Choice Selections

CHOICE SELECTIONS, He was the Son of God* It was night. Jerusalem slept quietly amid her hills, as a child upon the breast of its mother. The noiseless sentinel stood like a statue at his post, and the philosopher's lamp burned dimly in the recess of his chamber. But a moral darkness involved the nation in its enlightened shadows. Reason shed a faint glimmering over the minds of men like the cold and insufficient shining of a distant star. The immortality of man's spiritual nature was unknown, his relation to heaven undiscovered, and his future de3tiny obscured in a cloud of mystery. It was at this period that two forms of etherial mold hovered about the land of God's chosen people. They come, sister angels, sent to earth on some embassy of love. The one of majestic stature and well-formed limb which her drapery scarcely concealed, and her erect bearing and steady eye exhibiting the highest degree of strength and confidence. Her right arm was extended in an expressive gesture upward where night appears to have planted her darkest pavilion; while on her left inclines her delicate companion, in form and countenance the contrast of the other. She was drooping like a flower moistened by refreshing dew, and her bright and troubled eyes scanned them with ardent but varying glances. Suddenly a light like the sun flashed out from the heavens, and Faith and Hope hailed with exciting song the ascending Star of Bethlehem. Years rolled away, and a stranger was seen in Jerusalem. He was a simple, unassuming man, whose happiness seemed to consist in acts of benevolence to the human race. There were deep traces of sorrow in his countenance, though no one knew why he grieved, for he lived in the practice of every virtue, and was beloved by all

CHOICE SELECTIONS. 109 the good and wise. By-and-by, it was rumored that the stranger worked miracles, that the blind saw, the dumb spake, the dead arose, the ocean moderated its chafing tide, the very thunder articulated. He was the son of God. Envy assailed him to death. Thickly guarded, he ascended the hill of Calvary. A heavy cross bent him to the earth ; but Faith leaned on his arm, and Hope, dipping her pinions in his blood, mounted to the skies. American Equality* In Europe, a laborer takes off his hat when he meets a lord. In America, a man keeps his hat on when he meets a millionaire, unless the millionaire salutes him first. In Europe, the teamster turns out for the carriage with a coronet upon its panels. In America, the multi-millionaire will lose a wheel if he does not turn out for the coalcart, if the latter has the right of way. "What, at last, do rich men obtain from life more than the poorest of us? Toil brings hunger, and hunger is a better sauce than any served at the Alta club. God gives his beloved as sweet sleep upon a cot as upon the downiest couch. Public libraries and galleries give the treasures of learning and art to the poorest. Music and drama can be enjoyed as well from the galleries as from the boxes. A trolley car gives a safer and smoother and swifter ride than a carriage drawn by horses. There are no reserved seats in nature's amphitheatre. The ripple of the river, the verdure of the lawns, the shade of the trees and the perfume of the flowers, belong to rich and poor. I stood the other evening upon the hill above my home and watched the burning sun dissolve in fret-work clouds of color that filled earth and air with glory, and then the gray lids of twilight fell upon the drowsy eyes of yon inland sea, and the stars came out, and the great temple lifted its beautiful spires to the darkening sky. God gives such visions of beauty alike to capitalist and pauper, and the poorest laborer equally with the multi-millionaire can find heaven in the prattle of his babies and in the arms of the woman he loves. — Thomas Fitch. Listen to the Inward Voice. Dallying with conscience in small things opens the way to the commission of great crimes. The hardened criminal, the thief

HO IMPROVEMENT ERA. who wears a convict's garb, did not begin by committing some great offense. His conscience pricked him the first time he told a lie, the first time he stole, it may be an orange, an apple, or a penny; the second time he fell he found it a little easier to quiet the "still small voice," until, gradually, imperceptibly, he glided smoothly along the broad road which led him to the narrow limits of the prison cell and the possession of a dishonored name. "Thou hast been faithful in small things; I will make thee ruler over many things," saith the Lord. He who is not faithful in small things will never be made ruler over many things, even on the earthly plane, for he will be trusted by none. He who cannot trust himself will never inspire confidence in others. "I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man," said our own Washington. I would have every boy engrave those noble words of one who lived up to the letter of all that they imply, so deeply on the tablets of his soul that small temptations will have as little power over him as great ones, and, like another of our grand immortals, — "Honest Abe Lincoln," — he will win the distinction of being great enough to be honest, even in trifles. — Success, The Humanity of the Age, So far as regards the low externals of humanity, this is doubtless a human age. Let men, women and children have bread; let them have, if possible, no blows, or, at least, as few as may be; let them also be decently clothed; and let the pestilence be kept out of their way. In venturing to call these low, I have done so in no contemptuous spirit; they are comparatively low if the body be lower than the mind. The humanity of the age is doubtless suited to its material wants, and such wants are those that demand the promptest remedy. But in the inner feelings of men to men, and of one man's mind to another man's mind, is it not an age of extremest cruelty? There is sympathy for the hungry man, but there is no sympathy for the unsuccessful man who is not hungry. If a fellowmortal be ragged, humanity will subscribe to mend his clothes; but

CHOICE SELECTIONS. Ill humanity will subscribe nothing to mend his ragged hopes, so long as his outside coat shall be whole and decent. To him that hath shall be given; and from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath. This is the special text that we delight to follow, and success is the. god that we delight to worship. "Ah, pity me! I have struggled and fallen — struggled so manfully, yet fallen so utterly — help me up this time that I may yet push forward again!" Who listens to such a plea as this? "Fallen! do you want bread?" "Not bread, but a kind heart and a kind hand." "My friend, I can not stay by you; I myself am in a hurry; there is that fieDd of a rival there even now gaining a step on me. I beg your pardon, but I will put my foot on your shoulder — only for one moment." Occupet extremus scabies. Yes. Let the devil take the hindmost, the three or four hindmost if you will; nay, all but those strong-running horses who can force themselves into noticeable places under the judge's eye. This is the noble shibboleth with which the English youth are now spurred on to deeds of — what shall we say? — money-making activity. Let every place in which a man can hold up his head be the reward of some antagonistic struggle, of some grand competitive examination. Let us get rid of the faulb of past ages. With us, let the race be ever to the swift; the victory always to the strong. And let us ever be racing, so that the swift and the strong shall ever be known among us. But what, then, for those who are not swift, not strong? Vce victis! Let them go to the wall. They can hew wood probably; or at any rate, draw water. — Anthony Trollope.