The Big Muddy HAVE you ever looked upon the turbid waters of the sinuous old Missouri, commonly called the "Big Muddy," on their long journey from the mountains to the sea? Perhaps it was not a sight to inspire the soul, or stir the imagination, or set the Muses singing. And yet, as I crossed that stream the other day, I looked upon those murky, muddy waters with absorbing interest. They were almost fascinating in spite of their filth, because they awakened within me emotions before untouched-considerations of what they once were and of what they might again become. As the train dashed on toward the West, I lingered in thought with those waters. I traveled upward whence they came. Up past the tasseling cornfields of Iowa and Nebraska. On past the golden wheatfields of the Dakotas. On through the undulating vistas of Montana. Up, up, up until I reached the Rockies, and there among the pine-clad ranges, their i cradle forever guarded by the age-crowned sentinels of those majestic mountains, I found their birthplace. Then I saw that when those waters were born they were as pure as the dewdrop distilled upon the rose-bud, and as sweet as the nectar of the clover-blossom that banquets the bee. Behold the crystal beauty of that river at its birth! But now look upon that foul stream and see how polluted! And those waters will be no more fit for the use of men until they are born again—that is, until God lifts them up into His sky and thus gives them a new birth. Then, when they come again, in the form of snowflake or dewdrop, to refresh the earth, they will be free from all impurities. Have you ever thought of the parallel in human life? Have you not? Well, there is one. There comes to my mind now a man of my acquaintance whom I have known from his infancy. I saw him when the bloom was on his cheeks and the laughter in his eyes. When the sweet dimples in his face were worth more to his mother than all the diamonds that ever glistened. When he was as free from stain as the crystal waters. But when I saw him THE BIG MUDDY the other day, after a lapse of some years, it was a shocking sight. He was blear-eyed and bloated-faced, besotted and bestial. He was unclean and repulsive. He bore evidence of having received the deposits from the waters of many polluted streams. So there was the "Big Muddy" in human life. Full of every deadly poison; full of all filth; brimming with the refuse from the reeking streams of immoral habits, this man would contaminate all pure lives, and was therefore unfit for society. Downward drifting he had gathered filth as he went. Like the river, when he was born he was sweet and pure. Now look! But the One who lifts the black and muddy waters of the polluted stream to sweeten them and send them back to earth as pure as the dewdrop, can give him a new birth, a complete cleansing, and save him from the stains that have spoiled his life, can bring him back to purity and make him a happy and useful member of society, that he may still give to the world the sweet and fragrant influence the Almighty designed for every man. But how much better if the pure waters H You have seen the falling tears. PASSING down the street of a b city one day, I saw coming toward a company of women who, from th manner and dress, were evidently f eigners. As they came nearer, I co hear their conversation, but could understand a single word they spoke, they were indeed talking in a fore tongue. But as we were about to m and pass, they seemed of a sudden to sp and gesticulate at the same time, and t all broke out in loud laughter. The lau ter I clearly understood, and needed one to translate or interpret. TI laughed in English. Laughter is a universal language. is the language of the heart. It is u and understood by the people of tongues. I was on a railway train passing thro 43 |