Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-10-11

grants was planning to go TO some
definite region, ana he would lay bis
plans ana map cut his course before he
sfareed. IL Is of vital importance for
man to know In what direction he is
TO travel before he leaves the home
city. After we have been travelling on
day after day II is almost impossible
for us to turn back and start out with
another party of emigrants. If you
were TO enter the camp tonight in
which Joseph and Mary were travelling
you would find there was no doubt in
their minds in which direction they
/ were going to travel. Let us ask Jo-
] seph and have him tell us how be came
to join this caravan.
Here he is now by the campfire.
Mary and he are worrying about their
J absent boy. Hello, Joseph, Is that
you? You say you left Jesus behind?
/ How could any loving father and
mother do as you have done?' "Well,"
answers Joseph, 81 will tell you. We
went down to Jerusalem to attend the
Passover feast. After the national
festivity was over 1 began to look
around TO find out when the first party
or travellers was going north to my
home town of Nazareth. Every day
the people were leaving, but they were
ell going In directions we did not wish
to travel. Last night / heard that
party of men would start for the Zeb-
ulon hills. OF course both Mary and
myself had to do a lot OF preparation
In order to get on at such quick notice.
In the excitement OF getting our things
| together we did not look as carefully
after OUT boy as we ought. This is the
only party Of travellers who are going
to Nazareth for two weeks. We had
TO join this party or not go at all. This
Is the reason why Jesus was forgotten
I'm the rush of getting of" Yes. it
would have been very silly for Joseph
and Mary to travel toward Machpelah
in the hope of somehow getting around
to Nazareth. 1t is a very foolish move
for some of us to start the journey Of
life when we do not know or care to
what destination we are heading. o
man, are you travelling toward heaven?
Are yon journeying toward the cross?
Sinful Companions.
But there is still another warning
which l want yor TO heed we'll in your
! journey of life = the moral and
the spiritual char Of the men and
the women with '-l you are bound
to be brought In daily association.
This warning is no joke in reference
to those with whom we go forth into
the woods upon some summer vaca-
| ton. IL you do not heed we'll the kind
OF people with whom you go camping
In the summer your whole spiritual
life may be wrecked.
No man, care not how strong he
may be, Is strong enough to resist the
pernicious influence of sinful compan-
ions. There is an old saying that IL
you put one decayed apple In a barrel
filled with red apples which have Just
been gathered from the orchard that
rotten apple in time will contaminate
all the other apples in the barrel
Therefore IL you put one good apple
among a dish of decayed apples 1t
will not be long before that good ap-
pie will become decayed. And yet some
people profess to believe that a good
man can be placed side by side with
a lot Of morally diseased men and be
AS EpON dS Al lOl DCllcE ludu when he
began TO associate with his evil COM
penions. That belief is against al. the
laws of common sense.
But there is one fact above all 9TH
ers which our text teaches-that is.
when we start out on our journey of
life We should take all our dear ones
nlong. A man may have an unuttcr-
able longing for the woods. His over
taxed brain and nerves may be calling
to him day by day: REST, restl L
| must have restr' he may be In great
glee as he packs away his camping
outfit and puts his trout flies carefully
away In his pocketbook and straps his
gun cases. He may feel his blood
coursing through his veins with renew
ed strength as he leaves civilization
behind and climbs the mountain I'M
trodden save by the woodsman with
his axes. But when night begins to
fall and time for going to sleep in his
camping bag comes around or when
Sunday comes when he does not fish
or hunt or travel the one thought
which is uppermost in his mind and
heart is this: ''I wonder how the folks
are getting along at home? ] wonder
If the babies are we'll? I wonder If
will ever see them again? Oh, 1
wish they were all herer' Friend, have
you ever been on a camping trip when
you have been weeks and weeks away
from home? Have you ever had this
unutterable longing come over you
which some people call old fashioned
Inconsistencies? Then. If you so miss
your dear ones when you are away
from home for n few weeks, how do
you suppose you would feel If you
were never to meet them again?
The Dear Ones.
Mary and Joseph, why are you so
anxious about Jesus? He Is nothing
but boy, a small boy twelve years
or age Why do you want to go clear
back to Jerusalem to find him? "Why,"
says Mary, 'if we do not take Jesus
along now something may happen to
him. He will find out that we have
left him, and then he may try to fol-
low us and be killed by the robbers or
the wild beasts or perhaps sold into
slavery. oh, no; we must find our boy.
We could never be happy a day unless
we knew that or dear boy was safe"
FRIEND, Is not t2t : way we should
be in the journe So life? Could we
ever be happy O. nth or in heaven
unless We knew that our dear ones
were safe with us and safe with God?
AND yet alas, how many OF us do not