The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1910-06-30
THEOLOGY ON THE LINKS.


ed-brown nets. Beyond that cleaned a
ribbon of white sand, and then the sea.
They were both we'll into, if not quite
out of, middle age Healthy, prosperous.
intelligent professional men - so one
would confidently catalogue them. On
the turf at their feet lay a heap of golf
clubs. They were smoking and talking,
their voices low, but earnest.
"Ah," said one, theology soon sweeps
me off my feet; [ don't profess to I'M
derstand it."
mo, indeed" echoed his friend sym
pathetically, "and yet, I suppose -.
That's just it," interjected the first
speaker eagerly ,''you may want to let
it alone, but it won't let you be. Why,
even when you've kiddie--"
eyes, it's quite true" the other
agreed, and they both pulled away for
minute or two. Then the first speaker
began again, and it seemed as though
he spoke with a certain effort.
"a man told me queer little thing
the other day. He said that when he
was nipper-nine or ten, or something
like that-he had been left at home one
Sunday morning with nothing to do
while the others were at church. He
wandered about from room to room till,
by ill-luck, he came to one where there
was half-skeleton clock-you know the
kind of thing, with some of the wheels
showing. Well, he stood in front of the
clock, watching it for a bit. Then he
tiptoed and opened the glass door. A
pair of scissors lay handy on the man
tlepiece, and he pushed the point be-
tween the spokes of wheel and made
it go round as fast as he could. 1t seemed
glorious fun for a minute or two to see
the commotion among the other wheels.
but he soon got tired, shut the door and
put back the scissors. Just as he was
going out of the room he glanced at the
clock and saw that it had stopped. At
first he wasn't bit alarmed All that
was needed was a little jolt.
Gle gave it the jolt. 1t began to go,
but stopped almost at once. Startled,
he repeated the jolt again and again,
ticks with a queer sound that he knew
was wrong, and then dead stop.
Suddenly it flashed upon him that he
had broken the clock. He was
delicate, timid youngster, and when he
realized what had happened he was alb
solutely terror stricken. He had been
taught TO say his prayers, and he had
heard good deal of talk about the
power of prayer. He dropped on his
knees and prayed that the clock might
60. Then he got up and set it going.
A few irregular ticks followed by 81
lence. Again he knelt down and prayed
this time in whisper, eager, intense,
almost fierce. Again he moved the clock.
Again it jerked and struggled and
stopped. Evidently prayer, whatever
else it might do, couldn't mend a broken
clock.
''Thirty years afterward, he said, he
found himself in a great difficulty. 1t
was more than a difficulty, it was an
impending disaster, and it was his own
folly that was to blame WE'LL he tried
everything he could think of to eXtricate
himself, but the more he struggled the
deeper he sank, until, at last, hope died
and he remembered God. Then he prayed
oh, how he prayed!"
The speaker paused and struck a
match.
'Yes?" asked his friend, keenly inter
ested.
The blow fell. 1t only MANNED, it did
not kill. But he said that one night
when he had been finging out his very
soul on his knees, that the old episode of
his childhood, which he had quite for
gotten, suddenly required to him, and
he realized that childhood and man
hood are only words, that the soul, the
spirit, the life-whatever you like to
call it-and it's relation to God are al
ways and absolutely the same"
There was another pause.
The man who had hitherto played the
part of listener emptied his pipe and put
it in his pocket. Then he began.
Its funny you should have told me
that because I've had an experience my
self so like it and yet so unlike"
''The same shape, but different col
?" queried the other.
eyes. I was a bit older than your
man thirteen or fourteen, perhaps. We
were staying at Richmond, I remember. |
One morning I got up early and went |
down to the river to get row before |
breakfast. The man asked me whether
knew how to manage a boat, and,
like young fool [ told him l did AS
a matter of fact I'd never been in a
light boat before, and / couldn't swim a
stroke. | wonder he didn't see that 7 !
could hardly sit the boat he put me in.
but they used to be very casual in those
lays. | was in a funk at first. Every |
stroke, | thought [ was over, one side |
Or the other. After a bit, however. |
things went better. I got more accus-
toned to the boat, and the work was
so light that I began to enjoy myself. |
Ind even to try how fast [ could spin
along. Then. suddenly, some impulse
made me turn my head round sharply. |
Close upon me was a great heavy barge. |
With rope drawn by horse on the |
towing path, and stretched across the |
water about the height of my waist. |
saw it all in that one quick glance
The horse, the black, Shiny rope, and the
huge, silent barge with not a creature
IN it. 1t was going pretty fast. and there
vas no time to get it out of the way. | |
lnew touch would send me over. and !
also knew that [ hadn't the faintest |
chance of getting to the path. l stopped |
pulling, and sat, and stopped. and wait !
ID And before I knew what had hap
oened, the rope seemed to glide lust over
ny head, and I was safe OF course.
here was lookout on the barge though
couldn't see him, and he had lifted the |
'ope.
well, now, ever so many years after