THE HEART.

Threshing Grain with Flails.Threshing Grain with Flails.

Now, when you have been in the country, you have observed the wheat growing in the field. If you had been careful to examine it, you would have found that while the wheat is growing the grain is enclosed in a thin covering called chaff, just the same as Indian corn or sweet corn is enclosed by the husks which grow about it. So it is with us; while we are in this world, there are many things which are essential to our growth and well-being. They minister to our physical needs and supply our temporal wants. Although we cannot wholly dispense with these thingswhile we are in this world, yet they are not the sole objects of our living. The wheat does not exist for the chaff, or the husk in which it is enclosed, but the husks or chaff exist for the wheat.

After a time, when the harvest comes, the farmer enters the field and cuts down the wheat, and it is then taken to the barn or threshing floor. Years ago, when I was a boy, farmers used to spend a large portion of the winter in threshing grain. They would spread it out upon the floor of the barn and beat it with a heavy stick, which was tied so as to swing easily at the end of a long handle. This was called a flail. Machines for threshing grain were not then common, as they are to-day. When the farmer threshes his grain, he does not do it to destroy the wheat, but simply to separate it from the chaff.

The Bible tells us that we must enter into the kingdom of God through much "tribulation." And do you know that the word "tribulation" comes from a Latin word,tribulum, which means a flail? So the teaching of this passage of Scripture is, that God places you and me under the flail, and smites again and again, in order that the noblest, best and most Christ-like in us may be separated by trials and tribulations from that which is worthless; and which needs to be cast off in order that just as the farmer gathers the wheat into his garner or granary here on earth, so God may gather us eventually into His garner above.

Boys and girls oftentimes have tribulations in this world, just the same as older people do. Disappointments come to them, and because of ambitions which are not lawful or right, purposes which are not in harmony with God's word and with God's will; because of needed discipline, or for some good reason God is tribulating them by sorrows, disappointments and trials, and making them better by means of the experiences through which they are called upon to pass.

Winnowing or Separating Wheat and Chaff.Winnowing or Separating Wheat and Chaff.

If you have been with the farmer in his barn after he is through with the threshing, you have seen him take the fanning-mill, and perhaps you have turned the crank for him, while he has slowly shoveled the grain into the mill and the chaff was being blown away by the wind set in motion by the revolution of the large fanning wheel. In the olden times they did not have fanning-mills, but when the farmer desired to separate the chaff from the wheat, he did it with a fan. He poured the grain from one basket or box, or some other receptacle, into another while the wind was blowing, or else used a fan to create a draught of wind to blow the chaff, and thus separate it from the wheat. It is this ancient custom to which John the Baptist refers. He says, concerning Christ, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew iii: 12.)

So God designs to separate from your character, and from mine, that which is worldly and temporal, and worthless so far as eternity is concerned. Take money as an illustration. Now money is essential, and it is well that we should be willing to work hard for it, and that we should be economical in its use, and seek to save our money so that we may use it for good purposes, and that it may be helpful to us in old age. Money serves a very excellent purpose while we are upon earth, but God does not mean that we should make it the chief aim of our life. Therefore, to divert our minds from money in one way or another, financial reverses and failures sometimes come, and thus God seeks to separate the man from the money. We all came into this world empty-handed, and we must go out of it empty-handed. Even though we were worth many millions of dollars we could take no money with us. You might place it in the coffin and bury it with a dead body, but it would not and could not go into eternity with the man's undying spirit.

Now, after the farmer has separated the chaff from the wheat, he gathers the wheat into his garner, or into his granary; and so, after God has separated from our nature and character all that is of no use, which is simply earthy, He will gather our souls into heaven, His garner above.

While we live upon the earth we should use the things of this world but not abuse them; remembering that finally we must go and leave everything behind us, and that we can take nothing with us into eternity except the characters which we formed here. Wealth and reputation, and all worldly things will have to be left behind us; but character, that which you and I really are, shall never pass away, but shall enter into an eternal state of being on high. All these earthly things are the mere chaff, while character is our real selves.

Questions.—Who wrote the book of the Bible called the Psalms? Can you tell what the first Psalm is about? What is the covering called which is about the grain while it is growing? How are the chaff and grain separated from the straw or stalk? After being threshed, how is the chaff separated from the grain? Are there many necessary things in life which, after all, do not constitute our character? What are tribulations like? Does God separate the essential from the non-essentials in our life? Is character injured or helped by tribulations? Where does the farmer put the grain after it has been separated from the chaff? What is spoken of in the Bible as God's garner?

Wheat and scythe

Suggestion:—The objects used are a tumbler of water colored red, a small glass syringe such as can be purchased at any drug store for five or ten cents, also a six-ounce bottle of water colored red. This red coloring can be easily done with red ink. If that is not available, a drop or two of black ink will answer.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: In the 139th Psalm, 14th verse, David says, "I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Now I want to talk to you to-day about our wonderful bodies, in the creation of which God has so marvelously displayed His infinite wisdom.

I suppose you have been either near or inside a factory. You have heard the noise of the shafts and the pulleys and machinery. You have seen the carding machines, and listened to the noise of the great spinning jacks which twisted the cotton and the wool into yarn or thread, and heard the deafening sound of a great many looms as the shuttles flew backward and forward, while the many threads were being woven into cloth. A factory is quite wonderful, but do you know that in your bodies are found the elements of almost all the kinds of machinery that are used in the world? God has so created us that we do not hear the noise of the machinery of our bodies, but if you will place your fingers gently in your ears you will hear a peculiar roaring sound. That sound which you hear is the noise of the machinery of your body, which is in constant motion.

Now, the heart, which pumps the blood into all portions of the body, makes the greater portion of this noise. Do you know where your heart is located? I supposed that most of you would point to your left side, because you have so frequently heard it spoken of as being located there. You have seen public speakers and others, when referring to their heart, place their hands upon their left side. But if you will bend your head forward so as to press your chin against your breast, as far down as possible, the heart will be under and a few inches below your chin. It is in the center of the body, and the lower portion of it comes near to the ribs on the left side, and when it beats we can feel it throb by placing our hand upon our left side; but the heart is more nearly in the center of the body, and not wholly at the side. If you were to close your hand as the boys do when they say they make a fist, the size of your closed hand will be somewhat smaller than the heart.

Water and Syringe.Water and Syringe.

In this tumbler I have some water which I have colored with red ink, so as to represent blood. Here is a small glass syringe, such as can be bought for a few cents in any drug store. Now, when I draw this little handle up, you will see how the syringe is filled with this red water, and when I press it down how the water is forced out of the syringe back into the glass. This very clearly illustrates the principle upon which all pumps and steam engines which pump water are made. Even the large fire engine, whichthrows water such a great distance, is made largely upon this principle.

You may possibly have been in the engine room, where the huge pumps force the water into the reservoirs which supply the city with water for drinking and other purposes. From the pumps and the reservoirs there are great pipes which lead the water under the streets to many thousands of houses which compose the city. After the water has been used it is turned into the sewers, runs down into the river and back to the sea, where it is evaporated, rises again in the clouds, and by the wind is carried hundreds of miles over the country. Then it descends again in the form of snow and rain, soaks down through the earth and finds its way again into the springs and great veins of water under the earth, from which it is carried back once more to the city. Thus it is made pure again and again, to be used over and over by the people whom God has created and whom He supplies with water in this way.

Now, in somewhat the same way, the heart, which is both an engine and a pump, forces the blood out through the pipes or tubes of our bodies called the arteries, distributing it to every portion of the body, furnishing the materials for building and renewing the muscles and the bones and every portion of our system. Then gathering up that which is worn out and no longer of service, the impure blood returns through the veins back to the right side of the heart, where it is pumped into the lungs and purified by being brought into contact with the air we breathe. The blood is then returned to the left side of the heart, pumped again into the arteries and distributed through all parts of the body, and so it goes on circulating. Thus the blood is pumped by the heart into the arteries and is distributed to all portions of the body, and returned again to the heart, from fourteen to twenty times each hour of our life.

In this bottle, which holds six ounces, I have placed some ofthis colored water, which represents about the quantity which is pumped out of the heart of an adult each time the pulse beats. As I have already intimated to you, the heart is double, and at each throb about one-half the quantity in this bottle is pumped out by the right side, and the other half by the left side of the heart. Now, if the heart were to pump different blood with each pulsation, instead of pumping the same blood over and over again, in twenty-four hours the heart of a man of ordinary size would pump 150 barrels of blood.

A Wagon Load of Barrels.A Wagon Load of Barrels.

The Bible says that the days of our years are three-score years and ten, or, in other words, that the allotted period of an ordinary life is 70 years. Now, in 70 years the heart would pump 164,389,786gallons; or, to give it to you in barrels, it would make 4,566,382 barrels. If you were to place six barrels on a wagon, and this would make a good load for two horses, you would have 761,063 loads of these barrels. If you were to place these teams, with the wagons containing six barrels apiece, with 36 gallons each, at a distance of 25 feet apart, it would make a string of teams stretching away 1,778 miles, or as far as from New York City to Des Moines, in the state of Iowa, or from New York City down to the Gulf of Mexico.

I think you will now be able to understand what a wonderful little steam engine and pump each of us has within our own breast. And it may surprise you when I tell you that Dr. Buck says that the heart at each throb beats with a power equal to 100,000 pounds.

An ordinary engine or pump would soon wear out, but this little engine of the heart goes on beating day and night from the time we are born until we are 70 years of age, if we live to be that old, and even while we rest in sleep, the heart never stops for a moment. Is it any wonder that David said that "We are fearfully and wonderfully made"?

I might tell you many other wonderful things about the heart, but this will have to suffice.

If the natural heart in these bodies of ours is so wonderful, how much more wonderful still is that heart which is the seat of the moral life and character? As the natural heart is hidden away in these bodies of ours, so the spirit or the soul is spoken of in the Bible as the heart, because it is hidden away in the life which we have in these bodies of ours; and it is this moral character and spiritual life to which the Bible refers when it says, "Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

Questions.—How did David say we are made? Does the machinery in a great factory make much noise? Are our bodies like a factory in this respect?How can we hear the noise inside of our body? Where is the heart located? What does the heart do? Can you tell how water is supplied for a great city? Is the blood carried to all portions of our body in a similar way? How much blood is pumped by the heart in twenty-four hours? What does the Bible say is the allotted years of a person's life? How long a string of teams would it require to carry all the blood which the heart ordinarily pumps in seventy years? Does the heart keep on pumping while we sleep? What is still more wonderful than the physical heart? Can we see either the physical heart or the spiritual heart? Does the fact that you cannot see them prove that you do not have them? Are both necessary to your complete being and existence?

Sitting in a chair tent

Suggestion:—The objects used are a field-glass or opera-glass, spy-glass and sun-glass.

MY DEAR LITTLE MILLIONAIRES: You know that when people are very wealthy, have hundreds of thousands of dollars, they are spoken of as millionaires. Oftentimes these rich people do not have any more actual money than poorer people, but they have property which is supposed to be worth a great deal of money. Now, I want to show you to-day that each one of you possesses that which is worth millions of dollars.

Field-glass, Spy-glass and Sun-glass.Field-glass, Spy-glass and Sun-glass.

I want to talk to you about your eyes, and I hope that you will be able to understand that they are worth hundreds and thousands, yes millions of dollars to each of you. In order that I may better illustrate a few of the many wonderful things about the human eye, I have brought this field-glass, and here is a small spy-glass, and also a magnifying lens, or sun-glass, as boys sometimes call them. Inside of this spy-glass and these field-glasses are lenses or magnifying glasses, similar to this sun-glass. They are, however, more perfect, and are so adjusted or related to each other, that when I place this smaller lens of the spy-glass to my eye I also look through the larger lens which is at the further end of the instrument. When properly adjusted, it enables me to see objects which are at a great distance, and to so magnify them as to cause them to seem much nearer to me than they really are.

Now, if you take this spy-glass and look at the stars, it will not make them appear any larger than they appear to the eye without the spy-glass. It will assist the eye when I look at the moon or the planets, but not at the stars which are so much further removed from the earth than the moon and the planets. Astronomers have desired something larger and more satisfactory, and so have made the great telescopes, which are simply large spy-glasses. The telescope and the spy-glass, and the field-glasses, are all imitations of the human eye; the same as many of our greatest inventions are only copies of that which God has already created, and which we have but feebly imitated. The eye is a more wonderful instrument than even the largest telescopes which have ever been made.

If you desired to look through a telescope at one of the stars or a planet, or the moon, you would have considerable difficulty in directing it so as to be able to see the desired object. Even with this small spy-glass it is very difficult so to direct it as to find a particular star in the heavens at night. It is not easy, even to find adistant object upon the earth. But with these wonderful eyes, with which God has endowed us, you and I can look almost instantly from one star to any other star, and find instantly upon the earth any object which is distinctly pointed out to us. It takes a very experienced person successfully to operate a telescope, but the smallest child can direct and control and use his own eyes successfully.

The large telescopes have to be turned and adjusted by machinery, and when it is desired to direct them from one star to another star on the opposite side of the heavens, they even have to turn around the entire roof or dome of the observatory. But you and I do not need any ponderous machinery to adjust our eyes, or to turn them about in order to look in a different direction. We can easily turn our heads by bending our necks, or, if necessary, we can turn our entire body around and look in an opposite direction. In looking from one object to another, our eyes change their direction so quickly that we are not conscious of any effort upon our own part.

Small Telescope.Small Telescope.

If you were to look through a large telescope, or even one of these smaller spy-glasses, you would immediately discover that when you desire to look at objects at different distances, or in differentdegrees of light and shade, you would have to constantly adjust the telescope or spy-glass to these different conditions. If you would look at objects which are near, and then turn the spy-glass to look at those which are distant, you would not be able to see distinctly until you had adjusted the lenses to suit the distance. With our eyes the same adjustment has to be made, and yet it is done so quickly and without any conscious effort upon our part, that it seems as if it were not done at all. When we look at an object which is only a few inches from our face, and then turn and look at a distant object, instantly our eyes are adjusted to the difference of distance and varying degrees of light and shade.

But what makes this all still more wonderful is the fact that we have two telescopes, two eyes instead of one. Both of these little eye-telescopes instantly adjust themselves, and both adjust themselves to precisely the same necessity. If they adjusted themselves differently we would see two objects instead of one; the same as a drunken man who has lost the use of his muscles and faculties, whose eyes do not work in harmony, and therefore, instead of seeing only one object, he sees two objects and sees them in a confused way.

Did you ever think how wonderful it is that when you close your right eye, and look at something with your left eye, that you can see the object distinctly? Now, if you close the left eye, and look at the object with the right eye, you again see the same object distinctly. When you open both eyes and look at the same object, instead of seeing the object twice, or seeing two objects, you see only one object. That is because the eyes work in such perfect harmony, and that is what the Scripture means when it says that you and I should "see eye to eye" in everything that is good.

Now there is another thing to which I desire to call your attention, and that is the size of the eye. If you owned one of thesevery large telescopes which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, you would be regarded as a very wealthy person, but you could not carry that telescope with you from one place to another. It would be of no service to you in looking upon the beautiful scenes which surround you from day to day. If you wanted to use the telescope you would have to stay where the telescope was, instead of taking the telescope with you where you desired to go. But God has made these little eye-telescopes so perfect, and yet so compact and small, that wherever we go, on land or sea, we can take them with us, and they can be in constant use and give us the most perfect delight and satisfaction.

I am sure there is not a single boy or girl who would trade off one of these perfect little telescopes—yes, I will call it a telescope and an observatory also—for God has beautifully encased our eyes, and shielded and housed them more beautifully and satisfactorily than the most perfect observatory which was ever built for any man-made telescope. We would not trade away one of our eyes for one of the finest telescopes in the world, and we would not be willing to give both of our eyes for all the telescopes which have ever been made.

But one of these large telescopes and observatories would cost a great deal—even hundreds of thousands of dollars; yet God hasgivenyou and me these telescopes, our wonderful eyes. But because God has given them to us they are none the less valuable on that account, and I think therefore that I was correct when I addressed you to-day as little millionaires.

Now, God has given you, not simply one eye, but He has given you two eyes, two wonderful telescopes and observatories. He has given you two, so that if by any accident one should be destroyed, you would still have the other to depend upon. God has given you two eyes, and two hands, and two feet; but He hasgiven you only one soul, and if by sin you lose that one soul, then you have lost everything, for the Scripture says, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

In Palestine, the country in which Jesus lived when He was upon the earth, the sun shines with wonderful brightness and clearness; the land also is very light in color, and consequently the eyes are oppressed by the glare, just the same as those of you who have ever been at the seashore have experienced the glare while walking along the beach; or, to some extent, like the bright sunlight shining upon the snow in winter. This light color of the soil and brightness of the sun in Palestine are the cause of blindness to many of the inhabitants. When Jesus was upon the earth, one of His greatest acts of mercy to suffering humanity was to open and heal the eyes of those who were either born blind, or who had become blind afterward.

Now, in this country of ours, and in all countries of the earth, there are hundreds and thousands and millions of people who are spiritually blind. Jesus Christ is to-day passing by, just the same as when the blind man sat by the roadside near Jericho, when Jesus was then passing by. As that blind man called upon Jesus and said, "Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me," so you and I should call upon God and upon His Son, Jesus Christ, that He would have mercy upon us and open our spiritual eyes. We should make the language of the Scriptures the petition of our hearts, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." I pray that God may give each of you to see and to understand spiritual things.

Questions.—Instead of money, in what does the wealth of millionaires often consist? Is the human eye worth more than money? Would you take a million of dollars for your two eyes? Are your eyes worth more than telescopes? Which is the more perfect, a telescope or the human eye? Are telescopes adjusted like the eye? Which can be adjusted more quickly? Where are telescopeskept? Are your eyes kept in a little observatory? Why has God given us two eyes instead of one? How many souls has He given us? If the soul is lost, what is the result? What causes so much blindness in the country in which Jesus lived? Did Jesus open the eyes of the blind and restore the sight of people in Palestine? Are many people spiritually blind? Does Jesus wish to give them spiritual sight or vision?

Looking through spy-glass

Suggestion:—The object used is a small camera of any kind.

I AM going to address you again to-day asLITTLE MILLIONAIRES. Last week I showed you how your eyes were more valuable than the most costly telescopes, and to-day I want to show you how, in another way, you are little millionaires.

Very wealthy people sometimes travel in different countries, and gather very rare and beautiful paintings and pictures, oftentimes paying a thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars, and sometimes very much more for a single painting. Then they bring these paintings all together in their own homes and hang them on the walls, and as the result of the expenditure of many thousands, and sometimes of hundreds of thousands of dollars, they have a very beautiful and rare collection. But God has made you and me the possessors of a vast number of pictures, more beautiful, of greater variety, and infinitely more valuable, than all the paintings that were ever hung upon the walls of any art gallery in the world.

Camera.Camera.

To illustrate my thought, I have to-day brought a camera. Sometimes such a camera as this is called a Kodak or Snap-shot. As the finest telescopes have been modeled after the human eye, so the camera is only a very imperfect imitation of the human eye. As the spy-glass and telescope have lenses, so does this camera have a lens, which you see here in the front. Just back of this lens is the dark chamber in the camera, and back of it is a ground glass, as you will see here. Now whatever is directly in front of the camera is shown on the ground glass, as you will observe, but in an inverted or up-side-down position. So the eye has its various parts, and as the rays of light pass through this lens and reflect the picture on this ground glass, so rays of light coming from any object pass first through the small opening of the eye, to the retina, where the picture is inverted just the same as upon the ground glass. When this picture is thrown upon the rear wall of the eye, which is called the retina, the seeing nerve, which is called the optic nerve and is connected with the eye, conveys the impression to the brain, and the result is what we call seeing.

The Human Eye.The Human Eye.

What I have told you is correct, and can easily be proven by asimple experiment with the eye of some animal. If you take the eye of a dead rabbit, and cleanse the back portion of it from the fat and muscles and then hold a candle in front of it, you can see the image of the candle formed upon the retina. If you take the eye of an ox and carefully pare off from the back portion, so as to leave it very thin, and place the eye in front of (or against) a small hole made in a box; then cover your head to shut out the light you will see through the box the picture of any object which is directly in front of this eye of the ox. In both instances they will be in the inverted form. This experiment would fully demonstrate to you that the camera is only an imitation, and a very poor one too, of the human eye.

Now when pictures are taken by means of the camera, the negative can not be exposed to the light, but must be taken into a dark room, and be carefully developed by the use of necessary chemicals or liquids. Then specially prepared paper must be used for printing the photographs. This paper must also be kept in the dark until it has been thoroughly washed and cleansed. But, with the pictures which are taken upon the retina of the eye, no such delay and labor is necessary before you can look at them. The moment the eye is turned in any direction, instantly the picture is photographed upon the retina of the eye, and then stamped indelibly upon the memory and becomes a part of ourselves.

There is no cost for chemicals, no delay in adjusting the instrument with which the picture is taken, no necessity for carrying around a large camera.

The camera has many disadvantages which are not found in the human eye. The camera must be adjusted to objects near or far, and different cameras have to be used for pictures of different sizes and for different classes of pictures. These cameras are costly to purchase, a great deal of time is consumed in securing a few pictures,they are always attended with expense; and when pictures are to be removed from one place to another, the owner is subjected to much trouble and annoyance. Then, the camera also does not give us the colors of the different objects which are before it. That is the reason why, in the beginning, I spoke of these millionaires purchasing such costly paintings, because in the paintings different colors are represented.

Now, in the hundreds of pictures which are constantly being taken by your eyes, there are no delays, no expenses, no inconvenience when the pictures have once been taken. Different shades and colors are all clearly represented. And even though you were to stand on a high mountain, where you could look off over one or two hundred square miles of beautiful landscape, all that beautiful scenery would be pictured on the retina of your eye; and the picture, complete and perfect, would not be larger than one-half inch square. What would real wealthy people be willing to give for a perfect picture only one-half inch square, in which the artist had clearly defined every field and tree, the rivers, houses, roads, railways and all the beautiful landscape contained in a vast area of many square miles?

Our eyes are wonderful cameras, which God has given us so that we can be constantly taking these beautiful pictures as we pass through life, and look at them not only for the instant, but that we may treasure the pictures up in our memories and make them the rich treasures and joyous heritage of coming years.

The older we grow, the more we appreciate these memory pictures of the past—memories of our childhood days, beautiful landscapes, foreign travel, lovely sunsets, the glorious sunrise, green fields and orchards of golden fruit. As you grow old, I suppose the richest treasures in your picture gallery of the past will be the memories of your childhood home, of mother and father, brotherand sister. Possibly when you have grown old, you will remember how one day your heart was almost broken, when for the first time you were leaving home; how mother's eyes filled with tears when she kissed you good-bye, and, following you to the gate, how she stood and waved her handkerchief, while home faded from your view as you rounded the turn in the road and realized for the first time that you were launching out into real life for long years of struggle.

Just as the hearts of the parents go out in great tenderness toward their son, who is leaving the Christian influences of his home to begin service in a distant city, surrounded by evil influences, and oftentimes by wicked people; so the heart of our Heavenly Father goes out in great tenderness towards you and me, while we are separated from the great eternal mansion of the skies. God's heart yearns over us in great tenderness, and while we live in the midst of the evil of this world we are constantly to remember that God has made us millionaires; not only in the possession of the eyes, and other faculties with which He has endowed us for use here upon the earth, but we are to remember that we are children of the King of Heaven, and that we are heirs of everlasting life and of everlasting glory. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, to an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled and that "fadeth not away." We are not simply millionaires, but we are heirs of everlasting glory.

Questions.—What instrument for taking pictures is like the human eye? Which can take pictures quicker, the eye or the camera? What is lacking in pictures taken by the camera? Do our eyes show the colors of the objects? Of what is the camera an imitation? Is it expensive to take many pictures with the camera? Why do people pay large sums for oil paintings? Was there ever a picture painted by an artist or photographed with a camera so beautiful as the small pictures taken by the eye? For size, color, variety and convenience, which are the finest pictures in the world? Which pictures are most treasured in old age?

Suggestion:—Objects: Some paper frogs, which can be purchased at any Japanese store for about five cents each. They are often found also in toy stores.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: I am sure you will all be able to tell me what this object is which I hold in my hand (voices: "Frogs, bullfrogs"). Well, it looks exactly like a bullfrog, and was made to imitate a bullfrog. The bullfrogs I have here are made of paper, and were made in Japan. I bought them that I might show them to you and preach you an object sermon on the subject of the "Ten Plagues in Egypt."

Frogs

You all remember how Joseph was sold by his brethren intobondage in Egypt, how he was cast into prison and afterward taken out and made prime minister over all that land; how during the seven years of plenty he laid up corn for the seven years of famine which followed, and afterward his father and his brethren—in all the seventy persons who constituted Jacob's family—came down into Egypt to be fed. After two hundred and fifty years this family had increased until it numbered nearly two millions of people. Pharaoh had made slaves of them, and compelled them to work in the brickyards of Egypt. The task-masters were very cruel. They beat them with whips, and demanded excessive labor from them. These people were the chosen people of God, and their voice was lifted to God their Father for deliverance from all the wrongs which they suffered. God heard their prayer, and raised up Moses to deliver them out of Egyptian bondage.

When Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh to request him to let the Children of Israel go from Egypt to the land of Canaan, which God had promised to Abraham and to his seed after him, Pharaoh would not consent to let them go. He was a proud, wicked king, and God sent ten great plagues upon him and his country, to humble him and cause him to do as God desired that he should do.

In the first plague the rivers were turned into blood. This plague lasted seven days, and at the end of that time Moses stretched forth his rod, and all the rivers and ponds and lakes of water brought forth great frogs throughout all the land. They came, not by hundreds, but by thousands and millions, until the frogs covered all that land. They were in the houses of all the people. The king's servants were busy sweeping and carrying them out of the palace, and yet they stole into the rooms, and at night when the king would go to lie down he would find these frogs in his bed-chamber and upon his bed. When his bakers wentto make bread for the king, they would find them in the bread-troughs in which they kneaded or mixed the bread, and in the ovens where they baked the bread. The frogs were everywhere in the palace and in the huts of the common people; upon the streets and in the roads; wherever the people walked they stepped upon them, and the king's carriage could not be driven through the streets without crushing thousands of them. The plague was so great that Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and entreated them to call upon their God that He would remove the frogs; and when God heard the prayer of Moses and Aaron He caused the frogs to die. The people gathered them up in great heaps and these dead and putrefying frogs in the streets and the water of the river caused the air to be loaded with a great stench that filled the nostrils of all the people.

After this plague of frogs came the plague of lice, when all the dust of the country was turned into lice, and after that the plague of the flies; and so on through to the last plague, which was the slaying of the first-born, of which I will tell you in another sermon.

I wish you would at your earliest opportunity turn to the second book in the Old Testament, the Book of Exodus, and in the early chapters read about these various plagues of Egypt. When you read the account of the various plagues, you will see how after each affliction Pharaoh's heart seemed to relent. He would consent for a time that the Children of Israel might be liberated from their bondage, and depart from Egypt and start on their journey to the land of Canaan. When he was in affliction he would make good promises, but as soon as God had removed the plague, and the sorrow of his people seemed to be ended for a time he again hardened his heart against God, and refused to do what he had promised. Again and again the king refused to do that which hehad agreed, and caused the unhappy Children of Israel to continue in their bondage.

We may think that we are not wicked like Pharaoh was. We may not be wicked in the same degree, but we are wicked after the same nature and kind; and so God brings upon us various providences, some of which are not very pleasant. God is seeking to educate us by the trials and sorrows and disappointments and afflictions which He permits to come upon us, so that we will be more obedient, and more faithful, and more Christlike. But I suppose you have seen people who were just like Pharaoh. When they were sick they would promise to become Christians, and live good and right lives, and join the Church and be faithful followers of Christ all the rest of their lives. And yet when God would raise them up from their beds of sickness they would forget all their promises, and generally, as it always was in the case of Pharaoh, their hearts became harder and harder. Instead of being better after God had raised them up and made them strong and well, or removed some trial or affliction, they became worse than before.

Have you not found something of this also in your own experience? When you have desired something which you have asked your father or mother to secure for you, you have promised that you would run all the errands they asked, or that you would go to school and study your lessons very faithfully, or that you would go to bed cheerfully at night without complaining, or you have made your parents some other promises; and yet, after you have received the object you asked for, you have failed to keep your promise.

Moses Leading the Children of Israel Through the Red Sea.Moses Leading the Children of Israel Through the Red Sea.

Or, to go a step further, has it not been so with what you have promised God that you would do? You may have entered into covenant with Him, made certain promises, and then afterward forgot to fulfill those promises. Let us always remember when wemake promises to God, or to our parents, that we are not to be like Pharaoh. After God has answered our prayers we should not forget to be obedient to Him and to keep our promises.

Pharaoh was a great covenant-breaker, but when at last he gave the Children of Israel permission to leave Egypt, and then broke his promise and followed them with his army that he might destroy them, God opened up the waters of the Red Sea and the Children of Israel fled from before Pharaoh. When this wicked king and covenant-breaker saw them, he pursued after them with his horses, his chariots and his army; and when they were all in the midst of the sea, God took away His restraining power from the water which stood piled up on both sides of the way along which the Children of Israel had marched safely, and the water came down in great torrents and buried this wicked king and all his horses and his chariots and his men. So God destroyed this great covenant-breaking king, because after all of the judgments and wonderful miracles which He had wrought before Pharaoh, in order to teach him that Jehovah was God, Pharaoh's repentances were all mere shams.

This was a great object sermon which God did before the eyes of all these thousands of the Children of Israel, and it should teach you and me that we are to be honest in all our covenants with God, and be obedient to the will of God in all that we do and say.

Questions.—Upon what king of Egypt did God send the plague of frogs? How many plagues were there? What effect did each plague have upon Pharaoh? Was he honest when he repented? What did he do each time after the plague was removed? What was the last plague? After the death of the first-born, did he allow the Children of Israel to go? After they started, what did he do? How did God enable the Children of Israel to cross the Red Sea? When Pharaoh followed into the sea after them, what occurred? Should we always keep our covenants, both with God and men? If we do not keep our covenants, whom are we like? Will we also be punished?

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