rd and
upward. If the flying machine stops, it comes crashing to the
earth. If the Sunday School stops, you will also 'hear something
drop.' And the same thing is true of us as Christians. Praying and
psalm singing are not enough. Backsliding begins when Christians stop
working--stop going forward. If we would _grow_, we must _go_!
And '_keep a-goin'_!"

THE PLUM TREE
--Mothers' Day
--Training

The Responsibility of Motherhood--A Lesson From the Tree
Nursery.

THE LESSON--That constant training and cultivation are necessary to
the attainment of excellence in plant life; so, also, the quality of
the child depends upon the home training.

Mothers' Day, usually observed on the second Sunday in May, is
becoming valued more and more in the Sunday School as the years go
by. Miss Anna Jarvis, of Philadelphia, is said to have originated the
idea in her effort to commemorate the anniversary of the death of her
mother. She saw, in the wearing of a carnation on a selected day, a
silent and beautiful tribute to motherhood throughout the world. The
custom is usually followed by the wearing of a white carnation in
memory of the mother departed, while a colored flower is worn for the
mother living. The school decorations should be worked out in a manner
appropriate to the day and its significance. The present talk deals
specifically with the responsibility of motherhood.

~~The Talk.~~

"We have come today with our hearts filled with tender memories of the
mothers who have gone--memories as sweet as these beautiful flowers,
whose whiteness tells of their purity; whose form brings back the
thought of their beauty; whose fragrance tells again of their love,
and whose enduring qualities remind us of their faithfulness and
constancy.

"But today I want to speak especially of the mothers who are still
with us, those whose hair is tinged with silver, and especially of
those other younger mothers who are today the close companions of
their children.

"The carnation, as we see it today, was not always such a perfect
blossom--no, it is a development of the modest little old-fashioned
pink. Men everywhere are devoting their attention to the betterment of
things in the vegetable and animal world. We are constantly bringing
forth more splendid cattle and horses and sheep, through cultivation;
Luther Burbank and his followers are giving us each year more perfect
vegetables and fruits and flowers, through scientific cult