can do very wrong things while they are young, and afterwards suffer no
bad results. People sometimes say, "Oh, well! let us sow our wild oats
while we are young." Now the Bible tells us that if we sow wild oats, we
must reap wild oats. Four or five handfuls of wild oats will produce a
whole bag full of wild oats when gathered in the harvest of after life.
Be assured, my dear friend, that "those who sow to the flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption," and "those who sow the wind shall reap the
whirlwind." "Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap
a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny."
[Illustration: "The Harvest Fields Are Ripe and Are Waiting for the
Husbandmen."]
It may seem a long period between the spring and the harvest time of
life; but be assured, my dear young friends, that the early years will
speedily pass. Before you are aware of it, you will be men and women
with all the responsibilities of life upon you, and then you will be
sure to reap the reward of what you do now while you are boys and girls.
Lord Bacon said that "Nature owes us many a debt until we are old," but
nature is always sure to pay its debts. The ancients had an adage that
said, "Justice travels with a sore foot," but it usually overtakes a
man.
A few Sundays ago I told you that as the result of planting a single
grain of corn, a fruitage sufficient to plant the entire earth might be
secured in only five years. It is told us by historians that, in olden
times, the harvest in Egypt and Syria would return an hundred fold for
one sowing, and in Babylonia oftentimes two hundred fold for one sowing.
Now, if a single grain of wheat were planted in soil as fertile as that
of Egypt, at the end of eight years of sowing and reaping, if we had a
field large enough, the product would be sufficient to feed all the
families of the earth for more than a year and a half. But if we were to
undertake to plant one grain of wheat in this way, after a few years we
would fill all the fields which would be suited for a wheat harvest.
Down near the equator it would be too hot for the wheat to grow
successfully. In the north it would be altogether too cold. On the
mountain side the soil is not fertile, and oftentimes is very rocky. For
these, and various other reasons, it would be impossible to cover any
large portion of the earth with wheat, for not every portion would be
suited to produce a harvest. Were it not for this fact, in the course of
seven or eight years, the entire earth might be made to wave as one vast
field of wheat.
But there is one truth which God has planted in this world. That truth
is God's love manifested in the gift of His Son Jesus Christ for the
salvation of all mankind. This truth is suited to every age of the
world, to every nation of the earth, to all classes and all conditions
of people, and to every human heart. During the past centuries men have
been planting and replanting this seed of divine truth, sowing and
resowing the earth with it, gathering and reaping the harvest and sowing
again. And the days are coming when all the earth shall wave as one vast
harvest field, waiting for the reapers of God, who shall gather this
blessed fruitage into the garner of the skies.
It is your privilege and my privilege, both one and all, to have some
part in this glorious work of sowing and resowing, and the Scriptures
assure us that "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seeds,
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him." (Psalms cxxvi: 6.)
AFTERWARD.
ANONYMOUS.
Now, the sowing and the reaping,
Working hard and waiting long;
Afterward, the golden reaping,
Harvest home and grateful song.
Now, the pruning, sharp, unsparing,
Scattered blossom, bleeding shoot;
Afterward, the plenteous bearing
Of the Master's pleasant fruit.
Now, the plunge, the briny burden,
Blind, faint gropings in the sea;
Afterward, the pearly guerdon,
That shall make the diver free.
Now, the long and toilsome duty,
Stone by stone to carve and bring;
Afterward, the perfect beauty
Of the palace of the king.
Now, the tuning and the tension,
Wailing minors, discord strong;
Afterward, the grand ascension
Of the Alleluia song.
Now, the spirit conflict-riven,
Wounded heart, unequal strife;
Afterward, the triumph given
And the victor's crown of life.
Now, the training strange and lowly,
Unexplained and tedious now,
Afterward, the service holy,
And the Master's "Enter thou!"
QUESTIONS.--Last Sunday our lesson was about the
spring-time and sowing; what has it been about
to-day? What are the only results which a farmer
can reap at harvest? If he sowed wheat, what will
he gather? About how many different kinds of
plants are there in the world? Do peach trees grow
from chestnuts? The Bible says, "Whatsoever a man
soweth"--can you repeat the rest of that passage?
Can boys or young men, girls or young women, sow
"wild oats" and reap blessing later on? If we sow
"wild oats" what must we reap? If you sow an act,
what do you reap? If you sow a habit, what do you
reap? If you sow a character, what do you reap?
How did the old adage say that justice travels?
Could all portions of the globe be converted into
a wheat field? Why not? Is the truth concerning
God's love and salvation suited to all ages, all
nations, and all people?
[Illustration]
WHEAT AND CHAFF.
THE COMING SEPARATION.
SUGGESTION:--If the children can secure a few
handfuls of some kind of grain and chaff, the idea
of separation can be beautifully illustrated by
pouring the grain and chaff from one hand to the
other, and at the same time gently blowing the
chaff, separating it from the grain. By turning it
in this manner once or twice and blowing gently,
the chaff may be entirely separated from the
grain. If a larger quantity were used, it could be
poured from one basket or pan to another while
blowing the chaff from the grain with a palm leaf
or some other fan. This would illustrate how the
grain and chaff were separated at that period of
the world in which Christ lived.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: I want to read you a very beautiful little psalm,
or hymn, or poem, written by David. It was originally written in metre
or verse, but poetry when translated becomes prose. This first Psalm of
David reads as follows:--
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he
meditate day and night; and he shall be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf
also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
"The ungodly are not so; but are like the chaff which the wind driveth
away; therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knoweth the way of
the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
We find in this Psalm how the righteous are set forth, and how the
ungodly are compared to chaff. John the Baptist said of Jesus, "Whose
fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather
His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire."
[Illustration: Threshing Grain with Flails.]
Now, when you have been in the country, you have observed the wheat
growing in the field. If you had been careful to examine it, you would
have found that while the wheat is growing the grain is enclosed in a
thin covering called chaff, just the same as Indian corn or sweet corn
is enclosed by the husks which grow about it. So it is with us; while we
are in this world, there are many things which are essential to our
growth and well-being. They minister to our physical needs and supply
our temporal wants. Although we cannot wholly dispense with these
things while we are in this world, yet they are not the sole objects of
our living. The wheat does not exist for the chaff, or the husk in which
it is enclosed, but the husks or chaff exist for the wheat.
After a time, when the harvest comes, the farmer enters the field and
cuts down the wheat, and it is then taken to the barn or threshing
floor. Years ago, when I was a boy, farmers used to spend a large
portion of the winter in threshing grain. They would spread it out upon
the floor of the barn and beat it with a heavy stick, which was tied so
as to swing easily at the end of a long handle. This was called a flail.
Machines for threshing grain were not then common, as they are to-day.
When the farmer threshes his grain, he does not do it to destroy the
wheat, but simply to separate it from the chaff.
The Bible tells us that we must enter into the kingdom of God through
much "tribulation." And do you know that the word "tribulation" comes
from a Latin word, _tribulum_, which means a flail? So the teaching of
this passage of Scripture is, that God places you and me under the
flail, and smites again and again, in order that the noblest, best and
most Christ-like in us may be separated by trials and tribulations from
that which is worthless; and which needs to be cast off in order that
just as the farmer gathers the wheat into his garner or granary here on
earth, so God may gather us eventually into His garner above.
Boys and girls oftentimes have tribulations in this world, just the same
as older people do. Disappointments come to them, and because of
ambitions which are not lawful or right, purposes which are not in
harmony with God's word and with God's will; because of needed
discipline, or for some good reason God is tribulating them by sorrows,
disappointments and trials, and making them better by means of the
experiences through which they are called upon to pass.
[Illustration: Winnowing or Separating Wheat and Chaff.]
If you have been with the farmer in his barn after he is through with
the threshing, you have seen him take the fanning-mill, and perhaps you
have turned the crank for him, while he has slowly shoveled the grain
into the mill and the chaff was being blown away by the wind set in
motion by the revolution of the large fanning wheel. In the olden times
they did not have fanning-mills, but when the farmer desired to separate
the chaff from the wheat, he did it with a fan. He poured the grain from
one basket or box, or some other receptacle, into another while the wind
was blowing, or else used a fan to create a draught of wind to blow the
chaff, and thus separate it from the wheat. It is this ancient custom to
which John the Baptist refers. He says, concerning Christ, "Whose fan is
in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His
wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire." (Matthew iii: 12.)
So God designs to separate from your character, and from mine, that
which is worldly and temporal, and worthless so far as eternity is
concerned. Take money as an illustration. Now money is essential, and it
is well that we should be willing to work hard for it, and that we
should be economical in its use, and seek to save our money so that we
may use it for good purposes, and that it may be helpful to us in old
age. Money serves a very excellent purpose while we are upon earth, but
God does not mean that we should make it the chief aim of our life.
Therefore, to divert our minds from money in one way or another,
financial reverses and failures sometimes come, and thus God seeks to
separate the man from the money. We all came into this world
empty-handed, and we must go out of it empty-handed. Even though we were
worth many millions of dollars we could take no money with us. You might
place it in the coffin and bury it with a dead body, but it would not
and could not go into eternity with the man's undying spirit.
Now, after the farmer has separated the chaff from the wheat, he gathers
the wheat into his garner, or into his granary; and so, after God has
separated from our nature and character all that is of no use, which is
simply earthy, He will gather our souls into heaven, His garner above.
While we live upon the earth we should use the things of this world but
not abuse them; remembering that finally we must go and leave everything
behind us, and that we can take nothing with us into eternity except the
characters which we formed here. Wealth and reputation, and all worldly
things will have to be left behind us; but character, that which you and
I really are, shall never pass away, but shall enter into an eternal
state of being on high. All these earthly things are the mere chaff,
while character is our real selves.
QUESTIONS.--Who wrote the book of the Bible called
the Psalms? Can you tell what the first Psalm is
about? What is the covering called which is about
the grain while it is growing? How are the chaff
and grain separated from the straw or stalk? After
being threshed, how is the chaff separated from
the grain? Are there many necessary things in life
which, after all, do not constitute our character?
What are tribulations like? Does God separate the
essential from the non-essentials in our life? Is
character injured or helped by tribulations? Where
does the farmer put the grain after it has been
separated from the chaff? What is spoken of in the
Bible as God's garner?
[Illustration]
THE HEART.
THE MOST WONDERFUL PUMP IN THE WORLD.
SUGGESTION:--The objects used are a tumbler of
water colored red, a small glass syringe such as
can be purchased at any drug store for five or ten
cents, also a six-ounce bottle of water colored
red. This red coloring can be easily done with red
ink. If that is not available, a drop or two of
black ink will answer.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: In the 139th Psalm, 14th verse, David says, "I
will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Now I want
to talk to you to-day about our wonderful bodies, in the creation of
which God has so marvelously displayed His infinite wisdom.
I suppose you have been either near or inside a factory. You have heard
the noise of the shafts and the pulleys and machinery. You have seen the
carding machines, and listened to the noise of the great spinning jacks
which twisted the cotton and the wool into yarn or thread, and heard the
deafening sound of a great many looms as the shuttles flew backward and
forward, while the many threads were being woven into cloth. A factory
is quite wonderful, but do you know that in your bodies are found the
elements of almost all the kinds of machinery that are used in the
world? God has so created us that we do not hear the noise of the
machinery of our bodies, but if you will place your fingers gently in
your ears you will hear a peculiar roaring sound. That sound which you
hear is the noise of the machinery of your body, which is in constant
motion.
Now, the heart, which pumps the blood into all portions of the body,
makes the greater portion of this noise. Do you know where your heart is
located? I supposed that most of you would point to your left side,
because you have so frequently heard it spoken of as being located
there. You have seen public speakers and others, when referring to their
heart, place their hands upon their left side. But if you will bend your
head forward so as to press your chin against your breast, as far down
as possible, the heart will be under and a few inches below your chin.
It is in the center of the body, and the lower portion of it comes near
to the ribs on the left side, and when it beats we can feel it throb by
placing our hand upon our left side; but the heart is more nearly in the
center of the body, and not wholly at the side. If you were to close
your hand as the boys do when they say they make a fist, the size of
your closed hand will be somewhat smaller than the heart.
[Illustration: Water and Syringe.]
In this tumbler I have some water which I have colored with red ink, so
as to represent blood. Here is a small glass syringe, such as can be
bought for a few cents in any drug store. Now, when I draw this little
handle up, you will see how the syringe is filled with this red water,
and when I press it down how the water is forced out of the syringe back
into the glass. This very clearly illustrates the principle upon which
all pumps and steam engines which pump water are made. Even the large
fire engine, which throws water such a great distance, is made largely
upon this principle.
You may possibly have been in the engine room, where the huge pumps
force the water into the reservoirs which supply the city with water for
drinking and other purposes. From the pumps and the reservoirs there are
great pipes which lead the water under the streets to many thousands of
houses which compose the city. After the water has been used it is
turned into the sewers, runs down into the river and back to the sea,
where it is evaporated, rises again in the clouds, and by the wind is
carried hundreds of miles over the country. Then it descends again in
the form of snow and rain, soaks down through the earth and finds its
way again into the springs and great veins of water under the earth,
from which it is carried back once more to the city. Thus it is made
pure again and again, to be used over and over by the people whom God
has created and whom He supplies with water in this way.
Now, in somewhat the same way, the heart, which is both an engine and a
pump, forces the blood out through the pipes or tubes of our bodies
called the arteries, distributing it to every portion of the body,
furnishing the materials for building and renewing the muscles and the
bones and every portion of our system. Then gathering up that which is
worn out and no longer of service, the impure blood returns through the
veins back to the right side of the heart, where it is pumped into the
lungs and purified by being brought into contact with the air we
breathe. The blood is then returned to the left side of the heart,
pumped again into the arteries and distributed through all parts of the
body, and so it goes on circulating. Thus the blood is pumped by the
heart into the arteries and is distributed to all portions of the body,
and returned again to the heart, from fourteen to twenty times each hour
of our life.
In this bottle, which holds six ounces, I have placed some of this
colored water, which represents about the quantity which is pumped out
of the heart of an adult each time the pulse beats. As I have already
intimated to you, the heart is double, and at each throb about one-half
the quantity in this bottle is pumped out by the right side, and the
other half by the left side of the heart. Now, if the heart were to pump
different blood with each pulsation, instead of pumping the same blood
over and over again, in twenty-four hours the heart of a man of ordinary
size would pump 150 barrels of blood.
[Illustration: A Wagon Load of Barrels.]
The Bible says that the days of our years are three-score years and ten,
or, in other words, that the allotted period of an ordinary life is 70
years. Now, in 70 years the heart would pump 164,389,786 gallons; or,
to give it to you in barrels, it would make 4,566,382 barrels. If you
were to place six barrels on a wagon, and this would make a good load
for two horses, you would have 761,063 loads of these barrels. If you
were to place these teams, with the wagons containing six barrels
apiece, with 36 gallons each, at a distance of 25 feet apart, it would
make a string of teams stretching away 1,778 miles, or as far as from
New York City to Des Moines, in the state of Iowa, or from New York City
down to the Gulf of Mexico.
I think you will now be able to understand what a wonderful little steam
engine and pump each of us has within our own breast. And it may
surprise you when I tell you that Dr. Buck says that the heart at each
throb beats with a power equal to 100,000 pounds.
An ordinary engine or pump would soon wear out, but this little engine
of the heart goes on beating day and night from the time we are born
until we are 70 years of age, if we live to be that old, and even while
we rest in sleep, the heart never stops for a moment. Is it any wonder
that David said that "We are fearfully and wonderfully made"?
I might tell you many other wonderful things about the heart, but this
will have to suffice.
If the natural heart in these bodies of ours is so wonderful, how much
more wonderful still is that heart which is the seat of the moral life
and character? As the natural heart is hidden away in these bodies of
ours, so the spirit or the soul is spoken of in the Bible as the heart,
because it is hidden away in the life which we have in these bodies of
ours; and it is this moral character and spiritual life to which the
Bible refers when it says, "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out
of it are the issues of life."
QUESTIONS.--How did David say we are made? Does
the machinery in a great factory make much noise?
Are our bodies like a factory in this respect?
How can we hear the noise inside of our body?
Where is the heart located? What does the heart
do? Can you tell how water is supplied for a great
city? Is the blood carried to all portions of our
body in a similar way? How much blood is pumped by
the heart in twenty-four hours? What does the
Bible say is the allotted years of a person's
life? How long a string of teams would it require
to carry all the blood which the heart ordinarily
pumps in seventy years? Does the heart keep on
pumping while we sleep? What is still more
wonderful than the physical heart? Can we see
either the physical heart or the spiritual heart?
Does the fact that you cannot see them prove that
you do not have them? Are both necessary to your
complete being and existence?
[Illustration]
THE EYE.
THE MOST VALUABLE AND MOST WONDERFUL TELESCOPE.
SUGGESTION:--The objects used are a field-glass or
opera-glass, spy-glass and sun-glass.
MY DEAR LITTLE MILLIONAIRES: You know that when people are very wealthy,
have hundreds of thousands of dollars, they are spoken of as
millionaires. Oftentimes these rich people do not have any more actual
money than poorer people, but they have property which is supposed to be
worth a great deal of money. Now, I want to show you to-day that each
one of you possesses that which is worth millions of dollars.
[Illustration: Field-glass, Spy-glass and Sun-glass.]
I want to talk to you about your eyes, and I hope that you will be able
to understand that they are worth hundreds and thousands, yes millions
of dollars to each of you. In order that I may better illustrate a few
of the many wonderful things about the human eye, I have brought this
field-glass, and here is a small spy-glass, and also a magnifying lens,
or sun-glass, as boys sometimes call them. Inside of this spy-glass and
these field-glasses are lenses or magnifying glasses, similar to this
sun-glass. They are, however, more perfect, and are so adjusted or
related to each other, that when I place this smaller lens of the
spy-glass to my eye I also look through the larger lens which is at the
further end of the instrument. When properly adjusted, it enables me to
see objects which are at a great distance, and to so magnify them as to
cause them to seem much nearer to me than they really are.
Now, if you take this spy-glass and look at the stars, it will not make
them appear any larger than they appear to the eye without the
spy-glass. It will assist the eye when I look at the moon or the
planets, but not at the stars which are so much further removed from the
earth than the moon and the planets. Astronomers have desired something
larger and more satisfactory, and so have made the great telescopes,
which are simply large spy-glasses. The telescope and the spy-glass, and
the field-glasses, are all imitations of the human eye; the same as many
of our greatest inventions are only copies of that which God has already
created, and which we have but feebly imitated. The eye is a more
wonderful instrument than even the largest telescopes which have ever
been made.