Part 16 (2/2)

”One might think that when a strong wind blew against the kite, it would be blown away like a piece of loose newspaper; but that isn't so. And when a gentle breeze increases to a strong, steady wind, the kite goes higher and higher, PROVIDED it is made of good material, and PROVIDED, also, that someone holds tightly to the other end of the string. But if the string breaks, down comes the kite! Why? Because the very thing which holds it down is the same thing which holds it up!

”You may never have thought of it, but each of us boys and girls and each one of us men and women is a good deal like a kite. When the winds of trouble and worry blow against us they may cause us to rise higher or they may blow us down. Today, I want to tell you how George Was.h.i.+ngton acted when troubles came to him, and if any man in the world's history was loaded down with soul-trying troubles it was 'the Father of His Country.' Listen while I read for you a few sentences from private letters which he wrote during the Revolutionary war. [It will be well to have these and other extracts written so you may read them verbatim.] 'I am wearied almost to death with the retrograde motion of things, and I solemnly protest that a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds a year would not induce me to undergo what I do, and, after all, perhaps, lose my character.' Again: 'Our affairs are in a more distressed, ruinous, and deplorable condition than they have been since the commencement of the war,' and he adds that unless congress comes valiantly to his a.s.sistance at once the country will sink into irretrievable ruin. Again he writes: 'Every idea you can form of our distresses will fall short of the reality. I have almost ceased to hope.' These were dark days, and the winds of adversity were beating mercilessly against the man into whose hands had been placed the cares of the great struggle for national existence. He was like the kite bravely battling against the wind. But he was made of good stuff, and there was a strong hand holding the string, for we read again from his letters:

”'How it will all end, G.o.d in his great goodness, will direct. I am thankful for His protection to this time. I have a consolation within that no earthly effort can deprive me of, and that is that neither ambitions nor interested motives have influenced my conduct. The arrows of malevolence, therefore, however barbed and well pointed, can never reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, while I am set up as a mark they will be continually aimed.'

”His trust was in G.o.d, and so shocked was he when he learned that the habit of swearing was growing in the army that he issued a general order calling upon officers to set the men a good example, and added, 'The practice is foolish and wicked--a vice so mean and low, without temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it. We can have little hope of the blessing of heaven on our arms if we insult it by our folly and our impiety.'

”No, George Was.h.i.+ngton was not the man to give way under severe trials. He was not like the kite whose framework breaks or whose paper covering is torn by the force of the wind. Under these conditions a kite must dash to the earth. [Draw the rent in the kite with black. Remove the drawing from the board, invert it, and then re-attach it to the board, Fig. 85.] But when the trials came to Was.h.i.+ngton he arose in his might to meet them, knowing that G.o.d would be with him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 85]

”Let us ever remember that G.o.d is our strength, just as he was the strength of George Was.h.i.+ngton.”

”A MERRY HEART”

--Cheerfulness --Smiles

To Cultivate the Spirit of Cheerfulness is to Bless and Brighten Other Lives.

THE LESSON--That in no way can we serve those about us better than by the kind of service which reveals the true gladness of the Christian life.

The Christian religion is based upon principles which lift us from sin and its attendant evils of discouragement, unrest, despondency and suffering, to the higher plane of confidence, hope, praise and love.

It is a religion of good cheer, which G.o.d's children must reflect to a darkened world if they are to fulfill their earthly mission.

~~The Talk.~~

”I wonder how many of us are getting too busy or too lazy to smile. I see some, who were looking pretty solemn before I made the remark whose faces look a little brighter now--and some have already broken into a most gladsome smile. I'm glad of it. Smiles, they say are the least expensive things we can give to other people, and sometimes they value them more than silver or gold. But how can we smile unless we feel like it? That's the question. Well, we will feel like it if we think right things and do right things, living close to the Master, even if things do go very, very much awry sometimes. The Bible has a good many things to say about smiles, and it isn't at all guarded in declaring that smiles are worth a good deal more than words, unless those words are very carefully spoken. Here is what we find in the book of Proverbs: 'A merry heart maketh a cheery countenance.' So, we find, it is necessary to feel happy within before we can show it on the outside. And then it says: 'He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast,' which shows that if we are truly happy, everything about us will appear brighter and more delightful. Again, it says: 'A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.' How true this is; you never saw a sour, gloomy pessimistic person who was in real good health, while the one who shows the most gladsome face is either in splendid physical condition or else has risen above his pains and distress in his appreciation of G.o.d's blessings. They are always believing that 'it might be worse.”

”But is this cheerfulness for the sole benefit of the one who smiles?

Not a bit of it. We cannot do evil without harming someone; neither can we cultivate cheerfulness without proving a blessing to others. Here, I want to draw for you the picture of a boy who doesn't seem to have this happy disposition of which we have been speaking.

[Draw the lines to complete Fig. 86.] Perhaps he looks this way most of the time--it is a bad beginning. We see him here, coming down the street; perhaps he will meet one of the other boys. Ah, yes, here comes another boy; and this boy has a merry heart, if we are to judge from his facial expression. [Draw the second boy.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 86]

”We have no way of knowing what this second boy said to the first boy, but we can tell from his face that he has a merry heart. And what about the first boy? Ah, he, too, has caught it, for his face reflects the smile of the second boy. [Add line to change the facial expression of the first boy, completing Fig. 87.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 87]

”We refer again to the book of Proverbs, and there we find that 'a word spoken in due season, how good it is!' It must have been such a word that the first boy spoke to the second. 'A word fitly spoken,' we read again, 'is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.' But we must choose the right words to go along with the smile, and the greatest danger seems to be that we will say too much, for the same book of Proverbs says that 'he that hath knowledge spareth his words.'

He knows how to choose and when to stop. Let us remember that the smile counts for more than mere words. The smile is a universal language understood everywhere on earth. It is the badge of friends.h.i.+p, and that is the thing which the world craves.

”A friend of Haydn, the great composer, once asked him how it happened that his church music was so full of gladness, and Haydn replied, 'I cannot make it otherwise. I write according to the thoughts I feel; when I think upon my G.o.d, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance from my pen.'

<script>