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4 THE!
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LIFE'S UNEAVEN PATHWAY.
By Ed war do.
Though sometimes so dark and dreary
*Is the uneven, thorny road,
And my heart so weak and weary
Struggling 'neath life's heavy load
That my chafed, impatient spirit,
Beating 'gainst its prison walls.
Sighs for realms of rest and quiet
Where no shade of sorrow falls.
Yet this is the very pathway
Which the Master's feet have pressed,
L.t.-auing ever ouwaru, upwuru,
To the bouI'b eternal rest;
Where the dear ones who have left me?
Some "I loved, and lost a while"?
Waiting are to bad me welcome
With their well remembered smile.
Then I'd keep life's way of duty?
All its wildest storms would stem?
Nor would leave the world Its sorrow
For a starless diadem:
But with patience wait the hour
When, from age, life's sun goes down:
Striv/ng some dear soule to gather?
Gems to deck the Master's crown.
For this Is the blood-stained pathway
Which the Master's feet have pressed.
Leading through earth's tribulation
To the soul's eternal rest:
"Where the dear ones who have left me?
Some "I loved and lost a while"?
Waiting are to bid me welcome
With their well remembered smile.
Madlsonvllle, Texas.
THE KINGDOM AT HAND.
CHARLES E. JEFFERSON, D. D., IN THE CONOREOA
TIONALIST.
In stepping from one year to another one
ought to get rid of sundry things which have
been found burdensome. There are certain
dispositions and moods which are heavier than
lead, and so long as we retain them they handicap
our progress and drag us down to the
ground. The heaviest of these dispositions is
that of ill will. The reason for this is, I presume,
that the universe is owned by a God of
Good-Will. At any rate, nothing so weighs
nnnn r?r?p no nn iinkirirl nnH unfnririvincr unirit
w~ ?? ? ??? o" ?o ~i There
is nothing which so darkens the sky
as a tinge of bitterness in the heart. An ordinarj'
sized grudge weighs a ton. A tiny bit
of malice works like an infernal leaven until
the whole lump of life is leavened. High dudgeon
is not a wholesome state for the soul. If
there is anywhere in the church, therefore, an
old) quarrel or feud, the minister and deacons
ought to get after it on New Year's. If the
grace of forgiveness has been lost out of the
church, then let every member of the church
light his candle, seize his broom and seek diligently
until he finds it.
In coming through the year we have all been
jostled and trodden on. At times we have been
nettled, more than once exasperated, occasionally
embittered Jby disagreeable experiences
through which we have passed. We have been
annoyed, plagued, riled, thwarted, it may be
deeply wounded. If our blood has not boiled,
it has at least simmered, and more than once
the sun has gone down on our wrath. If we
have not burned up several Samaritan villages,
it has been from lack of power and not from
any scarcity of inclination. "Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors" has occasionally
stuck in our throat. Christmas, however,
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
i ir% nro
w^auiiigo
always puts us into a charitable mood, and
when New Year's arrives we are almost persuaded
to be a Christian. At the threshold of
a year we feel that the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand, and we know instinctively that the
only way into that Kingdom is through a heart
of good will.
One of the reasons why most people have
a good time on New Year's is because they
forget for a day their animosities and estrangements.
He is a veritable savage who would
hate anybody on New Year's. But on ordi
nary days it is easy to get ruffled and to go
off in a huff. Some people offend us simply by
being different from us. They are radicals or
conservatives, and we are neither. They go
too fast or too slow, whereas our pace is just
right. Some men run like wild horses and
others will not budge at all. It is the man who
is like a house-a-fire and the immovable brother
who arc most likely to madden us; but on
New Year's one ought to remember that God
made both, and therefore they should be al1...
3 a- a?__
luncu iu pass xor men.
Others fret us by differing from us in opinion.
Of course they would not do this if they
were sensible and knew more, but their blindness
is irritating. They seem to be casting out
demons, but we have our doubts of it, because
they are uot following after us. On New
Year's, however, we find ourselves in a larger
world and are ready to grant liberties to men
even to hold an opinion of their own. Carlyle
once said that he agreed with a certain man in
everything but opinion. He was one of the
few men whom Carlyle genuinely admired.
Others incense us by opposing us. They
favor causes of which we disapprove, and they
ally themselves with forces which make war on
things for which we stand. They openly resist
us and in polite but cutting phrases curse
us. But even these men should not be beyond
the pale of mercy on New Year's. When men
throw stones at us our first impulse is to return
the compliment. A stone for a stone
seems to be an ancient law written in the human
constitution. A curse for a curse is easier
Wa?: ii.- . -^
man &ccpju^ uue new cominanumeni. I5UX on
New Year's one thinks of what David said
when Shimei cursed him, "Let him curse, for
the Lord hath bidden him." David knew
that he had not been a faultless man and that
a vigorous chastisement would do him good.
It is heartening to remember when Shimei gets
after us that it is possible for us to compel his
curses to turn out for our improvement. Even
Shimei, therefore, has no terrors for us on New
Year's.
A deal of time is wasted every year in criticising
good men and in hurling thunder-bolts
at men who are bad. Many sorts of men with
oil lrir?/l? /v ^ ? 3 -?? 1 * * **
IU. iwuuo \ii. iueti? ana worKing in ail manners
of ways are needed in the upbuilding of the
world. One man does a good thing in one way,
another man does another kind of a good thing
in quite a different way. The tragedy begins
when the first man stops in his work to fight
the second, or the second) ceases from his labors
in order to sneer at the first. Bad men
are, to be sure, provoking, and it relieves the
heart to pummel them. We have good authority
for giving them a whack now and then,
after all the most effective blow to strike at
wicked men on New Year's is the blow the
Master struck: "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do."
OTB [January 8, 1913
THE STORY OF JOHN WYGLIFFE.
BY FRED MYRON COLBY.
There is a small village in Yorkshire, northern
England, whieh bears the name of Wyeliffe.
The name is derived from an ancient
and honorable family of the same name that
lived in that vicinity for many generations and
exercised a sort of predominance in the neighborhood.
The family had become somewhat
reduced, but was still ranked among the gentry
at the time John Wycliffe was born. That
was in the year 1324, nearly six centuries ago,
and yet his name to-day is as a shining light,
and he is generally known as the first English
reformer.
Tb<* hirt.hnlnna nf a mart 10 nln.n..n in
w* u gt vuv aiauu AO ainajro interesting.
You feel that you know the man
better if you are familiar with the haunts of
his childhood, the fields that he roamed, the
house where he lived, and the church building
where he received his religious training. Yorkshire,
the home county of John Wycliffe, is a
delightful, picturesque county, one of the most
romantic in England, and the little village of
Wycliffe is one of its loveliest parishes. It
is situated in a country of fair rounded hills
and green fertile villages and romantic flowinc
streams Thp ormntrv hoa nlion??n^ iu
D ? - - .?V/ J ?wo Vliaugv^u >UUI/ lit"
tie since Wycliffe's day. The low Gothic
church with its many diamond windows, still
stands, with which the great reformer was
familiar.
Little is known absolutely of Wycliffe's
younger days. He acquired his education at
Oxford, being first a student at Baliol and
afterward at Queen's college. He loved study,
and he applied himself with his whole soul,
especially to all that related to the Church of
Christ Jinrl Ilia wm?lr linnn nnJ
.. U|/vu cui tu, auu VYllliC a till
a young man, he was called by the title of Gospel
Doctor.
When about thirty-two years old he published
a tract called the "Last Age of the
Church," in which he opposed many ideas then
prevalent among religious people and urged
a reform. He spoke of the terrible plague
which was then raging in England, and declared
that it was a judgment from God,
brought upon men for their sin. The book
made a great impression and brought him into
the limelight of celebritv. For the ro.
mainder of his life he was a prominent figure
in the religious history of his time.
Wycliffe was one of the great scholars and
teachers of his age. For many years he was a
lecturer at Oxford. He gathered around him a
band of earnest men who went through the
country preaching to the poor, and by their
example teaching men to live upright and pure
lives. Wycliffe set his face liK? a flint against
the claims of the papacy as well as the evils
of the Church, and as early as 1368, in a
pamphlet, "The Dominion of God," he declared
that the State was not subordinate to the
Church. He next attacked the clergy for their
wealth and their interest in worldly affairs,
and declared that the Church should limit itself
strictly to its spiritual functions.
This was completely new doctrine, and enlisted
a good deal of opposition. But Wycliffe
was amply able to defend himself intellectually.
After a while, however, they began to
thunder against him and the anathemas of
aL. m v tt? ~
me uiiurcn. xiis views were condemned by
Pope Gregory XI., and he.was threatened with
excommunication. Wycliffe had some powerful
friends in John, Duke of Lancaster, and
in the Princess Joan, wife of the Black Prince,
and he held his own in England.
In 1374 "Wycliffe received the living of Lutterworth,
in Leicestershire, where he spent his
remaining years. Lutterworth was a lovely