Part 3 (1/2)

VI

SHOWING OFF

Say, fellows, it's great fun to ”show off.” Honest now, isn't that so?

If you've got some rare thing the other fellows haven't got, what fun to have them come from all over the block to go up in the attic with you to see it and watch you ”work it”!

I knew a boy who made an airplane. Of course it was just a toy, but it had all the parts. He had gotten a pattern from a mechanical magazine, with explicit instructions; he scoured around and got the dozen or more materials necessary, then worked for days and some nights in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Finally, the thing was completed. It had a twist-rubber propeller, and would actually fly a little--not much. But it was a thing of beauty, and its varnished b.u.t.terfly planes spread majestically and glistened in the sunlight. There were the stays and the rudder, the pilot's seat and the complicated triggers by which it was supposed to be governed. Well, the boys came from far and near to look at it, and the biggest fun the owner had was showing it to some new boy who hadn't seen it before. That is all right, too, if you do it in the proper spirit, but n.o.body likes to see a fellow get ”c.o.c.ky”

over his luck, no matter how good or how rare it is.

Solomon had the show stuff all right. The Queen of Sheba heard about it away down south in her African kingdom, and came many miles with a caravan of camels to see for herself. This man Solomon was a wonder.

He answered her best riddles without batting an eyelash--and she had some corking hard riddles, too. When she tired of testing him he showed his wonderful house, his gorgeous throne of ivory overlaid with gold, his great flocks and herds for his household table, his army of servants, his courtly ministers, his treasuries piled with gold, and a hundred other sights richer and finer than she had ever known.

But the big event of that show day was the temple! Of course it was, for Solomon had made it the biggest and finest thing in the kingdom.

Even if he hadn't told her she would have seen that. And there was but one way to explain it: Solomon's G.o.d, to whom the temple had been built, was the secret of Solomon's glory and power. That was the impression the queen carried home.

It is said that when one of the princes of India visited England, he was overcome by the display of the wealth and grandeur of the empire.

After seeing the palaces of Buckingham and Windsor, and the Halls of Parliament; after getting a glimpse of British s.h.i.+pping and commerce plying to every known port; after viewing the greatest navy in the world and witnessing a review of the army at Aldershot--he exclaimed to Queen Victoria:

”Tell me, Your Majesty, what is the secret of it all?”

In answer the queen took a Bible from a near-by table and placed it in the prince's hand. ”This,” she said, ”G.o.d's Word, is the basis of all--G.o.d is the giver.”

Fellows, if there is anything you take pride in, remember the Giver.

Don't make the mistake of Nebuchadnezzar, who actually talked to himself about how clever he was and how great he was to build Babylon by the might of his own power (Dan. 4:30, 31). Even while he spoke those boasting words G.o.d punished him by taking it all away from him.

But it is not sufficient simply to refrain from boasting. You and I must see to it that G.o.d gets the glory, for G.o.d has given whatever we have that is worth-while. Let the presentation be so made that whoever witnesses it will pa.s.s out saying: ”Surely G.o.d is the secret of that fellow's success!”

Real and permanent greatness is the kind that exalts G.o.d above all.

_Read 1 Kings 10:1-10._

VII

KEEPING FIT

Say, fellows, I wouldn't take a lot for the privilege of handing you young champions this message: for it comes right out of the heart of a King to the princes of the Blood.

Yes, something doing in athletics this time,--and the Big Event for which each one of you is preparing, whether you know it or not.

”Find all that in the Bible?”

Sure! that and more. Why, fellows, don't you know the Bible has more dealings right where you live and play and work and study and eat than any other book that was ever written? Just let me read you a part of to-day's Scripture lesson out of Weymouth's translation, which is the same as your Bible--only saying it in the kind of language spoken to-day instead of that of many years ago.

Listen to First Corinthians 9:24-27: ”Do you not know that in the foot-race the runners all run, but that only one gets the prize? You must run like him, in order to win with certainty. But every compet.i.tor in an athletic contest practises abstemiousness in all directions. They indeed do this for the sake of securing a perishable wreath, but we for the sake of securing one that will not perish. That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air, but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected.”