Part 33 The Elephant.
WHAT is the biggest animal? Why, the elephant, of course, And he is one of the cleverest animals too. I have heard of one which could build brick walls beautifully. Though they are so strong, they are very gentle. Often the men who drive them will give the elephants their little children to look after. The big elephant will hold them so gently in his trunk, and never let them get hurt. Which of you can remember a verse in the Bible, which that reminds us of? Well, you know that when Jesus was on the earth, He never tried to please Himself. So His servant, Paul, wrote a letter in which he said, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” So we may all learn from the elephant that our strength was given to us by God, so that we may help others. We must be very kind to baby brother, or sister, and treat all little animals gently. Remember that God watches over them all.
But where does the elephant come from? Some come from Africa, but I think we will pay a visit to an Indian elephant. Shut your eyes, and when you open them again, pretend we have crossed the sea to one of the big towns in India. As we walk along the street we see a very big, grand, building. I wonder what it can be! It isn’t a house; it isn’t a church. Why, here comes an elephant, slowly waving his trunk, and he leads us up to the door. He has been trained to walk backwards, so he seems very polite. But when we get inside, how strange it all looks. Do you see that figure in the corner, something like a big, ugly doll? That is an idol, so we know that we are in a heathen temple. The heathen are people who don’t know about God, and don’t love Him. India is full of brown people, called Hindoos, and most of them are heathen. Their land is full of sunshine, but there is no sunshine in their hearts. Only the love of Jesus can make our hearts sunny, you know, and about half the people in India have never heard the name of Jesus. That is dreadful, but it is quite true. They pray to those ugly idols. There are more idols in India than in any other land. O, how sad it must make our Father in heaven to see men and women. and dear little children saying their prayers to idols instead of to Him.
There are two idols in this grand temple. They have men to take care of them, and all sorts of jewels and lovely things, but they are just made of silver, and cannot see or speak. Doesn’t it seem silly? Yes, but very, very sad, too. The people in India pray to other things besides idols—rocks and stones and trees and animals—and they call them all gods. They don’t love their gods a bit, but they are afraid of them, so they try hard to please them. Sometimes they bring presents, and sometimes they do things which hurt them very much because they think the gods will like it. Our Father in heaven wants them to be happy. He loves them, and sent Jesus to die for them as well as for us, but they don’t know this. Their religion—it is called the Hindu religion—teaches them that God is great and terrible, and that He does not care for them, so you see what a cruel, untrue religion it is. It can never make them happy, because they cannot give their hearts to the idol gods.
Listen to a little story. Once there was a bar of iron. It was very hard, and it seemed as if nothing could make it soft. First the hammer tried; but his head flew off at the first knock, and the iron was as hard as ever. Then the saw had a turn; but it was no use, and he only spoilt his sharp teeth. At last, a tiny flame said, “Let me try!” Gently and lovingly it put its little arms round the stiff bar, and soon the hard iron was so soft, you could do as you liked with it.
This is just a picture of heathen people all over the world. Their hearts are hard and cold, like iron; and their cruel religions only make them harder. But the love of “Gentle Jesus” can make them warm and soft. God does not want us to work hard, and do disagreeable things to make Him love us. He loves us now, and it would not be any use in our trying to be good, if He did not help us. Do you remember what the little hymn says?
“We are not told to labor,
To put away our sin;
So foolish, weak and helpless,
We never could begin.”
But something had to be done about those sins. And since we could do nothing, our Lord Jesus was punished for them, all the bad things we have done. So we can come to God, without fear, though He is so holy, because He tells us He has cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Next week, I want to tell you more about the brown people in India, and what they do.
ML 05/21/1916