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ND though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth nothing."-1 Cor.

me

Is it possible to give from any other motive than love? Can we sacrifice, and the offering be worthless? Can surrender reach degree so great, as my verse here describes, and be profitless? Surely there must be some great mistake, or, anyway, unsolvable problem connected. with the quotation.

Assuredly it is the right thing to give. It is the primary principle of the universe; the axle upon which the wheel of nature, all industry and spirituality, swing round.

I look into the forest and I see treebranch nurturing with sap-food its infant buddings into maturity. I find the decaying, trodden leaves returning in death nutriment for their parent foliage. I hear the night wind's lullaby hushing earth to sleep, while earth in its morning glory repays its kindly benefactor with tint of color, thrill of music and bountiful service. I perceive in the veil of vapor arising from river, ocean and lake, water's generous offering to the sky, and floating cloudlet, and hear in the outpour of gratitude on the stormy morrow Heaven thanking earth by its feeding of all

nature.

When I think of all these things, do you know what I say? I say that Nature remembers so well what creature so oft

forgets, that "they that sow bountifully shall also reap bountifully.”

Withdraw this fundamental agency of giving from the commercial world, and watch the effect; the great engine comes to an abrupt standstill.

Ah! but you may argue that the world gives for what it gets. I am glad that you put in those three letters spelling f-o-r, for what giving is there that does NOT get? God has too well arranged the law of sowing and reaping to allow offering to pass without rebounding in receiving. But this is just what I want to show. There is all the difference in the world between giving for what you get, and being given to for what you give.

But even giving out of a sense of obligation, because of having generously received, is a great advance on the practice, if not the profession, of thousands— I refer to those whom I classify in my own mind as the spongers.

They throw themselves on the charities, on the virtues, on the labors, on the prayers, on the tears, on the generous administration of others in ten thousand ways through life, and when you come to squeeze them for a little return you find them dry.

If you are seeking sympathy, they will say: "It is not in my nature to be demonstrative, and to say that I am sorry for people."

If you are seeking a little service to save some back from breaking, they will

plead overtaxed time or physical weak

ness.

If you are seeking a little cheer or congratulation to save some toiling spirit. from fainting, they will say that they don't believe in praise-it elates and puffs up.

If you ask for some roll of material from their elaborate stock, or some food for the hungry from their well-filled pantry, they will direct you to some charitable mission, and speak of the advisability of these requests being made exclusively to the fitting parties.

If you ask for a word to save a soul from sinking, they will say that public speaking is outside their vocation, thus giving most brazen manifestation of that gross ingratitude which unblushingly absorbs all, but yields naught in return.

I call these people "the spongers." They get, take, receive, and give nothing. Thinking of this class makes me to say: "Giving is a grand thing, a splendid thing, a beautiful thing." Yes, beautiful! Generosity makes the face beautiful. It takes the hardness out of the lip, the sharpness out of the nostril, the coldness out of the eye, and the bitterness out of the expression.

A poor, grief-stricken mother, whose son had been condemned to die, sought the presence of Abraham Lincoln to plead for his Presidential reversion of the fatal sentence. Love's ingenuity and sorrow's passport pressed through all intervening formalities and reached his council chamber. Returning with transfigured face, and clutching with joy's trembling fingers the pardon she had gained, she was heard to murmur on descending the broad steps of the White House: "They lie when they say the President is plain looking; why, he's the handsomest man I've ever seen.” And

so I say that generosity, which hands out gifts of all descriptions, is a lovely thing.

MENTAL EXERCISE PAYS

Exercise your body if you will-that cannot harm you, and is pretty sure to do you a great deal of good. But whatever else you do or neglect to do, keep thinking. The well-established law of the physical universe that a machine tends. to rust out more quickly than to wear out holds equally good in the psychical sphere.

It is no mere coincidence that most of the great thinkers of the world-whether in philosophy, science, industry, literature or the arts-have lived to be old men, despite the fact that in youth they were in many instances physical weaklings. Significant, too, is the fact that the majority of them began to think, began to exercise their minds along the lines in which they ultimately achieved greatness, while they were still young. There is here a pregnant hint for parents.

Whatever aptitude, whatever special interest, your child chances to display, encourage him in it. Don't deaden his desire for knowledge, his instinctive tendency to think, by indifference, by failure to answer his incessant bombardment of questions. Rather thank God that your child has an active mind, and set about training him in the proper use of it. Teach him the principles of observation, of analysis, of synthesis-the principles, in short, of truly effective thinking. Accustom him to thinking things out for himself, and seek to interest him in whatever it is well for him to know. You need not be afraid that he will overtax his mind. No child's mind-and no man's, either-is overtaxed by anything in which a real interest is taken.

HE great truth of the brotherhood of man is given strong emphasis in all the teachings of Christ. What Christ has done for the world in impressing the obligation of love and service of one to another is one of the transcendent achievements of His coming among men.

"All ye are brethren." These words of the Master have a deeper and more farreaching significance than even the church as a whole has comprehended. But in these late days the spirit of unity and fellowship is finding more enlarged expression. The thought of universal brotherhood is more and more in the minds of men, and this thought is strengthening the movement for universal peace. God speed the day when there shall be no more wars.

The teaching and example of Christ taught that the idea of brotherhood was not limited to any class or condition of men, but that it included all men. He did not count it as a praiseworthy virtue, to simply love them who loved us. His injunction is to do good unto all men. He condemned the world's maxim: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy." In opposition to that idea He declared it to be the duty of all His disciples to love their enemies. (Matt. 5: 44, 45.)

"I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute

you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.”

By many this passage from the Sermon on the Mount is considered a hard saying, yet in the light of Christ's voluntary surrender of His life to save those who were His enemies we see truth, beauty and sublim ty in His words. Even the heathen mind has often been moved by a glimpse of the divinity in Christ's love for His enemies.

* *

It is related that the venerable Dr. Huff was once reading the Scriptures to a number of Hindoo youth and came to the passage: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you One of his hearers became deeply, intensely impressed, and exclaimed in ecstasy: "Oh, how beautiful, how divine! This is the truth; this is the truth!" And for days and weeks he could not help exclaiming, "Love your enemies," and repeating over and over: "How beautiful. Surely this is the truth."

Everything that relates to sympathy, fellowship and love between man and man is beautiful, and such expression is a requirement of Christ's gospel. Universal brotherhood is based on the truth, as declared by Paul in his great speech on Mars hill that "God hath made of one blood all the nations of men that dwell on all the face of the earth," and that all alike "are the offspring of God."

THE SUNSHINE TRAIN

The sunshine train to lands of light
Goes by, the windows gleaming bright.
The sunshine train-oh, let us start
To valleys of the happy heart!
The sunshine train, through wind and
rain,

Will take us down to joy again;
Aboard, aboard, and let us flee,
Along the golden rails of glee.
Good-by, good-by, to grief and care,
To weary whirl and blinding glare!
The sunshine train—it leaps and swings
Across the land on glimmering wings.
The sunshine train is due at dawn
At greenwood station, near the lawn;
With soft, exquisite speed it flies
On velvet rails from violet skies!
Awake, awake-it may not wait.
Until we reach the station gate,

And then all day we bide in gloom Beside the shuttle and the loom, While far and near our hopes and dreams Wend up and down the hills of gleam, And care would bow and toil would bend

Our hearts with grief till even-end! The sunshine train is on the line Of light and joy and cheer and shine; From heartbreak hill and worry vale It carries all the sick and pale; In dingy cot and draggled den It gathers children, gathers men,

And without cost and without fare It takes them dancing from their care To happy lands of dream and song Where little laughing childhoods throng, And every passenger can take

A childhood back for old sake's sake! The sunshine train-oh, rise betime. To ride upon its cheer and chime!

Without a sound, except the kiss Of bloom to bloom in wakening bliss, It creeps, it creeps around the curves

Of slumberland with swing and swerve, And here it blows and there it roars By garden gates and nursery doors, By mill and meadow, tower and hall With one clear call to one and all

Oh, get aboard, it rings, it screams,
To lands where love with laughter
gleams!

The sunshine train-ah, you are one,
Pale toiler, that hath need of sun;

Wan childheart, struggling in the street,
Loves lass in country byways sweet!
It always comes-today, tomorrow,
To scatter wide the clouds, the sorrow!

Its signals fly, its whistle shrieks-
To care and grief and toil it speaks-
Aboard, aboard, oh, rise and mark
Its windows gleaming through the dark,
From valleys sweet with bloom and
dew,

And good green hills, and skies of blue!
-The Bentztown Bard.

FOR YOU

Shall you complain, who feed the world, Who clothe the world, who house the world,

Of what the world may do? As from this hour you show your power, The world must follow you.

The world's life lies in your right hand, Your strong right hand, your skilled right hand;

You hold the whole world in your hand, See to it what you do!

Or dark or light, or wrong or right,

The world is made by you.
Then rise as you never rose before,
Or hoped before or dared before,
And show as was never shown before
The power that lies in you.
Unite as one, see justice done;
Believe and dare and do!

-Charlotte Perkins Gilman.