eat
lesson, the fact that God is to be found in all our natural
surroundings, if we but seek for Him in the same manner that we
endeavor to find the unseen in other ways.

~~The Talk.~~

"How many of the boys and girls are fond of puzzle pictures? Hold up
your hands. Ah, I thought so. I believe nearly everyone likes puzzles;
we are attracted to many things which possess an element of
mystery. So I am going to draw a little puzzle landscape today and see
if we can get a lesson from it. [Draw the landscape, naming the
objects as you complete them--the tree, the land, the water, the
distant foliage, and so on, finishing Fig. 41. This completes the
drawing for the entire talk.]

[Illustration: Fig. 41]

"Here is the story: A farmer, living near this spot, came down to the
shore of the lake, untied his boat from its fastening, and rowed out
onto the lake to fish. With the approach of dinner-time, the farmer's
son came down to the shore to call his father to dinner. It seems that
the father had rowed so far away that he could not hear the lad's
voice, so the boy is still waiting here for him. Can you see the boy?
Ah, yes, here he is. [Remove the sheet from the drawing board, reverse
it, and hold it up for the inspection of the school. Fig. 42. After
all have discovered the face of the boy, do not return the sheet to
the drawing board, but lay it on the floor or elsewhere out of sight,
as it has served its purpose and should not be allowed to detract from
the attention needed for the remainder of the talk.]

[Illustration: Fig. 42]

"Yes, it is interesting to study puzzle pictures to discover in them
the persons and objects which we may not see at the beginning. But I
wonder how many of us do a similar thing when we see the real woods,
the real lake and the real flowers? As in the picture, the boy's face
was made by the outline of the tree and the shrubbery, and the hair
was shown by the shading of the grass, so also may we find great
hidden truths in nature all about us. The poet Bryant, in Thanatopsis
says that

"'To him, who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms she speaks
A various language.'

"And Shakespeare tells of finding 'tongues in trees, books in running
brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.'

"Greatest of all is the fact that God is there. Every tree, every
bush, every blade of grass, every flower, speaks of His presence--of
His love and car