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as well. We can frequently make them the
means of growth and enlargement. If we have
a severe trial, perhaps we can develop unusual
patience and teach other men a lesson of pa
tience. If we are deprived of some things,
perhaps we can make even better use of the
things we have. If we belong to a very small
community or attend a little-known school, it
may be that we can do unusually good work in
our small place, and help the world in our
small way. If our circumstances are very poor
and our limitations many, who can prevent us
from making "kingdoms out of back yards"
even, and building pyramids at our scanty
doorsteps?
If the truth were known, it would be found
that all who have ever done anything worth
while, have had to struggle against some han
dicap. They have simply fought their battles
with God's help, have made the best of their
difficulties, and have gone on to do their work.
? Edgar Whittaker "Work, D. D.
THE HIGHER LAW.
The yonnjr man who had been examining
the row of sinning instruments that lined the
operating room turned abrutly to the great
surgeon.
"Of course you do not believe in the fool
ishness called prayer," he said.
"And why not?" the surgeon asked, as he
held a delicate instrument critically to the
light.
"What! A young man with your scientific
training," the younger man exclaimed in sur
prise.
"And why not?" the 1 ^en-faced elderly man
repeated.
"Oh, come now, doctor," the young man
said, smiling. "Surely you cannot believe that
God would upset all the laws of nature to
grant the request of some one of His creatures.
You know how inexorable are the laws of na
ture."
"That's exactly why I believe so strongly
in the efficacy of prayer." The words were
spoken quietly but with evident seriousness.
"Explain the riddle, please," the other de
manded, and his manner was grave now.
"Why, that's easy enough to do," the sur
geon said. "Prayer ? or rather faith, which
is the motive of prayer ? is just as much a
force of nature as gravity. The skeptics seem
to think that if a prayer were answered all
the laws of nature would be smashed to
pieces. That is not necessarily the case. Let
me illustrate : Why does this instrument that
I hold in my hand not fall to the floor?"
"WTiy, because you are sustaining it."
"Exactly. And yet the law of gravitation
is not wrecked or denied. It is merely super
seded for the moment by a higher law ? the
law of life.
"Now, as we ascend in nature we find this
? the basic laws of a higher plane have just
this power of overruling some of the laws of a
lower plane.
"Gravity is a great law in the inorganic
world. It is still a law in the organic world,
but the great law of the organic world ? the
law of life ? -is superior to it. The plant thrusts
its stem upward in the face of gravity; man
walks about in defiance of it.
"Then why may there not be a law in the
next plane of nature ? the spiritual ? that, just
as naturally, supersedes some of the laws of
the organic world? The plan reaches down in
to the inorganic world, and grasping the dead
atoms there endows them with life and the
ability to rise superior to the force of gravity.
May not the spiritual world do as much for
the material world without outraging a single
law of nature?'*
"Why ? why, I guess it could," the young
man stammered.
"It not only could ? it does," the surgeon
declared emphatically.
"Then there is something in prayer after
all?"
"The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous
man availetli much," the doctor quoted. "I
tell you, my friend, prayer changes things."
And the young man knew from the light on
the older man's face that here was one man
at least for whom prayer had changed things
? many things. ? Selected.
ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP.
Rocked in the cradle of the deep
I lay me down in peace to sleep;
Secure I rest "upon the wave,
For thou, O Lord! hast power to save.
I know thou wilt not slight my call.
For thou dost mark the sparrow's fall;
And calm and peaceful shall I sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.
When in the dead of night I lie
And g&ze upon the trackless sky.
The star-bespangled heavenly scroll,
The boundless waters aa-they roll ?
I feel thy wondrous power to save
From perils of the stormy wave:
Rocked in the cradle of the deep,
I calmly rest and soundly sleep. - "
And such the trust that still were mine,
Though stormy winds swept o'er the brine.
Or though the tempest's fiery breath
Roused me from sleep to wreck and death.
In ocean cave, still safe with thee
The germ of immortality!r
And calm and peaceful shall I sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.
? Emma Hart Willard.
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS.
A woman had gone to her pastor in a reT
peutant spirit because of wasted months. Since
a friend had asked her, "What are you doing
definitely for the Lord, nowadays!" she had
been restless and unhappy. She knew that
she was doing no definite work. So she asked
for something to do.
"Go to Mrs. Jewett; she will give you some
thing to do," her pastor said. "You mean
Mrs. Jewett, the old missionary?" the caller
asked, surprised. "Yes," the pastor said. "I
know that she is a shut-in, but think what,
that means to her! For more than forty years
she toiled in India with her husband. She has
known all her life what work for her Mas
ter means. Now that she is alone, a shut-in,
and so lonely without her husband, she finds
her greatest pleasure in carrying on active
work through others."
With a doubting heart as to how much Mrs.
Jewett could help her, the woman went as she
had been told to go. On the way she met two
boys.
"Where have you been, boys?" she asked
them. "We went to return some books to Mrs.
Jewett," one replied. "Say, she's great! She
sort of makes a fellow feel that the one thing
he does not own is his time. She has helped
us a lot."
And. Mrs. Jewett helped the dissatisfied wo
man. She set her to work for others, and
helped her to realize that there is no work
worth while that does not have Christ for the
center.
From an indolent, selfish Christian the visi
tor became first superintendent of the Home
Department of her church, then district super
intendent, then State superintendent, next a
still wider field of usefulness became hers.
"The Master said that the field is the
world," the retired missionary who was the
instrument in working the transformation has
said: "I've been around the world several
times, and now my world is inside the four
walls of my home; but this does not mean
that I am to stop working for the salvation
of souls. Maybe I cannot reach people at first
hand, but I can send another to them in my
stead."
To a young man who had a glorious voice
money was given that he might go to Germany
to study to sing opera ; he went into the ltitle,
brown house to see the retired missionary, then
he went home and wrote to his benefactor, "I
am sending you back the check you gave me
for my German study. I forgot that two years
ago I gave myself to the Lord. I have been
brought to see that the voice He gave me, is
part of me, and I cannot think He would have
me use it in grand opera."
To-day that man is one of the finest singers
of the gospel there is in our country.
THE PLEASURE ROBBER.
It is such an easy thing to spoil another's
pleasure in the enjoyment of a newly acquired
purchase. Pursed lips, ominous silence, or a
significant frown take away much of the re
cipient's satisfaction in the possession of a
new gown, or a long-coveted, highly-prized
piece of furniture. That such expressions of
disapproval are made thoughtlessly makes
them no less potent factors as joy-destroyers.
"Don't you like my bookcase, Alice T Don't
you think it pretty?" asked an old lady as her
indulged grand-daughter regarded the pur
chase with lowered brows.
"Pretty enough," was the ungracious re
sponse, rather grudingly given; "but quite ab
surd for a woman at your age to put $25 in
such a senseless piece of furniture. Your hand
ful of books looked much better on the mantel
than huddled together on a single shelf in that
bookcase.'1
"But I have wanted a bookcase all- my life,"
defended the grandmother, "and ? well," she
faltered, "I thought that perhaps now people
would remember and give me books on anni
versaries instead of slippers and shawls and
caps."
Grandmother looked around the room with
hurt, smarting eyes, ner pretty oak bookcase,
with its latticed glass doors, for which she had
sacrificed so many little pleasures! How its
newness did bring out the shabbiness of her
faded, chintz-covered room! Why had Alice
told her this when she had been so happy be
fore t
"X didn't mean to hurt you," apologized
Alice a bit airily; "for now that it is bought
you might as well enjoy it. If you had told
me sooner, I could have saved you all this.
And you knew that I would have been very
glad to borrow the money for my new coat.
Oh, well, it is too late now."
"I never look at my bookcase," confide
grandmother several weeks later to a
"without thinking what a dreadful mi^
made in buying it. It would have been so
better to use the money for Alice's coat. I
haven't enjoyed it a single minute, for I am
always thinking that it has spoiled the looks
of my room. But if Alice only felt differently
about the money, how I should love it." ? Se
lected.
confidec^
. f rie|^
so nHW
The world would be better and brighter if
people were taught the duty of being happy
as well as the happiness of doing their duty.
To be happy ourselves is a most effectual con
tribution Xo the happiness of others. ? Sir
John Lubbock.