“Some of us who have our health and strength may well wonder if we are fulfilling all of God’s demands.  Boys and girls, let me impress upon you the thought that it is not the great, showy thing that makes people love us, but the careful doing of the seemingly little things, which, when summed up, make a magnificent whole.  Jennie Casseday did what she could.  No more is required of us.  But that much is certainly expected, and we will fall short if we fail to meet the expectation.”

[A beautiful close to this talk would be the recitation or reading of Dr. Van Dyke’s poem “Transformation,” which may be found in “The Blue Flower” or in “The Builders and Other Poems.”]

MOTHER
    —­Mother’s Day
    —­Home Training

The Great Men of the World Pay Her the Highest of Tribute—­A
Carnation Day Thought.

THE LESSON—­That the welfare of the church and of the home rests more with the mothers than with the Sunday School teacher.

It is interesting to read the recorded words of some of the world’s greatest minds in tribute to motherhood.  The following talk, quoting some of these, should be an impressive lesson to the young and to the mothers as well.

The Talk.

“Who are these mothers for whom we have decorated our school room and ourselves with these beautiful flowers? [Draw, in black outline the carnation blossom; add the stem in solid green, and place the lettering in purple, red or blue, Fig. 56.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 56]

“Surely these mothers must be of great importance or we would not be having a special service for them today.  I have been reading a little about mothers, to see if they are really of much value to the world, and I want to repeat some of the things I have read. [It is well to have all of these quotations in note form to be read with accuracy.]

“I find that John Randolph, one of America’s greatest statesmen, said, ’I should have been an atheist if it had not been for one recollection—­and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, “Our Father who art in heaven."’

“I find that Abraham Lincoln said of his mother, ’All that I am and all that I hope to be I owe to my mother.  Blessings on her memory!’

“I find that George Herbert said, ’One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.’

“I find that Oliver Wendell Holmes said,

      “’Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall;
        A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.’

“I find that Coleridge said,

      “’A mother is a mother still,
        The holiest thing alive.’

“I find that Beecher said, ’A mother’s heart is the child’s school room.’

“I find that Benjamin West, the great artist, said, ’A kiss from my mother made me a painter.’

“I find that General Wallace, in Ben Hur, said, ’God could not be everywhere, so he made mothers.’