One day she drew a cracked cup, the crack of which grew wider under her clever fingers, and she turned round and said to her class, "Is this cup of any use?" And there were plenty of "No's" from all over the room; but one child ventured "Perhaps it could be mended!"
And then the teacher gave a bright look, and she said, "Yes, Charlie, you are right! And so are the others with their 'No's' all over the room. For unless the cup is mended, it is of no use. The cup is a picture of our characters! If there is a flaw in them, a crack that gets wider and wider, then the cup is of no use, is it?"
"It might be thrown away!" ventured another child.
"Yes," said the teacher; "but, if it could be mended—as Charlie said—then it could be used again. So what must we do, Charlie?"
She turned her face to the little boy, and a smile came over his features as he answered, "There's a china-mender comes down our road every week—he could do it!"
And the teacher smiled back. Did Charlie know that he had touched on a great truth? So she went on—
"Yes, we must 'have faith in God.' We must take our cracked cups, and our faulty characters, to the Great Mender, Jesus our Saviour, and ask Him to make us useful, serviceable little Christians!"
So now, I am going to make an imaginary blackboard and show you a branch of a fig tree!
Look at that fig growing out of the stalk; it is large, and oblong, and plump, and it is firmly fixed to the big branch.
And then, above and below it are little sprouting leaves, some just come out, some not yet burst from their little buds; and soon the fruit, which is already ripe, will be covered up by the leaves, as they grow larger and larger.