different kinds of traps? Is a trap a dangerous
thing? Does a dangerous trap always look
dangerous? Are there traps set for boys and girls,
and men and women? Who sets these traps? What are
some of the traps? How are fish caught? Who tries
to trap and destroy boys and girls, and men and
women? What does Satan sometimes use? When the
mouse sees others caught, what should he do? Does
he run away? Does he go and do the same thing?
Does he suffer the same result? If Satan's traps
destroy others, will they destroy us? Have you
ever seen any persons who were caught in Satan's
traps? Can anybody do wicked things without great
danger?
BREAD.
UNIVERSAL SOUL HUNGER.
SUGGESTION:--Bread, rolls or biscuit can be used
if thought necessary, and these can be used for
refreshments later.
If the children are tired of "driving to church"
in an imaginary carriage, let them drive in an
imaginary sleigh, with imaginary bells, amid
winter scenes.
MY LITTLE FRIENDS: I am sure that every boy and girl in this room knows
what it is to be hungry. It is a part of our childhood experience to
feel hungry almost every day. While the body is growing there is almost
a constant demand for nourishment and food.
[Illustration: Loaf of Bread, Roll and Biscuit. ]
We have here a small loaf of bread; it is called a Vienna roll, and here
is a small biscuit. Now, this is bread, only it is baked in small
loaves. As people all over the world have hunger, so bread in one form
or another has become the universal food of the world. When in the
Lord's Prayer we ask God to "give us this day our daily bread," we mean
not simply bread made of flour, but we mean necessary food, food of all
kinds; and so the word bread has come to be used to signify all kinds of
wholesome food. God gives us our food day by day, just the same as each
morning the manna rained down from heaven for the Children of Israel
while they were journeying through the desert. God does not send it to
us in just the same way, but each day He furnishes us a sufficient
amount of food to sustain our bodies.
Now, as there is universal physical hunger, and as God has made
provision to supply the food necessary to satisfy the hunger of the
body; so there is a universal hunger of the soul, and God has also made
provision to satisfy this universal hunger of our higher spiritual
nature. In the sixth chapter of the Gospel by St. John, you will find
much said about the food for the higher, the spiritual nature. Jesus
said, "Verily, verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
Heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the
bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto
the world."
The body is sustained by the food which grows up out of the earth,
because the body is earthy. But to sustain the higher and spiritual
nature of man, which is from heaven, the food is sent down from heaven,
and therefore Jesus says of Himself that He is "The bread of God which
cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world," "I am the
bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst." And in the forty-eighth verse of
that same chapter He says, "I am the bread of life; your fathers did eat
manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living
bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall
live forever, and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I
will give for the life of the world."
[Illustration: Plants Reaching Out Toward the Light.]
Now, when you desire to be good, when you desire to live like Christ,
you desire to know more concerning Him; and when you desire to read
God's Word, and to learn of that which is holy and good and right, then
you have this spiritual hunger. That is the kind of hunger of which
Jesus was speaking in this chapter. The presence of Jesus in the soul
and the knowledge of Him that is given in the Bible is the best kind of
food for our spiritual nature. This was the kind of spiritual food upon
which Joseph fed when he lived in the midst of idolatrous Egypt. It was
upon these spiritual truths that David and Daniel and Paul and Luther
fed daily, and this nourished their spiritual natures. I trust you all
have this hunger for the bread of life. Jesus said, "Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
filled."
Did you ever see a plant growing at the window in a crock and observe
how it bends or reaches out toward the light? If you turn the crock
around so that the plant bends inward toward the room, after a day or
two you go to the plant and it will have changed its direction, and
instead of bending into the room, it will be bending out toward the
window. Now this plant feeds on the light from the sun, and on that
account it reaches out toward the sun. So if you hunger after that which
is good, you will reach out after God, just as the plant reaches out
after the sun.
This kind of bread which I hold in my hand costs something. Flour costs
several dollars a barrel, and bread from five to ten cents a loaf. In
times of famine bread has sometimes been sold at many hundreds of
dollars for one single loaf. But the bread of life is free; it costs
nothing. Everybody can have spiritual food for the simple asking for it.
Therefore it is that we go to God in prayer and ask Him for every good
and helpful grace and blessing; that we ask Him for His presence in our
hearts, and to make us good, and to help us to become like Christ.
But there are some who have this hunger after that which is good, but
they do not know about God and about the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not
have any Bibles. Therefore it is my duty and your duty to send them the
bread of everlasting life. It is for this purpose that we give our money
for missions so that missionaries may be sent to them to tell them of
God and His love, and of Jesus Christ the Saviour, and to take them the
Bible.
In order that we may be strengthened by bread, it is necessary that we
should eat it, and that we should assimilate it or make it part of our
own bodies, in order that we may become strong, otherwise we would die
of hunger in the midst of great store-houses of food. So men and women
die spiritually in the midst of churches, in the midst of Bibles, Bible
influences, and Bible privileges; yes, die without Christ. In order that
our spiritual natures may be fed with spiritual food, we have every
Christian influence in our homes, we have the Sunday-school and the
Catechetical class, and the Church with its preaching service, and
prayer-meetings and other services. If you desire to be good, you must
study your Bibles, go to Sunday-school and to church, and seek to know
all you possibly can concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive Him
into your hearts, and live a Christian life by His aid and the grace
which God will grant you from day to day.
QUESTIONS.--Do all boys and girls get hungry? What
food is most universally used in the world? Does
the body require food every day? Why? Do we have a
spiritual nature as well as a physical nature? Is
there a spiritual hunger as well as a physical
hunger? Will food which satisfies the physical
Hunger satisfy the spiritual hunger? Who does the
Bible say is the "bread of life"? Can we obtain
food for the body without buying it either with
money or effort? Must Jesus, the spiritual food,
be bought? Can salvation be purchased? If God did
not give it to us could we ever pay for it? Where
can we learn most about this spiritual hunger and
about the "bread" which came down from Heaven? How
shall we send the Bread of Life to the people in
heathen lands?
THE STONE.
THE NATURAL AND CHANGED HEART.
SUGGESTION:--Objects: A small cobble stone and a
larger one, to represent the heart of a child and
the heart of an adult, and a pin with which to
prick the stone and prick the hand.
[Illustration: Pricking a Stone. ]
NOW, boys and girls, I have here a stone, which because of its peculiar
shape reminds me of the human heart. But if I take a pin and prick this
stone it has no feeling whatever. If I take this pin and prick the back
of my hand, I feel it immediately. It is very unpleasant. Indeed, I do
not like to endure it, but this stone has no feeling. If I were to love
this stone, the stone would never be conscious of it. I might bestow
great gifts upon this stone, I might purchase fruit for it, and
everything that you and I might love for food; the finest clothing also,
the most costly lands and houses, or we might even bestow upon it very
great honor, and yet this stone would know nothing of it. It would
always be insensible of all that I might do for it.
[Illustration: Pricking the Hand.]
Now the Bible represents the natural heart as being wicked. We are told
in the Bible that our hearts have no feeling; that God loves us, and yet
that we do not appreciate it; that God bestows upon us our daily food,
and that He clothes us, and blesses us with every good, and has provided
for us mansions in the skies, and that He desires to give us everlasting
salvation. He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, to die for us, and yet with the natural heart no one ever loves
God, or appreciates anything that He has done for us. And so God
desires, as He tells us in the Bible, to take away, out of our flesh
this heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh, so that we may
appreciate and love Him in return for all that He has done for us.
The heart is spoken of in the Bible as the seat of the affections, and
therefore it is that God desires us to have a new heart, a changed
heart, a heart that can love Him. The Bible says that each one is to
keep his heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
We are told also that "the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked."
[Illustration: Assaulting the City of Child-Soul.]
Many years ago in England there was a man by the name of John Bunyan. I
suppose you have all heard of his wonderful book entitled the "Pilgrim's
Progress." I hope that many of you have read it. All of you should read
it, if you have not yet done so. Get your mother or father to read it
for you, if you cannot read it yourself.
This man Bunyan also wrote a book entitled the "Holy War." In this book
he represents the human soul or the human heart as a city, and calls it
the "City of Mansoul." This city has various gates, and at all these
gates the enemy is trying to gain admission into the city, so that he
may capture it. It is, indeed, a very apt illustration of the human
heart. Do you know that your heart is like a city, and that Satan is
trying to capture and to get possession of it? Indeed, he may already
have possession of it. And when God by His grace shall come and cast out
Satan and all his evil companions, they will come back and try to get
into the city again. They will come to the various gates of the city;
for your heart has various avenues of approach, which may be called
gates. There is eye-gate. Satan comes and he appeals to you and tries to
get into your heart through the eye. Bad pictures that are posted upon
the bulletin boards along our streets, and wicked things upon which you
and I ought not to look--worthless papers, bad books--these Satan
desires to have us look upon, and in that way get evil thoughts into our
minds and wicked purposes into our hearts, so that he can once more get
possession of our hearts.
Then he comes to ear-gate, and tries to get into our hearts through our
ears. There are wicked songs, and bad stories, and wicked words that men
pour into our ears, even when we walk along the streets. And so Satan
tries to get into our hearts through ear-gate, and he tries to get into
our hearts through what I will call mouth-gate. He tempts our appetite,
and would have us eat things which would injure us, or to drink that
which would harm us. And so he tries to get a boy to smoke, or to drink,
if at first only beer, or something else, until at last Satan makes a
drunkard of him. So Satan would get into the heart through mouth-gate.
And when he cannot get into the heart through mouth-gate, or any other
way, he oftentimes approaches mouth-gate by way of nose-gate. By the
smell of something that is pleasant he tempts the appetite, and thus
would lead us astray.
And then he would also approach our hearts through the sense of feeling.
There are many wicked things that Satan tempts people to do in order to
give them pleasure, and so he seeks to get into their hearts, and to get
entire control of them, and in that way to get God out of their hearts.
The best thing that you and I can do, is to accept of God's invitation,
where He says, "My son, give me thine heart." I trust that you will give
your heart earnestly and fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will take
away this heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of
flesh. He will keep your heart securely for you, if you will only give
it fully to Him.
QUESTIONS.--Does the stone have any feeling? Are
our natural hearts like a stone? Can a human heart
that is insensible like a stone be conscious of
God's love? Who offers to give us a heart that
will be conscious of God's love? Who wrote the
book picturing the human heart like a city? Who is
trying to capture this city? Through what gates
does Satan try to enter? How does he try to get
into Eye-Gate? How does he try to get into
Ear-Gate? How does he try to get into Mouth-Gate?
Can you tell any other methods that he tries? To
whom had we better surrender the city of our soul?
If we commit the city of our soul to God, will He
protect and defend it? Is there any other way of
safety?
THE POLISHED STONE.
PERFECTION THROUGH SUFFERING.
SUGGESTIONS:--A piece of polished stone, or a
polished jewel, or piece of polished metal will
answer for the object to be used.
MY LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN: I trust you are all trying to be good, and
perhaps while you have been trying to be a follower of Jesus you have
desired many things and hoped that God would give them to you, because
you were trying to do right, and yet, perhaps, you have been
disappointed because God did not grant your wish. You have been seeking
to be faithful, and yet, perhaps, sickness has come to you, or
disappointment and sorrow. Perhaps sickness and death have come into
your family. Your papa or your mamma has been taken away by death, and
you have been left very sad and lonely, and you have come to wonder how
it is, if God loves you, that He does not grant you just what you wish,
and that He permits sickness and sorrow and bereavement to come to you
and to your home.
[Illustration: Stones Being Prepared for a Great Building
Copyrighted 1911 by Sylvanus Stall.]
When you have looked about you, you have seen many good people who have
been in much distress, oftentimes in poverty, afflicted with sickness,
bereaved of their loved ones, and left in great sorrow and
disappointment. When you have taken up your Bible you have found that
the same was true many hundreds of years ago. David was greatly
afflicted. Paul had his thorn in the flesh. The disciples were often
cast into prison, and it is very likely that all of them were put to
death, as their Master had been before them.
Now I want to illustrate to you to-day why God permits sorrow and
affliction to come to us. I have here two stones, both taken out of the
same quarry. This one is polished and has a very beautiful surface. It
is very beautiful, not only to look at, but it would be beautiful in any
place you might choose to put it. This other is rough and jagged, and
not at all pleasant, either to handle or to look upon. This rough stone
can be made useful, but it would be no more useful than any other rough
and unsightly stone. It would do very well to place in the foundation of
a building, to be all covered up with mortar and have other stones laid
on top of it; to be built in the foundation down below the ground, where
no one would ever see it. But it would be of no special value in its
present condition for anything other than that.
I think this polished stone may very properly represent Christian
people. For long, long years this stone had been lying peacefully and
quietly in its rocky bed. But one day a man who purposed to build a very
beautiful palace came along, and he found that the great rocks in a
certain portion of the country contained stone that could be polished
very beautifully. They could therefore be made very useful in
constructing his palace or cathedral. So he sent a large number of men
to the quarry and they began to drill great holes in the rock. Now, if
these rocks had any feeling you can see at once that they would object
to having such great holes drilled into their sides, because it would
hurt a great deal. But after the men had the holes drilled they put
powder in them and blasted off great pieces of these rocks. Then these
great blocks were hauled away and placed in the hands of stone masons,
who began with chisels and mallets to cut and carve. After that, with
some fine sand or emery, or something of that kind, other men ground
and polished the face of the stone until it became very beautiful.
[Illustration: Stones Being Polished.]
Now, if these stones had had feeling, you can see at once that they
would have objected to being chiselled and cut, and carved, and ground,
and polished. This process would have hurt so much that the stones would
have cried out, and asked to be delivered from such a painful process.
[Illustration: "The Beautiful Angel Was Carved Out."]
It is related of Michael Angelo, that one day he was passing a quarry
where large blocks of beautiful marble were being taken out. In one
large block he saw a beautiful angel. He ordered the block to be taken
to his studio, or the place where he studied and worked. And then he put
his men at work to chisel off the rough corners, and thus to deliver the
angel out of the rough pieces by which it was surrounded. After many
days and weeks, and perhaps months of working, in which this large block
of marble had to submit to a great deal of chiselling and carving, and
cutting, and polishing; lo! and behold, the beautiful angel was all
carved out and stood complete and perfect. It was polished and was made
very beautiful, and when it was set up, it was the delight of every one
who looked upon it. But all this, you easily see, was only made possible
by that cutting and carving, which would have been very painful to the
marble if it had been possessed of feeling.
I think you will begin to see that these things which we call troubles
and trials, after all, are well calculated by God to bring out that
which is noblest and best in us.
When you grow older you will come to say like Paul, that you know that
"tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience
hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." You will then come to understand
that these things "work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory," and like Paul, you will learn to be "patient in
tribulation." One time when Paul and Barnabas were at Lystra and healed
a cripple, the people were moved against Paul by some wicked Jews from
Antioch and Iconium, and they pursued Paul and threw large stones at him
and hit him with such great force that he fell down, and they supposed
that he was dead. But Paul was not dead, and afterwards when he met some
of the Christian people at that and other places, when they talked to
him about it, and thought that it was very hard that God should have
permitted these wicked people to stone him, Paul told these Christians
that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of
heaven."
But I must not detain you longer. I want simply to say in closing that
when St. John had been banished to the Isle of Patmos and was permitted
to have a view of heaven, and looked into that glorious city, he saw a
great company, and he inquired of the angel who these people were. The
angel replied: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve Him day and night
in His temple; and He that sitteth upon the Throne shall dwell among
them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall
the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst
of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains
of water; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. vii:
14-17.)
If in our sickness, or sorrow, or disappointment here upon the earth, we
are sad or lonely, let us remember that in the happy home to which we go
we shall be forever with the Lord, and that all tears shall be wiped
away, and that we shall be happy forever and ever on high. It is only
through these tribulations that you and I can be prepared to enter
heaven. If God were to give us everything we want, like children who are
indulged, we would soon be spoiled and would not be fit for the
enjoyment of heaven or the companionship of the angels.
QUESTIONS.--What is rough stone used for? Does the
stone have feeling? If it had feeling, would it
object to being cut and chiselled and polished?
Could it be used in a great building unless it was
first quarried and prepared? How can the rough
stone be made beautiful? Can it be polished so
that you can see your face in it? Who prepares
people to be builded into His kingdom? How does He
do this? Who composed the great multitude whom
John saw in the glorious city? What had happened
to them? What should we remember in times of
sickness and sorrow? Why are trials necessary to
fit us for heaven? Will we be in the presence of
God there and have angels as our companions?
ROPES.
HABITS AND HOW THEY BECOME STRONG.
SUGGESTIONS:--Objects to be used are a spool of
thread, a piece of string or twine and a piece of
rope.
After the sermon has been read, the thread and
strings could be used to tie the hands and feet,
and thus illustrate how impossible it is to break
them when they are wound again and again around
the hands and the feet, even though the thread be
very fine. So with habits, seemingly
insignificant.
MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: I have to-day a piece of rope, and also some
different kinds of string. If I take this rope and try to break it, I
find that it is impossible. I do not believe that any five or six
ordinary men could pull with sufficient strength to break this rope. I
am sure that no twenty boys and girls could pull hard enough to break
it.
[Illustration: Rope.]
Here is a very strong string. Perhaps a couple of boys, possibly four
boys, might be able to break it. But here is a thinner string. Possibly
I may be able to break this. Yes, I can, but with great difficulty. It
takes all the strength I have to break it.
Now, here is some that is still thinner. It is about as thick as heavy
thread. I can break it very easily.
But now, when I take this heavy rope and cut off a piece, if I unwind
these different strands, I find that this rope is made by twisting
smaller ropes together. If I untwist this smaller rope, which I have
taken out of the larger rope, I find that it in like manner is also made
of smaller ropes, or strings. If I take these smaller strings, and
untwist them, I find that they are made of still smaller strings; if I
take any of these smaller strings out of the rope, I can break them
easily, but when I twist several of them together, I cannot break them.
[Illustration: String.]