Christianity in Action: Lesson 18: Truth Invincible

Lesson 18: Truth Invincible
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR EASTER DAY.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Matthew xxviii. 1-15.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " We can do nothing against the truth " (2 Cor.
HYMNS: “Jesus Christ is risen today," and “The strife is o'er, the battle done."
COLLECTS for Easter and Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.

AIM : To show how Easter proves that Truth will always prevail.

I. CAIAPHAS AT EASTERTIDE.

(a) To understand a Bible story it is a good thing to put ourselves in the position of one of those who were alive at the time. Let us try to think what Easter looked like from the point of view of Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the High Priest of the Jews. He wore on his forehead a golden plate with the words, " Holiness to the Lord." He superintended the Temple Services. Once a year he entered all alone into the Holy of Holies, while the people stood waiting eagerly for his return. When he came back, he blessed them in the Name of God, and sent them home feeling that they were forgiven. Caiaphas' whole life was given up to religion.

(b) Our Lord had not been teaching long before Caiaphas heard of Him, and the more he heard, the less he liked the news. He grew jealous. The people never flocked round him as they flocked round Jesus. He never asked whether what Jesus was teaching was true. He tried in mean underhand ways to turn the people against Him. He said that He must be a bad man, or sinners would not be so fond of Him. He said that He probably did His miracles by the help of the Devil.

(c) One day. there came to him the startling news that in a village just outside Jerusalem Jesus had raised a man from the dead. Caiaphas called together the Council. Something must be done. If this went on, every one would believe in Jesus. He did not ask whether it was right that people should believe in Him. He only felt that believing in Him would disturb a lot of old customs, and Caiaphas was anxious to keep things as they were. He persuaded the Council that the best thing would be to have Christ put to death.

(d) We know how he succeeded. On Good Friday he went to Calvary, and mocked at Jesus, saying, " He saved others : Himself He cannot save " (St. Mark xv. 31). That evening he set a guard of soldiers to watch the tomb, and went home feeling that a troublesome business was satisfactorily ended.

So the Nazarene is dead !
Caiaphas the High Priest said,
His wonder-working deeds are o'er ;
He will trouble us no more.

(e) Early on Easter Morning he discovered that he was mistaken. Some of the soldiers came knocking at his door with an extraordinary story of an earthquake, and the huge stone rolling back with a crash, and a bright light streaming from the tomb, and their discovery that the tomb was empty. The Body of Jesus had mysteriously disappeared. Caiaphas did not know what to do. He hurriedly consulted some of his friends ; and then he gave a big, bribe to the soldiers, saying, " Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept." Read Passage.

(f) But further difficulties followed. The rumour spread that Jesus had been seen alive : that He was meeting His friends secretly. Caiaphas never saw Him, but plenty of other people did. The Christian Church, that Caiaphas thought he had killed on Good Friday, grew stronger every week. Many of Caiaphas' own priests became Christians (Acts vi. 7). He spent the rest of his life in a vain and weary struggle to stop the growth of Christianity (Acts iv. 6 ; v. 17 ; vii. 1 ; ix. 1). Before he died, he had discovered that it is useless to fight against Truth. Let all repeat Text.

I. TRUTH WILL PREVAIL.

(a) The Apocrypha (1 Esdras iii. and iv.) has a curious story as to how Zerubbabel obtained permission to lead the Jews back from Babylon. It says that he was one of the young men of the bodyguard of the King of Persia. One night, while the King slept, these young men had an argument as to what is the strongest thing in the world. They decided to write down their opinions, and to slip them under the King's pillow, and to ask him to judge which was right. One wrote Wine, another wrote Women, another wrote the King, Zerubbabel wrote Truth. Next morning the King made them argue the matter before him. One said, " What is stronger than wine ? It causeth all men to err that drink it. It makes even the King behave like a baby. It makes the best of friends draw swords against one another." Another said, " What is stronger than the King ? If he command to kill, they kill. If he command to spare, they spare. If he command to make desolate, they make desolate. If he command to build, they build." Another said, " What is stronger than women ? Without women men cannot be. They persuade all men, even kings, to do what they want. Men labour and toil, and bring it all to the women." But Zerubbabel said, “Truth is stronger than all things. Wine perishes. Kings die. Women pass away. Truth endureth, and is always strong. It liveth and conquereth for evermore." And he supported his views with such wise arguments that all the people shouted, “Great is Truth, and mighty above all things!” The King was so pleased with him that he told him to choose what reward he liked, and he chose to be allowed to lead his people back to rebuild Jerusalem.

(b) Was Zerubabbel right ? Is Truth the strongest thing in the world ? Many of our Proverbs say so " Great is Truth, and it will prevail." " Truth may be blamed, but it cannot be shamed." " Truth will always out." " There are not enough shovelfuls of earth in the world to bury the truth " (Swiss proverb). " Truth like oil will come to the top " (French proverb). " A lie has no legs."

(c) Take one of the simplest of truths, 2 + 2 = 4. This is always true, whether we are speaking of cabs or cauliflowers or kangaroos. Anyone who asserts that 2 + 2 sometimes = 5 has fallen into error. If he tries to build anything on that false theory, it will collapse.

(d) Two prisoners, a father and son, were imprisoned in a lofty tower. They unravelled the threads of their sheets to make a rope to escape. One had a ring which he knew weighed half an ounce. He found that one thread would support his ring. He also knew his own weight. So he worked out the number of threads necessary to make their rope strong enough. When the rope was ready he began to climb down it, but the rope broke. As he lay with broken legs at the bottom of the cliff, he pulled out the bit of paper on which he had done his sum, and saw that in the addition he had forgotten to carry one. The sum was wrong. The answer was not true. So all his work had been in vain.

(e) In 1666 there was a great stir among the Jews in all parts of the world. It was reported that the Messiah had at last appeared, and was waiting to meet the faithful at Constantinople. Rich merchants in Spain and Holland sold their businesses, and set out to meet him. Poor Jews from Poland and Germany started to walk the whole way with their wives and children. When the pilgrims arrived, they found that the man who was supposed to be the Messiah had turned Mohammedan, and become a doorkeeper at the Sultan's palace. They had given up everything for a lie.

(f) Our Lord said to His disciples, " I am the Truth " (St. John xiv. 6). He said to Pilate, " To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth " (St. John xviii. 37). St. Paul declared, " Truth is in Jesus " (Eph. iv. 21). This was why neither Caiaphas, nor anyone else, could overthrow the cause of Christ. Truth must prevail.

(g) Remember our Lord's Parable of the Two Houses (St. Matt. vii. 24-27). They both looked equally strong while the weather was fine. But one day " the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew." Then one house crumbled into ruins, while the other stood unmoved. What was the secret ? One was founded on the rock, while the other was founded on sand. And He said that a life built on His teaching was a life built on rock; a life built on anything else was a life built on sand.

(h) Easter shows us Christ triumphant over all His enemies. Easter makes it foolish to doubt in the truth of the cause of Christ.

Death's mightiest powers have done their worst, 

And Jesus hath His foes dispersed ;
Let shouts of praise and joy outburst.
Alleluia

Christianity in Action: Lesson 17: Self Sacrifice

Lesson 17: Self Sacrifice
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR PALM SUNDAY.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke xxiii. 33-47.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT " Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others " (Phil. ii. 4).
HYMNS : " There is a green hill " and " Ride on! ride on in majesty !" COLLECTS for Palm Sunday and Good Friday ( 1).

Aim : To arouse an enthusiasm for self-sacrifice.

I. PROPERTY SACRIFICED.

(a) We have been speaking about Self-control. But there is something finer, and that is Self-sacrifice. To-day we will adopt a very simple method. By stories of minor acts of Self-sacrifice, we will prepare the children's minds to appreciate the Supreme Sacrifice of Holy Week.

(b) A Japanese farmer lived on the top of a little hill near the sea. The village was at the foot of the hill by the seashore. One day there was an earthquake. They are so common in Japan that no one took much notice of it. The houses rocked, and then all was still again. But the farmer, watching from his doorway, saw that the sea was running back a long way from the land. He was old, and had seen this happen before, and knew what it meant. There was no time to run down the hill to warn the village of its danger. His voice was not nearly strong enough to carry so far. So he seized a torch, and set fire to his own rice stacks. They made a tremendous blaze. All the villagers came running up the hill to see the fire. Then the sea came rushing back in a tremendous wave. It dashed over the village ; it roared over the fields. But the people on the hill-top were saved. The old man had saved them by sacrificing his property.

II. ENJOYMENT SACRIFICED.

(a) We all know the story of Elizabeth's courtier, who, when Philip Sydney, Queen wounded at the Battle of Zutphen asked for some water to drink. When at last a water cup had been brought, he heard a dying trooper groan faintly. " Take it," he said," thy need is greater than mine."

(b) But have you heard of the soldier who gave up his water to a plant ? Early in the eighteenth century a tiny plant in a pot was handed to a French ensign to carry to the West Indies. It was a coffee plant from the East. If it arrived safely and flourished in its new home, it would bring trade and prosperity to all the islands. The sailing-boat which carried him was becalmed in mid-Atlantic. Every day the captain doled out a smaller and smaller ration of water. The ensign grew so thirsty that he longed to drink bucketfuls. But no ; he drank a tiny sip, and then poured the rest daily on his precious plant. He sacrificed himself, and endured thirst, in order to help others.

(c) A little cripple lives in a back street in Hoxton. Her mother is a cripple too, and her father is a drunkard. A lady from the Church visited her, and saw that what she needed was clean country air and clear country sunshine. All arrangements were made for her holiday, and then the child drew back. For long she would give no reason ; but at last she said, "When father gets drunk, he pitches into mother, and then I get in between." She sacrificed her holiday to protect her mother from her father's drunken blows.

III. LIFE SACRIFICED.

(a) During the Plague of London (1665) a box of cloth was sent from London to the Derbyshire village of Eyam (pronounced Eem). The plague broke out in the village. The Rector called the people together, and they pledged them-selves not to leave the village (though they were sorely tempted to fly), so that they should not carry the plague to other places. On Sundays they held their services not in church but in the open air, and the Rector encouraged them to be true to their pledge. Of the 350 people in the village 259 died in twelve months. The villagers sacrificed themselves for the sake of the rest of England.

(b) Plancus was a famous Roman in the days of Julius Cesar. One day he offended the Government, and was condemned to death. The officers came to arrest him, but he hid behind a sliding panel ; so they seized his slaves, and began to torture them to make them reveal his hiding place. The slaves loved him, and would not speak ; but he heard their groans, and slipped back the panel, and stepped out, and gave himself up. He faced death rather than allow his slaves to suffer torture.

(c) In the French fleet there is always a battleship called the D'Assas. It preserves the name of a young officer in the Seven Years' War (1760), who was taken prisoner by the Austrians. They were creeping forward through a wood to make a night attack. " Silence," they whispered, " or you are a dead man." " To arms," he shouted at the top of his voice, " here are the enemy." In a moment he was dead, but the camp was saved.

(d) Five men were trudging through a world of white. They had reached the South Pole, and were journeying home. Taking turns they harnessed themselves to the sledge that carried their tent and food. At night they put up the tent and slept. One day the biggest man of the party fell ill. His comrades put him on the sledge, and pulled him till he died. His weight slowed them down terribly. Winter was fast coming on. Every day the going was more difficult. Hundreds of miles of white wilderness still separated them from their ship. Every sixty-five miles a week's food was stacked ; but to reach it meant travelling over nine miles a day. Then another fell ill. He was attacked by frost-bite in his hands and feet. He slogged along as long as he could, but now they were only doing four miles a day. He knew he was keeping them back. One night he quietly said, " I am going outside." He walked out of the tent into a snowstorm, and never came back. He hoped that without him his three friends might win through to the next stack of food, which was still thirty-one miles away. Can you tell me his name ? In most classes one child will know of Captain Oates.

(e) One story more, the story of the man who died for Prince Charlie. We have learnt in history how Bonnie Prince Charlie, as the Scotch called him, came from France to Scotland to claim the throne for his father ; how his cause at first met with success, then with failure ; then was utterly crushed at the Battle of Culloden. For six months Prince Charlie wandered among the Scottish hills. Then one of his followers made it possible for him to escape. In build and face he was rather like the Prince. He got himself arrested by the soldiers. They carried him to London. For a fortnight the search ceased. The real Prince was able to slip out of the country, but his substitute was executed.

IV. THE SUPREME SACRIFICE.

(a) We have seen people sacrificing their property, their ease, even their lives for others. But this week commemorates the Greatest Sacrifice of all. We call it Holy Week, because it reminds us that Some One sacrificed His life for us.

(b) Think of what the journey up to Jerusalem meant. For three years Jesus had been hated by the Rulers. They were envious, because His teaching was so much nobler than theirs. They were ashamed, because His life made theirs look mean. He had hardly begun to teach, when " the Pharisees took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him " (St. Mark iii. 6).

(c) This did not matter so much, while the people were on Jesus' side. While He was popular, the rulers dared not touch Him. But there came a time when the people forsook Him. They were disappointed because He would not start a revolution. They found much of His teaching hard to understand. " Many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him " (St. John vi. 66). Then Jesus realized that, if He went near Jerusalem, He would be put to death. " The Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify."

(d) Three courses were now possible. He might drop His public ministry, and return to the carpenter's shop, and live in quiet obscurity.

(e) Or He might turn to the Gentiles. A Gentile ministry would have been delightful and easy. " If the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes " (St. Matt. xi. 21). But the Jews were the prepared people who alone knew enough to make good missionaries.

(f) The only other alternative was to come to Jerusalem in spite of His enemies. It meant death. But either of the other courses meant the failure of His work. He chose to die rather than allow His work to fail.

Ride on! ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.

(g) The artist Stenburg had an order for a picture for a Church. He hired a gipsy girl to be a model of the Virgin standing by the Cross. She knew nothing of the Bible, and he had to explain what the picture represented. She listened, and then said, " You must love Him very much, when He has done all that for you." The words haunted him, until he became a real Christian.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small ;
Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Christianity in Action: Lesson 16: Control of the Feelings

Lesson 16: Control of the Feelings
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke xxiii. 23-33.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength " (Isa. xxx. 15).
HYMNS : Fierce raged, the tempest " and " Lord, as to Thy dear Cross." COLLECTS for Seventh and Ninth Sundays after Trinity.

AIM :- To warn against the dangers of emotionalism.

I. OUR EMOTIONS.

(a) I have seen at a circus a rider driving twenty high-spirited horses. He stood on the bare back of one. He held the reins of all in his hand. They galloped round the ring under perfect control. He made each one obey him. We should be like that rider. We have seen during Lent how many things there are that we must control. Mention some. Our tongues, our temper, our desires. To-day we look at some more of the horses that we have to control.

(b) We all have within us some curious influences which we call our feelings or emotions. A thought comes into our minds, and touches our feelings. At once we grow tremendously agitated and excited. Often our emotions have most curious effects upon our bodies. For example, fear is an emotion. When we are really frightened, the face grows white, the heart beats violently, the skin perspires (a cold sweat), the muscles tremble (shivering with fear), the tongue refuses to act (cleaves to roof of mouth). Under the influence of emotion people do the most extraordinary things. Clearly here is something that needs to be kept under strict control.

II. OUR FEARS.

(a) Fear is an emotion. A large steamer was sinking in the Indian Ocean. There were plenty of boats. The sea was calm. There was plenty of time to launch them. The captain had no doubt that he could save every person on board. Suddenly a girl began to shriek, " We shall all be drowned." Then some of the passengers made a rush for the boats. All the others lost their heads, and followed in blind panic. They pushed one another into the sea. They upset the boats. Hundreds were drowned. And all because one girl had not learnt to control her fears.

(b) A very different kind of girl was little Alice Freeman. She was only eight years old when she was kneeling near the window at family prayers. In came a great buzzing flying beetle, and, oh, horror it got entangled in Alice's curls. She longed to scream, but she knew that she ought not to disturb the prayers. She could feel it wriggling its way up one of her long curls, but she set her lips close together, and remained as still as a mouse. We are not surprised to find that she grew up into a very strong and useful woman.

III. OUR PAINS.

(a) Pain is another emotion. What a fuss we sometimes make about a little pain ! A girl named Mary Allett, who lived close to Banbury Cross, was busy cooking, when her clothes caught fire. She clenched her teeth, and wrapped the hearth-rug round her, and fought the flames in silence. She would not cry for help, because she did not wish to disturb her mother, who was lying dangerously ill in the next room. Her first words, when she recovered consciousness, were, " Did I wake mother ? "

(b) The Commune was a rebellion against the French Government, which was quickly put down. Soldiers were hunting for the leaders to shoot them. They came to the house of one, and tried to force his little daughter of twelve to tell where he was hidden. She refused ; so the officer began to chop off her fingers one by one ; but she did not utter a sound, for her father was hidden in a secret cupboard in the same room, and she knew that, if she cried in pain, he would come out to rescue her.

(c) Think of our Lord upon the Cross. When prisoners were crucified, they usually shrieked, and yelled, and cursed with pain. Of our Lord's seven sayings from the Cross, four were prayers to God ; two were loving words to those around ; only once did He mention His own sufferings, and that was when He asked for something to drinks " I thirst."

(d) If we cannot rise to the spirit of Christ, let us at any rate rise to the spirit of the baby who said : " I bumped my head, but I didn't cry."

I. OUR LOW SPIRITS.

(a) Then there is another kind of feeling that sometimes comes upon us. We get " down in the dumps " ; we get " a fit of the blues " ; we feel awfully sorry for ourselves, and go about hunting for sympathy, like little walking miseries. In Egypt they have dug up thousands of dainty little glass bottles. Each is shaped at its mouth just like an eye. They are tear-bottles, which ancient Egyptian ladies used to wear by a gold chain round their necks. When anything upset them, they began to cry, and they took the stopper out of the tear-bottle, and caught all the tears. When one bottle was full, they added another to the chain. The woman with the biggest number of bottles would feel quite proud of herself. " See," she would say, " how many more troubles I have had than Mrs. So-and-So." The tear-bottle was the badge of self-pity. Are we not sometimes as foolish ? Do we never feel inclined to wimper and to whine ?

(b) St. Paul showed the right spirit of Christian cheerfulness. He had been arrested on an altogether false charge. He had been kept in prison for many years waiting for his trial. He was disappointed with the Christians in Rome. " All seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ " (Phil. ii. 21). But he wrote, " I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content " (iv. 11).

(c) Our Lord rebuked the women on the road to Calvary. Read Passage. Mere wailing was doing no good to themselves or to anyone else.

V. OUR DISGUST.

(a) Another feeling is disgust. Sometimes we see things that make us feel quite ill. Some children feel like this at the sight of blood. A small girl was left alone in charge of her baby sister. Baby put her arm through the window, and blood came gushing from the wound. The sight made the older child sick, and she felt that she was going to faint. But she pulled herself together, and mastered her nausea, and bound up the baby's arm. Later she became matron of a large London hospital, and often stood by • a doctor's side helping in some horrible operation. She showed that disgust of this kind can be easily conquered.

(b) St. Francis of Assisi, when a young man, met a leper. The poor man looked so horrible that St. Francis turned his horse down a side street rather than pass him. In a moment he thought that he had no right to show his disgust in this way ; that very possibly he had hurt the leper's feelings. He turned back, and dismounted, and kissed the leper's sores.

VI. OUR IMPETUOSITY.

(a) Sometimes we get " carried away by our feelings," and feel that we must do something, whether there is any sense in it or not. A lady walking on a river-bank saw a little boy drowning. She got so excited that she felt that she must jump in, although she could not swim. Then there were two people who had to be rescued, and the man who saved her nearly lost his life. She did no good, and gave an immense amount of trouble, just because she had never learnt to restrain her feelings.

(b) The Knights of St. John have a rather fine legend. The home of their order was in Rhodes. One day, they say, there came to the island a fearful dragon. Many knights tried to kill it, but were overcome and devoured ; and at last the Grand Master issued an order that no more knights should make the attempt. But one young knight, when he saw the dragon, could not refrain from attacking it; and he succeeded in killing it, and was led back in triumph by the people. But the Grand Master met him with a stern face. It was a great deed to have slain the dragon, but it was a bad deed to have broken the discipline of the Order. If knights began to do as they liked, and disobey orders, the whole company would soon fall to pieces. The cross was cut from off his breast. His sword and shield were confiscated, and he was expelled from the Order. It is not always right to do on the spur of the moment what our feelings prompt us to do.

VII. THE SECRET OF SELF-CONTROL.

(a) A strong motive is a great help. We can, most of us, control our feelings, if there is a strong reason why we should. Mary Allett did not scream, because she knew that, if she did, it might kill her mother. The little French girl did not scream, because she wanted to save her father's life. Our motive. " We are soldiers of Christ." He does not want His soldiers to be weak, hysterical, emotional creatures. He wants us to be at our very best for His sake.

(b) A strong helper is even better. Refer to teaching given in previous lessons about God's Grace. Grace is heavenly power for earthly living. An American said that the four things essential for successful life are Grit, Gumption, Go and Grace, and the greatest of these is Grace.

Christianity in Action: Lesson 15: Control of the Tongue

Lesson 15: Control of the Tongue
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : 1 Peter ii. 19-25.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue . .. this man's religion is vain ' (St. Jas. i. 26).
HYMNS : " Oh, for a thousand," and " Angel voices ever singing." COLLECTS for Third Sunday after Easter and St. John Baptist.

Aim : To show the power of the tongue and the danger of its misuse.

I. AN UNBRIDLED TONGUE.

(a) The Japanese have a little carving. It represents three apes. One has its hand on its eyes ; one on its ear ; one on its mouth. The first means, " I control my eyes and am careful what I look at." The second means, " I control my ears and am careful what I listen to." The third means, " I control my lips and am careful what I say." It is the third ape's message that we are to think of to-day.

(b) What is the most dangerous thing in the world ? Rattlesnakes ? Lyddite ? Cholera ? No, they only come second, third or fourth. The most dangerous thing is a tongue. Slandering tongues, mischief-making tongues, tempting tongues destroy more lives than any high explosive. Snakes and infectious diseases only destroy the body. Tongues have power to destroy souls as well.

(c) Imagine a crowded theatre. Some idiot shouts Fire. What follows ? Panic. Stampede. Men's clothes torn from their backs. Women trampled underfoot. Hundreds of well-dressed folk fighting desperately at the doors. What caused this ? A single click of a fool's tongue. There is no limit to the mischief that a tongue can do.

(d) A scolding tongue makes everyone in its neighbour-hood miserable. In old England every parish kept a scold's bridle, two iron hoops padlocked round the neck and head, holding in position a flat plate, which pressed down the tongue. Villagers who perpetually scolded their neighbours were condemned to wear this for so many days. If they could not bridle their own tongues, their tongues were bridled by the parish.

(e) A blasphemous tongue brings sacred things into contempt. Nearly every Roman Catholic Church has a branch of the Confraternity of the Holy Name, a Society founded in 1274 to secure greater reverence for the Name of God. Its millions of members are pledged not only to speak reverently, but to do all in their power to restrain others from taking God's Name in vain. It would be well if every Church had something of the same kind.

(f) A tattling tongue can do endless mischief. " Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people " (Lev. xix. 16). An Indian Prince had a daughter. " I must find for her," he said, " an intelligent husband." So he had two statues set at the door of his palace. They were exactly alike in size and face and dress ; and he proclaimed that no one should marry his daughter unless he could discover the difference between the statues. Scores of young nobles examined them, measured them, weighed them, but they seemed as alike as two peas. At last came a youth who inspected them for a long time ; suddenly he looked closely at their ears and lips ; he pushed a straw into the ear of one, and it fell out of its mouth ; he pushed the straw into the ear of the other, and it remained inside the head. " Tell the Prince," he said, " that I have discovered his secret. One is the statue of a wise man and one is the statue of a fool. A fool pours out of his mouth everything that comes in at his ears. A wise man keeps what he hears inside his own head." A little girl announced one day, " I am a child of God." When asked how she knew that, she replied, "'Cos I'm a peacemaker. I heard something about a girl at school, and never told anyone." We can often show that we are children of God by keeping our mouths shut. " My duty is to keep my tongue from evil-speaking."

(g) A merely chattering tongue can make itself a terrible nuisance. Sir Walter Raleigh got so annoyed by a man who would not stop talking that he flung him on the floor, and sealed his moustache to his beard with sealing-wax. Does no one ever say to you, " Oh, do be quiet." " Do hold your tongue for five minutes " ? There is only one proverb that has found its way into every European language, and that is, " Speech is silver, silence is golden." Our Lord gave a solemn warning, " I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement." A Persian proverb says, " Great trees burn silently ; it is only thorns that crackle." Miss Soulsby, the famous writer for girls, says in one of her books. " I have known a Lenten resolution against chatter do wonders in deepening the character."

II. GOLDEN SILENCE.

(a) Think now of some fine types of silence. There is heroic silence. We know the picture entitled, " When did you last see your father ? " The Roundheads have raided the manor house in which a Cavalier is hiding, and are questioning his little son; but he is closing his lips firmly and refusing to answer for fear of endangering his father's safety. At the entrance of the Acropolis in Athens was the statue of a lioness without a tongue. It was erected in honour of Lemna, a woman who bit out her tongue for fear that torture might make her reveal a secret that had been entrusted to her.

(b) There is a dignified silence. When Saul was made King, " the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us ? But he held his ,peace " (1 Sam. x. 26). When Sennacherib's captain made insulting speeches before the walls of Jerusalem, “the people held their peace and answered him not a word, for the King's command was, Answer him not " (2 Kings xviii. 36). But the best example of this is our Lord Himself. At His trial before Caiaphas " He held His peace and answered nothing " (St. Mark xiv. 61). Herod " questioned Him with many words, but He answered nothing " (St. Luke xxiii. 9). To Pilate at first He spoke freely, but when He saw that Pilate meant to act against his conscience, " Jesus gave him no answer " (St. John xix. 9). On the cross He made no reply to those who taunted Him. " As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth " (Isa. liii. 7). Read Passage.

(c) There is a discreet silence. There are some subjects it is best not to talk about. There are many subjects it is best not to talk about before strangers. In every railway carriage in Germany there used to be a notice : A soldier must not only be able to fight, but also to keep silence for his Fatherland."

(d) Madame Montessori, who has revolutionized the teaching of younger children, puts the Game of Silence in a prominent place in her scheme of education, teaching tiny children to love silence, to move silently, to breathe silently, to rejoice in the silence that they themselves have created.

III. THE USE OF THE TONGUE.

(a) Some religious people have felt the danger of the tongue so keenly that they have taken vows never to speak at all There are Indian Fakirs who have sat in silence for fifty years. Some put earth between their lips and sow mustard seeds in it to show that they never open them. In the Roman Church there are Orders of Silent Monks and Nuns (Carthusians, Carmelites, Trappists). But this is clearly a mistake. If God had meant us to be silent, He would not have given us tongues. It reminds us of the man in the parable who was afraid to use the talent entrusted to him.

(b) There is a cowardly silence. On Good Friday there were plenty of witnesses for the prosecution, but not a single witness for the defence : all the disciples were afraid to speak up for their Master. Are we never like that ? In cases like this control of the tongue means forcing it to speak.

(c) There is an unkind silence. " Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God." It means a lot to a boy in trouble, if you let him know that you are awfully sorry for him. " God hath given me a tongue," said St. Paul, " that I should speak a word in season to him that is weary."

(d) There is a selfish silence, if we know good news and do not pass it on. The lepers of Samaria found that the enemy had retreated, and left their camp empty. While helping themselves to plunder, their consciences pricked them. " They said one to another, We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace '.' (2 Kings vii. 9). Good news should be shared with others, specially the best of good news which we call the Gospel.

(e) A well-controlled tongue speaks when it ought, and also says what it has to say in the pleasantest way. A king consulted a fortune-teller. " Sir," he said, " every relation you have will die before you." The thought of this long succession of deaths seemed so dismal that the king condemned the seer to death. He summoned another who said, " Sire, you will outlive all your relations." This prospect was so pleasing that the king gave him a large reward. Both had said the same thing, but they had put it in a different way. One had made the king angry ; the other had made him grateful. Tactless words are " as vinegar upon nitre " (Prov. xxv. 20). But " a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver " (xxv. 11, R.V.).

Christianity in Action: Lesson 14: Control of the Temper

Lesson 14: Control of the Temper
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. John xviii. 1-11.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city " (Prov. xvi. 32).
HYMNS : " We are but little children weak," and " Do no sinful action." COLLECTS for St. Stephen and Third Sunday after Easter.

Aim : To teach the class " to fight a battle for our Lord " on the lines laid down by verses 5 and 6 of " We are but little children weak."

I. THE PURPOSE OF ANGER.

(a) During Lent we are thinking about—? Self-control. We have thought of some parts of our nature which need to be kept under strict control. Name them. To-day we are going to think about another—our temper.

(b) Do not think that temper is a wholly bad thing. It is part of the animal nature that we have inherited from the past, and it was put there for a good purpose. Many things in Nature are provided with something to warn off enemies. If a cow eats a buttercup, it gets such a horrible bitter taste in its mouth, that it says to itself, " Never again ! " The sting of the nettle, the spikes of the thistle, make animals that would destroy these plants keep at a safe distance.

(c) What the bitter taste does for the buttercup and the sting for the nettle Anger does for animals. The growl of the dog, the hiss of the snake, the lashing of the lion's tail, say " Touch my food, interfere with my babies, and it will be the worse for you." If animals had been limp and lazy creatures, who never grew angry when wronged, they would have been exterminated long ago. Anger is one of Nature's protective devices.

(d) Man has inherited this faculty of anger ; and there are still occasions when it is right to use it. Nehemiah was working hard to re-establish the Jews in Jerusalem after their captivity, when he found that the rich Jews, instead of helping him, had been taking advantage of the poverty of their poorer brethren, and lending them money, and then, when they could not repay, selling their sons and their daughters as slaves. He says, " I was very angry (v. 6). And he gave them such a scolding that they promised at once to set free all the slaves.

(e) Our Lord was very angry on the day He cleansed the Temple. He found what should have been a House of Prayer turned into a noisy market. And it was in the Court of the Gentiles that this market was held, the only part of the Temple to which " all nations " were allowed to come, and there worship had been made impossible by this noisy rabble. A strong indignant protest was needed. Our Lord made a scourge of cords and scourged the traders out. He overthrew their tables, and strewed the floor with their money.

(f) To-day sometimes a brutal crime causes a great out-burst of righteous anger. A little girl is foully murdered, and everybody stops work, and the whole country-side turns out to hunt for the murderer. And criminals know this, and they hesitate to do anything that may arouse the anger of the whole community against them.

II. A LOW FLASH-POINT.

(a) But the trouble is that most of us get angry far too easily. There is a cheap and dangerous kind of oil known as Low Flash Oil. It explodes very easily. Sometimes we hear of people being injured by the explosion of a lamp. They were using this cheap oil. As the lamp grew warm, it reached a point too warm for this oil to stand. Then came an explosion. The flash-point was too low. They should have used an oil that could stand a very much higher temperature.

(b) All good oil has a flash-point somewhere, and so have all good people ; but it is fatal to have the flash-point too low. Moses was a good man, but his flash-point was too low. When he came down from the mountain, and found that the people had made a golden calf, it was quite natural that his " anger waxed hot " (Exod. xxxii. 19), but it was merely silly to relieve his feelings by smashing the precious tables of the commandments, which had not done any harm. Another flash of anger, " Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock ? " (Num. xx. 10) brought down the terrible punishment that he was not allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land.

(c) St. Columba was the missionary who made Scotland Christian, and this was how he came there. He had been an Irish monk, and he had borrowed a Psalter from another monk, and copied it. The owner of the Psalter said that he had no right to have made a copy, and so they quarrelled. The monks belonged to different tribes, and their tribes took up the dispute, and there was a fight in which three thousand people were killed. So Columba was banished from Ireland, until he should have made as many converts as men had been killed in his quarrel. His silly little squabble about a Psalter was regarded as responsible for the death of thousands. No one knows to what evil the loss of temper may gad.

(d) Henry II was in some ways a strong and wise king ; yet, when things upset him, he would fall into such fits of passion that he would roll on the ground and gnaw the rushes on the floor, and bite at those who came near him. And all the disasters of his reign, including the murder of Becket, were directly due to these fits of rage.

(e) Peter the Great was one of the best of the Czars of Russia. In a rough homely way he did a lot of good to his country. Among other things he made a law that any noble who ill-treated his serfs should be imprisoned. The next day he noticed that a stupid gardener had spoilt a favourite rose-bush, and he struck the man such a blow that he died. " Alas," he cried, " I have conquered the nations in war. I have civilized my wild subjects. But I cannot control my own unruly temper."

III. A HIGH FLASH-POINT.

(a) The best oil has its flash-point so high that you can put a lighted match into it, and the match will go out. And there are lives with the flash-point so high that they can bear great provocation without flaring up. Pericles was Ruler of Athens. One day, as he was judging cases in the market-place, a bystander began to abuse him, and continued to revile him in the presence of the people all the afternoon. When the court closed, he followed Pericles to his house, shouting false and cruel accusations. All that Pericles did was to call a servant, and say, " Bring a torch, and light this gentleman home."

(b) When our Lord was arrested in Gethsemane, St. Peter was the man with the low flash-point. He was so indignant that he drew his sword, and began slashing wildly around him. But our Lord showed no sign of anger. He healed the man whom St. Peter had wounded. He quietly allowed Himself to be led before the High Priest. Read Passage.

IV. SELF-CONTROL.

(a) Clearly temper is something that needs being kept under control. Quote Text. Another text says, " A fool uttereth all his anger, but a wise man keepeth it back and stilleth it " (Prov. xxix. 11).

(b) Every religious teacher has recognized that he must train his followers to control their tempers. Mohammed did. There is a great deal about temper in the Koran. Husain, the grandson of Mohammed, was a great man in the East. One day a slave spilt some boiling water over Husain's knee. He gave a cry of rage, but the slave fell at his feet, and quoted a verse from the Koran, " Paradise is for those who bridle their anger," and Husain forgave him. Another passage in the Koran describes how Mohammed visited Paradise. He saw beautiful palaces standing on a height overlooking the whole country. " These," he was told, " are for those who keep down their anger, and pardon insults.

(c) Buddha said : " He who holds back his rising anger, as a chariot-driver reins in his horses, he alone can be called a man. All others are feeble babies."

(d) And the New Testament is full of teaching on the subject of temper. There are texts which tell us to use our wills to keep our anger in check. " Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you " (Eph. iv. 31) ; " Put off all these, anger, wrath, malice " (Col. iii. 8). Putting off, putting away, is an act of the will.

(e) There is a text which tells us not to let anger last too long, never more than a single day : " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath " (Eph. iv. 26).

(f) There is the example of Christ, " Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not," " leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps " (1 Pet. ii. 23, 21).

(h) Above all there is the promise of Grace, God's strong help to stiffen our feeble wills : " The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness " (Gal. v. 22). In as famous chapter St. Paul told the Corinthians that love is the best of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and love "-is not easily provoked " (1 Cor. xiii. 5).

(i) When sorely tempted to lose your temper, there is always time to send up one short ejaculatory prayer : " Help, Lord " ; " O God, make speed to save me " ; " Jesus, defend me " ; and God's grace will come and save you from making a fool of yourself.

Christianity in Action: Lesson 13: Control of our love of Ease.

Lesson 13: Control of our love of Ease.
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Matthew viii. 18-20.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul " (St. Matt. xvi. 26).
HYMNS: “Jesus calls us o'er the tumult " and " 0 Jesus, I have promised."
COLLECTS for Second Sunday in Lent and St. Matthew.

AIM : To save your class from becoming soft, flabby, pleasure-loving, easy-going mollycoddles.

I. THE CHOICE.

(a) Pope Benedict XIV decreed that no one could be canonized, that is to say, officially given the title of Saint, unless his life showed in a marked way four great virtues—Courage, Justice, Prudence and Self-control. We shall think of the first three virtues later. During Lent we are thinking about Self-control,

(b) The Greeks had a well-known legend of the Choice of Hercules. They said that when he was a big boy he went for a walk to think out what he should do with his future life. Two girls met him. One had bold staring eyes, and was dressed in gaudy colours. " If you will take me for a friend," she said, " you shall have a jolly time. You shall eat and drink and sleep and dance, and never do any work or take any trouble." " What is your name ? " he asked. " My friends call me Pleasure," she said, " but my enemies call me Vice." The other girl was modest and graceful and dressed all in white. " I want you to be my friend," she said, " but I will not deceive you with promises of an easy time. God gives nothing excellent without care and labour. If you wish to be loved, you must serve. If you want to be honoured by your country, you must work for it. If you want to have a strong body, you must train it by toil and exercise." Here Vice interrupted the second maiden, whose name was Virtue, saying : " Don't you see, Hercules, how wearisome a road this girl will make you travel Mine is a short and easy path to perpetual merriment." " Shameless liar," replied Virtue, "you destroy all those who follow you. My friends have the only true enjoyment, which comes as the reward of labour. No honourable deed is ever done without me." We know which maiden Hercules chose, for his twelve labours made him famous, and he became a mighty hero.

(c) The Old Testament tells the story of the Choice of Moses. The daughter of the King of Egypt, when she went to bathe, found the baby Moses floating in a, basket in the Nile. The baby was " exceeding fair," and, when he began to cry, she took pity on him and adopted him as her son. Moses was brought up like a prince in the royal palace, dressed in the richest clothes, fed on the daintiest foods, waited on by an army of slaves. He was " instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and became " mighty in words and in deeds." Josephus says that he became commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, and that Pharaoh intended to make him heir to the throne. Whether that is true or not, by the time he was forty he was a prosperous and important person, enjoying the luxury, and the culture, and the enjoyments of the Court. But one day something reminded him that he was an Israelite. He determined to visit his own people. " He went out unto his brethren, and looked upon their burdens." He found them poor, ignorant and dirty, digging clay out of muddy pits, kneading it with feet and hands, and shaping it into bricks, while Egyptian overseers with long whips refused to let them rest. Then this daintily brought-up Prince made an amazing choice : he determined to throw up his position in the palace, and to throw in his lot with these downtrodden slaves. " When he was grown up he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season " (Heb. xi. 24). His decision was a fine one, but his next step was foolish. He murdered one of the Egyptian overseers, and then as he had no plans ready for a revolt of the slaves, he had to fly into the Wilderness, and work there for years as a shepherd, waiting for a chance of doing something to deliver his people. If he had chosen the soft path his name might have been known to-day to a few scholars as one of the minor characters of Egyptian history. But because he chose the hard path, his name is known to everybody as one of the greatest figures in the world's history.

(d) The New Testament gives us the story of the Choice of Jesus. When our Lord left the carpenter's shop to take up His public work, He had to think out what plan He should follow. There arose before His mind a vision of " all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them," and the thought stole into His brain, " Why should I not be a King ? " At this time the whole known world was ruled by one man, the Roman Emperor, and this post was not confined to any one family. The most capable man in the Empire could be Emperor. The Empire contained no one so wise and powerful, if He cared to use His powers, as Jesus Christ. Why should He not rule the world as Emperor ? But He saw that this could only be done by lowering His ideals, by bowing the knee to Satan. He thrust the thought away with the words, " Get thee hence, Satan " ; and He chose the way of poverty ; He became a wandering preacher without a shelter for His Head ; He chose the road that ended in arrest and the cross. And, because He did so, half the world recognizes Him as its greatest Hero.

II THE SLACK LIFE.

(a) A slack self-indulgent life is bad for everyone. An Indian Rajah said to his vizier, " Why am I so often ill ? I don't go out in the rain. My clothes are warm. My food is good. Yet I am always catching colds." " Overmuch care," replied the vizier, " is worse than none at all. Let us walk in the fields." They met a poor shepherd. His cloak was torn. He was always exposed to dew and frost and heat. He slept in a draughty but made of plaited branches. " Do you ever suffer from cold ? " asked the Prince. " No," said he, " I have never been ill in my life." But the Prince said to the vizier, " This man proves nothing. He is probably so strong that nothing could make him ill." " Let us see," said the vizier. They took the shepherd to live in the palace. He was sheltered from cold and heat, And fed on dainty food. One day he stepped on a damp floor that had just been cleaned, caught cold, and died.

(b) Lot was Abraham's nephew. In time their flocks grew so large that it was necessary for them to separate. Abraham generously allowed Lot to choose what part of the land he would settle in. Lot saw the Plain of Jordan " that it was well-watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord " ; and there stood the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, offering a rich market for his butter and cheese, his wool and his meat. " That is the place," he said, " to grow rich easily. That is the place for me." First he " pitched his tent towards Sodom." Then he went to live inside Sodom. Then he became one of the elders of the city and " sat in the gate." But things did not go well with him. The rich city was raided by desert tribes, plundered and sacked, and Lot would have ended his life in slavery if Abraham had not rescued him. Then God wiped out the sinful city by a great volcanic eruption : and Lot ended his life as a penniless refugee, living miserably in a cave. It was Abraham, who chose the hard life on the barren hills, who became great and prosperous.

(c) Legend says that a bird of Paradise rested by a river in which a crane was catching snails. " Where do you come from " asked the crane in amazement. " I come from Heaven," said the beautiful bird. " What is that ? " asked the crane. The other began to describe the glories of the Land of God, but the crane interrupted, " Are there any snails there ? " " No, of course not." " Then you can have your Heaven. I want snails." Abraham chose Heaven. Lot chose the snails. Quote Text.

III. THE STRENUOUS LIFE.

(a) The finest race among the Greeks was the Spartans . Their laws put down all luxury. No houses might be built of anything but logs of wood. The only beds allowed were bundles of reeds from the river. Lest they should feed too daintily, meals of broth and cheese and figs were served at public tables, and no one was allowed to eat at home. But they grew to be the strongest and hardiest race in the ancient world.

(b) But we take as our example, not the Spartans, but Christ. Notice how He spurned all luxury : born in a stable ; working as a carpenter ; a preacher without a home ; sleeping in the open air. Read Passage. He said that the rich man surrounded by luxuries would find it as difficult to be a Christian as a camel would find it to pass through the eye of a needle.

(c) The young Christian must follow the advice which St. Paul gave to Timothy : " Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. ii. 3). Lent calls us to make a special effort to practise this.

Christianity in Action: Lesson 12: Self Control

Lesson 12: Self Control
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

LESSON FOR FIRST SUNDAY IN. LENT.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke iv. 1-13.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT: “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things " (1 Cor. ix. 25).
HYMNS : " Forty days and forty nights," and " We are soldiers of Christ." COLLECTS for First Sunday in Lent and St. James.

AIM : To lead to the resolve : " We will master the flesh and its longing restrain ; we will not be the bond slaves of sin."

I. WHAT IS SELF-CONTROL ?

(a) During Lent we are going to talk about Self-control. Let us first ask what it is. We see a bicycle dashing downhill. Its brake has broken. It is out of control. It seems as though the rider must be killed. But here comes another bicycle in pursuit. The second rider overtakes the first : he bends over and grasps him firmly by the waist ; then he gradually puts on his brakes. His own bicycle is under perfect control. Both slow down. A disaster is avoided. Why was one man nearly killed, while the other was perfectly safe himself, and able to save his friend ? Because one had his bicycle under control, the other out of control.

(b) Boys always admire one who has control over men or things—an engine-driver, a sea captain, a lion-tamer, a leader. They think nothing of a general who cannot control his men, an engine-driver who loses control of his engine, a lion-tamer who cannot master his beasts. Yet they forget that one of the most important things to control is Self. Can we say like Henley :

" I am the master of my fate :
I am the captain of my soul."

(a) Another word for this virtue of self-control is Temperance. The Catechism says, " My duty is to keep my body in Temperance." Let all repeat Text. Refer with older children to the history of the word. Think of a sword. When first formed it was soft. If bent, it would not spring back. You could twist it into any shape. Then it was made red-hot and plunged into water. That made it hard, but brittle. It would easily snap. Again it was heated, till it turned white ; again it was thrust into water. Then it became elastic. It could bend without breaking. It would spring back like a thing alive. This process is called tempering. It was now called a well-tempered or finely-tempered blade.

(d) Then by a kind of little parable the word was applied to human beings. We speak of people who have " lost their temper " or are " bad-tempered." We mean that they are like a blade that snaps under a strain. To-day we use bad-tempered of a person who cannot control his anger, and intemperate of a person who cannot control his desire for drink. But Temperance means every kind of self-control, the cultivation of a character like a well-tempered blade, with nothing weak, nothing flabby, nothing brittle about it.

II WHAT HAS TO BE CONTROLLED ?

(a) There is a great deal in our nature that needs to be controlled. On one side of our nature we are part of the animal kingdom. We are related to the tiger and the fox and the pig. The Bible speaks of some who still bear " the mark of the beast " (Rev. xiv. 9). If we let the tiger instincts or the fox instincts or the pig instincts get out of control, we shall soon sink back to the level of animals.

(b) Again, we have all of us descended from savages. We have not got to look very far back in our family history to find an ancestor who wore no clothes, and lived in a cave, and went out hunting with a stone axe. From that wild barbarous old fellow we have inherited instincts, which must be controlled, or they will drag us back to his level.

(c) Self-control is necessary for success in any department of life. Capa was a dark-haired bearded man who lived in Corsica. One day a stranger came to him, saying, " I want to know whether you will take me into partnership with you ? " " Do you drink ? " " Yes. I have my flask with me. Will you taste my wine ? " " Do you smoke ? " " Certainly. Let me offer you a cigar." " Do you like comfort ? " " Of course I do. It is in order to grow rich quickly that I want to be your partner." " That can never be. Those in my trade must be very temperate. They must bear hunger and thirst. They must lie all night on the ground. They must walk many miles without a pause for rest." What do you think was Capa's trade ? He was a brigand. In order that he might be fit and alert for his bad work of robbing and killing, he was strictly temperate. He knew that a slack, pleasure-loving man would be no use as a robber.

(d) St. Paul draws an illustration from the athlete's training. Repeat Text again. The young Greek runner for ten months before the race came off lived on a strict vegetarian diet of figs, porridge, meal-cakes and cheese. He rose early every day to run in soft sand. He spent hours in long, dull, complicated physical exercises. " Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown (a wreath of pine leaves), but we' an incorruptible."

(e) We must control our appetites. We need food and drink, but many people are slaves to them. Jesus began His ministry by a forty days' fast in the Wilderness. Read Passage. He taught His body to do without things before He began His work. The worth of Gideon's soldiers was tested by a simple test of this kind. He was marching to try to drive out the Midianites who had invaded the land. His men were thirsty, and he led them through a brook. Some stooped, as they marched, and gathered water in their hands, and drank. Others broke ranks, and knelt down, and drank their fill. All who broke ranks in the neighbourhood of the enemy in order to quench their thirst were sent home in disgrace. A good soldier must have his appetites under control.

(f) We must control our nerves. The next part of Gideon's story shows that. He had only three hundred men left. With these he surrounded the enemy's camp by night. He gave each a trumpet and a lamp hidden in a pitcher. When he gave the signal, every one blew his trumpet, smashed his pitcher, and flashed his lamp. The unexpected noise and lights so startled the Midianites that they lost their heads, and began to kill one another in the darkness, and before long the whole host was flying in wild panic from three hundred men. If there is a fire in a picture palace, those who rush for the door get trampled to death ; those who keep their heads escape without difficulty.

(g) We must control our thoughts. Hence the importance of the tenth commandment. All actions begin as thoughts. Remember the motto of the Knights of the Garter : " Honi soit qui mal y pense "—" Cursed is he who evil thinks." To think bad thoughts brings a curse on our whole life. Refer again to our Lord's temptation. He " was in all points tempted like as we are " (Heb. iv. 15) ; therefore there was no visible Devil. He only knew that Satan was near, because He found bad thoughts stealing into His brain ; but in every case He drove them out by thinking hard of some beautiful thought out of the Old Testament. He remained master of His own mind. He would not let any thoughts linger there, except those that He wished to think.

III. WHO IS TO BE CONTROLLER ?

(a) But who is to keep all these unruly impulses in order ? This is the work of our Will. You know that you have within you something which is able to say firmly, " I will do this." Where there's a will, there's a way. The will must hold the reins firmly.

(b) Self-control can be developed in exactly the same manner as we tone up a weak muscle—by little exercises every day. Lot the will force the rest of the body to do regularly some little thing that it is not anxious to do : for example, to jump out of bed at the moment of waking ; to refuse the second slice of cake ; to do without sugar in tea ; and it will steadily strengthen its control, and win the mastery. This is one reason why the Church encourages acts of Lenten self-denial. We have all heard of the Scout's rule to do one good turn every day, Charles Kingsley's rule was even better : " Force yourself to do every day something that you find really difficult."

(c) But, if we close our lesson at this point, we shall be heretics, like the Pelagians who are denounced in the Thirty-Nine Articles. Pelagius was a pious British monk, who visited Rome, and was shocked at the careless lives of the Italian Christians and their easy excuse that fallen nature could not do any better. He told them that they could do a great deal better ; that any man could be good, if he would only make up his mind to try ; that it was simply a matter of using our will-power. But when the great teacher Augustine heard this, he was sincerely shocked. He knew that it was not true. He himself had tried hard to be good, and failed again and again. Only when God's grace had been given had he succeeded. And the Church decided that he was right and Pelagius was wrong. Our wills are too weak to control our impulses without help from above. But God is always eager to help those who ask Him ; and with His help we can become " more than conquerors."

Christianity in Action: Lesson 11: The Book of Wild Life

Lesson 11: The Book of Wild Life
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

PASSAGE TO BE READ : Job xxxix. 19-25.
TEXT TO DE LEARNT : " Go to the ant, thou sluggard : consider her ways and be wise " (Prov. vi. 6).
HYMNS : " 0 Lord, how happy we should be " and " We plough the fields and scatter."
COLLECTS for Third Sunday after Easter and First Sunday after Epiphany.

Aim : To work out Froebel's thought : " The things of Nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob." " From every object of Nature there is a way to God."

I. A MAKER IS KNOWN BY HIS WORK.

(a) A lady sat making notes on a piece of paper : " Mary is dirty and untidy " ; " Ellen is neat and industrious " " Jennie is idle and careless." Yet she had never seen the girls, nor had she been told anything about them. How could she know their character ? She had before her a pile of their needlework. She judged them by their work.

(b) We have never seen God, but we have seen a great deal of His work. From that we ought to be able to learn many things about Him. A fortnight ago we had a Nature Lesson on Plant Life. To-day we will look at the even more wonderful Living Creatures that He has made. For He Who said, " Consider the lilies," said also " Behold the Birds " (St. Matt. vi. 26).

(c) The Bible is full of lessons from living creatures. Our Lord loved to take an animal as His text : The sheep that got lost (St. Luke xv. 4) ; the sheep recognizing the shepherd's voice (St. John x. 3) ; the hen gathering her chickens under her wings (St. Luke xiii. 34) ; the eagles flocking round the carcass (St. Luke xvii. 37) ; the birds following the sower (St. Matt. xiii. 4), or swarming round the mustard bushes to pick the hot seeds (St. Matt. xiii. 32) ; the goats being separated from the sheep at night (St. Matt. xxv. 32).

(d) The last part of the Book of Job is almost all Nature Study. Job in his trouble criticized the way in which God governed the world. A whirlwind came up from the desert, and out of the storm-cloud a Voice began to ask Job questions. It was God, bidding him look at the earth and sea and stars and snow and stormy wind and lightning, and ask himself if he really thought he could have made them better ; bidding him study birds and animals, the lion, ostrich, eagle, hippopotamus (Behemoth), crocodile (Leviathan), and ask himself if he could rule them. Out of all these animals let us choose the one that we know best, and read the verses about the War Horse. Read Passage.

II. WHAT THE LIVING CREATURES TEACH US.

(a) Out of many lessons that they teach let us look at three. God has given to each its work. Life is meant to be busy. Look how busy everything is : building houses, e.g. the pains the spider takes to spin its web, the bird to build its nest. Have you ever seen a wasps' nest ? It is made of paper. Where did the paper come from ? The wasps made it. They bit off little bits of wood in their tiny mouths, chewed them into pulp such as paper-makers use ; then went back to fetch more. Finding and storing food, e.g. the bee gathering honey, the squirrel burying nuts, the hundreds of dead caterpillars stored in the wasps' nest as food for the babies. Apart from its own needs, each has its own definite piece of work to do for the world : e.g. the bee, without knowing it, is fertilizing the flowers by carrying pollen on its wings. If it ceased work, many kinds of flowers would become extinct. The earthworm makes it possible for things to grow. Left alone the ground would grow hard and stiff. Seeds would not sink. Roots would not be strong enough to force their way through. But the little worms are always at work making holes in the soil. These let the rain through, and form tunnels down which the baby roots can grow. The earth, being constantly turned over, gets freshened by sun and air. Never kill a worm. Without them we should starve. Are we half as useful ?

(b) God has made every creature perfectly fitted for its work. Compare noses. Some animals, like dogs and cats, have nostrils in front. These are the meat-eaters, who, when wild, have to hunt their prey. They want to smell what lies ahead and follow a trail. Others (horses, cows, deer) have nostrils at the side. These are the grass-eaters. When wild, they are not the hunters, but the hunted. They want to know what dangers are approaching from behind. A pig's nose has a gristly tip, so that when it smells a root, it can grub it up. The elephant, which has hardly any neck, is given its wonderful trunk-nose which can move in any direction. Compare ears. Here again the hunters' ears face forward (e.g. cats). The ears of the hunted face side¬ ways (e.g. deer). Rabbits in long grass can see only a few inches, but their long ears rise above the grass, and hear what is happening afar off. The hippopotamus' ears are at the top of his head, so that, when his body is under water, he can keep his ears above the surface, and hear what is happening. The bloodhound's ears are covered with flaps, which make him almost deaf, except when he cocks them-up, so that nothing may distract his attention from his nose when he is following a trail.

(c) God has taught the creatures to help one another. Lesson IV showed us how bees co-operate. A colony of swallows nested close to a falcon, a bird of prey which feeds on smaller birds. Yet they showed no fear of it. If ever it came near their nests, they united, and chased it away. Pelicans fish in bands. They fly out a little way to sea, form a half-circle, and then wade toward the shore, driving all the fish before them.

III. THE ANTS.

(a) Let us close, as we did a fortnight ago, with one definite example. What does our text say ? The Ants are a wonderful little people. Thousands of them live together in an underground nest, a network of tunnels and little rooms laboriously dug out many feet below the earth. Sometimes they raise an ant-hill to escape the damp. When you know a little about them, you will never kill one. They are the most highly civilized of all living creatures. They keep cows. There is a little insect called an aphis, which when stroked gives out a drop of sweet juice. The ants keep herds of them, which they feed and milk, and they store up the eggs of the aphis as carefully as their own. They also keep pets. In every nest there are one or two tiny beetles of no use to the ants except as playthings. Yet the ants feed them, and care for them most tenderly. Ants talk to one another, not with their tongues, but with their horns (antennae). They tap one another with little strokes, fast or slow, light or heavy, and so convey their meaning.

(b) Let us learn from them three lessons. The Bible tells us to ” go to the ant, consider her ways, and be wise." She teaches the Wisdom of Work. The ants beat even the bees in industry. Sir John Lubbock says, " I once watched an ant from six in the morning and she worked without stopping till a quarter to ten at night." Whenever you see an ant, it is always doing something, enlarging the nest, cleaning the nest, rearing the young, fetching food often from long distances. It sets us a splendid example. All great men have been hard workers. There is only one thing in the world that is absolutely good for nothing, and that is the sluggard ; so the wise man in the Book of Proverbs called the sluggard to look at the ant.

(c) And the ant teaches us the Wisdom of Self-Reliance. The wise man bids us notice that she does her work " having no guide, overseer or ruler " (Prov. vi. 7). The ants may be feeble, but they are perfectly self-reliant. We have all heard of the queen bee, but there is no queen ant. Sheep may require a shepherd, but ants can take care of themselves. Here again they set us an example. Some of us never do things well, unless there is someone to look after us, to tell us what to do, to keep us up to the mark. Let us try to do our best when we have " no overseer."

(d) The ant teaches us the wisdom of ,co-operation. We cannot learn this lesson too often. All ants do not do the same work. Some are builders, some scavengers, some food-hunters, some soldiers (a ring of sentries always guards each entry to the nests). A few with specially big heads act as door-keepers: they block each entrance with their heads when enemies are about. Some are nurses. We know how butterflies pass through four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. The ant has four stages too. First the egg ; then a little white legless grub, which the nurses feed and tend for six weeks. Then the grubs roll themselves into little cocoons. When the time comes, they cannot get out without help. The nurses have to pull them out, unfold their legs, teach them to walk. Then they are ants with eight years of life before them. In an ant-hill no one does everything, but everyone does something. Every one works for his neighbours, and his neighbours work for him, a splendid illustration of the text, " Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour's good " (1 Cor. x. 24).

Christianity in Action: Lesson 10: The Work of Books

Lesson 10: The Work of Books
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

[Special Note: I find it amazing that Balleine countenances the burning of "bad books". He was writing in the 1920s between the wars, and I suspect that after the Nazi book burning in the 1930s that he would have changed his mind.]  

PASSAGE TO BE READ : Proverbs i. 20-24.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT " How much better is it to get Wisdom than gold ! " (Prov. xvi. 16).
HYMNS : " Lord, Thy Word abideth," and " Hushed was the evening." COLLECTS for Seventh and Ninth Sundays after Trinity.

Aim : To make the class interested in good books. An expert has said : " If a youth has not learnt to love books before he is seventeen, there is but the most meagre chance that he will take to reading in after life." Since a teacher's task is to form good habits, here is one that we must not neglect.

I. GOD'S GIFT OF BOOKS.

(a) One sunny morning long ago a Queen sat surrounded by her family, a beautiful volume on her knee. It was long before the invention of printing, and books were rare and costly, for they had to be written out by hand. She read aloud some of the stirring old English ballads, and then told her boys that she would give the book to the one who first learned to read it. Some of the young Princes were big boys of fifteen and sixteen, but little Alfred, who was only twelve, learned to read it first, and won the prize. Later, when he became King of England, he said: " Books are one of God's best gifts to us, and He means us to use them." He sent for scholars from abroad to teach English people to read. He had the best books he knew translated into English. He had a large history of England written, and placed in Winchester Cathedral, so that all who would might come and read the story of their land.

(b) Last week we saw how much there is for us to learn from Nature. To-day we will think how much there is for us to learn from Books. Let us remember Alfred's words : " Books are one of God's best gifts to us." We know that all God's gifts are given to be used.

I. THE HISTORY OF BOOKS.

(a) The first step in the History of Books was the invention of the alphabet. In very ancient days, if you wanted to learn Wisdom, you had to find a wise man, and get him to talk to you. But wise men were not always easy to find, and, when they were found, perhaps they did not want to talk. It was a big step forward when it became possible to put knowledge into writing. But men only learnt very gradually to do this. The earliest writing was in pictures, and this still survives in some of the Chinese characters. The Chinese sign for " to listen " is a rough picture of an ear between two doors, and " impossible " is a foot standing on a wriggly line representing waves. At last it dawned on some ancient Egyptian that all words are made up of a very few sounds, and that it would be far simpler to have a symbol for each sound instead of for each object. It was soon found that less than thirty of these signs were needed. So some of the old picture signs were borrowed to represent sounds. They have been so altered in course of ages that it is hard to recognize that our capital A was once a picture of an eagle, or our Z once a picture of a duck. But we can still see that 0 represents an eye, and N the waves of the sea. When men learnt to use these signs, writing became possible.

(b) The next step was the invention of paper. The earliest books were very cumbrous things. Some were lumps of clay with the letters scratched on them, and then baked in the sun. There are hundreds of these in the British Museum. Then men tried to write on the inside of skins. The books of the Old Testament were probably written in this manner. Others wrote on thin wooden boards. But clay books and skin books and wooden books were very heavy and clumsy. Again it was an Egyptian who made the discovery that by taking the pith of the papyrus reed, which abounded in the Nile, mixing gum, pressing it flat, and drying in the sun, he could obtain a cheap and pleasant material to write on. By the time the New Testament books were written this discovery had been made.

(c) The third great step was the invention. of printing. Before that every book had to be copied by hand. About 1450 a poor German named John. Gutenberg had an idea. He said to himself : " If I cut a letter on a piece of wood, and ink it, and press it on paper, it will leave the mark of the letter behind. If I cut out all the letters of the alphabet, I can arrange them in any order I like, and print whole sentences." There were still many problems to be solved : how to fasten the type together, how best to put on the ink, how best to press the letters on the paper, and Gutenberg's secret experiments began to arouse the suspicions of his superstitious neighbours. They said that he must be practising witchcraft; but he fortunately found a deserted monastery, where he could work in peace. At last his problems were solved, and now books could be multiplied.

(d) One thing still was needed, and that was to make books cheap. At the beginning of the nineteenth century books were still dear and therefore rare, even Bibles. In 1800 Mary Jones, of Tynoddol, a young Welsh girl, wanted to read the Bible. The nearest copy was in a village seven 'Lies away, and she used to walk there every Saturday to read a few chapters. At last she saved up enough money to buy a Bible of her own, but she found that the Welsh Bible had gone out of print, and none could be obtained. A Welsh clergyman told the story of her disappointment at a London meeting, and this led to the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has made Bibles cheap and plentiful. Improvements in the printing-press have enabled other publishers to print large cheap editions of other books. You and I have opportunities of reading which no one else in the world has ever had.

(e) Even in the old days, when books were very few, the writer of Proverbs told his son that it was possible to grow wise : that Wisdom was calling for learners. Read Passage. How much more would he say this to us

III. BOOKS AND THE BIBLE.

(a) The Bible has much to tell us about books. It reminds us that there are bad books that ought to be burnt. When St. Paul preached at Ephesus many of the new converts felt uncomfortable in their consciences about some of the books on their shelves ; so they made a bonfire in the street, and publicly burnt them " in the sight of all," and the value of the burnt books was £1,700 (Acts xix. 19).

[Note: I think that this is reprehensible. The text makes it clear it was books of sorcery, but after the book burning of the Nazi regime in 1933 - long after this book was published - I think no one can countenance the burning of books. Even bad books, and Mein Kampf is a very bad book, is available to read. What needs to be done with bad books are good books to counter their arguments.]

(b) It reminds us that it is possible to possess a good book, and yet neglect it so long that we forget its existence. Deuteronomy is one of the most beautiful books in the Old Testament. It was a great favourite with our Lord, as we can tell by the number of times that He quoted it. Yet there was a time when the Jews had forgotten that such a book existed. One day they were cleaning out the Temple, and in some lumber room they found an old roll of this book, which no man then living had ever read before (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14). Have you any books like that ? Is your Bible like that ?

(c) It shows us the value of books. When St. Paul was in prison, he longed for the books that had been left behind at the moment of his arrest. " When thou comest," he wrote, " bring with thee the books, but especially the parchments " (2 Tim. iv. 13). He was anxious too that his young friends should use the books they possessed. " Till I come," he wrote to Timothy, " give attention to reading " (1 Tim. iv. 13).

IV. BOOKS AND OURSELVES.

(a) Read good books. Books keep us out of mischief. Books enlarge the mind. Books make us more intelligent, and therefore more useful. To read is an adventure. When we open a book we start on a journey to the Spanish Main (Treasure Island), to a knights' tournament (Ivanhoe), with Alice to Fairyland, with Livingstone to Central Africa, with Scott to the South Pole, with King Arthur's Knights to find the Holy Grail.

This work-a-day world is so trying at times ;
Folks chatter and squabble like rooks ;
So the wise flee away to the best of all climes,
Which you enter through History, Memoirs or Rhymes,
That most wonderful Country of Books.
And griefs are forgotten. You go on a tour
More wondrous than any of Cook's ;
It costs you but little. Your welcome is sure.
Your spirits revive in the atmosphere pure
Of the wonderful Country of Books.

Call attention to the school Lending Library, the local Public Library, and any other means within the children's reach of obtaining books.

(b) Read the Best of Books. Make the children see that the Bible is not a dull book out of which lessons are given, but something full of interest that they should read for themselves. Here are thrilling stories of fights (Goliath), and murders (Sisera, Naboth, St. Stephen), and shipwrecks (St. Paul), and escapes from prison (St. Peter), and treachery (Betrayal of Samson), and plots (Haman). Here are sad stories (Jephthah's daughter), and love stories (how Jacob served seven years for Rachel) ; stories of courage (Daniel and the lions), and stories of cleverness (Solomon's judgement). And behind all these stories of men and women there is the most thrilling story of all—the story of how God governs the world and overthrows evil (Sodom, Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Belshazzar), and how the Son of God died to save the world. Just fancy, having a book like that, and leaving it unread

Christianity in Action: Lesson 9: The Book of Nature

Lesson 9: The Book of Nature
By G.R. Balleine

[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]

Lesson for Septuagesima.

PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Matthew vi. 26-34.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " Consider the wondrous works of God " (Job xxxvii. 14).
HYMNS " There is a book," and " All things bright and beautiful." COLLECTS for First Sunday after Epiphany and Fifth Sunday after Easter. 

Aim : To attract attention to the lessons to be learnt from plants.

I. ATTENTION.

(a) What is the first thing that the sergeant says before he begins a drill ? 'Tention. He cannot do anything until he has got the attention of his men.

(b) Darwin says that a man who trained performing monkeys used to buy common kinds from the Zoo for £5. After a time he offered double the price, if he might keep a few for three days in order to select one. When asked how he could decide so quickly which monkey would become the best performer, he said that it all depended on its power of attention. If its attention was distracted by every passing fly, it was useless. If it attended to his teaching, he could do anything with it.

(c) The same is true of us all. An old-fashioned story, Eyes and No Eyes, showed how some people seem to notice everything, while others notice nothing. The first step in all progress is observation. The world owes much to the man who first noticed that a wedge would split wood, that a sail could move a boat, that a certain herb would cure disease.

(d) The small boy James Watt sat watching the kettle. His aunt scolded : " I never saw such an idle boy. For the last hour you have done nothing but take off the lid of the kettle and put it on again " ; but he sat absorbed in thought. He had noticed something : steam could move the lid of a kettle up and down. If it could do that, it could move a rod up and down, and that rod could be made to turn a wheel. From that observation sprang the steam engine.

(e) Wise men were puzzled by the mystery why the moon went round the earth instead of flying off into space ; what force kept the planets in their courses. The lad Isaac Newton sat in his mother's orchard. A ripe apple fell from a branch to his feet. He noticed it. He asked himself, Why did it fall so straight ? There must be some force inside the earth that pulls things to itself. If it pulls an apple, it pulls also the moon and all the planets. He had discovered the Law of Gravitation. The mystery was solved.

(f) The Sherlock Holmes stories illustrate this power of observation. Watson comes in with mud on his boots. Holmes says : " Why have you been sending a telegram " Watson asks how he knows. Holmes replies that he has noticed that the only place in the village where that red clay is found is just outside the Post Office. As he also noticed stamps and postcards on his friend's writing-table, he felt sure that he must have gone to send a telegram.

(g) This power of observation can be trained. Robert Houdin, the French conjurer, used to spend hours walking past shop windows, and then stopping to think what he had noticed in them. At first he could only remember six or eight things ; but he trained himself till he could repeat the whole contents of the window.

II. ATTENTION FOR THE BOOK OF NATURE!

(a) During these Sundays before Lent we are going to look at some of the things that deserve our attention. The Septuagesima Lessons speak of the Creation of the world; so to-day is often regarded as Nature Sunday. The best-known Septuagesima hymn begins, " There is a book, who runs may read." What book is that ? Not the Bible, but the Book of Nature :—

The works of God above, below,
Within us and around,
Are pages in that book, to show
How God Himself is found.

(b) Longfellow wrote some beautiful verses for the fiftieth birthday of the naturalist Agassiz :—

Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying, " Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee."
" Come, wander with me," she said,
" Into regions yet untrod,
And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God."

Help elder children to grasp the beauty of that description of Nature, " the manuscripts of God."

(c) Our Lord commanded Nature Study in the Sermon on the Mount. " Consider the lilies how they grow." Read Passage. Let all repeat text. Our Lord's many references to Nature in His teaching show how carefully as a boy at Nazareth He had used His eyes, e.g. the corn so dependent on the quality of the soil (Parable of Sower) ; so gradual in its growth, " first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear " (St. Mark iv. 28) ; the tares at first so like good corn, but later so different (St. Matt. xiii. 29) ; the mustard plant growing from so tiny a seed (St. Mark iv. 31) ; the vine made fruitful by pruning (St. John xv. 2) ; the mulberry (A.V. sycamore) tree apparently so strong, but so easily uprooted (St. Luke xvii. 6).

(d) One of the greatest students of plants was Linnaeus, a Swede (died 1778). Young men flocked to study under him from all parts of the world. Twice a week they used to go for expeditions in the mountains. Before they started, he would ask, " Have you all got your trumpets ? " Why ? Because it was the rule that, if anyone discovered a new plant, he must blow a trumpet. Then all the other students flocked around, kneeled down, studied it, sketched it. To other people it might look a miserable little weed, but to their trained eyes it was full of wonder and beauty.

III. CONSIDER THE DAISIES.

(a) We cannot study all the plants to-day, but let us lock at one. The lily to which our Lord referred was the scarlet anemone with which the hills of Galilee are covered in the spring. But this flower is not familiar to us in England, so let us take instead our commonest flower, the daisy.

(b) Its name speaks to us of one of its peculiarities. Daisy means Day's Eye. It got that name because people noticed that it opened at sunrise and shut at sunset. But, if we watch it closely, we shall see something even more curious. It always faces the sun. In the morning it faces east ; at midday south ; in the evening west ; at sunset it shuts up tight. The lamplighter may light a lamp beside it ; the full moon may shine down upon it ; but it will not open. Yet, as soon as the sun rises again, it unfolds its petals, The largest girls' school in England (Cheltenham Ladies' College) has as its badge a daisy with a Latin motto (Coelesti luce crescat) which means " By Heavenly light let it grow." That is a good motto for us all. Whispering in dark corners generally leads to what is wrong. The daisy knows that in the darkness night insects try to steal its honey. Let us love what is bright and clear and open. And let us distinguish between God's Light and imitations. It was Jesus Who said, " I am the Light of the World."

(c) The daisy is what botanists call a compound flower. What looks like one flower is really a whole flower-bed. Under a strong magnifying glass we see that the white petals are each a separate white flower tipped with red, a little tube with a slender thread coming out of it ; that the centre is a mass of 250 tiny yellow flowers, and all are held together by a green case. It was not always so. In early ages of the world each of these flowers had a separate stalk. But gradually they drew closer together, till at last" all came to live on the same stalk. They had learnt what we were speaking of in Lesson IV—the value of Co-operation, of helping one another. Unity is strength. And that is why the daisy is so sturdy. The leaves also have learned to co-operate. Once they too grew upon long stalks. Now they spread themselves flat on the ground in a tight rosette. In this way they keep anything else from growing too close to the daisy, and secure it plenty of air and light and moisture.

(d) The daisy's Latin name is. Bellis Perennis, which means Pretty-all-the-year-round. Some flowers are spring flowers ; others bloom only in summer or autumn ; daisies bloom all the year round, setting us a lesson, not to be bright only sometimes, when everything is favourable. Every kind of season wants us at our best.

(e) The daisy lives by giving. In its heart it keeps some honey, and it gives this to the bees ; and they in return carry on their wings the fertilizing dust from one flower to another. Without that the daisy could not form its seeds. That yellow pollen is full of a wonderful life force. The daisy gives its best to the bee, and, as it might seem, almost by accident, but as we know by the design of God, it gets in return life. It is the same with us. Those who give most, live most. " For the heart grows rich by giving."

(f) One thought more. In one of his poems Tennyson says of a girl : " Her feet have touched the meadows, and left the daisies rosy." Why rosy ? He had noticed that daisies are most beautiful when trodden on. Its petals are under tipped with red. Always show your most beautiful side when people try to squash you. To do this the hidden life must be beautiful.