Newspaper Page Text
March 20, 1912 ] T H E I
believe ill of anyone. She would not gossip;
she would not engage in ridicule; she would not
assume haughty or superior airs. She was always
the same and always knew her acquaintances
wherever she met them, whether at church
or on the street.
In fact, hers was a life of sunshine and she
radiated with sunshine wherever she went. Consequently
she was always welcome and wanted.
Is it any wonder that this woman was popular?
Not at all. The wonder would have been had she
not been popular. The person who possesses the
above qualities is sure to be popular. Her life
teaches us that there are greater things in life
than wealth and beauty.?Leonard Guess, in
Presbyterian Advance.
HUMOR IN THE FAMILY.
Good humor is rightly reckoned a most valuable
aid to happy home life. An equally good
and useful faculty is a sense of humor, or the
capacity to have a little amusement along with
the humdrum cares and work of life. We all
know how it brightens up things generally to
have a lively, witty companion who sees the
ridiculous points of things, and who can turn an
annovance into an occasion for lauffhtcr Tf don*
a great deal better to laugh over some domestic
mishaps than to cry or scold over them. Many
homes and lives are dull because they are allowed
to become so deeply impressed with a sense
of the cares and responsibilities of life as not to
recognize its bright, and especially its mirthful
side. Into such a household, good, but dull, the
advent of a witty, humorous friend is like sunshine
on a cloudy day. While it is oppressive
to hear persons constantly striving to say witty
. or funny things, it is comfortable, seeing what
a brightener a little mirth is, to make an effort
to have some at home. It is well to turn off an
impatient question sometimes and regard it from
a humerous point of view, instead of becoming
irritated about it.
"Wife, what is the reason I can never find a
clean shirt?" exclaimed a good, but rather impatient
husband, after rummaging all through
the wrong drawer. His wife looked at him stead:i_.
i. : m?j i.~ ?J
uy lor a iiiuiiiciii, iiaix niuiiiicu 10 ue pnnuKcu,
then, with a comical look, she said: "I never
could guess conundrums," and then she felt
happy; and so what might have heen an occasion
for unkind feelings and hard words became just
the contrary, all through the little vein of humor
that cropped out to the surface.
Some children have a peculiar faculty for
giving a humorous turn to things when they are
reproved. It is just as well, oftentimes to laugh
things off as to scold them off. Laughter is better
than tears. Let us have a little more of it at
home.?Unidentified.
NEW LIGHT ON AN ACCEPTED FABLE.
//>< j ? i e "T% o \
^uontinuea rrom rage o.;
freedom, the Catholics always have at hand arguments
like this: We do not know whether what
you say is or is not true, but if it is true, it may
be so down there in Spain, or Italy or Mexico,
hut over here in the United States, Catholics, as
such, were the first to bring about religious toleration.
If I succeed in showing that this was not the
ease, then I may obtain a wider and more representative
hearing when I speak of the Syllabus,
of the Catholic schools, and of the Catholic
urmrch in politics. Then both Catholics anl
Protestants may realize what the Roman Catholic
system was in the past, is in the present and will
ever be in the fntnre, here in America as it was
in Spain and everywhere else.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
APPARENT HUMAN MISFITS.
BY WM. LAURIE HILL.
It is interesting to study the character and individuality
of some of the twelve disciples called
by Jesus, to do the work of planting his Church
in the world.
Passing by the Sea of Galilee, he saw some
men nsinng, and drawing near, he finds Simon
and Andrew "hauling their seine," as we would
say in these days, and much interested in their
work, for they were good fishermen. Speaking
to them in his own friendly way, he says, "Come
after me, and I will make you fishers of men;"
and we are told, "Straightway they left their
nets and followed him." Going further, Jesus
saw James and John the sons of Zebedee, and
they were also fishing. He issues the same call
to them that he had given to Simon and Andrew
and they left their nets with their father, and
promptly followed him. From those sturdy fishermen
of Galilee, men who were used to hard
labor and exposure to wind and weather, Jesus
chooses four of his most trusted disciples. Men
of poor environment and limited education; men
who had mingled but little with the higher classes,
and who had but few sympathies with any
other than the work-a-day world.
What leader of these modern days of so-called
enlightenment, when trying to launch upon life's
uncertain sea a party, or a new church organization,
would go to the fishermen in his neighborhood
for material out of which to make apostles?
The eye of the Master looked beyond the surface,
and when he was looking for men, he saw
underneath the bare, rugged breast of Simon
a stone more valuable than a diamond. He saw
in John the disciple he should love with all the
tenderness of a brother; for later on to this same
John, he left his beloved Mother, Mary, as he
was expiring on the cross. He saw in Andrew
one who should remain a steadfast follower even
unto death. He saw in James a disciple who
sealed his faith in his Master with his own life's
blood.
At one time it looked as if Jesus had made a
mistake, for we are told that when he was carried
to Pilate's judgment hall, "thev all for
sook him and fled." Even John, who followed
him to his trial, was a timid, although sympathetic
friend, who stood more faithfully by him
than all the rest, and yet, he could not be called
a courageous disciple.
In the midst of his trial, his smitings, his buffetings,
Simon Peter failed him; and by base
denial, proved himself indeed a sinful man; and
up to that time, unworthy of the confidence
Jesus had placed in him.
Contrast the Simon Peter in Pilate's judgment
hall with the Simon Peter on the day of Pentecost.
Hear him as he arraigns Pharisee, sadduPPP
nnd nil tVin linKnl T. ! " T-1"
, ?? .... uuubiioiiig ocnn, saying: XI im
being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain." Where
is the coward and blasphemer now? He is hid
behind the Jesus he had so basely denied; and a
genuine, regenerated Simon Peter stands boldly
forth to champion a risen Redeemer.
The sad fate of these first disciples of our
Master attests that Jesus knew the mettle of a
martyr, when as yet those men had never been
tried.
How true is it that what men are temntoH tn
call misfits often prove to be chosen vessels that
accomplish the work before them as no other
would or could, and thus the divine wisdom is
approved by a great harvest of results.
Andrew was hne of the quiet, faithful ones of
whom we know little; that he was a master workman
there is little doubt. His name is linked
with the little lad whose small lunch furnishes
) U T H (367) 5
Jesus with material to start the miracle of feeding
the five thousand. His bringing his brother
Simon to Jesus showed his great value as a personal
worker.
James was chosen by Jesus to be with him in
one of the grandest scenes of his life on the
Mount of Transfiguration. He was with his Master
on every important occasion in the history
of the early Church, and was the head of the
mother Church at Jerusalem.
John was the only original apostle who died
a natural death, living a long, laborious and useful
life. His character was lovely and it was
no wonder that Jesus loved him, as he did not
love, any other human friend. Let us learn from
these four apostles, and their work in founding
the Church of God, that "when God gives us ?
the clearest sight, he does not touch our eyes
with love, but sorrow." It was by way of the
martyr that Peter and Andrew and James were
gloriously translated.
PRAISE YOUR WIFE.
A onnoliintr J 1 1
^ UUUi?iiu; nuauauu manes a merry, Deautiful
home, worth having, worth working for. If
a man is breezy, cheery, considerate and sympathetic,
his wife sings in her heart over her puddings
and her mending basket, counts the hours
until he returns at night, and renews her youth
in the security she feels of his approbation and
admiration. You may think it weak and childish,
if you please, but it is the admired wife wlm
hears words of praise and receives smiles of commendation,
who is capable, discreet and executive.
I have seen a timid, meek, self-distrusting
little body fairly bloom into strong, self-radiant
womanhood under the tonic and the cordial of
companionship with a husband who really went
out of his way to find occasion for showing her
how fully he trusted her judgment, and how
tenderly he deferred to her opinion.
In home life there should be no jar, no striving
for place, no insisting on prerogatives or division
of interest. The husband and the wife are each
the complement of the other. And it is just as
much his duty to be cheerful as it is hers to be
patient; his right to bring joy into the door as it
is hers to garnish the pleasant interior. A family
where the daily walk of the father makes life a
festival is filled with something like heavenly
benediction.?Ex.
A LITTLE HERO.
in the Woman's Home Companion Commander
Booth-Tucker, of the Salvation Army, relates
the following pathetic incident which happened
at one of their Christmas dinners: "The
- * 1 "
^iiuius oi suen gatherings can easily be imagined.
At the Grand Central Palace, New York
City, last Christmas day, a bright-faced little
lad attracted our attention. He had come to
receive a basket for his family. He seemed a
manly little fellow and waited without a murmur,
holding fast to his precious ticket. There
were five other children in the family, he said,
all younger than he, and he was twelve. Father
had had his foot injured six weeks before by
molten lead being spilled on it. "Work was none
too plentiful, anyway, but now he was unable to
do it if it was to be had. Mother? No, mother
couldn't work, either. She'd been laid up for
some time with rheumatism.
" 'Dear me, that is bad,' sympathized snmo
body. 'Who, then, looks after the family*'
" 'I take care of the family, ma'am." he answered
brightly, 'I does the housework, washes
the children and looks after things.'
" 'You're a hrick," declared the one addressed.
'But,' as a sudden thought struck her, 'Who
will cook the dinner for you to-day t'
"And he answered with a smile,-hut seriously,
'T Will, ma'am.'
"God bless him and the others like him."