Earlier text: Publishers' PageJapan’s Search for a New Religion
A NEW religion is being agitated for in Japan. Certain of the élite in that country allege that a new religion is a necessity, and the reviews have been filled with discussions as to the possibility and necessity of endowing Japan with such a religion. Buddhism, Shintoism, and Christianity are set aside as unsuitable to the present demands, and a religion is advocated which shall consist of a combination of the best doctrines and principles of existing beliefs, so stated as to be reconciled with the deductions of modern science. The discussion of this subject has aroused Japan to no slight extent. It is natural for those who know not the true God, to call for a religion which is only human in its wisdom, and does not go above the heights of human knowledge. It must agree with modern science, and nothing must be retained which modern science cannot explain. And this is only to say that God must not be a being above human comprehension; which is to make God altogether such a one as ourselves, and place the source of our salvation no higher than the fallen race for whose salvation the Christian religion is ordained. Salvation from sin—from the fallen, carnal nature—must come from an infinitely higher source. The true religion must be that which brings to us a knowledge and power altogether above and beyond ourselves. No being whom man could comprehend could be either a creator or a savior. The demands of the true religion are met by Christianity alone. China Establishes Modern Schools
Within the last six months edicts have been issued by the Chinese government in Peking, providing for the establishment of schools throughout the Chinese empire, and ordering governors of provinces and viceroys to select students, and send them to obtain an education abroad. The curricula of these schools include the usual Chinese classics, with the addition of history, the science of Chinese and foreign governments, and industrial science. The edict sets forth that thus “a foundation will be laid to secure men equipped for the duties of government.” The Chinese government is operated through eight viceroys, sixteen governors, and about two thousand civil officials. The Chinese students who are to be sent abroad are to acquire, in addition to a general education, “a thorough mastery of some profession.” This action by the Chinese government is believed to mark a new era of progress for this long-benighted country, which holds one quarter of the human family. THE prohibitory liquor law will, it is said, be the issue in the next State election in New Hampshire. There has long been a prohibitory law in that State, but it has not been enforced, and in Manchester, the leading city, an illegal system of license by payment of fines grew up in its place, sanctioned by the chief of police, and this was maintained for years. Finally, after strenuous efforts by the Anti-saloon League, ex-Governor Goodell secured from the superior court a writ of mandamus commanding the responsible officers to enforce the prohibitory law; and for some weeks, beginning in January last, the law was vigorously carried into effect. After some time, however, the effort was relaxed; and now it remains to be seen what choice the people of the State will make between having the prohibitory law abolished and having it enforced. Against State-Appointed Religious Observances
GOVERNOR JORDAN, of New Hampshire, appointed April 17 to be “a day of fasting, meditation, and prayer, to the end that there may be a strengthening of the faith, the hope, and the charity which have long made New Hampshire fathers strong and New Hampshire mothers noble.” The governor had in view a very worthy end, but it is one which can be secured only by some higher and more potent means than a proclamation from the head of the State government. Civil government officials are not put in office to deal with matters of faith and prescribe religious observances. God has his agencies for awakening and strengthening faith in the human heart, and it is not the prerogative of a State governor to act as the agent of him who is lord of the conscience, by appointing days of public fasting and prayer. In such matters, where any good is to result, the individual conscience must be quickened by a spiritual influence coming from no earthly source. Religious proclamations by officials of the State tend rather to retard the work of Christianity than to hasten it. Four-Day Atlantic Steamship Service
Across the Atlantic in four days’ time, is the promise now made by a new steamship company which has been formed in England, says the London Times. The organization takes the name of The Ocean Rapid Transit Company, and has a capital of $30,000,000, all practically secured. Six steamships will be built, each to be driven by turbine steam engines, using Texas oil for fuel, which will be stored in ballast tanks at the ship’s bottom. The first service of this new fast line will be from Narragansett Bay directly across the Atlantic to Castletown Bereh Haven, where connection will be made with European railways and steamships. From the New York post office to the London post office the time by this route will be four and one-half days; from New York to Paris, five days; to Berlin, five and one-half days. The crude Texas oil which will be used for fuel, will cost only ten cents a barrel. The ships will be built in England, and carry the British flag, provided the British government will subsidize for the carrying of the mails. Otherwise they will be built in the United States, and carry the flag of this country. Sabbath Keepers Arrested in Maryland
Word was received at our office from Rock Hall, Md., under date of April 11, stating that two members of the company of Sabbath keepers in that place were arrested the preceding Thursday, charged with having violated the Sunday law. Monday, April 14, was the date fixed for their trial. What the outcome has been, we have not yet learned. The Maryland Sunday law decrees that no person shall do any secular work or engage in any pastime or amusement “on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday,” under penalty of a fine of five dollars. And any person who engages in trade on this day, as for example a storekeeper who keeps open on Sunday for the sale of goods, is liable to a fine of fifty dollars for the first offense, and for a second offense may be fined five hundred dollars, besides being imprisoned for from ten to thirty days, and suffering revocation of his license as a tradesman for one year. For a third offense this penalty may be doubled. Also, any person who engages in oyster catching on Sunday may be fined three hundred dollars, or sent to jail for a year. This is not the first time this stringent Sunday law has been resorted to in that place by persons opposed to the teaching which upholds the Seventh-day Sabbath. A number of like instances are on the court records in that State, though none are of very recent date, a period of several years having elapsed since the last prosecution of Sabbath keepers for Sunday breaking in Maryland. And now that the dragon spirit of persecution is again seen, we are reminded that this spirit is in the land, and that we are in the days when “the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God.” Show me the way, O Lord,
And make it plain;
I would obey thy word;
Speak yet again.
I would not take one step until I know
Which way it is that thou wouldst have me go. O Lord, I cannot see;
Vouchsafe me light;
The mist bewilders me,
Impedes my sight;
Hold thou my hand, and lead me by thy side;
I dare not go alone; be thou my guide. I cannot see thy face,
Though thou art near;
When will the morning chase
Away my fear?
When shall I see the place where day and night
Exist not, for thy glory is its light? I will be patient, Lord,
Trustful and still;
I will not doubt thy word;
My hopes fulfill.
How can I perish, clinging to thy side,
My Comforter, my Father, and my Guide? The Righteousness of Christ in the Law
By Ellen G. White
The greatest difficulty Paul had to meet arose from the influence of Judaizing teachers. These made him much trouble by causing dissension in the church at Corinth. They were continually presenting the virtues of the ceremonies of the law, exalting these ceremonies above the gospel of Christ, and condemning Paul because he did not urge them upon the new converts. Paul met them on their own ground. “If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious,” he said, “so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” The law of God, spoken in awful grandeur from Sinai, is the utterance of condemnation to the sinner. It is the province of the law to condemn, but there is in it no power to pardon or to redeem. It is ordained to life; those who walk in harmony with its precepts will receive the reward of obedience. But it brings bondage and death to those who remain under its condemnation. So sacred and so glorious is the law, that when Moses returned from the holy mount, where he had been with God, receiving from his hand the tables of stone, his face reflected a glory upon which the people could not look without pain, and Moses was obliged to cover his face with a veil. The glory that shone on the face of Moses was a reflection of the righteousness of Christ in the law. The law itself would have no glory, only that in it Christ is embodied. It has no power to save. It is lusterless only as in it Christ is represented as full of righteousness and truth. The types and shadows of the sacrificial service, with the prophecies, gave the Israelites a veiled, indistinct view of the mercy and grace to be brought to the world by the revelation of Christ. To Moses was unfolded the significance of the types and shadows pointing to Christ. He saw to the end of that which was to be done away when, at the death of Christ, type met antitype. He saw that only through Christ can man keep the moral law. By transgression of this law man brought sin into the world, and with sin came death. Christ became the propitiation for man’s sin. He proffered his perfection of character in the place of man’s sinfulness. He took upon himself the curse of disobedience. The sacrifices and offerings pointed forward to the sacrifice he was to make. The slain lamb typified the Lamb that was to take away the sin of the world. It was seeing the object of that which was to be done away, seeing Christ as revealed in the law, that illumined the face of Moses. The ministration of the law, written and engraved in stone, was a ministration of death. Without Christ, the transgressor was left under its curse, with no hope of pardon. The ministration had of itself no glory, but the promised Saviour, revealed in the types and shadows of the ceremonial law, made the moral law glorious. The Jewish Economy Revealed Christ
Paul desires his brethren to see that the great glory of a sin-pardoning Saviour gave significance to the entire Jewish economy. He desired them to see also that when Christ came to the world, and died as man’s sacrifice, type met antitype. After Christ died on the cross as a sin offering, the ceremonial law could have no force. Yet it was connected with the moral law, and was glorious. The whole bore the stamp of divinity, and expressed the holiness, justice, and righteousness of God. And if the ministration of the dispensation to be done away was glorious, how much more must the reality be glorious, when Christ was revealed, giving his life-giving, sanctifying Spirit to all who believe? The proclamation of the law of ten commandments was a wonderful exhibition of the glory and majesty of God. How did this manifestation of power affect the people?—They were afraid. As they saw “the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking,” they “removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” They desired Moses to be their mediator. They did not understand that Christ was their appointed mediator, and that, deprived of his mediation, they would certainly have been consumed. “Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.” The pardon of sin, justification by faith in Jesus Christ, access to God only through a mediator because of their lost condition, their guilt and sin,—of these truths the people had little conception. In a great measure they had lost a knowledge of God and of the only way to approach him. They had lost nearly all sense of what constitutes sin and of what constitutes righteousness. The pardon of sin through Christ, the promised Messiah, whom their offerings typified, was but dimly understood. Paul declared, “Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished; but their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” The Jews refused to accept Christ as the Messiah, and they cannot see that their ceremonies are meaningless, that the sacrifices and offerings have lost their significance. The veil drawn by themselves in stubborn unbelief is still before their minds. It would be removed if they would accept Christ, the righteousness of the law. Many in the Christian world also have a veil before their eyes and heart. They do not see to the end of that which was done away. They do not see that it was only the ceremonial law which was abrogated at the death of Christ. They claim that the moral law was nailed to the cross. Heavy is the veil that darkens their understanding. The hearts of many are at war with God. They are not subject to his law. Only as they shall come into harmony with the rule of his government, can Christ be of any avail to them. They may talk of Christ as their Saviour; but he will finally say to them, I know you not. You have not exercised genuine repentance toward God for the transgression of his holy law, and you cannot have genuine faith in me, for it was my mission to exalt God’s law. The Moral Law a Transcript of Christ’s Character
Paul did not represent either the moral or the ceremonial law as ministers in our day venture to do. Some cherish such antipathy to the law of God that they will go out of the way to denounce and stigmatize it. Thus they despise9 and pour contempt on the majesty and glory of God. The moral law was never a type or a shadow. It existed before man’s creation, and will endure as long as God’s throne remains. God could not change nor alter one precept of his law in order to save man; for the law is the foundation of his government. It is unchangeable, unalterable, infinite, and eternal. In order for man to be saved, and for the honor of the law to be maintained, it was necessary for the Son of God to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He died for us on Calvary. His death shows the wonderful love of God for man, and the immutability of his law. In the sermon on the mount, Christ declared, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Christ bore the curse of the law, suffering its penalty, carrying to completion the plan whereby man was to be placed where he could keep God’s law, and be accepted through the merits of the Redeemer; and by his sacrifice glory was shed upon the law. Then the glory of that which is not to be done away—God’s law of ten commandments, his standard of righteousness—was plainly seen by all who saw to the end of that which was done away. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Christ is the sinner’s advocate. Those who accept his gospel behold him with open face. They see the relation of his mission to the law, and they acknowledge God’s wisdom and glory as revealed by the Saviour. The glory of Christ is revealed in the law, which is a transcript of his character, and his transforming efficacy is felt upon the soul until men become changed to his likeness. They are made partakers of the divine nature, and grow more and more like their Saviour, advancing step by step in conformity to the will of God, till they reach perfection. The law and the gospel are in perfect harmony. Each upholds the other. In all its majesty the law confronts the conscience, causing the sinner to feel his need of Christ as the propitiation for sin. The gospel recognizes the power and immutability of the law. “I had not known sin, but by the law,” Paul declares. The sense of sin, urged home by the law, drives the sinner to the Saviour. In his need man may present the mighty arguments furnished by the cross of Calvary. He may claim the righteousness of Christ; for it is imparted to every repentant sinner. God declares, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Message of the Spring
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
WHY do we never doubt, no matter how backward the season, nor how long and tedious the delay, the ultimate springing forth and unfolding of the hidden life in nature?—It is because we know that life is there, in power that no adverse conditions can ultimately control. We know that the apparent death of winter is not death indeed; it has been hallowed into sleep by the power of Him who is the resurrection and the life of all things. “Not dead, but sleeping,” he proclaims over the seemingly lifeless earth; and “if thou wilt believe, thou shalt see the glory of God,” in the restoration of all things. The curse which blights the earth, withering the flowers, stripping the trees, and casting all nature into this deathlike sleep, shall not forever hold it in bondage. Its cruel chains have been burst asunder by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Every spring season is a parable, telling that the sealed stone of his earthly prison has been rolled away, and the tree of life has sprung forth anew, to blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit. In “the gospel according to the winter,” we read of death and darkness,—the story of the frost. But “the gospel according to the spring” follows with the renewal of light and life,—the story of the resurrection,—the triumphant assurance that “death is swallowed up in victory!” It is the gospel of hope. By it we are “begotten . . . again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Why, then, should we despair or grieve, though the marks of the curse may be never so apparent in our bodies; though he who has the power of death holds us with the cords of our sins, or with the deathlike grip of disease? Christ has the keys of death and the grave, that are able to set us free, and he says: “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” The decree has gone forth; death’s doom is written; and if we believe, we shall see the glory of God in our emancipation. The power of his life is even now, though unseen, working deliverance for us, and seeming delay will but emphasize the transformation. “His going forth is sure as the morning.” He will swallow up death in victory, and wipe the tears from off all faces. This is the message of the brave snowdrop, the hopeful crocus, and the joyous daffodil, and of the buds now everywhere swelling and bursting with the life that they cannot contain. The spring is also a promise of the final complete restoration of the whole earth through the all-conquering life of the Creator. When he thus makes all things new, her wilderness will be like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” “Come, for creation groans,
Impatient of thy stay,
Worn-out by these long years of ill,
These ages of delay. “Come, spoil the strong man’s house,
Bind him, and cast him hence;
Show thyself stronger than the strong,
Thyself Omnipotence. “Come, Lord, and take away
The curse, the sin, the stain;
And make this blighted world of ours
Thine own fair world again.” Take It by Force
By Luther Warren
TAKE what?—Anything that is worth having. The kingdom of heaven includes everything that is valuable in this life and in the life to come. God has opened the door of heaven wide, and invites all to enter, but he allows Satan to stand outside the door to hinder those who “seek” to enter. Only those who are determined to go in, who say, I will, and mean it, will ever get inside the gate. You must be ready to strive, fight, “thrust men,” if you expect to reach heaven. Whatever is worth having you can have, if you will take it by force. You would like an education, but the way seems hedged up. Poverty, or some other insurmountable difficulty, keeps you from your desire. Don’t sit around waiting and wishing for the way to open. Be up and at it. Open the way. Take education by force. You can do it. God is longing to help you when you show yourself anxious to be helped. Never in the history of our world have there been better opportunities to make a success of life than just now. The10 cause of God needs you. Openings are everywhere. Thousands of young men and women are needed in every branch of service. God is calling for earnest young people to be teachers, nurses, physicians, ministers, and canvassers. Many would like to have a part in the Lord’s work, but there seems to be no way open. O my brother, my sister, the time of special privilege will soon be over. You are cheating yourself by listlessly waiting and wishing. More yet, you are cheating God and the world out of the service you might render. God has no favorites. He is as anxious to have you make a grand success of life, as any person that ever lived. How can you do it?—First, be faithful in what you have to do to-day. “He that who is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” Just as surely as you are faithful in a few things, God will make you ruler over many. If your work is only to sweep the floor, or wash the dishes, or feed the cattle, do it faithfully, do it well, do it the best you can. Do it better every time if possible. Do it with a vim. Don’t be all day about it. Don’t waste minutes. Don’t waste pennies. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, faithful, earnest, cheerful, true. A larger place will open for you. A friend of mine once said to me, “I wish I knew of some girl that I could help to get an education.” I was a little surprised, because I knew that in the church to which she belonged were a number of young ladies, and I had heard some of them wishing that it were possible to attend a college. Seeing something of this question in my face, my friend explained: “There is Mary, to be sure, and Jennie; they are nice girls, and I like them; they would like to go to school, too, and it seems a pity that they cannot; but they spend their nickels and dimes for gum, candy, and ribbons. If I saw them trying to save and help themselves, I would gladly help them.” I fear these girls will never know the help they missed. Wake up! Shake yourself! Be somebody! Make all that it is possible to make of yourself, that you may not disappoint the One who made you. I would determine that I would go to school. Seek God for wisdom. Settle it with him that you will please him in all things, and he will lead you step by step to the highest peak of progress and success. Make no delay! Time hastens. Very soon this life will be over. Don’t be a failure for eternity. Time and knowledge lost now cannot be made up, even in the eternal ages. Spring Again
By Caroline Tickner
We felt no mighty shaking,
And we heard no startling sound;
We did not mark its waking,
But the Spring is all around.
In gentleness and silence
Its loving footsteps glide,
And we turn with sudden gladness
To the crocus at our side. Now the sunlight groweth stronger,
In its warm, life-giving ray;
And the daylight lingers longer,
Just a little every day;
And we find the welcome violets,
Though we scarce believe them there,
Till they woo us down to seek them,
By their sweetness in the air. Very often comes the saying,
From the weary bed of pain,
“I shall get a little better
When the springtime comes again,”
And we say, “It soon is coming,”
For of that we have no fear,
Since God’s goodness never faileth,
And again ’tis surely here. Oh, how wondrous is the kindness
Of the everlasting God!
And how great his tender mercies
Over all his works abroad!
Let us thankfully adore him,
For his seasons as they roll;
Praying for the greater blessing
Of his springtime in the soul.
—Caroline Tickner, in the Christian. Solidified Light
By John Harvey Kellogg
The remarkable discoveries in physics that have been made within the last few years are a great shock to the self-complacency of those philosophers who have imagined that the atomic theory and the Darwinian hypothesis solved all the mysteries of matter, dead and living. The atomic theory, though serving the chemist a useful purpose as a working hypothesis, has for many years been growing weak in its knees as a lucid explanation of phenomena. The discoveries made in relation to light and electricity have shown clearly enough that there must be something associated with matter quite different from ordinary atoms and molecules as understood by the atomic theory. The ether hypothesis has helped to piece out, but this, too, has fallen short. Now the X-ray, and the Becquerel ray, and other phenomena are brought forward with an array of phenomena which quite unsettles things for the chemist and physicist, and leaves us all at sea respecting the ultimate constitution of things. The discovery of a light that could penetrate such opaque objects as a hardwood plank, two or three inches thick, and even thin sheets of metal, was sufficiently startling; but then the X-ray was produced by the electrical current, and we have become accustomed to look upon electricity as a sort of scientific wizard, and to expect new and startling things from those engaged in the study of this agent. It was not long, however, before the discovery was made that the X-ray, while opening to view the most obscure nooks and corners of the body, even penetrating the largest bones, and revealing the movements of the heart and lungs, and thus rendering the greatest service to surgeons and physicians, was at the same time a powerful agent for mischief, causing deep sloughs of the skin when too long applied, which showed great obstinacy in healing. But then this very baneful property was soon turned to good account in the treatment of certain parasitic skin diseases, particularly lupus, or tubercular disease of the skin. But now comes the surprising discovery that the X-ray is not the result of any human invention, that it is not dependent upon electrical machines nor electricians, but that it is widely produced in nature, that the aurora borealis may be a manifestation of this marvelous force emanating from the sun. The discovery has been made that there are earthy substances closely resembling lime or chalk in appearance, which, as found in nature, and without manipulation of any sort, are constantly giving off X-rays in great quantities. Two of the substances, barium and uranium, have been long known to chemists; but a new substance, radium, has recently been discovered, which possesses this property to an extent ninety times as great as any previously known. The new element possesses light in itself. It seems to be, in fact, a sort of crystallized or solidified light. A few grains of it shut up in a closed glass tube give off a light of sufficient intensity to enable one to read a book. A mass as big as an apple would serve as a table lamp; and a ceiling covered with it would secure perpetual daylight in a room. Professor Thompson and others have shown that these luminous earths give off minute corpuscles which are less than one one-thousandth part as large as the molecules of hydrogen, heretofore supposed to be the smallest of all existing atoms. These corpuscles, or particles, are continually flying off into space at a speed almost equal to that of light, or nearly one hundred thousand miles a second. So small are these particles, however, that the ceiling of a room twenty feet square would, according to Professor Becquerel, give off only one two-hundredth of a grain of radium in one thousand years. Supposing the amount required to cover such a ceiling to be one hundred thousand grains, the supply of light would not cease nor diminish in less than one hundred million years. A wonderful property of this light is that, while it is given off by a cold body, it is capable of heating the objects on which it falls. The writer has seen a piece of platinum glowing at a white heat under these wonderful rays. They produce chemical effects, as do the sun's rays. Many other astonishing properties have been pointed out. The spectacle of light and heat coming out of a cold, opaque body like chalk, opens a field for scientific speculation not likely to be soon exhausted. It may be that the scientific world will discover at last that the inspired word which declares, “God is light,” is a simple statement of a profound and fundamental scientific fact. The discoveries of Becquerel, Currie, and Séguin in relation to the emanations from metals, open new and most wonderfully interesting fields for thought, and give hints of greater discoveries, whole new fields of discovery, yet to follow. At last we may all be able to see clearly the deep philosophy in Paul's declaration, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” The Plant and Flower of Light
By Ben Jonson
It is not growing like a tree,
In bulk, doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear;
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night—
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
— Ben Jonson. “A RED rose, drooping to the ground,
With delicate beauty flushed,
By a careless foot, at eventide,
Was trampled on and crushed.
Christlike, the injured flower returned
No thorn-prick for the blow,
But gave instead a sweet perfume
To him who laid it low.” Strength Through Self-Conquest
“An unpleasant or difficult duty is a large opportunity. Strength comes through self-conquest, but there is no conquest where there is nothing to overcome. He who refuses good to an enemy, or forgiveness to his persecutor, practically chooses to be weak when he declines to accept the divinely given opportunity to be strong.” Be a Good Boy; Good-By
By John L. Shroy
How oft in my dreams I go back to the
day
When I stood at our old wooden gate,
And started to school in full battle array,
Well armed with a primer and slate.
And as the latch fell, I thought myself
free,
And gloried, I fear, on the sly,
Till I heard a kind voice that whispered
to me:
“Be a good boy; good-by.” “Be a good boy; good-by.” It seems not
They have followed me all these years;
They have given a form to my youthful
dreams,
And scattered my foolish fears. They have stayed my feet on many a
brink,
Unseen by a blinded eye;
For just in time I would pause and think:
“Be a good boy; good-by.” O brother of mine, in the battle of life,
Just starting, or nearing its close,
This motto aloft, in the midst of the
strife,
Will conquer wherever it goes.
Mistakes you will make, for each of us
errs,
But, brother, just honestly try
To accomplish your best. In whatever
occurs,
“Be a good boy; good-by,”
—John L. Shroy.