John Maynard was a scholar in a little old-fashioned red schoolhouse
far back in the olden times. He had been a shiftless boy and had
drifted along aimlessly and carelessly. He had no desire to learn and
did not study. One midwinter day some kind words from his teacher
roused him to take a new start, and he became distinctly a different
boy and worked hard to make up for his earlier faults. His copy-book
lessons had been poor. There was a big blot on the first page. Inky
finger-marks appeared on numerous pages. Sometimes he made foolish
drawings at the bottom of the page just to make the scholars laugh.
His copy-book was full of the marks of a careless scholar. But now he
tried to go straight and clean, and no longer made the blots of
carelessness. The closing examination came, and to the great joy of
his father and mother who were present he passed well and with honor.
But he discovered that his copy-books, which he had used during the
entire year, were to be displayed on a table for the inspection of
the visitors. He saw his mother looking over his books. All the blots
and finger-marks of former times seemed to grow like big clouds. He
was heartily ashamed of his early books, a mass of blots and bad
work, and as he watched his mother looking over these books his heart
was sick as he knew she would see them all. What would she say to
him? What would she think of him? But to his great surprise he saw
the smile of approval on his mother's face, and noticed she had
called his father over to look also, and a look of pleasure beamed on
his father's face, and they both told John how pleased they were with
his fine work. They said nothing of his blots, finger-marks, and
careless work. Afterward he discovered that his good teacher had
removed all the bad pages from the book, and made the copy-book begin
from where he started to do better. His dear teacher was just like
God. He had given him another chance and had put the past out of
sight forever. So God offers this chance to all who will turn to him.
He will take away all the old blots of sin that blacken the past and
give us all another chance, and he will make our life's record begin
with the new start.
To illustrate this lesson secure two common school copy-books, the
first one filled with careless lines and numerous blots. Let the
cover be torn in many places to represent careless handling. It is
full of marks of imperfection. It is a thing of ugliness to look at.
On the front place a red heart, saying: "This is a record of a boy
with a red heart of sin, This heart was the big cause of the crooked
contents of the book. The boy now becomes a Christian. God takes the
old book and gives him another, and a new start."
On the front page of the second copy-book put a white heart, which
means "Here begins the new life." This book should have a perfect
line at the top of the page you exhibit, and under this a childish
handwriting should be placed. It should be a copy, as near as
possible like the perfect top line. In this book, while all the lines
are not straight or perfect, you can see they have been written by a
hand that tried to follow the copy. It is also noted that the farther
you look through the book you can note marked improvement in all of
the work, So in the new life with the new start we do not always make
perfect lines, but we try with all our heart to do so, and the older
we grow the more perfect our lines will be. At the last day, the
Great Review Day, the grand and awful day at the end of the way, only
one book will be opened before the Judge for inspection. It will be
the last book, the book of the white heart. The old book of the red
heart will not appear, God has forgotten all about it. It has been
cast behind his back. It has been sunk into the depths of the sea of
forgetfulness. The book has been lost forever. It will never come up
as a witness against us. We often sing, "They are all taken away."
Another line should be added to this which would read, "They are all
taken away to stay." This is according to the Scriptures.
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