The herald., 1896-11-08
THE HOUR DRAWS NEAR

THE HOUR DRAWS NEAR
The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and
When at the Eternal Gate
We leave the words and works we call our
And lift void hands alone
For love to fill. Our nakedness OF soul
Giftless we come to Him who all things
And live because He lives.
Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light. all influence. all fate;
Nothing to him falls early or too late,
Our acts our angels are, or good or ILL.,.
Our fatal shadows that walk by us STILL
Littell's Living Age is going to take
new departure under the editorship
of Mr.. Frank Foxcroft. Now weekly,
monthly supplement is to be includ-
ed without additional cost. in which will
be reprinted extracts from magazines,
new books, and occasional translations
from the best French, German, Spanish
and Italian current publications.
Little or no improvement in the book
trade; but it must come up, for are not
the holidays almost here?
THE BIBLE AS A TEXT BOOK
The real aim of those urging the re-
quired study of the Bible in colleges is,
of course, not knowledge but edifica-
ton. They wish not so much to ex-
pand the minds of students as to i'm
prove their characters and safeguard
their morals This is an end with which
all must sympathiz but that it can be
attained by any kind of indirection may
be doubted. The old way was more
straightforward You were a child of
wrath in danger of hell fire, and here
was the book to tell you the only way
to escape. Neglect its daily and ter
rified reading at your peril. But nova
days You are an amiable youth, much
given to athletics and other frivolities,
having mighty good time on your way
through college, whom it would be we'll
to persuade that the Bible is a very in
teresting book to study, with the idea
of making you take little more seri-
Gus view of life That kind of net is
commonly spread in vain in the sight OF
any bird especially when the bird is
college student. He will be apt to
make his own the opinion of an enfant
terrible. that the Bible is fine reading
proyiding one is allowed to skip the re-
ligious parts.
The whole question is only part of
a much larger and older one-the re-
lation of knowledge to piety. Are the
WlSeSC
Ignorance and superstition conducive
to true goodness? Abstractly, these
questions have been answered, and are
still answered. both yes and no. But
practically there is no longer any use
in putting them at ALL For better or for
worse, the world has chosen the side
of knowledge, is committed to Tree IN
quiry, whatever the results IN thousns
or life. We are in for it in respect of
Bible study, as wen as all other study,
and must stand the consequences as best
we may. An obsolete and unscientitc
way of studying the Bible cannot any
longer be excused on the ground that II
makes our boys good. Least OF all can
such a way be excused in college
course. or the slightest substantial good
be expected to come of it-The NATION.
-
CALIFORNIA IN 1860.
Those were the halcyon days before
California had become a health resort
and been srailroaded' to the depths
ofnthe. commonplace. Oakland was
kind Of Wildwood or wilderness; there
was but single street in 1t worthy OF
the name-a broad sandy trail that
nanted the grove in the middle; and even
in this trail one had to turn out for
tree, now and again, or for deliberate
COW with her dolorous bell, or for
recilmbent goat. Beyond Oakland the
comparatively naked and uneXplored
lands spread far and wide into the foot
hills; and there the adventurous were
out of sight of hall and howell, their feet
sheathed in Mexican stirrups, musical
but murderous spurs of gigantic circurn-
ference at their heels. and their should
ers overshadowed by broad brimmed
sombreros Usually it was the solitary
horseman who went thither, seeming
the STILL hot air of spicy canons, toiling
over the brazen hills from camp to camp,
and finding them as active as If it We're
food-tide on market day. Then. and
Later, at San Rafael, the bulls fought
bravely on it's saints day, and the click
If the castanet was heard in the land
San Francisco was unique-all the col
or lines We're down: gilded vice. seated
upon her tinsel throne. was visible from
the pavement. and in some cases in
fanny might truly have been called
splendid; the drone of the hurdy- gurd V,
the gay fandango, the Celestial players
of fan-tan, were heard and seen on
every side; and all these Bret Harte
in the dew of his youth. saw. searched
into and assimilated. Like the Argo-
naut, the forty miner, he became a part
of the life of the land. 1t is fortunate for
us who knew California of old. and love
to revive memories of the past. that he
came when he came, saw what he saw
and conquered as he unquestionably did
conquer, and held fast the very spirit,
IL HOl the letter, OF tnat golden age. The
spirit is the poetry, the letter is the prose
of 1t all. Only poet can paint the pic
turesque. California was picturesque
once upon time; the life there and then
was delightful, audacious, perhaps dew
ilish at times; there was not much re
pose In camp or town, but there was
enough and to spare in the wide veran-
das of the sun baked haciendas and in
the attenuated vistas of the mission
clo1sters.-Charles Warren Stoddard in
the November Atlantic
ON THE STAFF. BY Oliver Optic. Blue
and gray cloth, gold dies, illustrated.
Lee & Shepard, Boston,
This volume is the fourth in the series
of The Blue and the Gray-on Land and
carries the hero of the preceding vol
umes, Dick Lyon, in his new position as
q staff officer, into new and fresh fields
and amid scenes of a more string nature
The long and rapid march of the army
under Buell. to the assistance of Grant al
Shiloh, the desperate conflict and the
final victory of Pittsburg Landing, ant
the march and siege of Corinth, are al
fully described.
- In those days history was made day
by day, and boys were transformed into
I men in single night. Dicks position
was not an exceptional one for the times
and he made the best use Of it, gaining
the respect and praise of his superior
officers and another step in rank ere the
volume closes.
Ell q T~xx 10 J.