I can't get my money." Mr. Lincoln asked for the soldier's papers, saying that he had been a lawyer and perhaps could help him. The two gentlemen stept behind some shrubbery and waited. The President took the papers from the soldier, examined them, wrote a line on the back, and told him to carry them to the chief clerk at the War Department. After Mr. Lincoln had passed on, the gentlemen asked the soldier if he knew who had been talking to him. "Some ugly old fellow who pretends to be a lawyer," was the answer. On looking at the note written on the back of the papers, the soldier discovered that he had been cursing "Abe" Lincoln to his face. He found a request to the chief clerk to examine the papers and, if correct, to see that the soldier was given his pay, signed A. Lincoln.
(1387)
HELP UNRECOGNIZED
A night of terror and danger, because of
their ignorance, was spent by the crew of a
vessel off the coast of New Jersey.
Just before dark a bark was discovered drifting helplessly, and soon struck her bows so that she was made fast on a bar, and in momentary danger of going down.
A line was shot over the rigging of the wreck by a life-saving crew, but the sailors did not understand that it was a line connecting them with the shore, that they might seize and escape. All signs failed to make them understand this. So all night the bark lay with the big waves dashing over it, while the crew, drenched and shivering and terrified, shouted for help.
In the morning they discovered how unnecessarily they had suffered, and how all night there was a line right within reach by which they might have been saved.—Evangelical Messenger.
(1388)
Helpers, Humble—See Supplies, Bringing Up.
HELPERS, UNSEEN
Wireless ships suggest the value of our
unseen helpers. Life is a sea, and men are
mariners. As long as the sea is smooth we
do not give much thought to our helpers in
the unseen. But smooth sea, rough sea, or
no sea, the helpers are there, waiting to be
called. And behind them all stands the
eternal Christ, dispatching his cosmic soldiers,
even as the Roman centurion commanded
his legions.—F. F. Shannon.
(1389)
HELPFULNESS
Susan Coolidge puts into verse some suggestive questions upon opportunities to be helpful:
If you were toiling up a weary hill,
Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear,
Straining each nerve untiringly and still
Stumbling and losing foothold here and there,
And each one passing by would do so much
As give one upward life and go his way,
Would not the slight reiterated touch
Of help and kindness lighten all the day?
If you were breasting a keen wind which tost
And buffeted and chilled you as you strove,
Till baffled and bewildered quite, you lost
The power to see the way, and aim and move,
And one, if only for a moment's space,
Gave you a shelter from the bitter blast,
Would you not find it easier to face
The storm again when the brief rest was past?
(1390)
If I can live
To make some pale face brighter, and to give
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e'en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some wayworn soul in passing by;
If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious strain,
My life, tho bare
Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us of earth, will not have been in vain.
The purest joy,
Most near to heaven, far from earth's alloy,
Is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine;
And 'twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me, "She did her best for one of Thine." (Text.)
(1391)
The Koran tells of an angel who was sent from heaven to earth to do two things. One was to save King Solomon from doing some wrong thing to which he was inclined; and the other was to help a tiny yellow ant carry its load. (Text.)
(1392)
See Individual Influence; Labor, Opportunity
for.
