Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1918 — Page 2

How to Understand the Bible

By REV. B. B. SUTCLIFFE

BsteoMoq, Department, Moody Bibto Ittrtitutee Chicago

TEXT—They read in the bosk of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the read-ing.-Neh. 8:8. Tn this eighth chapter of'Nehemlah there are seven conditions for Bible

If there is wanting a desire to know what God teadies. There should be the spirit which characterised Cornelius when he sent for Peter to come to him in order that Peter might tell him the troth of God. His readiness to hear moved the Holy Spirit to move Peter to respond to the call. Cornelius had no claim other than his eagerness to know the truth. 11. Patience in Listening to What God Has to Say. Tn yerse three we are told that Ezra read to the people from the Book of God from morning until midday, and the people were attentive to the words of the book. It cannot be understood in a moment or an hour. If we would master it we must give to its study more than a few odd moments; and patience is required to gain, little by little, an understanding of rhe truth which it teaches. 111. Reverence In Our Treatment of the Book. In verses four to six we are told that when Ezra stood up to read all the people stood and bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with faces to the ground. There must be no flippancy in handling the Word of God if we would come to a good understanding of its truth. Too often we make the Book , common by our much handling. We must guard against all 111-chosen jokes and riddles which tend to steal away our reverence for the Holy Scriptures. We must approach it with bowed heads and with the worshipful spirit if we would have it speak to us. IV. Intelligent In verses seven and eight we see how their minds were exercised and thought awakened. They began to ask questions and the men appointed to read spoke the word distinctly, gave the sense and caused the people to understand. If we will think as we read and question when we do not understand the Spirit himself will cause us to understand. We should pray that ministers everywhere would read the Word to the people distinctly and give the sense of what is read, and then not stop until by restatement and illustration and by all means they have caused the people to understand. V. Sorrow Because of Conviction. In verses nine to eleven we see how with their openness of mind they gave conscience a chance to do its work. They became convicted and a Godly sorrow sprang up. They felt God had a right to condemn them and they were exercised in conscience. ..We read the Word of God in vain if we do not allow It to point out our evil and its consciences. But when we do so allow it we come to the next step.

VI. Faith In Its Promises. In verse twelve we are told that when the rulers told them-of the truth and how they could rejoice because of what God had done even in spite of their sin,'they believed the Word and put away the sorrow. When we read of how the Lord has forever blotted out our sin and covered it with his own blood we are to believe the Word and rejoice, in spite of our sin, that God has put it away to be' remembered no more against us forever. VII. Obedience to What Is Learned. The faith is proven by the degree of obedience which we render to the light we receive. Indeed obedience is after all the only proof that we do know the Bible. The eagerness, patience, reverence, intelligent listening, sorrow and faith will all be useless without the obedience to what is taught James says faith without works is dead-—it never was alive. Fulfilling these seven conditions will bring us to tiie place where the Holy Spirit himself will delight to be out daily teacher revealing the things oi Christ to our hearts and giving us that joy of the Lord which win be a towel of strength in all the trying experiences of life. A signboard stands at a crossing where two roads meet. Children spell out the words for amusement, young people read it from curiosity, the old pass by too hurried to notice It An old man comes and tries to read. He Is a real traveler and we are readyin help him find the right way. So the Holy Spirit gives the truth only to the one who is ready to travel the right

study which if followed will give anyone a full understanding of the Word of God. I. Eagerness to Know What God Says. In verses one and two the people express a desire to have the Word of God read to them. They ask for it and all who could understand gathered to hear. Not much profit can be received

Among the handsome midwinter coats made ready for fast-approaching zero weather, there are a greater number of garments that combine -furs with fur fabrics than in any former displays.. Although all plushes are not fur-fabrics, all fur-fabrics are plushes. Fur-fabrics designate those plushes that have colorings and markings in imitation of the skins of furbearing animals and they were at first manufactured as a substitute for furs, and from the standpoint of being less expensive. Such progress has been made in the beauty and quality of these rich fabrics that they are now considered more elegant than the cheaper furs, and as desirable to use in combination with high-class skins. Some of them, as the seal-broadtail, caracul and beaver plushes, are such close imitations of the original skins that it is hard to distinguish between them, except at close quarters. A great step in advance has been made in the usefulness of these fabrics since fashion has placed them on

Closing Chapter of Winter Millinery

The last chapter in the story of winter millinery is presented and the tale ' concludes with all-fur hats or hats i that are made of fur in combination with other things. Although shorter than the story, of velvet or other fabric hats, it is not so very brief as one might suppose. The Ingenuity of designers lengthens it. But after fur hats have been disposed one may write “finis” —winter is over, so far as new things in winter hats are concerned. In January millinery begins to be springlike; “between season” and “early spring” are the inspiration of millinery designers, who must then be occupied with the demands of southern tourists. But only a few people journey South, and those who remain in the lands of snow face two or three months of midwinter weather —hence a variety of fur bats Is needed. They are here in many shapes and combinations. Turbans and small shapes predominate among them, but there are large shapes with crowns of fur and j brims of velvet, or lace or malines I often with emplacements of fur on them. In the hats and turbans, feather crowns with fur brims | and feather coronets on turbans with fur crowns are new and beautiful ideas. . Besides feathers, furs are used in j combination with long-napped beaver Moth, satin and velvet in smaller hats ■

Coats for Zero Weather

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

a par with ‘skins In coats where the two are combined. A very successful combination of this kind appears in the coat pictured above,„ which has a body of caracul plush, very long waisted, and a skirt of natural muskrat. The wide collar and bpnd cuffs are of the fur. Honors are even in this stunning garment between the fur and the fabric. Ttye other coat is of seal plush with widfe shawl collar and deep cuffs of taupe lynx, and is as reliable for comfort and ..good appearance as a fur coat. If there is any difference in the matter of durability, it is in favor of the plush. These coats are interlined and as warm as toast. They are not the only garments featured, this season, made of furs and fabrics combined that have proved a success. There are short coats and coatees, scarfs and capes as well, and occasionally a coatsuit that compel a divining attention; the last a premonition of something new in suits which another winter may see well developed.

for covering shapes. In the larger hats fur is confined usually to the crown, but in some wide-brimmed picturesque models, in which dull silver and gold laces, or other transparent materials are used for the brim coverings, narrow borders or fringes, In fur like that on the crown, edge the brims. Many turbans and small hats have crowns covered with rows of ribbon—ln scant ruffles and brims covered with fur. e In the group of fur hats pictured the tall Cossack turban is especially smart. A round hat presents a combination of two on the crown and sealskin brim. The sealskin skating cap is the regulation and always fashionable type that appears each winter, this year with a fur button on the top. So large a proportion of suits and coats are fur trimmed, afid fur neckpieces and garments so universally worn that a vogue for fur hats to match was a logical conclu-, sion. It has arrived. 1

Beaver for Fall Hats.

Beaver, our old friend in millinery, is again used extensively for fall hats. It is' most often used for a crown with a brim of stitched fplt, or for a brim with a crown of satin.

The Patriotism of Susan

By JANE OSBORN

(Copyright, 1318, by McClure Newspaper z Syndicate.) Ever since fifteen years before, when the Yagers had the quaint old Dutch porch of their house on High street, in Tilton, turned into a full-fledged “front piazza,” Horace Slocum had entertained a passion for Susan—hopeless, but none the less absorbing. For Horace was at that time simply a carpenter by the day for the builder who built that piazza, and though he had no mean idea of his own calling and had no very definite notion of the social superiority of the Yagers over the Slocums, still it was obviously impossible. Nothing could come of it “Old Man Yager” had made what for that town was a fortune in the leading dry goods store, and Susan was his only heir. Moreover, she possessed radiant red hair, a defiant tip-tilted nose, a fair, posecolored skin only the more dazzling for the contrast' of a few freckles —and thus embodied Horace SlocumM ideal of all that was femininely lovely.. a , During those days that he sawed and nailed the boards of the Yager piazza the twenty-year-old Susan had worn a heliotrope gingham dress as she puttered about the garden, and as Slocum caught glimpses of her through the- windows; and since then there had been an associational thrill about that particular hue that had remained still vibrant, showing that the thlrty-elght-year-old “boss carpenter” was as bewitched by Susan as ever. But it was more hopeless. She was regarded as one of the “best fixed”.spinsters in town. She belonged to the Country club and had a center-aisle pew in the church attended only by the old aristocracy of Tilton. History moved slowly in Tilton during most of those 15 years, and though Horace fed on despair, he had little cause for jealousy, for there really were no eligible bachelors in Tilton" nor any reason -why they should come —that is, until Tilton awoke one day and found itself a war Industries center. Then for the first time since there had been a winter barracks in old Tilton in the days of the Revolution the male population -far outnumbered that of the women. Only the males in this case were workmen, mechanics, foremen, directors and promoters of a half dozen war-develop-ing industries. One morning in the first weeks of this new regime Horace was feeling particularly down at heart. The house where he had boarded gloomily for these 15 years had been bought up at a good price as an extension to one of the plants, and he faced the proposition of being homeless within a week. It was the morning he was putting a side porch on Widow Smith’s house next to Susan’s—for by this time front porches had gone out and side porches were in demand in Tilton.

“Too bad about Miss Susan,” the widow remarked. She had brought her pea shelling to the side window, for she was nothing loath to converse with the comely carpenter, who stopped sawing as if suddenly paralyzed and gazed back blankly at the widow. “What’s wrong?” he managed to ask. “Oh, she would manage her own affairs —did her banking all in an out-of-town bank, wouldn’t have a lawyer, and now —” the widow Smith here spoke frith slow emphasis as she folded her hands over the dish of peas and looked hard at Horace. “Now she’s keeping boarders.” “Keeping boarders I” Horace gasped. “Yes, and you can believe me, that when any one as proud as Susan Yager would keep boarders, she’s pretty well reduced. But she would have her own way and now—now she’s reaping the results." The fact really was that Susan had a houseful of boarders; and as every one said—and all the neighbors were gossiping about it —she couldn’t have “become reduced” at a better time, for there were hundreds of out-of-town war workers only too eager to snap at a chance to become part of that household. Horace had so long been accustomed to a mood of calm despair that the palpitation he experienced on actually seeking admission for himself In Susan’s boarding house was Immensely disturbing. Perhaps he would not have been so reckless, but now for the first time the element of jealousy entered. There were some 50 or 60 apparently eligible bachelors in TH&IU and of these Susan had undertaken to accommodate under her spacious roof six. Horace was the seventh. Apparently Susan was a great manager, for soon the excellence of the fare of her board became proverbial through Tilton. She retained her old Southern cook, got a couple of young girls in to wash dishes, and wait on table and still managed to make a go o f it—or apparently she did, for people soon observed that a coat of paint S|as being applied and other signs of full purse were in evidence. Then Khe drew Horace aside one evening after the other boarders were leaving the dining room and asked him whether he would undertake the job of putting on a side porch like that of Mrs. Smith’s, and, though Horace had an opportunity of taking some contract work for one of the new industries at a really stupendous figure, he assured her that he could begin at once. It was the first time he had worked aa the Yagers’ house since that time

'l 15 years before, when he had first Ideal. And her figure was still as bewitching, though possibly a little plumper, her skin as fair—were there a few more freckles?—and to make the ecstasy complete she again wore a frock of heliotrope muslin. ' Still people pitied poor Susan Yager. To be sure, she apparently was making money, ‘having all those improvements, but that was probably only another evidence of her extreme lack of business sense. That is the way Mrs. Smith looked at the matter, as she assured Horace she had every reason to believe Susan was frightfully involved in debt. It was one night after that man Migglesworth, vice president of one of the big industries, showing (as Horace thought) too marked a devotion to Susan that Horace got Ms courage up. After all, he assured himself, his presumption now was not what it would have been once, for the Susan Yager heiress was a different person to woo than Susan Yager bankrupt, Susan Yager, boarding house keeper. Strangely enough, all his awkward bashfulness vanished, when he found himself alone with Susan in her little sitting room, and the tip-tilt of her nose didn’t seem half so proud and forbidding. He stood close beside her and realized that she was really not a trfil, haughty person at all; her glorious auburn hair scarcely reached his heart'' He began quite deliberately, and told had loved her 15 years, and was asking her to marry him now, because he .wanted to make her independent, pay her bills and sharp his years’ savings with her. And Susan promptly told Horace that she didn’t think she could ever find a husband who would suit her better, let him steal one short delirious kiss, and sent him off to bed. Somehow Horace had expected she would say that she appreciated his generosity about taking the debjs. He concluded that she was still proud, as Yagers always were, and this is why she had not done so. But the next day she met him with a radiant smile that turned into contagious laughter. “I couldn’t tell you last night,” she said, “because after all it is comparatively unimportant. But, you see, I haven’t any debts. I’ve managed- my own affairs and —well, I’ve tripled the estate father left mg. But I wanted to do something patriot--ic, and when I asked Mr. Migglesworth what I could do he said the most pressing need was more boarding houses — said the plants would have to close if there weren’t more accommodations. I thought every one would know I did it just for patriotism.” “And —and still you are willing to marry me?” “Yes, Horace.” “And there is nothing I can do for you?” this in a crestfallen accent. “You can give up doing house jobs,” she said, “take some war contract and give the proceeds to the Red Cross. * And of course Horace did.

Love Your Work.

The richest rewards come only when one can literally fall in love with one’s work. If you are keenly interested in your dally efforts, your work is being done more satisfactorily. It is a labor of love. Every day is an enjoyable experience. ' Love your work. Retain your youthful enthusiasm. All this means that you must take every possible care of your health... That you must maintain your physical energies at high-water mark. Remember always that ybu depend upon your bodily machine for the attainment of your object in life. Take care of that machine. 1 Is it not worth more than an automobile, than an airplane, a fine horse or dog? Recognize its value to the full. Remember that each day you are what ydur food makes you. Your muscles, the strength and contour of your body, are Influenced by the. exercise you take. The blood that makes up the tissues, that nourishes and gives energy and enthusiasm to your brain, depends upon your diet and exercise and the general care of your body. Physical Culture.

Why He Was Worried.

Carl J. Carter, prosecuting attorney for the Bartholomew and Decatur circuit court, who lives near Columbus, had just been explaining to his wife certain matters in his questionnaire, and that she would be required to swear to certain matters therein stated relative to dependencies. Donald, his six-year-old son, while on the way to the city in company with his mother, seemed to be in a rather worried state of mind, and was exceptionally quiet. “What is the matter with you, Donald?” Mrs. Carter inquired. “Oh, mamma, I was Just thinking about you having to swear, and I don’t like it. Can’t you say ‘dog gone it’ and let it go at that?”—lndianapolis News.

A Little Story.

Two city fathers standing in the market place beside a pile of cabbages. A naturalist passed by, and noticed that a Pieris butterfly had settled down on the hat of one of the aidermen. “Friend,he said, “a butterfly is resting on your head.” “Good,” replied the dignitary, “that brings good luck, if the old saying may be believed. “Yes,” the naturalist rejoined; “and it reveals to me the wonderful instinct with which nature has endowed the insect.” “How is that?” the city father asked, much interested. “It Is a cabbage butterfly," the naturalist said—and passed on his way.

Adrift with Humor

Polishing Too Highly. “When <jid you study elocution?” “Elocution!” echoed Senator Sorghum. “I never studied it” “Would it not have helped your oratorical style?” ' ' “Maybe. But it would have done away with the little off-hand mistakes that help to convince a crowd that a man is speaking straight from the heart and not trying to beguile the senses with studied eloquence,” A Father's Disappointment “That was a fine letter Josh wrote home,” commented Mrs. Corntossel. “Every line of it was jes’ as grammatical as it could be.” “That's what worries me," replied her husband. “He has spoiled his style. I thought at- first he was goin’ to have a great future as one of these natural-born comical 'dialect writers.” >x-The Times. “Who, is the woman in the .handsome limousine which has just left yonder house?” “Oh, that’s (he washlady.” “And who Is the person who has just come out of the door and started to walk down the street?" • “That’s just the woman of the house.” As It Goes. “Who sent the little bunch of violets?” “The friend who did more than anyone else in his life to help him when he was in trouble.” “And from whom did the fine sprays of flowers come?” “From the ones who refused to lend him money when he needed it." >

ALL HE CAN HANDLE.

Mrs. Henry—Mr. Swift never takes his wife out in his automobile. Mr. Henry—l guess he doesn’t care to have two unmanageable 'things on his mind at one time. Making the Best of It. We must cheer up beyond a doubt •Mongst blessings Incomplete; So, when the gasoline gives out, Be thankfur for your feet. The Difference. “Time is money, you know,” remarked the bothersome bromidist “Yes, of course, in the other chap. “But you can save-time and spend it too.” .. What He Was. “And what does your mother call you?” asked the minister of the dirtyfaced IJttie lad. “Me?” he replied. “ she calls me the disgrace of the family.” Tact. “Am I the only girl you ever loved T’ “Darling, do you suppose I could aspire to you if I were In the amateur class?” • —v 1 ;■■**'** / The Reason. “The papers are always anxious to get good stories of fires.” “Naturally. A good fire»story is hot stuff.” ■ - Not Hindering It “Tteggv. why don’t you let your mustache grow?” “Why don’t I let it? Good heavens, deah boy, I do; but it don’t.” Ail -Thought Out. “Brown’s debts don’t seem to worry him.” > “No. He says if he looked worried it would worry his creditors and then they would worry him into worrying some more.” . ’ ■ ■■■ "' rrv 11 Ll r /■■ Neat Array. He —I know a man who has fingerprints all over his office. She—He must be very disorderly in Lis habits. He-Not at all. He’s a police identification expert