The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-05

is sufficient to help woman bear the painful stitches in her side as well as to help her in her domestic duties. It Is sufficient even to enable her to bear the nagging and tantalizing and continuous burden Of great swarm of buzzing lo- eusts
 Divine Reinforcement.
 If 1t is important for wives and mothers to have the grace of God in order to over come the inhnitesimal burdens of the multitudinous locust 1t is also important for husbands and fathers and brothers to have the same kind of divine re-en- foreement to meet the burdensome insec- tile annoyances that affllet them in turn. It Is not the droughts and the freshets and the mortgage upon the land that wear out the patience of the farmer. It is the annoyance of the neighbors bor- rowing his tools and not returning them. It is the annoyance of the farmland getting drunk in the midst of the harvest. It is the stupidity of the same farm hand giving the best horse cold water to drink when overloaded, so that the animal becomes foundered.
 l once heard of a prominent New York merchant who was sneered at by his business associates and called eccentric because every morning before q yard of
 
 shelves or the front door of the store was opened to admit the customers he used to call into ono room all of his em- ployes. He summoned them together, the highest as well as the lowest, the heads of departments as well as the cash girls and errand boys. Then in that room ths great merchant used to plead at the throne of mercy for spiritual help to meet the little trials and annoyances of the | fo nit fa needed in each home around which fla ther and a mother and the children every morning and evening may gather, such ] an altar ought to be erected in every fac tory and store and office and study I Such an altar ought to be raised by ev- cry father and husband and brother and son at which to plead daily for divine grace, so that they may overcome the little annoyances that course about every active life lilxe the burden Of the buzzing loeusts.
 Many unjust and contemptible criti- cisms which are daily made against us and our work cah aptly be classed as among the insectle armies of the null tituodnous locusts. good, honest, ve- hement, hea- -iy criticism ought to be spiritually helpful to the average man. It ought to act upon the ambitious mind and the spirit in the same way that vigorous massage starts the sluggish blood coursing through the arteries and veins of our invalid body. It is when an army is invading a foreign land that the commanding general is most careful about his scouts and sentries and coun- tersigns and powder and bullets and guns and commissary supplies. 1t is when a man feels that he is completely sur rounded by rivals and by honest critics who do not believe in the way he is doing that he puts forth his best ener- gies and lives up to his highest standard.
 Learn to Do Better.
 The effect which the attack of an hon est enemy ought to have upon our lives was once illustrated by a noted preacher. He pictured a flock of migrating birds being shot at by a fowler At the first discharge of the hunters gun the migrat- ing birds merely give a few strokes of their powerful wings and fly higher At [ the next discharge they fly still higher; 1 at the next, higher and higher until they are out of range of their enemys bullets. The true effect of an honest critics at tacks should be to make fly higher and still higher into the spiritual lfe-to | fly higher and higher until we come l closer and closer to God It was the at | tacks and sneers and derisive remarks | hurled at the young statesman that | nerved Benjamin Disraeli to become the great leader of the house of commons and the favorte prime minister of his | queen. It was the harsh criticism of an English naval officer that made Admiral Farragut firmly set his teeth and lips together and redouble his energy when 1 he drove his wooden ship past the sup l posed impossible batteries of New Or | leans. and 1t is the deserved criticism of our enemies that ought to make us more consecrated to our life's work and more willing to make sacrifices to accomplish our object.
 | But there is a Christian as well as an 1 un-Chrstian way of meeting the criti- cisms of rivals and of those who are l jealous of our successes. One way is to do as Plato. the great disciple of So- crates, did when he was told that even the boys in the streets were laughing at his singing He answered, Then I must learn to sing better, so that they will not laugh The other way is to do as Alex ander Pope, the vain and representative poet of England, used to do Instead of going ahead and doing the work that God gave him to do, and on account of his enemies criticisms doing 1t better and better all the time, he wasted most of his life in bickerings and backbiting and in trying to destroy the regulations of those who were attacking him. The one way is to do as D. L. Moody did. He made it the rule of his life to never individ- ualy attack a person who had attacked him. The more Mir Moody was assaled and misrepresented the more he would go to God in prayer and ask the Divine Fa- ther to make his life so pure and true that there might not remain in his heart any cause for the charge which his en- emies were making. The other way is to a II neighbor or a critic makes any deroga- tory statement about us and our work we prove that we are not falsely con demnSd in all particulars. that at least we have the fault of retaliation because we go hunting for the faults in our neighbours lives instead of trying with divine help. to correct the evils in our own.
 Rise by the Grace of God.
 Thus my brother I want you. by the