John Maynard was a scholar in a little old-fashioned red schoolhouse far back in the olden times. He had been a shiftless boy and had drifted along aimlessly and carelessly. He had no desire to learn and did not study. One midwinter day some kind words from his teacher roused him to take a new start, and he became distinctly a different boy and worked hard to make up for his earlier faults. His copy-book lessons had been poor. There was a big blot on the first page. Inky finger-marks appeared on numerous pages. Sometimes he made foolish drawings at the bottom of the page just to make the scholars laugh. His copy-book was full of the marks of a careless scholar. But now he tried to go straight and clean, and no longer made the blots of carelessness. The closing examination came, and to the great joy of his father and mother who were present he passed well and with honor. But he discovered that his copy-books, which he had used during the entire year, were to be displayed on a table for the inspection of the visitors. He saw his mother looking over his books. All the blots and finger-marks of former times seemed to grow like big clouds. He was heartily ashamed of his early books, a mass of blots and bad work, and as he watched his mother looking over these books his heart was sick as he knew she would see them all. What would she say to him? What would she think of him? But to his great surprise he saw the smile of approval on his mother's face, and noticed she had called his father over to look also, and a look of pleasure beamed on his father's face, and they both told John how pleased they were with his fine work. They said nothing of his blots, finger-marks, and careless work. Afterward he discovered that his good teacher had removed all the bad pages from the book, and made the copy-book begin from where he started to do better. His dear teacher was just like God. He had given him another chance and had put the past out of sight forever. So God offers this chance to all who will turn to him. He will take away all the old blots of sin that blacken the past and give us all another chance, and he will make our life's record begin with the new start. To illustrate this lesson secure two common school copy-books, the first one filled with careless lines and numerous blots. Let the cover be torn in many places to represent careless handling. It is full of marks of imperfection. It is a thing of ugliness to look at. On the front place a red heart, saying: "This is a record of a boy with a red heart of sin, This heart was the big cause of the crooked contents of the book. The boy now becomes a Christian. God takes the old book and gives him another, and a new start."