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

by Sylvanus Stall

THE POLISHED STONE.

PERFECTION THROUGH SUFFERING.

Suggestions:—A piece of polished stone, or a polished jewel, or piece of polished metal will answer for the object to be used.

MY LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN: I trust you are all trying to be good, and perhaps while you have been trying to be a follower of Jesus you have desired many things and hoped that God would give them to you, because you were trying to do right, and yet, perhaps, you have been disappointed because God did not grant your wish. You have been seeking to be faithful, and yet, perhaps, sickness has come to you, or disappointment and sorrow. Perhaps sickness and death have come into your family. Your papa or your mamma has been taken away by death, and you have been left very sad and lonely, and you have come to wonder how it is, if God loves you, that He does not grant you just what you wish, and that He permits sickness and sorrow and bereavement to come to you and to your home.

Copyrighted 1911 by Sylvanus Stall.
Stones Being Prepared for a Great Building

When you have looked about you, you have seen many good people who have been in much distress, oftentimes in poverty, afflicted with sickness, bereaved of their loved ones, and left in great sorrow and disappointment. When you have taken up your Bible you have found that the same was true many hundreds of years ago. David was greatly afflicted. Paul had his thorn in the flesh. The disciples were often cast into prison, and it is very likely that all of them were put to death, as their Master had been before them.

Now I want to illustrate to you to-day why God permits sorrow and affliction to come to us. I have here two stones, both taken out of the same quarry. This one is polished and has a very beautiful surface. It is very beautiful, not only to look at, but it would be beautiful in any place you might choose to put it. This other is rough and jagged, and not at all pleasant, either to handle or to look upon. This rough stone can be made useful, but it would be no more useful than any other rough and unsightly stone. It would do very well to place in the foundation of a building, to be all covered up with mortar and have other stones laid on top of it; to be built in the foundation down below the ground, where no one would ever see it. But it would be of no special value in its present condition for anything other than that.

I think this polished stone may very properly represent Christian people. For long, long years this stone had been lying peacefully and quietly in its rocky bed. But one day a man who purposed to build a very beautiful palace came along, and he found that the great rocks in a certain portion of the country contained stone that could be polished very beautifully. They could therefore be made very useful in constructing his palace or cathedral. So he sent a large number of men to the quarry and they began to drill great holes in the rock. Now, if these rocks had any feeling you can see at once that they would object to having such great holes drilled into their sides, because it would hurt a great deal. But after the men had the holes drilled they put powder in them and blasted off great pieces of these rocks. Then these great blocks were hauled away and placed in the hands of stone masons, who began with chisels and mallets to cut and carve. After that, with some fine sand or emery, or something of that kind, other men ground and polished the face of the stone until it became very beautiful.