Rev. M. H. Diefenderfer, Mrs E. Smith, Miss M. O. Neal, W. H. Beachler, Allen, M. E., Mrs. L. Patton, Rev. Dr. T. S. Johnston, Seiber, D. B.

TO OUR PATRONS.

The "Guardian" entered upon its thirtieth volume with the 1st of January. It has reached a ripe age, and can refer with pride to its past history. It has strong claims on its various patrons, which, we trust, they will duly recognize, not only by prompt payment of their individual subscriptions, but also by earnest efforts to add new names to the list of subscribers. Address: REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD,

907 Arch Street Philadelphia

The Guardian.

VOL. XXX.

Editorial Notes.

AUGUST, 1879.

HON. GEORGE W. MCCRARY, of Iowa, Secretary of War under President Hayes, is the son of a Kentucky farmer. As a boy he went to the common school till fifteen. He had a great desire to learn, but neither father nor son had means to enable him to prosecute his studies. The father gave him his time to earn money for this purpose. He hired himself out to a bricklayer to carry brick and mortar. In this way he earned money to take him through the first term in a classical school, aided somewhat by his father. After this he earned his way by teaching, until he was admitted to the bar. His old father, now over eighty years of age, says that his son dug his way up" to his present position.

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Homer and Horace, Herodotus and Tacitus, one's imagination runs wild with fancies of fiery furnaces, from that of Nebuchadnezzar down to the liquid ore running in sparkling streams from the modern furnace-blast. For many years, commencements have been associated in my mind with exceeding great heat endured under great disadvantages. The editor of the GUARDIAN passed through these commencements. The greeting of many friends and the intellectual entertainments were highly pleasing, but the heat-whew!

IN the earlier days of Marshall College at Mercersburg, Pa., commencement came in September. With the change of time came other changes. Sitting lately in a certain uncomfortable yet delighted commencement-assembly, on one of the hottest days of June, my mind divided its attention between the commencement of now and of twentyfive years ago. Then we had a plainer

ACCORDING to an old-time custom, college commencements, haymaking and harvest come at the same season of the year. In the sweltering heat of mid-church, and more pleasant weather. The summer the applauding friends of col- students' "Glee Club" furnished the leges and graduates flap broad-brimmed music, under the able leadership of stuhats and fans in their vain efforts to dent W. H. Super-now Dr. W. H. keep cool in crowded and ill-ventilated Super, of Ursinus College. Some of the halls. During a whole year professors graduates were members of this "Glee and students have toiled, and it is but Club," and had to come down from the right that their friends should cheer choir-gallery on to the stage to deliver them with their presence at the close of their speeches. The Mercersburg band, their collegiate year. Especially the led by Mr. Super, would usually furnish graduates, who, after years of sowing, at part of the music, plain but pleasing. length reach the ingathering of their Now, bands, brass-horns, and the booms harvest, should be greeted by the pre- of bass drums fairly make the pews sence of loving friends. But intellectual creak and the windows rattle with harvests ripen as well in January as their classical renderings. All the June; why must they always come when smoothly shaven graduates flourish a the heat is the greatest? Does a suc- moustache in the most approved style; cessful graduation need a temperature here and there the downy growth of a of 100 degrees to liquidize its ore of youthful face is scarcely visible without thought, so as to cast it in suitable glasses. But all do as well as they can moulds of rhetoric? At such times, in this pleasing idea of physical manlistening to the oft-told tales of Greece hood. In former days the moustache and Rome, of Egypt and Babylon, of was by many considered a mark of bar

barism. The cleaner the upper lip the the heads of the faculty and of the gramore genteel. But the commencement duating class.

of to-day, after all, has much in com- These floral greetings are beginning mon with that of a quarter of a century to annoy certain institutions. Married ago. We find in both a certain unavoid- graduates or those who may lack galable sameness and monotony in the de- lantry and gracefulness, whatever their livery and substance of the orations. other merits may be, receive no flowers, Attempts to handle great themes in a as a rule. The poorest speaker of a cergreat style. That is to say, many try tain commencement I attended, the to discuss subjects which puzzle the poorest in manner and style, received ripest scholars. Indulging in philosophic the most flowers. One of the best, beand scientific terms, which their average cause he happened not to be a lady's hearers know nothing about; drawing man, received scarcely any. I have too much on ancient history for their known young ladies, who stood near the material; Greece and Rome; the for- head of their class, read excellent essays tunes and failures of Babylon and on commencement day, without receivEgypt are the burden of many good ing a single floral tribute. Possibly orations. But to the faithful visitor of their friends took no interest in them, commencements, the best pieces com- or they may have had no friends. posed of kindred material become mono- Imagine the feelings of a timid, faithful tonous. I state this simply as a fact, school-girl, to be thus marked before a probably an unavoidable fact. For my large audience, when each of her twenty class did the same, and those before and or thirty classmates receives showers of after us, after toiling through ancient gifts! It is a species of refined cruelty history and the classics for many years, which ought, if possible, to be stopped. naturally draw on this interesting trea- In noticing the commencement o sure of their learning. All will agree with Packer Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., the me, that a monotonous vein runs through New York Observer commends the the average class of commencement ora- young lady graduates, and adds: tions. But, withal, they are very enjoyable, despite the mid summer heat and close atmosphere. It is pleasing to behold a group of young people, after long and faithful study, appearing before a large audience, each with a well-written oration. And the friends of each may well travel many miles to cheer them with their presence, and applaud them with floral wreaths.

The old-time graduate received fewer floral tributes. A bouquet or two perhaps, and that often was flung over the heads of the audience. And as you watched its flight you were not sure whether it would alight in the lap of Dr. Nevin or on the head of the graduate.

But such a floral profusion as graduates now receive, and give, too, was not thought of. Flowers, vegetable and rhetorical-baskets, bouquets, harps and all manner of devices are borne by men appointed, to the feet of the honored student. Five young men, tall, stately and strong, have I seen filing through the crowded hall with such floral burrahs. I think it is much better to bear them decorously than to hurl them at

"We observed with great pleasure one feature of this occasion. The usual tributes of flowers were not offered on the stage, but were displayed in the library; a card attached to each bouquet indicated the person to whom it was presented, and after the exercises were over the happy girls carried them off. This plan saves much feeling, and is altogether the best way."

TWENTY-THREE years ago the people in Paris indulged in wild rejoicings over a new-born babe. Its coming into the world was proclaimed by the booming of cannon, the ringing of bells, and the pompous parades of a royal army. The most brilliant writers in France taxed their genius to describe the costly clothing and cradle of the child. The rulers of the earth sent their congratulations to the then Emperor and Empress of France-Napoleon III. and Eugenie. The press of France duly reported the growth of the child to the civilized world. He enjoyed all the blessings usually given to royal children. As he was the first-born, indeed the only child, and therefore heir to the crown of

France, his life and training were crown of France. The following extract deemed of great importance. When from a letter of Washington Irving's, his father lost the crown of France, the written to his niece in 1853, just after young prince followed his parents into the Emperor had been married, is pecuexile, to Chiselhurst, in England. The liarly interesting in the light of recent death of Louis Napoleon sadly affected events: the youth. Aside of his stricken moth- "Louis Napoleon and Eugenie Moner, who leaned upon his arm, he wept tijo, Emperor and Empress of the tears of filial love at the bier of his French! one of whom I have had a father, as any loving son would have guest at my cottage on the Hudson; the done. Since then the Queen of Eng- other whom, when a child, I have had land and her family have taken a tender on my knees at Grenada. It seems to interest in the ex-Empress of France and cap the climax of the strange dramas of her son. Indeed it was rumored that which Paris had been the theatre during the marriage of the prince to one of my lifetime. I have repeatedly thought Victoria's daughters was an event not that each coup de theatre would be the improbable. Of late years the general last that would occur in my time, but public heard less of him. Although each has been succeeded by another living in exile, as the son of Napoleon equally striking. The last I saw of III. he had a large following in France. Eugenie Montijo she was one of the The Monarchists or Bonapartists held reigning belles of Madrid. * * Am

of such stuff as dreams are made of? *** I consider it as liable to extravagant vicissitudes as one of Dumas' novels." He did not live to see that catastrophe, but it came.

HAIR - SPLITTING distinctions often lack common sense. The plainest questions of morality are befogged with a multitude of high-sounding phrases, so that matters which once seemed perfectly clear become unintelligible to you. We have been interested in the following, which may serve to point a moral to the readers of the GUARDIAN, if they will not adorn a tale:

him as their leader, and watched for I to live to see the catastrophe of her the first opportunity to secure to him career, and the end of this suddenly the throne. As the ruler of France conjured-up empire, which seems to be must be thoroughly versed in the art of war, he attached himself to the army of England in South Africa, chiefly to perfect his training in the bloody art. There he endured the hardness of a common soldier, and seemed to enjoy the adventurous life of Oriental warfare. Whilst on duty, a band of Zulu warriors pierced his body with their deadly weapons where his comrades in arms soon thereafter found his remains. It is an inglorious ending of a life so gloriously begun. The British war against the poor African Zulus is held by the civilized world as very unjust. It is an effort at national plunder; an act, which if committed by an individual, would brand him as a thief, and consign him to a felon's cell. The French worship glory; but there is no glory in the death of the son of the widowed Eugenie. The same nation that doomed the First Napoleon to an ignoble death on a lonely isle of the sea, gave the son of his nephew an inglorious death among the mountains of Africa, after having given him a refuge in his exile. The doubly bereaved mother, almost distracted with grief, needs and receives the kindly sympathy of all right-feeling people. But the death of her son sounds the knell of the Napoleon dynasty. The surviving Napoleons are either too remote or too uninfluential to regain the

According to the Rev. M. Scudder, a missionary in India, four men bought a quantity of cotton in co-partnership. That the rats might not injure it, they bought a cat, and agreed that each should own one of its legs. Each leg was by its owner. The cat accidentally injured one then adorned with beads and other ornaments of its legs, and the owner wound a rag round it, soaked in oil. The cat by chance set the rag on fire, and, being in great pain, rushed among the cotton-bales, where she had been accusburned. The three other partners brought a suit tomed to hunt rats. The cotton was totally against the owner of the invalid leg to recover the value of their cotton; and the judge decided that, as the injured leg could not be used, the cat carried the fire to the cotton with her three remaining legs. They only were culpable; and

their owners were required to compensate the owner of the injured leg for his share of the loss.

ALFRED TENNYSON, the poet laureate plant and water; God must give the of England, is doubtless known to many increase in His own good time. Work of our readers through his works. He on, faithful soul. Even though in thy is now in his seventieth year, and lives life-time the results may seem trifling, in retired ease on the Isle of Wight. the fruitage, the harvest, must surely He has always been simple and retired come. in his habits. During his earlier years he lived a sort of recluse life in, or near DR. JUDSON was at his station in SyLondon. At his Island home he is of- ria six years before he baptized a conten greatly annoyed at the impertinence vert to the Christian religion from Moof curious tourists, eager to stare at the hammedanism. After three years he great man. He morbidly shrinks from was asked, in view of his apparent little being lionized, and in order to evade the progress, what evidence he had of ultivulgar gaze of obtruding admirers, he mate success. "As much," he replied, is tempted to become a recluse. Like "as there is a God who will fulfill His many men of genius, he seems to pay promises." His faith had not grasped little attention to his external appear- a shadow. Years have elapsed since ance. He has never been a society man the first baptism, and now there are in the English sense of that term, but seventy churches, averaging one hunsought enjoyment in his library, and his dred members each, on the former field. communings with nature. Meeting him of his labors. on the street no one would suspect that he were England's great poet, who officially writes the poetry for all occasions and events of joy and sorrow in the royal family and of the nation. A certain correspondent, who recently met him in a London park, says:

"He looked tall, somewhat stout, round-shouldered, and he walked with a stick, as though the gout were hanging about his legs or feet. He had a long beard which almost buried his face, and wore a pair of large, round, Chinese-looking spectacles. He had on a very broad-brimmed, weather-worn felt hat, dark trousers, gaiters, several undercoats or jackets, covered over all by a thin, shabby-looking, red tweed dust coat, buttoned very tightly, as though it were much too small for him. Daugling outside, from what should have been a clean white shirt front, was a pair of large, gold-rimmed nose-spectacles. He was one of the oddest-looking creatures I have ever seen out of a Mormon meeting."

"THE world owes me a living," is the mistaken motto of tramps, young and old. Our Creator has ordained that in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread. "He that will not work, neither shall he eat." Young people fearful of bronzing their delicate hand, by working as their parents had to do; fond of fine clothing and costly jewelry, without caring who pays for them, are the material tramps are made of. The world owes you a living, but you must earn it by honest toil. The same is true with our spiritual living. God has promised to give us life, but we must enter and labor in His vineyard to get it. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.'

So

LOOKING at the rich colors of stained windows from the outside of a church, one sees but blurred and confused shades on the glass. But seen from the inside, the full figures, with all their marvellous colors are clearly seen. may persons fancy that they can fully IN MORALS and religion the interval understand the power and glory of between seed-time and harvest is often Christ's Church without entering or belong. "First the blade, then the ear, coming living members of it. They see then the full corn in the ear.' This is nought but defects from without, and the law and order of growth, under the enlarge upon them. But as soon as guidance of Divine Providence. True with sincere penitence and faith they faith learns to labor and to wait." enter Christ's fold, they see the glorifyOur duty is to faithfully scatter the seed, ing light and loveliness of the Saviour's and water it with our prayerful care. presence. No one can form a correct Like Paul and Apollos, we can only opinion of the Church from an outside

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