Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1910 — RELIGIOUS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RELIGIOUS

‘'The Valley of Baca. “You mean " Catharine Macey asked, slowly. j “I mean,” the doctor answered gravely, ‘‘that you had better send for some friend at once.” The girl lay very still for several minutes. * The doctor’s keen eyes, watching, saw the slow tears gather, but that was all. Presently she spoke:' “It isn’t dying. I have known that for some time. It was only that it seems so—lonesome. I haven’t a relative in the world nearer than a cousin, and not a friend to whom I could send.. It is very foolish of me”—-with a small, brave, appetyling smil’er-“to care for that now, isn’t it?” The doctor’s hand closed over the thin one with stanch friendship in its firm touch. He had seen many young lives meet their sentence; he had never seep one meet it more bravely. “That is where you are wrong,” he said. “You have three friends, at least. lam one, Miss Baker is another. The third will come to you to-day.” The girl’s eyes opened wide in astonishment. “A friend of mine—coming to-day? Who can it be? Why, there isn’t anybody.” The doctor had risen now, and stood smiling down upon her. “You will know more before night. Now I want you to promise to eat all that Miss Baker brings you. Will .you?” “Yes,” Catharine answered. There was a bright spot of excited color in each cheek. What would she not do for & friend to help her down the unknown way of these last weeks? She took what the nurse brought, and then lay quietly looking out at the geranium hedge beyond her window.,. Presently she slept a little. She woke at the sound of a light knock and a low voice. “May I come in, dear?” “Please,” the girl gasped. If she should be a disappointment—this unknown friend! The door opened softly, and the two faced each other—the gray-haired woman with the brave, sweet, serene face, and the girl who had so little time to live. The girl gave a little cry. Oh, how did you know how I wantad you—when I never had seen you?” She was taken home to Mrs. Dana’s that afternoon. The next day she waitad impatiently for the doctor. Who is she?” was,her eager question. Tell me all. How did she come to me? It is the most wonderful thing that ever happened in my life. It is so beautiful to have it—at the last!’* The doctor nodded; he had known how it would be. He told the fetory briefly—of the fight for the life of an only daughter, of the defeat at the end, of the love which immediately turned its own sorrow into service. For six years now this woman had been giving herself to other girls who were fighting their sad battle with the same foe. Each, till death or recovery put an end to the need, became her daughter, v ith full rights to all her care and devotion. The sick girl, who was no longer alone, murmured a few words. “What did you say?” the doctor asked. ( Catharine looked up at him, smiling. "It was just a bit out of one of the Psalms, she said. “It made me think of Mrs. Dana, ‘Who passing through the valley of Baca, make It a well.’ ” Youth’s Companion. Ansel Valera Heard To-Day. Many are the voices that speak in this noisy world, and various the messages they bring. There are the harsh tones of strife, the commanding tones of authority, the pleading accents of poverty, and there often sounds the dulcet tones of the tempter’s voice, when he seeks to delude, if he can! God’s very own. And so are heard on every side the cries and counter-cries of humanity, till life seems one big Babel. But not all the voices of life are tempting voices for many of them are sweet, earnest calls to be good and godly. Into every life sound some angel voices, and the hymning of these angelic voices constitutes a kind of heavenly overtone to life without which its burdens and its sorrows would be quite Insupportable. There may be no “vision of angels” while yet it Is true that good Influences In one way or another play upon every soul, which it may elect to receive or reject, but which it rejects at its peril, and such angelic inspirations, like all other good and perfect gifts, ccwne down frbm above, from the Father of lights. As once at Bethlehem of old, so still over the broader fields 1 of the wide, wide world sing the angels that song of “Peace to men of good will” whose refrain is the primal melody of Christianity, whose meaning wa= not exhausted by the appropriating faith of the wondering Judean shepherds. Give ear to these pleadings'of the Spirit of God with you In behalf of that better self which you ought to become! Cease all selfish strife, oh, men of earth, and hear the angels aloft: “Glory to God In the highest and on the earth peace and good will to men,” A Perfected U se. in our joyful attitude at the festive season there are two thoughts of PPace. There lb the peace in the midst of conflict, peace in spite of trouble, the peace of the armed man forced to defend the right And there is peace

to be attained, a joy that is set before us, “the hope that maketh not ashamed.” Beyond the struggles of this present time “a rest remaineth for the people of God.” We are working toward a perfected life, toward the fulfillment of that prayer which Christ Himself taught His disciples, that God's will may be done “on earth as It is in heaven." Our present joy leads on to final overcoming. The Christmas thought looks backward; but looks forward, too. It reaches toward the glorious attainment of Christ’s purpose and unshadowed joy when we shall know even as we are known. The battlefield is the necessary place of present Christian peace. And that peace is attainable by every disciple. It springs from within, where we have made room for the presence of God, not from without. The secret of peace is nbCrff 'clTcumstances, it is in going where Christ leads. He will bring us to the common field of work and trial. But through whatever experience of trouble or conflict we may pass in this new year and onward we shall never be dependent on mere outward things. The Guiding Star. Balaam said, .“There shall come forth a star out of Jacob.” Christ, the Messiah, has come forth—a star in the galaxy of brilliant teachers —but He has eclipsed them all. From the East, the cradle of the race and the home of its childhood, have radiated the noble truths and principles which have had their highest development in art and science and religion in this the crowning century of the centuries. “We saw His star.” All men need a guiding star. The north star has shed his pale and peaceful light upon adventurous wanderers from the remotest ages, and has ever been their guide over unknown oceans and to safe landings on new shores. God has from time to time raised up men of commanding genius, who have shone like stars in the dark corners of the heavens, thus marking the paths of secular knowledge and industry; and by His Grace, a guiding Star has risen upon the horizon of every soul, to direct its way into regions of truth and duty. Christ is that Light “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”