WATCH LESSONS

My grandfather was a foreman in a tannery for a great many years.  Finally, as he was approaching seventy years of age, he left the tannery to retire to a quieter life.  The men who worked in his department had a real affection for him.  As an expression of that esteem they presented him, on his last day with them, a beautiful, solid gold watch.  On the inner cover they engraved his name, the date, and the occasion of the presentation.  When my grandfather died the watch became my father’s possession.  Then upon my father’s death the watch came to me.  What a joy it is to carry such a watch!  Here are some lessons my watch teaches me.

The case is but the outside.  It is nice to have a gold case, it looks so well.  But that does not make the watch keep any better time.  It would keep just as accurate time if the case were iron.  You see it is the inside that counts.  It is the same with life.  The soul is the important part of us.

Now here is the tiny second hand.  It rushes around, jumping, hurrying, fussy, as though it were doing the whole job.  But you cannot tell time by the second hand.  Knock it off and the watch goes right on running.

Here’s the minute hand.  How big, and solemn and serious it looks!  Surely the minute hand is important.  What time is it?  Fifteen minutes after.  Fifteen minutes after what?  The minute hand does not say.

Ah, here’s the hour hand.  Strong, steady, dependable.  The hour hand does not move very fast, you cannot see it move.  It makes no fuss at all, but you can tell time by the hour hand.  Let your life be like the hour hand of the watch, so true and steady that other girls and boys who daily watch you may know life’s time, may never be led astray.

MEMORY VERSE, I Corinthians 15:  58

    “Therefore, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the
    work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in
    vain in the Lord.”

MEMORY HYMN [385]

    "Soldiers of the cross, arise!”

WHAT DID YOU SEE?

A few days ago I made a trip on the train.  When I returned home one of the first questions my little boy asked me was, “What did you see?” I shall tell you what I told him.

Looking out of the car window I saw an immense field, acres and acres, and in that field were planted hundreds, yes thousands, of little trees.  I inquired of the man who sat next me, “What are those little trees for?” He said, “They are growing those little trees to reforest the desolate, burned over regions of the Adirondacks.”  I said to myself, “That is just what we are doing in my church.  We are growing girls and boys to reforest the needy places of the earth.”  I inquired, “How long do they keep those little trees there?” “Not very long,” said he, “just long enough to give them a good start.  Then they transplant them.”  Again I said to myself, “That is exactly what we do.  We keep the girls and boys only a little while, then they are transplanted.”