8
WEEDS
OBJECTS: A Number of Common Weeds
I was noticing the other day, that, in my garden, after the winter days had passed, the first green things to show their head were the little weeds. They seemed to say to me, "Hello, we are back again for business." And a pretty lively business they are in, surely. We are sorry to see them come, and glad to see them go, but before they do go I want to teach you some important life lessons from them.
They are very like the most of us, so they talk to us as old friends. The first thing I hear them say is, "We grow very fast." They multiply quickly. The red poppy will give fifty thousand seeds. The dandelion (show one if you have it in your collection) will give over two thousand seeds. Weeds stand for evil things and useless things. They seem to be like the sands of the sea in number. So our life is full of weeds very often. We tell one lie, and then another to protect ourselves against the evil of the first lie, and by and by we have told many of them, and the habit of lying has been so formed, that often thousands of lies will be told. So little boys and girls must watch the weeds, for they grow very fast in the heart. Take care of your words. Don't let the lie get mixed up with them.
These are some of the evil weeds we must watch: Envy, bad temper, untruthfulness, selfishness, unkindness—and there are many more. Call all these things weeds, and don't let them get into the garden of the heart.
Then, again, I heard the weeds say: "I will walk into your garden and come up as noiselessly as the beautiful flowers. I will push up my soft harmless little leaves, and do it so gently that I will not disturb your roses." And so evil things creep into our life, and look quite as harmless as the little weed. When they get in, we like them and encourage them, and often will not let them go, because we love them; then at last we cannot let them go if we would. Just a little white lie, just for fun, then a lying life, with everything false.
A whole town were once horrified by the confession of a mere boy that he had killed his playmate. He seemed to have no fear or sorrow because of the act, but his mother said when he was a small child he would catch the flies and pull their wings off, and smile as he noted the suffering of the fly. First it was the wings of a fly, at last it was the murder of a playmate. Weeds are not good things in a garden. They are not good things in the heart, Watch them when they first show their little heads. Close the door at once, they soon turn to poison and death in the soul.
Then again the weeds say to me: "My real name is Determination. I will come in, and you will have a hard time to get rid of me." They are determined to stay. It is no use to pull off their leaves, but pull them up by their roots and cast them into the fire. Just as soon as an evil thought comes into our minds, kill it at once. Cast it out of our thought. Don't talk about it, or it will drive its roots down deep, and will come to stay.
Evil-thought weeds come from everywhere; some from far-off lands, others are carried in our mail, and in our schoolbooks. Some are passing tramps, but they come and take us unawares. Soon evil acts follow naturally and as certainly as day follows night. Fill your mind full of good thoughts, and don't look on evil weeds. Solomon said, "Look not on the wine." This was good advice, for looking upon evil creates the longing for it. Let Jesus come into the mind as well as the heart, and he will cast out the evil thoughts, because he cannot stay with the weeds of sinful thoughts. Let your daily prayer be, "Take away all the ugly weeds from my heart, O Lord, and plant beautiful thought flowers there, that it may be always sweet for thee."