The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-15
where he would have failed but for

yOus
Don't snub him. Don't depreciate
his ability. Don't talk discouragingly
about his future. Don't let Miriam
get down off the bank of the Nile and
wade out and upset the ark Of bull
rushes. Don't tease him. Brothers
and sisters do not consider it any harm
to tease. That spirit abroad in the
family is one of the meanest and most
devlish. There is a teasing that is
~pleasurable and is only another form
of innocent raillery, but that which
provokes and irritates and makes the
eye fash with anger is to be repre-
hended. It would be less blameworthy
to take a bunch OF thorns and draw
them across your sisters cheek or to
take q knife and draw its sharp edge
across your brothers hand till the
blood spurts, for that would damage
only the body, but teasing is the thorn
and theknife scratching and decorating
the disposition and the soul. 1t is the
curse of innumerable households that
the brothers tease the sisters and the
sisters the brothers. Sometimes it is
the color of the hair Or the shape of
the features or an affair of the heart.
Sometimes it is by revealing a secret
or by a suggestive look or a guffaw
or an "Ahem!" Tease, tease, tease!
For mercy's sake quit it. Christ says,
He that hateth his brother is a muir
derer." Now, when you by teasing
make your brother Or sister hate, you
turn him or her to a murderer or a
murdereress.
BEWARE OF JEALOUSY.
Don't let jealousy ever touch a sis
ter's soul, as it so often does, because
her brother gets more honor or more
means. Even Miriam, the heroine of
the text, was struck by that evil pas
sion of jealousy. She had possessed
unlimited influence over Moses, and
now he marries, and not only so, but
marries a black woman from Ethiopia,
and Miriam is SO disguised and out
ragged at Moses, first because he had
married at all and next because he had
practiced miscegenation, that she is
drawn into a frenzy, and then begins
to turn white n gets white as a
corpse apd hen whittier than a corpse.
Her complexion is like chalk. The
fact is she has the Egyptian leprOsy.
And now the brother whom she had
defended on the Nile comes to her res
cue in a prayer that brings her resto-
ration. Let there be no room in all
your house for jealousy either to sit
or stand. It is a leprous abomination.
Your brothers success, o sisters, is
your success. His victories will be
your Victories. For while Moses, the
brother, led the vocal music after the
crossing of the Red sea Miriam, the
rir+o, ~ 4-,~ IL &c -Is-.-- l~z--
uplifted and glittering in the sun, led
the instrumental music, clapping the
cymbals till the last frightened neigh
of pursuing cavalry horse was smoth-
cred in the wave and the last Egyptian
helmet went under.
How strong it makes a family when
all the sisters and brothers stand to-
gether, and what an awful wreck when
they dissintegrate, quarreling about a
fathers will and making the surro-
gates, Office horrible with their wran-
! gle! Better when you were children
in the nursery that with your play
house mallets you had a~ccidently killed
| each other fighting across your cradle
| than having come to the age of matu-
| rity and having in your veins and ar
teries the blood of the same father and
: mother you fight each other across the
parental grave in the cemetery,
If you only knew it, your interests
are identical. Of all the families OF
the earth that V e stood together per-
haps the most conspicuous is the fam
lily of the Rothschilds. AS Mayer An.
selm Rothschild was about to die in
1912 he gathered his children about
him-Arselm, Solomon, Nathan
! Charles and James-and made then
promise that they would always be
united on change. Obeying the in.
junction, they have been the mighties1
commercial power on earth, and at the
raising or lowering of their scepte1
nations have risen Or fallen. That il.
illustrates how much, On a large scale
and for selfish purposes, a united fam.
lily may achieve. But suppose that in
stead Of a magnitude Of dollars as the
object, it be doing good and making
salutary impression and raising this
sunken world, how much more enob.
ling! Sister, you do your part an6
brother will do his part. If Miriam
will lovingly watch the boat on the
Nile, Moses will help her when ~lep
O u disasters strike.
When father and motner are gone
and they % will be if they have no
already made exit-the sisterly an(
fraternal bond will lbe the only liga'
ment that will hold the family togeth
err. How many reasons for your deel
unfaltering affection for each other
Rocked in the same cradle, bent owe
by the same motherly tenderness
toiled for by the same fathers wear,
arm and aching brow, with common
inheritance of all the family secrets
and with the names given you by par
ents who started you with the highes
hopes for your happiness and prosper
ity, l charge you, be loving and kline
and forgiving. If the sister see tina
the brother never wants a sympathiZ
er, the brother will see that the siste1
never wants an escort. Oh, if the sis
tiers of a household knew through
what terrific and damning tempta
tions their brother goes in city life