The San Francisco call., 1905-05-21

such earcasrns as calling the lady's pro-
ductions The Adjective Pendent Series"
Lillian. who is diligently cuitivating mag
naninity and teaching it to others. can
perhaps, afford to laugh al this fling,
fer reviewers must have some fun oc-
Casienally, else were their outlook never
beautiful.
1t cannot be denied that many readers
like Lillian Writings writing. and to
them this new outlook beautiful will be
welcome. 1t Is about such things as
these: The delusion or death; realizing
tie ideal: friendship as divine relation;
the ethereal world; the supreme purpose
of Jesus; the inward stiffness; the mir
acle moment may dawn al Sour.
Evidently it is the though Of her
friends that makes her wish . think
and teach that death, as the n.aterialist,
conceives it, is 4 delusion. From the book
of Corinthians she eulls the passage be-
ginning: With what body shall they
Gomez" Speaking of what she calls the
inward stiffness, by which she means the
willingness to accept the supreme will,
sne quotes this:
That perfect silence when the lips and heart
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions
The old query of why should we be so
foolish as to commune with that bar
ren voice" she puts in her own words
thus: why, indeed, should one live in
dark and discord rather than in lowell
ness anc all magic and music and en-
chantment?" Nearing the end of what
she has to say about this inward still
ness illustrating what she deems ideal
friendship. and in friendships name she
uses that poem of love which begins:
And Death the king of all. still would | pray,
For me the motley and the bauble yea,
Though all be vanity the preached saith.
The mirth OF love be mine for one brief BREATH
Then would l kneel the monarch to obey.
When enlarging on her announcement
that the miracle moment may dawn at
any hour, she reminds us that life is
continuous chain-a series of sequences in
which we are what we are to-day and
this year because of what we were yes
terday and last year. Out from what
gloom there may be in the inexorableness
of this thought of Karma, there comes
this CLEAN Of light from Mrs. Browning:
whate'er our state must have made it
And though that state displease US. aye, dis
please warrantabiy.
Never doubt that other states, though possible
once,
And then rejected by the instinct of our lives,
If then accepted. had displeased US more
What this of Mrs. Browning's may wish
or will to us, beyond the Karma that's
ing of that inward silence, which is will
ingness to the supreme will and in order
that as true courtiers to the King we
may unsullied by a sullen thought, bow
to that will we must make high the in
stinct of our lives. and so trust to its
guidance that if the path be pain We can
believe that the other choice of path,
though possible once if then accepted,
had disDleaseu US more.
s Still ha rDiney on friandcbip Mice Whit
ing uses this from Emerson: my friends
have come to me unsought. The great
God gave them to me. BY oldest right
find them. OF rather, not /. but the
deity in me and in them, both deride and
cancel the thick walls of individual char
acter, relation, age, sex and circum-
stance" And further of friendship this:
gifts, and country rambles. but also for
rough roads and hard fare, shipwreck,
poverty and persecution.
Now as to this saying of Emerson's S
that my friends have come to me un-
sought 1t is not easy to link the truth
and beauty of it to the teaching of the
Scriptures that we should seek friend
ships. We are told that he who would
have friends must show himself friendly.
We feel, though, that the finer things of
friendship have come to US unsought
to give is first given TO US from a source
beyond our will, and to be given where
itself claims to go and never is a gift
that we can willfully grant, even though
the petition for it held the completest
grace that should go into such pleading.
What can be by kindness of will power
granted is but friendships empty name.
Within what limits then can we obey the
Bible and seek friends by being friendly?
First, we might think the effort should
have the courage to open wide the door
to risk of rebuff, betrayal, or mistrust,
else it woul,1 be too calculating to be
called friendship. To check that we
heed the warning that we must not be
so frank about our life and likings as
would be the error called wearing our
heart upon our sleeves for DAVIS to peck.
and that being true, how deeply should
We shrink back into the triple-guarded
reserve of caution. coldness and conscien-
tious regard for the right of reserve held
by others whom the accidents of fate
throw our lives in contact with? Per-
haps good answer to the puzzle is