Newspapers / The Orphans’ Friend (Oxford, … / Sept. 20, 1876, edition 1 / Page 1
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i i BEACOX la. “ The o-reatest of tliese is cliai-- itv. The morning' meal was coin- jjleted; and as Deacon IT. took ])is llible for the usual devotion,?, lie cast a satisfied glance around the rooiii, and on tlio faces of the rosv-cheokod little group that sur rounded the table. The chapter chosen was the thirteenth of First Corinthians. “ kaitli, hope, charit}-,” read the deacon at its close, “ but the greatest of these is charit}'.” Then Itillowed a long prayer, in which the deacon, after giving tlio Lord vaiious bits of iuUirmaiiou con cerning matters of wiiich it was quite essential lie should bo cog nizant, earnestly iin'okcd the graces of the Spirit, and solicited help for the duties of the da\-. “ Stop a moment, husband,” said Ill's, il., as the deacon, at tlie close of the exercise, was pre paring to leave the room. “ I forgot to mention that Mrs. Conner called hero yesterday. She wants to know if you can find a place in your store for her eldest boy. Poor w-oman ! she is in great distress. 1 inferred from what she said that her husband is drinking again ; and her boy has for weeks been vainly seeking for work. 1 gave her some sewing, for which she seemed very grate ful, though she looks too feeble to do much.” The complacent smile that liad been plat ing on the deacon’s face suddenly changed to a gloomy frown. “ Take that drunkard’s boy in to my store, Mary I I tvor.der at the woman’s presumption. ' Like father, like son,’ is a true sat’ing ; ril have no vagabonds around me.” “ But James is a bright, active boy, husband, and if surrounded by the right influences I doubt riot he will do tvell. Surel}' the faniilv should not suffer for the father’s faults. Could you have seen the anxiety of the poor mother, you w'ould try in some way to aid her. It made my heart ache to look at her sad, w'orn lace. Do, husband, consider the matter. I can not bear to tell her you w’ill not try her son.” “ Then do not go near her,” was the harsh reply. “It is no place for such as }'ou ; if tliey are suffering the town will look out for them. I have enough to do to attend to my own affairs. 11 you have rvork for her, give it to her ijnd pay her lor it. Those drunkards are perfect pests; it is useless tiwing to refonn them. Nowy I presume Conner has signed the pledge half a dozen times, but wTiat good does it do f” “ Charity suffereth long and is kind,” repeated Mis. 11., sottl}'. “ I believe you read tliat this morning and this verse also; ‘ The greatest of these is charity.’ Do these passages mean any- like manner, the angry man has tily left the liouse. “ The silver and gold are mine ; I shall require mine with usur}-,” sadly murmured the wife. Deacon II. and his -wife rvere specimens of that strange dissim ilarity of character that is so often S'.'cn in married life. lie, although au officer in the church, and ac tive, so far as talking and praying were concerned, was exti-einelv penurious, giving to benevolent objects just as little a.s was possi ble for one in his jiosition. With the poor and unfortunate he had no synipath}-; he Inul been succes.sful, wliv could not ihev be? How such a man thing ? “Mean anything? of course they do,” angrily replied her lius- baud ; “but they don’t mean that I should support every drunkard’s family. You women take every thing literally, and I really believe you’d give away your last penny; but my money is my ow'u and I shall use it as I please ; and sliut- ting the door in a very uudeaeou- became an ofiicer in the cluirch one might well ask. But the fact only iirove.s that the wisest and the best are not alwae s selected for offices so important. Ills wife, as before intimated, was just the opposite. Many a dollar found its way from her poise into the channels of bonov- oleiice. The heart of many a sad, weary child of iioverty was light ened by her symiiathy and aid. “ She is doing her own dut}’, and her husband’s also,” was often the remark of those who witnessed her quiet, unobtrusive deeds of charity. In a very different dwelling from the commodious one of dea con II., a dwelling so poor and dilapidated that the winds of heaven gained easy adinission, there sat a pale, care-worn woman, busily sewing; wbilo over a few dying embers shiveringly hovered two little scantily clothed girls. The room was bare of almost every comlort; and a casual glance was sufficient to show that gaunt poverty had taken up his abode there. “ 0 mother, can’t wo have a little more fire ?” pleaded Susy, the youngest, whose thin little face wore such a wistful, hungry look, that it added a neiv pang to the mother’s heart. “ It is so cold here,” and the tears began rapidly to course down the faded cheeks.” “ Iliish, hush, dear, mother is sorry for her little girl; come here and wrap my dress around you; perhaps it will give a little warmth. James will soon be here; I wouldn’t -sYonder if he had some good news for us; and the poor mother sought to smile into the wan, tear-stained face, as she drew her dress closely around the little one. At that moment the door opened, and a boy en tered, drew a chair to the hearth, and strove to impart a little warmth to his chilled liauds. “Well, mv son, what news?” and though the smile on her face was sad and forced, the poor mother endeavored to speak cheer- full v. ‘I'The same old story, motlioi ; nobody wants a boy—at least nobody wants me—so we must all starve, I suppose. Oli, if father would only be different! Wliat shall we do ?” and the boy, leaning his head on his clasped hands, sobbed in agony. “My son, my son,” wailed the poor woman as she laid aside hex' work and drew the boy’s Ixead on her lap. “Don’t, Jimmvq don’t! there must surely be help for us. God will not utterly forsake us.” “Thou why don’t lie send us help ? I went into Deacon IBs store; and though one of the clerks said tliev needed a boy, the deacon wouldn’t take me because father drinks. He said he wanted a respectable boy in bis store. The hard-hearted old miser ! If he’s got religion 1 don’t want an}’ of it.” “It i.su’t religion that causes him to bo so unkind, mv son ; it is the want of it, rather. Look at bis wife, if you wish to know what religion can do. You are not to blame for voiir father’s acts ; and no good man will ever think the less of you for them. But clieer up ; v'ou know you are mother’s principal stay and hope; she cannot bear to see her boy so sad. Here is Mrs. 11. now ; who knows but wliat she has found a place for you ?” “Good afternoon, Mx's. Conner.” Slid that lady, entering the room; I have good nows for you ; but have you no wood ? this must not be; you will perish in this bitter weather. 1 xvill send some this very afternoon. Poor little girls,” glancing pitifully at the shiver ing children, “how cold you look; oomo here and wrap these furs around you. Well, James, 1 have found you a place at last. Farmer B. says you are just the boy for him ; and, Mrs. Conm.r I have seen some of the I'eform boys, who have promised to do all they can for your husband. They say he wouldn’t have bro ken his pledge, had it not been for the solicitations of that miser able rumseller at the corner. But the boys will watch him more closelv for the future ; and I am convinced better Jays are in store for you.” “God bless you, God bless } ou,” sobbed tlie poor woman, grasping the lady’s band, while the tear., coursed silently down her cheeks. “God will reward vou ; we never can.” “The greate.st of these is chari ty.” Oh, that charity, that world wide, all embracing charity. That love to God and love to man. lYould to God there were more of it.—21oniinfj Star. A OESKitiVEO 'S'BSISSUTB TO A CllKISTIAA UEKO. SlIADAy STKOLLS. I have heard of lads who have gone out walking on Sabbath afternoons, because they were too big for Sunday school, and 1 very sincerely hope that you are not bent on the .same folly. Pei'- haps you may say to me: ‘‘What’s the liarm of walking out on Sundays ?” lYell, I xx'ill tell you. I have seen some of the best lads I over knexv, whom I really hoped wore converted who have taken to this walking busi ness, and not one of them is now worth a button for any good pur pose whatever. My hope was that ill time they would have been among my best workers, flourishing in business and Ixap- py in the service of God, but it is not so. The day they left the liouse of God for “pleasant strolls” was the day of their doom; they became, by degrees, careless, idle, boastful, loose in talk and loose in life, and made Satan more and more their Lord. Whether a thing is bad or not may be seen by its fruit, and there’s the fruit of being “too old for Sunday schools and classes.” Miss Lizzie K. Pershing, daugh ter of Rev, Dr. Pershing, of Pitts burg, has been writing to the Eveninij Chronidc, .of that city, a series of verv interesting letters from the Pacific coast. In lier last, dated in San Francisco, she makes the following pleasant mention : “In the afternoon wo visited the Chinese Mission, under tlie charge of the M. E. Church, in which we had spent many a pleasant hour during our Winter sojourn in the city. They were holding praver-ineeting as wo en tered. The folding doors xvero thrown open between tivo larg-e, pleasant dressed Chinese xvomen ; while in the other was an equal, or larger number of their bi'ethren. The light of intelligence and Christian hope beamed from many a dark face, once hideous with deiiravily or sullen with despare. ’They were all listening altentively to the earnest voice of the mi.ssionar}’, Rev. 0. Gibson —a man to whom they may well listen, for they owe much to him ; a man deserving of all respect and worthy of the highest regard of Christians evry where; a man who, almost single-handed, fought against a whole city in defense of an oppressed poojile ; a man who dares suffering, contempt, every thing for what he believes to be right. Very gladly did wo look upon the familiar countenance of Mrs. G., an intelligent Christian lad Y, and her husband’s faithful co-workei‘. Wo recognized the sweet, girl-face of Miss L.anra Templeton, the noble woman who is devoting herself to the elevation of less fortunate women, who is proving that these iroor creatui'es are capable of a higher life than that into which they have boon (many of tliem un willingly) thrust, and who is do ing much toward developing a true womanhood in them. As we looked upon the bright faces around us and contrasted them with those of their race which we had observed upon the stx’eets, as ive remembered the work we had seen done within those walls, we could not but feel that the manly Missionary and his earnest fellow-laborers were making a vei'-v’ noble effort toxvard the solu tion of the vexed Chinese ques tion, and we heartily bade them God-speed in tlieir holy work.— Xortheni Christian Advocate. Wli HAVE I-'Ai;i,'TS. I liave been a good deal uj> and down in the world, andT never did see either a perfect horse or a perfect man, and I never shall until two Sundays couie together. The old saying is, “Lifeless, faultless.” Of dead, men wo should say nothing but good, but as for the living, they are all tarred more or less witlx the black brush, and half an eye can see it. Every head has a soft place in it, and ever}^ l:eart has its black drop. Every ro.se lias its prickles, and every day its night. Even the sim shows spot.«, and the skies are daiEeneJ w. li clouds. Nobody is so xvise but ho has folly enough to stock a stall at Vanity Eair. Where I could not see the fool’s cap, I have, nevertheless, heard the bells jingle. As there is no sunshine without some sbadoxv, so is all human good mixed up with more or less evil; even poor law guard ians have their little faiiing.-i; and parish beadles are not v. liollv of heavenly nature. T i,; !>-si wine has its less. Ail ,iio,n’s faults are not written ou tlieir foreheads, and it’s ipiite as well they are arc not, or iiats would need wide brims; yet as sure as eggs are eggs, faults of some sort nestle in every man’s bosom. There’s no telling when a man’s sins may show themselves, foi' hares pop out of a ditch just when you are not looking foi" them. A horse that is xveak in the legs may not stumble for a mile or two, but it’s in him, and tlie I'ider had better iiold him up well. The tabby-cat is not lap ping milk just now, but leave the dairy door open, and xve will see if she is not as bad a thief as the kitten. TTu-re’s lire in the Hint, cool as it looks; wait till tlie steel gets a knock at it, and you will see. Everybody can read that riddle, but it is not every body that will remember to keej) his gunpowder out of the xvay(of the caudle,—John 1‘loughman. THE WOltST I’EAISlIllIEMT. ‘You do not look as if you had pi'ospered b}' your wickedness,’ said a gentleman to a vagabond one day. ‘I haven't prospered at it,’ cried the man. ‘It is a business that doesn’t pay. If I had given half the time to some honest calling which I have spent in trying to get a living without work, I might be a man of propei'ty and character, instead of the home less wi'etcli I am.’ He then told Ills histoi-y, and ended by saying, ‘I have been twice in prison, and I have made acquaintance with all sorts of miseries in my life, but I tell you, my vorst punish ment is in heiny what I am. An interest is being developed in Europe on the Siindav question. A conference is to beheld at Gene va, xvhere reports will be made from every country and two pop ular conferences xvill be held in Fi'anco and Germany. In tlie last quarter of a centiny the population of London has in creased from 2,373,000 to 3,44.5,- 160. In 1841 the average num ber of persons living on an acre in all London was 25, in 1871 it was 42. We learn from the Raleigh News that 8100,000 in machine ry and 600 skilled English oper atives will be brought from Eng land to woi'k the gold mines of Montgomory county. Hurrah for the Old North State,—Mason ic Journal. Cliristian gi-aces ax-e like pi fxxmes—the xixore they are prt: ed, the sxveeter they xnixll; 1 : stax's, that shine brightest ii dark; like ti-ees—tlie r-. ■ th , ai'e shaken, the deeper root they take, and the uioro fruit tl ey hear.
The Orphans’ Friend (Oxford, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 20, 1876, edition 1
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