The age-herald., 1901-01-06

That I have longed long to deliver; I pray you, now receive them"
 ''No, not I: never gave you aught." My honor'd lord, you know right well, And, with them, words of so sweet breath
 composd
 As made the things more rich; their per-
 fume lost,
 Take these again; for to the noble mind, Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove un-
 kind"
 All of us have been givers and all of us sometimes unkind, my beloved. Not every one has been privileged to give precious material gifts, jewels rare, or costly things; but poor and mean and selfish indeed are all such as have not bestowed the pres ents of the soul.
 It may not be that fair lady has accepted of one coronet of stones so rich that it might be ransom for emperor, or that she has given to her lord jeweled sccptre with which to sway the world it may be that the lover was not possessed of even one brilliant to give in troth with her, or that she had more than a carnation, em-
  precious gifts, or absence of the spirit of giving or receiving, may have intervened in hour when hope ran riot with red hearts of the great passion of love: but there was a time for giving, a time for receiving, and all the richer were the gifts that they Were not reckoned in material and grosser val ues.
 We have given love, every one of us, and love We have received, and that Is the rich est of all human gifts, beloved; the price less possession of hearts of faith rendered in homage unto faith glad interchange of immeasurable gladness, blessed wand of n in low obeisance, even as the faithful kneel at the shrine of faith.
 A womans heart, q womans life, a wo- mans wondrous love, these for which men the gems ever digged from the rugged bos- om of earth or dragged from the dark deeps of the changeful sea: these are of more worth than all the sophistries, homolies, scoffings, sneerings, basphemes of the higher criticism, and outweigh all the van ities, false teaching, ad false witnessing of our time and all time.
 In saying that no man ever fell so low that dog or a woman would not love him, some goddess man meaning to jeer faith, and unworthy therefore to walk the earth and affront high heaven, unwittingly paid tribute to womans diviner quality. Yet he and his like, and they are not a few in the world, live not vadnly if they have be- l,rip in
 The noblest knighthood which can be con- ferred upon any man under the sun is that he be decked with the bays of woman's love. And the most accursed vice which man can show forth to a world of scorn and contempt is to cast that wreath of glo- ry upon the dust a thing despised.
 Next to the miracle of the Fathers mer- cy, that which has most power to uplift, ennoble, strengthen, bless and save is wo- mans wondrous love. And upon him who receives to betray that offering which heav- en itself holds most dear curse shall rest alway It is forbidden that he shall give her gifts with such sweet breath composed as make the things more rich, and then rob them of their perfume by being un- kind.
 Unkind! o beloved, the devils in hell echo that word! for since time began with man it has crowded perditlon with trou- bled spirits, and today, in the heart of this cold and crisp and home-nurs!ng winter, the spirit of unkndness is leaving its tracks before many door, darkening the glow pf many fireside, working fantastic shapes of wretchedness upon many frost ed window pane.
 Unkind! it is the devils word of care and cold. of want and misery. of neglect and