Tracks that Won't Wash Out
By C. P. Bollman
A SHORT time ago I had my front porch painted. It had been "primed," and the cracks had been carefully filled with putty, well worked into them. Then it received another coat, and then still another, designed to finish the job. When this finishing coat was about half dry the porch looked well. I viewed it with considerable satisfaction. But when I next saw it a few hours later it was changed. Some one had walked the entire length of the porch with muddy shoes, and every track was plainly discernable in the now thoroly hardened paint. Every effort to remove the "tracks" was unavailing. Soap and water had no effect. Not only did the prints made by the nails in the shoes remain, but even the clay forced into the soft paint could be seen after the whole surface had received a most thoro scrubbing. There was no help for it; the whole floor had to be repainted before it appeared as well as before it was tracked with those soiled shoes. And how much that porch floor is like the human mind, I thought. How easy it is to make impressions, especially wrong impressions, and how hard to remove them! We hear a deeply spiritual sermon. Almost as soon as the congregation is dismissed Satan sends some one to track over it with the soiled feet of gossip or frivolous suggestion. Plans are being laid to attend camp-meeting. Along come the soiled feet of discouraging suggestions, and the work has to be done all over again. Brethren and sisters, be careful what sort of tracks you are leaving behind you.—C. P. Bollman.