Newspaper Page Text
September 27, 1911 ] X H E J
REUNIONS IN THE BEYOND.
The other day a friend of mine went home.
His departure was sudden. To those who knew
him well there was much of gladness in the
thought of the way of his ending a life that had
been an evident walk with God. Everybody
recognized in his way, in his home, in the house
of God, in his contact with his neighbors, a desire
and endeavor to make his Lord first. Mod
estly but positively he was a follower of the Lainb.
A native of Norway, he had come to this country
more than fifty years ago. An intelligent
man, he had absorbed American life, making the
language of the country his own and becoming
at home in everything that belonged to the
sphere into which he came. How early he became
a Christian I have never heard, or how it
was that in the experiences through which he
passed he acquired the depth, strength and richness
of religious character that made him so
much to his brethren, so truly a witness for his
Master, and, now that he is gone, makes us to say
of him, "Because of the savor of his good ointments
his name is as ointment poured forth."
TT_ I J J L* 4... X2?iL U* iLJ A
xie nau passeu ms seventy-mux uiriuuay. j\
brother ten years older had remained in the fatherland
and spent his life in the community in
which he was born. All the other members of a
large family had passed away. The two men,
drawn together in affection by that fact, took up
and maintained the habitof a yearly exchange of
letters. It must have meant something to my
friend to write as he could wish after having so
long been accustomed to the use of another language.
To compose, to translate, to bring himself
to employ only such words, phrases and expressions
as would make his brother understand
him, to put himself back into a speech disused
for a half century, could not have been a simple
thing. And yet what a pleasure must have been
to each of these old men the letter which brought
news from a far country. For they were actuated
by one spirit, they were in possession of the
same good hope through grace and the confidence
of meeting each other in the better country they
sought was a thing assured.
The older brother finished his course just four
months first. Of the meeting of the two I have
thought much since my friend's entrance into
his heavenly home. Had the one anything to do
in welcoming the other? "Was there anything to
personal strangeness in their coming together?
Was there a sweetness in the mingling of the
two hearts peculiar because of their relationship
on earth ? As they took their places in the heavenly
chorus, was there something corresponding
to the hand-clasp with which they would have
joined in a Psalm of praise, had they met once
more on earth before going home?
All these are vain questions, pleasant as it may
be to raise tbem and speak of the thoughts they
suggest. But of one thing I think, as not vain,
not unbecoming, as I follow in imagination the
glorified saint who but just now was with us
here. The two have the language of heaven in
which to converse. There is no faltering of
speech between them now. The one is just like
the other in readiness for the new song they have
taken up. They learned that language in earth.
It is told that two converts from heathenism, a
Hindoo and a South Sea Islander, having come
to England, met at a missionary meeting. They
were introduced; two interpreters were needed
for the interchange of any words between them.
Suddenly a happy thought struck one of them.
IITT.It.l..:. " ftvrtlolmnd go Vinl/^inrp tVl o
naiieiuia, 11c oauiuhuwi, uo, huiuiu^ HMV?
other's hand, he lifted his eyes heavenward.
"Amen," was the ready response. They had two
words provided for the mingling of their
thought and their praise. "What mnst be the
many words of the gathered multitudes of the
redeemed! What must be the blessed inter0
PRESBYTERIAN OP THE SO
change oi' completely sanctified affection and triumphant
lejoicing in those who have had reason
to love each other in Christ on earth and are
found at last in the presence of him they loved,
washed in his hlood and filled with the fulness
of his joy!?Rev. L. M.-Stevens, in New York
Observer.
FAITH.
That faith is the master principle of our world,
the only thing that makes it eo. is evident from
whatever side we look at it. Nature insists on
our being believers. That the outside world exists
at all, that it is as our senses report it to be
is an act of faith. Hume, after carrying his
philosophical skepticism to its utmost limit, declared
he left it behind him when he closed his
study door and went out into the street. The
whole structure of our science is built on faith.
For science depends on the belief, for which it
has no demonstrative evidence, that the reason
ing faculties give a true report of the universe;
that given causes will go on producing given
effects; that if you talk to it sensibly it will give
you sensible replies. So also every commercial
transaction is a belief. The business world is on
a credit system. Skepticism here would smash
every bank and shut up every shop. Against
the problem of evil, whether of past times or of
our own time, there is no remedy except the
"venture of faith." Pessimism is in itself a confession
of defeat. It is a running away from
the enemy, a collapse and a capitulation. And
we are not made for defeat. When the apostle
says, "Overcome evil with good," he is declaring
that evil can be overcome, that the good is stronger
than it. "Despair is the worst of our errors,"
says Vauvenargues. And truly- For it never
yet remedied an evil; never yet lifted a sorrow.
It is when we believe that we do something. And
what we have to believe is not only that the sum
of evils is diminishing, hut that what we call by
that name is a part of the evolution of the final
good. Are we not educated by our sorrows?
Was not Pascal right when he took his pain as an
instrument for the working out of his spiritual
perfection? Is not the cross, by whomsoever
borne, ever a means of redemption? Do our
troubles ever reach right through? Or can we
not say with Marie Bashkirtseff, "My body
weeps and sighs, but my soul triumphs and rejoices"?
Is pain ever a constant? Is it not
rather full of magical transformations, becoming
in turn the background of our joys, the source of
our inspirations, the spring of our sympathies,
the wielder of our inmost strength? If Christ's
cross?the agony of a few hours?lasts through
centuries as the hope and consolation of millions,
is it not a true inference, certain as mathematics,
that the pain of other souls will work to like glorious
issue? We conquer the world's sorrows,
as all other things in it, by the venture of faith.?
The Christian Work and Evangelist.
THE GIFT OF SINCERITY.
Take from a man every gift but sincerity; let
him be blind and deaf and lame; let him stammer
in his speech, lack education and good manners;
handicap him as you please, so you leave
him sincerity, and he will command respect and
attention. His work will endure. The world,
which is always looking for the real thing, will
gladly overlook all his infirmities.
In every relation of life, sincerity is the secret
rm.. 1 ?V- J X l-l 1*
ui puwcr. -i iic NitieHiuau wiiu uucs uut iiiraseii
sincerely "believe in the merits of his goods will
generally be a failure. The hnsiness man who
sets about to fool other people must end?as he
has, in fact, begun?by making a fool of himself.
The clergyman who preaches anything that his
sould does not approve need look no farther to
explain empty pews.
/
U T a ! (917) 5
There is no virtue that more men believe in
and fewer men practice- Many of us, it may be
fair to say, are busily engaged in the utterly
futile attempt to run a bluff on the rest of the
world. From pillow shams and false fronts to
imitation marble buildings and watered stocks,
things are largely what they seem.
The chief anxiety of too many people is to
lr TP .V
uy appearauces- n mey are poor, they
must at any rate appear to be rich. When Jones,
the wealthy brewer across the street, sets up a
motor\ear, the Brown family put a mortgage on
the house and let the butcher go unpaid to the
end that they, too, may boast an automobile.
If they are ignorant, they at least affect cul
ture. "We are going to spend the winter in
Washington on account of its wonderful educational
advantages," says Mrs. Jenkins. "We
expect to put dear Alyce in the Smithsonian Institute."
Be a real man?not a shoddy sport or a sham
aristocrat. Be sincere with yourself, your
? * 1 "*
rnenas ana our work. With sincerity, a few
talents and a little strength may go far. Without
it, genius itself must fail!?Henry M. Hyde,
in Chicago Tribune.
THE COST.
He who would be most like Christ must pay the
cost. If a furnace is needed to purify and
brighten you, do not shirk the furnace. Patience
is an admirable grace, but is not oftenest worn by
those who walk on the sunny side of the street
in silver slippers. It is usually the product of
head winds and hard fights?of crosses carried
and of steep hills climbed on the road to heaven.
"The trial of your faith worketh patience." So
it is with all the noblest traits of a robust,
healthy and symmetrical character. No man is
rocked into godliness in a hammock. Christ offers
you no free ride to heaven in a cushioned
parlor car. John Bimyan sent his sturdy "Pilgrim"
to the "Celestial City" on foot, and some
pretty rough walking and hard conflicts did he
encounter before the pearly portals welcomed
him to the streets of flashing gold. His piety
was self-denying, stalwart and uncompromising;
ne reusnea even the stiff severities of duty, and
was never coddled with confectionaries. Selfindulgence
is the besetting sin of the times; but
if you long to be a strong, athletic Christian, you
must count the cost.
It will cost you the cutting up of old favorite
sins by the roots, and the cutting loose from entangling
alliances, and some sharp set-tos with
the tempter; it will cost you the submitting of
your will to the will of Christ; but it is worth
all it costs and more.?Dr. Cuyler.
PRAYER AND WORKING.
I like that saying of Martin Luther when he
says, "I have so much business to do today that
T shall not be able to get through it with less
than three hours' prayer."
Now, most people would say, "I have so much
business to do today that I have only three minutes
for prayer. I can not afford the time." But
Luther thought that the more he had to do the
more he must pray, or else he could not get
through it. That is a blessed kind of logic; may
we understand it! "Praying and provender
hinder no man's journey." If we have to stop
and pray it is no more a hindrance than when
the rider has to stop at the farrier's to have his
horse's shoe fastened; for if he went on without
attending to that, it may be tbat ere long he
would come to a stop of a far more serious kind.
r tj
v/ jx, KJpu/t y&irrv.
The heart must suffer and endure for itself
the trials it is to sing.?Hans Christian Anderson.
I