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Worth Womans While
Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
Jack-in-the-pulpit preaches to-day!
Wonder what Jack will have to say?
He’s ever so bold,
Or, so I am told,
And likes to have things his own sweet way.
But black-eyed Susan, so saucy and tall,
Makes him quite timid, and almost small,
His legs they are quaky,
His voice it is shaky
When Susan is anywhere near at all.
So when young Jack preaches to-day
AVonder what he’ll have to say?
He'll not be so bold,
For sure, I am told,
Miss Susan is out in her bravest array!
Thinking of the Mercies.
If things look dark, if you feel that you are
poorer than anyone you know, in worldly goods, in
friends, in yourself—if life seems all a disap
pointment and a failure, don’t think on it too
much. Try, rather, to count up the good things
that are yours, like a dear old gentleman from one
of our coast towns. In early life he had been a
sea captain, and experienced adventure and ac
quaintance with different lands and peoples; and
later, at his desk in a counting house he did large
business. His home was that of a prosperous
and happy man, and his position one of prominence
until misfortune came, and gradually all was swept
away—his money, his wife, his children, his home.
In old age lie found himself stranded in the up
country, all lost, even the sight of the water and
the shipping which had been to him like the odor of
the brine is to any old salt—all except one daugh
ter, the last of eleven children. To this devoted
child he was forced to look not alone for cheer
and comfort, but for maintenance, as all day he
sat in his easy chair, half blinded with cataract.
And when, as she could snatch opportunity from
her duties, she would run to him for a little loving
word, often she would ask, il Father, what are you
thinking of, dear?”
And his answer would invariably be, “Only
thinking of the mercies!” ,
Old, bereft, almost blind and al] but helpless,
his hours of folded hands and of loneliness were not
given to repining, to dwelling on all he had had and
lost—instead he counted the mercies!
What a lesson! And how much happier that was!
Get Out-of-Doors.
Take time to get out-of-doors for a little each
day. Man is the only animal that can be kept
within walls unless caged—which certainly proves
that it is a mistake to build a great box over and
around us and shut ourselves in from the sun and
light and all the blessed feeling and influence of the
world God has made so good for our pleasure and
our health. It is like as if we build a great shell,
and get into it and refuse to look out or to look
up. The average man or woman spends very little
time outside the house—it is sad to reflect how we
let ourselves be cheated of this most precious priv
ilege, this dearest gift of Heaven, for there is noth
ing can equal it in life-giving.
Let us not be down-hearted, or sick, or sad. Let
us get out-of-doors, and breathe, and look up.
Relationship Was Burdensome.
The blessing of “kinnery,” as a dear old lady
calls it, sometimes presents itself as a question
even to the childish mind. Little Maude was with
her mother at, the seaside where a large number
of the family connection had gathered—she had
never seen so many aunts and cousins, As she
The Golden Age for September 6, 1906.
By FLORENCE TUCKER
was presented to one after another the magni
tude of it all grew upon her, till finally rushing in
one day from among them she flew to her mother,
crying:
“0 mamma, I want to go home! I want to go
home! ’ ’
“Why, what is the matter?” asked her mother.
“Oh,” cried the child, bursting into tears, “I’ve
got too much kin!”
The Boon of a Cheerful Spirit.
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,”
says the proverb, and not only to him who carries
it in his brave breast—it is as good a tonic to all
around him, like the bracing and health-giving
air that includes all in its grateful balm. And “a
broken spirit drieth the bones” likewise, as the
presence of a gloomy and morose person too pain
fully proves. A cheerful spirit in a house is as
good as the gracious sunlight, and where there is
an invalid its priceless worth cannot be estimated.
It is something, when you think of it, thus to dis
seminate gladness and health, a smile, a brave,
cheery voice, a bright, hopeful word, a little jest,
who can estimate what they are to one shut in,
shut up with just his own pains and depressed
thoughts? Verily, it is the best of medicines; and
the blessing of Heaven will be upon that unselfish
soul that gives of its brightness to lighten anoth
er’s gloom, to lift the shadow from the heart of
that one within the darkened chamber.
Things Feared Come to Pass.
Why do people take the disease they fear during
an epidemic? It is simply because they are afraid.
By holding before their minds a picture of what they
dread, fear lowers their vitality and their power of
resistance, so that they readily fall victims to a
malady which they might otherwise ’have escaped.
In the same way, poverty and kindred evils are
often self-invited. The disaster people dread comes
to them, because wyrry and anxiety enfeeble their
powers of mind and so blunt their creative and pro
ductive faculties that they are unable to exercise
them effectively.
This condition of mental and physical exhaustion
destroys confidence in their ability to grapple with
the situation that confronts them, and they succumb
almost without effort. When we analyze them
aright, we find that all these happenings are in ac
cord with scientific laws. No man can accomplish
anything until he believes he can, until he has ab
solute confidence that he is sufficiently master of
the situation to bring about the thing he desires.
AVhen he begins to doubt his own ability, and to
question himself; when he begins to waver and to
become uncertain as to his course, he is in danger
of failure—nay, he is almost certain of it. By
his doubts and fears and disbelief in himself, he
frightens away success and courts failure.
Your achievements must be outlined in your mind,
first or they cannot be materialized by your pen,
your voice, your hand, or your sword. Like the
“man of destiny,” when you have planned your line
of march, or decided upon your point of attack, there
must be no wavering, no hesitating, no thought of
defeat You must marshal all your forces and march
to your goal with the unshakable belief that victory
will crown your efforts.—Ex.
Charity.
Is it to drop full carelessly
A penny in the beggar’s hand
And salve the conscience with the thanks
The whining crone has planned?
Is it to feed a hungry mouth
With leavings from a board well spread,
The bits of meat we cast away,
The hardest crusts of broken bread? ,
Is it to clothe a naked child
Or freezing man against the storm
With worn-out garments which have ceased
To keep our pampered bodies warm?
Is this, then, all of charity—
These carnal gifts of man to man?
Nay, these were but the outer husks
In Christ’s revivifying plan.
To stop thine ears ’gainst evil talcs
Os .slander and of shame;
To say “Judge Not” when wanton tongues
Befoul with sneers a once fair name—
To guard thy lips close shut lest they
Join in the hounding, coward cry
AVith which a horde of censurers
Drives forth a lonely soul to die—
To hold thyself too pure and true
To trample on another’s woe,
Believing what thou hast not seen,
Condemning what thou canst not know.
To do these things is best to use
The charity that Christ decreed;
For transient are the body’s wants,
Eternal is the spirit’s need.
Thou canst not read another’s heart
Nor probe the mysteries of life;
/] hou knowest not ’gainst what deadly odds
Waged the bitter, long-drawn strife.
Nor canst thou tell what ground was held,
How near the triumph was complete;
One postern lost, the world condemns.
And on the banner writes “Defeat.”
If we slay man, his brother man
Extorts of us the murderer’s dole;
God judges when, with word unjust,
We thrust aside a stricken soul.
So owe it unto Christ himself
To judge with his sweet charity
Those who, half hid in censure’s clouds,
Walk still in dread Gethsemane.
—Sara Beaumont Kennedy.
Make the Most of the Present.
Resolutely make up your mind to make the most
of lite as it comes to you, and to enjoy each day as
it is borne on to give place to the morrow. If you
wait until you feel that you can afford to enjoy,
you will never enjoy.
AA hat more pitiable sight can be seen than that
of a young couple who started out in life with high
hopes, lofty aims, and determination to win for
themselves not only a humble competence, but the
means to purcaase some ot the refined pleasures of
lite; who slaved early and late to lay up something
for future enjoyment, perpetually postponing pres
ent happiness for the great happiness of the future
which a fortune will bring them, drudging year in
and year out, putting off the buying of books, pic
tures, a piano, bric-a-brac, or even the comforts,
not to speak of the luxuries, of home; in fact,
post poning everything for the grand future, which,
alas, will never come! AVhen they arrive at the
longed-for goal, the wealth may be there, but the
power to enjoy will be dead.—Selected.
Kuehne Beveridge will provide the model for the
monument Io be erected by San Francisco as a re
minder of the great disaster. The symbolic figure
is that of a young woman, weeping, leaning against
a closed Gothic door. The figure is posed by the
sculptor’s sister, the Baroness von AVrede. The
monument will be erected in Golden Gate Park,