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the enlargement of our own views and our
own horizon as we have looked out upon a
larger world. It has been an education to
me and an education passed on to the people, and we
have caught a more aggressive spirit from time to
time and have kept it going. And I want to say
in connection with this thought that these things
Could not be were it not for the spirit of co-oper
ation and steadfastness, and I want to admonish
you in this last morning message to a life of
steadfastness.
FAITH THAT ABIDES.
T want to ask you first of all to be steadfast, to be
steadfast not only for these three months but for
life, in your faith. Oh, the vacillating faith of the
world of Christians! Oh, the vacillation today in
spiritual matters! The spirit of vacillation has
seized the churches and the pulpits, I am sorry to
say, in this country. People on every hand show
signs of weakening faith. I thank God that my
church still stands for the old faith and the old
power. A friend of mine paid us a compliment that
1 think we could well afford to bear in mind. In
speaking of a certain minister who had at one time
occupied our pulpit, he said, “You need not have
any question about that man's being true to the old
faith, for he has occupied the pulpit of the Taber
nacle for a month.” Whether we deserve this or
not, I do not know. I trust we may, for it is true
that the exercise of the faith that we have had
has put us where we are. No higher critic, no man
who does not believe the Bible from lid to lid, so
far as 1 am concerned, shall ever stand in my tracks
on this pulpit.
I want to admonish you again to be loyal, and
steadfast in your loyalty, to your church 1 love
our church, so do you, and we are growing in our
love for it. It has meant a great deal to me; it
has meant a great deal to you. My brethren, we
do not properly appreciate what it has meant. I
got a letter last week from a young woman who was
formerly a Sunday school teacher in our Sunday
school. She IS now living in New York. She said,
‘‘Oil, if I could ever once again be permanently
connected with the Tabernacle, I think I would feel
as 1 never felt while 1 was there what I had to be
thankful for. It is distressing to see the coldness
and indifference of the people here in matters of
heart religion.” Whiat she said was very true. I
feel it when I go away, and you will fee] it when
you go away. And I want to impress it upon you
this morning that it is the time when every loyal
soldier must buckel on his armor very tight. When
1 am away, it is necessarily harder to carry on the
work. That is perfectly natural, and I want you
therefore to make up your mind that you are going
to be loyal. Do not stop to quibble over the little
things. There are too many big things to do.
1 Want to remind you also to be steadfast and
loyal in your brotherly love and helpfulness. It
I were asked to say the one thing that concerns me
most about the work while I am gone, I should
have to say that I am more concerned about the
care of the helpless, the friendless, and the needy.
1 am not afraid of the rest if you will take care
of this. I know yon will take care of it all when
you know, but I am afraid that you will not know
every time unless you are on the look-out.
The first thing after I came down from my room
this morning, before 1 had my breakfast, was a
ringing of my telephone. When I answered, I found
that at the other end of the line was a woman whom
I know; a woman of great spirituality, and she said,
“I have got to tell you a sad story. There is a
family of nine close to where I live, and they have
eaten the last scrap of food in the house and do
not know where another meal is to come from. The
head of the family has typhoid fever, also the oldest
son, and what I want to know is, what disposition
can be made of the boy? We can arrange the rest,
if we can only provide for him. Can you take him
in your Infirmary? There is no money and nobody
interested enough to give any money.'’
IN HIS NAME. -r
That is the kind of thing that I want you to be
loyal to. If anything has to be neglected, don’t let
it be a case like that. Don’t let that boy die in that
The Golden Age for August 6, 1908.
PROPOSE, this week to call attention
to a class of men and women who in
one case overdo this virtue of praising
others. I believe the greatest charity
is that which withholdeth unkind crit
icism of your neighbor. I believe that
the next greatest charity is the giving
of kind, encouraging words to the un
fortunate and the afflicted who are
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disheartened, or broken-hearted, or both. lam one
who knows the value of generous words of praise
when the sun does not shine behind the cloud. I
do believe in giving bouquets and giving them to a
man while he is yet alive.
But this practice of telling a boy that he has some
remarkable talent and teaching* him he is fitted for
some high station in life, is a great mistake. Too
many people pat too many boys on the back and
say, “You will be president some of these days.”
If all the young men who are told they will be pres
ident should happen to become president, this coun
try would have about a million chief executives
every year.
A boy, nowadays, is taught to believe that he is
a genius and capable of accomplishing something
great. Before a. boy is out of his cradle parents
are planning to “make” him a banker, a preacher,
a philosopher, or a president. They ought to teach
him to be a gentleman with a love for honest toil
ami be satisfied with that.
But your children have talent, you say. Your lit-
Ihe son “speaks beautifully” in public and he w 11
certainly make a lawyer and a great one at that.
Your little girl marks fantastic things on the walls
of the house, and she is a natural-born artist.
Parents soon discover in their children remarka
ble talents. A boy goes to college with the idea
that he will easily get money in some business, or
distinguish himself in some high official station.
He leaves college with the idea that he has “done
done it.” He has already distinguished himself;
he has already won fame and meat and bread for a.
poverty stricken home without someone finding it
out and administering to his needs. When death
comes to a home, don’t let the opportunity of a
visit to that home with a word of comfort and
helpfulness pass by.
You will pardon me if I tell you of a dream f
had last night. I dreamed that T had gone to heav
en, and when I entered, God sent an angel to me
with this message, “You may go back to the earth
for a seaon, and you may select any line of work
that you would like to do while there and when
you have finished that work I will bring you home
again.”
I stood there trying to decide what i v prk I
would like best, and finally 1 said, “1 ea.. Vide.
There is so much to be done, and 1 do not know
which is the most important.” Just then I heard the
crying of a little child outside of the City of God,
and I said. “Let me first go and see if I can find
out what is the matter with that child.” Just at
that time I waked up and my dream was never
finished. But as I thought about it, I said, “Could
I go back in my dream, the answer that I should
give to my Father would be this, ‘I had rather give
my short time to trying to dry up the tears of that
child, and soothing the throbbing of sorrowing
hearts than anything that I could choose for this
little while.’ ”
Brethren, I want to lay this upon your hearts
this morning. I want you to give yourselves to this
work, and I want you to remember that you are
doing it for Him.
My last admonition is this, that you be steadfast
in prayer. I do not know of anything that you
(•an do for me while I am gone except the service of
prayer. 1 have thought more of prayer in these
last days than at any other time of my life. The
magnificent achievements that we have just passed
through have lifted me up to a higher plane of
KIND WORDS
Sy Eugene Ray
lifetime. He struts out into the world as if his
pockets were filled with provisions—country hams,
bags of flour, boxes of baking powder, etc. Exam
ine his pockets and you will find only a bag of
smoking tobacco and a box of cheap candy, one for
his girl, the other for himself. He is very greatly
shocked when, a little later, he finds out that a
college graduate has to work for a living like other
folks, unless he becomes a gambler, or a hobo or a
politician.
A young man should put his mark high, but not
too high. Up is always taught that there is room at
the top. “Go to the top,” is the command given,
If boys keep on going to the top, there will be no
body to push the next fellow up.
There may be room at the top, but there is more’
at the bottom. And boys can not reach the top
at one bound. The secure ladder is wider at the
bottom, and you safely reach the narrower rounds
at the top by climbing carefully over all the lower
ones. Benjamin Franklin began life as a printer,
Abraham Lincoln was a rail-splitter, Grant was a
tanner, Garfield was a mule-driver, and our present
chief executive was a broncho-buster, and he has
been busting things ever since.
Young men walk right out of tin' kitchen Io that
room on top. But they soon leave it to hunt up the
kitchen again.
The snow-capped, sun-tinted mountain peak is
beautiful and attractive, but it is cold up there.
The sweetest (lowers grow in the marshes and the
valuable timber grows in the lowlands.
I would rather have a cottage in the fertile val
ley than have a mansion on the barren mountain
side. I. would rather walk and keep in the middle
of the road than run and stumble along the moon
fain frail. I would rather have a safe and honorable
place on the lower rounds of the ladder than join
in an unseemly scramble* for a place on the dizzy,
uncertain heights. It is almost as dangerous to soar
too high as it is Io sink too low.
prayer than ever before. I have loved prayer more
than ever before, and if will be the greatest comfort
to me if I can know that my own people have me on
their hearts in prayer. Every Sunday while I am
away you are on my heart, and it will be a comfort
to know that I am on yours. Fray for me and my
loved ones with me that God will keep us and give
us His power while we are away. Pray that 1 may
be used in His service to the glory of His name.
And while you are praying for me, do not forget
to pray for the church, for it neds it. Pray for
the workers that are looking after its interests.
Pi-ay for the preachers who fill the pulpit. Oh, may
these three months be full of the spirit of prayer!
John Henniker Heaton has been praised in Eng
land because of the success of his long campaign
for the reduction of the rates of ocean postage be
tween Groat Britain and the United States, but the
Englishmen do not forget the efforts of Elihu Bur
ritt, the Connecticut blacksmith, on behalf of cheap
ocean postage.
Young men about to enter college this fall may
feel encouraged to recall that fifteen of the twenty
five Presidents have been college graduates, and
those young men who cannot carry their education
further than the high school may find comfort in
the fact that two of the great Presidents, Washing
ton ami Lincoln, were not college bred.
* *
American national songs have been frequently
criticised severely. The music has been objected
to as having been borrowed, the words as not poetic.
On the other hand, Doctor Walsh, the Scottish
preacher, who lately visited the foiled States, re
marks that “America” has one noble merit: “It
is the least bellicose of national hymns.”
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