Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-09-29
CoI-NT YOrR BLESSINGS.

! COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS.
Last Saturday our pastors wife came
over to see if the Farmer and I would
not fill an appointment for her husband.
who has been suffering a week or more
with a close approach to blood poison.
The Farmer was to announce the date Oe
the presiding elders visit 10 that church,
| and as il will be the last round before
the annual conference il was an impor-
tant message Then 1 was to make
them a little talk about missions ana
get the church in closer touch with that
phase of the work.
The church he wanted us to attend
was e miles from our home, so We start
ed early. No, we have no automobile;
but Bob is u good steady traveller, the
pike is in pretty uniform condition and
the trip would have been ideal but for
the dust. BY the time we reached our
destination we looked like we had been
under some sort of big sitter and brown
-four had been put over us.
This country is called the Tennessee
valley and it is like a vast plain on this
the eastern side of Tuscumbia. but over
on the other side the foothills begin and
there is more climbing. 1 saw Little
Bear creek, and the railroad bridge over
another one flowing out of the Dig
spring that is one of Tuscumbia's assets
There were two stone aqueducts built
there almost a hundred years ago. This
railroad is the oldest this far south, and
if l am not mistaken it comes next to
the Baltimore and Ohio in early equip
ment
When one looks at that long and high
embankment and remembers that muscle
and lwheelbarrows Furnished the power
to pile the foundation for those first, and
| all these subsequent ties and rails we
wonder at their endurance.
| Years and years ago a plain near the
line began to wash, and after a ditch
was three or four feet deep, not a great
distance from the railroad, some one
discovered the END, or corner of a coffin.
The oldest inhabitant did not remember.
any one being buried there. The Gene
terry in Tuscumbia is about a hundred
years old. Nobody disturbed that last
resting place and gradually quite a good
! sized bit of one end was exposed. The
| Farmer says he saw it twenty-five or
thirty years ago. But Mother Nature
| kindly took charge of the dust placed
in her keeping and vines grew thickIy
there and completely covered the mound.
Naturally that turned the water and left
the body undisturbed.
Many times since hearing the story |
have thought of that last resting pace
and wondered if it could have been one
of the toilers on that pioneer road, or
was it some one going to the gold fields
when California lured so many.
Think of it, put yourself in the place
Icf the loved ones. Were they there too.
or did they ever know just what became
of, that traveller? 1t may have been a
mother whose strength save out after
! travelling with her family many weary
miles throug the uncleared forests hunt
ing for home spot.
| l once heard a story of two young
men who went away from home to seek
their pot o4 gold They found work in
n big camp of lumbermen. An accident
caused heavy piece of timber TO fall
on one of them. The doctor examined
the young man and said there was not a
thing that would help him. He sent
for his companion and asked him to pray
for him. 81 cannot, oh, cannot, for
am too bad to even ask God to save
you"
Sing for me then" But the friend
who led the band in all that was hilari-
Gus failed mis- friend in this crisis
| Then set a Bible and read 20 me-"
was the agonized request
The whole camp was searched and
there was not one Bible among all the
possessions, and the young man ex-
| claimed, "Oh, to die, to meet God with
| out prayer, a song or even a verse
| from His Word
Seeing this lone spot reminded me OF
| that incident and l hoped that this
| cne's fate had been otherwise. Then
/ 1 wondered how many mothers have
| put Bibles in the kit. or baggage of
| the boys on the Mexican border, and
how many of those who head for Ak
| ron to win promotion in that big rubber
! plant have a Bible among the things
| in trunk or suitcase.
| All this is far from what | started
| out to say, but it will be more import
ant than an account of our trip if it
! leads some one to read his or her Bible.
We found nice crowd at the church
| and of course there were subscribers
of The Atlanta Journal among them
and 1 soon found myself shaking hands
| with people who had read about my
| change from Georgia to Alabama. We
| passed two hours there, they gave me
undivided attention for one hour of
the time, after that and after the an
nouncements we talked informally and
in spite of cordial invitations to spend
the day in some of the homes we left
Oak Grove church to return to our own
roof tree.
The harvest time is not as encourag-
ing as the spring promised. Acres and