How he will shout, and call upon his
brothers and sisters to admire with him; how they will pull out the
treasures, and try to learn how to use the new and strange materials.
What did my father mean this for? Why did he give that so odd a shape,
or so strange a covering? And so through many questions, and many
experiments, they learn at last how to use the contents of this one
storehouse. But do you imagine that sensible children, after one such
discovery, would rest satisfied? Of course they would explore and
explore; try every panel, and press every spring, until, one by one, all
the closets should be opened, and all the treasures brought out. And
then how could they show their gratitude to the dear father who had
taken such pains to prepare this wonderful house for them? The least
they could do would be to try to use every thing for the purposes
intended, and not to destroy or injure any of the precious gifts
prepared so lovingly for their use.
Now, God, our loving Father, has made for us, for you and for me and for
little Mage and Jenny, and for all the grown people and children too,
just such a house. It is this earth on which we live. You can see the
blue roof, and the arched ceilings of the rooms, with their canopy of
leaves and drooping boughs, and the velvet-covered floors, and the
lights and birds and fountains; but do you know any of the secret
closets? Have you found the key or spring of a single one, or been
called by your mother or father or brother or sister to take a peep into
one of them?
If you have not, perhaps you would like to go with me to examine one
that was opened a good many years ago, but contains such valuable things
that the uses of all of them have not yet been found out, and their
beauty is just beginning to be known.
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