The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-12

and whose wings cast shadow over the
freight Of hearth and home? This is the
Angel OF Sorrow and Suffering. Great
troubler is he of life's deep waters Is this
troubling kindly, too2 Is the pool stirred
by him a Bethesda, fountain of healing ?
Is there something medicinal and curative
IN the agitation Of its waters?
81 suspect that it must be so for the
reason that sorrow and suffering were not
lnterpolated into human life as an after
thought. They were not thrust in side by
SIDE with Adams sin and in consequence
OF 1t as theologians seem to think. The
conditions for them were laid long before
Adam saw the light of the first morning or
looked into Ewes lustrous eyes in the gar
den; They We're incorporated into the
orlglna! plan OF the world. Divine wis.,
dom, divine love, divine pity do not re-
move them from the life of men. There
tore, while we may not suppose that God
sends this trial to you and that to me, with
an exact particularly of adjustment, we
cannot escape the conclusion that these
dark things enter on a large scale into the
great general plan of eternal Providence.
Who can trace throughout what Bushnell
called the moral woes of dark things?'
Ii g man were not made subject to
suffering he would not know whether
he~walked on solid earth or on burning
Goals, and so would run the risk of serious
injury. A gardener understands that if he
would have tree grow luxurlantly upon
any one side he must cut the branches off
there. Then all its forces go to repairing
the injury, and twenty buds shoot out
where otherwise there would have been
but one. When we reach the garden above
we shall find that out of those very wounds
over which we sighed and groaned on
earth have sprung verdant branches bear
ing precious fruit a thousand fold.' We
may trust that this is SO, and that the loss
you know not how to bear, the burden
you can only with utmost difficulty carry,
the sorrow that makes your heart sore to
the center-that these all may be at last
transmitted into spiritual wealth.
Meanwhile when the Angel of Sorrow
and Suffering troubles the pool OF your
life it is not best to lie supine in the shaded
porch, but rise, go forth, plunge in among
tasks and duties, for thus you may find
healing and restoration.
"There is one other angel whom [ must
mention. His wings flash in the sunlight;
his countenance is radiant; his mantle is
white like snow. This is the Angel of Joy.
when he excites the waters of life they
are restorative, indeed. They strengthen
the whole nature of man into the tone of
health. We ought to hold toward God the
deepest gratitude for that his providence
sends this angel SO often down into the
sad companion, cannot do. Ii sorrow and
suffering were perpetual they would spoil
any soul in the end-robbing it of all pos
sible sweetness at last. Joy is needed by US.
We are SO constituted that we must have
it or morally die. So God has arranged
that it shall come down to US now and then
and thrill the heart-chords. And these
occasional Joys which we experience are
Just like those touches of the musicians on
the strings of the instrument to put them
in tune preparatory to the melody and
harmony that is to come; SO they are tune
full prophecies of what is by and by to be-
the unbroken music of the perfected days."
From overhead there was the subdued
murmur of bird-notes in the benediction,
and shortly after the unsabbatical clamor
of the dinner-gong. The entire family
assembled in the dining-room of the hotel,
which, though unoompleted, was yet con-
venient and homelike. The meal was we'll
cooked and served, and every one seemed
thoroughly happy and hungry. The ladies
were, without exception, pleasing to the eye
and interesting. They appear to be work
ing out for themselves and others, in
perfectly feminine way, a mission
quite as important to their sex, as is at
tempted by their more aggressive sisters
in the various women's conventions of this
age. The showing is not as yet SO bril-
liant, but the signs are even more hopeful
of ultimate fruition. Women at Altruria
are given equal voice in all affairs of the
colony, and are recognized force in gen.
eral councils, home, garden and printing
office.
The afternoon was spent in the soothing
shade of porch or tree, but later we walked
in the sunset radiance on the hills. On
the highest ridge we stood between the
sun and moon, the lighted landscape APP
pealing to us from multitude of gardened
peaks--from canyons swinging their tree
tops at our feet, with CLINT of water at their
roots; far down a mile or two of dazzling
stream, and to the west an opulent sweep
of valley beyond a silvered gap, and slopes
of mountains lost in the gloom of redwood
chains.
Following a nibbled trail we made the
descent of the east slant into mountain
bowl. the bottom feathered with rank fox
tail and wild oats, the sides pictures of
decorative foliage, and the circled rim
fringed with white oaks trailing pensively
remoteness and beauty, its only hint of
man the old fume hidden in the grasses,
strip OF rail fence artistically draped with
wild berry and grape vines and bit of
redwood shanty falling into ruins. Here
at one time lived the man whose work it
was to shut off the water in the fume so
as to regulate the flow down at the old
mill. An artist would dream a summer
away in this sequestered spot, his morning
reveille the nightingales song and his
evenings hymn the plaintive note of the
wood dove.
When we had climbed our way out of
so much deserted loneliness the moon was
riding high in the heavens and the world
of mountains about wore the aspect of en-
chantment. The voice of the unseen
stream sounded up from the black gorge
on our left and once we heard the tardy
loye-call of marsh frog.
NINETTA EAMEs.