Light for the Line, THE SOUTH AFRICAN CHURCH RAILWAY MISSION MAGAZINE,
No. LX V I, Quarterly. JANUARY, 1915. 2/- p e r a n n u m , 2/6 p o s t f r e e .
South Hfrican Cburcb 1Railwa\> ilMssion. STAFF.
Head of the Mission: Postal Address: The Yen. F. A. ROGERS, M.A. P.O. Box 1131, Johannesburg. Vice-Head,: Rev. 0. W. L. Skey The Vicarage, Germiston.
Rev. G. A. Lejeune Naauvvpoort. Miss Beckwith On furlough. Miss Holmes The Hermitage, Graharastown.
Rev. E. G. K. Esdaile ...... Watervai Boven. Mr. A. H. P. Austin ...... On furlough. Nurse Wardale ...... Box 53, Volksrust. Miss Attlee ...... The Vicarage, Germiston.
M iss Watson ...... 60, Douglas Street, Bloemfontein. Miss Heddy ...... On furlough.
Rev. E. G. Holden, M .A...... P.O. Box 616, Bulawayo.
Native Catechists, Headers and Teachers: Johannes Magxaxa, William Mbenya, John Nxumale, William Sontshi. Hon. Editor and Children’s Secretary: Miss Burt, the Hermitage, Grahamstown. 2 LIGHT FOR THE LINE.
LETTER FROM THE HEAD, of telegrams from friends all over the country. Box 1131, Johannesburg’, The most cheering news this quarter December 12tli, 1914. is that Mr. Coombs is hoping to be My dear Friends, ordained Deacon to-morrow, and his many friends will be glad to think that As I prophesied last quarter, no new his great wish is being fulfilled, and Head has yet been appointed, and by that he will have the grace of Holy the kindness of the Bishop of Pretoria Orders to help him in his ministry. We I am giving- one-tliird of my time to shall I know remember him in our the Mission until better days come. prayers. Meanwhile the work is, of necessity, I hear that Miss Beckwith is minis suffering, not only for want of a Head, tering to the troops in Paris, and I have but also for want of workers. heard from Mr. Austin to-day that he Mr. Holden and Miss Heddy are both has a commission in the Durham Light sailing for England this week. The Infantry. former would have finished his three I have written to Mr. Knapp Fisher years with us in February, but the sud saying that we shall expect to hear den death of his father has made it some day of his experiences on board necessary for him to go now. We offer H.M.S. Chatham, as they have evi him our most sincere sympathy and dently been busy off the east coast of hope that if circumstances compel him Africa. to stay in England he will find every I shall be glad to hear from any one blessing and happiness there. His who wants the ministrations of the place will be difficult to fill, and I have Church and cannot get them, and I will just been up to Livingstone to consult do my best to supply them. the new Bishop of X. Rhodesia on the subject; at any rate, when a successor Will you please specially pray for guidance for the Provincial Synod can be found lie will have a warm wel come. which meets in January and which Miss Heddy has also been summoned may have an important bearing on the future of the Railway Mission ? home owing to the illness of her mother, and we much hope that she will find better news awaiting* her and that SOUTHERN RHODESIA. before long she will be able to return. I must apologise for contributing no The rebellion has added greatly to the thing to the last quarterly number; but difficulty of getting’ about in the Free as I had already written fully about State, and both she and Miss Watson the Protectorate, and had not been have been serving King and country by round my new section, I did not feel nursing the wounded. that there was much to be said. Mr. Griggs and Miss Brownlow were August was devoted to a first tour of happily married on October the 15th the Protectorate, which was as complete as possible, when services were held on and have arrived safely in England. five Sundays and five weekdays, with a There were quite a fair number of the wedding and three Baptisms thrown in. staff present at the wedding, and shoals Not only were attendances and collec S6t?TH AFillCAii CfltJROH RAILWAY Mission q u a r t e r l y .
tions good, but everywhere people were a certain number of communicants, also most kind, and seemed sorry to say always glad of a celebration. Mr. and good-bye. It is good to hear that the Mrs. Wilsworth are still stationed here, Rev. W . Lack has had such an encour I am glad to say. aging start, since he began work there There is another big farming centre in September, and that people have re at MARTTLA, where I spent a Sunday sponded so well to his efforts to put the with a namesake of my own, Mr. Church work on a secure financial basis. Ingram; but beyond having a delight There is still one place, MAHALA- ful week-end at this farm, we did not PYE, which with Mr. Lack’s approval succeed in getting many people to I have visited since September. There gether at this first attempt. are three Confirmation candidates here, Passing to the Falls line, I visited whom we hope the Bishop will be able the gangers at PA R IP A S and RED- to confirm very shortly. BANK, and spent a night in the coach Of my new section part is old ground at the former place, where the stone and part new. PLU M TREE continues quarries from which St. John’s, Bula to be one of the best of Sunday centres. wayo, was built, have closed down for A Confirmation class will shortly be tho present. I had a pleasant evening started at the school. Although this with Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie here. has been compelled to hand itself over NYTAMATs DHLOY U has Sunday to Government control, yet so long as visits occasionally, but lias been dis_- Mr. and Mrs. Hammond and the pre appointing lately, though Mr. and Mrs. sent staff are there, so long will it con Waterworth and the station staff are tinue to keep the old tone and atmo most kind. sphere, which has been so favourable to I have also paid visits of a few hours’ our wTork in the past among the boys. duration to GWAAI and MALINDI, The local residents are rather fewer in each of which possess about a dozen number, owing to enlistments, and the people. Later on it may be possible to school staff has given up Mr. Easton arrange to hold services here. I spent and Mr. Lee to the cause. Some of the two of the worst days I have ever struck residents would be only too pleased to on this trip. Sundry pumpers and see the Sustentation Fund started gangers en route have been seen, and again, but of course it is a bad time for given papers. It is a desolate strip of such endeavours. line, the famous 72 miles of “ straight” FIG TR E E has continued to do well. beginning at Gwaai. On my last visit we had a record at WANKIE is still being visited by tendance in the morning, which quite Mr. Holden. overflowed the Booking, Office where ser It only remains to give some account vice was held— 26 in all. The organ, of the WEST NICHOLSON line, which I had just had repaired, was a which is new ground, as far as we are £freat help, and with Mrs. Wood’s play concerned. This piece of railway is ing we managed to sing all the Can 100 miles in length, and serves a min ticles at Mattins, as well as hymns—a ing and a farming country. The station great feat! A number of men had to populations are very small: and at the be packed into the so-called “ vestry,” Bishop’s request and with the permis behind the ticket barrier, others sat 011 sion of the Railway authorities, we are boxes outside the windows. If the loca] extending our visits to places off the farmers and police always back up the line to some extent, of which the larg efforts of the station people as well as est and farthest place visited is the this, Figtree ought to become a strong well-known ranching establishment of centre. It is a great treat also to find Liebig’s at M AZUNGA, not less than 4 LiG&T For t h e iiiUEi.
65 miles from tlie terminus at W EST promised to hold service there next NICHOLSON. time. The mine is no longer being The first place of any size after leav worked. I had no time on this occa ing- HE ANY JUNCTION is the BUSH sion for a service, as by the kindness TICK mine, three miles from the of the manager, Mr. de Laessoe, I was siding1. At my first visit over twenty whirled off in a motor-car to MA- people turned up to a Sunday night ZUNGA, doing the 05 miles in four service. I had an interesting morning hours! Mrs. de Laessoe kindly enter inspecting the mine, and visiting the tained me, and I had tAvo days and a people, of whom there must be 40 or half to get to know everybody. This 50. Unfortunately, I have just had was the first A’isit of a clergyman since news which seems to imply that the the place started fiA^e years ago, and it mine is shortly closing down, so what was naturally full of interest to me and, the result of my next visit will be I I hope, acceptable to them. It is quite cannot say. a wonderful place; the staff at the head The next siding, ESSEXTALE, is quarters and their families number within driving distance of the Bush about 50, and there are about a dozen Tick, and is a farming centre. Mr. and on the outside farms. Their quarters Mrs. Richardson were my kind hosts, are extremely Avell built, and every and asked the people round to come to thing is most up-to-date and complete, service. We had a nice Celebration, thoug-li so far from civilisation. I think and Mattins in the morning. Quite a everybody had got rather out of touch number of people can be reached in this with spiritual things after so long a way, and it is Aery pleasant to find so blank, but in the end ayc had a ATery many that are really keen on a visit. hearty service, which about 25 people Between here and G WANDA there attended, at night, and four young fel- seems to be no place large enough for lows attended the Celebration next services, as B A LLA -B A LLA has a very morning. Everybody Avas most pleas small population, and the people round ant, and I think they Avere glad to have live at great distances. There are had a service at last, even though some numerous small mines in the ATicinity, of them imagined that they had become and it remains to be seen avIiether they almost heathen ! It was a A'ery encour can be profitably and possibly ATisited. aging A'isit, and the motor ride both G WAND A is quite a township, laid ways very Avelcome and luxurious. out on a rocky slope, and extremely This ends my experiences, Avhich I hot. It is the centre of a Government hope are not too long for the E ditor! district, and there are quite a number E. F. WlNXINGTON-lNGKiM. of officials and police, a hospital, etc. I spent a week-end here, with the coach, and A vas able to hold a Celebration on N. RHODESIA AND TH E CONGO. Sunday morning for three communi cants, and we had about 20 at EA^en- I always experience a feeling of guilt song. The heat was appalling, but when each number of Light for the otherwise it was an enjoyable visit. Line is published and I find I have Between GWANDA and WTEST contributed no neAvs of my section to NICHOLSON there are a lot of mines, its pages. But there is a strong ten mostly abandoned, or gradually failing, dency to imagine that N. Rhodesia is none of which I have been able to get so self-contained that its affairs can be at so far. The Colleen BaAArn seems to of little interest to those in the south; be the largest. At WEST NICHOL and as transfers, except within the sec SON there are about 20 people, and I tion, don’t exist, there is not that bond SOtJTEt AFRICAN OHtJRCH RAILWAY MtSSlOtt QUARTERLY. 5
between the different districts which one of Elisabetliville. Lubumbashi, its near finds down below. neighbour, is by degrees becoming de Now I have made my apology! pleted of English, and what used to be In spite of your not receiving' any a small centre of earnest church folk news of us, the work has gone steadily can.now supply only a handful. on and is, I think, progressing. It is, Let us now turn to our cheeriest spot, of course, on a small scale as regards which is undoubtedly Wankie. It is numbers, though large as regards dis nice to be able to say this for Wankie tances. The stations are 50 miles apart, is in many minds synonymous with all and many of the intervening sidings that is bad. The one talks of its ter are used merely to facilitate “ cross rific heat, another of its fever, and a ings” and have not a house within third of its vice. All three— certainly sight. To give one instance of the iso the last— are exaggerated. At one time, lation of the section : The other day I it is true, we found it spiritually de visited in adjoining cottages two pressing, but now we have been able to gangers whose nearest neighbours to see it grow in its interest and response. the south lived 18 miles away, and to The day was when we hadn’t a commu the north 22 miles. As frequently hap nicant ; now we have as many as eight pens, they saw so much of each other on occasions. Gratias Deo f and so little of the outside world that Altogether the Northern work is well they soon quarrelled, and now to all worth doing and is, of course, bound to intents and purposes they are living tell in the long run. I am sorry to have completely isolated lives. to leave it and would like to have been If some places have disappointed us able to come back to continue it. AYe in their response others have more than are all bound to feel regrets when we cheered us. It will suffice to mention look over the past, and as one reviews the two extreme cases, Elisabethville over the three years’ work there crop and AVankie. Even allowing for the up a hundred and ope things which fact that the majority of the British have been neglected or might have been inhabitants of the former place are of done differently, and for which one the “ here to-day and gone to-morrow” seeks pardon. type, yet there are sufficient permanent May I ask as my last word that al people to form quite a good congrega though the North and South may be tion if they were more keen. One has separated by such a vast distance^ yet found that two difficulties exist which we must pray for each other and our are difficult to overcome. The first is common effort, so that there will exist the Belgian influence on the British in that bond which knows neither time nor the question of Sunday observance. The space and which only prayer can effect ? even is always reserved for dinner par E. G. H. ties and the cinema, which produces a so-called gala show on that night, and to which everyone goes. The second DIOCESE OF GRAHAMS- difficulty lies in our inability to find a suitable place in which to hold the ser TOWN. vices. The hotels which we have always been compelled to use are generally fre The Imperial Hotel, quented by an undesirable type of Naauwpoort. drinker and that lias made it hard to The months seem to pass very quickly shut out the undesirable, and to create here, and Miss Burt reminds me that it the helpful atmosphere. But even these is time to write again my quarterly cannot excuse the apathy of the people letter for Light for the Line. G LIGHT FOR i S E LINE.
Many tilings liave happened since the did mean a great deal of work, but after October letter. To begin with, several all it’s worth it, and it’s our simple members of our congregation have gone duty to do anything we can for our on active service, including Mr. Lemon Empire and for those who are fighting and Mr. Derrick Damant. And others for our safety*. —quite a number of them—who were I have started during Advent special our friends, though not members of our prayer meetings on Tuesday nights at Church, have gone as well. Some of 8 o’clock, lasting for about half an us pray for them every' day, and all of hour. I hope to continue them regu us wish them a safe return, and the larly after Christmas, as I am sure that best of good luck. Our thoughts and they might become a great source of good wishes are with them. strength in the place. I hope members Then on Sunday, November 1st, All of the congregation will make a note Saints’ D ay, Bishop Smyth held a Con of these services, and will make a point firmation in All Souls’. There were of attending when they possibly can. 56 people present at the early celebra Remember Tuesday evenings, Prayer tion of the Holy Communion, and in Meeting from 8 to 8.30. the evening, at the Confirmation Ser Our Christmas services will be as vice, the church was absolutely packed, fo llo w s : — many of the children having to sit on Christmas Eve : Evensong at 8 and the floor. The service will not soon be carol singing afterwards. forgotten by those who were present. Christmas Day: Holy Communion 8 On All Souls’ Day, too, quite a num a.m. and 9.30 (choral, especially for ber of people met together for the early children). celebration of the Holy Communion, Sunday after Christmas : Holy Com and then again at Evensong. Alto munion 8 a.m. and 9.30. Evensong, gether our Confirmation and Dedication carols and sermon at 7.30. Festival passed off very happily. On New Year’s Eve there will be a On All Saints’ Day the new church watchnight service, beginning about flag flew for the first time over the 11.30 p.m. and finishing shortly after church. It was the gift of many mem midnight. bers of the congregation, and as we look 1 wish to take the opportunity of up and see the red St. George’ s cross saying that, at the request of several on its white background standing out members of the congregation, I shall in against the blue South African sky, we future go down to Cookhouse on the are reminded of our duty to Church second Sunday in each month. and Empire and of how God wants us AVith all good wishes for Christinas to be white men and women, and that and the New Year, by the mercy of God, we can become Believe me, white through the death of our Lord Yours sincerely, upon the cross. G. A. L ejettne. On December 5th, a Fancy Fair was Among the places w’hich I have held at the Institute, and as a result a visited this quarter are COOKHOUSE sum of £50 was sent to the Magistrate (twice), SHERBORNE (twice), to be transmitted to the Governor- ARUNDEL, TAAIBOSCH, HAN General’s Fund. In acknowledging the OVER ROAD. receipt of the cheque, Mr. Driver, the Acting A.R.M ., expressed his gratitude and appreciation of the splendid work Advertisers are reminded that this which was put into the organisation of Magazine is read In every diocese from the Fancy Fair by many workers. It the Zambesi to the Cape. SOUTH AFRICAN CHURCH RAILWAY MISSION QUARTERLY. 7
PRETORIA DIOCESE. have them all together, but failing that I have all their names in one book as I take up the pen hurriedly to wish all belonging to the Sunday School which never meets. my friends in the Transvaal a happy Christmas and all good things in the The names of the places visited this coming new year. Even if these good quarter can be found by looking at the wishes arrive somewhat late, better late collections for the Diocese of Pretoria. than never. Would that the spirit of I want very much to increase the Christmas could pervade this world a circulation of the Light for the Line in little more and save us from the per the Transvaal. Would intending sub sonal and national strife and bitterness scribers send me a postcard to Waterval which spring so easily from trifling be Boven and let me know of their wishes ? ginnings to such very serious conse E . G. K. E s d a i l e . quences. W e can each of us do a little to spread the spirit of Christmas not too thin over the whole year. WOMEN’S WORK. This quarter brought me an interest ing and enjoyable interlude in the Coach 21660. Synod at Pretoria, my second in the As I write, Christmas is very near, Transvaal. It was my first visit to Pre and by the time this reaches many of toria, and I was very much attracted you 1915 will have already begun—so by its situation, and the way it is laid first of all I must wish you a very out. It is always refreshing to meet happy New Year, a year free, as I hope, one’s brother clergy, and the freedom from alarms in our midst, no rebels and of discussion in Synod keeps all one’ s no strikes, but I fear we can hardly attention alive. We were entertained hope yet. to be free from anxieties about at Government House 011 October 6th, our friends and belongings in the Old and greatly appreciated the hospitality Country and in Europe— nor even per of the new Governor-General and the haps quite yet in German S.W . beauties of his home, especially the rose I shall have been back in this country garden just before the storms came. a whole year on February 1st, and it I enjoyed my first ganger’s wedding makes me sad to think how little I have in October. I have explored part of done and how seldom I have seen some the Witbank and Germiston line, hold of my friends. You will all have known ing service at Delmas for the first time. in November and parts of October and By an unfortunate mischance, I got December how travelling in the ordin stranded at Apex on November 28th, ary way was out of the question; in and failed to get through to Kinross, fact, many were cut off altogether for my reward being a luxurious Sunday weeks from all communication by train. at St. Mary’s, Johannesburg— a great Now that I am “ on the road’ ’ again contrast to S.A.R. waiting-rooms. I am very glad to find children and I am glad to say that in answer to Confirmation candidates have not got an appeal by letter on behalf of the slack nor less keen, and in several places Bishop’s fund to scattered communi I have had larger classes than usual. cants on my section, I have up to the As we did in 1912, some of the older present received and forwarded to the girls at different stations and cottages Diocesan office £9 12s. 6d. have been making little garments for And in sending out Gospel stamps the St. Faith’s orphans at Bloemfon and albums to the children I was sur tein, mostly frocks and overalls, and prised to find that they had suddenly the boys’ part this year, as well as jumped up to over 150. I wish I could sharing in the cost of material, has 8 LIGHT FOR THE LINE.
been to provide a little “ hanky” for said, I hope to come back, but this year each little pocket. it seems especially difficult for any of The loss of Miss Heddy from her sec us to look ahead. My home address is tion of the O.F.S. will mean, I fear, 29, Warwick Road, Ealing, London, a serious check to classes in many W., and I shall hope to get many let places. I hope, when I get a pass over ters and 1 will try to answer them all. her section as well as my own, to visit I know we shall be praying for one an as many as I can, and I should be truly other, and my thoughts will be turning grateful if anyone who wishes to see constantly to the places and the people me for any reason would send me just whom I have learnt to love so well. So a postcard, at 60, Douglas Street, once more I say thank you and God Bloemfontein, when I would be glad to be with you. come as soon as possible. C. M a u d H e d d y . M . E. W a t s o n . Captown, 10th Dec., 1914.-
I am writing this quarter’s letter for This is princip_ally to o-ive Christmas Light for the Line from Capetown, and New Year greetings to all my where I am awaiting the homeward friends on the line. Unlike everybody mail, and I fear it will be the only else, I have been jogging along in the good-bye I shall be able to say to many ordinary way, with fewer trains to jog of my friends along the line. I have in ! But it will be interesting to hear had a cable calling me home, and I of the exciting experiences of all the left Bloemfontein at less than twenty- rest. four hours’ notice, hoping to catch last I am sorry I was not able to be at week’s mail. I hope, more earnestly Mrs. Lejeune’s War Fund Fancy Fair than I can say, that I may be able to at Naauwpoort, which seems to have return to the Mission, but at present I been a great success by all accounts. cannot make any plans. I am especi Christmas Trees will be fewer this ally sorry to leave just no"" for owing year as we have not had so many things to the disturbed state of affairs in the sent us, but they are a luxury which Free State I have been able to do very can be done without, I suppose. I hope little work 011 the main line during the to get in one or two after Christmas if lest month. some expected things turn up. Unfor I hope Miss Watson may be able to tunately, such trees do not grow on the pay an occasional visit to my section wayside ready furnished ! and I know she will continue the pre Very best wishes to you all from paration of the Confirmation candi G. E. H o l m e s . dates. May I ask you all to remember that subscriptions for Light for the ALIGEDALE, COOKHOUSE, &c. Line become due January, 1915, and to be especially careful this year in pay This, my last quarter, has been very ing them to the local agents, as I shall quiet. Mr. Griggs’ departure necessi not be here to collect them ? Those tated changes, and I am now the only who have their magazines sent by post itinerating unit 011 this section. Mr. should send the money direct to Miss Lejeune comes monthly to Cookhouse, Burt, The Hermitage, Grahamstown. and at Alic-edale we have had Mr. I want to thank you all very, very Dowsley and Mr. Wright alternately; much for all you have done to make the at neither place will Christmas services eighteen months during which I have be possible. Mr. Wathen kindly came been working along the line such a to Barkly Bridge for a baptism, but at happy time for me. As I have already present no arrangements have been SOUTH AFRICAN CHURCH RAILWAY MISSION QUARTERLY. 9
made for our church members at the your fathers and brothers. There are smaller places. WTe must hope and pray many of them away at the front, and that some time these lost privileges may you are doing what you can to make come again and determine to use them things for them and to help provide all better when they do. sorts of things that are needed. The Short intercessions for the war have whole world is disturbed and we in been held in a good many places, and South Africa are taking our share in the schools are mostly using a daily the big war. I am gl&d that so many prayer for our soldiers and sailors. of our old friends who always give us Most of the camps have been busy get help for the Railway Mission have not ting up concerts, etc., for the various left us out although so many things Relief Funds and working for our men want their help. My faithful band of out here and for the Red Cross Society. children scattered over three dioceses It is encouraging to find such readiness still send in their subscriptions to to work together for these things. C.O.Y. funds. Louie Schuch has just An important change in the Cook sent £1 11s. 6d. from her collecting house services is the children’s service box. Clement Rippon has again re at 11 a.m. It takes the place of Mat- membered the Christmas gifts fund and tins, which is read instead at 10.30. sent us £2 14s. 6d. collected among A fair number of children are coming. his relatives and friends for the pur We shall be glad to see more. The chase of gifts for children in lonely boys’ choir shows signs of keenness now parts of the Railway Line. that the rule is no choir unless there Miss Copeland and her sister at H igh has been practice on Saturday. W e are lands and Miss Wilmot near Alicedale glad to welcome Mrs. Eve and her fam have sent toys. Miss Hannam’s Port ily after their holiday in England. She Elizabeth children have as usual con and two others have undertaken the care tributed many very nice gifts. Miss of the Sanctuary, which has lately Anstey’ s C.O.Y. children have dressed fallen entirely to Mrs. Biihler. 45 dolls beautifully, and Miss Holmes I expect to sail for India on my way and Miss Glasier are enjoying taking home to England at the end of Janu them with other gifts—balls, knives, ary, so this will probably be my last etc.— round to many children who are, contribution to Light for the Line. I expect, thinking that perhaps Father Thank you all very much for the kind Christmas will not be able to get to ness you have shown me. It is no ex them this year because of the war. St. aggeration for me to speak of the many Michael’s Home C.O.V. members are friends along the line, because you have not forgetting Miss Watson’s wants, so thoroughly taken me into your hearts and the St. Michael’ s Old Girls’ Rail as well as into your homes. It has been way Mission Association at Bloemfon a very happy three years for me, and tein, under Miss Amy Smith and Miss if I don’t yet promise to return, I hope Constance Edmunds, has just sent a to do so, and that goes for something, donation of £1 Ts. 3d. to Archdeacon doesn’t it? Rogers. Miss Minto’s English C.O.Y. P. G l a s i e b . box of toys has been delayed, but we hope it will reach us at the New Year. CHILDREN’S PAGE. So, in spite of the war and all the poverty and distress it causes, people My dear Children, young and old are doing what they can Another Christmas and again our to carry on the good works they had year is come to an end. This time it supported before, and we of the Rail finds all of you very busy, as well as way Mission are very grateful to all 10 LIGHT FOR THE LINE.
-those who are still helping us so will CONFIRMATIONS. ingly and generously. A Happy New Year to you all, and At All Souls’ Church, Naauwpoort, on may we all soon be able to join in a November 1st, 1914. thanksgiving for peace. Men and boys: Arthur Orton. Your friend, Martin John Drotsky. T he E d ito k . Charles Deacon. Richard Edward Isaacson. John McEwan. Langford Edgar Clark. BAPTI8M8. IVomen and girls : Mary Grace Blewett. Dorothy Kelly. At Xaau wpoort: Mary Kelly. Oct. Sigrid Raven Salvesen. 1(>—Ethel Caroline Frederica Carten. Lilian Selina Deverill. 1 1 — I v y Maud Deacon. Doris Eileen Jones. 25—Albert Joseph Lawrence Saunders. Elizabeth Lydia Willett. 29—Chai'les Hepburn Cawood Willett. Mary Deacon. Florence Agnes Eagles. Gertie Louisa Drake. Frank Eagles. Edith Grace Clark. At Arundel: Olive May Johanna Hall. Nov. 6—Thomas William Heywood. At Hanover Hoad: At St. A gnes’ Native Church, Naauwpoort, Herbert Alexander Isaacson. October 31st, 1914. Albert Santi. Hermanus Memaar. DIOCESE OF MASHONALAND. Campbell Myderhmi. July George Ngxukuma. 31—Phyllis Eileen Murray, at Tsessbe. lvln«s Manuel. Olive May Murray ,, Emily Rachel Oliver. Aug. Sophie Mgeru. 1—Ernest Albert Williiims, at Ramaqua- bane. 6—Clement William Cheeseman, at Palapye HOLY MATRIMONY. Road. 16—James George Hoskins, at Francistown. 24—Annie Short, Artesia. Nelsprr.it, Oct. 10. Pieter George Drodskie 30—Arthur Patrick Coker, at Mahalapye. and Cornelia Petronella Steyn. Oct. 26—George John Scott, at Manila. BURIAL SERVICE.
DIOCESE OF PRETORIA. Malelane, Sept. 30. Walter Gilbert Hobson, Sept. aged 21 months. “ Behold, they are with 15—Nora Alice May Hobson, at Malelane. out fault before the throne of God.” '25—Annie Hendrická May, at Dryden. Frank Arthur May. Nellie May. COLLECTIONS AND DONATIONS. Hester Andronetta Magdalena May. 29—Anna Everdina Ella Oldenkamp, at Hatherley. DIOCESE OF PRETORIA. Oct. Sept. 13th to Dec. 9.— Watervai Boven, 10—David Kestell, at Nelspruit. 12/11, £1/7/1, £1/3/-, 15/2. 14/6, £1/8/2; 11—John William West, at Machadodorp. Machadodorp, 16/7, £1/14/0, £1/1/-; Male Evelyn Shemmans. lane, £ 1 /2 /-: Elandshoek, £ 1 /2 /6 ; Wonder- Nov. fontein, 11/6; Pan, 12/6; Crown Douglas 2—Henry Nicholas Kruger, at Krantzpoort. £1/1/-; Hatherley, £1/1/8; 6/3; Nelspruit, 4— Gertrude Anna Magdalena Kleynhans, at £1/4/-; Bronkhorstspruit, 19/6, 12/1; Bal Bethal. moral, 8/5; Bonnefoi, 8/9; Breyten, £1/9/3, 9—Dewald Johannes Bernardus Pretorius, 3/6; Krantzpoort, 12/-; Bethal, 8/1, £1/7/9, at Airlie. £ 2 /2 /-; Airlie, 5 /3 ; Davel, £ 1 /6 /-; Delmas, Willem Hendrik Kunz Botha. £1/12/3; Rayton, £1/8/3; Silverton, 14/3. SOUTH AFRICAN CHURCH RAILWAY MISSION QUARTERLY. 11
Per Rev. E. F. W. Ingram: Collections.— PRETORIA DIOCESE. August, £13/7/-; Septembe-, £13/1673; October, £ 5 /0 /3 . Fees.— £ 7 /' >/- Nylstroom—Miss Hope Reinecke, c/o L. St. Michael’s, Bloemfontein, Old Girls’ Forssman, Esq. Railway Mission Association: Donation, Warmbaths—Miss Driver. £ 1 /7 /3 . Watervai Boven—Rev. E. G. Esdaile. Pretoria—Mrs. Murray, Roberts Height*. Platrand—Mrs. Gill. Nancefield Station—Miss Megum. Volksrust—Nurse Wardale. Ütg1)t for ti) t H i n e . BLOEMFONTEIN DIOCESE. Bloemfontein—Miss Watson. Subscriptions, 2/- per annum, 2/0 post Ventersburg Road—Miss Pote. free,, can be paid to the Editor or to any of Edenburg—Mrs. Cochrane. the Mission Staff or Local Agents. Wolvehoek—Mr. Burnett. Subscribers are requested to notify any Bethlehem—Miss M. Hyslop, Railway Book change of address. Stall. Local Agents are asked to send names and Lindley Road— new addresses of any removals from their Thaba ’Nchu—Mr. Davidson. list, or change in numbers required, to the Fouriesburg Rail—Mr. Ferrier; P.W.I. Editor, The Hermitage, Grahamstown, also to apply at once to the Editor if the Maga RHODESIA. zines do not reach them duly. Pemba—Miss L. Thorne. Members of the Staff are asked to send in Bwana Mkubwa—Mrs. Lewis. to the Editor, every quarter, names of new Broken Hill—Mrs. Phillips. members of Guild, of Good Shepherd, Nyamandhlovu—Mrs. Brewster. Mothers’ Union, and G.F.S. for insertion in MASHONALAND DIOCESE. Light for the Line. Rev. E. G. Holden, Bulawayo.
LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA. Local Agents “ Light for the Line.” Pretoria—Mrs. Christie. Bloemfontein— Mrs. Frood, 29, Kellner St. Port Elizabeth—Miss Geard. ' GRAHAMSTOWN DIOCESE. Grahamstown—Miss Booth, Worcester Street. CHILDREN OF THE VELD Sandflats— Mrs. T. H. Bruton. S e c r e t a r ie s f o r S o u t h A f r i c a . Alicedale—Mrs. B. Harvey. Genera{ Secretary in South Africa—Misl Conway—Mr. Wadmore. Burt, Grahamstown. Zwartkops—Miss Austin. Johannesburg — Mrs. Callow, Houghton Uitenhage— Mr. Corbett. Ridge. Cookhouse— Miss M. Biihler. Pretoria—Mrs. Christie. Cradock—Mrs. Judd. Grahamstown, C.P.—Miss Anstey, Bishops- Naauwpoort—Rev. A. Lejeune. bourne. Sterkstroom—Miss Alice Bird. Port Elizabeth—Mrs. Edward Brown; Miss H. Hannam, Park Drive; Miss S. Smith, Port Elizabeth—Miss Hannam, Park Drive Collegiate School. Bellevue— Mrs. Harrison. Bloemfontein — 31iss Howell, S . Michael’s Middleton—Mr. Moffatt. School; Mrs. Mar/un.
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Your prayers are asked : — kingdom; through Je s u s C h r i s t , our Mediator and Advocate. Amen. Tli at God will guide those who are (Bp of St. Andrew’s.) responsible for the future of the Rail way Mission. For past and present members of our A Prayer for Schools in this Time of staff who offered their services in the War. war : —Eustace Hill, chaplain in Ger 0 God our Father in heaven, strong man S.W. Africa; George Knapp and full of love to all, we Thy children Fisher, chaplain to H.M.S. Chatham; pray Thee to bless our country in this Arthur Austin, and Mary Beckwith. sad time of war. Watch over all those who have gone away from us to fiffht Prayer in Time of War. in our country’ s cause, especially the father or the brother of any of us, or 0 most mighty God and merciful of other children like ourselves. Keep Father, Whose never-failing Provi them safe, if it be Thy will, in all dence ordereth all things both in times of danger, and bring them home Heaven and earth, we Thy humble again to us in peace. Be with all the servants commend to Thy Fatherly wounded and the sick, and ease their care all who are at this time pain. Take care of us also, who stay engaged in warfare. Let Thy holy behind in this quiet land. Thou hast angels succour and defend our soldiers something for us to d o ; help us to do and sailors. Watch over and comfort it. Hive us grace to be good and un all who are near and dear to us. Have selfish and loving, that we may cheer pity on the sick, the wounded, and the those about us who are anxious or un dying. Guide and direct the Govern happy. Look down in mercy upon ment of our country. Give success to those who are now fighting against us. our arms; and grant in Thy own good And soon, if it please Thee, make glad time, that peace may be established ou all the whole world with Thy blessing a firm and righteous foundation, for ei peace; for J e s u s C h r i s t our Thy glory and the furtherance of Thy Saviour’ s sake. Amen. [SV
16. F. Haggai 2. 1-10 : 1 Thess. L. CTOBEfi CALENDAR. ^ 17. 8. Zech. 1. 1-18; 1 Thess. 2. 18. S. 19th Sunday after Trini^ v 1. Th. Amos 2. 4-8. 9 ; Eph. 2. M. Ezek. 14 or Isa. 55 : 1 Thess. 3. 2. P. Amos 5 .1 -1 8 ; Eph. 3. E. Ezek. 18 or 24. IB or Ecdua. 38. 3. S. Amos 7 ; Eph. 4.1-25. 1-15; Luke 13. 18. 19. M. Zech. 3 ; 1 Thess. 4. 4. S. 17th Sonde; alter Trinity. 20. Tu. Zech. 5 ; 1 Thess. 5. M. Jer. 5 ; Eph. 4. 25-5. 22. 21. W. Zech. 7 ; 2 Thess. 1. 22. Th. Zech. 8. 14; 2 Thess. 2. E. Jer. 22. or 35.; Luke 6. 20. 23. F. Zech. 10; 2 Thess. 3. 6. M. Jonah 1 ; Eph. 5. 22-6.10. 24. 8. Zech. 12.; 1 Tim. 1-18. 6. Xu. Jonah 3 ; Eph. 6. 10. X. 7. W. Micah 1 .1-10; Phil. 1. 25. S. 20th Sunday alter Trinity 8. Th. Micah 3 ; Phil. 2. 9. F. Micah 5 ; Phil. 3. M. Ezek. 3 4; 1 Tim. 1. 18 anrl 2. 10. S. Micah 7 ; Phil. 4. E. Ezek. 37. or Dan. 1 ; Luke 18. 1-31. U .S . XSLb Sunday alter Trinity. 26. M. Mai. 2 ; 1 Tim. 3. October 18. 27. Tu. Mai. 3.13 and 4 ; 1 Tim. 4. M. Jer. 3C ; Col. 1. 1-21. S t . L uke, Ev a n g e lis t. 28. 'W V SS. Simon ash ¿tee, A. & M . E. Ezek. 2. or 13.1-17 ; Luke 8. S l- 10.17. M. Isa. 28. 9-17; 1 Tim. 5. October 28. 12. M. Heb. 1.; Col. 1. 21-2.8. E. Jer. 3. 12-10; Luke 19. 28. 13. Tu. Heb. 3 .; Col. 2. 8. 29. Th. Wisdom 2 ; 1 Tim. 6. S im o n a n d J ude, SS. 14. W. Zeph. 114-2. 4 ; Col. 3. 1-18. 30. F. Wisdom 6 .1 -2 2 ; 2 Tim. L A postles a n d M a r t y r s. 15. Th. Zeph. 3 .; Col. 3. 18 and 4. 31. S. Wisdom 7. 15; 2 Tim. 2. © =0 By OUR OWN Red Letter Notes from the Mission Field. CORRESPONDENT. «1 The Oldest Missionary Society. his house to stare at him, and even when they saw him, they I T is, perhaps, little known, that the New England Gom- remained incredulous until he had read to them from a book. I pany is the oldest Missionary Society. Founded in This man with restored sight was the local schoolmaster, and jk .1649, ihe “ Long Parliament directed that a collection this year had had to close down the school because of the loss * should bevmade throughout England ‘ for the Promot of his sight. Before long he will be able to re-open his school, ing and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst f Drink Traffic on the Gold Coast. the Indians in New England.’ ” Such was its origin, and The reports which come from the Rev. F. C. Cleaver, an the money so collected, and afterwards invested, provides the S.P.G. missionary who is doing excellent work in the diocese income for present work among the Indians of Canada. of Accra, as to the drink traffic in the Gold Coast Colony, are Connected with the Mohawk Institution at Brantford (one of simply appalling ; it is, he says, “ growing by leaps and bounds.” the Society’s works) is the oldest Church belonging to the Anglican It is quite common to see drunken persons in the streets, a Communion in Canada. The only Chapel Royal in the Domi sight almost unknown a few years ago. Most of the drinking nion, its official title is “ His Majesty’s Chapel of the Mohawks,” —of rum and gin—goes on in the natives’ compounds and and it possesses a silver communion plate and a Bible, presented villages, on the occasions of funerals, marriages and births, by Queen Anne to ‘‘ Her Chapel of the Mohawks.” and more especially at “ festivals,” the chief one of which is The management of the Society is in the hands of twenty-five called “ Black Christmas,” the yam festival. laymen, the number having been fixed by a Supplemental *[f Need of Government Intervention. Charter granted by Queen Victoria in 1899. No subscriptions are asked for, but in Ontario several churches have been built Mr. Cleaver sees no hope of a change from this disastrous and clergy and catechists are maintained: also a trained has-; state of things, unless the Governments of all the colonies in pital nurse. Thus 264 years ago was the beginning made, West Africa take some drastic steps to stop the traffic. The curiously enough, not by the Church, but by the Long Parlia countries are being opened up at a great rate. Railways are ment ! being pushed forward inland, and new roads are being con ^ Jubilee of Medical Missions. structed. In the Gold Coast Colony alone as much as £58,000 has been voted for the Roads Department in one year. On There is no part of Foreign Missionary work which excites these new roads, powerful motor-lorries are continually running, greater interest, and is more encouraging, than that of Medi carrying cases and barrels of drink; such loads a few years cal Missions ; and it is interesting to note that the year 1914 ago had to be carried on the head, and the amount of drink mafjis the jubilee of the Medical Mission work of the C.M.S. finding its way amongst the natives was in consequence much Although medical men had been on the staff many years less. previously, the .first regular medical missionary was sent outm r How to help Medical Missions. pursuance of resolutions passed by the Committee in Novem One of the most useful adjuncts to the C.M.S. Medical ber and December, 1864, and the first medical mission was Mission Auxiliary is the “ Wants ” Department, which regu opened at Srinagar {Kashmir) in May, 1865. The present larizes and manages the gifts of friends to the various hospitals. staff includes ¿ighty-seven fully qualified medical men and Last year 200 cases and bales of goods were dispatched to the sixty-eight trained nurses. various Missions in Africa, Persia, Turkish Arabia, India and •I Result of an Operation. China. These cases contained 77,000 roller bandages, besides 4,700 bandages of other kinds. Besides bandages, many The visible results of Medical Missions—as for instance in blankets, sheets, towels, aprons, house-linen, and various gar the matter of successful operations—have naturally a great ments and yards of material have been contributed. This is influence on the natives; and the way is thus rendered com a practical way of showing interest in foreign missions. paratively easy for the preaching of the Gospel, at the hands Two Thousand rescued from Idolatry. of those who can work such wonders. The medical work of the C.M.S. mission in Kweilin, the capital of the Kwangsi A missionary in Nigeria reports that during only a few months’ Province of South China, is under the care of Mrs. J. L. Bacon, work, he had registered nearly two thousand people who had M.B. In that district diseases of the eye are very prevalent, thrown away their idols in order to serve God. In one town and Mrs. Bacon writes home to tell of some experiences in alone there were over six hundred converts, and the chief of a connexion with a recent operation. She says that the wonder section of that town has ordered all the women to join the at the first cataract operation was extraordinary. One man Christians, that they may “ learn to love their neighbours who was successfully operated upon, went back into the country, instead of poisoning them,” and about one hundred and fifty and afterwards related how over one hundred people came to women with their children joined from that section alone. a 17 T znzzrnzzzn
THE RIGHT' feEV. THE LORD^ BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM, President o f th e ch urch congress,. . sis The Gbu rcb Gongress at Birmingham St SHetcb of the 7Vlidland Gity and its gu rroundings. ® ® ® By d. H. CKABTKEE. ® ® ® Photo by the graphs © ® Author.
lE Metropolis of hives of industry,.' where the Midlands has men and' 'boys - melt, a warm heart for mould, turn and cut tons all that pertains of metal every workday, to tho Church’s progress are growing in magnitude* and prosperity. Greater and productive capacity. Birmingham,r beyond the But interest centres in parliamentary bounds of Aston Parish Church and the great city, is equally its beautiful Old Hall, dévoted in its loyalty to llere men and women the Church of our fathers. can retire for a quiet And the -towns and vil hour, either to meditate lages around, that are and worship, or to rest touched .with ihe halo of and recuperate.. the city’s influence, are -H dary with age, but alike intent on the com fresh and stately aR a plete success of a notable modem mansion, Aston Church Congress. Hall tells of days of chiv Birmingham is a city of alry. Sir Thomas Holte, great things. It is the dwel- a wealthy magnate and liiig-place of great men and loyal subject of King women who have wrought .lames Stuart, built him valiantly -for the good of self a house on Aston Hill. others. It is too often In this achievement Sir imagined that the Metro Thomas took pardonable polis of the Midlands is but pride, and Willingly housed thè nucleus of vast congeries his troubled sovereign. spent at least piece— “ The Sleeping Children^ one Christmas or the lifelike effigy; of w ’ a here, amicTfes- Rider? , tivitdes of un- We must not forget s u r p a 8 s e d Samuel Johnson," of dictic grandeur Poor fame, was bom at .the Richard !~ h e house in the market-place. His was here again father was a prosperous book twoyearsafter seller. . .H ere with,manacles was. a parceTof round« his w a s t e land wrists. He was which m ight lodged'^ in the be of yaliie Castle, but an someday. The open window Corporation, as suggested pos ow ners, d e sibilities of Birthplace o f Shakespeare at clined.' to sell,. escape,- and he Stratford. but granted a risked his , life forty yeais’ to gain his .freedom, The unwary keeper lea se,, and found his cell vacant. Richard had left. JohnSon built - And so this calm and peaceful country- thereon this town has a story of its own, far more event sub s tantial ful than the records of large industrial t e n e m e n t. centres. . The Civil War decimated, its When the lease homesteads and ransacked its noblest pile. expired; the The Black Plague attacked it, and bore Corporati on away 800 of its people. So ,that .when extended , it to Bishop Hackett came to Lichfield he found 8hake*peare’s 8chool. his son Samuel a city of poverty and ruin. But the man was f o r ninety- master of his work. 'Not a day was wasted.. The nine years at five shillings a year—as “ a token very looming after his arrival fifty labourers were of respect.” Dr. Johnson appears in effigy in hired to repair the Cathedral. TTIr own coach- the Square, unfolding aiscroll. horaes were devoted to the work, and a td a y - To the south of Birmingham the grey ruin of break every morning, except Sunday, the toilers Kenilworth rears its mantled walls toward the were hard at it, the Bishop himself appearing at canopy of blue. On a sunny day,, the sight of the head of affairs. The task was heavy Kenilworth and prolonged; but every man wrought with Castle i s might-and main ; and eight more years saw unique; and Tiohfield mniling again with a Cathedral re we may sit stored to its former dignity and splendour. on the grassy To-df^y it is .the goal of thousands of slopes b e visitors 'from all. parts of the world. Its side D u d brief, bright and beautiful week-day ser ley’s famous vices are “ services for all” who seek a lake to pon quiet hour of divine worship. In the der over a intervals; the multitude walk by the mansion o i “ lon g-’drawn i the V irgin a i s le. and Queen. Eliza frettedvault,” beth held her by ‘ ‘t.he liege lord in storied- urn high regard; and animated and bestowed bust,'*, and be on him this hold the won The Broken 8talrway, “ royal favour derful crea Aston Hall. o f ; Kenil- tions of the •wort h .’ * sculptors’ art Dudley, Earl of Leicestery.honoured in mafrble and the gift, spent £60,000. in beautify a 1-a b a s t e r . ing it, and prepared,-armaigiificent Who can fall reception for his royal • sovereign to admire that in July, 1575. Wh^n/'the had remarkable finished the Lake to the. south, a g6m -*r-Clian- stately bridge was flung across tfte trey’s master- Aston HaII, fiiHninghim. western side, that the Queenmight © THE CHURCH CONGRESS 9T BIRMINGHAM © 221 outer tl*e Stratford lies further afield. Shake Castle by an speare’s home in Henley Street is untrodden thronged with admirers duting the g&th. When leafy days of summer. The Parish ©Uzabeth Church, in its picturesque situation, (feigned to is approached by an avenue» of lime- Yisit hex trees, grand in summer, majestic in lcjrdly host, winter. Here repose the “ immortal the gardens,, bard ” and his family. Hither he parterres» was brought halls a n d to the font t e rraces i n h i 8 were strewn m o t h e r ’s with lavish arms ;iiere decorations. he sang his The Queen first choral; h e r s e 1 f Anne Hathaway’s Cottage here he was “ g reatly at Shottery. a devout marvelled.” communi “ During her visit of seventeen cant during days,” says a faithful chronicler who the ebinng was present as court-attendant, years of his “ the dock stood still ; the hands life. always to just two o’clock; The Cot- it being the hour of banquet ” in t a g e a t Great Hall of the Castle. The Shottery is cost of this royal visit exceeded "Home, 8weet Home,” Welford-on-Avon. a popular £j,000 per day ; four guests were resort f o r knighted, and “ nine persons were cured of the all young folks. Here the bard wooed and won King’s Evil.” What the Civil War and the Anne Hathaway ; and the house retains many of withering hand of Time have wrought on Kenil its old-time features. A t Wilmcote, not far away, worth may be seen to-day. Amy Robsart’s is the farm where Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Tower still stands—that lofty and venerable Arden, spent her girlhood, and where the youth block where a charming Countess spent anxious ful “ Willie ” used to milk “ grandma’s kine.” hours writing letters and making tapestry. Charlecote Park is four miles away. A plea- The pretty ohurch of Kenilworth is well worth visiting. Its Norman archway is elaborately moulded ; within the church is an ancient circular font, on a Norman column, which probably hailed from the ruined Priory on the land adjoining. Excavations hereabout have revealed the foundations of an octagonal building with walls ten feet thick. Warwick is but a brief Space from Kenilworth, and well merits a day dur - ing Congress week. The Castle and .. St. Mary’s Church are sp e c i a 11 y npteworthy. Kenilworth Parish Church and Priory ftyins. sant walk through lovely scenery leads to the home and deer-park of Shake speare’s “ Justice Shallow.” Welford-on-Avon is an other charming spot on the riverside with ancient cottages of lath-and-plas- Kenilworth Castle. ter, and a pretty church. By MARK WINCHES» T£R. longer felt interested in his work. The first resentment in “ sharing” her husband with an admiring pubhb had left the young wife, and ambition had taken its place. One of John’s admire», an old gentle- man who had come hobbling down to see the new military aero plane for hitaself, had died soon after and left John a “ bit of money.’* Not a fortune, but enough to make Nellie worry to leave the cottage and take up CHAP* her abode in one of those TER very genteel new VII. villas beyond the E L U E village shop. P A II - John, who loved SONS sat his “ messy bid noar the open shed” had de window of murred. at first, her pretty but had had to parlour, stitching yield in the a w a y busily, end. whilst Baby Jack Nellie had begun crawled and to indulge to-day sprawled about the in farther flights room on an explora of ambition, when tion trip. He liked his Baby Jack fell new quarters and ex foul of the new plained as much in various brass coal scuttle, crowings and chucklings. whilst at the same His mother laid down her moment the front sewing presently to watch door was banged him. open and a man's 'Bless his little heart!” steps wore heard she ejaculated— then sighed. crossing the tiny Was the sigh for the old days hall. at the humbler pottage: in the “ Never thinks ■ of the new paint, village ? O f course Mayes In silence they pa»»ed through the wicket gate. Villa was far grander, there —Page 284T banging the wall was a bathroom here, and the so ! ” said Nellie, parlour— or drawing-room— was twice the size of much aggrieved, as she picked Baby Jack up in thé. former one. But Polly, the little servant gif I, h$r arms, giving him a little shake to “ stop his was a worrit ” to her mistress, who was alwajrs noise.” wanting to be behind her showing her how work “ Nellie ! ” ought to be done. It was John calling her. John, who ought Ko, after all, the cottage days were best, to be lectured about the paint. But something though die would not have gone back to them in the tones of tho voice made Nellie forget her for tlie world. Nellie was quite determined petty grievances. She answered her husband there, as she glanced down at her own smart « t oftoe. blouse, and Baby Jack’s blue sash. W hen “ the “ In the parlour, John, I ’m cornin’.” gentiy ” came nowadays they did not catch But it was John who came to her after all. John Parsons* wife making the pastry 1 But A John transported by his delight, so that His John himself would sometimes declare that the arms went round wife and child in a hug which pastry itself suffered for the change. Nellie could not resent, even though it did Yet he could not complain that Nellie no crush up the silk of her new blouse, since it las © r n r t a l e n t s kindly, “ I have heard your great news and Here they knelt, side by side, in the quiet want to congratulate you. I am so glad you hush of the sanctuary. were successful.” Long warm rays of golden light lay aslant the' It was the way she spoke which gave charm chancel steps. The sanctity of the place, thfe to the words, the quiet sincerity which required beauty of the morning hour, stirred John Parsons no gush.” as his soul had never been stirred before. Parsons coloured to the roots of his hair. This was the very Presence of God in which “ Thank you kindly, miss,” he replied, as all false arguments and plausible excuses slipped respectfully as though he were still village con from him, leaving him face to face with the truth!. stable instead of the already famous inventor, Burying his face on his folded arms the man “ but that’s the very thing that’s weighin’ on prayed as he had never before prayed, not as m y inind.” heretofore to a vaguely accepted Creator Who Verity smiled. It sounded a curious con lived far off above the skies, but. to One fairer fession, and she waited to hear more. than the sons of men, the Thorn-Crowned, Loving After a short pause Parsons went on:— Saviour Who stood beside him—John Parsons ‘'You remember, miss,” he said, “ about — here in His House. that there £500 which, so to speak, set me goin’. And as he prayed a strange and exquisite You may reason this way an’ that, but it’s flat peace came to him, so that he raised his head, as without that £500 I wouldn’t be worth £5,000 drawing in a deep breath of awe at the wonder to-day. And the one who so to speak, speculated of it. God had answered his question Himself. with me in that investment laid an obligation Presently they rose and went out from the alongside it.” sanctuary into the sunlit air. Yes,” assented Verity, beginning to guess The worry and torment of last night seemed the secret of the man’s perturbation, “ I remem a thing to scorn now. At the wicket gate Verity ber. If ever you made your fortune through halted. that money you were to give half to the Charing Well ? ” she asked, “ has it helped yon, Cross Hospital.” John ? ” " That’s it, miss. And what I want to know He took the little hand she held out to him, is whether that obligation's bindin’ on me ? and there was an unaccustomed mist before his Of course I’ve talked it over time on time with eyes as he made answer— friends, an’ they’ve been pretty convincin’ that *' Thank you, miss,” he said in low tones. I if I did make iny pile out of the aeroplane it ain’t goin’ to forget the best way of gettin’ to would be my braihs an’ not the £ s. d. to which know the right of tilings. There can't be any I owed success. I mentioned it to Sir Hugh mistake after that as to what I ought to do. Elgins, an’ he said he wouldn’t give the matter An’, please God, I’ll do it.” a second thought. But I can’ t help it. I want to be convinced that I’rb. free to use the money.” CHAPTER ViII. Verity did not reply at once. She realized T he news that John Parsons was abiding b y that she was being called on to answer A big the terms of that strange bequest and had question— far greater than it first appeared. actually been up to town and paid the sum of She was to be this man’s conscience to him— £2,500 to a special account at the Charing Gross and the answer might help to shape his whole Hospital, caused a great sensation in Stanbridge life. But Verity had one sure reference in all and elsewhere, too, when the fact leaked out. such matters as this. Too humble to accept the Not that John himself bruited the matter part of mentor to any one, she gave the only abroad, and it was remarked as a curious pheno advice which could have helped Parsons to come menon by more than one of his friends that now to the right decision. he had actually made his fortune he was not See,” she said gently, pointing to the little suffering nearly so much from “ swelled head ” village church which stood on a slight eminence as previously. In fact he had caught Jim to the right of Stanbridge, overlooking woods Lasdale, the village carpenter, up quite sharply and meadows, “ let us both go together and ask on hearing the latter extolling his cleverness. God.” “ It’s just a gift,” he declared, “ ora talent, The invitation was so simple, so obviously or whatever you may call it, ah’ please God I’ll without constraint, that Parsons, though no use il; right since He give it me.” less shy to speak of religious feelings than the As to the giving up of half his fortune, he ordinary Englishman, felt no false shame in refused to talk or argue the matter at all. complying. “ It was the only thing an honest man could In silence they passed through the wicket do,” he said, and—to his own surprise his little gate and up the slope. It was a picturesque wife backed him up in his view. spot; with two or three great elm trees shadow They had had a bit of a talk together when ing the gravestones in the churchyard. John came in from that morning walk which Verity led the way to the side door which had marked a crisis in his life. was open, and went in, followed by John. The Nellie’s sharp eyes had seen in a moment that church was empty, and they slipped quietly something had happened, but, contrary to her into a pew not far from the screen. custom, she asked no question. She herself had spent a sleepless night toying to argue out my opinion of human nature—and yet I ’m not t^&at John had a right to all his profit on the sure. There are exceptions to every ride. Plenty of; his invention. But: she had. not been of exceptions. But the rule remains a rule, ju st convinced .at all, and when her husband spoke as humbugB remain humbugs.” of that quiet hour of prayer and how.“ God and But Verity shook her head. .“ I’m not going Miss Verily had shown him what his duty was,” to ‘listen* to your talk of humbugs any more,” she flung both arms round him, declaring she she .declared.. “ If you cedi for the highest in a had known all along he’d do it,, and she was man, .thprp’s something noble in the worst of glad,'.yes, glad, even if.it did mean thatcthey us that responds.” ' , couldn’t'do:all “ they’d been planning so grand.” Theold'man, however, only laughed, and “ And, John,” she added in a whisper, hiding Verity went her way feeling that he still cherished her face on his shoulder, his pet. theories-about “ .I ain’t sure that I’m not the frailty of.nis kind. glad about that too! It Keith Norton .was doesn’t suit us, my dear, to returning to be so grand, and I know I’ll town next be ten times day, byt that happier when would' not I ’ve sent .that m ake any P..o l l y away very, great and go back to dpfsren'ce doin’ me own t o h er. work in me Shehad o w n . way, scarcei y which I ’m - seen him conceited during his enough to brief visit, think no partly, > no one can do doubt, if better.” ow in g ' John wee to ’ the sure of fact that. There that ;her never was new ■ m is - nor could s i o nary be a better scheme was • little cook claiming . a and house great deal wife than his Nellie. It of her time was quite, like old days justr-asso again to hear him say so, and feel often ag- his arm—lover-fashion— about her gravati ng- trim waist. ly happens Of course there were plenty of — this particu people, to tell John he was a fool, lar week.' ■and still more to say the same thing But Verity behind his. back. .Amongst the latter was not • the was old Jake Howley, whose convic sort of girl; to tions as to what Parsons was sure to do shirk doing had apparently been shaken by the an what she . had nouncement of the policeman's decision. undertaken to “ Verity fled home and up to her room; there - ' But '.though the . old - cynic declared. to Indulge in uncontrollable tears. Paje 226. do merely be John Parsons to be, a fool, he evidently ; . , c - cause inclina- did not-mean it. <• In fact Jake Howley was tion laid other clsiims upon her. She was whole- impressed—-a great deal impressed by what the hearted in her enthusiasm ¡for mission work,' and policeman had done. this cherished sch such troubled waters would be a discreet silence. offer, with a latent desire to spur you to charitable ■■: But,aahe read the letter his father handed him, deeds.” ihia own face changed to an expression of bewilder* Sir Philip glanced up sharply. pieiutr—not without a trace of half-concealed “ You’ll please to remember whom you are Amusement. The anonymous writer certainly speaking to, Keith,” he. observed. “ I don’t .made an astounding proposal. He, or she, declared want any quips at my expense. As far as his readiness to pay in charity ten times the sum charities go there is no need for them in these Sir Philip could prove he had given in charity days when the rich are taxed out of existence during the previous year, or double what he for the poor. There’s a spirit of folly and pau might give in the coming year. It did not perism abroad, which I do not intend to foster. need a very keen intelligence to read subtle As for this letter, I mean to get to the bottom of irony into this offer. it. I have my suspicions—m y very grave sus Sir Philip, pompous, loud of voice, little in picions—that Cyril Grayle knows more of this stature, but in every other sense the “ big man ” of Stanbridge, was the very reverse of generous. He talked much of the many claims on his purse and of all he should like to give if he were able, but no one heard definitely that he ever gave money to sub scriptions or in helping forward any good work for his poorer neighbours. Yet Sir Philip had always been at the greatest pains to hide his cheese-paring generosity, and, such is the power of much talk ing, had partly succeeded. Most people vaguely supposed the baronet gave a great deal away to public charities—and Sir Philip encouraged the belief as much as possible without actually saying he did what he did not. His son knew all about this pet idiosyncrasy of his father’s and began to un If I find Qrayle is implicated in it, I shall write pretty strongly to the Bishop. derstand the latter’s anger. “ I suppose,” he said slowly, “ it is the same than he admits. He has a good many rich sort of idea as those other two offers to Parsons relations, and there are some people who, if they and Miss Mocre ” have money, seem to think they are at liberty “ I don’t care what it is,” spluttered the to insult every one. If I find Grayle is implicated baronet, “ all I say is that this is deliberate and in it, I shall write pretty strongly to the Bishop, intentional insult, and, if I can, I ’ll have the and I flatter myself I can write strongly on law on the man who wrote it.” occasion ! ” Keith laughed. “ I fear you can’t do that,” “ I believe you, sir,” replied Keith dryly. he retorted. “ Even an anonymous writer is Here was an added reason for him to be glad at liberty to make an offer of that kind. I to return to town the next day. don’t see why you should necessarily take it for Certainly he meant to keep clear of Stanbridge an insult. You might even call it a generous and its startling ways in the future! (To be continued.) M ow J Earned M oney to Jielp m y Qburefj. By 5. LEONARD BA5TIN. AN Y people who are not in a position to give large sums of money to the Church, M often have a certain amount of time at their disposal. Rightly employed, this spare time may be, and has been, turned to excellent account in the way of earning something to help forward good work. Of course, a very large number of people make articles for selling at bazaars and, whilst one has no word to say against such an excellent practice, it may be pointed out that there are Lilies o f the Valley sell well In the winter and are easily more lucrative ways of getting money. Let me grown. give a few cases as showing what can be done in (Retarded Lilies of the Valle; may be grown at any time. They are useful this direction. lor Christmas, and may be brought to full perfection in about fifteen days At the present time there is a lady living down in any living-room.) in Cornwall. The parish in which she has her home is a very large one, there is a great deal to be worked up, and at the end of the first year, after deducting all outgoing expenses, there was a done, and very little money with which to carry profit of several pounds. As time went on the on . the work. Now one day it occurred to this sales tended to increase, and on several occasions lady that it might be possible to earn some money it was necessary to stop advertising, as the orders by selling Cornish Ferns. Quite properly, in came in almost too freely, considering the stock almost all counties, there are bye-laws which which was on hand. make it illegal to! root up wild plants' and sell Another excellent way of raising money is in them, but right-thinking people do not want to despoil the countryside in this way. The lady the growing of any kinds of common plants, such as wallflowers, pinks, forget-me-nots, etc., etc. about whom I am writing had a better plan than Probably in the history of the country there has this. She secured a stock of ferns for herself, never been such an astonishing demand for all andby careful division of the roots from time to kinds of garden material as at present. The time, a huge number of fern plants was soon produced. A large garden was available, as is writer has a friend who, in a business way of course, has made a lot of money, simply by grow so often the case in the country, and a regular ing the most ordinary garden plants. It is not nursery of ferns was established. When the stock was ready, small advertisements were in needful to have a very large garden, for, in their serted-in suitable papers, and the result was sur young days, the specimens do not take up much room. Many thousands of plants may be pro* prising. Quite a nice little business was soon duced in a small garden, or in some odd comer which is not wanted for any other purpose. Again, the stock is best sold through the medium of small advertisements. The biggest results in these cases are always seemed when the an nouncements appear in papers which circulate in London, of in some of the big towns. Here there are a large number of amateur gardeners, always ready to buy common plants. An idea of the right price to charge may be secured from study ing the advertisements in any of the gardening papers.' D o not ask too large a price, and always take care to give good value; this is very im portant, as it should.be the ambition of every seller to get repeat orders. Cut flowers always command a ready sale, especially in 'the winter and the spring. It is a great mistake to suppose that these must neces sarily be something very special, and it will be found that quite common blossoms will have a ready sale, especially if these are fresh and well packed. Where even a small greenhouse is A lady made a lot of money out of Geranium cuttings. available, it is of course an easy matter to grow 288 ® HOW I E3RNED PIONEY TO HELP Ny CHURCH ® 229 all kinds use of a certain amount of manure ; thus it of winter should not be too near any dwelling-house. A flowering quantity of stable litter is heaped up in some plants, comer—if this is in a shed, so much the better. It should be well pressed down, and when finished the bed may be about three feet in height, as long and as broad as you please. Sprinkle a little fine mould on the top, and then allow the bed to stay just as it is for about a week. At the end of that timo it will be just the right temperature for sticking in broken pieces of the mush room spawn, cakes of which can be purchased from any gardener’s store. The fragments of the spawn should be just buried below the surface of the bed, and a little mould may be placed over the top. If this soil becomes very Preserving Flowers. Arranging them in layers on sand. dry it is well to sprinkle some water and the supply of blos som can be maintained throughout the whole year. In growing com paratively small quan tities it is just as well not to specify any par ticular flowers, and the advertisements may be worded on the foflow- ing lines:— “ Box of fresh cut flowers and ferns, for Is., post free.” It is always a good plan to give an inclu sive price, as it is very often a great trouble to collect the postage afterwards. Again, the best results will arise when the announce ments are inserted in papers which circulate in big towns. Of course, all kinds of fruit, vege tables, and even mush rooms, may be sold in Two girls started a small French garden and the resulting profits were given to this way. the. Church. It may interest on it, though it is important some readers to give not to allow too much mois particulars of simple ture. In a few weeks the ways of growing mushrooms will' begin to mushrooms and new appear, and you will be potatoes;these abre to go on gather plans may be carried ing the crop for a long out even if a garden while with good luck. is not available. Here is the .plan First of all, it is much for growing pota more easy to grow toes, and this may mushrooms than some people be carried out in a seem to think. They can be cupboard. All that produced in any outhouse, or in we shall need áre a the comer of a yard. The only Preserving Flowers: these sell well at Bazaars. number of old thing to bear in mind is that the tubers. These (After the sand has been shaken out the flower* are removed and making of the bed calls for the carefully presenradj should b e saved 230 * HO'IE WORDS '* : over from the previous win ter, and then started in the following manner in the month of August. First of all it is important that the cupboard should be quite dork when the door is shut. If von cannot secure this, it may be a good plan to put the potatoes in large wooden boxes. Whatever we use it is needful to spread about three inches of soil (which New Potatoes all the Winter. should be fairly dry) over the (Place old potatoes on a «Keif which' hat a little dry aoil on it, laave them quite in the dark. The crop» surface of the shelf or the floor wore sold, and the money given to the Church.» of the box, into which the potatoes can be bedded, in the manner shown nailing it against the sides of the frame. The frame is now placed upon a flat surface such as a wooden board, wire net ting downwards. A quan tity of perfectly clean sand must now be poured in until the netting is covered. The flowers to be preserved are spread on the surface of the sand ¿s shown in the photo graph. Then more sand is poured on to the blos soms, care being taken to see that the petals are well arranged. Two or perhaps three layers of flowers are placed in the frame, and in each case sand is used to cover the blossoms in. Finally, the whole affair is put in a warm dry room. At the end of ten days the sand is allowed to escape from the frame by gently rais Mushrooms ara grown in any shed or cellar, and these are readily sold, ing the wooden portion. It Will then be found that in the accompanying photograph. When all the flowers will be beautifully preserved. are in place the potatoes should be left abso lutely in the dark. Now and again it may be a good plan to sprinkle them with a very little water, but only a small amount of moisture should be used. At the end of a few weeks it will be seen that the old potatoes are starting to bud off quantities of small tubers. When these are about the size of walnuts they may be gathered, and it will be found that they command a ready sale, especially during the winter months. The old tubers will keep on bearing in the way described for a very long time, until there is nothing left of them but a mass of shrivelled skin. In conclusion one may suggest a novel way of preserving flowers. The first step is to prepare a wooden framework (the sides of a big box will do well). In the bottom of this is placed wire- netting, which can be easily fastened across by Potatoes produced in this way are vary saleable. " The Light of th« World." O pilgrimage to Oxford can be complete N which does not include. a visit to the: While this brief statement was being read by Chapel of Keble College, to view Holman the agent, the prospective seller gradually leaned Hunt’s immortal canvas, “ The Light of the back in his chair with a more contented expres World.” Perhaps no single picture of the sion on his face, and said, when the end was century has made a deeper impression than this reached, “ Read that over again.” The agent masterpiece, replete with tender significance in complied. every detail. Then, after a few moments’ thoughtful silence, Is it in the eyes of the central Figure—the the owner remarked decisively, “ I’ve changcd homes of age-long patience—that you find the m y mind about selling. You’ve just described picture’s chiefest spell, or in the knocking hand, the kind of place that I’ve been looking for all or in the wreath of thorns intertwined with the my life, and I didn’t know till now that I had it. royal diadem ? Or does your first glance dwell on It’s too good to sell.” the arresting symbolism of the door, long closed and overgrown with trailing creepers, bearing no The Turning of the Tide. handle on its outer side and opening only from I _ | HERE is an intention— more or less within ? j i I honest—in many minds to break at I love the painted parable in its every part, and some future date with the forces of evil, I love it not less in its completeness, yet its and to effect an amendment of the life. This supreme appeal to m y mind is in a sense indirect, intention is usually accompanied by a belief that for whenever I have viewed the original or one of such a transformation can be effected without its many reproductions my thoughts have flown extreme difficulty ? apparently only a firm re instinctively to the artless question of a little solve is needed and personal effort will carry the child, who gazed earnestly upon the picture, and matter through. after long silence asked, with that childlike sim But the experience of those who have already plicity which reaches to the roots of truth, " Did struggled simply in their own strength against He get in ? ” evil exposes the fallacy. They have striven, time and again, to change the current of their Olher People’s Eyes. lives, and the result on each occasion has simply I V |F only we could view our blessings with been disheartening failure. The power in oppo | 1 I other people’s eyes, we might be more sition has proved far greater and their own appreciative ^nd content. strength far less than they had imagined. A gentleman who owned a house and estate in Nature’s lesson-book teaches this deeper wis the country beoame dissatisfied with his home, dom. Standing in thought upon a bridge we arid ultimately decided to sell the whole property watch a tidal river flowing through the spanning and move elsewhere. He consulted an agent in arches, and the current is so gentle that it seems the town near by, who visited the estate, and then almost as though we might be able to turn it. drafted a sale - description, which he brought to But if we took stones and soil, and built a dam his client for any corrections which might be across the streim, the river, checked for a mo needed. ment, would finally flow right over the obstruc The description was straightforward and not tion. If our first attempt seemed poor, and if a. over-coloured^ setting forth in plain terms the second time we built a higher, firmer barrier, th*' comfort, and roominess of the house, its pleasant result would be the same, and the river would and healthy, yet retired situation on a hill con sweep away the impeding barrier as before, veniently near to the town, the amenities of tho though perhaps not so swiftly. Mere human small, well-timbered park, and the charm of the effort cannot hold back the stream or reverse the fertile gardens. current. 232 * HOP1E WORDS * Waiting awhile, we note a change. The sticks . to lead his flock across a shallow stream. Again and straws which formerly were floating down and again he called to the sheep from the oppo the stream are being borne backwards in the site bank, but in vain, for they would venture no direction of the river’s source. What has fartherthan the brink ; again. and, again he happened ? The tide has turned. coaxed "them, bu t'to no purpose. 1 At last, as a In Nature’s realm and human life alike, that final'resource, he forded the stream, caught up a which man’s unaided toil cannot accomplish is lamb, and bore it in his arms to the other side. quietly and surely effected by a greater Power Immediately the ram followed, then the anxious than ours. Conversion, or the turning of the mother-ewe, • then - the whole - flock crossed the soul Godward, depends on the grace of God. stream to better pastures and coolershade beyond. Not in vain was the appeal of God through that Across the Stream. tender leading to the stricken hearts, for by the FATHER and mother were suddenly be- waterside they found the healing of their grief, A reaved of the little one who had been the and understood that the Good Shepherd had but joy of their lives, and their hearts, after taken their little one across death’s stream that the first bitter pangs of anguish, grew hardened He might draw their hearts closer to Himself, and and rebellious against the will of God. deepen their longing for the Land Beyond, and in They sought to bury their sorrow and learn after days the tale was told and retold ofttimes forgetfulness in the distractions of travel, and one by their- Ups, and their lives'were used of God to day. resting by a roadside in Palestine, they bring. comfort' to many an aching, burdened became interested in watching a shepherd trying heart. .. \ VESPER. Words by F lorence G ertrude A ttenborough . Music by L . S. L eese. PP CEfitf ' , ■■ -iS— i r God’s hush is on the pas - ture, God’s peace is o’er the hill. The day is swift - ly i ! * I , : , . i ! I . ■ i i i i ~ m - — & if_ : f e -F—*- -m— EÖ: -i— ri dim PP —i- t ~r end - ing, But God is with us still. Give us with sleep Thy com-fort, 0 Guar-dian of us — m — £ - 0- — .*•—l--- ——P- =f— ..(*'' — m . -----v . — p.------■ ^ .— !*- :=t=— _itz— ' i = t = t= dim. PP zjz=^=jz^p2=-z=;j:q=:=F t .— Ä==iz==i==z{==3=: - - ¿ - m i »— m-— m—— m- *.s i ...... 1 . 1 , 1 ^ 1 all, A ben - i - son of bright-ness, When night’s deep shad-ows fall. 1 • i ' i iL_J i ezL I ‘ ! I , I i 1 THE BLESSING OF' DAILY; WORK. HANK God every morning when you get up that you have best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence something to do that day which must be done whether and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred youT like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your virtues which the idle will never know.—Charles Kingsley■ O l)d G P t f)6 Ghafeb li&mp. o u r prayer-bo o k c o m p a n io n . THOUGHTS ON THE COLLECT, EPISTLE AND GOSPEL FOR THE SUNDAYS OF THE YEAR. f W Oct. 4. Seventeenth “ Just so far as our hearts are full of love, we shall see some v J s * Sunday after thing worth loving in every human being we meet, and love jL ^ ^ ¡ ¡ T Trinity. them for that.” v ‘‘ One body Oct. 18. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. »■ ..... ( 11 i and one Spirit.” (Epistle.) " Let not t^e sun go down_ ..." y “ Let me remember that ^ ---- -—^ I am not a solitary being “ Estrangement between friends should not be permitted to continue over night. It is a Scriptural counsel that we should to deal with G o d by my self, but I am one of a great company all marching to their not let the sun go down upon our wrath. Why? Because home. . . . We all have a share of the body of Adam, and we there may not be another day in which to get the wound healed all share in thi: Body of CHRIST, Who is the second Adam. So and the estrangement removed. . . . Do not delay too long. What time is it ? Is the sun moving towards his setting ? I am doubly joined to my brothers in CHRIST, and I ought to love them, and work for them, and pray for them. . . . The Hasten, and before the shadows of evening come on be recon good works and holiness of one Christian send a thrill of ciled with your friend.” health through the whole Church. On the other hand, the “ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” sins of a Christian are a loss to every one who is in C h rist ; “ It may be that, by a desperate effort, we have kept the there is leSs health, less holiness in the body." door of our lips shut upon that headlong torrent of resentful words, upbraiding words, malicious words, wl iie w3 were in Coupe! ) “ He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” the hearing of others. It may be that we have thrust into the “ The world which G o d sees is full of such, though the world fire the letter which first we wrote, when our hand so tingled which man sees takes no ntote of them : gentle souls, humble with passion we could scarcely guide the pen; and have put souls, uncomplaining souls, suffering souls, pious souls—these into the post, instead of it, something temperate, quiet, self are G o d ’s elect; these are C h r ist ’ s sheep ; these are the salt controlled, which will give the recipient no idea, to-morrow, of of the earth, who, by doing each their little duty as unto G od wliat passed before. But locked into our own chamber, and not unto men, keep society from decaying more than do all where no human eye can see us and no human ear can hear, the constitutions and acts of parliament which statesmen ever we may yet ‘ give place to the devil ’—may let every fiery invented. These are they—though they little dream of any such thought in our brain run riot—may fling out into the empty honour—who copy the likeness of the old martyrs, who did air all the foul denunciations seething in our heart. Did I say well and suffered for it; and the likeness of C h r is t , of Whom —into the empty air ? Have we never, at such times, been it was said —' He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall His conscious of a Presence at our side—unseen, unheeded, u>-- voice be heard in the streets.’ ’’ spared one jot or one tittle of our hideous self-revelation? It is in the moment after we have locked the door behind us, frr* ./..'/i.'. . after Trl . we need to check ourselves at sound of a whisper, so faint that it is scarcely more than a formless sigh—‘ Grieve not the .;c : ; “ With pure hearts and minds.” Holy Spirit of G o d .’ ” “ By bad thoughts I defile the t;mple of G o d . How dreadful ;Gospel) "J e s u s , seeing their faith.” it is when bad men go into a church and profane it by worlily or wicked deeds ! But it ¡3 more dreadful still to defile the “ This is a very wonderful faying. It was their faith—the faith of the friends ; not his faith—the faith of the poor paralyzed soul where the Holy S p ir it has come to dwell. . . . Oh, then, may I keep a strict guard over my mind ! Help me, O Holy man. He cannot, we think, have offered any decided opposi tion to their bringing him to Jesus, but this is as much as can S p ir it , to control my thoughts. T h ou art pure, and I would be pure also.” be said on his part. It was their faith, seeing which, the S aviour spoke those gracious words. Is not here a most 14 Still to the lowly soul blessed encouragement for those who seek and strive, by H e doth Himself impart, intercessory prayer, to bring their loved ones to His Feet?” And for His dwelling and His throne Chooseth the pure in heart.” Oct 2 5 . Tu'eritieth Sunday after Trinity. LiJittL ! “ Waiting for the coming of our L o r d ." (Colleu.' “ ]^jay cheerfully accomplish.” “ Thus in my own so. 1 must I prepare the way for C h r is t . “ Our Christianity is apt to be of a very ‘ dutiful ’ kind. We How often people forget that they must be such as H e will be mean to do our duty, we attend Church, and go to Holy Com pleased to meet when H e comes. Mere forgiveness will not munion. But our hearts are full of the difficulties, the hard be enough ; there must be the wedding garment of holiness." ships, the obstacles which the situation presents, and we go on ■ Ctospt. , “ Thou shalt love the LORD thy G o d ." our way sadly, down-hearted and despondent. We need to " Thou hast stooped to ask of me learn, or learn anew, from St. Paul that true Christianity is The love of my poor heart." inseparable from deep joy ; and the secret of that joy lies in a continual looking away from all else—away from sin and its “ Nothing is so grateful to the heart of C h r ist as love." ways, and from the manifold hindrances to the good we would “ And thy neighbour as thyself.” do—up to G o d , His love, His purpose, His will.” “ There is no true love to C h r ist which does not also kindle (Epistle “ Giving thanks always for all things.” in our hearts a corresponding love to men. . . . Brotherly love “ It is only through a delusion that we can ever imagine is the proof and badge of Christian discipleship. This love is that there is more in the world to cause us depression than not in name merely, but is real. It is a love which protects there is to evoke our thankfulness ; it is only an attempt of the and helps ; a love that keeps sacred watch over the good name devil to magnify himself and his works above Almighty G od of a brother ; and by a strong arm averts the descending blow : and His works. If we would avoid being victims of this a love that seeks every opportunity to bless and cheer and delusion, and be able to refuse to be bullied into depression comfort; a love that serves, and forgets self in loyal devotion about the world at large or the salvation of our own souls, even to death for a brother.” we must learn and practise the art of thanksgiving.” THE FUGITIVE’S CAVE. By irene strickland taylor. VERYTHING was very quiet in Hughes' proprietor of the hotel, on horseback, and in English Hotel, Jerusalem, and we addition we had two donkeys in attendance—no, slumbered peacefully—then all at I mean we had a dragoman sitting on a donkey once somebody's fists were beating a and our lunch at the same time and a couple thunderous tattoo on the door and somebody's of Arab boys running behind to make themselves voice was shouting: “ Wake upl W ake up! generally useful. It’S half-past five! Hurry up, and wake up! We rode due south along the high road and W ake up!” past the convent of Mar Elias on the hill, leaving At first we did not understand the cause of all on our right Rachel's tomb this commotion, and I lay blinking at my mos All along the six miles to Bethlehem our cry quito-netting very sleepily, wondering what continually was: “ Oar! Oar!” (Beware, be in the world had provoked this outburst at ware !) for the benefit of the people on the mad, such an unearthly hour. Then I remembered. but when we had passed through the exceed 'Adullam of course! The cave of Adullam, ingly narrow streets of that memorable little where David and his gallant little band had lain town, and turning from the road entered a hid. and the wilderness of Engedi, and a thirty- rough bridle-path, our cry changed to an oft- mile ride over the hills and dales of Judea, repeated “ .Schwi! Schwi! ” (Softly, softly) and those were to be our destination to-day, and I “ Riglak! ” (Be careful) for the benefit of our dived under my mosquito curtains and leaped sagacious donkeys. And our cry was heeded, out of bed, thrilled by the very thought. for not once did any of them slip or take any In less than an hour we were off, riding up serious slides over the smooth sloping pieces of the good high road to Bethlehem, and getting a rock that time and again were our only sort oi splendid view of the Holy City with its flat path, nor did they stumble over the countless roofs and its domes, its great grey walls and loose stones in our narrow way, though theoulv graceful towers showing up clearly in the pure horse of the party had often hard work to keep morning light. Jerusalem is wonderfully beauti his footing on the treacherous shelving rock and ful when you are outside, but when you get worse stones. At one period on our ride when inside you see that it is wonderfully dirty too, the about midday we were nearing our goal, we result of the combined influences of Jew and came upon an almost impassable stretch, a Moslem. shelf of rock polished smooth for some hundred There were five of us—tourists, although it is feet, with a steep hill rising on one hand and a seldom the ordinary tourist at Jerusalem gets sharp decline on the other, and here Mr. Hughes the opportunity of visiting Adullam—mounted told us that a lady, some twelve months ago, in on donkeys, not like the wobbly animals you riding over this rock with her dragoman, had scrape acquaintance with on Woolacombe and slipped—at least her horse had—and falling ¿other sands, but tall, strong, surefooted beasts had- sustained a broken ankle. Her dragoman whom every one rides here in the East who can’t had started off at once to Bethlehem, nine afford—or can*t stick on—a horse. The Syrian miles distant, for help, and she had been left ass is a friend to be proud of. I expect you lying there for four hours, absolutely alone remember the lady of Shunem telling her driver among those weird and silent hills of the wilder in 2 Kings iv. 24, “ Slack not thy riding for me.” ness of Engedi, enduring the pain of a broken The literal translation is, “ Do not hold my ankle. It says a good deal for her pluck, I think, donkey back,” and some of them do need to be that she was in Jerusalem again the same year held back at times. that we were. Of course this was a cheerful We were accompanied by Mr. Hughes, the thing to tell us before we had crossed the “ dan- ® BEYOND THE CITY © 235 ger slip,’ ’ but we clung to our saddles and sat we could raise ourselves a bit higher towards light, trusting the donkeys’ feet rather than our heaven, then a jump of two feet across a chasm owp, and the wise beasts took us safely across in the rock into a narrow gap in the sheer hill without so much as a stumble from any of them. side, and— Up over another hill and down into a narrow ** This is the cave,*’ said Mr. Hughes. gorge, and there before us was the valley of W e stared in amazement. This the cave we Adullam, a wonderful vadley, rocky and barren had woven so many fancies around? This without a blade of grass in it and without a narrow, winding passage, hardly wide enough glimpse of life save for an eagle soaring far for two to walk abreast down it, with its roof above our heads, a black spot against the cloud only a foot or two above our he, ids, the place less blue. * 1 where David chose to hide so long? Surely not! It was hot there although it was January, and But now each of us had been provided with a we sat on a narrow ledge of rock in the shade long thin taper, and on our guide telling us to emptying the saddlebags of their contents and follow him, we filed slowly down the narrow gazed entranced at the view before our eyes, way, in and out, till all trace of daylight had iiills stretched behind hills in endless procession vanished, and then emerged into a great hall, so of curious limestone formations, without foliage wide and lofty and far-reaching that the gl^am or shrub of any sort, while at our feet, though of our seven tapers only threw a circle of yellow hundreds of feet below us, a streamlet threaded light around us, and not even pretending to its way at the bottom of the narrow cliff-sided illumine the further walls, served solely to make valley, looking, from the height we were, like a the darkness beyond more intense. We stood little thread of silver wire dropped by accident there .on the threshold, astonished beyond words, into the gorge. And yet we were barely half till Mr. Hughes took us round the walls, leaving way up the barren hillside. W e could even hear one of our party at intervals to stand alone in the brawling of the distant stream, so silent, so the silent gloom, so that at length the hall was entirely quiet is that valley of sterile cliffs and ringed with little lights dotting its walls and rocks where David, the shepherd and warrior, looking so mean and insignificant, and then we was forced to fly and hide from the vigilance of fully understood the immensity of this great his enemy the king. W e climbed up the face of the hillside for a short distance, and following what seemed more like a goat-track than a path came to a boulder, a for midable opponent six feet high—I think he was pretty nearly a cube—but happily there were a few dents and notches in the sides, and into these we stuck the tips of our toes and were hauled and hoisted to the top. Here we found that it was im possible to stand up or even sit up, for ;a part of the cliff hung overhead so much that only a foot’s space separated the cliff from the rock, and to add to the discomfort of the situation the rock’s sum mit, though flat, sloped at a disagreeable angle to wards the valley, where at its edge there was a sheer drop to the stream below. However, this'was only a trifle disconcerting, and we wormed our way on our chests- across the obstacle, crawled a little more comfortably over an other rock, whsre happily ..A ,plen(JI(J vlew of the Holy City.._pa7e284< . 236 * HOME WORDS * cave. Cut out of the solid limestone hillside by he is seeking to slay us and destroy us body some mysterious means beyond man’s compre and soul. Our only way of safety is to do as hension, and having only that narrow passage David did, flee to the “ Rock of our salvation,” as an entrance and exit, is it any wonder that “ the Rock that is higher than I ” ; “ who is a it amazed us ? It must have accommodated Rock save our God?” “ the Lord is m y Rock with ease the four hundred fugitives who cast and my Fortress” ; “ neither is there any Rock in their lot with David ; but when Mr. Hughes save our God.” Is that Rock your Rock and conducted us to a small opening in the further your Fortress? I ask myself solemnly, is it wall that proved to be another passage leading mine? Thank God, I can say it is. Is it yours? into the heart of the hill, and told us that there David knew the way to his rock, of course he were five more great halls as big as this one, did. He had often wandered to it when follow and each connected with the next by a narrow ing his flock over the hills while he was yet a passage-way, we ceased to wonder why David boy with no thoughts of the crown that should had set his choice upon the cave of Adullam be his one day. I dare say he had explored it for a place of refuge. It might seem bare and many a time in those days, and his knowledge a bit difficult to obtain food here, but then of it stood him in good stead in later life. If Bethlehem was not far distant, and we know he we get to know our Rock in our youth, it will went there when he took his parents thence into stand us in good stead too as it did David. Moab (1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4). Think, too, how easily Another point of similarity. Because David the cave could be guarded. A couple of men at knew the way to his rock he became a king later the entrance could keep an army at bay, and on; if we know the way to our Rock, we shall these halls would hold provision for four hundred be kings some day. We shall be made “ kings men for many a month in case of siege, and and priests unto God,” “ heirs of the kingdom,” even were they driven from the first hall, they “ heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” could easily fall back upon the second and guard But before we can be kings we must know the that little passage as they would the first. way. Jesus said: “ I am the Way, the Truth We did not go beyond the first hall because and the Life.” Can you finish that text, and do our time was short and our candles were grow you know Him as your own dear Friend and ing shorter, but before we left that huge cave, a Redeemer ? stone thrown to the roof demonstrated its height I thought of this as we rode again along the and disturbed a whole colony of black and gro smooth high road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem tesque bats, which fluttered down and round —it was far too rough from the cave to the our lights with weird wild cries, angry, I sup birthplace of David, shepherd, warrior and pose, at our intrusion. king, for me to think of anything else but the We went out through the passage and into way my donkey was treading cautiously under the blinding daylight to mount our donkeys and foot. start Jerusalemwards, and to admire that splen And as we rode home under the diamond- did David even more than before. He was a sprinkled velvet of the sky, we pondered this grand character, and don’t you think that we saying with our eyes on the wonderful “ Day are very like him as he was in the days of his light Comet,” blazing like an aigrette of bur cave-lurkings? W e have an enemy from whom nished silver set with a scintillating diamond we must fly if we would hope for life and safety, against the sapphire sky: “ He is the Rock ; His and he is a king too, at least he is a prince, work is perfect, for all His ways ¿ire judgment. “ the prince of this world” (John. xiv. 30), “ the A God of truth and without iniquity, just and prince of the power of the air ” (Eph. ii. 2), and right is He.” QUESTIONS ON ■ r,;... IM5LL, © o y o u n o w ? By the Rev. CANON THONPSON. QUESTIONS. VIII. 8. Satan is named only three times in the Old Testament. 9. Two men found it sweet to receive God’s revelation, but 1. Show that Timothy was one of St. Paul’s most constant its nature filled them with sorrow. companions ; Corinth, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome. 10. A warlike tribe produced two men of the same name who 2. To St. Paul Satan was a real person. 3 Find five examples of a sleepless night. both were fighters. 4. By what name is Sinai called in Deuteronomy, except in 3NSWER5. VII. (See Septem ber No.) one place? 5. Find two places in which Christ is declared to be the 1. Col. iv. 8, 9. 2. St. Matt. i. 23. 3. Ps. lxxviii. 70 to antitype of the Paschal Lamb. 72. St. Matt. ii. 2; iv. 19. 4. Acts i. 13; xii. 2. 5. Acts 6. Of what frequent miracle does St John record no i. 14. 6. Acts i. 15. Rev. iii. 4. 7. St. Luke i. 3. Acts i. 1 examples ? (compare xxiii. 26). 8. 1 Sam. xiv. 41. Prov. jcvi. 33. Acts 7. Show that St. Matthew expected to have some Gentile i. 24, 26. 9. Acts i. 23; xviii. 7 (R.V.). Col. iv. 11. readers. 10. 2 Thess. i. 1. •*« Answers to the above questions should not be sent to the Editor, but should be kept to be compared with the Author's answers to be published in the November Number. f*E D L i E T T E R c f l U i ? c j U 4 E W s . . *** If you ‘know of any piece of Church news which you think would be interesting to our readers, seni .it to the Art Editor, 11,. Ludgate Square, London, E.C., during Odo- bsr.: Six prizes of five shillings cadi ,:ate awarded monthly. Photographs are specially welcome, but stamps must be enclosed if their, return is desired. rn ~ i i i r r r r m A Native Church Builder.—We reproduce this month a photograph of the first native church in Cookhouse, Cape Colony, and its architect. “ The old fellow in white coat,” writes the Rev. P. E. Barnes, “ lost both his legs on the railway, and now .has a wooden stump First M tin Church with Johannes Mnczakn who built it and a cork leg, but he is a devoted Christian, and,' in spite of with his own hands. (Now la ruins.) his lameness and poverty, built this place with his own hands, Guest. The church was St. James’s, West Hampstead. The though of course he had to climb a ladder, for. the roof. The third curacy to which I was licensed was St. Stephen’s, North walls are of wattle and daub (as -the native -huts are), aiid the Bow, and my Vicar, Prebendary Mason, informed me that a roof he made of old tins-rany he could get—chiefly oil tins gentleman named Stout had once been a candidate for avacant and biscuit tins. It is now falling into ruins, but after the war curacy at St.'Stephen's. If his candidature had materialized, it was replaced with a fine iron building near_ this site—part of the combination of names might have been interesting, for my a military hospital. The old man, now a licensed.catechist, name is R ev. H. M. PORTER. built the vestry of this, and also the teacher's house, and was at the opening of anew iron church under the Cookhouse Church The Museum Serm on.—A sermon, which reminds and Council, forty miles away, before I left.” one of the now popular “ Object Lessons " given during die R ev. P. E. B arnes. summer months in connexion with the Children’s Special Service Mission at many of the seaside resorts, and which goes A M issionary Cake.—On another page will be found by the name of the “ Museum Sermon,” is preached annually an article on “ How I earned money to help my Church.” It in a little chapel near the village of Buddand Newton, Dor may be interesting to add that we recendy received a *.* C.M.S.” chester. It derives its name from the fact that the dergyman, cake from Mrs. Leese, The Cottage, Alstonfield,1 Ashbourne. erally a stranger, finds on mounting the pulpit that its desk “ I have made these cakes,” she wrote, “ for the last twelve been covered with various articles—of the nature of which years, and have sent up to this Society alone nearly £40, repre he has been kept in ignorance—all of which are mentioned in senting .net profit. I have also made for S.A.M.S., G.F.S., the Bible. On these he is required to deliver an extempore and other Societies." sermon, fitting them all with apt text and Biblical illustration. Miss C. M. Porter. Gttrious Names.—At a church, in which the writer was once a member of the choir, there officiated as curates, although Braybrooke C hurch.— Preserved in Braybrooke at different periods, the'Rev. J. W. Hoste, and'the Rev. A. N. Church, near Market Harborough, is a “ vamping ” of brass about seven feet long. It is of considerable age, and was used in pre-organ limes to give volume to the voice of the chief bass singer in the church choir. Another curiosity about Braybrooke Church is the closely set railings round the Holy Table. They are of the Jacobean period, and were in tended to keep dogs away from the Communion Table. J. B. T wycross. A Family of Parish Clerks. —Two old inhabitants ol Lowick. near Thrapston, Northamptonshire— Mr. and Mrs. William Jacques— possess records which it would be difficult to surpass. Their ages are seventy-five and seventy-three re spectively. and they have spent the whole of their married existence at Lowick, and have lived at their pre sent residence over forty-nine years. This house has been in the occupa tion of Mrs. Jacques's family for over 120 years, and the parish clerkship of Lowick has been in the hands of the Vanpiag 1» Btoybrook* Church, Northb&U. Nou curious 4of-r*ils round Holy Table. same family for more than a century. - 23? * HONE WORDS * Mrs. Jacques’s grandfather, represented the Lord's Supper, father, and brother have served and on the other was illus as cleric for a combined period of trated Our Lord delivering the 120 years, the first-named fifty- charge to St. Peter. The Guar four years. Mr. Jacques has an dians expressed their«appredation interesting record, for lie of the work. One went as far as lived under seven to say that die general public lias served under fi should be charged the sum of 3d. ringer and chitner. to see them, but his suggestion father and brothers he once was not carried. The chain, a peal. T. E. B utc h e r. which could not be bought for less than £20 each, were An interesting Old placed on view in the city. English Custom .—Amongst The work took the man about the many old English customs, twelve months. It was stated which have now almost entirely that the man wished to continue his disappeared, none is more quaint work, and the Guardians readily than that of hanging funeral gave their consent Thus the chaplets in the parish church in workhouse chapel has been largely memory of deceased maidens and furnished by this inmate.” unmarried men. Thisinteresting custom is still continued at Ab- Gipsy Centenarians.— botts Ann, a parish some three In the churchyard of St. Peter miles from Andover (Hants), and ad Vincula, Stoke-on-Trent, is now perhaps unique. In the there is an old tombstone, now church here may he seen about lying flat, which bean in large forty of these chaplets suspended letters the following inscription— around the walls of the nave by “ Sibil Clarke, 1684, aged 112. means of an iron stay attached to Henry Clarke, aged 112.” a small shield bearing the name and date of each person; and These names are also men hanging from the chaplets are M tM tt't Cktpleli in Abbott* Ana Chcreh. tioned in the church register. imitation gloves inscribed with Tradition records that old Sibil texts or verses from a hymn. These gloves, which are made Clarke belonged to a tribe of gipsies whose headquarters were of paper by the friends of the deceased, are carried at the at Mow Cop, from whence the stone was brought which now funeral and afterwards hung in the church. The earliest of covers her grave in Stoke churchyard. She is said to have those remaining is about 150 years old. A. L. P acey. died when the tribe was passing through the town of Stoke- on-Trent. Miss F. R obinson. A Coincidence. ~The writer knows some one who had a relation some yean ago a Rector of a country parish. Many June Prize Award.—Winnen ot five shilling prizes are: years after, another Rector was appointed, a relation on the C. Hodder, C. Glynn Evans, A.W. Suddaby, L. A. Simpson, other side of her family. (It was not by special patronage.) Mn. S. M. Maberley, and J. W. Waters. Extra half-crown Is not this rather an unusual coincidence? Both Rectors prizes are awarded to H. G. Grainger, F. Starkey, F. Hayward, are buried in the churchyard. E. the Rev. S. W. Phillips. W. -Allen, Miss M. J. Sowrey, and the Rev. M. Rowntree. Reteross (three inclusions in this class Sunday School Attendance—In Red Letter entitle a competitor to a five shilling prize, which must be Church News a case was quoted recently of a girl never * applied for): H. Turner. G. W. Ward, Mn. Butler. Miss A. M. missing a mark for ten years at morning and afternoon Moss. Miss D. Fowell, Miss L. Sunday School. In the Sunday School of which I am Super Collins, R. R. Madsen, Mn. H. intendent (St. Philip's, Southport. Lancashire) 1 have one girl, Williams, and W. A Alexander. Ruth Fox, who has a record of fourteen years; another sister, Mary Fox, with Annie Moore, twelve years; Elizabeth Runmer atid James and John Hulm, eleven yean. E dgar N u t t . W inepress at. Em m aus.—“ The accompanying photograph,” writes Miss M. Whiteman, “ I took last year when in tli: Holy Land. It shows an ancient wine-press at Emmaus They are so rare that even in Palestine there are only about three left. The grapes are ppt in the hollow in the centre of the stone; another big stone is then placed on th: top of the grapes, and the juice flows through the hole in the stem of the press. Miss M. W h it e m a n . . For a W orkhouse Chapel—“ In the April issue of H ome W ords for 1909 you published," writes Mr.M. B. Cooper, “a paragraph telling how three inmates of tbeChesterWoHehouse liad built and carved a beautiful oak pulpit ' The other week, at a meeting of the Guardians there stood in the Bond Room two beautifully carved oak chain, which had been carved by Wm. Hindley, an inmate, who carved the pulpit above referred to. The chain were made for die church, and were most ex Th* W ine-pre»» quisitely carved. On the back of one of them the design at Emomut. Her Night’s Work. By UAP1E5 CA55IDY. ^ HE was a little timid girl, with long, V N fine hair, the colour of pale gold, and eyes that were blue as the lobelia flowers that grew in her mother’s garden. She was afraid of moths and flying things; of mice and crawling things; of things that “ go bump in the night ” ; of shrill voices and loud noises; of an angry look and her own shadow when if grew very long. She walked upstairs backwards, to save the hor rible fcelmg'that the pursuer was behind her, if she walked up in the ordinary way. ■ Other children laughed at her; her father ridi culed her; her mother only sympathized with her, and she would sit with her alone in the dark talking to 'her in a gentle voice, trying to reason away her fears, which she did, but only that they might return again the moment she was left alone. “ Poor child,” her mother would say, in speaking of her, “ I am hoping she will outgrow this weakness.” ' At sixteen she was as timid as she had been at six, trembling at the rustle of a leaf. She slept with her sister; she could not have slept at ail had she been alone. She suffered !> torments when a stranger spoke to her, tor ments that none knew of but herself. Once The lighthouse, three miles from anywhere. some one observed faoetiously, “ You will never be brave enough to live in a home of your When the baby boy was a month old and she own,” and die did not reply, for she knew that was resting after a busy morning, the child asleep she had not courage. in the cot beside her, fancy suggested that she This went on until she was turned eighteen should ask her young husband what would hap when the fear that clasped her yielded to the love pen to the light if he were i'l. of the dark-eyed Dan Dempster, who told his “ I should have to be pretty bad to neglect story so well at first without words and later that,” he said. “ While I can move myself I in the sweetest language she had ever heard, that shall tend it.” He answered her in the low quiet she placed her hand in his and gave him her tones that she knew he used when he felt deeply. fears to keep. Then he told her stories of men who had spent They were married when she was barely their last strength at their posts, caring for the twenty and he was twenty-four. “ Yonder will lights in lonely and desolate places. She shud be our home,” he had told her, pointing to the dered as she listened to the tales and hid her face distant lighthouse on the tongue of land that on his breast. jutted out from the wild shore. “ None will Twice a week there came a boat, with pro interfere with us ; there will be just you and me visions and requisites for the lighthouse. On together. Say you’re glad.” one occasion it brought a letter from Trinity And she whispered, “ I'm glad, Dan; always House, bidding him attend at an office in the together.” town three miles inland to take some instruc It was in the lighthouse, three miles from any tions. The boat could take him back. He was where, that they lived, loved, and worked. At gone eight hours. When he returned her face times the winds blew their worst and shook the was pale and -drawn as though she had passed building to its foundations, and the sea roared through a severe illness. as though possessed by a hundred thousand “ You look five years older,” he said. furies, yet she, who once had feared her own “ Let me come with you if you go again,” she shadow, felt happy and secure in her beloved. said simply. When she was twenty-two the first child was “ Yes, you shall come,” he assented. bom to them. A storm was raging, and the roar The second child, also a boy, was born in the of the hurricane was terrific. The nurse who summer, when the lighthouse looked bright and was with her, and who had' had no experience of clean in its new coat of white paint. Dan had lighthouse life, trembled as she went about her painted it, evincing a keen pride in his work. duties, but Mary Dempster smiled and spoke The two rooms in which they lived and slept were fearlessly, lor Dan was within call. . also painted and the. simple furniture shono with 239 240 * HONE VOKDS * cleanliness. The white sea-gulls had circled the house until the occupants were almost exhausted. building for hours, as he had painted the outside, Dan had not ceased work and had been for some and Mary had watched them with delight. Her hours exposed to the sunshine. little boy, Joe, who had played about within It was at tea-time that he mentioned headache sight of his father, was now two years old. He and suggested lying down. It was at nine was a sturdy, manly little chap with a self- o’clock in the evening of the same day that he reliance that would not have shamed the prophet whispered as she bent tenderly over him, “ Light Daniel. ing up time, darling,” and so ceased to breathe. “ He must not be a coward like me,” said Mary She sat beside him, perfectly still, with un to her husband. “ I want him to be fearless dimmed eyes, her heart thumping heavily. like his father.” It was for this that she put a Again she heard the whisper, “ Lighting up time, restraint on her nervous fears for his safety, and darling,” and this time she rose with a swift deliberately closed her eyes to possible conse definite movement and ascended the stairs, quences when her husband encouraged his baby’s alone. The two boys were lying on the bed in enterprise and took the risks of allowing him to their day clothes. Quietly and with a self- clamber up difficult places. '* He’s a daring possession strange to her, she lit the lamp and little chap,” said his father delightedly, and Mary descended the stairs. Entering the boys’ room realized the note of pride in the tone. When she said, “ Joe, watch if the light turns all the second child was bom , and Joe saw him for right,” then she re-entered the room where it lay. the first time, he regarded him with contemptuous Bending over the body she m oaned: “ Oh, silence. Dan, dear Dan. My love, my precious, my hus “ Kiss him, darling,” said his mother, but Joe band, we were always together.” But none shook his head. answered her out of the silence. Her lips were “ He’s tumbled down too small,” he said, on his, but no breath came, nor answeiing kiss. remembering what his father had told him of “ Oh, Dan, Dan, Dan ” some young unfledged birds that had fallen “ Mother,” said a child’s voice, “ the light isn’t from the nest. “ I’ll wait till he’s gwoed big turning.” like me.” “ The light ! ” she exclaimed, “ what light ? ” The seven years that followed the birth of the Her thoughts were confused. second child were filled with a quiet busy happi “ The light, mother, it isn’t turning ! ” ness. Each day brought its own work and its The light which he had tended with such con own pleasures. Mary made and mended for stant care. It was enough. Again she rose, and thorn all, and baked the bread they ate and cooked taking her two boys, each by a hand, she led them their simple meals carefully and well. The from the room. They ascended the stairs and children were taught to read, write and sum, found it was as Joe had said, the light was not and to take each a share in the work of the home. revolving. They grew in the belief that there was no man “ See,” she said quietly, “ we must work the quite so good as father and no woman half so hand-gear.” lovely as mother. “ But, mother, we can’t work this all night, At seven years the elder boy helped clean the can we ? ” lanterns for the lights, taking a keen pride in the “ W e must keep the light turning, and there work. When the children were nine and seven is no other way.” respectively, their father, to please them, in The long, slow hours of that strange and awful structed them how to operate the hand-gear night passed into dawn and found the light still that should turn the light in case of need. burning. In the room below the dead man lay Joe was an expert swimmer and could pull an stiff and cold. Was he conscious that the oar quite well, and Mary, his mother, as she anguish of love, the love of him, had kept it watched him and his father in the boat together going ? on one of their occasional journeys knew that she “ Father would be glad if he knew,” said Joe. looked upon her heart’s best treasure, and con “ Then he is glad, for he knows,” said his soled herself with her younger child until the mother. “ We else could never have kept it return of the two. turning.” Tt was the late afternoon of a brilliant August In the morning the ships passed the sunlit day. The heat had been intense. The sun’s lighthouse, but they saw no difference. How fierce rays had fallen on the white painted light- should they ? TWO^COINO'i ic^iniEaPEs. Shepherd s Pie.—B 0il and mash twelve Oatmeal Pudding.—Sprinkle six ounces of ounces of potatoes; add three-quarters of an oatmeal into a pint and a quarter of boiling ounce of dripping, pepper and salt. Cut small water ; stir it up thoroughly, and boil for twenty three ounces of cooked meat. Grease a pie-dish minutes. Then add two ounces of stoned and line it thickly with* the potato. Put in the raisins, an ounce of candied peel (cut small), and meat with half a gill of stock (or water). Cover three ounces of moist sugar. Stir it up and put with the rest of the potato, and bake in a moder it into a greased pie-dish with a quarter-ounce ate oven for half an hour. of lard, in pieces, on top. Bake for 1§ hours. — ■ ■■■■■ © 15 S. 28rd Sunday after Trin'ty, M. Hosea 14.; Heb. 9. OVENBEB CALENDAR. E. Joel 2. 21 or 3. 9 ; John 4. 31. 16 M. Ecclus. 44.1-16 ; Heb. 10.1-19. 17 Tu. Ecclus. 51. 10; Heb. 10. 19. : S. All Saints' Day. Slst Sunday aiter Trinity. 18 W. Bar. 4. 36 and 5 .; Heb. 11. 1-17. 19 Th. Isaiah 1. 21; Heb. 11. 17. M. Wisdom 3.1-10 or Dan. 3 .; Heb. 11.33-12. 20 F. Isaiah 3 .1 -1 6 ; Heb. 12. 7. 21 S. Isaiah 5. 1-18 ; Heb. 13. E. Wisdom ¡3. 1-17 or Dan. 4. or 5 .; Kev. 19. 1-17 or Luke 22. 1-31. 22 S. 24lh Sunday alter Trinity. 2 M. Wisdom 9 .; 2 Tim. 3. 3 Tu. Wisdom 11.15-12. 3 ; 2 Tim. 4. H. Eccles. 11. and 12.: James 1. j 4 W. Ecclus. 1.1-14 ; Titus 1. E. Haggai 2.1-10 or Mai. 3. and 4 .; John 7. 5 Th. Ecclrs. 3. 17-30 : Titus 2. 23 M. Isaiah 8. 5-18; James 2. 125. 24 Tu. Isaiah 9. 8-10. 5 ; James 3. 6 F. Ecclns. 5 .; Titus 3. 25 W. Isaiah 10. 20 ; James 4. 7 8. Ecclus. 10.18; 1’hilemon. 26 Th. Isaiah 11.10 ; James 5. 27 F. Isaiah 13.; 1 Peter 1.1-22. 8 S. 22nd Sunday aiter Trinity. 28 B. Isaiah 17.; 1 Peter 1. 22-2.1L November 1. M. Dan. 6 ; Heb. 1. 29 S. 1st Sunday in Advent. K. Dan. 7. 9 or 12 ; Luke 24. 13. A l l S a in t s* D a y . 9 M. Ecclus. 18. J—15; Heb. 2 and 3. 1-7. M. Isa. 1 .; 1 Peter 2.11-3. 8. 10 Tu. Kcclus. 19. 13 ; Heb. 3. 7-4. 14. E. Isaiah 2. or 4. 2 ; John 11.17-47. j 11 W. Kcclus. 24. 1 - - ! ; Heb. 4. 14 and 5. November 30. 12 Th. Kcclus. 33. 7-23 ; Heb. 6. 30 AI. Sx. A hdeew. A. & M. 13 F. Eceltls. 3a. ; Heb. 7. M. Isaiah 54. ; John 1. 35-43. St. A n d r e w , A. & M. 14 S. Kcclus. 39, l - i : t , Heb. 8. K. Isaiah 65. 1-17 ; John 12. 20-42. €> By OUR OWN cd Letter Kotes from the Mission Field. CORRESPONDENT. ^ The Outcome of a Storm, hundredth anniversary of the first day on which a public Chris ft T this time of war, when Russia and Austro-Hungary tian service was held there. It is proposed to mark the event f W are engaged in it, it is interesting to recall that in in that country by a special series of commemorative services 1820, when the same countries were at war—though and meetings. The centenary celebrations will commence on ^ / on that occasion fighting on the same side—a Mis December 11, when there will be a large public meeting in the sionary Society was started as an outcome of the war, or more Auckland Town Hall. On Christmas Day there will be a exactly, through a storm which occurred at the time. The service of Holy Communion at, or near, the Marsden Cross— circumstances under which the Society originated were peculiar. the identical spot where the first service was held a hundred Russia and Hungary were engaged in laying siege to the town of years ago. The Bishop of Auckland and all the Maori clergy Basle, on the borders of Switzerland, when a violent storm arose, of the Diocese will be present. which was considered a merciful Providence, as it destroyed f Memories of Samuel Marsden. the power of the enemy, and the town was saved. As a mark of gratitude the inhabitants had a desire to help in the prepara The very existence of the now flourishing Dominion of New tion of pious teachers to the heathen, and a Society was formed Zealand is due to the faith and courage of the Rev. Samuel for the purpose in 1821, called the Basle Missionary Society. Marsden, in flinging himself among the ferocious Maoris of The Swiss, however, had attempted missionary work at a those cannibal islands. The Mission which he founded on much earlier date, in the sixteenth century, but it ceased through Christmas Day, 1814, tamed the race; and subsequently in came the colonists by thousands. The British occupancy is lack of funds. therefore, in a large measure, due to the heroic labours of Samuel * Indian Queen’s Message to Queen Victoria. Marsden and other early missionaries. What cause for rejoicing Years ago the wife of the then King of Punnah in the dis when we contrast the circumstances of 1814 with those which trict of Bundeland, India, was very- ill, and the King sent for a prevail to-day ! lady doctor who was at Lucknow. The latter soon came, and lived with the patient until she recovered. Later on the medical A Blind Woman and her Bible. missionary was about to return to England, when the King s A missionary of the C.M.S., now in England, tells of a remark wife, the Maharani, sent for her. The Maharani said she wanted able blind Chinese Bible-woman in Hangchow, in the Chekiang the missionary to take a message to Queen Victoria, telling her Province of China. Although the woman has been blind since what the women in the zenanas of India suffered when they she was four years of age, she knows her Bible perfectly, and were sick. Would she do this? Would she see the Queen if when teaching the women she refers to any text, she at once herself, and riot be content with sending a message? The tells them chapter and verse, and makes them look it up. She missionary replied that she thought that would be difficult, is a woman of much prayer, and takes it very much to heart but she would do her -best. if any of her little flock go wrong. Not long since, she sent a letter of eight sheets, written by herself, to the missionary in Queen Victoria and the Zenanas. England, telling how each member had been getting on since The Maharani prepared a message, in very small writing, she left; the names of those who had been baptized, or whose on a piece of paper, and putting it into a locket said, " You children had been baptized; and asking that each member must wear this locket round your neck until you see the Queen, might be remembered in prayer. and then give it to her with your own hands,” adding, “ If you forget your promise your God will judge you." The mis A Striking Event. sionary made her errand known in England, and the informa One of the most interesting events in connexion with the tion reached the Queen, who forthwith commanded the atten Mission field occurred last month, October 5, in Uganda, dance of the missionary. Queen Victoria’s reply was : “ Let when the young king, who is now eighteen years of age, was it be known that we sympathize greatly, and wish to make crowned. It will be remembered that King Daudi Chwa every effort to relieve the sufferings of the women of India.” visited England last year, and made a great impression by his Soon afterwards Lord Dufferin was appointed Viceroy of India, earnestness amongst those with whom he came in contact. and before he and his wife left England, the Queen sent for The coronation took place on October 5—“ Peace day,” as Lady Dufferin, and asked her to do all she could for the women it is called in Uganda—the anniversary of the day in 1899 on of India. Soon after her arrival. Lady Dufferin started a Zenana which civil war ceased within the kingdom, and Christians Mission. and Mohammedans alike laid aside their arms and buried their c A Great Anniversary. quarrels. The coronation ceremony was of a religious char Christmas Day this year will be a specially interesting occa acter. For the first time in the history of the country a Christian sion in the Dominion of New Zealand, as it will be the one- king sits on the throne of Uganda. We may well praise God, 241 HIS MAJESTY GEORGE V. God Save our Gracious King, Lohg'li+e our iACoble King, God Save tbe King. " m Photograph iy ] Qirl Quides rendering First Aid. [P. W . E t o r . The Story of the Red Cross. By SARAH A. TOOLEV. T this sad and anxious time in in modern times, and the sufferings of the the history of our beloved wounded, left uncared for on the battlefield to land, when our hearts ache linger until death mercifully released them, were over the appalling carnage appalling. amongst brave men on the The harrowing scenes need no description ; great battlefield of Europe, to-day we are all alive to the horrors of war, we contemplate with profound and they touch a deeper note in our Christian thankfulness the world-wide and humanitarian sympathies than in the days organizations of the Red Cross gone by, when such sufferings were tacitly for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers. accepted as the natural lot of the soldier. People ■ At the outbreak of the war, Queen Alexandra, avoided contemplating what was regarded as the as President of the British Red Cross Society, inevitable, and military authorities were afraid issued an appeal which went straight to the that “ Tommy ” might lose his pluck and endur heart of the nation. “ Thousands of our brave ance if he became an object of public solicitude. sailors and soldiers,” she said, “ are standing This feeling prevailed even amongst the men ready to defend Britain’s shores and uphold her themselves in the Crimean War. The widow of honour. Their sufferings will be great, and it one of the veterans once told me with pride that is to vis that they will look for comfort and relief. “ her husband wasn’t one of Miss Nightingale’s That comfort must not be denied them. . . . ‘ chicken picker«,’ ” a ilame applied to men who I appeal for your help. I do it knowing that were thought by their comrades to be on joying you will respond to this appeal in the name of too many good things in the hospitals under the humanity. Much money will be needed, and care of Miss Florence Nightingale. many gifts, if we are faithfully to discharge our At Solferino the demon of war had done its trust and be able to say, when all is over, that worst, and M. Dunant wrote his terrible Souvenir we have done all we could for the comfort and of the battle to arouse the attention of the world relief of our sick and wounded.” to the fact that the medical service of the army We have all learned to recognize the sign of a was inadequate to cope with the needs of the red cross on a white ground as indicative of care wounded soldiers. for our wounded soldiers. As we look at it on an It is of romantic interest that Geneva, the ambulance wagon, or on the uniform of our comparatively unimportant town lying in devoted nurses, we recognize its humane signifi peaceful seclusion on its beautiful lake, should cance, but many do not know how the emblem be the spot where the good seed sown by M. had its origin. Dunant was to germinate and blossom into the To trace the story of the Red-Cross we must Red Cross movement, which now flourishes in imagination visit the peaceful little town of throughout the civilized world. Geneva, some fifty odd years ago. 0 small beginnings, ye are great and strong, The townspeople had been deeply stirred by Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain ! the publication of a book entitled Un Souvenir Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong, de Solferino. The author, M. Dunant, had dared Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain. to paint in lurid colours the horrors of the battle The Geneva Society of Public Utility made of Solferino, fought June 24, 1859. It was M. Dunant’s disclosures a subject of discussion probably the most sanguinary battle ever waged at a meeting held February 9, 1863. A corn VOL. XXIV. NO. XI. a i 244 * HOME WORDS * ference by benevolent people with existing army medical services. The Conference, however, showed no sign of mistaken enthusiasm. It kept free of sensationalism. The result was a unanimous finding that re form in the treatment of the sick and wounded in war was urgently needed, and it was resolved to establish national societies to act as aids in time of war to the existing service of armies. The societies were to be established in close rela tionship with their respective Governments and were to work in conjunction with the military service of the different coun tries. Each society was to be autonomous and to work under a central committee having power to control all branches in the national territory. The organization of these societies was to be started in time of peace, ready for the eventualities of war. It was obvious that those working on behalf of these societies of mercy on the battlefield should be protected in their peaceful and strictly neutral ministrations by an em blem which all would respect. Switzerland, which had given the movement birth, now gave it a badge. The national arms , of .the gallant land of William Tell is a white cross on a red British 8oldlers in a Red Cross Hospital. ground; this was transposed, and a red cross on a white mittee was formed of five gentlemen, whose ground became the badge of the societies for aid names deserve an honoured place in history— for the wounded, which, taking the name of the General Dufour, Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss emblem, became known as Red Cross Societies. Army, Dr. Louis Appia, who had been assistant The arresting badge was the same for all surgeon in the campaign in Italy, Dr. T. Maunoir, nationalities, for in the merciful ministrations to another distinguished practitioner, Henri Dunant the wounded distinctions of . race are unrecog and M. Gustave Moynier, who acted as Presi nized and the name of “ enemy ” is unknowu. dent. Only one recommendation is needed to secure The. Committee decided to start an Inter the services of a Red Cross agent—that a soldier national movement to deal with the care of the is wounded or in need of succour. wounded in battle, and invitations to elect In the old barbarous times nothing was held representatives to a Conference were sent to the sacred in warfare, and the wounded were often leading European Governments. The response brutally treated and robbed, and those who was encouraging. attempted to render them assistance did it at The historic Conference met, as was fitting, at the peril of their lives. , Under the Red Cross, Geneva, October 26, 1863. To the original com wounded soldiers are exempt from violence, and mittee of five were added eighteen official dele all-persons engaged in-its work wear-a brassard gates representing fourteen Governments, and with the magic , emblem which protects them six representing beneficent Associations, notably from interference. A flag bearing the insignia the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. protects all places where the wounded'^are, The military authorities of Europe viewed the whether in hospital, train or ship, houses or little gathering critically, jealous of undue inter public buildings. ® THE STORY or THE RED CROSS © 245 Wheresoever lay the wounded. Queen Victoria and her . daughters and Hospital, or church, or shed, daughters-in-law set the example, of. Red Cross Waved therefrom the glorious symbol. workers, and women of every degree all over the Waved the white flag crossed with red. land were engaged in the beneficent occupation. The belligerent who refused to respect the Red Many will recall the wave of enthusiasm ■ on Cross was held to have transgressed the laws of behalf of the wounded which covered the. country. civilized warfare as much as if he bad fired on a Young and old were engaged in the preparation fipg of truce. of lint, bandages and useful garments. The Geneva Conference resulted in nine Powers We need not linger longer over the story of — France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, our British Red Cross. W e recall its magnificent Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Duchy of Baden and work in the Boer War, when-the Princess of Prussia— signing- the convention, and twelve Wales’s Hospital Ship voyaged under the ensign other Governments, including our own, joined in and the Princess Christian’s Hospital train under the course of the next few years. To-day the the same emblem bore the wounded men from whole civilized world is united by a chain of Red the battlefields of South Africa, and rich and poor Cross Societies. The utility of the movement alike contributed money and work to the cause. was first manifested in the Franco-German War. The outbreak of the present war found us The founding of the British Red Cross Society with our Red Cross in a well-organized condition was due to the initiative of Sir John (then Mr.) with local detachments all over the country, Furlev, and to the generous help of the late Lord having a personnel of approximately 60,000 Wantage. We are writing of a movement which nurses and workers. Many thousands of quali stands above the enmities of nations, and we fied trained nurses have been registered since frankly record that our own Red Cross practi the beginning of the war. cally had its birth at Berlin. At a Conference of Queen Alexandra, the President, has a splen Red Cross Societies held at the German capital did lieutenant in the Duchess of Devonshire, who in 1869, it was pointed out that England had has made Devonshire House, Piccadilly, the not yet joined the movement. headquarters of the Society. Mr. John Furley rose in a spirit of patriotic It was not easy in time of peace to make people faith and prophesied that should war break out believe that the Red Cross training was of much in Europe he would confidently say that a Red use. Only a week before the wax broke out, I Cross Society would be organized in England fit heard an excellent lady, much interested in other to compare with any foreign society. philanthropic work, regret the time that some At the outbreak of the Franco-German War ladies of the parish were giving to the local Red this undertaking was fulfilled when at a meeting Cross detachment. She even thought an at Willis’s Rooms a National Society for Aid to exhibition of Red Cross work very dull. Now, the Sick and Wounded in War, later known as that lady is herself the active organizer of work the British Red Cross, was formed. Lord Wan ing parties in her parish, and rejoices that the tage headed the subscribers’ list with £1,000, local detachment had been so well trained in time of peace that within a short time of the outbreak of war it had the best equipped military hospital in the county waiting ready for the wounded. Invaluable work has been done in countless parishes under the direction of Rec tors’ and Vicars’ wives. I know of one suburban par ish which before the war had been in progress three weeks sent up to headquarters samples of shirts, etc., asking if they were satis- factory. The garments were retained to serve as models, so per fectly were they made, and since then a steady supply has been t u n Making Red Cross Bandages and Clothes. [Hau-Tokm. kept up. Our New and Startling Serial Tale. The girl nodded. “ He asked for master first, CHAPTER IX. miss,” she replied, “ but when I said he was out, he said he’d like to see you. He’s in the draw IR PHILIP in the drawing-room ? ” said ing-room now, miss.” Verity wearily. She was ever so tired The repetition was a hint for Miss Verity not this afternoon, and yet she had done to keep so important a visitor waiting, and, nothing to make her so. , It may have since there was no help for it, Verity went. She been that she had not slept very well the pre had never been able quite to overcome a certain ceding night. She had gone to bed resolved to shyness in conversation with Sir Philip. Or banish thought, but thought had refused to dinary chit-chat seemed too trivial to offer him, be so summarily dismissed. and what else was there to talk about ? They Had Keith really cared for her ? If so she could not discuss— Keith. supposed the feeling had quite evaporated now. The colour was burning in Verity’s cheeks as At any rate he had left Stanbridge without any she shook hands with Sir Philip and remarked an further attempt to see her. unusual irritation in the latter’s manner. Verity turned resolutely from her repining, and “ Ah, Miss Verity,” he said, as they sat down. thought very hard of all that she had heard “ Glad to find you in. I may say we have a about that splendid trading scheme of theirs. common cause together, eh ? ” Yes, theirs, since it was as much Cyril Grayle’s Verity felt the flush deepen on her face. How as her own. absurd it was of her to think of Keith. Keith, It is curious when our eyes are opened to a whose farewell had been so curt and final. fact how puzzled we are over our previous “ It’s about this anonymous letter business,” blindness. went on the baronet, producing a folded paper Of course it had only been natural that Keith— from his pocket. “ The thing’s becoming a and others—should think she and the Vicar were perfect nuisance, and it is time some one took — were------the m^ter up, eh ? I called to ask whether Verity had buried her hot face in her pillows you had ever been able to form the smallest clue and gone back to her missionary plans. Yes, as to the identity of the fellow who, I imagine, is Mr. Lascelles had spoken most hopefully of a sharpening his wits at our expense ? ” big success. Every one was saying now how Verity looked puzzled. surprising it was no one had thought of it before ! “ I don’t quite understand,” she replied. “ Are The depots already opened and supplied with you talking about the man—or woman—who native curiosities and craftsmanship were be so kindly sent me the £100 to trade with for sieged with eager buyers who liked to feel they missionary work ? ” were “ giving to charity” whilst purchasing “ I don’t know about the missionary trading,” artistic novelties that could not be .bought else said Sir Philip irritably, “ or as to there being where. any very kindly intention in the matter. Per No wonder, with her mind full of schemes, sonally, I view the whole thing as a great im regrets, vain longings and wistful aspirations, pertinence, said I mean to discover who has been Verity spent a restless night, and felt fagged out guilty of it—and expose him. Deliberate insult the next day. She had intended to go for a is intended. Of that I am convinced.” solitary tramp over the moors in the hope of Verity had unfolded the paper he handed “ blowing the cobwebs away,” and received the her and was reading it with interest. She was news of Sir Philip’s visit with some regret. glad of the pause to think over it all, for Sir “ Did he ask specially for me I ” she questioned Philip’s manner had rather startled her. He Bessie the housemaid. seemed angry—but why? She asked the last © m il TALENTS © 247 question again to herself as she finished reading “ No, no,” he replied, “ I must be getting home. the mysterious offer. I only called to ask Parsons if he had ever found “ Oh, I don't think it is meant as an insult,” out who sent him that £500, with those absurd she protested; “ it seems to me rather— rather conditions tacked on to it.” a nice way of showing how your example of Nellie’s plump face grew rosier than ever. generosity has inspired some one to help forward “ No, sir,” she replied, “ we never did know, the good works you are interested in.” though John’s often wishing he could find out Even Sir Philip could not suspect the speaker an’ thank him. It wasn’t only for the money of iron y! Yet her words brought a dull colour we’re grateful, but for making the condition to to his face. No one could see the mockery of the give half to the hospital. We were just likely to situation more plainly than himself. Yet he get foolish an’ uplifted so to speak, thinkin’ spoke in self-extenuation. only of ourselves. An’ the givin’ up the half of “ I do what I can,” he protested, as though the money brought us to our senses. W e’d have Verity were sitting in judgment on him. “ I had no happiness in all the £500 brought us if only wish I could do more. But in these days we hadn’t learned in time as God had a claim on one must be just as well as generous.” us for what He’d given us. That’s what it taught Verity looked at him with shining eyes. us, sir, an’ we feel sure as whoever sent that Keith’s father was not likely to come under money knew something of human nature.” harsh criticism from her ! “ H’m,” grunted the baronet, “ I’m not so “ I am sure you are both,” she replied, “ and sure of that. Some one’s playing a little game that is why the writer of that letter made you the of their own, and I should like to get to the bottom offer. He— or she— felt sure their money would of it.” go to the furtherance of some needful cause.” Apparently his visit to Mayes Villa had not “ Exactly,” agreed the baronet hurriedly, improved his temper, for the butler at the Manor “ exactly. But—h’m—you have no idea who gave it as his opinion to the housekeeper, that this exceptionally discerning philanthropist may “ the master was in for an attack of gout, he was be ? I thought since you see a great deal of the that nasty ! ” present vicar, you might— h’m— have learned if But it was not gout which ailed Sir Philip, nor he is privy to the—jest—or whatever you care any material ill. Somehow that mocking ulti to call it ? ” matum worried him. He had talked so much Again Verity felt her cheeks burn. and for so many years of regretting he could not Had every one in Stanbridge been commenting do more for his neighbours, or give more to on her close friendship with Cyril Grayle ? She charities, that he had really come to believe in was angry with herself as well as with others his own inability. It was therefore a real shock who had so misjudged her. to read in this anonymous letter that some one “ I have not the least clue,” she replied more else— some shrewd observer in the outer world— coldly, “ not the very faintest. And I am sure had seen through that pious hypocrisy and was Mr. Grayle has not either. We have often won nailing him to it. dered about it. Mr. Grayle thinks— says— he Humbug. That was the mute challenge which is sure it is the work of a good man who has underlay every word of quite a specious epistle. God’s cause at heart. It must be so, for see how And Sir Philip strongly objected to such a title. it has been blessed already ! John Parsons Not that anyone else was going to give him acted nobly, as well as being enabled to invent a such a name. Little Verity Moore, for instance, wonderful machine, and the £100 given me for had seen in the letter only a proof of appreciation missionary work has helped to develop a splendid for his generous nature. trade. And now— this third offer will, I am Generous nature. Those words stung the old sure, have just the same sort of result. It man keenly. It was as if a remorseless hand had must.'" held a mirror before him, showing him his like Sir Philip rose rather abruptly. He had not ness as he had never seen himself before. bargained for this very naive interpretation of He had been quite clever in his own self-deceit. his grievance, and it embarrassed him. He said But now self-deceit was no longer possible ; so good-bye to Verity Moore without asking any what was to follow ? more questions, and walked back through the It was an irritating conundrum for a lonely village with the intention of calling on John man. Sir Philip had never been very great at Parsons. But the latter was not in, so Mrs. making friends, and those he had had drifted out Parsons informed him as she shyly invited the of his daily life. visitor to step into the parlour. Suddenly a need for sympathy obsessed him. “ John’s gone up to London, sir,” she said, He was very dull here at the Manor. What “ there’s some job been offered him through the business had that young rogue Keith to desire kindness of Sir Hugh Elgins, an’ he’s gone up an object in life ? Was there not fishing, shoot about it.” ing, golf, hunting ? What did a young man need She dusted a chair with her apron, though no more ? speck of dust had been visible on its polished Apparently his son Keith had needed more surface, and timidly asked Sir Philip to be seated. than that— a considerable deal more. And so------The baronet shook his head. The baronet had never called himself an old man 248 * HOME WORDS * before to-day,T}utjust at the moment he realized village magnate.: And Keith’s father was very, he was not as young as he used to be. He even welcome. tired of mental calculations which had self and Perhaps it was natural enough that Keith self-interests for a basis. The anonymous letter- himself should be alluded to, and from Keith to wrlter continued to mock him with his silent Keith’s profession. ‘"■Know thyself, as others know thee.” Verity, battling hard against self-consciousness, Well, others did not all know him for a selfish, was ready enough to talk of the spiritual work mean and stingy old fellow. That bright, done by doctors, hospitals, etc. And then—was pretty girl of the doctor’s, for instance, had taken it chance, or something more divine in its hap-, his generosity for granted. pening ?—that Verity should talk of the cottage And her appreciation had touched a long- hospital so badly needed at Wallerton, the grow dormant chord in Sir Philip’s heart. She had ing factory town some five miles distant from alluded to thepeople who had reason to be grate Stanbridge. ful to the baronet’s generosity. “ It does seem a pity the building work has Was there such a thing as gratitude ? If so, had to be stopped through want of funds,” said it might be worth learning more of a new ex the girl, speaking without the least ulterior perience. motive; “ it is so dreadfully badly wanted, dad Sir Philip was always cautious in his resolutions, says. He has a great many patients—poor but he had made up his mind to one thing. He patients—in Wallerton, and he says it is heart would go and see Verity Moore on the morrow rending sometimes to see them lying sick and and talk to her about the sort of charity it was suffering in their own poor homes, where, how worth while encouraging that anonymous crank ever hard the wives or mothers try, they cannot t o ;give to— after he, Sir Philip, had led the way. have proper care and attention.” T o the baronet’s own surprise the next morning “ Quite so, quite so,” agreed Sir Philip. “ We found his determination the same. He would — er— must see what can be done later on. W e go and have a chat with little Miss Verity. must certainly see what can be done. Personally Verity herself was surprised by the visit, but I think the hospitals ought to be run by the State again—in spite of self-scoldings—it was Keith’s and properly supplied with the necessary funds. father she saw rather than Sir Philip Norton, the It is a crying disgrace that institutions for the public weal should be left to private charity.” It was an old prac tice of his to abuse the shortcom ings of others and thus allow liis own refusal to give assistance to the cause in question to pass unnoticed. But to-day it was not quite so easy to salve his conscience. That anonymous letter, with its implied re buke, haunted him in the most disconcert ing fashion. W hy did he allow the desper ate need of the sick and suffering at Wal lerton to be passed over in general terms of censure at a sys tem ? There was no en dowed and well- equipped hospital in the neighbouring town, and his saying there ought to be did not help to build brick walls. That was what a rudely awakened con ® THE TALENTS ® science was telling Sir Philip after his chat with Verity Moore, and the latter pre cipitated the baronet’s de cision by a chance speech the following week. “ I told dad you had promised to see what could be done about the WaUerton hospital later on,” she said, with the new note of friend liness which Sir Philip's more frequent visits had awak ened ; “ he was so grateful. You are always so good in helping wherever you can.” It was such wholly unde served praise that Sir Philip feilt again the keen stab of conscience. W ell! He had wanted to know what gratitude re ceived would make him feel like. He had to admit that gratitude in . advance gave him a most unpleasant' “ sense of meanness.” H e really ought to put his hand in hi« pocket this time ! “ H’m,” he commented rather nervously, “ I don’t think—er—we ought to be putting it off too long, if you and your father will come up and dine with me to-morrow evening, I— er— think we might arrange for the building operations to be continued. A s you say, a cottage hospital in a place like Wallerton is a necessity. I want you to congratulate It— er— is a disgrace that me, Miss Verity." one has not been erected before.” Verity’s eyes shone. “ How good you are,” she cried softly,.“ and how generous. It is simply splendid of you to you’ve, taken my advice at last and been down suggest it. How very grateful the Wallerton toWarleigh.” people will be.” The Vicar took both outstretched hands in his Sir Philip shook his head. own. “ I ’m not so sure of that,” he replied, “ but “ Yes,” he replied, “ I have, and I have been still-— ” calling myself. all the uncomplimentary names Verity was allowed to construe the last two under the sun because I did not do so before. words as she chose. If only I had known.” Verity was frankly charmed. . What woman CH APTER X . —especially a young one—does not revel in a “ 1 w a n t you to congratulate me, Miss Verity.” love-story ? And Verity felt she could claim to Verity gave a little jump, and the primroses have had more than the tip of one of' her own she had been bunching fell back into the basket dainty fingers in this “ pie.” in sweet confusion. “ Come and sit down and tell me all about it,” ' “ I didn’t hear you coming,” she confessed, she commanded in sisterly fashion, as she led as she rose from her knees and held out her the way through the miniature “ wilderness” at hand to Cyril Grayle. “ And you know I’m quite the bottom of their garden to a rustic seat. “ Of sure,” she added with a beaming smile, “ that course Mary has accepted you.” 250 * HOME WORDS * Cyril Grayle coloured as he met the smiling “ Is there something that wants explaining in grey eyes. your life, Verity ? ” he asked gently. “ I object to the ‘ of course,’ ” he declared, She shook her head, a burning blush rising to ‘ but— yes, she has consented to be my wife.” her cheeks. N ever must he guess her poor little He was just a trifle formal and constrained, secret. since men find it pretty difficult to exchange or “ No, don’t talk about me,” she begged, “ but give confidences of this kind. And yet, did he — let me see— about the mission work. Have not owe at least part of this supreme happiness you heard from headquarters ? ” to Verity’s sympathy and womanly advice ? “ I had a letter by last night’s post. The new “ I won’t ask questions,” said Verity with depots are getting on capitally. We can thank praiseworthy self-denial, “ but I congratulate God for a great success.” you both with all my heart. I am so glad— for Verity nodded. “ Yes, it was His doing—all Mary. She won’t mind my calling her that, will His doing. • I was only thinking this morning she ? W e are sure to be friends.” about it. Just fancy how easily I might have “ Of course,” assented the Vicar very heartily, posted on the £100 to the society and that would “ she is already longing to know you— and thank have been the end.” you as I should like to be able to do, only “ Instead of the beginning,” added Grayle. it is difficult to find words. I wonder ” he “ Yes, we have much cause for gratitude. I hesitated, “ what made you so sure that she still should like to know who that mysterious donor cared for me after we had both misjudged each •of the triple gift could have been. It has proved other so ? ” a Heaven-sent inspiration.” Verity began bunching her primroses again very “ Old Mr. Howley always hints that it must carefully, her head bent forward over the basket. have been some friend of yours whom you per “ It is so easy to be misjudged,” she whispered; suaded to the task to help confound his cynicisms '‘ people always seem to be doing it. That on the humbug and poverty of human nature. sounds uncharitable, doesn’t it ? and I don’t I wonder what he thinks of the result, anyway ! ” want to be a horrid little cynic. But why w ill The Vicar shook his head. “ It is not con people be so fond of putting wrong constructions sciously through me or any friend of mine,” he on things, and— and gossip so about what replied. “ By the way, are you going to the isn’t really ? ” opening of the cottage hospital at AVallerton to Grayle smiled rather sadly. “ I ’m afraid it’s morrow ? ” human nature to discuss fairly often ‘ what isn't Verity hesitated. She knew Keith Norton really fact,’ ” he replied, “ but we’ve got to put was to come down to the opening, which Sir up with that and try by God’s help to steer a Philip had promised to perform in person, since straight course ourselves, without judging others he himself had been the principal patron and or heeding what people say falsely about us.” subscriber to the work. Verity sighed. It was oh ! ever so many “ I— I’m not sure,” she said. “ I m ay go, if months since Keith Norton had visited Stan- dad is not too busy to take me.” bridge, and she had guessed the reason without The Vicar looked at her with some amusement. being able to rectify it. Why did people get “ As if such an independent young woman wrong ideas into their heads ? could not take herself,” he teased. “ Now I am And yet, now perhaps Keith would hear the going to suggest that instead of being taken you truth. Mr. Grayle’s engagement would prove yourself take some one. It would do Jake his error. But, in the meantime, had Keith Howley a whole world of good to see the better himself grown indifferent to what she hoped he side of human nature in its practical sympathy had once wanted ? Would he feel that, having with fellow-creatures’ suffering.” misjudged her, she herself was indifferent to the Verity placed the last bunch of primroses back judge ? into her basket. “ It is a pity things can’t be explained at once,” “ I believe I will,” she declared. “ W e are ever she said involuntarily. such friends, and I should like to go with him. “ Yes,” said the Vicar, “ if they could ” I am just taking these flowers to lame Willie He paused, his rugged face hardening a little. Hoskins, and then I will call round and ask him.” If only he and Mary had explained all their un “ Do,” urged Grayle, laughing outright, “ but happy misunderstanding, what years of waiting do not tell him I shall be there to torment him and suffering would have been avoided. with a whispered, ‘ I told you so.’ ” Yet that was a foolish way of looking at things. The two parted on their several ways with the It is no use groaning over the ‘‘ might have beens ” knowledge of a perfect sympathy and friendliness. in life. Better— far better— thank the good God Apart from her own gladness that the Vicar’s for the “ what ares.” So Cyril Grayle accepted engagement would keep tongues from wagging in a belated joy with gratitude, refusing to repine foolish gossip over their comradeship, Verity was on having missed some part of the sweet per honestly delighted to think of the happiness fection of a dream. which had come to her friend. Now, seeing Verity’s clouded-face and quivering What a foolish barrier pride can become, for lips, he forgot his own newly-gained happiness in it is so often nothing but pride that we call sympathy for the dear friend to whom he owed it. “ sensitiveness.” © THE TALENTS © 261 Many happy returns of the day,” said Verity gaily, as she seated herself on a gnarled tree-stump. Jake shook his head. “ No,” he commented, “ I can’t expect many more. That’s not pos sible, but I thank God for good health and all the home I need. That’s enough, eh ? ” “ Quite enough. I’ve come to ask you a favour, Mr. Howley, though it won’t be just a birthday treat.” He looked at her slyly. They were the best of chums, in spite of sparring and brisk argument at times. “Well,” he de manded, “ what have you got up your sleeve, Miss Pussy ? ” “ Something very in nocent,” she retorted. “ I want you to come with me to Wallerton to-morrrow, to see the opening of the new cottage hospital.” “ H ’m,” grunted the •‘C om e the side,” screamcd old man, striking his Verity in a panic, ‘‘ there's spade into the ground, a car coming ." —Page 252. “ I suppose they’d open And now the clouds between Cyril Grayle and it just as well without me.” his Mary werfe blown away, and the sun shone “ Perhaps. But I want to go—and I want for them. to take you.” How good that was. But what of her own “ Who’s going to open it, eh ? I suppose love idyll ? The idyll which had never been there’ll be plenty of speeches and humbug.” voiced—never confessed ? Had it all been a “ Speeches—but not humbug. Sir Philip mistake, and had Keith never cared for her at Norton is going to open it.” all ? He could not have cared very much to He darted a sharp look at her. leave her for so long with never a word or sign. “ Sir Philip, eh ? What’s he doing that.for ? ” There were bluebells in the woods around “ Because he was asked, I suppose. You see Jake Howley’s cottage and the old man himself there would have been no opening at all if it had was busy in his garden, when the latch of the not been for him. He has given a lot of money wicket clicked and he looked up to see Verity towards it.” Moore. “ H’m. What did he think he was going to The latter was always a welcome visitor, so get out of that ? ” i down went the spade as Jake called his greeting. Verity looked grave. iv “ Come in, my dear, come in. Or would you “ You know I don’t think that’s very kind, rather be out here in the garden, eh ? Much Mr. Howley,” she rebuked. “ Sir Philip is very ’better in the garden. Nothing like God’s sun generous. He always has been.” shine and the sweet spring breezes. Now look at “ Really ? I don’t believe it. Sort of man m y daffodils, did you ever see finer blooms ? ” who’s only generous to himself. The rest’s “ Beauties,” agreed Verity, going down on her talk.” knees and raising the graceful yellow heads for “ You are quite wrong. It was not talk. her own admiration. “ Your garden is just Anyhow, other people did not think so, or the lovely, Mr. Howley.” mysterious sender of those letters would not have “ And doesn’t cost a penny for labour, eh ? ” offered to double all he spent in a year on charity. chuckled the old man proudly. “ I’m seventy- H g—the writer— knew Sir Philip was a philan two to-day, my dear, and I’m no worse a digger thropist and would spend his money in a deserv than I was ten years ago.” ing cause.” . . 252 * HOHE WORDS * Old Howley fell to digging and chuckling. youngster, hot-headed and jealous, though mads “ My word,” he muttered, how women—and of good stuff. And he m ay have got jealous. men too—can twist motives about. But I won’t Well, why didn’t you tell him there was no argue. I ’ ve done with that for the present. reason, or show him there was none, eh ? ” I ’m—well, I’m open to conviction though I won’t Verity did not reply, did not even try to check say I ’m convinced. Y ou’re not going, Miss the inquiry. But Jake Howley was shrewd- Verity ? witted and was following out his idea to its con “ I must,*’ said the girl. “ Dad and I are clusion. going out to luncheon. 1 shall have to run home. “ I suppose you thought the work had to go I only came because I wanted to coax you into forward, eh ? ” he asked. “ Even over your own coming to-morrow.” heart ? Child !—was that it ? ” He looked at her admiringly. She looked at him, her grey eyes suffused with “ You can coax,” he replied. “ Yes, and I ’m tears. ‘ ‘ It was God’s work,” she whispered, coming—to see the leopard change his spots. By “ and God makes— all work for good for those the way, I suppose son Keith will be down there who love Him—and try— try their best to steer too, eh ? Heard anything from him lately ? ” a straight course.” Verity became scarlet. They had reached the head of the lane as thej’’ " No,” she replied sharply, why should I ? spoke, and Jake did not reply. There was an We— we are not old friends.” indefinable look on his rugged old face, but he Mr. Howley looked shrewd. said nothing. A woman— a gipsy vagrant— was " Perhaps not,” he agreed, “ but you ought to passing up the lane, a child in her arms ; she be good ones, my dear. I ’m a queer old crank, glanced up towards Verity and would have begun of course, who has no business in interfering with to beg alms had not the shrill note of a motor- young folks’ concerns. But—don’t get to mis horn sounded close by. understandings, that’s all.” The woman stood in the centre of the lane, at Verity did not reply. She wanted—oh so the turn of a sharp corner. badly— to ignore this excellent advice which she “ Come to the side,” screamed Verity in a herself had given so freely to Cyril Grayle. panic, li there’s a car coming. A car.” But it was so different accepting advice from It swung round even as she spoke, and to her giving it ! horror she saw that Sir Philip N orton himself was They walked side by side to the gate, and driving it. The woman still remained where she instead of saying good-bye there Jake Howley stood, too startled to move. And the whole unlatched the wicket and accompanied his young incident took place far more quickly than it is friend through the wood. possible to describe it. His mood was an unusual one, pensive and Sir Philip, hearing Verity’s crv and seeing the kindly, without that snack of cynicism with woman standing in the road, jammed on his which he loved to hide his better nature. brakes in a reckless attempt to avert the pending Child,” he said suddenly, as they neared the disaster. lane, “ I ’ve grown very fond of you, and I guess The result was only what could have been ex perhaps—I’m a queer old chap, but I have my pected. The car skidded across the road, ideas— the misunderstanding lias something to crashed into the hedge on the opposite side and do with you and Cyril Grayle making common overturned, flinging the chauffeur wide of the cause over that missionary business. Do you débris but pinning Sir Philip himself underneath. think it made for jealousy, eh ? ” Verity clutched at the shoulder of her com D on 't,” pleaded Verity, her face aflame, panion, her face was drained of all colour, but she “ don’t.” did not scream aloud as the gipsy woman was Yes,” replied Jake obstinately, “ I’m going doing, although she had seen only too clearly in on— and you’re to look on me as a sort of family that awful moment what must have happened. adviser, eh ? I’m taking it for granted that “ He is killed,” she whispered faintly to Jake you loved Keith Norton, just as I know for a Howley. certainty he loved you. But he’s a peppery “ He is killed, and—and he is Keith’s father.” (To be continued.) T H E ANTAGONIST. csceoe„.32.> I ET Ciocl’-s storm * ¿tir tl\y placid lif e , ÛiVe u s T k y c o u ra g e, <5ocj o f W ar, N o r p r a y f o r quiet days ; Tkat We may kl\oW Tl\y peace. He War* Witt\ t ^ e tkat tl\ou fc>e ¿troixcj, Ot\ly Wkeh We kaVe fougkt ar\c| W ot\, He make* tl\y *trucjcjle *k°rt olr loftcj, Ohly Wkfch ¿m k* tke ¿ettirycj *ut\, Urvtil at la-st He. *a y *: Ahcj Tkou 4o*t fc>icj u* cea*e— “ Peace, peace ; fc>e .still tky pre*eht stride, T k y so lc| iç r* utxcjer m a rtia l laW , Peace, peace, ¿till.” Tkat i* Tky Will. LIGHTS IN A DARK WORLD: fNN t™f warK By the Rev. J. K. SWINBURNE, B.D., Rector of Rockland St. Mary. ffg^O R many a long Now this wise man said he would raise from ’ year there was their sleep of death these ghosts of the trees, and a land whose would give them fresh life by turning them into welfare a n d stars to give light in the dark places in that land happiness were endan when the night was black. And this he did. gered by a hitherto in He turned them into stars, and set them at surmountable difficulty. gloomy comers where thieves and all who loved On dark and gloomy nights, darkness lurked. Thus were men no longer when thick clouds blotted “ afraid for any terror by night,” and in the clear out the starlight and hid light of the stars the robbers could plunder no the moon from sight, many more, and the people who had once groped in deeds of evil were wrought. darkness could with confidence find the place Thieves and men of ill-repute where they would be. under cover of night pursued * * * the tenor of their wicked Perhaps you are saying to yourself that I am way and worked much mis wandering in some mystic dreamland—that I chief upon inoffending citi am permitting fancy to weave fairy tales which zens— for they lurked at serve no purpose but to amuse ? But this is no every comer and would imaginative ghost story, but a true tale. spring upon and molest and rob all passers Thousands of years ago the trees of the forest by. Many were their victims, and many were died, were buried in the river-beds, were slowly the searchings of heart in that country, while for turned to coal. The coal was dug up, and from a remedy men constantly sought- and sought in the coal was extracted carburetted hydrogen or vain. But a certain wise man arose and said, “ I gas, which, by means of gaspipes and lamp-posts will solve your difficulty. I will make stars, and were set, as stars, to lighten the darkness of set them in various places to give light.” towns. And no less for the brilliant arc lamps of And the manner in which he proposed to pro electric light the cold dead spirits of the trees of ceed was like this. He said that he could raise long ago are needed. up the spirits of the trees which had lived thou There was an even wiser and greater Man Who sands and thousands of made stars— the wisest and years ago. He declared greatest Man Who has ever that there was a spirit in lived. every tree, which grew with Once in the primeval its growth and died in its ages of the world’s in death, and that the voices fancy, when it was possible of these trees were to be for God to look upon the heard in the murmuring fair beauty and innocence and rustling of the leaves, of a sinless world and de and that we could hear clare that it was “ very their sighs of regret as the good,” man lived in close autumn wind and storms communion with his Crea of early winter lashed them tor without sin, and the with fierce passion. earth lay bathed in the There had been a day, smile and the light of thousands of years before, God. But that bright when these trees, bowed morning of the world soon and leafless with age, lay passed away, the temp down to die— down in the ter crept in subtly, man lowlands where the rivers severed himself from com run into the sea and the munion with his God by symbols of time and eter tasting the forbidden fruit nity meet. There in the of sin, and the dark storm lowlands they lay, by the clouds of transgression and riverside, while the music death o’ershadowed God’s of the waters lulled their fair world. Man had spirits to sleep, till slowly snapped the chain which the waters stretched out had bound him and all cold bare arms and, folding creation to God. by put them to their icy heart, ting his higher nature covered them from sight. “ To lighten the darkness of towns." under the control of hia 853 254 * HONE WORDS * lower, and thus spoiling God’s perfect plan. So : Greek word translated “ lights ” would have did the world become enshrouded in darkness, been rendered more correctly by “ luminaries ” and man walked in the valley of the shadow of or “ stars.” So he meant that the ordinary death. Darkness was all around— Christian was to shine as a star. “ War and pestilence and death There are many who, like the foolish virgins, Mar and sadden God’s fair earth, through inattention to their divine Light, Human sorrow fills the air, through inattention to the oil of the Hply Spirit Death is reigning everywhere.” and to the grace of God in sacrament and prayer One day to this poor lost race of humanity the and Bible reading, through spiritual idleness in even wiser Man came, announced by the shining of never trimming the wick, have brought their a star and heralded by a chorus of angel choirs— spiritual life low indeed— and thus their light is came from the light and glory of Heaven to set dim, their lamp flickering and failing fast. stars in a world of darkness and sin and death. But we are meant to be bright and burning And as in His tender love and compassion He lights raised up from the graves of sin and death stooped to uplift humanity from the cold dark by Jesus to gleam as stars, shining to guide others grave of sin to the glorious redemption light, He who would be lost but for our radiant light, stars brought light and the glory of the Gospel to the shining and making clear the blackness of sin to World, made stars to shine when .He had gone others who could not behold its ugliness in their away, and made them from those own dark hearts till the Light of spirits of men and women who Jesus pierced them through and were once in the darkness of eter through, stars brightening the nal death, He shed upon this world lives of others and relieving their of ours the fires of divine life at the perplexity, their doubt, reflecting Feast of Pentecost, and by means something of that awful Light of of His conquest over death and Omniscience in which God H im darkness He has lighted each indi self exists— stars in the black night vidual soul with the light of Divine by whose light the lost traveller on Life. We, who have received the life’s journey may find again his lamp of eternal life and who are way, stars casting a beam of light therefore called to be saints, are to into dark drear homes where pain be His stars shining in this world and sorrow reign or death has where so much darkness exists, claimed its toll, and shedding there where there is so much pain and a ray of light divine, reflecting ever sorrow, so much sin and wrong and and ever (as the only solution of evil. “ Lights in the world ”—He iife’s problems) Jesus, the Light of said we were to be, “ Ye are the the World. lights of the world,” borrowing all Jesus would have the world full our light from the great Starmaker, of shining stars, and then there our Sun of Righteousness. “ Let would be none of the blackness of your light so shine before men, sin and crying evils which confront that they may see your good works us on every side. It is because so and glorify your Father which is many fail to show their light that in Heaven.” we are faced with the scandals “ God’s saints are shining lights— who stays which meet us to-day. The in Here long must passe difference of many, rich and poor O’er dark hills, swift streams, and deep Electric arc lamp.— Page 253. alike, to all religious influence, the wayes selfishness of monopoly and vested As smooth as glasse; interests, the widening gap between class and But these all night class, and lack of God’s ideal of brotherhood, the Like candles shed neglect of Sunday worship, the growing irreligión, Their beams, and light the decay of family life and the increasing laxity Us unto bed.” with regard to the sanctity of marriage among all It is a beautiful thought that, though we are classes, the awful drunkenness and immorality in by nature dead and buried in sin, Christ has set town and country alike, are simply because so up and lit within us the fires of divine light, and many have not been God’s stars, the lights of the that we can be (aye, we are meant to be) stars, world, but have been instead those of whom St. Christ’s Light-givers, reflecting the Face of Jesus Jude speaks in such terrible language “ wandering amid the darkness of the world. St. Paul, in the stars to whom is reserved the blackness of dark Epistle to the Philippians, speaking to the Chris ness for ever.” W e must be one or the other— tians at Philippi, tells them that amid “ a crooked either God’s stars brightening the world and wit and perverse generation ” they must “ shine as nessing to Jesus, or else wandering stars who lights in the world.” And there are two inter show no light, but whose portion is eternal dark esting points about this (1) that the Christians ness unless they come back to their appointed addressed were the rank and'file, the ordinary place to reflect the Light of their Sun. plain undistinguished Christians, and (2) the Reader, face this on your knees. It is a © DO y o u KNOW? © 2 5 5 matter of tremendous importance. Live hence No one can realize how many mourners have forth in closer personal contact through sacra been led by a loved one, whom God has taken, ment and prayer with Jesus, and then, reflecting led, with that dear one as their star, to lift their His unearthly glory, you will yourself shine eyes and thoughts above the level of earth and brighter and clearer. Pray Him to use you as things temporal, led as the Magi of old by a star His guiding star for many and many a soul. to the Throne, no longer a lowly manger, where Jesus reigns. “ Gather in the outcasts, All who have gone astray, (b) The Judgment Day.— And then at the Throw Thy radiance o’er them, close of this world’s day, when the shadows of Guide them on their way ; twilight gather and darkness begins to fall, when Those who never knew Thee, through the dissolving elements the clarion sound Those who have wandered far, of the Judgment trump brings fear and trem Guide them by the brightness bling, and the thought of the “ outer darkness ” Of Thy Guiding Star."' is oppressing the hearts of men, God will take His (a) The Day of Death.— There will come a stars and set them in Heaven on “ that day when solemn hour for each of us when life’s little day He shall make up His jewels ” as bright and is o’er, and (oh, thrice blessed shall we be then) brilliant gems in the Saviour’s Crown and diadems if we have been stars of Jesus on earth, God will of glory, and there (as the Book of Daniel says) then set us as stars above to lead yet others to they “ shall shine in the brightness of the firma His Feet. ment ” and “ as the stars for ever and ever.” PAITIT5 VICTORY. “ This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith." By the R ev. J. K. S winburne. / ^\H faith which pierces through the cloud Oh faith which when my life's sun sir.hs V ../ Where sorrows surge and moan, When all the world seems wronr, Which glints on war’s red rain, and paints Can guide me in that twilight hour The rainbow round God’s Throne ! T o night’s eternal song ! Oh faith which in the field of blood Oh faith which in this life laid down Discerns the victor’s crown, Sees life immortal gained, And in the post of peril great Help me by self-defeat to find Dreams glory and renown ! M y great Ideal attained ! Oh faith which in the Devil’s hour Oh faith which rcans beyond the Cross Can hear the Angels sing— The Resurrection Dawn, Which when ideals are sinking low And in each new hewn grave can spell Still mounts on heavenward wing ! G od’s everlasting M o m ! Oh faith which fronts the mountains vast Oh faith, give me thine eye of love Of trial, sin and pain, Which overcomes the world, And hurls them with unflinching grasp Trach me in all my pain to see Out on oblivion’s main ! Christ’s flag of love unfurled! Oh faith which when the world seems strong, Teach me to live this life of mine Enchanting spells to weave, In love light from above, Can scale the heaven’s ethereal vault And know the price of bliss must be And strength Divine receive ! The blood-red cross— of Love ! QUESTIONS OIN THE BI&LE. 2/ou 3 . novo ? By the Rev. CANON THONPSON. QUESTIONS. IX. 8. There were three neighbours whom Israel was net to 1. Where do we find Israel, the man, using his name to mean disturb. 9. What is the plural of Baal ? the nation ? . 10. A symbol used in both Testaments for the climax of 2. What tribe was so eminent that the northern kingdom was willing suffering. often called by its name ? 3. What marriage, well meant, was yet not with one of the ANSWERS. VIII. (See October Number.) pure Hebrew race ? ti 4. " Is not.” “ Are not.” Meaning “ not alive. Where 1. 1 Thess. i. 1. 2 Thess. i. 1 (2 Cor. i. 19). 1 Cor. iv. 17. Rom. xvi. 21. Phil. i. 1. 2. Rom. xvi. 20. 2 Cor. xi. 14. are these found ? 5. From what Old Testament incident does St. Paul argue 1 Thess. ii. 18. 1 Tim. i. 20. 3. 1 Sam. xv. 11. Esther that the rich should make up the deficiencies of the poor ? vi. 1. Dan. vi. 18. St. Matt. xxvi. 57. St. Luke vi. 12. 6. Of what historical type did our Lord and St. Paul make a 4. Horeb. Except in xxxiii. 2. 5. St. John xix. 36 (perhaps i. 29, 36). 1 Cor. v. 7. 6. Casting out demons. 7. St. Matt, similar use ? , T . , , >• • -r 7. A Gentile uses an act of Jewish symbolism to sigmty i. 23 ; xxvii. 46. 8 . 1 Chron. xxi. 1. Job i. 2. Zech. h i. 1. 9. Ezek. ii. Rev. x. 10. 2 Sam. i. 22. 2 Tim. iv. 7. Answers to the above questions should not be sent to the Editor but should be kept to be compared with the Author’s answers to be published in the December Number. T he Wo p b e i S chool for Q u ib o t . 3S£ rV'“ KET The youngest orchestra in the world, conducted by a boy 4} years old. NVIRONMENT counts for much in the conduct and character of our people. Put an ordinary man or woman in the awful surroundings of our slums, and they lose self-respect, lose ambition, and sink, as a rule, to the level of their homes. How can either body or mind remain healthy when every thing which nature gives to her children to enjoy is denied ? Put a poor little plant in the crowded spaces where the poorer people are compelled to spend their days; it dies, or at the most struggles on—a stunted and pathetic piece of faded green, foreign indeed to its fellows who are privileged to pass their time in the open country where all in nature thrives. If this is true of grown people and plants, it is even more true of tiny mites, the eoming gener ation which will have to uphold the name and honour of the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. We don't want to leave our country with a population drawn largely from the unsavoury in fluences of our great cities. Let us work for brighter lives, better ideals and generous nourish ment for brain and body, and we shall be doing more for our country than many of those whose names are familiar in our papers and books. Notting Dale, the dismal district in the western confines of the great city of London, is one of those spots where body and soul get cramped and stunted, where child life wears a sombre wrinkled face, and where want and trouble stalk in com pany through the narrow streets and by-ways. Why not try to lift the mask of dirt and misery from the tiny mites who are struggling to “ grow up ” capable of taking their part in the world, and help them to reap some semblance of enjoy ment out of the.life God gave them? It can be done, for in the centre of the famous Dale stands an institution which, like a light house in a stormy sea, irradiates only brightness and safety. This wonderful haven for the slumland chil n>pyr t dren owes its being to the teachings of Madam (irU n School going to ru t for a couple of hour* after 0 THE WONDER SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN © 257 Drawing illustrations o f a story which they have just heard. Michaelis, and it is the only one to bear her name. dancing and singing, happy as larks. They The Michaelis Free Kindergarten can hardly build houses in sand trays, and paint the crude be called a school, for the little ones who live pictures of childhood’s brain in quaint and in within its walls are only between the ages of three telligent characters. One of the guardians who and six years, and the instruction is entirely free watch over their happy hours of childhood reads from any suggestion of work and is designed to a story, and the little ones draw one of the char allow the bodies and brains of the little ones who acters which has most impressed them. secure a place in the institution to expand and ^ k e n httt- i comes the lunch, care develop so that when they leave to start school fully se- lected foods which shall life they will be sufficiently vigorous to absorb give the utmost nourishment at the teaching which will fit them to fight the smallest cost, and their way in the jvorld. afterwards comes the Every one in the Dale knows the Mic haelis Free Kindergarten, and anxious mothers hasten to register their children for a vacancy as soon as they are bom , so that their offspring may be able to thrive in the fairyland existing amid such dingy surroundings. Nothing of the sordid life beyond the walls is allowed to enter the en chanted gates. When the children arrive they change their heavy, often tattered boots for shoes, they are washed and bathed, and arrayed in clean overalls, and lo ! slumland has gone. They spend the day Education by tand. The tand pit at the Michaelis Free Kindergarten 8chooU 258 * HOME WORDS * fun of helping to wash up, until the call is given institution. They are invited to a little tea and to rest, and away the happy youngsters troop to a quiet talk over the management of children. lie stretched on beds for a couple of hours and Soon they see the future of their little ones in dream that all the world is a fairyland. quite a new light. In the early eveninRthe parents come and fetch Even the fathers, not always the best in be their children away, proud and satisGed that their haviour, but natural products of their environ babies have been Well looked after. ment, are asked to a concert, and, needless to All the children are examined from time to say, they make delightfully responsive guests, time by a Medical Officer, so that any physical as nice and proper in their ways as one could wish defects can be attended to without loss of once they come under the magic spell woven by time. the late Madam Michaelis. Can there be any doubt that Madam Michaelis’ One yearns for more of these Free Kindergar idea is a great one ? Surely not ! But so far we tens, but even this one in Notting Hill is always have only considered the actual direct influence in need of money to carry on its good work, but on the children. There is much else to be said every one helps. Poor mothers who have done when we come in contact with the parents. a hard day’s work spend some of their spare time In the place of the slovenly dirty appearance in washing the overalls for the school. They will which a child used to present one often finds the do anything within their power to help to keep mother trying to keep hèr little one as nice at the fairyland going in which their children spend home as it is at the “ Kinder,” and then evening their happy hours, and which has done so much meetings are held where the mothers themselves not only for the children, but for the parents, enjoy for a brief hour or so the brightness of the in the slumland around its walls. Under the Church Lamp: XI. OUR PRAYER- BOOK COMPANION. THOUGHTS ON THE COLLECT, EPISTLE AND GOSPEL FOR THE SUN DAYS OF THE YEAR. Nov. I. (All Saints' Day.) n w Spirit of G od which is truth, jus- Twenty-First Sunday ? tice, peace, faith and hope—and you shall not pray in vain.” after Trinity. I “ Hear the victors, who o'ercame; I "The whole armour m.( k W \ Still they mark each warrior's “ We shall conquer in the battle v' All with one rweet voice ex- of life Just in proportion as we fight »1 M I S <^a“n— our battle with the armour of GoD. Watch and pray.’ ” Each and all of you surely wish to succeed in life . . . to leave this .jb (Gospel, for All Saints' Day.) world with the feeling that your life ilIjr. ; ^ “ It was not for nothing that our has not been a failure and your L ord began the stany roll of the years given you in vain. . . . Then Divine Beatitudes with the words, this, and this only, is the way to ‘ Blessed aré*the poor in spirit, for true success, to put on the whole theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' armour of God. Truthfulness, jus Jfc It is not a benediction on the * soft tice, peaceableness, faith in G od's padding of the universe’ . . . on Justice and mercy, hope of success, the feeble folks, the .week, the effe and the sword of the Spirit, even minate. It is a blessing on the that Word of Goo which, if you do strong, on ¿¡rose who have gained not preach it to others, you can and a new insight into things around should preach to yourselves all day them, and have learned the first long, continually asking yourselves, .. 4 „ . . . great lesson of G od and self. ‘ Wnat would Goo have me to do?’ We bel,eve that Thou shall come to be our Judge, ¡g ^ K¡ngdom of Heaven, We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants, whom .1 r- • r ; r __ All these qualities go to make up Thou hast redeemed with Thy preciólas blood, the topire of things mvisible. For the character of the worthy man or Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in them Ae supernatural world is woman, the useful person, the glorv everlasting. the “f1,^ truly able person, who does see at last the Vision Splendid. what he can do, well, because he is what he ought to be, good. “ All Saints' Day comes to us with a direct appeal, calling on . . . But some will say, and with truth, ‘ The question is, who us to be strong and quit ourselves like men, reminding us that will make us good ? ’ . . . Yes, there is but one way to obtain we do not stand weak and outnumbered on the side of a forlorn that armour of G od, which will bring us safe through the battle hope which never can succeed, since we are fellow-citizens with of life, and that is, pray for it. . . . You who wish for true the saints and of the household of G od, members of an ancient success in life. pray. Pray with your whole hearts for that family rich in noble memories and an immemorial prestige. ® tMDElk TI1L CHURCH LAMP © 259 ‘ Fear thou not, for they that be with us are more than they whom he serves. Only, as the handsomest and highest-rpirited that be with them.’ On our side is the multitude no man can horse must be kept under complete control, and by no means number of the knight errantry of G od. allowed to have the mastery—so must it be with the body." “ All Saints’ Day comes to us with a direct appeal bidding (Gospel.) •< y nto Cae:ar— unto G o d .” us to stand out unreservedly on the side of Jesus Christ. “ The only Caesar which we have to fear is called Public Still, the King of Saints is passing on His way, travelling in the Opinion— the huge anonymous idol which we ourselves help to greatness of His strength. Still, the mighty form of the make, and then tremble before the creation of our own coward Captain of our salvation towers above the vileness and false ice ; whereas, if we will but face him, in the fear of G od and seeming of the world. Behind H im follow the men and the faith of C h r i s t , determined to say the thing which is true, women who have seen the vision, renounced the base, and and do the thing which is right, we shall find the modern chosen the highest for the service of their lives. They call on Caesar but a phantom of our own imagination ; a tyrant, indeed, us to join their goodly company ; and all that is strongest and as long as he is feared, but a coward as soon as he is defied. T o truest in our nature, all that is akin to G o d within our soul, that Cassar let us never bow the knee. Render to him all that leaps out in answer to that call.” he deserves— the homage of copnmon courtesy, common Nov. 8. Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity. respectability, common charity— not in reverence for his wis dom and strength, but in pity for his ignorance and weakness. (Epistle.) “ Being confident of this very thing, that He But render always to G od the things that are G od’s . . . and Who hath begun a good work in you will perform it.” offer to H im spiritual sacrifices. There are three sacrifices “ You see at the first glance how cheerful and hopeful St. which every man, woman and child can offer, and should offer Paul is about these Corinthians. . . . If we knew no more of . . . first and foremost, surely, the sacrifice of repentance, of l?icm than what these words tell us, we should suppose that which it is written, ‘ The sacrifice of G od is a troubled they were very great saints, leading holy and irreproachable lives spirit: a broken and contrite heart.’ Repentance, contrition, before G od and man. But we know that it was not so. That humility, is the very foundation-stone of all goodness, virtue, they were going on very ill. That this is the beginning of an holiness, usefulness. . . . Next, the sacrifice of thankfulness, epistle in which St. Paul is going to rebuke them very severely ; of which it is writlen, ‘ I will offer to T hee the sacrifice of and to tell them that, unless they mend, they will surely become thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of the Lord.’ If reprobates and be lost after all. . . . And yet he begins by we offered that sacrifice oftener, we should have more seldom thanking G od for them, by speaking of them, and to them, in need to offer the first sacrifice of repentance. . . . Next, the this cheerful and hopeful tone. Does that seem strange? sacrifice of righteousness, of which it is written, ‘ Present your Why should it seem strange, my friends, to us, if we are in the bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to G od, which is your habit of training our children, and rebuking our children, as reasonable service.’ T o be good and to do good, even to long we ought ? If we have to rebuke our children for doing wrong, to be good and to long to do good, to hunger and thirst after do we begin by trying to break their hearts? . . . Or do we righteousness, is the best and highest sacrifice which any human begin by making them feel that however grieved we are with being can offer to his Father in Heaven.’ them, we love them still ; and by giving them credit for what Arr 2J. Twenty-} civlh Sunday ajtrr Tnniltr. good there is in them— by appealing to that; calling on them (n:i. it) “ Stir up.” to act up to that; to be true to themselves, and to their better nature? . . . If we be wise parents . . . we shall do by them “ If this wicked world is to be mended, then G od must stir up just what St. Paul did by these Corinthians. Before he says the wills of His faithful people, and we must pray without one harsh word to them, he will awaken in them faith and ceasing for ourselves, and for all for whom we are bound to love. He will make them trust him and love him . . . till pray, that He would stir them up. The only sure method they do, he knows that there is no use in rebuking them.” of setting the world right, is to begin by setting our own little (' - c “Until seventy times seven.” part of the world right— in a word, setting ourselves right. But if we begin to try, that, we find, is just what we cannot do. “ We ought to keep no count of offences and forgivenesses, When a man begins to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the time never ought to come when we shall say we can and, discontented with himself, attempts to improve himself, forgive one no more. When we are smarting under sorm he soon fines out that he h a s no power of himself to help him injury d o n e us by another, and when our feeling of resentment self . . . how he is crinpled by old bad habits, weakened by is burning into a flame within us, we should remember that the general inability of will, till he is ready to cry, ‘ Who shall wrong we have d o n e to G od i s infinitely greater, and that He deliver me from the body of this death ? ’ . . . Let him but in His love has freely forgiven us. Should we not, then, be utter that cry honestly. Let him see that he needs a helper, a willing to forgive others their little wrongs against us ? ” deliverer, a strengthener— in one word, a Saviour— and he will N o r . ! r>. Third S unday cjirr Trinity find one. He will be able to answer himself— ‘ I thank G od— C h r is t will deliver me from the bonds of my sins, CHRIST (r.p\:.Uv.) “ Our conversation— that is to say, our citizenship will stir up this weak will of mine, C h r is t will give me — is in Heaven.” strength and power, faithfully to fulfil all my good desires, “ Heaven must be in us, or we can never enter its gates.” because He H im s e lf has put them into my heart.” “ Lift us up from earth to Heaven, Nov. 29. Advrnt Sunday. Give us wings, of faith and love, {LiOSpcl; “ V7ho is this?” Gales of holy aspiration “ He is a prophet, and the greatest of the prophets. . . . Wafting us to realms above ; But we may not stop here. We know H im for the Saviour of “ That with hearts and minds uplifted, the world— the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; we know H im We with C h rist our L ord may dwell, for C h r i s t the Son of the Living G o d . He is to us All in all. Where H e sits enthroned in glory He is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. H e is In His heavenly citadel.” the Creator of all things, and also the Judge of all men. H e is “ That phrase, ’ Our vile body,’ is a mis-trrnslation. It our Hope in this life, and our Home in the life to come. . . . should read ‘ the body of our humiliation.’ No Christian Had H e been a mere prophet, then I should be appalled by the disciple has ever been taught to regard as ‘ vile ’the body which strictness of His teaching ; I should tremble because I know I G od gave him. . . . A man’s right regard for his body may can never obey Him perfectly ; but because H e is more than a perhaps be compared to his right regard for his horse ; the prophet, because H e is my Saviour and my Life, because I better groomed, the higher-spirited, the more thoroughly in have been made one with HiM, therefore I need not fear. health and ‘ fit ’— the more is that horse a credit to the master Though He be my Judge, He is also my Plea.” Jfa Jbiftvered ¿Prayer, f By ELLA E. WALTERS, Author of “ The Great Strike," and other poems. *' Dear Lord,” I said, “ I, too, would sing to T h e e !” But sweet and low the answer sounded near : “ Sing to Me in thy heart, oh child most d e a r.” I stood within His temple—chant and psalm Had echoed to the roof, and passed beyond, ÏP“ To mingle with the voice of those who gave Praises to the All-Father evermore. I SOUGHT the Lord {or His sweet gift of song, And now a hymn was stealing through the air, A Prayed Him to grant me fellowship with Melodious, soft and beautiful, with words those Searching our minds and spirits like a flame! Who hymned His praise in thé fair Heaven above, Around me all were singing—by my side W ith high angelic strain, and harps of gold. Was one to whom the power of song was given I would know music—learn its height and depth, In glorious measure, full, unstinted, free! Its infinite capacity, and touch And as the beautiful, clear tones rose high, I-s finite limitations and its goal. My soul rose with them ; all my being seemed “ Give me, dear Lord,” I cried, “ a tiny part On fire to praise Him too—until the tears In Thy world-organ, whose deep thunder-tones Quenched quick the fire, and my flooded heart Roll ever and for ever round Thy Throne ! ” Had well-nigh burst w ith pain and vain desire ! But sweet and low the answer wafted clear, “ Dear Lord,” I wept, “ may I not sing to Thee, “ Sing to Me by thy life, oh child most dear." May I not join with these, nor silent be? ” Then once again the sweet Voice whispered clear, When the lark soared, sounding his pearly plea “ Sing to Me through thy friend , oh c h ild m ost Over the summer fields, I yearned to sing, dear.” And fling an echo to his fairy song ; <3X5XX3XX3X> When, in the deepening dusk, a liquid note Shattered the silence, and the air was filled And now I thank Him that my prayer is heard, W ith quivering golden cadence, all my heart Though not in my way, H is the better plan ! Longed to break forth in tuneful praises too ! For while His Hand is laid upon my throat, For the whole world was vocal ! The deep sea Stilling its sound and hushing melody; Muttered its monotone by night and day ; He wants a singing life, a singing heart, Now loud and sonorous, now soft and low— And self forgotten, hidden out of sight, And cutting dear across it, the great trees T h a t so another s life be cheered, another’s gift Struck dashing chords, and all their leafy notes. Loved and rejoiced in, and the world enriched. Hummed like a harp, as the soft winds swung “ Dear Lord, Who doest all things well, oh may th ro u g h ! M y heart and life give praise to Thee alway.” 260 >fi \®bat our Qhurob Stamps Teaeb Us. >i< Advent Sunday. Nov. 29. less of enthusiasm—less of honour—than He was accord-'d on His entrance into Jeru “ Thy King Cometh." salem of old. How did they receive Hh.l The Church begins her new year with a then ? ‘ We read in the Gospel for the day great word : Coming ! that they "spread their garments in the What is the message that this word con way ’*—“ cut down branches from the trees, tains ? Does not that vepr much depend on and strawed them in the way.” who they are who hear it? To the hand Are we strewing “ palms and garments ” ful of brave defenders, besieged in the gar in the way by which our Saviour comes to rison town—as once that gallant British us through these weeks of Advent ? How party in Lucknow—holding it loyally against can we do so? Well, we must climb to overwhelming odds—the word Coming brings reach the palms. They are the things that a thrill of hope and coufage, joy and cheer. Advent 8unday. grow, as it seems, high up out of our Reinforcements coming; help coming ; St. Matt 21. 15. reach. Ah! we say, we can never attain victory coming; the situation saved. those graces — patience, sweet temper, But there is mother side to the picture. How does the word moral courage, unselfishness—whatever may be the good Coming sound in the ears, say, of criminals, convicted, alike by qualities we chiefly lack. We shall never gain them, it law and conscience, fleeing from the punishment they know is is certain, by standing on the ground and looking up at jusdy due ? Hiding out on the lonely moor, in the darkness of them, and thinking how high above our heads they are. It will the night, they strain their ears for the sound of approaching mean climbing—effort—struggle—if they are to be secured. But feet. “ Coming I ” whispers one in a low hoarse voice to the surely here is a good resolution to make, upon the Church’s other. And the word strikes chill as death. The worst has New Year’s Day. At whatever cost—we will have those overtaken them. Judgment is at hand. palms ! They shall be won, and " strewn in the way ” of our As we hear the word, like a trumpet-call, upon this Advent Kmc. Sunday, what sort of feelings does it stir within us ? They “ spread their garments in the way.” Stripped them Coming I off and flung them from them and cast them under the feet of Who is coming? It is our KlNC. the King. What are the “ garments ” we can spread ? What “ Behold, thy King cometh unto thee," cries the prophet; are those faults and sins, which wrap us round so tight, which and how does he go on to say that the King comes ? “ Meek, ding so closely, that we say we cannot cast them off ? That bad and sitting upon an ass." Thus did He enter, long ago, habit of deceit, of dishonesty, of slothfulness, of which v/e say into Jerusalem—when He was come thither to suffer and we cannot rid ourselves, and therefore never try. Let us re to die. “ Who is this ? ” the City asked : “ Who is this that solve, this Advent, that we will, by God’s help, cast away those cometh ? ” And the answer is—what ? “ Jesus of Nazareth.” “ works of darkness ”—that they shall be tom off from us, and How are we preparing to receive Him ? Not, surely, with sacrificed to our love for the King Who Cometh. ¡S’ Pattern XVI can be supplied for 4d., post free, on application to tbs Publisher, 11, Ludgate Square, London, E.C. XVI. fl Simply made proek for a Child. Sunday Clothes. By CHARLOTTI: PI. BATCHELOR. ►HOUGH this little dress is piqué, or, if for the winter, serge so easy to make, it is or alpaca— these would all be exceedingly smart and quite suitable. By the way, do out of the way. After a you know that if you get a good certain time, girls cannot wear quality of serge, it will wash just those low belted frocks without as well as cotton ? It can be looking rather babyish, and this laundered over and over again, style would be just right for those and it would make such a useful who have reached that stage. If little school dress for the winter. you make it in good material, and You will want 2 yards of finish it off with dainty lace collar ^ H material 40 inches wide, or 4 yards and cuffs, it would be very suit 20 inches wide, for a child aged able for “ best ” occasions ; or if seven tonine years. Also a scrap you wanted something for every of contrasting material for the day wear, and made it of serge, collar and cuffs ; if you do not care or casement cloth, with plain for the trouble of making these, hem-stitched linen collar and you could very well buy a ready cuffs, the dress would look quite made set, and tack them in. a different thing. Cutting Out the Dress.—Fold The Materials to Choose. You the material and put the pattern can use almost any material you on it in the way shown by dia like for this pattern, so long as it gram 1. You must put the is fairly substantial. Thin mus straight edges of back and belt, lin, crepe or washing silk would which are marked with four per not look well, sponge cloth, forations, to a fold of stuff. The but Pattern XVI. A Simply made casement doth, zepyhr, drill, Frock for a Child. collar must also go on a fold. Of 261 262 * HOME WORDS * SELVEDCtS ct-^O ch MATERIAL course, if p l a c k e t . y o u a re This part using the m u s t b e single fa s t e n e d width ma with hooks terial, you and e y e s will have or patent to make a fasten e r s. seam right T u r n u p u P *t h e the bottom centre Î V Diagram 1. o f t h e back, but x / ' How to arrange your pattern fo r cutting out. frock to a this w i ll ^ — fôTô single hem not be a and face it up with Prussian binding; do not stitch very great disadvantage, and if you don’t mind it by machine, or you will find it leaves a mark the extra trouble a few tucks can be made to when you want to let the skirt down. Run a hide the join. gathering thread round the waist line. Mark the notches carefully, and remember that The Cek. —If 3r°u are using the material belt, the turnings are allowed for, so you can cut right you must double it, wrong side out, stitch it by up to the edge of the paper. It is a good plan to machine, and then turn it to the right side and pin up the pattern, and try it against the child press it well. Sew it on over the gathers so that before you cut it out. If she is very tall for her it makes everything quite firm, and fasten it in age, you may require a few inches over the 2 front by a hook and eye or patent clip. yards of material in order to allow for a good But if you prefer a hem. The hem should be leather belt, you must at least 4 inches deep, so sew a strong piece of that you can let the skirt tape over the gathers down when extra length at the wrong side of the is required. garment, sew on two ; the D ress.— slots of material at the Join up the underarm and side seams, and pass sleeve seams singly at the belt through these. the wrong side of the -Ce Colhir ani Cuffs. material, and overcast —Hem the collar round or bind the raw edges to its unnotched edges. prevent them from fray Run and fill the notched ing. Take the left hand edge to the neck. You front, and cut off the can finish off the hems little flap piece, so that by French knots or you make a straight edge feather-stitching if you all the way down. Xow like. The cuffs should turn in and tack a narrow be made in the same single hem down both way, run and felled to Diagram 2. Facing the fronts, and face them up the sleeves, turned back D ia g r a m 3. H o w t o r;i«t< front anci put on coliar. front and doing the seams' with strips of material, up the arm, and caught or Prussian binding, in the way shown by dia by a stitch here and there, so that they stay gram 2. The left hand side will be quite an easy in place. matter, as it goes quite straight ; but you will If you are having light collars and cuffs on a have to be careful to get the corners of the flap dark dress, you had better bind the neck and piece as neat as you possibly can. You may armhole edges with tape ; make up the collars stitch your facing down by machine if you like, and cuffs quite separately, and pin or tack them so as to give the effect shown in diagram 3 ; or, into place, so that they can easily be removed you can slip-stitch your facings down, so that no when they need washing. stitches are visible on the right side of the The buttons down the front are only put on as garment. a trimming. You could have them of crochet, Try the dress on. Pin the two fronts together braid, or material, or pearl buttons on a white for about 10 inches, and leave the rest open for a piqué frock would look very well. QUIET THOUGHTS. @ @ HE true test of a Christian is the faithful discharge of a No man doth well but God hath part in him. T daily duty. It is not great deeds that make people's lives happy; it is Life is to do the will of God. the little pleasantnesses of daily life. The small courtesies sweeten life, the greater ennoble it. Not “ the will to power,’ but the will to serve is the way A hopeful and helpful disposition is the besi umbrella of light, for power comes by knowledge, and knowledge against the storms of despair. follows upon obedience. RED LETTER CHURCH NEWS. *** I f yea know of any piece of Church news which you think would he interesting to oar readers, send it to the Art Editor, II, Ludgate Square, London. E.C., during November, Six prizes of five shillings each an awarded monthly. Photographs are specially welcome, bat stamps must be enclosed if their return is desired. A Lovely Pulpit on the morning the Viçar of Harrogate, Canon F lo o r _ J t ¡8 said by many who Gibbon, happened to preach from the have seen it that there is no other text—“ Thou wilt keep him in perfect pulpit in regular use in any English peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” parish church exactly like the one The preacher alluded to the fact that in to be found at Arundel, the charm the Hebrew the words are, “ Peace, ing Sussex town where stands the Peace,” twice repeated, and happily famous castle of the Duke of Norfolk translated in the 1611 translation by the Whether their belief be true or not, one phrase—“ Perfect peace.” This sermon cannot deny that the pulpit at Arundel set Mr. Bickereteth's mind working on has several distinguishing features wliicli the subject, and it is related that are seldom seen in pulpits. For in after the service he took up a sheet stance, its position is very noteworthy. of paper, and then and there wrote It is placed just outside the chancel, end down the hymn, just exactly as it erected in such a way that the preacher stands. It is also said, on the same in it is not raised above the heads o( Sunday, visiting an aged and dying 'da the congregation, as in nearly every tive, in a somewhat troubled mind, he other pulpit in the land, but stands read over the verses to this dying Chris almost on the same level as they sit, tian to express the spiritual comfort he owing to there being no real stairs to ■ desired to convey. Rev. M. Rowntree. ascend into the pulpit, but only two A Church Telephone —The steps, shallow, and placed inside the pulpit in the Parish Church of Guernsey i« pulpit-fabric itself. Then again, the provided with a telephone, so that people pulpit is of deep creamy stone, looking unable to be present can hear the sermon if almost as if it had been polished and they have an instrument at home. Similar bevelled till it glistens likis ivory. Yet transmitters are fixed at the choir stalls and AratM CKareh Palpit. it is not by any means very modem, reading desks. R. LONGMORE. though it has kept its colour and polish so well. Thirdly, the pulpit is so beautifully carved, with its A Manx Church •-—Malew Parish Church, which is the pinnacles and canopy most striking objects for the visitor’s old Parish Church for Casdetown (Isle of Man), and a country admiration, that it is doubtful whether its superior in this re district eight miles long, is the only old Manx Church now in spect could be found in any other parish church. Altogether, regular use which has not been modernized. Hère are the old- Arundel has every reason to feel proud of this unique piece of fashioned square pews, and rough hewn font of mountain stone, church “ furniture,” which so greatly adorns the lovely edifice and many relics of ancienttimes—Runic cross, quaint collecting resting in its plot of sacred ground that seems to have been pans, carved legs of man and eagle's claw, bell presented by the cut out of the casde’s precinctr. for this very purpose some Earl of Derby in 1677. end communion plate of pre-Reform&tion centuries ago. G. A. W ade. period. ■ A list of Vicars of Malew from the year 1338 is also to be seen. Buried in the chancel is Wm. Christian, a celebrated An Ancient M ill._ in the Biblical days a “ Mill ” was character in Sir Walter Scott's Peoeril of the Peak. On the walls not a building, but a pair of millstones of granite or basalt, are stone tablets to the memory of Manx notables, while fifteen placed one upon another, the lower one being larger and coloured memorial windows adorn this old church. stationary, and the upper loose, with a hole through its centre, M rs. B urriss. into which the com was put. Such a mill has recendy been discovered under some old premises in Louth. Antiquarians © ® say it is the old domestic mill of the Bible, and the theory is that it was once in St. Mary’s Abbey, for stones, carved with the same representations, may still be seen in the ruins of the Monastery. The use of hand mills for grinding corn is reore- sented on the monuments in Egypt, and at present in the East these mills are always turned by women, as they were in the days of our Lord, generally by two at a time, seated on the ground opposite to each other, each holding the handle and alter nately pushing and pulling the stone in its revolution. This old mill is of millstone grit, and the lid is perforated with a hole in the centre. There are also two holes in the stone at the sides, and in these was probably fixed the frame work of the simple mechanism by which the stone would be driven. The “ M i ll" is a most interesting find, and valuable as a very ancient historic relic. Miss C. M ason. “ Peace, perfect peace. ’ ’- T y , hymn was by the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth, who afterwards became Bishop of - (A* JlKKS, Exeter. It happened thus—Mr. Bickersteth was spending his Ph.iiity- ieuth. summer holiday in Harrogate in August, 1875, and it was my privilege to be introduced to him there. On a certain Sunday A Mill *»4 Mill »tea*. 234 * HOME WORDS * Church Erected by Act of Parliament <-At Sunday School, and the Children’s Mission Service on a Western Point, near Runcorn, at the tíme of the passing of the Sunday evening. MlSS CONSTANCE C lecc. Weaver Navigation A ct, it was stipulated by Parliament that three churches should be erected, so'that the hundreds of men Quaint Inscriptionsi—In a recent number of H om e employed in the building of the canal and docks might have W ords there was a paragraph headed “ A Sundial M otto,” somewhere to attend for Divine worship on Sundays. The telling of a quaint one in a Suffolk churchyard. It may not be church at Weston Point is one of them. It stands in the generally known that there is a very similar motto on a wooden middle of a district of rivers and docks, and the nearest sundial on the south porch of Chesterton Church, Warwick dwelling-houses are miles away. Naturally, there is only a shire, viz., “ S e e and be gone about your business.** small congregation at this unique church, the worshippers A t Stoneleigh Church, in the same county, there is a quaint being principally drawn from the crews of the boats passing inscription to the memory of Humphrey How, porter to Lord through. M iss M . J. S o w rey. Leigh (1688), which runs “ Here lyes a Faithful Friend unto the Poore, Fifty Years of Clock Winding.—The Parish Who dealt Large Aimes out of his Lordship's Stor, 'Church, Wahhamstow, has among its church officials one whose Weepe not Poore People tho ye Servats Dead, dirty it is to wind the clock in the church tower each week, and 7 The Lord himselfe will give you Dayly Breade. it is interesting to record the fact that M r. W . Putnam has If Markets Rise Raile not against theire Rates, performed that task for well over half a century. M r. Putnam The price is still the same at Stoneleigh G ates." has always claimed that he is the oldest Miss B ertram. member of St. Mary's Church, and in view of the above unique record die A Wonderful Window.—In A ll claim is no idle one. Saints’ Church, North Street, York, is* T he R ev. B . Rees. wonderful set of windows, the whole series interesting, one unique, A Sixteenth Century both as a specimen of stained Pun is to be found on a mural glass and as an illustration of monument in die church of S t. an old poem. This is called the Michael. Lewes. In the reign “ Prycke of Conscience W in of Henry V III the French dow ," and is known by very managed to effect a landing at few people. It was raised as Seaford, a little place on die a memorial to a poet named Sussex coast. Sir Nicholas Richard Rolle, who lived at Pelham, the head of one of the Ham pole, near Doncaster, for oldest and most noted Sussex some years before his death, families, immediately collected which occurred in 1349, fifty- a body of men and succeeded one years before Chaucer died. in driving the French back to He wrote a sacred poem called their ships before they had done the “ Prycke of Conscience,“ in much damage. His prompt the Northumbrian dialect, treat action is commemorated on his ing of man's life and death, monument in S t Michael's and the last four things, and Church in the following containing nearly 10,000 lines. The words.— passage illustrated by the window gives “ What time the French sought the events of the last fifteen days of the to have sack’t Sea-Foord, world. The signs and wonders are T his Pelham did re p e l 'em depicted in glowing colours, less artis bade aboord.” tically, but far more clearly, than is Miss May B allard. common. MlSS M. CRAWLEY. Unique Church Win Robins in School. —A pair of dow Subjects.—The old St. Mary's Chvreh, Walthamstow, showing Clock robins, writes Miss A .M . Moss, Infant Parish Church of Widcombe, which has been woand hr the same official for over fifty years. Teacher at Nursling Schools, South Bath, dedicated to S t. Thomas ampton, have built their nest in the á Becket, is remarkable and beams of our school two years in succes perhaps unique in having as the subject for each of its stained sion. Last summer it was quite a pretty sight to see the old glass windows a shrub or flower mentioned in the Bible. The birds come to and fro through the windows feeding their five explanation believed to be correct is that at the modem restora young ones, who were quite tame, often flying and perching on tion of the church, although stained glass windows existed in the children’s books and shoulders. The old bird sat on the the old building, it was “ thought wrong ” to have figures beam whilst we were taking the singing lessons each morning, as the subjects for church windows, and these were prohibited and sang quite heartily all the time until the piano stopped. by the then authorities, and superseded by the present existing ones. T[HEhe R ev. B. R ees. J u ly Prize Award.— First prizes are awarded to M iss M. B. Baelbhoun, the Rev. W. H. Phillips, Mrs. Haysom, A Two Year O l d . —Coming as deaconess to die huge Miss A. Davies, and Miss E. Heathcote; E. Bond arid Miss parish of Heeley, Sheffield (pop. 18,000), last November, my M . J. Dobie dividing the sixth prize. Extra half-crown prizes attention was at once attracted by a .singularly tiny boy, with fair have been sent to M . and W . Brook, W . Featherstone, Mias curls and baby face, a most regular and strenuous attender at C. Radcliffe, the Rev. S. Q. Warren, and Miss E. Burridge. the “ Band of Hope.” Inquiring the age of this mite from the R eserves (three inclusions in this class when completed entitle older sister who brought him, I was told he was two the previous competitors to a 5s. prize, which must be ppnlied fo r ): H ie August, and had been coming to the Band of Hope for some Rev. Hugh Powell, F. W . Moore, W . B. Sturgeon, W. J. time. _ It would be interesting to know if any other Band of McLean, W. B. S.", and F. R. Veysey. The Art Editor is Hope in the country possesses so youthful a member. This most grateful for a photograph of All Saints’ Choir, Edmoritoq, same child— Bobby Dent— in addition, also regularly attends received from an anonymous correspondent tO S. 4 th Suai s j in Ad mat : ECEMBER C3LEND3R. M. Isa. 80. 1-27 ; Rev. 6. jr 1 Tn. Isa. 2L 1-18; 1 Peter 3. 8-4. 7. E. Isa. 32. or S3. 2-23 ; Ber. 7. 2 W. Isa. 2 2.1 5; lP e te r4 .7 3 Th. Isa. 24 ; X Peter S. SI M. St. Thöuajb, A.A K . 4 P. Isa. 26.1-20 ; 2 Peter 1. M. Job 42. 1-7 ; John 20. 19-24. 5 S . Isa. 28.1-14; 2 Peter 2. E. Isa. 35 ; John 14. 1-& 22 Tn. Isa. 55 ; Rev. 8. 0 S. ind Sunday in Advent: 23 W. Isa. 57 ; Rev. 11. > M. Isa. 8 ; 2 Peter 3. "24 Th. Isa. 59; Rev. 14. E. Isa. 11. 1-11 or 24; John 15. 35 F. tJttristmai Daj. 7 M. Isa. 3 0.1 -1 8; 1 John 1. M. Isa. 9 .1 -8 : Luke 2.1-15. 8 Tu. Isa. 31; 1 John 2.1-15. E. Isa. 7. 10-17; Titos 3. 4-9. 9 W. Isa. 33; 1 John 2.15. Dec. 21. 10 Th. Isa. 35 ; 1 John 3.1-16. 3v. STZPSEK. F isa i U a z r s . M. Gen. 4. 1-11; Acts 6. St, T homas, A. & M. 11 F .. Isa. 40.12; 1 John 3.16-4. 7. 12 8. Isa. 41. 17; 1 John 4. 7. E. 2 Chron. 24. 15-28; Acts 8. 1-9. Dec. 26. WS. 1st Sunday ait, Christmas; Si. J o k e . Af. A Hr. St. S tephen, F irst 13 8. 3rd Sunday in Advent: K . Eiod. 33. 9 or Isa. 35; John 13. 23-86. M artyr. M. Isa. 25.; 1 John f . E. Isa. 6. or 38. or 40 ; Bev. 1. E. Isa. 26. or 28. 5-19; John 19. 25. Dec. 27. 14 H. Isa. 44. 1-21; 2 John. 28 M. - y o r n -:-:: Ì II. ,ler. 31. 1-13; Rev. 16. St. John, A p . & Evan. 15 Tu. Ira. 45. 8 ; 3 John. 16 W. Ember Dat. iBa. 47; Jude. E. Baruch 4. 21-31 ; Rev. 18. Dec. 28. 17 Th. Isa. 4 9.1 -1 3; Rev. 1. 29 Tu. Isa. 61. ; Rev. 19. 1-11. Innocents' D a y. 18 F. Ember Dav. Isa. 50; Rev. 2. 18-3. 7. 30 W. Isa. 63. ; R ev. 20. 19 S. Embee Day. Isa. 51. 9 ; Rev. 4. 31 Th. Ibi. 65. ; Rev. 21. 15-22. 6. By OUR OWN Red Letter Notes from the Mission Field. COBfiES PONDENT. f Dr. Livingstone’s Birthplace, than sixty times as much of its income on drink as on Foreign T is generally believed that David Livingstone was bom Missions has as yet begun to realize its obligations. I at Low Blantyre, Lanarkshire, there being apparently 'The Lord Encampeih.” little doubt as to the actual house in which his birth A short time ago news reached London of the death at Ker took place. Many beyond the very large number of man, in Persia, of Miss Mary R. S. Bird, who had been a faithful Christian people who take an interest in foreign missionary missionary in that country since 1890, before any unmarried work, will be united in a desire to preserve the house at Blan woman had ventured there. Her work was for some time tyre for all time, for Dr. Livingstone was explorer as well as attended with no little danger. Miss Bird had had some medical missionary. The property has lately been acquired by Messrs. training, and opened a small dispensary at Ispahan. The Baird and Co. (Limited), coalmasters, and is threatened with Mullahs— Mohammedan teachers— soon saw that she was gain demolition. The destruction of the house was formally pro ing influence, and they openly threatened to kill her if she tested against at a recent meeting of the Middle Ward District persisted. But she knew that “ the Lord encampeth round Committee of Lanark County Council; and it is sincerely about those that fear Him,” and she went quietly on with her hoped that further steps will be taken to preserve a building work, riding into the city from the suburb of Julfa on her mule. of such historic interest. «j Poison in the Coffee. % Growth of Medical Missions. Many were the difficulties which Miss Bird had to encounter, Fifty years ago the first medical missionary of the Society and her life was often in danger, but she trusted in the Lord was sent out by the C.M.S. to'Kashmir, in the person of Dr. Who preserveth. On one occasion, when visiting a Persian Elmslie, the medical men previously on the Society’s staff lady, she was offered coffee, as is the usual custom. She having been sent out in order to attend to the health require noticed, however, that her hostess had not herself first sipped ments of the missionaries. During the fifty years the number it, as usual; and she managed to avoid drinking any, without of medical workers has gradually risen, until now there is a saying a word about it. She suspected poison, and she was staff of eighty-seven qualified doctors, and sixty-nine trained right, for when she left, the maid who let her out whispered, nurses. In the fifty-four hospitals there are 3,983 beds, which “ You did quite right not to drink that coffee.” had 41,786 occupants during 1913, and 1,285,680 visits of out patients were recorded. For the upkeep of this large agency •R A Doctor and his Patients. a sum of £45,000 is needed annually. At the hospital at Funing, in the Fukien Province of China« the doctor in charge was giving an Address to the patients on % The Curse of Opium. the subject of “ Voices from Heaven,” taking as his text the Information has been received that opium has become so words, “ This is My Beloved Son . . . hear Him.” In the scarce in Western China, that the price has risen in two years course of his talk, he asked one of the patients—a fine tall man— from 120 cash per ounce to over 4,000 cash. Remembering to tell how he had “ heard Him ” ; and the man replied that what a curse this drug is, this is welcome news. Many opium thirty years ago some one came to his seaside town telling of smugglers have been captured, and their goods publicly burnt. God Who made, and Who is Lord of, Heaven and earth. The Some slaves to opium-taking have been reduced to entering man went on to remark that much persecution had to be endured the temple-of the city god, and scraping off the opium from on account of the preaching, and added, “ Yes, I remember the tongue of the idol and smoking i t ! This idol is said to it, for several of my teeth were knocked o u t ! ” be the messenger of hell, and reports there the deeds of evil % A House fer Is. 4d. doers ; and lest he should lay sins to their charge, some men had smeared his mouth and tongue with opium, so that on his Recently the Rev. A. B. Fisher and his wife, working iri arrival he would be overcome with the drug, and unable to connexion with the Uganda C.M.S. Mission, opened a n£w speak ! station at Gulu, in the north of the Protectorate. When they arrived they found that a few Christians there had built a tiny U A Comparison. house for them at a cost of one shilling and fourpence! But According to The East and the West (the S.P.G. Quarterly), it was too small to be of any use, and Mr. Fisher had to build the total amount raised in the United Kingdom last year for not a Mission house only, but a Church and a School as well. Foreign Missions was about £2,100,000, which represents a He remarks that building at previous stations— he had already contribution of less than a shilling per head of the population. opened eight— was difficult, but nothing as compared with The surti per head spent on intoxicating drinks was £3 5s. 11 d., the task at Gulu, among a people who want nothing, wear and on tobacco and smoking appliances, 12s. 9d. It may nothing, do nothing, and are content with a small bee-hive hut rightly be questioned whether a country which spends more into which they creep like insects. 5 tones of tke kot^oured dead, tkat after life’* fitful feVer sleep 50 Well in tl\e quiet o f (Sod’s rest. «So ¡5 our Ckristmas tl\is year. Oh our Way to ckurek We caiM\ot but remember tke graves of our bel°Ved, ai\c| yet We may be glacj tkat our day and cje»\eratiol\ kas produced keroes Worthy to rank Witk tko 5 e Wkose deeds are ckrot\icled on many an ancient tablet Witkit\ tke ckurck’s W al^. Perkaps We tyaVe not Valued tke great festival of peace— tke bii'tkclay of tke Prince of Peace— as We ¿kould kaVe clone in th\e p a s t . I t m a y l\aVe heeded W ar t o m ak e C k r is t m a s j o y real to us again as it Was to our forefathers, fo r so mat\y years "pHERE are be^S of pe?£e i»\ our \ WH$M Village ckurck tower, bells faskiot\ed from old cannon tkat once tkundered deatk across tke battlefield. And as We kear tkem ringing for ti\e Ckristmas tkat is soory to be, We see in fancy tke old time folk of England passing up tke ckurckyard patk tkat Winds amo^g grey The Christ of Yesterday— the Christ of To-day. By the Rev. CANON M3CNUTT, M.A. “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, yea, and for ever.”—H eb. xiii. 8. O interpret these words in the light of their first age of the Church justifies itself to the setting is to illuminate them with a Christian of to-day. For we, too, are feeling richer and more vital meaning. In one after what is permanent in the midst of change. T sense they need no context. Wherever We are keenly conscious that our lot is cast in a you place them they mean exactly the same. period of quite singular and peculiar unrest. They claim that Christ is changeless, that He is We see this in the outward form and fashion of the property of no special age or race, and that He life as we know it. The men and women who stands supreme above the passage of time. But passed away a quarter of a century ago would the great saying, which is one of the pillar texts of find the world extraordinarily different, if they the New Testament, sufficient though it is by came back to it again now. And the difference itself to carry and convey a message of hope and goes very deep, into the very fabric of life itself. consolation to the Christian of every generation, The very pillars of government and social or is illuminated by the fact, familiar to every ganization are being shaken. student of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that it It seems to me that just here lies the promise was addressed in the first place to men and women of our faith. ’Whatever else it does or does not, who were harassed and perplexed by the trying it claims to be changeless in its essence. And experience of great religious and political changes. that essence is Christ Himself. The supreme With a very imperfect grasp of what Christianity religious question of our day and generation is gave them in its place, they were confronted this : how does all our change and transition with the fact that their new faith had separated touch and affect Jesus Christ ? If He remains them from the Judaism in which they had been the same, amid all the wreckage of other things, born, and a crisis was impending which they there is little else that matters to us who trust could not understand, the crumbling to pieces in Him. Christianity has still its guarantee of of the power of Judaism under the advancing permanence and the pledge and promise of power of Rome. This was no common trial; victory in the new age into which we are rapidly and small wonder was it that their hearts were passing, because it is the religion of the unchang failing them for fear. Everywhere they felt the ing Christ. iron hand of change ; and if the new religion had taught them much, it was as yet not enough Chcuigelesuness of Christ. to compensate them for what they had lost. Jesus Christ is changeless, first, in the unique Weary and perplexed, doubt and hesitation made perfection of His character. Christians have their hands hang down and their knees grow always claimed for their Master that He is feeble, and their feet move slowly in the race supremely good, and that He is the last word in that was set before them. They had lost, also, holiness of life and character. Age after age has the inspiration of the influence and example of been directed to the Gospels, with the challenge, the teachers who had first spoken unto them the “ Show us the point where He falls short.” Word of God. It was, as we should say, a time “ Ec-ce homo / Behold the man ! ” The centre of transition. There was only one thing that of gravity in the fact of Christ for sinful men could brace and fortify them for the conflict in is not, after ali that He is perfectly holy, but which they were so hard pressed. The unchanging that He loves them and is mighty to save. But Christ was with them, the same yesterday, to that power to save depends, in the last analysis, day and for ever ; and to Him, amid the welter upon His own perfect goodness. If He is fallible ing changes around them, they could cling with in this, He is fallible in all. Amid all our changes patient faith. there is one change which has not come and is not coming. Mankind has discovered no rival P roved to be True. to the moral supremacy of Jesus Christ. All And it has proved to be true. The Jesus honest and sincere men are still ready, unless Christ of that yesterday is the same to-day. The they are the victims of inveterate prejudice, to same as the source of endless peace and power ; acknowledge this, that in all the world’s yester the same as the answer to questions about man’s day and to-day there is one thing that remains life and destiny that beset and perplex troubled unchallenged— it is the absolute uniqueness of souls ; the same as the unfailing remedy for the moral and spiritual beauty of the Christ of ills which menaced them and menace us, who the Gospels. To-day He is the same, the one live in a world as full of perils and temptations perfect flower of human holiness that has ever to lose heart as that strange world of crisis and blossomed in the soil of this sinful earth ; and bewilderment, in which the great unknown still to think of goodness is to think of Christ. prophet of Jesus proclaimed his Master all those There is, there can be, no other standard of centuries ago. I want you to think of some of goodness beside Him.. the ways in which this great saying from the Jesus Christ is changeless, secondly, in His VOL. SXIY. NO. XII. 1 N 2 • 268 * MOME WORDS * power to meet the deepest human needs. Man dwell among us, the very God incarnate among is always the same in his need of God, in his need men, how can God so far disown Himself that of forgiveness, in his need of spiritual aid to con He leaves Himself behind to make way for Him quer sin, in his need of the life eternal. Without self again, otherwise and anew ? Christmas has these things he would not be man, but merely a given us God for ever. The Gospel of Bethle clever animal, and not as he is, a spiritual being hem, if it is true at all, is true once and for all. capable of fellowship with the Father of Spirits. And just because Christ brings him these great The Anchor of Our Hope. gifts, and men have discovered none else who can give them as He gives them, He remains to us “ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to what He was to those who first received Him, the day, yea, and for ever.” This is the anchor of One Source of really sufficient satisfaction for our hope as we draw near to the close of another year. And never has faith needed that healing our deepest needs. Jesus Christ is changeless, thirdly, in His and uplifting message more than just now when all ability to transform and redeem human lives. around us we set- the signs of present and im The deepest test of Christ is neither the literary pending change. In the. thick of all this, we examination of the records of His life on earth, ask, where lies the refuge for the Christian of our nor the critical co-ordination of the historical day, hemmed in with dangers and distressed by elements of the witness borne to Him by His the perplexities of his time ? Whence shall he earliest disciples. It is rather the continuous draw courage and strength for the performance putting to the proof of His redeeming power in of his tasks ? What is his stay and house of the lives of men and women convicted of their defence, and his armour for the battle from need of Him, and finding in actual life that which he must not fly, if he is at once to be true “ He is able to save to the uttermost all that to'his conscience, his country, and his Lord ? come unto God by Him.” The Secret of Strength. How to test the Fact. The secret of our strength is the unchanging These are some of the ways in which you can Christ. “ He that dwelleth in the secret place put to the test the changelessness of Jesus of the Most High shall abide under the shadow Christ. Discover a higher and better than He ; of the Almighty.” The secret of the Most discover men and women who do not need God, High is Christ the Lord, and the shadow of forgiveness of their sins, power to conquer their the Almighty is the shadow of His cross. For evil selves, eternal life, or, needing these tilings, us, as for all those who have gone before us, it is cannot find them in Him ; discover human lives the Spirit of Christ, the unchangeable, passing that present problems which, taking Him on His into the life of His Church, that giveth liberty own terms, He cannot solve— discover these alike from fear and from weakness, and grace to things, and you have discovered a state of change grapple with our problems and to perform the which will so react upon Him that He can no tasks allotted to us. longer survive unchanged. But until you have And that which is true on the great scale of done that, He remains what He was in the past, the nation and the Church is true also of the in to-day, yea, and for ever. dividual soul. Each of us, standing as we do Xor has the modern world, which has out now at another of those milestones which grow grown so much, outgrown Christ. Peerless and fewer and fewer as we press on to the end of our unequalled in His supreme moral and spiritual earthly years, is conscious of the perils and trials beauty, He stands among the sons of men, the which inevitable change brings with it to him great Alone. His touch has still its ancient self. What changes the past year has witnessed power, and He touches life in its to-day at the in our home-circles and amongst our friends, and same points and at as many points as He did in how many are pending now, in the opening of its yesterday. We who kneel with the shepherds another year ! “ Change and decay in all around at the Christmastide festival can still make our I see.” We lay our dead to rest until the morn confession of adoring faith in His power to ing ; we miss the vision of faces which we have transcend time and all its change. For the loved and lost; we find ourselves continually on stream of the perennial verification of Christ in the move in an inconstant and ever-shifting human experience flows out of the fact of what world. Oh, well for us children of a passing day, He absolutely and eternally is in Himself. In if amid all the changes and chances of this mortal the nature of things Jesus Christ must be change scene our hearts are surely fixed upon Him Who less ; for were He anything less than final and will never fail us, Who through all life’s yesterday unchangeable, we should have to reconceive Him has been with us, and has pledged Himself to be as other than the Christ of the Church’s faith. our never-ending succour, eternally the same for If indeed it be true that in Him God came to each new to-day, yea, and for ever. Œbere is a fcreaDful sba&ow biDes tbe sun, JBut everg time a gentle C>eeO is Done, HnO »eUs tbe jfatber's face} Ube sbaDow lifts a apace. C anon L angbridge. A New Serial begins next month. swered, for when father and son met Sir Philip was dying. CHAPTER XI. Dark days indeed— and yet there was some H E news of Sir Philip Norton's fatal thing in them that Keith was to treasure all his accident caused a tremendous sensation life. The father who had always lived apart in in Stanbridge and the surrounding sympathy from the son was changed now in this county. solemn hour of parting, and Keith, kneeling by The baronet’s interest in the building and en the former’s bed, thanked God for the mysterious dowing of Waller ton cottage hospital had brought softening of a hard nature. Thim before the public in a very favourable light, Cyril Grayle came constantly to the Manor, «-nd so that inquirers and sympathizers-flocked to the the dying man welcomed his visits gratefully. Manor to ask for the latest bulletins. Keith was not often present during those visits, But the doctors from the first held out no and he did not talk much to the Vicar. The hope. There had been serious injury to the spine English reserve which prefers to hide its grief, as well as other internal complications. At even from sympathetic eyes, caused the young most it was a question of days. doctor to mask all feeling saving when alone. Keith had arrived at the Manor barely two After Sir Philip’s death the village folk were hours after his father had been brought home, free with their comments that at the funeral and, according to the talk of the villagers, “ had Sir Keith was like a graven image, never so not left the baronet’s bedside since.” much as sheddin’ a tear.” But then, the village Those were dark days to the younger man. folk did not see the young baronet on his return He had been working hard at his studies—rather home to the lonely Manor. too hard' perhaps— since he wished to leave no Keith had only heard vaguely from Dr. Moore time for memories. But the thought of Verity that Verity was ill. The truth was that Verity, Moore and his lové for her had been hard to hide after displaying considerable bravery and pres away out of sight, and of late all the old longing ence of mind after the accident till Sir Philip was had been redoubled as he read in his father’s in safe hands, had collapsed, going from faint lettèrs of the friendship which had so unex to faint till her father became seriously anxious pectedly sprung up between the latter and the about her. But he realized what the shock of doctor’s daughter. It was “ Verity had been sush a sight must have been to a girl like Verity, telling him this,” or “ Verity and Dr. Moore and when, after a few days, she seemed to recover were coming to lunch, ” or “ Verity had in her normal health, he quietly but firmly insisted spired him with quite a zeal over Wallerton on her going away for a fortnight’s change to an hospital.” aunt’s. All this made Keith’s task of effacing a girl’s Verity raised no objection to this proposal. bright image from his soul the more difficult. Perhaps she was even glad of it. It would be so And it was curious that no sort of allusion was hard to meet Keith now—after this—and not made to an engagement between Cyril Grayle and show him her heart. Sympathy, warm and spon Vérity. taneous, would surely betray the deeper feeling. Surely he could not have been mistaken ? So Verity went off for her holiday—if such it It was in the vague and secret hope of answering could be called—in Cambridgeshire, and that this question that Keith had promised his father was why Keith, inexpressibly in need of a com to run down to Stanbridge for the opening of the forter in the days succeeding the funeral, looked in hospital. Keith himself had puzzled over his vain for the slim young figure and sweet girlish father’s sudden generosity. What couldit mean ? face which for months had filled his dreams. The question was never quite definitely an It would be impossible for him to return to 270 *■ HOME WORDS v London for weeks to come. There was a great face puckered into an expression half censorious, deal of business which required his personal half amused. supervision. So he remained, glad of the work “ Mean ? ” he echoed. “ That you ought to be which for most of the day engrossed his thoughts, ashamed of yourself, jumping to conclusions like and filling up his spare time with studying. any village gossip because a girl chooses to take He was undecided yet as to the future. In up religion and missionizing seriously, eh ? ” clination would have held him to his chosen pro Iveith had seated himself on Verity’s tree fession, but, as a large landowner, his duty stump; he was conscious of quickened pulses and claimed him at home. a longing to demand instant and clearer explana At home ! Could he ever put up with the tion. But knowledge of Jake Howley’s ways loneliness, the dreariness of it ? kept him diffident. Besides— he was not certain He was asking himself that question as he of the drift of the latter’s speech. strolled down the lane towards the spot where his Had not Howley himself been the first to point father had met with his accident. A broken out that Verity’s interest in parochial affairs hedge and trampled grass was all the evidence left probably lay in the desire to “ catch the parson ” ? of the catastrophe. With a groan Keith turned “ I suppose,” went on Jake, as his visitor aside up the path leading to Jake Howley’s cot remained silent, “ that you know Grayle is tage. He felt he needed to “ get outside himself ” engaged to be married ? ” for a time, and he liked the cynical master of Keith started as though some one had struck Myrtle Cottage. him a blow. So after all it had happened. Jake was at work in his garden again to-day. There had. been no mistake. Tragedies come and pass in this world, but the “ No,” he replied hoarsely. “ I suppose it is day’s work goes on pretty well the same till our to— to------” own particular turn comes for dropping from the “ A Miss Mary Egerley,” quoth Jake, lightly ranks. raking the ground over his seeds; “ banns given “ Afternoon,” said the old man, nodding out last week, so some one told me. They don’t kindly at his visitor, “ glad to see you, but waste much time in engagements nowadays and I’m going on with my sowing whilst you talk to a good thing too, since you ain’t going to get to me. Splendid day for sowing. We shall get a know each other till you’re married, however shower before nightfall.” clever you may suppose yourself to be at charac The old man spoke as cheerily as his custom, ter study. It’s a poor business— character stucjy. for he did not hold that it was necessary to ad There are too many exceptions knocking about.” dress folk who had lately suffered bereavement as He had kept on talking, to give his listener time though they were enduring physical ills. to recover himself. “ What good’s going to be done by pulling a But Keith did not ask for time. long face ? ” he had been heard to declare. “ If He was on his feet, all the listless apathy gone your sympathy’s such poor stuff as to need look from his manner. ing like a mute to show it, it ain’t worth a snap. “ Mary E gerley!” he cried. “ W hy, I—I Let ’em take the sympathy for granted and do thought it was Verity Moore.” your best to cheer ’em up with a smile ! ” Jake nodded. “ Then you had no business to It was sound logic, and Keith felt the tonic of think it,” he snapped, “ seeing you are the very the other’s mood at once. last man who had any right to suppose such a At the Manor the servants felt it to be proper thing, eh ? ” respect to look as though they had lost every He stared across at Keith,'who stared back, relation in the world, and it had got on Keith’s eager, wondering. nerves. “ No right?” faltered the younger man. “ I’m glad you came round,” went on Jake, “ What do you mean ? ” carefully opening a fresh packet of seeds, “ I ’ve “ If you don’t know there’s not much use my been missing my little chum Verity. Expect you telling you,” retorted Jake with spirit; “ but, miss her too, eh ? ” since there’s a lot of trouble caused in this life He shot his visitor a keen glance from beneath by folk holding their tongues in the wrong places, shaggy brows and remarked with satisfaction I may as well state my facts. You’re in love that Keith coloured. with Verity Moore, and have given Stanbridge a “ Yes,” replied the latter quietly, “ I do miss wide berth because you were a jealous young fool her.” and believed a girl could have no interest in lire “ H’m,” grunted the old man, “ serve you but love-making. Isn’t that right, eh ? ” right.” Keith squared his shoulders. “ Yes,” he re And he knelt down to scatter his seeds into their plied shortly, “ it’s right enough. I thought newly-prepared bed. Verity was in love with Grayle.” Keith did not reply at once, he was searching ‘‘ More fool you ! She and Grayle were com for the meaning of the other’s words. rades over their missionary work. W hy should Curiosity overcame reticence at last— and Jake folk be so idiotic in seeing their neighbours’ was not looking at him. motives askew ? ” “ What do you mean ? ” he asked. Keith laughed—a rather shaky laugh—but Jake rested back on his heels, his rugged old with real amusement in it. © THE TALENTÒ © 271 “ You yourself ware the first to suggest that But she had been seated on a grey boulder in Miss Verity had her eye on the Vicar,” he hinted. full view of the advancing figure, and escape was Jake grunted. impossible. “ Did I ? Well, I own I do make mistakes at And yet— oh! how difficult it was to meet and times. It’s a hard admission. But Verity greet him just as though nothing had happened. Moore is an exception. You’ll agree with me Equally difficult to make any allusion to the past. there, eh ? ” So she waited, obviously shy and ill at ease. “ Yes,” said Keith softly, “ I ’ll agree there.” “ I came back yesterday,” she faltered pres “ Of course you do,” snapped ently. “ I—-I have been away.” Jake. “ Well, that’s all right. I “ Yes—I know.” suppose I mustn’t— or needn’t— Had he missed her, or had some one— her tell you that Verity herself has father probably—merely alluded to her absence ? been fretting her pretty soul out “ I came in the hope of finding you here,” said because she was being misjudged Keith, breaking through an awkward by the man she loves. pause. “ I am so glad to have met You can ask her to tell you. And now,, what am I to say ? you all about that herself, How am I to hope to explain all I fori hear from Dr. Moore want to say ? Will you help me, that she’s coming home Verity ? ” to-morrow. Y ou can He still bring her round to tea, held her eh ? I rather fancy I hand, and should like a chat with could feel you both.” h o w i t Keith had no trem bled, words to reply. He for the girl just gripped Jake’s had real two hands and iz e d the nearly wrung them meaning of off. that deep, “ All vibrant r i g h t , ” note, and chuckled her pulses the old were racing man. wildly in “ you’re a response. bit of an But the e x c e p tio n appeal, t o o , o r I containing shouldn’t as it did have both- self - depre- ered my ciation, head about he 1 p ed you when Verity to I’m busy forget her with my ow n tr e seed ing. mors in Now leave me in sym pathy peace. I ’ve got to with his. get my mignonette “ I would in along the border, "Mary Egerleyl" Kketohelp eh ? ” he cried. “ Why, I y o u » > “ •1 And yet it was strange what thought It was Verity Moore." can, she a long time elapsed between the —Page 270. answered, departure of Keith Norton and lifting her the planting of the mignonette. Jake Howley had grey eyes to his. been indulging during the interval in a brown “ And forgive me, too ? ” he asked. “ Ah, study. Verity, can you ever forgive me for my wretched CHAPTER XU. jealousy and misconstruction and let me tell you “ I w a n t e d to meet you here, Verity.” how I love you, with all m y heart and soul ? Keith spoke in low quiet tones, as he took the Oh, Verity—if you knew.” girl’s timidly-proffered hand. Love her ! So it was true. It was true—this Verity’s first impulse had been to run away secret hope which had been like sunlight overcast when she had spied him coming across the stretch by the grey clouds of doubt that had rolled over of moorland towards the rive*. a summer sky. 272 * HOME WORDS * Verity was too child like in her faith to doubt the words, or to question the great happiness which had come to her. Keith loved her. Nor did she have to search her heart for an answer to his question. She was smiling, whilst her cheeks grew rosy with happy blushes, as she drooped her head to hide them from him. “ I think I do know,” she answered softly« “ for I love you too, Keith— with all m y heart.” * * * After .all, the fashion of lovers’ speeches and lovers’ rhapsodies are much the same all the world over and the cen turies through. And each successive pair of lovers is equally sure that no one before has ever felt quite as they do. Their Eden is a special and a fairer one than others previously created. So the hour spent by these particular lovers by a river’s bank in a glad spring-time was to remain as the fairest memory of life through the years to come. It was not till later during the evening, when Keith came down to the old red-brick house in the village, to find the doctor out, but the doctor’s daughter very much at home, that they alluded to the past. “ How difficult it w u to meft and greet him as though “ I’m not going to say I’m sorry,” said Verity, nothing had happened." —Pcyt 271. as they sat together on the sofa, Keith’s hq-nds clasping hers, “ because—because I don't think I remark. “ You must have been copying those am— now. You see it all came through that views from old Howley. I shall take him to task £100. If it had not been for that, and our plan to-morrow when we go to tea.” about the native work depots, you—you would “ And I shall thank him,” whispered Verity, never have been so—so silly—you know.” She “ for telling you—about Cyril. And, Keith, do was laughing and blushing, interrupting his at you know, I don’t believe he is half the cynic he tempted protests. “ Oh, yes, it wqa silly. And makes himself out to be.” yet I am glad of it now. For the work has been “ Perhaps not—or he has realized the error of such a success, and if it had not been for it and his ways. He used to be so fond of quoting the becoming such friends with Cyril Grayle I might leopard that would not change his spots. - He not—have been able to help him—about his may have learned a recipe for changing his engagement. So, you see, indirectly that £100 o w n ! ” has been answerable for a great deal. A suc “ Perhaps. And I think part of the recipe heui cessful trade for the" cause, Cyril Grayle’ s en to do with the man who sent those mysterious gagement, and, partly, our ow n; for perhaps you offers. Keith, do you—do you remember the would never have—have known you wanted me last one ? ” so much if you had not thought you couldn’t “ T o m y father ? Yes, darling, I was thinking have me.” of it on my way down here.’ I feel I should like “ You cynical little logician ! ” laughed Keith, to accept his responsibility. He—the dear old kissing her by way of punishment for that last dad—was already showing which way his in © THE TALENTS © 273 tentions lay. He meant to have a subscription all, or whether human nature is made of better list worth doubling by the end of the year. stuff than I supposed.” Shall we ” “ Mr. Grayle says,” murmured Verity shyly, 44 Yes, I should like to—I mean I should “ that if you call for the highest in a human soul like ” it is sure in the majority of cases to respond.” “ Us to ? A thanksgiving to God for this l' I don’t go on Cyril Grayle’s statements,” happiness. Why, yes, dear, so we will. What snapped Howley, with some show of his old do you say to giving a sum towards the endow antagonism, 44 but on my own observations.” ment of the hospital my father helped to build ? ” < “ I think,” said Verity, “ that that must have Verity raised a happy face to her lover’s. been what the suggester of those anonymous “ It would be the very nicest thing we could offers must have had in mind. To prove to you do,” she whispered. “ I ’m so glad you thought that human nature is—better than you thought of that, Keith.” it.” * * * But Jake Howley shook his head. “ Tea out in the garden at the beginning of , 44 Wrong for once, little girl,” he replied, with May,” grunted Jake Howley. “ Not so bad for some dry humour in his confession, “ the sender the English climate, eh ? Now don’t talk of of those mysterious letters had a very different paying for it before the month is out, like some purpose, as I should know— since I sent them croakers would, Miss Verity.” myself.” Verity laughed. 411 wasn’t going to,” she Neither Keith nor Verity answered at once. retorted, “ I’m far too happy, accepting the They sat silent in sheer amaze and disbelief. present.” Jake Howley the mysterious donor of such Her old host nodded, looking with the utmost strange gifts ! satisfaction from one to the other of his guests. “ You— sent them ? ” echoed Verity at last, “ Good for you,” he said. I like to hear of very slowly, “ but you can't. You—couldn't contentment. I’m contented myself at the have had—the money.” moment. Will you have any more tea, either Jake laughed. He obviously enjoyed the ex of you ? ” ploding of his bomb, even though he was having No, they • 'id not want any more tea, and were to admit defeat. both ready to respond to an invitation to come 44 I ’d better make full confession,” he said, down the si ope of the little wood to see the sight “ since against m y will I am convinced. To of wild da;iodils and bluebells of which Jake was begin with, then, I’m not exactly poor.” so proud. He sat up on the mossy slope, his arms en ‘‘ Worth all the Temple shows, eh ? ” he ques circling his knees, as he looked towards the two tioned. " Now come and sit down here on the young people who still regarded him in such moss under this old giant of the wood and let astonishment. me spin you my little yam—or whatever you 44 N o,” he repeated, 441 made my pile out in like to call it.” Canada, a decent pile enough, and came home 1-4 Isn’t it ideal ? ” whispered Verity, as she a rich man. But the role didn’t suit me. Some slipped, her hand into her lover’s, giving it a how I wasn’t lucky. I was up against a lot of little squeeze. '' I love being here.” humbug which disgusted me. I wanted to help Jake’s eyes twinkled. those who were finding life pretty stiff, but I got “ Two’s company, three’s none,” he commented, duped again and again, in spite of my cuteness. “ but you’ve got to put up with me, whilst I in People professed a lot of Christianity, but it dulge in my little—review. I ’ve had a good deal didn’t bear close inspection. The more they to tliink of lately.” professed the worse they were. They taught me “ We all have,” replied Keith quietly. “ I my cynicism. I grew disgusted with pretty near suppose there always is—food for thought, if one everything. Then I came here. I was tired of likes to indulge in it.” playing the rich fool, who never made friends “■ Spoken like a philosopher ! H’m, let me because the folk who professed friendship were think. There was John Parsons to begin with. only after his money. So I came here as Jake Exception number one, eh ? ” Howley the pauper. I needn’t tell you if I "You mean in genius ” found friends. Guess you know that, and I hate "‘No, Miss Verity, I don’t mean in genius. sentiment. But that chap Grayle riled me with Plenty of folk can specialize in that if they choose what I called his ridiculous estimate of human to cultivate brain development. I mean he was nature. I didn’t believe in looking for the highest an exception in the way he used that money. I because I ’d been up too often of late against the would have guaranteed that he would have shirked lowest. So I set out on a scheme to overthrow the responsibility laid on him, just as I might the parson’s pet theories. Shocked, Miss have doubted your sticking to missionary trading Verity ? ” when it ran counter to a love story; or Sir 44 N o,” said Verity breathlessly, ‘ 4 but please Philip spending his money in building Wallerton go on. It—it is like a fairy tale.” cottage hospital. Three cases of exceptions! Howley chuckled grimly. 44 Well, I got the One begins to wonder—seeing the selection was scheme all right,” he said, 44 and launched m y haphazard— whether they were exception^ after bombs. I made sure of having John Parsons for 274 ®, HONE WORDS ® an example. The fellow seemed going as straight bright dream of a perfect earthly love, reaching as could be on the lines I had mapped out for as the golden beams of light to the yet more per- him. Then the crisis came— and John weathered feet Love which is eternal, the storm. I acknowledge I was right out of my “ Is it not wonderful? ” whispered Verity, “ it calculations. It taught me that there was is like the story of the talents, is it not, Keith ? something besides humbug in the world. You And—and I can never thank God enough for know how I learnt the rest, and, though I’m helping me not to bury mine in a napkin.” hoisted on my own petard and all my cynicism Her hand stole into his—in a very deep con- is refuted by my three examples, I’m going to tent. Silently each thanked God for love and thank you both for helping me to my failure.” life, whilst, far off, like the echo of sweet bells • His voice had grown a trifle husky, as he held pealing, came the hope of another welcome to the out his hand to each of his companions in turn, life to come. “ Well done, good and faithful but he retained Verity’s in his grasp. servant, thou hast been faithful over a few “ Yes,” he said, gazing into her shining eyes, things, I will make thee ruler over many things. “ you’ve helped an old man a lot, little Verity, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” in getting back his faith in God through renewed But to some it is given to possess a foretaste of faith in human nature. God bless you for it.” that joy on earth, and it was for this that Keith “ It’s too wonderful,” the girl breathed, “ I can and his little sweetheart thanked the Giver from hardly realize it yet. I—I am so glad we—did the depths of their hearts as they watched the not fail you.” sun set in the western skies. Jake Howley’s laugh had ' non« of its old t h e e n d . mockery in it. “ I guess you couldn’t,” he replied, “ it wasn’t in you. And now I’m off to pay my penance without grudging/’ ** What do you mean ? ” asked Verity. “ Oh, don’t go. I want to ask you such a lot more questions, to tell you again and again how glad I am you have learned good things of human nature.” The old man shook his head, looking in kindly affec tion into her eager face. “ You can talk to me another time,” he re plied. ‘‘ God willing, our friendship’s going to last m y life out, eh ? I shan’t be wanting to leave Stanbridge, since Stanbridge has given me back whatl had lost. But now — w e ll!” his lips were whimsical— “ I ’m going to tell the Rev. Cyril Grayle that he has had the best of me without argument. And I’m glad to make the confession.” He did not wait to say more then. The sun came slantwise through the trees to fall on the golden glory of the daffo dils and touch the blue canopy of flowers with an added beauty. And, amongst the loveliness of surrounding nature he left the man and the maid to dream their own “ They Mt silent In shesr amaze and disbelief.”—Page 278. FOR HEART AND HEARTH BD!TED B'/ H. SOM EHSnT Eil'l.LQCK, M.A. * *' Thou art the Light indeed; on our dull eyes And on our inmost soul Thy rays are poured; To Thee we light our lamps: receive them, Lord, Pilled with the oil of peace and sacrifice.” * 1914 fTmtirott: “ HOME W ORDS” L t d . PUBLISHING OFFICE, 11, LUDGATE SQUARE, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE A Bible Problem. By Canon Langbridge, D.Litt. 37 Lights in a Dark World. By the Rev. J. K. Swin Ahab’s Palace Found. By H. J. Shepstone . 162 burne, M .A ...... 253 All ye that Labour. By A. B. Skevington 29 Live Thou for Him. By Canon Langbridge, D.Litt. 100 An Angel of the Night. By Gladys Davidson 276 An Answered Prayer. By E. E. Walters . 260 Mission Field, Red Letter Notes from the 1,25, 49, 73,97,121,145,169,193,217,241,265 Barber Knight, The. By J. H. Crabtree 39 Beaulieu Abbey. By S. L. Bastin . 184 New Testament Coins. By Percy Collins . . 86 Benedicite, The. By F. Leslie Calver 64 Beside all Waters. By Florence Dundas . 280 “ One ” By the Rev. W. S. Hooton, B.D. . . 99 Beyond the City. By Irene Strickland Taylor 234 Birthday Greeting, A. By Muriel Rice . 72 Parables, Modem. By the Rev. Bertram Pratt, M.A. Boy’s Consecration Hymn, A 186 155, 175, 231 Photography and the Light of Life. By the Rev. J. Calendar (Monthly) 1, 25, 49, 73, 97, 121, 145, 169, K. Swinburne, M .A ...... 67 193,217,241,265 Policeman as Friend of the Poor, The. By Clemen Cathedral, The Layman’s. By the Rev. Charles tina B la c k ...... 123 Harris, M .A ...... 12 Practical Churchmen. By J. H. Crabtree . 16, 39 Cathedral, True Purpose of a. By the Archbishop of Praying and Doing. By Dorothy Dickinson . . 188 Sydney ...... 3 Prince of Peace, The .... . 100 Chelmsford, The Bishop of. By Sarah A. Tooley . 195 Children’s Hymn, A. Music by B. Jackson, F.R.C.O. 279 Red Cross, The Story of the. By Mrs. Tooley . 243 Christmas Morning in the Olden Time . . . 266 Red Letter Church News . 22, 47, 68, 94, 115, Church in and around Birmingham, Ths. By J. H. 137,166,191,215,237,263,283 C r a b t r e e ...... 219 Red Letter Hints. By Mrs. Orman Cooper and M. E. Churchyards, Our Country. By Mabel Escombe. 277 Gully ...... 21, 96, 140, 212 Cottage Industry, A . 135 Cure for Anxious Cares, A. By H. M. Björn . .126 Sunday Clothes. By C. M. Batchelor 44, 92, 165, Cycle-cars and Cycles in a Country Parish, The Value 183, 261 of. By Our Own Commissioner . . . .119 Sunday School Army, The. By a Fellow of the Royal Statistical S ociety ...... 157 D o You Know ? By the Rev. Canon Thompson 38, 58, 93, 109, 142, 186,203,236,255 The Antagonist ...... 252 The Broken Doll. By Sidney Malkinson . . 19 Easter Hymns. By the Rev. S. C. Lowry, M.A. . 84 The Carpenter. By E. E. Walters .... 46 Easter Offering, My. By a Churchwarden . 62 The Christ of Yesterday— the Christ of To-Day. By Epiphany. By Q. Scott-Hopper .... 3 the Rev. Canon Macnutt, M .A ...... 267 Everyday Athletes. By C. J. L. Clarke . . .110 The Hidden Letter. By B. Kingston Webber . 160 The Highest Good. By Q. Scott-Hopper . .144 Faith’s Victory. By the Rev. J.K . Swinburne, M .A. 255 The Lantern of Love. A Serial Tale by Sidney First Aid Girls. By Our Own Commissioner . 42 M u r r a y ...... 6,30,52,78,101,128 For Church and Home : H.R.H. Princess Henry of The Lone Isle. By Mrs. L. B. Walford . . 171 Battenberg. By Mrs. T o o le y ...... 75 The Soul’s Thirst. By the Ven. Archdeacon Smyth 204 The Talents. A Serial Tale by Mark Winchester God’s Gardens in the City. By Our Own Commis 148, 177, 197, 222, 246, 269 sioner ...... 90 The World's Desire. By the Rev. G. L. Richardson, B.D. 88 God's Key. By A. G. F i s h e r ...... 183 Under the Church Lamp 24, 27, 51, 77, 108, 134, Her Night's Work. By James Cassidy . . . 239 147, 187, 208, 233, 258 Hoppers’ Hospital, The. By C. J. L. Clarke . 206 How Can I Help my Church? . 14, 65, 117 Vesper. By the Rev. G. P. Bassett Kerry, M.A. . 127 How I Earned Money to Help my Church. By S. L. Vesper. By F. G. Attenborough. Music by L. S. B a s t i n ...... 228 L e e s e ...... 232 Jenny. By Jean Courtenay . 210 “ Watching." By M. C ...... 85 Lenten Prayer, A. By the Rev. S. C. Lowry, M .A. 58 What Our Church Stamps Teach Us . . 261, 275 Letters on Church and Home. By the Rev. G. L. Whitsuntide Hymns. By the Rev. S. C. Lowry, Richardson, B.D. . . . 4 ,2 8 ,7 1 ,1 1 3 ,1 4 1 M.A...... 143 Life-Savers of the Mine. By the Rev. F. W. Cobb, Wonder School for Children, The. By C. J. L. M.A ...... 59 Clarke...... 256 iii ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE PAGE Ahab's Palace Found .... 162. 163, 164 Jenny. I llu s t r a t io n s ...... 210, 211 An Answered- Prayer. Illustration.... 260 Ascension - D a y ...... 108 Letters on Church and Home. Illustrations 4 , 28, 71, 114 Barber Knight, T he. Illustrations . . 39, 40, 41 Life-Savers of the Mine. Illustrations . 59, 6 0 , 61 fiattenberg; Princes* Henry o f ...... 74 Lights in a Dark World. Illustrations .. 253, 254 Beaiilieu Abbey. Illustrations .... 184, 185 Rmwiiritf| T h e ...... 64 New Testament Coins. Illustrations. . . 86, 87 Beside all Water*. Illustrations.... 280, 281 Beyond die City. Illustrations .... 234, 235 Policeman as Friend of the Poor. Illustrations 123, Bible ProUem. A. Illustrations...... 37 124, 125 Birmingham, T h e Bishop of 218 Practical Churchmen. Illustrations . . 16, 17, 18 Birmingham, The Church in and around. Illustrations Prince of Peace, T h e ...... 100 219. 220, 221 Red Cross, Story of the. Illustrations . 243,244,245 r . U 1 , r ...... 1, 25, 169 Red Letter Church News. Illustrations 22, 23,47, Cathedral, The Layman's. Illustrations . . 12. 13 48,68,69,70,94,95,115,116,117,138,139,166, Chelmsford, The Bishop o f ...... 194 167,168,191,192,215,216,237,238,263,264,283,284 Chelmsford Cathedral...... 195 Red Letter H in ts ...... 140, 213 Christmas M o r n i n g ...... 266 Churches Loved by P o e ts ...... 26 Spring Flowers in London Churchyards . . . 91 Churchyards, Our Country. Illustrations . 277, 278 Stock, Eugene, Esq., D .C L ...... 98 Cottage Industry, A .... .135,136,137 Sunday Clothes . 45, 92, 93, 165, 188, 189, 261, 262 Country K i d s ...... 170 Sunday School Army, The . . . 157, 158, 159 Cure for Anxious Cares, A. Illustrations. . 126, 127 Cyde-can and Cycles. Illustrations . . . 119, 120 The Broken Doll. Illustrations .... 19, 20 The Hidden Letter. Illustration .... 161 The Lantern of Love. Illustrations 7, 8 ,9 , 11, 31, Easter sr. Illustrations . . 6 2 ,6 3 32,34,36,53,55,56,57,79,80,81,83,102,103, Everyday Atli Illustrations. . 110', 111, 112 105, 106, 129, 130, 132, 133 The Lpne I s l e ...... 171, 172, 173 E in t A id Girls. Illustrations . 42, 43,. 44 The S e r m o n ...... 146 Four Little Sunshine Maids . . . 2 1 4 The Shadow of the Cross ...... 50 The Sum that Won’t Come Right . . 122 God Save the King 242 The Talents. Illustrations 148,149,151,153, 177, 178, 180, 182, 197, 198, 200,202, 222, 225, 227, Her Night's Work. Illustration . ^ . . . 239 248, 249, 251, 269, 271. 272, 274 H oppers ' Hospital, The. Illustrations . 2 0 6 ,2 0 7 , 208 The World’s Desire. Illustrations . . . 8 8 , 89 How Can I Help my Church ? Illustrations . 15, 65 How I Earned Money fa n n y Church. Illustrations Wencelas, K i n g ...... 2 228, 229,230 What Our Church Stamps Teach Us .261, 275, 276 Whippingham Church ...... 75. In Sunshine Land Wonder School fo r Children, T he. Illustrations 256, 257 ^ VO bat our G burcb S tamps T each U s.*i< PROPl THE GOSPEL FOR TttE DAy. Dec. 6. Second Sunday in Advent. Some think that S t. John sent those two disciples with the message to Jesus in order A sense of pain and trouble seizes on that th eir faith might be strengthened, and our hearts, as we look at this week’s picture. that they might be led to follow C hrist in W hat is the cause of the despair in the stead of dinging to' their first teacher. _ But beautiful face, in the locked hands, that O ur L ord sent them bade again with a are so wildly pressed against the door ? message, andthe last words of that message The reference beneath the picture tells (St Matt xi. 6) certainly seem to convey us to turn, for an answer to the question, a gentle rebuke that St. John would not to St. Luke xxi. 26, and St. Matthew xxv. foil to understand. 13. W e take the latter first, and that same 2nd 8unday in Advent. It is not hard to imagine that.his faith and word which rang in our ears last Sunday is St. Luke xxi. 16. St. Matt. xxv. 13. patience might be wavering, in that dark, brought before us there. Advent— Com ing. stifling prison underground, to which, “ Watch, therefore,” runs the text, “ for ye know neither from time to tim e, stray tidings came about the wonderful the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh.” So Jesus of Nazareth. S t John had laboured to “ prepare the ends the parable of the Ten Virgins. W e know how they way ” for H im— and he had prepared i t ; if he had not gone fo r g o t to watch— how, while the bridegroom tarried, they off before, O ur L ord’s work would have been even harder than it slumbered and slept— and at midnight were taken by surprise. was. S t John had been absolutely loyal and unselfish; he, The surprise included all, for none were watching as they whose strong personality and moving eloquence had drawn so should have dene. The difference between the wise and the great a crowd of followers, had never tried to keep them for foolish lay in the fact that the former had oil with them to re him sdf; it was his single purpose, to make them followers of plenish their lamps, and the latter had none. This despairing Jesus. “ B ehold th e L amb o f G od ! ” (St. John i. 36.) “ M igh figure is one of the foolish Virgins, against whom, when the tier than I , Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ” (St Matt. Hi. others had gone in to the marriage-feast, the door was shut. 11). “ H e must in crease, but I must d ecrease ” (St John iii. 30). W ill it not be our fault, in like manner, if at the last great Some think that it is because of this latter sayingthat the Church Coming, we are found with our hearts failing us for fear, as keeps the festival of his nativity at the summer solstice, after those awakened out of careless sleep ? which the days begin to shorten, while that of O ur L ord is W e ought all to be constantly expecting our Saviour. W e kept at the winter solstice, after which the days begin to lengthen know that H e is coming. W e know that He is coming suddenly. and brighten, and the world of Nature to be renewed. It is a W e have His plain command, to watch. kind of parable, for S t. John’s teaching was as it were the dimax, the last word, of the old Covenant; while OUR L ord S “ L oro, we are Thine ; then make us wise To watch for Thy returning, was the beginning of the new. S t John did not live to hear, in the prison, that Jesus was With wakeful hearts, and longing eyes. crucified. Before that came to pass, he had bent his neck to And lamps all brightly burning." the headsman’s axe. The glories o f C hrist s Kingdom— the And let us bear in mind not only the folly of the‘foolish Vir joy of reaping— the blessedness of victory— were never to be gins, but also the wisdom of the wise. Let us remember the behdd by his mortal vision. Yet— all the while— they were need of the reserve. “ It is the reserve," a Christian sage has com ing. So, in the darkest hour, when evil seems triumphant, said, “ that saves us in all final tests— the strength that lies when good seems powerless, when G od seems to hide H is Face, behind what we need in ordinary experiences. Those who when faith is foiling— let us remember that then is the time for daily commune with G od, breathing His Life into their souls, loyal hearts and true to win the blessing of the L ord. [vrnmi. strong with that secret, hidden strength which pre serves them from falling in the day of trial. They have a D ec. 20. Fourth Sunday in Advent. ‘ vessel ’ from which to refill the lamp when its little cup of ou is exhausted.” Last Sunday our picture of S t. John’s messengers an their way to Jesus took our thoughts to the Baptist in prison. Dec. 13. Third Sunday in Advent. This Sunday’s picture sets before us a scene which must, surely, often have been in the Baptist’s mind as he lay there; These two men in the picture, hastening after O ur L ord, a bright vision he must often have recalled, to support his spirit are bearers of a message. . W ho sends that message ? St. John the Baptist. against the attacks of Doubt. t u — T he reference sends us to S t. John i. 27.. There we He is in prison ; why ? Because of his splendid courage on read how St. John the Baptist and the the side of Right against M ight. How many world’s Redeemer, met on Jordan’s banks. of us are apt to shut our eyes to evil-doing, T h e day before. John had answered the to gloss it over and excuse it, when the evil inquiries of the Jews, as to who he was, and doers are great folk, in high stations, with why he baptized, with the words— wealth, and power, and perhaps even the “ There standeth One among you, Whom ye law of the land, upon their side, for the law know not :H e. it is Who coming after me is of the land, alas ! is not always the law of the Kingdom of G od. ^ Aniju h^le further on we read how “ John St. John the Baptist had the courage to bare record, saying, I saw the SPIRIT d esctn d - “ constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke ingfrom Heaven Ufa a dove, and U abode upon vice,” and therefore it M to his lot to Him.” He “ bare record.” He did not “ suffer for the truth’s sake.” And dthough try to suppress the evidence of Heavenly he was such a strong and splendid saint, favour, or belittle it or explain it away. he had not yet come to realize that G od, He thought not at all of his own ^ory; in the working out of H is plans, may some it was the Saviour’s dory that he -ared time» try our faith, by letting evil seem to for all the while. He thought much of the triumph and goodness to suiter. H is plans 8unday in Advent» work he had to do, but little of himself. If be thwarted. H is dear ones trodden 3rd St. Matt. zi. 2. we look into the matter, we shall find that down. 276 276 * HOME WORDS * most of the finest things in the world have some sense “ saviours” of their fellow- been done by those who tl ought.very highly countrymen, delivering them from foes and of their work and verylow lyof thexnselves. evils of one sort or another. But it was Wh rever the thought of self comes in, it reserved for this Jesus—S on of G od, and sp d ik th e v a W of our-wock for G od. • h is Child of Mary—to be the Saviour of the noteasyto keep our work thus free fromthe World. “ Thou shalt call His Name Je$US, selfish dem ent But this is what the noble f o r 'H e sh a ll sa ve H is people from their nature'mustset itadfto do. And'he who sin s.” ' ' cm do itm ost'fulhris' best fitted to he, in Is this a m at deliverance, or is it not? h » own lot in life ,a John the Bàptist, pre T h e Jews o f ¿Id had hoped for a Saviour paring the. way of the LoBD. who would deliver them from the Roman How can we prepare it ? usurpers. To-day there are people1 ever (1 ) By prayer. ready to follow the leader who promises We can all pray. The smalkat and todeliverthem from poverty, toil, unwhole weakest lean put 'his whole heart irtto that some surroundings, ignorance, trouble of petition, “ Thy Kingdom cane." Whenwe any sort. But people may liv e in a free heartheelodc strike twelve at noon, we can 4th 8unt^ay in Advent. country— may have money, and leisure, and join our prayers with those offered up;at St. John £-27. book-learning, and healthy homes— and yet that hour, daDy, at the headquarten of the all the while be very unhappy people, if tw ogreal Church societies for foreign mission work—C M S . they are tied and bound by the chain of their-sins. This and S .P .G . is the yoke from which; above all, we need to be set free; and (2).By interest this is the yoke:from which we. can neyer free ourselves or In terest in a causehas a vastly greater power than we perhaps othere/however hard we try. _ It can only be done through the suppose. Itis m fc c to o u s .T h e interest of oneperson makes power- of H im Whose Name is called Jesus, for He shall save another k e n , and, the second person may be able to achieve His pe&gle from their sins. results that the first alone, could not. ^How^is H e going to do it ? Look at the little Child in our (3) By missing no opportunity to speak aword for C hhist in picture the little tender C h ild ! Should not the Saviour of our common daily life among our friends and neighbours. Jt H is people be a mighty man of war, riding, armed, at the head can be so simply done—without anything like “ preaching." o f a glorious hbst ? How is the world going to be saved by this * little new-born Child ? Dec. 27. First Sunday after Ah' 1 who but G od Himself could have Christmas. thought out such a thing as this ? Never, it has been truly said, did poet dream or W ho are these among the lilies ? There is philosopher invent a scheme so strangely no little one in our midst who cannot answer grand! that question with the words— . “ TheChild Jesus and Mary His Mother.” “ 0 mystery most marvellous 1 • ' 'W as it a new name that.our< Lord bore ? O f love beyond o u t tellin g — No ¡-others had borne it alreadyr-even in T h a i-G od’s own S on should visit us the .New Testament (C ol. iv. 11) ;w e read And make on earth H is dw elling "— o f à man called JESUS ; and in. th e /O ld Testament there is JESUS the son of Sirach* T hat He should become one of us ; should as well as thé two Joshuas, and Hosea, who “ take our nature upon H im ,” as the Christ in another form bore the same name. mas collect says— and bring us fallen What does the name mean ? It connects creatures into union with G od in such a way thesacred Hebrew name of G od with.the that we are “ born again ” — made partakers idea o f help or salvation. These, who bore 1st Sunday after Christmas. of the Eternal L ife of G od, stronger than thejiam e before our L ord, had all been in St. Matt.’ i. .21.T sin and death. AN ANGEL OF IK E NIGHT: By Gladys davidson. N Angel? Yes, in very truth, 0 bring relief to parched lips, An Angel of the Night: (TJ T o smooth the ruffled couch ; But dress'd in gown of’dainty blue. T o cool the hot and aching brow, And cap of snowy white. W ith soft and gentle touch. | HEIN all is still within the ward, JTTTl IT H words of sympathy and hope, w . Apd ev’ry light is low. | ” | . She calms the troubled breast: W hin night has come—that weary night, Then leaves the. sufF rer comforted, TTial only pain can know— W ith ev’ry fear at rest. 1 g»- | HE comes with soft and noiseless step, IT H noiseless step she moves away, 1 ^ |; . With pity in .her «yes,' w A vision fair and bright: T o whisper words of comfort sweet An Angel ? Yes, in very truth, . : T o banish weary sighs. Ah Angel of the-Night! W 6LC QUC5TION5. ANSWERS, 1A. (Scc November Number.) 1. Gen-jdix. 7,16. '"2. Isa.xi. 13; Ezek.xxxyii.16; Hocea Mitt. xxvii. 24; Deut xxi. 6, 7; Ps. xxvi. 6. 8. Deut ü. 5, frequently. 3. Gen. xxviii. 9. 4Gen.xhi. 13 ; S t Matt. ii. ’ 9,19. 9. Jftr: ii. '23 (eompare Gen: iii. 24; Isa. vi 2, R.V.); 18. 5. Expd. xvi. 18. 6/St John vi.31 ; ’ 1 Cor. x.3. '7. St. ■ Hds.' ii. 17. 10. Lam.iii. 30*; St. Matt. v. 39. Our Country Churchyards. By. P1ABEL ESCONBE. , of the globe to see its “ Ivy- mantled tower.” , When beneath “ these rugged elms, that yew- tree’s shade,” Gray watched each mouldering heap, ‘ his thoughts turned to the insta bility of human life, and the many varied paths which— whether of failure or glory- lead but to the grave. . Most of us can recall churchyards pf singular beauty. There, with reverent curiosity, it is possible to winder and wonder over NE of the writer’s earliest recollections familiar verses, or the past history and present about churchgoing is of a service held state of the silent dead. Few spots become more Q in the graveyard of a Welsh watering- suggestive, either to the poet, the .moralist, or place. There, on the cliff summit, the philosopher, while, for each lowly mourner— whence westward stretches the broad Atlantic, “ The old assuring miracle an overflowing congregation, crowded out of a Is fresh as heretofore; tiny building, was addressed amongst the grey And earth takes up its parable stones of the quiet God’s Acre.' - Of life from death once more.” Another reminiscence of later years is associ-, Sometimes, as in parishes near ,a dangerous ated with an English burial-ground in Southern shore, “ where the headstones slant on the France. To the green, grassy seclusion of that wind-swept hill,” and no part of the coast is for peaceful spot, the wayfarer usually passes from miles free from tales of wreckage and loss, there a neighbouring Roman Catholic cemetery, all may o^pur such an inscription as eomes to mind, unsatisfying and alien to British taste in its pro graven on a cross atMottiston: “ To N in e Un fusion of tawdry ornaments, imitation wreaths, known Fishermen washed up on shore.” Or and the “ cold couceits of sculptured marble,” another, wliich reads, “ Our Two Unknown which give a sense of unreality. It needs but a S isters, who were washed ashore 1852. ; So H e step or two to reach the other side of the hill, yet bringeth them' to the haven where th$y would those few steps complete the contrast. Carefully b e The pathos of these few words of re tended, having a setting of near trees, the English membrance is great. W ith no friends to grieve, ground slopes gently towards distant heights none to keep green their memory, the church that liken the “ utmost bound of the everlasting yard holds in tender keeping all mortal regains hills.” In every shade of purple, blue and pink, given back by the sea. Sometimes, identity is rise steadfast, snow-capped peaks, which might established. ’ In the case of a crew of Maltese well stand for Bunyan’s Deleptable Mountains, sailors—strangers in a sti*ange land—rdrowned a? their tops revealed a vision of the Celestial with their captain, the captain’s wid9w, in City. To pause upon such a borderland is to gratitude for all sad offices undertaken, sent a feel the sanctity of holy ground, to be, in spirit, silver filigree cross to the clergyman of the borne momentarily nearer that heavenly Jeru- village. Until the Rev. R. S. Hawker became sa’em, where hovers “ an innumerable company Rector of Morwenstow, it was considered un of angels.” lucky to receive any dead bodies that might be Tne English character possesses a touch of cast upon that wild, rocky shore, and he first austerity, or grave melancholy. To this may, combated this Cornish superstition and himself perhaps, in part, be:traced that desire for an was foremost to succour shipwrecked mariners, honoured burial, which makes the humblest and either injured or drowned. poorest sacrifice much, in order to provide some Few have not at some time felt the influ suitable expression of last respect for themselves ence of a grassy mound. It may be small— and their relatives. The same instinct may, that of “ a lambuntiask’d, untried” ; it may be of too, have prompted many old customs of strew distant date, but for the sake of the mother who ing flowers on graves—customs stiU followed, or once gave life and love, a reverence attaches to revived, in certain localities and at certain the.place where, “ within the church’s shade,” a seasons. baby sleeps. Nor need gloomy thoughts alone The finest elegy in our language has as sub have sw ay- To encourage belief in a love stronger ject a Country Churchyard, and by means of than death rose-bushes were formerly planted, that poem Stoke Poges won an earthly immor and to this use Camden from his Surrey home tality which draws strangers from every quarter referred: “ Here is also a. certain custom ob 278 * HOME WORDS * served'time out of mind, of planting rose-bushes very human intruders. Yet, fear of passing a upon the graves, especially by the young men churchyard at night—still not unknown—may and maids who have lost their loves, so that also be due to perversion of a beautiful thought, this churchyard is now full of them.” In one which, in the words of Victor .Hugo, reminds Middlesex parish, and thanks to a generous that—“ The dead are not really absent, they are legacy, every path has,each summer, its radiant onlyin visible.” border of roses. In yet another, close to an Familiar and cherished emblems have had a ancient yew, à venerable tomb year after year use in the churchyard. Overhead, the steeple sheds brightness for all who pass with its vane, sun-tipped with fire, has pointed its burden of pink blossoms. Remember Death heavenward message of perpetual aspiration. (Memento Mori) are the words on the stone, but There, the iron-fingered sun-dial has warned of the flower woiüd seem to say Remember Life. our hidden hour. The gate, “ constant to its Emblem of frail mortality, the rose also signi centre,” swinging on hooks and hinges, has fies an entrance into fuller life beyond, and whilst taught that man, if he would “ continue con legend tells that its flowers sprang from thé stant to his ends,” must “ fix himself in God.” blood of martyrs, Christian art places them in On old gravestones winged cherub heads—wings, the hands of her saints. the attribute of swiftness, and the head the seat In bygone days it is probable that the country of intelligence—serve to tell that spiritual ac tivities survive when all that is earthly has been put away. A modern French writer dwells upon the St. Michael's Churchyard, Alnwick, churchyard was more frequented than now, thought that, i n p e a c e characterizes the though the existence of public footways still Christian burials of the catacombs. Their in serves to remind that in the midst of life we are scriptions are “ very peaceable, very sweet, in death. At Penshurst this idea finds contin exquisitely flowered with hope.” Their images uity with the line “ My flesh shall rest in hope,” are gentle: the sheep, the dove, the trees, which traced on an archway scarcely higher than the signify the garden of Paradise.. . .. Peace, indeed, head. Near by, too, stands the “ telling stone,” should be the pervading atmosphere of the spot whereon the crier once shouted his news, but where rest the labourers whose task is ended. those Who listened lie-still beneath the year’s “ Death only shortens time, not life,” and peace, covering of leaves. Only the message of com won from persistence in watchful, prayerful fort remains. energies, from consciousness of a life hid with Now and then strange stories come to light in Christ in God, leaves blessings that persevere connexion with churchyards. At Ohale, a large beyond the grave. tom b is shown as having been the hiding place “ In this Best, perfect Tranquility; in this of smugglers. At Brighstone, the deep down- Tranquility, Contentment; in this Contentment, dropping eaves of the low church roof offered safe Joy; in this Joy, Variety; in this Variety, concealment for fine foreign laces. No doubt, in Security; in this Security, Eternity; So to Best, many cases, tales of churchyard ghosts arose to Rise, to Reign, what more to be wished ? ” 1 from the lurking presence of law-breaking, but 1 Manchestre al Mondo. ' Jiark! round tfìe $od Words by HENRy FRANCIS LyTE. Plusic by BTdACKSON, P.R.C.O, mf moderato. Children’ s Voices. Organ. cep-tance there, Their sim - pie praise and prayer T o His throne bring - - - ing - 2 . Thou art the same a - bove— M e r - ci-fulje- - - - sus - :z n T©- * m m f r • ? I J. 2. Y e s! through adoring throngs 3. Not a poor sparrow falls 4. Lord, then T hy mercy send His pity sees u s; But Thou art near it, ' On all before Thee! M idst their seraphic songs When the young raven calls Children and children’s friend Our offering pleases, Thou, Lord, dost hear it. Bless, we implore Thee ! And Thou W ho here didst prove Flowers, worms and insects share Lead us from graced to grace To babes so full of love, Hourly Thy guardian care: On through our earthly race, Thou art the same above— Wilt Thou bid us despair? T ill all before T hy face 1 Merciful Jesus! Lord, can we fear it? ' Meet and adore Thee. 2 7 0 BESIDE A LL WATERS. By FLORENCE DUND3S. dôin’ all the things he’s afther advis ing. Just divàrtin’ yoursélf attending on.other folks. Sure he’d have to be afther giving up diggin’ in his own ould garden, and take to helpin’ the people with the pitaties himself.” But bade of her mind Anne repented of her hard sayings, remembering the many bright flowers and toothsome vegetables that came her way from the Rectory. -But the rain, advancing years and the rheumatics were making Anne cantankerous. “ Save us all ! ” she broke off suddenly, “ what’s that ? ” A break in the trees and a rift in the rain-clouds showed up to her suddenly a dark figure slowly moving along the road. A figure was no unusual sight, but that it should be moving slowly on such a night was astonishing. Anné’s old heart hopped for one môrnent into hér throat, while she hurried on with higher, more determined steps. “ Was he following, and him maybe a tramp man ? ” Her cottage was luckily not far away, and the rain drowned all “ A dark sounds around her, but the key had to be figure slowly searched for in a hole in the thatch, and the moving along door opened with difficulty and closed and ih s roa d .“ locked, and she was alone in the dark room, breathless and half soaked before her usual URE, I might have knowed it,” sense of safety came back to her. Anne aloud, in deep indignation. “ It’s The fire was not quite out, and a wee screw of a sartin sign o’ rain when me arm paper soon lighted the lamp. Then off came takes the rheumatics exfcry ; an’ what thé soaked boots, stockings and shawl, and fur shud I be cornin’ out at. ail at all indown the went the blackened “ tay-drawer,” while bl “ Who are ye at all?” she demanded again. “ I’ll > put - some extry sticks oin,” she thought, “ Can’t ye give a name to yerself ?” with'a rapid' calculation asto the size of; her.dry “ I’m just a stranger,” came back the answer. bundle in the coiner.: “ Did npt the Clargy know “ I know nobody, and I am soaked, and perhaps that sticks would be main and wet the morn an’ you would kindly let me come in out of the not aisyi dried;? - But ifit; be to be that it took rain.” all she had to in the house .to dry him, perhaps There was a note of entreaty in the.voiee, an there’d be stronger.sunshine the.morn an’: help odd foreign-sounding voice, that touched Anne’s with the wet bnes outside.” ‘ She ■ piled them on heart. In addition came a sudden howl of wind at first recklessly, .then more. ¿lowly, while a in the trees above and a renewed deluge of rain. disturbing thought came into her mind: What And at the same moment a recollection leapt if he wanted to stay untjl he: dried all oyer and into Anne’s mind. The ‘ ‘ Clargy ” had bidden her the rain stopped? • Andwhat if .the sticks came sow beside all waters, and there was a soft cor to an end before he was .ready to go ? ■ ner in Anne’s old heart for the “ Clargy.” This As she moved .round him, . Anne studied her now would be sowing of the kind dearest to his visitor from every available. point. . .He did not heart—taking in the homeless wanderer. seem inclined to talk, but s$t staring into the “ An’ sure,” thought Anne, conclusively, “ the fire, not seeming to care much how. or whenhe Lord will be watching, and maybe he doesn’t was to get dried. He was young and good mean murder, and these teems is astonishing.” enough, looking, and Anne began slowly to like She unlocked the door, and opened it wide. the looks of him. “ Come in,” she said sharply. “ It’s no night “ M a y b e a drop.o’ itay— ?” she remarked ten for livin’ crathers. Come over be the fire.” . tatively to his .back. He started and thanked He came in and stood in the fire and lamplight her ;• but the tea was drunk and the bite eaten, —a young man with scarcely a dry stitch on and still he had nothing to say about himself or him. He took off his soft cloth cap and shook his intentions. Then A^ne went ostentatiously it, and the drops flew into the fire and hissed to the door and looked out into: the; black night there resentfully. Then he felt round the collar and the torrents of rain that sang and hissed of his coat and passed his hand down his sodden in the dark. sleeve. . “ It’ll fair soon,” she remarked, but hesitat “ Maybe you’d betther take it off too,” sug ingly, as one who misdoubts his own words. gested Anne cautiously. He could sit without a But the implied i suggestion had the desired coat a while, she reflected, though if the rain effect; for the stranger started again, and rose had gone deeper there was . . and came beside her, nothing she could offer him gazing at the square as a substitute save an of blackness framed old cloak, her own by the doorway, be shawl being also wet yond which . not a through. But the thing was visible. It striped flannel was not an encourag shirt under the ing night coat had t o turn not reached out into. saturation A n n e ’ s point, and silence said the young so, and the m a n said s tranger shortly “ it drew back. would dry “ If it is on him by all the same t h e fire .” t o you, Anne ad ma’am,” he roitly re said, “ and frain e d if it is not from in trou bl in g specting y o u t o o anything much, per below t h e haps y o u s h i r t , will let me though the stay, here memory to-night, of her and in the own boots caused morning I her a pang of sym can find m y pathy for him in way ” - his. ‘ Ann* sat still as If petrified, the bellows motionless in her hand"—Pw« 280. “ Save us 282 * HOME WORDS * all! ” ejaculated Anne in consternation. A the rain an’ taking her bite, an’ then thievin’ stranger in her house all night and she alone! her all! That was a happening that had never chanced “ An’ the Clargy an’ his preachin’ ! Sowin’ be in all her lifetime, and which surely did not side all waters, an’ this was the sowing, aye, an’ come within the “ Clargy’s ” jurisdiction 1 But an this the reapin’ ! ” addition of strength to the waterspout outside nearly drowned her words and helped her deci She sat still in blankest despair till almost sion. She drove the door into its place and torpid with cold. Then she kindled a fire, but coaxed the shaky bolt home. the heart was out of her. A drop of tea when “ Ye’ll have to bide,” she said, not too gra she nearly collapsed was all she could take; ciously, perhaps, but how could a lone woman she never crossed her threshold the whole day, be liking all these capers? “ You may take a and rarely moved, while the wrinkles came and turn on the seat here, if ye can sleep, and mind the light fell greyer on her face. now, an’ not fall into the fire. An’ ye may Then late in the afternoon came a knock to keep a bit o’ fire to dhry yerself, but mind and the door. She answered dully, but there was lave me enough dhry sticks for the morning. no dullness in the response that followed. The An’ there’s an ould blanket for ye, an’ I’ll door was almost burst open, and then she was throuble you not to go thrapsing round the staring at two figures that stumbled through it. flure, for I shlape light and waken aisy, an’ I’d “ Ellen, the dacint, quiet girl at the tea shop, soon hear footsteps beyant.” an’ him, the black-hearted ould villain of a That was a final caution to keep him from th ie f! ” prowling in the night. She could think of Anne rose slowly, dazed and speechless with no other means of safety, and finally went, wrath, But they gave her no time for thought. amid his grateful thanks, into the little room Standing before her, blushing, laughing and where she herself slept, leaving him standing explaining, half-shamefacedly, they made her in the fitful light of the burning twigs. She ran listen in silence. swiftly over some prayers for safety, half This was the way of it, so they told their ashamed the while, and followed them up with story together. He was Jim Maloney that deeds. To be sure the old latch had been useless went to Amerikv five years back from away this many a year, but she set a chair against the up in the mountains where Anne had never door, laid all responsibility on the “ Olargy’s” heard tell of him. And he and Ellen had been back, and climbed at last up on the high bed of children together, and he had always had a chaff and straw where nightly she reposed. notion to have her for his wife, but he would And there she slept in comfort, oddly free not ask so long as he had no money ; and when from all fears, while the rain ceased and the at last he wrote there was no reply. For death wind passed. And all at once into the silence had driven away Ellen and her family, and when of her sleep there came the unmistakable sound he came back no sight or hearing of her was of the closing of the cottage door. there in all the lone mountain. And he was Anne started upright. Then she half threw tramping in misery back to the nearest town herself out of bed and dragged open the door. when the night and the rain had overtaken The fire was out, and in the pale light that fil him, and Anne’s kindness had saved him. And tered through the tiny window she saw that the in the middle of the night, looking for a book, room was empty. he had come across the very workbasket he had Then, like a thunderclap, she remembered her given to Ellen years back. And in it—did Anne workbasket! mind?—was the letter Ellen had once written Anne stumbled across the floor to the corner her, and her address. So without waiting to shelf hidden by its faded red dimity curtain. awaken Anne, off he had gone at the dawn to Tremblingly her hands went up and her eager find his girl again. eyes searched it, overturning the few old books “An’ I never thought he cared,” said Ellen in and papers of her tiny library, seeking in vain joyful thankfulness. “ I just gave it away to for the little straw basket. you, Anne, seeing how we got that friendly It was not there. It was gone. That basket with you cornin’ in an’ out of the shop, and I given her by Ellen, the friendly assistant in the couldn’t bear to look at it, and him maybe never tea shop in the town where Anne sometimes coming back again ! ” took a drop of tea on market-days, was gone. “ And now we’ve made it all up,” cut in Jim “ That basket, with its wee plaits of fancy straw, encouragingly. “ And if there is anything on and handles an’ all, an’ the great red satin lin the face of the earth, Anne, that you would ing an’ buttons; an’ between the lining and fancy, and that we can give, you shall have it.” straw, stitched in so carefully, the precious few Then Anne’s eyes grew sharp and bright. sovereigns and notes, all she had in the world, She looked searchingly from one flushed face to forbye the pension and the Olargy’s bit, that another. were to go to bury her when she died 1 “ I’m wantin’ nothing,” she said firmly, “ but “ W ho’d have thought it of tlion fella ? Quiet me little ould basket. An’ I’ll take it just as and dacint he seemed. An’ the thief he was, soon as ye can bring it to me, for I’ve taken a the hlack-hearted ould villain, thrampin’ through quare fancy to thon basket.” Éîeb Heiter O&urcï) Oetps. » U you know of any piece of Church news which you think would be interesting to oar readers, safd.it to the Art E d itor, I I , Ludgate Square, London, E.C „ daring December. Six prizes of five shillings each are awarded monthly. Photo graphs are spcdally welcome, but stamps must be endued if their return is desired. □D m xrrri 111 S c o u t S t o k e r s . -T h e verger at S t Mark’s, Victoria Park, being ill last winter, the senior Scouts undertook to stoke the church heating apparatus, which they did so satisfactorily -that the verger has asked them to learn a few hints from him with a view to future contingencies! Scost Stokers. CW.L R id d le d w it h B u lte tfc — T h e Rectory, in the parish A Seventh Century F on t_In the Parish Church of of Kilpipe, County Wicklow, Ireland, possesses an old oak Potteme, W ilts, an ancient font was discovered at the restor door, still in use, of. which the following historic incident is ation of the church in 1872 buried under the site of the present recorded. During the great Irish'Rebellion of 1798 a little font. It is probably of seventh century date, and is supposed band of Churchmen was surprised jnd put to flight by a party to have been used in an earlier church in Potteme which, tradi of armed rebels. W ith their assailants in hot pursuit; they tion says, existed on a different site. Round the rim in Latin managed to reach'the parish church, and had just time to Psa. xlii. 1 ¡3 cut in antique characters (“ Like as the hart dose the huge oak door against their pursuers. The baffled de&jreth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, 0 God " ) . rebels fired shot after shot through the door, but the litde band This inscription is reproduced in the glass of Churchmen remained safe within the at the foot of the west window above the shelter of the church until, relief came to font. It is interesting to note that the them. The door, riddled with bullet holes, quotation is not from the Vulgate, but from has been carefully preserved and was re the alternative version of S t. Jerome moved to the rectory when the old church which is used in the ancient Anglo-Saxon fell into decay. Baptismal Service. The bowl of the font is hollowed out of a single block, and is A n Old Signboard.—On the both shaped and made like a tub, the bottom borderland' between Gloucestershire and being a separate stone fixed in with lead. Warwickshire there stands an inn which Miss M. Bercg. ’ bears the curious title of the “ Four AOs.’ ’ The “ Four Alls ” are represented upon the A C o in c id e n c e . — Just as Dr. signboard: 1st, a sold ier with his bayonet, Richards was about to give out his text from over whom is inscribed, “ Fight all” ; the pulpit of Bristol Cathedral on August 9 secondly, a clergym an in clerical robes, his this year, at the church parade of the hands piously joined together, over whose National Reservists, a lady rose from her picture are the words “ Pray all ” ; thirdly, seat in one of theaislesand shouted a remark a King with royal robes and sceptre, repre the purport of which could not be heard. senting “ Rule all,” and fourthly, a farm er She was instantly thrust back into her seat, , -with his bag of money, depicting ‘ Pay all.” but not ejected. Dr. Richards then an The signboard is said to be about lOOyears nounced his text, which happened to be old. M iss E. Hammersley. “ Study to be quiet" W. A. BURNELL. Church used as a Gaol.— St A Veteran B ellringer— Notmany A Seventh Century Font. Mary’ s Church, Haverfordwest, is not parishes possess a bellringsr who has con only one of the finest churches in Wales, tinued for fifty years an active worker in the belfry. M r. but has the distinction of once having been used as a gad. William Matthews, Sidesman of Lyminster Church, near In 1797 some seven hundred French soldiers, who formed part Arundel, has, however, completed fifty years of regular work of a force which landed at Fishguard and surrendered to the as a ringer, and was presented, this year, with a handsome Pembrokeshire M ilitia under Earl Cawdor, were imprisoned in striking clock, having upon it the following inscription :— “ A.D. i t The living was for three centuries in the patronage of the 1914. Presented by the Haverfordwest Corporation, and the meat market was held I,-— Vicar, Churchwardens, in the churchyard. M iss SowREY. i Sidesmen, Choir and other Friends to Mr. William O r g a n - C o n s t r u c t io n .'— A fine organ has recently Matthews, Bellringer at been completed in the parish church of Ode Pychard, near Lyminster Parish Church Hereford, by the Vicar, organist and village carpenter. The for fifty years.” In com plans and specifications were the work of the vicar, while the memoration of the event organist, M r. William Cook, constructed every bit of the the bellringers made a pre action, both swell and great. One manual plays two separate sentation on their own ac organs. The swell organ has been fixed up in the roof. The count and rang a peal of swell box, framework, case work, wind trunks, etc., have been Grandsire Doubles (5,040 made by M r. T ed. Amos, the carpenter, with great skill. The changes) in two hours a$d organist has made many diapasons, fixed every pipe and tuned forty-six minutes. it and also done the soldering work. Can you tell us of aqy Percy T . A ndrews, similar instance of practical service? Mr. William Matthews. Rural Dean. M iss G iggle. au * HOP1C-WORDS * Is 'th is a Font ? —This stone Fairford Stained Glass.—About the ie «aid to lie the wily-temainmg year 1492 John Tame, E sq., a Soudan mer cuved stone out qì $Wqncè heau^.- chant, in'"trading to Italy captured a tifuJ Chapter-house of Whalley Flemish vessel which was partly AHbey. Placed in the north wall of freighted with stained glass of the the«anciuary of Langho old church finest workmanship. Having ac (L tocs), i t now does duty as a quired the prize, he next purchased tircdencé table. Tradition asserts " the Manor of Fairford and began th à tit was once used as a font, and the building of the church. His it$|>resent appearance fully, justifies death, however, in 1500 took place the belief. - Langho old church, it while the work was in progress, and m # be noted, was built out of the so it devolved upon his son, Sir Abbey .ruins twenty years after the Edmund Tame, to complete it, and dissolution. A , ¥ , HeAp. twenty-eight windows were filed with the beautiful stained glass. In A Japanese Confirmee.— the reign of Charles I these windows At the Oiurch of the Ascension, were removed and buried, to save Vii&cririéDocks, a remarkable con- them from destruction at the hands finÉitìón took place last summer, of the Puritans, and when the times by the Bishop of Barking. The were again considered to be sufficiently candidate was a Japanese, who dur quiet *to justify their restoration only ing his brief visits to F.ngUnri was enough material could be found sufficiendy fiitt baptized, a id afterwards pre entire to occupy twenty-five windows. M iss L . M ullins. pared for confirmation. He received Is this his first communion on Whit-Sun- a F on t T A F a m i ly R e c o r d .— In the churchyard of the old djgr, and now whenever he is present town of Winchelsea in Sussex are buried two brothers, sons at church there are two other Japanese with him. of the same father and mother. It is hoped that they may be won for the Christian Daniel Dawes. Faith like their compatriot. M iss T apsfield. Bom October 24, 1755. Died January 3 , 1760. -hot§ at Carol Singers.“ Mr- George Thomas Dawes. r, a London business manTivmg at Brentwood, Bom July 30, 1773. received a presentation on completing his fiftieth Died January 3 , 1871. year as a singer of Christinas carols. M r. Baker besan to sing corals as a boy member of the choir of S t Mathias’ Thomas Dawes was the youngest o f twenty-one children by the C h i»ch , Stoke Newington. Once he and his fellow carollers same mother. These dates show that he was bom eighteen were startled by an angry London citizen, who thrust a long years a fte r his eldest brother Daniel (who died before he was piitol out of his bedroom window and broke up a carol with five years old), and died 111 years a fter him, aged ninety-eight a shot. J . M . Jack. This information I received from the grandchildren of Thomas Dawes. E. T. A Freak S t a t u e . ~y«fitors to the Isle of W ight should certainly make a point of visiting that quaint old town and port ’ Tis 607 years ago.— -This note was written on July 7 , the 607th anniversary of the death of King Edward the First, of Yarmouth. For years the Governor had his residence here. greatest of the Plantagenets, and “ malleus Scotorum “ (hammer In times past it returned two representatives to Parliament. of the Scots), as the grim epitajfh in Westminster Abbey de "H ie church is noteworthy because it contains one of the few scribes him. H e died on the marshes at Burgh-by-Sands, freak statues in England. Strangers to the church would Carlisle; and as the army brought into the village the body of probably not notice the monument, as it is situated in a room their warrior-monarch, the two little mildewed church bells leading from the south of the chanceL The statue is large, jof were tolled that day, and they still call the villagers to worship white marble, and seems quite out of place in so small a space. on thes Lord’s Own Day. The writer has rung these sweet- It represents the body of Louis XIV. of France with the head toned bells, and thinks that probably they hold the record for of Sir Robert Holmes, who was Governor of the island from campanological long service. 1667 to 1692. S irR . Holmes, from his exploits, was evidently T he R ev. H ugh P o w e ll. an adventurer of the type of Sir Francis Drake. . A s the sculptor was conveying the unfinished stable to Paris so that he might A Snail-shell Church.—In the front garden o f a complete the work by modelling the king sh ead from life, the cottage in the little village of Eastington, near Stonehouse, is vúscel was captured’by Holmes. H e seized the statue and com the curipus model of a church. It was constructed many manded the unfortunate artist to finish the figure with his years ago by the present occupier of the cottage, and is com (the Governor’s) likeness. It is indeed worth seeing, as the posed of thousands of snail shells securely cemented together. rrwJmiment is of fine workmanship. F bed . R . VEYSEY. H ie model is an excellent representation of the village church situated near by, and naturally attracts great attention from Church Bats’ Curious Hiding Place. -In N ecton visitors. M iss E . B u rrid g e. Church (Norfolk) chancel on either side, fixed to the choir stalls, is an ordinary church lamp with a frosted globe, or rather a August Prize Award.—Despite the outbreak of war shade, on an iron stand about six feet high. I wonder what■ a large.number of notes and photographs, many of them recalling church bat has had its young in amore curious place than this ! valorous deeds in the past, were entered for our August com During'the service I heard a twittering sound, and i t was some petition. The following won first prizes: A Y. Hew, R. O. time before I could find out from whence it came, until I was Venton, Frank Hayward, M iss Austin, the Rev. J. Morgan, surprised to see the old bat fly out from between the lamp and G . A . Wade. Extra half-crown prizes have been sent to chbdneyand the shade. The shade is one of those with a fla t W . A Burnell, Miss E. Hamnerdey, Miss Giggle and H. G . closely fitting glass bottom, and upon investigating I discovered Grainger. Reserves (three indusions in this class when com- three tiny bats lying snugly and comfortably'inside quite dose • pleted entitle competitors to a 5s . prize which must be applied to the burner. 'T h e » are true church inhabitants that have tor): the Rev. B. P. Hurst, F. W . Stathanj, C. Crew, .Miss nev«r seen the outside World, arid perhaps never will. Tapsfield, F . Heamden, M iss M J. Sowrey, M iss Crouch and W . B . S . John Boifield. Ill • ■■■■Il • III R. MÜLLER, 77, STRAND ST., CAPE TOWN. V~N Tel. Add.: ! ■ ■ “ RELLUM.” ■ I ■i ! ■ Buy only from the ■ Largest Warehouse. i■ j Over 9,000 Pianos, Organs, n ■ I and other Musical Instru Î j ments to select from. ! DEPARTMENTS : ■ Pianos, Organs, and all other Musical ■ Instruments, Book and Sheet Music, The Largest Stock of all ■ Guns, Pistols, Revolvers, Ammuni Book and Sheet Music. j tion, Furniture, etc. ! ■ R. MULLER’S ■ i Furniture Dept. I j [ ■ The Finest Colonial made ■ Furniture. Before buying elsewhere write for R. Muller’s Illustrated I Price Lists. I ■ ■ R. MÜLLER, cape town P.O. Box 133. I I • i l l J 223 reminded her of those happy Darby and Joan “ I’d never have done a bit of good with it days of former times. if it hadn’t bin for the £500,” he replied. “ To “ Nell! ” cried John, in an odd, choked voice, begin with, I couldn’t ha’ given the time an’ “ I’ve sold it. I’ve sold the aeroplane.” thought it required. I couldn’t ha’ risked “ M y!” gasped Nellie; and her very first losing my berth with nothin’ to fall back on. thought was one of delight that now, once more. Then, if it hadn’t bin for the money an’ the-wav John would be her own private property again, the papers took it up, no one would have ever with a mind at leisure to return to domestic heard of me, an’ the whole thing would have bliss. “ I am glad,” she said, raising her rosy remained at just a hobby—no more.” face to his and bestowing a hearty kiss on his Nellie pursed her lips. cheek. “ Now I’ll have you to meself, John, an’ “ You always were lid-faddlin’ with the thing since that’s so I’ll be givin’ Polly notice to leave before you got the £500,” she declared. “ An’ to-morrow. I ’d liefer ten times over do the the model was made, too. You might just as work meself.” like as not have had the idea as made it work. This breathless oration made John laugh; There’s no knowin’.” he’d have laughed at anything just then, and he There was no knowing! That was quite could not be angry that his little wife’s interest true. Already Parsons had been having that in his great news dwindled down to the fact that same argument with himself. There was tempta he would now be able to appreciate her cooking. tion in the thought, and the tempter was wonder “ You ain’t asked how much I got for the fully subtle ! aeroplane, lass,” he observed shyly, “ nor yet The anonymous giver of the £500 could not who bought it.” compel him to give up half his fortune now. “ As to who bought it,” retorted Nellie with Even if he were to come in person and claim it, spirit, “ I ’m thinkin’ it’s some poor foolish crea John could meet him with the argument that ture, as wants to find an early grave. An’ after all he might have made the fortune without bein’ foolish perhaps they went for to give you the assistance of that money which had merely a hundred poun’ or so ? ” “ oiled the wheels.” “ More than a hundred,” laughed John; Nellie did not actually suggest the same argu “ guess again, my dear.” ments in favour of keeping the money, but he “ Three hundred. Four ? Five ? Well, I knew what was at work in her mind. never !—more than that ? ” Later in the evening, when Baby Jack was “ Five’s the figure,” replied her husband sound asleep in his cot, husband and wife sat proudly, “ but it’s thousands, not hundreds, together in the parlour talking over what they Nellie, an’ it’s been bought by the British would be able to do with what seemed at first Government, for one of their finest examples sight unlimited wealth. And no reference was of the military aeroplane, as has overcome the made as to the possibility of halving it. All problem that’s been puzzlin’ the experts for the same, it must be admitted that both spent years.” a sleepless night, though each tried to hide Nellie’s eyes were opened to their widest the fact from the other. extent. Could she really believe her ears ? But Parsons rose early, leaving his wife dozing, “ Five thousand pounds ? ” she echoed in and went to " walk off ” some of the harassed very unflattering amaze. “ John, you’re mad. feelings which indecision had conjured up. or else the British Government's mad. You This temptation was so novel—so many-sided. don’t tell me ! ” He wanted so much to keep the whole of that She set Baby Jack down to continue his money. And yet------exploration trip round the room, whilst she It was a perfect summer’s morn, with a fresh, twined both arms round her husband’s neck. flower-scented breeze blowing cool and fragrant, “ You’re just daffing me ! ” she concluded. warranted to dispel any nightmare or headache. John Parsons shook his head. Parsons walked fast, valiantly striving to walk “ It’s true enough,” he replied. “ I ’ve got off his worry by making his mind a blank. But the wire from Sir Hugh Elgins in me pocket. the tempter was not to be got rid of that w a y ! An’ he says as plain as writin’ can be that my He realized that as he came to a halt, seeing share of patent rights sold to Government tots to his surprise the figure of Miss Verity Moore up to £5.000.” coming towards him from the direction of La.v- Nellie’s cheeks flamed, she began to laugh thorpe Woods. softly. She was alone, and paced slowly along ilie “ So you’ve made your fortune after all,” she path, reading to herself. cried. “ Well, I never did! £5,000— all for that A sudden resolve took Parsons. Miss Verity bit of machinery. I declare I never will be was looked upon by all the Stanbridge folk as able to believe it. It’s too wonderful. An’ an angel of goodness. He would ask her advice my man to make all that money out of his and try to follow it. Maybe she would tell him brains.” what others had already done—namely, that he She patted his forehead caressingly, her eves might reasonably stick to his fortune without danced with triumph. John could no longer conscience pricks. complain of her indifference to his success. “ Ah, Parsons,” said the doctor’s daughter 224 * HOME WORB5 * THE TALENTS © 226