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February 2, x;c> THE PRESBYTER
can be overcome if bright in the heart there burns the
unquenchable flame of some great passion, some high
faith. Given this fire within, all the tools shall be
found, but without it the finest endowment of brain
and body is valueless. Given but some great principles,
some purpose which becomes a holy passion,
something which leads you like one of long ago who
"steadfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem," then
all power is yours. The man who has faith to remove
mountains always finds the picks and the steam-shovels
somewhere. He takes the tools he has. thnnorh tVio-.
, to.. W.V.J.
may seem but toys beside his task, and, lo, some morning
when the dreamers awake the mountain is no longer
there!
? I .
LIGHT IN THE SHADOWED HOURS.
Who would be content with an absolutely unheroic
life? Yet heroism, for many if not most of us, consists
in cheerful endurance, rather than in deliberate venturing
upon unknown and dangerous ways. Our training
for the needs of new adventure comes from this familiar
experience of courageous bearing in the hours of trial.
Not to whimper, not to cringe, never to listen to the
voice of despair, never to make our burden an addition
to the loads of other burdened men, to follow the gleam
in darkness, to hold to God in grief, to obey with no
reason given when the law is made plain?he who can
walk thus through the shadowed way is arming himself
for high adventure and great service. Shall we, like
visionary children, neglect our present opportunity in
looking for one which is higher, grander and better
advertised? A lifetime spent in such a futile childishness
is not the lifetime of a heroic soul.
The shadowed hours reveal the inward light of courage
and of hope. A lighted lamp is little noticed in full
daylight, its opportunity comes with the dark. Then
now we welcome it and use it for all the purposes of
life! There is nothing remarkable in good cheer when
the light is shining on the way and all goes well with
journeying. The Valley of the Shadow is the true test
of our attainment. Until we have known an acquaintance
in time of trouble, we cannot be sure of his real
worth as a friend. Until we have measured ourselves
by the test of the difficult hours, we have no claim to
an established character. "If thou hast run with the
footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst
thou contend with horses? And though in a land of
peace thou art secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride
of Jordan?"
This is one of the uses of adversity?it is a training
ground of character. Not at random, we may be sure,
has our Father chosen the time and place of this experience.
Why should we ask to have it postponed, claiming
a present hour of ease at the cost of srievoiis future
loss? No more serious and urgent question can we ask
ourselves than this?Do we desire to be trained by
God's methods in his school? If we do, we shall be
willing also to pay the price of present self-denial and
suffering.
Our sorrows and deprivations are necessary also to
the progress of the race. How many of us hold our
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IAN OF THE SOUTH. u
places in the world-order as if we were owners in perpetuity
instead of tenants at will. We cannot imagine
the world without us, although it went on for a long
time before we came, and will go on easily enough
when we have departed. There is said to be an American
man of wealth who refuses to speak or hear the
word death. He is like the French king who lived as
if he were nr?f nnl" 1 J'
iuc wunu center, but also its eternal
occupant. God teaches us the lesson of our own
brief tenure in taking from us, one after another, those
whom we know and love. With every loss there comes
a still, small voice in our hearts, saying, As these were,
so also thou shalt be. The withdrawal of the death
angel would be the signal for the stagnation of the
world. Our strength and consolation arc that we are
related to the eternal forces and called to heroic lives
of duty in God's companionship. There can be no
destroying shadow for him whose life is hid with Christ
in God.?Congregationalist.
THE STILL HOUR.
Sometimes at the end of the day, when its cares have
C'1 * * *
^jivu dim me quiet mgnt is around us, how sweet it is
to be with Jesus; to be alone with him and to feel at
home with him! What a refreshment it is, a well in
the desert, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
The home feeling is everything. How the cares of life
ebb away, and the sorrows of yesterday are as the
clouds that swiftly pass, to come no more. We can
almost welcome the trials of life, for if they lead to such
fellowship, they have been as the dew to Israel. We
can tell our dear Savior things we would not care to
whisper to another, knowing that in the secret of his
tahernarlo lip will uin^ t t _ ?
??*.. ."vie ua. nc wm understand where
others either cannot or will not. But here, what a
refuge! He knows. He will not misunderstand. He
will be pitiful and merciful for he remembers that we
are dust. His presence is light, as when the night is
gone and we raise the blinds and let in the sweet and
gentle morning. There is no otherwhere like this, and
as one might turn aside where the springs are full and
the flowers are in bloom and the birds are singing
sweetly, and there is a peace above expression and a
fragrance that touches the soul, so here when the day
is done there wait the sweet repose and blessing. It
is a time when patience comes back, and sympathy,
broad as humanity, comes with it. Hatred, with its
vulture wings, flies out into the night, and the dovelike
presence that hovered above the Nazarene fills all
the hour with an ineffable love. With Jesus! Is there
any tryst that will stir the best that is in us like that?
The day is not half so dull and the night is bereft of
its darkness. If there has been a casket in the home,
and the dear fare within it li?
_ ......... .. iuuM.ii uiucajjunsive into
ours, we can look into the face of Jesus and understand
that it is well. The night shall be as the morning. The
grave becomes the portal of the Savior's happy home
and the grief of the rent heart is turned to the sweetness
of the holiest hope. We are very near to heaven
and the coming glory when we are alone with Jesus.?
United Presbyterian.