“’Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise,’ says Solomon, and he might have made it ten times as strong and still kept within the truth.  Everywhere, and at all times, when a young man starts to do evil, he hears plainly and clearly the cry, ‘Young man, ahoy!  The rapids are below you!’ It is the voice of conscience, his true and faithful servant.  But, unfortunately, as the voice is unheeded and bad habits grow stronger, conscience grows weaker, and, after a while, it cannot serve us at all, for Satan has taken possession of it.  The evil one can do as much mischief with a man’s conscience as he can with his heart.  He can ‘sear it with a hot iron.’ (I Tim. 4:  2.) He can ‘defile’ it. (Titus 1:  15.) He can kill it. (Eph. 4:  17-19.) And how can a seared, defiled, dead conscience help him to shun temptation and sin?  Many a man, honest in his dealings with those about him, is dishonest with himself when he begins to allow bad habits to rule his life and to allow Satan to defile and kill the conscience which has been provided to guide him in caring for his own body—­the earthly temple given to him by God as the earthly abiding place of his immortal soul.”

VALUELESS THINGS
    —­Boys’ Day
    —­Ability

They May Not Remain So if We Give Them Proper Attention—­A Thought for Boys’ Day.

THE LESSON—­That our seemingly useless, or even harmful, traits may prove to be our most valuable talents.

This little fragment of industrial history should impress a lesson upon all young people, though it is especially adapted to Boys’ Day.

The Talk.

“During the period extending from the time that people first settled in America up to the time of the civil war those who chose to live in some portions of the area which are now the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia selected their land with great care.  In some parts of the land they found a disagreeable kind of oil in the ground which oozed from the rocks below.  When a man bought a piece of ground he was very careful to find out for sure that there was none of this oil about the place, and if he did find any of it, it is probable that he made this fact known:  [Draw the signboard and the letters, Fig. 98, complete.] To him the ground was worthless.

[Illustration:  Fig. 98]

“It may be that some of the people knew that this oil was the same kind that the ancient Jews used in the preparation of their cement for building purposes, and that it was the same that the more ancient Egyptians used in the preservation of the mummified bodies of their dead; but, as the Americans did not need oil for such purposes, they considered the oil a nuisance.  At one time, while a man was drilling for water, he struck such a strong artesian well of oil that it gushed out all over the ground; then it ran down to a river and caught fire as it spread out over the swiftly flowing water.  The flames spread down the river and it looked for all the world as if the river was burning up!