Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear Part 8

"Very often we read some very curious things. The manufacturer of one of the well-known breakfast foods, has placed this strange statement on the outside of each of the packages: 'Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.' It seems impossible to do this, and the writer of the words probably had an entirely different way of explaining how he would do it from the way we will demonstrate it here on the drawing paper today. Let us suppose that we make the statement that we can tell what a man is if we know what he eats. All right, then, here is a case: There is a certain man who eats three meals a day out of a dish shaped something like this: [Draw lines representing Step 1 of Fig. 37.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 37] [Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 38]

"And then, let us suppose that the food he eats is heaped up like this: [Add lines to change the drawing to Step 2.]

"Now, what do you think this food is? Ice cream? Ah, no, because when I tell you that this is steam rising from the food you will know it isn't ice cream: [Add lines to change the drawing to Step 3.]

"But you will begin to see what it is when I tell you that these two lines represent chopsticks: [Add lines to change the drawing to Step 5.] What is it? Rice? Yes, it is rice, and we will label it in this way. [Add the letters, to change the drawing to Step 5.]

"And now, having found out what the man eats, let us see if we can find out who he is. [Remove the sheet from the drawing board, hold it up and turn it over, exposing Fig. 38 to the audience. With the attention thus centered upon your work, the boys and girls will listen with eagerness to whatever else you may have for them.]

"And so, I tell you of another thing that we can do.

"Listen! Tell me what a boy thinks about, and I will tell you what kind of a man he will grow up to be.

"The man who swears, thought of bad things and used bad words when he was a boy. The man who is a thief thought about dishonest things when he was a boy. The man who is happy and who finds it his delight to do good, formed the habit of thinking and doing good things when he was a boy. The man who loves his work learned to like to work when he was a boy.

"And it is work that I want to speak about today.

"There is no place in the world for a lazy boy or girl. n.o.body wants them. Boys who hate to work are the kind that loaf around poolrooms and pollute the air with vile cigarette smoke and language which bespeaks an empty mind and a corrupt heart.

"As Jesus is our great example in every way, He stands out strongly as our example of how a workman should delight in his employment. We should first find the thing which G.o.d intends that we shall do, for we are all fitted to do some things better than others, and we should then put forth our best efforts to learn to do that one thing as well as we can. We must center our thoughts upon the things we want to do. Life will then become a delight, because the world is always crying for workers who know how to do their work. The other kind is always to be found but never wanted. The demand is for the ones who know how. It is a significant fact that the first recorded words of Jesus Christ are, 'Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business?' This makes of Jesus a _Business boy_, and it was G.o.d's work he began so soon.

"Gladstone, an inspiring example of the true workman, says, 'The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and the waste of it will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning.'

"The happiest people in the world are those who are busy at something worth while, and the most miserable are those who are in idleness for lack of ambition or else are engaged in work which they themselves loathe because of its baseness."

THE DOORWAY --Easter --Death

The Resurrection of Christ the Hope of the World--An Easter Thought.

THE LESSON--That death is but the doorway between the earthly life and the heavenly life of the believer.

There is no new thought or theory concerning the dead in Christ. The most profound thinkers of the ages consider death as the entrance to a future life. The ill.u.s.tration here presented has been employed in various forms, but is given with the hope that it may, at Easter, help someone to a clearer conception of the reward which awaits the faithful.

~~The Talk.~~

"James Russell Lowell, dwelling upon the darkness of the cloud of sorrow which death brings into the home, wrote:

"'Console, if you will, I can bear it, 'Tis a well-meant alms of breath; But not all the preaching since Adam Has made Death other than Death!'

"How true! And G.o.d intended it should be so. Surely, it is His desire that we should love to live in the earth which He has given us. Surely, it is His desire that we should love those who are about us, and that we should mourn when the earthly parting comes. And yet, 'it is impossible,' as Jonathan Swift has said, 'that anything so natural, so necessary and so universal as death should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.' With this thought, we may lift our faces once more, and as we dry our tears, forget the problems, the sorrows and the triumphs of earth as we ask ourselves the question, 'What shall _we_ be in the coming ages?' Compared with this question, all others sink into insignificance. Science, discovery, commercial achievement, social problems, the rise and fall of nations--all come to us and claim attention, but we brush them aside as we repeat, with pa.s.sionate earnestness: What shall _we_ be--_we, ourselves_--in the coming time?

"No matter how long we ask the question, no matter how earnestly we seek the solution, we shall not be satisfied with an answer, for G.o.d has not intended that we should know. The Apostle John, 'whom Jesus loved,' admits that 'it doth not yet appear what we shall be.'

"Does it mean, then, that we should look ahead, and see nothing before us but the grave--the end of all? [Draw the grave, the headstone, and the word, "Death," with black, completing Fig. 39.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 39]

"Perhaps the disciples, their hearts bowed down with grief and disappointment, held this thought as they saw the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea sealed upon the body of their beloved Master. But three days pa.s.s, and lo!--all is changed! The stone is rolled away and Christ has risen! How the message spreads! He is with them once again, and blessed days they are! But it is not for long, for heaven receives Him from their sight. Clearly, then, came to them again His words, 'I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am ye may be also.' What!

They, too? Yes, for did he not say, also, 'Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice and come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life.'

"Today, there comes to us anew the revelation of the truth which came to the disciples on that wonderful resurrection morn. True, it may be that our pathway may lead more quickly than we think to this place which we call the grave. [Draw pathway to the grave.] True, there is a wall between human vision and the mysterious beyond. [Draw the wall.] But true, also, and gloriously true, is it that the grave opens to us the mysteries beyond the wall. [Draw line to change headstone to door]--while the pathway leads to--what? We can only suggest it here, with a few feeble lines. [Draw distant city, in red, using orange for rays of light. Add the word "Life," completing Fig. 40.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 40]

"Someone has said that the night of life is the dawn of peace.

Browning says that 'you never know what life means till you die.'

Another has said, 'The dead are glad in heaven; the living 'tis that weep.' And all, though they point to the pathway beyond the wall as that toward which we should push forward, are firm in the knowledge that the earthly pathway of peace and love is more essential than this, for without it we cannot reach the other. 'There is but one way to get ready for immortality,' says Van d.y.k.e, 'and that is to love this life, and live it as bravely and cheerfully and faithfully as we can.' And I know it is our prayer that we may do this in the fullness of the meaning of the words."

THE PUZZLE PICTURE --G.o.d's Love --Nature

When We Have Solved It, Let Us Learn to Find G.o.d in All His Works of Nature.

THE LESSON--That we shall find the loving presence of G.o.d everywhere in nature, if we but seek Him.

This ill.u.s.tration, dealing with a popular pastime, points to a great lesson, the fact that G.o.d is to be found in all our natural surroundings, if we but seek for Him in the same manner that we endeavor to find the unseen in other ways.

~~The Talk.~~

"How many of the boys and girls are fond of puzzle pictures? Hold up your hands. Ah, I thought so. I believe nearly everyone likes puzzles; we are attracted to many things which possess an element of mystery. So I am going to draw a little puzzle landscape today and see if we can get a lesson from it. [Draw the landscape, naming the objects as you complete them--the tree, the land, the water, the distant foliage, and so on, finis.h.i.+ng Fig. 41. This completes the drawing for the entire talk.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 41]

"Here is the story: A farmer, living near this spot, came down to the sh.o.r.e of the lake, untied his boat from its fastening, and rowed out onto the lake to fish. With the approach of dinner-time, the farmer's son came down to the sh.o.r.e to call his father to dinner. It seems that the father had rowed so far away that he could not hear the lad's voice, so the boy is still waiting here for him. Can you see the boy?

Ah, yes, here he is. [Remove the sheet from the drawing board, reverse it, and hold it up for the inspection of the school. Fig. 42. After all have discovered the face of the boy, do not return the sheet to the drawing board, but lay it on the floor or elsewhere out of sight, as it has served its purpose and should not be allowed to detract from the attention needed for the remainder of the talk.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 42]

"Yes, it is interesting to study puzzle pictures to discover in them the persons and objects which we may not see at the beginning. But I wonder how many of us do a similar thing when we see the real woods, the real lake and the real flowers? As in the picture, the boy's face was made by the outline of the tree and the shrubbery, and the hair was shown by the shading of the gra.s.s, so also may we find great hidden truths in nature all about us. The poet Bryant, in Thanatopsis says that

"'To him, who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms she speaks A various language.'

"And Shakespeare tells of finding 'tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.'

"Greatest of all is the fact that G.o.d is there. Every tree, every bush, every blade of gra.s.s, every flower, speaks of His presence--of His love and care for us. Dr. Van d.y.k.e, in many beautiful pa.s.sages pleads with us to turn our thoughts from the things which make us unhappy--the wild rush for fame and fortune, for the attainment of that which disappoints and discourages--to the quietness expressed by nature. In his book, 'The Ruling Pa.s.sion,' we find this beautiful sentiment: 'It is the part of wisdom to spend little of your time upon the things that vex and anger you, and much of your time upon the things that bring you quietness and confidence and good cheer. A friend made is better than an enemy punished. There is more G.o.d in the peaceful beauty of this little wood-violet than in all the angry disputation of the sects. We are nearer heaven when we listen to the birds than when we quarrel with our fellow-men. I am sure that none can enter into the spirit of Christ, His evangel, save those who willingly follow His invitation when He says, 'Come ye yourselves apart in a lonely place and rest awhile.'

"It is a most beautiful thought. Let us ponder it in our hearts. Let us seek to find G.o.d and His goodness to us in everything that He has placed about us. Many a man who says he has not found G.o.d in nature has failed to see the blessings which have come to him--which are his every moment of his life. The fruit, the flowers, the grains--everything that supplies him with the necessities of life and earthly happiness come from the hand of G.o.d. Let us feel that _all nature is a sort of puzzle picture_, and that by looking, looking, looking, we can find G.o.d in everything. And in finding Him, let us learn from nature the lessons of humility, of sacrifice, of joy and good cheer; for it is for this that G.o.d has given us these blessings. It is only when we thus seek Him that we may look 'through nature up to nature's G.o.d.'"

THE HEART of the TROUBLE --Temperance Day --Sobriety