The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1908-04-17
j.. 4 LESSON s;
How, -. by Cod. Way,
Which /. Not Our Way,
Easter Spoke It. Old
Message Of New
Life


TN her house. Her mother, her
S \ husband and her boy had
filled her heart. Lacking
them, it was empty, and1it sched with
strange perplexed grief, a confused
question as to the purpose of her life,
which now seemed to her a shrunk
and withered thing.
She went to church. on Easter morn.
ing, because her beautiful house was
fntolerable to her, rather than because
she expected to find comfort. The
masses of white flowers, with the sug,
gestiveness of their heavy fragrance,
carried her back to the funerals of the
last year. The familiar words of the
service sounded like mockery to her.
Let us keep the FEAST" Even so
In Christ shall all be made alive"
"Set your affection on things above, not
on things on EARTH" One by one she
caught at the phrases, only to find
each was powerless to help her.
The hymn was no better:
The strife is DER, the battle done;
The victory Of life is won!
For her strife was: just beginning
and defeat instead of victory. seemed
her fate. She could not lift herself
out OF her personal woe far enough
to apply the words to anything but
herself.
She left the church, avoiding speech
with any one, and, with her heart like
ice in her bosom, she took an electric
car toward her desolate home.
A half block before her house was
reached the car stopped with a sud-
denness which startled the passengers.
Mrs. Farnham got off, thinking that
she would walk the few remaining
steps; but she saw the motorman with
a white face raising small boy ir
his arms from under the fender of the
car. The little fellow was unconscious,
and there was an ugly bruise on his
temple and deep cut on his neck. Be-
fore Mrs. Farnham realized what she
was doing the child. .Eas. carried into
her house, and she was enlisted with
the doctors in fight for his life.
For a week the issue was doubtful.
Consciousness flickered and wavered,
but would not come back. Meantime
Mrs. Farnham had learned that the
boy was nobody's child He had sold
papers since he was hardly more than
a baby. He had lived wherever he
could find a shelter, and had eaten
whatever he could get. The fact of
home was something he had never ex-
perienced. The grieving woman for
got her grief in her devotion to the
waif who had been cast at her door
by the strange decree of what we call
accident
The day came when the boys heavy
eyelids lifted and his childish curiosity
at his surroundings Embossed his
tongue. To open to him the doors of
new life was the most wonderful of
joys for his foster-mother. After his
long silence it was as if he had come
back from the dead. That he could
talk and laugh and eat and love
seemed like proof of the power of
life over death. Somehow Mrs. Farm
ham came to believe that it was such
proof, and that it was sent to her
in her desolation.
Out of the boys almost fatal acct
dent there was wrought for him the
miracle of home and love, and the op-
portun1ty for an educated and useful
manhood, and for the grieving woman
the springtime brought new hope as
the lonely winter passed. By Gods
way, which is not our way, Easter
spoke it's old message of new life
Youths Companion.