THE growing spirit of disregard for law was forcibly illustrated recently in Fort Scott, Kansas, where a mass-meeting of property-owners was held to consider what action should be taken against a minister who had been very active in working for the enforcement of the State prohibitory law. As a result of this meeting the minister was served with a notice that he must leave town, and a committee of fifty was appointed “to see that the resolution ‘was executed.’” The report does not indicate how the “committee” proposed to deal with the offending minister in case their demand upon him went unheeded; but it is safe to conclude that the course of procedure which they contemplated was as unlawful as their demand was unjust. The spirit manifested in this is the same spirit that rules in the mob and the lynching bee, even tho the mass-meeting and its “committee” were composed of “property-owners.”
Thus is growing on every side that spirit of restlessness under lawful restraint which marks these as the closing days of earth’s history. It is the spirit of self-serving which will brook no interference with its purpose, unlawful tho it be. Day after day—and sometimes every day—the press brings the ghastly details of midnight executions, by fire or hanging, of those who have or who are believed to have committed some heinous crime. The law is trampled upon by the mob that the individual who disregarded law may pay the penalty for breaking it. Paradoxical as it may seem, such terrible occurrences go on with increasing frequency. The vengeance of the lyncher seems only to add fuel to the flame of wickedness that is burning in the breasts of the lawless. In fact, lynching itself is one of the most effective educators in crime. In the dark chambers of its tribunal men learn to look lightly on the value of human life; they learn to take life; and thus are they and their children given that preparation which will enable them to lift, unflinchingly, a murderous weapon against another when anger rules the brain.
In the midst of this terrible schooling, Anarchy—the repudiation of all law—is industriously propagating its principles in this as well as every other civilized country. Hounded to the earth by the secret service of the Old World, the devotees of Anarchy are planting their working colonies in the New; and the silk spinners from Italy are plotting the death of the rulers of the Old World, while watching their bobbins and spindles in the silk factories of the New. The Anarchist has carried disrespect for law to its ultimate; the lyncher’s disregard is specific and for the occasion at hand; but it tends in the same direction. The one disregards law in toto; the other disregards that which he does not choose to obey, whatever that may be; and the farther he gets from God, the more laws will he find that interfere with his purpose, and therefore the more laws will he find for which he has no regard, until all law is obnoxious.
Thus is strife in process of preparation for the days that are just before us, when “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse;” when “men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.” 2 Tim. 3: 2, 3. That time is now, and these are the terrible characteristics of these days, as Inspiration has foretold. The apostle declares that these are the characteristics of the last days; for he says (verse 1), “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” They have come, and the peril is increasing and will continue to increase, and the cause of the increase is seen in these things that are preparing strife in and for the last days. S.
Sufficient unto the Day
“SUFFICIENT unto the day is the evil thereof.”
“BY NO MEANS ESSENTIAL,” BUT.
By Editor
We have always maintained that State Christianity never can be anything but profession, and that any attempt to enforce Christian doctrine or principle by the State can only result in compulsory profession, or hypocrisy. And we are frequently confronted with evidence that those who advocate State religion are satisfied with a mere profession on the part of the government. They seem to think this the acme of civil government. A case in point is the controversy over a word in the Virginia Bill of Rights. The sentence in which it occurs is as follows:—
That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.
Certain Jewish rabbis entered a protest against the use of the word “Christian,” and thereby called out the following comment by the organ of the National Reformers:—
The word is by no means essential to the sense of the clause in which it stands, and but for this mistaken protest, no significance would have been attached to the action of the convention if they had submitted a new Bill of Rights in which the word did not appear. But the opponents of Christianity have now made it difficult, if not impossible, for the Commonwealth of Virginia to comply with this demand without seeming to renounce her character as a Christian commonwealth.
Here is a frank admission that the word does not mean anything but a mere profession; that it is not “essential” for anything else. But judging by past precedent, there is reason to believe that this profession, while only a profession, will be made a pretext for demanding laws that will mean compulsory observance of so-called Christian institutions. In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States, in course of a decision on a certain case, expressed the opinion that “this is a Christian nation.” Instantly the National Reformers seized upon the words “Christian nation,” and heralded them forth as an indorsement of all their demands for religious legislation. At the next session of Congress these words were made the basis of a demand for Sunday legislation; and the demand was honored to the extent of a resolution providing for the closing of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago on Sunday. Nor have the advocates of national religion yet given up the slogan, “This is a Christian nation,” as an inciter of sentiment in that direction. The word “Christian” in the Virginia Bill of Rights does not mean anything but a profession of “Christian character” on the part of the commonwealth; yet history reminds us that this very profession by civil government has in it the possibility of the worst kind of religious persecution. In view of the oft-expressed purposes of the National Reform element, and their growing influence in religious and political circles, there is not the shadow of a doubt that this word “Christian” in civil statutes and court decisions will yet be made the basis of some very unChristian proceedings.
A Form of Godliness, Denying Its Power
Concerning moral conditions, few men are better qualified to give an opinion than Dean Farrar, who has recently published the conviction that “while there is less of open and ostentatious infidelity in these days than there was in the days of Charles II., or in the earlier years of the eighteenth century, on the other hand there is a far more widely spread spirit of doubt, and even of positive unbelief, than there has ever been, even among men who have never professedly abandoned all allegiance to the religion of their fathers.” It is a fact that much of the professed Christianity of our day is nothing short of covert infidelity. This is not so much the result of intention as of delusion. Men are deluded because they adhere to the “traditions of men” rather than to the plain Word of God. This kind of infidelity, so prevalent in the world to-day, is foretold in the Word. Those who are noted as “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, etc., are represented as “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” It is a characteristic of last-day infidelity that it increases while the profession of godliness increases. The mind that is not stayed on the Word of God can not discern the counterfeit profession; hence the delusion that the world is growing better.
It is officially announced that at the next session of the Swedish parliament the government will push a measure providing for the substitution of electricity for steam on all the railroads in the country, drawing the power from the waterfalls and cascades, which are everywhere abundant. If the measure goes through, Sweden will be the first country to totally discard steam in the propulsion of its railway trains.
Mail advices from Japan report the disappearance of a mountain which stood in the midst of a plain, leaving nothing to indicate that there had ever been a mountain there. Similar but more extensive phenomena are reported by prospectors from the Copper River district of Alaska. Small lakes and creeks well known to pioneers have completely disappeared as if by magic. Boulders of mammoth size were found rising from lake beds, and small hills had disappeared. These are but slight evidences of the great powers that are bound up in the earth.
A letter from South Africa indicates that residents do not expect tranquillity in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal for two or three years yet. The stand taken by the women is one of the strongest factors in prolonging the struggle. They refuse to have anything to do with a surrendered Boer. Captive Boers who make their escape from the British camps are said to rejoin the Boer army at once.
The students and teacher of a young ladies’ school near the residence of Count Tolstoï, at Yasnala, Russia, called upon the count recently and presented him with flowers. The students were immediately arrested and their teacher dismissed. Tolstoï’s religion is obnoxious to the State Church of Russia; and thus is furnished another example of the intolerance of a national religion.
The remains of the great astronomer Tycho Brahe were exhumed recently by order of the town council of Prague, it being the 300th anniversary of the death of Brahe. Positive proof that the body was that of the famous astronomer was seen in the absence of the nose, Brahe having lost that organ in a duel, and wearing a silver one in its place.
The French and British Governments have selected a private arbitrator to settle their differences in regard to the territory of West Africa, thus totally ignoring the Hague Arbitration Commission, appointed for the purpose of settling just such disputes. Thus has been illustrated again the farcical character of the whole peace congress.
It is stated that the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo has brought so many visitors to Toronto, Canada, that the latter place has been forced to suspend the operation, temporarily, of its strict Sunday laws; and that street-car traffic has been resumed, places of amusement and recreation opened, and restaurants allowed to resume operations.
The death of President McKinley has called out a remarkable outburst of sympathy from all parts of the civilized world. This was especially marked in England. King Edward has commanded his court to go into mourning for one week, and wherever a public assembly has met, expressions of regret and sorrow have been profuse.
Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office as President of the United States at Buffalo, N.Y., on the afternoon of September 14. The oath was administered by United States Judge John R. Hazel. Five members of the cabinet, a few personal friends, and representatives of the press, were the only ones present at the ceremony.
According to the latest census, the Catholic population of Ireland shows a decrease of nearly 6 per cent., while Protestantism shows an increase of 10 per cent. It is recognized that if this tendency should continue, it would be only a question of time when Ireland would be a Protestant country.
France and Turkey have not resumed diplomatic relations, altho it is reported that the sultan has agreed to the settlement of the claim over which the relations were broken off. France, it is reported, will now hold aloof until other claims of much greater magnitude are satisfactorily settled.
The demand from the Hawaiian Bar Association that Circuit Judge A. S. Humphreys be removed from his office as judge of the Circuit Court of the first judicial district of Hawaii, has been denied by the attorney-general, who severely criticizes the Bar Association for the charges it has made.
Chile is reported to have finally agreed to be represented in the Congress of American Republics, to be held in the City of Mexico. As the holding of the congress was doubtful so long as Chile held aloof, her consent to a representation would indicate that the congress will be held.
Europe has taken a dog census, and France heads the list with 2,864,000 in its possession. It thus contains 75 dogs to every 1,000 inhabitants. Ireland comes next with 73 to 1,000 inhabitants; while England has 38, Germany 33, and Sweden 11 to the thousand.
Austria, England, France, Germany, and Russia have united in Spain’s demand upon the Sultan of Morocco for the release of certain Christians captured by Moorish tribes. The demands include compensation for their capture and the punishment of the tribes.
The Duke of Cornwall, heir apparent to the British throne, arrived at Quebec on September 16, accompanied by the duchess. The duke and duchess have been making a tour of the world.
By an explosion in a coal mine at Springfield, Colorado, on September 16, 6 men were killed and 3 injured.
On the morning of September 16 the body of President McKinley was borne from Buffalo to the capitol building at Washington. A special train of seven Pullmans and two engines, with right of way over everything, conveyed the body of the murdered president, his wife, attendants, and members of the press. The casket, enveloped in a silk flag, was placed between the windows of the observation car, in order that the thousands who waited at the various stations might look upon it. During Tuesday the body of the president lay in state in the rotunda of the Capitol, whence it was taken on the following day, September 18, to the president’s home at Canton, Ohio, to be interred September 19. President Roosevelt accompanied the body from Buffalo to the capital, and thence to its final resting-place.
The Duchess of Marlborough, according to a cable from Paris, has declared her intention, as soon as she returns to England, of waging a relentless war against Christian Science. Several deaths that have occurred recently where the cases were in the hands of Christian Scientists, have incensed the duchess against the sect. She intends, if possible, to enlist sufficient influence to pass laws making Christian Science practice or propaganda a crime.
Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of the president, was indicted by the grand jury at Buffalo, on September 16, for murder in the first degree. Czolgosz refused to answer any question put to him in the court room, and in view of the fact that he had secured no attorney for his defense, the court appointed as his counsel Robert C. Titus and Loran L. Lewis, both of whom formerly sat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of New York State.
High officials of the Catholic Church in China have sent to the foreign ministers at Peking a protest against the present treaty. They demand that certain laws aimed at certain phases of their work be expurgated from the statutes of the Chinese empire. The laws against which the protest is made are probably those which prohibit missionaries from interfering in the civil affairs of the Chinese.
At the Methodist Conference at Pacific Grove, California, the committee on “Sabbath Observance” brought in, on September 16, a report urging action by the members of the conference, in connection with the clergy of other denominations, for the purpose of arousing sentiment in favor of securing the enactment of Sunday laws in this State.
The Czar and Czarina of Russia sailed for France on September 16, and festivities in connection with their visit began in Paris on the following day. Great precautions are being taken to guard the royal visitors against the designs of anarchists. It is reported that 50,000 men will guard the railway along which their train will pass.
Since Theodore Roosevelt has become President of the United States, reports have come from several sources of a plan to take his life. An arrest was made in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 16, of a man who claimed to belong to a society that had offered $15,000 to the man who would assassinate President Roosevelt.
That a great amount of the tourist travel of the West is finding its way into the State of Colorado is shown by the fact that during the month of August 103,568 pieces of baggage were handled at Denver, an increase of nearly 14,000 pieces over August of last year.
Rear-Admiral F. M. Ramsay has been appointed to serve on the Schley court of inquiry in place of Rear-Admiral Howison, to whom Admiral Schley objected. The court adjourned its sittings until after the funeral of President McKinley.
President Roosevelt is reported to have asked all the members of President McKinley’s cabinet to retain their portfolios of office. This is in harmony with his declaration that he would carry out the policy of Mr. McKinley.
Bishop Henry B. Whipple, long known as the “Apostle to the Indians,” on account of his long and faithful work among them, died at his home in Faribault, Minn., on September 16.
Thursday, September 19, the day of President McKinley’s burial, was set apart by proclamation of President Roosevelt as a day of mourning and prayer throughout the United States.
The strike situation in San Francisco shows little change. More men are working, more vessels are being unloaded, more drays are moving; but the strike is still on.
There is said to be 25,000 square miles of coal fields in China that have never been developed, with coal enough to last the world for several hundred years.
Twenty-three persons were drowned at Osali, Croatia, on September 16, by the wrecking of a ferry-boat which was crossing a flooded river.
General Eli Torrence was elected commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic at the recent encampment in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Czar of Russia has removed five Finnish senators for opposing the publication of the new military law of Russia.
MILITARISM AMONG THE YOUNG.
Under the above heading the Union Signal heartily commends the following from the London Christian:—
The growing custom of inviting distinguished soldiers to distribute the prizes at school on annual prize days is one that is not calculated to keep down the military sentiment at a time when the rising generation is already infected by it. Boys are peculiarly sensitive to the emotion of hero-worship,—and a successful soldier is always a great man to them. It is scarcely wise to strengthen this youthful tendency by giving a prominent place to those who have distinguished themselves on the field of war. The future of the country depends entirely on the pursuit of a peaceful and friendly policy. Militarism among the young is a most dangerous spirit at all times. Just at present it is specially undesirable to do anything, however indirect, to foster it.
Now all this is true. The military spirit is dangerous, and it is especially sad that it should be inculcated as it has been in this land since the Spanish-American war. But (for there is a “but” in this connection) we would like to ask our W.C.T.U. friends, how much has their influence been cast in this direction,—not directly, perhaps, but not less effectually tho indirectly? War is and always has been one of the concomitants of civil government. The logic of the ballot oftentimes is the bullet. The force behind civil law is that which may be exerted physically, by the weapons that are carnal. When the church and the mothers of the church are forcing themselves into politics as a panacea for many ills; when they are calling for revenge on the Turk, why should not war be glorified? Are not the children taught by their elders? What mean the military drills and boys’ brigades? Surely all this is not the fruit of the Spirit of the Prince of peace.
The Purposes of Nature Study
By Frederick Griggs
THE PURPOSES OF NATURE STUDY.—No. 1.
“Come let us behold the works of the Lord.”
The purpose of all purposes in the study of nature is to understand God. While no man by searching can find out God, yet believing in Him we may come to greater revelations of Him. We can form but little, if any, idea of God apart from His works; for it is through the avenue of the senses that the Spirit of God enters the soul. Therefore love for God should very early be instilled into the mind of a child. We understand God through faith, and the child—especially the little child—is a living example of faith. Without this faith in God going hand in hand with the study of nature, it will only lead away from Him, and thus its grandest and greatest purpose will be defeated.
The great aim of nature study—and indeed of all study—is character-building. This is attained by presenting conditions in which all the powers of the child may be so developed that he will live an honorable, upright, and noble life. Such a life yields happiness, and the happiness so derived is the happiness of heaven. True liberty is the only means by which true happiness may be secured, but liberty is little else, in its right sense, than the ability to help one’s self and others. It is greater power to think righteous thoughts and to do righteous deeds, greater capacity for meeting a brother’s need, greater strength in expression; and the world has great need for the expression of such thoughts and feelings and sympathies. All this is liberty, an expansion of soul which may go on everlastingly.
One of the great necessities of this life is a knowledge of our surroundings or environments. The child is given a life amid trees and flowers, humming bees and singing birds, rivers and rills, tempest and sunshine, insects and animals, foes and friends, rocks, moving sand, and fertile soil—all bearing witness of that great silent force, life,—and all existing for him alone. He is lord of all, he is to subdue all, so far as he can to bring it to its proper relation to its Maker and his. Upon the life of his environment does the physical life of the child depend, and his spiritual life is directly concerned with the laws governing nature in all its various manifestations and varieties of form and color. The same hand which guides the flying cloud, the shifting sands of the desert, or the tides of the ocean, will direct our steps. Nature is yielding to His hand. This is why it is so constant and regular; and when our lives are as completely yielded to Him, all our steps will be ordered by him.
Nature teaches living truths. It does not lie. All of God’s works are done in verity and truth. Character-building does not stop alone with mere seeing, hearing, and feeling. All this furnishes merely a basis upon which the child may reason or interpret what has come to him through the senses. The child sees a certain object; he examines it carefully, and notes all the conditions surrounding and influencing it. These conditions are the causes, the object is the effect. He unites cause and effect, and discovers the relation. Here begins the great work of self-emancipation; the child is moving toward liberty—true liberty, if God be in His reasoning.
All nature is of little interest, however, to the child until he discovers a connection between it and his life. But all the phenomena of life bear a very close relation to all his existence; so much so that if rightly studied and interpreted, it will lead to complete liberty, happiness. The necessity, then, of every one studying Nature must be apparent and its purpose equally evident. When a belief in God is carried into the study, it reveals Him as a God of love and justice, mercy and truth. It enables man so to relate himself to his environments as to make both them and himself, means of praise to his Creator. He lives a more useful and accomplished life, and is of more value to his fellow-men because of his ability to use aright those laws which govern them and their environment.
Says one writer: “Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would one day or another, depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess. Don’t you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit; and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with disapprobation, amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight? Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth that the life, fortune, and happiness of every one of us, and more or less of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman, of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that His play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know to our cost that He never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength; and one who plays ill is checkmated without remorse. My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with a man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm strong angel who was playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win, and I should accept it as an image of human life.”
FREDERICK GRIGGS.
South Lancaster, Mass.
THE BEAUTIFUL AT HOME.
A MAN once resolved to seek and find the beautiful. He thought of the mountains of Switzerland and the beautiful plains of Italy and the forests of America, and other wonders of the world; but, before his plans were settled, a voice seemed to say to him, “Begin at home.” Yes, the beautiful is always with us. You can make the place where God has put you beautiful. If it is but an attic in a poor-house, or a fireside, or a bench in a workshop, or a seat in school, or a place in your mother's heart—make it beautiful. And the sadder and the darker the place, be the more eager to make it beautiful. Love which loves others unselfishly is the great beautifier.—Ruth's Horn.
THE SAINT OF CONNER’S BLOCK.
By Minna Stanwood
[Minna Stanwood, in Christian Endeavor World.]
Connor’s Block stood in front of the big factory. “The Saint” lived in the second house from the end of the main street. People called her “The Saint” in most bitter irony. She was a small woman, nimble and wiry, a woman of fire. She kept a boarding-house for the factory hands; that is, for as many as would stand her tongue for the sake of her cooking. Thirty-five managed to do this. Single-handed “The Saint” served these thirty-five men good food at low rates.
She was as honest as day, but it was gall and wormwood for her to hear that any other woman was honest. And why? No one knew that. She had always been shrew-tongued, but she was worse after her only brother, who lived with her, and got drunk and abused her, and spent her earnings, was reformed by the Salvation Army! He knew better than to expect “The Saint” to rejoice in his conversion; but he was obedient to the lassie, and went home and told his sister that he was going to be a good brother and work thereafter. She called him hard names then, and bade him get out of her house with his cant, and stay out, too. This he did gladly enough, perhaps, altho he tried to tell his sister that he would always love her and pray for her. Since that day no one ever mentioned the name of “Bob” to her. Equally since that day no one durst whisper “Salvation Army” in her house.
One Monday morning, as “The Saint” was draining her beans, the shadow of a poke bonnet scud past her kitchen window. Quick as thought she was at her door.
“Out of this, you mewing, chattering, canting hussy! Out of this, I say, you psalm-singing, racketing, smirking——” “The Saint” raised her hand with the dish-towel in it.
The girl in the poke bonnet stood erect. She receded not from the dirty dish-towel, or the burning eyes, or the hoarse threatening voice. She looked “The Saint” full in the face, and spoke rapidly in a voice that was low and clear, but terribly earnest: “Woman, quit your fooling! In God’s name I bid you come into Widow McCormick’s house with me. She is dying, her baby is in convulsions, and you are needed!”
Captain Somes turned and walked quickly out of the yard and along the alley, and entered the fourth gate. “The Saint” stood staring. Amazement struggled with anger in her soul. She went back to her kitchen, pulled a tub from under the table, snatched the kettle from the front of the stove, and ran after the captain. She did not stop for the boiling water that splashed down on her feet.
In Widow McCormick’s kitchen the captain was poking the fire with one hand, and holding the rigid baby on her left arm. “The Saint” dropped her tub on the floor, poured into it the boiling water, grabbed the baby, and plunged it into the water, clothes and all. “Quick,” she said, “some cold water!”
She snatched the dipper from the captain, and laved the little head. The captain noticed that a mother could not have done it all more deftly. Gradually the purple faded from the baby face, the clinched hands relaxed, the eyelids fluttered. Presently the blue eyes were looking at “The Saint.” Yes, the baby lips began to smile at her. She took the child from the water, wrapped it in the old army blanket the captain handed her, and sat down close to the stove with the baby in her arms.
It was nearly noon when Captain Somes came down stairs. “The mother died five minutes ago, poor soul,” she began gravely. Then she stopped. “The Saint” had a strange look on her face. The Salvation Army captain knew what it meant. “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” she exclaimed fervently.11
“The Saint” looked foolish. She said, “I’ll take this baby home, I guess.” Then she twitched as if wrenching herself free of something, and added, deep-voiced, “And I’ll raise her honest, too, s’help me God!” She raised the hand that had threatened with the dish-towel. “I’m goin’ to send for Bob, and I’m goin’ to——O, what’s the use talkin’? I’ve said I hated cant. Deeds, give me deeds! They’ll show. Now I’ll go back an’ fix up a bit for the boys. You tend to her upstairs, and I’ll see it’s paid.”
When Captain Somes went to carry clothes for the baby, she found it in the faded glory of an old-fashioned blue jacket, lying on a large, clean bed, hugging a bottle of milk. “The Saint” was leaning over, patiently brushing a lock of the baby’s fair hair round her finger.
“I’m tryin’ to make it curl,” she said bashfully. “Do you s’pose it will? Lillie’s did.”
“Perhaps so.” The captain’s tone was doubtful, but her smile was sympathetic. “It don’t look like curly hair to me, tho. Who’s Lillie?”
“Lillie was my baby, the only one I had. She died—in convulsions. If I had known what to do, perhaps I might——. But there! I’m goin’ to call her Lillie. That’s Lillie’s sack she’s got on.”
“I noticed it,” nodded Captain Somes. Then she asked carelessly, “Did you lose your husband, too?”
“Lose him!” “The Saint” turned furiously. A few strands of the baby’s curl clung round her finger and pulled, but she paid no attention to the grieved cry. “Lose him! Yes, I lost him. Another woman stole him. Stole him at meetin’, too, when I was home with the sick baby. There, there; mama’s sorry she hurted her, so she is. There, there.” She charged upon the baby with the bottle, and the cry and a greedy gulp of milk got tangled up with a queer sound. The captain looked at “The Saint,” and they both laughed.
“It wasn’t square of you to be down on everybody because one man treated you mean,” the captain hit out.
“Not square?” “The Saint” looked interested. “Not square? No one ever said anything about me not bein’ square before.”
“Folks don’t say everything they think about us,” observed the captain scornfully. “You thought you owed one man a grudge, and you’ve been working it off on everybody who came anywhere near you. If you call that square, I don’t.”
The woman’s hard gray eyes expanded as the captain’s idea began to work. “I never thought of it that way before,” she said, at last. “But, anyway,” the fire began to kindle, “I never sat down and cry-babied.”
“No, you stood up and bit, instead,” retorted the captain.
“Well, what would you have done?”
Captain Somes’s face lighted up. She took two steps forward, and got hold of the woman’s grime-hardened hands. “Sister,” she said, with a thrill in her voice, “don’t think I don’t know it was hard. I’ll tell you what I think I would have done. I would have gone down on my knees, and never moved off them till God had taken every root of bitterness out of my heart; and then I would have gone out into the world, all alone as I was, and I would have shown the world how a saint of God could live. I would have held out a strong hand to the weak; I would have been pitiful and tender and open-hearted to the poor. I would have said, ‘Lord, you’ve taken my Lillie, you’ve suffered my husband to go, but you’ve left me my health and strength, and you’ve left me yourself. After this I want you to help me to see my sister in every woman who needs me, and my brother in every man who needs me, and my own baby Lillie in every little child!’”
“The Saint” was looking steadily into the young captain’s glowing face. Tears slowly filled her eyes. She gathered her brows as if they pained her. “It ain’t too late now, is it?” She put the question anxiously, humbly.
“No!” The captain’s voice rang joyously. “It isn’t too late! Let us thank God for that. Come.”
With her hand still in the Salvation Army captain’s, “The Saint” dropped down beside her bed, and bowed her head on the soft arm of her new Lillie.
DO YOU NEED A BIBLE?
If so, we are sure you would like a GENUINE OXFORD BIBLE, with large, clear print, nicely bound in flexible leather, overlapping edges, leather lined, and silk sewn. It is a beauty. It contains the references, concordance, and all necessary teachers' helps.
HERE IS A SAMPLE OF THE TYPE
David prayeth God to hear him. PSALMS. His complaint in sickness.
How long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. 3 But know thatᵃ the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. 4 ᵇStand in awe, and sin not: ᵈcommune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 5 Offerᵉ the sacrifices of righteousness, andᶠ put your trust in the LORD. 6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? ᵍLORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance.
² or, Make them guilty. ³ or, from their counsels. ᵃ 2 Tim. 2. 19. ᵇ 2 Pet. 2. 9. ᶜ Eph. 4. 26. ᵈ Is. 65. 13. ᵉ Ps. 77. 6. ᶠ Heb. thou coverest over, or, protectest them. ᵍ Deut. 33. 19. ʰ Ps. 37. 3. ⁵ Heb.
10 ²Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall ³by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee. 11 But let all those that put their trust in thee ᶜrejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because ⁴thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. 12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou ⁵compass him as with a shield.
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Qualities of a Judge
By Socrates
FOUR things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.—Socrates.
