Part 14
One evening I invited 1,000 children to come to his winter quarters and see him. In the center of a large room there was a great cage into which the animals were taken one by one for their daily exercise and run about. Into this big cage Atlas was brought, and I went in with him. While we were together in this great cage he was as friendly as any of my little pets. He purred away like the family cat behind the kitchen stove on a snowy day. He would take his meat from my hand, displaying at all times great concern lest he should in any way harm me. I did not use a whip or a gun, simply a little rod to urge him on a bit, but controlled him by tones, persuasive tones to which he made quick response. I told the children to use kind words with animals as well as humans, as these were very winsome powers. A lion of docile disposition was dangerous only when sick, hungry, in temper, or acting in self-defense. When the lion is seeking food he displays great intelligence. The monkey is a mimic, and can only do what it is taught to do, and even this he cannot in turn teach to its offspring, but a lion seems to think out its problems.
A man in Central Africa was once out late in the day and far from home. He saw a lion at some distance from him. The lion saw him and also followed him slowly.
When the man walked fast, the lion walked fast; when the man stopped, the lion stopped also. The big idea in the lion's head was to follow him all day until dark, and then in the dark spring upon him. This was the way the man outwitted the lion. When he came to a high cliff below which there was a deep hollow in the rock, he climbed down into this cleft where the lion could not see him. Here he fixed a stick on the rocks and put on it his hat and coat so as to make them look like a man, and then hid under the rock to watch results. Soon the lion came creeping slyly along, and seeing the coat and hat he made a sudden spring at them, and falling down on the rocks below, was killed. But you see I was safe in the cage with Atlas, because they took good care of him and he was _not hungry_.
I concluded by telling the little folks about the story of Daniel who was cast into a den of lions, which is the most remarkable lion story in the world, for in those days they kept the lions in a state of hunger so that they might destroy their victims with haste. Daniel was saved from the hungry beasts because God sent his angel, and they could not open their mouths and had no desire for food. Our God is able to deliver his children.
=THE BABY LION=
One morning when I went to see my friend Atlas in the winter quarters the friendly keeper said to me, "Doctor, look into the lions' cage, in yonder corner." When I did so, what do you think, children, I saw there? Lying close to its big mother lion I saw a little baby lion fast asleep. The big mother seemed very proud of it, for she looked at me with her big eyes and seemed to say, "This is the most wonderful baby of the lion kingdom." And when the little baby opened his eyes I thought so too. After a few days the little fellow would play on the floor with me. He looked just like a big cat, and often when he went after the ball I sent rolling over the floor, he seemed to be a big cat and had the cat's way when he played.
I took him to my church one day. The first lion who ever went to Sunday school--and as it was an anniversary day with the school I gave an object-talk with the little fellow in my arms. I told the children that this lion, so docile and harmless, had a wild nature, and in a short time when that nature was fully developed it would not be safe for the boys and girls to come near him. The little paw which I held in my hands would soon be so strong and wild that it could bring down in death the strongest man alive. I then permitted a few little girls to come to the platform and hold the little fellow for a few moments, which they did with great glee and will tell their children's children of the day when they held a real living baby lion in their arms. I then told them that we all like lions have an evil nature. While we are young we are like this little lion, gentle and mild, but later on when our wild nature develops we do very wicked things and become sinners. The little lion must always be a lion, there is no power on earth that can change its nature. But although we have an evil nature, Jesus has come to take away the evil within us and make us his gentle, obedient, and loving children. I then told the children how much the mother lion loved her little baby. Mother love is so strong that she is most dangerous when she has little cubs of her own; she so greatly fears the stranger will do them harm.
Then I told a baby lion story. A circus was in progress at Woodbury, N.J., one afternoon in May, 1919, when the keeper of a lioness named Lucy and her two cubs entered her cage. He succeeded without difficulty in driving the mother lion into a compartment at the other end of the cage, thus separating her from her cubs. All would doubtless have gone well had he not stopped to fondle the cubs. This aroused the wild anger of the mother, and she sprang with all her might against the separating door, burst it open, and seized the keeper by the neck and killed him instantly. She was transferred into a mad lion when she thought her cubs were in danger. This story shows us how much the mother lion loves her little ones.
About this time the baby lion grew restless and wanted to go home, so when we had named the little cub Norman after the youngest child present that afternoon, we took him back to his mother.
=THE BABY LEOPARD LESSON=
From the wild animal market one day I borrowed a little baby leopard. He was timid as a baby rabbit. He trembled with fear all the time I held him in my arms. The little folks did not seem to be afraid of him, because he looked just like a big cat, and indeed he was the cat's wild brother. As I held him in my arms I recited Jeremiah 13:23: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." The great lesson this passage of Scripture draws forth from the leopard is that none of us by our own effort can change our hearts and make them over into good hearts. Jesus must do this. The leopard can never change his spots nor can we alone ever change our hearts.
=THE LITTLE BEAR STORY=
One day when I was thinking out a talk which I was to give to 1,000 children in my Happy Hour Service for them, I learned that a rich man in my city had purchased a little bear for his children to play with. I said to myself here is a new and different object-lesson. At once I called on the owner, and he very gladly sent me the little fellow and his keeper with him. He was a restless little bear and wanted to play all the time. When I took him into the meeting I had placed on the table by his side a tub of water, for it was Teddy's delight to get into the water and set up a great splash, which hugely amused the children. The bear is the clown of the animal kingdom. He is not an imitator like the monkey, but thinks out his own stunts. He has more intelligence by far than the monkey and is more human in his head. They are often quite droll in their fun, they play leap frog, have wrestling-matches, and play bo-peep. This is the reason why they are called the "Clowns of the Animal Kingdom."
This little bear, I said to the children, teaches us how foolish it is to be self-willed and stubborn. He must have his own way. You can punish him with a whip and hit him so hard he cannot for a few minutes stand upon his feet, yet when he does get his strength back he will stand up and do the same thing over again. When wounded by the hunter with a deadly shot he seems to be stronger in resisting power than ever. He cannot be taught to give up himself. That is the reason we say "as stubborn as a bear." Sometimes boys and girls have the will of a bear. Be stronger than a bear by giving up when you are in the wrong. So you all see now that ponderous unusual objects can be used for teaching great religious lessons. This is a good chapter to read to the little folks.
=52
A BOTTLE OF MOSQUITOES
OBJECTS: Five Prepared Bottles=
In the beginning God made a beautiful garden and dropped it into the Pacific Sea. There it rested in sweet repose like a lily fair upon the bosom of the deep. It was a Garden of Love as peaceful and calm as a star. Its name was Tahiti, but as the years passed by the worst features of European civilization were flung into it, and like Eden of old the serpent came also and destroyed its primeval glory, and its royal beauty soon faded away forever.
Among the destroying influences introduced was a bottle of mosquitoes which a sailor out of sheer spite and hateful fun took to the island, and soon the land was overrun with these disturbing little pests which, added to other black things of civilization, soon robbed these islands of their virgin excellence.
The world today is full of its black bottles loaded with destructive contents. Let us consider some of them.
Secure three dark glass bottles; paint them black if necessary; load and label them as herewith described.
_Bottle No. 1._ Label this bottle "Liquor." Fill it with strong tea, which resembles liquor in color. Pour out a little in a glass, and tell the story of the wreck and ruin this bottle has caused on God's island called the "World."
This bottle came to us in earth's earliest ages. No one has ever discovered the date of its first appearance. Back before the Flood and in the days of Noah we read that wine was wrecking things. First came the deluge of wine, then the deluge from the great deep. It was a world-wrecker then, and is in the same business today, and will continue on in its black business unless the hand of God and the arm of the law shall shatter it and grind it to powder.
Prohibition has chained the monster of this black bottle, but not slain it. It still lives and is seeking to break its chains of bondage and start on its rampage again. There is a popular cry among men now which demands we shall let the monster loose again. They say, "Give us light wines and beer." This is a noise from hell. Light wines and beer would be leaks in the dam that now holds back this flood of death. Open the leaks, and that will finally wash away the dam, and let the river of death loose upon the people again. Place the cork in the bottle and call the cork the Eighteenth Amendment. It shall never come out. The monster of rum must never come back.
_Bottle No. 2._ Label this bottle "Ignorance."
Pour out from this bottle into a glass a liquid that has been made black by a few drops of ink, and this you call the "Darkness of Ignorance," the bottled "night of the Dark Ages." It is as black as Egyptian darkness.
Centuries ago where the City of London now stands, a tribe of benighted people lived. When they wished to start on a pilgrimage of murder and plunder, and did not know which way to go to find the greatest spoil, they placed a little maiden in a large basket, and pierced it through with a sword slaying the little one, and they watched to see through which side of the basket the blood would flow first. This, they declared, indicated the direction in which they were to go on their murderous pilgrimage. They had all been drinking from the black bottle of ignorance. Yes, you say, that might all be true of heathen tribes. But it would be well to remember also that the black bottle of ignorance is found with the wiser people of this day also.
The placing of the horseshoe over the door, the fear of the black cat which crosses our path at night, the dread of the number 13 and the day Friday, are all drops from the bottle of ignorance; and so it appears that civilized people are often influenced by these things. Our colonial fathers when they spilt salt at the table, threw a pinch of it over the left shoulder to keep the witches away; so it seems that often this black bottle of ignorance finds a place on our table of daily bread. Let us seek knowledge and light always. Learn something every day, and keep far away from this bottle of dark ignorance. Remember the mountaintop window of light is to know God aright, and to love him and keep his commandments. If this we do, the cup of life will be so full that ignorance will find no place to dwell in it. The liquid night cannot reign where we all love Jesus and walk in his light.
The third bottle is labeled "War." Load this bottle with a red liquid which can be produced by red ink or from regular dye-stuff. This liquid represents the blood that war has shed. As you pour this out into the glass say, Modern war is murder made lawful by the nations, but it is unlawful by the laws of God. War is sin, it is an enemy to Jesus. He came to give peace on earth and good-will among men. That was his way among men. "Put up thy sword" is one of the commandments of the New Testament. It is the word of the Prince of Peace. All the world questions should be settled by arbitration. "Come let us reason together" is God's good way to settle questions with the sinner or the nations. The spirit of this bad black bottle has slain its countless trillions, and if all the human skulls through which war bullets have crashed could be assembled in one great Potter's Field they would cover an acre of Towers of Babel. If all of the bones of the slain by war could by some magic magnet be thrown together they would well nigh cover the civilized acres of the world.
Put the stopper into this bottle and say, Paralyzed be the hand that ever draws out the stopper of the bloody bottle of war.
_Bottle No. 3._ Labeled "Gold." Fill this bottle with a yellow liquid which resembles the gold color. Pour out into a glass and remark: The love of this yellow stuff is a universal destroyer. The worship of this demon will cause a man and woman to do all manner of evil. They will lie, steal, deceive, and sell their souls for it. They will offer up the sacrifice of their own lives to possess it. They will sell out both worlds just to toy with it for a few days. Gold is evil only when we worship it, that is, think more of it than we do of God. This is forbidden by the First Commandment. The Israelites did this when in the wilderness they erected the golden calf and worshiped it. When we use it aright it is not a black bottle, but a bottle with glad yellow sunshine. We then call its contents charity (love). Paul said charity is even greater than faith and hope. This bottle is not yellow with the sunshine of love, but of sin, so I will put the cork into this bottle and put it out of sight. May I put it out of my mind as I have put it out of sight. But here are two other bottles from which I may and will drink most freely and live ever more.
Secure two plain glass bottles. Label the first one "WATER," and the second, "MILK." Lifting up the bottle marked "Water," explain that it stands for the Water of Life. Lifting up the bottle marked "Milk," explain that it will stand for the pure "Word of God." Holding up the first bottle, pour a little of the contents into a new clean glass and say: This crystal water stands for the Water of Life or God's Salvation. Jesus once offered it to the woman of Samaria, and she drank of it and was saved; she told all her town people of this water, and hundreds drank from the same bottle to the salvation of their souls. Lift high the glass and say: This living Water is free to all; come, and drink, and live. Remember, O ye people, that just looking at it with admiring eyes will not save you. Drink of it, partake of it--this alone will give you salvation. A thirsty man does not have his thirst quenched by admiring the gushing fountain, he must drink to lose his thirst.
My next and last bottle is labeled "Milk." This stands for the Word of God, "the pure milk of God's word."
This Bible milk adds daily strength to the soul which will live on it. It is heaven's prepared food. The Bible by its promises of help gives us a "tall" lift when we are weak and worn down.
When the ten virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom, the five wise virgins not only took their lamps with them, but also other vessels filled with reserve oil to be used in replenishing their lamps when the oil had burned away. The extra bottle was their life preserver, for when the midnight cry was heard, from this bottle they refilled their lamps, and went in to the wedding with the Bridegroom. In our journey home to God we must take this bottle of heavenly "milk," God's word with us. Take a _Milk Verse_ every day--that is, inwardly digest a promise of God daily. This will give you strength now and victory in the hour of death.
=53
A CHRISTMAS TREE IN AUGUST
OBJECTS: A Tree Trimmed with Gifts for the Heathen=
A Christmas-tree in August! This thought sounds like a misfit among ideas. A Christmas-tree with its atmosphere of frost, snow, and December dropped down in the summer garden of August seems to be like a rose-bush with its roots planted in the air. But the Christmas-tree that I am thinking about is never a misfit in any month or in any place. Any time is the right time for this good tree. Let me now tell you about the Christmas-tree in August.
It is a foreign-mission tree. In order to send our Christmas gifts to foreign-mission stations so they will be received in time for Christmas, they must be sent months ahead of that date, and therefore often they are collected in August. This will give you ample time to send the gifts to any port in the world. August is the best time to gather the children together also. They are free from school duties, and the weather is quite suitable for open-air services.
Select if possible some open space or a lawn on which there is standing a small tree by itself, This tree should not be over five or six feet high. Drop on its branches a few bunches of cotton to give a snow-and-winter effect.
When the people have assembled around this tree, and after a brief prayer has been offered, state that this will be a missionary service, and that the Scripture lesson will be the closing verses of the last chapter of Matthew containing the Commission. This tree we will call our August Christmas-tree, for we will now trim it with our Christmas gifts for the children of the foreign lands.
Some time previous to this date you have asked all the people to bring their Christmas gifts for foreign ports to this meeting, and to wrap them up in white packages securely tied with strong cord. Now ask a few selected children to tie a Christmas card on every package. These cards can be secured at any of the wholesale shops where pictorial post-cards can be obtained. You then with the aid of the older boys and girls trim the tree with these white gifts.
This Christmas-tree under the hot rays of an August sun is not unlike the real Christmastime tree that many of the little folks in some of the far-away lands will in reality have. For in some of these lands flowers and hot sun rays are with them at Christmastime.
This tree bowed down with white gifts will resemble a January tree after a heavy snow-storm. It is a joy tree, for it will send joy to many people.
You conclude the service by reading the Bible Christmas story and telling the children our gifts will remind the heathen that peace and good-will is for them also as the angels said, "to all men." Then offer a concluding prayer that our gifts may all be safely transported across the seas and that the presents may make our little brothers and sisters very happy. Now ask the children to help you untrim the tree, and as they take the presents down ask them to load them on one or more small sleds as if sending them far away. Select a number of the very small children to take hold of the ropes of the sleds and to be prepared to march when the order is given. Place on the children at the ropes the names of the countries to which these gifts are going, and let them draw the sleds over the lawn while the other children cheer them as they go on their journey.
At last let the children and the sleds disappear behind a cluster of trees at the far end of the lawn where a committee of adults awaits them to receive the gifts and attend to the final shipment to the missionary boards of the Church. When the children come back with the empty sleds announce that just before they go home they can play a "bit." Some days before this event roll up into balls some cotton until they look like snowballs. Let the children gather around the Christmas-tree and play snowball games. Try this little game: Hang up upon the tree a common basket with a handle on it. Give each child a certain number of balls, ask them to stand ten feet away from the basket, and in turn see how many of the little folks can cast into the basket all their balls. Each child continues to cast in the balls until he misses, and then the next one will take his turn. All of the little folks who put all their balls in the basket should be given a small prize which may consist of a few nuts, some fruit, or small candies.
Here is another snowball game: Secure a small hoop and ask some large boy to hold it up as high as possible. Then select five girls and five boys each holding five balls apiece. Ask them to stand six feet away from the hoop and to cast as many balls through the hoop as possible. Each child continues to cast the balls until he misses one, then he is out, and the next child tries out his skill. The object of the game is to see which side will cast through the hoop the larger number of balls. The side which does this is the winning side. These games and others like them which may occur to the mind of the committee of arrangements will give the little folks a merry time. Tell the children that this Christmas-tree in August is the king of trees because it is a giving tree; it is therefore blessed by Jesus because he has said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
=54
THE JUNIOR POST-OFFICE
OBJECTS: A Box in Which the Letters Can Be Deposited=
This book has been telling you what to say to children. The Junior Post-office will enable the children to say words to you.
This is the Junior Post-office idea. Have a letterbox placed on the outside of your study door. Have posted up over this box the words "For Junior Mail Only."
Ask the children to write to you and drop their mail in this box, and you will receive it promptly and will gladly answer every letter.
When you receive the letters and answer them, announce from the pulpit that you have letters for the following juniors, and then read out the names and say the letters will be found on the pulpit table and can be secured after the service. Sometimes it will have a larger effect if you send the answer through the regular mail to their homes. Children like to receive letters in the regular way; they regard such letters as highly important.