OBJECT-LESSONS EXTRAORDINARY
OBJECTS: Pictures of Animals and Living Objects
This chapter is simply a study for the object worker. It is an illustration of how ponderous and unusual objects can be used to teach religious truths. It is a far swing from the smaller and common objects which are available for the regular teacher who employs the eye appeal. Yet it is well to remember that ponderous things talk for God, for it is written that the heavens declare the glory of God, and there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.
It is our big business to interpret the language of things in terms the people can understand. Translate the voice of the heavens into English. Some starlit night use the sky as an object-lesson. Gather the children around you and ask them to look up at the sky. Tell them a few things that astronomy has told you, concluding with the story of the Wise-men and the Christmas Star and other Biblical star stories. By so doing you will make the stars a golden path to Jesus and the objects in the heavens will preach of righteousness. If some day you can stand with the children by the side of the sea you can use the ocean as an object-lesson. Tell them stories of the wonders in the deep.
Tell them the tales of sea adventures by the hardy mariners. Talk about the ocean shells and sands at their feet. Conclude by telling them Bible sea stories; how a runaway prophet was cast into the sea during a great storm and what happened to him. Tell them about the storm on the sea of Tiberias, and how Jesus commanded the winds and the waves to obey his word. Tell them about Paul's sea journeys, and the wreck of the prison ship, and how they all escaped to a friendly island. In concluding tell them about the heavenly land where there shall be no more sea, and of the mercy of God which is like the wideness of the sea.
You will note that you have used ponderous object-lessons, the sky and the sea.
Sometime when it is possible use household pets as object-lessons. Tell them how to be kind to animals. Explain to them the habits and needs of the little creatures. Tell them when possible Bible stories in which these animals figure. A bird in a cage, a fish in the bowl, etc., will make most interesting and fascinating object-lessons.
When this is not possible use pictures of the animals you want to talk about. Let me tell you how once upon a time I gave an object-lesson extraordinary by using living wild animals. From childhood I have been a lover of wild beasts. I could sit up all night and read about wild animals, I loved these stories more than I loved my play. As I grew older I made them my special study. In later life it was my good fortune to study them at close range which finally enabled me to go into their cages with them. They became my good friends. They treated me with the greatest consideration. It seemed to them I was their second keeper. Let me tell you about the wild animals that I have met, and whose pictures you will see on the following pages.
"ATLAS" THE BIG LION
Atlas was four years old and as friendly and gentle as the house dog. Wild animals, like humans, differ as to their dispositions; some are snarling and cross, others are gentle and winsome. Atlas belonged to the latter class.
One evening I invited 1,000 children to come to his winter quarters and see him. In the center of a large room there was a great cage into which the animals were taken one by one for their daily exercise and run about. Into this big cage Atlas was brought, and I went in with him. While we were together in this great cage he was as friendly as any of my little pets. He purred away like the family cat behind the kitchen stove on a snowy day. He would take his meat from my hand, displaying at all times great concern lest he should in any way harm me. I did not use a whip or a gun, simply a little rod to urge him on a bit, but controlled him by tones, persuasive tones to which he made quick response. I told the children to use kind words with animals as well as humans, as these were very winsome powers. A lion of docile disposition was dangerous only when sick, hungry, in temper, or acting in self-defense. When the lion is seeking food he displays great intelligence. The monkey is a mimic, and can only do what it is taught to do, and even this he cannot in turn teach to its offspring, but a lion seems to think out its problems.
A man in Central Africa was once out late in the day and far from home. He saw a lion at some distance from him. The lion saw him and also followed him slowly.
Atlas, the Big Lion—A Docile, Friendly Beast Performing for
the Children
When the man walked fast, the lion walked fast; when the man stopped, the lion stopped also. The big idea in the lion's head was to follow him all day until dark, and then in the dark spring upon him. This was the way the man outwitted the lion. When he came to a high cliff below which there was a deep hollow in the rock, he climbed down into this cleft where the lion could not see him. Here he fixed a stick on the rocks and put on it his hat and coat so as to make them look like a man, and then hid under the rock to watch results. Soon the lion came creeping slyly along, and seeing the coat and hat he made a sudden spring at them, and falling down on the rocks below, was killed. But you see I was safe in the cage with Atlas, because they took good care of him and he was not hungry.
I concluded by telling the little folks about the story of Daniel who was cast into a den of lions, which is the most remarkable lion story in the world, for in those days they kept the lions in a state of hunger so that they might destroy their victims with haste. Daniel was saved from the hungry beasts because God sent his angel, and they could not open their mouths and had no desire for food. Our God is able to deliver his children.
THE BABY LION
One morning when I went to see my friend Atlas in the winter quarters the friendly keeper said to me, "Doctor, look into the lions' cage, in yonder corner." When I did so, what do you think, children, I saw there? Lying close to its big mother lion I saw a little baby lion fast asleep. The big mother seemed very proud of it, for she looked at me with her big eyes and seemed to say, "This is the most wonderful baby of the lion kingdom." And when the little baby opened his eyes I thought so too. After a few days the little fellow would play on the floor with me. He looked just like a big cat, and often when he went after the ball I sent rolling over the floor, he seemed to be a big cat and had the cat's way when he played.
I took him to my church one day. The first lion who ever went to Sunday school—and as it was an anniversary day with the school I gave an object-talk with the little fellow in my arms. I told the children that this lion, so docile and harmless, had a wild nature, and in a short time when that nature was fully developed it would not be safe for the boys and girls to come near him. The little paw which I held in my hands would soon be so strong and wild that it could bring down in death the strongest man alive. I then permitted a few little girls to come to the platform and hold the little fellow for a few moments, which they did with great glee and will tell their children's children of the day when they held a real living baby lion in their arms. I then told them that we all like lions have an evil nature. While we are young we are like this little lion, gentle and mild, but later on when our wild nature develops we do very wicked things and become sinners. The little lion must always be a lion, there is no power on earth that can change its nature. But although we have an evil nature, Jesus has come to take away the evil within us and make us his gentle, obedient, and loving children. I then told the children how much the mother lion loved her little baby. Mother love is so strong that she is
A Baby Lion, Six Weeks Old, Receiving the Name of the Youngest Baby in the Audience
most dangerous when she has little cubs of her own; she so greatly fears the stranger will do them harm.
Then I told a baby lion story. A circus was in progress at Woodbury, N.J., one afternoon in May, 1919, when the keeper of a lioness named Lucy and her two cubs entered her cage. He succeeded without difficulty in driving the mother lion into a compartment at the other end of the cage, thus separating her from her cubs. All would doubtless have gone well had he not stopped to fondle the cubs. This aroused the wild anger of the mother, and she sprang with all her might against the separating door, burst it open, and seized the keeper by the neck and killed him instantly. She was transferred into a mad lion when she thought her cubs were in danger. This story shows us how much the mother lion loves her little ones.
About this time the baby lion grew restless and wanted to go home, so when we had named the little cub Norman after the youngest child present that afternoon, we took him back to his mother.
THE BABY LEOPARD LESSON
From the wild animal market one day I borrowed a little baby leopard. He was timid as a baby rabbit. He trembled with fear all the time I held him in my arms. The little folks did not seem to be afraid of him, because he looked just like a big cat, and indeed he was the cat's wild brother. As I held him in my arms I recited Jeremiah 13:23: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil." The great lesson this passage of Scripture draws forth from the leopard is that none of us by our own effort can change our hearts and make them over into good hearts. Jesus must do this. The leopard can never change his spots nor can we alone ever change our hearts.
THE LITTLE BEAR STORY
One day when I was thinking out a talk which I was to give to 1,000 children in my Happy Hour Service for them, I learned that a rich man in my city had purchased a little bear for his children to play with. I said to myself here is a new and different object-lesson. At once I called on the owner, and he very gladly sent me the little fellow and his keeper with him. He was a restless little bear and wanted to play all the time. When I took him into the meeting I had placed on the table by his side a tub of water, for it was Teddy's delight to get into the water and set up a great splash, which hugely amused the children. The bear is the clown of the animal kingdom. He is not an imitator like the monkey, but thinks out his own stunts. He has more intelligence by far than the monkey and is more human in his head. They are often quite droll in their fun, they play leap frog, have wrestling-matches, and play bo-peep. This is the reason why they are called the "Clowns of the Animal Kingdom."
This little bear, I said to the children, teaches us how foolish it is to be self-willed and stubborn. He must have his own way. You can punish him with a whip and hit him so hard he cannot for a few minutes stand upon his feet, yet when he does get his strength back
A Baby Leopard, Seven Months Old, Used to Illustrate the Scripture
Reference to the Leopard's Spots
he will stand up and do the same thing over again. When wounded by the hunter with a deadly shot he seems to be stronger in resisting power than ever. He cannot be taught to give up himself. That is the reason we say "as stubborn as a bear." Sometimes boys and girls have the will of a bear. Be stronger than a bear by giving up when you are in the wrong. So you all see now that ponderous unusual objects can be used for teaching great religious lessons. This is a good chapter to read to the little folks.
52