The age-herald., 1900-03-25
THE MURMUR
 OF THE WORLD

II
 No lark could pipe to skies so dull and Yet ere we part, one lesson can leave l you
 For every day.
 Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be | clever,
 Do noble things, not dream them all day l long;
 And so make life, death, and thatSast for | ever
 One grand sweet song.
 For child and maid alike these words | make up a beautiful and noble lesson for every day of life upon the earth. Whether | the skies be dull or grey, or bright, life radi amt with joy or gloomy with sorrows shad | ows whether yiolets blossom by the way or | thorns pierce fair hands and tender; wheth- | CT bright birds sing to flowers and chil- i dren. or the lone owl mournfully calls to dim spectres in the forest; whether laugh | ing brooks simmer between grassy banks | through grassy meadows in the sunlight, l or be locked with the ice of frosty days; | whether hope mount high, or care dull | to spiritual weariness; whether things be as | the soul loves them, or as the soul de- | tests-whatever be the mental or physical state. there is a good lesson for every day. |
 It is, Be Good! Within the vontion of every human being is the power to be 1 good While life last there is open to | every one the way, bright shining and | glorious with eternal love and mercy and | righteousness. To whatever deeps of | wretchedness men or women be fallen, the | gate to the way stands wide open for those l who will to enter. It does not matter what 1 the error, shame, or sin there is hope for the lowest fallen; inspiration for all who will see and hearken and act In the | gloom of wickedness truth may appear, and 10! there Is light. The sinful, low-lying in | noxious vapors, may rise and go out into l the pure light of the sun, the inspiriting | atmosphere of the real heaven, and gaze | upon the glory that beats around the heights of faith. Yea! all who seek can | reach beatftude. The poorer offender, the | wrechedest of all the wretched will be up- l lifted if they but accept the plan and ask for the dispensation. They have but to | reach out with the hands that tremble and | quiver and are palsied with sinful or un- wise indulgence, and touch the hem of that | garment that is forever in reach, and that | Power which punished in the Red Sea and blessed on Calvary will soothe all pain: I | and transform them into ful-armored | soldiers to fight for the worlds regenera- ton. That Power is waiting, waiting. wait ing!
 | Little children who come into the world | weeping whilst all around them smile are | born in the sin that has cursed mankind through all the ages of earthly existence l Yet they are of themselves innocent and l are of such as the kingdom of heaven And wnosoever- shall make them to weep | through unkinduess shall stand self-con- | victed of injustice unrighteousness, bar | barlty, and be cast out amongst the l heathen. The hand that is raised in anger | to smlte a child is hand raised against l love and al that is right. The htSrt that | hates or would lead to cruelty to little | innocent is heart that dreads not the | loss of heaven, fears not the pains of he'll | That tyrant who comlpassed the death of 1 many a first-born was powerless to touch 1 one child in a place beyond the reach of l his sceptre, and maylap too humble for | his wrath and that child was love, the | fulhllment of the law and the prophecies! 1! | He stands condemned and the woman Is | not a woman whom little child shall not lead to higher things.
 The admoEition to be good is easier l obeyed by children, for it is the divine plan | that they be pure of heart. The wicked | will seek too soon to make them spotted | of the world; but the while they laugh l their glad years away there is about them the all-protecting power, strong to shield | them from wickedness, to deafen their senses to unelean voices and attune them | to holy harmony. When the tot begins to l toddle and then to lisp uniformed words of | formless speech, binding love to love ever | stronger hour by glour and day by day; | gathering in puny hands tender cords of | vast power in forming the web and shap- ing the destiny of life; the while when | coong daughter is prayer and ftful smil- ing is benediction; when one soul bounds and scars, and the other expands and reaches out towards the world of the mys- teries when the glad delrum of maternal devotion riots through the mind and brain of the woman bending above and caressng innocence, happiest of happiness :-the mother then begins to counsel the child to be good! And so say we all of us, so say to children of young years and to children of larger growth--be good In the morning,
 
 darkness, be good! And hearts are more than coronets and simple faith than Nor man blood" It Us easy enough to be good. and 1t is noble. Therefore, Be Good! l
 One of the great men of the world, man who had attained to the most exalted hon. or, who had won his peoples faith, and swayed the rod of their empire of almost unparalleled splendor, and who, with all his earrhly glory, had won woman's af- lection and that woman as wife, declared to mankind that she was making his life one grand sweet song. That was a noble | tribu.e to noble an the whispering of | whose name touches tenderly millions of men and women. She is good, and she so | lives to make life. death and the for ever an anthem grand and sweet So may | all women live, all men, the maid and her