I was noticing the other day, that, in my garden, after the winter
days had passed, the first green things to show their head were the
little weeds. They seemed to say to me, "Hello, we are back again for
business." And a pretty lively business they are in, surely. We are
sorry to see them come, and glad to see them go, but before they do
go I want to teach you some important life lessons from them.
They are very like the most of us, so they talk to us as old friends.
The first thing I hear them say is, "We grow very fast." They
multiply quickly. The red poppy will give fifty thousand seeds. The
dandelion (show one if you have it in your collection) will give over
two thousand seeds. Weeds stand for evil things and useless things.
They seem to be like the sands of the sea in number. So our life is
full of weeds very often. We tell one lie, and then another to
protect ourselves against the evil of the first lie, and by and by we
have told many of them, and the habit of lying has been so formed,
that often thousands of lies will be told. So little boys and girls
must watch the weeds, for they grow very fast in the heart. Take care
of your words. Don't let the lie get mixed up with them.
These are some of the evil weeds we must watch: Envy, bad temper,
untruthfulness, selfishness, unkindness--and there are many more.
Call all these things weeds, and don't let them get into the garden
of the heart.
Then, again, I heard the weeds say: "I will walk into your garden and
come up as noiselessly as the beautiful flowers. I will push up my
soft harmless little leaves, and do it so gently that I will not
disturb your roses." And so evil things creep into our life, and look
quite as harmless as the little weed. When they get in, we like them
and encourage them, and often will not let them go, because we love
them; then at last we cannot let them go if we would. Just a little
white lie, just for fun, then a lying life, with everything false.
A whole town were once horrified by the confession of a mere boy that
he had killed his playmate. He seemed to have no fear or sorrow
because of the act, but his mother said when he was a small child he
would catch the flies and pull their wings off, and smile as he noted
the suffering of the fly. First it was the wings of a fly, at last it
was the murder of a playmate. Weeds are not good things in a garden.
They are not good things in the heart, Watch them when they first
show their little heads. Close the door at once, they soon turn to
poison and death in the soul.
Then again the weeds say to me: "My real name is Determination. I
will come in, and you will have a hard time to get rid of me." They
are determined to stay. It is no use to pull off their leaves, but
pull them up by their roots and cast them into the fire. Just as soon
as an evil thought comes into our minds, kill it at once. Cast it out
of our thought. Don't talk about it, or it will drive its roots down
deep, and will come to stay.
Evil-thought weeds come from everywhere; some from far-off lands,
others are carried in our mail, and in our schoolbooks. Some are
passing tramps, but they come and take us unawares. Soon evil acts
follow naturally and as certainly as day follows night. Fill your
mind full of good thoughts, and don't look on evil weeds. Solomon
said, "Look not on the wine." This was good advice, for looking upon
evil creates the longing for it. Let Jesus come into the mind as well
as the heart, and he will cast out the evil thoughts, because he
cannot stay with the weeds of sinful thoughts. Let your daily prayer
be, "Take away all the ugly weeds from my heart, O Lord, and plant
beautiful thought flowers there, that it may be always sweet for
thee."
In delivering this address display the weeds in separate bunches. Put
them in a number of glasses and put all in a row on the front of the
table so all the class may see them.
After the lesson gather them into one bunch and cast them aside (or
out of door or window). This is what God does with the _thorns_ and
_thistles_. These are Bible names for _weeds_.
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