Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-03-29

sreciAI Correspondent cs OF Gazette and Journal
NEW York. March 23.-How did it
come to you last year-this resurrection
day2 Did you greet it with beautiful
music, lovely flowers and much joy
Or did it come to you, as to me, with
that perfect quietness which means
Worship wonder if you feel, as do,
that stiffness must be the tribute paid 10
great events9 If you have sense of
horror when noise, even if 1t be a
sweet one, accompanies great pleasure
or great pain? Do you see and CON-
prehend the exquisite beauty of silence
Somebody says that there are people
who are born to enjoy and to suffer
quietly. And be sure, my friend, that
these are the people who feel every.
thing intensely.
Silence is worship. You know this
when you enter great lofty cathedral,
and, impressed by its magnifcence and
its stiffness, you fall on your knees and
pray TO God in His greatness to think of
your littleness. And the same feeling
comes to you when you so into the
plain, undecorated house where the
Friends meet to worship God in perfect
quiet, speaking only when the Spirit
descends upon them, telling them to
arise and say that which would be good
for another TO hear.
WHEN ALL NATURE REAwAKENs.
1t was Easter day. The crocuses, the
sunshine of the earth, had come UP in
the little graveyard that was around the
meeting house, and as l walked up to
the door they seemed to be nodding a
kindly greeting, and reminding me that
as they came out Of the dark, deep earth,
SO many golden spot would come
when the days seemed blacklist. Past
the flowers, up the steps and into the
meeting house l went. There was NO
carpet on the heor, no cushions on the
seats, but in this congregation there
were no poor, for the rich looked after
them, and the money given to the meet
ings went, not to buy soft seats or vel
vet cushions, but to help those who
needed it and 20 help them so quietly
and so well that only the few whose
business it was TO attend to the distribu-
ton of it knew of the old people who
were cared for, of the children who
were educated, and of the helping hand
given to those who needed little, SO
that they might in time be able to help
themselves and others too. That's
charity. There are no tinkling GYM
balls. There is no plate handed about
in which the rich man may drop gold
piece and the poor man look unhappy
because he has nothing, but at the
proper time he who can give, gives
literally and sends it to those tried and
trusty men who care for the others and
who know just what to do with every
dollar given to the right cause.
WHERE RICH AND POOR ARE ONE.
We are together, the rich and the
poor. The seats are alike, and they are
not paid for On Easter day it seems
as If the silence, which is u tribute to
the Almighty God, has come to the
Westinghouse aud settled upon all the
congregation. And we sit quietly and
think. And our sins rise up before nc
and we long to do better, and we mean
TO try to. And after a while different
sentences seem to come to my mind. 1t
is the day Of the resurrection. And the
sea will give up its dead, and we will
all stand before the judgment seat, and
God Almighty will read us like open
books. When the time comes, do you
think there will be any noise No; a
great stiffness will come over the earth,
and you and will have less horror of
appearing before all the world, burdened
with our sins, than we will to stand
alone in the presence of the Great King,
answering to Him for the soul He has
given us. raise my eyes, and look at
the face of the gentle Friend Just be.
side me. She has reached the age when,
if she were woman of the world, she
would be called old; but as she is, she
can never be that. Her eyes are clear,
her skin is soft and white, and the
closely fitting little bonnet of gray
frames her face as if it were some kind
of an aureole. The soft gray silk gown,
plainly made, is the only one that you
could connect with her, and as you
glance ateher and see the blissful look
upon her face, again the words come to
you: And. tho sea shall give up its
dead" And you. remember, as l do,
that Cousin Deborah loves to help dress
the happy bride, loves 20 do some of the
fine sewing on her dainty linen, and is
never SO happy as when she can be the
last one to give her blessing before she
makes her vow of love to the man she
has chosen for her husband. And then
many years back, Cousin Deborah loved
and was loved All her trousseau was
made, and she was to be married 10 her
sailor lover when the ship came back.
But it never did. She has lived all her
life bringing happiness wherever she
goes, consoling those who are wretched
in her own sweet and gentle manner,
and only waiting for the day, but wait
ing as the saints do, by working, for the
sea TO give up its dead.
You notice, as do, pretty girl who
is sitting beside her mother, the mother
IN THE QUAINT QUAKER GARB,
and the daughter in the dress of the
world. There is gentle consideration
for her, and because Of her youth, much
is forgiven her. But on day like this,
she feels she must leave everybody else
and come back and worship III stiffness
in the old Westinghouse. Nobody has
said anything, but the tears are running
down her cheeks, and you and l can be
very sure that the old-time place is re-
minding her of tho difference between
right and wrong, and is suggesting to
her what she has left undone, as well as
what she has done. i:i..
On the other side, among the men, is
q gentlp-facei man tall and dipnifad