The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-17
ARE YOU AN EXAMPLE
 or LIVING SUNsHINE7

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 Some persons seesn 10 have the power of brightening . room simply by their presence, and on the other hand, cer- tain of our acquaintanoes unquestion- ably possess the power of casting . gloom about them wherever they 60. It is sometimes difficult to explain just now these two essentially differ ent conditions are brought about, says Rev. Lawson Rich in The New York American.
 We know that we are "brightsned," !" as we say. by simply . glimpse of cer- tain persons whom we are apt to meet from day to day, and we remember the pleasure that their ray of sunsninee gave us long hours afterward. On the from an interview with others of our acquaintance. not because of any defi- nitely dtsagreeable business that we expect to have to transact. but because they rave something about them that depresses. dtshesrtens and discourages us. deadening our better impulses and darkenipg our entire day.
 If this 10 true of the way our ac- dusintances effects us. how about the way we influence them? It is ques- ton we'll worth serious consideration. for the world Is a hungry sort of place, coveting sunshine az well as many oth- CT things, and if we have within us the power to withhold or to bestow some portion of what is wanted. 1t Is certainly q serious matter as to how we are using that power.
 l remember very well how. when a child. my father used to speak of one of his little children as his little sun shine. The rest of us were equally conscious that that beautiful little life radiated something that brighte all our hearts. and we were far from be- ing jealous of the loving appellation which seemed so well bestowed. am sorry for lives which have never known anything of the collaboration that springs from contact with a thing retroactive in the sunshine of which I speak. and while we have our own power of brightening the dark spot of existence, we develop and considerably increase by intercourse with others the radiancy of our own lives.
 Are you. my gray-haired brother. a little sunshine, wherever you go? Or are you quite content to glover and grumble over the vicissitudes of life and cause your family and friends to seek for shelter when you come near them, because of the storm clouds ever lowering on your brow?
 How 1t braces one to feel that our family. our friends. our associates in business look forward to our coming with the same sweet pleasure with which we greet the genial weather and the brightness of the sunshine after storm! What a desperate pity 1t is when we disappoint our friends. Per- haps some one will say, Well. have never disappointed any one. No one ever expects anything from me but just grim business. I am honest and square in all my dealings and 1t fs no concern of mine whether the world is brighter or darker for my presence In it. Ah. but life means something more than just grim business A great deal of business can be done by automatic machines. done with greater accuracy. more absolute honesty and more certain results than can ever be accomplished possibly by human means.
 But sarsBe yens aAdTT were intended for something better than that. Life spent merely for the sake of perform ing our portion of the worlds drudgery becomes in the end a very dreery ex- istence. no matter how much we may enjoy for a season finding ourselves a factor in the roar and iswhirI of the worlds machinery. The fact is. the drama of life is vastly greater and more interesting affair than we often times regard 1t. You and are meant to be more than mere cogs in a great big lumbering wheel that grinda and grinds and wears us out at last There is something real about us that can never die, and that undying self is in- hniteiy precious to me and to my neighbor as we'll. For there will come & day when that strange intimate rela- tion of my life to the lives of those about me shall stand out clear and plain with all It's tremendous powers for good and evil, in unmstakable wrought in the lives of those with whom my life was cast
 When that sweet Galilean maid," chosen to be the mother of the Savior of mankind in the midst of the mo- notonous duties of her home. perceived the greatness that her Heavenly Fa- ther had in store for her. she might very easily have felt so elated at an honor so surprisingly great that she would have excused herself from any great concern in the welfare of her neighbors or even of her own kith and kin. You and I are not apt, when we feel very strongly the seriousness of any business which we have in hand to be bothered by any sense of obligation to be courteous to those who may not how busy or how engressed we are.
 But Mary, learning that an aged cousin of hers was alone and needed her help, goes with alacrity to respond to the best of her ability to this un- spoken call. She thinks nothing of the inconvenience of journey doubt less somewhat periIous does not he's tate to run the risk. as we should say, of lowering herself somewhat in the eyes of her friends by condescending to take upon herself the inenial acts that her neighborly courtesy involved. She follows unhesitatingly the dic- tates of loving heart and goes with joyous haste to gladden. by her pres ence her Cousin Elizabeth.
 It Is the expression of simple, sweet, love, and 1t is interest- Ing to note that 1t was made the occasion of something much more far reaching In its importance than any one of the humble actors in the scene could possibly have imagined or deemed conceivable. The old, old cousin. filled with intensest joy at the coming of her sweet visitor, ponrs forth Papturous greeting: Mary her. self is made. far gladder than she thought she had any reason to expect. and in return, her sweet. pure soul breaks forth into words so exquisite and withal so full of meaning that we can only account for them as the whisperings in her ear of powers dl- vine.
 The world has seized upon her hymn of praise and thankfulness (for no other words will adequately express the