SUNDAY COLUMN

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 94, 10 June 1911, Page 8

SUNDAY COLUMN

[Cjutribi ted. I Ji, EHATI ON 01' THE HEART (A.- \V. L. Watkincon. ILIL, L.L.D.) .w.v, men i.iroly ti*iniv o. putting ilio iitMi i. to school! All understand tliifi tin; intellectual powers demand carol'ill training ;• u-.l discipline il_ they arc to attain fullness anti efficacy Nor arc we altogether insensible of tho fact. Unit tlio conscience and will need development, although thin brand of education docs not receive a tithe of the attention given to physical or mental‘culture. The strengthening of the affections is, however, almost entirely neglected; the impulses of pity, clemency and saciilice which stir our deepest nature come and go, with the least efloi c. on our part to render them vivid, till!, and r habitual. The brain is solicited and schooled to the utmost, but the enlargement of the heart is supposed to be seemed by a process of seitovolution. Every plant in the garden is cared for except the rose, which is left to grow wild or wither. And what is the consequence of this neglect Y The heart is often the poorest organ of all. How many small hearts thei*o are! A broad catholic, generous impulse never visits them. Men sustain tiro relationships ot lile, and discharge all its duties, without a spark of the heavenly lire of a dden and true affection. Charles Rendo thus describes one of Ids characters: “Meadows never spoke of In's mother; paid her a small allowance with the regularity and affectionate grace of clockwork.” How many have hard hearts! We might justly compare them to marble, only they are not so white. “Make you a now heart and a new spirit” (Ezck. 18:31) A big, loving, self-sacrific-ing heart can bo created within us by our faithfulness to (lod’s methods and graces. Wool ten ' reason as though the highest religions gifts: were given magically—knowledge at-; tainecl by intuition, purity by imputation, love by inspiration—whereas: these gifts arc secured along the linos, of thought, prayer, experience, and; action. The highest gilts are always mystical, but they arc not magical; tnoy are found by ns in correct purpose and practical endeavour. Large/noss of heart is thus attained if we work towards it on right lines. Culture effects marvellous things when it takes in hand the products of nature. The orange was originally a bitter berry, yet it has been transformed and transfigured into an apple of gold; and our poor, selfish hearts are capable of being wonderfully ennobled and adorned by the riches of holy love, compassion, sympathy and bountifulncss. Fellowship with Cod is the primary step. “Cod gave Solomon. . . largeness of heart, oven as the sand that is on the seashore.” It is only as wo accustom ourselves to the tact oi His goodness and beauty that true love wells up in the soul. We cannot walk with Christ, and have small hearts. The heart of cur Lord was as big as the world, and broke for its redemption; and it is impossible to live in fellowship with Him without acquiring a * proportionate magnanimity. We cannot walk with Christ, and have cold hearts. Our whole duty will then bo performed, not with frigid conscientiousness, but in the power and delight of a throbbing, bounding, and constraining love. Wo cannot walk with Christ, and have hard hearts. The love ol Cod, so wonderfully kind, will fill us with tender sympathy and molting pity. The school of tho heart is the school of Christ; its great lesson book, tho Now Testament; its grand symbol, tlio cross. The service of man is tho completing step in tho education of the heart. Tho love of Cod is not so much sympathy taken from man, but the immense enrichment of all human affection, just as tlio river is a partaker of tho mighty tides of the sea. “And this commandmant have we from Him, that ho who loveth God, loveth his brother also.” Tlio love is one school of tho heart; there tho heart should have full play. Public life is another ground for its training; society need not destroy the generosity and freshness, but rather elicit unrevealed treasures. And in ministering to the sick and sorrowful our education in noble feeling is complete. A lady told the writer that one of tho most fortunate things that ever happened to her was when she undertook the visitation of the workhouse; she discovered that she had a heart, and her whole life was. tilled and consecrated by a now gladness. Too often wo agitate the heart through the imagination—the theatre is preferred as its school, and tho novel as its text book—but such excitements only contract and exhaust ; a larger, nobler heart surprises ns as in actual life wo help our brother. Here the words of James Russell Lowell prove specially true: “Inspiration comes by exorcise.”

DR JOWETT IN AMERICA. Dr Jowett had a rough voyage in the Mauretania. Ho reached New York some hours late, just before midnight, and was heartily welcomed by a deputation of church officers. A small army of interviewers waited upon him early, but Dr Jowett was not very communicative. On the peace question he was explicit: “I hope,” he said, “that my coming will strengthen the ties between England and the United States. It was a coincidence, of course, that, at the time of my departure for America, the Arbitration Treaty between the two countries was before the people. You may say that I come almost as the appointed representative of the Free Churches in England to express their united feeling in favour of Mr Taft’s peace proposals. lam looking forward with boundless hope to my work here.” A lady journalist who asked him why ho refused £2500 a year as exceeding his requirements, was met with the retort that life was too short to discuss such a matter as his salary. Dr Jowett was received into the Presbytery of New York, while Mrs Jowett was entertained at a reception at the Gotham Hotel, where, later. Dr Jowett appeared, and met some of his congregation. Intense interest was manifested in Dr Jewett's first sermon at Fifth Avenue Church. An hour before the service all the free seats had been appropriated, and seat-holders had to 1)0 admitted by a side door, to avoid the immense crowd outside. Dr Jowett preached on Christ’s compassion for the multitude. During the service a message from Carr’s Lane Church, Birmingham, was read. The reporters who sat behind Mrs Jowett asked her, during the second Scripture lesson, to give them an interview. “I cannot talk to you in church,” she said, waving them away. After the service Dr Jowett had an informal reception, not uncommon in American churches, shaking hands with hundreds of his congregation. The cable correspondents agree in repotting that Dr Jewett’s first amnion grinned the great congregation by its mesterv of the subject. The editorial columns of the New York dailies were eulogistic and congratulatory. Dr Jewett's “winning personality” is dwelt unon, and the absence of “affectation” is n raised. “Only a slight trace of English accent” is- noted by the reporters.