Newspaper Page Text
August 28, 1912 ] THE
our gift in not using it, we keep back something
which Qod and man needs in the building
up of a sane, a saved, and happy human society.
Our gift, as compared with the richer endowments
of others, may be as the star to the
sun; but as the sun cannot say to the star "I
have no need of thee," neither can we afford
to rob the world of that in us for which life
has no equivalent, nature no alternative. Great
influences, says one, which we cannot understand,
stretching over huge spaces of time, will
make one man great as a "Mariposa pine, and
another as small as a dwarf pear; yet in its degree
this shall be as good as that, while the
sun will shine, and the rain fall, and the blessJnrr
nf hnnvnn 99 A J ""
...b w- uvuiuu itoi, uu uulii. a a ay, iiimerson
tells us, is a "king in disguise." And think
what can be done, if we will do it, with a day.
If our days are not kings, but beggars ragged
and fugitive, it is because the rags are upon us,
not upon the days. In our homes, our friendships,
our business pursuits, every turn meets
us with the opportunity to hearten some one
with a kind word and a pleasant look; the opportunity
to manifest a spirit that radiates the
"holiness of helpfulness." Every place may
be the place where for some one we can do a
brother's part: "for no man liveth unto himself."
"He that loveth not his brother whom he
hath seen," says another apostle, "how can he
love God whom he hath not seen?" What does
this mean? If we would face the question for
what it is, many of us would either profess less
religion or practice more. It puts the proof of
our love to God in our service for man. Just
as we get "affected by close contact with live
things at specific points," so this love is
brought down to a specific object or person?
the brother whom we have seen. We hear
much in our day about loving and caring for
humanity. But who can tell us what humanity
is? What is called the "Religion of Humanity"
may be the safest refuge of selfishness.
If it means anything, it should mean the
man closest to us, or the few who touch our
life and receive our touch in return; and these
for us are humanity, or for us humanity does
not exist.
The best way?nay the only way?to know
how to love the people who are furthest away
from us, is to begin by loving and blessing the
people closest to us". Unless we recognize this
truth and act upon it, we shall never know
wnat the "slumbering potentialities of universal
love" actually are. Some very selfish men
have written and spoken eloquently about the
love of humanity; men who have only looked
at humanity in the abstract and never touched
it in the concrete. The sign of adoption into
Clod's family is in keeping an open and hospitable
heart, so that the gladness of the glad
nay always enter in. It is worth our while to
say this and to hear it, although I know that
the people who can find a good denied to themselves
in the good of others are all too rare.
"To this true saintliness few of us can attain,
but we can try to approach it. We can all
of us do much to keep our sympathies fresh and
Rreen, and to do this atones for many a defect."
1'nselfish love?by nothing else can we be
known as the children of our Father which is in
Heaven; for nothing else can yield us satis1
action or happiness worth the name. Tt ia n
commonplace to cite money in this connection.
And when we reflect that money is the most
fcrociou8 pursuit of society as we know it, the
commonplace will bear repetition. Money can
much. Tt is useless, it may be folly, to affect
to despise it, or to preach against it. And yet
for any single hour of satisfaction there is in
money used as an end in itself, there is a month
I * ? /
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
of anxiety, and the sense of being mocked in a
possession that promises so much and can fulfill
so little. It is the same with our pleasures.
Have them only for ourselves, and we never
have them at all. Take a well-to-do family of
young people who have little more to do than
to amuse themselves, and are industriously living
down to their privilege. Study that family,
in its weariness, its silliness, its moral
squalor?you may grieve, but you will cease
to wonder that some problems lie a dead weight
upon our civilization, not to speak of our religion.
I would, if I could, lift a phrase that has fallen
into the gutter of cant, and cleanse it for
serious use. We have miieh to aov of
about the "Simple Life"; I wish we were determined
to find the thing behind the word. For
so many of us are living wrongly, and hence,
dissatisfied with ourselves, we are jealous and
suspicious of one another. Would that we
could say: God has sent us here to make the
best of where we are with what we have; for
accepting our place in simple trust in Him, we
should find the good that is gearter than the
world's provocatives to envy; we should find
the good that is independent of the world. Let
us, then, just go on doing the best we can and
the highest we know, and every step makes us
more sure of God; and sure of God, we are sure
of all that matters. With God in the heart it
will be big enough and hospitable enough for
everything that is God-like. We shall not be
unclothed in what we have not, but clothed upon
in the riches of others. Were I as sure of
God as I pray to be, how I could shake hands
aL 1 * - * - - ~
nun me woria tms day. All trace of envy,
dissatisfaction, fear, and foreboding would be
cleansed from ray heart, while to every man,
woman, and child I would say: I believe the
best of you, and sharing your best you shall
prove the best in me. And the cost of it in
things I may have to do without, will enhance
the value of it all when the day dawns and the
shadows flee away.
All comes back to the same truth. Nothing
we do is self-contained. Every action is influential.
That which we imagine is done in
the secrecy of the soul is proclaimed on the
housetops of our character. In passing the
way we have never travelled before, and, a?
t ? ? t > "
iai ?? we Know, snail never travel again, we
exercise an influence, and from its responsibility
there is no escape. It is this which gives
our life its correspondence with the infinite, for
the infinite is in it.
What, therefore, is the moral quality of the
influence you and I carry with us and leave behind
us? We may refuse to come into close *
quarters with us. "For," says the Apostle, 1
"none liveth unto himself"; and he also adds,
"no man dieth unto himself." We shall have 1
company in that solemn hour. According to
the things we have done, or left undone, will be
our companions when heart and flesh fail. And '
what will it profit us then, whatever we have
had of the lusts of the flesh and the pride of 1
life, if. when face to face with eternity, we lie 1
surrounded with the company of our past sins
ann seir-made failures? What pleasures or satisfaction
will the retrospect of selfishness yield
us. as each "forgotten fault and buried bad- 1
ness comes silently and sits down beside us"; <
as from each bloodless spectral lip there is- 1
sues the word, "We are the familiar thou hast ]
called out of thine own soul; and as thou \
couldst not live to thyself, to thyself thou canst '
not die?" i
But thanks be to Him who is "able to keep 1
us from falling, and to present us faultless be- >
fore the presence of His crlory with exceeding 1
joy," it may be all so different. It is in living '
UTH (987) 5
for others that we tind life. And if, when the
day that shortens as we measure it closes for
us, we know that some one will miss us; that
we shall leave hearts behind us out of which
that has gone which can never be replaced
until they rejoin us on the other side; if, amid
i U 1 x _ -
i nose in si snaaows just before the wondrous
dawn, the angel faces of the good things we
have done, or tried to do, are smiling upon us
?what a passing it will be to praise the grace
of the Saviour in His servant's words, "No
man dieth unto himself."?The Presbyterian,
Toronto.
"DON'TS FOR SPEAKERS.
Grenville Kleiser has issued a list of "Don'ts
for Public Speakers." He says:
Don't apologize.
Don't shout.
Don't hesitate.
Don't attitudinize.
Don't speak in a high key.
Don't pace the platform.
Don't distort your words.
Don't exceed your time-limit.
Don't indulge in personalities.
Don't emphasize everything.
Don't praise yourself.
Don't tell a long story.
Don't sway your body.
Don't be "funny."
Don't fatigue your audience.
Dot) unnoh 4l*~??.??I- * - "
v uuuugii ciosea teetn.
Don't drink while speaking.
Don't tumble with your clothes.
Don't be sarcastic.
Don't "hem" and "haw."
Don't stand like a statue.
Don't clear your throat.
Don't declaim.
Don't speak rapidly.
Don't antagonize.
Don't fidget.
Don't over-gesticulate.
Don't wander from your subject.
Don't be awkward.
Don't address the ceiling.
Don't be monotonous.
Don't put your hands on vour hi
v ?rDon't
be violent.
Don't rise on. your toes.
Don't forget to sit down when you have
finished.
In brief: Stand up so that you can be seen.
Speak up so that you can be heard. Shut up so
that you will be liked.
THE STORY OP NAMES IN TIDEWATER
VIRGINIA.
(Continued from Page 3.)
growing than those along the Jamea. Stafford
was organized in the memorable year of 1666,
and called for William Howard, Viscount Stafford,
who was to this time a staundh friend of
King Charles. But the day will soon come when
Stafford will die on Tower Hill unjustly enough.
Accomac is now formed along the northern
lioiinrlnrv nf J lt- 1
?..j ^vituoiupiuii itmi uie urn name lor
lhat county revived. Middlesex is separated
From Lancaster on the Rappahannock.
Norfolk, Va.
Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's
life was spent in doing kind things?in merely
ioing kind things? Run over it with that in
I'iew, and you will find that He spent a great
,.uKui.iuii ui xiin nme simpiy in making people
happy, in doing "good turns" to people,
rhere is only one thing greater than happiness
n the world, and that is holiness; and it is
lower in our keeping; but what God has put
n our power is the happiness of those about
is. and that is largely to be secured by our
icing kind to them.?Drummond.