With the Children on Sundays / Through Eye-Gate and Ear-Gate into the City of Child-Soul

by Sylvanus Stall

This beautiful bouquet represents those boys and girls who have Christian fathers and mothers, who surround them by influences which are well calculated to make them pure in thought and upright in life, so that they may grow up to be good Christian men and women. These flowers represent the boys and girls who grow up in the Sunday-school and in the Church, who give their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, and grow up into His likeness, and into His image, and into His stature, and become noble Christian men and women.

When parents permit their children to run wild, they cannot expect them to grow up Christians. It is only by culture and education and Christian influences that they can be improved, so as to become honorable and upright.

Nearly all the products of the field have been improved by cultivation, just the same as these flowers have been improved. Wheat in its native state, as it may still be found in France and Italy along the shores of the Mediterranean, was a stunted and straggling plant, with a small and inferior seed, but after long years of patient and continued cultivation, it has grown to its present plump and prolific proportions. All the beautiful fruits which now grow in our orchards were at one time unsightly and undesirable. The apple was small and sour, and unpalatable; but by pruning and grafting and fertilizing, it has grown to be not only beautiful to the eye, but delicious to the taste. The acrid and unwholesome berries, which formerly grew on the mountain ash, have been developed into the sweet and juicy pear. By cultivation, the acrid and bitter sloe has grown into the beautiful plum. The same is also true of the potato, the turnip and the cabbage.

Boys and girls can only be developed into useful men and women by the influence of the week-day and Sunday-school, the Christian home and the Church, by reading and studying the Bible and other good books.

When you are restricted or corrected by your parents, you may oftentimes feel very much irritated and may feel rebellious, and may think that you do not have as many privileges or as much freedom as some of the other boys and girls whom you know. But you must remember that all this is done by your parents for your good, and later on in life you will see the value of it all and be very grateful to your parents for what they have done for you.

When I was a boy, in the little village where I lived they organized a cannon company of six or eight boys, who were to accompany the men who went to other villages to listen to political speeches before elections, and then to march in a torch-light procession. I was at that time a boy about twelve years old. I was asked to join. The boys were all to wear red blouses and red caps, and to my thought just then, nothing in the world was so much to be desired as the torch-light procession and the red blouse and cap, and to be permitted to march behind the drum and the fife, hauling the little cannon after us.

I shall never forget how I cried and how ugly I felt toward my father when he would not let me be one of the cannon boys and wear a red blouse and a red cap. He said that at night I ought to be at home and in bed, and not be exposed to possible bad influences, the danger of catching cold and of other bad results which he could clearly see, but which I, at that time, thought were only imaginary.

When I grew to be a man, I saw that my father was right, and later when at intervals I journeyed back to my boyhood home and visited the cemetery, I frequently placed one elbow on the tomb-stone of my father and the other elbow on the tomb-stone of my mother, and with my face buried in my hands thanked God that He had given me Christian parents who were wise and judicious enough not to let me have my own way in all things when I was a boy, but who had restricted me and guided me wisely and well.

So, boys and girls, it will be with you when you have grown to the estate of manhood and womanhood. You will be, oh, so thankful again and again that father and mother have oftentimes denied you things which you have most desired to have.

Questions.—Which are the prettier, flowers which are neglected by the roadside, or those which are cultivated in the garden? Are boys and girls like flowers? Which boys and girls are the best, those who are neglected and not taught, or those who are cared for and carefully trained? Is it more pleasant for boys and girls to have their own way in everything, or would they prefer to be taught and trained by their parents? Which kind of flowers are the heathen boys and girls like? Can wild flowers be made more beautiful by care and cultivation? Can the boys and girls in heathen lands be made like Christian boys and girls? What is necessary to effect this change? How can Bibles and missionaries be sent to them? Did the writer of this book want to have his own way when he was a boy? What did he want to be? What kind of a cap and blouse did he want to wear? When he became a man, was he thankful to his father for not allowing him to have his own way at that time? Will all good boys and girls, when they become men and women, be thankful to their parents for right training?