TOUCHINESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 20, 16 October 1937, Page 14

TOUCHINESS

(By MBS JfAYOB LOSSnABE). Blossom-time! The season of recreation when "hope becomes as bToad as the horizon afar, reiterated by eve:/ leaf, sung pn every bough, reflected in the gleam of every flower." The newly-awakened earth is clothed in living jewels, and, as far as eye can see, stretches the inverted splendour of jc| bwi

upon earth as stars shining in a midnight pooL Amid the sweetness of fresh, lush grass and cnany-hued spring flowers, are acres upon acres of fruit trees dressed in virginal green, topped by the glory of snow- white blossonr and the rosy blush of pink petals. Here and there through the ethereal drift of fairy form rises the thin grey spiral of smoke from the homesteads of the farmers. Mothers busily cooking the evening meai look with questioning eyes through the kitehen window toward the sunset. The farmer, making everything safe for the night stops more than once to test the breath of the evening air and anxiously view the prospect for the morrow. Even the children, healthily enjoying the renewed pleasure of outdoor play in the lengthening evenings, share the uncertainty. For a touch of frost can spoil everything. And though the morning sun shines brilliantly upon the glittering fence-tops and ice-frond tracery, it cannot bring back life to th.e frostkilled blossoms. The work of the winter is lost and the hopes for the future plans for home and holiday are spoiled. Thp comfort and very life of the hoines and healthy, happy people is at the mercy of a sparkling dust of frost. For while the healthy person revels in a nip of frost that bring a quickening of body and an exhilaration of mind, those whose lives are spent in the orchar.ds and nurseries of our garden islaud are spoiled of the pleasure by the knowledge of the harm the legends.-. ;*y snow-white fox pf Eastern mythoipgy cau bring in its train. Tragie as a whirlwind in its relent less sweep, devastating" as a cyclone, ruthless as fire, inexorable as the rush of a tideless flood; with the deadly precision of an army of locusts, ihe scintillating, brilliqnt, beautiful touch of frost, light as swansdown, glistening in the starry night, can bring with its touch annihilation of hope demolition of happnesj, even extinction pf life itself. Just a touch of frost I Touchiness is no eardinal sin. It can be far indeed from the listed transgressions of spirit'ual and moral codes. Hevertheless, it is as deadly in its destruction pf 'the things which acpompany Salyation," those tender graces and sweet blossomings of spiritual growth which can develop into the full fruit of a trustwortliy Soldigr of Ghrist, as the. sius which head the black list. The pain and harm caused by "those things which do so easily beset us" are, it sepms, in iuverse ratio to the triviality of the offpuces. The sophisticated demeauour and the.flippant tongue of modern youth — the blossom of our land — often hides, I am convinced, a spiritual yearning tod deep for expression, a promisp of rich blossoming, carefully hidden from a prying world, which mqy, please God, in the fullruess of thp seasons, reach a ripe perfection which shall enrich our nation and set still higher the standard of Salvation. Let no breath of frost destroy such a valuabie crop. Shpuld it not be thp care of all whose hearts have been filled with the Holy Fire to radiate a warmth in which the preeious, fragile blossom may safely expandf Most of all by precept, teaching, and principle, should they no't, by their own tranquility of spirit, difiuse an atmosphere which will utterly and absolutely rout all possibility of therp being any susceptibility to touchiness, and so engender confidence and a healthy steadiness of mind, Pf His deliverance I will boast, Till all that are distressed From mine example comfort take, And charm thpir griefs to rest. Oh, make but trial of His love; Experienee will decidp How blest are they, and only fhey, "\Vho in His truth confide. Song Book No. 789.