This class of sons and daughters are not happy. Their very natures will not allow them to enjoy happiness; they are enemies of peace and good will. But the sons or daughters who perform the task uncomplainingly are always happy, even if they are required to do something they do not like. There is always that inward feeling of joy and happiness which follows the noble performance of duty.

Some may think that when they never say a disrespectful word to their parents that they have fulfilled the law; it is a great thing to be able to say, "I have never uttered an unkind word, nor openly refused to perform any task required of me;" but it is a greater thing to be able to say, "I have never brought upon the heads of my parents dishonor either by word or action." Some may say we are accountable for our actions, which is true, if our parents have done their duty; but every dishonorable act we perform brings sorrow and grief upon our parents, just as every honorable act brings joy and comfort to their souls; so when we cause sorrow to fall upon them, we have dishonored them in the highest degree, because we have trampled under foot their infinite love for us. We cause them to go down into the grave broken-hearted. Think of it; could we be more dishonorable!

A boy leaves home at night; his mother cautions him to behave himself like a man. When he leaves home that night, it appears like a heaven. He speaks kindly to his parents and goes his way. Some one offers him a drink and he accepts. Soon he has a desire for more, and goes to the saloon to satisfy his appetite; soon he is upon the floor, a human in lowest form.

Sorrow now fills that home, the parents are brought low in grief and shame. Where is your honor, boys; has it not taken wings?

Night after night that boy frequents the saloon, and his poor mother lies upon her couch, or walks the floor in the bitterest of agony. She who would not hesitate one moment to lay down her life for him is now stricken low with grief. O, boys! where has your honor gone? Let us wake up and be men ere it is too late, for as God lives, his judgments will fall upon us.

Sometimes we hear jeering remarks passed about young men and women who are obedient to their parents. Some will say, "I

would like to see my father run over me like that; you are a simpleton to let him do it." Let them jeer, their destination is branded upon their foreheads. If they do not repent, degradation and shame will overtake them.

Great men and women have always been such as have honored their parents. The scum of society is composed of, and prison cells are filled with, those who have been disobedient to their parents. No matter if all men point at you the finger of shame, and every woman's lips be turned at you in scorn, do your duty, and God and his angels will be with you; and greater by far are they that are for you than all that be against you. It is by no means significant of a great character to be a scoffer. "A dog may stand upon the street corner and bark, even at angels, should they pass."

I will close with the words of the poet:

"Give me my old seat, mother,

With my head upon thy knee;

I've passed through many a changing scene
Since thus I sat by thee;

O! let me look into thine eyes;

Their meek, soft, loving light,
Falls like a beam of holiness

Upon my heart tonight."

Your brother and co-worker,

HARLEY P. RANDALL.

WHAT CAN WE KNOW?

BY ATTEWALL WOOTTON.

The materialist sayeth in his heart, "There is nothing that can be known only through one or more of the five senses." The man of faith and hope declares that there are sources of light on earth and in the heavens beyond the ken of mortal vision, and truths to be learned which are out of reach of man's puny telescope or microscope, and beyond the wildest imaginings of earth's greatest scientists or philosophers, some of which may be reached through humility, faith, and obedience to laws underlying those truths.

The materialist puts in claims for the reliability of sense perception which are not warranted when we take into consideration how deceptive these senses prove in many cases.

The sense of sight is the one most relied on for general information, but how often it plays pranks on even the doubting Thomases, who must see or not believe! Who has not at sometime put his hand on relief painting to ascertain whether it was actual or deceptive? Who could undoubtingly believe his own eyes after an evening spent in witnessing the wonders of modern necromancy? Vessels below the horizon have often been seen inverted in the air. The ordinary mirror found in every home performs a deception perfect and complete. These with the various forms of hallucination such as occur in many cases of nervous disorders, should teach at least, that sight perception is not altogether infallible. The astronomer tells us that light from some of the distant stars has been three hundred years reaching us, so we see them as they were several generations ago; while some of them may have ceased to emit light-rays altogether.

The ear, also, is often deceived by ringing sensations, by echoes, ventriloquism, and of late by the phonograph. By its use the people of the future may hear the voices of their progenitors years after their tongues are crumbled to dust. Many people have been deceived by hearing their names called when it was only the result of abnormal nerve action.

To prove that the sense of touch is not always reliable, it is necessary only to cross the fingers and place them on a small object like a pea, allowing both fingers to touch it at the same time, when the object will appear to the touch as two. The conjuror will press a coin in the palm of one's hand, and, while closing the hand, remove the money, but while the impress remains, one would be almost willing to stake his life that the coin was still there.

The mesmerist, or hypnotist, will make his semi-conscious subject imagine any taste or smell desired, and the memory will retain the sensations even after the mesmeric iufluence has passed off.

Who can tell what conditions surround us, yet unknown to science, that may cause our senses to make false reports of the outer world to the thinking, conscious being within, called self? Man knows but little of his surroundings here below, but the further his mind reaches out in research and investigation, the more limited appear the powers of his senses. The mind is continuously reaching out beyond the bounds of experience and forming hypotheses from which to reason on the products of sense perception in order to test their reliability. Who has ever perceived through the senses, the molecule, the atom or the universal ether through which light and heat are supposed to be transmitted?

Many truths that are impossible of demonstration through the senses are more positively known to be truths than are the outward phenomena of objects that affect the senses. We can know that space is boundless, better than we can know that grass is green, for the opposite of the first is unthinkable, while our eyes have often been deceived in color; we can know that duration is infinite, better than that our friends are speaking to us; we can be more sure of the eternal duration of matter than of the temperature of water by the touch. While men dispute over sense

perceptions, the axioms of mathematics are above or beyond dispute.

I can know that I am a conscious, reasoning being, that I can love and hate, experience joy and sorrow, anger and pity, and all the various passions and feelings common to humanity. I know that I can reason on the products of sense perception, and, by the power of imagination, build up images more beautiful and grand than any I have ever experienced; but whether there is in the outer world a reality corresponding to the inner, I may not know. I know that flashes of light and streams of intelligence often come to my mind when the mind is oblivious to all outward impressions, the source of which is a mystery from a human standpoint. I have every reason to believe, from outside manifestations, that there are others who have these flashes of light more frequently and with greater intensity and power than I have; and, believing that something cannot be produced from nothing, I must attribute this light to some source of intelligence, and, as it seems to be unlimited, the source must be infinite. An unlimited source of intelligence must be a God in the highest imaginable sense, and in fact, must be far beyond the highest possible powers of human imagination. Then these flashes of light must be revelation, and they will grow stronger as the mind, by proper preparation, becomes more receptive of such influences. This class of knowledge can be weighed in the balance of reason, and be as readily recognized as truth as if revealed through the senses, and is far less liable to prove deceptive.