enabled her to bear the hardships and disappointments that were her portion.

She was not a perfect woman and as I have already intimated she was not an exceptional woman. Had she been the latter, you would have read about her in The Social Settlement Tidings or in The Club Woman's Weekly or in the Daily Tell-ItAll. She was just a plain, ordinary homemaker-nothing more, nothing less. She knew how to make a home to perfection. That was a large enough sphere for her. It offered as big a fulcrum as she wanted for helping to lift the world. Nor was her life all outgo. Great as is her reward today in the heavenly existence, she received while here no meager returns for what she gave. The experiences of wifehood and motherhood, a half century of home building, an abounding good-will to others reaching from her nearest neighbors to the ends of the earth all these yielded their rich fruitage in character. And what career is there that offers to consecrated womanhood today larger opportunities and rewards than the good, old-fashioned vocation of wife, mother, and home-maker?

WHAT SHALL THE MIDDLE-AGED

TH

MAN DO?

HAT brilliant Scotch writer, Ian Maclaren, the author of the famous Bonnie Brier Bush stories, wrote, a few years ago, an article with the striking caption, "Shall We Shoot the Old Minister?" In it he set forth the pitiable plight of many preachers who find themselves not wanted by churches after they have passed the dead-line of fifty. He offered the humorous suggestion that the only thing to do for these worn-out servants of the Lord is to take them out and shoot them.

But the distress today is hardly less among a large number of persons in middle life than it is with those whose heads are white with the snows of many winters. Moreover, it is not the ministerial class only which suffers, but in other professions, and notably in business, the young, hustling, well-equipped fellows fresh from colleges and the schools of technology are shouldering the older generation to the rear. "There is not much chance in business today for a man who has passed

forty," said one not long ago, who had been thrown out of a remunerative place by a consolidation of banks and who had knocked in vain at the door of other possible opportunities. As business becomes more highly organized and power is concentrated in the hands of a few, there is less chance for a man to wedge his way in after the dew of youth has gone, unless he has a pull with the higher powers or possesses special aptitudes.

And even to men who are not themselves the victims of sudden reverses, the coming of the middle-age period brings with it often a sense of depression and foreboding. They realize how swiftly time flies and how few years remain in which their powers will be adequate to the difficult task of breadwinning. They see the prizes of life snapped up by men ten or fifteen years their juniors and they are filled with apprehension with regard to what the morrow may bring forth.

Now there are three sharp, clear messages to speak to the army of timid or discouraged men in middle life. The first is, don't lose your grip. The minute that goes, you are on the downward slope. Hold on to your

self at every hazard, to your courage, your enthusiasm, your buoyancy of spirit. Resolve that, come what may, hardships, reverses, disappointments, your spirit shall not be crushed or embittered.

Next, do not slacken your efforts. Here is where so many make a fatal mistake. They reason that because they are somewhat handicapped by their age they will never amount to much and so they grow careless and inert. They do not exhaust every opportunity for personal culture. They do not make every effort possible to better their condition. Call to mind men who have gone on into middle life and advancing years, pushing harder all the time, never relaxing in a single particular. For that reason they are not today stranded and disheartened.

In the third place, and most important of all, hold on to faith. "Never despair," said Phillips Brooks, "of a world over which God reigns." Trust the future instead of fearing it. Believe that it holds good for you and yours. Things are always happening. Combinations of circumstances are always taking place that may issue favorably for you. Above all, believe that every human life is the plan of the Divine Mind and that there

is always help for the life that is ready to be helped.

Nothing is more inspiring than to see the way in which some men in middle life do wake up and register a growth and a capacity for achieving things which they did not seem to exhibit even when young men. All about us are growing, energetic, hopeful, aspiring men and women in middle life. They are going to do better work as the years go by. The world will have a place for them. They will be wanted. You may be among that

number.