Junior Endeavor Topics By J. K. H. S.
Sunday, May 24—Job 17:9 Grit What do the boys mean when they say that a fellow has sand? That is what we mean by grit. A locomotive carries a sand-box. When a heavy train fails to move and the engine wheels spin round slipping on- the rails, a little sand is poured on the track and the wheels get a grip on the steel and the train starts off and away. Backbone is another word used for grit. Our great statesman, Mr. Sumner, said there are three things needed to make a man of one, “The first is backbone; the second is backbone; the third is backbone.” That meant that backbone, sand, grit will do anything. There is one word that stands for all those, the real thing behind backbone, sand or grit, and that is w il l . The power to say " I w ill!” or “I w ill n o t!” and to stick to it; to say “I will,” to every duty, good or right thing; to say “I will not,” to every wrong. Nowhere is grit wanted so much as in Christian life. The Bible is full of earn est teaching on that point. Jesus said that no one is fit for the kingdom who has not this “sand” (Luke 9:62). Paul said we should have gritty hands (Heb. 3:6), and gritty feet (1 Cor. 16:13), and wear spiked shoes, such Roman gladiators wore (Eph. 6:11, 15). Have any of the Juniors seen such shoes? Who wear them? and why? Paul says we should get a grip on eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12) ; he was severe on some who had not grit enough to keep up in the race (Gal. 5:7). James teaches that a fellow with grit can set the devil run ning'(James 4:7). . It takes sand to confess to the world that we are sinners saved by Jesus through God’s mercy; to surrender everything to Him; to break up old habits; to resist temptation; to keep on praying; and ail as long as we live. The grit needed for all
this no one has unless he gets it from the Lord. Jesus had it and with all His sor rows and afflictions for our sakes, clear to the cross He set H is “face like a flint," and. said, “The cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (Isa. 50: 7; John 18:11; Heb. 12:2). There is a hero’s medal for all who have grit to hold on to the finish (Rev. 2:25-29). Sunday, May 31—Psalm 116:12-19 The Good That Comes from Keep ing Our Pledge 1. The first good is that we keep our word. A good so great that often men have suffered the loss of all, even life, rather than break a pledge. Regulus, a Roman general, defeated and captured by the Carthagenians, had such a name as a keeper of his word, that he was permitted to return to Rome with the promise of 'life and liberty if he persuaded them to quit the war, on his pledge to return to Carth age if he failed to do so. He went, and urged his country to fight on and win. Then no entreaties could hold him back from keeping his promise to the enemy, he went back and they cut off his eyelids and made him sit in the glare of the Afri can sun; then they flayed him alive, put him into a barrel with nails driven into it and rolled it down a hill, and at last put him to death. All this he willingly suffered rather than break his word to men, and yet how lightly many Juniors hold their word to God. 2. Not only the good of keeping our word but that of making us word-keepers in character. There is no greater good than a truthful character. One of Jesus’ names is The Truth (John 14:6). Every time one keeps his word against tempta tion to break it he lays a stone in the building of a truthful and truth loving character; and so it grows more and more natural and easy to be faithful. Success in a worthy life is sure to follow one who
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