Read Ebook: Nothing to Say A Slight Slap at Mobocratic Snobbery Which Has 'Nothing to Do' with 'Nothing to Wear' by Doesticks Q K Philander

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Now the lady had been prepared to preach, Or rather, to make a nice serious speech; But it might as well have been written in Dutch for her, For the wind and the weather, conspiring together, Turned out to be, altogether too much for her; One half she forgot, and she bungled the rest of it, Though I finally managed to pick out the best of it. She asked her companion, who stood in the lee of her, For the wind spread her skirts to the bigness of three of her, "Who sent these ships to the rescue of those, Who have perilled their lives in these Northern snows? Did he spring from the mob, the benevolent 'masses,' Or from the detestable 'upper classes'?" With a great deal more to the same effect, Which I couldn't exactly make out the sense of, For I know that her sentences "failed to connect;" And I suppose that her chattering teeth bit the ends off; But 'twas very conclusive, whatever she said. He never disputed her; never said nay, But only hung down his discomfited head; And whatever he thought, he had Nothing to Say.

Chilled to the heart with the terrible cold, Both to get back were most truly-solicitous, Never before was the saying old, "As cold as charity," half so felicitous.

They hastened back to Broadway, when she said, That one more journey that night she'd lead him, Before she'd let him go home to bed. And he, not caring to quibble or question, At once fell in with the lady's suggestion, Not thinking she'd "one more" lecture to read him.

This time they took a course rectilinear Southward, and landed in Norfolk, Virginia.

Pestilence there was doing its worst, Hundreds were dying, and hundreds were dead. Many who should have been bravest, the first Had deserted their trust, and shamelessly fled. But men from the Northern cities were there, Nursing the sick with the tenderest care, Whose kindred had fled to less dangerous lands, Leaving the dying to strangers' hands.

While the two stood quiet beside the bed Of a patient sufferer, Charity said:

"Who hath sent these strangers here, These dying men to soothe and cheer? To do what mortal skill may do To lighten their burdens of grief and woe; To shrive these dying souls of blame, To bid them hope in Heaven above. Who hath sent these in my dear name To do this holiest work of love? Hath the treasure here given been paid by those Whose 'wrongs' are so earnestly plead by you? Or hath it been done by their 'natural foes,' The wealthy, the rich, the opulent few Of Madison Square and the Fifth Avenue?"

During this lengthy interrogation The Spirit had been pretending to doze, But he waked himself up at the peroration, And most ungallantly turned up his nose, And turned on his heel, and turned him away,-- Sulkily saying, he'd Nothing to Say.

Dear Readers, I'll ask one question of you-- Don't you think it may possibly chance to be true, That Charity, really, not merely in fables, May apparel herself in satins and sables, And costliest ribbons, and fragilest laces, Like the daintiest beauties of Madison Square, And may take up a home in the loftiest places, With those who've, satirically, Nothing to Wear?

FINIS.

Transcriber's Note: Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. Spelling was left as found.

An unembodied spirit is one that has not yet taken upon itself a body. An embodied spirit is one dwelling in the flesh. A disembodied spirit is one that has passed through this stage of existence and laid its body down in the grave, to be finally taken up and again united, spirit and body, those of the righteous never more to be separated.

The word of the Lord to Jeremiah was: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" . Here we have the sure word of the Lord relating to one of the children of men who was but a type of the rest, only that in this particular case we have the fact made known that, for good and sufficient reasons, our common Father in the heavens saw proper to ordain one of His children to a certain office prior to sending him down upon the earth. Having so gained the confidence of his Father while in his first or pre-existent state, he was ordained to a high and holy calling, previous to his advent upon the earth, and we learn from holy writ, that this confidence was not misplaced, but that he in honor filled his mission and proved himself true to the trust reposed in him, not veering or turning a hair's breath from the line of his duty, though met by obstacles that would have appalled the stoutest heart.

The reader will please be cautious not to confound the principle of fore-ordination with that of predestination, in the case of Jeremiah, for there is a broad distinction between the two. A man may be fore-ordained, set apart or commanded to do a certain work, yet he retains his agency in the matter, and it is optional with him whether he performs the duty assigned him or not. If predestined to perform a certain work, there would be no choice but to do that work. Not having any choice, he would not incur the responsibility of his own actions, nor control them, but would be controlled by the power which predestined him. While Jeremiah was fore-ordained to be a prophet to the nations, we do not read that he was predestined to fill the office of a prophet by any means.

The principle of pre-existence is plainly illustrated in the life of our Savior, who thus spoke to the people: "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" Again, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven." To all human appearances, Jesus resembled very much the rest of the children of our common Father. So close was this resemblance, that those by whom He was surrounded failed to see any contrast between Him and any ordinary man. They enquired of each other, "Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren James and Joses, and Simon and Judas?"

We have presented for the consideration of the reader but a few Biblical proofs of man's pre-existence, out of the many that can be selected, yet consider that sufficient has been advanced to show conclusively that the claim of the Latter-day Saints to a belief in this principle, is founded upon holy writ. Their ideas only coincide with the prophets and servants of God in all ages of the world who have alluded to this subject.

WHY WE ARE HERE.

A wise Creator must have had some great object in view in the creation of the earth, and placing upon it His children, to pass through what they are called upon to, while in this probation. A knowledge of this object is almost positively necessary to enable the human family to act well their part. Let us then examine what He had in view.

The primary object of man's existence upon the earth, is to obtain a body of flesh and bone; for without this it is impossible to advance in the grand scale of being in which he is to move, in the eternal worlds.

It is necessary also for him to learn, by actual experience, the difference between good and evil. As was said of our first parents, "And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." It is necessary that man should taste the bitter to enable him to appreciate the sweet. No proper appreciation of the value of eternal life could be arrived at, without having experienced its opposition.

Having learned why we are here, let us next examine what is the nature of the duties devolving upon us.

FAITH.

To enable a man to perform any work whatever, requires that he have faith in the ultimate result of his work. No farmer would plant, unless he expected to reap; no builder build, unless he expected to inhabit; no speculator invest, unless he expected to increase his means; no journey would be attempted, unless there existed hope of reaching the destination. So, likewise, no commandment of God would be obeyed, unless there existed faith that certain blessings would follow obedience.

With this idea plainly before us, we can comprehend the assertion of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." .

We often hear the same cry today that greeted the ears of Jesus, "Master, we would see a sign from thee." But He answered and said unto them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." .

The cultivation of this principle of faith is the first step in our duties in this life. The second step is that of

REPENTANCE.

We understand that repentance does not consist in mourning over sins committed, and then repeating the same sin or one equally heinous, but that Ezekiel meant for the people to cease from doing wrong, to quit their evil practices, and walk in the path of rectitude, virtue and true holiness. "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death." . We believe that the "sorrow of the world" here alluded to, is the too-prevalent practice of crying, groaning and moaning over our wrong-doings, and then continuing the same practices.

The third step for man to take in this life to secure salvation in the eternal world, is to be

BAPTIZED.

"He that believeth" "and is baptized shall be saved" , was the emphatic assertion of our Savior. Again, we find that man came under condemnation by refusing obedience to this commandment:

The fourth step necessary for man to take while in this state of probation, is to receive

THE LAYING ON OF HANDS,

for the reception of the Holy Ghost. This is a principle, to a great extent, ignored by the Christian world, yet plainly taught in the scriptures.

Paul, writing to Timothy, charged him thus: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery" ; and again, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands" .

Sufficient has doubtless been said to clearly establish the fact that the gift of the Holy Ghost was formerly obtained by the laying on of the hands of those who held the authority to do so. Nowhere do we find that the order here laid down has been supplanted or annulled. On the contrary, the apostles spoke in the strongest terms against any innovation upon the established forms that Jesus taught them.

Paul, writing to the Galatians, speaks of those who were "perverting" the gospel; doubtless teaching that the laying on of hands was not necessary, or else that it was done away with, and says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" .

We have traced man from a pre-existent state, before the world began, when he dwelt in the presence of the Father and of our elder Brother Jesus, and mingled with the spirits who have or shall come into this sphere of action.

As it is beautifully expressed in one of the songs of Zion:

"Oh, my Father, Thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place! When shall I regain Thy presence, And again behold Thy face? In Thy holy habitation, Did my spirit once reside? In my first, primeval childhood, Was I nurtured near Thy side?

"For a wise and glorious purpose Thou hast placed me here on earth, And withheld the recollection, Of my former friends and birth; Yet ofttimes a secret something Whisper'd, 'You're a stranger here;' And I felt that I had wandered From a more exalted sphere."

This is certainly a grander and nobler conception of man's origin than that of some of the would-be philosophers of today, who advocate the idea of evolution from a lower scale.

Having described the nature of the duties that he must perform in this life to lay a foundation for future exaltation, we now turn to the consideration of man's

Upon this subject there is a great diversity of opinion among men, and almost every possible conjecture has, from time to time, held the attention of the human family. If we are to judge by the accepted creeds of the Christian world, we find that an almost universal belief exists in future punishment.

We find also that the fear of future punishment is used as a mighty power to influence the minds of the people in a religious sense. The fearful horrors of a never-ending punishment of the guilty are portrayed in the liveliest colors from the Christian pulpits of the land. They are so clearly defined, that in many instances we find that the love and justice of God are lost sight of in the description of the fearful character of the punishment He inflicts, not so much upon unbelievers as upon those who reject the creeds, articles of faith and discipline, whereby men seek to "know God."

Let the reader lay aside preconceived notions, tradition and prejudice, and examine this subject with a desire to know the truth.

We shall again refer to holy writ, and ask the candid attention of the reader to the proofs we place before him.

If we had the history of two persons, the one good and the other bad, after they left the earth, or laid down their bodies in death, it would serve as a guide to decide upon the future destiny of the whole human family. Fortunately, there is left upon record such information, and by it we can determine this all-important question.

No one will dispute the assertion that Jesus of Nazareth was appropriately termed the "Just One," a person of pure and holy life.

The confession of guilt by one of the men crucified beside Jesus, is testimony enough to convict him of being a bad man. "We receive the due rewards of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss" , were the words of the malefactor, thus confessing that death was the proper penalty for the many crimes that he was guilty of.

Now, here are two persons that were born upon the earth, lived out a certain number of years, and then laid down their lives, their bodies becoming cold and inanimate in death, while their spirits, freed from their earthly tenements, passed into another stage of existence, leaving their remains to be cared for in the ordinary rites of sepulture.

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