Nebraska Newspapers

    The Sioux County Journal,
VOLUME IX
HARKISON, NEBRASKA THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1896.
NUMBER 2.
A BLESSED
Mra. Mnnroe wai In esctasles of de
light She had secured new cook at
the moat ridiculous wages. Of course,
he had not told the new girl, but It wan
quite true that she paid her not half
what she had teen compelled to pay
the cook who had Jut left her. But
when Ahnlra Pollers, a fresh, pleasant
featured young country gMt 118(5 aP
piled for the place and had accepted
Mra. Monroe's offer of $2 a week to
tart with, her new mistress did not
think It necessary to mention that the
proffered mini was very low Indeed.
"Of course, you shall have more as
you Improve, Almlra, but you know so
little about fancy cooking I scarcely
feel able to pay you more at the start,"
Mrs. Munroe had, smiling sweetly on
Almlra, who did not know that very lit
tle fancy cooking was ever done In that
household. And so Almlra took up her
burden, and for the first time In nine
teen years of her life began to earn
wages.
The Tollers had always leen farmers
and owned their own place, but Al
nilra's father had somehow managed
to get behind and a mortgage had been
fastened upon the farm. The man who
held the mortgage was very well satis
fied to receive a good Interest every
year and renew Peter rollers' note, but
it came to pass that It was hard to pay
even the Interest. This particular year
the crops had mostly failed. It lacked
but a few weeks until the interest was
due, when Almlra, the eldest of the
flock there were ten In all made up
her mind to go out "to service." Her
determination created a great commo
tion In the family. None of the 1'ollers
women bad ever worked out, and the
Idea was very distasteful, but Almlra
eventually carried the day. Had her
education been thorough enough she
would gladly have taught school, but
the little Poller had appeared at such
frequent intervals that Almlra was ob
liged to stay at borne most of the time
to assist her mother, and her educa
tion was limited.
So, not without some Inward strug
gles, she had decided that the only way
she could help along would be by ex
ercising her chief gift, cooking. Mr.
Munroe' advertisement In the Week
ly Gazette had caught her eye, and
she was very happy when she secured
the situation. The wages were not
large, but she could save all the money
for her father, and there would be ono
less to feed at home. That counted
for something.
Mrs. Munro's family consisted of her
self and a brother. Mr. Monroe hud
died several years before and his wid
ow was quite wealthy. Her home, sit
uated in an aristocratic suburb of the
city, although small, was handsome
and well appointed, and she had surtl
clent Income to keep It up well. Mrs.
Munroe liked to call herself economic
al, and we cannot deny she was In
some things. She dressed elegantly
and gave largely to her church, but
there never was a closer woman lu
some respects than she, . The shop peo
ple drwided to see her come In, for al
though she always purchased the best,
she Invariably haggled at the price
until she got the goods for less than
their marked price. At the groceries
It was the same way, and woe to the
servant who wasted a scrap of any
thing or presumed to eat more than
the mistress thought necessary. After
the first table Mrs. Munroe removed
any delicacies she considered unneces
sary for servant's coarse appetite
without the slightest compunction.
Her brother Tom, who paid a band
some am for the privilege of sharing
her home, once saw tills performance
and remonstrated with her, but to no
avalL
"It would be casting pearls before
wine," she remarked to bis Intense
disgust, as she replaced a dish of lem
on jelly In the closet and substituted a
saucer of molasses.
Tom Blrney was one of those big
hearted convivial fellows who, left
with more money than they needed,
succeeded In getting rid of It In differ
ent and unprofitable ways. He was
not really bad, but he drank a food
bit and never bad done anything use
ful In his life. He bad been pnt In
his father's office, bat be was extreme
ly weak In bis arithmetic, and suc
ceeded in mixing up the figures to
badly that It took an expert to un
tangle them. After that his father
had not tried to make a business man
of him, but said that as Tom bad been
cut out for a gentleman be should be
one.
Bat this waa exactly what poor Tom
was not cut out to bethat la, If we
agree to the accepted meaning of the
word a man of refined manner. He
loved hones and enjoyed the society
of horsemen; Uksd bsstsr to bear a
rotsatt Qermaa fist stag loony songs
MORTGAGE
at the garden than to bear Pattl at
the Orand. If he ever yielded to his
sister's Importunities to accompany
her to a dancing party he was sure to
step on his partner's toes, to tear their
dresses by his awkwardness, and drink
too much champagne at supper. In
fact Tom, although kind-hearted and
honest, was very 111 at ease and out
of pluce at society, and at last, after
making himself very conspicuous at a
New York dance, his sister vowed she
would never ask him to go with her
again. She told him this very emphat
ically the morning after the ball, o
she left him to eat his late breakfast
alone.
Tom was feeling very badly and In
dulging lu a severe case of "katxen
Jammer," the result of too frequent vis
Its to the punch bowl, but looked up
when Almlra came In with bis break
fast and noticed that she was looking
pale.
"What Is the matter, Almlra T he
asked.
"Nothing, Mr. Tom," replied Almira,
moving toward the door quietly.
"I say there Is something wrong;
out with It, Almlra," continued Toui,
wishing to help her If she was In trou
ble of any kind. Almlra made no re
ply and Tom sprang up and obstruct
ed her way.
"Ray, you're working too hard, and
Sister Eleanor pay Joa beastly small
wages, I'll be bound. Maybe it's a
new gown or a bonnet you're gr'.er
Ing after eh, Almlra? Here, take this
and get It" And before Elmlra could
speak the Impulsive Tom had plunged
his hands Into his pockets, brought out
a lot of coin and pushed it Into iicr
hands.
"How dare you?" she demanded, so
choked up she could scarcely artic
ulate. "Have I ever given you any
reason, Mr. Tom, to treat me with
such disrespect?"
"Disrespect?" repented Torn, very
red and astonished. "Do you think I
meant any disrespect to you, Almira?
I swear I respect you more than any
other woman I know; I only thought
you were pining for some of the pret
ty things most girls like, and why
shouldn't I do some good with my
useless money?"
Almlra saw that he was honest In
his speech and was appeased, but
when he asked anxiously, "If it isn't
a gown or hat what In heaven's name
Is It?" she burst Into tears, and for
getting that she was Mrs. Munroe's
servant-girl and that Mr. Tom was
her brother and a rich man, forgetting
all save the trouble that was wearing
on her and making her pale and thin,
she poured out her woes into his sym
pathising ear.
She told him about the mortage on
their farm, how It hud been renewed
from year to year when the Interest
was paid. They had grown so accus
tomed to that they had never thought
of losing the plnce until Mr. Pollers, on
taking the Interest ho hardly earned
and Increased by Almlra's savings, had
been Informed that his creditors need
ed the money and must have It on the
farm.
The blow had fallen like a clap of
thunder from a clear sky. The thought
of leaving the old homestead was In
supportable, antl yet where could Fe
ter Pollers expect to raise the money
to cancel the mortgage? .
Almira told her story, punctuated by
sobs, and Tom listened attentively.
When she had finished, be asked, "Is
It a large sum, Almlra V
"Oh, yes, Mr. Tom, 12,000!" she said,
sadly.
"Hum!" said Tom, pulling bis mus
tache and looking very hard out of
the window. "Couldn't your father get
some one to pay the man and take np
the mortgage?
"Suppose suppose I take It up, Al
mlra?" ventured Tom, still looking out
of the window and getting very red
again. Astonishment and rapture ap
peared on the girl's face at bis words.
"Do you mean It, Mr. Tom? Oh, you
are too good!" she cried.
"Bosh!" said Tom, brusquely. "It's
simply a good Investment Don't ac
cuse me of being food, Almlra; I'm In
corrigibly bad, I am. Bur (bearing
footstep approaching), "run on. I'll
drive out and see your father to-day
and fet the mortgage." And without
glvtnf her a moment to express her
thanks, he hurried on.
Not long 'after this Almlra noticed
that Tom waa drinking steadily. He
took what meals be ate at noma alone,
Mrs. Munroe declaring aba would not
and could not land him bar countenance.
The gM, as ah waited on him, fait a
great deal of pity lor this man, who
seemed so alona and was wasting
hearth and fortune la d hart pa Moo, and
at last one mora lag when be-waa look
ing oBBtmaOy used up aad his hands
were trembling so that he could hardly j
bold bU cup she again forgot the dlf-!
Terence In their stations and spoke out j
"Mr. Tom," she said, "I'm sorry for
you."
"What! Sorry for me? What do you
mean, Almlra? I'm having a Jolly good
time. A short life and a merry one
that'e my motto.
Almira shook her bead and looked at
him steadily. "IM you never think how
much good you might do instead of
throwing yourself Into little better than
a bwwt?"
"Humph! That's pretty strong lan
guage, I must say," he growled.
"But It's true, Mr. Tom, If you keep
on you'll sink lower and lower oh, if s
dreadful to think of It" Almlra shud
dered as she picked up her tray and left
the table.
"Hold there," said Tom, "you don't
understand It, Almlra. It's got euch a
hold on me. How can I shake It off?
I've got no one else to help me if I try,"
and, weakened and unnerved as he
was, the tears etarted to his eyes. "Tell
me what to do."
"You can get down and pray to Ood
to help you," said Almlra, solemnly,
"and you can go to the cure. They say
It's wonderful what they can do. Be
a man, Mr. Tom, and try It," she urged.
Tom sat Irresolute for a moment,
then rose and grasped her hand. "I
will try," he said, "and If I come out
ahead It will all be owing to you. But
It will be hard, Almlra. I know, for I
tried once, only I couldn't stick It out.
But I'll try again, if only to show
you " He stopped abruptly and rung
her hand and rushed out of the room.
If Mrs. Munroe had known that her
brother set such value on Almlra Pol
lers' good opinion she would have been
horrified. She reported that brother
Tom had gone to a sanitarium because
she had lectured him Into It, and was
quite satisfied as the weeks lengthened
Into months and Tom still remained
there.
In truth he waa having a terrible
fight with the demon who had so near
ly claimed him as his own. But at last
he "came out ahead," as he himself ex
plained It
When he returned home he walked
straight through all the handsome
rooms down to tho kitchen, where Al
mlra. was alone at work. The look
on his face even before he spoke, told
her that ha hnd conquered.
"Oh, I'm so glad," she faltered, put
ting her toll-worn hand Into the one he
held out. "I knew you could do It"
"You had faith in me, did you, Al
mlra?" he risked, still holding her hand
and looking curiously at her beaming
face. Almira nodded assent
"Well, I'm cured now wouldn't touch
a drop of It if there were gallons and
gallons of the very finest flowing
around me. But will It Inst? I can't
tell, and I've got to have somebody to
help me If that dreaded thirst comes
on again. I've got to have a wife who
will love and believe in me and keep
me from fulling. You're the only one
who had faith in me, Almlra, and you're
the only ono I want for a wife. Sny
yes, Almlra."
"Oh, Mr.-Tom," she cried, trying to
draw her band away, "you can't mean
It why I'm only your Bister's cook."
"That has nothing to do with the
case. You're the noblest girl I know,
and I want you and only you. Can't
you try to love me enough to marry
me, Almlra? I'll try to be a good hus
band, I swear."
"How can I help loving you," mur
mured Almlra. "I've nearly worshiped
you since you lifted thnt heavy load
from my poor father's shoulders, and
If you think I am good enough for
you "
"Put on your bonnet right away and
we'll find a license and a parson. Mrs.
Munroe might say some things un
pleasant things to Almlra Pollers that
she wonld not dare to sny to Mrs. Tom
Blrney." And In spite of Almlra's re
monstrances she was marched off, and
so expeditious was Tom that Inside of
nn hour they were married.
Mrs. Munroe, when she was notified
of the happy event, gave full sway to
her rage In the privacy of her own
room. When kind friends offered con
dolence she sighed and wiped a few
Imaginary tears with ber handkerchief.
"Brother Tom was always the black
sheep of the family," she said. "We
never could make a gentleman of him.
I suppose we should be thankful he's
done no worse. The girl Is really quite
capable and may be able to keep blm
straight"
The usual order of things was re
versed when Mrs. Tom Blrney on her
wedding day made ber father a present,
and It was nothing less than the mort
gage on his farm. And Almtra said,
as they all drew around the fireplace
and watched It turn to ashen, that It
waa a blessed mortgage after all, for
it led her Indirectly to her Tom. To
ledo Blade.
Tommy flay, Mollis, I wish I bad 10
cents to get some candy with. Mollis--Qo
and ask father who Socrates wss
and what Is meant by the differential
oal cuius. He's got company, and I
shouldn't wonder If be gare you a quar
ter. Boston Transcript
"Do you have a tsleptene In your
ttouawr "Wot I swetluias have to work
t the offlos t cdgEtf, Msg if I bad a
Vnaos at bone my wife weald aafl ma
to MS B I wM
TALMAUE'S SURMON.
THE PREACHER TALKS
HUMAN KINDNESS.
OF
It I Means of Defense a Well mm
of Usefulaesa-Eneaaiea M"V Be Con
qnered with a Soft Tong-ue Sjm-
, pathy la Poteat with Blnnera.
Help of a Kind Word.
In these days, when satire and retort
and bitterness till the air the gospel carol
of this sermon will do good to all who read
aud practice It. The text is Proverb
xxv., 15, "A soft tongue breaketh the
bone."
Whea Solomon said this, be drove a
whole volume into one phrase. You, of
course, will not be so silly as to take the
words of the text in a literal sense. Tbey
Imply mean to set forth the fact that
there is a tremendous power in a kind
word. Although it may seem to be very
insignificant, its force is indescribable and
illimitable. Pungent and all conquering
utterance, "A soft tongue breaketh the
bone."
If I had time, I would show you kind
ness as a means of defense, as a means
of usefulness, kindness as a means of do
mestic harmony, kindness as best employ
ed by governments for the taming and
curing of criminals and kindness as best
adapted for the settling and adjusting of
International quarrel, but I shall call
your attention only to two of these
thoughts.
And, first I speak to you of kindness
as a means of defense. Almost every
man, in the course of his life, is set upon
ind assaulted. Your motives are unrep
resented or your religious or political
principles are bombarded. What to do
under such circumstances is the question.
The first Impulse of the natural heart
ays: "Strike back. Give as much as he
eat Trip him into the ditch which he
dog for your feet. Gash him with as se
vere a wound as that which he inflicted on
your soul. Shot for shot. Sarcasm for
sarcasm. An eye for an eye. A tooth for
s tooth." But the better spirit in the
man's soul rises up and says, "You ought
to consider that matter." You look up in
to the face of Christ and say, "My Master,
how ought I to act under these difficult
circumstances?" And Christ instantly
at, wers, "Bless them that curse you, and
pray for them which despitefully use
you." Then the old nature rises up again
nd says: "You had better not forgive
him until first you have chastised him.
You will never get him In so tight a cor
ner again. You will never have such an
opportunity of inflicting the right kind of
punishment upon him again. First chas
tise him and , then let him go." "No,"
says the better nature, "hnsb, thou foul
heart. Try the soft tongue that breaketh
the bone." Have you ever in all your life
known acerbity and acrimonious dispute
to settle a quarrel? Did they not always
make matters worse and worse and
worse? About fifty-five years ago there
was a great quarrel in the Presbyterian
family. Ministers of Christ were thought
orthodox in proportion as they had meas
ured lances with other clergymen of the
same denomination. The most outrageous
personalities were abroad. As, in the au
tumn, a hunter comes home with a string
of game, partridges and wild ducks, slung
over his shoulder, so then1 were many
ministers who came back from the eccle
siastical courts with long strings of doc
tors of divinity whom they had shot with
their own rifle. The division became
wider, the animosity greater, until after
awhile some good men resolved upon an
other tack. They began to explain away
the difficulties, they began to forgive each
other's faults, and, lo! the great church
quarrel was settled, nnd the new school
Presbyterian church and the old school
Presbyterian church became one. The
different parts of the Presbyterian order,
welded by a hammer, a little hammer, a
Christian hammer that the Scripture culls
"a soft tongue."
The Applause of Conscience.
You have a dispute with your neighbor.
You say to him, "I despise you." He re
plies, "I can't bear the sight of you."
You say to him, "Never enter my house
again." He says, "If you come on my
door sill. I'll kick you off." Yoy say to
him, "I'll put you down." He says to
you: "You are mistaken. I'll put you
down." And so the contest rages, and
yenr after year you act the unchristian
part, and he acts the unchristian part.
After awhile tho better spirit seizes you,
and one day you go over to the neighbor
and say: "Give me your hand. We have
fought long enough. Time Is so short,
and eternity Is so near, that wc cannot
afford any longer to quarrel. I feel you
have wronged me very much, but let us
ctle all now In one great hand-shaking
and be good friends for all the rest of our
lives." You have risen to a higher plat
form than that on which before you
stood. You win his admiration, and you
get his apology. But If you have not con
quered him in that woy at any rate you
have won the applause of your own con
science, the high estlmntion of good men
and the honor of your Lord who died for
tils armed enemies."
"But," you say, "what are we to do
when slander assault us, and there come
acrimonious sayings all around about us,
and we are abused and spit upon?" My
reply Is: Do not go and attempt to chase
down the slanders. Lies are prolific, and
while you are killing one, fifty are born.
All your demvostrations of Indignation
only exhaust yourself. You might as well
on seme summer night, when the swarms
of Insects are coming up from the mead
ows and disturbing you and disturbing
your family, bring up some great "swamp
in gel," like that which thundered over
Charleston, and try to shoot them down.
The game Is too small for the gun. But
what, then, are you to do with the abuses
thAt come upon you In life? Ton are to
live them down I I saw a farmer go out
to get back a swarm of bees that bad
wandered off from the hive. As he moved
amid them they bussed around his head
and bussed around his hands and. bussed
arwsd bis feet If ho had killed one of
them they would have stung him to death.
But he moved in their midst in perfect
placidity until he had captured the swarm
of wandering bees.
.ind so I have seeo men moving amid
the annoyances, and the vexations, and
the assaults of life in such calm, Christian
deliberation that ail the buzzing sround
about their soul amounted to nothing.
They conquered them, and, above all, they
conquered themselves. "Oh," you say,
"that's a very good theory to preach on a
hot day, but it won't work." It will work.
It has worked. I believe it is the last
Christian grace we win. You know there
are fruits which we gather in June, and
others in July, and others in August, and
others in September, and still others in
October, and I have to admit that this
grace of Christian forgiveness is about the
lust fruit of the Christian soul. We hear
a great deal about the bitter tongue, and
the sarcastic tongue, and the quick
tongue, but we know very little about "the
soft tongue that breaketh the bone." We
read Hudibras and Sterne and Dean Swift
and the other apostles of acrimony, but
give little time to studying the example
of him who was reviled, and yet reviled
not again. Oh, that the Lord, by his Spir
it, would endow us all with "the soft
tongue that breaketh the bone."
Kindness Is Useful.
I pass now to the other thought that I
desire to present, and that is kindness as
a means of usefulness. In all communi
ties you find skeptical men. Through ear
ly education, or through the maltreatment
of professed Christian people, or through
prying curiosity about the future world,
there are a great many people who be
come skeptical in religious things. How
shall you capture them for God? Sharp
argument and sarcastic retort never won
a single soul from skepticism to the Chris
tian religion. While powerful books on
the evidences of Christianity have their
miBslon in confirming Christian people in
the faith they have already adopted, I
have noticed that when skeptical people
are brought into the kingdom of Christ it
is through the charm of some genial soul,
and not by argument at all. Men are not
saved through the head; they are saved
through the heart. A storm comes out of
Its hiding place. It says, "Now we'll just
rouse np all this sea," and it makes a
great bluster, but it does not succeed.
Part of the sea is roused up perhaps
one-half of it or one-fourth of it. After
awhile the calm moon, placid and beauti
ful, looks down, and the ocean begins to
rise. It comes up to high water mark. It
embraces the great heudlands. It sub
merges the beach of all the continents. It
is the heart throb of one erld against
the heart throb of another world. And I
have to tell you that while all your storms
of ridicule and storms of sarcasm may
rouse up the passion of an immortal na
ture, nothing less than the attractive
power of Christian kindness can ever
raise the deathless spirit to happiness and
to God. I have more faith in the prayer
of a child 5 years old in the way of bring
ing nn infidel back to Christ and to heaven
than I have in all the hissing thunderbolts
of ecclesiastical controversy. You cannot
overcome men with religious argumenta
tion. If you come at a skeptical man with
an argument on behalf of the Christian
religion, you put the man on his mettle.
He says: "I see that man has a carbine.
I'll use my carbine. I'll answer his argu
ment with my argument" But if you
come to that man, persuading him that
you desire his happiness on earth and his
eternal welfare in the world to come, he
cannot answer it.
A Glorious Sentiment
What I have said is just as true in the
reclamation of the openly vicious. Did
you ever know a drunkard to be saved
through the caricature of a drunkard?
Your mimicry of the staggering step, and
the thick tongue, and the disguising hlc
rough.cpnly worse maddens his brnin. But
if you come to him in kindness and sym
pathy, if you show him that you appre
ciate the awful grip of a depraved appe
tite, if you persuade him of the fact that
thousands who had the grappling hooks of
evil inclination clutched in their soul as
firmly as they now are in his have been
rescued, then a ray of light will flash
across his vision, and it will seem as if a
supernatural hand were steadying his
staggering gait. A good many years ago
there lay in the streets of Richmond a
man dead drunk, his face exposed to the
blistering noonday sun. A Christian wom
an passed along, looked at him and said,
"Poor fellow!" She took her handker
chief and spread It over his face and
passed on. The man roused himself up
from his debauch and began to look at the
handkerchief, and lo! on it was the name
of a highly respectable Christian woman
of the city of Richmond. He went to
her, he thanked her for her kindness, and
that one little deed saved him for this life,
and saved him for the life that is to come.
He was afterward attorney general of
the United States; but, higher than all, he
became the consecrated disciple of Jesus
Christ
Sympathy's Loving Grace.
Oh, that we might in our families and
in our churches try the force of kind
ness! You can never drive men, women
or children into the kingdom of God. A
March northeaster will bring out more
honeysuckles than fretfulness and scold
ing will ever bring out Christian grace.
1 wish that in all our religious work we
might be saturated with the spirit of kind
ness. Missing that, we miss a great deal
of usefulness. There Is no need of coming
out before men and thundering to them
the law unless at the same time you
preach to them the gospel. The world Is
dying for lack of kindness.
These young people want It just as
much as the old. The old people some
times seem to think they have a monopoly
of the rheumatisms, and the neuralgias,
sad the headaches, and the physical dis
orders of the world; but I tell you there
are no worse heartaches than are feH by
some of these young people. Do you know
that much of the work Is done by the
young? Raphael died at 87, Richelieu at
81, Oustavus Adolphus died at 88, Inno
cent III. came to bis mightiest Influence
st 87, Cortes conquered Mexico at 80,
Don John won Lepanto at 28, Grotius
was attorney general at 24, and I hare
noticed amid all rUsses of men that some
of the severest battles and the toughest
work come before 30. Therefore we must
have our sermons aod our exhortations la
prayer meeting all sympathetic with the
young. And so with these people further
on in life. What do these doctors and
lawyers and merchants and mechanics
care about abstractions of religion ? What
they want is help to bear the whimsicali
ties of patients, the browbeating of legal
opponents, the unfairness of customers,
who have plenty of fault finding for every
imperfection of handiwork, but no praise
for twenty excellencies. What does that
brain racked, hand blistered man care
for ZwingU's "Doctrine of Original Sin"
or Augustin's "Anthropology?" You
might as well go to a man who has the
pleurisy and put on his side a plaster
made out of Dr. Parr's "Treatise on Med
ical Jurisprudence." I
In all our sermons there must be help
for every one somewhere. You go into an
apothecary store. We see others being
waited on. We do not complain because
we do not immediately get the medicinej
We know our turn will come after awhile.
And so while all parts of a sermon may
not be appropriate to our case, If we wait
prayerfully before the sermon is through'
we shall have the divine prescription. I
say to these young men who ore going to
preach the gospel, these theological stu-,
dents, I say to them, We want in our ser
mons not more metaphysics, nor more
imagination, nor more logic, nor more
profundity. S
Lend a Helping; Hand.
What we want in our sermons and
Christian exhortations is more sympathy.1
When Father Taylor preached in the
Sailors' Bethel at Boston, the jack tars
felt they had help for their duties among
the ratlines and the forecastles. When'
Richard Weaver preached to the opera
tives in Oldham, England, all the work-1
ingmen felt they had more grace for the
spindles. When Dr. South preached to
kings and princes and princesses, all the
mighty men and women who heard him
felt preparation for their high station. '
Do you not know that this simple story
of a Savior's kindness is to redeem all
nations? The hard heart of this world's
obduracy is to be broken before that
story. There is in Antwerp, Belgium, one
of the most remarkable pictures I ever
saw. It is "The Descent of Christ from
the Cross." It is one of Rubens' pictures.
No man can stand and look at that "De
scent from the Cross," as Rubens pic
tured it, without having his eyes flooded
with tears, if he have any sensibility at
all. It is an overmastering picture one
that stuns you and staggers you and
haunts your dreams. One afternoon a
man stood in that cathedral looking at
Rubens' "Descent, from the Cross." He
was all absorbed in that scene of a Sa
vior's sufferings, when the janitor came
in and said: "It is time to close up the
cathedral for the night. I wish you would
depart." The pilgrim, looking at that
"Descent from the Cross," turned around
to the janitor and said: ."No, no; not yet.
Wait until they get him down." Oh, it
is the story of a Savior's suffering kind
ness that is to capture the world. When
the bones of that great behemoth of In
iquity which has trampled all nations
shall be broken and shattered, it will be
found out that the work was not done by
the hummer of the iconoclast, or by the
sword of the conqueror, or by the torch of
persecution, but by the plain, simple, over
whelming force of "the soft tongue that
breaketh the hone." '
Our Eternal Heritance.
Kindness! We all need more of it in
our hearts, our words and our behavior.
The chief characteristic of our Lord was
kindness. A gentleman in England died
leaving his fortune by will to two sons.
The son that staid at hoaie destroyed the
father's will and pretended that the broth
er who was absent was dead and buried.
The absent brother after awhile returned
and claimed his part of the property.
Judges nnd jurors were to be bribed to
say that the returned brother and son was
no son at all, but only an imposter. The
trial came on. Sir Matthew Hale, the
pride of the English courtroom and for
twenty years the pride of jurisprudence,
heard that that injustice was about to be
practiced. He put off his official robe.
He put on the garb of a miller. He went
to the village where that trial was to take
place. He entered the courtroom. He
somehow got Impaneled as one of the
jurors. The bribes came around, and the
man gave ten pieces of gold to the other
jurors, but as this was only a poor miller
the briber gave to him only five pieces of
gold. A verdict was brought In rejecting
the right of this returned brother. He,
was to have no share in the Inheritance.
"Hold, my lord!" said the miller. "Hold!,
We are not all agreed on this verdict
These other men have received ten pieces
of gold in bribery and I have received only'
five." "Who are you? Where do you come
from?" said Judge on the bench. The
response was: "I am from Westminster
Hall. My name is Matthew Hale, lord
chief Justice of the king's bench. Off of
that place, thou villain!" And so the in
justice was balked, and so the young man
got his inheritance.
It was all for another that Sir Matthew
Hale took off his robe and put on the garb
of a miller. And so Christ took off bis
robe of royalty and put on the attire of
our humanity, and In that disguise he won
our eternal portion. Now are we the sons
of God joint heirs. We went off from
home sure enough, but we got back In
time to receive our eternal Inheritance.
And If Christ was so kind to us, surely
we can afford to be kind to each other.
Robert E. Lewis, college secretary
of the Boston Young Men's Christian
Association, has resigned that office In
order to become traveling secretary of,
the students' volunteer movement for
foreign missions la the United 8Utei
and Canada. Is tho last eighteen'
months that be has bean connected with1
the Boston association he has organised
and developed the work of the lastituts
of technology, Boston university, uni
versity medical school, law school, Bar',
vard medical school sad college of Ub
oral arts.
J
9
V.,;
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