can only get the water out by squeez- 
 ing. I am glad to say that there are men and 
 women and boys and girls that so receive the word 
 of God when it is read, and taught, and preached. 
 So was it with the Psalmist whose words we have 
 quoted to-day. "Thy word," he tells us, "have I 
 hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." 
 He had taken the word into his heart as the sponge 
 takes the water into itself. 
 
 It was England's queen who told us to "mark, 
 learn and inwardly digest " the word of God. "Thy 
 words were found and I did eat them" says one 
 of God's prophets. These then are the "sponge 
 hearers." Now look — I am going to dip this 
 sponge in this red ink. See — it takes up and holds 
 the color of the ink. If I take sin into my soul it 
 will stain it forever. But if I take up God's word 
 into my life, my life will be always colored with 
 God's truth. Let us then learn to be "sponge 
 hearers." Take heed how ye hear. And remember 
 
 39 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 the words of the apostle, "Let the word of Christ 
 dwell in you richly." 
 
 It is marvelous how like to a sponge the brains 
 of you young Christians are. Think of the wonder- 
 ful things you have absorbed in the last few years. 
 You learn more in your first five years of life than 
 you will ever learn in the next twenty. By and 
 by when you grow old and gray you will be better 
 able to tell about what is happening in your lives 
 to-day than what happened the day when you were 
 fifty. 
 
 It is marvelous to consider the number of things 
 that you learn in your childhood. 
 
 And I hope that you will take up and retdin as 
 well that which is of more value than all ydur 
 stores of knowledge — the message of God to our 
 souls. Just as in the sponge the water fills every 
 one of the many pores, so let God's word go into 
 every little portion of your young lives. 
 
 When Paul tells us to let the word of God "dwell 
 in us richly," he really says in the language in which 
 he wrote — "keep house." And we know that 
 when we keep house we have access to all the rooms. 
 So are we to let God's word come into every chamber 
 and secret closet. Open your eyes and ears, but 
 above all open your hearts to the entrance of the 
 word of God. 
 
 40 
 
BOLTS AND HINGES 
 
 Objects — Some iron bolts and hinges of various sorts. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 I have in my hand this morning some things that 
 are very useful in the building of a house. This 
 fellow here is a screw bolt and this one a door 
 hinge. And while they both enter into the con- 
 struction of the building, they produce vastly 
 different results. I have brought them here for 
 you because you are yourselves doing some build- 
 ing. You are all little master-builders. 
 
 And more than that, you are building a house 
 which is to be the dwelling place of a King. "Ye 
 are God's building," says the apostle. 
 
 And there is a place for both of these objects 
 which I hold, in the house of self, that you are 
 erecting. 
 
 Sometimes you will want to use the one, some- 
 times the other. 
 
 Will you let me tell you now when each is best 
 — the times when hinges are better than bolts, 
 and when bolts are better than hinges? 
 
 First then — the time when a hinge is best. 
 
 In his letter to the Phillppian Christians Paul 
 says, "Let your moderation be known to all men." 
 Now boys and girls, that word "moderation" 
 means really "yieldingness," the power of giving 
 
 41 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Up and giving in. It means meekness, but not 
 weakness. Sometimes we get the idea that to 
 yield is to be a *' mollycoddle." Nothing of the 
 kind. It's the bravest kind of bravery to be able 
 to "give up." 
 
 Now some people are put together like this — 
 (Illustrate by the bolt which is stiff and unyielding) 
 — no give to them, no gentleness in them, no 
 moderation in them. 
 
 When is it better then to be a hinge that moves 
 back and forth? 
 
 In times of an injury done you by another. 
 
 Jesus used the hinge in his life most of the time. 
 He was forgiving. Lord Eardly Wilmot once 
 said, "It may be manly to resent an injury, but 
 it is Christlike to forgive one." 
 
 There was once an old woman who had been a 
 very great sinner, and had had a very vile tongue. 
 She had given herself to Jesus, and one day one of 
 her old companions came up and tried to provoke 
 her, ending by calling her "a good-for-nothing 
 old hag," but the old lady had put a hinge in where 
 the bolt used to be and she answered — "Yes, and 
 isn't it wonderful that Jesus Christ could save an 
 old hag Hke me?" 
 
 If I strike this hinge thus, it will bend. And 
 Jesus said that we are to turn the other cheek. 
 "A soft answer turneth away wrath." 
 
 There are times then when it is better to be a 
 hinge than a bolt. 
 
 42 
 
BOLTS AND HINGES 
 
 And it is better in the time of trouble. 
 
 It is better to bend than to break. It is better 
 to smile than stiffly to bear our sorrows. When you 
 were little fellows you used to run on the melting 
 ice on the pond doing what we called "running 
 benders." And you used to cry out as you ran, 
 "As long as she bends she holds." When we 
 bend under trials we do not suffer so. 
 
 But there are times when a bolt is decidedly 
 better. 
 
 Paul tells the Corinthians in his first letter to 
 them — "Be ye steadfast, unmovable." 
 
 It is always better to be a bolt when it comes to 
 a matter of doing right. 
 
 It is always better to be a bolt when it is a 
 matter of doing our duty. 
 
 Joseph used a lot of bolts in his building. Daniel 
 was bolted together fast. So were the three 
 young men who went into the fiery furnace. 
 Jesus found it very often better to use the bolts 
 than the hinges, as when he drove the money 
 changers out of the temple. 
 
 Boys and girls, always have plenty of backbone. 
 
 And be sure you always know when to use one 
 and when to use the other. 
 
 43 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE 
 
 Object — A loaf of bread. 
 
 My Dear Young Disciples: 
 
 I am sure that every boy or girl here to-day knows 
 what it is to be hungry. I should be worried 
 about you if you did not. For somehow hunger is 
 a part of the program of your childhood. 
 
 Now hunger is universal. No matter who the 
 boy is or where he is, he is bound to be hungry. 
 All the wealth of Croesus, or as better known to 
 you, of Mr. Rockefeller, would not prevent that. 
 So God in his mercy and wisdom has made 
 arrangements for that, and we find that bread, 
 too, is universal. No matter what other kinds 
 of food the different nations eat, with few exceptions 
 bread is everywhere. In Scotland the boys and 
 girls eat "scones," in Germany they eat "Kaiser 
 rolls," in Italy the great cart-wheel loaves of 
 coarse flour; in France bread which, because of 
 its yard-long lengths, looks as though it might 
 be rightly called the "staff of life," and be taken 
 for Mr. Roosevelt's "big stick." And here in our 
 own dear homeland we eat the finest of the wheat. 
 
 Jesus knew that we would all be hungry, and all 
 eat bread, and so he taught us to say as we pray — 
 "Give us this day our daily bread." 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE 
 
 Now all bread comes of course from God the 
 Father. When he sent the manna in the wilder- 
 ness, it was to teach them whence their provisions 
 came. Sometimes we feel that we have earned 
 our bread, or that the farmer has produced it for 
 us, but we must recollect that: 
 
 ** Back of the bread is the snowy flour, 
 And back of the flour the mill, 
 And back of the mill the wheat and the shower 
 And the sun, and the Father's will." 
 
 But there is another kind of hunger, my hungry 
 young Christians. We call it soul hunger. What 
 is that? Well, did you ever when you were 
 little, very little of course, do a naughty thing, 
 and when mother's heart was vexed and the tears 
 were in her eyes because of your naughty deed, 
 run to her arms and sob — "I want to be good 
 mother, I want to be good"? 
 
 Yes, of course you have. And when you were 
 saying "I want to be good" you had a hungry 
 feeling in your little heart for goodness. You had 
 soul hunger just then. Of course you did not 
 know it was that, but it was. And just as God 
 sent you bread from heaven to feed your bodily 
 hunger so he sends you bread for your soul hunger. 
 Jesus tells you about it in the Gospel of John. For 
 he talks about being himself the "Bread which 
 Cometh down from heaven." He tells us he is 
 the bread of which if a man eat he shall never 
 hunger and shall live forever. Jesus offers him- 
 
 45 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 self to be that bread. And when you are hungry 
 to be good, Jesus offers himself to your young 
 hearts to satisfy you and make you good. 
 
 It is a good thing to be hungry when there is 
 bread in the closet, but a poor thing when there 
 is not. But there is always heavenly bread in 
 the closet. Jesus is always ready to feed you with 
 his life, and he says, "Blessed are they that 
 hunger — after righteousness, for they shall be fed." 
 
 All bread costs something. It costs labor and 
 sacrifice. That is why we call patient, toiling 
 father the "bread winner;" he has to win it by 
 the energies of his life. And soul bread costs 
 something too. Jesus said, "The bread which I 
 give to the world is my flesh." And to give us 
 his life he had to die on the cross. 
 
 To-day we have spread before you the bread of 
 the communion. It is only earthly bread, but it 
 represents to us soul bread. It speaks to us of 
 that bread which is Jesus' own life which he broke 
 on the cross and gave to us. Will you not learn 
 to see that when you are soul hungry this is the 
 place to come and meet Jesus and let him feed 
 you? I hope that you will. 
 
 46 
 
LIFTERS AND LEANERS 
 
 Text — Gal. 6:2. " Bear ye one another's burdens." 
 Objects — A wooden handle for carrying bundles, and a 
 small toy ladder. 
 
 My Dear Young Christians: 
 
 I have in my hand to-day two little symbols 
 that denote the two classes into which I have been 
 able to divide all the people in the world. I wonder 
 if it ever occurred to you, as it did to me, to see 
 into what two classes we could put all mankind 
 if we were called to divide them into halves 
 as you do when you are choosing up sides for a 
 game of tag. First of all I tried to put them into 
 the two classes which we call '* good " and " bad." 
 But I soon found that this was impossible for they 
 would get so horribly mixed up. I found that 
 some of those that I had set on the "good" side 
 of the line would constantly go over on to the 
 "bad" side of the line and that those that I had 
 labeled "bad" would get over somehow on to the 
 "good" side of the line. And I came to the con- 
 clusion, as Jesus did when he told the young 
 ruler, that there were none wholly "good" but 
 God. I found that 
 
 " There is so much good in the worst of us, 
 And so much bad in the best of us, 
 That it little behooves the most of us< 
 To talk about the rest of us." 
 
 47 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 There is good in the very worst of men at times. 
 Some time ago I read of a criminal who was being 
 taken across the street from the prison to the 
 court room in one of our crowded cities, and who 
 while crossing the street saw a little child fall in 
 front of an advancing trolley car. Instantly he 
 broke from his escort and picked the child from 
 the jaws of death only to be run down and terribly 
 injured himself. 
 
 Then I thought I could put them into two classes 
 
 called "happy" and ''sad"; but when I had 
 
 put them there, the sad began to be happy and 
 
 the happy began to be sad, and I knew that every 
 
 happy life has its sad days and every sad life its 
 
 happy days, and I knew that this would never do; 
 
 for I remembered the poet says : 
 
 " Into each life some rain must fall, 
 Some days must be dark and dreary," 
 
 Then I divided them into "rich" and "poor"; 
 but here again I was at fault for I saw at once 
 that those that I had put on the rich side of the 
 line were constantly longing for the things that 
 they had who were on the poor side of the line. 
 There were millionaires who wanted the health 
 and the happy children of those on the "poor" 
 side, and there were those on the "poor" side that 
 would not give them, for all the gold, to those 
 on the "rich" side of the line. So I knew that 
 many poor are rich, and many rich are poor. It 
 would never do. 
 
 48 
 
LIFTERS AND LEANERS 
 
 Then once more I tried making them all into 
 either those that were "humble" or those that 
 were "vain." But when I came to hunt for those 
 I thought humble, I found that they were some of 
 the proudest of the proud, and those that I had 
 first thought vain, were among the humblest of 
 all. But after much thought I reached the mark. 
 I divided my people into the "handle" people and 
 the "ladder" people. The "lifters" and the 
 "leaners." For this little handle lifts up. And 
 this little ladder always has to have something 
 to lean against before it can be of use. Yes, 
 boys and girls, all the world is divided into those 
 that lift and those that lean. They may be happy 
 or sad, rich or poor, humble or proud, good or bad, 
 but they are all in one of these classes — those who 
 lift up others' burdens, or those that have to lean 
 upon others. 
 
 And you will find twenty leaners for every lifter. 
 Now are you a lifter helping carry another's heavy 
 load, or are you a weak-kneed leaner putting 
 your load on others? 
 
 When we were boys and a "feller" leaned on us 
 we used to show our disdain for him by saying 
 curtly, "Lean on your own breakfast." 
 
 So does the world speak to the leaner. Your 
 value, my dear Juniors, will be measured in God's 
 sight and man's, by your power to bear another's 
 burden and not by the way you have of making 
 him bear yours. 
 
 49 
 
INSULATED CHRISTIANS 
 
 Text — II Cor. 6: 17. "Wherefore come out from among 
 them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the 
 unclean thing; and I will receive you." 
 
 Objects — A piece of insulated telegraph wire. Strip off 
 some of the coverings of the insulation. A bit of crude rubber. 
 
 My Dear Young Christians: 
 
 I hold in my hand here a bit of wire used in 
 making the electric connections for our church 
 organ. You will see that I have stripped off some 
 of the various coverings that enfold it, in order 
 that you may see how the copper wire within that 
 carries the electric current is so protected that 
 it may not be brought in contact with anything 
 that would rob it of its power. Not long ago I 
 had the privilege of going through that great wire 
 factory in Trenton, New Jersey, where much of 
 the insulated wire used in electric work is made. 
 It was a most interesting experience. We saw the 
 crude rubber such as I hold in my hand, washed 
 and rolled in great hot rollers till it was quite soft 
 and smooth, then mixed again and again in other 
 rollers with the compound that made it fit for 
 wrapping ; then cleaned and put through various 
 processes until it was cut in strips and mechanically 
 wrapped about the copper wire that already had 
 had a coating of cotton thread. Then the rubber 
 coated wire was beautifully wrapped by a lot of 
 
 50 
 
INSULATED CHRISTIANS 
 
 little bobbins in just the style that you boys and 
 girls may have wrapped a Maypole, only a hundred 
 times quicker, and better; and then subjected to 
 a dipping in a coat of tar preparation to keep it 
 from the weather. Then it was sent down to the 
 testing room to be tested. A long tank of water 
 charged with many volts of electricity through 
 which the wire was drawn revealed its weaknesses. 
 For if there was a spot where the wrapping was 
 imperfect, there would be a splutter and snapping 
 and a beautiful light would light up the whole 
 tank. Where the weakness occurred the place 
 was marked and the wire was sent back to the 
 repair shop to be wrapped by hand once more. 
 
 Singular that so much trouble was taken with 
 a bit of wire, isn't it? But we are to remember that 
 that wire would carry power, and that in the carry- 
 ing it would come in contact with many things 
 that, being conductors as we call them, would take 
 away its power and so rob it of its usefulness. 
 Hence all the trouble that was taken to render it 
 "insulated" or separate. 
 
 Now there are such things as "insulated 
 Christians." And it is to these that Paul is writ- 
 ing when he says, "Come out from among them, 
 and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean 
 thing." The man or boy who does that is "insu- 
 lated." Years ago in the history of Israel, when 
 the people of God had gotten so mixed up with 
 the life of the heathen about them that it was hard 
 
 51 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 to tell which were and which were not God's 
 people, there came forth a sect of Nazarites, 
 or "separated ones." They wore long hair and 
 drank no wine and kept vows of purity of life, to 
 show Israel what kind of people God's people ought 
 to be. They were "insulated IsraeHtes." 
 
 You all remember John the Baptist who was 
 a "burning and shining light" for Christ. But 
 you cannot be a burning and shining light unless 
 like the great electric arc lights we see in the 
 streets, you are insulated. Now John the Baptist 
 was insulated. He separated himself from all the 
 wickedness of his day, living in the wilderness, 
 eating locusts and wild honey. He was an 
 "insulated Christian." Sometimes we sing: 
 
 " Jesus bids us shine with a clear pure light 
 Like a little candle burning in the night." 
 
 God has made you boys and girls the wires for 
 the carrying of light and love to others. The 
 Holy Spirit can use you for the transmission of 
 his power, but you must be so insulated that you 
 will avoid touching the "unclean thing " — all sins 
 of the flesh and heart. Now the church and the 
 Sunday school are like a great insulated wire fac- 
 tory, where we are trying so to fit you that contact 
 with the world will not rob you of your power, 
 and I am hoping that when the test is made all 
 the boys and girls here will not splutter, nor snap, 
 but will be proof against temptations. 
 
 52 
 
THE GIRL ON THE PENNY 
 
 Text — Isa. 49 : i6. "I have graven thee upon the palms 
 of my hands." 
 Object — A penny. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 I wonder if any one of you has ever seen his 
 picture printed in the daily newspapers? If so 
 what a feeling of satisfaction it has given you and 
 at least a little pride. That is, if the picture is 
 not a woodcut, which some wag has called "the 
 most unkindest cut of all." I think you know 
 some people who would move heaven and earth 
 to get their pictures in the newspapers. And if 
 you have ever been to see any spot that is partic- 
 ularly historical or sacred, you will find the names 
 and initials of a host of silly people cut in the 
 wood of the bench or written upon the walls. 
 When I was in Shakspere's birthplace in England 
 last summer I saw a ceiling and walls in one of 
 the rooms so covered that it would have been 
 impossible to put another name there without 
 writing over two or three others. We all love 
 notoriety and publicity when it does not cost us 
 anything, or when we are sure it will not ruin our 
 reputation. 
 
 But let me tell you of a little girl who got that 
 publicity and notoriety unsought, and whose little 
 
 53 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 face was, up to a year or so ago, in more homes in 
 this land than any other. Indeed there was not 
 a home of even the poorest that was not glad to 
 look upon her sweet little face. Now get out 
 your pennies and see if you have one with the head 
 of what we all have mistaken for an Indian. Yes, 
 here is a girl that has one. Now look sharp. 
 Do you see any Indian features there? Not a bit 
 of it. Not a trace of them. 
 
 It is the head of a gracious American woman, 
 who for many years was held in admiration 
 both for her beauty and her goodness, and 
 who only a few weeks ago passed on to her great 
 reward. 
 
 Her name was Keen — Sarah Longacre Keen. 
 She lived in Philadelphia. For thirty-five years 
 she was the secretary of the Philadelphia Branch of 
 the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 When Sarah was a child of five or six years of 
 age a delegation of Indians from the northwest 
 visited Washington. They came to see the sights 
 and pay their respects to the Big Chief of the 
 nation. After having spent considerable time at 
 the capital, the Indians were taken to Philadelphia. 
 Here they were shown the mint. The little girl's 
 father was a fine engraver, and he had official 
 connection with this great money factory. He 
 was a kindly, benevolent man as well, and he in- 
 vited this delegation of red men to some sort of 
 
 54 
 
THE GIRL ON THE PENNY 
 
 entertainment at his home. One of the chiefs 
 had his attention attracted to the little miss, and 
 he was so pleased with her figure and maidenly 
 bearing that in a mood of sportiveness he took off 
 his headdress and put it on her head. She was 
 not frightened ; but, lending herself to the enjoyment 
 of the joke, she stood for a moment and let the com- 
 pany look at her. Some one present, who had 
 both an eye for beauty and artistic skill, was so 
 struck by the appearance which little Sarah Long- 
 acre made in her Indian hat that he sketched her 
 on the spot. The sketch was engraved by her 
 father. 
 
 When the Government wanted a new face to 
 put on the new one cent pieces they chose this 
 engraving, and little Sarah Keen's features be- 
 came the best known face in America. 
 
 But there is a far better place than a cent on 
 which our names and faces may be put, and put 
 forever. Our text tells us that the great and good 
 God promises to engrave our names and our faces 
 upon the palms of his mighty hands. This was 
 his promise to Israel. So dearly did he love his 
 chosen people that he wished to have them in 
 constant remembrance, and so put their names 
 upon the palms of his mighty hands. We are 
 all aware that God does not have hands like man, 
 but it means that so dear are you children to God 
 that he keeps you in constant remembrance. 
 Stop and think what the "mighty hand of God" 
 
 55 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 hath done in the world and then remember that 
 on that mighty hand the names of God's chosen 
 ones are written. 
 
 What makes it possible for us to be thus 
 remembered? This — that we in turn shall bind 
 God's laws upon our hands. In Deut. 6 : 8 
 we read, "And thou shalt bind them for a sign 
 upon thine hand." Keep God's will ever before 
 us and God will keep us ever before him. 
 
 56 
 
NOT SO FUNNY THEN 
 
 Text — Luke 12 : 20. 
 Object — A toy barn. 
 
 My Dear Young Christians: 
 
 This story we have read this morning was told 
 by Jesus. I think we are all familiar with it. 
 And if in it the master called a man a hard name — 
 thou fool, — I think you will agree with me that he 
 was but describing the character of the man and 
 not abusing him. He was a man who forgot 
 that when he lay down at night, there was a 
 possibility of his dying before he woke; that there 
 was a chance that his eyes, which had closed filled 
 with a vision of his worldly goods, might open in 
 a land where he would seek for those same barns 
 and corn and wheat and comforts in vain. And 
 if that man had known that he would die he would 
 have done differently, oh! how differently. Some 
 of that extra corn and wheat would have found its 
 way into the larders of his poor neighbors. And 
 instead of eating and drinking and being merry 
 he would have gone out into the highways and 
 hedges and bidden some poor wanderer to come in 
 and share his rich fare. Jesus called him a "fool" 
 because he did not realize that he might die before 
 he woke. 
 
 57 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 I suppose there is not a boy or girl here to- 
 day who does not know that prayer of child- 
 hood: "Now I lay me down to sleep," which has 
 in it this little "if"— "If I should die before I 
 wake." 
 
 Little Donny was kneeling at grandmother's 
 knee, and saying his evening prayer. " 'F I should 
 die 'fore I wake" 
 
 "I pray," prompted a gentle voice. "Go on, 
 Donny." 
 
 "Wait a minute," interposed the small boy, 
 scrambling to his feet, and hurrying down stairs. 
 In a few moments he was in his place again, and 
 dropping on his knees took up his little prayer just 
 where he had left it. But when the little white 
 gowned form was safely tucked in bed, grandmother 
 bent over and questioned him lovingly as to why 
 he had faltered. "But I did not think what I was 
 sayin,' grandmother, and that's why I had to stop. 
 You see I upset Tod's menagerie, and stood all 
 his wooden soldiers on their heads, just to see how 
 he'd tear round in the morning. But if I should 
 die 'fore I wake, why — I didn't want him to find 
 them that way, So I had to go down and fix 'em 
 right. There's lots of things that seem funny if 
 you're goin* to keep on livin' but you don't 
 want 'em that way if you should die afore you 
 wake." 
 
 I think we all think alike with Donny. And I 
 want to tell you young people a few of the things 
 
 58 
 
NOT SO FUNNY THEN 
 
 that we want to set right in case we should die 
 "afore we wake." 
 
 First. — We should want to have given our young 
 hearts to Jesus. ''If I should die before I wake, 
 I pray the Lord my soul to take." 
 
 If we want Jesus to take our souls into his 
 blessed keeping, we must give them to him to-day. 
 It will be too late when we have gone to sleep. 
 Say now while we are awake : 
 
 " Jesus, take this heart of mine, 
 Make it pure and wholly thine, 
 Thou hast bled and died for me, 
 I would henceforth live for thee." 
 
 Second. — We should want to put back that penny 
 that we took off mother's bureau the other day, 
 and which has burned like a red hot coal in our 
 conscience ever since. We should want to take 
 back that lie we told to father when we looked him 
 square in the eye and denied our guilt, because 
 we could not bear to meet Jesus with that sin un- 
 confessed. And we should want to go away over 
 to Mary Long's and take back that unkind thing 
 we said about her the other day. We would want 
 to make all these things right, because you know 
 they seem so different when a fellow is perhaps 
 going to die before he wakes. 
 
 Third. — I think we would go and make up 
 with Bill. We "had it out" in the back lot last 
 week and we have not spoken since, but Bill's a 
 
 59 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 "good feller' ' and if we are not going to live forever, 
 we might slip away without "fixin' it up." Yes, 
 Juniors, there are many, many things that do not 
 look so funny "if we should die afore we wake." 
 But we can never be sure of that, so we had better 
 begin and set things right now. 
 
 60 
 
PHCEBE 
 
 Text— Rom. i6 : i. 
 Object — A cogwheel. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 Like Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, I want 
 this morning to commend to you "Phoebe our 
 sister." She is mentioned only once in the New 
 Testament, and only to tell us that she carried a 
 letter from Corinth to Rome. A small matter 
 you say to make her name memorable wherever the 
 Bible is read. But though she carried only a letter, 
 just think what a letter that letter was. For the 
 piece of parchment or papyrus which she so care- 
 fully carried was Paul's great letter to the Romans, 
 that great letter in which is set forth the whole 
 system of doctrine which we as Christians believe 
 concerning our salvation. A great French writer 
 named Renan has said that Phoebe carried the 
 future of Christian doctrine with her. It was 
 only one thing that she did, and we never hear of 
 her again. But think what it meant for the church 
 of Christ, and think what it meant for us to-day. 
 For in that epistle more than all others is God's 
 grace revealed to us. 
 
 I have here in my hands a cogwheel such as 
 they use in mills. 
 
 You see the numerous little cogs or levers that 
 61 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATIOxN 
 
 it contains. Now as the wheel revolves against 
 its fellow wheel each of these little cogs meets and 
 strikes the cog in the other wheel but once in each 
 revolution. Only once, but if that little cog 
 failed or was broken it would throw^^ all the 
 machinery out of gear. 
 
 The other day I was listening to a symphony 
 played by a great orchestra, and way up at the 
 back of the stage sat a man with a pair of cymbals 
 in his hands. I had had my eye on him for a long 
 time wondering what he would do and when he 
 would do it. But he sat as still and motionless as 
 a statue. Suddenly in the very last piece of music, 
 as the volume of sound swelled great and greater, 
 the man arose and brought his cymbals together 
 in a mighty crash, that was like a thunderclap, 
 and set the echoes running into all the corners of 
 the great building. 
 
 Only once. That was the only part he took in 
 the whole performance, and yet without that one 
 crash of cymbals the whole would have been ruined. 
 The most extraordinary band is that in the Imperial 
 Palace at Moscow in Russia. In this band each 
 performer plays on his instrument but one single 
 note, and yet so perfect is the skill and training of 
 these men that they produce the most perfect 
 harmony. But if one of those little pipes upon 
 which they play should fail to blow just once, 
 that harmony would be spoiled. 
 
 All these illustrations are to show us that 
 62 
 
PHGEBE 
 
 there is some one thing for each of us to do. And 
 that if we do not do that one thing the whole 
 harmony of Hfe will be spoiled. It may be that 
 we know what that thing is, or we may be in ig- 
 norance of it. Therefore the safe way to deal with 
 all such matters is to do the very next thing that 
 is asked of you that is good, and believe that is 
 the one. For that will be our part. Life is like 
 a great machine with many cogs all fitting into 
 one another, and if one cog fails to do its duty all 
 is spoiled. 
 
 The great church of Christ is composed of 
 "wheels within wheels," as the prophet tells us, 
 and if the smallest of these wheels shall fail the 
 whole great machinery of the church loses power. 
 I have an old-fashioned music box at home that is 
 practically ruined because one little cog in the 
 great wheel attached to the spring failed to do 
 its part and the other cogs slipped against the 
 ratchet and were hopelessly broken and the music 
 stilled. Boys and girls, like ''Phoebe our sister," 
 learn to do the thing that God has given you in 
 life to do with all your might. You will never 
 know just how important it is. 
 
 It is often the simplest duties that prove of 
 greatest worth ; I commend to you '* Phoebe." 
 
PALMS OR GARMENTS? 
 
 Text—Matt. 21:8. Palm-Sunday Address. 
 Objects — A palm leaf and a small imitation of an eastern 
 tunic. 
 
 My Dear Sons and Daughters of the Tabernacle: 
 
 This is Palm Sunday, and this beautiful day 
 brings to our minds that other lovely spring day 
 in Palestine, when Jesus came over the Judsean 
 hills into his city of Jerusalem attended by the great 
 throng of Galilaeans, who with shouts of *'Ho- 
 sannah," preceded and followed him in the brief 
 triumph he was to have before the crucifixion. 
 
 In that throng were a crowd of children, whom 
 Jesus afterwards heard singing and shouting his 
 praise in the temple, and whose loyalty and enthu- 
 siasm Jesus so heartily commended. These, 
 too, joined in that act of devotion with the rest; 
 some tearing off branches of palm and strewing 
 them in the way before him, and others taking 
 off their outer garments and spreading them, 
 like carpets of royal purple before a king, in his 
 onward way. Palms or garments ; which are you 
 boys and girls laying before him to-day ? For 
 each of these indicates a different degree of devo- 
 tion and love for Jesus. The garments, of course, 
 were the most costly. Even the peasant took 
 great pride in his outer garments, which were 
 
 64 
 
PALMS OR GARMENTS? 
 
 made of camel's hair or goat's or lamb's wool, and 
 were the most expensive article of dress he possessed. 
 They were striped brown and white, or blue and 
 white and must have presented a rather pretty 
 sight when the different colors got together in a 
 great crowd. But the palm branches cost them 
 little. The trees on either side of the road would 
 furnish these for the simple trouble of reaching up 
 and breaking them off. And some cast their 
 garments in the way and some only palm branches, 
 and bits of foliage. Both were acts of devotion, 
 but one showed a greater devotion than the 
 other. 
 
 If Jesus should ride into our town to-day, would 
 you children of the King throw down your best 
 garments under his feet or be satisfied to give 
 him palm branches only? 
 
 I was at one time telling some boys about this 
 scene in the life of our Master when one of them 
 spoke up and asked, "If they put their coats 
 down on the ground in front of the donkey on which 
 Jesus was riding didn't the donkey's feet make 
 their coats dirty?" Now that boy had grasped 
 the idea. He understood what some of us over- 
 look, that it cost something more to put down coats 
 than it did to put down merely branches. 
 
 I expect that that donkey was not too careful 
 where he stepped, and I suspect some coats got 
 torn and dirty that day. But what of that? 
 Jesus was honored and those who owned them 
 
 6 65 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 were happier far for the patches and darns they 
 had to wear. Think of having a coat with a patch 
 on the side and being able to say, "The ass on 
 which Jesus rode stepped on my coat just here." 
 What would we give for a coat like that to-day? 
 But the palm wavers would find that their palms 
 would wither, and they would have little to be 
 proud of. 
 
 On this day when we celebrate the triumph 
 of Jesus, both in going into his city of Jerusalem, 
 and his city of glory above, what shall our offering 
 be? Shall we cast down only palms that cost us 
 nothing, or shall we give him garments that are 
 costly? 
 
 Mrs. Ballington Booth of the Volunteers of 
 America tells us that when she was a little girl she 
 and her brothers used to play Noah's Ark and 
 offer the animals on the altar in sacrifice; but it 
 was always the broken ones that were offered. 
 
 A little girl who was the daughter of a minister 
 had been to church one morning and heard the min- 
 ister pleading for an offering to the Lord and saying 
 that the difference between an offering and a 
 collection was that the "offering" was what we 
 give gladly and from thoughtful hearts and that 
 the "collection" was simply what we happen to 
 have left in our pockets. That day at dinner 
 her little dog Fido came and begged piteously for 
 a mouthful. "No, my dear" said her mother, 
 "you must not feed Fido now, but you can give 
 G6 
 
PALMS OR GARMENTS ? 
 
 him what is left after dinner." So after dinner she 
 scraped all the plates and found only a few chicken 
 bones. These she took out to the kennel and said 
 sadly, "Here, Fido dear, I wanted to give you an 
 offering, but I could only get a collection." 
 
 I wonder how many of us to-day are simply giv- 
 ing to Jesus what costs us little, what we happened 
 to have left over. Let us take off our costly 
 garments, the things we value truly, and give them 
 as offerings to our triumphing King Jesus. 
 
 67 
 
THE CRYING STONES 
 
 Text — Luke 19 : 40. Palm-Sunday Sermon. 
 Object — A bit of stone taken from some noted church, or 
 any bit of stone. 
 
 My Dear Little Pilgrims: 
 
 I hold in my hand to-day a bit of the marble 
 taken from the floor of St. Peter's Cathedral while 
 it was being repaired. It is one of the "stones of 
 the temple" of which Jesus is speaking in our text 
 this morning. Not of the original temple but of 
 a great house of God in Rome. You all recall on 
 this Palm Sunday that wonderful entry of Jesus 
 into the city of Jerusalem, and how the great 
 multitudes that had accompanied him from 
 Galilee and those that had come out to meet him 
 as he rode in lowly state on the little ass, had torn 
 the branches from the trees and cast their garments 
 in his path crying out, "Hosannah to the son of 
 David." Now in that crowd were many children 
 and with all the enthusiasm with which you boys 
 and girls follow a great procession these children 
 had kept up that cry long after they had entered 
 the city gates and even the temple itself. The 
 scribes and Pharisees, annoyed at both the children's 
 crying in the temple and the nature of their cry, 
 ordered Jesus to rebuke them, as they had asked 
 him to rebuke his disciples. Matthew and Luke 
 
 68 
 
THE CRYING STONES 
 
 tell us what Jesus said in reply. Matthew says 
 he said, "Hear what these say." Luke says he 
 said, "If these should hold their peace the very 
 stones would cry out.'* And what he meant was 
 just this — if you do not let these boys and girls 
 worship me here in God's holy temple, the very 
 stones that are in the floors and in the walls of 
 the temple itself will cry out in their stead. 
 
 What, then, can we learn as our Palm-Sunday 
 lesson from these words of Jesus? 
 
 First. — That Jesus must have worship. His 
 life is such that he requires it. He is so worthy 
 of it that it must come. In that wonderful picture 
 in John's Book of Revelation the great hosts of 
 heaven cry, "Worthy is the Lamb ... to receive 
 power, and riches and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honor, and glory, and blessing." 
 
 The very nature of Jesus and his glorious kingly 
 character demand praise. 
 
 Second. — We are to learn that it is most natural 
 that boys and girls should praise him. The old 
 gray-bearded scribes and the haughty wrinkle- 
 faced old Pharisees, who had forgotten all about 
 how it feels to be a boy, thought not, but Jesus 
 knew better. For Jesus knew all about children, 
 because he lived much with them and loved them. 
 He had not forgotten his own boyhood and how 
 he loved to shout and run and play. He knew 
 that God had made these children's mouths to 
 praise him. And more than that, he knew that 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 God gets the most perfect of all praises from you 
 boys and girls, for in the eighth Psalm we read, 
 "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings he 
 hath perfected praise." 
 
 Third. — We must learn that if you children do 
 not praise him, lifeless objects will. The stones 
 will cry out. It was an old proverb, written by 
 Habbakuk, that Jesus was quoting. "For the 
 stones shall cry out of the wall " — . And you boys 
 and girls who remember your Bible stories will 
 remember how those very stones cried out when 
 Jesus was crucified and again when Jerusalem 
 was taken by her enemies. 
 
 To-day in the East they are digging down 
 into buried cities and coming upon stones with 
 inscriptions that are proving the truth of so much 
 that Jesus said and taught. These stones are 
 praising him. Shall children be worse than sticks 
 and stones and senseless things? All nature this 
 beautiful Sunday of palms is lifting up its voice 
 to praise our King. Shall we not join created 
 things in adding our praise? Jesus loves to hear 
 your voices in the sanctuary. He loves to see 
 you in the church. You may praise him as loud 
 as you will, and there will be no gray-bearded 
 Pharisee to stop you. Learn, then, to come to 
 this temple which we have erected here in which 
 to worship our King and Saviour. 
 
 70 
 
HOW JESUS CAME DOWN THE STAIRS 
 
 Text— Phil. 2 : 6-9. 
 
 Objects — A pair of stairs made of cardboard with the treads 
 of the steps removable and on which the followim? words 
 have been written: " In the Form of God," " Humbled Him- 
 self," "Took Upon Him the Form of a Servant," " Likeness 
 of Men," " Obedient Unto Death " and at the foot of the 
 stairs a small cross. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 This week we shall be thinking continually of 
 the death of Jesus in our behalf. And we shall 
 value that death of Jesus for us much more highly 
 if we know just what it cost him to come to this 
 earth at all and still more what it cost him to die 
 on the cross. In the verses of Paul's letter to the 
 Philippians which I have read to you just now, 
 we find a picture of a pair of steps, and those of 
 the boys and girls who have eyes that see things 
 and minds that discern things have perhaps 
 already seen that picture. But that you may 
 better see it, I have brought these little stairs 
 to-day. And we will build anew the steps down 
 which the Saviour came from his home in glory 
 that he might be our Saviour. Let us then lay 
 upon the topmost stone this step, the step where 
 Jesus stood when he began to come down. '' In 
 the form of God.'* Now we believe that Jesus was 
 of the same divine substance as God, but we are 
 
 71 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 told here that he was also in the form of God. 
 So that he was just like God. What a glory that 
 was for the Master. He and his Father were one. 
 He held the highest place then in the universe, 
 when he began to descend to us poor sinners. 
 
 Then we lay for the first step down this truth, 
 "iJ^ humbled himself'' He laid aside the form of 
 God which had been his prize and glory. He did 
 what it is so hard for us all to do. He humbled 
 himself. We all love ourselves and our own com- 
 fort and honor so much better than we love all 
 else. But Jesus took the first step down — he hum- 
 bled himself. 
 
 Then we put on the next step — " Took upon him 
 the form of a servant.''' Servant here means slave. 
 Think of it, boys, think of it, girls. This Jesus, 
 the Son of God and equal with him, took the form 
 of a slave. That means that he took upon him 
 all the things that make a slave a slave, that 
 make a slave a servant. He whom angels served, 
 was now to serve like a slave in the service of 
 men. That is coming down somewhat, isn't it? 
 
 Now put on the next step down — '^Likeness of 
 men.'* Still he descends, going farther and farther 
 down the stairs of his humiliation. Up to this 
 point he might have retained his heavenly form, 
 even while he was serving men, for we are told 
 that angels become the ministers of men. But 
 Jesus came way down to our level. He became 
 one of us. He was made like man, born in a 
 
 72 
 
HOW JESUS CAME DOWN THE STAIRS 
 
 lowly manger of a lowly mother, one of the weakest 
 of weak little babes. 
 
 Once, so we are told, King Henry VIII, went 
 and slept all night in the little square prison in 
 London which they called the ''Chicken Compter," 
 where they put men who stole their neighbors' 
 chickens, to know how it felt to the imprisoned 
 ones. But he got out next day. But Jesus came 
 and took all our sorrow into his own life. 
 
 There is another step — ''Obedient unto death^^ 
 and just at the bottom of the last stair we will 
 place this little cross, for it was death upon the 
 cruel cross to which our Master became obedient. 
 "I do not mine own will but the will of him that 
 sent me," he said. Do you know what it means 
 to be thus obedient unto death? You know what 
 it is to obey to give up some cherished pleasure, 
 don't you? But not to death. 
 
 Once there was a mountain prince in the far 
 East who was at war with the reigning king, and 
 when the king demanded his surrender the prince 
 called one of his men and in the presence of the 
 emissary ordered him to plunge a dagger into his 
 own heart. This the soldier did and fell dead at 
 his master's feet. Then said he to the emissary, 
 "Go back and tell your king that I have a thousand 
 men like that." Obedient unto death. 
 
 So Jesus our Master came all the way down the 
 stairs from heaven to earth to die for you and for 
 me. What will you do for him to-day? 
 
 73 
 
HOW TO SEE THE RISEN JESUS 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 On this bright Easter Day, while we are all think- 
 ing of the risen Jesus, I have a question to ask you. 
 And because I do not believe you can answer it, 
 I am going to answer it myself. 
 
 Who saw Jesus rise? Do you know? We see 
 him laid away in the tomb, the great stone rolled 
 against the rock-hewn cave, the seal of Rome 
 placed upon it, the guard of soldiers set, and then 
 suddenly we find him talking to Mary outside the 
 tomb. 
 
 Who saw him shake off the graveclothes of death 
 and come forth? The only possible witnesses of 
 whom I can think at this moment were the angels; 
 but they came down to roll the stone away and to 
 warn the women, only after Christ had risen, and 
 when the grave was already empty, so they did 
 not see him rise. 
 
 The women — these came to the tomb very early, 
 but they found the grave already empty. 
 
 The soldiers — but the stone was there before the 
 tomb till the angel came, and after that they were 
 so frightened that they fainted and saw nothing. 
 
 Who then saw him come forth? No one. Then 
 how do we know that he did? We have ample 
 
 74 
 
HOW TO SEE THE RISEN JESUS 
 
 proof that he came forth In the way he appeared 
 to many of those that loved him. To those sorrow- 
 ing disciples that loved him he showed himself. 
 "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the 
 Lord." Now doesn't it seem a little strange to 
 you boys and girls that these disciples did not get 
 that joy sooner? It might have come to them if 
 they had obeyed him. For Jesus had bidden them 
 meet him in Galilee saying, "But after that I am 
 risen, I will go before you into Galilee." And his 
 first message to the women had been, "Go quickly, 
 and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead ; 
 and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there 
 shall ye see him: lo, I have told you." 
 
 But instead of obeying him and going into Galilee, 
 they stayed sadly in Jerusalem, and for twenty- 
 four hours they missed the greatest joy in all the 
 world. 
 
 Now what can we get out of all this? 
 
 Jesus appeared to men's physical eyes. He 
 showed himself to the women, to the two that 
 were going home to Emmaus that sad night, 
 to Thomas the doubter, to the five hundred 
 brethren at once. 
 
 Jesus appeared in visions to many of those that 
 loved him, to their mind's eye. He showed himself 
 to the mind's eye of Paul on the way to Da- 
 mascus, to the Apostle John at Patmos, to 
 Francis of Assisi, and Joan of Arc, and Catherine 
 of Sienna. 
 
 75 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 He appeared also by his spirit to the heart's 
 eye of those that loved him. "Did not our heart 
 burn within us, while he talked with us by the 
 way," said John and Cleopas. 
 
 While none of us can have the first, and few 
 of us will have the second, we can all have the 
 third method of seeing the risen Jesus. We can 
 all be sure this glad Easter Day that he is risen, 
 by seeing him with our spiritual eyes. Jesus said 
 to the disciples, **Go ye into Galilee and you shall 
 see me there." He says so to-day. 
 
 Where, then, is the Galilee where we can go and 
 see Jesus? Just where he reveals himself. Now, 
 Jesus reveals himself In the Bible. "These are 
 they" says he of the Scriptures, "that testify 
 of me." Jesus is in this Bible. If you take him 
 out you will have little left. You can see him in 
 the closet where you go to pray. You cannot talk 
 to a dead Christ. And if you get an answer to 
 your prayers as I am sure you all do when you pray 
 aright, then he must be there in heaven. If I go 
 to the telephone and get no answer from the other 
 end, I hang up. But if I am sure there is some one 
 there I keep on talking. You can see Jesus in 
 the lives of others. That is a Galilee. In that 
 beautiful "Legend of Sir Launfal" the knight 
 sees Christ in the leper. We see Jesus when we 
 are ministering to others. 
 
 Then, too, you will see Jesus when you keep his 
 commandments. Jesus himself promised, " He that 
 
 76 
 
HOW TO SEE THE RISEN JESUS 
 
 hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it 
 is that loveth me : and I will . . . manifest myself 
 unto him." But the disciples did not obey, and 
 they lost that vision for twenty-four sad hours. 
 
 Would you boys and girls like to see the risen 
 Jesus with your hearts' eyes? Then go to Gali- 
 lee, the Galilee of the Bible — prayer, service, 
 obedience — and he will show himself unto you. 
 
 77 
 
JESUS, THE GARDENER 
 
 Text— John 20 : 15. 
 
 Objects — Flowers and gardening implements. 
 
 Jesus once said to Simon of Capernaum concern- 
 ing Mary Magdalene, "She that hath been most 
 forgiven will love the most" and Easter morning 
 showed that saying of Jesus to be true. For it 
 was Mary who when the others had gone away 
 from the tomb of Jesus, stood looking anxiously 
 into the empty vault and would not give up till 
 she had found him. It was to this love, too, that 
 Jesus manifested himself. If you would see Jesus, 
 my young friends, you must learn to love him, 
 for you remember that since he died he never has 
 shown himself to those that did not love him. 
 
 Mary first sees the angels, and then turning she 
 sees Jesus himself standing. But so greatly have 
 his resurrection garments and glory changed him 
 that at first she does not know him. She takes 
 him for the keeper of the garden in which the tomb 
 was, — "she, supposing him to be the gardener 
 saith." It was natural she should be so mistaken. 
 It was a garden, we are told, in which the new tomb 
 was. In these days we do not make cemeteries 
 out of our gardens, but we try our best to make 
 gardens out of our cemeteries. We cover them 
 
 78 
 
JESUS. THE GARDENER 
 
 with flowers and the cruel gash that the grave has 
 made we cover up with flowers of every sort. 
 
 There was no place for graves in the world at 
 first, only for gardens. God made the garden in 
 Eden, and then sin came along and carved a grave 
 where Cain buried his slain brother. 
 
 But the day will come again when there shall be 
 no more graves, but only gardens once more. 
 Christ will come again and level up the graves and 
 plant flowers. 
 
 Mary found no beauty In the garden while the 
 grave was in it. 
 
 It was a beautiful spring morning and being in 
 the month of Nisan, the flower month, the garden 
 I imagine was filled with flowers of all sorts, and 
 seeing a man standing, she naturally thought it 
 was he who cared for the garden, and she so 
 addressed him. 
 
 But she soon found when he spoke the loving 
 words to her, that it was Jesus. And yet, boys 
 and girls, I do not think she was much mistaken 
 after all. "She, supposing him to be the gardener'* 
 — well, is not that just what Jesus was and is? 
 
 This bright Easter Day we have banked our 
 churches with flowers to make them look like 
 gardens, and as we gaze upon their beauty, I want 
 you to think with Mary that Jesus is a gardener. 
 
 We have thought of him as many things. He 
 said he is "The Door." He said he is "The Shep- 
 herd," "The Light of the World," but many artists 
 
 79 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 have thought of him, too, as a gardener and 
 represented him with such instruments as these 
 in his hands. 
 
 "She, supposing him to be the gardener." Why 
 was she right? 
 
 First. — Because it was he by whom God made all 
 things. He was the power by whom God made 
 this world. " Without him was not anything made 
 that was made." And the first thing we hear 
 about God was — that he was a gardener. 
 
 The first story of God in the Bible tells us that 
 he planted a garden called Eden; he filled it 
 with all possible beauty and loveliness, and that 
 he gave it to an under gardener to till and take care 
 of, named Adam. God loves gardens, and flowers. 
 
 " The Lord God planted a garden 
 
 In the first white days of the world; 
 And set there an angel warden 
 In a garment of light unfurled. 
 
 "The kiss of the sun for pardon, 
 The song of the birds for mirth; 
 One is nearer God's heart in a garden, 
 Than anywhere else on earth." 
 
 Second. — Because Jesus sends all the flowers 
 that bloom in your garden and mine. Have you 
 never seen him walking in your garden, as Adam 
 saw God walking in his garden of Eden at the close 
 of the day? 
 
 He plants the seeds, and waters them. He brings 
 the rain and the dews, the sunshine and the showers 
 
 80 
 
JESUS. THE GARDENER 
 
 Upon them. Sometimes we think we are making 
 things grow. We trim and we cultivate with our 
 rakes and hoes and scissors, but it is Jesus after 
 all that gives them life. For he is the author of 
 all life. 
 
 " We plow the fields and scatter the good seed in the land, 
 But it is fed and watered by God's own loving hand. 
 He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain. 
 The breezes and the sunshine and soft refreshing rain." 
 
 In one of the beautiful Old Testament poems, 
 Jesus is spoken of as "My beloved who is gone 
 down into his garden ... to gather lilies." These 
 beautiful Easter plants are his handiwork as the 
 gardener. And Mary could have seen the Saviour 
 in no more beautiful form than that of a gardener. 
 
 Third. — Then Jesus is a gardener I think because 
 he has opened the gates of Paradise to all believers. 
 When he threw open the tomb in that beautiful 
 eastern garden and threw down its stone, he opened 
 the gate into heaven. It is through that gate we 
 go into the most beautiful garden of all. 
 
 The Greek word for heaven is "Paridiso," which 
 means a garden. 
 
 The followers of Mohammed, the Mussulmans, 
 think of heaven as a beautiful garden where bloom 
 all the most lovely of flowers and where flow the 
 most beautiful of streams. And isn't that just 
 the picture which John gives us of heaven? A 
 lovely city with a great park in the center, through 
 which flows the river of the water of life and where 
 
 6 81 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 the tree of life is blooming constantly. After that 
 beautiful resurrection morning, Jesus went up 
 through the heavens into the heavenly paradise of 
 God. And he tells us that he is the keeper of 
 that garden. *' I go to prepare a place for you." 
 
 Fourth. — Then I think Jesus is a gardener because 
 he keeps the garden of rest and peace. A garden 
 in the East is a type of restfulness. The gardens 
 were filled with shade trees and flowers, beautiful 
 grasses and fountains and ponds. Here men went 
 in the cool of the day or even in the midst of its 
 noontide heat to rest. You remember how Christ 
 saw Nathanael when he was under the fig tree 
 resting in the heat of the day. 
 
 The Master who rose from the dead has 
 prepared peace and comfort and rest for those that 
 come to him. "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 Now his resurrection on that Easter morning proves 
 to us that all the promises he made are true. For 
 the greatest promise — that of his rising — has been 
 fulfilled, and so we are at liberty to believe all the 
 others he made us. 
 
 So, when he tells us we may come into his garden 
 of rest, we can accept the invitation and go. How 
 we love to creep away from the heat of the hot 
 city in summer time and get into the shade of 
 some little garden. So Jesus says when we are 
 weary and oppressed, we can come to him and he 
 has provided a place of comfort. 
 
 82 
 
JESUS, THE GARDENER 
 
 When my soul is faint and thirsty, 
 'Neath the shadow of his wings 
 
 There is cool and pleasant shelter 
 And a fresh and crystal spring." 
 
 Fifth. — He is the gardener because he raises 
 flowers that we can plant in our cemeteries to make 
 gardens out of them. How we love to decorate 
 the graves of our dead. If you go into the cemeteries 
 in June they look just like rose gardens. But 
 these flowers are only types of the real flowers we 
 plant on a Christian's grave. 
 
 Jesus, the gardener, had some flowers growing in 
 that garden in Jerusalem that were the real flowers 
 of blessing to plant in our cemeteries. Here are 
 some of them. There is the flower of hope. That 
 grew out of Jesus' tomb. Before that time men 
 had hopelessly laid their dear ones in the grave. 
 But now we know that we may live again because 
 he lives. Then there is the flower of faith. We 
 need never fear that he in whom we believed will 
 fail, after he has conquered death. We can say 
 with Paul, *T know whom I have believed, and am 
 persuaded that he is able to keep that which I 
 have committed unto him against that day." 
 And he said we should see our dear ones again. 
 Then there is the flower of recognition. We fear 
 sometimes we shall not know our dear ones in 
 heaven. 
 
 But Jesus knew Mary, and Mary at last knew 
 Jesus. 
 
 83 
 
WIIAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 We have this blessed assurance that just as 
 Mary knew Jesus, not so much by his outward 
 appearance as his voice and manner, so though 
 our bodily form shall be changed we shall know 
 each other. 
 
 I have in my hand a lily bulb. If I plant it, I 
 shall get something so beautiful and sweet that 
 it has nothing of the old dirty, rough bulb about 
 it, but I shall not hesitate to say it is a lily, and 
 I shall recognize it at once. So when the great 
 Gardener plants us in the Christian's grave, we shall 
 come forth in such manner that all those who have 
 known the seed will recognize the flower. 
 
 Sixth. — Then lastly I think we can think of 
 Jesus as a gardener because it is he alone that 
 plants in us the seed that will give us eternal life. 
 "In him was life," says John. It was the life 
 that he received from God, his Father, that brought 
 him as a flower from the grave where they had 
 buried his body. By that life that God put in 
 him he came forth from the grave, to be the first 
 fruits of them that sleep. 
 
 That life Jesus puts in each of us who accepts 
 him. It is that germ of eternal life that gives 
 us hope of rising. 
 
 I hold in my hand a seed, dry and apparently 
 lifeless. Yet I can plant it with the assurance 
 that it will send forth its tiny shoot and finally 
 blossom; Seeds have been found in mummy 
 cases in Egypt that were old in the days of Moses, 
 
 84 
 
JESUS, THE GARDENER 
 
 but when planted have put out roots and grown 
 green. And every little seed has this persevering 
 germ of life. Once that mighty oak tree was a 
 little speck so small that you could not see it with- 
 out the microscope. Now if we love Jesus, he puts 
 his life in us and that life that he put in us can 
 never be destroyed. He, like the gardener, will 
 cultivate and keep it alive, and when we are put 
 into the grave that bit of Christ's life will be power- 
 ful enough to break the grave and bring us forth. 
 
 Here is a story to show you what I mean. 
 
 An infidel German countess, more than a century 
 ago, when dying, ordered that her grave should be 
 covered with a solid granite slab; that around 
 this should be placed solid rocks, and that the 
 whole should be clamped together with iron bands. 
 And she had this inscription put on the stone, 
 "This burial place, purchased to all eternity, 
 must not be opened." A little seed however, 
 sprouted inside the tomb, pushed its tiny shoots 
 out through a crack and gradually growing burst 
 the iron clamps and lifted the immense block. 
 Such a seed of life has the Gardener planted in the 
 hearts of those who will accept him and love him. 
 So for all these reasons I think Mary was right 
 that day after all, and that she supposed nothing 
 but the truth. 
 
 Jesus is the keeper of our soul garden and some 
 day he will bring us full of blooms and beauty into 
 his palace. 
 
 85 
 
''GETTING ONTO HIS CURVES" 
 
 Text— Eph. 6: II. 
 
 Objects — A baseball and bat. 
 
 My Dear Boys: 
 
 The baseball season Is upon us and the fever is 
 burning in the breasts of every manly boy of us. 
 I must confess that we preachers are not proof 
 against this dread infection that comes with the 
 robins and the hand organs. And if we made a 
 frank confession to you fellows, we would tell you 
 that we long sometimes to get away from the odor 
 of our library shelves, and get out with the boys 
 on the diamond. 
 
 I presume that every boy has been saving 
 up for bat and ball and studying the pedigree 
 of every new player on the professional teams. 
 The latest news that has come to me from the 
 diamond is that some one has Invented a brand new 
 curve, that is going to puzzle the batters this 
 year and win glory for its inventor. That re- 
 calls to me the days when before most of you 
 were born, we used to sit by the hour and discuss 
 the weighty question whether or not a baseball 
 could be made to curve, while I have spent many 
 hours, as a boy, trying to throw a ball between 
 two upright poles planted at about twenty yards 
 apart. 
 
 86 
 
••GETTING ONTO HIS CURVES" 
 
 To-day we know that most games of baseball 
 have come to be pitchers' battles. 
 
 Now Satan our great adversary is engaged in a 
 mighty struggle with every man of you, and he 
 is depending upon throwing curved balls over your 
 home plate. Paul talks to us in this letter to the 
 Ephesians about the "wiles" of the Devil. But 
 if Paul knew baseball as well as he did boxing he 
 would have told you to beware of the "curves" 
 of the Devil. Instead of saying "beware of the 
 wiles of the Devil" he would have said "get onto 
 the Devil's curves," for his wiles are his curves 
 and his curves are his wiles. There is little that is 
 straight about our enemy Satan. He never fights 
 in the open. He uses curves and deceit. He never 
 throws a straight ball. 
 
 Yes, boys, and girls too, you must become 
 familiar with the methods of the evil one lest he 
 take you unawares. 
 
 First of all Satan is so knowing. For six thou- 
 sand years, and nobody living knows how many 
 more, he has been going up and down this world 
 practicing every kind of curved device and crooked 
 business that he might put you out of the game of 
 life. And you can begin your battle with him con- 
 fident that he knows far more than you. Beware! 
 Then he can make things appear other than they 
 are. You remember how through the influences of 
 Satan the Egyptian magicians could make their 
 sticks seem like snakes after Moses had by God's 
 
 87 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 help made his rod turn into a real snake. He has 
 ever gone about blinding the eyes of the men and 
 women of this world to the truth. He is called 
 the "Father of Lies," that "Old Serpent," "The 
 Deceiver." 
 
 In the northeast corner of the great Yellowstone 
 Park there is a gloomy ravine which is known as 
 Death Gulch. At the foot of the mountain slopes 
 there is a stream impregnated with sulphate of 
 alumina, which is death to all animal life. A recent 
 visitor saw there a number of bears lying dead 
 about this stream, having been killed by drinking 
 the water. Sin has its Death Gulch, and how 
 many men and women, and boys and girls too, are 
 first fascinated, and then killed by its fatal stream. 
 It seems to invite them, but it means to blind and 
 slay. 
 
 Satan never comes in his true form. For this 
 reason we must be doubly watchful. He comes 
 often disguised as an angel of light. An old 
 Scotchman gazing once at Ary Schaefer's picture 
 of the Temptation of the Master, which represents 
 Satan in a peculiarly repulsive form, said, "If 
 Satan had come to me in that form I would have 
 given him his death blow too." But the unfortunate 
 part of it all is that he does not. To Eve he came in 
 the insinuating and sneaking method of the snake. 
 There is a pretty little plant that grows on the 
 moors of England called the sundew. Its leaves 
 are soft and velvety and attract the insects to 
 
"GETTING ONTO HIS CUIIVES" 
 
 them, but are filled with tiny hairs which when 
 touched cause the plant to close up, and the luck- 
 less insect becomes a victim of the sundew's 
 wiles. So does Satan attract us. 
 
 We must remember last of all that none has 
 ever been able, among the strongest of the sons 
 of men, unaided, to resist him. Noah, Lot, Abra- 
 ham, Moses, Peter, all have fallen a prey to the 
 wiles of the Devil. 
 
 But there is One who knows him thoroughly. 
 The Master of men is the Master of Satan. "In 
 that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is 
 able to succor them that are tempted." Let the 
 Master teach you, and help you that when Satan 
 throws his curves over your home plate, you 
 won't strike out. 
 
LESSONS OF THE TARGET 
 
 Object— A target such as is used for air rifles or archery. 
 
 My Dear Young Soldiers: 
 
 You will all recognize this thing which I hold 
 in my hand. Many times have Bill and Jim tried 
 for the bull's-eye in a target like this. Do not be 
 satisfied till you hit it, boys. 
 
 One of the presidents of the London Chamber of 
 Commerce once wrote out these two principles of 
 success : 
 
 1. Have a definite aim. 
 
 2. Go straight for it. 
 
 Dr. Henry van Dyke has written : 
 
 Life is an arrow, therefore you must know 
 What mark to aim at, how to use the bow. 
 Then draw it to the head, and let it go. 
 
 Let us look a moment at those two principles of 
 the target. 
 
 First. — Have a definite aim. If I were to select 
 for you one of the mightiest epoch-making events 
 in history, I think I should choose that moment 
 when the great Apostle Paul said on the Damascus 
 road, "What wilt thou have me to do?" Or 
 better still a scene in the temple at Jerusalem, 
 when the young Jesus said to his anxious parents, 
 "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's 
 business? " Or better still the moment when that 
 
 90 
 
LESSONS OF THE TARGET 
 
 same Jesus stood before Pilate and said, "For to 
 this end came I into the world." For both Jesus 
 and Paul had a definite aim in their lives that 
 changed the world. The sad thing about so many 
 young lives is that they are going on without a 
 definite aim. Not so the great men. You re- 
 member well what Columbus, amid all the dis- 
 couragement of that voyage of his to America, 
 wrote in his diary: "That day we sailed . . . west- 
 ward , which was our course.'' * Keeping everlastingly 
 at our work is not enough. We must have a goal 
 toward which we are going, a target toward 
 which we aim the arrow of life. Amos R. Wells 
 tells us that he once saw a sign in England that 
 read, "T. Baffin, dealer in anything and every- 
 thing." I fear Mr. Baffin never got very rich or 
 prominent. 
 
 Do you sturdy young fellows know where you 
 are marching to? Do you dear girls know toward 
 what you are going? I hope it is toward a con- 
 secrated Christian life. 
 
 Second . — Go straight for it. ' ' Then draw it to the 
 head" — says Dr. Van Dyke. Pull your arm way 
 back, let that arrow fly as if you meant it to reach 
 its mark. Plan your work, and then work your plan. 
 Benjamin Franklin once said, "Resolve to per- 
 form what you ought; perform without fail what 
 you resolve." Be like John Hay's Jim Bludsoe — 
 "He seen his duty a dead sure thing, an' went 
 for it thar and then." 
 
 91 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Don't ever be satisfied till you hit that bull's- 
 eye; tin the bell rings. Now Paul's mark was 
 Jesus. '* I press toward the mark for the high 
 calling of Jesus," he tells us. There is no higher 
 and better. Aim to be a true Christian. Don't 
 be satisfied with anything less. 
 
 Remember that to miss that mark is to sin. 
 Not all sin is transgression. Paul's idea of sin 
 was also expressed In the Greek word "hamartano" 
 which literally means to miss the mark, to come 
 short. To come short of a Christian life, my dear 
 young soldiers, Is to sin — to be found faulty. Aim 
 high then to-day. Take Jesus and a Christian 
 life as the target toward which your arrow of life 
 is directed, and then pull, pull, till you can pull no 
 more and let it fly. And some day when you go 
 to look, you will find that arrow-life of yours sunk 
 deep and firm into the life of Christ. 
 
 92 
 
THREE FLOWERS OF FREEDOM 
 
 Objects — A rose, a Mayflower and a lily. 
 
 My Dear Young Soldiers of the Cross: 
 
 I have brought you to-day a Memorial-Day 
 bouquet. For to-morrow we shall observe that 
 beautiful custom of placing flowers on the graves 
 of the soldiers who have died defending the flag, 
 or in the service of this country. The custom which 
 we all remember from childhood, originated in 
 the South after the war when the southern women 
 carried flowers out to lay on the Confederate 
 graves. And it was taken up soon by all the 
 states of the Union. The date of May 30 was 
 decided upon because that day marked the muster- 
 ing out of the last soldier of the Civil War, when 
 North and South were at last at peace. 
 
 Tradition has it that '* after the last battle fought 
 in England in behalf of the Stuarts there sprang 
 up on the spot on Culloden Moor a singular blue 
 flower unknown in that region before. The natives 
 call it the 'flower of Culloden,' because it sprang 
 from the soil made sacred with the blood of their 
 kin. They believed that seeds that had been long 
 unfruitful, lying sleeping in the ground, when 
 watered by the blood of the braves sprang suddenly 
 into life and grew and bloomed." But they were 
 
 93 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 costly flowers, were they not? These flowers that 
 you will lay upon the graves of the soldier dead of 
 our great Republic will be flowers like those of 
 CuUoden. Flowers of sacrifice. Flowers that are 
 due to bloodshed. 
 
 I hold in my hand three such flowers, three 
 flowers of freedom, that have always cost the shed- 
 ding of blood. They are the flowers of sacrifice. 
 
 First. — Here is the beautiful red rose. Its 
 color speaks of blood. It is the flower of national 
 liberty. Such liberty is costly always. Its 
 price is always sacrifice, and some one has had to 
 pour out life's blood, and some hearts have had to 
 break before liberty ever came to a nation or to 
 its people. I suppose most of you boys and girls 
 have been out to Valley Forge and seen the graves 
 of the Continental soldiers who died of hunger and 
 privation in that awful winter, and have been able 
 to fancy you could see the footmarks of blood 
 near the sentry houses. 
 
 Those of you that have read your American 
 histories know that there were three hundred and 
 sixty thousand brave men killed in the Civil War. 
 The red rose of freedom has grown out of blood. 
 We should value it so highly that never, never 
 should we carelessly throw it away. 
 
 Second. — Then here is the pale blue Mayflower, 
 the flower of religious liberty. Was it not singular 
 that those who traveled the high seas years ago 
 to find in this land of ours religious freedom should 
 
 94 
 
THREE FLOWERS OF FREEDOM 
 
 have come in a ship called the "Mayflower." 
 That little flower whose blue speaks to us of con- 
 stancy, and truth, and sincerity, and whose 
 energy in pushing out of the snow of winter to give 
 us its beauty and fragrance is so typical of the 
 loyalty, and courage of our Pilgrim fathers. True 
 blue is this little flower. And this flower of re- 
 ligious liberty cost something. Isn't it strange, 
 young people, that one should have to purchase 
 the freedom to worship God with one's blood. 
 And yet it has so often been true. From the days 
 of the Christian martyrs in the Colosseum at 
 Rome to the days of the Scotch men and women 
 who lost their lives for their faith in the days of 
 the Covenanters, it has been necessary at times 
 to buy one's right to worship God as they willed 
 at the price of blood. It is a lesson to us to value 
 the freedom we have of worship and make use of 
 that freedom. 
 
 Third. — And lastly here is the pure white lily. 
 This is also a flower of freedom. It represents to 
 us to-day the freedom from sin and all uncleanness, 
 which was purchased by our blessed Saviour when 
 he shed his life's blood on the cross. This lily 
 of freedom from sin grew up pure and spotless and 
 fragrant at the foot of the cross of the Master. 
 "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 
 Sin is slavery. He that committeth sin is the 
 slave of sin, says the Bible. And we are not too 
 young to have felt that slavery. But it also tells 
 
 95 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 US that "If the Son shall make you free, ye are 
 free indeed." And he made us free from sin by 
 his blood. 
 
 Memorial Day brings us the lessons of sacri- 
 fice. Here are the red, white and blue, — the 
 flowers of true liberty, liberty of citizenship, 
 liberty of religion, freedom from sin. And they 
 all cost something called blood — and blood is the 
 life. So then let us treasure them as never before. 
 
 96 
 
INVISIBLE ENEMIES 
 
 Object — A microscope or magnifying glass. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 One day last week I heard a boy say, "What you 
 don't know, won't hurt you." It is a poor kind 
 of philosophy, for some of the things we know 
 least about hurt us most. So also is it with the 
 things we see. When I was a little shaver, I used 
 to pull the bedclothes about my head as mother 
 turned down the light, believing, as the ostrich be- 
 lieves, that what I did not see would not hurt me. 
 
 There was once a great English scientist who put 
 some water from the dirty, though sacred. River 
 Ganges under a microscope, and then, calling a 
 high caste Brahmin, let him look through and see 
 all the horrible infusoria and microbes of disease 
 that swarmed in it. But the Brahmin, used to 
 bathing in these holy waters and terrified by what 
 he saw, broke the microscope and went on bathing 
 as before. He believed that what one does not 
 see is harmless. 
 
 What I wish to tell you to-day is that it is 
 the very things that one does not see that are the 
 most harmful. 
 
 If we were traveling through the jungles of 
 Africa we would be always on the lookout for 
 tigers, but would be utterly careless of the harm- 
 
 7 97 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 less mosquito. When we were boys we often heard 
 it said in reference to another's want of courage — 
 "Oh, he's afraid of a mosquito." But that is no 
 longer a sign of cowardice, but of common sense, 
 for the innocent looking mosquito is far more 
 terrible than the roaring tiger. And the greatest 
 men of science to-day have come to be in constant 
 terror of the mosquito, because he carries the 
 dreaded germ of yellow fever. 
 
 It is a queer thing, is it not, that the more in- 
 visible things are the more terrible and dangerous 
 do they come to be. A wild tiger is not so dangerous 
 as a common house fly, because we can see the 
 tiger and we cannot always see the fly, and the 
 fly can carry typhoid fever enough with him to 
 kill an army. 
 
 There are some things that are invisible to 
 the naked eye, like the tiny microbes, that we can 
 see through the microscope, and shun them. 
 But there are still more terrible things we cannot 
 see even through the microscope. And the smaller 
 and more invisible they are the more dangerous 
 do they seem to be. 
 
 No one yet even with the most powerful micro- 
 scope has seen the microbes or germs, as we best 
 know them, of the three terrible and fatal diseases 
 of hydrophobia, of yellow fever, or of poliomyelitis, 
 which is a big word for a sort of spinal meningitis. 
 One noted professor tells us that he believes the 
 eye is not constructed that will ever see them. 
 
 98 
 
INVISIBLE ENEMIES 
 
 Yet these three things are more fatal, and carry- 
 off more lives than all the tigers and lions of India. 
 
 So it is the little things after all which we can- 
 not see that are to be the most feared. 
 
 Now let us get our lesson. You boys and girls 
 cannot see the harm in staying out late at night, 
 and so you believe there is no such harm. But 
 mother and father have been looking through the 
 microscope, called their experience, and they have 
 seen the harm. It is too bad you cannot see it, 
 but you will some day and you must take their 
 word. 
 
 You boys cannot see the harm, perhaps, that 
 lurks in the evil-smelling cigarette, but it is there, 
 the doctors have found it. It is more dangerous than 
 wild beasts. You cannot always see why you should 
 not stay away from church and why mother insists 
 on your coming here. But there is a danger every 
 time you stay away from God's house. Those who 
 have wandered away from God have seen it and 
 can tell you. So let others be your microscopes, 
 and believe what they say when they tell you that 
 there are a hundred and one things the harm of 
 which you cannot see, and beware of them lest 
 they spoil your young lives. 
 
 99 
 
HOW TO TELL POISONS 
 
 Text— I Thess. 5:21. " Prove all things." 
 Objects — A piece of poison ivy and Virginia creeper, a 
 mushroom and a toadstool. 
 
 My Dear Young Naturalists: 
 
 I have with me to-day some of nature's products 
 with which we are all familiar. This piece of 
 vine which I am holding is the Virginia creeper 
 that climbs over the porches and fences and stone 
 walls, and this other piece which you will see I 
 am holding with a glove-covered hand is very 
 similar, and yet essentially different. And the 
 fact that I hold it with a gloved hand shows us 
 that it is a dangerous bit of leaf. It is the poison 
 ivy from which so many of us have suffered at 
 one time or another. And this object which I 
 now hold up is a mushroom, one of the most 
 delectable articles of food for the epicures. The 
 other looks just like it, but looks are deceitful, and 
 we must not be deceived because he looks like his 
 cousin. This other fellow is quite a different 
 character. Should we eat him, I fear we would 
 miss church services for some days to come, and 
 perhaps we should miss them forever. It is the 
 toadstool. Only this past summer fifteen persons 
 in New York City died from eating toadstools 
 in mistake for mushrooms. Now the important 
 100 
 
HOW TO TELL POISONS 
 
 thing is to know these fellows apart. It seems that 
 they resemble one another perfectly, and yet there 
 is a most marked difference. The difference 
 between the poison ivy and the Virginia creeper is 
 that the poison ivy has but three fingers and the 
 creeper has five. You can always tell it if you 
 know the difference of those two fingers. And as 
 to the mushrooms, you will always find that he 
 has a solid stem, that the under portion of his um- 
 brella is pink, and that you can peel the outer skin 
 off. While his cousin, the toadstool, is generally 
 of hollow stem, has a white umbrella and you can- 
 not peel the top off. God has put these differences 
 between the hurtful and the helpful, and if we 
 would live our lives in comfort and yet enjoy God's 
 provision for us in nature, we must be careful to 
 know these differences which exist. 
 
 There are in like manner habits and methods 
 of living of which these several objects are illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 These habits and methods of life seem all alike 
 to many. They have an innocent look to those 
 who are not watchful and we are apt to be deceived 
 and poisoned by them. 
 
 What I want you to remember is, that as in 
 the case of the things I have shown you, the 
 difference J while seemingly slight, can always be 
 detected. And it is our business, boys and girls, 
 to detect it before we get poisoned by them. 
 
 These differences are generally in some little 
 101 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 matter that it takes a good clear eye to see, and 
 one that has practiced seeing such things to avoid 
 them. There is something there that ought not 
 to be there, or there is something not there that 
 ought to be there, that makes the difference, and 
 renders one harmful and the other helpful. 
 
 God has given us an eye to see just these 
 differences in pleasures, and habits and ways of 
 doing things, and that eye we call "conscience." 
 If you were going out hunting for mushrooms you 
 would have your eyes "peeled" as we say; keen 
 and watchful to see the difference between mush- 
 room and toadstool. And if you were getting 
 over a wall you would be watchful to see if the 
 pretty vine growing upon it had five fingers or 
 three. So must the eye of our conscience be bright 
 and constantly on the watch for these differences 
 between good and bad. 
 
 In chemistry they use a paper called "litmus" 
 which put in acid instantly determines its acidity. 
 The jeweler has his touchstone for determining 
 gold. So conscience determines in the pleasures 
 and habits of our lives the good and the bad. In 
 the bank of England there is a machine that with 
 unerring accuracy weighs the coin throwing out 
 those which are under weight. Just so our con- 
 sciences tell us the differences, however slight they 
 may be, between the good and the bad. Some of 
 the things we like in life and should not have, 
 look just like things we like and may have. We 
 ' • . 102 
 
HOW TO TELL POISONS ^' 
 
 must follow our conscience carefully. We must 
 get to know the difference between playing golf 
 and playing golf on God's holy day. 
 
 We must come to know the difference between a 
 Christmas cantata and a cheap vaudeville show 
 in a theater. 
 
 You must see the difference between saying 
 "let's pretend" when you are playing, and "let's 
 pretend" when mother has asked you a point 
 blank question that demands the truth. 
 
 Conscience will tell you all these differences 
 if you will follow it and keep it without offense. 
 For the aim of us all should be with Paul to try 
 always to have "a conscience void of offense before 
 God and man." Prove all things, Juniors, for 
 you have the proof in your own hearts where God 
 has placed it for your safety. 
 
 Do not eat anything until you have proved it 
 good for your body. 
 
 And do not do anything until you have proved it 
 good for your soul. 
 
 103 
 
BUBBLE HONORS 
 
 Text — Hosea lo : 7; Ps. 91 : 14. 
 
 Objects — A soap bubble pipe and some water for blowing 
 bubbles. 
 
 I wonder how many of you boys and girls before 
 me to-day ever wished that you were kings or 
 queens or at least princes and princesses? You 
 are not much like the general run of boys and girls 
 if you haven't sometime or other curled yourselves 
 up in father's big armchair and with your fairy 
 book on your knees wished that you, too, might sit 
 on a royal throne and dictate orders to men- and 
 women-in-waiting and never, never go to bed until 
 you wanted to. 
 
 How we all are looking for honors! How we 
 love to be even in the company of great men! 
 How our young bosoms swell with pride if only 
 we can shake hands with some great one! Why, 
 I remember even to-day the swellings of boyish 
 pride with which I shook hands once with General 
 Burnside, and heard him say to father, "That 
 boy has a good grip." Or how grand we feel 
 when some noted man or woman answers a little 
 letter that we have written him or her! 
 
 But here is a king to whom all kinds of honors 
 are due, and yet Hosea the Prophet tells him that his 
 honors are like a bubble upon the waters. I want 
 104 
 
BUBBLE HONORS 
 
 to speak to you to-day young people on "Bubble 
 Honors" and as I blow this airy bubble look well 
 at it. 
 
 See first — how pretty, how attractive a thing it 
 is. Reflecting all the colors of the rainbow, it 
 mirrors all the beauties of this room in which we 
 are. 
 
 But see now — how empty a thing it is. I prick 
 it with this pin and — splutter! — it is gone. Gone 
 where? Into the empty air from whence it came; 
 for it is after all but a breath. Ages ago a very 
 wise and thoughtful man wrote in the pages of 
 this blessed Bible we study, "Vanity of vanities, 
 . . . all is vanity," and if you could read the 
 language in which that was written you would see 
 that what the great wise man said was this, "A 
 breath of breaths, all being but breath." He was 
 speaking of the honors of the world. 
 
 I wonder if you ever read that pretty story of 
 the little beggar who changed places with the little 
 prince, and how sick and tired that little beggar 
 grew of the fuss and feathers of the royal court, 
 and how anxious he was to get back to the gutter. 
 Now notice also that these bubbles are — blown 
 up with wind. The wind that blows up some honors 
 that men have is often their own. They blow 
 themselves up with pride and self praise until they 
 often burst. ^sop tells us in his fables of the 
 frog who wanted to be as large as the bull, and he 
 puffed and puffed his little self until he burst. 
 105 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 And sometimes these honors are blown up for us 
 by our friends. There was always room in the 
 great Greek Pantheon, or temple of all the gods, 
 for any deity who had followers enough to erect 
 his statue there. And generally you can find some 
 one who will praise you. 
 
 But we find at last that these bubble honors are 
 easily burst, and short-lived. 
 
 What then are the honors that last? They are 
 named in the ninety-first Psalm, "Because he hath 
 set his love upon me, ... I will set him on high, 
 because he hath known my name." It is the King 
 of kings who is speaking of those of you that love 
 him. He will set you "on high," and he will 
 answer you. How nice to get an answer from 
 a great man. 
 
 Here is an answer from the King of kings: "I 
 will honor him." He whom God honors is hon- 
 ored indeed. 
 
 The honors that God gives are permanent. 
 We prick the bubble and the "bubble honor," 
 and both return to the air. But the Father says, 
 "With long Hfe will I satisfy him." The little 
 kings of China and Persia will keep their honors 
 at longest but about sixty years, and like most 
 monarchs will not be satisfied. But you little 
 kings, who are God's children will have an eternity 
 of glory. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? 
 Seek them not." 
 
 106 
 
THE THREE SIEVES 
 
 Text— Ps. 39 : I. 
 
 Objects — Three sieves with tags appended reading respect- 
 fully, " Is it true?" " Is it kind? " " Is it necessary? " 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 To-day as I came Into the church I heard a group 
 of the young ladies of our Junior Congregation 
 talking together about another young lady of this 
 same Congregation, and from what I could gather 
 the remarks were not altogether complimentary. 
 And I wondered if the remarks of these young 
 ladies in question could be put through the three 
 sieves. Now you are already guessing what those 
 three sieves are. They are the sieves through 
 which all our tales of others should be made to 
 pass before we repeat them. For just as flour is 
 sifted again and again before it is fit to go out into 
 our homes and be made into nourishing bread, so 
 must our tales about others be sifted, before they 
 are fit to be retold and made public property. 
 
 Learn then, my dear Juniors, to put all such tales 
 about others through the three sieves which I shall 
 show you. If they fail to pass through, then never 
 tell them. Lock them up in the secret places of 
 your hearts and memories and put a ball and chain 
 on them lest they should escape and do much 
 harm. The first sieve is that which bears the label 
 "Is it true?" 
 
 107 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 "Oh, mother, "cried Mabel, "I heard such a 
 tale of Edith Howard, I never knew she was such 
 an old sneaking" — 
 
 "My dear," replied her mother, "Go get the 
 sieve number one, and let us see if it will go 
 through." 
 
 "Yes," said Mabel, "it will. Nellie Jones told 
 me all about it and she saw her do it." 
 
 "Well," said mother," try the next one." (Hold 
 up sieve whose label reads, "Is it kind?") 
 
 Now, Juniors, what do you think Mabel found? 
 Would it pass that sieve or not? There are times 
 when it is kindness to tell people of their faults. 
 But it is scarcely ever kind to tell others about them. 
 
 But if Mabel had succeeded in getting her story 
 through the second sieve, would it ever have gotten 
 through the third? (Sieve with label reading, 
 "Is it necessary?") 
 
 Is it ever necessary to tell tales of others? Some- 
 times, but very seldom. And never for the mere 
 pleasure of telling a tale. And never unless the 
 tale will pass through the three tests which we have 
 assigned them to-day. David knew what sorrow 
 comes into tender hearts and how much disgrace 
 is brought on the name of God by children of his 
 that tell useless and unkind tales of others. And 
 so he wrote, " I will take heed to my ways, that I 
 sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth 
 with a bridle, while the wicked are before me." 
 
 108 
 
THE LION, THE BEAR AND THE 
 SERPENT 
 
 Text — Amos 5 : 19. "As if a man did flee from a lion, and 
 a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand 
 on the wall, and a serpent bit him." 
 
 Objects — Large pictures of lion, bear, and snake. 
 
 My Dear Churchgoers: 
 
 Here is a funny text. You didn't know it was 
 in the Bible, did you? Well, you are not more 
 ignorant than the grown people here this morning, 
 because they did not know it either, most of them. 
 
 I have here in my hand a large picture of a lion, 
 a bear and a serpent, which correspond to the three 
 animals mentioned in this peculiar text. There 
 is a tale of a traveler which I heard when I was a 
 boy that has stayed with me ever since and which 
 I hope will stay with you also. This traveler 
 was going, in his journey, through a thick wood, 
 when a huge bear sprang out at him, but raising 
 his trusty rifle to his shoulder he brought him to 
 the ground and hurried on. Shortly he heard the 
 howling of wolves and looking behind saw that he 
 was pursued. Digging the spurs into his steed 
 he took to rapid flight. But the wolves soon 
 caught up and he felt that it would not be long 
 until they would pull him from the saddle to 
 his death. Rising in his stirrups he fired at the 
 leader and brought him down. Thereupon the 
 
 109 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 other members of the pack fell to eating the dead, 
 and he escaped. 
 
 Rejoicing in his prowess in making this double 
 escape from bear and wolves, he rolled himself 
 up in his blanket and lay down to sleep, when a 
 serpent that had coiled itself in the folds of his 
 blanket stung him to death. 
 
 Now this is the same kind of story that Amos 
 is telling us here. You may escape two great evils 
 to be destroyed by a third that you never dream 
 of, or which you think too weak and innocent 
 to harm you. This man by his swift running has 
 escaped the lion, — which in Bible times was sup- 
 posed to be exceedingly swift and to attack its prey 
 only in the open, — and, feeling himself safe, has 
 gone carelessly along his way. But the bear, which 
 is supposed to be like our fox in his cunning, 
 lurks behind the bushes and darts out at him as he 
 passes by. By careful dodging he eludes the bear 
 and gains the safety of his own home. Panting 
 and tired, yet feeling perfectly secure, he leans 
 for rest against the wall of his home — safe, safe, 
 at last. But just then a slimy, treacherous snake 
 crawls lazily out of the cracks in the wall and 
 stings him, and he dies. 
 
 Now I am wondering how many of you boys 
 and girls have caught the lesson. It is this — that 
 not for a moment must you believe that because 
 you do not murder, or steal, or lie, or swear, that 
 you are safe. The little serpent of bad temper or 
 
 110 
 
THE LION, THE BEAR AND THE SERPENT 
 
 thoughtlessness may get you yet. Don't you re- 
 member how in the fairy stories the old witch 
 always kept changing from a horrid beast into a 
 lovely maiden, and from a lovely maiden into a, 
 horrid beast? 
 
 So it is that Satan changes, and if you think 
 you have gotten away from him because you have 
 escaped the old lion of cruelty, beware that you 
 do not find the old bear deceit lying about some- 
 where. Or if you have managed to elude him, 
 don't think you can always escape the old snake 
 of falsehood. 
 
 It is the "little foxes that spoil the vines," and 
 it is the little sins that after all trip us up. Watch 
 out, boys, for little sins. Watch out, girls, for little 
 faults. Notice that it was in this man's own house 
 that the serpent got him. It is in your own hearts 
 that these little sins lie. And they are all the more 
 dangerous because we do not at once recognize 
 them as sins. 
 
 Ill 
 
WEIGHING HEARTS 
 
 Text— Job 31 :6. 
 
 Objects — A pair of toy scales and if possible a scarabaeus. 
 
 My Dear Young Christians: 
 
 I have before me to-day one object that you are 
 famihar with, and one with which you are not 
 famiHar. The first you will quickly recognize as 
 a pair of toy scales such as you use in playing 
 "store." 
 
 The other is a scarab or sacred beetle cut out of 
 stone and taken from the tomb of an Egyptian. 
 These scarabs were considered to be emblems of 
 immortality and were supposed to grant to the 
 person holding them in their hands after death a 
 safe entrance into the other world. 
 
 In the British Museum there are hundreds of 
 these scarabs, and all of them are engraved with 
 some emblem, the translation of which is written on 
 a tin tablet below. One of these inscriptions reads 
 thus, "A prayer that the weighing of the heart 
 of the possessor in the Hall of Double Justice, 
 before the guardian of the scales, may be found 
 satisfactory." 
 
 This struck me as peculiar and I began to study 
 the matter. I found that the Egyptians taught 
 that after death the person was conducted into 
 112 
 
WEIGHING HEARTS 
 
 the Hall of Truth and Righteousness by the god 
 Anubis and that there were seated about the hall 
 forty-two accusers who would accuse the person of 
 forty-two terrible crimes. These he had to deny, 
 and in order to be sure that he told the truth they 
 did this remarkable thing, boys and girls, — they 
 weighed his heart. In the one side of the scale 
 they put his heart, and in the other the symbol for 
 truth. If the weighing was satisfactory his heart 
 was restored to his body and he went to heaven. 
 If not, and his heart was under weight, he was 
 fed as a dainty meal to the hippopotamus that 
 guarded the heavenly gardens. How funny it 
 seems to weigh a fellow's heart, doesn't it? Yet 
 that is just what Job is talking about in our text. 
 "Let me be weighed in an even balance that God 
 may know mine integrity." 
 
 That is what the writer of Proverbs meant 
 when he said, ''The ways of a man are clean in his 
 own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits." 
 
 Think what wonderfully accurate scales God 
 must have. In one place we are told he weighs 
 mountains in his balances and in this place that he 
 weighs such an airy, filmy nothing as spirit. 
 
 Men are able to make wonderful scales such as 
 that in the mint where they can weigh from tons 
 down to the millionth part of an ounce, but no 
 man ever could weigh the heart of a man. God 
 alone weighs that, and he weighs it in the scales 
 with truth, boys. We do not like the idea much of 
 
 8 113 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 being measured up with truth, but our hearts are 
 constantly in God's scale. 
 
 There was a man in the olden days named 
 Belshazzar, whose heart was weighed. You recall 
 that story — how in the midst of the feast he saw 
 a hand writing upon the wall, "Mene, mene, 
 tekel upharsin," — thou art weighed in the balance 
 and found wanting. 
 
 Now then — if this is all true, and we want to 
 have hearts that weigh right in the day of God's 
 judging, the best thing we can do is to weigh our 
 hearts each day with truth in the other side of 
 the scale. Let us check them up every hour of the 
 day. How is it now? Are you telling truth now? 
 Are you living truly now? Have you boys any 
 secrets under those manly breasts of yours that you 
 dare not tell father? Have you girls any treasures 
 in your hearts that you would rather not show 
 mother? 
 
 Put your heart into the scale with truth to-day 
 and then check up the balance daily and you will 
 find that if you are honest to-day there will not 
 be much trouble by and by. 
 
 Shall we not all be willing to pray the prayer of 
 the Psalmist — "Search me, O God, and know my 
 heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if 
 there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in 
 the way everlasting." 
 
 114 
 
THE DANGEROUS SHADOW 
 
 Text— Eph. 5 : 8. 
 
 My Dear "Children of Light": 
 
 One day this summer while we were traveling 
 from Siena to Rome in hot and dusty Italy, the 
 train suddenly put on brakes and stopped hurriedly 
 just after we had passed an arch of a bridge over 
 the railroad track. Everyone either got out or 
 looked out, and noticed that the train crew were 
 running wildly, — and gesticulating as they ran, — 
 toward the bridge from under which we had just 
 come. And looking back over the short distance 
 across the tracks vibrating with the heat we saw 
 a poor fellow lying bleeding beside the roadbed 
 with a party of dazed and excited Italians gathered 
 about him. Everyone was excited and all gesticu- 
 lated as the Italians will. But one poor fellow with 
 blue overalls seemed to be more unnerved than all 
 the rest. He ran about wringing his hands and 
 crying in his native tongue, "He was in the shadow 
 and I did not see him." "He was in the shadow 
 and I did not see him." True enough he was, 
 for the poor unfortunate had been lying in the 
 shadow of the bridge resting from his morning's 
 toil in the heat, and the engineer, because of the 
 dense shadow of the archway and the blinding 
 sunlight that was all about, did not see him and ran 
 
 115 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 him down. They picked him up tenderly and laid 
 him in the coach, but the doctor, who happened 
 to be on the train, gave us little hope that he would 
 live. At every station the excited engineer got 
 out and cried to all who passed by, "He was in 
 the shadow and I did not see him." The shadow 
 was a comfortable but a mighty dangerous place 
 to be. Boys and girls, it always is. Most of 
 the evil that is done in the world is done in the 
 shadow. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "For every 
 one that doeth evil hateth the light," and "Men 
 loved darkness rather than light, because their 
 deeds were evil." 
 
 The burglar creeps into one's home under the 
 shadow of early morning just before day. The 
 drunkard staggers home in the darkness. 
 
 We are coming to hate the evil shadow so greatly 
 in our cities, that each year we are erecting more 
 light poles. This last year the city in which we 
 live set nearly a thousand new lamps blazing along 
 its main streets believing that one electric light 
 that drives away the shadows is better than a 
 dozen policemen. 
 
 The shadow means dangers to you boys and 
 girls. When God's people Israel wanted to commit 
 idolatry, they sought out the shadows under the 
 green trees upon the hill tops. And when to-day 
 the crooked business man does business in a way 
 that you children would say wasn't "fair,'* we 
 talk about his "shady" operations. When you 
 116 
 
THE DANGEROUS SHADOW 
 
 chaps want to do wrong, you get in the shadow. 
 In the shadow of the barn some of the older boys 
 here to-day smoked their first cigarette, and their 
 sons do the same thing, if they have not learned 
 better about these cigarettes. 
 
 Where did you go after you had bought that 
 miserable book that you did not dare to let mother 
 see? Off into the haymow of the barn, if you 
 lived in the country — in the shadow. 
 
 In the shadow of the schoolhouse you girls got 
 together to talk over that new girl that just came 
 to school, and said things and did things that you 
 would have been ashamed to do openly. And 
 sometimes when a boy gets older the shadow is 
 the shadow of a corner grocery store, or the back 
 room of a cigar store or pool room. And then 
 by and by the shadow he looks for is the shadow 
 of the saloon's swinging door. Then it is the shadow 
 of the dark alley, and in that shadow he learns to 
 commit crime, — until the shadow of the prison 
 covers him. 
 
 Yes, the shadow is a bad place for a boy or a 
 girl. How careful we ought to be to heed Paul's 
 words, "Walk as children of light." For God is 
 light. There is no shadow with him. All things 
 are open in the eye of our heavenly Father. The 
 darkness and the light are both alike to him. 
 One of the most useful texts of Scripture I ever 
 learned, was this, "Thou God seest me." Look 
 out for the shadow, Juniors, and walk in the light. 
 117 
 
BACK IN HARNESS 
 
 Text — James 3:3. " Behold, we put bits in the horses' 
 mouths, that they may obey us." 
 Object — A bridle, or piece of harness. 
 
 My Dear Young Christians: 
 
 This week will see vacation close and the school 
 doors open and you will be getting back to work. 
 I have tried to get a topic to-day that would help 
 you to go back in good spirits and with a willing- 
 ness to do your best. 
 
 I have brought you to-day as our object this 
 bit and bridle, and our text says, "Behold we 
 put bits in the horses' mouths," and then tells us 
 why. I wonder if in our vacation days in the 
 country, on the farm, we have seen a horse turned 
 out to pasture. How happy he is to get the harness 
 off and how he jumps, and whinnies, and rolls in 
 the soft clover. But the day comes when he must 
 get back to work. And how he dislikes that. 
 The farmer has to get a measure with some salt, 
 or a wisp of hay and go to the fence rail and coax 
 and call, and then quickly slip the halter on, or 
 the bridle. It will be some days before the farmer 
 can get that horse to work well. He will want 
 to go Into every field he sees. 
 
 So is it with you boys and girls and with us grown- 
 ups. All summer you have been "turned out to 
 118 
 
BACK IN HARNESS 
 
 grass." The schoolroom doors have been closed. 
 The books all set aside and you have been running 
 wild. Now the school bell will soon sound and 
 the factory whistles will blow and we shall all 
 know that it is time to get back to work. 
 
 We call it "getting back into harness." Duty 
 becomes our master again, and hitches us up 
 again in the harness — ties us once more to our 
 regular tasks. This week the teacher will come to 
 the schoolroom door with the harness in her hand 
 and call you back. You will put on the harness 
 again and be tied up to books and lessons all winter. 
 
 Rather hard isn't it? Some of us older folks 
 find it so. 
 
 But the harness has its blessed uses for the horse, 
 and for you also. What does the harness do for 
 the horse? 
 
 First. — It teaches him obedience. We put 
 harnesses on the horses, and bits in their mouths, 
 says our text, "that they may obey us." The 
 greatest lesson of life, boys and girls, is obe- 
 dience. When you have learned that, you can 
 learn almost anything. And we go to school to 
 learn that. The horse cannot be of use unless he 
 learns to follow the rein. Neither can the boy or 
 girl. Some time ago in one of the European coun- 
 tries, a switch tender on the railroad, saw his little 
 boy playing on the tracks where a fast train was 
 coming. He could not leave the switch to go 
 after the child, and he could not throw the train 
 
 119 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 on another track without great loss of life. So he 
 called to the boy loudly, "Lie down!" The little 
 fellow had early learned obedience, and so, instantly, 
 he lay down and the great train passed over him 
 without giving him even a scratch. 
 
 Second. — Then the harness gives the horse a 
 chance to be useful, and to put his great powers 
 and strength to service. Without the harness 
 that ties him to his work, he would waste his 
 strength. We do not like to be tied to work, but 
 it is the only way our youthful strength will become 
 of use. We talk about harnessing the great Falls 
 of Niagara. And men have done it so that the 
 great body of water is doing work for the world 
 to-day in running great factories and making light 
 for distant cities. We have harnessed steam, and 
 gas, and electricity, and gasoline, and now the 
 air, and made them useful. You boys and girls 
 are carrying about with you a pressure of youthful 
 strength — about one hundred and fifty pounds to 
 the square inch. If you get "hitched up" to 
 some definite duty that will count for good. 
 
 Third. — Then the harness is the horse's safety, 
 and having a regular duty is your safety also. 
 In olden days the word "harness" meant the armor 
 which the knight put upon his horse and himself 
 to protect them from the arrows and spears of the 
 enemy. The harness to-day keeps the horse out 
 of mischief. It keeps him in the road and keeps 
 him busy. 
 
 120 
 
BACK IN HARNESS 
 
 Our school tasks keep our minds busy so that 
 they are not filled with harmful things. There was 
 a story in The Ram's Horn about a boy whose 
 report had been below the average in school and 
 his father noticed a number of dime novels in his 
 son's room. He said nothing about them but when 
 the lad came in he said, "Take this basket of 
 apples, turn the apples out and fill the basket with 
 chips." The boy returned the basket partly filled. 
 ''Now," said his father, "put the apples back into 
 the basket." 
 
 The boy tried but found that the fruit rolled 
 out as fast as he could put it in. "I can't do it, 
 father, the basket is half full of chips." "Exactly 
 so" said his parent, ** and how can you fill your 
 mind with useful learning when you have it more 
 than half full of rubbish?" Being at school and 
 being faithful to our studies keeps us safe. 
 
 Then, last of all remember that Jesus talked 
 about harness, for the ox-yokes of Jesus' day were 
 the harnesses of the times. He said, " Take my 
 yoke of obedience and learn of me and you shall 
 find rest." Jesus wants us to work, but as we 
 work, he wants us to know that he works with us 
 and will give us rest in the midst of our toil. 
 
 121 
 
"KEYED UP" 
 
 Text— Luke 12 : 35. 
 
 Objects — A sash or girdle and small lamp. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 I have here to-day for our object lesson, a girdle 
 such as is worn in the East, and a small lamp such 
 as used to be carried in the days of Jesus. Both 
 of these figure in the picture of watchmen which 
 Jesus has drawn in our text. The lord of the 
 mansion has gone out for the evening and has 
 left these men to await his coming. Possibly he 
 has been on a journey into the country and is 
 weary, and dusty and desires a feet washing or a 
 hot supper, and moreover, as the ways were dark 
 in those dark days and no brilliant street lamps 
 illumined the way, it would be necessary for the 
 servants to have the lamp lighted to guide him in 
 the narrow street along which he came to his home. 
 The girdle was worn around the waist and when 
 service was required the loose outer garment was 
 caught up and made fast with it and the man was 
 unincumbered and better fit to wait upon his 
 lord. Beside that there would be the strengthen- 
 ing of the body-making the service easier. The 
 man with loins girt and lamp lighted was as we 
 say "keyed up" to the moment when his master 
 should require him. When God prepared his 
 122 
 
"KEYED UP' 
 
 people to go out of Egypt he ordered that as their 
 going was to be sudden, their loins were to be girt 
 about and their shoes were to be upon their feet 
 and their staves in their hands. There would be 
 no time to do it after the summons came. 
 
 Jesus wants to teach us that it is necessary for a 
 Christian to be always "keyed up" and "girt 
 about." 
 
 Every spring and fall you notice that father has 
 the piano "tuned up." When a violinist begins 
 to play he first has to "tune up" that instrument 
 of his; and a most nerve racking procedure it 
 often is. 
 
 Now we find that the aviator has to "tune up" 
 his biplane, by tightening every wire, before he 
 dares to attempt a flight. 
 
 I often wonder how the lighthouse keepers stand 
 the strain of their hard life, for they are obliged 
 to keep their lights and the machinery that runs 
 them, up to the top notch of perfection, or the 
 lights might fail and men lose their lives along 
 the shore. 
 
 This is what Jesus meant when he said that we 
 were to be like watchmen with their loins tied up 
 tight — constantly vigilant and ready. 
 
 You know what that means — you boys know. 
 Did you ever go to see a series of professional 
 baseball games, when there were two runs on either 
 side in the ninth inning and three men on bases, 
 and two out and the strongest hitter at the bat? 
 123 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Watch those infielders — they are keyed up, they 
 have their loins girt and their lamps lighted, they 
 are "on the job." Well, that is the condition in 
 which Jesus wants every child of his to be. Eternal 
 vigilance is not only "the price of liberty," as we 
 write in our copy books, but the price of every- 
 thing. 
 
 Now some of us are loosely tied together. The 
 other day in Cincinnati they published a list of 
 things that had become loose in the mails and been 
 lost to their owners. Among the long list were 
 watch chain, cuff buttons, tooth brush, set of 
 teaspoons, bracelet, earrings, pocket knife, brush, 
 bundle of iron, brass lock, box of pills, set of false 
 teeth, bicycle sprocket wheel, door keys, box of 
 salve, comb, and no end of small coins of silver 
 and copper. I suppose their owners blamed Uncle 
 Sam for their loss. They were not tied tight. 
 And there are a lot of things about us that we allow 
 to get loose when they ought to be tied up tight. 
 
 We need to gird up the loins of our church-going. 
 Just you boys and girls take up a few holes in that 
 girdle — won't you? We are rather loose on that. 
 And when our habits get a little loose it's hard to 
 do right. We need to pull up that girdle of 
 prayer. We pray now and then, but we do not 
 pray without ceasing as Paul tells us to do. 
 
 We get a little careless about telling the 
 exact truth and before we can get the girdle tied 
 up, along comes a temptation to lie, and we lie. 
 
 124 
 
"KEYED UP" 
 
 Some day when our loins of obedience are 
 loosely girt, the thief called "disobedience" comes 
 along, and before we can get them tied up tight in 
 order to fight him, he downs us. 
 
 Remember, boys and girls, to keep "keyed up,'* 
 "tuned up," "tied up." 
 
 125 
 
PICKING UP THE BUOYS 
 
 Text — Heb. 5 : 14. " Their senses exercised to discern 
 both good and evil." 
 Object — A searchlight torch, or a bull's-eye lantern. 
 
 Dear Juniors: 
 
 I am wondering if you had as good a summer 
 vacation as I had. When I am away I am think- 
 ing of you all, and trying to get some lessons 
 for you out of God's greatest book, greatest in 
 size I mean, the book of nature, and the great 
 outdoors. 
 
 Coming down the coast from a stay In Maine, 
 the steamer had just left Rockland harbor, and 
 I was walking the upper deck enjoying the beau- 
 tiful display of northern lights that were sweep- 
 ing across the heavens, when I saw a brilliant, 
 broad ray of dazzling light shoot out from the 
 pilot house of the steamer and move quickly and 
 anxiously back and forth over the face of the black 
 water. For some seconds it rested upon the 
 water alone, but suddenly there flashed out in 
 its path a bright steel shaft coming out of the sea. 
 It was the buoy that marked the channel between 
 the many rocky ledges that infest the coast of 
 Maine. The captain had found what he was 
 seeking with his great electric searchlight. One by 
 one at intervals he "picked up" the buoys, as they 
 
 126 
 
PICKING UP THE BUOYS 
 
 call it. Now it was a great tripod of wood that 
 loomed out of the darkness, now it was a spar. 
 In the distance we would hear a bell slowly clanging, 
 and suddenly the great light would move out in 
 the direction of the sound and we could see the 
 lonely bell buoy tossing on the waves. He was 
 picking up the buoys, getting his eye on the points 
 of danger. But the captain knew they were there. 
 Not once did he come too near them, even 
 though he had not seen them. He knew they 
 were near and he wanted to be doubly sure just 
 where. And this is the sermon from the sea. 
 
 Every boy and girl moves out of the harbor of 
 boyhood or girlhood knowing In a vague way that 
 there are dangers ahead. If father has not told 
 you so, mother has, and if both have neglected the 
 warning, some tireless preacher or teacher has 
 told you, perhaps. Like the captain, you know 
 they are there somewhere — little sins waiting to 
 trip you, big rocks and ledges of sin to wreck 
 your ship. You have to steer your course care- 
 fully if you would avoid them, and it is a mighty 
 good thing to know just where they He. It is not 
 enough for the fireman to know the house is afire, 
 he must know just where the fire is. So he does a 
 lot of chopping. It is not enough for the captain 
 to know there are rocks there, but he must 
 know just where they are. 
 
 Now God has buoyed the dangerous places in 
 life, but we do not always "pick up the buoys." 
 127 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Years ago the captains could not do that at night. 
 But since electricity came into use they can. 
 Now God has put within the pilot house of our 
 being a powerful searchlight. We call it "the 
 moral sense." It tells us at once where the buoys 
 are. It says this thing is a good thing and that 
 thing is a bad thing. 
 
 You hear people talk about "the evils of appe- 
 tite," and you get to believe that there is evil in 
 appetite. But just where that evil is you do not 
 know until you get your seachlight working. Pretty 
 soon it shines upon a cigarette, and it says, "Steer 
 away, danger here." 
 
 By and by it gets to shining upon a glass of wine, 
 and it says to you, "Danger right here — steer 
 away." 
 
 You hear people say, "There is danger in bad 
 reading," and one day your searchlight gets its 
 rays on a dime novel with a red cover and it says, 
 "Right here is bad reading — steer away." 
 
 You hear people say, "There is danger in bad 
 companions," and one day the light falls on Tom 
 Jones or Bill Smith, and it cries, "Steer away, 
 this is a bad rock for you to be near." 
 
 So if we let it, the great searchlight of our moral 
 sense will show just at what spot these dangers 
 we have heard of lie. 
 
 We must keep that searchlight in order. In our 
 text this morning we read of those v/ho had their 
 "senses exercised to discern both good and evil," 
 128 
 
PICKING UP THE BUOYS 
 
 which is only saying that they kept the reflectors 
 clean and the current moving and the carbons 
 renewed, in that moral sense which God gave us. 
 
 So, boys and girls, let us keep that light moving. 
 Throw it on everything about you and learn to 
 discern between good and evil. 
 
 Oh, how much trouble and sorrow and suffering 
 to ourselves and to those who love us would we 
 avoid if we were always careful first to know an 
 evil thing when we saw it, and then were quick to 
 steer away. 
 
 It is an awful thing to put out that light. And 
 it may be done — so successfully that we get to 
 calling "evil" "good," and "good" "evil"; and 
 "light "darkness," and "darkness" "light," 
 "safety" "danger," and "danger" "safety." 
 
 Keep your light burning, and pick up the buoys, 
 and you will have a safe course. 
 
 129 
 
ARE YOU A HOBAB? 
 
 Text — Num. lo : 31. 
 
 Object— A large picture of the human eye. 
 
 Dear Juniors: 
 
 Are you a Hobab? "Who was he? " you ask me. 
 Well, your question is excusable when I think of 
 the number of people this week who have been 
 looking at the little cards I gave you last Sunday, 
 and know no more about him than you do. Yes, 
 and I have had at least three ministers say to me, 
 "Well, who was he, anyway?" But I won't "give 
 those ministers away." To begin with he was 
 Moses' brother-in-law, and Moses met him in the 
 wilderness when he was leading that great army of 
 slaves out of Egypt which he made into a great 
 nation. You perhaps remember that Moses had 
 married when he kept sheep in Midian, and when 
 the family whom he had left behind in the desert 
 when he went back into Egypt heard that he was 
 coming as general of this great army of men, 
 women, and children, they came out to meet 
 him. 
 
 The time now had come to part, and Moses, 
 knowing that God was with the children of Israel 
 and that blessings awaited them in the land of 
 Canaan, invited Hobab to go along and share in 
 these blessings. "Come with us and we will do 
 130 
 
ARE YOU A HOBAB? 
 
 thee good." It would have been a great thing 
 for Hobab and his family to get out of the barren 
 desert into fertile land. But that didn't attract 
 Hobab. The Arab loves the desert and his home 
 ties were very strong, and he refused to go. 
 
 So Moses tried another kind of bait to catch 
 him. He knew that the desert before them was 
 full of dangers and pitfalls, and that the springs 
 were few, and the path difficult. None knew 
 where the water and the paths were as did Hobab, 
 the son of the desert. He could be of use to 
 Moses, and so Moses pleaded: "Come, and do 
 us good. Come, be eyes for us in the desert. 
 Be our scout, be our guide. Lead us in the difficult 
 path." And Hobab who couldn't be induced to 
 leave his own home for gain to himself, went along 
 with Moses, because he saw that he could be 
 useful. He became eyes for them. Now I like 
 that kind of fellow, don't you? He refused to go 
 for his own good, but when it came to doing some- 
 thing for others, he went along. 
 
 Are you a Hobab? The church and the Sunday 
 school are calling to you boys and girls on this 
 Rally Day. "Come with us and we will do thee 
 good." And I want to tell you that nowhere 
 outside of home and heaven will you ever get so 
 much good as in the church and Sunday school. 
 
 But there is a better call that they make to you 
 to-day. "Come and do us good." "Come and 
 be eyes for us." "Come and be useful." That's 
 131 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 a better call. "Be eyes for us." " Be the scouts 
 of the kingdom of Jesus." 
 
 We want you all to be Hobabs to-day. I have 
 set your trade-mark and his on the pulpit here — 
 this great eye. 
 
 You boys and girls never know how you can 
 lead others. The Bible says, "and a little child 
 shall lead them." Jesus thought so when he put 
 the little child in the midst of the disciples as an 
 example. He also said once that God had hidden 
 the sweetest things of all from the wise and the 
 prudent and revealed them to babes. 
 
 I suppose you have often been eyes for old 
 people. One day grandmother lost her spectacles 
 and she said, "Come, dearie, be eyes for grand- 
 mother, and find my spectacles." One day mother 
 said, "I've lost my needle down on the floor; your 
 eyes are better than mine, my boy; find it for me." 
 But there are better ways of being eyes. Once 
 there was a little boy whose name was William, 
 whose parents were not Christians and did not go 
 to church, and they did not pray, but they wanted 
 William to say his prayers at night. After saying 
 them one evening, he looked up to his mother's 
 face and asked, "Mother, don't you ever pray?" 
 "Well— no, dearie, I am afraid I don't." "Well 
 does papa pray?" "No, I don't think he does," 
 said his mother. The little fellow was silent for 
 a moment and then he said, " Mother, I think God 
 will hear a little boy like me when he prays, but 
 132 
 
ARE YOU A HOBAB? 
 
 don't you think it's kinder hard on me to have to 
 do the prayin' for the whole family?" His mother 
 couldn't answer that, but when the little fellow 
 had fallen asleep, she stole over to his crib and 
 knelt down and asked God to forgive her for not 
 praying more. That boy was a Hobab. 
 
 There is the story of a fairy who was promised 
 heaven if she could bring a gift most acceptable 
 to God. She tried a drop of a hero's blood; then 
 the smile of a maiden who had died nursing her 
 lover; but she was refused. At last the gates 
 opened for her, for she carried the tears of a re- 
 pentant man who had been converted by the 
 prayers of a little child. 
 
 Then you can be eyes to your fellows. You've 
 played ''follow the leader?" Well once there 
 were some boys in a western town playing that 
 game and they followed their leader over posts 
 until they came to a mail-box post. But in going 
 over they upset the box and the letters fell out. 
 They were terribly frightened and were going to 
 run away, when the leader said, "Let's sit down 
 and write a letter and say we did it but didn't 
 mean to." So they did. And the leader said, 
 "Let's go and tell the postmaster we did it but 
 didn't mean to." So in they walked to a surprised 
 postmaster and the leader said, "Please, sir, we 
 did it and we'll take what's comin'." "Did 
 what?" said the astonished man. Then they 
 told him. I guess you know what he said. 
 133 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 When he opened the box he found a letter 
 written in a scrawly hand which said : 
 "Dear postmaster: 
 
 We did it, but we didn't go to do it. 
 Yours truly — 
 
 Henry 
 Beaney 
 
 SCOTTY 
 
 Lewis 
 George.'* 
 That leader was a Hobab, and he was only ten 
 years old. 
 
 Will you be Hobabs, who would rather serve 
 than be served ? 
 
 Will you keep your eyes on good and pure and 
 holy things, so that you can be eyes for us all in 
 the sandy deserts of Hfe? 
 
 134 
 
NATURE'S WREATH REMAINS 
 
 Text — Prov. lo : 7. " The memory of the just is blessed." 
 Object — A wreath of paper roses. 
 
 In one of the daily papers, some days ago, there 
 appeared this notice: "Twining about the picture 
 of a departed one, a rosebush is still green and 
 bearing rosebuds, although the rest of the vine is 
 dead and withered at the home of Julius Greene. 
 In Greene's parlor hangs the picture of a little 
 girl, his niece, who died some years ago. This 
 summer a rosebush in some way trailed inside 
 the window between the two sashes, and although 
 this kind of rosebush never does trail, but grows 
 straight up in the air, the tendrils have reached 
 out and, fastening on the picture, have taken 
 their place about it as completely as if a green 
 wreath had been placed there. While the whole 
 bush outside has withered, the sprout which hangs 
 about the picture is still green, and delicately 
 colored buds shade the picture. Many have 
 visited the home to see this phenomenon." 
 
 Now, boys and girls, I have told myself a story 
 about that little girl. She was a sweet, loving 
 child but was not noticed nor praised. She went 
 out of her way daily to do loving things, but got 
 no thanks. It hurt her sensitive little heart, 
 and in her fits of sadness she used to go out and 
 
 135 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 tell the flowers about it. And one day she sat 
 down beside the rosebush by the window and into 
 the ear of the lovely flower she poured all the story 
 of her childish sorrow. She had daily watered 
 and tended that lovely rose, and that day as the 
 tears fell down on the leaves of the bush like so 
 much heavenly dew, the rosebush said — to itself 
 of course, " Flowers are not ungrateful as people 
 often are; she shall have her reward." 
 
 Then I saw that the little girl had become ill, 
 and the doctor came and went into her little room. 
 And then there was a day when she was no longer 
 there, and the white bed was made, and empty. 
 But they took her picture and hung it on the wall, 
 and the rosebush saw it and pushed between the 
 window frames, and climbed until it touched her 
 face and made a frame of green. And then I 
 saw it blossom. It was a glorious sight, and the 
 room became full of people who came to see the 
 curious thing, and they wondered and were mysti- 
 fied. But I did not. What I wondered at was 
 that they in the home had not done it themselves 
 long ago, but waited for the flowers. And then 
 I thought that the good God who knows all we 
 do and say had taken every kindly, patient deed 
 of that little girl and turned it into a rose and sent 
 the roses in through the window to adorn her face. 
 And I wondered how many of our boys and girls 
 are making roses which God could weave into 
 garlands for them. 
 
 136 
 
NATURE'S WREATH REMAINS 
 
 Now there is such a thing as memory. And 
 they make wreaths of memory to hang over our 
 lives when we are gone. But remember that we 
 must furnish the memories out of which to make 
 them. 
 
 Yesterday Johnnie struck his little sister. That 
 does not go in a rose wreath, [holding up the wreath 
 of paper roses,] does it? 
 
 To-day he helped her get ready for church and 
 brought her here. That goes in, doesn't it? 
 
 Yesterday Mary pouted and sulked when poor 
 tired mother asked her to hold the baby. That 
 does not go in. But to-day she washed all the 
 dishes so that mother could come to church with 
 her. That goes in. 
 
 So, my dear Juniors, remember that if wreaths of 
 roses made of memories are to hang over your 
 lives, you must be building them to-day of kindly 
 deeds. And remember, too, that if we do the 
 kindly deeds, God will take care of the wreaths. 
 
 137 
 
CANNED GOOD(S) 
 Objects — ^Two large fruit cans. 
 
 This, boys and girls, is an age of canning. Every- 
 thing eatable that can be preserved by being 
 protected from the action of the air is put up in 
 cans for future use. Everything from tomatoes to 
 plum pudding — and I put that last of course as 
 best. Everything from oysters to " add-hot-water- 
 and-serve" — which we don't like unless there is 
 something else better coming. 
 
 Canning began in this country during the great 
 Civil War when men found it necessary to put food 
 away from the destroying germs by sealing it up 
 in cans, so that the soldiers might carry it on long 
 marches. 
 
 To-day there are eight hundred millions of cans 
 of food matter put up in the United States in a 
 single year. Think of the pile it would make if 
 piled up in your front yard. It would take sixty 
 thousand freight cars to pull it all away. Did 
 you ever think that if it had not been for these 
 innocent looking and often despised cans the 
 North Pole would still have been standing lone- 
 some and undiscovered ? For had not the explorers 
 been able to carry canned food they never could 
 have made that bold dash. 
 
 All this suggested the thought, that I think 
 138 
 
CANNED GOOD(S) 
 
 I have once heard before from some wise old man 
 who is now probably dead, that there is something 
 far better and more to be desired than food, that 
 also comes put up in cans, and without which life 
 would be poor indeed. 
 
 This something is "success." Success is a very 
 necessary commodity and if we did not get a little 
 bit of it now and then I think we should go under. 
 So it is needful to preserve it by putting it up in 
 cans. In fact, if we did not have success in cans 
 we should never have it otherwise. Let me show 
 you these cans in which it comes for I have brought 
 them here for you to see. (Turn the cans round 
 to the side on which you have written on the one 
 "I can," and on the other "You can.") Here 
 they are " I can " and "You can." Now all success 
 is put up in these special cans. I do not think 
 you can get it in any other form. 
 
 First there is this "I can." It is being able to 
 say "I can," that brings success. "The king is 
 the man who can," said the philosopher. The boy 
 who believes in himself is the boy who wins. When 
 Admiral Farragut was rebuking Du Pont for not 
 entering Charleston Harbor he said, "You did 
 not believe that you could." 
 
 "Possunt quia posse videntur" — they are able 
 because they think they can. "The mind is 
 master of the man, and so they can who think 
 they can." 
 
 I think some of you know that little poem about 
 
 139 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 "Couldn't" and "Could" and how the one suc- 
 ceeded and the other did not. 
 
 " And that was the difference 'twixt * Couldn't ' and * Could '; 
 Each followed his own chosen plan, 
 And where * Couldn't ' just wouldn't ' Could ' earnestly 
 
 would, 
 And where one of them weakened the other * made good ' 
 And won with his watchword, ' I Can.' " 
 
 No fellow ever succeeded who didn't think he 
 could. 
 
 Now when we come to the matter of being 
 Christians and confessing Jesus we are apt to feel 
 that if we start we shall never succeed. But let 
 me ask you to take these two cans with you and 
 start out on your Christian journey. And remember 
 that in this case to think of the "You can" as true 
 of our heavenly Father, and as we go look to him 
 in prayer and say, "Father, I can, because you 
 can." Remember the words of the great Apostle 
 Paul, "I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me." Let us all say, "What I ought 
 to do I must do, and what I must do I can do," 
 and then add also "what I can do by God's help I 
 will do." 
 
 This boys, and girls, is the only road to success. 
 
 140 
 
THE LESSON OF THE SUNDIAL 
 
 Object — A small metal sundial, or one made of paste- 
 board. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 To-day we are to say a word concerning the 
 measuring of that priceless commodity — time. 
 Time in God's sight has no hmits, for we know 
 that "one day with him is as a thousand years, 
 and a thousand years as one day." But man can- 
 not live a thousand years, so he has to divide God's 
 time up into a shorter day. 
 
 In the earliest times time was only measured 
 by the rising and setting of the sun. "Evening 
 was and morning was — day one" says the book of 
 Genesis. Then men began to divide the day still 
 more carefully and the faithful chanticleer was 
 brought into requisition. "At evening or at mid- 
 night or at cock crowing." — But the rooster was 
 not reliable and I imagine he often fooled them 
 into getting to work too early, for if there is one 
 thing we do not like it is getting to work too 
 early. 
 
 So men began to devise means for dividing the 
 day, and among the earliest means of so doing was 
 the sundial, a copy of which we have with us this 
 morning as our object lesson. As the sun shone it 
 threw the shadow of this "gnomon", as we call 
 141 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 this upright plane, onto the graded scale on the 
 disk and pointed out the hours. Then some one 
 invented the hourglass with its two glass cones 
 and the little hole between for the sand to run 
 through, and our fathers and grandfathers know 
 how as boys they used to watch the hourglass on 
 the pulpit of the old church and wish that sand 
 would get a "hustle on," as you boys say. But 
 that was unsatisfactory, for some one had to come 
 up every hour and turn the glass over, or else there 
 had to be a lot of different glasses for different 
 lengths of time. 
 
 King Alfred thought he had solved the difficulty 
 with a dozen candles of different lengths, but the 
 trouble was that sometimes the wind would blow 
 out the candle and the time would be lost. In 
 China, in the imperial city of Pekin there is a 
 water clock, composed of several tubs each of 
 which are filled from one above, and as each is 
 filled it marks a new hour, and when the last is 
 filled the day is complete. 
 
 But somebody has to fill the tubs every day, 
 and has done so for over two thousand years. 
 
 At last men began to try wheels to move the 
 hands on the dial instead of trusting to the shadow 
 made by the sun, and at length we came to have 
 the great tower clock of Europe, and at last the 
 clocks with springs, and finally the little lady 
 watches that the girls wear on their bracelets. 
 Now if you were to choose which of these you would 
 
 142 
 
THE LESSON OF THE SUNDIAL 
 
 prefer to measure the hours of your life, which 
 would you take? 
 
 I suppose every one of you would say, "Why, 
 I'll take the watch of course." And in these 
 hurrying bustling days, when we must be on time 
 to the second, and when men are counting the 
 one hundredth part of a second, and worrying be- 
 cause there is a variation of time between the 
 observatory at Greenwich, England, and Paris, 
 France, of four twenty-fifths of a second, we should 
 naturally prefer the accurate watch to the clumsy 
 old sundial. 
 
 But do you know after all, I think that I should 
 prefer to have the hours of my life measured by 
 the good old clumsy sundial. Why? Because the 
 sundial only records the sunshiny days. 
 
 The fashion of writing mottoes on sundials is 
 quite an old and popular fashion and on some of 
 them you may read mottoes like these : " Amid the 
 flowers, I tell the hours", that's for a garden sun- 
 dial; "The hours of justice do not strike on the 
 dials of this world." 
 
 Near Venice there is a dial on which in Latin 
 are the suggestive words: "/ measure only the 
 serene hours.'' 
 
 That is why I should choose the sundial. It 
 measures only sunny hours. All the dark days 
 go by unmeasured. The sundial takes no account 
 of them. What a nice thing to measure our life 
 like the dial ; to remember only the happy days, 
 143 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 the bright days, and forget to remember the dark 
 and gloomy ones. You see if this were true we 
 would not remember the days we had the measles, 
 but only the day we went to the circus. 
 
 We should forget the day we had to stay at 
 home and help mother and remember the day 
 she put her hand on our shoulder and said, "My 
 dear little girl is such a help to mother." 
 
 Now I think that Paul meant us to be sundials 
 when he said to us in his letter to the Philippians, 
 "Whatsoever things are lovely, . . . think on these 
 things." 
 
 I want to be a sundial. Don't you? 
 
 144 
 
TWO TO ONE 
 Text — James i : 19. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 I wonder if it ever occurred to you to sit down and 
 think out the reasons for our being put together 
 as we are — why we have two feet instead of four 
 and why we have two ears instead of one, and why 
 we have two eyes instead of one great one like the 
 giant of your fairy tales, and, more singular still, 
 why we have two ears, and two eyes, but only 
 one mouth. 
 
 Now, I was thinking of that the other day, and 
 suddenly in my reading of God's word I came 
 across an answer to this puzzling matter. It is 
 in James's epistle, the first chapter and the nine- 
 teenth verse, *' Swift to hear, slow to speak." 
 Ah, I said that is the reason for it all. Two ears 
 to one mouth is in order that we may be swift to 
 hear, and slow to speak. But why should we be 
 swift to hear and slow to speak? 
 
 Then I said to myself, we have two ears and 
 one mouth, because hearing is more important 
 than speaking, two to one. 
 
 Now this is so in the physical world. The 
 teachers in the asylums and schools for the dumb 
 will tell you that it is far easier to make a child 
 speak if only he can hear, and that most of the 
 
 10 145 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 children who find it difficult to utter words with 
 their lips are they who never heard words clearly 
 with their ears. So that in this case at least two 
 ears are better than a dozen mouths. 
 
 One day a teacher in one of the public schools 
 in Philadelphia heard a noise outside her school- 
 room window that sounded like some one pounding 
 on iron with a hammer and, looking out, she saw 
 a small boy pounding on a trolley pole with a bit 
 of iron. She called to him to stop as he was dis- 
 turbing her boys in their study, but he did not 
 stop. For several days he kept up the racket 
 and she got interested and went down to speak to 
 him. She found he was almost deaf, and nearly 
 dumb and couldn't hear all the noise he was making. 
 She found also that this was his only amusement. 
 So, visiting the parents and getting permission to 
 have his ears operated upon by a surgeon, she was 
 at last able to know that he could hear and it was 
 not long after he became able to hear that he began 
 to speak and to learn. So, here at least, two ears 
 are better than many mouths. But it is always 
 better to hear than to speak — twice as important, 
 for we have two ears and one mouth. The Bible 
 says that a fool is "full of words," but what are 
 senseless words? Some boys and girls that chatter, 
 chatter without saying anything, because they have 
 not listened to things that were worth while, are 
 like water being poured from jugs — the less there 
 is in the jug the more noise it makes coming out. 
 146 
 
TWO TO ONE 
 
 Keep your ears open, and listen, so that you will 
 have something to say, for it will take two 
 good ears to get enough into one's head worth 
 while to keep that one tongue of ours talking sense, 
 and not nonsense. 
 
 Then we must not tell more than half of what 
 we hear. For, if I am not mistaken, one mouth is 
 half of two ears. The great trouble is we usually 
 tell twice as much as we hear. But only about 
 half of what we hear is true. This is a safe rule 
 for you boys and girls to follow in the matter of 
 those things you say about others. When we hear 
 something about a little friend, we should do as 
 the housewife does with sour pie-apples — peel them, 
 and then take out the core and then cut them in 
 quarters, and after all that add plenty of sugar. 
 A missionary in China says she saw a cook in a 
 Chinese kitchen smearing the mouth of the kitchen 
 god with molasses, in order to make him tell only 
 sweet things about the people in the house. 
 
 Out West on the big prairie farms they use a 
 reaping machine that cuts and binds the sheaves, 
 then threshes out the wheat and finally separates 
 the chaff and scatters it about on the ground for 
 fertilizing. But the trouble is that among the 
 chaff are the seeds of weeds and when these are 
 scattered about they sow themselves and make 
 no end of trouble. So the farmer has had to give 
 up that machine and burn the chaff. We hear a 
 lot of unkind and untrue things that ought never 
 
 117 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 to be scattered about by that tongue of ours. We 
 must burn them. 
 
 So these are the lessons that I learned from James 
 about my two ears and single mouth: to listen 
 twice before we speak once; and to speak out to 
 the world, especially about others, only half of 
 what we hear. 
 
 148 
 
SALT 
 
 Text — Mark 9 : 50. " Have salt in yourselves, and have 
 peace one with another." 
 Object — Some table salt. 
 
 I wonder if we have ever been at a dinner table 
 where the salt was accidentally spilled, when some 
 one did not laugh and jokingly say to the spiller, 
 "Throw a pinch over your left shoulder," or "Here's 
 a quarrel, sure." And yet when we did it we never 
 dreamed that we were doing very much what the 
 Master himself did that day when his disciples were 
 quarreling over the first place in his kingdom. 
 He did not say, "Throw salt over your shoulder," 
 but he did say, "Have salt in yourselves, and be 
 at peace." 
 
 Jesus was thinking of the need they had of 
 making a covenant of peace between themselves 
 that would stop all the strife. For salt had such 
 wonderful preservative powers that in those olden 
 days it came to be used as a symbol in making 
 enduring covenants. To eat of a man's salt in 
 Jesus' day and even in this day in the East, is to be 
 at peace with that man. 
 
 Last summer at the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition 
 in London I saw a most interesting and amusing 
 set of Japanese wrestlers — great, strong fellows, 
 with bulging muscles, who looked for all the world 
 
 149 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 like great swollen toads, and who made no end of 
 motions and went through endless gymnastics, be- 
 fore they began to grip one another for the throw. 
 
 The thing that interested me most was that 
 attached to the post of the canopy where each 
 stood was a little basket of salt, and before they 
 began their struggle each took a handful of this 
 salt and sprinkled it before him, and between him 
 and the other fellow. This the interpreter told 
 us was to show that there was no hard feeling. 
 
 The Arabs to-day in the desert say, "There is 
 salt between us," meaning that there is between 
 them an everlasting covenant of peace. 
 
 God's covenant with Israel was called by them 
 "The covenant of salt," and we may remember 
 that King Abijam said, when men feared that the 
 kingdom of his father Rehoboam would be taken 
 from him, "Don't you know that Jehovah gave 
 the kingdom to David by a covenant of salt?" 
 — meaning that God's word was sure. 
 
 Jesus says to us young people that we are 
 always to have salt about us, so that we may be able 
 to throw it down when there is danger of a quarrel, 
 and always be at peace one with another. We 
 know how the quarrels come, don't we? First, one 
 says some nasty thing and then the other replies. 
 James tells us that the tongue is the trouble. Hear 
 what Paul says, "Let your speech be always with 
 grace, seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye 
 ought to answer one another." (Col. 4 : 6.) 
 150 
 
SALT 
 
 I am afraid we do not carry enough of that salt 
 around with us and throw it down like the wrestlers 
 and the Arabs do. 
 
 Next time that Bill comes around to pick a quarrel 
 with you, you put some salt on your tongue, and 
 throw down some of this salt Jesus speaks of, and 
 tell him, "There's salt between us, Bill; you and I 
 can't scrap." 
 
 151 
 
THE CHANGED CUPS 
 
 Objects — Two old-time communion goblets. 
 
 My Dear Little Churchgoers: 
 
 I am so glad that you have come to the Lord's 
 Supper to-day, and hope that many of you will 
 stay through the service. There is something 
 beneath that white cloth upon the communion 
 table that you all ought to see, and when you have 
 seen, go home and think about it. For we are 
 coming to-day to celebrate the Lord's Supper. 
 Now, you know that on Communion Sunday I 
 always tell you something of interest about Jesus' 
 death for you, so that some day, not too far 
 away, you will want to come as the rest of these 
 older children do and sit at that table to celebrate 
 his dying love. 
 
 I have here two communion goblets. Do you 
 recollect how on the night in which he was betrayed, 
 Jesus took the "cup" and filling it gave it to his 
 disciples as he said, "This cup is my cup, but I 
 am going to give it to you to drink; drink ye all 
 of it." 
 
 You will remember how that when he went out 
 into the dismal garden of Gethsemane, he there in 
 the shadows took another cup and drank the con- 
 tents. You couldn't have seen that cup, but it was 
 
 152 
 
THE CHANGED CUPS 
 
 very real to him for he said, "O my Father, if it 
 be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless 
 not as I will, but as thou wilt." And so he drank 
 it there all alone. That was our cup which he 
 took from us. So, do you see, he gave us his and 
 he took ours. 
 
 Now what do you think was in these two cups? 
 
 Let us look first at the cup he took from us and 
 drank himself. (Have printed on slips of paper 
 and placed within this cup such words as: Sin, 
 Suffering, Sorrow, God-forsakenness, Death, and 
 draw these out as you comment upon them.) 
 
 What a fearful cupful that was to drink! Oh, 
 how bitter! — more bitter than any medicine you 
 ever took. But he drained it to the dregs for you. 
 Why? That you might be able to drink his cup 
 which he gave you. So let us change those cups 
 about now and see what is in the one he gave us 
 to drink. (Take out from this cup slips on which 
 are written: Joy, Peace, Forgiveness, Love, 
 Fellowship with God, etc.) 
 
 Oh, what a pleasant drink, boys and girls. This 
 is for you. "Drink ye all of it" said Jesus. 
 Because he so loved us, he changed the cups. 
 He took the awfully bitter one and gave us the 
 sweet. That is what the communion means to 
 you. 
 
 Will you take his cup? Will you let him take 
 yours? 
 
 Some day I know you will come to sit down with 
 153 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 US all here, and drink the symbol of his blood. 
 But to-day you can take the cup of blessing he 
 gives you, and if you trust him he will take all 
 the bitterness out of your young lives and leave 
 only the sweet. 
 
 Won't you love him? Of course you will. I 
 knew it. 
 
 154 
 
CHRIST'S SENTINEL 
 
 Text— Matt. 26 : 40. 
 
 Object — Any picture or image of a soldier at "attention." 
 
 My Dear Soldiers of Jesus: 
 
 I am wondering to-day how many of you have 
 ever been very lonesome. Perhaps some of you 
 were sent out to uncle's last summer, on the farm, 
 or had to stay at home while mother and father 
 were away in Europe. How solemn it got about 
 evening, when the sun went down, and the crickets 
 chirped and the katydids sang in the tree just 
 outside your bedroom, and you wanted mother to 
 come in and kiss you good-night, and a great big 
 lump came up in your throat and wouldn't go 
 down until you had let some tears come out of your 
 eyes, and you felt that you had not a friend left in 
 the whole great round world. It is a mean feeling, 
 isn't it? 
 
 Now, our master Jesus was a lonesome man. 
 He had only a very few faithful friends, and these 
 finally left him on that awful night when he was 
 struggling with the thought of death in Geth- 
 semane. For you remember how he took Peter 
 and James and John and went deep into the shadows 
 of the garden, and asked them to watch and wait 
 for him while he went ahead a little farther and 
 prayed for strength — Peter and James and John, 
 155 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 the faithful three that he thought he could trust 
 above all the rest. But when he came back from 
 his lonely vigil he found them fast asleep. And 
 you will remember how he looked at them sadly, 
 and with that lonesome feeling in his great loving 
 heart said, " Could ye not watch with me one hour?''' 
 Think of it, young soldiers of the King. They 
 could not keep sentry for him even one short 
 hour. 
 
 That is the trouble that the Master finds with 
 us young soldiers, we cannot keep watch with 
 him one hour. We are so impatient and we get 
 so tired watching with Jesus. 
 
 What does watching with him mean to-day? 
 
 He does not ask us to go and sit in a garden 
 and wait for him. I think it means this — playing 
 sentinel over the duties he gives us. 
 
 First. — Attending the church service each Sun- 
 day morning, is watching with him just one hour, 
 for that is the length of the service. I know how 
 hard it is to sit still for an hour, no matter how 
 interesting the performance or the service. I 
 remember how they used to offer me ten cents if I 
 would sit still five minutes when I was a boy. 
 And I am going to let you into my secret and tell 
 you that I didn't get that ten cents. 
 
 But when you know that it pleases the Master 
 to have you here in his house keeping watch with 
 him, that makes it easier. 
 
 Second. — ^Sitting for another hour on Sunday 
 156 
 
CHRIST'S SENTINEL 
 
 afternoon in the Sunday school studying that 
 
 great bock which we call "The Word of God," 
 
 is again playing sentinel for the Master, for 
 
 that book is the guidebook, full of instructions 
 
 for the Christian soldier, and he will never be a 
 
 good soldier until he knows what the rules of the 
 
 service are. 
 
 Third. — Kneeling down to pray each night 
 
 and morning is like keeping watch with Jesus in 
 
 the garden. The kind of watches Jesus kept were 
 
 just like that. He went out night after night 
 
 alone either on the mountain or in the garden to 
 
 pray. The old hymn says: 
 
 *' Put on the gospel armor 
 And watching unto prayer." 
 
 It's the "watching unto prayer" that we 
 young Christians need, and some can't even watch 
 five minutes in each day. 
 
 Fourth. — Keeping the Sabbath day is watch- 
 ing with Christ, taking care that that one day 
 in the seven should be reserved for him, guarding 
 it as carefully as the sentinel guards the sleeping 
 hours of his master, letting no person or thing 
 come in to mar the holiness of that day of rest 
 which Jesus left us. 
 
 Fifth. — We know that the sentinel gives himself 
 up to his duty entirely during the time that he is 
 watching. And so ought we to give ourselves up 
 to Christ, standing at attention, giving heed to 
 him as long as we are on duty. Now it takes love 
 
 157 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 and devotion to watch faithfully. And because 
 Jesus knew that, he asked only those whom he 
 thought loved him to do this. 
 
 When I was in Edinburgh, in Scotland, this 
 summer I saw the statue of a little terrier dog on 
 the top of a drinking fountain for animals. He 
 was called "Greyfriars Bobby," and he was a 
 sentinel worth while. When he was a young dog 
 he used to come to town with his master, a farmer 
 who sold his produce in the Grassmarket near the 
 old Greyfriars Church, and when his master went 
 to dinner Bobby would go along and get his share 
 at the little tavern near by. But one sad day that 
 master died, and was buried in the cemetery of the 
 Greyfriars Church. Poor Bobby was inconsolable. 
 He followed the coffin of his master to the cemetery 
 and when they laid it away in the grave, Bobby 
 lay down on top of that grave and refused to move. 
 When it came dinner time and the great factory 
 whistles told it was noon, Bobby got up as usual 
 and went for his dinner, which they gladly gave 
 him and then went back and lay down to watch 
 on his master's grave. He never left it except 
 during the noon hour. For twelve years poor 
 Bobby kept his watch over his master, and when he 
 died they buried him in that master's grave. 
 
 Boys and girls, if a little terrier dog could be so 
 faithful to his dead master, how faithful do you 
 think we ought to be to our living and risen Master 
 when he asks us to watch with him one hour? 
 158 
 
WHAT JESUS SEES IN US 
 
 Text— Matt. 6:28, 29. 
 
 Object — Some pressed flowers from Palestine; or any field 
 flower. 
 
 My Dear Juniors: 
 
 I have in my hand this morning as our object 
 lesson one of the many beautiful varieties of 
 flowers that grow in the land of Palestine, which 
 in the early spring, when its hills and plains are 
 covered with a carpet of beautiful colors, looks 
 like a great Persian rug, and causes the travelers 
 to go into ecstacies of delight. 
 
 Perhaps no land in the world has a greater 
 variety of flowers than the land where Jesus 
 lived, and this little flower is but one of the three 
 thousand varieties of gorgeously colored beauties 
 that Jesus saw each morning as he wandered 
 about in the spring time in his native land. Per- 
 haps this little flower called the "anemone," grew 
 on the very spot where Jesus* feet had trod, or per- 
 haps blossomed on that hillside where he made the 
 five thousand sit down when he fed them with 
 loaves and fishes. 
 
 " We grew upon the very hills 
 Where Jesus used to stand, 
 W^e blossomed on the lonely paths 
 Of God's once holy land." 
 
 159 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Nothing is more beautiful to the eye than the 
 great carpets of anemones all scarlet in color like 
 the one we have to-day, or the great fields of 
 poppies, and clovers, and yellow crocuses, and 
 blue irises and red and yellow tulips. 
 
 Jesus loved the flowers, as he loved all that 
 God had made, and in our text he uses them as an 
 object lesson to his disciples on the necessity of 
 simply doing our part and glorifying God by grow- 
 ing, but the thing about them that first attracted 
 him was their beauty — "they toil not, neither do 
 they spin: and yet I say unto you. That even 
 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 
 of these." 
 
 Now flowers are mentioned many times in the 
 Bible, but the singular thing is that they are always 
 spoken of as a symbol of the frailty and brief 
 measure of the life of men. 
 
 David loved flowers, but the thing that impressed 
 him was the thing he wrote about them in the 
 Psalms, "For the wind passeth over it, and it is 
 gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." 
 
 Job saw on the flowers a picture of his own short 
 life when he said: "Man that is born of woman is 
 of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth 
 like a flower, and is cut down." 
 
 Isaiah said, "The grass withereth, the flower 
 
 fadeth," and when we come to the New Testament 
 
 we find that they did not treat the flowers any 
 
 better. James tells us that the riches of the rich 
 
 160 
 
W^AT JESUS SEES IN US 
 
 man are like the flowers; it shall soon pass away. 
 And Peter says, "For all flesh is as grass . . . the 
 grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth 
 away." 
 
 But Jesus saw differently. He did not notice 
 the frailty so much as he looked at the beauty of 
 the flowers, and the possibilities they had in them. 
 He called attention to their great beauty, saying 
 that Solomon, the great king, in all his glory was 
 not arrayed like one of these, and he told of their 
 power to grow. 
 
 Now as I look about me and see all you boys 
 and girls, I am reminded of a flower garden, and 
 how differently men think of you from the way 
 that Jesus thinks of you. You boys and girls 
 are the flowers of humanity. We "grown-ups" 
 are apt to look at your weakness and frailty, but 
 Jesus is looking at your beauty and possibility. 
 
 We are apt to think what a weak and frail 
 thing a little child is, and Jesus is always thinking 
 what a beautiful and wonderful thing a child is. 
 
 But Jesus had a habit of looking at the beautiful 
 side of everything. He never would have seen 
 the worm hole in the autumn leaf; he would have 
 seen only the glory of its colors. There is a story 
 told of Jesus that one day as he and his disciples 
 passed by a dead dog at the road side the disciples 
 spoke slightingly of it, but Jesus said, "Yes, but 
 see what beautiful teeth he has." 
 
 I think if Jesus should come in bodily form into 
 
 11 161 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 our midst to-day, and look about among you boys 
 and girls he would say, not what men might say, 
 "What frail things children are,'* but, "What 
 beautiful things children are, and what wonderful 
 possibilities they have." And if we should ask 
 him for a picture of true beauty, he would pick 
 up one of these little ones in his tender arms as of 
 old and say, "This is your picture." 
 
 Sometimes I fear mother or father will get angry 
 with you and call you "bad," and "good-for- 
 nothing," or men may push you carelessly aside 
 because you seem so helpless and frail. But Jesus 
 always thinks you beautiful, and besides he sees 
 that you have a wonderful chance for the future. 
 He knows you can grow like the lilies. As the 
 acorn contains the mighty oak tree, so Jesus knows 
 you boys and girls each hold within you a great 
 and noble life. 
 
 Now if Jesus is looking at us for beauty, let us 
 never disappoint him. And if he is expecting that 
 we shall grow gradually and naturally like the 
 lily into great beauty, let us not fail him. 
 
 162 
 
THE EMPTY SEATS 
 
 Text— I Sam. 20 : i8. 
 
 Objects — Some small doll chairs. 
 
 My Dear Young Churchgoers: 
 
 I have brought with me to-day the pastor's 
 bugbears. No, they are not behind the pulpit 
 they are before you here. And though they do 
 not growl and look furry, they do go on all fours. 
 They do not bite, but they have the power of in- 
 flicting a sorry wound. But I must not keep you 
 youngsters guessing longer. A bugbear is a 
 terrible bear, for the old English word bug means 
 fear, and a bugbear is a thing that in the bad old 
 days they used to scare little toddlers with when 
 they would not go to bed. A bugbear means a 
 monstrous dread. And do you know that it is 
 not only little boys and girls that have such bug- 
 bears that creep out of the shadows at bedtime 
 and meet one on the dark stairway when the lamp 
 is turned down dim, but that pastors of churches 
 have bugbears? These are some of them which I 
 have before me — yes, these little chairs. For they 
 often wound me to the heart. And the thing that 
 makes them a special terror to pastors is that 
 they are empty. 
 
 Now look at the text a moment — "Thou shalt 
 be missed, because thy seat will be empty." 
 David was absent from the king's table and Jona- 
 163 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 than told him that he would be missed because his 
 seat at the king's table would be empty. Boys 
 and girls, when you are absent from the service 
 of God's house you will always be missed because 
 your seat will be empty. 
 
 Now, you say, *' If that is all for which I am 
 missed, simply to fill a seat, then I had better stay 
 away." But there are other things for which we 
 miss you when that chair of yours is empty. We 
 miss the bright face that adds so much to the joy 
 of God's house. We miss the sweet young voice 
 that adds so much to the praises of the sanctuary. 
 But you are chiefly conspicuous because that seat 
 where you belong is lonesome and sad and makes 
 us all feel lonesome and sad. 
 
 Remember that a seat belongs to each member 
 of this Junior Congregation and if you are not 
 there to fill it, your seat at least will be empty. 
 Do you realize what a sadness is in the home life 
 wherever there is a vacant chair? It may be 
 grandfather's chair at the head of the table that is 
 vacant, or it may be the baby's little high-chair at 
 the other end, but the vacant chair makes a heart 
 wound in mother's or father's heart. And just so 
 the vacant chair in God's house wounds not only 
 the heart of the pastor, but the great loving heart 
 of God who seeks those who will worship him. 
 Can't you realize how grieved our Saviour would 
 be should he come into this room and find your seat 
 empty? 
 
 164 
 
THE EMPTY SEATS 
 
 Then remember that you will be missed as an 
 inspiration to your pastor, for he is woefully 
 afraid of these innocent looking bugbears of empty 
 chairs. When he gets up to speak and looks 
 into the faces of his dear young churchgoers, he feels 
 a great throbbing joy and it helps his message for 
 that day, but when he looks into the faces of 
 these bugbears, he is woefully afraid, and he 
 loses all courage and his sermon is often spoiled. 
 
 You will be missed as an inspiration and 
 example to the members of the Senior Congrega- 
 tion, for when they see you in your places they 
 will feel the power of the example you have set. 
 
 Now why do we want you here as boys and girls? 
 
 Some time ago I saw a great rosy red apple 
 growing in a bottle whose neck was so small that 
 one could just get the thumb within it. 
 
 What was the secret? Why, the farmer had 
 taken the bottle and tied it to the bough in the 
 early spring and had inserted the blossom within 
 the glass prison, and as the apple grew it grew within 
 the vial until it filled it. It is very difficult to get 
 the "grown-ups" to come Into God's house. But it 
 is so much easier to grow up in his sanctuary when, 
 like Samuel, you begin as a little child. 
 
 165 
 
WHO'S AFRAID? 
 
 Text — Ps. 27 : I. "The Lord is my light and my salva- 
 tion; whom shall I fear?" 
 Object — A heathen charm or fetish. 
 
 I wonder if there is a member of this Junior 
 Congregation here who ever heard this little poem: 
 
 *' Once there was a little boy 
 Who wouldn't say his prayers, 
 And one night when he went to bed 
 Away up stairs, 
 His papa heard him holler, 
 And his mama heard him bawl, 
 And when they turned the covers down, 
 He wasn't there at all. 
 
 And all they ever found of him 
 Was his little roundabout; 
 And the goberlins '11 git yer. 
 If yer don't watch out." 
 
 When you were little tots, and had to be put 
 to bed by your nurse, did she ever scare the life out 
 of you by telling you a lot of horrid lies about some 
 sort of "Bugaboo" that was hiding in the closet 
 or behind the shadow of the wardrobe, or under 
 the bed, that would *' get you" if you did not mind 
 and go to sleep right away. And you didn't believe 
 it at all, though somehow you were just as glad she 
 left the light burning when she went downstairs. 
 But suppose you had believed it! Suppose you 
 really and truly imagined that the "goberlins" 
 166 
 
WHO'S AFRAID? 
 
 would get you if you did not look out, and that 
 there was a real "Bugaboo" in the closet that 
 would do terrible things to little boys and girls! 
 Life would not be worth living to be in such 
 constant fear. And yet, boys and girls, there are 
 millions of poor little tots all over this great big 
 world that do believe it. 
 
 Suppose whenever you wanted to go in swimming, 
 you had to tie a wisp of grass about your wrist 
 so that the river spirits would not catch you and 
 duck you under for so long that you never could 
 get your breath again. 
 
 Suppose you couldn't go out after sunset for fear 
 the evil spirits of the woods, that only come out 
 at night, would run off with you and keep you 
 prisoner for life in the forests. 
 
 Suppose father had to have the trouble and 
 expense of moving your house every little while 
 because the evil spirits came around and claimed 
 the land, and made such a fuss that you had to 
 move on. 
 
 Suppose some bright morning you should start 
 out for school with your books and your luncheon, 
 and an evil spirit should get right in the way, and 
 you had at once to turn about and retrace your 
 steps toward home. Possibly you might like 
 that as it would seem like a holiday. But you 
 would have to go to bed at once on reaching home, 
 stay there for several hours, and then start out all 
 over again. 
 
 167 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 Suppose you were sick, and getting better, and 
 some one came into the home and said, "How is 
 WiUie to-day?" Mother might be glad her boy 
 was recovering, but she must be careful not to say 
 so; because if she did the spirits might think she 
 was rejoicing over them; for you must know it is 
 the spirits that make people sick in heathen lands. 
 So she would say to the neighbor, "Thank you 
 very much for asking, but Willie is — more so and 
 sor 
 
 Suppose your mother covered your face with 
 mud, girls, so that the evil spirit would not want 
 such a dirty, homely girl as you would seem with 
 the mud upon you, and so would leave you to your 
 mother instead of stealing you. 
 
 This is the condition of millions of little boys 
 and girls in the heathen lands. 
 
 I have here this morning a "fetish, " as it is called, 
 used in Korea to drive away evil spirits. Miss 
 Doriss, our missionary at Fusan, found it hanging 
 on a tree and sent it to me. It is just a piece of 
 colored rag that means little to us, but to them 
 it means protection from the evil spirits whom 
 they fear so greatly. 
 
 If you should hang this on your front gate, so 
 they tell us, you would be safe; for spirits, in 
 Korea at least, cannot climb a fence. 
 
 Now if all this were true of you, and you believed 
 that the goblins and all kinds of evil spirits might 
 make you much trouble and keep you in constant 
 
 168 
 
WHO'S AFRAID? 
 
 fear, you would want some one to come and relieve 
 you. That night when you saw that bear creeping 
 out from under the couch across the room, you were 
 glad to have mother come up and assure you that 
 it was nothing but the rug, and turn up the gas to 
 show you. And these poor little boys and girls 
 are so glad when some one goes to Korea and turns 
 up the gas for them and shows them the light. 
 
 Every one of us to-day in the Christian land 
 can say if we will, *'The Lord is my light and my 
 salvation; whom shall I fear?" But the boys and 
 girls of Korea do not yet know that. 
 
 Will you go and tell them that there are no such 
 things as these evil spirits, but that the only spirit 
 we have to do with is the Holy Spirit of God 
 who loves us? I wonder if any of us will go and 
 tell these little ones that "God is their light and 
 salvation." 
 
 Many boys and girls have decided on their life 
 work when they were children. James Chalmers, the 
 great missionary to the South Seas, settled the 
 question as a boy of twelve in a Scotch Sunday 
 school. Mr. Mackie, the superintendent, read 
 from a letter of one of the missionaries in the South 
 Seas and then he leaned down and said, " I wonder 
 if there is a boy here this afternoon that will 
 become a missionary," and little Jimmie Chalmers 
 said, "I will." 
 
 One day Bishop Coleridge Patteson was playing 
 about his home, when good Bishop Selwyn the 
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WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 missionary put his hand on the boy's head and 
 said to his mother. "Won't you give me Coley, 
 for the South Seas?" And "Coley" never forgot, 
 and went to the South Seas. 
 
 So, my Juniors, it may be that even to-day some 
 one of you will make up your minds to go out some 
 day and tell those other Juniors across the seas 
 that as "The Lord is their light and salvation," 
 they need not be afraid. Will you? 
 
 170 
 
UNAPPRECIATED CHRISTMAS GIFTS 
 
 Text — Luke 6 : 35. " Do good, . . . hoping for nothing 
 again." 
 Object — An umbrella. 
 
 My Dear Christmas Shoppers: 
 
 Do you think that a queer title by which to 
 call you? But you are. I have seen many of you 
 shopping with mother in the city this week getting 
 ready for that happy moment when you could 
 play Santa to father or mother, or brother and 
 sister. No, I am not going out in the rain, and 
 I really do not need this umbrella in the pulpit for 
 they say that it is always dry in a pulpit. But 
 that is not true, is it? 
 
 I brought this umbrella to suggest to you a 
 story. An uncle of mine, when he was a little 
 fellow like you, was given an umbrella for Christmas 
 and in the early dawn by the dim light of a winter's 
 morning, he was seen coming down the stairs to 
 his mother's room rubbing his eyes with one tiny 
 hand and lugging the umbrella with the other, and 
 saying with great disgust as he came, "Who ga* 
 me this amberellar?" 
 
 There is a thought comes to me just now that 
 there may be many of the gifts of Christmas that 
 like this "amberellar " will go unappreciated. Some 
 171 
 
WHAT I TELL MY JUNIOR CONGREGATION 
 
 of them will not be cared for because of some fault 
 in the spirit of the giver. 
 
 First, because they will be given without love. 
 There are sure to be misfits when we leave out love 
 in the making of the gift. When you go to the 
 post office to mail your gift at Christmas time, 
 you carefully weigh the package to find the cost. 
 I wonder if you weigh the package to see how much 
 real love is in it. Some time ago in a Sunday- 
 school convention a little German got up and said, 
 "Vat ve vant in dis gonvention is more of dat 
 leetle vord of tree letters 1-u-v." And if that 
 doesn't spell love what does? Yes, we need love to 
 make the gift appreciated. Cyrus the Great gave 
 to his courtier Artabazus a golden cup, but to his 
 favorite Chrysanthis a kiss, and Artabazus com- 
 plained that the kiss was worth more than the cup. 
 
 *' Not what we give, but what we share, 
 For the gift without the giver is bare." 
 
 Again, these gifts are so often given in the 
 spirit of exchange. How many times do you say, 
 "She gave me only a box of candy last year, and 
 I'm not going to spend much on her this year." 
 Some one says we cut up our Christmas trees and 
 make bargain counters of them. 
 
 "Do good," says Jesus, "hoping for nothing 
 again." 
 
 These Christmas gifts are not valued sometimes 
 because there is a wrong spirit in the heart of the 
 172 
 
UNAPPRECIATED CHRISTMAS GIFTS 
 
 receiver, and that wrong spirit shows itself when we 
 think more of the gift than we do of the giver. The 
 boy who did not like the ' ' amberellar, " as he called it, 
 had in mind the gift he wanted more than the love 
 of the father who gave it. 
 
 And this wrong spirit makes us expect too much. 
 To have your heart too greatly set on any earthly 
 desire is to be disappointed. We are so set on 
 getting some one thing that we forget to be grateful 
 for the thing we do get. Oh, if we could get the 
 spirit of little Piccola across the seas. Her family 
 was very poor, so she set out her little shoe, hardly 
 daring to expect the good Santa Claus to come her 
 way. But when she went to it eagerly in the 
 morning, there in the shoe sat a tiny birdie, cold and 
 wet and hungry. Tenderly she took the little 
 fledgling in and nourished it, crying out with joy, 
 "How good Piccola must have been for God to 
 have given her this." 
 
 And then that bad spirit makes us more concerned 
 with receiving than giving. When we think more 
 of getting than giving, we shall ever be unthankful, 
 and many a good gift will go unthanked by us, 
 boys and girls. Remember the words of the Lord 
 Jesus how he said, " It is more blessed to give than 
 to receive." I trust that no good gifts of God at 
 this Christmas tide will go unliked by you because 
 of this evil spirit of discontent and want of love 
 both in giver and receiver. 
 
 173 
 
Date Due 
 
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