[Illustration:  Fig. 40]

“Someone has said that the night of life is the dawn of peace.  Browning says that ‘you never know what life means till you die.’  Another has said, ’The dead are glad in heaven; the living ’tis that weep.’  And all, though they point to the pathway beyond the wall as that toward which we should push forward, are firm in the knowledge that the earthly pathway of peace and love is more essential than this, for without it we cannot reach the other.  ’There is but one way to get ready for immortality,’ says Van Dyke, ’and that is to love this life, and live it as bravely and cheerfully and faithfully as we can.’  And I know it is our prayer that we may do this in the fullness of the meaning of the words.”

THE PUZZLE PICTURE
    —­God’s Love
    —­Nature

When We Have Solved It, Let Us Learn to Find God in All His Works of Nature.

THE LESSON—­That we shall find the loving presence of God everywhere in nature, if we but seek Him.

This illustration, dealing with a popular pastime, points to a great lesson, the fact that God is to be found in all our natural surroundings, if we but seek for Him in the same manner that we endeavor to find the unseen in other ways.

The Talk.

“How many of the boys and girls are fond of puzzle pictures?  Hold up your hands.  Ah, I thought so.  I believe nearly everyone likes puzzles; we are attracted to many things which possess an element of mystery.  So I am going to draw a little puzzle landscape today and see if we can get a lesson from it. [Draw the landscape, naming the objects as you complete them—­the tree, the land, the water, the distant foliage, and so on, finishing Fig. 41.  This completes the drawing for the entire talk.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 41]

“Here is the story:  A farmer, living near this spot, came down to the shore of the lake, untied his boat from its fastening, and rowed out onto the lake to fish.  With the approach of dinner-time, the farmer’s son came down to the shore to call his father to dinner.  It seems that the father had rowed so far away that he could not hear the lad’s voice, so the boy is still waiting here for him.  Can you see the boy?  Ah, yes, here he is. [Remove the sheet from the drawing board, reverse it, and hold it up for the inspection of the school.  Fig. 42.  After all have discovered the face of the boy, do not return the sheet to the drawing board, but lay it on the floor or elsewhere out of sight, as it has served its purpose and should not be allowed to detract from the attention needed for the remainder of the talk.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 42]

“Yes, it is interesting to study puzzle pictures to discover in them the persons and objects which we may not see at the beginning.  But I wonder how many of us do a similar thing when we see the real woods, the real lake and the real flowers?  As in the picture, the boy’s face was made by the outline of the tree and the shrubbery, and the hair was shown by the shading of the grass, so also may we find great hidden truths in nature all about us.  The poet Bryant, in Thanatopsis says that