MIRROR<- A Monthly, Devoted to Beligions, Edii- \ication, and General Improvement. REV- J. M. DOWNUM, Editor. SUBSCRiPTION RATES; Single copy one year, - - ij .40 Six copies one year, - - - 2.00 Twelye copies one year, - - 3.00 Address ali cominiinications to THE MIEEOK, Elkin, N. C. Entered at the post-office at Ell'in, N. C., as second-class matter. SAM JOSES’ AXECDOTES ClVEjr. To any one who will send us a club of 5 new subscribers with cash, ($2.00) accompanying, we will send Sam Jones’ Anecdotes, in paper cover, a book of 300 pages of pithy illustrations. Send in your club at once and avail yourself of this rare oppor tunity. Those who work only for self are like the ox that browses only for itself. When we begin to grumble about poor crops we should stop and think whether we are thank ful for good ones. He who refuses to send his children to school is doing them a positive injustice—yea, even a wrong. Educate your children whether you give them anything else or not. When j'ou make an appoint ment to be present at any place, jmake it a point ahyt'K^s t,o be on 'rto cause a "to cause a than his money. ''3 " N man to los”ii?^time We have received a formal an nouncement of the election of Dr. B. F. Dixon as president of Greensboro Female College. He is a man in every way fitted for the position, and we predict for him great success. A person on whom heaven has bestowed rare gifts may use them to cause mischief and mis ery to all around. This may have reference to such gifts as wealth, charms of body and mind, and social position. How to fail—become discour aged in your work because ev erything is not as you would have it; tell otheis that you are discouraged, in words, if not in actions, and grumble at and find fault of them because they don’t encourage, and a failure is inevi table. The following from the Ral eigh Advocate is worthy the at tention of many churches: “No business man will have anything to do with a firm which is in the habit of paying 50 cents on the dollar. Suppose the bishop and the presiding elders were to be equally just. Brother, would your church have a pastor next year? ” A certain liquor dealer, desires to establish a retail whis key shop in a certain town, made the inducing (?) promise that no one should become intoxicated in the establishment, but must go outside. Such is the vile business. It sells the poor wretch the li quor, then turns him out to dis turb the peace of the town or to go to his house, and abuse his-I helpless family. No price should induce us to curse our homes with such a business. Keep the, monster out! ical, intellectual or moral attain- rhent. The highest freedom is attained only in the most perfect obedience of the lower powers, and the worst slavery follows the snbridled exercise of any natural impulse. Those who fail in life lack, first of all, singleness of aim. There is an old story of a boy who was told he might have a handful of ^ts from a jar. Being anxious TO take as many as possible, he filled his hand so full that it would not pass the narrow neck pf the jar, and he was obliged to drop all but two or three, in order i to release his hand. The man who tries to grasp all life’s prizes will obtain name; he who is content with one or two may have what he longs for. In these days much is said of poor boys who became famous, ^nd perhaps we are too apt to who I throw a halo of romance about the struggles of these boys to .overcome obstacles. But let us not deceive ourselves into the belief that the discouragements and drags which those boys overcame were, after all, so very different from those that beset icveryday boys, who sometimes do, and sometimes do not, over come. It is, after all, overcom ing that has brought the world’s “Well done!” which we call fame. It matters not what contest we may enter, it is out of place to say hard, cutting things to gain your point. There is jjlenty of work for Christians to do in bringing the world from sin to Christ without quarreling with each other. If any one Joubts as to wheth er or not the “tithe law” is still in force, let him read and consid er what Jesus says about it in Matt. 23:23: “These (judg ment, mercj^ and faith) ought ye to have done, and j3ot to leave the other (paying tithes) undone.” Any one will do better if you speak words of encouragement to him than if you manifest a lack of confidence in him. To de velop good workers may require reprimanding at times, but to show a lack of confidence in them is rarely beneficial. The Mt. Airy District Confer ence was held at Walnut Cove_, August 7th to 10th. We have/ not the space to give an extendi ed notice of it. Suffice it to saji that the general verdict is that ilf was a first class District Conferj- best this district has ever had. Our presiding elder. Rev. R. M. Hoyle, has a good idea as to the manner of condticting a Confer ence. There were a number of visitors present. The differ-ent colleges and book interests w'cre well represented, and the papers were not lacking in number, to say the least. The delegates to the next Annual Conference are J. S. Bell, E. O. Alaston, Francis Miller and B. P. Sparger. rOO» FOB ItEEI.ECTIOJf. Much of life’s w'orry is the re sult of the attempt to secuse and retain things that are not essen tial to noble and devout living. Happiness is not dependent on their possession, to say nothing of character and spiritual well being. The characteristic sin of child hood is disobedience, and it in- dludes and leads on to all other sins. But obedience is thecrown and grace of childhood, without which no child can learn to be strong and great; without which no child can be lovable or lovely. If two angels were to come down from heaven they would not care which one served as prime-minister and which as scavenger. A servant-girl may sweep a room so that the work will be divine. A merchant prince may stretch his arms across the seas, and yet be a mean, groveling being. Rational self-control is a great problem. Provision is made for in the will. In this control alone, under the guidiince of judgment and the dictates of a vigorous will, is there possibility of reach ing any high ideal of either phys- That which is to be remem bered pleasantly never presents itself at first as a memory or as a basis for a memory, but as a present duty to be attended to or neglected; and our inscant de cision on that point settles the question of its subsequent value as a memory. Doing our duty hour by hour, even though the duty be an tinpleasant one, is what'we must set ourselves to. Having pleasant memories of un- —J- A^1]<-wv as a matter ot course, when the time for memory-shaping has gone by. If it takes twenty years to complete a task, it is plain that the man who tries for nineteen years only will not succeed. Had Columbus become discouarged .when again and again he was refused assistance—when after years of appeal for help he found himself poorer, older, no nearer his heart’s desire than ever—do you think he would have become the honored discoverer of Ameri ca? Had Washmgton surren dered during that awful winter at Valley Forge, would we be living today under the stars and stripes of thenoblestgovernment in the world ? James Clement Ambrose writ ing in the Northwestern Chris tian Advocate pays a well mer ited tribute to North Carolina. In a paper of such extended pat- rotage among the best class of those who hold Northern senti ments, it will do our State no little good. He says: “If the exact duplicate of North Caro lina—climate, coast, forest, low land, upland, mountains and m.inerals—stood on the line of migration Westward, and could displace 50,000 square miles among the Dakotas, every go- Wester would cling to it as the prize land in beauty, comfort, titility, till it should be crowded like the out-bound Madison street car at p. m. Why is the original less attractive than would de the duplicate? To me it is not; and it is so to others half because they don’t know its fitness for a homestead, and half because the politicians and their press have made them be lieve, on the one side, that the white people South carry a bowie-knife over theirearinstead of tlie goose quill; on the other, that the black people South are brutal monsters. I have told you before, and at length, that such pictures are false. * * * All in all, it is a land of golden opportunities, even outside the gold belt—a breadth of American nature the most churlish Amer ican even will do well to take pride in as a part of the domain he calls his country.” The Western North CArolInn Vetlio