No sooner had I left the pine, and was again deep in thought, when I heard another voice.  “Be courteous, you can never accomplish anything by scolding, insulting or driving people.  Be fair and just.  Be like Christ, a Christian gentleman.”  Now who in the world is speaking to me?  I looked everywhere and there was not the sign of a person in all the park.  “Here I am,” the voice said.  I looked and there, right before me, was a graceful elm tree, smiling and courteously bowing low to me.  “I shall try and heed your word,” I said.

Going on my way I was no longer absorbed in thought, for I knew that other trees would have something to say.  Sure enough, “Be steadfast,” I heard.  What tree could that be?  I should have known at once.  The maple, of course.

Now the white birch beckons.  How its face shines in the light of the early morning!  But dark or light I can distinguish it from all its fellows.  Always white of face and clean of life.  So I hear it say, “Be clean.”

Turning my steps homeward I said to the kindly trees, “Good-by, and thank you.  I shall never forget this morning’s walk.”

MEMORY VERSE, Isaiah 61:  3

“To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

MEMORY HYMN [745]

    "Into the woods my Master went."

BANKS

Here is a bank.  I have been reading lately about banks.  You know that in Jesus’ day they did not have banks such as we have.  People took their treasures and jewels and hid them in a vessel, or dug a hole in the earth and covered their valuable possessions with dirt.  But now one of the most prominent institutions of any community is the bank.

What does this bank stand for?  In the first place it means Strength.  It is made of very heavy, hard material.  There is money in this bank.  It does not belong to me, it is the property of our Beginners’ Department.  Each Sunday they put their birthday money in here, then at the end of the year they open it and the contents is given to our Sunday School Missionary Society.  That the money may be kept safe and sound to the end of the year the bank is made very strong.

In the second place I notice that there is a single opening and that the opening is made very small.  It is meant for small coins, I could not possibly get a one dollar piece into this opening.  No, it is meant for dimes, nickels and pennies.  That is, it stands for Thrift.  Each little child brings his or her amount, small in itself, but when they are all together there is a considerable sum.

Again, I see that this bank is made in the form of a church.  It is really quite a beautiful building.  Here is the steeple, here the steps and the wide entrance doors, and the windows with genuine cathedral glass.  I think it is splendid to have a bank look like a church, for after all a church is a sort of bank.  It stands for those treasures which Jesus talked about when he said, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.”