The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-04-21

yeaI 70 geU Iully ready for Christian
work We, and in the after part of life, we
take take -LJ or 255 years for the gradual
closing OF activeWork, and that leaves
only 50 little time between opening
ana stopping work that all we accom-.
p lllsh is 50 little, an angel of God
NEEDS TO EXERT HIMSELF
to see it all. Nearly everything 7 see
around, beneath and above in the
natural world suggests useful service.
II there IS nothing in the Bible that
inspires you to usefulness, 20 out and
study the world around you this
sprlng-time, and learn the great lesson
OF usefulness.
NOTICE that it was g. beautiful and
lawful robbery of the palm tree that
helped make Christ's triumph on the
road to Jerusalem that Palm Sunday.
The long, broad, green leaves that
were strewn under the feet of the colt.
and IN the way of Christ were torn off
from the trees. What apity, someone
might say, but those stately and grace
ful trees should be despoiled. The SAP
oozed out at the places where the
branches broke. The glory of the palm
tree was appropriately sacrificed for
the Savlour's triumphal procession.
80 1T always was, SO it always will be
IN this world-no worthy triumph of
any sort without the tearing down of
|something else. Brooklyn bridge, the
glory of our continent, must have two
architects Frustrated, the one slain bv
MS tolls and the other for a lifetime
lnvalided. The greatest pictures of
the world had, in their richest coloring,
the blood OF the artists who made
them. The mightiest oratorios that
ever rolled through the churches had,
IN their pathos, the signs and groans
OF the composers, who wore their lives
out in writing the harmony. Ameri-
can independence was triumphant but
1T moved on over the lifeless forms of
tens OF thousands of men who fell at
Bunker Hill and Yorktown and the
battles between, which were
THE HEMoRRHAGEs OF THE NATION.
The Kingdom ofGod advances in all
the earth, but it must be over the
lives OF missionaries who die ofmalar-
Ia in the jungles or Christian workers
who preach and pray and toll and
d1e IN the service. The Saviour
trlumphs in all directions beauty
and strength must be torn down from
the palm trees of Christian heroism
and conservation and thrown in his
pathway: To what better use could
those palm trees on the southern
shoulder Of Mt. Olivet and clear down
into the Valley of Gethsemane put their
branches than to surrender them for
the making of Christ's Journey to
Jerusalem the more picturesque, the
more memorable and the more tri-
umphant? And to what better use
could we put our lives than into the
sacrifice for Christ and his cause and
the happiness of our fellow creatures?
The process is going on every
moment In all directions. What makes
that father have such hard work to
lind the hymn today? He puts on
his spectacles, and holds the book
close up, and then holds it far off, and
is not quite sure whether the number
OF the hymn is $50 or 100, and the
fingers with which he turns the
leaves are very clumsy. He stoops
great deal, although once he
was straight as an arrow, and his
eyes were keen as a hawks, and the
hand he offered to his bride on the
marriage day was of goodly shape
and as God made it. I will tell you
what is the matter. Forty years ago
he resolved his family should have no
need, and his children should be we'll
educated, and suffer none of the dis
advantages OF lack of schooling from
which he had suffered for life time,
and that the wolf Of hunger should
never put his paw on his door sill,
and for 40 or SO years he has been
tearing off from the palm tree of his
physical strength and manly form
branches to throw in the pathway of
his household. 1t has cost him
muscle aud brain and health and eye
sight, and there have been twisted off
more years from his life than any man
in the crowd on the famous Palm
Sunday twisted off branches from the
palm trees on the road from Bethpage
to Jerusalem. What makes that
mother look so much older than she
really is? You say she ought not vet
to have one gray line in her hair. The
truth is the family was not always so
well off as now. The married pair
had
..-s.. A HARD STRUGGLE.
at the start. Examine the tips OF the
forefinger and thumb of her right
hand, and they will tell you the story
OF the needle that was piled day in
and day out. Yea, look a. both her
hands, and they we'll tell the story OF
the time when she did her own work,
her own mending and scrubbing and
washing. Yea, look into the face and
read the story Of scarlet fevers and
groups and midnight watchings when
none but God and herself in the house
was awake, and then the burials and
loneliness afterwards, which was more
exhausting than the preceding watch
ing had been, and no one now to put
to bed. How fair she once was and
as graceful as the palm tree, but all
the branches OF her strength and
beauty were long ago torn off and
thrown into the pathway other house
hold. A little annoyed, are you, be-
cause her hearing is poor and you
have to tell her something twice? She
was not always hard of hearing. When
youwas 2 years old your first call for
q drink at midnight woke her from a