The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1906-10-25

& SATURDAY
4 NIGHT TALKS /
8 By F. r. Dawson Rutland Vt. s
WASTED RESOURCES.
Oct. 28. '08-(Matt. 28:6-16.)
By F. e. Dawson

| JuudSp Wu6u IOFlu6 "Ouldu, dS al
expression of her devotion to Christ.
anointed His feet with a box of pre-
cious ointment. The penurious dis
ciple had no conception Of the beau
tiful or the sublime, either in ma
ture. or IN at, ,,or n religion. He
would never have given a penny to
promote an aesthetic or benevolent
enterprise. The Scriptures intimate
that he was not only miseT, but q
thief and though he professed great
love for the poor he really itched to
get. hold Of the sheckles the sale Of
that spikenard, that to his mind was
wasted on Christ would have brought.
Money he could understand, but
spikenard, bah! 1t was only a SMELL
Society has always been afflicted
with a class of carpers like Judas.
| There never was an effort made to
sweeten the bitter cups of this
worlds trouble, but some sneering
critic has appeared to complain Of
tho waste Of good material which Is
used in the operation.
The poor would die Of starvation,
and vice and crime would become
epidemic If these people could get
hold of the funds which are, accord
ing to their way of thinking wasted
upon the undeserving. 1t is tmpossi-
BILE for them to realize that the hui
man heart Graves sympathy as the
body needs bread, and that the soul
hungers for love and starves without
] 1t, as truly as life Is sustained by
| food, and perishes for lack Of it.
! There are multitudes Of people who
| can understand a dollar, but who
cannot understand a bouquet. They
know what a bag Of potatoes means.
but they cannot understand how
smile and a pleasant word, puts a
song into the heart that sings all
| through the day, and acts as tonic
amid the depressions of business
anxiety and bodily weariness.
| The value of the aesthetic in life
has not half been appreciated. In
proportion as nations improve their
| surroundings do they rise in the
scale Of living. 1t Is possible to get
an education in q little red school
| house. whose benches are hacked,
/
broken whose stove smokes, whose
door sags on one hinge. whose equip
| ment consists of a cracked black
| board and nubbins of chalk, but the
| child who goes to school in a mod
ern, up-todate twentieth century
building stands a better chance Of
getting right views of things. The
community which thinks 1t a waste
of money to erect a well-eQuipped
school house and to pay for prop
erly trained instructors, may save
their money but it will be at the ex-
pense of the manhood and woman
hood Of the next generation.
When a new church is to be built
Judas always comes around. He
wants no foolish display about the
house Of God. He declares that
steeples are an invention Of the
devil to rob the poor people Of their
hard earned money, and as for
stained glass windows, the very
mention of them makes it certain
that we are headed straight for the
papacy. His fathers worshipped In
a plain, unpatnted, rectangular, hill
crowned, windswept, sun-burned
meeting house, and what was good
enough for his ancestors is good
enough for him! And then If he Is
outvoted. he buttons up his pocket
at such unrighteous extravaganza,
and goes out crying, Waste! Waste!
In the estimation Of these people
it is a waste of good material to
bury the bright minds of Christian
lands in the darkness of heathen-
ism, that those people may see a
great light. He doesn't think it un-
wise for the brightest and most ag-
gressive tradesmen of civilized ma
tions to push their way into heather
countries to carry On business. In
their case there Is money in 1t. But
that a man should lay down his life
instructing the ignorant, reforming
the vile, and making himself the sa-
viour of whole districts swarming
with human beings who otherwise
would live like cattle, and die like
flies-Judas cannot ia the least par
lticular understand that.
When such a woman as Frances
Willard, brainy. cultured, fit to
grace any position In society gives
up her life to the advocacy of what
the superficial consider an impossi-
BILE reform, how many there are who
criticise such waste of good mate
rial. They say she threw her life
away. On the contrary she broke the
ala baster box Of infinite love upon
the feet Of staggering humanity, and
the odor Of the ointment fills the
world to-day. While the world stands
that she hath done will be told as a
memorial of her, while the women
who have lived like butterflies, like
them will be forgotten. There is
many a delicate, tenderly-
cultivated slum worker, wearing the
neat garb of deaconess. or the
characteristic attire Of the Salvation
Army. scrubbing floors, tending ba-
hies, shaking up hot pillows. COM
forting drunkards' wives, lifting
!; lambs out of the way Of human
wolves. arresting crime by the power
of their purity. never heard of ex-
cept In the little circle IN which they
move, who In eternity will shine as
the stars forever and ever. The
sneerins critic says. 1T Is a waste."
The Son Of Man says, "Inasmuch as
ye have done 1t unto one Of the least
Of these, ye have done it unto mel"
| T,J. ,,cco fo - h,,ry tho doo6 noat-