zero.

"Why, it seems it does not work this morning!"

"Of course not," answered Brother Littlejoy, "you have to drop a penny in
the slot before it will act."

Then Brother Joyful took a penny from his pocket and dropped it into the
slot. The indicator immediately flew around on the dial.

"One hundred and seventy-two pounds," said Brother Joyful. "That is just
what I weighed two weeks ago. Now let us try this one, and have some
music."

So saying, he took a disk from the rack and adjusted it in the machine and
pressed the lever, but nothing moved; no music came forth.

"Why," said Brother Littlejoy, "it will not play until you drop a nickel
into the slot."

"Oh," said Brother Joyful, "that's the way!"

He dropped a nickel into the slot, and the machine began sounding forth
its melody.

Sitting down on a seat near by, they listened until the music ceased, when
Brother Joyful said:

"You see I might have stood there on the platform of that weighing-machine
all day and wished to have known my weight ever so much, but I should not
have found it out until I had dropped a penny into the slot. We might have
stood there by the music-box all day and wished to hear it play; we might
have asked it ever so earnestly to play for us; but until the nickel was
dropped into the slot, there could be no music. Now, God has a
joy-machine, and it works on the plan of the slot-machines. You can see
its picture almost anywhere in the Bible. But there is a real place where
you can get the joy--real joy and there is plenty of it. This music-box
will play a tune for each nickel dropped into it, and so God's joy-machine
will yield you a heartful of joyfulness every time you can get it to work,
and it always works whenever you proceed right. Some people merely stand
around and look at the box. They see others getting joy out of it and
often try to get joy, but somehow it does not work for them. The trouble
is, they do not put in the coin; in other words, they do not do what is
necessary to get the machine to work. The joy is there, plenty of it,
enough for everybody; there is no reason why people should be without it."

"Well," sighed Brother Littlejoy, "I would give almost anything if I knew
how to get joy like you; but I suppose it is not for me."

"Right there is where you are mistaken," said Brother Joyful. "Take
another lesson from those machines yonder. They are set out in plain
sight, and the public, everybody who wishes, may