: The Bible object book by Woolston C H Clarence Herbert Rodeheaver Homer A Homer Alvan Author Of Introduction Etc - Children's sermons

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OPPOSITE PAGE A Group of Children Just After a Happy Hour Service at Winona Lake, Indiana; These Represent the Children to Whom This Book is Dedicated .............Frontispiece

Rev. C. H. Woolston and Professor Homer Rodeheaver ............... 18

A Meeting of Children in the East Baptist Church, Philadelphia Giving Attention to Object-lessons Described in This Book ..................... 98

Atlas, the Big Lion, a Docile, Friendly Beast, Performing for the Children ............................................. 216

A Baby Lion, Six Weeks Old, Receiving the Name of the Youngest Baby in the Audience ................................ 218

A Baby Leopard, Seven Months Old, Used to Illustrate the Scripture Reference to the Leopard's Spots ................... 220

The Bear Is Called the Clown of the Animal Kingdom. This Baby Bear, Visiting a Children's Meeting in Doctor Woolston's Church, Was Used to Illustrate the Sin of Stubbornness ................................................... 222

JUST A FEW WORDS TO THE CHILDREN

Many a great preacher meets his Waterloo here. Will he retire beaten dragging the white flag of surrender after him, and hang low his head because of the conscious defeat, or will he with flying banners put it over in these "few words," and take his place in line with the world's greatest conquerors?

He must remember all children will not prick up their ears and listen hard just because he is a great preacher. Children are great critics. Their criticism takes the form of not listening. They know perfectly the art of withdrawing attention when they are not interested in the "few words," but their minds are not vacant during the unheeded "few words." They are counting the number of people present in the pews directly in front of them. They are watching the inattention of the members of the choir. They are thinking of their games of yesterday, or something they received at Christmastime, or of some book just given them as a birthday gift. They may be whispering or nudging each other, or if they have a bit of pencil with them they may be sketching caricatures of the deacons before them or even of the minister who is addressing them.

The little girl's motherly thought may be straying home to a sick doll, or may be smiling at the funny ways of puppy or kitten that she just happens to remember. The boy may be smiling over some funny situation he saw yesterday at the "movies." They are all very resourceful in themselves to save them from being bored by an address that has lost its way in its pilgrimage from the minister to their pews in which they are seated. The "just a few words" like birds have taken to their wings, and gone over the children's heads to the "land of nowhere." The minister, if he has normal eyes and a common mind, is conscious of the fact he has "missed fire," and wonders what he can do to put it over so it will stay "put"! If he thus thinks, there is large hope for him, because he has not graduated from the learner's bench. Let him be a child again and think as a child. Let him learn how to talk to them and not about them, and then his "just a few words" will become as interesting to their mind as the toys they left behind them. This is worth the effort; even the adults who are only "tall kids" will like the talk better than "the preaching at" in which they have only a feeble interest. Even the "polar bear" deacon will thaw out and catch himself smiling at the "few words" of the preacher that just "talks."

Happy is the man who can interest the child in his "few words" and can also interest the child in its efforts to translate the "few words" into big acts on the inside building of a child's character.

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