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Netos of Interest Gathered Here and There
A Physical Antidote Tor "Blue Monday.
The cure for ‘ ‘Blue Monday” lies in the proper
use of Saturday and Sunday. To many preachers
Monday is a nightmare in anticipation and a
“slough of despond” in realization. The sharp
reaction from the labors of Sunday is neither mental
nor spiritual, but to a large degree physical, and the
remedy is found when the man seeks to know
himself and follow rational methods. After many
sleepless Sunday nights, followed by as many days
of intense depression and weariness, one minister
found it necessary to reverse some former habits
of work, and the method herein suggested is a bit
of personal experience which has stood the test of
time.
It is as necessary that the preacher should
prepare for his Sunday as well as for his sermon.
The first step is the avoidance of late hours of
sermon work Saturday night; stop all work at noon,
and quit his study for the rest of the day. It may
demand that the sermon shall be begun earlier in
the week, but this is no disadvantage. And a
healthy determination will soon regulate work and
interruption so that this may be accomplished
and the sermon finished by Saturday noon. The
best use for the afternoon is seeing things and
doing things aside from the regular routine of work.
A walk in the open air will be teeming with fresh
suggestions, and out-of-door exercise cures many
an attack of the blues. It is an excellent oppor
tunity for indulging in one’s favorite fad. For
winter days an art exhibit, or a little pilgrimage,
will furnish a wholesome diversion. Anything that
will turn the mind into a fresh channel is helpful,
but visiting the members of the church, and es
pecially the sick, may be wisely postponed. There
will be a strong temptation to misuse the evening
because it is free. But social engagements, with an
unusual assortment and quantity of food, will undo
the benefit of the afternoon, and committee meet
ings are even more wearing than “burning the
midnight oil.” A simple diet and an early hour
for retiring are the natural conclusion of such a
day.
It is obvious that a man will come to Sunday
morning with body refreshed and mind clear. He
will bring alertness to his work, and the congrega
tion will soon catch his spirit. Conditions vary
so widely that each must be governed by circum
stance, but common sense would suggest during the
day some time, however short, for rest. When
the day’s work is over it ought to be let go. It
cannot be recalled or amended. The message was
from God, and the wearied messenger can safely
leave results to Him, and commit the tired body
to His care. The physical preparation of Satur
day will permit the tense mind to relax more
easily, and will bring sleep quicker, so that Monday
finds the preacher with steadier nerves and a more
buoyant spirit.
Some may scoff at such a vigorous routine; a
friend of the writer’s sarcastically calls it “the
training table”; and yet it has stood the test of
experience. Physical preparation is worth more
than headache powders. It may appear slavish, but
it is a small price to pay for immunity from the
nervous, bilious condition in which many preachers
find themselves on Monday morning.
Rev. Frank A. Smith.
A Truce of God Tor Russia.
The condition of Russia, with starvation, murder,
and robbery taken as a normal condition of society
throughout the country, induces a writer in The
Fortnightly Review (London) to ask the question
whether a “truce of God,” an absolute burial of
the hatchet for the moment, might not be insti
tuted in the cause of common humanity, and all
mere political discussions be postponed until the
needs of the moment are met and satisfied. This
writer declares:
“The chaos of famine and crime In which the
country is plunged defies description. In the period
from the Russian Xew Year to the middle of March
The Golden Age for May 16, 1907.
there were in St. Petersburg alone eighty-eight
murders, mostly committed in broad daylight. The
St. Petersburg newspapers report from every part
of the provinces a ghastly tale of assassination,
mutilation and robbery. From a single number of
the Novoye Vremya the following are typical
items: ‘A bomb thrown at the commandant of
the fortress of Sebastopol; the general injured in
both feet Tn Warsaw two bombs have
been flung; the first into the house of the director
of tlie gymnasium, Prince Argetinski Dolgorukoff,
no one being wounded; the second bomb tore away
both hands of the workman Shmotshkoff. ’ Tn the
southeastern provinces hunger 1 and disease are wast
ing the people; and where peasants are not burn
ing down their huts for fuel, starving animals eat
the thatch for food. Is it impossible for Mr. Stoly
pine to appeal to all parties in the Douma for a
truce of God until means have been devised to
help the famine-stricken districts'? The majority
would probably reply that there can be no truce
of God if it means even the temporary acceptance
of the Czar’s government. But the attempt ought
to be made.”
Home, Street Home.
Mr. Sterling MacKinlay, son of the late Antoi
nette Sterling, the famous American contralto, has
recently finished a life of his mother. Among
other interesting things in. this book are two verses
written by John Howard Payne for “Home, Sweet
Home,” which, it is claimed, were never before
published:
How sweet ’tis to sit ’neath a fond father's smile.
And the cares of a mother to soothe and beguile.
Let others delight 'mid new pleasures to roam;
But give me, 0 give me, the pleasures of Home!
Home- —Home —Sweet, sweet Home!
But give me —ah, give me —the pleasures of Home!
To thee I’ll return overburdened with care —
The heart's dearest solace will smile on me there!
No more from that cottage again will I roam;
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home!
Home —Home —Sweet, sweet Home!
There’s no place like Home,
There’s no place like Home.
These verses, it seems to me, are no better or
no worse than those that Payne allowed to be
published. After all, it is the sentiment; it is
father, mother, home, sweet home, that pleases.
Without Sir Henry Bishop’s music, I wonder if
we would ever have heard of “Home, Sweet
Home”?
« *
The Kaiser in the Phonograph.
Records of what the Kaiser Wilhelm spoke into
a phonograph have been received in New York.
Thus shall posterity know the actual accents of
this generation’s Kaiser’s voice, and his thoughts
upon what it requires to make a man happy, free
and proud. The records are to be preserved in
the National Museum and the Congressional Li
brary at Washington, and at Harvard. A transla
tion of what the Kaiser spoke to the phonograph
was printed in one of the magazines several months
ago. Here it is:
“To be strong in pain; not to desire what is un
attainable or worthless; to be content with the day
as it comes; to seek the good in everything, and to
have joy in nature and in men, even as they are;
for a thousand bitter hours to console oneself
with one that is beautiful, and in doing and putting
forth effort always to give one’s best, even if it
bring no thanks —he who learns that and can do
that is a happy man, a free man, a proud man; his
life will always be beautiful.
“Whoso is mistrustful does a wrong to others
and injures himself. •
“It is our duty to regard every man as
good, so long as he does not prove to the con
trary.
“The world is so great and we men are so small;
surely everything cannot revolve about us alone.
“If anything injures us, hurts ns, who can know
whether that is not necessary for the benefit of
creation as a whole?
“In everything in the world, be it good or other
wise, lives the great, wise will of the Almighty
and omniscient Creator; it is only that we small
men lack the understanding to comprehend Him.
“As everything is, so it must be in all the world;
and however it may be, the good is ever the will
of the Creator." —New York Times.
*
Tripped On Quotations.
Mr. Gladstone made the mistake of thinking}
that the phrase, “the land of tiie leal,” referred
to Scotland, and so used it. And it was he also
who, in one of his Midlothian speeches, referred to
the words of (lie Psalmist, “God tempers the wind
to (he shorn lamb" —a text for which the devout
may search the Scriptures in vain.
Sidney Smith was guilty of an even more atro
cious blunder when he spoke of “that beautiful
Psalm beginning ‘Now let test thou thy servant
depart in peace.’ ”
A no less curious mistake was made by Bright,
on one occasion, when he attributed the common
phrase, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” to the
Apostle Paul. —The Glasgow News.
* 8?
Perhaps nothing could exhibit the progress of
the world in three hundred years better than the
comparison between the small sailing ship in which
Johy Smith and his companions in 1607 sailed into
the unknown bay now known as Hampton Roads,
ami the great naval parade which took place in
the same waters April 26, on the opening of the
exposition in celebration of the tercentenary of
the founding of the first, permanent settlement by
white men in America. The exposition is not on
the site of the Jamestown sett lenient, but on the
south side of Hampton Roads opposite Hampton
Beach and Fortress Monroe. The ruins of James
town are on a flat island about, thirty miles up the
James River. But it is claimed that John Smith
made his first landing near the site of the expo
sition, just as the Mayflower made her landfall at
the mid of Cape Cod. The ship of John Smith,
like the Mayflower, was a simple sailing vessel.
The naval fleet in Hampton Roads on April 26
represented more completely than anything else
which could be found the application of the most
recent discoveries of modern science to practical
purposes. The modern battleship is confessedly
the most complicated and delicately adjusted com
bination of mechanism and scientific devices which
(-an be found. And as the small and simple sailing
craft of John Smith might be taken to represent
the simple life of three hundred years ago, the
battle ships in Hampton Roads may also fitly rep
resent the involved and complex life of today. The
settlement at Jamestown preceded that at Ply
mouth by seventeen years. When the tercentenary
of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth is cele
brated in 1926. will battleships, or the emblems of
peace be put forward as the type of the most ad
vanced civilization? —The Watchman.
*
The yvriter has kept a record of the time the
flowers have bloomed since 1891. The hyacinth is
very regular, coming along promptly with the en
couragement of moderately warm weather. It may
be interesting to know the dates in successive years
as showing the opening of spring. They are;
April 12. 1898; April 23, 1899; April 18, 1900;
April 28, 1901; April 15, 1902; April 7, 1903; May
1, 1904; May 1, 1905; April 17, 1906; April 26,
1907. This shows that the springs of 1901, 1904
and 1905 were later than this year, but all the rest
of the years for ten years the season lias been
earlier, and in 1903 the hyacinths came nineteen
days earlier than this year. The rest of the April
floyvers confirm this record. —The Watchman.
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