THE DOOR!

BY SELDOM.

THEREBY hangs many a tale. Could doors speak, what a wonderful chapter might we not have! Fresher and more readable in living realities, than any amount of sentimentalism in the shape of fiction Indeed one of the most effectual ways for curing the morbid desire of the multitude from its mad longings for the trashy productions of our times, were perhaps to bring out the matter of fact truths, that make up a part of every one's real life. For, after all, we seek ourselves only in the reproduced images of the mind. Whether these be genuine or counterfeit, depends on the spirit that presents them; and counterfeit or not genuine, they are and will be desired.

Romance has for its object something real There must always be a certain amount of solid contents, on which the imagination hangs its beautified visions. Where bees swarm they want a place to lodge; so when the fancy begets its most pleasing products, it requires a real point at least from which to start these into existence. For such a formative point many use the door.

Hot

The door is the starting point from home into the world. In the earliest periods of life, the sacred precincts of home contain the germinal forces that afterwards enlarge the sphere of ac ivities, until the mystic circle of the family is transcended It is in some cases the spontaneous necessity of nature; in others, it is over-strained and unnatural. house plants differ from the healthy garden plant's natural growth. From the nursery, the child first passes the door to the open playground in the yard, or upon the lawn. Where these are not present, the public street, with all its sad exposures to evil example, to corrupting influence, to vicious practices, receives the daily pilgrim from the threshold of home. For these the door had better never been passed through. It had then been a bar to such coarse contact.

Next, the door is passed, when the child is sent to school. It were pleasant to stop before we go into this new chapter of life, to see what in most cases has been left behind. Inside the door, there stands the angel of innocence. She has been left within. Not often does she go along to the modern school-room and play-ground. The sweet simplicity. of her nature would, to many eyes, look homely in more than one sense. Hence the vulgar and worse grown soul leaves innocence always within. the door. The garments of purity, too, are often left inside the door, hung up. Passing out to the godless school, children first "stain the plumage of their sinless years."

Once the school was not the same as now. Our fathers tell us how they left the home door for the school house, built significantly beside the church, where God was not systematically forgotten in the teaching, in the books and in the practice of master and child. The New Testament. at least and the catechism were not excluded from the course of instructions. Virtue and religion were thought worthy of being taught, as well.

as the rules of arithmetic and grammar. Piety was then thought to be as essential as knowledge. All this is changed now. The child going forth from the door of home to the public school, leaves all these safeguards behind the door of his mother's chamber-or is laughed at and jeered if these old fashioned th ngs are brought outside the door. This has grown to be the fashion of the world, and old fashioned things are stowed away behind the door, whether good morals or good manners as something out of date

At the door the youth is last seen. Going forth from thence into the stern, cold world, the tender sympathies of youthful hearts are lost, and when the time comes for return, the home feeling has been replaced by the maxims and thoughts of business and heartless selfishness. Home sickness once cursed by the strong doses of worldly wisdom, the motherconsciousness is only a remembered dream. No wonder, then, the mother instinctively, as if it were for the last time, clasps her boy in her fond arms, while her heart of love overflows and the dimming tears hide her darling boy's future from her sight, as he takes leave of her at the door, "outward bound" on the way of life. The door separates him from her maternal care and counsel-and too often, alas ! also, from all that she early taught him.

It is a solemn thing to pass through the door on the outward way into life's settled calling. In the Lord, it ought to be done, with a view to His glory and the soul's eternal good. But with very many no such purpose is intended; the worldly advantages only condition the choosing of the course and the tenor of the way. At the door, therefore, let the most fervent and solemn prayer be offered up for divine guidance and strength. Some poor wanderers leave their chart and compass at the door of home, and ever more are they tossed to and fro by the sweeping storm blasts that ruffle up the spirit with big waves of turbulen', sinful passion.

Most ardent vows of affection and love have been made at the door. There be times when the "sudden partings press the life out of young hearts," and at the door the bliss or agony becomes complete. Deep drawn sighs are breathed out there on the passing breezes, which long years thereafter may echo them back through the leafless branches of the bare family tree. The lovely buds of promise there planted, may untimely wither, and no fruit crown the opening flowers of expectation.

Departures and farewells concentrate all their feelings at the door, where those who go are formally severed from those who remain. Never are words so tenderly full of feeling and so true to nature, as when the reality of separation at the door compels the mutual, good-bye! It is enough in itself. No altar suits this prayer so well as the door. Sweet words may have before been spoken; but the tenderest tone, the deepest pathos, the warmest embrace, the most loving kiss, and the heartiest desire is reserved for the last, lingering, good-bye!

What memories cluster around the door! The child experience around the door-sill-the school-days' hurried leaving under the smiles of a mother's winning and cheering love-the youthful outgoing from the homelife to mingle with the untried temptations of the world-the man's farewell when the tear is repressed for fear of being thought unmanly-the bride's departure to the door of another home-all these are twining asso

ciations that cling to the old door posts as vines on the lattice work above. Doors draped with mourning tell a sadder tale. Some have the black crape relieved with a white satin ribbon. Through the door, for the last time, will be borne the little nursling to the narrow home, whose door will remain for a long time closed. There the child, and brother, sister, father, mother-all will be shut up till the grave's door shall be opened. Then will "the everlasting doors" be lifted up and the King of Glory shall come in. He is the door. By im may every homeless wanderer enter into the haven of rest. Through Him may all come into the mansions of our Heavenly Father's house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Let it also be remembered that there comes a time when that door will be shut.

Seek my soul the narrow gate,

Enter e'er it be too late;

Many ask to enter there,

When too late to offer prayer.

God from mercy's seat shall rise,
And forever bar the skies:

Then, though sinners cry without,
He will say, I know you not.

The return joys of the door are great, in proportion as the farewells thence taken were sad. Welcome to the returning prodigal, the absent friend, the expected lover, sanctifies the door's associations. Yet one stands at the door and knocks for admittance.

Admit Him or the hour's at hand,

You'll at His door rejected stand.

CHRISTIAN MUSINGS.

THIS Hymn was found in a chest in an English cottage. The author's name is unknown :

In the still silence of the voiceless night,

When, chased by airy dreams, the slumbers flee,
Whom in the darkness doth my spirit seek,

O God, but thee?

THE BEARD.

BY MATHIAS.

IN attempting to give a brief history of the beard, I shall endeavor to observe a strict neutrality-say nothing for or against this important appendage and let others draw their own conclusions.

The wearing of a beard is certainly an old-a very old fashion; a fashion, too, which has maintained its position from time immemorial to the present, and still sways the sceptre of dominion over high and low, finding devotees in cottage and palace, in every land and nation of the world. Nay, even this very thing was the subject of a divine command, which challenged the regard, and secured the obedience of God's chosen people, previous to the coming of Christ.

We

Webster defines the beard to be the hair that grows on the chin, lips, and other parts of the face." We find it mentioned in very remote times. The earliest mention of it is, undoubtedly in the sacred scriptures. Among the Israelites the beard was considered a great ornament; and a learned writer says, this is still the case among the oriental nations; we are eyewitnesses to the same fact among the occidental nations. The word beard is sometimes used for the face. Hence the expression, to "do a thing to a man's beard," is to do it in defiance of him-to his face. might almost say that a man's personality seems to centre in his beard, so sensitive is he to the treatment which it receives at the hands of others. Anciently it was held sacred. It might be touched only for the purpose of kissing it. In greeting, it was very common for persons to kiss one another's beard. "And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him." From time immemorial, the beard was regarded as a mark of dignity; and we read that the Israelites were forbidden to shave it off "Leither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard." Lev. 19: 27. They never shaved save for the purpose of expressing great grief and mourning; and this must be done by the person himself. Slaves were shaved-masters never. "To cut the beard" was an expression used to deuote great misfortune. In this sense Isaiah uses the word when he prophesies the laying waste of Moab: "Every beard shall be cut off." Is. 15: 2. And in a previous chapter (7: 20) he says: "The Lord shall shave with a razor the head. . . . . . and it shall also consume the beard"-beard being here perhaps tropically used for the distinguished men of the nation. See also Jer. 48: 38.

Of

If by any means persons were deprived of their beards, they regarded it as a great calamity. If enemies deprived them of it, they felt that they had suffered deep disgrace, and received the greatest insult. this fact we have pointed evidence in 2 Sam. 10: 1, 6. King David on the occasion of Nahash's death, sent messengers to Hanun (his son and successor) to comfort him. But Hanun, through the instigation of the princes of his court, regarded the messengers as spies. "Wherefore Hanun took David's servants and shaved off the one-half of their beards."

Having suffered such disgrace, "the men were greatly ashamed." King David, who himself wore a beard, therefore sent them word: "Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return." As a result of this ill-treatment of David's messengers, there arose a war, in which David slew many thousands of the enemy-all because the suspicious Hanun had insulted David's representatives, by shaving off the one-half of their beards. In olden times the beard was a "touch-me-not."

With the idea of the beard we always connect that of age-at least of an age above youth. The beard is the mark of manhood; it distinguishes the man from the youth. In the Hebrew language, the same word used to denote beard, has in the form of a verb, the signification to be or become old, to grow old, to be aged. So in the English: a gray beard, long beard and reverend beard, are terms for old age. We cannot think of the probable personal appearance of Moses and the prophets, without thinking at the same time of a huge beard, which undoubtedly adorned their reverend faces, and added dignity and majesty to their figure Aaron, the High Priest, certainly wore this useful ornamen, as we learn from Psalms 133, which a christian poet has beautifully paraphrased thus:

True love is like that precious oil,

Which, poured on Aaron's head,
Ran down his beard, and o'er his robes
Its costly moisture shed."

The long gray beard of the High Priest must surely have added much to his personal appearance. The tunic, the girdle, the mitre, the golden ephold, and the jeweled breast-plate contributed greatly to his dignified appearance; but all these articles of dress would not have given dignity to a boy or beardless youth. To correspond with a solemn and earnest dress, the priest wore an equally earnest and solemn beard, which, with the gray hair, well set in order and anointed, could not fail to make a deep impression upon the worshippers in the temple.

Having now seen what importance the Israelites attached to the beard, let us briefly turn our attention to other nations. The ancient Assyrians were scarcely behind the Israelities in their regard far a strong bushy beard. In Layard's excavations of Nineveh (Nimroud) many bas-reliefs were brought to light, which, besides giving us an insight into the private and public life of that famous people, also exhibit to us the prevalent fashions of that distant age. "They carefully and elaborately plaited their hair and beards. The beard was allowed to grow to its full length; and descending low on the breast was divided into two or three rows of curls. The moustache also was carefully trimmed and curled at the ends. The hair as well as the beard appears to have been dyed, as is still the custom in Persia." The sculptures sketched by Layard prove this. Here on the slabs we see the kings, warriors, and officers of state, all alike sporting a moustache and a respectable beard. So fond were the Egyptians of this kind of facial ornament, that if nature failed to furnish it they wore artificial beards. ness of the Grecians for the display of flowing hair has passed into a proverb, and "long-haired Greciau" is familiar to every scholar. Long hair was considered essential to personal beauty and dignity, and great pains was taken to cultivate its growth. The same attention was

The fond