_A Chemical Talk_
PLACE on the table a large jar of plain untinted glass; fill it
two-thirds full of water and before the class assembles drop in a few
drops of tincture of iron. This receptacle we will call the Human
Heart. Secure a two-ounce bottle, paint it red, in which you place a
strong solution of oxalic acid. You cannot get this solution too
strong. This represents the Blood. Secure a third bottle and paint it
black. In this place some powdered nut galls. This represents Sin. On
the table have,--a silver coin, a music box, a cup of pure water.
These you will use in the body of the lesson later. Announce that you
will choose a text for your talk this time and it will be found in I
John 1:17. "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all
sin." Call attention to the large jar which represents the Human
Heart. To all appearance it looks as pure as a lily. There seems to be
nothing in it to make it evil. It does not look like evil. So it often
happens that the evil in us, does not always show on the surface, but
is hidden away in our heart. It was born in us. All men are not _born_
sinners, but _born_ in sin, and later on, that sin manifests itself,
and we begin to choose evil in preference to the right, and that makes
us sinners. The seed of sin was hidden deep in the heart. The jar
apparently pure has in it a hidden property no eye can see, but it is
there and when evil gets in it finds a response from that hidden power
and at once the apparently pure water has turned black with sin. I now
pour a few drops from the black bottle, the evil bottle, into the jar.
Even these few drops seem to be clear and white also, but when I drop
them into the jar of water, all is blackened because the apparent
cleanness was only on the surface. "There is a way that seemeth right
in the eyes of men, but the ways thereof are the ways of death." You
can now talk about things which men do which they say are not bad.
They look all right, that is true, but when they enter the soul, they
soil it, and sin is supreme. What shall I do to get rid of my sin?
What can take away my sin? Can I purchase my salvation? Let us see.
Now cast in the jar a number of silver coins, and say these will bring
me the white again, but the blackness is yet there, showing that
salvation cannot be bought with silver or gold. Can education or
refinement take away sin? Let us see. Place over the top of the jar a
number of school books to represent education. Of course you see the
water is yet black, because you cannot make a black heart clean by
learning. Will music take away my black sin? Let us see. Place a music
box on top of the jar, and let the music sound forth, but you note the
heart is still black and will remain black notwithstanding the finest
music of the world. Shall I say the power of the mind can take the
blackness away? Let us see. I will say to myself "There is no
blackness in this jar. It is a mental delusion. I am mistaken. I don't
see black, and if I continue so to do long enough the black will
disappear to the eye for it was never there. It was a mental defect to
say it was there." All of this sort of thinking would never change the
contents of the jar. Can beauty take away the black? Let us see. Cast
in now a few flowers. The most beautiful things God has made. Will the
handful of beauty take the blackness away? This beauty can never do.
What will do it? What is the soul's cry? What can take away my sins?
Here produce the red bottle. "The blood of Jesus Christ, his son,
cleanseth us from all sin." Pour a few drops or more from the red
bottle into the jar. Continue to pour it in until the water is made
white again. Behold! the blackness of despair has disappeared. The
Blood has taken away the sin forever. Before you put the drops of
black into the jar, take out a small glass full of the black water and
place it down on the table and after the water has been cleared up say
"When the blood of Christ takes away our sin, He keeps us when tempted
to go black again." To illustrate that truth, pick up the small glass
of black water, and say "This represents temptation, and it seeks to
get back into the soul again and make it black with sin as before."
Pour the contents into the jar but you notice that at once there is a
power in the purified water in the jar to resist all temptation and
the black does not blacken the water again. The effect of the
illustration will be made more striking if you put two or more lighted
candles back of the jar. By rehearsal in private, work out the
necessary proportions of these chemicals so they will work out
correctly when you use them before your audience. Be very careful and
keep these chemicals away from the reach of the children as some of
them are deadly poisons.
=CHAPTER XXI
THE GOSPEL COPY BOOK=
_Objects used: A small blackboard; a small New Testament; a number of
children to write on the blackboard_