My children's sermon to-day has to do with a legend. A legend is a story
that has come down to us from the olden times, but which cannot be
proved to be true. This legend is about Christ.
It tells of how one day He was walking down a street in Jerusalem and
saw a company of people gathered about a dead dog in the street. Now,
city dogs in the land where Christ lived are not petted as they are in
our own country. They act as scavengers, and live on whatever they can
pick up. They are shaggy and dirty and yellow. The people stone them and
kick them, and do not call them by kind names.
So the people who had gathered about this dog were making unkind remarks
about it, saying how ugly it was, when Christ came up, and looking at
the dog, He said, "But do you see what beautiful, even, white teeth he
has?" Then, it is said, the people knew this must be Christ, who could
find something to praise even in a dog like that.
But that was the way Christ always dealt with people. He always saw
something good in them. And when people knew that Christ saw something
good in them, they tried to live up to what He saw, and to be good.
You remember how Zaccheus, the little, short man who had been robbing
the people by collecting too much tax-money, climbed up into a sycamore
tree to see Christ pass by. Christ told him that He was going to take
dinner with him. And when Christ dined with him, Zaccheus felt that
Christ thought he was better than he was, and he became so ashamed of
what he had been doing that he went and gave the money back.
And Christ's rule is a good rule for us to follow. If we wish people to
be good, we must look for the good things in them. If we _expect_ them
to be good, they will _try_ to be good. There is a jailer in Chicago
who, when a man has served his term in jail, gives him a letter of
recommendation so that he can get a job. And the men who get these
letters are ashamed to do wrong and to get into jail again, because of
the disappointment they will cause the jailer who believes in them.
A girl once said to her mother, who was always finding something good
instead of bad to say of people, "Mother, I believe you would have
something good to say of the devil."
"Well," said her mother, "we might all admire his perseverance."
Try to see how many good things you can see in people. It's the best
game of all to play.