/O. //. 3^ LIBRARY OF TH| THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. PRESENTED BY Mrs. Donald Sinclair BV 4315 .R67 1887 Ross, Abel H. 1831-1893 Sermons for children * i SERMONS FOR CHILDREN BY A. HASTINGS ROSS, Pastor of the First Congregatwnai Church of Port Huron, Michigan. BOSTON AND CHICAGO: COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY. Electrotyped and Printed by Stanley &^ Usher, 171 Devonshire Street, Boston. DEDICATION. To the children, whose constant presence in the House of God with expectant faces has saved these sermons from utter failure, this volume is gratefully dedicated by their PASTOR. i CONTENTS. PAGE I. Feeding the Lambs i II. The Bible 5 III. God Our Refuge 10 IV. The Gospel of Matthew 15 V. Aiming at High Things 21 VI. The Obedience of Soldiers 26 VII. ;- Making the Most of School 31 VIII. Making the Best of Every Thing 36 IX. , Sacred Places and Things 42 X. Good Manners in Bad Company 47 XI. Cruelty 53 XII. V The Right Use of Money 58 XIII. Anxiety for Dress 63 VI CONTENTS. XIV. Something Better Beyond 68 XV. Keeping Things in Order 73 XVI. Pure Hearts, Pure Words 78 XVII. Sowing Seed 82 XVIII. Degrees in Fruitfulness 88 XIX. The Boy Ulysses S. Grant 93 XX. Little Helpers 98 XXI. Not Consenting to Sin 102 XXII. Faith in Jesus Christ 108 XXIII. The Duty of Prayer 112 XXIV. The Manner of Prayer 116 XXV. The Address of the Lord's Prayer 120 XXVI. First Petition of the Lord's Prayer 125 XXVII. Second Petition of the Lord's Prayer 130 XXVIII. Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer 135 XXIX. Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer 139 CONTENTS. vii XXX. Fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer 144 XXXI. Sixth Petition of the Lord's Prayer 149 XXXIL The Doxology of the Lord's Prayer 154 XXXIIL Bottling up Tears 160 XXXIV. Studying Animals i6q XXXV. A Mocker and a Brawler 170 XXXVI. Playing Out After Dark 176 XXXVII. Jesus Our High Priest 181 XXXVIII. Sorrow for Sin 187 XXXIX. How TO Become a Christian 192 XL. Suffering as a Christian 197 XLI. The Boy Samuel 202 XLII. Be Honest 207 XLIII. Honesty the Best Policy 213 XLIV. Playing for Keeps 219 XLV. Mine and Thine; or, Stealing 223 via CONTENTS. XLVI. Profane Swearing 229 XLVII. Telling Lies 234 XLVIII. Little Truants 239 XLIX. Work Honorable 244 L. The Rain . . . .^ 250 LI. The Snow 255 LIL Taking Care of the HEiVurn 261 LIIL Punctuality 267 LIV. Daniel, the Temperance Boy 273 LV. Fretfulness 279 LVI. Thinking of One's Self 285 LVIL The Best Ornaments 290 LVIIL Dorcas and Her Deeds 295 LIX. Meaning of the Church Services 302 LX. Do Not Kill the Birds 308 LXL Getting Angry Without Sin 313 LXn. The Unruly Tongue 318 INTRODUCTION. It was in May, 1881, after long waiting, that I ventured to announce to my people a series of sermons for chil- dren. I did not think the series would last many weeks, but it still continues, one every Sunday preceding the usual sermon, with a short hymn between the two. Others had attempted it, but their success or failure did not bring the children in my parish out to the church ser- vices ; so, in fear, I ventured to attempt the feeding of the lambs in my flock with food suited to them, and so to win them into the sanctuary. About the same time we began a roll-call every Sunday in the church school, embracing three things : i . The number of scholars pres- ent, excluding new scholars for any Sunday ; 2. The num- ber of perfect lessons; and 3. The number at church services. As the name-number of each class is called by the superintendent, the teacher reports for each of the above points, and the superintendent records the answers in a book prepared for the purpose. On these answers percentages are made of lessons and church attendance, and announced to the school. New scholars are not reported the first day they appear, as such report would unjustly reduce the percentages. It takes but a few minutes to make these reports, and it gives the actual attendance upon our church service for every Sunday in the year, and the per cent, of those present in the Sunday-school, excluding the infant class, who have attended church. That per cent, of church attendance, as thus accurately reported, was, for 1885, 76. X INTR OD UC TION. This object of the sermons and of the roll-call has been attained much more fully than I had expected. And the interest in the sermons manifested by adults as well as children has led me to regard this part of my labor as the most fruitful of all. The sermons have aimed at plain and practical instruction, and not at sensational results. Hence they have not been highly wrought, or embellished with stories that seldom benefit hearers. This volume is almost exclusively made up of sermons pubhshed in the Congregational paper of Michigan, The Beacon, irom January, 1885, to May, 1886, and in a little volume printed for an Easter gift to the children of the Sunday-school, and entitled "The Fruit of the Spirit." Believing them wholesome in tone and useful in matter, I commend them to the charity of critics, the use of the children, and the blessing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A. HASTINGS ROSS. Port Huron, Michigan. August 30, 1887. Sermons for Children. I. FEEDING THE LAMBS. Feed my lambs, — John 21: 15. JESUS CHRIST our Saviour said to Simon Peter, one of his apostles : " Feed my lambs." What did he mean by his lambs ? He meant the children of the Church, and all children ; and he meant by feeding them to teach them about God and duty. May I not teach you, children, in short sermons, as Jesus tells me to ? And will you not hear and heed what I say? If so, then you will come to church, which is God's house, to be taught, just as lambs come to the fold to be fed. Then I want you, when you go home, to get your Bibles and find the text for every sermon I preach, and read what there is before it and after it, so you will know all about it. But this is not all. I want you to help in singing the 2 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. hymns and in reading the responsive lessons, so that the voices of the children may be heard in the worship of God. I want you also to stay in the church all through the worship and to sit very still and not move or look about, for this is the house of God, and he likes devout manners here. These are the things which you are to do, children, if you want to be fed by your pas- tor : ( I ) Come to church every Sunday. (2) Find each text and read what comes before it and follows it. (3) Help in the singing and in the reading all you can. (4) Stay in the church and sit still all through the worship. But I forgot another thing I wanted to tell you. (5) Tell your parents when you go home all about the sermon, and try and remember it, that you may tell them. If you will do these five things, your pastor will feed the lambs of his flock. But I want you to listen while I say five things to your fathers and mothers about your coming to the church service every Sunday. I want them to bring you to church, and so I say to them : — I. Make the church and the service so joyous that the children will be glad when FEEDING THE LAMBS. 3 you say to them : " Come, let us go into the house of the Lord and worship to-day." 2. Bring the children with you to church. Do not the lambs go where the sheep go ? If you bring the children to church, they will learn to come to church ; but if you leave them at home, they will learn to stay at home and seldom, if ever, go to church. As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined. 3. The lambs grow up to be sheep in a little while, and they should be in the fold, else, when the sheep die, what becomes of the fold? Train your children to fill your places. 4. The neglect of parents to take their children with them is making empty pews in many churches. How many have gone out from your homes and Sunday-school, who are never seen in church simply because you did not train them to go to church ! 5. Bear a little, then, with the children. They get restless sometimes, but never mind it. It is best for them to come ; best for the Church of Christ ; best for all. Let the little lambs come and be fed. Here are five things for fathers and mothers to think of. 4 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. What food shall I give the lambs ? Not many stones, but the good things of God's Word, which is the Bible ; these I will give you, and I will use plain words so that the youngest may know what I say. Now, children, let us ask God to bless these short sermons, that they may do you good and make you better boys and girls — more kind, loving, obedient, prayerful. When Peter and others tried to keep the children away, Jesus said: "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me : for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Then let parents help the pastor to feed the lambs and to lead them to him who takes away the sin of the world. II. THE BIBLE. And that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings. — 2 Tim. 3: 15. A S all my texts are taken from one book -^^^ called the Bible, I will tell you, chil- dren, a few things about the Bible, for I want you to be like Timothy, who is spoken of in the text, and who knew the sacred writings, or the Bible, from a babe. He was no older than you are when he began to hear the Bible read, or to read it himself. And you can do what he did. You can know the sacred writings from your youth, if your mothers will teach you to read and study them. lo Let me tell you what the word Bible came from. It is the old word for book. Books were once written on the inner bark of a reed or flag, called pa-py'-rus ; and the name of that inner bark was given to the writing itself, and so we have biblia, Bible, book. The Bible is the book of our sacred 6 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. writings, the Book of books, the best of all books ever written. 2. The way the Bible was written. Men wrote the Bible as they used to write in those days. They did not leave a little space between one word and another, as we do, which helps us to read ; but they wrote all the words close together as one word. I will write the text the way they wrote the Bible, and how many of you can read it? Here it is : — Andthatfromababethouhastknownthesacred writings. The words are now printed with a space between them, and how much easier it is to read the sentences. Neither did the) write the Bible in chap- ters and verses, but without chapters and verses. Hence it was harder than it is now to find the place of a text or passage. If, then, Timothy knew the sacred writings from a babe, when it was so much harder to learn the Bible, you ought to know it better than he did, since it is so much easier to read it now. 3. The Bible was not written by one man," but by many men. If you will open your THE BIBLE. 7 Bibles you will see that there are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty- seven in the New Testament. Some of them are very short, and some are long. These books were written by about forty men, who lived far apart in time. Some of these men were shepherds, and some kings, and others were farmers, priests, generals, fisher- men, tent-makers ; but all were good men, though they did very wicked things some- times. 4. Yet the Bible is one book. If forty children should write letters, do you think their letters would agree, or be alike ? If forty men should write books, what^ mixture they would make, if their books should be bound into one volume ! They would not agree together as the Bible does. Now, how does it happen that the forty men who wrote the Bible agree so well together In what they say ? I will tell you, and you must heed and remember what I say. 5. God inspired them to write as they did. This tells us why the Bible is the best of all books. God guided their minds to write as they did, and sometimes told them what to write, as your mothers tell you 8 SERMOA^S FOR CHILDREN. what to write to a sister or brother or father. So we call the Bible the Word of God, the sacred writings, for God inspired men to write it. Were your mother to go away from you for a long time, she would write letters to you full of love and good advice, telling you what to do and what not to do ; and you would know that the letters were from your mother by what she says in them to you, and by the love she sends you. So we know that God caused the Bible to be written by what he says in it to us, and the love he shows us. There is not much more doubt about it than there is about the letters your mother writes home to you when she is absent. 6. We ought to treat the Bible as sacred, and not as we treat any other book. It is more to us than any other book. It is from God, and no other book is from him, and so we should treat it as God's book. We should keep it neat and clean ; we should read it and study it ; we should obey it in all things. Please learn by heart these things about the Bible: — THE BIBLE. (i) The Bible is the Word of God. (2) It tells us about God. (3) It tells us about Jesus Christ. (4) It tells us about heaven and hell. (5) It tells us how to be good and do good. (6) It tells us that God loves us and will forgive our sins, if we ask him. (7) It tells us all we need to know of God and duty. Blessed is he who knows the Bible from his childhood, and obeys it. III. GOD OUR REFUGE. The eternal God is thy dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. — Deut. 23' 27. A S I shall take my texts from the Bible, -^^ which is the Word of God, so I shall have much to say about God, who is our Father in heaven. You all believe in God ; you say a great deal about him ; you ask many questions about him ; and you pray to him before you go to sleep at night. I. God is a person. He thinks and feels and wills ; he hears and sees and remembers. We can not see him or hear him, yet we can see the things which he has made. And he has given us the Bible, and w^e may love him as he loves us, and so we may knov/ God by loving him. When the snow falls and you run out in it, you leave foot-prints in the snow which you and others see. Those little foot-steps in the snow tell how large you are, which way you are going, whether you walk GOD OUR REFUGE. II or run, what kind of a shoe you wear. Now God has left foot-prints which we can see, and which tell us much about him, just as your foot-prints in the snow tell us about you. The grass, the trees, the stars, the sun, the moon, all tell us of God, how great and wise he is. 2. God created all things. It is true that the shoe-maker made your shoes ; the tailor or dress-maker or your mother made your clothes ; the clock-maker made the clock that ticks so steadily ; the cabinet- 'maker made the furniture ; the carpenter built the house ; but God made the leather, the wool, the wood, the world, the stars. He made man to be like him ; and so, as God makes things to be and grow, man makes what he can out of the things God prepares. 3. God is eternal. He never began to be and will never cease to be. We were born and we shall die. God was never born and will never die. He is without beginning or end of days. He is from everlasting to -^iverlasting, eternal. He lives forever. He is the eternal God, as our text says, and his arms are everlasting. 12 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 4. How does God look ? We can not tell, for we have never seen him. True, he made us In his own likeness, not our bodies, but our souls. We can see our bodies, our hands, feet, head ; but we can not see the soul within our body, that thinks, feels, wills. No one has ever seen the soul of a man. We are like God in our souls, not in our bodies. Our fingers can not think, but our souls can and do think. In soul we are like God. Yet since we have eyes, and arms, and feet, and a mouth, we speak of the eyes of the Lord, the arms of God, the mouth of God, because it helps us to understand God. But we must not think that God has a body such as we have. He is a spirit as our souls are spirits. We can not tell how a spirit looks. 5. God is every- where. We are in dif- ferent seats, live in houses far apart, and can not often see one another. God is every- where. He sees us wherever we go. He sees in the night-time as well as in the day- light. Your parents are not with you always, and they can not hear what you 3ay, and see what you do ; but God is always with yoii, to hear and to see. Remember GOD OUR REFUGE. 1 3 that God sees and hears you all the time, and be afraid to say or do any thing wrong. 6. God is a refuge for you. He loves you as your father does. If you are afraid of anything, you run to your father and lie takes you in his arms to keep you from harm. So our text tells us that God, the eternal God that never dies, is your refuge, and that he will put his everlasting arms beneath you and keep you from all harm. When you are sick and weary, your father puts his strong arms underneath you and lifts you up and comforts you. So God comforts all that need and ask him for comfort. Did you never sleep in your father's arms or in your mother's lap ? How sweet to sleep in the arms of God, and rest there forever ! How many little lambs has Jesus carried in his bosom ! How many has he borne into heaven in his loving arms ! Let us flee to him when we are sorry for sin and afraid, and he will forgive and comfort us. 7. Shall we ever see God? Yes, we shall see him by-and-by, and we shall have to tell him all we have ever said and done, the good and the bad alike. If we omit the bad and tell the good, he will know it. Yet he Is 14 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. our kind Father in heaven, who sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, that he might forgive them. If we repent of sin, and turn from it, he will forgive us our sins, and heaven shall be our home forever. There is a God, who made all things, who is a person as each one of us is a person, who is eternal, spiritual, every-where present ; who is a safe refuge for us all from sin and sorrow, and whom we shall see by-and-by. Let us prepare to meet God. IV. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW. "The Gospel according to St. Matthew." TF' you will open your New Testament ■^ to the beginning of the first book, you will find the text. And you may well ask what these words mean : " The Gospel according to St. Matthew." I will tell you. They are the title of the book. The word gospel means glad tidings, good news, and it usually means the glad tidings, the good news, of Christ Jesus and his salvation. This is what we mean when we speak of the gospel. But in this title it means that the first book in the New Testament is a history, or narrative, of the life and sayings of Jesus Christ our Saviour. It is a life, or biography. " According to St. Matthew " means that the history, life, biography, was written out by a disciple of Christ by the name of Matthew. Saint is not found in the Greek, but it means a true disci[)le of Christ ; nor 1 6 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. is the word gospel found In the Greek title, but only : " According to Matthew." Thus the title means that the book Is a history, or true story, of the life and sayings of Jesus Christ, written by a true disciple called Matthew. I. But w^ho was Matthew ? He was a Jew who had been a Roman custom-house officer. He had heard Jesus preach, had seen his miracles, and was made a disciple In this way : Jesus went by the toll-house one day, where Matthew was taking customs, and he said to Matthew : '' Follow me," and Mat- thew left every thing and followed him. He did not delay, but became a disciple at once. He was so glad that he made Jesus a great feast In his own house and invited in his friends. Read Mark 2 : 13-17. Jesus after- wards chose Matthew one of the twelve apostles. Matthew had another name, Levi ; so Matthew and Levi are names of the same man. Matthias, chosen to fill the place of Judas Iscarlot, was another man (Acts I : 26). After Matthew was called to be a disciple, he went with Jesus every-where, heard his teaching and preaching, saw his cures and THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW. 17 miracles, his trial, crucifixion, and death. He was also a witness of his resurrection and his ascent into heaven. He knew all about what Jesus said and did ; he preached Jesus Christ to the Jews, and wrote the first book of the New Testament, ''The Gospel according to St. Matthew." When and where he died, or was put to death, we do not know. 2. When did Matthew write his Gospel? We can not tell exactly ; but as he was as old or older than Jesus in the flesh, he must have written it near the time of the events. He wrote it before the year of our Lord 66 ; some say a.d. '^%. Matthew had been all the time preaching the gospel of Christ until he wrote the first book in the New Testament. He knew what he was writing about, and so did others. Had he told what was not true, they would have corrected him. He wrote when many still lived who had seen Jesus Christ. 3. Why did Matthew write his Gospel? He wrote it to give the proof that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, that the Jews might believe on him and be saved. He wrote his Gospel for 1 8 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. a purpose. " It presents Christ as the last and greatest Law-giver and Prophet ; as the Fulfiller of the Old Testament ; as the Messiah and King of the true people of Israel." Hence the words and deeds of Jesus are arranged In order, just as I arrange my ser- mons under heads. They are not given one after another as they occurred. He quoted a great deal from the Old Testament because the prophets said a great deal about the coming Messiah, and because the Jews heard the Old Testament read every Sabbath day and believed it. They thought that God revealed it from heaven through the prophets, as he did. But God guided and inspired Matthew when he wrote his Gospel as really as he did Moses and the prophets. 4. How, then, should we read the Gospel according to St. Matthew ? We should read it as a true record, written by one who saw and heard what he tells, w^ho was a witness of what he preached and wrote, but who did not give all that Jesus said and did. Had he given all, his book would have been too large for use. So he wrote only what is needful to show that Jesus was the Messiah, the One that the Old Testament foretold should THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW. 1 9 come. Jesus said to the Jews : '' Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal Hfe ; and these are they which bear witness of me." Let us read the Gospel of Matthew very carefully and constantly, that we may believe in Jesus the Christ. I will close with some questions, and I want you to learn the answers by heart and remember them : — (i) What is the first book of the New Testament called ? The first book of the New Testament is called " The Gospel according to St. Mat- thew." (2) Why is it called the Gospel ? It is called the Gospel because it gives glad tidings, as shown in the life and words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (3) Who wrote this Gospel ? This Gospel was written by Matthew, who was also called Levi. (4) Why is he called Saint Matthew ? He is called Saint Matthew because he was a true disciple of Jesus Christ, whose dis- ciples are all saints. (5) Who was Matthew? 20 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Matthew was a Jew, and one of the twelve apostles. (6) Why did he write his Gospel ? He wrote his Gospel to prove to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of God, the Saviour of sinners. (7) When did he write it ? He wrote it before the year of our Lord 66. (8) How should we read it ? We should read it as a true story of what Jesus said, did, and suffered. (9) Why did Jesus suffer death ? Jesus suffered death for the sins of the world, that every man, woman, and child might be saved. (10) Can Jesus now save? Yes ; for Jesus is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever. He can save all who believe in Him. V. AIMING AT HIGH THINGS. Set youf mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. — Col. 3 : 2. TF you should shoot an arrow at the ^ ground, you would hit the ground, but rto one would praise you for It. If, how- ever, you should aim at a very small mark and should hit it, all would praise you for your skill. To shoot downwards and hit the great earth, any body can do that ; but to shoot upwards and hit a small mark, very few can do it, for it takes a long time to learn to do it, and few have patience enough to get the skill to do it. It is said that Indians put their boys' dinners on limbs of trees, and the boys must shoot them down before they can have them. Thus they learn to shoot straight. Paul told the church at Colossae — and the children that were in it — to set their mind on the things that are above, where Christ is, and not on the things which are upon the 2 2 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. earth, which is under our feet. He tells us to do the same. But to do it, we must aim at the high things, not at the low ; we must set our mind on the best things, not on the mean ; we must shoot at the stars, and not at the ground. Our text tells you, boys and girls, to aim at high things, and to keep aiming at them until you hit them. You are to set your mind on them, to study how you may make the high things your own. Let us see how you may do this. 1. In the home there are high and low things, and you should set your mind on the best things there and strive for them until you win them. You should aim to be the very best boy or girl in the home, in good manners, in kind treatment of one another, in ready obedience to your parents, in tender love, in every thing. If you fail now and then, try again, and still again until you suc- ceed. Hit this high mark in the home : for if you are a good child at home, you will be a good man or woman, husband or wife. 2. There are high and low things in play, and you should mind the high and shun the low. You should be fair in play and never AIMING AT HIGH THINGS. 23 unfair, truthful and never untruthful, kind and never unkind, ready and never dull, skillful and never unskillful. Set your mind on being ready, skillful, kind, truthful, and honest in play : for these are the high things you should aim at. 3. There are high and low things in school. You can play in school, have poor lessons, and be a bad scholar ; or you can study, get good lessons, be a good scholar, and behave as you ought. Now on which will you set your mind ? Let me tell you. Get every lesson perfectly. Make no failures. Behave the best you can. Make your conduct and scholarship perfect. Aim at the high things. 4. There are high and low things in learn- ing a trade. Aim at the high. Do not slight any part of the trade. You may think it to b^ a trifle. Perfection comes from minding trifles. You want the highest skill in your trade, to be in it a skilled workman. Then put your mind into it. Slight nothing. Do every thing in the quickest and best way. Aim at the highest. 5. There are high and low things in the store, in the office, on the farm, in every kind of honorable work. Do you think the work 24 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. hard? Never mind that; but mind to do your best in it. Keep your mind on the work in hand. Master every Httle and every great thing in it. You can not do any thing well without care and attention. 6. Aim high in every thing. Always try to do the best you can, in whatever circum- stances God places you. The high and the low are in every calling, in every thing we do. Set your mind on the best, and weary not until you win it. 7. But Paul looked above the things of earth, and said : " Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth." God is in heaven. Christ is in heaven. We want to go to heaven when we die. Let us, therefore, mind the things of God, of Christ, of heaven. To do this we must study God's Word the Bible ; we must attend church ; we must love, serve, and obey God ; we must love one another ; we must always do what is right and shun what is wrong ; we must keep his command- ments. You are not too young to do this. The youngest can love and obey Christ. AIMING AT HIGH THINGS. 25 God is love, and gave his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins. He sends his Holy Spirit to lead you to Christ, that you may tell him your sins and ask him to forgive you. When, therefore, you do any thing wrong, and feel sorry for it, go and confess it to Christ, as you confess to your mother, and ask him to forgive you and to make you better. Then be careful not to do the wrong again for his sake who forgave you. Jesus will thus help you to mind the heavenly things. You will think on the things that are above. You will set your mind on them, and God will guide your feet into heaven. VI. THE OBEDIENCE OF SOLDIERS. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them. — Heb. 13: 17. TF one goes Into the army, as General Grant ^ did, he has to obey orders. No matter who he is, or what he is, or how old he is, he must obey them that have the rule over him. Even the son of a king- or queen or of the President must obey. The officers as well as the privates obey orders, and that without a word. They do not ask : " Why should we do this ? " They do not think It a dishonor to obey, but a dishonor not to obey. For If they do not obey, they are arrested at once and punished ; and so they obey without a word. You, children, sometimes sing : " We are little soldiers," etc. And the thing for you to do as soldiers Is to obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them with- out a word. For : — I. This Is the only true obedience. If 26 THE OBEDIENCE OF SOLDIERS. 27 one who has the rule over you, as your parents, your teachers, or your pastor, tells you to do something, you obey if you do it at once without asking questions ; but if you ask the reason why, and wait for them to explain the matter before you obey, it is the same as saying, '' I am not going to obey until I see whether it is best or not. If you want me to do any thing, you must explain it to me so that I can judge for myself what I ought to do. If I like it, I will obey; if I do not like it, I will not obey." No soldier would ever say this, for this is not obedience to those who have the rule, but obedience to one's own judgment. True obedience never asks what or why, but does the thing required without a word. 2. Soldiers obey when it is hard to obey. They are ordered to make long marches, to go into battles, where they may be killed, but they obey. Hard things do not hinder them. When they enlisted, it was to do not only the easy things, but the hard things as well ; and it is the hard things that give the greater glory to the soldier. The hard fought battles, if won, give them the greatest honor. 28 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. So it is of the soldiers of the cross. They are to endure hardness as good soldiers. They are to obey the hard orders because they are commanded to do so. Paul and Peter were glad to die in the service ; for Jesus their great Captain had died on the cross for them, setting them an example. I do not think much of the boy who is afraid of hard things, hard study, hard work, hard play. I like the boy who obeys though it costs him weary hands and feet, who is not afraid to do any thing commanded him. 3. The soldier carries heavy burdens — his gun, his powder and balls, his knapsack, sometimes his food and drink. He carries whatever is needful for the battle and for the camp. Thus loaded down he marches long marches and fights bitter battles. Yet Christ says to those who are his soldiers : " My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." However hard it may look, it is easy and light; for the heart is in it, and when the heart is in any thing it makes it easy. You know how it is, boys and girls. If you don't want to do a thing, how hard it is to do it. It looks like a great task. You fret and fuss over it. But if you want to do THE OBEDIENCE OF SOLDIERS. 29 even a harder thing, you think it easy, you make it easy, because your heart is in it. Now Christ's burdens are Hght to those that obey him, for their heart is in the work. 4. The rewards of the soldier who does his duty are great. His country honors him, and often rewards him with a pension. If he be a great general, like General Grant, what great honors are bestowed upon him by the people and the nations of the earth ! He was a faithful soldier of his country. He obeyed them who had the rule over him. But these rewards are little when placed by the side of God's rewards to the soldiers of the cross. God loves them. He crowns them with a crown that never fades. He gives them heaven. He does for them more than this country has done for her soldiers ; for none of the honors God gives can be lost or taken away. They are everlasting, in heaven. Do you want to be soldiers? Then enlist in the army of the Lord, and be faithful and true. Obey orders without a word. Obey when it costs you something to do so, when you have heavy burdens to bear ; for the re- wards of the Christian soldier are very great. 30 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. They never fade away. There is another reason : — 5. There is dishonor in not obeying. This is so great, that if General Grant had dis- obeyed orders, he would have been dismissed from the army in disgrace ; perhaps he would have been sentenced to be shot. So his great honors came to him through his obedi- ence. Let us remember this, when we read about him and what he did ; and then let us also obey those who have the rule over us — our parents, teachers, rulers, and God. We can obey, or we can disobey. If we obey, we do what is right, and God will bless us. If we disobey, we do what is wrong, and dis- grace comes upon us, and God will punish us for it. VII. MAKING THE MOST OF SCHOOL. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. — Eccles. 9: 10. T WISH to say a few things to those who ^ attend school. The text tells us to do with our might what our hands find to do. You play with all your might, and so far you obey the text. When you are called into the school-room, do you study with all your might ? Your lessons answer the question. 1. Do not stay away from school. The schools are free to all, and you may not think so much of them because they are free. If you paid for them, or had to work for them, you would not miss a day, unless you were sick. Do not miss a day, or half a day, if you can help it. Be in your seat when school opens, with books all ready for study. 2. Be careful of your books. Do not mark, tear, or soil them. Keep them neat and clean. Do not open them too wide ; if you do, the leaves will come out. Your 32 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. books cost a great sum, and you should make them last as long as you can. Your brother or sister may want to use your books after you get done with them. What a shame to leave the books dirty, torn, marked up, when by care you can keep them almost as good as new. 3. Begin at the beginning. If you skip a few of the first lessons, or get them poorly, you will be lame in that study, unless you make them up. If you were to run a race with others, you would want to start together. You would not let one boy start first, nor would you want to eo ahead and then wait for the rest to come running up with all their might ; for you could not catch up with them again. You would lose the race. So it is in study. If you do not begin at the be- ginning, but run ahead, or if you stay out of school awhile, those who begin at the beginning will get ahead of you, and you can not catch up with them. The lessons you skipped will hinder you. You do not have a fair chance. Begin then at the beginning with the rest, then you can understand each lesson, and keep up. MAKING THE MOST OF SCHOOL. Zl 4. Get every lesson. This is a short rule. It has but three words. Can you repeat it ? Well, remember it. Why learn every lesson ? Because it is given you to learn ; because it will do you good to learn it ; because if you do not learn it, you can not understand so well the lessons which follow it ; and because, if you do get it, the other lessons will be easier to learn and understand. It is bad to skip one lesson, but worse to skip two or three or more. You have learned to run up and down stairs very fast. If now one step should be taken out, could you get over it ? You might ; but if two, three, or four steps should be taken out, you could not get over the place. So if you miss one, two, three, or more lessons of a book, how hard it will be for you to get over the place. Hence, get every lesson, and get it well. 5. Fix your mind on study. You go to school not to play, but to study. Now, when you play, you fix your mind on it. You are quick to see and do. Do the same in study. Do not be thinking of play all the time. Do not gaze about. Do not drone over your book. Bend your mind on the lesson. If your mind is on something else, you can not 34 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Study well. Hence, make study your chief business at school. No scholars can do well who are thinking of parties half the time ; and no scholars can have parties without having their minds filled with them. Do not tease your parents for parties, either to have them or to attend them ; for if they are so foolish as to gratify you, you will fall behind in your classes, until in shame your parents will take you out of school, or send you away. You can not do justice to your lessons, and give your nights to parties. 6. Be honest in recitation. If you have not learned your lesson well, you will be tempted to cheat in your recitation, by slyly peeping into the book, or you will get some one to tell you. Now this is not right. Do not lean on your book or on others to help you out in recitation. And let no one neglect study, and then cram up just before examina- tion. No matter how well you study, you will need to review. But do honest study in the school, and review honestly and well. If then you can not pass, make an honest failure ; for an honest boy or girl is better than a great scholar. MAKING THE MOST OF SCHOOL. 35 7. Improve the time. You are one year older than you were a year ago. By-and-by your school days will be over. You need therefore to make the most of them, and get all the education you can. In some countries not one half of those ten years old and over can read and write. And when schools were opened, men and women went to them with the children, all eager to learn. So you should improve the time, and study with your might when at school. Mind these seven things : — (i) Do not stay away from school. (2) Be careful of your books. (3) Begin at the beginning. (4) Get every lesson. (5) Fix your mind on your studies. - (6) Be honest in recitations. (7) Improve the time. " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." And may God bless you, children, with obedience and love and piety, that you may be Christ's dear children. VIII. MAKING THE BEST OF EVERY THING. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good, — Gen. i : 31. 'THHERE are two ways of looking at every ^ thing and two ways of speaking of every thing. One way is to see all the bad there is in it, and to speak of it, and so to find fault with every thing and every body. The other way is to see what good there is in it, and to speak of it to others. This is God's way. When he had created the sun, moon, stars, and the earth, and all that in them is, he " saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Now which is the better way, to find the good in every thing, or to find the bad in every thing ? Let us see which is better. You will see the importance of this ques- tion when you think how easy it is to form the habit of finding fault or of finding good in every thing. We fall easily into habits, — 36 MAKING THE BEST OF EVERY THING. 37 into the habit of carrying our hands in our pockets, of throwing our caps down anywhere, of biting the finger-nails, of doing every thing we do in a certain way and not in another w^ay, — and so we fall into the habit of seeing spots, defects, wrongs, whatever is bad, or into the habit of seeing the good there is in every thing, and speaking of it. We are creatures of habit, and when a habit is once formed it is hard breaking it. This we all know who have tried to break off a bad habit. Another thing I want you to remember. It is this : that as we form good or bad habits, we shall be happy or miserable. But that is not all : as we form good or bad habits, we make others happy or miserable. And this is not all : just as we form good or bad habits, we please or displease God. Remember these three things. But you say that there are so many things wrong that v/e can not help finding fault with them. No doubt if you had looked out on the world which God made, at the time it was finished, you would have found many things to find fault with, — the weather, the rain and snow, the heat and cold, the snakes and flies, and other things too numerous to mention, — ^S SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. but God called them all " very good." And now we have plenty of things to fret at and find fault with, if we will only form the habit of doing so. But there are reasons why we should make the best of every thing ; and we will tell you what they are, that you may form the habit of looking always on the bright side. I . Your own good should lead you to make the best of every thing. To pick out flaws, to see defects, to find all the ugly and bad things, and to dwell on them, is not good for your own soul. There is nothing cheering and ennobling in it. If you have ten apples, nine of them good and one bad, it is folly for you to fret over the one bad apple so as to lose the good of eating the nine sweet apples. So, if there were nine good things and one bad, make the most of the nine and let the one go. Or, if there were nine bad and only one good, it were wise to make the best of the one and let the nine go. What is the use of spoiling the good because of the bad ? Our own happiness depends on our passing by the bad and seeing what is good. This is one reason why we should make the best of every thing. When I was a boy my mother MAKING THE BEST OF EVERY THING. 39 told me a story about a woman who had a great many troubles and hardships and trials, more than any one of us have ever had to bear. Every thing seemed to go against her ; yet she was one of the happiest beings that ever lived. Others, who did not have half so much to try them as she had, were miserable and fretful and fault-finding. What made her so happy in her poverty ? This : she saw the good in every thing, and her loving heavenly Father's hand behind every thing ; and so she used to say when any new trouble came to her : ''It is all for the best ; it Is all for the best." She got out of every thing all the good there was in it, and let the bad go. But if she had looked at the bad and talked of it, she would have made herself miserable indeed. She would have been fretful, cross, fault-finding, unhappy, as miserable as some of us make ourselves over our little troubles. A mother told me the other day that her boy had once fallen from a tree and cut his face, and that for a long time she had mourned over the scar that was left, until one day it flashed into her mind how uno-rateful it was o to grieve over the scar when her boy had not been killed by the fall. After that she never 40 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. saw the scar without joy that her child had been spared. She at first looked on the dark side, then on the bright side, and where be- fore she had sorrow, now she has gladness of heart. May we not find joy by looking on the bright side of things ? 2. The good of others should lead us to make the best of every thing. We help to make others happy or miserable. We ought to do what we can to make them happy, and we shall, if we look on the bright side of things. But if we tell over to them every pain, ache, and trouble we have, we shall make ourselves and them miserable. If we, on the other hand, see the good things God has done for us, and speak of them, and smile through our tears, and feel and say that all is for the best, we shall fill their lives with joy and gladness. We shall make them happy. We want you, then, to make the best of every thing. Say w^ith God : '' Behold, it was very good." Do not get into the habit of finding fault, for it is wrong to do so. It makes you miserable and others miserable. Nobody will like you, for no one likes a fault- finder. Do not look at defects, but at the MAKING THE BEST OF EVERY THING. 4 1 good points. See what good there is in every thing and every body ; point it out, talk about it. Live on the sunny side of the house, not on the shady side ; in the good God has made, not in the evil men do. In this way you will bless yourself and others, and make life happy and useful. Try it, children ; make the best of every thing. IX. SACRED PLACES AND THINGS. And he would not suffer that any man should carry a vessel through the temple. — Mark ii: i6. nPHE temple was the temple at Jerusalem -*- built by King Solomon and twice rebuilt. It was a very costly and beautiful building. There is no building in the world now that is equal to the temple in Jerusalem when first built, or even when Jesus cleansed it, or certainly not more than one. A temple is a building erected for worship, and the temple in Jerusalem was dedicated to the worship of God. It was a holy, sacred place ; so holy and sacred that a great many things which might be done in other places could not be done there. You know how it is in your homes, children. There is a difference between places and things. You would not do in your mother's parlor what you would in your play-room. You would not treat your Bible as you would your picture-book. If your little sister had died, SACRED PLACES AND THINGS. 43 and your mother should show you a lock of her hair, you would gaze at it, but hardly touch it, because it was your dead sister's hair. So men should not do in a temple or in a church where God is worshiped what it would be right and proper for them to do in other places, because it is God's holy house. The Jews had not been careful enough about their temple ; they had suffered cattle and doves to be sold in the sacred place. Jesus did not like to have his Father's house treated thus, and so, near the beginning of his ministry, he made a scourge or whip of cords and drove out the sheep and oxen, and those who sold doves, and those who changed money. But when he left, they came back again with their traffic into the temple. So he again, just before he was betrayed and put to death on the cross, drove them out, and said : '' Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations ? but ye have made it a den of robbers." "And he would not suffer that any man should carry a vessel through the temple," because it was the temple where God was worshiped, a sacred and holy place. 44 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. It may be that we are not careful enough about God's house, that we defile it ; for what the temple was to the Jews, the church edifice is to us. It is the house of prayer, a holy, sacred place. God is in a church as in a holy temple. Hence, what it is right for us to do in other places, it is not right for us to do in the church. We need to remember this, lest we displease God, and lest Jesus drive us out of his church. I will tell you some things that you ought not to do in church : — 1. It is not right for you to run and play in the church of God as you may in other places; for the church is dedicated to God for his worship. It is a house of worship. 2. It is not right for you to trade in the church, to carry on any traffic there as the Jews did, not even when it is done for the benefit of the church ; for that is just what Christ forbade when he drove men out of the temple. They were trading there for the convenience and good of the worship- ers, yet Christ forbade them, for his Father's house was a house of prayer. 3. Of course it is not right for you to tear up paper and throw it about in the church. SACRED PLACES AND THINGS. 45 or litter up the floor with any thing ; for you ought not to do it on the street, or in your yards, or in your homes. How much less in the house of God, where every thing should be clean and fit for the presence of our King. 4. Then again it is not right for you to mark the books or the walls, or scratch the pews and furniture by putting your feet against them, or any thing of the sort ; for you would not do such things in your own homes, nor in a neighbor's house, much less in a palace, and surely you would not think of doing them in the house of God. All these things are out of place, un- seemly, wTong in the church now, as formerly they were in the temple ; for the church is holy. But these things are required instead in the house of God: — 1. You should behave well. If you be- have better in your mother's parlor than in your play-room, you should behave better in the house of God than in her parlor ; for God is holier and greater than your mother. 2. You should keep the house of God clean, free from litter, dirt, all markings, and 46 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. whatever is unseemly in a place where God is worshiped. 3. You should be reverent in God's church. It is a good thing to bow the head or kneel, and offer a short prayer, when you enter the house of God ; to treat him rever- ently. A church is more than a hall. It requires therefore a more reverent behavior. 4. You should worship in the house of God. This is what you go to church for. This is what the church is for. Nothing could be ruder than play or whispering during the worship of God. They are ut- terly unbecoming. The church is a sacred and holy place. It is not a common place, where we may do what we please. It is the house of God, where we are to do only what God pleases. And Jesus has told us what we should not do in a place or house of prayer. He twice drove out and cleared the temple of what was un- seemly in that holy place. May we shun all that may displease him, as we worship in his church. X. GOOD MANNERS IN BAD COMPANY. Be not deceived: Evil company doth corrupt good manners, — I Cor. 15: 33. IF you will turn to the first verse of the first chapter of First Corinthians, you will see that Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, wrote the w^ords of our text. But he quoted a part of it from a Greek poet named Me-nan-der, who was born nearly four hun- dred years before Paul wrote this Epistle. Me-nan-der was a heathen, but he wrote the words : '' Evil company doth corrupt good manners." I. What are good manners? If you be- have as you ought at all times and places, you show good manners ; but if you do not behave as you ought at all times and places, you show ill manners. Propriety in behavior, or decorum in conduct, at all times and places, is good manners. As it has become a prov- erb that '' manners make the man," I am 47 48 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. going to tell you more plainly some things that belong to good manners, which I want you to remember and heed. It is not good manners, when your mother is talking to another, to break in with noise or talk, though you wish very much to speak with her. Wait a little and when she is through speak to her. If you stand waiting, she will see you and soon ask you what you want. In thus waiting you show good manners. It is not good manners, but very bad man- ners, to whisper in a concert or lecture while one is singing or speaking ; but it is much worse to whisper or play in the Sunday- school and church during the services. No well-bred man or woman will do it. No good- mannered boy or girl will do it. If you can not hear or see, sit still and do not disturb others. How sad to see those dressed in silks show their bad manners by whispering, giggling, and playing ! I hope no one of you will ever do these ill-bred things. I find this rule in a book on deportment : " People should preserve the utmost silence and deco- rum in church, and avoid whispering, laugh- ing, staring, or making a noise of any kind GOOD MANNERS IN BAD COMPANY. 49 with the feet or hands." Do you ever break this rule of good manners? I hope not. Learn the rule by heart. 2. How are good inan7iers corrupted? That is, how are good manners turned into bad manners ? Our text says that evil or bad company doth corrupt good manners. It takes a long time to learn to be mannerly at all times and places. Your parents tell you how to behave, what to do, and what not to do ; but that is not enough. So they watch over you to see that you do what is proper, and shun what is not proper. They see to it that you act at home as you ought to act in society ; for they know that if you are ill- mannered at home, you will not be good- mannered away from home. But if you are well behaved at home, bad company will lead you into ill manners. I have seen a well- trained and good-mannered boy sitting by the side of an ill-trained and bad-mannered boy, and I have watched them — the one trying to behave, the other trying to make him whis- per and play. And I have seen the good boy yield at last to the bad boy, and whisper and play. Evil company corrupts good man- ners. And when the good boy has whispered 50 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. and played once in the school or church, It is easier for him to do it a second time, and easier still the third time. By-and-by he is caught at it by his parents, who are shocked and pained greatly that their boy, whom they had trained so well, should behave so ill. Bad company did it. Had their darling boy kept the company of the good, what good conduct he would have shown ! Of course there are places where every boy and girl may laugh and play and have a fine frolic, but they are not the school and church. In God's house, where his Word is studied and he is worshiped, every one should behave, and show the best manners. It is wrong to whisper and stare about, to turn the head to see who is coming in, to notice what others wear, to play, when we meet to worship God with devout and loving hearts. 3. Hence avoid evil company. The boy or girl that does not care for times and places, and would as soon whisper and play in church as anywhere else, is not the boy or girl that you want to go with or sit with. Such an one is to be avoided, shunned. The good- GOOD MANNERS IN BAD COMPANY. 5 I mannered should be your company, for they will help you and not hurt you. But those who would destroy or corrupt your good man- ners must be let alone. You must not go with them to do evil. May I not ask your parents to watch over your manners, to see that your conduct is all right while you are young, so that when you grow up you will not be ill-mannered ? To be rude, ill-behaved, tells that you are not trained at home ; but to be good-mannered, well- behaved, shows that you are well trained at home. And as you always want to appear the best you can and grow up to be true gentlemen and ladies, I am going to ask your parents for you to watch over your every- day manners, and to study to know what is proper in conduct and what is not proper, and to train you to act as you ought to act at all times and places ; then when you grow up your conduct will always be what good manners require. An old English writer said reverently of our Saviour: " He was the first true gentle- man that ever lived." He said this because the conduct of Jesus Christ always suited the time and place. He was never rude. Let 52 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. US become like him in manners as in morals, so that our conduct will always suit the time and place. If we seek bad company, re- member the text : '' Be not deceived : Evil company doth corrupt good manners." XI. CRUELTY. A righteous man regardeth the Ufe of his beast : but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. — Prov. 12: 10. TT is not good or right to be cruel, but it -^ is good and right to be kind one to another, and even to animals. I saw a thing done a few days ago which I am sure no one of you would do. A little boy was passing by my house carrying his father's dinner, having a basket in one hand and a bottle of drink in the other hand. A larger boy met him and gave him a blow on the arm, which made him cry. Not one word was said either before or after the blow by either boy. It seemed as if the larger boy, seeing the hands of the other boy full, so that he could not defend himself, thought to himself: '' Now I can hit him and hurt him, and he can not return the blow." The boy with the dinner kept right on, though crying from the pain. What a mean, cruel, cowardly boy, to strike another whose hands were full! 53 54 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. I was glad that he was not one of our boys, one of you ; for I should have been ashamed of you for doing so mean and cruel a thing. But you can be cruel in many ways, and so I speak of cruelty. Cruelty is a disposition to give unnecessary pain or distress to others, a desire to hurt them in some way. It is shown in various ways. If a boy delights in tormenting a cat or dog or horse or other animal, he is cruel. If he plagues or teases or hurts his brother or sister till they cry, he is cruel. If he pinches or strikes or kicks his playmates to make them cry, he is cruel. He who tries to give pain to others is cruel in heart. I hope none of us delights in pain and sorrow. Yet the Bible speaks of those who breathe out cruelty, whose tender mercies are cruel. One good man prayed, as good boys now pray, to be rescued out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. The cruel are still to be found, who, like the boy we spoke of, delight in hurting others. Let us be careful not to be among them. And there are several rea- sons why we should not be cruel : — 1. Cruelty gives pain where there is no CRUELTY. 55 need of it. Many times pain is needful. If fire did not give pain, the child would play with the flame, putting its hands into it until they were burnt off. Fire burns and hurts that we may keep out of it. It is so with many other things. We do not do them because they hurt. When you do wrong, and you are punished for it, your punishment hurts you, or else it does you no good. Such pain is needed to keep you from doing wrong, and it is not cruel to punish you all you need to be pun- ished. It is a great kindness to you thus to punish you, and a great cruelty to you not to punish you. Hence the Bible says : "He that spareth his rod hateth his son : but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." This is not cruelty, to punish you and make *you good. You are cruel when you cause pain that is not needed. It is right to kill flies, rats, mice, and some other animals ; but it is cruel to torment them, to pull out the flies' wings, or hurt an animal in any way, for the sake of giving them pain. If you give pain where there is no need of it, and for the sake of giving pain, you are cruel. 56 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 2. God wants us to be kind and not cruel. The text says: "A righteous man regardeth the Hfe of his beast : but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." The righteous are kind, the wicked are cruel. Now, if the boy I saw had helped the other to carry his bas- ket, he would have been kind in heart. I should have praised and honored him. Would not that have been better than the blow he gave the boy? Would not God have liked it better ? Do you not think that kindness is better than cruelty? 3. God punishes the cruel. It is said in Proverbs (11: 17): ''The merciful man doeth good to his own soul : but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh." God gives rest and peace to the soul of a kind or merciful man. Men do not hurt him or mve him pain. His very kindness doeth his soul good. But it is not so with the cruel. They trouble their own flesh. The cruel boy I saw, who hit and hurt the other boy, will get paid for it some day. He can not go round hitting and hurting others without being hit and hurt himself. He was so cruel that I could have seen him whipped for it with a good relish. He was so cruel and mean CRUELTY. 57 that his cruelty will some day trouble his own flesh, when he hits the wrong boy. This is one way that God will punish him ; but there is another. God does not let the wicked and cruel go without a just punishment somewhere. To say a word, or to give a blow, that causes pain, which is the worse ? You can hurt with the tongue as well as with the fist. Our words may be blows. Let us then be kind, tender in heart, doing good, and not be cruel, hurting every body with our fists or with our words. "A righteous man re- gardeth the life of his beast : but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." XII. THE RIGHT USE OF MONEY. And money answereth all things. — Eccles. lo: 19. TF I were to ask you, children, to tell me -*- what money Is good for, what would you say? I fear that a few would answer: "To buy candy with ; " but others would give me other answers. Let us see if we can find the true answer. Solomon said that " money answereth all things." But he does not mean that you can eat it or drink it or wear it as a garment ; for you can not : but he means that money will buy all things that are sold, — things to eat, things to drink, and things to wear. There is nothing sold that money will not buy. It will buy bad things as well as good things, things that injure you as well as things that benefit you. You need then to learn how to spend money aright, even while you are little children. You do not have much money to handle, there is therefore greater need of knowing 58 THE RIGHT USE OE MONEY. 59 how to use what you have. For there Is an old proverb which says: ''A fool and his money are soon parted." To keep you from this folly, please learn these rules for the use of money by heart. 1. Do not spend all your money for can- dies and toys. If you begin by spending all you get on candies and toys, you will grow selfish in heart, and become unhappy, unless eating and drinking all the time. Do not run to the store for a stick of candy every time you get a cent. Candy and toys now and then are good, but to spend all your money for them is not wise. You can use your money sometimes for these things, but do not spend all of it on them or on yourself. 2. Spend your money for useful things. One of the first things I bought for myself when a lad was a dictionary, long since worn out. It was the beginning of my library. Some parents give their children a fixed sum every month, out of which the children buy for themselves all they need — shoes, clothes, books, every thing ; but the children should not spend the whole allowance for books and clothes, as we shall soon see. This training is good ; for it teaches children 6o SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. how to buy what they need, under the eye of their parents. If the children spend their allowance for poor and foolish things, they must pay for their folly by wearing the old clothes longer, or by going without some needed article. Nor will wise parents step in with more money ; for children learn how to use money by what they suffer. If they spend foolishly in one thing, they must be pinched in something else ; and it is the pinching that trains them to be careful in buying, as it is the hurt of falling that teaches them to be careful in running. Hence your parents wisely let you learn to make a right use of money by the shame that folly brings. This is the best possible way of training you, namely, to allow you so much money a month, out of which you are to buy all your clothes, books, and every thing else you want. But your parents should see to it that you obey a third rule, namely : — 3. Lay up something in the bank. If you spend all you get, you will be poor all your days, with nothing ahead for sickness or times when you can get nothing to do. But if you put a part of your money into the bank or lay it up, then you will have money ahead for a THE RIGHT USE OF MONEY. 6 1 rainy day. You ought thus to learn to be saving, to lay by something, to have money at interest, that when you are old you may not have to work ; and your parents ought to see to it, as a Christian duty, that you put some of your allowance and earnings into the bank. There is a prayer by Agur in the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs which you should find and read ; a part of which is: " Give me neither poverty nor riches ; " for such men are the happiest in life. Lay up some money in the bank for a time of need. 4. Give some money to Christ. He gives you all things to enjoy. He gave his life for the forgiveness of your sins. He requires you to give him your heart, your life, your money. He wants you to spend a little of it for toys and candies. He wants you to spend more of it for useful clothes and food ; he wants you to lay up some of it for a time of need ; and he requires you to give some of it to him. Do you ask me how you can give Christ money? You can do so by giving to his church, to the Sunday-school, to missions, to the poor. You have part in these services, you ought to begin in childhood to give your 62 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. money for worship and missions. It is not enough for you to take your father's money and give that. Give your own money to the Lord, for this is what he wants you to do, and what he will bless you in doing. I want you to learn by heart these four rules for the right use of m^oney : — (i) Do not spend all your money for candies and toys. (2) Spend your money for useful things. (3) Lay up something in the bank for a time of need. (4) Give something to Christ for his Church and missions. God calls upon us to care for ourselves, to care for his Church, to care for missions, to care for another life. If we follow these rules, we shall learn the right use of money, and shall lay up treasure in heaven. And where our treasure is there will our heart be also. XIII. ANXIETY FOR DRESS. And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? — Matt. 6 : 28. TN the country where Jesus Hved flowers ^ grew with the grass of the field ; and when the grass was cut, dried, and burned in the oven to bake bread, as was often done, the beautiful scarlet lily, or anemone, was burned with the grass. What the child saw in its glory in the morning, he might see thrown into the oven the next day, to bake bread for him. How true then were the words of Christ: '' Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to- morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not muoh more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" God does not despise lilies, or beau- tiful things, or rich clothes, and we should not. But we may think too much of them 63 64 SEJ^AWNS FOE CHILDREN. and become anxious for dress, which is wrong. Of course your mothers must talk of dress, when they make or buy what you wear ; but you ought not to fret lest they do not get you the best there is in the store. They know best what you need and what they can afford to get you, so wear it and be thankful. As some of you may fret because you can not wear silk and satin and kid, the very richest things, I am going to preach to you about anxiety for dress. I . Do not think that rich clothes are better than good behavior. When your parents buy or make you any thing to wear, you ought to be glad and thank them for it. But do not feel proud or vain and say : " See my new dress ; it is prettier than yours ; " for then you will hurt the feelings of the one you speak to. It is better to say nothing about your dress, and to think nothing about it, than to be rude and to make others unhappy. Good behavior is better than the best dress a queen ever wore, and the poorest can be- have well. If you were to deck ill manners in all the nice ribbons and satins and feathers money could buy, you could not make her look well, not half as well as good manners ANXIETY FOR DRESS. 65 dressed In plain clothes ; for " handsome is, diat handsome does." Not long ago I heard a little boy at the table say to the servant : " Please brina- a elass of water." How much better than to say : '' Bring me water." You look at your clothes, and think about them ; but think instead of your words and acts, that they be what they ought to be. A boy or girl that behaves w^ell at school is better than the boy or girl that only dresses well. And it is so every-where. If you want the best possible dress, you can make it for yourself out of good behavior. 2. Do not think more of your clothes than of your lessons. Your parents will get you such clothes as are suitable for you ; but you, and you only, can get your lessons well, which is better than rich dresses. Of course you should learn to take the best care you can of your clothes, lest you soil or tear them; and in like manner you should care for your books ; for this is right. What we mean by taking thought for dress is to be proud, and not happy or pleased, unless you have the best there is, or something better than others have ; fretting because your mother does not get you all you want. I hope there is no such 66 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. proud and vain girl here. I hope rather that you so care for your lessons in the school that you do not think about what you or others wear, and that you never gaze about in church to see what others have on. We never praise you for your clothes, but for your good be- havior and lessons ; so think most of them. 3. Do not think that fine clothes are better than morals. It is better to be honest than to get money by doing wrong. It is better to be honest than to steal a gold ring or pin or any thing else you like. It is wrong to steal. If you steal, God knows it, you know it, and others may find it out ; and how sad to have them think and say of you : '' There goes a thief ! " Nothing you can wear can make those who think this of you love you or respect you. Never do wrong that you may wear fine clothes or jewels. Jesus tells us not to be anxious for raiment, for there are other things more worthy of our attention. We should think more of behav- ior, of lessons, of doing right. If we care for these things, God will see to it that we are well clothed. He makes the flowers more beautiful than the dress of the richest queen, and yet a flower soon withers or is burnt up, ANXIETY FOR DRESS. 67 and the best clothes wear out. But good behavior, good lessons, good morals, are not only beautiful, but they last through life. It is better to do right than to wear gold ; to be admired for goodness than for dress ; to have a kind, loving spirit than to have a new hat every day. Be not then anxious for dress. XIV. SOMETHING BETTER BEYOND. Even so run, that ye may attain. — i Cor. 9 : 24. TDAUL, who wrote this, refers to the foot- ■^ races common in his day, in which trained men ran for a prize. There was a crown to be won, and the runner kept his eye fixed upon the goal to be reached and bent all his strength to win it. Even so we should bend all our strength to win the good that lies beyond in our heavenly home. If you were to drive a stake into the ground, then go far back to a line, and run from that line to the stake, to see who would reach it first, you would run a race. And in running it you would fix your eye on the stake and run with all your might ; and as you came near the stake, you would stretch out your hand in your eagerness to touch it first. Paul likens the Christian life to such a foot-race, and says: "Even so run, that ye may attain ; " that is, you should be as eager 68 SOMETHING BETTER BEYOND. 69 to run in the Christian race, to be good and to do good, as to win a prize in a foot-race. God hangs up a great many prizes before us, that we may run after them and win them. He always puts something beyond, that we may desire it and strive for it. He holds out before us all the time something to be gained, lest we sit down and do nothing. Let me illustrate what I mean. You want to be as large as your parents, so you put on your father's coat or your mother's dress, and play that you are men and women. You, in these plays, are look- ing to something beyond, which you desire to attain. So your care of dolls has respect for something beyond childhood. The boys want to be as strong as their fathers and to do what they do, looking to something beyond childhood. You want to know as much as your teachers and the learned men you hear about, still looking for something beyond. Perhaps some of you desire to wear rich clothes, or to be as rich as some one else is, still looking at something beyond. I could go on and tell other things which lie beyond, which you want to win. And we could say of them, what Paul said of the 70 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Christian race : '' Even so run, that ye may attain." But this way you have of looking forward to something beyond, that you may win it, is so useful to you and others, and has so much to do with your happiness, that I want to speak to your parents about it, lest they destroy it in you. You desire rich clothes and look forward to the time when you can have them. They are a prize which you are going to run to win. You think of the time when you will dress as well as the rich, and you enjoy the thought of winning so great a prize. Now your parents spoil all this enjoyment if they buy you the very best and richest clothes that are made. The costliest things become so common to you when children that your want for something still better can not be satisfied, and so you are unhappy. You go to the store, but you see nothing better than you have had. Your desire for better things than you have had can not be met, and you return home in disgust. What is the matter? Your parents have not been wise in dealing with your desire for something beyond and better. They should have kept back the best things, that you might run after them SOMETHING BETTER BEYOND. 71 and win them, after a long race. For you get more joy in expecting and in working for better things than in wearing the best things. It is so in study. If you are pushed in study all the time, you tire of books and do not relish reading, or study, or school. If your parents are wise, they will try to keep you always hungry for books. They will not buy you all you want, or the most costly, or keep you at school all the time. They will make you work, and so arrange it that you will always be hungry for study and books. It is so in play and pleasure. Wise par- ents will not let you play or skate all you desire, as though such things could make you useful and happy, for they know that the most unhappy beings are those who give their whole time to play or pleasure ; but they will make you work or study, and hold out play to you as something beyond, to be won when your daily task is done, as a recreation, a rest from the duties of life. The art of living happy lives lies partly in having something beyond to be running after, not in having the best of every thing as we go along. Hence God has held out 72 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. the glory of heaven as something beyond to be run after and won. And when we are running for a prize we do not care for*the Httle hurts we get in the race. It is when we sit down to cry over our hurts that they pain us most, and besides, we thus lose th(i prize. Even so run in every good race of life, that you may win, keeping your eye on that which is beyond. XV. KEEPING THINGS IN ORDER. Joying and beholding your order. — Col. 2 : 5. " I ^HE church at Colossae kept things in -■- order, and Paul, seeing it, was glad, just as I am glad when you keep things in order in your homes, in school, in church, and at your wQxk, — But how did Paul find out that the church to which he wrote these words, in the year of our Lord 62, kept things in order ? for he was in prison at Rome for Chrfst's sake at the time. He heard of it through one of the members of that church who came to Rome to see him, named Epaphras, and who told him of their order and love. Hence Paul could write : " For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and be- holding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ." So I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order. Let me say a few things about keeping things in order. 73 74 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 1. You like to scatter things about. When you play with your blocks or(toJ^, or cut out paper dolls and dresses, you coverH;kefloor or table with them. You take ^reat delist in them. But after awhile you become tired of them, and leave them scattered about, and such a looking table or floor ! Dolls, dresses, bits of paper, blocks, every thing you were playing with scattered all about ! You had a good time at your play, putting things out of order, and ^ow) comes a sore trial to most of you ; for : — 2. It is hard keeping things in order. You do not like to pick up your play-things, putting each in its place, as your mother wants you. How many of you keep things in order ? How many leave it to your mothers to pick up after you ? If I were to ask your mothers, what do you think they would say ? There is no play in keeping things in order, you say ; well, there is some- thing better than play. So I am going to tell you how to do it. 3. Always have a place for every thing. Have a place for your play-things, for your hat or cap, your coat or shawl, your books, your clothes, which you call your own. And KEEPING THINGS IN ORDER. 75 put your clothes in order at night when you go to bed, your shoes side by side. That is the way the cadets, or scholars at the military school at West Point, have to do. That is the way you ought to do. You ought to have a place for every thing, not a half-dozen places for each. If you have not such a place, ask your mother to give you one : one for your play-things, one for your books, one for your clothes, one for your hats and caps. Then : — 4. Always put a thing in its place. When you are done playing put every thing away in its place, and pick up every bit of paper or litter and put it where it belongs. When you come in, hang your cap or hat in its place every time. Do not throw it down anywhere, but put it in its place ; for that is the way to keep things in order. If you use any tool, as a hammer or hoe, do not leave it where you used it, but put it in its proper place. And so of every thing you have or use. Do you ask me: ''Why take such pains to keep every thing in its place ? " I will tell you. 5. Because then you will know where to find it. If you leave things where you ^^ SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. played with or used them, you will be all the time losing them. You will be ever asking, ''Mother, where is my hat?" "Mother, where is my knife ? " and so of every thing. You forget where you left it, and you ask mother. But if you hang your hat where you should, and put every thing in its place, you know where to find them. This is one reason why you should have a place for every thing, and keep every thing in its place. Another reason is that, if you do so, you, like the church in our text, will have such order that all will rejoice in it. If I were to look into your homes, after you have had a good play there, do you think I should rejoice in seeing your good order ? Should I find that you had put every thing away ? Or should I find the floor all covered over with litter, waiting for your mother to clean up after you ? Which should I find ? The keeping of things in order is another reason why you should have a place for every thing, and should keep every thing in its place. But there is another reason that I will mention. As you do in childhood, so you will do when you become men and women. KEEPING THINGS IN ORDER. 77 If you keep things in order as children, you will always keep things in order ; but If you let every thing He scattered about where you happen to use them, you will never keep things in order all your days. You will have trouble all your life because you did not learn to be orderly In childhood. Hence your plays are of use in teaching order. If you learn to keep things in order when young, you will always keep your rooms in order when at home and away from home. What a sad sight is a disorderly room ! how beautiful a room in order i If you keep things in order, you will keep yourselves in order, your hair, dress, nails, hands, feet, tongue, your whole body. Please remember this sermon and repeat it to your parents. Then your mothers will not have to pick up after you, or hang up your hats or caps, for you will do it. Learn by heart these words : Have a place for every thing, and keep every thing in its place ; then, beholding, I shall rejoice at your good order. XVI. PURE HEARTS, PURE WORDS. Create in me a clean heart, O God. — Psalm 51: 10. This is a prayer which ever}^ boy should often pray ; for it is so easy to learn to say unclean words that unless each one asks God to help him to keep his heart pure, his words will not be pure. You know that the lips speak what the heart or mind thinks, and if the heart thinks bad words, the tono-ue will speak them. So if you want pure words, you must pray for pure hearts. The water tor our homes comes from wells, or springs, or the lake, or the river. Now if these be roiled or muddy, the water that comes from them will also be roiled and muddy ; but if they are clean the water will be pure. So if our hearts are clean, our words will be clean ; but if our hearts are impure or unclean, our words will be vile and unfit to be heard. If I were to become invisible so that you 78 PURE HEARTS, PURE WORDS. 79 could not see me, and if I should then play with you or stand by you when you are to- gether, out of hearing of your mothers, do you not think I should hear a great many vile, filthy, nasty words ? I am sure, good as you are, that some of you would say words and tell stories which you would not dare to speak in the hearing of your mothers. Why do you say them behind the fence, and not in the house ? Ah, you know that they are bad and ought not to be said ; that is the reason. You would be ashamed to say them if your sister was with you. Why, then, do you say them at all ? Some of you, if you were to speak out, would answer that the older boys use these vile words and tell the vile stories, and that they teach you to use them. Then shame on the older boys, to be teaching the little boys such wicked things ! They ought to hide their heads. What can be worse than to be filling a child's heart and head with things that ought never to be spoken ? Every boy that has been guilty of doing it ought to repent and ask God and you to forgive him ; and you ought to go away and leave him if he does so again. 8o SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. But you use such filthy words because your own heart is not clean or pure, and so you like to repeat them. If your hearts were pure and clean, you would hate such words and put them away from you. They would be like bitter things to your taste. You do not like bitter but sweet things ; and if the bit- terest thing was left on the table, you would not eat it though it were as white as the best sugar. So if vile and impure words were distasteful to you, if they were bitter to your taste, you would not use them or speak them. The real reason why you say them is that you like them, and you like them because your heart is not clean and pure. Hence you need to pray with David, the king of Israel : " Create in me a clean heart, O God." You should ask God to take away the vile heart that loves bad words and give you a heart that loves what God loves, pure words and pure acts. You look better with clean hands and clean faces, and so you wash them clean before you go to school or come to church. But you look better to God, who sees and knows your thoughts, if your hearts are clean and your words are pure. And you look better to us also, if you never use a PURE HEARTS, PURE WORDS. 8 1 bad or vile word. God is holy and pure ; and he says : " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God." But he will not let the impure or vile in heart dwell with him in heaven ; for they are unfit for that holy, happy place. Remember then to pray: ** Create in me a clean heart, O God." But you must not stop with the prayer. You must try and put away from you every vile word and evil thought. You must not hear them, or say them, or think them. If boys will say them, do not play with them ; for you can find those who will not use such words. As you pray for a clean heart, try and keep your heart clean, and God will bless you. Do you say that it is hard to do it? So it is ; but it is the hard things that do us good. It is the hard lessons that do us good, the hard work, the hard play. The easy things do not help us much. Hence, if it be hard to keep from thinking and saying vile words, be brave boys and not give up because it is hard. And if you fail once, keep at it until you win. God will help you if you try, and keep trying ; and he will give you a clean, pure heart, which is better than a gold watch or great riches, XVII. SOWING SEED. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. — Psalm 126: 5. You see how men are plowing up the fields and digg-ing up the gardens for the seed. The work is so hard that our text says they sow in tears ; but when the harvest comes, they reap in joy. The next verse says: ''He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Men sow the seed for the har- vest of flowers and fruit. Perhaps, too, you have a flower-bed or a garden to care for, and so we will preach to you to-day about sowing and reaping. I have noticed these things about sowing seeds and reaping the fruit of them : — I. That some seeds, when sown, are lost to sight. They are not only buried up in the ground, but they are so small that if you were to hunt for them, to put them somewhere 82 SOWING SEED. 83 else, you could not find them. You might say that the seeds are lost altogether, so lost that you shall never see one of them again. Perhaps you would go and get larger seed and plant the bed over again, if your mother would let you. But wait, the seed is hidden in the ground, that is all. The rain will find it, and the heat and light of the sun will go down to it and cause it to sprout and to push the earth aside, until it comes up into the air to bloom and to bear fruit. 2. Another thing about seeds and their planting. If you should go out to the bed where you plant them and dig the ground over every day, to see if they had sprouted and were ready to grow up and blossom, you would stop their sprouting or kill the seed after it had begun to start. You would never get any flowers from your seed. So you let the seed alone when you have put it in the ground, and God, by his rain and light and heat, causes it to sprout and grow, and bud and blossom, so that you pick the flowers and smell of their fragrance, and admire their beauty, and you give them to your friends, and you send them in beautiful bouquets to the sick, to comfort and cheer 84 SERATOATS FOR CHILDREN. them. What could you do with them better than to cheer the sick with them ? 3. Then, you see, another thing- is true. You sow the seed of one kind of plant or flower and you will have the same kind come up, and if you sow two or three kinds to- gether, you will have two or three kinds of flowers. If you mix up the seeds before you plant them, each seed will remain the same and bear the same kind of leaf and flower. It will not forget what it is, and so change to be something else. You get just what you sow. 4. Hence, if you were to sow a bed full of seeds, but should carefully mark out in great letters your mother's name through the middle of the bed, and sow in those letters another kind of seed, what would you find by-and-by ? You would find that those seeds would spell out your mother's name in plain, large letters, so that you and every one could read her name. And if any stranger passing by and seeing it should ask whose name is that written in the beautiful flowers, you would say '' Mother's," and so you would honor your mother whom you love so dearly and obey so promptly. SOWING SEED. 85 5. Now your heart is like a bed or garden prepared for seeds, and you may sow in it the seeds of the most beautiful flowers, or the seeds of weeds and things of no use, just as you will. You can sow them in large letters if you will, so as to read the words : My Mother, which all will love to see ; or you can sow them so that all can read instead : I Don't Care, which looks so bad when spelled out in flower-beds that you and others never want to see it ; but when spelled out in your heart, it looks a great deal worse. I do not want to read it whenever I get a glimpse into your hearts, boys and girls, and I do not believe you want me to read such words there, do you ? No, I knew you would be ashamed to have me or any one else read them. Yet if they are growing there, I and others will see them now and then, but God will see them all the time, and he will be greatly displeased with you for sowing such bad seeds. I am sure you do not want to displease every body by such ugly letters in your hearts. 6. So I will tell you how you can keep them out of your heart. It is a very simple way. Do not sow bad seed, and then they 86 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. will not grow there. But you may ask: How do I sow bad seed ? We will tell you. You do not sow the seed all at once, but little by little, now one seed and now another, and it is done by not giving heed to what your mother tells you. She tells you what is right and what is wrong, what is proper to say and do and what is not proper to say and do. Now if you do not care enough about it to heed your mother or to obey her, you begin to sow bad seed in the letters I Don't Care, and if you continue sowing such seed for a long time, those sad letters will be written in your hearts so that all can read them. But if you do heed and obey your mother, as I trust you do, you will sow seeds which, when they spring up and grow, will spell out those beautiful words. My Mother. All can see your mother's loving hand in your life and character, because it has trained your heart ario^ht. spring is the time to sow seeds, and youth or childhood is the time to form good habits, to receive the truth. I want, therefore, to sow the seed of truth in your hearts which shall make your lives as beautiful as a bed of flowers and full of sweet odors and blessings SOWING SEED. 87 to Others. Hence, take care what you sow in your hearts. They that sow in tears the true seed shall reap in singing the good, beautiful fruits. Be careful, therefore, what you sow. XVIII. DEGREES IN FRUITFULNESS. And others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. — Matt. 13: 8. Some of the seed of the sower fell by the way-side, some fell on stony places, and some fell among thorns, but none of these brought forth any fruit. All that seed was lost, as you will see if you read the parable. But of the seed that fell on the good ground, not all was equally fruitful : some yielded " a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Fold here means the same as times ; a hundred-fold is therefore a hundred times the seed sown, sixty-fold is sixty times the seed planted, and thirty-fold is thirty times. Not all seed on the same ground yields the same increase ; some yields more, some less, but all yields some increase. One apple-seed may grow to be a great tree and yield a thousand apples every year; another seed from the same apple may become a tree and bear but little fruit. DEGREES IN FRUITFULNESS. 89 It Is SO with the things that we do for Christ : they are not all equally fruitful here in this life. One may yield a hundred-fold, another only thirty-fold ; and yet the latter may be just as good as the former. It is not in the seed but in the ground that we are to look for the difference. Let me illustrate it. Many a man and many a woman has given up all for Christ, even life itself ; yet we never heard of them except it was said that many were put to death for Christ's sake. That is all we know about them. God did not interfere to save them. He let them be burned or hanged or beheaded. If they bare fruit, that fruit is not now known to men. God, however, knows it all, and he will reward them. But the Bible tells us of a woman in the time of a very great famine going out to pick up sticks for a fire. She met a prophet of the Lord, and he too was hungry, and said : " Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said. As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in the barrel, and a little oil in the cruse : and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, 90 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. that we may eat and die." The prophet then told her to make him a cake first, and promised her, if she did so, that the barrel of meal should not waste, nor the cup of oil fail. She believed what he said, and did as he told her to do ; " and she, and he, and . her house, did eat many days," until the dreadful famine was ended. Her act of faith and her care for the Lord's prophet Elijah yielded her meal and oil for a long time, for months, and perhaps for years. Her act bore a hundred-fold and more. Read the whole seventeenth chapter of First Kings, and you will see how God blessed that good woman for caring for and feeding his prophet. You save up your pennies for the mission- ary work ; and it may be you go without something you want in order to save your money for the Lord's cause. You give this money, and it goes into the mission work. It bears its fruit, and God will reward you for it. Your money does not multiply many- fold while on the way or by use, as did the widow's meal and oil. But at the meeting of the American Missionary Association, held at Madison, Wisconsin, October, 1885, the story DEGREES IN FRUITFULNESS, 91 of a little girl in a town in Austria was told, which shows how some things done for Christ grow to be great, a hundred-fold and more. She had heard in one of the schools of the American Board in Austria, that the black children in America greatly needed schools, and she thought that she would save up all the bits of money she could and send them to educate the negroes. Her father lived in a garret and was so poor that he could buy meat only once a week. One day this girl called for some meat, and her father said : ''Take your mission money and buy meat with it." But she said: "No; that is for the black children." So she went without meat. At last a man came to the mission who would bring her money here to America for the negro schools. And how much do you think she had in her little box ? She had twenty kreutzer pieces, and each piece was worth about four cents of our money. So she had about eighty cents which she, in her want, had saved to teach the black chil- dren of America. Mr. Blatchford, of Chicago, brought over the twenty pieces from Austria, told how the little girl had saved them, and then gave them to the treasurer to count. 92 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. And when the treasurer counted them, there were but nineteen pieces. Some one had taken out one of the twenty kreutzer pieces, worth about four cents, and had put in its place five gold eagles, worth one hundred dollars. He paid one hundred dollars for the four cent bit. Then the others were sold to those who wanted them, and the little girl's gift of eighty cents became three hundred and forty dol- lars. It yielded four hundred and twenty- five fold. Thus God blessed her faith and self-denial. She was made a life member of the American Missionary Association. Because the widow's meal and oil did not fail, and this girl's money increased so many- fold, we must not think that all acts of faith and self-denial will do the same. No ; one yields a hundred-fold, another thirty. But it is comforting to think that our little acts for Christ will none of them be forgotten by our Lord and Saviour. Let us therefore do all we can for Christ's sake. XIX. THE BOY ULYSSES S. GRANT. Render honour to whom honour is due. — Rom. 13: 7. In obedience to this text, the flags in the city are hung at half-mast, the City Hall, the Custom House, and this and other churches are draped in mourning, memorial services are held throughout the country and even in some other lands, and the papers are full of words of honor : for one has died to whom honor is due, and a grateful people are ren- dering it. So I want to tell you, children, of the boy who became so great a man. 1. His birth was lowly. Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822, at Point Pleas- ant, Ohio. His parents were poor, but pious and industrious. They were not able to give him much of an education, but he got an appointment at West Point Military Academy when seventeen years of age and studied there. 2. He was not the best scholar. He gave 93 94 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. little intellectual promise. He gave few signs of what was in him and of what he afterwards became. He entered West Point in a class of one hundred, which was reduced to thirty-six before graduation. Young Grant stood twenty-first in scholarship in this class of thirty-six ; yet he had gone through, while sixty-four had dropped out of the class. It is not always the brightest boys or the best scholars that carry off the highest honors of life. He probably did his best at school. He wrote to his father: "I don't expect to make very fast progress, but I shall try to hold on to what I get." And he held on to it. For : — 3. He had perseverance. He held on to what he got, and he kept at a thing until he mastered it. He did not try a thing for a little while, then give it up for something else, as so many boys do. He held on and held out to the end. It was this good habit that helped him to be so great. He stuck to a thing until he did what he wanted to do. He had the gift of continuance. 4. He was a brave boy. He was not afraid. When two years old, they tried him with the noise of a pistol, which he had never THE BOY ULYSSES S. GRANT. 95 heard before. He did not flinch, but wanted to fire it again. A by-stander said: ''That boy will make a general, for he neither winked nor dodged." '' When he was not quite seven years old, he one day took out of the stable a three-year-old colt that had never been worked, harnessed him, drove him off to the woods for a load of wood, and drove him back in triumph with only a single line." He had great courage as a boy and great as a man. 5. He was a faithful boy. He did every thing as well as he could. He was so faithful that when he was only ten years old, his father used to send him to the city of Cin- cinnati, forty miles away, to bring back a load. How few boys could be trusted with a team and money for a trip of eighty miles ! Ulysses had such good sense that he was wont to drive so far. He was faithful and trusty as a boy, and became a faithful and trusty man. 6. He was a truthful boy. His father said of him : '' He never tells lies." You could depend upon what he said. It was so all through his life. You ought to be as truth- ful as he was, and you can be, if you will. Try it. Never lie. 96 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 7. He minded his own business. He did not meddle with the affairs of others ; not because he was careless, but because their business was not his business. He attended to his own affairs, and he let others attend to their own affairs. He thus escaped a great deal of trouble which he otherwise would have had. His father said : "He always minded his own business." 8. He was a silent boy. He did not talk too much, as many do. He kept his mouth shut. He heard, said nothing, but acted. He learned what was wanted to be done, and instead of talking about it, he went to work and did it. He did not boast what he had done or could do. He did not say what he was going to do. He said : ''I tried to do my duty as a soldier." Thus the boy Ulysses S. Grant became a great mgtn, a great general, whose death is now mourned by this whole nation and by other nations throughout the world. You may also be poor and not the best scholar, but you can stick to a thing until you do it ; you can be brave, faithful, truth- ful, as he was ; you can mind your own business and not talk too much. He was THE BOY ULYSSES S. GRANT. 97 not perfect, by any means. He had his fauhs. But he was not honored for his faults, but for his virtues, for his honesty, his truthful- ness, his courage, his perseverance, and his consequent success. He was a great sufferer during his long illness. But it is said that in his pain he wrote on a slip of paper a few words which he gave to his son Fred. And these were the words, — and I want you to remember them, — " I would rather see you suffering as I am, than to see you addicted to any vice." He regarded a vice like drunkenness as something worse than a cancer. Let us be careful then to shun all bad habits, all vices, as we would a cancer. Let us honor the man whose boyhood we have given, for honor is his due. He helped to put down the slave-holders' rebellion, and to make this nation one and free. God raised him up for this purpose, and grandly did he fulfill it. Honor the name of Grant, and imitate all his virtues, shunning all his faults. XX. LITTLE HELPERS. Ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication. — 2 Cor. I : 1 1 . Some years ago I saw several boys In the city drawing a large log along the street on the snow, that they might use it for fuel. It was so large and long that not one of them could move it alone ; but when they pulled together, they could drag it about its length, when they had to rest. They tugged so hard at it that in pity I helped them. Then it came along more easily, but I could not have dragged it alone. If, now, while the boys were pulling with all their might, others had sat down on the log or had pulled the other way^ do you think the log could have been drawn home ? No, they could not have moved it. It was by all pulling one way and by pulling altogether that they drew it home. It is so with every thing. When we all pull, and pull the same way, we can do what 98 LITTLE HELPERS. 99 a few can not do alone, or what they can not do if some pull one way and some pull an- other. I want you to remember this through life. " If you have some work to do, and your playmates come to see you, what should you do ? Not leave the work and go and play, but let your playmates take hold and help you do the work, and after it is done you can play with them. Many hands make light work ; and work done gives happy play. Your mothers have a great deal to do, if they have no servants to help them. And did you never think how your little hands can help them ? Take hold and do all you can for your mother, and so make her work lighter. In this way you will be helping together on her behalf. Some of you are little helpers in our Sunday-school and missionary meetings by picking up and putting away in their places the books and cards, and in distributing them at the beginning. So you help by putting every thing in its place. I am glad to say also that you are a great help in our prayer-meetings by learning and reciting texts from the Bible. What can be lOO SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. better than for you to stand up and say a verse full of the truth and love of your Father in heaven ? Your pastor and parents and all are helped by what you thus do. Then, the older children help together in the meetings by reading from the Bible the longer passages which I sometimes give them, marked on slips of paper. Our meet- ings are always good when the children's voices are thus heard in them and in the singing. Then again you can help together on our behalf by your supplication, or prayer, as Paul said that the Corinthians could do for him. Perhaps you never thought of this. But as you pray for your father and mother, you can pray also for your pastor and for the church. I hope you will try and remember the church of Christ which you attend and which you ought to expect to join by- and-by, so that you can help it more. There are a great many things which you hope to do when you grow up ; but the one which you ought to put first and highest is this, to be a good church member. Pray that you may be kept from all bad ways and be led in all good ways, and that you may love and obey Jesus Christ, and so be received into LITTLE HELPERS. lOI his Church. Thus you can be helpers to- gether. * You see that you can be very useful while children. You do not need to grow up before you can be good and do good. You can give a man a cup of cold water in the name of Christ ; you can carry flowers to the sick ; you can help a poor boy or girl that is pulling a hard load ; you can in pity wipe the eyes of one who is crying ; you can take the part of one whom the boys are plaguing ; you can help in the house, in the Sunday-school, in the prayer-meeting, in the church ; indeed, you can be little helpers in many things wherever you are. Do not, then, wait to grow up before you try to be useful. You are useful now when you are pleasant and kind and helpful. I preach these sermons to you that you may be more and more useful. I want you to help God make this world better, and so help every body in it to be good. XXI. NOT CONSENTING TO SIN. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. — Prov. i : lo. This text was given me by a little child, with the request that I would preach a ser- mon on it. I will in the first place tell you what the text means. That little word "my" is one you use a great deal. My and mine are the same. You say, "My ball," " my doll," or " my hat," when you own it, or when it belongs to you. No one else could say of the same ball, doll, or hat, " It is mine," for it is yours, and no one else owns it. The word " son " in the text means the same as child ; that is, any boy or girl, just as all Christians are called " sons of God." So that the text means you, if you are a girl, just the same as if you were a boy. The word man is often used in the same way to include men and women. No one is left out in the text. NOT CONSENTING TO SIN. 03 *' My son " means that we are all children of God, and that God is our Father. He has a right to speak to us, as your father has a right to speak to you. Our Father in heaven speaks to us in the text, and what does he say ? He says : "If sinners " — . Now that word *' if," which is so short, is a word that means a great deal. It sometimes means that a thing may not come to pass, and yet it may come to pass. You say : " I wall go, if it does not rain ; " and you all know that a rain at the time would let you off from going without breaking your promise. But " if" in our text means the same as " when," or *' every time," a thing comes to pass. We could read it: " Whenever sinners entice." '' Sinners " are all those who do wrono-, who tell lies, swear, say nasty words, steal fruit, or do any other naughty thing. It does not make any difference whether the one be a boy or a girl, or whether he or she dresses well or not ; all they who do wrong are sinners. '* If sinners entice thee." To entice is to ask or tempt or tease one to do wrong, to lead one into stealing, lying, swearing, or I04 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. doing any bad thing. To entice is to urge one to sin, to laugh at him for not sinning, to make one feel ashamed of doing right. This is what is meant by that word ''entice; " and I fear that some of you are guilty of enticing others to do wrong. But if you do not, others do. Hence God says : "Consent thou not." To consent is to do what is wanted, to yield to the one who entices, and do the wrong. But that short word '' not " just turns it the other way. To consent is to yield ; to consent not is not to yield, is to refuse to do the wrong, is to stand up against their jeers and do the right, is not to do what they tempt you to do. This is the meaning of the text : *' My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." There is great need, children, of your learning this text by heart, of your remem- bering it all through life, and of your obey- ing it. If that boy had obeyed it, he would not have been teased into stealing fruit the other night. You did not think it would be found out ; and so, when they urged you, you consented. You have felt guilty and ashamed ever since. You wish you had not NOT CONSENTING TO SIN 105 done it. Why did you go ? Ah, you would not now feel as you do, If you had only heeded what God said to you : " If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." You left off that " not " and so consented when you should have refused. Next time, consent not. It was not because you did not know what was right that you did not refuse to go. Their teasing was no good reason for doing wrong when God tells you to do right. I like the child that can say " No " when teased, and can say it when they keep on enticing, as though he meant it — " NO ! " Be brave. Do not be ashamed of obeying God. Do not be cowards in any thing. Never be teased or enticed out of the right into the wrong. Say to them : " It is wrong, and I won't do it. You may say what you please, but you can never tease me into say- ing or doing what God forbids." Say that, and mean it, and you will not be enticed many times by sinners. They will let you alone. If any one of you should ask: "Why may I not consent ? " we would reply : — I. Because it is wrong to do so. Sinners entice to evil ; they lead into sin ; and if we I06 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. consent to them, we sin against our own soul. We sin against God. No ; sin is a great wrong which we ought never to do. God hates it. Avoid it as you would a hurt of the body, for it is far worse. When sin- ners entice thee, consent thou not, because it is wrong to do so. 2. Because God forbids you to consent is another reason. He says : " Consent thou not." If then you consent, you disobey him, which you ought never to do. God is your heavenly Father, who is wise and good, and who has told us what we ought to do and what not. And it is our duty to obey him and do just as he wants us to do. 3. Because he will punish us if we do not obey Him. Your fathers and mothers pun- ish you, if they are wise and good, and you love them the more for it. God says that he will punish the wicked, those that disobey Him. Obey him, then, and when sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 4. Because God will reward you if you refuse to sin, if you do as he wants you to. You like to have your father and mother say that you have been a good child, and give you some reward. God will give NOT CONSENTING TO SIN. 107 you, if you do not heed sinners when they entice you, a great and rich reward. Win this reward. He will say : " Well done, good and faithful son ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." XXII. FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. — John 3: 16. There are few children who can not repeat this text, but there are many who can not tell what it means. So I am going to tell you as well as I can what it means in part. You know who God is ; for he made the sun and moon and the stars, and the earth and all that is in them. He made us. We pray to and worship him. You know who his Son is. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to tell us of heaven and the way to go there. He was born of the Virgin Mary, was cruci- fied for us, and rose from the dead, and is now in heaven, trying to bring as many of us there as will go. God so loved us that he gave his only begotten Son to bring us to heaven. How, then, can we go there ? He tells us 108 FATTH IN JESUS CHRIST. IO9 that every one that beHeves on him shall go to heaven. What is it, then, to believe on him, or have faith in him ? I want to ex- plain this to you so that you will never forget it, for it is better for you than gold. When your father says, on your asking him for them : ''I will get you a pair of skates or a doll, if you will have perfect lessons for a week," do you think he will buy you the skates or the doll if you get your lessons perfectly ? You say : " Of course I do ; I know he will get them ! " But he may forget his promise. " No, he won't ; or if he does, I will tell him that I have been perfect, and then he will remember. I know he will get them." You are right ; your father will keep his promise ; and because you believe he will do it, you study hard that you may be perfect. This is faith in your father. You remember the woman who had spent all her money to be cured of a disease she had, but was no better ; how, when Jesus Christ was passing by with a great crowd around him, she crept up slyly and touched the hem of his garment. For she said : "If I can only touch his clothes, I shall be well again." She was afraid to come up to him I I O SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. and ask him to heal her. She was so poor, and he was so great, that she did not want him to see her. So she crept up when there were a great many about him, and just touched the hem of his garment, and was cured. That was faith in Jesus Christ. Any- one of you could have done as much as that if you had lived then, and had had faith in Jesus that he could cure you. She believed on him. You remember, too, that when Jesus was hanging on the cross — not because he could not save himself, but because he came to die for us — one of the robbers crucified with him mocked him ; but the other one said : *' Jesus, remember me when thou com- est in thy kingdom." He prayed to him to forget him not when he should come again. He believed on him. His saying what he did shows it. Jesus answered : " Verily I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Jesus was walking one day and saw a man at his office, and said to him : '' Follow me ; " and the man left all and fol- lowed him ever afterwards. Did he believe in Jesus ? Yes, or he would not have fol- lowed him. You do not follow one unless you believe in him. FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. I I I You see from these cases that faith is be- lieving, and beHeving with the heart, and so believing on one that we shall act according to our belief. We believe on the Son of God when we believe what Jesus Christ says, and so believe it that we do what he tells us to do, and refuse to do what he forbids. And there is not a child here that does not know enough about Jesus Christ to believe on him and be saved. And I am very anxious, children, that you should believe on him, and should do so now. You need not wait to be older. Go to him in prayer, and ask him to take you, and forgive your sins, and make you his dear children. Then do every thing he wants you to do. Your teachers and parents want you to believe on Jesus, and Jesus wants you to come to him more than you can think. He waits to re- ceive you as your mother sometimes waits for you to come home. Will you not believe on him ? XXIII. THE DUTY OF PRAYER. And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. — Luke 1 1 : I . Did you say your prayers last night and this morning, children ? I hope so ; but lest you forget sometimes, or think it of no use, I will set forth the duty of prayer. Our text tells us that Jesus was praying in a certain place at a certain time. And if he prayed, we ought to pray. But he prayed a great deal. He prayed when he was bap- tized by John in the Jordan. He withdrew himself into the deserts and prayed. He went into a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God. Again, we are told that he was praying alone, and, again, that he took Peter and James and John and went up into a mountain to pray. He prayed three times when in the garden, the night before his crucifixion ; he prayed for Peter that his faith might not fail ; and THE DUTY OF PRAYER. II3 he prayed for all his disciples. Even now he intercedes for them. If Jesus, the Son of God, prayed so much, we ought also to pray, and pray a great deal, even pray without ceasing. Our duty to pray to God is so clear " that when Jesus ceased, one of his disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray." He wanted to be like his Lord, he wanted to pray as He did. Jesus was past thirty years of age, and this disciple was a man as old or older than Jesus. If men, and good men, could thus pray, how much more should chil- dren pray ! But this follower of Jesus did not know how to pray as well as he wished to. He did not know what to pray about, or what to say in his prayer, and so he asked Jesus to tell him how to pray. It seems that others did not know how to pray, for he adds : '' Even as John also taught his disciples." This John was John the Baptist, not John the aposde, who wrote the Fourth Gospel, and three short Episdes, and the book of Revelation. John the Bap- tist was six months older than Jesus ; he came to tell people to repent of sin, and be 114 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. ready when Jesus Christ should come ; he baptized Jesus and said : '^Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ! " Herod, the king, had already put to death this John before Jesus prayed the prayer referred to in our text. But John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray, so that they might ask aright. And this disciple also wanted to be taught to pray aright. Jesus told him what to pray for, and also to pray earnestly and in confidence. He must mean what he says, want what he prays for, and ask for it as if he expected to get it. For Jesus adds: ''Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." You know how it is when you want a piece of bread. You ask for it as if you wanted it ; and if it is not given you at once, you ask again and again, until you get it. It is so that we are to ask of God, only we must let him in his love do as he thinks best for us. But you say: "I am so young that I do not know what to say in my prayers. I would pray, if only I knew how to pray; because I think God is so good that I ought THE DUTY OF PRAYER. 115 to thank him and pray to him. Who shall teach me as John taught his disciples?" We answer that Jesus taught his followers how to pray, and that his prayer is given in the sixth chapter of Matthew. I suppose you can say it ; but if you can not, learn it at once by heart, for I am going to explain that prayer to you in several sermons. If you learn that prayer by heart, you can always pray unto God. Then your parents will teach you to pray in other words, so you can tell God what you want to say to him. God is your Father in heaven, and it is your duty to pray to him and to sing to him, thus to worship him. We want you, there- fore, to pray in your homes morning and night, and at other times when you feel that you ought. We want you to pray short, child-like prayers in our meetings. We want you to pray in the church service, joining your voices with those of your parents in the Lord's Prayer and in the singing. We want you children thus to take part in prayer and praise, because you can do it, because it Is your duty to do it, and because Christ has taught you how to pray and sing. Never forget to say your prayers. XXIV. THE MANNER OF PRAYER. After this manner therefore pray ye. — Matt. 6 : 9. There is a manner that is proper in prayer and one that is not proper, just as there are •words fit to be used when we speak to God and words that are not fit to be used. So let us speak of the manner to be observed in prayer. Shall we kneel, or stand, or bow upon our face on the ground, when we pray, or what shall be our position ? When our Saviour suffered his agony in the garden, he prayed to his Father falling on his face. So we may fall on our faces when we are in great sorrow and pray. But the common way in private and family prayer is to kneel ; and in public prayer the proper way is usually to stand. The eyes should be shut and the hands either clasped or extended towards heaven. In every case we should take an attitude of great reverence. u6 THE MANNER OF PRA YER. \ \ 7 We must not repeat the same words over and over and over again in prayer, as though God did not hear us. When we are very much in trouble or very earnest, we may repeat the same words a few times, as Jesus did in the garden in his agony. But we must not do as the heathen do, repeat the same prayer over hundreds of times. They sometimes paste or write a prayer on a boy's wind-mill or water-wheel, that every turn of the mill or wheel may be called a prayer. How foolish, to think that a wheel can pray for them, when all true prayer comes from the heart. It would not be the right way to do to go down by the post-office or to some corner of the street, where men are all the time passing, and there offer up our prayers ; for we should not pray to be seen of men. That would be wrong. We pray to God, not to men ; and we pray that God may hear and answer, and not to be seen. Hence Jesus tells us, when we pray, to enter into the inner chamber and shut the door, and pray to our Father who is in secret, and he shall reward us ; for then we do not pray to be seen of men. Of course, in the prayer-meetings and in the church I I 8 SEKAIONS FOR CHILDREN. service, and at some other times, we must pray in public, when all are worshiping God ; but such praying is not to be seen of men. It is public worship. To pray then to be seen of men would be the same as if the choir were to sing God's praise to be seen of men. Nothing in the public worship should be done that men may admire it, but that God may bless it, otherwise it has no reward. You have read and studied how Elijah, the prophet of God, met the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (i Kings i8: 18-40), that the children of Israel might know which w^as the ever-living and true God. The prophets of Baal cried out: '^ O Baal, hear us; O Baal, hear us," from morning until noon ; but he did not answer. He was a dead idol, the work of men's hands, like all other idols. " They have mouths, but they speak not ; eyes have they, but they see not ; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not ; they have hands, but they handle not ; feet have they, but they walk not ; neither speak they through their throat." So the prophets of Baal prayed in vain. But when Elijah, the prophet of God, prayed a few words, fire came down THE MANNER OF PR A YER. I i 9 from heaven and the chosen sign was given. God heard and answered, for he is the living and true God, our God. He knows what we need, so that we should not cry unto him all the day long. But when we pray to him, we should use fit and proper words, for he is a great God, Lord of lords, and King of kings. Words of love and reverence are to be used, and you are to tell God just what you want, using no bad or unfit words, not talking to God as you would to an equal, but worship- ing him in your songs and prayers. As your attitude is that of reverence, your words also should be full of reverence and godly fear, and yet full of confidence and love. That we might know just how to pray unto God, Jesus gave us a short prayer, which you can repeat in less than a minute. He said : " After this manner therefore pray ye," and then repeated the prayer which is called the Lord's Prayer. Every child should be able to repeat this prayer, as it is given in Mat- thew 6 : 9-13, so as to say it exactly. If all our prayers are after the same manner, they will be right in form ; and if our hearts are full of penitence and love, they will be right in spirit. XXV. THE ADDRESS OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Our Father which art in heaven. — Matt. 6 : 9. When we pray we speak to God, we address him, we say something to him. We call him by his name that he may know that we are speaking to him. When a child says: " Papa, please give me a piece of bread," that child addresses his father and asks for bread, and the word ''papa" shows whom he is speaking to, or addressing, and is called the address. '' So the words '' my papa," or '' dear papa," or '' our papa who loves us," tell who is meant, and are called the address. Hence the words which begin the Lord's Prayer, '' Our Father which art in heaven," are called the address, because they show that we are praying to God, and not to dead idols. Let us study the meaning of the address in the Lord's Prayer. ADDRESS OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 121 I. In the address we call God Father. And why? I think that if you had before you all the prayers ever uttered by the heathen you would not find one that calls an idol " father." There is no prayer in the Old Testament that calls God Father, though God is several times called Father in it. Why, then, did Christ teach his disciples to call God by that dear and common name Father ? One reason is, because God made us. He created the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and all that is in them. Of course he made us, and so he is our Father. Men make many things, but always out of the things which God created. They make a house, but they build it out of the wood, or stone, or clay baked into brick, which God created. Men built this church, but they built it out of stuff that God created. You were born into homes where your father and mother love you, but God created you, and so Jesus tells us to call him, when we pray, by the dear name of father. This is one reason. But God loves us and cares for us, and this is another reason why he taught us to call him Father. Your father loves you and 122 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. cares for you. He works and buys your clothes and food and toys and books, and gives you a nice home. But God makes the food and cotton and wool and silk to grow for our use. He makes the sun to shine, the rain to fall, the grass to grow, the flowers to bloom, the birds to sing, the trees to bear fruit, so that God cares for us more than parents can. God numbers the hairs of your head, but your mother who combs your hair so nicely does not know how many hairs there are on your head. Because God loves us and cares for us, we should call him Father. There is another reason why we should call him Father. God saves all who will let him save them. Your father with his strong arms picks you up and carries you over bad and dangerous places ; he would snatch you out of the fire if you should fall into it ; he would save you from sickness and death and sin, if he could. But God will save your soul if you will obey him ; he will forgive you if you will ask him ; and he will take you to heaven when you die, if you will keep his word. Thus Jesus taught us to call God Father ADDRESS OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 1 23 because he made us, because he takes care of us, and because he will save us, if we will only love and obey him. 2. In this address we call God our Father. Why did Jesus teach us to say '' Our Father," and not '' My Father," or simply " Father"? It is because we are all of one family, and God is the Father of us all. He is my Father, your Father, the Indian's Father, the Negro's Father, the Chinese's Father. He is the poor man's Father, the rich man's Father, every body's Father; and so we say " Our Father" because we are all his children, and no one but those who obey him has a special claim on God's love and care. There is a great difference between mine and ours. If you have a book bought with your own money, you can say of it : '' This is my book." But if all the children in the family pay for the book out of their own money, and one pays as much as another, no one of them can say: ''This is my book," but each must say: "This is our book — my book, my brothers' and sisters' book, as well as mine." So we say of God that he is our Father, because each one has the same in- terest in him. He is not the Father of one, 124 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. and not of another, but the Father of all alike. This is why we say '' Our Father." 3. In the address we say: "Our Father which art in heaven." Why did Jesus add the words, " which art in heaven"? Because he did not want any one, not even a little child, to think that a poor, weak, dying man, like your father, was to be prayed to, but God, who fills heaven, and who shows his glory there as he does not on earth. God dwells in heaven, and he will bring us there if we love and obey him, that we may see him as he is. We are to pray to him alone. It is to this God, " Our Father which art in heaven," and to no other, that Jesus teaches us to pray. He is the only God, the living and true God. He is our Father in heaven. He loves us, he pities us, he cares for us, he saves us. We ought then to pray to him every day. Nothing could be more fitting and beautiful and better than to pray to, and trust in, our Father in heaven. Pray to him morning and evening, and our Father will hear and bless you. " Let life bring what it may, I will pray ; If I can not understand, I will hold my Father's hand All the way." XXVI. FIRST PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Hallowed be thy name. — Matt. 6 : 9. This is the first thinor asked for in the Lord's Prayer. It is the first petition. You have said it for years, but do you know what it means ? What is it that you pray for when you say : " Hallowed be thy name " ? 1. By name is meant all that God is. He is the Maker of all things, the Giver of all things, the great and good God. As the name papa means all that your father is to you, so the name of God means all that God is to us and to all other beings. Hence it is said : " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; " and in the text : '' Hallowed be thy name." Name here stands for God's person himself, as made known to us in any way ; as your name stands for yourself. 2. *' Hallowed be thy name." To hallow the name of God is to treat or regard his 125 126 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. name as holy, sinless, sacred, worthy of worship. We should not make it common, we should not take it in vain, we should not profane it, we should not make light of it, we should desire God to be loved and obeyed, as he ought to be by all men. How can we hallow his name ? (i) We hallow God's name every time we pray to him, for we then speak to him as God, and honor him with our worship. We show our need of him, and regard him as holy, just, and good. We reverence him in saying as we ought our prayers. This is one way to hallow God's name. (2) We hallow God's name every time we go to church, if we go as we ought to go. The church is the house of God. If we go into it to worship him, we honor him, we hallow his name. We make his name sacred and holy in our thoughts. W^e show our reverence for him. We hallow his name. (3) We hallow God's name by using his name with feelings of awe, reverence, honor, love. If you use his name in vain, or in swearing, you do not hallow it. How do you speak of your father ? Would you call him names ? Would you like it if others called FIRST PETITION. 127 him names, or spoke of him as they ought not ? Of course not. Why then should you not feel bad when boys call God names, or speak his name with contempt ? Never take the name of our Father which is in heaven in vain. (4) We hallow God's name by devout con- duct where God is worshiped. You should kneel with others at family worship, or wher- ever private prayer is offered. If you sit when others kneel, or if you hold your heads up and gaze about, when others bow their heads in prayer, you do not hallow God's name. You should kneel and bow your heads, and so treat God as sacred, holy, worthy of our worship. So we can not pray this prayer aright if we whisper or play during prayers or while others worship. We should never thus profane his name, but hallow it by devout conduct. (5) You hallow God's name by trying to be holy as he is. He says : "Be ye holy; for I am holy." You try to be like your father or mother. You want to be as tall and as strong and as good as they. You put on their clothes that you may be like 128 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. them. Now, why should you not try to be like our Father in heaven ? He is holy, and we should try to be ; he never does wrong, and we should try to cease to do evil and learn to do well. If we try to be like him, he will help us and make us like him. By thus trying to be holy, you hallow God's name. (6) You hallow the name of God by getting others to treat God as they ought. They perhaps will try to do as you do ; and besides, you can say to them what you think is proper and right. If they find out that it grieves you to have them treat God as they ought not, they may quit it. It is a great thing to get others to hallow the name of our Father in heaven. It is the noblest and best thing we can do in life. We want you to hallow God's name, and we want you to get others to hallow God's name. 3. You should ever pray this prayer unto God : " Hallowed be thy name." It is not enough to ask him for the things you want for yourself. You must begin by asking God to cause his own name to be hallowed and exalted among men, until every idol is destroyed, every profane oath is put away, FIRST PETITION. 129 and all men are holy. If any of your play- mates take God's name in vain, you must ask God to lead them to honor and obey him. This is the first thing we should ask God to do, for he is a great and good King, and men are made better by honoring him. Thus you see that these four words have a great deal in them. When we say, " Hallowed be thy name," we pray that we and others may treat God's name as sacred, holy, so that no one will take it in vain, or act in times of worship as though God is of little account. If we hallow his name we shall not whisper or play where God is worshiped, but be reverent, bowing our heads or kneeling, as others do. We shall pray also that God may make his name great in all the earth, until all shall worship and obey him. " Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto God for ever and ever. Amen." XXVII. SECOND PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Thy kingdom come. — Matt. 6: lo. After we have prayed that God's name may be hallowed, we are taught to pray that God's kingdom may come. But what do we mean by praying, " Thy kingdom come "? 1. God is a great King. A king is a ruler, the first, the highest ruler. God is King in heaven and on earth, and so he is called Lord of lords and King of kings. He is greater than all the kings and rulers of the earth put together. He is a good, holy, glorious King. 2. God has a kingdom. A kingdom is a people ruled by a king. God's kingdom in- cludes citizens, laws, and all else that goes to the making of a kingdom. Now God rules all men, but all will not own his rule. Some break his laws, resist him, and will not have him to rule over them. It is with him as it sometimes is in school, when the scholars 130 SE COND PE TIT ION. 1 3 I will not obey the teacher. She has a right to tell them what to do, and what not to do ; but they rebel against her ; they want to do just as they please ; they will not mind ; they try to get others to join them, that they may break up the school. They are very bad boys and girls, and will be bad men and women if they do not learn to do better. Do not go with them. So men will not obey God ; they do not like his laws ; they want to do just as they please ; and they try to get others to join them. They say and do very wicked things. Yet God loved them and set up a new kind of a kingdom among them, and made Jesus Christ his Son, the King of this new kind of a kingdom. He came to tell them that if they will be sorry for sin, so sorry as to turn away from it, and if they will come to him and follow him, he will forgive their sins and make them citizens in his new kingdom, and they shall be saved in heaven when they die. It is this new kind of a kingdom, called in the New Testament the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, that is spoken of in our text. We pray for it when we say : " Thy kingdom come." 132 SERAfONS FOR CHILDREN. 3. What do we mean by " come" in this petition ? This is the important part of the prayer, so we will try to make you under- stand it, if you will listen carefully. Every one who obeys and follows Christ, the King, becomes a citizen of this new kingdom ; and every one who does not obey and follow Christ is not a citizen in this blessed king- dom. Every really pious man and woman, boy and girl, is a follower of Christ and a member of the kingdom of heaven. It mat- ters not where he lives, what his name is, what his color is, what church he attends, how he dresses, how old he is, if he truly loves and obeys the King, Jesus Christ, he is a citizen of the kingdom. But if he does not love and obey the King, but breaks his laws and uses his name in vain, he is not a citizen of the kingdom, no matter how much he knows, how rich he is, how well he dresses, or in what house he lives. Now, the kingdom comes whenever the bad become good, the wicked become pious, or those who are out of the kingdom come into it ; and so when we pray for it to come, we pray that men and children may turn unto the Lord, our King, and be good. When SECOND PETITION. 133 one gives his heart to Christ, the kingdom Is coming. When many thus learn to love him, the kingdom is coming more rapidly. If all men would love and obey Christ, the kingdom would be come. Then every knee would bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord and King, to the glory of God the Father. But this is not all. When one gives his heart to God and owns Christ as Kino-, he find that he is not as good as he wants to be. So he tries to be better and still better year by year. He grows in grace and in knowledge. He runs a race. He grows more and more like Christ his King, so that the kingdom comes in his heart. It is all the time com- ing. Jesus likened it to leaven that a woman took and hid in meal till it was all leavened. You sometimes watch your mother make bread. She puts water and other things into the flour, but it will not make good bread until she mixes in a little leaven and puts it in a warm place to rise, as she says ; that is, until the leaven gets into every part of the dough and grows and makes the dough light ; then she prepares it and bakes it, and you have good bread to eat. But it is the leaven hidden in the douorh that makes it 134 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. light and good. So It is the kingdom of heaven in our hearts that grows and makes us good. But this is not all. The kingdom comes also by the growth of the churches. As men become Christians they are required by their King to join his Church. It is a sin for them to stay out of his Church. By joining the church they tell others that they are on the Lord's side, and that is a great thing. But the Church is for the nurture of Chris- tians, as the home is for the nurture and training of children. What would the little children do without the tender care of the home ? And when a child is born into the kingdom of heaven, what would he do but for the Church, the Christian's home ? He should hasten to join the church that he may be cared for and fitted for heaven. God is, then, a great and glorious King. He has set up a new and peculiar kingdom in the world among sinners, that they may repent, believe, and be forgiven. And his kingdom comes as men are converted unto him, as they grow better in holy living, and as they join his churches, to be taught, cared for, and nurtured for heaven. We mean all this when we pray : " Thy kingdom come." XXVIII. THIRD PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. — Matt. 6 : lo. If I were to tell you, children, in what you are alike, and in what you are like every body else, what do you think it would be ? There are a great many things that you are not alike in, but you are all alike in this, that you want to have your own way, that you want to do as you please. And the very hardest thing for you to do is to yield up your will to the will of another. Hence, when your parents or teachers tell you to do something you do not like to do, you find it so hard to obey them that you cry and resist and hold out as long as you can. Is it not so ? I know it is. You need, then, to pray the prayer of the text, and say: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." But you say that this text does not mean my father's will, or my 135 T36 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN mothers will, or my teacher's will. Let us see about it. 1. Whose will is here meant? You re- member that the prayer begins : '' Our Father which art in heaven." Now that little word '* thy " shows that it is God's will that is spoken of; for God is our Father in heaven. We pray that God's will may be done. 2. What is God's will? You do not hear him speak, as you hear your parents and teachers speak ; how then can you tell what God's will is ? We answer : You need not know what God's will is in order to pray the prayer ''Thy will be done." You should desire God's will to be done because God's will is right and just and good, as he himself is. But God has given us the Bible to tell us what his will is. We can learn his will by reading it, as you could learn your absent mother's will by reading a letter she should write and send you. He tells us in the Bible that it is against his will for us to lie or steal or cheat or swear or use vile words or disobey parents ; and the like. He tells us in it that it is his will that we should love and obey him and our parents ; that we should be truthful, honest, and good, and that THIRD PETITION. 137 we should always do right. He tells us that we should treat others as we should wish them to treat us If we were In their place. He tells us that we ought to go to church to worship him, and pray and give of our money to the church and the missionary work. And many things he tells us In the Bible which we should read and find out, that we may do them. 3. How should God's will be done? Our text tells us : " As In heaven, so on earth." How, then, is God's will done in heaven ? It is done completely and not partly. The angels In heaven do not begin to do God's will and then before it is done run away to play, as you sometimes do. They complete what God tells them to do, as you should. They finish it all up before they leave it. And as his will Is done in heaven so it should be done on earth. It Is done promptly. The angels do not wait, after God speaks, a long while before they start, as I have seen children do ; but they go right off and do It. They start at once. So It should be on earth. When God speaks, we should obey promptly, not wait a moment. It Is done cheerfully. The angels 138 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN, are glad to obey God, glad to go on the winds to do the will of God. They do not sulk in the corner or cry because they are called upon to do something. And so we should obey God cheerfully, as they do. God's will is done in heaven cheerfully, promptly, and completely, or fully, and so should it be done by us on earth. 4. By whom should God's will be done ? By all — every child ought to do it, and every man and woman ought to do his will. No one is excused. You are not excused be- cause sometimes it may be hard. But even at such times you should pray, as Christ did : ** Not as I will, but as thou wilt." 5. If all would do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, what would be the effect ? Why, all sin and sorrow would cease. Heaven would come down to earth. We should need no locks or bolts on our doors, no jails and prisons. There would be no lying, or cheating, or swearing, or drinking, or Sabbath-breaking, or any such thing. This would be a blessed world to live in. Pray, then, this prayer daily : '* Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." XXIX. FOURTH PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. Give us this day our daily bread. — Matt. 6: ii. Please notice the change in the peti- tions of the Lord's Prayer. The first three have to do with God, his name, kingdom, and will. " Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done." God is more than we are, and so we pray for things belonging to him and his reign first of all, before we pray for the things we need. But in the last three petitions we pray for ourselves, for food, for forgiveness, and for deliverance into a better life. The text is the first of these prayers. We begin life with food, and so we are taught to say : '' Give us this day our daily bread." I. Bread here means food, every kind of good food. You know how hungry you get between meals. And if you were to go without eating a whole day, unless you were sick, you would be very hungry. So if you' 139 140 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. could get no water for a day or two, you would become very thirsty. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus went without food for forty days, and men in our own day have done the same, but they were obliged to have water to drink. They could not live forty days without food and drink. To be in good health and happy, we must have food every day and water every day of our lives. 2. But bread here means more than food. It includes whatever is needful for our bodies. We need clothes to wear, shelter from the cold, medicine when sick, many things for the comfort of our bodies. We need to take the greatest care of our health, tb^t we be not sick. And all these we pray for when we pray for our daily bread. When Jesus was very hungry after going without food for forty days, he was tempted by Satan to turn the stones into bread, that he might eat them. But he would not, for he said: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- ceedeth " (or cometh) "out of the mouth of God." He meant that we have a soul as well as a body, and we need to feed the soul as much as we need to feed the body. FO UR TH PE TIT I ON. 141 We want food and clothes and homes for the body; but we need work and schools and churches and the Bible for the soul. We need to feed our souls with the bread of life, the truth and worship of God. You see that the word bread means a great deal. It means food and water and clothine o and houses for the body, and schools and churches and books and worship and the Word of God for the soul. 3. We are to pray for these every day; for we say : " Give us this day our daily bread." We can not pray on Sunday and make that do for all the week ; for the prayer is not. Give us this week, but " Give us this day our daily bread," as if we prayed it every morning. We are not to worry about to-morrow, as if we were afraid that we should not have enough to eat. God will provide, if we pray to him and work as we should. Hence Jesus said in the same sermon : '' Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." Yet we should pray daily for the things needed for our bodies. For God gives th^ seasons, the rain, and the sunshine and the harvests. He 142 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. makes the trees to bud and bear fruit, the grain to sprout and grow and ripen. He causes the cotton and the wool and the silk to grow, in which to clothe us. It is God who has given us the truth we learn in the school, at church, and in books. It is God who gave us the Bible as bread for our souls. The Bible is the Word of God, by which we ought to live. True, we need to work for these things, to till the ground, and weave the cot- ton and wool ; but if God did not bless our labors, we should soon starve to death. While we pray for our daily bread, we must go to work and earn it. Our text teaches us to pray daily. We need food and clothing and shelter every day, so we are taught to pray, '' Give us this day," that is, to-day, each day, every day, '' our daily bread ; " we are to pray it every morning of our lives. 4. It teaches us also daily family worship. We do not say : Give me my daily bread, but " Give us our daily bread;" this includes the family, all who are daily together at the time of prayer, the whole family. How beautiful for all to kneel in the morning prayers, and for the children and all to say FO UR TH PE TITION. H3 together : *' Give us this day our daily bread" ! We learn from the text : — (i) That we should pray God to give us the things that we need to feed our bodies and souls. (2) That the word bread includes not only food but also clothing and shelter, and the word of God, for we do not live by bread alone. (3) That we are to pray for these things every day, and work that we may have them. (4) And that we should pray for them together at family worship. Having prayed for these things and worked for them, we should trust the Lord to give them, and not worry about them. XXX. FIFTH PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. — Matt. 6 : 12. You see that the Revised Version makes a Httle change in this petition. Instead of saying *' As we forgive our debtors," our text says: "As we also have forgiven our debtors." We will show how this change affects the meaning, after we have explained the other words. I. The words 'Mebts" and "debtors" do not refer to matters of money which one may owe to another ; for Jesus in explaining the text calls the debts " trespasses." And when he afterwards repeats the prayer in part (Luke ii : 4), he calls the debts " sins." Debt then means any sin, fault, trespass, wrong, transgression, said or done against another. If a child strike another or call him names, he sins against him and against God, and his sin is called debt in the text, and 144 FIFTH PETITION. 145 the one who does the sin or injury is called debtor. Every wrong thing we do is thus included in the word debt in our text. 2. To forgive, is to give up resentment or ill will, or claim to redress or requital, on account of any wrong done. It is to pardon, remit, to treat one who does the wrong as if he had done no wrong at all. That is, if one do you an injury or wrong, you forgive him when you give up all resent- ment towards him on account of it, and when you treat him as though he had not done you the wrong. 3. We ask God in the text to forgive our sins, debts or trespasses, and in doing so we confess that we are sinners. No one old enough to say the prayer can omit this peti- tion ; for all the children have done wrong and need therefore to pray it. It does not matter who you are or how young or old you are, you are a sinner, and need to pray for forgiveness, and every time you do pray for forgiveness you confess that you are sinners. But this is not all. You ask to be for- given. This we need to do ; for you may need a thing very much ; but if you are 146 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. not willing to ask for it, it will not be given to you. Have you not sometimes wanted a thing, but were afraid or ashamed to ask for it, and so did not get it? Have you not wanted to ask your parents to forgive you, but have not done so, because you were ashamed to go to them and say, *' I have done wrong, and please forgive me " ? If you had only asked to be forgiven, how gladly you would have been forgiven. Do not be afraid to ask forgiveness of any one whom you have injured or sinned against. We can not say the Lord's Prayer without asking our heavenly Father to forgive us our sins. 4. But how shall you ask him to forgive you ? With what kind of a spirit shall you come to him ? We are told in our text, we must come with the spirit of forgiveness in our hearts; for it is said: "As we also have forgiven our debtors." Mind it does not read : " For we are going by-and-by to forgive those who have sinned against us," nor does It say, "As we are now forgiv- ing those who sin against us ; " but what does it say, " As we also have forgiven our debtors " ? that is, as we have already FIFTH PETITION. H7 forgiven them, as we forgave them and continue to forgive them ; so forgive us our debts or sins. In this sweet spirit of forgiveness, we are to come to God and ask forgiveness. 5. This is the only petition in the prayer that Jesus explained. Hence he regarded it as something needing to be well under- stood, and that it might be understood, he explained it thus: "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." If you are hard and bitter and unforgiving towards your brothers or sisters or play- mates or any one, even if they have done you a great wrong, how can you expect your heavenly Father to forgive you when in such a frame of mind, or when your own heart is not willing to forgive ? When we ask God to forgive our debts we must have already forgiven those who have done us wrong, else we are not fit to be forgiven. Jesus shows this in the par- able of the two debtors, which we ask you to read in full. You will find it in Matthew 18: 21-35. ^t is in brief this: A king 148 SFRAIONS FOR CHILDREN. had a servant who owed him ten thousand talents, or about $12,000,000, a very great debt indeed. But when the servant asked the king to forgive him all that debt, because he had nothing to pay with, the king forgave it all. But that servant went out and found a fellow-servant that owed him one hundred pence, or $15, a very small debt when compared with the other. But he laid hold on him, and took him by the throat and said : " Pay what thou owest." And when his fellow-servant fell down and begged, saying, '' Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all," he would not have mercy on him, but cast him into prison, until the debt should be paid. What did the king do when he heard of it ? He took back his forgiveness, for the man was not worthy of it, and he delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. And Jesus said : ''So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts." We must forgive, if we hope to be forgiven. We must have the spirit of forgiveness in our hearts, before we can ask aright to be for- given. Remember this when you pray this petition of the Lord's Prayer. XXXI. THE SIXTH PETITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. And bring us not into temptation, but delirer us from the evil one. — Matt. 6 : 13. This is the last petition of the Lord's Prayer, In it we ask to be kept from temptation and deUvered from the evil one. If we had not been tempted, we should not have sinned. So when we pray to be for- given for our sins, we need to go one step farther and pray that we may be kept from sinning. And this we do in our text. I. What is meant by temptation? One kind of temptation is enticement into sin, as when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, as when you are tempted to run away from school or do what has been forbidden you. But our Father in heaven never tempts one to sin in the sense of enticing him. But God does bring men into trials of faith and love. He puts round about us things that are good in themselves, but 149 150 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. which become temptations to us. Because food tastes good, we are tempted to eat more than is good for us. Because play is pleas- ant, we are tempted to play too much, to run away from school to play. There are a great many good things that become temptations in this way. Then God permits sickness and pain and loss of friends and poverty to come upon us. We have many things to try us. And we are tempted to fret and scold and find fault. We give way to wrong feelings, and so sin. They are great trials to us. All the good have them. Even Jesus had temptations and trials. There are then trials and temptations where there is no sin. But this leads me to ask : 2. What then does the prayer mean : '*And bring us not into temptation"? It means that we are to ask God to keep us as far as he wisely can from these trials and troubles, and to keep us from sin when we are tempted. These trials are good for us, if we bear them as we ought. It is good for a child to learn to walk and run, though he fall down and hurt himself often in learn- ing. It is good for a scholar to get his lessons SIXTH PETITION. 151 alone, and do his sums alone, though he make mistakes. It is good for a child to go out to play with other children, though he get hurt once in a while. So it is good to have our patience tried, that we may learn to be patient. And so of all trials. But we need to pray that we may not be brought into a trial or tempta- tion where we should lose our temper and do wrong. Christ said : " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." But God is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, if only we look to him for help. And he knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation. When, therefore, you are tried and tempted, either by great troubles, or by those who would entice you into sin, remember to pray, *' Bring us not into temptation," and then re- sist all fretting and scolding and repining, and all sin. Do as Christ did when tempted, overcome the temptation. 3. But there is another part to the text, " But deliver us from the evil one," or " from evil," as it is in the Common Version. There are a great many evils in the world, from which we may well pray to be delivered, such as pain, sickness, trouble, evil habits, 152 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. bad playmates, dangers, and the like ; but the greatest of all the evils is the evil one, called Satan. Satan tempted Adam and Eve and they fell. He tempted Jesus Christ, but our Saviour resisted and overcame him, and he prayed for all his children that they might be kept from the evil one, Satan ; and he taught them to pray to be delivered from the evil one. He is described '' as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may de- vour." No wonder then that we are told to pray to be delivered from him, and exhorted to withstand him steadfast in our faith. If we can be delivered from the evil one we shall be saved in heaven. As Satan tempts into sin, all the time, we need to pray every day to be delivered from him. We should be very careful to incline our hearts and thoughts away from all sinful things. We should not go into temptation. We should not go into saloons or gambling places or any place that may bring us into temptation. We are taught in this petition, that God alone can deliver us from sin. If he shall deliver us from the evil one, temptation will not prevail against us. " This last petition is SIXTH PETITION. I 53 the highest step on the ladder of prayer, which reaches from earth to heaven." This dehverance from Satan is the last request we make in the Lord's Prayer. When we shall be free from temptation and delivered from the wiles of the evil one, we shall be in heaven. Till then let us all pray this short- est and best of prayers. XXXII. THE DOXOLOGY OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. [For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen,] — Matt. 6 : 13. These words were left out of the Revised Version and put into the margin or side of the page, with this comment on them: " Many authorities, some ancient, but with variations, add For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." So we put the text in brackets. 1 . Why were these words left out of the Revised Version ? They were left out be- cause Christ, when he gave the prayer, did not use them. He stopped with the words : ** but deliver us from the evil one," and we do not want to have in the New Testa- ment any words as his which are not his. We want to find there all that he said, which was written in the Gospels, just as he said it, and no more. That is why our text was left out of the Lord's Prayer. 154 DOXOLOGY OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 155 2. How did the text oret into the Common Version ? This is the way : '* The Lord's Prayer was early used in private and pubHc worship with a doxology ; and this was in- serted first on the margin, then in the text." If you should write a letter, and leave a margin on all sides of the page as in printed books, and if you should afterwards write something in the margin, or some one else should write in the margin, and then your letter should be sent away to friends, and they should think so much of it as to copy it with the pen, as all copies were made before printing was invented, what do you think the one copying it would do with the writing in the margin of your letter ? Why, he would put it into your letter as a part of it, and would not write it on the margin of his copy. Christ gave no conclusion or doxology to his prayer, but when the prayer came to be used in worship, a doxology was written on the margin, and when a copy was made, was put in as a part of the prayer. That is the way, probably, the doxology got into the Lord's Prayer. 3. Ought we, then, to use the doxology in saying the Lord's Prayer ? Yes, there 156 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. is no harm in using it, and it is a fit ending of the Prayer. We are not shut up to the words of Christ in prayer. We may, and should, use other words. When, about two years after giving this prayer, Christ repeated it, he did not use exactly the same words, but said : '' Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins : for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation." (Luke 1 1 : 2-4.) He taught us by these changes that we need not use exactly the same words all the time, or use his words all the time in prayer. We may, then, use the doxology in repeating the Lord's Prayer, if we desire to do so. 4. What is a doxology? It is something said or sung, like our text, or like that verse beginning, '' Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," in honor and praise of God. It is a short form of praise to God. Let me give you some examples, that you may see what a doxology is: ''Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom he is well pleased." " For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all DOXOLOGY OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. 157 things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen." ''To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen." In these and such like words, praise and honor are given unto God. Here is another doxology : '' Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever." 5. What does the doxology in the Lord's Prayer mean ? It declares that the kingdom, and the power, and the glory are God's. The kingdom is the kingdom of God, that we pray may come. The power is the power of setting up this kingdom, of ruling it, of delivering God's people from the evil one, of giving great rewards in heaven. And all the glory and honor of doing this belongs to God. Now it is very easy for us to think that much of the power and the glory be- longs to us. If we go to work in the church and men are saved, we begin to think that we did it, and claim the honor that belongs to God. The Bible tells us of a proud king of Babylon who rebuilt and enlarged the city, and boasted what a great city he had built by the might of his power. Perhaps you can 158 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. tell who that king was. He thought that he had done every thing himself, and gave no honor and glory unto God. While he was saying these proud things, a voice came from heaven saying, " O king, to thee it is spoken : The kingdom is departed from thee." So it is, God will not give his honor unto another. Some boys are always telling what great things they have done or can do. But that Is not right ; for, if they are strong, God has given them their strength ; if they are good, it is because God has helped them to be good. They ought then to praise God for what they are and what they do and give him all the glory, as we do In the doxology of the Lord's Prayer. But the last word Is Amen, — and what do we mean by saying Amen ? It is Itself a little prayer, all in one word. It means: " So be It; " that Is, Let the kingdom and the power, and the glory, be our heavenly Father's for ever. We yield them all up to him and claim none of them for ourselves, that God may be all In all. We have now explained to you the Lord's Prayer, and we close by saying to you all, — D 0X0 LOGY OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. I 59 1. Learn this prayer by heart, and you will always have the best of all prayers to pray at all times. 2. Pray the prayer reverently, as if you had never prayed it before. 3. Add to it any other petition that you may desire to make, for any thing you may really want. XXXIII. BOTTLING UP TEARS. Put thou my tears into thy bottle. — Ps. 56: 8. This is a prayer by king David that God would preserve his tears in memory, as precious perfumes were preserved in little bottles, so that he would not forget them. The text means this, for David adds : '' Are they not in thy book ? " or record. If your father were to catch all the tears you shed and put them in a glasr. bottle, and keep the number of the times you cry, and record it in a book, every day and week and month ; and then should look at the bottle and in the book to see your tears and sor- rows, he would do what David wanted God his heavenly Father to do with his tears and cries. Perhaps some of you say : *' It would take a big bottle for my tears, and a large book to write my cries in ; for I cry so often." Or, better, *' It would take a little, tiny bottle and a very small book for my tears 160 BOTTLING UP TEARS. i6l and crylngs, for I do not cry at every hurt I get or every thing that does not suit me." But, whether you cry Httle or much, I want to say a few words to you about this bot- tling up of tears spoken of in the text: "Put thou my tears into thy bottle." It was once thought — and not long ago — that the little bottles, which are found in the graves of those who died among the ancients before or about the time of Christ, were the tear bottles into which the tears of the mourners were put, and then the bottles were buried with the dead, to show how much the living loved the dead ; but it is not now believed that these bottles, some of glass and some of earthen ware, were tear bottles. '' They are in fact vessels intended to contain perfume, like the alabaster box of the Gospels." In explaining the text, Mr. Barnes, in his notes, gives pictures of ten such bottles, of different kinds and sizes. He calls them tear bottles, as men then believed they had contained tears ; but they probably had contained only perfume. And yet the idea of bottling up the tears of those we love, in order to keep their sorrows in remembrance, is very beautiful ; 1 62 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. and It may some time have become a custom thus to preserve tears. It has been said that ** the Romans had a custom, that in a time of mourning — on a funeral occasion — a friend went to one in sorrow, and wiped away the tears from the eyes with a piece of cloth, and squeezed the tears into a small bottle of glass, or earth, which was care- fully preserved as a memorial of friendship and sorrow." Whether this was so or not, king David prayed that his tears might be thus preserved and kept in remembrance. For the heart needs and loves pity or sym- pathy in times of trouble. It may be that some of the boys and girls here pray in their hearts that their fathers would bottle up their tears so as to keep them in remembrance. For I remember a little boy whose father had so little sympathy or pity for him in trouble that, one day when at work he had almost crushed a finger, he would not tell his father of it for fear of being scolded. That boy wished his father would bottle up his child's tears and comfort him in his troubles. And no doubt other boys feel the same, and find little or no pity for themselves in their fathers. Their mothers BOTTLING UP TEARS. 163 are more likely to have compassion for their children. Hence, children, I am going to speak in in your stead this morning, and utter the prayer of David for each one of you : " Put thou my tears into thy bottle." But as God pities us men and women more than your parents pity you, and as he must pity you more than he does us, I shall ask your fathers to hear this prayer of yours for greater pity towards you in your sorrows. On your behalf I ask them to put your tears into their bottle, that is, that they have more pity for you in your troubles and hurts. For each one of you, I say to them in your name : — ''Father, won't you love me more and pity me oftener, and not speak so sharp to me when I don't mean to do any thing wrong? True, my little troubles, that I would like to tell you about, may seem needless and of no account to you, but they are not such to me. And, besides, do not your troubles over which you pray seem small and of no account unto God, our Father in heaven ? But as he hears your prayers and kindly answers them, and even 1 64 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. hears the ravens when they cry, will you not hear my crying and pity me ? And as God forgives you when you do wrong, and causes his goodness to lead you to repent- ance, and is very patient with you, will you not try to be more patient with me, and for- give me, and be so good to me that I shall love you as well as fear you ? I am very naughty sometimes, but when I am sorry for it and want to tell you so, and ask you to forgive me, I am afraid to do so, or you speak again so sharply to me that I do not any longer want to confess. You may make me mind, and punish me when I am ugly and disobedient, — for, if you do not, I shall have no respect for you, — but won't you, father, pity me more, and so make me happier ? " Will not fathers hear this prayer of their children and heed it? In this way they shall bottle up the tears of their little ones and have them in remembrance. You will thus make their young lives sweeter and brighter and better. XXXIV. STUDYING ANIMALS. But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee. — Job 12 : 7. I KNOW, children, that you love animals, the birds, the cattle, the horse and do^ and cat, and that you want to see the strange animals that are brought to us in shows. They are wonderful in size and form and beauty. You line the streets to see them. You stare at all the animals, the lions, the camels, the elephants, when they are ex- hibited. But did you ever learn any thing from animals? Our text says: ''Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee ; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee." And our Saviour tells us to learn of them, for he said: "Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they ? " 165 1 66 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. There is, then, something to be learned from birds and beasts. If you ask a bird this question: "What are you good for?" the bird might sing you a song, but it would say no more. You would have to watch it, see what it eats and does, and so learn what it is good for. So of all animals. And this study of beasts and birds is just what Job meant when he told you to ask them and they would teach and tell you. There are some reasons why you should study animals and birds and learn about them. I. You should study animals because you are interested in them. You like the horse, the dog, the cat, the canary, the squir- rel, the colt, and other animals. They are such a delight to you that you want to pet them. When your parents buy a book tell- ing about animals, their homes and habits, you should study it until you can tell all about them ; for in this way the birds and beasts shall teach you. There are such books, and they are good books for you to read and study. They tell you what God has made, and how wonderfully they live. Learn while children all you can about all STUDYING ANIMALS. 1 6/ sorts of animals, the fishes, the beasts, the birds. 2. You ought to study animals because you will never outgrow your interest in them. Many of the things you learn in childhood you will forget when you grow older, and will w^ant to forget. Many of the songs you sing you will outgrow. But what you learn about the homes and ways of animals you will never outgrow, or want to forget. It will be of interest to you all your lives. It will give you interest in animals all through life, and pleasure too. I wonder who of you can tell what little animal it is that holds slaves, or what one it is that milks another smaller animal for a part of its food, or what one sets a watch so that it may not be caught or killed! If you once find out their habits you will never forget them. 3. You ought to study animals because they explain the Bible. The Bible says a great deal about animals. Job tells us about be-he-moth, or river-horse, whose '' limbs [or ribs] are like bars of iron " (Job 40 : 15-24) ; the le-vi-a-than, or croc-o-dile, and asks : " Canst thou put a rope into his nose? . . . Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or 1 68 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN, his head with fish spears ? " (Job 41 : 1-34) ; and of the ostrich: ''What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider " (Job 39 : 13-18). He describes her habits with scientific accuracy. Read these words: "There be four things which are Httle upon the earth, but they are exceed- ing wise : ''The ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their meat in the summer ; " The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks ; "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands ; " The lizard taketh hold with her hands, yet is she in king's palaces" (Prov. 30: 24-28). The Bible speaks of a great many other animals, and if we knew their size, form, and habits, we should understand the Bible better than we do. 4. We should study animals because they teach us of God. How many kinds there are ; how different in size, form, color, habits ! Yet they tell us of God's wisdom and goodness. Each kind has food suited to it, has its own way of defence, and is fitted to the place where it lives. They did not STUDYING ANIMALS. 169 come of themselves. God created them. God feeds them. God gave them their beautiful fur or feathers. They teach us of God. "Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." What can be more interesting and profit- able than the study of animals ? Study those near you, your pets ; study the birds and beasts and the fishes, in the woods and waters ; study the animals of other lands in books ; study the spiders and ants and the biting little flies ; for they all tell of God ; they are his wonderful works. You can spend your winter evenings in such studies from books, and then when the spring comes, you can study the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish in the water, and every creeping thing upon the earth; and they shall teach you of the wonderful wisdom and care of God. "Are not ye of much more value than they?" XXXV. A MOCKER AND A BRAWLER. Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whosoever erreth thereby is not wise. — Prov. 20 : i. If you will look In the margin of the Revised Version, you will find that " erreth" Is there rendered " reeleth." Those who use wine and strong drink not only err but they also reel when they take too much. While riding recently, I saw a man lying by the sidewalk dead drunk. He did not stir. He had taken that brawler, strong drink, and had reeled along until he fell, too drunk to walk or speak. There he lay, where all who passed along could see him. It was a sad sight. He was going to have a good time, but he had been mocked. To lie in the sun drunk, where men, women, and children could see him, was not only sad and foolish, it was also a sin against God. Hence I am going to preach you another temperance sermon, children ; for I do not want any one of you to be as foolish and wicked as that man was. 170 A MOCKER AND A BRAWLER. 17I Wine and strong drink in the text stand for all sorts of drink that make men drunk ; so when I say wine or strong drink, you will remember that I mean all kinds of drink that make men drunk, including beer and hard cider. I do not think you now use wine or strong drink, children ; but seeing others use them, I fear you may begin to use them, and come to be like that man I saw drunk. I preach to you before you begin to drink, so that you will never begin. We all want you to let such stuff alone. It will do you no good, but much harm. Let it alone forever. Wine is a mocker. It says that it will make you happy; but it makes men reel along the streets ; it makes them ragged ; it makes them drunk and poor and wretched ; and it makes their friends, their wives and children, sad and hungry and miserable. It mocks them all Do not use such a mocker ; then you will be wise and not foolish. Then you will never be drunk, or reel along the street, or lie down in the gutter. Strong drink is a brawler. It includes whiskey, rum, gin, brandy, and the like. They make men noisy. When we hear men 172 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. shouting and hooting along the streets, we know what the matter is — they have been drinking. They are brawlers ; and soon they reel or stagger, and fall down drunk. You laugh at them, but it is too sad for laughter. You should pity them and try to save them. You should be afraid of becoming like them. If you were to ask them, they might say : ** We have gone so far that we can not help it. Once we might have stopped, but we can not now stop. There is no help for us. O boys, don't begin to drink ! don't begin to drink! " Is it not dreadful for men to get into such a state that they can not stop drink- ing when they want to ? Yet such is some- times the case with drinkers. I pray God to keep each one of you from so sad a slavery to drink or to any other wicked habit. But you think that it is not so bad to drink wine and strong drink. Well then, let us hear what God says about it in the Bible. ''Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions ? who hath complaining ? who hath wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek out mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when A MOCKER AND A BRAWLER. 173 it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it goeth down smoothly: at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder [or basilisk]." (Prov. 23 : 29-32.) '' Be not among winebibbers ; among glut- tonous eaters of flesh : for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty." (Prov. 23 : 20, 21.) ** Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink ; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflame them!" ''Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink ! " (Is. 5 : 11,22.) God says that drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (i Cor. 6: 10; Gal. 5: 19-21.) Hence the command is given: "And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit." (Eph. 5 : 18.) "Abstain from every form of evil." (i Thess. 5 : 22). " It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth." (Rom. 14: 21.) This is what God says about drinking and 174 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. drunkards ; and what he says is true. There- fore find all these passages in your Bibles, mark them, study and obey them. But you ask : ''How may I keep from drinking?" I am glad to tell you. There is one short rule that will keep you from wine and strong drink, if you obey it. It is this: "Never begin," — just two words and no more. Every drunkard says as he reels along: "Never begin to drink;" and God says : " Never begin." If you never begin to use wine and strong drink, you are safe ; so never begin. Do you say that it will be hard sometimes not to drink ? So it will ; for all good things are hard. But do as General Grant did when he was invited to a great dinner in Texas. They had spent a great sum ($1,500) for wines, in honor of him. When the time came to serve the wine the head-waiter went first to General Grant, for whom the dinner was made. Without a word the General quietly turned down all the glasses at his plate, thus showing that he would not drink any wine. Immediately every man along the line of tables turned his glasses down and there was not a drop of wine taken that night. A MOCKER AND A BRAWLER. 175 You can do as he did, and by your not drinking, others may be led not to drink. So don't begin to drink; for ''wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler ; and whoso- ever erreth thereby is not wise." XXXVI. PLAYING OUT AFTER DARK. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their work.s are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us ? and who knoweth us ? — Isaiah 29 : 15. This text refers to the evil things that are done in the dark, upon which God utters a woe. It tells us that one of the greatest perils for children and youth is to be on the street night after night, a peril that you, children, have around you, though you do not think of it when you tease to play on the street after dark. Your father knows how bad it is for you to be out in the dark, and therefore he keeps you in-doors, that you may be good and not bad. But you say that the street is lighted. Yes ; and a great deal of crime and sin is prevented by the gas lights and electric lights. If we had no lights on the streets, it would not be safe for any one to be out after dark. But as it is, there are a great many dark places where the vilest things are 176 PLAYING OUT AFTER DARK. 177 done. Boys and girls, men and women, do them, and tempt others to do them. They say : '' Who seeth us ? and who knoweth us ? " If you could see all that is going on in the dark, you would be shocked ; your parents would shudder through fear for you. But you say that you are too small to do such things. No ; you are not too young to do things in the dark that are dreadful ; and some of you are doing them. Besides, if you get into the habit of playing on the streets after dark, you will be out all the time when you grow up. It is a great deal better for you to stay at home evenings with your mother, as I hope you do. Sometimes you can go out with your parents, but do not think of running round the streets after dark ; for it is better for you to stay at home. You will shun a great deal of evil of the vilest sort. If you obey your parents, and stay at home evenings, and are pleasant about it, you are good. But again you cry out: ''What can we do ? " Well, you can be pleasant and happy with your mother. You can read, look at pictures, solve puzzles, play games, and have 178 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. the best of times. If you try to please and help your mother, she will have more time to spend with you, and a boy is not worth much who can not be happy with his mother. It is delightful to go to a house and find the children in-doors as bright and sunny with their mother as ever they can be. Do not fret, if other boys come along and whistle for you to come out, or if they call for you. Let them go : you can be happier than they without going into the dark for it. They have no right to call you out. Because they do evil, you should not. If they say : '' No one can see us," remember that God sees them and you too. He can see in the dark as well as in the light. You can not run away from him or get out of his sight. Remember this. " But we want to go out and play after dark." Well, that is no reason why you should be allowed to do it. You want to do many things that are not right. Not what you want, but what is best for you, is the true rule by which your parents should be governed. If you are trained to do what you want to do, and not what is right and good, you will be bad, and no prayers PLAYING OUT AFTER DARK. 179 and tears can save you ; for when your parents so forget God's Word as to let you do as you please, God will not interfere to stop their crying. If a boy be trained to run the streets after dark, where all the bad women can entice him, what can save him? And the same is true of the girl, so innocent and beautiful. Is it not better, parents, to keep them out of the fire than to snatch them out when once the flame has burned them ? We press home the duty, parents, that care for the bodies and souls of your children is more than the claims of society ; and that no sowing is more certain of a bitter crop of woe than the neglect of the dear ones God has given you to be the joy of your home and the delight of your old age. If you send your children to the streets or to the servants, that you may not be bothered with them, remember that the days will soon come when they will send you to your knees in prayer and to your closets in shame. We speak earnestly because we hear the children playing on the streets until late in the evening. Bad men and bad women are on the streets, alert to ruin them. The dark is their time ; who can see them ? l8o SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. . What are they doing to your boys and girls, parents ? Can you imagine ? It is a shame to speak of the things done in secret. Children trained in the homes may be kept in their purity ; but not so if they are trained to be on the street evenings. Let me urge you, parents, to know where your children are, and what they are doing, to keep them in after dark, to make home the happiest place on earth for them, to give your best strength to them, because they are worth the cost, so that you may train them in the way they should go. And let me urge the children not to tease to go out and play on the streets after dark, but to stay in and try to make your mother happy. Do all to please her and you will be happy and good. God will bless you and make you useful. Try it, children. Stay at home, the best place on earth. XXXVII. JESUS OUR HIGH PRIEST. And the Word was God. And the Word became flesh. — John 1 : 1, 14. In answer to a question in the Sunday- school : "Who is our high priest?" a class of small boys replied : " God." Others said: '' Jesus Christ ; " and the pastor said : " Jesus Christ." After school that class came to the pastor and said : '' Is not Jesus Christ God?" The answer then given by the pastor needs to be repeated and enlarged. When such questions arise we should turn to the Bible, for the Bible tells us more about God than we can find out anywhere else. So if we want to know about God, we must study what the Bible says about him. What does the Bible say, then, in answer to the question of the litde boys ? I . The Bible says that the Word was God. Its words are: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the 181 l82 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. beginning with God. All things were made by him." '* Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God." When an apostle wished to see God the Father, Jesus said : " Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." " I and the Father are one." In his prayer to God the Father, Jesus said : *' And all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine." The Word is God. 2. The Word became flesh in Jesus Christ. He '' emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross." " And the Word became flesh." The Word took a body of flesh and blood, which died and rose again. 3. This Word made flesh is our high priest. God the Father is never called our high priest. God the Spirit is never called our high priest. But God the Son, the eternal Word made flesh, is called our high priest. He is Jesus Christ. Hence Jesus JESUS OUR HIGH PRIEST. 183 Christ is our High Priest. " It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. . . . For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." " But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come . . . entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- tion." The Word that was God became Jesus Christ, who suffered on the cross, arose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and inter- cedes for us as our high priest. No one can explain to you or any one else how these things are so, but you can and should believe them ; for the Bible says that they are so. Nor is this a strange thing, for there are many things we know to be true, which we can not explain. I wish to raise my hand, and I raise it, I move it as I will. You can raise and move your hands. But no one can fully explain how we do it. You eat food, and you like it ; but no one can tell how the same food becomes bone, flesh, tissue, blood, brain, hair, nails, skin, 184 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. etc. ; yet it does become all these, and you grow. You plant a seed In the ground. Can you tell how it sprouts, grows, and becomes a flower, a shrub, or a tree ? Can you explain how the same sap that we boil down into maple sugar becomes wood, bark, leaves, blossoms, seeds ? No, you can not tell ; nor can any one else fully tell how these things come to pass. But they do come to pass ; they are taking place all the time, though we can not explain them. If we can not tell how a tree grows, or how we move, we must not expect to explain every thing about Jesus Christ the God-Man, how the eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among men, full of truth and grace. If we can not understand the thing made, can we expect to know all about the Maker ? By no means. We can believe the things that we can not know ; and we should believe what the Bible says of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, that he is God, that he is man, that he is our high priest, atoning for the sins of the world. Now a priest is one who offers sacrifices for sins. The Jewish priest took a bullock, killed it, burnt its flesh on an altar, and yESUS OUR HIGH PRIEST. 185 offered its blood in the place of the blood of the one bringing- it to the priest. The high priest sprinkled its blood before the ark of God in the Holy of Holies once a year, for the sins of the people. And Jesus Christ, our high priest, had to offer blood for the sins of the world, and so he offered his own blood once for all for the sins of the world, and ''obtained eternal redemption" for all who believe in him and do his will. Other high priests entered into the Holy of Holies once every year, bearing the blood of the bullock; Jesus Christ entered once for all into heaven, when he offered himself, bear- ing his own blood. He is our glorious, sufficient, and eternal high priest. We need no other priest ; we have no other priest. Jesus Christ is our high priest: he offers no more a sacrifice for sins, for his death is all that will ever be needed. We can ask no more than that he should die for our salvation. This is the answer the Bible gives your question, boys. It says that the Word was God, that the Word became flesh, or man, that the Word made flesh was Jesus Christ, that he is our high priest, that he died on 1 86 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. the cross shedding his own blood and offer- ing it for sins, that he did it once for all and will never do it again, and that we have eternal redemption in his blood thus offered. Jesus Christ is therefore God and man, our high priest. He alone could offer himself as the sufficient sacrifice for sins, so that there would be no need of another forever. Let us praise him for the hope of life eternal through his blood. XXXVIII. SORROW FOR SIN. I will be sorry for my sin.— Ps. 38 : 18. This was said by a king, by a great and good king, by David, king of Israel. He sometimes did wrong, and his wrong-doing is told in the Bible. But he was not too proud to confess his sins, or to be sorry for them. Now, if a great king was not ashamed to confess his faults, and to be sorry for his sins, there is no boy or girl here, or man or woman either, that need be ashamed to confess his sins and be sorry for them. Perhaps you think that you ought not to do as the king of Israel did. But there is great need that you feel sorry for sin, and repent of it, as he did. I. You do wrong, every one of you. As good as you try to be, you fail now and then, perhaps many times a day. You say and do things that you know to be wrong. You strike your little brother or sister or play- mate, or say sharp words to them. When 187 1 88 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. you are hard at play, you do not heed your mother's call, but you loiter and disobey her. Perhaps some of you tell lies, or take God's name in vain, and use bad, vulgar words. You get cross and slam the door, and pout, and cry, and answer your mother back. If I were able to tell here and now all the wrong things you have said and done during the past week, you would be ashamed and hang your heads. But you see that, young as you are, you need to confess your wrong-doings. I could not find one here but would say: ''I have done many things that I ought not to have done." 2. You ought to be sorry for your sin. King David was sorry for his sin ; and you ought to be sorry for your sin. You feel bad when you do wrong. Your conscience troubles you. You can not come into the house where your mother is, without showing by your conduct that you have done wrong. You are guilty of sin. When you do right, you feel glad, and you ought to be glad ; but when you do wrong, you are sad, and you ought to be sorry. You cry over it. You wish you had not done it. You are sorry SORROW FOR SIN. 1 89 for your sin. Sin hurts and pains you. Will you put your finger into the fire ? No ; be- cause it will be burned. I could not per- suade you to thrust your hand into a hot stove. God has made sin to hurt us, that we might shun it as we would fire. But this is not all. 3. You ought to forsake sin. If you have done wrong, as you have, and if you feel bad over it, do as king David did, confess your sin, be sorry for it, so sorry as to confess and forsake it. Do not do that evil thing again. You need not tell it to every body, but to your mother and to Jesus Christ your Saviour. You should tell them about it, how sorry you are that you did it, and then ask them to forgive you. But this is not all you need to do. For if you should go right out and do the same thing again, what would they think of your grief and confession ? They would say that you did not care much about your sin, after all ; for you did the same wrong again. If you are really sorry for sin, you will not commit the same sin again very soon. 4. When you are so sorry for sin as to forsake it, then Christ will forgive you. You IQO SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. may forget sometimes, and do the wrong thoughtlessly ; but you will try and not for- get ; and when you do, you will ask Christ to forgive you again. When your mother forgives you, you feel happy ; and when Christ forgives you, you will feel as David did when he said : " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." " Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous : and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." What makes Christians so happy is the fact that they have been forgiven. If you are really sorry for your sins, and will confess them, and turn from them, Christ will forgive you. And this is just what God wants you to do. He wants to forgive you ; for " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begot- ten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." This means that God loves you, that Christ died for you, and that you may believe on him, and so have life eternal. But you are to trust in Jesus, to believe in him, to be SORROW FOR SIN. 191 SO sorry for sin as to forsake It, and to obey him. But how shall you come to God In prayer ? Two men went up into the temple In Jerusalem to pray. One of them boasted how good he was, that he was better than others, and was not sorry for his sins. God did not bless him. The other felt very sorry for his sins, so sorry that he could not lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, '' God, be merciful to me a sinner." He was so humble and penitent that he was forgiven. His sorry heart was made glad in the Lord. He went home happy. So, if you boast how good you are, and pride yourself on being better than others, you will not feel sorry for sin ; but if you think how many wrong things you have done, and are sorry in your heart for them, so sorry that you too will say: *' God, be merciful to me a sinner ! " then God will forgive your sins, and will make you glad In the Lord. XXXIX. HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN. My son, give me thine lieart, and let thine eyes dehght in my ways. — Prov. 23 : 26. I WILL tell you, children, how you may be Christians ; and I mean by Christians, those that love and obey our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the most important thing I can tell you. And I pray God to open your hearts to hear and obey what I say. 1. The Lord calls each one his son. Your father and your mother call you sons or daughters. God is your Father in heaven. He made you, he keeps you alive, he gives you all good things, he can command you to do his will. You are his children. But you have done wrong. You have not always obeyed him. You have been naughty some- times. When you do not obey your parents or do other naughty things, you sin against God your Father in heaven. So he comes to you and says : — 2. *' My son, give me thine heart." This means that you are to yield up your will to 192 HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN. 193 him in every thing. You are not to stand out against him. Do you understand me? Let me explain. You have, I will suppose, some fruit that is poisonous. It will kill you if you eat it, unless the doctor cures you. I ask you to give it to me. You will not do it, for the fruit is so very fair and beautiful. Your father says: "My son, give me that fruit." You feel that you ought to give it up, for your father has a right to command you. But you want the fruit, it looks so fair, and you want to eat it ; so you hold on to it and cry. He says again kindly but firmly : *' Give it to me." Now you could easily reach out your hand and give it ; but you do not. And why do you not hand him the poisonous fruit ? It is because your heart or will does not give it up. Just as soon as your heart yields and you are willing to obey, your hand holds out the fruit. You give up your heart first and then the deadly fruit. God wants you to give up every evil thought and word and deed ; but you will not do it unless you first give up your heart or will. So he asks first for your heart ; for if you give him your heart, you will do all else that he wants. Give him then your 194 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. heart first ; do not stand out against him. Say to him, as you say to your father and mother: " I will do just as you want me to do, because you love me so. I won't be naughty any more. I will keep your com- mandments. Oh, forgive me, and help me to be good ! " When you can say this truly, and give up whatever he wants you to give up, and do whatever he wants you to do, then you give your heart to Christ. You are ready and willing to do just as he wants you to do. This is the first step in being a Christian. 3. "And let thine eyes delight in my ways." This is the life that follows the first step. A boy observes and delights in the ways of his father. He wants to be as large and strong as his father, and to do as his father does. So the girl wants to be like her mother, and so puts on her mother's dress that she may be a little woman. Christ would use this desire, and so he wants you to observe and delight in his ways, which are always right, that you may be like him. For if you give him your heart, and then do as he does, you are Christians, that is, followers of Christ. HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN. 195 You can not see Christ, but he has given his will in the Bible that you may know just what to do. He there tells you to pray, to read the Bible, to go to church, to join his church, to be kind, truthful, honest, pure, good. He there tells you not to swear, lie, steal, cheat, do wrong of any kind. To be a Christian, then, is to yield up your heart to Christ so as to do as he tells you in all things. As you give up to your parents and obey them when you want to have your own way, so you are to give up your heart to Christ and do as he requires, though you want to have your own way. To do this, is to be a Christian. 4. You ought to give your heart to Christ and to delight in his ways. It is the right and good thing to do always. He created you, and redeemed you by his own precious blood. He was put to death on the cross to give you a chance of coming to him, that you might be saved. He is holy, just, and good. It is right to love and obey him. It is very wrong to refuse to give him your heart and obedience. He loves you, and will for- give you, and make you his dear children. You know that I love you, and would do all 196 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. in my power to make you good and happy. You know that your parents love you, and do all they can to make you good and happy. But Jesus loves you more than I or your parents do. He has done more for you, and can do more for you, than any one else. When, then, you feel sorry for sin, and want to be better than you are, go to him in prayer, tell him you love him and want to be holy and good, to be his faithful followers, and ask him to take you as his own dear children and to help you to live as you ought. Then do all he commands you, shun every bad word and act, love his church and peo- ple, and you will be Christians, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you not do it, dear children ? Say to him : — ''Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come ! " XL. SUFFERING AS A CHRISTIAN. But if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God in this name. — i Peter 4: 16. A Christian is one who follows and obeys Christ, and Jesus Christ is the only perfect one that ever lived on earth. Yet at the time that Peter wrote our text the very name of Christ was hated above all others. It was even infamous. With the Jews to call a man a Christian was the same as to call him a renegade, a rebel ; with the heathen it was equal to atheist, or one who believes there is no God. It cost some- thing at that time to be a Christian. Men suffered for Christ's sake. They were put in prison and put to death as Christians. If officers were to go through this state and arrest every one who really believes in Christ, putting them in jail and hanging them, you see that to be a Christian, you would have to suffer, and suffer a great deal. X97 198 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. There was need then of saying to them, " If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye ; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. For let none of you suffer as a mur- derer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other men's matters : but if a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God in this name." Some of you, children, are Christians, and I wish you all were Christians : and if you suffer as Christians, that is, because you love Christ and follow him, do not be ashamed. You are doing what is right, what God approves, what you approve ; and if thoughtless or evil men laugh at you or call you names, why should you be ashamed ? What can they do for you when they and you stand before God in judgment? If you do any thing wrong, you ought to be ashamed ; but if you do that which is right, you should be glad. You should not blush for doing right. The boy that swears, that tells lies, that steals, that breaks the Sabbath, that does any wrong thing, should hide his head in shame ; but SUFFERING AS A CHRISTIAN. 199 the boy that does not swear, nor He, nor steal, nor run away, nor disobey parents, nor do any evil, that boy God honors, and why should he be ashamed ? Can you tell ? You are tempted to do what is wrong, or what your parents forbid, and the finger of scorn may be pointed at you, if you do not yield ; but do not blush and yield. Be as brave for Christ as were the early Christians. Those that tempt you ought to hang their heads. Those who laugh at you ought to be ashamed at their own ill manners and want of principle. Sin is something to be ashamed of. Teasing others for not doing what they think it wrong to do, is something to be ashamed of. But to do what God re- quires, to be a follower of Christ, a faithful Christian, is the greatest honor one can have. Never be ashamed of it. Never be ashamed to suffer all things for Him who died for you ; for if you are ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of you. Rather glorify God in the name Christian. By being known as a Christian, by living as a Christian, you glorify God ; you bring honor unto his name. It is of little use to talk about religion, to tell others to be TOO SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. religious, if when the pinch comes we are ashamed to be regarded as Christians. If we think that we can be Christians and do every evil thing that others do, we are mis- taken. We must follow Christ to be Chris- tians, and shun whatever is wrong, whatever grieves him. Then we glorify God in this name. I am glad when I hear that you stand fast in right doing, that you are not ashamed of the name Christian, that you wnll not do any thing that is wrong : for you glorify God in so doing, you preach the gospel, you are doing most for Christ and his church, you are letting your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works will glorify God. Keep on in the same way, for God shall bless you in it. Do any of you think that you can be Christians in church and do as others do out of church ? That you can follow Christ, and at the same time deny yourself nothing that others delight in ? You must remember what Christ said on this very point : " If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." We deny ourselves, when for Christ's SUFFERING AS A CHRISTIAN. 20I sake we refuse to do what would work 111 to the cause of Christ and to our own souls. If you suffer for Christ, blessed are you ; if you are ashamed of Christ, he will be ashamed of you. XLI. THE BOY SAMUEL. And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. — I Sam. 2: II. I WISH to tell you, children, of the little boy Samuel, who ministered unto the Lord, and who#became one of the best and greatest men that ever lived. He lived in the twelfth century before Christ. He was given to his mother in answer to her prayers. He was a child of prayer. His mother, therefore, granted or gave him to the Lord, as long as he should live. She brought him when very young to the house of the Lord, to live there, that he might learn to be a minister of God. His mother did not for- get him, but made him clothes, and brought them to him every year, when she came to worship God. No doubt she prayed for him every day, as your mothers do for you, that he might grow up a good boy and a good man. She did all she could to have him live a pious life. THE BOY SAMUEL. 2O3 When he was grown to be a lad, he was asleep one night in the house of the Lord, and the high priest Eli was in the same house or temple. And the word of the Lord was precious because rare in those days. Men, as the high priest Eli, were not used to hearing God speak to them. It Is no wonder then that a little child should not know God's voice. When the Lord called Samuel, he awoke from sleep, and said : " Here am L" And he ran unto Eli, and said: ** Here am I; for thou calledst me." And Eli said: " I called not; lie down again." God called him a second and third time, and Samuel ran unto Eli as before. Then EH told him that it was the Lord calling him, and if He called again, he should say: "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." He did as Eli told him, and God told him His message. Read the whole story, (i Sam. 3 : 1-2 1.) Samuel always did just as the Lord com- manded him to do as long as he lived. Hence it is said that ''the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established 204 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. to be a prophet of the Lord." "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel." His mother's prayer was answered, and her care in training him made him one of the purest and noblest characters in the Old Testament history. He was a good and great man, a judge in all Israel, a prophet of the Lord. We can not tell all his noble life here. There are some things in which each boy and girl can be like the prophet Samuel. You can not tell beforehand what is going to take place, as he did ; nor may you hear God calling you by name in the night, as he did; but in some things you can be what Samuel was. I. You can please your parents. Hannah wanted Samuel to give his life to God ; and for this end she granted or lent him unto the Lord in the temple service. He pleased her by continuing in such service. Your parents may have given you to God, perhaps they have set you apart to his service. In prayer, if not in baptism, they may have pre- sented you to God. They pray for you still day by day. They teach you what you should do and what you should not do. They bring you to church, that the minister THE BOY SAMUEL. 2O5 of God may instruct you. They send you to the Sunday-school, that you may learn God's will from the study of the Bible. Now, if you attend to all these things, and live up to what you hear and learn, as Samuel did, you will also please your parents. To make them feel bad by your naughty be- havior, is not to do what Samuel did. To please them and make them happy, this is what you should do, as long as you live. 2. You can obey the call of God. He will not speak out of the darkness of the night and call you by name, as he did the boy Samuel ; but he will and does call after you by his ministers, his teachers, his Bible and his spirit. When you hear any call to duty, say as Samuel did : '' Here am I." He obeyed the call four times before he found out what was wanted, so ready and willing was he. You hear my voice, your teacher's voice, your parent's voice ; but if you could not hear it and yet could know what was wanted, you could obey just as well. Hence when you know what you ought to do, do it ; when conscience tells you not to do a thing, do not do it. When the Bible says : *' My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou 2o6 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. not," it is God telling- you not to sin. When it says: ''My son, give me thine heart," it is God asking for your love and obedience. When it says : " Come unto me, and I will give you rest," it is Jesus pleading with you to confess your sins to him, and to be pious all your days, as Samuel was. Thus you can hear and obey the call of God, though he does not speak to you by name. 3. You can obey at once. Samuel, when he heard the call, did not answer and then fall asleep again ; but he went to Eli at once. You hear your mother call you in the morn- ing, do you get up at once, or fall asleep again ? You hear her call during the day, do you obey, or wait awhile ? Obey her with- out delay. So when God calls you to duty, to speak the truth, to shun bad words, to read the Bible, to pray, to confess your faults, to be pious and good in all things, say : " Here am I, Lord;" "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth ; " and obey, as Samuel did, all through your life. Thus the boy Samuel is a good pattern for you to follow. God wants you to be like him in these things, that you too may be pure and noble and good. XLII. BE HONEST. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord : but a just weight is his delight. — Prov. it : i. If you buy something at the store, you notice that they either weigh it or else meas- ure it. Now if the weight on the scales or balances be lighter than it ought to be, or the measure be shorter or smaller than it ought to be, then you get cheated every time you buy at that store. But if the weights and measures be right, then you are not cheated. The one is a false bal- ance, which is an abomination to the Lord ; but the other is a just weight, which is his delight. If you were to go into the county clerk's office and ask him, he would show you the standard weights and measures, which are just what they ought to be, and which are kept there to test all other weights and meas- ures in the county. No one, then, needs to have false yard-sticks, or false pounds, or false bushels ; but he can have just yards, 2q8 sermons for children. just pounds, and just bushels. It may be that you can not find a false balance or measure in the city, but some men cheat with them nevertheless ; some men do, and others do not, cheat In weight and measure. Where shall I find an honest child — one that will not cheat in the dark or on the sly, but will do the square, honest thing every time ? Such boys and girls are in demand ; the world wants them. Do you cry out : ''Here we are"? Well, then, let me test you, to see if you are really honest or not. I. First test. You go to the store, let us suppose, to buy something. You have fifty cents to pay for it. The article costs thirty- five cents, leaving you fifteen cents for change. But by mistake the man gives you back twenty cents, and you see the mis- take, that he has paid you five cents too much. What now will you do ? give back the five cents, or keep them ? Will you say that he made the mistake, and must lose the money ? or will you say that he made a mistake, and that you ought not to take advantage of it ? Which is honest and right ? Why, you know that you ought to do as you would be done by, and give the BE HONEST. 209 money back. If you keep the money, you are dishonest ; if you give it back as you ought, you are honest. Which do you think you would do in such a case ? This is one test of your honesty. 2. Second test. Your mother asks you at night, if you have been good during the day. You think of one bad thing you have done, but you are ashamed to tell her of it. You would like to hide it, it is so bad. Which will you do, hide it or tell it ? If you hide it, you act dishonestly towards your mother. She has a right to know what her dear child has been doing ; but you hide it from her, it is so bad. That Is not honest or true. Tell her all about it, just as it was, do not keep a bit of it back : for that is honest and right and true. Now, which do you do, hide it or tell it ? Here is a second test of your honesty. 3. Third test. You are playing, and you see how you can win the game by cheating, when no one will see it. Stop a moment, you will see it, and God will see it ; you can not cheat, and have no one at all see you do it. But you think you can cheat and those playing with you will not see it. 2IO SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. What will you do, cheat and win, or be honest and lose? If you tell me just what you do in such cases, I will tell you whether you are honest or not. If you cheat in play, you are dishonest ; if you will not cheat in play, you are honest, and we can trust you. Here is another test, and how do you stand it? 4. Fourth test. If you were to be far from home and without money, and if some one should give you money to go home with, and so help you out of your trouble, would you go to work, earn money, and return what had been given you to help you home ? Would you thank the man for his kindness in aiding you ? Would you do as the little boy did whose letter I read in the Sunday- school last Sunday ? That boy had no father or mother living. He was in this city without money and far from friends. A hotel-keeper cared for him for a few days, and then gave him two dollars to take him back to his former home. The little fellow said he would send the money back, and he did send it in a registered letter, and this is what he wrote — without the name of the man and of the boy : — BE HONEST. 2 I T Brockville, Ont., August lo, 1885. Well, Mr. P , I suppose you are get- ting out of patience, waiting for the two dollars. I started to work the second day that I came back. I am very much obliged to you for the two dollars. I do not know how I would have got home only for you. Answer by postal, if you get my letter. w. s. c. That was an honest boy. The world needs such boys — boys that are honest every time — that it may have honest men. Dishonest boys do not make honest men, unless they quit their cheating and dishonest tricks and learn to be honest in every thing. Hence, if you cheat, quit it ; if you are dishonest, be honest in all you say and do. We might give other tests of honesty, but these are all you will remember to-day. First, if any one over-pays you, be honest and return the money. Second, do not hide from your mother what she ought to know. Be honest in telling her all. Third, do not cheat in play, not even to win the game. 212 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Fourth, pay back what money may be given you to help you out of trouble. Pay your debts always. With these tests before you, if I should call for an honest boy or girl, how many of you would step out and say: " I am honest " ? XLIII. HONESTY THE BEST POLICY. So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous. — ■ Ps. 58: II. The righteous are they who do what is right. A reward is that which is given in return for good conduct. God will deal with men " so that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous : Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." This means that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. To be honest is to be so far forth righteous, and so God rewards those that are honest. In the sermon last week we urged you to be honest. Do you remember the points ? What, have you forgotten them so soon ? Well, we will repeat them, and let no one forget them. I gave you four tests of hon- esty : ( I ) The test of giving back what you have been over-paid ; (2) The test of telling your mother all the wrong things you do ; (3) The test of not cheating in play; and 213 214 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. (4) The test of paying back what is loaned you. We did not say all we wanted to say in that sermon, and so we add to it another on honesty. I. It pays to be honest with others. They will soon find out whether you are honest or not. If you are honest, they will trust you ; if you are not honest, they will not trust you. Let us see how it works. If you have apples or pears or potatoes to sell, and put all the large, good ones on the top, and all the small, worm-eaten ones at the bottom of the bag or barrel, you show therein a desire to cheat the buyer, and may cheat him, but he finds you out and will not trust you again. You have gained nothing but a little money perhaps. You have told others that you would cheat them if you could ; and that is a great loss. Every body will soon hear of it. But if you make the top and middle and bottom of the bag or barrel the same, and sell the fruit for what it is, you are honest ; men will see that you are honest ; they will call you an honest man, they will trust you, and honor you as honest. It is so with every thing we do. If we give full measure, and make top and bottom HONESTY THE BEST POLICY. 215 and middle alike, we act as we ought to act. We do as we would be done by. This is the way to do, and if you always do this because it is right and honest to do so, God will bless you so that men will say: '* Verily there is a reward for the honest." Every body likes to trade with the honest. If you have work to do, do it honestly. Whatever you do, do it as it ought to be done. Of course as children you can not wash dishes, set the table, sweep, sew, or do any thing as well as your parents, or as others who are older and stronger than you ; but you can do the best you know how, and grow up to do every thing well. If you see where you can slight the work, do not slight it or cheat in it. If you do slight it or cheat in it, it will not be good for you ; for others will find it out. They will not want you or trust you. They will send for the honest boy or girl, the one who will not cheat them. So the honest boys will get places while you do not, and the honest girls will get work while you do not ; for men and women want honest help. No one wants to hire a cheat. Hence, do your work well, whatever it Is, that which is out of sight as well as that 2l6 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. which is in sight. Then people will know that you are honest, and they will honor you and employ you. You will have more money. God will reward you for your honesty. 2. It pays to be honest with yourself. It is a good thing to live so as to have the respect of others, but it is a better thing to live so as to have the respect of one's own conscience. Christ and many of his true followers have been persecuted unto death because they did what God required and what their own consciences approved. '' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous- ness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Each one has a conscience. It tells him to do what is right, and riot do what is wrong. It makes him feel glad when he does right, but sorry and guilty and ashamed when he does wrong. We blame ourselves for all the wrong we do. We do not have respect for ourselves because of our guilt. We hate ourselves, and say we will never do so again. If we put dust into our eyes it will give us pain. If we do wrong, our con- science will pain us. Hence, we do not tell what we have done, when asked about it. HONES 7 V THE BEST POLICY. 217 Our hearts are guilty. We are ashamed of ourselves. We are very unhappy, when feel- ing so. But if we do what is right and honest, our hearts are glad and light. We do not feel ashamed. We do not hide or refuse to tell. We do not blame ourselves or feel guilty. We are happy — as happy as happy can be. It pays then to be honest with ourselves, and do what is good and right always. 3. It pays to be honest with God. We should tell him all in prayer ; for he knows it all. We can not hide from God or cheat him. He has no respect for one who tries to cheat him. Those that do right God blesses with the confidence a^hd good-will of others, with peace of conscience, and with the reward of his favor, which includes heaven. If we are honest, he will give us a great reward, more than we can ask or think. If we are not honest, he will punish us. It pays then to be honest. Honesty is the best policy. Be honest, therefore, in every thing, in play, in work, in life. Be honest with others ; be honest with yourself ; be honest with God. By cheating others, you 2l8 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. cheat yourself. A poet says : " An honest man 's the noblest work of God." We can all be honest, and obtain the reward of the righteous, and so become the noblest work of God. XLIV. PLAYING FOR KEEPS. Abstain from every form of evil. — i Thess. 5 : 22. There are a great many evil things in the world. Some of them are evil to start with, evil at the first, and evil all the time after- ward, evil in every form and degree. Other things do not appear to be evil at the first, but they lead to evil, and should be avoided for that reason. I want to say a few words to you, boys, about playing marbles, and about playing for keeps, as you say. 1. You can play marbles without playing for keeps. This you know very well. You can be the best player without playing for keeps. There is no need then of playing in that way. But, you cry, what harm is there in it ? I will tell you — 2. The harm of playing for keeps. If playing for keeps means that you were to keep the marbles you might win until the play was ended, or for a little while only, 219 220 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. there would be no harm, for you would not gain any thing by it. The marbles would not be yours. But playing for keeps is not this. It is, instead, the keeping of the marbles won in the game as your own. You play to win them, and so to keep them. Playing for keeps is, therefore, gambling. It is playing for a stake. It is the same as to bet on the game the marbles you are play- ing with. It is wrong to gamble, so wrong that the state law forbids it. Hear what the law says about gambling : — *' If any person by playing at cards, dice, or any other game, or by betting or putting up money on cards, or by any other means or device in the nature of betting on cards, or betting of any kind, shall win or obtain any sum of money, or any goods, or any article of value whatever, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor ; and may, on conviction, be punished." This covers all kinds of betting and gam- bling, any kind of play by which a valuable thing is won as a stake. That is, if you put up a cent on a game of marbles which the winner of the game shall have as his own, you gamble. So, too, if you put up a cent's PLAYING FOR KEEPS. 22 1 worth of marbles on the game, or a half- cent's worth, you gamble. Now when you play for keeps you do this very thing, and so you gamble. The harm is the harm of gam- bling, which the law of the state forbids. 3. It is wrong to gamble. It is wrong for players in any game to bet on it, or to put up money on it, or to play for keeps in it. You ought not to do any thing wrong. But, you say, oh, it is so little I need not mind it! That is just why you should mind it. We warn you against gambling in little things, in your plays, because little sins grow to great sins. If you are careful to shun the little sins, you will not be overcome by a great sin. If you were to go about stealing all the pins you could find, every one would say that we should have to look out or you would steal our money. So if you learn to gamble in playing marbles, we fear you will gamble in larger things. If you play for keeps, you will play for dollars by-and-by. *' Oh, we will stop before we do that ! " you cry. Well, we hope so ; but if you stop now, we shall be sure of it. And that is why we want you to stop now, and never play for keeps again. 2 22 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 4. Play to win the game honestly, and that is enough. We want you to play, and to play well ; for you ought to do well what- ever you do, whether it be work, or study, or play, or rest. But to win the game is enough to incite you. There is no need of adding to it the hope of winning marbles or any thing else in a gambling game. You can get all the good, all the fun, out of the game without the evil, the harm, the gambling. Our text tells you to abstain from every form of evil, that is, from playing marbles for keeps, as one evil ; and from every other form of evil. This is God's word, and do not disobey it, but keep it ; for in keeping it there is great reward. The boy makes the man, and so I want to make the boy what the man ought to be. I want him to shun all evil things, to choose all good things ; but I can not make the boy into a good man without his help. Help me then, and I will help you to abstain from every form of evil. XLV. MINE AND THINE; OR, STEALING. Thou shalt not steal. — Ex. 20: 15. This is a short command, and should be learned by heart by every boy and girl. In- deed, they ought to learn all the Ten Com- mandments by heart, that they may obey them. The text teaches you to regard the rights of others in property, in things owned. It marks the difference between mine and thine. Each one can say of some things : " These are mine;" but of others he must say: ''Those are not mine." You can, and do, say sometimes : " This is mine and not yours ; but that is yours and not mine." You have clothes, and shoes, and books, and dolls, and playthings which you call your own, though your father or mother bought or made them for you. They are yours, and not your sister's or your brother's, and you know it. But your brother or sister has other things, which he or she owns, and you do not. This 323 224 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. you understand. You know your own hats or caps, your shoes, your dresses, your play- things. They are your property. You have a first right to them. No one but your par- ents has a right to take them away from you. Now the text refers to this right of prop- erty, and says : " Thou shalt not steal." Did you ever think that these words apply to you, children ? Yet they do ; for in your plays you may learn to steal or learn not to steal. Do you ask me, " How so ? " I will tell you. As you deal with your brother or sister, so will you deal with others, even when you grow up to be men and women. It is be- cause of this that I speak to you about steal- ing. Your teacher gives you a book. It is yours. You own it. But your brother wants it, and so he goes and gets it, and hides it. He steals it. He Is learning to steal. Had he any right to your book? None at all. Have you, then, any right to take and use any thing that belongs to your sister or brother without the consent of the one who owns It ? No ; you can use your own as you please, if you do not injure them ; but you should not think of taking and using another's MINE AND THINE; OR, STEALING. 225 things without consent. If you want to see or use them, ask for them in a kind way. Do not snatch them, nor say: "Give them to me ! " You should say, instead : '' Please may I take them ? " Of course each one in a family ought to love the rest so that he will be glad to have them take, examine, and use his playthings, and not be selfish about it ; but there ought to be in every home, among the children, a difference between mine and thine, what one child owns or claims as his, and what another owns or claims as his, and this difference or distinction should be enforced by parents. One child should be made to treat the rights of another with respect. For, if a boy be allowed to eat what belongs to his brother or sister, and to use their things as though they were his own, he will be likely to do the same to other boys, and, because he was not trained better, may grow up a thief. But if a boy or girl treats a brother's or sister's things as he or she should, not taking and using them without leave, neither will grow up a thief. They will not steal even a pin. The first way, then, to obey the text is, not to steal from brothers and sisters, from father 2 26 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN, or mother, or from playmates. And I hope your parents will see to it that you do not take without leave any thing which does not belong to you. The next way to obey the text is to treat the property of others as you do the play- things of others. You should never pick fruit from trees growing on your father's place without his permission ; but to rob fruit trees which your father does not own, what shall I say of it? It is stealing. It is breaking the command: "Thou shalt not steal," which God himself gave. The fruit Is not yours. You have no right to take it. You sin against God by taking it. Never touch what does not belong to you. If you do rob the trees or the vines, you are a thief. Do you say that you took only a little ? Yet stealing a little is stealing. Stealing a cent is as truly stealing as the stealing of a dollar. To steal a cent's worth of fruit or a dollar's worth is as wicked as to steal a cent or a dollar from a man's pocket. If you grow up robbing vines and trees and or- chards, where will you stop ? Who would have you in their store or office or shop or farm? Who would trust you in any thing? MINE AND THINE; OR, STEALING. 2 2 "J A child who does not mind the difference between mine and thine, what is his and what is not his, in httle things, will not be likely to mind it in great things. He grows up to take all he can get from others without punishment, and it is but a little step to a life of stealing and robbery. Do not begin to take that sad step. Do you say that you like strawberries, grapes, pears, peaches, and apples ? But that is no reason why you should steal them. If any body could steal whatever he liked, no one could own any thing that another wanted. If you think it right to steal because you like it, then another could for the same reason steal your best doll or your cap or any thing else you have. No, there is only one law of God, and that is the text: *'Thou shalt not steal." Obey that, and you are safe ; but if you begin to break that law by stealing sugar or candy or fruit or any thing else, you may become a thief of larger things, and be sent to prison for it. Let me repeat : 1. Do not steal from your parents, sugar, cake, fruit, money, or any thing else. 2. Do not steal from your brothers or 2 28 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. sisters, their books, playthings, or any thing else. 3. Do not steal from your playmates, mar- bles, pencils, or any thing else you may want. 4. Do not steal from your neighbors, fruit, melons, eggs, or any thing else. 5. Do not steal from any body any thing whatever; for God says: ''Thou shalt not steal." While you are thinking of these five things, let me say a word to parents, and ask them to train you carefully to know and to respect the difference between mine and thine, what is your own and what is not your own. Chil- dren learn it very young and will stand up for their own, will quarrel and fight for it. Hence parents can use these times to teach one of the most important lessons of life, namely, the distinction between mine and thine. The neglect of this distinction and training may ruin your dear children. En- force it rigidly. XLVI. PROFANE SWEARING. But I say unto you, Swear not at all — Matt. 5: 34. There is one very common sin among boys and men : it is profane swearing. We say profane swearing because there is a kind of swearing that is not profane, as when one takes an oath in a court, and when it is said: "For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself." Here God is spoken of as taking an oath to do a thing. The same is said in many other verses of the Bible. This kind of swearing is not profane but religious swearing. If you should be called as a witness before a judge, that judge would put you under oath, in which you would appeal unto God to witness that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Jesus Christ took such an oath as this, when the high priest said unto him : ''I adjure thee by the living God, that thou 230 SERMOXS FOR CHILDREN'. tell US whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus saith unto him : '' Thou hast said." Thus Jesus, under oath, said that he was " the Christ, the Son of God." Such oaths are not sinful or wrong. God com- manded the children of Israel to " swear by his name " when called on as a witness in courts of justice. Profane swearing is the taking of God's name In vain, or Christ's name in vain, or the name of some sacred thing in vain. It is the irreligious use of the name of God, or of Christ, or of sacred things. Now : — 1. Profane swearing is a sin. It is a wicked thlno^ to take Christ's name or God's name in vain. It is so great a sin that ** the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 2. Profane swearing is a common sin. One can hardly pass by a crowd of boys, and not hear a profane oath or swearing. If your parents could hear all you say, boys, as God does, would they not be shocked at the words you utter ? You do not talk so when your father or mother is near to hear you. Oh, no ; you do not want them to hear you swear. Shame that you should talk PROFANE SWEARING. 231 SO that you do not want your parents to hear you ! Yet God hears every oath, every word you speak. You can not hide from him. 3. Profane swearing is fooHsh. If a boy swears, he gets nothing for it ; it does him no good. It is wrong to steal, but if one steal an apple, he has the apple to eat ; but if he swear, he has nothing to show for it. If you throw a hook into the river or lake for fish, you put a bait on it ; for fish are not so foolish as to bite a bare hook. But he who swears bites a bare hook ; he gets nothing in return for his sin, and sin hurts like a hook. No one will believe him any sooner for his oaths ; for if he is not afraid to take God's name in vain, will he be afraid to tell a lie ? This sin is the most foolish of all sins, for it brings only the pangs of a guilty conscience. All sin is foolish, but this is the most foolish. 4. Profane swearing is forbidden. It is so great, so common, and so foolish a sin, that God says in the third commandment: ''Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 232 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. On these words Jesus said : " Swear not at all ; neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God ; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be. Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one." If we are forbidden to swear by these things, how much more are we for- bidden to swear by God, or Christ ! Swear not at all, except when put under oath ; for Christ referred in the text to the taking of God's name, and the name of any thing, in vain. 5. Profane swearing will not make a man of you. It is a sin, a foolish sin ; and though men swear, yet swearing does not make men of them, or brave men, or noble men, or men to be trusted. He who refuses to swear when others do is the brave boy or man. He is the hero, who will not take God's name in vain. To be the best man is to be the nearest Him who knew no sin. Be like Jesus, and never take God's name in vain. PROFANE SWEARING. 233 Tell the truth always, and stick to it ; if one tell you that he does not believe you, do you think you can make him believe you by swearing wicked oaths ? No ; every oath you utter in vain shows that you will sin and break God's command- ments ; and if one commandment, why not another ? If one may swear, he may also lie. It is better to say, if your word is ques- tioned : '' I tell you the exact truth ; and nothing can make me change it." God commands you to stop swearing, to stop taking his name in vain ; to say. Yes, yes ; No, no. If you are tempted to go beyond these and say profane words, it is a temptation of the evil one. It is a great sin to swear. Let not God hear another oath from your lips. "Swear not at all/' XLVII. TELLING LIES. Lie not one to another. — Col. 3: 9. Children, you are often tempted to tell lies, to say what is not true, and so I am going to preach to you against lying. I want you to be truthful, and not liars ; so truthful that when you say a thing is so, all will know it is just as you say. If you forget and do wrong, and your mother asks you about it, you are tempted to tell a lie about it, but I warn you never to tell a lie. I . What is a lie ? Perhaps you can tell me. You played keeping school with your dolls the other day. Some of the dolls be- haved so badly that you had to punish them. You told others to study and get their les- sons. Then you gave out words for them to spell, and so you kept school with your dolls. You treated them as if they could hear and see and talk and obey, when they could not do one of these things. Was that lying ? In trying to teach them, did you tell lies? *' Oh, 234 TELLING LIES. 235 no," you say, '' that was not lying, for I was playing. All I said and did was in play. I did not tell a lie, for I did not mean to say any thing wrong. I did not mean it." Your answer is right. You did not tell lies in your play of keeping school. You did not lie in what you said and did, because it was in play and no one was deceived by it. If some one tells you that John Black's house is burned up, and you run in and tell your mother so, but it turns out that his house was not burned, did you tell your mother a lie ? You told her what was not true ; for you said the house was burned when it was not ; now was that untruth a lie? ''Well," you say, "I thought it was burned, for the man said so ; and I did not mean to say what was not true and deceive mother ; and if I did not mean to deceive her, I do not think it ought to be called lying." You are right again. If you think a thing to be true when it is not, and tell it, you do not tell a lie, for you do not intend to deceive any one. That is not what we mean by lying. Here is a boy who has been looking In a picture-book of horses and bears and lions. 236 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. He then runs out to play. Pretty soon he rushes In, and cries : *' There is a bear in the yard, I saw him ! " " Oh, no, my child, there is no bear there." " Yes, there is, I saw it!" And the mother can not make her boy say otherwise, and perhaps she punishes him for telling a lie about seeing a bear where there is none. Did her boy lie ? Now you are puzzled, you can not answer. Let me answer. The boy is so young that he does not always know the difference between what he sees with his eyes and what he sees with his mind, or Imagines ; and so when the picture of the bear in the book comes to his mind in play, he thinks he sees a real bear, and can not be made to think otherwise. Hence, when this is the case, he does not lie, but tells what he believes to be true. This may explain to mothers what has greatly troubled them about their bright chil- dren ; and it may explain to all what has troubled them about some good people, who imagine so much more than the real facts that they are always seeing bears In the wood-pile. But we have not found out what a lie is. If one of you should steal some sugar, and TELLING LIES. ^2>7 your mother should ask you about it, and you should deny it, and say that you did not take any, would that be lying ? Yes, that is lying, and all such like things are lying. To tell your mother or teacher or any one that you have not done what you have done, is to deceive them and lie to them. There must be in all lying the intent to deceive some one who has a right to know the truth, the purpose to tell an untruth, or what is believed to be an untruth, for the sake of deception. The very heart of lying is this intent or pur- pose to deceive. Such is lying. 2. Why may we not tell lies ? Because it is wrong to lie, and right to tell the truth. Hence God says in the text : '' Lie not one to another," and the sin of lying is every- where forbidden in the Bible. We are told to put away lying and to speak the truth. It is a sin to lie, a sin against God. Hence God says : "Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another." '' Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speak- ing guile." God hates a lying tongue. There are many more texts against lying, which I hope you will find and read when you go home ; for lying is so great a sin that you 238 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. should study the Bible lest you commit it. Those who make and love lies are not per- mitted to enter heaven. A boy or girl, man or woman, that no one can believe, how sad ! Is there such a boy or girl here ? Tell the truth always : and again I say, tell the truth. Again, we may not tell lies because God punishes liars and rewards the truthful. He says: "The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a mo- ment." '' Lying lips are abomination to the Lord : but they that deal truly are his de- light." '' He that speaketh lies shall not escape." "All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- stone : which is the second death." Thus God punishes liars, and blesses the truthful. Be truthful always. When you give your word let it be a true word, and then stand by it, even if it costs you every thing. All men honor a truthful boy or girl, man or woman, but no one respects a liar. To be a liar, a false boy or girl, one that nobody believes, what a disgrace ! But to be truthful, one that every body believes, what an honor! Strive for the honor. Shun the disgrace. XLVIII. LITTLE TRUANTS. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not, — Matt. 21: 30. Does this sound familiar to some of you ? Then I need to preach a sermon on it ; for you are the boys and girls who say, and do not. A father '' had two sons ; and he came to the first, and said. Son, go work to-day in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not ; but afterward he repented him- self, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir : and went not. Whether of the twain did the will of his father ? " I. The wrong answer and the right act of the first son. He said: "I will not," — a very saucy, impudent, wicked answer ; an answer which I hope no one of you ever gives his father or mother. He refused to obey. He said that he would not do as his father commanded. But that son had a con- science ; he knew that he had done wrong ; 240 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. he was sorry for what he had said to his father ; he repented of it ; and when he was sorry and repented, he went into the vine- yard to work. He did what his father com- manded him to do, after saying that he would not do it. So while his words were wrong his act was right. 2. The right answer and the wrong act of the second son. He said that he would do what his father commanded him to do : but when he got out of sight of his father, he did not go. He said he would go, but he went not; he said he would do, but he did not. He disobeyed his father while promising to obey him. He was a little truant. 3. A truant is one who stays away from business or duty ; an idler, a loiterer, a shirk. And I am afraid that some of you are truants. You stay away from business, duty, school. Your father sends you out to do the chores or some work ; and you go until you are out of his sight, then you play and forget the work. Is it not so ? You say : '' I go, sir;" but do not go. Your an- swer is right, but your act is wrong. Both answer and act should be right. I will give you a good rule to follow : Do the work first, LITTLE TRUANTS. 241 and then play ; for if you go at it at once, and keep at it until it is done, you will have time to play, and you can play with a clear conscience. That is the best way to do in work what your father and mother tell you to do. But many of you go to school. You get ready and start for school as your parents require. You say: " I am going to school ; " and your parents expect you to go straight there and not be tardy or to stay away for play. But do not some of you play the truant? When you are out of sight, do you not run off to play with naughty boys ? Then you come home when school is out as though you had been at school. Now this is all wrong. It is deceiving your parents ; it is losing your schooling ; it is forming bad habits ; it is acting a lie : for you say you are going to school, your parents expect you are in school, when you are play- ing truant. Let no one play the truant. It will ruin you. Let me say a word to your parents and tell them that they ought to know whether you are in school or have turned truant. The roll of the teacher would soon tell what their 242 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. children are doing. Then in cities the tru- ant-officer should arrest truants, and so make them attend school ; for it is a great evil to be a truant. Do you ask why ? The reason is this : if you always do what is required of you promptly and well, not waiting or slighting it, you will grow up to be true and faithful. Men will believe and trust you. They will want you for the best places of trust, and you will get on in the world. But if you are little truants at school or in any other duty, you grow up to be bad. Nobody will trust you or believe you or want you for any kind of service. You will not be fit for any trust or place. You will have a hard time in life. So never play the truant, as did the son who said : " I go, sir ; and went not." And when God commands you to do any thing, do it at once. When he says : '' My son, give me thy heart," or, " Go work to- day in the vineyard," do as he says. Do not reply : " I will not ; " do not answer : " I go," and go not ; but obey, and he will bless you. He will put you in good places, for he can trust you to do what is right. But if you say: " I go," and then go not, God will not bless you. LITTLE TRUANTS. 243 The father of these two sons found out what they did. So God knows when you play the truant and run away from duty, and by-and-by he will have an examination and all your truancy will come out ; every time you have run away from duty will be called up, and what will you then say ? It will be a sad day to you when he shall tell you how wicked you have been, and shall cast you out from heaven. But if you obey him when he commands, and are not truants, but go and work in the vineyard, God will make you glad, when he shall call you into judgment, by giving you heaven as your reward. XLIX. WORK HONORABLE. If any will not work, neither let him eat, — 2 Thess. 3 : 10. All honest work is honorable, and It is a duty to labor. Perhaps you do not like to have me say this, for you want to be idle ; but I must tell you what is best for you, even if you do not like it. It is right to play at times, but it is better to work than to play at all times. When God made man he put him in a garden full of all good things, " to dress it and to keep it." He was to work even in the garden of Eden. Then when man sinned against God, and was put out of the garden, God said to him: " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." Then in the commandment it is said : ''Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work." And yet there were some^ in Paul's time who were idle, who would not work, either with their heads or with their hands. Paul 844 WORK HONORABLE. 245 himself toiled, working with his hands. He told those that stole to steal no more, but to work with their hands the thing that is good. But to those who would do nothing, but live on others, he spoke sharply, and said: "If any will not work, neither let him eat." If they can work, and will not, let them starve. Others are not required to work to keep such alive. This is the Christian rule, and it ought to be enforced upon all who are too lazy or proud to earn a living by labor. Hunger would soon make them glad to work. 1. We ought to work because God com- mands us to do so. We have just given these commands, which cover every kind of useful labor. 2. We ought to work that we " may have whereof to give to him that hath need." We are not to work that others may be idle. Boys are not to work that girls may do noth- ing, nor girls that boys may do nothing. Among the savages the women do nearly all the work, except hunting and fighting. Men and women, boys and girls, should all work, each helping the other, that they may live in comfort and have something to give the sick and those who suffer loss by fire, or in any 246 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Other way. But beggars and tramps and lazy persons, who will not work, ought not to be fed or clothed, but should be made to earn their own bread and butter, or starve. We ought not to feed them in their idleness. God's way should be tried with them, the way given in our text, then they will work. 3. We ought to work because it is best for us to do so. What God commands is always best, and those who obey him are always the most happy. Those who work are the happiest. But men may work with the head as well as with the hands, and the hardest workers are the head workers, not the hand workers. All who have tried both kinds will tell you so. Now let us see how God treats those who work well and those who are careless in their work. He says : — " He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand : But the hand of the dihgent maketh rich." " The hand of the dihgent shall bear rule : But the slothful shall be put under taskwork.'* *'The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing : But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings ; He shall not stand before mean men." WORK HONORABLE. 2\*J How true these proverbs are ! Nearly all our business men, our professional men, our politicians, who have become great, were poor boys who did all sorts of work and were careful to do it well. If boys have a garden to care for, and neglect it, the garden will grow up to weeds ;. they will get little to eat from it. But if they care well for it, digging out the weeds, they will get plenty. Remember, then, this other proverb : — " He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread : But he that followeth after vain persons shall have pov- erty enough." Children, this is true. He that labors and saves will have plenty of bread and money ; but the idle and all they who go with bad company shall have poverty enough. Thus we see that it is best to work. 4. We ought to work because it is honora- ble to do so. What God commands and what is best for us is honorable. Honest labor brings to honor, as we have seen ; lazi- ness brings to poverty and shame. You may think it hard that you have to work so much ; you may feel ashamed of labor and envy the idle, — for boys are sometimes so 248 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. foolish as to do this, — but you are to think of the honor your labor will bring you ; for the boys and girls that are willing to do any kind of honest work will become our best and most honored citizens by-and-by. But those who loaf on the street corners, too proud or lazy to work or study, will some- times beg or go to jail or the poor-house. If a man wants a boy in the shop, in the store, on the farm, or for any purpose what- ever, from which class does he select him, from the loafers or from the workers ? Why, always from the faithful workers. Men know that such boys can be trusted, and so they select from among them. Thus the indus- trious, the honest, the obedient, are held in honor, but the loafers are passed by as worthless. Here are four good reasons why we should work and never be ashamed of it. Repeat them : — 1. God commands us to work. 2. We ought to earn money to give to the unfortunate needy. 3. It is best for us to work. 4. Work is honorable. We will add that Christ is called, not only WORK HONORABLE. 249 *' the son of a carpenter," but also '' the car- penter." He honored work. He chose for apostles men who lived by labor. Some were fishermen, and he made them fishers of men ; one was a tax-collector ; one a tent- maker. Surely you will not be ashamed to work and do what you can to earn an honest living. If you keep off the streets that you may work or study, you will grow up useful citizens and I hope good Christians ; while the lazy and proud will become begging tramps. Remember : " If any will not work, neither let him eat." THE RAIN. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises upon the harp unto our God : Who covereth the heaven with clouds, Who prepareth rain for the earth, Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, And to the young ravens which cry. — Ps. 147 : 7-9. You have often seen the clouds and the rain ; and did you never ask : What is rain ? Where does it come from ? How did it get into the sky ? What could we do without it ? The Bible says much about the rain. It describes a storm with its wind, and rain, and lightning, and thunder : *' God mak- eth lightnings for the rain." " His light- nings lightened the world." "The God of glory thundereth." '' Canst thou thunder with a voice like him ? " '' The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind ; . . . the earth trembled and shook." " The voice of the Lord " (his thunder) " is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars 250 THE RAIN. 251 ... he maketh them also to skip hke a calf." '* The voice of the Lord . . . strippeth the forests bare." There are a great many other texts that refer to the rain, the wind, the lightning, and the thunder. I . What is rain ? We are told by Job : '' For he draweth up the drops of water, which distil in rain from his vapor." You look into the sky on a clear day : there is no cloud, no water there, that you can see, though the air is full of vapor of water, particles so small that you can not see them. But let a warm wind blow into the cold air, as you blow your breath into the air in winter, and clouds arise. The vapor changes so that we can see it, and begins to fall to the ground in drops that we call rain. Each drop starts high up in the cloud, a very small drop, but as it falls it picks up more and more water until it comes down a large round drop. Men have made it rain and snow in a small room, by mixing cooler air with warmer ; but they are not able to make it rain out-of-doors when they will. We mean by rain, then, drops of water falling from the clouds to the earth. When 252 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. ■ they are frozen we call them hall, If they are large and hard, but snow if small and feathery. When they fall but a few inches and in little tiny drops we call them dew. But dew, snow, hail, and rain are the same thing in different forms. 2. Where does the rain come from ? It comes from the air above and around us. The air is full of water all the time, on clear days as on rainy days. If you could squeeze the air as you can squeeze a wet sponge, the ground would be covered deep with water. The rain comes from the air. But — 3. How did it get there ? I will tell you. If you put a basin of water into the sunshine and leave it there long enough, your basin will be empty. All the water will have gone. Where ? Not through the basin, not over the top, but into the air. If you were to sit down and watch it go, you could not see it, it would steal away so slyly. The air takes it up in such small particles that you can not see them. Now what takes place from your little basin takes place from every river, pool, pond, lake, sea, and ocean. The air is all the time drawing up the water and carrying it off, and the reason why the ponds THE RAIN. 253 and seas do not dry up is that the rain falls and fills them up again, as your basin would be filled by a shower. Job understood It when he said: ''For he draweth up the drops of water, which distil In rain from his vapor ; which the skies pour down and drop upon man abundantly." '' For he salth to the snow, Fall thou on the earth ; likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain " (Job 36 : 27 ; 'i^'] \ 6). 4. What could we do without rain ? If the rain should cease and the dew, every green and living thing would die, — grass, trees, Insects, beasts, birds, men, — except where men pumped or carried water to wet the earth, and what a task that would be ! If you had nothing to wet your lawns or gardens with but the water you pumped from a well or brought from the river or lake, what a dreary life you would have ! Day in and day out you would have to lug the water or pump it ; for if you stopped, every herb and flower would die. But God sends the rain, and how green and bright and happy every thing is ! No wonder, then, that men sing unto God for the rain and praise him for the showers, saying, in the words of our text, — 254 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. " Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving ; Sing praises upon the harp unto our God : Who covereth the heaven with clouds, Who prepareth rain for the earth, Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, And to the young ravens that cry." If God should withhold the rain, the earth would soon become a desert of sand where no grass could grow or animal could live. Let us thank God for the rain : " For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." LI. THE SNOW. For he saith to the snow, Fall thou on the earth. — Jobs/: 6. You have played so much in the snow, children, that I wish to talk to you about it ; for it is a wonderful thing and a beauti- ful thing. It is so wonderful a thing that if you had never seen a snow-storm in your life, you would be frightened at the falling flakes, or dance with delight in trying to catch them. It is so wonderful that if you were to go to any part of the earth where there is no snow in winter and tell them what you have seen, they would not believe you. If you should tell the boys and girls there that in your country you could take water in your hands, make it into round balls, and throw them at one another in mimic battle ; that you could build forts of it with high walls all round ; that you could form houses out of it and build fires inside them ; that you could roll it up into huge balls as high as 255 256 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. your head ; that you could shovel a path through it with banks on both sides; that you could fashion it into the image of a man with legs, arms, head, nose, and eyes, do you think they would believe what you say ? And if you should tell them you had seen the water driven by the wind into great drifts on the top of which you could walk ; that you had great sport in sliding down the hills on the snow ; that it would lodge on the roofs of the houses and stay there for many days ; that it would heap itself up on the limbs of the trees until they would bend to the ground or break off ; that it would form a ridge on the telegraph wires ; that you could skate over it on iron, — why, what do you think they would say to your story ? Would they believe you ? Perhaps they would fetch some water and say to you : " Make this into balls and throw them at us ; cut paths through this water ; heap it up in ridges on the limbs of trees ; fashion it into the form of a man with legs and hands, and head and eyes, and we will be- lieve you, but not till then." Then you would cry out : " Oh, it is water frozen into snow and ice that I was telling you about." THE SNOIV. And they would say : " Freeze this water Into snow or ice and we will believe you, but not till then." How could you make them believe what you say ? They had never seen snow or ice or frost which you have seen so often. You could not turn water into snow or ice, and they would regard you as a great liar. You would have told them the truth, but they would not believe you because they had never seen what is so common to you, and because snow is such a wonderful thing. For snow is moisture or water freezing in the air ; and ice is frozen water on the ground or river. You breathe on a warm day, and you do not see your breath at all ; but you go out some cold morning, and your breath looks like a cloud of smoke. Why ? Because the moisture or water in your warm breath meets the cold air and becomes a cloud of fog for a moment, then it freezes and falls to the ground as frost. Job says in the tenth verse of the chapter from which the text is taken : "By the breath of God frost is given." He likens God to a great man breathing over all the land, and the ground is covered with white frost, the frozen 258 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN: breath of God. When a warm current of air meets a cold current, the water In the air freezes and falls as snow. And so Job says : '' God saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth," and the ground is covered as with a clean white garment. And snow is very beautiful ; when the moisture or water in the air freezes, it forms the most beautiful crystals and falls to the ground. These crystals are in many forms and sizes. One man examined and pictured nearly a hundred different forms of the crystals. If you catch a large flake on a still day and look at it through a magni- fying glass or a microscope, you will see a thing of beauty, but not a joy forever ; for it will soon melt into water. If you look into Webster's largest dictionary, you will find pictures of the crystals of snow and can see how beautiful they are. So if you look at the frost marks on the window glass some cold morning, you will find most beautiful tracings, made by the crystals of water when freezing. You can not draw any thing so beautiful. Snow is white and clean when it falls, and so it is made to stand for cleanliness or THE SNOW. 259 purity. The clothes of angels are said in the Bible to be as white as snow ; and white is worn by boys and girls, men and women, as a sign of purity. Job speaks in one place of washing himself in snow water, and mak- ing his hands never so clean. So you should have white, clean hands and faces, and should keep your clothes clean ; so that snow may be a symbol of your purity. But all wrong and sinful things defile your hearts, which should be cleaner than your clothes. Sin is spoken of as vile, cor- rupt, a stain, a blemish; and yet your sinful hearts can be made clean and white, when you repent of sin and turn from it. This is why Christ Jesus died on the cross, that God might forgive your sins and create a clean heart within you. Hence the king of Israel, David, was not ashamed to say to God : " Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." And God says to each one : " Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." And the forgiven are said to be " fairer than snow." The clean white snow as it falls from the heavens thus stands for purity ; and a pure soul, made such by the forgiving love of God in Christ 260 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Jesus, is much more beautiful than the crys- tals of snow which fall when God says ; ** Fall thou on the earth." " Purer yet and purer I would be in mind, Dearer yet and dearer Every duty find ; Hoping still and trusting God without fear, Patiently believing He will make all clear." LII. TAKING CARE OF THE HEALTH. Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. — 3 John 2. John the apostle wrote the Httle letter that contains the text. And he was older when he wrote it than perhaps any one you ever saw, children ; for he was nearly or quite one hundred years of age. He was feeble through age ; and he had a right to say to his beloved Gains {gci'-yus) that he cared for his health ; for health is one of God's best blessings, easily lost but hard to find again. We should take good care of our health. I am going to preach to you, therefore, on caring for your health ; for I do not want you to be sick and die. I want to see you run and skip along the streets, and live to be aged. You do not want to be sick. No one wants you to be sick. And yet you may be sick, and all because you do not care ?6i 262 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. for your health. I wonder if you would re- member and obey a few short rules that may help you to keep well ? I will try to make them very short and plain. Let me say, before giving the rules, that writings on health are among the oldest in the world ; that some of the greatest men have given their attention to rules of health ; that Moses did so ; that the Jews are because of it among the healthiest people in the world. We are told that the death-rate in London, England, for each thousand people, has been lessened two thirds in the last two hundred years, by care for health, and that the death- rate in the English army has been lessened one half during the last thirty years. You see that God blesses those who care for their health. Now for the rules : — I. Breathe pure air. You can not live but a moment or two without air. You must have it or die, and you need a great deal of it. God has made it free, and you need it as pure and fresh as he gives it. So do not sleep in close rooms with no place for the air to come in and go out during the night. Sleep in large rooms, or where you get a constant change of air, It TAKING CARE OF THE HEALTH. 263 will give you health. Then when you breathe, as you do all the time, fill your lungs full, to the very bottom, with the good fresh air. Pure air and a full breath will help to answer the prayer of John for health of body. 2. Drink pure water. Water is God's drink for man. It is not as free as the air, for we must dig wells for it or pump it out of lakes or rivers. But we should take great care that it be clear, pure, and spark- ling. Bad water will soon make you sick. And if you think that the water is not pure, do not drink it until it has been boiled a w^hile ; then when cool you can drink it, and it will not make you sick. 3. Eat plain food. The air and the water you can not choose as well as you can your food. You want pies and cakes and candies, and tease for them, and they will not hurt you if you eat tb^m now and then, but if you eat them all the time they will make you sick. They are not the best food for you. You need to eat the simple, plain food your mother cooks you. Then your cheeks will be full and fair ; but if you are eating cakes and candies all the time, you will soon 264 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. be 111, and the doctors may not be able to cure you. Eat plain food and do not eat all the time. Let your jaws and stomach rest, as they need to ; if you eat all the time you will ruin your health, which you ought to preserve. 4. Keep yourself clean. Do not be afraid of water to wash and bathe with ; for noth- ing produces sickness quicker than filth around or in the house, or on the body. Soap and water will keep you clean and well, if used often enous^h. Use much water and be clean. The Bible says: "Be ye clean," and gives many rules for keeping clean. Keep yourselves clean. There is health in it. 5. Sleep all you need. You play and work, and you need rest in sleep. Do not rob yourselves of sleep by late hours ; for if you do rob your nights of sleep, you will become nervous, cross, and sick. Your health will suffer without all the sleep you need. Sleep until you are rested. 6. Keep your feet dry. Do not run into the water or mud, and if you must go out in the rain or dew, put on rubbers or wear thick shoes, so as to keep your feet warm TAKING CARE OF THE HEALTH. 265 and dry. Heed what your mothers say about dress in wet weather, and wear what they tell you to wear. Do not leave off your rubbers because they make your feet large and heavy. Wear any thing that will keep you dry and warm, so that you will not get cold and be sick and die, as so many do. 7. Do not play too much. Perhaps you think that you can not play too much, but you can. You can run until you are tired out, and play until you are worn out. Do not do it. Rest and be quiet. 8. Be cheerful. A merry heart is better for health than medicine, for it will keep you from being sick, while medicine may not cure you when sick. Solomon says : " Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones." Hearty laughter will cure some ills. Be cheerful then. Use pleasant words. Wear a pleasant face. Be happy. Now I have given you eight rules for your health. If you obey them you will be in health and live long lives. You will be healthier and happier, live longer and be more useful, if you remember them and 266 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. obey them than if you neglect them. Tell them to your father and mother so they may help you to keep them. That you may keep them in mind, I will repeat them : — 1. Breathe pure air. 2. Drink pure water. 3. Eat plain food. 4. Keep yourselves clean. 5. Sleep all you need. 6. Keep your feet dry. 7. Do not play too much. 8. Be cheerful. God told the Jews what to eat and what not to eat, and how to live in a cleanly man- ner, and so the Jews are very healthy. They are not sick as much as others are. God wants us to be in health, to live long lives, to be happy. Let us then take good care of our health, and ask your mothers to help you, for the careful live the longest. LIII. PUNCTUALITY. Be instant in season. — 2 Tim. 4 : 2. Paul had been a very active man, always on hand when there was any thing- to be done. But when he wrote our text he was an old man, and was in prison for preaching Jesus Christ. He was soon to be beheaded as a martyr, dying for Christ's sake. A little while before he was put to death he wrote a letter to a minister of the gospel, named Timothy, a young man. Paul told Timothy to "be instant in season, out of season," in his preaching. But as he who is not prompt about other things is not likely to be in preaching, we may apply the text to all things that we do. To be instant in season is to be atten- tive, ready. It is a prompt attention that may at any moment pass into action. It is much more than to be punctual, and yet it includes punctuality, and we will apply it to being punctual. 267 2 68 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. To be punctual is to be on hand at the fixed or set time, not tardy or behindhand ; to be prompt. Let me illustrate it : Church worship begins at a fixed time ; and to be punctual at the church is to be there and in your seats before the services commence. If you come late, you are not punctual. So the school begins at a fixed time ; and to be punctual at school is to be there and in your seats before the school begins. If you agree to meet one at a certain hour of the day, to be punctual is to be on hand at that hour and minute. If you come after the time, you are not instant in season, but you are tardy. You ought to try to be punctual at all times and places, and these are the reasons why : — I. You will do more if you are punctual. The punctual boy or girl, man or woman, keeps ahead of his work or study, and does not lag behind it. Take your lessons. If you are instant in season you will get them before the time comes to recite them. You will keep up and ahead of your recitations. But if you are not punctual, then you will lag behind, The time will come to recite PUNCTUALITY. 269 and you are not ready. A part of the lesson will not be well learned. So if you make an agreement to meet one, to be on hand and have it done with saves time for other things. So if you have w^ork or chores to do, do them punctually at the proper time, and you will do them best and quickest. If you are prompt, punctual, instant in season, you will save time and do more work and study. 2. You will have more time for play if you are punctual. If you have a task to do of any sort, and you are promptly at it in time, it is soonest done, and being done you can then play with a free heart. I am glad that our common schools teach punctual- ity so thoroughly that the children hurry in when the last bell begins to ring. Do your tasks promptly and you will get more time for rest or play or reading good books and papers. 3. It is your duty to be punctual. If you have ever seen soldiers march, you know what is to be in line. If one is fast and another slow, if one is prompt to obey and another tardy, the line is all out of joint. It is crooked and no one can admire it. Hence soldiers are trained to keep step, to 270 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. move tog-ether, to march in Hne. It is the duty of every soldier to be instant in season, that he may not put others out of order. So if you have heard a band of music play, you noticed what perfect time was kept. One did not begin and then another, and then the third, each as he pleased ; for they are all trained to begin together, to keep together, and to close together. The tardy ones put the others out and have to leave the band if they can not learn to be on time. They have to be instant in season. Now it is your duty while young to form habits of promptness, readiness. You need to learn to be punctual, on hand in time, instant in season. You see how quick they are who play ball. They are all alert to catch the ball, but to catch it they must be where it is, and so they are intent, they watch for it, they are instant in season. You want to learn to do the same in all the affairs of play, study, work, and life. You want to be punctual, prompt, so as to make no failure in life. If you take a little twig, you can bend and break it as you will ; but if you take two or three together, you will find it harder PUNCTUALITY. ' 27 1 to bend or break them. If you take a lot of them and tie them together In a bundle, you can not either bend or break them. Now a man Is but a bundle of habits, and each habit is a bundle of acts. If the bundle is made up of good sticks, the more the better, for you do not need to break them. But If the bundle be made up of bad sticks, you ought to break it, but the larger it Is the harder it is to break. The habit of being punctual is a good habit, but the habit of being behindhand is a bad habit. It is your duty to make up this bundle of good sticks, by being always on hand, being instant in season. Hence be punctual at school, at church, at every agreement you make. Never be late if you can help it. It Is even said of God that he is not slack concerning his promises. He Is not slow in fulfilling them. He is always on time. So we should always be on time. And when he says: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth ; " '' Those that seek me early shall find me," we should obey promptly. Like a good soldier we should obey orders. We should be prompt to hear and act. We ought not to wait for 272 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. a better time. Act promptly, be instant in season, in obeying your parents, your teach- ers, your Saviour. When Christ said to Matthew : " Follow me," Matthew obeyed instantly and followed him. God commands you to do the same. Never be behindhand in any duty. Then God, even our God, shall bless you. LIV. DANIEL, THE TEMPERANCE BOY. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. — Dan. 1 : 8. Daniel was a boy about seventeen years old when he was carried a captive from Jeru- salem to Babylon. He might have been put to work ; but as he was of noble birth, if not of royal birth, the king of Babylon selected him and three other captive boys, to send to school in the palace, that they might be edu- cated for the king's service. They were fed from the king's own table. Now the king was a heathen, a worshiper of idols, and not of God. But the boys were Jews ; they be- lieved in and worshiped God. They had the sacred writings to read which now form a part of the Bible. Daniel, though a lad so young, believed that the law of Moses for- bade his eating some of the things sent him to eat by the king. They were what he called unclean food, or else they had been offered 973 274 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. to idols according to heathen custom. God had forbidden the Jews to touch such food and drink. Daniel knew it, and he purposed in his heart to obey God and not the king. He would not eat or drink what God had forbidden, though sent by the king. So he asked the officer who had charge of him that he might not defile himself with such food and wine. The officer was willing, but he feared the king, and that the simple food which Daniel and his three friends wanted to eat would not be good for them. He thought that if he allowed them to eat it their faces would be worse looking than those of the other boys, and then he would be blamed for it. But he kindly agreed to try their food and see what would be the result. If the boys could go without the king's food and wine and not be injured by it, he would grant their request. They made the trial for ten days ; and at the end of the trial the countenances of these four pious boys *' ap- peared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat." So the officer took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink, and they kept the command of DANIEL, THE TEMPERANCE BOY. 275 their God. They did not defile themselves with the kinof's food and wine. They were very good and brave boys to do as they did, and God blessed them for it. They could study better with their simple food, look fairer, be healthier, and so get on better. Daniel became a great man and held a hiofh office all his life-time. Read the book of Daniel, and you will see how God exalted and rewarded the boy that obeyed him. You should do as Daniel and his three friends did, obey God. They were captives and could be made to do what they did not want to do. Yet they purposed in their hearts not to do any thing which was not right. And one of the things they did not want to use was wine. Daniel took the lead in these good things. And he is a good ex- ample for all boys. Do not defile yourselves with either wine or tobacco. We want each one of you to purpose in his heart not to use wine or strong drink of any kind. And I will give you the reasons why you should not touch them. I. They will do you no good. When the doctor gives them for medicine you may take 276 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. them. But do not use them as a drink or beverage. Neither wine nor beer, neither whiskey nor any other strong drink, will do you good. You do not need them. This is a settled fact. They will do you no good. 2. They will do you harm if you use them. They injure your body and take your money. If you use wine or any other strong drink, you can not study as well or work as well, or do any thing as well as you can if you let them alone. If you defile your bodies with intoxicating liquors, you will not be as fair and healthy as if you let them alone. 3. Their use leads to drunkenness. You do not want to be a drunkard, for no drunk- ard can enter into the kingdom of God. Be- sides, no one has more shame and woe than a drunkard. He clothes himself in rags and lives in poverty. You do not want to have the rags, the shame, and the woe of a drunk- ard ; then purpose in your heart not to touch beer or wine or any other kind of drink that intoxicates. If you begin to use them, you may die a drunkard ; but if you never begin to drink such things, you are safe, you will not die a drunkard. 4. Even if you could use such drinks with- DANIEL, THE TEMPERANCE BOY. 277 out danger or Injury to yourself, you ought never to use them, for the sake of others who would be injured by them. God not only pronounces woes upon drunkards, but he says : " It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth." You ought not to do any thing which may lead others into evil. These four reasons are enough. Let me repeat them: i. Wine and all intoxicating drinks do you no good ; 2. They do you harm; 3. They lead to drunkenness ; and 4. They may lead others to fall if you use them. Hence you ought to purpose in your heart, as Daniel did, not to drink them. Most, if not all, of you have formed such a purpose, and have signed our Sunday-school temper- ance pledge, never to use beer, wine, or other liquor. We hope if any new scholars have not signed such a pledge, they will do so. We want every name. It is our Roll of Honor. The pledge is a solemn promise. If it is once made, it should be kept. I do not want you to sign this pledge more than once ; but I want and expect you to keep it as you would keep any other promise. When our president, Abraham Lincoln, had promised 278 SEIiiMONS FOR CHILDREN. freedom to all slaves who should enlist In the Federal army and fight to put down the slave-holders' rebellion, he was urged to take back his promise, but he wrote: ''The PROMISE HAVING BEEN MADE MUST BE KEPT." When you sign our pledge, you make a promise, and remember, the promise having been made must be kept. Hence I do not ask you to sign again as though your promise had expired, but, if you have signed once, let that be enough. For if you are truthful, as I want you to be, and God wants you to be, your promise once given is better than if many times given. Keep your pledge and never break it. Note. — Reference is made in the sermon to a Sunday- school pledge book. This book is bound in red morocco and kept in the library, and contains the following pledge, which is read once or twice a year for new signers : — "We, the undersigned, being officers, teachers, and scholars of the First Congregational Sunday-school of the city of Port Huron, St. Clair County, state of Michigan, for our own good and the good of the world in which we live, do hereby promise and engage, with the help of Almighty God, to abstain from buying, selling, or using alcoholic and malt beverages, wine included. " In token of which we hereunto subscribe our names in this Sunday-school pledge book, to be preserved in the pastor's library for future reference and use by mem- bers of the school." LV. FRETFULNESS. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers. — Ps. 37 : i. I HOPE none of the children will forget to look out in the Bible the text of every sermon, and do it without help from others ; for in this way you will soon learn to find any book, chapter, and verse in the Bible. At the first you will need to remember the text to-day: ''Fret not thyself;" for some of you will look in the wrong place for the text. If the text were in First John you might look in the Gospel of John and not in his First Epistle ; and so not finding the text, you might fret about it. Now, if you will find the Thirty-seventh Psalm and read it, you will see that the words : '' Fret not thyself," are several times repeated ; and I am going to preach you a sermon on fretfulness, or peevishness. Perhaps you think that I do not know what fretfulness, peevishness, is ; but I do know 279 28o SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. what it is. For I have felt it, and seen It, and heard it, and read about it, and had it. I can tell you just what it is. And if I were to go into some of your homes, I should find it there, and know It from the first word It would speak. If any boy or girl, father or mother. In your home has it, it will reveal Itself In a little while In some word or act, though he or she should try hard to hide It. Let me tell you what it is. To be peevish Is to be habitually or con- stantly fretful, to be easily vexed or fretted, to be cross, hard to please, ill-natured, testy, irritable, waspish, apt to mutter and complain, petulant, discontented, captious. I see by your faces that you know It, and that you recognize it as something you have taken to bed with you at night which awakened with you In the morning, and which you have nursed all the day long. You all know what fretfulness, peevishness, is. But some of you do not like that old and true name peevishness, and so you call it nervousness, as though to change Its name were to change Its nature. But it is the same old, unhappy, annoying thing FRE T FULNESS. 2 8 1 that we have described, call it by what name you will. I wish you would turn it out-of-doors, and never let it come in again ; for then how happy your homes would be ! For no fretful, peevish, cross, ill-tempered boy or girl, man or woman, ever was happy or able to make others happy. The habit of being fretful never makes one feel well, or look well, or act well, or speak well. It makes the face cross, the words sharp, the acts hateful, the heart sour, the life petulant, the boy or girl, man or woman, so dis- agreeable that nobody likes them. We like those that have smiling faces, sweet words, kind actions, and a "thank you" for every thing. But no one while peevish ever has these. A wasp has a sharp sting that hurts, so has a peevish boy or girl, whose words are like stings and whose acts are like sharp pins. No wonder, then, that the text says : '' Fret not thyself because of evil-doers." Do you say : "I can not help it. I feel cross, crabbed, out of sorts ; and I speak and act as I feel"? That is just what you ought not to do. 282 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. If you give way to your feelings you make yourself more fretful, and torment others about you. There is nothing but evil in It, to you and to others. That Is not the way to get rid of cross feelings; but I will tell you how to do it, and if you try hard to follow the way, you will soon be rid of petulant feelings and peevish habits. This is the way : When you feel cross or fretful or angry, walk across the room three times without saying a word, and you will feel better ; and If you will do this every time you are peevish, It will soon cure you alto- gether. Try it. I used to try it when at school. If I could not get my lessons as quickly as I desired, I became nervous, peevish, vexed. It fretted me, as it does you. It was foolish in me, as It Is in you, to be fretful over so small a matter ; and so I said : '' I will break myself of it, lest It become a fixed habit." To do so, I would leave my book for a minute or two, walk across the room a few times, say nothing ; and presently the feeling of petulance would pass away ; I would feel better ; then I would go back to my study, and learn my FRETFULNESS. 283 lesson quickly. If you will do this when you feel cross or peevish, and want to say or do some hateful thing, you will soon cease to be fretful and become pleasant. If you, every time you feel petulant, will stop, say nothing, do nothing ill-natured, but walk across the floor a few times, you will find that a sweet spirit will drive out the bitter spirit, gentle words will come in place of the stinging words, and kind acts instead of petulant. You will soon learn not to fret yourself over any evil. This will cure any case of peevishness which may afflict you and others. And why should you not try it ? It will turn your pouting and crying and fretting and scolding into smiles and sweetness and love. It will turn many a child into an angel of light, many a home into a paradise of joy. Try it the very next time you feel peevish, and every time — for once will not do — and it will make you happy. But fret- ting does you no good ; it makes you and all in the home unhappy ; it does nothing but harm. Why not turn it out of your hearts and homes, and never let it in again? Why not be rid of it at once and forever? " Fret 284 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. not thyself because of evil-doers." '' Fret not thyself." God forbids all peevishness, fret- fulness. I wish you would learn by heart these words of the poet Whittier : — " A little word in kindness spoken, A motion, or a tear, Has often healed the heart that 's broken, And made a friend sincere. A word — a look — has crushed to earth Full many a budding flower. Which, had a smile but owned its birth, Would bless life's darkest hour. Then deem it not an idle thing A pleasant word to speak; The face you wear, the thought you bring, A heart may heal or break." LVI. THINKING OF ONE'S SELF. For I say, through the grace that was given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. — Rom. 12: 3. You know, children, that some things are easy to do, and other things are very hard to do. The text tells us a hard thing to do : not to think of one's self more highly than he ought to think. But what does this mean ? It means that no boy or girl, man or woman, should over- estimate himself or herself, should think more of self than is proper or right. If you are all the time thinking about yourselves, what you are, what you wear, what you can do to attract attention and have every body look at you ; if you feel above others, that you are brighter, smarter, prettier, dress better than they, you think more highly of yourselves than you ought to think. And so you are meant by the text. Let us visit a boy that thinks more highly 385 286 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. of himself than he ought to think, and see how he behaves. He sits still a little while after we go in, for we are strangers. He has never seen us before. But soon he does or says something to let us know that he is at home and must not be forgotten. We must pay attention to him as well as to his mother. But we keep on talking with his mother, until the little boy goes through some antic, to make us look at him and see what smart things he can do. He does not know that we should think more and better of him if he kept still and behaved as he ought during our visit ; but he thinks no one sees him un- less he is the center of all eyes and smiles. So he keeps on saying and doing things just to be seen. He puts himself before his mother and wants her to stop talking, that he may talk or show himself off. He thinks more of himself than of his mother or of any one else. He cries out : " See me ! see what I am ; what I can do ! " He wants us to laugh at him as a wonder ; to notice and praise him. Did you ever see such a boy or girl ? Can you call him by name ? Is his name your name, I wonder ? Think of it and see ; for THINKING OF ONE'S SELF. 287 no one likes the boy or girl who thinks of self too highly. This pride or desire shows itself in another way ; as when a boy or girl is asked to do something, to read aloud, or to recite a piece, or to play on the organ or piano, and will not consent to do so without a great deal of urging. They begin to make excuses, and if at last they consent, they act as if they were thinking of self all the time, of how they look, or how they shall get through it, or what others will think of it. How much better to do the thing desired the best you can, without a single thought of self! Do not, therefore, think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Do you ask: *' How can I help it?" Let me tell you, and I want you to learn and re- member the rules I give : — 1. Think enough of yourself always to behave well in church, in school, at home, on the street, in company, every-where. This is not thinking too highly of yourself. 2. Think enough of yourself to dress well, not richly, but in clean and suitable clothes. Be careful, then, not to soil your clothes, espe- cially your best clothes. Keep them clean and fit for church. 288 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 3. Think enough of yourself to hear well. When you are talking- with others, give them their full share in the conversation. Do not talk all the time yourself, as though what you say is all-important, and what they say is of no importance. Hear what they say, and they will hear what you say. Turn about is fair play. 4. Think enough of yourself to see well. See what others do, and what they have. If you play at any thing, see how the others play. Look at them, if you want them to look at you in the game. 5. Think more of your father and mother than of yourself. Your father is a king, your mother is a queen, and you should think more of making them happy, of pleasing them, than of your own comfort. Forget self and honor them. When they are talking, do not break in with your little words. Be still, and hear, and see. 6. Think of your teachers and pastor with love and respect, as knowing more than you do. Never fancy that you know too much to be taught. Think of your great ignorance, of what you do not know; and in the school and church you will not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. THINKING OF ONE'S SELF. 289 7. Think of God and your sins, and you will think humbly and soberly and jusdy of yourself. You could not boast of yourself before God, for you have disobeyed him. You need to ask him to forgive you and to make you better. And when you feel this need, you are humble and sober, as God would have you be. If you heed these rules you will not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think ; for they teach you to think enough of yourself always to behave well, to dress suitably, to hear others talk, to see what they do, to place your parents above yourself, to love and respect your teachers, and to honor and fear God. These will cause you to think humbly and soberly of yourself, as you ought to think. LVII. THE BEST ORNAMENTS. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. — Prov. i : 9. Children are fond of ornaments, as others are. They Hke gold rings and chains, pins and bracelets. Away back in the time of Abraham, women wore earrings and brace- lets ; and they were very common in the days of king Solomon, the writer of the text. Then they wore jewelry on the ankles and in the nose, as well as on the arms and fingers. If I were to offer to give you all a golden ring or chain, or a string of costly pearls for your neck or hair, the very best piece of jewelry each one should select, how delighted you would be. You would wait after the sermon to get them, and you would do right to wait for them ; for they would be graceful ornaments on your finger, or neck, or arms, or head. They are beautiful, and each one of you would wear one or more of them. 290 THE BEST ORNAMENTS. 291 As God shows his glory in the stars, and his love of the beautiful in the flowers and rain- bow and sunsets, so you would adorn your bodies with precious gems and costly orna- ments of beauty. I wonder if the text refers to ornaments of gold and pearl. Let us see. It says : "They shall be an ornament." And what does it mean ? Read the words just before the text : '' My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother : for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck ; " that is, necklaces. We see, then, that these jewels are " the instruction of thy father, and the law of thy mother." Here, then, is a jewel for each one of you, more beautiful than chains of gold or neck- laces of pearl, one that will last you longer and adorn you better than sparkling diamonds. No one can steal it from you, and you need never lose it. I have seen some of you wear- ing these ornaments, and I wish you all had them. Do you cry out: "Oh, I would rather have a gold ring or a watch or a necklace ; for I should look so much better with it ! " ? 292 SER3I0NS FOR CHILDREN. Let me ask you a question or two : Why do you want a ring or a necklace? "Well, I want it because it is pretty and valuable, and because I and others admire it." Yes, we wear ornaments to hz seen and admired, nor is this always wrong. But which will make you to be the more admired, ornaments of gold and pearl, or the ornament of prompt and loving obedience of parents, and tender regard for them ? I will tell you, for you might not answer right. I once came home from Chicago on a crowded steamer. A sick mother and her son, a young man, were among the passen- gers. They did not attract the notice or admiration of any one at first ; for both were more plainly dressed than many of the other passengers. Yet that noble young man was as gentle and kind and attentive to his mother as she had been to him when a child. He did every thing to please and comfort her. He would not read a book, or wait until she wanted something and asked for it ; but he got it without her asking. There were other young men on the boat, and a great many men and women, and some of them with much jewelry. But who do you THE BEST ORNAMENTS. 293 think came to be most admired by all on the steamer, those who wore the most gold and diamonds ? No ; but this young man who wore only the ornament of hearing the law of his mother. He did not forsake the train- ing she had given him when a littje boy. He was admired more than he would have been had he been covered with gold and diamonds. If you wear jewelry to be admired, then the very best ornament for you to wear is that of our text, which this young man wore. All will admire you more for obeying your par- ents than for all the jewels money will buy. Did you never see ornaments on some one whose character you did not admire in the least? And is it not better to be admired for what you are than for what you wear? for your character and good acts than for your gold rings or chains ? Some of the worst boys and girls, men and women, deck themselves out in jewelry ; but their orna- ments do not make them any better. Neither God nor man admires them, though covered with gold. Some of the best boys and girls, men and women, do not w^ear any jewelry, or but little ; and yet they are admired and loved. Their jewels are of the soul, not of 294 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. the body ; so costly that no money can buy them. These are the jewels you all can have. The very poorest can be adorned with good manners and obedience. You can hear and heed the instruction of your father and forsake not the law of your mother ; and they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains of gold about thy neck. God will love you and men will admire you. Buy these best jewels and always wear them. LVIII. DORCAS AND HER DEEDS. Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas : this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. — Acts 9 : 36. Happy is any one of whom such words can be said ; yet it may be said of each one of you, if you will do as Dorcas did. Her name had a meaning, as your names have. Tabitha means gazelle, " the gazelle being regarded as the standard of beauty." The Greek word Dorcas means the same. The name John means whom Jehovah loves ; David means beloved ; Dora, the gift of God ; Sarah, a princess. Every name once meant something, if it does not now. But Dorcas was not so beautiful in her name as in what she did. If you will look on the map, you will find Joppa, where she lived, on the coast, thirty-five miles north-west of Jerusalem. It is one of the oldest cities in the world. Dorcas was a disciple of Jesus Christ, and a disciple is one taught or trained. 295 296 SERMOiVS FOR CHILDREN. She was one taught or trained In the teachings of Jesus Christ. She beHeved them and obeyed them. You can be like her In this. You can be taught or trained In the Bible. You can believe what the Bible says, and obey It. And so you can be a disciple, each one of you, as she was. You see that It Is not hard being a dis- ciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. She was a member of the church, as you should all desire to be ; for Christ requires this of his disciples. But this is not all. She was " full of good works and almsdeeds which she did." She did not live for herself, to please her- self, to have a good time ; but she made coats and garments for the poor. She made herself very useful, and so made herself and others happy ; for to be useful Is to be happy. But Dorcas fell sick and died. We are not told what she said when about to die, as though good words spoken then are better than a life of good deeds. All she said Is passed by, and she was prepared for burial. Now Peter the apostle was at Lydda, a few miles away, and the friends of DORCAS AND HER DEEDS. 297 Dorcas sent two men to him to entreat him, saying, " Delay not to come on unto us." They wanted to see him in their great sorrow; for when sickness and death come, we all need friends to aid and comfort us. It is then that the heart aches for love and sympathy. Peter came at once to the house where the dead Dorcas lay, and they brought him into the upper chamber ; " and all the widows stood by him weeping, and show- ing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them." I do not suppose that Dorcas ever thought that what she had made would be shown or spoken of at her funeral. But the poor had lost a friend, one who pitied them and helped them as best she could. And to have Peter know all about it, not only how they felt, — which was shown by their weeping, — but also what a noble friend had been taken from them, — which was shown by the garments she had made, — they made known to Peter how much they had lost in the death of Dorcas. It may be that they had heard also that Peter had the gift of miracles, and might possibly restore her to life again, though not a word did they say about it. 298 SESMONS FOR CHILDREN. *' But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed ; and turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes; and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and raised her up ; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive." They must have been glad when they saw her alive again. Their tears were turned into singing. But none were more glad than the widows whom she had done so much for while alive. How long she lived after this, to make them coats and garments, we do not know. She no doubt continued her deeds of love until she died again and went home to heaven to be for- ever with Him who said : '' Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me." Dorcas lived more than eighteen hundred years ago, and yet we read about her with interest to-day. Why? Not because she was beautiful or rich ; but because of her good works and almsdeeds, which, like kind words, never die. Her heart, like Christ's, was full of love to the needy. So she worked with her needle to help DORCAS AND HER DEEDS. 299 them. She found it more blessed to give than to receive. She did not spend her time on herself, and all her money in fine clothes for herself to wear. She did not seek to be admired for her good looks, or rich dress, or costly jewelry, or even for her good works and almsdeeds. She thought of the widows and the children about her in the city of Joppa, and she pitied and helped them. She did what she could for them, and they wept over her death and praised her good deeds to the apostle. Her works did praise her. She did what she could. Do you not think, children, that Dorcas did right, and that it would be well for you to do as she did ? There are some now who live by begging. They are as well able to work as your fathers and mothers. I do not think it would be right for you to take the hard-earned money of your fathers and moth- ers and give it to those who can work but will not. Christ does not ask you to do that. Paul gave this rule to the churches: "This we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat." It was not such that Dorcas helped. But there are poor neigh- 300 SER MOATS FOR CHTLDREN. bors who are worthy and who need your help. And is it not better to make them warm and happy, to feed and clothe them, than to spend all your time trying to find out some new pleasure for yourselves ? What joy can be sweeter, fresher, more satisfying, than to help and care for others ? They are the happiest who do as Dorcas did, who love Christ Jesus and help the widows. I would not stop your playing, for it is one of God's ways for training you, and I like to see you play when you are kind to one another, do not cheat, and do not make a great noise about it. But it is not good to play all the time. Solomon the king said : '' To every thing there is a season." If you, then, would mix up with your play care for the poor children about you, their happy faces would make you still happier. Try it, and you will so enjoy it that soon you will be full of good works and almsdeeds. If you are very young and can not work for them to help them, you can plant seeds, and by-and-by when the flowers bloom you can pick the flowers and take them to the sick and the poor ; and that will make their sad lives better and happier. Would not DORCAS AND HER DEEDS. 30 1 that be a beautiful thing to do ? Then you who are older can make garments and give the poor, or plant a garden and raise something that they can eat. You can talk with your parents about it, and do the very best thing for them and for you. A new joy will enter your heart and theirs too ; for love comforts and soothes the heart as well as feeds and clothes the body. Try to do as Dorcas did, to be disciples of Jesus Christ, and full of good works and almsdeeds. It will be the sweetest joy of your life. It will make you like Jesus Christ, who went about doing good. LIX. MEANING OF THE CHURCH SERVICES. And they were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, What meaneth this? — Acts 2 : 12. This question was asked by men at the time when the Church of Christ was first formed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Apostle Peter answered it then. And when you first came to church and heard the singing, the preaching, and the prayers, you were amazed and perplexed, and said: "What meaneth this?" So I am going to tell you the meaning of the parts of the church services. We have as parts of our church service music and singing, which we will call praise, reading the Bible, free-will offerings, preach- ing, and prayer. Let us speak of each part. I . The service of praise. This is the high- est and best part of worship ; for it is better to thank God for the things he gives us than to ask him for more. Now praise is expressed 302 MEANING OF THE CHURCH SERVICES. 303 in music and song, and these form a large part of the church services. '' Sing praises to God, sing praises ; sing praises unto our King, sing praises ; " " speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father " (Eph. 5 : 19, 20). This is the worship of praise. Let me name the parts of praise : There is first the organ voluntary, which is that part of worship designed to soothe and prepare all hearts for the rest of the services ; then the doxology, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," is a call to praise and the offering of praise. But there is a better song of praise, very old, and sung by all the churches, beginning, — "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." This is more Scriptural and joyous and is higher and purer worship than the doxology. Then there is an older song, going back to the angels' song at the birth of Jesus, begin- ning, — 304 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. ^' Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good- will toward men." This is also a form of praise to be sung or chanted by the choir or the congregation. The hymns are also praise, and the respon- sive readings often. Nothing can be higher and nobler than the worship of praise, singing and chanting the glories of God. It is the best part of worship ; for it is better to thank God than to beg of him ; to be grateful for what we receive, than to ask more of him. 2. The service of instruction. To worship God as we ought, we must know what he is and what he wants us to be and do. We must be taught of God, and this is done by reading some part of the Bible, and by taking a text from the Bible and preaching from it. So the reading and the preaching make up the service of instruction in our worship. This is very useful. As you go to school to learn lessons, and to the Sunday-school to learn lessons from the Bible and to be taught about God, and Christ, and the Spirit, and your duty to God and man, so you should come to church to be taught about God and duty. You should take part in the respon- MEANING OF THE CHURCH SERVICES. 3 05 sive readings and listen attentively to the other Scriptures and to the sermon, that you may worship with heart and voice. Thus we honor God's Word. We want to hear what God says to us ; and hearing, we should obey. So the reading and the preaching are an Important part of worship, and should never be neglected. 3. The service of the free-will offering. God prospers us, giving fruitful seasons, labor, and wages. All that we eat and wear and have come from him, and in our grati- tude to God for his rich blessings, and for the hope of salvation through Christ who died for us, we are required by him to give to his service for missions and for the sup- port of the church itself, a part of what we earn or raise or have. It is a religious duty to do this ; God requires It ; and the giving in a right spirit Is an act of worship. So this free-will offering, as we call it, which Is a better word than collection, or contribution, is made a part of the church services. Re- member that you worship God by giving money unto him in this service ; and that you ought to give as he prospers you. 3o6 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. 4. The service of prayer. Prayer is thank- ing God for his gifts to us, and asking him for what things we think we need. Prayer includes the invocation, the benediction, and the longer and shorter prayer. In prayer we confess our sins, adore and worship God. We pray for all men, that God may bless and save them. This is so great a duty that much is said about it in the Bible. Jesus said that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Paul, in the name of Christ, commands : '' Pray without ceasing." It would be a good thing for you to find all the verses in the Bible that speak about prayer, put a short, straight mark with a pencil against them in the mar- gin of your own Bibles, that you may easily see them, and then to read them often. Will you not do it ? for prayer is so important a duty that God has said much about it in the Bible. But you say that in the church the minister prays. Yes, he leads in this part of the ser- vice, but all should silently join him in prayer, so that all hearts will be lifted unto God in prayer, as in praise. The minister prays for all and with all. MEANING OF THE CHURCH SERVICES. 307 We have now told you the meaning of the several acts of church worship, that you may enter into each act — the singing, the teach- ing, the giving, and the praying — with a knowledge of what it is. Each has its pecu- liar meaning, but all are parts of church worship. We are to worship God in each and all. One may be higher than another, but all are useful and needful. And one of the best things is that children can worship with their parents in the house of God. God wants you to attend church, and what is more beautiful in the house of God than to see father and mother and all the children in the same pew worshiping God together? And if all the parents and children were present every Sunday, how God would bless them ! Will you not worship God together in his house ? LX. DO NOT KILL THE BIRDS. The time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle [dove] is heard in our land." — Song of Solomon 2 : 12. The book from which this joyous text is taken is sometimes called The Song of Songs, sometimes it is called Canticles, but more generally it is called the Song of Solomon. The text refers to the spring of the year, when the winter is past, the flowers appear on the earth, and the singing birds come again, a time of gladness to man and bird. Let us on this spring day talk about birds and your duty not to kill them. I. The birds are musical. How they sing In the morning ! they sing among the the branches of the trees ; and they sing in their cages ; and they seem never to tire of singing. If you were to hush all their sweet voices in death, how silent the trees would be ! I like to have them in my home and in the trees about my home, because 308 DO NOT KILL THE BIRDS. 309 they sing so much and so well. God has made them to sing to one another that the air might be full of music about us. We sing, if we can, but only now and then ; the birds sing as if they were full of gladness, and their songs add to our joy. Do not stone or shoot them for this reason. 2. The birds are beautiful. Even the flowers are not more beautiful than some birds, but all are not alike in rich colors. Were you to try to paint a picture of a bird, do you think your painted bird would be as handsome as the living bird ? No ; you could not mix your coloring as it is mixed on a bird's feathers ; you could not give the changing hues we see on some birds, a different color every time they move. Would it not be a pity to take all this beauty away from the grass and the trees and the air by killing the birds ? You did not think of this when you threw a stone at one last week, did you ? You wanted to hit it for the sake of hitting it, and you did not stop to think that if you killed it, you would kill a beauti- ful thing. 3. The birds are ornamental. You have 3IO' SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. beautiful pictures on the walls of your homes, and beautiful things in the rooms. Some of you wear beautiful feathers in your hats or bonnets from the plumage of some bird ; or perhaps a wing or the whole plumage you wear ; and men sometimes wear long plumes in their hats ; and all as ornaments, because we love beautiful things. God loves beauti- ful things, and has made the sky, the grass, the trees, the flowers, and the birds beauti- ful. What a barren, dreary place this world would be with no beautiful thinofs in it ! You sod and cut the lawn that the grass may grow green and beautiful. You plant flowers in beds and keep them in your windows be- cause of their beauty. You set out trees for their shade and beauty. But there is noth- ing about your home so beautiful as the birds hopping about on the grass, or singing among the branches of the trees, or coming to eat from your hand. Do not hurt them, for God made them a beautiful ornament for your homes, to sing to you. But 4. The birds are useful. Some are more useful than others. Their singing and their beauty make them useful, but God has made them more useful still. They eat up the DO NOT KILL THE BIRDS. 31 1 worms and bugs and flies which hurt the flowers, the grain, the trees, and do so much damage. These bugs and flies and worms are their food, and God has made the birds to eat them up, so that they may not kill the wheat, the grain, the trees, and thus starve us to death. The birds are so useful that the laws of the state forbid your killing cer- tain kinds. As you have never read the law, I will give it : ^ '' Any person who shall at any time, within this state, kill any robin, night-hawk, whippoorwill, finch, thrush, lark, sparrow, cherry-bird, swallow, yellow-bird, blue-bird, brown thrasher, wren, martin, oriole, wood- pecker, bobolink, or any song bird, or rob the nests of such birds, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined five dollars for each bird so killed, or for each nest so robbed, or confined in the county jail for ten days, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court." You see that you can be fined or sent to jail or both for every one of these birds you kill at any time of the year. It is because 1 Law of Michigan. 312 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. they are so useful to man that the law of the state protects them. There are some other birds, besides other animals and fish, that can not be killed at certain times of the year, when they are bringing up their young. Do not kill the singing, the beautiful, the ornamental, and the useful birds. Some others you may kill, for they destroy these birds and other useful things. But do not throw stones at the sweet songsters. Make pets of them, so they will not be afraid of you and go away to some other home. Study their way of life. If you look into their nests, do not touch the eggs or the young. God has made them beautiful and musical and useful, and nothing can be a better ornament to your yards than these birds singing there, so tame that you can feed them. LXI. GETTING ANGRY WITHOUT SIN. Be ye angry, and sin not. — Eph. 4 : 26, If I were to go into your homes and re- main a long time, I fear that I should find some of you getting angry many times a day. Every time you can not have your own way, — if you can not go out after dark to play when you want to ; if you can not be chewing gum all the time, as some grown up boys and girls foolishly do ; if you can not have whatever you want, — you fly into a fit of anger, and perhaps stamp your little feet in a rage. Is it not so ? Well, then I am going to preach to you on getting angry, a sermon that you all need. I. It is right sometimes to get angry. Our text teaches this. It says : '' Be ye angry, and sin not." And the verse before it is : ''Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbour : 313 314 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. for we are members one of another." It would seem that Paul meant that we could rightly get angry at a lie. A lie so base and mean may be told against a good child or man, that he ought to resent it, be angry at it, and that he would not be good without being angry at it. It is so of some other wicked things. God is angry with the wicked; Christ was angry once, and it is right that we should be angry at lies and some other sins. Hence Paul says : *' Be ye angry, and sin not." We ought sometimes to be angry, so cruel and wrong are the things said and done. But while it is easy to get angry when we ought and when we ought not, it is very hard to do the other thing, to keep from sinning in our anger. Let us then turn to the harder part. 2. We must never get so angry as to com- mit sin. Sin is always wrong, and we must never do wrong. Now it is hard not to get angry except at the right time and at the proper things ; and then when it is right to be angry, it is hard not to be angry just enough and no more, so that our anger does not go too far. GETTING ANGRY WITHOUT SIN. 315 Do not go home and say that I told you to get angry at every little thing that you do not like, for I do not say so. There are only a very few things at which it is right for you to get mad. If your brother snatches any thing out of your hand, do not get angry at it. If you can not go where you want to, or have what you want, do not fall into a passion and fret and cry. If you can not learn your lesson as fast as you desire, or do a sum, or find a place on the map, it is wrong to become angry about it. I do not think, boys and girls, it is right for you to get angry very often, not once in ten times ; no, not once in fifty times. I am not telling you to be angry often, but only once in a while, and then at very wicked things. Then again I warn you not to let your angry passions rise too high in these few cases. If some one has lied about you, or said bad things and untrue to your face, or stolen from you, or done other injuries to you, you may become too angry at it and say and do what you ought not. We can con- demn the wrong done, in words plain and strong ; but a man may not be all bad 3l6 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. because he has been bad to us. There may be some good in him, hence we should not be so angry at him, because of his wrong to us, that we can not say just and right things about him, that we can not see his good traits and speak well of them. So when we are permitted to get angry, as we sometimes are, we must be very careful not to be too angry, so angry as to sin. 3. How can we keep from getting so angry that we sin ? We must first be careful not to be angry when we ought not to get angry. Do not get mad at every thing that you do not like. If you can not have all you want, do not fall into a passion and cry. If you are teased by any one, do not let your angry passions rise ; take it pleasantly, and they will not tease you so much. I wish I knew how many of you could go one whole week and not get angry. May I not ask you to try it, and see if you can go through the week without losing your temper once ? Remember that there are only a very few things indeed in regard to which you are commanded to be angry, and sin not, and GETTING ANGRY WITHOUT SIN. 317 they are not the Httle trifling things, but the great wicked things, the great wrongs men do us, the barefaced Hes they may tell against us, and such like things. And remember again that you do wrong in nearly all your angry fits, either by being angry when you ought not, or else by being more angry than you ought to be. As a general rule, then, we are to *' cease from anger, and forsake wrath." " He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." LXII. THE UNRULY TONGUE. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire ! — Jas. 3: 5- A MATCH Is a very little thing ; but the fingers of a little child or the teeth of a little mouse may Ignite it and burn into ashes the house in which you live or the city where thousands live. Seeing It, we repeat the text : " Behold, how much wood Is kindled by how small a fire ! " Hence, chil- dren, you must not play with matches or with fire ; for if you do, you may burn the house down over your heads, and have no home left. You like to ride after a strong horse, and to hold the reins and make him go to the right hand or to the left hand just as you please. But you could not turn the horse about with your little hands, were it not for the bit in the horse's mouth. The beautiful horse Is made to do your will, to stop, to draw a heavy wagon or a costly 318 THE UNRULY TONGUE. 319 carriage wherever you desire, to be a use- ful servant, by a very small bit in his mouth. The great ships and steamers that sail on our lakes and seas, and do not stop for a strong wind, are turned about by a little rudder or helm, without which they would be of little use. You have seen tamed birds that would fly to your finger when you held it out, and tamed squirrels that would play with you, and bears that would dance to music on the street, and it may be you have seen men riding on great elephants, or going into the lion's cage : for great and savage beasts have been tamed and made obedient to man's will. But you have a little member which is harder to make mind than any of these. It is not your hand or your foot, for you can make them do as you please. It is that little tongue in your mouth, which speaks out so quickly, which boasts such great things, which tells stories and lies and says so many naughty words, that is so hard to tame. Your tongue makes more trouble than your hands and feet. It says what it ought not, and uses words which kindle the fires of 320 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. Strife, and which are harder to stop than a burning house. It " setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell." I want, therefore, to speak to you of the tongue which no man but yourself can tame. You will find what the Apostle James says of it in his Epistle, 3 : 1-12. Read it. One reason why the tongue is so hard to tame is that it moves so quickly that we speak out before we think what we ought to say. We do not like something, and the tongue tells it, right out. We feel sorry that we said it, but it is too late, the words have been spoken and can not be recalled. Had we waited a little, we should not have said them ; but the tongue was too quick for us. It kindled the fire before we thought what we were doing. This is one reason why the tongue is a restless evil. Another reason is that the tongue is largely an index of the heart. You watch the hands on a clock or watch, how they move. They are turned by wheels which are out of sight, and move just as the wheels make them turn. So the tongue moves as the heart makes it move. It says bad words not of itself, but just as the heart prompts it. And as THE UNRULY TONGUE. 32 I " the heart is deceitful above all things," the tongue is " full of deadly poison." "• Out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing." This is sad, for we can not always tell what one means by what he says. He may say one thing and mean another. He may do a thing, and then say that he did not do it. He may come to you with a lie in his mouth. He may flatter you, to get you to do what you ought not to do ; and blame you for doing what you have rightly done. Men are bad and children are bad, and hence they lie and deceive and flatter with their tongues. This is too often the case. I want you to do all you can to tame the tongue, and make it tell the truth always : for '' if any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also." Remember these five rules for taming the tongue : — I.' Speak modestly. That is, wait until you are spoken to, and do not put in your little talk when older ones are talking. Listen to what they say, and learn : but if you want to ask a question, do so quietly. It is not modest in you to speak up often, or 322 SERMONS FOR CHILDREN. to take part In the conversation as if you were men and women. Speak, therefore, modestly, as children. 2. Speak carefully. Do not speak out what first comes into your mind, for it may not be the best or right thing to say ; but think twice before you speak, so that you may not speak hastily and say what you would not wish to say. Think before you speak. 3. Speak truthfully. Always say the exact truth, no more, no less. Do not tell a big story out of a little one. Do not tell a lie, or deceive by telling only a part of the truth. Speak so truthfully that people will believe what you say. If you do not, no one who knows you will believe you, not even when you tell the truth. 4. Speak charitably. Do not put the worst meaning on the words of others, but the best meaning that you can truthfully put on them. And so also what they do. While boys and girls, men and women, are bad in many things, they are not bad in all they say and do. Be careful, then, not to think and speak of them too severely, but put the best meaning you can on what they say and do. Speak charitably. THE UNRULY TONGUE. zn 5. Speak moderately. Do not talk all the time, for then you will say too much. Your tongue runs easily and may run too con- stantly. Keep it still. Shut your mouth, so that it can not be heard. Give others a chance to speak, which you can not do il you talk all the time. Learn these five rules and practise them, and you will tame the unruly tongue and bridle it. 1. Speak modestly. 2. Speak carefully. 3. Speak truthfully. 4. Speak charitably. 5. Speak moderately. Date Due )r5- > i. V