LESSON--That the things we think and do on the Lord's day are a
true index of our character.

The importance of the matter of Sunday observance must not be
underestimated by the teacher whose endeavor it is to mould into true
manhood and womanhood the lives of the boys and girls in her care.

~~The Talk.~~

"How many of you boys and girls ever played the game called 'Hide the
Thimble?' Ah, I thought so--nearly everybody. One person bides the
thimble and all the others try to find it; the one who discovers it
first gets the chance to hide it the next time. Sometimes, the one who
has hidden it assists the others to find it by saying, 'You are warm'
or 'You are cold,' depending upon the nearness to or the distance from
the hidden thimble.

"When we stop to think about it, we find that many things in the world
are just like this game. Your life and mine are a great deal like
it. Sometimes there is something within us that tells us we are
wandering away from God--that tells us we are _growing cold_. And
then, if we heed the warning, we hear the same voice saying we are
_growing warmer_, and we know it to be true for we feel the
assurance that we are nearer to the Master than before.

"I am going to draw on the paper this morning a thermometer, and with
this thermometer we shall make some tests to see just what it means to
be warm Christians or cold ones. [Draw the thermometer, Fig. 66,
complete, excepting the liquid in the bulb.]

[Illustration: Fig. 66]

"Now we are ready to make the test, and we are going to do it by
finding out how we spend our Sundays. Why? Because if you can know
just how a boy or girl or a man or woman spends the Lord's day, you
can tell pretty nearly just what kind of a person that one is in the
sight of Jesus Christ.

"God gave us this one day for our greatest good. He wants us to use it
as a day which shall make us strong and well, bright and happy. If we
use it any other way, we are sure to make one of the greatest mistakes
of our lives. So certain is God that we must have a day of rest and
upbuilding once in each seven days that he made a law concerning
it. It is one of the Ten Commandments, which says that we must
'remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' God knows best. When He
establishes a law, _it must not be broken or the one who breaks it
will suffer_. If the child touches fire with his hand, after being
warned by his mother not to do it, his suffering is the result of
doing