The Indianapolis journal., 1899-02-26

riers about the green lands and loved homes
welcoming the water floods and counting ali
things else but loss for the excellent glory
OF the pearl.
And in. the everglowing passion of your
IatherS-from the coming of the Pilgrims
Whose story has touched the heart of every
home-born man and gone all around the
world, from their landing to the advent of
the Republic and the revolution; in the
great strife for the integrity of the Republic
and just now in the strangling of oppres-
sion sic at the threshold of our land-through
all the years you find the ichor of your
finest life poured out to bring forth the
PRICELESS TREASURES.
Do we turn from the nations to the treas
ures which have made our life so rich in
these last times, and lifted so many sore
burdens Of labor and pain? I cannot find
one of the finest worth over which men have
not poured the ichor of their life for the
pearl when the pang has struck them
Turn to what we call the finer arts, and
we think of men like the creator of '"The
Angelus'' and "The Sower''-men Of whom
the world was not worthy, doing their
noblest work panied by the flint, pouring
NtfleIr life INTO the treasure, while many a
tlne 1t was their fortune TO die that the
pearl might be perfected in splendor and
noblest worth; while with some we also re-
member that What we call the fortune
came 10 those who open the shell and clutch
the pearl or of another fine soul who. as
ne lay on his deathbed said to his friend
LIT, Int me up; the picture was his pearl. he
would touch it with one more gleam of
radiance, and this done he fell on sleep to
awake IN the city whose gates, to the seer's
one pearl.
Or. turning to the treasure which has
come TO us in great and noble books and
mystery supremacy of the kingdom of
heaven. Milton. old, blind poor and out
Giast inS mas naIS5hlng forth in the dark encrust-
ing shell the peerless splendors Of the
PARADISE Lost for a sum the meanest
laboring man in England would despise for
DAY wages when you count the DAYS And
Bunyan, IN his den, trying to earn a crust of
bread for the weans and wife, while the
small blind weans sits near him--Bunyan in
the dark encrusting shell pouring over the
illEt OF evil circumstance the ichor which
has won the worlds worship in his match
less pearl of the Pilgrims Progress to the
City of God"
And Robert Burns, tormented by the
pang OF the flint, fighting the parasite or
mourning the frustrated hope-for here all
human lfe-Robert Burns pouring out the
ichor of his heart, great as lDe world in its
sympathy, and sweet in its tenderness as
His heart who spake the parable; the grand
est man of his time in grand old Scotland
making his motherland glorious in songs
that stir you like the sound of trumpets on
the eve OF great battles draw you to a
mouse in tender pity and to his human
family with the chords of the man, to so
sweet and true a purpose that, of all our
great singers and strong and true, he is to
me the sweetest and strongest, the man
above all other men of our age who was sent
from God to hasten the time
when men to men the world DER
Shall brothers be for a that"
And Charles Lamb turning from his
youths fair dream of a maiden peerless he
would some day call my wife, buryng his
home for that hapess sister Mary through
more than forty years, lin single double
ness" as he writes his frend-this man
giving us the jewel shining with a light that
never lay on land or sea. made precious by
the angels tear that fell through the bolt
of doom on the troubled home of his early
manhood, and the rich and rare beauty born
of the flint.
GREATEST OF ALL.
Shall we turn to the sacred story-the life
which holds for us the very light of this
supremacy of heaven and of God? 1t is the
story which touches the prophets and saints
of all time. and the things said and the
deeds done in dungeons. while the headsman
was waiting at the gates. These in all the
ages have given US the pearls OF great price
through tribulation and distress, while to
my own heart He sits enthroned of whom
it was written: 1T pleased him in whom
all fulness dwells to make the captain of
their salvation perfect through suffering
the man Christ Jesus, who bore the cross
and despiSed the shame that we might pos
sess the pearl beyond all price, and hold it
for all time.
And 1 have brooded over the lovely simili-
tude as memories have touched me of the
many have known and loved in all these
years, some of them far away in time and
space, and some no more on earth-those
who had borne sore burdens so bravely and
so sweetly that, as the poor human she'll
wore away, the pearl shone ever the clearer
through of those who had fallen on sad
and sore Illustration of our human hope and
JOY. but had stood firm by the white banner
of faith-faith in the supremacy of heaven
ana of God over all, and had kept their
rank and number to the end and left us the
pearl of great price.
And ever as l have listened to voices
speaking so tenderly of courage and a
patience Of God, while the ichor of their
life was enfolding the f1int-then the
shadows have seemed to be sweeter than
the light because of the pearl
Is it not indeed true, and forever true,
that a treasure can come to us through
this supremacy of heaven in the pearl, that
can never. come through the joy and
strength Of life? And that the dfvinest
truths life can reveal to you and to me lie
within this mystery2
Natural Question.
Washington Letter.
Are all these. men mothers?'' gravely