THE STORY OF THE SIX GARDENS—A TALK ABOUT GETTING
GOOD FROM THE JUNIOR SOCIETY

[This may easily be changed to a Sunday-school talk.]

I will show you what your society ought to be doing for you, and why it may be that you do not get more good from the society than you do get, by telling you the story of six children, each of whom was given a little garden to take care of. One of them, Martin Mocker by name, made fun of the whole plan. He scarcely went to the gardens at all; and when he went, it was merely to laugh at the rest, and to do no work. You do not wonder, do you, that nothing grew in his garden? This is the way some young people act about the junior society. They ridicule it; and, if they attend the meetings, they attend only to make fun of them, and of course they get no good from them.

The second child was Carrie Careless. She planted seed in her garden, but then she went off and left it alone. The seeds sprang up; but so, too, did the weeds; and the weeds grew, as weeds have a habit of doing, much faster than the seed, and soon crowded it out altogether, so that she could get no good from her garden. Carrie Careless reminds me of the Juniors who take the pledge, join the society, and then pay no more attention to it, forgetting the pledge, neglecting the Bible-reading and prayer at home, and seldom even getting to the meetings. Do you wonder that no good things grow in their junior gardens?

Sam Spasm was the third child. He planted his garden at the same time Carrie Careless planted hers. The seeds grew, and he kept the weeds down for a time, but he soon got tired of the game, and cared for the garden only by spurts. During one of his forgetful spells there came a long drought, which withered all his plants, so that he, too, got no good from his garden. I wonder if you have any Sam Spasms in your society, who attend the meeting only by spurts, and keep the pledge only when they feel like it? Do you wonder that their junior gardens bear no fruit?

The fourth child was Pearl Pride, and she made a terrible mistake at the very time when she planted her seed. She got in a lot of seeds of weeds with the seeds of the flowers she thought she was planting. She took care of them, and watered them, and hoed them, and was very proud of them until they blossomed; and then she saw to her shame that nearly all of them were weeds. The Pearl Prides in your junior society are those who are thinking all the time how good they are and how smart they are, but who are trying to show off, and do not examine their hearts to see whether they are doing it all for the love of Christ. They will raise some flowers, but I am afraid most of their Junior gardens will be weeds.

Will Weary was the fifth. His seeds had scarcely got above the ground before he decided that weeding and hoeing were altogether too hard work, so he concluded to lie down under a tree and watch the rest work. I am afraid your society has a good many Will Wearys in it, but I hope not. They are the juniors who make up their minds that to attend the society meetings every week is too hard work, that the committee work is tiresome, that it is too much to expect of any one to read the Bible and pray every day; and of course their gardens amount to nothing.

But the sixth child was Emma Earnest, and I think that most juniors are like her. She worked hard and faithful. She planted just the right kind of seed. She watered it carefully, and weeded it with pains, and kept the earth loose around it, and free from harmful insects, and as a result she had a garden so beautiful, with its bright colors and its fragrance, that people came for miles around to see it, while she had hundreds of flowers to give away to brighten other homes. You do not need to be told who are the Emma Earnests of your society. They are those who keep the pledge in all points, are trying constantly to do what Christ would have them do, and they are the ones who are getting good constantly from their junior society.