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WHAT WE THINK OF WHAT WE SEE
“If they have got a baseball field immense
Up in the distant sky so blue,
I guess the stars are knotholes in the fence
To let poor angel boys peep through.”
A Kansas paper says that “any one can dig
up a rich relative.” But provided his will read
right, who wants to dig him up? What?
And now the Queen of Portugal is being sued by
her butcher for the Spring meat bill. Queens are
not doing so well since the hard times set in. And
the Merry Widow bills force some others to be
neglected.
•5
Liquors have been barred from the Chicago Con
vention. That will go a long way toward enabling
the delegates to remember the object of the meet
ing when it gets under way.
Experiments are being conducted in England in
the making of shields for soldiers. In this country
the inventors are busy devising suitable corsets for
the improvement of the figures of our brave de
fenders.
This is not a bad sample of mother’s letter
to teacher: “Please excoose Henry for absents
yesterday. Him an’ me got a chance of a ride to
HINTS IRON HISTORY:
Give Him Inspiration.
OULD you teach a human soul? Give
him inspiration.
It does not matter so much whether
it was 1492, or 1493. It does not so
much matter whether the date of sailing
was August 3, on Friday, or August 4,
on Saturday. It does not matter so
much whether his bones now rest at
Valladolid or in the dim cathedral of
co
Havana.
Here’s the thing that counts: The magnitude of
the man who fought down every obstacle, of poverty
of ignorance, of prejudice, of superstition and of
craven sea his face toward the setting sun,
and sailed.
4 ‘Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.”
Then when the night came on, in the ominous
shades of the twilight wrote —“This day we sailed
westward, which was our course.”
It does not so much matter whether he was
born February 22, 1732, or February 23, in the same
good year. It does not matter so much whether
it was two men or four that he lost in crossing
the Delaware. It does not so much matter whether
he was inaugurated March 4, or April 30. The
main thing is that we may catch the vision of the
poise and patience and strength and infinite faith
of the man “First in war, first in peace, and first
in the hearts of his countrymen.”
It is well enough that the boy shall know first
when and where the earthly life of Jefferson Davis
began. It is well enough: for him to know where
he was educated and whom he married and when
he died, and where he was buried. All these-details
are well enough for your boy to know, but you
show him the splendor of the man turning away
from the ease and honor of a place in the Congress
of the United States to face the peril of the battle
fields. Show him, this man standing serene at the
helm of state while all the howling winds of hatred
beat upon her shattered masts.
This great statesman, twenty years a man with
out a country, guilty of no act that would blur the
image in God’s mirror of the perfect gentleman,
the stainless patriot, the loyal citizen, Let him
a funeral in a carriage, an’ I let him stay at home
as he had never rode in a carriage, an’ never went
to a funeral, nor had many other pleasures. So
plese excoose.”
A Chicago justice declared recently that “the
first station on the road to Hades, as you travel
North, is Winnipeg.” But speaking from ancient
tradition, we never thought that was the proper
direction to go.
*
A late number of Harper’s Weekly contained an
article on the “Drawbacks of Widowhood in In
dia.” But there were really very few troubles men
tioned that are worse than those attaching to
widowhood in this country.
Thaw goes back to the asylum; Helie and Anna
say they are not yet wed; and the Atlanta Council
are going to settle the near-beer question soon.
That comprises all the really important news items
of present day interest.
•5
An anecdote has been credited to Mr. Bryan, told
by him in response to an inquiry if, in the event of
his defeat for the Presidency this time, he would
again be a candidate. Instead of making a direct
answer, Mr. Bryan related this story:
“There was once a cowboy whose bad habits
prevented him from receiving an invitation to a
"By A. H. Ellen.
catch the inspiration of loyalty from this sacrificial
life of supreme loyalty.
Give Him Inspiration.
It is God’s way. I haven’t seen a statistical
statement of money lost by reason of Noah’s flood.
There is little of meteorological prognosis. Little
as to the latitude, longitude or altitude of Ararat.
The important thing of that event is that God
set his bow in the cloud as the token of a covenant
a covenant of protection, a covenant of mercy, a
covenant of love.
Desolation everywhere? The habitations of men,
and the men who inhabited them gone from the
places they knew; the civilization of centuries set
back; the highways of life, and the byways, all
obliterated. One man and three sons to master the
world. What resource for the impossible task *
God showed them a
Rainbow!
Moses was a prince, his people were slaves. The
purpose of God was that the prince should lead the
people out. What the preparation for it? What
shall fit the leader for the task?
To contemplate not the lowliness of his birth,
or the fortune that befell him? Not the poverty
of Israel nor the power of Pharaoh?
Not the barrenness of the desert or the fertility
of the valley?
What lesson did God give Moses to fit him for the
leading of his people?
Showed him a
Burning Bush.
And when God would make Abraham a blessing
not much said about his heathen birth, or the hope
lessness of his surroundings; little of the number of
his herds or the census of his servants; little of his
famine in Canaan or his falsehood in Egypt.
When God would prepare a man to stand in the
history of the human race as father of the faithful,
the friend of God, he took him out under the mid
night heavens and showed him
The Stars.
The name of Jacob has come to us across the
gulf of 3,000 years, verifying the promise of God
to him, “A nation, and a company of nations, shall
be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins.”
There was a turning point in the life of Jacob.
The Golden Age for May 28, 1908.
9y A. E. RAFIS A UR, Managing Editor.
ranch house dance. The fact that he was not
invited made him angry, and on the night of the
dance he put in an appearance. He was politely
asked to leave, and he did so. After getting his
courage up he entered the house a second time, and
again he was asked to leave.
“He demurred and he was led out. Half an
hour later he made his third appearance as an un
invited guest and he was thrown out of the door
and into the yard. After he gathered his scattered
senses he mumbled to himself: ‘I know what’s the
matter with them in there. They don’t want me.’ ”
•5
The following bit of advice from our contempo
rary, The Dahlonega Nugget, gives an interesting
insight into life as she is lived up that way. A
missionary preacher who “snorts around and drinks
liquor” is not a safe bet at any time. This is
the item:
“The so-called missionary preacher who visited
Crumby’s district recently and mysteriously disap
peared the same way, after taking up a collection for
lights for the school house and money to buy
some eighteen or twenty persons Bibles, has not re
turned yet, and will not, for he was not working
for the Lord but for himself and the devil, getting
not only money but a lot of good grub while up
there, snorting around and drinking liquor. Beware
of strangers.”
There fell upon him the darkness of night and he
pillowed his head on a stone and slept.
I cannot tell from the record what kind of a
stone it was, whether it was a Liparite or Syenite,
a Propylite or Limburgite, a Diabase or an Ortho
clase. I am not so much concerned about the moun
tains and plains of his prosperity in Canaan, or
the pitiable parcel of his bones in Egypt. The
thing I remember is that when God would have him
climb from obscurity to an immortality of fame
he showed him
A Ladder.
What men need is courage. We are born under
a bond and burden of fear. The dream-scared
child is a victim of fear, and the dotard drawing
nigh to the grave shrinks back with fear.
We suffer defeat at the hands of wrong because
of fear, and “we lost the good we oft might have
by fearing the attempt.”
The king of Syria sent to Dothan horses and
chariots and a great host; and they came by night
and compassed the city about, and when the ser
vant of Elisha looked out next morning and saw
them he exclaimed in terror, “Alas, my master!
How shall we do?” and Elisha answered, “Fear
not, for they that be with us are more than they
that be with them.”
Whereupon, the record says: “The Lord opened
the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire. ’ ’
A Sheet.
God’s plan is: Give Him Inspiration.
Paul on the way to Damascus? Show him light.
The feet of Thomas hopelessly* clogged and im
peded by the deadening weight of doubt? Show
him the nail prints in the Master’s hands.
Elijah, utterly cast down and discouraged, sit
ting under a juniper tree desiring to die, lodging
in a cave in the far-away hills of Horeb? Let him
hear a still, small voice; then shall he go forth as
the maker of kings.
Banished to some Patmos of of ostra
cism, maybe, and oppression; ready to say the fight
has been a failure; the effort has been in vain?
Just then your eyes shall see “a new heaven and
a new earth,” and you shall know that “the path
of *the just is as the shining light that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day.”
The traveler on life’s highway—w T hat shall you do
for him? Give him inspiration; he will do the
rest.
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