The Reformed Presbyterian Standard and also 0\ir ... - Rparchives.org

THE CHRISTIAN NATION.
Vol. 61.
A R O U N D T H E O L D A R M C H A I R
O
"I love it, 1 love it,
And who shall dare
To chide me for loving
The Old Arm Chair."
THE CALL TO THE COLORS.
.Marguerite Merington.
world's women, sisters of every
seeming.
Wake, for there's heavy work this
day for us to do!
The world goes forth, it must not
find us dreaming:
The woman's call to colors sounds
the whole world through!
Gardens are trampled down, fields
devastated:
None is too weak, too strong, that
she may stand apart.
With breasting babes orphaned, wife
and maid unmated.
Our men aiming bullets at every
woman's heart!
O world's women, mothers of every
trial.
Not for war's blasphemy your travail
pains are borne.
Or sons reared to manhood by love
and self-denial,
Your holy aureole to turn to crown
ot thorn!
Is not this the right for which ye are
striving.
Passing man's power to endow you
or deny:
Men-children reared in ways of honest
thriving.
Slaughtered and slaughterer, ye
shall not let them die
O world's women, lovers of every nation.
Now, where the thunderbolts of
war are being hurled,
Rally to tje colors, muster at the
station;
March on to victory—of peace
throughout the world,
—N. Y. Times.
THE GUEST IN THE HOUSE
OF TROUBLE.
By Mary Davis.
"It doesn't seem right." The
speaker's voice was hoarse with
deep feeling. "Those are always
the ones who are taken. Why
couldn't it have been old Phil
Blackmere, who gets drunk every
night and beats "
A harsh, bitter laugh interrupted
her words, but she went on.
"And yet you Christians talk
about a loving God. Yes, He must
love old Mrs. Edwards when He
takes away the prop of her old
age, and leaves her with the prospect
of the poorhouse staring her
in the face."
The others looked uncomfortable.
The woman who had laughed
never came to the little white
church. They were used to her
biting criticisms lavished upon
themselves and the little church,
but today she had aimed higher,
and in their grief they could find
nothing to say.
She laughed again.
The little
woman by the window stared out
wistfully. She was almost afraid
to tell her own sacred experience
with Grief and Divine Love.
"Here comes Miss Kate," she
said gladly, and fluttered out into
the hall. Through the half closed
doors the others listened to the
soft, tremulous voice.
"Yes, I thought you'd just come
from there. We were talking
about them, and Rhoda says God
is real cruel to take Jamie from
his mother when she needs him
so much. But I knew you would
tell us what you think."
Miss Kate came walking into
the room with such a light, firm
step that it was hard to realize
she was blind. She had lost the
three great treasures of the world
—wealth, beauty and social position—and
now she was blind in
her old age. Yet she brought gladness
and springtime into the bare
tance telephone. It was there in
the desolate House of Death, with
room.
As the others rested in her presence
its curtains drawn to the world's
prying gaze, that I met God and
their tired, troubled eyes Life. And when I came out again
caught the glow from the radiant, into the sunshine and the open,
sightless one, and there was peace I found I still held the key which
in the room. Then Miss Kate began
should admit me into the sorrow
to talk in a clear, joyous of others. And in other Houses
voice. She had a way of saying of Trouble I have met Him too,
"God" with the same tone and in­
until I have thought I have found
flection that rough, reserved men
keep for the word mother.
"You were wondering why God
took Jamie. I suppose we all
mutter why to God as we pass
unwillingly in turn into the dreary
House of Trouble. Yet I believe
there is a door in that house
which opens directly into the
Courts of God and admits the
Angel of His presence. So, by
and by, some of us learn to rejoice
that we have had lodgings
there for a season."
Miss Kate stopped for a minute
as if she wondered whether to
tell the rest. "It is always an effort,"
she said slowly, "to tell the
little incidents which make up
our friendship with God. We are
always anxious to introduce our
friends to each other and forget
that He too is anxious to know
everybody. I first met Him in the
House of Trouble. I had read of
Him all my life. I had prayed to
Him, I thought I had served and
worshipped Him, but in my prayers
I had been no nearer than a
person talking over a long-dis­
M Y A U G U S T O F F E R
Scores of Readers Have Accepted These Offers—
And Many Will Wish They Had When it is Too Late
part of the answer to the Why of
Sorrow. Although I do not knov
why He chooses to abide there I
am sure there must be something
blessed in that House from which
we shrink with many tears I
don't doubt there are other ways
in which He walks and meets His
sons and daughters, but of late
years it has seemed to me that
trouble is the short-cut home to
God."
'
The little woman who had feared
to risk her little experience
with God and Grief suddenly
grew brave. "I_l_feit that way
when the baby died." -he choked
and stopped.
There were others in the little
room who remembered too that
they had met the Shining Guest
in the House of Trouble and their
faces illumined at the remembrance.
The woman who had
laughed so harshly now looked as
if she realized that she had hiliierto
missed the deepest meaning
of Life itself.—American Messenger.
STONE, PLANT OR SPIRIT
By Jane C. Crowell.
Pausing in my dusting of the
living-room, I read the quotation
for the day on the calendar that
hung over the fire-place: "If you
are a stone, be adamant; if you
are a plant, be the sensitive plant;
if you are a human being, be
love," So straight home did the
words go that it seemed as if some
one had spoken to me, and I began
to consider "Which am I"
"If you are a stone, be adamant."
Don't be any other kind less im­
To any present Christian Nation which were sold for $15 a set; and
pregnable,—shale, for instance,
sulscriber who will send us Six Dol- MacMillan's edition in two volumes
that breaks and crumbles so easily
that a child can bring it to
, . , ^, . V. • ..• which sold at $5 a set. This differentlars
to advance their subscription
ly bound Memorial Edition is also in naught. Be the stoniest stone, if
for three years beyond it= oresent
any, or in other words, solve the
two volumes, beautifully printed on old problem of perfection nothing
less than which in any part date, we will send, absolutely free, a .. , ,
or
' ' ' fine paper from the same plates, form of life satisfies.
copy of "The Covenanter Pastor," by bound in crown cloth, with gold On first count I admit failure.
Dr. R. J. George, and Ida M. Tarbell's stamping, a bas-relief of Lincoln I have and often thought that I was
celebrated "Life of Lincoln," in two autograph on side covers. It is going a to be adamant when my
clothbound volumes. Library Edition. The Frontispiece to
pride has been hurt, not by the
To any NEW subscriber sending Volume I. is a Portrait of Lincoln in chance associate (for that matter
us Three Dollars to pay for the Chris- color on heavy paper; the Frontis-
I care not a whit for his deeds or
words), but by one hek* dear. I
tian Nation until January 1, 1916, pjece to Volume II. is an illustration have even tried to b,; adamant
we will send wholly free, Tarbell's of Lincoln's Birthplace in color Resolution on has been firmly made
to be on my dignity, to wait foi
2 vol. "Life of Lincoln." Or we will heavy paper. The two volumes are
proper penitence and to show fit­
resentment. One glance a'
add "The Covenanter Pastor" and boxed and sent free, all charges pre-tinsend
the Christian Nation for one paij ^o your very door.
those eyes, one sound of tha;
voice, one touch of that hand an'
year only instead of for eighteen No Covenanter should fail to semonths,
if preferred. (Add SOc per '^"''^ f^'s great 2 vol. Life of our Lincoln. friendship and the fact tha
everything is forgotten excep
year if sent to a foreign address.) ^°" ^^°"^'^ ''^^'^ '* ^"'^ y°"- perhaps "^^i'dren I can be of some assist
_, . ., should read it.
ance to my friend. 1 fail to b(
This Life of Lincoln is printed
adamant and my friend fails «
And you chould own and read "The know or even imagine that I nac
from the same plates as were used r. x r% ^ „
been hurt. And this leads to tm
h- =1 c uocu Covenanter Pastor."
second point. "If you are a plant
in printing MacMillan Company's John W. Pritchard, President.,
(Continued on page 12.)
first edition, thousands of copies of Tribune Building, New York