Earlier text: INSTRUCTION TO BELIEVERSDEGENERATE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.
By J. Milton Greene
(By J. Milton Greene, D.D., condensed from Christian Work.) A CHANGE of residence and circumstances is oftentimes to character what the crucible is to metal. It reveals with all clearness what is “precious” and what is “vile.” It leaves no doubt what is real and what fictitious. It makes clear to one’s self, and to others, how much of alloy lurks in the mass, and what proportion of that which is labeled genuine is truly such. Remove one from the restraints of Christian civilization and an atmosphere pervaded by evangelical morality, where public opinion is attuned to a Scriptural key, and a careful distinction is observed between right and wrong, where the truth of God shines abroad like the light of day, illuminating and purifying principles and practise, in secret and in public, . . . and place him in surroundings in which . . . moral distinctions are well-nigh obliterated, and all that remains of religion are certain outward conformities under the leadership of mere functionaries, whose lives and influence are fatal to even an elementary morality, and you apply one of the severest possible tests to Christian faith, personal integrity, and fidelity in the use of the means of grace. Thus the question is often forced upon us here, What is the matter with the Christian character which we are producing at home in these later years? It seems to us like some of the fruit which has recently been shipped in bad order to New York, and had simply to be thrown overboard. Even so we are forced to believe that— In a Vast Majority of Cases the Character that Is Called Christian
will not bear transportation. It spoils in transit. So many of those who at home were regarded as exemplary, and even foremost, never enter the house of God on reaching here, but on the contrary ally themselves openly with the enemies of the Sabbath, the Word of God, and a consistent Christian life. In our mission work we look in vain for officers and Sabbath-school teachers, and even singers in our choirs. Never was a more grand opportunity offered for Christian usefulness than that which is presented to our young Christians when they come to this island. They would find ready listeners and willing followers if they would come into our mission services and give practical testimony to the power of the Gospel. According to most reliable reports, we have from fifteen hundred to two thousand Americans in San Juan, and you can hardly find two hundred of them in any place of worship on the Sabbath day. Base-ball matches, picnics, bathing parties, excursions, masquerade balls, and social visits, leave no time nor inclination for “that direct and immediate relation of the personal creature to the personal Creator, by which all true life can be determined.” I remember well that while in Mexico a young lady tourist visited us who had been the previous Sabbath to a bull-fight, and with the utmost nonchalance she told us how she thought of her Sabbath-school class at home while she was witnessing the cruel butchery, and wondered what they would say if they knew she was there. Naturally enough the Porto Ricans think of our Americans as all Christians, just as we think of them as all Romanists. And by what they see of American character they judge of American religion. Thus, looking upon the practical godlessness of so large a portion of our people, and seeing that they adopt their own customs, and even go far beyond them often, in such forms of sin as drunkenness and lasciviousness, is it any wonder that they look with suspicion on the missions we establish, and on us, the missionaries? Deeply as it pains me to write it, I must give my testimony to the fact that one of our chiefest obstacles in missionary work is the widespread religious indifference, or even open wickedness, of our own people. . . . What is the matter? Are we losing our hold on God’s eternal verities? Is the fault with those who have demanded a devitalized Gospel? Have our pastors failed to set forth God’s view of sin? Are our conversions superficial and spurious? O brethren in the home land, send us helpers in the common walks of life who have backbone, and will adorn the Gospel by consistent living! We are tired of being disappointed. San Juan, Porto Rico, March 25, 1901. (From the Literary Digest, June 23, 1900.) THE prevalent ignorance of the Bible among many classes to-day, often commented upon of late, has led Dr. Charles F. Thwing, president of the Western Reserve University, to examine college students on the subject. The result of his work he has given in an article in The Century for May, entitled “Significant Ignorance about the ‘Bible.” Dr. Thwing selected from Tennyson’s works a number of passages containing Bible allusions, and submitted these in an English examination to members of the Freshman class. Later on he gave the same questions to fifty-one young ladies in the Freshman class at a woman’s college in the East. The young men were from Central New York, Northern Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania, and the young women generally from New England. Their fathers were lawyers, doctors, preachers, business men, farmers. All the students were from communities where intelligence prevailed, and all without exception had some church affiliation. Both the young men and the young women were of the average college age of twenty. While one young woman answered every question correctly, another made one mistake, and a third but two mistakes, the percentage of correct answers was less than forty-three for the men, and a little more than forty-nine for the women. Dr. Thwing’s selections were as follows:— 1. “My sin was a thorn
Among the thorns that girt Thy brow.” 2. “As manna on my wilderness.” 3. “That God would move
And strike the hard, hard rock, and thence,
Sweet in their utmost bitterness,
Would issue tears of penitence.” 4. “Like that strange angel which of old,
Until the breaking of the light,
Wrestled with wandering Israel.” 5. “Like Hezekiah’s, backward runs
The shadow of my days.” 6. “Joshua’s moon in Ajalon.” 7. “A heart as rough as Esau’s hand.” 8. “Gash thyself, priest, and honor thy brute Baal.” 9. “Ruth among the fields of corn.” 10. “Pharaoh’s darkness.” 11. “A Jonah’s gourd,
Up in one night and due to sudden sun.” 12. “Stiff as Lot’s wife.” 14. a “For I have flung thee pearls, and find thee
swine.” 14. b “Not red like Iscariot’s.” 15. “Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ,
Our Arthur kept his best until the last.” 16. “And marked me even as Cain.” 17. “The church on Peter’s rock.” 18. “Let her eat it like the serpent, and be driven
out of her paradise.” 19. “A whole Peter’s sheet.” 20. “The godless Jephtha vows his child
To one cast of the dice.” 21. “A Jacob’s ladder falls.” 22. “Till you find the deathless angel seated in the
vacant tomb.” The New York Sun makes the following study of the answers:— Of the 85 students to whom the examination paper was submitted, a quarter knew nothing of the crown of thorns or of the manna; about 30—Dr. Thwing gives the exact numbers in each case—could not explain the striking of the rock, or the angel that wrestled with Israel, or Jacob’s ladder; about 40 could not recall the story of Esau, or that of Ruth, or the mark of Cain, or the angel seated in the vacant tomb. Curiously enough, all of the girls but three could tell about Lot’s wife, and all but ten about the serpent; while 22 men out of 34 knew nothing of either. Hezekiah’s shadow floored 75 of the 85. Jonah’s gourd stumped 67, while Joshua’s moon and Peter’s sheet numbered 60 victims each. Some amazing examples of wrong answers are given: “Iscariot means the cross on which Christ was crucified;” “Arimathean Joseph was Christ’s father,” and several tell of his coat of many colors; Ruth was “grieving for her children,” and Jonah’s gourd is an “allusion to the emesis of Jonah by the ‘whale,’” one of many ingenious efforts to make the whale story, with which all seemed familiar, fit in with the unknown gourd. Dr. Thwing draws the conclusion from these results that the Bible is not read or taught as it used to be, and casts about for causes. He finds one in “the fact that the world has become a world of ‘books, and a world of magazines, and a world of ‘newspapers. The world is no longer Puritan England, or Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony—a people of one book.” He finds others in the decline of family life with the development of the individuality of its members, in the elimination of the Bible from the public schools, and in the decline in attendance at church on Sunday. Family prayers, he asserts, are less common than formerly, the Bible is in many homes opened only once a week, and the Sabbath-school has not taken the place of the family in teaching the facts and truths of the Bible. IN the city of Yonkers, New York, not long ago, as our readers will remember, it was decided that it was all right for men of wealth to play golf on Sunday. It happened soon afterward in that city that some boys, not comprehending the religious difference between golf and baseball, indulged in the latter game on Sunday. They were arrested, and at their trial Judge Kellogg, in his charge to the jury, said:— This is no test case, and will settle nothing more than if the defendants were burglars. The highest court of the State has decided the legality of the Sunday law. If the law is too severe, the Legislature can change it, but you can not. There is no dispute of the fact that the boys were playing ball as charged. It is not necessary that the acts complained of be of a noisy nature. I therefore charge you that the acts committed by the defendants in this case constitute a violation of the law. This position is indorsed by the Buffalo News, which says:— The judge’s charge rests entirely upon the sacredness of a legal enactment. The law is above everything. The legality of the Sunday law had been passed upon by the highest court of the State, and being declared sound in law and fact, the judge says the law must be obeyed; nor does it matter if the breaking of the law was of a noisy nature or not; it is sufficient that the law stands properly upon the statute book to make it paramount and just. This is in the highest degree the fulfilment of popular obedience to the will of the people, the foundation of the rule of the republic, which makes obedience to the voice of the people the first duty of freemen. Judge Kellogg has given a righteous decision, and one that all lovers of the republican institutions and form of government should defend. “The law is above everything,” is it? Then good-by to right and justice. Good-by to progress in government. If the law is above everything, nothing ought ever to change it; and once upon the statute book, it should stand forever and be forever enforced. And this is true of all laws that have been in the past as much as of any that exist now. All past laws that were overthrown in the march of human progress toward better government ought to have stood. Their overthrow was a crime against “the sacredness of a legal enactment.” Such logic would have kept the world forever in the Dark Ages, for the laws of that period possessed this same kind of “sacredness.” Then, as now, it was asserted that “the law is above everything.” This was what the Jews said when they crucified Jesus Christ. “We have a law,” they shouted, “and by our law He ought to die!” And the law was “above everything,” and Jesus had to come under it. But the Jews discovered later on that there was something greater than their law, and the man who now asserts that the law is above everything will sometime discover that there is something higher than the authority of human enactments. He will discover that right is above the law; and this is but9 to say that he will discover that a just God is above everything else. The law is human, and the deification of the law means the deification of fallen humanity, and that means the setting up of human despotism and human slavery. There is no man so good but that, entrusted with too much power and accorded too much glory, he will use them selfishly, which means despotically. Not law, but right, is above everything.—Sentinel of Liberty. Adulterated Food Called Pure
According to press report, the Pure Food Commission of the State of Illinois has agreed to call all food pure which contains no more than twenty-five per cent of adulterants. If the report be true, it simply shows that the adulteration of food has come to be so generally practised as to be considered legitimate, provided it be kept below a certain proportion. The deleterious effect of adulterated foods is universally recognized, and pure-food commissions are appointed for the purpose of seeing that no adulterated foods are allowed on the market. What powerful influence has been brought to bear upon this commission to cause it to adopt such a policy can only be surmised; but the official who can call a food pure which he knows to be only three-quarters pure, is certainly not a safe person to trust in such an important calling; and they who mingle such a proportion of foreign substance with the food they sell are but illustrating the tendency of the times in the race for wealth at the expense of life and health. There never was a time when the adulteration of food was carried to such an extent as now, and it is fair to lay at the door of this dishonest business much of the premature deaths and weakened constitutions and ill-health so evident on every hand. It is another of those infallible indicators which show that we are in the last days. Reports from China still indicate tension between the powers, and a lack of that harmony necessary to a perfect settlement of the difficulty. The Japanese press accuses Russia of a desire for permanent occupation in China, to which Japan can not possibly agree. China refuses to ratify the proposed treaty with Russia, partly on her own account and partly on account of the opposition of the powers. The foreign ministers have conceded two points to the Chinese in order to secure harmony. The first point is that the walls of the Taku forts shall not be destroyed, and the second is the admission of a prominent Chinese viceroy to the Whang Po board of conservancy. England has notified the Chinese that unless the instigators of the Chuchau massacre are punished forthwith, England will refuse to withdraw her troops from China. The Russians, according to a despatch from Shanghai, are beginning the fortification of Newchwang, and are pushing their railroad to the Korean frontier. China is asking that there be a permanent settlement between Russia and the Chinese Government in regard to the occupation of Manchuria; but Russia manifests no disposition to release her hold on that province. War seems imminent between Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. According to reports Venezuela is assisting the Colombian rebels with arms and ammunition, and the troops of Ecuador are preparing to invade Colombia. War-ships of several of the powers are concentrating in the vicinity of the threatened trouble to be ready to act in case their interests are jeopardized. The United States has ordered war vessels to take up stations on both sides of the isthmus. Two invasions of Venezuela by Colombian troops have been repulsed. In view of this disturbance of the peace, the president of Venezuela has suspended the constitution. In Colombia several battles have recently been fought between government troops and the rebels, and atrocities are being committed on both sides. The rebels are said to number 28,000 men. Terrible floods are reported from the valley of the Yang-tse Kiang, in China. Reports received at Shanghai place the number of deaths at not less than 20,000, in the provinces of Kiangsi, Hunan, Hupeh, and Anhui. The floods came very suddenly, resulting from one of the heaviest rains known for centuries, so far as Chinese records go. For weeks the river has been dotted with the floating remains of men and animals. Many towns have been absolutely wiped out. In Japan the rainfall has been the heaviest that has been recorded during the thirty years that the weather bureau has been established. Evidence is accumulating that yellow fever is carried by mosquitoes. A Spaniard who had placed himself in the hands of the doctors at Havana for the purpose of experimentation, and was bitten by a mosquito which had bitten a yellow-fever patient, contracted the fever and died. Others have contracted the disease in the same way, and have developed most difficult cases. This, the doctors state, will stop further experiments, as the mosquitoes are more dangerous than had been supposed. A terrible storm is reported along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and although reports are indefinite, it seems certain that many lives have been lost. The waters of the gulf were driven before the storm like a tidal wave, which resulted in great loss of property. An engine of the Great Northern Railway has just completed 4,000,000 miles. This, it is believed, breaks all records for railway engines. A cable to the New York Sun from Manila says: “The friars have issued a circular to the public, through the Centro Catolico, in which they anathematize the United States Government in a passionate appeal to Catholics. The circular declares that the government has declared war against God, and denounces the members of the Philippine commission as four rickety brawlers. The occasion for this is said to be that, in a recent local dispute in Tarlac City, Governor Taft issued a proclamation to the effect that he neither desired nor could interfere in religious questions, and reminding the persons involved of the separation of Church and State. The pamphlet calls the government officials buffoons, talkative pygmies, vile persecutors, and pusillanimous politicians, who are seeking to overthrow the church under the guise of pernicious liberty, and are attempting to eclipse the sun of the moral world. It calls on Catholics morally to unite against this ‘impious and irreligious government.’” If Governor Taft is teaching the Filipinos and friars that the interests of both Church and State are best served when the two are separate, he is doing a good work. The great strike of steel workers is still unsettled, and neither side to the controversy seems willing to make concessions which will be acceptable to the other, while representatives of both sides claim that no further concessions can be made. Many mills remain completely closed down, and while some have been started up with non-union help, others have been forced to suspend operations. Thus both sides claim victory, and the end is not in sight. Thousands of dollars a day are lost to both employer and employee, and the great steel industry is seriously demoralized. The call for a general strike of the Amalgamated Association succeeded in bringing out only a portion of the men. There seems to be on the part of the great steel corporation a determination to break the strike on its own terms. The strikers, recognizing this, regard the outcome as a test of strength, and are determined to use every resource in their power to win. Other unions are threatening to strike, and other employers are proposing reductions in wages. Thus this bids fair to be a memorable year in the contest between these great opposing forces. Statistics recently issued at Washington show that from 1790 to the present time the government has disbursed the enormous sum of $2,763,353,033 in pensions. During recent years there has been a rapid growth in the amount paid out yearly on this account. During President Grant’s first term the yearly average of the pension disbursements was $29,034,069. During his second term the average was $28,589,839. While Mr. Hayes was president, the average was $38,330,622. During Garfield’s administration it rose to $59,456,268. During Mr. Cleveland’s first term there was a further average increase to $76,409,165. It amounted to $129,926,931 while Mr. Harrison was in office, and $139,487,602 during Mr. Cleveland’s second term. Between 1897 and 1901 the yearly average rose to $140,000,137, and during the present administration it will probably exceed that amount. This is but one of the items in the increasing cost of war. Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts has been making an investigation of conditions in the military camps at the present time, to determine whether or not there has been an increase of drunkenness and disturbances in those camps since the passage of the anti-canteen law, as the liquor element and some government officials have charged. He declares that the almost universal testimony of the soldiers is to the effect that there has been no increase either in disturbances or drunkenness. There seems to have been an increase in the number of arrests; but these are due to a change of policy intended to produce canteen arguments, such as the arresting of soldiers for very small offenses formerly passed over or punished very lightly, which are now made the occasion for multiplying court-martials. The new French cruiser Jean d’Arc, which was recently completed at a cost of $4,600,000, has proved a failure. Another cruiser, the Chateau-Renault, built at the same time at a cost of $3,200,000, has also proved a failure. The first-named vessel was designed as a commerce destroyer, and was supposed to be capable of overhauling the fast merchant vessels of the Atlantic; but with only 24 of her 36 boilers in use the heat developed in the boiler and engine rooms was so intense as to drive the men from their work. The heat produced in the machine room of the second vessel on her trial was so great as to melt some of the machinery. A special despatch from Shanghai, bearing date of August 14, states that the Russians at Newchwang, China, have proclaimed the czar’s suzerainty over that district; have abrogated the Chinese laws; and have prohibited the natives from referring their disputes to the arbitration of American or British merchants or missionaries. All disputes must be referred to the Russians for settlement. A despatch to the Pall Mall Gazette from Constantinople states that a company of 400 Kurds has been raiding the Delmisara district of Armenia, and has destroyed twelve villages, leaving nothing but smoking ruins. Only the young girls were spared, and these were carried away by the marauders. The United States transport Sheridan arrived in San Francisco Bay from Manila on the morning of August 18, with the Fourteenth Regiment of infantry and Major General Arthur MacArthur. In some parts of Europe war has been declared upon the trailing skirt. In Saxon, Switzerland, wearers of the trailing skirt are fined. At Ems, Prussia, the authorities have put up a notice that no long skirts are to be admitted within the public gardens. In Ischl, Upper Austria, some of the wearers of long skirts have been set upon by the people and their skirts riddled. Within a few days nearly 200 shingle mills of Washington, comprising the Washington Cedar Shingle Manufacturing Association, will be ordered by the executive committee of that association to close down indefinitely, for the purpose of curtailing production and maintaining prices. Mills representing an aggregate of 10,000,000 shingles a day have already voted to close. The steamer Islander, belonging to the Canadian Pacific navigation fleet, struck an iceberg in Lynn Canal on the night of August 14, while on a return trip from Alaska, and foundered. The reports indicate that about 60 persons went down with the vessel, which sank within fifteen minutes of the collision. The Islander was pronounced the finest vessel on the Alaskan route. On August 15, 30 tons of nitro-gelatin were exploded on the famous Arch Rock, of San Francisco Bay. The rock, which protruded above the waters of the bay in the very track of vessels going through the Golden Gate, was honey-combed with drills, and every hole filled with the powerful explosive. Nothing now remains of the famous obstruction. A large portion of the Russian empire is again facing famine. The population of the famine district numbers 43,000,000. The havoc has been wrought by the intense heat and the absence of rain. Afterward there were torrential downpours, accompanied with hail. The appearance of innumerable pests is completing the destruction. The charges of collusion between the police of New York City and the gamblers are to be investigated, the governor of the State taking an active interest in the matter. Assistant District Attorney Osborne has been placed in charge of the inquiry, and a thorough investigation of the charges is promised. The Mexican Government has taken a decided stand against gambling. No more licenses are to be issued to gambling houses, and all public officials found frequenting places where gambling is carried on are to be dismissed at once from the service, and turned over to the civil authorities. It is reported that the customs officials of Dawson have seized 10,000 gallons of liquor, which had been brought to that city without permit. According to the present law, the whole shipment becomes confiscate to the Canadian Government. The French press is making extraordinary claims for the new submarine torpedo boats recently constructed for the navy, claiming that these boats make the French navy now the equal, if not the superior, of any navy in the world. The English Parliament now has under discussion the expenditure of $130,000,000 for the purpose of increasing coaling facilities for English war-ships and also accommodations for docking the war vessels. Two companies of Turkish troops have occupied Kilsobair, disputed territory across the Bulgarian frontier, and the Bulgarian charge d’affaires has demanded their withdrawal within a specified time. The Union and Southern Pacific railways are adopting a plan for the consolidation of their outside offices which will enable the two concerns to carry on their business with a much smaller force. A sudden squall on the Ohio River caused the steamer City of Golconda to capsize near Paducah, Kentucky, on August 19, carrying down to death about a score of her crew and passengers. The foreign ministers in China are said to have agreed upon the final draft of a protocol. This includes the rate of tariff on imports, and a list of articles to be admitted free of duty. The remains of the Dowager-Empress Frederick of Germany were laid to rest beside those of her husband in the mausoleum at Friedenskirche, near Potsdam, on August 13. A terrible famine now exists in the province of Sian-Fu, China. Human flesh is being sold for food. Great distress is also reported from the southern part of Shansi province. The government is said to have lost millions of dollars in New York through a conspiracy between a customs official and certain large importers of silk goods. The funeral of Signor Crispi, Italy’s great statesman, was held at Naples on August 14, with imposing ceremonies. Marquis Ito, Japan’s greatest statesman, is coming to America for a short stay, on advice of his physician. General Maximo Gomez has refused the nomination for the presidency of the Cuban Republic. A FEW WORDS TO YOUNG WOMEN.
By M. C. DuBois
WOMAN is of finer physical organization than man; and in the Scriptures husbands are admonished to give “honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel.” Public opinion, however, demands more of her than of man in the way of purity of thought and act. Two standards of morality have been erected by society,—one for man, and a higher one for woman. But this is not God’s way. He knows no sex in a moral or ethical sense. He has but one standard of virtue, and demands as much of man as of woman. That which is sinful for woman is equally sinful for man. Woman was created to be a helpmeet for man, and as such, great is her responsibility and work; but too often her special duties are ignored or forgotten. In an article to young men in a recent SIGNS, I quoted the words of a young man, in which he accuses girls of being tempters to his sex. This is a sad accusation. And right here let me quote, in the same line, from a Christian mother of large experience:— Women are too often tempters. On one pretense or another they engage the attention of men, married or unmarried, and lead them on till they transgress the law of God, till their usefulness is ruined, and their souls are in jeopardy. Truly this is an awful work. One sign of the last days is licentiousness, which is on the increase in all classes of society. The standard of morality is far from being high enough among God’s professed people; and if this is true of them, what must the conditions be where there is no fear of God? It is a sad truth, an undeniable fact, that there are many bad girls and women. Some are so lost to all sense of virtue that they seek to lead young men from right ways. How this thought grieves every Christian heart. Some girls glory in their power over young men. They love to bring them to their feet as suitors, and then cast them off for new subjects. And they excuse themselves in this course by saying that men win the love of a pure, noble girl, ruin her, and then desert her. Yes, this is a sad truth, too; but, my dear girl, do not play at this dangerous game. You can not play it, and come out unscathed. Let it alone. God will reckon with all bad men, and they will receive at His hand a just recompense for their terrible sin. Do not descend to their level. Few girls realize their influence over young men, either for good or for evil. Many are careless and thoughtless; they love to flirt. They do not understand the heart of the unconverted man, and they do not know, nor do they stop to consider, the effect of their reckless conduct; and by their free and careless manners they become Satan’s instruments of temptation. Young ladies, be careful how you conduct yourselves in the presence of men. The eye has a language; see that it is not used to ensnare. Give no man occasion to say you are tempting him to wrong-doing. Do not lower the standard of true womanhood by cheap talk, slang expressions, and coarse joking. Oftentimes when upon the street or at public places, girls are loud and boisterous, thereby attracting notice and causing remarks to be made against their good name, when perhaps they had not a thought of evil in their heart. Often I tremble for girls, as I see how careless they are of their good name, how ready they are to make street acquaintances. This is not a safe course. Many girls have been ruined in this way. Be careful of your conduct on the street, at public gatherings, at home—everywhere. Shun the very appearance of evil in word and look as well as in act. There are some women who seem to forget their high and holy calling. They enter the political and sporting field, attending horse-races, and gambling upon the results with as much interest as men. They seem not to realize that they are lessening their womanly gentleness and God-given power for good. Women have done great good, and have taken rapid strides in the onward march of improvements in every good and noble work. I would not hold them back from any path, nor debar them from any field, which their Maker has designed for them. But I would seek to impress upon every woman and girl the great responsibility resting upon her, and ask her to throw her whole influence upon the side of purity and right. I am glad that there are many pure and noble girls and women taking this course. They are striving to lift up the standard of purity, and doing all they can to raise their fallen sisters from sin and degradation. Young lady, would you know how to do this most effectually?—Be what you would have others be—be modest at home and abroad. You need not be a prude by any means, but be a prudent, refined woman. It is not wrong to talk with men, and to mingle in their society; but do all you can to elevate. Make a young man feel that if he associates with you, he must come up, not down. Use your powers to influence him to be a truer, better man; to have higher, nobler views of life. Do not flirt. Treat men, young and old men, with respect, and teach them to respect you. Let your influence be cast for purity, not by thinking against the impure, not by talking against it, not by dwelling upon it, but by thinking, by talking, by acting only that which is pure, sweet, and womanly. Live as in God’s sight. Seek to lift up the fallen by ever pointing them to the pure, and noble, and true. By beholding, men become changed. My sisters, young and old, come up to your high calling in Christ Jesus. Let your words and acts tell for God and humanity. M. C. DuBois. Among the immigrants awaiting examination at Ellis Island, recently, was a tall young fellow with a little black bag under his arm. He was a Pole, about twenty years old, and his admission was a pleasing and dramatic incident, witnessed by Mr. Arthur Henry, and described in Scribner’s Magazine. The lesson it teaches is as good for native Americans as for immigrants. When the young man’s turn came to answer the inevitable question, “How much money have you?” he smiled and answered frankly, “None.” “But don’t you know you can’t come in here if you have no money and no friend to speak for you? Where are you going?” “To Fall River first. I have a friend there. Then I shall see the whole country. I shall make money. You will hear of me.” The inspector proceeded rather sharply: “How will you get to Fall River? Where will you eat and sleep to-night?” “I shall be all right,” replied the young fellow, confidently. “With this”—tapping the bag—“I can go anywhere.” The Pole laughed, and opening the bag, took out a cornet. It was a fine instrument, and gave evidence of loving care. “Can you play it well?” asked the officer more kindly. In answer, the young Pole stepped out into an open space, and lifting the horn to his lips, began the beautiful intermezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana.” At the first note every one in the great building stood still and listened. The long lines of immigrants became motionless. The forlorn waiters in the pit looked up, and their faces became tender. Even the meanest among them seemed to feel the charm of the pleading notes. When the music ceased, there was a burst of applause. Shouts of “Bravo!” “Good boy!” “Give us some more!” came from every side. The physicians who a few moments before made their hurried and not over-gentle examination joined in the applause. The officer who had questioned him so sharply slapped him on the back. The commissioner himself had come up from his office at the sound of the horn, and asked for the particulars. When he had heard them, he turned to the agent of the Fall River boats, and said, “Give this fellow a passage, including meals, and charge it to me.” “I will charge it to myself,” said the agent, and he took the young Pole by the arm and led him away. The incident was a sermon on competence, a lesson on what it means to be a master. The trade may be music or farming or bricklaying—it does not matter. The man who has conquered it, who knows it root and branch, can point to it as confidently as the young Pole pointed to his cornet, and say as he did, “With this I can go anywhere.”—Selected. “Black neckties, if you please.” Drummond, the salesman, stared across the counter at the speaker, as if his thoughts were in Egypt. Drummond threw a box down. The customer opened it. “These are red, and not silk,” he said quickly. “Nobody wears black silk now,” Drummond said, yawning and looking indifferently at the plain old man before him. Then he took up the box and threw it back into its place. “Have you none of the kind I want?” asked the old man. “No, that kind of goods went out years ago. We don’t keep ’em,” said the salesman insolently. “There are plenty of black ties,” said Sanders, the man at the next counter, in an undertone. “I know; but what’s the use of bothering with an old back number like that? Methodist preacher, I’ll bet five to one. But I was telling you about my cousins, the Harts. The three brothers all left the village and came up to town. One is now a railway boss, one a banker, and the third a sugar man, all of them millionaires.” “A lucky family! How was it?” “They all had capital to start with. The man with capital wins out every time.” “Perhaps you have neckties—black silk?” the old man said to Sanders. He had been lingering near the counter. “I think there are some, sir,” said Sanders, taking down some boxes. He opened one after another, but there were no ties of the kind the old man wanted. Drummond, with a half-amused stare at the persistent customer, turned away to gossip and giggle with a sales-girl. Sanders anxiously took down box after box. “I am giving you a great deal of trouble,” said the old man, kindly. “That’s what I’m here for,” said the salesman pleasantly. “I am sure I shall find them.” The box was found at last, and a necktie of the11 right width chosen, wrapped and handed to the troublesome customer with a smile. The next morning Sanders received a printed slip, notifying him of his promotion in the store. Drummond also received a slip, but it informed him that after the end of the next week his services would no longer be required by Colton & Co. Underneath the printed form were written the words: “Civility and efficiency are capital as well as money; you will fail, because you have neither.” “Who was the old bore?” demanded Drummond in a fury. “It was John Colton, the silent partner of the firm,” said one of the men.—Youth’s Companion. LET ME LEAN HARD.
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
[Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in the San Francisco Examiner.] Let me lean hard upon the Eternal Breast.
In all earth’s devious ways I sought for rest,
And found it not. I will be strong, I said,
And lean upon myself. I will not cry
And importune all heaven with my complaint—
But now my strength fails, and I fall, I faint—
Let me lean hard. Let me lean hard upon the Unfailing Arm.
I said, I will walk on, I fear no harm;
The spark divine within my soul will show
The upward pathway where my feet should go;
But now the heights—to which I most aspire—
Are lost in clouds. I stumble and I tire.
Let me lean hard. Let me lean harder yet. That swerveless force
Which speeds the solar systems on their course
Can take, unfelt, the burden of my woe,
Which bears me to the dust, and hurts me so.
I thought my strength enough for any fate;
But, lo! I sink beneath my sorrow’s weight.
Let me lean hard.