Newspaper Page Text
March 12, 1913] T H E I
trying to follow Him. Often parents delay
their children from union with the Church because
they think they are not good enough yet.
Yet the child is doing just what the parent is
doing; loving Christ and trying to follow Him.
No one succeeds perfectly in either. But an
old Christian and a young Christian are be
ing Christians in exactly the same way.?
. Herald and Presbytery.
* WHAT IT MEANT TO HIM.
At a nod from the minister, Mr. Richfield, the
elder came forward and cleared his throat. He
had to present to the congregation its too familiar
plight?that of a small country church,
struggling half-heartedly against the fate that
has overtaken so many others. Older members
and generous supporters had passed to their reward;
substantial families had moved away, un
til now the case looked hopeless.
Mr. Richfield mentioned the deficit in the crisp
tone of a man who Itnows what the dollars and
cents mean, and how hard they are to get. The
Ladies' Aid Society, he added, would pledge fifty
dollars; by a very liberal estimate, another fifty
might be picked up here and there: but seventj'five
dollars still remained unprovided for. That
was a large sum for a church like Garnet. In
his opinion, a "graceful retreat" on their part
l? LI A i t rt A /? ?. *
was preieraDie to a riat tauure" to meet tneir
financial obligations. "Sanctuary privileges"
were not beyond the reach of those who cared
to seek them elsewhere, even if the doors of the
old church closed.
The half dozen mer. accustomed to "say a
word" on such occasions agreed regretfully with
the elder. The mood of the assembly was despondent.
As the discussion went on. some of the
women wiped their eyes. Then upon the silence
that ensued a new voice broke. It was that of
shabby Jim Wagner. He shrank a little from
the cnrioTLs glances that ere turned upon him.
"I never could speak in meetin'," he began,
in a voice that quavered with embarrassment,
"but when it's a question of losing all a man
has. he can't keep quiet. You know what I was
until the Tx>d got a hand on me a year ago. I
ain't braggin' of what I've heen since. It's been
a close fight sometimes, and if it hadn't been for
the church here, and the prayers and the preaching
and the hvmns every Sabbath. I couldn't
,.,..11 T l.i T J U J A- J
ua?ir uuuc an itcii nn i imvc. a vivii i umitj lu uu
without them. Mr. Richfield says we're seventyfive
dollars short. It'll be a sight better for me
to pay that myself than to take chances of drifting
back where I was once. If we ?wne to short
rations, Mary and the children would rather put
up with that than to have me staggering home
twice a week, as I might do. Mr. Richfield, put
Jim Wagner down for seventy-five dollars, and,
granting he lives and has his health, every cent
win De pam. it's not half nor quarter what the
Lord has done for me.' *
Mr. Richfield rose to his feet. "I will assume
twenty dollars of the amount," he said, simply.
"T feel that we have treated a serious matter too
licrhtly?hidden away from our own eyes under
the dispuise of a routine of sacred trust committed
to us hy God for the souls of men."
The despondence was pone. A dozen men
were standing in their pews. A dozen women
sat with unlifted hands. Thp church at Garnet
was saved.?Youth's Companion.
SYMPATHY AND TACT
When sympathy and tact are combined in the
same person they prive their possessor very threat
influence. Sympathy is the healing halm; tact,
the dexterous hand that applies it. Tact depends
upon sensitiveness of temperament combined
with observation. Tt tells (me when a sub
>K?8B7TER1AN OF THE SO'
ject is unwelcome, when an inquiry is painful 1
when condolence or congratulations are ill- i
timed. It softens the rough edges of unpleasant t
triuns. aiany people ore roil ox sympatny wnicn. ?
they do not know how to express. Tact points <
out the way to show it. Ileal .sympathy has a i
wonderful power of winniug confidence. <
Women endowed by nature with the quality 1
called tact, arc the flower ot the kind. They
have the secret of charm and will hold undispui- '
ed sway over the hearts of men and women.
Others may be more beautiful and brilliant and 1
vvnttv Kilt flM* /*Anonl a f inn m nmmonlo aP /lit!
?? * *. %.J y ft/U? *.v?4 VViUlV4W biVll AAA 1UV1UV>U ID U1 UIOcouragoment,
for counsel iji your difficulties,
you will turn to them.?The Family Doctor. (
SETTING FORTH THE IDEAL.
I
Rev. E. A. MacAlpin, of Babcock Memorial
church, Baltimore, has puhlished a definition of
a strong church to be used in uilinc as subjects
for prayer meeting lectures. This is the substance
of the definition:
A lm'fll nonnlh?TirliA oHonil rnmilorlw nml
punctually all the church services.
2. A willing people?who give of their time
and strength to lead others to Christ.
3. A generous people?who feel a personal
responsibility to give systematic ally of their income
to support the church at home and abroad.
4. A Ekindly people?who strive to make
every stranger, however humble, feel at home at
the church services.
5. A long-suffering people?who would rather
suffer themselves than hurt others by thoughtless
criticism.
0. A consecrated people?who so love Christ
that they are willing to decrease that he may increase.
7. A prayerful people?who commit all their
ways and work unto God in prayer.
8. A Bible-studying people?who know God's
word and make it the rule of their life.
9. A strong people?who bear the burdens of
the weak and strive in all their ways to make
social conditions as Christ would have them.
CENTENARY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
(Continued from page 3.)
Journal are "I dream ... I pray," and so
he endured, amid physical torture and baffled
ambitions.
THY mi. BF. DONE.
The most unfortunate event in the last wanderings
was the loss of his precious medicinechest
(January. 1867). From that date onwards
Tavingstone had no remedy against the African
e J i.1 -Al .-1 1 1 t ? a
irver ana ine oiner maiaaies <wnicn siowiy gained
hold on his enfeebled constitution. "I felt,"
he wrote, "as if I had now received the sentence
of death. . . . All the other goods I had divided,
in case of loss or desertion, but had never
(lreameu or losing trie precious quinine and other
remedies. . . . It is difficult to say from the
heart, 'Thv will be done,' but I shall try. . . .
This low of the medicine box gnaws at the heart
terribly."
TTTE CLOSING YEARS.
"We need not tell over again the story, familiar
to every school child, of bow on October 28,
1871, when Livingstone's resources were almost
exhausted, and even his brave heart was sinking
under the strain of long starvation and ex
hanstiag journeys. Henry Morel and Stanley
enme to him aa an angel of deliverance. Sir
Harry Johnston writes almost bitterly of Livingstone's
folly in refusing to return to EngUrd
with Stanley, and suggests that the Nile
problem had heeome for him a "monomania."
The traveler could not bear to return while his
work remained unfinished, and as T)r. Blaikie
says. "He set his face tfteadfastlv to go back
D T H (221) 6
:o the bogs of the watershed." His own words,
in a letter written about th5s time, dispose of
;he charges of monomania": "If. indeed, my
disclosures should lead to the suppression of the
?ast coast slave trade, I -would esteem that as
i far greater feat than the discovery of all the
sources.'' And again he wrote, in words which
ire inscribed on his stone in Westminster Abbey:
"All 1 can add%in my loneliness is, may
heaven's rich blessing come down on everyone
?American, English, or Turk?who will help
to heal the open sore of the world."
L.ABT UAYS.
There is no need to recapitulate here the fact*
of Livingstone's lonely death at Ilala in May,
1873, which have been described a thousand
times. He underwent physical agondes like those
of the martyrs, yet he wrote within six weeks of
the end. "Nothing earthly will make me give
up my work in despair. I encourage myself in
the Lord my God and go forward." His bodily
frame was worn to a skeleton, and his powers
reduced by fearful and repeated haemorrhage,
vet still he struggled onward till, on April 27,
it became evident that the end was near. The
lfiot U'Ar/la ll a wiwfn in liin T mi wio 1
?'jv ??v4mo iic uivie iu iii9 uviuuui nuc uo ivtlows:
"Knocked up quite, and remain to recover.
Sent buy milch goats. We arc on the banks
of R. Molilamo." Death found him kneeling
by his bed in the attitude of prayer. His faithful
servants, Susi and Ohuma, whose names will
ever be associated with that of Diving^ one.
carried the worn frame, amid infinite perils, to
Zanzibar, and thence it was transported to
England.
CHINESE GORDON.
When you come to Trafalgar Square you will
admire the splendid monument on which stands
the *igure of the great English sea captain, Lord
Nelson. Close by, and not nearly so high, is the
monument to Chinese Gordon, who got his name
by victories in China. Though a great soldier,
he has only a cane in his hand, and under his
arm is a Bible. That cane tells a story. When
he went into battle he carried no sword, but only
a little stick. Yet his soldiers would follow him
anywhere. He was a great leader because he was
a great man. A man's power lies more in what
he is than in what he has.
The Bible under his arm is the secret of his
power. He knew God and loved God's Book.
The soldiers would often see a white handkerchief
lying across the door of his tent, and they
would say, "General Gordon is talking with
God!" Nobody ever crossed that white handkerchief.
HnnnfMil n.\wlrvn nma o rrr?oof 1 rvvor K/wo art/1
viuuviai \ji v* *iv/m it u?j a w V4 vx uuu
did a great deal for them, about which you might
ask your father to tell you. He lived a glorious
life in this world. And when God promoted him
they wrote on his tomb in a great cathedral these
words: "Who at all times and everywhere gave
his strength to the weak, his substance to the
poor, his sympathy to the suffering, his heart to
God."?The Rev. Frank T. Bavlev. in The
Congregational ist.
JUST SAYING IT.
An old Scotch woman lay dying. The Harrowing
husband sat holding her worn hand in his,
and seeing she was soon to leave him, broke
through his lifelong Scotch reserve by saying
earnestly, "Janet, if ever a woman was loved, I
love you." The weary eyelids were raised, and
a radiant smile overspread the pale face as Janet
replied: "T ay kenned it. John, hut 0. to hear
yp say it!" knew that Peter loved hom.
hut repeated his question. that he might hear
it from his own lips. TTow much we often lose
by not sayins* it!?Dr. \Vhyte.