CHAPTER XXXIX.The question is often asked: “Do you want us to go out upon the streets and bring those ragged, dirty boys with us into our churches, and have them sit in the same pew with us?”No, indeed, no. Both you and the boys would be unhappy.The idea is for you to take an interest in preparing them for your church. To shove them out of your way, into the gutter, and say, “they are only newsboys,” will never bring these boys to you or into your churches. They are the strayed sheep.When upon the street you meet these “dirty brats,” instead of avoiding them, of paying no attention to them, say pleasantly, “Good morning,” and say it in a tone that means you are sincere and really wish them a very good morning. That would be easy and a thousand times better than to throw them money, as you, perhaps, have often done, to get rid of them, or thinking you have done them a great act of charity. All this costs you nothing.Instead of having in your heart the desire todestroy; encourage the desire to rescue, to uplift. Instead of hating, cultivate love. “Go forth into the world and seek for light and light is yours.”If you would learn the secret of real happiness, mingle with the children. They are messengers which come to bless.But you must understand them. They will teach you things you never knew or dreamed of.A speaker at one of the auxiliary meetings asked a boy to give him an illustration of, “who is my neighbor?”He answered: “This morning I shoveled off the snow from the sidewalks in front of our house. After I got through I went across the street and cleaned the snow from the sidewalks of a widow lady. A friend passing asked me ‘why I did it,’ I replied ‘why, she’s our neighbor’.”We often hear it said that time is wasted in trying to save these newsboys, not perhaps because of the boy himself, but because of that which makes him what he is. It is argued that his environment, the influences which surround him from the day of his birth, will make him a criminal in spite of all we can do.The Bible holds man responsible.If you kind reader, believe in God, believe inthe Bible, you will find the divine law (Ezekiel XXXIII.) determines your personal responsibility. “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth. If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wickedmanshall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”Following down the ages the same responsibility is required of Christians (James IV-17): “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin.”The man who fails to rise above the level of his own selfish interests is the man to whom these apply.The church, at large, today, is like what Napoleon once said: “The army that remains in its entrenchments is beaten.” The church remains mostly in its own entrenchments of conventional practices and indifference to the unsaved young men. There is but one remedy for this present indifferent condition, and that is tobe found in an awakening of consciousness of personal responsibility for the salvation of the boy.We need a new doctrine, not a new law, that will bring people back to the Simple Life that demands some self-sacrifice.If we follow these teachings what shall be our reward?Do you remember what Pharaoh’s daughter said when, winning that strange prize from the bulrushes, on the Nile; she called to the woman whose child might have perished?Pharaoh’s daughter said to the mother: “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages,” and that message is given as the crown of all motherhood on whom the divine mercy falls today. There comes this same message: “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay the thy wages.”The good that you have done you shall know, “not here, but hereafter.”We should never forget that the best and truest lives are those who strew all the years with the sweet aroma of loving and self-sacrificing deeds. Did you ever go, in summer, to the great marshes of our fresh-water lakes, and in the little bayous, where the muck and grasses are so thickit is difficult to even row a boat? If not, it will pay you to go. You find the white water lilies, dotted here and there all over this forsaken waste. They take root and grow silently amid the slime and mud in the quiet waters, until, in mid-summer, they open their creamy beauty to the persuasion of the sunshine, the glory and idealization of all flowers. So amid the lowest and poorest of humanity, among its shadows and mists, we can sow, day by day, our small seeds of gentle and generous deeds, not knowing when they take root, or expecting to ever behold their unfolding into the blossoms on the great river of time.To have a perfect government we must have a perfect people, and that cannot be accomplished unless we educate, unless we train, our boys in the right direction. If we do our share in this generation it will be easier for those who follow.The more you mingle among newsboys the easier it is to learn how to influence and guide them in the right path.They will open out to you a world you have never found, a world full of sunshine. If you are inclined to serve these boys, and are willing to try to teach them how to live right, you will buildfor yourself a crown of happiness in this world that all the wealth of a nation cannot purchase.PASTIME—THE FINISH.
CHAPTER XXXIX.The question is often asked: “Do you want us to go out upon the streets and bring those ragged, dirty boys with us into our churches, and have them sit in the same pew with us?”No, indeed, no. Both you and the boys would be unhappy.The idea is for you to take an interest in preparing them for your church. To shove them out of your way, into the gutter, and say, “they are only newsboys,” will never bring these boys to you or into your churches. They are the strayed sheep.When upon the street you meet these “dirty brats,” instead of avoiding them, of paying no attention to them, say pleasantly, “Good morning,” and say it in a tone that means you are sincere and really wish them a very good morning. That would be easy and a thousand times better than to throw them money, as you, perhaps, have often done, to get rid of them, or thinking you have done them a great act of charity. All this costs you nothing.Instead of having in your heart the desire todestroy; encourage the desire to rescue, to uplift. Instead of hating, cultivate love. “Go forth into the world and seek for light and light is yours.”If you would learn the secret of real happiness, mingle with the children. They are messengers which come to bless.But you must understand them. They will teach you things you never knew or dreamed of.A speaker at one of the auxiliary meetings asked a boy to give him an illustration of, “who is my neighbor?”He answered: “This morning I shoveled off the snow from the sidewalks in front of our house. After I got through I went across the street and cleaned the snow from the sidewalks of a widow lady. A friend passing asked me ‘why I did it,’ I replied ‘why, she’s our neighbor’.”We often hear it said that time is wasted in trying to save these newsboys, not perhaps because of the boy himself, but because of that which makes him what he is. It is argued that his environment, the influences which surround him from the day of his birth, will make him a criminal in spite of all we can do.The Bible holds man responsible.If you kind reader, believe in God, believe inthe Bible, you will find the divine law (Ezekiel XXXIII.) determines your personal responsibility. “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth. If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wickedmanshall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”Following down the ages the same responsibility is required of Christians (James IV-17): “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin.”The man who fails to rise above the level of his own selfish interests is the man to whom these apply.The church, at large, today, is like what Napoleon once said: “The army that remains in its entrenchments is beaten.” The church remains mostly in its own entrenchments of conventional practices and indifference to the unsaved young men. There is but one remedy for this present indifferent condition, and that is tobe found in an awakening of consciousness of personal responsibility for the salvation of the boy.We need a new doctrine, not a new law, that will bring people back to the Simple Life that demands some self-sacrifice.If we follow these teachings what shall be our reward?Do you remember what Pharaoh’s daughter said when, winning that strange prize from the bulrushes, on the Nile; she called to the woman whose child might have perished?Pharaoh’s daughter said to the mother: “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages,” and that message is given as the crown of all motherhood on whom the divine mercy falls today. There comes this same message: “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay the thy wages.”The good that you have done you shall know, “not here, but hereafter.”We should never forget that the best and truest lives are those who strew all the years with the sweet aroma of loving and self-sacrificing deeds. Did you ever go, in summer, to the great marshes of our fresh-water lakes, and in the little bayous, where the muck and grasses are so thickit is difficult to even row a boat? If not, it will pay you to go. You find the white water lilies, dotted here and there all over this forsaken waste. They take root and grow silently amid the slime and mud in the quiet waters, until, in mid-summer, they open their creamy beauty to the persuasion of the sunshine, the glory and idealization of all flowers. So amid the lowest and poorest of humanity, among its shadows and mists, we can sow, day by day, our small seeds of gentle and generous deeds, not knowing when they take root, or expecting to ever behold their unfolding into the blossoms on the great river of time.To have a perfect government we must have a perfect people, and that cannot be accomplished unless we educate, unless we train, our boys in the right direction. If we do our share in this generation it will be easier for those who follow.The more you mingle among newsboys the easier it is to learn how to influence and guide them in the right path.They will open out to you a world you have never found, a world full of sunshine. If you are inclined to serve these boys, and are willing to try to teach them how to live right, you will buildfor yourself a crown of happiness in this world that all the wealth of a nation cannot purchase.PASTIME—THE FINISH.
The question is often asked: “Do you want us to go out upon the streets and bring those ragged, dirty boys with us into our churches, and have them sit in the same pew with us?”
No, indeed, no. Both you and the boys would be unhappy.
The idea is for you to take an interest in preparing them for your church. To shove them out of your way, into the gutter, and say, “they are only newsboys,” will never bring these boys to you or into your churches. They are the strayed sheep.
When upon the street you meet these “dirty brats,” instead of avoiding them, of paying no attention to them, say pleasantly, “Good morning,” and say it in a tone that means you are sincere and really wish them a very good morning. That would be easy and a thousand times better than to throw them money, as you, perhaps, have often done, to get rid of them, or thinking you have done them a great act of charity. All this costs you nothing.
Instead of having in your heart the desire todestroy; encourage the desire to rescue, to uplift. Instead of hating, cultivate love. “Go forth into the world and seek for light and light is yours.”
If you would learn the secret of real happiness, mingle with the children. They are messengers which come to bless.
But you must understand them. They will teach you things you never knew or dreamed of.
A speaker at one of the auxiliary meetings asked a boy to give him an illustration of, “who is my neighbor?”
He answered: “This morning I shoveled off the snow from the sidewalks in front of our house. After I got through I went across the street and cleaned the snow from the sidewalks of a widow lady. A friend passing asked me ‘why I did it,’ I replied ‘why, she’s our neighbor’.”
We often hear it said that time is wasted in trying to save these newsboys, not perhaps because of the boy himself, but because of that which makes him what he is. It is argued that his environment, the influences which surround him from the day of his birth, will make him a criminal in spite of all we can do.
The Bible holds man responsible.
If you kind reader, believe in God, believe inthe Bible, you will find the divine law (Ezekiel XXXIII.) determines your personal responsibility. “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth. If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wickedmanshall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
Following down the ages the same responsibility is required of Christians (James IV-17): “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin.”
The man who fails to rise above the level of his own selfish interests is the man to whom these apply.
The church, at large, today, is like what Napoleon once said: “The army that remains in its entrenchments is beaten.” The church remains mostly in its own entrenchments of conventional practices and indifference to the unsaved young men. There is but one remedy for this present indifferent condition, and that is tobe found in an awakening of consciousness of personal responsibility for the salvation of the boy.
We need a new doctrine, not a new law, that will bring people back to the Simple Life that demands some self-sacrifice.
If we follow these teachings what shall be our reward?
Do you remember what Pharaoh’s daughter said when, winning that strange prize from the bulrushes, on the Nile; she called to the woman whose child might have perished?
Pharaoh’s daughter said to the mother: “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages,” and that message is given as the crown of all motherhood on whom the divine mercy falls today. There comes this same message: “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay the thy wages.”
The good that you have done you shall know, “not here, but hereafter.”
We should never forget that the best and truest lives are those who strew all the years with the sweet aroma of loving and self-sacrificing deeds. Did you ever go, in summer, to the great marshes of our fresh-water lakes, and in the little bayous, where the muck and grasses are so thickit is difficult to even row a boat? If not, it will pay you to go. You find the white water lilies, dotted here and there all over this forsaken waste. They take root and grow silently amid the slime and mud in the quiet waters, until, in mid-summer, they open their creamy beauty to the persuasion of the sunshine, the glory and idealization of all flowers. So amid the lowest and poorest of humanity, among its shadows and mists, we can sow, day by day, our small seeds of gentle and generous deeds, not knowing when they take root, or expecting to ever behold their unfolding into the blossoms on the great river of time.
To have a perfect government we must have a perfect people, and that cannot be accomplished unless we educate, unless we train, our boys in the right direction. If we do our share in this generation it will be easier for those who follow.
The more you mingle among newsboys the easier it is to learn how to influence and guide them in the right path.
They will open out to you a world you have never found, a world full of sunshine. If you are inclined to serve these boys, and are willing to try to teach them how to live right, you will buildfor yourself a crown of happiness in this world that all the wealth of a nation cannot purchase.
PASTIME—THE FINISH.
PASTIME—THE FINISH.
PASTIME—THE FINISH.