OBJECTS: Seven Cards with the Letter "I" Printed
on them=
This is a lesson showing the importance and value of joining the
local church after the heart has been given away to Jesus. There are
some people who think that this is an act purely voluntary. Do as you
please they think is the thing to do, and so they dismiss the
question as settled. The fact is they do not understand the
arithmetic of the New Testament.
There 2 and 1 make more than three. Joining the church enables the
Christian to count more than one. There is power in organization. I
may take a piece of red silk, also a piece of white and blue, and I
can shoot them full of holes--no one will object. They stand for
nothing. They are simply a piece of personal property. I may do as I
please with them all. But, if these three colors are united and made
over into a flag, then, the man who shoots them full of holes must
answer to the government of the United States, for every soldier and
marine is pledged to protect those colors from harm. They are
organized into a flag. They mean more than simple strips of colors.
To illustrate this big fact, secure seven large cards and have on
each one the figure "1" painted, making it as large as possible.
Distribute them to children in various parts of the church, avoid
giving two children in one row each a card. The children holding the
cards represent the Christian who declared that he can be "just as
good a Christian outside the church as in it," and so stays outside
of organized relationship. Now ask them to give you the number on
their cards, and they all exclaim "Number one." That is all they
stand for, "Number one." That really means they stand for themselves
and by themselves. They stand for "one," themselves. This is just
what "Number One" looks like. They represent nobody, they are
independent units, they stand alone: they have but small
representative power.
Some years ago when the West was a child, a little boy wandered away
from his prairie home, and was lost in the tall grass, and could not
be found. His parents and neighbors started on a searching expedition
to find him. They all went in different directions, and after a
day-long search came back without the child. They could not find him
by individual searching. The next day they formed a line each in
sight of the other and, like a net, swept the prairie, and within two
hours the lad was found and brought home to his sorrowing parents.
They failed as individuals--they succeeded as a united body. God knew
this first, and so established his church, where unity of action
could do more than independent service.
Now ask the children to come to the platform, and stand them in a
line holding the figure "one" side by side. Once they stood for one
only, now united they stand for one million one hundred and eleven
thousand one hundred and eleven. This is the large reason why all
Christians should join the church, and thereby multiply many times
their value to their Master and his Kingdom.
If you are a Christian make the most of yourself, and you can do this
by coming into church relationship with the brotherhood of
Christians. A young convert gave as his reason for joining the church
the following: "If I was going to Chicago on the Broadway express and
had my ticket straight through to my destination, including the
comforts of a Pullman car, and then stood outside on the platform all
night, standing up and facing the storm, what a miserable man I would
prove myself to be, and what a faulty thinker I would also be. But I
am going to get all my ticket grants me. I will go inside and take
all the pleasure and comfort of the journey. So I am going into the
church and take all my salvation has provided for me. I will no
longer stand on the platform of the world. I want the best and all of
it." He was right. Get all that is coming to you, and get it now.
Come inside; you are entitled to a seat.
Years ago a boy, sixteen years old, came into New York City, with a
pack on his back containing all his belongings. He was a stranger in
a great city. Wandering through the streets one night, he saw a
lighted church with open doors, heard sweet singing from within. He
entered uninvited except by the open door. He heard the story of
Jesus and was saved. At once he offered himself for baptism, and was
received into church-membership. There the lad was trained and
schooled in righteousness. He became a great man. His name was
William Colgate, the founder of the great firm bearing his name. He
died worth millions, most of which he gave to his church, and left a
name that will never die. His influence permeated the denomination
that he honored as the perfume from his shops has permeated the
world. The Colgate Perfume Company of which he was the first member,
gathered its first sweetness from the Rose of Sharon that he found in
the Lord's sweet garden--the church of the First-born.
Before you dismiss the children and send them to their seats, pray
that God may deepen the lesson of the hour so it may sink into their
hearts, and charge the children to go and govern themselves
accordingly.
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