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August 9, 1911] THE]
"I promised I would. Years had passed, my
studies were ended and I was home again in
the old farm, waiting for the call.
"The minister in the village was old and I
was asked to preach one Sunday. A prophet
is never appreciated in his own country, so with
trembling lips and beating heart I mounted the
pulpit to preach my first sermon. The church
was crowded but I saw only one face, framed
with silver locks, one pair of deep, gray wondering
eyes.
"When I descended two arms were thrown
around my neck. A sweet voice cried: 'George,
my George! I haven't heard that voice for thirty-five
years; I haven't heard such a sermon
since he died! I have seen him, heard him. He
is calling me, and now I am ready to die! God
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uit-ss yuu, my ooy, my own precious Doyr
"That's why I became a preacher, "Willie;
my grandmother prayed me into the ministry."
The boy looked up into his father's face with
an expression of childish adoration and said:
'' Daddy, I don't care for baseball games 011
Sunday; do you think I will ever be a minister
like you?"
"May God grant it my boy! May God grant
it!"
SOMEBODY'S MOTHER.
The woman was old and ragged and gray,
And bent with the chill of the winter's day.
The street was wet with a recent snow,
And the woman's feet were aged and slow.
She stood at the crossing and waited long,
Alone, uncared for, amid the throng
Of human belngB who passed her by,
Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye,
Down the street, with laughter and shout,
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Came the boys like a flock of sheep,
Wading the enow piles white and deep.
Past the woman, so old and gray,
Hastened the children on their way,
Nor offered a helping hand to her,
So meek, so timid, afraid to stir,
Lest the carriage wheels or the horses' feet
Should crowd her down In the slippery street.
'At last came one of the merry troop?
The gayest laddie of the group;
He paused beside her and whispered low,
"I'll help you across if you wish to go."
Her aged hand on his strong young arm
She placed, and so without hurt or harm,
He guided the trembling feet along,
Proud that his own were firm and strong.
Then back again to his friends he went,
His young heart happy and well content
"She's somebody's mother, boys, you know,
For all she's old and poor and slow;
And I hope some fellow will lend a hand
To help my mother, you understand,
If ever she's poor and old and gray,
When her own dear boy is far away."
And "somebody's mother" bowed low her head
In her home that night and the Drayer she said
Was: 'God be kind to the noble boy,
Who is somebody's son and pride and joy!'?Anon.
SAVIOUR OR LORD.
[> It is easier to accept Christ as Saviour than as
I Lord. It is easier to let him do things for us
than it is to do things for him. It is easier to let
him give up everything for us, as he has done,
than ourselves to give up everything for him.
And so it comes to pass that many a professed
Christian who calls Christ Saviour has not made
him Lord. And that is betrayal; not only, like
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x eier, uuuiui ox our xjoru, out, iiae ouaas, an
actual serving in the interests of Christ's enemies
while we profess to belong on Christ's
side. It is like the enlistment of a soldier who
declines to take his commander's orders. "If a
man is not a Christian," says John R. Mott,
'' he may debate whether or not he will become
a Christian; but having once become a Christian
there is no longer room for discussion as to
whether Jesus Christ shall dominate him." Do
you find the abounding, self-satisfying, joyous,
victorious, irresistibly serviceable exDerience in
Christ, as your habitual life, that the New Testament
Christians seemed to have? If not, is
there more room for his Lordship over your life
than you have yet made??The Sunday School
Times.
N
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
CONSECRATION.
What is Christian consecration? Consecrate
is an Old Testament word, and is used but twice
in the New Testament; but the idea which the
word expresses is in every book in the Bible.
The root principle involved in consecrating anything
is the recognition of God's exclusive ownership.
The Jewish husbandman, on Bethlehem's
slopes or along the Galilean valleys, beheld the
yellow fruits of the harvest; but he recognized
them not as his own. They belonged to the God
of the harvest. Whatever was consecrated was
not the man's, but God's.
A real consecration was an act of free will.
Its whole value was in its voluntary character.
There are no less than sixteen places where God's
ancient people are directed how to present gifts
of their own choice.
Again, consecration means a giving to God
himself. The idea is involved in the word. It
does not mean merely dedication, but it means
dedication to God. The grand point for every
one to settle is, whether he is working, giving,
using his talents, or wielding his influence for
God. All that a man has and all that he is God
gave him as a trust fund. Does he give money,
sacrifice his time, or spend the labor of his hands
or busier brain upon the church, it should be
because he recognizes God's ownership of all.
Most men are afraid of going too far in consecration.
They generally feel that what is left
after all other demands have been satisfied, belongs
to God. God wants that which is most
precious. Man says of his property, "I came
by it honestly. For every dollar I paid the price
of hard labor. It is mine." Just here God
differs: "The silver and the gold are mine."
Want of consecration here is the crying sin of
believers.
Nor will such consecration be complete without
a personal consecration. God not only wants
the first fruits, but the people themselves. "Ye
shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an
holy nation," is proclaimed from Sinai's smoking
summit. The highest attainments in grace
are his who puts himself into God's hands that
he who made him might use him.?Ex.
DON'T, DON'T.
Don't set your heart on money?do not learn
to like it. If you do, it will lead you around
like a man does a dog or slave. You may have
it in your hand or in your pocket or in your
home or in the bank and get along very nicely;
but when it begins to jingle in the heart, it will
hurt the soul and hamper its influence.
Don't invest, vmir Tnnnp.v in a Karl hnainaon
Don't put it into a saloon or a brewery or a
liquor store or a gambling resort or a horse race
or a fakir fair or waste it on fortune tellers.
Don't do it!
Don't hoard your money. Of course, it is
right to save money, but not to hoard it. If
people generally would hoard money, it would
become very scarce, and its scarcity would hurt
business. But it would hurt the hoarder
more. It would injure the soul more than
would the farm or the stock market.?Ziion's
Herald.
THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH.
Mr. Edmonds, of the Baltimore Manufacturer's
Record, recently made an address before the
World Baptist Alliance, in session at Philadelphia,
in wihch he said some very -significant
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luuigs auuut tuc uuuiii, aim ita gruwiug prosperity
and wealth.
The Richmond Times Dispatch, in commenting
on Mr. Edmond's remarks, has the following to
say, "The natural resources of the South mean,
IOTH ' (749) 5
of course, immense riches for the South and
enormously increased population, and all this
imposes upon the Baptists and upon the other
religious workers a tremendous responsibility.
Great riches without great character is the present
menace of this country, so that while the
millions of men and dollars are being poured into
the South there should come with them other
millions of money and other thousands of work
crs so that the development of our morals shall
go hand in hand with the development of our
mines."
This paper sounds out a warning to the Presbyterian
Church, as well as to the other churches.
Is it not incumbent on us to bestir ourselves
and wage a conquering warfare on those sins,
greed, worldliness, the social evil, and others,
which if given undisputed sway will mean ruin?
I am not a pessimist, but I can see with the ininflux
of foreigners and the spread of prosperity
in the South that the demands on the church are
greater, and with the help of God, we should
meet the demands. "Let us pray the Lord of the
harvest that He send forth more laborers into
the harvest, for the harvest truly is great, but
the laborers are few." G. C. M.
GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE.
St. Peter, in his second epistlej identifies
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of Christ: '' But grow in grace, and in the knowledge
?f our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
The more intimate our acquaintance with Christ,
the more like him we become; the more like him
we become, the more clearly we behold him. The
realization of the truth that our knowledge of
Christ is at the best only partial, and that it is
susceptible of perpetual increase, will save us
from low ideals of Christian experience and character.
No one completely knows Christ, and
perfection in likeness to him is impossible while
our knowledge of him is still imperfect. The
holiest are, after all, only little children in their -j
acquaintance with the beauty and the love of
Christ; a whole eternity of discovery and growth
is before them. All the goodness on earth and
all the holiness of the saints in heaven is only
a fraction of the infinite loveliness and grace.
Those who are most intimate with him find his
love forever new and increasingly wonderful. The
greatest need of every age is more study of
Christ, closer companionship with Christ, increased
communion with Christ, constant loyalty
and obedience to Christ. The most heavenly
ideals are required for the lowliest of duties. * Nothing
less than the glory of Christ can illuminate
earth's dark places. Though the knowledge
of Christ is only partial and is forevp.r nmm-no
WJsive,
acquaintance with him is real, and even
in its lowest degree is a power of spiritual tranformation.?Northwestern
Christian Advocate.
HAPPINESS.
Christians might avoid much trouble and inconvenience
if they would only believe that God
is able to make them happy without anything
else. They imagine if such a dear friend were
to die, they should be miserable; whereas God
can make them a thousand times happier without
them. To mention my own case. God has
be$n depriving me of one blessing after another;
but as every one was removed, he has come in,
and now, when I am a cripple, and not able to
move, I am happier than ever I was in my life
before, or ever expected to be. And if I had
believed this twenty years ago, I might have been
spared much anxiety.?Dr. Payson.
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle
that fits them all.?Dr. Holmes.