Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and Girls Part 5

You remember how Zaccheus, the little, short man who had been robbing the people by collecting too much tax-money, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Christ pa.s.s by. Christ told him that He was going to take dinner with him. And when Christ dined with him, Zaccheus felt that Christ thought he was better than he was, and he became so ashamed of what he had been doing that he went and gave the money back.

And Christ's rule is a good rule for us to follow. If we wish people to be good, we must look for the good things in them. If we _expect_ them to be good, they will _try_ to be good. There is a jailer in Chicago who, when a man has served his term in jail, gives him a letter of recommendation so that he can get a job. And the men who get these letters are ashamed to do wrong and to get into jail again, because of the disappointment they will cause the jailer who believes in them.

A girl once said to her mother, who was always finding something good instead of bad to say of people, "Mother, I believe you would have something good to say of the devil."

"Well," said her mother, "we might all admire his perseverance."

Try to see how many good things you can see in people. It's the best game of all to play.

THE BOY WHO WAS TO BE MANAGER

A boy recently answered an advertis.e.m.e.nt of a certain firm in New York which wanted an office-boy. He went to the office, and as he was a bright, neat-looking boy, he made a good impression upon the manager.

The manager liked him and told him to report for work the following morning.

The boy was about to leave the office in great glee, when the manager called him back and asked him to write his name, in order that he might see whether or no he was a good writer. The boy wrote his name in such a miserable scrawl that the manager could hardly read it, and he told the boy that he was very sorry, but he would be obliged to cancel his agreement, and could not take him on.

He then advised the boy to take lessons in penmans.h.i.+p, in order to improve his writing.

"But," the boy said, "why do I need to be a good penman? I'm going to be a manager some day, and I'll have a stenographer to do my writing for me."

"Yes," said the man, "that may be true. But before you get to be a manager anywhere you will have to work up to it through a great many years of lower positions, and you must learn to write." The boy could not see why, and went to find work elsewhere, before improving his writing.

There are a great many people just like that boy. They expect to be managers, superintendents, presidents, but they don't see that they must work up to it, and every step must be faithfully and patiently taken.

Some boys expect to be good at long division, and they do not take any pains to learn subtraction thoroughly. Or they expect to be good in English, and will not study grammar. They are like the boy in this story.

Some girls expect to appear like ladies, but they pay no attention to what their mothers say about neatness,--such as keeping their hair in order and their shoes clean. These girls are also like the boy of the story.

Most things worth while in life have to be worked for, and as you cannot well get upstairs at one jump, but must take the steps between one by one, so the good things of life come by patiently filling in each task with care and faithfulness. Then the big things will take care of themselves.

A TALE ABOUT WORDS

Boys and girls like fairy-tales. So my sermon to-day is to be in that form. This fairy-tale comes from France, and it is told by Katherine Pyle in her book, "Fairy-Tales from Many Lands."

A widow had two daughters. One was coa.r.s.e and slovenly, with an ugly disposition, but because she resembled her mother the woman loved her and thought her beautiful. The other daughter had hair like gold and a complexion like a pink rose, while her eyes were as blue as the sky. She was sweet-tempered and kind, but her mother hated her, and gave her all the hardest work to do and the poorest food to eat.

One day she gave her a heavy jug and sent her into the forest to bring water for her sister. When the girl reached the spring she was tired and sad, and sat weeping on the stone. Presently a voice behind her asked for a drink, and she turned and saw a withered old woman sitting there.

So she gently raised the jug to the woman's lips, and then refilled it and started home.

But the old woman called her back and said: "Daughter, you have helped one who is able to repay you for your kindness. Every word you speak shall be a pearl or a rose." The girl hastened home. Her mother met her with scolding words, asking her why she had been so long. And when her daughter explained to her, lo! every word she spoke was a pearl or a rose. The greedy old woman s.n.a.t.c.hed up the pearls and left the roses.

Then she called her other daughter,--the ugly one,--told her what had happened, and said: "Hasten, daughter! Take the silver pitcher and run to the fountain. If the fairy has given these for a drink from a jug, what will she give for a drink from a silver pitcher!"

The girl sulked off to the fountain swinging the pitcher and loitering along the way. When she reached there no old woman was in sight, but beside the spring was a tall, beautiful young woman who asked her for a drink. The ugly one replied, "There is the pitcher, draw the water for yourself."

When she was about to go, the young woman said sharply: "Stop! the words that fall from your lips are evil things, and they shall look like the things they are. Every word you speak shall be a spider or a snake, until you learn to speak kindly."

The girl trudged off home scarcely thinking about what the woman said, little knowing that it was the same fairy who had spoken to her sister.

But when she began to answer her mother, spiders and snakes dropped from her lips, and she was very much frightened.

I wonder whether our words would be pearls or spiders if we could see them? Let us make them pearls.

SUFFOCATED TREES

We sometimes hear of people being suffocated by gas, but it is not often we hear of trees being suffocated.

But the other day I was walking down the street, and noticed that all the trees on one side of the avenue for several blocks were dead. They looked as if they had been fine, strong, healthy trees, and I could not understand why they had all died, until I was told that a gas-pipe beneath their roots had leaked, and that the escaping gas had killed the trees.

I am sure you and I know people who are like those dead trees: they have become discouraged and wilted, and if you and I could dig down into their lives we should probably find something like that poisonous gas which has ruined them.

Sin is the most poisonous thing that gets into one's life.

If a boy or girl has done wrong and is hiding it from his father and his mother, and his conscience is p.r.i.c.king him all the time, then he cannot be sunny and healthy like a growing tree. He becomes cross and easily provoked, and is sulky and wilted.

If you have done something wrong, which you ought to tell your parents about, do not go to sleep until you have told them. If you do, you will wake in the morning with dread, and you will go around all day with a dull ache which will spoil all the suns.h.i.+ne. Moreover, if you begin keeping secrets from your parents in this way you will have no one to check you in your misdeeds. Your parents may punish you, but they are the best friends you have. And besides, there is no punishment like hiding a feeling of guilt. The next best thing after keeping from doing wrong is to own up to it in an honest way when you have done wrong. Many a boy and girl would have been saved untold trouble if they had only been frank with their parents. One of the saddest days in any boy's or girl's life is when they first keep a guilty secret from their parents.

ULYSSES AND THE SIRENS

When you boys and girls get older and further along in school, you will probably learn of a famous Greek whose name was Ulysses. He was noted as a heroic seaman, who travelled over dangerous seas and into unknown lands.

In one of the seas where Ulysses sailed was an island known as the Isle of the Sirens. The sirens would attract sailors to their sh.o.r.es by beautiful music. But when the sailors drew near the land they would irresistibly cast themselves into the sea, to their destruction.

Now Ulysses had heard of the sirens through Circe, and he wanted to hear the maidens sing, but he did not want to come within their power. So this is the way he managed it. One day he put wax in the ears of all his sailors, so that they could not hear the music, and then had himself strapped to the mast. Then he ordered the sailors to row near enough to the island for him to hear the music. In this way he heard the singing, but did not get caught.

That was a clever way of getting tempted, and yet not getting caught, was it not? But someone has said in a joke it would have been better if Ulysses had had an orchestra on board which would have made better music than the sirens. Then neither Ulysses nor the sailors would have been tempted to go too near the dangerous isle.

That is a pretty good way of dealing with all kinds of temptation,--not by trying to keep temptation out, but by putting something more attractive in its place. If you are tempted to go to the moving pictures, when you were told not to, do not simply stand around outside the place with nothing else to do. Go off and play something which will be more attractive than moving pictures. If you are told that you must not go fis.h.i.+ng, don't sulk around wis.h.i.+ng that you could go. Just go at baseball or something else, and soon you will have forgotten about the other thing.

Always put something else in the place of the thing you are not to do, and it will help you to overcome temptation.