The semi-weekly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1879-1882, 1881-08-29

Jam night skirts and hair oil into the
bags, together with sandwiches and
toothbrushes, wondering betimes
whether Mr. Spoopendyke's silk hat
had been so badly smashed that it
wouldn't do to 60 fishing in on rainy
days, even if it didn't look we'll
enough for church.
TAKE THE SUNNY SIDE.-Take
the sunny side of home The home
is the sunniest side Of every great peo-
pie. Without devotion to homo there
can be no devotion to country The
home is the cradle of patriotism it is
the foundation of happin IS not only
to individuals but to nations as we'll,
and it is the one spot of earth that
should be guarded from needless sha-
dows Enough must come to each,
even when most faithfully guarded
by all the multiplied flee of loves,
but few there arc who make their
homes what they could OF should be.
Take the sunny side of faith The
doubling, hating, distrusting, un-
believing are among the most unfor-
tunate and pitiable of all classes Of
people. Have faith 10 yourself, in
your fellows, in your home, in your
religion, in everything that has capa-
bilities for good Deceit is a preva-
lent vice, and it will often grieve you
but it is vastly better to grieve over
disappointment than to allow gener-
al distrust to make you miserable,
with yourself and all about you. We
thoughtlessly call ours an age of un-
belief but it is not more so than the
ages Of the rast. Some lament that
the in6del and the scoffer are holder
and have greater following than in
what we call the better days of our
fathers, but it is not so Paine,
Franklin and Jefferson were men of
like religious views They were hon
ofed as patriots, and two Of them
made their names immortal among the
founders of free government, and one
Of them doomed his name and mem
DRY to execration for making his boast
ed beliefa fountain of blasphemy.
There is to-day less open unbelief
than there was a century ago, and
what we have is brought into prom
inence by the freedom of disputation
and the universal publicity which OBJ.
tain in our times.
Take the sunny side of religion.
time was when to publicly accept the
religion of our civilization was to ac-
cept public reproach and often to in
vite martyrdom. There was then no
sunny side to religion, save the hope
Of better life beyond; but in this en-.
lightened age, our religion is the COM
mon law of our state, and follows the
flag Of our nation to the remotest por-
tions of the world 1t is SO highly re.
spected that men defle it by hypo-
crisy to dignity their positions in
society. There is everything, there
fore, to make religion the sunshine Of
life, but how many there are who
show religion with repulsive deform
tiles. There are some who mistake
dyspepsia for religion, and how terri.
bly, they rack themselves under the
delusion that they are, in some way
or other, doing Gods service. They
see in every smile, in every enjoyment,
10 every ray of sunshine that peeps
ioto the home or the social busin ess
circle. The sunny, dimple-faced child
is taught BY them to look upon relig-
ion as one of the mournful things of
earth, and to wonder why a merciful
God made the worship of himselfsuch
a CHASTITY word. If such people could
worry their way into heaven and take
their religion with them, they would
silence the songs of the redeemed and
the pearly gates would have to be
guarded with flaming swords to keep
the children of the angelic throng
from playing truant.
Take the sunny side of death.
Sooner or later it must come to all,
and at the latest it is only a few
swiftly passing days distant. Kings
and potentates have no refuge from
the summons of the dreaded messen-
ger. Death is the great leveller of
man and dust to dust the heritage of
all. Why, then, should we shrink