This grasshopper very fittingly represents the feeling and thought which come into the mind of every boy when he is at first required to work, to go to school and study, when he is being taught to be industrious and useful. When the days are pleasant, boys do not like to go to school. When a pleasant Sunday morning comes in the springtime, they often wish to stay at home, to go out to the park, or to roam about the fields, and if most of the boys and girls had their own way about it, in the beginning, they would live pretty much like the grasshopper. They would get what pleasure they could out of the days as they pass, grow up in ignorance and idleness, and in manhood and womanhood find themselves in poverty and want. I think that pretty much all boys and girls are naturally lazy, and that feeling can only be cured by being required to work, being compelled to go to school and study, and being kept persistently at it from week to week and year to year, until at last they learn to love to work. If the parents of the grasshopper had not themselves been lazy and grown up in idleness, they would have taught the young grasshopper that in the spring and summer he was to look forward to the wants and needs of the winter. The older ants always teach the young ants to work, and in that they are very wise.
Perhaps you have seen boys and girls who have learned to work, who are always very active, who seem always to be busy, but after all accomplish nothing of any moment in life. If we want to live to some purpose in this world, we must remember that we should have a purpose worthy of ourselves, and of the great Father in Heaven who has created us. After a few months and years the grasshoppers and the ants and all the insects die, but you and I shall live on forever and ever. These bodies will be laid away in the grave, but our immortal spirits shall still continue to live. The stars in heaven which have been shining for thousands and thousands of years shall eventually grow pale. The sun itself shall cease to shine, and all the heavens and the universe about us shall be rolled together as a scroll. But these immortal spirits of yours and mine shall live on with God throughout all eternity. It is important, therefore, that our industry and our thought and our labor should not be for those things which perish with the using; that we should not simply lay up treasures which we must after a time go away and leave behind us in this world, but that we should lay up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; that where our treasure is, there our hearts may be also; and that we may possess and enjoy our treasure throughout all eternity.
I hope that every time you see a grasshopper or an ant, you will remember the lesson which I have sought to teach you to-day.
Questions.—What is on the top of the Royal Exchange in London? Who built the Exchange? Why did he put the grasshopper there? Tell all you can about the little boy and girl going through the field. What kind of boys and girls is like the grasshopper? What does the grasshopper do in summer? What happens to him when winter comes? Is the ant like the grasshopper, or is he industrious? What does the Bible say about the ant? How does he spend the summer? Does he have food for winter use? Does each ant work for itself alone? Who teach the young ants to work? Do boys and girls all have to be taught to work? Do all people who are busy accomplish something worthy of their effort? What should we live for?
BALANCES.
HOW GOD WEIGHS PEOPLE.
Suggestion:—Objects: A pair of ordinary balances. A very good pair for illustration can easily be made from a piece of wood, a few strings and a couple of little paper boxes.