The Newtown bee., 1909-05-07

he was lost in his own sad thought
 asd ' 2 world was as fl il existed no
 Twas showing without and the pur
 white blanket s0ftened the f0otfall
 of q lone woman who with her littl
 child was just outside the COttag
 6 100 was q lonely soul witt
 a history, and broken in health, b
 the memory of q sad past, she lef
 her little child at the weaVer's cot
 tage and went forth into the storm
 only to fall by the wayside and die ] The child efawled Into the weaver
 hut, and in the warm room 'urled III
 and went 10 sleep beneath Silas
 l0tni. The weaver at last awakHainl
 from his reyerle. looks beneath hli
 loom with mournful sense of losi
 when To! his eyes behold q yellow
 gl am. 'Tls his gold returned tt him. Reaching forth with eager
 heart hi' fingers encountered not tho
 resistance of the gold coin, but
 rather were imbedded in the yellow
 curls of q little child. Providence
 had sent this babe instead of his gold. With the child 10 love and to
 love him Silas .arner was to be led back to life's best things. The weay- CT to0k the child to his bosom and began to care for it with the tender ness of parenthOOd. For the child's sake his hand became busy with in- dustry and his nights were no longer filled with mourning. As the child grew, he had her educated at the village school and had books upon the cottage table, something never there before. For her sake he made a garden beside his dwelling where blDssomed the rose and all the flowers in their season. And at last Silas Manner, when the child was grown, appeared with her at the church md the faith in God and man which he had cursed and rejected in Lantern Yad came back to him nd once more he vas a Christian man.
 Sixteen more yeaIS roll by. The little child with golden curls isgrown to gjrlhood and is the most beautiful maiden in Raveloe. No blight had touched her moral beauty As inn0- cent as babe was she and as devoted to Silas as any child was ever de- voted to an earthly parent. One Sur day liter the church service had been attended and Sllas and Fife rad returned home, a rich man and wo- man called at their humble home. The man was the maids father whose wife he had rejected and who died by the va 's'dc tb,t stormy New Years Eve outside the weaver's cottage door. The rich nan had come for his child whoIn he had ts ected all these years and now wished ,C give her privilege, travel and a | 70 ne in his mansion. But in that lt tr the girl threw her aims around Sllas MarLer's neck and reflSt 10 cave him. The flood gates of Warner S heart were now unloosed. | lis hatred of man, whose hand Lad llways seemed to be against him, led. His love for God was now re- lived with certainty aid fullness, i lGd human happiness tool posSe"sl,n 0re"er i1 the wLaver's heart. And | cry beautifully dces George Elliot gather up the lesson 'n these classic words: Tn old days there were an- gels who came and took men by the land and led them away from the ,ity of destruction. We see no white winged angels now Bnt yet men are ed away from threatening destruc- ion. A hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently '0- ward calm and bright land, so that | hey look no more backward, and the land may be the hand of little mild"
 We'll might George Elliot have hosen the text which I have elected as that upon which she bases 'ilas Marner, "A little cn shall cad them" And how true this has ways been Tn human eXperlenTe Tor it[le children in their simple trust nd credulity have drawn men and yCmen iron, the rnazes of doutt and their purity and innocence as kept men and women from yield ng to base temptation; their truth ulness and sincerity have kept par nts honest enG fair; their little rayers and beliefs have kept alive he fires of religion on the altar of he home.
 "The story is told of a lit e boy, three years old, who had )enl the summer vitl, his grand atents wh le hi father and mctLe , ere abroad. There he had learned l what had neve" been la ghI him i home) to say his nightly prayer. S ie first nigl at home his father, , ho was a judge and apt to be away I om home fer long per'ods, |, nk care Z ! see all he c 'ulG of tie little fellow z nd so carried him to his crib. As