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November 15, 1911] THE P
to body, mind or soul should not be indulged in
by any one, and such indulgence displaces a
purer enjoyment. If the young Christian will
take Jusus Christ as the umpire of his life,
submitting to him his pleasures as well as his
duties, his life will be full of light, and the
shadows that come will only refresh.
"Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world. He
that ioiloweth me snail not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.' And this light
never becomes darkness. It grows brighter and
brighter till the perfect day."?Inter Ocean,
May 22.
THE MINISTER'S WIFE.
There is a page in the book of the recording
angel, gold bordered, and illuminated by Fra
Angelico, and other talented and beautiful
artist spirits now in heaven; and on that page,
in letters that shine afar, are inscribed the
names of ministers's wives. When the names
are read of those who have come up through
fwi nlo on/1 r?Y?no 4- 4-viKnl ofi Ano 4-V* nan wi li
ileum, tuais aiiu giuai muuiunuuoj tuv/uvy i? m
come near the head of the list. "Who is it, while
the minister preaches, who sits in the audience,
praying for his every word, fearful lest this
plain utterance may offend, anxious lest this
sentence be not understood, hopeful that the
message will reach the hearts of those to whom
it is addressed? Who is it that goes to bed
on Sabbath night more weary than her husband,
because she has borne equally all the day
the strain of his work, and that without the
afflatus of his public duties? Who else in all
the parish knows how the preparation of that
sermon has been interrupted, how many unavoidable
duties broke in upon the time set
apart for its preparation? Who else notices
with the same sympathy the involved sentence
that has lost its nominative case in dependent
clauses, and splits an infinitive in its desperate
run for the home base? Who else notices with
the same keen sympathy, what is ludicrously
apparent to the whole congregation, that the
minister's necktie has broken from its moorings?
And did she not hear at the close of the
service, and feel it as if the fault has been her
own, that such a family, which came for three
Sabbaths, has decided to attend the other
church, thinking this church cold and inhospitable?
And that Mrs. Somebody feels hurt because
the minister has not called on them since
they moved? And that Mr. Somebody is going
to give up his Sabbath school class if the boys
do not behave better, and every one knows that .
the boys will not so behave?
All these? Yes, and a thousand more burens
she bears, wearing the while a sweet smile
and her last season's bonnet, that rests above
" i -i "VT J
her dear race nice a naio. ino criticism anueu
at the minister but reaches her heart with keener
thrust than his. No sorrow in the parish but
the burden of it falls on her love and sympathy.
No knowledge of estrangement between neighbors
in the church, but she thinks about it as
the friend of both; no grief but it burdens her
prayers. And no one ever knew it, but like the
sweet woman of old, she keeps all these things,
and ponders them in her heart.
An artist recently gave to the world the
composite resultant of 271 classic paintings as
the typical Madonna. I could have told where
6 to find a gentler, stronger, sweeter face in the
composite photograph of 21 ministers wives.
And I know of some individuals here and there
among them who might sit singly for the portrait,
and not lower the type.
There is 110 truer word in the Bible than fllat
a minister ought to be the husband of one wife;
and with that wife he should live on terms of
such perfect sympathy that slander shall die
BE8BTTERIAN OF TAE SO
in the presence of their perfect and reciprocal
affection. My wife has liberty to open all my
mail, but is strictly enjoined to open all that
is marked "Private." Alas for the minister
with a shallow, silly, gossipy, jealous, dictatorial,
or worldy wife! But he who is married
to a good wife and confides in her, can
face almost any situation where women are
concerned, without danger or fear.
Women know some things which men merely
guess at, and then guess wrong. There are
matters in which a woman's intuition is safer
than a man's reason. "That's a good letter,
my dear, but I wouldn't send it," says the minister's
wife. You can advance arguments
which she cannot answer, but she feels that
she is right. Into the stove goes the letter,
if you are a wise man. And when a'good wife
gives her husband a gentle hint about any matters
relating to other women, he is safe in
heeding it. He cannot afford to ignore it.?W.
E. Barton. D. D.
SUPERIOR TO SURROUNDINGS.
Some people say: "If I were situated differently,
I could live right." To e sure it is
easier to do right with favorable surroundings,
out many of the noblest characters have been
wrought with the most unfavorable environment.
Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, and
a multitude of other illustrious saints have demonstrated
the fact that the grace of God is sufficient
to keep, regardless of hindrances. The
only thing vital is to do God's will; then all
things needed are guaranteed. (Phil. 4:19).
Hothouse plants are excedingly fragile. Character
is not built by being continually sheltered.
Soldiers are not made on the field of battle.
Trials root us in the truth.
As W. L. Watkinson says: "A naturalist relates
that he has often seen in northern Italy
vineyards, maize fields, and mulberry and
fruit trees completely stripped of their foliage
by hail, while the forest trees scattered through
the meadows, and the shrubs and brambles
wVi l nil orvno t? c* it rv Vv*r 4-V?? .! J- 5
ai/iuiig ujr mc vaysiue, passed
through the ordeal with scarcely the loss of a
leaf. How is this? Why should the domestic
growths suffer severely while the wild vegetation
survives in purity and beauty? The
fact is, the domesticated flowers and trees are
coddled into imbecility. Cared for with glass,
mats, sheltering walls, flowerpots and hedges,
the gardner lets down their native vigor, and
the enfeebled things immediately fall victims to
the light and hail; hut the rose of the wayside
and the pine upon the hill are stout of fiber.
They are full of sap, and they laugh at the
storm and the caterpillar.
"Alpine plants bloom in inaccessible places,
in the chinks of savage rocks, amid eternal ice
and snow; and they will grow equally well in
your garden bathed in the influences of the gen
tie summer. The gorgeous parrots of the Orient,
whose home is in the everlasting sunshine
and summer will live and thrive in the woods
of England all through the snowy winters; and
the saintly soul is free of yet wider latitudes
and more contrasted atmospheres.
"God has a wonderful way of keeping things
immaculate amid intense and perversive abominations.
Sweet flowers spring in pestilential
marshes. Guano has been found to contain
many beautiful forms of diatoms, which have
lost none of their perfection of structure or exquisite
loveliness or heavenly purity, despite
the strange vicissitudes they have sustained.
And those microscopic creatures you take from
the mud of slimy pools are pure and radiant as
though they had heen born in the sun, cradeled
in the rainbow, and baptized in the silvery dew
of the morning."?Living Water.
OTfl (1085) , 5
ROME'S HOMEPATHY.
JANET HAY HOUSTON.
In the last few days my attention has been
particularly attracted by Rome's homeopathic
treatment of the careless reading public.
Waiting for an order at a popular bookstore,
1 turned the leaves of the uppermost magazine
and read the list of articles. In large letters
"Madonna" loomed up. I did not skim the
pages to see in what seductive manner this
greatest idol of Romanism was held up to our
women. But turning that periodical down, I
opened the next. This time the dear little pill
was a picture. And underneath a line of that
universal Protestant hymn, "Jesus, lover of
my soul!" and wrapping up this particular
confection, in the good old fashioned Methodist
label?"An interpretation of the grand old
hymn of "Wesley."
I raised my eyes to the said "interpretation"
?a prostrate figure of a man before a picture of
Christ.
If I had been given to the saying of things,
I am afraid I would have said, "Shade of
Wesley!" And I would like to tell the particular
specialist of Rome who perpetrated that,
if he believes much in the shaking of saints'
bones at anaanna V. ^ v. ^ ^ ? 1
v UVIMIKlVXAUj HO 11 CI 01 UCLLCr liCCp
away from the holy place where "Wesley sleeps;
for if anything this side of the ressurrection
would arouse that sleeping saint, it would be
just such an "interpretation" of his precious
hymn.
But this is one of Rome's latest methods?
homeopathy?here a little and there a little.
If a new book, designed for the public, comes
out, it will be more popular if passed through
a tincture of Rome.
If only Cardinal Gibbon's or Archbishop Ireland's
"say" can be gotten on to the advertising
page, the careless American reader bows
acceptance.
They are little doses, more than broken?almost
atomized?but they are the scratch of the
rattler's fang, the breath of a poisoned rose.
THE MUSIC OF OUR LIVES.
There is no music in a rest, but there is the
making of music in it. In our whole life melody
the music is broken off here and there by
"rests," and we foolishly think we have come
to the end of our tune. God sends a time of
forced leisure, sickness, disappointed plans,
frustrated efforts, and makes a sudden pause
in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament
that our voices must be silent and our part
missing in the music which ever goes up to the
ear of the Creator. How does the musician
read the rest? See him beat the time with unvarying
count and catch up the next note true
and steady, as if no breaking place had come
in between. Not without design does God write
the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the
time, and not to be dismayed at the "rests."
mi *
i ney are not to De slurred over, not to be omitted,
not to destroy the melody, not to change
the keynote. If we look up, God himself will
beat the time for us. "With the eye on him,
we shall strike the next note full and clear. If
we say sadly to ourselves, "There is no music
in a rest," let us not forget: "There is the making
of music in it." The making of music is
often a slow and painful process in this life.
How patiently God works to teach us! How
long he waits for us to learn the lesson.?John
T? n olri?*
Avuoniii*
Too often a spirit of selfishness gets into our
chnrch work. Onr liberality is stimulated by
considerations of a personal nature rather than
by zeal for the work.