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TWO GOLDEN DAYS
T
HERE are two days in the week
upon which and about which I
never worry. Two care-free
days, kept sacredly free from fear
and apprehension.
One of these days is yesterday.
Yesterday, with all its care and
frets, with all its pains and
aches, all its faults, its mistakes
and blunders, has passed forever beyond the
reach of my recall. I can not undo an act
that I wrought; I can not unsay a word that I
said on yesterday. All that it holds of my
life, of wrong, regret, and sorrow, is in the
hands of the Mighty Love that can bring
honey out of the rock, and sweet waters out
of the bitterest desert—the love that can
make the wrong things right, that can turn
weeping into laughter, that can give beauty
for ashes, the garment of praise for the spir
it of heaviness, joy of the morning for the
woe of the night.
Save for the beautiful memories, sweet and
tender, that linger like the perfume of roses
in the heart of the day that is gone, I have
nothing to do with yesterday. It was mine;
it is God’s.
And the other day I do not worry about is
tomorrow. Tomorrow with all its possible
adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large
promise and poor performance, its failures
and mistakes, is as far beyond the reach of
my mastery as its dead sister, yesterday. It
THE CHURCH AND THE PAX EC UMENICA
who saves life is a greater hero than the man
who destroys life; the man who goes about
on foot, like the divine Lord, doing good, is a
greater hero than “the man on horseback”
destroying life. The physician who risks his
own health and life in discovering the cause
and cure of disease is a greater hero than the
man who leads armies to battle and to vic
tory. The woman who is a worker in the
slums, destroying physical and moral germs,
may be as truly a heroine as Joan of Arc at
the head of her troops destroying the sup
posed enemies of her country. We must ex
alt the faithful toilers who save life above
the destroyers of life on gory battlefields.
The trend of thought today is in this direc
tion. We also must have new ideals of pa
triotism. Children ought, of course, to be
taught in our schools the history of battles
and wars; but this history ought to be so
taught as to give the pupils a horror of war
and an enthusiasm for peace. We ought to
remember Milton’s true words:
“Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war.”
We have sung lustily of the glory of dying
for our country; we ought also to sing brave
ly of the duty, privilege, and glory of living
for our country. It is often vastly more diffi
cult to live patriotically, doing our duty at
the ballot-box, and in the multiform relations
of good citizenship, than daring death on the
battlefield. It often requires vastly more he
roism and patriotism to be honest in busi
ness, faithful in daily duty, and triumphant
in the lowly walks of life, than to die amid
the clash of arms on the field of strife. We
can show patriotism in resisting corrupt leg
islators, unscrupulous politicians, grafting
lobbyists, and law-breakers generally, more
than by leading armies to battle. The spade
and the broom may be more truly instru
ments of patriotism than the sword and the
gun. Heroism can be shown today in oppos
ing political and social evils as truly as it
was ever shown in national or international
strife. We need heroes and patriots today
The Golden Age for June 15,1911.
is a day of God’s. Its sun will rise in roseate
splendor, or behind a mask of weeping clouds.
But it will rise. Until then, the same love
and patience that hold yesterday hold tomor
row. Save for the star of hope that gleams
forever on the brow of tomorrow, shining
with tender promise into the heart of today,
I have no possession in that unborn day of
grace. All else is in the safe keeping of the
Infinite Love that holds for me the treasures
of yesterday. The love that is higher than
the stars, wider than the skies, deeper than
the seas. Tomorrow—it is God’s day. It will
be mine.
There is left for myself, then, but one day
of the week—today. Any man can fight the
battles of today. Any woman can carry the
burdens of just one day. Any man can resist
the temptations of today. 0 friends, it is
only when to the burdens and cares of today,
carefully measured out to us by the Infinite
Wisdom and might that gives with them the
promise, “As thy day, so shall thy strength
be,” we wilfully add the burdens of those two
awful eternities—yesterday and tomorrow—
such burdens as only the mighty God can
sustain —that we break down. It isn’t the
experience of today that drives men mad. It
is the remorse for something that happened
yesterday, the dread of what tomorrow may
disclose.
These are God’s days. Leave them with
Him.
to fight the liquor traffic, mob rule, race ha
ters, tuberculosis, typhoid, and a hundred
other foes vastly more dangerous than any
enemies we are ever likely to meet in battle.
We ought to use all our influence to silence
the jingoes who are ever prating about war
with Japan and with other nations with whom
we are now living in blessed peace. Never
before in the advance of civilization were
there such opportunities for superb heroism
and for glowing patriotism as today, in the
cure of social ills and in ushering in the glo
rious day of which Burns sang so poetically
and prophetically:
“Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a’ that,
That sense and worth, o’er a’ the earth,
May bear the gree, and a’ that,
For a’ that, and a’ that,
It’s coming yet, for a’ that,
That man to man the world o’er,
Shall brithers be for a’ that.”
We need also a new ideal of churchism. We
must not forget that ours is the church of
the Prince of Peace. This is one of His most
glorious designations. It was given Him hun
dreds of years before His divine-human birth.
It was sublimely repeated in angelic song
over His manger cradle. His Father and our
Father is called “The God of Peace.” It is
distinctly foretold that “The God of Peace
shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
Repeatedly, in passages of striking and beau
tiful solemnity, God is called “The God of
Peace.” Peace is everywhere emphasized as
one of the noblest of the celestial graces. We
know that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, meekness, self-control.” Peace
makers are distinctly called “blessed.” The
new world-consciousness is giving us a new
world-conscience. The welfare of one nation
conduces to the welfare of all nations. We
now talk, as never before, of the solidarity of
the race. We can not separate between con
sciousness and conscience. We are realizing,
as never before, that all men are our broth-
By ROBERT J. BURDETTE
Therefore, I think, and I do, and I journey
but one day at a time. That is the easy day.
That is the man’s day. Nay, rather, that is
our day—God’s and mine. And while faith
fully and dutifully I run my course, and
work my appointed task on that day of ours,
God the Almighty and the all-loving takes
care of yesterday and tomorrow.
EPIGRAMS.
By Elam Franklin Dempsey, B. D.
The Church is the greatest institution on
earth and the only one in Heaven.
Pride’s last retreat is pride in one’s hu
humility.
e
The nearer we are to God, the closer we are
to one another.
Life is the school of character.
e
The critic who conforms to his own stand
ard is rare.
$1.50 brings you THE GOLDEN AGE and
six of those beautiful pictures. Renew to
day.
ers, and we are to do them good as we have
opportunity.
Today, the humanist is not simply one who
pursues the study of “The Humanities,” as
the term was once understood; he is the man
who possesses qualities of humaneness. “The
Humanities” now are not simply the study
of classical and polite literature or “witty
sciences.” “The Humanites” now are kind
feelings, sympathetic dispositions, and help
ful activities toward all creatures. Today,
as never before, men of vast wealth realize
that they are the stewards and not the own
ers of that wealth. This is the day of melior
ism in relation to all classes and conditions of
men. Let us introduce a new day into the
church year, “Peace Sunday.” No cause is
more worthy of having a day devoted to its
promotion. Let frequent references be made
to this divine cause. In prayer meetings,
and in the preaching and hymns of the regu
lar Sunday services. Ministers can greatly
promote peace by conversation in their pas
toral calls and by the spirit of their entire
lives.
When Ulysses came to a strange city, he
sacked it, simply because to him its people
were strangers. Once, hostis, meant both a
stranger and an enemy—an enemy simply
because he was a stranger. Those days have
passed away never to return. Kinder prin
ciples now characterize our relations with all
nations. In this new era, our rivalries shall
not be on our battlefields; but on the fields of
arts and sciences, industries and civiliza
tions, as the nations vie with one another to
lift their fellowmen to higher levels of phy
sical, social, and intellectual and moral life.
The colossal statue of the Christ, standing
on the boundary line between Chile and Ar
gentina, is the prophecy of the day when the
Prince of Peace shall reign in every palace,
on every throne, and in every heart the world
over. Then the song of the Celestial Choir,
which echoed over the plains of Bethlehem,
shall have its complete fulfilment; “Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men!”
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