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16 TI
Contributed
OUR BRIGHTSIDE LETTER.
Words Versus Demis.
It must be admitted that there is a
popular aversion to words. At our supper
table where there is no Autocrat,
the young people were unanimous and
clamorous in defense of deeds. Words
were not worthy to be compared with
deeds. Only deeds, they cried, are to be
counted worth while. Only deeds fi 11 life
umi lnl\ nihl nmlfp hictr?r\ Viul unkind
things were said about words, as empty
and useless, as airy nothings and otten
.false and makers of mischief.
So the Fool of the Table had a trying
time in a battle of words in defense of
words against the Head and all the board
of family debate. "Verba virumque cano."
he said, and took up arms for that device.
Words are themselves deeds, he
affirmed, and are the expressions of will
and energy, the tongue as truly and effectively
as the hand. They have often
been great deeds, and wrought for gooh
and for evil upon human life, and turned
the current of the history of nations.
words lroni (lie heart and the will of a
man, ot clear sight and strong faith and
generous purpose, have been deeds of the
mighty for the good of mankind.
Words are the means of conveying
thought from one man to his fellow; and
not only thought, but love and hope and
courage and every emotion and affection
thai springs in the human breast. And
this free and frequent communication,
from mind to mind and heart to heart,
. makes brothers of all men, and every
man is teacher and inspirer to his fellow,
and all are brought into brotherhood,
and elevated on higher planes of
intelligence and morals, and common
aims and efforts.
But what would deeds be without
words to tell of them, to compare and
measure them, to applaud them, to write
them in history, and sing them in song,
to continue their life and power to the
years that come after? Moreover, it has
been given to words themselves to preserve
in their own forms so much of the
history of the nations that use them, to
tell of the origin of races and their inner
life, their religion, their morals, their
spirit, their habits and customs.
Of all the gifts of God to humanity,
how inestimable is the gift of language!
Was it a direct endowment in creation?
Did it spring up from instinct and necessity.
'simple, rude, poor? However it
came, is there any natural endowment to
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uc ?.uui)/ai cu nun 11 ; I iimiHh ut* IU I lit
groat Giver for words! This is man's
great distinction from the brutes of the
field. Speech and language have brought
knowledge and accumulated it. Words
have crowned man with reason and
taught him to think and to speak and to
write, and have led him up to philosophy
and science and poetry.
Do not words mean literature and
make literature? Books and schools and
libraries, are they not words? And the
printing press, with its invitation to
think, and to write, and its constant
stream of words, and its unmeasured
-IE PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU
benefits, using words to write laws and
teach morals, and inspire to larger and
better lives, and animate to deeds,
worthy and good and heroic.
When God would teach man great lessons
for his profit and happiness, lit*
wrote with his own finger words. Ten
Wcrds. on tables of stone. They have
jne.served the race front degradation and
extinction. There was One who said,
"The words that I have spoken unto you.
they are spirit and they are life." And
in' wnuse imono is a inrone ot grace
has sent this message to us. "Take wi'tt
you words, aiul return unto the Lord."
J. P. S.
MR. GREATHEART AND
HIS CHARGES.
A Present Day Allegory For the Consideration
of the Southern Pres
byterian Church.
I stood one day with a Dreamer on r.
hill Below us tiowed a mighty river.
Fields tl\at had been watered with blood,
now clothed in the innocent green of the
springtime, smiled at us as we stood.
There came a light of prophecy into the
eves of the Dreamer. He extern!- a hi>
arm and pointed to the city, which
nestled among the trees on the bank of
the river. And then he told me his
dream. My own heart leaped to welcome
the thought of my friend. His was a
dream of love, and it was also a dream
of justice.
Fifteen years rolled by. Again I stood
on the hill beside the mighty river. Again
1 saw the fields that, had been watered
with the best blood of a nation. They
were clothed in winter's white robe of
peace. But the Dreamer had gone where
all noble dreams are fulfilled. His gentle
spirit lingered on the hillside, and 1
thought 1 heard again his loving voice as
it told once more the dream.
And lo! as I looked the dream stood
hoforp mo rpn in rhA livoc r?vor?\
I saw the widow and the orphan, whose
3ad fate had stirred the loving heart of
the one now gone. They were on a pilgrimage,
and one walked with them like
unto Mr. Greatheart. The little ones he
bore in his arms, or lei by the hand.
The .Mercys and t..e Christians he guided
and counselled with many loving words
and patient acts of kindness.
If a lion stands in the way, "Mr.
Greatheart is a strong man, so he is not
afraid of a lion." When Giant Maul would
bar the path, even though the battle
seems to be lost, and Greatheart beaten
to his knees, he betakes himself to
prayer. And always witn patience and
courage he fights the battle for his helpless
charges, and wiii3 the victory.
This is not a chapter from Pilgrim's
Progress, but a true story of what is
going on today at Fredericksburg, in the
name of the Southern Presbyterian
Church. It is astonishing how little the
Church realizes the magnificent work
i I'ai is Deing uone ny our Home and
School. Year after year its appeals appear
in our papers and before churcl>
courts. Some do not listen, others say,
"It Is a good thing in theory, but not
practicable"; and a few give it their
hearty support and loving interest. Of
a,ll the millions God has given our
Church in trust for Him. it only asks for
TH. March 31, 1909.
$25,000, to carry out its mission of love
and justice. Can we not give this small
sunn as a thank-offering annually for the
labors of those whose greatness among
us has been proven, in that they have
been "servants of all"?
The writer is of the opinion that the
reason for our failure to fully supply
th>- needs of this great and unique institution
is. that the Church at large
does not fully understand how wisely,
economically and efficiently, it is being
managed. Sonte indeed sneak sllchtlnir.
ly of It, and even ministers, whose Earnest
sympathy It ought to enlis>, are sometimes
heard to refer to it in a faultfinding
spirit.
Are we aware that no other denomination
of Christians in America has such
an institution? Co we realize that we
have living among us a man who realizes
daily the high ideals of Bunyan's
greatest character? If there be a faithful
preacher, struggling along on a pitiful
salary, unable to lay aside a dollar
tor the evil days that come to all, worrying
and wondering as to the future of
his little ones when he shall be taken
from them, let him lift up his head and
take courage. One of these poor preachers,
whose salary is but sufficient to keep
his large family from starvation, said,
recently, while visiting the Home, as he
realized the advantages and privileges,
of those in its care: "Were it not for
?.?. n., ji n uuiu oe ueiter, far, if i
could be taken away, for then my family
would at least have the certainty of a
good home, good eduction, and splendid
Christian iniluences here."
Many a home missionary has to see his
children grow up surrounded by the evil
influences which call hint to bis lonely
field, and many a foreign missionary has
to feel all the degrading forces of heathenism
exerted on his own little ones,
while he labors to bring light into the
darkness. At Fredericksburg the wise
thought of one whom men loved, but
still called a "Dreamer," has been crystallized
into a living fact, and all the
most precious influences of our church
are there exercised upon the lives of the
little ones of the missionary, and the
widows and orphans of ministers who
have been taken away.
God gave the Church a Ruling Klder,
of wise business ability, of loving sympathetic
nature, and of earnest consecration
to a high ideal, in the person of
Samuel W. Summerville. And God placed
him where- he is. Twenty-one widows,
ninety children and the families of five
missionaries compose the band of pilgrims
our Greatheart is guiding day by
day on their pilgrimage.
I hold no brief for Brother Summervihe.
I speak but of what I saw with
my own eyes during a week spent with
this work recently. I feel sure that if
the whole Church could but see whiH I
saw, and feel what I felt of the heart
throbs of this faithful servant of God
and His church, a prayer of thanksgiving
would go up from every breast to the
One who gave him to us for this work.
Shall this good work go on? Shall thj
plans of Its wise committee for enlargement,
the establishment of a missionaries'
rest, Rnd the acquisition of school
property, fail for lack of funds? Never!