“Or, are they hands that drop lazily?  Are they hands that lie idly and fold indolently? Think about it!  Are they?

“In God’s word, we find the hand mentioned more than a hundred times.  It appears constantly as an index of character.  So, you see, there is more than one way to determine character than by the ‘reading’ of the hand.  Of the industrious, busy hand, Solomon says, ’The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute.’  And again of the lazy hand, he says, ’How long wilt thou sleep?  When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep?  Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.’  What a picture of laziness!

“But in no other place in the Bible do we find such striking references to the hand as in the words of the Psalmist. [Insert the letter “S” in Palmist, changing it to Psalmist.] Here is what the Psalmist says:  ’He that hath clean hands and a pure heart shall receive the blessing of the Lord.  Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands; yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.” [Add the words, “The Work of Our Hands, Establish Thou It.”]

[Illustration:  Fig. 123]

“This is a splendid prayer for all of us.  To our visitors today, we extend a warm hand, because you are as welcome as the flowers in May.  Ours is the ‘right hand of fellowship,’ as Paul calls it.  Here we have a plenty of work for many more hands to do—­willing hands, busy hands, loving hands.  If yours are not busy doing a work of uplift and helpfulness somewhere else, remember that we shall be glad to enlist them in service here.  The lines of E. A. Houseman, in his poem, ’A Shropshire Lad’ show most beautifully the thought which we should give the work of our hands as the days bring new problems and opportunities: 

      “‘Hand,’ said I, ’since now we part
        From fields and men we know by heart,
        For strangers’ faces, strangers’ lands,
        Hand, you have held true fellows’ hands;
        Be clean, then!—­rot, before you do
        A thing they’d not believe of you!’”

HELEN KELLER
    —­Girl’s Day
    —­Seeing

Her Wonderful Experience Furnishes an Inspiring Thought for Girls’
Day.

THE LESSON—­That our physical eyes cannot reveal to us the precious gifts of God; only our spiritual eyes can tell us of His loving kindness.

Helen Keller’s wondrous life is full of inspiration, and a study of it will provide the conscientious teacher with many helpful thoughts.  The illustration is especially appropriate for Girls’ Day.

The Talk.

“It happens very often that two people look at the same thing at the same time, and each of the two sees something entirely different from the other.  Somebody has described the optimist as the man who sees the doughnut, while the pessimist sees nothing but the hole.  So, also, you and I might see before us nothing but an unshapely block of marble, while the sculptor would see the angel in the stone!