HOW MAY LOST A BEAUTIFUL DOLL
ONCE there lived a father in a little country town, far back from the great city and its wonderful streets and shops, who said to his little girl that it was his plan to go to the city after things, and that he would take her with him if she cared to go. Of course she was full of glee as she thought of the wonderful things she would see in the great windows of the city shops. Her father had planned to purchase for her a beautiful doll, but kept the thought to himself so it would be a glad surprise to May. When they reached the city, May's eyes were open wide, and like all little girls, she wanted lots of things at once. As she and her father passed through the streets, May's eyes fell on a large box on the outside of a toy shop filled with a large number of cheap little dolls. They were made of celluloid, and cost only a few pennies. (Secure one of the sort and show the class and say, "This is a poor cheap doll, wears only painted clothes, will last only a few days, and is very common as well as cheap.") Her father said, 'Wait, dear little May, I will get you a doll by and by." But May would not wait. She wanted that little painted doll now. Her father said, "I promise you that you shall have a doll, dear, before we go home. Just be patient and wait. Father knows best.'? At this denial May grew angry and said, "You don't love me, father, or you would get me what I wanted. I won't wait, | want this doll. I'm going to have it right way." And as she said this, she took one out of the box, and held it tight in her hand and said she intended to keep it. She stamped her foot, and cried, and said, '"'I won't wait any longer, I won't give this doll up. I will keep it and not put it back."
The father desiring to teach her a lesson, said, "Well, May, if you know best and better than your father, who loves you, you may keep the doll. I will pay for it. You need not wait for a doll any longer. It belongs to you now." Now May thought on her ways and said, "I wish I had not been so naughty about it. Dear father was good and kind to me, and I was hateful to him." She was silent but thoughtful, when her father stopped before a window of the toy shop, and there in the window was a beautiful doll (borrow a beautiful doll for this lesson and produce it). Her father said, "Look, little May, there in the window is the doll I intended to purchase for you if you had waited for me to get to this shop. I intended to surprise you. That was the reason I did not tell you, but since you would not wait or trust your father's word, I will not purchase it for you, but you must be contented with the doll you have, the doll you said you would have and so the doll you would not wait for will stay in the window. It cannot be yours. My little May must learn that Father knows best and that it will always pay to wait for father's time." It was a hard lesson for May to learn but that day she said to herself, "Father knows best. I will wait for his time, because it is the best time." This is how May lost her beautiful doll. There is a lesson in this story for us all. God has a plan for our lives. Wait for Him to work it out. If we seek our own way our lives will be full of disappointments and sorrowful failures. Wait for God's time. It is the best time. It will bring us to the best of everything.
CHAPTER XIX
THE PRODIGAL SON IN RAGS
Objects: A collection of rags in many colors
THE PRODIGAL SON IN RAGS
THIS is the story of the Prodigal son told in rags. Have a common rag bag brought in, and its contents emptied on a table. This will make quite a display of rags. Heap them up a little so the audience will see them all. The ragman's bag is going to preach a sermon. Among these rags is a bunch of rags fastened together with a pin to keep them separated from the others, which you will not use in this lesson. Take out the pin. Spread out these rags which you have thus kept together and arrange them in their proper order. Now say, "I will tell you the story of the Prodigal son as the ragman sees him. I will tell the story of the LOST SON IN RAGS." Now put up a rope across the back of the pulpit, or before the meeting have one put there, and from the pile of rags place upon this line the following:
I—A yellow cloth, a square piece of cloth as the Prodigal has not yet come to rags. The yellow stands for the home he left,—the land of plenty. Yellow stands for the rich grain fields, and is also the color of the bread he found on his Father's table. Full and plenty and for the fields, ripe for harvest. How often he had sung the harvester's song in the field when working with his dear old father when they lived together on the good old farm. Now from the rag table pick up
II—A piece of red. This should be cut in the shape of a heart. Red stands for love and the heart of red for the loving heart of his father. It should not be forgotten that the big point of this parable is "The Loving Father," not the wayward son. It teaches how kind is the great heart of the loving heavenly Father and how sweet is His welcome to the wanderers who seek His face and favor. The son in rags knew this and no matter how far he got away from God, he never got away from the memory of the fond old father at home, yet he left it all for rags. Now pick up