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Pebraary 18, 1902 ▲ GRADUAL GROWTH. The foul of wan ia continually yearning for something, and ia not satisfied until it has attained it. Just as tLe delicate leaves of a tender plant stretch toward the light of a window so eager to enjoy the sun' ■bine, showing that.they are dia- satnfied with thedarkneaa and con* fluement of the room, so does the soul reach oat in all its delicacy and invoceucy toward that light for which it longs, with which alone it cau he satisfied and without which it cannot develop and be come strong; the Light of God. We live continually anticipating. There ■een.s.to be something which we tave not yet attained and we long for it. Oar soals crave for it, and though we seem to get nearer, it we never feel it completely. In childhood we look forward to a bright future when we shall have attained the years of maturity and reached onr “ssnith" and felt satisfied with life, but when we grow older and attain the years of manhood we look for that which we have so long anticipated, and we do not feel it, we do not have it. We look on either side of ns, behind ns and before us and it seems just as far from ns as when we were child ren. We have not passed it and we can not wsderstand. Just to we go throogh life, enjoying the blessings of onr Father in heaven, continually looking ahead for something greater and grander, though invisible it seems. When we first receive Christ in to onr hearts and feel bis cleansing power, and have regained onr Par adise, we there begin a gradual growth and attainment and step by step, year by year we become stronger, and the more perfectly we develop the more so the desire to be, and we may not be able to define this greatness for which we are so striving, but just as the frail leaves of the plant lean to ward the light and become strong, and salubrious, so do our souls gradually develop and we grow stronger until we have attained that great power which we could not before describe. For then we Lave climed the splendid way to heaven, the way prepared by Christ upon the foundation of the cross, and from heaven’s throne we have heard Him say “Come up higher.” —“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” It is then then that we are pure after having run with patience THIBjtLUTHBEAN visitor the raoe that is set before us and reached the goal and completed our growth and attained the great gift, a perfect sanctification. W A. Wade. Roanoke College, Salem, Va. A!MUSIC RKFORM HEEDED. A correspondent writes to The Lutheran: “A Convention of Musicians and Teachers of Music was held at Reading during the latter part of Chrismaa week. As its main features were directed more to the cultivation and practice of classical music than to the mat ter of music in worship, perhaps its acta and proceedings would not be of kpeoial interest and profit to onr chnrches and their members. But, aft»r all, when we see that Profs. Benbow, Berg, Marks, Weiaer and other leading organism of our chnrches took part in it, we can not but expect good results from a convention of this kind. For an effort even to free secular music from the deteriorating in- finance of “rag time” and “bobble de hoy” melodies must react favorably on church music. The cultivation and practice of music of a high grade, when it ia only a matter of entertainment and refined enjoyment, will necessarily pro duce a popular sentiment and feel ing which Will relegate much of the inferior stuff which is palmed off on the unsuspecting public as religions to a back seat. The higher the grade of music which our people have aid practice in thiir homes, the less tendency will there be to accept inferior or even worthless music for their Sunday- schools and churches. We can therefore only wish these people success in their efforts to cultivate good music and to raise the stand ard throughout the sphere of their influence.” The Rulers of tbs Age. The underlying pi inciple of the truth, “The rulers of the age are its working, thinking minds,'’ once declared by a Lutheran educator —now gone to his eternal reward— has no better illustration than the following by Dr. Lyman Abbott: “Oar public school system has given us a great many people in this country who are sufficiently educated to read, but not sufficient ly educated to think, and they form a great constituency which sup ports not a few newspapers which can be read without thinking.” THE CHILDREN. The busy man fiad-« little time to devote to the trainirg t>f his children. This is a tad and a fatal error. Business is important. Food and clothing^ must be pro vided, books and schooling are essential; but the personal atten tion of.the father to his children is fundamental to their welfare. Nor ilu t his attention be saperfleial and modus; it must be heart felt and < aily. The father must make his love felt by reason of a tender, social interconrse—an in terest in their likes and dislikes, their joys and sorrows, their tasks and their plays. Better, a thou sand times better, do a little less business and accumulate a little less money, and bless the world by giving to it a m»nly boy or a womanly girl, reared in a well- ordered, lovely Christian home, than to accumulate a vast fortune and let the children, whom God has given you to he a blessing to yon, and through you to the world, become physical, social and moral wrecks because of parental neglect of them for'be sake of attending to business. Busy fathers, “think on these things.”—The Religions Telescope. TOO BUST TO LOOK UP. It is said that Henry IV., on one occasion, asked the Duke of Alva if be had noticed the eclipse that bad recently occurred. He replied : “I have so much to do on earth that I have no time to look np to heaven.” The doke has many fol lowers, persons who have so ranch to engage them on earth, in the form of possessions, stocks and bonds, business, pleasure or evil works, that they have neither time nor disposition to concern them selves about heaven or.the eternal destiny of the soul. The British Weekly reports a bit of clever repartee upon the part of a Salvation Army lassie who found herself cooped up in a rail way carriage with two impudent young dudes. One of them to be facetious introduced the story of Jonah and the whale. “How do you suppose Jonah felt inside that whalel” was the question he ad dressed to the young girl. “I do not know,” was the quiet answer, “but when I see him in heaven I will ask him.” “But, suppose he isn’t in heavenT” continued the tormentor. “Then you can ask him yourself,” was the quick reply. After that she was left alone. •« 8 Tha Parson’s Reward. This atory, which is told as true, may encourage workers in the mission fields, who possibly feel sometimes that their efforts are not appreciated, to realise that “it might be worse.” On Star Island, one of “The Isles of Shoals,” there is a small stone church, very old and interesting, possibly because the exact dates and facts about it are rather indefinite. Somewhat more than a century ago a good old par son of Portsmouth, N. H., hearing of the lack of religions services among the people of the Islands, went to Star island one Monday afternoon in a sailboat and in formed the fishermen that he had come to hold a service for them. They thanked him, but said the church was foil just then of cod fish, put there to dry. Not dis couraged by this news, the good man offered to come the next Sun day, and was told the church would be ready for him. The service was held, though the odor was not of incense, and quite a good congre gation assemble 1. At the close the chief man of the island waited at the door, and as the parson came ont presented him with a slip of paper, which he tbongbt might be a vote of thanks or a kquest to come again, but he found only a bill of expenses for cleaning the church!—Church tant. Doing Little, Bstter Thau Waiting t« Do Much It is the doing of the little thing that accomplishes the great thing. The waiting to do the great thing is only the waiting; neither the great thing nor the little thing ia done in that way. Old Dr. John son used to cay: “He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do any. ... To found a university may not be in our pow er, bnt we can give a enp of cold water in the name of Christ.” Our real measure of ability and willingness is our doing the little that we can do, and not the great that we should like to do.—S. S. Times. How many of our good resolu tions are like the seed that was sown on stony ground! They are not deeply rooted in our hearts and die out before they amount to anything. The taint of one sin msy diffuse itself like a stubtle poison through a man’s whole character.