The National tribune., 1893-01-19

Write me as one who loves his feliow.men"
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
1t came again with great Weakening light
And showed the names whom love Oh Zoo hau
best,-
And 10 Ben Adbems name led all the resi
Jennie Barnaby.
kdhem WAS the name of n doctor celebrated for
Mussulman traditions. and the Mussulmans place
him among their saints who have done miracles.
II is said lie was distinguished for his piety from
his earliest youth and that he Joined the Soils or
religious sect in Mecca, when quite young lie
undertook, it is said to make pilgrimage from
Mecca and 10 pass through the desert alone ana
without provisions making thousand genuflex-
ions for every mile of the way. lie was IL years
in making the journey, during which time he was
often tempted aud alarmed by demons. These are
some of the sayings which are credited TO him:
I'VE mend the rags of this worldly robe with
the pieces of the robe of Religion, which we tear
apart for this end"
And we do our work SO thoroughly that moth
ing remains of the latter, and the garment we mend
escapes out of our hands
Happy is the servant who has chosen God for
his MASTER and who employs his present good only
to acquire those which he awaits"
81 love hell. if am doing the will Of God, bet
ter than the enjoyment of Paradise and disobedi-
ence."
Abou Ben Adhem died at Damas of the Hegra
in the year I66.
FROST PICTURES.
Bu Lenore Sherwood Marble
"These Winter nights, against my window pane,
Nature with busy pencil draws designs
Offerns and blossoms and fine spray OF pines,
Oak-leaf and acorns and fantastic vines,
Which she will make when Summer comes
again.
Quaint arabesque in argent. flat and cold,
Like curious Chinese etchings. By and by,
Walking my leafy garden rs of old,
These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye
In azure damask, emerald, and gold.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
have often thought that the Frost is the ghost
of Summer, going about in its white garments
with the touch of death in its fingers and the icy
GOODNESS of the grave in its chilling breath. Not a
kindly ghost that brings happy illusions and
awakens blissful memories, but a CHASTITY, cruel
ghost, making pictures beautiful to the eye. but
which, upon a near approach. melt away like the
phantasmagoria of dream, leaving sense OF
numbness and pain in the mind of the beholder.
Cities and palaces, groves and mountains mystic
glens and mighty rivers formed by the fantastic
fingers of this poor ghost-formed but to fade
cleaning I'm jeweled loneliness but TO pass away
with the glance of sunbeam The touch Of a pass
ing zephyr.
But after all there is even in the administration
of a ghost touching hint of the Immortality of
petuty of beneficent forms, and that typefes the
return of departed glories.
Winter is the night of the year, and the Frost is
its starlit way. Even its intangible pictures sug
sest the myriad forms OF beauty that will arise,
when Summer, the dayspring of the year. shall
shower its bounteous gifts upon US.
Infinite in variety are the pictures the Frost
creates With its airy fingers goes through wood
and street. festooning twig and shrub and the tree
with vines and foliage and flowers more chaste
and delicate than the most subtle creation OF an
artists fancy.
Every window pane is wrea,hed with the cx-
uusite fashionng of fruit and blossom. fairy Cities
castles towers and don1es. IL is art, poetry and
architecture combined, and seeing we know not
whether most to admire or wonder.
Who will ever forget the beautiful days we have
had this winter, when trees. bushes, hedges wires
Of telegraph and telephone. strung with
pearls and the whole scene like glimpse Of
fairy land
Poets and artists have caught their finest inspi.
rations from scenes like these. but alas for poor
unpoetic eyes, the true scene can never be trans
formed to canvas, or immortazed in song
Countless are the wonders OF the universe, mani
fold in FORM and marvellous in arrangement. And
not more marvellous the mountains and caverns
of the deep, than the vivid and fiee.irg pic
lures the fingers of The Frost create.