The Laclede blade., 1907-02-09
Some Evening Reveries.

mon sense IN Lne readlng OF the script
nres! We get any other book and W
open it and we say: "Now, what doe
this book.mean to teach me? 1t is
book on astronomy; it will teach m'
astronomy. 1t is book on politica
economy; it will teach me politica
economy" Taking up the Bible, dc
we ask ourselves what it means te
teach? 1t means to do just one thing
get the world converted and get us all
to heaven. That is what it proposes
to do. But instead ofthat, we 60 into
the Rihle as botanists to pick flower.
or we 60 as pugilists to get something
to fight other christians with, or we go
as logicians trying to sharpen our
mental faculties for better argument
and we do not like this about the
Bible, and we do not like that, and we
do not like the other thing. What
would you think of a man lost on the
mountains? Night had come down;
he cannot find his way home, and he
sees light in a mountain cabin, he
goes to it, he knocks at the door; the
mountaineer comes out and finds the
traveller as.ea v.-y-.-~ksur~1l-.La + haua.
a lantern; you can take it, and it will
guide you the way home" and sunnose
that man should say: II don't like that
lantern, don't like the handle of it,
there are ten or fifteen things about it
I do not like; if you cannot give me a
better lantern than that I won't have
any"
Now, God says this Bible is to be q
lamp to our feet and lantern to our
path, to guide us through the mid
night of this world to the gates of the
celestial city. We take hold of it in
sharp criticism, and deprecate this,
and deprecate that. Oh! how much
wiser we would be if by this holy
light we found our way to our ever
lasting home.
k
The cold weather of the week that
is past has set US all to thinking OF
the poor. We wonder to how many of
us the weary dreary phrase of hope
less poverty is anything more than
romance. Sitting in our warm and
comfortable homes, by pleasant fires
with luxurious beds waiting to receive
our we'll fed bodies, we can have no
more comprehension of what grinding
poverty means than an angel in the
full glory of paradise can know of the
deepest depth of hades. Think of it!
No fuel. Absolutely none. No bed,
but piled up rags: little children wall
ing with cold and helpless with hun
ger; closets bare as old Mother Hub
bard's; smells that reach high heaven
in their foulness. And in their depth
Of poverty, to which even our imagin-
alton can scarcely descend, lies lurk-
ne curse like the wild beast in its
air. The sordidness Of poverty eats
,ut the soul of a man as tiger drinks
blood. Brutality, apathy, the cruelty |
If fends, are begot when pride and
lmbition die utterly. Would that
,ur charities could strike deeper, en-
courage and reanimate as well as
,lothe. We are all of us apt to gath
II our skirts about US, hold our noses
md avert our eyes while we hand out
,ur garments and our bread. Blessed
,e the soul that is inspired enough to
70 down into the shadows and lend a
lelping hand. To be very poor, and
'et carry clear life and keep alive
IN bition and hope is like seeking to
ct white rose growing in the bosom
f a coal pit.
***
There should be no faction in our
title city. There should be a amutual
interest in the prosperity of our people.