Sylvanus Stall

Suggestions:—Objects for use: A child's bank and a metal kettle of any kind to show how people used to place their money in boxes, kettles, etc., and then bury them in the ground.

Use the methods suggested in the preceding sermons. Examine the chapter on "Suggestions to Parents" and introduce new features from Sunday to Sunday. Children like variety.

In the time of Christ the children did not have little banks like these. Even the big people did not have banks where they could deposit their money. When they had jewels or money they would place them in a box, or a copper kettle, and bury them in the earth. They would hide them away from other people, and thus seek to secure them for themselves. In that period of the world, there were many thieves and robbers; Palestine was often invaded by hostile armies; there were occasional earthquakes, which destroyed whole cities, and so the people used to bury their money for safe keeping. After burying it, sometimes they were killed in war, or perhaps died suddenly, before they had time to tell anybody where they had concealed their money, and on this account all over that land there were buried treasures, or "hid treasures" as they are called, and to-day if you were to go to Palestine you would see many people digging here and there everywhere to find money or treasures that have been hidden away for long centuries. Even in the time of Job people must have dug for treasures, as they are doing in Palestine to-day, for Job says of the miserable and unhappy, that they often "long for death, and dig for it, more than for hid treasures." (Job iii: 21.)

It is altogether right for you to economize and save your pennies. I hope every boy and girl will have a little bank, but while you are learning to save, you should also learn to give to every good cause, to give in Sunday-school and to give for the support of the Church, for missions, and to give to assist the aged and the poor, and to contribute something for those who are in poverty and in distress. If you simply learn to save, or hoard up money, and do not learn at the same time to give, you will become what people call "a miser," and that word means miserable. Misers are always miserable, not because they do not already have sufficient, but because there is so much more that they desire. They always wish for more.

But while you are learning to save money and to gather treasures here upon the earth, you must not forget that the Bible says, that we are to lay up for ourselves "treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." It says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." God means that first of all you and I shall give our hearts to Him, and then afterward, in all our getting, we should constantly remember that we are only stewards of God—that is, that all the money and everything else we possess in this world belongs to God. He simply permits us to have it and to use it in His name, and we must honor and reverence Him by giving to help on every good work.

Now, after we have given our hearts to God, and have become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to lay up our treasures in heaven by living right, by seeking to be good, and by doing good to others. We are to lose no opportunity to do that which will be a blessing to those about us.

One of the boys or girls said this was a penny bank. That name is very suggestive. A bank is a place where you deposit money. Now, if you have a bank like this, do you only put into it silver dollars, five-dollar bills, ten-dollar gold pieces? If each boy who is here were to wait until he had a ten-dollar gold piece, or a five-dollar bill, or until he had come into possession of a silver dollar before he placed any money in his bank, I am sure his bank would always remain empty. The way to fill a bank is to put pennies in it—to save each cent and each five-cent piece. To-day a penny, and to-morrow a few pennies, and so on through the week, and through the year, and at the end of the year you will find that you have saved quite a goodly sum.

Now, there are some people who want to lay up treasures in heaven, but they do not want to lay it up there, little by little. They prefer to wait until some opportunity comes when they can do a great deal of good at one time. But the person who does not do good every day and every hour, little by little, will never have any treasure in heaven. It is the pennies that make the dollars; it is the "many mites that make the muckle." It is the constant doing of little things, for the glory of God and the good of others, that makes a man great. Great men are great in little things, and if you desire to be great men and great women, you must always use the little opportunities, and use them well. Lay up treasure in heaven, each and every day, just the same as, day after day, you would save your pennies, and thus fill your banks. If you want a large treasure in heaven you must constantly be engaged in laying up your treasure there. Never lose an opportunity to do good, and in this way you will have an abundant treasure in heaven.