ONCE there lived a father in a little country town, far back from the
great city and its wonderful streets and shops, who said to his little
girl that it was his plan to go to the city after things, and that he
would take her with him if she cared to go. Of course she was full of
glee as she thought of the wonderful things she would see in the great
windows of the city shops. Her father had planned to purchase for her
a beautiful doll, but kept the thought to himself so it would be a
glad surprise to May. When they reached the city, May's eyes were open
wide, and like all little girls, she wanted lots of things at once. As
she and her father passed through the streets, May's eyes fell on a
large box on the outside of a toy shop filled with a large number of
cheap little dolls. They were made of celluloid, and cost only a few
pennies. (Secure one of the sort and show the class and say, "This is
a poor cheap doll, wears only painted clothes, will last only a few
days, and is very common as well as cheap.") Her father said, 'Wait,
dear little May, I will get you a doll by and by." But May would not
wait. She wanted that little painted doll now. Her father said, "I
promise you that you shall have a doll, dear, before we go home. Just
be patient and wait. Father knows best.'? At this denial May grew
angry and said, "You don't love me, father, or you would get me what I
wanted. I won't wait, | want this doll. I'm going to have it right
way." And as she said this, she took one out of the box, and held it
tight in her hand and said she intended to keep it. She stamped her
foot, and cried, and said, '"'I won't wait any longer, I won't give
this doll up. I will keep it and not put it back."
The father desiring to teach her a lesson, said, "Well, May, if you
know best and better than your father, who loves you, you may keep the
doll. I will pay for it. You need not wait for a doll any longer. It
belongs to you now." Now May thought on her ways and said, "I wish I
had not been so naughty about it. Dear father was good and kind to me,
and I was hateful to him." She was silent but thoughtful, when her
father stopped before a window of the toy shop, and there in the
window was a beautiful doll (borrow a beautiful doll for this lesson
and produce it). Her father said, "Look, little May, there in the
window is the doll I intended to purchase for you if you had waited
for me to get to this shop. I intended to surprise you. That was the
reason I did not tell you, but since you would not wait or trust your
father's word, I will not purchase it for you, but you must be
contented with the doll you have, the doll you said you would have and
so the doll you would not wait for will stay in the window. It cannot
be yours. My little May must learn that Father knows best and that it
will always pay to wait for father's time." It was a hard lesson for
May to learn but that day she said to herself, "Father knows best. I
will wait for his time, because it is the best time." This is how May
lost her beautiful doll. There is a lesson in this story for us all.
God has a plan for our lives. Wait for Him to work it out. If we seek
our own way our lives will be full of disappointments and sorrowful
failures. Wait for God's time. It is the best time. It will bring us
to the best of everything.
=CHAPTER XIX
THE PRODIGAL SON IN RAGS=
_Objects: A collection of rags in many colors_