LONDON is having fine summer weather—the best that has been known for years. The season is generally considered to have been a remarkably brilliant one, with extravagant dressing, social fetes, and general fashionable dissipation at its highest. Now the time of the midsummer holidays is drawing near. Soon the giddy round of pleasure-seeking will end for the season, the theatres will close up, social functions will cease, and all fashionable London will betake itself to the country or to the various watering places. This almost universal observance of a summer holiday interferes a good deal with the general run of business. Beginning with the first of August, and lasting until near the close of September there is quite general stagnation in the business world of London, owing solely to this cause.
The Salvation Army.
The chief religious event of the past month has been the Great World Congress of the Salvation Army, held in a large temporary building in the Strand, right in the very heart of London, and with auxiliary meetings in a number of the leading halls and theatres, including the reception of the delegates, which took place in the Royal Albert Hall. I attended the first regular meeting of the Congress, at which reports from the various countries of the world were presented by the leading delegates. Every country of importance was represented except Spain and Russia, and there were large contingents from the United States, Canada, and several European countries. The meeting was of a bright and cheery character, the singing excellent, and the whole place seemed alive with enthusiastic sentiment. General Booth presided, and introduced the different delegates, also reading an address which embodied the leading principles of the Army, and a retrospect of its rapid growth, especially the past ten years. About five thousand persons were present, chiefly Army workers, and the effect of singing some of the old melodies was very beautiful.
General Booth's audience with the king was calculated to draw general attention to the Army, and the climax of the Congress was reached in the Grand Review held at the Crystal Palace, in which an army of twenty thousand devoted soldiers passed before the general, while fully a hundred thousand persons were present to witness the sight. The leading journals published full reports of the meetings from day to day, and several noticed them favorably in their editorial columns. The Daily News said:—
"Among those who study the condition of churches and creeds in our day, it is a commonplace that the vast development of the Salvation Army is the one grand and overpowering fact in the contemporary history of Christianity. It weighs in the balance against many disheartening accounts of defection, loss of faith, and spiritual decadence. Its strength lies in the fact that it 'does things;' it does not merely preach them."
The Salvation Army has undergone a certain change of character during the last ten years; its energies have been more and more drawn out in the direction of social and philanthropic enterprises, and it has certainly done much good in this field of effort. On the other hand, it is believed by some of the friends of the movement that it has lost somewhat in spirituality, and in real earnestness in the work of saving souls. However that may be, the work of the Army is probably at its zenith just now, and it is doubtful if another conference of the dimensions and unique interest and enthusiasm of this one will ever be held. Two weaknesses in the Army are worth noting in passing. First, it is to a very great extent, a one-man movement. When General Booth passes off the scene of action, there will be no one to take his place. Secondly, the movement lacks a proper foundation of Scriptural truth. It preaches the gospel of repentance from sin, but fails to lead its disciples into that intimate acquaintance with the Bible which is necessary to fully establish them in the truth. In this respect there is a superficiality about the Army work that its friends can not but deplore. A backward step was taken some years ago when it was decided to admit as members men who were addicted to the tobacco habit. Such can not, however, become officers till they give up the weed. Vegetarian principles are making considerable progress in the Army, many of the leading officers, including General Booth and his son Bramwell Booth, being strict abstainers from flesh foods. Certainly the Army has done one very great kindness to the Christian world in showing the capacity of ordinary men and women for fruitful service in behalf of their fellow-men.
Religious Indifference.
"Pagan London" was the title of a recent article by a Church-of-England clergyman in one of the leading dailies. In it was pointed out the fact that church-going was never so much at a discount as at the present, and that the general attitude of the public was one of religious indifference. Marie Corelli, the novelist, resented the charges, and wrote a reply entitled "Unchristian Clerics," in which she suggested that a church which paid its head seventy-five thousand dollars a year, and the holders of other rich benefices proportionally, was not the kind of a church to help the toiling masses. It must be admitted that the novelist's point of view is shared by a very large number of the working class.
Precarious Peace.
We had a demonstration last evening of how quickly the war spirit is stirred up. Russia seized the "Malacca," a steamship carrying military stores, etc., for the English at Hong Kong. Britain demanded that the vessel be released, and the report came out that Russia had refused. So the evening papers put out flaming contents-bills after this style: "Britain firm; Russia defiant. Warships move." There was quite a stir, but this morning the papers report that Russia is quite disposed to yield. So the incident is closed. But it plainly illustrates how precarious is the peace that exists in Europe to-day. Here in England the feeling of distrust toward Germany is growing. Some believe that Germany will yet interfere to aid Russia in the war with Japan, which would mean that England would be called upon to help her ally.
The death of Mr. G. F. Watts, the celebrated painter, has removed from our midst a man of strong character, and one who saw much more clearly than most men the evils from which the country is suffering. He led a simple, abstemious life, working to the last. Tho never in very robust health, he died at the ripe age of eighty-seven.
Ritualism, or the Movement Romeward
is rampant; it grows in strength continually, and becomes more bold and wanton in its assumptions of Romish ways. The vicar of a certain parish writes in the Parish Magazine: "The chief disappointment this Lent has been the smallness of the number of those who have attended daily Mass." Following is an extract from his monthly letter: "It is necessary to say a word about each person's keeping to his own proper turn in coming to Confession. . . . Complaints reach me that it is by no means an uncommon thing for people to come into church for the purpose of making their confession, find a number of people already there waiting, and yet make their way right to the front, and take almost the next opportunity to go into the confessional," etc., etc. Is it not disgusting to think that in a supposedly Protestant church the members will rush in head over heels to confess their sins to a Romanizing cleric? And yet this is only a typical case. The country is full of it, and the movement9has its sympathizers amongst those in high authority in church and state.
Temperance and Hygiene in the Schools.
I have referred in previous letters to the prevalence of intemperance, and, as one of the consequences, a very manifest deterioration in the national health and physique. This matter is receiving some much-needed attention. For some months past a petition has been circulating amongst the medical men, which calls for the teaching of hygiene and temperance in the public schools of the country. This petition, after receiving about 17,000 signatures, was last week formally presented to the Minister of Education by a committee of medical men. The comments of the London Times on this matter are so apposite that I quote them nearly in full. The great journal says:—
"This is the year 1904 of the Christian era, and this is a country which prides itself upon being in the forefront of civilization, and piques itself upon its common sense, and its practical intelligence. . . . [It] has tens of thousands of ministers of religion, who are supposed to assist in making men and women good citizens. It has a very large body of medical men, each of whom ought surely to be a center of intelligence as regards the elementary laws of health. It is covered with all sorts of benevolent agencies for dealing with isolated aspects of disease or accident. It has universities, public schools, secondary schools, and a costly system of compulsory education.
"Yet in this favored land a deputation of medical men, last week, waited upon the Minister of Education to beg him, in view of the appalling and increasing degeneration among the people to take steps to have the rudimentary laws of health taught in the public schools. The minister expressed his entire sympathy with the objects of the deputation, but was obliged to confess that he could not promise any immediate help, because his department does not possess teachers who themselves know what the deputation desire to have taught. His department is doing what it can to induce the existing teachers to learn, and two years hence it hopes that every teacher admitted to its staff will be adequately instructed.
"So that in about a generation it may be possible that the fathers and the mothers of the next will learn at school a little of what it most nearly concerns them to know. It would need the pen of a Swift to do justice to this mordant satire upon the way in which this nation carries on the highly important business of training its men and women."
Such words mean much coming from Great Britain's foremost daily. They show that the nation is awakening to some of its greatest needs, and that the way is open as never before to carry forward our health work.
M. ELLSWORTH OLSEN.
London, July 22, 1904.
TRUE AMERICANISM.
By Editor
The Right to Labor.
REPEATEDLY have we said that our sympathies are with the workingmen, the daily, the weekly, the monthly wage-earners, with the corner-grocery men, and the small dealers.
We have no sympathy with the trust idea in commercialism or religion. This does not mean that we should not possess convictions of truth and right and duty, but it does mean, also, that because we do possess these, and demand the equal right of their exercise in justice and equality, we also demand the same just and equal rights for our opponents. The true man asks no more favors for himself from government than he demands for all his fellow-men.
Because we believe this, because this is the conviction of our souls, our sympathies for the laboring man are not for a class, but for all.
A trust in labor, monopoly in labor, is as wrong, as unjust, in the ranks of labor, as it is in the banks of capital. It breeds the same spirit of arrogance, of class hatred, of contempt of men, of disregard of law, to compass a coveted end, in both cases.
Therefore, he who opposes the capital trust from principle must, to be consistent, oppose the labor trust—yclept "union"—from principle. The "tie-up" and the "lock-out," the "boycott" and the "black list," the "freezing out" and the "picket-ing," are all fruit from the same tree, grown in the same soil, the natural, selfish heart of man. All are unchristian, and against every principle of primitive Americanism.
In harmony with these principles is a recent decision of Hon. J. Hunt, judge in the Superior Court of San Francisco, in a recent decision granting permanent injunction against striking stablemen, in the case of E. G. Pierce versus the Stablemen's Union. The judge reviews at length the picketing, the rowdyism, the violence, the intimidation and injury of non-union workingmen, the ruination of business, the utter irresponsibility of the Stablemen's Union, and sets forth the impossibility of the prosecution of all, or even the greater part, of the offenders. Judge Hunt therefore contends that the act passed in 1903, by the state Legislature, preventing interference by injunction in "trade disputes" between employers and workingmen is, in some of its provisions, unconstitutional, because—
First, it violates that provision of our state constitution which declares that "all men have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property." This provision is contained in the Declaration of Rights, and it forever safeguards the rights of persons and rights of property.
Freedom is the spirit and essence of the Constitution, but the freedom thus guaranteed to the citizen no more implies a license in one man, or in any combination of men, to harass or injure another in the pursuit of his lawful business, than it implies a license to deprive him of his personal liberty. The Constitution alike protects natural freedom and industrial freedom. If the right of property is inalienable, the right to labor is inviolate.
Right to Labor.
Therefore, these rights can not be impaired by legislation. He further says:—
The right to labor is a right of property, and the duty to protect it is the highest office of our laws.
In 127 Cal., 13, the Supreme Court quotes with approval the following extract from State vs. Goodwill, 33 W. Va., 179:—
"The property which every man has in his own labor, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolate."
Hence, no syndicate of employers or union of employees can bar one of the right to labor, for the right to labor is the right to live; but how can it be said that a right is inviolate if, when violated, the law affords no redress? For the law to declare a right and then deny it all means of enforcement would be to—
Keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope.
But such a reproach does not rest upon the law, for it is one of its oldest and best maxims that "where there is a wrong there is a remedy." Hence, when a property right is violated, and the common law affords the injured party no remedy, equity will intervene to redress the wrong.
To deny the plaintiff equitable relief for the invasion of his rights of property is to deny him of process of law; and to violate a fundamental principle of the constitution of the state; for a right without a remedy is no right at all.
Special Legislation.
Judge Hunt declares the act of 1903 unconstitutional, as we declared at the time, because it is special, or class, legislation. Among other things he declares:—
The provision [of the act of 1903] is special legislation because in matters of "trade dispute" it denies to employers an equitable remedy which it accords to the non-employing class. It applies to "trade disputes" a rule not applicable to other disputes.
One class of property and of property owners, under certain conditions may obtain equitable relief which, under the same conditions, this act denies to another class of property and property owners.
The owner of real estate is entitled to an injunction against a trespasser whose acts threaten his possession, but under this legislation, the man who owns a business under like conditions, is denied relief.
The provision is special legislation because it applies only to a particular class and makes employees the immunes of the law. The constitution of the state provides that no citizens or class of citizens shall be granted privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not be granted to all citizens.
If the acts herein complained of were committed by an organization of men between whom and the plaintiff the relation of employment never existed, the plaintiff's right to equitable relief would be undoubted, but under this provision, if one or more of his employees, in combination with others, commit these acts, the equitable remedy does not exist. In my opinion, there can be no legal support for such legislation, undermining and destroying, as it does, a constitutional right.
Makes Impotent the Court.
Third, the provision in question is void, because it seeks to deprive the Superior Courts of a judicial prerogative conferred upon them by the Constitution.
The Constitution provides that "the Superior Court shall have jurisdiction of all cases in equity."
If the Legislature can deprive a court of equity of the right to issue an injunction in a case like this, then it could deprive it of the right to issue an injunction in any case; it could absolutely divest the court of what is and always has been one of its most potent remedies, thus nullifying its powers and making impotent its decrees.
Legislature Can Not Destroy Remedy.
It is undoubtedly true that the Legislature, as was held in these cases, may alter or regulate remedies and procedure, legal and equitable; but it can not destroy a substantive remedy, nor can it defeat the enforcement of a constitutional right by depriving the injured party of the only remedy that the law can award for its violation.
This case is manifestly one of equitable cognizance, for the reasons already stated; and in 24th Cal., 409, the Supreme Court declared that "in matters of equitable cognizance, powers granted by the Constitution can not be taken away by legal enactment."
For each and all of the reasons herein before stated, I am of the opinion that, insofar as the Legislative act in question attempts to deprive a court of equity of the power to issue an injunction in cases of this character, it is unconstitutional and void.
Now, all this seems to us, not only reasonably, soundly just, but good, ordinary common sense. It is a noteworthy decision which ought to be felt throughout the country; and we can not help feeling that every lover of justice among union men will respond in his heart, tho he dare not say it with his lips, a hearty Amen.
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
MANCHURIA is almost as much a closed country now as is the land of Tibet, especially in the matter of obtaining reliable information of what is actually being done there. There are persistent reports of large Japanese losses in attempting to carry the outer fortifications of Port Arthur. It is definitely known that some of the fortifications have been carried by the Japanese; it is reported that all of these defensive works have been taken, and that many thousands of Japanese have been slain in the various assaults.
There have been reports of naval engagements off Port Arthur with the loss of a Japanese cruiser; but these have not been verified. It is also reported that the Vladivostok fleet has had an engagement off Gensan, Korea, with a Japanese squadron; but no details are given.
On land the Japanese armies under Kuroki, Oku, and Nodzu are steadily pressing the Russians back upon Liao Yang, and are threatening the great base of operations at Moukden. General Nodzu's army is reported to be pushing in between the Russian army at Liao Yang and Moukden, while at the same time a Russian force is reported to be marching down from Vladivostok to reinforce General Kuropatkin. While the Russians have strong positions at Liao Yang, it is not known whether they will risk a general battle in their defense. If reports be true, the loss of life in the week's campaigning has been large.
Coercion in Labor Unions
A significant fact is involved in the statement of American industries, that 60 per cent of the members of labor unions are there because of coercion. A coerced support is always a very unreliable element.
Items of News
The city of Galveston, Texas, now has a great wall of granite built between it and the sea to prevent the recurrence of another such catastrophe as that which wrecked the city a few years ago. The structure stands 17 feet above mean tide, and cost $1,500,000.
Refugees from Teheran tell terrible stories of the ravages of cholera in Persia. It is stated that in that city the death list has reached as many as 900 a day.
Turkish troops are reported to have discovered a band of 52 Bulgarians setting fire to the granaries, and to have killed all but two of the Bulgarians.
Another great cave has been found in Kentucky, which it is thought will rival the Mammoth Cave when its extent has been fully determined.
ONE ANSWER TO THE BOY QUESTION.
By Florence Livingstone Joy
[Florence Livingstone Joy in The Interior.]
THE trouble with many of us who are seeking an answer to the question, "How shall I make my boy feel that his home is the best place on earth?" is that in our anxiety to help the boy we fail to give attention to our own personal attitude toward him. Many of us think the matter scarcely worth consideration. "If a mother love her son—and most mothers do,"—a woman was heard to say not long ago, "her relations with him will be the right ones, without self-probing and cross-questioning and analysis. Instinct will teach her how to manage her child." Are there any of us, I wonder, who can not point out, among boy or men acquaintances, pathetic victims of the "instinct" method of leading a boy in the way that he should not have gone?
Not for a moment do I underrate the great influence of love in the rearing of a child. There should be a tender, unselfish, all-enfolding love, a love for which home is the only synonym, felt by the boy through some such medium as father or mother or sister. But something beyond this is needed for those who would have their boys keep in the domain where abide love and purity and safety.
There seem to be no better names for these necessary qualities than understanding and sympathy, and the second is born of the first. "Get understanding" is as valuable a proverb for men and women as for the youth to whom it was first written. He who "understands" must have the boy-mind and the boy-heart. A select few seem born with the gift of understanding, and those unfortunates who stand without the pale may acquire it only by working and praying, by praying and working, and by working and praying some more. Then will sympathy of the right sort come; the sympathy that enables the grown-up, along with his broader vision and maturer judgment, to put himself in the boy's place, to see the sights the boy's eyes see, and to hear the voices the boy's ears hear. But even the sympathetic person needs tact and wisdom, for a boy is a wary creature and shies at any but the most delicate approach.
If a boy is to grow up with a strong attachment for his home, his material environments, also, require one's care. The home must be made attractive, no matter how plain it may be, and a good place on which to lavish attention is the boy's own room. Let it, in its every appointment, be clean and neat and airy. To his own wishes and tastes should be left the decoration of walls, with a word of praise wherever arrangement of pictures or trophies permits. Let his room be a precinct sacred to its owner's use, a hospitable "den" where he and his boy friends may spend many happy hours under proper conditions.
That part of the house set aside for general use should be attractive to the boy of the family. A large outlay in money is not a necessary means of11securing this result; without that the home may be invested with an air of restfulness, and its very atmosphere invite one to thoughts of cozy evenings and delightful rainy days. Books and games may be provided at small expense, tho in the matter of both these sources of pleasure there should not be too strong an urging. A child can not profitably be driven to reading, but often a good book tactfully suggested, or placed where one may come across it unexpectedly, helps much toward formation of the reading habit.
Among the boyhood memories most cherished by some men I know is that of a "treat" which their mother used to give them and their boy friends after a vigorous siege of wood-sawing or lawn-mowing.
The encouragements of some such hobby as stamp collecting will often solve the problem of finding something for idle hands to do. Keen and sympathetic interest on the part of the people of the home will increase the young collector's zeal, and prove a bond that will hold to the home life.
Parents too often make the mistake of regarding lightly the various schemes that enter the heads of their boys. There lived in my neighborhood, not many years ago, two boys, both of good families. During a certain summer vacation one of them was seized with an ardent desire to build a boat. The father, instead of laughing him out of the idea, devised a way by which the boy might himself earn materials for the proposed boat, and in other ways encouraged him in carrying out his project. The other boy, after spending a few days watching his friend at work, expressed to his own father a wish to try his hand at the same thing. The man turned away with a laughing, "Why, you could never make a boat." To-day the first young man is helping to pay his own way through college, and is the pride of his parents; the second spends his nights in pool halls, and his days in sleeping and cigaret-smoking. The incident is valuable in that it shows how, and how not, to deal with a boy.
One should remember that a boy's straying begins when he is but seven or eight years old, when he first migrates on summer evenings to the nearest street corner, where "the boys" from other homes have gathered. Now is the time to make him feel that the best place of rendezvous is his own yard, even tho the lawn become thinner for the many sturdy feet that have trampled upon it.
Second only to the good fortune of the boy with a dog is that of the boy with a barn. Place a workbench in this and let the lad have access to the tools—with the understanding, of course, that he take proper care of these. Let him and his companions engage in such other fascinating play as shall well fill what might otherwise be idle hours.
Last of all, avoid doing what a boy hates more than he hates poison; that is, nagging. If you have any commands to issue, do it in a way that shall not cause him to lose respect for you, and for himself, too. Whining will not accomplish much, and it has done untold harm. Let your boy feel that home is what it should be—a place where peace reigns and love abounds. Then will he cherish above all things else the spot which you have created for him; then will your dreams of keeping him within its sweet security come true.
FAITHFULNESS IN THE HOME.
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle
I HAVE a friend who has only one child,—a dear little boy. Having no girls, she has very sensibly taught Clyde to do many little chores in the house to help her. One day she left him at home alone, and assigned him the task of sweeping the sitting-room.
When she came home, she found everything neatly done. There was no dirt under the rugs or in the corners.
"You have done nicely, my dear," the mother said to him. "I see you have shaken the rugs and swept in the corners."
"Yes, mama; I did not feel a bit like doing it; I wanted to let the rugs go, and the corners, too; for I thought you would never look to see, and so you would never know. I wanted to look at my new picture book, and the fact is, mama, I don't like to sweep very well; but, you know, the preacher said last Sabbath, that the angels are looking at us all the time. So I thought I would hate to have the angel look under the rugs and in the corners, and write in his book that little Clyde Brown hadn't swept his mama's room clean. So I just tried to do my best."
Now if this little boy felt the need of being faithful in the doing of a simple duty, how, I ask, can parents neglect the sacred duty they owe to their children, of guiding their young feet in the way of righteousness, and still be guiltless? Mothers and fathers, have you opened the doors of your child's heart by the key of kindness and love, and looked carefully for the black trail of hidden sin? Have you swept under the rugs? Have you lighted a candle and peered into all the corners? Up! be at your duty; or the stains of sin will only become darker as the days go by.
We hear a great deal about being "faithful." Hardly ever a sermon is preached or a testimony borne, but that the desire is expressed to be faithful. But this implies much. A faithful mother will not slight her family duties to spend the morning hours in gossip and small talk with her neighbors. She will not neglect putting a patch on Johnny's coat or darning little Susie's stockings, for the sake of spending an hour or two studying the latest fashion magazine with Mrs. New Style. Aye, more than this, a faithful mother will not allow anything,—not even a missionary meeting,—to hinder her from the performance of those necessary duties which fall to the lot of each mother and wife to secure the comfort of her family. And so, I say, no true mother will rest easy listening to the eloquent minister as he portrays the deplorable condition of the poor heathen, when her own little daughter is out on the streets amusing herself with questionable associates, so as to while away the evening till "ma gets home from meeting." Neither will the faithful father spend his time at the lodge, while he has reason to believe that his young sons are taking lessons in cigaret-smoking and beer-drinking over at the saloon on the corner.
"Well, as long as I send my son to school, and buy him good clothes, and feed him at my table, I consider my duty as a father is done."
Do you? That is the belief of a great many fathers in the world, and this very belief is in a great part responsible for the reign of utter lawlessness and criminality which has these late years broken out like a pestilence among the boys,—and, I had almost said, the girls—of our unhappy land.
Look at the newspapers to-night; my word for it, they will be reeking with filthy and horrible accounts of crimes which would shame a hardened criminal, and all committed by boys in their teens,—whose boys? YOURS? Ah! they are somebody's boys. Perhaps not yours now, but who can tell what effect a few months longer of street education may have upon your son,—yes, YOURS!
"But why are you so earnest about it? I see no particular danger. You are trying to frighten me. Of course I know Johnny is getting fond of cigarettes, and Willie is acquiring a taste for beer, but I do not like to be preached at, nor to preach to them; my boys must choose for themselves."
Must they? Well, they are choosing; and, my brother, I tell you, they are choosing destruction. Are you going to sit quietly by, and not "cry aloud?" A year ago many a young criminal of to-day stood just where your boy is standing now. Ah, somebody was not faithful. Some mother did not take as much time as she ought, teaching her boy righteousness. Some father did not spend as long a time on his knees pleading before the Almighty for his boy's salvation, as he did in discussing the latest ball play or prize fight.
In the name of our Master, I ask you, Are we to allow the youth to go to destruction, and not raise a hand to snatch them as brands from the burning? Father, mother, I say to you, in God's name, BE FAITHFUL. Your business first, last, all the time, is the training of those boys and girls who ought to rise up and call you blessed, instead of cursing you for your unfaithfulness when their folly has brought them into sore trouble.
"I learned gambling from my mother at home. She thrust my little hand into the grab-bag before I was old enough to know the value of the prize I drew. I grew to love the game of chance. Then I began to play marbles 'for keeps,' and it was not long before I became a regular patron of the gaming table. I learned to drink hard cider in my father's cellar. Gambling and drink brought me to the gallows,—and I learned both at home."
The white lips ceased speaking; the dark, pleading, horror-stricken, youthful eyes take one more quick glance around upon the beautiful earth and the shining sun; the pallid lips twitch pitifully; the black cap is drawn down. Another youthful felon has met his doom.
Again I say, Somebody has been unfaithful.
Years and years ago there lived a good man. He was trying to be a man of God, I am sure. He had two little boys. His father-heart loved them fondly; but he was too "easy-going" with them. They grew up to fill a most sacred office—that of priests of the Lord. But, on account of their poor father's unfaithfulness in their early training, they forsook the Lord, and committed such acts of folly and wickedness, that they not only lost their own souls, but their evil course caused many others to fall into discouragement and sin. They met a sad end, and perished without a ray of hope, while poor Eli died heart-broken,—for I surely believe his heart was broken, and he probably fainted with grief before he fell.
But, let us thank God, all are not unfaithful. God has always had some faithful children. You will find them where you would least expect it,—hidden in the dark corners, away off in the country; in the little village; on the farm; in the cottage; even in the dangerous and filthy tenement districts of our crowded cities,—even there are some faithful ones. We do not always know where to find them, but the angels know their street and number as well as they did that of Simon the tanner.
"Faithful unto death" would be a very appropriate epitaph for many a man who never preached a sermon and for many a woman who never wrote a book.
One of the sweetest promises of the Bible is that which says:—
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
EMPTY HANDS.
A MULTITUDE of cares encompassed me,
Stood at my elbow, hung about my knee;
Hedged me away from all the world outside,
Thronged in my path, if to escape I tried.
And thus, from mingling with my kind, debarred,
Often I mourned and felt my lot was hard;
Slipped from the clinging fingers, sighed for rest,
Hushed the shrill tongues and deemed the silence
best.
One day God took my cares unto Himself;
I need no longer toil, for love or pelf.
Free am I now, to roam to far-off lands,
Or sit in silence, with my empty hands.
Alone I go; as lonely I return;
And none remains to feel for me concern.
No noisy shouts, no clamorous tongues in glee
To break the silence—all is hushed to me.
No clinging fingers clutching at my dress;
No tumbled curls upon my bosom press.
But now, dear Lord, if I could ope the door
And know my cares would meet me as of yore,
I'd give—ah, with what gladness, I would give—
All the slow weary years I yet must live!
I wander always—praying always vain—
O Lord, dear Lord, give me my cares again!
—Selected.
WATER-DRINKING AND HEALTH.
By G. T. Palmer, M.D.
The human body contains a complete sewerage system in which poisonous and disease-producing refuse is constantly gathering, and jeopardizing the health. The same rule which applies to municipal sanitation will also apply to personal sanitation, and the danger of disease may be forestalled by flushing out this sewerage system with an excess of water. Just as truly as the gathering of filth from the city in the "sewerage veins" endangers the lives of the inhabitants, so the poisons generated by the bodily metabolism, collected in the excretory organs, will jeopardize the lives of the millions of inhabitants of the body: the living cells. Every action of muscle or of nerve is accompanied by the destruction of cells which, if not eliminated, will accumulate like clinkers.
Aside from the mere "choking of the flues," we must bear in mind that the body is constantly generating poisons, which, if eliminated freely, will do no harm; but which, retained, will be productive of disease. Such a poison is uric acid, which is charged justly with causing rheumatism, gout, constant headaches, dizziness, and a train of other symptoms, and it must be seen that if the accumulation of refuse is the cause of such conditions, the logical means of cure is its elimination. Other "products of metabolism" create their own types of disease and all may be prevented by the free use of water.
A beginning of kidney trouble lies in the fact that people, especially women, do not drink enough water. They pour down tumblers of ice-water as an accompaniment to a meal, but that is worse than no water, the chill preventing digestion, and indigestion being an indirect promoter of kidney disease. A tumbler of water sipped in the morning immediately on rising, another at night, are recommended by physicians. Try to drink as little water as possible with meals, but take a glassful half an hour to an hour before eating. This rule persisted in day after day, month after month, the complexion will improve, and the general health likewise. Water drunk with meals should be sipped, as well as taken sparingly.