With the Children on Sunday Part 11

I think you will begin to see that these things which we call troubles and trials, after all, are well calculated by G.o.d to bring out that which is n.o.blest and best in us.

When you grow older you will come to say like Paul, that you know that "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." You will then come to understand that these things "work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," and like Paul, you will learn to be "patient in tribulation." One time when Paul and Barnabas were at Lystra and healed a cripple, the people were moved against Paul by some wicked Jews from Antioch and Iconium, and they pursued Paul and threw large stones at him and hit him with such great force that he fell down, and they supposed that he was dead. But Paul was not dead, and afterwards when he met some of the Christian people at that and other places, when they talked to him about it, and thought that it was very hard that G.o.d should have permitted these wicked people to stone him, Paul told these Christians that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of heaven."

But I must not detain you longer. I want simply to say in closing that when St. John had been banished to the Isle of Patmos and was permitted to have a view of heaven, and looked into that glorious city, he saw a great company, and he inquired of the angel who these people were. The angel replied: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the Throne of G.o.d and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth upon the Throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water; and G.o.d shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. vii: 14-17.)

If in our sickness, or sorrow, or disappointment here upon the earth, we are sad or lonely, let us remember that in the happy home to which we go we shall be forever with the Lord, and that all tears shall be wiped away, and that we shall be happy forever and ever on high. It is only through these tribulations that you and I can be prepared to enter heaven. If G.o.d were to give us everything we want, like children who are indulged, we would soon be spoiled and would not be fit for the enjoyment of heaven or the companions.h.i.+p of the angels.

QUESTIONS.--What is rough stone used for? Does the stone have feeling? If it had feeling, would it object to being cut and chiselled and polished?

Could it be used in a great building unless it was first quarried and prepared? How can the rough stone be made beautiful? Can it be polished so that you can see your face in it? Who prepares people to be builded into His kingdom? How does He do this? Who composed the great mult.i.tude whom John saw in the glorious city? What had happened to them? What should we remember in times of sickness and sorrow? Why are trials necessary to fit us for heaven? Will we be in the presence of G.o.d there and have angels as our companions?

ROPES.

HABITS AND HOW THEY BECOME STRONG.

SUGGESTIONS:--Objects to be used are a spool of thread, a piece of string or twine and a piece of rope.

After the sermon has been read, the thread and strings could be used to tie the hands and feet, and thus ill.u.s.trate how impossible it is to break them when they are wound again and again around the hands and the feet, even though the thread be very fine. So with habits, seemingly insignificant.

MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: I have to-day a piece of rope, and also some different kinds of string. If I take this rope and try to break it, I find that it is impossible. I do not believe that any five or six ordinary men could pull with sufficient strength to break this rope. I am sure that no twenty boys and girls could pull hard enough to break it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Rope.]

Here is a very strong string. Perhaps a couple of boys, possibly four boys, might be able to break it. But here is a thinner string. Possibly I may be able to break this. Yes, I can, but with great difficulty. It takes all the strength I have to break it.

Now, here is some that is still thinner. It is about as thick as heavy thread. I can break it very easily.

But now, when I take this heavy rope and cut off a piece, if I unwind these different strands, I find that this rope is made by twisting smaller ropes together. If I untwist this smaller rope, which I have taken out of the larger rope, I find that it in like manner is also made of smaller ropes, or strings. If I take these smaller strings, and untwist them, I find that they are made of still smaller strings; if I take any of these smaller strings out of the rope, I can break them easily, but when I twist several of them together, I cannot break them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: String.]

I think that these smaller cords, out of which this rope is made, will very fittingly ill.u.s.trate habits. It is a very dangerous thing to form bad habits. We should be very careful to form good ones, but bad ones are very dangerous. The boy who remains away from Sunday-school but once, thinks little of it. The boy who remains away from church, or stays at home from school, or disobeys his parents, or spends the evenings on the streets instead of in the house reading good books, or breaks the Sabbath, or does any one of many things, may think very little of it at the time; but do you know that when we go on repeating the same thing over and over again, the habit grows stronger and stronger until at last we are not able to break loose from that habit?

There are men who think that they can stop smoking. They began with only an occasional cigarette or a cigar, until the habit grew upon them, and now possibly they think they are able to stop, but when they undertake to break off smoking, they find that it is a very difficult task, and very few smokers who undertake it succeed permanently. The old habit is likely to overcome them again and again.

So it is with swearing, and with telling falsehoods, and with being dishonest, and with drinking liquor, and everything else that men and boys often do. These habits at last become very strong, until they are not able to break loose from them.

Now, if you take one of these strong habits from which a man is not able to break loose, and untwist it, you will find that it was made strong by a repet.i.tion of small habits. Habits are made strong by doing the same thing over and over again. It is just the same as when I take this spool of thread and wrap it around the feet of a boy. I can wrap it around and around, and while it would be easy for him to break the thread if it was wrapped once or twice, or three or four times around his feet; yet after I have succeeded in placing it ten or twelve, or twenty-five or fifty times around his feet, he is not able to walk at all.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hands Bound.]

I could tie his hands by wrapping this small thread around and around, just a few times. At first it could be broken, but after a little it becomes so strong that he is not able to break it at all. So it is with habits. When we do the same things again and again, the habit becomes stronger and stronger day by day, and year by year, until at last Satan has the poor victim bound hand and foot, and he is absolutely helpless.

No one is able to come and snap the cords, and set this poor helpless prisoner free, until G.o.d in His grace comes and liberates him from the evil habits with which he has bound himself, or with which he has permitted Satan to bind him.

It is very important that in the very beginning of life, we should all form the habit of doing those things which are right. The doing of the right may at first afford us but very little pleasure, yet we are to continue to do right, and after a while it will become pleasant for us to do right.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Feet Bound.]

At first it may not be very pleasant for a boy to go to school. He prefers not to exert himself; not to put forth any mental effort. But after he becomes accustomed to going to school, and to putting forth mental effort, it becomes more and more natural to him, and finally he comes to love study. After he has completed his studies in the primary school, he goes to the intermediate, and to the grammar school, and high school, and possibly to college, and continues to be a student all his life.

So it is with going to church; those who begin when they are young and go regularly, Sunday after Sunday, become regular church attendants all their lives.

Habits are formed very much like the channel of a river. Gradually, year after year, the river wears its course deeper and deeper, until finally through the soft soil and the hard rock, through the pleasant meadow and the beautiful woodlands, it has worn out for itself a very deep channel in which it continues to flow to the ocean.

So the mind, by repeated action, marks out its course. Whether the mental effort or manual work be pleasant or difficult, we become so accustomed to it, that we go on day by day, and year by year doing the same thing.

The Bible gives very wise instruction to parents when it says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. xxii: 6.) It has also been wisely said, "Sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny."

Be careful, boys and girls, what you do, for by doing anything you are forming a habit. If you do wrong things you will form bad habits, but if you do right things you will form good habits, which are always the best.

QUESTIONS.--Are small ropes or strings used to make big ropes? Can you tie a boy's hands and feet with thread so that he cannot make himself free?

How are strong habits made? Is it a good thing that habits are formed in this way? Does this make it easy to form good habits? Does it also make it easy to break away at first from a bad habit?

Which is easier, to form a bad habit or to break away from it? Who tries to bind us with bad habits? Who alone can break the ropes of habit with which Satan binds us? What does the Bible say about training up a child in the way he should go?

WATCH AND CASE.

THE SOUL AND THE BODY.

SUGGESTION:--A watch and case (preferably a double case) from which the works can be easily removed will answer the purpose. Jewelers often have such old watches that they would be glad to sell for a trifle, or even to give away. A small old clock from which the works can be removed would also answer the same purpose.

Keep up the play idea with the children. Older persons may weary of repet.i.tion, but to children their play is always new and interesting. After "driving to church", being shown to seats, and after some opening services, let one of the children preach in his or her own language the truth which most impressed them in last Sunday's object sermon, or the truth which they remember from the morning sermon in church, or from any pa.s.sage of Scripture which they may prefer. No better school of oratory was ever formed, even though the primary purpose is devotional and religious.

NOW, boys and girls, what is this that I hold in my hand? (Many voices, "A watch.") I expected that you would say it was a watch. Every boy knows a watch when he sees it, and every boy desires to have a watch of his own--one which he can carry in his pocket, and one which will tell him the time of day whenever he looks at it.

But you cannot be sure, even from appearances, that this is absolutely a watch. It might be only a watch-case. In order to tell whether it is a watch, let us open it. After all, it is not a watch. It is only a watch-case. You would not wish to spend your money when you expect to get a watch, and on reaching home find that you have been deceived, and that you had nothing but a watch-case.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Watch-case.]

Now, boys and girls, what is this? (holding up the works of the watch).

"A watch." This time you are right, this is a watch. It is a watch without a case around it. Now we will put the works into the case, and then we will have a complete watch. The works and the case together more properly const.i.tute a watch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Watch-case and Works.]

You have, I suppose, been at a funeral, and have seen the body of the dead man or woman or child lying in the coffin. Unless somebody has told you differently, you may possibly have thought the person whom you had known was lying there in the coffin. But this was not the fact. Every man, woman and child consists of a soul and a body, and when a person dies the soul returns to G.o.d, who gave it. G.o.d made our body out of the dust of the ground, and when the spirit leaves the body, it is a dead body, and it begins to decay, and soon becomes offensive, and so we bury the body out of our sight, putting it again in the ground, and finally it moulders back again to dust.

It is not so, however, with the soul. That is a spirit. When G.o.d had made Adam out of the dust of the ground, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Now, this soul never dies. G.o.d has created it to live forever and ever, throughout all eternity. Those who are good and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will be received at death to dwell forever with the Lord. And those who are wicked and do not repent of their sins, G.o.d will banish forever from His presence; for sin is hateful in the sight of G.o.d, who cannot look upon it with any degree of allowance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Case and Works Separated.]

The moment you look upon a body, without being able to tell how, you can nevertheless quickly distinguish between one who is asleep and one who is really dead. Even animals can tell a dead body. When a dead horse lies along the road, it is very difficult to drive a live horse near to the dead one. The living horse knows at once that the other is dead, although we do not know how he knows it.