Organ. of f he "North Carolina Conk
SIXTY-FOURTH YEAR.
RALEIGH, N. C. JULY 4, 1918.
n
The Halo of Life.
I mean the halo conferred by our God, when He called
us His children and created us in His own image. I mean
the halo of heavenly sonship to be seen even when we have
wandered into the far country. "1 will arise and go to
my father I" There the halo is shining and terrible cir
cumstances, when its wearer has been deserted by his
friend and "uo man came near unto him." It is a tre
mendous moment when the soul awakes to see the mystic
halo resting upon its own being, and it is still more mo
mentous when the soul rises up to claim the inheritance of
which the halo is the symbol and the clue. " My God, I
am thine; what a glory divine!" That man has seen the
halo and has entered upon his inheritance.
And then I think we are designed by the Lord to see the
halo on common human experiences. For instance, we
have partially lost our sight unless we can see the mystic
significance of common labor. Many a man can see the
sacred symbol of a crosier, who is blind to the similar sig
nificance in a spade. We attach the title "Reverend " to
a minister, but we have no such conception of a grocer.
We see the glory resting upon the Church, but we do not
see the mystic flame in the workshop and the office. I
am always impressed by a suggestion that comes to me in
" The Angelus," the familiar picture where two peasants
are standing in the field resting for a moment from their
labor. There is a Church upon the horizon, and from the
tower there has come the summons which makes the toilers
stand in the attitude of homage and intercession. But the
painter has brought a ray of light and flung it upon the
barrow and the spade, the implements of labor. And that
is what we ought to see when we go to our daily toil. There
must not only be a light on the sanctuary, but there must
be a sign of the divine thought and care upon the com
monest implements and ministries with which we earn our
daily bread. " Only a laboring manV Yes, only a car
penter of Nazareth. J. H. Jowett, in Continent.