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YONDER.
A UT of the shadow
'll!! Os darkness and sin,
111 Freed from the evil
j That lurketh within;
Into the’sunlight
Os bliss and oflovc,
Myjsoul shall be lifted
To glory above.
Yonder in Heaven,
In mansions of light,
’Mid glorified spirits
In endless delight,
Disturbed by no sorrow,
No longer distressed,
Forever with Jesus
My spirit shailjrcst.
Weariedjwith labors,
Tortured by fears,
Bearing life’s burdens
Bedewed with my tears;
Homeward I journey,
Looking ever above,
For the Father is calling
The child of his love.
[Z. H. Shuck, in Working Christian.
HOW TO HE DISAGREEABLE.
cl T is my decided opinion that Mary Digley is a true
'G) Christian. I could give good teasons for my opin
ion ; but my friend, Mrs. Shaw, thinks differently.
“You need not tell me that,” says my friend: “I do
not believe a word of it. She is the most disagreeable
person I know.”
“ I will admit that Mary is not always as pleasant as
I could wish her to be; but”—
“ If it is her religion that makes her so, I am sure I
do not wish to be pious.”
“ Dear Mrs. Shaw, how can you be so unjust? You
knvio that religion never made anybody hateful. Mary
has a bad habit, and she has not had wisdom to cor
rect it.”
“Well, you have a right to your opinion.” And with
that we parted.
Not many days afterwards, Miss Digley came in, and
asked me to go out with her. At our first stop, good
Mrs. Carter was eager to show us a new chair-cover she
had just worked. I could not help noticing at once a
want of arrangement in the colors; but, as it would be
a great trouble for Mrs. Carter to take it to pieces, and
re-arrange it, I saw no need to speak of it. “ How very
thick and firm it is!” I said with true admiration.
“ Yes, and it is very even,” said Miss Digley.
Good Mrs. Carter’s eye brightened. She likes—as
who does not ?—to have her work approved.
She began telling in a pleasant manner the quantities
of wool she had used, when Miss Digley drew back a
little, and, glancing at it again, cried aloud, “ But, dear
Mrs. Carter, you should not have put pink and blue to
gether! It spoils the look of that stripe entirely.”
Mrs. Carter was made uncomfortable, and who was
benefited ?
Leaving her house, we met a little boy leading, or
rather dragging, by a string, a small dog that was cer
tainly far from beautiful. Miss Digley knew the child,
and said, “ Rupert, where did you get that ugly little
dog?”
The little boy’s bright eyes flashed instantly. “He is
not ugly, ma’am,” he shouted, and passed us, muttering,
loud enough to be heard, “He is much pleasanter than
cross young ladies.”
Our next visit was to Mrs. Vernon. While we were
conversing, the milliner’s girl came in. “ Mrs. Shape
has sent home your bonnet, ma’am.” Mrs. Vernon
opened the box, and took out a modest lavender bonnet.
“Is it not pretty ?” I said. I ought to have known
better; but I was willing to please, and spoke without
thought.
“Yes, for those that like that color. Ido not, for
my part,” said Miss Digley.
“ The milliner thought it was becoming to me,” Mrs.
Vernon said rather timidly.
“ Mrs. Shape has no taste, not the least in the world,”
said Miss Digley decidedly.
KIND WORDS.
Considering the fact that Mrs. Vernon’s purchases in
the millinery line were made for the year, I could not
help thinking that Miss Digley’s advice might as well
have been omitted.
We went on to Mrs. Owen’s. We were very well
acquainted, and, having a puzzled sense of something
strange, I had no hesitation in saying, “ Somehow, your
parlor does not look quite as it used to do, Mrs. Owen.”
“ It is the new hangings, perhaps.”
“ Oh, yes!” I said; and Miss Digley instantly glanced
round.
“Very pretty paper,” said she. “But, Mrs. Owen,
the border does not match at all.”
Mrs. Owen has a little temper of her own; and I
could see that she was nettled in an instant.
“ I like a contrast,” she said.
“ Oh, yes! but then the colors ought to bear some
relation to each other.”
“ How dark you are!” was almost the first thing
Mary Digley said as we entered the sitting-room of Mrs.
Field, another of my friends.
Mrs. Field hastened to unclose the blinds, saying that
the flies were very troublesome.
“ Oh, nonsense!” replied Miss Digley, with spirit.
“ It is all foolishness to be so much afraid of a speck of
dirt! Light and air are very essential to health. Ido
not wonder you are pale and delicate, if this is the way
you live.”
We chatted a little while, and then Mrs. Field begged
to be excused, and left the room. She returned shortly
with a small tray containing cake and lemonade. For
my part, I found them very refreshing after my long,
warm walk. But Miss Digley said, “No, thank you,
Mrs. Field: I never take anything between meals. It
is a very bad practice. Besides, I never eat cake at any
time; nor do I care about lemonade.”
Mrs. Field looked mortified and uncomfortable, and
I was glad when it was time for us to go.
“ We will go to Mrs. Trumbull’s, and then home,”
said Miss Digley.
“ No: I will not make another visit with you to-day.
You have made five persons uncomfortable; and that is
quite enough for one day.”
To do Miss Digley justice, she is consistent. She
will bear as much from others as she requires others to
bear from her. She asked what I meant.
“Just this: you have found fault, and in a manner
that could do no possible good, with every person you
have spoken to since we came out. It certainly did no
good for you to tell Mrs. Carter her chair-cover was ill
planned.”
“ Oh, that was nothing!”
“Yes, it was: it made her feel uncomfortable. Ru
pert Dale gave you his opinion of you for calling his
dog ugly.”
“ The ill-mannered little rogue! Well.”
“No one was benefited by your objecting to the color
of Mrs. Vernon’s bonnet.”
“To be sure. But how can people have so little
taste ? Well, say on.”
“ Mrs. Owen ”
“Oh, well! I did think it was right for me to give
my opinion about the ill-matched borders.”
“And of Mrs. Field’s dark parlor? I declare I was
quite vexed with the manner in which you refused her
civility.”
“ I cannot destroy my health for anybody’s whim,”
said Miss Digley earnestly.
“ But could you not have declined more civilly ?
Seriously, dear Mary, among other precepts, there is one
in the Bible, ‘to be courteous.’ There are, no doubt,
times when we are called on to speak exactly what we
think; but commonly, if we cannot say something pleas
ant, we had better be .silent.”
“ Perhaps. Well, I know I am a very frank, out
spoken sort of person.”
“ Ah! Beware that you do not make frankness the
excuse for unkindness. lam sorry to say it; but I be
lieve I must: you are sometimes called disagreeable
and provoking. One person professed entire disbelief
in your religion, and all on account of your needless
remarks.”
“Well, Mrs. Brown, I am convicted: I heartily thank
you for your kindness in pointing out a bad habit. May
I have grace to correct it!”
BEGINNING ANEW.
“Did you see Louise there last night?” asked a young
girl of her companion as they walked away from the
school-house on their way home.
“ No. Well, wonders will never cease. Louise Bad
ger at a prayer-meeting! She must be interested, to
take so decided a step: don’t you think so?”
“Yes, I’m sure she must; fori sat where I could
watch her. You know how earnest she looks when she
is really interested in anything; and all her heart was
in her face. Dear girl! what a deal of good her conver
sion would do! She is such a leader, all the rest would
be sure to follow. Wouldn’t that be glorious ?” And
Madge Turner squeezed her friend’s arm with a will.
“ O Madge! you hurt me. Don’t!” said Pink Grecly.
“ But I wish I could feel as much as you do about it. I
know I’m a Christian; because I remember just how the
scales seemed to fall off from my eyes that summer’s day
two years ago, and how I cried out, ‘I see! oh, I see!’
But what do you suppose is the reason I don’t feel just
as much now? You know, we don’t believe in ‘falling
from grace.’ I’m afraid I’m one of the ‘lukewarm’ dis
ciples; and that is worse even than being ‘cold.’”
“ If you won’t be offended, Pinkie dear, it seems to
me the trouble with you is, that you have been trying to
‘serve two masters;’ and you are not happy, because it’s
a thing which can’t be done.”
“Yes, that’s it,” answered Pink sadly; “that’s it.
This world does look so attractive to me, and I do so love
a gay life ! Parties and dancing make my heart thump
like a small engine; but a prayer-meeting doesn’t.”
“ Because you haven’t ‘left all and followed Jesus.’”
“ I do try to govern my temper, and to ‘ grow sweeter
every day;’ but the thing which troubles me is, how to
get rid of my love for the world. It’s a burning thirst
with me. And then, you know, we can never have the
pleasures of this world in heaven.” And Pink sighed
more deeply than before.
“But we shan’t want them there, dearie; for we shall
be with Jesus, and have joys of which we have never
dreamed. I’ll tell you what to do, Pinkie. Somebody
once told me not to try to shovel out the darkness from
my heart, but to let in more light. Do you see ?
“Jesus will take away the worldly longings, if we are
only filling our lives with him and his work.
“ Let’s begin all over again to-day, darling, just as if
we never had begun at all. Let us spend more time
in reading our Bibles, and talking with Jesus, and in
writing notes to the girls, and trying to influence them
to be Christians. I’ve just had a little taste of it; and I
tell you, it’s sweetness itself.”
“ I never knew before that a revival had to begin in
the hearts of Christians, until Miss Bassett told us so to
day,” said Pinkie. “ I thought it was all for the uncon
verted sinners; but I begin to see it now.”
“ I declare, I’m fairly hungry for a good talk with
Jesus about it,” said Madge. “ But I’ve found, that if
we pray ever so much, and don’t read our Bibles a great
deal too, we don’t feel satisfied. I like to think of what
mamma once told me, that we must try to feel as if the
Bible was God’s letter of love to us. Now, I’ve watched
Marie when she gets a letter from Charlie; and she pores
over it, and reads it a hundred times. She wouldn’t be
satisfied to write him all the letters: she wants the an
swers. And I think we find God’s answers to all our
doubts and fears, and little faith and cold love, there.”
They had come to the parting-place; and kissing each
other warmly, after the fashion of girls, said good-bye
until the morrow.
But the words which Madge had spoken had revived
Pink’s zeal. She could hardly wait until dinner was
over to steal away to her quiet chamber; and there,
with the golden sunlight falling all around, she sat
poring over her neglected Bible—the precious letter to
each one of us from our absent Lord.