CONTENTS

PAGE.
Preface[9]
Suggestions to Parents[17]
1. Oyster and Crab—Conscience[27]
2. Worm in the Apple—Sin in the Human Heart[33]
3. Wayside Weeds and Garden Flowers—Neglected vs. Christian Children[38]
4. Nuts—God Means that We Must Work[46]
5. Banks—Gathered and Guarded Treasures[51]
6. Chart—Avoiding Dangers[56]
7. Anchor—Hope that Lays Hold of Christ[61]
8. Husks—The Disappointed Pleasure Seeker[66]
9. Iron, Low Grade and High Grade—Character and Worth[75]
10. A Pocket Rule—How God Measures Men[81]
11. The Magnet—Jesus the Great Drawing Power[86]
12. Keys—How to Unlock the Human Heart[92]
13. Traps—Unsuspecting Mice and Men[97]
14. Bread—Universal Soul Hunger[102]
15. The Stone—The Natural and Changed Heart[107]
16. The Polished Stone—Perfection Through Suffering[112]
17. Ropes—Habits and How They Become Strong[120]
18. Watch and Case—Soul and Body[125]
19. Pearls—One of Great Price[130]
20. Coal and Wood—Jesus the Source of Spiritual Light and Warmth[135]
21. Lanterns—The Best Light for Our Path[140]
22. Candles—How to Reflect, Obscure or Extinguish the Light[145]
23. A Broken Chain—Breaking the Whole Law[151]
24. Looking-Glass—Seeing Ourselves in God's Law[156]
25. Rain—God's Wisdom and Power[161]
26. Snow—Lessons Which it Teaches[168]
27. Plastic Face—Character in the Countenance[174]
28. Seeds—Thoughts, Word, Deeds,—Their Life and Perpetuity[179]
29. Sowing—The Spring Time of Life[185]
30. Reaping—The Harvest Time of Life[192]
31. Wheat and Chaff—The Coming Separation[198]
32. The Heart—The Most Wonderful Pump in the World[204]
33. The Eye—The Most Valuable and Most Wonderful Telescope[210]
34. The Eye—Smallest Camera, Most Valuable Pictures[217]
35. Frogs—The Plagues of Egypt[222]
36. Blood—The Feast of the Passover[228]
37. Pine Branch—The Feast of Tabernacles[234]
38. Leaves—The Lessons Which They Teach[240]
39. The Turtle—Man Like and Yet Unlike the Animals[246]
40. Grasshopper and Ant—Negligence and Industry[252]
41. Balances—How God Weighs People[260]
42. White and Charred Sticks—Good and Bad Company[267]
43. Dogs—The Dogs of St. Bernard[272]
44. The Camera—God's Picture Book[279]
45. The Phonograph—Books that Talk[285]
46. Magnet and Needle—God's Guiding Hand[290]
47. Fish in Aquarium—The All-Seeing Eye of God[295]
48. The Clock—Measuring Time[300]
49. Plans—Living with a Purpose[307]
50. The Christmas Tree—The Lessons Which It Teaches[311]
51. Easter Sunday—The Resurrection of the Body[318]
52. Crowns—We Are Children of the King[325]
A Word to Parents[331]
Press Notices[332]

PREFACE.

SUNDAY ought to be the most cheerful, sunniest, happiest and best day of the week in every home. In most homes it is the dullest and most dreary day of the week to the children, and the most taxing and the most wearying to the parents, especially to the mother. It not only ought to be, but it can be made, not only the brightest and happiest but also the most influential in the character-building and religious training of the children. In some households Sunday is looked forward to with anticipations of pleasure throughout the entire week. In these homes, the father does not come down stairs on Sunday morning and say: "Now, children, gather up those flowers, throw them out of the window, pull down the blinds, get down the Bible and we will have an awful solemn time here to-day." Neither is the day given to frivolity or the home to demoralizing influences. From morning until night there are two great principles that govern; first, the sacredness of the day, and second, the sacredness of the God-given nature of childhood. The day is not spent in repressing the child nature by a succession of "don't do that," "now stop that," etc., that begin in the morning and continue throughout the day, and end only when the little ones lose consciousness in sleep on Sunday night. In these homes, the parents recognize the fact that the child nature is the same whether the day is secular or sacred. On Sunday the child nature is not repressed, but the childish impulses are directed into channels suited to the sacredness of the day. In such homes the children, instead of being sorry that it is Sunday, are glad; instead of regretting the return of the day with dislike and dread, they welcome it as the brightest, the cheeriest and the best of all the week.

The purpose of the author in the preparation of this book in its present illustrated and slightly changed form, is to afford all parents a valuable aid in making Sunday not only the brightest, happiest and best day of the entire week for both parents and children, but also to aid the parents to make Sunday pre-eminently the day around which shall cluster throughout the entire life of each child the sweetest, tenderest and most sacred recollections of childhood, of father and mother and of brother and sister, and especially of their knowledge of the Bible and of everything sacred.

Did it ever occur to you, as a parent, that between the birth and the age of twenty-one years there are three solid years of Sundays—an amount of time almost equal to the number of years given to an entire course of college training? The Creator has not laid upon parents the responsibilities of parenthood without giving them ample time and opportunity to discharge these obligations to Him, to themselves, and to their children.

The idea which has been successfully demonstrated in hundreds of homes, where the impulses and natural inclinations of childhood have been turned into sacred channels on Sundays so as to enable the parents to teach spiritual truths in the most effective manner, is the method which is suggested by the author to the parents in the use, on Sunday afternoons, of the fifty-two little sermons given in this volume.

The parent who fails to use wisely the opportunities of Sunday afternoons for impressing the children with spiritual truths, loses the greatest opportunity that family life affords. Among the different instances known to the author, the following three may serve as illustrations of what may be found in many communities: