STORIES 
 FOR WORSHIP 
 
 AND HOW TO 
 FOLLOW THEM UP 
 
 HUGH HARTSHORNE 
 
BV 199 .C4 H257 1921 
 Hartshorne, Hugh, 1885-1967 
 Stories for worship and how 
 to follow them up 
 
A SECOND MANUAL FOR TRAINING IN WORSHIP 
 
 STORIES FOR WORSHIP 
 
 AND 
 
 HOW TO FOLLOW THEM UP 
 
 By 
 HUGH HARTSHORNE 
 
 Assistant Professor of Religious Education in the Union Theological 
 Seminary and Principal of the Union School of Religion 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1921 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1921, BT 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNEBS SONS 
 
 THE SCRIBNER PRESS 
 
TO 
 
 THE PUPILS 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
 or THE 
 
 UNION SCHOOL OF RELIGION 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Teachers and parents, as well as superintendents and pastors, are 
 involved in the effort to lead children into the experience of worship. 
 This handbook provides not only the material for services, but also 
 a method by which the church-school worship or the pastor's talk 
 to children may be followed up in class or home. 
 
 We expect in the services themselves, if they are well conducted, 
 a response in the way of imagination, of feeling, of will on the part 
 of the children. But if we let this stirring of their aspiration and 
 their loyalty end here, the worship will have failed of its purpose. 
 There must be further response in thought and action, and this must 
 be provided for by the school and the home. The service must be 
 followed up by discussion in class or around the Sunday dinner table, 
 and by opportunities for the conscious use of the moral invigoration 
 of worship in the practical problems of everyday living. 
 
 The book, therefore, includes not only the story material and 
 programs needed for the leader of the services, but also suggestions 
 for the guidance of discussion in class or home, and for testing the 
 value of the services by careful observation of their effects. With 
 this manual in the hand of every teacher at the time of the class ses- 
 sion, there may be developed such community of effort as will enhance 
 the value of the worship many fold. 
 
 The stories are for the most part new or not widely known. The 
 organization follows a plan that has been worked out experimentally, 
 by which the work for the year may be brought under one scheme or 
 project, in the promotion of which the children can have a definite 
 part. 
 
 The stories were prepared for publication in collaboration with 
 Mr. H, A. Larrabee. 
 
 H. H. 
 
 New York, 
 
 January i, 1921. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface , . . . v 
 
 SECTION 
 
 I. Making the Most of the Stories i 
 
 II. Getting the Children to Help 5 
 
 III. Following vp the Services and Testing Results 8 
 
 IV. Worship and Service 13 
 
 V. THE SERVICES: 
 
 PART I. THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 1. The City of God Hugh Hartshorne 18 
 
 2. The House of Friendship Hugh Hartshorne 22 
 
 3. The Friendly Engine Anonymous 25 
 
 4. A Friend to Somebody Mark A. May 28 
 
 5. Little Gavroche Adapted from Victor Hugo 31 
 
 6. A Thanksgiving Adventure Mark A. May 35 
 
 7. A Great Feast Adapted from Laura E. Richards 38 
 
 8. Bob Chase's Vacation Hugh Hartshorne 42 
 
 9. A Bag of Sugar Hugh Hartshorne 47 
 
 10. The House of God Mark A. May 51 
 
 11. Christmas in the House of Friendship 54 
 
 Adapted from Charles B. Bare 
 
 PART II. THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 12. The House of Justice Hugh Hartshorne 62 
 
 13. The Just Prince Mark A. May 65 
 
 14. On Prayer Hugh Hartshorne 68 
 
 15. Mary Stone S. H. Leger 71 
 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 PART II. THE HOUSE OF JVSTlCE^iContinued) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 16. Abraham Linxoln . : S. H. Leger 74 
 
 17. Sharing Our Birthdays H. A. Larrabee 77 
 
 18. Washington's Birthday Hugh Hartshorne 80 
 
 19. Faith in the Building of the House of Justice . . H. A. Larrabee 84 
 
 20. Finding Happiness H. A. Larrabee 88 
 
 21. The Boy Who Found Out H. A. Larrabee 91 
 
 PART III. THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 22. The House of Peace Hugh Hartshorne 96 
 
 23. Trust in God Hugh Hartshorne 99 
 
 24. Easter Hugh Hartshorne 102- 
 
 25. Spirits of Spring Adapted from J. T. Stocking 105 
 
 26. The Two Foundations H. A. Larrabee 108 
 
 27. Work Hugh Hartshorne iii 
 
 28. The Boy Who Forgot Adapted from George Mair 113 
 
 29. The Scowling Face . . . S. H. Leger 116 
 
 30. Two Kinds of Peace H. A. Larrabee 119 
 
 31. Planning the House of Peace . H. A. Larrabee 122 
 
 32. A Flower that was God's Minister . . . Based on H. T. Kerr 125 
 
STORIES FOR WORSHIP AND 
 HOW TO FOLLOW THEM UP 
 
 MAKING THE MOST OF THE STORIES 
 
 Imaginative symbolism, no matter how closely built upon the 
 everyday experiences of children, tends to lose color and force unless 
 it has been adopted by the whole community. Unfortunately the 
 religious community — the church — has not in recent years been sur- 
 rounding its work with glowing, powerful symbolism that can appeal 
 to the present generation. Until it does, educational efforts will have 
 to construct their own bases of appeal, and develop as best they may 
 the devotion that can grow only in the atmosphere of idealism. 
 
 The great enterprise of religion is the securing or the building of a 
 new world. In former days, when emphasis was placed on securing 
 rather than on building, religious education was primarily a matter of 
 disciplining the soul for the life to come. Latterly interest is centering 
 in building rather than in securing, with the result that discipline for 
 salvation as the substance of religious education has given way before 
 discipline for democracy. To catch up into our educational work 
 something of the romance of world building; to let the vision of 
 a world made perfect capture the imaginations of the children; to 
 fill the enterprises of peace with the momentum and the abandon long 
 monopolized by the enterprises of war — these are essential tasks of 
 education. 
 
 A long history of intellectualism, both in religion and in education, 
 has made vital religious education difficult. Enterprises or projects 
 for the study of school branches like arithmetic or geography have 
 
 1 
 
2 MAKING THE MOST OF THE STORIES 
 
 been hard enough to invent — because of the gradual withdrawing of 
 school work from the ordinary affairs of life. But far more difficult 
 is it to find adequate and appropriate projects for religious education. 
 The subject matter here is nothing less than the whole of life itself. 
 Any project, therefore, has to be a project in living for the sake of 
 what the children can learn about living. How can the actual busi- 
 ness of living be a part of a school of religion? Evidently what is 
 needed is not more text-books or even better text-books, but more life. 
 Somehow the children must be led to take their part now in the 
 building of the City of God. 
 
 This analysis of the exigency in religious education leads to the idea 
 of ^'building the City of God." This may serve both as a real Chris- 
 tian enterprise and as an effective symbol, associated as it is with much 
 that is emotional and dramatic in the Christian tradition. Further- 
 more, when broken up into its essentials, it develops naturally into 
 symbolisms of peace rather than symbolisms of war, and suggests the 
 projects of peace rather than those of war, of construction and con- 
 servation rather than of destruction and waste. 
 
 In the course of the three-year experiment during which the build- 
 ing of the City of God was used as a general project in the Union School 
 of Religion, there developed three minor projects, each serving as an 
 attractive, unifying enterprise for a year. The first year was devoted 
 to the building of the House of Friendship; the second to the building 
 of the House of Justice; the third to the building of the House of 
 Peace. The first idea appealed with especial power to the children, 
 and served as an organizing principle for the whole year's work in most 
 of the classes as well as in the services of worship. As classes gradu- 
 ally became interested in the idea they began to see how what they 
 were doing Sunday by Sunday had meaning in terms of a great pur- 
 pose — to establish friendship in the world. In their discussions they 
 tried to discover how people behave in the House of Friendship. In 
 their efforts to be of help to others they began to "take people in" to 
 their House of Friendship: Armenian and French orphans, the children 
 of a day nursery, various neighboring families with whom they were 
 becoming acquainted, their own friends and families, the characters 
 about whom they were studying; Jesus, the great Friend. And it was 
 
MAKING THE MOST OF THE STORIES 3 
 
 not long before they found that when they took God into their House 
 of Friendship it became a veritable House of God. 
 
 As the first year drew to a close the suggestion was made that this 
 enterprise might easily issue in a pageant that would gather up the 
 strands developed by the various classes and weave them into a 
 single dramatic representation of the building of the House of Friend- 
 ship. Each class suggested what it would like to do to show its 
 work for the year, and these proposals were then put into the form of a 
 pageant by the teachers. The children wrote the lines they spoke 
 and planned the scenes in connection with their class work. There 
 was a hymn- writing contest for the production of a school hymn for 
 the occasion. An older pupil wrote the words and a teacher the 
 music that were finally selected. Another teacher wrote the lines 
 of the Spirit of Friendship, and his helpers, Gratitude, Goodwill, 
 Reverence, Faith and Loyalty, who wove the several episodes and 
 interludes into an effective pageant, which closed with a service of 
 worship similar to the service held each Sunday morning. 
 
 It has been necessary to mention these details in order that the 
 plan of the book and the atmosphere of the stories may be understood. 
 The worship of the school, to which twenty minutes are devoted 
 every Sunday, was the center of the whole enterprise, and the stories 
 and talks contributed much to the interpretation and unifying of 
 the project in the minds of the children. 
 
 The services that follow form the basis of a similar scheme for 
 any school that gives a central place to worship. 
 
 Although, when first used, these three projects — building the 
 Houses of Friendship, Justice and Peace — occupied three years, it 
 will be of advantage to bring them together into one year's program 
 under the more general project, ''building the City of God." This 
 is the plan that has been used in this book. 
 
 It would be well for leaders to bear in mind that the symbolism 
 of building a house of friendship or justice or peace in the City of 
 God is not to be taken too literally. Nor should one feel bound 
 at all by the use made of this figure of speech in the stories that fol- 
 low. For the most part the authors have avoided using analogies 
 such as "foundations are good habits," and have confined themselves 
 
4 MAKING THE MOST OF THE STORIES 
 
 to a loose interpretation of the figure. The concept gains meaning 
 by imagining actual conduct rather than by having associated with it 
 abstractions such as "bricks of goodwill," or "beams of sympathy." 
 The idea should grow freely in the minds of the children and enough 
 should be left to the imagination to keep the symbolism from becoming 
 trite. 
 
 Each story originally had a carefully planned setting in a unified 
 service, and its effect will be enhanced if pains are taken to choose 
 hymns, psalms, scripture and so on with reference to the aim the leader 
 of worship has in mind, and to arrange the items in such a way 
 as to produce the effect desired. Suggestions are made that may aid 
 in the construction of services, and the prayer to accompany the story 
 is given in many cases. It is realized, of course, that most leaders will 
 prefer to work out these details for themselves, but for those who for 
 one reason or another cannot plan the services completely the orders 
 of service that accompany the stories and talks may prove helpful.* 
 
 * The author's Manual for Training in Worship gives suggestions on planning 
 services, sample orders of service, types of stories, prayers, sentences, and a bibli- 
 ography of sources. 
 
II 
 
 GETTING THE CHILDREN TO HELP 
 
 It goes without saying that the hymns, scripture passages, prayers 
 and talks used in children's services should be adapted to the limita- 
 tions of childhood and youth. If worship is to be a real and helpful ex- 
 perience it must grow out of and minister to the common everyday 
 problems of the worshiper. The wise leader provides for this in 
 his choice of material to be used. He unnecessarily limits himself, 
 however, if he attempts to make his selections or adaptations without 
 the aid of the children. Even the youngest can help by being led to 
 discuss the services. Their comments will reveal what they understand 
 and what they do not, and will also show what parts of the service 
 attract them most. The older children can suggest story material, 
 prepare unison prayers and sometimes assist in leading the worship. 
 When the pupils help, there is greater assurance that what is done 
 will meet their needs. 
 
 Beyond the aid the leader may get from the children, there is the 
 psychological necessity for cooperation on their part if the best results 
 are to be secured. In other phases of the school work we have long 
 seen the educational value of initiative and self -activity. In worship, 
 however, we have been content to follow traditional procedures and 
 leave everything to the leader or to custom. The result is that wor- 
 ship is for many persons unreal and unimportant. They have no 
 responsibility for it. 
 
 The best leadership and the finest material will fail to secure wor- 
 ship if the pupils do not feel that they have a vital part in controlling 
 the service. This feeling they will get at first simply when attempt 
 is made by the leader to meet their own needs in the service and to 
 give them something to do in it. But nowadays, when children are 
 being taught to take responsibility, to share in the life of grown 
 
 5 
 
6 GETTING THE CHILDREN TO HELP 
 
 people, to learn by actual performance, they will not long be content 
 to be irresponsible participants in what should be the most interesting 
 and beautiful of all their experiences. 
 
 How, then, can we secure their cooperation? Various ways have 
 been tried. Others will be devised by progressive schools. When the 
 school has not been used to carefully planned services, probably the 
 best way is to begin by deliberately changing the programs so as to be 
 certain of changing the attitude of the children. After they have 
 had some experience on the plane of real worship, their cooperation 
 can be enlisted. For example, if some unison prayer has been used, 
 the children might be asked whether they would like to have their 
 own unison prayer. Would they like to write it themselves? Would 
 they all like to make some contribution to it? Each might bring in 
 either a sentence or a whole prayer, and a committee of pupils with 
 the leader could take the contributions and construct out of them a 
 short prayer for the school, using the children's own phrases. All idea 
 of contest should of course be avoided. The teachers would then follow 
 up this suggestion in each class, possibly taking advantage of this 
 occasion to discuss the meaning of prayer with the children, and 
 including this enterprise in the home work for this week. 
 
 When projects such as those used in this book are adopted and 
 launched, the pupils themselves will take a real interest in their 
 development. It will be noticed that only ten or eleven services have 
 been included under each of the three Parts. This leaves opportunity 
 for the introduction of services that have local color, that arise out 
 of local needs and interests, or that may be planned by the children. 
 When the "House of Friendship" was built, a class of eighth grade 
 girls wrote one of the stories told by the leader. Wider use could 
 well be made of this ability of the children. With the help of teachers, 
 the classes can be led, little by little, to see the relation of their lessons 
 to the current themes of the worship and to think what contributions 
 could be made to the worship from their own lessons. 
 
 In regard to hymns, it would assist in their intelligent use to have 
 the school choose a favorite song for each season, or for each theme. 
 The necessity of coming to a decision will be a real motive for the 
 careful study of many hymns. Those chosen as school favorites could 
 
GETTING THE CHILDREN TO HELP 7 
 
 be memorized, by vote of the pupils. Or the favorite hymn of each 
 class, with the reasons for the choices, might be posted. The same 
 procedure would help in the wise and effective use of psalms. 
 
 When intermediate or senior groups meet with younger children 
 there is always the possibility of sharing with them the leadership of 
 the services. The reading of the scripture lesson, leading unison or 
 responsive selections, or occasional leadership in prayer are practical 
 forms of assistance. These young people will of course need time for 
 preparation and some training in delivery. 
 
 Greater interest and more effective cooperation may be secured by 
 having the older classes take turns in being responsible for the whole 
 service a few times during the year. This will make necessary their 
 study of the particular project that is under way, and will help 
 them to get the most out of the services as they go along, both from 
 their own point of view, and from the point of view of the others 
 in the school. The socializing value of such enterprises is beyond 
 calculation. 
 
Ill 
 
 FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICES AND TESTING RESULTS 
 
 In connection with each of the services that follow, suggestions are 
 made for teachers in following up the effects of the worship. It is 
 easy for such follow-up work to degenerate into mere quizzing or 
 even into inquisition or prying into the souls of the children to see 
 whether they are properly edified by the leader's talk or prayer. The 
 teacher is not a spy. He is a leader of worship. As much depends 
 upon his sympathetic and whole-hearted participation in the service 
 as upon the particular teacher who stands in front of the school. And 
 as much depends upon what the teacher or parents do in subsequent 
 class or home discussions as upon the period of worship itself. Wor- 
 ship, instruction and service are not three independent school activi- 
 ties. They are one. Only in worship certain things are emphasized 
 which are not emphasized in study and in action. Unless the worship 
 finds its occasion in the pupils' own life-experiences, whether in class, 
 or at home, or school, or on the street, and brings its inspiration to 
 bear upon these vital interests and situations of childhood, it is of 
 small concern. 
 
 The worship, therefore, is part of the teacher's responsibility. 
 
 There are several distinct ways in which teachers and parents 
 can contribute to the worship period. First, there is the actual 
 service itself. Here the teacher can be of great help by example. The 
 sympathetic teacher of boys is under no obligation to behave in wor- 
 ship as he would on a hike. He loses influence just to the extent that 
 his behavior is inappropriate to the occasion. Boys expect dignity 
 when dignity is called for, and they have a right to the support that 
 dignified and sincere participation in worship on their teacher's part 
 will give to their own less stable yet truly earnest selves. Younger 
 
 8 
 
FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICES 9 
 
 children need help in finding places, and occasional cautions are neces- 
 sary, but here, too, it is the teacher's example that counts for most. 
 
 In the second place, the teacher, and the parents too, can help 
 by preparing the children for the services. Such items as are to 
 be used in common may be memorized. This should be done in con- 
 nection with the regular class work. Hymns and psalms and unison 
 prayers will need to be studied so as to make sure that they are 
 really understood. Erroneous impressions resulting from a misun- 
 derstanding of words and ideas prevent the best use of the period of 
 worship. When a child remembers "Dare to have a purpose fine," as 
 "Dare to have a purple spine," the conditions for good results are 
 not present. 
 
 The order of worship needs to be gone over in class so that the 
 children will know what to expect. Younger children need practice 
 with the song books — finding places quickly and quietly and using the 
 printed page reverently. The mechanics of worship must be reduced 
 to a habit so that attention can be given to the meaning of what is 
 taking place. The teacher's slogans, then, are: 
 Memorize what is to be used from memory; 
 Clear up all misconceptions; 
 
 Enrich, by discussion, the meaning of prayers, hymns and psalms; 
 Practice reverently the mechanics of the worship. 
 In the third place, the teachers and parents can help by finding 
 out what the children are impressed by in the service. In the case 
 of younger children, the service can be discussed every Sunday. 
 Older children may not wish to talk about it so often, but may wait 
 for some especially attractive story or helpful prayer as an occasion 
 for discussion. Spontaneous comments are the most reliable guides 
 to the effects of the service, and these should be recorded by teachers 
 and parents and passed on to the leader of worship. 
 
 Children of Junior ages and younger grades will usually want to 
 talk about the service if it has been effective. The class session, 
 therefore, should ordinarily provide opportunity for this. Thus the 
 habit of comment is established, and with it the habit of increasing 
 participation. What the children regularly attend to depends largely 
 upon what they afterwards have occasion to refer to consciously. 
 
10 FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICES 
 
 This introduces the fourth point: The teachers can help secure 
 the proper effects of the worship period by directing the pupil's con- 
 versation about it. The children's sense of the unity of the whole 
 Sunday session is promoted by carrying over the thoughts, attitudes 
 and interests of the worship into the class period. This is particularly 
 necessary for the success of such school projects as are proposed in 
 this book. It is easy to see that teachers will be able to follow up the 
 service most effectively when they know in advance the story to be 
 told by the leader. 
 
 In order to help the teachers and parents in the guidance of these 
 conversations, questions are appended to each service. Some are 
 appropriate for older children, some for younger ones. They are 
 intended only as a suggestion of the sort of questions one may ask 
 to promote thoughtful discussion. They are not to be formally asked, 
 as one would set an examination. Rather are they the unconscious 
 guide of teachers or mothers or fathers as they try to be the sym- 
 pathetic companions of the children in these deeper experiences of 
 their lives. 
 
 Finally, and perhaps this is the most important contribution, 
 teachers and parents can help by telling the leader of worship about 
 difficult problems children are facing or especially interesting activi- 
 ties in which they are engaging in class or in clubs or by themselves. 
 These concrete problems and interests can frequently be made the 
 basis of a service that will seem all the more real to the children be- 
 cause it touches so closely their daily experience. Significant events 
 that are of common concern, such as some unusual sorrow or good 
 fortune, have a central place in every church-school program, no 
 matter what printed material may be used by the leader. It is the 
 human elements, the homely incidents, the friendly interests that 
 transform mere ritual into the worship of the God who cares. 
 
FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICES 11 
 
 General Questions 
 To be used by teachers or parents to follow up services 
 
 To save repetition, certain types of questions that are appropriate 
 to almost any service are appended here. The special emphasis of 
 these questions is on the proper direction of attention and on the 
 discovery of the effects of worship. 
 
 Did you enjoy the service this morning? 
 
 What did you like about it especially? 
 (Variety of answers may be expected.) 
 
 What was it you liked about the music (story, hymns, etc., or what- 
 ever may be mentioned)? (Comments should be noted.) 
 
 Would you like to read that hymn again? 
 
 (Here is an opportunity to discuss its meaning, particularly in 
 relation to the day's topic.) 
 
 We read a prayer together this morning. When we use the Lord's 
 Prayer we say it from memory. Would you like to say this prayer 
 from memory too? Let's read it together again. (Then ask ques- 
 tions on the meaning of phrases and get a wealth of associations 
 in the minds of the children for each sentence. Afterwards, they 
 will more easily learn it by heart during the week.) 
 
 In a similar way other features of the service to be memorized or dis- 
 cussed may be brought to the attention of the children in the 
 spirit of the worship itself. 
 
 Did the story remind you of anything we are doing together? (In 
 case the service is initiating some new school enterprise) How 
 can we do our share in this? 
 
 (At home) What did you think about in the service to-day? We'd 
 
12 FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICES 
 
 like to hear about it. (Every real effort to report should be re- 
 ceived with appreciation but not with applause.) Was anything 
 said that we ought to know about at home? (If the story stands 
 out prominently, it can be retold to advantage.) 
 Parents should be on the watch for evidences of the effect of the 
 services on the children's ideas and actions. 
 
IV 
 
 WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 The suggestion was made in the preceding section that the wor- 
 ship should be connected as closely as possible with the children's 
 enterprises. In the first section a scheme was proposed for interpreting 
 these enterprises in such a way as to clarify their purpose and add 
 to their motivation by associating them with the great Christian 
 cause itself. The latter proposal is provided for in the project: "Build- 
 ing the City of God." Into this framework must be woven the actual 
 school activities to which the larger project is to lend color and force. 
 The project is carried by the thirty-two services which follow, all 
 of which can be used by any school or will suggest similar story 
 material. In a school year of forty- four Sundays, this leaves twelve 
 services to be woven into the framework. It is particularly in these 
 twelve services that the local school causes and interests can best find 
 a place. Special festival services at Christmas and Easter, at Rally 
 Day or Children's Day, will need special forms and subject matter. 
 Denominational drives, whether perennial or occasional, need the time 
 of the assembly now and then. Relief enterprises, such as Near 
 East Relief campaigns, and missionary projects of church or school, 
 can also be pursued on the Sundays thus left available. 
 
 But all these matters are not to be regarded as outside the building 
 of the City of God. They are the building of the city. These are 
 specific tasks, and constant reference to them is needed to give to 
 the project the sense of reality, just as the project is needed to give 
 to these tasks the flavor of adventure and romance that rightfully 
 belongs to them. 
 
 When, therefore, some special drive, such as the Armenian, comes 
 during the building of the House of Friendship, let it be made a part 
 of this project. Let the Armenian children be taken into our House 
 
 13 
 
14 WORSHIP AND SERVICE 
 
 of Friendship and made to feel at home. When some local philan- 
 thropic interest is being attended to while the House of Justice is 
 being built, let the occasions for this philanthropy that grow out of 
 our unjust disregard for the handicapped, the immigrant, the defective, 
 the sick, be uppermost in the services, and let the concrete effects of 
 our neglect add motive to our desire to be fair to all our brothers. 
 If some foreign enterprise comes up while the House of Peace is 
 being built, let the establishment of real friendship among the chil- 
 dren of the world as an essential condition of peace be realized, or let 
 it be seen how in the quarrels of children the very same kinds of pur- 
 poses are felt that lead great nations to go to war and destroy all 
 friendship in the world. 
 
 The "results" of this year's program will not be visible in the 
 form of definitions or handwork. No more stories will be learned than 
 would be learned without this project. But it is hoped that a new 
 spirit will be discovered in the school that "builds the City of God," 
 that friendship, justice and peace, for which we so constantly pray, 
 will have become a part of its conscious purpose, and that its daily 
 work will catch something of the joy and the glory of the Christian 
 life. 
 
STORIES, PRAYERS, QUESTIONS, AND 
 ORDERS OF SERVICE 
 
PART I 
 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP* 
 
 FROM RALLY DAY TO CHRISTMAS 
 
 Call to Worshifr: This is the House of God, a house of the spirit not made 
 with hands, and they that worship God herein must worship Him in spirit 
 and in truth. 
 
 ORDERS OF SERVICE 
 
 FROM WHICH ONE OR MORE MAY BE SELECTED FOR THE PERIOD 
 
 Without Choir With Choir 
 
 1. Instrumental Prelude 
 
 2. Call to Worship 
 
 3. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 4. Hymn 
 
 5. Scripture 
 
 6. Story or Talk 
 
 7. Prayer 
 
 8. Hymn 
 
 9. Unison Benediction 
 10. Instrumental Postlude 
 
 1. Instrumental Prelude 
 
 2. Call to Worship 
 
 3. Hymn 
 
 4. Psalm 
 
 5. The Lord's Prayer, Choir Amen 
 (Scripture) 
 
 6. Story or Talk 
 
 7. Prayer, Choir Amen 
 
 8. Hymn 
 
 9. Unison Prayer or 
 
 Benediction sung by Choir 
 
 1. Call to Worship 
 
 2. One stanza of a hymn of praise 
 
 or a Psalm 
 
 3. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 4. Hymn 
 
 5. Story or Talk 
 
 6. Prayer 
 
 7. Offertory Sentence and Offer- 
 
 ing f 
 
 8. Offertory Prayer — sung by school 
 
 9. Unison Prayer 
 10. Hymn 
 
 1. Processional Hymn 
 
 2. Psalm 
 
 3. The Lord's Prayer, Choir Amen 
 
 4. Scripture Lesson 
 
 5. Hymn 
 
 6. Story or Talk 
 
 7. Prayer, School Amen 
 
 8. Choir Sentence 
 
 9. Unison Prayer, Choir Amen 
 10. Benediction, Choir Amen 
 ir. Recessional Hymn 
 
 * Corresponding to the periods of Gratitude and Goodwill as described in the 
 Manual for Training in Worship. 
 
 t If the offering is to be taken in connection with either of the other services it 
 should come after the seventh item. Other changes will readily be made. Un- 
 necessary announcements should be avoided and irrelevant announcements should 
 come after the close of the service. 
 
 17 
 
The City of God * 
 
 Scripture: Rev. 21:1-4; Is. 52:7-10; 60:18-19. 
 Psalm: roo. 
 
 Hymns: "We've a story to tell to the nations ;" "City of God ;" "Hail to the 
 brightness of Zion's glad morning;" "Thy kingdom come, O Lord." 
 
 Two children were lost in the city. One was ten and the other 
 five. A friendly policeman asked them where they lived. ''We live 
 in the house with glass doors," said the five-year-old, "where the 
 halls have walls of marble, and an elevator goes up and down." But 
 the ten-year-old said: "We live at 542 North Avenue." Which was 
 right? I think maybe the younger one was right, and she might 
 have added, "in the world of giants and fairies": 
 
 "Green jacket, red cap, 
 And white owl's feather." 
 
 We live in the world we see around us and dream about. For 
 some, our city is just our home, and the sidewalk to school, and the 
 schoolroom. Some of you have taken the ferry across to Staten 
 Island, and you have looked back at that huge mass of buildings piled 
 against the sky and the great bridges spanning the East River, and 
 with something like pride you have said to yourselves, "This is my 
 city." You are citizens of New York. Some of you have been read- 
 ing about the Panama Canal, of how this country achieved this great- 
 est engineering feat of history, and you have said, "My country did 
 that," and as you look at this flag there's a wholesome pride in the 
 thought that you are citizens of the United States of America. 
 
 Some of you have been sending money to the Belgians and making 
 things for them. Why did you do it? Because you felt that they are 
 
 * From the Manual for Training in Worship, p. 84, copyright 1915, by Charles 
 Scribner's Sons. 
 
 18 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 19 
 
 fellow citizens of yours. Fellow citizens of what? Why, of the 
 world. You are citizens of the world. 
 
 Some of you have been reading stories of heroes and heroines — 
 Abraham, Joseph, Livingstone, Lincoln, Garrison, Washington, Flor- 
 ence Nightingale, Paul, Luther. And the more you know about these 
 men and women the more clearly you see that they were very much 
 like us. They were children once. They grew up by studying and 
 playing and working and eating and sleeping, just as we do. They 
 are our fellow citizens — but where? Of our country? No; many 
 were foreigners. Of the world? No; they are dead. Where, then? 
 Why, in the Kingdom of God. You will never be satisfied until you 
 have pledged your allegiance as citizens of the City of God. 
 
 Where is this City of God? It is within you. These heroes whom 
 you have never seen — where are they? They are in your heart. 
 You are building this city. You are piling up its domes and spires and 
 turrets, for it is a city not made with hands but built out of spiritual 
 fellowships with the noble men and women of all times and places, 
 who are your fellow citizens. 
 
 If, as you look around you, you see only dirt and squalor and 
 meanness and crime, you do not dwell in the City of God. But if yot 
 see, shining through all things, the spirit of faith and hope and love 
 and courage and nobility and honor and self-sacrifice, you are living 
 in the City of God — the city not made with hands, which cometh 
 down out of heaven from God. 
 
 "Hail, the glorious Golden City, 
 
 Pictured by the seers of old! 
 Everlasting light shines o'er it ; 
 
 Wondrous tales of it are told: 
 Only righteous men and women 
 
 Dwell within its gleaming wall; 
 Wrong is banished from its borders, 
 
 Justice reigns supreme o'er all. 
 
 We are builders of that city; 
 
 All our joys and all our groans 
 Help to rear its shining ramparts; 
 
 All our lives are building-stones: 
 Whether humble or exalted, 
 
20 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 All are called to task divine; 
 All must aid alike to carry 
 Forward one sublime design. 
 
 And the work that we have builded, 
 
 Oft with bleeding hands and tears, 
 And in error and in anguish, 
 
 Will not perish with our years: 
 It will last and shine transfigured 
 
 In the final reign of Right; 
 It will merge into the splendors 
 
 Of the City of the Light." 
 
 — Felix Adler. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 O Thou who dwellest in the glorious golden city, the life of 
 whose people is an everlasting life, full of peace and joy and justice, 
 we come to Thee, each with his own little world of shattered hopes, of 
 failures and disappointments and sins. Open before the eyes of our 
 imaginations the gates of Thy city, that we may see within it the 
 hopes fulfilled, the failures and sins overcome. And may we come 
 to dwell there, citizens of Thy commonwealth and fellow citizens of 
 the men and women and children of all places and all times who have 
 loved Thee with an imperishable love. 
 
 We thank Thee for the men and women by whose wisdom this 
 nation has been guided in the past. Safeguard us through the years. 
 Grant that with honor and courage and self-forgetfulness we may 
 earnestly seek friendship and justice and peace for all the nations. 
 
 And from our own lives we would banish all hatred and bitter- 
 ness and quarreling, and strive to share, each in his own way, in the 
 building of the City of God. And to Jesus, the Master-workman, 
 we now pledge our strength and love. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 Note: In order that the services and the questions may be used 
 to the best advantage, leaders and teachers should be thoroughly 
 familiar with the suggestions made in the Introduction. These ques- 
 tions and those that follow each story are primarily for the purpose 
 of promoting thoughtful conversation and giving direction to interests 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 21 
 
 stimulated in the service. Some are appropriate for younger chil- 
 dren; some for older. Usually there are three groups representing 
 roughly ages 6-9, 10-12, 13-18. It is not supposed that all will be 
 used by any teacher or that they will be used as a formal exercise. 
 Rather with these questions in mind as typical of the sort of follow- 
 up work that is needed to make the service most effective, the teacher 
 or parent will proceed freely to select and devise his own way of ap- 
 proach to the pupils. 
 
 General questions that apply to any service are given on page 11. 
 
 1. (After asking some of the general questions.) Did you ever think before 
 
 how the world we live in is really the world we think about? How was it 
 
 (naming the leader) put it? One or two of the hymns had the same thought. So 
 did the Scripture lesson. Do you recall any other passages in the Bible about the 
 City of God or the Kingdom of God — e.g., Heb. 11:9-10, and the parables of the 
 kingdom (Matt. 13, etc.), Matt. 6:33, the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 2. As Christians what is it we are really trying to do in the world? What can 
 we (the class or the family or the club) do this year to help build the City of God? 
 
 3. Does a person have to be a citizen of any particular country? Is a person 
 obliged to be a citizen in God's City? What are some of the qualifications for 
 citizenship? Where can we find out? 
 
The House of Friendship * 
 
 Scripture: Isaiah 6i : i, 2a, 4-6, 8-1 1. 
 Psalm: 23. 
 
 Hymns: "Lead on, O King eternal;" "God of our fathers, whose almighty 
 hand ;" "The King of Love my shepherd is." 
 
 What kind of houses shall we build in the City of God? 
 
 Ever since we can remember we have all been building houses. 
 We began when we were very small and had blocks to play with. 
 We built houses with our blocks and then we knocked them down 
 again. Now that we are older perhaps some of us build houses out 
 of wood for our sisters to use for their dolls. Or it may be that we 
 build houses for our friends the birds to live in, or real houses, when 
 father or the carpenter helps us, for the car, or even to live in our- 
 selves in the summer. 
 
 But there is another kind of house that we all build. Castles in 
 the air we call them. They are "pretend" houses. You know the fair 
 palaces we build in our imaginations, full of mysterious dungeons 
 and secret passages and stairways and wonderful rooms. Or our 
 pretend houses are just made of things that are going to happen to us 
 when we grow up; there is the prince or the princess whom we will 
 marry some day; or there is that voyage we shall take to some far 
 distant country; or there is the work that we shall do that will 
 astonish the world. 
 
 And then there is another kind of house. It is very much like 
 the second kind, only it is not a pretend house. It hasn't any walls; 
 it hasn't any ceilings; it hasn't any floors. Yet it is a real house and 
 we live in it all the time. 
 
 When we are at school we live in a house of study. It has books 
 in it, and tools and pictures and laboratories. Our schoolmates are 
 
 * Reprinted from Everyland, April, 1919. 
 
 22 i 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 23 
 
 there, and so are all the people about whom we are studying. It 
 hasn't any walls; it hasn't any ceilings; it hasn't any floors. It is a 
 house of the spirit not made with hands. 
 
 At home we live in a house of rest and comfort. It is a house of 
 good times, and good things to eat and to read and to enjoy. And 
 this house has no walls, nor ceilings, nor floors. It is a house of the 
 spirit not made with hands. 
 
 What sort of a house are we building at Sunday school and church? 
 It is a Isigger house than all of these. It also is a house of the spirit; 
 for it has no walls; it has no ceilings; it has no floors. Yet it is a 
 very real house. I'll tell you what it is. It is the House of Friend- 
 ship. So many people live in it: our playmates and our teachers; our 
 fathers and mothers; the French orphans we adopted; the Armenian 
 children who would have starved to death if we had not shared our 
 food with them; all the great men and women, the heroes and heroines 
 of whom we are reading in school; all the friends we once knew but 
 whose faces we can no longer see; and Jesus, the great Friend. What 
 a big house it is! But it has to be a big house, for friendship is big. 
 
 Let us help build a House of Friendship, then, in the City of God. 
 The great Father will live in it with us if we want Him to. And if 
 He does, then our House of Friendship will be the House of God.* 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE IN GUIDING CONVTIRSATIONS CONCERNING THE SERVICE 
 
 (See note on page 20) 
 
 For general questions, see p. 11. Care must be taken not to force the idea 
 of the House of Friendship. Let it rather grow slowly and naturally. 
 
 I. In answering general questions and talking about the worship, the children 
 will of themselves say something about the House of Friendship. Let them tell 
 what it is, and how big it is. Let them suggest particular persons who belong to 
 their house of friendship. If the class has already started some form of service 
 the children may be asked whether they think this is helping to build the House of 
 Friendship. In a similar way, if the story has to do with some friendly deed or 
 some admired personality, this can be taken into the scheme by suggesting: Our 
 story to-day is about the very House of Friendship that we are building. 
 
 ♦Leaders who would like suggestions for appropriate prayers will find help in 
 the prayers of the Manual for Training in Worship. 
 
24 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 2. Older pupils will come to the idea somewhat more slowly. The boys, 
 although interested, may prefer not to talk about it. But they, too, can under- 
 stand that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Possibly the best thing to 
 do at this stage is to make casual references to the idea of the House of Friendship 
 during the class session and to make some use of the figure in the closing prayer 
 of the class or in the grace at Sunday dinner, and during the week in table con- 
 versation. 
 
3 
 
 The Friendly Engine * 
 
 Scripture: James i : 19-27. 
 Psalm: 27. 
 
 Hymns: "Father, hear the prayer we offer;" "Fight the good fight;" "Soldiers 
 of Christ, arise." 
 
 If it weren't for the railroads how very small our House of Friend- 
 ship would be. It would take so long to go from one room to another, 
 and to carry food and coal and other things folks need, from one 
 place to another. Yet last week we thought it would have to be 
 a big house, because friendship is so big. Of course there are many 
 places where there are no railroads yet, and many people that never 
 have a chance to ride. We wish they might, for we know what fun 
 it is to look out of the car window as we rush through the country 
 for miles and miles, and we know how much it means to us to have 
 good things brought to our very doors from all over the world. 
 
 One winter there was a tremendous snow-storm in the great city. 
 Day after day the snow fell fast and thick, until it was so deep that 
 people could hardly walk and the trains were all shut up in the sta- 
 tions. This was very serious indeed, for it meant that the children 
 could have no milk — the trains could not bring it in from the country. 
 
 Finally one man had a happy idea. He made his way through 
 the great drifts to the train shed and hunted around until he found 
 a big, black engine. Speaking very politely to the engine, he said 
 "Please, sir, we are in great trouble because we have no milk for the 
 children. I know it is very cold outside, and the snow is deep, but 
 won't you take me to the country so I can get the milk?" 
 
 But the big engine drew himself up proudly and said with a snort, 
 "I should like you to know that I am the fast express to Chicago. 
 I don't associate with milk trains!" 
 
 * Reprinted from Evcryland, May, 1919. 
 
 25 
 
26 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 One or two other engines felt the same way about it, but finally 
 the man found a little engine standing in a corner all by himself and 
 began to tell the engine all about the children who had no milk. Al- 
 most before he had finished speaking the little engine said, "I'm not 
 very big, but perhaps I could do that. Couple me up, and I'll try." 
 
 When the man heard that, he jumped into the engine cab, but- 
 toned up his coat, and turned up his collar. The little engine puffed 
 himself out of the shed and took hold of a train of cars that was 
 standing near by, and so they started into the storm. It was pretty 
 hard going, and the little engine cheered himself along by singing the 
 song you always hear the engines singing, sometimes slowly, some- 
 times very fast, "I think I can — I think I can." * 
 
 On and on they went, pushing their way through the snow 
 until they came to the open country. And all the time the little engine 
 was working as hard as he could work, and singing, "I think I can — 
 I think I can — I think I can." 
 
 It was bad enough on the level ground, but soon they came to a 
 hill, and the engine puffed and panted so that his song came out in 
 jerks : "I — think — I — can, — I — think — I — can." 
 
 Slowly and more slowly he went, so that it seemed as though he 
 never would reach the top. But on he puffed, a little farther, a little 
 higher, until he could just see the station lights winking at him through 
 the snow. Now for one last pull: " — I — think — I — can." 
 
 His breath was almost gone. "I think 1 can!" 
 
 And he did! 
 
 Then the farmers brought their milk in great cans, and it was 
 loaded on the cars, and the little engine, after he had rested a while, 
 turned around, took hold of the other end of the train, and started back 
 to the city and the hungry children. And all the way home he sang 
 a happy little song. It sounded like this: "I thought I could I thought 
 I could I thought I could." 
 
 We'd find it pretty hard to get along without the engines in our 
 House of Friendship! 
 
 * Repeated so as to give the sound of escaping steam. 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 27 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE IN GUIDING CONVERSATION CONCERNING THE SERVICE 
 
 For general questions, see p. ii. 
 
 1. Do you use anything or wear anything or eat anything that is not carried 
 to you on the railroads or on boats? What would happen if there weren't any 
 railroads or boats at all? Suppose you wanted to send a letter to a friend of 
 
 yours who lives in , what would you do? How would we know what is 
 
 happening in other parts of the world? And if there were no telegraph or tele- 
 phone? Yet there didn't used to be any of these things. People knew only their 
 next door neighbors in those days. Now everybody in all the world is a neighbor 
 of everyone else. 
 
 2. Do you remember a story Jesus told that was something like the story of 
 the friendly engine? (The Good Samaritan.) What do you suppose the man said 
 to the traveler who helped him? 
 
 3. Could people be friends if they could not talk or communicate in any way 
 with one another? What efifect on friendship does increasing power of communi- 
 cation have? We have often spoken of "world friendship." On what does this 
 depend for realization? Does our debt, as Christian idealists, to railroads and 
 other means of communication, involve us in obligations to those who operate them? 
 Do you suppose the railroad men know how much they are doing to make pos- 
 sible a real House of Friendship? 
 
4 
 
 A Friend to Somebody 
 
 Scripture: Luke 10:25-37, 
 Psalm: 146. 
 
 Hymns: "Let us with a gladsome mind;" "There's a wideness in God's mercy;" 
 "We thank Thee, O our Father." 
 
 We have with us in our House of Friendship a strange little per- 
 son by the name of Somebody. Somebody is well known to everyone 
 of us, but she is hard to find. She says many things and does many 
 things for us every day; but when we look for her, she cannot be 
 found. 
 
 Who is this Somebody? We knock at her door and she says, "Come 
 in," but when we enter she is not there. We can hear her singing, 
 but when we seek her she is gone. She sends us flowers with no card 
 in them. She writes us nice letters but forgets to sign her name. She 
 says complimentary things about us to our friends but they cannot 
 remember just who told them. She is always willing to help us. 
 
 When we are tired. Somebody says, "Cheer up!" When we are 
 lonesome. Somebody comes and plays with us. When we are sad, 
 Somebody makes us happy. When we are hungry, Somebody gives 
 us food. When our clothes and shoes wear out, Somebody buys us 
 new ones, 
 
 A boy found a pair of new glo\ es in his pocket one morning when 
 he was getting ready to come to church school, and when he asked his 
 mother who put them there, she said: "Oh, Somebody," 
 
 A little girl found a new doll in her playhouse, and said, "Mama, 
 who gave me this pretty doll?" And her mama said: "Somebody gave 
 it to you," 
 
 And when the teacher came into the schoolroom one morning she 
 found that all her pencils had been sharpened, and said to the chil- 
 
 28 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 29 
 
 dren: "Who did this for me?" And the children all cried together: 
 "Somebody did it." 
 
 And when some of the starving children of the countries in 
 Europe came to get milk and bread, which tasted better to them 
 than the best candy, they asked: "Who gave us the food?" And the 
 people told them: "Somebody over in America." Now can you 
 guess who Somebody is? 
 
 Isn't Somebody good to us? I wonder if we are always as good 
 to Somebody as Somebody is to us. Are we always on the lookout 
 for the chance to be kind to Somebody, or Somebody's mother, or 
 sister, or brother? I want to read you a poem called "Somebody's 
 Mother," about a boy who helped her. 
 
 "The woman was old and ragged and gray, 
 And bent with the chill of the winter's day, 
 The street was wet with recent snow, 
 And the woman's feet were aged and slow. 
 
 She stood at the crossing and waited long. 
 Alone, uncared for, amid the throng 
 Of human beings who passed her by, 
 Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye. 
 
 Down the street with laughter and shout, 
 Glad in the freedom of 'school let out,' 
 Came the boys like a flock of sheep, 
 Hailing the snow piled white and deep. 
 
 Past the woman so old and gray. 
 
 Hastened the children on their way, 
 
 Nor offered a helping hand to her, 
 
 So meek, so timid, afraid to stir, 
 
 Lest the carriage wheels or horses' feet 
 
 Should crowd her down in the slippery street. 
 
 At last came one of the merry troop. 
 The gayest laddie of all the group; 
 He paused beside her and whispered low, 
 'I'll help you across if you wish to go.' 
 
 Her aged hand on his strong young arm 
 She placed, and so, without hurt or harm. 
 He guided her trembling feet along, 
 Proud that his own were firm and strong. 
 
30 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 Then back again to his friends he went, 
 His young heart happy and well content, 
 'She's Somebody's Mother, boys, you know, 
 For all she's aged and poor and slow.' 
 
 And 'Somebody's Mother' bowed low her head. 
 In her home that night, and the prayer she said, 
 Was, 'God be kind to the noble boy, 
 Who is Somebody's son and pride and joy.' " 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE IN FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICE OF WORSHIP 
 
 General questions for each service will be found on p. ii. 
 
 1. Did you ever hear that poem before that (the leader of worship) 
 
 read? Would you like to hear it again? (Read it.) 
 
 2. The other day I sav^r a blind man at a crossing. He tapped with his stick, 
 to ask someone to help him across. Two boys were playing at the corner, right 
 beside the blind man, who could not see the cars and teams coming this way and 
 that. But the boys paid no attention to the blind man. They just went on with 
 their game as though he were not there at all. I expect they had never heard of 
 the House of Friendship. Do you suppose if they had heard that story of "Some- 
 body," and had listened to that old story of the Good Samaritan, and had sung 
 those songs we sang this morning, that they would have just kept on with their 
 game and never thought at all of anybody else? 
 
s 
 
 Little Gavroche * 
 
 Scripture: Gen. 18:2-8. 
 Psalm: 46. 
 
 Hymns: "O love of God, how strong and true;" "There's not a bird with 
 lonely nest;" "Our God, our help in ages past." 
 
 Do you suppose you could build a House of Friendship inside the 
 statue of an elephant? I know of a boy who did. And he lived in 
 the city, too. Perhaps that is why he could. The city is such a won- 
 derful place. Yet for some people it is very hard to live in the city. 
 Perhaps, just because it is hard, people have to have a House of 
 Friendship to live in, to make up for all the comfort and freedom 
 that other folks have. 
 
 But about that boy. His name was Gavroche. He lived on the 
 streets of Paris, for he had no father nor mother. He was white and 
 thin, but he was strong for his size, and he knew how to take care of 
 himself. One night, as he stood looking into a store window, he saw 
 two boys push open the door and ask the man inside for some money. 
 But the man chased them out, and they went off up the street, shiver- 
 ing and crying. 
 
 Running up to them, Gavroche said, "What's the matter?" 
 
 "We haven't any place to sleep," said the older of the two boys. 
 
 "Is that all?" cried Gavroche. "You come along with me." And, 
 taking the younger boy's hand, he led the way along the street. 
 
 Presently, as they passed a bakery, Gavroche turned to the boys 
 and said, "By the way, have you had any supper?" 
 
 "Supper!" said the older boy. "We haven't had anything to eat 
 since morning." 
 
 "Well," said Gavroche, "let's see what we can do here." 
 
 So he searched through all his ragged pockets till he found a 
 
 * Retold from Hugo, Les Miserablcs. Reprinted from Everyland, June, 1919. 
 
 31 
 
32 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 piece of money, and, going into the bakery with the two boys, he said 
 to the baker, "We want some bread, please." 
 
 There were three slices, so he thrust the two biggest pieces into 
 the hands of the hungry boys and ate the other piece himself. 
 
 "Now, come along," he said, and they went out into the street. 
 Pretty soon they came to a great square, and there in the middle stood 
 a huge plaster elephant as big as a house. For many years it had 
 been there, and it was all falling to pieces, and the rain and the sun 
 had turned it black; so it seemed like some mysterious monster loom- 
 ing up before them out of the darkness. 
 
 "You needn't be afraid," said Gavroche, for he saw that the two 
 boys did not want to go near the elephant; "you just follow me." 
 
 So he took a long ladder that some workmen had left near by and 
 somehow raised it up against the elephant's immense foreleg and told 
 the older boy to climb up. But he was afraid to go. At that Gavroche 
 scrambled up the leg of the elephant and climbed into a small hole, 
 where the plaster had fallen away. 
 
 "Come along!" he said; "I'll help you." So the older boy managed 
 to climb up the steep ladder till Gavroche could reach him and pull 
 him into the great, black body of the elephant. 
 
 "Now, you stay here," Gavroche said, and then slipped down to 
 the ground to help the younger boy, who stood there cold and crying, 
 between the elephant's legs. He was only five years old, so Gavroche 
 had to go up the ladder right behind him and help him climb into the 
 hole. 
 
 As soon as they were all inside, he kicked over the ladder and 
 shouted, "Now we're at home!" — for this was where Gavroche lived 
 all by himself. Covering up the hole they had crawled through, he 
 lit a piece of string that had been dipped in fat, so that they could 
 see the inside of the elephant by the smoky, flickering light. The 
 plaster had fallen down from the top so as to make a sort of even 
 floor, and over in one corner was a straw mat with a blanket on it. 
 This was his bed. 
 
 "We must go to bed now," said Gavroche, who knew that the 
 string candle would not last long. 
 
 Then the boys saw that the bed was under a sort of screen that was 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 33 
 
 supported by sticks. The edges of the screen were kept down by 
 stones. Lifting two of these, Gavroche showed the boys how to 
 get inside. Then he crawled in after them and fixed the stones in 
 place. 
 
 ''Now go to sleep," he said. So the boys curled up on the straw 
 mat, and Gavroche tucked them in under the blanket. Then he blew 
 out the candle. 
 
 No sooner was it all dark than the wire screen over their heads 
 began to tremble and shake, and the boys heard the scratching of 
 many feet and a strange squeaking noise. 
 
 "What's that?" whispered the little boy. 
 
 "Rats," said Gavroche in a low voice. 
 
 "What are rats?" whispered the Httle boy. 
 
 "Mice," said Gavroche. "They can't get in; that's what the 
 screen is for. Here! Take hold of my hand." 
 
 And so, while the wind blew and the rain poured down, the three 
 homeless boys slept warm and dry in the statue of an elephant, — and 
 because it was full of friendly feeling and kindness, it made a very 
 good House of Friendship indeed. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO BE USED IN CLASS AND HOME 
 
 General questions are printed on p. ii. 
 
 1. What makes our House of Friendship different from any other kind of 
 house? Is it really a house? What is it? 
 
 How do you suppose God must have felt when little Gavroche sheltered those 
 hungry boys? Do you remember the first verse of that hymn we sang? 
 
 "There's not a bird with lonely nest, 
 In pathless wood or mountain crest 
 Nor meaner thing, which does not share, 
 O God, in Thy paternal care." 
 
 What did Jesus say about the birds and the flowers and God's care? 
 
 2. Do you suppose we could make some rules about what people should do to 
 have a House of Friendship ? There was "The Friendly Engine," and "A Friend to 
 Somebody," and to-day there was "Little Gavroche," and by and by there will be 
 other stories that will help us find out what to do in the House of Friendship. If 
 
34 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 we could make the rules, then perhaps our class could help build the House and we 
 could each help at home and at school. Let's make one rule each Sunday. What 
 will the first rule be? 
 
 3. Have you read Les Miserablcs? There are some wonderful stories of 
 
 friendship in it. Possibly there are some we might suggest to (the leader 
 
 of worship) for our services. 
 
6 
 
 A Thanksgiving Adventure 
 
 Scripture: Luke 17:11-18. 
 Psalm: 145. 
 
 Hymns: "My God, I thank Thee;" "Praise to God, immortal praise;" "God is 
 love." 
 
 "All in favor say 'Yea.' " All the family at the breakfast table 
 said "Yea" except Dick, who sat sullenly with his head down. 
 
 "All opposed say 'Nay,' " said his father. Dick raised his head 
 and shouted "Nay." 
 
 The family was voting on whether or not they should have the 
 usual Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Morgan thought that since so much 
 food was being sent to Europe to feed the starving people there, his 
 family should help avoid the shortage by not having the usual Thanks- 
 giving feast. So he explained the situation and put it to a vote. All 
 voted in favor except Dick. Dick objected strenuously. 
 
 "Father," said Dick, "what is Thanksgiving, anyway, without the 
 dinner? It's just the same as none at all. What has a boy to be 
 thankful for except the turkey and cranberry sauce he eats?" 
 
 "Now, Dick," said his father kindly, "you have many things to 
 be thankful for if you would only stop and think." 
 
 "No, I haven't, either," replied Dick, who was very cross, for he 
 knew the majority ruled, and there would be no Thanksgiving dinner. 
 
 When Thanksgiving morning came, Dick made a half-hearted at- 
 tempt to think of things to be thankful for. But all he could think 
 of was the dinner which his mother and father and sister had voted not 
 to have. The more he thought about it the angrier he became; until 
 finally he decided that he wouldn't stay at home that day. Just the 
 week before he had been up at his grandfather's farm in the country. 
 He knew they would have a fine dinner there. He would go there just 
 
 35 
 
36 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 for the day and come back again. He did not dare to ask for per- 
 mission because he had been there so recently, so he got his hat and 
 coat, sHpped quietly out of the house, and started for the train. 
 
 He took the subway for the railway station, but somehow he got 
 confused and boarded the wrong train. When he got out and climbed 
 up to the street again he didn't know where he was. He knew he was 
 lost, but he didn't dare ask a policeman for fear he would be taken 
 back home again. So he wandered about almost all morning looking 
 for the railroad station. After a while Dick began to get very hungry. 
 
 Turning into a dark street he saw some boys about his own age 
 playing tag. Although they looked rather rough, Dick finally got 
 up courage to ask one of them where he could find a place to eat. 
 As soon as the boy found out that Dick had had no dinner and was 
 hungry, he said, "Come on home with me and I'll give you some of 
 mine." Dick followed the boy, who was dirty as could be, with an 
 old coat and patched trousers, along a dark alley until they came to a 
 rickety flight of stairs. Three flights up they climbed, and then 
 Dick's friend led him to a room in the rear filled with dust and smoke 
 and bad air. 
 
 "What's this you've got with you?" snapped a voice which belonged 
 to Dick's friend's mother. 
 
 "Oh, this is a boy who got lost," said Sam (Sam was the boy's 
 name). "I asked him home to eat with us. It's Thanksgiving to-day, 
 and everybody ought to have something to eat." 
 
 "Don't you know we don't have enough for you to eat, let alone 
 others?" stormed the angry woman. Dick thought to himself: "My 
 goodness, I'm glad my mother doesn't talk that way to me. I wish 
 I was back with Mother now." 
 
 Stamp! Stamp! down the hall outside. The father came in, and 
 all the children were very quiet. Everyone seemed afraid of what 
 might happen. 
 
 "What's this boy doing here?" roared the father, a big, rough 
 man with a deep voice. 
 
 "Oh, father," pleaded Sam, "please let him stay. He is lost and 
 very hungry." 
 
 "I will pay you," said Dick, as he happened to think of his rail- 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 37 
 
 road fare. The man took all his money and seemed to be satisfied, 
 so Dick sat down to dinner with them. It was a very simple meal. 
 Apparently Sam's father hadn't ever heard of Thanksgiving. 
 
 But even though Dick was hungry, he couldn't eat much after all, 
 for the food wasn't clean, and he was homesick. He thought of how 
 kind his parents were, of what a nice home he had, of his school and 
 his beautiful toys and books. He had never been so homesick before 
 in all his life. 
 
 After dinner the father said: "There's no place here for this lad 
 to sleep; I'm going to take him to the police station." Dick was glad 
 enough to go. And when the police finally found out where he lived 
 and got him home again it was just in time for six o'clock dinner. 
 Dick told the story of his wanderings. And when the family sat down 
 to the table Dick thought: "My! what a feast!" But it was only the 
 simple dinner that the family had planned. 
 
 After dinner Dick went into the library and got his notebook and 
 his pencil and wrote his diary. And at the end he made a list of all 
 the things he had to be thankful for. It covered the whole page and 
 part of the next one. Do you think you could guess what went into 
 that list of his? 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 FOR FOLLOWING UP THE SERVICE 
 
 For general questions to be used in connection with this service, see p. ii. 
 
 1. Hov^r long is it before Thanksgiving? What is Thanksgiving for? Do you 
 think we ought to do anything to get ready for Thanksgiving? What? 
 
 2. How do you suppose your mother and father feel when they see you hav- 
 ing such a good time on Thanksgiving? Wouldn't you like to help some other 
 children to have a happy Thanksgiving? How could we do it? 
 
 3. Is there any difference between real gratitude and pharisaic complacency? 
 What light do these words of Jesus throw on this? Luke 18:9-14; Matt. 5:43-48. 
 
7 
 
 A Great Feast 
 
 Scripture: (to be read in connection with the story) Mark 6:35-42. 
 Psalm: 103. 
 
 Hymns: "For the beauty of the earth;" "My God, I thank Thee, who hast 
 made;" "We thank Thee, O our Father." 
 
 I don't suppose we can ever be wholly thankful until everybody is 
 happy; until everyone in the world has enough of all the good things 
 that some have. Surely in the House of Friendship everyone should 
 have enough. Strange and mysterious things happen in the House 
 of Friendship, but none is stranger than this, that somehow or other 
 it seems as though in a real House of Friendship there is enough for 
 everybody. 
 
 Do you remember the story of the old woman who did not have 
 much to eat? When Elijah came along and asked for something, she 
 didn't want to give him any at first, for fear she and her son might 
 not have enough. But when she really took the old man into her 
 house of friendship and shared what she had with him, she found to 
 her surprise that she had enough and to spare. 
 
 And do you remember the time when Jesus was talking to a 
 great crowd of people who had come a long way from home to listen 
 to him? By and by they got tired and hungry, and it didn't seem as 
 though there was much of anything to eat. But Jesus, you remember, 
 showed them how to build a house of friendship, and when they did 
 so they discovered that there was enough for everybody. This is the 
 way Mark tells the story. (Read at this point Mark 6:35-42.) 
 
 That doesn't seem possible, does it? And yet things like that go 
 on in the House of Friendship every day. Shall I tell you how? Well, 
 I don't think I'll tell you how, but Til tell you a story that some- 
 body told me once, and the story will tell you how. 
 
 38 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 39 
 
 Once the Play Angel came into a nursery where four children sat 
 on the floor with sad and troubled faces. 
 
 "What is the matter, children?" asked the Play Angel. 
 
 "We wanted to have a grand feast!" said the child whose nursery 
 it was. 
 
 "Yes, that would be delightful!" said the Play Angel. 
 
 "But there is only one cooky!" said the child whose nursery it 
 was. 
 
 "And it is a very small cooky," said the child who was a cousin, 
 and therefore felt a right to speak. 
 
 "Not big enough even for myself!" said the child whose nursery 
 it was. 
 
 The other children said nothing, but they looked at the little 
 cooky with mournful eyes, and their mouths went up in the middle 
 and down at the sides. 
 
 "Well," said the Play Angel, "suppose we have the feast just the 
 same! I think we can manage it." She broke the cooky into four 
 pieces and gave one piece to the littlest child. 
 
 "See!" she said. "This is roast chicken. It is just as brown and 
 crispy as it can be, and there is cranberry sauce on one side, and on 
 the other a little mountain of mashed potato; it must be a volcano, it 
 smokes so. Do you see?" 
 
 "Yes!" said the littlest one; and his mouth went down in the mid- 
 dle and up in the corners. 
 
 The Play Angel gave a piece to the next child. 
 
 "Here," she said, "is a little pie! Outside, as you see, it is brown 
 and crusty, with a wreath of pastry leaves around the edge; but inside 
 it is all chicken and ham and jelly and hard-boiled eggs. Did you 
 ever see such a pie?" 
 
 "Never I did!" said the child. 
 
 "Now, here," said the angel to the third child, "is a round cake. 
 Look at it! The frosting is half an inch thick, with candied rose leaves 
 and angelica laid on top; and inside there are chopped-up almonds 
 and raisins and great slices of citron. It is the prettiest cake I ever 
 saw, and the best." 
 
 "So it is I did!" said the third child. 
 
40 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 Then the angel gave the last piece of cooky to the child whose 
 nursery it was. 
 
 "My dear!" she said, "just look! Here is an ice cream rabbit. 
 He is snow white outside, with eyes of red barley sugar; see his ears, 
 and his little snubby tail! But inside, I think you will find him 
 pink. 
 
 "Now, when I clap my hands and count one, two, three, you must 
 eat the feast all up. One, two, three!" 
 
 So the children ate the feast all up. 
 
 "There!" said the angel. "Did you ever see such a grand feast?" 
 
 "No, never we did!" said all the four children together. 
 
 "But you didn't have any!" said the child whose nursery it was. 
 
 "Oh, yes!" said the angel. "I had it all!" * 
 
 PRAYER t 
 
 O God, our Heavenly Father, we rejoice and give thanks for all 
 Thy wonderful works. Thou dost indeed deal with us not as we 
 deserve, but according to Thy great love for us. Thou hast abundantly 
 blessed the labor of those who work in garden and field and orchard. 
 The golden harvests are gathered in. Bountiful provision for the 
 winter's need awaits us. And we are glad. 
 
 As we have prayed for our daily bread, so have we prayed for 
 the coming of Thy Kingdom, that all Thy children may have more 
 abundant life. Keep us from selfishly claiming Thy blessings for our- 
 selves and refusing to share them with others. We thank Thee for 
 the blessedness of giving. We thank Thee that we are able to give, 
 for it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. 
 
 May all that we possess of ease and security and friendship only 
 make us the more eager to share our blessings with those who have 
 made us happy, and with those who have none of the good things 
 of life which we enjoy. 
 
 Hasten the time, O God, when all men shall be as brothers; when 
 
 * Adapted from "The Great Feast," in Tlu^ Golden JJ'indozvs, by Laura E. 
 Richards. Copyright, 1903, by Little, Brown & Co. 
 
 t From the Manual for Training in JVorship. pp. 44 and 37. Copyright, 1915, 
 by Charles Scribner's Sons, 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 41 
 
 all occasions for war and suffering shall cease; and the whole world 
 shall grow into the fellowship of an eternal peace. 
 
 In the name of the great friend and elder brother, Jesus Christ. 
 Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO BE USED AFTER THE SERVICE OF WORSHIP 
 
 Certain important questions for each service will he found on p. ii. 
 
 1. Do you suppose we could be "play angels" and make a great feast like 
 that for somebody? I expect those pieces of bread little Gavroche gave to the 
 boys seemed like a great feast. 
 
 (Presumably many classes and homes will be planning a Thanksgiving dinner 
 for some family.) 
 
 Perhaps we'll have to get the same Play Angel to help us, instead of trying 
 to be play angels ourselves. We might really play this story. We would be the 
 "boy whose nursery it was." Who would the other children be? 
 
 2. There is something like magic about friendship. Have you ever noticed 
 it? Have you ever seen strange things happen like what happened in the story told 
 this morning? How about Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch? Can we make 
 another rule for the House of Friendship to-day? 
 
 3. If the House of Friendship were finished, would there be any need for our 
 sending someone a Thanksgiving dinner? Why not? If we do send these dinners, 
 have we done all that the situation requires of us as Christians? 
 
8 
 
 Bob Chase's Vacation 
 
 thanksgiving in the house of friendship 
 
 Scripture: Matt. 25 : 14-30. 
 
 Psalm: 103. 
 
 Hymns: "Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore him;" "We plow the fields 
 and scatter;" ''For the beauty of the earth;" "We've a story to tell to the nations." 
 
 Appropriate portions of the President's or Governor's Thanksgiving Procla- 
 mation. 
 
 Bobby Chase lived in a suburb of the great city. Every morning 
 his father hurried away after breakfast to catch the early train that 
 took him to business, and every evening he came home just in time 
 for dinner. Bobby was thirteen, so he was able to do a good many 
 things at home. He took care of the furnace in winter, and shoveled 
 the snow from the walks, and in the summer he cut the grass and 
 helped with the garden. His mother had no maid, so he helped her 
 about the house a good deal also. 
 
 But he was thirteen, and he had many outside things to do. He 
 belonged to two clubs, each of which met once a week. He was on a 
 basketball team and that took lots of practice. Now and then there 
 was a party to go to and of course he had to go to the movies at least 
 once a week, and then he had his studying to do. Naturally he was 
 beginning to feel as though he had no time for errands and dishes. 
 
 One morning Bobby overslept. Or if he did hear his mother call 
 him he didn't get up right away, and when he came downstairs his 
 father had already gone. Bobby had hardly time to get something to 
 eat before starting for school, and so he couldn't fix the furnace nor 
 build the kitchen fire, but had to leave all that for his mother to do. 
 His mother remonstrated with him about it, at which he got angry. 
 "Now, look here, mother," he said, "I've been taking care of that 
 furnace for two years. I can't do everything about this house and go 
 
 42 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 43 
 
 to school too." And he went out and slammed the door behind him. 
 
 That afternoon at the club meeting Bobby asked the other boys 
 if they had to do a lot of things at home, and it appeared that they 
 did not. Indeed, he was almost the only boy who had to help about 
 the house. So that night after dinner Bobby said to his father, *Ta, 
 I'm not going to do any more work 'round here. I'm thirteen and I 
 have an awful lot to do at school. I've been working 'round this 
 place all summer cutting grass and raking leaves, and now I'm going to 
 take a vacation." 
 
 Now, his father was a very wise father, and so instead of getting 
 angry at Bobby, he said, "Why, that's all right. I think you do need 
 a vacation. You can pretend that you're a guest here. You can be 
 'Mr. Chase' and your mother and I will entertain you. As long as 
 your vacation lasts you needn't do a thing," 
 
 "That's mighty white of you," said Bobby, and he went off to do 
 some studying. 
 
 Sure enough, the next morning his mother did not call him. But 
 Bobby heard his father get up and go down early to fix the furnace 
 and build the kitchen fire. When Bobby came downstairs his father 
 had gone to work and again Bobby had just time to snatch some break- 
 fast and get to school. 
 
 When he came home at noon he didn't go down to take care of 
 the furnace as he usually did, but sat down to read the Youth's 
 Companion instead. Presently he heard his mother go downstairs and 
 rake the fire and put on some coal. Now, she was not very well, and 
 he knew that she ought not to have to do such heavy work, but he 
 said to himself, "I'm not going to do it. I'm on my vacation. And, 
 anyway, if she does some of this work maybe she'll appreciate me 
 more." And he kept on with his paper. 
 
 Pretty soon they sat down to lunch. Bobby usually changed the 
 plates, but this time his mother waited on table, for Bobby was a guest 
 and of course it would not be proper for a guest to do that. "Anyway," 
 thought Bobby, "I'm on my vacation, and maybe if she does it awhile 
 she'll appreciate me more." Lunch was rather a formal affair, for of 
 course Bobby's mother had to entertain her guest, and Bobby was glad 
 
44 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 when it was over. After lunch, instead of helping with the dishes, he 
 went into the other room and read some more. 
 
 Presently he heard his mother putting on her things. "Where are 
 you going?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh, I'm just going down town to buy the nuts and raisins for 
 Thanksgiving." 
 
 Now, Bobby had always bought the nuts and raisins for Thanks- 
 giving. It was his special privilege, and he certainly did want to go. 
 But of course he was a guest and it was not customary for guests to 
 run errands; and so he said to himself, "Oh, well, it's all right for 
 her to do it. Maybe if she runs errands a few times she'll appreciate 
 me more." And so he let her go. 
 
 Of course Bobby hadn't swept the walks and the steps all day, 
 and so when his father got home he had to go out, tired as he was, and 
 do it himself. Bobby watched him from the window. He felt as 
 though he ought to go out there and do it, but he held himself in and 
 said, "No. It's all right. I'm on my vacation. And, anyway, if he 
 does it awhile maybe he'll appreciate me more." 
 
 When dinner was ready what was Bobby's surprise to find his 
 mother all dressed up and his father in a dress suit. You see Bobby 
 was a guest. And so his father and mother talked learnedly about 
 politics and prices and literature and things Bobby didn't understand. 
 All Bobby could do was to try to look intelligent and pretend he was 
 a guest. After dinner they all went into the parlor, and, as luck would 
 have it, Bobby sat on a stiff, uncomfortable chair. The conversation 
 touched lightly now on music, and art, and babies, while Bobby got 
 more and more restless. If he had been just Bobby Chase he could 
 have sat in the living-room, or got out his lead soldiers, or gone to bed. 
 But, of course, since he was Mr. Chase, and a guest, he just had to sit 
 still and pretend to be interested. 
 
 By and by his father excused himself and went down to fix the fur- 
 nace and get the house locked up for the night, and Bobby took ad- 
 vantage of his absence to slip away and go to bed. But before he got 
 to sleep he heard his mother and father talking and laughing as they 
 washed the dinner dishes. His door was open and he couldn't help 
 hearing what they said. They were talking about him. 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 45 
 
 "You ought to have seen his face while I was sweeping the side- 
 walks," said his father. "It was the funniest thing I ever saw. He 
 couldn't decide whether he wanted to be Bobby or Mr. Chase." 
 
 "It was just the same when I went down town to do an errand," 
 said his mother. "He couldn't decide whether to be a guest or just 
 Bobby." 
 
 "The trouble with Bobby," said his father, "is that he hasn't enough 
 to do. When I was a boy, I lived on a farm. I had to get up long 
 before daylight every morning and milk three cows, and then after 
 breakfast I had to walk four miles to school, and when school was 
 over I had to walk four miles home again, and then help with the 
 chores before supper. The trouble with Bobby is that he hasn't 
 enough to do." 
 
 "Humph!" said Bobby, and went to sleep. 
 
 But he didn't sleep very well. He had bad dreams. He dreamed 
 he had to walk miles and miles to school, and it seemed as though 
 he never, never would get there. The farther he went, the farther 
 away the school would be. And in the middle of the night he had to 
 climb out of bed in the cold and go out into the great barn and milk 
 a thousand cows. Long, long rows of cows, as far as he could see. 
 And his legs ached with walking and his arms ached with milking, and 
 he was completely exhausted. 
 
 Just then he woke up. My, what a relief it was to find he did not 
 have to milk a thousand cows nor walk miles and miles to school! He 
 was just Bobby Chase, and all he had to do was to fix the furnace. 
 And then he remembered he was on a vacation. "Vacation?" he said 
 to himself. "Vacation? Where did I get that idea anyway?" And 
 all at once it came over him how silly he had been and how he had 
 heard his folks laughing at him. 
 
 "Vacation?" he said in disgust. "Why, I guess my mother hasn't 
 had a vacation in ten years, nor my father either. Look here, Bobby 
 Chase, you'd better get busy and do something, and show your folks 
 how much you really do think of them. To-day's Thanksgiving, and 
 a mighty good day to begin." 
 
 So he got up and started downstairs to fix the furnace. On the 
 
46 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 way down he met his father bound on the same errand. "Why, good 
 morning, Mr. Chase," said his father. "Anything the matter?" 
 
 "Mr. Chase, nothing," said Bobby. "My name's Robert. And 
 say, this vacation business is all off. I'm working to-day." 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 We are very glad, our Father, that the earth yields food for the 
 children of men, and flowers for their happiness. Thou dost abun- 
 dantly provide for the needs of all thy children. Thou sendest thy 
 rain and thy sun to bless not just some of us, but all of us. And yet 
 some of us, some of us, O God, have been so greedy and have taken so 
 much more than our share that others of us do not have enough to 
 eat, nor to wear, and never see any flowers at all. 
 
 Forgive us, our Father, for supposing, because we have plenty 
 to eat and a warm place to live, that Thou dost love us better than 
 others. We do not deserve more than others. Grant, O God, 
 that we may justify our privilege by our service. Every gift of Thy 
 bounty we would share. 
 
 "We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, 
 We have hard work to do, and loads to lift." 
 
 Strengthen us, therefore, by the power of thine own great spirit, that 
 we may not falter in our duty, nor give way to our own selfish whims 
 and moods. 
 
 And may Thy Kingdom come, O God, the Kingdom of friend- 
 ship and joy and peace for all mankind. 
 
 We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. 
 
9 
 
 A Bag of Sugar 
 
 Scripture: Matt. 25 : 34-40. 
 Psalm: 95 : i-7a. 
 
 Hymns: "My God, I thank Thee;" "O beautiful for spacious skies;" "It came 
 upon the midnight clear." 
 
 Thanksgiving is over. What happy associations gather around 
 that word. It has been a happy day ever since the first Thanksgiving 
 so long ago when the Indians came and celebrated the gathering in 
 of the first harvest with the early settlers. Of course the Thanksgiv- 
 ing dinner is the best part of it, with the turkey and the cranberry 
 sauce and the pumpkin pie. But, do you know I believe some of 
 you have been discovering lately that it is just about as much fun to 
 get a Thanksgiving dinner for someone else as it is to have one your- 
 self. And even if you don't think it is just as much fun, you know 
 very well that you ought to do it. You know very well that it is not 
 fair that anyone should go hungry. 
 
 Do you remember what our hymn that we have just sung calls 
 this going shares with others? The hymn says, 
 
 "And crown thy good with brotherhood, 
 From sea to shining sea." 
 
 When some of you planned that Thanksgiving dinner for some friends 
 of yours and paid for it out of your own money, you crowned your 
 good with brotherhood. When you went without sodas and candy and 
 sent your money to feed the starving Armenian children, you crowned 
 your good with brotherhood, When some of you got up a play and 
 used the proceeds to adopt a French orphan, you were crowning your 
 good with brotherhood. 
 
 The other day I read a story about some girls who did just this 
 thing. Their names were Mary and Alice and Helen. It was during 
 
 47 
 
48 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 the war, and they didn't have any sugar. They couldn't make any 
 candy, and their mothers and fathers couldn't have sugar in their 
 coffee, and none of them had sugar for cakes or cookies or pies or 
 any of the sweet things we all like so much. And so they had come to 
 the store to see whether they could get some. The store man said 
 they could have two pounds apiece. That would not go a great way 
 in a big family, and they couldn't have any more for a long time. 
 So it was very precious. 
 
 Just as they were coming out of the store, something dreadful 
 happened. Alice stumbled, and her bag of sugar fell to the ground and 
 burst all open, and the sugar was spilled in the muddy gutter. And 
 she couldn't have any more. What do you suppose Mary did? Do 
 you think she said, "Oh, you careless thing! What made you do 
 that?" No, she didn't say that. Or do you think she said, ''Oh, Alice, 
 I'm terribly sorry you lost your sugar." No, she didn't even say that. 
 She went back into the store and got another bag, and then she put 
 one-third of her sugar into it. Helen saw what she was doing and be- 
 gan edging toward home. She wasn't going to give away any of her 
 sugar. Not she. But Mary looked at her, and held open the bag 
 that had a third of her own sugar in it; and Helen stopped edging 
 away, and just looked glum. "Come on, Helen," said Mary. And so 
 finally Helen came up and put one-third of her sugar in the bag, and 
 they gave the bag to poor Alice. And so they all had the same 
 amount of sugar, and they were all happy, for Alice had her sugar, 
 which she had lost, and Helen had her self-respect, which she had 
 almost lost. 
 
 I would like to have been Alice, and to have had friends like 
 that, who were willing to do the square thing by me when I was in 
 trouble. I'd like to have been Helen, too, and to have overcome my- 
 self the way she did, and have kept my selfishness from getting in my 
 way when I really wanted to do the right thing. But I would like 
 best of all to have been Mary, and to hjive — but I don't need to tell 
 you why I would like to have been Mary, as you know why already. 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 49 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Some of us are only five years old, our Father. Some of us have 
 only just begun to come to this place Sunday by Sunday. Some of us 
 are much older, and have been coming here for years. We are all 
 here together now in this place of worship. And we are glad that it 
 doesn't make any difference how old or how young we are, but that 
 Thou art listening to us all and speaking to us all. 
 
 Each one of us out of his own heart speaks to Thee to-day of some- 
 thing he alone is especially grateful for — perhaps for being able to 
 gain a good mark at school, or to go to a party. But we are glad 
 most of all for what we can have all together — for our Thanksgiving 
 holiday, for this school, for homes and friends, for all the good things 
 which everybody ought to have, and which it is not fair for us to have 
 all to ourselves. And so we are grateful, our Father, for everything 
 that brings happiness and opportunity and health to all Thy children. 
 
 Thou hast permitted us to take part in this work of bringing 
 the good things of life to those whom Thou dost love, and who have 
 a right to these things — our friends here for whose Thanksgiving din- 
 ner we were responsible, our little friends in Syria and Armenia 
 to whom we are sending the money by which they can get something 
 to eat and to wear. We are not proud of what we have done, our 
 Father, for it has been very little in proportion to the splendid things 
 other people have done for us. But we want to do more, for we feel 
 that it is only fair that we should help make good things go around, 
 and we are glad for what everyone is doing to build the House of 
 Friendship in the City of God. 
 
 Teach us, therefore, to follow the Master, Jesus Christ, who was the 
 great helper and champion of men. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO BE USED IN FURTHERING THE EFFECTS OF THE WORSHIP 
 
 General questions are on p. ii. 
 
 I. There is a good deal of happiness in the world, isn't there? Enough to 
 go all the way around, do you think? What makes unhappiness for so many 
 
50 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 people? What do you suppose the Father in Heaven thinks about it? What do 
 you suppose He wants us to do about it? 
 
 2. We ought to be able to make another rule to-day for the House of Friend- 
 ship. You know all cities have charters and also ordinances or laws which the 
 people make for the guidance of their conduct. The rules we are making now 
 might be "Section I of The Ordinances of the City of God." Has the City of 
 God a charter? Where would we look for it? 
 
 3. Have you found any stories in Lcs Miserables or elsewhere that 
 
 (the leader of worship) might use for these services on the House of Friendship? 
 How would it do to write one? 
 
10 
 
 The House of God 
 
 Scripture: Acts 17:16-28. 
 Psalm: 23. 
 
 Hymns: "The King of Love my shepherd is;" '"Wise men from the East 
 come;" "While shepherds watched their flocks;" "O little town of Bethlehem." 
 
 The House of Friendship that we are building is not like the houses 
 that we live in. It has neither doors nor windows, nor floors, nor walls, 
 nor ceilings. It is built without all these things because our friends 
 and the things they do cannot be shut up in walls. 
 
 There was once a man who thought that God lived in a house just 
 like the ones we live in. This man's name was Solomon, and he was 
 the son of King David. When David died Solomon became King of 
 Israel, The people of Israel at that time had no churches such as we 
 have to worship in, so they went up on a mountain and put up a big 
 tent and worshiped there. David wanted to build a house for God, 
 but he was told to wait and let Solomon build it. But even before 
 David had died the people had brought enough iron, brass, precious 
 stones and other things to put into the new temple. Everyone wanted 
 to help build this house for God to live in. 
 
 So when David died, the young King Solomon began the work 
 on the house of God. The Bible says that seventy-three thousand 
 men went to work carrying materials to Jerusalem, because in those 
 days they had no railroads to haul things. Then eighty thousand more 
 men went into the mountains to cut stone for the walls of the house. 
 And to get wood for the house they had to send to the mountains of 
 Lebanon, many miles away, for there were not many big trees in 
 Palestine. Solomon also asked the King of Tyre to have the trees 
 carved into beautiful shapes, and to send men to him who knew how to 
 work in brass and gold and silver to make ornaments for the house. 
 All this the King of Tyre did. He sent the skilled workers, and ordered 
 
 51 
 
52 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 thousands of men into the mountains to hew logs and drag them down 
 to the sea to be floated to Jerusalem. 
 
 How hard the people worked to finish the house of God! Month 
 by month the building grew until at last it was finished. How beau- 
 tiful it was! It had big pillars in front and wide porches all the way 
 around, making the outside more wonderful than any building had 
 ever been before. But the inside was even more splendid. Every- 
 where there were fine gold and silver and thousands of precious stones. 
 The tables were gold, the vases were gold, the candlesticks were 
 gold. There were all kinds of pots and vessels, bowls and spoons, 
 some of gold and some of burnished brass. 
 
 After the house was finished Solomon called all the people together. 
 They sang psalms and praised God and dedicated this dazzling new 
 temple to Him. But after it was all over, Solomon looked at the 
 wonderful building and said: 
 
 "Behold, if the heavens and the earth cannot contain Thee, O 
 Lord, how much less can this house which I have built." 
 
 So, although many of the Jews still thought that God could be 
 shut up in a house, Solomon knew better. In later years the Greeks 
 also believed, some of them, that their gods lived in houses. But 
 when the Apostle Paul preached to them in Athens, he told them that 
 God dwells not in temples made by hands. And Jesus told the woman 
 at the well of Sychar that "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him 
 must worship Him in spirit and in truth." 
 
 So the House of God is not a house of windows, doors, ceilings, 
 nor walls. It is a House of Friendship, which we build by doing kind 
 deeds and loving others. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 O God, our Father, we thank Thee that love is everywhere. We 
 thank Thee that our friends are always with us, and that where they 
 are and where love is, Thou art. We thank Thee that we have 
 churches and houses in which we can worship Thee, but we thank 
 Thee, too, that Thou canst be found outside as well as inside these 
 houses. We are glad that Thou dost speak to us in so many ways. 
 We see Thee in the sunshine and the flowers and the lives of our 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 53 
 
 friends. Help us, O Father, to learn to love Thee more and find in 
 Thee the great Companion. We ask it in the name of Jesus, the 
 friend of all mankind. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO BE USED AS A BASIS FOR DISCUSSING THE SERVICE 
 
 It is best to begin with the general questions on p. ii. 
 
 1. Thanksgiving is behind us. What is just ahead of us? Did any of our 
 songs remind you of it? Thanksgiving is a friendly time, isn't it? Do you think 
 Christmas is, too? What do we do at Christmas time? 
 
 2. Do you remember the Call to Worship we are using now in our service? 
 We had another talk sometime ago about the House of God. It was when we first 
 began our House of Friendship. Perhaps we thought at first that a house of the 
 spirit was not something real. What do you think about it now? 
 
 3. Do you suppose the Twenty-third Psalm was ever used in the temple wor- 
 ship? What do you think the author meant by "the house of God"? What do 
 you suppose the worship at the great festivals was like? Perhaps some Jewish 
 schoolmates will describe what their church worship is like to-day, or we might 
 visit a synagogue sometime. The Hebrew prayer book has many beautiful prayers 
 in it. Would you like to see them? What kind of worship do you think God 
 really wants? 
 
II 
 
 Christmas in the House of Friendship 
 a boy who helped a prince 
 
 (A fanciful story, suitable for some portion of the Christmas season) 
 
 There was once a king who ruled over a very large kingdom — 
 so large, in fact, that he could not look after everything himself. So 
 he got his son, the Prince, to help him, and he gave him one of the 
 most important of all his former duties to see to, namely, that of 
 making the people good. 
 
 Now, of course, the Prince could not make all the people good at 
 once, so he decided he would try to make one person good every day. 
 This meant that in a year he would be able to change three hundred 
 and sixty-five bad persons into good persons. It was a very fine plan 
 indeed. 
 
 But the Prince could not do all this by himself, so he got a big 
 policeman to help him. Each morning the policeman set out on his 
 rounds, swinging his club and keeping a strict watch for wicked 
 people, and each day at twelve o'clock the Prince seated himself on 
 his throne and waited to see whom the policeman would bring to him. 
 On the very first day, just at twelve o'clock, the policeman came sol- 
 emnly in, leading a very angry man, who the Prince saw at once 
 was a farmer. The policeman brought the farmer right up to the 
 throne and made a low bow. 
 
 "What has this man done?" asked the Prince. 
 
 "May it please Your Highness," replied the policeman, "he is a very 
 bad farmer. Last night when a neighbor's cow broke through a fence 
 into his corn-field and ate only a very little of the corn, he grew ter- 
 ribly angry and beat the poor cow until it was nearly dead. And I 
 
 54 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 55 
 
 have heard that he always behaves like that ; he never forgives anyone 
 who hurts him in the least manner, even if it occurs accidentally." 
 
 The Prince saw that this man with the cruel and unforgiving heart 
 would be very hard indeed to cure. He hardly knew what to do. 
 After thinking a long while and not arriving at any solution, he de- 
 cided to go for a walk with the farmer that afternoon, because he 
 could always think better when he was walking. 
 
 They walked and walked and walked and all the while the Prince 
 kept wondering how he could make this farmer better. He wanted to 
 teach him somehow to forgive people — yet he could not think of any 
 plan. So he walked faster and then still faster, but without the least 
 success, until at last they came to a street where a little boy and girl 
 were playing with a ball. It was a beautiful ball, painted all over with 
 red and green and yellow colors, and naturally the ragged little boy 
 to whom it belonged was very proud of it. Now, just as the Prince 
 and the farmer came along an awful thing happened, — the little 
 girl made a bad throw and the beautiful ball rolled down the gutter, 
 and fell at last between the iron gratings right into the sewer! When 
 the farmer saw this happen he became angry at the careless girl, and he 
 was sure the ragged boy would become angry too. But the little boy 
 astonished him, for he didn't grow angry a bit; instead he brushed a 
 tear from his eye, and though it hurt his feelings to lose the ball, he 
 walked right over to the little girl, and said: "Don't you mind, I don't 
 care if the ball is lost." 
 
 Something wonderful happened in the farmer's heart when he 
 saw that. He grew miserable and ashamed when he remembered how 
 he had beaten the cow, — so miserable and ashamed, in fact, that his 
 heart was changed from a hard and cruel one to a very tender and 
 forgiving one. Never again was the farmer angry and unforgiving 
 when anyone did him an injury, but as long as he lived everyone 
 liked him because he was kind and overlooked trifling troubles. 
 
 The next day at twelve o'clock sharp the Prince again seated him- 
 self on his throne and called for his policeman. Presently he entered, 
 this time leading a tall and gruff-looking man, who wore a high silk 
 hat. 
 
 "What has this man done?" asked the Prince. 
 
56 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 "Please, sir, he is always harsh and thoughtless, and has never been 
 known to do a kind deed for anybody," replied the policeman. 
 
 Again the Prince was obliged to take the bad man for a walk, and 
 again, though he walked ever so fast, he could think of no way to 
 change him. Just as the Prince was about to give up in despair, along 
 came a butcher's cart with a ragged little boy riding merrily behind. 
 Presently the cart stopped, the boy jumped off, and the Prince and the 
 hard-hearted man saw him pick up a little bluebird that was fluttering 
 on the grass. And when they came up they noticed that the little bird 
 had hurt its wing and was no longer able to fly. All that was needed 
 was a little bit of care while the wing grew strong again, so the little 
 boy tenderly carried it home, where he could nurse it better, 
 
 "How foolish for anyone to care about a little bird; better to have 
 killed it then and there," said the hard-hearted man. 
 
 But as they walked home, the more he thought of that boy's 
 kindness the more he liked it in spite of himself, and by the time he 
 had reached the palace, he concluded it was the finest thing he had 
 ever seen. And never again was he hard and unfriendly and thought- 
 less, thinking only of himself, but as long as he lived everyone liked 
 him because he was always ready to lend a hand and do a good turn. 
 
 Now, on the third day at the very same hour, when the palace 
 clock was striking twelve, the Prince sat on his throne again, and be- 
 fore him stood the blue-coated policeman and a little old man with a 
 wrinkled face and a long, white beard. 
 
 "What has this man been doing?" asked the Prince. 
 
 "May it please Your Highness," answered the policeman, "he's a 
 miser. He keeps for himself all he can lay his hands on, and he would 
 rather die than to give away so much as a penny." 
 
 Now, merely by looking at the man's face the Prince could tell 
 that he was the meanest man in all the kingdom, and that it would 
 be harder to make him good than anyone the policeman had ever 
 brought before. But he made up his mind he would try at least. 
 
 So he and the wizened old miser started out for their afternoon 
 walk, with the Prince wondering how he could ever change such a 
 selfish old person, and the miser making up his mind stronger than 
 ever that he would not be changed. If other men had made the 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 57 
 
 Prince puzzled, this man drove him to despair. He could think of 
 nothing that might make him any better. Finally the Prince was in 
 such straits that he was actually running, and the miser was having a 
 hard time to keep up, grumbling all the while. At last the Prince 
 became so exhausted he had to stop and rest. 
 
 Just as they were getting their breath nicely, along came a little 
 ragged boy, looking very doleful indeed. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked the Prince, for he liked this boy 
 and hated to see him in trouble. At first the boy would not tell, but 
 the Prince kept asking, and at last he confessed — he was awfully hun- 
 gry and hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, because his father 
 had earned no money that day. The Prince hoped that the miser 
 would be touched by the boy's story, but he noticed that the old 
 man was not listening. So the Prince gave the boy half a shilling 
 and away he ran to buy himself an apple pie, while the Prince turned 
 sorrowfully toward the palace. He had failed to make the old miser 
 any better. 
 
 But when they turned the next corner what do you suppose they 
 saw? Why, sitting there on the curbstone was the ragged little boy, 
 sharing his apple pie with a hungry dog. First the boy would take a 
 bite and then the dog, and you couldn't have told which was the 
 hungrier ! 
 
 The Prince and the miser looked on until the pie was all eaten 
 and the boy and the dog had run off down the street to play. Then, 
 as they turned to walk home, the Prince saw a tear in the miser's 
 eye, and by the look on his wrinkled old face he could tell that his 
 selfish heart had at last become kind. Never again did he grab every- 
 thing for himself, but as long as he lived everyone liked him, because 
 he was always ready to go shares and play fair. 
 
 Now it happened that the Prince was out walking by himself the 
 next day, and he came upon the same little ragged boy sitting on a 
 doorstep and looking very sad indeed. 
 
 "Why, what's the matter now?" asked the Prince. 
 
 "Well," said the boy, "you see, I'm no good. I'm just a boy with 
 ragged clothes and I can't do anything the way other children can." 
 
 "On the contrary," said the Prince, "you're the most valuable man 
 
58 THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 
 
 in my kingdom." And then the Prince told him how the angry farm- 
 er had been changed when he saw the little boy forgive the girl 
 who lost his ball; how the hard-hearted old gentleman had been 
 changed when he saw the boy pick up the bluebird and take it ten- 
 derly home; and how the mean, stingy old miser had been changed 
 when he saw the little boy share his pie with the dog. 
 
 "And they were all made better," said the Prince, "just because 
 they saw a little ragged boy play fair. There are many men who 
 can make my kingdom worse, but there is only one little ragged boy 
 who can make it better, and that little ragged boy is you." 
 
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDSHIP 59 
 
 Closing the Period on the House of Friendship 
 
 No talk or service is suggested for this as this occasion offers a 
 fine opportunity to make use of material gathered by the children. 
 They might at this time report what they have done in their classes 
 to help build the first house in the City of God. Such rules as some 
 may have developed for conduct in the House of Friendship might be 
 read by the children and explained. Some story selected or prepared 
 by some class might be told by a pupil. In other words, let this be 
 as far as possible the children's own work. 
 
PART II 
 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE* 
 
 FROM CHRISTMAS TO JUST BEFORE EASTER 
 
 Call to Worship: "God hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what 
 doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to 
 walk humbly with thy God ?" 
 
 ORDERS OF SERVICE 
 
 FROM WHICH ONE OR MORE MAY BE SELECTED FOR THIS PFRIOD 
 
 Without Choir 
 
 With Choir 
 
 1. Instrumental Prelude 
 
 2. Opening Stanza sung by school 
 
 (a doxology or one verse of a 
 hymn such as "Holy, holy, 
 holy") 
 
 3. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 4. Scripture Lesson 
 
 5. Offering (with prayer by leader 
 
 or school) 
 
 6. Hymn 
 
 7. Story or Talk 
 
 8. Prayer 
 
 9. Hymn 
 
 10. Closing Prayer by leader or a 
 
 Unison Prayer 
 
 11. Benediction 
 
 1. Instrumental Prelude, closing 
 
 with music of first hymn 
 
 2. Call to Worship 
 
 3. Hymn 
 
 4. Choir Sentence 
 
 5. The Lord's Prayer, Choir Amen. 
 
 6. Story or Talk 
 
 7. Prayer 
 
 8. Choir Response 
 
 9. Hymn or 
 
 Musical Benediction 
 
 1. Opening Sentence 
 
 2. A Unison Prayer 
 
 3. A Doxology 
 
 4. Scripture Lesson 
 
 5. Story or Talk 
 
 6. Prayer 
 
 7. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 8. Hymn 
 
 9. Benediction 
 
 * Corresponding to the period 
 Faith as described in the Ma)iual 
 
 1. Processional Hymn 
 
 2. Psalm 
 
 3. The Lord's Prayer, Choir Amen 
 
 4. Choir Sentence 
 
 5. Unison Prayer, Choir Amen 
 
 6. Hymn 
 
 7. Story or Talk 
 
 8. Prayer, School Amen 
 
 9. School Benediction 
 10. Recessional Hymn 
 
 of Reverence and a portion of the period of 
 for Training in Worship. 
 61 
 
12 
 
 The House of Justice 
 
 Scripture: Isaiah 52:1a, 7, 10; 60:1-3, 18, 19. 
 Psalm: 23. 
 
 Hymus: "God is my strong salvation;" "Ten thousand times ten thousand;" 
 '"Thy kingdom come, O Lord." 
 
 No city ever was finished. As we walk up and down the streets 
 of our own town we see new houses going up here and there where 
 there never were any before. And sometimes old houses that are 
 worn out or are too small are being torn down and bigger and better 
 buildings are being put up instead. On the outskirts of the town 
 new streets are being laid out. Perhaps some of the old streets are 
 being rebuilt with better paving, or the sidewalks are being widened, 
 or gas-pipes or sewers are being placed in deep trenches. The condi- 
 tions under which people live their common life in the city are being 
 improved all the time. And the way their common affairs are being 
 managed is changing from year to year — new officers are elected, new 
 ways of doing things are adopted. And so the city changes and 
 grows and is never finished. Yet we live in it all the time it is being 
 built. 
 
 So it is with the City of God. The City of God is not finished. It 
 is changing and growing, and we ourselves are living in it even while 
 we are building it. 
 
 God is not building the City all alone. Look around at this beau- 
 tiful room in which we are sitting. No one person built this building. 
 There was the architect who made the plans, and the contractor who 
 hired the workmen and bought the wood and stone and iron, the men 
 who cut the stone and laid it in place, the carpenters who built the 
 floors and the seats, the artists who designed the windows, the paint- 
 ers who decorated the walls and ceiling. Hundreds of people worked 
 to build this building. Hundreds of thousands are helping to build the 
 City of God. 
 
 62 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 63 
 
 But the workmen have to learn how. It was so with the men who 
 built this church. The architect, the masons, the carpenters, the 
 artists, the painters, and all the others had to work long years before 
 they became skilful enough to build this building. They had to 
 learn how to make plans, and cut stone, and lay floors, and make 
 furniture, and design windows. So we are learning how to build the 
 City of God by coming here to school and to church. That is what our 
 school is for. But it will take a long time to become skilful workmen. 
 Sunday after Sunday, year after year, we will come to learn until we 
 get to be master workmen, who can build wisely and well. 
 
 Not long ago we started together to build one of the houses of 
 this great City of God — the House of Friendship. We shall keep on 
 living in the House of Friendship, and its doors will always be open 
 to all who wish to join us there. But we must go on to build other 
 houses. Perhaps the house we most need just now in God's City is 
 the House of Justice. It will be harder to build this house than it 
 has been to build the House of Friendship. But we bring to our 
 work all the skill we have gained from what we have already done. 
 
 In this House of Justice which we shall help to build all the quar- 
 rels of men will be ended, for every man and every nation will be 
 treated fairly. No one will withhold from anyone else the food, the 
 clothing, the work, the happiness, the opportunity, that is his by right. 
 And so the world will be at peace, and wars shall cease forever. 
 
 PRAYER * 
 
 O Thou, who art our Father and our God, we thank Thee for all 
 the great and wise men who have tried through all the ages to guide 
 the nations of the earth according to Thy will. And we thank Thee for 
 all the brave, strong-hearted women through whom the world has 
 received shelter, comfort and inspiration. 
 
 We pray, our Father, for our country. May we be enabled to do 
 our share in cleansing it of all dross of corruption and oppression. We 
 pray for the nations of the world in their struggle to win for them- 
 selves peace and dignity and stability. May their leaders be guided by 
 
 * From the Manual for Training in Worship, p. 83, copyright, 1915, by Charles 
 Scribner's Sons. 
 
64 , THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 the desire to achieve for their countrymen all that the world has found 
 to be wise and good. 
 
 As we begin to take a larger part in the life and activities of the 
 world, grant, our Father, that we may do what is wise and good, 
 whether it seems at first to bring us success or not. For we would 
 play fair in the game of life. 
 
 We pray, our Father, for all whose hearts are saddened by the loss 
 of any whom they love. Renew their faith. Give them courage and 
 hope. May they find rich comfort in the knowledge of Thy goodness 
 and love. And grant, O Father, that, whether through sorrow or 
 through joy, we may all share in the sure coming of Thy Kingdom 
 as brother workers with our leader and friend, Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO ASSIST IN BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEXN WORSHIP AND STUDY AND SERVICE 
 
 As noted before, before using any of the following topics for discussion, it is 
 well to glance over the general questions on p. ii. 
 
 1. Do you know what "justice" is? Do you know what it is to "play fair"? 
 Is it always easy to play fair? What makes it hard? Do you suppose our wor- 
 ship every Sunday might help us all to play fair? How do you think we can play 
 fair in the service? 
 
 2. Do you like that call to worship we used this morning? How many 
 remember it? Do you know where it is from? (Micah 6:8). What would you 
 
 think of all the children's saying it together from memory? Shall we ask 
 
 (the leader) what he thinks of that idea? That would make a pretty good rule 
 for Section H of the Ordinances of the City of God, wouldn't it? Or would it be 
 better as a part of the Charter? 
 
 3. What is the relation between friendship and justice? How essential do 
 you think justice is to the City of God? How do men discover what the "just" 
 thing is in any given case? 
 
13 
 The Just Prince 
 
 Scripture: Amos 5 : 6-9, 21, 24. 
 Psalm: 146. 
 
 Hymns: "As the sun doth daily rise;" "O Love of God;" "Christ for the 
 world we sing." 
 
 Once upon a time there lived a king and a prince all alone in a 
 big castle away up on a high hill. There was a big iron fence around 
 the castle with two gates in it, one on the north and one on the south. 
 And before each of these gates were soldiers night and day, lest some- 
 one should get in and kill the King or carry off the Prince. The Prince, 
 whose name was Rowland, was very lonely. Long before he could 
 remember his mother had died, and he had been brought up by a 
 nurse who was not very kind. 
 
 One day Prince Rowland stole down from his playroom in the 
 castle to the garden, and saw that the guard at the gate was asleep. 
 He darted through the gate and ran away down to the village which 
 lay in the valley below the castle. As he walked along he saw lots 
 of children playing in the streets, and having more fun than he had 
 ever dreamed of. It was not long before Prince Rowland joined in the 
 fun and was having the finest time ever. 
 
 Rowland made friends that day with many of the children, but 
 especially with a little boy named Bobby Green. So as often as he 
 could find the guard asleep he would steal away down to the village 
 by the river to the little hut where Bobby lived. One day the Prince 
 was on the doorstep waiting for Bobby to come out, when he heard 
 Bobby and his mother talking. 
 
 "Mother," Bobby was saying, "why can't we live in a big stone 
 castle like the good Prince Rowland?" 
 
 "Why, because we are so poor, son," replied his mother as she 
 went on with her work. 
 
 65 
 
66 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 "Well, Mother, why are we so poor?" insisted Bobby. 
 
 "Because your father works in the factory and earns scarcely 
 enough for your clothes and bread, son." 
 
 "Well, Mama, why isn't the King poor too?" 
 
 "Because he gets taxes from the people." 
 
 "Mother, do we pay taxes?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Did our money help build the big castle?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, Mother, then why can't I even look through the iron bars 
 at the flowers? I was up there calling for the Prince one day but 
 the soldiers drove me away." 
 
 "I can't tell you, my boy." 
 
 "Mother, who pays all the soldiers?" 
 
 "The King, dear." 
 
 "Then the King takes our money and pays soldiers to keep us from 
 looking at our own flowers?" 
 
 "Run on and play, son," said the kind mother; "perhaps some day 
 you will see the King." 
 
 This conversation made the Prince very thoughtful. He wondered 
 why all this should be. It made him ashamed of his father, the King, 
 and he thought how much he'd rather live with Bobby all the time 
 than up in the castle. 
 
 Then many days passed and Bobby did not see Rowland. He 
 heard that the King had caught him and forbidden him to leave the 
 castle. Then later war was declared by a near-by nation and the 
 Prince had to go to war with his father and the army. Many boys' 
 fathers had to go, too, and among them Bobby's father. Bobby was 
 too young to go, so he took care of his mother. Day after day the 
 news kept coming of someone killed or wounded, and more men had 
 to go. So many went that the older children had to leave school and 
 go to the factories with the women to make guns and shells. 
 
 By and by the war was over and Prince Rowland returned to find 
 that his father, the King, had died. But he noticed that all the 
 people were glad to see him and no one seemed sorry about the death 
 of the King. Rowland became King in his stead, and the very first 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 67 
 
 thing he did was to tear down the iron fence around the Royal Palace 
 and dismiss all the soldiers. He planted gardens for the children, and 
 made playgrounds for them. 
 
 But he found that the war had left the village in a terrible con- 
 dition. He met children in the streets who he thought were returning 
 from school and found that they were coming from work in factories. 
 He saw blind and crippled soldiers helplessly trying to get along, 
 and women working beyond their strength. 
 
 Then he made over the whole Royal Palace and took in all the 
 fatherless children and all the blind and crippled and all who had 
 been made poor by the greed and injustice of his father's reign. How 
 happy they all were ! And they all agreed to do something for the vil- 
 lage each day. King Rowland with the rest. One would pick up 
 paper and glass, another would weed the garden, another would sweep 
 the sidewalks. And after a while Rowland decided that the castle 
 should no more be called the Royal Palace, but the House of Justice. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO ASSIST IN BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN WORSHIP AND STUDY AND SERVICE 
 
 General questions on p. ii. 
 
 1. What share do you suppose we could have in building the House of Justice? 
 Last week, you remember, we said justice meant "playing fair" to everybody. 
 (Here the use to which the children are putting their money or their work for hos- 
 pital children or others who are not getting a square deal may be associated with 
 the school enterprise for this period and with Rowland's treatment of the children 
 and unfortunates of his town.) 
 
 2. Do you think the King played fair in the story? Bobby certainly asked 
 his mother some hard questions. (Read story at this point if it is not remem- 
 bered.) How would you have answered Bobbie if you had been his mother? 
 Did the Prince play fair? Did any of the scripture lesson suggest a rule for 
 Section H of our Ordinances? (Quote Amos 5:24.) This is one of the great 
 verses of the Bible. 
 
 3. Why do followers of Jesus lay stress on justice? Is there anything about 
 our own school or church or class or home that needs to be changed in the inter- 
 est of justice? Who are going to build the new social order? (Classes dealing 
 with social problems will find it easy to take over the emotional values of the 
 worship into the class discussions and to tie up their work with the scheme for 
 the period.) 
 
14 
 
 On Prayer 
 
 Scripture: Luke ii:i-io. 
 Psalm: 139. 
 
 Hynms: "God is love, His mercy brightens ;" "The Lord is rich and merci- 
 ful ;" "O Master, let me walk with thee," 
 
 Jesus prayed. And he taught his disciples to pray. When they 
 came to him and asked him to teach them to pray, you notice he said: 
 
 "When ye pray " He did not say, "Ij ye pray." He knew they 
 
 prayed. 
 
 Every one of you prays. "Oh, no," someone says, "I don't." Don't 
 you? Well, perhaps you think "saying prayers" is praying. It isn't, 
 always, and sometimes people pray who don't "say their prayers." 
 Praying is a much bigger thing than saying prayers. 
 
 Sometimes you have been away from home on a visit. You had 
 a wonderful time. But after a while you began to miss something. 
 Perhaps you got a little homesick, even though you wouldn't admit it. 
 And when you came home you came with that strange excitement and 
 expectancy we all feel when we are on our way home. What was it 
 you missed that made you feel lonesome and shy and not quite your- 
 self? Why it was the confidence and assurance that comes when we 
 know someone whom we can trust is backing us up. The boy with a 
 big, strong older brother can afford to take risks with his neighbor be- 
 cause he knows he will be backed up! Well, God backs us up, too. 
 Prayer is the consciousness that God is backing us up. 
 
 I once read these words in the diary of a young man of eighteen who 
 was a senior in high school. His team had just played a tie game with 
 a rival, and he made the touchdown. "The fellows took me off the 
 field on their shoulders," he writes. "It was a happy day for me, 
 though I wish we could have won. Yet it is all to Him that the glory 
 and honor is due. It is He who helped me to make that run, and my 
 heart went out to Him in simple adoration." 
 
 68 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 69 
 
 And do you remember the Psalm that says: "For by thee I run 
 through a troop; and by my God do I leap over a wall"? 
 
 Why shouldn't we have the same feeling of God's help right here, 
 at school, in our games, our examinations, our work? In all these tests 
 of our strength, these ordeals, these daily duties and contests, there is 
 something we all want, and that is power. We want mastery over our- 
 selves, over things, over forces. 
 
 Now, is there any relation between power and prayer? 
 
 Some of the greatest men that ever lived have thought so and found 
 it to be so. Our great leaders have been men who prayed. Men who 
 have achieved great things and have conquered tremendous obstacles 
 have so often been men of prayer. Take Grenfell, for example. "The 
 privilege of prayer," he says, "to me is one of the most cherished pos- 
 sessions, because faith and experience alike convince me that God him- 
 self sees and answers, and his answers I never venture to criticize. . . . 
 In the quiet of the home, in the heat of life and strife, in the face of 
 death, the privilege of speech with God is inestimable . . . when I can 
 neither see, nor hear, nor speak, still I can pray so that God can hear." 
 So there are thousands of men in all times and places who have found 
 power in prayer. 
 
 What is this power? 
 
 Whenever you see a new tool that you have never seen before, you 
 immediately ask: "What is it for?" You could not use it if you did 
 not know what it was for. Back of every tool and machine that was 
 ever made lies a purpose, and you have to know what this purpose is 
 before you have power over the tool or the machine. So, back of 
 nature, with all its mystery and its grandeur, back of the events of 
 human life, the daily routine, the strife and clash of men, the beauty 
 and peace of homes, lies the purpose of God. Could we know this pur- 
 pose, we could master the affairs of our daily life. 
 
 But how can we find out what this purpose is? By studying chem- 
 istry, or mathematics, or geography, or medicine, or law? No: by 
 prayer. 
 
 Men of power are men of prayer; they are constantly discovering 
 God's purpose for the world, and so they overcome the world. 
 
70 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 (Suggesting at first the thought for silent prayer. Each of the 
 introductory sentences should be followed by a moment of silence.) 
 
 And now let each one of us say in his own heart — 
 
 Lord, teach us to pray. . . . 
 
 And now let each one of us say in his own heart — 
 
 Father, we want to understand Thy will. . . . 
 
 We want to know what this world is for in which we live. We want 
 to be a part of the world's life, our Father. . . . 
 
 We want to share in carrying out Thy purpose. . . . 
 
 We want to help and to know what we can do to help. . . . 
 
 We would offer ourselves as workmen in Thy Kingdom for the 
 building of a better world. 
 
 We would be strong to overcome all our childish faults, to resist all 
 temptations, to forgive all those who do us wrong. 
 
 We would forget the failures and mistakes and sins that lie behind 
 us and press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of 
 God in Christ Jesus. 
 
 And now and always we would pray in the spirit of Jesus, our 
 Master and Friend. Amen. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 General questions are on p. ii. 
 
 It may take several weeks to bring the children to the point of desiring to 
 make their own prayer for the class, each one contributing a phrase or a whole 
 prayer, to be built into a class prayer. Frequent conversations are necessary 
 with children who are not used to prayer in the home. There is not so much need 
 of discussion here as there is of the experience of prayer under the leadership of 
 the teacher or parent. As this experience grows, discussion should follow the 
 lead of the children's own questions about prayer. 
 
 With the older children, who have had more experience of prayer, the philos- 
 ophy and psychology of prayer can at once be taken up. The leader, however, 
 should first prepare himself by study * to handle the typical questions of young 
 people. 
 
 * Teachers will find other stories about prayer in the Manual for Training in 
 Worship, under the heading "Reverence." See also Mumford, E. E. R., The Dawn 
 of Religion in the Mind of a Child; Fosdick, H. E., The Meaning of Prayer. 
 
IS 
 
 Mary Stone * 
 
 Scripture: Matt. i8:i-6; 19:13-15. 
 Psalm: 98. 
 
 Hymns: "All things bright and beautiful;" "The King of Love my shepherd 
 is;" "Immortal Love." 
 
 A number of years ago there was born in central China a baby girl. 
 Now many baby girls in China are not wanted at all. Maybe you 
 have heard grown-ups in this country talking about giving away the 
 baby, but you knew they were only joking and really wouldn't think of 
 doing such a thing. But in China girl babies are often so unwelcome 
 that sometimes they are actually given away or left to die because they 
 are not wanted. But little Maiyii (which means "Beautiful Gem") 
 was more fortunate than most Chinese girls, because she was born into 
 a Christian home. 
 
 But there was another way in which she was different from most 
 Chinese girls. At that time all the girls had their feet bound when they 
 were very young, so they would remain small all their lives. They 
 thought it looked pretty, but oh, the aches and pains that came to the 
 little feet that wanted to grow when the bandages wouldn't let them! 
 But little "Beautiful Gem" was to be different here also, for her father 
 and mother decided when she was very small that they would never 
 have her feet bound and crippled, for they were Christians. 
 
 When little Maiyii was only eight years old, her father and mother 
 brought her to the American missionary doctor and told him, "We want 
 our daughter to become a doctor." This was unheard of, a Chinese 
 girl to become a doctor! Why should she want to be a doctor? 
 
 Well, suppose for a moment that we had no doctors in this big city, 
 not a single one. Nobody at all to look after us when we have diseases 
 
 * Based on data found in Margaret E. Burton's Notable JVomen of Modern 
 China, copyright by Fleming H. Revell Co. 
 
 71 
 
72 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 or accidents. And let us suppose, too, that father and mother did not 
 know very much about how to keep us well or to nurse us if we were 
 sick. Suppose they didn't know what a good medicine fresh air is, or 
 even how to keep the food we eat and the milk we drink good and clean 
 and wholesome. Don't you think we would need a few doctors to tell 
 us how to keep well and to look after us when we were sick? 
 
 China was very much like this, and still is in many places. But 
 there was one good American doctor there at the mission, and he was 
 doing so much to help the people that little Maiyii thought nothing else 
 in the world could be so interesting as to become a doctor and help too. 
 
 But it seemed such a long time before she could become a doctor. 
 She was only eight, and there were long years of going to school in 
 China. I am sure she must have been discouraged a great many times, 
 but she worked hard; and finally the time came when she was to leave 
 for America to study medicine. When she arrived, people had such 
 a hard time remembering her name that she changed it from "Maiyii" 
 to the English "Mary Stone." 
 
 At last she was ready to go back and begin her work. How she had 
 looked forward to it! And the Chinese were just as glad to see her 
 as she was to get back. It was only a very short time before she had so 
 many sick and blind and crippled people coming to her to be healed 
 that she couldn't possibly take care of them all. Just imagine how 
 many people there would be here to see a doctor if we hadn't had any 
 for a long time and finally got just one! 
 
 There were so many that a hospital was needed. A friend in Chi- 
 cago gave Dr. Stone the money for the building. It is a beautiful place, 
 so nice that the people who come there are almost cured just by the 
 clean bedding and the care of the kind nurses. 
 
 And that is how little Maiyii's dream came true, how a little Chi- 
 nese girl became a noted doctor, able to help the people she loved, who 
 needed her so much. She not only helped to cure people who were 
 sick, but she also taught them the things they most needed to know. 
 Other missionaries are doing their best in other places, and some 
 day we shall have a China where none of the little girls bind 
 their feet, and where there are doctors enough to go around, and where 
 everyone can have a Christian education. And when that time comes 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 73 
 
 it will be because we have helped the Chinese people to become Chris- 
 tians, and to take care of their children just as Beautiful Gem's father 
 and mother took care of her. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all the great and good 
 people who have lived and who are now living and working in Thy 
 world. Give them the faith and courage they need for their tasks. We 
 pray for all who are anywhere in the world trying to make people bet- 
 ter and happier. Help us to make them our friends in the comradeship 
 of Christian service. 
 
 May Thy blessing rest upon our brothers and sisters everywhere, 
 in China and India and Japan and Africa and Europe, or wherever 
 they may be. Thou knowest and carest alike for them and for us. 
 Help us to help effectively wherever we can, and grant that we may 
 learn to give of our love and strength where people need us most. 
 
 We ask it in the spirit of him who went about healing and teaching 
 and doing good to all men, Jesus, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO FOLLOW UP THE SERVICE 
 
 Preliminary questions are given on p. ii. 
 
 1. Why do you suppose Jesus was so fond of little children? I think the 
 Heavenly Father loves them all, too, don't you? How does he take care of them? 
 Supposing they haven't any fathers or mothers? Supposing their fathers and 
 mothers don't know how to take care of them? What did Mary Stone do to 
 help God take care of the little Chinese children? 
 
 2. Do you suppose Mary Stone ever wanted to stay where everyone thought 
 highly of her and appreciated her and where she could be comfortable, instead of 
 going back to her own people, who couldn't understand her? Why do you sup- 
 pose she went back? What do you mean by "wanted to"? What did she really 
 want? That comes pretty close to what we want in our House of Justice, doesn't 
 it? 
 
 3. What did Jesus mean by saying, '"Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven" ? 
 What place have children of any race in God's plan? Are we under any obligation 
 to see that justice is done to other people's children? What will a Christian social 
 order do for children? 
 
i6 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Scripture: Philippians 3:12-14; 4:8. 
 Psalm: 121. 
 
 Hymns: "O worship the King;" "Where cross the crowded ways of life;" 
 "O God who workest hitherto." 
 
 All of US carry around some sort of a picture in our minds of the 
 great men we have heard about. Whenever I think of Abraham Lin- 
 coln I always picture in my mind an immensely tall man, dressed in 
 homely fashion, with the kindest smile and the most fatherly eyes you 
 ever saw. Now if you will all shut your eyes for a minute and try to 
 think what Abraham Lincoln looks like to you, I will try to tell you one 
 or two of the many little stories told about him which help me when I 
 try to picture what sort of a man he was. 
 
 Lincoln loved living things. You have probably all heard the story 
 of Lincoln and the birds. How one day Lincoln and a party of friends 
 were traveling through a thicket of wild plum and crab-apple trees. 
 It was a warm day, and the men stopped to water the horses. Soon 
 they were ready to start off again, but Lincoln was not to be found. 
 
 "Where is Lincoln?" everyone asked. ''I saw him a few minutes 
 ago," answered one of the party. "He had found two little birds who 
 had tumbled out of their nest, and he was looking around to find the 
 nest so that he could put them back again." 
 
 Before long Lincoln returned, very happy. He had found the nest 
 and put the birdlings safely back. His friends laughed, but Lincoln 
 said: "If I had not put those birds back in the nest where their mother 
 will feed them, I could not have slept all night." This story always 
 helps me to picture Lincoln as I like to look at him, the friend of 
 animals. 
 
 Lincoln loved people, just people, all kinds of people. I was read- 
 ing the other day how one of his old friends back home visited him 
 when he was President of the United States in Washington. The man's 
 
 74 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 75 
 
 name was Billy Brown, and he kept a drug store in Springfield, Illinois, 
 where Lincoln used to trade when he was just a young lawyer. Billy 
 Brown was shown into a long waiting-room at the White House, where 
 there were so many people waiting to see the President that he was 
 becoming nervous and scared. Then the President's secretary came in. 
 Billy knew him slightly and asked where Lincoln was. "Have you an 
 appointment with the President?" asked the secretary sharply. 
 
 "No, sir," said Billy, "it isn't necessary. Just tell him Billy Brown 
 is here." In about two minutes the door opened and out came Mr. 
 Lincoln, leaving all the important-looking politicians and office-seek- 
 ers, and, as Billy described it, "just shook hands fit to kill." "Billy," 
 he said, "come right in. You're going to stay to supper with me." 
 
 So when I close my eyes and try to think how Abraham Lincoln 
 looked, the picture looks just a little different when I think of him 
 laughing and joking and having a good time with this old friend of his 
 who was just the keeper of the little drug store in a country town. 
 Lincoln loved people. 
 
 There is another way in which I like to think of Lincoln. I like to 
 see him standing on the rear platform of the train that was to take him 
 away from all of his old friends and neighbors at Springfield to the 
 difficult and dangerous task of being President of the United States in 
 time of civil war. A heavy rain was pouring down, but all the people 
 he had known since he was a boy were there to see him off. I can 
 almost see him as he stands there bareheaded in the rain and says: 
 
 "I leave, not knowing when, or whether ever I may return, with a task 
 before me greater than that which rested on Washington. Without the 
 assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. 
 With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, 
 and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope 
 that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your 
 prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Abraham Lincoln. We 
 thank Thee for his life of heroic service, and his spirit of kindliness and 
 love to all things and all people. 
 
76 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 As Thou didst teach him, so teach us, we pray Thee, the things 
 that are truly worth while. Forgive us that we so often fail to do the 
 best we know, and give us strength and wisdom, and help us to love 
 everybody. Go with us this day and all the days, and help us to live as 
 Thy children. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE AFTER THE SERVICE OF WORSHIP 
 
 See p. II for general questions. 
 
 1. Who was Abraham Lincoln? Do you remember his picture? (Have one 
 at hand.) He wasn't too important to be friendly even to a little bird, was he? 
 Who will tell us that story? And he never forgot his old friends. Do you remem- 
 ber about Billy Brown? And he wasn't too proud to say he trusted in God. Would 
 you like to hear again that little speech he made while he stood saying good-by to 
 his friends? (Read it.) 
 
 2. Lincoln ought to suggest some rules for the second section of our city 
 ordinances. Even his enemies felt he was just. 
 
 3. What has government to do with the building of the City of God? Give 
 instances in which certain administrations have really forwarded the cause of 
 justice. Do you recall instances which have violated justice? What is the citi- 
 zen's responsibility for the acts of government? How should we right now be 
 sharing in government? (There are local as well as state or national issues which 
 need on one side or the other the support of all citizens, young as well as old.) 
 
17 
 
 Sharing Our Birthdays 
 
 Scripture: Hebrews ii: r, 8-10, 24-38, 12: 1-2. 
 Psalm: 46. 
 
 Hymns: "God is the refuge of His saints;" "Our God our help;" "O Lord, 
 our God." 
 
 Each one of us has one day in the year that is especially our own — 
 our birthday. When that happy day comes around each year we invite 
 our friends — our parents and brothers and sisters and playmates — to 
 come to our birthday party, that is, to share our birthday with us, the 
 games and the presents and the good things to eat. And then when 
 their birthdays come, we share their happiness too. The more friends 
 we have the more fun everyone has. The larger our House of Friend- 
 ship is and the juster our House of Justice, the bigger birthday party 
 we can have in the City of God. 
 
 This month we all celebrate two birthdays. They don't belong to 
 any single one of us, but to all of us. They are the birthdays of two 
 great Americans, on the 12th that of Abraham Lincoln, and on the 
 22nd that of another great President, George Washington. And just as 
 we celebrate our birthdays by sharing them with our friends, we cele- 
 brate the birthdays of our two great Presidents by going to school with 
 other boys and girls, and listening to stories of the great deeds of 
 Washington and Lincoln. We do all this because Washington and 
 Lincoln did a great deal to make all American boys and girls proud and 
 happy and free to-day. 
 
 But just as there are many boys and girls who never come to our 
 birthday parties, because they don't know us and we don't know them; 
 so there are many children in other lands who do not celebrate as we 
 do the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They 
 have other great men whom we never heard of; and perhaps they never 
 heard of Washington or Lincoln. In countries where there is a king, 
 
 77 
 
78 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 the children celebrate the King's birthday, or the Queen's, or that of 
 some great soldier or statesman. Indeed, there are so many countries 
 in the world and so many different birthdays that it is said that if you 
 and I had an aeroplane, and could travel fast enough, we could go to a 
 different celebration somewhere in the world every single day in the 
 year. That means that somewhere, in Asia or Europe or Africa, on 
 every day in the year, children are having a holiday. 
 
 Now surely we would not think much, would we, of a boy or girl 
 friend of ours who kept his birthday party all to himself, who didn't 
 invite us or anyone else to share it with him; and I don't believe such a 
 boy or girl would have a very happy birthday all alone. And the 
 children of America are likely to be unhappy too, if they say to the 
 children of China or England or Russia or Africa, ''We are going to 
 keep our big American birthday parties to ourselves. We won't let you 
 share George Washington or Abraham Lincoln with us because they 
 are ours and you are not our friends! " 
 
 So just the way we share our birthdays by being friends to other 
 children, we can share our national birthdays by being friendly to the 
 children of other lands, instead of keeping all our good things to our- 
 selves. 
 
 But perhaps while I have been speaking, some of you have been 
 thinking of one birthday that is already celebrated by children in 
 almost every corner of the globe. It is more than an American national 
 holiday; it isn't our property a bit more than it is the property of 
 China or Russia or England or any other country you can think of, for 
 people in all countries celebrate the 25th of December as the birthday 
 of Jesus. 
 
 On the 12th and the 22nd of this month we think of what Washing- 
 ton and Lincoln did for our country, and for justice everywhere, and 
 that makes us want to serve our own beloved land the way they served 
 it, courageously, loyally, righteously. 
 
 On Jesus' birthday we remember that he wanted all men to be 
 brothers, and that is why all men, and children too, can celebrate 
 Christmas. 
 
 And if we carry the spirit of Christmas through into January and 
 February and all through the year, trying to be brothers to all children 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 79 
 
 everywhere, all in the family of our Father, the time will not be far 
 distant when all the children of the great world family can honor their 
 heroes together, and, above all, Jesus, whose birthday and whose love 
 they all share. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 O God our Father, we are thankful when we think of the men 
 whose hearts have burned with patriotism, and whose lives were utterly 
 spent in making men free. Forbid that we should forget the past, O 
 Father, or that we should fail to lift up our eyes to our country as she 
 shall be in the future — a nation of just peace, a nation of right doing, a 
 nation of brotherhood. May Thy love so triumph in our hearts that we 
 shall serve our country as Washington and Lincoln served it, and that 
 we shall serve the world as Jesus served it, which means that we shall 
 serve the whole family of Thy children. This we ask in the name of 
 Jesus, our Master. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 FOR USE IN CLASS OR HOME 
 
 See p. II for preliminary questions. 
 
 1. What is an American? How many Americans do you suppose there are 
 whose fathers and mothers or whose grandfathers and grandmothers were born 
 in some other country? Can all of us sing "My country, 'tis of thee," even if 
 some of our parents were not born here? Is it fair to call an American a "for- 
 eigner" ? 
 
 2. How many heroes can you name who belong to other countries or other 
 races? 
 
 3. On what does our respect for a man depend? On his parents? Ob the 
 home he came from? On his college? On his country? On his race? Is there 
 anything national about a real hero, or does he belong to the world, like great 
 inventions and great music? If great men belong to the world, how about the 
 children of each generation? Is the new world order going to be built by any one 
 nation? Can it be? 
 
i8 
 
 Washington's Birthday 
 patriotism 
 
 Scripture: I Corinthians 12:12-21, 26-7. 
 
 Psalm: 95:i-7a; 96:10-13. 
 
 Hymns: "Rejoice, ye pure in heart;" "God of our fathers;" "Not alone for 
 mighty empire;" "O beautiful for spacious skies;" "Thy kingdom come, O Lord." 
 Call to Worship: 
 
 "O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name; 
 Make known His deeds among the people; 
 Talk ye of His wondrous works, 
 Glory ye in His holy name." 
 
 Something like this, I imagine, has happened to each one of you. 
 You have been disappointed in something your class has done. It may 
 have been that they decided to spend their money in a way you did not 
 approve. Or perhaps they agreed to do some special task during the 
 week, home work maybe, or some duty at a social affair, some errand, 
 some engagement, and you felt ashamed that they failed to do what 
 they said they would. Or perhaps they took part in some bit of foolish- 
 ness that interfered with what some other class was doing; and it made 
 you feel badly to think that they could be so thoughtless. 
 
 What did you do about it? Did you go off in a huff and say: "I'll 
 never come to school again ! " Or did you say: "Well, next time, I guess 
 I'll have to try ten times as hard to make things go right. If I'm going 
 to be a member of this class I've got to do what I can to make it a 
 good class." 
 
 Or it may be that the class has done something of which you are 
 proud. They have spent their money wisely. Or some duty that they 
 chose or which was assigned to them, they did well, or they were faith- 
 ful to the school when things weren't going just right, and you were glad 
 that you could feel that you had a part in these things. 
 
 80 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 81 
 
 So whatever your class does, whether it is something to be proud 
 of or something to be ashamed of, you feel about it just the same as if 
 you had done it yourself, for you are just as much a part of the class as 
 your hand is a part of your body. 
 
 In the same way, our country, our United States of America, is a 
 sort of great big class. Sometimes she does things that we think are 
 wrong, and we are ashamed of her, and sometimes she does things that 
 make us proud and glad to be Americans. But when she does the 
 wrong things, we don't go off in a huff and say, "Go to, now, I won't be 
 an American any more." Of course not. We say: "Well, if I'm going 
 to be an American I must see to it that America does what's right." 
 
 So you see whatever America does, it is as though we were doing it 
 ourselves, for we are just as much a part of America as our hand is a 
 part of our body. 
 
 Now if our country is just like a big class, it must be the same with 
 other countries. Let's pretend that each class is a different country. 
 Here we have eighteen different classes, all the way from the kinder- 
 garten children who are only four or five, to the class where some of 
 our fathers and mothers are. 
 
 Some big class, like the fifth grade, might be England, which is a 
 big country, and some class that is very young, like the first grade, 
 might be America, which is a young country, and some class that is 
 old, like the third year high school, might be China, which is an old 
 country. And the rest can be the other countries: Japan, India, Russia, 
 and all the rest. Yet, different as we are from one another, here we 
 are, all together in one room all doing the same thing. What is it that 
 we are all doing together? Why we are worshiping and enjoying 
 being together. 
 
 A little while ago the second grade * had a seat that was too small 
 for them. They were very crowded and uncomfortable. They needed 
 more room. But did any of you see any of the second grade go across 
 the aisle and begin to fight the first grade and take away their seats 
 from them? I didn't see anyone do that. What would have happened 
 if they had? The service would have stopped, and we would all have 
 been ashamed of having anything like that happen in our school. The 
 
 * Use this or a similar incident. 
 
82 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 second grade did not do anything like that for they know we don't do 
 things that way. They would not have been good members of their 
 class if they had not done what was right for the whole school. And we 
 were proud of them, not because we were members of grade four or six 
 or eight, but because we were both members of the same school. » 
 Whatever one does, affects our school, the whole school, no matter 
 what class you are in, and what the school does affects you. You are 
 just as much a part of the school as your hand is a part of your body. 
 
 But a moment ago we said each class was a country. Then if all 
 our classes are here together, we must be the whole world — and the 
 chapel, this chapel, must be the temple of God whose roof is the sky, 
 and whose aisles and pews are the hills and plains and valleys of the 
 world; and in this temple all nations can worship God together. 
 
 But when two or three nations make trouble and start to fighting, 
 the rest have to stop what they are doing and they are ashamed that 
 anything like that should happen. On the other hand, when some one 
 nation does a noble thing, the whole world rings with its praises — not 
 because the people in the world are divided up into Chinese and 
 English and American and all the rest, but because they are all mem- 
 bers of mankind. We are just as much a part of mankind as our hand 
 is a part of our body. 
 
 During the war we did not send clothing and flour to the children 
 of Belgium because they were Belgians, but because they were brothers 
 and sisters. Nor did they send us those beautiful notes of thanks 
 embroidered on the bags in which their flour came because we were 
 Americans, but because we were their friends. We would not have 
 been good Americans if we had not done it. They would not have 
 been good Belgians if they had not accepted our friendship. We can- 
 not be good citizens of any country unless we are good citizens of the 
 world. Nor can we love our country as good patriots should unless we 
 love more something that is greater than our country, and that some- 
 thing is all mankind. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 We seek, O God, the brotherhood of man; for we are citizens not 
 of our country alone, but also of the world. We are pupils not in our 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 83 
 
 own school only, but also in the school of the whole world, and our 
 schoolmates are the children of every nation of just our own age, who 
 play together, and study together, and sing together, and work to- 
 gether, just as we do, and, many of them, suffer together. We would 
 like to share with them their joys and sorrows, their hopes and disap- 
 pointments, for they belong to us, and we belong to them. And by and 
 by, they and we, who are now children together in the world, will be- 
 come men and women together in the world. Then we shall decide 
 between war and peace, between love and hate among nations. 
 
 Grant, O God, in those days to come, that the ties of friendship and 
 love that now bind us together as children of the world may bind us 
 also together as men and women. May the new laws that we shall 
 make be just laws, the new nations we shall create be righteous na- 
 tions, so that the new world that is to be our world and our children's 
 world shall be also Thy Kingdom. 
 
 And this we ask in the name of Jesus, our Master, who through us 
 who now are Thy children shall be the Savior of the world. Amen. 
 
^9 
 
 Faith in the Building of the House of Justice 
 
 Scripture: Phil. 3:8-14. 
 Psalm: 8. 
 
 Hymns: "Thy kingdom come, O Lord;" "God is my strong salvation;" "Re- 
 joice, ye pure in heart." 
 
 One day some children were walking along a sandy beach near the 
 river's edge when suddenly one of them said: "Oh! see that fine stone 
 house down there on the sand!" All the children looked where he 
 pointed, but not one of them could see a fine stone house. All there 
 was in sight was a heap of stones of all sizes piled up together on the 
 beach, just like any other pile of stones. So the children laughed at 
 the boy who said he saw a fine stone house. But it wasn't very long 
 before they found out that he was right and they were wrong. 
 
 "Come on! " he said to the rest of the children. "Let's get to work 
 and build the fine stone house! " And then they saw that what he had 
 seen was the possibility that out of that heap of stones they could build 
 a fine house. 
 
 But one of the girls said: "No, we can't build a house out of 
 those old rocks. We must have smooth, square rocks and mortar to 
 hold them together." But the boy who suggested it was sure it could 
 be done if they'd try. One of the other boys said, "Come on, let's not 
 build a house at all. Even if we could build it the water would come 
 in and spoil it." But the first boy stood firm, and showed the rest of 
 the children how they could hold the stones together with mud; how the 
 water would only come half-way up to the place where they were to 
 build, and finally he got everyone so enthusiastic that they all went to 
 work to make his dream come true. 
 
 It wasn't as easy as it sounded, though, and when they came to 
 make the arches for the windows many of the children got discouraged. 
 For the arches kept falling down as fast as they were built. But the 
 
 84 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 85 
 
 boy who had planned the house kept right on working, and everyone 
 else did his little bit, carrying stones or scraping up mud; and at last 
 there on the beach stood a fine little stone house, that the boy had seen 
 on the beach in the first place when no one else had been able to. 
 
 Everywhere we go are similar things which some of us see and 
 some of us do not see. In the great city of New York stands the 
 majestic cathedral of Saint John the Divine. It has a strange appear- 
 ance now because it is unfinished. Probably very few people have any 
 idea just what it will look like when it is finished, but there are some 
 people who know. And we know that many years ago a man must have 
 stood looking intently at the spot of bare ground on Morningside 
 Heights where the cathedral now stands, just as the boy stood on the 
 beach, and that this man must have seen a magnificent cathedral stand- 
 ing there, where everyone else saw only rocks and grass and dirt. And 
 then that man must have made other people see in their minds his 
 beautiful cathedral, just as the boy made the other children see his 
 stone house, until people became so enthusiastic over the architect's 
 plan that they began to build it. But probably many people said: 
 ''Let's not build such a big building; it's too much work." Or even, "It 
 can't be done!" But others saw what the architect saw, and to-day 
 his dream is coming true in stone and mortar. 
 
 Now we too are busy building a house, the House of Justice. And 
 we have begun work on it because many years ago there was a man 
 who came into this world of ours and saw the possibility of building a 
 House of Justice in the hearts of boys and girls and men and women 
 everywhere. That man was Jesus. Even in the most unjust and unfair 
 people he saw materials which he could use in building the great House 
 of Justice which we are now helping to build each day. Just as in the 
 case of the man who saw the great cathedral before it was actually 
 started, there were other people who did not believe a House of Justice 
 could be built, and so there are to-day. But in spite of them, we have 
 begun the work, and we must not leave it partly done, the way the 
 cathedral is to-day, for we want the House of Justice to be finished. 
 To finish it every single one of us must do his or her part, for it is a 
 huge task, far larger than building a house of stone. To know how to 
 build it we must see what Jesus planned it to be. Until we do see, we 
 
86 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 shall be building aimlessly, and the House of Justice will not stand. So 
 we look to Jesus our Master, and pray that we may see his vision, and 
 help complete the House of Justice in his Name. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 O God our Father, how often we go about this world which Thou 
 hast made for our happiness with our eyes closed to what it might be! 
 We thank Thee for all the men and women in the past who have seen 
 the beautiful, the good, the true, where we have been blind, and who 
 have made us see them too. May we be quicker to perceive in all the 
 corners of our daily life that which can be made beautiful and sweet 
 and wholesome for others, and to do all that we can to make such 
 dreams come true. 
 
 We thank Thee for Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who 
 is ever showing us so many visions of the good. From him we have 
 learned how to build a House of Friendship in our hearts for all Thy 
 children, and now we are trying to see, as he saw, what this world 
 might be if all of us were just, if our House of Justice were finished as 
 he saw it should be one day. Give us, O Father, faith to complete it, 
 and trust in the cooperation and help of others, until its shining towers 
 rise in the brightness of Thy eternal city. This we ask in his name. 
 Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 FOR USE IN CLASS OR HOME 
 
 First use some of the general questions on p. ii. Then some of the follow- 
 ing: 
 
 1. Did you ever imagine a house or something, the way the little boy did in 
 
 the story (the leader) told this morning, and then go to work to make it? 
 
 It's fine to plan things and then to do them. It's a sort of game to plan as many 
 things as possible that are worth doing and then see how many we can do. We 
 have some plans to make to-day (take up some class enterprise that is pending). 
 Let's plan this so well that it will be worth a place in our House of Justice. 
 
 2. They say that if we wish hard enough for anything, we will get it. Is 
 that true? Is it partly true? Does it make any difference what we wish for? 
 Which is more important for success, to wish hard or to wish right? Do you 
 recall some things that Jesus said about wishing? (JNlatt. 5:2iff; 7:7-11.) 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 87 
 
 3. Can a man change his desires? Can a man get along without any desires, 
 without wishing for anything? (Cf. Matt. 7:7-ii-) In the long run, it's the 
 people who hunt who find. Do you think there is a purpose in the world? If 
 God is the great creative goodwill that runs through all history, how about getting 
 our desires into harmony with this purpose? Would it make any difference to 
 our prayers if we knew our purpose was God's purpose and our desire His? 
 
20 
 
 Finding Happiness 
 
 Scripture: Matt. 6:24-34. 
 Psalm: 27. 
 
 Hymns: "Fight the good fight;" "Father, hear the prayer we offer;" "Soldiers 
 of Christ, arise." 
 
 One day a little boy in a very big city came home from school feel- 
 ing very sad and blue. Nothing had gone right that day. It didn't 
 seem to make any difference what he did, everything went wrong. Now 
 as he sat down on his doorstep he began to wonder how he could be 
 perfectly happy. And this is what he thought: 
 
 ''The only way for me to be perfectly happy is to keep out of 
 trouble, to take no chances, not to do a single thing that might hurt me, 
 trust nothing that has ever harmed me, for it might again ; then I shall 
 be perfectly happy." 
 
 Then he began to think over his troubles, to feel of all the bumps 
 and bruises he had suffered. Just as he was rubbing his sore leg, a 
 boy friend of Ronald's came by on a pushmobile. ''Come on," he cried, 
 "get yours and we'll have a race." But Ronald remembered how a 
 screw on his pushmobile which he had forgotten to fix had worked loose 
 and thrown him off the day before, so he decided he couldn't trust it 
 any longer. "No, thanks, not to-day," he told the boy, and stayed 
 sitting on his doorstep. 
 
 A few minutes later a baseball came rolling by Ronald's feet; and 
 the boy who was chasing it saw Ronald, and said: "Come on over to 
 the playground. We play the Mohawks to-day and we want you to 
 play." But Ronald remembered that the last time they had played the 
 Mohawks one of the bigger fellows on that team had slid into him, so 
 he decided that if he was to be perfectly happy he couldn't take such 
 chances again. So he said: "No," and stayed on the doorstep. 
 
 Now things were pretty dull on the doorstep, especially when he 
 
 88 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 89 
 
 saw some boys and girls roller-skating down near the corner, where he 
 usually skated. But he thought of the day his skate slipped and he 
 fell and bruised his leg, so there couldn't be any roller-skating for him 
 if he was to be perfectly happy. 
 
 "Come on, Ronald, let's go swimming," a friend of his called from 
 across the street. But the last time Ronald had been in the swimming 
 pool that very boy had ducked him when he wasn't looking, so he con- 
 cluded that he couldn't trust him, and stayed sitting on the doorstep. 
 
 By this time Ronald was thinking hard, trying to find something he 
 could do and still not run the risk of being unhappy, without taking 
 chances of being hurt or lame or even tired. 
 
 As quick as he would think of something to do to amuse himself he 
 would remember something unpleasant connected with it that he didn't 
 want to have repeated. Even the weather seemed to be against him, 
 for the sky was getting cloudy and it looked as though he couldn't even 
 sit on the doorstep much longer. He didn't dare go out walking in the 
 park, for fear he might meet someone who would tease him. He didn't 
 even want to go into the house to Mother, for he remembered that he 
 had refused angrily to do something for her that morning, and he was 
 sure that he would not be happy if she should remind him of it. 
 
 So Ronald sat there on the doorstep for quite a long time. After 
 a while he began to wonder whether he had found the right way to be 
 perfectly happy or not. Certainly he couldn't be perfectly happy sit- 
 ting on the doorstep all the time. You see Ronald had lost something; 
 and I wonder if you know what it was? Why, it was his faith. He 
 hadn't any faith in his pushmobile, he was afraid it would break down 
 again; he hadn't any faith in his playmates, for he was afraid they 
 would play unfairly; he hadn't any faith in his roller-skates; nor the 
 weather; nor even in his mother whom he dearly loved. You see he had 
 lost his faith in the world, and his brothers and sisters, and so he had 
 really lost his faith in God, our Father, who made them for him to en- 
 joy and to help. He had lost his faith in himself; he was afraid to try 
 to enjoy himself, so he sat and moped on the doorstep and found that 
 he was more unhappy than ever. 
 
 Suddenly Ronald jumped up and ran off over to the playground, 
 just in time to get into the baseball game. He wasn't afraid any longer; 
 
!)() THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 when a hard ball came he didn't dodge and let it go, he stood up and 
 caught it, although it did sting. And when he came home to his mother 
 that night, the mother whose forgiveness he asked, and whom he now 
 trusted, he was hot and dusty and tired and bruised, but perfectly 
 happy. He had played the game, taken the hard knocks, found his 
 faith, and his perfect happiness. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO HELP MAKE THE MOST OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Use first one or two general questions from p. ii. Then continue with such 
 questions as the following : 
 
 1. Do you remember any of the first hymn we sang ("Fight the good fight") ? 
 Are you likely to get hurt if you fight the good fight? If folks all stopped fighting 
 the good fight because they might get hurt, what would happen? What did Ronald 
 find out about getting hurt? What did Jesus say about it in the scripture lesson? 
 (jNIatt. 6:34a.) 
 
 2. Is it easy to be a Christian? Why should we try to be? Is it worth while? 
 The writers of the hymns we sang this morning seemed to think it was worth while. 
 Ronald found that one couldn't 'ever be happy without taking risks. In fact, he 
 found out that a boy could be hurt and be happy too. Does this suggest another 
 rule for our city ordinances? 
 
 3. Is there any relation between justice and happiness? How did Jesus 
 describe the conditions of happiness? (The Beatitudes.) 
 
21 
 
 The Boy Who Found Out * 
 
 Scripture: Genesis 1:20-28. 
 Psalm: 8. 
 
 Hymns: "We thank Thee, O our Father ;" "There's a wideness in God's 
 mercy;" "We've a story to tell to the nations." 
 
 There was once a Boy who had a great many pets. He lived in a 
 large house, and whenever he wanted an animal to play with, his 
 parents would buy it for him. He had Don, a Shetland pony; Rover, a 
 big, shaggy collie; Bump and Jump, two snow-white rabbits; Rastus, a 
 coal-black cat, and little Tweet, a canary bird. This boy also had a 
 House of Justice, but it was not a very large one. Of course there were 
 in it his parents and teachers and school friends, but he had never 
 thought of including his many pets. For you see the Boy had the idea 
 that animals were just for him to play with, like tops; and I am sorry to 
 say that he was not always kind to them. 
 
 He was very fond of riding Don, the pony, and he loved to romp 
 with Rover. He thought it was endless fun to see his rabbits eat and to 
 poke their funny noses. Then old Rastus purred so delightfully when 
 you stroked him the right way, and Tweet, the canary bird, would sing 
 all day long the sweetest of bird melodies. 
 
 Although the Boy enjoyed his pets so much, he would order them 
 about, making them always do just what he pleased, and never consid- 
 ering their comfort at all. He treated them just as if they were stuffed 
 animals and not real, live, affectionate pets. 
 
 He hked to go to the barn where most of his pets lived and imagine 
 that he was King of the Animals. Couldn't he boss them all? If he 
 whipped the pony, it would run and run until it was all tired out. If 
 he made believe throw sticks for Rover, the dog would chase and chase 
 just as if the sticks were real. And the bunnies never complained, no 
 
 * Reprinted from Everyland, August, 1919. 
 
 91 
 
92 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 matter how roughly they were handled and chased and scared. And 
 Rastus, good old cat, what a lot he did stand for ! Tail pulling, chasing, 
 sticks and stones, even though all in play, were not very pleasant to a 
 self-respecting old tabby! Tweet, the canary, fluttered and jumped 
 when the Boy swung the cage around, but he sang just the same. 
 
 Now it was not surprising that one afternoon the Boy's pets gath- 
 ered together in the barn to talk things over. Even Tweet, the canary 
 bird, had found a loose bar in her cage and had flown out just in time 
 to attend the meeting. On all sides it was the same story. No doubt 
 the Boy was a good boy at heart, but his House of Justice was closed 
 against the animals who did so much to make his life happy. What 
 were they to do to gain admittance? 
 
 First up spoke old Don, the pony: ''I think," said he, "that we all 
 ought to stop doing things for the Boy. Rover, you forget how to play 
 and to chase imaginary sticks the next time he wants you to; and Bump 
 and Jump, pretend you are sick and do not let him pet you; Rastus, you 
 hide when the boy comes to torment you; and you. Tweet, just forget 
 how to sing for a while. As for myself, I shall go where I please instead 
 of minding the reins or the cruel whip. In that way we shall show the 
 Boy how much our lives and happiness mean to his own pleasure, and 
 he will have to win back our friendship." 
 
 ''No," said Rover, "that is not what we are after, Don. We do not 
 want to buy the Boy's friendship with what we do for him. He does 
 not seem to appreciate that while we love to give him pleasure, we have 
 some rights of our pwn. Of course we intend that he shall take us into 
 his House of Justice, but we would rather not force our way in by 
 making him unhappy." 
 
 After they had talked the matter over carefully, the animals took a 
 vote and decided that they ought to have a conference with the Boy, 
 and tell him the way they felt. 
 
 Now it happened that all the time they were talking, the Boy lay 
 up in the hay-loft, where he had gone to read a book. He had listened 
 closely while they were talking about him and had swallowed hard at 
 times. Just as they had finished, he slid right down among them and 
 cried: "You don't need to have a conference. I heard every word you 
 
THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 93 
 
 said. You were right, Rover. I didn't really understand. But I do 
 now, and you won't have to stop playing with me at all." 
 
 And then he hugged every one of those pets of his in turn, for they 
 had won their way into his House of Justice, to stay there always. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO HELP MAKE THE MOST OF THE SERVICE 
 
 It IS well to precede the following questions with some of a general character, 
 as on p. II. 
 
 1. Did you ever hear of the S.P.C.A. ? What is it for? Do animals need to 
 be protected? Why? Then animals belong in our House of Justice, don't they? 
 Do you know of any animals that aren't getting a square deal? What could we do 
 about it? 
 
 2. Well, I guess we still need another ordinance in Section II. What shall 
 it be? Are these ordinances of Justice in such shape that we could read them 
 to the whole school next Sunday? What scripture could we read with them? 
 
 3. The older members might well be responsible for the following Sunday's 
 service, using the material provided by the next younger group as suggested just 
 above, and preparing to lead the service. 
 
94 THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE 
 
 Concluding the House of Justice 
 
 As suggested after the last service, there might well be a concluding 
 service, prepared by the pupils themselves, using material they have 
 selected or originated and serving as a summary of the whole period. 
 
PART III 
 THE HOUSE OF PEACE* 
 
 JUST BEFORE EASTER TO VACATION 
 
 Call to Worship: "Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father 
 and from the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 ORDERS OF SERVICE 
 
 FROM WHICH ONE OR MORE MAY BE SELECTED FOR THIS PERIOD 
 
 Without Choir 
 
 With Choir 
 
 1. Call to Worship 
 
 2. Psalm 
 
 3. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 4. Scripture Lesson 
 
 5. Story or Talk 
 
 6. Prayer 
 
 7. Hymn 
 
 The Amen followed by a 
 soft chords, indicating 
 
 8. Silence 
 
 9. A Unison Prayer 
 10. Hymn 
 
 1. Call to Worship 
 
 2. Hymn 
 
 3. Greeting 
 
 4. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 5. Scripture Lesson 
 
 6. Story or Talk (Prayer) 
 
 7. Hymn 
 
 few 8. Choir Sentence 
 
 9. Silence 
 
 10. Unison Prayer, Choir Amen 
 
 11. Hymn 
 
 12. Benediction, Choir Amen 
 
 13. Instrumental Postlude 
 
 1. Instrumental Prelude 
 
 2. Call to Worship 
 
 3. A Doxology or one stanza of a 
 
 hymn of praise 
 
 4. The Lord's Prayer 
 
 5. Psalm 
 
 6. Hymn 
 
 7. Story or Talk 
 
 8. Prayer 
 
 9. Response by the School 
 
 10. Offertory Sentence 
 
 11. Offering Received 
 
 12. Offertory Prayer 
 
 13. Hymn 
 
 ♦Corresponding to a portion of the period of Faith, and the period of Loy- 
 alty, as described in the Manual for Training in Worship. 
 
 95 
 
 1. Processional Hymn 
 
 2. Psalm 
 
 3. Unison Prayer, Choir Amen 
 Story or Talk 
 Choir Sentence 
 Silence 
 
 Leader's Prayer 
 Hymn 
 
 The Lord's Prayer 
 Benediction 
 Recessional Hymn 
 
 4- 
 5- 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 II. 
 
22 
 
 The House of Peace 
 
 Scripture: Isaiah 9:2, 4-7; 51:9, 11-13, 15, 16; 52:1, 7, 10. 
 Psalm: 46. 
 
 Hymns: "City of God;" "Our fathers built this city;" "We've a story to tell 
 to the nations." 
 
 We have been building and making things ever since we can remem- 
 ber: houses, dolls' clothing, boxes, collections, bandages, sweaters, 
 electrical devices. The older we get, the more difficult are the things 
 we build, and we all look forward to the time when we shall be 
 engineers, building bridges and skyscrapers; or doctors, building 
 healthy bodies; or statesmen, building governments and laws. All our 
 lives we shall be building and making all sorts of different things. 
 
 There is one thing, however, that we shall all build together. It is 
 bigger than all these other things. It includes them all. We shall all 
 be helping to build — the world. 
 
 During the war and just after it we stopped building the world. 
 Indeed, a good deal of what had been already built was destroyed. 
 Some of the parts that were destroyed had been wrongly built, and now 
 we are all trying to make these parts right. They may be very differ- 
 ent from what they were before. 
 
 But it would be foolish to go on building without knowing what we 
 were trying to make, wouldn't it? Ever since you can remember, 
 when you started out to build with your blocks or your tools, you have 
 known what you were going to make. So we must try to understand 
 what sort of a world we want to build, and how it can be put together 
 so that people will not be in want nor have to go to war, but can live 
 peaceably together, working for the good of all. 
 
 This is what we are here in school for — to try to find out what sort 
 of a world we want to build. Every class will be thinking about it from 
 the youngest to the oldest. It is the most important thing we have to 
 discuss. It is what all the world is talking and thinking about. And 
 
 96 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 97 
 
 we are to be the builders, working under the direction of God, the 
 master builder, for it is His world we are helping to build. "We seek a 
 city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And we 
 call the world we are building "The City of God." 
 
 It will take a long time to finish it. We can hope to do only a little. 
 Last fall we started the House of Friendship in the City of God: 
 Christians are friends. Then we started the House of Justice: Chris- 
 tians are fair. Now we must begin the House of Peace, so that men 
 and nations may be able to work happily together for the common 
 good. 
 
 Let us ask God to give us strength and wisdom for our work, and 
 we know He will ; and He will hold us responsible for what we build. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 We are very glad, our Father, to be here, all together again. It 
 means so much to us to feel that our friends are thinking of Thee right 
 now, while each one of us is thinking of Thee. Thou art so wonderful, 
 O God, so far beyond all that we can imagine of goodness and of wis- 
 dom, and yet so very near to us that even in our inmost thoughts we 
 can speak with Thee. 
 
 We thank Thee for the new friends that come to us week by week. 
 Help us to make them all feel at home with us. And may we all, now 
 at the beginning of this new week, resolve to do our best to learn what 
 Thou dost desire of us, and to obey Thy will. 
 
 For all Thy children who have passed through the gates of death 
 this week, we ask the opportunity of larger and happier service. For 
 all who have parted with those they love, we ask the consolation of 
 continued fellowship with them and with Thee. For all who are sick or 
 suffering we ask strength and patience and hope. And may peace come 
 to the whole world, that the nations may be healed. 
 
 And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE IN GUIDING DISCUSSION OF THE WORSHIP 
 
 See note on p. 20 and also general questions on p. 11. 
 
 I. We are starting to build another house to-day in the City of God. What 
 did (the leader) call it? Did it ever occur to you before that you were 
 
98 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 helping to build the world? What part of the world are you helping to build? 
 
 2. Do you think we could build a House of Peace without first learning to 
 build a House of Friendship and a House of Justice? What are the conditions 
 of peace? If we can succeed in getting these defined we will have Section HI of 
 the Ordinances of the City of God. 
 
 3. Do you think the House of Peace belongs in the City of God? Cf. Rom. 
 12: 18-21. Why do men fight? In what ways do they fight besides by war? W^hat 
 are the effects upon the common good? Who suffers? 
 
23 
 
 Trust in God 
 
 Scripture: Matthew 5:43, 44, 9, n, 12. John 14:1, 27. 
 Psalm: 27. 
 
 Hymns: "We march, we march to victory;" "Not alone for mighty empire;" 
 "God is my strong salvation." 
 
 If we could put into seven words what Jesus said in the passages 
 just read, they would read something like this: Do what's right and 
 take the consequences. But along with this we should have to put 
 three more words if we are to understand how he could say this and 
 really mean it, and these words are: Trust in God. 
 
 If we are going to trust God at all we must trust him where He is 
 and in what He is doing. Where is God? He is in our hearts — we all 
 know that — and if in our hearts, then in the hearts of others, the hearts 
 of our neighbors on the street where we live, of our friends whom we 
 see every day in school, of folks whom we don't like a bit and who we 
 think are trying to take advantage of us. But if we can't trust our 
 friends and neighbors and enemies, how can we trust God? 
 
 "That's all very well," some of you may say, "but how can we trust 
 someone who is mean and underhanded and brutal? Jesus might say 
 in answer to this question: You trust him not because of, but in spite 
 of his meanness — because of what he might do if you should trust him. 
 When Peter asked Jesus, "How many times shall I forgive my brother; 
 seven?" Jesus replied, "Nay, seventy times seven": keep on forgiving 
 him forever, believing that ultimately the best in you will call out the 
 best in him. That's what the old bishop did to Jean val Jean, you re- 
 member. He just kept on believing in him, no matter what he did, till 
 Jean val Jean just could not help becoming what the priest believed he 
 could become. 
 
 That's the way God works. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
 and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." "Be sons 
 
 99 
 
100 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil." If 
 we can't trust the way God works, how can we trust Him? 
 
 I have in my hand a piece of money. Near the edge of it I read 
 these words: "In God we trust." Ours is not the only country that 
 says this. Most nations put their trust in God. Can they all be 
 right? Can they all equally deserve God's help? How can they all 
 trust God? On the meaning of these few words hangs the destiny of 
 the world. If they mean: We trust in God, we nations, to win us our 
 victories — then we have before us nothing but war and destruction 
 forever. If they mean: We put our trust in our fellow men and fellow 
 nations, believing that the best in us will call out the best in them; that 
 we put our trust not in our own might but in the spirit of God in the 
 hearts of all men — then there lies before the world the hope of ever- 
 lasting peace. 
 
 PRAYER * 
 
 O Thou who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, we 
 thank Thee for the power of faith by which Thou art transforming 
 the world. Forgive us our mistrust. Forgive us if we have prevented 
 anyone from being all he should be because we failed to trust him 
 enough. Thou dost trust us in spite of our failures; and we know that 
 we could not be half what we are if it were not that our fathers and 
 mothers and friends believe in us and expect us to do our best. 
 
 Help us to have faith in every one of Thy children, just as we want 
 them to have faith in us. And so, by the power of the faith that Jesus 
 had in his disciples, by the power of the faith that Thou dost have in 
 Thy wayward and quarreling children, by the power of the faith we 
 have in one another, may the days of peace and goodwill be established 
 in the earth. 
 
 We ask it in the name of him who trusted even those who slew him. 
 Amen. 
 
 * From the Manual for Training in Worship, p. loi. Copyright, 1915, by 
 Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 101 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 LEADING TO THE USE OF THE EFFECTS OF THE SERVICE 
 
 Use first general questions as on p. ii. 
 
 1. Are you ever afraid? What did Jesus say about being afraid? And the 
 Psahn we used together? Would you like to say the Twenty-seventh Psalm again? 
 Let's pick out just one or two lines — the best ones — to use when we are afraid. 
 When we are not afraid then we have peace in our hearts, haven't we? 
 
 2. You have read stories of the Indian wars when the early settlers were in 
 constant fear of their lives and the lives of their families. They seem a long way 
 ofif and unreal now. But there are still thousands of people whose hearts are 
 never free from the grip of fear. Do you know of such people? (The Armenians. 
 The Koreans. Those below the poverty line who fear for their children. Many 
 sick and dying. Superstitious people.) Will the Building of a House of Peace 
 have any effect on fear in the world? 
 
 3. Can you describe the state of mind of primitive man? How does it com- 
 pare with the attitude of a Christian toward the world? Has fear anything to do 
 with war? Compare what happens when men carry weapons, in contrast with 
 the Canadian-American border. How about big navies? Can we have fear in a 
 House of Peace? 
 
24 
 
 Easter 
 
 Scripture: Luke 13:22-24; Matt. 7:13-14; John 11:25, 26; 14:1-63. 
 
 Psalm: 65. 
 
 Hymns: "Christ the Lord is risen to-day;" "The snow has vanished from the 
 hills" (or some equivalent spring song); "Rejoice, ye pure in heart;" "Ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand." 
 
 Easter is the Festival of the Joy of Life. Jesus came that men 
 might have Hfe and have it more abundantly. 
 
 It is always beautiful when Easter is late, for then the spring helps 
 to celebrate it. The grass is covering the earth with its green carpet. 
 The leaves are turning the gray trees yellow. The crocuses and hya- 
 cinths are sprinkling their bright spots of color over lawns and gardens. 
 
 "For lo, the winter is past, 
 The rain is over and gone, 
 The flowers appear on the earth. 
 The time of the singing of hirds is come." 
 
 Outside my window every morning a robin sings. He comes early 
 and he wakes me up. But what a wonderful song it is, after the silent 
 winter! He seems so full of joy that he can't keep quiet, but must 
 sing his little song over and over again at the top of his voice. We feel 
 that way, too, and so we sing our spring song, praising God for the gift 
 of life. Easter is the Festival of the Joy of Life. 
 
 Jesus felt this joy of life. His magnificent vitality and the radiant 
 power of his personality spread health and goodwill around him wher- 
 ever he went. When he touched men, he healed them. When he 
 looked at men, they left all and followed him. When he spoke, his 
 were words of eternal life and changed the whole course and tenor of 
 men's lives. He possessed life, he mastered it; his grip on life made 
 men free, for he broke through the bonds that held captive their imagi- 
 
 102 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 103 
 
 nations and cried: "The Kingdom of Heaven is besieged and men take 
 it by storm." And so he conquered death and banished forever the 
 fear of death from the hearts of men. Easter, the Festival of the Joy of 
 Life, is also the Festival of Death, and we to-day celebrate death not 
 as a sad ending, but as a glorious beginning of life. 
 
 There is another room in the house of God. Now and then the door 
 swings open and someone whom we love slips through. We think of 
 their going as we do of taking a long journey to some far country to 
 which we long to go. It used to be the magic carpet of our imagina- 
 tions that transported us to the wonderful cities of our dreams. But 
 now it is the real places we want to see and we all look forward to visit- 
 ing the far distant lands of the earth to see the people and to talk with 
 them, to learn how they live and to look at all the things that they have 
 made. So we think of the door, which we call death, that opens into the 
 other room of the house of God. 
 
 But there is one thing more that we must remember if we would 
 enter. The gate is big and the way is broad that leads to destruction, 
 but small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and few are 
 they who find it. 
 
 Jesus' disciples once asked him to show them this gate and this way 
 that leads to life, and he replied: ''I am the way, the truth and the life. 
 He that believeth in me, though he die yet shall he live, and he that 
 liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 O Lord God, who art the source of all that is good and true, we 
 thank Thee for life and joy and hope. Thou hast shared with us Thy 
 life and we know the joy of it, the pain of it, the glory of it. We know 
 that the life Thou hast given us will not end, but that through the gates 
 of death we may all pass if we will into the City of God. 
 
 We remember to-day the unnumbered host of youth, who, having 
 fought the good fight and finished their course, have passed through the 
 door into the other room during the terrible years of war. We remem- 
 ber the fatherless and the motherless children who have died while the 
 men fought. We remember the aged, grown old in toil and suffering, 
 
104 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 who have lost all they ever had or loved and for whom life is a burden 
 too great to be borne. 
 
 IMay those who go before us find the fulfilment of their desires in 
 the freedom and joy of unlimited life, and may all of us who remain 
 behind run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto 
 Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. 
 
 Shame upon us, O God, that there should be any of Thy children to 
 whom has never been brought the gospel of the love of God, and that 
 there should be any whose hearts have never been touched by the 
 desire to serve. Grant, our Father, that whether in this life or the life 
 to come, we may never count our work as finished until the whole earth 
 shall be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. 
 
 And this we ask in the name of Jesus, Master of Life. Amen. 
 
25 
 
 Spirits of Spring * 
 
 Scripture: (Preceded by a word of explanation) Job 38: 1-7, 12, 16, 22, 25-27, 
 39-41; 39: 19-25; 42: I, 2, 5, 6. 
 
 Psalm: 65. 
 
 Hymns: "We thank Thee, O our Father;" "All things bright and beautiful;" 
 "The snow has vanished from the hills;" "Rejoice, ye pure in heart." 
 
 Our story to-day is about six little children, who were called the 
 Spirits of Spring. There was one child named Hope, and another 
 named Fear; one named Help, and another named Fret; one named 
 Hop-skip, and the last named Feel-bad. They were all spirit children, 
 — so they were like you and me in some respects and quite different in 
 others. 
 
 In the summer the six little spirit children played all day long in the 
 fields and slept each night in the dew-drops. Hope and Help and Hop- 
 skip were as lively as could be, with bright eyes and quick fingers and 
 nimble feet; while Fear and Fret and Feel-bad had pale faces and 
 puckered mouths and weepy eyes. Hope and Help and Hop-skip were 
 always dressed in red jackets and red caps and shoes with red tops; 
 while Fear and Fret and Feel-bad were dressed in gray jackets and 
 caps and shoes. 
 
 Now when it came to be November, and the nights grew cold, the 
 six little spirit children began to look around for a place to sleep where 
 it would be warm and cozy. One night near bed-time they were play- 
 ing in the garden, where they had seen the gardener come out and plant 
 some tulip bulbs in the warm earth that afternoon. Their teeth were 
 chattering, but Hope said : "Let's go to sleep in the tulip bulbs." And 
 sure enough, there were just six bulbs in the row, one apiece, so in they 
 jumped and curled up for a long sleep. 
 
 * Adapted from The Golden Goblet and Other Stories, by Jay T. Stocking. 
 Copyright, 1914, by the Pilgrim Press. 
 
 105 
 
106 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 They were very tired indeed, so they slept a long time. When they 
 woke they found that the ground above them had frozen solid, and 
 that there was a blanket of snow on top of that. Not a very pleasant 
 prospect for the six little spirit children ! 
 
 Fear and Fret and Feel-bad were terribly alarmed, Fear feared and 
 Fret fretted and Feel-bad felt very badly indeed. For it was dark 
 down in the earth and above it was wintry and cold; and Fear said he 
 was afraid that the Heavenly Father had forgotten them entirely, and 
 Fret said he was sure they would never get out again, and Feel-bad said 
 the only thing to do was to give up and die. But Hope hoped, and 
 Help helped, and Hop-skip hop-skipped around as lively as a cricket. 
 Hope said: "Who's afraid? Our Heavenly Father is caring for us and 
 we'll come out all right." And Help said: "Let's get busy and pass 
 the time away till we can get out." And Hop-skip began to dance mer- 
 rily as if they had no troubles at all. But Fear and Fret and Feel-bad 
 worried and wailed and wept, until finally they made themselves so 
 sick and miserable that they all had to go to bed. And even then they 
 kept on wailing about their troubles and moaning that nobody cared for 
 them, not even their Heavenly Father. 
 
 But the little red-coated spirit children ran and jumped and played 
 and worked. And would you believe it? Each time they jumped 
 around in their tulip bulbs, when they struck the ceiling, or the top of 
 the bulb, they would push it up just a little, so very little that they did 
 not notice it themselves. But in a few weeks they had pushed the tops 
 of the bulbs almost up to the surface of the ground. 
 
 Finally one day they saw a tiny crack, through which came a little 
 stream of light, for it had been very dark inside the bulbs until then, 
 and what do you suppose they saw? Why, they saw that the dark 
 room they had played in so long was really the great big red chamber of 
 a tulip blossom. And in a few more days the beautiful red chamber 
 opened still further and let them out again into the warm spring sun- 
 shine, where they romped to their hearts' content. 
 
 That day the gardener came around in the garden and said: "Well, 
 I see the red tulips are up early this year. But for the life of me I can- 
 not find the gray ones." Finally he found the place where he had 
 planted the gray bulbs in the fall, and exclaimed: "I wonder what the 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 107 
 
 matter can be?" Then he took a spade and dug down into the moist 
 earth. There were the gray bulbs just where he had planted them; 
 they had not grown nor moved a particle. ''Humph! " he said, "just as 
 I thought, they hadn't life enough to come up! Well, I never thought 
 much of gray tulips, anyhow; next year we'll plant all red ones." 
 
 Now of course when the gardener put his spade into the ground and 
 turned up the three gray tulip bulbs, Fear and Fret and Feel-bad tum- 
 bled out of their beds, very much ashamed that they hadn't come up the 
 way Hope and Help and Hop-skip had. And when they heard what the 
 gardener said, they hurried away in disgrace as quickly as they could. 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee to-day for the spring-time of 
 nature, with its budding trees and growing flowers, and for our spring- 
 time of life, with its boundless possibilities for helpfulness and happi- 
 ness. We thank Thee that for each of us Thou hast something to do, 
 perhaps something which seems to us very hard and discouraging. May 
 we not fear and fret, but hope and help, trusting in Thy great love for 
 each one of us, even though we are unworthy of it. So may we help in 
 making this world as Thou wouldst have it, a garden of gladness for 
 every one of Thy children. This we ask in the name of him who 
 trusted in Thee from the darkest hour of death to the spring-time of a 
 new and triumphant life. Amen. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 LEADING TO THE USE OF THE EFFECTS OF THE WORSHIP 
 
 If needed, general questions will be found on p. ii. 
 
 1. Associate the worship with an informal conversation about the coming of 
 spring, especially if some warm, quiet day has suggested relaxation of body and 
 mind — the feeling of rest and peace. It is by suggestion rather than discussion 
 that one wins appreciation of the essential goodness of a world so filled with 
 beauty. 
 
 2. It is worth while to cultivate enjoyment of such nature passages as the one 
 read from Job and the Sixty-fifth Psalm, and to associate them with others the 
 children may suggest from the Bible or elsewhere. Take time to gain the whole- 
 some attitudes toward nature and people that the spring helps us to establish. 
 Plan an outdoor trip or hike if it is needed. Help the children see the peaceful, 
 steady, quiet, skilful workmanship of nature. 
 
26 
 
 The Two Foundations 
 
 Scripture: Matthew 7:24-27. 
 Psalm: 24: 1-5. 
 
 Hymns: "Come, my soul, thou must be waking;" "It came upon the mid- 
 night clear;" "Jesus calls us." 
 
 If our House of Peace is to stand when the storm-clouds of war 
 gather, it must be founded upon a rock. Otherwise it will come clat- 
 tering down upon our heads and all our work will have been in vain. 
 What sort of a foundation rock shall we choose for our House of Peace? 
 
 The best way to answer that question is to look for a moment at the 
 houses of peace which people have tried to build in the past. For every 
 war that has taken place, and there have been a lot of them, there has 
 been an attempt at the end of the war to build a house of peace. No 
 matter how much people dislike each other when they are fighting, they 
 try to forget, when the war is over, and begin over again. 
 
 Some of these houses of peace have lasted for centuries, like the 
 house that was built upon the rock. The rains of misunderstanding 
 have descended, and the floods of excitement have come, and beat upon 
 the house of peace, and it has fallen not; for it was founded upon the 
 rock of justice and friendship. 
 
 But others of the houses of peace have fallen in the storms of pas- 
 sion and greed, and great has been the fall thereof. For these houses 
 have been built on the sands of jealousy and suspicion. They have 
 crashed down upon the heads of those who built them, and crushed out 
 the lives of many innocent people also. 
 
 As an example of the lasting house of peace, founded upon a rock, 
 we have the one which has been built in the course of many years of 
 friendship by Canada and the United States. We are next-door neigh- 
 bors, with a border line thousands of miles long, and not a single gun 
 nor fort anywhere on either side. We long since decided to be just to 
 
 108 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 109 
 
 each other, and more than that, to be friends. And if anyone should 
 in the future try to raise a storm about our house of peace with Canada, 
 we may be sure that it would stand, for it is founded upon a rock. 
 
 In the last few years we have seen the collapse of another kind of a 
 house of peace, one which stood barely forty years. It was the house 
 of peace built by the conquering Germans to suit themselves, after 
 they had beaten the French in an unjust war. They simply did as they 
 pleased, and left the French penniless and hungry outside. To the 
 Germans it looked like a very fine house but it was built on the quick- 
 sand of distrust and hate, and in 1914, down it came, dragging other 
 houses with it. 
 
 As Americans we want the great world house of peace to be firmly 
 emplanted on the rock of right, so that it will stand forever, and there 
 shall be no more wars. It will never stand if some of us keep on build- 
 ing our houses of peace on the sand, like some boys who drove all the, 
 other boys off a certain ballfield. 
 
 These boys had a team, and wanted very much to practice on the 
 only ballfield there was in the neighborhood. But naturally the other 
 boys wanted to play, too, so they would fight and annoy each other 
 with the result that neither side could play. Finally the team decided 
 to build a fence around the lot so that they might keep the other boys 
 out and play in peace. They built the fence, and by keeping some of 
 the players on guard the rest could practice without annoyance. But 
 it wasn't much fun, playing all by themselves, and being jeered at by 
 all the rest of the boys in town. 
 
 So one day one of the boys said: "This is no way to have peace. 
 Let's get the other crowd to organize a team and then we can all play, 
 and get more practice than we can alone, anyhow." It was a good 
 thing that he spoke, for that very night the other boys were going to 
 tear down every board in the fence, and the house of peace that was 
 built on the sand would have collapsed in a heap. 
 
 So the next day the other boys came in with their team, and instead 
 of a fight they all had a rattling good game of baseball. And after the 
 game they decided they didn't need the fence any more, so they tore it 
 down together, and all the rest of the year all the boys of the neighbor- 
 
110 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 hood played together, and had twice as much fun, for their house of 
 peace was founded upon a rock. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 FOR FURTHERING THE EFFECTS OF THE WORSHIP 
 
 See p. II for general questions if needed. 
 
 1. Do you suppose we could tell our fathers and mothers and friends about 
 the House of Friendship and the House of Justice and the House of Peace (or 
 just the House of Friendship), if they should all come to school later in the 
 spring? Could we tell them what we have been doing to help build it? Let's 
 think about it. 
 
 2. We haven't thought about our ordinances lately. Have we all the rules 
 we need to keep the peace? Supposing we wanted to explain the City of God to 
 someone who had never heard of Christianity, have we enough rules to show what 
 it really means? 
 
 3. Do you suppose we could take some instances from our own experience 
 of trying to keep the peace and make them into a story for the service? It would 
 help the others in the school, especially the younger ones, if they could have some 
 vivid examples of how it is done. 
 
27 
 
 Work 
 
 Scripture: Jeremiah i : 4, 5b, 6-10. 
 Psalm: 51 : 1-3, 6-12, 15. 
 
 Hymns: "Lead on, O King eternal;" "Faith of our fathers;" "O God, who 
 workest hitherto." 
 
 Note. — It is the interest of this story to give courage and ambition for the 
 last few weeks of the school year, which sometimes tend to drag, because all are 
 tired or eager for the holidays. 
 
 Jeremiah did not think he could do what God wanted him to do, 
 but he was willing to try. So he stepped into place and did his work. 
 
 Some of our older brothers felt just the same way when the call 
 came for help during the great war. You remember how they went. 
 They were not sure they could learn how to fly or to command com- 
 panies of men, but they were willing to try, so they stepped into place 
 and did their work. 
 
 It was the same everywhere — hundreds of thousands of young men 
 went to do their work. But they left behind an immense amount of 
 work for others to do. And do you remember how all helped? The 
 children raised millions of dollars for liberty bonds. You helped. 
 They bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of war savings 
 stamps. You helped. They gathered tons and tons of clothes for the 
 Red Cross. You helped. All this work had to be done, and we stepped 
 into place and did it. And strange to say, we liked to do it. We made 
 a great discovery. We discovered the joy of hard work. 
 
 But all need for work did not stop with the war. Work just keeps 
 right on piling up. Think of all we have to do before the end of the 
 year — mountains of work, and no one to do it but just ourselves. But 
 we are going to step into place and do it. (Name the items.) 
 
 If we come on time, we shall help. 
 
 If we sing instead of lazily letting others sing for us, we shall help. 
 
 If we do our work at home, if we usher and take care of the books 
 
 111 
 
112 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 or sing in the choir; if we teach as well as we can or play the piano or 
 organ to the best of our ability, or even if we just behave as we should 
 — if we do what we know we ought to do, we shall help. And so each 
 of us will look himself in the eye and say: "Look here, young sir, just 
 step into place and do your work." 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Our Father in Heaven, we are ashamed that we have so often for- 
 gotten to do our work. We are ashamed that we have not always done 
 our best to help. We are sorry for not having taken pains to be good, 
 when we might have, if we had only thought about it. Help us to be 
 more thoughtful, our Father. Thou knowest that we are only children. 
 But we do not want to be only children. We want to be able to do 
 things right and to get things done and to help our school do all it 
 should for everybody. 
 
 Thou dost help us, our Father. We thank Thee for the help Thou 
 dost give us whenever we try to be helpful and thoughtful. Sometimes 
 we don't want to do what we ought to do, and Thou dost help us to 
 want to do just the very best we can. 
 
 Wilt Thou help those for whom we can do nothing, and somehow 
 make things come right so that all the children and the men and women 
 can be happy in the House of Peace, for that is what we most desire. 
 
 And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO FURTHER THE EFFECTS OF THE SERVICE 
 
 For general questions, see p. ii. 
 
 1. What can we do to make things go well these last few weeks of school? 
 How can we help the school to do its work? Shall we step into place and do our 
 work? Let's make a list of things to be done. 
 
 2. Where does our work need sprucing up? Are we letting anything go that 
 needs to be done? Are we going to have everything finished when vacation 
 comes? Let's see what we still have to do. 
 
 3. Let's list the conditions of peace that we have been thinking of so far in 
 the worship, and see what else is needed. First, there was absence of fear or trust 
 in God ; second, there was confidence in the future and discipleship of the Mas- 
 ter; third, there was the love of God's out-of-doors; and last Sunday and to-day 
 there was the spirit of cooperation. 
 
28 
 
 The Boy Who Forgot 
 
 Scripture: Isaiah 52:7; 55:i-3, 6-12. 
 Psalm: 100. 
 
 Hymns: "Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning;" "Fling out the ban- 
 ner, let it float;" "We've a story to tell to the nations." 
 
 Besides the House of Peace that we are building together, it is pos- 
 sible for every one of us to have a house of peace of his own. Of 
 course, when we want to do something that is forbidden, or when we 
 disobey our parents or teachers, or when we waste our money fool- 
 ishly, we have war inside ourselves, and we are not happy. But when 
 we do our duty, or do some nice "extra" thing for somebody, without 
 being asked, then we have a house of peace in our hearts, and we sing 
 all day long. This story is about a little boy who wanted a house of 
 peace but who could not see how to make one. 
 
 This little boy lived in the great city of London. His parents were 
 very poor, so poor that little Jack (for that was the boy's name) wanted 
 to earn his own living to help them. He was very ambitious, and 
 thought that by shining shoes he could earn enough money to pay for 
 his food and clothing. But he had no money to begin with, to buy 
 blacking and brushes. 
 
 He heard somehow that outside the city there lived a very rich old 
 gentleman, so he hurried off as fast as he could to find him. After a 
 great deal of trouble, he persuaded the pompous servant, who an- 
 swered the bell, to let him in. And when the rich old man saw the boy, 
 he was attracted by Jack's bright, sunny face, and allowed him to tell 
 his story. 
 
 So Jack told the rich gentleman how he wanted to start in business 
 to help his parents, but that he had no money. 
 
 ''I want you to be my partner," he said. "You lend me a dollar to 
 
 113 
 
114 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 buy brushes and blacking. I'll go out and work hard, and then next 
 Monday I shall bring back your dollar and give you half of what I 
 earn." 
 
 The old man was pleased with Jack's honest, straightforward story. 
 Jack got the dollar and off he went. He began business at once. Many 
 men, attracted by his cheerful, "Shine, sir?" stopped for a polish. By 
 Saturday he had earned four dollars, which he hugged tightly in his 
 trousers pocket. 
 
 "On Monday," he said to himself, "I shall go back and pay my 
 partner his dollar and his share of the profits." He was so happy he 
 did not know what to do. 
 
 Monday came. Jack set out for the rich gentleman's home, but his 
 bright smile had gone. 
 
 Almost before he knew it the old man was asking kindly: "How's 
 business, little partner?" 
 
 "Oh, sir," said Jack, "it's all up." 
 
 "All up?" said the man. "What do you mean by that? Didn't 
 you have success with your business?" 
 
 "Yes," he said, "I made a lot of money, but " then his voice 
 
 was choked with a sob. "Oh, sir, you see, 'twas like this, sir. I go to a 
 Sunday school every Sunday. Yesterday a man came and told us 
 about some poor little children in foreign lands who do not even have 
 schools or churches like ours. Then he told how he was trying to help 
 them. And I was so sorry for those children that I forgot all about 
 you, sir, and when the box was passed for the offering I chucked in all 
 the money I had. Straight, sir, I never thought about you. I was so 
 sorry for those children." 
 
 When he had finished, the old gentleman put his arm around Jack 
 and told him how glad he was that he had helped those children who 
 didn't have any churches or schools. "And never mind about the dol- 
 lar this time," he said. "I'll give that to the children myself." 
 
 Then there came a great peace into the boy's heart, and he forgot 
 his fear and stopped crying. And more than that, the rich old man 
 offered to send Jack to school, so that he might fit himself to go to a 
 foreign land and to teach the children like those of whom he had 
 heard, and for whom he had given more than he had. 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 115 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE IN SECURING RESULTS FROM THE SERVICE 
 
 See p. II for introductory material and suggestions on memory work. 
 
 1. What sort of a "story" have we "to tell to the nations"? How would 
 you tell it to the folks who had never heard it? Could you do anything besides 
 
 talk about it? How about what we are making for ? And our present 
 
 to ? And the money we sent to ? Do these help tell the story? Jack 
 
 was trying to tell a story to the nations, too, wasn't he? Would you like to learn 
 that song? Let's read it together. 
 
 2. Did the story remind you of one that Jesus told? Do you think that sort 
 of spirit is needed in the House of Peace? How would you phrase it? 
 
 3. We have another condition of peace to-day. What is it? (E.g., self- 
 forgetfulness or thoughtfulness for others, or ready response to need.) What con- 
 tributions have missionaries recently been making to the cause of racial under- 
 standing and world peace? 
 
29 
 
 The Scowling Face 
 
 Scripture: Rom. 12:3, 9-17. 
 Psalm: 51 : 1-3, 6-12, 15. 
 
 Hymns: "O God, who workest hitherto;" "Who is on the Lord's side?" "O 
 Master, let me walk with thee." 
 
 Elbert was on his way to school, and as he walked along he kept 
 saying to himself: "Oh, what a sad world this is!" Elbert lived in 
 the country, and now that he was ten years old, his father thought he 
 was big enough to walk along the pleasant path through the woods and 
 along the road to the little white schoolhouse on the hill. It was early 
 autumn, and the leaves of the trees were gloriously red and brown and 
 yellow. A saucy squirrel chattered a good morning to Elbert, and then 
 rushed up the big oak that was his home as fast as he could. A flock of 
 blackbirds celebrating overhead did not wait to be spoken to either. 
 
 But Elbert was not thinking about the friendly animals nor the 
 beautiful sunshiny fields about him. His mother said he must have 
 gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. You can judge 
 for yourself, when I tell you what had happened. 
 
 First of all, he had not been quite ready to wake up when he was 
 called, and he had come down to breakfast rubbing his eyes and with 
 his hair only partly combed. Then Elbert did not have what he wanted 
 for breakfast, and he had complained rudely. And after breakfast, 
 when he had fed his pet rabbits in the barnyard, it was most annoying 
 to hear his mother call: "I wonder if you know a boy who would like 
 to help wipe the dishes?" 
 
 "Aw, mother, I'm no girl. I don't want to," had been his reply. Ho 
 finally did help, but with an awful scowl. 
 
 And as he walked along the road to school, the scowl kept right 
 with him all the way, and it did not grow any less frightful, I can tell 
 you. "Why must a fellow have a mother, anyway?" he asked himself. 
 
 116 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 117 
 
 And the old squirrel in the big oak tree gave a very wise look over his 
 shoulder and hurried up out of sight of the scowl on Elbert's face. 
 
 Elbert had eaten his lunch that noon and was out on the play- 
 ground telling Alfred, a friend of his, about his rabbits, when all at 
 once they both noticed almost at the same moment a queer black cloud 
 in the northwest. It looked so black and was coming so fast that they 
 rushed into the schoolhouse to tell the teacher. They met her coming 
 out. "Quick, to the cyclone cellar!" she cried. 
 
 So they all rushed pell-mell to the little cellar which people build 
 near each house in that part of the country to escape the dangerous 
 storms or cyclones which sometimes come there. They stayed down 
 there in the dark for what seemed to be an endless time. Meanwhile 
 they could hear plainly the roar of the great wind and the loud crashing 
 of lumber outside. Finally, when the storm was past, they looked out. 
 What a sight they saw! The school building had disappeared; all that 
 was left was a pile of splintered lumber. The very fence was gone. 
 
 Soon the children started home. Elbert could hardly find the road, 
 it was drifted so full of sticks and branches and pieces of buildings. 
 The scowl had gone long ago, for Elbert began to wonder about things 
 at home. All at once it came to him that he had forgotten to kiss his 
 mother good-by that morning, when he left with the big scowl on his 
 face. 
 
 Then he began to run. He tripped over a fallen log and fell down. 
 He got up with blood on his face, but he hurried on. Everything which 
 he had seen on his way to school that morning had gone: the black- 
 birds, the squirrel, the oak, even most of the trees. It seemed to him 
 that he had never wanted to see his mother so much before in all his 
 Hfe. On and on he ran, all out of breath. And then, when it seemed 
 to him as if he could not stand it any longer, that he must stop and cry, 
 he saw in the distance a familiar figure coming to meet him with out- 
 stretched arms. 
 
 *^0 Mother, I'm so glad!" was all he could say as she gathered the 
 exhausted little boy in her arms, and told how the storm had just missed 
 their house. But that night when Elbert knelt at his bedside to talk 
 with the Heavenly Father, his prayer was something like this: 
 
118 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 "O Father, forgive me for being so mean and hateful this morning. Thou 
 hast given me so many things to make me happy. Help me to bring joy 
 and happiness to everything and everybody in Thy beautiful world." 
 
 And the next morning Elbert's mother could hardly believe her ears 
 when just after breakfast Elbert appeared with a broad smile instead 
 of a frown and said: "What can I do for you now, Mother?" 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all the beautiful things in 
 Thy world. Forgive us that we have not appreciated them more, and 
 loved Thee better. We thank Thee for all the people who do things for 
 us each day. Help us to remember to thank them, too. 
 
 Our Father, we desire to do our part in the City of God. Help us 
 to find joy in doing things for others. Forgive the frowns and the 
 growls and the scowls and the mean words and acts, for we are sorry for 
 them, and help us to be happy because we live as Thy children ought to 
 live. Give us the joy of helping and being of use. And this we ask in 
 the name of our Master. Amen. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 TO USE IN SECURING RESULTS FROM THE SERVICE 
 
 Introductory questions on p. ii. 
 
 1. How did you feel when that storm came and blew down the schoolhouse? 
 Elbert hadn't done much to build a House of Peace in his home, had he? How 
 did he feel when he remembered how he had behaved? What's the best thing to 
 do when one feels a terrible scowl coming on his face? 
 
 2. While that portion of Paul's letter was being read, did any of you think 
 of our rules? The whole chapter is almost a set of rules for living in friendliness 
 and peace. Some of it was read not long ago. Let's look at it. Is there any- 
 thing here that we could put into our ordinances? Could we use this chapter in 
 the service we shall be having later to bring together all we have been thinking 
 about the City of God? 
 
 3. What new condition of peace do we have to-day? (E.g., cheerfulness.) 
 How are we getting on with plans for a final service? How are we going to make 
 the Building of the City of God vivid to everyone? 
 
30 
 Two Kinds of Peace 
 
 Scripture: Isaiah 32:16-18; 33:2-6. 
 Psalm: 24: 1-5. 
 
 Hymns: "Come, my soul, thou must be waking;" "Dear Lord and Father of 
 mankind;" "Lead on, O King eternal." 
 
 I don't believe there ever was a child who didn't like to play. No^y 
 in the country there is plenty of room for all these playing children, so 
 that each one can play in a different place if he wants to. But in the 
 city it is different, and sometimes it is hard for a whole lot of children to 
 play together in one small yard called a playground. 
 
 That was the trouble at Playground Number Ten, and the boys did 
 not like it a bit. They thought the girls were always in the way. And 
 perhaps they were, because both boys and girls were trying to play in 
 the same place at the same time. Now boys don't like to be playing 
 ball, and continually running into some girls skipping the rope; neither 
 do the girls enjoy their rope-skipping if some boy is continually break- 
 ing in to chase a ball. 
 
 So the boys began to tease and annoy the girls of Playground Num- 
 ber Ten, thinking that perhaps they would go away and leave plenty of 
 room for baseball. But the girls stood their ground; it was their play- 
 ground just as much as the boys', and they didn't intend to be driven 
 out. Little by little the boys grew more annoying, running off with the 
 girls' ropes and balls, and pushing them roughly aside with loud hoots 
 and yells. 
 
 Finally things got so bad that Miss Jones, the supervisor at the 
 playground, was obliged to take a hand. Many times she had asked 
 the boys politely to stop teasing the girls and let them play, too; but 
 apparently it did no good; they became worse and worse. 
 
 So one day the boys were very much surprised when they came 
 down the street to Playground Number Ten, to see standing in the 
 
 119 
 
]20 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 middle of the playground a big man, with a stick. The man looked 
 very big and fierce to the boys, but he didn't seem to be doing anything 
 in particular. That day, however, there was peace. Every time a boy 
 would run over toward where the girls were playing, he would look 
 around, and the big man would be looking straight at him. Indeed, the 
 boys were so scared at this stalwart-looking man in uniform, who didn't 
 do anything but watch, that they hardly had any fun at all. Most of 
 them slunk home long before dark. 
 
 The next day the big man was there again. And again there was 
 peace, but nobody was happy, because they were afraid. The next 
 morning the boys began to talk among themselves, to see if there 
 wasn't some way out of the trouble they had got themselves into. At 
 last they hit upon an idea. They would go to Miss Jones, and propose 
 that the playground be divided into a large part and a small part. One 
 day the boys would play baseball or some game that took lots of room 
 on the large part, while the girls used the smaller part; then the next 
 day they would change over. Then they wouldn't interfere with one 
 another's games at all. 
 
 They decided to propose the plan, and you may be sure that Miss 
 Jones readily assented. The next day when the boys came down the 
 street after school was out they hurried to the corner and peeked 
 around — that big man had gone. With shouts of joy they ran to their 
 part of the playground; and that day, and all the days after that, there 
 was peace on Playground Number Ten, not the kind of fear-peace that 
 the big man with a stick brought, but the joy-peace that came from 
 playing fair. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 KOR FOLLOWING tJP THE .SERVICE 
 
 See the general questions on p. ii. 
 
 1. What made those children stop quarreling? Did they have a good time 
 then? What was wrong? What did they do then? Did this work? Do you think 
 it works anywhere else? Do children and grown people ever have a good time 
 when they don't play fair? 
 
 2. How old do you think boys or girls have to be before they can play fair 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 121 
 
 and live at peace without being watched? Why don't they do it? What ought 
 to be done with trouble makers? Who should do it? Shall we put our con- 
 clusion into our ordinances or think about it a while longer? 
 
 3. The square deal is rather essential to peace, isn't it? How about industrial 
 peace? Does the big stick work there? Who is going to decide what a square 
 deal is? 
 
31 
 
 Planning the House of Peace 
 
 Scripture: Psalm 122, 
 The Beatitudes. 
 
 Hymns: "Who is on the Lord's side;" "O God, who workest hitherto;" "Rise 
 up, O men of God." 
 
 "Save as the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." — Psalm 
 127: I. 
 
 There is probably no one of us who has not at some time, when he 
 has looked at a great skyscraper or a majestic cathedral, desired to be 
 able to plan such a building. But when we think how even our small 
 playhouses often fall down before we have finished them, we realize 
 how hard it would be to plan a huge .forty-story structure that would 
 stand for many years. 
 
 Yet, if someone should draw the plans for us, there isn't one of us 
 so small that he or she could not help build, perhaps only by carrying 
 bricks or mixing mortar. For that is the way great buildings rise, by 
 the wise planning of a few expert men, who know how to figure out the 
 size of the beams and the thickness of the walls, and then by the care- 
 ful, patient labors of a lot of men, who know how to do the smaller 
 tasks that go to make up the whole project. 
 
 Neither one, you see, could do much without the other. If no one 
 drew the plans, the carpenters and masons would never be able to agree 
 on a building that would look well nor stand for long. Each carpenter 
 might have his own idea how long the planks should be, and each mason 
 might build his part of the wall differently, so that the building would 
 be a failure. 
 
 On the other hand, what good would a fine set of plans be if there 
 were no one to carry them out? The architects might cover yards of 
 paper with pictures of what they wanted the building to be like, but if 
 there were no laborers to bring the materials and put them together, 
 then there could be no building. 
 
 122 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 123 
 
 It is much the same with the house that we are building every day, 
 our House of Peace. H the whole world is to be at peace, someone 
 must do the planning who knows the whole world well. Most of us only 
 know a very small corner of the world. That is why, in 1919, House-of- 
 Peace architects from all over the world gathered in France to draw 
 new plans for a House of World Peace. They were the statesmen of 
 nearly every nation on the globe chosen for their wisdom and leader- 
 ship. For several months they planned together. In many things they 
 did not agree, and sometimes instead of a strong beam they put in a 
 weak one. But when they had finished they gave the plans for the new 
 House of World Peace to the nations, and people everywhere said: 
 "Peace has been made." 
 
 But had it? No, the architects had merely drawn the plans, and 
 then had said to the peoples of the world: "Here are our plans for a 
 House of World Peace in which we think that all of us can live together 
 happily. Will you help us build the house?" 
 
 That is the call that comes to each one of us, for we are the carpen- 
 ters and masons and laborers in the actual building of the house. The 
 plans will change as men grow wiser, but the work will go on slowly, 
 board by board, brick by brick, and day by day the walls will rise 
 higher; for the vision is there, the vision of a better world. 
 
 Every time we show ourselves the friends of children in other lands, 
 by sending them doctors and teachers, we are building. Every time we 
 try to understand them, instead of calling them "foreign" and "queer," 
 we are building. Every time we help the immigrants who have come 
 from other countries to our beloved America, looking for freedom and 
 opportunity, we are building. Indeed, every time we sacrifice our own 
 comforts and possessions cheerfully for the good of strangers, and make 
 them our friends, we are building. 
 
 For these things are what the plans call for, and without them, with- 
 out our help, the wonderful House of World Peace will be only a "scrap 
 of paper." 
 
124 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR BRINGING THE PERIOD TO A CLOSE 
 
 The time devoted in class or home to gathering up and furthering the influ- 
 ence of the worship might with profit be spent, these last two Sundays, in thinking 
 about the whole idea or project — the Building of the City of God — having in mind 
 the possibility of a closing service for the period, at which the children and young 
 people may conduct a service which they themselves have prepared and which 
 will embody the essential meaning of the House of Friendship, the House of 
 Justice and the House of Peace. 
 
32 
 
 A Flower That Was God's Minister* 
 
 Scripture: Matthew 7 : 25-33. 
 Psalm: Parts of 65. 
 
 Hymns: "Lord of all being;" "All things bright and beautiful;" "The King of 
 Love my shepherd is." 
 
 It happened a long time ago, when Napoleon the Great was emper- 
 or. As is always the way with tyrants, Napoleon often put into prison 
 men who disagreed with him, although they might otherwise be good 
 men. That is the only way unjust power can be held. One of the men 
 that Napoleon imprisoned was a great scholar named Charney. He was 
 a very wise man. All his life he had studied and thought until he knew 
 almost everything that anyone could know. But he did not believe in 
 God. 
 
 Perhaps it is not very surprising that he did not believe in God. 
 There he was shut up in his dark little prison cell. He had nothing to 
 do, nothing to think about except himself and his troubles. Naturally 
 he grew more sour and gloomy every day. 
 
 One day as he was walking up and down in his cell he noticed a 
 piece of chalk or soft stone, and picking it up he wrote on the wall: 
 "No one cares." He was very unhappy. 
 
 Now it happened that he was allowed to walk in a little open court 
 near his cell for an hour every day. It was a dismal place, all paved 
 with fiat stones and surrounded by high walls. He didn't find much to 
 think about here either. But one day he noticed, pushing its way up 
 between two big stones, a little green shoot. He was surprised to see it 
 there and thought of course that when he came out again the next day 
 it would be all dried up. But no; it was still here. Absent-mindedly 
 he took a stick and loosened up the earth around the tiny bit of green. 
 
 * Based on the story as told by H. T. Kerr in Children's Story Sermons. 
 Copyright by Fleming H. Revell Co. 
 
 125 
 
126 THE HOUSE OF PEACE 
 
 The earth looked dry, so he got some of his own drinking water and 
 poured it on the plant. 
 
 When he went back to his cell he found himself thinking, not about 
 himself but about the plant. The next day he took care of it, and the 
 next and the next — till finally, when he went out into the court one 
 morning, he found a beautiful little flower blossoming. Imagine his 
 delight. How eagerly he looked forward to his hour in the court after 
 that! His sad thoughts went away. There was no room for them. He 
 became cheerful and hopeful and he held up his head as he paced back 
 and forth in his cell. 
 
 It was while he was thus walking up and down, thinking of the 
 flower in the court, that his eye chanced to fall on the words, now dim 
 and indistinct, that he had written on the wall long before — "No one 
 cares." Striding up to the spot, he erased them with his sleeve, and in 
 their place, he wrote these words: "God cares." 
 
 The little flower was God's minister to him. 
 
 "Each little flower that opens, 
 Each little bird that sings, 
 He made their glowing colors. 
 He made their tiny wings. 
 
 He gave us eyes to see them 
 
 And lips that we might tell 
 How great is God Almighty 
 
 Who has made all things well." 
 
 PRAYER 
 
 How beautiful, O God, are the things we love! Even the ugly rag 
 dolls we used to play with were beautiful to us because we loved them 
 so. And so Thou dost make the world beautiful because Thou dost love 
 it so, clothing its great barren wastes with flowers and trees, painting 
 red and gold the western sky as the sun goes down, and making the 
 dark night radiant with a thousand sparkling stars. 
 
 Teach us, O God, how to help Thee to make the whole world beau- 
 tiful, to get rid of ugly thoughts and ugly feelings, and ugly deeds, and 
 ugly places. Help us also to be Thy ministers; bringing food to those 
 
THE HOUSE OF PEACE 127 
 
 who are hungry, bringing good cheer to those that are lonely, bringing 
 fairness and justice to those that are being wronged. 
 
 And now as we pray in silence together wilt Thou speak to us, 
 showing us how we may reveal Thy love to men by bringing gladness 
 and beauty into their lives. And this we ask in Jesus' name. 
 
 (Silence, followed by the benediction) 
 
 The Lord bless us and keep us ; 
 
 The Lord make His face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us; 
 
 The Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us Peace. Amen. 
 
 A suggestion is made on page 124 for a service with which to bring 
 the year's work to a close 
 
Date Due