Kind words for the Sunday school children. (Macon, Georgia) 1872-1886, July 22, 1877, Image 2

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

2 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.