ONE day a candle spoke out from a shelf in a minister's study and said
"I see you watching me and with your eyes you seem to say--what shall
I say next to the Juniors. Listen to me and I will answer your
question." And the Candle said "Well now, Mr. Preacher-man, I will
take your place next Sunday and preach for you. I have a message
hidden away for your people." Then I though as I watched the candle
that a hidden hand, holding a lighted taper thrust itself out from the
mystic land, and glowed and throbbed as a little star of light which
crowned its upright form. Then said I "Now, Mr. Candle, what will you
tell the people?" and it said "Hold me above your head and thus exalt
me, or debase me by putting me on the floor, I will still keep on
shining. In whatsoever state I am, I shine just the same. Men may
honor me by placing me on the King's table before the lords and
ladies, or place me in a humble cottage window, to help the pilgrim of
the night to see his way onward, I will still shine. I was made to
shine. It is God's will that I shine--just shine." Learn, ye people,
the lesson. It is a message from the candle. This is true goodness.
This is pure Christianity. This is Jesus' way--no matter where--just
shine." "That is beautiful, good prophet," said I, as I drew out a
golden dart from my own heart. "That arrow of light pierced me."
"But," said the candle, "Do you know my true name? Well, I will tell
you. My name is Joseph. I was shining long ago when the race was just
tumbling over the side of the cradle of infancy. I was there and did
what I ask you to do. When I was in Father Jacob's home, or in the
field tending sheep, or carrying messages to my brother shepherds, or
when I was hated by my home folks, or cast into the pit with creeping
things and devouring mouths, or sold into Egypt as a slave, or robed
in grandeur as a mighty ruler with Pharaoh, or when I was covered with
the poisonous lies, or cast down into prison, or when I stood before
Pharaoh, and made clear his dreams, or when I was exalted to Pharaoh's
side, and lived in untold glory, or when I met my brethren who sold me
into slavery, and with whom I could even up the old score and sore, or
when I stood face to face with my dear old father in Egypt land, and
found myself and the boys and home folks all united under the royal
canopy of Pharaoh's care, I just kept on shining all the time. Up or
down, in or out, over or under--just shining all the time. Go thou and
do likewise." Then I saw the mystic hand come out from dreamland, and
remove the white robed priest, and I heard him exclaim as he was
removed out of sight--"Here endeth the sermon of the white candle."
When at last my thought spoke out, I said, "God was with the white
minister and his message was like an echo of the sermon on the mount."
To visualize the lesson, place a plain candle on the table, and be
seated a little distance from it. Secure a good reader, who will not
be in sight, to speak the part the candle says, and you in turn make
the answer. Make it a dialogue with the object.
=CHAPTER XXVII
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT=
_Objects used: A Tall Candle and a Stub of a Candle_