The Lutheran visitor. (Columbia, S.C.) 1869-1904, February 13, 1902, Image 3
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.