The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-02-12

|
lifted in the Almighty's arms, was car
ried to the opening of IA cave and place.
in a crypt, and one stroke of the divine
hand smoothed the features into al
everlasting calm, and n rock was rolled
TO the door, and the only obsequies, a
which God did all the offices of priest
and undertaken, and gravedigger, ant
mourner, were ended.
Miriam was the eldest of the family
Moses and Aaron, her brothers, were
younger. Oh the power of the elder
sister to help decide the brothers char
actor for usefulness and for Heaven
She can keep off from her brother
more evils than Miriam could hav,
driven back waterfowl or crocodile
from the ark of bullrushes. The Older
sister decides the direction in which
the cradle boat shall sail. BY gentle
ness, by good sense, by Christian prin
ciple she can turn it toward the palace
not of a wicked Pharaoh, but of holy
God; and brighter princess than
Thermutis should lift him out
of peril, even religion whose
ways are ways of pleasantness and all
her paths are peace. The older sister,
how much the world owes her! Born
while yet the family was in limited
circumstances, she had to hold and
take care of her younger brothers.
And if there is anything that cxcites
my sympathy, it is "a little girl Juggling
around great fat child and
getting her ears boxed because
she can not keep him quiet? by
the time she gets to young woman
hood she is pale and worn ont. and
her attractivcness has been sacrificed
on the altar of sistcrly fidelity. and
she is consigned to cclibacy. and socie-
| ty calls her by an unfair name; but in
Heaven they call her Miriam. In most
1 families the two most undesirable
places in the record of births are the
first and the last; the first because she
is worn out with the cares of home
that can not afford to hire help, and
the last because She is spoiled as Il pet.
Among the grandcst equipagcs that
/ sweep through the streets of Heaven
will be those occupied by sisters who
sacrificed themselves for brothers
| They will have the finest of the Apoca-
! lyptic white horses. and many who on
earth looked down upon them will
have to turn out to let them pass. the
charioteer crying: Clear the way! A
| queen is coming"
Let sisters not begrudge the time
and care bestowed on brother. 1t is
hard to believe that any boy you know
so well as your brother can ever turn
out anything very useful. Well, he
may not be another Moses There is
only one of that kind needed for G,O00
years. But / tell your brother will
| bc-either blessing or curse to
society. and n candidate for happiness
or wrctchedness. He will, like Moses,
| have the choice between rubics and
! living Goals, and your influence will
have much to do with his decision. He
may not. like Moses, be the delivcrer
of nation, but he may, after your
father and mother are gone be
| the deliverer of a household. What
thousands of homes to-day are piloted
| by brothers! There are properties now
well invested and yielding income for
the support of sisters and younger
brothers because the older brother rose
to the leadership from the day the
father lay down to die. Whatever YOU
do for your brothers will come back to
you again. If you set him an lima
turcd, ccnsorious, unaccommodating
example, it will recoil upon you from
his own irritated and despoiled nature.
II you, by patience with his infirmitics
and by his nobility of ehqracter, dwell
with him, in the few years of your
conpanionship, you will have your
counscls reflected back upon you some
day by his splcndor of behavior in some
crisis where he would have failed but
for you.
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 the bull
PUSHES. 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 mcancst and most
devilish. There is a teasing that is
plcasurable, and is only another form
of innocent raillcry; but that which
provokcs and irritates and makes the
eye flash with anger is to be repre-
hended. 1t would be less blameworthy
to take bunch of thorns and
draw them across your sisters
check, or to take knife and draw
its sharp edge across your broth
cr's hand till the blood spurts for that
would damage only the body; but teas
ing is the thorn and the knife scratch
ing and decorating the disposition and
the soul. 1t is the curse of innumbera-
Bile 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 il is by re-
vealing secret or by "A suggestive look,
or n outlaw, or an "Ahcm!' Tease!
Tease! Tease! For mercy's sake, quit
it. Christ says: "lIe that hatcth his
brother is "a murderer" Now, when
you, by teasing, make your brother or
sister hate you. you turn him or her in
to "a murderer or murderess.
Don't let jealousy ever touch n sisters
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 passion of
jealousy She had possessed unlimited
influence over Moses, and now he mar
p,.1 100 .,.l.y lx,.s