The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1921-03-04
In Eonor OF Mother Fairs.

|
Church gave q public tea last Friday
IL honor Of the eighty-second birth
Day of Mother Faris, their Oldest
and most dearly beloved member.
The tea was given at the beautiful,
SPACIOUS home of Mr.. and Mrs. c.
F. Bloker. The rooms were artis-
tically decorated in long branches of
| Japonica blooms, and hundreds of
violets, gathered from the var Is.
The tables where the guests were
lselVed We're decorated with freesias
and ferns ordered from a florist.
Guests were served from three to five
O'Clock in the afternoon and from
seven to nine in the evening, when
men accompanied their wives. The
word tea" was q misnomer, for a
delicious two-course meal was served,
the guests being required to pay one
penry for each year of their age.
1 The proceeds were nearly $1,000 and
were placed in the Foreign Mission
ar Fund. as foreign missions are
particularly close to the heart of the
guest OF honor. Mrs. Faris, who has
lived acre about seventeen years,
i placed her membership with the
4 L
and, rain or Shine, she is at every
service including Sunday school and
the mid-week prayer meetings She
! has taught the woman's Bible class
continuously for seventeen years, and
while pupils may be absent, Mrs
| Faris never is. She received many
congratulations at her birthday par
! ty and in the evening after all were
served Mr.. Bloker, in tender, touch
| ing words expressive Of the deep love
and Vcneration in which Mother
Faris is held, presented her with the
| huge bouquet of freesias, closing mis-
remarks with the reading of the fol-
Lowing exquisite gem by an anony-
nous writer.
THE HEART OF FRIENDSHIP.
Here's to the heart of friendship,
tried and true,
/ That laughs with us when joys our
pathway Gtrew;
And kneels with us when sorrow,
like pail
Ensh"cuds our stricken souls; then
smiles through all
The midnight gloom with more than
human faith.
Here's to the love that seeks not
self, and hath
No cenGure for our frailty, but doth
woo,
BY gentle arts, our spirits back into
The way of truth; then sheds upon
our lives
radiance that all things else
survives.
A little poem that had been com
posed by one of the guests in honor
of Mother Faris. typed on fancy
stationery, tied with silver ribbon,
and after being read aloud was pre-
scented to her. She made fitting re-
Sponses in each instance, showing
how deeply touched she was. The
poem was written exclusively for
Mother Faris, with no thought of
publication, but her friends were SO
insistent that it be published in or
der that they might obtain copies of
it that the writer consented. 1t fol-
les:
TO MOTHER FARIS.
Eighty-tbree years! a long, long life
Filled with happiness, joy and
strife;
For mixed in with sunshine shadows
must fall
Decreed the Master upon us all.
Days dimmed with sadness,
Days. filled with gladness,
Have made up her years.
Years filled with duty,
Years filled with beauty
Have passed by unseen.
But, passing, love made her g. queen
Crowned with white tresses,
Whom everyone blesses
While passes the years.
Eighty-three years have her feet
ever trod
Straight in the pathway which
leadeth to God.
If ever she stumbled she straightway
arose
A shining example to the many of
those
Who leaned on her strength to help
them along,
And who learned from her the solace
of song
Throughout the years.
Long may she linger so gentle and
true,
reaching the lesson TO me ana 10
you,
That life met with smiles brightens
each day,
And cheers countless others over
the way
We all have to tread before He |
can say:
ENTER thou in" and it's Eternal Day |
Throughout the years.
Charlottesville (Mo.) Republic.