Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear Part 22

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 114]

"'No,' replied the buyer, 'I can't use that tree. It is no good for our purpose.'

"'No good!' exclaimed the owner, 'why that tree looks to me to be a good deal better than some that you selected.'

"But the buyer was an expert and knew what he was talking about. To show the owner what was the trouble with it, he cut the tree down, and this is what they found: [Remove the paper from the drawing board; turn it one-fourth around, and reattach to the board; add lines to complete Fig. 115.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 115]

"What was the matter with the tree? Yes, it was hollow. The owner was a much-surprised man. The expert, by tapping the tree with the blunt side of his ax, could tell that the tree was not solid. We might call it a deceitful tree because it seemed to be better than it really was.

"Sometimes we hear of deceitful men and women--deceitful boys and girls. None of us wants to be called deceitful, for the world has no more use for a deceitful person than this man had for a hollow tree. Some may think that they may deceive their friends and everyone else around them, but they get found out sooner or later, and, worst of all, their lives are an open book to the Lord, who sees and knows their every thought. The hollow tree in the forest is certain to come cras.h.i.+ng to the earth when a severe storm breaks. The deceitful man or woman suffers a like fate when something happens to reveal their hollow lives to the world.

"On this Decision day, let us resolve anew to make our lives of solid worth through and through. We can do it only by coming close to the Master and learning from Him how to live.

"The trouble with the tree in the forest was that it was not sound.

It lacked _inside strength_. Even a slight tap of the ax proved that it was a sort of 'hollow mockery.' It was a good-looking tree on the outside, but its heart was not right. And isn't that exactly the case with a lot of good-looking, well-dressed people? Why, even a boy or a girl can be all wrong at the heart, though their faces and hands and clothes are clean and beautiful.

"Have you ever stopped to think what good eyes G.o.d has? He never needs a telescope or a microscope, for 'the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.' G.o.d never beholds evil where there is none, but no boy or girl, man or woman, can hide it so well in their hearts but that G.o.d sees it and knows it.

"Let us, therefore, on this Decision day, resolve never to let deceit come into our hearts, to make our lives hollow, but to be sound in character through and through."

TWO MEN --Ideals --Error

Know Your Man Before You Trust and Follow Him--Our Ideals.

THE LESSON--That we cannot safely choose an example of true living from among those about us, without knowing their real character.

The accompanying ill.u.s.tration is offered for occasions in which children--especially boys--above the primary age are interested.

~~The Talk.~~

"There are a good many boys and girls who make a great mistake in trying to imitate older people; and there are a good many older people who make a great mistake when they try blindly to make a success of things just because other people have been successful in doing them. It is a splendid thing to want to have in our lives the same great governing principles which rule the lives of people who stand before us as splendid models of character; but it is not always a good thing to try to do the very same things that these people do. Why?

Because it is likely that we are not cut out to do their kind of work.

The Lord may have intended that we should follow an entirely different line of effort. Let us, therefore, cultivate in our own lives the great and true principles which we find in other people, but let us also try to find out what the Lord wants us to do, and then let us learn to do it just the very best we can."

"'Blessed is he,' says Thomas Carlyle, 'who has found his work; let him ask no other blessing.' The surest way to find what our life work is to be is to '_do the common things uncommonly well_.' If we do this, our life-work will be pointed out to us clearly and plainly.

Therefore, in selecting our ideals in life, let us be careful how we choose."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 116]

"A boy, whom we will call John, worked in a certain downtown office. Two men used to pa.s.s the window of his place of employment very frequently. These two men were never together--in fact, they were not even acquainted with each other. Here is one of the men who pa.s.sed John's window. [Draw Fig. 116, complete.] He was evidently a laboring man, as John judged from his clothing, which showed the effects of hard work of a rather rough character. He carried a dinner bucket. John merely noticed that this man pa.s.sed and repa.s.sed his window every day, but gave him very little thought. But there was another man who did attract John's attention. Here he is: [Draw the second man, completing Fig. 117.] This second man was always well dressed, and he appeared to be a prominent business or professional man. Everything in his appearance and manner attracted the admiration of the boy. Without knowing it, John was selecting an ideal--he was studying the people whom he saw and hoping to be unlike this one and to be like that one.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 117]

"'Some day,' he said to himself, as the prosperous, well-dressed man walked by, 'when I grow up, I hope I shall be just like him.' He had chosen his ideal. The man was one of the leading merchants of the city, and when John found this to be so, he was still more firmly determined to pattern his life after the man whom he admired.

"A short time after this John's folks--his father, mother, brothers and sisters--removed to another part of the city--and to the boy's great surprise, he found that the merchant lived just a square away.

Incidentally, too, he found that the laboring man lived right next door to his new home.

"And, right then and there, John learned one of the great lessons of his life. What did he learn about the merchant? He learned that the man, while he looked pleasant and kindly, was selfish and unkind. He learned that the making and h.o.a.rding of money was his great object in life. He learned that he cared but little for the comfort and welfare of other people. He learned that the man's family was unhappy because no home can be happy when selfishness and unkindness reign.

"What else did he learn? He learned that the laboring man who lived next door was one of the finest men he ever knew. He learned that the whole family was so kind and helpful that he soon forgot the merchant and his fine clothes. He learned that the laboring man with his wife had been willing to live humbly and work hard in order that their children might be kept in school and then go to college. He learned that all the children of the neighborhood liked to go to this man's home where everybody seemed to have such a jolly good time. He found that the Bible was opened every day while the Scriptures were read, and that the dust never had a chance to gather on its covers.

"So one day, when John was looking out of the window of his place of employment, and received a happy smile from his friend, the working man, he said to himself, 'I've changed my mind. Clothes don't count for everything. To be a good man depends upon what's _inside_, and not what's on the outside. When I grow up, I want to be just as good and kind as this man is.'

"Let us all be careful in choosing our examples of how to live. The life of Christ is full of help to us, and the lives of many of His true disciples all about us today give us a practical ill.u.s.tration of the best way to live."

TREE SURGERY --Rally Day --Obstacles

Trees Need Skillful Surgery More Often Than People Do--Superfluous Branches.

THE LESSON--That the life which wastes its strength in unnecessary efforts cannot bring forth the best fruits.

That the boys and girls may realize the sad results of forming habits which hinder growth, development and fruit-bearing, is one of the great objects of the teaching of the Sunday school. Rally Day is an especially appropriate time for a lesson along this line of thought.

~~The Talk.~~

"A stranger from the East was visiting a large fruit farm in the celebrated Hood River Valley in Oregon. He was astonished at the size and appearance of the growing apples, and he asked the owner of the fruit farm to tell him the secret of such wonderful results.

"'There is no secret at all,' responded the fruit raiser. 'You see, if a tree is allowed to do as it pleases, it usually covers itself with a vast number of useless branches and a mult.i.tude of leaves, which are of no benefit whatever except to make shade; and when a tree has too many branches and too many leaves it requires so much strength to keep them alive that there isn't enough left to put into the fruit. In other words, the tree can't bear large, fine fruit if it must also support a lot of useless branches and leaves.' This is the way an apple tree will grow if it is allowed to have its own way. [With the broad side of your green chalk, draw the general form of the tree, Fig. 118; add the trunk and dead branches in brown, and draw the gra.s.s with green, and the apples in red, completing Fig. 118.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 118]

"'Such a tree can never bear good apples,' continued the fruit man. 'Many of its branches die, because the tree simply can't support so many limbs and leaves. Notice that all our trees are carefully trimmed.' And he pointed the visitor to trees that looked like this: [Draw the second tree, using the same colors as in Fig. 118, completing Fig. 119.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 119]

"'It is an absolute fact,' added the fruit man, 'that if we allow these unnecessary leaves and branches to stay on the tree they absorb the life and strength which must go into the fruit if we are to raise fruit for which there is a market. So we cut off everything that can be spared, and we get the best fruit that grows.'

"'Then it doesn't all depend upon the place where the fruit is grown?'

observed the visitor.

"'No,' laughed the fruit man. 'Many people think it does. Of course, the soil and climate have a good deal to do with it, and we must prepare the ground and keep it in the proper condition; we must also keep the trees free from disease and insects. But all of this same work has to be done, no matter where the apples are raised, and the soil and climate in many other parts of the United States are just as good as they are here. _It depends upon the know-how!_

"Ah, that's the secret! It depends upon the know-how!

"Boys and girls, on this Rally Day, let me ask you: Are you going to let your life grow to be like this tree? [Indicate the first.] Or is it to be like this one? [Indicate the second.] What do I mean? Here is what I mean:

"If a girl lets her thoughts run too much to clothes and parties--if she worries about her failure to do the things which other girls can do, and which G.o.d never intended she also should do--if she is spending her time reading books which can never be of any possible good to her--if she is becoming fault-finding, cynical, cross, selfish--if she is doing any of these things which keep her from being what she ought to be--her everyday life _needs tr.i.m.m.i.n.g_! Think it over. If you find any useless, strength-absorbing thing in your life, _cut it out_!

"Boys, are you letting any bad habits grow into your life? Are you wasting your time running after pleasures and amus.e.m.e.nts that don't help you to be better boys? Are you getting chummy with other boys whose companions.h.i.+p is not good and whose words and deeds you would not dare to talk about at home? Are you reading useless books and letting the treasures of literature on mother's bookshelf at home go untouched? Are you trying to find short-cuts to success, when there isn't any such thing, and neglecting the hard work which has brought honor and success to all who have reached a high place? If you are doing any of these things, get out the pruning hook of good resolution and the sharp ax of determination. Trim off all these useless things. Gather them in a heap and burn them. Then, in the years to come, will you find that you have been able to be of use to the world and to yourself. But you can't do it with these useless, strength-robbing things growing on your lives. Among the last words of Jesus on earth were these: 'Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.' If we are to bear much fruit, we must trim off the useless things and allow the bright suns.h.i.+ne of His approval and guidance to come into our lives."