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4 (584) THE
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Family I
THE COLOR OF THE SOUL.
The color of the Soul?what shall It be
When it hath put on immortality?
If it hath walked in paths that men call RIGHT,
'Its mortal and immortal color's white.
If it hath strived for things both good and true,
Its color in eternity is blue.
If it loved greed and did deeds low and mean,
Its color is a vivid, brilliant green.
Tf nQCCinn nilo.I aauI Sll flrvyl
** 1 ?IVU ovui nil 11IC liuu 1ICU)
Its color, like the flame of Hell, is red.
We give the color to our souls on earth,
Eternity but gives the color birth.
The color of your soul?what shall it be
When it hath put on immortality??John Richard
Moreland.
JOYFULNESS AND ITS SECRET.
A. H. M 'GLLLJVRAY.
Christianity is a religion of joy. The announcement
of the angel who heralded the
advent of Messiah was ''Heboid I bring you
glad tidings of great joy." And when the
Saviour came part of His program was "Beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and
the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness."
Elsewhere He said that Ilis kingdom
was like unto treasure hid in a field, the which
when a man hath found he hideth and for joy
thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and
fiuyeth that field.
But when we speak of the joyfulness of our
religion we do well to remember what joy is.
It is a larger word than "happiness" or
"amusement" or "pleasure." It has to do
with all that happens. It is permanent amid
the passing; abiding amid all change. It is
for the crisis as well as for the common day.
It is not a mere matter of sentiment or season;
it has to do with the permanent pose of the
spirit. It is not as a fine complexion, an added
charm to the face which yet would be
.structurally perfect without this charm; it is
a feature and the face that does not have it
is disfigured. In a word, joy is not incidental
but essential to Christian character. It is one
of the graces, a fruit of the Spirit.
This, together with Ilis peace, He left as
His legacy to the eleven. "Ye now therefore
have sorrow, but I will see you again and your
heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh
from yon." If they did abide in Tlim as the
branch in the vine, His joy would remain in
them and their joy would he fulfilled. This
was His assurance to them on the occasion of
the First Communion.
And as He promised even so was it unto
them. The joy of the Lord became their
strength. Everything, even to the eating of
their food, was done with gladness and singleness
of heart. When stripes were laid upon
iL it 1 a\ a At ' *
mem uiey rejuiceu UiHT. T.ncy Were counted
worthy to suffer shame for His name. When
imprisoned they prayed and sang praises unto
Hod. In tribulation they were of good
cheer for had not Christ overcome the world.
What, then, we ask, will cause us thus to
rejoice with joy unspeakable? First in order
we ntention a proper conception of the reality
Af Redemption. There is no blessedness to
be compared with that of the one whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered; no
other delight so great as that of coining and
i ^ /
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
ft
headings
i
keeping near to God. The psalmist who Had
tirst found and then forfeited the favor of the
Father pleads, as man never pleaded before,
that the joy of God's salvation should be restored.
The depth of penitence measures the
height of gladness of the soul, and he who
begins with the lowly cry for forgiveness will
end with lofty songs of joy.
Side by side with this is the sufficiency of
the Saviour unto the soul. In the quest of
life the lushest sood is found in find "Thoi.0
be many that say who will show us only
pood? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy
countenance upon us." To have God makes
for gladness greater far than increase of
goods. "Is that all you have?" was asked Ot
one whose table seemed bare. "All this," she
replied, holding up a solitary crust, "and
Christ." And the face beaming with joy told
of a life of unbroken praise and undivided
trust. We know God only as we know Him
in the face of Jesus Christ. That face brings
light in darkness, gladness in want, enlargement
in straits, safety in peril and every
needed good.
Il becomes a dynamic enabling us to do our
duty. Our Saviour said, and we say likewise,
"My Father worketh hitherto and I work."
For if we destroy the sequence, life loses
heart and joy and meaning and value. But if
we swing imo nne witn the eternal energy,
we become a force among the forces, a toiler, a
producer, a factor, and life loses neither tone
nor flavor. There is no real taste to bread nor
bliss in sleep for idler. Unhr.ppiness is born
of indolence and there is a joy that work alone
can give.
We have another source of joy in the hope
of glory. Following that Last Supper the
first reference of our Lord is to the place lie
was about to prepare for His children. Says
Samuel Rutherford, "Go up beforehand and
see your lodging. Look through all your
Father's rooms in heaven. Men take a sight
of the lands ere they buy them. I know that
Christ hath made the bargain already; but be
hind to the house you are going to and see
it Afton " *1 -
uucu muugius are noi an evidence
of mere sentiment, they make for strength.
They help to prepare us for the home Christ
is preparing for us. The artist may be depressed
when he sees how poorly he embodies
his vision, but there is a'n unspeakable joy in
the work and he glories in his dream; the musician
with his heart full of inaudible harmony
is beaten down with disappointment at his
failure to give voice to his conceptions, but
he knows as he strives, the joy of the hope set
before him. tto although there be much in and
about us to provoke despair, when we think of
Jesus and of the home lie is preparing and of
M-il ' ' ? ? ' "
imr miner s mougnt tor us we cannot lmt rejoice
in hope of the Glory of God.
Such, then, is the joy of Jesus. It suffers
and endures for that which is to he, when the
iron becomes steel and the rough marble a
thing of beauty. It is conscious tbat Christ
is ever nigh, strangely near in the prison
house of pain, "setting in pain the jewel of
His joy." It finds in work, however humble,
co-operation with God. In temptation it finds
the warrior's delight; in victory and in defeat,
if honorable, it is comforted in knowing
tbat God understands every campaign; if dishonorable,
there is the sad hut hopeful joy of
honest repentance and return to Him who de
"7
) U T 3 [May 29, 1912
from you." If they did not abide in Him as the
that which says "All things are well," nor
that which says "All things are ill," hut rather
this, "All will one day he well."
And in that day we shall be like Him, beautiful
with 1 lis beauty and joyful with His joy.
?The Presbyterian, Toronto.
THE WOMAN WHO SAVED PRINCE
CHARLIE.
One of the favorite traditions, not only of
rne pine-Darren country, but of all the eastern
part of North Carolina, is connected with
Flora Macdonald, the saviour of Bonnie
Prince Charlie. People speak of her much
as if sne had been alive yesterday, and indeed
she is thoroughly identified with the history
of the region. When the women tell her
story, they tell it with the sympathy they
would feel toward a sister. It seems that
after Flora, as they call her, had been forgiven
by the House of Hanover for her help
to the House of Stuart, she and her husband
fell into straitened circumstances, and, encouraged
by the account of the opportunities
in North Carolina, sailed with a number of
followers, in 1775, and settled 011 the Cape
Fear River, at what is now Fayetteville.
Flora came with high hopes, and was received
with the greatest deference bv her
countrymen. North Carolina tradition says
that she was very imperious. On one occasion,
she was visiting in a house in Fayetteville, on
the walls of which hung a picture of Anne of
Jura, who also was said to have saved Prince
Charlie. Flora turned the picture to the wall
with a firm, though passionate, hand. "Na,
l.a, that body ne'er saved Prince Charlie!"
she said.
After the Revolutionary War broke out, the
British struck an early blow in North Carolina,
perhaps with the idea that the Macdonalds
and their clan would win the day. The
Scotch Highlanders rallied to the cause of the
king, as they were hound to do under their
oath. Flora made an especial appeal to her
kinsman and clansmen to rally to the House
of Hanover. The story goes that the Royalists
drilled their forces on one side of Cross
Creek, and the Whigs on the other, joining
for social intercourse after military manoeuvres
were over. Every man who could shoul
der a musket and handle a claymore was drilling,
and the notes of the pibroch mingled
with those of the English bugle. In February,
177(i, the forces clashed, and there followed
for the hapless Highlanders another Culloden.
Flora Macdonald's husband was taken prisoner
and confined in the jail at Halifax. Much
of her property was confiscated; other things
she sold, to help to effect her husband's freedom,
even pawning the family plate. The
women tell of her hours of bitterness?how she
had to live on a little sandy tract of land
while her husband was in prison, and how she
buried two children there. When her husband
went hlll'lt tn S4<?r?t lllll/l ilvmr uuiu utniKjo 1, ! < i L-1 > 11 ill
? w?? vmvu w N/vvviuiiu9 ttiv j nuic nuiov i/i
purse and fortune than when they had emharked
for the New World. Flora is saiil to
have cried, "I have-done inuckle for both
the House of Stuart and for the House ot
Hanover, and I havna heen mickle the gai"el
by either."?Harper's Magazine.
Who is there that does not hope for Heaven
Deep down in the heart of all mankind is 1,11
ardent longing for something better "ovei
there." The Christian, the infidel, the atheist,
the pagan, the heathen, are all looking w''''
eyes "that shine with different degrees of hoj>(
into the "great beyond," where they expert
to find the things which here they bavi
searched for in vain. ^
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