Chapter 2

"When I am gone, somehow I hope that April Will typify my life, my faith, My hope of victory through the years, My steadiness of step, my clear and visioned eye. The early flowers, the birds Singing in the rain, The increasing light, the slowly opening buds, The almond blooms, the trees in vernal dress Are like the silver crown upon the head; A prophecy of heaven's summer time. Yes, even now it is the April Of my great immortality."

MEMORY VERSE, _John_ 11: 25

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life."

MEMORY HYMN [389]

_"Sow in the morn thy seed."_

HELPING FINGERS

For three years I lived in Manila, Philippine Islands. Not far from my home was an orphanage for children who were deaf and dumb. Frequently these children were seen at different entertainments that were given about the city. One evening I went to attend a lecture in the Y.M.C.A. Right in front of me sat three children. They were very quiet and orderly. When the lecture began the boy who sat in the middle began to make his fingers go as fast as he could, the two children on either side watching him intently. That center boy could hear, the other two were deaf. So he heard the lecture for them and told it to them by the finger language.

One day a girl, coming out from school, got on a street car to go to her home. The car was crowded. She found a seat next to a woman who was heavily laden with bundles. She had all she could do to hold those bundles in her lap and keep them from falling and scattering their contents on the floor. Then a string about one of the packages became untied. She struggled to get that string fastened securely. She had so many packages, her fingers were numb with cold, and again and again the string slipped just at the crucial time. Finally this school girl, who was an attractive, well-dressed girl, reached over and placed her nicely gloved finger on the obstreperous knot. There was a grateful smile from the troubled woman and a hearty "Thank you." The next stop was the girl's home. As she went to the end of the car she passed a school friend who had watched the little incident. She said to her, "I see you belong to the helping hand society." "No," replied the girl, "not the helping hand, just the helping finger society." This is a great society, girls and boys. Admission to it requires no initiation fee, no dues, simply the desire and the will to be helpful wherever you are.

MEMORY VERSE, _Ecclesiastes_ 9: 10

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."

MEMORY HYMN [349]

_"Saviour, thy dying love thou gavest me."_

TWO R'S AND AN A

Do you know what week this is? We have all sorts of weeks, don't we! There is Sunday School week, Go to Church week, Boy Scout week, Red Cross week, Social Welfare week, Hospital week, Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A. week. Sometimes we wish we could have one week all to ourselves.

Well, this is a special week. It is called Good Literature week. I want to tell you about Good Literature week by the use of these three letters, two R's and an A.

The first R stands for Read. By all means read. There is no excuse for not reading, there is so much to read. Indeed I think that is the chief difficulty, we have too much, at least too much of that which is not good to read. Here's the bulky daily paper. When it is delivered there is a rush for it. The children want the comic supplement. So do some of the grownups.

"A little nonsense now and then, Is relished by the wisest men."

That is true, and all right, but read something beside the comics.

The second R is Remember. You cannot remember all that you read. You can remember much. You should train your mind to remember the best. John Ruskin, one of the most gifted of Englishmen, said, "To this I owe all that I have of power, to the fact that when I was a boy my mother made me learn, every day, and remember, a verse of the Bible."

Now the A. The A stands for, can you guess? It means Action. Read, remember what you read, and then apply it, put it into action. It is a fine thing to read a story like Pollyanna and get all excited over it. It is much finer to read Pollyanna and then put her spirit into action in the daily life of the home.

MEMORY VERSE, _Psalm_ 119: 11

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might; not sin against thee."

MEMORY HYMN [201]

_"How precious is the book divine!"_

CANDLE CHILDREN

What is this I have here? It is a candle in a candlestick. There is something about a candle we all love. We have our clear gas lights and our still more brilliant electric bulbs, but when the birthday comes we want a cake with candles on it. Think of this as a birthday candle and let it speak to you.

First of all this candle speaks of Symmetry. How perfectly formed is this candle! It is smooth, there are no rough places that stand out like an ugly wart on one's face. Your life should have symmetry. God asks you to give heed to your physical, your mental and your spiritual duties that your life may be well rounded, a life of beautiful symmetry.

Second, this candle stands for Fragrance. This is a fragrant candle. It is what is known as a "barberry" candle. There are some children we do not like to have around, they are surly, sulky and mean. There are others we dear love to have with us at all times. They have what I call fragrance. They have the fragrance of thoughtfulness, the sweetness of unselfishness.

In the third place this candle means Erectness. How straight it stands in the candlestick! Stand up straight, girls and boys. Do not stoop. Do not hump yourself over your school desk. Walk erect. It means so much now, it will mean much more in later years. Some day, if you heed my word, you will be grateful that the preacher once said to you so emphatically that you could not forget, "John, Mary, stand up straight."

Fourth, the candle stands for Light. It is useless until the wick is lighted. It burns for others. Your life is a light. Jesus wants all Christians to think of themselves as lights in the world. "Let your light shine." Be a lighted candle for the Lord.

MEMORY VERSE, _Proverbs_ 20: 27

"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord."

MEMORY HYMN [84]

_"The spacious firmament on high."_

ALAS, THE MARKS

There is an old, old story about a father who had great difficulty in making his boy obey. The boy did wrong in spite of all that the father could say or do. One day the father said to the boy, "Here is the shed door, now every time you do wrong I am going to pound a nail into the door." One by one the nails were pounded into the door, until it was literally filled with nails. The boy did not like the looks of the door, the thought of it began to trouble his conscience. So he spoke to his father about it. "Well," said his father, "I'll tell you what we will do. Every time you are obedient, every time you do a good deed rather than a wrong one, we will pull a nail out." The bargain was struck, and as, one by one, the nails were driven in, so, one by one, they were pulled out.

Finally the day arrived when there was but one nail left. You can imagine the joy of the boy when he and his father went together to pull that nail out. With great glee the claws of the hammer were fastened about the head of Mr. Nail and, jerk, out he came. "Oh," exclaimed the boy, "the marks are left." Yes, it was true, for every nail driven in and pulled out a mark was left, and it was an ugly looking door. "That is the sad thing about it all," said the father, "every time you do an evil deed a mark is left upon the life. It is never the same as if the evil deed had not been committed. It is fine that we have all the nails out, but it would have been much better had they never been driven in."

MEMORY VERSE, _Jeremiah_ 2: 22

"For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much sope, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God."

MEMORY HYMN [348]

_"Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to thee."_

A BLIND MAN WHO SAW

Once upon a time there was a boy who had a call to be a preacher. Now this boy was Scotch, and the fondest ambition of a Scotch mother is that her son shall become a minister. You may believe that this particular lad's mother was very, very happy. So George (George was his name) went to school. He was not a brilliant student, but he was faithful, he did his work well and passed his grades. One day he noted some difficulty with his eyes. The trouble increased rather than diminished. Before he had finished his education, while he was yet a young man, he became totally blind. He was greatly discouraged. He was tempted to give up entirely, stop trying to do anything. Certainly he could not be a successful preacher if he was blind. Who would listen to him? How could he do his work?

However there was another voice inside him, the voice of courage, hope and faith. It was the voice of the Lord that bid him go right on with his plans. He heeded the urge of the inner voice. He was ordained. People loved him, and flocked to hear him preach. Though his natural vision was darkened, his spiritual vision was so much brighter. Though he could not look upon the beautiful sights of the world, he had eyes to see more clearly the wonderful things of the soul. His fame spread throughout Edinburgh, Scotland, England, and all the English-speaking world, and everywhere he was known and loved as the blind preacher.

This blind preacher wrote many hymns. The greatest hymn he ever wrote, and one of the finest in all the English language, is the Memory Hymn for to-day.

His name? Well, I almost forgot that. His name is George Matheson.

MEMORY VERSE, _Isaiah_ 42: 16

"I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

MEMORY HYMN [481]

_"O love that wilt not let me go."_

CHOOSING A KING

What would you do if you were asked to select a young man who should some day be president of the United States? What tests would you apply? Would you look upon the clothes that he wore? Would you consider the color of his hair? Would you insist that he should be of a certain height? Once upon a time there was a good and wise man who was asked to choose a king for his people. He started on his journey in search of the most promising youth he could find. By and by he came to a home where there were many boys. One of these boys stood before him. He was tall. He was well formed. He had a good bearing. Surely, thought the king-chooser, here is just the man. But something inside him, "the still small voice" I think it was, said to him, "No, do not choose him, he is not the one." The father then called a second son. Like the first he was goodly to look upon. The great man commissioned to choose a king was about to select this one when the same voice inside warned him to wait. A third son was summoned. A third time the voice said, "No, he is not the one."

How chagrined the father must have been to have all seven of his splendid sons rejected! All? No, not all. For the king-chooser said, "Have you no more sons?" "Yes, I have one other, but he is young and the keeper of the sheep. I am sure you would not think of him as a king." "Nevertheless," said the prophet, "send for him." And he came, the youngest, the most unlikely one of all, at least so the father and the brothers thought. But the voice within said, "This is the one, choose him." You will want to read all of this wonderful story and you will find it in your Bible, First Samuel the sixteenth chapter.

MEMORY VERSE, I _Samuel_ 16: 7

"And the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for the man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

MEMORY HYMN [354]

_"O for a heart to praise my God."_

WORSHIP AND TOIL

One day about one hundred years ago a little boy named Jean stood by his father's side watching the setting sun sink into the waves of the sea. The glory of the scene stirred his boyish enthusiasm and he poured out his heart in an ecstasy of joy. The father reverently took off his cap and said, "My son, it is God." The boy never forgot that word, "It is God."

Jean came of a peasant family, so he had to take his place in the field and earn his bread "by the sweat of his brow." On Sundays the fields were forsaken and the family went to the village church where the father was the leader of the choir. After church friends and relatives sometimes came home to spend the afternoon with the family. One Sunday, soon after the return from church, the bent figure of an aged peasant slowly made his way along the road. There was something about the figure that struck the boy Jean. He took a piece of charcoal and hurriedly drew a sketch upon the wall. Every movement and attitude was so perfectly depicted that everybody laughed--everybody but the father. He sensed the gift possessed by his boy, whose growing talent he had been watching. "My Jean," he said, "I will no longer hinder you from learning that which you are so anxious to know."

Jean Francis Millet, for such is his full name, became the artist of peasantry. He never made any other boast. His character was of the highest. He had a firm faith in God. He believed in the Bible as the Word of God. He looked upon his use of the brush as preaching upon canvas the purity and truth he believed.

"The Angelus" is the name of the best known picture that he painted. It shows two workers in a potato field, a man and a woman, who hear from the near-by village the faint tones of the Angelus bell calling them to prayer. They pause, stand erect, bow their heads and worship. It is a beautiful picture. I hope you have a copy framed in your room.

MEMORY VERSE, _Luke_ 11: 1

"Lord, teach us to pray."

MEMORY HYMN [495]

_"From every stormy wind that blows."_

GOD'S CLOCK

Do you own a watch? If you do not now you will some day. I have a friend whose watch came to him in this wise. His father said to him, "When you graduate from High School I will give you a watch."

Is there a "town clock" where you live? Is it dependable? Do men set their watches by it? Do people, passing it, glance up to see if they are late? In the village where I began my ministry the Baptist tower held the town clock. I lived but a few doors away. I went to bed by it. I studied by it. I was wakened by it. Even now, and many years have passed since then, I can hear its clear bell strike the hours.

The strangest clock I ever saw was in China. I went up the West River to the city of Canton. I was carried through the narrow, smelly, crowded streets to the top of a little hill at the city's edge. There, on the very tip-top I saw the "Water Clock." I read, "This water clock is a most ancient, authentic, celebrated and sacred relic of Kwong Tung Province, over 1,300 years old. It was erected on the top story of the north Worshiping Tower which was built by Chin To, King of the South of China."

It was a strange, crude affair, run by water. I stood and looked at it and thought, "This clock was running when George Washington was president; it was running when Christopher Columbus sailed on his great voyage of discovery; long years, long centuries before that it was built."

But there is a clock surpassing all others. I call it God's clock. It is the Sun. Since time began God's clock has kept time. It is the central clock of our universe. It regulates all others. It does not have to be wound. God has seen to that. How can we help worshiping the God who has made such a clock!

MEMORY VERSE, _Psalm_ 74: 16

"The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the light and the sun."

MEMORY HYMN [47]

_"Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear."_

THE HUMAN KODAK

I wonder how many of you have a kodak. Yes, many of you own one. What a wonderful little machine a kodak is! First we buy a film, then we open the kodak and place the film. Now pull the paper over to the empty roll and fasten, close the kodak and begin to wind. Oh, here you are, No. 1. The day is clear, for we must have a clear day to get the best picture. We hold the kodak very steady, then snap, we have it. Next we pull a little slide in the back, take a pencil and write down the date and name. Let me see, what was that picture? Oh, yes, "Chrysanthemum (is that the way to spell it?) exhibition." Next the films are developed, and the kodak pictures are complete, all but pasting them in a big book.

For all that the kodak is a whole lot of fuss, isn't it? But, do you know, each one of us has a kodak God has given him which works itself. We have the open circle through which the pictures are taken, our eyes, and beyond the eyes, in the brain, are thousands of films. We start out in the morning and the moment we open our eyes we begin exposing those films. We do not have to do any clicking for these pictures, one after another, click, click, click, and they are developed as fast as they are taken.

If you should say to a man who has reached three score years and ten, "Tell me the clearest picture you can remember," he would not show a picture that was taken yesterday, or last week, or last year. He would turn back the pages of his memory book fifty, sixty years. The clearest pictures he possesses are those that were snapped in his boyhood. Every day you are taking pictures that are going to remain with you as long as you live. Let us resolve, girls and boys, that as we go out each morning and our human kodak begins clicking, we shall take only pictures that are true, pure and clean.

MEMORY VERSE, _Proverbs_ 4: 25

"Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee."

MEMORY HYMN [1]

_"O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer's praise."_

WATCH LESSONS

My grandfather was a foreman in a tannery for a great many years. Finally, as he was approaching seventy years of age, he left the tannery to retire to a quieter life. The men who worked in his department had a real affection for him. As an expression of that esteem they presented him, on his last day with them, a beautiful, solid gold watch. On the inner cover they engraved his name, the date, and the occasion of the presentation. When my grandfather died the watch became my father's possession. Then upon my father's death the watch came to me. What a joy it is to carry such a watch! Here are some lessons my watch teaches me.

The case is but the outside. It is nice to have a gold case, it looks so well. But that does not make the watch keep any better time. It would keep just as accurate time if the case were iron. You see it is the inside that counts. It is the same with life. The soul is the important part of us.

Now here is the tiny second hand. It rushes around, jumping, hurrying, fussy, as though it were doing the whole job. But you cannot tell time by the second hand. Knock it off and the watch goes right on running.

Here's the minute hand. How big, and solemn and serious it looks! Surely the minute hand is important. What time is it? Fifteen minutes after. Fifteen minutes after what? The minute hand does not say.

Ah, here's the hour hand. Strong, steady, dependable. The hour hand does not move very fast, you cannot see it move. It makes no fuss at all, but you can tell time by the hour hand. Let your life be like the hour hand of the watch, so true and steady that other girls and boys who daily watch you may know life's time, may never be led astray.

MEMORY VERSE, I _Corinthians_ 15: 58

"Therefore, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

MEMORY HYMN [385]

_"Soldiers of the cross, arise_!"

WHAT DID YOU SEE?

A few days ago I made a trip on the train. When I returned home one of the first questions my little boy asked me was, "What did you see?" I shall tell you what I told him.

Looking out of the car window I saw an immense field, acres and acres, and in that field were planted hundreds, yes thousands, of little trees. I inquired of the man who sat next me, "What are those little trees for?" He said, "They are growing those little trees to reforest the desolate, burned over regions of the Adirondacks." I said to myself, "That is just what we are doing in my church. We are growing girls and boys to reforest the needy places of the earth." I inquired, "How long do they keep those little trees there?" "Not very long," said he, "just long enough to give them a good start. Then they transplant them." Again I said to myself, "That is exactly what we do. We keep the girls and boys only a little while, then they are transplanted."

I had another question. "When they transplant these little trees how do they plant them, haphazard, every-which-way?" "No, indeed," was his answer, "they are planted in rows, and close together." Exactly what we are doing in our church, I thought. We are growing our girls and boys, and we are keeping them close together, because they are such a help to one another, and there is great inspiration in numbers.

Looking out of the train window at those trees of future forests, I thought of the verse in Isaiah, "The mountains and the trees shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." I can hear the mountains and the hills of the Adirondacks singing because of the growing trees, and I hear the mountains and the hills of earth singing because of the millions of growing girls and boys who shall reforest the desolate places of earth.

MEMORY VERSE, _Psalm_ 92: 13

"Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God."

MEMORY HYMN [677]

_"Saviour, like a shepherd lead us."_

KNIFE LESSONS

I have here a knife. It was given me by a friend, a token of his affection and esteem, when I went aboard the steamer in Manila, Philippine Islands, to return to the homeland. All these years since then the knife has been on my study desk, daily teaching me. What lessons does this knife teach?

First of all the knife tells me of Strength. The most important part of this knife is what _I_ call the backbone. It is the main portion of the knife to which all the blades are fastened, as well as the polished pearl handle. This would be a weak and useless knife did it not have a backbone. It says to me every day "Be strong, stand up, have convictions, be steadfast."

Lesson number two, Discipline. This knife has been subjected to many trials and tests. The steel of which these blades are made had to go through a hard, hot, trying process before they were tempered and fit to take an edge and hold it. Sometimes I rebel about certain processes of the days, then I think of my knife and learn from it the lesson of discipline.

The third lesson this knife teaches me is Neatness. Now I can picture the man who bought this knife. As he went into the store, he stood before the glass show case wherein were displayed scores of different kinds of knives. There were dark knives and light knives, big knives and little knives. His eye caught this knife, with its graceful lines, its smooth pearl handle, and he said, "That is a neat knife, I'll take that one." People are attracted to you by your neatness.

The fourth lesson is Usefulness. Really it is quite wonderful the variety of uses to which this knife can be put. Here is a big blade, and a small blade; here is a blade with a file; folded in the back is a tiny pair of scissors. So the great test of life is its usefulness.

MEMORY VERSE, _I Corinthians_ 9: 22

"I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."

MEMORY HYMN [545]

_"Jesus calls us."_

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