The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-31

young women lIOu1 Al10IlCd ndO SOAe
to Japan to join the Southern Method
list Mission at Hiroshima and they were
greeted at the station by a company
of no less than three hundred per-
sons.
One morning I left the city Of Pyeng
Yang, in northern Korea. long before
daylight to travel through the wintry
darkness to the railway station, some
three miles distant. 1t was a time
when one would be tempted to sit as
close to his own fireside as possible;
yet simply because I had been intro
duced to them as a Christian man,
nine Of the officers of the Korean
church took this long journey through
the and the cold in order
to bid me go on my Way in peace.
Only those who have experienced it
can know how such signs Of fellow,
ship warm the cookies Of a mans
heart. 1t meant more to Paul than
even the heartbreak in the narrative
reveals, to have the little reunion with
his EDhesian friends as he j~Ourneyed
On to Jerusalem, and to the unknown
fate before him.
Pointing to the
Strong with the most unaSsailab1e
strength is the man. who's record will
Dear inspection. Innumerable men
have been halted in their careers and
baked in their ambitions by the rising
up before them, as ghOstly spectres Of
an unfortunate past. When, in a re-
cent American election, the question
of available candidates for the Presi-
dency was up, the name of q certain
able statesman was brought OrWard
by the uninitiated, but the wiser poll
ticianS shook their heads and said:
mo, his record is Vulnerable Happy
is the man who can point to his past
as his own vindication. Every man
quitting his post, be it the Presidency,
a ~paStOrate or a clerkSLip, or a job Of
gardening, should be able to say,
There is my work, inspect it: it is my
best testimonial"
When Paul, after the passage Of
years, came to his final accounting
with the Ephesian church officers, he
could summons to witness for him the
the record that he had made in their
midst. He had not been a trimmer or
a toady. He had not been afraid Of
the a c Of man, nor had he shrunk
from hardship and suffering. He had
been innocent Of self-seeking, and he
had delivered his message without fear
and without favor. What a record to
crown ones work! Every teacher, as
we'll as every preacher, should be able
at any time of parting, as on the judg-
ment day, to say to those who had
been in his charge: Z shrank not
from declaring unto you anything that
was profitable"
Holding Life Cheaply.
AS Paul counse1led with these
friends he let fall an expression which
revealed his life platform: 81 hold not
my life of any account as dear unto
myself, so that I may accomplish my
course and the ministry which ] re-
ceived from the Lord Jesus" That is
in contrast with the baneful spirit Of
the modern day. We are prone to
over-estimate the value Of life itself.
Our comfort, our prosperity, our safe
ty, are put as first consid erations.
For the sake Of their business welfare
men do not hesitate to ~stultify their
manhood. Professor William James,
Of Harvard, declares hat the preva-
lent dread of poverty and hardship
among our better classes, with it's ac-
companying worship of wealth and
luxury, is "the worst disease from
v lich our civilization suffers" We
sOrely need an infusion of the heroic
spirit which can say with Paul, Il
hold not my life Of any ccou as
dear unto myself
The days tell us how
the Moorish tribes fling themselves
in high disdain of danger against the
solid phalanxes Of Spanish troops.
Deep in the breast Of normal mar
there thrills a response of admiration
for this spirit Of heroism, %fatalistic,
though it be. There is something in
the nature Of man which tells him that
it is noble to despise death and dam
ger. Our comfortable, conventional
coddled life is likely to be cowardly.
We shrink from pain; we hail the
modern health movements with ex-
travagant acclamations, as if health
were the supreme object of existence.
Let US not fail to learn from Paul., and
all the other heroes of history, tha
man at his best ma dare to die, and
hat often death is worthier Of man
than life. Well for us if we car say,
II did my work, ever though I died"
For the delivery Of one message, and
the performance of ones work, is the
supreme thing; ones own safety is an
Incidental consideration. The noble
disdain of safety and comfort is in it
self an emancipation from petty and
ignoble subterfuges.