seen in our faces? It is impossible for us to conceal our real selves,
even though we might try. I will tell you how it is. If I were again and
again to press this face only in this way, so as to make it look very
long, after a time it would retain this expression. If I were to press
it in this other way, so as to make it very short and give it a very
pleasant expression, and were to hold it in that position for a very
long time, it would assume that expression, and retain it constantly. It
is just so with our faces. When a boy is angered again and again the
deep lines of his face become more and more permanent, until after a
time he comes to have a face which expresses anger. If a boy is kind and
good and generous, these feelings express themselves in his face, and if
repeated over and over again, day after day and year after year, it
becomes a permanent expression upon his face and the boy is known by
all who meet him as a good-natured, pleasant and agreeable boy.
I suppose that most all the boys and girls here can tell a minister when
they meet him on the street. And when you grow older I think you will
not only be able to tell that it is a minister, but you may be able to
tell, possibly to what denomination the man belongs--whether he is a
Methodist, or a Presbyterian, or an Episcopalian or a Lutheran, or to
what denomination he belongs. This cannot always be told, but in many
instances this can be judged quite accurately. The study of the Bible
and the contemplation of holy and good things inscribe themselves
indelibly upon the face of those who give them thought and attention.
Beneath a good and generous face you will find a good and generous
heart. Beneath a bad face you will find a bad heart. If we are
Christians we shall become more and more like Christ. We shall grow up
into His likeness, and into His image, and into His stature. We are told
that not only will we become more and more like Him, but that at last,
in the great Resurrection, we shall behold Him as He is, and we shall be
like Him.
If I were to take some pictures and place them in a bottle they would
shine out through the glass, and you could see them. So with the
thoughts that are in your heart; they shine out through your face and
give expressions to it. Even when the body is suffering pain the heart
may be at rest. David, the Psalmist, said that God was "the health of
his countenance." Even though his body was suffering pain his face might
be pleasant, because God was with him, making him happy in his heart.
There is an old adage that says, "handsome is, that handsome does."
There are some young persons who may have a pretty face, and yet who may
not be righteous and holy in their hearts; but as they grow older their
character will shine out more and more, until at last their face shall
be entirely changed, and all that is bad in their hearts will appear in
their faces. If you want a good face you must have a good heart. Take
Jesus into your heart, follow His teachings and imitate His example, and
from year to year you will grow more and more like Him. Here is a very
appropriate and beautiful poem, which was written by Miss Alice Carey.
TAKE CARE.
"Little children, you must seek
Rather to be good than wise,
For the thoughts you do not speak
Shine out in your cheeks and eyes.
"If you think that you can be
Cross or cruel, and look fair,
Let me tell you how to see
You are quite mistaken there.
"Go and stand before the glass,
And some ugly thought contrive,
And my word will come to pass
Just as sure as you're alive!
"What you have and what you lack,
All the same as what you wear,
You will see reflected back;
So, my little folks, take care!
"And not only in the glass
Will your secrets come to view;
All beholders, as they pass,
Will perceive and know them, too.
"Out of sight, my boys and girls,
Every root of beauty starts;
So think less about your curls,
More about your minds and hearts.
"Cherish what is good, and drive
Evil thoughts and feelings far;
For, as sure as you're alive,
You will show for what you are."
QUESTIONS.--How will a plastic face look when you
squeeze it on the head and on the chin? When
persons are serious or angry, are their faces
lengthened? When people laugh what happens to
their faces? Suppose one were to be cross and ugly
constantly what would occur? If a person were to
laugh constantly, what would be the effect upon
their face? Can you tell a minister when you see
him? If you put pictures in a bottle do they shine
through? Do thoughts in the heart shine through
the face? Can you repeat that couplet which
begins: "Handsome is--"? If we think Christ's
thoughts constantly do we become more like Christ?
If we think bad thoughts do we become unlike Him?
What book is it which says: "As a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he"?
[Illustration]
SEEDS.
THOUGHTS, WORDS, DEEDS--THEIR LIFE AND PERPETUITY.
SUGGESTION:--Seeds, or grain and fruit of any kind
can be used for illustration.
MY YOUNG FRIENDS: I have here to-day quite a variety of seeds. Some of
them are very small, and some, as you see, are quite large. The seeds of
each class have in them a principle of life, which makes them differ
from sand, or small stones of similar size, because if I plant these
seeds in the ground they will grow.
[Illustration: Different Kinds of Seeds.]
When you take different kinds of seeds, there is one thing that is very
interesting about them. It is the different kinds of coverings in which
they grow. For instance, if you take a chestnut, it grows in a burr with
sharp thorny points; others are folded as though rolled up very tightly
in leaves, as you will find in the hazel nut or filbert. Some seeds grow
in rows, like beans and peas in a pod. Some grow in a very soft bed,
like cotton seeds. Some grow imbedded in a downy substance which blows
all around, carrying the seed with it, like the thistle, and the light
fuzz of the dandelion. Sometimes the seed is buried in the inside of
fruit, as in the case of apples, pears, peaches, plums, and various
other kinds of fruit. Sometimes it is buried beneath the beautiful
leaves of the flower. So you see there is great variety.
Now, these seeds may represent words. There are a great many varieties
of words. All words have the principle of life in them, because they
express thought; and these thoughts when received into our minds develop
into action. Therefore we say that words have a principle of life in
them, and it is important that we should be careful not to permit bad
words to have a place in our minds. Very often you will see boys and
girls reading worthless papers which they think will do them no injury.
But the fact is, that these boys are influenced in all their living by
that which they read in these papers. It might be very light and
trifling, but it tends to corrupt the mind, to give the boy false ideas
of life, and it gives him such opinions as are not real, and therefore
very injurious to any one. It is much better that a boy's valuable time
should be spent in reading good books and good papers, and securing such
information as will be of value and assistance to him all through life.
For the life of every boy and of every girl is a very great struggle,
and no boy or girl can afford to waste time in the beginning. If they
are ever to amount to anything in this world, it is important that they
should begin very early in life.
I want to call your attention to another characteristic of these seeds.
And that is when a single seed is planted, it grows up and produces a
very great number of other seeds. If you plant a seed of wheat, it will
produce 30, 60, or sometimes 100 other seeds. If you plant one sunflower
seed it might produce as many as 4,000 seeds. If you plant one single
thistle seed, it has been known to produce as high as 24,000 seeds in a
single summer. If you were to plant only one grain of corn and let it
grow until it is ripe, and then plant the seeds again which grew on
these few ears of corn, and thus continue to re-plant again and again,
we are told by those who have calculated it very carefully, that in only
five short years the amount of corn that could be grown as the result of
the planting of the one single seed would be sufficient to plant a hill
of corn, with three grains in every square yard of all the dry land on
all the earth. In ten years the product would be sufficient to plant not
only this entire world, both land and sea, but all the planets, or
worlds which circle around our sun, and some of them are even a thousand
times larger than our own globe. So you see that there is wonderful
multiplying power in the different kinds of grain which you plant.
So it is with the thoughts and the words which we have in our minds.
Good thoughts enter into good acts, and these acts influence others just
as though the same thought was sown into their minds, and then it
springs up into their lives and influences them. Just so when we have
read a book, whether the book is good or bad, its influence goes on
reproducing itself, over and over again in our lives, every time in a
multiplied form. Suppose with your money you send some Bibles to the
heathen, and as a result a single person is converted. Immediately that
person would influence other heathen people whom he would meet, and so,
one after the other, these heathen would be influenced as the result of
what you have done. This good influence would go on repeating itself
over and over again, as long as the world shall stand, and only in
eternity would the wonderful results of what you have done be fully
known. So it is with all that we say and all that we do; it goes on
repeating and multiplying itself over and over again.
[Illustration: Pyramids.]
[Illustration: Egyptian Mummies.]
Now, there is another interesting feature of these seeds to which I
want to call your attention. And that is that the life in the seed may
continue for a very long time, even hundreds of years. Over in Egypt,
centuries ago, they built large pyramids, and when a king died, instead
of burying his body in the ground, they embalmed it with spices and
dried it, so that it would not decay. Then they wrapped it up in cloths,
and with these cloths and bandages they sometimes wrapped wheat or some
other kind of grain. Some of these mummies, for so they are called,
which have been buried possibly twenty-five hundred years, have been
found; and when the wheat has been taken out of the hands of these
mummies and planted in the ground, under favorable conditions, it has
grown just the same as the wheat which was harvested from the fields
only last summer. The life which was in the seed had not been destroyed
by the many hundreds of years which have passed since it was placed in
the hand of the mummy.
Some years ago there was a very interesting case of this kind in
England. At Dorchester they were digging down some thirty feet below the
surface, and at that depth they came upon the remains of the body of a
man, with which there had been buried some coins. By the date upon the
coins, they knew that this body had been buried at least seventeen
hundred years. In the stomach was found quite a large quantity of
raspberry seeds. The man had doubtless eaten a large number of
raspberries, and then might have been accidentally killed very soon
afterward, so that the seeds were not injured by the gastric juices of
the stomach. These seeds were taken to the Horticultural Garden, and
there they were planted. What do you think! After seventeen hundred
years and more, these seeds grew, and in a short time there was an
abundant fruitage of raspberries, just the same as though the seeds had
been gathered from raspberries which grew only the year before. Although
hidden and seemingly dead, yet these seeds retained their life for
seventeen hundred years or more.
In this same way there is a deathless power in the words which we speak,
even though they are spoken hastily and without thought upon our part.
Our words have in them the element of a life which is well-nigh endless.
You may yourself remember some unkind words which were spoken to you
months and months ago. The boy or girl who spoke them may have forgotten
all about them, but you still remember them, and they cause you pain
every time you think of them. Or it may be that some kind person has
spoken tenderly and affectionately to you. The person himself may have
been so accustomed to speaking kindly that he forgot entirely what he
had said, but his kind words still live in your memory. There is a
beautiful hymn written some years ago, which begins: "Kind words can
never die."
About fifty years ago there were some boys in a school yard playing
marbles. Two other boys were playing tag. One of the boys who were
playing tag chanced to run across the ring in which the boys were
playing marbles. One of these boys was accustomed to speaking ugly words
and doing very hasty and cruel things. He sprang to his feet and kicked
the boy who had run across the ring, wounding him in the right knee. The
injury was of such a nature that the bones of that leg below the knee
never grew any more, and as a result, for over forty years that boy has
had to walk on crutches. You see how permanent the result of this injury
has been; and the results of unkind words may be just as injurious and
no less permanent than the unreasonable and wicked thing which this boy
did in his anger.
You may sometimes be discouraged because the kind words which you speak
and the kind deeds which you do seem to fail of a good result. But you
can be assured that even though you grow to old age and your body were
to be laid away in the grave, yet sometime, in the lives of those who
come after you, the good you have done will surely bear its fruitage of
blessing.
QUESTIONS.--Are there many different kinds of
seeds? Do apple trees ever grow from peach seeds?
Do good thoughts grow from bad words, or bad
thoughts from good words? Do seeds have a
principle of life in them? Do words and thoughts
have a principle of life? How many centuries have
seeds been known to retain their life? Have the
teachings of the Bible retained their life for
many hundreds of years? Into what do good thoughts
turn? (Acts). Into what do good acts turn?
(Character). Can any boy or girl afford to use
their time in reading worthless books or papers?
Do words and deeds have the element of unending
life in them? Is it a dangerous thing to get
angry? What did one of the boys who were playing
marbles do to the boy who ran across the ring? As
the result, how many years has the injured boy
walked with crutches? Will the good that we do be
as permanent as the evil that we might do?
SOWING.
THE SPRING TIME OF LIFE.
SUGGESTION:--The object used is a bag or sack, or
a pillow slip would answer the same purpose, hung
about the neck as a farmer uses it when sowing
seed. While this is not essential, it can be used
if desired.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: Spring is the most pleasant season of the year;
the snow has melted, the cold weather has passed away, and now the warm,
pleasant days have come. The trees are all in blossom, the fields look
beautiful, and the air is full of sweetness. If you go into the country
at this season of the year you will find the farmers plowing their
fields, and some are sowing grain. The spring wheat has already been
sown, the oat fields will soon begin to look green, and in the course of
a few weeks the farmers will be planting their corn.
It must have been at a corresponding period of the year in the East,
when Jesus spoke those beautiful words which are found in the 13th
chapter of St. Matthew, contained in the parable of the sower who went
out to sow. A great multitude of people had gathered to hear the words
which fell from the lips of Jesus. They could no longer gain admission
into the house, and so Jesus went down by the sea, or the large lake,
and getting into a boat he pushed out just a little way from the shore,
so all the people standing along the shore could see and hear Him, and
then He began to preach to them. Just back of them on the plain was a
farmer who was more intent upon sowing his field than upon listening to
the words of the Saviour. As Jesus saw him pacing to and fro across the
field, scattering the grain in the furrows, Jesus very likely pointed to
the man, calling the attention of the multitude to what he was doing,
and said to the people, "Behold a sower went forth to sow," and then
called the attention of the people to the character of the soil in the
different places where the seed fell.
In the country the farmers use a sack or bag. After having tied the
opposite ends together, they hang this over their neck and shoulder, and
with the right hand left free, they march up and down the field, sowing
the grain. This sowing is not so common any more, because farmers now
often plant their grain fields with a machine called a drill.
With this sack suspended about the neck, in this way, the farmer reaches
in and takes out a small handful of seed, and then swinging his hand,
throws the seed over a considerable portion of the ground. Thus he walks
from one end of the field to the other, sowing the seed, until he has
the entire field sown and ready for the men who follow with the harrow
to cover up the grain.
Well, boys and girls, this is the spring-time of life with you. These
are the pleasant days and years of your life. You have very little care.
Yet it is, nevertheless, the spring-time. You are now making
preparations which will tell what is to be the harvest in the later
years of your lives. As the farmer goes out and plows the field, so by
discipline and by counsel, and by instruction are your parents preparing
your minds and hearts that in after years you may enjoy a harvest of
great blessing.
[Illustration: Behold a Sower went Forth to Sow]
In the spring-time of life, when young persons are to do the sowing,
they need much careful counsel and instruction. I suppose that there are
many boys and girls who, if they were to go into the country, could not
tell the difference between wheat and barley, or oats and rye. Some
might not even be able to distinguish between oats and buckwheat. If
the farmer were to send you out to sow, you would, most likely, sow the
wrong kind of grain. In the same manner, it is important that you should
be directed by your parents, because they can distinguish between right
and wrong. They know what you should do, and what you should not do.
Therefore it is important that they should direct you in the
spring-time, lest you should sow the wrong kind of grain. And you know
the Bible says: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
[Illustration: Wheat and Tares.]
It is not only difficult for those who have never seen something of life
in the country, to distinguish between the different kinds of grain
which the farmer sows, but even after the grain begins to grow, it is
sometimes difficult, even for those who are familiar with country life,
to distinguish between the true and the false. In that same thirteenth
chapter of the gospel by St. Matthew, to which I referred in the
beginning, Jesus tells of a farmer who sowed his field with wheat, and
while he slept an enemy came and sowed tares. Of course he could not
discover this until the grain began to grow. When it began to get ripe,
then for the first could he distinguish between the stalks of the wheat
and the stalks of the tares. By doing this wicked thing the enemy gave
the farmer a great deal of trouble. Just so it is with you when you have
tried to do right, Satan comes and puts evil thoughts and wicked
purposes into your mind, and then if you permit these to grow up, you
will find that they will give you a great deal of trouble. It is
important that only the good seed should be sown in the field of your
heart, and in the field of your mind, so that you may have a fruitage
that shall be wholly good.
Sometimes you see boys and girls who are doing things which you would
like to do, but your mother and father tell you that you should not. You
may not be pleased because you are restrained from doing what you would
like to do. I well remember how my father, when I was a boy, oftentimes
used to restrain me from doing what I saw other boys doing. I used to
think, at that time, that he was not considerate, and possibly not kind
to me. But now that I have grown older, and have seen the results which
have come to those boys, some of whom have gone astray, and others who
have turned out badly in life, I see how wise my father was. Although I
did not feel at the time that he was doing that which was for my good;
now I see it all very plainly.
In closing, let me say to you, do as Isaiah suggested, "Sow by the side
of all waters." That is, be very diligent, that day by day you may do
some kind act, which will hereafter spring up into a fruitage of very
great good. The Bible enjoins upon both young and old to be very
diligent in this work, for it says, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in
the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall
prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good."
(Eccl. xi: 6.)
When you go to school during the week, and to Sunday-school and church
service on Sunday, and when being instructed and taught at home,
remember that all the instruction you are receiving is like the seed
that falls upon the waiting soil in the early spring-time from the hand
of an intelligent farmer. In the parable which Jesus spake, He tells how
that some of the seed fell by the wayside, some among thorns and some
upon stony ground, while others fell upon good ground. While the seed
was the same kind in all instances, it was only that which fell upon the
good ground which brought forth a fruitage of thirty, sixty and an
hundred fold. If the fruitage of your life in the harvest of the
after-years is to be abundant in good and blessing, it can only be
because you receive the instruction of your parents, your teachers and
your pastor into a good and honest heart. Others may sow faithfully, but
after all the result must depend upon you.
QUESTIONS.--Which is the most pleasant season of
the year? Why? What is the farmer's special work
in the spring-time? Why is the farmer careful to
sow good grain? What period of life is best
represented by spring? If the farmer failed to sow
in the spring, would he have a harvest in the
autumn? How does he know what kind of grain he
will reap at harvest time? Does wheat ever produce
oats? Or clover seed produce wheat? What happened
while the farmer slept? Who sowed the tares in his
field? Who sows the tares in our minds? What do we
call these tares? Should they be removed or
permitted to grow? Should we be thankful to our
parents for preventing tares from being sown? In
what kind of soil did the grain grow to a fruitage
of thirty, sixty and an hundred fold?
[Illustration]
REAPING.
THE HARVEST TIME OF LIFE.
SUGGESTION:--The object used is a small sheaf of
grain. For this might be substituted fruitage of
any kind--apples, peaches, pears, grapes, etc.,
and after reading the sermon, the parent could
apply in the manner suited to the objects used.
MY DEAR LITTLE HARVESTERS: Last Sunday I talked to you of
spring-time--the spring-time of the year, and the spring-time of life.
To-day I have brought a small sheaf of grain to tell us of the
harvest-time. The spring-time is very pleasant, the air is fragrant, the
birds are singing, and all nature seems to be rejoicing in its freshness
and beauty. The world looks just as new and beautiful as it did
thousands and thousands of years ago. Each spring it puts on youth anew.
[Illustration: Sheaf of Grain.]
But when the summer-time comes, when it gets along to the harvest time,
along in July and August, then the weather is very warm. The color of
the fields has then greatly changed, the blossoms have disappeared from
the trees, and we find that everywhere the fruit is beginning to appear.
The harvest fields are ripe and are waiting for the husbandmen.
There is just about that same difference in life. Youth is the
spring-time. It is full of hope, and full of bright prospects. But, as
we grow older, and the cares and responsibilities of life multiply, then
we begin to bear the toil and labor which comes with the later years.
Then we are like the farmer who enters into the harvest field where hard
work has to be done under a very hot and scorching sun.
A man, called a naturalist, who has devoted a large amount of time to
the study of plants, tells us that there are about one hundred thousand
different kinds of plants. Each kind of plant bears its own seed, and
when that particular seed is sown, it always bears its own kind of
fruit. Wheat never yields barley, nor do oats ever yield buckwheat. When
you plant potatoes, you expect to gather potatoes and not turnips. An
apple tree has never grown from an acorn, or a peach tree from a
chestnut. Each seed, always and everywhere, bears its own kind. It is on
this account that the Bible says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked:
for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." (Gal. vi: 7.)