Earlier text: CONQUERING BESETTING SINSIn Christ’s wonderful discourse recorded in part in Matthew 24, in Mark 13, in Luke 21, He notes various events which will precede the end of the age and His second coming in glory. Among these is great spiritual declension on account of abounding iniquity. His words are, “And because iniquity [lawlessness] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matt. 24:12. Love stands for loyalty, integrity, faithfulness in duty. The thought is that lawlessness will be so great, so abounding, so all-permeating, that good consciences will be affected, tender hearts will be made hard, keen sensibilities will become benumbed by the narcotizing power of sin. And this condition is becoming strikingly manifest. This is an age of great enlightenment. Never for thousands of years have the people of earth been so generally educated as now. Never have the principles of righteousness been taught as prevalently as now. Never have the principles of Christianity been heard of throughout all the earth as now. And to all these there is general acquiescence as to their righteousness. And yet as compared with the light which the world has—and so God judges—there has never been seen such abounding lawlessness and utter indifference on the part of those professing better things. As evidence of this condition of things take the following, strong, striking statements from an article by Charles H. Parkhurst, D.D., in the Christian Work of March 14. Before presenting these quotations, it may be well to preface them by saying that Dr. Parkhurst is an able Presbyterian minister; that he has for many years been an active worker in New York City; that he has for years put forth earnest, tremendous effort in an endeavor to purify the city politically; that his investigations have brought to light as never before the festering pool of civic corruption which has spread its polluting miasma to almost every corporate borough of our land. After all this experience, after all the efforts to reform the city, this is a part of what he has to say:— When a man is freezing to death, the supreme horror of the situation does not consist in the extreme cold to which he is exposed, but in the physical insensibility which the cold has induced and which destroys all power of appreciating the cold and of forecasting its fatal issue. So it is of the effects that come from inhaling a fetid atmosphere; its peril is not so much in its poison, in itself considered, as in the power which that poison has, so in all stealthiness to insinuate itself into the system as to prevent the victim from realizing that the hidden deadliness of its power is present and swiftly at work. Something like that is the nature of the peril with which, as a city, we are at this moment menaced. The thing most fitted to alarm us is not that we are having our moral vitals pecked out of us day by day by a flock of foul birds, filthy harpies who live by the blood they drink from the dying, and fatten on the carcasses of the dead; but that our vitals have been for so long, and in such a sly, insinuating way, gnawed into that we have no distinct consciousness of the depth to which their beastly beaks have plowed. We have so long and so constantly breathed the filth-laden atmosphere exhaled from the lying, stealing, lecherous mob of unconscienced creatures who call themselves the government of the city of New York, that we are losing, and have to a considerable degree already lost, the power to feel sharply and passionately the daily and momentary outrage that is being perpetrated upon us. We are morally benumbed to the hateful significance of it all. We are losing our talent for indignation. This league of conspirators that we call our municipal administration have been, for such a term of years, systematically slaughtering our material interests—making merchandise of individual rights, making spoil of the comfort, the prerogatives, and even the lives and the virtue of men, women, and children, that we have grown numb to the fact. We have learned to treat all this as a matter of course. That this city should, for instance, have as chief of police a man reputed to be a coarse, hoggish, guzzling, lecherous vagabond, has lost its power to stir up even the Christians in a passion of irrepressible moral revolt. That is our situation, and it is charged with the likelihood of grim fatality. The question that arises, therefore, is whether there is any aspect of the present situation so appealing as to move any considerable number of staunch and influential people to excited action. I know of only one such, and that is the relation of Tammany government to the children. We learn not to care much for adult criminals; but there are a good many tens of thousands of people who, without regard to political or denominational affiliations, shrink from seeing the little innocents corrupted and labeled and already despatched by quick express hellward, almost before they are old enough to distinguish intelligently between righteousness and sin. I know of no such specimen of glaring and brainless stupidity as to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in this city every year in maintaining Sunday-schools, missions, clubs for boys and girls, and all the paraphernalia of gospelizing effort, and yet to be deliberately tolerating in our midst veritable schools of Satan, which if not taught by the devil himself, are run by his understrappers on Fourteenth Street, which amounts to the same thing, and which are certainly putting an infernal taint upon more souls every three months than with all our Gospel machinery we are saving to God and decency in an entire year. Our children, no matter what part of town it is they are living in, are breathing a debauched atmosphere. They are being morally tainted by what is in the air, even tho not distinctly and intelligently conscious of what is in the air. A malarial pool may infest our house with microbes, even tho it does not lie exactly in our own front dooryard. The virus is working into the children’s moral systems, and when, twenty-five years hence, they have become adults, they will still be what the subtle defilements they are now exposed to are making them. Soiled clothes can be bleached white, but soiled souls can be washed and rinsed, washed and rinsed, and the stains still be left in them. I could wish that for one year all our churches might be closed, all our Sunday-schools and missions suspended, and all our evangelizing money and effort withdrawn from the usual channels, if in their place could be substituted, uptown and down, a campaign of moral enlightenment sufficient to convince parents, Protestant, Catholic, and Hebrew, that so far as the children are concerned, this city, as now administered, is the fore-porch of hell, and Satan’s recruiting ground from which to fill up the ranks of the damned. I know of nothing more appalling just now than the inactive interest with which a host of parents are at this moment contemplating the moral situation with which we are confronted. In particular, why do not New York mothers arouse to the horrible seriousness of the crisis? They have an indefinite idea of what is going on; why do they not get a definite idea? I once said to a lady in this city, “Why do you not study into the case and do something?” She commenced studying into the case, but gave it up after a little, saying, “It is too horrible, I can’t.” If the situation is a little too horrible to study into, isn’t it a good deal too horrible for young souls to wade into and rot in? This is the situation in New York. It is true in a lesser degree, sometimes proportionally greater, in nearly all the large cities of our land. The same evil virus is working in smaller towns and rural communities. The caucus governs the election, and the “boss” rules the caucus. “Moral reforms”—only professedly so—are used to “work” the religious element, and the final results are the same—more corruption. And the sad thing is that the people generally are not moved by the appalling condition. Dr. Parkhurst feels that there is but one thing which will move the people,—the imminent, fearful peril of their children; but even in this the parents who ought to be the most interested are apathetic, indifferent, listless, inactive. Truly, the situation is “charged with the likelihood of grim fatality.” But what a condition it is, in the light of the words of Jesus Christ! We can see the fulfilment of that prophecy, and also this of the apostle Paul: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” (See 2 Tim. 3:1–5.) And among the greatest perils is a dead conscience, utterly irresponsive to the calls of duty, morality, and God. “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.” “It is time for Thee, O Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy law.” Expedition to Explore Ancient Ur
An American expedition headed by Dr. Edgar Banks has been formed for the purpose of exploring the site of the ancient city of Ur, of the Chaldees. The consent of the Turkish Government has been secured, and scholars are looking forward with expectation of rich discoveries in the forgotten mound not far from the modern town of Bagdad. Vegetarian Meals and Manchurian Crisis
A NOVEL venture has recently been started by the Vegetarian Societies of London. Desiring to acquaint the public generally with the dishes belonging to a vegetarian diet, the Vegetarians have begun to distribute meals cooked to order on the vegetarian plan to the offices and houses of those who wish to be thus supplied. The plan seems to be meeting with general favor, and it is expected that the number of distributing wagons will soon have to be greatly increased. ENGLAND, Germany, and Japan are reported to have presented identical notes to Russia and China, warning them that the signing of the Manchurian agreement will involve the partition of China. The belief is general that the crisis between Russia and Japan is really grave. General Yatsumi, in a recent interview, is reported as saying, “According to the communications received from my government, I think that a conflict between Russia and Japan is inevitable. The Japanese army was never in a better condition for a conflict, and delay only increases the facilities of Russia.” The Japanese are a unit against yielding to Russia in the matter of the Manchurian agreement or allowing her to dominate affairs in Korea. In view of the strong opposition of the other interested powers, China has refused to sign the agreement with Russia, altho Russia is said to have threatened to break off diplomatic relations with China if the agreement is not signed. We are thus on the verge of the greatest war the world has ever seen. An attempt has been made on the life of another of the czar’s ministers, M. Zipyagin, minister of the interior. This is the third attack on the members of the czar’s official household within as many weeks. The Warsaw University has been closed by the government in consequence of demonstrations of sympathy on the part of the Warsaw students with the students of other universities who have suffered at the hands of the government. Thousands of Russian laborers and students continue to parade the streets as a token of their opposition to the course of the government, and further disorders are expected. THE capture of Aguinaldo by Gen. Frederick Funston and a company of picked men has been the most important piece of news coming from the Philippines during the week. The capture was made possible by the treachery of one of Aguinaldo’s trusted followers. The captors were led, in the guise of prisoners, into the Filipino leader’s stronghold, captured him, and after a fatiguing march reached the coast, where the gunboat Vicksburg took them on board. Other prominent Filipino leaders are surrendering, and many are claiming that the back of the opposition in the islands is broken. BECAUSE of the serious tension between the United States minister to Venezuela and the Venezuelan Government, the minister has been called to Washington in order that the President and the State Department may be thoroughly informed in regard to the difficulty which has arisen there. The impression seems to be quite general that the United States is preparing to force Venezuela to give guarantees of security to and respect for American officials and other American citizens in that republic. DURING an anti-Jesuit riot in Barcelona, Spain, on March 31, the police, who sought to disperse the rioters, were met with clubs and volleys of stones, whereupon the police charged the crowd, using their revolvers freely. A large number were wounded, and the feeling of the people against the police and the Jesuits is running high. Similar demonstrations have been made by the people of Valencia, and they have petitioned the governor, demanding the expulsion of all the monastic orders. THE Russian Government has exiled Count Leo Tolstoi because of the attempted assassination of one of the czar’s ministers by one who claims to be a follower of the Russian novelist. Since the fact of his exile became known, a petition has been sent to the church officials of Russia by 1,000 of the students of the university of Kieff, asking that the petitioners be excommunicated with Tolstoi. This is done as a protest against both the excommunication and the exile of the Russian novelist. THE great railroad interests of the country are reported to be forming an organization for the purpose of buying in the Panama Canal Company, in order to forestall the building of the Nicaragua Canal by the government. By building and controlling the Panama Canal, these great corporations could make themselves absolute masters of all transportation from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, and thus make the rule of the money-gatherers more secure than ever. PAPERS have been filed at the State Department at Washington by the minister of Colombia which contemplate giving to the United States a right of way for a canal across Panama, irrespective of the claims of the French company now building a canal along the same right of way. According to the terms of the French concession, the ditch was to be completed in 1904, and will be forfeited by the inability of the company to complete it by that time. A DESPATCH from China states that the German first-class battle-ship Weissenberg has started from Shanghai toward Nankin and the North, her purpose being to impress the Chinese and the allies with the fact that Germany means to preserve and increase her prestige and interests in the Yang-tse Valley. This is the region which England has regarded as under her sphere of influence for the past few years. A SYNDICATE at Peking composed of English and Italian financiers has secured a concession of 71,000 square miles of territory in the provinces of Shansi and Honan, which are rich in coal, iron, and petroleum. The concession includes an unbroken coal belt of 3,000 square miles. PRESS correspondents in South Africa declare the outlook there to be a gloomy one, and they see little prospect of a cessation of hostilities in the near future. They declare Lord Kitchener’s policy to have been a failure. A company of 130 colonial troops was captured by the Boers on March 27, and liberated after being stripped of their arms. The fighting now is between small detachments only, but these seem to be scattered over a wide range of country. THE United States Steel Corporation (the great steel trust) has amended its charter, increasing its capitalization to $1,100,000,000. This trust was incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey, and the State’s fee for filing the papers amounted to $220,000. So the billion-dollar trust has come, and fortune is being piled upon fortune, as the Lord declared it would be in the last days. FIVE million dollars is the price reported to have been paid to a Salt Lake man for a process of utilizing crude petroleum by which a greater amount of heat and light are produced than by any method now known. The light given by this process is said to be more intense than the electric arc light or the light given by acetylene gas. IT is reported that a gigantic conspiracy to defraud the government has been discovered in the commissary department of the Philippines. Thousands of dollars’ worth of provisions, according to the report, have been sold by commissary officers to hotels and bakeries, the fraudulent dealings going as far back as June, 1900. A DESPATCH from Manila states that commander Roper of the gunboat Petrel was suffocated during a fire on that vessel on March 31. The commander was trying to rescue some of his officers and men, who were cut off by the flames in the vessel’s sail room, when he lost his life. The vessel was not materially damaged. THE condition of affairs in Russia is still serious. The measures taken by the government to suppress demonstrations are very unpopular with the masses, who are demanding liberty. Many university professors have been petitioning the government for a more liberal system of education for the country. TONS of American flags have been contracted for in Chicago by the government, to be used in and upon the school-houses of Porto Rico. The plan is to have the American flag flying also from all the school-houses in the Philippines before the end of the year. THE British Government has been notified by Dr. Leyds, the European representative of the Boers, that a powerful combination of European and American merchants intends to boycott England’s goods systematically until independence is granted to the Boers. ROBBER bands of Boxers and Chinese soldiers are causing fresh disturbances in Manchuria, and the forces of Russia operating in that vicinity are being strengthened in preparation for the revival of Boxer operations in the spring. A DESPATCH from Kieff, Russia, states that an attempt has been made on the life of the czar of Russia by one of the official members of his own household, who committed suicide immediately after firing on the czar. IN view of the refusal of the Boers to accept the proffered peace terms of General Kitchener, the English Government has announced its determination not to offer any more favorable terms to the burghers. FROM five to eleven fresh cases of bubonic plague are reported in Cape Town every day. The disease seems to have gained a foothold there in spite of the best efforts of the health authorities. A MEETING of eminent scientists is soon to be held in London for the purpose of considering the ravages of consumption, methods of treating it, and the influence of climate in battling the disease. JAPAN is preparing to relieve her troops in China by a force fifty per cent stronger than those there at the present time. Mail advices seem to indicate that war with Russia is considered certain. THE Cuban Constitutional Convention is now discussing in secret sessions the provisions of the Platt amendment which define the relations to exist between the United States and Cuba. THE strike of dock laborers in Marseilles, France, still continues, with disastrous effects to the business interests of that city. It has already cost the city several million dollars. AN automobile has been built in Paris which is capable of a regular speed of 70 miles an hour, and can be run at the rate of 98 miles an hour for short distances. THE Legislature of Maryland has passed a State election law which practically disfranchises 40,000 of her citizens, those who are unable to mark their own ballots. THE great tin-can trust has finally been organized and capitalized, its capitalization amounting to $88,000,000. THE claims of the government growing out of the war with Spain now amount to $30,000,000. ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
In McClure’s Magazine of last May is the following description of the great steamship Oceanic, then in course of construction:— “Ten thousand tons of steel beams and braces and plates, forming a framework one-seventh of a mile in length, and carrying a mass of ponderous machinery of almost equal weight—that is the biggest of ocean steamships, in rough analysis. It is easy to forget that it is a ship. When she is lying at a pier, her vast form towers up like a great building; and her construction is more akin to that of a modern ‘sky-scraper’ than to that of any craft of earlier days. A skeleton of steel girders, rising tier above tier to the height of five stories, is the frame of the Oceanic’s great body; and over this is a skin of steel plates. These plates vary from an inch to an inch and three-eighths in thickness; they weigh above two tons apiece; they were fastened together by the largest riveting machine ever built; and they make the Oceanic the strongest as well as the largest ship of her kind. “She is an ocean city—nothing less—a modern driving, twentieth-century city, teeming with all the occupations that man has devised for himself; an epitome of the continents that she helps to unite. Her population is upward of 2,000 persons. Set up on land, her steel timbers would provide the framework of dwellings for all of them. Her plates would surround the town with a solid wall five feet high and eight miles in length. Her bunkers would supply all the coal required by the community for two years. Her stores would stock all its shops. Her electric-light plant would light all the streets. Her engines would drive machinery sufficient to employ all the inhabitants. What she could do on land she does in more wonderful ways at sea, for there this city must be not only self-contained and self-supporting, but must, in addition propel itself across 500 miles of ocean waste every day, in storm or calm. To do this—to rise superior to all stress of wind or weather or ordinary misfortune—requires not only vast power, but a vast reserve power.” A WORD TO PROTESTANTS.
By C. M. S.
The Chicago New World (Catholic), in speaking of the matter of Protestant evangelistic work in Porto Rico, says: “The days when Protestantism was able to make numerous converts from Catholicism have long since passed away.” There is some ground for this statement; and it speaks volumes of warning to the various Protestant denominations, a warning to get back—or rather to go forward again—to the basic principles of Protestantism, of true Christianity. There was a vast gulf between Protestantism and Catholicism when the Reformation was in its youth, and, notwithstanding that gulf, converts to Protestantism—to Christianity from Catholicism—were many. Why has the ratio not continued? The reason is obvious. The gulf has been narrowing, and certain influential denominations have been stretching their hands across to Rome. What reason is there for becoming a Protestant if we must reach back to Rome for succor? Let the Protestant denominations of the world unite in this one thing, a determination to cease meddling in the politics of the world, and to stand squarely for a separation of religion from the civil affairs of their countries. Then will they be on the road again to true, vivified Protestantism. Let them, like the growing tree, snap the cords of man-made creeds that human hands have bound about them to stifle their progress in things divine, and give themselves the chance to grow that God designed they should have, turning again to “the Bible and the Bible only” for their rules of faith and practise; then look to God, and not to any human government, for the help and strength necessary to carry on their work. Then will they have success; then will they have the blessing of God; then will they win converts not only from Catholicism but from every form of error, and from every benighted region in the world; then will they be Protestants indeed, working God’s will in the earth. And may God grant that many of them will do this right speedily. A FALSE STANDARD OF HEALTH.
By David Paulson, M.D.
THE reason the body takes disease so readily is that altogether too many are willing to allow themselves to camp so near the disease line; they are satisfied with a standard of health that merely means being free from pain. The man who has no ache or pain often prides himself upon his wonderful health, when more than likely he has such a small store of reserve energy that a little extra strain upon his nervous force—an accidental exposure to a cold draft, or some other unlooked for physical drawback—is sufficient to precipitate an attack of pneumonia, bronchitis, or some other more or less serious malady. When a man submerged beneath the water, is pulled up so that his head is above the water line, it is all that is really necessary to make him feel comfortable. He “feels well;” but he is nevertheless in a precarious situation, for perhaps the added weight of only a brick on the top of his head would again submerge him. So thousands of people are content to live just above the pain line, when they might soon, with a little exertion, perhaps introducing some radical changes in their habits of life, and making it their business to cultivate health instead of disease, be living on a plane where they would experience a sense of buoyancy instead of a sense of languor and depression,—where they would be conscious of reserve energy that could be used in the emergencies of life or to resist the inroads of the wily and insidious microbe. The utilization of the principles involved in the rational measures that help to bring a man up from the very verge of the grave to experience again a fair degree of health, would enable the average healthy person to catch such a degree of health that he might become almost a modern Samson; for has he not a far better foundation to begin work upon than the invalid has? And nature, which is “no respecter of persons,” would as certainly add its blessing to the efforts of the healthy man to secure more health, as it does to the efforts of the invalid to secure a better physical condition. The Prevalence of Physical Decay.
On every hand can be seen abundant evidences of physical decay. The very “show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.” Isa. 3:9. We may meet on every street corner the blear-eyed and sallow-skinned invalid who has not yet become ill enough to be confined to his bed, but is vainly trying to cling to life while he is vigorously sowing for death. Take a look into the long wards of a modern hospital, and a glance at the occupants of almost every second bed will plainly reveal that they are there largely as a result of deliberate violation of nature’s laws. They have tried to use this body as a harp of a thousand strings out of which they could extract a little more selfish pleasure, instead of using it for its God-given purpose of representing the spirit of helpful service for humanity which dominates all heaven. Consider the massive and imposing structures erected in every state, at enormous expense, to care for that class of sufferers whose brains, instead of their livers, stomachs, or muscles, have become diseased, and who, as a result, have developed a train of symptoms that make them more difficult to manage than other classes of invalids, and therefore the State has undertaken the responsibility of their care. But bear in mind that the same general causes which produce mental disorders produce diseases of other organs in the body, and they all represent some definite sowing for disease. The frightful part of this picture is that insanity is increasing much faster than the corresponding increase in the population. It has been estimated that there are enough insane people in the United States to make a procession, in a single file, allowing three feet for each person, one hundred and twenty-three miles long! In England the proportion of insane people is greater than in the United States. In France it is greater still. This remarkable increase in insanity is simply an object-lesson to show the danger of allowing ourselves to be satisfied while living so near the ragged edge of disease. Cancer is supposed to be due to a parasite, which, naturally enough, cannot prey upon the system until it becomes susceptible to its inroads. This disease is estimated by those who have given it the most careful thought and scientific study to be enormously on the increase, as can be seen from an extract from the Medical Record, the leading medical journal in America:— “The assertion that the increase in the deaths from cancer in Great Britain is more apparent than real, owing to a variety of causes, has been advanced frequently of late by those who distrust statistics. This may be and probably is the case to a certain extent, but to contend that cancer has exhibited no increase is wilfully to ignore incontrovertible facts. The Lancet, referring to the matter, has this to say: ‘Perfectly accurate figures show that the registered mortality from malignant disease in England and Wales has at least doubled within the last fifty years.’ Among males, indeed, there has been an uninterrupted increase from 19.5 per million of the male population to 57.1 per million in the latter years of the last century. No verbal juggling or explanations can do away with the significance of these figures, and the quibblers must allow that, while admitting that an exaggerated view is taken of the greater prevalence of cancer by some, the truth is plain that there has been a very considerable increase of malignant disease both in this country and Great Britain.” Consumption is now making such inroads that it has been termed the “great white plague,” and those domestic animals which are the most in contact with man are likewise becoming infected; they in turn assist in the infection of man, and so the vicious circle is maintained. When nearly one-third of all who die between the ages of fifteen and sixty succumb to this disease,—and that really means, in the majority of instances, that the body is allowed to become weaker than the microbes,—then it is certainly time that every person should become thoroly aroused to the importance of vigorously cultivating health. If it is worth while for a prize-fighter to spend days and even months in bringing himself into such a physical condition that another man shall not be able to pound the life out of him, is it not worth while for a man to spend some of his spare moments in earnestly and enthusiastically cultivating such a degree of health, strength, and buoyancy that he may be able to fight daily battles for the Lord? Chicago, Illinois. DAVID PAULSON, M.D. I am often forcibly reminded of the little old lady who was taking her first journey by rail. One watching her would surely have thought she was expecting to travel around the world in that self-same coach, so carefully did she adjust her various belongings about her. Once when her nephew was endeavoring to call her attention to a beautiful view, she did not so much as turn her eyes out of the car window, but remarked, “Pretty soon, John. As soon as I get everything fixed all right, I’m goin’ to sit back and enjoy myself.” But alas! before she was ready to enjoy herself, she was at her journey’s end. Her voice was pathetic as she said, “If I’d thought we were goin’ to stop so soon, I wouldn’t have wasted all my time fussin’.” Aren’t there many of us who are taking our life’s journey in much the same fashion? Are we not too prone to pass by many beautiful real scenes in search of ideal ones beyond? Are our eyes not often blinded to the simple views on either hand because our vision is set for more magnificent ones in front of us? Do we not lose much of the present in our efforts to “get everything fixed all right,” that we may “sit back and enjoy ourselves” in the future? All too soon will the journey be ended, and we will learn, when it is too late, that we have wasted valuable, precious time “fussin’.” Fussing, fretting, and worrying! The three (dis)graces of our American life! They have always dogged the feet of mortals; but it is to be feared that in our day and country we are more susceptible to them than in any other age. Our climate, our consuming ambitions, our competitive system, our pride, our methods, our heredity, our social and industrial environment, our very atmosphere, all seem to crowd on us in a way that breeds nervousness. “The man or woman who can succeed in turning the tide of American life, and can teach us to be sober, self-controlled, and to take a quieter gait, will be one of the nation’s benefactors.” We certainly shall live longer, and have much better health while we do live, and have much more time to enjoy life when we have learned this lesson. We forget that it is a duty to enjoy the best health possible. As housekeepers let us do our housework, and do it well, but do not let us suppose that it is a panacea or that it will enable us to forego outdoor air and exercise. In fact, our great trouble is that in our highly civilized life we do not get out of doors enough. Air is life, and healthful exercise in pure air will keep us vigorous and add to our good looks. Snatch what rest you can and look on the bright side. It is better to have work and be tired than to eat out your heart because you are tired of having no work. “The day for work, the night for rest, and God caring for us all thru.” Let us see to it that we do have “the night for rest.” Too many of us carry our worries and troubles to bed with us, and do not allow “tired nature’s sweet restorer” to knit the raveled sleeve of care, and cause us to arise in the morning refreshed and new. “I’m too much interested in what is going on to take much time to remember or brood, and I never take but one day at a time.” So spoke an old lady over seventy years of age, but whose blue eyes were clear and whose face was full of cheer and strength. Ah! that is it; we have no time to worry and brood, no strength to spend fussing over unessentials. “Worry-weeds” must be pulled as soon as the tiniest stalks appear above the even soil of tranquility. The poison-ivy of fretfulness will spread in wondrous growth unless destroyed root and branch as soon as it begins to grow. The thistles of fussiness will soon occupy the entire field unless their growth is checked at the start. It is inexpressibly sad to see people who are continually getting ready to enjoy life, but who never take the time really to enjoy it. So many of us cross and recross the bridges in imagination which in reality we never reach. Anxiety is manifestly and demonstrably useless. It is so positively harmful that both soul and body are made to suffer by it immeasurably. It is far better to bear our troubles simply as they come, and to enjoy the pleasures before11 they flit past us forever. It is not work so much as worry that is undermining the constitutions of so many men and women around us. No doubt many of you read the little incident in one of our weekly magazines last year where the man of the house became angry because the children began to laugh when he was inquiring for his pen and looking everywhere for it. At last one of the children said, slyly, “If you’ll laugh, papa, you will find it.” He stared at her in astonishment. Then, as her meaning broke in upon him, he joined in the laugh, and the penholder fell out of his mouth. How many of the difficulties of this life one can extricate one’s self from by a laugh! How many blessings are ours if we stop to count them now! How much we lose by “pretty soon!” Let us have Thanksgiving and the holidays all the year round! “Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.” Is that the reason you and I are so often unhappy? Are we miserable because foolish? discontented because not wise enough to realize that we have those “few things” that really should conduce to our happiness? Contentment is not laziness; far from it. It is the making the best use of our activities. A lazy person is never a wise person. A lazy housekeeper is by no means a wise one. Being contented does not mean quietly sitting down and folding the hands; letting things go that should not be allowed to go; submitting to that which should not be submitted to; being idle when there is work to do; taking things easy when they should be taken by the nape of the neck and placed in their rightful places. No, no; contentment is not inactivity; neither is it worriment. It is the activity of the loving mind and willing hand; where feverish haste is not known, where nervousness forms no part. True it is that the world takes on much the appearance of the color of the glasses thru which we view it. We note the azure blue above or the ominous clouds that hang near the surface, according as our eyes are raised or lowered. Our immediate horizon will necessarily be narrow; we need to get above our every-day plane of living in order to obtain a broad view of the beauties about us. Because we remain in the same rut, stay upon one unvarying level, does not prove that we are contented mortals, or that we are making the best of circumstances and enjoying things as we go along. There is such a thing as contentment. It is a word hard to define, difficult of explanation; each individual must make a definition for himself, then live up to the meaning. “My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen; my crown is called content;
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.”
—Ella Bartlett Simmons.
IF WE KNEW EACH OTHER BETTER.
Could we but draw back the curtains
That surround each other's lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives—
Often we would find it better,
Purer than we judged we would.
We would love each other better
If we only understood. If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointment,
Understood the loss and gain,
Would the grim external roughness
Seem, I wonder, just the same?
Would we help where now we hinder,
Would we pity where we blame? Ah! we judge each other harshly
Knowing not life's hidden force;
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at its source;
Seeing not amid the evil
All the golden grains of good;
O, we'd love each other better
If we only understood! Every one knows the pretty, light, and graceful chairs and other articles of furniture made from rattan, but every one does not know that the extremely tough and flexible wood called rattan is of the climbing palm tree. This curious climber, which is more of a vine than a tree, is one of the singular characteristics of forest growth in the Celebes and other Malayan countries. Starting with a trunk a little thicker than a man's arm, it winds through the forest, now wrapping a tall tree in its folds like some gigantic snake, and then descending again to the earth and trailing along in snake-like curves, until it can find some other stately tree to fasten and climb upon, in its pursuit of light and air. The forest is so thick and jungle-like that it seems impossible to follow the course of any one of these serpent-climbers, but there is little doubt that at the last the successful aspirant, which stooped and cringed so long below, will be found shooting up like a flag-staff a dozen feet or more above the tree which had helped it to rise. A use of the rattan which is unknown to those who have not seen it in its native forest, is as a water carrier. The thirsty traveler has at all times a tumbler of cool, refreshing water at his command by cutting off six or eight feet of rattan and putting one of the several ends to his mouth, or holding it over a dish to catch the water.