The Guardian. VOL. XXXII. FEBRUARY, 1881. Editorial Notes. NO. 2. Christians. It might be supposed that the powerful example of the ladies of The gain for Christianity and human- the royal family helps to keep up the ity would be very great if the foolish fashion; but Miss Fielde says the wofashion of binding the feet of girls in men in the imperial palace are "all China could be overthrown. Nearly natural-footed." So are the Hakka half the women of China are helpless women in the interior; and in some incripples, who can scarcely hobble from terior villages the fashion has died out one room to another in their own in the last twenty years. Half of the houses. If they want to pay a visit to Bible-women employed have unbound a neighbor, they must be carried, feet; and these are most sought for by like a child, on the back of a slave. the missionaries, because they are more Miss Fielde, of the Baptist mission at efficient.-Ex. Swatow, has an interesting article on the subject in the September number of It would be a great gain to humanity The Baptist Missionary Magazine. She as well as to Christianity if the fashion says the process of binding the feet is of torturing women's feet could be anything but a painless ordeal. It re- abolished in this country, too. For is quires about a year to form the feet, it not the fashion for women to wear during which time the victim "sleeps high pointed heels on their shoes, placed only on her back, lying crosswise the towards the middle of the foot instead bed, with her feet hanging down over of where the heel ought to be? Not the side, so that the edge of the bed- only does this custom torture the feet, stead presses on the tendons and nerves but the whole body. It causes an unbehind the knees in such a way as to natural forward bend, and an awkward, dull the pain somewhat. There she laborious walk. swings her feet and moans; and even in the coldest weather cannot wrap herself in a coverlet, because every return of warmth to her limbs increases the aching. The sensation is said to be like that of puncturing the joints with needles." During all this time the feet cannot be used at all; the owner of them must make her way about on stools on her knees. Of course, women thus disabled, cannot support themselves nor care for their children, and when they are thrown upon their own resources, which must happen frequently,; they but add to the wretchedness and poverty which abound. Fashion is stronger than law, for there is no law in regard to binding the feet; and yet women cannot be persuaded to renounce the practice, except as they become walk with a cramped motion, instead of Even young ladies an elastic, bounding step belonging unnatural heel is responsible for many to their years. Physicians say that this of the spine diseases and other distressing ailments which afflict so many women of this generation. Whilst sympathising with the victims of this cruel Chinese fashion, we should not forget that with us, too, "fashion is stronger than law," The high, misplaced heel worn by stronger, too, than good common sense. American ladies has also produced many "helpless cripples." OUR English version of the Bible, called King James' Version, is being revised by a class of biblical scholars of England and America. The promise has" been repeatedly given that the work which should never be forgotten in a of revision will not mar the classical Christian household. First, that chilEnglish of the old version, but supply dren and servants are subject to the certain inaccuracies of translation. The bondage of original sin; and secondly, English-reading Protestant world prizes that in virtue of holy baptism, they are this version above rubies, and well it the children of God. The first thought may. Not only its contents but its lan- begets the patience needed to bear with guage has become sacred by centuries weaknesses and offences, and from the of devout use. With its beautiful second springs the deep reverence with phraseology the trials and triumphs of which we must regard the very least of three centuries of a large part of Prot- those whom God has accepted, and the estant Christianity are interwoven. In care to avoid offending one of them, its language the Word of God has been since the Lord is the avenger of all such, read in public and private worship and will not suffer anything done to His around the hearths of the living and at little ones to remain unrewarded. He the biers of the dead. Dr. F. W. Fa- who wraps himself in his self-righteousber, an eminent Roman Catholic divine, ness and never thinks of his own sins is speaks in touching eloquence and mar- easily induced to be impatient and sevellous English of this Protestant Bible, vere; he who does not see the beam in and says: his own eye, sees the motes in his brother's as large as beams. Above all we must be careful never to impute bad feelings and unworthy motives to children or servants; this is sure to injure their moral tone. He who is always treated as a thief, always looked at suspiciously, becomes a thief at length. "It lives on the ear like music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells, which the convert knows not how he can forego. Its felicities often seem to be almost things rather than words. It is part of the national mind, and the anchor of national seriousness. Nay, it is worshipped with a positive idolatry, in extenuation of whose grotesque fanaticism its intrinsic beauty pleads availingly with the man of letters and the scholar. The memory of the dead passes into it. The potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of a man are hid beneath its words. It is the representative of his best moments, and all that there has been about him of soft and gentle and pure and penitent and good, peaks to him forever out of his Protestant Bible. It is his sacred thing which doubt has never dimmed and controversy never soiled." WHENCE the trouble to get and keep good hired help in families? In addition to what we gave in a former number of the GUARDIAN, the following from the experience of Dr. Büchsel, a good and wise pastor of Berlin, may be of interest to our readers: "The subject of education (in our families) is closely connected with another of great importance, the training of our servants. There are two facts 66 comes Again, we must cautiously avoid laying down general rules for servants or children. When once the phrase, I have told you that ten times into use, patience is over, and the temper gets soured. We must lay down as few rules as possible, and leave a wide scope to free action and individual responsibility. A judicious mistress must praise far more than she blames; must commend the thing that is once well done, far more than she censures what happens once in a while to be done ill." DR. BUCHSEL once had a faithful farm-servant. He gave him good wages. He was honest, capable, and entirely trustworthy. He felt proud of the confidence his master reposed in him. On their rides to his people they familiarly discussed farming aud faith with each other. And on proper occasions the farmer could teach the pastor a lesson, which was kindly taken and piously improved, as the following incident shows; "One Sunday that I had to set out at four o'clock to preach in a distant parish, I heard him in the yard quarrelling with his worthy and pious wife; and as we sat together driving I exhorted him to patience and gentleness. He replied that he had already been reproaching himself, but that irritability was his constitutional failing. After the sermon, as I was leaving the church, a rich farmer asked me for a certificate of baptism for his son, and offered me first five, then ten, then fifteen dollars, if I would make him out two years older than he was, in order that he might escape serving as a soldier. I was very angry at such an audacious proposal, and at length rebuked him in a loud voice. My old servant, who was standing at the gate, was listening, and, when he saw me, called out; (Herr Pfarrer), Mr. Pastor, Mr. Pastor, what sort of a coat have you got on to-day?' I looked at him in amazement, and asked him what he meant. He replied When Lyman Beecher was President of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, he bought a cow from a farmer living two or three miles away. Mounting his horse Charley, he addressed himself with his accustomed earnestness to driving the cow home. She was a wild and fleet-footed animal, which he long pursued in a sort of steeple-chase, twice swimming the Ohio river and back again, which is here very broad. After much and provoking work he got her into the stable, and felt a proud sense of hard-earned triumph, as he sometimes did after a successful battle with some of his assailants of a more rational sort. Soon after his son, Henry Ward, who had been absent, came to the stable. Ignorant of the new purchase, he thought a stray cow had intruded into the stable. "Whoah here," shouted the irate youth, "here is a strange cow in our barn! Get out! go along! whey!" and, suiting the action to the words, he seized a whip and drove the astonished brute out into the street. "There!" said he coming in, panting where his father was wearily stretched upon the sofa, "there! I guess that cow will not get in our barn again in a hurry!" "Is it not the gown?' he asked with a quizzical air; and yet we are not beautifully patient and gentle.' "I gave him my hand, and cried, 'Now then we are quits, and neither can reproach the other." A CERTAIN religious paper wished to tell its readers that Dr. Pierson had been "appointed to travel and preach the distinctive doctrines of our Church." Instead of this the tricky type made it say that the learned Dr. was 10 punch the distinctive doctrines. It is surprising how many who are set for the defence of the doctrines of the Gospel, punch instead of preaching them. We know of few cases of this kind more sad than that of the pastoral genius of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. His unscriptural views have for years rapidly developed. In his briliant way he denounces and even ridicules doctrines which good old Lyman Beecher heroically fought for to the end of his life. These the 'ather of Henry Ward Beecher grandly defended at the sacrifice of much which the world deems precious. The doctrine of the fall of man, the inspiration of the Bible, the atonement of Christ, the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked in the world to come, the elder Beecher with persistent eloquence pressed home to the hearts of his children and hearers. And yet, he too, in the estimation of some was given to punching the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. 66 Whatcow?" said the father. "What do you mean?" "Why, I found an old cow out in our barn, and drove her out in the street, and chased her till I was tired out, and gave her a good beating." 66 66 Well, there!" exclaimed the father in de-pair; you have done it! There' I have been chasing ha'f the day to get that cow in, and you have gone and chased her out again!" We are not told whether the cow was' brought back a second time; but the incident seems to illustrate a peculiarity in Henry Ward Beecher's theological antipathies. He is forevermore flying into a shouting rage and cracking his rhetorical whip over principles and doctrines which his noble father spent a laborious life to defend and establish. I once happened to have an old hearer who was as fond of sharp preaching as he was of his beer. Ofien the tears streamed down his face during the sermon. After the service he would have to tell his neighbors as he went home what a good sermon they had. One Sunday I happened to preach against intemperance with unsparing severity. "Well, father "said a friend as he passed out, "what do you think of the sermon ?" "This was too rough," he replied, with a shake of his head. "This man must not suppose that he can tickle us under the nose in this fashion." 66 At a funeral at which I officiated he was one of the bearers. An excess of beer gave him a loose tongue and an unsteady step. Whether from the need of support or from a desire to be friendly I know not, but to my mortification he seemed determined to hook arms with me part of the way returning from the cemetery. Speaking of some members who refused to attend church, he said: Let them alone. They are only a set of wind-suckers anyhow." Of course our readers know that the word "windsucker" is applied to horses which are given to biting the rack when they try to eat hay, and with a grunt suck in wind instead of eating the oats in the trough. The dazed bearer perhaps meant to say that some hearers are like a wind-sucking horse; when nourishing spiritual food is set before them they bite the vessel that bears it, and instead of the truth have the fatal habit of drawing out of the sermon and service mere wind, or at least that which is not edifying. The poor old man has since passed across the Jordan of death. The tipsy hearer, himself belonging not only to the windsuckers but to the beer-suckers no less, unwittingly uttered a truth. There are wind-sucking church-goers who, instead of thankfully receiving and improving the bread of life, bite at the person who hands it to them, and instead of the word of God get naught but wind. A FRIEND of the GUARDIAN in Wyoming Territory sends us the following: "The following, a genuine incident, happened to Rev. Dr. L in Chicago, while making a clerical call on one of his flock. He rang the bell at the residence of one of his members, and, was met at the door by the lady's little girl. He asked her to tell her mamma that Dr. L had called. The child went up stairs and presently returned. "Did you tell your mamma?" asked the doctor. "Yes." "And what did she say ?" "She said: 'O, pshaw !'" VISITING one's parishioners in the fall of the year is peculiarly trying to many a good housewife. She may be just watching a kettle of apple or peach-butter that looks as if every minute it were boiled enough, when the bell rings. She is putting up fruit, just at closing and sealing the jars; or she is over head and ears at house cleaning, arrayed in the unattractive habilimenta usual for such work. Rip, rap goes the door-bell. The good soul is horrorstricken. To be caught in such a plight, and by the pastor, too! The carpet torn up, the floor wet, the faded dress, sleeves rolled up, no place, no heart to offer the pastor a seat! What shall we do? She cannot, at least she ought not, to send word to the door that she is not at home. She cannot be expected to let the fruit in the kettle or jar spoil. Let the pastor come into the kitchen. It is to be presumed that he has sense enough to think none the less of you for being at such laudable work. Should a house-cleaning revolution confront him, he will be glad to flee in haste from its sights and smells. We have heard of a man who had such a contempt for a certain neighbor, that he would never walk over his front pavement. Passing up to the line of it, he would cross the street and walk the width of the neighbor's lot; then recross and pass on his way. A blessing on the women who can do and endure house-cleaning without much discomfort. But the lords of creation have an incurable antipathy to it. They would rather walk a mile out of the way than cross its dusty, watery path. The German Hymn Writers of The Reformed Church. BY THE EDITOR, THE writers of the standard German Hymns were all people of strongly marked characters. Their views as well as their habits were positive and pronounced. They all were bearers of the cross in a very real and painful sense. All entered the kingdom through much tribulation. Many of our best hymns were born amid sorrow and pain. Who though led by an unseen hand, he are these hymn writers? Where and walked away and reached his home in how did they live, and how die? Dr. safety. J. H. Dubbs has an interesting article on this subject in the Reformed Quarterly, of October, 1880. "Komm, O komm, du Geist des Lebens." "In der stillen Einsamkeit." Joachim Neander kept his vow. He completed his studies at Frankfort, where he was brought under the influAll the Reformers seemed to have ence of the pietist Spener. As headbeen fond of music. Not as it prevail- master of a grammar school at Düsseled in the Roman Catholic Church. dorf, he held religious meetings with his Ebrard says: Zwingli set aside the scholars, for which he lost his place and Latin sing-song of the Mass, and Luther, was driven from the city. His pupils it is known, did the same thing. Both were eager to fight for him, but he forthese Reformers labored to introduce bade them. Friendless and forsaken the singing of hymns and psalms by the he was without home or shelter. Forcongregation, which, however, it re- tunately it was in summer time. In a quired years of effort fully to accom- deep glen near Mettmau on the Rhine, plish. Both played on instruments. he found a cave, in which he lived for Zwingli's enemies derisively called him several months. It is called "Neander's "the evangelical lute player." Cave" to this day. While in this dark, Joachim Neander is called" the father dreary place be composed some of his of German Reformed Hymn writing." best hymns. Many of the standard and He ranks among the best hymn writers most familiar German hymns are from of Germany. He was born in 1610, of a this author-such as well to do family, in Bremen, where his father taught in a Latin school. A wild boy, he for a time became a wayward student. At twenty years of age he and two comrades one day strolled into St. Martin's Church, Bremen, in quest of fun. The pastor, Theodore Unterveyk, as his custom was, preached a close and impressive sermon. The sword of the Spirit pierced the heart of Neander. One of these three" fools" who came to mock, went away to pray. He called privately on the preacher for spiritual counsel and comfort, and received both. Still he did not at once unreservedly give himself to Christ. For, "this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Fond of the chase, he spent much time in this sort of sport. And whilst hunting game the Holy Spirit sought and found his heart. It happened in this wise: One day in the excitement of the chase he walked on and on, until night found him lost in a wild, rocky, hilly region. He groped about until all of a sudden he discovered that he stool on a high precipice, where a single step forward would plunge him into eternity. Horror-stricken, for a little while he could scarcely walk from fear. He knelt on the terrible precipice, and vowed that for the future he would entirely consecrate himself to Christ, and earnestly implored His help. All at once he became more calm, and, as Neander wrote seventy-one hymns. To multitudes of pious Germans these hymns are as familiar, from devout frequent use, as the Lord's prayer. A better day dawned upon the persecuted hymn writer. In 1679 he was called as pastor of St. Martin's church, in Bremen, whither in his youth he had gone in jest. Here he passed through painful spiritual conflicts. His motto was: "Better hope oneself to death, than perish through unbelief." He died May 31, 1680,-200 years ago. It was on Whit Sunday. He asked for the reading of the 7th, 8th, and 9th chapters of Hebrews. As his end drew near a thunder storm arose. He exclaimed, "It is my Father with His fiery chariot and horses." Then he said: "It is well with my soul." "Though the mountains depart, and the hills be removed, my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed." Isaiah 54: 10. Seventeen years after Neander's death Gerhart Tersteegen was born at Mors, in Westphalia. His father was a merchant, who died when the son was six |