The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1919, Page 45

The Family Circle

GROWN-UP. I/^^;^\Ve!llvbanish. tiny troubles K-••;. ,'■"_.'• That fill our;i hearts with woe; They'll burst like fairy bubbles That' laughing children blow. We'll wait the silver lining .. , , With firm, unruffled brow, ,'i\"'-' And look to Heaven's shining ... We're men and women now. \ll ,li The childish grief that weighted Our hearts like sullen stone On Lethe's waters freighted Shall sail to ports unknown. While we, our faces lifting, .... . Will smile, instead of frown, ...-., For through the storm-clouds' shifting Our Father's looking down. ~. > Unconquered, uncomplaining, We'll kiss the iron rod Of Him, the ever-reigning Kind Father and our God ; ■ Then from a heart enlightened With joys and hopes and fears, We'll give a love that's brightened With gold of grown-up years! ONE STEP FORWARD. The hour comes to each one of us when we stand at the crisis of our careers, when failure seems to us to be inevitable, when we cannot seem to see our way clear, cannot understand what to do, cannot see anything before us but death to our hopes and our aspirations'. And when that hour comes it is time not to go backward, but to go forward. We must not retreat, come what may, for every retreat carries one farther from ultimate victory. A prominent woman in making "an address once made this statement':—"We must, remember that we cannot, stand still. We have to move backward or forward. If we move backward when we move forward again we shall not have progressed, but shall have only reached the .spot where we were standing before. But if we move forward we shall at least be a little farther towards our goal." Another woman, when asked once how she had achieved such a measure of success, said "By never standing still, by always accomplishing something. Frequently it was not just what I had intended to do, but it was something. I let no day ■go 'by without moving ahead a bit. Forward was my watchword. Often I was side-tracked and sometimes almost lost, my bearings, but T. found that more 'frequently than not the moving helped me. Costly as were some of the mistakes I made, I knew that I was learning and the surer I became of the path." Sltis so with all of us. We learn through activity rather than passivity. And it is only through doing, however hard the deed may be, that we can hope to

achieve. , if Above all, we must not retreat in the. hour of failure. It is easy enough for most of us to work and to fight and to struggle as long as our struggles are crowned with success. But when we fail, when Ave see our dearest efforts becoming futile, our costliest efforts rendered as naught, when we realise that we are playing a losing game, then it is that ye want to turn back. And then it is that we must not turn back. That is the very time that we must refuse to surrender. That is the moment when we must move on toward the heights. >

H Most of lis are afraid to stir from what we know to what we not. know. But that is tbs only way to advance, to accomplish, that is the means by which §e open new avenues of = work and enter upon " new fields of success...'•/.,L'--..^^^.,..,..;•-■C-»--,-» "' ' Hi'vV-^'-j §lt takes 4 . courage to fight the battle .of life, just as *fc ■ did to fight those battles that won victory for "- . ' ■- ■ ■

humanity? over the hordes "of the Hun. It takes con-, secration to the highest that is in us it takes vision,, but most of all it takes the forward movement. We must charge forward, we must drive the enemy before us. We must refuse to go back. Only so shall we win in. any battle that comes to us as our part of the conflict. [■''W. % -i .': :,! 'j" i - »■'':{•''■ *p>T ! ■&&.? ,tt~% And there is nothing in the world that compares to victory wrested from defeat. For. it ; must be remembered that it is - not failure 5 to fall' if one falls while charging with face to the foethat is heroism. It is not failure to be captured by the enemy. That.is one of the hard fortunes of war. It is not failure to be wounded, to suffer pain, to be overpowered, to be outnumbered. As long as we fight onward, as' long as we move forward, as s long as we charge valiantly, we are unsurrendered. '• . . ,-• ' * ''■>•. V-vfe

WHY A PRIEST IS CALLED “FATHER.”

The faithful call their-priest "Father" because of the childlike reverence they have for him.' This is not a universal custom, but one that has been specially adopted in English-speaking countries. The Germans do not call their priests by that name, rather by a word that is akin to our "reverend." The French use the word "cure" or "abbe." There is, however, an eminently pertinent foundation for the custom of saying "Father" to a priest. ~• The word "father" means "author of life." The priest is the author of the spiritual life of the faithful. With the waters of baptism he infuses the life of grace into the soul. If man has lost his grace by mortal sin, the priest revives it by absolution in the Sacrament of Penance. Furthermore, he takes a fatherly interest in all those entrusted to his care. The parish is but a large family, and as a father is the natural head of a family, it is but natural that the head of the parish should be called "Father." We call Washington the "Father of his Country." The reason for this is plain. Similarly, members of religious Orders are wont to call their founders by the title of "Pater," or "Father," just as founders of Orders for women were called "Mother." Gradually, the title of "Pater" in religious Orders was applied to those that were ordained, to distinguish them from such as were still aspiring to the priesthood and whose title .was "Frater" or "Brother."— The Columbian, Columbus, Ohio. AT THE END OF THE YEARS. At the end of the years, When the twilight nears, And the sunset fades in the hilly west, . . ...... / We shall dream of our youth, but never long For the Summer's smile or the Springtime's song ; For past are the heartaches and the tears, '-l-il, X. At the end of the years ! At' the end of the years, When the dusk appears, And the friendly stars gleam in the west, We shall find ourselves at a homeland gate, Where peace and love and friendship wait, .... ; And life at its sweetest cheers— At the end of the years ! WHO TRIED HARDEST? "Now, sir," said the bullying counsel sternly to the witness from the country, "I want you to tell me plainly whether a great effort has or has not been made to make you-tell a very different story." "A different story from the one I have told you, . sir?" ' " ,•;.,..••:•'•.' .v. "That is what I mean." ■;. .-;.,-.•■ "Yes, sir. Several persons have tried to get me to 'do that, but they couldn't." : :; . "; . ~ "Now, sir, upon your oath, I wish to know who those persons are." - ; The witness scratched his head, and at last, replied: - \j; "Well, I guess you've tried 'bout the hardest." THEIR CHIEF WORRY. H*ajj' „ r .v._. :..,,,,.,> - ■ ■. w Preaching in one of the State capitals, an Aus-

tralian bishop noticed in*his congregation a strange face. The following 0 r Sunday the| same individual appeared, and f later in the week the bishop met him in the street. The bishop "stopped him, congratulated him upon his attendance at the cathedral, and . added : "You don't live here,' do you ?" '.. " ;-=;•! "No," said the stranger; "I live way back," mentioning the name of the place. . ~..;, |J.q 'Have you many episcopalians there " inquired the bishop. - . > "No, sir," was the reply. "What we are mostly worried with is rabbits." A LONG-FELT WANT. The get-on-with-the-war enthusiast was warming to his subject. He had described the death of hundreds of women and children in Belgium with gruesome details, the treatment of British prisoners with more gruesome details, the sinking of the Lusitania with still more gruesome details, and as he saw the strained look of the audience he went on vehemently : "There are some spectacles one never forgets." As he paused a moment impressively a little old lady in the front rose and chirped: "Oh, do please tell me where I can get a pair! I'm always forgetting mine." GLASS FASHIONS. Mrs Prior, a charity worker, was visiting a certain woman in a small country town. Four little children in the family all wore glasses. "What a pity!" exclaimed Miss Prior to the mother. "It seems that all your children have trouble with their eyes." * "There ain't nothing the matter with their eyes, ma'am," said the mother. "Then why do you disfigure them with those glasses?" asked the visitor, wonderingly. The woman stared at her caller coldly and angrily. "Why, I thinks they look lovely!" she. said. "I like glasses on little children. I think they're real dressy." SMILE RAISERS. "Robbie, can't you play without making all that noise ?" "No," mamma, I can't. You see, we're playin' picnic, and a storm has come up, and I'm the thunder." "Your credentials are satisfactory," said a manufacturer to a youth who was applying for a situation. "Have you a grandmother?" '/ "No, sir." "Any dear old aunt?" : "No, sir." "Or any other relatives who will be likely to die during the present football season ?" "No, sir." "You'll do. You can start work to-morrow." Jimmy had just annihilated the whole German army, and he was putting his leaden warriors back into their respective boxes, when his roving eye glanced upwards and spotted a large, black, fierce-looking invade*. Father," he cried, excitedly, "there's a great big spider on the ceiling." . s ,Jimmy's father, who is a professor, was busy at -the moment, and answered, without raising his eyes: "Step On it, Jimmy, my boy, and do not interrupt me."