Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear Part 11

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 53]

"I know that we agree that we should be very careful about the kind of people whom we welcome to our homes. But, nevertheless the hand of forgiveness and uplift should be extended to every repentant sinner, for Christ has so taught us. But if we should be so careful about the people whom we admit into our homes, why should we not be still more careful about those other visitors--our thoughts--when we admit them to our minds? Did you ever think of your thoughts as your visitors?

No, I suppose not; but we are going to consider them as visitors today.

"Ah, here comes a nice-looking thought that wants to enter into your head. Fortunately, you have a faithful servant who answers the doorbell every time a visitor comes. It is your Conscience, and if it is well trained, it will admit to your mind only the pure thoughts, and it will slam the door in the face of all harmful intruders. But, alas! we are the master of the house and sometimes when Conscience would close the door to an unholy thought, we tell the servant to step aside, and we admit the visitor. It is a shame! And the worst of it is that Conscience, like an obedient servant, finally lets us have our own way and then we have thrust out our best friend!

"Here is a boy who has lagged behind in his school work. A nice-looking little thought comes along and says, 'Why not cheat just a little? No one would know anything about it.' In a jiffy, Conscience is on hand trying to shut the door. But the boy welcomes the thought into his head. Conscience, made bold by the threatened disaster, tries to show the lad that he can succeed more surely by remaining true and honest, but the thought prevails, and before the boy knows it, the door is opened to a mult.i.tude of other thoughts, and the ones which came last are worse than the little one which entered first. When such a boy is grown to young manhood he finds himself robbed of character, robbed of honors, robbed of n.o.ble ambitions. He is a failure. No one trusts him for he cannot trust himself. He is completely at the mercy of his evil thoughts, and Conscience can no longer serve him.

"How gladly, then, should each one of you boys and girls welcome good thoughts. Make Conscience your door-keeper. The same good thought will come again and again, bringing other splendid, helpful, delightful thoughts, and they will become the greater part of your life. Every one of you has a thinker in his head. Be careful to keep it clean and pure."

JENNIE Ca.s.sEDAY --Children's Day --Service

A Children's Day Story of What One Girl Did to Make Others Happy.

THE LESSON--That one little act may multiply to bless countless thousands.

The story of Jennie Ca.s.seday is one of the sweetest narratives of humble service that can be told to children and their elders. It is a chapter from real life which may be copied in varied form by each one of us. Its use is suggested for Children's day, but it is good for many other occasions.

~~The Talk.~~

"This morning, while we are surrounded by these beautiful flowers, and while our hearts are light as we think of all the beauty and brightness that G.o.d has given us, I want to tell you the story of Jennie Ca.s.seday and what she did to bring beauty and gladness into the world. You may think that Jennie couldn't do very much, because she was a poor little cripple girl. She lived at Louisville, Kentucky.

When she was small, she was just as lively and happy as any other little girl; but one day she suffered from a terrible accident and from that time she was helpless. I am going to draw a picture of Jennie's crutch to represent her suffering and her helplessness. [Draw crutch with brown, Fig. 54.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 54]

"Have I said she was helpless? Well, this is what I mean: She could not help herself, but she could help others, and this is how she did it: For several dark, painful years Jennie Ca.s.seday suffered and waited--waited for something which she could do to enable her to send some ray of light out into the world which would brighten other hearts. One day she read in the New York Observer how a young girl school teacher, who lived in the outskirts of the city of Boston and was employed in one of the down-town schools, was bringing brightness into the homes of many poor people by taking with her large baskets of beautiful roses and lilacs and s...o...b..a.l.l.s and many other kinds of flowers from her suburban home and giving them to the children whom she met. It was a simple little act, but the reading of it by Jennie Ca.s.seday brought a transformation in her life. I wish I knew the name of this young school teacher in Boston, but I can't give it to you. But it was she who gave to Jennie Ca.s.seday the thought for which she had longed. Jennie's suffering was almost forgotten in her planning and determination to raise flowers and give them to the sick and the needy in Louisville. Her friends soon learned of her plans and there were many willing hearts and hands to help her. Under her guidance the Louisville Flower Mission was established, and it soon proved to be a great and growing blessing. It had been doing its beautiful work for four years when Miss Frances E. Willard, head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, visited Louisville. There she heard of the mission and the n.o.ble young woman who founded it. Miss Willard visited Jennie Ca.s.seday in her sick room, and when the conference had closed, Jennie had been placed at the head of the Flower Mission department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was at that time brought into existence. This was in 1882, and Jennie continued in this great work until the time of her death in 1893. June 9 is observed as the Red Letter day of the Flower Mission department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, for this is the birthday of Jennie Ca.s.seday. Every year, thousands of bouquets of beautiful flowers find their way into homes of the sick and the poor throughout the land. And so, with the forgetting of the sufferings of Jennie Ca.s.seday and the remembrance of her beautiful life, I think we may well change this crutch to something more commemorative of her life. [With green chalk, change the crutch to a stem of a carnation, and with pink draw the blossom, Fig. 55.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 55]

"In Louisville, the people have sought to honor the memory of this young woman by the establishment of the Jennie Ca.s.seday Infirmary and the Rest Cottage Home for Working Girls. The school children of Louisville erected a beautiful monument to her memory bearing an appropriate inscription.

"Some of us who have our health and strength may well wonder if we are fulfilling all of G.o.d's demands. Boys and girls, let me impress upon you the thought that it is not the great, showy thing that makes people love us, but the careful doing of the seemingly little things, which, when summed up, make a magnificent whole. Jennie Ca.s.seday did what she could. No more is required of us. But that much is certainly expected, and we will fall short if we fail to meet the expectation."

[A beautiful close to this talk would be the recitation or reading of Dr. Van d.y.k.e's poem "Transformation," which may be found in "The Blue Flower" or in "The Builders and Other Poems."]

MOTHER --Mother's Day --Home Training

The Great Men of the World Pay Her the Highest of Tribute--A Carnation Day Thought.

THE LESSON--That the welfare of the church and of the home rests more with the mothers than with the Sunday School teacher.

It is interesting to read the recorded words of some of the world's greatest minds in tribute to motherhood. The following talk, quoting some of these, should be an impressive lesson to the young and to the mothers as well.

~~The Talk.~~

"Who are these mothers for whom we have decorated our school room and ourselves with these beautiful flowers? [Draw, in black outline the carnation blossom; add the stem in solid green, and place the lettering in purple, red or blue, Fig. 56.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 56]

"Surely these mothers must be of great importance or we would not be having a special service for them today. I have been reading a little about mothers, to see if they are really of much value to the world, and I want to repeat some of the things I have read. [It is well to have all of these quotations in note form to be read with accuracy.]

"I find that John Randolph, one of America's greatest statesmen, said, 'I should have been an atheist if it had not been for one recollection--and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, "Our Father who art in heaven."'

"I find that Abraham Lincoln said of his mother, 'All that I am and all that I hope to be I owe to my mother. Blessings on her memory!'

"I find that George Herbert said, 'One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.'

"I find that Oliver Wendell Holmes said,

"'Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friends.h.i.+p fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all.'

"I find that Coleridge said,

"'A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.'

"I find that Beecher said, 'A mother's heart is the child's school room.'

"I find that Benjamin West, the great artist, said, 'A kiss from my mother made me a painter.'

"I find that General Wallace, in Ben Hur, said, 'G.o.d could not be everywhere, so he made mothers.'

"I find everywhere the great men of the world paying loving tribute to these mothers, and after all there is only one real perfect, true and faultless mother in all the world and that is our own mother, whether she be gone before or whether she be still with us. I am sure that every one of us older ones will find ourselves in tune with the expressive words of George Griffith Fetter, who wrote:

"'The n.o.blest thoughts my soul can claim, The holiest words my tongue can frame, Unworthy are to praise the name More sacred than all other.

An infant, when her love first came-- A man, I find it just the same; Reverently, I breathe her name, The blessed name of mother.'

"And so, I answer the question that I asked at the beginning, who are these mothers? Really, it seems to me that the mothers of the world are the power which keeps it moving toward all that is good and high and holy. Mother love has been a power in the world since history commenced, and the scriptures are filled with beautiful demonstrations of it. How we love to read the story of the mother of Moses who hid her child in the bullrushes and then succeeded in being engaged as his nurse. How often has the heart thrilled at the hearing of the story of Samuel and his mother! How strongly the mother love manifested itself at the time of the judgment of Solomon who was called to determine the possession of the child claimed by two women. And what could be more beautiful than the pictures of the devotion of the mother of Jesus to Him who was to be the Savior of the world?

"Verily, 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world,' through the love of good which the mother hopes for her child. The mother of today in America has a greater problem than ever before. The boys of today are the men of tomorrow. The boys will be what the mothers make them; and with this thought, I want to change our drawing slightly to indicate the ever-present problem which is never safe except in the hands of the right kind of mothers of the boys of today and of the future generations. [Add the words to complete Fig. 57.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 57]

"May G.o.d bless you, mothers, and help you to help these boys and these girls to meet the great problems which are before them. You must help them. Without you, they are on unsafe ground, treading perilous paths."

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS --New Year's Day --Watchfulness

Most of Them May be Rolled into One--"Hold Fast to That Which Is Good."

THE LESSON--That the positive life, rather than the negative life, knows true happiness.

While this talk is planned for the special application to the opening of the fiscal or the school or church year, it may be revised very easily to fit many other occasions.