The age-herald., 1899-09-10
NO MAN
Liveth to Himself and No Man Dieth
 to Himself"

Children, di1 you ever notice tiny little 1 oak sprout? One not so high as your little sisters head? Well. did you notice that i the leaves on the big tree. that's ever so many times higher than any man you ever saw? little tree is very much like a
 grown up tree, is it not? Well, boy is
 very much like grown up boy, whom we call man, and girl very much like the grown up girl. whom we call woman. In fact they are just alike except each part of the boy or girl or baby tree must grow bigger. That means your mind as well as your body, of course, is like d
 mans mind only it must be developed In a yard is a tree that has been pruned and topped branch cut in one place and in another whenever 1t was needed, ever since 1t began to be a tree. Just outside the fence the same kind of tree grows but 1t has never been pruned. No branches have been cut off and it has never been topped or trimmed. What is the result? |? One tree si symme trical. rounded. well de- veloped and beautiful. The other is very rough, scraggy, knotty, crooked and ugly tXIsJMshwidmE cmfw cmfwy Shshrd Now, this is just the way with boys and girls. If they are trained and taught-a | bad habit cut off here, naughty word checked at another time: evil thoughts trimmed annd pruned as soon as they be- 6iii to SIOW. they VIII become we'll ue- Veloped as the tree in the yard; otherwise, like the one outside.
 Each boy and girl must do some of these thing for himself. He must aid in the
 pruning.
 You, my little friend, must begin now to make yourself rounded man or woman if you evev become one.
 You must decide TOW for which side you
 will use your influence. You cannot live without causing others, because of your life, to be either better or worse. Which shall 1t be? It Is said for every
 one bad man, in five hundred years there are one thousand paupers, drunkards and
 criminals. Do you wish to swell the list of the wicked or of moral and Christian men? You do not have to do great deeds to be- gin with; for great deeds rarely ever thought of before they are performed The thing to do is to think right. No man ever became a criminal man ever lied. or stole swore if he never thought of these things.
 If you think gentle, pure, beautiful thoughts. your words will be of that kind
 and you will do great deeds in spite of yourself
 If the sap of the tree Is bad or the heart
 rotten you will never have a good tree;
 nor will you ever become a man if your
 thoughts impure or wicked.
 Refuse to associate with boy who will
 smoke a cigarette ar swear. Have right
 opinions every subject that will ad-
 vance the cause of Christ or uplift human
 ity. Let the world be a little better be-
 caus you live in it
 Begin to help it be better by making 1t
 brighter The greatest good a little child
 does, I think, Is when it makes others
 mery and happy. Keep in a good humor;
 scatter sunshine.
 If the little ones knew how much cross
 face flinders and how much a smiling face
 helps mother In the performance of her
 daily duties I am they would never
 look sour.
 Put away your sour puckers, children. do;
 and smile even thoug things do not go
 smoothly and you will have lifted some
 body's burden and made somebody's heart
 brighter.