EDITORIAL AND GENERAL 



335 



doors, introspection, rules, who got 

 into angry arguments — "the contention 

 was so sharp between them that they 

 departed asunder one from the other." 

 It was he who organized the churches; 

 "he went through Syria and Cilicia, 

 confirming the churches." He was the 

 theologian, the fighter, the stickler for 

 details ; he put on "the whole armour 

 of God" ; he organized, discussed, 

 theorized, got wound up in himself, 

 preached, traveled, hustled, worked 

 hard, was faithful, fought, argued, op- 

 posed the authorities, himself became 

 an authority; he formulated, analyzed 

 and classified, but never mentioned 

 God as visible in His works. 



If Christ had organized a church, He 

 would have done it in the spirit of 

 David ; "The works of the Lord are 

 great, sought out of all them that have 

 pleasure therein"; "the firmament 

 sheweth His handywork." 



Eve^ true Christian is a naturalist, 

 a lover of outdoors, an appreciator of 

 the world's true and beautiful things, 

 and of their Creator. 



Every Paulist is dogmatic, fond of 

 discussion, a stickler for creed ; he is 

 earnest, faithful, devoted, but he has 

 no time nor thought to "consider the 

 lilies" nor for "the birds of the air." 



Are you a Christian or a Paulist? 



More Flaying of Birch Trees. 



An expert photographer and, as I 

 judge from the picture submitted, a 

 lover of nature, sends a well-taken 

 photograph of a beautiful young lady 

 in the act of peeling the bark from a 

 birch tree, and of cutting her initials 

 on the trunk. He writes as follows : 



"The photograph of the young lady 

 carving the tree will make a beautiful 

 front cover picture in colors, as I have 

 made «ome in water colors for my own 

 special use and they are fine when col- 

 ored." 



We have replied to him as follows: 



"The lady of whom you send the 

 photograph is, indeed, beautiful ; in 

 fact, I have no words in my vocabulary 

 adequate to praise her beauty nor your 

 skill in taking her photograph. 



"On the other hand, I have no words 

 emphatic enough to denounce such 



vandalism as there shown, nor to ex- 

 press my surprise that you, a lover of 

 nature, should call such things beauti- 

 ful. I am sending you a marked copy 

 of Thic Guide to Nature, in which you 

 will see that I very strongly denounce 

 \\ allace Nutting's colored photographs 

 of "skinned" white birch trees display- 

 ed in a local show window. 



"Talk about using that on the front 

 cover in colors! If you will pose tvvo 

 young scamps in the act of mutilating 

 that tree with their jackknives, and 

 then place a horsewhip in the hands of 

 your beautiful young lady, and let her 

 thrash them with all her strength, such 

 a picture would be something like and 

 really worth putting on the front cover 

 of a magazine devoted to nature." 



He Can't "Break Away." 



I met him in the street — a Stamford 

 business man, hurrying along toward 

 his office. He extended his hand cor- 

 dially and said, "I am conscience 

 stricken, I really meant to, but I can't." 



I asked what he meant. He replied, 

 "I would like to put into practice your 

 doctrine, but I can't; I can't break 

 away. Don't you remember that the 

 ladies of my family and I visited Ar- 

 cadia several Sundays ago? While 

 there we unanimously decided that 

 such interest in nature as we saw rep- 

 resented there should be used by every 

 business man and by every woman 

 overtaxed by the cares of daily life. 

 We saw that you really lived and in- 

 culcated the true Arcadian doctrine of 

 interest in commonplace things and 

 the nearness to nature and — Well," he 

 laughed apologetically and almost sor- 

 rowfully, "the simple fact is that how- 

 ever good the doctrine and the practice 

 are, they are not for me ; I can't break 

 away. Monday morning saw me going 

 to the office just as usual. The work 

 came along in regular routine and here 

 I am every day just as before." And 

 he grabbed my hand with a firm grasp 

 as he said, "You really must excuse 

 me now; I am rushing to my office 

 to get off another letter for the next 

 mail. You are all right, and what you 

 represent is all right, but I can't break 

 away." Then he rushed through the 



