9 ,. 14 , 2 £ 
 
 BV 4315 .S3 
 
 Sad 1er, A1fred J. 
 
 St ory-sermons for 
 
 juniors 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/storysermonsforjOOsadl 
 
A 
 
 >TORY - SERMONS 
 
 FOR JUNIORS 
 
 By 
 
 ALFRED J. SADLER 
 
 % 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 CALVIN W. LAUFEE 
 
 
 THE ABINGDON PRESS 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 
Copyright, 1923, by 
 ALFRED J. SADLER 
 
 All rights reserved, including that of translation 
 into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
TO MY JUNIORS 
 ALFRED AND CHRISTINE 
 AND TO THE 
 MOTHER OF MY JUNIORS 
 CHRISTINE MITCHELL SADLER 
 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
4 
 
 I 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 GENERAL 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction. 9 
 
 Preface. 11 
 
 I. The Children Who Would Not 
 
 Play. 15 
 
 II. Footprints and Raindrops. 20 
 
 III. The Boy Who Came When He 
 
 Was Called. 23 
 
 IV. The Boy Who Did Not Run 
 
 Away. 27 
 
 V. The Boy Who Helped Jesus .... 31 
 
 VI. What Can a Little Girl Do?. . . 35 
 
 VII. He Paid Too Much For His 
 
 Whistle. 38 
 
 VIII. Gardening. 42 
 
 IX. Weeds. 45 
 
 X. Looking on the Bright Side .... 48 
 
 XI. Remember the Sabbath Day to 
 
 Keep It Holy. 51 
 
 XII. “It Can't Be Done! Here It Is!” 55 
 
 XIII. The Dwarf and the Knight .... 59 
 
 XIV. The First Sunday School. 62 
 
 XV. The Man Who Was Not Afraid 
 
 to Pray. 66 
 
6 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XVI. The Man With a Grouch.. 69 
 
 XVII. Christ of the Andes. 73 
 
 XVIII. Take a Little Honey With You. 77 
 
 PART TWO 
 SERIAL STORIES 
 Games 
 
 XIX. Golf. 85 
 
 XX. Baseball. 89 
 
 XXI. Football. 92 
 
 Summer Experiences 
 
 XXII. Contrary Winds. 99 
 
 XXIII. Rocks. 102 
 
 A Visit to the Zoo 
 
 XXIV. Feeding-Time at the Zoo. 107 
 
 XXV. The Reptile House. 110 
 
 The Three Wise Monkeys 
 
 XXVI. Speak No Evil. 115 
 
 XXVII. See No Evil. 119 
 
 XXVIII. Hear No Evil. 123 
 
 Birds 
 
 XXIX. Jesus and the Birds. 129 
 
 XXX. Sparrows. 133 
 
 XXXI. The Robin. 137 
 
 XXXII. Cedar Waxwing, or the Polite 
 
 Bird. 140 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 7 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXXni. The Busy Bird—Jenny Wren ... 143 
 XXXIV. The Bad Bird—Blacky the Crow 146 
 
 Flowers 
 
 XXXV. The Pansy. 151 
 
 XXXVI. The Carnation. 155 
 
 XXXVII. The Lily. 159 
 
 XXXVIII. The Poppy. 163 
 
 XXXIX. The Forget-Me-Not. 166 
 
 XL. The Daisy and Its Big Brother. 170 
 
 XLI. The Rose. 174 
 
 PART THREE 
 SPECIAL DAYS 
 
 XLII. George Washington, the Chris¬ 
 tian Gentleman (Washington’s 
 
 Birthday). 183 
 
 XLIII. Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln’s 
 
 Birthday). 186 
 
 XLIV. The Meaning of Lent. 190 
 
 XLV. Palm Sunday. 194 
 
 XLVI. Springtime (Easter Day). 197 
 
 XLVII. Remember (Memorial Day). 200 
 
 XLVIII. And the Child Grew (Children’s 
 
 Day). 203 
 
 XLIX. How Thanksgiving Day Became 
 
 a National Holiday..207 
 
 L. Armistice Day. 213 
 
 LI. The Story of the Wise Men 
 
 (Christmas). 219 
 
 LII, Blots (Old and New Year).222 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The author of this book has done well in 
 connecting his stories and sermons with the 
 life and interests of children. He has found 
 sermons for his flock of £ 'little folk 5 ' in games 
 and festivals, in homely watchwords and 
 proverbs, in vacation experiences and visits 
 to the Zoo. There are stories told here almost 
 as old as the hills, but his treatment of them 
 has made them fresh as the dawn which began 
 this day. The common flowers of the road¬ 
 side and the rarer specimens of the conserva¬ 
 tory are made to serve his purpose. All 
 through this collection of Stories and Junior 
 Sermons—some of which I was permitted to 
 hear, to my delight and edification—one feels 
 a spiritual motive which challenges deeper 
 loyalty to life’s great virtues, and produces 
 profounder faith in Him wdiose comradeship 
 is the inspiration of all that is noblest and 
 best. 
 
 These stories indicate a very definite tend¬ 
 ency in modern church work, and have been 
 inspired and produced by it, namely, the 
 training of children in Christian worship and 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 service. This explains the growing popular¬ 
 ity of the junior congregation which has come 
 into the field of religious effort, because a large 
 number of pastors, like the author of this 
 book, have recognized the spiritual possi¬ 
 bilities of the young and have determined 
 upon a ministry that would give them oppor¬ 
 tunity for realization. Consequently, thou¬ 
 sands of children are being trained in public 
 worship, inspired to assume those social and 
 religious attitudes characteristic of Christianity, 
 and informed in those ideas, ideals, and pro¬ 
 grams which sprang from the great heart of 
 Him who said: “Suffer the little children to 
 come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
 such is the kingdom of heaven.” 
 
 Pastors will find this a welcome volume in 
 their campaign of loving endeavor in the 
 junior congregation, and parents will rejoice 
 in its fascinating pages as they peruse them 
 at the hearth with the “wee folk gathered 
 round.” 
 
 Calvin W. Laufer, 
 
 Special Field Representative for Religious Education, Pres¬ 
 byterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work. 
 
 New York City. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Story-Sermons were given to the junior 
 congregation of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 Jersey City, New Jersey, during the past five 
 years, and are now published at the urgent re¬ 
 quest of many who have heard them, with the 
 hope that pastors, parents and teachers may 
 find them helpful in their work with the children. 
 
 The author desires to acknowledge his indebt¬ 
 edness to the many sources from which his illus¬ 
 trations are drawn, and in particular to his wife, 
 Christine Mitchell Sadler, who read all of the 
 Story-Sermons in manuscript as they were being 
 prepared for publication, and made most valu¬ 
 able criticisms. 
 
 Alfred J. Sadler. 
 
PART ONE 
 
 GENERAL 
 
If there is anything that will endure 
 The eye of God, because it still is pure, 
 
 It is the spirit of a little child. 
 
 Fresh from his hand, and therefore undefiled. 
 Nearer the gates of Paradise than we, 
 
 Our children breathe its airs, its angels see; 
 
 And when they pray, God hears their simple prayer, 
 Yea, even sheathes his sword, in judgment bare. 1 
 
 — R. H. Stoddard. 
 
 1 Quoted from Poetical Illustrations, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 
 Publishers, New York. 
 
I 
 
 THE CHILDREN WHO WOULD NOT 
 
 PLAY 
 
 How many of you children have played 
 wedding? Perhaps your sister was recently 
 married, and you were so interested in the 
 ceremony, that you thought it would be great 
 fun to invent a wedding game. Do you know 
 that children played wedding in the time 
 of Jesus? Yes, and sometimes they quarreled 
 about it too, and that was why Jesus spoke 
 specially of it. 
 
 One day he stood and watched the chil¬ 
 dren playing in the market place, which was 
 usually a large open square in the city, a 
 fine place to play. Some of the children 
 wanted to play wedding. They felt happy 
 and joyous, as if it were good to be alive, and 
 they began to play on the flageolet dance 
 tunes which they had heard at weddings, but 
 for some reason, the other children were cross 
 and sulky and would not play. “All right,” 
 said the first group, “anything to oblige. If 
 you won’t play wedding, let’s play funeral.” 
 
 15 
 
16 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 Rut again they refused. They would neither 
 play wedding nor funeral. 
 
 A little later Jesus was speaking to the 
 Pharisees, who were criticizing him, and he 
 said to them: t£ You are just like those chil¬ 
 dren in the market place who wouldn’t play. 
 John the Baptist came, wearing camel’s hair and 
 often fasting, but he did not please you. You 
 thought he was too strict, too solemn. I attend 
 feasts and go rejoicing, but I do not please you 
 either.” 
 
 I wonder why the children would not play. 
 Can any of you guess? Well, we are not told, 
 but I imagine it was because they had quar¬ 
 reled about something. Games reveal charac¬ 
 ter, and you can always tell spoiled children 
 —those who want their own way. They are 
 the kind who quarrel on the least provocation, 
 and they scowl, and growl, and sulk, and 
 refuse to play. Of course none of you chil¬ 
 dren are like that. Yet I am sorry to say 
 that even the very best of friends quarrel 
 sometimes, both children and grown-ups, and 
 they say and do things that make Jesus sorry, 
 for which they themselves are sorry afterward. 
 
 I read the other day of a new way to stop 
 a quarrel. Perhaps you would like to hear 
 it. A mother was sitting by an open window 
 as two boys were playing marbles outside. 
 
CHILDREN WOULD NOT PLAY 17 
 
 As the game went on, mother heard one boy 
 say, “You cheated. 5 ’ 
 
 The other boy said, “I didn’t.” 
 
 “You did,” was the reply, and then the 
 mother thought it was time to interfere. 
 
 Instead of saying, “Boys, stop your quar¬ 
 reling this instant,” she said: “Sing it, chil¬ 
 dren! Sing it!” 
 
 They looked at each other in surprise, not 
 knowing what to make of it, when out of the 
 window floated this song: 
 
 “O Willie, you cheated!” 
 
 “I didn’t!” 
 
 “You did!” 
 
 “Sing it, boys,” she said again. 
 
 They couldn’t sing it, so they looked at each 
 other and laughed. They were ashamed and 
 stopped quarreling. 
 
 You know, boys and girls, there are some 
 things you cannot sing. You cannot sing 
 your anger. Try it the next time you want 
 to tell the boy who displeases you what you 
 are going to do to him. You cannot do it. 
 Don’t you think that things you cannot sing 
 are far better not said? 
 
 But I know of even a better way than that 
 to stop quarreling. The president of the 
 Chicago Kindergarten College told this story: 
 
 “A four-year-old boy was quick-tempered, 
 
18 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 and when he was angry he would say harsh 
 things to his two-year-old sister, and even 
 strike her. One day, when he had done this, 
 the mother called him to her. 
 
 “ ‘Philip,’ she said, quietly, ‘it makes 
 mother feel very sad to hear you speak that 
 way to your little sister.’ 
 
 “ ‘I know it does, mother,’ the boy replied, 
 ‘but I just can’t help it.’ 
 
 “ ‘Do you know, Philip,’ his mother con¬ 
 tinued, ‘that sometimes you make me feel 
 just that way about you? Would you like to 
 know what I do to keep from speaking the 
 cross words to you?’ 
 
 “The boy looked up into his mother’s face, 
 and said, ‘Yes, mother.’ 
 
 “ ‘When I feel the quick, angry words 
 coming, I shut my eyes for a moment, and say, 
 “Please, God, help me to be strong.’ ” 
 
 “The boy made no reply, but, kissing his 
 mother, he slipped away and went back to play 
 with his sister. Soon he was angry again, 
 and with his arm in the air, ready to strike her, 
 he cried, ‘You shan’t do that, sister!’—but at 
 once he caught himself and shut his eyes 
 tight, and his arm dropped to his side, and 
 when he opened his eyes, he said, kindly, ‘All 
 right, sister, you can have that, I will take 
 this.’ ” 
 
CHILDREN WOULD NOT PLAY 19 
 
 So, boys and girls, if you pray to God, your 
 heavenly Father, he will give you strength to 
 keep from quarreling and refusing to play 
 with your little friends. 
 
II 
 
 FOOTPRINTS AND RAINDROPS 
 
 When I was in college the professor of 
 geology often took his classes out to study 
 the formation of the rocks in the country 
 near by. One day we went down to the 
 Connecticut River, and there in a rock on the 
 bank we saw the tracks of a great animal, 
 made hundreds of thousands of years ago. 
 
 One day this very large animal (you can see 
 a skeleton of an animal just like him in the 
 Museum of Natural History, New York city) 
 walked through the wet sand, leaving every 
 footprint clearly marked—just as animals do 
 to-day—and through the course of centuries 
 the sand changed into rock and the footprints 
 were preserved. But a little farther along the 
 bank I saw what seemed to me even more 
 wonderful—little hollov/s in the rocks which 
 were once the marks of raindrops, probably 
 made at the same time as the footprints. 
 They too had been preserved in the ancient 
 rock, and, by noticing the direction in which 
 they were made, you could tell which way 
 
 20 
 
FOOTPRINTS AND RAINDROPS 21 
 
 the wind was blowing at the time these rain¬ 
 drops fell thousands of years ago. So, boys 
 and girls, I want you to remember that every 
 word you speak and everything you do make 
 an impression upon some one which lasts a 
 long, long time, like the impression made by 
 those raindrops. That is what we call our 
 “influence.” How careful we ought to be every 
 day to speak only kind words and do only 
 good things! 
 
 Now, when I speak about your influence 
 upon others I do not mean that you should 
 always be thinking about it. That w T ould be 
 one of the worst things you could do. I want 
 you to live your lives naturally, joyously, 
 happily, always doing your best. Play while 
 you play, work while you work, but ask God 
 every morning to help you do the right, and 
 then you need not worry about your influence. 
 He will take care of that. It is like casting a 
 shadow. We hold up the object between the 
 light and the place where we want the shadow 
 cast and the light does the rest. The light 
 corresponds to God. We are the object and 
 the shadow is our influence. 
 
 “Before we make you well, we must put 
 you to sleep,” said a kind surgeon to a little 
 girl as he was about to give her ether. “Then,” 
 said she, “if you are going to put me to sleep, 
 
22 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 I must say my prayers first,” and she knelt 
 down and repeated: 
 
 “Now I lay me down to sleep, 
 
 I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep. 
 
 If I should die before I wake, 
 
 I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.” 
 
 That night the surgeon prayed for the first 
 time in twenty years. He had been so busy 
 about everything else that he had forgotten 
 about God, but the little girl’s words reminded 
 him. She didn’t know the influence her words 
 would have. She didn’t think anything about 
 it. She only did what was right, and God 
 blessed her, so that, unconsciously, she influ¬ 
 enced the great surgeon and brought him 
 back to God. 
 
 i 
 
Ill 
 
 THE BOY WHO CAME WHEN HE 
 WAS CALLED 
 
 “That is not my boy,” said one mother, 
 “because, I am sorry to say, he does not come 
 when he is called, especially when it is time 
 to get up in the morning.” 
 
 “My difficulty,” says another mother, “is 
 that my children do not come from play when 
 they are called. They say they do not hear 
 me. I’m afraid, however, that they do not 
 want to hear.” 
 
 “Mary,” said this mother, the other day, 
 to her seven-year-old daughter, “why did you 
 not come when I called you? Didn’t you 
 hear me?” 
 
 “Yes, mother.” 
 
 “Then, why didn’t you look to see what I 
 wanted?” 
 
 “Because, mother, I knew if I looked, I 
 would have to come in, and I did not want 
 to come in just yet.” 
 
 So you see a great many boys and girls do 
 not hear when father or mother calls because 
 
 23 
 
24 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 they do not want to hear. But the boy about 
 whom I am going to talk to you this morn¬ 
 ing came when he was called. 
 
 Let me tell you the first part of the story, 
 and see if you know his name. This boy’s 
 mother for a long time had prayed to God 
 to send a baby boy to her home, and at last 
 God heard her prayer. When he was about 
 as big as you boys she took him up to God’s 
 house and left him there, because she had 
 promised God that she would do so. All day 
 long he was busy opening doors and closing 
 them, cleaning the lamps and altar, and doing 
 whatever was needed by the good old man 
 Eli, who was in charge. Now, do you know 
 who the little boy was? Yes—Samuel! 
 
 One night as Samuel was lying on his little 
 cot he heard some one calling, and instead of 
 rubbing his eyes and saying, “What is it?” 
 he rose up quickly and came to Eli, because 
 he thought Eli was calling, and asked: “What 
 is it? What do you want me to do?” 
 
 “Why, I didn’t call you,” said Eli. 
 
 “I thought you did. I must Iv&ve dreamed 
 it,” said Samuel, and went back to his bed. 
 But a second and third time Samuel heard 
 some one calling, and each time he ran to 
 Eli. Then Eli realized that it must be God 
 calling him, and he told Samuel if he heard 
 
THE BOY WHO CAME 
 
 25 
 
 the voice again, to say, 4 'Speak, Lord, for thy 
 servant heareth.” Samuel obeyed, and God 
 spoke to him, and because he was so obedient, 
 because he came when he was called, God 
 made him his messenger to Eli, and later on 
 the prophet over all Israel. 
 
 The first thing necessary for all true success, 
 boys and girls, is obedience, prompt obedience. 
 I wonder if we realize how all good men, all 
 great men, learned this lesson when they 
 were boys. We call George Washington the 
 “Father of his Country,” “First in war, first 
 in peace, and first in the hearts of his country¬ 
 men,” because he was both good and great, 
 but he would never have become so had he 
 not learned to obey. 
 
 “How did you manage to raise such a splen¬ 
 did son?” said a distinguished French officer 
 to Mrs. Washington, our first President’s 
 mother. 
 
 She replied, “I taught him to obey.” 
 
 So with Jesus whom we love. After his 
 visit to the Temple at Jerusalem, when he 
 was twelve years old, we read that Jesus 
 went along with his father and mother to 
 Nazareth, and was subject unto them. That 
 means he did as he was told. So, boys and 
 girls, learn to obey your parents, your teachers, 
 and you will have taken the first step toward 
 
26 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 being like George Washington—yes, you will 
 have taken the first step toward being like 
 Jesus himself. One of the best ways to begin 
 is to follow the example of the boy Samuel and 
 always come when you are called. 
 
 “Oh, give me Samuel’s ear, 
 
 The open ear, O Lord, 
 
 Alive and quick to hear 
 Each whisper of thy word. 
 
 Like him, to answer at thy call 
 And to obey thee, first of all.” 
 
IV 
 
 THE BOY WHO DID NOT BUN AWAY 
 
 A most interesting story is told of a little 
 drummer boy who was in the Civil War. He 
 was so enthusiastic over his work, and placed 
 so much importance upon it, that he wanted 
 to be in everything in which his regiment was. 
 The officers and soldiers laughed at his enthusi¬ 
 asm, because he apparently thought that the 
 success of the whole army depended upon 
 him and the way he beat his drum; and the 
 day did come when the army was saved by 
 his drum. One morning, very early, the 
 enemy made a surprise attack. Being a 
 surprise attack, the Union soldiers were not 
 prepared for it, and half awake and with 
 everything in confusion, some of the soldiers 
 started to run, so that a stampede of the 
 whole army threatened. Suddenly the beat 
 of the drummer was heard. Rat-a-tap-tap! 
 Rat-a-tap-tap! It was the boy calling them 
 to attention, for he always slept with his 
 drum at his side. The men, hearing the drum¬ 
 mer, and remembering their training, obeyed 
 
 27 
 
28 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 orders, fell into line and successfully resisted the 
 attack of the enemy. So the army was saved 
 because a boy did not run away, but did his duty. 
 
 This morning we are going to talk about 
 the boy in the Bible who did not run away. 
 It was also a time of war. His older brothers 
 had enlisted and were with the army, but 
 he, being the youngest, stayed at home and 
 helped his father on the farm. His particular 
 duty was to tend the sheep. Oh, yes, you 
 know who it was. “David!” That’s right. 
 
 Sometimes the sheep would be on the hill¬ 
 side near home, and he could see his home 
 in the distance. Sometimes he took the sheep 
 far away from home to seek green pastures. 
 Sometimes he led them to a sweet clear brook 
 to quench their thirst, but at all times he 
 watched them very carefully so that no harm 
 should come to them, for he loved his sheep. 
 If he saw one straying away, he called it by 
 name (for each sheep had a name of its own), 
 and it would come back, for the sheep came 
 when they were called. Sometimes when he 
 was far away with his sheep it would be dark 
 before they reached home, and occasionally it 
 was necessary to stay out all night on the 
 hillside, but he always guarded them care¬ 
 fully. On one such night as this David heard 
 a commotion among his flock. He turned 
 
DID NOT RUN AWAY 
 
 29 
 
 quickly. A lion had come up, seized one of 
 the wee little lambs and was making off with 
 it. David leaped in pursuit and soon caught 
 the lion, for he was a fleet runner, and struck 
 him a blow with his shepherd’s staff. The 
 lion dropped the lamb and turned to attack 
 David, but he was a boy who did not run 
 away. He caught the lion by the beard and 
 slew him there. So he rescued the lamb from 
 death, and taking it gently in his arms, carried 
 it back to the flock. Another time a bear 
 attacked the flock, but, being a boy who did 
 not run away, David killed it also. Now see 
 what was the result. 
 
 His father sent him to the army with 
 food for his brethren, for in those days they 
 had no quartermaster’s department as we have 
 now. The soldiers had to find food as best 
 they could, so the parents often sent them 
 food. When David reached the camp where 
 his brothers were he found the army in a 
 dreadful state of fear and consternation be¬ 
 cause of a great giant who had challenged 
 them, and there was no one to accept the 
 challenge. David, when he heard it, said: 
 £ T will go and fight him.” 
 
 They laughed at this. 
 
 C£ What! a boy fight a giant?” 
 
 Then he said, “I killed a lion and a bear; 
 
30 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 and this giant is no more than they, and the 
 God who delivered me out of the paw of the 
 lion, who delivered me out of the paw of the 
 bear, will deliver me out of his hands.” 
 
 You see if he had run away when the lion 
 and the bear attacked him, David would not 
 have had the courage to face the giant, but 
 he did not run. So, trusting in God for pro¬ 
 tection and deliverance, the boy who did not 
 run away went out with his sling to fight the 
 giant, killed him, and saved his country. 
 
 Whenever you are in the path of duty, 
 no matter what the danger or temptation, 
 never run away. 
 
V 
 
 THE BOY WHO HELPED JESUS 
 
 The disciples had just returned from a 
 preaching trip. After they had reported to 
 Jesus what they had accomplished he said to 
 them, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert 
 place and rest awhile. ” By “desert place” 
 Jesus did not mean a barren, desolate, sandy 
 place without trees and grass and water, but 
 a quiet country place, where there were no 
 houses nor people. 
 
 So Jesus and his disciples took a boat, and 
 crossing to the other side of the lake which 
 was called the Sea of Galilee, climbed the 
 mountain. As they rested on a sunny slope 
 they could look down upon the lovely flowers 
 and grass of the meadow, where a little wind¬ 
 ing river, the River Jordan, entered the lake. 
 
 They had not been resting very long, how¬ 
 ever, before they saw great crowds of people 
 coming toward them. While Jesus was disap¬ 
 pointed because the disciples could not rest 
 longer—he never thought of himself—he was 
 so sorry for the people, that he began to teach 
 
 31 
 
32 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 them and tell them stories. Now, Jesus could 
 tell wonderful stories, and he was such an 
 interesting teacher that the time passed very 
 quickly, and before they realized it, it began 
 
 to grow dark. 
 
 The disciples came to Jesus and said, “The 
 people are very tired and hungry. Shall we 
 send them to the neighboring villages to get 
 something to eat?” 
 
 Jesus replied, “You give them something 
 to eat.” 
 
 “How can we?” said they. 
 
 “Why,” said Philip, “even if we had forty 
 dollars’ worth of bread, it would not be 
 
 sufficient!” 
 
 “How much do you have?” asked Jesus. 
 
 Andrew replied, “There is a lad here with 
 five loaves and twn small fishes.” 
 
 Now, the loaves at that time were not as 
 large as ours. Five loaves like those we buy 
 from the baker’s shop would be quite a bundle 
 for a boy to carry around all day. No, a 
 loaf was just about as large as a cookie, and 
 of the same shape. We are told that they 
 were barley cakes, and that indicates that the 
 boy was very poor, because the rich people 
 ate wheat cakes. Besides, the two small fishes 
 were not fresh fish, like our pickerel or trout 
 but two very small dried fish. 
 
THE BOY WHO HELPED JESUS 33 
 
 Nevertheless, after the disciples had seated 
 the people in rows on the grass, Jesus took 
 the five loaves and the two fishes, and prayed 
 over them, and then gave them to the dis¬ 
 ciples, who in turn passed them on to the 
 multitude. And what do you think? They 
 were sufficient to feed five thousand, and 
 twelve baskets full were left over! Five thou¬ 
 sand fed from five little barley cakes and two 
 small fishes? Yes, because Jesus performed a 
 wonderful miracle, and this boy helped him 
 do it. 
 
 I wish we knew this boy’s name, but we 
 do not. There are some things we do know 
 about him, however. He was thoughtful and 
 looked ahead. Some boys, when they are 
 out picnicking, eat up all their lunch at once, 
 and then go hungry for the rest of the day. 
 But this boy exercised self-control. He knew 
 he would need some food before night, so he 
 left part of his lunch, and so was able to help 
 Jesus. Then, too, he was unselfish. He was 
 willing to give up his lunch for others, even 
 though he might need it himself. Shall w T e 
 try to be like him? Then perhaps we too can 
 help Jesus. Wouldn’t you like to help Jesus? 
 
 Jesus came to tell people about his heav¬ 
 enly Father, to speak kind words and do kind 
 deeds, and to help men and women and boys 
 
34 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 and girls to do right. You can do that. You 
 can tell others about your heavenly Father. 
 You can speak kind words and you can do 
 kind deeds. Just as this boy gave his lunch 
 for others so you can give your savings— 
 your ten cents, your five cents, and even your 
 pennies—to those who are in need—the poor 
 starving children in Europe and Asia or in 
 our own America. Whenever you do this you 
 are helping Jesus. 
 
VI 
 
 WHAT CAN A LITTLE GIRL DO? 
 
 So many times have we heard boys—yes, 
 and older people too—say, “What can a little 
 girl do?” and say it in such a sarcastic tone 
 that I am going to tell you this morning what 
 one little girl did. 
 
 We see her playing around so happily in 
 her home in northern Israel—for children are 
 children the world over—and in her study 
 hours she learned about God and his prophets. 
 
 One day a company of Syrian soldiers came 
 along robbing all the houses. In the con¬ 
 fusion she was separated from her father and 
 mother, and the soldiers took her, poor little 
 frightened girl, and carried her off to their 
 own distant land, Syria. There she was made 
 a slave in the house of a general whose name 
 was Naaman; and her special duty was to 
 wait on Naaman’s wife. 
 
 Now, Naaman was a great general, and 
 was known and loved all over the country 
 as General Pershing is in America. But poor 
 Naaman had the most dreaded of all diseases: 
 he was a leper. 
 
 35 
 
36 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 This little girl was so sorry for him, and 
 often wondered what she could do to help. 
 But what could a little girl do? One day a 
 thought came to her. I think it was God who 
 put the thought in her mind, don’t you? And 
 she went to her mistress and said, “O, I wish 
 that my lord Naaman could go to the prophet 
 who is in Samaria. He could cure him of his 
 leprosy.” 
 
 Now, this little girl must have been very 
 good, and must have done her work so faith¬ 
 fully that her mistress trusted her, because 
 she was so impressed with the little girl’s 
 story that she told her husband. The result 
 was they followed her advice, and the great 
 general went to the prophet in Samaria, whose 
 name was Elisha, and was cured of his leprosy, 
 and was also led to acknowledge the God of 
 Israel as the true God. How he was cured is 
 another story, but I want you to notice that 
 this little girl was the one who suggested that 
 he go to the prophet. Yes, a little girl can do 
 just as much for Jesus as a boy, and some¬ 
 times more! 
 
 Juniors, do you remember the letter our 
 missionary in China, Doctor Dobson, wrote to 
 you? He said, “Little girls in China are taught 
 that they are of very little use, and the boys 
 are told that the girls are their slaves.” “The 
 
WHAT CAN A LITTLE GIRL DO? 37 
 
 boys are taught to read, but the girls are 
 not considered worth teaching.” What, then, 
 can a little girl in China do? 
 
 Do you know the story of the little Chinese 
 girl who was a slave? She was taken to a 
 missionary hospital in Canton, just as little 
 Tak Fuk, our own little blind girl, was brought 
 to Doctor Dobson’s hospital. She was both 
 blind and lame, and so her mistress deserted 
 her. After a careful examination the doctor 
 found it necessary to cut off her injured leg. 
 She was in the hospital a long time, but before 
 she left they taught her about God our heavenly 
 Father and about Jesus. Then they found 
 that the poor little girl had leprosy, like Naa- 
 man, so she was compelled to leave the hos¬ 
 pital and the friends she loved there, and go 
 to the lonely place where just the lepers live. 
 But she loved Jesus now, and she was so 
 happy that she told the other lepers about 
 him. As a result, so many lepers became 
 Christians that in five years a church was 
 organized. This was what a little blind leper 
 girl did. 
 
 So whenever you hear anyone say, 4 ‘What 
 can a little girl do?” tell them about the He¬ 
 brew maiden and the little Chinese leper girl. 
 
VII 
 
 HE PAID TOO MUCH FOR HIS 
 
 WHISTLE 
 
 How many of you have heard of Benjamin 
 Franklin? Everyone, of course, for he was 
 one of the great men in the early history of 
 our country. You all know the story of his 
 kite. One day in a severe thunderstorm he 
 went out and flew a kite, and by means of a 
 key, attracted the lightning. That was one 
 of the first experiments made in electricity. 
 You will read about it when you grow older. 
 This morning I will tell you another story 
 about Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Once, when he was a boy, some friends 
 came to visit his home, and before leaving 
 gave him some money. Like most boys, 
 instead of saving the money, he went out to 
 the store to spend it. What should he buy? 
 The first thing he saw in the shop was a wooden 
 whistle. He wanted it very much, so he went 
 in and offered the man all the money he had. 
 The man accepted his offer, took the money, 
 and gave him the whistle. He blew the whistle 
 all the morning, and had a wonderful time, 
 
 38 
 
HE PAID TOO MUCH 
 
 39 
 
 until he grew tired of it. Later on he found, 
 to his surprise, that he had paid four times 
 as much for it as he ought to have done. He 
 paid too much for his whistle. 
 
 You remember, last week, in speaking of 
 what a little girl can do, I told you how Naa- 
 man, the great general, by following the advice 
 of the little Hebrew maiden, went to the 
 prophet Elisha and was cured of his leprosy. 
 Now, Naaman was so grateful that he came 
 back to the prophet and offered him a large 
 reward, but the prophet refused to accept it. 
 He had simply done his duty, and he would 
 not take money for that. The Boy Scout 
 motto, you remember, is “Never take money 
 for doing a good turn.” So, while there were 
 no Boy Scouts in those days, Elisha looked 
 upon this as a good turn. Then, too, he 
 wanted Naaman to be grateful to God. 
 
 After Naaman had started back home again, 
 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, said to himself: 
 “Isn’t it a pity that my master would not 
 accept any of that money? He made a great 
 mistake. How foolish he is! I am going to 
 have some for myself.” So he ran after Naa¬ 
 man, and told him that Elisha had changed 
 his mind. Two sons of the prophet had come 
 very unexpectedly to be his guests, and he 
 would like a talent of silver (about two thou- 
 
40 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 sand dollars—a large sum of money in those 
 days), and two changes of raiment for them. 
 
 Naaman was very glad to give them, for 
 he was really and truly grateful, and he made 
 Gehazi take two talents of silver, instead of 
 one, and the two changes of raiment, think¬ 
 ing, of course, they were for the prophet. 
 
 So Gehazi came back, hid the money and 
 the raiment in the house, and then came 
 into the presence of his master. 
 
 “Where have you been?” Elisha asked. 
 
 “I haven’t been anywhere. I didn’t go out,” 
 Gehazi replied. 
 
 Not only was Gehazi covetous, but he told 
 a lie. That is the way it usually is, if you 
 commit one sin, you feel that you must com¬ 
 mit another to cover it up. 
 
 Gehazi, however, could not cover up his 
 sin; he could not deceive his master, for Elisha 
 knew where he had been and what he had 
 done. So he said to him, “Because you have 
 done this thing, the leprosy of Naaman shall 
 come upon you.” 
 
 There Gehazi was, with all his money and 
 his clothes, but he had paid too much for 
 them—his health, his honesty, and his honor. 
 He paid too much for his whistle! 
 
 Even boys and girls do this sometimes. 
 They do it when they pay too much for things 
 
HE PAID TOO MUCH 
 
 41 
 
 which will only give them pleasure just for 
 a little while, but which prevent them from 
 doing worth-while things. They do it when 
 they cheat, or deceive, or do wrong in order 
 that they may have a good time, or obtain 
 for themselves something which they desire. 
 Boys and girls, don’t pay too much for your 
 whistles! 
 
VIII 
 
 GARDENING 
 
 (Object: Various Seeds) 
 
 The great need of the world to-day is food, 
 and our President has urged us all, men and 
 women, boys and girls, to do our bit in supply¬ 
 ing this need. The Boy Scouts have taken 
 for their motto, “Every Scout to feed a sol¬ 
 dier.” That does not mean that the Boy 
 Scout will send all the vegetables he raises to 
 some particular soldier, but that he will pro¬ 
 vide them for his own family and so leave 
 that much more in the markets for the gov¬ 
 ernment to buy. 
 
 I have here a collection of seeds (show 
 seeds of various vegetables). Before we can 
 use these, we must prepare the soil. We must 
 either plow the ground or spade it thoroughly 
 and fertilize it. Notice I said “thoroughly.” 
 The Scoutmaster engaged some men to spade 
 the back yard and prepare it for the Boy Scouts. 
 The men did not do their work thoroughly, 
 however, and as a result the grass all came 
 up and the work has to be done over again. 
 
 42 
 
GARDENING 
 
 43 
 
 Remember that “whatever is worth doing is 
 worth doing well.” 
 
 Then notice that we reap what we sow. 
 If I plant this parsley seed, what shall I reap? 
 Radishes? No, parsley. If I plant this potato, 
 shall I reap turnips? “Potatoes,” you say. Of 
 course; we reap what we sow. So it is in our 
 lives. If we sow good thoughts, good words, 
 we reap good deeds and a pure life. We reap 
 what we sow. 
 
 We also reap more than we sow. One grain 
 of wdieat will produce thirty other grains, or 
 perhaps sixty or one hundred. That is what 
 Jesus meant when he said in the parable of 
 the sower that “The good seed brought forth 
 fruit—some thirty fold, some sixty fold and some 
 an hundredfold.” 
 
 They tell us that the seed of the sunflower 
 sometimes produces as many as four thousand 
 seeds, and that a single thistle seed has been 
 known to produce as high as twenty-four thou¬ 
 sand seeds in a single summer. When Australia 
 was first colonized by men and women from 
 Great Britain they found no thistle seed there, 
 so a man in Scotland sent a package to his 
 friend in the new land, ' because,” he said, 
 “it was too bad for them to be without their 
 national flower/' It was such a small seed 
 that the officials allowed it to be planted, 
 
44 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 thinking it would do no harm. Now, several 
 sections of the country are overrun with the 
 Scotch thistle, and it is the plague of all the 
 farmers. If we sow one bad thought, we 
 reap many. If we sow a good thought, or a 
 kind word, we likewise will reap many more 
 than we sow. 
 
 An Indian chief, in the province of Bengal 
 in northern India, learned to read, and the 
 first thing he read was a little leaflet telling 
 him about Jesus. Through the influence of 
 this tract he gave his heart to Jesus and he 
 became so enthusiastic that he went back to 
 his native village and told all the men and 
 women about him, and as a result fifteen 
 hundred were baptized in that one year and 
 received into the church, and all because the 
 chief read one tract which cost only one penny. 
 We reap more than we sow! 
 
IX 
 
 WEEDS 
 
 (Object: Weeds) 
 
 What is this that I hold in my hand? 
 Weeds. And where do they grow? In gar¬ 
 dens. Yes. That is one reason why so many 
 boys and girls do not like gardens—there are 
 so many weeds in them. Sometimes they 
 think that weeds were made purposely to keep 
 boys from going fishing or playing ball, be¬ 
 cause just when they are ready to start with 
 the other boys father or mother sends them 
 into the garden to pull weeds. So boys and 
 girls do not have a good opinion of weeds. 
 Neither do their fathers and mothers, because 
 they know that the weeds keep the good seed 
 from growing. Jesus, you remember, in tell¬ 
 ing the story about the sower, said that some 
 of the seed fell among thorns (which would 
 correspond to our weeds), and the thorns 
 sprang up and choked them. The seeds could 
 not grow and could not bear fruit. 
 
 Now, weeds are so troublesome because 
 they have such small beginnings and grow so ^ 
 
46 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 fast. They tell us that one of the dandelions 
 which grow in our lawns, as well as in our 
 gardens, has two thousand seeds, and the 
 common dock has thirteen thousand, while 
 the red poppy has fifty thousand. That is 
 why it is so hard to get rid of them. There 
 are so many of them and they are so persistent. 
 It is useless to cut off the tops—you must 
 pull them up by the roots and be sure to get 
 all the roots, for if you do not the weeds will 
 come right up again. Remember this when 
 you make your own gardens, as I hope you 
 will. 
 
 Now, weeds do not suggest pleasant things 
 but bad things, like bad tempers, bad thoughts, 
 selfishness and greed, which crowd the good 
 things out of your lives. Like weeds, the 
 bad things come from neglect. We have not 
 been careful to see no evil, and to hear no 
 evil; and the bad things have entered our 
 hearts and taken root there. Then they grow 
 very fast indeed, like the weeds. For example, 
 a boy who has told a lie finds it very easy 
 to tell another, and soon the habit grows 
 upon him, so that no one believes him. Per¬ 
 haps he has an apple or some other good thing, 
 and he refuses to share it with his little sister 
 or his playmate—he wants to keep it all for 
 himself. Now, this is a very little thing. 
 
WEEDS 
 
 47 
 
 but it is what we would call selfishness, and 
 selfishness is like a weed: it grows, oh, so fast, 
 and soon the boy is selfish and greedy all the 
 time. 
 
 But while weeds stand for evil things, 
 flowers stand for good things, and I am sure 
 we would all much rather have flowers than 
 weeds, whether in our gardens or in our lives. 
 So let us pray the prayer of the little Arab 
 girl: “Take away all ugly weeds from my 
 heart and plant beautiful flowers there, that 
 it may be always sweet for Jesus/’ 
 
X 
 
 LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE 
 
 Optimist! Pessimist! I wonder how many 
 of you boys and girls know what those words 
 mean? They are long words, but you often 
 hear them. Sometimes you will hear father 
 say, “Mr. Jones is an optimist, while Mr. 
 Smith is a pessimist.” What does he mean? 
 Why, he means that Mr. Jones looks on the 
 bright side, while Mr. Smith looks on the 
 dark side. You know some people—boys and 
 girls as well as grown-ups—are always looking 
 on the dark side. If they are planning to 
 attend a picnic or their annual Sunday-school 
 excursion, they fear it will rain, for “something 
 is always happening to take the joy out of 
 life.” Then they see some one, or perhaps 
 they read of some one who is doing wrong, 
 and they say: “Oh, everybody is wicked; 
 things are all wrong. I am sure the world is 
 going to the dogs.” People have been saying 
 that for a long time, for there have always 
 been pessimists; but the world has not gone 
 to the dogs yet. 
 
 48 
 
LOOKING ON BRIGHT SIDE 
 
 49 
 
 1 “My grandpa notes the world’s worn cogs, 
 
 And says we’re going to the dogs. 
 
 His granddad in his house of logs, 
 
 Swore things were going to the dogs; 
 
 His dad amid the Flemish bogs, 
 
 Vowed things were going to the dogs, 
 
 The cave man in his queer skin togs, 
 
 Said things were going to the dogs, 
 
 But this is what I have to state, 
 
 The dogs have had an awful wait.” 
 
 No, the world has not gone to the dogs, be¬ 
 cause God is here, and he is taking care of it 
 and always will. So don’t be pessimists! 
 Don’t look on the dark side! Don’t be always 
 expecting and talking about unpleasant things 
 going to happen; but be optimists. Look on 
 the bright side. Talk about the good things, 
 the happy things, the pleasant things—and 
 you can find lots of them to talk about if you 
 only try. Why not be like the little bare-foot 
 boy whom the man met on the road, carrying 
 a basket of blackberries, and said to him, 
 “Sammy, where did you get such nice berries?” 
 
 “Over there, sir, in the briars.” 
 
 “Won’t your mother be glad to see you 
 come home with a basket of such nice ripe 
 fruit?” 
 
 “Yes, sir,” said Sammy. “She always seems 
 
 1 Author Unknown. 
 
50 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 glad when I hold up the berries, and I don’t 
 tell her anything about the briars in my feet.” 
 
 The man rode on. Sammy’s remark had 
 given him a lesson, and he resolved that hence¬ 
 forth he too would try to hold up the berries 
 and say nothing about the briars. 
 
XI 
 
 
 REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO 
 KEEP IT HOLY 
 
 How many of you know the Ten Com¬ 
 mandments which God gave to Moses on 
 Mount Sinai? It is splendid to see so many 
 hands raised. I want you all to learn them 
 so well that you will never forget them even 
 when you grow up. 
 
 The words that I quoted form the first 
 sentence of the fourth commandment. God 
 tells us that we must keep his day holy. What 
 does he mean by that? 
 
 I think he means, first, that we should go 
 to church and worship him. Jesus, when he 
 | was a boy in Nazareth, went to the synagogue 
 every Sabbath day and joined in singing 
 psalms and listened to God’s Word read and 
 explained. Then when he grew up he went 
 j to Jerusalem and worshiped God in the Temple 
 ! there. What Jesus did we must do, for God 
 loves to have his children come to his sanc¬ 
 tuary and sing his praises and offer their 
 prayers. I trust that you boys and girls will 
 
 51 
 
 ii 
 
 
52 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 never forget to do that, and that you will 
 allow nothing to prevent you from coming to 
 church, which is God’s house, so that you may 
 worship him, just as Jesus did. 
 
 If, however, we would worship God in 
 church on the Sabbath as Jesus worshiped 
 him in the Temple, we must be careful how 
 we spend the rest of the day. First, we must 
 be careful what we read. Suppose a friend 
 invites you to dinner and makes special prep¬ 
 aration for it, securing everything that you 
 like; on your way to the dinner you stop at 
 an Italian fruitstand and there gorge yourself 
 with bananas and peanuts, so that you are 
 not able to eat a bite of the splendid dinner 
 which she has prepared, what would your 
 hostess say? How would she feel? Well, 
 every Sunday God has invited you to come to 
 his house to hear what he has to say to you. 
 But if before you come you read all the jokes 
 and stories in the Sunday newspapers, then 
 your hearts and minds will be so full that 
 you will have no room for anything else. 
 How do you suppose God will feel about it? 
 Don’t you think it will grieve him very much? 
 
 Then we must also be careful of what we 
 do on Sunday, for it is God’s day. He calls 
 it, “My Sabbath, my Holy Day.” On it, he 
 tells us in the fourth commandment, we must 
 
 i 
 
REMEMBER THE SABBATH 
 
 53 
 
 do no work, but rest as he rested. When 
 men, women, and children forget this and 
 spend all their time on God’s day in work, 
 or in sports and pleasures of various kinds, 
 then they are using God’s day in a different 
 way from that which he intended. They are 
 stealing from him. 
 
 I am very glad that President Harding did 
 not play golf on Sunday, and so, as the Pres¬ 
 ident of the United States, set all the men of 
 our country a good example. He believed in 
 keeping the day holy. He would not steal from 
 God. 
 
 Have you ever seen real Chinese money? 
 They use large pennies called 4 "cash” and each 
 penny has a hole in the center so that a lot of 
 them can be strung on a cord. It takes eleven 
 of them to equal one of our pennies, so you 
 can see a man has to carry a long string of 
 coins. A man was going along the street in 
 China one day, and had his long string of 
 coins on his arm, when a beggar asked him 
 for money. He felt so sorry for the beggar 
 that he took all the coins but one off the string 
 and gave them to him—kept only one for 
 himself—and walked on. He had gone only 
 a little way when the same beggar slipped 
 quietly up behind him and stole the last coin. 
 Did you ever hear of a meaner trick than that? 
 
54 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 When God made the days, he gave us 
 six days for ourselves, for our work and for 
 our pleasure—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 
 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, all but one. 
 Sunday he kept for himself. Shall we be like 
 the mean beggar and steal that day for ourselves, 
 instead of spending it in doing things for God? 
 “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” 
 
XII 
 
 “IT CAN’T BE DONE! HERE IT IS!” 
 
 It is said that after the American marines 
 landed in France to do their part in helping 
 to win the World War, they so often heard 
 the words “It can’t be done,” that they de¬ 
 cided to show the world what the marines 
 could do, so they took for their motto “It 
 can’t be done! Here it is!” 
 
 We know how bravely they lived up to this 
 motto, many times doing what seemed to 
 others impossible. So I want you boys and 
 girls to take this as one of your mottoes in 
 life: “It can’t be done! Here it is!” 
 
 You remember the story of the spies: the 
 Israelites were encamped at a place called 
 Kadesh, where Moses sent out twelve men 
 to spy out the promised land. When they 
 came back they all agreed it was a very won¬ 
 derful country. They said it was a land flow¬ 
 ing with milk and honey. They meant, of 
 course, that it was very fertile and very pros¬ 
 perous. But when it came to the possibility 
 of conquering the land they did not agree. 
 
 Ten of the men said: “The people of the 
 
 55 
 
56 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 country are very strong, and all their cities 
 are surrounded by walls. They are giants, 
 and we are like grasshoppers in their sight. 
 Then, too, they have great fortresses. It is 
 impossible to take them.” 
 
 But the other two men, Joshua and Caleb, 
 said, “What these men say about the walls, 
 the fortresses, and the giants is all true, but 
 let us go up and possess the land.” 
 
 It was just as if they had said, “It can’t be 
 done! Here it is!” Led by Joshua and Caleb, 
 the people accomplished what the other spies 
 said w~as impossible. 
 
 There are many other stories in the Bible 
 —like the story of David and Goliath, of 
 Gideon and the Midianites—which teach us 
 the same lesson. Ask father and mother to 
 tell them to you, for they are very interesting. 
 
 Not only in the Bible, however, but in 
 other history, you will find stories of men 
 who have done the seemingly impossible. You 
 have all read how Columbus discovered Amer¬ 
 ica. He wanted to discover a new route to 
 India, but for a long, long time he could get 
 no one to loan him money to hire the ships 
 because they said it was impossible. So he 
 traveled back and forth between Spain, Italy, 
 Portugal, and France endeavoring to raise the 
 money. At last Queen Isabella listened to 
 
“IT CAN’T BE DONE!” 
 
 57 
 
 his plea, and helped him to equip the ships. 
 You know the rest—Columbus sailed out over 
 the ocean and discovered America. 
 
 About sixty or seventy years ago a large 
 number of people in this country said to Wil¬ 
 liam Lloyd Garrison and his companions, who 
 wanted to free the slaves, “It can’t be done”; 
 but these earnest men and women did not 
 give up. They kept on working—working and 
 praying—and the slaves were freed in the 
 Civil War. 
 
 We are very thankful to God that, at last, 
 we have prohibition in America, for alcohol 
 is one of the greatest curses in the world, one 
 of the greatest enemies of men, women, and 
 children. About twenty years ago a few 
 enthusiastic men and women took for their 
 motto “The United States dry in 1920.” 
 Everybody laughed, even their friends, and 
 said, “It can’t be done!” But they kept on 
 praying and working, and, “Here it is!”— 
 America a saloonless nation, and in the same 
 spirit we are going to keep it a saloonless 
 nation. So let us take for our motto, “It 
 can’t be done! Here it is!” 
 
 “Somebody said, Tt couldn’t be done/ 
 
 But he, with a chuckle, replied 
 That maybe it couldn’t, but he would be one 
 Who wouldn’t say so till he tried. 
 
58 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “So he buckled right in, with a trace of a grin 
 On his face. If he worried, he hid it. 
 
 He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
 That couldn’t be done—and he did it.” 1 
 
 But to carry out the motto, we need: 
 
 First, perseverance, or what I like to call 
 41 stick-to-it-iveness.” “If at first you don’t 
 succeed, try, try again.” You remember the 
 story of Demosthenes. He thought he would 
 like to be a great orator, but when he rose to 
 speak he stammered so badly that the people 
 all laughed at him. “It is ridiculous,” they 
 said, 4 Tor a person like that to try to speak.” 
 Did Demosthenes give up? No, he persevered. 
 He went down to the seashore and practiced 
 and practiced, until he overcame his stam¬ 
 mering, and he became one of the greatest 
 orators of the world. 
 
 Secondly, we must have faith in God if we 
 would do the impossible for him. I have spoken 
 of Joshua and Caleb, Gideon and David. Faith 
 was the secret of their success—they trusted in 
 God. The great apostle Faul, who did so much 
 for Jesus, said, “I can do all things through 
 Christ who strengtheneth me.” So can we. 
 When people say, “It can’t be done,” let us 
 say, ''Here it is.” 
 
 1 Edgar A. Guest, “The Path Horn*.’’ Copyrighted, 1919, by Reilly 
 & Lee Co. Used by permission. 
 
XIII 
 
 THE DWARF AND THE KNIGHT 
 
 One of the stories told about the Knights 
 of the Round-Table is that of a dwarf who 
 was remarkable for his small stature and his 
 deformity. Perhaps some of you have read 
 about him. He went around the Court of 
 King Arthur carrying a drawn sword and 
 imploring the knights, one after another, to 
 cut off his head. No one would do it. He had 
 never done anybody any harm, and while 
 he could do no good, he was doing no wrong. 
 So the knights thought he was crazy when he 
 wanted them to cut off his head and they 
 refused his request. 
 
 At last he came to Sir Gawain, as noble and 
 true a knight as ever lived. “Gawain,” he 
 said, “do you love me?” 
 
 “Why, yes,” replied the knight, “you know 
 that I love you. What would you like me 
 to do?” 
 
 “I would have you take this sword and with 
 it cut off my head,” was the answer. 
 
 Rut Sir Gawain refused at first, for, like all 
 good knights, he shrank from such a deed. 
 But there was something so imploring in the 
 
 59 
 
60 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 dwarf’s tone, that he finally consented, and 
 with a single blow he cleft the head clear 
 from the body. But, wonderful to relate, as 
 soon as it touched the earth, out of the little 
 deformed body there sprang a tall and grace¬ 
 ful knight, full of strength and goodness, who, 
 years before, had been imprisoned in the 
 dwarf’s body by a bad magician. So, boys 
 and girls, in the same way, there is imprisoned 
 in each boy a good and true man, and in each 
 girl a noble and beautiful woman, just wait¬ 
 ing to be liberated. 
 
 One day a noted sculptor was walking along 
 the street when he saw a piece of discarded 
 marble, which had been thrown out by another 
 sculptor, who thought it good for nothing. 
 He had it taken to his own studio and out of 
 it he made a lovely angel. How did he do 
 it? Why, he took a mallet and his chisel and 
 he cut a bit away here, and a bit away there, 
 and he filed and smoothed away all the rough 
 little bits and the sharp little edges, and by 
 and by there was the statue of the beautiful 
 angel. 
 
 Just as there was the figure of a beautiful 
 knight hidden away in the form of the dwarf, 
 just as there was the figure of an angel hidden 
 away in the discarded piece of marble, so there 
 is hidden away in each one of you a beau- 
 
THE DWARF AND THE KNIGHT 61 
 
 tiful character, but it must be drawn out, it 
 must be developed. That is what father and 
 mother and teachers are trying to do as they 
 teach you and train you. Sometimes you 
 think that they are severe in their discipline 
 and that they do not love you, when they do 
 not allow you to do some things you want 
 to do, and compel you to do other things 
 that you do not want to do. But, when you 
 grow older, you will understand that they 
 were simply hewing and chipping away the 
 rough places in your character, just like the 
 sculptor did with his piece of marble. 
 
 Here the comparison ends, for the piece 
 of marble was helpless under the chisel of 
 the sculptor, but you can help your parents 
 and teachers as they chip away the rough and 
 sharp edges. Yes, you can do some of it your¬ 
 selves. You can be your own sculptors. The 
 little selfish things, the little mean things, 
 the unkind things, the cowardly things, every¬ 
 thing that is hiding what is good in you, hiding 
 the real you—for the good is the real you, 
 not the bad, never forget that—so, everything 
 that is hiding the good you must chip away, 
 and Jesus will help you. Then your life will 
 appear to the world what God wants it to be 
 —and I am sure what you want it to be— 
 strong, beautiful, and true. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 
 Have you ever heard the story of the first 
 Bible school? One of the very first schools 
 that I know of was started by Jehoshaphat, 
 king of Judah 5 who lived about 874 B. C. He 
 was the fifth king after David. We are told 
 that King Jehoshaphat walked in the first 
 ways of his father David—that is, in the good 
 ways—instead of worshiping idols, as did some 
 of the kings of Israel. Because of this God 
 was with him and blessed him. 
 
 But Jehoshaphat was not only good himself, 
 he wanted his people to be good. He knew 
 that he could not keep them true to God 
 unless they understood just what God’s com¬ 
 mandments were, and so he appointed five 
 princes to oversee the work of instruction; and 
 with nine Levites and two priests they went 
 from city to city in Judah, reading and explain¬ 
 ing the word of God; that is, they organized 
 Bible schools. The men, women, and children 
 came and listened to these teachers, just as 
 w^e listen to the teachers in our Bible schools, 
 only they did not wait for the Sabbath day 
 
 62 
 
THE FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL 63 
 
 but bad tbeir Bible schools every day in the 
 week. That is the story of the very first 
 Bible schools in the world. I am sorry to say 
 they did not last very long. 
 
 After the schools of Jehoshaphat more than 
 two thousand years passed before the first 
 of our present Sunday schools was organized. 
 I wonder if you know the name of the man 
 who started the first Sunday school, and 
 where he lived. His name was Robert Raikes, 
 and he lived in Gloucester, England. I have 
 seen the house in which he lived and the build¬ 
 ing in whiqh the first Sunday school was held. 
 It seems that at that time pin-making was 
 one of the great industries of Gloucester, and 
 great numbers of small children worked in 
 the factories because they did not have child- 
 labor laws in those days. The children had 
 no time to study during the week, and on 
 Sunday they would meet in the streets to 
 play, and often to quarrel and fight. Mr. 
 Raikes felt very sorry for them, and so he 
 gathered them together, first of all in this 
 building, and there taught them how to read 
 and write. The first teachers, who were women, 
 were paid for their services. 
 
 In a letter written in 1784 Mr. Raikes told 
 how the school was conducted. The children 
 were to come soon after ten o’clock in the 
 
64 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 morning and stay until twelve. They were 
 to go home to lunch and then return at one, 
 and after reading a lesson, they went to church, 
 walking two by two. After church they re¬ 
 turned and studied the Bible again. They 
 also learned to read the Catechism. He told 
 how he tried to teach them to be good-natured 
 to each other, not to provoke each other, to 
 be obedient to their parents, and not to offend 
 God by swearing. At five o’clock they were 
 dismissed with the injunction to go straight 
 home. Would you like to go to Sunday school 
 all day like that? 
 
 Well, that is the story of the first Sunday 
 school. Just think of it! Only one Sunday 
 school at that time, and now there are thou¬ 
 sands of Sunday schools all over the world! 
 
 The object of the Bible school started by 
 Jehoshaphat and the object of the first Sunday 
 school started by Robert Raikes were one 
 and the same—to teach men, women, and 
 children to know the Bible so that they might 
 love and serve God. So, boys and girls, I 
 want you to remember that you come to Sun¬ 
 day school to study the Bible and to learn 
 what it teaches about God and Jesus. 
 
 In the book of the Psalms we are told that 
 God’s Word—the Bible—is a lamp unto our 
 feet. You know in the days when those words 
 
THE FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOL 65 
 
 were written, they did not have street lights 
 as we do to-day, but they had little foot- 
 lamps which they tied on to the toes of their 
 shoes so that the light might shine upon the 
 path. Then they could see any obstacle that 
 might be in the way, and not stumble over 
 it. Knowing that, you can understand what 
 the writer meant when he said that “God's 
 word is a lamp unto our feet / 5 He meant 
 that if you know the Bible well enough, some 
 verse or truth from it will come into your 
 mind whenever you are in danger or tempta¬ 
 tion, or whenever you are in doubt as to what 
 is right. It will be like the foot-lamp, it will 
 shine upon your path and give light, so that 
 you will not stumble and fall. So I want 
 you not only to read and study the Bible but 
 to commit to memory just as much as you 
 can. Let us begin with this text for to-day, 
 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
 unto my path . 55 
 
XV 
 
 THE MAN WHO WAS NOT AFRAID 
 
 TO PRAY 
 
 He was all alone in a strange place, far 
 away from his home, from which he had been 
 taken captive many years before. Though 
 he lived in a palace and had good things to 
 eat, and rich clothes to wear, with servants 
 to wait upon him, he was very lonesome and 
 homesick. He was very busy too, for the 
 king had made him prime minister over the 
 whole realm, but he was not too busy to pray. 
 Three times a day he went to his room, and 
 opening his windows in the direction of his 
 old home, he prayed to his God. 
 
 Some of the princes and courtiers, when 
 they saw how the king honored him, were 
 very jealous, but he did his work so well and 
 was so faithful and true that they could find 
 no fault of which to complain to the king. 
 They noticed, however, that he always prayed 
 three times a day, so they went to the king 
 and asked him to forbid everyone in that 
 country to pray for thirty days. If anyone 
 ywanted anything they must ask the king. If 
 
 66 
 
NOT AFRAID TO PRAY 
 
 67 
 
 anyone disobeyed, the king should have him 
 thrown into a den of lions. 
 
 The king wanted to please his princes and 
 courtiers, so he consented to do as they wished. 
 But when the man about whom I am speak¬ 
 ing heard it he said: “I am very sorry; I 
 like to do what the king commands, but I 
 cannot stop praying to God, even to please 
 the king. I must pray as I have been taught, 
 even though the king does throw me into a 
 den of lions.” 
 
 Oh, now you know the man’s name! Yes, 
 Daniel! So, three times every day, just as 
 before, Daniel went to his room and prayed 
 to his God, for he was not afraid! 
 
 But the wicked princes were watching, and 
 they ran to the king and said: “Oh, king, you 
 commanded that if any man should ask a 
 petition of any God or man for thirty days, 
 except of you, he should be cast into the den 
 of lions. Now, here is this man Daniel; he 
 is still praying three times a day. You must 
 cast him to the lions as you said you would.” 
 
 The king was very sorry, for he loved Daniel, 
 but he felt he must keep his word. So they 
 put Daniel in the den of lions; but Daniel 
 prayed and God protected him. The next 
 morning the king came and, looking down into 
 the den, called, “Daniel, Daniel, are you there?” 
 
68 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 ‘‘Yes, O king! God shut the lions’ mouths 
 so they did not hurt me.” 
 
 The king was very glad, and he said, “Come 
 out, Daniel, come quickly. Your God is the 
 only true God, and I and my people will wor¬ 
 ship him from this day on.” 
 
 That is the story of the man who was not 
 afraid to pray. 
 
 I have read of a boy who went away to 
 school. Several of the boys slept on cots in 
 a dormitory. The first night he knelt down 
 just as he did at home, and immediately the 
 other boys began to laugh and make all sorts 
 of noises. When that did not stop him, they 
 threw pillows and slippers and whatever they 
 could lay their hands on. The boy did not 
 budge. While he was praying he felt some 
 one at his side. It was the smallest boy in 
 the room. He too had promised his mother 
 to say his prayers; but he had been afraid 
 before. Seeing this boy who was not afraid, 
 he took courage and knelt down beside him. 
 So you see the boy who was not afraid to 
 pray not only did his duty but also helped 
 the younger lad keep his promise. More than 
 that, when the other boys saw that he was 
 not afraid they admired him for his pluck, and 
 he became a leader among them. Boys and 
 girls, never be afraid to pray. 
 
XVI 
 
 r THE MAN WITH A GEOIJCH 
 
 Many years ago there lived a king in Samaria 
 by the name of Ahab. One day, after looking 
 around his ivory-walled palace—for he was 
 very proud of all his fine possessions—he went 
 up on the palace roof and looked toward the 
 east and toward the west. “All this is mine,” 
 he said. Then a frown crossed his face, as 
 he happened to look down at a vineyard which 
 joined his palace grounds, for this alone was 
 not his. “If I only owned that vineyard,” 
 he said, “I should have a perfect garden.” 
 
 So the king sent at once for Naboth, the 
 owner of the vineyard, and said, “Give me 
 your vineyard, because it is near my house 
 and I want to make a beautiful garden. In 
 place of it, I will give you a far larger vineyard 
 somewhere else, or, if you would prefer, I 
 will give you the worth of the vineyard in 
 money.” But Naboth, while thanking the 
 king for his kind offer, refused to accept it. 
 “Because,” said he, “my father gave me this 
 vineyard. It has been in our family for a 
 
 69 
 
70 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 great many generations, and I cannot give it 
 up.” The king was so angry, so disappointed, 
 that he went into his palace and throwing 
 himself on his couch, turned away his face 
 and would eat nothing at all. In other words, 
 he sulked. Because he could not have his 
 own way he acted like a baby, king though 
 he was, and gave way to his temper. To-day 
 we would say that he had a “grouch.” 
 
 Now, of course, you boys and girls do not 
 act like that, do you? But, perhaps, you may 
 have known some one wdio did. Some boys, 
 you know, if they cannot be pitchers or catchers 
 on the baseball team, won’t play at all. They 
 sulk, they have a grouch. Sometimes a girl, 
 if she cannot play just as she wishes, likewise 
 turns away and frets and sulks. She has a 
 grouch too. 
 
 What is the reason that boys and girls and 
 men and women have grouches? This rich 
 king, Ahab, of whom we are speaking, had a 
 grouch because he was selfish. He was not 
 satisfied with his own great possessions. He 
 coveted the one field, the one vineyard of his 
 neighbor, who, compared with him, was a 
 poor man. So, boys and girls, if you think 
 about it, you will always find that those who 
 have grouches are selfish. They are always 
 thinking about their own happiness, and what 
 
 
 
 
 
THE MAN WITH A GROUCH 
 
 71 
 
 they can get for themselves; and if they do not 
 succeed in their efforts, then they sulk. The 
 best cure for a grouch, then, is to forget your¬ 
 self and try to make some one happy. Suppose 
 you begin to-morrow morning when you go to 
 school, and instead of being selfish, try to see 
 how you can help your classmates. Give up 
 something for them. If you do that, you will 
 not have a grouch all day. Rut why wait 
 until to-morrow? Begin to-day, this very day, 
 just as soon as you reach home. Lend brother 
 that interesting book, or let sister have your 
 picture puzzle. 
 
 I heard of a young woman of whom it was 
 said: “She always made home happy / 5 You 
 can never say that about a grouch. I do not 
 know of anything that can be said more to 
 the praise of any man or woman, boy or girl, 
 than—“He or she made home happy / 5 
 
 So, after to-day’s Junior sermon, we are 
 going to try to be happy wherever we are, so 
 that people will not say, “Oh, my! I wish that 
 boy had remained at home, I wish that child 
 would not come here any more,” but instead, 
 will say, “I am so glad he came to-day, because 
 he always makes everybody so happy. It is 
 a good thing just to have him around.” 
 
 Do you know how you can do it? Why, 
 just by asking Jesus to help you to be like 
 
72 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 himself, because, you know, it is said of him, 
 6 ‘Even Christ pleased not himself.” Then no 
 longer will you think of yourselves, and fret 
 and sulk, and have a “grouch” if you cannot 
 have your own way, but you will be unselfish 
 in everything, just as Jesus was. 
 
XVII 
 
 
 CHRIST OF THE ANDES 
 
 (Objects: One Hundred Pennies and 
 Picture of “Christ of the Andes”) 
 
 After the Great World War a conference 
 was held in Washington to see if the large 
 nations of the world could not agree to limit 
 the number of soldiers and sailors, warships, 
 aeroplanes, guns, and other implements of 
 war that each should have. They did not wish 
 to abolish armies and navies altogether, only 
 to reduce their numbers. They felt that if 
 the nations of the earth continued to make 
 more and more guns and other machinery of 
 war, the day would come when there would 
 be another great war even more terrible than 
 the last. While America did her duty in the 
 World War, none of us want another war. 
 
 Why? First, because war is growing more 
 and more terrible. Not only do the soldiers 
 use guns and swords—and the guns are larger 
 and more powerful than ever before—but they 
 have death-dealing bombs which are dropped 
 from aeroplanes, and terrible poisonous gases 
 which cause those who Inhale them to cough 
 
 78 
 
74 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 and choke to death in terrible suffering. In 
 wars of by-gone days only the soldiers were 
 killed, but in the last war the Germans dropped 
 bombs on unprotected villages and cities, and 
 killed many men, women, and children. They 
 tell us that the next war will be even more 
 terrible. 
 
 Then war is growing more and more 
 expensive, so that no nation will be able to 
 pay. When the World War drew to a close 
 it was costing more in one day than the whole 
 Revolutionary War of the United States cost 
 in eight years. 
 
 I have here one dollar in pennies. Let us 
 divide them into two piles—ninety-three pen¬ 
 nies in one and seven in the other. Out of 
 every dollar your father pays in taxes to this 
 government ninety-three pennies go for wars 
 —past, present, and future—and only seven 
 for educational, scientific, and other purposes. 
 The other nations are much poorer than we, 
 and their war burdens much heavier. 
 
 But a still more important reason why we 
 do not want another war is that Jesus does 
 not want it. You remember that when Jesus 
 was born the angels sang ‘"Peace on earth, 
 good will toward men.” War brings jealousy, 
 hatred, cruelty, and untold suffering. Jesus 
 wants the different countries to love each 
 
CHRIST OF THE ANDES 
 
 75 
 
 other, and to help one another—not to quarrel, 
 fight, and kill each other. 
 
 So, boys and girls, when you say your prayers, 
 do not forget to ask God that the nations, 
 when they differ with each other, may be 
 willing to send their representatives to talk 
 it over instead of going to war. The United 
 States and Canada do that, also the Republics 
 of Argentine and Chile. For many years 
 Argentine and Chile were always quarreling, 
 and sometimes their quarrels led to war and 
 bloodshed. In the year 1900 they were on 
 the brink of war, when they agreed to 
 arbitrate, and asked the King of England to 
 decide their dispute for them. On Easter 
 Sunday that same year, good Bishop Benevente, 
 of Argentina, made an earnest appeal for a 
 statue of Christ to be erected on the frontier 
 to celebrate the Victory of Peace. 
 
 So they melted some of their cannon and 
 made a colossal bronze statue of Christ— 
 twenty-six feet high, standing on a granite 
 hemisphere symbolizing the world. This they 
 erected on the Andean Peak, right on the 
 boundary line, fourteen thousand feet above 
 the sea. One hand holding the cross, the other 
 lifted toward heaven, the Christ of the Andes 
 stands between the two countries, in the atti¬ 
 tude of blessing men as they live below him 
 
76 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 in peace. The inscription on the pedestal 
 reads, “Sooner shall mountains crumble to 
 dust than Argentines and Chileans break the 
 peace, which at the feet of Christ, the Redeemer, 
 they have sworn to keep.” 
 
 Pray, boys and girls, that what Argentine 
 and Chile have done under the influence of 
 the “Christ of the Andes” all the nations of 
 the earth will do. 
 
XVIII 
 
 TAKE A LITTLE HONEY WITH YOU 
 
 Some years ago, in one of our religious papers, 
 I read “A Sermon to Juniors/’ While I have 
 forgotten the name of the writer and the 
 sermon itself, I have not forgotten, and never 
 will forget, the text. I am going to talk to 
 you about it this morning, so that you may 
 remember it too. The text was “Take a 
 little honey with you.” 
 
 There was a famine in the land of Canaan, 
 so Jacob sent his sons down into Egypt to 
 buy food. Who do you suppose was prime 
 minister of Egypt at that time? Joseph, their 
 long-lost brother, whom they had sold into 
 slavery some years before, but had never 
 since heard of. They did not recognize Joseph, 
 but he recognized them. Desiring to teach 
 his brothers a lesson for their past cruelty, 
 he charged them with being spies, and to 
 prove that they were not, he compelled them 
 to leave one of their number, Simeon, in Egypt 
 as a hostage, until they could bring their 
 younger brother, Benjamin. 
 
 Having given their father, Jacob, the mes- 
 
 77 
 
78 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 sage, they were now preparing to return to 
 Egypt. Jacob, being anxious to win the 
 favor of the prime minister—for he did not 
 know it was Joseph—told his sons to take 
 some presents to him, spices, myrrh, nuts, 
 almonds, and a little honey, for he thought 
 that would please him. I am quite sure it 
 did too, because most people are fond of sweet 
 things. That is one reason we give boxes 
 of candy as presents. 
 
 In the book of Proverbs we are told that 
 pleasant words are like honey. Sometimes we 
 call them 4 'honeyed words. 55 So it seemed to 
 me it would be a good thing if we all would 
 take a little of that kind of honey with us. 
 
 I was returning from New York the other 
 day and was very tired; but all the seats in 
 the train were taken, with the exception of 
 one which was supposed to hold four persons. 
 In that seat just two men were sitting with 
 their knees outspread, and their papers held 
 out before them, utterly oblivious of the fact 
 that others were standing. So I touched one 
 of the men on the shoulder, and said very 
 politely, “Won’t you move over a little, 
 please?” He grunted, but paid no other atten¬ 
 tion to my request. I was tempted to speak 
 sharply to him and tell him what I thought 
 of his selfishness, when there flashed into my 
 
TAKE A LITTLE HONEY 
 
 79 
 
 mind the words, “Take a little honey with 
 you.” So I repeated my request as politely 
 as possible, but just a little louder, and this 
 time the man moved, though rather ungra¬ 
 ciously, it is true. You see, boys and girls, 
 it makes all the difference in the world how 
 you ask for things—whether it is of the street¬ 
 car conductor, the clerk in the store, or the 
 telephone operator. The motto, “The voice 
 with a smile wins,” is only another way of 
 saying, “Take a little honey with you.” It is 
 a good thing, therefore, to take a little honey 
 wdth you wherever you go. 
 
 After the Revolutionary War George Wash¬ 
 ington was making a long journey in his car¬ 
 riage, for they had no automobiles in those 
 days. He was accompanied by several gentle¬ 
 men in a carriage of their own. Late one after¬ 
 noon, when they were anxious to reach the 
 next town before darkness came on, they 
 found the road blocked by a large wagon 
 drawn by four horses going very slowly. Wish¬ 
 ing to pass, a gentleman in the first carriage 
 called out to the teamster, and, in an over¬ 
 bearing manner, ordered him to turn out. The 
 man became very angry and refused to budge. 
 George Washington, seeing the trouble, spoke 
 very courteously to the driver, explained why 
 they were in a hurry, and asked him to allow 
 
80 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 them to pass. In a moment, the man had 
 turned aside, and they were on their way. 
 You see, George Washington “took a little 
 honey with him.” 
 
 Put a little honey in your suitcase when you 
 go on your vacation this summer, for there 
 will be rainy days when everybody seems cross, 
 and days when the fish won’t bite, and lots 
 of other occasions when you will be tempted 
 to speak sharply. But, above all, don’t for¬ 
 get to have a little honey on the table every 
 day at home, for you must be as sweet with 
 your own folk as you are with friends and 
 strangers. Then if anyone finds fault and 
 says, “The bread is poor, the meat is tough, 
 or the cake is dry,” just say with a smile, 
 “Please pass the honey.” 
 
PART TWO 
 
 SERIAL STORIES 
 
GAMES 
 
 “And the streets of the city shall be full of boys 
 and girls playing in the streets thereof.”— Zechariah. 
 
\ 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
XIX 
 
 GOLF 
 
 “The Battle of Waterloo was won on the 
 cricket-fields of England,” said the Duke of 
 Wellington. The famous general meant that 
 the men who won the battle received their 
 training on the cricket-field. Yes, the games 
 and the recreations of a nation have a great 
 influence upon that nation; so I am going to 
 talk with you boys and girls for three Sundays 
 about the three great out-door games in this 
 country, namely, golf, baseball and football. 
 
 What is this little white ball I hold in my 
 hand? A golf ball, of course. Everyone knows 
 a golf ball. They tell us that about three 
 million men and women play in our country. 
 Next to baseball it is our most popular game. 
 In fact, I think more grown people play be¬ 
 cause so many simply watch baseball and do 
 not play it themselves. 
 
 If you are to play golf, there are some things 
 you must learn. 
 
 First. Keep your eye on the ball. This is 
 the very first thing your teacher tells you. It 
 seems so easy to hit this little white ball, but, 
 unless you keep your eye on it, you will find 
 
 85 
 
86 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 that it is not so easy as it seems. Instead of 
 going straight forward as you wish, it will 
 shoot off to the right or to the left, or you will 
 miss it altogether, so you must keep your eye 
 on it all the time. 
 
 Not only must you keep your eye on it, but 
 you must keep your mind upon it also. You 
 know it is very easy to look at a thing and be 
 thinking of something else. Some of you boys 
 have been looking at me this morning, but 
 your thoughts were elsewhere. Perhaps you 
 were thinking of the coaster-wagon that Henry 
 has, and the new motor wheel which he has 
 attached to it, or perhaps the girls have been 
 thinking of Mary’s new doll. So, in playing 
 golf, you may be looking at the ball and think¬ 
 ing of something else. You may be thinking 
 what your friends will say when they see how 
 straight the ball goes. The result is one and 
 the same. Therefore keep both eye and mind 
 on the ball. This is what we call “concentra¬ 
 tion.” A long word, isn’t it? But now you 
 know what it means. You must learn to con¬ 
 centrate if you would succeed in anything. 
 Paul did it when he said, “This one thing I do.” 
 
 Secondly. Don’t look up until the stroke 
 is finished, but “follow through.” This was 
 the second thing my friends told me. Some 
 players are very anxious to see where the ball 
 
GOLF 
 
 87 
 
 is going. They look up before the stroke is 
 finished and spoil it. So “Follow through” is 
 a good motto for them and for us all. So many 
 of us start to do something and do not finish. 
 We do not folloiu through. 
 
 When we return after our vacations we are 
 very enthusiastic, and we promise father and 
 mother that we will study harder than we 
 did last year. We mean it too, and our report 
 card for October is fine. But the November 
 one is not quite so good, and by December 
 our reports are way down where they were 
 before. We begin well, but we do not continue, 
 we do not follow through . 
 
 Thirdly. To play good golf you must have 
 a picture in your mind of where you want 
 the ball to go. Especially is this true, when 
 you are playing over what golfers call a 
 “hazard,” such as a stone wall, a tree, or a 
 little lake, for sometimes you find these hazards 
 in the course. So many times I have heard a 
 player say, as he prepared to drive the ball 
 across the lake, “Watch me put it in the lake.” 
 And he did. He tries again and again with 
 the same result. Another player will say: 
 “Watch me put it over. Do you see that green 
 yonder? That’s where I’m going to put it.” 
 And almost invariably he does. So, if you 
 would succeed in golf, you must have a pic- 
 
88 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS x 
 
 ture in your mind of where you want the ball 
 to go, and play as you have been taught. 
 
 In the same way, boys and girls, you must 
 have a picture in your mind of what you want 
 to do and be. In other words, you must have 
 an ideal toward which you are always moving- 
 So many men and women just drift through 
 life, with no ideals, no standards, and, of 
 course, they fail. Do not be like them, but 
 have a picture in your mind of what you 
 want to be and strive to reach it. 
 
 I know a man who, when he was a little 
 boy, worked in the mines of England. He 
 was one of the door-boys. The mines were in 
 sections, divided by doors, and when the little 
 donkey came along with his wagon-load of 
 coal these boys had to swung the doors open 
 for him. Well, this little boy used to sit and 
 read his Testament by the light of the tiny 
 lamp on his cap, and as he read he had in his 
 mind a picture of himself as a minister, preach¬ 
 ing the gospel to many people. He worked 
 hard and earned money to go to school. Then 
 he worked his way through college, and now 
 he is a minister of a large city church where 
 he has realized the picture he made of himself 
 when he was a little boy. He succeeded be¬ 
 cause, like the golfer, he had an ideal in mind 
 and worked toward it. 
 
XX 
 
 BASEBALL 
 
 Baseball! Baseball! Baseball! All over 
 the country each summer, men and women, 
 and even boys and girls, talk about baseball 
 and wonder who will win the various cham¬ 
 pionships. Yes. baseball is a very popular 
 game indeed, and you are all so familiar with 
 it that I need not describe it. 
 
 Notice first that there are certain rules in 
 baseball as in other games. The pitcher must 
 pitch the ball right over the homeplate, no 
 higher than the batter’s shoulder and no lower 
 than his knees. Then if the batter does not 
 hit the ball for a run, or if he hits at it and 
 misses it, it is called a strike. If the pitcher 
 pitches the ball too high or too low, it is called 
 a ball, and four balls send the batter to first 
 base. So there are rules for every part of 
 the game, and to play the game successfully, 
 you must know the rules. 
 
 See, the player out in the field yonder is 
 catching the ball. Will he get it? Yes, he 
 caught it, but he did not hold it firmly —it 
 slipped through his fingers. He made an 
 
 8Q 
 
90 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 error, and because of that error the batter 
 has won his base, and perhaps made a home 
 run. The error is marked down on the score 
 card against the fielder, and it may mean the 
 losing of the game for his side. So in the 
 game of life be very careful about any errors. 
 They always count against you, and they will 
 affect not only yourself but others. 
 
 Another batter has come up. Instead of 
 swinging his bat he is just holding it up to 
 stop the ball. Why is he doing that? He is 
 making what is known as a “bunt,” or a “sac¬ 
 rifice hit.” The ball falls right near him, so 
 he is put out very easily, but the men on the 
 base advance, and perhaps make a run. I am 
 sure that he would have liked to have made 
 a run himself, but he has sacrificed himself for 
 the good of the team. He made a “sacrifice 
 hit.” 
 
 So, boys and girls, as followers of Jesus, 
 you must not think only of your own glory, 
 but you must be willing to make “sacrifice 
 hits” for others. Jesus did it all the time. 
 For example, he was very tired and went away 
 into a quiet place to rest, but the people came 
 crowding unto him, so he gave up his rest 
 and first taught them and then fed them. 
 That was making a “sacrifice hit.” But he 
 made the greatest “sacrifice hit” of all when 
 
BASEBALL 
 
 91 
 
 lie gave up his life, when he died on the cross, 
 so that men and women and children every¬ 
 where, all over the world, might know that 
 God loves them, and that they must love him 
 in return. It is this love that we commem¬ 
 orate on Good Friday and at every communion 
 
 service. 
 
XXI 
 
 FOOTBALL 
 
 After baseball comes football. It is a splen¬ 
 did game for the fall and early winter months, 
 before the snow comes, as it provides very 
 vigorous out-of-door exercise. As most people 
 are not so familiar with it as they are with 
 baseball, I will give you a brief description. 
 
 In a regular game there are eleven players 
 on each side, and at each end of the field is 
 a goal made of upright posts supporting a 
 cross-bar. The object is to advance the ball 
 beyond the goal at the rear end of the oppo¬ 
 nents 5 half of the field—and you may do it 
 by kicking the ball or carrying it. The side 
 that does this the greatest number of times 
 wins the game. 
 
 First there must be team work to play good 
 football; that is, all the players must cooperate 
 with each other. They must play together. 
 You’ll understand what I mean when you 
 see your next game of football. The two 
 opposing teams will line up against each other. 
 One side has the ball and is endeavoring to 
 advance with it down the field. See how in- 
 
 92 
 
FOOTBALL 
 
 08 
 
 tense they are as they crouch, waiting for the 
 signal to go. Then the captain calls out cer¬ 
 tain numbers, one after the other. We do 
 not understand what the numbers mean, but 
 the players who are in the secret, know from 
 the numbers that are called which player will 
 take the ball and in what direction he is to 
 run, and how the rest of his team-mates will 
 help him. 
 
 Suppose the player selected by the captain 
 to run with the ball should say to himself, 
 “I will not obey the captain’s commands, but 
 I will run in some other direction, and per¬ 
 haps I'll make a touch-down.” What do you 
 suppose would happen? Why, he would fail 
 utterly. You know some players are like that 
 —always trying to show off before the on¬ 
 lookers, so that they may be praised. We 
 call that making a 4 ‘grand-stand play.” Such 
 playing is selfish and it ruins the game. There 
 must be cooperation—that is, you must play 
 together and help one another to make the 
 goals—even though it means that you will 
 not get any glory for yourself. You must be 
 willing to sacrifice for the good of the team, 
 for the good of others, just as the baseball 
 player sacrifices when he makes a “sacrifice 
 hit.” 
 
 Secondly, football is a very strenuous game, 
 
94 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 and unless the players keep well they cannot 
 stand the strain. They must not smoke, for 
 smoking injures their breathing. They must be 
 careful of what they eat, and go to bed at 
 regular, early hours, and in every way try to 
 keep well and strong. I have seen players 
 dismissed from the college team because they 
 smoked cigarettes or stayed out late at night, 
 which things break down their health. So in 
 the game of life you must try to keep your 
 bodies well and strong, ready to do the work 
 God has for you to do. You must follow the 
 advice of the Christian athlete, the apostle 
 Paul, who said, “Keep your body under. 55 
 That means you must keep your temper, exer¬ 
 cise self-control over your desires, and prac¬ 
 tice self-denial. Y T ou will find it hard some¬ 
 times, but with Jesus 5 help you can do it. 
 
 Thirdly, you must always play the game, 
 whether it be football or any other game. 
 That means two things—you must play fair 
 and play to win. Some players, when they 
 see the other side is stronger, either cheat or 
 play in a half-hearted manner. We call the 
 latter “quitters. 55 How we do admire those 
 who never give up, but do their best to the 
 end! 
 
 The late President Roosevelt, one of the 
 greatest Presidents the United States ever had, 
 
FOOTBALL 
 
 95 
 
 in an address to boys said, “In life, as in a 
 football game, the principle to follow is "Hit 
 the line hard. Don’t foul and don’t shirk, but 
 hit the line hard.’ ” By “hitting the line hard” 
 President Roosevelt meant that you must 
 play with all your might, doing your very 
 best. He practised what he preached—he 
 always played and worked with all his might, 
 and that is one of the reasons he was such a 
 great man. 
 
 Play the game, play fair, play to win. 
 
SUMMER EXPERIENCES 1 
 
 “Shout Ho! 
 
 Whoop and Holloa! 
 
 Summer is here—To the country we go. 
 
 School done, 
 
 Freedom and fun— 
 
 Hard work is over, and play is begun!” 
 
 —Edna Kingsley Wallace . 
 
 1 “Song of Summer,” from Feelings and Things, by Edna Kingsley 
 Wallace. E. P. Dutton & Co. publishers. 
 
XXII 
 
 CONTRARY WINDS 
 
 Those of you who have traveled in New 
 Hampshire know that there are several lakes 
 there, some small and some large. This last 
 summer we spent our vacation on one of these 
 lakes which was about five miles long and 
 three miles wide. There were several islands 
 in the lake and high mountains in the near 
 distance. What a beautiful picture they pre¬ 
 sented every night at sunset, outlined against 
 the western sky with its violet and rose and 
 golden tints! Such good times we had too, 
 swimming, fishing, and boating! 
 
 One day two of us rowed to a neighboring 
 town about three miles away. The sun was 
 shining and there was little or no breeze, so 
 that the lake was as smooth as glass, and it 
 was very easy rowing. While we were in town 
 we noticed that quite a breeze had sprung up, 
 and by the time that we had rowed up the 
 little river and into the lake, it was blowing 
 quite a gale, and, as so frequently happens in 
 these little lakes, the waves rose very high. 
 Unfortunately, the wind was blowing right in 
 
 99 
 
100 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 our faces, so that rowing now became very 
 difficult. It seemed sometimes, even when 
 both of us rowed, that we made absolutely no 
 progress, and if we stopped rowing, the waves 
 took us right back again. 
 
 I thought of that little scene in the life of 
 the disciples when Jesus, after he had fed the 
 five thousand, sent his disciples across the sea 
 in a boat, while he went to the mountain to 
 pray. We read that they were rowing for 
 hours, but they could make no headway be¬ 
 cause the wind was contrary. So we found 
 that “the wind was contrary,” but after awhile 
 we managed to reach camp, very late, very 
 tired, and very hungry. 
 
 “And the wind was contrary.” That is my 
 text, boys and girls, for you this morning. 
 Life will not be all smooth sailing. There will 
 be difficulties and hardships. The wind will 
 sometimes be contrary, but you will not give 
 up. You will keep on struggling and do your 
 best, just as Lincoln did when he was a boy. 
 He had no opportunities for education as we 
 have to-day. He tells us that he only had 
 about one year’s schooling in all his life. Then, 
 too, there were very few books and those were 
 very expensive. Sometimes he would work 
 many days just to earn the money to purchase 
 one, and then walk miles to get it. After he 
 
CONTRARY WINDS 
 
 101 
 
 reached home, he would read by the light of 
 the fire. We would say that the 44 wind was 
 contrary” for him, but he persevered and won 
 out at last. 
 
 So it was with President Garfield, and so 
 it has been with many of the great men of 
 the past—statesmen, scientists, artists, inven¬ 
 tors, and discoverers. In spite of the “con¬ 
 trary winds” they won success. Will you win 
 success by following their example? 
 
 Last of all, when the disciples met the “con¬ 
 trary winds” on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus came 
 to them walking on the sea and helped them. 
 So he will help you, when you experience the 
 “contrary winds,” if you only ask him. 
 
XXIII 
 
 ROCKS 
 
 Last summer, two weeks before our vacation 
 ended, a friend and I purchased a motor canoe. 
 What good times we had learning how to run 
 it, and then how proud we were when we 
 went chugging along down the lake! 
 
 After a week had passed we found it neces¬ 
 sary to go to town to replenish our gasoline. 
 So we sailed to the end of the lake and down 
 through a little river to the landing stage of 
 the nearest village. 
 
 As the young man was filling our gasoline tank 
 he said, “Well, have you struck a rock yet?” 
 
 “No,” we replied. “Why?” 
 
 “Well, don’t worry,” he said, “you will. 
 Everyone who runs a motor boat on this lake 
 strikes a rock sooner or later.” 
 
 We laughed and said nothing, but to our¬ 
 selves we said, “We are going to be the excep¬ 
 tion, we are not going to strike a rock.” So 
 I took the helm and my friend started the 
 engine, and we went very carefully through the 
 little river because the channel was very 
 narrow. 
 
 When we entered the lake we did not steer 
 
 102 
 
ROCKS 
 
 103 
 
 at once for our camp, but kept straight out 
 into the lake, as a ledge of rocks ran out from 
 the shore where the river enters the lake, and 
 we had been told that we must be very care¬ 
 ful to go out around them. When we were 
 out, as we thought, far enough, I swung the 
 helm over and steered for home, when, sud¬ 
 denly, there was a loud grating noise—we had 
 struck a rock! We stopped, examined the 
 boat, and were very glad to find that there 
 seemed to be no great damage done. When 
 we started the boat, however, it insisted on 
 going backward instead of forward. But after 
 a little delay, we righted matters and reached 
 camp safely. 
 
 Now, boys and girls, in your voyage through 
 life, you must beware of rocks. And I want 
 you to notice there are two kinds of rocks. 
 
 First, the rocks that are visible, that is, 
 those you can see. We had several rocks of 
 this kind in our lake and some of them were 
 quite large. Sometimes we saw a boat an¬ 
 chored near one of them and a person seated 
 on the rock, fishing. No one would steer his 
 boat upon one of these rocks, for they are in 
 plain sight. 
 
 So in your voyage of life there are rocks 
 that you see, the rocks against which your 
 parents, your teachers, and your pastor have 
 
104 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 warned you, like the saloon, the gambling- 
 house, and the bad moving-picture shows. 
 You need not go to any of these places unless 
 you so desire. They are the visible rocks 
 against which you will wreck your boat. 
 
 But there are other kinds of rocks that are 
 even more dangerous—the hidden ones. If I 
 had seen this hidden rock, I would not have 
 steered the boat upon it, but I thought I had 
 steered sufficiently far out into the lake to 
 escape them all. 
 
 So it is the hidden rocks in life against 
 which you must be especially on your guard. 
 It is the temptation that comes when you are 
 not looking for it, and when you do not expect 
 it, that is so dangerous. Perhaps it is the 
 temptation to cheat at an examination. You 
 cannot solve one of the problems, and acci¬ 
 dentally you see the answer of another student 
 in front of you. Why not use it? Or perhaps 
 you are tempted to take a postage stamp or 
 something that does not belong to you, just 
 to save yourself time and annoyance. In these 
 and in other little ways, temptations come 
 unexpectedly. They are just like hidden rocks 
 in the lake. 
 
 So my text, this morning, is this saying of 
 Jesus, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into 
 temptation.” Beware of the hidden rocks. 
 
A VISIT TO THE ZOO 
 
XXIV 
 
 FEEDING-TIME AT THE ZOO 
 
 Last week we made our annual trip to the 
 Zoo. Perhaps you would like to hear about 
 some of the interesting things that we saw. 
 
 We arrived just in time for the feeding of 
 the bears. A keeper had a handcart filled 
 with loaves of bread and pieces of meat, which 
 he was throwing over into the dens of the 
 bears. Each bear waited his turn for the 
 bread and meat, with the exception of some 
 little black bears who fought like cats. 
 
 We found the feeding so interesting to 
 watch that we followed the keeper around. 
 We decided that one of the bears in the last 
 den must have poor teeth, because he took 
 the hard loaf of bread over to a little pool 
 of water in the center of the den, and dipping 
 it in, held it there until it was soft. As we 
 were watching him the keeper turned, and 
 touching his cap, said to the man next to us, 
 “Good afternoon, Chief.” So we knew at once 
 that this man was one of the superintendents 
 of the Zoo. We spoke to him, and he told us 
 some very interesting things about the animals* 
 
 10 ? 
 
108 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “Did you see the big brown bears as you 
 passed?” he asked. When we answered “Yes,” 
 he continued, “If you will come with me I 
 will show you something that will interest 
 you.” So we all went back to see the big 
 brown bears. 
 
 The father-bear was eating his dinner in 
 one corner of the den, and the mother-bear 
 in the other. As we stood and watched them 
 the superintendent told us their history, and 
 how they were two of the largest bears in 
 captivity. He said: “An army officer who has 
 hunted bears was here the other day, and he 
 exclaimed: ‘My! I wouldn’t like to meet that 
 big fellow in the woods! He is the largest I 
 have ever seen.’ ” 
 
 Just then, the big father-bear finished his 
 loaves and meat, and, with a roar, rushed 
 toward the mother-bear, who was still eating. 
 She heard him coming, gave a funny scream, 
 and grabbing a bone, rushed to another corner 
 of the den. She left behind her two or three 
 loaves of bread and some fine meat, and the 
 father-bear tried to pick them all up at once 
 in his paws. There were too many for him, 
 however, so with his forepaws, he pulled them 
 all under him, and calmly sitting down on 
 them, ate them one by one. “You see,” said 
 the superintendent, “that bear does not be- 
 
FEEDING-TIME AT THE ZOO 109 
 
 lieve in woman suffrage. He wants to be boss, 
 for he does that every time.” 
 
 What do you children call a bear like that? 
 Greedy? Of course, and would you believe 
 it, some men and women, and sometimes, 
 even little boys and girls, are like that, though 
 perhaps in a different way. What do you 
 think of the boy who reaches for the largest 
 piece of cake on the plate, or takes a whole 
 handful of peanuts and stuffs them in his 
 pocket when his friend offers him some, or how 
 do you like the girl who takes the largest 
 chocolate out of your box? But I know that 
 none of my Juniors are like those children, 
 and that, whatever animal you may imitate, 
 it will not be the big brown bear. That is the 
 story of one of the feeding-times at the Zoo. 
 
XXV 
 
 THE REPTILE HOUSE 
 
 On our trip to the Zoo, about which I spoke 
 to you last week, we visited the Reptile 
 House. Some people, you know, do not like 
 snakes, and will not go in to see them, but 
 there is nothing to be afraid of in the Zoo, 
 for all the snakes are firmly secured in large 
 glass cases like cabinets. 
 
 While there were other animals in the Rep¬ 
 tile House such as mice, frogs, and alligators, 
 the chief center of attraction was, of course, 
 the snakes—big snakes, little snakes, snakes 
 of all kinds and colors and sizes. The keepers 
 of the Zoo have arranged the inside of the 
 glass cases to correspond with the various sur¬ 
 roundings from which the snakes came, so 
 that they could feel perfectly at home. In 
 some cases were grass and trees, and in others, 
 rocks, pebbles, and sand. 
 
 As we passed one case we said, “Where are 
 the snakes?” for none were in sight. We looked 
 more closely, however, and saw them coiled 
 up on the rocks on the side of a little hill, 
 but their color so blended with the rocks 
 
 110 
 
THE REPTILE HOUSE 
 
 111 
 
 and sand that you could scarcely see them. 
 We realized how necessary it would be to 
 watch your steps as you went walking in the 
 country from which these snakes came. 
 
 As we were examining the snakes in another 
 case the door at the back of the case opened 
 and a keeper, with a long-handled window 
 cleaner, began to clean the inside of the win¬ 
 dows of the case right over where the snakes 
 were lying. As an occasional drop of water 
 would fall, the snakes began to squirm, two 
 or three of them becoming very angry. One 
 in particular began swaying back and forth, 
 his tongue darting out as his head rose higher 
 and higher, preparing to strike the man. We 
 thought the keeper did not see him, and were 
 just about to cry out to warn him, “Look 
 out!” when he quietly put his hand behind 
 him, took a stick which he had in readiness, 
 caught the snake on the little fork at the end 
 of the stick and pushed him back in the corner. 
 He did the same with the rest of the snakes 
 who were troubling him, and then went on 
 quietly washing the glass as if nothing had 
 happened. We learned then the value of the 
 Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared.” 
 
 On the next two or three cases, which 
 enclosed the great pythons—the largest snakes 
 in the world—there was pasted a sign, “Don’t 
 
112 STORY SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 tap on the glass/’ Why, do you suppose? I 
 think it was because of the danger. If you 
 tapped on the glass, it would annoy and anger 
 the pythons, who were so large and strong 
 that with one blow of their heads they could 
 break the glass. Then what would you do? 
 So the sign “Don’t tap on the glass” was put 
 up as a warning by the keepers, for they do 
 not wish you to incur any unnecessary danger. 
 I hope you will always obey it. 
 
 “Don’t tap on the glass.” Do not run into 
 any unnecessary danger. That is pretty good 
 advice to follow, boys and girls, not only in 
 the Zoo but in all life. Of course when duty 
 calls we must go, no matter where it is—God 
 will protect us. But we must neither endanger 
 our lives unnecessarily nor seek out tempta¬ 
 tion. The wise man of olden times had this 
 in mind when he said, “Enter not into the 
 path of the wicked, go not in the way of evil 
 men. Avoid it, pass it by.” That is a pretty 
 long text to remember, but you can certainly 
 remember the sign, “Do not tap on the glass.” 
 
THE THREE WISE MONKEYS 
 
 “Where truth in closest words shall fail 
 Truth embodied in a tale, 
 
 Shall enter in at lowly doors .” 1 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 1 Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company from Tennyson's 
 Poetical Works. 
 

 
 
XXVI 
 
 SPEAK NO EVIL 
 
 (Object: The Three Japanese Monkeys) 
 
 I hold in my hand a group of three little 
 Japanese monkeys. The first is covering his 
 mouth with his hand, the second his eyes, the 
 third his ears. Now, they represent three 
 Japanese proverbs. Do any of you know 
 what they are? Yes, "'Speak no evil,” "See 
 no evil,” "Hear no evil.” This morning we 
 are going to talk about the first, "Speak no 
 evil.” 
 
 Straws show which way the wind blows. 
 So small things often show what a person is. 
 There are persons, you know, who claim to 
 read character by observing these little things. 
 They will look at the lines in your hands and 
 profess to read your fortune, but, while they 
 may not be able to do this, they can, to a 
 certain extent, read your character. The 
 same thing is true with handwriting. A per¬ 
 son’s words also reveal his character. Even 
 those who do not understand palmistry, or 
 cannot tell character by handwriting, know 
 this. 
 
 115 
 
116 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 When you forget this Japanese proverb, and 
 speak evil, it shows what kind of boys and 
 girls you are down in your hearts, for Jesus 
 said to the Pharisees, “Out of the abundance 
 of the heart the mouth speaketh”; that is, a 
 man speaks what his heart is full of. Evil 
 words, impure words, never come out of a 
 pure heart. So the first thing we must do to 
 refrain from evil speaking is to ask Jesus to 
 change our hearts and make them clean. 
 
 But our words also have their influence 
 upon our hearts. If you try so to live that 
 no unkind words shall pass your lips, that 
 will help to strengthen your heart. If you 
 do not, then God will want to know w T hy, 
 for just after Jesus had spoken of the heart, 
 he said, “For every idle word that man shall 
 speak, he shall give account thereof.” This 
 is the second reason why we must be careful 
 to speak no evil—we must give an account 
 of it to God. 
 
 A third reason is that you cannot unsay 
 evil words when you once say them, no matter 
 how anxious you may be to do so. 
 
 The story is told of a woman who freely 
 used her tongue to speak evil of others. After¬ 
 ward she made confessions to her priest. In 
 order to show her the terrible harm she had 
 done, he bade her secure a ripe thistle-top 
 
SPEAK NO EVIL 
 
 117 
 
 and then go out and scatter the seeds one by 
 one. She did so. When she returned he told 
 her, to her amazement, to go back and gather 
 up the scattered seeds. 
 
 “That is impossible; no one can do that.” 
 
 “No more can you,” said the priest, “undo 
 the evil thing you have done by speaking evil 
 of others.” 
 
 Will Carleton, the poet, has expressed that 
 thought in a little poem, which I wish every 
 one of you Juniors would commit to memory: 
 
 4 ‘Boys, flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds; 
 
 You can’t do that when you are flying words. 
 
 Careful with fire is good advice we know; 
 
 Careful with words is ten times doubly so. 
 
 Thoughts, unexpressed, may sometimes fall back 
 dead, 
 
 But even God can’t kill them once they’re said .” 1 
 
 One of the best ways I know of to keep 
 from speaking evil is by doing just the oppo¬ 
 site; that is, instead of saying mean things, 
 cutting things, unkind things, say good things, 
 kind things, pleasant things, until it becomes a 
 habit. 
 
 Some people, you know, have formed the 
 habit of always complaining and whining, and 
 criticizing. In the home they criticize the food 
 
 1 “The Settler’s Story,” from Farm Festivals, by Will Carleton. Copy¬ 
 righted, 1898, by Harper & Brothers, New York. Used by permission. 
 
118 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 or complain about this or that, also in school 
 and at play. Others there are who have formed 
 the habit of saying kind things, encouraging 
 things, so that they do it without thinking. 
 This is what Jesus did. 
 
 Thinking of what he said about idle words, 
 I turned to my Bible and found this in regard 
 to Jesus himself: “They marveled at his gra¬ 
 cious words.” Wouldn't it be a glorious thing 
 if that were true of us—that men and women, 
 boys and girls, marveled at our gracious words? 
 Let us make it true. We can do it if we only 
 ask Jesus to help us, and then follow his 
 example. 
 
 “Kind words can never die, 
 
 Cherished and blest, 
 
 God knows how deep they lie 
 Stored in the breast; 
 
 Like childhood’s simple rimes. 
 
 Said o’er a thousand times 
 Ay, in all years and climes. 
 
 Distant and near. 
 
 Kind words can never die, 
 
 No, never die.” 
 
XXVII 
 
 SEE NO EVIL 
 
 (Object: Camera and Three Japanese 
 
 Monkeys) 
 
 Our subject this morning is the Japanese 
 proverb represented by the monkey covering 
 his eyes with his hands. 
 
 You have all seen a camera like the one I 
 hold in my hand. This is the lens—the eye 
 of the camera—through which the picture of 
 our object comes. This is the lever which 
 uncovers the lens, just for an instant, so that 
 the picture may be taken. Here at the back 
 of the camera is the plate or film upon which 
 the picture is taken. Now, if you were to 
 examine the film immediately before and after 
 taking the picture, you would see no differ¬ 
 ence in its appearance, but the photographer 
 must take the film into a dark room where 
 no rays of light can come, and put it in a bath 
 of chemicals which brings out, or, as we say, 
 develops the picture. Everything on the film, 
 however, is reversed, so we call it the negative. 
 Then the photographer places the negative 
 upon a sensitive paper and exposes it to a strong 
 
 119 
 
 / 
 
120 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 light, and lo! we have a correct picture of 
 whatever the lens, the eye of the camera, saw. 
 
 Now, our eyes correspond to the lens in 
 the camera. The brain corresponds to the 
 film or plate upon which the picture is photo¬ 
 graphed. It is then stored up in the memory, 
 which we may fitly describe as a chamber of 
 imagery. 
 
 Rut how are the pictures developed? You 
 cannot take them out as you do the films in 
 a camera, and then go into a dark room and 
 develop them. The process is much simpler 
 than that. You develop the pictures that are 
 photographed on the brain simply by think¬ 
 ing about them. The more you think about 
 them, the clearer will the picture become and 
 the deeper will the impression be made until 
 it becomes permanent. So you see the need 
 of the second Japanese proverb represented by 
 the monkey which is covering his eyes with 
 his hands, "‘See no evil.” 
 
 Take care not to look upon anything that 
 will do you harm. Do not go where evil 
 pictures and evil things are, unless called by 
 duty. Your parents will guide you until you 
 are old enough to understand for yourself. 
 If you do see things that are evil, as you will 
 sometimes in public places, do not think 
 about them, for, as I have just told you, think- 
 
SEE NO EVIL 
 
 121 
 
 ing develops the picture and makes it perma¬ 
 nent; but think of some of the other good 
 pictures that are stored up in your memory 
 —in your chamber of imagery—and ask Jesus 
 to help you, and the bad picture will be 
 blotted out. 
 
 “See no evil” is the Japanese proverb, and 
 it is a good one to remember, but this morn¬ 
 ing I want to give you another one to remem¬ 
 ber with it—“See all that is good.” Look at 
 some beautiful picture every day, or read 
 some beautiful poem, or some word about 
 Jesus, and then think about it until the pic¬ 
 ture is painted indelibly upon your memory. 
 That is what Ruskin did. When he was a 
 boy his father would never let him look at a 
 poor picture or a bad picture, so he grew up 
 to love the beautiful, and he became a great 
 writer and authority upon art. He was one 
 of the best judges of art in the world. 
 
 But while looking upon beautiful pictures 
 do not forget to look through these windows 
 of your chamber of imagery—your eyes—at 
 the beautiful in nature, that is, the flowers, 
 the grass, the trees, the birds, the stars, the 
 clouds, the sunsets like the sunset we saw 
 last night, then thank God for all these won¬ 
 derful pictures he has painted for you to 
 enjoy 
 
122 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “See all that is good.” Yes, not only in 
 nature, but in people as well. But that re¬ 
 quires training. Just as you must train your 
 eyes in order to shoot accurately, or to see 
 good points in the picture, so you must train 
 them to see the good things, the nice things, 
 the pleasant things in the lives of men and 
 women, boys and girls, even as Jesus did. 
 So, in these various ways, store your memory 
 —your chamber of imagery—with beautiful and 
 good pictures. See no evil, see all that is good. 
 And what the beggars in Corfu say to the 
 travelers, so I would say to you, “May you 
 enjoy your eyes.” 
 
XXVIII 
 
 HEAR NO EVIL 
 
 (Object: The Three Japanese Monkeys) 
 
 The third monkey, as you see, has his ears 
 covered, representing the proverb, 4 'Hear no 
 evil .’ 5 
 
 Last Sunday morning I told you that we 
 must train our eyes. In like manner our ears 
 need educating. That is why Jesus said to 
 his disciples, "Take heed how ye hear, 5 ’ "Take 
 heed what ye hear . 55 
 
 Train yourselves to hear and life will mean 
 so much more to you. A great many persons 
 walk through the woods on a summer day, 
 and they do not hear a single thing, but others 
 hear all sorts of interesting sounds. They hear 
 the rustling of the leaves in the breeze, the 
 chattering of the squirrels, the songs of the 
 birds and their "Chirp, chirp, chirp . 55 Yes, 
 they hear wonderful sounds such as the poet 
 describes: 
 
 "Two little ears God gave to u«, 
 
 Two little ears to hoar 
 All the glad sounds this joyous world 
 Sends forth, so sweet and clear; 
 
 123 
 
124 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 Songs of the birds and rippling streams, 
 Music made all around; 
 
 These little ears God gave to us 
 Rejoice in every sound .” 1 
 
 Train your ears to hear accurately. “Take 
 heed how ye hear.” One reason why we 
 forget so soon is because we do not listen 
 carefully. The words of our parents or our 
 teachers “go in one ear and out the other.” 
 We know how necessary it is in times of sick¬ 
 ness to give heed how we hear, for a mistake 
 then might mean death, death to ourselves or 
 to others. So form the habit of listening care¬ 
 fully, of hearing accurately, in order that you 
 may remember. 
 
 “Take heed what you hear.” This is where 
 the Japanese proverb represented by the mon¬ 
 key covering his ears, applies. “Hear no evil.” 
 There are two entrances to the memory, or 
 chamber of imagery—one by the eye-gate, one 
 by the ear-gate. So that no bad pictures may 
 hang in that chamber of imagery, we must 
 be careful of what we hear. “Hear no evil.” 
 
 “Hear no evil of others.” If we refused to 
 listen to mean things, unkind things, evil 
 things, people would soon stop saying them. 
 As it takes two to make a quarrel, so it takes 
 two to spread evil stories—a speaker and a 
 
 2 Author unknown. 
 
HEAR NO EVIL 
 
 125 
 
 hearer. See to it that you are not the hearer. 
 Cover your ears as this little monkey is do¬ 
 ing, and say, “I will not listen to evil about 
 others.” “Hear no evil.” 
 
 But this proverb also means that you must 
 not listen when others suggest evil things for 
 you to do. If Eve, in the Garden of Eden, 
 had refused to listen to Satan, she would not 
 have taken the forbidden fruit. You remember 
 what Jesus did in the wilderness when Satan 
 came tempting him. He said, “Get thee be¬ 
 hind me, Satan.” “Hear no evil,” 
 
 Sometimes we cannot help hearing evil 
 things. What then? Then you must close 
 your hearts to the evil suggestion. There is an 
 old proverb which says, “You cannot help 
 birds flying around your head, but you can 
 prevent them nesting in your hair.” So, while 
 you cannot always stop people saying evil 
 things, you need not act upon them. Just 
 offer a little prayer, “Lord Jesus, help me”; 
 then think of something good you have 
 heard. Learn beautiful poems; above all, 
 learn as many Bible verses as possible, and 
 you will never be left without something good 
 to think about. So you will keep bad pic¬ 
 tures from coming into your chamber of im¬ 
 agery through the ear-gate and you will “hear 
 no evil.” 
 
BIRDS 
 
 The robin and the bluebird, piping loud, 
 
 Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee; 
 The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud 
 Their race in Holy Writ should mentioned be. 
 And hungry crows, assembled in a crowd, 
 
 Clamored their piteous prayers incessantly, 
 Knowing who hears the raven’s cry, and said: 
 “Give us, O Lord, this day, our daily bread !” 1 
 
 — Longfellow . 
 
 1 From “The Birds of Killingworth.” Used by permission of Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Company. 
 

 
 
 
XXIX 
 
 JESUS AND THE BIRDS 
 
 One summer recently a minister and his 
 family spent their vacation in the Catskill 
 Mountains. One of the most enjoyable of all 
 their experiences was a bird class conducted 
 by a student. Early every morning for two 
 weeks, very early indeed, between twenty and 
 thirty men, women, and children went out for 
 a bird walk. What a wonderful time they had! 
 Although it was the month of August, they 
 saw twenty-three varieties of birds in one 
 morning. 
 
 They learned many things on these walks, 
 among others the need of training if one would 
 know the birds—training of eye, because there 
 are so many different kinds of birds, and, as 
 a rule, you can only get a brief glimpse of 
 them as they are flying by; training of the 
 ear, because they all have different songs— 
 some of them having more than one, like the 
 song-sparrow for example, which has six dif¬ 
 ferent melodies in its repertoire. Indeed, they 
 learned so many interesting things on those 
 
 129 
 
130 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “bird walks” that I thought you might enjoy 
 hearing about some of them. I shall begin by 
 talking to you about Jesus and the birds. 
 
 Jesus must have loved the birds. Though 
 born in a city, he was brought up in the little 
 country town of Nazareth. As a boy he spent 
 much time exploring the country round, study¬ 
 ing the birds and the flowers, and finding out 
 the secrets of nature. He must have loved 
 the out-of-door life, for when he began to 
 preach and teach he told many stories about 
 things he had seen and heard—the shepherd 
 who looked for his lost sheep; the man who 
 built his house on the sand, and when the 
 storm came, it fell down; the red sky at night 
 a sign of fair weather; in the morning—a sign 
 of storm; and the birds that came and picked 
 up the seed as it fell by the wayside. 
 
 Perhaps you would like to know the names 
 of the birds of Jesus’ country, the birds he 
 saw and heard? Some of them had feathers 
 of red, blue, green, and gold; with lovely 
 wings and breasts, and strange names—hoopoe, 
 roller, bulbul, sunbird; but there were also 
 birds that you know—the lark, robin redbreast, 
 blackbird, wren, nightingale, thrush, swallow, 
 eagle, raven, partridge, crow, and that most 
 common of all birds, the English sparrow. 
 Jesus must have seen many sparrows, for he 
 
JESUS AND THE BIRDS 
 
 131 
 
 used them as an illustration for one of his 
 sermons. 
 
 He had been warning his disciples of the 
 dangers which threatened them from evil men, 
 and he told them not to be afraid, God would 
 protect them. “Are not two sparrows sold 
 for a penny, and not one of them shall fall 
 to the ground without your Father’s notice?” 
 
 Now, the people in the Eastern countries 
 catch sparrows in nets, and as there are thou¬ 
 sands of them, sell them very cheaply indeed 
 for food; but in spite of that fact, God knows 
 each one. 
 
 “I know there are many sparrows; 
 
 All over the world we’re found; 
 
 But our heavenly Father knoweth 
 When one of us falls to the ground. 
 
 “Though small, we are never forgotten, 
 
 Though weak, we are never afraid; 
 
 For we know that the dear Lord keepeth 
 The life of the creatures he made.” 
 
 So Jesus would have his disciples remember 
 that as God cares for the sparrows and all 
 other birds, so he will care for them too, for 
 he is their Father. 
 
 It was a terrible storm at sea, and all the 
 people on the ship were very much alarmed, 
 with the exception of one little girl. 
 
132 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “Aren't you afraid?” some one asked her. 
 
 “Why, no,” she said. “My Father is at the 
 helm.” 
 
 So we need never be afraid. God our Father 
 is watching over us, and as he took care of 
 that little girl, and as he takes care of the 
 birds, he will take care of us. 
 
XXX 
 
 SPARROWS 
 
 Last Sunday we heard how God takes care 
 of the sparrows, and though there are many 
 thousands of them all over the world, not one 
 falls to the ground without his notice. Wouldn’t 
 you like to hear more about them? 
 
 All of them are dressed in dull, brownish 
 colors, more or less streaked with gray—colors 
 which harmonize with the grassy, bushy places 
 or dusty roadsides where they live. This, of 
 couse, makes it more difficult for their enemies 
 to see them. In size they are mostly small 
 birds—not one as large as a robin. The spar¬ 
 rows are seed-eating birds and can find food 
 all the year round, so that their migrations 
 are short. They do a great deal of good by 
 destroying the seeds of weeds which otherwise 
 would overrun the farmer’s fields and gardens. 
 There are many varieties of sparrows, the 
 chief ones—vesper, chipping, English, and song. 
 
 You will see the vesper sparrow chiefly on 
 the dusty roadsides, and you can always tell 
 him by the white on each side of his tail as 
 he spreads it out to fly. He received his name 
 
 133 
 
134 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 because be has formed tbe habit of singing 
 toward evening, just after the sun goes down 
 behind the purple hills, and a very sweet voice 
 he has too. 
 
 The chipping sparrow—“little chippy,” as we 
 call him—you will recognize by his chestnut 
 crown and the white line through his eye. 
 
 He is the smallest of all sparrows, but so 
 very sociable and friendly. He frequently 
 builds his nest in the trees near the house, or 
 in the orchard, and eats great quantities of 
 insects and worms. 
 
 But what shall I say about the English 
 sparrow? Everybody, both in the country and 
 the city, knows him, and few like him. He 
 was first introduced into this country in 1851, 
 to rid some shade-trees in Brooklyn of inch- 
 worms. But as conditions which keep the 
 English sparrow in check in his own land are 
 lacking here, he has gained in numbers at such 
 a rapid rate that he is found in all parts of 
 our land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 
 has become a pest. He is bold, impudent, 
 quarrelsome, and a great bully, especially with 
 smaller birds. Nobody, whether man or bird, 
 wants him around. 
 
 How different this from the song sparrow, 
 the children’s favorite! Many times have I 
 seen him on a tree, a fence, a telegraph wire, 
 
SPARROWS 
 
 135 
 
 looking up into heaven and pouring forth his 
 song so full of joy and gladness. He seems 
 to be always cheerful, no matter what the 
 weather is. No wonder we like him, for good 
 spirits are contagious, and he cheers and en¬ 
 courages us when we need it most. Dr. Henry 
 van Dyke says about his song: 
 
 “I like the tune, I like the words; 
 
 They seem so true, so free from art. 
 
 So friendly, and so full of heart, 
 
 That if but one of all the birds 
 Could be my comrade everywhere, 
 
 My little brother of the air, 
 
 This is the one I’d choose, my dear, 
 
 Because he’d bless me, every year, 
 
 With ‘Sweet — sweet- — sweet—very merry cheerl 9 
 
 Which of the sparrows would you rather be 
 like, children, the English sparrow or the song 
 sparrow—the English sparrow, which is selfish, 
 quarrelsome, and noisy, or the song sparrow, 
 which everybody loves because he is so cheer¬ 
 ful and makes us feel happy and glad just to 
 listen to him? 
 
 Some time ago I read of a little boy who 
 was like a song sparrow in his influence, though 
 he was very delicate in health. One day as 
 he was looking out upon a very beautiful sun- 
 
 1 Poems , by Henry van Dyke. Used by permission of Charles Scribner’s 
 Sons. 
 
136 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 set, he cried out, “Oh, mother! how I would 
 like to help God paint the sky!” His mother 
 replied, “You are making the sky of my life 
 very, very bright.” 
 
 Let us pray God to help us be like the song 
 sparrow, then we, too, will make the sky of 
 the lives of others very, very bright. 
 
XXXI 
 
 THE ROBIN 
 
 “ ‘Who killed Cock Robin?’ 
 
 ‘I,' said the Sparrow— 
 
 ‘With my bow and arrow 
 I killed Cock Robin.’ ” 
 
 Our American robin is much larger than 
 the European cock robin, about which we 
 have heard so much. When the first English 
 colonists came to this country they saw this 
 big cheerful bird and they called him a “robin” 
 because of his red breast. It reminded them 
 of the wee little bird at home. He is first 
 cousin to the thrush, and is a good singer. 
 Like the thrush, he never walks, but hops, 
 though sometimes you see him running across 
 the lawns. 
 
 The robins build their nests very early in 
 the spring. They gather some coarse grass, 
 roots, and leaves for a foundation and then 
 cover it all over with mud. Then they line 
 the nest with dead grass. Sometimes, however, 
 a heavy rain comes and washes away their 
 nest in the night, and they have to build it 
 all over again. 
 
 1ST 
 
138 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 What a wonderful appetite the robin has! 
 Just think of eating every day more than we 
 weigh. That is why father-robin and mother- 
 robin work so hard to find food for them¬ 
 selves and the little robins. You have seen 
 them, I am sure, pulling earth-worms out of 
 your lawn. They seem to know just where 
 the worms are. They run a few steps, listen, 
 take two or three steps to the right or the left, 
 stick their bills in the earth, give a tug, and 
 out comes the worm. It is estimated that a 
 pair of robins, with a family to feed, will pull 
 out enough worms in one day to make a line 
 fourteen feet long. But they eat other things 
 besides worms. In the spring they catch a 
 great many insects which would destroy our 
 fruit and vegetables, and for that reason we 
 ought not to begrudge them the few cherries 
 they eat in the summer. 
 
 In September the robins gather in friendly 
 groups and roam around, feeding on all kinds 
 of berries. Do you know what they do with 
 the seeds? No, they do not swallow them, but 
 they drop them as they fly around, and many 
 seeds take root and grow into shrubs and trees. 
 So you see, the robins help to make the earth 
 beautiful by observing Arbor Day every day. 
 
 Many interesting legends have grown up 
 around the robin. A legend, boys and girls, 
 
THE ROBIN 
 
 139 
 
 is a story that has been handed down to us 
 from long, long ago. One of the legends tells 
 us that Jesus used to feed robins around his 
 mother's door when he was a boy. I can 
 quite believe it, because robins become very 
 tame when you feed them and grow to be very 
 fond of you, as you are of them, with their 
 sweet, melodious songs. We know that Jesus 
 was kind to all birds and animals. So the 
 legend tells us that when they placed Jesus 
 in the tomb, a robin never left it until he rose 
 again, and when he went up into heaven, a 
 robin joined in the angels' song. 
 
 Another very popular story is that when 
 Jesus was on his way to Calvary, toiling be¬ 
 neath the burden of the cross, a robin, in the 
 kindness of his heart, plucked a thorn from the 
 crown of Jesus, and a drop of blood from 
 Jesus’ brow fell upon his breast, and ever since 
 the robin has had a red breast. I think that 
 is a beautiful story, don’t you? Whether it is 
 true or not, it shows the disposition of the 
 robin. A robin would have taken off the 
 crown of thorns if he could, just as another 
 story tells us, one covered the poor babes in 
 the woods with leaves. Wouldn’t you like the 
 people to tell beautiful stories about you be¬ 
 cause of your kindness of heart? Learn the 
 Boy Scout motto, “One kind turn every day.” 
 
XXXII 
 
 CEDAR WAX WING, OR THE POLITE 
 
 BIRD 
 
 From the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific 
 from Canada to Mexico, you will find the 
 cedar waxwing. He is called the “cedar 
 wax wing” because he is very fond of cedar 
 berries. Sometimes he is called the cherry- 
 bird, because he likes cherries also. On his 
 wings are small red spots like sealing wax, 
 which are responsible for the queer name of 
 “wax wing.” 
 
 He wears a fine silky, soft, grayish-brown 
 dress, almost dovelike in color, and is always 
 very neat and well groomed. His beautiful 
 pointed crest and the yellow band across the 
 end of his tail will enable 3 ^ou to distinguish 
 him easily from other birds. 
 
 The cedar wax wing is a very sociable bird. 
 He is rarely ever alone but always with other 
 birds. I have already said that he feeds on 
 cedar berries. Like the robin, he drops the 
 seeds all around and so helps to make the 
 earth beautiful. In addition, he likes insects, 
 elm-beetles, grubs, and caterpillars. The far- 
 
 140 
 
CEDAR WAXWING 
 
 141 
 
 mer may grumble and scold when the cedar 
 waxwing eats his cherries, but he can stand 
 the loss of a few cherries, because he will have 
 more and better apples, for the cedar waxwing 
 eats up the little green canker-worms which 
 destroy the orchards. 
 
 When the cedar waxwings arrive in your 
 neighborhood there are no noisy chatterings, 
 but they come very quietly, for they are gentle 
 and refined in manners. That is why we call 
 them the “polite birds.” They are so courteous, 
 having the same nice manners at home as 
 abroad. Our bird-guide told us of a friend of 
 his, who saw five or six cedar waxwings sitting 
 in a row on a fence, when the end bird caught 
 a grub. He very courteously passed it to the 
 next bird, and he to the next, and so it went 
 right down the line, until it came to the last 
 bird, who quietly ate it. 
 
 You know I found it very difficult to be¬ 
 lieve that story until the other day, when I 
 read a similar story by Thornton W. Burgess, 
 who writes the nature stories, only in this 
 instance, it was a fine, red cherry. “Peter 
 Rabbit laughed right out when he saw it. 
 ‘Never in my life have I seen such politeness, 5 
 he said. 55 
 
 The cedar waxwing is not only polite, but 
 he is very kind and cares for the young birds 
 
142 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 very tenderly. The father-bird brings in 
 dainties to the mother and helps her feed her 
 little ones. Moreover, the cedar birds are 
 very good to orphans. I heard recently the 
 story of a lady who was watching a nest of 
 robins, when one day the father- and mother- 
 birds failed to appear. Apparently some one 
 had killed them, and she was much troubled 
 to know how she could get to the high nest 
 and feed the young robins who were calling for 
 their dinner, when she saw a cedar bird fly 
 up and feed them. She watched very care¬ 
 fully after that, and every day the cedar bird 
 fed the nestlings and took care of them until 
 they could fly. Many similar stories have 
 been told us of these kind birds. 
 
 So, children, I want you always to be kind 
 to the cedar bird—the polite bird—and pro¬ 
 tect him from all danger, not only because he 
 saves the elms by eating elm-beetles, but also 
 because he has set us the example of being 
 courteous and kind. 
 
XXXIII 
 
 THE BUSY BIRD—JENNY WREN 
 
 Good morning, Jenny Wren! Haven’t you 
 met her yet? She is the little brown bird who 
 is so excitable and yet afraid of nothing. The 
 color—soft-brown with bars of another shade 
 —so harmonizes with the ground that you 
 can scarcely see the wrens, but they have a 
 way of holding up their tails so that you will 
 always know them. 
 
 The wrens like to build their nests in snug 
 little holes in stumps and trees; but if you 
 will make a little house for them, they will 
 come and live in it. Take a little box and 
 nail it up under the eaves of the barn, chicken- 
 house, grape-arbor, or in the orchard. Make 
 a little opening, about an inch in diameter 
 for the wren to enter; not larger, for if you do, 
 the English sparrow will go in and take pos¬ 
 session. The wrens will furnish the box them¬ 
 selves. They will pay good rent for the house 
 too, because they will destroy a large number 
 of insects on your place—grasshoppers, bugs, 
 beetles, caterpillars, grubs, worms—nobody can 
 tell just how many. So, you see, it is to your 
 
 143 
 
144 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 interest to encourage the wrens to build near 
 your house, for they will kill all these insects 
 for you, and, in addition, sing their beautiful 
 
 songs. 
 
 Have you ever seen them build their nests? 
 They do not use mud, as the robin does, but 
 fine twigs; and the funny thing about it is 
 that they do not seem to know 7 when they 
 have enough twigs. They keep stuffing them 
 in the hole or box, until they can scarcely get 
 in themselves. How hard they work! You 
 never saw such busy birds in your life! Then, 
 too, they sing almost all the time. Sometimes 
 they sing so hard that they shake all over, so 
 in earnest are they. Yes, and if you come 
 near the nest, they will scold just as hard. 
 Whatever they do, they do with all their 
 might. 
 
 That is the lesson I want you to learn this 
 morning from Jenny Wren, the busy bird. 
 “Work while you work, and play while you 
 play.” The wise man who wrote the book of 
 Proverbs, warns us against the sluggard, the 
 slothful man, that is, the lazy man. When 
 you ask him to do anything, he says, “No, I 
 can’t, there’s a lion in the way.” Yes, it is 
 the lazy man’s lion, but you are not afraid 
 of him, are you? Of course not, for the lazy 
 man’s lion is just an excuse to get out of work. 
 
THE BUSY BIRD 
 
 145 
 
 So instead of being like the sluggard, who 
 says “There is a lion in the way,” you are 
 going to be like little Jenny Wren, the busy 
 bird, and practice your music and study your 
 lessons with all your might. You are going 
 to be busy about the right things, the good 
 things, as Jesus was. Then, when you grow 
 up, and look back upon your life, you will 
 say, “I am so glad I learned about Jenny Wren? 
 the busy bird.” 
 
XXXIV 
 
 THE BAD BIRD—BLACKY THE CROW 
 
 Everyone knows the American crow, even 
 though he knows but few other birds. His 
 large size, his black coat, and his call of “Caw! 
 caw! caw!” make him easily remembered. 
 Some people think he is the most knowing 
 bird in America. Certainly he is one of the 
 cleverest. More than once a crow has been 
 seen rising in the air with a clam in his claws, 
 dropping it on a rock to open the shell, and 
 then swooping down to feast on its contents. 
 Yet we think we can frighten away such birds 
 from the corn with a scarecrow! Why, some¬ 
 times they eat the corn all around the scare¬ 
 crow and nowhere else, just to show us what 
 they think of our stupidity! 
 
 Crows live in towns, or rookeries, as they 
 are called, except when they are nesting. 
 Sometimes thousands come together in a single 
 roost, which is usually a pine grove. 
 
 They are thoroughly organized, having their 
 leaders, which correspond to the generals and 
 captains in the army, and also their sentinels 
 who give warning of the approach of danger. 
 Perhaps, as you were going through the woods, 
 
 146 
 
THE BAD BIRD 
 
 147 
 
 you have seen two crows suddenly rise up 
 and begin to caw loudly. Then there would 
 be answering caws in the distance. The two 
 were sentinels giving warning of your approach. 
 
 The crows have regular hours too. Reg¬ 
 ularly at sundown they return to their camps 
 from miles around. Indeed, they have more 
 regular hours than many children—they go 
 to bed earlier and get lots of beauty sleep. 
 
 But how mischievous they are! As a boy, 
 I had a tame magpie, which was a great thief, 
 stealing especially thimbles and other small 
 articles. I have often wondered why mag¬ 
 pies were such thieves, but since I have learned 
 they are first cousins to the crow I am not 
 surprised. 
 
 There is no end to the stories told about 
 tame crows. One that I read of liked to get 
 out into the yard when the clothes were hung 
 out on the line and pull out every clothespin^ 
 carrying each one to the roof and laying it 
 safely away. Of course that would let the 
 wet garment fall in the dirt. He was well 
 scolded for his mischief, and then he would 
 fly to the roof and throw every one down to 
 the ground again. 
 
 The crow is not all bad, though he steals the 
 farmer's corn so that the farmer gets very 
 angry and shoots him; he stuffs himself and 
 
148 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 his family with thousands of grubs, insects, 
 grasshoppers. May beetles, mice, and other 
 small creatures which do the crops lots of 
 damage. Indeed, some claim that he does far 
 more good than harm, and cases have been 
 known where he has saved the country from 
 a plague of grubs or insects. 
 
 But you see, children, when you get the 
 reputation of being bad, it is very difficult 
 to get rid of it. At least that is what Blacky, 
 the crow, finds. And I am sorry to say that 
 in spite of the good he does, that in spite of 
 his kindness to his own little fledglings, he is 
 a bad, bad bird. Sometimes I think his heart 
 is as black as his feathers, because he not 
 only eats the farmers’ chickens, very young 
 turkeys, and eggs, but—what is even worse 
 —the eggs and babies of the song birds which 
 we love. Yes, Mr. Crow is a bad, bad bird. 
 
 As we come to the close of our study of 
 the birds, I hope you have been so interested 
 that you will now study them for yourselves. 
 Do not forget the lessons you have learned 
 from the sparrow, the robin, the polite bird, 
 the busy bird, and the bad bird. Above all, 
 do not forget what Jesus taught us, that just 
 as God cares for the birds, so that not even 
 a sparrow falls to the ground without his 
 knowing it, so will he care for us, his children. 
 
FLOWERS 
 
 Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of the crannies. 
 
 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand. 
 Little flower—but if I could understand 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 
 I should know what God and man is. 
 
 — Tennyson . 1 
 
 1 Reprinted by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Tennyson’s 
 Poetical Works. 
 

 
XXXV 
 
 THE PANSY 
 
 Everybody loves flowers. All over the 
 world, in India, Persia, China, and Japan, 
 and the various countries of Europe as well 
 as in America, you will find the children so 
 happy when they can go out into the garden 
 or into the woods to gather flowers. 
 
 What a desolate world this would be with¬ 
 out flowers! Why, the flowers are the stars 
 of the earth, just as the stars are the flowers 
 of heaven. I think that the poet Longfellow 
 must have had this in mind, when he said: 
 
 “In the infinite meadows of heaven 
 Blossom the lovely stars. 
 
 The forget-me-nots of the angels.’’ 
 
 An old legend tells us that at one time 
 flowers could speak, but, because of some 
 trouble, they became dumb. I think the evil 
 spirit’s spell must be broken now. The flow¬ 
 ers are speaking to us all the time. On the 
 next few Sundays I am going to tell you some 
 things they say. 
 
 I start with the pansy—one of my favorite 
 
 151 
 
152 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 flowers. To me it is one of the most beautiful 
 flowers. What a lovely face it has, so frank, 
 so full of welcome and good cheer, that one 
 feels like sitting down beside a bed of pansies 
 just to listen to what they have to say! What 
 do they say? 
 
 First, pansies are for thoughts. What kind 
 of thoughts? Why, good thoughts, kind 
 thoughts, of course. So the first thing the 
 pansy says to you, is “Be careful of your 
 thoughts. ” By and by your thoughts will 
 reveal themselves in your face. People will 
 be able to tell what kind of thoughts you have 
 and what kind of boys and girls you are. The 
 Scripture says that “as a man thinketh in his 
 heart, so is he.You see, your thoughts work 
 themselves out in deeds, for “sow a thought, 
 reap a word, sow a word, reap a deed.” There¬ 
 fore, 
 
 “Be careful how you work 
 
 Your pansy bed of thoughts; 
 
 For as the soul begins to think, 
 
 So will its deeds be wrought.” 
 
 Secondly, the pansy says, “Be friendly.” 
 Some flowers, like the Easter lily, are so 
 stately and dignified that you do not dare to 
 touch them. You look at them in admiration 
 from a distance. But the pansies are so dif- 
 
THE PANSY 
 
 153 
 
 ferent. They are the most friendly of all the 
 flowers God has given us. The poor, as well 
 as the rich, can grow them. They are to-day 
 in hundreds of poor homes. In all parts of 
 New York city you will find window boxes 
 full of pansies; they come early in the spring 
 and continue to bloom until the fail; we like 
 to have them in our rooms when we are ill. 
 Some one has said: “They are the angel eyes 
 of a million sick rooms.” Yes, the pansies 
 are friendly. 
 
 To help you remember these two messages 
 of the pansies I want to tell you a little story 
 I once read. A charming little flower, growing 
 in a glen, was so modest that she slipped into 
 the shadow of a tall leaf before opening her 
 blossoms. The little gold and purple beauty 
 shed her delicate perfume and kept on bloom¬ 
 ing in this hidden nook, and no one saw her, 
 until one day an angel from heaven was fly¬ 
 ing by. This angel had been sent to the earth 
 on a special errand, and as her long, white 
 wings, by chance, brushed aside the tall leaf, 
 the angel saw the blossoms of purple and gold 
 and inhaled the exquisite, delicate perfume. 
 
 “What a lovely flower!” cried the angel. 
 “You are too lovely to grow unseen in the 
 shadows. You are worthy to bloom in the 
 garden of heaven. But wait, even better than 
 
154 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 that! You shall be the angels’ blossoms in the 
 land of man. Go, sweet pansy, bloom in every 
 land. Carry to all people sweet thoughts of 
 love and peace.” 
 
 The angel stooped to kiss the little flower; 
 and, wonderful to relate, from the little blos¬ 
 som, a tiny angel face looked out. Haven’t 
 you seen it there? The next time you see a 
 pansy bed remember to look for the angel 
 faces and think of the gentle angel whose kiss 
 was kindness and love. 
 
XXXVI 
 
 THE CARNATION 
 (Mother’s Day) 
 
 Long years ago, in southern Europe, there 
 grew wild a little flower in the crags over¬ 
 looking the sea. Very few people ever saw it, 
 except possibly some boys and girls occasion¬ 
 ally as they gathered wild flowers, just as we 
 gather wild flowers to-day. 
 
 But one day a bird plucked its seed and 
 flew away to England and deposited it in the 
 rich soil there. It began to grow, and one 
 who loved flowers and understood them dis¬ 
 covered it and saw in it wonderful possibilities 
 of development. So he I took it home and 
 began to cultivate it. Others did the same, 
 and now there are three hundred varieties of 
 this wild pink—for that was the name of this 
 little flower. 
 
 Its name, to-day, is “Carnation,” and there 
 are few flowers more beautiful or more last¬ 
 ing. To some it is the most beautiful flower 
 that grows. The late President McKinley was 
 very fond of the carnation; indeed, it was 
 
 155 
 
156 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 his favorite flower, and he seldom was seen 
 without one in the lapel of his coat. Very 
 often, when he saw a boy or girl looking at 
 the carnation with longing eyes, he would give 
 the flower with a smile. At one time a mother 
 took her boy to see the sights of the White 
 House. Of course he was very anxious to 
 see the President, as every boy is. When the 
 mother spoke to the guard, he replied, “Mr. 
 McKinley is very fond of children and I am 
 sure he would be glad to shake hands with 
 your boy.” So the mother and her son were 
 presented to the President. The President 
 spoke very kindly to the boy and then gave 
 him the carnation from his lapel, expressing 
 the hope as he did so, that he might grow up 
 to be a great honor to his parents. 
 
 This is the flower that has been chosen for 
 Mother’s Day, and thousands of people all 
 over the country will wear either a pink 
 carnation in honor of the mother who is still 
 alive, or a white carnation in honor of a mother 
 who has gone to heaven. 
 
 But what does the carnation say to us? 
 For what does it stand in the language of 
 the flowers? 
 
 First, it represents courtesy. The great 
 poet Shakespeare describes it as “The very 
 pink of courtesy,” using the old-fashioned 
 
THE CARNATION 
 
 157 
 
 name. So, as we wear the carnation on 
 Mother’s Day, it says to us, “Be courteous— 
 be courteous at home as well as at school or 
 in society.” So many boys and girls, you 
 know—yes, and some grown-ups as well—think 
 they can say and do anything at home. They 
 never say “Please” or “Thank you,” and they 
 even forget to stand up when mother enters 
 the room. So, to-day, the carnation, which 
 we are wearing in honor of mother, says to us, 
 “Be courteous at home among those whom 
 you love.” 
 
 But the carnation also says to us, “Show 
 your love for your mother, not only once a 
 year by wearing me, but by being obedient, 
 kind, and thoughtful the whole year through.” 
 
 A little girl was trudging along with a pail 
 of -water. “So many times had she passed 
 our gate that morning,” says the lady who 
 was telling the story, “that curiosity prompted 
 us to say, ‘You are a very busy little girl to¬ 
 day.’ ‘Yes’m.’ The round face under the 
 broad hat turned toward me. It was freckled 
 and perspiring, but cheerful. ‘Yes’m, it takes 
 a heap of water to do a washing.’ 
 
 “ ‘And do you bring it all from the brook 
 down there?’ 
 
 “ ‘Oh, we have a cistern mostly, only it’s 
 been dry lately.’ 
 
158 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “ ‘And is there nobody else to carry the 
 water?’ 
 
 “ ‘Nobody but mother, and she’s washing.’ 
 
 “ ‘Well^you are a good girl to help her.’ 
 
 “I intended to compliment her when I said 
 that, but she turned to me with a look of sur¬ 
 prise in her gray eyes, and an almost indignant 
 tone in her voice, as she answered: ‘Why, of 
 course, I help her to do things all the time. 
 She hasn’t anybody else. Mother’n I are 
 partners!’ ” 
 
 If you and mother are partners, boys and 
 girls, every day will be Mother’s Day. 
 
XXXVII 
 
 THE LILY 
 
 God loves beauty, and, if what Abraham 
 Lincoln says is true, that 4 "God must love 
 the common people because he made so many 
 of them,'’ we know he must love the flowers 
 because there are so many of them. Some 
 one has said that ""God smiled on the earth, 
 and the earth smiled back in flowers.” One 
 of these flowers was the lily. 
 
 The lily family is so large that it is difficult 
 to state just where it begins and where it ends. 
 It has various colors—white, orange, buff, red, 
 and crimson. It is also very old. If you go 
 back to ancient times—very ancient times— 
 you will find the lily carved on the pillars of 
 the temples. In Eastern countries they still 
 use the dried lily for food. I am told that if 
 you boil or roast it, it loses its bitter taste 
 and becomes sweet. 
 
 I want to speak this morning of the white 
 lily. We think of three different kinds—a 
 large lily like the Easter or calla lily, the lily 
 of the valley, and the water lily. 
 
 The calla lily comes originally from South 
 
 159 
 
160 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 « 
 
 America and is a very common cultivation. 
 The Easter lily, which we use so much at 
 Easter time, comes from Bermuda, and is 
 familiar to you all. The lily of the valley is 
 not the lily mentioned in the Bible, but it is 
 a beautiful little flower which grows in our 
 gardens. The water lily, as you know, grows 
 on ponds and lakes. We may fittingly call it 
 “the queen of the water” as it floats majes¬ 
 tically on the surface of the water in a field 
 of waxy green leaves. At night the water 
 lily folds her petals and sinks out of sight to 
 rise again in the morning. A pretty Indian 
 legend recalls the origin of the flower in a 
 falling star, which, when striking the water, 
 was changed into the water lily. 
 
 There are two qualities in these three differ¬ 
 ent kinds of lilies which I have mentioned 
 that I think of whenever I look at them— 
 their purity and their sweetness. 
 
 First, their purity. White stands for purity, 
 you know. “Keep thyself pure” the lily is 
 always saying to us, and I hope that we will 
 listen to its voice. Some time you will hear 
 it said of a certain person, “His was the whitest 
 soul ever known; he was the flower of a blame¬ 
 less life.” Do you know that men can never 
 say anything about you more beautiful than 
 that? So the lily is God’s messenger in white, 
 
THE LILY 
 
 161 
 
 come to sing to us from morning until night 
 her song of purity. 
 
 Then, of all flowers the lily, especially the 
 water lily, is one of the most fragrant. As 
 white suggests purity, so fragrance suggests 
 kindness Paul, the apostle, has said that 
 4 'kindness to each other is an odor of a sweet 
 smell pleasing to God.” Yes, fragrance or 
 kindness is surely a worthy object in life. That 
 is what we ought to try to do, to diffuse frag¬ 
 rance by what we say and what we do. 
 
 This little story will explain what I mean. 
 A Quaker lady and a little girl were sitting 
 together in a car when the little girl said to 
 the old lady, who was an entire stranger to 
 her, "Do let me kiss you.” 
 
 "Yes, my dear, certainly,” was the reply. 
 
 Then they began to talk to each other, and 
 a very firm friendship began. One day, after¬ 
 ward, the girl said, "Were you surprised that 
 day, when I asked you to let me kiss you?” 
 
 "Oh, no, dear,” she replied, "they often 
 ask me that.” 
 
 You see, children, the purity and sweetness 
 of her life shone from her face and made her 
 so winsome that people could not help wish¬ 
 ing to kiss her. Some people are just the 
 opposite—they repel you instead of attracting 
 you. 
 
162 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 So I want you to remember, whenever you 
 see the lily, that you also are put here to 
 become beautiful in every part of your life. 
 Ask the Lord Jesus to help you make your life 
 a garden where grow the flowers of God— 
 purity, sweetness, love, joy, and peace. 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 THE POPPY 
 (Memorial Sunday) 
 
 Yesterday wherever you went, you saw 
 poppies for sale, and to-day, Memorial Sun¬ 
 day, and next Tuesday, Memorial Day, hun¬ 
 dreds and thousands of people will wear the 
 poppy in honor of our soldier boys. 
 
 Do you know why the poppy has been 
 chosen as the Memorial-Day flower? Because 
 it grew so plentifully in Flanders and in France, 
 where so many of the battles of the World 
 War were fought. So our boys learned to 
 love it. 
 
 The poppy family is not quite so large as 
 the lily family, but still there are several 
 members of it. There are the double poppies 
 which grow in our gardens, and the single 
 poppies which grow wild in the fields where 
 they seem to be so much at hojne. The petals, 
 you notice, are just like little skirts, especially 
 when they blow in the wind. All the poppies, 
 however, do not wear scarlet skirts, for some 
 are white, some are purplish blue, and some 
 are bright yellow. In far-off India they grow 
 great fields of poppies in order to use the juice 
 
 163 
 
164 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 for making a kind of medicine. So, you see, 
 the poppies are useful as well as ornamental. 
 
 Whenever you see poppies growing, whether 
 in the gardens, or in the fields, they are always 
 playing with the breezes. Somehow they 
 seem so happy and cheerful. Red, you know% 
 is a cheerful color, whether it be decorating a 
 room or in mother’s hat. I think that one 
 reason why our soldiers like the poppy is 
 because it has such a cheerful appearance. 
 
 One of the chaplains wrote home during the 
 war, describing how one evening he was riding 
 back from the front line into the country and 
 he marveled at the beauty of the landscape. 
 His way lay through countless acres of corn- 
 land. By and by he came to the second line 
 of defense. Millions of feet of barbed wire 
 had been twisted into an impassable network 
 of spikes. If the front line gave way, then the 
 soldiers could retire behind the barbed wire 
 and the enemy pursuing them would be caught 
 on the spikes. But, he said, this evening, to 
 his great surprise, the barbed wire was a mass 
 of green and scarlet, where the grass had 
 grown unchecked and innumerable poppies 
 lifted up their heads to cover with beauty the 
 ugly and threatening spikes. In the little 
 cemetery, near at hand, poppies were flutter¬ 
 ing their crimson wings over every grave. And 
 
THE POPPY 
 
 165 
 
 it all had such a happy, cheerful appearance 
 that no one would have dreamed that a terri¬ 
 ble war was going on just a short distance 
 away. 
 
 The poppy, then, stands for cheerfulness, 
 and I think it is a most appropriate Memorial- 
 Day flower for this reason, because all who 
 saw the soldier boys and associated with them 
 spoke of their cheerfulness under difficulties 
 and hardships. In the rain, the cold and the 
 mud, they joked, whistled, and sang. Of 
 course sometimes they were sad and dis¬ 
 couraged, but they would encourage each 
 other by singing, 
 
 “Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, 
 And smile, smile, smile!” 
 
 So the poppy says, 4 ‘Be cheerful even though 
 you do not feel like it.” 
 
 Then, too, the scarlet poppy is a most 
 appropriate flower for Memorial Day because 
 of its color. Just as in our flag, so here the 
 red stands for blood and sacrifice. And when 
 you wear this poppy on Memorial Day I want 
 you to remember the boys who suffered and 
 died in France for our country and for us, 
 and ask God to help you grow up to be worthy 
 citizens of this country for which they gave 
 their lives. 
 
XXXIX 
 
 THE EORGET-ME-NOT 
 (Communion) 
 
 The forget-me-not is a sweet, bonnie flower. 
 Like the pansy, it is a garden flower and blos¬ 
 soms all through the summer. But, unlike the 
 pansy, it also grows wild in low, marshy soil 
 on the banks of streams. It is different from 
 the pansy in that its leaves grow right on the 
 stems of the flowers, which seem to look up 
 at one so trustingly with their blue eyes. 
 
 Did you notice the shape of the leaves? 
 The ancient Greeks called this flower “mouse’s 
 ear,” because they said the leaf looked like 
 a mouse’s ear. But we like our own name 
 best—“forget-me-not. ’ ’ 
 
 We have been listening the last few Sun¬ 
 days to what the various flowers tell us and 
 trying to understand their language. Now, in 
 their language, the forget-me-not stands for 
 true love and constancy, just as the white lily 
 stood for purity. 
 
 Listen to this story which comes to us from 
 far-off Persia: 
 
 “One morning, when the world was very 
 
 166 
 
THE FORGET-ME-NOT 
 
 167 
 
 young, an angel sat outside the gates of par¬ 
 adise weeping. 
 
 " ‘Why do you weep?’ asked another angel 
 who passed that way. 'The world is so beau¬ 
 tiful and paradise near/ 
 
 " 'But I cannot enter paradise for a long 
 time/ said the weeping angel. 
 
 " 'Why not?* asked the other. 'It is only 
 a few steps to the gate/ 
 
 "Then the angel who wept pointed to the 
 earth where a maiden was stooping over the 
 grasses by the side of a stream. 
 
 " 'Do you see those tiny blue flowers she is 
 planting? How like her they are! So dainty 
 and each with blue eyes and a heart of gold! 
 Now, I love that maiden, but, because she is 
 an earth-maiden, they would not allow us to 
 enter paradise together, and I cannot, will 
 not go in without her. So they gave her a 
 task to perform and when she has completed 
 it, she may enter in with me. And that task 
 is, that she must plant a little blue flower in 
 every corner of the earth. That is why I 
 sit and weep/ 
 
 " 'But I know of a better plan than that/ 
 said the other angel, and he whispered it in 
 his ear. 
 
 "Then the angel who wept flew down to the 
 earth where the maiden was planting these 
 
168 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 dainty flowers. He went down to help her, 
 and hand in hand they wandered over the 
 earth until they had planted the little blue 
 flow r ers everywhere. Then, when the task was 
 finished, with the wreaths of forget-me-nots 
 all about them, the angel took the gentle 
 earth-maiden and flew with her to the gates 
 of paradise which swung wide open to them.” 
 
 But how did the forget-me-not receive its 
 present name? That is a very interesting 
 story. It is told in a little poem. 
 
 “When to the flowers so beautiful, 
 
 The Father gave a name, 
 
 Back came a little blue-eyed one 
 All timidly it came; 
 
 “And, standing at its Father’s feet. 
 
 And gazing in his face, 
 
 It said, in low and trembling tones. 
 
 And with a modest grace, 
 
 “ ‘Dear God, the name thou gavest me, 
 
 Alas, I have forgot.’ 
 
 Kindly the Father looked on him 
 And said, ‘Forget me not.’ ” 
 
 That is what God is saying to us every 
 day, not only through this beautiful little 
 blue flower, but through all the other flowers 
 as well. Then, too, there are many reminders 
 
THE FORGET-ME-NOT 
 
 1G9 
 
 of God’s love and care all about us which are 
 saying the same thing. The beautiful sky 
 with the wonderful clouds which God hath 
 made, says, “Forget me not.” The stars, which 
 Longfellow called the “forget-me-nots of the 
 angels,” are saying, “Forget me not.” The food 
 which God hath given our parents strength to 
 provide for us, is saying, “Forget me not.” 
 How many of you heard the church bell this 
 morning? Do you know wdiat it said? It 
 said, “Come to church and worship me; forget 
 me not.” And the sacrament of the Lord’s 
 Supper, wdiich w 7 e observe this morning, says, 
 “Forget me not.” The bread stands for the 
 body of Jesus, and the wine for his blood. 
 They are to remind us of his death on the 
 cross. Every time we partake of this sacra¬ 
 ment it says: “Forget me not—forget not 
 that I loved you so much that I died for you. 
 I want you to love and serve me in return.” 
 
 That is what God is saying to us to-day 
 through this little blue flower. 
 
XL 
 
 THE DAISY AND ITS BIG BROTHER 
 
 (Children’s Day) 
 
 What is this simple round flower with its 
 white collar and golden heart? Why, the 
 daisy, of course! Everyone knows the daisy, 
 for from May till November the fields, meadows, 
 and roadsides are just covered with daisies. 
 
 The daisy is, above all others, the children’s 
 flower. Every girl and many of the boys have, 
 I am sure, made daisy chains at some time 
 or another. Not only do children make daisy 
 chains, for during the annual graduation exer¬ 
 cises of Vassar College the young women carry 
 the famous daisy chain—a rope made from 
 many thousands of daisies. It is one of the 
 most beautiful parts of their graduation exer¬ 
 cises. On Memorial Day the school children 
 make wreaths of daisies to decorate the sol¬ 
 diers’ graves, and, of course, no Children’s 
 Day is complete without them. 
 
 Then you can play games with the daisies. 
 Did you ever see the girls pluck away the 
 petals, one by one, to determine what kind of 
 a husband they will have? 
 
 170 
 
THE DAISY 
 
 171 
 
 “Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief. 
 Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief.” 
 
 Yes, the daisy belongs to the children, who 
 love it. 
 
 Do you know the daisy has a big brother? 
 He looks like him too, only he is fifty times 
 bigger. Sometimes he grows to be seven feet 
 tall. His yellow collar is made up of many 
 petals arranged just like the daisy’s white 
 collar, and his heart is also round just like 
 the daisy’s, and both of them reach up toward 
 the sunshine. Who knows the name of the 
 daisy’s big brother? That’s right! The sun¬ 
 flower! It is called the “sunflower” because it 
 always looks toward the sun, no matter in 
 what part of the heavens the sun may be. 
 
 But what do the daisy and his big brother 
 have to say? We have listened to the other 
 flowers, and surely they too have a message 
 for us on this Children’s Day. Yes, they tell 
 us we must be happy and contented, and try 
 to make the world beautiful wherever we are, 
 just as they do. They grow not only in the 
 field and in the meadow but on the roadside 
 where the ground is very hard and stony, and 
 away up on the side of the mountain where 
 no other flowers will grow. We do not notice 
 the rocks, however, when the daisies are there 
 
172 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 with their sweet smiles, but we say to each 
 other: “How lovely these daisies are! I am 
 awfully glad I saw them ." 5 Now you children 
 can be like that. 
 
 “If I a little girl could be. 
 
 Well—just like you. 
 
 With lips so rosy, cheeks as fair. 
 
 Such eyes of blue, and shining hair. 
 
 What do you think I’d do? 
 
 “I’d wear so bright and sweet a smile, 
 
 I’d be so loving all the while, 
 
 I’d be so helpful with my hand, 
 
 So quick and gentle to command, 
 
 You soon would see, 
 
 That everyone would turn to say, 
 
 ‘ ’Tis good to meet that child to-day.’ 
 
 Yes, yes, my dear; that’s what I’d do, 
 
 If I were you .’’ 1 
 
 But, bright-eyed daisy, won’t you tell us, 
 please, how we can always be happy and con¬ 
 tented like you? 
 
 “Yes,” replies the daisy. “Do like my big 
 brother and I, and always keep your hearts 
 open toward the sunshine.” 
 
 How can we do that? By coming to church 
 and Sunday school to learn about Jesus, for 
 he is our sunshine. He is the “Light of the 
 
 1 Independent. Used by permission. 
 
THE DAISY 
 
 173 
 
 world,” and when he comes into our hearts 
 with his love he makes us so happy that we 
 want others to know about him and be 
 happy too. 
 
 That is why on Children’s Day we give our 
 money to build Sunday schools so that other 
 boys and girls who never before had the oppor¬ 
 tunity—and there are many of them in our 
 country—may learn about Jesus too and have 
 sunshine in their hearts. 
 
XLI 
 
 THE ROSE 
 
 The rose is one of the best known of all 
 flowers. Men have sung its praises in many 
 languages, from long, long ago until now— 
 Egyptians, Greeks, Romans of olden times, 
 and Turks, Frenchmen, Italians, Britishers, and 
 Americans of modern times. One legend says 
 it actually came down from heaven, it is so 
 b^utiful. 
 
 The rose is also famous for its f ragra nce. 
 One of the most costly perfumes in the world 
 is attar of roses, made from rose petals—and, 
 by the way, it takes ten tons, twenty thousand 
 pounds, of rose petals to make one pound of 
 this precious oil. What a wonderful flower 
 the rose is, and how we love it! So this morn¬ 
 ing, I want to talk to you about it. 
 
 First, see this bud. It looks so small and 
 insignificant, does it not? It scarcely seems 
 possible that out of this tiny bud will come 
 the beautiful rose. Yet it is true. So in every 
 child there is promise of a noble and good life. 
 Any one of you boys may grow up to be a 
 second George Washington, or an Abraham 
 
 174 
 
THE ROSE 
 
 175 
 
 Lincoln, or a Theodore Roosevelt, and any 
 one of you girls a second Martha Washington 
 or a Florence Nightingale. 
 
 Rut what are these thorns which prick one 
 so? Of what use are they? Well, scientists 
 tell us that they help to sustain the shrub in 
 the midst of other plants and shrubs, also 
 that they act as a sort of protection against 
 thieves. If we are in any danger of getting 
 our hands all full of thorns, we are not so apt 
 to pick them. It means some trouble and 
 often much discomfort for us if we would pick 
 this beautiful dower. 
 
 4 ‘There is no rose without a thorn,” so an 
 old saying runs. Certainly that is true of 
 life, boys and girls. You will find as you grow 
 older that everything really worth having in 
 this world is gotten by some pain. The lessons 
 are sometimes hard, and it seems as if that 
 problem in arithmetic would never be solved, 
 and you throw down your book in disgust. 
 But never give in. “If at first you don’t suc¬ 
 ceed, try, try again.” Remember that there 
 is no rose without a thorn, no success without 
 perseverance. 
 
 Perhaps you have noticed that at certain 
 times the gardener goes out with his shears or 
 his knife and pjpunes the rose tree. Why? 
 Won’t that kill it? Not if done properly, for 
 
176 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 the strange fact is, that it will grow all the 
 better. The weaker a rose tree is, the more 
 they prune it, to make it grow stronger. 
 
 Sometimes, boys and girls, you wonder why 
 father and mother find it necessary to discipline 
 you. You don’t like to be punished. You 
 don’t like to do the hard things. You don’t 
 like to be kept indoors while the other chil¬ 
 dren are playing. But some day you will 
 understand that all of this was necessary, and 
 that your fathers and mothers loved you even 
 when they punished you. And you will grow 
 up better men because your parents, or your 
 teachers, disciplined you, just as the rose tree 
 grows better when the gardener prunes it. 
 
 If you have ever kept rose trees, you will 
 know that there are certain enemies you have 
 to fight against all the time if you would have 
 the rose tree grow. Perhaps one of the most 
 common and dangerous is a little green fly 
 (Aphis Rosce). It robs the plant of its sap, 
 and does a vast amount of injury. 
 
 One reason why this fly is so dangerous is 
 because it multiplies so fast. One scientist 
 has shown that there may be as many as six 
 millions in five generations from one female 
 fly. Then again this fly is dangerous because 
 it takes on the color of the tree to avoid de¬ 
 tection. For example, if the tree is green, then 
 
THE ROSE 
 
 177 
 
 the fly becomes green. So it may do a great 
 deal of mischief before it is discovered. 
 
 We all have lots of little enemies to fight 
 against. We call them “little sins.” They 
 may not seem to be very much—just one act 
 of disobedience, just one wrong word, taking 
 only one penny that does not belong to us, 
 one dishonest thought—but unless they are 
 overcome, they will grow and increase just 
 like the enemies of the rose tree, and before 
 we know it we are in their power. Re ware of 
 the first little sin! 
 
 So, if you prune the rose tree when it is 
 necessary, drive away its enemies, and last 
 but not least, see that it gets lots of sunshine, 
 then it will grow and blossom, and bring joy 
 and gladness into man}^ lives. Shall we try to 
 make our lives beautiful and helpful, and like 
 the rose be God’s messengers to the world? 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
PART THREE 
 
SPECIAL DAYS 
 
 “What hath this day deserved, what hath it done, 
 That it in golden letters should be set 
 Among the high tides in the calendar ?” 
 
 — Shakespeare . 
 
XLII 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE 
 CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN 
 
 (Washington’s Birthday) 
 
 A little boy, when being held up to see 
 President Washington, exclaimed, 4 ‘Why, he is 
 only a man!” Washington, hearing this, 
 smiled at the child, “Yes, dear, that is all.” 
 
 In years gone by, historians, in their endeavor 
 to show respect and admiration for George 
 Washington and what he did, represented him 
 as more than a man. Yet he was a man, just 
 as Abraham Lincoln, and, while he did not 
 tell funny stories as did Lincoln, those who 
 knew him best loved him. He was not only 
 “first in war, first in peace,” but also, “first 
 in the hearts of his countrymen.” This morn¬ 
 ing I want to speak to you about him as a 
 man and as a Christian gentleman. 
 
 A gentleman is always clean and neat in 
 personal appearance. He is courteous, and 
 above all, he is kind and thoughtful of others. 
 George Washington met all of these require¬ 
 ments. When he was a boy he studied with 
 
 183 
 
184 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 the Reverend Mr. Marye, a former Huguenot 
 minister, who took a few pupils in Latin, 
 French, and deportment. He taught them one 
 hundred and eighteen rules of deportment. 
 Just think, boys and girls, of having to learn 
 one hundred and eighteen rules of behavior. 
 Here are some of them: 
 
 “Keep your nails and teeth clean, without 
 showing any great concern for them.” 
 
 “Only undertake what you can perform, 
 and be careful to keep your promise.” 
 
 “Speak not evil of the absent one, for it is 
 unjust.” 
 
 “Labor to keep alive in your breast that 
 little spark of celestial fire, called ‘conscience.’ ” 
 We could all learn rules like that, and be 
 better for them. It was such a training as 
 this, received from his rector and from his 
 parents, that made George Washington the 
 perfect gentleman he was. 
 
 Then, too, George Washington was kind and 
 thoughtful of others, as a true gentleman 
 always is. Some time ago I read a story about 
 him which illustrates this point. One day, 
 walking in the streets of Philadelphia with 
 a friend, he met a Negro, who bore upon his 
 shoulder a heavy burden. Washington stepped 
 off the pavement into the muddy street until 
 the Negro had gone by. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 185 
 
 4 4 Why did you allow that darkey to crowd 
 you off the pavement?” said his friend. 
 
 4 ‘Crowd me off the pavement?” said Wash¬ 
 ington. 44 Look at his bent shoulders, look at 
 the perspiration streaming down his brow, 
 think of the hard lines of that man’s life! Ah, 
 my friend, always respect the burdened.” 
 
 A gentleman always respects the burdened. 
 He is thoughtful and kind to little children, 
 to ladies, to old folk, and to all who are in 
 need. 
 
 Last of all, Washington was a Christian 
 gentleman; he trusted in God and made no 
 secret of it. Not only did he attend church 
 regularly, but many times during that winter 
 when his army was at Valley Forge he would 
 steal away alone into the woods, and he always 
 came back with a cheerful countenance. His 
 friends wondered at this. One day a Quaker 
 whose name was Mr. Potts is said to have come 
 upon him, accidentally, in the woods, kneel¬ 
 ing and praying. God heard Washington’s 
 prayers for his country, for his soldiers, and 
 for himself, for he gave them strength to 
 endure during the terrible winter at Valley 
 Forge, and later brought victory to their army. 
 
XLIII 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 (Lincoln’s Birthday) 
 
 Yesterday was Lincoln’s Birthday, so this 
 morning I want to talk to you about him. 
 
 There are two great things which Abraham 
 Lincoln did that the world will never forget. 
 Do any of you know what they are? Yes, 
 he freed the slaves and he saved the Union. 
 For this he will go down into history as a 
 great man. 
 
 But Lincoln was a good man as well as 
 great, and this is the reason we love and ad¬ 
 mire him so much. The more you read and 
 study his life and his sayings, the more you 
 will appreciate him. There are many traits 
 in his character which made him what he was, 
 but this morning I can speak only of two— 
 his honesty and his kindness. 
 
 First, honesty. Do any of you boys and 
 girls know what the people called Abraham 
 Lincoln? Yes, that is right, 4 'Honest Abe.” 
 Having discovered on one occasion that he had 
 taken six cents too much from a customer, 
 he walked three miles that evening, after his 
 
 186 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 187 
 
 store was closed, tired as he was, to return the 
 money. 
 
 At another time Lincoln was postmaster in 
 a very small office in Illinois. After a while 
 the office was discontinued and there was 
 owing to the government seventeen dollars and 
 a few cents. Three or four years later, when 
 Lincoln had become a lawyer at Springfield, 
 an agent of the Post-office Department entered 
 his office, and called on Lincoln for the monev 
 —apparently the government had forgotten all 
 about it. In the meantime, Abraham Lincoln 
 had been fighting bravely against poverty. 
 His friends knew this, and one of them, who 
 was present when the officer came, called 
 Lincoln from the room and offered to lend 
 him whatever money he needed. Lincoln 
 smiled, but went to his room and pulled out 
 a little old trunk which he opened. In this 
 trunk was a little package of coins which had 
 been paid by the people who had bought the 
 stamps. When the agent left the room, Lincoln 
 remarked quietly that he never used any 
 man’s money but his own. Yes, the people 
 knew that Abraham Lincoln could be trusted, 
 and even his political enemies never doubted 
 his honesty. 
 
 Secondly, kindness of heart. Abraham 
 Lincoln was kind to birds and animals, to 
 
188 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 little children and old people, to widows and 
 orphans, to soldiers, and even to his bitterest 
 enemies. Many are the stories which can be 
 told illustrating his kindness. I have selected 
 one that is not quite as well known as the 
 others. 
 
 One day, when Lincoln was a poor young 
 lawyer in Springfield, he was going to his 
 office, when he saw a little girl crying at the 
 door of her home. He stopped to inquire what 
 was the matter and the little girl sobbed out 
 her story. She was going to visit a little friend 
 in another town. She had planned for it and 
 dreamed of it for weeks and the expressman 
 had forgotten to come for her trunk. “Oh 
 ho!” he cried, “wipe your eyes and come on 
 quick!” and before the little girl knew what 
 he was going to do, he had put the trunk on 
 his shoulder and was off down the street. She 
 trotted behind him, drying her tears as she 
 went. They reached the station in time. Mr. 
 Lincoln put the little girl on the train and 
 told her to have a good time. “It was just 
 like him,” she said in later years, as she told 
 the story. Yes, it was just like him, he was 
 never too busy to be kind. 
 
 Once when a friend remonstrated with him 
 for doing so much, he replied: “I want it to 
 be said of me when I am gone, I always plucked 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 183 
 
 a thistle and planted a flower wherever a 
 flower would grow.” Let us take that for 
 our motto. Perhaps we too will grow up to 
 be like Abraham Lincoln. 
 
XLIV 
 
 THE MEANING OF LENT 
 
 This is the first Sunday in Lent, and as 
 you will be hearing so much about Lent, I 
 thought you would like to know what it means. 
 
 The word “Lent” formerly had a different 
 meaning from what it has now. It came from 
 an old Saxon word “Lengten,” meaning 
 “spring.” In those days they called spring 
 “Lengten” because the days began to grow 
 longer at that time. By degrees “Lengten” 
 was shortened until it became “Lent.” 
 
 Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, as it is 
 called, and lasts forty days, not counting Sun¬ 
 days. Years and years ago, very early in the 
 history of the church, the Christians thought 
 they would like to commemorate the forty 
 days when Jesus fasted in the wilderness and 
 was tempted by Satan, so they began to ob¬ 
 serve Lent for that purpose, and also as a 
 preparation for Easter. So now, all over the 
 world, Christians observe Lent. 
 
 First, Lent is supposed to be a time of self- 
 denial and sacrifice. Jesus gave up all food for 
 
 190 
 
THE MEANING OF LENT 
 
 191 
 
 forty days, so now a great many people give 
 up meat, sweets, and certain pleasures during 
 Lent in remembrance of Jesus’ self-denial. I 
 think that it is a good thing to deny ourselves, 
 but the trouble with so many people is that 
 they think that if they sacrifice during Lent, 
 they can indulge themselves all the rest of 
 the year. 
 
 What does sacrifice mean? It means giving 
 up something you really like. One morning 
 after church a man said to his wife, “The 
 preacher said in his sermon that ‘religion is 
 worth just what it costs,’ and I have deter¬ 
 mined to give up something for religion by 
 denying myself.” 
 
 “What will you give up?” she asked. 
 
 He said that he would give up coffee, as he 
 was very fond of it. Then the wife said that 
 she would give up something for Jesus too. 
 She would give up her favorite cup of tea. 
 Then the daughter said she would give up 
 candy and some of her other pleasures. The 
 father turned to his son Tom, who was busy 
 eating all the time, and asked him, what he 
 would give up? Tom said: “I’ll give up fish. 
 I never did like the stuff anyway.” 
 
 But that was not sacrifice, was it? No, 
 sacrifice is giving up something we really like. 
 What will you give up for Jesus this Lent, 
 
192 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 so that others may learn to love him as you 
 love him? 
 
 Secondly, Lent is a special time for prayer. 
 Jesus is about to begin his work of telling men 
 and women and children about God and his 
 love. Before he starts his ministry, he goes 
 into the desert to be alone for forty days. 
 What does he do there? Two things at least. 
 He plans and he prays. He plans for his 
 future work, how he will conduct it and what 
 he will do, and then he prays God to help 
 him carry out his plans. While the Bible does 
 not tell us this, I am sure that Jesus spent 
 most of his time in prayer. That was one of 
 the reasons why, when the devil came to him 
 at the end of the forty days and tempted him, 
 he was able to say, “No.” 
 
 So, boys and girls, I want you during Lent 
 not only to sacrifice—to give up things for 
 Jesus—but I also want you to do what he did 
 in those forty days—I want you to pray. 
 Pray not only for your father and mother and 
 your dear ones, as I know you do, but pray 
 also for your Sunday school, for your church, 
 for your pastor, and for the missionaries in 
 foreign lands. Pray that men and women, 
 boys and girls, will give their hearts to Jesus 
 and learn to love and serve him. 
 
 “But,” you say, “What can the prayers of 
 
THE MEANING OE LENT 
 
 193 
 
 a boy or girl do?” They can do much. Many 
 years ago a famous preacher was accompanied 
 by a little blind boy, his brother. Whenever 
 this great preacher stood in the pulpit and 
 people wept and trembled at his words, close 
 by would be the little blind child with his 
 sightless eyes turned upward as if watching 
 his brother. One night the preacher saw a 
 vision. He thought an angel touched him and 
 pointed to his little brother. Then he saw a 
 stream of light shining on the boy’s sightless 
 eyes, and he understood that it was not his 
 eloquent words, but the prayers of his little 
 blind brother which had wrought such won¬ 
 derful results. If you pray as the little blind 
 boy did, God will bless your prayers as he 
 blessed his. 
 
XLV 
 
 PALM SUNDAY 
 
 It was Palm Sunday. Jesus, riding upon 
 a young colt, comes in triumph from the little 
 town in Bethany across the Mount of Olives, 
 down through the valley through which flowed 
 the brook, Kedron, then up the steep road 
 which leads to the Temple. 
 
 The people had gone forth to meet him 
 and to bring him in like a king. They were 
 so full of enthusiasm that they cut palm 
 branches from the trees and waved them in 
 the air. Some of the people spread the branches 
 on the ground, and others, who had no branches, 
 threw down their coats and cloaks for a carpet, 
 so the king could ride over them. So, the 
 people going before and others following after, 
 accompanied Jesus right into the courtyard of 
 the Temple and filled the air with their wel¬ 
 come. There, Matthew tells us, new voices 
 come to the ear of Jesus. A company of chil¬ 
 dren take up the refrain and shout, “Hosanna 
 to the Son of David.” How sweet was the 
 sound of those voices to Jesus! For he loved 
 children and the children loved him. 
 
 194 
 
PALM SUNDAY 
 
 195 
 
 On the outskirts of the crowd there were 
 bad men who hated Jesus. They scowled, 
 they frowned at every word of praise, and in 
 a few days they were shouting, “Crucify him! 
 Crucify him!” But I am so glad that there 
 were no children among them. No boys and 
 girls, so far as we know, cried, “Crucify him!” 
 They would not treat a friend so ill, and Jesus 
 was their friend. But the boys and girls were 
 there right at his feet, on that Palm Sunday, 
 crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and in 
 every age and in every place where they have 
 heard about him children have loved Jesus 
 and sung his praises. 
 
 How many of you would have liked to have 
 been in Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday long 
 ago, and to have carried a palm, and to have 
 shouted “Hosanna” w T ith all the rest of the 
 children? Hold up your hands. Yes, 1 know 
 you all would have liked to have been there! 
 But you can do now what is just as pleasing 
 to Jesus as that was in those days. 
 
 First, if you really love Jesus, you must 
 show it by being happy at home, at school, 
 and at play, so that your friends will say with 
 truth: “Jennie is a real Christian. She never 
 whines nor sulks, but is just bubbling over 
 with happiness. We love to have her with 
 us.” If your friends can say that of you, boys 
 
190 STORY-SERMONS EOR JUNIORS 
 
 and girls, then you are praising Jesus by your 
 lives, just as those children praised him who 
 carried a palm and shouted “Hosanna.” 
 
 But I know of another way for you to carry 
 a palm and shout “Hosanna.” Scholars tell 
 us that this triumphant procession of Jesus on 
 Palm Sunday was a prophecy of what should 
 be in the future. What do they mean by 
 that? They mean that the day will come 
 when men, women, and children everywhere 
 will worship Jesus as King, and love and serve 
 him. Therefore, if you can do anything to 
 help other boys and girls to love Jesus and 
 be his disciples (and one way of helping is by 
 inviting them to come to church and Sunday 
 school, where they will hear about him), if 
 you can do anything to help missionaries tell 
 about Jesus by giving of your money and 
 praying for them, then, to that extent, you 
 are like the children in the Temple courtyard 
 at Jerusalem who carried palms and shouted 
 “Hosanna.” 
 
XL VI 
 
 SPRINGTIME 
 
 (Easter) 
 
 ‘Tor, !o, the winter is past, the rain is over 
 and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; 
 and the time of the singing of birds is come.” 
 
 A poet wrote those words, one who loved 
 the flowers, the trees, and the birds as I hope 
 you all do. He was so happy because spring¬ 
 time had come again—and we feel happy too. 
 You know, of all the seasons, I like the spring 
 the best; don’t you? It seems to me to be the 
 fairest and sweetest of them all. Oh, yes, 
 winter is all right with its sledding, its skating, 
 snow-balling, and other winter sports, but there 
 are many cold, dreary days. 
 
 I remember how happy we were as boys in 
 England when the first snowdrop appeared. 
 It seemed such a frail little thing coming up 
 through the hard ground, sometimes when 
 there was snow all around. The chilling north 
 winds would blow 7 upon it, the sleet would 
 strike it, but it grew bravely on, bringing cheer 
 to all who saw it. It brought good cheer not 
 only because it w T as beautiful in its snowy 
 
 197 
 
198 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 purity, but because it was one of the first 
 heralds of spring—to tell us that winter was 
 almost over and the spring was nigh. Then, 
 very soon,.we children would go out into the 
 woods and search for primroses and bluebells. 
 You know that is one of the privileges country 
 children have—they can search for the trail¬ 
 ing arbutus and the early blue violets, and 
 they can watch for Jenny Wren, the little 
 chippy, and the robin to come back. When 
 they come we know that spring is really here. 
 
 Yes, we are happy, but I wonder if we are 
 also thankful, or do we forget to say “Thank 
 you’ 5 to God for making the world so beauti¬ 
 ful. You know Jesus used to find lessons, or 
 parables, all about him—in the flowers, in the 
 farmer sowing the seed, in the setting sun, 
 and in the birds flying overhead. Don’t you 
 think we could find a parable in this joyous 
 springtime? 
 
 First, the springtime should remind us of 
 God our Father. Every flower that blooms 
 has a message from him, especially in the 
 spring when the flowers first appear. He seems 
 to be saying to us what one of the sweetest 
 flowers that bloom in the spring and early 
 summer says, “Forget-me-not.” Yes, I can 
 hear him saying: “I watched over the flowers 
 during the long winter months when they 
 
EASTER DAY 
 
 199 
 
 were asleep, and now I have brought them to 
 life again. See how beautiful they are! Let 
 them cheer you and make you hopeful and 
 happy, for as I have taken care of them, so 
 will I not forget to take care of you.” 
 
 Then the second lesson of the springtime is 
 an Easter lesson. Some one has said that 
 “The spring is the Easter of the earth.” Dur¬ 
 ing the winter the trees and flowers were all 
 apparently dead. The trees looked just like 
 dry sticks as they bent and crackled in the 
 winter’s wind, and the flowers were all buried 
 under the cold ground. But now the trees are 
 beginning to awaken—to send forth little 
 green shoots and buds—and the flowers are 
 breaking through the earth on every side. 
 How beautiful are they in their many colors! 
 Yes, it is a lesson of Easter time that spring 
 brings, for just as the flowers have sprung up 
 from their wintry graves, and just as Jesus 
 rose from the grave on Easter Day, so, one 
 day, we and all our dear ones shall rise again 
 more beautiful than ever before. 
 
XLVII 
 
 REMEMBER 
 (Memorial Day) 
 
 We all know what this word means, for 
 father and mother and teachers are constantly 
 saying to us, “Now, remember!” 
 
 We do forget so soon—don’t we?—not only 
 our lessons, but the kind things our friends 
 do for us. We are not alone in this, for men 
 and women forget too. So the custom of hav¬ 
 ing Memorial Day has sprung up in order 
 that we may not forget. 
 
 In Washington, for example, the great 
 Washington Monument helps us to remember 
 our first President, who was called the “Father 
 of his Country.” In Boston, the fine Bunker 
 Hill Monument was erected so that we might 
 not forget the famous battle of Bunker Hill 
 —the first battle in the W 7 ar of the Revolu¬ 
 tion. On the banks of the Hudson is a beau¬ 
 tiful tomb which you all must try to see, for 
 it is a memorial to General Grant, the famous 
 general of the Civil War, who led the armies 
 of the North to victory. In Arlington Cem¬ 
 etery there is a great monument erected to 
 
 200 
 
MEMORIAL DAY 
 
 201 
 
 the “Unknown Dead/’ to show the world, that 
 although the names of those heroes are un¬ 
 known, their country does not forget them. 
 But not only are there monuments and statues 
 erected in memory of those who died in the 
 Civil War, but out of that great conflict has 
 come one of the most beautiful of all days, 
 “Memorial Day.” 
 
 Soon after the war ended, men and women 
 began to decorate the graves of the soldiers 
 with flowers. Of course it was in the spring 
 when the blossoms were most plentiful. This 
 suggested the idea of setting one day apart 
 throughout the whole country for this purpose. 
 General John A. Logan, Commander of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order, 
 naming May 30, 1868, “For the purpose of 
 strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating 
 the graves of comrades who died in defense 
 of their country.” Because of this practice 
 of decorating the graves, the thirtieth of May 
 has been called “Decoration Day,” but I think 
 that “Memorial Day” is a much finer name, 
 don’t you? It signifies to the whole world 
 that it is our “National Day of Remembrance.” 
 
 Very few of the Civil War veterans are now 
 living, for it is a long time since the Civil 
 War, but even when all the heroes are gone 
 we will continue to observe Memorial Day to 
 
202 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 show that we do not forget what those brave 
 soldiers did for our country. 
 
 There is another reason now for observing 
 Memorial Day. On this day we may also 
 pay tribute to our soldier boys who died in 
 the great World War. We have our Honor 
 Rolls on which all their names are written, and 
 our Service Flags—a star standing for each 
 soldier or sailor. On many of the Service Flags 
 there are gold stars, indicating that the men 
 whom they represent did not come back, and 
 never will come back, for they gave up their 
 lives for their country. 
 
 On this Memorial Day let us remember 
 them also and pray for the fathers and mothers, 
 sisters and brothers, wives and children who 
 miss them. In addition to remembering them 
 on Memorial Day we must show that we 
 remember them by being true to our flag, the 
 stars and stripes, and to the principles for 
 which they fought and died. 
 
 “Whatever else the whole wide world may do 
 Be true, my heart, be true!” 
 
XLVIII 
 
 AND THE CHILD GREW 
 (Children’s Day) 
 
 “And the child grew and waxed strong in 
 spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of 
 God was upon him.” These w T ords, boys and 
 girls, were spoken concerning the child, Jesus, 
 as he lived with his parents in Nazareth until 
 he was twelve years old, when he went up 
 with them to Jerusalem. 
 
 After Jesus returned from Jerusalem he 
 continued to live with Joseph and Mary until 
 he became a man. During that time it was 
 said of him, that “he increased in wisdom and 
 stature, and in favor with God and man.” 
 
 Most people usually think of Jesus as a full- 
 grown man. They think of him as a teacher 
 and preacher; they think of him as the Great 
 Physician, healing the sick, or as the Wonder- 
 TVorker performing many miracles. On this 
 Children’s Day I want you to think of him, 
 not as a man, but as a boy like you boys. 
 
 First, Jesus grew physically just as you are 
 growing. He was a real boy, and he joined 
 with other boys in their sports and in their 
 
 203 
 
204 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 games and in their pastimes as you do; and 
 perhaps, as you have done many times, he 
 stood against the door and measured his 
 height to find out how much taller he was 
 than at the last measurement. 
 
 Secondly, we are told that “Jesus waxed 
 strong in spirit’ ’; that is, he grew strong in 
 will-power, in character, and he did it as you 
 will do it by being obedient, and by learning 
 to say “No” to all temptations. 
 
 I saw a beautiful little play this week en¬ 
 titled “A Little Pilgrim’s Progress,” in which 
 the little pilgrim was on his way to the city 
 of the King. At the wayside inn, kept by 
 Dame Decision, he met other pilgrims be¬ 
 tween whom he was compelled to choose; he 
 wanted Dame Decision to do it for him, but 
 she said, “No, every pilgrim must choose for 
 himself.” So later, the little pilgrim chose, I 
 am glad to say, the right companions, and by 
 his choice strengthened his will and his char¬ 
 acter, and, like Jesus, he waxed strong in 
 spirit. 
 
 Thirdly, Jesus “grew in wisdom.” Because 
 Jesus is the Son of God we think of him as 
 knowing everything, and do not realize that 
 as a little boy he studied his letters just as 
 you did, that he went to school, and doubt¬ 
 less he had many hard lessons just as you have. 
 
AND THE CHILD GREW 
 
 205 
 
 He did not give up, however; he persevered 
 until he conquered them all. Among other 
 things he committed to memory verses of 
 Scripture, many of which he used later when 
 he was tempted, just as I suggested that you 
 do, when I spoke to you on the Japanese 
 proverb ‘"Hear no evil.” So if you would 
 grow in wisdom, as Jesus did, you must be 
 faithful in your lessons, as he was, and always 
 do your best. 
 
 Fourthly, Jesus 4 ‘grew in favor with God 
 and man.” He grew in favor with God and 
 man because of his unselfishness. Nobody 
 likes a selfish, greedy person, but we love an 
 unselfish person—one who is always thinking 
 of how he can help others. Jesus was like 
 that, and I am sure he began when he was 
 a boy. 
 
 “What is a boy?” a visitor asked a class, 
 and one bright little fellow answered, “A boy 
 is the beginning of a man.” In the same way, 
 of course, a girl is the beginning of a woman. 
 So if you boys and girls want to be like Jesus 
 wdien you grow up, you must begin now while 
 you are boys and girls. 
 
 Norman Duncan, in his storv Doctor Luke 
 of the Labrador , tells this little incident of 
 Doctor Luke when he was a boy. 
 
 fi< ‘She sat me in her lap,’ said the Doctor. 
 
206 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “Look into your mother’s eyes, laddie,” she 
 said, “and say after me this.” And then she 
 said as I repeated after her, word by word, 
 “My mother looked upon my heart and found 
 it brave and sweet—willing for the day’s work, 
 and harboring no shameful thought.” Again 
 and again she had me say it until I knew 
 every word by heart. “Ah,” said she at last, 
 “but you’ll forget.” “No, no!” I cried, “I’ll 
 not forget!” ’ ” x And it was because he did not 
 forget that he became the famous Doctor Luke 
 of the Labrador, whom everybody loves, and 
 who has done so much for the men, women, 
 and children there. 
 
 If yoif keep your heart “brave and sweet 
 and willing for the day’s work, not harboring 
 any shameful thought,” you, too, will grow as 
 Doctor Luke grew, as Jesus grew, in favor with 
 God and man. So let us repeat those words 
 together until we know them. 
 
 1 Fleming H. Revel! Company, publishers, New York and Chicago. 
 Used by permission. 
 
XLIX 
 
 HOW THANKSGIVING DAY BECAME 
 A NATIONAL HOLIDAY 
 
 Just three hundred years ago, in 1621, our 
 first real American Thanksgiving Day was 
 observed. Do you know the story of the first 
 Thanksgiving Day? 
 
 Governor Bradford, the governor of Massa¬ 
 chusetts, issued a proclamation, setting aside 
 a certain day 4 Tor thanksgiving unto God 
 for the plenteous harvest. 55 So, after attend¬ 
 ing church and listening to a sermon—which, 
 by the way, was much longer than sermons 
 are to-day—the colonists and friendly Indians 
 came together for the Thanksgiving dinner. 
 It was such beautiful weather that the tables 
 were set out of doors. What a wonderful 
 time they had, with wild turkey, pumpkin pie, 
 and other good things! For you know the 
 first part of the year, before the harvest, they 
 almost starved to death, so scarce had become 
 their food! But with all their feastings and 
 their merry-makings they did not forget to 
 thank God for the abundant crops and for 
 helping them out of their despair. 
 
 207 
 
208 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 After this one day each year was set aside 
 as Thanksgiving Day in New England, at 
 which time the governor read a proclamation. 
 There was always a church service and the 
 various family reunions. President Washington 
 in 1789 issued a proclamation setting aside 
 Thanksgiving Day for the whole country in 
 acknowledgment of God’s many blessings and 
 favors, and especially for helping them to 
 establish a government of their own. Follow¬ 
 ing Washington, several Presidents issued proc¬ 
 lamations at different times, but there was no 
 regular annual Thanksgiving Day. 
 
 One person, more than anyone else, was 
 responsible for Thanksgiving Day becoming a 
 national holiday. I wonder if you know her 
 name, for it is so very rarely mentioned, that 
 few people do know it. A lady, wdiose name 
 was Mrs. Sarah Hale, came from Boston to 
 Philadelphia, to edit a woman’s magazine. 
 She had always lived in New England and 
 had observed Thanksgiving Day, and she did 
 not want the custom to die out, so she sent 
 letters to all the governors of the States and 
 Territories, asking them to set apart the last 
 Thursday in November for a national Thanks¬ 
 giving Day. At first they did not pay any 
 attention to her, but year after year she wrote, 
 until finally a few responded to her request. 
 
THANKSGIVING DAY 
 
 209 
 
 During the Civil War the custom lagged, but 
 Mrs. Hale was persistent. She would not 
 allow it to be forgotten, so she kept writing 
 to the governors and others about it. After 
 the battle of Gettysburg she wrote to Pres¬ 
 ident Lincoln and suggested that he appoint 
 a national holiday of thanksgiving. This he 
 did, and ever since then each President has 
 set apart the last Thursday in November for 
 national thanksgiving, and has written a proc¬ 
 lamation in which he mentioned the things for 
 which we are to be thankful. That is the 
 story of how Thanksgiving Day became a 
 national holiday for all. 
 
 Next Thursday will be our national Thanks¬ 
 giving Day for this year. For what ought we 
 to give thanks? There are so many things 
 that I cannot mention them all, but this 
 morning I want you to give thanks for the 
 everyday blessings. Let us repeat together, 
 “We thank God for our everyday blessings/’ 
 Instead of forever complaining about the things 
 you have not appreciate the things you do have. 
 
 One night a little girl was describing what 
 each member of the family liked. The mother 
 liked so and so, and the brother and elder 
 sister, and finally it came to father’s turn to 
 be described, and he, laughingly asked, “And 
 what do I like, Nancy?” 
 
210 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 “Oh,” said the little girl, slowly— 4 c well, 
 daddy, you like most everything we haven’t 
 
 got.” 
 
 I want you to appreciate the things that 
 you do have. Your eyesight, for example; or 
 did you ever think that you ought to be thank¬ 
 ful for the pencils and pens with which you 
 write, and for the paper on which you write? 
 If you go back to the Pilgrims, or even to the 
 time of the Revolutionary days, you will find 
 that boys and girls did not have these con¬ 
 veniences. Henry Clay, the great orator, 
 learned to write by filling a box with sand 
 and tracing letters with a pointed stick, and 
 Daniel Webster plucked his pen out of the 
 wings of a pet goose and made ink out of the 
 soot scraped from the fireplace. They never 
 dreamed of fountain pens and pencils such as 
 we have to-day. If you are in New Y T ork and 
 have friends in Philadelphia, you can go to 
 see them in just two hours. When Benjamin 
 Franklin first took the coach from New York 
 to Philadelphia he spent four days on the 
 journey. Why, it took a whole week to go 
 from New York to Boston. So you see we 
 ought to be thankful for the street cars, and 
 the railways, and the beautiful automobiles, 
 which we have to-day; and yet, they are so 
 common, we do not think about them at all. 
 
THANKSGIVING DAY 
 
 211 
 
 So I want you boys and girls to thank God 
 for your everyday blessings. 
 
 A boy was once bringing home a loaf of 
 bread when a gentleman asked him, “What 
 have you there?’' 
 
 “A loaf of bread.” 
 
 “Where did you get it?” 
 
 “From the baker.” 
 
 “Where did he get it?” 
 
 “He made it.” 
 
 “Of what did he make it?” 
 
 “Flour.” 
 
 “Where did he get the flour?” 
 
 “From the miller.” 
 
 “Where did the miller get it?” 
 
 “From the farmer.” 
 
 “Where did the farmer get it?” 
 
 Then the truth suddenly dawned upon the 
 boy’s mind, and he said “From God.” 
 
 x4nd so, boys and girls, I want you to remem¬ 
 ber that all your blessings come from God, and 
 do not forget to say “Thank you,” not only 
 on one day of the year—our national Thanks¬ 
 giving Day—but on every day. 
 
 Do you know this story? God sent two 
 little birds out of heaven, each with a basket 
 in his bill. One was to get the prayers of the 
 people who wanted something from God, the 
 other little bird was to bring back the “Thank 
 
212 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 you” prayers. In a few hours the first little 
 bird came back so tired and his wings so droop¬ 
 ing that he could hardly fly, his basket was 
 so heavy, filled with prayers saying, “I want 
 this, and I want that.” 
 
 But where was the other little bird? God 
 waited days and weeks, and finally the little 
 bird came and there was just one tiny note of 
 “Thank you” in the basket. Only one “Thank 
 you” and so many “I want” prayers! Will 
 you be a little bird who brings in a “Thank 
 you” to God for every blessing? 
 
L 
 
 ARMISTICE DAY 
 
 What day do we observe this week? Yes, 
 Armistice Day. On November the eleventh, 
 IS 18, at eleven o’clock in the morning, the 
 Armistice was signed, indicating that the great 
 World War was over. How happy we all 
 were! Some of us went to New York, and we 
 never saw such a celebration in all our lives. 
 Bells were ringing! There were parades and 
 bands. The streets were crowded with people 
 singing and shouting, or crying and laughing, 
 and confetti was flying in ail directions. 
 
 W 7 hy was everyone so happy on Armistice 
 Day? There were two reasons. First, we 
 were happy because the armies of the Allies 
 had won the victory—the Kaiser and his hosts 
 were defeated, our country was safe. Our 
 liberty, our democracy—yes, the democracy of 
 the world—had been preserved. You will 
 understand what this means as you grow 
 older, but I am sure that you boys and girls 
 were happy because the Germans were defeated. 
 
 The second reason why we were so happy 
 was that soon, very soon, our soldier boys 
 
 218 
 
214 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 would be coming home again. While we were 
 very proud of them when they went away, 
 we were very sorry, for we did not know that 
 we should ever see them again. So on Armis¬ 
 tice Day we were all very happy because we 
 knew that many of them would come back 
 home to us. 
 
 Now, you boys and girls will probably never 
 go to war, for we pray that there will never 
 be another war like this great World War. 
 Yet you can all be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. 
 That requires just the same qualities as those 
 needed to be good soldiers of your country. 
 Paul tells Timothy just what these qualities are. 
 
 First, Paul says, “To be a good soldier of 
 Jesus Christ, you must endure hardness.” We 
 all know how our soldiers did that. A business 
 man, serving in the Young Men’s Christian 
 xlssociation in France, was amazed at the way 
 the American soldiers endured hardness. These 
 boys came from some of the finest homes of 
 America, where they had every comfort and 
 convenience, yet in France they lived in mud- 
 huts in severest cold, wet, and mud, and they 
 never uttered a word of complaint. He said 
 he marveled at them constantly because they 
 did not simply endure hardship—they laughed 
 at it, they derided it, and made the best of it. 
 
 Doctor Conwell, of Philadelphia, writes that 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 
 
 215 
 
 he heard President Lincoln tell of a man who, 
 in rail-splitting, always went for the heaviest 
 end of the log. How they admired that man, 
 and respected him! You know, boys and girls, 
 most people do not do that; they would run 
 for the light end of the log. That is, they 
 would choose the easiest task and leave the 
 hardest for some one else. But to be good 
 soldiers of Jesus Christ we must endure hard¬ 
 ness. We must be willing to take the heavy 
 end of the log. 
 
 Not only must we endure hardness, but we 
 must endure it cheerfully as our soldier boys 
 did. How they laughed and sang and made 
 sport amid all their hardships! One of their 
 songs, you remember, was 
 
 “What’s the use of worrying? 
 
 It never was worth while, 
 
 So pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag 
 And smile, smile, smile!” 
 
 A doctor was examining the wounded men 
 as they were brought into an emergency sta¬ 
 tion near the battle line in France. When he 
 came to one stretcher where the soldier was 
 completely covered up he thought this soldier 
 boy was unconscious, when suddenly the cov¬ 
 ering was snatched from his face by the soldier 
 himself as he smiled up into the eyes of the 
 
216 STORY-SERMONS EOR JUNIORS 
 
 surgeon. Though severely wounded, he was 
 having his little joke with the doctor. He 
 endured hardship and suffering cheerfully. 
 That is what Paul tells the young Christian 
 to do, to 4 'Rejoice in the Lord always”; and 
 that is what we will do if we are good soldiers 
 of Jesus. 
 
 The third thing that the soldier does is to 
 learn obedience. In fact, that is one of the 
 first lessons he learns. He must obey his 
 superior officers, no matter what the com¬ 
 mands are. It was very easy for the boys to 
 obey when the word came to go to France, 
 because they all wanted to go. But some of 
 the soldiers were ordered to stay at home and 
 do necessary work here, and it was very hard 
 for them because their hearts were on the 
 other side, but they obeyed, because every 
 good soldier is obedient. 
 
 You boys and girls must learn to obey 
 father and mother and teachers, and all who 
 are in authority over you. This is true even 
 in sports. I was reading the other day of a 
 coach who was drilling a football team in one 
 of our schools. One of the boys, one of the 
 very best players, was not playing as he had 
 been instructed, when the trainer said to him, 
 
 "Why don’t you fall on the ball, as you are 
 told?” 
 
ARMISTICE DAY 
 
 217 
 
 “I don’t feel like it,” he said. 
 
 “Then put on your sweater and leave the 
 field,” was the order; and he did not allow 
 him to come back that season, though they 
 needed him very badly. The player himself 
 and the rest of the school did not think that 
 the coach would send him off because the 
 player was so badly needed. But the coach 
 believed that to play good football they must 
 learn to obey, whether they felt like it or not. 
 They never disobeyed him again. 
 
 Last of all, to be a good soldier of Jesus 
 Christ we must be unselfish and willing to 
 sacrifice. How unselfish were our soldier boys, 
 how willingly they gave themselves for each 
 other and their country! A Young Men’s 
 Christian Association secretary, wilting from 
 France, tells how he saw a British colonel 
 sitting outside a dressing station and asked 
 him why he did not go in and have his wounds 
 attended to. He replied, “It isn’t my turn 
 yet.” Some time later the secretary came 
 along again and spoke to the colonel, who was 
 still sitting outside. He saw that all of the 
 men who had been wounded had received 
 attention, and that others had arrived and 
 had also been treated. So he asked the colonel 
 the same question again and received the same 
 reply, “It is not my turn yet.” You see, he 
 
218 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 had given up his turn to the soldier boys, and 
 that was doing what all our boys were con¬ 
 stantly doing—sacrificing for others; yes, and 
 many of them gave up their lives. So, on 
 Armistice Day, as you rejoice because so 
 many of our boys are safe at home again, I 
 want you to remember the boys who will never 
 come back because they gave up their lives in 
 battle. They died for us. Let us try to be 
 worthy of them. Now let us stand, with heads 
 bowed, in perfect silence, as a tribute to their 
 memory. 
 
LI 
 
 THE STORY OF THE WISE MEN 
 
 (Christmas) 
 
 In the days of long ago, in the Far East 
 beyond the seas, there lived men who studied 
 the stars. They were called “Magi,” or “Wise 
 Men.” They studied the stars because they 
 thought that in them they could foretell the 
 future. They built their watchtowers along 
 the Tigris and other Eastern rivers, so they 
 could more readily observe the stars. 
 
 One night, as they watched the heavens, 
 they saw a new star which they had never 
 seen before. It was thought in those days that 
 when a new star appeared some great king 
 was to be born, and, as they were all then 
 expecting a great king to rule over the world, 
 the Wise Men at once concluded that the star 
 heralded his birth. So they dressed in their 
 finest robes, ordered the servants to get the 
 camels ready with the necessary food and 
 water, prepared their presents, and off they 
 started. 
 
 Have you ever seen a picture of them—the 
 Wise Men going in front, their camels gayly 
 
 219 
 
220 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 decked with bright trappings and embroideries, 
 and their servants following, leading the camels 
 with their baggage? Some of the servants 
 were armed with spears and swords to pro¬ 
 tect themselves against robbers. 
 
 So the Wise Men started on their long 
 journey through the desert, over the hot 
 yellow sands to the ‘'Jesus' land,” for “Jesus” 
 was the name of the new King. The bright 
 star which they had seen led the way, being 
 to them what a lighthouse is to the sailor on 
 a dark night—their guide. At last they arrived 
 at Jerusalem, and we can imagine what a stir 
 they w r ould cause, as they asked, “Where is 
 he that is born King of the Jews? for we have 
 seen his star in the east, and are come to 
 worship him?” Suppose a few strangers, 
 dressed in long, flowing robes, should walk up 
 and down our city streets! 
 
 At last King Herod heard of them. Now, 
 he was a wicked king who thought his enemies 
 were plotting to have a new king. So, he 
 sent for these Wise Men and examined them 
 carefully, asking them wdien they first saw the 
 star and ail about it. Then he sent for the 
 learned men of the Jews to see if they knew 
 where this new King was to be born. They 
 told him “In Bethlehem of Judaea” and they 
 unrolled their scroll and read this prophecy: 
 
CHRISTMAS 
 
 221 
 
 “And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, 
 art not the least among the princes of Juda: 
 for out of thee shall come a Governor, that 
 shall rule my people Israel: 
 
 So the king sent the Wise Men to Bethle¬ 
 hem, telling them to find the young child and 
 bring him word again. Why? He said he 
 wanted to worship, but do von think he did? 
 No, he wanted to kill Jesus. 
 
 The Wise Men mounted their camels, and 
 off they started again in the quiet of the 
 evening, and there before them again shone 
 the bright star, for it had disappeared when 
 they entered Jerusalem. Over the hills and 
 down through the valleys, they followed the 
 star in the moonlight, until they came to 
 Bethlehem, over which the star seemed to 
 hover. There they camped all night, and 
 when the gates of the city were opened in the 
 morning, they went in and found the house 
 over which the star stood, and their journey 
 was ended. Ordering the servants to unpack 
 their gifts they entered the house and there 
 were Joseph and Mary and the young child 
 Jesus whom they had come so far to find. 
 How happy they were to have found him! 
 They presented their gifts of gold, frankin¬ 
 cense, and myrrh—the most precious things 
 they had—and bowed down before him. 
 
LII 
 
 BLOTS 
 
 Old and New Year 
 
 (Objects: Sheet op White Paper, Pen, 
 Eraser, Knife) 
 
 See this beautiful piece of white paper— 
 not a speck upon it anywhere. I take my 
 pen to write a message upon it for you. There! 
 what have I done? I have made a big blot 
 right in the center of the page. Yes, and I 
 am afraid that sometimes we see blots just 
 like that on the children's copybooks, spoil¬ 
 ing otherwise perfect pages. 
 
 So, boys and girls, there are blots of sin 
 and selfishness that mar your lives. If during 
 the past year you said a mean thing or told 
 a wrong story, or disobeyed, then you made 
 a blot on your life, just like this ink blot on 
 the paper. How shall we erase these blots? 
 
 First, let us write over them and see if we 
 can hide them in that way. That is what the 
 rich man does who gets his money dishonestly 
 and then gives to charity, hoping to square 
 his dishonest acts. But, you see, the blot still 
 
 222 
 
OLD AND NEW YEAR 
 
 223 
 
 shows through the writing. We cannot wipe 
 out the blots on our lives in this way. 
 
 If we cannot write over them, let us try to 
 erase them. (Use an ink eraser and a knife.) 
 Yes, we have erased the blot; but, see, boys 
 and girls, I have left a hole in the paper. So 
 every sin, even though it be no more than a 
 cross word or a bad word, leaves its mark on 
 our lives. 
 
 What, then, shall we do with our blots? 
 There is only one thing to do and that is to 
 tell God about them. Never try to hide your 
 mistakes and sins from God any more than 
 you would from your father or mother. 
 
 A friend once showed Mr. Ruskin a beau¬ 
 tiful handkerchief that had been ruined by 
 ink, saying that he was so sorry about it. 
 Mr. Ruskin took the handkerchief and after 
 awhile sent it back to his friend. His friend 
 did not recognize it, for the artist had taken 
 that ugly blot and drawing other lines all 
 around it had worked out a design and made 
 a beautiful figure. So, boys and girls, if you 
 confess your mistakes to God, he will not only 
 forgive you but he will take your lives and 
 make them beautiful in spite of the blots. 
 
 God will also give you another clean white 
 page at the close of this old year and at the 
 beginning of the new so that you may do 
 
224 STORY-SERMONS FOR JUNIORS 
 
 better in the future. Listen to this little 
 poem by C. R. Shaw, which gives us the pic¬ 
 ture of a school and a little boy. The teacher 
 
 is speaking: 
 
 “He came to my desk with a quivering lip-—- 
 The lesson was done. 
 
 ‘Dear teacher, I want a new leaf,' he said, 
 
 ‘I have spoiled this one.’ 
 
 I took the old leaf so stained and blotted. 
 
 And gave him a new one, all unspotted. 
 
 And into his sad eyes smiled. 
 
 ‘Do better now, my child.’ 
 
 “I came to the Throne with a quivering soul— 
 The hard day was done. 
 
 ‘Dear Father, hast thou a new leaf for me? 
 
 I have spoiled this one.’ 
 
 In place of the leaf, so stained and blotted. 
 
 He gave me a new one, all unspotted. 
 
 And into my sad heart smiled, 
 
 ‘Do better now, my child.’ 
 
 See to it, boys and girls, that there are no 
 blots on the clean white page during this beau¬ 
 tiful new year. Try to keep it unspotted! 
 
 1 Poetry and Morals, by Louis Albert Banks. Funk & Wagnalls Co., 
 publishers, New York. Used by permission. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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