Newspaper Page Text
October 20, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA
mouth football game, though some may possibly question
his discretion in the matter.
-iTo be a good 'mixer' a minister need not take his
noonday lunch in a tin bucket and toil in a factory; he
need not work a week as a street-car conductor or
spend his vacation preaching to steerage passengers,
llionrrli tionf of )-Viocn ....?? 1 J *- *
? v>iv^\. vApviitnua nccu uciraci irom
his prestige as a minister of Christ, if entered upon
in the right spirit; quite the contrary.
"But the whole point of this discussion is, if ministers
find that people are not interested in what they
are saying in the church, a part of the explanation may
he found in the fact that ministers are not sufficiently
interested in what people are doing outside of the
church. And the gospel that the minister preaches
ioses much of its professional, cut-and-dried tone when
the man who preaches it has proved that he is a man
with larpre human <svmr>athi(>c?on/4
0 ~j uuu iiv inuoi |;iuvc imo
by 'mixing.' "
THE RELIGION OF THE SMILE AND FLOWER.
Yellow fever was epidemic in New Orleans. From
the French market to the river, and all along the levee,
and back through the old city, the terror spread. Everyone
who could get away went, and those who remained,
quarantined, sat down to a battle with death. To
be in a city, yet cut off from the world, this, if anything,
is isolation. To be surrounded with and dependent
upon men and women, any one of whom may
yet prove the source of a deadly contagion, this is the
occasion of despair or even of madness.
But science has brought a ground of encouragement.
Men need not fear each other, but the mosquito. And
good sense and religion all united to emphasize the
lesson; the city's salvation lay in united and unselfish
effort for th p cnmmnn or nod
Prominent among the workers was a young minister
who had refused to flee from the city, and whose work
day by day in the midst of danger brought comfort to
the dying and hope to those in despair.
The health officers and the volunteer committees had
been laboring to screen all cisterns and vaults where
mosquitoes could breed, and had just about finished
their work when a storm tore away the thin netting,
and made innumerable new pools for the breeding of
the fever-spreading pests.
Men heard the rain and wind in the night with sinking
heart, and rose the next day to find their precautions
vain and their labors futile. What was left,
bait to curse God and die?
It was on that morning that the headquarters of
the committee flamed out a new motto, placarded there
by the young minister:
"Wear a smile on your face and a flower in your
buttonhole."
Men would not hav#? h#?#?di?d a eprmnn Ar^rr
- ? ~
matically; but few could resist the persuasion of a
homily so sensible and short. They pinned on the
flower, smiled, and took heart, and went about the hard
duty of repairing the work the storm had destroyed.
And now. as they look back upon those days of distress,
it seems to them a message from heaven that
came to them in their need?"Wear a smile on your
face and a flower in your buttonhole."
A. " ft
i- 4
t?
N OF THE SOUTH. *
There are many persons who. face hard situations
and need the same message, and need it as a message
of faith in God. God reigns, and through evil and
good will cause all things to work together for good.
Faith such as this may well blossom in the smile and
flower anrl tVio" ..111 ~.. ?1-- ? *1
, w.n ouiciy tarry tne gospel ot hope
and trust to other lives, and cause religion to become
contagious.
It is written in the Word of God, "Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."
A mind so stayed must bring peace to other minds. *
The smile of serene trust reflects itself in the life that
sees the smile. The flower of hope blossoms in other
hearts than his who plucks and wears it.
When duty is hard, and your own faith is low, "Wear
a smile on your face and a flower in your buttonhole."
HEAVEN A PLACE.
Of course heaven is a place. God's people are to
have future existence, and it is impossible to live without
havincr Inrntinn A o 1 1 ? '
?.?b .wwuv.wn. no mug, ctuu as sureiy, as we
are individuals we are to have a locality in which our
individual existence is too vague and misty to conceive
of locality in connection with the heavenly life, they
are apt to become unbelieving and uncertain as to the
continuance of their own personal identity. We believe
that God is to continue His people in self-conscious
identity, and that He is to give them assurance
of their continued personality in a real and delightful'
environment.
We do not know where heaven is. But God knows,
and it is a reserved place for a kept people. The Lord
Jesus Christ has gone to prepare it for those who love
Him. Hens waiting there to receive His people unto
Himself as they are called away from earth. His loved
ones are to be with Him. His prayer was, that those
who had been given Him might be with Him. He
prayed that they might die, in good time. It is not a
fearful thing, then, to die. It is only a going home, in
accordance with the Savriour's dying wish and prayer.
There is to be no going out into the darkness. It will
be a-- home-going into the warmth and light of the
presence of the Lord.
Heaven is a great place, a large place, with room for
many, a house of many mansions. There will be room
in it for all who love God. There will be ample space
for all their varied occupations. They will be active
and busy in His service. Heaven will not be a place
for idleness, nor mere ease-taking. His servants shall
serve Him, and there will be many forms of service.
There will be nothing that can hurt nor defile. There
will be no form of labor in which there shall not be
useiuiness ana 'delight. There will be nothing done
that can work evil or pain to any creature. There will
be no pain or anything that can produce sorrow. There
will be no war, or the use of anything by means of
which war is waged. Heaven will be a place of giory
and gladness. Those who are there will live continually
to the glory of God.
There is no use in praying to God about our difficulties
if we mean to keep on fretting about them.?
Matthew Simpson.