HIGHER, THE
There is an old Dutch picture of a little child who is dropping from his hands a beautiful toy. Looking at the painting, one is surprized to see the plaything so carelessly abandoned; until, following the child’s eye to the corner of the picture, one sees a lovely white dove flying down into the child’s outstretched hands.
That is the way it will be with all of us as soon as we actually begin to see the pure beauties and joys of the higher life. All our silly playthings will be allowed to fall out of our hands. We shall let go of fashion and luxury, and idle dissipation, and proud ambition, and greed for gain, and desire for men’s applause and for advancement in the world, and we shall stretch out our hands for the things that are best worth having. Those are the things which will stay with us. They will give something of their nature to our lives, and will ennoble everything they touch. (Text.)
(1411)
Highways—See [Paths, Keeping One’s Own].
HISTORY AND MUSIC CORRELATED
How closely our own history and our songs are connected! One can not properly teach our “Star-spangled Banner” without going quite into detail and telling the thrilling incidents surrounding its creation. No wedding of poetry and music has ever been made under more inspiring circumstances. It was caught up in the camps, sung around the bivouac-fires, and whistled in the streets. When peace was declared and the soldiers went back to their homes, they carried this song in their hearts, as the most precious souvenir of the War of 1812. Then there are other patriotic songs, all one with our history. Boys, as a rule, prefer these songs, and will sing them with a hearty zest. I think they must appreciate the feeling of the young major in a Confederate uniform, who said: “Boys, if we’d had your songs, we’d have licked you out of your boots! Who couldn’t have marched and fought with such songs?”—Elizabeth Casterton, “Journal of the National Educational Association,” 1905.
(1412)
HOLDING THEIR OWN
Two tired tourists were tramping in Switzerland. They were on the way to Interlaken, where they proposed to dine and pass the night. Late in the afternoon, when hunger and fatigue began to make walking unpleasant, they accosted a farmer.