Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-05-15

tify?
But there is another rejecting mirror
held up before our eyes. That is the
mirror with which our enemies delight
TO show our delinquencies TO ourselves
and to the world. 1t Is 81 mirror into
which most of us look with flashing
eye and flushed cheek. But It is re-
fiecting mirror which ought TO be as
helpful for our moral and spiritual de
velopment as the one which our friends
| uplift This mirror has way of mag
-nifying and intensifying our Weakness
cs. Like the caricature, it has a way
OF making prominent the flaws of our
nature. and yet at the same time maxi
ing it very plain for whom the portrait
was Intended
Hogarth's Pen.
These enemies do with the rejecting
mirrors what William Hogarth did
with his brush and pen. Have you
ever been in the museums where they
had one room filed with concave and
convex mirrors? You stand before one
mirror, and You seem TO be n little
short fat man about four feet high
and we Ching at least 400 pounds. Then
you look into another mirror. and in
stead of being little short. fat man,
now you will be twelve feet tall and
about as wide as a match. Yet, tall
and thin. short and fat. YOU can see
in those concave ana convex mirrors
the same eyes. lips. hands and hair. So
oar enemies in life take us and pull us
Out or shove us In and twist us all out
OF shape in order to magnify oUr faults;
but, though they expose our errors with
unfaiing skill. we still retain enough
of our original selves to let the world
know who we are and what we have
done. And today for our own benefit
they are lifting up the rejecting mir
rors for us to have good look at our
errors anu imperfections.
But there is still another way in
which we can see our reflections in the
mirrors of our imperfect lives. That
IS when we stand surrounded by the
tragedies and the miSfortuneS result
ant from the mistakes of our past.
These misfortunes have their stories
| TO tell. Just the same as Successes have
| their stories TO tell. Though some men
may achieve success in spite of gar
ing faults in their makeup. yet few
men ever come To failure unless that
| failure is the result OF some folly or
sin which. if K had been diScefned in
time, could have been rectified. And
the man who is not willing TO see his
| faults by his failures Is man who is
blind indeed and who will. not be
taught by the sternest and yet best OF
all teachers.
Child Playing With Fire.
! Here, for instance. is n little child.
He will persist i'm playing with fire.
One day out I'm the back yard near TO
the farm he is gathering the leaves and
starts them I'm flame. The farm hand
/ gets there just I'm time to scatter the
leaves and save all the hay which had
been stored away i'm the loft Next
day the boy is playing with matches I'm
the nursery, and i'm fash n whole
box goes OF. but the older sister throws
them out OF the window in time TO save
the lace curtains. ThcsFmothcr has
warned the little boy and told him tine
danger, but no good results. "All
right" says the father, that boy must
be taught what fire really Is. lie must
| learn by an experience he will remem-
| ber." SO when the boy is about TO
touch the hot stove his father does not
Interfere. The boy burns his hand aad
screams with pain. The mother Is In
tears. The father Is in tears. But the
boy has learned his lesson. lie now
knows that fire Will burn. and there
fore he leaves the matches alone. Hard
was the lesson for the boy, hard, too,
for the father, but the pain was worth
the cure. SO with God and his erring
children. We have certain faults and
weaknesses. Our friends have told US
about them. Our enemies have told
us about them. They have both held
| up the mirrors for us TO see cur faults,
but we would not. God Is sorry. but IL
we will learn in no other way we must
| learn in that. Some tragedy comes l..
our life, and we say: What mlsfor-
tune! How could our loving Father al
low that TO fall upon us?" Ny friend,
1t is not misfortune. 1t is discipline.
That fault in you had to he corrected
! to gave you from worse evil. Be thank
fl-l that it was sent to you, and take
care you learn the lesson it was sent
| TO teach.
We are puzzled when this experience
happens to us. though we are able to
trace back The evil causes of our neigh
bors' tragedies. Indeed. it is far easier
for physician 20 diagnose the disease
OF another man than to prescribe for
The malignant fever that is burning his
OWE vitals. When we so through life
and find one trouble coming TO one
man and another trouble coming to al.
other man and still another trouble
coming to n third we say: ''There. !
told you so. Those men were once
boys with me and grew up with me.
and / knew they would come TO no
good end. Why, years ago, those men
were laying the foundations of these
very failures. knew 1t and told them
ao''
Have You Deeenerated?
Carry your thoughts back to the days
II your old Christian home. Are YOU
not startled at the changes in your
life? Have you not degenerated? If
today you could make large sum of
money by unloading a lot of worthless
land as future building lots upon some
Ignorant purchaser who had not vet
cut his wisdom teeth, would you do 1t?
how are you different from your old
| friend whose misfortunes you were
Just discussing? The only difference
between you and him is the rapidity
with which you are losing your moral
and spiritual integrity Are you going
10 forget the weakness that overthrow