THE LESSON—That the happiness or the unhappiness of middle life and old age are the result of the thoughts and deeds of early life.
The teacher who can help the little children to avoid the entertainment of wrong thoughts and the teacher who can eliminate from the minds of the youth the belief that the "sowing of wild oats" is a harmless—perhaps necessary—touch of life, may feel that he has accomplished much. The teaching carries with it the necessity of supplanting wrong thoughts with right ones.
The Talk.
"Some of the great declarations of the Scriptures have become so familiar to us that we speak the words and lose much of their significance. One great truth which seems to have lost its power with many is that verse in the letter of Paul to the Galatians, in which he says, 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.'
"What does Paul mean? He means simply this, that your life and mine, like the life of the world of nature about us, has its seedtime and its time of harvest—that if the seedtime of our early life finds us planting good thoughts, kindly deeds and loving words, the harvest of the later life will be peace and blessedness; if the seedtime of life finds us sowing evil thoughts, bad deeds and ungodly words, the harvest will be remorse, bitterness and the suffering which must come from such a sowing.
"Everybody who lives fifty years or more has two looks at life; first, a forward look, and, last, a backward look. It is wise to plan in advance for the backward look by living so that the retrospect will be gratifying and satisfying and comforting, and not of a kind to bring mourning over wasted years and lost opportunities for doing good.
