Year: 1870

Nearer BY another!


Gently swung the gate to night,
as the week was closed by 6 ID
gate of time-Saturday Nig.L.-
And from us all the past is Closed
out. We cannot change our rec
ord now--for with the sunset came
the angels who till midnight are
bearing to the great threshing door
all our sheaves, be they of grain or
weeds.


Happy be those whose sheaves
will yield golden deeds when
struck by that impartial judg Inent
of Him who, if possessed OF no
more than earthly charity, would
censure without gathering or win
moving to see it there be that
which is good in our lives o. our
hearts.


Saturday Night again. Another
little volume written, soon 70 be
sealed and borne away-as we too.
shall go before long, when releas-
ed and relieved from our work and
or duty. night we have rest
ed and gone not out It is good
TO rest. And we had such a good
one. A workingman with his wife
and three little children came to
our rooms tonight. One year
ago, he was an over-temrted man,
with no one outside OF his family
to speak kindly to him. He loiter-
ed by the roadside OF life he ran
not the road to prosperity, but
sank in the mire Of dissipation.
But now. How changed. So he
came with his household treasures
and brought a basket of peaches, a
Saturday Night present to one he
calls truly friend.


Did you ever read of golden
sheaves? Did you ever realize how
light and golden the heart feels
when there comes certainty that
kind words have saved homes to
happiness and given lasting
strength to the .desponding? If
you never have known this, your
life has been like q shrub that
brings neither flower or fruit
shade or medicinal virtue-use-
less!


We had social chat. A good
talk; as one who means well can
talk with others thus actuated.
They have all gone now; they all
went away happy-as the week
went out to bathe in the crimson
tinted sunset, which is but the
shadow of the mellow eternal.


He sat right there on the sofa.
She sat in the easy chair, just by,
while the little ones were every
where. And all in the room were
happy. He told us of his old life
and of his new. He told how he
loved, and wooed, and won the
good woman who came here with
him. How he loved her, and for
two wears was true to her, to him
self, his manho cd, and his obiiga-
tions.


He was q clerk in a store A
Jolly good fellow. He sort o. fell
in with the "boys'--took to dtink
--squandcred his money--lost his
situation and found another. Then
he lost that. Then he founG and
lost another Then he los his
home. Then he lost his pack.
and foated like drift-wood. Any
where and everywhere, EXCEPT III
pure, still waters.


1t was the same old, old story
He went down the ladder so many
thousands go down--so few come
up Want, poverty, sickness, dis
ease, suffering, and all these came
to him. People turned from him.
He was not wanted, for those not
able to take care of thems elves
are not the ones to care for others,
or tue interests Of others. But
that was last year.


SO tonight he came to retnrn
our call. within one day of year!
We had forgotten all about it
And the good wife had come, and
with her family Bible. She show
ed to us the book a little brown
hook but worth more than its
weight in gold to her.


RIRrHs-And there were all the
names.


MARRIED--And she pointed to
the record.


SAVED Midway the page, n
der the marriage record, he had
written his name again, with her
and the little ones as witnesses,
and he wanted our name with
theirs. And so we wrote 1t with
this same pen. and added the date,
and God love you."


What if just tear or two cam g
to the eyes of the good wife. W.
could not we'll see { EN-, tor the
light was not so clear RS now.
And when a little fiye-year-old
puss, with a clean, bright face.
came and sat on our knee and told
US what fine times she had now
playing with little Kittie and Fred :
die; how good she was when papa
came home, and how she ran to
meet him; but Freddie and aittie
always got to him fret, only when
she got the best start, we could
not help kissing her right on her
beautiful brow, with the feeling,
as it seems to US, q good mother
must have when she kisses her lit-
tie darling goodnight.


A good friend of ours--a man
we love; and who has often been
very kind to us--once pointed to
his beautiful home, and the expen
siye ornaments it contained, and