The age-herald., 1899-05-28
THE MURMUR
 OF THE WORLD

| You sulphurous and thought-exeeuting
 fires,
 | Vant-courlers to oak-ceaving thunder bolts,
 slnge my white head! And thou, all shak- 1 ing thunder
 | Strike flat tho thick rotundity O the world! | Crack natures molds, all germins spill at l once,
 1 That make ingrateful man
 The cynical definition of gratitude that | it Is a sense of favors to come Is sometimes true. Men are given to fogetting kind | nesses and services done them; to kicking down the ladder by which they have as- | cended to the full view and gaze of an ad- hiring astonished world. And thus individuals who rise to more or less ele- | vated points of distinction or the less ad- mrable element of mere notoriety per | yersely lose sight of the companions who | cheered them in the shades and by the | laughing waters of the cool, sequestered vale of obscurity long before their sober | thoughts learned to stray to where the maddlng crowds ignoble strife was hot | test, foulest, wickedest In no other situ- | ation or condition of life does man appear | so contemptibly small. Power or pelf either seems to freeze the genial current of mans nature in its flood towards them that have known glim longest and best and served him most. Tho whim of a caucus of tricksters, ignorant or corrupt or both holsts d poor errlng creature up to the very peaks of Olympus; and, being unable to hold converse of the gods, he mouths at space and looks as silly as a swineherd in the boudoir of a princess Garfield wept when fools placed upon him the tl-fitting robes of greatness. Napoleon committed murder and about all the other crimes in the decalogue. They are types of men all of us have known and none of us quite trusted. They kicked down the ladders. When we are born, we cry that We arc come to this great stage of fools. When we die, we cry that we are to quit it. In our youth, with light and loving hearts, we bind ourselves to the fortunes of oth. CTS. When the infirmities and the sorrows of the years lower above us, like shadows of despair, we find that ingratitude and self ishness and the other vices born of purse pride, or the corruption of the caucus, have cut the hooks of steel, and the ingrate has passed beyond even the angels voices call ing, calling calling. Didst ever hear the angels voice calling when the shadows fell deepest? Dds't ever feel the touch of angels wing when the heart was bursting with joy or breaking and bleeding in name less grief? Dids't ever look upon the white pinlons flashing in glorious bril- liance and marking the way of hope and life against the blue vast vault of the upper deep? So? Ah So? Then for you the shafts of ingfatftude hurtess break. Then you are come to know in all it's divine full- ness and restful effulgence the goodness of God. The angel guest still comes through the gates of suffering best.
 
 The vanities of man are but evidences of the wide space that lies between him and righteousness. Ingratltude is the most unshapey and hideous offspring of all the vanitios. You strive to aid and encourage a man in the acquisition of this worlds goods. Goodfelow turned to Goldbags loudly boasts that money are power and l is got it, and he passes you by on the other side He puts diamond in his shirt front, paints a dukes crest upon his car riage door, and buys a senatorship. Then the angels weep. There is another whose interests you have gladly striven for years to promote and right glad you have been in the doing of it. Suddenly the caucus lifts him above you and above himself, and dreams have become power. ',The offices are mine,' he thunders defiantly, and then it is you come to know that with power gratitude is sense of favors to come. The Jack" of yesterday is the Sir of to- day and you may knock at the unopening door of his favor till the crack of doom There are others to be taken care of" You might as well go hang yourself.
 My king! My love! I speak to thee, my heart!'' was the salutation of him who was friend and companion in days of dark trouble. The answer was
 I know thee not, old man: Fall to thy prayers;
 How i'll white hairs become a fool and
 jesteri
 Yestereen in the alehouse twas Hal Today in the palace 'tis your majesty. Tomorrow the fool and jester'' shall pass away in penury babbling O green fields.
 
 But it is in the goodness of God that these things do not constitute the standard of mans morality. They are as a few foul weeds forcing their way amongst the beautiful flowers blossoming, and blessing in the great garden of human love- charity, benevolence, gratitude, friendship and de- votion. Whensoever there be one who shall deny, betray and forget there shall be great company of brave souls who shall lovingly and Loyalty wear the bonds of fidelity and be steadfast in the way of faith and truth and trust. Whensoever there shall be one causing doubt there shall be many whom we trust, and question not at all even though years and oceans roll between. It is in this that silence is bene- diction, whilst heart reaches to heart, thought is joined to thought through all distances When love unites wide space divides in vain, and the worthless becomes the voiceful It matters not if the post brings no message from Andrew it matters not if it bear him none. In friendship, in the offices and affairs of love, messages Al.