Orphans’ Friend.
Price, $1 a year.)
OXFORD, N. a, MAY 18, 1883.
(VOL. VIII. NO. 51
NOT OOTINO.
I know not wUat shall befall ine ;
God hang’s a mist o’er ray eyes ;
And at each step in my onward path
He makes new scenes to arise,
And every joy he send.s me
Coirms as a sweet surprise.
I'see not a step before rae,
As I tread on anotlior year;
But the past is all in God’s keeping,
'i'he futu.e his mercy shall clear,
And what looks dark in the distance
May brighten as I draw near.
For perhaps the dreaded future
Has less Ihtter than I think :
The Lord may sweeten the waters
Before 1 stoop to drink,
Or, if Marali must still be Marah,
Ho will stand beside the brink.
It may be he keeps waiting
Till the coming of my feet
Some gift of such rare blessedness,
Some joy so strangely sweet,
That my Ups shall only tremble
With the thanks they cannot
speak.
0 restful, blissful ignorance I
’Tis blessed not to know.
It bolds me in those mighty arms
Which will not let me go,
And hushes my soul to rest
On the liosom which loves me so.
So I go on not knowing :
I would not i' I might,
I would ratlier walk in the dark
witii God
Than go alone in the light.
I would rather walk with him by
faith
Than walk alone by sight.
My heart shrinks back from trials
Which the future may disclose,
Yet I never had a sorrow
^ But what th' dear fjord chose;
So I send the coming tears back
VVitli the whispered words, “He
knows.”
—Mary G-. Brainard.
RELIGIOUS FAMILY LIFE.
It is a familiar proverb that
an ounce of mother is worth
a pound of clergy. It would
be interesting and suggestive,
probably, if we could know
bow many of us, gathered
here, owe our conversion,
not to the Church nor the
pulpit but to the home. The
family is ^he first institution,
and lies at the basis of every
thing that is good in society.
All the best possibilities of so
ciety commence to unfold
themselves at the heart!)stone.
The family is the first church,
and it is also the first state.
This being so, we can only
regard with exceeding anxiety
any indications that the home
is losing its meaning and pow
er. There are many grounds
of encouragement to those of
ns who are laboring for the
extension of Christ’s kingdom,
and the development of a fin
er type of living; but there are
grounds of discouragement as
well, and one of these is just
this decay of family life. The
family does not mean what it
did fifty or even thirty years
ago. There really is not a
great deal of home life. This
is especially true in the city.
There is not that stability
of residence that there used to
be. Most ot ns have two
homes—a city home and a
country home; and between
having tw', we are pretty
likely to miss having any.
This semmi-annual break in
the thread of our living works
disastrously, especially in the
young and formative period
of life. There are certain ele
ments that accrue to character
only by virtue of fixity of
surroundings. Some of us
who are adults feel to-day the
solidifying effects of those
early years of ours, that we
passed quietly and consecu
tively in the midst of an un
altering environment. There
is a uniformity in texture that'
pertains only to deposit form
ed in still water.
Other influences are also
operating to work the relaxa
tion of the home bands. So
cial usages drive the rude
share through the soil of the
home and tear and strain the
tender loots that are trying
to toughen and extend them
selves there. In this way the
relation between the child and
the mother is weakened. The
mother’s interests and loves
and ambitions are not engross
ed with her children. The
home is no longer the moth’**
er’s little world.
I hear a great deal said by
mothers in regard to the heavy
tax that society lays upon
them. I wish I could see, in
general, more signs that their
families are a continual tax
upon them. Mothers, with
their social engagements, are
wearing themselves nearly to
the extremity of theirstrength,
and giving to their children
the iag end of interest and af
fection, and it is clear enough
why the attachment of the
children to the home lalters
and family life breaks down,
ifothers farm their children
out to the nurse, physically,
intelTectcally, and morally.
God and nature intended that
mothers should take care of
their own children. Women
complain that they have not
the strength to do so. Women
used to have strength,and there
is nothing to hinder their haV'
ing it again if they will live
as they ought to and be as
respectful to the laws of na
ture as most of our mothers
were.
The fathers are also charge
able with similar fault. With
them it is the club room that
usurps the place of the home.
Of course there are other
places which fathers frequent
and other engagements which
engross the interest and the
regard that is due to the home
circle. I mention the club for
example’s sake. I think that
the club as ordinarily consti
tuted, is a device of the Devil
for undermining the stability
of the home, chilling its terns
perature and breaking its pow
er. I do not believe there is
rial and promise of manhood,
Christianhood, and the poten
cy of every blessing, is in it.
Something has been said heie
this afternoon about evil ef
fects produced upon the young
by sceptical teaching and in
fidel literature. But it is with
boys as it is with trees in a
storm, a question of root and
fibre, and warm Christian
homes are just the manufac
tories which God has express
ly set up for the production
of root and fibre, personal
stamina and tensity. Infidel
ity in the world will not break
down the boy whom faith in
side the home has built up.—
Rev. C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.,
in W. Y. Obrerver.
JOHNNY APPLESEED THE
KINDEST OF MEN.
IMMORTAL HAPPINESS.
a live, business man among us
who, when bis daily duties
are discharged, has any more
time left him than is due to
his wife and children.
It is a sad moment for a
child when he begins to sus
pact that there is anywhere in
the world a dearer, sweeter
place than home; and mothers
immersed in society, and fa
thers steeped in the club, are
starting that suspicion in their
children and fostering it every
day of life. He is an unhap'
py man who cannot look back
to the home of his childhood as
to a centre around which ev
erything gathered, the axis
upon which the whole world
turned.
And when family life, tense
and warm, is charged with
heavenly influence, the mate*
“Johnny Appleseed” would
appear to deserve the name of
“the kindest man.’’ His real
name was Jonathan Chapman,
and he was a native of Boston,
having been born there in
1775, the year before the
Declaration of Independence.
He drifted to western Pennsyl
vania when a young man.
In 1801 he visited Ohio
with a cart-load of apple-
seeds, which he had gathered
from the cider-presses. He
planted the seeds on the fer-
tle spots along the banks of
the Licking Creek.
In 1806 he was seen by a
settler drifting down the Ohio
River in two canoes lashed
together, and loaded with ap-
ble seeds-
He often planted a bushel
of seed in one locality, and
then inclosed the place with a
brush fence* The seeds were
carried through the wilder
ness in leather-bags, some
times on old horses, and some
times on his own shoulders.
In that way he scattered bles
sings throughout the wilder
ness along the Ohio River,
and, at this day, thousands of
fruitful apple-trees are grow
ing where he dropped the
seeds.
He was so kind-hearted
that he could not bear to
inflict pain even on an insect.
Once he refused to build a
fire to keep ofi mosquitoes,
saying, “God forbid that I
should build a fire for my
comfort which should be the
means of destroying any of
His creatures.”
One cold night, he .decided
to sleep in a hollow log. He
built a fire at the end of a log
bnt, finding a bear and her
cubs occupying it he moved
the fire to the other end, and
slept in the snow, rather than
disturb the bears.
Immortal happiness is noth
ing more than the unfolding
of our own minds, the full,
bright exercise of our best
powers; and these powers are
never to be unfolded here or
hereafter, but through our
free exertions. To antici
pate a higher existence, while
we neglect our own souls, is a
delusion on which
frowns no less than revela
tion. Dream not of a heav
en into which you may enter,
live here as you may. To
such as waste the present
state, the future'will not, can
not, bring happiness. There
is no concord between them
and that world of purity. A
human being who has lived
without God, and without
self-improvement can no more
enjoy heaven than a molder»
ing body, lifted from the tomb
and placed amid beautiful
prospects, can enjoy the light
through its decayed eyes, or
feel the balmy air which
blows away its dust. My
hearers, immortality i? a glo
rious doctrine, but not given
us for speculation or amuse
ment. Its happiness is to be
realized only through our own
struggles with ourselves, ouly
through our own reaching
forward to new virtue and
piety. To be joined with
Christ in heaven, we must be
joined with him now in spirit
in the conquest of temptation
in charity and well-doing.
Immortality should begin
here. The seed is now to be
sown which is to expand for
ever “Be not weary, then,
REMEDIES FOR SLEEP
LESSNESS.
1. Avoid excitement for the
hours beforej retiring; enter
on no abstruse investigations;
read no stories that will take
possession of the mind; en
gage in pleasant social con
verse.
2. Cast out solicitude by
committing everything into
reason hands—so bathing the
mind in His peace.
3. Avoid over-e?\ting in the
evening, whether or not you
have had the grace to do so
through the day.
4. Refuse tea and coffee in
the evening,
5. Do not retire with an
empty stomach; give it a lit
tle food to draw the blood
from the brain—a tumbler of
milk (not full, and with a lit
tle salt) and a ernst of bread
will be helpful to many,though
perhaps not to alb
6. A walk of half an hour
before retiring may be ser
viceable. '
7. Sponge the body rapid
ly with water not warm; if
the head be hot, lay a wet and
wrung-out towel on the fore
head and around the back of
tbe neck.
8. Avoid an excess of bed
clothing. ‘
6. After retiring, think of
strains of slow, grand music
harmonies, not lively jingles ;
or, picture to yourself the long
grass waving iu the wind ol a
sleepy summer afternoon, or
the glancing of waters on lake
DISCRIMINATING.
The Tennessee Legislature
has made gambling a felony,
unless you bot on blooded
stock This is a nice dis*
crimination in morals.
Blood” has heretofore had
its use in determining social
losition, but not untill now
las it been appealed to in ad
judicating questions of legal
or moral guilt. The courts
will now be under the neces
sity, in certain cases, of
searching archaeological rec
ords and tracing genealogical
lines to remote antiquity to
determind the guilt or inno
cence of of “the prisoner at
the bar,” and the Stock Reg
ister wi become the compan-
ioa of Sneed’s Reports in the
library of the Tennessee law
yer.
in welb doing; for in due time
we shall reap, if we faint not.’’
—JRev. Dr
Oh, when we turn away
from some duty or some
fellow-creature, saying
that our heart’s are too
sick and sore with some great
yearning of our own, we may
often sever the line on which
a divine message was coming
to us. We shut out the man,
and we shut out the angel
who had sent him on to open
tbe door. There’s a plan
working in our lives; and, if
we keep our hearts quiet and
our eyes open, it all works to
gether, and, if we don’t, it all
fights together,' and goes on
fighting till it comes right,
somehow, somewheie.—
nie Keary.
INEXPENSIVE H h PPINESS.
The most perfect home I
ever saw was in a little house,
into tlie sweet incense of
whose fires went no costly
things. A thousand dollars
served for a year’s living of
father, mother, and three
children. But the mother
was the creator of a home; her
relation with her children was
the most beautiful I have ever
seen; even a dull and com*
inonplace man was lifted up
and enabled to do good work
for souls by the atmosphere
which this woman created;
every inmate of her house
involuntarily looked into her
face for the key-note of the
day; and it always rang clear
From the rose-bud or clover-
leaf, which, in spite of her
hard housework, she always
found time to put by our
plates at breakfast, down to
the story she had on hand to
be read in the evening, there
was no intermission of her
influence. She has always
been and will be my ideal of a
mother,, wife, home-maker.
If to her quick brain, loving
heart and exquisite face had
been added the appliances of
wealth and the enlargements
of wider culture, here would
have been the ideal of home. As
it was, it was the best I have
ever seen.
The years write their record
on human hearts, as they do on
trees, in hidden, inner circles of
growth which no eye can see.—
I Sa/x Holm.
I Time enough always proves
I little enough.
10. Closing the eyes and
rolling them around in the
liead in one direction contin
uously is advised; but we
know nothing of its utility,
Christian Uuion.
THE. WORD “WIFE”.
It was Ruskin who pro
nounced the word “wife''one
of the most beautiful and
appropriate in the lan
guage. He described it as
the great word with which
the English and Latin lan
guages conquered the French
and Greek, “T hope,’’ said
he “that the French will some
day get a word for it instead
of that femme. But what do
you think it comes from?
The great value of the Saxon
words is, thal they mean some
thing. Wife, means “weaver’’
You must either be house
wives or house-raothi, re
member that. In the deeper
sense, you must either weave
men’s fortunes and embroider
them, or feed upon and bring
them to decay. Wherever a
true wife comes, home is al
ways around her; The stars
may be over his head, the
glow-worm in the night’s cold
grass may be the fire at his
feet, home is where she is,
and for a noble woman it
stretches far around her, bet
ter than houses ceiled with
cedar or painted with vermil
ion—shedding its quiet light
for those who else are home
less.
How much iro ble he avoids
who does uot look to see what li^s
neighbor says or doe.s or tliiiikw’.
but ouly to what he doe.s himaeii,
that it may be just uud pure.—M,
Anioniua.
A CAT’S TOES.
“How many toes has a cat?”
Tins was one of tbe questions
lasked a certain classduring ex
amination week; and, as simple
nsthe question appears to be,
none could answer it. In the
emergency, the Principal was
japplied to for a solution;
he also, with a good-na
tured smile, gave it up, when
lone of the teachers, determ-*
insd not to bo beaten by so
'simple a question, hit on the
idea of sending out a delega-
atinn, of boys to scour the
neighborhood for a cat* When
this idea was anounced, the
class wanted to join in the
hunt. Several boys went out
and soon returned successful.
A returning board was 8t once
appointed, and the toes coun
ted, when, to the relief of all,
it was learned that a cat poss
esses eightdfen toes, ten on
tlie front feet and eight on the
Innd iuQt—Christfian Weekly.
An elderly gentleman, the
London Globe reports, recently
presented himself at one of the
entrances of the new law courts
of London. admittance ex
cept on business,” said the por
ter, who did not remeber hav
ing seen the elderly gentleman
before. The latter explained
that his name was Gladstone—
William Ewart Gladstone. The
porter thought he had heard
that name somewhere, in a pa
per liiely; but orders were or
ders, and—finally, however, he
was convinced, and Mr. Glad
stone went on hia way specula
ting i^on sublunary reputations,
a'nd the janitor remained won
dering that this Mr. Glanstone
—or whatever his name is—
should insist upon going iu that
way against orders.
As you do not ask of a
tree is it t/rae, but is it alive, so,
with an established Church or
system of belief, you look to
the work which it is doing.
If it is teaching men to be
brave and upright, and honest
iind just; if it is making them
noble minded, careless of
their selfish interest, and
loving only what is good, tbe
truth of it is proved by evi
dence better than, argument,
and idle persons may proper
ly be prohibited from raising
unprofitable questions about
it. Where there is life, truth
is present, not as in proposi
tions but as an active force;
and that is all which practical
men need desire.—i'ViJwde