The Future. WHITTIER. Slow fades the vision of the sky; A gray-winged vapor sails. The sunset fires will burn, No whisper from the mountain pine The stranger where I tread, Of him who loved him well. But beauty seen is never lostGod's colors are as fast; The glory of this sunset heaven Into my soul has passedA sense of gladness unconfined To mortal date or clime; As the soul liveth it shall live Beyond the years of time. Beside the mystic asphodels Shall bloom the home-born flowers And new horizons flush and glow With sunset hues of ours. A Pessimist's Opinion. The pessimist is the abused man nowadays, while every one has a word to say in favor of that blithesome individual, the optimist. In fact, the optimist has grown to be distinctly the upper dog, while the pessimist comes in for continual and unlimited kicking. Some late magazine writer designates the pessimist as "a man who has embarked on the wide sea of intellectual discovery, and has found out that for him it is a barren sea, blank and desolate." Suppose he has? The assumption that his belief makes him necessarily a bad fellow is unfounded. Because the sea is blank and desolate, he strengthens his bark to sail it. Knowing its barrenness, he looks out for other souls in like extremity. Seeing not, yet dreading the end, he nerves himself the more to meet it. The optimist sails smoothly along. His cockle-shell is strong enough for the light weight it carries. He has no sympathy with the distress of those whose boats labor and are heavily laden. "Do as I do. Wait until tomorrow!" he cries. And the to-morrow of the optimist is forever unborn. The optimist is usually an agreeable as well as a light-hearted fellow. He is excellent company for a pleasure trip. Care does not touch him, for to him there is no care. He runs lightly into debt, and if he cannot pay, it does not cost him a moment's thought. It is foolish to be concerned, he argues, since your trouble is imaginary. If he cannot save you from drowning, he sees no reason why he should not smile as you go down. When the optimist dies, there are plenty to mourn him. The responsibilities he ignored while living press all the harder on those whose "pessimism" will not let them follow his careless footsteps. The trouble he shook off are still there. Some one has to shoulder them in addition to his own, and the burden is often dropped upon those little able to carry it. There is no cruelty equal to the cruelty of the light nature, which inflicts pain gayly simply because it does not believe in the existence of pain.Harper's Bazaar. Bad Reading. The other day a little fellow sat reading a book, when suddenly he saw his father coming along; he put the book out of sight, and stood up in great confusion, waiting for his father to pass by. Now, I didn't like that; and I herewith advise that boy, and all other boys, never to read anything they are ashamed of. Open out every page you read, full and free, in God's light and presence, as you must; and if it is not fit to be opened so, do not read it at all. Bad reading is deadly poison; and I, for one, would like to see the poisoners-that is, the men who furnish it— punished like any other murderers; yes, and more, it's far worse to kill the soul than to kill the body. In my opinion, parents are not half watchful enough in this matter, and if I were you, young folks, I wouldn't, stand it.-Christian Evangelist. Love Wins Love. "Mother, the birdies all love ther," said a little boy of five as he stood with his mother wate the robins enjoying their mo meal of cherries from the old tree overhung the house. "What do you think is the re the birds love father!" your Charlie did not seem to hear He was absorbed in question. thought. "Mother," at last he "all the creatures love father. dog is almost as glad to see him & is me. Pussy, you know, al comes to him and seems to know actly what he is saying. Even th cow follows him all around the m ow, and the other day I saw her ing his hand just as a dog would think it is because father loves t mother. You know he will ofter up to give pussy something to and he pulls carrots for the cow, pats her, and talks to her; and s how I think his voice never sound pleasant as when he is talking to creatures." "I think his voice sounds plea when he is talking to his little bo Charlie smiled. "Father loves he said, "and I love him dearly. loves the birds too, I am sure. whistles to them every morning w they are eating cherries, and they not a bit afraid of him, though 1 almost near enough to catch t Mother, I wish everything loved as well as they do father." "Do as father does, Charlie, they will. Love all living things. be kind to them. Do not speak ro ly to the dog. Don't pull pussy's nor chase the hens, nor try to fr en the cow. Never throw stone the birds. Never hurt nor tease thing. Speak gently and loving them. Feed them and seek comfort, and they will love youl everybody that knows you will you.”—Christian Evangelist. # "God Our Father." This is the last and completest Two Kinds of Sorrow. Who that has ever observed care lefinition of God. It is the Christian fully the faces that meet him on the the temper and the tongue, from envy dea of God. If we ask the sages of antiquity who God is, they have no inelligent answer-only a ruler some crowded city street, or any public thoroughfare, has failed to notice the large proportion of sad, discontented and unhappy faces among the passing unwillingness to exercise self-denial or to submit patiently to the inevitable crosses of life, from failure to curb and strife and self-seeking, from crushed vanity and unattainable worldly desires, all these constitute the sorrow of the world. It finds no vhere in the universe. Modern phi- throngs. Every shade and degree of alleviation in anything that the gos osophy simply replies, he is the power that makes for righteousness. Natural science says, he is the first great cause. Pantheism answers that God is Nature. Heathenism points to gods many. Agnosticism has no answer. The seers of the Old Testanent picture him as an Holy King seated upon a throne of justice. But the gospel includes in its answer all that can be true in any of hese and also reveals him as a personal interest in the humblest man, o whom all men may come, not only is a Creator and Law-giver and Judge, ut as a Father. It reveals God not only to the reason Find the conscience, but to the heart, ind is a picture not only of the charactor of God teaching us that God is To us what we are to our childrennly in a larger and fuller sense, as and distress, can be noted during the shortest walk along any city thorough fare. Among them, however, will always be found two types of faces that reveal clearly the characters of which they are the indices. They are faces that are equally marked by lines that indicate deep suffering, and yet they convey to the beholder a totally different impression. Underneath the deep impress of sorrow one shows patience, serenity, peace, resignation, benignity; the other shows discontent, rebellion, envy, often hatred and malevolence. One has an expression that tells of sorrow and suffering patiently borne by a spirit that seeks relief in fleeing to the Highest for refuge and strength and consolation; the other tells of sorrow rebelled against, of disappointments that have soured the spirit, of losses that have warped and embittered the nature. The one is the sorrow that leads to God and to life, the other is "the sorrow of the world that worketh death." Theologians and philosophers are equally baffled in their attempted ex of the comfort that the resigned and submissive heart receives from the Divine Comforter. It has none of the sup ments that the Christian heart alone porting, inspiring, strengthening ele can know. And so we see that sorrow, according as it is received, is either "a saviour of life unto life, or death unto death."-The Interior. "To live for Christ is far better than nursing the bonds of railroad, or the stock of a bank, or listening to the hum of the wheels of the mill. A single shake of the telegraph wire may unsettle a man, and make a rainy day for him and a heavy heart. It is well worth while for a man to have before him as a dream a fine country seat, a garden, quietness, a splendid position in the city; but if that is all he has got, what little satisfaction it will be to him when he comes to that time when he will go upstairs and say, he is greater than we are,-but also planation of the necessity and uses of I am not very well to-day; I guess I evealing the soul's relation to God s one of filial love and affectionate rust. This conception of God was sorrow. Never this side the veil can mortal expect to be able to "Justify the ways of God to man;" but as to the effect of sorrow upon human character there can be no won't go to the offce;' and the next day, 'Perhaps you had better go for a doctor.' He lies with his face to the hot born of human philosophy or poe- ground for dispute or question. Some wall; and all the great stores he has ry, but is the special revelation made o the world in Jesus Christ, and outide of the gospel is not to be found. The idea of the fatherhood of God epresents him in the analogy of hunau fatherhood as the author of our peing, the supplier of our wants, the defender of our lives, the law-giver or our souls, our teacher in eternal hings, our refuge in human weakess, our final home in the soul's lestinies.- Dr. Smith Baker. It is expected that a solid Christian Endeavor special train will be run rom the pacific coast to the Monreal convention. Three cars will probbly go from California and one each From Oregon and Washington. The ast must look to her laurels or the rest will outstrip her in Endeavor ?nterprise. natures are elevated, purified and ennobled by sorrow; others are shrivelled, warped and embittered. In some, sorrow arouses and deepens the sympathies, broadens the charity, and softens and purifies the whole nature. All the graces of the spirit seem to take deep and abiding root in the heart just softened, and as some of the most wonderful and beautiful flowers burst into full bloom only in the night, so do these graces bloom and dispense their fragrance in the darkness of affliction, convincing us that, as in the case of the night blooming plants, some wonderful divine impulse is behind these manifestations, the result of some secret communication of the divine power and life. On the other hand it is equally apparent that "the sorrow of this world worketh death." All those sorrows that come from the disappointment of worldly ambitions, from inability or built, all the great activities that have felt the touch of his fingers, fade out of his eyes, and he thinks of the other shore, and of what treasures he has laid up beyond the stars. I tell you, then, young men, we want something more than the things of the present life. "What a splendid picture that is of Mr. Gladstone going into the little Church and reading the lessons! Is he less great because he believes in God and because he witnesses for his name? "I think the greatest wreck of all in this world is the loss of a young man. When he goes down, the world is poorer than for anything else that could be lost."-John Wanamaker. SHORTHAND AND TYPEWRITING Every young lady and gentleman should learn Shorthand a Typewriting. Any one with only ordinary ability can master the a in from four to six months and command a salary of from $50 to $10 per month. Graduates assisted to good paying positions. Write f full particulars to The Passion for Perfection. The essential of Philistinism is selftisfaction--the belief that one has e best there is, and that he has all he eeds. This is a faith held by many xcellent people, who are, nevertheless nemies of the light, of progress, and, 1 a way, of truth; who above all, fail "The Love of the World." There lies on our table, from the Century Company, a little book with the above title, which is so naively spiritual, so charmingly unconventional, so delightfully audacious, that we should like to lay it on the tables > achieve the highest and noblest of all our readers as a New Year's gift. Beauty Out of Ugliness. A lady, who in her girlhood was discouraged by her lack of beauty, but lived to become a leader of socifriends, told the following story of ety, with a host of sincere and loving the incident which give her hope and inspired her to usefulness: “If I have been able to accomplish anything in life, it is due to the words spoken to me in the right season, when I was a child, by an old teacher. I was the only homely, awkward girl in a class of exceptionally pretty ones, and, being also dull at my books, became hte butt of the school. I fell into a morose, despairing state, gave up what they may have been in the past, amusements; and love them more and study, withdrew into myself, and grew or how greatly the world may have onored him, his real life always lies n advance. The passion for perfecion is the sign of the noblest kind of haracter, and it is this possession which breeds what has been called divine discontent." It is not restessness nor rebellion, but the feeling hat one must always be doing and being better. This is the feeling of he great artists; no achievement atisfies. There is always the intense lesire to do something still better; and it is this desire and the steady ealization of it, rather than any recognition or reward, which gives life ts zest and its interest. After Shakepeare has written his thirty-four lays, he is still unsatisfied, because he feels that he has but inadequately xpressed his thought, and that there tre depths in his nature which he has ot sounded, as there are depths into which his plummet has sunk but a ittle way. The man is greater than is work, and the passion for perfecion stamps his work, supreme as it 's, with an element of inadequacy. No great artist was ever yet satisfied vith what he had done. If he were atisfie 1 he would not be a great artist. t is the dissatisfaction which indiates the presence of the larger genius.-Christian Union. more. The glory of the world passeth away! Truly. But the dandelions are not less beautiful, nor less to be anticipated before they come, nor less to be enjoyed while they are here, because they remain so short a while. This world is a good world, and a beautiful world, goodin youth, better in old age; good in joy, better in sorrow; good in solitude, better in society. and best of all to him who sees God in this world, bringing good out of evil and making the world his own. Not to flee from the world, not to live discontentedly in the world, not to shut one's eyes to the glory and one's heart to the joy of the world, not to think that this is the devil's world, but to know that it is God's world, and the beauty is God's and the joy is God's and the life is God's; and through the joy and the beauty and the life to see God, and draw nearer to God, and prepare others to see him and draw nearer to him, and so prepare one's self and others for a still greater beauty and still deeper joy in that which the Infinate love has in store for us: this message, borrowed from this little book, we repeat as our New Year's homily to our readers.Christian Union. daily more bitter and vindictive. One day the French teacher, a gray haired old women, with keen eyes and a kind smile, found me crying. "What is the matter, my child?" she asked. 'Oh, madame I am so ugly!' I sobbed out. She soothed me but did not contradict me. Presently, she took me to her room, and after amusing me for some time, said, 'I have a present for you,' handing me a scaly, coarse lump covered with earth. 'It is round and brown as you. 'Ugly,' did you say? Very well. We will call it by your name, then. It is you! Now, you shall plant it, and water it, and give it sun for a week or two.' I planted it and watched it carefully; the green leaves came first, and at last the golden Japanese lily, the first I had even seen. Madame came to share my delight. 'Ah,' she said, significantly, who would believe so much beauty and fragrance were shut up in that little, rough, ugly thing? But it took heart when it came into the sun.' It was the first time that it ever occurred to me, that in spite of my ugly face, I, too, might be able to win friends, and to make myself beloved in the world."-The Christian Herald. He Careth. What can it mean? Is it aught to Him That the nights are long and the days are dim? Can he be touched by the grief I bear duct of many people nearer home Which saddens the heart and whitens the that Jesus said, "Preach my gospel," hair? shade Of conscious sin makes my heart afraid, O wonderful story of deathless love! Let all who are sad take heart again, Spirituality or Popularity. We are told that one great mistake that missionaries are making to-day is that they are laying too much stress upon worldly wisdom. We are told that Japan wants the missionary, not for his gospel message, but for his learning. We are told that the Japanese see that Christian nations have better schools than they have, and for the sake of this secular knowledge they invite the missionary to come, and after they have learned his science and philosophy, many turn away and scorn his gospel message. This is not so strange to us if we stop for a moment and look at the con and they clamor for sensational preach- Some church members are interest- to be saved. The Lost Heart. I knew a man who lost his hea His wife had not got it, and his ch dren had not got it, and he did n seem as if he had got it himself. "That is odd!" say you. Well, used to starve himself. He scarce had enough to eat. His clothes we threadbare. He starved all who we around him. He did not seem have a heart. A poor woman ow him a little rent. Out she went in the street. He had no heart. A p son had fallen back a little in the pa ment of money he had lent him. T debtor's children were crying i bread. The man did not care w cried for hunger, or what became the children. He would have 1 money. He had lost his heart. I never could make out where it w till I went to his house one day a saw an iron safe. It stood behind t door of an inner room, and when unlocked it with a heavy key, and t bolts were shot and the inside w open, there was a musty, fusty thi within it, as dry and dead as the k nel of a walnut seven years old. was his heart. If you have locked up your he in an iron safe, get it out. Get it as quickly as ever you can.-Sp geon. Let a soul be aroused through the preaching of the gospel and then converted by the power of the Holy Ghost, and something permanent has been done that soul will not expect to be The prayer-meeting. Is it yo carried to heaven on "flowery beds of thought and purpose to attend it wo ease," that soul will not expect a by week? Do you so arrange yo preacher to be constantly hunting it business? You entertained SO up for the services of God's house; friends at your home last week. W that soul will be patient and meek and you careful to avoid having the long suffering. But let a soul be ception on prayer-meeting nigh brought into the church simply You took a business trip to a nei through the sociability of the pastor boring town and did not return and that soul will be kept in the midnight. Did you plan things church only by leg work and attention, you would not have to be away on and if the pastor gets sick or finds his prayer-meeting night? That parti work becoming too great to give it so jar evening is the Lord's. Let it much time and attention then it bids ways be pre-engaged-scarcely I adieu to the services of God's house. empted. Allow no ordinary thing The church needs more Holy Ghost break in pran it. It is your stand convictions and Holy Ghost converith God and the chur sions.-Octogenarian. engag erald. |