Why do we hang pictures on the walls, and put plants in the windows?
Because we want to make the room look pretty.
Why do we love the flowers and the trees, the bright green fields and
the waving yellow corn? Why are we so glad to be near the sea, with its
glorious, rolling waves, and to bask in the warm, bright rays of the
sun? Because they are =all= beautiful, and when we love what is
beautiful it helps us to love what is good; and when we love =goodness=
we love God, who gave us all this beauty.
Now you will see why it is so wicked to =destroy= beautiful things. When
a boy carves his name on a tree, or breaks off its graceful branches,
he =destroys= that which is good, instead of loving it; and how can he
grow up gentle and true if he does not love beauty and goodness?
Sometimes people put iron railings round their gardens, and you will
have noticed that they are often finished off with a pointed pattern at
the top, to make them look pretty. When a boy comes along and knocks off
the points, he makes the railings look =ugly= instead of pretty. He
would never think of destroying the pictures that hang on the walls of
his home, or of throwing the plants away that stand in the window, yet
he destroys things that are =not his=, and that other people have put
there to make their houses look nice. I am sure you will say this is not
right; it is =downright wrong=, just as wrong as it would be for me to
go and break that boy's slate, or to snap his wickets in two when he is
wanting a game of cricket, and it is all for want of =thinking=.
It is quite dreadful to know that so many cruel, unkind things are done,
just because boys and girls do not trouble to =think=! But I hope that
=you=, dear children, =will think=, and keep your little hands from
spoiling anything.
(Blackboard.)
It is Wrong to Spoil and Destroy.