AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 NEW YORK?
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1903 
 
 BY 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 FOREWORD 5 
 
 I. THE JOYFUL LIFE 7 
 
 II. MOULDING INFLUENCES 23 
 
 III. THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN'S OPPOR- 
 
 TUNITY 41 
 
 IV. THE VACATION MONTH 59 
 
 V. NEARNESS TO GOD 79 
 
 VI. CHRISTMAS HOLLY 97 
 
 VII. LIFE'S UPS AND DOWNS 113 
 
 VIII. A NEW YEAR MEDITATION 131 
 
 IX. INCOMPATIBILITY 149 
 
 X. AFTER-EASTER MUSINGS 167 
 
 XI. WHEN MOTHER Is BLUE . . . 183 
 
 XII. REVERENCE , 
 
 201
 
 jforeworb. 
 
 
 
 EACH chapter of this book is 
 a simple and friendly talk 
 on some theme of homely 
 interest, and the author's aim has 
 been to suggest something helpful 
 in each as to life and conduct. 
 We are all wayfarers, and our 
 manners on the road have much 
 to do with our happiness and 
 usefulness. 
 
 As a rule the pilgrim who walks 
 lightly encumbered with luggage 
 is least weary at the end of the day, 
 and therefore the aim has been to 
 inculcate care for the realities and 
 5 
 
 
 :-"'
 
 to let the superfluities go. Most 
 of the impedimenta with which we 
 weight ourselves here will be for- 
 gotten when we cross the river and 
 enter the Father's house. Some 
 things we shall carry over our 
 love to Christ and to each other, 
 our share of the peace that pass- 
 eth understanding, our desire to 
 do his will and to bear his image 
 for it is written that in the Jeru- 
 salem that is above, "His servants 
 shall serve him." 
 
 It is the writer's hope that every 
 word she sends forth may find a 
 lodgment in some sympathetic 
 heart, and that each reader may 
 be her friend. As friends together 
 we may talk of the common 
 experiences which, when love 
 touches them, wear hues of im- 
 mortality. 
 
 MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 
 6
 
 IN summer time we hear every- 
 where in nature the note of 
 joy. Brightness and vivid- 
 ness of color are seen in flower and 
 leaf, forest aisles are sweet with 
 bloom, gardens renewing their 
 beauty, orchards dressed in em- 
 broidery and fretwork of blossoms, 
 birds on the wing, and song re- 
 sounding. The outgoings of the 
 morning and evening rejoice. The 
 winds, soft as zephyrs or tumul- 
 tuous with sudden tempest, still are 
 7
 
 attuned to the one exulting chord 
 and Nature lifts up her praise to 
 the Creator whose hand ordains 
 her seasons and guides them in 
 their course. 
 
 How is it hi that other more 
 ultimate realm, where the spiritual 
 life flourishes? Here, too, yet not 
 only now, there should be glad- 
 ness. The joy of the Lord is your 
 strength, ye who trust in the Lord 
 may declare; the firmament for 
 you is starred with lights that no 
 darkness can dim, and 
 
 "The voice that rolls the stars along 
 Speaks all the promises." 
 
 In our busy days and hurrying 
 tasks some of us forget that we 
 may be busy and still blessed; toil 
 strenuously, and yet wear singing 
 robes. Christians of a former and 
 8
 
 
 Ube Joyful Xffe, 
 
 more introspective period than 
 ours were wont to talk much of 
 assurance, to long for and prize it, 
 to lament its lack in their con- 
 sciousness, and to cry out for it 
 earnestly in their hours of prayer. 
 In an age when we are losing the 
 deep sense of the fear of God from 
 individual and family life we hear 
 little about assurance, and there 
 is some danger that Christians are 
 ceasing to cherish what is in truth 
 then- very highest privilege and 
 their chief distinction. Assurance 
 of our right to claim kinship with 
 the Elder Brother, a sweet, full, 
 never-ceasing awareness that we 
 belong to the Divine Father, is 
 the inheritance by right of all who 
 are Christ's and who live by faith 
 in the Son of God. No one can 
 9 

 
 TTbe 
 
 %ife. 
 
 have this confidence of acceptance, 
 this security of communion, this 
 feeling of the child at home in the 
 Father's house, and not know often 
 the thrill of an ecstasy surpassing 
 earthly pleasure; the steadfast joy 
 of a soul at peace beyond all per- 
 turbation and strife. 
 
 We look for a heaven of joy, 
 dear friends, a heaven where there 
 shall be no terror of a parting from 
 our loved ones, no grief, no sin. 
 There the redeemed shall walk in 
 white ; there the anthem is forever 
 rising, the harp notes forever ring. 
 Angels and saints, the vast kin- 
 dreds of the cycles past and to 
 come, the innumerable company 
 of the redeemed, shall dwell there 
 in a bliss that shall never be 
 broken. 
 
 10
 
 "O Paradise, O Paradise, 
 
 Who doth not crave for rest, 
 Who would not seek the happy land 
 
 Where they that loved are blest. 
 Where loyal hearts and true, 
 
 Stand ever in the light, 
 All rapture, through and through, 
 
 In God's most holy sight? " 
 
 But we need not wait for heaven 
 till we drop the garments of our 
 flesh. To the disciple heaven may 
 begin, and may continue all the 
 way along, for has not Jesus said, 
 "I am the way," and is there any 
 heaven comparable to abiding 
 with Jesus? What matter a few 
 passing trials, a few rough stones, 
 a few tears and struggles, if we are 
 faring onward with Christ and 
 every step is homeward, and home 
 is spreading its tabernacle over us 
 by night and providing our re- 
 freshment by day. 
 11
 
 Ube Sopful Xife. 
 
 When I met my friend, who had 
 lately heard of the death of a dear 
 daughter in a distant land, a loss 
 unexpected, and leaving her deso- 
 late, her look was not cast down, 
 nor was her countenance sad. 
 There was in her expression some- 
 thing chastened, something aloof 
 from the common experience, 
 something elevated, as if she had 
 drawn very close to the home 
 within the veil. A rare illumina- 
 tion from the tranquil acceptance 
 of God's will and the unshaken 
 repose in his goodness which 
 belongs to those who never doubt 
 nor protest nor gird against the 
 arbitrament of the Father, was 
 in her face. "Can I be other 
 than joyful," she said, "in the 
 joy that God gives me when he 
 12 
 
 ^ 4 \ 
 
 m
 
 ttbe -Joyful Xife. 
 
 
 stoops to take my 
 himself?" 
 
 This joy may be ours, too, in 
 times of illness and languor. I 
 have no sympathy with that cult 
 which denies that illness and lan- 
 guor are possible, which illogically 
 tells us that matter has no exist- 
 ence, and which denies the discip- 
 linary process of pain. Not that 
 our Lord cannot heal, and does not 
 heal, our sicknesses every day. 
 "The healing of his seamless dress 
 is by our beds of pain" always. 
 He is always coming to us when 
 we need him with the gentle com- 
 mand, " Daughter, son, I say unto 
 thee, arise!" But he has many a 
 method for refining and purifying 
 his own, and every good physician, 
 and every adequate remedy, and 
 13
 
 every hospital room and surgical 
 tool and modern appliance, every 
 ingenuity of skill and science, each 
 and all are his; ours to use as he 
 permits, with gratitude to him that 
 he gives what he gives. So we 
 may bear the little prick and the 
 sharp pang, the fever heat, the 
 racking torment, the exhaustion 
 and the distress, when he sends 
 any of them, with something more 
 than mere passivity, with real joy. 
 And which of us has not known 
 invalids, shut in from the world 
 and ensphered in a grace that the 
 world can no more take away than 
 it can bestow? 
 
 The Christian's joy is consistent 
 
 with very narrow circumstances. 
 
 I have often heard people exclaim 
 
 against the hampering of environ- 
 
 14
 
 ment. Others can go here or 
 there. Others can give large sums 
 to missions or to charity. Others 
 can have the satisfactions that 
 accrue from wide advantages, from 
 generous living, from contact with 
 the best in art and literature. One 
 would fancy to hear these victims 
 of discontent that there were no 
 museums, no galleries, no libra- 
 ries; that only the rich could enjoy 
 these treasure stores of intellect 
 and achievement, whereas they 
 are by no means the monopoly of 
 wealth. The poorest, who desire, 
 may enjoy much that has been 
 gathered and catalogued and con- 
 served, and placed under proper 
 care and guardianship for the 
 education of the many, not for 
 the gratification of the few. And 
 15
 
 nature is as lavish of her displays; 
 her open fields and lofty spaces and 
 acreage of mountain and plain can 
 never be absolutely owned by any 
 one man, however many times 
 a millionaire. Nature gives the 
 poorest a right of way over most 
 of her domains. 
 
 "When daisies go, shall winter-time, 
 Silver the simple grass with rime 
 Autumnal frost enchant the pool, 
 And make the cart ruts beautiful, 
 To make this earth our hermitage, 
 A cheerful and a changeful page, 
 God's bright and intricate device 
 Of days and seasons doth suffice." 
 
 Ah ! friends, it is because we are 
 paupers in heart, a very different 
 thing from being humble in spirit, 
 that we are bankrupt of joy. If 
 some of those who rebel at poverty 
 could penetrate the shams that 
 16
 
 sometimes are the portion of 
 wealth, their foolish envy would 
 be scattered like a morning mist 
 in the sun. 
 
 Says Dr. Matheson pithily, " We 
 think of heaven as needing the 
 photographs of earth to make 
 ^-earthly memory! The Mount of 
 God does not need to be made 
 after the pattern of the human; 
 the human has already been pat- 
 terned after the Mount of God." 
 Heaven may be our portion before- 
 hand, if our love is there; if our 
 thoughts are there ; if our conversa- 
 tion, meaning by the word, the 
 whole conduct of our affairs, is 
 already there. What folly to 
 weigh trifles of wealth or poverty 
 in the scale, as affecting our joy. 
 Our convenience, our comfort, may 
 17
 
 depend on these, but not that 
 deeper, more enduring thing, our 
 humor and mood, our joy. For is 
 not that Christ's joy? "Who, for 
 the joy that was set before him 
 endured the cross, despising the 
 shame I" 
 
 It is seldom the Master's will 
 that we carry no cross. Hidden 
 from the sight of those around us, 
 our cross may be revealed only to 
 the eyes of our Saviour. The hid- 
 den cross is often the heaviest. 
 But we too, sharing his cross, may 
 endure it, whether or not the 
 world know our secret, as seeing 
 Him who is to them invisible, and 
 a tide of joy, present as well as 
 prospective, may cover the waste 
 places of our lives. 
 
 Yet another phase of this sub- 
 18
 
 
 m 
 
 ject appeals to us on the practical 
 side. Young people should never 
 be hindered in the Christian race 
 nor be kept away from the King- 
 dom by the idea that Christianity 
 means gloom. Undoubtedly there 
 are very good people whose relig- 
 ion never seems to brighten their 
 everyday lives. They give an 
 impression of the shadow on the 
 feast; they behave as if gaiety 
 were a crime. Their homes are not 
 cheerful plac.es, and their piety, 
 though real, is austere. These 
 believers are mistaken if they 
 suppose that they are imitating 
 Christ by then' sorrowful demeanor. 
 Our Lord when on earth was the 
 centre of a cheerful, curiously 
 interested and eager group of 
 earnest men, and crowds of com- 
 19 
 
 .- - 1
 
 
 TTbe Sosful %ife. 
 
 mon folk, with their laughter 
 unchecked, their arguments un- 
 hushed, their tasks going on as 
 usual, gathered whenever he ap- 
 peared. The very children ran 
 to clutch his garments, to take his 
 hand. A man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief, he was yet 
 no unwelcome guest at the feast 
 and no bar upon any joy. We do 
 him a great wrong when we 
 frighten the children from him by 
 our crossness or our curtness. 
 Gravity and soberness at appro- 
 priate times are not inconsistent 
 with true cheerfulness. 
 
 I often wish when I see the 
 young hesitating on the threshold 
 of the Kingdom that they might 
 realize how much they lose by 
 staying away. Not a friend below 
 20
 
 3ogful Xtfe* 
 
 1C 
 
 can offer so much of enduring 
 joy as is freely offered by this 
 Friend with the pierced hands 
 and the head once crowned with 
 thorns. The sweetness of his call 
 will be in your soul, dear child of 
 time, to all eternity. You can 
 never know immortal joy if you 
 do not heed it. "Come unto Me, " 
 he says, "and I will give you rest." 
 Yes, Lord Jesus, we will come, 
 and receive in this life, and in the 
 life unending, peace, rest and joy, 
 for at thy right hand there are 
 pleasures for evermore. 
 
 "I am oft alone, dear Saviour, 
 
 Yet I know not lonely days ; 
 Thou art more than home or kindred 
 
 Unto thee I lift my praise. 
 And by many a desert fountain 
 I can Ebenezer raise. 
 21
 
 %ife. 
 
 
 In the throng, Oh ! blessed Saviour 
 Oft I seek a place apart, 
 
 And I find thee coming to me, 
 Shrined and templed in my heart. 
 
 Thou canst make a sanctuary 
 Wheresoe'er thou sendest me, 
 
 And in midst of crowds uncounted 
 I can be alone with thee. 
 
 Joy of joys to know my Saviour, 
 Love of loves to feel him near; 
 
 Earth can give no other treasure 
 Half so precious, half so dear. 
 
 Till I meet my lord in heaven, 
 I may have a heaven below; 
 
 If with him, I stay contented, 
 Joyful, if with him I go." 
 
 22 
 
 VV13
 
 WE are all agreed that the 
 early impressions are 
 the most enduring and 
 that lasting shape and trend 
 are often given to human lives 
 while children are yet in infancy. 
 A mother's prayers, a father's 
 faith, the Christian atmosphere 
 of the home, the place the Bible 
 holds in the family, are vital in- 
 fluences in childish training, and 
 preempt the little one for heaven 
 before the evil of the world has 
 23
 
 
 had time to occupy the heart's 
 soil. It is the privilege of Chris- 
 tian parents to claim covenant 
 rights for their offspring, and to 
 expect that they will early enter 
 into their birthright as children 
 of God. Alas! too often we are 
 careless and inconsiderate, and 
 undo by our example what we 
 are painstakingly doing by our 
 precept. The influences which 
 are moulding our precious sons and 
 daughters are often corrupt, or 
 sordid, or ignoble, because we 
 are contended to live a half -con- 
 secrated life, to keep back from 
 God what belongs to him, and 
 to realize only fragmentary bless- 
 edness, instead of the rounded 
 whole of peace and joy which 
 the Lord bestows on those who 
 24
 
 Influences, 
 
 consciously abide in him, and in 
 whom he dwells. 
 
 Take, for instance, the common 
 mistake of the mother who frets 
 at her children because she 
 is nervous, irritable and much 
 worn in temper and health. She 
 tells them to speak gently, to be 
 patient, to move quietly, to be 
 forgiving and kind. This is good 
 counsel. But she has worries of 
 one sort or another. Money 
 comes in slowly; perhaps she fore- 
 casts the future and fears the 
 rainy day. She is aware of less- 
 ened strength, or some malady 
 menaces her comfort. Headaches 
 creep stealthily on her busy days, 
 like foes from an ambush. Before 
 she is aware of it her tones are 
 sharp and her frown is shrewish; 
 25
 
 she scolds and nags; trifles are 
 exalted into affairs of importance ; 
 she punishes in anger; she does 
 not accept excuses or explana- 
 tions, and the home is a place 
 to flee from. All the preaching 
 that this poor mother can find 
 time for is utterly abortive, ruined 
 by her blundering and sinful prac- 
 tice. She is moulding, not gentle, 
 self-controlled and considerate 
 young folk of exquisite manners 
 and unfailing courtesy, but hasty, 
 brusque and easily exasperated 
 people, who will imitate her ways 
 until the wrong habit finally be- 
 comes a second nature. 
 
 I fancy the dear Lord whose 
 
 compassions fail not, bending in 
 
 divine sorrow over such an one, 
 
 and seeking to restore her soul, 
 
 26
 
 to lead her again into the paths 
 of righteousness for his name's 
 sake. And if she will but heed 
 the way of peace is easy to find. 
 If but at each morning's dawning 
 she will turn to him first, make 
 a definite surrender of the day to 
 him, ask him to enter the temple 
 of her body, and to cleanse her 
 soul, so that it may be his fit habi- 
 tation; if, whenever the impulse 
 to sin comes upon her, she will 
 swiftly and silently pray for help, 
 and refrain from speech until she 
 feels the help given, her whole life 
 will be changed, uplifted and 
 brightened. We get too far from 
 our Lord. We are like children 
 wandering in the bush, going 
 around in circles the home near 
 with its light and warmth, but 
 27
 
 
 Ube 
 
 we, confused and stumbling, turn- 
 ing from it. Nervous and worried 
 women can nowhere find a com- 
 plete cure except at the feet of 
 Jesus ; but he is ever close at hand, 
 and can relieve them, if they will but 
 call to him, the Healer of the soul. 
 Do we appreciate at its true 
 worth the value of calmness in 
 our life with the children? 
 
 "Calm me, my God, and keep me calm. 
 Soft resting on thy breast," 
 
 should be the mother's unceasing 
 prayer. 
 
 Nothing is sadder than to ob- 
 serve an anxious look on a little 
 face, a look of dread and depre- 
 cation, where confidence should 
 be the rule. Penitence is not 
 dread. The child that grows up 
 in a home sweet with that piety 
 
 28
 
 which exorcises the evil demons 
 of worry and ill-temper will be 
 sorry when he does wrong, and 
 will hasten to confess it and, if 
 need be, will accept the just pen- 
 alty, and thus take the first step 
 toward true repentance and sav- 
 ing trust in the cleansing blood 
 of the Redeemer. The moulding 
 influence of vital trust in Jesus, 
 on the part of parents, cannot 
 but prove of ceaseless and benefi- 
 cent effect upon the children of 
 the household, who should also 
 be children of the heavenly King. 
 The Bible has a good deal to 
 say about our walk and conver- 
 sation. It reminds us of the 
 responsibility we have for our 
 words, especially for our idle words. 
 Now, hi one phase of our daily 
 29
 
 life, we all need the suggestion 
 that we should guard our ordinary 
 talk. Many a tune we thought- 
 lessly comment on the actions of 
 our acquaintances, criticize them, 
 and attribute to them motives 
 of which they may never have 
 dreamed. We do not indulge 
 in anything so gross as slander, 
 and we hold ourselves above 
 malicious gossip, and yet, in 
 a multitude of needless ways, 
 we violate the law of kindness 
 which should be on our lips. 
 Those who listen to us, whether 
 they are young or old, either 
 suffer some diminution of the 
 high ideal which they should as- 
 sociate with the talk of Christians, 
 or have a protest, perhaps un- 
 spoken, in their minds, against 
 30
 
 
 Influences. 
 
 our faults, or, still worse, fall into 
 the same error themselves. A 
 mother is sitting in a group of 
 friends, her own daughter one of 
 the number. A lady is mentioned 
 as having formed one of the con- 
 tingent at a summer boarding- 
 house. "I was disgusted," says 
 the matron, "with Mrs. C. She 
 was constantly maneuvering and 
 managing to secure the best seats 
 for herself and her party when 
 we were driving; she tried to 
 out-shine the rest; her boasting 
 grew very tedious and monoto- 
 nous." Presently the conversa- 
 tion veers toward another quarter 
 and Mrs. C. is forgotten. But 
 if a young girl sitting by has noted 
 the acerbity of reprehension, the 
 sharp dislike latent hi the mother's 
 31
 
 remarks, she will have imbibed 
 the idea that such comment is 
 permissible among gentlewomen. 
 If, further, in the course of events, 
 after a day or two, she is present 
 when her mother receives the 
 offending Mrs. C. most graciously, 
 as if she were a much-prized 
 friend, the girl will have been 
 propelled down an easy descent 
 into the valley of social insincerity. 
 A false compliment as surely aids 
 in moulding a susceptible nature 
 into deceit as does any other bit 
 of mendacity. 
 
 These are by way of illustrating 
 the alien and evil influences which 
 may deform character. We may 
 multiply them at pleasure. But, 
 equally potential, and equally 
 within our reach, are those holier, 
 32
 
 
 ADoulMng Influences* 
 
 happier influences which elevate, 
 expand and beautify the human 
 soul. 
 
 First and most important and 
 within reach of every disciple is 
 the presence in hearts and homes 
 of the Holy Spirit. Some of us 
 speak of the vital spirit of God as 
 if we were dealing with an essence 
 or an abstraction, not as if we 
 were alluding reverently to a per- 
 son. Asking for the Comforter, 
 as we should, accepting the Spirit 
 by faith, and daily seeking to be 
 filled with him, we shall gain a 
 tremendous amount of power for 
 good over all whom we meet. 
 Not ourselves, feeble, inert, erring, 
 apt to make mistakes, but God 
 himself working in us, speaking 
 through us, should be the lever 
 33
 
 brought to bear upon a sinful 
 world. 
 
 Every Christian is of necessity 
 a missionary. Not always to a 
 remote frontier or to a distant 
 land, not even always to a 
 thronged tenement neighborhood, 
 nor to a factory town where temp- 
 tations abound, often only to our 
 own kith and kin, our classmates, 
 our friends, our homes, do we 
 carry the blessed gospel message. 
 
 When anyone communes con- 
 stantly with the Saviour, is fre- 
 quently in prayer, and lives first 
 for the kingdom of heaven, and 
 later for earthly gam and labor, 
 there will be around him an at- 
 mosphere of fragrance and peace 
 which will attract those with whom 
 he dwells to the blessed Christ. 
 34
 
 Unfluences. 
 
 A Christian lad in a shop, a Chris- 
 tian merchant in the counting 
 room, a Christian woman in so- 
 ciety will, if wholly consecrated, 
 draw those hi his or her company to 
 Immanuel, and the place of his or 
 her service will be Immanuel' s land. 
 
 To this blessedness may we 
 not attain, who love our Master, 
 and are fain to set our feet in the 
 footprints he has left us on the 
 road through this place of our 
 pilgrimage, to our unending home? 
 
 If we honestly hope to tram 
 the coming generation into robust 
 discipleship, we must not neglect 
 to form in them the habit, not 
 merely of Bible reading, but of 
 serious Bible study. There is 
 such a thing as using the Bible 
 as a fetich. They do this who 
 35
 
 Ube 3oful Xfte. 
 
 hastily peruse a few verses in the 
 morning or snatch a sleepy glance 
 at a psalm or a text at night, 
 opening the Book anywhere, and 
 reading without thought. One's 
 morning watch, never intermitted 
 in health, should include prayer 
 and regular reading, according 
 to a plan. The child who is 
 taught from the beginning to read 
 the whole Bible will be furnished, 
 when he reaches manhood, with 
 a complete armory of weapons 
 with which to resist the wiles of 
 the devil. 
 
 I know mothers who never fail 
 to secure a daily half hour for 
 Bible study with their growing 
 children. I think of a circle of 
 young people who daily gather 
 around a loved sister, and read 
 36 

 
 
 Influences. 
 
 each day four or five chapters of 
 the Word; who are familiar with 
 its highways and byways through 
 consecutive morning study. Ques- 
 tions are asked, and attention 
 is enlisted, but the half hour is 
 never regarded as a weariness; 
 for, in that home, it is the coro- 
 nation of the happy day^ 
 
 Sometimes, dear friends, we dis- 
 cover in our own spiritual lives a 
 strange deadness and formality. 
 We respond to no tender touch 
 hi the world's bustle, bidding us 
 come apart and rest awhile. We 
 almost question the genuineness 
 of our conversion. Can branches 
 so leafless and barren belong to 
 the living vine? Yet let us never 
 question the keeping love of the 
 dear Lord, who is able to guard 
 37 

 
 us from stumbling, and to present 
 us in his presence, without blemish 
 with exceeding joy. If we lack 
 the consolation of assurance it is 
 through our lack of faith, and 
 faith is the Master's gift. Let 
 us use the little faith we have and 
 cling not to that, nor to any 
 crutch of our own, but to the 
 promises and to the eternal truth 
 and love of God in Christ. Let 
 us simply go on, doing our duty 
 as best we may, and we shall find 
 soon or late that 
 
 " It is better to walk with God in the dark 
 Than to walk alone in the light." 
 
 In some radiant moment the 
 mists shall drift aside, and we 
 shall behold the clear shining of 
 his face. But even if light be 
 never vouchsafed, and we lack 
 38
 
 the sweet sense of Christ's near- 
 ness and of his approval, we must 
 still endeavor to walk with him. 
 The world is to be won for 
 Christ by hand-to-hand conflict. 
 Individual faithfulness, individual 
 testimony, individual influence, 
 must carry the conquests of the 
 cross over the globe. The spirit 
 of the disciple must be free from 
 self-seeking, and Christ must reign 
 in those who serve him. Then 
 they cannot but everywhere and 
 always show forth his amazing 
 love and grace. 
 
 " When I survey the wondrous cross 
 On which the Prince of glory died, 
 
 My richest gain I count but loss 
 
 And pour contempt on all my pride." 
 
 One more persuasive and benign 
 
 influence we may mention, and 
 39
 
 ttbe Sosful Xife, 
 
 that is the power of Christian 
 friendship. When we who love 
 Christ meet, why should we be 
 so shy of speaking his praise? In 
 our letters can we not slip hi some 
 heart word about the King, or 
 send a poem or a leaflet to be a 
 reminder of his goodness? Con- 
 tempt on our pride? Yes, but 
 loyalty for and pride in our 
 Beloved, who is the chief among 
 ten thousand, and altogether 
 lovely. Well may we crown him 
 Lord of all Lord of our homes, 
 our ambitions, our friendships and 
 our whole lives. 
 And 
 
 " His name like sweet perfume shall rise 
 With every morning sacrifice. 
 To him shall endless prayers be made. "
 
 ttbe Christian 
 Woman's pportunity 
 
 WOMAN, in Christian 
 lands and in modern 
 times, has always been 
 influential, and her voice, albeit 
 not lifted in the market place, has 
 been potential in the shaping of 
 opinion and the formation of ideals 
 in the home and in society. But 
 as never before, in the twentieth 
 century woman finds herself dow- 
 ered with responsibility and lis- 
 tened to with attention; gates 
 once closed swing open for her 
 entrance, and there are few avoca- 
 41
 
 tions which forbid her approach. 
 Indeed, her only limitations at 
 present are those which belong 
 to the peculiarly delicate though 
 elastic organization which the 
 Creator gave her when he set 
 her apart as the mother of the 
 race. Certain rough work of the 
 soldier and the sailor she may 
 never do. Some of the perilous 
 labors of the builder and the en- 
 gineer will never fall into her 
 hands. But she is not debarred 
 from any pursuits, except those 
 for which she is evidently physi- 
 cally unfitted and which would 
 manifestly interfere with her 
 guardianship of the home and her 
 care of little children. 
 
 It would seem, dear friends, as 
 if the economic changes which 
 42
 
 Woman's Opportunity 
 
 have pushed so many women 
 out of the seclusion of the house- 
 hold and into the shop, the count- 
 ing-room and the several profes- 
 sions, have given Christ's hand- 
 maidens very marked advantages 
 hi carrying on their work for him. 
 The invention of typewriting 
 alone, and its general introduction 
 into business houses, has brought 
 numbers of young girls into cleri- 
 cal situations a thousand aman- 
 uenses and secretaries for every 
 one of forty years ago and as 
 they sit at their machines, or 
 take dictation, these girls have 
 a chance, by fidelity, by womanly 
 modesty, by happy unconscious- 
 ness of self, to show whether or 
 not they belong to the Lord Jesus. 
 They need not preach, they need 
 43
 
 not say a word, they need only 
 live as Christ's followers in the 
 midst of their busy days, and 
 the sweet impression of their con- 
 duct will not fail of its effect. 
 
 Recently I heard a man, not a 
 Christian, speak in terms of pro- 
 found respect of a young woman 
 who was employed as stenographer 
 by a legal firm. "She bears her- 
 self above anything small or self- 
 seeking; she does more than her 
 duty; no one can help seeing that 
 the little silver cross she wears 
 means that she is a devoted Chris- 
 tian." Every King's Daughter, 
 wearing the beautiful little badge 
 of the order, may thus silently 
 be a witness-bearer in her business 
 life, and many a girl who carries 
 no visible emblem may show in 
 44
 
 her quiet manner, her thorough- 
 ness, gentleness and fineness of 
 character, that she draws strength 
 from above. The business woman 
 may well heed the divine in- 
 junction to let the light shine 
 brightly. 
 
 A little candle, Lord, for thee! 
 
 So let it burn where shadows meet, 
 While daily in humility 
 
 I bend me at thy pierced feet. 
 
 The girl behind the counter, the 
 girl hi the nurse's uniform, the 
 girl who makes bonnets and 
 dresses, the girl whose place is 
 in the factory, the girl who does 
 housework and helps the home 
 life by her services, each hi her 
 place has an opportunity to work 
 for Jesus. Sometimes it will lead 
 her to sweet and tactful speech. 
 
 45
 
 TTbe 
 
 Xite* 
 
 Sometimes to a deed of benefi- 
 cence, occasionally to indignant 
 resentment, if there be profanity 
 or sneers in her presence. What- 
 ever the need, the One whose 
 grace is equal to her day will help 
 the Christian woman to testify 
 for her Lord in the place where 
 he has put her. That place may 
 be obscure, but it is never unim- 
 portant, and she will ennoble her 
 life as she is faithful in her daily 
 duties. In God's sight there is 
 neither small nor great, but all 
 work is equally honorable in his 
 accounting. Away back in Old 
 Testament days it was a little 
 captive daughter of Israel in the 
 house of the Syrian general who 
 did the Lord's will, and she has 
 remained an example for women 
 46
 
 Woman's Opportunity 
 
 as a type of loyal faithfulness 
 through the long ages. 
 
 In society, too, the Christian 
 woman has a splendid opportunity 
 to show her colors. Not all homes 
 of wealth and fashion are ante- 
 rooms of Vanity Fair. There are 
 thousands of refined and beautiful 
 homes where there is consecration 
 to God and the clear shining of 
 pure religion and undefiled. And 
 yet, along with wealth and luxury, 
 march temptations to sloth, to 
 indifference and to sinful apathy. 
 As once to the cultured Greeks 
 the cross was foolishness, so now, 
 in the eyes of many well-mannered, 
 well-trained Americans, the whole 
 realm of religious thought and 
 principle seems an enchanted 
 ground of mere sentimentality 
 47
 
 "incomes from dreamland" and 
 they look with pity on those whose 
 hopes and aspirations are set upon 
 a better world. The prevalent 
 license of speech, the continual 
 breaking of the Sabbath, the in- 
 crease of social drinking customs, 
 and the neglect of the Bible and 
 of God's house, the omission of 
 family worship and of grace at the 
 table, too, show that in the polite 
 domain of the wealthier classes 
 Christ's banner is not honored. 
 There is no mission to poverty 
 or sorrow, to the tenements or the 
 zenanas, which is more necessary 
 or more relentless in its obligation 
 than that mission to the palace and 
 the mansion which invites the 
 Christian woman. If she will but 
 be consistent, go from her chamber 
 
 48
 
 Woman's pportunitp. 
 
 in the morning with the sweetness 
 of the Saviour's love upon her 
 lips after her watch with him, 
 refrain from doubtful pleasures, 
 illustrate the beauty of holiness 
 in her walk and conversation, as 
 an "elect lady," she may win 
 others to her Lord, and diffuse 
 around her an atmosphere of 
 piety fragrant as the lilies of 
 peace. Her best opportunities 
 will come to her as constantly 
 she lives in Christ and Christ lives 
 in her. 
 
 Take the familiar example of the 
 woman's college, where the daugh- 
 ters of various households are 
 brought together from every State 
 in the Union. Here we find a girl, 
 who represents a home vital with 
 love to Jesus, side by side with 
 49
 
 ttbe 
 
 xtte. 
 
 another who is charming, graceful, 
 ambitions, yet either altogether 
 opposed to religion, or utterly apa- 
 thetic to its claims. The girl who 
 is pledged to service, by church 
 membership, or by her heart's 
 allegiance to Jesus, can and does 
 impress her companions so that 
 they cannot continue in indiffer- 
 ence. Some of them at least will 
 be forced to look at themselves in 
 the light of the Christian's candle, 
 and to decide whether they will 
 be the world's or the Lord's. 
 Others will, half unconsciously, 
 receive some blessing from the 
 young disciple, and her influence 
 will reach further than she im- 
 agines, for the benefit of her 
 college and of those to whom, 
 by-and-by, its graduates will go. 
 50
 
 IKIloman's pportunitp. 
 
 A wonderful missionary oppor- 
 tunity is afforded the Christian 
 woman in our times. She may 
 teach, she may be an evangelist, 
 she may go as a physician, or as 
 the wife of a minister, but she will 
 find on many a dark shore the 
 women and the children waiting 
 to be taught of Christ. Mrs. 
 Howard Taylor, of the China In- 
 land Mission, was speaking at 
 Northfield this last summer of the 
 duty laid upon Christian women 
 to illuminate the gloom of heathen- 
 dom. She told of the unspeak- 
 able wretchedness of China, a 
 wretchedness so fathomless that 
 it is no uncommon thing for little 
 girls of nine and ten years of age 
 to commit suicide to escape from 
 it. Jesus said, "Suffer the little 
 51
 
 children to come unto me and 
 forbid them not." "If," said 
 Mrs. Taylor, "you in America 
 stand by and take no share in 
 helping missionary effort, you are 
 forbidding the children for whom 
 Christ died to come unto him. 
 By our personal sacrifices, by our 
 gifts, by our prayers, we who love 
 the Lord may, in these marvelous 
 years of the open door, bring the 
 lost into his blessed fold." 
 
 Apart from the opportunity of 
 the Christian woman as an indi- 
 vidual, there is at present the 
 multiplication of efficient organi- 
 zations and societies through 
 which she may send her contri- 
 butions and by which she may 
 help humanity and glorify her 
 Saviour. In the Young Women's 
 52
 
 Woman's Opportunity 
 
 Christian Associations which are 
 now found in strong co-operative 
 work in our various cities and 
 towns, in Europe, in Asia, in the 
 islands of the sea, there is a cordon 
 of hearts beating as one, and re- 
 sponsive to orders from on high. 
 She who cannot personally visit 
 factories and shops, or personally 
 touch undergraduates in college, 
 or personally comfort and elevate 
 the struggling masses of discour- 
 aged women, may give her name, 
 her contribution and her sym- 
 pathy to the association nearest 
 her, and work by its means. 
 Settlement work also makes its 
 appeals, and commends Christ 
 to the lowly. The missionary so- 
 ciety, the prayer circle, the tem- 
 perance band, all afford the oppor- 
 53
 
 tunity of organization to the 
 woman who seeks to be widely 
 helpful. 
 
 We must not overlook, because 
 it is so conspicuous, the ever bright 
 and ever beautiful opportunity of 
 the Christian woman in her home 
 the mother who has her little ones 
 from the earliest hours, who can 
 lead them to Christ, pre-empting 
 the soil for him before the evil 
 one can sow tares; the wife 
 who may so strongly influence 
 her husband for good, bringing 
 him, if unbelieving, to the Lord 
 she loves ; the daughter, the sister, 
 the friend within the gates, each 
 has her vineyard plot to keep and 
 tend. 
 
 The mother will most surely 
 win her children to the sweet 
 54
 
 succession of service which should 
 distinguish the family, from gen- 
 eration to generation one, an- 
 other, and another, living for God 
 by keeping her spiritual life on a 
 high plane. The fire never re- 
 plenished dies out. The Christian 
 seldom attending the sanctuary, 
 seldom reading the Word, infre- 
 quent in prayer, is not hi touch 
 with heaven. 
 
 When we are tranquilized by 
 communion with God, we shall 
 not easily lose our tempers nor 
 often be overcome by the low 
 mood, nor commit sins which lead 
 others astray. Infelicities of 
 speech and conduct, bringing 
 shame upon the Christian name, 
 are the result of a barren spiritual 
 life, of little prayer and of absence 
 55
 
 and distance from the Master. 
 The mother, sister, daughter, 
 friend, who shows forth Christ, 
 must abide with Christ. 
 
 Not far from thee, my Saviour, 
 But near thee would I dwell. 
 
 Would open wide my door to thee 
 And all thy goodness tell, 
 
 Because I see thee face to face, 
 And ever know thee well. 
 
 Remote from thee is coldness, 
 And weakness in the strife; 
 
 Remote from thee is weariness, 
 And doubts and fears are rife. 
 
 But when I hold thy hand I have 
 The blessed heavenly life 
 
 Are there those who have spent 
 their substance for this world's 
 rewards, are aware that their 
 portion thus far has been dis- 
 appointment and pain? Are 
 there some who have heard again 
 and again the voice of Jesus call- 
 56
 
 Woman's pportunitg. 
 
 ing, calling, yet have not obeyed 
 it, and have refused to come 
 unto him? For women, Christ- 
 loved, Christ-honored, Christ- 
 elevated, there is little excuse, if 
 they turn a deaf ear to his invi- 
 tations. 
 
 Let none of us be despondent be- 
 cause we do not see any great 
 results of our teaching, or our 
 efforts. It is not given to us to 
 always know what we have ac- 
 complished. It should be enough 
 for us that Christ knows. Per- 
 haps we are only setting in motion 
 a tram of circumstances which 
 shall never stop their beneficence 
 till their last ripples break on the 
 shores of the crystal sea. 
 
 57
 
 tlbe Dacation flDontb. 
 
 AUGUST has the preeminent 
 distinction of being the vaca- 
 tion month in the calendar. 
 Not that other months of the 
 summer and the early autumn are 
 not equally serviceable for holiday 
 purposes, but in August there 
 occurs a lull in business, a mid- 
 season pause when people can be 
 laid off without disadvantage. Be- 
 sides, in the increase of material 
 comforts and luxuries, we have 
 gradually learned that change and 
 recreation are beneficial to health 
 59
 
 so that city men and their families 
 are more and more going to the 
 country at the tune when the 
 former can best be spared from 
 the grind of daily toil. 
 
 Whenever the summer recess 
 can be so arranged that the whole 
 household may share its pleas- 
 ures in common, there is a mani- 
 fest improvement over the plan 
 of sending the wife and children 
 away, while the bread-winner toils 
 on alone at home. Sometimes, 
 where there are delicate babies to 
 be considered, or invalids to be 
 sent to a breezy, rural atmosphere, 
 the husband must, with the self- 
 denial for which American hus- 
 bands are conspicuous, give up 
 the society of his family and eat 
 solitary meals, and sleep in a 
 60
 
 ftbe Vacation flDontb. 
 
 lonely house during most of the 
 hot season. Few men of ordinary 
 means can afford a prolonged 
 vacation; they must be content 
 with a fortnight or, at most, a 
 month. If they have resolved to 
 endure a summer of silence and 
 makeshifts at home, they say 
 nothing about it, and there is 
 seldom so much as a note of com- 
 plaint even hi then* letters to the 
 absent ones. The wife hears 
 nothing of the stuffy house, the 
 dinners at restaurants, the sudden 
 illness in the night when there 
 was need of ministration, but the 
 battle was grimly fought out un- 
 aided; nothing of the clanging 
 car bells, the blasting of rocks, 
 and the never-hushed roar of the 
 town. Her good man is solicitous 
 61
 
 that she shall enjoy herself, and 
 that the children shall have their 
 fill of fresh air and fun. He keeps 
 his sufferings in the background. 
 
 Wise and far-seeing is the 
 matron who, in her vacation 
 planning, so orders affairs that 
 somebody stays at home with 
 those who cannot get away. A 
 shorter vacation taken by all 
 is better than a longer one from 
 which some toiler is excluded. A 
 great deal of comfort and cool- 
 ness can be secured in a city home, 
 if the wife or the mother is there 
 to watch the ventilation, and to 
 prepare tempting meals for jaded 
 appetites. 
 
 Waiving this phase of the sub- 
 ject, however, there arises another 
 and very practical question for 
 62
 
 us, and that is, how are we to get 
 the most good from a vacation? 
 What should it do for us, and how 
 should it tell upon the days which 
 are to follow when it has passed 
 away? 
 
 To be really worth having, a 
 vacation should be complete. We 
 are a serious, and to some extent 
 an anxious, people. We spend our 
 vitality lavishly in our work. 
 
 Once out of harness, we ought 
 for the time to vary the routine 
 and to drop entirely the usual 
 cares. The doctor, for instance, 
 a man whose profession is most 
 exacting, whose sleep is often 
 invaded by a call to the sick-room, 
 whose life is one of great responsi- 
 bility, should seek a quiet country- 
 side, and release from exertion 
 63
 
 all the faculties which are usually 
 taxed. If he is fond of fishing, 
 let him go out in his boat and 
 spend hours seeking for a rise, 
 or let him sit on the bank of a 
 stream with his tackle, while the 
 tranquil hours drift away in tran- 
 quil sport. Fishing may not 
 attract him, but golf may, or moun- 
 tain climbing, or sailing, or walk- 
 ing. Let him do anything except 
 prescribe for the sick. The doctor 
 should take a vacation, and give 
 the rest of the man a chance for 
 recuperation. 
 
 So with the pastor. People are 
 much too ready to ask ministers 
 on a vacation to preach, to con- 
 duct impromptu services, to help 
 prayer meetings along by a sug- 
 gestive address; in short, to con- 
 64
 
 Vacation flDontb. 
 
 tinue away from home the line 
 of work in which they are engaged 
 while there. This is very thought- 
 less on the part of the pleaders, 
 and a minister is not only justi- 
 fied in refusing such services, but 
 fairness to himself and his con- 
 gregation requires him to refuse. 
 No profession takes more out of 
 mortal man than the service of 
 the sanctuary. It is not limited 
 to the preparation and delivery 
 of sermons; it extends to the life 
 of the parish, to the visiting of the 
 sick, the comforting of the be- 
 reaved, the counseling of the per- 
 plexed, the adjusting of difficul- 
 ties, the raising of funds for 
 various projects, and the gratu- 
 itous performance of unnumbered 
 public functions. A minister 
 65
 
 arrives at his annual vacation 
 wearied intellectually, physically 
 and spiritually. He is in a state 
 of mental inertia, and needs noth- 
 ing so much as absolute rest, and 
 an opportunity to lie fallow for a 
 while. Now is his time to go to 
 church, and sit in a pew and listen ; 
 to go to prayer-meeting and slip 
 into a place near the door; to read 
 books which merely entertain, and 
 require small grasp of the think- 
 ing powers, and to be freed from 
 every social obligation except 
 that of ordinary politeness. His 
 wife, too, the busiest woman in 
 the congregation, should share 
 his holiday, wholly oblivious of 
 the need to please this or that 
 critical dame, and relieved of the 
 strain which few ministers' wives 
 66
 
 Ube Vacation fl&ontb. 
 
 escape, of hearing sermons as if 
 they heard them not in their sub- 
 conscious feeling of their effect on 
 the audience. 
 
 "I have thoroughly enjoyed 
 the Lord's house to-day," said 
 a friend, one summer evening. 
 " None of my kin were in the pul- 
 pit." She was the daughter of 
 one minister, the sister of another, 
 and the wife of a third. Every 
 minister and every minister's wife, 
 in city or in country alike, should 
 guard with jealous care their privi- 
 lege of an annual vacation, never 
 foregoing it on any short-sighted 
 excuse of duty to the people. A 
 rested man can give his people 
 what a worn-out man has not to 
 give. 
 
 In these tunes of great demands 
 67
 
 upon teachers, some of them are 
 making the mistake of devoting 
 entire vacations to study. A 
 term in a summer school, if limi- 
 ted, may prove stimulating and 
 broadening to a tired teacher, 
 but the better part of the recess 
 should be devoted, not to study, 
 but to dreaming in a hammock, 
 or sleeping in a tent, or getting 
 near to Nature's heart. Teaching 
 is not easy work. The teacher 
 is giving her pupils soul stuff as 
 well as information,and when va- 
 cation opens the door to her for 
 summer enjoyment and locks that 
 of the schoolroom, the vacation 
 should not be clipped off at the 
 corners, nor invaded in the middle, 
 not turned into a device for some- 
 thing it was never meant to be. 
 68
 
 TTbe IDacation /Bontb. 
 
 
 
 Having used these professional 
 people by way of illustration, it 
 may be as well to add that what 
 applies to them is equally perti- 
 nent to every worker in what- 
 ever field the work is found. Some 
 years ago Col. T. W. Higginson 
 wrote a clever essay under the 
 caption, "Vacations for Saints," 
 especially pointing to the good 
 women on whose shoulders rests 
 the burden of asylums, hospitals, 
 industrial schools and other phil- 
 anthropic endeavors. It is no 
 sinecure to serve on a board of 
 management of a charity or of 
 missions, and the sisterhood who 
 engage in this particular altruistic 
 labor emphatically earn and need 
 a period of respite. One excel- 
 lent gentlewoman has in her own 
 69
 
 case solved the problem of securing 
 adequate relief by now and then 
 stepping out of her place for a 
 year, but most of the elect ladies 
 who work in practical charities 
 are grateful for a summer's margin 
 when they may feel no obligation 
 either to attend meetings or to 
 collect alms. 
 
 Here let me not be misunder- 
 stood. The Christian disciple can 
 never, with any propriety, abate 
 his or her Christian zeal, nor is 
 there pardonable room for God's 
 people to excuse themselves from 
 his service of love when they are 
 away from home. The preacher 
 should not preach, but he should 
 attend church; and equally, when 
 vacation lures the city church 
 member to a rural parish, that 
 70
 
 person should keep the Sabbath, 
 and set an example of piety when 
 among strangers. I have heard 
 a country parson of the plain- 
 speaking type openly bewail the 
 injury which the summer element 
 in his neighborhood, an element 
 largely composed of church people 
 from town, did to his young folk. 
 We live in a period of increasing 
 and alarming license, of barriers 
 pushed aside and landmarks re- 
 moved. Indifference and apathy 
 are as chilling to the growth of 
 Christian graces as are open hos- 
 tility. No vacation should be 
 taken by a Christian from Bible 
 study, from prayer, and from com- 
 munion with Christ, and the ex- 
 ercise of these duties and privi- 
 leges will lead to the sort of Chris- 
 71
 
 
 ttbe 
 
 Xife, 
 
 tian living which sets a beautiful 
 and consistent example. 
 
 Relaxation is often found in 
 change of pursuit, and the mother 
 who has spent a twelvemonth 
 in cooking dainty dishes may 
 be glad to eat delicate fare which 
 somebody else prepares. The 
 catering for the household, how- 
 ever simple the living may be, 
 becomes motononous after a while, 
 and a woman enjoys a meal which 
 she has neither ordered nor pre- 
 pared, coming to it as to a novelty. 
 After a year of mending Tommy's 
 trousers, and letting down Susie's 
 tucks, and making Polly's frocks, 
 and darning the stockings for the 
 whole brood, with their father's 
 thrown in as a make-weight, a 
 lady may find diversion in taking 
 72 

 
 Ube Vacation flDontb. 
 
 up some beautiful fancy work, 
 fine embroidery on fair white 
 linen, or fleecy knitting, or some 
 other feminine handicraft which 
 is decorative rather than utili- 
 tarian. 
 
 Whether to spend vacations 
 consecutively in a place one has 
 tried and learned to love, or to 
 go about looking for new points 
 of interest, must be decided by 
 individual taste and by the depth 
 of the pocketbook. People may 
 spend a most satisfactory vaca- 
 tion at home, taking excursions 
 to interesting localities near by, 
 at a small cost. One's own living- 
 rooms, bathing facilities, and the 
 proximity of excellent markets, 
 make this perfectly feasible. But 
 change is wise, if it can be com- 
 73
 
 
 
 passed. Home seems always 
 sweeter when one returns to it 
 after an absence than when one 
 stays in it always. From the 
 inexpensive farmhouse, where 
 plain and good fare may be had, 
 to the inn of high prices and many 
 luxuries, there is wide room for 
 choice. Many families in these 
 days transform the home as an 
 integer in the vacation, taking 
 camp equipage and establishing 
 themselves in tents for an interval 
 of simplicity and healthful out- 
 door life, of "roughing it" in the 
 woods, and of doing without 
 appliances which at home are 
 essential. Or they hire a cot- 
 tage, furnished or the reverse, and 
 transfer the housekeeping thereto. 
 This is an admirable way to 
 74 
 
 JB-IJ .'_i' ; /T ; i>>--y-v';..
 
 IDacation flDontb, 
 
 secure a fine vacation for every- 
 one except the mother, whose 
 cares are not much lightened, and 
 whose regime undergoes slight 
 modification. 
 
 If we visit friends in vacation, 
 there are two or three very simple 
 rules to be observed. We must 
 go when we are asked and ex- 
 pected, and take leave at the tune 
 specified in our invitation. It is 
 customary for invitations in these 
 days to state definitely the time 
 of a guest's coming and going. 
 People who entertain many 
 friends find it desirable to arrange 
 a schedule, so that congenial per- 
 sons may come together, that 
 servants be not unduly taxed, 
 and that the guest rooms be ready 
 and comfortable. A guest must 
 75
 
 be pleased and appreciative and 
 contribute pleasure to the common 
 stock, must observe the ways of 
 the house, at times efface herself, 
 and be agreeable to old people 
 and children under the roof of her 
 hostess. To be invited to one's 
 home is the finest of compliments, 
 and to pass a vacation in making 
 delightful visits is to taste the 
 honey brew of affection and loving 
 attention. 
 
 The essence of good breeding 
 is in unselfish consideration for 
 others. That will be the most 
 successful vacation in which we 
 have made others happy, in which 
 we have not too anxiously dwelt 
 on our own wishes and needs, 
 and in which we have most 
 earnestly tried to live according 
 76
 
 Vacation flDontb. 
 
 to the pattern set us by the 
 Man of Nazareth. Only as we 
 are Christ-like can we be sure 
 of Christ's peace, whether we 
 work or rest.
 
 IFlearness to <3ob. 
 
 ON that September day, 
 now a part of the van- 
 ished past, when our 
 whole nation, and many other 
 nations uniting with us in sym- 
 pathy, paid funeral honors to our 
 martyred President, the beautiful 
 hymn of Sarah Flower Adams was 
 sung almost around the globe. 
 Street bands played it, hard- 
 handed laborers and swarthy 
 miners sang it, spoiled children 
 of fashion joined in its lofty strain, 
 the rich and the poor, the learned 
 79 
 

 
 and the unlearned, moved by a 
 common sentiment, touched by 
 a common emotion, joined in the 
 rhythm of " Nearer, My God, to 
 Thee!" One heard it in the 
 churches, in the homes, in the 
 schools. For the moment it took 
 precedence of "America." It was 
 the national hymn of the republic, 
 the hymn that in the last hours 
 had comforted Mr. McKinley, the 
 hymn that expressed in crystalli- 
 zation, the devotion, the love and 
 longing of millions of aching 
 hearts. 
 
 " Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 
 Nearer to Thee; 
 E'en though it be a cross 
 
 That raiseth me, 
 Still all my song shall be 
 Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 
 Nearer to Thee!" 
 
 80
 
 What is nearness to God? The 
 question is a pertinent one to us 
 as we stand, some of us in life's 
 morning prime, some in its fervid 
 noon, some almost home. May 
 we be conscious in the pressure 
 of daily care, and hi our joys and 
 sorrows as they come, that God 
 is near us, and we are near him? 
 
 In the experience of friendship 
 between loving hearts in the house- 
 hold, there is nearness, in pro- 
 portion as there is union, and as 
 sympathy in work and thought 
 strengthens the bond. When we 
 love an earthly friend so dearly 
 that our first impulse is to give 
 him pleasure, our most earnest 
 and urgent desire is to do his will, 
 then to that friend we are near. 
 Estrangement brings remoteness. 
 81
 
 If there creep in stealthily to the 
 sweetest relation, indifference, 
 apathy, or weariness, the sense 
 of nearness ceases. Equally if 
 there arise hostility, anger, war- 
 fare, there is an end of nearness, 
 which implies confidence, inti- 
 macy and peace. 
 
 Using this as illustrative, we 
 may discern how a soul can drift 
 away from the heavenly Father, 
 becoming so occupied with the 
 world and its pursuits that there 
 will be no wish for God,or engaging 
 in ambitions, which are in antago- 
 nism to the Divine purpose and 
 nature, may range itself on the 
 side of Satan. Among the crowds 
 who sang "Nearer, My God, to 
 Thee, "in their deep bereavement 
 of heart when our President was 
 82
 
 taken, were persons of both these 
 types. Perhaps the hymn inter- 
 posed a wedge between their lower 
 and higher selves ; perhaps it gave 
 to some a dawning perception of 
 what it might be to share the 
 Christian's hope, the Christian's 
 faith, the Christian's joy. 
 
 " Though, like the wanderer 
 
 The sun gone down, 
 Darkness be over me, 
 
 My rest a stone, 
 Yet in my dreams I'd be 
 Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 
 Nearer to Thee." 
 
 None can be near to God in the 
 subconsciousness of waking or 
 sleeping hours, in whom there 
 does not abide all the while a 
 principle of reverence and a con- 
 tinual trust. The lad who saw 
 angels ascending and descending 
 83
 
 ttbe 3opf ul Olife. 
 
 on the ladder let down from the 
 sky was a sinful being, capable of 
 great meanness, most imperfect, 
 most unworthy, and at the very 
 time of his dream of heaven an 
 exile from home, in flight because 
 of a wrong committed against his 
 brother. But notwithstanding all 
 this, he was a devout believer, 
 and from his youth up he remained 
 so. We cannot read the story of 
 Jacob without observing that at 
 no period of his career was he an 
 alien from God. So God cared 
 for him lovingly as he lay down 
 in the desert, and his sleep was 
 radiant with a vision from the rifted 
 canopy of stars above his head. 
 We may grow in nearness to 
 God in several ways, but we must 
 be assured that we long for and
 
 nearness to (Bot>* 
 
 appreciate the state in which, like 
 Enoch, we walk with him, or we 
 shall stay contentedly on a lower 
 level. Aspiration precedes en- 
 deavor. Vision is the precursor 
 of effort. It was said by the 
 Master, of the pure in heart, that 
 they should see God. If any 
 man sees, if any man have eyes, 
 opened to the glory and the beauty, 
 the wisdom and the love of the 
 Father, that man will seek after 
 him. The love of the world and 
 the love of the Father cannot 
 abide together in the same soul. 
 When the dominant motive is 
 to know the will of the Lord and 
 intense determination to serve 
 him, there will be what old-fash- 
 ioned disciples used to talk about, 
 growth in grace. 
 85
 
 Aspiration will not waste itself 
 in mere poetic thought, if it be 
 true. The soul that aspires, prays. 
 The more earnestly and constantly 
 one prays, the closer will be the 
 approach to God. Prayer is not 
 only asking for blessings, it is in 
 itself a blessing and a privilege, 
 and when one truly prays one is 
 aware of uplift, of strength, of 
 courage and of power. Enter 
 into thy closet, and shut thy 
 door, and pray to thy Father, 
 and thy Father, which seeth in 
 secret, shall reward thee openly. 
 
 After aspiration what? Natu- 
 rally in sequence, endeavor. Do- 
 ing the will of God, doing it in 
 little things, doing it wherever 
 he has placed us. In the shop, 
 in the kitchen, on the highway. 
 86
 
 Clearness to (Bob. 
 
 Not always is the service one we 
 would choose, but if God choose 
 it for us, we are not reluctant ; we 
 try to obey. Often the task is 
 set for us in a lowly place, a place 
 of great obscurity. No matter. 
 If God sent us down in the dark, 
 his candle will light our every 
 step. What does it mean to you 
 or me, that day by day we find 
 opportunities growing out of the 
 soil of humility, like forget-me- 
 nots on the bank of the rippling 
 stream, if not that God is assign- 
 ing us the daily work, and that 
 in his view every place is honor- 
 able in which he uses our hands. 
 What cheer and gladness we find 
 in following the Master, even 
 when the clouds gather thickly 
 and the cross weighs heavily. 
 87
 
 Ube Jovful Xite, 
 
 For, dear friends, when the cross 
 is most a burden, it is also most a 
 lever, lifting us skyward. 
 
 The temptation to seclude one's 
 self from the activities and con- 
 tacts of the world, and to step 
 aside and stay in the cloister has 
 come to many a child of God. 
 But, unless He himself shuts the 
 door and puts a hedge around one, 
 nearness to him is not thus surely 
 found. The devil can penetrate 
 into the cell, and thoughts wander 
 even in the brooding hush of the 
 sanctuary. Rather shall we win 
 our way to him by placing our- 
 selves at his disposal, and discover 
 new surprises of his love by living 
 where we may bring others to know 
 the fulness of the Lord's kindness. 
 
 Possibly, for some of us, the 
 88
 
 _ ' ' 
 
 nearness to <3oo. 
 
 path into the presence chamber 
 lies by the milestone marked 
 " Giving." What self-denial is in- 
 volved in our gifts? Do we cheer- 
 fully bestow some regular portion 
 of the income we receive that the 
 Lord's work may prosper? Do 
 we contribute our time, our inter- 
 est, our influence? They who give 
 liberally to any cause feel a per- 
 sonal enthusiasm for it, which is 
 unknown unless they have some- 
 thing invested. The cause to 
 which we give nothing is not dear, 
 does not belong to us. When 
 we deny ourselves joyfully for 
 Christ, we realize that he is our 
 friend. We say, as never before, 
 "I am my Beloved's, and my 
 Beloved is mine." Often our 
 best way to give is through an 
 
 89
 
 established agency which carries 
 on a larger work than the indi- 
 vidual can undertake; through the 
 society which disseminates gospel 
 literature, or sends the word of 
 God to those who need it, or starts 
 churches and Sunday schools in 
 frontier settlements, or sends mis- 
 sionaries to far lands across the 
 sea. Where we cannot go our repre- 
 sentatives may, if we care enough 
 to furnish the means, and as we 
 worship the Lord in our giving, we 
 grow into such acquaintance with 
 him, that our quiet homes are true 
 Beth-els, houses where God dwells. 
 
 "Or, if on joyful wing 
 
 Cleaving the sky, 
 Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 
 
 Upward I fly. 
 Still all my song shall be, 
 Nearer, my God, to Thee, 
 Nearer to Thee." 
 90
 
 With its final burst of blissful 
 anticipation the beautiful and fa- 
 miliar hymn carries us up to the 
 gates of the city of gold. Its 
 climax is one of grand, sweeping 
 movement and majesty. From 
 our birth we have had constant 
 occasion to thank God for his 
 unremitting, never-ceasing provi- 
 dential goodness, new every morn- 
 ing, and fresh every evening. If 
 we are ready to drop into a mood 
 of pessimism, a good tonic will be 
 found in recounting our reasons 
 for gratitude. They will always 
 amaze us by their number. The 
 disposition in most of us to ex- 
 aggerate our difficulties and to 
 linger in the shadow of our dis- 
 couragements clouds much of our 
 sunshine, and it is well to stop 
 91
 
 
 Xif e. 
 
 now and then and think over all 
 the bright things. When we are 
 most grateful, then are we nearest 
 to God. 
 
 Suppose we pause and take an 
 inventory in this informal talk, 
 of our reasons for happiness. Let 
 us not even glance at those things 
 which may appear depressing. 
 What are our assets in the line 
 of satisfaction? Shall we count 
 health as one of them? The doc- 
 tor's visits to us have been few 
 and far between in the months 
 that are passed. Our children 
 are vigorous and their school life 
 is seldom interrupted. Our homes 
 are cheery. The circle of bright 
 heads around the lamp has not 
 been lately broken by illness, or 
 by death. We often have good 
 
 92
 
 news from our absent ones. The 
 boy in business has the approval 
 of his employer. The girl in high 
 school or at college is diligent 
 and faithful. There is always 
 reason for thanksgiving in being 
 able to work, and in having work 
 to do. Those who are idle wil- 
 fully lose half the joy of existence. 
 Those who are idle compulsorily 
 are objects of compassion. 
 
 In our personal history, that 
 unwritten history which only God 
 knows wholly, we have reasons 
 daily multiplied for giving him 
 praise, especially for the many, 
 many times when we have been 
 able by his help to vanquish the 
 adversary and to overcome the 
 sin that doth most easily beset 
 us! How often have we felt the 
 93
 
 
 Ube 3otul Xtfe. 
 
 strong hand of the unseen Friend, 
 helping us when we were in ex- 
 tremity. For all his mercies shall 
 we not praise and bless his name 
 always, and thus dwell in sweet 
 nearness to him? 
 
 " For the love that never fails to us, 
 
 For the grace that ever guides, 
 For the comfort of his leading 
 
 When the soul in him confides. 
 Here we thank and praise the giver 
 
 Of the good that ever comes 
 Daily, like a flowing river, 
 
 Blessing happy hearts and homes." 
 
 I think the Christian who has no 
 sweet experience of living near 
 the Lord, has never risen to the 
 blessedness of privilege to which 
 he has a right. The King will 
 give royally if we will receive, 
 but we ask like paupers. We are 
 willing to take the beggar's crust, 
 94 
 
 I
 
 feasting. 
 more earnestly 
 more joyfully
 
 WITH December comes 
 the beautiful consum- 
 mation of the year. 
 Behind us lie Autumn with her 
 varied splendor of coloring and 
 her rich fruitage, Summer with 
 her pomp of bloom and wealth 
 of golden grain, Spring with her 
 sweetness of blossom and tender 
 atmosphere of hope and love. 
 Before us as December's doors 
 swing wide are days of cold and 
 storm, frost, snow, sleet, wild 
 97
 
 winds by sea and shore, but there 
 also stretches invitingly a pro- 
 cession of happy mornings and 
 evenings at home, and best of all, 
 December brings us Christmas. 
 Christmas, the world's great fes- 
 tival, gathering to itself, as the 
 months and years go by, the 
 sacred associations which cluster 
 fore^' -:: around the incarnation, 
 is our gladdest anniversary, be- 
 cause we keep it as Christ's birth- 
 day. It does not matter in the 
 least whether December twenty- 
 fifth is, or is not, the precise day 
 on which Mary first held her baby 
 in her arms, while shepherds and 
 wise men worshiped him. On 
 some day in the long history of 
 this earth, the fulness of time 
 came, and God sent into it his only 
 98
 
 begotten Son, on a mission of 
 redemption. By common con- 
 sent this day we keep as Christmas 
 has been selected as that anniver- 
 sary, and all nations are joining 
 in the acclaim which arises in its 
 hallowed dawning to praise Im- 
 manueFs name. 
 
 Still let us joyfully listen on 
 Christmas Eve, as the midnight 
 hour passes, for the echoes of the 
 angel's song, "Glory to God in 
 the highest, on earth peace, good 
 will to men." Still let us watch 
 with the wise men of old and see 
 the star, "brightest and best of 
 the sons of the morning." Still 
 let us bring to the manger our 
 gifts, gold and frankincense and 
 myrrh. For now, as when Christ 
 came to Bethlehem, he comes 
 99
 
 
 to be born again in human hearts, 
 and evermore we may sing: 
 
 " Thy home is with the humble, Lord, 
 
 The simple are thy rest; 
 Thy lodging is in childlike hearts, 
 And there thou mak'st thy nest." 
 
 There is special fitness in that 
 observance of Christmas which 
 centralizes the happiness of child- 
 hood. To those of us who love 
 children, they constantly reveal 
 surprises of trust and possibilities 
 of rare development. We under- 
 stand why our Lord set a child 
 in the midst of the disciples and 
 said, "Whosoever shall not re- 
 ceive the Kingdom of God as a 
 little child, he shall not enter 
 therein." Jesus in the Yule-tide 
 days is once more among us as a 
 child. No mere mortal child so 
 100
 
 pure, so docile, so wonderful as 
 he, yet in very deed a child, subject 
 to his parents, and living beside 
 his fair young mother in her little 
 home hi Nazareth. Looking at 
 hun, as the Child in the midst of 
 us, we are led to look more care- 
 fully and with gentler thought- 
 fulness at our own children and 
 at the hosts of children outside 
 our own households. 
 
 What is our first impulse to- 
 ward the little ones in the home? 
 Most of us without an instant's 
 hesitation answer that we desire 
 the best for them, the best in edu- 
 cation, in training, in companion- 
 ship, and that we earnestly long 
 to make them as happy as we can. 
 Realizing how brief a period hi 
 life childhood must be and how 
 101
 
 soon our dear boys and girls must 
 be pushed out into life with its 
 trials and conflicts, it is natural 
 and right that we should make 
 the children happy. We do this 
 most effectually when we early 
 impress them with Christ's beauty, 
 when we teach them unselfish- 
 ness, and lead them in the straight 
 and narrow pathway of love. 
 
 When we load the Christmas 
 tree with pretty gifts for John 
 and Jean, and induce them for 
 weeks beforehand to tell us what 
 they want and what they hope 
 to receive, entirely overlooking 
 their part in Christmas giving, we 
 do them a wrong. A one-sided 
 Christmas cannot be joyful, even 
 to a little child. The true Christ- 
 mas spirit fosters self-denial and 
 102
 
 bestowal, and the child who makes 
 no small or large sacrifice, that he 
 may send a present to some one 
 outside, or give something to his 
 mother or sister, loses a precious 
 opportunity and is in peril of being 
 morally dwarfed. 
 
 Come with me to a social settle- 
 ment on the East side of the 
 bustling city of New York on 
 Christmas Eve. Upstairs and 
 down children are thronging, for 
 the house belongs to them, and is 
 more a home in their eyes than 
 the tenements where they sleep, 
 and snatch such meals as poverty 
 can give them. Here they are, 
 fair-haired Germans, dark-eyed 
 Hebrews, blue-eyed Danes, oval- 
 faced Italians, the proportion of 
 whatever nationality is upper- 
 103
 
 most in the locality indicated by 
 the type most numerous among 
 the children. They have no fine 
 clothes, though few of them are 
 in rags, for the tenement mother 
 has her own decent pride, and 
 does her best to send her offspring 
 forth whole, if not clean, from her 
 hands. But how cheerful they 
 are, how beatific is their rapture, 
 how charming is the look of 
 motherhood in the faces of little 
 girls, as they lovingly brood over 
 their new dolls, and how delighted 
 are the boys with skates, balls 
 or sleds! When they sing, their 
 whole hearts are poured out in the 
 hymns, and few hearts in the 
 round world are more intensely 
 joyful. 
 
 My point is this, that not only 
 104
 
 Gbristmas 
 
 
 we, who are grown-up, should 
 add to our Christmas felicity by 
 making some asylum, or working- 
 girls' club, or settlement, able 
 to cheer its beneficiaries at Christ- 
 mas, but that we should bring 
 up our children in the habit of good 
 will. Every little one in a home 
 replete with comfort should early 
 learn that he or she can help to 
 brighten the lot of a child who is 
 less well off, of a child whose little 
 feet are treading stormy path- 
 ways. The Sunday-school that 
 foregoes its own annual treat, 
 in order that it may provide 
 one for a school elsewhere, will, 
 on the whole, have a more delight- 
 ful and satisfactory Christmas 
 than the one which simply absorbs 
 all that the fathers and mothers of 
 105 

 
 the church, and its short-sighted 
 teachers will give it. 
 
 Let us broaden out a little 
 more. Christmas to some of us 
 brings great store of useful and 
 beautiful souvenirs, some of them 
 very costly, others inexpensive. 
 To give away what has been given 
 to us is usually regarded as ex- 
 ceedingly ungracious, and there 
 are many friendly tokens, so per- 
 sonal and so exclusively designed 
 for their recipients, that they pass 
 into the realm of sweet happen- 
 ings and dear memories and belong 
 to our treasured things. But of 
 the lovely, even exquisite cards 
 and leaflets and books which we 
 receive, a large number might 
 well be enjoyed and passed on. 
 To the children in a mission school 
 106
 
 far across the sea, to the parson- 
 age home on our Western frontier, 
 to the children in a mountain 
 cabin in Tennessee, our super- 
 fluities of Christmas gladness and 
 gifts might bring great pleasure. 
 Keep this hint in mind for another 
 year, and let the children know 
 that if they do not abuse or destroy 
 their own gifts, but keep them in 
 measurably good order, they may 
 be sent by and by, when they have 
 outgrown them, to give another 
 lease of delight to other children, 
 perhaps under another sky. 
 
 Leaving this phase of Christ- 
 mas, in this discursive talk, sup- 
 pose we glance at Christmas orna- 
 mentation. Not now is the hour 
 of the frail anemone, of the white 
 lily, of the fragrant rose. Not 
 107
 
 even the hollyhock, the gentian, 
 the chrysanthemum, or any of 
 the magnificent flowers of the 
 fall, belong of right to Christmas. 
 No, we decorate our homes and 
 churches in December with the 
 strong deep green of the cedar, fir 
 and pine, with the glossy leaf and 
 the shining scarlet berry of the 
 holly, with the beaded whiteness 
 of the mistletoe peeping out from 
 sheltering leaves, with the spoils 
 of the woods and the unfading 
 glory of the evergreen. 
 
 Ages ago it was written of the 
 good man, "His leaf also shall not 
 wither, and whatsoever he doeth 
 shall prosper." In the deep dark 
 green of Christmas wreaths and 
 the spicy scent of Christmas gar- 
 lands, there is the renewal in our 
 108
 
 minds of this assurance of the 
 ultimate success and prosperity 
 of the man who lives to do God's 
 will. True, to such an one there 
 may come ups and downs, and 
 many strange reverses and vicis- 
 situdes. The cedar of Lebanon 
 was not raised in a hothouse. The 
 tree that is strong and tough and 
 fair and full of fadeless leaves on 
 sturdy boughs was nurtured under 
 the stars and sun, rocked by the 
 tempest, powdered by the snow, 
 and tried by the fierceness of the 
 north wind. But as nothing can 
 permanently hurt "the tree God 
 plants," so, if we love God, noth- 
 ing can harm us, but all things 
 shall work together for our good. 
 Choosing our Christmas presents 
 is one of the most exciting and on 
 109
 
 xtte. 
 
 the whole delightsome occupa- 
 tions of the year. Women get 
 much more satisfaction out of 
 this than men, the latter being 
 too busy, as a rule, to give to it 
 the time and thought which it 
 requires. On the other hand, men 
 often have a legitimate occasion 
 for complaint, in the fact that 
 the gifts to them of their wives 
 and daughters are frequently far 
 from individual. A man is given 
 something that fills a felt want 
 in his wife's mind, a piece of fur- 
 niture, or a picture, or some bric- 
 a-brac which helps to furnish the 
 parlor or dining-room. He amiably 
 accepts it, but it has contributed 
 little to his real pleasure. Both 
 men and women, if they enlist in 
 the campaign of Christmas giving, 
 110
 
 Cbristmas Dolls* 
 
 should select their offerings with 
 discretion, judgment and adapta- 
 tion to the tastes and needs of the 
 one whom they desire to please. 
 
 A merry, merry Christmas 
 
 To all who tread to-day 
 The age-long road to Bethlehem 
 
 Where once our Saviour lay 
 A little child in swaddling clothes 
 
 While cattle near him lowed; 
 And in the sky above his head 
 
 The Star of centuries glowed. 
 
 A merry, merry Christmas 
 
 To every weary heart 
 That brings its load of care to One 
 
 Who in our grief has part; 
 A merry Christmas to the soul 
 
 That lowly bows to him, 
 Before whose face the seraphim 
 
 Grow in their whiteness dim. 
 
 A merry Christmas unto all 
 
 Who open wide the door, 
 That Jesus Christ may enter in 
 
 And dwell forever more. 
 Exalted be his wondrous name, 
 
 And glory be his own; 
 Who conquered sin and death for us, 
 
 And sits upon the throne. 
 Ill
 
 A merry, merry Christmas 
 
 To every little child, 
 Who clasps the hand of Jesus, 
 
 And loves the undefiled, 
 And may the light of Christmas 
 
 From heaven's fair palace stream 
 And all the year be brighter in 
 
 Its radiant living gleam. 
 
 : Unto us a child is born, unto 
 us a son is given; and the govern- 
 ment shall be upon his shoulder: 
 and his name shall be called 
 Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
 God, the Everlasting Father, the 
 Prince of Peace." 
 
 Dear friends, may the next 
 Christmas bring you and me into 
 closer and sweeter relationship 
 than ever before to Christ our 
 Lord.
 
 Xife's Iflpe anb H)owns. 
 
 IF life were a uniform level, 
 broken by no vicissitudes and 
 no disasters, with no strange and 
 baffling problems alternating with 
 its seasons of tranquillity and suc- 
 cess, it would be perhaps less trying 
 than it generally is, but also much 
 less interesting. Nothing is more 
 tedious than monotony. Nothing 
 wears on the nerves like a stirless 
 calm. The wildest gusts and storms 
 are more acceptable to the mariner 
 than the inaction which is compul- 
 sory when the wind moves not. 
 113
 
 I once met an old, old lady, 
 who said that her whole life had 
 been as placid as a summer sea. 
 At long intervals some member 
 of her family had died, but as she 
 had no children the most intimate 
 and deep of afflictions had been 
 spared her, and her husband still 
 survived. Strange to say, I did 
 not feel that she was to be envied. 
 Without pain in this world's 
 economy there is little reaching 
 forward to the heights of joy; 
 without suffering there is seldom 
 intensity of thankfulness; without 
 birth-throes there is little apparent 
 growth in the spiritual realm. 
 Life all a plain road, no hills to 
 climb, no obstacles to surmount, 
 no vicissitudes to endure, is not 
 so desirable on the whole, as life 
 
 114
 
 Xife's Taps ano Downs. 
 
 which has its struggles, its sorrows 
 and its losses, preliminary as they 
 come to the final realization of 
 its triumphs, its consolations and 
 its everlasting gains. 
 
 The time for sturdy resistance 
 to the difficulties and temptations 
 of the day is usually the period 
 of youth, when one is facing the 
 future, as well as realizing the 
 present, and when the past does 
 not loom large in one's view. The 
 past of youth is very short; the 
 future looks interminable, and 
 the immediate present is stren- 
 uous. Middle age often carries 
 the burdens which youth has 
 brought to it, carries them with 
 a steadfast courage, and a serene 
 cheer impossible to youth ; and old 
 age is, or should be, the season 
 115 
 
 K
 
 
 of tranquillity : the season of rest- 
 ing on the oars and waiting for 
 the end. 
 
 "Sunset and evening star 
 
 And one clear call for me, 
 And may there be no moaning of the bar 
 When I put out to sea." 
 
 In retrospective hours we some- 
 times perceive that we made mis- 
 takes in our bygone reckonings. 
 We might have avoided some 
 snares and pitfalls had we not 
 rushed along at a break-neck 
 pace. We might have been less 
 impulsive, and made wiser calcu- 
 lations, and taken precautions 
 against disaster. But what is the 
 use of grieving unduly over what 
 is past retrieval? Better far to be 
 "up and doing with a heart for 
 116
 
 Xffe's "dps aut> H>owns. 
 
 
 any fate." The past is gone, but 
 the present is ours. 
 
 An elderly gentlewoman was 
 talking with me one day about the 
 fortunes and misfortunes of her 
 family. " There was a time," she 
 said, "when my father owned 
 the entire tract of land in which 
 the city of L (a thriving 
 Western city) now stands. Had 
 he held on to it till values rose 
 we would now be enormously 
 wealthy instead of being worn 
 out with poverty, but father did 
 not imagine its possibilities, and 
 exchanged the property for land 
 that proved to be worth very 
 little." 
 
 I know of similar instances. 
 They have been very common in 
 this new and rapidly developing 
 117
 
 Xife. 
 
 country. And almost invariably 
 I have heard heirs of what-might- 
 have-been speak of the vanished 
 riches that had eluded their grasp 
 with the deepest regret. Yet, 
 as we glance around our acquaint- 
 ances, we do not always find 
 that wealth and luxury have 
 brought the best things in their 
 train. Young men have degener- 
 ated, young women have been 
 led into selfishness and frivolity 
 through a too easy life and the 
 possession of too much money. 
 My friend, whose sons and daugh- 
 ters were noble men and women, 
 need not have deplored the fact 
 that they had been reared in a 
 school where the students acquire 
 self-reliance by some bouts with 
 adversity. 
 
 118
 
 Xife's Taps ano Downs* 
 
 If one can but take whatever 
 comes as part of God's plan, and 
 not as the happening of a blind 
 chance, one will be surer of con- 
 tent. A plan of God in every life, 
 and life joyfully lived in accord- 
 ance with God's plan, is a good 
 formula for true happiness. 
 
 Suppose we fancy, in this twi- 
 light between times talk, how one 
 may make the best of things in 
 the days of the Valley of Hu- 
 miliation. You remember that 
 Bunyan's pilgrim went through 
 this place singing quaintly, 
 
 " He that is down need fear no fall : 
 
 He that is low, no pride; 
 He that is humble ever shall 
 Have God to be his guide." 
 
 And you remember, too, that 
 
 in those gentle glades, the Heart's 
 
 119
 
 Ease was very apt to flourish? 
 There are worse places on the 
 pilgrimage than this sheltered vale, 
 where one has much occasion to 
 rest in and call on God every 
 hour. 
 
 Once, away back in the years 
 that are sweetest to recall, I knew 
 a group of people, mother and 
 daughters, whom our Civil War 
 had despoiled of their all. They 
 lived in two or three rooms, though 
 theirs had been a wide and stately 
 mansion. They did then* own 
 work merrily, though a retinue 
 had formerly served them. They 
 were in need of clothing, some- 
 tunes in need of fuel, sometimes 
 of food. But I never saw them 
 otherwise than gay of aspect and 
 brightly ready to meet every ex- 
 120 
 
 " v /> 
 
 m
 
 Xife's TUps ant) Downs. 
 
 perience with a smile. It was 
 not resignation they showed, nor 
 fortitude, nor even courage. It 
 was a combination of the three 
 qualities, and the element that 
 fused it was an unfaltering re- 
 ligious faith. One morning an 
 acquaintance and I met in a call 
 at their house. When we came 
 away this lady said severely: 
 
 "Well, I call such conduct rep- 
 rehensible. Those women should 
 have been sewing, making up that 
 bolt of cloth the society sent 
 them last week. Scissors haven't 
 touched it yet! And they were 
 reading, if you please; reading 
 'Cowper's Task' and Sir Walter 
 Scott's 'Tales of a Grandfather.'" 
 
 For my part I had no censure 
 to make. In due time, no doubt, 
 121
 
 tlbe 
 
 the white muslin was fashioned 
 into useful and needed garments, 
 but the old Southern habit of 
 browsing in a library, of reading 
 over and over the books made 
 dear by the use and wont of a life- 
 time was more precious than any 
 article a woman's fingers could 
 fabricate. Those ladies were not 
 dependent on new books. Those 
 which they had inherited from 
 book-loving ancestors were suffi- 
 cient for them, and they had cul- 
 ture as opposed to the swift, 
 superficial intelligence of a later 
 day. Years after I met them, 
 now on the top wave of success. 
 One girl, was an artist, another 
 an author, another a teacher, and 
 the old mother, still in black silk, 
 with lace ruffles at neck and wrists, 
 122
 
 OLife's "dps ano Downs. 
 
 continued to read Cowper and 
 Sir Walter Scott in unbroken 
 serenity. 
 
 Ups and downs in life are like 
 an undulating land. In America 
 it is peculiarly the case that he 
 or she who is down to-day may 
 be up again to-morrow. Business 
 reversals and successes are as 
 recurrent as the movement of a 
 see -saw in commercial towns. 
 But the changes of feeling and 
 condition which are consequent 
 upon wealth or its opposite are 
 slight compared with those born 
 of the inner life. Material things 
 are less potential than spiritual. 
 Externals never strike so deeply 
 into the soul as the experiences 
 which spring from the soul itself. 
 The wounded spirit who can bear? 
 123
 
 When friends prove disappointing 
 or false, when the beloved wander 
 into wrong pathways, when the 
 heart strays from its childhood 
 teachings and loses its first love, 
 when the chill frost of doubt 
 benumbs faith, then one learns 
 what real distress is. When one 
 mournfully says, in the despair 
 of the unmoored and shipwrecked 
 hour, "A believing heart is gone 
 from me," he touches the bottom 
 of earthly trouble. Yet here, too, 
 there is help for whoever shall 
 seek and accept it from the Word. 
 "He that cometh to God must 
 believe that he is, and that he is 
 the rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek him." When one, 
 climbing from the depths of hope- 
 lessness and infidelity, gets a firm 
 124 
 
 m
 
 Xffe's "dps anfc 2>owns. 
 
 footing on that rock, he may 
 ascend at last to the uplands of 
 God, where he shall say, "I know 
 whom I have believed and am 
 persuaded that he is able to keep 
 that which I have committed 
 unto him against that day." 
 
 There are temperaments which 
 are naturally sanguine and even 
 mercurial, and they stand their 
 possessors in good stead in many 
 an exigency. Others are easily 
 disturbed, and inordinately de- 
 pressed by untoward incidents. 
 There are forward folk who are 
 fretful and cross oftener than they 
 are amiable, and moody folk 
 whose persistent despondency acts 
 on their friends as a wet blanket. 
 
 One of the most successful 
 recipes for curing the blues, no 
 125 

 
 matter what their source, is to 
 engage actively in some work 
 outside one's self. The tonic of 
 necessary labor is not always 
 within reach of the rich, and so, 
 occasionally, they drift into apathy 
 and from apathy into nervous 
 prostration, troubles which they 
 would escape if compelled to ex- 
 ertion. Of a wretched hypochon- 
 driac, a wise physician once said, 
 "She would soon recover if she 
 were obliged to do her family 
 washing." Unselfish work for 
 others is a sovereign remedy for 
 melancholy. Forget yourself. Do 
 good to some one else. As the 
 poet aptly says, 
 
 " Is thy cruse of comfort failing? 
 
 Rise and share it with another, 
 And through all the years of famine 
 It shall serve thee and thy brother." 
 126
 
 Through the various ups and 
 downs of a very uncertain world, 
 I advise people to cling to a home 
 of their own. No matter how 
 tiny or obscure your house, live 
 by yourself with only your near- 
 est of kin, if you possibly can. It 
 is forlorn work going back and 
 forth over other people's stairs. 
 Some of us keep house, spread the 
 table, buy furniture, choose our 
 street, spend our money, with a 
 view to what our neighbors think 
 and say, instead of with refer- 
 ence to our own means and our 
 honorable independence; in which 
 we are amazingly foolish. Living 
 beyond one's income is a fruitful 
 occasion for down-heartedness, 
 and justly so. A little margin, 
 be it ever so little, insures peace 
 127
 
 of mind and cheerfulness, but he or 
 she who is on the ragged edge of 
 financial incertitude cannot be 
 radiant. 
 
 Amid the many ups and downs 
 of earth, is it not as well to re- 
 member that here we have no 
 continuing city, but we seek one 
 to come, and so, to keep fast hold 
 upon heaven and God? A life 
 allied to God is stable, come what 
 may. 
 
 We are not left to rely upon mere 
 sentiment for this alliance. We 
 have footholds carved in the up- 
 hill road. The Saviour has trod- 
 den it, the saints have followed 
 him; it leads to the light that/ 
 streams from the Father's house. 
 The Christian who lives in daily 
 dependence upon God, consciously, 
 128
 
 Xife'8 "dps an& Downs. 
 
 lovingly, earnestly calling on him 
 for aid and support and wis- 
 dom, must ultimately be victo- 
 rious. 
 
 Thoughtful Bible reading is a 
 great help over hard places. There 
 are so many parallel cases to our 
 own in the wonderful narratives 
 of the Scriptures. So many bits 
 of counsel, adapted to our needs, 
 let that need be what it may. So 
 many songs in the night. So 
 often a feast of manna for the 
 famished, or a fountain of water 
 springing up to quench the thirst 
 of the wayfarer. I wish we who 
 read oftener memorized the clear 
 words of truth, and that children 
 were induced to lay them up as 
 a part of their mental wealth. 
 For in the ups and downs of 
 129
 
 ttbe Sogtul %tfe. 
 
 mortal life God's word is an 
 unfailing cordial, a ceaseless in- 
 spiration, and a constant promise 
 of his presence by night and by 
 day.
 
 H Iftew H?ear 
 flfoebitation. 
 
 
 P 
 ^ 
 
 ONE of my old school- 
 mates, a girl who used 
 to sit at the same 
 desk with me when we were in 
 our teens, came not long ago to 
 make me a little visit. In our 
 different ways we have both been 
 very busy since those bright days 
 when we studied French verbs and 
 Latin conjugations together, and 
 dipped into mathematics and ex- 
 plored ancient history, albeit our 
 school was only a seminary for 
 young ladies, and the era of the 
 131
 
 
 Ube 
 
 Xife. 
 
 woman's college had not yet 
 dawned. In passing, let me say 
 a good word for the fidelity of 
 the old-time preceptors and the 
 thoroughness of the instruction 
 they imparted. I am not disposed 
 to undervalue anything in the 
 latter curriculum, but there were 
 well-educated women, cultured, 
 disciplined, and broadened by 
 their intellectual training, before 
 the great colleges set wide doors 
 open for the entrance of girl- 
 students. After all, the best re- 
 sult of an educational course is 
 seen in its success in putting 
 tools in the hand for use in the 
 life-work, and in the symmetry 
 with which it develops character. 
 We talked late, Miriam and I, 
 just as we did in our twenties, 
 132
 
 but much of our conversation 
 was retrospective. So many of 
 those who had been once with us 
 had gone across the river to the 
 blessedness beyond. So many of 
 those who remained were in far 
 lands, or, in the activities of the 
 world, had disappeared from our 
 ken, that we had a new sense of 
 the changefulness and loneliness 
 of this earth. 
 
 "I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger, 
 I can tarry, I can tarry but a night," 
 
 means more to us now than it did 
 
 in the May morning of our youth. 
 
 Miriam is a bright, breezy person 
 
 whose heart is the gayer because 
 
 she is the mother of a house full 
 
 of children, and has always had 
 
 young people about her, needing 
 
 her counsel and coming to her 
 
 133
 
 for the settlement of her vexed 
 questions. She does not look her 
 real age, but then nobody does 
 that any longer; we are all ten 
 years younger than we used to 
 be, so much more closely do we 
 follow the laws of health, and so 
 much greater is the ease of 
 modern living, what with labor- 
 saving contrivances and luxuries 
 of which our mothers and grand- 
 mothers never dreamed. 
 
 I remember hearing my mother 
 say that she put on the cap which 
 she wore when she was past 
 seventy on her thirtieth birthday. 
 A matron whom I knew when I 
 was nineteen said soberly, when 
 she was thirty-four, "I am now 
 middle-aged. I must lay aside 
 youthful pomps and vanities." 
 134
 
 
 flDe&itation. 
 
 To-day, the woman, married or 
 single, who is under forty years is 
 a young woman, and her looks 
 convey no other impression. At 
 fifty the gracious lady bears her- 
 self as thirty-five was wont to do 
 two score years ago, and the 
 active person of sixty is far 
 from claiming immunity from 
 service, or any privileges of ease, 
 on account of her age. Miriam 
 and I felicitated ourselves that 
 this is the golden age of the grand- 
 mother. 
 
 " But, my dear, "said my friend 
 musingly, "how short the years 
 are getting to be. Don't you 
 recall what a long, long space of 
 time a year was when we were 
 children? On a New Year's Day, 
 if we looked forward and no 
 135
 
 child ever looks backward the 
 future was lost in dim and shroud- 
 ing mists. Now twelve months 
 is a little flitting period, which 
 makes one think of the simile of 
 a bird flying through a lighted 
 hall, from blackness to black- 
 ness." 
 
 "Well," I answered, "I grant 
 that the seasons do glide faster 
 with one than of old, but I think 
 it is simply because I have so 
 much to do, and so many com- 
 plex interests. When every day 
 is filled to the brim and the days 
 weave themselves into weeks, the 
 weeks into months, and the 
 months into years, with the rap- 
 idity of the unresting loom, what 
 is one to do? Of course, your 
 years and mine slip quickly away. 
 136
 
 H Iftew l^ear flDefcitation. 
 
 I can fancy, however, those to 
 whom the progress of time is slow 
 enough, even in old age. The 
 man who was once in the midst of 
 affairs, but on whom a creeping 
 paralysis has set its fettering hand ; 
 the woman chained to her bed by 
 a cruelly torturing malady; the 
 prisoner in his cell; the stranger 
 lonely among strangers, may not 
 find the years so swift. Part of 
 the restlessness which makes some 
 old people so unhappy is no doubt 
 due to the fact that their empty 
 days have grown slow and drag- 
 ging, that there is no flavor left 
 for them in life's cup. People 
 in the shadow of grief always suffer 
 from the tedium of the days. 
 The mourner's days move at a 
 snail's pace." 
 
 137
 
 ^55 
 
 Ube 3otul OLife, 
 
 Miriam thought this was true, 
 and for a while we were silent. 
 You may be silent with an in- 
 timate friend, and the need to be 
 entertaining of set purpose is non- 
 existent between those whose 
 mutual understanding is flawless. 
 
 After a while she said, " An- 
 other year is coming. Are you 
 making any new departures, any 
 new resolves? There is something 
 attractive about turning the fresh 
 page, isn't there?" 
 
 "With Susan Coolidge, I have 
 long felt that every day is a fresh 
 beginning, and I have laid aside 
 the habit, if I ever had it, of cele- 
 brating the new year as a special 
 place for good resolutions. I do 
 like, though, to signalize it by some 
 particular pleasure, to meet my 
 138
 
 H IRew 3J)ear /IDefcftatfon. 
 
 friends and kinsfolk then, and 
 to exchange greetings and good 
 wishes with them. If the cal- 
 endar did nothing else, it would 
 remind us that the chances for 
 making our beloved ones happy 
 are lessening, and that we ought 
 to avail ourselves of every coming 
 opportunity to scatter sunshine 
 on the pathway of all we meet." 
 
 "But," persisted Miriam, "you 
 would not influence others to pass 
 by a New Year's milestone with- 
 out some effort to start anew in 
 the Christian race, would you? 
 Suppose you were talking to a 
 crowd of students, is there nothing 
 you could suggest as very apposite 
 to them at such a time?" 
 
 "For one thing," I said, "I 
 would counsel all who have never 
 139
 
 yet done it, to begin on January 
 first a daily definite study of the 
 Bible. There is a good deal of 
 Bible study just now, it is true, 
 but also, in hundreds of Christian 
 homes, and by thousands of young 
 men and women, the Bible is a 
 neglected book. The young peo- 
 ple who are familiar with the 
 Scriptures are not too numerous 
 those I mean who can turn at 
 an instant's call, without hesita- 
 tion or embarrassment, to any 
 reference text in the prophets, the 
 psalms, or the New Testament. 
 We live in an age of much literary 
 enterprise, when the printing-press 
 scatters new books as the forest 
 trees scatter leaves in the autumn ; 
 when newspapers are multitudin- 
 ous, and every man, woman and 
 
 140
 
 child reads something. That 
 many otherwise liberally educated 
 men and women do not know the 
 Scriptures, even as literature, is a 
 misfortune, for they are a treasury 
 of noble words in many incom- 
 parable styles. And, by search- 
 ing them, those who would obtain 
 eternal life still are rewarded by the 
 Divine Author. Yes, I wish I could 
 urge the young people of our land, 
 wherever they are, to begin to read 
 the Bible daily, to read it through 
 in course, or to read it for its poetry, 
 history, and philosophy. I wish 
 they would read it for the life of the 
 Master. On a shelf in my library 
 are many lives of Christ, but none 
 equals, none approaches, the life 
 so simply revealed in the gospels 
 of the four evangelists." 
 141
 
 "What besides the Bible," said 
 Miriam, " would you suggest for 
 the reading of a bright, ambitious 
 boy, or of a girl who had her life 
 before her?" 
 
 My preference is strongly for a 
 biography over most other books, 
 but, in a general way, I would tell 
 a young reader to choose what was 
 most inviting, only securing a 
 little regular time every day for 
 some thoughtful reading. Some 
 like essays, many more enjoy 
 stories, and we get the most profit, 
 I think, when our reading is not 
 perfunctory, but is pleasurable 
 and recreative. Libraries abound, 
 and there is no reason why any- 
 body should starve when the table 
 for the mind is so free and so 
 abundantly spread." 
 142
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 
 H mew ]0ear /IDeMtatfon. 
 
 This talk of ours was resumed 
 on another occasion when Miriam 
 and I were not alone. A clever 
 young girl was with us, and she 
 had her opinion and expressed 
 it very earnestly. 
 
 "I know," she said, "what 
 people of my age need, and that 
 is agreeable companionship. We 
 are restless and dissatisfied unless 
 we are in the midst of things. I 
 would tell every one I knew, espe- 
 cially if she or he happened to 
 be a little blue, as young people 
 often are, to get to work, not 
 merely in wage -earning work, 
 though for many that is a necessity 
 and to some a resource and duty, 
 but to join a Christian Endeavor 
 Society, or an Ep worth League, 
 or the King's Daughters, or some 
 143
 
 brotherhood, or friendly society, 
 and give to it the best one could. 
 A good time to join the procession 
 of Christian workers is surely the 
 New Year. And, if one is already 
 in, but has been a laggard or un- 
 faithful, may there not be wisdom 
 in reforming, shaking off sloth 
 and beginning over with enthu- 
 siasm? I do think young people 
 should assist their pastors more 
 than they do, and what better 
 season for a start than at this 
 very time? Those who have 
 leisure could help him in making 
 calls on the sick or the lonely; 
 others could enter the Sunday- 
 school." 
 
 So spoke Caroline, and we older 
 women agreed with her. Only 
 as we give in this world do we get
 
 H Hew l^ear /iDefcitation. 
 
 good. I have been reading tne 
 life of a great missionary, Verbeck 
 of Japan, and it has been borne 
 into my soul that the only life 
 worth living is the life of Christian 
 love. It may be spent, as the 
 foreign missionary's is, under a 
 distant sky, as the home mis- 
 sionary's and colporter's, in the 
 waste places of our own great 
 land, as the minister's in his 
 parish, as the mother's in her 
 household, but if it be a life after 
 the fair Christ-pattern, it will be 
 a life poured out for others, and 
 therefore very blessed. 
 
 Friends, methinks we stand in 
 the portal of another year. God 
 gives us more days, more weeks, 
 how many or how few we know 
 not, but they are sent straight 
 145
 
 from heaven, and we are to use 
 them for him. Have we made 
 mistakes? It is not too late to 
 rectify them. Have we committed 
 sin? We may find cleansing in 
 the fountain where all uncleanli- 
 ness is washed away. Have we 
 been discouraged? "As thy days, 
 thy strength shall be," is the 
 word of the Lord to our weariness 
 and faintness. As we wait, not 
 knowing what shall be on the 
 morrow, we may fill the measure 
 of to-day with contentment, sur- 
 render and sweetness. And from 
 the sky the everlasting Father, 
 speaking to our need, says, "Cer- 
 tainly I will be with thee!" 
 
 This meditation grows too long. 
 But I have one more practical 
 suggestion, and that concerns the 
 146
 
 H IRew JI>ear /iDeMtation. 
 
 storing of the memory, as a hive 
 with honey, with worth-while 
 things to have and to hold. You 
 would find it much to your profit, 
 dear reader, to study by heart 
 at least one verse of Scripture 
 every day in the year, to learn a 
 few noble hymns, and to fix in 
 your minds some fine strong 
 thoughts of great writers. Mem- 
 ory may be a good servant, if 
 trained, not only in early, but 
 in later days. 
 
 147
 
 1FncompatibiIit\> 
 
 AMONG the greatest of our 
 smaller trials, if the para- 
 dox may be pardoned, must 
 be reckoned incompatibility. To 
 live hi daily contact with some one 
 whose ideas are in jarring contrast 
 with your own, to endure the moods 
 and tempers of a person who rasps 
 you by voice and emphasis to the 
 point of a continual irritation, is 
 to wear the medieval hair-shirt, 
 and endure the medieval scourge. 
 A sweet-faced serene saint of God, 
 whose way in life lies through the 
 149
 
 ttbe 
 
 Xife. 
 
 drudgery of a New England kit- 
 chen, once confided to me, in a 
 moment of supreme dishearten- 
 ment, that there were times when 
 she longed for the rest of the grave, 
 smiling, as she added, "I am per- 
 fectly worn out by the compan- 
 ionship of Aunt Tabitha; yet she is 
 the salt of the earth." Good 
 people may be intensely uncom- 
 fortable neighbors, and an excel- 
 lent woman prove herself as wear- 
 ing to her family as a mustard 
 plaster next the skin, burning, 
 blistering and unbearable even 
 by the help of patience. There 
 are kind souls hi this world who 
 defeat their own impulses by per- 
 forming unselfish actions in a tact- 
 less and disagreeable fashion, 
 which cannot but provoke an- 
 150
 
 tagonism; and there are persons 
 admirable in their integrity and 
 their regard for principle, who, 
 nevertheless, are instruments of 
 unceasing discipline to their fami- 
 lies. As a rule such people are 
 calmly oblivious to their personal 
 defects, and tranquilly ready to 
 throw the blame of whatever 
 misery follows in their wake on 
 the shoulders of others. They 
 are never in the wrong. Then* 
 ill- temper is, in their own eyes, 
 righteous indignation, and their 
 contrariness, devotion to pro- 
 priety; yet the sum of much 
 household cheerfulness is sadly 
 lowered because of the absence 
 from the home of the element of 
 congeniality, and the necessity 
 therein of continual repression, 
 151 

 
 self-denial and forbearance on one 
 side. 
 
 I am led to this special line 
 of thought by the dilemma of 
 a young couple who find it their 
 duty to admit to their new home 
 a relative whose claim upon them 
 is two-fold: she is too feeble to 
 support herself, and, in a wide 
 circle of kindred, nobody else will 
 have her. The nephew who feels 
 called upon to give her the shelter 
 of his roof is quite aware that her 
 presence will be a trial to his wife, 
 yet he sees no other way in the 
 matter, for Great-Aunt Nancy 
 is old, dependent and fretful, and 
 she absolutely refuses to be sup- 
 ported among strangers. 
 
 The bride naturally regrets that 
 in her new home, which she had 
 152
 
 hoped to make a bit of Eden, 
 there is to be an inmate whose 
 all-pervading influence will rob 
 it of much of its charm. But she 
 is bravely making up her mind 
 to the inevitable. She has set 
 aside a sunny chamber for the old 
 lady, and has resolved to make 
 the best of things, since Jack is 
 sure that there is no other course 
 to be taken. 
 
 The man of the house, going to 
 business daily, escapes much of 
 the unpleasant friction which is 
 the accompaniment of his wife's 
 life, when an uncongenial person 
 is with her from dawn to bed- 
 time. If, however, she sees the 
 thing clearly, and accepts it brave- 
 ly, half the battle is won. A 
 nettle grasped firmly in the hand 
 153
 
 Ube 3oful xtfc. 
 
 does not prick and wound as 
 much as one that is carelessly 
 encountered. 
 
 I have little credence to give 
 to the theory that hateful old 
 people are the product of un- 
 toward circumstances. Fro ward- 
 ness of temper probably began 
 in the days of youth, and an 
 uncurbed unchecked selfishness 
 years ago indulged and fostered, 
 is at the root of the elderly 
 perversity. One meets sweet old 
 people every day, people who 
 have mellowed and ripened under 
 the storms of life, and who have 
 gained beauty of soul and face 
 as they have borne privation, 
 anxiety and suffering. Nothing 
 from without ever makes man 
 or woman peaceful, or the oppo- 
 154
 
 site. It is the heart life that tells 
 on the behavior. When a young 
 woman is fretful, unreasonable 
 and capricious, when she sees only 
 her own point of view, and is 
 disposed to consider herself before 
 others in the little as in the large 
 occasions of home life, she is 
 surely stepping forward on that 
 road which leads straight to a med- 
 dlesome, interfering and dreaded 
 old age. 
 
 When it can be managed, young 
 people should strain every nerve 
 to begin their united lives without 
 the presence of any third person. 
 They are far better by themselves, 
 especially in the early years when 
 more or less adjustment must be 
 taking place . To their future , their 
 present is ministering, and if no 
 155
 
 one is near to comment on their 
 mistakes, or to take sides if they 
 happen to disagree, their chances 
 of harmony are increased. Still 
 it is now and then a plain duty 
 to widen the home and take into 
 its sanctuary another inmate who 
 may and may not be an addition 
 to the home's stock of peace. 
 
 A lady, who was to her finger- 
 tips a gentlewoman, delicate, 
 dainty, and accustomed to a quiet 
 elegance of routine in her house- 
 keeping, some time ago found it 
 her clearly indicated obligation 
 to admit beneath her roof a group 
 of young people whose home had 
 been swept away by a flood. Into 
 her fair domain they trooped like 
 the vandals who invaded Rome. 
 They were boisterous as a March 
 156
 
 
 - 
 
 Incompatibility 
 
 wind, untrained in refinement, 
 and utterly ungracious and un- 
 thankful, but they had to be 
 endured for a while. The trial 
 was no slight one, though, as the 
 lady said, it was not to be men- 
 tioned in the same day with 
 incurable disease, or a fire, or a 
 death in the family. 
 
 Our way of bearing such attacks 
 upon our equanimity shows of 
 what stuff we are made. It reveals 
 our philosophy or our lack of it; 
 yes, we may go a step further and 
 say that it shows our Christian 
 character, or our imperfect faith. 
 If it be God's will that we are to 
 
 dwell w 
 incompatible 
 can give us 
 other trial. 
 
 those who seem to us 
 
 with 
 
 God 
 
 grace 
 
 r peace, 
 for this as for any 
 
 157
 
 We may take to our souls this 
 great comfort : that we never have 
 to make provision for the whole 
 journey, but merely for one step 
 at a time. The miracle of the 
 daily manna is ever repeated in 
 the commonplace lives of modern 
 Christians. Forecasting a weary 
 monotonous stretch of the road, 
 we wonder how we are ever to 
 accomplish the distance between 
 the milestones. But the Lord has 
 never bidden us to worry and 
 waste our strength in this effort. 
 He has simply ordered us to go 
 forward, and has said that he will 
 give us grace in time of need. 
 ''If thy presence go not with us, 
 carry us not up hence," we may 
 pray, awaiting the answer that 
 will come ringing from the 
 158
 
 skies: " Certainly, I will be with 
 thee." 
 
 People who are bad company 
 for others are bad company for 
 themselves. Once in a while is 
 it not a good plan to be very faith- 
 ful in our self-examination? Are 
 we guiltless in our Lord's sight 
 so far as our intercourse with 
 others is concerned? Are we 
 gentle, tolerant, cheerful, amia- 
 ble and self-controlled? In some 
 rooms there hangs upon the wall 
 an illuminated card bearing this 
 legend: "Christ is the head of 
 this house; the invisible guest at 
 every meal; the unseen listener 
 to every conversation." We may 
 not suspend this card from a peg 
 in the chamber or the dining-room, 
 but the sentiment, the thought, 
 159
 
 should be ever with us. And if, 
 indeed, Christ Jesus is with us, 
 and we live as in his immediate 
 sight, we shall not often be cross 
 with children, impatient with 
 young people, exacting with serv- 
 ants, or unfaithful in the per- 
 formance of our tasks. 
 
 The really brave soul does not 
 waste time in thinking very much 
 about itself, and is far from 
 wasting its strength in self-pity 
 for imaginary wounds and bruises. 
 
 In the least lovable nature there 
 is something to love, if it can 
 only be found. Human beings 
 are very complex, and nobody is 
 repellent all through and to all 
 advances. A little child may find 
 the key that unlocks the sealed 
 tenderness in an aged heart. If 
 160 

 
 you can use but the right sesame, 
 you may open the most closely 
 barred door. A woman known 
 to me was the dread of three 
 generations for her coldness, 
 moroseness and general dissatis- 
 faction with her little world and 
 with the kith and kin whom she 
 affected to despise. But in her 
 later life there was thrown upon 
 her the care of a helpless family 
 of motherless children, and she 
 amazed all who knew her by fi- 
 delity, kindness and self-forget- 
 fulness in the new role. 
 
 By living as in the presence of 
 Christ we shall gather strength 
 for any emergency, and be armed 
 against needless suffering and sor- 
 row. Like Brother Lawrence, 
 that humble monk of a by-gone 
 161
 
 Ube 3osf ul OLffe. 
 
 ;*5== 
 
 century, like Santa Teresa, like 
 Elizabeth of Hungary, like John 
 and Paul, and "the elect lady," 
 and like thousands unnamed and 
 unchronicled who have, through 
 faith, subdued kingdoms and 
 wrought righteousness, let us live 
 always, finding our Lord in every 
 hour and in every action. For 
 nothing comes by chance. Our 
 lives are a plan of God. If to 
 any of us smooth things are not 
 appointed, it is because God sees 
 that we need rough things. By 
 whatever wind God sends, the 
 Christian's boat is sailing to the 
 port of Peace. 
 
 A man that hath friends must 
 
 show himself friendly. In the chill 
 
 days of March there are blasts 
 
 as rigorous as ever blew from the 
 
 162
 
 I 
 
 
 flncompatfbUits. 
 
 frozen north ; but there are moods 
 of sunshine too, and sweet breezes 
 that coax the early flowers into 
 bloom, and allure the bluebirds 
 from the thicket, and give the 
 land a first pledge of a coming 
 April and May. Friendliness is 
 like the sunbeam that thaws the 
 icicle. The most unsympathetic 
 temperament melts before the 
 magic of persistent kindness. 
 
 If any of us is carrying the sort 
 of burden which God has given us, 
 and which is the heavier because 
 it has to do with the closeness of 
 earthly relations and the intima- 
 cies of the fireside, let him not try 
 to cast it off, but rather remem- 
 ber the injunction, "Bear ye one 
 another's burdens, and so fulfil the 
 law of Christ." 
 
 163 

 
 The great Duke of Marlborough 
 had a wife whom he adored, but 
 who was a beautiful termagant. 
 He bore her caprices, her furies, 
 her frequent gusts of unreason, 
 with a gentleness which was re- 
 markable in one who was accus- 
 tomed to receive deference and to 
 be obeyed when he commanded. 
 One day, that she might vex her 
 husband, the Duchess cut off her 
 beautiful hair, which he was ac- 
 customed to caress, and left it 
 lying where his eyes must fall 
 upon it. But her intention missed 
 its aim. To the day of his death 
 this man of iron self-control never 
 referred to the incident, never 
 reproached her, never seemed to 
 see what she had done. The 
 shorn tresses grew to their former 
 164
 
 length without a word from him. 
 But after his death, among his 
 precious things in a cabinet under 
 lock and key, those who survived 
 him found the glory of her hair 
 as he had gathered it up and laid 
 it away. Incompatibility of tem- 
 perament had not been enough 
 to make discord in a union where 
 one was invincibly patient and 
 unconquerably loving. 
 
 One generation passeth away, 
 and another generation cometh. 
 Each respects the errors of the 
 preceding, and each may derive 
 profit from the successes of the 
 preceding. In the peace that 
 passeth understanding, no matter 
 what the outside perturbations, 
 we may all be kept if we but ask 
 for guidance and trust in God. 
 165
 
 Hfter ^ 
 flfoueings. 
 
 3^^ 
 
 EASTER is the coronation of 
 the Christian year. As we 
 mount the golden stairway 
 of love and faith which leads us to 
 the contemplation of our Lord's 
 resurrection, we realize our right to 
 be called the children of God. As 
 Christ laid down his life to take 
 it again, so we, falling asleep in him, 
 shall awaken to newness of life. 
 To death every believer may smile 
 a welcome, for death but opens 
 for us the door into the house of 
 the Father, where is fulness of 
 167
 
 Ube 
 
 joy, and we go no more out 
 forever. 
 
 I wonder whether we, as Chris- 
 tians, appreciate the comforts 
 that Easter Day brings to us, or 
 care, as we should, for its promise 
 and its pledge of the eternity 
 which is to be " con jubilant with 
 song." Surely in the deep mean- 
 ing of Easter there should be for 
 us an abiding peace. We should 
 learn a nobler trust. Our atti- 
 tude toward the next life should 
 be more confidant, less shrinking, 
 more serene, and when our loved 
 ones go we should follow them with 
 some mingling of gladness in their 
 felicity to sweeten the loneliness 
 of their absence. 
 
 One day a woman, whose whole 
 life was a beatitude, sat at her 
 168
 
 Bfter*iaster /Busings. 
 
 
 
 desk, happy in her work, till four 
 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. 
 At the same hour the next day 
 she was not very well, and that 
 night she slept and drifted into 
 a state of unconsciousness from 
 which she did not waken here. 
 When she awoke she was with 
 God. Her spirit had heard the 
 royal summons, " Daughter, come 
 home," and from the earthly 
 hearth she loved she went, without 
 pain, without weariness or weak- 
 ness, straight to the blissful abode 
 above. There must have been a 
 glad surprise for that redeemed one 
 when she found herself in the 
 heavenly mansions. People pray 
 to be delivered from sudden death, 
 as if any experience could be more 
 ecstatic for the Christian than just 
 169
 
 
 Ube 
 
 %ffe. 
 
 
 that swift transition from one state 
 of being to another. Nothing but 
 joy for one who thus goes home, 
 though there must be shock to 
 those who remain behind. 
 
 Not of death do we think at 
 Easter so much as of fulness 
 of life. All winter we have 
 had bare branches and silent 
 woods, gardens stripped, fields 
 brown and sere. But the time 
 of the singing of birds has come. 
 The orchards are soon to be gay 
 with blossoms. Nature, appar- 
 ently languid and idle during the 
 period of storm and cold, has 
 been steadily at work in her 
 potential way for months, and 
 soon the world will be waving 
 and fragrant with summer again. 
 In the eagerness of healthful child- 
 170
 
 Bfter*Easter 
 
 hood, who does not participate 
 in these happy hours; who is not 
 aware of a thrill of rapture as he 
 listens to the song of the robins, 
 or smells the bloom of the lilacs? 
 Spring has a charm to restore lost 
 childhood and make the old young 
 once more. Every springtide wit- 
 nesses this miracle wrought anew 
 in you and me. 
 
 By the door of an old farm- 
 house in Connecticut there grows 
 a white lilac bush, lifting its 
 perfumed plumes in the spring 
 air, sturdy and strong whatever 
 winds may blow. The people who 
 planted it went to heaven many 
 a long year ago, and the gray- 
 haired couple who occupied the 
 house when last I saw it are safe 
 amid the fadeless gardens of Jeru- 
 171
 
 salem that is above. Strangers 
 are there now, and the little flaxen- 
 haired brood of an alien race play 
 around the old threshold. But 
 the same flowers come back year 
 by year, preaching the same sweet 
 sermon of the changeless faithful- 
 ness of our God. When the last 
 echo of the Easter music has 
 melted away into space, when 
 the Easter garlands are withered, 
 and from the mount of our Easter 
 exaltation we descend to the val- 
 leys and the commonplaces of our 
 daily lives, let this be our cease- 
 less joy: that God is everwith us. 
 Always the same gospel ! He who, 
 year in and year out, sends the 
 shower and the sunbeam, dresses 
 highway and byway with beauty, 
 from the dogwood to the golden- 
 172
 
 rod, from the green leaf to the 
 brown, will not forget the least 
 of us. His goodness is ever new; 
 his kindness always outpoured, 
 his tenderness greater than our 
 uttermost demand, and the same 
 spring time over and over is sent 
 by the same dear Lord and Father. 
 In the old days of the Bible 
 there were those who dwelt with 
 Jehovah as we seldom do in our 
 hurrying modern life. Abraham 
 was "the friend of God," and 
 Enoch habitually "walked with 
 God," and we too, in our railway 
 trains and at our work, may have 
 glimpses of the unseen, may walk 
 with God, if we seek him amid the 
 details of our avocation and take 
 time to look upward. What a 
 different world this might be for 
 173
 
 some of us if we were ever alert 
 to hear the voice of God; if amid 
 the perturbations and disturbances 
 of our days we walked in such 
 sympathy with him that our souls 
 would be tranquil, whatever came 
 to us. 
 
 " Calm me, my God, and keep me calm, 
 Soft resting on thy breast," 
 
 should be the prayer of every one 
 who walks with God. 
 
 All sorts of human experiences 
 militate in our time with the con- 
 templative spirit which dwells 
 apart and muses of heavenly 
 things. Many a Christian has a 
 hard time to get along because 
 of limited means. Children to 
 be fed, clothed, and educated; 
 fuel to buy, rent to pay, some- 
 thing to be provided for the 
 174
 
 
 Htter*J6aster 
 
 future; it takes the whole of the 
 man's time and strength, or the 
 woman's faith and hope to carry 
 the burdens of responsibility and 
 ordinary work. If religion is good 
 for anything, it is good for sus- 
 taining the heavy-laden. Not on 
 Sundays only, with their blessed 
 intervals of peace, but on every 
 week day the thought of God 
 should bring a breath of balm, the 
 presence of Christ should make 
 of the plainest loaf and the scan- 
 tiest cup a feast. Surely it is not 
 only of the Sabbath that looking 
 back we may say, "He brought 
 me into his banqueting-house and 
 his banner over me was love." 
 
 Among the after-Easter sugges- 
 tions which we cannot forego is 
 one that has to do with the mourn- 
 175
 
 ing of Christians. When from a 
 household devoted to this world 
 and its pleasures and ambitions 
 one member goes, there may well 
 be gloom that is unrelieved, for 
 where is there room for hope of 
 reunion? But if the child, the 
 husband, the loved one, is taken 
 to Christ, the Christian has the 
 sure expectation that in a little 
 while there will be a blithe meet- 
 ing to compensate for the sad 
 parting. Not perhaps for a longer 
 time than often intervenes in this 
 world, are we divided from those 
 who pass onward, since we never 
 know how soon the summons home 
 may come for us. That other life 
 that seems so distant, may be 
 near, and always 
 
 It's coming, coming nearer, 
 That lovely land unseen, 
 176
 
 It's shores are growing clearer, 
 Though mists lie dark between. 
 
 Habitually to think on heaven 
 as the land of the living, and of 
 our dead as occupied there in 
 loving service, should help us 
 to bear our present bereavements 
 with cheerfulness that conquers 
 grief and makes resignation dig- 
 nified and tranquil. 
 
 Lent, formerly observed only 
 by certain sects in the church, is 
 gradually so winning the hearts 
 of Christians of every name, that 
 many quietly keep it as a period 
 when they may draw nearer to 
 their Master than in the ordinary 
 activities of time. A season of 
 retirement now and then is worth 
 while for any one's seeking who 
 wishes to grow in grace. The 
 177
 
 forty-days' fast, though only par- 
 tial as regards self-denial in food 
 and drink, may be profitably kept 
 by abstaining from some of the 
 ordinary social diversions, and by 
 giving larger time than usual to 
 prayer and scripture reading. 
 Would we know the mind of God, 
 let us search the Scriptures which 
 are able to make us wise unto 
 salvation. 
 
 "My friend/' said a good woman 
 meeting another on the street, 
 "I want you to have a richer 
 benediction from above than you 
 ever have had." The salutation 
 was uncommon. The one who 
 gave it had been herself uplifted 
 by a season of communion with the 
 Most High, it being her custom 
 now and then to spend a day in 
 178 

 
 her closet, giving the hours 
 prayer from morn till eve. 
 
 One day or forty days, let us 
 who have shared the Easter 
 gladness give from tune to tune 
 a special interval which shall be 
 consecrated to special thought, 
 prayer and study. 
 
 Every Christian Sabbath is a 
 commemoration of the resurrec- 
 tion. Every time the bells call 
 us to church they call us to wor- 
 ship the living Christ, the Lord who 
 was not chained of death but in 
 triumph broke its bonds. Enter- 
 ing the sanctuary we show that 
 we are followers of the risen one. 
 
 The apostles so near the tune 
 when the Lord was crucified, and 
 so happy hi their personal knowl- 
 edge of him before he ascended 
 179
 
 into heaven, continually preached 
 the resurrection. The New Tes- 
 tament is full of the melody 
 of their triumphant faith. We, 
 nearer to the day of his ultimate 
 triumph over men than they, 
 should have an equally regnant 
 faith. Our daily life and con- 
 versation should be set to the lofty 
 chorals of victory, and every Sab- 
 bath should bring to us an added 
 sense of joy, a farther-reaching 
 glimpse into the unseen. 
 
 How white are the flowers of 
 Easter, lily, azalea, heather, rose; 
 how stainless are the blossoms, 
 we choose for our churches, our 
 homes, and our festivals at this 
 flood-tide of the spring. I re- 
 member an after-Easter wedding 
 in a stately church ; the flowers, the 
 180
 
 Bfter^JEastcr /Busings. 
 
 ; 
 
 bride's dress, the white ribbons, 
 all typical of spotless purity. We 
 have such associations, all of us, 
 and though we admit gorgeousness 
 of color, yet the white tone pre- 
 dominates in our Easter adornings. 
 The suggestion is of robes washed 
 white, of sins removed and blotted 
 out, of the garments the redeemed 
 shall wear in Paradise. 
 
 When the Easter chorals cease, 
 
 When the Easter flowers fade; 
 Keep us still in perfect peace 
 
 In the sunbeam, in the shade: 
 Grant us, Lord, the Easter love, 
 
 Give us, Lord, the Easter hope, 
 Till we reach the realm above, 
 
 And the crystal portals ope. 
 
 Not more knowledge, but more 
 love, more child-like simplicity, 
 more spontaneity in our service, 
 are the great necessities of the 
 181 
 
 '
 
 
 "SSfi 
 
 ttbe -Joyful Xffe. 
 
 Christian life to-day. Is 
 real to you, dear friend? 
 you feel that you love him so that 
 life lacking him would be strangely 
 shorn of the beauty, of interest, 
 and of enthusiasm? Do you say 
 in the hush of the twilight, in the 
 heat of the noon, when the great 
 moon hangs golden on the horizon, 
 or the morning tints the east, 
 "My beloved is mine, and I am 
 his," "I am my beloved's, and my 
 beloved is mine." If so, you 
 may carry with you everywhere 
 and always a continual Easter 
 in your heart and life. 
 
 182
 
 When flfeotber is 
 Blue. 
 
 WHEN mother is blue, I 
 just put on my hat 
 and run away. It 
 takes all the sunshine out of the 
 house, and I can't stand it." 
 
 The speaker was a girl of twenty, 
 with an apple-blossom face and 
 merry eyes. One saw at a glance 
 that her life had been free from 
 the pressure of much care, just as 
 one read between the lines, in 
 looking at her mother's calm coun- 
 tenance, that the elder woman 
 had fought a long battle with ad- 
 183
 
 versities of various kinds. In that 
 faded face the eyes may once have 
 been merry, but they had grown 
 thoughtful, and it was hard to 
 believe that the matron had ever 
 been reproved in her youth for 
 indiscreet and immoderate hilar- 
 ity. Yet, as she smiled at her 
 daughter's impulsive speech, she 
 said, 
 
 "I was once as gay as Gertrude 
 ever is. In fact, I was noted for 
 my irrepressible spirits. The dis- 
 cipline of experience has toned 
 me down, but I am almost always 
 cheerful." 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said the daugh- 
 ter, patting her mother's cheek, 
 " and that is why I am so disturbed 
 when she is out of sorts, the dear 
 brave lady. I feel as if the bottom 
 184
 
 
 TKHben flDotber is Blue, 
 
 has dropped out of our scheme of 
 living when mother gives up and 
 folds her hands in melancholy." 
 I went on my way with a new 
 appreciation of the mother's value 
 to a home. Motherhood implies 
 so much, must mean so much in 
 every environment, and in our 
 households what do we not expect 
 from her who is at the helm? She 
 manages the domestic economy, 
 often doing most if not all of the 
 work with her own hands. She 
 buys the material for the chil- 
 dren's clothing, cuts it out and 
 makes it. The weekly mending 
 and darning for an ordinary fam- 
 ily is a large and onerous task, 
 and in a majority of instances 
 the mother undertakes and carries 
 it on without assistance. When 
 185
 
 Vbe Jopful *tte. 
 
 ffl 
 
 a maid is kept, or where there 
 are several servants, the routine 
 still demands the continual super- 
 vision of the lady of the house, 
 an old-fashioned term which I 
 like for its suggestiveness and de- 
 scriptive character. It is she who 
 plans and projects, who caters and 
 provides against usual or unusual 
 needs, who frequently makes the 
 finer desserts, and on whom the 
 comfort of her circle depends. 
 
 Mother is the confidante of the 
 children, who bring to her their 
 little daily troubles and trials, 
 tell her of their school difficulties 
 and ask her help at evening when 
 they study the lessons for the 
 As her sons ; 
 
 day. 
 
 daugh- 
 
 ters grow up, they more than ever 
 
 need her counsel and support; 
 
 186
 
 Wben flDotber IB SBlue. 
 
 more than ever lay their burdens 
 at her feet, and receive from her 
 wise and tender hands maxims 
 and bits of advice as indispensable 
 as daily bread. 
 
 A father may throughout the 
 years of their opening lives show 
 indifference, aversion or positive 
 hostility to religion, yet if his 
 children have a pious and praying 
 mother, she may draw them one 
 by one into the kingdom. A 
 Christian mother, one who lives 
 close to God, is almost invincible 
 against the darts of Satan, and 
 opposes an armor of proof that 
 throws off his poisoned arrows 
 and acts as a shield for her loved 
 ones. God has ordained that 
 mothers shall be influential be- 
 yond others. They have the first 
 187
 
 I 
 
 Ube 3osf ul OLffe. 
 
 chance. The impressions they 
 make are the most enduring. I 
 would not underrate nor diminish 
 the potency of Christian father- 
 hood ; but men are less with their 
 families in the home, and less 
 able to lay line upon line and 
 precept upon precept in their 
 children's training, than are 
 women. No Christian mother 
 should ever despair of the ultimate 
 safety, the conversion, and the 
 sanctification of those whom as 
 little ones she brought to the 
 Lord in continual, reverent and 
 humble faith. 
 
 But, with everything they have 
 to do, mothers sometimes grow 
 weary. Health fails, trials thick- 
 en, anxieties crush. The most 
 elastic nature is not strong 
 188
 
 Wben flDotber is Blue. 
 
 enough to cope with never-ceasing 
 financial stress. Just a little more 
 money in many an instance would 
 so ease the machinery of the home, 
 so lessen the load, so brighten 
 the life, that the mother would 
 live longer, be less irritable, be 
 freed from nervousness, and do 
 her best as she is never able to do, 
 handicapped by limited means. 
 Mother is "blue," because mother 
 is worn out. Mother is "blue" 
 because the rose-light of hope 
 has turned to dull gray ash and 
 withered brown in her pathway. 
 The happy young things about 
 her, effervescing with vivacity, 
 overflowing with energy, do not 
 comprehend mother's despondency 
 for two reasons: one is that they 
 are so well and so strong that 
 189 

 
 they have not yet learned sym- 
 pathy with ill health and feeble- 
 ness, and the other that they are 
 often in. the dark as to the causes 
 of maternal solicitude. With a 
 mistaken kindness parents often 
 keep their trials to themselves 
 and refuse to let young people 
 share them. The life of the home 
 goes on with "a flowing sail/' 
 nobody is warned of reefs and 
 shoals, and not until a crash 
 comes are any of the family except 
 the overwrought parents aware 
 that there were danger signals 
 which ought to have been heeded. 
 "I don't want to spoil young 
 lives," says the mother. 
 
 In family life reciprocity should 
 rule. With a weakness that has 
 its root in purity and unselfishness 
 190
 
 IKIlben flDotber fs JSlue. 
 
 parents overbrood their children 
 long after the latter have out- 
 grown the necessity. For ex- 
 ample, a man was struggling in 
 deep waters in a period of life 
 when his first strength was spent, 
 middle age with its encroach- 
 ments had arrived, and pecuni- 
 arily he had all to do that he 
 could possibly attempt, in order 
 to save his credit and keep himself 
 from bankruptcy. His situation 
 was known to a friend, who met 
 him one day accompanied by a 
 young and very beautiful girl, his 
 eldest daughter. She was ur- 
 gently pleading for the money 
 to buy an expensive outfit for a 
 summer jaunt, and she continued 
 her petitions, half in banter, made 
 as a cover for a very evident 
 191
 
 sober seriousness of intention 
 and desire. The father's predica- 
 ment was that of an indulgent 
 man who had never denied his 
 child a request that it was in his 
 power to grant. He tried to say 
 No, but yielded in the end, gave 
 the daughter her way, and plunged 
 himself into more tangled difficul- 
 ties. "I never saw anything so 
 cruel as that young girl's beha- 
 vior," was the friend's comment; 
 "nor so inane as that of her 
 father. He seemed to me pitiably 
 weak and foolish." 
 
 In such a situation, complete 
 confidence would do much to 
 render impossible so unhappy an 
 incident. Parents ought to let 
 sons and daughters know the 
 family resources, and to some 
 192
 
 TPQlben flBotber te JSlue. 
 
 extent, at least by self-denial, 
 allow them to share the family 
 burdens. Mother would seldom 
 be "blue" if she were not unduly 
 weighted with the heft of loads 
 too great for her to bear. 
 
 But when she is depressed, is 
 it quite fair to run away and 
 leave her to "dree her weird 
 alone"? Sometimes this is what 
 she needs, quiet, seclusion, no 
 one, above all, to jar on her mood 
 by untimely cheer, no one to 
 antagonize her by reproaches. 
 Often she does want and would 
 respond to tenderness, to gentle- 
 ness and loving caresses and 
 speech. If she can be persuaded 
 to get out of herself by any tact- 
 ful ministries, her fit of the blues 
 will soon pass away. 
 193
 
 Mothers are very apt to lack 
 variety in their lives. The 
 younger people have the vacations, 
 mothers stay at home and cook 
 and sew. There is a limit to 
 woman's power of endurance. 
 Over many a lowly mound, be- 
 dewed by sorrowful mourners with 
 honest tears, might be written, 
 "Died of monotony." Change of 
 scene is better than medicine for 
 many a malady of body and mind. 
 Once in a while a surprise might 
 be carried out by which the youth 
 of a tired woman should be re- 
 newed. 
 
 I recall a wedding I once at- 
 tended, where the bride went from 
 her father's house a slender lily- 
 white girl, who had been brought 
 up most delicately in an atmos- 
 194
 
 TlClben flDotber is Blue. 
 
 phere of ease and luxury. She 
 accompanied the husband of her 
 choice into a rough, hard pioneer 
 life in a new State, and there, far 
 from neighbors, from church privi- 
 leges, or any social advantages, 
 she spent many years. Children 
 came rapidly. Her cares were 
 numerous. She grew old and 
 hard-handed and prematurely 
 bent. At last there was received 
 a pressing invitation from her 
 girlhood's home for her return 
 there, to make a long and restful 
 visit. True to her habit of self- 
 abnegation, she was reluctant to 
 consent, and desired to send a 
 representative in her graceful 
 Maud, the image of herself at 
 seventeen, or her dimpled Agnes, 
 a lovely child of fourteen. But 
 195
 
 
 the children were firm. Mother 
 must go, they said, and go she did. 
 A new black silk gown for occa- 
 sions was an unheard of extrava- 
 gance, but it was procured; her 
 wardrobe, though very simple, 
 was augmented until she felt that 
 it was presentable, and a shy, 
 reserved, timid stranger, the 
 woman who had forgotten the 
 lightsomeness of her youth, ap- 
 peared again in her olden place. 
 At first she described her sen- 
 sations by the homely comparison 
 of a cat in a strange garret; but 
 the unfamiliarity wore off, the 
 rough hands smoothed, and she 
 found that leisure had attractions 
 of its own. People did not know 
 her when she emerged from the 
 enfolding solitude of her far off 
 196
 
 TKttben jflDotber is 3Blue. 
 
 home, but bit by bit they dis- 
 covered her to be the same that 
 she used to be, and when, after 
 three swift months had gone, 
 she said that she must turn her 
 face again to husband and chil- 
 dren, it was predicted that they 
 would hardly know her there. 
 Nor was it quite the same mother 
 who went home; it was a mother 
 rested, refreshed, and wonder- 
 fully rejuvenated; freed from the 
 fettering grooves, and with new 
 strength, new interest, and new 
 delight in living. Such a new 
 lease might be given to many a 
 tired out mother. 
 
 In every age, in every clime, 
 the tendrils of the heart cling 
 to the mother. Alike in the far 
 East as in the newer West, she 
 197
 
 takes precedence of others, with 
 a singular and compelling charm 
 that has its origin in human nature. 
 The one who nursed us in infancy 
 must be dearest and nearest in 
 one exquisite and intimate rela- 
 tion until the end of her life. 
 Mother love is sacred, is unexact- 
 ing, is glorious. Though poets 
 and painters prefer to dwell on 
 the love of the young mother, 
 holding in her arms the little 
 child, in real life the mother grown 
 old is just as beautiful and as 
 fondly cherished as her youthful 
 sister. King Solomon rose and 
 seated his aged mother beside 
 him on the throne when she 
 entered his royal presence, type 
 in this of every loyal son who does 
 honor to a venerable mother. 
 198
 
 
 flDotber is Blue, 
 
 The mother to whom we pay 
 no homage is the one, rarely seen, 
 whom Dickens drew under the 
 name of Mrs. Skewton. Artificial, 
 aping juvenility, heartless, fasten- 
 ing her poor old hands in a frantic 
 clutch on the fringes of fashion, 
 her very existence a thing of 
 shreds and patches, one can 
 scarcely tolerate such a travesty 
 of motherhood. One hopes it is 
 a caricature; and yet to this 
 degradation a woman may come 
 in old age, if she live for this world 
 only. 
 
 " She has chosen the world and its 
 
 Misnamed pleasure, 
 She has chosen the world before 
 Heaven's own treasure." 
 
 When mother is blue, or a little 
 difficult, or set too much in her 
 199 
 
 .- 
 
 i
 
 own way quite to suit the head- 
 strong wilfulness of the juniors, 
 bear with her and set about bring- 
 ing back her sunshine. Half the 
 every-day sorrow of this earth 
 would melt into thin air if we 
 were all more anxious to give joy 
 than to get it, to be rather love- 
 worthy than grasping, and to 
 make others happy whether or 
 not we were happy ourselves. 
 
 200
 
 WRITING from his country 
 home to a friend in 
 town, Dr. Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes, then past his three 
 score years and ten, said that on 
 the preceding Sabbath he had at- 
 tended the Baptist church in the 
 village, adding, " There is a little 
 plant called Reverence, in a corner 
 of 'my soul's garden, which I like 
 to have watered about once a 
 week." 
 
 The old-fashioned virtue of
 
 daily life, is rather deprecated 
 in our modern society. Shake- 
 speare says, "Yet Reverence, that 
 angel of the world, doth make 
 distinction of place 'twixt high 
 and low." It is our boast now, 
 however our observation chal- 
 lenges its truth, that we have no 
 distinctions of rank and class in 
 America; that all men are born 
 free and equal, and that they so 
 remain. Certainly a vast change 
 has come to pass since the New 
 England parson, stately in his 
 ruffled shirt and gold-headed cane, 
 walked the streets of the seques- 
 tered hamlet or the growing city, 
 regarded, for the sake of his office 
 and his personality, with veneration 
 by young and old . In Hawthorne 's 
 picturesque delineations of Puritan 
 202
 
 life we find gentlewomen sump- 
 tuously arrayed in velvet and 
 lace, while matrons of lesser sta- 
 tion were limited to stuff of in- 
 ferior value and smaller cost. 
 Apparently there were no heart- 
 burnings over accepted facts of 
 this land; the cottage maiden 
 and her good mother did not envy 
 the splendors of the Squire's lady 
 and the Judge's daughter. As a 
 wave of revolt against class des- 
 potism swept over France, and 
 then a tempest of revolution set 
 our colonies on the safe shore of 
 national independence, many fine, 
 sincere and noble things came 
 in, but one brave, exquisite and 
 lovely thing went out. Rever- 
 ence, deference, recognition of the 
 rights and privileges of courtesy 
 203 
 
 M
 
 Ube Sopful %ffe, 
 
 ^S%gj? 
 
 have been suffered to become 
 almost obsolete in many quarters. 
 It behooves us in these days to ask 
 why, and once more to plant in 
 our municipalities and our rural 
 demesnes the blooming herb of 
 reverence. 
 
 We may begin by teaching the 
 children to behave with politeness 
 to their elders. I have heard 
 my kinswomen of a former gener- 
 ation tell how they stood in the 
 presence of their fathers and 
 mothers, unless they were re- 
 quested to sit. Mrs. Sherwood 
 and Frederika Bremer describe 
 in their autobiographies a similar 
 custom in their childish days. 
 With the swing of the pendulum 
 which has reversed so much of 
 the old order, has, unfortunately, 
 204
 
 j^S, 
 
 "Reverence. 
 
 resulted a state of affairs in which, 
 so to speak, parents stand and 
 children sit. In far too many 
 households, not in the least for 
 their own happiness and well 
 being, children are autocrats and 
 arbiters, and do as they please 
 in most of their relations to home 
 and social life. Barbara and 
 Timothy attend a Sabbath-school 
 which does not belong to the 
 parental church, and they go to 
 church or stay away as they 
 choose. Miriam calmly swings 
 her little feet from the most 
 luxurious chair in the room, while 
 grandpapa contents himself with 
 anything he can find. Jacky 
 plays soldier in the halls and tears 
 madly up and down stairs, whoop- 
 ing like an Indian brave, while 
 205
 
 his mother struggles heroically 
 with a nervous headache, but 
 does not interfere with the boy, 
 lest he shall not be happy in his 
 home. The juvenile contingent 
 owns the place, and, by a method 
 of natural induction, learns that 
 it is not worth while to show much 
 attention to any one not of its 
 especial world. 
 
 Yet, whoever so trams or so 
 mistrains a child that he or she 
 reaches maturity without the 
 spirit and the practice of deference 
 to authority and consideration 
 to others, does that child a most 
 grievous wrong. No other charm 
 of girlhood is so winsome, no 
 attraction of youthful manhood 
 so potential as that habit of 
 courtesy which has its root in an 
 206
 
 Reverence, 
 
 S^jgjg^gg 
 
 acknowledgment of the claims 
 of infirmity, of weakness, of su- 
 perior age and of honorable sta- 
 tion. The truly well-bred person 
 does not appear crude and ill- 
 mannered, or arrogant and self- 
 assertive in the presence of those 
 whom he has the grace to treat 
 with respect. 
 
 The quaint, sweet word decorum 
 is not lacking in fragrance; it 
 perfumes, as with lavender from 
 an old-time garden, the inter- 
 course of society where reverence 
 is still known and practised. 
 
 A deep courtesy and a profound 
 bow are, each in its place, more 
 elegant than the curt nod which 
 is far too common. The hat taken 
 
 touched 
 
 off the 
 
 jrely 
 
 or lifted, is a sign of fine breeding, 
 
 207
 
 more common among gentlemen 
 of the courtly old school than 
 among hurried men of the new. 
 Even the disuse of the beautiful 
 term "lady," and the substitution 
 in season and out of season, of 
 the word "woman," are significant 
 of an epoch when manners are 
 degenerate, and brusqueness is 
 exalted above the sweet refine- 
 ments of delicate ceremony. 
 
 Every boy in the land should 
 be drilled scrupulously by his 
 mother in the accomplishment of 
 lifting his hat or pulling off his 
 cap when he says "good morn- 
 ing " or "good evening" to people 
 whom he meets. The lad should 
 learn to stand bareheaded when 
 talking to an older friend, certainly 
 to a woman on the street, unless 
 208 

 
 Reverence. 
 
 the inclemency of the weather 
 affords him an excuse for covering 
 in her presence. Children on 
 their way to school along country 
 roads should be taught to acknowl- 
 edge, with a pleasant bow, the 
 presence of the people whom they 
 pass. But these are merely ex- 
 ternals of ordinary politeness 
 which should never have been 
 allowed to drop into desuetude. 
 The true spirit of reverence ought 
 to go deeper. Witness how often 
 and how rudely children and young 
 people interrupt their elders, how 
 their concerns take precedence of 
 every other interest, how they 
 clamor for their way, and how 
 easily they get it. I have seen 
 
 a 
 
 young 
 graduate 
 
 and 
 of 
 
 a 
 
 beautiful girl, the 
 famous college, lead 
 209
 
 Xife. 
 
 the conversation in a drawing- 
 room where were seated a group 
 of people, several of whom were 
 entitled to be called personages. 
 That one had gained honors in the 
 Civil War, that another was an 
 eminent professional man, that 
 two or three ladies were leaders in 
 the benevolences of the city and 
 State made no impression what- 
 ever on the young woman, who 
 simply chattered away, monopo- 
 lizing the floor, herself her heroine. 
 I know a girl who is plain as to 
 feature and awkward as to form, 
 whose opportunities have been 
 few, and whose culture is narrow, 
 yet she never goes anywhere or 
 stays under any roof that her 
 influence is not felt, as gentle as 
 the south wind, as perfumed as 
 
 210
 
 the violets breath. Her secret is 
 simplicity and deference. She 
 forgets herself. She puts others 
 first. The elderly lady, the old 
 gentleman, hi her code are en- 
 titled to deference when they 
 speak, and to the best seats by 
 the hearth and at the board. She 
 is beloved, because she gives much 
 and requests little. 
 
 I wish we might all pay more 
 attention to our manners. Man- 
 ner is the concrete expression of 
 one's nature and character; it is 
 partly inherited; it is developed 
 from within rather than acquired 
 from without; but manners are 
 the product of habits. They may 
 be taught, they may be learned, 
 they are somewhat affected by 
 association, and they derive a 
 
 211
 
 great deal from imitation. No 
 child should sit still when a lady, 
 his mother or his aunt, or a friend 
 of the family, enters the room. 
 The child should rise and remain 
 standing till the lady is seated. 
 The same courtesy should be 
 shown a gentleman with the dig- 
 nity of years upon his head. No 
 young man or woman should 
 monopolize conversation or rudely 
 contradict the expressions of an 
 older person. Indeed rudeness is 
 a quality to be ruled out of human 
 intercourse as soon as possible. 
 But we may rise to a higher 
 plane. Dr. Holmes habitually 
 went to church that he might 
 cultivate the plant of reverence 
 in his soul. How is it with men, 
 old, young and of middle age, who 
 212
 
 Reverence. 
 
 
 by scores and hundreds are absent 
 from their pews every Sabbath, 
 excusing themselves on this and 
 the other plea of weariness or 
 indifference, and letting wives and 
 daughters and sisters worship 
 alone? They lounge at home, 
 reading secular books and news- 
 papers, treating the house of God 
 as though it were a useless inter- 
 ruption of a man's routine, and 
 flinging defiance in the face of the 
 Almighty, who has said, "Ye 
 shall keep my Sabbaths and rev- 
 erence my sanctuaries." What 
 reverence for God's word is incul- 
 cated in homes where there is no 
 family prayer, or for God's provi- 
 dential oversight at tables where 
 no blessing is asked or thanks 
 rendered? How shall a house- 
 213 

 
 xfte. 
 
 hold learn to revere the Lord, 
 when evidently money and fashion 
 and ambition and display and 
 pleasure are objects of worship 
 rather than the Heavenly Father? 
 
 All foolish jesting which makes 
 light of religion, all sneering at 
 piety, all taking of God's name 
 and attributes in vain, militate 
 against reverence in character. I 
 cannot protest too strongly against 
 any use of the Bible which is not 
 thoughtful and devotional. To 
 take the words of scripture to cap 
 a pun or solve a conundrum 
 seems to me blasphemous. 
 
 Another point on which we 
 may profitably dwell is demeanor 
 in God's house. When the church 
 is made a place where friends 
 whisper and talk before service, 
 214 
 
 m
 
 Reverence. 
 
 where they carry on bits of chat 
 at intervals during its progress, 
 where they look over hymn-books 
 or the church programs during 
 a sermon that tires them, or stare 
 about during a prayer, good man- 
 ners are violated, and reverence 
 is hopelessly at fault. Persons 
 who assume their outdoor wraps 
 during doxology or benediction 
 are anything but reverential; 
 those who shut their psalters and 
 hymn-books with emphasis and 
 dash them back into the rack with 
 the rattle of musketry, manifest 
 ignorance of propriety, and those 
 who rush from a church the in- 
 stant of dismissal, as if fleeing 
 from a pestilence, are equally 
 wanting in the elements of good 
 behavior. Reverence for God's 
 215
 
 
 house is as essential a matter of 
 right Christian conduct as rever- 
 ence for God's word. Let none 
 lay a profane finger on the ark 
 of the Lord. 
 
 In our closets, too, we may cul- 
 tivate reverence. Let us reflect 
 on the way we pray. How often 
 do we hurry into the Divine 
 presence, hasten through our self- 
 ish catalogue, and say "Amen" 
 with a sense of relief. I can 
 remember my father sitting for 
 five minutes with the Book in his 
 hand, "composing his mind," 
 before beginning family worship, 
 and I cannot think that in his 
 private devotions he ever fell into 
 unseemly haste. 
 
 We have caught the temper of 
 the period a temper of unrest, of 
 216
 
 "Reverence. 
 
 fever, of frantic endeavor to be 
 first, and to get on. Automobiles 
 run over little children and infirm 
 old people, crushing them under 
 their Juggernaut wheels ; trains 
 wait for no man's leisure; elec- 
 tricity belts the globe yet still 
 the stars keep on their everlasting 
 courses and the God of nature 
 holds the winds in his fist, and in 
 the heaven above us abides the 
 serenity of eternity, where time 
 shall be no more. 
 
 When we stand before the great 
 white throne, when we bow at 
 Jesus' feet, shall we not be rever- 
 ent then? O friends, let us be 
 reverent now. In wonder, and 
 adoration, and awe let us praise 
 the King, whose constant care is 
 over us, whose everlasting arms 
 217
 
 are beneath us, whose love is our 
 dwelling place. Let us be reverent 
 in the presence of our Father in 
 heaven. 
 
 Browning, hi one of his most 
 excellent lyrics, speaks of com- 
 mencing every day's work with 
 "bent head and beseeching hands" 
 that so upon it might descend the 
 blessing from above. Is there 
 not here for our every common 
 day and little task an example 
 by which we might profit? 
 
 218 

 
 Talks Between Times. 
 
 By MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 
 
 tamo, 15* pages, Cloth. 75 Cents, Postpaid. 
 
 tUbat XeaDlng papers Sag of ft. 
 
 N. Y. OBSERVER. Beautiful and helpful talks from a gifted 
 and beloved writer upon subjects that are of the highest concern to 
 the best interest of the home and of a faithful Christian life. 
 
 C. E. WORLD. Quiet heart to heart talks on homelike 
 theories a serene faith is shot through them all, and they are 
 all buoyant with good cheer. 
 
 OUTLOOK. They breathe loving sympathy, practical wisdom, 
 and religion both sweet and rational. 
 
 CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER. A book by Mrs. Sangster is 
 always worth reading and possessing, and when so dainty and 
 attractive in dress as this, with its beautiful binding and typography, 
 with each page set in an artistic border, it becomes doubly valuable. 
 
 LUTHERAN OBSERVER. Full of good counsel, spirit, stimu- 
 lus and inspiration to a life of faith. 
 
 NATIONAL ADVOCATE. Just the book to put into the hands 
 of a young person. 
 
 CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. Sensible and helpful talks full of 
 a beautiful religious spirit. 
 
 ADVOCATE AND GUARDIAN. Written in Mrs. Sangster's 
 best vein; practical, uplifting and refining: sweet and beautiful. 
 
 RELIGIOUS TELESCOPE. The name of the gifted author of 
 this beautiful volume is a guarantee of its excellence. 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 NEW YORK.
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
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