The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-18

and boys. One of our gigantic police
men had the "wee bairn" by the hand
and the picture was at once ludicrous
and touching. He was so tall and she
so short, lassie of not much more
than three years of age, if even that;
he reaching down his hand to hers and
she reaching up her hand to his; his
face full of authority and yet with a
strangely tender light in the eyes; hers
full Of dimples and yet wonderfully
wistful.
She was beautifully dressed in a
white satin bonnet trimmed with rich
est of lace, and a coat of velvet edged
with real ermine and collar to match, -
evidently the dainty daughter of some
wealthy mother. Who she was, though,
nobody knew. Where she came from
nobody could tell. She had suddenly
appeared at the Cross, "a wandered
child"
Carefully, tenderly, even lovingly
that policeman led her along STOPPING
every moment to whisper to her some
Hlghlandish term of endearment. "She
bees a RIGHT moo" said he to the crowd,
and to us specially, who stopped to lay
our hands caressingly on The flushed
cheeks" she bees a. RIGHT moo. Her
mither ill find her noo." Aud the
twain, giant and Lilliputian, went
their way over to the central station.
GA RIGHT !" Aye, aye. For when
she is missed 1.-THE mither' will not
need, as in the old9n times, to get out
the bell-ringer and send him up and
down the streets. She will send or go
to the station, quite sure to find her lit
tie lassie there safe aud sound; for
there, by judicious law, are the L" wan
dered children all carried at once, and
there kept till " called for"
AS we parted, my companion to go
to Hope street in the city, and l to
cross the bridge, and go to " the south
side, somehow that I" wandered child"
and Calvinism got into close quarters
in my head and heart. There was not
one of those men and boys, rough spec
linens of the race, too, many of them,
but would have carried that little lassie
to her mither" and her d" hame," if
they had known where either was, and
all were full of anxious thought till the
policeman appeared and took posses
sion of the mite. And yet Calvinism
tells me that God created millions of
just such wee lasses" for no other pur-
pose than to burn them up forever and
ever. And that ho let's his children
g wander" and never tries to find them,
knowing that if they are his elect,
they will be saved any way" and if they
are the nOn-elec5 not even he can save
them, for he cannot go back on his de-
crees
o CAlvinistic God What a dread
ful Being you are Worse than any in
that crowd Of men and boys, for though
some there were undoubtedly atheists,
not one but would have tried hard to save
that LITTLE child from the peril so near
by the cold Clyde rushing away in the
near neighborh0od not one but would
have been glad to carry her in their
orUnS fN tho bOu,o ,ubouoo cbo ia
strayed. Men will rush into a blazing
house and save a child, not their own,
at the risk of their lives; but this God
this God of the Westminster Con
fession-will sit all through eternity
upon his great white throne and serene
ly listen to the hallelujahs sung by his
elect children, and be deaf to the groans
and sObs of the nOn-elect, of those who
are burning, burning, burning forever E!
Jesus of Nazarath said, in the olden
times; 80, Righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee" What
would he say now if he went up and
down Scotland and heard the dOgmas of
Calvinism preached; or if he was forced,
as have been, to make a study of that
Confession Of Faith which blasphemes
every attribute of the Father
Calyinism Well, if l should die
here suddenly-no probability of it
just now, l am glad to say-but if [
should, and they returned a verdict
just and true, it would be penned in
words like these, -" She died of Cal
yinism on the brain -
Dear little wandered child - You
found your mither" before night; and
what a glorious Faith is oars-we
shall all find our God, that God who
is at once Mother and Father and
Home.
january %, 1883.
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