The Values Eternal

A flood of worldly thoughts, worldly ideas and estimates invade the mind nowadays on the wings of the ephemeral print which is so insistently circulated by powerful agencies everywhere. We must read, and so much of the reading matter that is forced upon our attention, teaches insidiously the low values and sordid outlook of the worldling, forever intent on the things of time and quite forgetful of the great issues of eternity. To protect ourselves fronl the contagion of this pervading worldliness, we should, in justice to our own soul, turn deliberately aside now and then to dwell upon the values everlasting. As men of old used, when passing through contagious plague spots, to hold to their nostrils a sweet smelling flower, to guard themselves from the infection, so we should hold to the nostrils of our soul the sweet flower of some heavenly thoughts, to guard against the poisonous exhalations of the world. The papers in the present volume are meant to aid us in lifting up our thoughts toward the eternal things. They are brief and various, so as to interest and occupy a leisure hour. The writer sends them forth with a prayer for all who may read, and he asks in turn from those who may read these lines a prayer for the writer thereof.