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"Bring In all the Tithes."

MRS. MARY B FOWLER.

Malachi 3:10

Each has freed himself of responsibility, and each takes his way lightly

because of this care-free condition.

Bring in all the tithes," God's mandate Yet the one state is an attainment still is ringing

O'er we careless workers loitering among the leaves,

ow can we look for blessings from a just Redeemer,

When we glean so idly, leaving all the heavy sheaves?

ur truest, bravest effort, our prayers of trusting faith,

Our loving, willing service, so loyal to our Lord,

fallen brothers,

ur courage in life's struggle, our help to Are the tithes that will give us the "blessings" of his word.

it so blindly do we cherish idols of the world,

Soul-tied to its silver, gold and iron, brass and clay,

at vainly, weakened faith looks upward to the heights,

For the blessings from the God who seems so far away.

rist sorrows as he watches the fruitless

strife of men,

As he sorrowed when he walked and

taught in Galilee,

Ar we grope in selfish darkness, moaning for the light,

6

While "tithes" and "blessings" meet

in that simple. "Follow me.' rrectionville, Woodberry Co. Ia.

I would not if I could repeat
A life which still is good and sweet;
I keep in age, as in my prime.

A not uncheerful step with time,

And, grateful for all blessings sent,

I go the common way, content
To make no new experiment.
On easy terms with law and fate,
For what must be I calmly wait,
And trust the path I cannot see;
That God is good suffice h me.
And when at last upon life's play
The curtain falls, I only pray
That hope may lose itself in truth,
And age in heaven's immortal youth,
And all our loves and longing prove
The foretaste of diviner love! - Whittier.

Difference.

Between the man who does his best trusts God, and the man who 3 his best because his inclination s that way, and who refuses to higher for a motive, there is a rence as wide as the universe. y the literalness of these expresEs forces itself upon us! There is y a universe between them. They ng to kingdom not only separate, utterly opposed to one another. hese two men are well-known acters. To the careless onlooker e is much similarity in their cases.

after striving, the other is a refusal

to strive at all.

The first is the result of a long struggle between belief and doubt, hope and despair; between the burden of a responsibility too great to be borne, and a crushing sense of inability to meet it. When the outcome of ity to meet it. When the outcome of such a soul-conflict is Faith, it is a faith profound and unchangeable. "God lives!" Then, although the heavens fall, that soul may abide in security!

"But," says the second man, "what is the advantage gained by worrying and straining to reach this state of mind? It is possible to be content without it. Look at me I long ago declined to face these questions, and I have been quite comfortable ever since. You have concerned yourself for nothing. You have but come around to my way of thinking. We stand upon the same ground, after all. We each do as well as the average man—rather better; but I have never troubled myself about the matter, while you you do not give a thought

to to-morrow."

"No," repeats the first man, "I do not give a thought to to-morrow!"

"And," goes on the second, "neither of us has any anxiety as to the final result of to-day's action!"

"You are right," echoes the first. I feel no anxiety as to the final result!"

"Then how are you any better off than I?" demands the second. "What is the difference between us?" What, indeed?-Harper's Bazar.

Selfishness.

The essayist De Quincy, in one of his semi-jocular moments, said that not more than one man out of a hundred is perfectly sane and that hun

dredth man isn't sane all the time! This turn of expression serves us in the remark that not one man in a hundred is perfectly righteous, and that hundredth man isn't righteous all the time. This amounts to a declaration that there is much of sinfulness in men-a declaration that makes up in truthfulness what it may lack in originality.

Sin is essentially selfishness. Make whatever definition of sin you please, the fact is that sin is selfishness, and selfishness it is that constitutes sin. Sin is the "transgression of the law." But all transgression that is sinful is a willful pursuit after that which is unlawful but for which self clamors. No man can be regarded as free from sin until he has lost the last movements of selfishness. Not until he desires first of all the Divine Will in all things, and also has overcome the tendency to set up his own will (as such) in conflict with the wills of others--not until then has he attained unto complete unselfishness and sinlessness. Perfect love, which is essential to this state, casts out other things besides "fear." It excludes also self-will. It eliminates all disposition to resentment under whatever provocation. It destroys even the desire to win a victory over an opponent (which is to be distinguished from the spirit of the prayer, “Thy kingdom come.") It fills the man with a serenity and peacefulness which needs not to be proclaimed, but manifests itself as does the glorious sun in his coming when, in the stillness of a perfect June morning, he ascends as noiselessly as he does gloriously above the gleaming hilltops.

But there is more righteousness in the world than ever before. Christian unselfishness is developing and growing. There is more and more advance toward the "perfection" to which we are called. And God is able to complete in us that which, through Christ he has well begun. -Morning Star.

"Always With Us."

Not only in the sweet sabbatic silence
Of holy days;

Not only when our hearts and lids are swelling

A song of praise;

Not only when Peace folds her arms about us,

And hope is bright;
But always-till faith, at the gate of heaven,
Is lost in sight!

Not only when in holy meditation
At close of day,

tidy when he sees her, what chance would she ever have of being asked to be his wife? Wait until after she has secured him, and then she need exercise no restraint the bird is caged.

He on his side is equally prone to practice a deception as great as her own. He comes to call in spick-andspan evening dress, with a little gift which he presents with a dainty air of compliment that makes her consider him the most generous creature in the world, until after marriage the fact leaks out that it was not his to give, and the girl to whom it belonged is and clamoring for its return. When they go out he spends his money in a princely and inconsequent

The increase of our soul ascends to heaven The while we pray;

Not only when some great and mighty sor

row

Our heart-strings rend; But always-in the little cares troubles

"Unto the end."

manner

as

Yes, always with us, all our trouble shar- though it grew, instead of having been

ingThis Savior blest; The heaviest portion of the burden bearing, That we may rest;

borrowed from a friend not two hours before.

Ah, no; business worries, money difficulties, all are kept in the back

While at our side the sweet voice ever ground during the engagement, but whispers,

"My child, my friend,

Lo, I am with thee always and foreverUnto the end."

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Lovers do not mean to be deceitful, but nevertheless the period of engaged ment is one in which they do not reveal themselves in their true character. Of course they do not see as much of each other's company before as after marriage, and those too brief intervals, as they then consider them, are utilized to show only the good side of the one to the other.

Those evenings when he is to call she dons her prettiest gown, curls her hair to perfection, and greets him with a smile, even if ten minutes before she has been woefully put out over some domestic faux pas or girlish disappointment. She does not wrangle with him when he arrives, but puts her trouble out of sight until at least he leaves her, when she drops the mask assumed for his benefit and becomes once more her natural self.

It is not deceit-it is policy. If she were to be ill-tempered and un

marriage alters all this. Then do each learn the true man or woman they have married, and in too many cases the cry goes forth, "How could I have been so deceived?" Yet such deception will go on forever and such frauds will be practiced, and until that day comes when frankness, absolute sincerity, and truthfulness, with no false pretension, mark the era before marriage, there will be many unhappy unions of men and women who awaken too late to the fact that they have been woefully deceived in their choice. -Jenness Miller Magazine.

Beauty and Goodness.

There are thoughtless people who say that beauty of soul signifies in variably beauty of body, that the spiritual and intellectual must of necessity shine through the corporeal vestiture as a lamp through a transparency.

Granting that a certain dignity and nobility do inhere in the personality, and that education refines the features and iuforms the countenance with expression, the admission must be made that beautiful souls are not invariably resident in beautiful bodies. A very plain face, a rough skin, unsightly lineaments, have often been the outward accompaniments of rarely pure and exquisite beings, whose angelhood was compelled to await its wings on the other side of this sphere.

An excellent man was wont to observe that when he chose a wife he should look for mental rather than physical graces. "Favor is deceitful

and beauty is vain," he quoted grand ly, "but a woman that feareth th Lord, she shall be praised." H sisters, finding him slow to designa the future companion of his trave through the world, kindly indicate to him a certain irreproachable Mi Ursula, as devoutly good as she wa unfortunately angular and plai And very malicious was their sati faction when the bachelor broth exclaimed, "Great Scott! There reason in all things! A man wan something besides piety in a wife!"

A receipt for beauty! Who sha compound it? It is easy to say the we must have good health, good ten per, good breeding, happiness. Ru kin says, pithily, "You can neve make a girl lovely unless you mal her happy." Tranquillity of lif ability to rest, freedom from heav burdens, luxury, these help; but afte all, beauty, like glory, is the untran latable word-From Harper's Baza

Led by his Child.

"A little child shall lead them."

is expected that the parents will lea the children, but sometimes when s and the world have obtained so stro a hold on parents so to keep the from Jesus and hope and salvatic God still has a child lead them.

W. Taylor, at Hicksville, O., I preac Recently in a meeting with Bro. the hope of knowing our friends ed to a very responsive audience heaven. It was a very tender me ing. In the after-meeting, when were encouraged to talk; a strang arose to talk. He was well dress and intelligent looking, and neari the fifties in life. In trembling voi he spoke, giving us a chapter in F experience. He had been a Christi but about three years. He and h wife had given the matter no atte tion. Bro. Upkike held a meeting: the town where he lived, and E daughter, a young girl, gave hers to the Lord, and commenced a pu beautiful life. After a year or two s sickened and died Before she we away from them she asked her pa to meet her in heaven.

This led him to fix his thoughts a. his heart on Jesus, and he became Christian. He lives now in the swe hope of meeting his beautiful daug ter in heaven. Many wept as the m told his story.

It is yet true, "A little child sh lead them," and many children leading their parents into the kir dom. E. L. FRAZIER.

Irvington, Ind.

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Inexpressibly Sad.

day in June, it is followed by its sure
above the head of the laughing boy,
December. Bright as are the skies
the brook no longer sings to him the
there comes a time when the voice of
old time invitation to the forest.
However fair the palace, time will
stain its beauty with tears and crum-
ble its strength with decay. How-
ever mighty the empire, the day will
fox will play unscared, and the adder,
come when upon its broken heaps the
sunning itself undisturbed, be the

would pretend to do what it cannot Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and do by unchurching any who love the in general, I do not mean this or that truth. When I speak of the Church communion, under this or that organization, but I mean in their ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands the whole multitude of the saints of God."

A casket containing the body of a maiden of seventeen years was carried over the doorstep of a mansion a few weeks ago and conveyed to the ceme tery. The distance was short,aud all who had filled the spacious house, whose inmates now numbered but two-for she was an only childwalked slowly and sadly after the carriages which contained the relatives. From the gate the casket was borne by six young men to the side of sole occupant of the royal court, fellows most deeply have spoken di

the open grave, where it was rever-
ently placed.
It was the saddest of funerals; she
was the most bithesome of girls, and
as brilliant as gay. She had been ill
four days,and delirious from the first
four days,and delirious from the first

seizure till within three hours of
death, when she became unconscious.
The hymn, the prayer, even the

To-day the curious traveler thrusts
his sharp spade into the mounds of
Assyrians kings, drags the funeral
trophies of Rameses to the unaccus-
tomed light, and thrusts his fingers
into the sepulchral urns of the Cas-

ars.

But there is one thing of which even time can not rob the soul, one

It is s gnificant that the men and woman who have influenced their

rectly and unhesitatinly out of their own best natures. They have not waited upoh common opinion nor repeated the current phrases; they have not weighed their words against their prospects of advancement, nor fitted their teaching to the prevalent mood. They have said what they believed, frankly and courageously.

benediction, were all mournful as the thing which in the history of the race They have not calcnlated the chances

sound of winds on dark nights at sea. The people stood silently while the

grave was slowly filled, and then

turned to pass away.

Suddenly the teacher of her whose body had been lowered into the damp earth broke forth into almost hysterical weeping. The pastor, perceiving her grief, went at once to her home to com fort her. "Why," said he, "do you manifest such unusual sorrow?"

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She answered: "A month ago I felt impressed to speak to her of her soul, and of her duty to her Savior; but I postponed it, and now she is gone." Then, turning to the pastor, she said, "I hope you have spoken to her.' He was silent, and after a while said: "I, too, must confess my sin. When I saw how thoughtless she was becoming, how much more interested in frivolous things, I also was impressed to speak to her of the things of the Spirit; but I postponed it,and she is gone." They prayed together for forgiveness.

Taking leave of her, he went at once to the house of mourning. There he tenderly asked the parents if they had ever conversed with her about yielding her heart to God. The answer was: "On her last birthday we remembered that she was not in the kingdom, and said we must speak to her;but other things came up and we neglected it, and now she is gone."

Yes, gone to witness against her parents, her pastor, and her teacher. -Christian Advocate.

Can Not Take Away.

How beautiful the rose upon the breast of the bride. No art has taught us how to make its fragrance and loveliness perpetual. However perfect a

never grows old; it is the conscioused in Jesus Christ. That which was ness of God's redeeming love revealthe boy's song is still the old man's staff. The lad who joined his infant voice with others in the praises of Jesus in the Sunday-school, as an old man goes down into valley of the shadow of death with the same joy upon his now trembling lips. The world may take away fortune, youth, fame, but it is powerless to rob the believing heart of that peace which comes from its reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus.-New York Evangelist.

of acceptance; they have spoken influences are very powerful and perwhat seemed true to them, and left the result with God. Atmospheric vasive, and only strond natnres overcome them; contemporary currents are often swift and wide, and only resolute souls breast and battle them. But no one can really speak to men the words that uplift and invigorate who does not first develop this inward force, this victorious faith in the truth as he sees it. The more sensitive a man is, the more force must he put forth to express what is original in him; but these original words are the only ones that count; all other

Cannon Farrar on the Church of words are echoes. The difficulty is,

Christ.

"Perish the hand which would circumscribe by one hair's breadth the limits of the definition of the Church of Christ;perish the arm which would exclude from that one flock of the Good Shepard the 'other sheep which are not of this fold;' perish the narrow superstition that the wind of God, which 'bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth,' can only be conveyed by mechanical transmissions. I, for one at any rate, refuse to flatter the priestly pride which would sectarianize the catholicity of the Church of Christ. The articles which I accepted at my ordination taught me that the visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men wherein the pure Word of God is preached and the sacraments duly administered, and I, for one, even if I were to stand alone, would repudiate and protest against the uncatholic teaching which

however, less than it appears; for, however set men may be in their prejudices, or however confirmed in their indifference, there is something in them which responds to the direc and frank utterance of a noble na ture. Many a speaker faces an ap parently solid audience and sees it hardness melt in the firi of his con viction. Many a man shinks from opening his heart before a throng o strangers, but when he has spoke simply and frankly of what is mos sacred to him he finds that his lister ers are suddenly his friends. W hide our best selves as if we wer ashamed of them; but when we tak courage and speak of our deepe convictions, our highest aspiration we suddenly find that we have ente ed into sacred companionship wi our fellows, and that the breath of o fervor has stirred the same fire nobleness in them that burns in Never give less than your best, a remember that your best is alwe yourself.-Christian Union.

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The art of making friends, like the art of making money, is a common gift distributed by the fairies with liberality to the children of men. But the art of keeping friends, like the art of keeping money, is a very rare gift. To keep friends is a fine art. To be able to hold the ideal while perceiving the humanity of a friend; to be patient with the mistakes of to-day because of the wisdom of yesterday, which forecasts wisdom for to-morrow; to tolerate moods; to sink one's very love out of sight for a moment rather than have it shocked or disturbed by surface conditions, requires rare self-control. Yet the one who possesses the art of keeping friends does all this. The cause of the severance of friendship is sometimes so superficial as to be childish. The action of the moment often obliterates, even when it contradicts, the knowledge of years. Impatience and selfishness are responsible for much of the loss of happiness that necessarily results were friendly relations have been disturbed.

Too often there is a surface appearis lacking to justify this appearance. ance of intimacy, where a foundation Words of endearment are too often counterfeit coins. A nature of integrity is very apt to lose faith when once confidence has been shaken, and the result is that from observing deceitful attitudes in the circle about him, one begins to doubt the integrity of those whom he holds dear.

Friendship is a dear and precious gift the one that most ministers to life; without it life is barren. Two conditions are necessary for its preservation-Truth and faith. Very often a little forbearance would preserve that which is often held too lightly. Said a wise woman one morning, discussing the cloud no larger than a man's hand that had arisen between

herself and her friend, "I tell you the trouble is that the doing of one wrong thing often wipes out the record of the ninety-and-nine right ones. That is the difference between God and man. What we should do is, not to draw our conclusions from the one act, but from the knowledge of years. That would not only be righteous but natural." It is not the sudden freak of nature that scientists accept as natural; they draw their conclusions from governing laws; and so it is with human beings-all move in obedience to the law of their being, and that which are uses the antagonism of the moment is not the result of those laws,

which a little patience would enable us to understand and often forget.Christian Union.

for food. They crave love, they crave Men long for riches as they long fame, they crave power, they crave knowledge, they crave silver and gold; and they live and die with their cravings unsatisfied. Many a man who has given his life to the pursuit of material wealth has died in want. This is the story of the alchemists of old, who devoted themselves to a search for the secret of turning all things to gold. There was one Gabriel Plattes, for example, who gave long years to this study, and wrote a book on the subjeet, more than twocenturies ago. He told how he had at last succeeded in making pure gold; but before he could avail himself of his discovery, he "dropped down dead in the London streets for want of food." There is a longing that shall be satisfied, but it is not for gold. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they

shall be filled."-S. S. Times.

Church sickness must be considered as one of the religious diseases of our time. It means that a large number of people have ecclesiaphobia. The bitterness which marks the alienation from our churches may he seen in the expressions of scornful criticism and reproach indulged in by socialistic and labor reform leaders. Such sentiments are pretty sure to secure a full measure of applause. And this simply means that the church is not fulfilling its duties toward that class of society in which it first originated. Equally manifest is the indifference about church-going in a different straum of society. Locomoter ataxia takes possession on Sunday of men whose legs are perfectly usable every other day in the week. Indeed, on Sundays they are available for a picnic, but will not walk toward church. We see no cure for it all except a new revival in the church itself-an attempt, with burning conviction, to proclaim to the world that Christianity relates to the life that now is, that it is vital and essential to the redemption of human society. The church need stand none the less for the great eternal things it has stood for; but there are eternal things this side of the grave as well as on the other, and justice, righteousness, and love are some of them.-Christian Register.

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