The record-union., 1892-03-12

American Methodism" the Nashville
ehltstldR Ado0cate, organ of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church, South, says:
knowing the temper of our people as
we do we feel perfectly safe in saying that
the vast majority of them have no trace
of i'll viii towards the Methodist Episco-
pal Church. If that mighty body OF
evangelical Christians-the most vigorous
and potent religious force in the Protes-
tant wordsworth only lay aside its in
detensible pretensions to ecclesiastical
superiority and approach US in spirit of
genuine brotherliness the response would
be as swift and as tremendous as the surge
of the sea. The chief reason why Bishop
Fosters magnanimous words at Wash
ington City provoked no explicit response
was the belief that he did not represent
the body of his church. This belief is
justified by the little volume of Bishop
Merrill, and still more by the acrid
speeches of Bishop Mallalieu. As to any
form OF organic union that shall simply
restore the status quo of1SS4 we think
that an idle and impossible dream. But
with all our heart we long for SO perfect
an adjustment of our relations as shall for
ever take away the scandal of our rival
rles and the sin of our unchristian re-
examinations. There have been at least
two periods within the past twenty-five
years when such an arrangement would
nave been possibility; it is mot poSsi-
bIlity just now. What Divine Providence
may order In the distant future we can
not say. But against scheme or plan
that starts out with the assertion that the
escutcheon of our Methodism is crossed
with the unsightly bar sinister of an ille-
gitlmate origin we shall maintain our in
dependence till the judgment day and
reassert it while the world is burning
down."
Discussing the subject of ''self-made
men," the New York Christian 4 dOocate
lMeth.) asks: ''Shall the boy intended for
business be sent to college? This ques-
ton cannot be answered yes or no.
1here IS no use in. sending a boy to col
lege who shows no signs of approaching
1.-THE ldler who floats through on his
fathers money and influence, whose oc-
cupatlon is dissipation and Irritation, and
who studies only enough to avoid expuI-
sion. But the boy who plainly has the
making OF man, and has the strength
and application to master his prepara-
ton, may well be sent to an institute of
technology or to university. If in
tended Tor business, such boy will be
self-made, If he is ever made at all, as
really as the man who taught himself TO
read by the light of a pine knot. That
many college graduates amount to moth
ing Tor business is true, and that many
who never went to college amount to
nothing for business is equally so. Prob
ably, II the experiences OF the two classes
had been exchanged, the results would
nave been substantially the same. All rich
mems sons VIII be failures for any good
purpose If without noble ambition. While
necessity will continue to make certain
proportion OF poor mems sons work, this
Will develop ability, competition and
pride, engender ambition, and they will
rise, with the help of those fortunate CIR
cumstances which come to some and are
denied others, to u giddy hight. When
they stand there and say: Behold me;
did this thus, and this is the only way
to do it, they present a melancholy evil
dence OF the fact that if they are self-made
they were not true artists, or in a very
important particular neglected their
work. They are, however, far more hon.
orable than those who, having had all the
helps which the most improved systems
OF education can give, join the drones in
the hives of human industry or swell the
number Of the vicious"
This multiplication Of interests in ma
ture might be paralleled in every human
life, says the New York Christian Union.
''There are countless little things in every
human life which might be turned to ac-
count as sources of pleasure and interest,
If we only had eyes to see them and the
Intelligence to use them. Happiness does
not lie, any more than duty, at distance.
1t is always to be found, if we find it all,
at our own firesides. The man who can
not be interested in the circumstances in
which he finds himself and amid the
surroundings where God has placed him
cannot be interested anywhere. He may,
very naturally, long for the special feat
ures of larger life; but he is not fitted to
comprehend or enjoy them until he has
entered into the life in which he finds
himself. No man can really understand
London or Paris who does not understand
the little village in which he makes his
home. Content and happiness are not to
be found in multiplicity Of things, but
IN the intelligent use of few things. De-
light in life is a very simple, home-like
quality. Itcomes from the man, not from
his surroundings; and it is able to impart
glow TO the most commonplace and
familiar objects. If it has not the power
to make these things glow, it would not
have power to give charm to the great
est and most splendid objects. Happi-
ness, content and zeal in life, like charity,
begin at home."