With the Children on Sunday Part 9

Just before Jesus was crucified He said: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." (John xii: 32.) So He draws you and He draws me. And so also by His love He would draw every person in all the world to Him. Let us not resist the drawings of the Holy Spirit, but come to the Lord Jesus Christ and love Him with our whole heart.

QUESTIONS.--What can the magnet do? Can the power of the magnet be seen? Can the magnet lift as many nails as tacks? Are old rusty nails drawn by the magnet? Who are like the little tacks? Who are like the small nails? Who are like the rusty nails? Does everybody desire at times to be good?

What draws them in the right direction? Can we see the power that causes us to desire to be good?

What is the name of the power or force that causes the nails to fall from the magnet? What power draws people from doing right? Should we always yield to the power that draws us in the right direction? Does Christ have to be seen in order to accept His influence?

[Ill.u.s.tration: Daniel in the Lion's Den.]

KEYS.

HOW TO UNLOCK THE HUMAN HEART.

SUGGESTION:--Objects used: Locks and keys of any form or size. If possible open the lock and show how the key fits into the different wards of the lock. Explain how other keys would not fit.

MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: I have here to-day quite a variety of locks.

Here are also quite a variety of keys. You will notice that there are several more keys than there are locks. Now, I suppose that we would have no very great difficulty in selecting the keys that would be most likely to turn backward and forward the bolts in these different locks.

We would naturally expect that these larger keys would fit these larger locks and the smaller keys would be adapted to lock and unlock the smaller ones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lock and Key.]

Here is this large lock; I suppose it is very possible this large key may be suited to lock and unlock it. Yes, it just fits. You see how it turns the bolt in and out as I turn the key.

Now, here is another lock; let us see if we can find a key that will fit it. This key seems about the size, but after pa.s.sing it into the lock it seems to strike something that prevents it from turning, and consequently is of no service. Let us try another. That seems to work much better, and turns the bolt backward and forward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lock and Key.]

Here is still another lock; let us try this key with this lock. That seems to work very well. Possibly we might be able to lock and unlock this other also. Let us try it. Yes, this key fits both these locks.

This key is what the locksmith calls a skeleton key. It is so made that it avoids the obstacles which are placed in the different locks to prevent them from being opened by all varieties of keys. Here is a still smaller lock. This lock has a very peculiar keyhole, and I know at once that there is no need of trying to unlock it with most of the keys which I have spread out here. I recognize it at once as what is called a "Yale lock." The key is thin, is bent in various ways, and along the edge has several notches. Let us try a couple of these keys. This one seems to fit very well to the grooves. It pa.s.ses into the lock, but I cannot turn the bolt. Let us try another. Yes, this seems to be the one that was made by the locksmith to fasten and unfasten this lock.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yale Lock and Key.]

A key then is simply something which unlocks the door or the gate, so you may open it and pa.s.s inside. Now, there are a great many kinds of keys. Sometimes a book is called a key to business. Perhaps another book is called a key to the study of medicine; another the key to the study of law. And so there may be a great many kinds of books which are called keys. When properly used or studied they open the way for a clear understanding of how to transact business, how to study medicine and how to study law. And so there are various books that are keys to the understanding of very, very many subjects. When you indicate to me the kind of difficulty that you have to overcome, it would be reasonably easy to indicate the kind of book you need in order successfully to meet that difficulty.

When I find a book that teaches a boy good business habits and helps him to become a good business man, I know that book was written with that object in view. When I find a book that teaches one how to understand the human system, the nature of disease and the character of the remedies which are to be used when people are sick, I know that book was written with a view to help people to understand the nature of disease and the character of medicine. Just so it is with every other book. Each is like the lock and the key, for the locks have inside a peculiar sort of winding way, and when I find a key that exactly fits into this winding pa.s.sage I know immediately that the locksmith designed that the key should fit into that particular lock and turn back the bolt.

Now, G.o.d wants to get into the human heart, and I find that G.o.d has a key with which to unlock it. I do not think you would be long in guessing what book G.o.d has made the key with which to unlock the human heart. I think that every boy and girl would at once say that it is the Bible. Yes; it is the Bible. It fits exactly into all the wards and chambers, and winding pa.s.sages which characterize each and every need of the human heart. The moment I bring this wonderful key of divine truth to the human heart, I find that the lock and the key were both made by the same infinite Creator. Some locks are very complicated and intricate, and the keys are also very peculiar. They are made especially for that particular lock, and no other key in all the world will unlock it. The moment I get that particular key and turn it around in the lock I know at once that both the lock and the key were made by the same person, and that the lock was made to be opened by no other key. So G.o.d has created the human heart and made it very difficult to be opened, and there is no key in all the world that can open it except the Bible.

As a robber or a burglar may try to get into a house by the use of a skeleton key, or by "picking the lock," so men have often tried to gain admission into the human heart by the use of various subst.i.tutes for the genuine and the real key. They have tried amus.e.m.e.nt, and wealth, and sinful pleasure, and very, very many things; but they never succeed in getting into the inner sacredness of the human heart. Unless the heart is opened by G.o.d's Word, and the Holy Spirit is admitted so that G.o.d can take possession, there is always a sense of loneliness, a sense of dissatisfaction, a desire for something that the person does not possess; he is at unrest, he is restless and dissatisfied, like a boy or girl who is away from home, and has a homesick longing to return to that home.

You never will be able to understand the hidden mystery of your own spiritual life and spiritual being until you use the Word of G.o.d to help you to solve the mystery. The Word of G.o.d is not only designed to unlock the human heart, so that G.o.d and the Holy Spirit may gain admission, but this key is also designed to lock the door against Satan and sin and keep them out of our hearts. Unless we daily use our Bibles to lock our hearts against evil thoughts, and wicked purposes, and sinful desires, we will find that they will steal into our hearts; and like the evil spirit that had been driven out and afterward returned and brought seven other spirits more wicked than himself, so sin and Satan will again take possession of our hearts and lock them against G.o.d and all that is good.

QUESTIONS.--Are there many kinds of locks? Must there be as many kinds of keys as there are kinds of locks? Is the human heart like a lock? Does G.o.d desire to get into the human heart? With what key does He unlock it? Are the lock and its key made by the same man? Who made the human heart? Who made the key to unlock it? Can the Bible be used to lock the human heart against the entrance of sin? What are skeleton keys? Do men try false keys with which to open the human heart? What are some of the things with which they try? Is the human heart ever satisfied until unlocked by the Bible and possessed by G.o.d?

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TRAPS.

UNSUSPECTING MICE AND MEN.

SUGGESTION:--An ordinary mouse trap will be serviceable. The trap can be set and instead of a mouse, a child can spring the trap with his finger. The parent had better try his own finger first, to see that the trap is not too strong. A rat trap should never be tried in this way.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: You may think that possibly there was a time when wicked men did not desire to destroy others, as is so often the case in this day. Hundreds of years ago, G.o.d said, "Among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men." (Jeremiah v: 26.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mouse Trap.]

I suppose you have all seen traps. There are a great many different kinds. Some are very dangerous, and yet you cannot see the danger until you are caught, or until you see some other person who has been caught in the trap. Now here is a trap. I suppose that you have all seen such traps as this, and possibly have them in your own homes, to catch the little mice which destroy your food, and oftentimes do much injury.

Now, this trap does not look dangerous to the unsuspecting mouse. The little wire, which is to be drawn up by a strong spring to choke the mouse to death, is concealed, and he does not know that there is a wire there at all. He simply smells the piece of cheese. This tempts his appet.i.te, and, as he is fond of cheese, he desires to obtain it, and so he attempts to crawl in through this small hole to get the cheese; but the moment he nibbles at the cheese, it disturbs the little catch which holds the spring, and when it is too late to escape, the little mouse finds that he has been caught. Then he does not think of the cheese, but struggles to get loose and escape out of the trap. But all of his struggles are in vain, and after a few moments he is choked to death.

Then the man, or the housewife comes, takes the little mouse out of the trap, and with the same piece of cheese the trap is again set for another unsuspecting mouse. So people go on, day after day, catching one mouse after another, with the same trap and with the same bait.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mice and Trap.]

Now, there are traps which men set for boys and girls, and men and women, such as story papers, bad books and pictures, that might be called pest papers, printed poison, moral leprosy. To the innocent, the unthinking and the unsuspecting these things may not appear very dangerous, but they are very deadly in their effects, and they result in the temporal and eternal ruin of thousands upon thousands of people every year.

Then there are also the saloons, with gilded signs, frosted windows, and showy looking gla.s.ses. Rooms which are made attractive only to catch men, to rob them of their money, and of their self-control, and of their reason, and of their homes, and of all temporal good, and of all hope of heaven--destroying men's souls and bodies, both for a time and for all eternity.

Then there is the theatre, with its glittering lights, with its tinseled show, with its corrupting play, with its scenes upon which no pure-minded man or woman can look without blus.h.i.+ng; scenes which deaden the moral sense, pollute the mind, such as are calculated to rob the individual of virtue, and of integrity, and of faith in G.o.d, and of hope of heaven.

Then there are other dangerous traps which are set for young men and for older men--tobacco, cigarettes and cigars, and beer. These traps which are set for our money, which so often rob of health and strength, for no boy who uses tobacco in any form can be strong like the boy who does not use tobacco. Boys begin with the deadly cigarette, and then go on to the cigar, and then follow with drinking beer, and so, step by step, they go on down to ruin.

If you have ever gone fis.h.i.+ng on a calm, beautiful summer day, and have looked down through the water, you have often seen the fish as they gathered around the hook, and then watched them as they nibbled at the bait. First they come up very shyly, and barely touch the bait with their nose. Then they come again, and possibly just bite a small trifle--barely taste of it. Then, again and again they nibble at the hook, until finally they undertake to get a large bite, when they discover that they have swallowed the hook. Then it matters not how much they flounder about, and struggle to get away, it is too late, it is impossible for them to escape. They are pulled into the boat or upon the bank, and a few hours later they are on the stove, being cooked for some hungry fisherman. Just so Satan comes to those whom he wishes to catch.

He comes with money, and with pleasure, and with the thought of having a good time. He tempts people by presenting to their thought something which they desire. He leads them on step by step, and when they see others all about them who are being destroyed in the effort to obtain the same pleasure which they are seeking, Satan makes them think that in their own case the result will be very different.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fish Doing a Dangerous Thing.]

You will notice that this mouse trap has four different places where mice can be caught, and is it not strange that when one mouse enters on this side, and is caught, and is lying there dead, that another live mouse should come along, and see the same trap and desire the same thing, and walk right in to the same danger, and the same sure death?

You would think that when he saw the other mouse had been caught, and had lost his life, that he would turn away. But instead of that, he smells the cheese, walks right into the trap, and is caught, and in a few moments is as dead as his neighbor. So boys see others who have been ruined by smoking cigarettes, who have paved the way for their destruction by smoking cigars, by keeping bad company, by drinking beer, and by going on step by step. They see drunkards all about them who have squandered all their money and lost all their friends, and been forsaken by their own parents, their wives, and their children; who have become outcasts, and for whom no one longer has any respect. Men see these things daily, and yet they go on in the same way, beginning with beer and going, step by step, from social drinking, until they themselves become drunkards and outcasts, and go down to fill a drunkard's grave.

The Bible says that no drunkard can inherit the kingdom of heaven.

I trust that none of you who listen to me to-day will be so foolish as to permit Satan to deceive you. Look about you and see the results of worthless story-papers, of card-playing, of theatre going, of social drinking, of round dancing, lying, swearing, cheating, and all forms of wickedness, and then remember that these same influences, if wrought into your life, will also produce the same result. Do not be like the foolish mouse, which sees its dead companion in the trap, and then walks up unthinkingly and pokes his head into the same inevitable death and destruction; but remember that Satan waits to destroy you, just the same as he has destroyed others.

In the book of Job (xviii: 10) it says, "The snare is laid for him in the ground and a trap for him in the way;" and in the 8th verse of the same book and chapter it says, "He is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare." Satan has laid traps and snares all along your path through life, and you will need to be very, very cautious, lest you are ruined for time and destroyed for eternity. Remember the text for to-day, which says, "Among my people are found wicked men; they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men."

QUESTIONS.--What are traps for? Are there different kinds of traps? Is a trap a dangerous thing? Does a dangerous trap always look dangerous? Are there traps set for boys and girls, and men and women? Who sets these traps? What are some of the traps? How are fish caught? Who tries to trap and destroy boys and girls, and men and women? What does Satan sometimes use? When the mouse sees others caught, what should he do? Does he run away? Does he go and do the same thing?

Does he suffer the same result? If Satan's traps destroy others, will they destroy us? Have you ever seen any persons who were caught in Satan's traps? Can anybody do wicked things without great danger?

BREAD.

UNIVERSAL SOUL HUNGER.