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4 (124) THE
F amily I
i i
IN A STRAIT BETWIXT TWO.
Phil. 1: 23, 24.?F>or I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you.
I John 3: 2.?It doth not yet appear what we shall
be; but we know that when he shall appear, we
shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Rev. 22: 20.?Even so, come, L?ord Jesus.
O Christ, from whom I oft have strayed,
But who hast pardoned all my guilt,
Since on Thee all my sins were laid,
Come, take me when Thou wilt!
This world hath beautieB manifold,
And blessings rich, from Heaven spilt;
But earth is not my Shepherd's fold?
Lord, take me when Thou wilt!
No craven am I, fain to shirk
The awful sorrow Thou hast felt,
Nor sluggard, wary of Thy work;
Yet take me when Thou wilt!
Tho' sorrow, Bhared with Thee, is sweet,
And work for Thee with joy is flll'd,
I long to know the Life complete;
L<ord, take me when Thou wilt.
Bright is the vision of my King
With which my soul will then be flll'd;
Like Thee I'll shine while worshipping?
A TV/x., m(U1
V Uiivo LUC W LieII 1UUU "lit.
Heaven's lure I feel this favor'd hour;
I crave the bliBB of freedom felt
From sin with all its darkening power?
Liord, take me when Thou wiltBut
if, Lord, Thou wouldst have me live,
For others, be Thy plan fulfill'd;
Thy grace sufficient Thou wilt give,
And take me when Thou wilt.
Martinsville, Va. Win. P. McCorkle.
New Year's Day, 1912.
"BE GOOD."
by charles p. cleaves.
Familiar words!
I thought of them when reading of Paul's
"fruits of the Spirit:" "love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance."
It sounds very much as if he had said: '' Among
many kinds of goodness there is goodness!" It
1 1 il A 1 1 1 _ i? _ _1
is oniy possiDie mat ne meant to specuy cnaniy,
beneficence. It is far more probable that in his
hasty letter-writting the word that meant to
Paul in Greek what it means to us in English
leaped to his mind and must be spoken?the
word that expresses the ring of genuine character
so well that nothing can take its place.
When Victoria was twelve years old, it was
decided to inform her of her heirship to the
throne. She was given a genealogical table and
allowed to discover the fact. She commented
upon it thoughtfully and, placing her hand in
the hand of her governess, she said: "I will be
good?I will be good!"
Could anything else have expressed so much?
The quality of the child's character found expression
in the word. Her biography is expressed
in the endearing term: "England's good
Queen."
Mrs. Browning, in one of her poems, has a
character of whom she says:
"She never found fault with you, never implied
Your wrong by her right; and yet men at her
' side *
Grew nobler, girls purer; and through the whole
town
The children were glad as they tugged at her
gown."
t #
What a clear picture! We feel that we know
her. Through the verse conies the influence of
her goodness.
t
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
headings
i i
"Ah!" some one says, "you talk of anvabstraction!
Goodness is in activity. One must
be good for something or good for nothing."
Very true. Salt is to salt something. Light
is to light something. Let your light so shine!
But that would make another sermon. "We are
talking now of the inner quality, the soul's character.
At the foundation of doing is being. As
Jesus said, "Every good tree bringeth forth
good fruit"?that is its nature. Out of goodness
comes goodness.
iou nave Known some one, have you not, back
of whose serviceable life, whether in a large or a
small world, was a sweetness and largeness of
character, a purity and nobility?a goodness?
that made companionship and inspiration and
memory an influence ? Such lives are like a clear,
cool spring that calls us to refreshment; or like
a flower; snow-white, or soft and depp with
lovely colors.
There are such men. They are human, but we
feel their goodness when we come in contact with
their inner lives whether thrmnrVi nnmnonUnoiim
_ ? -?W- vviu|'UlilUUOUl|;
or through their deeds. Vice-president "Wilson
said of Whittier: "I believe him the purest man
living." We feel that goodness through his
poetry, as others felt it in his companionship.
President Fairbairn said of President McKinley:
"He died a good man, not with a religious side
to his character, but with religion through and
through."
There are such women. By chance, looking
over old volumes, fragments of a teacher's
library, I found a report of the Silver Street
Kindergarten in San Francisco, published in
1880 in the San Francisco Chronicle, and copied
these striking words, spoken of a young kindergartner,
Miss Kate Smith:
44 In visiting families she has been called upon
to perform the duties of spiritual counselor,
physician, mother, nurse, provider, benefactor,
and general guardian. With what success may
be learned from scores of parents in the neighborhood
who have been raised from squalor,
Hmnlronnnoo ?i?- 1
auu biiiuc nj cieamiLitJSS, soorieiy
and virtue, and who speak in terms of enthusiastic
praise tinged with reverential awe of 'Miss
Kate.' "
She is now "Kate Douglas Wiggin." But
long before her literary fame there was the fame
of her goodness in the hearts of the Silver Street
neighborhood. There are men and women who
will never be widely famous, but the first and
highest fame, the fame of goodness, goes out into
the hearts of those who know them.
"Did it ever occur to you," said Charles
Kingsley, "that goodness is not only a beautiful
thing but the most beautiful thing in the world?
. . . Nothing can be compared with goodness!"
Among the people of Mrs. Wharton's "The
House of Mirth" cleverness meant a great deal
more than goodness. "Goodness" must have
seemed very tasteless and humdrum. But the
fame of the book comes not so much from the
cleverness of the people in it as from the trueto-life
picturing of lives that lacked sroodness.
Unsown lives, vacant lots, running to gaudy
weeds. What commands our honor for Lily
Bart, at certain periods in her dishonored and
dishinorable life? An instance of goodness that
rises in her asserts itself against gross temptations,
makes her true to unworthy friends, and
wakes as a sense of love when in her last sleep
she dreams of a child's head pillowed upon her
arm?the child of a young woman whom oho had
1
U T H [February 7, 1912
befriended. In Robert Herrick's "The Common
Lot" certain tine ideals of an architect's life and
work faded out of Jackson Hart's soul in the
hot glare of business competition. The goodness
of his wife?clear-eyed, pure soul?misunderstood
and snubbed by society?is the sweetness
of the book, the salvation of the man. Always,
in books, in society, in politics, in industrial life,
whether emphasized or not, goodness stands over
against the other thing as the only antidote for
badness.
Let us never be ashamed of the longing and
tiie aim for goodness. Let us make the word
fragrant and fruitful with meaning. Let us
learn to apply our goodness to life as we find it.
It is the world's great need. Goodness is not
the one way to fame nor to wealth, nor to great
accomplishment. But it is the one way to the
best of life and the best of permanent influence.
Sir Walter Scott had a last message for a
friend who bent over him:
"Lockhart, I may have but a moment to speak
to you. Be a good man?be virtuous, be religious
?be a good man. Nothing else will give you any
comfort when you come to lie here."
Best wish of all for the young people of our
land! Sane, sweet, strong, practical goodness,
applied in the home, the school, the church, in
friendship, business, and the affairs of the nation
! How we need it as the fiber of our souls,
the distinction of our being! Charles Kingsley
thinks of both the inner and the outer goodness
and his words are precious advice not to the
sweet maid only but to the strong young man:
'' Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever.
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long.
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song."
"Good-by! Be good!"
EARS THAT HEAR.
Much depends on hearing. "Take heed how
ye hear." "Be swift to hear." "Hearken diligently,
and your soul shall live." " He that hath
ears to hear let him hear."
In an old book there is a story of a wayward
young man, whose father, lying at the point of
death, sent for him to come and receive a message
from his lips. The son came and went with
fear and trembling into the room where his
father lay. The father said: "1 have one request
to make. After I am gone, 1 desire that
you will spend one hour each day alone in your
room." That was all. The young man was
surprised and puzzled, for he had expected to
hear that he was disinherited on account of his
w ickedness. The request was so reasonable, and
the task so easy, that he readily promised. As
soon as his father was buried, the son proceeded
to fulfill his promise.
At first he did not know why his father had
requested him to spend an hour alone each day,
but the meaning of it all soon dawned on him.
While shut up alone the myriad voices which
had deceived him were hushed, and in the
silence he heard another voice which he had not
heard since he was a child?it was the voice of
the Lord.
Let the voices of the world be shut out for a *
time every day, and the soul will hear God
speaking, "He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear."?The King's Own.
A child appeals to us specially because it so
much needs us and the Eternal Child, too, casts
himself upon us in love and in hope. Love
waited on him when he came. True, he was
laid in a manger, but he was laid there tenderly.
He was trustful as children are trustful,
and there is nothing that softens the heart more
than a child's faith.?W. R<^>ertson Nieoll.