Review and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 41. (10/13/1910)

Review and Herald

Oct 13, 1910

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 13, 1910

Larger Maps

By G. B. THOMPSON

G. B. THOMPSON

WHEN the marquis of Salisbury was complained of about his colonial policies, he said to his critics, “Gentlemen, study larger maps.”

This is good advice in our missionary work. Occasionally we hear some one attempting to block the progress of the message by complaining about the numerous calls for money, and the expense of carrying on the work in the various fields. To such we would say, Study a larger map. What was once the map of this message is not suitable now. The map is growing larger. To-day, thank God, it comprises almost the map of the world. It takes more recruits, and more money, to carry on the work to-day than it once did. There are more posts to be strengthened, there are more calls for laborers to be responded to; and these will continually increase until the end. We are glad this is so.

The call to all is to do something. The burden rests on all. Sometimes we hear people say, “Well, all I can do is to pray.” And this is said in a pessimistic tone, as if they had been driven into a corner by the providences of God, and as a last resort, as a small, insignificant thing, something which does not amount to much anyway, they can only pray. Well, dear soul, pray. You can do nothing better, nothing that will help the work more. The source of our weakness is that we pray so little. The church is perishing for fervent, effectual intercession with God,—for men who, like Elijah, will continue in supplication until the blessing of God comes, and who will have faith enough in God to see, in a cloud no larger than a man’s hand, the sign of an abundant shower.

Takoma Park, D. C.

The Lord Hath Need of Thee

By Matilda Erickson

MATILDA ERICKSON

Workers Needed

“THE Lord hath need of thee” is God's message to every father and mother, to every young man and young woman. “The Lord hath need of thee;” for the work that the centuries have neglected must be crowded into the sunset hour of earth's history, and great is the work to be done. Before us lies a world dying without God. “Many of the boys and girls who to-day walk upon the streets of Jerusalem,” said a missionary from Palestine to the delegates to the recent World's Sunday-school Convention, “have never heard of Jesus.” Mr. Paxton, pioneer Sunday-school worker in the United States, was one day driving over the hills in the Mississippi basin. He overtook a lad of fourteen, and invited him to ride. Mr. Paxton spoke about the love and sacrifice of Jesus. “Why,” said the lad in astonishment, “nobody ever died for sinners in our neighborhood, leastways if there has, I never heard of it.”

Statistics tell us that each passing hour an average of seven hundred persons in Africa, eight hundred in India, and fourteen hundred in China, sink into Christless graves. Then think of our own great cities. It would take an evangelist four years to reach each individual in Chicago, allowing that every evening he be given an entirely new audience of one thousand persons. More than ten years would be required to thus touch the millions of New York City. Placing before us these few reminders of the stupendous needs at home and abroad, shall we not emphatically say to our own hearts, “The Lord hath need of thee”?

The Lord is pleading with his people to bring every resource into service. How shall we answer the call? Are we turning all our energies into God's work? The spirit of prophecy tells us distinctly that “we have an army of youth to-day who can do much if they are properly directed and encouraged.” But where are our young people of ten years ago? What proportion of them are bearing responsibilities in the Lord's work? Are our churches everywhere strengthened and helped by the consecrated energies of men and women who a few years ago were children in our midst? Many of our brightest young people in the past have drifted into the world. A large proportion of these, we have been told, might have been saved to the work through “well-organized plans.”

Enlisting Our Youth

For years the smoke from the copper mines in Glamorganshire, Wales, was a plague to the surrounding country. It destroyed crops for twenty miles around. Just behind the mine was a steep mountain, near the top of which a small stream had its source. One day an engineer conceived the idea of constructing a flue up the mountain, and turning this stream into it. This was done; and now as the water flows down, it condenses the smoke. Once a year the flue is cleaned; and the smoke, which was formerly a destructive waste, now yields a ton of precipitated copper. For thousands of years the Niagara thundered idly over the precipice, but it has been harnessed into service. Cottonseed, formerly considered a waste product, to-day brings great profit to the cotton industry. The commercial world has learned well the lesson of utilizing all its resources. Let us hope that the church of God will be equally shrewd in letting no choice material escape as waste products.

Is it not time that those energies of our youth which are thundering over the precipice into the commercial world be harnessed into service for God? As the engineer constructed a flue up the mountain, should not some prayerful plans be laid whereby the enthusiasm of our youth shall be condensed for Christian service? There is but one answer. We must enlist, hold, and train our young people. The work needs them, and they need the work—they need the work. And just here, permitting nothing to dim our vision of the world's great need, let us dwell for a few moments upon the fact that the young people do need the work. The salvation of our youth will depend largely upon their answer to the call to service. “Those who reject the privilege of fellowship with Christ in service,” says the spirit of prophecy, “reject the only training that imparts a fitness for participation with him in his glory.” Again we read, “The work that lies nearest our church-members is to become interested in the youth;” and, again, “Much has been lost to the cause of God by lack of attention to the young.”

Thus upon the church a divine hand places the responsibility of training the youth—the youth whom the Lord has appointed to be his helping hand in the closing work. This appeal is not a call to retrench the work in the foreign fields, and concentrate our efforts at home. The forces in the regions beyond must be strengthened. The call is rather one for pressing the youth into service, that they

may carry their God-appointed responsibilities; and that we may have a strong, well-disciplined standing army in the home field,—an army serving at home and preparing to serve abroad.

Workers have always urged young people to accept Christ and join the church. And the fact that ninety per cent of all who become Christians are converted before they are twenty is an all-sufficient argument for putting forth a special effort for the youth. But is there not a tendency to slacken our efforts for them as soon as they have been baptized and made church-members? How strange! What would we think of a gardener who would transplant a choice shrub, and then give it no further attention? Transplanting is a critical experience to the young Christian as well as to the shrub. Our youth who are converted should be tenderly cared for at least until they shall have become thoroughly rooted and grounded in the knowledge of God. Satan does not retire from the field because one becomes a church-member, neither should the soul-winner relinquish his efforts.

(Concluded next week)

Takoma Park, D. C.

The Bible as Our Guide in City Work

By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

WE shall meet no perplexing problem in city work that has not been anticipated in the Bible, and by diligent search we can find its solution; for “what hath been, that is now, and that which is to be has already been; for God requireth all things to revolve.” Eccl. 3:15, Spurrell. For a dime the worker can buy a street directory, but only in the Bible can he learn what to do on those streets; for “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jer. 10:23. As one begins actually to believe this, Bible study becomes more interesting than is the study of a guide-book to the traveler.

Insurmountable Obstacles

As we contemplate going in and possessing these cities for Christ, we are compelled, like the spies of old, to recognize that they are walled up to heaven with difficulties. On the first floor of every sky-scraper office building is an officer in uniform, who forbids us to enter with our literature. At the front door of every great apartment-house is a servant to prevent us from reaching the people who dwell within.

From a human standpoint they are stronger than we; and as soon as the city worker loses his hold on God, he becomes possessed of the same spirit which actuated the ten spies, and he will soon be able to offer even better excuses than they gave for not being able to go up and possess these cities. But if the Word of God is in the worker’s heart, it will be a lamp to his feet and a light to his path; and he will, in the spirit of Caleb and Joshua, constantly affirm in the face of the most despairing obstacles: “We are well able to overcome it.” “The Lord is with us: fear them not.” Num. 13:30; 14:9.

Commercial Inducements

Every Christian who is drawn into the large cities by commercial inducements rather than by a love for perishing souls, will do well to study carefully the experience of Lot. The grass land near Sodom seemed attractive to him; but he was never able to get his cattle away from Sodom. Yet Lot felt no more at home in Sodom than do our brethren who to-day are in our large cities for purely commercial reasons. He “was tormented with the filthy conduct of the lawless; for that upright man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing from day to day, was distressed in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds.” 2 Peter 2:7, 8, Syriac. But when he left Sodom, he had no harvest of souls to take with him. He was not even able to persuade all his own family to go with him.

Many are in danger of making the equally great mistake of permitting financial opportunities to keep them from enlisting in this final soul-saving campaign for the large cities. The Bible furnishes a striking illustration of this. The word came to Jonah, as it will certainly come to many who read these lines, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” Jonah 1:2. But the gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks, for which Tarshish was famous (2 Chron. 9:21) looked more attractive to Jonah than did the lost souls in Nineveh.

His distressing experience should be a warning to those who this very day are repeating his sad mistake. On the other hand, the fact that God gave him a second chance, and made him one of the most successful city workers the world has ever seen,—for he used him to evangelize a great and wicked city in three days’ time,—should be an encouragement for backslidden workers to return, and receive anew from the hands of God an inspiring message to the lost.

How to Secure Openings

What Paris is to the modern world, that was Damascus to the ancient world. Ananias, a worker in that city, lived so near the Lord that he could hear a voice behind him saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” He was told to go up to a definite house on the street that was called Straight, and there he would find a praying soul who was longing for light. Acts 9:11. Saul was probably the only man in that block, or even in that ward, who was ready for Ananias that day. This incident was put into the Bible for our learning; and it is a cheering beam of light on the pathway of the faithful city worker.

But a few weeks ago one of our workers was out in the Stockyards district in Chicago, inviting children into our little Sunday-school in that region. In one home entered she found two men bending eagerly over a Bible; and when she invited their children to come to the Sunday-school, they asked who was back of this effort. When she told them, they wanted to know who the Adventists were, and what the word meant. She replied they were people who were looking for the Lord’s soon coming. They then remarked that that was just what they were studying their Bibles about, and they wanted to know if she could give them some light. This she was glad to do.

As we come nearer to the end, and also nearer to the Lord, he will more and more frequently send us directly to the very homes of those who are eagerly thirsting for the water of life.

A Small Beginning

Paul in vision saw a man of Macedonia pleading for help. He made an immediate response, and went to Philippi, the leading city of that country. He walked about its crowded streets for several days, and there was apparently no man nor set of men who desired to hear the gospel. There were no openings for him to preach to a great crowd in the public square. On the Sabbath day, perhaps to escape the spiritually benumbing scenes of city life, he went out to the river, and there he observed a little group of women who were having an outdoor prayer-meeting. He might have reasoned that it was a man who beckoned for him, and these were only women, but instead he accepted the very first opportunity that presented itself, knowing that by so doing he would be opening the door to greater opportunities.

A woman who sold dyestuff was converted, and then greater opportunities began to present themselves, including a song service at midnight in prison under the most disheartening circumstances. But it required that kind of experience to raise up the great Philippian church.

Self-Supporting City Workers

Paul was essentially a city worker. He visited all the great centers of population in Asia Minor and Europe. While Jonah in a single instance was the most successful city worker, yet Paul was by far the greatest and the most ideal, and it is a noteworthy fact that he was a self-supporting worker. Picture to yourself this great world-winner literally being consumed by the fire of the great message that was burning within him. As you sit beneath the spell of that matchless presentation of the gospel which made Felix tremble, and even reached the heart of bloodthirsty Nero, ask yourself if you are willing to share with Paul the necessary work and toil, that you also may become a self-supporting city worker.

The successful city worker will need to learn much from Paul if he shall ever be able to say with him, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” 2 Tim. 4:7.

Hinsdale, Ill.

Paul an Example for Gospel Workers

By ARTHUR V. FOX

ARTHUR V. FOX

“For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. . . . But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.” 1 Cor. 9: 19-27.

Paul adapts himself to men. At Jerusalem he disputes with the Grecians. At Paphos he not only preaches the word to the inquiring Sergius Paulus, but administers a stern rebuke to Elymas, the sorcerer. In the synagogue of Antioch, in Pisidia, he recites the whole history of the Jews before he describes the Messiah, and afterward quotes the prophets and the psalms. At Iconium, to a mixed assembly, he so speaks that a multitude both of the Greeks and Jews believed. At Lystra, among idolaters, worshipers of Jupiter and Mercury, he plants himself upon the great principles of religion, exhorting men that they should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are therein, and points to his witnesses in the falling rain and fruitful seasons, and hearts overflowing “with food and gladness.” At Thessalonica, in a synagogue of the Jews, he reasons out of the Scriptures, “opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead.”

When encountering the Epicureans and Stoics at Athens, or preaching to the multitude on Mars Hill, he takes for his text the inscription of an idol altar, and argues the folly of idolatry, from the attributes of the Creator; the unity of the human race, from the relation of all men to the common Father; and the necessity of repentance, from the future judgment; proceeding thus through the porticoes of nature and providence to the temple of grace, wherein he exhibits Jesus and the resurrection. He adapts himself to occasions. At Corinth, where he finds men captious, he disputes as well as persuades, both in the synagogues and in the school of Tyrannus. At Miletus he consoles, and counsels, and warns his weeping elders, from whom he is departing for the last time, and calls them to witness that he has kept back nothing that was profitable to them.

At Jerusalem, to accommodate innocent prejudices, Paul underwent the ceremony of purification in the temple. When addressing an infuriated mob from the steps of the castle, he softened their hearts by a recital of his own life and experience. Brought before a bigoted, usurping high priest, he administered to him a withering rebuke. In the midst of an excited council, composed of heterogeneous elements, he made gain for the gospel by mentioning the doctrine of the resurrection. When judged before Felix, he confronted his accusers and asserted his innocence: when before him as a man who had received bribes, committed excesses, and lived in adultery, he preached righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.

When he was brought before Agrippa, a Jew, he argued Jesus and the resurrection from the promise made unto the twelve tribes, and so argued that when he said, “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest,” the king responded, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” When he was a shipwrecked voyager, he was not ashamed to act the part of a sailor, as well as a minister, giving directions concerning the company, and the soldiers, and the ship.

Nor does Paul confine himself to preaching. He is the bearer of alms from the churches at Antioch, and the bearer of despatches from the council of Jerusalem. In his ordinary ministrations, he visits from house to house, he heals the sick, comforts the mourner, and encourages the fainting. Here he establishes believers, there he corrects heretics; here he disputes with infidels, there he rebukes bigots; sometimes exhorting the wavering to continuance in the faith, sometimes confronting rulers for violations of law and privilege.

Paul was far from being a man of one idea, or of one unvarying round of duty. He did not slumber over his preaching, nor put his hearers to sleep; his ministry was living, inspiring, active, practical, agitating. Like fire, it spread over Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and the islands of the Ægean. It disrobed priests, and shook idols, and alarmed nations; it excited envy, contradiction, and persecution; it stirred up devout and honorable women, and chief men not a few; it aroused Gentiles, and provoked Jews, and divided multitudes; it put the town clerk of Ephesus at his wits’ end; it shook the prison of Philippi, and alarmed the jailer, and perplexed and humbled the magistrates; it vexed the philosophers of the academy and the sectaries of the temple; it set in motion the soldiers, the doctors, and the lawyers; it troubled courts, and governors, and crowns. To use the language of his enemies, it “turned the world upside down.” With all this, it enlightened minds, converted souls, comforted mourners, and saved men, in the demonstration of the Spirit and power.

Los Angeles, Cal.

Investing in Knowledge

By Franklin

HE who empties his purse into his head puts it where no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. —Franklin.

Come Down

By T. E. BOWEN

T. E. BOWEN

The first words Jesus spoke to Zaccheus were, “Make haste, and come down.” It is quite probable that the same message would be given to many to-day, were Jesus to visit them. Many have climbed up, not into a sycamore tree,—which was perfectly proper for Zaccheus to do on this occasion,—but up on the judgment-seat. Here they sit passing judgment upon this brother and that sister, this move and that affair, within the home and without, inside the church and out, within the near neighborhood circle and a long distance beyond. Everybody and everything is measured and dissected and labeled as belonging to this class or that clique; set aside as a “pretty fair Christian,” with a “but;” or branded as an out-and-out hypocrite.

We all are bad enough; but these self-appointed censors of human thoughts and motives and actions do not help matters. It was the opposite spirit in which the Master met the publican sinner near Jericho. We have no record of Jesus preaching a sermon to Zaccheus, or denouncing him as a great sinner, or, in fact, that he said anything at all. It may have been his silence that won this sinner. Somehow this publican saw, in Jesus’ very look and attitude, a benevolence and kindness that spoke the forgiveness of his sins. Christ’s very bearing seemed to win him. When he saw the Lord, he desired to be like him. No doubt he had heard much of Jesus, but now that he had actually seen him, he needed no one to tell him that he bore no resemblance in character to the humble Galilean Teacher.

“Come down.” Yes, if you wish to be like the lowly Christ, come down. If you desire to help people, come down. You are out of place up there on the judgment-seat. That belongs to the Lord. It may seem different to you when he takes it, and you are compelled to give an account of yourself to him. That will be another phase in the judgment work,—a phase it might be well to think of occasionally now. We are all brethren, and One is our Master. We all have faults, some of us serious ones, no doubt; but the Lord has arranged a plan for dealing with them. If you are interested to know what it is, turn to Matt. 18: 15-20, and read it for yourself. The counsel is good, and should be heeded by all.

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea; There’s a kindness in his justice, Which is more than liberty.

“There’s no place where earthly sorrows Are more felt than up in heaven; There’s no place where earthly failings Have such kindly judgment given.

“But we make his love too narrow, By false limits of our own; And we magnify his strictness With a zeal he will not own.”

Takoma Park, D. C.

The Mischievous Child

By MRS. LUELLA B. PRIDDY

MRS. LUELLA B. PRIDDY

THE mischievous child is not necessarily a worse child than others, but he may be more troublesome.

There is, first, the energetic child, who always wants to help, but has not yet learned how to work. In his eagerness to do things, he is likely often to do the wrong thing.

Again, there are children who might be called animated interrogation-points. They have a keen desire to know the why and the wherefore of things, and are ever seeking to learn the secrets of the world of mystery about them. In their attempts to find out how things look on the inside, “what makes it go,” etc., more or less damage is often done to the objects of their investigations.

Then there is the nervous child, who is always moving about, never quiet. He has a craving for excitement, although excitement is more harmful to him than to his more calm, sedate brothers and sisters. Nervous children need constant and special care. They soon tire of whatever they are doing, and often lack the ability to entertain themselves. If wholesome food, fresh air, and quiet surroundings are essential to the well-being of the normal child, they are doubly so to one who is frail and nervous, that he may develop vitality. This restless, nervous state makes him prone to mischief. Sometimes he will destroy things with no apparent motive but to be doing something.

Much mischief may be avoided by providing suitable employment and amusement for the busy little hands. Have something planned ahead. When the child loses interest in one occupation, suggest another. It is far easier to arrange amusement or work than to be continually getting him out of mischief and rectifying his mistakes.

If the child is too small to work, the simplest playthings will satisfy him. If one can not have kindergarten material, a liberal quantity of plain blocks, spools, buttons, or beans of several colors, can be utilized in forming a large variety of patterns that are interesting to a child.

At first teach him to form some simple pattern, as a straight line or a rail fence. When he has learned to do these without help, or when he becomes tired of them, a few moments’ attention, or suggesting a new pattern, may hold his interest for a longer time. Lay the buttons or beans in the form of a square, a circle, a house, or some article of furniture. When these are mastered, lay a large picture on the table, or on the floor, and show the child how to form its principal outlines with his buttons or beans. When he gets the picture idea well in mind, he will readily learn to invent pictures without a pattern.

To develop the child’s taste in the arrangement of color, take a large piece of wrapping-paper, and with a ruler mark it off into two-inch squares. Show him how to lay one color of beans on the lines, then to vary the pattern by laying a row of another color around the edges of each square. Put a bean of a third color in the center of each square. Vary the pattern by arranging the different colors cornerwise in the squares. As he develops skill and invention, the child will return with pleasure to such play as this. He is learning something, instead of aimlessly tearing things to pieces.

When he is old enough, the child should be provided with a box or a drawer or a shelf, where he may keep his playthings. They are his, and should not be appropriated by others without his consent. In teaching this lesson it is well to guard against the development of a selfish spirit. If properly taught, the child will learn to put away his toys neatly, and to respect the property rights of others; he will be honest, and not inclined to help himself to that which is not his.

The inquisitive child should be helped in his search after knowledge by honest answers to his questions. A careful explanation of the working of an instrument or a machine which interests him, may prevent his making an investigation that might result in great harm and damage. It is cruel and unjust to answer his honest questions by ridicule and deception. Under such treatment, he may cease to ask questions at home, and it will be small wonder if, with his immature judgment, serious mistakes are made.

The child will learn something. If he does not receive in his home the help that he should have, rest assured that he will seek for knowledge from other sources. Evil companions are ever at hand, ready to instruct him in the ways of sin. In the place of mischief which is the result of childish ignorance, traits may develop of which the parents have no knowledge.

Children love to do what they see others doing. As far as is reasonable, indulge this liking, and keep them by your side. Let them feel that they are a help to you, and that you could not get on so well without them.

The little busy children require much care and attention; but Christ died for them, and they are worthy of the best and most tender regard and training that we can give them.

Ellesmere, Ontario.

A Work for Our Sisters

By IZA E. CLEMENT

IZA E. CLEMENT

In places where there is a large church, and the community has been well warned, there seems little or nothing that our sisters who can not get far from home can do. Again, there are those who have home duties, or poor health, and who can not engage in active missionary work outside of their own homes. But there is a work that even these can do,—a work that will lift the load from many a weary worker’s heart, and send rays of light to many a darkened soul, and at the same time be a blessing to those who engage in it, by providing them with an opportunity to have a part in giving the last message of mercy to a dying world. This work used to be followed in all our missionary societies and a good many homes; but of late it seems to have lost its prestige—never its power—as a means of advancing the truth.

There was a time when the members of all our churches subscribed for several copies of our missionary papers. Then the missionary society spent one evening of the week in wrapping and addressing them. The people at home considered every copy of their papers too sacred for common use. After reading them, they were sent to some worker mentioned in the “Publications Wanted” list of the REVIEW. Reports were received from these workers, which were read in the missionary meeting. Why is it not so now? In olden days we workers went to the delivery department of the post-office to receive packages, or to the freight office to get boxes, of papers sent by our loyal helpers in the North. How different now!

A year ago I requested papers in the REVIEW, and received four copies of the Signs, and two of the REVIEW in answer to my call. I advertised again several weeks ago, and thus far have received seven copies of the Signs. What is the matter? The Testimonies tell us that “our literature should be scattered as the autumn leaves.” How is it to be done? We are in the field; but our salaries are not large enough to enable

us to provide the necessary free literature to carry on the work. Will you not return to this good old-time custom, and help us? We shall be more than glad to scatter this literature if you will only furnish it.

Perhaps some may think that the more recent work of selling papers fills this want; but it does not. There is need of free literature, especially in the South, where the people are not only poor but prejudiced; and it takes a free copy of some of our papers to convince them of the merits of our literature and work, before they will listen to us or buy from us. Any one, even an invalid, can do this work, and it is as necessary, as great in its results, and as sure of its reward as the going of the greatest missionary to the farthest foreign field. My dear sisters, will you send us your papers?

Griffin, Ga.

A Fellowship With Hearts

By Anne L. Waring

Wherever in the world I am, In whatso'er estate, I have a fellowship with hearts To keep and cultivate.

I would not have the restless will, That hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great thing to do, Or secret thing to know.

I ask but for a thankful love, Through constant watching wise, To greet the glad with joyful smiles, To wipe the weeping eyes; A heart at leisure from itself, To soothe and sympathize.

—Anne L. Waring.

Conversation in the Home

THERE is reason to believe that many men are “silent at home.” This is not because they have no opportunity to “get in a word,” but because when they get home, they are “tired.” Yet if a personal friend “drops in,” they talk with the greatest ease, and no harm comes to their nervous system. Others are “silent” because they literally have nothing to say. Their wives and children have the newspapers, and the husbands think there is nothing for them to tell. Some, as soon as the evening meal is over, start for the halls of the fraternal order to which they belong.

Where there are children, the father should always be alert to see or hear things to tell them, mingling the instructive with the interesting. It is one of the best methods of securing and retaining their affection. It will be a strange day in any business, and in going to it and returning, when there is not something to tell the little folks as well as the older members of the flock. It is well for all husbands and fathers to consider their duty and interest in this matter in the light of “How would you like it yourself?”—a popular unconscious rendition of the golden rule.

Little children stumble on wise sayings, and often on foolish ones. No one can correct them better than the father, if he has a heart and a mind for their guidance. Also when the mother finds her teachings indorsed by her husband, she perceives that everything possible is done for their welfare. It is a true saying that “the whole future man is in the heart of the child.” And so is it with the whole future woman.

Many subjects are of common interest to husbands and wives; and these afford material for conversation harmonious in nature. And though each reads the same journals, one may be more impressed by one incident or idea than the other, and this state of feeling will furnish a stimulus to an exchange of ideas.

Should the husband, silent at home, think of the condition of his wife as he leaves home,—without his company, busy all day in the house and with the care of the children if there are any, and lonely if there are none,—and watch for incidents or listen to communications with the thought of selecting those most likely to interest her, he might find the sunshine brighter than it had been since the early days of their married life. Nor would it be long before his wife would reciprocate, and find something to please him when he comes home. Moreover, if she loves him, and has been doing most of the talking, she would be more than willing to hear what he has to say.

Home certainly should be the abode of free speech. Though it is not wise to discuss all things before children, many things may be prudently and profitably said to and of them in their presence—provided the father and mother have come to an understanding about the method for their training.

Sharp discussion between husbands and wives concerning the treatment of their children, in their presence, is a foe to reverence in the minds of the children, and injurious to parental peace and love. And when the children retire, the parents have the long hours of the evening for exchanging their ideas on any and every subject which interests either one or both.

Home should be the happiest place on earth for those who compose it. This it never can be without conversation. A silent home is never a happy one, unless it is composed of deaf-mutes. And they are the greatest conversers in the world. Their eyes are always speaking, and their fingers ever moving.—Christian Advocate.

Manual Training

SOME of us look at the question of manual training in a narrow way. We grudge the time taken from books, and argue that its place is not in the school, not realizing that the greater part of the value of study is mental training, and that, in many cases, this can be better accomplished by other means than books. We have to take into consideration that we forget nine tenths of what we learn from books, that only one tenth goes into our culture fund. What we have from the nine tenths is only the effect of the process of learning it on our minds. For this purpose manual training often serves equally well. The value of manual training as an aid to mental growth is now universally admitted by those who have studied the subject. Many children’s minds can be reached in this way when they are entirely closed to book learning. . . . The child almost never gets exact knowledge from his studies; but if he makes a box, he must make its edges exactly true. . . .

The whole school system should be changed, making it possible for a child to take the pace his deficiencies or superiorities demand. The lock-step now required of all is a hideous injustice. The stupid or physically unfit child is overtaxed and the clever child’s powers are stunted.

The writer once taught a small boy of five for ten months, one hour and a half, or less, four or five days in the week. He knew only the alphabet to begin with. At the end of that time he was reading easily in the third reader, and was beginning fractions,—work that takes several years in school. He was not an especially clever child, and was much more interested in life than in books. His brain was not in the slightest way overtaxed. Thus was brought home the terrible waste of a child’s strength and interest in the monotony and confinement of school.—Selected.

Self-Sacrificing Helpfulness

We are most unlike the Saviour when we are selfish. Selfishness is the antipodes of Christlikeness. On the other hand, every time we give up our will for the sake of others, and for the sake of our Lord, every time we bear an undeserved burden, and every time we do a deed of self-sacrificing helpfulness, we are drawing near to the image of him who “pleased not himself.”

An Improvised Bed for Baby

WHILE a guest in a large sanitarium, the writer was much interested in the construction of a little bed for a wee stranger who arrived when there was no crib at hand for his reception.

Since then I have more than once found it convenient to provide such a bed, and have been glad that I took the time to look into the wherewith and the manner of making.

The wherewith is always at hand,—two chairs with seats of equal height, (dining-room chairs do nicely), a full-sized sheet, and some safety-pins.

Place the chairs together facing each other. Tying the front legs together in pairs will prevent the chairs separating, and make the bed easy to move. Next take the unfolded sheet, and wrap it around the outside of the chairs, having one edge escape the floor evenly all around. Pin the overlapping edges snugly, using about four safety-pins from bottom of lapping to the height of chair backs.

Now let the top of the sheet drop down inside the chair backs; arrange the inside smoothly, and pin the edges together securely where they rest on the chair seats. Failure to do this in the construction of the first-named bed resulted in the little man who occupied it rolling out on the hardwood floor when he was but four days old, much to the humiliation of the nurse. Fortunately no harm came of it to either child or mother; but—well—pin the sheet!

Now place one large pillow lengthwise, or, better, two pillows crosswise; cover with an oilcloth or rubber protector, a mattress pad, and a little sheet, and you have a safe, snug, and wholesome little bed, constructed in ten minutes, or less, from materials at hand in any home.—American Motherhood.

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