and he opened his blue eyes very wide. "So am I tired," said a saucy-looking Marigold. "But I can't take you," said Monnie, looking straight at Miss Marigold. "You are dark, and not at all pretty in your yellow petticoat, and nobody loves you with your forward ways, and that gingery scent you carry around. You are out of season, too. It is quite enough to see you in August and September." "I am so glad it is almost sundown," sang out a whole chorus of Four O'Clocks, "I feel so fresh and bright under the soft light overhead; and see! O see over there on the western slope! God's great furnace in full blast! See the gorgeous light coming out of the furnace! But I can't look at it, it makes me shut my eyes, although I hold my head so straight that I only get a glimpse from over this way." "But I am glad it is coming night" was the plaintive little cry that issued from under a glass jar. "Pity a poor little prisoner, Miss, it is so lonesome here; because the bees and the butterflies are all shut out, and when the flowers sing their songs, I can't even catch an echo; and then, my poor thirsty lips are so tired of waiting for a dew-drop." "O dear," sighed Monnie. for "And you can't think how plants feel," murmured a sensitive plant close by. "I can't help trembling from morning till night, and people look at me with such quizzical eyes, and I wish I had a nice hiding-place in the woods. I can't be self-possessed any more than your Aunt Mary, who started so yesterday morning, when that strange gentleman came up behind her on the garden walk. I wish I was not such a silly little plant. But I am thankful noth ing evil ever touches me, for then I should shrink away and die." "But I am getting tired, and it is late, and I wish the gardener would come," thought Monnie to herself. And all at once she seemed to see a figure in the distance, and she thought it was like the pictures she had seen of the Lord Jesus. And He came and stood in the garden, and bent tenderly over the flowers, and she seemed to hear Him say, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." And then there arose a sweet melody in the air, and beckoning voices, as if angels were hovering near. But the eyes of the gardener were upon the little sensitive plant, now trembling so violently in the breeze, and he kindly bore it away, while a single streak of crimson light still lingered in the western sky. And next His breath was upon the pure white lily, and He said, "I love thee, my frail flower; I am sure I do, and as a proof of my love, I have given thee a beautiful name. Among the heavenly host of flowers, the 'Bride,' shalt thou be called. Thou hast trusted in my coming to see thee, and struggling on in spite of wind and storm thou hast endured unto the end. “In remembrance of thy sweet and lowly life, the promised robes of immortality are thine, and thou shalt be next thy Lord, and my kiss shall be upon thy cheek, and to-day shalt thou bloom with me in the paradise of flow ers.' Monnie awoke with a tear-drop on her cheek, and the old black woman leaned over and said, "Child, did the flowers talk to you in your sleep?" And they went into the house together, but the little girl never told her dream. SUPPLYING THE NEED.-We had long felt the need of a standard Magazine for our own Church. But until we began the labor of seeking to supply the vacancy we had no idea how widely-felt the want had been. From every side, from East and West, from ministers and from parents, we are receiving the warmest welcome and the most encouraging encomiums. This is grateful indeed; for our enterprise depended for its success mainly on the degree in which the necessity of such a Magazine should be realized among our people. The result has far surpassed our modest anticipations. Our subscription list has grown steadily and rapidly from the start, and has attained such a respectable size as to insure, as we believe, its permanent establishment upon a sound financial basis. We were compelled to reissue the January number to meet the demand, and even this second edition is well nigh exhausted. But, while we gratefully record this cheering promise, we do not mean to intimate that we need no more help from those interested in the success of this work of the Church. Our list ought to be doubled to give us an opportunity to make some enlargements and improvements that are still desirable, and to make sure that all our bills are paid at the end of the year. All the office labor, except the mere mechanical execution connected with the publication of " OUR MONTHLY," is a labor of love for our Church and for the cause of Christian education. We do not expect our writers to give their brain and toil for nothing and the Church should not expect it. Presbyterians are able to sustain liberally a Magazine which shall not only stand in the first rank, but which shall be able to pay its own way and command the best thought and phrase of its thinkers and scholars. The honor of our Church demands it. The literary character and dangers of the age render it almost a necessity of self-defense. And the loss of it would be almost irreparable from other sources of influence. HIGH-CHURCHISM.-The tendency to run into extremes, which is so prevalent in all circles, has been the source of untold evils in every age. The reaction of one class from the extremes of another, to an extreme of its own, becoming as hot as the other was cold, or as cold as the other was hot, has marked the erratic course of many in religion, as well as in politics, art, and forms of civilization. HighChurchism is the extreme of Ritualism, a supreme fondness for ceremonials. It makes the Church, in its external organization and forms, to be everything. The spirit is lost sight of, the letter becomes absorbing. It is not so much the religion itself, as the way you do the religion, that waxes all important. To a simple-minded believer, this is just absurdity and folly, sheer worldliness put up in boxes and labeled as holy ointment. The sight of it is calculated to produce unhealthy reaction to the verge of utter informality. We have seen an aged couple, whose joint years represented a century and a half, and who, in being married, received each a third companion, sit hand in hand with all the comical devotion, but without the natural timidity of youthful lovers, to the unfeigned amusement of all beholders, despite the reverence due to age. And when we discern the comparatively youthful widow of High-Churchism, sit publicly toying with that aged bachelor, the Papacy, spreading all her borrowed finery, putting on all her imitative airs, and offering the adulating incense of her coquetry, that she may be received in wedlock by this hoary courtier, it is impossible for uninterested beholders to suppress their merriment or curb their scornful sneers. But, that the love of others fades into shallow sentimentality, or wastes itself upon mere externals, or results in a coquetry that forebodes little good, affords no valid rea Our style in many who write for the general public? The learned author, whose productions are mainly for scientific circles, not only can afford to write in a vein which would seem pedantic to unlearned ears, but is expected to employ scientific and peculiar phrase. But when one writes for everybody, and employs what simple and familiar ones would convey as well, he does more injustice to himself than to his readers. After all, the plain, simple Saxon, carefully put together, is more expressive and more beautiful than all the Latinized Johnsonism the genius of botheration can invent. So far as mere style goes, no writer can receive a more genuine compliment than the interest of children. For they will not long perplex their brains over big words and involved sentences, but will give the book a shove across the table, which will be likely to seriously endanger the lamp and wake up the baby. son for our not loving at all. That others love their Church more than their religion, will not justify us in not giving our Church her full share of affection, devout and earnest. Church is our spiritual family. Our spiritual interests center in her. It is through her we are appointed to draw strength for ourselves and expend strength for the deliv-needlessly long and unusual words, to express erance of others. Not simply the local Church of our community, but the great distinct organization in which our principles are represented, should be dear and cherished in our hearts. Her institutions, her plans for Christian labor, all her enterprises, her leaders, whatever represents her before the world, and to which is committed any share of her fair fame, should be sacredly guarded, and systematically sustained, by all who bear her name. In short, she should have the constant and unquestioned preference, if not supremacy, in our hearts, as the representative of religious work and life. This is by no means inconsistent with the broadest charity for all, and a loving heart for each one who bears the rame of our Lord. We have thought sometimes that Presbyterians, in reaction from the weak over-fondness of some others for the mere name and ritual of their pretentious sect -the most sectarian of all sects-are liable to lose somewhat of that ancient enthusiasm, if not that deep affection of conviction and constancy, which is part of our heritage from the grandest of men. The glories which shine about the brow of our reunited Church; the vast beckoning work opening before her, which she is of all most competent to undertake; the thorough efficiency and the refreshing liberty of her organization and modes of labor; all rising to view, with resources of power and readiness of energy never so much displayed as now; shall surely enkindle all the old fires of her ardor and zeal for the glory of her name, as an organization of the Master, if such fires have ever smoldered on her altars. Let us rise to sustain our own Church, because she is the handmaid of the Lord; loving her with unrivaled affection because she is our Own mother; and seeing that her name stands second in honor to none, while her efficiency for good remains ever unsurpassed. SIMPLICITY OF STYLE.-Who is not often forcibly struck with the charming simplicity of Simplicity of style, however, is not always attached to greatness. Some men's mouths open naturally, only for a procession of words marching out in grand array; and you would think, to hear them orate, they never had been children or used familiar syllables. Not long ago we came across a small tract of one of our popular Publication Societies prepared for general distribution. We were impressed with the apt simplicity of its opening sentences and we subjoin them to illustrate our thought: "A chemical test dropped into a quiescent mass, forthwith there commences a separation of elements, an active effervescence, and the combination of new affinities. This illustrates what is going on continually in human society. Events occur, questions arise, which compel the separation of opinions, the passing over to opposite poles of antagonistic forces. Before the test question arises, all is apparent unanimity and quiescence. The critical event comes, and of necessity there will be agreement and dissent, sanction and rejection, the separation and adjustment of rival preferences." At about this point, nine out of ten of such readers as those for whom it was intended will give it up, and say, they have no doubt they are great sinners, and they know they are not much at learning, and all that;" and that will be the end of them, in so far as tracts are concerned, till they get hold of something which begins and goes on in a style not utterly incomprehensible and dark. What is true of writing, is true of preaching as well. The most successful ministers are those who succeed in speaking in "plain English " and with familiar illustration. Clear speaking usually results from clear thinking. When you see a thing perfectly, you don't have to hunt the dictionary for polysyllabic words with which to befog your hearers. Let us aim at simplicity of style. REV. WILLIAM GAGE.-Those who are familiar with the early history of Ohio Presbyterianism, well know what stanch, earnest, and devoted men laid the foundations in the Chillicothe Presbytery. They were men of very decided ability, too, as well as of resolution and courage for the truth, standing bravely for hotly disputed and unpopular truth, ofttimes, when men's souls were tried. There is a great deal of unwritten history, rich in testimonials to the faithfulness of heroic men of God, which should be gathered up before it be hopelessly devoured by the gnawing tooth of time. And our western fields bear records of patient and persevering self-sacrifice for the Lord's sake, which give them the indisputable title of missionary ground. Among the fathers of this Presbytery of which we speak, were the Dickeys, John and William, Rev. Dr. Samuel Crothers, Rev. H. S. Fullerton, Rev. William Gage and others, the last of whom, Rev. Dr. Steele, of Hillsboro, long and deeply loved, has within a few months gone to his rest. We have received from a near descendant of the Rev. Mr. Gage, a number of interesting incidents relating to his life, a portion of which follow, and the remainder will appear in a subsequent number: "When Mr. G. was in the Seminary, the manual-labor system was popular. Once he took an order for a trundle-bed. The worthy farmer coming in several times, and still not finding it done, grew impatient and suggested that the student was so long about it the children at home would outgrow it. Oh,' replied the student, I made allowance for that when I laid off the work.' ་ "Mr. G. avoided public notoriety and shunned controversy; but those who therefore concluded that he was one who could be easily swerved, or made to serve a purpose, soon found that they had much mistaken the man. The first time he went to the polls in Ohio, his vote was challenged. He declined taking his oath, that he had been within the State limits the requisite time. You have my word. I shall return in two hours. You can determine for yourselves.' A personal friend, though a political opponent, not wishing his preacher to be involved in a conflict, urged him to go home. He said nothing, but at the appointed time went back, deposited his vote, and gained the respect of all. "In the great division he was from principle and choice, O. S.; but there never was any bitterness toward those who differed from him. Being a New England man, his previous associciations and affiliations had been largely with those who composed the Other Branch, and he still delighted to meet with them in their church courts and other meetings, letting no opportunity pass unimproved to renew old acquaintance or to give and receive ministerial courtesies. The publications of the two Branches laid side by side on his study-table, and were read with equal interest in the family. The atmosphere which surrounded him was very different from that which pervaded another minister's home in which he was once visiting; and, as was his custom, he asked the little daughter how many questions she had committed in the Assembly's Catechism. With childlike simplicity she inquired, 'Which Assembly? "Though he was not permitted while on earth to see the reunion of the dissevered parts, he loved to point out from time to time how God was overruling the separation to His own glory, and he hailed with joy the harbingers of the good time coming when the weapons of controversy could and would be laid aside. His large catholic spirit would never have been a 'stranger to the place, the business or the joy' of that glorious meeting at Pittsburg, in November last. "The friendship of Mr. G., Mr. Fullerton, and Dr. Crothers for each other was of no ordinary kind. To the former, Mr. Fullerton was a brother dearly beloved; lovely in their lives, in their deaths they were divided by only six weeks. To Dr. C. he looked up as to a father, and loved to sit at his feet as he revealed the wondrous depth of meaning, folded within the Levitical types and shadows, a department of biblical knowledge in which he held Dr. C. superior to his highly respected and much beloved teacher, Prof. Stuart; and he often urged Dr. C. to concentrate his full strength upon a commentary on Hebrews, believing such a work would be invaluable to the Church. The fall of '62 found both Mr. F. and Mr. G. very feeble and visibly failing. After his return from Synod, the latter, in sweetly sad tones, spoke of how he had missed, as never before, Bro. Crothers and the Dickeys' gone before, and Mr. F. calmly waiting at home his call above. 'I felt so lonely; it is the first meeting of Synod during which I did not have some good, quiet walks and talks with some of these dear men.' "But not only were their characters unusually congenial, there was much in their outward relations to lead them to sympathize fully with each other. "For more than an ordinary generation they were pastors of neighboring congregations, closely linked together by social and family ties, so that what affected one church affected each in a greater or less degree, and thus their joys and their sorrows were largely held in common. "At one time division was rife among the churches hereabouts, and hearing that the plowshare had reached Mr. G's. field, Messrs. C. and F. hastened down together. Mr. G. withdrew with them into the study, and motioning them to be seated, took his accustomed chair, bowed his head upon the table, and for half an hour they sat in silence, till the afflicted pastor groaned out, 'Oh, what will become of the lambs of the flock'-the heaviest burden of all the sorrows that weighed him down. "Those were indeed trying days. The voice of praise was hushed in family worship; even the little ones who knew not what it meant, moved about with gentle tread and spoke in subdued tones, overawed by their parents' agony. 'Twas of those years of long-drawn trials and of deep anxiety for the spiritual welfare of their people, that Mr. Fullerton remarked a few days before his death, Bro. G. and I have had a heart-history known only to ourselves and to our God.' M. A. G." OUR MONTHLY.-"Anxiously have I watched for the appearance of our new magazine, and now as the first two numbers have been read and laid on the table, I feel constrained to write "Eureka." You have performed every promise. Certainly the infancy of this periodical is all that we could wish; nay, let me rather say, that it has taken a giant stride, passing over childhood, and appears before us with all the vigor of manhood-bold, energetic, lively, serious, well worthy to have "Excelsior stamped upon its pages. We bid you Godspeed. The Great West needs a high-toned religious, literary periodical. Our grand, reunited Church has done well in so early planting the standard. May many hands and hearts consecrated to the Saviour be co-workers with you in the publication of OUR MONTHLY. 8. C. v." A PARAPHRASE-Rev, vii. 9-17. From every kingdom, people, nation, Then angels, standing near, in heaven, One of the elders said to me: What is this white-robed host? And tell me, whence came they? said he, I answered: Sir, thou know'st. Through tribulation great they passed, And, in His temple, every one His praise shall sweetly tell, While he, that sitteth on the throne, Shall ever with them dwell. Hunger and thirst no more arise, THE HIGHEST COMPLIMENT.-Two ladies sat near me conversing before the lecture commenced. "Have you ever heard the celebrated Dr. H- — preach?" "Yes, once; a lady friend, now in paradise, was with me. When we reached home, friends asked: "Well, how do you like Dr. H– -¿' My friend replied: "Why, we hadn't thought of him; all we could think of on our way home was this: "What a dear Savior we have!" We forgot the_man in the Redeemer.'" |