"This is the banner round which our school rallies today. We have come together once more to strengthen our army of boys and girls to fight against wrong. And our littlest fighters are the best fighters we have. Why? Because it is a warfare that never ends and the little ones have many more years in which to fight than the older ones have. And, strangest of all, the weapons most effective are kindness, love, prayer and steadfastness—these will drive away the great enemy of us all—sin. The boys in blue rallied around their flag because it represents our country, the land we love so well. We rally around this flag because it represents everything that is best here on earth and in heaven. Let us be loyal to these two beautiful banners. We cannot be true to one without being true to the other.
"Let us make this school year the best we ever knew. We can do it if we will be true to everything for which these two flags stand—the red for love, the white for purity and the blue for loyalty."
[It is suggested that the pupils be presented with small American and conquest flags as souvenirs. These are inexpensive and may be procured from Sunday school supply houses. Celluloid buttons, displaying the two flags, would be acceptable souvenirs of the day.]
An Illustration Which Has Inspired Many to Hopefulness and Victory.
THE LESSON—That a complete surrender to Christ is the only successful way to purify a sinful life.
This illustration, in varied form, has been used by speakers for many years. It is here given, however, in a new presentation, with a hope that the revision may be helpful to others in spreading its usefulness. If paper is used, attach several thicknesses to your drawing board and provide yourself with a sharp penknife. If used as a blackboard illustration, an eraser will be needed.
"It is a good deal safer, boys, for you to walk the streets with your thumb in your mouth than with a cigarette there. The thumb can't hurt you, but the cigarette is bound to. I heard, once upon a time, of a young man who lived in a good home—maybe just as good as yours—who fell into the cigarette habit. I can't understand why a boy, when he knows what a terrible thing the cigarette habit is, will not leave the thing alone. But, like some whom you may know, this boy failed to heed the many warnings and, before he was aware of it, the deadly habit had him firmly in its grasp. I will ask one of the boys to please spell the word 'Habit' for me. [As each letter is repeated put it down on the drawing sheet. If you have previously outlined the entire picture, the location of the cross will determine the location of the letter T, in the center, as the T is later changed into a cross. Place the other four letters in proper relation to the letter T, completing Fig. 29.]
"Now, then—one day this young man awoke to the fact that he must rid himself of his terrible habit if he would amount to anything in the world. He was working in a distant city, and there, alone, how do you suppose he started in to get rid of his habit? He did it this way: He made up his mind to wipe it out gradually by cutting down the number of cigarettes which he smoked each day. So he started in. The first day he smoked two less than he did the day before—cut out some, you see. [With your penknife cut out the letter H and throw it away.] You will observe that although he cut out some of his habit, he had A BIT left. The next day he did the same thing, by cutting out two more. [Cut away the letter A.] Although he had a BIT of the habit left, he felt somewhat encouraged and declared to himself that he could cut it all out if he kept at it. But he didn't know how hard it would be to 'keep at it.' The next day he cut out a little more [Cut away the letter B], but the desire to smoke the deadly cigarette was still strong. He was inclined to give up in discouragement, for he had now found that cutting out wasn't cutting off and that he still had IT. Not until now did he feel his helplessness, for the habit was still strong upon him. He needed a friend—a friend who could help him in his earnest wish to become once more true and pure. And a friend came. It was one who knew Christ and His power to save everyone who turns to Him for help. Clearly this friend revealed to him the truth, that if he would master his habit he must master himself. Boldly he took the glad step, and, like all humble followers of Jesus, he gave himself into His loving care, to guide and to direct his life. With this step came active work for Christ, and it was then that the letter I was removed [Cut out the I] and a new vision burst on his sight, for the last remnant of his enemy faded away in the transformation of his life to Christian service. [Give the T a touch with black, converting it into a cross; then continue the drawing to complete Fig. 30. Use black for the hill and circle; outline the cross in red; use orange in broad strokes for the rays emanating from the cross.]
"This was the vision. It can come to every boy and girl. It has come to countless thousands. To this boy of whom we speak it came to save him from failure and death. No longer did the dread habit control him. The battle was won, not by his own strength, but through Christ, who strengthened him. Such strength will be yours every time you need it to help and to keep you.
"And let us think for a moment of the great service of the friend who led this young man to see the vision. Are we a friend to those who need us? 'Brethren,' says Paul, 'if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens.'
"May we ever be ready to lend a helping hand."
Their Introduction into America has Spread Perfume and Beauty Everywhere.
THE LESSON—That, like the lily, Christ gave up His life that His followers should multiply in the earth.
It is difficult, as teachers of children are aware, to impart the significance of Easter to those who are too young to be acquainted with death and the hope of a resurrection. Many teachers find it best to confine the thought to the phenomena of nature as revealed in plant life and to make such applications to the spiritual as conditions seem to permit. Easter is the most precious day of the year, for without it there would be no Christmas, because Christmas is celebrated only as the birthday of Him who arose from the dead. Without it, the world would be in the darkness of despair and disappointment which possessed the disciples as they turned from the cross to resume their former occupations or to hide themselves from the taunts of their tormentors. Hence, we must make the best possible use of it. This illustration possesses no new thought; in fact, there is nothing new except as we put into it the newness of our own enthusiasm and earnestness.
"On this beautiful Easter morning I want to tell you of a lady who has done a good deal to help us enjoy this day. But for her, I believe, we would not have had any of these lovely lilies which represent the purity of the life of the risen Savior. I do not know the name of this lady. But I do know that one day she stepped from a steamer at a wharf in her home city of Philadelphia, and that she had been on a visit to the Bermuda Islands, which are six hundred miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps you know that the Bermuda Islands are noted as the place where they raise very large onions, which are imported to the United States. An onion, you know, is a bulb. Well, this lady carried with her two bulbs. They weren't Bermuda onions, either, as they were too small for that. She took these two bulbs to a friend who was a florist and asked him to plant them. [Draw the bulb in black. Fig. 31.] This was in the year 1875. The bulbs soon sent up strong green shoots and after a while blossomed as beautifully in their strange surroundings as they would have done in their former home. [Complete the drawing of the lily stalk in green; also the lilies, using fine black lines as outlines.] To us these beautiful flowers seem like old friends, because we have known them so long, but these Easter lilies, blossoming in Philadelphia, were the first to spread their sweet perfume in this country.
"Before that time, there was a lily known as the Easter lily, but whose right name is the lilium candidum or Madonna lily. This latter name comes from the fact that in one of the paintings of the Madonna she holds one of these lilies in her hand. It, also, is pure white, and similar in form to the Easter lily of today except that it is more bell-shaped.
"During the first four years, these two bulbs in Philadelphia produced one hundred new bulbs. But what had become of the original bulbs? Ah, don't you know that when the bulb produces new bulbs the original bulb dies? Yes, when the new bulbs form at the sides of the old bulb, the one which gave them life perishes—in fact, the first bulb gives up its life that the others may live. [Draw the outer bulbs as in Fig. 32.] And while it does so, it spreads the perfume and the beauty of its flowers to delight everyone who sees them.
"From these first bulbs brought to America has come much of the beauty which is now so widespread at Easter time. The earth is full of the perfume of the Easter lily today.
"How typical is this little illustration of the Savior whose resurrection we celebrate today. While He was on the earth, the beauty of his life brightened everyone, and all that time He knew that He must give up his life that we might live.
"How typical also of our lives may this Easter lily be. What seems more lifeless than the bulb of a lily? Plant it, bury it, and lo! it is resurrected into a thing of wondrous beauty. That which seemed like its tomb has proven to be the gateway into true life. Thus our faith gives us the blessed assurance, with Paul, that 'if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.'"
It Tells the Story of Courage and Patience that Approaches the Sublime.
THE LESSON—That steadfastness in the right not only keeps the life upright but it restores the repentant one to righteousness.
Each one of us needs the quality called steadfastness—not the obstinacy which denies us the right to judge fairly every condition about us, not the bigotry which prevents us from a charitable consideration of the views of other people—but the steady adherence to positive Christian principles which keep us constant in our faith and unwavering in our hold on heavenly virtues.
"Today, we are going to talk about steadfastness. And what does it mean to be steadfast? It means that with God's love to protect us against every temptation, we shall never willingly do anything to grieve Him. A life ruled by this power may grow to be so truly in harmony with the spirit of the Master that even though the waves of trouble dash wildly against it, it will continue to stand firmly, because it knows that 'Jehovah will give grace and glory and no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.'
"We shall turn to Nature for our object lesson today. We might select the mighty oak, 'the king of the trees,' to represent the stalwart Christian life which not only withstands the storms, but which, as it strives against the winds, sends its mighty roots ever deeper into the earth; and we might choose as the type of the weak and sinful life the bay tree which does not send its roots deep into the earth and which is in danger of being torn away by every passing storm. But we shall look not at these but at two other trees which are described by Julia Ellen Rogers in her beautiful book, 'Among the Trees.' Says this author, 'There is something almost sublime in the patience and courage of plants!' Doesn't that sound strange? The idea of claiming that plants are courageous and patient! But the writer goes on to prove her words. One tree of which she writes was thrown prostrate upon the ground, crushed down by another tree which fell upon it. There it lay, with some of its roots torn loose from the earth and drying in the heat of the sun. It was left there in the forest to die. [As you speak, draw Step A of Fig. 33.] The writer tells also of a small poplar tree which grew on the sloping side of a mountain. One day, when there was a heavy landslide, the rush of boulders and earth tore the tree from its place and carried it a considerable distance down the side of the mountain. When it stopped sliding, it was left with its top downward, while its roots were lifted toward the sky. [Draw Step B of Fig. 33.] In the rush of the earth, a quantity of soil was spread over a part of the roots. If anyone had seen the tree then, he would have declared that it must surely die.
"But let us turn again to the book. The writer says, 'A tree thrown down may die of its wounds, but if it does not die it seeks to assume an erect position. As long as there is life, there is inspiration,' and, we might add, a reaching upward! Do you get the idea? Even if a tree is thrown down, wounded near to its death, it tries its best to rise, to rise again—to stand upright! This truth is shown by what these two trees did. This first one sent an entirely new tree straight up from the roots, while the old part lay on the ground dead. [Add lines to complete Step C of Fig. 34.] This second one was so determined to grow that it sent out a little sprout and started it to climb straight upward toward the sky; it developed into a strong tree. [Draw lines to complete Step D of Fig. 34; this finishes the drawing.]
"What a splendid lesson there is for us in these true stories from the forest and the mountain. Perhaps, in our weakness, we have not lived as closely to the Master as we should have done, and have become prostrated by our temptations. But there is one mighty to save. It is for us to reach upward in thought, in word and deed. Then will come the sunshine of his loving kindness to give us strength to rise toward Him. The tree, wounded and cast down, can never return to its first condition, but it does its best to rise. We, if we be prostrated by sin, can never rise to be as perfect as we would have been if we had shunned the evil thing; but in humility and service we may rise to receive the Master's 'Well done,' and we may be assured of His tender care if we do our best.
"Let us ever keep our thoughts on Him who 'is able to succor them that are tempted.'"
The Secret of Lincoln's Steadfastness in the Midst of Tremendous Trials.
THE LESSON—That the Bible teaching of childhood fortifies manhood.
If it is not your custom to observe Lincoln's birthday, you will find this illustration valuable for Mother's day and other occasions.
"Probably no public man in America has ever been so severely assailed, so mercilessly scourged through the public press, as was Abraham Lincoln. Yet, through it all, while thousands were dying on the field of battle, while pestilence and want stalked through the states, and while the finger of hatred and scorn was pointed at him as the man who had brought devastation and death upon the nation, he stood steadfast, with a firm, unimpassioned face, never swerving an inch from the path of right and duty. Warring factions all about him, who tried in many ways to sidetrack him, failed in every attempt. To them he said, 'Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us do our duty as we understand it.'
"In his memorable second inaugural address, he said, 'With malice toward none, with charity to all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work.'
"In those tumultuous times, he often seemed to stand almost alone, like a lighthouse away out from the rock-bound coast, lashed by the fierce waves, driven by furious winds. [Draw the lighthouse in brown and the waves in blue, completing Fig. 35.]
"But the fiercest storms never moved our human lighthouse! Nor did the light which was to finally guide the Ship of State into a safe and peaceful harbor fail to send out its clear, pure rays.
"The lighthouse which we have drawn must stand upon a firm and solid foundation to endure the force of the storm. Abraham Lincoln must have stood upon a firm and solid foundation in order to endure the fierce storms of the darkest years of the nation's history. Let us see what this foundation was made of.
"We must go away back to the early days of his life until we come, in 1816, to a little cabin in Gentryville, Indiana—a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor and with no glass in the windows. Here lived Thomas Lincoln and his wife and two children, Sarah, aged ten years, and Abraham, eight years old. They had recently come from Kentucky.
"Although Thomas Lincoln could neither read nor write, the mother taught her children to read the one book which they had, a Bible. The sweetness of the character of this gentle mother was reflected in the lives of her children. For three or four months, Abraham managed to attend the rude school of the neighborhood. He soon learned to know much of the Bible by heart. When he was ten years of age, the greatest calamity of his life occurred; his mother, always frail and delicate, passed from earth. Abraham Lincoln never recovered from the shock. The rude casket was placed in a grave near the cabin. Nine months after that sad day, Parson Elkins, whom the family had known in Kentucky, answered the repeated appeal of Abraham to come one hundred miles on horseback to preach a funeral sermon at the grave of Mrs. Lincoln.
"Many years afterward, when the cares of state weighed heavily upon him, President Lincoln spoke the words which tell us the secret of his wonderful calmness and steadfastness. Listen to them: 'All that I am and all that I hope to be, I owe to my mother. Blessings on her memory!'
"Do you understand, boys and girls, that it was the thing which this mother put into the life of her boy that made him a great and a good man? Do you now understand what Paul meant when he said that there is no other foundation on which to build your life 'than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ?'
"Let us, then place the word, Christ, upon this rock, the unseen foundation upon which this great life stood so steadfastly. I leave with you the picture as a memory of the secret of a wonderful life. [Draw lines of rock and lower portion of the lighthouse; add the word "Christ," completing Fig. 36.]
The Truly Happy Life is the One Filled With Honest Employment.
THE LESSON—That in childhood and youth we should train ourselves to work.
Work is the keynote of the successful life. "An idle brain is the devil's workshop." The talk is designed to catch the attention with a smile and then give an opportunity to present some valuable thoughts in the matter of diligence and the fulfillment of life's mission through honorable employment of the mind and the hands.
"Very often we read some very curious things. The manufacturer of one of the well-known breakfast foods, has placed this strange statement on the outside of each of the packages: 'Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.' It seems impossible to do this, and the writer of the words probably had an entirely different way of explaining how he would do it from the way we will demonstrate it here on the drawing paper today. Let us suppose that we make the statement that we can tell what a man is if we know what he eats. All right, then, here is a case: There is a certain man who eats three meals a day out of a dish shaped something like this: [Draw lines representing Step 1 of Fig. 37.]
"And then, let us suppose that the food he eats is heaped up like this: [Add lines to change the drawing to Step 2.]
"Now, what do you think this food is? Ice cream? Ah, no, because when I tell you that this is steam rising from the food you will know it isn't ice cream: [Add lines to change the drawing to Step 3.]
"But you will begin to see what it is when I tell you that these two lines represent chopsticks: [Add lines to change the drawing to Step 5.] What is it? Rice? Yes, it is rice, and we will label it in this way. [Add the letters, to change the drawing to Step 5.]
"And now, having found out what the man eats, let us see if we can find out who he is. [Remove the sheet from the drawing board, hold it up and turn it over, exposing Fig. 38 to the audience. With the attention thus centered upon your work, the boys and girls will listen with eagerness to whatever else you may have for them.]
"And so, I tell you of another thing that we can do.
"Listen! Tell me what a boy thinks about, and I will tell you what kind of a man he will grow up to be.
"The man who swears, thought of bad things and used bad words when he was a boy. The man who is a thief thought about dishonest things when he was a boy. The man who is happy and who finds it his delight to do good, formed the habit of thinking and doing good things when he was a boy. The man who loves his work learned to like to work when he was a boy.
"And it is work that I want to speak about today.
"There is no place in the world for a lazy boy or girl. Nobody wants them. Boys who hate to work are the kind that loaf around poolrooms and pollute the air with vile cigarette smoke and language which bespeaks an empty mind and a corrupt heart.
"As Jesus is our great example in every way, He stands out strongly as our example of how a workman should delight in his employment. We should first find the thing which God intends that we shall do, for we are all fitted to do some things better than others, and we should then put forth our best efforts to learn to do that one thing as well as we can. We must center our thoughts upon the things we want to do. Life will then become a delight, because the world is always crying for workers who know how to do their work. The other kind is always to be found but never wanted. The demand is for the ones who know how. It is a significant fact that the first recorded words of Jesus Christ are, 'Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business?' This makes of Jesus a Business boy, and it was God's work he began so soon.
"Gladstone, an inspiring example of the true workman, says, 'The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and the waste of it will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning.'
"The happiest people in the world are those who are busy at something worth while, and the most miserable are those who are in idleness for lack of ambition or else are engaged in work which they themselves loathe because of its baseness."
The Resurrection of Christ the Hope of the World—An Easter Thought.
THE LESSON—That death is but the doorway between the earthly life and the heavenly life of the believer.
There is no new thought or theory concerning the dead in Christ. The most profound thinkers of the ages consider death as the entrance to a future life. The illustration here presented has been employed in various forms, but is given with the hope that it may, at Easter, help someone to a clearer conception of the reward which awaits the faithful.
"James Russell Lowell, dwelling upon the darkness of the cloud of sorrow which death brings into the home, wrote:
"'Console, if you will, I can bear it,
'Tis a well-meant alms of breath;
But not all the preaching since Adam
Has made Death other than Death!'
"How true! And God intended it should be so. Surely, it is His desire that we should love to live in the earth which He has given us. Surely, it is His desire that we should love those who are about us, and that we should mourn when the earthly parting comes. And yet, 'it is impossible,' as Jonathan Swift has said, 'that anything so natural, so necessary and so universal as death should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.' With this thought, we may lift our faces once more, and as we dry our tears, forget the problems, the sorrows and the triumphs of earth as we ask ourselves the question, 'What shall we be in the coming ages?' Compared with this question, all others sink into insignificance. Science, discovery, commercial achievement, social problems, the rise and fall of nations—all come to us and claim attention, but we brush them aside as we repeat, with passionate earnestness: What shall we be—we, ourselves—in the coming time?
"No matter how long we ask the question, no matter how earnestly we seek the solution, we shall not be satisfied with an answer, for God has not intended that we should know. The Apostle John, 'whom Jesus loved,' admits that 'it doth not yet appear what we shall be.'
"Does it mean, then, that we should look ahead, and see nothing before us but the grave—the end of all? [Draw the grave, the headstone, and the word, "Death," with black, completing Fig. 39.]
"Perhaps the disciples, their hearts bowed down with grief and disappointment, held this thought as they saw the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea sealed upon the body of their beloved Master. But three days pass, and lo!—all is changed! The stone is rolled away and Christ has risen! How the message spreads! He is with them once again, and blessed days they are! But it is not for long, for heaven receives Him from their sight. Clearly, then, came to them again His words, 'I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am ye may be also.' What! They, too? Yes, for did he not say, also, 'Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice and come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life.'
"Today, there comes to us anew the revelation of the truth which came to the disciples on that wonderful resurrection morn. True, it may be that our pathway may lead more quickly than we think to this place which we call the grave. [Draw pathway to the grave.] True, there is a wall between human vision and the mysterious beyond. [Draw the wall.] But true, also, and gloriously true, is it that the grave opens to us the mysteries beyond the wall. [Draw line to change headstone to door]—while the pathway leads to—what? We can only suggest it here, with a few feeble lines. [Draw distant city, in red, using orange for rays of light. Add the word "Life," completing Fig. 40.]
"Someone has said that the night of life is the dawn of peace. Browning says that 'you never know what life means till you die.' Another has said, 'The dead are glad in heaven; the living 'tis that weep.' And all, though they point to the pathway beyond the wall as that toward which we should push forward, are firm in the knowledge that the earthly pathway of peace and love is more essential than this, for without it we cannot reach the other. 'There is but one way to get ready for immortality,' says Van Dyke, 'and that is to love this life, and live it as bravely and cheerfully and faithfully as we can.' And I know it is our prayer that we may do this in the fullness of the meaning of the words."
When We Have Solved It, Let Us Learn to Find God in All His Works of Nature.
THE LESSON—That we shall find the loving presence of God everywhere in nature, if we but seek Him.
This illustration, dealing with a popular pastime, points to a great lesson, the fact that God is to be found in all our natural surroundings, if we but seek for Him in the same manner that we endeavor to find the unseen in other ways.
"How many of the boys and girls are fond of puzzle pictures? Hold up your hands. Ah, I thought so. I believe nearly everyone likes puzzles; we are attracted to many things which possess an element of mystery. So I am going to draw a little puzzle landscape today and see if we can get a lesson from it. [Draw the landscape, naming the objects as you complete them—the tree, the land, the water, the distant foliage, and so on, finishing Fig. 41. This completes the drawing for the entire talk.]
"Here is the story: A farmer, living near this spot, came down to the shore of the lake, untied his boat from its fastening, and rowed out onto the lake to fish. With the approach of dinner-time, the farmer's son came down to the shore to call his father to dinner. It seems that the father had rowed so far away that he could not hear the lad's voice, so the boy is still waiting here for him. Can you see the boy? Ah, yes, here he is. [Remove the sheet from the drawing board, reverse it, and hold it up for the inspection of the school. Fig. 42. After all have discovered the face of the boy, do not return the sheet to the drawing board, but lay it on the floor or elsewhere out of sight, as it has served its purpose and should not be allowed to detract from the attention needed for the remainder of the talk.]
"Yes, it is interesting to study puzzle pictures to discover in them the persons and objects which we may not see at the beginning. But I wonder how many of us do a similar thing when we see the real woods, the real lake and the real flowers? As in the picture, the boy's face was made by the outline of the tree and the shrubbery, and the hair was shown by the shading of the grass, so also may we find great hidden truths in nature all about us. The poet Bryant, in Thanatopsis says that
"'To him, who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms she speaks
A various language.'
"And Shakespeare tells of finding 'tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.'
"Greatest of all is the fact that God is there. Every tree, every bush, every blade of grass, every flower, speaks of His presence—of His love and care for us. Dr. Van Dyke, in many beautiful passages pleads with us to turn our thoughts from the things which make us unhappy—the wild rush for fame and fortune, for the attainment of that which disappoints and discourages—to the quietness expressed by nature. In his book, 'The Ruling Passion,' we find this beautiful sentiment: 'It is the part of wisdom to spend little of your time upon the things that vex and anger you, and much of your time upon the things that bring you quietness and confidence and good cheer. A friend made is better than an enemy punished. There is more God in the peaceful beauty of this little wood-violet than in all the angry disputation of the sects. We are nearer heaven when we listen to the birds than when we quarrel with our fellow-men. I am sure that none can enter into the spirit of Christ, His evangel, save those who willingly follow His invitation when He says, 'Come ye yourselves apart in a lonely place and rest awhile.'
"It is a most beautiful thought. Let us ponder it in our hearts. Let us seek to find God and His goodness to us in everything that He has placed about us. Many a man who says he has not found God in nature has failed to see the blessings which have come to him—which are his every moment of his life. The fruit, the flowers, the grains—everything that supplies him with the necessities of life and earthly happiness come from the hand of God. Let us feel that all nature is a sort of puzzle picture, and that by looking, looking, looking, we can find God in everything. And in finding Him, let us learn from nature the lessons of humility, of sacrifice, of joy and good cheer; for it is for this that God has given us these blessings. It is only when we thus seek Him that we may look 'through nature up to nature's God.'"
A Temperance Talk in Acrostic—One Great Evil Power—Beware!
THE LESSON—That the deadly drink evil appears to its victims in the most alluring and deceptive form.
The following talk necessitates the use of lettering only, but it affords an opportunity for the audience to take a part, especially if the company of hearers is made up largely of children. The climax is not to be anticipated, and the effect cannot be other than lasting. The talk may be varied to suit local conditions; specific incidents make the best impressions. It is suggested that you watch your newspapers for a period preceding the talk and make clippings of incidents to fit the points of the first seven paragraphs. It is well to ask the children to repeat each word as it is placed on the drawing paper.
"The thing I am going to speak about today is not a pleasant one. The fact is that nothing good can be said about it, for it deals with sorrow and death. You may wonder, then, why we do not speak of something bright and happy; and I answer that if you learn the lesson about this thing of sorrow and death, your lives will escape its influence and you will be many more times likely to be happy; and if you do not learn the lesson, you may suffer distress and anguish all the years of your later life. This thing is known as a great evil power. Sometimes we hear of it coming into the home and making a brute out of a loving husband. Where there was happiness and joy there is now sorrow and despair. [Place the word Sorrow on the drawing paper. When adding the succeeding words, be sure to place them exactly as indicated in Fig. 43.]
"Again, this evil power creeps into a home and fastens itself upon a young man who had before him every promise of a bright, successful life. So relentless is it that the young man, in despair, takes his own life. [Add the word Death.]
"Again, we see a man, successful in business, with no seeming obstacle in the way of greater achievement, when, one day, we find his doors are closed. This evil power has come upon him and he is a bankrupt and a failure. [Add the word Failure.]
"Again, we hear of a man who has been a leader among men—a brilliant lawyer, a keen thinker—taken from his place and confined in a hospital for the insane. The same evil power has done this. [Add the word Insanity.]
"Again, we know of a young man who was strong and robust, a splendid specimen of physical manhood; now he has lost his health and strength. The same evil power has come upon him and has placed him on a bed of sickness from which he cannot rise. [Add the word Sickness.]
"Again, how often do we hear that a man, respected and honored, has in a moment of passion, taken the life of another man, just because this evil power came in and caused him to do it. [Add the word Murder.]
"But more common than all the other terrible things which this great evil power does is the bringing of wretchedness and want to the wives and the children of the men who are its victims. These innocent ones suffer for the common comforts of life, food and clothing. This we call poverty. [Add the word Poverty. This completes Fig. 43.]
"Many more words could be added to this list, representing the misfortunes which come to the victims of this great evil power. In every instance it deceived its victims into believing it was harmless—that in accepting it there was no danger or risk.
"What is this great evil power? [With red chalk draw the heavy line, completing Fig. 44, to bring out the word Whiskey.]
"Now, boys and girls, consider this not as a puzzle drawing. It represents a truth almost as old as the world. Concerning strong drink, the Bible cries out, 'Beware!' Remember that every drunkard believed he could taste liquor and then leave it alone if he wished. You, in your happy homes, may think you are safe from it. Beware! Some day, the temptation will come to you; someone will test you. Beware! 'Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.' 'Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine.' Beware! Be not one of these.
"No, let us keep our minds on the pure, the upright, looking ever to Jesus, who is our strength and who will keep us from the power of this evil thing. 'Then shalt thou walk in thy way securely, and thy foot shall not stumble.'"
The Principles Which Underlie Success Are the Same at All Times.
THE LESSON—That true success will attend those who found their lives on the principles which governed the life of Washington.
Properly handled, the illustration designed for the following talk will prove a revelation to young and old. The application fits the illustration so well that the talk should prove of absorbing interest and lasting impressiveness.
[Before beginning the talk, make the following preparations very carefully: Attach several thicknesses of your drawing paper to your board, leaving the outer sheet free at the bottom by tacking at the top only. Next, with a sharp pen-knife, cut a hole in the outer sheet, indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 45, and throw away the piece which has been cut out. The object of this preparation is this: When you draw the portrait of Washington, represented in Fig. 45, a portion of your drawing will appear on the outer sheet and part of it—the face—on the next sheet beneath. If your preparations have been well made, the outer sheet will lie flat against the one beneath, and the audience will not see the hole until the proper time comes.]