book six

inches from my sight, at the next I can with ease look on a tree 200 yards away, and the next I can raise my eyes and view the sun millions of miles away in the upper heavens. As easily should Christians, compelled to look at the things close at hand, lift their thoughts and prayers to God. But it is hard to refocus the eye of the soul on the divine and eternal if the affections are too much set on things on the earth. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Text.)

(1113)

=Foes Fraternize=--See KINDNESS.

FOLD, THE, OF CHRIST

When the Savior proclaimed Himself as the Good Shepherd, He was not only describing His own character in one of its most beautiful aspects, but was by implication suggesting very much more. The fact of a fold implies not only protection and provision, but also restraint, oversight, authority, and order.

A traveler who recently arrived in a remote region of Uganda, relates how amazed he was to see immense numbers of all sorts of wild animals, some in great herds, others in smaller groups. That was not a fold. But if the same traveler had looked across the great pampas or llanos of South America he would have seen vast flocks and herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, roaming and grazing over the immense expanse of prairie. It might seem to him at first that those thousands of animals were wandering about at their own will. But the spectator would quickly discover that they were in reality under close attention on the part of ranchmen, cowboys, and shepherds. Further, he would find that the vast pasture-lands were enclosed by wire. So that here is a fold under shepherds.

(1114)

FOLLOWING CHRIST

A missionary doctor at Shanghai was lying one night in his bed fast asleep, when he was awakened by a loud knocking at his front door. Even Chinese grown men are very much afraid of the dark, so he was very much surprized to see two little lads from a village five miles distant standing at his door. They said their school-teacher had been taken ill, and they had come for some medicine to help him. “Why didn’t some men come on this errand?” the missionary asked. “Because they were afraid,” said the boys. “Why were not you afraid?” “We were,” said the boys, “but we thought it was what Jesus Christ would like us to do, so we came.” (Text.)

(1115)

FOLLOWING, INEXACT

Two persons were walking together one very dark night, when one said to the other, who knew the road well, “I shall follow you so as to be right.” He soon fell into a ditch and blamed the other for his fall. The other said, “Then you did not follow me exactly, for I walked safely.” (Text.)

(1116)

FOLLY

Are there not people comparable to those discribed below, who, instead of seeking the substance of religion, are content with the mere breath of theology; and others who, instead of seeing and facing the world’s evils, “take out their eyes” whenever anything disagreeable happens along?

Lucian says the people on the moon lived on frogs that they cooked over a fire, but that, instead of eating the flesh, they simply breathed in the smell that came from the cooking; and that they had a custom of taking their eyes out of their heads to save them from seeing anything that might displease them.

(1117)

See CARELESSNESS, COST OF; MIRACLES.

FOOD AND CULTURE

A careful study of historical statistics shows the great influence that food and the laws of menu have exerted on the world’s progress. Did not an uncooked apple drive the human race out of Paradise? Did not a mess of pottage differentiate a nation? Did not a fit of indigestion lose the battle of Leipsic and check the career which threatened to change the face of Europe? Did not tea found the American Republic? The history of the dinner table is the history of civilization. The culture of any people may be gaged by its cooking and the amount of sentiment thrown into and around its daily meals.--ETHEL A. LENNON, _The Epoch_.

(1118)

FOOD AND EXERCISE

The instruction of the pulpit and Sunday-school may well be likened to the food provided at the family table. It is, very likely, abundant in quantity, and nutritious in quality, but food without exercise makes the sickly, dyspeptic child. Food without exercise in the church is apt to produce no better results.

Even the horses in our stables can not long live without exercise. Fill their cribs ever so full of the best feed, they must yet do something to keep healthy. This is a natural law, which is imperative in the spiritual world. There are a great many dyspeptic Christians in all our churches. They are bilious and disappointed and hopeless and useless, except as they become by their continual growling and fault-finding a means of grace to the pastor and other workers. In fact, they have all the symptoms of spiritual dyspepsia. Now, the only remedy for this disease is spiritual activity. “Go to work,” said the famous English doctor to his rich, dyspeptic patient; “go to work. Live on sixpence a day, and earn it.”--FRANCIS E. CLARK, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1903.

(1119)

=Food and Work=--See DIET AND ENDURANCE.

=Food and World’s Progress=--See FOOD AND CULTURE.

=Food Economy=--See HEALTH, ECONOMIES OF.

=Food in Prehistoric Times=--See PREHISTORIC WOMAN.

FOOLISH CONFIDENCE

The King of Persia once ordered his visier to make out a list of all the fools in his dominions. He did so, and put his majesty’s name at the head of them. The king asked him why, and he immediately answered: “Because you entrusted a lac of rupees to men you don’t know to buy horses for you a thousand miles off, and who’ll never come back.” “Ay, but suppose they come back?” “Then I shall erase your name and insert theirs.”--_Public Opinion._

(1120)

=Foolishness Prevented=--See PREVENTION.

FOOLISHNESS SOMETIMES IS WISDOM

The wisdom or unwisdom of things is not always apparent on their face. Paul speaks of “the foolishness of preaching.” Most of the great inventors and discoverers were not considered wise in the initial stages of their great careers. Columbus was misunderstood and ridiculed, Watt was regarded as a dreamer, Morse found few supporters, Ericsson could not get Government support for building the _Monitor_, yet all these men were great and wise men. A curious instance of wise foolishness is that related of an important advertiser, who said:

We once hit upon a novel expedient for ascertaining over what area our advertisements were read. We published a couple of half-column “ads” in which we purposely misstated half a dozen historical facts. In less than a week we received between 300 and 400 letters from all parts of the country from people wishing to know why on earth we kept such a consummate fool who knew so little about American history. The letters kept pouring in for three or four weeks. It was one of the best-paying “ads” we ever printed. But we did not repeat our experiment because the one I refer to served its purpose. Our letters came from schoolboys, girls, professors, clergymen, school-teachers and in two instances from eminent men who have a world-wide reputation.

(1121)

=Foot-gear=--See BIBLE CUSTOMS TO-DAY.

FORBEARANCE

These lines by Harry Larkin, in the _Scrap Book_, seem to breathe a spirit of self-distrust and forbearance for faults in others eminently worthy of perpetuation:

Dare we condemn the ills that others do? Dare we condemn? Their strength is small, their trials are not few, The tide of wrong is difficult to stem, And if, to us more clearly than to them Is given knowledge of the good and true More do they need our help and pity, too! Dare we condemn? God help us all and lead us day by day! God help us all! We can not walk alone the perfect way, Evil allures us, tempts us and we fall! We are but human and our power is small: Not one of us may boast, and not a day Rolls o’er our heads, but each hath need to pray, God help us all! (Text.)

(1122)

The speaker in the following account was Shang, a converted Manchurian missionary:

Over at the “Heavenly Lord Hall” (French mission) I was looking at the new building which is being erected. The boys’ school-teacher was with me. A Roman Catholic objected to our presence and struck us both. One of their principal members, seeing us insulted, blushed very red, and spoke to the offender. But we just came away.

“What would you like me to do?” I asked. “Shall I write to the French priest and complain?”

“Do nothing at all,” he replied. “Not to requite an insult is a blessing.” (Text.)

(1123)

FORCE APPLAUDED

Robert Barr, the author, has a part in an anecdote which throws light upon England’s present craze for the sinews of war:

When Mr. Barr was teaching school in Canada, an old college friend of his came along with a stereopticon, giving talks on Europe. The lecturer always finished with the thrilling recital of an anecdote about Queen Victoria. The Alake of Abeokuta visited her and asked, “What is the cause of England’s greatness?” The good queen handed him a Bible, which was in readiness to present him, saying, “This is the reason of England’s greatness.” The dramatic device was always exceedingly effective.

When the lecturer came around to Barr’s district, the lantern-operator was ill, and Barr was implored to take his place, which he consented to do. All went well until the grand finale arrived, when Barr maliciously substituted another picture for that of the Bible. “This,” cried the fervid orator, “is the secret of England’s greatness!” and was horrified on glancing up at the screen to see before him a picture of the gigantic battleship _Consternation_. The audience, which did not know the story of the Bible, cheered vociferously, rose to its feet, and sang “Rule Britannia” in a most warlike voice.

(1124)

FORCE, LIVING

Look at a full-sized oak, the rooted Leviathan of the fields. Judging by your senses and by the scales, you would say that the substance of the noble tree was its bulk of bark and bough and branch and leaves and sap, the cords of woody and moist matter that compose it and make it heavy. But really its substance is that which makes it an oak, that which weaves its bark and glues it to the stem, and wraps its rings of fresh wood around the trunk every year, and pushes out its boughs and clothes its twigs with digestive leaves and sucks up nutriment from the soil continually, and makes the roots clench the ground with their fibrous fingers as a purchase against the storm wind, and at last holds aloft its tons of matter against the constant tug and wrath of gravitation, and swings its Briarean arms in triumph over the globe and in defiance of the gale. Were it not for this energetic essence that crouches in the acorn and stretches its limbs every year, there would be no oak; the matter that clothes it would enjoy its stupid slumber; and when the forest monarch stands up in his sinewy lordliest pride, let the pervading life-power, and its vassal forces that weigh nothing at all, be annihilated, and the whole structure would wither in a second to inorganic dust. So every gigantic fact in nature is the index and vesture of a gigantic force.--THOMAS STARR KING.

(1125)

=Force Unavailable=--See LOYALTY.

FORCES, LATENT

Mighty forces often lie latent in nature until peculiar conditions elicit them. The trembling dew-drop is an electric accumulator, and within its silvery cells is stored a vast energy; the rain-drop and the snowflake are the sport of the wind, but, converted into steam, we are astonished at their potentiality; the tiny seed seems weakness itself, yet, beginning to germinate, it rends the rock like a thunderbolt.

Thus is it, only in a far more eminent degree, with human nature strengthened by the indwelling Spirit of God. In the first hours of trial we may be bewildered, stunned, staggered, but the latent forces of our nature, stimulated into action, render us equal to the most trying situation and the most trying moment.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1126)

FORESIGHT

It would hasten the world’s progress if each generation would consider the welfare of those to follow as carefully as did the church mentioned here:

Anticipating that airships will be in common use in a few years, the officials of Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, of Atlanta, Georgia, when it was in process of building, instructed the building committee to so arrange the roof that there will be no difficulty in adapting it to airship landings.

The officials declared that in future years the communicants of the church would sail to and from the services in airships, just as they now speed their automobiles. They say that as they are erecting a structure that will stand for 100 years it should be modern in every respect.

(1127)

See PREVISION.

FORESIGHT IN BIRDS

Some red-headed woodpeckers in South Dakota, preferring their meat fresh, evolved a way to keep it so which compares favorably with the “cold storage” of man. One bird stored nearly one hundred grasshoppers in a long crack in a post. All were living when discovered, but so tightly wedged that they could not escape, and during the long winter of that region it is to be presumed the prudent bird had his provision. The observer found other places of storage full of grasshoppers, and discovered that the red-heads lived upon them nearly all winter.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(1128)

=Foresight, Lack of=--See PREDICTION, FALSE.

FORGERY, LITERARY

At the end of the eighteenth century the literary forgers were especially active. The Ossianic poems, the work of a Highland schoolmaster, James McPherson, who pretended to have translated them from the Gaelic, raised a controversy that stirred up much ill-feeling among the rulers of the literary world of England. Then Chatterton, “the sleepless soul that perished in its pride,” as Wordsworth sings, with his remarkable forgeries, deceived many of the antiquarians, among them Horace Walpole, and even Dr. Johnson “wondered how the young whelp could have done it.” Another young forger was Ireland, a most remarkable impostor, who, at the age of 18, not only forged papers and legal documents purporting to be under Shakespeare’s own hand and seal, and so deceived some of the most learned Shakespearian scholars, but also produced a play “Vortigern,” which he claimed was by that great bard, and which was actually performed at Sheridan’s theater. Whether or not Payne Collier tried his hand at correcting Shakespeare is still a matter of question; if guilty, his so-called “corrections” of the poet’s text appear but slight deceptions compared to the forgery of a whole play, altho these notes proved far more deceptive than the spurious drama. Mention must be made of George Paslmanazar, who called himself a native of Formosa, invented a Formosan language, and wrote a history of the island; of the forgeries of ballads by Surtees, who deceived Sir Walter Scott himself, and of the forged letters of Shelley, to which Browning, who supposed them genuine, wrote an introduction. Instances of this kind of forgery have been so frequent of late years that editors and publishers are at last beginning to realize that there is often less in a name than they suppose.--Boston _Globe_.

(1129)

FORGETFULNESS IN PREACHERS

Sudden forgetfulness is not an unusual thing in the pulpit. Aubrey, the antiquary, says that when he was a freshman at college he heard Dr. Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, well known for his work, “Nine Cases of Conscience,” break down in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer. Even the great French preacher Massillon once stopt in the middle of a sermon from a defect of memory, and Massillon himself recorded that the same thing happened through an excess of apprehension to two other preachers whom he went to hear in different parts of the same day. Another French preacher stopt in the middle of his sermon and was unable to proceed. The pause was, however, got over ingeniously. “Friends,” said he, “I had forgot that a person much afflicted is recommended to your immediate prayers.” He meant himself. He fell on his knees, and before he rose he had recovered the thread of his discourse, which he concluded without his want of memory being perceived. _Chambers’s Journal._

(1130)

FORGETTING AND REMEMBERING

Forget each kindness that you do As soon as you have done it; Forget the praise that falls to you The moment you have won it; Forget the slander that you hear Before you can repeat it; Forget each slight, each spite, each sneer, Wherever you may meet it.

Remember every kindness done To you, whate’er its measure; Remember praise by others won And pass it on with pleasure; Remember every promise made, And keep it to the letter; Remember those who lend you aid And be a grateful debtor.

Remember all the happiness That comes your way in living; Forget each worry and distress, Be hopeful and forgiving; Remember good, remember truth, Remember heaven’s above you, And you will find, through age and youth, True joys, and hearts to love you.

--_Youth’s Companion._

(1131)

=Forgetting the Past=--See OLD-YEAR MEMORIES.

FORGIVENESS

Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate of England, writes this verse on forgiveness:

Now bury with the dead years conflicts dead, And with fresh days let all begin anew. Why longer amid shriveled leaf-drifts tread, When buds are swelling, flower-sheaths peeping through? Seen through the vista of the vanished years, How trivial seem the struggle and the crown, How vain past feuds, when reconciling tears Course down the channel worn by vanished frown. How few mean half the bitterness they speak! Words more than feelings keep us still apart, And, in the heat of passion and of pique, The tongue is far more cruel than the heart, Since love alone makes it worth while to live, Let all be now forgiven and forgive. (Text.)

--_The Independent._

(1132)

* * * * *

In childhood you were guilty of your first deceit. At nightfall, with grieved face, your mother asked if you had disobeyed, and your lips uttered their first lie. Your father was a just man and stern, and he would have lifted the hand in indignation, and as a child you would have hardened your heart. But your mother, with all-comprehending and healing love, was wiser. She met the denial with silence. That night she was, if possible, more tender than ever. She lingered a little longer in the room of her little child. She smoothed the cool sheets with more delicate care, and stooping for the last kiss, she asked, “Is there anything more you want to tell me?” Then she went out and left you, with that lie, your first lie, to be your companion. Do you remember how that lie stood like a ghostly fear at the foot of your little trundle-bed? How terror arched black and sable wings above your pillow? How you tossed to and fro, until at last, broken by your mother’s love, you sprang up, felt your way through the dark hall, opened the door, flung yourself into your mother’s arms, sobbed out your confession, and was forgiven, utterly and squarely and forever forgiven? Don’t analyze your mother’s forgiveness--accept it and be healed thereby. Redemption is a passion flower, crimsoned with the blood of God’s heart. Don’t pick this passion flower to pieces, lest you lose it. The roots of God’s tree of life are fed with red rain, but the leaves of that tree, and the blossoms, heal the wounds of sinners.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1133)

* * * * *

Mr. H. J. Whigam, a war correspondent during the Boxer troubles, tells the following incident:

A Christian Chinaman was shot by a Cossack, and, as he lay on his dying bed, a squad of Cossacks was marched up before him that he might identify the murderer. “I am dying,” he said. “What does it matter?” “But,” said the officer, “we are not going to kill your assailant. We are only going to punish him, so that he shall not kill any more of your people.” The dying Chinaman opened his weary eyes and made answer: “When he knows that I have forgiven him, he will not kill again.”

(1134)

* * * * *

John H. De Forest, in his book, “Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom,” says that the relation of lord and retainer is the main controlling principle that has shaped the destiny of Japan. It is natural that ideal lords should have ideal retainers whose lives were devoted to their masters. He says occasionally this devotion took the form of rebuking the lord for some unworthy act, even when the advice would bring death to the faithful servant.

For example, an aged retainer of a young Shogun saw with deep anxiety his youthful lord’s frivolous life, his love of games and dances and flowers, and determined to arouse him to his duties as a ruler. So going to the palace, he noticed a most exquisite dwarfed cherry-tree in full blossom in a splendid flowerpot. He rather bluntly asked his lord to give him the cherry-tree. On being refused he seized the pot and dashed it, flowers and all, on the stone steps, saying: “You care more for things than for men.” He expected death, but his lord saw the earnest purpose of his servant and repenting of his own frivolous life, forgave him.

(1135)

FORGIVENESS, CONDITIONS OF

Lorenzo de Medici made confession to Savonarola, on his death-bed, of three special sins, involving plunder done by him to Florence and its citizens. While he confest, Savonarola consoled him by repeating, “God is merciful.” When Lorenzo had finished, he demanded three things of him before absolution could be given. First, that he should have a living faith in God’s mercy. Lorenzo replied that he had such a faith. Second, that he should restore what he had unjustly acquired. Lorenzo, after hesitating, consented. Then Savonarola drew himself up and said, “Give Florence back her liberties.” Lorenzo turned his face to the wall and uttered not a word, and Savonarola left the room without granting the absolution desired. (Text.)

(1136)

=Forgiveness of Sin=--See SIN CONSCIOUSNESS.

FORGIVENESS, TIMELY

That we should forgive the faults of friends while they are in the flesh and can appreciate it is the lesson taught by Mrs. Marion Hutson in this verse:

Somewhere in the future, my lone grave Will lie where flowers bloom and mosses wave, And friends will stand beside it, speaking low Of things I said and did so long ago. My faults and follies all forgotten--dead-- And buried with me in my lowly bed. Oh, loved ones! why not bury them to-day, And let me feel forgiven while I may.

(1137)

FORM VERSUS REALITY

During the Civil War the late Colonel Bouck organized a regiment, says _Everybody’s Magazine_, which he controlled as a dictator. It was while the army was resting after the colonel’s first campaign that an itinerant evangelist wandered into camp and, approaching the colonel, asked if he was the commanding officer.

“Ugh!” snorted “Old Gabe,” as he was affectionately called, “what do you want?”

“I am a humble servant of the Lord endeavoring to save the souls of the unfortunate. I have just left the camp of the --th Massachusetts, where I was instrumental in leading eight men into paths of righteousness.”

“Adjutant,” thundered Colonel Bouck, after a moment’s pause, “detail ten men for baptism. No Massachusetts regiment shall beat mine for piety.” (Text.)

(1138)

=Formation Versus Reformation=--See ECONOMY IN WORK.

=Former Days=--See CRIME IN FORMER DAYS.

FORMER LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS OF

Our brains are inherited from our ancestors. Why, then, may it not be that the human brain is a palimpsest, containing more or less faded, yet recoverable records, not only of our entire past life, but of the lives of our ancestors to the remotest periods? Pythagoras profest a distinct recollection of his former lives; the writer of this knows two educated men who have lived before in the persons of rather more famous individuals than their present representatives; Lumen, in Flammarion’s “Stories,” finds that his soul had passed through many previous conditions. Indeed, the idea of transmigration, which is a poetic forecast of the more scientific doctrine here enunciated, is a very familiar one. Coleridge, in his boyhood one day was proceeding through the Strand, stretching out his arms as if swimming, when a passer-by, feeling a hand at his coat-tail, turned rudely round and seized him as a pickpocket. Coleridge denied the charge, and confest that he had forgotten his whereabouts in the impression that he was Leander swimming across the Hellespont--a wretched streetlamp being transformed by his imagination into the signal-light of the beautiful priestess of Sestos.--_American Notes and Queries._

(1139)

=Forms=--See SPIRIT AND FORM.

=Forms, Value of=--See EXPERIENCE A HARD TEACHER.

=Fortitude=--See ENDURANCE OF PAIN.

FORWARD

At dawn it called, “Go forward without fear! All paths are open; choose ye, glad and free.” Through morning’s toilsome climb it urged the plea, “Nay, halt not, tho the path ye chose grow dear.” At noon it spake aloud, “Make smooth the way For other feet. Bend to thy task, tho weight Of sorrow press thee. Others dower, tho fate Deny thy secret wish.” Through later day It warns, “Climb on! Heights woo! The waning light Bids haste! Yet scorn not those who lag behind, Confused by lengthening rays that clear thy sight, These, too, have striv’n all day their way to find.” At eve, when flaming sunset fades, O hear Dawn’s echoing call, “Go forward without fear.”

--ANNA GARLIN SPENCER.

(1140)

=Forward Look, A=--See PREVISION.

FORWARD, PRESSING

In a poem, “The Second Mile,” by Dr. Oakley E. Van Slyke, occurs the following verse:

Be mine, dear Lord, to think not what I must, But of the power bequeathed to me in trust. Be mine, I pray, to go the second mile, Do better than I need to all the while.

(1141)

FOUNDATIONS

All northern Italy from Genoa to Venice was shaken not long ago by a great earthquake shock. The seismic disturbances continued at intervals during several days. The people were terror-stricken, fearing the worst. It was significant that while the shock was severely felt on both sides of the Adriatic, it was scarcely perceptible in Venice, due probably to the fact that much care, forethought and skill had been exercised in laying the city’s foundations. Every building of importance is supported by piles driven from sixty to one hundred feet into the mud of the lagoons.

In character building our only safety lies in sure foundation. (Text.)

(1142)

FOUNDATIONS, FAULTY

The stone archway spanning a culvert under a railway at a certain point gave way and tumbled in, permitting the tracks to settle and sending trains away around by another line. Workmen came to study the cause of the trouble. One thought that the cement with which the stones had been laid was not properly mixed. Another was of the opinion that the mortar had been chilled, as the wall was laid up in cold weather. Still another examined the keystone and found fault with its shape. “The form of that stone was enough to bring the archway down!” he declared. “Just look at it! The man who made it never knew what a keystone is for!”

So the criticism went on. At last a quiet man who had been digging away at the foundation of things made the statement: “It was not the keystone; that is all right. The foundation gave way, and the wall could not help falling! It was the foundation!” And that was the verdict which stood. The very first stones had been laid on soft earth.

(1143)

FOUNDATIONS, SECURE

One stands before some of the palaces of the old world that have endured for more than one thousand years without a crack or seam, in perfect admiration. The Pantheon at Rome stands just as it did more than two thousand years ago. This would be impossible had not its foundations been right. The Rialto Bridge that spans the Grand Canal in Venice was erected in 1588. It has stood as it now stands for 320 years, but that bridge rests on 12,000 piles driven deeply into the soil. What is true of buildings is true also of life.--GEORGE B. VOSBURGH.

(1144)

FOUNTAINS, EVER FLOWING

“To-day’s wealth may be to-morrow’s poverty; to-day’s health, to-morrow’s sickness; to-day’s happy companionship of love, to-morrow’s aching solitude of heart; but to-day’s God will be to-morrow’s God, to-day’s Christ will be to-morrow’s Christ. Other fountains may dry up in heat or freeze in winter, but this knows no change; ‘in summer and winter it shall be.’ Other fountains may sink low in their basins after much drawing, but this is ever full, and after a thousand generations have drawn from its stream is broad and deep as ever. Other fountains may be left behind on the march, and the wells and palm-trees of each Elim on our road be succeeded by a dry and thirsty land where no water is, but this spring follows us all through the wilderness, and makes music and spreads freshness ever by our path.”--ALEXANDER MCLAREN.

(1145)

=Fragility=--See OSSIFICATION; PRESERVATION.

=Fragments Reconstituted=--See BEAUTY FROM FRAGMENTS.

=Fragrance=--See CHARACTER IMPARTED.

=Fragrance from Storm=--See AFFLICTION PRODUCING VIRTUE.

=Frankness=--See RETORT, A.

FRATERNITY

When you describe to a blind man what strikes you on the very instant, you really give him the illusion of light. He sees through your eyes. There is in his soul both light and color. The green swell of the forest, the yellow waves of the harvests, that stream that unrolls yonder, across the fields, like a ribbon of silver; that river whose waters are transmuted into liquid gold in the brazier of the setting sun, all this shines before his inward eye. And yet it is not this that most delights the blind man. What moves him, transports him, not only if he is your father, your son, your friend, but even a simple traveling companion, is that he sees through you; that, for an hour, you realize the holy law that man owes himself to man, and that he lives, above all, by your bounty and fraternal exchange.--CHARLES WAGNER, “The Gospel of Life.”

(1146)

FRAUD BY ELECTRICITY

It was noticed some years ago that a large number of light gold coins were in circulation, and the discovery was made that the “sweating” was accomplished by electrolysis. The scientific swindler constructed an electro-deposition plant, using a ten-dollar gold piece as an anode and a small metal plate as a cathode. The battery was “set in motion” and presto! in a few minutes fifty cents’ worth of gold was deposited on the metal plate, and the gold coin was worth so much less than before. As the gold was removed equally from all parts of the surface of the coin, its appearance was scarcely altered by the process, only an expert being able to detect the slight blurring of the design and lettering.--_Electrical Review._

(1147)

FREEDOM CHOSEN

After our Civil War a white man suggested to a negro that he had been better off as a slave. He had had more to eat and been more certain of it, a better cabin and less concern about it, better clothes and more of them. The negro agreed, and added, “The place is still open if you want it, sir. As for me, I had rather starve and go cold and naked, and be free.” It is quite impossible for some men to understand that. For that is the heart of liberty. Eating and clothing and dwelling have become all important to some men, and compared with them liberty is not worth having. But there are hearts which have tasted slavery and so know the zest of freedom. (Text.)--C. B. MCAFEE.

(1148)

FREEDOM, GOD RESPECTS OUR

God, having made man a free moral agent, is a wooer, not a coercionist. If the knowledge of the sacrifice made for man’s redemption will not win man’s love, God will not apply physical force to compel acceptance, love, and obedience. A military chieftain, tho holding the lives of his soldiers in his hands, exhibits his greatest power by refusing to exercise compulsion, and realizes that the best service rendered is that which is prompted by love of the commander. Thus God shows His almighty power.

(1149)

FREEDOM, GRATITUDE FOR

On the 30th of August, 1833, the Emancipation Act passed the House of Lords. It was declared that all children under six years old should be free on the 1st of August, 1834; that all other slaves should be registered as apprenticed laborers and be compelled to labor for their owners for a few years--the time was shortened soon after. Antigua alone has the honor of having said, “We will have no apprentices; all shall be free.”

Meanwhile in all the islands dismal prophecies were made by the planters of rapine and ruin and negro risings; but the missionaries were busy teaching the poor blacks how to receive the coming boon of freedom. The eve of that momentous day, the 1st of August, was kept by the slave population of Antigua as a watch-night in church and chapel. They had been advised to await the midnight hour on their knees with prayers and hymns of gratitude. So, at the first stroke of midnight in the island of Antigua, all fell upon their knees, and nothing was heard but the slow booming of the cathedral bell, save here and there an hysteric sob from some overwrought slave-girl. The final stroke sounded through the clear air, and still the immense crowd kept silence, as tho they could not realize that they had become free. Then a strange thing happened: One awful peal of thunder rattled and crashed from pole to pole, and flash upon flash of lightning seemed to put out the feeble lights of cathedral, church and chapel.

God had spoken! The kneeling crowds sprang to their feet with a shout of joy; they laughed, they cried, they tossed brown arms abroad, and embraced one another in wild and passionate emotion; then they remembered God once more and prayed aloud.--EDWARD GILLIATT, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

(1150)

FREEDOM OF SOUL

What a remarkable invention is the airship! In it are wrapt almost boundless possibilities for good or evil. The Christian bound on his sacred mission may yet be able to use the viewless air for his highway, transport himself through its soundless solitudes, hundreds of miles before the dawning. He may transport himself with ease from place to place and behold all the marvels of creation on earth, having cut loose from gravitation and being free in the infinite ocean of starlight and sunlight.

The ideal of man is perfect freedom of the soul. (Text.)

(1151)

FREEDOM OR SLAVERY

I was in conversation with a man a few days ago, and we were talking with reference to evil propensities and signing pledges and forming firm resolutions to quit bad habits. He said, “I won’t sign a pledge because I won’t sign away my liberty.” I asked him what liberty he meant, and he said: “Liberty to do as I please.” I said to him, “That is not liberty. Any man that does as he pleases, independent of physical, moral and divine law, is a miserable slave.”--U. S. SHRIMP, _Church Advocate_.

(1152)

=Freedom, Religious=--See LIBERTY, INDIVIDUAL.

=Freedom, The Appeal of=--See EARNESTNESS.

FREEDOM THROUGH DRILL

R. H. Haweis gives an experience that would be good for all learners:

He (Oury) taught me Rode’s Air in G--that beautiful melody which has been, with its well-known variations, the _pièce de résistance_ of so many generations of violinists and soprani. I was drilled in every note, the bowing was rigidly fixt for me, the whole piece was marked, bar by bar, with slur, _p_ and _f_, _rall._ and _crescendo_. I was not allowed to depart a hair’s breadth from rule. When I could do this easily and accurately, Oury surprized me one day by saying:

“Now you can play it as you like; you need not attend to a single mark!”

“How so?” I said.

“Don’t you see,” he said, “the marks don’t signify: that is only one way of playing it. If you have any music in you, you can play it in a dozen other ways. Now, I will make it equally good,” and he took the violin and played it through, reversing as nearly as possible all the _p’s_ and _f’s_, “bowing” the slur and slurring the “bow,” and it sounded just as well. I never forgot that lesson.

(1153)

=Free Will=--See WILL, THE.

FRICTION DISSIPATING FORCE

An English writer says:

Three or four years ago an attempt was made to supersede the water-carts of London by laying down on each side of the road a horizontal pipe, perforated with a row of holes opening toward the horse-way. The water was to be turned on, and from these holes it was to jet out to the middle of the road from each side, and thus water it all. I watched the experiment made near the Bank of England.

Instead of spouting across the road from all these holes, as it should have done from any one of them, it merely dribbled; the reason being that, in order to supply them all, the water must run through the whole of the long pipe with considerable velocity, and the viscosity and friction to be overcome in doing this nearly exhausted the whole force of water-head pressure. Many other similar blunders have been made by those who have sought to convey water-power to a distance by means of a pipe of such diameter as should demand a rapid flow through a long pipe.

This is a clear illustration of friction dissipating force. How much life force needed for constructive works of righteousness is wasted by mere friction.

(1154)

FRIEND, A TRUE

At a “home” in the country which the children of the slums are allowed to visit for a short time in the summer, the following incident occurred. A party of about one hundred youngsters was returning to the city. The attendant noticed that one of the girls, Rosie, was walking rather clumsily. This is the way the New York _Tribune_ tells the story:

When the attendant heard a chorus of gibes all aimed at little Rosie, she saw that the girl was wearing a pair of shoes of large size. Then the attendant remembered that Rosie had had a new pair of shoes, and the little girl was asked about it.

“Well,” said Rosie, “you see, the shoes ain’t mine. They’re Katie’s. I know they’re awful big, but her mama ain’t had any work lately, so she couldn’t buy her a new pair. She just gave her own shoes to Katie.

“Katie felt awful bad about it, and cried all the way to the station. The girls all laughed at her. I just lent her my new ones and took hers.

“You see, teacher,” said Rosie, raising her eyes to the attendant’s face, “Katie’s my friend.”

(1155)

=Friend, The, of Animals=--See KINDNESS, THE POWER OF.

FRIEND, THE ORPHAN’S

Margaret Gaffney was given the name of the “Orphans’ Friend.” She was an orphan left to the care of Welsh people who were very poor. Charity was the very spring of her being. Having lost her husband, her childless heart caused her to enter the Paydros Orphan Asylum, for which she solicited stores, wheeling them herself in a wheelbarrow when she had no other means of conveyance. She built another orphan asylum, and started a dairy to help its support. Later she established a bakery. She would not indulge herself in anything unnecessary because there “was so much suffering in the world.” New Orleans owes to this poor, ignorant woman her three largest homes for children, which are for orphans, black or white, irrespective of denomination. When the Fourth Louisiana Regiment was taken captive to New Orleans, Margaret went to the fort with a load of bread, and when ordered to halt, she replied, “What for?” When challenged, she jumped out of the wagon, grabbed the sentinel in her arms, and forcibly set him out of her path, and amid the cheers of the men, entered the fort with her baskets of bread. Whenever the Mississippi overflowed, her boat, loaded with bread, went daily to the submerged districts, feeding the needy. This poor woman was followed to her grave by the entire municipal government, merchants, professional men, and the children of eleven orphan asylums, who uncovered their heads to Margaret, the first woman in this country to be honored by the erection of a marble statue to her memory.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1156)

FRIEND, THE SYMPATHETIC

Angels are good companions for a crisis, but for every-day use the warm, touchable, sympathetic friend is as necessary as oxygen to the blood.--CAMDEN M. COBERN.

(1157)

FRIEND, VALUE OF A

“What is the secret of your life?” asked Mrs. Browning of Charles Kingsley; “tell me, that I may make mine beautiful, too.” He replied, “I had a friend.” Somewhere in her “Middlemarch,” George Eliot puts it well: “There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration; they bind us over to rectitude and purity by their pure belief about us; and our sins become the worst kind of sacrilege, which tears down the invisible altar of trust.”--WILLIAM C. GANNETT.

(1158)

FRIENDLINESS

It is related of Alexander the Great, that he won the hearts of his soldiers by calling them “his fellow footmen.” And of Aristotle, the better to instruct his hearers, that he read not to them--as other philosophers used to do--from a lofty seat, but walking and talking with them familiarly, as with friends, in Apollo’s porch; so he made them great philosophers. (Text.)

(1159)

=Friends and Foes Meet=--See AMITY AFTER WAR.

=Friends Cancelling Debt=--See KINDNESS.

FRIENDS, CHOICE OF

The following poem was written by His Majesty Mutsuhito, the Emperor of Japan, for the students at the Peeresses’ School of Tokyo. It is translated by Arthur Lloyd:

The water placed in goblet, bowl or cup Changes its form to its receptacle; And so our plastic souls take various shapes And characters of good or ill, to fit The good or evil in the friends we choose. Therefore, be ever careful in your choice of friends, And let your special love be given to those Whose strength of character may prove the whip, That drives you ever to fair wisdom’s goal. (Text.)--_The Independent._

(1160)

=Friends in Heaven=--See HEAVEN, FRIENDS IN.

FRIENDS, KEEPING

Somebody once asked the famous Roman Atticus how he managed to keep his friends up to the end of his life. His simple reply was, “I never expected anything from them.”

It is difficult, no doubt to maintain during outbursts of passion the serene indulgence peculiar to friendship, but without attaining to the state of Atticus, who expected nothing, where the desire to give much dominates a soul, the sting of wounded vanity would not be felt in the flesh, for wounded vanity would change its object, making it a matter of pride to give, and not receive.--DORA MELEGARI, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

(1161)

FRIENDSHIP

John Macy says in _The Atlantic Monthly_:

Poe lived, worked, and died in such intellectual solitude that Griswold could write immediately after his death that he left few friends. Tho at the height of his career in New York, “between the appearance of ‘The Raven’ and the time when poverty and illness claimed him irrevocably, he appears as a lion in gatherings of the literati, yet it is asserted that among them his only affectionate friends were two or three women.”

No brilliant fame can atone for the lack of true friendships.

(1162)

* * * * *

A young man who had left home to enter business, and who had only a single acquaintance in the town where he was newly employed, was arrested upon the charge of stealing a pocketbook containing $1,000 from the desk of a man whom he had called upon in a business way the previous day. He was in a desperate plight, for circumstances were strongly against him. The man stated that he had the pocketbook just a few minutes before the young man came in, and upon looking for it immediately afterward, it was gone, and nobody else had been in the room. The young man’s only hope was in the establishment of a previous good character, and he had no one to whom he could at the moment apply. Not knowing what to do he sent for his single acquaintance, and told him of his predicament and the circumstances of the whole affair, and said, “Of course, you have only my word that I did not take the pocketbook, but it is the truth.” His acquaintance looked at him critically for a few minutes, and then said, “No, I don’t believe you did take it, and I am going to stand by you in this, and see that you are cleared.” The new acquaintance immediately gave bail, and told him to go back to work, and say nothing. Then he sent to the home of the boy, and arranged to have some influential men of the place come on at his own expense to testify to the character of his friend, and upon the day of trial, secured his honorable discharge. When asked why he did all this he replied, “Why, I am your friend.” This was his idea of the meaning of a friend.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1163)

See KINDNESS.

=Friendship and Peace=--See PEACE PACT.

FRIENDSHIP, CONCEPTIONS OF

The Greek idea of friendship is represented by the figure of a girl, with uncovered head; one hand on her heart, the other resting on an elm struck by a thunderbolt, and about which a vine, heavy with grapes, is entwined. Her dress was high and close fitting, her attitude chaste. The Roman conception of friendship was more complicated and modern. The girl’s dress was cut _á la vierge_, her head crowned with myrtle and pomegranate flowers; she held in her hand two hearts enchained. On the fringe of her tunic was written, “Life and death”; on her forehead were the words, “Summer and winter.” With her right hand she pointed to her left side; exposed over heart and on it was written, “From far and near.”--DORA MELEGARI, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

(1164)

FRIENDSHIP, PERFECT

William Anderson tells us what true friendship is in this poem:

True friendship is a perfect, priceless gem. Its greatest glory is its flawlessness. My friends must give to me, as I to them, Their best or nothing--I’ll accept no less.

I want the perfect music, or no song; I want the perfect love, or none at all; Right is not right when coupled with a wrong; Sweet is not sweet when touched with taint of gall.

(1165)

FRIENDSHIP, SELFISH

The motives of some men in cultivating friendships may be compared to that of the foxes mentioned below:

To see a fox get round the farmer’s dogs, in order to make friends with them, is one of the most astonishing revelations of character. Usually the dogs seem hardly to know at first what to make of his advances, but the fox is pretty certain to succeed in bringing him to his side in the end, and after that they may be seen playing together day after day.--WITMER STONE and WILLIAM EVERETT CRAM, “American Animals.”

(1166)

FRIGHT

One of the numerous incidents connected with the Sicilian earthquake was the escape of an artilleryman named Gashane Valente at Messina which was remarkable. A tidal-wave swept him from inside the barracks out to sea, where a fishing boat rescued him. He was landed near Messina, and ran without stopping eleven hours, reaching Acireale, fifty-five miles away. Terror gave him the necessary endurance.

(1167)

=Frowns=--See SMILES AND FROWNS.

=Fructification, Spiritual=--See LIFE, NEW, FROM GOD.

FRUIT AND SOIL

A choice variety of plum was purchased and set out in a certain garden. When the tree came to maturity, to the keen disappointment of the owner, there was no fruit on its branches. Investigation showed that the fault was not in the tree. The land in which it was planted proved to be barren and lacking in proper nourishment.

A tree growing in poor soil can not bear, because it requires all the strength it can extract from the soil to barely sustain its life. It takes all the virtue there is in the soil to support the head and foliage so that the fruit is literally starved out.

There are church-members who branch into Christian profession but who are rooted in the world. Such will bring forth nothing but leaves. (Text.)

(1168)

FRUIT-BEARING

Suppose the tree should say: “My roots are strong, my boughs elastic and tough, firm against the stroke of wind and storm. Look at my bark, how smooth and fresh; and where is there a tree whose tides of sap are fuller or richer? What leaves, too, are these that I have woven out of the threads of sun and soil! Little wonder that the birds build nests in my branches, while the cattle find shade beneath my boughs.” Well, this is a good argument--for an apple-tree--but a poor one for a man. The hungry farmer-boy does not leap the fence on his way to the apple-tree looking for apple-sap or apple-boughs or apple-leaves--he is looking for apples. And God has built this world, not for the root moralities that support man. Industry is good--it is good not to lie and not to steal, and not to kill and not to perjure, but these beginnings are fundamental only, the man must go on from the leaf to the fruit. The fruit is truth in the inner parts, justice, measured by God’s standard, and mercy that tempers justice, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith that trusts, and will not be confounded. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1169)

FRUIT LIKE THE TREE

Tho I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and tho I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. In so giving and so doing, I would be acting merely in a way analogous to the jackdaw that would expect to be turned into a peacock by sticking a few peacock’s feathers into its black coat. This maneuver would not convert the jackdaw into a peacock; it would be still a jackdaw even after it had covered itself all over with peacock’s feathers. Let it first turn, if possible, into a peacock, and then peacock’s feathers will grow naturally upon it; its black coat will then soon be radically changed. To adopt the simile of our Lord, first make the tree good, and then its fruit will be good; you can not produce heaven’s fruit until the tree be first planted in heaven.--ALEXANDER MILLER, “Heaven and Hell Here.”

(1170)

FRUITFULNESS

The chayote is in many particulars the most remarkable plant in the vegetable kingdom. It is entirely immune from fungi, and is the only plant known which insects do not attack. Altho it bears fruit, it is a vine. Its growth is surprizingly rapid. It is a perennial and clambers about, clings to and covers fence, barn, tallest tree--anything. It will often bear as many as five hundred fruits, some of them weighing no less than three pounds. It blossoms and ripens fruit every month in the year. It is palatable and nutritious. Its flowers are rich in nectar and a prolific source of honey. (Text.)

(1171)

=Fruits, First=--See FIRST FRUITS.

FULFILMENT DISAPPOINTING

It is the way with all ambitions not to satisfy when they are achieved. Here is a poem by Grantland Rice teaching this truth:

The little boy smiled in his sleep that night, As he wandered to Twilight Town; And his face lit up with a heavenly light Through the shadows that drifted down; But he woke next morning with tear-stained eye In the light of the gray dawn’s gleam, And out from the stillness we heard him cry, “I’ve lost my dream--my dream!”

And he told us then, in his childish way, Of the wonderful dream he’d known, He had wandered away from the land of play To the distant Land of the Grown; He had won his share of the fame and fight In the struggle and toil of men; And he sobbed and sighed in the breaking light, “I want my dream again!”

As the years passed by the little boy grew Till he came to the Land of the Grown; And the dream of his early youth came true-- The dream that he thought had flown; Yet once again he smiled in his sleep-- Smiled on till the gray dawn’s gleam When those near by might have heard him weep: “I want my dream--my dream!”

For he dreamed of the yesterdays of youth, And the smile on a mother’s face; A hearth of old-time faith and truth In the light of an old home place; He had won his share of the fame and fight In the struggle and toil of men-- Yet he sobbed and sighed, in the breaking light: “I want my dream again!”

--_The Tennesseean._

(1172)

FULNESS, CHRIST’S

The late Charles Cuthbert Hall said:

I recall the wonder and delight with which I saw the ocean tide come up the Bay of Fundy and fill the empty river-bed. Through the hours of the ebb, the Nova Scotian rivers dwindled and shrank within their banks. Broad and barren reaches of sand exposed themselves; ships listed heavily on their sides, deserted by the feeble stream trickling in mid-channel. Then came the tide up the Bay of Fundy, up from the abundance of the unfathomable sea. You could hear it coming with a distant sound of motion and life and unmeasured power. You could see it coming, with a pure white girdle of foam, that looked in sunlight like a zone of fire. It entered the river-bed; it filled the empty channel as one fills a pitcher at the fountain; it covered the barren sands with motion and sparkling life; it lifted the heavy ships, gave back to them their rights of buoyancy, set them free upon the broad water-way of world-wide opportunity; it changed the very face of the land from sadness and apathy and dulness to animation and color and glittering

## activity. So Christ comes into empty human lives, and fills

them with His fulness, which is the very fulness of God. The difference between a life without Christ and a life with Christ is the difference between ebb and flood: the one is growing emptier, the other is growing fuller.

(1173)

FUNCTIONS AND GIFTS IN THE EAST

The function in the non-Christian world must be regarded, because there etiquette and propriety are on dress parade. Presents are another difficulty. Be sure to look into this matter, and do not think that you are doing all that is required when you send a present. You have to be very particular about the number of presents, about the manner in which they are wrapt, about their proper delivering, etc. Receiving gifts is quite as serious a problem to the person who desires to rank as polite, as is the making of presents.--H. P. BEACH, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1174)

FUNDAMENTALS

Every life is dominated by a fundamental note, good or bad. All its overtones will ultimately correspond.

The wires strung from pole to pole are set into oscillation by the wind, somewhat as the strings of a violin are set into vibration by the bow. In skilful hands the violin bow can be made to bring forth from the string one powerful fundamental note and several overtones of higher pitch, but in perfect harmony with the fundamental. But the wind is a very skilful performer, and brings forth at the same time not only the deepest fundamental bass note of the wire, but a great variety of overtones, both harmonious and discordant. In fact, the many wires strung overhead, from pole to pole, constitute splendid Eolian harps.--_Telephony._

(1175)

See VITAL FAITHS.

FURY INCREASING STRENGTH

The almost superhuman pluck of certain prize-fighting animals--bulldogs and badgers, for instance--may in reality be founded on a temporary insensibility to pain, and the evident advantages of that negative endowment suggest its development by the agency of natural selection. Individuals gifted with that faculty of emotional anesthesia were less likely to succumb to the terrors of a life-and-death struggle, and therefore more apt to prevail in that struggle for existence which in a state of nature is implied by the frequent necessity of contesting the physical superiority of sexual rivals or alien antagonists. The invigorating tendency of certain passions may have been developed in a similar manner. The formidable and, indeed, quite abnormal strength of infuriated man is so well known that even an athlete will hesitate to try conclusions with an adversary under the influence of raging passions, and in such moments fury-inspired vigor has often accomplished feats which afterward surprized even the hero of the exploit. “The saints do help a man in a desperate plight,” said an old Creole planter, who had rescued his family from the attack of a brutal negro. The same strength-sustaining influence of fury may explain the almost miraculous victories of small bodies of desperate men over large armies of better-armed foes, as in the three murderous battles which the rustic avengers of John Huss gained against the ironclad legions of his enemies, or in that still less expected defeat of an entire Russian army by a few hundred followers of the hero-prophet Shamyl. Religious frenzy has often produced a similar effect, and on any other theory only a miracle could explain the almost constant victories of the Saracens, who, in spite of determined resistance of millions of better disciplined and physically superior opponents, succeeded in less than a century in extending their empire from the Ganges to the Bay of Biscay.--FELIX OSWALD, _The Open Court_.

(1176)

FUTURE DISCOVERIES

In view of the marvelous discoveries which the last half century has witnessed no one can doubt that there is quite as much that is marvelous to come. The dweller on the planet in the year 2000 will undoubtedly look back on these times with a good deal of the same feeling that we of the present day have for those who lived in the days of the stage-coach and the weekly mail; and it is quite likely that the philosopher of that period will speak of ours as “the good old times.” But however that may be, and whatever the advance they have made in our condition, we may be sure that they will find all their improvements as necessary to existence as we now find the telegraph and railroad and electric. If they have established intercommunication between the planets, they will be just as dependent on those new features as we are on the latest appliances of our civilization. And if the air line to Jupiter should break down in such a way as to cripple the Mars cut-off or the branch to Saturn, the public will be just as much hindered and embarrassed as we are by a wire-disabling blizzard in the commercial metropolis or a fire in a central telegraph office.--Detroit _Free Press_.

(1177)

=Future, Forcasting the=--See PREVISION.

FUTURE LIFE

I trace the river, swelling out by degrees from the spring to a rill, from the rill to a brook, from the brook to a mill-stream, from the stream to a river, taking into itself all minor tributaries, and rolling on with a current that bears the ship and the steamboat with the easiest majesty, still cleaving its way through meadow and hill, through forest and mountain, untroubled toward the sea. Shall I believe, then, that when that river has rounded a promontory, beyond which, as yet, I can not follow it, it is all at once dissolved into mist? or emptied into a cavern so deep and obscure that no trace of the stream reappears upon the earth? Nay, but I know--tho I have not seen the end, it is as certain to me as if already my vision embraced it--that that river flows on continuous to the ocean, and mingles its wave with all the waters that gird the globe, and are drawn into the skies!

And so I know that the great soul of man, aspiring from its birth to a nobler development, still matching its companions, still surpassing its circumstances, with ideas within it which no present can unfold, and with a deep self-centered force, to which the body is only an accident, will still go on when this body has decayed, and be only nobler and princelier in each power when mingling with that illustrious concourse of intelligent and pure beings who already have been gathered in the courts of the future! It were to reverse and violently over-ride every palpable probability, to deny or to doubt this! (Text.)--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1178)

* * * * *

Sometime--dear hands shall clasp our own once more, And hearts that touched our hearts long years before Shall come to meet us in the morning land; And then, at last, our souls shall understand How, tho He hid His meaning from our sight, Yet God was always true and always right; And how, tho smiles were often changed for tears, Along this tangled pathway of the years, Yet only so these lives of yours and mine Have caught the likeness of the life divine. (Text.)

(1179)

=Future Life, Pledge of=--See LIFE A CYCLE.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES

The field of mental effort is not measurable, and so far as we know, is unlimited. To fix its bounds would be to set an arbitrary limit to the progress of the human race. In science, art, literature--in all that exalts and embellishes life--the space yet available for progress comes as near infinitude as anything we are capable of conceiving. To one who stands in a valley, the horizon is near; let him climb a hill, and his view is expanded. When he attains a greater height the prospect appears still wider. The inventive genius of the world is rising higher and higher every day. Its prospect never appeared so utterly boundless as now. All that has been achieved, all the grand conquests that are recorded, are but an atom in the balance weighed when brought against the possibilities of the future.--_The Inventive Age._

(1180)

FUTURE REUNION

Richard Watson Gilder is the author of this:

Call me not dead when I, indeed, have gone Into the company of the ever-living High and most glorious poets! Let thanksgiving Rather be made. Say, “He at last hath won” Rest and release, converse supreme and wise, Music and song and light of immortal faces; To-day, perhaps, wandering in starry places, He hath met Keats, and known him by his eyes. To-morrow (who can say) Shakespeare may pass-- And our lost friend just catch one syllable Of that three-centuried wit that kept so well-- Or Milton, or Dante, looking on the grass Thinking of Beatrice, and listening still To chanted hymns that sound from the heavenly hill.

(1181)

FUTURE, THE

Ethel Ashton writes of the value of the things not yet in view:

Beyond the forms and the faces I see ineffable things, Above the cry of the children I hear the beating of wings; Gracing the graves of the weary are blossoms that never were blown, And over the whole of knowledge stands all that shall yet be known.

The city is not my prison--the world can not stay me there; For whole wide earth and its beauty there’s beauty beyond compare. The wealth of the wind-blown music, the gold of the sun are mine. In light of the light men see not--in sight of the things divine.

For truer than all that is written is all that has not been told. The yet unlived and unliving are truer than all the old. The fairest is still the furthest; the life that has yet to be Holds ever the past and present--itself the soul of the three.

--_The Outlook_ (London).

(1182)

=Future Uncertain=--See TO-MORROW, UNCERTAINTY OF.

FUTURE WELFARE

A nation may now become educated; a people may now be safe against poverty or famine; the world is even now probably past the critical point and sure of unintermitted future progress. We may be allowed to hope that later generations may continue to see an interminable succession of advances, made by coming men of science and by learned engineers and mechanics that shall continually add to the sum of human happiness in this world, and make it continually easier to prepare for a better world and a brighter. Who knows but that the telescope, the spectroscope, and other as yet uninvented instruments may aid us in this by revealing the secrets of other and more perfect lives in other and more advanced worlds than ours, despite the head-shaking of those who know most of the probabilities? Who can say that the life of the race may not be made in a few generations, by this ever-accelerating progress of which the century has seen but the beginning, a true millennial introduction into the unseen universe and the glorious life that every man, Christian or skeptic, optimist, or pessimist, would gladly hope for and believe possible? (Text.)--R. H. THURSTON, _North American Review_.

(1183)

G

GAIN THROUGH LOSS

Ella Wheeler Wilcox writes:

I will not doubt, tho sorrows fall like rain, And troubles swarm like bees about a hive; I shall believe the heights for which I strive Are only reached by anguish and by pain; And tho I groan and tremble with my crosses, I yet shall see, through my severest losses, The greater gain. (Text)

(1184)

=Gain and Loss=--See FAST LIVING.

GAIT AND CHARACTER

The firm foot is the ordinary type in men. A firm walk is a sign of self-control as well as of power. When the shoe thickens so obstinately that the foot can not bend it, and when the walker does not care what noise he makes, the firmness and power are developing to a degree that may inconvenience weaker or more sensitive folk. The weak foot is the more common. The stand suggests a knock-kneed body and a mind not strong enough to make the best of life--one might almost say, altogether a knock-kneed character that is always stepping crooked and going its way with an uncertain gait.--_Cassell’s Family Magazine._

(1185)

=Gait of Criminals=--See CRIMINALS, GAIT OF.

GAMBLING

The chaplain in charge of the penitentiaries in Kings County, N. Y., states that one-half of all the young men whose careers he has investigated show that the race-track and its attendant evils were the beginning of their downward course. The records of the evil and criminal courts, are replete with similar testimony. Bankrupts, women who risk their married happiness, clerks, pilfering from the till, embezzlers, forgers, defaulters, suicides, show how, to quote a victim who stole and then lost at one time $10,000 at the races, “that betting is the devil’s own joke,” and there are many full-sized victims.--S. PARKES CADMAN.

(1186)

See JUVENILE COURT EXPERIENCE.

GAMBLING AS RELIGIOUS DUTY

One of the three great annual Hindu festivals is in memory of the occasion when three of the Hindu gods sat down to gamble. Krishna, the guileful god, won. This festival is celebrated by universal gambling. Indeed, the people believe that unless they gamble at this time, they will be born as rats, or take some other undesirable form in the next life.

After the festival is over, thousands of families have to start life again from the very bottom without a stick of furniture, as all has been lost at gambling.

(1187)

=Gambling, Some Results of=--See JUVENILE COURT EXPERIENCE.

GAME OF GREED

Ask a great money-maker what he wants to do with his money--he never knows. He doesn’t make it to do anything with it. He gets it only that he may get it. “What will you make of what you have got?” you ask. “Well, I’ll get more,” he says. Just as, at cricket, you get more runs. There’s no use in the runs, but to get more of them than other people is the game. And there’s no use in the money, but to have more of it than other people is the game. So all that great foul city of London there--rattling, growling, smoking, stinking--a ghastly heap of fermenting brickwork, pouring out poison at every pore--you fancy it is a city of work? Not a street of it! It is a great city of play; very nasty play, and very hard play, but still play. It is only Lord’s cricket-ground without the turf--a huge billiard-table without the cloth, and with pockets as deep as the bottomless pit; but mainly a billiard-table, after all.--JOHN RUSKIN.

(1188)

GATE, THE, OF STARS

H. Aide writes this apt fancy of the stars:

“Stars lying in God’s hand, We know ye were not planned Merely to light men on their midnight way. Shine on, ye fiery stars! It may be through your bars We shall pass upward to eternal day.”

(1189)

=Generalship=--See OPINION CHANGED.

GENEROSITY

A pleasant story about Andrew Carnegie is told by a tourist from Scotland in the New York _Tribune_:

At Skibo Castle, Mr. Carnegie had during the summer a beautiful rose-garden. There were thousands of red and white and yellow roses always blooming there, and the villagers were free to saunter in the garden paths to their hearts’ content.

One day the head gardener waited upon Mr. Carnegie. “Sir,” he said, “I wish to lodge a complaint.” “Well?” said the master. “Well, sir,” the gardener began, “I wish to inform you that the village folk are plucking the roses in your rose garden. They are denuding your rose-trees, sir.” “Ah,” said Mr. Carnegie gently, “my people are fond of flowers, are they, Donald? Then you must plant more.” (Text.)

(1190)

* * * * *

There is a beautiful incident connected with the fall of the stronghold of the Cumberland which General Grant was too modest to include in the “Memoirs.” Many years after the event, General Buckner, speaking at a Grant birthday gathering, said: “Under these circumstances I surrendered to General Grant. I had at a previous time befriended him, and it has been justly said that he never forgot an act of kindness. I met him on the boat (at the surrender), and he followed me when I went to my quarters. He left the officers of his own army and followed me, with that modest manner peculiar to him, into the shadow, and there he tendered me his purse. It seems to me that in the modesty of his nature he was afraid the light would witness that act of generosity, and sought to hide it from the world.”--Col. NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(1191)

* * * * *

A noble spirit despises pay and money. Garibaldi was always penniless; so, when he had occasion to give, as was constantly the case, he had to borrow or sacrifice personal belongings. Once he brought home an Italian exile, who, he explained, was poorer than himself. “I have two shirts and he has none,” and he proposed dividing. But one shirt happened to be in the wash, so, had he stript off the one on his back, as he was wholly capable of doing, the division would still have been unequal. “I have it!” then exclaimed Garibaldi. “There is the red shirt in my trunk that I haven’t worn since Rome. He shall have that!” A friend, however, intervened, and the Garibaldian red badge of courage was peremptorily rescued. (Text.)

(1192)

* * * * *

If I were poor, and had no means, and was obliged to throw my remaining days on the generosity of the public for food and clothes and comfort, I should appeal to the Korean, knowing that he would never see me want, would be respectful while generous, and would never be so mean as to cast up my good-for-nothingness to me.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in Transition.”

(1193)

* * * * *

Of Samuel Johnson, William J. Long in “English Literature” writes:

In all London there was none more kind to the wretched, and none more ready to extend an open hand to every struggling man and woman who crossed his path. When he passed poor, homeless Arabs sleeping in the streets he would slip a coin in their hands, in order that they might have a happy awakening; for he himself knew well what it meant to be hungry. Such was Johnson--a “mass of genuine manhood,” as Carlyle called him, and as such, men loved and honored him.

(1194)

See ACKNOWLEDGMENT; HUMOR AND GENEROSITY; TACT.

=Generosity Betrayed=--See DISPLACEMENT.

GENEROSITY, CHRISTIAN

If business men generally followed the Golden Rule, after the example of Mr. Frank Crossley, the great promoter of London missions, as indicated below, what a different world this would soon become!

One unfortunate man who had put in one of Mr. Crossley’s engines, and found it too small, but was unable to replace it, and was threatened with bankruptcy, found in him a rare benefactor, who not only replaced the old engine by a new and larger one without charge, but actually made up to him the losses in his business which had resulted from his own blunder. That man said to a friend, “I have found a man who treated me just as Jesus Christ would have done!” (Text.)--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(1195)

GENEROSITY, THOROUGHGOING

Rev. A. J. Potter, the “Fighting Parson” of Texas, tells this:

Holding services at a place one time I took up a collection for the support of missions. There was a poor old lady present who I noticed dropt a $5 gold piece in the hat. I knew she was very poor and not able to afford so much, and thought she had intended to throw in a quarter, but made a mistake. So next day I met her husband and said to him: “Look here, your wife put a $5 gold piece in the hat yesterday; I think she must have made a mistake.” “No, no,” he replied, “my wife didn’t make no mistake. She don’t fling often, but, let me tell you, when she flings she flings.”

It is just such “flings” of the generous giver that lend “wings” to the glorious gospel.

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GENIUS

Oh, some there are with beauty bright, And they are lust of eyes, And some who blind us with the mind Our spirit them defies. But genius is the great white light Nor mind nor beauty buys.

And some will play a wanton air To catch the vagrant soul; Some find it sweet with dancing feet To foot it toward the goal; But he who hears the whirling spheres Can ne’er again be whole.

Oh, he who hears the whirling spheres Wher’er his steps have trod, Has reached the end of human trend; With wings his feet are shod, For he has seen, beyond the screen, Into the face of God.

--FREDERICK TRUESDELL, _Appleton’s Magazine_.

(1197)

* * * * *

The cultivated man is not in every case the best reporter. One of the best I ever knew was a man who could not spell four words correctly to save his life, and his verb did not always agree with the subject in person and number; but he always got the fact so exactly, and he saw the picturesque, the interesting, and important aspect of it so vividly, that it was worth another man’s while, who possest the knowledge of grammar and spelling, to go over the report and write it out. Now, that was a man who had genius; he had talent the most indubitable, and he got handsomely paid in spite of his lack of grammar.--CHARLES A. DANA.

(1198)

See SMALL BEGINNINGS.

GENIUS AND WORK

Edison, when asked his definition of genius, answered: “Two per cent is genius, and ninety-eight per cent is hard work.” When asked on another occasion: “Mr. Edison, don’t you believe that genius is inspiration?” he replied: “No! Genius is perspiration.”

(1199)

GENIUS CAN NOT BE HIDDEN

The author of “Uncle Remus” apparently succeeded because he did not try. The literary world and the publishers came to him; he did not go to them. Here was a young, unknown, untraveled printer, of narrow school advantages, tho profitably educated in the best classics, and possessing, besides, much curious knowledge of negroes, of dogs, of horses, of the way of the red stream in the swamp, and of the folk of the woods. He had some familiar old stories to tell--so old and so familiar that no one had thought them worth while writing down--and he told them as quietly and as simply as he talked. But good work, tho hidden away in an obscure newspaper, gets itself recognized sooner or later, and one day Harris received an invitation to write some of his tales for one of the foremost of American magazines. He couldn’t understand it at all, but he wrote the stories, among them an account of the amusing adventures of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and the Tar Baby, which clinched his literary fame. His tales succeeded far beyond his expectations, and for the same reason that made “Æsop’s Fables” an imperishable classic. For they were the slow fruitage of the wonder, the humor, and the pathos of a race of primitive storytellers. They were instinct with those primal passions which appeal to human nature, savage and civilized, the world over. (Text.) RAY STANNARD BAKER, _The Outlook_.

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GENIUS DISCOUNTED

Those who know Goldsmith best had recognized his genius so little that when he published “The Traveler” it was difficult to persuade them that he had written it himself. He was throughout life the butt of inferior wits, and in the arts which secured earthly success was completely distanced by inferior men, because he had no power of impressing himself as others. He had the finest wit, but it was not at command; he had genius and eloquence, but an invincible awkwardness and timidity prevented the display of either when their display would have won him respect. In conversation he was like a man who has a purse of gold, but who can not produce the single silver coin which is wanted at the moment.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”

(1201)

GENIUS, DISCOVERING

Two boys, mistreated by their employer, ran away, taking the road to Rome. They reached the Eternal City. Peter was taken as cook’s boy in a cardinal’s house, Michael could find nothing to do, so he almost despaired and almost starved. But he liked to visit the churches and gaze at the fine pictures therein.

Something stirred within him, and he took bits of charcoal and sketched pictures on the walls of Peter’s attic room. One day the cardinal discovered them. The boys were frightened, and Michael declared that he would rub them all out. But he did not understand the cardinal, who was amazed at their accuracy and power. He took Michael to a drawing-master, and gave Peter a better position in his house. Michael worked diligently and became an enthusiast in his art.

His other name was Angelo. This was the humble beginning of the man who was almost a universal genius--painter, architect, sculptor and poet. (Text.)

(1202)

=Genius Neglected=--See FRIENDSHIP.

GENIUS NOT ALWAYS FORESEEN

It is not always easy to pass final judgment, or to say who will or will not become famous. The nestling’s first awkward attempts to use its wings seem to contain no presage of the warbling flight that will come hereafter. Once, at a literary banquet, Aldrich reminded Dr. Holmes that he had declared he could see no poetic promise in some of Aldrich’s youthful verses that were submitted to him.--New Orleans _Times-Democrat_.

(1203)

GENIUS, PERSECUTED

The last part of Milton’s life is a picture of solitary grandeur unequaled in literary history. With the Restoration all his labors and sacrifices for humanity were apparently wasted. From his retirement he could hear the bells and the shouts that welcomed back a vicious monarch, whose first act was to set his foot upon his people’s neck. Milton was immediately marked for persecution; he remained for months in hiding; he was reduced to poverty, and his books were burned by the public hangman. His daughters, upon whom he depended in his blindness, rebelled at the task of reading to him and recording his thoughts. In the midst of all these sorrows we understand, in Samson, the cry of the blind champion of Israel:

Now blind, disheartened, shamed, dishonored, quelled, To what can I be useful? Wherein serve My nation, and the work from heaven imposed? But to sit idle on the household hearth, A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze, Or pitied object.

--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(1204)

GENIUS, PORTRAYING

When David, the painter, was commissioned to paint his picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps, he asked the First Consul to name a day when he would sit. “Sit!” said Bonaparte; “to what good? Do you suppose the great men of antiquity sat for their portraits?” “But I paint you for your own times, for men who have known and seen you; they expect a good likeness.” “A good likeness! It is not the exactitude of the features, the little wart on the nose, that makes a likeness. What ought to be painted is the character of the physiognomy. No one inquires if the portraits of great men are alike; it is quite enough if they manifest their genius.”--_Magazine of Art._

(1205)

GENIUS, SECOND RATE

If a man can not be a great genius, is it worth his while to be a little one? Some learned men say not. Of the poets who flourished and were famous a hundred years ago, how many are known now? Of all the bright volumes that brought fame to their authors and made the booksellers of old wealthy, how many can we find upon the shelves of the bookstores to-day? Only a few. And yet, their authors, lauded by friends and flattered by reviews, threw all their souls into their songs, and fondly dreamed of earthly immortality. The fittest survive, and the world has sorted them out with unerring judgment. From the good it has taken the best, and we are thankful. But these little geniuses--did they live their lives in vain because they are forgotten now? Was all their music meaningless, and did the world never miss it when their harps were silent? They fulfilled their mission; their songs went home to human hearts and quickened them with feeling. They sang as sang the birds--brief, tender songs that made the world glad for a day; and tho their names are now unknown, their graves unmarked, their work has not been unrewarded. So let the little geniuses be of good cheer; their footsteps may not go echoing down the ages, but they may sound very pleasantly in the pathways of to-day. If they feel that they must sing, let no man say them nay; there will be ears to listen, voices to applaud, and hearts to feel. The world needs the low, soft notes of the humble singer, the homely harpings of the little poet, as a rest from the deep bass of the bards sublime.--Atlanta _Constitution_.

(1206)

GENIUS SHOULD BE FAVORED

A man of genius is so valuable a product that he ought to be secured at all cost; to be kept like a queen-bee in a hothouse, fed upon happiness and stimulated in every way to the greatest possible activity. To expose him to the same harsh treatment which is good for the hod-carrier and the bricklayer is to indulge in a reckless waste of the means of a country’s greatness. The waste of water-power at Niagara is as nothing compared with the waste of brain-power which results from compelling a man of exceptional qualifications to earn his own living.--JOEL BENTON, _Lippincott’s_.

(1207)

See GREAT MEN SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR.

GENIUS THE GIFT OF GOD

Let Raffael take a crayon in his hand and sweep a curve; let an engineer take tracing paper and all other appliances necessary to accurate reproduction, and let him copy that curve--his line will not be the line of Raffael. Rules and principles are profitable and necessary for the guidance of the growing artist and for the artist full grown; but rules and principles, I take it, just as little as geology and botany, can create the artist. Guidance and rule imply something to be guided and ruled. And that indefinable something which baffles all analysis, and which when wisely guided and ruled emerges in supreme excellence, is individual genius, which, to use familiar language, is “the gift of God.”--JOHN TYNDALL.

(1208)

GENIUS VERSUS TOOLS

A young Italian knocked one day at the door of an artist’s studio in Rome, and, when it was opened, exclaimed: “Please, madam, will you give me the master’s brush?” The painter was dead, and the boy, filled with a longing to be an artist, wished for the great master’s brush. The lady placed the brush in the boy’s hand, saying: “This is his brush; try it, my boy.” With a flush of earnestness on his face he tried, but found he could paint no better than with his own. The lady then said to him: “You can not paint like the great master unless you have his spirit.”

The same great lesson was taught once in a museum of old-time armor. When a visitor was shown the sword of Wallace, he said: “I do not see how it could win such victories.” “Ah, sir,” said the guide, “you don’t see the arm that wielded it.”

We need all the grace and tact we can acquire through studying the best models and imitating their example; but if we are mere imitators, our lives will be void of real power. (Text.)

(1209)

GENTILITY, FALSE STANDARDS OF

The story about Chief Justice Marshall has been told a good many times, but will bear telling again. As he was taking a morning walk, plainly drest, he encountered a young man who was standing at a market stall, evidently in great perplexity. A basket of moderate size was before him and he was saying to the market-man: “I wonder where all the niggers are this morning. I can’t find any one to carry my basket home.” The Chief Justice said: “Where do you live?” “No. 200 Avenue A,” was the reply. “Well,” he said, “as I am going your way, I will carry your basket for you.” They started, the judge carrying the basket. The young man noticed that the people they met all bowed very politely to his volunteer porter, and wondered who he could be. The basket was deposited at the door. Pay was offered, but refused. What did it mean? The next day, while walking with a friend, this young man saw his volunteer porter in a group of lawyers. He asked: “Who is that plain old fellow that they are all listening to?” “John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States.” “He carried my market-basket home for me yesterday; why do you think he did it?” “To teach you the difference between a real gentleman and a snob,” was the caustic reply. If some of these modern aristocrats who consider labor degrading had gone into the carpenter-shop of Joseph about A.D. 28 or 29, and seen a young man named Jesus at work there, they would have decided at once that he was no gentleman. If they had gone into the rooms of Aquilla at Corinth, a few years later, and seen Paul sewing on tents (“For he abode with them and wrought,” Acts 7:3), they would have despised him because his hands ministered to his necessities. They would not have gone into the synagog next Sabbath to hear that tent-maker preach. No, indeed! Now, can a standard of gentility that excludes Hon. John Marshall, Apostle Paul, and our adorable Savior be a true one?--OBADIAH OLDSCHOOL, _The Interior_.

(1210)

=Gentle Auxiliaries=--See HANDIWORK OF NATURE.

=Gentleman versus Snob=--See GENTILITY, FALSE STANDARDS OF.

=Gentlemanliness=--See KINDNESS.

=Genuineness, Tests of=--See TESTS.

=Germs, Moral=--See SIN, SUBTLETY OF.

GESTURES AND USE OF HANDS IN THE EAST

As we (missionaries) talk in the street, or in chapels, we begin to gesture. Remember that many gestures have well-known and disreputable meanings. For instance, I have been holding my hand behind my back as I have been speaking to you. It is a most offensive thing in some countries to hold your hand behind your back. An African missionary was just about concluding difficult negotiations with a chief, when he closed his eyes and placed his hands over them. Instantly chief and subjects alike arose in wrath and nothing further could be done with them. That use of the hand had lost the missionary all that he had gained. The Westerner, in Kipling’s phrase, is always hustling. He must get to a place just as quickly as possible, but in getting there he offends propriety. He ought not to walk rapidly; he is not a letter-carrier nor a coolie. Why does he not walk as a gentleman should?--H. P. BEACH, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1211)

GETTING AND GIVING

In South America grows a species of the palm known there as “the rain-tree.” It is so called because of its remarkable power of abstracting moisture from the atmosphere and dropping it in copious and refreshing dew on the earth around it. In this way it makes an oasis of luxuriant vegetation where it flourishes.

Is not that the ideal life that gets and gives; that draws the good only to communicate it to others, so blessing the world with moral verdure and fruitfulness? (Text.)

(1212)

See CONSERVATION.

=Ghosts, Discredited=--See REALITY VERSUS ILLUSION.

GIANTS

A scheme to produce moral and spiritual giants would be of more value to the world than the following:

Some time since Count Alfred de Pierrecourt left a legacy of $2,000,000 to his native city of Rouen to pay the expense of the propagation of giants. The will was contested by his heirs, who naturally enough did not see the necessity of having giants on the earth in these days, particularly when they were to be bred, raised, fed and clothed at their personal expense. The courts, however, sustained the will to the extent of endowing the Brobdingnagian experimenters with a quarter of the estate, so that an institution has been established with an endowment of $500,000, under the supervision of the municipality, for the culture of giants and the production of monstrosities. The trustees are to search the four corners of the globe for men and women of large stature, and are to pair them off in couples and place them in the homes on a farm near Rouen. (Text.)

(1213)

GIANTS AND DWARFS

It is of more consequence whether we are giants or whether we are dwarfs in our moral and intellectual stature, than whether our physical stature is great or small:

Pliny mentions the giant Gobbara, who was nine feet nine inches, and two other giants, Poison and Secundilla, who were half a foot taller; Garopius tells of a young giantess who was ten feet high, and Lecat of a Scotch giant eleven and one-half feet in height. But we may take it for granted that these figures are greatly exaggerated, while we have a right to regard as authentic giants whose height runs up to eight and one-half feet. The Grecian giant, Amanab, at eighteen years old, was seven feet eight inches tall; the Chinese giant, Chang, eight feet three inches. The Austrian giant, Winckelmeier, who was recently exhibited in Paris, measuring eight feet and one-half, may be regarded as a specimen of the highest stature attained by the human species. At the opposite extreme may be found numerous dwarfs not more than twenty inches, and some even as little as sixteen and even twelve inches in height; but such dwarfs are only monsters with atrophied limbs or twisted back bones, or stunted infants, whose age is usually exaggerated by their Barnums. One of the most remarkable dwarfs on record was the celebrated Borulawsky, who was born in 1789, and died in 1837, who was never more than twenty-eight inches in height, but was perfect in every limb and proportion and was bright and intelligent.--M. GUYOT DAUBES, translated from _La Nature_.

(1214)

=Gift, A, that Increased in Power=--See LITTLE GIFTS.

GIFT, A FREE

There is a legend of a rich man who sent a message to a poor neighbor: “I want to give you a farm.” The neighbor set out to get it, but carried with him what he thought was a bag of gold. Arriving at the rich man’s mansion, he said: “I got your message. I want your farm. Here is the gold to buy it.” “Let me see your gold,” said the generous donor. It was not even silver. The poor man’s eyes filled with tears. “Alas, I am undone!” “Why, it is not even copper,” he added; “it is only ashes. I have nothing to pay. Will you give it me?” “Why, yes,” said the rich man; “that was my offer. Will you accept the farm as a gift?” “Yes, indeed,” replied the poor man, “and a thousand blessings on your kindness.”

(1215)

=Gift and Giver=--See LIKENESS OF GOD.

=Gift, Using Our Best=--See ADVANTAGE, WORKING TO THE BEST.

=Gifts=--See LOVE’S ACCEPTABLE OFFERING.

GIFTS ADJUSTED TO TASKS

In the hour of success, let not pride vaunt itself, while vanity looks down upon the crowd, exclaiming, “Why did they not work as I did? Why did they not have courage to launch out into the deep? Why did they not fling their plans as a whaler his harpoon, or a hunter his spear?” Well, because God and your fathers made you the child of special good fortune, through unique gifts of body and of mind. Why did not the poor and unsuccessful do as you have done? Why does the turtle-dove not soar like the eagle, and lift its stroke against any enemy? Why does not a lamb go out for its prey like a wolf or a lion? Why did not a modest violet grow tall as a redwood-tree? Why, because God had planned something other for a violet and a dove and a lamb, and quite another thing for an oak and an eagle and a lion. Men’s gifts vary because their tasks are unlike. What God asks is not success, but fidelity in the appointed sphere, in the ordained equipment.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1216)

=Gifts from God=--See GOD SENDS GIFTS.

GIFTS, SIGNIFICANT

When the Chinese make gifts they intend each gift to carry a meaning, so adding a peculiar charm. The peach and oleander-blossoms express the wish for long life rich in sustenance and beauty. The lotus-leaf indicates purity and modesty; as one writer puts it, “The superior man, like the lotus, altho coming through mire, is untainted; altho bathed in sparkling water and rising in beauty is without vanity.” The aster means superior to circumstances. The orange marigold, so fragrant and brilliant in the declining season, signifies beautiful in age. These emblematic flowers frequently accompany rich gifts to give them speech.

Every gift of the hand will be eloquent with a sentiment of the heart if the heart’s love is behind it.

(1217)

=Girdle=--See BIBLE CUSTOMS TO-DAY.

=Girls, Betraying=--See TRAPS FOR GIRLS.

=Girl’s Devotion, A=--See LOYALTY.

=Girls in Factories=--See GREED.

=Girl’s Interest in Missions=--See HARVEST FROM EARLY SOWING.

GIRLS, LITTLE, AND SLAMMING DOORS

A trick that every one abhors In little girls is slamming doors.

A wealthy banker’s little daughter, Who lived in Palace Green, Bayswater (By name Rebecca Offendort), Was given to this furious sport. She would deliberately go And slam the door like Billy-Ho! To make her uncle Jacob start. (She was not really bad at heart.)

* * * * *

It happened that a marble bust Of Abraham was standing just Above the door this little lamb Had carefully prepared to slam, And down it came! It knocked her flat! It laid her out! She looked like that!

* * * * *

Her funeral sermon (which was long And followed by a sacred song) Mentioned her virtues, it is true, But dwelt upon her vices, too, And showed the dreadful end of one Who goes and slams the door for fun!

--H. BELLOC.

(1218)

GIRLS, TRAFFIC IN

Twenty-six years ago in New York City, when I first began to feel an interest in unfortunate girls, and established the first Florence Crittenton home, now known as the Mother Mission, one of the things which surprized and imprest me most in coming close in touch with the subject, was that almost every girl that I met in a house of sin was supporting some man from her ill-gotten earnings. Either the man was her husband, who had driven her on the street in order that he might live in luxury and ease, or else he was her paramour, upon whom with a woman’s self-forgetful devotion she delighted to shower everything that she could earn. In addition to this form of slavery, I also found that the majority had to pay a certain percentage of their earnings to some individual or organization who had promised them immunity from arrest and to whom they looked for protection.

But when we began to get closer to the hearts of the girls, to know their true history, we discovered that the commencement of this form of slavery had been even in a baser form--that before the girls had become so-called “willing slaves” they were “unwilling slaves.” Many of them had fought for their liberty and had submitted only because they had been overcome by superior force. Some of them had been drugged; others kept under lock and key until such time when either their better nature had been drugged into unconsciousness or hardened into a devil-may-care recklessness.--ERNEST A. BELL, “War on the White Slave Trade.”

(1219)

GIVERS, CLASSES OF

First, those who give spontaneously and generously, but only to themselves--auto-givers they might be called.

Second, those who give thoughtlessly, without any real or high motive--givers of the occasion, as it were.

Third, those who give as a sop to conscience and self-esteem; in a species of atonement for the evil they do--penitential givers.

Fourth, those who give as a matter of display, to win public applause for their generosity--theatrical givers.

Fifth, those who give because others give, because they are expected to give, and are ashamed not to give, and therefore give grudgingly--conventional givers.

Sixth, those who give because they feel they ought to give; who give through a sense of duty and not through love--moral givers.

Seventh, those who give in the spirit of Jesus; who give because they love their neighbor as themselves, and above all things desire to help him--spiritual givers.

To which do you belong?

There are lots of men who will sing with gusto in a missionary meeting:

“Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small,”

but when the collection-plate is put under their nose and they are asked to put their sentiments into cold, hard cash, they drop a five-cent piece upon it with a sigh of regret, which suggests these other well-known lines,

“When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain.”

--E. L. MEADOWS, Pittsburg _Christian Advocate_.

(1220)

GIVING

Kerman, in Persia, has been sacked at least six times. In 1794 the city was almost entirely destroyed by Agha Mohammed Khan, who later demanded twenty thousand pairs of human eyes before he would withdraw his troops. Kerman never recovered from this terrible blow, and to-day is a byword for its poverty and beggars. There is a quaint saying among its beggars:

“Khuda guft, ‘Beddeh’; Shaitan guft, ‘Neddeh.’”

This means, “God says, ‘Give’; Satan says, ‘Don’t give.’”

The generous impulse is a divine motion: the selfish, is satanic. Many are poor because they are first blind and do not possess the enlightenment of good sense and God’s grace.

(1221)

* * * * *

Forever the sun is pouring its gold On a hundred worlds that beg and borrow; His warmth he squandered on summits cold, His wealth on the homes of want and sorrow; To withhold his largeness of precious light Is to bury himself in eternal night. To give Is to live.

(1222)

See ALMSGIVING; BENEVOLENCE; GENEROSITY; GETTING AND GIVING; HAPPINESS; PERSONAL PREACHING.

GIVING, FAITHFUL

In the station over which Mr. C. T. Studd ministered in China every man who was a Christian gave one-tenth of his annual income to the Lord. One day a young man who was earning seventy-two shillings a year came to Mr. Studd and said, “Pastor, I want you to give me a few days’ grace. I have not yet got together quite all my tenth.” He handed a good sum to him, and the pastor asked, “Haven’t you been helping to support your father and mother?” “Yes.” “And kept your little brother at school?” “Yes.” “Well, that is more than your tenth,” said Mr. Studd. “You need not bring any more.”

“No,” said the young man, “I have promised God my tenth, and no matter what I give beside, I am going to give my full tenth to God.” And he did. (Text.)

(1223)

=Giving that Grows.=--See MISSIONARY, A LITTLE.

GIVING THE MINIMUM

During the Civil War coins became difficult to obtain, and paper money was furnished in their place, and at one time the lowest denomination was a “five-cent scrip.” The time came when the government minted the three-cent nickel piece. The treasurer of a church, a fine man, who had a brother, a missionary in Siam, said to me, “Pastor, it is very unfortunate that the government should have issued this three-cent piece, because when we had nothing smaller than a five-cent scrip, people put that into the collection, but now, that we have got something so small as a three-cent nickel, our collections will fall off two-fifths!”

(1224)

GIVING THROUGH LOVE

Queen Tyi was a woman of marked ability, the consort of King Amenhotep III, who ruled in Egypt from 1414 to 1379 B.C. Recently Egyptologists discovered her shrine in Thebes. It was cut out of solid rock. Approach to it was by a descent of twenty steps, adjoining that of Rameses I. Around and within were all that material, wealth and skill of Egyptian art could offer. The coffin, itself intact, is a superb example of the jeweler’s craft, the woodwork covered with a frame of gold inlaid with lapsis lazuli, carmelian and green glass. The royal mummy was wrapt from head to foot in sheets of gold, bracelets on the arms, a necklace of gold, beads and ornaments encrusted with precious stones around the neck, and the head encircled by the imperial crown of the queen of ancient Egypt. “Behold how he loved her,” can be said of the king whose consort she was. Nothing is too precious for love to give. (Text.)

(1225)

=Giving, Unostentatious.=--See BENEVOLENCE, MODEST.

=Giving What We Have=--See TALENTS.

GLITTER VERSUS DEPTH

To have an overwhelming flow of words is one thing; to have a large vocabulary is another; and very often Swinburne’s torrent of speech reminds us not so much of a natural fountain whose springs are deep and abundant, as of an artificial fountain, which is always ready to shoot aloft its glittering spray, and always reabsorbs itself for some further service; so that while the fashion of the jet may differ, the water is pretty much the same.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Poetry.”

(1226)

=Gloom Dispelled=--See SUNSHINE, SCATTERING.

GLORY, FADED

When Charlemagne died, he was buried at Aix la Chapelle, “keeping royal state and semblance still.” The purple robe was around him, the crown glittered on his pallid brow. The sword of state lay near him, and the scepter rested in his hand. Seated on a chair of state, with all these insignia of royalty upon him and around him, he was left in the chamber of death. A century afterward, that silent chamber was opened by the barbarian Otho. And now the purple robe was dust and ashes. The crown was a faded spangle, the sword of state corroded metal, and all that remained of Charles the Great, a ghastly skeleton.

(1227)

=Glory in Duty=--See DUTY MORE THAN GLORY.

GLORY IN IDEALS

It is glory enough to have shouted the name Of the living God in the teeth of an army of foes; To have thrown all prudence and forethought away And for once to have followed the call of the soul Out into the danger of darkness, of ruin and death. To have counseled with right, not success, for once, Is glory enough for one day.

It is glory enough for one day To have dreamed the bright dream of the reign of right; To have fastened your faith like a flag to that immaterial staff And have marched away, forgetting your base of supplies. And while the worldly-wise see nothing but shame and ignoble retreat, And tho far ahead the heart may faint and the flesh prove weak-- To have dreamed that bold dream is glory enough, Is glory enough for one day.

--WILLIAM HERBERT CARRUTH, _The American Magazine_.

(1228)

GLORY OF CHRIST

Emery Pottle is the author of this sentiment appropriate to Advent season:

Strange, we so toil to fashion for our unseen ends The splendors that the tarnish of this world doth mar-- Such palaces that crumble to a ruined age, Such garbled memories upon Fame’s fragile page-- When all the lasting glory of our life depends Upon a little Child, a stable, and a star. (Text.)

(1229)

GLORY OF NATURE

A teacher in Alaska went out one day with one of her pupils to do some sketching. The little girl she took with her was about ten years of age and quite skilful with her brush. When the day was nearly over the teacher looked at the sky where the sun was setting. “Try to make a picture of that sunset,” said the teacher to the pupil. The little girl looked at the beautiful sight in the heavens and then turned to her teacher and said, “I can’t draw glory.” It was a bright answer made by that little Alaska girl. It is God who has painted the sunset sky, and there is no human skill that can draw the glory which He has created.--W. M. VINES.

(1230)

GOD

God! Thou art Love! I build my faith on that! I know Thee, Thou hast kept my path and made Light for me in the darkness--tempering sorrow, So that it reached me like a solemn joy; It were too strange that I should doubt Thy love. BROWNING.

(1231)

=God, A Coworker with=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

=God a Protector=--See FAITH, A CHILD’S.

=“God and We”=--See GRATITUDE.

=God Cares=--See EXTREMITY, GOD IN.

“=God Claims Me=”--See CLAIM, GOD’S.

GOD FIRST

Here is a lesson on pronouns in Christian grammar according to the Bishop of Cambridge:

We have learned to say, “First person, I; second, thou; third, he.” But to put it right, we must turn it upside down: “First person, He; second, thou; third, I.” “He,” means God, the first person in the first place; “thou,” my fellow man; and “I,” myself, comes last.

(1232)

GOD, FULNESS OF

The Scandinavian mythology tells of a mortal who attempted to drain a goblet of the gods. The more he drank, however, the more there was to drink. His amazement grew, until he found that the goblet was invisibly connected with the sea, and that to empty it he must drink the ocean dry.

So the soul may drink of God’s life forever without exhausting or diminishing the supply.

(1233)

GOD, GREATNESS AND SMALLNESS OF

Collins, the infidel, met a plain countryman going to church. He asked him where he was going. “To church, sir.” “What to do there?” “To worship God.” “Pray, is your God a great or a little God?” “He is both, sir.” “How can He be both?” “He is so great, sir, that the heaven of heavens can not contain Him, and so little that he can dwell in my heart.”

Collins declared that this simple answer of the countryman had more effect upon his mind than all the volumes the learned doctors had written against him. (Text.)

(1234)

=God Help Us All=--See FORBEARANCE.

GOD, IDEAS OF

The Indian’s god falls in his estimation as he himself declines. When confronted by a people greater than themselves, the Indians were easily convinced that their deity also must be greater. We find similar ideas among all uncivilized and semi-civilized peoples; when the people show great power it is evidence that their god is a powerful one. Thus Israel felt assured that Jehovah, or Yahveh, was greater than the gods of other people, because His people had conquered others under His banner.

(1235)

GOD, IMMANENCE OF

The works of God, above, below, Within us and around, Are pages in that Book to show How God Himself is found.

* * * * *

Thou who hast given me eyes to see And love this sight so fair, Give me a heart to find out Thee And read Thee everywhere.

--KEBLE. (Text.)

(1236)

GOD IN A HUMAN LIFE

Mrs. Burnett has written a sweet and powerful story that turns around an old woman in a London slum. She had not lived a good life, and, in her wicked old age, lying on a hospital cot, some visitor had told her the gospel story. She simply believed it; no more than that. One who saw her afterward, at a time of dire need, says: “Her poor little misspent life has changed itself into a shining thing, tho it shines and glows only in this hideous place. She believes that her Deity is in Apple Blossom Court--in the dire holes its people live in, on the broken stairway, in every nook and cranny of it--a great glory we would not see--only waiting to be called and to answer.” --JAMES M. STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

(1237)

GOD IN ALL CHANGES

I went back to the little town where I was born. I saw the friends of my childhood, and later I went out to God’s acre. There stood the little schoolhouse, and the old academy. The great oak-trees swayed above the house where I was born. The little brook still rippled over the stones; once more the fruit was ripe in the orchard and the nuts brown in the forest trees; again the shouts of the old companions were heard on the hillside and the laughter of the skaters filled the air; and yet all was changed. Gone the old minister, who baptized me! Gone the old professors and teachers who taught us. In the little graveyard slept the fathers. The stars shone over the mounds, the graves were silent, but God was over all. And all is well. For our times have been in God’s hands.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1238)

=God in Creation=--See CREATION, JOY IN.

GOD INDWELLING

The late Maltbie D. Babcock is the author of these verses:

No distant Lord have I, Loving afar to be; Made flesh for me, He can not rest Until He rests in me.

Brother in joy and pain, Bone of my bone was He, Now--intimacy closer still, He dwells Himself in me.

I need not journey far This dearest friend to see, Companionship is always mine, He makes His home with me.

(1239)

=God in Human Instinct=--See RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION DENIED.

GOD IN INDIAN BELIEF

Of all the different kinds of people among whom I have lived the Indians of northern California carry the memory of their dead the longest, and, I had almost written, feel their loss the most. I have seen old women, bent with age, rocking their bodies to and fro with grief in some dry, grass-covered ditch, moaning as if their hearts were breaking, and upon inquiry have been told that they were mourning for a husband or children dead perhaps for years. But from amid the moans of Rachel sorrowing for her dead children the whisper of hope beyond the grave has always been present. For underneath the driftwood of their dim traditions and wild fables handed from father to son from time immemorial, around the camp-fires at night, with addition here, subtraction there, and darkness all around, I have always found among all the tribes that grand conception of a divine being who created all and who in the hereafter will reward the good and punish the bad. Everywhere my footsteps have wandered--on the Klamath and on the Trinity, from the Golden Gate to the Oregon line--I have encountered the Man-maker, who lives among the stars and loves his red children--A. G. TASSIN, _Overland_.

(1240)

GOD IN MAN’S WORK

Dr. Henry Van Dyke enforces the lesson that God is in all the common tasks of life, after this fashion:

There was a man who wanted to find Christ, and he imagined he must leave his work. He was a carpenter, builder, perhaps, or a stone-mason. He imagined he could only be a Christian by going to the desert and living a hermit’s life. He never found Christ there. He then thought he must never go outside the cloisters of the church, or walls of the temple. He did not find Christ there. There was something defective about that man’s life. He was heedless of his children and his fellow men. He was seeking Christ for himself and not for others. The voice of the Savior came:

“You did not need to go to the desert to find me; lift the stone and thou shalt find me. Do your regular work as a stone-mason and as you do your work you shall find me in your daily labor. Cleave the wood and there am I. As you lift the timbers, sing out the song of praise.” Christ is with you in your daily task.

(1241)

GOD IN MISSIONS

The captain of the _Trident_, the ship on which Morrison, the missionary, sailed, and who knew something of the impenetrable conservatism of the Chinese, said: “And so, Mr. Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression upon the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire?” “No, sir,” returned Mr. Morrison, severely, “I expect God will.”

(1242)

=God, Instinctive Sense of=--See RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION DENIED.

GOD IN THE CHILD MIND

I have in mind a four-year-old girl, favored in many things, but especially happy in that she spends her summers on an island in a beautiful lake, mountain-rimmed. She has always been privileged to walk with her father and mother in the fields and woods; to “go a-trudging,” as she called it, has been her chief delight. “Where did the trees get their red and yellow leaves?” she asked. “Who made them red and yellow?” Her question answered, she ran to her mother with her chubby hands filled with her new treasures, saying, “See, mama! I have brought you some of God’s beautiful leaves!”

“How came the island here?” she asked. “Who brought the rocks and the trees?” She was told how the island was lifted into its place; how the soil was formed, the trees planted, and the island made ready for the birds, for the trees, for the rabbits, for the squirrels, and for her--just as her father had built the house for her, in which she lived. As the time for her return to her home approached, she sat one evening watching the sunset and the early evening stars, and said, “Don’t you hope that God will be at home when we get there, just as He has been here this summer?” So linked with her love of the beautiful in the world was her reverent thought of Him who had made it beautiful--SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1905.

(1243)

GOD IN THE DARKNESS

Robert E. Speer writes the following:

I was awakened the other morning about four o’clock in my room by a little voice just beside my bed in the dark asking for a drink. I got the little lad a drink, and he lay quiet for a moment, and then asked, “Father, may I sing myself asleep?” And I said, “Yes, dear, go ahead.” But soon he got up so much enthusiasm that I told him he would better stop, or none of the rest of us could sleep. Then he was quiet awhile, but soon I heard his little voice again in the perfect stillness of the night, “Father, have you got your face turned toward me?” And I said, “Yes, little boy,” and the darkness was as the light of day to him.

(1244)

GOD IS LIGHT

As there are no darkened rooms for the child when mother is near, so there can be no darkened worlds for the spirit as long as God is in them.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1245)

GOD, LIVING FOR

Among the thirty-two “Sacred Songs” by Thomas Moore is the following exquisite lyric:

Since first Thy word awaked my heart, Like new life dawning o’er me, Where’er I turn mine eyes Thou art, All light and love before me; Naught else I feel, or hear, or see-- All bonds of earth I sever; Thee, O God! and only Thee I live for now and ever.

Like him whose fetters dropt away, When light shone o’er his prison, My spirit, touched by Mercy’s ray, Hath from her chains arisen; And shall a soul Thou bidd’st be free, Return to bondage? Never! Thee, O God! and only Thee I live for, now and ever. (Text.)

(1246)

=God Maternal=--See MATERNAL, GOD’S LOVE.

GOD, NOT NATURE

A great teacher of England, passing through a hospital, stopt beside a little wan-faced crippled boy, who was dying. The handsomest man in England stooped to that little stranger, saying, “My boy, God loves you.” An hour later, the little cripple, in a wonder of happiness, called one nurse after another to his side, exclaiming, “He said, ‘God loves me!’” and with smiles wreathing his face, the dying boy repeated the magic word. But to go toward the god of nature is to lie down in a bed of nettles. Nature exhibits God as a purple earthquake. Going toward nature is going toward a sheaf of red-hot swords. Man subdues nature’s fire and wind and water, and makes them serve. Back of these rude physical forces that are to help man’s body stands the infinite Father. Man’s body, on a snowy day, needs a blazing fire on the hearth, and man’s heart needs God’s love, that redeems, guides, and forever saves.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1247)

=God Our Guide=--See GUIDANCE, GOD’S.

GOD OUR STRENGTH

At one time during the war of the Revolution, Washington sent Lee and Lafayette to meet the British at Englishtown. After a brief skirmish, Lee, without any apparent reason, except that it was for jealousy, ordered a retreat. Soon the American troops were all in disorder and were fleeing before the oncoming foe. Everything was in confusion and chaos.

Lafayette saw the condition, but he did not dare disobey. He hastily sent a message to the commander-in-chief, informing him of the state of things and beseeching him to come as soon as possible. In an incredibly short time, Washington appeared with fresh troops. He met the soldiers retreating. Giving Lee a cutting rebuke, he began to retrieve the error of the morning. When the soldiers saw Washington, riding back and forth on his white horse, almost under the banner of the enemy, they faced about as they cried, “Long live Washington.” His presence brought order and determined the victory.

In our moral warfare, when the enemy is pressing toward us, when the forces of righteousness within and without seem on the retreat, if we will send a message, lift up a prayer to the Captain of the Lord’s host, He will answer while we are yet speaking, and will get the victory with His own right arm, for He is a God of battles. (Text.)

(1248)

=God Possesses a Body=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

=God, Presence of=--See PRESENCE OF GOD.

=God Proved=--See CORN VERSUS GOLD.

GOD, RECOGNIZING

Dwight L. Moody in his sermons used to tell of a mother who had an only child that was an idiot. When it was fourteen years of age a neighbor came in and found the mother weeping in the bitterness of her soul. Asking what was the matter, the mother answered: “For fourteen years I have cared for that child day and night; I have given up society and spent my time with her, and to-day she does not know me from you. If she would only recognize me once it would pay me for all I have ever done for her.”

Mr. Moody would add: “How many are there over whom the Son of God has watched and cared for and blest, and who have never once recognized Him, have never once looked up into His face and said, “Thank you, Lord Jesus.”

(1249)

GOD REVEALED IN NATURE

The mosses on the rock, as well as the trees that bend stately above them, the birds that fly and sing in heaven, as well as the clouds that gather and dissolve there, the mimosa that closes its sensitive petals if a footfall approaches, and the stars that reign silent on empyreal thrones--each must in turn give witness to the Most High; till the frame of creation shall be all eclaircised, not so much a pillar engraven around with the trophies of omnipotence, as a solid but transparent sphere of crystal, lighted from within by the calm thought of God! (Text.)--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1250)

See ATOM, THE, A WITNESS TO GOD.

=God Self-revealed=--See DEMONSTRATION.

GOD SENDS GIFTS

A lady physician in one of the mission fields restored to health a beloved child of a native. In gratitude the parents knelt at her feet and not only thanked but worshiped her as a god. She remonstrated, saying that she was a mortal like themselves and worship belonged only to God. They replied that no one but a god could have saved their loved one from death. “Whom would you thank and praise,” the missionary replied, “for a princely gift sent by the hand of a coolie--the servant or his generous master, the giver? I am but God’s coolie by whose hand He has been pleased to send you this great gift of healing.” (Text.)

(1251)

GOD, SLEEPLESS CARE OF

This song of nightfall is by the Rev. Archibald Haddon:

The tangled threads, the untilled field, The words unsaid, the tasks half done, Battles unfought, and wounds unhealed, Must wait until another sun.

Stars move, the tides and rivers roll, Grass grows, rain falls on vale and hill. And deep in my unconscious soul The sleepless life of God works still.

I rest on thy unwearied mind; Thy planning and thy love go on, Nor dost thou leave me far behind; I’m carried to another dawn.

The new day breaks. From earth’s old mold Fresh flowers grow along my way. New light is flashed on problems old; On ancient life new forces play.

O wondrous, wakeful Warden! When The last great nightfall comes to me, From that deep slumber rouse me then, That I Thy tireless child may be. (Text.)

(1252)

GOD SURROUNDING THE SOUL

Constant communion will surround us with an atmosphere through which none of the many influences which threaten our Christian life and our Christian work can penetrate. As the diver in his bell sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air from the free heavens far above him, and is parted from that murderous waste of green death that clings so closely round the translucent crystal walls which keep him safe, so we, enclosed in God, shall repel from ourselves all that would overflow to destroy us and our work, and may by His grace lay deeper than the waters some courses in the great building that shall one day rise, stately and many-mansioned, from out of the conquered waves. (Text.)--ALEXANDER MCLAREN.

(1253)

GOD, THE OVERSEEING

The steamer _Samaritan_, on the St. Lawrence, was suddenly enveloped in a heavy fog, completely hiding the shore and every object from view. Yet the ship continued in full speed. The passengers became frightened and censured Captain Dutton and complained to the first mate. He replied, smiling, “Don’t be frightened; the fog only extends a certain height, and the captain is up above the fog running the vessel.”

We who fear the dangers of time and the world, often forget that God, the great Captain, is above the fog and knows just where and whither He is steering the life ship.

(1254)

GOD, THE SENSE OF

No wonder you yawn and know not what to do next if you have no God, for ennui is the mark of godlessness.

Nothing is worth while but God.

The very naming of God gives zest to life.

I love to feel God love the world through me, until I am fairly washed away by the current.

Of what moment is it whether I live or die so long as that goes on?--ERNEST CROSBY, “Swords and Plowshares.”

(1255)

=God the Source of Goodness=--See GOODNESS FROM GOD.

GOD, THE UNSLEEPING

The Sleeping Buddha is one of the famous temples of China. A long avenue of large trees, with a stone pavement passageway, leads up to its entrance. Before it is an imposing gateway of colored tiles. But the pride of its interior is the wonderful figure of Buddha. A monster it is! Gross, indeed, must have been the mind which conceived it. There, lying on his side, with calm face, closed eyes, and head resting upon his hand, is a gilded wooden figure thirty feet long. It is well proportioned. His left arm is resting upon his body, and his bare feet are placed one upon the other. This Buddha is sleeping upon a Chinese _K’ang_. Standing about him are twelve crowned and beautifully drest images, and in front are the symbols of sacrifices for burning incense. But Buddha is asleep!

Contrast this with the conception of the God who never “slumbers nor sleeps.” (Text.)

(1256)

=God the Weaver=--See WEB OF LIFE.

=God, Walking with=--See WALKING WITH GOD.

GODLIKENESS OF MAN

Leroy T. Weeks somewhat enlarges upon the saying of Kepler in the following verses:

We think Thy thoughts, O mighty God! Thy thoughts, that thrill through space afar, That hold in place each twinkling star, And permeate the teeming sod.

We think Thy thoughts, and live thy life; Our souls are fathered by Thine own, And high as is Thy holy throne, So high we mount from sin and strife.

We live Thy life, and love Thy love; The tendrils of our souls entwine, Entwines and draws us all above, Our fellow men, as love divine.

We think and live and love and grow Like Thee, in ever-bright’ning ways; We are God-kind, and all our days Are in His hands who made us so. (Text.)

(1257)

=God’s Bridge=--See SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.

GOD’S CARE

Mary E. Allbright, in the _Christian Advocate_, writes in rime the same lesson Jesus taught His disciples when He told them that the very hairs of their heads were numbered, and that Paul exprest when he said “for He (God) careth for you”:

O! strange and wild is the world of men Which the eyes of the Lord must see-- With continents, islands, tribes, and tongues, With multitudes, bond and free! All kings of the earth bow down to him, And yet--He can think of me.

For none can measure the mind of God Or the bounds of eternity. He knows each life that has come from Him, To the tiniest bird and bee; And the love of His heart is so deep and wide That takes in even me.

(1257_a_)

What cares the babe for the blackness and the wild storm if only the mother holds it to her bosom and croons the hymn of peace. And in the hour when the world reels beneath his feet, frail man becomes almost omnipotent in the thought that beneath this world are the everlasting arms. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1258)

=God’s House for All=--See AMERICANISM, TRUE.

=God’s Image=--See RESTORING GOD’S IMAGE.

GOD’S INSCRUTABILITY

Incompetent to the making of a single cherry-seed, as Luther remarks, how can we expect to fathom the works and wisdom of an infinite God?

“I am not so much of a farmer as some people claim,” said Hon. W. J. Bryan in his lecture on “The Prince of Peace,” “but I have observed the watermelon-seed. It has the power of drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight, and when you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight--when you can explain to me the mystery of a watermelon, you can ask me to explain the mystery of God.” (Text.)

(1259)

GOD’S PRESENCE

It is said that on the doors of Linnæus’ home at Hammarby, near Upsala, these words were written, “_Innocue vivito; numen adest_”--“Live blameless; Deity is here.” “This,” said Linnæus, “is the wisdom of my life.” “Thou God seest me.”

(1260)

GOD’S WAYS

God’s ways seem dark, but, soon or late, They touch the shining hills of day; The sinner can not brook delay-- The good can well afford to wait.

--WHITTIER.

(1261)

GOLD, TAINT OF

The ancient fable of King Midas and his gift of turning everything he laid his hands upon into gold has been exactly reversed in these modern days. This good king was delighted with the gift the gods gave him until one day he turned his daughter into a golden image by a careless use of his power, and the counterfeit presentment was so utterly worthless compared with his child of flesh and blood that henceforth his charm was a horrible curse. Now it is our brightest and best which come under the spell of gold itself, and how it does harden and fossilize them! Our artists paint, our literary men write, our business men take hazardous and doubtful ventures, our young men and maidens marry, all for gold. How bright was the promise of Bret Harte until he began to command high prices for his stories? Howells, James and Stockton all delighted us, but presently we found ourselves wading through such stories as “April Hopes” and the “Hundredth Man.” As soon as one begins to preach good sermons in the pulpit he immediately attracts the attention of some rich congregation and becomes a high-priced man. Everywhere the test of excellence is price, and all the choicest spirits are sought out and put into the livery of our sovereign gold.--Providence _Journal_.

(1262)

GOLD USELESS

It is true the California gold will last forever unchanged, if its owner chooses; but, while it so lasts, it is of no use; no, not as much as its value in pig iron, which makes the best of ballast; whereas gold, while it is gold, is good for little or nothing. You can neither eat it, nor drink it, nor smoke it. You can neither wear it, nor burn it as fuel, nor build a house with it; it is really useless till you exchange it for consumable, perishable goods; and the more plentiful it is the less its exchangeable value--EDWARD EVERETT.

(1263)

GOLDEN AGE, THE

That the golden age is not in the past nor in the future, but now, is the refrain of these verses:

There are no days for me in long ago, No days in which to work and love and pray, No richly freighted hours where sweet winds blow. There is no treasure for me but to-day.

There is no field where I may sow my seed Beyond the reach of evening’s setting sun. If to this soil to-day I pay no heed, The future’s fertile fields may ne’er be sown.

The age of iron, of bronze, they are not now, The bright-gemmed present is my golden age, In which I think and live and love and do What deeds are worth life’s brave and noble wage.

And finding in to-day my age of gold To-morrow glows with promise and delight, As if the happy isles oft dreamed of old Were dawning now upon my blissful sight. (Text.)

(1264)

=Golden Rule, The=--See CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF; CONSIDERATENESS.

=Good and Evil=--See NATURE, DUAL, IN MAN.

GOOD DISPLACING EVIL

The headquarters of the George Yard Missions, London, are pitched on an extinct volcano; the main block being built on the site of an ancient distillery, and the shelter on the ground formerly occupied by the infamous “Black Horse”--that rendezvous of highwaymen, robbers, and murderers.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(1265)

GOOD, FAITH IN

In the following verse Eugene Lee-Hamilton shows the result of losing faith in the good:

There is a tale of Faustus--that one day, Lucretia, the Venetian, then his love, Had, while he slept, the rashness to remove His magic ring, when fair as god he lay; And that a sudden horrible decay O’erspread his face; a hundred wrinkles wove Their network on his cheek; while she above His slumber crouched, and watched him shrivel away.

There is upon Life’s hand a magic ring-- The ring of Faith-in-Good, Life’s gold of gold; Remove it not, lest all Life’s charm take wing; Remove it not, lest straightway you behold Life’s cheek fall in, and every earthly thing Grow all at once unutterably old.

(1266)

GOOD FOR EVIL

Mr. Lincoln took from his pocket a paper he had prepared in the case, which comprized eleven reasons why he should be appointed commissioner of the General Land Office. Among other things, Mr. Lincoln presented the fact that he had been a member of Congress from Illinois two years; that his location was in the West, where the Government lands were; that he was a native of the West, and had been reared under Western influences. He gave reasons why the appointment should be given to Illinois, and

## particularly to the southern part of the State. Major Wilcox

says that he was forcibly struck by the clear, convincing, and methodical statement of Mr. Lincoln as contained in these eleven reasons why he should have the appointment. But it was given to his competitor, Mr. Justin Butterfield. After Mr. Lincoln became President, a member of Congress asked for an appointment in the army in behalf of a son of the same Justin Butterfield. When the application was presented, the President paused, and, after a moment’s silence, said: “Mr. Justin Butterfield once obtained an appointment I very much wanted, and to which my friends thought I was fairly entitled; and I hardly ever felt so bad at any failure in my life. But I am glad of an opportunity of doing a service to his son.” And he made an order for the commission. The son was General Dan Butterfield, afterward the dashing and efficient chief of staff of the Army of the Potomac. (Text.)--BROWNE, “Everyday Life of Lincoln.”

(1267)

GOOD, IMMORTALITY OF

Over one of the town-gates of ancient Warwick, in England, stands a home for old men, known as the Hospital of St. John. It was founded three centuries ago by the ambitious Earl of Leicester and Lord of Kenilworth Castle. That castle is now in ruins, and for his perfidy the name of the earl is a byword and a reproach; but this endowment, after long centuries, still remains living and beneficent, shining through the dark to show for future ages that

“So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

(1268)

GOOD IN ALL MEN

Our fellow man is as valuable as we. He may be down, but he has it in him to stand. A writer says of the windfalls of apples:

We remember that in the windfalls a sweetness remains. That fruit, fallen untimely, or cast earthward by the storm, yet has not lost its flavor; often it is still sweet and pleasant to the taste. And, therefore, mindful of this, let us not think that the human windfalls have lost all their sweetness. Let us remember some good is left in all, and seek to gather them up. (Text.)

(1269)

=Good, Making=--See REFORMATION.

GOOD, NOURISHING THE

Mr. Kaye Robinson, the brilliant English naturalist, describes a competition witnessed by him in the fields:

Owing to a peculiarity of weather the poppies had managed to get a start of an inch or so in the matter of height over the wheat and barley, and the obnoxious flowers were just beginning to burst into bloom that would have converted the stunted grain into lakes of scarlet, when down came the rain; in a single day and night the wheat shot up above the poppies, and for the rest of the season the poisonous things were overwhelmed in a wavy sea of prosperous green and yellow gold.

The best way to improve the world is not to fight against the evil directly, but to so nourish and cultivate the good that evil will be crowded out. (Text.)

(1270)

=Good Old Times=--See SCIENCE SHATTERING SUPERSTITION.

GOOD OUT OF EVIL

Again and again is it demonstrated how God makes the wrath of man to praise him.

When he was seeking to do evil only, in the pursuit of his cruel and tyrannical policy, Sultan Abdul Hamid was all the time unconsciously promoting some of the great designs of divine Providence. He did good in ways altogether unintended, never for a moment foreseeing how his own policy in the end would recoil upon himself. For he banished hundreds of the most enlightened and patriotic of his subjects to various provinces, little thinking how their influence would work against himself. The head of the revolutionary party, Ahmed Riza, for twenty years quietly and steadily during his exile worked in the cause of liberty. And this heroic man toiled on in face of the depressing obstacles furnished by what seemed to be an utterly unresponsive country. When he was living in dire poverty in France he refused to accept £2,000 a month from the Sultan, and at one crisis he just as firmly and indignantly rejected an offered bribe of a million pounds simply to shut his mouth. (Text.)

(1271)

GOOD OUTWEIGHING THE BAD

It was a quiet little town, nestling snugly at the foot of a big hill. Many of the streets were lined with shade-trees. On one of the principal thoroughfares there stood a magnificent tree. Its shade and beauty evoked the admiration of the passers-by. It stood squarely on the middle of the sidewalk, and might be regarded as an obstruction. There were some who would have liked to see that tree taken down, because it was not where it should be, but the great majority decided to let it remain because of its beauty, its shade and its symmetry. So is it with individuals. Sometimes a man is very irregular at his business or he is careless in some of his habits, and the question comes up, what shall be done with that man. His good qualities are considered and they discover that they far outweigh his bad qualities, and thus he is allowed to remain.

(1272)

=Good Results from Bad Environment=--See MISSIONARY ADAPTATION.

GOOD SAMARITAN IN PARAPHRASE

The following is a Hindu version of the parable of the Good Samaritan given by a schoolgirl in the mission at Sukkur:

There was once a rich merchant going home through a forest. He was suddenly attacked by robbers, who beat him and robbed him of all his money, leaving him half dead. A Brahman passed by, and seeing the man, said to himself, “He is only a sweeper,” and went away. A Mohammedan also came that way, but he said, “This man is no relation or friend of mine; why should I have any concern for him?” and so he went away. At last a Christian came, riding on horseback, and taking pity on the poor man, bound up his wounds with strips of cloth torn from his own turban, and placing him on his horse, took him to a hospital, and, giving the doctor sahib two rupees, said, “Make this man well, and when I return, you will get from me twenty rupees more!”

(1273)

GOOD, SEEING THE

It is the best art of the teacher to see the good in mixed human nature and give it encouragement:

Several years ago one of the New York producing managers received the manuscript of a play from an utterly unknown author. It was crudely written and most of the situations were utterly impossible. Produced in the form in which it came from its creator’s pen it could have been only a dismal failure. The manager was not for a moment tempted to produce the play he had received, but he saw possibilities in the author’s plot. He sent for him and pointed out a few of the more glaring defects and suggested that the manuscript be turned over to a professional dramatist.

This was done, and the rewritten play, only faintly suggesting the original manuscript, was produced and immediately achieved success. The amateur playwright applied himself to a close study of practical playwriting, and is to-day the author of numerous successful dramas. He realizes now just how hopeless that first play must have appeared in the original form, and appreciates the patience and good judgment of the manager who discerned the dramatic nugget buried in a desert of dreary dialog.

(1274)

GOOD SHALL PREVAIL

Near Geneva two great rivers meet but do not mingle. Here the Rhone pours out its waters of heavenly blue, and there the Arve,

## partly from the glaciers from which it largely comes, and partly

from the clay soil that it upheaves, meet and run side by side for miles, with no barriers save their own innate repulsions, each encroaching now and then into the province of the other, but beaten back again instantly into its own domain.

Like mighty rival forces of good and evil do these rivers seem, and for long the issue is doubtful; but far down the stream the muddy Arve is mastered, and the Rhone has colored the whole surface of the stream with its own tinge of blue. So in the end the good shall prevail. (Text.)

(1275)

=Good Shepherd=--See FOLD, THE, OF CHRIST.

GOOD VICTORIOUS

In all the upward march of matter and force, there has never been one single crisis and conflict where the higher has not been victorious over the lower. Witness the first struggle, between the mineral and the vegetable. The marble is hard, and the moss seeks to spread its robe of olive and velvet thereupon; slowly the marble crumbles, and dies; the moss lives and grows--it could not be otherwise; the moss is the higher and therefore victorious. The husbandman plants his seed of corn. The seed dies, the little plant lives, and becomes a great stalk, with corn in the milk, and then the full corn in the ear--it could not be otherwise; the golden stalk is the higher, and must be victorious. In the forest there grow a hundred kinds of jack-grapes, small, black and aciduous, and a thousand orange-trees are there, bitter, and with acid that sets the teeth on edge. But on the edge of the forest, steeped in sunshine and blest with room, there grows one grape that is purple and one orange that is sweet. And at last all the thousand acid vines and the ten thousand bitter orange-trees perish, while the one purple vine survives, takes feet to itself and journeys to all vineyards, while the orange of the golden heart gets wings for itself and crosses vale and mountain--it could not be otherwise, they are the higher. And never once has the law been reversed.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1276)

GOOD WILL

By a divine birth long ago, peace and good will came between those that had been at enmity. An earthly suggestion of this is that related by Mrs. Pickett, widow of Confederate General George E. Pickett, on the occasion of the birth of a son:

General Grant had been a dear friend of my Soldier’s ever since the Mexican War. At the time our first baby was born, the two armies were encamped facing each other. Bonfires were lighted in celebration all along Pickett’s line. Grant saw them, and sent scouts to learn the cause. When they reported, he said to General Ingalls:

“Haven’t we some kindling on this side of the line? Why don’t we strike a light for the young Pickett?”

In a little while bonfires were flaming from the Federal line. A few days later there was taken through the lines a baby’s silver service, engraved: “To George E. Pickett, Jr., from his father’s friends, U. S. Grant, Rufus Ingalls, George Buckley.” (Text.)

(1277)

See CHRISTMAS.

GOODNESS FROM GOD

When we see the million rain-drops of the shower we say, with reason, there must be one great sea from which all these drops come. And when we see, as it were, countless drops and countless rays of goodness scattered about in the world, a little good in this man, and a little good in that, shall we not say, there must be one great sea, one central sun of goodness, from whence all human goodness comes? And where can that center of goodness be, but in the very character of God Himself? (Text.)--CHARLES KINGSLEY.

(1278)

GOODNESS IN THE BAD

That human nature is a kaleidoscope of good and bad, rather than one stripe of plain color, receives a striking illustration in the case of one Vinzenzo Juliano, who was confined in the Newark jail on a charge of murder. According to a report, it was noticed that the prisoner grew weaker and more meager day by day. His wife visited him regularly, and she invariably carried away a small parcel. The suspicions of the warden were aroused and he made an inspection of the bundle, to find it contained the ration of food with which the prisoner had been supplied. Inquiries followed, and it appeared the prisoner was starving himself to provide food for his wife and children, who had no other means of support. On learning this fact, the warden doubled the ration, and took further steps to keep the family of the prisoner from utter destitution.--New York _Commercial Advertiser_.

(1279)

=Goodness, Peril of=--See CHRIST, GOODNESS OF.

GOSPEL, A MEDICATED

An ingenious Frenchman, it is said, has been experimenting in the manufacture of medicated honey. He keeps his bees under glass, giving them only flowers that contain the desired properties. In this way, he claims to obtain different kinds of honey--for influenza, for indigestion, for asthma, and for many other forms of ills that flesh is heir to.

Better than medicated honey is a medicated gospel that meets the multiform and variegated moral and social ills that afflict our world. (Text.)

(1280)

=Gospel, Influence of the=--See CHRISTIANITY, PRACTICAL PROOF OF.

=Gospel in the Philippines=--See LATIN AMERICA AND THE GOSPEL.

GOSPEL MAGNIFIED

The scientist tells us that rich meteoric dust first fell on our earth as soil for the earliest vegetable life. And ascending from the scenes they loved, the apostles, with their memories, the musicians with their solemn Te Deums, the artists with their transfigurations and crucifixions, the cathedral-builders with their sublime conceptions of worship, the philosophers, and the poets, rained the richest associations down upon that gospel, whose ideas had lent them their greatness.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1281)

=Gospel, No Substitutes for=--See PREACHING GOSPEL.

GOSPEL, SENDING THE

M. B. Banks writes a missionary lesson after the style of “Mother Goose”:

Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner Eating a very queer pie; He saw in a trice It held everything nice From the lands where the mission fields lie.

From Ceylon came the spice, And from China the rice, And bananas from African highlands; There were nutmegs and cloves Sent from Borneo’s groves, And yams from the South Sea Islands.

There were nuts from Brazil All the corners to fill, And sugar and sago from Siam; And from Turkey a fig That was really so big, Jack’s mouth thought, “It’s larger than I am.”

There were pomegranates fair Grown in Persia’s soft air, And tortillas from Mexico found there; And there did appear Grapes and grains from Korea, And all of the things that abound there.

A Syrian date Did not turn up too late; He need not for tea to Japan go; Tamerinds were not few, There were oranges too, And from India many a mango.

“Now,” thought little Jack, “What shall I send back To these lands for their presents to me? The Bible, indeed, Is what they all need So that shall go over the sea.”

(1282)

=Gospel, Spread the=--See STORY, POWER OF THE OLD.

GOSPEL SUCCESS

Mr. Nagota, Japanese pastor of the Episcopal Church in Tsu, gives the following account of his conversion to Christianity: A colporteur was trying to persuade a soldier to buy a gospel. He was rebuffed by gross insults and most uncalled for anger. The colporteur bore the indignity with so much meekness that Mr. Nagota, who chanced to be passing by, was amazed, and bought the gospel for the sake of the maligned man. He took the little volume home and read it carefully, and through reading, became a Christian.

(1283)

GOSPEL, TRANSFORMING POWER OF THE

A striking illustration of this is found in the history of the noted African chief, Africaner, notorious in his day until reached by the gospel:

In 1819, finding it necessary to go to Cape Town, Moffat determined to take Africaner with him, attired as his attendant. The chief was an outlaw, with a price of one thousand rix-dollars upon his head, but finally agreed tc go. As they passed through the Dutch farms on his way, Moffat found that he was supposed to have been long before murdered by Africaner. One man told him that he had seen Moffat’s bones. Moffat told a farmer that Africaner (the chief being still in disguise) he knew to be a truly good man. This the man could not credit, and said that his one wish was to see that terror before he himself should die; whereupon Moffat turned and said quietly, pointing to his mild attendant, “This, then, is Africaner.” The farmer, looking at the Christian man before him, exclaimed: “O God, what a miracle of Thy power! What can not Thy grace accomplish!”

That which Africaner exhibited of the power of the gospel in character, is shown by a host of redeemed ones, such as Jerry McAuley, who through their careers, have magnified the power that saved them.--“Gloria Christi.”

(1284)

=Gospel Truth Written in Faces=--See FACE, THE, REVEALING THE GOSPEL.

=Gossip=--See OTHER SIDE, THE.

GRACE

Grace in human agents is manifested in doing the good we are under no just obligation to do:

The Plymouth Congregational Church, of Cleveland, Ohio, years ago built themselves a beautiful church edifice. The contractor drew the money due for work done, and instead of paying his workmen, left for parts unknown, carrying the funds with him. These workmen had not a shadow of a claim upon the trustees, and expected nothing from them. But thirteen hundred dollars were due them from the absconded contractor, and they needed the money. The pastor, Rev. Mr. Collins, said to his people: “True, we do not owe these men a farthing; still, let us make an effort to give them what their dishonest employer owes them, and never let it be said that unrequited toil went into the rearing of this temple of the Most High.” And all the people said, Amen. The laborers went that night to their homes rejoicing, carrying their lost and found pieces of silver with them.

(1285)

See LAW AND GRACE.

GRACE, NOT GROWTH

Touch a piece of black coal, and flaky soot falls off; fuse that coal with fire, and nature makes it impossible for the carbon to throw off blackness, but only light and heat. One of the biggest facts in human experience is this, that a new heart is possible for bad men. Salvation is a gift. Once a bitter orange, growth and culture only increases the size and flavor of the bitter orange. The husbandman grafts, as a free gift, the new sweet fruit into the old root. Every tree in the modern orchard represents a twig cut from a tested apple, and grafted into the wild root. Education, the passing years, simply increase the size of the selfish man, the avaricious man, the pleasure-loving man, but the new impulse is an exotic from heaven, grafted into life. Not growth, but grace saves us. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1286)

GRACE, PERSEVERING

Polycrates, a prosperous prince of the Egean shore long centuries ago, to ward off misfortune, caused a very valuable signet ring which he kept among his treasures, set in gold and of exquisite workmanship, to be carried far out to sea in a fifty-oared galley fully manned, and cast overboard. He saw it sink, to rise, as he supposed, no more. A few days afterward a fisherman plying his profession on that coast, caught a fish of extraordinary size and beauty, and took it to Polycrates, who was amazed to discover, on opening the fish, his own precious ring.

It is just as hard to lose divine grace and love which we are so apt to throw away, but which persists in returning to us.

(1287)

GRACE SUFFICIENT

An eccentric divine preaching from “I will run in the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart,” began, “Well, David, what is your first remark? ‘I will run.’ Run away, David! What hinders you? What is your next word? ‘In the way of thy commandments.’ Better yet, David. And what next? ‘When thou shalt enlarge my heart.’ No thanks to you, David. We could all run as well as you with such help.”

(1288)

GRACIOUSNESS IN WOMEN

Some club women interested in civic reform were gathered in the office of a city executive waiting for an interview. They were charming, clever women, well drest, and at ease in any surroundings. As they waited they chatted of various things, and one told that her little son had been quite badly burned a few days before. The others spoke sympathetically. On the opposite side of the office sat a poor, battered wreck of womanhood, there on an errand widely different from theirs.

“The next time your little boy gets burned you put linseed-oil and lime-water on it. You ought to keep it handy. There ain’t nothing like it to take out the fire,” said the poor creature.

It was her assertion of sisterhood in the common trials of humanity.

Most of the women froze instantly, indignant that she had dared address them in a familiar way. But the one faced her frankly. “Yes,” she said, “that is good. It is just what the doctor told me to use. It is kind of you to tell me about it.”

There was no familiarity in her manner, nor was there a hint of superiority. She, too, recognized the universal sisterhood, and spoke to the woman across from her on that level.

She was one of the women who always do the gracious thing because of an abiding grace within. There are too many women who appear charming in their own circle, but who must snub those they consider inferior. Manners at their best are but a poor substitute for the real graciousness that comes from the heart that has kindly thoughts for all.--_The Housekeeper._

(1289)

=Gradualness of Evil=--See DESTRUCTIVENESS.

=Graft Rebuked=--See CHARACTER NOT PURCHASABLE.

GRAIN

The burning pen of inspiration, ranging heaven and earth for a similitude, to convey to our poor minds some not inadequate idea of the mighty doctrine of the resurrection, can find no symbol so expressive as “bare grain, it may chance of wheat or some other grain.” To-day a senseless plant, to-morrow it is human bone and muscle, vein and artery, sinew and nerve; beating pulse, heaving lungs, toiling, ah, sometimes overtoiling brain. Last June, it sucked from the cold breast of the earth the watery nourishment of its distending sap-vessels; and now it clothes the manly form with warm, cordial flesh; quivers and thrills with the five-fold mystery of sense; purveys and administers to the higher mystery of thought. Heaped up in your granaries this week, the next it will strike in the stalwart arm, and glow in the blushing cheek, and flash in the beaming eye; till we learn at last to realize that the slender stalk, which we have seen shaken by the summer breeze, bending in the corn-field under the yellow burden of harvest, is indeed the “staff of life,” which, since the world began, has supported the toiling and struggling myriads of humanity on the mighty pilgrimage of being.--EDWARD EVERETT.

(1290)

GRATITUDE

A young girl in Scotland was in danger of perishing in a storm, when the stream was in flood. She vowed that if God would save her life and help her in the future, she would build a bridge over the dangerous chasm. Her prayer was heard. She lived to build the bridge, and to leave an endowment for the poor of the parish. On the keystone of the bridge were written these words: “God and We.” That was the secret of success in her life-work.

(1291)

* * * * *

A missionary in China met an aged man who was measuring with the length of his body a pilgrimage of one hundred miles. He would kotow; that is, bump his head three times upon the ground, then prostrate himself full length; get up, repeat, and still repeat. When asked why he was doing this he said: “My son was very ill. I prayed and vowed to the god of health that if he would spare my son, I would measure with my body every mile of this pilgrimage to the tombs of my ancestors. He was spared to me. I must keep my vow. No one can help me. I must go alone.”

Was he not presenting his body a living sacrifice, mistaken, of course, in form, but faithful in spirit?

(1292)

* * * * *

Out of gratitude to the girl who saved the lives of his three children when fire occurred at his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, William Landsberg cheerfully submitted himself to physicians at the Long Island College Hospital and allowed them to take forty square inches of skin from his body in order that it might be grafted upon the burned body of Miss Elsie Wobetta, who had been employed as a domestic at his home.

Landsberg agreed to the operation when he learned that it was necessary in order to save the girl’s life. Earlier in the morning the physicians had already taken twenty square inches of skin from the unburnt portions of Miss Wobetta’s body, but this was not nearly enough to cover her frightful burns, and her condition was too precarious to submit her to another shock.

Landsberg was notified, and he immediately quit work and went to the hospital, where he placed himself at the disposal of the surgeons.

“It is the least I can do for the girl who saved the lives of my little ones,” he said calmly, when the doctors told him that the test would be a severe one.

He was placed on the operating table and the operation of removing the skin was performed. Strips of skin an inch wide and five inches long were taken from Landsberg’s body.

The operation brought to light the heroic act on the part of Miss Wobetta that should entitle her to a Carnegie medal. Some time ago fire broke out in the Landsberg home. The upper part of the house was soon in flames and during all the excitement--it was early in the morning--no one seemed to think of the three children of Landsberg except this young domestic, who fought her way through the stifling smoke and flames until she reached the nursery. There, altho her own clothing was aflame and she was almost stifled by the smoke, she rescued the three small children and helped carry them to a place of safety.

She was frightfully burned on the arms, breast, side and back, and it was not thought for a long time that she could survive. For several weeks she lingered and the surgeons agreed that all that could save her life would be the grafting of new skin on the burned places that would not heal.

(1293)

See INVESTMENT RETURN; RESCUE; UNSELFISHNESS.

GRATITUDE, UNCALCULATING

Henry Van Dyke, in _The Outlook_, expresses the spontaneous nature of true gratitude:

Do you give thanks for this, or that? No, God be thanked, I am not grateful In that cold calculating way, with blessings ranked As one, two, three, and four--that would be hateful!

I only know that every day brings good above My poor deserving; I only feel that on the road of life true Love Is leading me along and never swerving.

Whatever turn the path may take to left or right, I think it follows The tracing of a wiser hand, through dark and light, Across the hills and in the shady hollows.

Whatever gifts the hours bestow, or great or small, I would not measure As worth a certain price in praise, but take them all And use them all, with simple, heartfelt pleasure.

For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we bless The hand that feeds us; And when we walk along life’s way in cheerfulness, Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us.

(1294)

=Gratuities=--See RIDICULE, APT.

GRAVITATION AND ICEBERGS

The hundreds of thousands of icebergs that every spring and summer terrify our ocean steamers are simply detachments from the glaciers that perpetually cover the face of northern lands. As far as can be learned, the interior of Greenland has a surface of tall hills and deep gulches, with an elevated range rather on the eastern side, running from north to south. Hence, if the climate of the interior of Greenland were mild, this extended range would serve as a watershed diverting streams to the sea on both sides. But the temperature some distance inland is nearly always below the freezing point, so that the almost constant snowfall and the brief midsummer rains remain on the surface, accumulating year after year, till there are formed thousands of square miles of blue compact ice, some of it over 1,500 feet thick. This enormous body of ice, like water, is subject to the laws of gravitation, and is eternally on the march to the sea. But its rate of travel is so slow as to be in most places imperceptible to the eye. So deep is this mass of inland ice that after a couple of days’ march from the sea there are no longer any hills visible, the entire landscape being white and naked. The ice from the higher ground is being constantly forced into the valleys and most of these valleys terminate toward the sea in very deep fjords. These fjords are in reality the launchways for most of the ice-floes and a great many of the bergs. You might lie for hours in your boat by most of the glaciers where they enter the sea, and not be aware that they were moving; but each one pushes constantly, and at a regular rate of speed, outward and outward into the sea, till the buoyancy of the water under it causes it to break at the shore, and sets it free to rove the ocean for thousands of miles, till it melts in Southern latitudes.--EDMUND COLLINS, _Harper’s Weekly_.

(1295)

GRAVITATION, LAW OF

Time after time astronomers have found seeming irregularities in the planets’ motions, which they could not explain by, nor deduce from this law of Newton’s (law of gravitation). In every case, however, later investigations showed the fault to lie in the imperfections of their methods; their calculations, or their assumptions in regard to the number and size of the planets were in error, not the law of gravitation. A discrepancy of only two minutes between the observed and theoretical places of Uranus led to the discovery of Neptune, and possibly the minute discrepancy in the motions of Mercury may lead to important discoveries regarding the properties or distribution of matter in the neighborhood of the sun.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

(1296)

GRAVITATION, MORAL

When the strata of the earth forms, the heaviest elements work down to the bottom, the next heaviest fall on these, and so on to the top, where the lightest will be found.

The same is true of men. You do not have to do anything to men to put them down or lift them up. Every man sooner or later goes “to his own place.”

(1297)

GRAVITY

Shiel told Moore of a good thing said by Keller, an Irish barrister. Keller, meeting some judge, an old friend of his, a steady, solemn fellow who had succeeded as much in his profession as Keller had failed, said to him: “In opposition to all the laws of natural philosophy, you have risen by your gravity, while I have sunk by my levity!” (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1298)

GREAT MEN SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR

We can not secure the great man’s arrival, but when he has come we can show that we know him and appreciate him, as the bees know and appreciate the one who is, of all others, most valuable to the hive. When “Dexter,” the famous race-horse owned by Robert Bonner, was found drawing a clay-cart, and the signs of speed in him were unmistakable, what a world of excitement there was! No harness was too fine, no stable too good for him. He had valets to attend his most delicate wants--watchers by night and by day. I do not say there was the slightest unappropriateness in this. I merely ask if the man of wonderful possibilities is not of as much account and deserving of as much care as the wonderful horse. The great man, or man of genius, will forego yachts and palaces and the muniments of wealth, tho he could enjoy them. What he needs at once is that sure provision which shall give him subsistence and leave him free from worldly toil and worry, as a prerequisite to prosecuting his work.--JOEL BENTON, _Lippincott’s_.

(1299)

GREAT MEN’S BEGINNINGS

The parents of Isaac Barrow, the celebrated English divine, conceived so mean an opinion of his temper and parts when he was a boy at the Charterhouse School, that his father used to say, if it pleased God to take from him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaac, the least promising. Adam Clarke’s father was equally uncomplimentary to his own flesh and blood when he proclaimed his son to be “a grievous dunce.” Poe, at West Point, was a laughing-stock to his schoolmates. Sheridan’s mother presented him to a new tutor as “an incorrigible dunce.” Byron, at Harrow, was in no wise distinguished above his fellows. Napoleon and Wellington in their schooldays were distinguished only for dulness.--_Lippincott’s Magazine._

(1300)

=Great, The, and Little Contrasted=--See SINS, ACCUMULATED.

=Greater, The, Controlling the Lesser=--See MASTER-MIND, THE.

GREATNESS

Homer makes his hero, like Saul, a head and shoulders taller than the soldiers around him. And Egyptian artists paint their conquering monarch twenty times as tall as the pigmy enemy whom he is destroying at a single blow.

True greatness is more than stature.

(1301)

* * * * *

Upon his return to Washington, Grant made preparations to leave immediately for the West, but at the close of a consultation with the President and the Secretary of War, he was informed that Mrs. Lincoln expected his presence the same evening at a military dinner to be given in his honor, at which twelve distinguished officers, then in the city, were to be present. Frank B. Carpenter, who was then at the White House, working on his celebrated painting, “Lincoln and His Cabinet,” says Grant turned to the President and said that it would be impossible for him to remain over as he must be in Tennessee at a given time. The President insisted that he could not be excused, and here we have another manifestation of Grant’s independence and willpower. He said to Lincoln: “But the time is very precious just now, and really, Mr. President, I believe I have had enough of this show business.”

So, while the man of deeds--indifferent to blandishments and caring nothing for receptions--was speeding on his way to Nashville to meet Sherman and talk over the momentous business of trying to end the war, the twelve “distinguished” officers were banqueted without a guest of honor. But perhaps in the feasting and the merrymaking of the night, they could not but ponder over the strange things which had come to pass that day--a general so devoted to his duties in the field as to have no time or desire to be received by Congress or banqueted by the wife of a President; a man who had been out of the position of a common store-clerk hardly three years, given command of all the Union forces on land and sea; a great load lifted from the long-burdened heart of Lincoln; the bells of time ringing in a better day for the cause of the Union.--Col. NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(1302)

GREATNESS APPRECIATED

Mr. Moore, writing in _The Congregationalist_ on “The Benediction of a Statue,” says:

The man was only one of the thousands that have stopt for a moment or two at least in front of the Phillips Brooks statue during the past week. He was a working man of about fifty, with a strong, square-jawed, bronzed face. He had evidently come over to look at the statue during the noon hour, for he had on his blue flannel shirt and carpenter’s overalls. He gazed a moment and then brushed his eyes rather furtively.

“How do you like the statue?” he was asked.

“It’s fine, but isn’t quite Phillips Brooks. It’s a strong face like his, but I sort of miss the light in the eyes. It isn’t as kind-looking as Phillips Brooks.”

“You knew him, then?”

“Yes, I knew him well. I have talked with him many times. He always spoke to me on the street. He used to always ask about the wife and baby, and now--the wife has gone on beyond, too.”

He took a last look at the statue and then hurried away, for it was almost one o’clock. Just then a colored man of about forty joined the group.

“Know him? Why, I knew him as well as I know my wife. I used to be charman of a house just a few doors away from his on Clarendon Street. He always said, ‘Good-morning, John,’ to me when he met me, as he was going over to the church in the morning. Of course, when I knew him he was older than the statue shows him. He never spoke to you like he was saying, ‘I’m the rich Mr. Brooks.’ He treated you just like you was as good as him.”

Two messenger-boys stopt for a moment. “Who’s that man?” one asked the other.

“Why, that’s a great preacher that used to preach in that church. They say he was an awfully good man. They say he could preach like anything, and yet he was just as common with folks as anybody.”

An intelligent, rather elderly Hebrew was criticizing the statue very severely to several people, but he said: “I used to go to school with him. He was certainly a wonderful preacher and a very, very good man. He surely deserved the best statue Boston could ever put up for him. But I dislike the background and the other figure in this very much.”

(1303)

GREATNESS CALLED FORTH

At every great call for great deeds the right man comes out of the common crowd to do it, this is the truth Sam. Walter Foss enforces in these verses:

Men seem as alike as the leaves on the trees, As alike as the bees in the swarming of bees; And we look at the millions that make up the state, All equally little and equally great, And the pride of our courage is cowed. Then fate calls for a man who is larger than men, There is a surge in the crowd--there’s a movement--and then There arises the man who is larger than men-- And the man comes up from the crowd.

The chasers of trifles run hither and yon, And the mean little days of small trifles go on, And the world seems no better at sunset than dawn, And the race still increases its plentiful spawn, And the voice of our wailing is loud. Then the great deed calls out for the great man to come, And the crowd unbelieving, sits sullen and dumb-- But the great deed is done, for the great man is come-- Ay, the man comes up from the crowd. (Text.)

(1304)

GREATNESS DISCOUNTED

Daniel Webster in the very height of his fame, just after his famous Bunker Hill speech, took a run down to his native village which he had not visited in so many years that he found himself quite unrecognized by his former cronies. Accosting an old friend of the Websters, he gradually, after due discussion of the weather and the crops, turned the conversation upon his own family. Thereupon his companion burst out into enthusiastic encomiums upon the virtues and abilities of Daniel’s elder brother Ebenezer, who had died young and whose early death he fittingly deplored. Daniel slipt in a modest query as to whether there was not a brother named Dan. “He never was much account,” said the old gentleman, with a shake of his head. “I believe he went up to Boston and became some kind of a lawyer.”--_Lippincott’s Magazine._

(1305)

GREATNESS, HEROIC

A truly great soul is the man described by Sarah Knowles Bolton in the verse below:

I like the man who faces what he must With heart triumphant and a step of cheer; Who fights the daily battle without fear; Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust That God is God; that somehow, true and just, His plans work out for mortals; not a tear Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear, Falls from his grasp; better, with love, a crust Than living in dishonor; envies not, Nor loses faith in man; but does his best, Nor even murmurs at his humbler lot; But with a smile and words of hope, gives zest To every toiler; he alone is great Who by a life heroic conquers fate.

(1306)

GREATNESS, HUMAN, A BAUBLE

Having strayed by some odd eddy of circumstance into the House of Lords, when the King was present, John Wesley draws a picturesque little vignette of him.

“I was in the robe-chamber, adjoining the House of Lords, when the King (George II) put on his robes. His brow was much furrowed with age, and quite clouded with care. And is this all the world can give even to a king, all the grandeur it can afford? A blanket of ermine round his shoulders, so heavy and cumbersome he can scarce move under it! A huge heap of borrowed hair, with a few plates of gold and glittering stones upon his head! Alas, what a bauble is human greatness!”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1307)

GREATNESS IN MEN

Edwin Markham describes a noble type of man in the following poem:

Give thanks, O heart, for the high souls That point us to the deathless goals-- For all the courage of their cry That echoes down from sky to sky; Thanksgiving for the armed seers And heroes called to mortal years-- Souls that have built our faith in man, And lit the ages as they ran.

Made of unpurchasable stuff. They went the way when ways were rough; They, when the traitors had deceived, Held the long purpose, and believed; They, when the face of God grew dim, Held through the dark and trusted Him-- Brave souls that fought the mortal way And felt that faith could not betray.

Give thanks for heroes that have stirred Earth with the wonder of a word. But all thanksgiving for the breed Who have bent destiny with deed-- Souls of the high, heroic birth, Souls sent to poise the shaken earth, And then called back to God again To make heaven possible for men. (Text.)

--_The Independent._

(1308)

GREATNESS OF GOD

The following verse from “The Marshes of Glynn,” by Sidney Lanier, shows how a reverent poet can see symbols of God and His care in a marsh:

Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? Somehow my soul seems suddenly free From the weighing of life and the sad discussion of sin, By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.

Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea! Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun, Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain And sight out of blindness and purity out of a stain.

As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God; I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies In the freedom that fills all the space ’twixt the marsh and the skies:

By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God; Oh, like the greatness of God is the greatness within The range of the marshes, the liberal marshes of Glynn.

(1309)

GREATNESS SERVING

A mother and daughter were traveling through a forest. Overcome by the long journey, the mother fainted and fell by the wayside. As soon as consciousness was partly restored to her she sent her little child to seek out a minister. The little daughter went weeping on her way. She soon met a stranger riding a horse. The man inquired of her why she was weeping. She asked him if he were God’s minister, and he said that he was. She led him to the side of her dying mother. His bodyguard soon arrived. Reverently did they uncover as they found the King of England kneeling in prayer for the dying peasant. The greatest among them was their servant. (Text.)

(1310)

GREATNESS, TRUE, OF A CITY

What makes a city great and strong? Not architecture’s graceful strength, Nor factories’ extended length, But men who see the civic wrong And give their lives to make it right, And turn its darkness into light.

What makes a city full of power? Not wealth’s display nor titled fame, Not fashion’s loudly-boasted claim, But women, rich in virtue’s dower, Whose homes, tho humble, still are great Because of service to the state.

What makes a city men can love? Not things that charm the outward sense, Nor gross display of opulence, But right, that wrong can not remove, And truth, that faces civic fraud And smites it in the name of God.

This is a city that shall stand, A light upon a nation’s hill, A voice that evil can not still, A source of blessing to the land; Its strength not brick, nor stone, nor wood, But justice, love and brotherhood.

--_Author Unknown._

(1311)

=Greatness Unrecognized=--See HELP, UNEXPECTED.

GREED

The large families in this country to-day are to be found only in the industrial centers. Greedy men have considered this their opportunity, and have located great stocking and silk factories in these places for the sake of employing the children of these families.

I saw in the ill-ventilated rooms of these silk-factories girls by the dozen under fourteen years of age. More than once I saw a stoop-shouldered, anemic girl, apparently not more than eleven years of age, standing all day before her machine so fatigued that she stood on one foot while she rested the other by holding it against the leg on which she was standing. To my inquiry as to her age the reply was, “The affidavit said she was fourteen.”

A girl in whose machine the silk by chance became tangled was approached by a foreman with the jaw of a bulldog and a face whose every feature indicated brutality, and who poured out a stream of profanity as he threatened to dismiss her if it occurred again. These girls were the daughters of coal-miners or of a coal-miner’s widow.

We are pretty generally agreed that society owes to every one equal treatment with his fellows in an effort to get a living and an equal protection in using the opportunities that exist. When one looks into the hollow cheeks and sunken eyes of veritable children to whom in so many cases the home was never the holy of holies, and where instead of the gentle voice and loving hearts of teachers there is the brutal taskmaster, one feels the need of some new Declaration of Independence.

A railroad that owns and operates mines in this region, last year, in addition to an already fat dividend on its stock, declared a stock dividend of fifty per cent. Would that it were possible to print on every share of that dividend a description of the existence that is called life in this section of our land! (Text.)--JESSE HILL, _Christian Endeavor World_.

(1312)

See DISHONESTY; GAME OF GREED.

=Greed, Commercial=--See CRUELTY.

GRIEF, EXPRESSING

Great griefs can seldom be borne in silence; nor is it well that they should be. Just as the cry of pain springs to the lips of a child when it is hurt, so the wounded spirit longs for utterance to ease its sorrow. Far from being a rebellious and unnatural desire, this longing to somehow unburden the soul in words is a merciful gift of God, who, even when he chastens, would fain temper the wind to the shorn lamb. See how the noblest souls have sought and found, not only a balm for sorrow, but sorrow’s own deeper meaning in uttering their heart’s profoundest cry. Think of that magnificent memorial poem in which Tennyson gathered up, as in a sacred urn, the fragments of his broken heart. Was his sorrow for Hallam the less, that he thus robbed it of its bitterest sting, the sting of helpless silence and hopeless brooding? Was Cicero less noble, less heroic, because, after the death of his beloved daughter Tullia, he wrote a treatise, on consolation to alleviate his sorrow? No; utterance sanctifies the grief whose pang it softens. God does not will that we should suffer in white-lipped silence. He never drives the barbed arrow into the human heart.--_Zion’s Herald._

(1313)

GRIEF, REVEALED

Clinton Dangerfield discounts in this poem the stoicism of the age that refuses to reveal its griefs and evils:

Sad hearts are out of date. We laugh and jest, When we take wounds as well as when we strike. One can not tell the conquerors on Love’s field-- Victors and vanquished look so much alike!

But sometimes when the mask unguarded falls One sees the actor’s self behind the part, And half holds those the wiser who, of old, Washed, unashamed, with tears a broken heart. (Text.)

--_The Delineator._

(1314)

GRIEVANCES

A man strikes me with a sword, and inflicts a wound. Suppose, instead of binding up the wound, I am showing it to everybody, and, after it has been bound up, I am taking off the bandage constantly and examining the depth of the wound, and making it fester--is there a person in the world who would not call me a fool? However, such a fool is he who, by dwelling upon little injuries or insults, cause them to agitate and influence his mind. How much better were it to put a bandage on the wound and never look at it again!

(1315)

* * * * *

I once said to a woman who had suddenly lost her best friend after years of the closest intimacy, without a quarrel or scene, and for no apparent reason, “every time he thinks of you he will be filled with remorse.” She replied, “Remorse? Not at all. He is quite sure that all the fault lies on my side. In retrospect, he has created imaginary grievance.” I indignantly protested, ready even to pity her the more. She smilingly silenced me by putting her finger on my lips, saying: “Do not pity me, I might have had grievances, but I have none; in spite of everything, mine is the better part.” And she was right.

Grievances are like a double-edged sword that wounds on one side the heart it enters, on the other the heart that sends it forth, and the most unhappy heart always holds the weapon, for the point that pierces sinks into depths from whence it is difficult to draw it from the wound. In reality everybody is a victim to grievances; they that harbor as well as they who create them, and for this reason frank explanations are never resorted to. And the saddest thing of all is, that the causes are often so slight and the suffering so great, as in the case of the Neapolitan, who, having never read the works of Tasso and Ariosto, fought seventeen duels on their respective merits.--DORA MELEGARI, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

(1316)

GRIP

“He seems to have lost his grip,” said one man to another in talking of an acquaintance who had not been long in the ranks of the “middle-aged.” They both felt that their friend had talents; they longed to see him apply them with judgment and success. The term “grip” was an expressive one. Whatever one’s work may be, it can not be properly done unless the worker has firm hold of his tools. Lack of grip may often be resolved into lack of incentive, and, therefore, whoever imparts to his comrade a sufficient motive for holding fast, is doing him service of the most effectual kind.--Providence _Journal_.

(1317)

=Growing Old=--See OLD, HOW TO GROW.

GROWING TOO FAST

It is said that during the wars of Frederick II of Prussia men became so scarce that they actually enrolled schoolboys. If there happened to be a child that was growing too fast the parents would be heard to say, “Don’t grow so fast or the recruiting officer will catch you.” Do not rush into responsibility. (Text.)

(1318)

=Growth=--See ASSIMILATION; FAITH IN GOD.

GROWTH, CAUSE OF

Carbon from the air entering the cells of plants comes in contact with a substance called chlorophyll resident in the cells. A wonderful change at once takes place. When the sun is shining, the carbonic acid and water contained in the cells are decomposed; _i.e._, separated into the parts composing them. These, with the carbon, then unite again and form a new substance very different from either the carbon or the water, viz., starch or like substance, which, with some of the mineral matters supplied through the soil water, serves as food for the protoplasm of the cells, so that the latter increase in number rapidly and thus cause the plant to grow.

There is real growth of the soul of man only when the divine spirit unites with the human powers. (Text.)

(1319)

=Growth, Curious=--See OBSTACLES, UNEXPECTED.

GROWTH, EVIL

Educators make much of growth, nor can we over-emphasize the importance of the principle. But if the thing that is increasing is bad, then growth is a curse immeasurable. Given a spark and growth means a conflagration that ruins a city. Given a gipsy-moth in the parks of New England and growth means the devastation of the forests of a State. Given a disease, and growth means death. Given any form of sin, and growth means the wreckage of character and destiny. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1320)

=Growth in Educational Work=--See NEEDS, MEETING CHILDREN’S.

GROWTH IN NATURE

Once, a half-century ago or more, a farmer and his men came down from the pastures, and for purposes of their own cut a ditch straight through the middle of the bog to the open water. The hundreds of scrawny night-herons, sitting on pale blue eggs in scraggly nests in the cedar swamp, must have heard the cedars laugh as this went on. It was the swamp’s opportunity. Where the farmer and his men with incredible labor cut and tore away the marsh-grass roots the cedars planted their seeds, and called upon the alders and the swamp-maples and the thoroughwort, the Joe Pye weed, and a host of other good citizens of the swamp to help them.

So vigorous was the sortie and so well did they hold their ground, that you may trace the farmer’s wide ditch to-day only as a causeway down which the swamp has come to build a great wooden area in the midst of the bog, accomplishing in half a century what it might not have done in five times had it not been for human aid.--WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild Pastures.”

(1321)

=Growth, Spiritual=--See SPIRITUAL PERTURBATION.

=Growth Through Struggle=--See STRUGGLE AND GROWTH.

GROWTH, UNCONSCIOUS

Moses, when he came down from the mountain, “wist not” that his face shone. So in much of our spiritual life, we are unconscious of the fact of growth. As a writer upon life in the fields likening the spiritual life to that of the seed says:

But all the winter through, tho it was hidden by frost and snow, the seed was growing beneath the earth; the difference is that now we can see it. And so it is with the growth of the soul. The soul is growing, tho we do not know it, in its winter weather, when all is dead and cold and dark; when the Spirit has convinced us of sin and we say, “I seem to have no part and lot with the saints, no joy nor peace; I only feel the burden of my iniquities; I question whether I am a living soul.” Ah, but the seed sown by the hand of God is growing through all those wintry days; if a man can feel and lament his weakness, his deadness, his barrenness, he is a living soul. (Text.)

(1322)

=Growths, Undesirable=--See BARRIERS.

=Guardian Friends=--See PLEDGE-KEEPING.

GUARDS OF THE SOUL

As there is a silence that thunders, so there is a severity that is the inflection of pity and love. That is not the kindest surgeon who refuses to make the wounded soldier suffer. That is not the truest mother who lets the child work its own will and riot in selfish pleasures. It is not a little thing for a pilgrim to make his way across a dark continent. Are there serpents and wild beasts in the jungle? Then on either side of the path through the forest let thorn-bushes be planted that they may scourge the child back into the path. Is the chasm deep? A veritable abyss? Then, when the bridge is strung across the gulf, let a railing be placed on either side, with sharp prongs of iron to hold the child back from the edge of the bridge, lest in a careless mood he fall and be crusht upon the cruel rocks beneath. It is a dangerous journey that man makes through the wilderness. And God has planted on either side of the way the Ten Commandments like ten thorn-bushes, buttresses and guards, that the pilgrim may be confined to the path that leads to prosperity, safety and peace--N. D. HILLIS.

(1323)

=Guest Surprized=--See TACT.

=Guidance=--See SAFETY FROM WATER-BROOKS; TRUST.

GUIDANCE, GOD’S

In the stern of a sea-going vessel, At morning, at noon and at night, I saw there a sturdy old boatswain Who stood and uplifted his sight To the mast that was towering above him, While pendulant hung from his lip The whistle whose shrill intonations Determined the course of the ship.

And I wondered at what he was gazing Till, stepping behind him, I stood And followed his angle of vision High up on the pillar of wood; And there, far above the attraction Of body of iron or steel, Was fastened a compass whose needle Corrected the man at the wheel.

O wonderful lesson of science, That crystaled in parable there, And brought in its transparent vision The meaning and purpose of prayer! I, too, am adrift on the ocean, My compass, the spirit of man, And with hand on the wheel of life’s rudder, I only can steer as I can.

But, praise to God’s infinite goodness, Thy compass above I can see-- The needle of truth that Thy spirit Holds true for the spirit of me. Unswerved by earth’s baser attraction, It points to the glories that shine; I read it at morning and evening, And reckon my bearings from Thine. (Text.)

(1324)

* * * * *

Thomas F. Porter, in the Boston _Globe_, expresses in these verses the confidence of faith in God’s guidance:

It matters not what course my ship may go, That leaves the port ’neath skies so calm and clear; Tho later threatening winds may wildly blow, Of harm I have no fear.

The storm may beat in fury ’round my bark, The ocean’s spray up to the masthead leap, The way be long, the night be starless dark, Secure my course I keep.

It matters not how swift may be the tide, Tho lightning cleave with lurid flame the sky; But that my ship will every storm outride, On this I can rely.

Nor does it matter when the goal I gain, Nor if the ship be stript of every mast, My heart no lips will murmur nor complain, When safe the anchor’s cast.

Why, there is such a flood of hope in me, To doubting hearts this much I will reveal: The Hand that launched my bark on life’s great sea Is ever at the wheel.

(1325)

=Guidance, Spiritual=--See SPIRIT, WINDS OF THE.

GUIDANCE EVILWARD

A story is told of certain mariners who followed the direction of their compass, believing it to be infallibly right as a guide, till they arrived at an enemy’s port, where they were seized and made slaves. The secret was that the wicked captain, in order to betray the ship and to beguile them into obliquities, had hidden a large loadstone at a little distance on one side of the needle. (Text.)

(1326)

=Guide and Traveler=--See CONFIDENCE.

GUIDE, THE PERFECT

Once I was out with a guide climbing a mountain, and the guide himself lost his way. He was compelled, greatly chagrined, to beat about for quite a while till he found it. This could never happen to Christ.

Sometimes a guide in the Alps, in spite of all his care, loses the life of a traveler. The unfortunate man may slip and the rope may break; or, if the rope holds, he may be heavy enough to drag down his guide with him into the crevasse.

When a traveler hesitated to place his foot in the hand of a guide who asked him to step upon it out over a precipice when rounding a perilous turn, the guide reassured him by saying, “This hand never lost a life.” That was true of the guide, but it did not prove that he never would lose a life.

Of Christ’s hand stretched out to help us it may be said truly: “This hand never lost a life, and never can lose one.”--AMOS R. WELLS, in _The Christian Endeavor World_.

(1327)

=Guides=--See EXPERIENCE, VALUE OF.

=Guides and Prayer=--See BLESSING THE ROPES.

GUILT

The only thing needed to show guilt or innocence is sufficient light:

Aaron Burr once defended a prisoner charged with murder, and as the trial proceeded it became too manifest to him that the guilt of the murder lay between the prisoner and one of the witnesses for the prosecution. He accordingly subjected this witness to a searching and relentless cross-examination; and then, as he addrest the jury in the gathering dusk of evening, he brought into strong relief every fact that bore against this witness, and suddenly seizing two candelabra from the table, he threw a glare of light on the witness’s face, and exclaimed, “Behold the murderer, gentlemen!” Alarmed and conscience-stricken, the man reeled as from a blow, turned ghastly pale, and left the court. The advocate concluded his speech in a tone of triumph, and the jury acquitted the prisoner. (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1328)

H

HABIT

Says Jeremiah, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to evil.” The last

## chapter in the biography of habits is its enthronement, its tyranny

over the will. The tragedy of every habit is that instead of being an aid to the will, it becomes its master. Donald Sage Mackay, in “The Religion of the Threshold,” says:

Henry Drummond once told of a man who had gone to a London physician to consult about his eyes. The physician looked into the man’s eyes with a delicate ophthalmoscope, and then said quietly to the man. “My friend, you are practising a certain sin, and unless you give it up, in six months you will be blind.” For a moment the man stood trembling in the agony of discovery, and then, turning to the sunlit window, he looked out and exclaimed, “Farewell, sweet light, farewell!”

(1329)

* * * * *

A man named Patch, having been charged with murder, his solicitor carefully examined the premises and situation, and came to the conclusion that the murderer must have been a left-handed man. The solicitor informed Sergeant Best, in consultation, that he had noticed Patch, when taking his dinner, using his knife with the left hand. In a conference before the trial, the sergeant prest the prisoner to say whether he was not left-handed, but he protested he was not. When the prisoner was arraigned at the bar on the day of trial, and was called on to plead, he answered, “Not guilty,” and at once, of course unconsciously, held up his left hand.--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1330)

Slowly and insidiously do the evil habits grow until they become as gnarled crooked trees which none may straighten; little by little the gossamer thread becomes a cart-rope which none may break; imperceptibly does the film of ice spread over the river, holding the waters before long in a grasp which Niagara could not burst. The character is stereotyped; the life moves in deep downward grooves. Says the modern determinist, “By habit the mind is reduced into servitude.” Says the apostle, “We are sold under sin.”--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1331)

See ROUTINE.

HABIT AUTOMATIC

If a sleeping-plant is placed in a dark room after it has gone to sleep at night, it will be found next morning in the light-position, and will again assume the nocturnal position as evening comes. We have, in fact, what seems to be a habit built by the alternation of day and night. The plant normally drops its leaves at the stimulus of darkness and raises them at the stimulus of light. But here we see the leaves rising and falling in the absence of the accustomed stimulation. This is the characteristic par excellence of habit. When a series of

## actions are compelled to follow each other by applying a series

of stimuli they become organically tied together, or associated, and follow each other automatically, even when the whole series of stimuli are not acting.--_The Scientific American._

(1332)

HABIT, BREAKING

A story is told of an English minister who offered a prize to the boy who would write the best composition in five minutes on “How to Overcome a Habit.”

At the expiration of five minutes the compositions were read. The prize went to a lad of nine years. The following is his essay:

“Well, sir, habit is hard to overcome. If you take off the first letter, it does not change ‘a bit.’ If you take off another, you still have a ‘bit’ left. If you take off still another the whole of ‘it’ remains. If you take off another, it is wholly used up; all of which goes to show that if you want to get rid of habit you must throw it off altogether.”

(1333)

HABIT IN WORK

All his life Mark Twain was an inveterate smoker, and one of the most leisurely men in the world. An old pressman, who was once printer’s devil in an office where Mark was editorial writer, tells this anecdote of his habits of work. “One of my duties was to sweep the room where editors worked. Every day Mark would give me a nickel to get away from him. He would rather die in the dust than uncross his legs. One day he gave me a nickel to dot an ‘i’ in his copy for him. He certainly did enjoy life, that man did.”--New York _Evening Post_.

(1334)

HABIT, PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF

The following bit of information is from _La Nature_:

Men of a singular race have been discovered in New Guinea, and the governor, it seems, has promised to send some specimens to London. Living as they do in the marshes, these men have no need to walk. On the other hand, the marshes are covered with a growth that prevents navigation in canoes. The men have built huts in trees, and as organs of prehension alone are useful to them, their lower limbs have almost atrophied. These natives have only feeble and withered legs and feet, while the chest and arms are of normal development. They can scarcely stand upright, and they walk like large apes. They thus give the impression of cripples who have been deprived of the use of their lower extremities.

(1335)

HABIT, THE POWER OF

Samuel Adjai Crowther, an African slave-boy who became a bishop, delighted to tell to his children the story of how he put on his first shoes. In “The Black Bishop” Jesse Page gives the story in the bishop’s own words. Four of the pupils in the missionary’s school had been promoted to the position of monitors. This was at Fourah Bay College, under Rev. Charles Haensel:

To give effect to our position, we were allowed to wear shoes. Strong, stout shoes, with very thick soles, were procured and given to us; they were called “Blucher shoes.”

On a Saturday afternoon we were called, received a pair each, and were told to wear them every Sunday to church at St. George’s Cathedral, a distance of about three miles.

Never having had shoes on before, we began practising in our dormitory that evening. None of us could move a step after lacing up on our feet the unwieldy articles, and consequently we were objects of laughter to our pupils.

An idea struck me which I at once put into execution. Crawling to a corner of the room, I first knelt down, then holding on to the wall for support, I stood up, and still being supported by the wall, I stept round the room many times, the others following my example, till we were able to leave the wall, stand alone, or move about without support.

You can well imagine what a burden this was to us, and after losing sight of the college, we sat on the grass, took off the shoes, walked barefoot, and put them on only at the porch of the church. We did the same on returning to college. After some months’ practise we were able to move better in them, but complained how they hurt our feet, and would rather be without them. But after some months we invested in the purchase of boots ourselves, and were always careful to buy those that made noise and creaked as we walked, to our great delight and the admiration of our pupils.--_The Youth’s Companion._

(1336)

* * * * *

Helen M. Winslow declares that it was her intention from childhood to become a writer, and that she early obtained a position on the staff of a city newspaper. During a period covering several years she had charge of twenty-eight columns a week, on three papers, all of which she filled without help from subordinates. She worked eight hours a day in a dark, dingy office, and six more in her “den” at home every night, going to theaters from twice to five times a week, and working all day Sunday to bring up the ends. She edited news-columns, fashion, health, dramatic, hotel, book-review, railroad, bicycle, fancy-work, kitchen, woman’s club, society, palmistry and correspondence departments, and withal kept up an editorial column for eight years. Then she started a journal of her own. She worked like a slave for seven years more, wrote articles, editorials, read manuscripts and books, kept up an enormous correspondence, solicited most of her advertisements, and went to the printing-office every issue to attend personally to the details of “make-up” and proof-reading.

“But you have had your day,” a younger woman said to her, “why grumble now?” “Because it was not the day I wanted, and I only meant to make it the stepping-stone to something better. I did not want to be a newspaper woman and nothing more; and now that I have leisure for something more, I find my mental faculties, instead of being sharpened for further use, dulled. I have done desultory work so long I can not take up anything more thorough. I have been a ‘hack’ too many years. I can not be a race-horse now.” (Text.)

(1337)

=Hair-splitting=--See WORD-JUGGLING.

=Hand, Use of Right=--See TRADITION.

=Handicap of Ill Health=--See BODY, MASTERING THE.

HANDICAPS, OVERCOMING

Charles A. Spencer was a lens-maker, and devoted years to the perfection of achromatic lenses. He had devised a process so delicate that he could adjust the curve of the lens so as to increase the defining and resolving power of the lens beyond all other opticians. But a fire destroyed his shop and nearly all of his tools, which had taken years of toil and study to construct, together with a large amount of finished and unfinished work. He was badly crippled, and had to begin all over again, and only with the utmost toil and perseverance was he able, little by little, to replace the necessary tools and recover his former position.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1338)

HANDIWORK OF NATURE

The down upon the peach or plum is so delicate and so thickly set that one can not touch the fruit with a needle’s point without breaking the tender stalk; and yet the dew of the night covers the whole surface of the fruit and disappears in the morning, leaving the gossamer growth more orderly and beautiful than before. The dew covers every leaf of the giant oak, and the mighty tree drinks in the refreshing moisture to its thirsty heart through millions of pores, and the iron trunk which has withstood a thousand storms is made stronger by the gentle strength of the dew. The silent fall of the dew is caused and controlled by agencies of the most tremendous power; the same power that shakes a whole continent with its subterranean thunder is the same as that which encircles the finest filament of thistle-down with a coronet of dewy gems so small that they do not bend the delicate stalks with their weight.--London _Globe_.

(1339)

HANDS, HELPING

A German legend tells of a poor lad, the only son of his widowed mother, who went out every morning to earn bread for both, when he found a pair of giant hands helping him in every task.

What are the forces of nature when enlisted on one’s side but just such giant hands?

(1340)

HAPPINESS

The stream is not marred, it is made only more beautiful, when broken by rocks, and sweeping through eddies, than when silently gliding through the sodded canal. And so the happiness which is found in a course passed amid the conditions that invest us in this life, may be only brighter, more full and more animated, for its very interruptions. The pleasure shall be more radiant than ever, when contrasting the darkness of an overpast sorrow.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1341)

* * * * *

Dr. Raffles once said: “I have made it a rule never to be with any one ten minutes without trying to make him happier.” It was a remark of Dr. Dwight that one who makes a little child happier for half an hour is a fellow worker with God.

A little boy said to his mother: “I couldn’t make sister happy nohow I could fix it. But I made myself happy trying to make her happy.” “I make Jim happy,” said another boy, speaking of his invalid brother. “He laughs and that makes me happy, and I laugh.” “To love and to be loved,” said Sydney Smith, “is the greatest happiness of existence.”

(1342)

HAPPINESS AS A GOD

Entomologists tell us that millions of insects, generations whose numbers must be counted by myriads, are born and die within the compass of one summer’s day. Perfected with the morning, they flutter through their sunny life; and the evening, when it turns its shadow upon the earth, becomes to their animated and tuneful being a universal grave. It is impossible to understand for what end this is done, unless we accept the happiness which these share, as a good in itself; a good so great, in the judgment of the Creator, and of those who look with Him on the creation, as to justify the expenditure of such wisdom and force on their delicate, harmonious, but ephemeral structure; and to make this structure illustrative of His glory.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1343)

HAPPINESS COMMUNICATED

In Los Angeles, when the rose festival comes, the child, going through the streets, breathes perfume, and for days the sweetness clings to the garments. And all good men exhale happiness as they pass through life.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1344)

HAPPINESS, DEARTH OF

Lord Byron, who drank of every cup that earth could give him, and who had all the ministries of earth around him, with an intellectual and physical nature that could dive down into deepest depths and could soar to the highest heights, whose wings when spread could touch either pole, just before he died, sitting in a gay company, was meditative and moody. They looked at him and said, “Byron, what are you thinking so seriously about?” “Oh,” he said, “I was sitting here counting up the number of happy days I have had in this world. I can count but eleven, and I was wondering if I would ever make up the dozen in this world of tears and pangs and sorrows.” (Text.)--“Famous Stories of Sam P. Jones.”

(1345)

HAPPINESS FROM WITHIN

We think that if a certain event were to come to pass, if some rare good fortune should befall us, our stock of happiness would be permanently increased, but the chances are that it would not; after a time we should settle back to the old every-day level. We should get used to the new conditions, the new prosperity, and find life wearing essentially the same tints as before. Our pond is fed from hidden springs; happiness is from within, and outward circumstances have but little power over it.--JOHN HABBERTON, _The Chautauquan_.

(1346)

HAPPINESS, IMPARTING

A poor man went into a wealthy merchant’s counting-house one day and saw piles of bank-notes which the clerks were busy in counting. The poor man thought of his desolate home, and the needs of his family, and, almost without thinking, he said to himself, “Ah! how happy a very little of that money would make me!” The merchant overheard him. “What is that you say, my friend?” The poor man was confused, and begged to be excused, as he did not intend to say anything. But the kind-hearted merchant wouldn’t excuse him, and so the man had to repeat what he had said. “Well,” said the merchant, “how much would it take to make you happy?” “Oh, I don’t know, sir,” said he, “but the weather is very cold, and I have no fuel; my wife and children are thinly clad, sir, for I have been sick. But we don’t want much. I think, sir, about fifteen dollars would get us all we need.” “John,” said the merchant to his clerk, “count this man out fifteen dollars.” The poor man’s heart was made glad, and when he got home, his family were made happy. At the close of the day, the clerk asked his employer how he should enter on his books the money given. He answered: “Say, ‘For making a man happy, fifteen dollars.’” Perhaps that was the happiest fifteen dollars the merchant himself had ever spent. (Text.)

(1347)

HAPPINESS, RULES FOR

Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer was once talking to a girls’ club, composed of the unkempt and unprivileged daughters of Eve, and gave them three rules for happiness in the promise that they would keep the rules every day for a week. The rules were, for each day:

First--Commit to memory a worthy sentence.

Second--Do something for others.

Third--See something beautiful.

She met a while after one little girl who declared that she had fulfilled her promise every day; but that one day, when mother was sick, she could not go to the park to see something beautiful, and thought she had lost it, but while doing something for others, in the way of caring for the baby, she looked out of the attic window of her squalid home, and saw a common sparrow, and as she looked at the little fellow, the dark feathers around his throat appearing to her like a smart necktie, she found her vision of the beautiful in what many would consider the most ordinary of all God’s feathered songsters. Oh, but she arrived! arrived in spite of the commonplace which seemed to fetter her, and sunshine came of a dreary day into a dreary room, because of the purpose of her soul.--NEHEMIAH BOYNTON.

(1348)

HARDNESS OF HEART

The souls of men are not like the “constant” quantities of the mathematician. Divine love softens the hardest human hearts.

A mass of ironstone, dark and adamantine, flies through space and suddenly impinges on our atmosphere. There is a flash in the air and men gaze on the apparition of the blazing meteor. They have seen an aerolite. The soft, invisible, impalpable atmosphere receives the hard, ferruginous aerolite and at once melts it. (Text.)

(1349)

HARDSHIP, MISSIONARY

Egerton Young gives below an experience as missionary to the Indians of British Columbia. He shows the spirit of Him who shared the sorrows of man to save the world:

I have seen Indians eighty years of age who never saw a loaf of bread, or a cake, or a pie. When my wife and I went out there we lived as they did; we lived on fish twenty-one times a week for months together, and for weeks together we did not average two good meals a day. For years we did not begin to live as well as the thieves and murderers in the penitentiaries of Great Britain and America. But it was a blest work, and we were happy in it. (Text.)

(1350)

=Hardship Overcome=--See COLLEGE OR EXPERIENCE.

HARDSHIP VICARIOUSLY BORNE

More than eighty years ago a fierce war raged in India between the English and Tipu Sahib. On one occasion several English officers were taken prisoners. Among them was one named Baird. One day the native officer brought in fetters to be put upon each of the prisoners, the wounded not excepted. Baird had been severely wounded and was suffering from pain and weakness.

A gray-haired officer said to the native official, “You do not think of putting chains upon that wounded man?”

“There are just as many pairs of fetters as there are prisoners,” was the answer, “and every pair must be worn.”

“Then,” said the noble officer, “put two pairs on me. I will wear his as well as my own.” This was done. Strange to say. Baird lived to regain his freedom, and lived to take that city; but his noble, unselfish friend died in prison.

Up to his death, he wore two pairs of fetters. But what if he had worn the fetters of all the prisoners? What if, instead of being a captive himself, he had quitted a glorious palace, to live in their loathsome dungeon, to wear their chains, to bear their stripes, to suffer and die for them, that they might go free, and free forever? (Text.)--SOPHIE BRONSON TITTERINGTON.

(1351)

=Harmony=--See RAPPORT.

HARMONY IS GOD’S WORK

In “Famous Stories of Sam P. Jones” may be found this bit of wisdom:

A well-trained musician sits down to a piano and sweeps his fingers over the keys. A cloud gathers on his face as he recognizes a discord in the instrument. What is the matter? Three of the keys are out of harmony. These three keys that are out of harmony are out of harmony with everything in the universe that is in harmony. I say to that musician, “Close up that piano and let it alone until it puts itself in harmony.” He replies, “It is impossible for the piano to put itself in harmony.” “Who can put it in harmony?” I ask. He replies, “The man who made the instrument. The instrument is put into the hands of the man who made it, and in a few hours every key on the piano is in harmony, and the piano being in harmony with itself is in harmony with everything else in the universe.”

God alone can put discordant souls into harmony.

(1352)

HARMONY, ULTIMATE

The dome of the Baptistry at Pisa has this wonderful quality, that it is so fashioned that no matter how discordant the sounds received may be they are returned softened and harmonized.

So shall it yet be with the discords of earth in the new heaven when all shall have been baptized into the same spirit.

(1353)

HARP, THE, AS A SACRED INSTRUMENT

The harp is by common consent supposed to be the musical instrument of the angels, and many a clerical metaphor has been made regarding “the celestial harps,” “the golden harps,” etc. The metaphor is probably taken by very few as a fixt truth, but is nevertheless to the musician an interesting and also a reverential one. At the time that the Scriptures were written the harp was the finest instrument possest by man, and in ascribing it to the angels an effort was made to represent the music of heaven by the noblest tones of earth. Were we to imagine celestial music to-day it would be the roll of heavenly orchestras, and some of the old Italian painters scarcely made a musical error in depicting their angels as playing on violins. The violin is the noblest earthly instrument, and is far beyond the harp in its representation of bliss. Meanwhile, Schumann and Berlioz (in Faust) have used the harp to picture celestial joys, while Wagner has used the violins in a soft tremolo in highest positions, combined in sweet tones of wood wind. Nevertheless, association of ideas is much in music, and the harp must always call up the idea of heaven in the minds of many. (Text.)--Boston _Musical Herald_.

(1354)

HARSHNESS, FAILURE OF

What harshness in fathers, who fear to praise their children! What severity in some teachers! What bitterness in our muck-rakers and reformers! How seldom do we find a man who can speak the truth, and speak it in love. Yet there are some things that harshness can not do. In February the clods are hard, the seeds dead, the roots inert, the boughs leafless. Now let nature speak in terms of power. She lets loose the north wind, to smite the branches; she beats the bare clods with hail and snow. In a tempest of fury she commands the earth to awaken. But power is impotent; not a root stirs, not a seed moves. Then, when the storms and winds have published their weakness, the south wind comes softly wooing. Summer speaks in love. The mother heart caresses each sleeping seed, and wakens it with bosom pressure. And every root and bough answers with beauty and radiant loveliness. Amid this is the parable of influence, that rebukes man’s harshness, and smites those who turn justice into cruelty and cause their good to be evil spoken of.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1355)

=Harvest=--See FERTILITY.

=Harvest Failures=--See CHOKED.

HARVEST FROM EARLY SOWING

A little girl had been promised a handsome Bible for her birthday. On hearing a missionary tell of the need of Bibles in India, the child asked if she might not have two Bibles, each half as handsome as the one her mother was planning to give her. Her mother consented and the little girl wrote her name in one of them and gave it to the missionary to send to India. Years afterward a lady missionary was telling the story of the love of Jesus to a few women, when one of them exclaimed: “Oh, I know all about that. I have a book which tells me these things.” She brought the book to the missionary, who, on opening it, saw with astonishment her own name on the fly-leaf! It was the very birthday Bible she had sent out years before as a little girl and it had led to the conversion of its reader. (Text.)

(1356)

=Harvest-raising=--See COOPERATION WITH GOD.

=Haste=--See PAINSTAKING.

HASTE WITHOUT SELF-CONTROL

Emerson, in his acute observations on manners, declares that there is nothing “so inelegant as haste,” meaning by this the haste which is a hurry. Haste which the occasion demands is never undignified. A fireman running to a fire is a rather inspiriting sight. We would despise him if he walked. It is rushing in the ordinary affairs of life, which demand deliberation, steadiness, control, that destroys dignity and so destroys good manners. The man in a hurry, we feel at once, is so because he is not master of the situation. He would not be compelled to gorge his breakfast, to walk so fast that he looks like an animated wagon-wheel, or to slight his work, if he had his affairs in control.--_Chautauquan._

(1357)

=Hasty Action=--See RETALIATION.

HAVOC THAT SPREADS

Vernon L. Kellogg points out how the evil of the great grasshopper plague that visited some Western States about forty years ago, entailed disaster on the whole country:

Over thousands and thousands of square miles of the great granary of the land were spread the hordes of hoppers. Farmers and stockmen were being ruined. Then the storekeepers and bankers that sell things and lend money to the farmers. Then the lawyers and doctors that depend on the farmers’ troubles to earn a living. Then the millers and stock-brokers and capitalists of the great cities that make their fortunes out of handling and buying and selling the grains the farmers send in long trains to the centers of population. Everybody, the whole country, was aghast and appalled at the havoc of the hopper. (Text.)--“Insect Stories.”

(1358)

=Head-hunters=--See BARBARISM.

=Headlight Requirements=--See ILLUMINATION.

HEADS, LOSING

I was preaching for a single Sabbath in Brooklyn. In the course of my discourse I lost my head; in fact, I lost all of them. Three were on paper, and one on my shoulders; and they all went at once.

I tried to remember what I had had in my head, but, like the old king’s dream, the matter had gone from me.

I tried to decipher what I had put upon paper, but the writing had faded out.

Everything was gone except the audience, and I could have wished that they were gone, too.

I pounded the desk; I pawed the floor; I clawed the air. I poured whole broadsides of big dictionary into those long-suffering people, but without a single scintilla of sense.

At last I struck a line of thought, and clutched it with the grip of despair, and pulled myself out of the hole in which I had been floundering, and then limped along to a “lame conclusion.”

And then so mortified was I that I would have sunk through the floor, could I have found a vacant nail-hole. As that was out of the question, I would fain have sneaked away without speaking to a human being; but, as bad luck would have it, I had promised to go home to dinner with the Hon. William Richardson, one of the most cultured members of the congregation.

We walked some distance before either spoke a word. Finally, I broke silence--I felt like breaking everything in sight--and I said, “Richardson, was not that the very worst you ever heard?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Mean?” I replied, catching savagely at the word. “‘Mean’ is no name for it. You must have noticed how under the third head of my discourse I lost my head, and ripped and raved and tore around like a lunatic. What did the people think of it?”

“Think of it? Think of it?” he repeated with sincere surprize. “Why, they thought it was the best part of the whole sermon.”

And then I said to myself, and I said to him, “What is the use of talking sense to the people when they like the other so much better?” Possibly this may serve to account for the fact that these same people subsequently called me to become their pastor.--P. S. HENSON, _Christian Endeavor World_.

(1359)

=Headstrong=--See WILFULNESS.

HEAD-WORK

“He puzzled me at first,” said a physician who had engaged a young college student to take some care of his office. “He put actual head-work into his sweeping and dusting, and he showed remarkable carefulness and dexterity in handling articles, never disarranging or misplacing them. I found that he is studying music as well as Latin, and aims to be a pianist one of these days. Do you see, he simply applied the skill he had attained in a finer art to the rougher work he did for me? It speaks well for his future that he did it.”

This ennobling and harmonizing of the coarser task by means of the skill acquired at a finer one, marks the difference between cheap work and expert work. The careless man never sees the connection between two varieties of labor, but the man who does not mean to waste the least of his talents puts his whole mind, all his manual skill, into whatever necessary task is set before him. And this application of skill to diverse ends heightens in itself that very force of skill, so that the man who uses the best he has for each new need becomes a stronger and more able man. (Text.)--_Young People._

(1360)

=Head-work Unremunerative=--See ILL-PAID WORK.

=Healing=--See CHRIST, A THERAPEUTIC.

=Healing Spells=--See REMEDIES, STRANGE.

=Healing, The Gift of=--See GOD SENDS GIFTS.

HEALING WATERS

Traversing Thrace is a wonderful river flowing west and south toward the Egean Sea, named the Tearus. It is said to come from thirty-eight springs, all issuing from the same rock, some hot and some cold. The waters so mingling are pure, limpid and delicious, and are possest of remarkable medicinal properties, being efficacious for the cure of various diseases. Darius was so much pleased with this river that his army halted on its march to refresh itself with its waters. And a monument was erected at the spot as a memorial of the march, and also as a tribute to the salubrity of the waters of this magical stream. (Text.)

(1361)

HEALTH AND SCIENCE

If duties are to be measured by what things cost and the havoc they work, then diseases like consumption and typhoid fever should certainly find more people who would be willing to devote more of their time, energy and means to eradicate at least some of the conditions presented in the following statement:

Every day in the year there are two million people seriously sick in the United States. Some of this can never be prevented, but it is conservatively estimated that our annual loss from preventable diseases alone is $2,000,000,000 per year. Consumption alone formerly cost the United States over $1,000,000,000 a year. Since the discovery of the germ by Dr. Koch and of the improved methods of prevention and cure it has been shown that where this knowledge is applied seventy-five per cent of the loss from consumption can be prevented. Typhoid fever costs the country $350,000,000 a year. The city of Pittsburg alone has, by careful investigation, been shown to have lost $3,142,000 from typhoid fever in one year. The discovery that typhoid is produced by a special germ, which is usually gotten from the water or milk supply or from flies, has made it possible to control this expensive disease. As soon as all our citizens have good sanitary training, this $350,000,000 expense for typhoid can be completely eliminated. It has been shown that in the numerous cities in which the water supply alone has been made sanitary, typhoid has been reduced on the average seventy-one per cent.--New York, _Evening Post_.

(1362)

=Health by Singing=--See SINGING CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH.

HEALTH, CARE OF

Spare diet and constant exercise in the keen morning air helped to endow Wesley with that amazing physical toughness which enabled him, when eighty-five years old, to walk six miles to a preaching appointment, and declare that the only sign of old age he felt was that “he could not walk nor run quite so fast as he once did.”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1363)

HEALTH, ECONOMICS OF

Samuel Hopkins Adams writes of the economic value of pure food as follows:

Sterilization was tried in Rochester. It did not work well. The milk was not nutritious. Then Dr. Goler hit upon what seems to me the centrally important truth in the milk problem; that not the milk itself, but everything with which it comes in contact, should be made germ-proof. And as the basis upon which it all rests, stands the vital lesson of hygienic economics which this country is learning with appreciably growing enlightenment; that bad air, bad water, bad housing, bad sewering, dirty streets, and poor or impure food of whatever sort, cheaper tho they may be in the immediate expense, come back upon a community or a nation, in the long run, with a bill of arrears upon which the not-to-be-avoided percentage is appallingly exorbitant. (Text.)--_McClure’s Magazine._

(1364)

=Health in Large Cities=--See IMPROVED CONDITIONS.

HEALTH, REGAINING AND MAINTAINING

That is a remarkable record Colonel Roosevelt made in going through equatorial Africa for so many months in the jungle and in the swamp and yet never suffering any kind of ill-health for an hour of the whole time.

It would be a remarkable record for any white man, and is

## particularly so in the case of Mr. Roosevelt. As a youngster it

was a question in his own family whether he would ever arrive at maturity. He was a sickly child.

The family, instead of coddling the youth, sent him out to the plains in the great Northwest to rough it on a cattle ranch. There he lived on plain fare, in poorly constructed houses, and rode a bronco from sunrise until dark, often before the sun rose and often after darkness set in. He returned to the house tired and slept soundly until the morning call came again. This was just what made the robust man of Mr. Roosevelt that he is.

Plain fare, plenty of outdoor life, with exercise, is the natural condition for man to pass his life in. Civilization, unless guarded against, levies a terrible tax upon human life. Fine houses, too comfortable clothing, a table too liberally supplied, make direct attacks upon man’s physical health. Late hours, irregular hours, overpacked rooms, with their fetid atmosphere, levy a still heavier tax.

(1365)

=Hearers=--See SYMPATHY, LACK OF.

HEART-HUNGER, SATISFYING

The successful treatment of tuberculosis is psychic, as well as physiologic. So, too, must the treatment of juvenile delinquency be considered. The physician impresses the patient with faith in his recovery. So, too, must the teacher impress the child. She must have faith in him, a faith so wholesome that he will learn to have faith in himself. She must encourage so that her encouragement will spur the weakest to effort. Oh, the effect of a tender word on a parched and starving little heart! Cases of individual rescues effected by a kind word crowd upon me.

Dominick, the little Italian, the terror of three successive schools, who to-day is not only a fine lad, but who has reformed several other boys, changed from a lawless, defiant misdemeanant to the pride of the class--how? By a teacher who said to him, “I think you are trying to-day, dear.” Poor little chap! He told his teacher frankly that it was her calling him “dear” which developed in him a determination to please her.

The insolent, defiant Irish boy, driven from room to room, who to-day is working steadily--respectful, law-abiding, ambitious--what worked his reform? A teacher, who in reply to the principal’s question, “Well, how is Tom doing in here?” looked at the class in line and noticing that Tom was standing up straight, said: “Oh, he’s going to be all right. He’s the best stander in the class.” And Tom, poor Tom, the first time he had ever been the best anything, took heart, and worked for further commendation.

Ikey, the little Russian boy, in rags which almost fell from his poor, thin, little legs, what changed him from an ugly little outcast to a boy who tried, really tried, to do what was right? A clean suit of clothes, a warm bath, and a daily glass of milk, given by a teacher who sensed the boy’s needs.

Have you read Owen Kildare’s account of the effect upon him of the first gentle touch he had ever felt?

Seldom in his life as a child had any one said a kind word to him. One day when a strange woman patted him on the cheek he almost cried with the joy of it.

“With a light pat on my cheek and one of the sunniest smiles ever shed on me.” he says of the incident, “she put a penny in my hand. She was gone before I realized what had happened. Somehow, I felt that were she to come back I could have said to her, ‘Say, lady, I haven’t got much to give, but I’ll give you all me poipers, me pennies, and me knife if you’ll do that agen.’”

Go back to your schools. Pick out the so-called worst boys. Find out whether heart-hunger as well as stomach-hunger may not be one of the symptoms of the disease. There is not a teacher in all our broad land who would knowingly let a child’s body starve to death for want of physical food. Why should any child’s heart or soul be allowed to starve to death for want of a little sympathy and affection? Bodily starvation, at its worst, can only end in death; soul starvation, at its worst, ends in a hateful, ugly, defiant, lawless attitude toward authority, which not only ruins the starved one but brings disaster to the social order. Does not some blame belong to the school if its teachers fail to feed these starving souls?--JULIA RICHMAN, “Proceedings of the National Education Association,” 1909.

(1366)

HEART-INTEREST

When the old lady was training her son for the trapeze, the boy made three or four rather ineffectual efforts to get over the bar. Then she was heard to suggest: “John Henry Hobbs, if you will just throw your heart over the bars, your body will follow.” (Text.)--JAMES G. BLAINE.

(1367)

HEART, REGENERATION OF

A fable among the Turks says that Mohammed, when a child, had his heart laid open, and a black grain, called the devil’s portion, taken out of its center; and in this heroic way the prophet’s preeminent virtue and sanctity are accounted for.

A new heart entire, through the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, far surpasses the Moslem’s fabled operation.

(1368)

=Heart, Summer in the=--See SUMMER IN THE HEART.

HEART, THE

The word “heart” is used figuratively and metaphysically, but with vivid impressiveness in Scripture, to indicate the capacity of feeling after God without which faith is impossible. Men of mathematical and philosophic training have in many cases lamentably exemplified the atrophy of the finer feelings. Here is the great fault in the glittering and brilliant writings of John Stuart Mill. From early infancy he, a most precocious boy, was taught to crush the heart, to repress all sentiments of affection. The moral nature of the lad was shockingly distorted, and as he grew up he judged of everything by the cold light of intellect only. He wrote his autobiography, and in that book is not a word about his mother. So the book absolutely lacks heart, and it is devoid of all fascination. (Text.)

(1369)

HEART, THE HUMAN

An American naturalist tells us that the human brain is full of birds. The song-birds might all have been hatched in the human heart, so well do they express the whole gamut of human passion and emotion in their varied songs. The plaintive singers, the soaring ecstatic singers, the gushing singers, the inarticulate singers--robin, dove, lark, mocking-bird, nightingale--all are expressive of human emotion, desire, love, sadness, aspiration, glee. Christ gives a sadder view of our heart, showing it to be “the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Fierce hawk, croaking raven, ravenous vulture, obscene birds, birds of discord, birds of darkness, birds of tempest, birds of blood and death--these are all typical of the heart’s base passions; these all brood and nestle within, and fly forth to darken, pollute, and destroy. And the Master is not here speaking of some hearts, but of the human heart generally. In the woods we find occasionally a bird with a false note, in the fields a misshapen flower, yet beauty and music are the prevailing characteristics of the landscape; but stepping into society, the universal discord and misery declare the common radical defect of our nature.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1370)

HEART, THE SINGING

Frank L. Stanton writes of the man who has a song in the heart thus:

There is never a sky of winter To the heart that sings alway; Never a night but hath stars to light, And dreams of a rosy day.

The world is ever a garden Red with the bloom of May; And never a stormy morning To the heart that sings alway!

(1371)

=Heart versus Head=--See DEATH COMPELLING SINCERITY; EXPERIENCE THE BEST ARGUMENT.

=Heartless Custom=--See BARBARISM.

HEARTLESS PAGANS

There is an essential difference between the attitude of heathenism and of Christianity toward human suffering. Sir Frederick Lely said:

The ordinary native of India who has been untouched by the Light is utterly devoid of pity. In West India a man will be taxed for killing a dog, but not for killing a man. During famine times it is an every-day sight to see men feeding monkeys with unleavened cakes and refusing to give a crust to their fellow men who are lying within a few yards of them dying with hunger. The great merchants and moneyed men of India spent thousands upon food for decrepid and worthless animals, but left it to the British Government to feed the men and women. In a famine hospital, Sir Frederick saw a little lad whose flesh was torn in many places. That morning an agent of one of the merchant gilds had visited his village with a supply of food for the village pariah dogs. The poor boy asked for some for himself but was refused, and in desperation he ran in among the dogs to try and get a piece, and they turned upon him and bit him. A Bunnia Hindu, in Ankleshwer, has recently given 15,000 rupees to found an animal hospital. The enclosure is to be in the midst of the town--a commodious structure, where worn-out cattle and worthless animals will be brought as a matter of religion. Around the outside of these same walls will walk crippled, diseased, poor and hungry men and women and children, but their pleading voices will fall on deaf ears.

(1372)

=Heat=--See ENTHUSIASM.

=Heathen at Home and Abroad=--See MISSIONS APPROVED.

HEATHEN RECEPTIVENESS

The heathen seldom express a longing for the gospel as clearly as in the following petition to the missionaries of the Swedish Missionary Society in the Kongo State from a number of black heathen chiefs in 1887. They said:

We, Makayi, Nsinki, Kibundu, and Mukayi Makuta Ntoko, chiefs in Kibunzi, and our people, desire that the missionaries of the Swedish Missionary Society come and make their home with us, and teach us and our people. We gladly give them the right to erect their buildings upon the high hill southeast from the village of Kibunzi in any convenient spot. We transfer to them all our claims to that hill. Of course, they have the right to use the forests, the rivers, the roads, and the fields for plantations within our boundaries in the same manner as ourselves. We have invited them to come, and we are glad to see them with us, and our one desire is that they remain with us and erect buildings.

(1373)

HEATHENDOM

An experience of my own in connection with the Kiang-peh famine in China illustrates the situation on most mission fields to-day. Tarrying in Chinkiang for a few days before proceeding up the canal, I saw considerable of the refugee camp outside the city wall. Altho one of the smaller camps, this one held perhaps forty thousand refugees from up country, all living on the bare and frozen ground, and the most comfortable of them having only an improvised hut of straw matting to shelter them. The tide of relief had not yet begun to flow from America and Europe. Moved by compassion for the suffering ones, Mrs. John W. Paxton made daily rounds to administer what medical relief was possible. One day I accompanied her, and she translated the words of the people. The commonest complaint we heard that morning from these starving Chinese was that they had lost their appetites! On their faces was the unmistakable famine pallor; hunger had driven them hither from their homes--yet they had no taste for food! The tragedy of it was overwhelming. They had no appetite, because they had reached the last stages of starvation, and were dying. They did not want food, for the very reason that they needed it so badly. Heathendom does not want the gospel, because it needs it. Starving for the bread of life, it yet protests no desire for this supreme boon. Heathendom does not desire Christianity for the very reason that it is heathendom.--WILLIAM T. ELLIS, “Men and Missions.”

(1374)

=Heathenism Shattered=--See MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF.

HEAVEN

A schoolboy had a blind father; the boy was very keen on games, and his father was in the habit of being present at all the school cricket matches, altho he had to look on at the prowess of his son through other eyes. Then the father died. The day after the funeral there was an important cricket match on, and, to the surprize of his fellows, the lad exprest a strong wish to play. He played, and played well, making a fine score, and carrying out his bat. His friends gathered round him in the pavilion, shaking him by the hand and patting him on the back.

“Did I do well?” he asked.

“Well!” was the reply, “you did splendidly; never better.”

“I am so glad,” the boy said; “it is the first time he ever saw me bat.”

For him, heaven was the place which gave his blind father sight.

(1375)

* * * * *

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps points out the fact that each one’s idea of heaven is some place or state where our most earnest longings and desires are met and fulfilled:

“If I could be out of physical pain,” said a lifelong invalid, “I would ask no other heaven.” “If I could be in a place where I might know that my husband never could be killed on the train!” cried one of the gentle worriers, whose capacity for suffering is neither understood nor respected by the sanguine. “If I could take my children to a world where every time I hear a croupy cough my heart did not stand still with terror,” urged another, “that would be heaven for me.” The mulatto girl who burst into joyful tears at first sight of a marble bust of herself, “because it was white,” caught a glimpse of her heaven before its time.

“Heaven must be like any other form of happiness, only ‘more so,’” said a thoughtful man. “And the conditions of happiness are three--a clear conscience, something to do, and some one to love.”

(1376)

See COUNTRY, A NEW; LIGHT IMMORTAL.

HEAVEN, CONCEPTIONS OF

Life changes all our thoughts of heaven; At first we think of streets of gold, Of gates of pearl and dazzling light, Of shining wings and robes of white, And things all strange to mortal sight. But in the afterward of years It is a more familiar place-- A home unhurt by sighs or tears, Where waiteth many a well-known face. With passing months it comes more near. It grows more real day by day; Not strange or cold, but very dear-- The glad homeland not far away, Where none are sick, or poor, or lone, The place where we shall find our own. And as we think of all we knew, Who there have met to part no more, Our longing hearts desire home, too, With all the strife and trouble o’er.

(1377)

=Heaven, Disbelief in=--See ANSWER, A SOFT.

HEAVEN, FRIENDS IN

Rev. John White Chadwick, who has now joined “the choir invisible,” wrote of the friends who had gone before in this poem:

It singeth low in every heart, We hear it, each and all-- A song of those who answer not, However we may call; They throng the silence of the breast, We see them as of yore-- The kind, the brave, the true, the sweet, Who walk with us no more.

’Tis hard to take the burden up When these have laid it down; They brightened all the joy of life, They softened every frown; But, O, ’tis good to think of them When we are troubled sore! Thanks be to God that such have been, Tho they are here no more.

More homelike seems the vast unknown, Since they have entered there; To follow them were not so hard, Wherever they may fare; They can not be where God is not, On any sea or shore; Whate’er betides, Thy love abides, Our God, for evermore.

(1378)

=Heaven, Getting to=--See OBLIGATION TO THE CHURCH.

=Heaven Open=--See LOOKING UP.

HEAVEN OUR HOME

When King Khama came from Bechuanaland to England he was constantly asking “Where is Africa?” No matter how fascinating were the sights, his heart turned always homeward. So the Christian in the midst of all life’s distractions may remember that here he has no continuing city--heaven is his home. (Text.)

(1379)

=Heavenly Mail Facilities=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

=Heavenly Treasures=--See TREASURES LAID UP.

HEAVENLY VISITORS

Observations of falling stars have been used to determine roughly the average number of meteorites which attempt to pierce the earth’s atmosphere during each twenty-four hours. Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, from observations made during seventeen years, found that the mean hourly number of luminous meteors visible on a clear, moonless night by one observer was fourteen, taking the time of observation from midnight to 1 A.M. It has been further experimentally shown that a large group of observers who might include the whole horizon in their observations would see about six times as many as are visible to one eye. Prof. H. A. Newton and others have calculated that, making all proper corrections, the number which might be visible over the whole earth would be a little greater than 10,000 times as many as could be seen at one place. From this we gather that not less than 20,000,000 luminous meteors fall upon our planet daily, each of which in a dark clear night would present us with the well-known phenomenon of a shooting-star. This number, however, by no means represents the total number of minute meteorites that enter our atmosphere, because many entirely invisible to the naked eye are often seen in telescopes. It has been calculated that the number of meteorites, if these were included, would be increased at least twentyfold; this would give us 400,000,000 of meteorites falling in the earth’s atmosphere daily.--J. NORMAN LOCKYER, _Harper’s Magazine_.

(1380)

=Heavens, The=--See PRIVILEGE.

=Height=--See GIANTS AND DWARFS; UPWARD LOOK.

=Height Abolishing Burdens=--See WEIGHT DIMINISHED BY ASCENT.

HEIGHTS

The mind of Christ places and keeps us on the heights, lifting our consciousness from the seen to the unseen, and opening all our little restricted nature to the joyous rhythm of the universal life. What cowards we are when dominated by the seen. We dare not affirm anything beyond the reach of the eye, the sound of the ear, the touch of the finger-tips. But the beauties we see are only the reflection of the beauties that are, like Pluto’s artizans in the cave, catching only the reflected light from the realm above, the music we hear, the merest jingle of the melodies divine, the things we touch, the superficial, mechanical, material side of reality. Why can’t we believe that the unseen things which can be detected from the heights are those that are worth while, because the abiding, the eternal? Only on the heights can we dominate bodily conditions.--ROBERT MACDONALD.

(1381)

=Heights, In the=--See CONFIDENCE.

HEIGHTS, LIVING ON

On the heights above the vega of Granada there rises the great palace of the Alhambra. In the lower stories there are the menial offices of domestic use. Above them are the living rooms, the guest chambers, the halls of the Moorish kings; and far above them all rises the great red tower into which the Moslem kings could ascend to look upward to the stars and downward on the valley, green with trees and beautiful with cities.

So God has made our lives. The lower stories serving the needs of our material life, the higher ones of intellect and affection, where we live in the joys of thought and friendship; but high above them all rises the great watch-tower of the soul in which the noise and toils of earth are lost in the great stillness of the heights, and earth’s mysteries and sorrows are interpreted by the higher providence of God.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1382)

HEIGHTS, PRESSING TOWARD

The peaks of some mountains are always enveloped in morning mists. They shut down on the climber like a sky of lead beyond which neither rift in the clouds or ray of sunlight is visible. The expansive view is excluded and self is left, humanly speaking, alone in the gloom. But if he presses forward, keeping onward and upward, the light of the eastern sun will soon flood him with light.

In the world we are often confused by the mountain mists. Then is the time to press forward, in the faith that we shall see the rays of the rising Son of righteousness dispel the clouds and light breaking forth. (Text.)

(1383)

=Heights, Striving for the=--See GAIN THROUGH LOSS.

=Hell, Threatened=--See SINNERS AND GOD.

HELP FOR THE HELPLESS

During the South African war a manager of a mine on the lonely veldt did his best to discover and help the wounded British soldiers in the neighborhood of his home. When night came on the manager had to give up his weary search. But he determined to let the soldiers know of the refuge which his house was ready to afford. So he sat down to his little piano and played incessantly, “God Save the Queen.” Through the night, while his fingers were numbed with the cold, he played the British national anthem, risking death at the hands of the enemies if they had heard him. And one by one the wounded soldiers struggled toward the friendly roof and lay down in the safe refuge of his home. It was a beautiful version of the Savior’s call to tired and tempted men and women: “Come unto me, and rest.” (Text.)

(1384)

HELP ONE ANOTHER

“Help one another,” the snowflakes said, As they settled down in their fleecy bed, “One of us here would never be felt, One of us here would quickly melt; But I’ll help you, and you help me, And then what a splendid drift there’ll be.”

“Help one another,” the maple spray Said to its fellow leaves one day; “The sun would wither me here alone, Long enough ere the day is gone; But I’ll help you, and you help me, And then what a splendid shade there’ll be.”

“Help one another,” the dew-drop cried, Seeing another drop close to its side; “The warm south wind would dry me away, And I should be gone ere noon to-day; But I’ll help you, and you help me, And we’ll make a brook and run to the sea.”

“Help one another,” a grain of sand Said to another grain close at hand; “The wind may carry me over the sea, And then, oh, what will become of me? But, come, my brother, give me your hand, We’ll build a mountain and then we’ll stand.”

And so the snowflakes grew to drifts; The grains of sand to a mountain; The leaves became a summer shade; The dew-drops fed a fountain.

--_Source Unidentified._

(1385)

HELP, TIMELY APPEAL FOR

In the days of the United States Christian Commission, at a time when help was needed, a dinner was being served at Saratoga. Mr. George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, a leader in the work, rose at table and announced, “I have news from Charleston!” Instantly all was silent. Then he added, “I have a dispatch from the commanding officer at Hilton Head, saying, ‘For God’s sake, send us ice for our wounded soldiers! Will the boarders at Saratoga respond?’” “We will! We will! We will!” rang out in chorus. Soon a purse of $3,200 was raised and forwarded to the seat of war.

Help can always be secured if we know the time and place and way of asking.

(1386)

HELP, UNEXPECTED

Two men walking across a little park in Washington (says Ida N. Tarbell) saw Mr. Lincoln just ahead of them meet a crippled soldier who was in a towering rage, cursing the Government from the President down. Mr. Lincoln asked what was the matter. “Matter,” snapt the soldier; “I’m just out of a rebel prison. I’ve been discharged and I can’t get my money.” Mr. Lincoln asked for the soldier’s papers, saying that he had been a lawyer and perhaps could help him. The two gentlemen stept behind some shrubbery and waited. The President took the papers from the soldier, examined them, wrote a line on the back, and told him to carry them to the chief clerk at the War Department. After Mr. Lincoln had passed on, the gentlemen asked the soldier if he knew who had been talking to him. “Some ugly old fellow who pretends to be a lawyer,” was the answer. On looking at the note written on the back of the papers, the soldier discovered that he had been cursing “Abe” Lincoln to his face. He found a request to the chief clerk to examine the papers and, if correct, to see that the soldier was given his pay, signed A. Lincoln.

(1387)

HELP UNRECOGNIZED

A night of terror and danger, because of their ignorance, was spent by the crew of a vessel off the coast of New Jersey.

Just before dark a bark was discovered drifting helplessly, and soon struck her bows so that she was made fast on a bar, and in momentary danger of going down.

A line was shot over the rigging of the wreck by a life-saving crew, but the sailors did not understand that it was a line connecting them with the shore, that they might seize and escape. All signs failed to make them understand this. So all night the bark lay with the big waves dashing over it, while the crew, drenched and shivering and terrified, shouted for help.

In the morning they discovered how unnecessarily they had suffered, and how all night there was a line right within reach by which they might have been saved.--_Evangelical Messenger._

(1388)

=Helpers, Humble=--See SUPPLIES, BRINGING UP.

HELPERS, UNSEEN

Wireless ships suggest the value of our unseen helpers. Life is a sea, and men are mariners. As long as the sea is smooth we do not give much thought to our helpers in the unseen. But smooth sea, rough sea, or no sea, the helpers are there, waiting to be called. And behind them all stands the eternal Christ, dispatching his cosmic soldiers, even as the Roman centurion commanded his legions.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1389)

HELPFULNESS

Susan Coolidge puts into verse some suggestive questions upon opportunities to be helpful:

If you were toiling up a weary hill, Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear, Straining each nerve untiringly and still Stumbling and losing foothold here and there, And each one passing by would do so much As give one upward lift and go his way, Would not the slight reiterated touch Of help and kindness lighten all the day?

If you were breasting a keen wind which tost And buffeted and chilled you as you strove, Till baffled and bewildered quite, you lost The power to see the way, and aim and move, And one, if only for a moment’s space, Gave you a shelter from the bitter blast, Would you not find it easier to face The storm again when the brief rest was past?

(1390)

* * * * *

If I can live To make some pale face brighter, and to give A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye, Or e’en impart One throb of comfort to an aching heart, Or cheer some wayworn soul in passing by;

If I can lend A strong hand to the fallen, or defend The right against a single envious strain, My life, tho bare Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair To us of earth, will not have been in vain.

The purest joy, Most near to heaven, far from earth’s alloy, Is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine; And ’twill be well If on that day of days the angels tell Of me, “She did her best for one of Thine.” (Text.)

(1391)

* * * * *

The Koran tells of an angel who was sent from heaven to earth to do two things. One was to save King Solomon from doing some wrong thing to which he was inclined; and the other was to help a tiny yellow ant carry its load. (Text.)

(1392)

See INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE; LABOR, OPPORTUNITY FOR.

HELPFULNESS AMONG BIRDS

Mr. John Lewis Childs tells in the _Auk_ an instance of a shrike he shot in Florida. The bird flew and tried to alight in a tree, but was unable to do so and fell to the ground. As Mr. Childs approached to capture him, the bird struggled up and fluttered away with difficulty, uttering a cry of distress. Immediately another of his kind darted out of a tree, flew to his wounded companion, and circled about him and underneath him, buoying him up as he was about to sink to the ground. These tactics were repeated continually, the birds rising higher and flying farther away till they had gone nearly out of sight and safely lodged in the top of a tall pine-tree.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(1393)

=Helpfulness as Testimony=--See WITNESS OF SERVICE.

HELPFULNESS, HAPPINESS IN

“Guess who was the happiest child I saw to-day,” said father, taking his two little boys on his knees.

“Well,” said Jim slowly, “it was a very rich little boy, with lots and lots of sweets and cakes.” “No,” said father. “He wasn’t rich; he had no sweets and no cakes. What do you guess, Joe?” “He was a pretty big boy,” said Joe, “and he was riding a big, high bicycle.” “No,” said father. “He wasn’t big, and he wasn’t riding a bicycle. You have lost your guesses, so I’ll have to tell you. There was a flock of sheep crossing the city to-day; and they must have come a long way, so dusty and tired and thirsty were they. The drover took them up, bleating and lolling out their tongues, to a great pump, to water them. But one poor old ewe was too tired to get to the trough, and fell down on the hot, dusty stones. Then I saw my little man, ragged and dirty and tousled, spring out from the crowd of urchins who were watching the drove, fill his hat and carry it--one, two three--oh, as many as six times! to the poor, suffering animal, until the creature was able to get up and go on with the rest.”

“Did the sheep say, ‘Thank you,’ father?” asked Jim gravely. “I didn’t hear it,” answered father. “But the little boy’s face was shining like the sun, and I’m sure he knows what a blest thing it is to help what needs helping.”

(1394)

HELPS THAT HINDER

Richard I, third Duke of Normandy, became involved in long and arduous wars with the King of France, which compelled him to call in the aid of more Northmen from the Baltic. His new allies, in the end, gave him as much trouble as the old enemy, with whom they came to help William I, his predecessor, contend; and he found it very hard to get them away. He wanted at length to make peace with the French king, and to have them leave his dominions; but they said: “That was not what we came for.”

There are helps that become hindrances, and aids that are embarrassing in the end.

(1395)

=Hereafter and Here=--See EXCLUSION FROM HEAVEN.

HEREDITY

With regard to the inheritance of handwriting there can be no doubt. Instances of close resemblances between the writings of the members of one and the same family will readily occur to every one. A particular slope in the writing or a mode of looping the letters, or of forming certain words may be passed on for several generations, especially when they originate from a man or woman of pronounced individuality. (Text.)--C. AINSWORTH MITCHELL, _Knowledge and Scientific News_.

(1396)

See TRANSMISSION.

HEREDITY, CONQUERING

How many people are kept back because of an unfortunate family history! The son of the notorious bandit, Jesse James, some time ago carried off the highest honor, _summa cum laude_, in the Kansas City Law School. Judge Silas Porter, of the Supreme Court of Kansas, delivered the address on the occasion.

For years young James has been the only support of his widowed mother. He has worked in a packing-house, attended a cigar-stand, and has done all sorts of things to secure an education and make his way in the world; and at last he has succeeded in overcoming the handicap of his fearful inheritance.

His success ought to be a great encouragement to the unfortunate boys and girls whose fathers or mothers have disgraced them and placed them at cruel odds with the world.--_Success._

(1397)

=Heredity of Drink=--See DRINK, HERITAGE OF.

=Heroes, Missionary=--See MISSIONS.

HEROISM

The newspapers tell us that the colored regiments continue to come in for praises for their good work at Santiago, and they seem to have as good a sense of humor as an Irishman:

The Rough Riders were in a bad position on San Juan Hill at one time, and it is generally admitted that they could not have held their position but for the splendid charge of the Ninth Cavalry to their support. After the worst of the fighting was over a rough rider, finding himself near one of the colored troopers, walked up and grasped his hand, saying: “We’ve got you fellows to thank for getting us out of a bad hole.” “Dat’s all right, boss,” said the negro, with a broad grin. “Dat’s all right. It’s all in de fam’ly. We call ouahselves de colored rough riders!” (Text.)

(1398)

* * * * *

In the long watch before Santiago the terror of our great battleships was the two Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers, those swift, fiendish sharks of the sea, engines of death and destruction, and yet, when the great battle came, it was the unprotected _Gloucester_, a converted yacht, the former plaything and pleasure-boat of a summer vacation, which, without hesitation or turning, attacked these demons of the sea and sunk them both. I have always thought it the most heroic and gallant individual instance of fighting daring in the war. It was as if some light-clad youth, with no defense but his sword, threw himself into the arena with armored gladiators and by his dash and spirit laid them low. And yet who has given a sword or spread a feast to that purest flame of chivalrous heroism, Richard Wainwright?--Hon. JOHN D. LONG.

(1399)

* * * * *

William H. Edwards, a ‘longshoreman, twenty-five years old, who forgot race prejudice in his anxiety to be of service to his fellow men, was awarded a silver medal by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission and also $1,000 to be applied to the purchase of a home.

While the _Arcadia_, a freight steamer, plying between Hamburg and Philadelphia, was being unloaded in June, 1908, an explosion in the cargo occurred. Most of the stevedores working below decks were knocked down and bruised, some being burned. Many of the workers deserted the ship. Smoke and flames came from the hatches. Cries of the injured below decks came to the party of men waiting on deck.

Edwards volunteered to attempt the rescue of the imprisoned men. Tying a rope to a lighter, he slid into the burning hold, but could find nothing. Hearing groans he deserted his guide-rope and bending low searched in the direction of the cries of pain. After a long search he located Lucius Hubbard, a negro. Bearing the unconscious and injured workman to the open hatch, he had him hoisted to the deck and safety, following himself when assured there was no other person in the burning vessel.

(1400)

* * * * *

The following dispatch from Mankato, Minn., is given by the Baltimore _Sun_:

With one foot cut off and his legs mangled, Rudolph Elmquist, an eighteen-year-old railroad operator, crawled a mile to his operating station and sounded a warning to Mankato, which saved probably one hundred lives.

Elmquist tried Friday night to get on the evening freight-train caboose for Mankato, where he boarded. He slipt and fell beneath the wheels. The freight crew saw him fall and feared he had been hurt. The train stopt about a mile away and began to back up to investigate.

The St. Paul passenger train was nearly due and the track was supposed to be clear for it. As one side of the curved track is along a high embankment and river, a disastrous crash was imminent.

Elmquist saw the train backing up the track and tried, waving his arms, to stop it. Failing to find him in the night, the freight crew prepared to go forward again.

Elmquist again tried to attract attention, but in vain. He then began dragging himself over the grass along the track to his station and reached his key about half an hour later, suffering torture.

He wired the Great Western operator at Mankato: “My foot is cut off and No. 271 is coming back to pick me up. She will have to have help against No. 142, which is due at Mankato in a few minutes.”

Then he fainted and fell across his desk. He was hurried to a hospital, where it was said both legs would have to be amputated.

(1401)

See GRATITUDE; LOST, CRY OF THE; RESCUE.

=Heroism, Domestic=--See DOMESTIC HEROISM.

=Heroism in Disaster=--See COMPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE.

HEROISM IN FICTION

There is not a mine, not a railroad, not a steamship line, not a life-saving station in America or Europe, not a city in America or Europe, that has not illustrated in its history the capacity of human nature promptly to do and dare and die. And these deeds are done as modestly, as instinctively, as frequently as they were in the days of the Civil War when thousands on both sides faced each other in a battle whose issue, whether victory or defeat, put not a cent into any soldier’s pocket; when victory stood for no more booty or beauty than defeat. And since this is so; since our plain American common people are easily capable of heroic action and chivalric conduct, why do writers like Howells persist in picturing us a people whose average life and soul are represented by dudes and dolls, by selfish or silly men and women; by knaves with a vast retinue of fools and tools? The everyday heroism of the plain common people of America is a rebuke to Howells for his low figures, and a justification of the school of fiction that fills its pages with men and women that stand for noble aspirations and inspiration. The story of high endeavor is all that keeps the world’s eye on the stars.--Portland _Oregonian_.

(1402)

=Heroism, Missionary=--See MISSIONARY CALL.

HEROISM, MODEST

Bicycle Policeman Ajax Whitman, the strong man of the department, did a stunt on the new Queensboro Bridge, New York, that those who saw will never forget, and the feat is vouched for by a large crowd who witnessed the bike cop’s job.

Thomas Jones, of No. 102 Fourth Avenue, and Charles Schoener went over to the bridge to string lines of flags from the various towers. Both men are steeplejacks.

Jones went up the north tower of the bridge and Schoener the south. The men used their little steeplejack seats and pulled themselves up. They had rigged their ropes and pulleys and were preparing to pass a line from one to the other to string the flags across to their respective towers when Schoener saw Jones suddenly go limp in his seat at the top of the tower flagpole, fall forward against it and hang there.

“What’s wrong?” called Schoener.

“I’m gradually going,” was all Jones could call back.

Schoener slid down his flagpole as fast as he could, all the time calling for help.

Down on the roadway below the towers Whitman was walking along with his wheel. He looked up when he heard Schoener yelling and then he spotted Jones, who sagged forward in his seat like a lifeless man. Whitman dropt the bicycle and ran to the little spiral stairway that leads from the roadway to the top of the tower. Meantime, a large crowd had been attracted by the flagman’s peril. All vehicles at work on the bridge were stopt and people were running in all directions trying to devise some means of being of use. Whitman suddenly came out at the top of the tower.

Just as Whitman appeared in sight the seat in which Jones was sitting became loosened and as the seat started to go downward the decorator lost his balance and shot out of the seat head downward. Whitman braced himself against the foot of the flagpole and held out his arms. Jones’ limp body shot down and the big policeman acted as a net. The body fell just across Ajax’s big arms, and then both men went over in a heap as Jones’ weight carried the policeman from his stand against the foot of the pole.

Jones was unconscious and when the two men fell to the narrow flooring at the top of the tower he slipt from Whitman’s grasp and rolled toward the edge, over the river. Whitman made a desperate grab, got hold of Jones’ coat and held fast. Others below then regained their wits and ran up with Schoener and pulled the unconscious man back on the tower platform.

As for Whitman, if it hadn’t been that everybody stopt work to watch the accident and so blocked the bridge no report would have been made, but Whitman had to account for the block of vehicles on the roadway and he did so by stating that “an accident to a decorator caused a ten minutes’ block of traffic on the Queensboro Bridge.”

(1403)

HEROISM RECOGNIZED

Pausing for a moment in its legislative activities, January, 1909, the House of Representatives listened to a eulogy of John R. Binns, the Marconi operator aboard the steamship _Republic_, who remained at his post following her collision with the _Florida_.

Binns sat in his darkened cabin on the _Republic_ as long as there was power to be had from the generators.

Mr. Boutell, of Illinois, amid loud applause, said that throughout the whole critical period, “there was one silent actor in the tragedy whose name should be immortalized.” He specifically mentioned Binns by name, and in conclusion said:

“Binns has given the world a splendid illustration of the heroism that dwells in many who are doing the quiet, unnoticed tasks of life. Is it not an inspiration for all of us to feel that there are heroes for every emergency and that in human life no danger is so great that some ‘Jack’ Binns is not ready to face it?”

(1404)

HEROISM, VOLUNTARY

S. D. Gordon, in “The Sychar Revival,” gives an incident several times paralleled in the histories of warfare:

There is a simple story told about the time when the British were putting down a rebellion among the Ashanti tribes on the west coast of Africa. One morning the officer in command came to speak to the soldiers as they were drilling on the level stretch of land. He said, “Soldiers, I have a dangerous enterprise to-day. I need so many men. Every man that goes may lose his life. It is as serious as that. I am telling you frankly. I could draft you, but I don’t want to. I would like to ask for volunteers. I want those who will volunteer for Her Majesty’s sake to advance a pace.” They were drawn up in a straight line, and thinking the men might be influenced by his look he swung on his heel, and off, then back again and looked. The line stood as straight as before. His eye flashed fire. “What, not a single man to volunteer?” Then a fellow standing at the end of the line next to him saluted and said, modestly, “If you please, sir, every man has advanced one pace.”

(1405)

HIDDEN DANGERS

There is a little instrument used in war called a caltrop, named from a kind of thistle. It consists of a small bar of iron, with several sharp points projecting from it one or two inches each way. If these instruments are thrown upon the ground at random, one of the points must necessarily be upward, and the horses that tread upon them are lamed and disabled at once. History tells that Darius caused caltrops to be scattered in the grass and along the roads, wherever the army of Alexander would be likely to approach his troops on the field of battle.

(1406)

=Hidden, The, Exposed=--See DETECTION.

HIDDEN VALUES

In an effort to locate a diamond ring valued at $450, which an elephant had swallowed while being fed peanuts, three expert X-ray operators and four elephant-trainers worked a whole day photographing by the X-ray process the entire interior of the elephant. In making the pictures, the largest X-ray machine ever made was used.

There were made eighteen plates in all to get a complete diagram of the elephant’s interior. The ring was found in the beast’s stomach.--_The Electrician and Mechanic._

(1407)

=High Prices Responsible=--See DETECTION.

HIGHER CRITICISM

What if Moses did not write the Pentateuch? What if it were written by another man named Moses? When a child is hungry, it is not interested in a dispute whether John Smith or James Smith planted the apple-tree. What it wants is the apple, because it is hungry. The patient has suffered a grievous accident, and the surgeon must operate. In that hour ether must be used, or the heart will not survive the agony. In such a critical moment, who cares whether Dr. Morton or Dr. Simpson discovered the saving remedy? It is ease from pain that the feeble heart demands. Your friend is in trouble in Europe, and you must send him a cable of relief. The English people claim that two Englishmen laid the Atlantic cable, and that Cyrus Field was only their American agent, occupying a very subordinate place, while Americans say that Mr. Field was the father of the Atlantic cable. When an emergency comes, and the child is in trouble in a foreign land, the father does not care to dispute over the precedency of inventors. What he wants to do is to send a message under the sea. Don’t dispute over the Bible, therefore, but use the Bible. He who analyzes a flower must lose the sweet rose. When a pilgrim is crossing the desert, one handful of wheat for hunger is worth a bushel of diamonds. Remember the use and purpose for which the Bible was written. It is a guide to right living, it shows the path to God’s throne.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1408)

HIGHER LAW, THE

It is told of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, that soon after he was assigned to duty as midshipman, his vessel was wrecked off the coast of Denmark. The Admiral commanding resolved to save the young man, and ordered him to take charge of the first boat which put off from the doomed ship. The Grand Duke disdained safety thus bought and declined. “My duty is here,” he said to the admiral, “and I must be the last to leave the ship.” “Do you not understand, sir,” exclaimed the admiral, “that you are under my command? And do you dare refuse obedience to my orders?” “I know my duty,” answered the midshipman, “and I will obey any orders you may see fit to give me, except an order to leave the ship, where my duty now commands me to remain.” The admiral gave up his point and Alexis was the last man to leave the ship, and after landing, was promptly ordered under arrest for disobedience of orders. He submitted without a murmur. The admiral sent dispatches to the Emperor detailing the affair, and the Emperor wrote: “I approve your having placed the midshipman under arrest for disobedience, and I bless my boy for having disobeyed.” (Text.)

(1409)

See DECEPTION JUSTIFIED.

HIGHER LIFE

Verestchagin, the famous Russian artist, once painted a picture above the clouds. He climbed to the top of one of the Himalaya Mountains, and lived amid the snow and ice, where the colorings were gorgeous in beauty. There he portrayed the mighty peaks and the beauty of the morning clouds as no other artist has ever done.

Elevation of life has much to do with vision of soul.

(1410)

=Higher, Survival of the=--See GOOD VICTORIOUS.

HIGHER, THE

There is an old Dutch picture of a little child who is dropping from his hands a beautiful toy. Looking at the painting, one is surprized to see the plaything so carelessly abandoned; until, following the child’s eye to the corner of the picture, one sees a lovely white dove flying down into the child’s outstretched hands.

That is the way it will be with all of us as soon as we actually begin to see the pure beauties and joys of the higher life. All our silly playthings will be allowed to fall out of our hands. We shall let go of fashion and luxury, and idle dissipation, and proud ambition, and greed for gain, and desire for men’s applause and for advancement in the world, and we shall stretch out our hands for the things that are best worth having. Those are the things which will stay with us. They will give something of their nature to our lives, and will ennoble everything they touch. (Text.)

(1411)

=Highways=--See PATHS, KEEPING ONE’S OWN.

HISTORY AND MUSIC CORRELATED

How closely our own history and our songs are connected! One can not properly teach our “Star-spangled Banner” without going quite into detail and telling the thrilling incidents surrounding its creation. No wedding of poetry and music has ever been made under more inspiring circumstances. It was caught up in the camps, sung around the bivouac-fires, and whistled in the streets. When peace was declared and the soldiers went back to their homes, they carried this song in their hearts, as the most precious souvenir of the War of 1812. Then there are other patriotic songs, all one with our history. Boys, as a rule, prefer these songs, and will sing them with a hearty zest. I think they must appreciate the feeling of the young major in a Confederate uniform, who said: “Boys, if we’d had your songs, we’d have licked you out of your boots! Who couldn’t have marched and fought with such songs?”--ELIZABETH CASTERTON, “Journal of the National Educational Association,” 1905.

(1412)

HOLDING THEIR OWN

Two tired tourists were tramping in Switzerland. They were on the way to Interlaken, where they proposed to dine and pass the night. Late in the afternoon, when hunger and fatigue began to make walking unpleasant, they accosted a farmer.

“How far is it,” they asked, “to Interlaken?”

“Two miles,” was the reply.

They walked hopefully on. A half hour passed. Interlaken was not yet in sight. So, seeing another farmer in a field, they shouted to him:

“Are we near Interlaken?”

“Keep straight forward,” the farmer shouted back; “it’s just two miles.”

The tired, hungry tourists trudged on again. Another half-hour passed, and still no sign of Interlaken.

“Is Interlaken very far from here?” they asked a third farmer.

“No, gentlemen,” said the farmer, “it is only two miles.”

Then the tourists looked at one another, and the younger sighed and exclaimed:

“Well, thank goodness, we’re holding our own, anyhow.”--Cleveland _Leader_.

(1413)

=Holystoning=--See DRUDGERY.

HOMAGE

When Rollo, the Dane, made his treaty with Charles the Simple, of France, by which he became a Christian and won Giselle, a daughter of Charles, for his wife, one of the ceremonies to be performed was to do homage. This was to kneel, clasp hands with the king, and kiss his foot, which was covered with an elegantly-fashioned slipper on such occasions--all in token of submission. But the proud Rollo did all save kissing the foot. No remonstrance, urgency or persuasion could induce him to consent to it.

On the slipper which the pope of Rome for hundreds of years has worn on certain state occasions, and which the kneeling suppliant kisses, is embroidered a cross, the sacred symbol of the divine Redeemer’s sufferings and death. (Text.)

But true homage is not ceremony, it is the attitude of the soul toward one who is greater.

(1414)

HOMAGE TO CHRIST

The following story is told of England’s Queen:

When Queen Victoria was but a girl they went to instruct her in matters of court etiquette. “You are to go to hear ‘the Messiah’ to-morrow night, and when they sing through the oratorio and come to the hallelujah chorus, we will all rise, but you are the Queen; sit still.” So when they came to the hallelujah chorus the Englishmen sprang to their feet and cheered, while the Queen sat; but when they came to the place where they sang, “And King of kings and Lord of lords,” she rose and bowed her head. That was at the beginning of her reign.

But when she came almost to the end of her reign, and Canon Farrar was preaching on the second coming of Christ, she sent for him to enter the Queen’s box, and when he came in, Her Majesty said:

“Dr. Farrar, I wish that the Savior might come while I am still upon the throne, because,” she said, “I should like to take the crown of England and lay it at His feet.” (Text.)

(1415)

HOME

Lamar Fontaine describes graphically the effect upon contending armies of the strains of “Home, Sweet Home”:

Just before “taps” every band, on both sides, sent the strains of that immortal song, “Home, Sweet Home,” in soul-stirring notes out on the wings of the night, quivering and reverberating, with endless echoes from hill, dale, and valley--and answered by a thousand brass instruments, bass and kettledrums, and more than a hundred thousand living throats. It was a time and scene never to be forgotten, for in that hour Yank and Reb were kin, and the horrors of war, the groans of the dead and dying upon the bleak, wind-swept field of death at our very feet were forgotten, and the whole armies of the gray and blue were wafted back to the quiet fireside of mother and father, wife and babes, far, far from the bloody, corpse-strewn plain beneath us.--“My Life and My Lectures.”

(1416)

* * * * *

How few people go into raptures over home. Helen T. Churchill did at least in this poem:

One spot alone on earth Is fair to me-- There centers all the mirth, There I would be. There, only there, God’s sunlight pierces through And all the heaven paints with stainless blue.

You praise this land as fair, Its streams, its bow’rs; The common weeds are there As rarest flow’rs-- The fields Elysian. Ah, why should we roam? One spot alone enchants--we call it home! (Text.)--_The Woman’s Home Companion._

(1417)

See HEAVEN OUR HOME.

HOME ATMOSPHERE

The atmosphere of a home expresses a clearly defined reality. The atmosphere is the spirit of the house, emanating from the deep well of the subconscious mind of the homekeeper. God has created no more gracious figure in His great world than that of the wife and mother, who gives to the very place of her abode her own quiet, buoyant, soothing spirit. What she is in the unsounded deeps of her being will appear in time in the house where she dwells and in the faces of the little children that look up to her. On the other hand, the home of the card-club woman and the home of the gad-about! Who does not know them and shudder at the thought? Their atmosphere is that of restlessness and spiritual poverty. Wo betide her children and her husband; for she can not give them, after their day of temptations and vexation, that by which they are renewed, the spirit of peace and quiet confidence in good.--ROBERT MACDONALD.

(1418)

HOME, CHOICE OF A

An English swallow once selected a strange resting-place. At Corton, Lowestoft, England, a naturalist discovered a swallow’s nest with young birds in it on the revolving part of the machinery of a common windmill.

The particular spot chosen was the “wallomer,” the outer edge of one of the wheels. The revolutions averaged thirty a minute, and the naturalist estimated that in that time the nest traveled about one hundred and eighty feet. The young birds would certainly be experienced travelers before they left such a nest.

The mother bird, when sitting, usually traveled tail foremost, and when she entered or left the mill she had to make use of the hole through which the laying shaft projected. To do this it was necessary for her to dodge the sails, which were, of course, hung close to the wall of the mill.

When the creaking and shaking of the machinery of a windmill is taken into account, one can hardly fail to be struck with the peculiar taste of the bird that chose such an apparently uncongenial spot in which to rear her young.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1419)

=Home Discipline=--See FAMILY RELIGION.

HOME, FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC

Judge Ben B. Lindsey who has secured many things for the children during the last ten years, such as playgrounds, detention schools, public baths, probation system, summer outings, fresh-air camps, etc., says in the _Survey_:

What began to loom upon me almost to oppress me, was the injustice in our social and economic system that made most of these palliatives necessary. I began to see more than I ever saw in my life how the foundation of the republic is the home, and the hope of the republic is in the child that comes from the home, and that there can be no real protection, no real justice for the child, until justice is done the home. More than through books I saw through the tears and misfortunes of these children, the defects and injustice in our social, political and economic conditions, and I have to thank the child for my education. After ten years I owe more to the children than they owe to me. They have helped me be a better man, and, I am sure, a more useful and serviceable one. I had learned to love to work with them and for them in the boys’ clubs, the recreation centers, through the court and probation work and in other ways, and when I began to see, as I thought I saw, some of the causes of poverty, misfortune, misery, and crime, I began to question myself. Could I help do real justice to the child unless I could help smash some of these causes that were smashing the homes, crippling the parents and robbing the child of his birth-right?

(1420)

HOME LIGHTS

The light of the home is indeed glorious. We think of the lighting of the lamps at eventime and find, in the coming of that artificial day which sets the light in the window, a sign of defiance to the night, as if it were a great triumph of human intelligence. It is, indeed, a triumph. The thought of sending on the heels of the day another day which keeps off the darkness of night shows how well man has mastered the forces around him. The spiritual light within the home, however, is greater than this--the kindliness of husband and wife toward each other and toward the children, the light on the faces of the home circle, this is a more precious gleam than any which shines from star or sun.--FRANCIS J. MCCONNELL.

(1421)

HOME, LONGING FOR

Come away! come away! you can hear them calling, calling, Calling us to come to them, and roam no more, Over there beyond the ridges and the land that lies between us, There’s an old song calling us to come!

Come away! come away! for the scenes we leave behind us Are barren for the lights of home and a flame that’s young forever; And the lonely trees around us creak the warning of the night-wind, That love and all the dreams of love are away beyond the mountains, The songs that call for us to-night, they have called for men before us, And the winds that blow the message, they have blown ten thousand years; But this will end our wander-time, for we know the joy that waits us In the strangeness of home-coming, and a faithful woman’s eyes. Come away! come away; there is nothing now to cheer us-- Nothing now to comfort us, but love’s road home: Over there beyond the darkness there’s a window gleams to greet us, And a warm hearth waits for us within.

--EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON, “The Wilderness.”

(1422)

=Home Privacy=--See PRIVACY, LACK OF.

HOME, THE OLD AND NEW

The old home, with its family-room, evening-lamp, regular life, and community of interests, has given place to a home in which the family are all together for the first time in the day at the evening meal, and then only for a brief hour, after which they scatter to their several engagements. A little boy was asked by a neighbor, as his father was leaving the house one morning, who that gentleman was, and he replied: “Oh, I don’t know; he’s the man who stays here nights.” This might well be a leaf from the actual home life in our cities. In some cases fathers and mothers too seldom see their children. Business claims their daylight hours; committee, board, or lodge meetings claim their evenings; and so the fathers are unavoidably, as it would seem, away from home. The church and sundry organizations for social service or self-improvement leave the mothers little time for their own needy but uncomplaining households. The children have their own friends and social life, in which the parents have all too small a place and influence.--GEORGE B. STEWART, “Journal of the Religious Education Association,” 1903.

(1423)

HOME VALUES

“American art-students,” says Mr. L. Scott Dabo, a writer in _The Arena_, “make a mistake when they seek an ‘artistic atmosphere’ in Europe. To go abroad in search of beauty betrays soul poverty. The American who fails to find beauty in American landscape or artistic atmosphere among his fellow students, will never find either abroad, whatever he may induce himself to think. After the student has been thoroughly formed at home and merged into the artist, and not before, will he be capable of appreciating at its true value what the rest of the world has to offer.”

(1424)

HOME WHERE THE HEART IS

The following story is told of Hiram Powers, the sculptor:

Hiram Powers for thirty years wrought in Florence, Italy, away from his native land. Here he produced the “Liberty” which surmounts the Capitol at Washington, and such idealizations as “The Massachusetts Puritan,” and “The California Pioneer.” When asked once how he could keep so closely in touch with American life, tho he had been away from his native land so long, he replied, “I have never been out of touch with America itself. I have eaten and slept in Italy for thirty-odd years, but I have never lived anywhere but in the United States.”

As the sculptor lived in the United States while working in Italy, so it is possible for the Christian to be a citizen of heaven while staying and working here on earth. (Text.)

(1425)

HOMELESS

Joseph H. Choate tells the story of how he was approached one wet, wintry night on one of London’s lonely streets by a policeman.

“I say, old chap,” called the “bobby,” “what are you doing walking about in this beastly weather? Better go home.”

“I have no home,” replied Mr. Choate. “I am the American ambassador.”

This story is repeated in a pamphlet issued by the American Embassy Association, whose purpose is to promote and encourage the acquisition by the United States of permanent homes for its ambassadors in foreign capitals.

(1426)

HOMESICKNESS

A young Swedish girl was very homesick. “You ought to be contented, and not fret for your old home, Ina,” said her mistress, as she looked at the dim eyes of the girl. “You are earning good wages, your work is light, every one is kind to you, and you have plenty of friends here.”

“Yas’m,” said the girl; “but it is not the place where I do be that makes me vera homesick; it is the place where I don’t be.” (Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

(1427)

HOMING INSTINCT, THE

The soul’s instinct toward the immortal life is like the instinct of these wasps:

Fabre, the wonderful French observer of wasps, experimented on them in regard to the matter of finding and knowing their holes, by carrying them away shut up in a dark box to the center of a village three kilometers from the nesting-ground, and releasing them after being kept all night in the dark boxes. These wasps when released in the busy town, certainly a place never visited by them before, immediately mounted vertically to above the roofs and then instantly and energetically flew south, which was the direction of their holes. Nine separate wasps, released one at a time, did this without a moment’s hesitation, and the next day Fabre found them all at work again at their hole-digging. He knew them by two spots of white paint he had put on each one.--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

(1428)

HONESTY

A merchant prince once pointed out a clerk in his employ to a friend, and said, “That young man is my banker. He alone has entire control of my finances. He could abscond with a hundred thousand dollars without my preventing it.” Seeing the friend’s evident disapproval at so great trust in one man, he continued, “I would trust him as I would my minister. He is absolutely honest; he could not steal.” And there are thousands of such men who have passed beyond temptation because of the ingrained, undisturbed integrity, acquired by a reverence for right and an early resolution to be true.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1429)

See BARGAIN DISCOUNTENANCED; CHRISTIAN HONESTY.

HONESTY IN BUSINESS

The story is told of a young merchant who, beginning business some fifty years ago, overheard one day a clerk’s misrepresenting the quality of some merchandise. He was instantly reprimanded and the article was unsold. The clerk resigned his position at once, and told his employer that the man who did business that way could not last long. But the merchant did last, and but lately died the possessor of the largest wealth ever gathered in a single lifetime.--NOAH HUNT SCHENCK.

(1430)

HONESTY, INTERMITTENT

In his “Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier,” Dr. T. L. Tennell tells of an escort of two villainous-looking Afghans who had him in charge in turning back to Bannee from a journey across the frontier. They had paid him the greatest attention and brought him safely home. When he offered to reward them for their good conduct in guarding him and his belongings, they repelled the offer with a show of indignation, adding that to accept money from a guest would be to break their best traditions. But next morning, after he had entertained them generously overnight, and sent them off with many expressions of appreciation of their faithfulness, he found that they had decamped with all his best clothes. Their honesty did not survive the night.

(1431)

HONESTY REWARDED

A merchant required an additional clerk and advertised for a boy. The first boy that answered was ushered into a vacant room, and told to sit in a particular chair and wait. Looking around, he saw upon the floor, just by the chair, a one-dollar bill, folded closely, as tho it had been inadvertently dropt. He picked up the bill, and satisfying his conscience that “finding is having,” even tho on another’s premises, he put it into his pocket. Almost immediately the merchant came in, and after a few questions, dismissed the boy as not satisfactory. The next boy was seated in the same chair, and he also saw a one-dollar bill lying in the same manner beside him; but he picked it up and laid it on the table. The merchant entered, and after some questions, pointed to the bill and asked where it came from. The boy said he saw it on the floor and put it where it would be safe. The merchant said, “As it did not appear to belong to any one, why did you not keep it?” The boy replied, “Because it did not belong to me.” “My boy,” said the merchant, “you have chosen the road that inevitably leads to business success. The boy before you chose the wrong one. But how did you learn that this was the right path?” The boy answered, “My mother made me promise never, under any circumstances, to take what did not belong to me; and I promised.” Later in life this boy became Secretary of the Treasury.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1432)

=Honesty, Simulated=--See PRETENSE OF VIRTUE.

HONOR

When Regulus was sent by the Carthaginians, whose prisoner he was, to Rome, with a convoy of ambassadors to sue for peace, it was on condition that he should return to his prison if peace was not effected. He took an oath to do so. When he appeared at Rome he urged the senators to persevere in the war and not to agree to the exchange of prisoners. That advice involved his return to captivity. The senators, and even the chief priest, held that as his oath was wrested from him by force, he was not bound to go. “Have you resolved to dishonor me?” asked Regulus. “I am not ignorant that tortures and death are preparing for me; but what are these to the shame of an infamous

## action, or the wounds of a guilty mind? Slave as I am to Carthage, I

have still the spirit of a Roman. I have sworn to return. It is my duty to go. Let the gods take care of the rest.” Regulus accordingly returned to Carthage and was tortured to death.

(1433)

* * * * *

If one is possest of a delicate sense of honor it is not necessary to bind him with promises to keep personal matters confidential:

A New England school-teacher maintained an intimate friendship and spent much time with the poet Tennyson during his later years. One evening, when the two were thus together, Tennyson said that he would depart from his custom and narrate a personal experience; but he had suffered a good deal from repetitions of his tales by those to whom he had told them, and he would be obliged to ask his friend never to repeat what he was about to hear.

The American smoked on for a few seconds while Tennyson waited for the promise, and then he said, “My lord, in my country a gentleman would never make that request of another gentleman.” “H-h-m!” said the poet, and looked out of eyes that wondered if the quiet smoker opposite knew how much he’d said. Then he told the story.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1434)

See MONEY NO TEMPTATION.

HONOR AMONG BOYS

Two boys, John and William, both about the age of twelve, had a dispute over a game of ball, when John said that such action was mean and dishonest, upon which William immediately called him a liar, and they began to fight. They were not quarrelsome boys; they were serious and studious, but were boys of spirit and held high ideas of honor and uprightness. The teacher, who was a man of strong character, and a sturdy disciplinarian, came promptly upon the scene and separated the combatants, and sent both boys to their seats. The breach of school discipline had been flagrant, and all expected that severe punishment would be meted out to the boys. But nothing was said until just before school was dissmissed, when the teacher called the boys before him and said, “Do you think you did right in engaging in this fight?” To which both boys said they did, and that they would fight one another again upon the first opportunity. After some reflection, the teacher turned to John and said, “John, will you agree never to mention this subject until William mentions it first?” John replied, “Yes, but I will lick him good if he ever does.” The teacher turned to William and asked the same question, to which he replied, “I will not start it, but if John does I will lick him.” The teacher then said, “I think you are both honorable and trustworthy boys, and I am going to depend upon you to keep your word of honor, and not renew this fight until the other begins it. Now John, you take William by the hand, and tell him that you will never mention this subject unless he first speaks of it; but if he does, you will lick him.” The boys joined hands, and John told it over to William, and then William told it over to John. The solemnity with which the proceeding was conducted all the way through made a deep impression on the entire school, who felt it to be a very sacred thing between the two boys, and that it should never be even hinted at. This was a lesson in courage, self-respect, obedience, fidelity and self-control to the whole school, and it resulted in a lifelong friendship between the two boys.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1435)

HONOR, EXAMPLE OF

Horace B. Claflin, before he was twenty-one, had bought out his father’s grocery business. Intoxicating liquors were at that time considered an indispensable part of the grocery equipment; but the young merchant, as soon as he came into possession, emptied the wine-casks into the street. Later on he engaged in the dry-goods business, a large portion of which was in the slave-holding States; and when anti-slavery principles involved a business loss to Northern merchants, Claflin announced himself an uncompromising opponent of slavery. Such a stand and the Civil War coming on cut off his resources and revenues, and he was forced to suspend. He asked from his creditors an extension of time on a basis of seventy per cent of his indebtedness; but soon after resuming business Claflin paid off his extended paper long before maturity, and also the thirty per cent which had been unconditionally released, not only paying the entire amount of his indebtedness but also paying interest on the debt.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1436)

=Honor in Failure=--See OBLIGATIONS, MEETING.

HONOR, THE ROAD TO

In one of his great debates on American taxation, Edmund Burke once paused to say, with regard to the consequence of the course he was pursuing: “I know the map of England as well as the noble lord or any other person, and I know the road I take is not the road to preferment.” But he took it, nevertheless.

The end of the right road is never obscurity or ingratitude or obloquy. It is the smile and welcome of God. Even here on the earth, the man who does right comes to his own. Of the men of his age in England, Burke is now among the most honored and will be among the longest remembered.

(1437)

=Honoring Mother=--See LOVE, FILIAL.

=Honors for Negro Girl=--See NEGRO EXCELLING.

HONOR’S ROLL-CALL

In a Decoration-day address Thomas Wentworth Higginson said:

The great French soldier, de Latour d’Auvergne, was the hero of many battles, but remained by his own choice in the ranks. Napoleon gave him a sword and the official title “The First Grenadier of France.” When he was killed, the Emperor ordered that his heart should be intrusted to the keeping of his regiment--that his name should be called at every roll-call, and that his next comrade should make answer, “Dead upon the field of honor.” In our memories are the names of many heroes; we treasure all their hearts in this consecrated ground, and when the name of each is called, we answer in flowers, “Dead upon the field of honor.”

(1438)

HOPE

Have hope! Tho clouds environ round, And gladness hides her face in scorn, Put thou the shadow from thy brow; No night but hath its morn.

--SCHILLER.

(1439)

* * * * *

The world has no time and no use for the man who has no time and no use for hope. A gentleman on being asked to contribute to the erection of a monument replied: “Not a dollar; I am ready to contribute toward building monuments to those who make us hope, but I will not give a dollar to help perpetuate the memory and influence of those who live to make us despair.”--JOHN E. ADAMS.

(1440)

* * * * *

Hope was the one thing that remained in Pandora’s box. While it remains men may courageously face life and the future.

When Alexander the Great crossed into Asia, he gave away almost all his belongings to his friends. One of his captains asked him, “Sire, what do you keep for yourself?” “I keep hope,” was the answer of the king. (Text.)

(1441)

HOPE DEFERRED

Once there was a woman whose harmless madness was to believe herself to be a bride, and on the eve of her wedding. Waking up in the morning, she asked for a white dress, and a bride’s crown; smiling, she adorned herself. “To-day he will come,” she said. In the evening sadness overmastered her, after the idle waiting; she then took off her white dress. But the following morning, with the dawn, her confidence returned. “It is for to-day,” she said. And her life passed in this tenacious, altho ever-deceiving, certitude--taking off her gown of hope, only to put it on again. (Text.)

(1442)

HOPE ENERGIZES

Hope is energy. The provisions have failed; the boat leaks, the seas rise, strength is gone, and intolerable thirst alone remains. But, upon the horizon there rise the masts and then the hull of the liner. Hope at once energizes. With the vestige of remaining strength, the distress signal is hoisted, it is seen; it is answered, the steamer’s course is changed, and rescue is at hand.--JOHN E. ADAMS.

(1443)

=Hope, Imparting=--See SICK, MIRROR AN AID TO THE.

=Hope Revived=--See EXTREMITY NOT FINAL.

HOPELESS FEAR

Is there not an Eastern apologue which tells how the Angel of Pestilence was questioned as to the ten thousand victims he had slain? And did he not answer, “Nay, Lord, I took but a thousand; the rest were slain by my friend Panic.” How many, too, have sunk into the deep waters of the black river and been floated on to the ocean of eternity, for very paralysis of hope when the evil hour was upon them and they had just wetted their feet on the brink! They could, and they would have stept back to the solid shore; but they had no courage for the attempt, no energy to strike out to the land. The waters closed over their bowed head, and they sobbed away their breath in the very supineness of terror, the very lethargy of hopeless fear. Death is like everything else--a foe to be fought, a wild beast to be kept at bay. They who contend with most spirit live the greater number of days. The will to live and the determination not to die make the most efficacious antidote against the poison of the “lethal dart.” The hopelessness of fear is that poison itself.--E. LYNN LINTON--_The Forum_.

(1444)

=Horizons, Short=--See AVERAGE LIFE.

=Horoscopy=--See BIRTH CEREMONIES.

HOSPITALITY, ABUSE OF

The writer, when a boy, was invited with all the other members of his class to a picnic at the home of one of his companions, who was very poor, and whose widowed mother supported herself and her son from a small apple orchard. After spending the afternoon in boyish sports, the class was invited into the orchard to have some apples. With generous hospitality the host invited the boys to help themselves; but to his amazement, the boys, who were all from homes of refinement and supposed to be well brought up, began an orgy of unrestrained apple-eating, and after gorging themselves with all they could possibly eat, stript the trees in wanton waste, just taking a bite here and there and destroyed barrels of apples. The poor boy host could not conceal that this waste was an unlooked-for financial loss. It was an intemperate indulgence and abuse of hospitality that was contemptible.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1445)

HOSPITALITY IN CHURCH

Some years ago a young man came from the West to Pittsburg as a student. He did not know a solitary human being in either of the “Twin Cities.” At his boarding-house he was asked where he thought of going to church. He mentioned the place he had chosen, not because he knew anybody there, but because it was near at hand. “Well,” the questioner replied, “they will soon freeze you out from that congregation.” “I’ll give them a chance to welcome me, anyway,” was the rejoinder. “I don’t believe they are as cold as you think.”

The next Sunday morning found the student waiting in the vestibule for an usher to show him a seat. All of them were busy at the time, and the young man waited--did not run out of the door--just waited until some one had had a fair chance to notice him. After a while he felt a little squeeze of his arm from somebody behind. He turned and was confronted by a rather stout gentleman of strong but kindly features. There was but one word of inquiry--“Stranger?” “Yes, sir,” the young man replied. “Come with me to my seat.” “Stranger” obeyed. Shortly after two ladies entered the same pew. Not a word was spoken until after the benediction. Then the stout gentleman uttered another interrogatory word, “Student?” “Yes, sir,” was the reply. “Come and take dinner with me.” (Aside: “What’s your name?”) “This lady is my mother, and this, my sister. Here, let me introduce you to one of our elders, and here comes the pastor, Dr. Cox. Say, Mr. Shelly (a deacon), come over here; here’s a new friend I have just found; we want him to get acquainted. Now, let’s start for home.” (On the way): “Sing?” “A little--not very much--just enough, I guess.” “Come up to our mission Sunday school after dinner and help us, will you? I am superintendent.” “Sure.”

That day was the beginning of three years of happy acquaintance and helpful social intercourse with as cordial a congregation as ever assembled in any church.--H. H. STILES, _Christian Observer_.

(1446)

HOSPITALITY IN OLD TIMES

The Rev. Asa Bullard tells this incident illustrating the hospitality expected of the parish minister in former days:

The clergyman’s house, in those days, was indeed regarded as the minister’s tavern. It was open to all clergymen. Now and then a minister would be found who would call on a perfect stranger for hospitality, giving very strange reasons. One who had been traveling in Maine called on a pastor of one of the large churches in Massachusetts for entertainment during the night; and he gave as a reason for taking such liberty that “he met his brother one day, as they both stopt at the same trough to water their horses.” (Text.)--“Incidents in a Busy Life.”

(1447)

=Hospitals, The Utility of=--See CHARITY, LOGIC OF.

=Hospitals, Walking=--See TALKING AND SICKNESS.

=Host’s Adaptation=--See TACT.

=House Bookkeeping=--See BALANCE, A LOOSE.

=Housecleaning=--See DUST AND VIOLETS.

=Household, Head of the=--See CHINA AND AMERICA COMPARED.

HOUSE OF THE SOUL

This body is my house--it is not I; Herein I sojourn till, in some far sky I lease a fairer dwelling, built to last Till all the carpentry of time is past.

--UNIDENTIFIED.

(1448)

HOUSE, THE MORTAL

When John Quincy Adams was eighty years old he met in the streets of Boston an old friend, who shook his trembling hand, and said:

“Good-morning! And how is John Quincy Adams to-day?”

“Thank you,” was the ex-President’s answer; “John Quincy Adams himself is well, sir; quite well, I thank you. But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon its foundation. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn out. Its walls are much shattered, and it trembles with every wind. The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable, and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon; but he himself is quite well, sir; quite well.”

It was not long afterward that he had his second and fatal stroke of paralysis.

“This is the last of earth,” he said. “I am content.” (Text.)

(1449)

=Human Companionship Slighted=--See ANIMALS, ABSURD FONDNESS FOR.

HUMAN FACTOR, THE

It is not on the fertility of the soil, it is not on the mildness of the atmosphere, that the prosperity of nations chiefly depends. Slavery and superstition can make Campania a land of beggars, and can change the plain of Enna into a desert. Nor is it beyond the power of human intelligence and energy, developed by civil and spiritual freedom, to turn sterile rocks and pestilential marshes into cities and gardens.--MACAULAY.

(1450)

=Human Life Lengthening=--See LONGEVITY INCREASING.

=Human Means=--See EVANGELIZATION.

HUMAN NATURE, INSECURITY OF

On certain parts of the English coast calamitous landslips occur from time to time. Massive cliffs rise far above the level of the sea and seem solidly socketed into the earth below. But these rest, through some geological “fault,” on sharply inclined planes of clay. The moisture trickling through the cliffs in course of time tells on the slippery substance below till this becomes like the greased way down which a ship is launched. The day comes when the whole cliff, with its hundreds of feet of buttresses, slides bodily down, crashing to the rocks or into the water. Our human nature has in it a moral stratum of irresolution on which it is not safe to build our character. We must go down to the rock-bed of decision and must rest on the foundation of conviction that can not be shaken. Let us see to it that conviction of truth is formed within us. (Text.)

(1451)

HUMAN NATURE MUCH ALIKE

Charles Somerville, writing of the lower strata of society, that he calls the “underworld,” says:

Its inhabitants are not so altogether different from you and me. More wilful in their weaknesses, certainly, they are; more hysterical in their hilarities; blinder in their loves and bitterer in their hatreds; supinely subject to all emotions, good or bad, undoubtedly.... I remember so well the first time I saw a burglar in flesh and blood. His black mask was off, his revolver was in the possession of the police; he had just been sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and was saying good-by to his wife and three little children. He was wholly like any other grief-stricken human being. His sob was the same. He was a sandy-haired man with rather large, foolish blue eyes. It was hard to imagine those same large blue eyes looking very terrible, even behind a black mask. (Text.)

(1452)

HUMAN PASSION

A teacher abandons her class of boys after some particularly disappointing outbreak, and in the utterance of her despair of doing more for them, discloses her wounded pride which resents such humbling. The reformer who has carried an election only to find the city slipping back into the old ways of corruption, becomes a common scold in his chagrin that all his labor counts for nothing, while his adversaries laugh at his impotence. And now and then a minister flings himself out of the pulpit, storming at the failure of the church, because his plans are balked and his self-denial goes unappreciated. In all this zeal for God that cries for judgment, there is so much of human passion eager for a personal vindication.--“Monday Club, Sermons on the International Sunday-school Lessons for 1904.”

(1453)

HUMAN TRAITS IN BIRDS

Our domestic birds often manifest symptoms of passions, whims, and moral aberrations, clearly analogous to those of their biped proprietors; and in the higher animals those manifestations become so unmistakable that a student of moral zoology is often tempted to indorse the view of that schoolgirl who defined a monkey as “a very small boy with a tail.” According to Arthur Schopenhauer’s theory of moral evolution, the conscious prestige of our species first reveals itself in the emotions of headstrong volition that makes a little baby stamp its feet and strike down its fist, “commanding violently before it could form anything like a clear conception of its own wants. Untutored barbarians,” he adds, “are apt to indulge in similar methods of self-assertion, and, in settling a controversy, prefer menacing gestures to rational explanations. That tendency, however, is not confined to infants and savages. In his controversies with his cage-mate (a female spaniel), my pet Cutch will lay hold of the dog’s tail and enforce his theories with a peremptory pull that never fails to provoke a rough-and-tumble fight; but, long after the dog has relapsed into sullen silence, her antagonist will shake the cage with resounding blows, and every now and then steal a look at the bystanders, to invite their attention to his ‘best method of dealing with heretics.’”--FELIX OSWALD, _Popular Science Monthly_.

(1454)

HUMAN TRAITS IN DISASTER

Commenting on the great Johnstown flood, Julian Hawthorne wrote:

We know, despite all deprecation, that the heights and depths of humanity can not be overstated. One man rides hand in hand with death for the sake of the lives of his fellow men. Another mutilates the sacred hand of the infant for the sake of its gold ring. A mother intrusts her children, one after the other, to the flood, hoping the reeling plank may save them, but believing that, whether or not, they are safe with God. In the midst of the kingdom of death, another mother brings a new life into the world. An officer of the guard profanes the awful day with maudlin drunkenness. A population sees the accumulation of lifetimes, and half its own members, annihilated in one desperate hour, and it is silent because silence is the only complete expression of misery. And over all the continent, upon converging lines, are journeying the tangible proof of sympathy from a nation which hastens to acknowledge the indestructible brotherhood of man.

(1455)

HUMANE SENTIMENT

An incident showing the growth of the humane sentiment is told in connection with the recent Paris flood. Upon one occasion great crowds gathered on the banks of the Seine at a point where what appeared to be a man, but which turned out to be a pig, that had been carried out of its sty by the flood, was making a struggle for life. After humane bystanders had manned a boat, rescued the animal, and brought it to shore, one woman declared she could not think of allowing it to be saved from drowning only to be butchered, and offered to purchase it from its owner for $38. After securing the animal, the problem was to get it to its new quarters, and this she solved by buying a collar, to which she attached a rope to be used as a leader. In her promenade as a pig-leader she was assisted by a great crowd, who jested and jeered, and finally the pig was installed in his new home. Our forefathers who engaged in pig-sticking by way of sport would doubtless be amazed if told that the time would ever come when people in a flood-plagued city would not only rescue a drowning pig, but save it from the butcher’s knife.--_Vogue._

(1456)

=Humble Helpers=--See INTERDEPENDENCE.

=Humble Helpers Remembered=--See NEGRO “MAMMY” REMEMBERED.

HUMBLE WORK

One of Beethoven’s most famous concertos was suggested to the composer as he heard repeated knocks in the stillness of the night at the door of a neighbor. The concerto begins with four soft taps of the drum--an instrument which is raised in this work to the rare dignity of a solo instrument. Again and again the four beats are heard throughout the music, making a wonderful effect. God uses even the humblest player in His orchestra for some solo work. A man who can only play a drum can be made valuable in the music of the world. Let us be ready to do what He bids us, modest and obscure as our part may be, and thus we shall help on the harmonies of heaven. (Text.)

(1457)

HUMDRUM DEVELOPMENT

The Rev. Charles Stelzle writes this lesson from the experience of the yard engineer:

“Go ahead; that’ll do; back up; a little more. That’ll do.” A yard crowded full of freight-cars that needed to be shifted and shunted--this is the work and the vision that daily greet the “driver” of the switch-engine. He is shut off from the scenery and the romance which the engineer of the lightning express is supposed to enjoy. He sees little besides the waving arms or the swinging lantern of the switchman. He hears little besides the screaming of slipping wheels, the bumping of freight-cars, the hissing of the escaping steam and the monotonous voice of his fireman repeating the orders signaled from his side of the cab.

But how typical of life it all is. There is no one entirely free from the humdrum and the monotone. And this seems to be well, for drudgery is one of life’s greatest teachers. The humdrum duties of life develop character. It is because we have certain duties to perform every day, in spite of headache, heartache and weariness, that we lay the foundation of character.

(1458)

=Humiliation=--See BARGAIN-MAKING; TIMIDITY.

=Humiliation, Light in=--See LIGHT IN HUMILIATION.

HUMILITY

Dr. Franklin, writing to a friend, says:

The last time I saw your father he received me in his study, and, at my departure, showed me a shorter way out of his house, through a narrow passage, crossed by a beam overhead. We were talking as we withdrew, and I, turning partly toward him, he suddenly cried, “Stoop! stoop!” I did not know what he meant till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never failed to impart instruction, and on this occasion said, “You are young, and have to go through the world; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps.” This advice, thus beat into my head, has been of singular service to me, and I have often thought of it when I have seen pride mortified and men brought low by carrying their heads too high. (Text.)

(1459)

* * * * *

True exaltation is always accompanied by corresponding humility. Truly great souls never rise in conscious self-aggrandizement. They sink in self-esteem and are bowed low under a sense of responsibility in proportion to the splendor of their achievements.

In the Alps the eagle soars up higher and higher till its figure is a mere speck in the zenith. Among the mountains is a lake in whose bosom is a perfect reflection of the dome of the heavens. The traveler in these regions, standing by the lake, sees everything above mirrored in the lake. The flight of the eagle higher than the mountain-tops, as reflected in the lake, seems to be a descent lower and lower. The higher the flight the deeper the bird seems to be diving downward. (Text.)

(1460)

* * * * *

On the tomb of Copernicus is a figure of himself standing with folded hands before a crucifix. In the background are a globe and compass. Near the left arm is a skull, and under the right arm, written in Latin: “I crave not the grace which Paul received, nor the favor with which Thou didst indulge Peter; that alone which Thou bestowedst upon the thief on the cross--that alone do I entreat.” (Text.)

(1461)

* * * * *

Emerson points out the necessity of humility to any wholly approvable character in the following story:

Among the nuns in a convent not far from Rome, one had appeared who laid claim to certain rare gifts of inspiration and prophecy, and the abbess advised the holy father at Rome of the wonderful powers shown by her novice. The Pope did not well know what to make of these new claims, and St. Philip Neri, a wise devout man of the Church, coming in from a journey one day, he consulted him. Philip undertook to visit the nun, and ascertain her character. He threw himself on his mule, all travel-soiled as he was, and hastened through the mud and more to the distant convent. He told the abbess the Pope’s wishes and begged her to summon the nun. The nun was sent for, and, as soon as she came into the apartment, Philip stretched out his leg, all bespattered with mud, and desired her to draw off his boots. The young nun, who had become the object of much attention and respect, drew back with anger, and refused the office. Philip ran out-of-doors, mounted his mule, and returned instantly to the Pope. “Give yourself no uneasiness, Holy Father, any longer; here is no miracle, for here is no humility.” (Text.)

(1462)

See MODESTY.

HUMILITY OF A SCIENTIST

Ten years before his death, Agassiz, wishing to illustrate the laborious and slow results of scientific research, said: “I have devoted my whole life to the study of nature, and yet a single sentence may express all that I have done. I have shown that there is a correspondence between the succession of fishes in geological times and the different stages of their growth in the egg--that is all.” Here speaks the scientist, with that humility which characterizes the true student of nature. But let me follow with his prouder outlook for such toil: “It is given to no mortal man to predict what may be the result of any discovery in the realm of nature. When the electric current was discovered, what was it? A curiosity. When the first electric machine was invented, to what use was it put? To make puppets dance for the amusement of children; but should our work have no other result than this--to know that certain facts in nature are thus and not otherwise, their causes were such and no other--this result in itself is good enough and great enough since the end of his aim, his glory, is the knowledge of the truth.”--JULIA S. VISHER, _The Christian Register_.

(1463)

HUMOR

Humor dwells with sanity, Truth, and common sense. Humor is humanity, Sympathy intense.

Humor always laughs with you, Never at you; she Loves the fun that’s sweet and true And of malice free.

Paints the picture of the fad, Folly of the day, As it is, the good and bad, In a kindly way.

There behind her smiling mien, In her twinkling eyes, Purpose true is ever seen, Seriousness lies.

--JOHN KENDRICK BANGS, _Putnam’s Monthly_.

(1464)

HUMOR AND GENEROSITY

In his “Reminiscences” of the late Sir Henry Irving, says the London Academy, Joseph Hatton gives an anecdote which shows the great actor in the role of a humorist:

A widow of an old Lyceum servant applied to him for some sort of occupation about the theater, whereby she might earn a living. Irving appealed to Loveday, the manager.

“There is absolutely no vacancy of any kind,” said Loveday. “Can’t you give her a job to look after the theater cats? I think we’ve too many mice about, not to mention rats.” “No,” said Loveday, “there are two women already on that job.” “Hum, ha, let me see,” said Irving, reflectively, then suddenly brightening with an idea. “Very well, then, give her the job of looking after the two women who are looking after the cats.” The widow was at once engaged on the permanent staff of the theater.

(1465)

HUMOR, LACK OF

Rev. W. H. Fitchett points out the lack of humor in Susannah Wesley, the mother of John Wesley:

The only charge which can be fairly urged against Susannah Wesley is that she had no sense of humor. The very names of the children prove the complete absence of any sense of the ridiculous in either the rector of Epworth or his wife. One daughter was cruelly labeled Mehetabel; a second, Jedidah. Mrs. Susannah Wesley’s theological performances while yet in short dresses prove her want of humor. A girl of thirteen, who took herself solemnly enough to undertake the settlement of “the whole question betwixt dissent and the Church” must have been of an unsmiling and owl-like gravity. Now, humor has many wholesome offices. It acts like a salt to the intellect, and keeps it sweet. It enables its owner to see the relative sizes of things. It gives an exquisite tact, a dainty lightness of touch to the intellectual powers. And Mrs. Wesley visibly lacked any rich endowment of that fine grace.--“Wesley and His Century.”

(1466)

HUMOR OVERDONE

In the “War Reminiscences” of General Carl Schurtz, he relates a conversation which he had with the then famous Thomas Corwin, one of the great orators of his day, but one whose oratory had come to be regarded as chiefly remarkable for its display of humor. As General Schurtz rose to leave Mr. Corwin, at the close of the interview, the latter said to him:

I want to say something personal to you. At Allegheny City I heard you speak, and I noticed that you can crack a joke and make people laugh if you try. I want to say to you, young man, if you have any such faculty, don’t cultivate it. I know how great the temptation is, and I have yielded to it. One of the most dangerous things to a public man is to become known as a jester. People will go to hear such a man, and then they will be disappointed if he talks to them seriously. They will hardly listen to the best things he offers them. They will want to hear the buffoon, and are dissatisfied if the buffoon talks sober sense. That has been my lot. Look at my career! I am an old man now. There has always been a great deal more in Tom Corwin than he got credit for. But he did not get credit because it was always expected that Tom Corwin would make people laugh. That has been my curse. I have long felt it, but too late to get rid of the old reputation and to build up a new one. Take my example as a warning. (Text.)

(1467)

=Humor, Sense of=--See RETRIEVED SITUATION.

HUNGER, ENDURING

General Morgan, on one occasion, in discussing the fighting qualities of the soldiers of different nations, came to the conclusion that in many respects they were about the same, with one notable exception. “After all,” he said, “for the possession of the ideal quality of the soldier, for the grand essential, give me the Dutchman--he starves well.”--DONALD SAGE MACKAY.

(1468)

=Hurry=--See HASTE WITHOUT SELF-CONTROL.

=Husband and Wife=--See MARRIAGE RELATIONS IN THE EAST.

HUSBAND AND WIFE, RELATIONS BETWEEN

We hold certain views with regard to what is proper between husband and wife. Those views are not held by the nations in general, and missionaries need to be very particular about offending. For instance, a husband goes away, and when he returns from his tour and gets into the yard, the usual Oriental crowd follows. His wife rushes out to greet him, and very naturally they kiss. Like Judas, they are betraying the cause by that act, because it is most unseemly to do such a thing as that openly in certain countries. A missionary friend from Central Africa tells of a tribe that he had labored to influence and had

## partially succeeded. When he was leaving for further touring

and was sending his wife back home, he kissed her. Immediately the two hundred men present burst into long and uncontrollable laughter, not because it was new to them--for they kiss on both cheeks--but because no man ever thought of doing so in public. My friend lost more respect in a second than he had won for himself by his laborious cultivation of the strange tribe.--H. P. BEACH, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1469)

HUSBANDRY, SPIRITUAL

The orange men in California sent an expert all over Europe to find an enemy of the scale that was destroying the fruit-trees of California. One day, in Spain, he found a tiny creature which he named the lady-bird. It has a sharp lancet that it thrusts into each insect. It goes over the tree with inconceivable rapidity. When it finds the scale under the bark it thrusts the sword down, and now the lady-bird is working together with the husbandman, amid the prune- and orange-trees of California. Cockleburs are foes of corn, but a hoe has a sharp edge. Ye are God’s harvest field. Hate is a weed, envy and jealousy are sharp thorns. Selfishness is a poison vine. Surliness is a fungus growth; lurking evil is the deadly night-shade. But love is a rose, joy is like a tiger-lily; peace is the modest arbutus. Contentment is a sweet vine that grows over the door of the house of man’s soul. Honesty and industry are the goodly shocks and sheaves; these homely virtues are food to the hungry. God is a husbandman.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1470)

=Husband’s Disloyalty=--See SALOON EFFECTS.

=Hygienic Conditions=--See HEALTH, ECONOMICS OF.

HYMN, A GOOD

The occasion of the hymn, “Just as I am without one plea,” by Charlotte Elliott, and perhaps her masterpiece, is full of interest as interpreting its spiritual significance to the soul hesitating in its penitent approach to Jesus. Dr. Cæsar Malan, of Geneva, was staying at her father’s house, and addressing himself to Miss Elliott, who was a stranger to personal religion, on this vital subject, the young lady resented it, notwithstanding that the clergyman introduced the matter in his gentlest manner. Upon reflection, however, she relented, and with real concern, added: “You speak of coming to Jesus, but how? I am not fit to come.” “Come just as you are,” said Dr. Malan. (Text.)

(1471)

HYMN, AN EFFECTIVE

It is told of John B. Gough how, seated one Sabbath in a church service, a strange man was ushered into the pew at his side. Conceiving a strong dislike for the man from his mottled face and twitching limbs and mumbled sounds, Mr. Gough eyed his seat-mate, when, during the organ interlude in singing the hymn, “Just as I am without one plea,” the stranger leaned toward him and asked how the next verse began. “Just as I am--poor, wretched, blind,” answered Mr. Gough. “That’s it,” sobbed the man, “I’m blind--God help me,” and he made an effort to join in the singing. Said Mr. Gough, in telling the incident, “After that the poor paralytic’s singing was as sweet to me as a Beethoven symphony.”

(1472)

=Hymn-making=--See CHALLENGE.

HYPNOTISM AND CRIME

Hypnotism as an aid to crime has been variously discust in France from both the medical and the legal side, with the general conclusion that legislation is needed to cover the most palpable employment of it. The fact that a hypnotized subject can take and execute a criminal suggestion made by another, and yet be really innocent of any immoral intent, is beyond all doubt; and this fact has led observers to the conclusion that the blame must rest upon the giver of the suggestion. An additional precaution which the true originator of the crime might take would be to give a suggestion forbidding the subject to reveal to any one the name of the suggester or the fact of the suggestion. On the contrary, he was to say and feel that the act was committed of his own accord. This complicated the legal aspect of the question very seriously; but further experiments have shown that the instigator of the crime would not be so entirely safe, after all. M. Jules Liegeois, who has studied most carefully the legal aspects of hypnotism, suggested to a lady subject that she take a pistol and shoot a certain Mr. O. She acted out the suggestion perfectly, not knowing that the load was a blank cartridge. When again hypnotized, she admitted the crime and defended her action. Another gentleman now gave her the suggestions (1) that when the instigator of the crime enters the room she should go to sleep for two minutes; (2) on awakening, she should fix her eyes upon the man constantly until allowed to desist; (3) she should then stand in front of him and attempt to conceal him. When M. Liegeois entered the room, she fell asleep, and did all that was asked of her, thus revealing the instigator, tho told by him not to do so. Professor Bernheim induced a subject to steal, and forbade him to mention that he had been told to do it. The patient said he stole because the idea occurred to him, but, when told to go up to the true criminal and say, “Please sing me the ‘Marseillaise,’” he did so. It seems, then, that the subject will do nothing that he has been categorically forbidden to do, but that he will succumb to an indirect mode of revealing the true instigator of the crime. This certainly aids the courts, but it is a question how far it will be of service when the true criminal is not present, and whether additional suggestions in the first instance will not considerably interfere with the reliability of later testimony. Its further development will be watched with great interest by all students of the scientific aspects of mental phenomena.--_Science._

(1473)

HYPOCRISY

LITTLE WILLIE--Say, pa, what is a hypocrite?

PA--A hypocrite, my son, is a man who publicly thanks Providence for his success, then gets mad every time anybody insinuates that he isn’t mainly responsible for it himself.--_Tit-Bits._

(1474)

* * * * *

When one proceeds after the fashion of certain processions, that take one step back every time they take two forward, what is there astonishing if he does not cover any appreciable distance? But man has the silly childishness to believe that what he does at certain hours and without the pale of that part of his life which is known, does not count. He flatters himself that the assets alone will figure in the final reckoning; that what he puts openly in the balance will be weighed, but that what he secretly withdraws will not be deducted. Like that merchant, at once pious and crafty, who, on Sunday closed his shop, but received his patrons through a side door, he honors God publicly, and, in secret, betrays Him. (Text.)--CHARLES WAGNER, “The Gospel of Life.”

(1475)

=Hypocrisy in Prayer=--See DIPLOMACY, COWARDLY.

I

ICE BEAUTY

If we had not our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries--the ice-storm--when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top--ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia’s diamond plume. Then the wind waves the branches, and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms, that glow and hum and flash with all manner of colored fires, which change and change again, with inconceivable rapidity, from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold; the tree becomes a sparkling fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence!--SAMUEL L. CLEMENS.

(1476)

=Icebergs=--See GRAVITATION AND ICEBERGS.

IDEAL, DEVOTION TO AN

“It is not our aim to shine in the art of acting; that would be presumptuous and ridiculous in simple country people; but it must be the earnest desire of each one to try and represent worthily this most holy mystery.”

Thus spoke Pastor Daisenberger in his sermon to the peasant actors of Ober-Ammergau before the production of the Passion Play in 1870. In these simple, devout words of their minister, Archdeacon Farrar found the echo of the deeply religious feeling which animates the peasants of the Bavarian village, to which so many of the sordid outer world have thronged. There is no taint of commercialism nor worldly ambition, we are assured, in the hearts of these peasant actors. Time and again have they refused lucrative offers to produce their historic drama elsewhere; and they do not, it is said, yield to the temptation to extort money from the tourists who invariably flock to witness the performance. Even the recent floods have given proof how they can bear adversity.

(1477)

See TYPES, DISTINCT.

IDEAL, THE

A certain congregation could not find a pastor. They knew what they wanted. He must be a sound and able theologian, a literary man, up in science, polished to the last degree, good-looking, genial, a mixer, sympathetic, a hustler, not heady, humble minded, etc. A visiting minister, who knows them, told this story:

“A certain gentleman came to a horse-dealer and gave the following order: ‘I want a young horse with spirit and speed in him--something I’d like to drive myself for my wives and daughters. He must be entirely without blemish and work in single or double harness. He must be a perfect carriage-horse, and also good under the saddle, with several gaits. And he must be absolutely afraid of nothing.’

“‘Ah, I see--I see,’ replied the dealer. ‘You want a hoss without a speck on him; mettlesome, but gentle; young, but easily governed; guaranteed not to shy at anything; perfect any way you want to use him, in single or double harness, or as a saddle-hoss, with all the gaits.’

“‘Yes, yes,’ interrupted the gentleman, ‘that’s what I want exactly.’

“‘My friend,’ answered the dealer, ‘there ain’t no sich hoss!’”

The congregation doubtless caught the point.--_Presbyterian of the South._

(1478)

See BEING BEFORE DOING.

IDEAL, THE, ATTEMPTED

Delos was a small but very celebrated island near the center of the Egean Sea. It was a sacred island, devoted to religious rites, and all contention, and violence, and, so far as possible, all suffering and death, were excluded from it. The sick were removed from it; the dead were not buried there; armed ships and armed men laid aside their hostility to each other when they approached it. All was an enchanting picture of peace and happiness upon its shores. In the center of the island was a large natural fountain, from which issued a fertilizing stream; a populous city stood near the port, and the whole island was adorned with temples and palaces of magnificence.

Such an island might our world be were it not for sin and its ravages; were war no more, and were the Fountain of Life permitted to water it. (Text.)

(1479)

=Idealism and the Practical Life=--See PRACTICAL, THE.

IDEALS

What should we do in this world of ours, Were it not for the dreams ahead? For thorns are mixed with the blooming flowers, No matter which path we tread.

And each of us has his golden goal, Stretching far into the years; And ever he climbs with a hopeful soul, With alternate smiles and tears.

To some it’s a dream of high estate, To some it’s a dream of wealth, To some it’s a dream of a truce with fate In a constant search for health.

To some it’s a dream of home and wife, To some it’s a crown above; The dreams ahead are what make each life-- The dreams--and faith--and love!

(1480)

See ASPIRATION.

IDEALS AND PROGRESS

The Israelites were urged by the voice of God at the Red Sea to go forward. But they were not left without inspiring motives. There was a “promised land,” and to the hope of this Moses could appeal.

Man has not reached a very high life until he can look on to future achievement and blessing, and find in these his highest incentive to go on.

(1481)

=Ideas Arousing Genius=--See AROUSEMENT BY A THOUGHT.

=Ideas, Great, Honored=--See MONUMENTS, MEANING OF.

IDEAS GUIDING ACTIONS

Logical ideas are like keys which are shaping with reference to opening a lock. Pike, separated by a glass partition from the fish upon which they ordinarily prey, will--so it is said--butt their heads against the glass until it is literally beaten into them that they can not get at their food. Animals learn (when they learn at all) by a “cut and try” method; by doing at random first one thing and another thing and then preserving the things that happen to succeed. Action directed consciously by ideas--by suggested meanings accepted for the sake of experimenting with them--is the sole alternative both to bull-headed stupidity and to learning bought from that dear teacher--chance experience.--JOHN DEWEY, “How We Think.”

(1482)

IDEAS, POWER OF

The soul, which vivifies, moves, and supports the body, is a more potent substance than the hard bones and heavy flesh which it vitalizes. A ten-pound weight falling on your head affects you unpleasantly as substance, much more so than a leaf of the New Testament, if dropt in the same direction; but there is a way in which a page of the New Testament may fall upon a nation and split it, or infuse itself into its bulk and give it strength and permanence. We should be careful, therefore, what test we adopt in order to decide the relative stability of things.

Every house, workshop, church, school-room, atheneum, theater, is the representative of an opinion. What the eye sees of them is built of bricks, iron, wood, and mortar by carpenters, smiths, and masons; but the seed from which they grew and the forces by which they are upheld are ideas, affections, conceptions of utility, sentiments of worship. Strike these out of a people’s mind and heart, and its homes, temples, colleges, and art-rooms fall away, like the trunk of the oak when its life-power is smitten, and only the bald, sandy surface of savage life remains.--THOMAS STARR KING.

(1483)

=Ideas, Worthless=--See DISAPPOINTMENT.

IDENTIFICATION

Here is an imitation of Jesus that is worth while. Of Himself He said: “He calleth His own sheep by name”:

Mr. Wanamaker always remembers the men, women, and children of Bethany (Sunday-school and church) in his absences. He carries a little book in which are written the names and addresses of the 1,100 members of the brotherhood, nearly all the 5,400 Sunday-school children, and nearly all of the 3,600 members of the church. These names are arranged alphabetically, and each day when he is traveling he sits down with his book and, beginning the first day with the letter A, utters each name aloud and repeats to himself the individual circumstances of each in which prayer and help are otherwise needed. He continues this daily until he has exhausted the list. His idea in doing this is to recall to his mental vision the face of each. “And thus,” said the one who told me this, “no wonder Mr. Wanamaker knows us all by name, calls us all by our first names--Tom and Harry and Jim--and remembers the particular troubles or joys of each.” (Text.)--_The Christian Herald._

(1484)

=Identification, Descriptive=--See INDIVIDUALITY.

IDENTIFICATION MARKS

There are men as well as garments whom it would be difficult to identify if they were to be (morally) cleansed.

In foreign countries some strange methods are adopted for identifying the contents of the wash-tub. In some parts of France linen is defaced with the whole name and address of the laundry stamped upon it, and an additional geometrical design to indicate the owner of the property. In Bavaria every patron of the wash-tub has a number stamped in large characters on his linen. In Bulgaria every laundry has a large number of stamps engraved with designs, and in Russia the laundries mark linen with threads worked in arrow shapes. In some Russian towns the police periodically issue regulations for laundries. In Odessa books of marks are furnished annually to the laundry proprietors, and these marks and no others can be used to identify them.--Albany _Journal_.

(1485)

IDLENESS

Says George S. Hilliard:

The ruin of most men dates from some vacant hour. Occupation is the armor of the soul, and the train of idleness is borne up by all the vices. I remember a satirical poem in which the devil is represented as fishing for men and adapting his bait to the taste and temperament of his prey; but the idler, he said, pleased him most, because he bit the naked hook.

(1486)

* * * * *

Killing time? I would as soon think of cutting an angel’s throat that I met on God’s highway, coming straight from His throne. Pleasure-mongering! Somebody to entertain them! As if life were a cheese and men were maggots boring in it! Are there not thousands of foreigners asking to be taught? Are not the Spaniards knocking at our door, asking us to organize for them a school of morals, a Bible school, a school of religion, a school of patriotism, on Sunday afternoon? Are there not social settlements that ask for hundreds of workers and teachers? How would it look if a regiment of soldiers at a critical moment at Gettysburg had sat down on the grass and looked for a cool tree and paid some man to come in with a jew’s-harp and play to them, while the struggle for liberty went on? (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1487)

=Idol-worship=--See FETISHISM.

=Idols Destroyed=--See RENUNCIATION, COMPLETE.

IDOLS IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE

Havelock, the English general in India, once held a wonderful prayer-meeting in the idol temple at Rangoon. In the hand of each of the idol gods that lined the sides of the great apartment, his men put a torch, and by the light of these torches in the idols’ hands they held their worship.

(1488)

IGNORANCE

The contrast between heathen and civilized men is indicated by this incident:

“Why did we not think of heating the hard stuff,” the natives exclaimed when they saw the welding of iron, “instead of beating it with stones?”

(1489)

* * * * *

However wise a man may himself be, he does well to guard himself against the ignorance of others:

Ah Wing Lee was walking down the street the other morning when a dog ran up behind him, yelping and barking horribly. The end of the Celestial’s pigtail rose in the breeze as he leapt aside in great alarm.

A benevolent passer-by, seeing the terror painted upon the yellow countenance, hastened to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder.

“Come, come, my friend, you need not be afraid. The dog won’t hurt you. Don’t you know the old proverb, ‘A barking dog never bites?’ Surely you--”

“That’s all velly good,” interrupted Ah Wing doubtfully; “you knowee ploverb and me knowee ploverb, but do the dog knowee ploverb?” (Text.)

(1490)

* * * * *

Stauber, the Lutheran minister who first ministered to the five villages in the Swiss mountains, which he afterward persuaded Oberlin to take as his parish, tells this incident to show the character of the people:

The Ban de la Roche, as you may know, is on a spur of the Vosges Mountains about twelve leagues from Strasburg. The people are very wild and ignorant. When I (Monsieur Stauber) first went there I visited the only school. A number of children were gathered together in a miserable cottage. As I entered I heard an appalling noise of scuffling, quarreling, and shouting.

“‘Silence, children, silence!’ I cried. ‘Where is your master?’ One of the children pointed to a little old man who was lying on a bed in the corner of the room.

“‘Are you the master of this school?’ said I, in some dismay.

“‘Yes, I be the master, sir--I be.’

“‘Humph! But don’t you teach the children anything?’

“‘No! I don’t teach the children nothing--for a good reason.’

“‘It must be a very good reason, indeed. What is it, my friend?’

“‘Well, I don’t know nothing myself, sir; so how am I to teach?’

“‘But, my good friend, why did they send you here, then?’

“‘Because, sir, I be too old to take care of the pigs?’”

(1491)

* * * * *

An English army officer and a foreign missionary met on an ocean steamer. The army officer contemptuously said he had lived in India thirty years and had never seen a native Christian. Shortly afterward, he recited with gusto his success in tiger-hunting, declaring that he had killed no less than nine tigers. “Pardon me,” said the missionary, “did I understand you to say that you have killed nine tigers in India?” “Yes, sir,” pompously replied the colonel. “Now that is remarkable,” replied the missionary, “for I have lived in India thirty years and have never seen a tiger.” “Perhaps, sir,” sneered the colonel, “you didn’t go where the tigers were.” “Precisely,” was the bland answer of the missionary, “and may not that have been the reason why you never saw any native converts?”

(1492)

* * * * *

An Italian tailor living at West Hoboken, N. J., appeared before Judge Carey and made application for citizenship. He told the judge he had been in this country twenty-two years.

“Do you know who Abraham Lincoln was?” asked Judge Carey.

“No, I don’t know who he was.”

“You don’t know who Abraham Lincoln was?” repeated the judge.

“No; does he live in West Hoboken?” asked the applicant.

“He is dead,” said Judge Carey.

“Well, I never heard of him,” continued the Italian. “Was he a tailor?”

The judge advised him to go home and study up on history and geography, and said: “No man who does not know who Abraham Lincoln was is fit to enjoy the privilege of American citizenship.”

When asked to name six of the United States, he answered, “New Jersey, New York, Boston, West Hoboken, Union Hill, and Hoboken.”

(1493)

* * * * *

One day recently a hard-working woman, the wife of a New York tailor in a small way, went out to market. In her hurry she left the apartment door ajar. Moreover, she forgot to replace, under the mattress, the red-flannel bag in which she and her husband kept their savings of fifteen years--some diamonds, a gold watch, and $1,400 cash.

Only a quarter of an hour later she came back--but the red-flannel savings-bank was gone. At last reports the police detectives had not recovered the money.

The pity of such a loss is more than personal. It is a national calamity. The vague distrust of all banks follows the popular ignorance of the difference in nature between a business man’s bank and a true savings-bank. Ignorance was the root of this small tragedy.--_Review of Reviews._

(1494)

* * * * *

Many of us are as foolish as a poor immigrant who was discovered walking on the tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in New Jersey. On his back he carried a huge package containing household utensils, as well as clothes. He seemed tired, tho he trudged sturdily on. He had not, however, acquired the veteran tramp’s skill in walking on the ties, and his journey was evidently telling on his physical powers more than the same distance by the roadway would have done. An agent stopt him and ordered him off the track, telling him that he was liable to arrest for trespass, besides incurring the risk of being killed by a train.

The man, who was a Hungarian, demurred, and produced a railroad ticket, good from Jersey City to Scranton, Pa. The agent looked at him in amazement, and asked why he was walking when he might ride. The Hungarian replied that he thought the ticket gave him only the privilege of walking over the road. His right was explained to him, and the tired man delightedly boarded the first train that stopt. (Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

(1495)

See CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION; FEAR.

IGNORANCE, DIETARY

The untrained housekeeper is responsible for the sheer waste of one-fifth of the average salary--wasted because she does not know how to buy her foods, in quantity or quality; because she has not known what kind of foods to give to produce the best results; because, as a bargain-hunter, she is the cause of the great quantities of “material just like the goods, but at a cheaper price” which flood our markets and lack durability.

No man would employ a purchasing agent who did not know the materials he was to buy; yet woman, with the greatest purchasing power, goes at it without knowledge.

We find that the majority of young men in the universities who go wrong are of those who live in boarding-houses where landladies know little of the choosing and preparing of foods. An inadequate lunch is followed by hunger during the middle of the afternoon, with the resultant glass of beer to satisfy the appetite for the time being.

(1496)

IGNORANCE, DISADVANTAGE OF

Frederick of Prussia had a great mania for enlisting gigantic soldiers into the Royal Guards, and paid an enormous bounty to his recruiting officers for getting them. One day the recruiting sergeant chanced to espy a Hibernian who was at least seven feet high. He accosted him in English and proposed that he should enlist. The idea of a military life and a large bounty so delighted Patrick that he at once consented.

“But unless you can speak German the king will not give you so much.”

“Oh, be jabbers,” said the Irishman; “sure it’s I that don’t know a word of German.”

“But,” said the sergeant, “I know you can learn in a short time. The king knows every man in the guards. As soon as he sees you he will ride up and ask you how old you are; you will say, ‘twenty-seven years’; next, how long you have been in the service; you must reply, ‘three weeks’; finally, if you are provided with clothes and rations; you answer, ‘both.’”

Pat soon learned to pronounce his answers, but never dreamed of learning the questions.

In three weeks he appeared before the king in review. His Majesty rode up to him. Paddy stept forward with “present arms!”

“How long have you been in the service,” said the king.

“Twenty-seven years,” said the Irishman.

“How old are you?” asked his Majesty.

“Three weeks,” said the Irishman.

“Am I or you a fool?” roared the king.

“Both,” replied Patrick, who was instantly taken to the guard-house, but pardoned by the king after he understood the facts of the case.--_Judge’s Magazine._

(1497)

IGNORANCE, HUMILIATION OF

An incident in a trial for a capital offense, in Nashville, Tenn., is thus spoken of in a news item:

A splendid, clean-looking young man was under examination and Mr. Fitzhugh, of Memphis, of the prosecution, got to the point of asking him which newspapers he had read at the time of the Carmack killing. The talesman had testified that he was thirty-one years old, a farmer, and the father of three children. His answers had been bright and his face sparkled with intelligence. But he hesitated when the interrogation concerning the newspapers was put to him.

“I haven’t read any about it in the newspapers. We don’t take any newspapers in our house. I--I kain’t read and I kain’t write, but I can farm. I never got the show to go to school but two or three days in all my life.”

A blush mantled his cheeks and for an instant there was a glistening in his eyes, then, throwing back his head, he left the witness-stand and marched out of the court-room, his expression of defiance silencing the laughter of the unthinking ones in the crowd. And this was only one of more than a score of examples of illiteracy.

How many a life is thus handicapped. It is not a commendation of parenthood that the child should thus be distinguished against in this age of widespread learning. On the other hand, all honor is to be given to the man who through diligent application in after life is able to surmount the difficulty of scanty knowledge.

(1498)

IGNORANCE IS BLISS

It is sometimes best not to alarm persons in peril by revealing the danger, as is illustrated by the Rev. Asa Bullard in the following incident:

On our way down the Ohio River one day, in a thunder-shower, my brother requested me to remind him on reaching Cincinnati to reveal a secret to me. That secret was, as I learned on reaching the city, that we were then sitting directly over several casks, not of whisky, but of gunpowder! He was acquainted with some of the officials of the steamer, and tho it was unlawful to carry that article on the boat, they had told him of the fact. When asked why he had seated himself in such a dangerous place, his reply was that “if the boat should be struck by lightning, or if for any cause the powder should be exploded, we were probably as safe there as we should be in any part of the steamer.”--“Incidents in a Busy Life.”

(1499)

=Ignorance Mystified=--See ENLIGHTENMENT.

=Ignorance of Money=--See MONEY, IGNORANCE OF.

IGNORANCE OF ORIGIN AND DESTINY

We know no more of our beginning and end, of what preceded the one and will round off the other, than King Alfred did. “Our life,” said he to his nobles one evening, as they were sitting beside the great fireplace, “is something that is bounded by impenetrable obscurity. A little bird flies from the darkness of the outside night into the brightness of this room, flutters a minute or two in the warmth and light, and then flies through the opposite window into the night once more.” Nearly two thousand years have gone by since Alfred delivered himself of this fable, but the centuries have brought us no new wisdom.--San Francisco _Chronicle_.

(1500)

See UNKNOWN REALITIES.

IGNORANCE, PALLIATIONS OF

In “Gloria Christi,” we read the following:

The change in methods inaugurated by modern medicine in Syria is shown by an anecdote. It is said that once when Dr. Jesup was visiting Beirut, a native doctor asked him for an American newspaper. He secured it, and some days after came back for another. “What do you do with them?” asked Mr. Jesup. “Oh,” he said, “I tear them in pieces, soak them in water, and feed them in oil to my patients. It cures them all right!”

The palliatives of ignorance everywhere abound. As they are in medicine, so they are in morals.

(1501)

IGNORANCE, THE COST OF

The tree-butcher ruined many valuable shade-trees last fall (1909) and it is hoped that he will find steady employment at some other kind of work before spring arrives. Shade-trees are usually pruned by some one temporarily out of employment. His only qualification is the possession of an ax and saw. He needs work, so he finds some property owner who has some nice shade-trees and importunes him to have them cut back. The owner consents. The axman is to receive so much for the job and the wood the limbs make. The workingman at once sees that it is to his advantage to cut the limbs off close to the trunk of the tree, because he can complete the job quicker with no dangerous climbing, and by so doing he gets more wood. Consequently, the tree is ruined. Shade-trees should be trimmed up when young, so the top will be at least twelve feet above the walk. After this all that is necessary is to cut out the dead and superfluous branches.--CHARLES C. DEAM, Secretary Board of Forestry.

(1502)

ILLITERACY

While a policeman was covering his beat near Delaware Avenue and Dickinson Street, says the Philadelphia _Times_, he came across a dead dog.

Taking out his book and pencil, he wrote the following:

“Dead dog at Delaware Avenue and Dick----” and stopt.

Picking up the dog by its tail, the policeman carried it to Tasker Street, where he dropt it. Here he took his pencil and book out again and wrote:

“Dead dog at Delaware Avenue and Tasker Street.”

A passer-by asked the policeman what made him carry the dog to Tasker Street, to which he replied:

“Well, I couldn’t spell Dickinson, so I took the cur a square down to an easier street.”

(1503)

ILL-FORTUNE BECOMING GOOD-FORTUNE

An Australian miner had reached the very last of his resources without finding a speck of gold, and there was nothing for him to do but to turn back on the morrow, while a mouthful of food was left, and retrace his steps as best he might do to the nearest port. He flung down his tools in despair that last night, and staggered over the two or three miles of desert to the camp-fire. Next morning, early, after a great deal of sleep and very little food, he braced himself up to go back for his tools, knowing that they might bring the price of a meal or two when it came to the last. As he stumbled back that hot morning the way seemed very long, for his heart was too heavy to carry. At last he saw his wheelbarrow and pick standing upon the flat plain a little way off, and was wearily dragging on toward them, when he caught his toe against a stone deeply embedded in the sand, and fell down. This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. He lay there and curst his luck bitterly, to think that he should nearly break his toe against the only stone in the whole district after all his failure to find gold. He felt like a passionate child who kicks and breaks the thing which has hurt him, and he had to beat that stone before he could feel quiet. It was too firm in the sand for his hands to get it up; so in his rage he dug it up with his pick, intending to smash it; but it would not smash, for it was solid gold, and nearly as big as a baby’s head. (Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

(1504)

ILL LUCK

There was a man during the reign of Kaiser Otho, who wore puffed breeches. Puffed breeches then were filled with flour, and when the wearer of the breeches sat down on a seat he sat down on a nail, and the nail tore the breeches and the rent emitted three pecks of flour. Why he should have sat down at that particular time, and in that

## particular place, is a mystery; and why there should have been a nail

there, is to me an inscrutable mystery; but there is the fact, and the sufferer I consider an ill-used man.--GEORGE DAWSON.

(1505)

ILL-PAID WORK

Generally, good, useful work, whether of the hand or head, is either ill-paid, or not paid at all. I don’t say it should be so, but it always is so. People, as a rule, only pay for being amused or being cheated, not for being served. Five thousand a year to your talker, and a shilling a day to your fighter, digger, and thinker, is the rule. None of the best head work in art, literature, or science is ever paid for. How much do you think Homer got for his “Iliad?” or Dante for his “Paradise?” Only bitter bread and salt, and going up and down other people’s stairs. In science, the man who discovered the telescope, and first saw heaven, was paid with a dungeon; the man who invented the microscope, and first saw earth, died of starvation, driven from his home. Baruch, the scribe, did not get a penny a line for writing Jeremiah’s second roll for him, I fancy; and St. Stephen did not get bishop’s pay for that long sermon of his to the Pharisees; nothing but stones. For, indeed, that is the world-father’s proper payment.--JOHN RUSKIN.

(1506)

ILLUMINATION

The _Railway and Locomotive Engineering_ says:

Some of the principal requirements of a locomotive headlight are that the light from it shall be powerful enough to illuminate the track far enough ahead to permit of an emergency stop; that the light shall not be so brilliant as to cause temporary blindness or bewilderment in those upon whom it falls; that in the matter of signal observance it must not alter or modify the colors of the lesser lights which come into its field, and that it shall be as effective a form of light as can be devised for foggy or snowy weather.

(1507)

When Moses returned from communion with God his face shone so brightly that a veil was needed. There was another transfiguration which is the result not of glory reflected but of grace transfused. “Be ye transformed (lit. transfigured) by the renewing of your mind,” says the apostle.

The visitor to the beautiful church of St. Paul without the walls at Rome is sure to be asked by the sacristans to notice the wonderful columns of pure alabaster which are among the splendors of that edifice. The guide brings a lighted taper which he places behind one of these massive pillars. The translucent alabaster immediately glows with the light that seems to play all through it with lambent effulgence. The solid mass glorifies the flame, as the flame illumines the solid substance. (Text.)

(1508)

See LIGHT.

ILLUSION, SPIRITUAL

Worldly men on first coming into the spiritual life often misjudge the values and dimensions of Christian realities. Only long Christian experience enables men to get the right perspective of Christian realities.

If you have always lived in valleys or near the sea level, then you have always been viewing distant objects through a dusty or vaporous atmosphere. If you should go to a mountainous region or an elevated plateau, you would suffer great illusion as to distances. As you would still have the mental standards of the lowlands, very distant objects would seem to be quite near. You would travel all day to reach a mountain that seems but an hour’s walk away.

(1509)

ILLUSIONS, MORAL

A celebrated naturalist tells us that one day he saw a bird drowning in a lake, and he felt sure that the bird had mistaken the water for the sky; it was a bright, transparent day, the clear, calm lake reflected the sky and the whole landscape in its depths, and the bird, not discerning that the world below it was a world of shadows, was betrayed to its doom. So all the glories of the upper world appear inverted in the world of evil. The lofty, the pure, the beautiful, the bright, are all seductively reflected in the depths of Satan; they are exaggerated there, they are seen in surpassing magnitude and splendor; error seems some nobler truth, disobedience some larger liberty, forbidden things seem the sweetest flowers and mellowest fruits of paradise.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1510)

ILLUSIONS, OPTICAL

On the chalk downs of Wiltshire, in sight of the town of Westbury, there appears a great white horse, which presumably marks the sight of one of the battles between Alfred the Great and the Danes. As you look at that white horse upon the hill from the road approaching it it is perfectly drawn--it is so accurate that I doubt if any painter of a horse could improve upon it; but some time ago when I was in that neighborhood, I went up to the white horse to see it on the spot. There I found that this cutting in the green turf which revealed the chalk below was so extensive that if I walked round the outline, I could cover about a mile, and the shape as it lay along the slope of the hill had no resemblance to a horse whatever. Like the long shadows cast by the setting sun, its sprawling limbs went down the hill, and were so much greater than the width of the body that you could not have told in walking over it that the artist--for an artist he was--who designed it could possibly intend to be drawing a horse; that perfect horse upon the hillside, to the traveler approaching from Westbury, appeared to have no existence at all--it was a great perspective drawing upon the hill, which, when seen close at hand, did not even suggest a horse’s form. Taking that as an illustration, does it not often strike you how the whole pageant of earth and sky, which delights our eye, is just as unreal as the scenery of the stage? Those clouds that drape the setting sun, and form lofty mountains and shimmering seas, making a landscape in the sky so beautiful that no painter on earth could reproduce it; those clouds that charm us with their beauty, if we were in the midst of them, would be merely like the drenching rain of an April day, without beauty, without charm. And those starry heavens which are to us all of the earth a subject of endless delight because of their beauty and their incomparable grandeur, are not in the least what they appear.--ROBERT F. HORTON, _Christian World Pulpit_.

(1511)

* * * * *

The other day I came across the letter which Galileo wrote to Kepler, when he was afraid to publish the discoveries which had been made by the first telescope, and he uses this extraordinary language: “Fearing the fate of our master Copernicus, who, altho he has earned immortal fame among a few, yet, by an infinite number, so only can the number of fools be measured, is hissed and derided.” It was a peril in the seventeenth century even to say what those starry heavens are. They have no relation at all to the objects that we see. That little group of the Pleiades, which look like fireflies hung in a net in the sky, in which a very keen eye can perceive seven distinct stars, is really a group of between 400 and 500 suns, many of them larger than our own. And that genial sun himself, whose light we love, which gives to our planet its life, its warmth and its joy--if we could approach it would terrify us the more we approached it--a mighty mass of incandescent matter so awful that the imagination dare hardly entertain the reality of what it is. It may be said, however, that while these distant objects of the universe possibly mislead us, our eyes at any rate can trust the things which are close at hand. But that is quite a delusion, too. The matter which is close at hand, and which our fathers thirty years ago treated as the one certainty in the world, is a complete illusion. I took up in my hand some time ago a few grains of dried mud from a river-bed. To all appearance they were like grains of gunpowder, but they were put under the microscope, and there to my amazement every one of these tiny grains was a shell, as beautiful and as perfect in form as a nautilus sailing upon the sea. Not only does the matter we see delude us, but the delusion is greater from the fact of what we do not see. Now, the physicist seriously tells us he is using the strict language of science, and not the language of a fairy tale, when he says that all the matter we touch, including our own bodies, is made up of molecules, and the molecule is made up of atoms, an atom far too minute for the eye to see; and yet that atom, of which all matter is built up, is itself composed of electrons, so minute that they dart with inconceivable velocity from end to end of that tiny atom like a mouse in a great cathedral--such is the proportion of the electron to the atom.--ROBERT F. HORTON, _The Christian World Pulpit_.

(1512)

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM CANDLES

Mr. Spurgeon had occasion, some time ago, says the Hartford _Courant_, to speak to a company of theological students on the importance of using illustrations in preaching.

A student observed that they found it difficult to get illustrations, whereupon Mr. Spurgeon remarked that illustrations enough might be found in a tallow candle. This was regarded as an extravagance of speech, whereupon the great preacher prepared a lecture to show what might be illustrated by candles. In delivering his lecture he used candles of various sizes and colors, together with lanterns and other suitable apparatus. A nicely japanned but shut-up box filled with fine unused candles illustrated an idle and spiritless church. Several colossal and highly-colored but unlit candles were shown, and with them a tiny rushlight shining as best it could. The big, handsome, unlit candles might be archbishops or doctors of divinity, or other persons of culture without piety, and the bright rushlight might be some poor boy in a workshop whose life is beautiful. Mr. Spurgeon showed an unlighted candle in a splendid silver candlestick, and then a brightly burning one stuck in a ginger-beer bottle. He showed what a few people might do by combining their good efforts, by exhibiting the combined light of twelve candles. The folly of trying to light a candle with the extinguisher still on was shown, and the dark-lantern illustrated the care of people who make no effort to let their light shine before men. The lecturer then placed a candle under a bushel, and afterward placed the bushel-measure under the candle--the point of which was obvious. In snuffing a candle he extinguished it, and remarked that Christians often did a like mischief by unwise rebukes and criticisms. The folly of burning the candle at both ends was illustrated. The last illustration was a number of lighted candles of various hues placed together on one stand, representing the Church’s true diversity in unity, all the different branches burning from one stem, and for one purpose. Some one in the audience asked if the “dips” did not give the best light, whereupon Mr. Spurgeon said he was not sure of that, and thought many of the “dips” would be the better for another dipping.

The man of genius can find illustrations in common things--sermons in stones or in candles. Every preacher should work these mines of natural analogies.

(1513)

ILLUSTRATIONS IN PREACHING

A good illustration is the most powerful “motor” ever invented; it will drag a whole congregation which has drifted into infinite space back again to earth in a twinkling. It comes like a sweet sea-breeze blowing in through the church windows on a hot Sunday, and relaxing the feverish tension of crowded worship.--MACKAY SMITH, _Harper’s Magazine_.

(1514)

ILLUSTRATIONS, STRIKING

Colonel Zell, at the time when Grant was up for the Presidency, and when the Democratic watchword was, “Anything to beat Grant,” was addressing an enthusiastic meeting of Republicans, when a Democrat sang out, “It’s easy talkin’, colonel; but we’ll show you something next fall.” The colonel was a great admirer of Grant. He at once wheeled about and with uplifted hands, hair bristling, and eyes flashing fire, cried out: “Build a worm-fence ’round a winter supply of summer weather; catch a thunderbolt in a bladder; break a hurricane to harness; hang out the ocean on a grapevine to dry; but never, sir, never for a moment delude yourself with the idea that you can beat Grant.”--_Chambers’s Journal._

(1515)

=Image in the Soul=--See RESTORING GOD’S IMAGE.

IMAGE OF GOD REPRODUCED

Star photography is one of the most refined and delicate of the arts of modern science. Two factors enter into the production of the photo. It is the star which makes the picture, but the artist-astronomer is essential also. He has to expose the sensitive plate and to direct the telescope to the star, and the star by its light does the rest.

So when the gaze of the soul is set on God, He reproduces His own likeness by His own light. It is ours to point the telescope; His to paint the picture. (Text.)

(1516)

=Imagery=--See EVANGELIZATION.

IMAGERY OF THE MIND

Thought is an artist painting its pictures on the mind, so producing its imagery on the walls of one’s immortal nature. If evil, the mind becomes a mystic shrine painted with such figures as were found in some of the chambers of Pompeii, where excavators had to cover up the pictures because they were so foul. If good, the mind is like the cells in the convent of San Marco, at Florence, where Fra Angelico’s holy genius had painted on the bare walls angel imaginings and celestial faces. (Text.)

(1517)

IMAGINATION

Pure and noble imaginings become a power for good. A healthy imagination is a well-spring of pure pleasure, and by reading and keeping our eyes open to the world we store our minds with pictures which will in after life bring great satisfaction. George William Curtis says: “One man goes 4,000 miles to see Italy, and does not see it, he is so short-sighted. Another is so far-sighted that he stays in his room, and sees more than Italy.” We should train our observing faculties to see all of the beauty that lies about us, even to those finer tints, which it is said only the artist’s eye discerns--“the light that never was on sea or land.”--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1518)

See DREAMS; PANIC THROUGH FEAR.

IMAGINATION CAUSING DEATH

The _British and Colonial Druggist_ discust the death of a young woman at Hackney under circumstances in which a certain insect powder largely figured. As the powder appeared by Dr. Tidy’s experiment to be perfectly harmless, the suggestion was not unnaturally made that the deceased, who was possibly of a hysterical, highly imaginative turn of mind, took the powder in the full belief that by its means her death might be accomplished. The writer of the article, we think wrongly, brings forward two remarkable instances of what may be regarded as practical jokes with melancholy terminations. In the case of the convict delivered up to the scientist for the purpose of a psychological experiment (the man was strapped to a table and blindfolded, ostensibly to be bled to death; a siphon containing water was placed near his head and the fluid was allowed to trickle audibly into a vessel below it, at the same time that a trifling scratch with a needle was inflicted on the culprit’s neck; it is said that death occurred at the end of six minutes), fear must have played no inconsiderable share in the fatal result, and we do not know whether all the vital organs were in a sound condition, tho they were presumably so. The old story of the case of a college porter is also one in point. The students entrapt him into a room at night, a mock inquiry was held, and the punishment of death by decapitation decreed for his want of consideration to the students. It is small wonder that, under the dominion of fear and belief in the earnestness of his tormentors, the sight of an ax and a block, with subsequent blindfolding and necessary genuflexion, a smart rap with a wet towel on the back of his neck should have been followed by the picking up of a corpse.--_Lancet._

(1519)

* * * * *

A Sioux Indian, who had lost a relative by death, vowed to kill the first living thing he met. This was once not an uncommon practise among our Indians. Issuing from his lodge, he chanced to meet a missionary--a man much beloved by all, from whom this Indian had received many favors. Unwilling, but bound by his vow, he shot his benefactor as he passed. Indian usage did not sanction a bloody retribution on the murderer, since the obligation of his vow was recognized by all. The shaman, however, upbraided him for his act, and pronounced his doom, saying: “You will die within the year.” The Indian, tho apparently a well man at the time, was seized by a wasting disease, and actually did die within the specified time, a victim to his own superstitious imagination.--H. W. HENSHAW, _The Youth’s Companion_.

(1520)

IMAGINATION, LURE OF

A certain legend relates that one of the Piscayan mountains is accurst, and that Satan dwells there. The grass is withered, a sinister hue rests upon everything, the sounds are mournful, the mountain stands a dark fantom in the midst of bedecked nature. But this is not the method of evil. The mountain up which the devil took our Master, and up which he takes us, is bathed in purple; in its rocks gleam jewels, its dust is the dust of gold, in its clefts spring flowers, and from its crest is seen the vision of kingdoms and the glory of them. Things, principles, maxims, amusements, relationships, creeds, ideals, utterly base and vile, are through the power of imagination purged into the lily’s whiteness, perfumed with the violet, steeped in the color of the rose. We are never invited to sin; the things which have ruined generations are prest upon us as nature, freedom, spirit, knowledge, gallantry, beauty, love, and we are deceived through the legerdemain of passion and fancy. (Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1521)

IMITATION

Some men try to imitate good character as precious stones are imitated, according to this description:

The trade in artificial precious stones has become quite important, and the manufacture of them has reached a considerable degree of perfection. The products of some of the shops would almost deceive an expert, but the test of hardness is still infallible. The beautiful “French paste,” from which imitation diamonds are made, is a kind of glass with a mixture of oxide of lead. The more of the latter the brighter the stone, but also the softer, and this is a serious defect. The imitation stones are now so perfectly made and are so satisfactory to those who are not very particular, that their influence begins to be felt in the market for real stones. By careful selection of the ingredients and skill and attention in manipulation, the luster, color, fire and water of the choicest stones are, to the eyes of laymen, fully reproduced.--_Popular Science Monthly._

(1522)

* * * * *

Imitation, as we see it in man, seems to extend over a wider range of action and production than in any other animal. It is not confined, as in the monkeys, to the production of like attitudes or bodily acts; it is not confined, as in the birds, to the imitation of sounds; it includes all alike, and is characterized, furthermore, by conscious pleasure in the doing. Every one who has observed children knows the keen delight with which they first perceive the likeness between two things; that to recognize in a picture a thing which they have actually seen is a distinct enjoyment; that in the same way the second telling of a story, or the second playing of a game, seems to give an additional and independent pleasure to the child. And so with ignorant people when they look at pictures, the great, if not the only source of pleasure seems to be the detecting of the likeness to something they know. After the artists of Greece and Rome had reached their highest levels and done their best work, the critic of art found in the exactness of the likeness one of the highest, perhaps the highest element of excellence. The birds that flew to the grapes of Zeuxis, the horse that neighed to the painted horse of Apelles, the painted curtain of Parasius that deceived Zeuxis himself--these seemed to Pliny, and, I suppose, to the ancient world generally, to be the highest tributes to the excellence of the artists.--Lord Justice FRY, _Contemporary Review_.

(1523)

Our evil deeds as well as our good ones will be imitated, often to our own undoing as in the following incident:

The _Green Bag_ tells of an experience which Nathaniel Whitmore, a prominent Maine lawyer, had with a student who was graduated from his office. When Mr. Whitmore was past sixty this young man started practise in a neighboring town; and the older lawyer gave him charge, as agent, of certain property situated in the town where his former clerk was practising. Everything was drawn up in legal form, and the young man fulfilled his duties most satisfactorily. The rents came regularly, together with full accounts of repairs, which were much less than formerly; tenants were satisfied; the property never paid so well before, and Mr. Whitmore was well pleased. Then came a brief letter stating that the property had been sold for taxes. Dumfounded, Mr. Whitmore hastened to his agent to demand what this meant. “How does this happen that I am sold out for taxes?” he asked. “There was nothing in the agreement about taxes,” explained the young man, handing to his former client the signed agreement. “Had taxes been mentioned, I should have paid them.” “Who bought the houses?” the elder man asked, with a shade of amusement in his tone, as a light began to dawn on his mind. “I did,” replied the young man, modestly. “The devil you did! Where did you learn that trick?” asked Mr. Whitmore, now fully comprehending the situation. “In your office,” came the answer, in the same modest voice. “I look out for a poor client, but a rich lawyer can look out for himself.” The two men shook hands and changed the subject.

(1524)

* * * * *

A beautiful statue once stood in the market-place of an Italian city. It was the statue of a Greek slave-girl. It represented the slave as tidy and well drest. A ragged, uncombed little street child, coming across the statue in her play, stopt and gazed at it in admiration. She was captivated by it. She gazed long and lovingly. Moved by a sudden impulse, she went home and washed her face and combed her hair. Another day she stopt again before the statue and admired it, and she got a new idea. Next day her tattered clothes were washed and mended. Each time she looked at the statue she found something in its beauties until she was a transformed child.

The history of the Christian religion has been a continuous record of men transformed by contemplation of the great Example. (Text.)

(1525)

See CHRIST INVITING MEN; EXAMPLE, POWER OF.

IMITATION DISAPPROVED

It is no use to try to get another man’s style, or to imitate the wit or the mannerisms of another writer. The late Mr. Carlyle, for example, did, in my judgment, a considerable mischief in his day because he led everybody to write after the style of his “French Revolution,” and it became pretty tedious. They got over it after a time, however. But it was not a good thing. Let every man write in his own style, taking care only not to be led into any affectation, but to be perfectly clear, perfectly simple.--CHARLES A. DANA.

(1526)

IMITATION OF GOD

For the Father of all sends sun and rain On the good and ill and shows that we, If we would his perfect children be, Must love not only the good and kind, Must teach not only the true and wise, But patience must open the eyes of the blind And love must conquer her enemies. (Text.)--CHARLES WILLIAM PEARSON, “A Threefold Cord.”

(1527)

IMITATION OF NATURE

How far the manual and technical arts of human life owe their suggestion and origin to imitation is a point which, so far as I know, has not been fully considered. That the first canoe was made in imitation of a rotten tree which had served as a ferry-boat; that the first pillar was constructed in the likeness of an erect tree; that the Gothic arch was made to represent the overreaching boughs in some forest glade; that the triglyph in the Doric frieze represents the ends of the cross-beams which rested on the architrave--all this seems very probable, and suggests that further investigation might show that to a great degree imitation of the objects of nature, or of earlier structures, underlies all the various arts and products of human labor.--Lord Justice FRY, _Contemporary Review_.

(1528)

See NATURE A MODEL.

IMMANENCE OF GOD

But where shall we look for the highest, the most complete and perfect revelation of God that the human mind is capable of grasping? Grant the truth there is in all the symbols which the imagination of men has produced. The earth is like the little ball you can hold in your hand. The solar system is like the revolving electric lights in the Museum of Natural History. The infinite and eternal energy is like the sun radiating light and heat and life upon the earth. He is like the flaming fire which consumes the evil and purifies the good. He is like the wind and like the ocean and like the most beautiful statue that art can produce. More than that. God is not only like all these symbols; He is in the symbols. God is in the solar system, the very life and soul of the universe. God is in the fire that consumes and purifies. God is in the flower and the bird and the beast.--FRANK O. HALL.

(1529)

* * * * *

The immanence of God is illustrated in these lines from an unidentified source:

“Oh, where is the sea?” the fishes cried, As they swam the crystal clearness through. “We’ve heard from of old of the ocean’s tide, And we long to look on the waters blue. The wise ones speak of an infinite sea, Oh, who can tell us if such there be?” The lark flew up in the morning bright, And sung and balanced on sunny wings; And this was its song: “I see the light, I look on a world of beautiful things; But flying and singing everywhere, In vain I have searched to find the air.”

(1530)

=Immensity of Space Reveals God=--See CONVERTED BY THE COMET.

=Immigrant Savings=--See PROSPERITY AS AN ADVERTISEMENT.

IMMIGRATION

There is an ominous side to immigration, but there are alleviating facts. One of these was thus referred to by Bishop Warren of the Methodist Episcopal Church:

A while ago I was in a small country village in New England. For the first time in my life I looked upon a Methodist Episcopal church, once filled with happy worshipers, but now closed and abandoned. The population of the entire township was declining, and tho a few of the last remaining Methodists had added their help to the older and stronger Congregational church, even this was looking into the future with fear and trembling. Many of the native stock had died or moved away, and “foreigners were creeping in.” I got a boy to guide me to where one of these foreigners--a Finlander--lived. It was a neatly painted home, with a fine garden and an acre of land, all paid for, and occupied by the Finn and his son. All the foreigners in the village were Finns and there were of them just six men and four women. Of the latter, two were wives of two of the men and two were young women serving in American families. And what sort of people were they? One of the six men, I was told, was a lay preacher and, as Sunday services were a long way off and quite irregular, this little homeless community of ten dreaded and shunned immigrants were maintaining a weekly prayer-meeting! (Text.)

(1531)

* * * * *

The total immigration to the United States for 1909 was 751,786. The net gain in foreign population was 718,433. The comparative immigration from the leading countries of the world for three years is shown in the following table:

-----------------------+---------+---------+-------- RACE OR PEOPLE | 1909 | 1908 | 1907 -----------------------+---------+---------+-------- Italians, North-South | 190,398 | 135,247 | 294,061 Polish | 77,565 | 68,105 | 138,033 German | 58,534 | 73,038 | 92,936 Hebrew | 57,551 | 103,387 | 149,182 English | 39,021 | 49,056 | 51,126 Scandinavian | 34,996 | 32,789 | 53,425 Irish | 31,185 | 36,427 | 38,706 Magyar | 28,704 | 24,378 | 60,071 Slovak | 22,586 | 16,170 | 42,041 Greek | 20,262 | 28,808 | 46,283 Croatian and Slovanian | 20,181 | 20,472 | 47,826 French | 19,423 | 12,881 | 9,392 Scotch | 16,446 | 17,014 | 20,516 Ruthenian | 15,808 | 12,361 | 24,081 Mexican | 15,591 | 5,682 | 91 Lithuanian | 15,254 | 13,720 | 25,884 Finnish | 11,687 | 6,746 | 14,860 Russian | 10,038 | 17,111 | 16,807 Japanese | 3,275 | 16,418 | 30,824 -----------------------+---------+---------+--------

The reader sees at once that more immigrants came from Italy than from any other country. In fact, the immigrants from Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Scandinavia numbered altogether 198,630, while those from Italy alone were 190,398. Of these Italian immigrants 25,150 (in 1908, 24,700 and in 1907, 51,564) came from northern Italy and 165,248 (in 1908, 110,547 and in 1907, 242,497) from southern Italy.

Of the total 751,786 immigrants, 220,865 or 29.4 per cent., declared that the State of New York was their intended place of residence (of Hebrews 60.2 per cent., of Italians 39.9 per cent., of Poles 23.8 per cent.).

(1532)

IMMORTALITY

The heart of man hears the call and feels the attraction of life beyond, as the woodland brook hears the call of the distant sea and hastens on to meet it.

(1533)

* * * * *

The fadeless hope of everlasting life is thus exprest by St. John Adcock:

I, that had life ere I was born Into this world of dark and light, Waking as one who wakes at morn From dreams of night.

I am as old as heaven and earth; But sleep is death without decay, And since each morn renews my birth I am no older than the day.

Old tho my outward form appears, Tho it at last outworn shall lie, This that is servile to the years, This is not I.

I, who outwear the form I take, When I put off this garb of flesh, Still in immortal youth shall wake And somewhere clothe my life afresh. (Text.)--_The Monthly Review._

(1534)

* * * * *

When the late Dr. Reese, of Swansea, preached the last time in North Wales, a friend said to him--one of those who are always reminding people that they are getting old: “You are whitening fast, Dr. Reese.” The old gentleman did not say anything then, but when he got to the pulpit he referred to it and said: “There is a wee white flower that comes up through the earth at this season of the year. Sometimes it comes up through the snow and frost; but we are glad to see the snow-drop, because it proclaims that the winter is over and that the summer is at hand. A friend reminded me last night that I was whitening fast. But heed not that, brother; it is to me proof that my winter will soon be over; that I shall have done presently with the cold east winds and the frosts of earth, and that my summer, my eternal summer, is at hand.” (Text.)--VYRNWY MORGAN, “The Cambro-American Pulpit.”

(1535)

* * * * *

James T. White is the author of the following lines, entitled “A Sea Shell.” They appeared in the New York _Tribune_:

Imprisoned in the shell Are echoes of the far-off ocean’s roar. May not our hopes of immortality, That deep within us dwell-- Instinctive to the soul, and more and more Insistent to the heart--may not they be Soul-echoes of the swell That ceaseless beats on an eternal shore?

(1536)

IMMORTALITY, A SYMBOL OF

This apostrophe to a butterfly was written by Alice Freeman Palmer:

I hold you at last in my hand, Exquisite child of the air; Can I ever understand How you grew to be so fair?

You came to this linden-tree To taste its delicious sweet, I sitting here in the shadow and shine Playing around its feet.

Now I hold you fast in my hand, You marvelous butterfly, Till you help me to understand The eternal mystery.

From that creeping thing in the dust To this shining bliss in the blue! God, give me courage to trust I can break my chrysalis, too!

(1537)

IMMORTALITY, EVIDENCE OF

Man, who builds bridges, sails ships, fights battles for liberty, erects cathedrals, writes hymns and prayers, founds homes, is given a little handful of thirty or forty years. Nor can the bulk of the elephant above man’s size ever explain the two hundred years given to some Jumbo munching hay, or the three thousand years given to some tree that is dead, inert and voiceless. The architect builds a marble palace for centuries, stores it with art treasures, that all the generations may throng in and out, feeding the eye and feasting the hunger for beauty, in form and color. But God spent millions of years upon this body, fearfully and wonderfully made, storing the soul’s temple with intellect, memory and judgment, with conscience, affections and moral sentiments. And did He build this soul that goes laughing, weeping, inventing, praying, through life, for that goal named a black hole in the ground?--N. D. HILLIS.

(1538)

IMMORTALITY, FEELING OF

Living on the surface of the earth sense impressions constrain us to regard the earth as flat and still, and the sun and other heavenly bodies as moving across the heavens above our heads. But astronomers know that by long watching of the heavenly bodies an observer comes often to feel the motion and sense the rotundity of the earth.

So of the man who will live in the spiritual altitudes. He reasonably believed before in the future life, but all his impressions have been earthly, materialistic. But on the higher level he actually “lays hold on the powers of an endless life.”

(1539)

IMMORTALITY, INTIMATIONS OF

Eugene Field is the author of this:

Upon the mountain height, far from the sea, I found a shell; And to my listening ear the lonely thing Ever a song of ocean seemed to sing, Ever a tale of ocean seemed to tell.

How came the shell upon that mountain height? Ah, who can say? Whether there dropt by some too careless hand, Or whether there cast when ocean swept the land, Ere the eternal had ordained the day.

Strange, was it not! Far from its native deep, One song it sang-- Sang of the awful mysteries of the tide, Sang of the misty sea, profound and wide, Ever with echoes of the ocean rang.

And as the shell upon the mountain height Sings of the sea, So do I ever, leagues and leagues away-- So do I ever, wandering where I may, Sing, O my home! sing, O my home! of thee. (Text.)

(1540)

* * * * *

A solemn murmur in its soul Tells of the world to be, As travelers hear the billows roll, Before they reach the sea.

(1541)

IMMORTALITY OF INFLUENCE

Richard Watson Gilder writes this verse about a dead poet:

I read that, in his sleep, the poet died Ere the day broke; In a new dawn, as rose earth’s crimson tide, His spirit woke.

Yet still with us his golden spirit stayed, On the same page That told his end, his living verse I read-- His lyric rage.

Behold! I thought, they call him cold in death; But hither turn, See where his soul, a glorious, flaming breath, Doth pulse and burn.

This is the poet’s triumph, his high doom! After life’s stress-- For him the silent, dark, o’ershadowing tomb Is shadowless.

And this the miracle and mystery-- In that he gives His soul away, magnificently free, By this he lives. (Text.)

--_The Outlook._

(1542)

IMMORTALITY, PROOF OF

“Proof,” asks the Soul, “that that which is shall be? That which was not, persist eternally? Faith fails before the mortal mystery.”

Yet more miraculous miracle were this: The mortal, dreaming immortality; The finite, framing forth infinity; The shallow, lightly plumbing the abyss; Ephemeral lips, creating with a kiss; The transient eye, fixt on eternity! (Text.)

--GRACE ELLERY CHANNING, _The Century_.

(1543)

=Immunity from Colds=--See VITALITY LOW.

IMMUNITY FROM DISEASE

The island of Barbados, in the West Indies, is remarkably free from malaria, and this immunity from a disease which is so common in the tropics has been attributed to a species of fish that inhabits the waters of that island, and whose chief food is the larvæ of the mosquito. These fish are tiny minnows, never exceeding an inch and a half in length, and are generally known as “millions,” altho they bear a most impressive scientific name. They belong to the family of “top minnows,” feeding on the surface of the water, and their diminutive size enables them to swim over lily-pads and similar vegetation, which is covered only by a thin film of water, and there feast upon mosquito larvæ and other insects.

These fish thrive in stagnant or running water, and whether it is fresh or brackish appears to have no effect upon them. The minnows will swim up stream against a strong current and then enter the smaller rivulets, thus distributing themselves over an entire water system. The young of these fish are not hatched from eggs, but are born alive.

The Panama Canal Commission has decided to employ these minnows in the fight to rid the Isthmus of the malarial mosquito, and has imported a great quantity of the little fish. There are mosquito-eating fish in the Panama waters, but they are not sufficiently numerous to be of much value. However, a systematic stocking of the lakes and streams in the Canal Zone with the “millions” from Barbados should act as a severe check on the mosquito population of Panama, and indirectly aid in stamping out malaria.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1544)

See DISEASE, EXEMPTION FROM.

=Immutability=--See INDIVIDUALITY OF GERMS.

IMPARTIALITY

Lieut. Edmund Blaney, of the Atlantic Avenue police station, Brooklyn, who locked up his son brought in on the charge of fighting, is to be commended for his determination that his own shall be treated no better than others. It is a gratifying instance of the absence of “pull” and a delightful example of paternal willingness to see that punishment is meted out when it should be. Lieutenant Blaney could have let his fighting son, a man of twenty-three, and the other prisoner go upon their promise to appear in court, and no one would have taken exception to such a display of fatherly interest, but he preferred the Spartan attitude. The public need not expect this rule to be generally followed, for not many parents have the firmness to deal out the same degree of severe treatment to their own offspring as to those of others. A not to be overlooked feature of the case is the evident reduction of the young man’s opinion of his ability to violate the law and escape the consequences. He thought, or said, that he could not be arrested because he was an officer’s son. That was yesterday. To-day he is wiser and it is hoped a slightly better citizen from a forced realization that ordinances are intended for all alike.--Brooklyn _Standard Union_.

(1545)

=Impartiality of God=--See PRIVILEGE.

IMPATIENCE

Victor Hugo pictures a man who is so maddened by failure and misfortune that he resolves on suicide. He is at the end of his resources, and he capitulates to death. No sooner has he committed suicide than the postman drops a letter in at his door which contains the information that a distant relative has left him a large fortune. If he had waited but one hour longer! For want of patience he lost all!

(1546)

* * * * *

Sergeant Cotton in his book “A Voice from Waterloo,” tells us what Wellington thought Napoleon ought to have done:

Napoleon never had so fine an army as at Waterloo. He was certainly wrong in attacking at all. He might have played again the same defensive game in the French territory which he had played so admirably the year before; that campaign of 1814 I consider the very finest he ever made. He might have given us great trouble and had many chances in his favor. But the fact is he never in his life had patience for a defensive war.

(1547)

IMPATIENCE OF REFORMERS

The besetting sin of the reformer is his impatience. The world must be redeemed at once. “The trouble seems to be,” said Theodore Parker of the anti-slavery cause, “that God is not in a hurry, and I am.” “If my scheme is not sufficient to redeem society,” said a labor leader not long ago, “what is yours?” as tho every self-respecting man must have some panacea of social salvation. The fact is, however, that a time like ours, whose symptoms are so complex and serious, is no time for social panaceas. As one of the most observant of American students of society has remarked: “When I hear a man bring forward a solution of the social question, I move to adjourn.” Jesus proposes no surgical operation which at one stroke can save the world. He offers no assurance that the tares of the world shall be exterminated by one sweep of the scythe. He adds faith to patience.--FRANCIS GREENWOOD PEABODY, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1904.

(1548)

IMPERFECTION IN NATURE

It is constantly felt by thoughtful minds that nothing is complete in this universe. We wait for perfection and can not know it in this life or in this world.

In the world of flowers there are three primary colors, of which many broken shades form a countless number of secondary tints. But the scientific botanist points out a remarkable fact: many flowers are of compound colors. Some are red and blue; some are red and yellow; some are blue and yellow; but there never has been such a thing as a plant whose flowers burst into all three of the primary tints. Roses are red in various shades, and yellow also in many shades. But that is all; no florist has ever been able to produce a really blue rose. The same fact applies to the chrysanthemum; it may be red in some shade or other, or it may be yellow in a whole range of alternative tints; but the vain dream of the Japanese is to find the fabled “blue chrysanthemum.” A great fortune would await any one who could produce by his art a blue rose or a blue chrysanthemum. Nature denies to flowers the ability to range through the whole gamut of the colors of the rainbow.

(1549)

IMPERFECTION, MAN’S

Upon all man’s works we write one word--imperfect. Full as our world is of the beautiful and the useful, it also holds much of immaturity, wreckage and failure. The scientist insists that there is not one perfect leaf in the forest, not a red rose but holds some blemish, not a cluster or bunch but has suffered some injury. The winters chill the roots, untimely frosts bite the seed, rude storms strain the boughs. What Nature offers man is not perfection, but enough of use and beauty to satisfy to-day’s hunger, and to allure man to something better. Dwelling, therefore, under skies that oft are unfriendly, we perceive that even man’s best work shares in imperfection. His trains jump the track, his bridges break, his ships sink, rust destroys his tools, fire smites his factories, epidemics shorten his life. His fine arts are elective, representing the selection of the best elements carried up to the ideal conditions, and yet even man’s arts represent many forms of injury. All the treasure-houses of the world fail to show one statue that is perfect. The Winged Victory is without a head, the Venus di Milo is without arms, the Minerva has a black stain on the forehead, while only the torso of Jupiter remains, all else having gone.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1550)

=Imperfection, Value of=--See _Diverse Influences_.

IMPERFECTIONS CORRECTED

Some years ago I visited Albany, N. Y., when the Capitol was not finished. I saw men at work, apparently, removing stones from the wall on one side. When I asked about it, a workman said: “When that wall was erected they were unable to get granite of the right quality and color to complete the architect’s design. In order that the work might not be delayed, some blocks of wood were used temporarily. Now they have the quality and color of granite required, and are taking out those wooden blocks and replacing them with granite.” The Capitol was being built up, after the fashion of the architect’s ideal.

So it is to-day with us. In the temple, our character, which is His dwelling-place, there are faulty stones. As we come to a clearer knowledge of the person of Jesus we perceive these imperfections and replace them with alabaster hewn from the Rock of Ages, “carved as the angels carved their crowns in the fadeless days of June.” If we are living up to the requirements of our profession, we are thus being built up in Him, continually approaching the ideal of the Master architect. (Text.)--H. G. FURBAY.

(1551)

=Imperfections in Character=--See DIVERSE INFLUENCES.

=Imperviousness=--See EVIL, REPELLENCE OF.

=Impoliteness=--See POLITENESS.

=Importance, not Size=--See WORK DESPISED.

IMPOSSIBLE, ACHIEVING WHAT SEEMED

Hon. Richmond P. Hobson gives his impressions of army achievements as he recalls his prison experiences in a Spanish fortress, and has this to say:

From my prison window in Santiago, which was but little in the rear of the Spanish line of entrenchments, I saw the Spaniards fortifying the city for twenty days. I watched them with critical interest. I saw them bring up guns from the ships and place them. Then I saw our men come up and drive the Spaniards into those entrenchments, and when they had driven them into the entrenchments I saw them go on and try to take the entrenchments themselves. It looked to be an impossible thing, but as yet the artillery was silent. The men came on up the hill and the artillery opened, and my heart sank when I saw that it was flanking artillery. For a moment the American fire ceased as tho the enemy’s guns had been a signal. “Now, then,” said I to myself, “this is the place where the individuality of the soldier will appear, for each man there knows that he is just as likely as any other man to be struck with that shrapnel.” None of them had ever been under fire before; they could not be put to a harder test; but how did they respond to it? Instantly after the lull a more rapid fire set in, and a more rapid rush of men up to the trenches. In spite of flanking artillery we had taken those fortified trenches with unsupported infantry--a thing that army experts the world over said could not be done.

(1552)

IMPOSSIBLE, NOTHING

At the dedication of the Bunker Hill monument, when it appeared that an accident was imminent by the surging of the crowds against the speakers’ platform, Webster requested the people to kindly move back. A man in the crowd answered back: “It is impossible!” Thereupon the great Massachusetts statesman cried out: “Impossible! Impossible! Nothing is impossible on Bunker Hill!”--CHARLES E. LOCKE.

(1553)

IMPRECATION IN PSALMS

Said one Unitarian minister to another, about the time when the breaking out of our Civil War exposed the wickedness of its instigators: “I never before felt so much like swearing.” “Well,” was the reply, “I felt as you do; but I turned to the Old Testament, and picked out one of good old David’s imprecatory Psalms. I read it twice aloud, and since then I have felt much better.”

(1554)

IMPRESS

I took a piece of plastic clay And idly fashioned it one day, And as my fingers prest it still, It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again when days were past; The bit of clay was hard at last, The form I gave it still it bore, But I could change that form no more.

I took a piece of living clay, And gently formed it day by day, And molded it with power and art-- A young child’s soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone; He was a man I looked upon; He still that early impress wore. And I could change him never more. (Text.)

(1555)

IMPRESSION BY PRACTISE

A native Korean, who was told to memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount, did so with remarkable exactness. When asked how he accomplished it, he said: “My teacher told me to learn it with my heart as well as with my memory, so I hit on this plan. I would try to memorize a verse, and then find a heathen neighbor of mine and practise it on him. I found the verse would stick after I had done that, and I couldn’t forget a word of it.”

(1556)

IMPRESSIONS

On almost any sea beach you may see lying together smooth white pebbles, and ragged sponges, both drying in the sun and waiting the return of the tide. But when the tide comes and strikes the pebbles not a drop of the water enters them, thousands of years they have rolled up and down there, wearing smoother and growing more impervious all the time. But at the first touch of the incoming tide the sponges drink themselves full.

There is the same difference in men. Tides of spiritual influence flow around some men and they keep growing harder--the same tides fill and transform others.

(1557)

See TESTIMONY OF NATURE.

IMPRESSIONS, EARLY

The things children most quickly note and in which they take most interest may indicate their bent of mind and help parents and instructors to shape their education along lines of least resistance. Thus R. H. Haweis says:

“Long before I had ever touched a violin I was fascinated with its appearance. In driving to town as a child--when, standing up in the carriage, I could just look out of the window--certain fiddle-shops hung with mighty rows of violoncellos attracted my attention. I had dreams of these large editions--these patriarchs of the violin, as they seemed to me. I compared them in my mind with the smaller tenors and violins. I dreamed about their brown, big, dusty bodies and affable good-natured-looking heads and grinning faces. These violin shops were the great points watched for on each journey up to London from Norwood, where I spent my early days.”

(1558)

=Impressions Permanent=--See TEACHERS’ FUNCTION, THE.

=Impression, Vivid=--See REMINDER, SEVERE.

IMPRISONED LIVES

In the Persian desert the sad sight may be seen of brick pillars in which many an unfortunate victim has been walled up alive, as a horrible method of inflicting capital punishment. Some awful tales of cruelties perpetrated here are told. The victim is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness, then, if merciful, the executioner will cement quickly up to the face, when death comes speedily; but sometimes the torture is prolonged, and the inmate has been heard groaning and calling for water for three days.

How many lives are walled lives--built around and bricked in by torturing limitations that suffocate joy and hope, and are no more than a lingering death!

(1559)

IMPROVED CONDITIONS

In a district of Glasgow where the death-rate used to be forty in a thousand, sanitation has brought it down to twenty-eight, and it has been brought down to seventeen or eighteen in some parts of London. Boston reduced its death-rate from thirty-one to twenty, and Croydon, Eng., from twenty-eight to thirteen. Even the friction-match has had its share in prolonging life. “Doubtless many a fatal pneumonia and pleurisy has been contracted when the luckless householder’s lire had died out overnight, and he was struggling with flint, steel and tinderbox.” In London during the last century nearly two hundred thousand persons perished of smallpox. Macaulay says that a person without a pitted face was the exception. But, thanks largely to vaccination, in a recent year there were only fourteen cases of smallpox among New York’s inhabitants, and in the German army, where vaccination is compulsory, the dread disease has been eradicated. The production of pure water by distillation has done much to abolish alimentary diseases among sailors at sea, and lime-juice defends them from scurvy. When the first emigrant ships went out to Australia, one-third of the passengers perished on the voyage, but when the ship-owners were forced to alter their terms and receive pay only for those they landed safely, the death-rate became smaller than when these same persons were living upon shore. In Queen Elizabeth’s time, one in two thousand of her London subjects was murdered annually. At the same rate there would be 2,500 murders every year in London now, whereas the number is no more than twelve. This is what the lighter street and a more efficient police have done for the British metropolis. Facts like these are a most wholesome and agreeable corrective for the lament over the departure of the “good old times,” so much affected by the cynic and the pessimist.--Boston _Journal_.

(1560)

=IMPROVEMENT=

He came to my desk with a quivering lip, The lesson was done-- “Dear teacher, I want a new leaf,” he said, “I have spoiled this one.” In place of the leaf so stained and blotted, I gave him a new one all unspotted, And into his sad eyes smiled-- “Do better now, my child.”

I went to the throne with a quivering soul, The old year was done-- “Dear Father, hast Thou a new leaf for me, I have spoiled this one?” He took the old leaf, stained and blotted, And gave me a new one all unspotted, And into my sad heart smiled-- “Do better now, my child.”

(1561)

* * * * *

We can all help make the world better, as suggested by Annie Aldrich in these verses:

Make the world a little better as you go; And be thoughtful of the kind of seed you sow; Try to make some pathway bright As you strive to do the right, Making the world a little better as you go.

Make the world a little better as you go; You may help to soothe some fellow-creature’s wo; You can make some burden light, As you try with all your might To make the world a little better as you go.

Make the world a little better as you go; As you meet your brother going to and fro, You may lend a friendly hand, Lift the fallen! Help them stand! Make the world a little better as you go.

(1562)

* * * * *

If Christian methods of felling the tree of evil had advanced as far as the art of tree-cutting described below, we should soon be rid of bad institutions and tendencies:

“It is reported in the German press,” says _Forestry and Irrigation_, “that successful experiments have been made in various forests of France in cutting trees by means of electricity. A platinum wire is heated to a white heat by an electric current and used like a saw. In this manner the tree is felled much easier and quicker than in the old way, no sawdust is produced, and the slight carbonization caused by the hot wire acts as a preservative of the wood. The new method is said to require only one-eighth of the time consumed by the old sawing process.”

(1563)

* * * * *

Some day we shall be wise enough to utilize the hint suggested in the extract, by caring as much at least for improving the human race as we now care for improving our domestic animals:

A. Ogerodnikoff, a wealthy Russian dealer in furs in Vladivostok, while visiting San Francisco, told an interesting story of experiments made by his cousin, Rachatnikoff, who has been devoting himself for years to the propagation of a beautiful race of people. Ogerodnikoff, according to the press reports, said:

“Years ago Rachatnikoff attracted to his estate especially handsome men and girls of more than usual beauty by offering free land to forty or fifty men carefully picked from among a large number of applicants and selecting for them as wives fine-looking young women from different parts of Russia. This selected colony has flourished beyond all expectation, and over a hundred children have been raised from these unions.

“These children are so pretty as to make the Rachatnikoff estate famous.” (Text.)

(1564)

=Improvement, Material=--See ADVANCEMENT, RAPID.

=Improvement Meeting With Disfavor=--See SAFETY VALVES.

IMPROVING TIME

One of the most important books on British ornithology is Gilbert White’s “Natural History of Selborne.” This work is made up of the jottings and notes of the author concerning the animals he saw in his daily walks through the woods and fields in the immediate vicinity of his little country parish, which he seldom left. (Text.)

(1565)

IMPUDENCE, BRAZEN

Unblushing assurance in rascality is not a new thing in the world.

A firm of shady outside London brokers was prosecuted for swindling, says _Everybody’s_. In acquitting them, the court, with great severity, said:

“There is not sufficient evidence to convict you, but if any one wishes to know my opinion of you I hope that you will refer to me.”

Next day the firm’s advertisement appeared in every available medium, with the following well displayed: “Reference as to probity, by special permission, the Lord Chief Justice of England.”

(1566)

=Impulsiveness=--See SUSPICION.

IMPURE THOUGHTS

A man went to his friend and asked the loan of a barrel. “Certainly,” was the reply, “if you will bring it back uninjured.” The man used the barrel to hold brandy until he could get certain bottles from the factory, when he filled them and returned the barrel to his friend. But the barrel smelled of brandy, and the owner sent it back with the request that it be cleansed. Boiling water was poured into the barrel, but it still smelled of brandy. Acids and disinfectants were put in, but the smell of the brandy could not be removed. It was left out in the rain, but all to no purpose; the smell of the brandy still remained. So it is with impure thoughts; when they are once admitted they remain and taint the whole life.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1567)

IMPURITIES

Should not men be as careful of the moral atmosphere of their lives as of the air in their rooms?

Mr. John Aitken, a well-known investigator of the atmosphere, made a series of experiments on the number of dust particles in ordinary air. His results show that outside air, after a wet night, contained 521,000 dust particles per cubic inch; outside air in fair weather contained 2,119,000 particles in the same space; that near the ceiling contained 88,346,000 particles per cubic inch. The air collected over a Bunsen flame contained no less than 489,000,000 particles per cubic inch. The numbers for a room were got with gas burning in the room, and at a height of four feet from the floor. These figures, tho not absolute, show how important is the influence of a gas-jet on the air we breathe, and the necessity for good ventilation in apartments. Mr. Aitken remarks that there seem to be as many dust particles in a cubic inch of air in a room at night when gas is burning as there are inhabitants in Great Britain, and that in three cubic inches of the gases from a Bunsen flame there are as many

## particles as there are people in the world.--_Cassell’s Family

Magazine._

(1568)

=Impurities, Atmospheric=--See SOOT.

=Impurities Tested=--See TESTS.

INADEQUACY OF NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

Dr. H. O. Dwight was telling us of a voyage that he took in the Levant with a Turkish official; and as they sat down in the cabin at the dinner table the Turkish official, inviting Dr. Dwight to drink with him, said: “You may think it strange that I, a Mohammedan, should ask you, a Christian, to drink with me, when wine-drinking is forbidden by our religion. I will tell you how I dare to do this thing.” He filled his glass, and held it up, looking at the beautiful color of it, and said: “Now, if I say that it is right to drink this wine, I deny God’s commandments to men, and He would punish me in hell for the blasphemy. But I take up this glass, admitting that God has commanded me not to drink it, and that I sin in drinking it. Then I drink it off, so casting myself on the mercy of God. For our religion lets me know that God is too merciful to punish me for doing anything which I wish to do, when I humbly admit that to do it breaks His commandments.” His religion furnished this pasha with no moral restraints or power for true character.--ROBERT E. SPEER, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1569)

=Inattention Overcome=--See RANK, OBSEQUIOUSNESS TO.

=Inborn, The=--See INNATE, THE.

=Incantation=--See BIRTH CEREMONIES; EXORCISM.

=Incense=--See OFFERINGS, EXTRAVAGANT.

=Incentive=--See HEAVEN.

INCENTIVES

The most interesting chapel in Italy is the _Santa Maria Novella_, in Florence. In this edifice is a famous picture. On the right-hand side is a female figure with three children at her knee; she is holding in one hand a little rod, and in the other a golden apple; and she is pointing to an exceedingly narrow door.

Yes, the gate of life is narrow, and rod and apple--chastisement and reward--are necessary incentives urging entrance. (Text.)

(1570)

INCERTITUDE

The Rochester _Democrat and Chronicle_ is responsible for the following story from Washington:

“Jadam,” said Major McDowell, the clerk of the House of Representatives, to J. Adam Bede, of Minnesota, yesterday, “that was a fine speech you made to-day, a fine speech.” “Yes, I thought it was a pretty good speech,” Mr. Bede assented modestly. “It was an extremely fine speech. It was logical and had wit in it, and was delivered with great declamatory effect. I listened to it with much pleasure.” “I am glad you liked it,” chirruped Mr. Bede. “Indeed I did,” the Major continued, “and now, if it is betraying no confidence, I’d like to ask you a question.” “Why, my dear Major,” exclaimed Bede, “of course I shall be glad to do anything I can for you. Go ahead.” “Well, Jadam,” and the Major put a fatherly hand on Bede’s shoulder. “I wish you would tell me which side of the question you are really on.”

(1571)

* * * * *

The representative of an English newspaper, sent some time since to Ireland to move about and learn by personal observation the real political mind of the people there, reported on his return that he had been everywhere and talked with all sorts, and that as nearly as he could make out the attitude of the Irish might be stated about thus: “They don’t know what they want--and they are bound to have it.”--JOSEPH H. TWICHELL.

(1572)

See DUALITY.

=Incitement=--See INSPIRATION, SOURCES OF.

INCITEMENT

Very much of human discontent arises from first hearing our wrongs described by others:

Rufus Choate, the American lawyer, defended a blacksmith whose creditor had seized some iron that a friend had lent him to assist in the business after a bankruptcy. The seizure of the iron was said to have been made harshly. Choate thus described it: “He arrested the arm of industry as it fell toward the anvil; he put out the breath of his bellows; he extinguished the fire upon his hearthstone. Like pirates in a gale at sea, his enemies swept everything by the board, leaving, gentlemen of the jury, not so much--not so much as a horseshoe to nail upon the door-post to keep the witches off.” The blacksmith, sitting behind, was seen to have tears in his eyes at this description, and a friend noticing it, said: “Why, Tom, what’s the matter with you? What are you blubbering about?” “I had no idea,” said Tom in a whisper, “that I had been so abominably ab-ab bused.” (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1573)

See INSPIRATION.

=Incitement to Evil=--See RESPONSIBILITY EVADED.

INCONSISTENCY

An anonymous writer in _The Independent_ tells the following story as illustrating Mr. Hearst’s belief that “money will buy the fruit of any man’s work”:

Some time ago a young writer applied to him for employment on his New York newspaper, and was engaged to fill a position which would become vacant at the end of a week, but in the interval the fact came to the attention of a university professor who had always taken an interest in his advancement.

“I am sorry,” said the good man, “that you should have chosen that particular school of journalism for your professional start.” And he proceeded to descant upon the responsibility a journalist owed to society, the influence of one educated youth’s example upon others of his class, the tone a writer inevitably took from the character of the journals he worked for, etc. “And your untarnished sense of self-respect, my young friend,” he concluded, “will be worth more to you, when you reach my time of life, than all the salaries an unprincipled employer can pour into your purse.”

So imprest was the neophyte with this lecture in morals that he called upon Mr. Hearst the next morning and announced that he had changed his mind about accepting the proffered position. The editor scanned his face shrewdly, and then inquired the reason. After much hesitancy the young man told him the whole story, and started to leave.

“Ah,” said Mr. Hearst. “Be seated a moment, please!” And, turning to his secretary, he added: “Write a letter at once to Professor X. Y., present my compliments, and say that I should be pleased to receive from him a signed article of five hundred words--subject and treatment to be of his own choosing--for the editorial page of next Sunday’s paper. Inclose check for $250.

“Now,” he remarked, with a cynical smile, as he bade his caller good-by, “you can see for yourself what comes of that.”

He did. The Sunday issue contained a signed article, which gave the paper the reflection of a good man’s fame, and spread the influence of his example among other university professors, and--did what to his self-respect?--all at the rate of fifty cents per word! (Text.)

(1574)

See INJUSTICE.

INCONSPICUOUS WORKERS

Most of this world’s work is done by the people who will never be known. To every worthy worker, however, a mede of credit is due, and sometimes it finds recognition, as in the instance here recorded:

An officer who was at West Point a generation ago tells of the influence Miss Susan Warner had on the boys of the Academy in the ’70’s and ’80’s. “The Wide, Wide World,” by Miss Warner, was a popular book then with the cadets’ mothers, who would urge their sons to visit Constitution Island and write home a description of the author. So many boys would visit the Island. Every Sunday afternoon the Warner sisters would send their man-of-all-work in a boat to the Point to bring over a load of cadets. The boys would gather around Miss Susan as she sat on the lawn and listen to her read the Scriptures and explain them in a bright, cheerful view of religion and life. After the talks would come a treat of tea and home-made gingerbread. She was very delicate and frail and often her talks would completely exhaust her. She kept up correspondence with many of the visiting cadets long after they had become distinguished officers. Her last letter to one just before her death had a pathos known only to her cadet friends. It read: “I no longer have the strength to cross the river to meet the boys, and the superintendent we now have will not allow them to come to me, so my usefulness with them seems to be at an end.”

(1575)

=Incorruptible, The=--See PURITY.

=Increase by Civilization=--See CONSERVATION.

=Increasing and Decreasing=--See SELF-ESTIMATE.

INCREDULITY

Dr. W. H. Thomson, in his book on “What is Physical Life,” says that “once, while talking to a roomful of the naturally bright people of a town in Mount Hermon about the achievements of Western civilization, I happened to tell a toothless old man present that in our country we had skilled persons who could make for him an entirely new set of teeth. Glancing round the room, I noticed some listeners stroking their beards in a fashion which I knew meant that I was telling a preposterous yarn. Fortunately I had with me an elderly Scotch friend who had a set of false teeth, and on explaining the situation to him, he forthwith opened his mouth and pulled the whole set out. The Arabs jumped to their feet in fright, not sure but he might start to unscrew his head next, for had any of their venerated ancestors ever seen such an uncanny performance with teeth? They afterward said that never would they have believed this if they had not seen it.”

(1576)

See CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION.

INDECISION

When the King of Sparta had crossed the Hellespont and was about to march through Thrace, he sent to the people in the different regions, asking them whether he should march through their country as a friend or as an enemy. “By all means as a friend,” said most of the regions; but the King of Macedon replied, “I will take time to consider it.” “Then,” said the King of Sparta, “Let him consider it, but meantime we march, we march.” (Text.)

(1577)

See SENTIMENT, MIXED.

=Indestructibility of Man=--See MAN INDESTRUCTIBLE.

INDIA, MEDICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN

I wish it were possible for me to give you some idea of the amount of suffering and misery there is in India to-day; but I fear that I can not do it, for you have seldom been where you could not obtain the services of a good physician in time of need, or even be taken to a hospital, if it were desirable. But there are millions of people in India who have no such resources as that. Shall I tell you of a man who came to our hospital some time ago suffering from a cataract in one eye? He was an intelligent man, well educated, and he wanted to save his eyesight. He employed some of the native doctors to treat the eye, and when he came to us he said that he thought he had had at least twenty-five pounds of medicine put in his eye. That sounded like such a large story that we asked for the particulars, and I think he was about right. It was all to no purpose, however, so that he changed doctors and got a new remedy that was guaranteed. They opened his eye and sifted it full of pounded glass. If you have ever had a cinder in your eye, perhaps you can to some small extent imagine the agonies which that man endured before he came to us. That is not an uncommon case, and frequently when I go into the dispensary in the morning I find there mothers with their little children. They hold them out to me in their arms and say, “Won’t you look at this child’s eyes?” I say, “Well, mother, what is the matter with the eyes?” “Oh, about two or three weeks ago the child’s eyes were red and it cried a little bit, and we tried to open them to see what was the matter, but the child made so much fuss we couldn’t do anything. Now, they have been shut so long that we are afraid there is something the matter; we want you to look and see.” I open those eyelids with my fingers; I know what I am going to see. The front part of the eyeball is gone--sloughed away, rotted out just in those few days. A few simple remedies, a little cleanliness at the proper time, would have saved those eyes, but often I have to say to those mothers, “Your child is blind for life.” There are many thousands of such little children in India to-day sitting by the side of the road waiting for the coppers which the passer-by will fling to them, and which they must find by feeling around in the dust. It is a very common practise on the part of the native physicians to apply as a counter-irritant to the surface of the body a material which burns like a red-hot iron; and if you have burned your finger recently, you can imagine how it would be to be burned in stripes from the nape of your neck right down to your heels, or to have patterns worked on your body with that fiery material. If you have suffered recently from such a simple ailment as a toothache, imagine a land without any dentists or other means to relieve that ache. The tooth must ache in India, until nature brings its own remedy, and the tooth drops out.--A. S. WILSON, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1578)

=Indian, The=--See CONSERVATION.

=Indian, The Word of an=--See PROMISE, AN INDIAN’S.

INDIANS, AMERICAN

“The ‘noble’ red man of traditional lore was usually a very low-bred, dirty savage, uninteresting except for his blood-thirstiness and capacity for rum and mischief.” What education, mostly under government supervision, has been able to do with the Indian is shown in the extract:

Supt. Friedman of the Carlisle Indian School remarks that thirty years have elapsed since the first group of eighty-two Sioux Indians from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations of South Dakota arrived at Carlisle, Penn., to receive the benefit of a civilized education. Out of this beginning an elaborate system of Indian schools has grown, including 167 day-schools, 88 reservation boarding schools and 26 non-reservation schools, so that to-day 25,777 Indian students are being educated under the Government’s immediate patronage, at a cost for the fiscal year 1909 of $4,008,825. The students in the contract schools and missions swell this total to 30,630. The Carlisle school, the largest of all, has an enrolment of 1,132, which is not much below the enrolment of Princeton College.--New York _Times_.

(1579)

=Indians’ Receptiveness to the Gospel=--See FATHER, OUR.

INDICATOR, AN INSECT

One of the simplest of barometers is a spider’s web. When there is a prospect of rain or wind the spider shortens the filaments from which its web is suspended and leaves things in this state as long as the weather is variable. If the insect elongates its thread it is a sign of fine calm weather, the duration of which may be judged of by the length to which the threads are let out. If the spider remains inactive it is a sign of rain; but if, on the contrary, it keeps at work during the rain the latter will not last long, and will be followed by fine weather. Other observations have taught that the spider makes changes in its web every twenty-four hours, and that if such changes are made in the evening, just before sunset, the night will be clear and beautiful.--_La Nature._

(1580)

=Indifference=--See BALLOT, A DUTY.

=Indifference to Strangers=--See CONFIDENCE.

INDIFFERENCE TO THE GOOD

_Zion’s Herald_ prints this significant poem:

People tell the story yet, With the pathos of regret, How along the streets one day, Unawares from far away, Angels passed with gifts for need, And no mortal gave them heed. They had cheer for those who weep, They had light for shadows deep, Balm for broken hearts they bore, Rest, deep rest, a boundless store; But the people, so they say, Went the old blind human way,-- Fed the quack and hailed the clown When the angels came to town.

It has been and will be so: Angels come and angels go, Opportunity and Light, ’Twixt the morning and the night, With their messages divine To your little world and mine. And we wonder why we heard Not a whisper of their word, Caught no glimpse of finer grace In the passing form and face; That our ears were dull as stones To the thrill of spirit tones, And we looked not up, but down, When the angels came to town.

(1581)

INDIFFERENTISM

A German professor of theology is reported to have said in lecturing to his students on the existence of God, that while the doctrine, no doubt, was an important one, it was so difficult and perplexed that it was not advisable to take too certain a position upon it, as many were disposed to do. There were those, he remarked, who were wont in the most unqualified way to affirm that there was a God. There were others who, with equal immoderation, committed themselves to the opposite proposition--that there was no God. The philosophical mind, he added, will look for the truth somewhere between these extremes.--JOSEPH H. TWICHELL.

(1582)

INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE

I met, the other day, a learned judge who told me that for more than twenty years he had met every winter, in his own library, once a week, a club of his neighbors, men and women, who came, and came gladly, that he might guide them in the study of history. “And all those people,” said he, laughing--there are three or four hundred of them now, scattered over the world--“they all know what to read, and how to read it.” You see that village is another place because that one man lived there.--EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

(1583)

=Individual Initiative=--See NEED, MEETING CHILDREN’S.

=Individual, Seeking the=--See PERSONAL EVANGELISM.

=Individual Value=--See COLLECTIVE LABOR.

INDIVIDUAL, VALUE OF THE

This fine verse is from Canon Farrar:

“I am only one, But I am one. I can not do everything, But I can do something, What I can do I ought to do And what I ought to do By the grace of God I will do.” (Text.)

(1584)

=Individualism=--See INITIATIVE.

INDIVIDUALISM, EXCESSIVE

Haydon, the painter, was an ill-used man; but it was purely his own fault. He would paint high art when people did not want it--would paint acres of hooked-nosed Romans, and bore the public with Dentatus, Scipio and Co., when they wanted something else. He was like a man taking beautiful pebbles to market when people wanted eggs, and telling that they ought not to want eggs, because they led to carnality and had a nasty and disgusting connection with bacon. But people would not have it--eggs they wanted, and eggs they would have, how beautiful soever the pebbles might be. So with Haydon. He persisted that the people ought to have what they did not want, and he went from a prison to a lunatic asylum, and died a suicide.--GEORGE DAWSON.

(1585)

INDIVIDUALITY

Rembrandt paints all in a shadow, and Claude Lorraine in sunny light. Petrarch frames with cunning skill his chiming sonnets, and Dante portrays with majestic hand, that makes the page almost tingle with fire, his vision of the future. Shakespeare, with a well-nigh prescient intelligence, interprets the secrets of history and of life, and reads the courses of the future in the past, and Milton rolls, from beneath the great arches of his religious and cathedral-like soul, its sublime oratorios. And the copiousness of experience, the variety, affluence, multiformity of life, as it exists upon earth and arrests our attention, is derived altogether, in the ultimate analysis, from this personal constitution of each individual.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1586)

* * * * *

Jesus said of the Good Shepherd, “He calleth his own sheep by name.” We have each his own personal marks, and are never lost in the mass of humanity.

An inspector of police and, in general, every person unfamiliar with the application of the “verbal portrait,” tho possessing the photograph of an individual, will pass by that individual without recognition, if the photograph is a few years old or if the general appearance has been altered by a gain or loss of flesh, or by a change in the beard or the hair or even the clothes. On the other hand, descriptive identification, which means an accurate description of the immovable parts of the face (forehead, nose, ears, etc.), enables those who are sufficiently familiar with the method to identify a person with certainty, not only with the aid of a photograph, but also simply by means of a printed description of those characteristics of the person in question which are out of the ordinary. (Text.)--L. RAMAKERS, _The Scientific American_.

(1587)

* * * * *

No rainbow that paints its arch upon the cloud, no river that courses like liquid silver through emerald banks, no sunset that opens its deeps of splendor, with domes of sapphire and pinnacles of chrysolite, hath any such beauty to him who surveys it as the poem or discourse which speaks the peace, or the triumphing hope, of another human soul. For forever is it true that the life in each stands apart from the life in every other. It hath its center, tho not its cause, within itself; is full-orbed in each; commingled with that of no other being; as separate in each, and as purely individual, as if there were no other besides it in existence!--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1588)

* * * * *

Students of social phenomena must allow for the personal equation. Men are certainly as individual as birds:

Every bird sings his own song; no two sing exactly alike, ... the song of every singer is unique. There are, of course, similarities in the songs of birds of the same species.... For lack of intimate acquaintance with the music of a particular bird, we think he sings just like the next one. Why! do all roosters have the same crow? No; any farmer knows better than this.... Every individual sings his own song.

(1589)

See ORIGINALITY; PERSONAL ELEMENT.

INDIVIDUALITY IN INTERPRETATION

On the question as to how far it is permissible for the actor’s own personality to enter into his interpretation of Shakespearian characters, Mr. Herbert Beerbohm Tree said:

“Certain it is that while the actor’s self-suppression is among the most essential factors of success in his art, so also his own individuality, his own personality--in a word, his humanity--are all-important. I mean, you can not imagine a characterless person playing the great characters of Shakespeare. You say: ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter! Shakespeare has taken care of all that!’ ‘Yes,’ I reply, ‘but it requires individuality to interpret individuality--power, force, character, to realize the creations of the master brain.’ Nothing else than individuality will make the humanity of these characters stand out sharp and clear from the mass of humanities grouped behind it.” (Text.)--_The Fortnightly Review._

(1590)

=Individuality in Nature=--See ANIMISM.

INDIVIDUALITY OF GERMS

Change is stamped upon life, but according to science, the opposite also is true. Life, in its minutest subdivisions, is true to itself. It knows no variation nor shadow of turning. Dr. Stirling remarks concerning protoplasm:

Here are several thousand pieces of protoplasm; analysis can detect no difference in them. They are to us, let us say, as they are to Mr. Huxley, identical in power, in form, and in substance; and yet on all these several thousand little bits of apparently indistinguishable matter an element of difference so pervading and so persistent has been imprest, that of them all, not one is interchangeable with another! Each seed feeds its own kind. The protoplasm of the gnat will no more grow into the fly than it will grow into an elephant. Protoplasm is protoplasm; yes, but man’s protoplasm is man’s protoplasm, and the mushroom’s the mushroom’s.

(1591)

INDIVIDUALS, GOD’S CARE OVER

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was in Washington and brought a case of need before a distinguished Senator, who excused himself, writing that he was so taken up with matters of wide public interest that he could not look after individual cases. Mrs. Howe wrote in her note-book that “at last accounts the Lord God Almighty had not attained to that eminence.” (Text.)--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(1592)

=Indolence Forerunner of Dishonesty=--See DISHONESTY.

INDORSEMENT

Old Gorgon, apropos of letters of introduction, hands out a whole string of neat conclusions. “Giving a note of introduction is simply lending your name with a man as collateral, and if he’s no good you can’t have the satisfaction of redeeming your indorsement even; and you’re discredited.... I reckon that the devil invented the habit of indorsing notes and giving letters to catch the fellows he couldn’t reach with whisky and gambling.”--GEORGE HORACE LORIMER, “Old Gorgon Graham.”

(1593)

=Industrial Church Training=--See PRACTISE AND INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

The boy utterly unable, even if he were studious, to keep up in book knowledge and percentage with the brighter boys, becomes discouraged, dull, and moody. Let him go to the work-room for an hour and find that he can make a box or plane a rough piece of board as well as the brighter scholar, nay, very likely better than his brighter neighbor, and you have given him an impulse of self-respect that is of untold benefit to him when he goes back to his studies. He will be a brighter and better boy for finding out something that he can do well.--_American Magazine._

(1594)

INDUSTRY AND LONGEVITY

Capt. Robert McCulloch, who was elected president of the United Railways Company at the age of sixty-seven, was asked recently why he does not retire and live comfortably on his income. As general manager of the $90,000,000 corporation, Captain McCulloch is frequently at his office at 5 A.M. and remains until late in the evening.

“I had a friend once,” said Captain McCulloch, answering the inquiry, “who started in life in a very modest way. He sold railway supplies, and to help him along I bought some of his goods. Eventually he branched out, became the general manager of a railway-supply house, and in time got rich.

“I met him two weeks before his fiftieth birthday. He told me he had acquired a competency, having several hundred thousand dollars invested in gilt-edged securities, besides his magnificent home in Chicago, and that on his fiftieth birthday he was going to retire and enjoy life.

“Just a year later I received his funeral notice. If he had kept on working like I have, he would be living yet. Work is necessary to enjoyment, good health, and length of days. That’s why I don’t quit. I prefer to live a while longer, and know I would die if I quit.”--St. Louis _Post-Dispatch_.

(1595)

INDUSTRY OF BEES

It is estimated that, to collect one pound of honey, 62,000 heads of clover must be deprived of their nectar, necessitating 3,750,000 visits from bees. It would seem from this that the reputation of the wonderful little insect for industry has not been overrated. Wax is a substance secreted by the bees, and is analogous to the fat of higher animals. To produce a single pound of wax, the bees must consume from fifteen to twenty pounds of honey. This expensive substance is used by the thrifty little insects with the greatest economy. (Text.)--_Public Opinion._

(1596)

INDUSTRY OF BIRDS

“Our hours,” said a nature student, “are nothing to the birds. Why, some birds work in the summer nineteen hours a day. Indefatigably they clear the crops of insects.

“The thrush gets up at 2:30 every summer morning. He rolls up his sleeves, and falls to work at once, and he never stops until 9:30 at night. A clean nineteen hours. During that time he feeds his voracious young two hundred and six times.

“The blackbird starts work at the same time as the thrush, but he ‘lays off’ earlier. His whistle blows at 7:30, and during his seventeen-hour day he sets about one hundred meals before his kiddies.

“The titmouse is up and about at three in the morning and his stopping time is nine at night. A fast worker, the titmouse is said to feed his young four hundred and seventeen meals--meals of caterpillar mainly--in the long, hard, hot day.”--_Green’s Fruit Grower._

(1597)

INDUSTRY VERSUS IDLENESS

There was a great painter named Hogarth, who painted a series of pictures. The first of the series shows two lads starting in life as apprentices under the same master. They are about the same age, are equally clever, and have the same prospect of getting on. Yet in the other pictures, one apprentice, whose name is Tom Idle, is shown to neglect his work for bad company of every kind, gradually sinking from idleness into every crime. The other apprentice, Frank Goodchild, is depicted as always industrious and attentive to his business, and becoming prosperous and rich. Another picture shows that Tom has sunk into poverty and misery; another picture shows that Frank has become a great merchant. One of the last pictures shows Tom in the hands of the constables, brought before Alderman Goodchild, who is now high sheriff, and who is pained and distrest in recognizing his old fellow apprentice in the prisoner at the bar.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1598)

INEBRIETY, INCURABLE

Is the drunkard curable? Dr. Gill, a British expert, in a recent report says that mental recoveries in a considerable number never go beyond a certain point, and he classes nearly 50 per cent of his patients as higher-grade imbeciles, while many others are weak-minded and unable to work--perhaps congenital neurasthenics. He goes on to say:

Even in the smaller number classed as normal men, the mental recovery is very slow, so that the advertised methods of quick cure are fallacious. Notwithstanding the fact that men of great or average intelligence might be afflicted, most of our inebriates are congenital defectives--even the drunken genius is a warped mental specimen. The inebriety is a result of their condition and not a cause. How dishonest, then, it is, to hold out the promise of cure, as many of the sanatoriums do! The present trend of thought among lawmakers is in the direction of the confinement of inebriates for life, and it seems to be founded on sound pathologic findings.

(1599)

INEQUALITIES

Twenty little maidens Sighing at a hop, Wishing twenty fellows Would come there to stop.

Twenty dapper clerklings Sitting in a row, Dipping pens in ink-stands, Much would like to go.

Ah! this world’s an odd one, Things don’t even up; When we want a quartful, We only get a cup.

(1600)

=Inexperience Re-enforced=--See ENCOURAGEMENT.

INFANTICIDE IN CHINA

Missionaries see little bodies floating upon the scum of the ponds or thrown out by the roadside and half-eaten by the wolfish dogs. It is not necessary to open the little bundle of matting lying by the side of the city wall to know what it contains. Shanghai has its hexagonal tower into which their bodies can be cast. Nanking has its temple to which may be brought any little dead body which the parents care not to bury themselves.

(1601)

INFIDELITY ANSWERED

While Ingersoll was still living, in answer to an inquiry by some of his students as to whether the arguments of Ingersoll are unanswerable, a college president answered them in the _Andover Review_ as follows:

An infidel is an abnormal growth, and nature feels funny once in a while and creates a freak, _e.g._, the living skeleton; the fat woman, the two-headed girl. So there is about one infidel to a million sane men. The most of these noisy fellows are amateur infidels. They talk Ingersoll in fair weather and pray themselves hoarse every time it thunders. A well-developed case of cholera morbus will knock their infidelity out of them, and leave them in a cold sweat like a china dog in an ice-house. I know them. The most of them are like the boy who runs away from home, and comes back to stay with his father nights. Then, again, boys, take a look around you when you invest another fifty cents to hear Ingersoll talk on “liberty,” and compare the crowd with the kind of people you find in almost any church. Is it the odor of sanctity you smell? Hardly, boys, hardly. But you can eat peanuts there, and choke on the shells, while you applaud the funny jokes about heaven where you know in your hearts your dear mother is; or hear the humble Nazarene ridiculed, who, you think, and always will think, gave a home to your weary old father when he left the earth.

(1602)

INFIDELITY REPULSIVE

The nurse who waited upon Voltaire, the French infidel, during his last hours, was requested a few months later to attend another infidel in the same city. Her answer was, “I would not wait upon another infidel for all the gold of Paris.” All infidelity is repulsive. (Text.)

(1603)

=Infinitesimal, The=--See LITTLE THINGS.

=Infirmity, Blind to=--See CONSIDERATENESS.

INFLUENCE

A little clock in a jeweler’s window in a certain Western town stopt one day for half an hour, at fifteen minutes of nine. School-children, noticing the time, stopt to play; people hurrying to the train, looking at the clock, began to walk leisurely; professional men, after a look at the clock, stopt to chat a minute with one another; working men and women noted the time and lingered a little longer in the sunshine, and all were half an hour late because one small clock stopt. Never had these people known how much they had depended upon that clock till it had led them astray.

Many are thus unconsciously depending upon the influence of Christians; you may think you have no influence, but you can not go wrong in one little act without leading others astray.--Seattle _Churchman_.

(1604)

See INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE; MOTHER’S INFLUENCE.

INFLUENCE, BAD

As these wild cattle mentioned below soon demoralize the domestic herds, so one or two wild youths may draw away many others from safe paths.

Much has been written lately about wild horses infesting certain mountain ranges of the West and menacing the interest of stockmen. A report from a district in the Shasta National Forest of California states that wild cattle have become a nuisance.

These animals are the descendants of domestic cattle, but having run without restraint for several generations, have become as wild as deer. Stockmen will not apply for ranges infested by these cattle, since tame cattle soon adopt the habits of their wild relatives and become equally as unmanageable. It is impossible to gather young stock in the fall, which have run with these animals even for a season.

The majority of the stockmen desire to shoot them, but certain mountain-dwellers claim them, and shoot an occasional one for winter beef. The forest officers will, in conjunction with the stockmen interested, investigate the matter, and decide upon some plan of ridding the forests of this pest.

(1605)

INFLUENCE, CORRUPT

An American traction-owner, visiting St. Petersburg, was imprest with the inadequacy of the horse-car service and employed engineers to work out a modern system. Failing to make an impression on the local officials, he had abandoned the plan when he fell in with a clever Russian who assured him that his ignorance of the ways of the country was responsible for the failure, and offered to engineer the deal for a part interest in the company. The first step was to purchase, for several thousand rubles, the sympathy and support of a certain _danseuse_ of the capital. Everything went smoothly and Witte, the Czar’s Prime Minister, finally wrote a report recommending the scheme, and the Czar endorsed on the document: “I approve this in every particular.” Thereupon an American rival attempted to blackmail the successful franchise-holder. When the man refused to be held up the rival set various influences at work. A few days later Plehve handed the Emperor a report condemning the traction scheme and favoring its annulment, across which Nicholas wrote: “I approve this report in every particular.” Horse-cars still operate in St. Petersburg. (Text.)

(1606)

INFLUENCE, ENDURING

Whitefield’s influence resembles the gale sweeping over the surface of the sea. The effect is instant, and visible to every sense. But of Wesley’s work the true symbol is the coral reef, built up slowly, and cell by cell, in the sea depths, over which the soil forms, and on which great cities will rise and unborn nations will live. The one stirred the surface; the other built up from the depths, built deeply, and built for all time.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1607)

See GREATNESS APPRECIATED.

INFLUENCE OF SONG

It was sunset, and a number of girls, some of whom were Sunday-school teachers, were singing at their work in a certain factory Bishop Doane’s verses beginning,

“Softly now the light of day,”

to the tune of “Holley,” when a Christian woman who was visiting the factory was shown the singing girls through an opened door. On being told that the singing was now a regular custom with the girls, she asked, “Has it made a difference?” Said the superintendent who was escorting her around, “There is seldom any quarreling or coarse joking among them now.”

(1608)

INFLUENCE, PERSONAL

Embury was one of a group of Irish-German emigrants to the United States in 1764. He settled in New York, but lacked courage to begin religious work there, and by a natural and inevitable reaction his own religious life began to die. Another party of these German-Irish emigrants, from the same neighborhood, landed in New York the next year. Among them was Barbara Heck, a peasant woman of courageous character and an earnest Methodist. Her zeal kindled in womanly vehemence when she found the first party of emigrants had practically forgotten their Methodism. A familiar but doubtful story relates how she went into a room one day where Embury and his companions were playing cards. She seized the pack, threw it into the fire, and cried to Embury: “You must preach to us or we shall all go to hell together; and God will require our blood at your hands.” “I can not preach,” stammered the rebuked man, “for I have neither chapel nor congregation.” “Preach in your own house,” answered Barbara Heck, “and to our own company.” And so the first Methodist sermon in America was preached under a private roof and to a congregation of five persons.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1609)

INFLUENCE, PERVERTING

The Carnegie Institute has built and fitted out the auxiliary steamer _Carnegie_ to investigate the magnetic phenomena of the earth. The ship was specially designed so as to contain less than six hundred pounds of steel or iron, which would tend to deflect her compasses and interfere with the accuracy of her magnetic instruments. What is not built of wood is made of Victor vanadium bronze.

It would aid men in the guidance of their lives if, in a similar way, they could eliminate from the mind and character all those elements that pervert the will and affections toward evil.

(1610)

INFLUENCE, POSTHUMOUS

The good or ill of a man’s life has the habit of following after him, even tho his efforts have ceased in death. The power of influence which visibly abides is illustrated by a writer who describes the tracks of ships at sea being visible by the smooth wakes of oil they leave behind them, long after they have disappeared:

I have frequently seen such tracks as Franklin observed out at sea, and have climbed to the masthead in order to sight the ship that produced them without seeing her. Several of such smooth, shining tracks have been observed at the same time, but no ship visible, and this in places where no sail has been seen for days before or after.

(1611)

* * * * *

It is being said by many that the present prohibition condition in Georgia is due largely to the work of Sam Jones. He died October, 1906. Thinking that he was out of the way, the liquor men of Bartow County, in June of the following year, determined to call a new election under the local option law. It seemed to them that they could now win with Sam Jones eliminated. The anti-liquors also went to work and did all they could, but were not overconfident of victory. The result was astonishing. The vote, approximately, was eighty-five for the liquor men and 1,686 “for Sam Jones and prohibition.” His name had been mounted on the ballots, and it had worked like magic. This news gave courage to other counties and one after another banished liquor, till the whole State shook off the monster. Is there anywhere a more striking example of the influence of the good man who keeps pegging away? A good life can never die. (Text.)

(1612)

=Influence, Unconscious=--See CONSISTENCY.

INFLUENCE, UNNOTICED

Wesley declares that he owed his conversion to the teaching of Peter Bohler. What, then, exactly was that teaching? Bohler did unconsciously the supreme work of his life during these few days in London and at Oxford when he was conversing with Wesley. The humble-minded Moravian, wise only in spiritual science, touches Wesley--and then vanishes! But he helped to change the religious history of England, little as he himself dreamed of it.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1613)

=Influences=--See ENVIRONMENT.

=Information, Misleading=--See HOLDING THEIR OWN.

=Information, The Passion for=--See BOOK-STUDY.

INGENUITY

To enlist rats in the construction of telephone systems may sound empirical to the electrical engineer, but the familiar pest has been found a valuable assistant in this work. To stimulate, however, it is necessary to introduce his traditional enemy, the ferret. Then the process is simple. The subterranean tubes for the reception of the cables having been laid, a rat is let loose at the starting-point. Having run a little way, a trained ferret, with a string to his leg, is turned in after him. The tubes run into manholes at intervals, and the rat, furtively glancing back, sees the glaring eyes of his arch foe rapidly approaching. By the end of the section of tube the rat is either overtaken or falls into the manhole, and then another rat is requisitioned to run the next block. At the end of each section the string is removed from the ferret’s leg, and a small rope, which is then attached to the other end of the string, is hauled through.--_Sound Waves._

(1614)

* * * * *

During some recent investigations of spider life a Washington scientist gained some interesting knowledge concerning the ingenuity of a spider.

It had become necessary in the course of the experiment to employ a basin wherein a stick was fastened upright like a mast. Enough water was placed in the basin to convert the little stick into the only point of safety for the spider.

The spider was placed on the mast. As soon as he was fairly isolated he anxiously commenced to run to find the mainland. He would scamper down the mast to the water, stick out a foot, get it wet, shake it, run around the stick to try the other side, and then run back to the top.

As it very soon became plain to the spider that his position was an extremely delicate one, he sat down to think it over. Suddenly he seemed to have an idea. Up he went, like a rocket, to the top of the mast, where he began a series of gymnastics. He held one foot in the air, then another, and turned round many times. By this time he was thoroughly excited, much to the perplexity of the scientist, who began to wonder what the spider had discovered. Finally, it was apparent that the clever little fellow had found that the draft of air caused by an open window would carry a line ashore whereby he could escape from his perilous position.

Accordingly he pushed out a thread that went floating in the air, and lengthened and lengthened until at last it caught on a near-by table. Then the ingenious spider hauled on his rope till it was tight, struck it several times to ascertain whether it was strong enough to hold his weight, and then walked ashore. The scientist decided that he was entitled to his liberty.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1615)

* * * * *

Haydn and Mozart were great friends. When either had composed a masterpiece, the other was invited to the house of the composer to enjoy the first sweetness. The following story is from _The Boy’s World_:

It chanced to be Haydn’s turn, and Mozart came full of expectation. Contrary to custom, Haydn invited his guest to give his interpretation of the theme instead of playing it over himself. Much pleased at the compliment, Mozart played brilliantly, for the work was beautiful and his musician’s soul was stirred. Suddenly he halted and looked across the piano at his friend.

“There’s a mistake here,” he said, “a passage written for three hands would be impossible for a soloist. Of course, those notes must come out.

“Oh!” said Haydn, quietly, “I can play it.”

Mozart laughed. “My friend, you have not three hands.”

“Perhaps not,” answered Haydn, with a quiet smile. “Nevertheless, I contend that I can play the passage, otherwise I would not have written it.”

“A challenge!” cried Mozart. “Prove your word.”

He yielded his place at the piano.

His excitement rose as Haydn reached the disputed passage, when, to his amazement, the composer brought his nose to the keyboard, and the notes rang out clear and true.

(1616)

INGRATITUDE

On the plains and along the broad bottoms of the Missouri River are the colonies--often a community of many members, with villages of wide extent--of the American marmots, or prairie-dogs. Merry, cheery, chipper little fellows these gregarious villagers sit on the mound above or beside the open door that leads to their comfortable subterranean dwellings, and hold converse in short not unmusical barks, each greeting his neighbor and rejoicing in the sunshine. But into the sanctity of the home which he and his have constructed with much labor, the burrowing owl comes, uninvited, and becomes a tenant with a life lease, without so much as “by your leave”; and one of the most atrocious results of this swindling arrangement is that the dog (a strict vegetarian) finds that the owl, whose young shares the nest with the infant marmots, feeds upon them and rears its young upon the bodies of the children of its victimized landlord.--Mrs. M. J. GORTON, _Popular Science News_.

(1617)

INHERITED PECULIARITIES

No study is more fascinating than the study of the laws of heredity. When a baby is born almost the first question is, “Whom does he resemble?” For months and years friends peer into the child’s face to discover, if possible, the family likeness. It has its mother’s eyes or its father’s mouth. If no marked resemblance can be found, the comment is, “How singular that this child is unlike every one in the family.” Resemblance is strange, but the absence of it, is more strange. A physical feature appears and reappears for generations. A delicate ear, looking like a translucent shell, is exactly reproduced. In some instances a generation is skipt, and then the likeness comes out again. A faded portrait or a medallion two hundred years old is brought to light, and in it you see the young man who stands by your side looking at it. Appetite for strong drink is found to exist in a whole family. Many a son inherits from his father tastes which almost inevitably produce the habit of intemperance. One of the most fearful woes of drunkenness is that it is entailed, and may become more terrible in the son than it was in the father. Strong animal passions predominate in some families, so that the sins of the fathers are repeated in the sons and grandsons. The expressions “good blood,” and “bad blood,” bear testimony to these well-known laws. In view of these facts, the questions we ask are in substance the questions of the disciples, “Where does the responsibility rest? Is there any blame? Is there any release? What does the religion of Jesus Christ say to these undeniable facts? Can it do anything to change them?” Upon us, as we are, with our natural and inherited characteristics, Christ performs His saving work. And it is matter of common observation, as undeniable as the facts of which we have been thinking, that those who truly become the servants of Christ are changed in this very respect, that they obtain genuine control over their inherited faults.--GEORGE HARRIS, _Andover Review_.

(1618)

=Inharmony=--See DUALITY.

=Inhumanity=--See ANIMALS, ABSURD FONDNESS FOR; SLAVE TRADE, ATROCITIES OF.

INITIATIVE

Charlotte Perkins Stetson writes of an experience in the following lines:

It takes great strength to train To modern service your ancestral brain; To lift the weight of the unnumbered years Of dead men’s habits, methods, and ideas; To hold that back with one hand, and support With the other the weak steps of the new thought. It takes great strength to bring your life up square With your accepted thought and hold it there; Resisting the inertia that drags back From new attempts to the old habit’s track. It is so easy to drift back, to sink; So hard to live abreast of what you think.

But the best courage man has ever shown Is daring to cut loose and think alone. Dark are the unlit chambers of clear space Where light shines back from no reflecting face. Our sun’s wide glare, our heaven’s shining blue, We owe to fog and dust they fumble through; And our rich wisdom that we treasure so Shines from the thousand things that we don’t know. But to think new--it takes a courage grim As led Columbus over the world’s rim. To think it cost some courage. And to go-- Try it. It takes every power you know.

(1619)

INITIATIVE, LACK OF

That which is recorded of the telephone girl below is true of great numbers of both sexes in every walk of life. Patients in hospitals soon learn that “trained” nurses will never willingly do anything outside the routine of their directions, which they take mostly from the bulletin-boards. It is said of some physicians that they would prefer that their patients should die regularly rather than get well under an unaccredited practitioner.

A Philadelphia telephone girl refused to make connection with the Fire Department because the man at the other end of the line had not the necessary nickel to put in the slot. At the Earlswood Idiot Asylum, England, we saw several idiots who had been trained to “self-support under direction,” but they had no power of self-reliance; indeed, the superintendent informed us that up to that time there had been quite a number who could automatically do things after much training, but only three in the history of the institution (which was then comparatively young) had been trained to be self-reliant. A reasonable amount of common sense ought to be required of telephone girls or men. This girl’s stupid blunder nearly cost a life.

(1620)

INJUDICIOUS KINDNESS

Men ought not only to be kind and friendly, but to be judicious in the way they manifest their regard.

At the camp-fire and dinner of the Eleventh Army Corps in New York recently, Gen. James Grant Wilson, as reported in _Tobacco_, told how General Grant became the inveterate smoker that he was. He said that after the Fort Donelson fight the newspapers all over the North were filled with the story of how the silent captain had fought that fight with an unlighted cigar in his mouth. “Up to that time,” said General Wilson, “General Grant never smoked more than two cigars a day in his life. When the people of the North found that their commander evidently liked cigars, loyal souls from every great Northern city sent in cigars to Grant’s headquarters until he had piled up in his tent 20,000 cigars. He felt that it would not be polite to return them or to give them away, so the only thing to do was to smoke them. That was the beginning of it, and it ended with the smoking of something like a bunch of cigars every day.”

(1621)

=Injurious, The, Made Valuable=--See PROFIT FROM PESTS.

INJURY TO SELF

John Chrysostom, from a little town in the Taurus Mountains named Cucusus, to which he had been banished by Arcadius, addrest a treatise to Olympias entitled, “None Can Hurt a Man Who Will Not Hurt Himself.” Later, dying from cruel exposure, the last moments of this holy man were spent in praising God and admonishing his companions, and his last words were, “I have never been hurt, because I have not hurt myself.” (Text.)

(1622)

INJUSTICE

Judge Ben B. Lindsey, in _The Survey_, tells of a visit he made to a refined and lovely home in a large city in the East:

The people in that home were wealthy, and undoubtedly sincere in their self-righteousness; and in the happiness they found in the little charities they provided for the children of the workers in the mills and mines near by. The fathers earned $1.50 a day, worked long hours, shared all the hazards of their employment. My ten years’ experience in juvenile court work compelled me to admit that the powers that made valuable the stocks and bonds whence the wealth of this home came would be arrayed against any measure in the Legislature that would do economic justice to the parents of these children. It seemed strange to me that our kind-hearted, wealthy family, with morning prayers and regular church attendance, could not see something in the teaching of the Master beyond the kind of charity I have mentioned. I could not help but find a real meaning in some of the platitudes; “Equal rights to all, special privileges to none”; “Bear ye one another’s burdens”; “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; “Thy kingdom come--on earth.” How much was there of the real doing of the word? How well was it understood?

(1623)

* * * * *

A California paper recently said:

Eight years in prison for stealing eight copper cents from an Oakland store was the punishment dealt out to George Gron, who with a companion entered the store. Gron pleaded guilty. This sentence is in startling contrast to a year and a half given to J. Dalzell Brown, who wrecked the California Safe Deposit and Trust Company and robbed 1,200 depositors of nearly $9,000,000. Brown was tried only on one count, and he is now in charge of a deputy, enjoying the holidays because of his promise to give testimony against others in the bank wreck. All the other indictments against Brown have been dismist.

(1624)

See WOMEN, INJUSTICE TO.

=Innate Receptivity to Evil=--See DISEASE, CAUSES OF.

INNATE, THE

As in the case of the little girl mentioned below, we have to guard, not alone against the acts of evil men, but against what is in the men themselves:

“Come on! come on!” said a gentleman to a little girl at whom a dog had been barking furiously. “Come on! he’s quiet now.”

“Ah, but,” said the little girl, “the barks are in him still.”

(1625)

INNER LIFE

I was lately in a grove where a number of large sycamores were shedding their bark; at least three layers of the bark showed plainly, the coarse outer bark brown, but this shed in large spots or blotches, exposing the white inner bark, so well known in this great tree; but this also was peeling up, and falling here and there, and showing the clear, green inmost bark of the tree; the outer layers ripening, drying, dying, and falling off, but the inmost bark strengthening and renewing itself day by day.

But I was imprest with the fresh, wholesome look of these sycamores. Many trees of that name seem dying; not so those where the decaying outer bark was loosening and dropping, while the fresh young inner bark was coming out to take its place. I never saw healthier trees. They certainly were not hide-bound. I believe the quick dropping of the old bark gave the vigorous inner bark a chance to come out and strengthen, just as we know trials and afflictions often bring out the inner life in beauty and strength.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(1626)

=Inner Strength=--See REPUTATION AND CHARACTER.

INNER VALUES

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

--LONGFELLOW.

(1627)

=Innocence=--See CIRCUMSTANCES.

INOCULATION

Jesus taught that human lives can be redeemed from sterility to fruitfulness, by an infusion of diverse life. Why should not this principle be even more valuable in morals than in nature?

“To inoculate sterile ground and make it bring forth fruit in abundance is one of the latest achievements of American science,” says G. H. Grosvenor in _The National Geographic Magazine_. “Some of man’s most dread diseases--smallpox, diphtheria, plague, rabies--have been vanquished by inoculation, and now inoculation is to cure soil that has been worn out and make it fertile and productive again. The germs that bring fertility are mailed by the Department of Agriculture in a small package like a yeast-cake. The cake contains millions of dried germs. The farmer who receives the cake drops it into a barrel of clean water; the germs are revived and soon turns the water to a milky white. Seeds of clover, peas, alfalfa, or other leguminous plants that are then soaked in this milky preparation are endowed with marvelous strength. Land on which, for instance, the farmer with constant toil had obtained alfalfa only a few inches high, when planted with these inoculated seeds will produce alfalfa several feet high and so rich that the farmer does not recognize his crop.” (Text.)

(1628)

INSANITY

Felix was so crazed by sin as to be incapable of judging of Paul’s sanity. Here is an analogy from nature:

The abominable Mexican plant known as the loco-weed has the peculiar property of making irrational both men and beasts who partake of it. Horses and cattle out on the prairies after grazing upon it go crazy, and a “locoed” pony will perform all kinds of queer antics. It is said that if a man comes under its spell he never regains his senses, the insanity produced by it being incurable. It is said that the loss of mind of the illfated Carlotta was no doubt due to the fact that some enemy drugged her with a preparation of loco, altho history has it that she went insane by reason of her husband’s execution.

(1629)

See CONCERT, LACK OF.

INSANITY CURED

[Illustration]

An instance of a family of insane dependents illustrates the operation of stress and strain to render a psychopathic family helpless and make it dependent upon the State. This family consists of an inebriate father who married a normal woman with two insane brothers. The father has an insane brother. From this union sprang three children, all of whom have been insane from time to time, and who alternated in residence at a State hospital as committed insane patients, joined at intervals by their uncles, and once by their father. The superintendent of the hospital retained the father in custody until he could put him in good condition, mentally, morally and physically, and discharged him in such form that for the first time in the recollection of the family he has been sober, industrious and kind. He has paid off a mortgage on the farm and is putting money in the bank. The conditions of this family are shown in above chart.

The two sons are working and there is an atmosphere of peace and happiness in the home. Two uncles remained under care, but all the members of one household are out of the hospital. If a wise hospital superintendent can solve such a difficult problem, the result can be duplicated in many instances by field physicians working in consonance with after-care people. Actual prophylactic work will be impossible under close medical and lay organization, and definite results be reached. The discharged patient will return to fewer difficulties. The improved environment will produce fewer patients.--ALBERT W. FERRIS.

(1630)

INSANITY, STATISTICS OF

The United States Census gives the following facts about insanity in the United States:

Total Insane:

1890 In hospitals 74,028. Total 106,485. 1906 In hospitals 150,151. (Total not given). 1903 Males in Hospital 78,523 Females 71,628

Hospitals: Public, 226; private, 102.

Twenty-two and one-half per cent. of the insane were persons in some out of door occupation and 16 per cent. in manufacturing or some indoor occupation, but the proportion in each case to the whole number respectively so employed is not given.

The percentage proportioned to population of whites is greater than of blacks. None of the insane reported were under twelve years of age.

(1631)

=Inscrutability of God=--See GOD’S INSCRUTABILITY.

INSECT, A MODEL

Mark Isambard Brunel, the great engineer, was standing one day, about three-quarters of a century ago, in a ship-yard watching the movements of an animal known as the _Teredo navales_--in English, the naval wood-worm--when a brilliant thought suddenly occurred to him. He saw that this creature bored its way into the piece of wood upon which it was operating by means of a very extraordinary mechanical apparatus. Looking at the animal attentively through a microscope, he found that it was covered in front with a pair of valvular shells; that with its foot as a purchase, it communicated a rotary motion and a forward impulse to the valves, which, acting upon the wood like a gimlet, penetrated its substance; and that as the particles of wood were loosened, they passed through a fissure in the foot and thence through the body of the borer to its mouth, where they were expelled. “Here,” said Brunel to himself, “is the sort of thing I want. Can I reproduce it in artificial form?” He forthwith set to work, and the final result of his labors, after many failures, was the famous boring-shield with which the Thames tunnel was excavated. This story was told by Brunel himself, and there is no reason to doubt its truth. The keen observer can draw useful lessons from the humblest of the works of God.--New York _Ledger_.

(1632)

INSECTS OF REMOTE TIMES

Discoveries in the coal-mines of central France have furnished by far the greatest advance that has ever been made in our knowledge of the insects which inhabited the world millions of years, as geologists believe, before the time when man made his appearance upon the earth. In that wonderful age when the carboniferous plants, whose remains constitute the coal-beds of to-day, were alive and flourishing, the air and the soil were animated by the presence of flies, grasshoppers, cockroaches, dragon-flies, spiders, locusts, and scores of other species which exist but slightly changed at the present time. But the insects of those remote times attained a gigantic size, some of the dragon-flies measuring two feet from tip to tip of their expanded wings. The remains of these insects have been marvelously preserved in the strata of coal and rock.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1633)

=Insecurity=--See HUMAN NATURE, INSECURITY OF.

INSENSITIVENESS TO BEAUTY

I remember walking at night with a good fellow by the side of a transparent sea; nothing was heard but the eternal murmur of the restless waters on the pebbles; a full moon was making a path of heavenly splendor across the waves. It was a night of supernatural beauty--a night in whose silence all the voices of the universe were speaking to the soul. His complaint was that there was no band. (Text.)

(1634)

=Insignificance=--See RESOURCES, GOD’S.

INSINCERITY

There is no place where human nature can be studied to better advantage, or public opinion be more quickly ascertained, than in the office of a railroad president. It helps the railway president if he is also a politician and a man of the world. The experience tends to cynicism and cultivates the theory which gives too great prominence to the influence of association and point of view in fixing creeds, faiths, churchmanship and

## partizanship. The visitor always tried to make the president

believe that he came for some other purpose than the real object of his mission. Why men believe they can succeed better in what they seek by this sort of fraud, is a mystery. The most curious exhibit is the man of many millions, who pretends that he wishes to consult you in regard to investments in the securities of your company, and ends by asking for a pass.--CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.

(1635)

=Inspection, Careful Food=--See BUYING, GOOD.

INSPIRATION

The following lines on “Inspiration” were penned by Bishop Doane, of Albany, N. Y.:

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy, With his marble block before him; And his face lit up with a smile of joy As an angel dream passed o’er him. He carved that dream on the yielding stone With many a sharp incision; In heaven’s own light the sculptor shone, He had caught that angel vision.

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand, With our lives uncarved before us; Waiting the hour when, at God’s command, Our life dream passes o’er us. Let us carve it then on the yielding stone, With many a sharp incision; Its heavenly beauty shall be our own-- Our lives, that angel vision.

(1636)

=Inspiration from Things Done=--See ABILITY, GAGE OF.

INSPIRATION OF EVENTS

On the 19th of April, 1861, some of the enthusiastic Southern sympathizers of Baltimore, driven frantic by the passage of Northern troops through the city for the invasion of the South, attacked the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts volunteers with bricks and stones as they marched along Pratt Street to take the train at Camden Station for Washington. The soldiers, who were fully armed with Springfield rifles, fired upon the citizens, killing several and wounding many others, some of whom had taken no part in the affray, but were merely distant spectators.

When this news was flashed around the land, it reached a young Baltimorean, a professor in Poydras College at Pointe Coupée, one hundred and twenty miles above New Orleans. His heart fired with patriotic enthusiasm and the great thoughts that surged through his mind kept him awake all night. At dawn he sat down at his desk and wrote “Maryland, My Maryland.” It was first published in the New Orleans _Delta_. In a few weeks it was copied by all the leading newspapers of the South, and James R. Randall, like Byron, awoke one morning and found himself famous.

(1637)

INSPIRATION, SOURCE OF

A soul that is sensitive to truth is easily excited to emotion and incited to effort. Haydn, it is said, had his musical genius aroused by the brilliancy of a diamond ring he wore, the gift of Frederick the Great.

We confer a greater blessing on our fellow men when by any act, or even by any look, we draw out what is in them, than when we bestow any gift or favor upon them.

(1638)

* * * * *

The famous operatic composers had different methods of getting inspiration for their immortal compositions. One could not write the score unless he had a cat upon his shoulders. There are in his symphonies suggestions of an orchestra which every one of us born in the country recognizes as the familiar strain of a summer’s night; another could stir his genius best at the billiard-table, and in his refrains is heard the rattling fire of the ivory balls; while a third, by walks in the woods and communing with nature, transferred to the orchestra and chorus the sublime secrets of creation.--CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.

(1639)

INSTABILITY

Society is curst with young men and women who are driven and tossed by every wind. I would as soon think of anchoring an ocean-liner to a fog-bank instead of a rock as to anchor a reform, a useful club, a great movement or church to their lives and leadership.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1640)

INSTINCT

Man is gifted with the supreme endowment of reason. This marks humanity off from all the rest of the animal creation. But the Creator institutes a law of compensation. There are certain powers and faculties in inferior creatures which have never been evolved in man, and which are plainly evidences of supernatural power applied for the benefit of beings denied the prerogative of reason.

How does it come about that if a salmon is taken when only a few months old from its native fjord on the coast of Norway, and marked and then sent into the sea again, it may, after traversing the ocean for thousands of miles, be found again the next year in that same fjord? It has returned without fail to its birthplace. The reason is that God gave it a miraculous guide-book called instinct. How comes it that when, in a beehive, the temperature rises so that the wax might melt, every tenth bee glues its feet down to the board, and fans with its wings at a tremendous velocity as long as may be necessary? It is because God gave this little creature the same infallible guide-book. How is it that the same pairs of swallows return all the way from Africa to rear a fresh family in the same old nests under the eaves? It is because that same miraculous instinct led them unerringly. (Text.)

(1641)

INSTINCT ADAPTED TO EMERGENCY

In guarding against evils should we not be as fertile in expedients to adapt our defense to the kind of weapons we possess as some cattle are:

The plainsmen on Western cattle-ranches have called attention to an illustration of the adaptability of animal instinct to emergencies.

The cattle of former days were of the long-horned kind. When the herd was threatened with an attack by wolves, the calves were placed in the middle of the bunch and the older animals formed themselves into a solid phalanx about them, all facing outward.

The cattle of to-day are largely hornless. If, as occasionally happens still, the herd is attacked by wolves, the calves are guarded as before, but the herd faces in instead of out. Their hoofs, not their horns, are now their weapons.

(1642)

=Instinct of Animals=--See FAITH BETTER THAN SIGHT.

=Instinct of Insects=--See SHELTER.

INSTINCT, THE HOMING

A well-known minister of Austin, Texas, retells a story which was related to him by a friend living in Lawrence, Massachusetts:

“He raised a dog, crossed with hound and pointer, and littered in Lawrence. When a year old he took the young dog to Boston, got on board of a sailing-vessel, went by sea and river to Bangor, Maine, drove forty miles into the woods at Cleveland’s Camp and hunted there two weeks, the dog proving to be a great success for quick, fast runs and returns to camp.

“After the hunting was over and while on his back trip to Bangor, the dog jumped from the wagon into the bushes, having heard or smelled a deer, and went off on a hot chase. The boats ran only once in two weeks, so that, much as he valued the dog, it was necessary to go on. He took the boat at Bangor, returned by river and sea to Boston and back to Lawrence. About two weeks afterward the dog crawled into his yard, footsore and half-starved, but safe at home and glad to get back.” (Text.)--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1643)

See DIRECTION, SENSE OF.

=Instruction=--See FOOD AND EXERCISE.

INSTRUMENTS

When Saladin looked at the sword of Richard the Lion-Hearted, he wondered that a blade so ordinary should have wrought such mighty deeds. The English King bared his arm and said: “It was not the sword that did these things; it was the arm of Richard.”

(1644)

INSTRUMENTS, IMPORTANCE OF GOOD

Dr. Z. F. Vaughn, well known in medical and scientific circles, has perfected a process for tempering to the hardness of steel the ductile metals, gold, silver and copper. Already Dr. Vaughn is manufacturing a large number of gold-bladed scalpels, probes, hypodermic and suture needles and other surgical instruments. These are replacing similar articles of steel.

The sharp edge of a gold blade is almost perfectly smooth; that of steel, no matter how fine the edge, is rough and saw-like. Because it is porous, the steel blade has never made a perfect surgical instrument. In the meshes of that metal may be hidden the infinitesimal germs of a virulent disease, or there may be a rust spot so tiny that it could not be discerned by the surgeon, but which might be sufficient seriously to poison the tissues in which the knife makes a wound, resulting in blood-poisoning that would cause death. In gold, being dense, this danger does not exist, and gold does not rust.

Besides, the gold blade divides evenly the flesh or tissue which it cuts; the steel blade really saws or tears its way through. Therefore, even when there is no infection, the wound made with a steel instrument does not heal nearly so readily as that made with gold. Another feature of a gold blade is that the wound which it makes leaves no scar.

(1645)

INSULATION

In 1846 Werner Siemens, of Berlin, discovered the non-conducting properties of gutta-percha. He coated several miles of copper wire with gutta-percha, and submerged it in the Rhine from Deutz to Cologne. Electric communication was thus established beneath the water from shore to shore. In 1850 a submarine cable was laid across the English Channel from Dover to Cape Grisnez. It consisted of a half-inch copper wire covered with nothing but gutta-percha, and loaded with lead to keep it down. The communication was perfect for a day, and then the wire refused to act. The electrical engineers were unable to explain the facts. At last the mystery was dissipated by a fisherman. A French fisherman set his trawl off Cape Grisnez. When he hauled it in, he picked up the submerged cable, from which he cut off a piece. This piece he carried in triumph to Bologne, where he exhibited it as a specimen of rare seaweed with its center filled with gold. The ignorant man had mistaken the copper wire for gold, but unwittingly he had served the electricians. They saw from the accident that it was not sufficient perfectly to insulate the cable, but that it must also be protected. In 1851 there was laid across the Channel a cable twenty-four miles long, consisting of four copper wires, insulated by gutta-percha, covered with tarred yarn, and protected by an outer covering of galvanized iron wires. That submarine cable proved a success, and ocean telegraphy became possible through an accident which compelled invention.--_Youth’s Companion._

(1646)

INTEGRITY

Stephen V. White, a New York financier, became involved and only able to pay thirty-five cents on the dollar. His character for honesty and integrity was so established that his creditors gave him an absolute, legal release from an indebtedness of almost a million. Within about a year he repaid principal and interest.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1647)

INTEGRITY, EVIDENCE OF

Samuel Appleton, when twenty-eight years old, began the business of cotton manufacturing. He was incapable of anything indirect or underhand. He knew but one way of speaking, and that was to speak the truth. As an evidence of the way in which he was regarded: when a note purporting to be signed by him was pronounced by him a forgery, altho no one was able to distinguish one handwriting from the other, the jury found a verdict in his favor, because they were quite sure that Mr. Appleton would not dispute the payment except upon the certainty of his not making it.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1648)

=Intelligence=--See KNOWLEDGE VALUES.

INTELLIGENCE, ANIMAL

One of the many delusions engendered by our human self-conceit and habit of considering the world as only such as we know it from our human point of view, is that of supposing human intelligence to be the only kind of intelligence in existence. The fact is, that what we call the lower animals have special intelligence of their own as far transcending our intelligence as our peculiar reasoning intelligence exceeds theirs. We are as incapable of following the track of a friend by the smell of his footsteps as a dog is of writing a metaphysical treatise. (Text.)--W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, “Science in Short Chapters.”

(1649)

=Intelligence in Creation=--See DESIGN IN NATURE.

=Intelligence in Rooks=--See ENEMIES, AVOIDING.

INTELLIGENCE IN SOLDIERS

The American Army is regarded as formidable because “its bayonets think.” That they thought and acted to some purpose was shown in many exigencies of the Civil war, as the following, told by Gen. Carl Schurz:

One of General Butler’s staff-officers told me a little story which illustrates the character of our volunteer regiments. When our troops took possession of Annapolis, there was but one locomotive in the railroad shop, and that locomotive had been

## partly taken to pieces by the “rebel sympathizers” of the place,

in order to make it unfit for use. A volunteer regiment was drawn up in line, and men who thought themselves able to repair a locomotive were called for. A dozen or more privates stept forward, and one of them exclaimed: “Why, that locomotive was built in my shop!” In a short time the locomotive was again in working order.

(1650)

=Intelligence in Storks=--See FAMILY OFFENSE IN STORKS.

INTELLIGENCE OUTDOING IGNORANCE

In Togoland there is a large tree which is worshiped by all the inhabitants as a god named Azago. He is the giver of children, and crops, and all blessings. No one is permitted to eat fresh yams until the priest of Azago announces that the god has partaken of them. A dreadful fatality will follow such a disobedience. One year a pupil in a mission school ate a yam before the appointed time, and his distracted parents looked for his death and for all calamities to come--but the boy prospered and grew fat, and none of his kindred died. The next year all the children of that mission school ate yams before permission was given by the priest of Azago, and none perished. The people wanted also to eat, but the priest warned them that the God of the mission schools was greater than Azago, so the mission children could eat yams with impunity, but not so the general populace. But from that time the power of the superstition declined, and recently when one of the priests died the elders decided to forsake Azago and serve the living, true God. (Text.)

(1651)

INTEMPERANCE

Lilla N. Cushman furnished to the Chicago _Sun_ a bit of verse for possible blackboard use on the wine glass:

=There’s danger in the glass! Beware= lest it enslaves. They who have drained it find, alas! too often, early graves. It sparkles to allure, with its rich, ruby light; there is no antidote or cure, only its course to fight. It changes men to brutes; makes women bow their head; fills homes with anguish, want, disputes, and takes from children bread. Then dash the glass away, and from the serpent flee; drink pure, cold water day by day, and walk =God’s footstool free.=

(Text.)

(1652)

* * * * *

“Will alcohol dissolve sugar?”

“It will,” replied Old Soak; “it will dissolve gold and brick houses, and horses, and happiness, and love and everything else worth having.” (Text.)--Houston _Post_.

(1653)

See BEER, EFFECT OF; DRINK, DRUNKENNESS; EVIDENCE, LIVING; INEBRIETY, INCURABLE; SIDE, CHOOSING THE RIGHT.

INTEMPERANCE IN OLD DAYS

When wooden ship-building was the staple trade of the river Wear, in England, says an English exchange, when an extra-sized ship was launched all the day-schools in the town got a holiday. It was on these occasions that the ship-builders provided an unlimited supply of beer to all comers, and it was a recognized rule of Wearside that members of the churches or chapel were privileged to get drunk without losing their membership.

(1654)

* * * * *

In medieval times the farmers brewed good brown ale and took it to the churchyard in barrels, which were tapped on the spot. The neighbors then said to one another: “Come hither; there be a church-ale toward yonder.” They paid for the beer, and the rector’s churchwarden kept the tale of incoming moneys. Easter-ales, Whitsun-ales, church-ales, even bride-ales to help a penniless marriage--all were merry meetings in churchyard or church which all the inhabitants were bidden to attend at a charge of one penny. Tho they had grown to unruly revels, they were not finally supprest till the time of the Commonwealth.--EDWARD GILLIAT, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

(1655)

INTEMPERANCE IN SONS

Rev. W. F. Crafts says:

Recently, in a New England manufacturing city, we noted a change that bodes no good for business or politics or religion. We found that the old men who founded and developed the mills were all total abstainers and had been from youth, but their sons, who were succeeding to these great responsibilities, had nearly all of them come back from college with drinking habits.

(1656)

=Intemperate Living=--See LONGEVITY ACCOUNTED FOR.

INTENSITY

In the concluding chapters of Ellen Terry’s memoirs (_McClure’s Magazine_), she writes of the last days of Henry Irving. The doctor had warned Irving not to play “The Bells” again after an illness that attacked him in the spring of 1905. He saw the “terrible emotional strain ‘The Bells’ put upon Henry”--how he never could play the part of _Matthias_ “on his head,” as he could _Louis XI_, for example. Miss Terry goes on in words almost implying that _Matthias_ killed him. We read:

“Every time he heard the sound of bells, the throbbing of his heart must have nearly killed him. He used always to turn quite white--there was no trick about it. It was imagination acting physically on the body.

“His death as _Matthias_--the death of a strong, robust man--was different from all his other stage deaths. He did really almost die--he imagined his death with such horrible intensity. His eyes would disappear upward, his face grow gray, his limbs cold.

“No wonder, then, that the first time that the Wolverhampton doctor’s warning was disregarded, and Henry played ‘The Bells,’ at Bradford, his heart could not stand the strain. Within twenty-four hours of his death as _Matthias_, he was dead.”

(1657)

INTENTION

While “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” we can never fully manifest the best that is in us. Benjamin R. Bulkeley tells us in the following verse that God knows how much better we intend than we can do:

There was never a song that was sung by thee, But a sweeter one was meant to be. There was never a deed that was grandly done, But a greater was meant by some earnest one, For the sweetest voice can never impart The song that trembles within the heart.

And the brain and the hand can never quite do The thing that the soul has fondly in view. And hence are the tears and the burdens of pain, For the shining goals are never to gain, But enough that a God can hear and see The song and the deed that were meant to be.

(1658)

=Interception=--See INTERRUPTION.

=Intercession=--See SACRIFICIAL MEDIATION.

INTERDEPENDENCE

Every great newspaper periodically announces its dependence upon immature, half-grown boys, whose nimble steps and strident voices secure its circulation. The brain which forges the editorial, the skill which administers the counting-room, however great, imposing, or commanding, must doff its hat of necessity to the barefooted newsboy and confess its obligation to him in his obscurity for its chance to reach its constituency.--NEHEMIAH BOYNTON.

(1659)

See SOLIDARITY; SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

=Interest in Religious Education=--See ADAPTING THE BIBLE.

=Interest, Intense=--See BOOK, INFLUENCE OF A.

INTEREST, SIGNIFICANT

I have often been appealed to by friends, who said: “Can’t you take this young man and give him employment?” Then I will watch that young man for a month or so and see what it is that he takes up in the morning. If he takes up the newspaper and turns to the political part of the paper, and is interested in that, why that is a good symptom of his intellectual tendencies; but if, instead of that, he takes up a magazine and sits down to read a love story, why you can not make a newspaper man out of him.--CHARLES A. DANA.

(1660)

=Interests, The Functioning of=--See ATROPHY.

=Internationalism=--See STATESMANSHIP.

=Interpretation and Individuality=--See INDIVIDUALITY IN INTERPRETATION.

INTERPRETATION BY EXPERIENCE

A little boy who was born blind had an operation performed which enabled him to see. His mother led him out into the fields, and uncovered his eyes for the first time, and let him look upon the sky and trees and grass and flowers. “Oh, mother!” he cried, “why didn’t you tell me it was so beautiful?” “I tried to tell you, dear,” was her answer, “but you could not understand me.”

So it is sometimes with great verses in the Bible. When we read them first or commit them to memory, we do not understand, but after, when they fit the heart life and our eyes are opened, we wonder at the beauty of them.--PHEBE PALMER.

(1661)

=Interpretation by Love=--See LOVE, INTERPRETATION BY.

INTERRUPTION

It is to be feared that much of the force of God’s spirit is cut off by the world’s atmosphere before it reaches a soul that is immersed in worldliness:

The greatest difficulty in arriving at a correct conception of the amount of heat received from the sun lies in the fact that all such measures must be made at the earth’s surface. Before reaching the apparatus the sun’s rays pass through many miles of atmosphere; the heat and light are absorbed and only a small portion of the original energy of the rays actually reaches the surface and becomes effective in heating the water of our apparatus.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

(1662)

* * * * *

In “One Word More” Browning tells us that Dante “once prepared to paint an angel”; but “certain people of importance” broke in upon him, and so, much to the poet’s and the world’s regret, we can never see that angel he might have wrought.

Perhaps the very serious power of interruptions, and what we may call their irreligiousness, has been too little appreciated. Florence Nightingale recognized the possible harm done to an invalid by making any abrupt change in his condition. “You may suffocate him by giving him his food suddenly; but, if you rub his lips gently with a spoon, and thus attract his attention, he will swallow the food with perfect safety. Thus it is with the brain.” Miss Nightingale adds acutely, “I have never known persons who exposed themselves for years to constant interruption who did not muddle away their intellects by it at last.”

(1663)

See HAPPINESS.

INTERVENTION, DIVINE

A large number of Russian criminals were standing in the courtyard of their prison, chained together, and about starting for their long journey to Siberia. Among them was one Christian Stundist, sharing their banishment because he had spoken to his fellow workmen about the faith in Christ he profest. His fellow prisoners were jeering him about it, saying: “You are no better off than we. You are wearing the bracelets (handcuffs) as we do; if your God is of any use to you, why doesn’t he knock off your chains and set you free?” The man reverently replied, “If the Lord will He can set me free even now; and tho my hands are chained my heart is free.” At that moment his name was called; a paper had just been received granting him a full pardon. He was then told to stand aside; his chains were struck off. At the same time the prison gates were thrown open and all the rest of the convicts filed out, the Stundist remaining behind with permission to return to his family and friends. It is said the prisoners were perfectly awestricken with what they had witnessed. Unknown to the Stundist, a Christian lady had obtained his pardon, and God had ordered its arrival at the critical moment.

(1664)

* * * * *

But for the divine vigilance, an unseen Helper, what youth but would go down! In every hour when Achilles is about to be overborne by the number and strength of his enemies, Homer makes some goddess appear to lift a shield above the hero for protection. Again and again Thetis stands between her son and the enemy. Of your youth, how true it is that God hath interfered in your behalf!--N. D. HILLIS.

(1665)

INTIMACY WITH CHRIST

When the great artist, Sir Alma-Tadema, was painting his “Heliogabalus,” which made a sensation during its exhibition at the British Royal Academy, and in which roses are a prominent feature, he was in the habit of receiving from Italy a fresh box of roses twice a week, so that he literally and actually had a new model for every individual blossom.

If the painter must live in close and delicate touch with nature, much more must the messenger of Christ abide in direct communion with the Savior if he would catch the virtue, the color and the aroma of celestial things. (Text.)

(1666)

INTOLERANCE

We should be thankful that such conditions as those described below no longer exist:

No religious meetings outside the ordinary services of the Church could be held without a license under the Toleration Act; and those taking part in such meetings, in order to secure the right to hold them, had to register themselves as Dissenters. This law extended to America, and so the first Methodist Church in the United States was adorned with that very unecclesiastical bit of architecture--a chimney. When a Methodist church was built it had to disguise itself as a house in order to secure the right to exist.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1667)

* * * * *

In a dark wood where wild beasts lived there once lay a man’s boot. How it came there, I can not say, for no man had been there--at least the wild beasts had not seen one in all their lives. But there the boot was, and when the beasts saw it they all came round to find out what it was. Such a thing was quite new to them; but they were not much at a loss for all that.

“Well, there is no doubt as to what it is, I say,” said the bear.

“Oh, of course not,” said the wolf and the goat and all the beasts and birds in one breath.

“Of course,” said the bear, “it is the rind of some kind of fruit off a tree--the fruit of the cork, I should say. This is cork, it is plain to see,” and he showed the sole of the boot.

“Oh, just hear him! just hear him!” cried all the beasts and birds.

“It is not that at all,” said the wolf, with a glance of scorn at the bear. “Of course it is some kind of nest. Look; here is the hole for the bird to go in at, and here is the deep part for the eggs and young ones to be safe. No doubt at all, of course not!”

“Oh, oh!” cried the bear and the goat and all the birds and beasts, “just hear what he says! It is not that at all.”

“I should think not,” said the goat. “It is quite a plain case. Look at this long root,” and he showed the string at the side of the boot. “It is the root of a plant, of course.”

“Not a bit of it,” cried the wolf and the bear; “not a bit of it. A root? How can you say so? It is not that, we can all see.”

“If I might speak,” said an old owl, who sat in a tree near, “I think I can tell you what it is. I have been in a land where there are more of such things than you could count. It is a man’s boot.”

“A what?” cried all the beasts and birds. “What is a man? and what is a boot?”

“A man,” said the owl, “is a thing with two legs that can walk and eat and talk, like us; but he can do much more than we can.”

“Pooh, pooh!” cried they all.

“That can’t be true,” said the beasts. “How can a thing with two legs do more than we can, who have four? It is false, of course.”

“Of course it is if they have no wings,” said the birds.

“Well,” went on the owl, “they have no wings, and yet it is true. And they can make things like this, and they call them boots and put them on their feet.”

“Oh, oh!” cried all the beasts and birds at once. “How can you? For shame. Fie on you! That is not true, of course. It can not be.”

“A likely story!” said the bear.

“Can do more than we can?” said the wolf.

“Wear things on their feet?” cried they all. “On the face of it your story is not true. We know that such things are not worn on the feet. How could they be?”

“Of course they could not,” said the bear; “it is false.”

“It must be false,” cried all the birds and beasts. “You must leave the wood,” they said to the owl. “What you say can not be true. You are not fit to live with us. You have said what you know is false. It must be, of course.”

And they chased the poor old owl out of the wood, and would not let him come back.

“It is true for all that,” said the owl.

And so it was.--_The Nursery._

(1668)

INTRODUCTIONS

Some introductions to sermons, speeches, articles, etc., would gain if they were made as brief as the speech of this mayor:

“Long introductions when a man has a speech to make are a bore,” said former Senator John C. Spooner, according to _The Saturday Evening Post_. “I have had all kinds, but the most satisfactory one in my career was that of a German mayor of a small town in my State, Wisconsin.

“I was to make a political address, and the opera-house was crowded. When it came time to begin, the mayor got up.

“‘Mine friends,’ he said, ‘I have been asked to introduce Senator Spooner, who is to make a speech, yes. Vell, I haf dit so, und he vill now do so.’”

(1669)

=Intruders=--See INGRATITUDE.

=Intrusion=--See TRIVIAL CAUSES.

INTUITION

What is true in music, according to R. H. Haweis, is equally true of all intuitive processes:

To accompany well you must not only be a good musician, but you must be mesmeric, sympathetic, intuitive. You must know what I want before I tell you; you must feel which way my spirit sets, for the motions of the soul are swift as an angel’s flight. I can not pause in those quick and subtle transitions of emotion, fancy, passion, to tell you a secret; if it is not yours already, you are unworthy of it. Your finishing lessons in music can do nothing for you. Your case is hopeless. You have not enough music in you to know that you are a failure.

(1670)

INTUITIVE JUDGMENT

Mill cites the following case, which is worth noting as an instance of the extreme delicacy and accuracy to which may be developed this power of sizing up the significant factors of a situation. A Scotch manufacturer procured from England, at a high rate of wages, a working dyer famous for producing very fine colors, with the view of teaching to his other workmen the same skill. The workman came; but his method of proportioning the ingredients, in which lay the secret of the effects he produced, was by taking them up in handfuls, while the common method was to weigh them. The manufacturer sought to make him turn his handling system into an equivalent weighing system, that the general principles of his peculiar mode of proceeding might be ascertained. This, however, the man found himself quite unable to do, and could therefore impart his own skill to nobody. He had, from individual cases of his own experience, established a connection in his mind between fine effects of color and tactual perceptions in handling his dyeing materials; and from these perceptions he could, in any particular case, infer the means to be employed and the effects which would be produced.--JOHN DEWEY, “How We Think.”

(1671)

=Invention=--See AMBITION.

=Invention and Employment=--See VALUE OF ONE MAN.

=Inventions=--See LABOR-SAVING DEVICES.

=Inventions, Worthless=--See DISAPPOINTMENT.

=Inventive Possibilities=--See FUTURE POSSIBILITIES.

INVESTMENT RETURN

The Rev. John F. Goucher established many vernacular Christian schools in the villages of India.

An American traveler in northern India, strolling on the platform when the train had come to a standstill, saw a native who drew near, eyed him closely, then fell before him, clasped him about the ankles, and beating his feet with his head, cried, “I am your servant, and you are my savior!”

The traveler bade the man get up and say what he had to say. The native at length exprest himself: “You are Dr. Goucher, of America, are you not? All that I am and have I owe to you. Hearing that you were traveling through on this train, I walked more than twenty miles just to see your train pass. Now God has let me look into your face.”

Thousands of young Indians in the north-west provinces of India call themselves “Goucher Boys,” and look upon a man in distant America, whom they have never seen, as their friend and emancipator.--WILLIAM T. ELLIS, “Men and Missions.”

(1672)

INVESTMENT, SAFE

One of the Copes had but just written his check for $50 for some local charity, when a messenger announced the wreck of an East Indiaman belonging to the firm, and that the ship and cargo were a total loss. Another check for $500 was substituted at once, and given to the agent of the hospital with the remark: “What I have God gave me, and before it all goes, I had better put some of it where it can never be lost.” (Text.)--NOAH HUNT SCHENCK.

(1673)

=Invisible, Answers from the=--See UNSEEN, RESPONSE FROM THE.

INVISIBLE, POTENCY OF THE

Material forces called battleships bulk larger, but the invisible spiritual forces go farther, last longer and make cannon seem contemptible and paltry. In cold countries men sometimes build palaces of ice for some public function. In the hour when beautiful women and brilliant military bands assemble for a winter festival, the water, manifest in blocks of ice, seems very imposing. But would you know the real power of water, wait until it becomes invisible. Then lift your eyes to the western sunset, where colors of gold and rose are revealed by this invisible vapor; watch the rain-drop redden in the purple flow of grape and the crimson drops of pomegranate, or see it tossed by a harvester in sheaves of grain. Then, in what water does through its invisible workings, do we know its place in nature and its contributions to man’s happiness. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1674)

INVISIBLE, THE, MADE VISIBLE

On the brightest and sunniest day, millions of tons of black charcoal in an invisible condition are floating in the air. Millions of plants are at the same time restoring it to visible form by the chemical processes going on in the tiny laboratory of every leaf that expands in the sunshine. In the course of time the leaf or the wood it elaborates by its delicate alchemy, may be burned; and this cycle of change may go on indefinitely, the matter becoming visible and invisible again and again. (Text.)--_Popular Science News._

(1675)

* * * * *

In chemical operations, whether natural or artificial, matter is often “lost to sight”; but the veriest tyro has learned, as one of the fundamental axioms of science, that it can never be actually lost or destroyed. In its manifold mutations it often disappears from our vision; but it reappears, or can be made to reappear, as palpable to our senses as before. If a piece of silver be put into nitric acid, a clear and colorless liquid, it is rapidly dissolved, and we “see it no more.” The solution may be mixed with water, and apparently no effect is produced. Thus, in a pail of water we may dissolve fifty dollars’ worth of silver, not a particle of which can be seen. Not even the chemist, unless he should apply certain tests to detect its presence, would, by merely looking at the liquid, guess what hidden wealth it contained. Other metals, as we know, can be treated in similar ways with the same result. When charcoal and many other substances are burned, they disappear as completely, no visible ashes even being left from the combustion. In fact, every material, which is visible can, by certain treatment, be rendered invisible. Matter which in one state or condition is perfectly opaque, and will not permit a ray of light to pass through it, will in another form become perfectly transparent. The cause of this wonderful change in matter is utterly inexplicable.--_Popular Science News._

(1676)

* * * * *

The progress of science is fast bringing the hitherto invisible universe into man’s view.

Unofficial announcement has been made at Boston that Prof. H. C. Ernst, of the Harvard medical school, has discovered a new method of photographing bacteria, which makes it possible to watch the life of disease germs, to watch the effect of medicine upon them and to see new facts as to the form which has heretofore been clouded in mystery. The Ernst method consists in the use of ultra-violet rays of the spectrum which are invisible to the eye. Under the present method no picture of germs is made until they are colored by chemicals.

(1677)

=Invitation=--See HELP FOR THE HELPLESS.

=Inward Rectification=--See TRANSFORMATION BY RENEWING.

IRONY OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD

The fact is that the Carlyles habitually addrest one another with irony. It is no uncommon thing between intimates: it is rather a sign of the security of the affection which unites them. But if, by some unhappy accident, a third person who has no sense of humor hears this gay clash of keen words, and puts them down in dull print, and goes on to point out in his dull fashion that they do not sound affectionate, and are phrases by no means in common use among excellent married persons of average intellects, it is easy to see that the worst sort of mischief may readily be wrought.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”

(1678)

IRRATIONAL LAWS

The law of imprisonment for debt, which existed so long in England, the land of freedom, whereby a creditor enforced payment of debt by imprisoning his debtor for unlimited periods, is perhaps the most irrational that ever existed. The purposeless cruelty of imprisonment for debt was demonstrated in 1792, when a woman died in Devon jail, after forty-five years’ imprisonment, for a debt of £19. And when the Thatched House Society set to work to ransom honest debtors by paying their debts, they, in twenty years, released 12,590 at a cost of 45 shillings per head. (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1679)

=Irresolution=--See HUMAN NATURE, INSECURITY OF.

IRRESPONSIBILITY

The spectacle of a $100,000,000 “trust” unable to get hay for its horses on credit was seen recently in Sault Ste. Marie, where the Consolidated Lake Superior Company went into liquidation. The liquidation resulted from the failure of the directors of this big concern to raise $5,000,000 to pay a loan from the Speyer syndicate.

Here is a corporation which was paying seven per cent dividends, and which began two or three years ago with a capital of $102,000,000, so destitute of liquid assets or working capital that it can not pay a loan of $5,000,000, for which its very existence was pawned. Nothing appears to be left.

Lake Superior Consolidated, like all the other trusts, was organized under the Connecticut corporation act, which, like that of West Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, and other States, was expressly drawn to relieve all concerned of responsibility. No one was responsible for anything in the prospectus. No one could be held, in the promotion or direction, for any statements, promises, or representations. The sidewalk vender is more responsible for the razors and remedies that he sells in the flare of his gasoline lamp than the promoters or directors of an American trust to which millions of dollars flow.--New York _American_.

(1680)

IRRETRIEVABLE, THE

The people of Florence sent their great poet, Dante, into exile. He went into Ravenna, there died, and there was buried. After his death, Florence recognized how great this exiled son of hers had been, and begged his body from Ravenna, and could not get it. Ravenna would not part with it. Florence might have had it had she asked Dante to come back.

(1681)

=Irreverent Laughter=--See LAUGHTER, PERILS OF.

IRRIGATION

Long have I waited their coming, the men of the far-lying mist-hills Gathered about their fires and under the kindly rains. Not to the blazing sweep of Thy desert, O Lord, have they turned them; Evermore back to the mist-hills, back to the rain-kissed plains.

Long through the ages I waited the children of men, but they came not; Only God’s silent centuries holding their watch sublime. Gaunt and wrinkled and gray was the withering face of Thy desert: All in Thine own good time; O Lord, in Thine own good time.

Lo! Thou hast spoken the word, and Thy children come bringing the waters Loosed from their mountain keep in the thrall of each sentinel hill. Lord, Thou hast made me young and fair at Thine own waters’ healing, Pleasing and fair to mankind in the flood of Thy bountiful will.

Wherefore in joy now Thy children come, flying exultant and eager; Now is thine ancient earth remade by Thy powerful word. Lord, unto Thee be the glory! Thine is the bloom of the desert. Hasten, O men of the mist-hills! Welcome, ye sons of the Lord! (Text.)

--MCCREADY SYKES, _The Atlantic Monthly_.

(1682)

=Isolation, Fatal=--See RESOURCES, EXHAUSTED.

=Issue, A Consequential=--See CONSEQUENCES.

J

JARS, DAILY

It is not often the great strokes of misfortune that break men down, but the daily wear and tear of small troubles. An editor writes thus:

A huge cart-wheel lies in the gutter near our office. The cart itself has been pulled with difficulty out of the way of the trolley cars. An axle has broken. And that axle! It is fully four inches in diameter and was originally forged of soundest steel. But as you look at the fragments of it wedged in the overturned hub you discover a peculiar condition. “The steel has been crystallized,” the mechanic would explain. No sudden strain broke it, no tremendous wrench twisted the spindle from the beam. The ruin was wrought by the constant small jars of daily traffic. Rumbling over stones, bumping over crossings, scraping against curbs threw the atoms of steel in the axle out of cohesive harmony. Then came the one jar, no heavier than the others, that sent the load of coal into the street.

(1683)

=Jester, The=--See HUMOR OVERDONE.

JESTING COMMENDED

It is wise to laugh, and Joe Miller is right when he says that the gravest beast is an ass, and the gravest man is a fool. This opinion of the famous jester is in accord with Plato, who is reported to have remarked to his friends, when their social enjoyment was occasionally intruded upon by the approach of some sedate wiseacre, “Silence, my friends, let us be wise now, for a fool is coming.” Other notable characters, if not themselves witty, have sought relief from the strain of serious employment by a laugh and innocent merriment. Philip of Macedon, Sylla, the Roman dictator, Queen Elizabeth, and our own Abraham Lincoln, keenly enjoyed a good joke, while Julius Cæsar, Tacitus, Erasmus, and Lord Bacon compiled jest-books. So there is high authority for jesting, and a jest is merely petrified laughter--a laugh congealed into words, so as to be passed from mouth to mouth and handed down to further generations.--EDMUND KIRKE, _North American Review_.

(1684)

JESTS, OLD

To Hierocles, who lived in the sixth century, is attributed a

## book called “Asteia,” which contains twenty-one jests, the most

of which are now alive, and passing themselves off as “real, original Jacobs.” Among them is the man who would not venture into the water until he had learned to swim; the man whose horse died just as he had taught it to live without eating; the other who stood before the mirror with his eyes shut, to see how he looked when asleep; the other who apologized for a negligence by saying, “I never received the letter you wrote me”; the other who kept a crow expressly to satisfy himself if the creature did live to the age of two hundred years; and the old philosopher who carried a brick about as a specimen of the house he desired to sell. But, older than Hierocles--old as Horace--is the stupid fellow who, wanting to cross a stream, sat down upon the bank to wait for all the water to run by. The French king who said, “After me, the deluge,” was thought to be original, but the phrase is found in the Greek of two thousand years ago; as is also the proverb, “There is many a slip between the cup and the lip,” which was the appropriate inscription upon the drinking cup of a rich Greek. Every one knows the lady who insists that her age is but thirty, and whose friend asserts that he believes her, because he has heard her say so “any time these ten years.” Bacon, in his “Apothegms,” asserts that the same anecdote is told of Cicero.--EDMUND KIRKE, _North American Review_.

(1685)

=Jesus All Right=--See CHRIST APPROVED.

=Jesus as a Character-builder=--See CHARACTER-BUILDING.

JESUS AS COMPANION

A missionary riding on horseback through one of the cotton States of the South came upon an old tumble-down cabin in the doorway of which stood a poor crippled negress. Her back was bent nearly double with years of hard work and her face was deeply wrinkled and her hair was white, but her two eyes were as bright as two stars. The man called out cheerily, “Good-morning, Auntie--living here all alone?” “Jes me n’ Jesus, Massa,” she replied with a bright smile. The missionary dismounted and went in for a little visit with her--and he said as he was riding away, and looked back for a last glimpse of the happy old saint, “It seemed as if he could see the form of one like unto the Son of God” standing by her side in the doorway of the poor little cabin.

(1686)

=Jesus as Guide=--See GUIDE, THE PERFECT.

=Jesus, Canceler of Sin=--See CHRIST DESTROYER OF SIN.

=Jesus Crowned with Thorns=--See CHRIST’S FACE.

JESUS, GREATNESS OF

Recently a flower was exhibited that was grown in a cellar by acetylene gas. But let no man be anxious. The summer’s sun is not seriously threatened by acetylene! The scientist knows that there is a large amount of condensed sunshine stored away in the acetylene that was released. There are a few soldiers of supreme genius that divide honors. There are a few poets of the first order of greatness. There are a few statesmen of equal rank. But Jesus is alone, one star, shining down upon the little hills.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1687)

* * * * *

Dinocrates, a Macedonian architect, once proposed to carve Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander--the left hand to hold a city of 10,000 population, and the right hand to be a basin to receive the perpetual flow of the mountain and give it to the sea below. Jesus, a mightier architect, is carving all humanity into a kingdom that, like a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, shall fill the whole earth.

(1688)

JESUS, SECOND COMING OF

In Venice stands a very beautiful monument, a pyramid of marble, in which lie the mortal remains of a little child. By the door stands a sculptured angel resting one hand on the door-latch, and holding in the other hand a trumpet, and himself peering intently into the distant heaven; while carved upon the door is the inscription: “Till He Comes.”

Such a monument is the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Such an expectancy is appropriate to the soul. Such a lesson of patient waiting is not amiss. Such a readiness to respond to the last call were becoming even to the busy. (Text.)

(1689)

JESUS, SUPREMACY OF

On Chinese Gordon’s monument in St. Paul’s Cathedral, proud England has inscribed this epitaph, “Who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, and his heart to God.” Well may old England gather young England about the monument of her dead hero who gave Jesus Christ supremacy over both life and relations. Henry George and Cardinal Manning were talking together. “I love men because Jesus loved them,” said the Cardinal. “And I love Jesus because he loved men,” was Mr. George’s quick reply. It does not matter which way you go to it, only that you do actually go to the real love of men. This kind of Christianity is not outgrown; this kind has not yet been tried.--WM. F. MCDOWELL, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1690)

“=Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness=”--See CHRIST’S FACE.

=Jesus Would Have Done, Just as=--See GENEROSITY, CHRISTIAN.

=Jewel, The Sympathetic=--See SYMPATHY.

=Journalism=--See CLASSICS, STUDY OF.

=Journey of Life=--See SOUL QUERIES.

JOURNEY TO HEAVEN

Our highest aspiration must wait. We are here to get through the world. Life is a road where we camp for a night on a journey to the golden gate and the setting sun; a traveler who sets up his tent at dark does not plant corn or put out a grapevine, if when the morning comes he expects to pull his tent down and march on. Men are born upon the shore of one ocean; by traveling lightly and never losing a moment, and marching bravely on, through forest, over desert, mountain and river, the traveler can reach the other ocean in time to catch the little boat that slips out into the dark, and sails out of sight with God alone. But the traveler must not expect to plant harvests and grow vineyards while out upon his march. Yonder lie the happy hills of God. There no winter falls, there the summer sheds its warmth always upon the violet beds. There youth is perfect and beauty is eternal. There every ambition will be perfected, every dream realized; every hope turned to fruition, and the soul is a tree waving its fruit and casting down its purple vintage at the feet of the God of the summer. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1691)

JOY

John Kendrick Bangs, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, writes an ideal note:

To-day, whatever may annoy The word for me is joy, just simple joy; The joy of life; The joy of children and of wife; The joy of bright blue skies; The joy of rain; the glad surprize Of twinkling stars that shine at night; The joy of wingéd things upon their flight; The joy of noon-day, and the tried True joyousness of eventide; The joy of labor, and of mirth; The joy of air, and sea, and earth-- The countless joys that ever flow from Him Whose vast beneficence doth dim The lustrous light of day, And lavish gifts divine upon our way. Whate’er there be of sorrow I’ll put off till to-morrow, And when to-morrow comes, why then ’Twill be to-day and joy again! (Text.)

(1692)

* * * * *

So take joy home, And make a place in thy great heart for her, And give her time to grow, and cherish her; Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee, When thou art working in the furrows; aye, Or weeding in the sacred hours of dawn. It is a comely fashion to be glad-- Joy is the grace we say to God. (Text.)

--JEAN INGELOW.

(1693)

JOY AFTER GRIEF

I had a sorrow, and I wept salt tears One winter night, and heavy beat the rain; At dawn came frost, and on my window-pane Each drop like fairy lacework now appears.

So shall my grief perchance become a pleasure; Yes, tears maybe are jewels hearts would keep, For in another life we’ll wake from sleep, And light shall sparkle from our new-found treasure.

--BEATRIX L. TOLLEMACHE.

(1694)

JOY AND SORROW

“Joy and sorrow are contemporaneous experiences in the same Christian consciousness,” says Dr. Cruddylan Jones. In the Straits of Gibraltar is a double current, the stream flowing back again from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. This phenomenon is analogous to the double current in the life of every believer. (Text.)

(1695)

=Judge, a Considerate=--See PROBATION.

=Judged by the Sun=--See TESTS.

=Judging=--See CYNIC REBUKED.

JUDGING, CARE IN

A traveler in North Carolina saw an old colored man sitting in a chair in his garden, hoeing. The traveler laughed. He thought it was a case of monumental laziness. But he happened to look back as he laughed, and he saw a pair of crutches lying on the ground by the old man’s chair. At once what made him seem ridiculous before made him seem heroic now.

When disposed to criticize, remember human infirmities. (Text.)

(1696)

JUDGING FROM FACTS

We must not judge any act without knowing the facts of the case. “See that man! He has sat on the bank all the morning throwing pebble after pebble into the water. How lazy he must be!” “Is this a fair judgment?” I inquire. And at the end of a warm discussion, I tell my pupils how Turner, the artist, did that to watch the surface of the water in motion and learn how to paint its sheen and color. “A child is walking quietly along the sidewalk. Suddenly a rough looking man seizes her and pushes her into the gutter. Is he cruel?” Of course every one answers yes, at first. But no--a mass of ice is about to fall from the roof above the child’s head. Her assaulter turns out to be her protector.

In teaching, of course, every good teacher passes from examples to principles. Through such examples as these we elicit the fact that we can judge no act on sight, for every act is open to a good or a bad interpretation. The eager energy members of my class show in pointing out possible good motives for acts that at first sight look selfish makes me feel sure that they will not in later life condemn unheard. “The special part of this ethics course which stands out in my mind as important,” writes one of my pupils, “is that on right and wrong judgments. It makes me realize how little right we have to judge people from appearances. There are so many sides of people’s characters that we don’t half consider or appreciate.”--ELLA LYMAN CABOT, “Proceedings of the National Education Association,” 1909.

(1697)

JUDGMENT DAY

A traveler in Tennessee came across an aged negro seated in front of his cabin door basking in the sunshine.

“He could have walked right on the stage for an Uncle Tom part without a line of make-up” says the traveler. “He must have been eighty years of age.”

“Good-morning, uncle,” said the traveler.

“Mornin’, sah! Mornin’,” said the aged one. Then he added, “Be you the gentleman over yonder from New York?”

Being told that such was the case, the old darky said, “Do you mind telling me something that has been botherin’ my old haid? I have got a grandson--he runs on the Pullman cyars--and he done tells me that up thar in New York you-all burn up youah folks when they die. He is a powerful liar, and I don’t believe him.”

“Yes,” replied the other, “that is the truth in some cases. We call it cremation.”

“Well, you suttenly surprize me,” said the negro, and then he paused as if in deep reflection. Finally he said, “You-all know I am a Baptist. I believe in the resurrection and the life everlastin’ and the comin’ of the Angel Gabriel and the blowin’ of that great horn, and Lawdy me, how am they evah goin’ to find them folks on that great mawnin’?”

It was too great a task for an off-hand answer, and the suggestion was made that the aged one consult his minister. Again the negro fell into a brown study, and then he raised his head and his eyes twinkled merrily, and he said in a soft voice:

“Meanin’ no offense, sah, but from what Ah have heard about New York, I kinder calculate they is a lot of them New York people that doan’ wanter be found on that mornin’.”--_Cosmopolitan._

(1698)

JUDGMENT DELAYED

A certain farmer, who was an infidel, sent to the editor of a weekly newspaper the following letter:

“Sir--I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of Indian corn, which I plowed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I did all the cultivating which it received on Sunday. I gathered the crop on Sunday, and on Sunday hauled it to my barn; and I find that I have more corn per acre than has been gathered by any of my neighbors during this October.”

What a triumphant sneer lay behind these words of the skeptic! But one thinks the light faded from his eyes as he read the sentence which the editor appended to his letter: “N. B.--God does not always settle His accounts in October!”

(1699)

=Judgment Dependent on Position=--See _Point of View_.

JUDGMENT, FAULTY

When President Roosevelt was in Idaho, shortly after the publication of his book, “The Winning of the West,” he entered a book-store one day and saw a copy of his book lying on the counter. “Who is this author, Roosevelt?” he asked the proprietor. “Oh, he is a ranch-driver up in the cattle country,” was the answer. “Indeed,” said Mr. Roosevelt, “and what do you think of his book?” “Waal,” said the dealer, thoughtfully, “I’ve always had the idea that I’d like to meet that author and tell him that if he’d stuck to running ranches, and not tried to write books, he’d cut a heap bigger figure at his trade, and been a bigger man.”

The ranchman’s judgment was doubtless defective, but it is often well to see ourselves as others see us.

(1700)

JUDGMENT, GRADUAL

Gibbon wrote and we speak of the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” and Maspero has written a magnificent volume on “The Passing of the Ancient Empires.” Gradual degeneracy is the cause and precursor of final collapse.

After a violent gale one night a great tree was found lying across the pathway in the park where through long years it had been developing a noble growth. Nothing but a splintered stump remained standing. Examination showed there had been another development besides that of its stately beauty. For it was rotten to the core, because of the secret workings of a multitude of little insects which for generations had lived and multiplied. Judgment was not passed on that tree by the sudden gale, but went forth from the very moment that the first insect nested within its bark.

(1701)

JUDGMENT, LACK OF

“I will never forget my first experience in the hospital work,” said Chief Surgeon Millar, of the Central Emergency Hospital, San Francisco. “There was a green nurse in the detention ward and we had a very violent case in there--a man in the worst stage of delirium tremens. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the head nurse, who requested me to come at once to the patient. When I got there I found him raving and very violent, with the new nurse scared out of her wits. I said:

“‘Why did you let him go so far? I left you some medicine to give him as soon as he got delirious.’

“‘Yes, doctor,’ she replied; ‘but you told me to give that to him if he saw any more snakes, and this time he was seeing blue dogs with pink tails.’”--San Francisco _Call_.

(1702)

JUDGMENTS, INDISCRIMINATE

It is to be feared that many verdicts against our fellow men are as indiscriminate as that of the juryman in the following extract:

A lawyer once asked a man who had at various times sat on several juries, “Who influenced you most--the lawyers, the witnesses, or the judge?” He expected to get some useful and interesting information from so experienced a juryman.

This was the man’s reply: “I tell yer, sir, ’ow I makes up my mind. I’m a plain man, and a reasonin’ man, and I ain’t influenced by anything the lawyers say, nor by what the witnesses say--no, nor by what the judge says. I just looks at the man in the dock, and I says, ‘If he ain’t done nothing, why’s he there?’ And I brings ’em all in guilty.”

(1703)

JUNK

The Rev. William Barnes Lower writes this telling illustration:

The dredging-machines at work deepening the channel of the Delaware River are bringing to the surface all kinds of junk and implements lost or thrown overboard from ships. All kinds of tools, brass and copper are being found and sold as junk.

Every life carries with it, some more, some less, a lot of worthless junk--old superstitions from which it is hard to break away, old prejudices that have hindered the progress of the soul and should have been thrown overboard long ago. Superstition is the greatest burden in the world. The imaginary, scarecrow superstitions of many homes is the worthless junk, that is a dead weight to its spiritual and intellectual progress. Superstition is the disturber of many homes. Very often superstition parades itself under the guise of religion. Superstition is the one swing of the pendulum, skepticism believes nothing. Prejudice always arises through inexperience of the world and ignorance of mankind. In any life it is as worthless as old junk.

(1704)

=Just Punishment=--See _Boys Adjusting Their Troubles_.

JUSTICE

Over on the further side, in the shallow eddy, the pool was troubled a second, then there rose from it a wee sunfish, not more than three inches long, rose from it tail first and began balancing across the pool surface toward me, on his head. His tail quivered in the air, and I could see his freckles growing in the yellow transparency of his skin; yet, tho I watched with wide eyes, he was two-thirds the way across the pool toward me before I noticed beneath him the tip of the nose and the wicked little dark eye of a water-snake. At sight of him the demoiselles should have shrieked and flown away, but they made no move. I, however, indignant, arose, and seizing broken fragments of rock was about to lacerate him, and lose his prey, when I quite suddenly thought better of it. Had not I a few days before come down stream to the deep pool above and carried off a string of perch, sunfish, pouts, and an eel? Had not the water-snake also a right to his dinner?--WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild Pastures.”

(1705)

* * * * *

Some of the early settlers of this country bargained with the Indians that for each fish-hook given, they were to give as much land as a bullock’s hide would cover. But the settlers cut the hide into thin strips, and made it cover a large area. William Penn, when he first came to Pennsylvania, bargained with the Indians that he would give a certain number of articles for as much land as a man could walk around in a certain time. The man covered so much more ground than the Indians believed he would, that they became dissatisfied and threatening. But Penn said to them, “You agreed to this way of measuring.” His companions wished to force the carrying out of this agreement, but Penn replied that that would be wrong toward these simple children of the prairie; he asked them what they thought would be right, and they simply demanded a few more rolls of cloth, to which Penn agreed. Not only was war averted, but the Indians were pleased with the fair and just spirit shown by the strangers, and became their friends.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1706)

* * * * *

The story is told of a boy whose mother gave him some food to feed the chickens and little ducks. While feeding them he noticed that the ducks were scooping in nearly all the food. He saw that their large bills gave them a decided advantage and this he did not like. It did not exactly square with his notion of justice, so he got hold of a knife with a good edge to it, and just as fast as he could catch the ducklings he cut down their bills to match the size of that of the chicks.

(1707)

JUSTICE BY MAJORITY

Mr. Justice Perrot was a servile political judge, whose power of discrimination was well measured by the celebrated way in which he summed up to the jury in a case of a disputed watercourse, at Exeter Assizes. He concluded thus: “Gentlemen, there are fifteen witnesses who swear that the watercourse used to flow in a ditch on the north side of the hedge. On the other hand, gentlemen, there are nine witnesses who swear that the watercourse used to flow on the south side of the hedge. Now, gentlemen, if you subtract nine from fifteen, there remain six witnesses wholly uncontradicted, and I recommend you to give your verdict accordingly, for the party who called those six witnesses.”--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1708)

JUSTICE DELAYED

A case that has been on Chicago court dockets for almost twenty years was brought to light, and an effort made to hasten the progress of the wheels of justice in its disposal. The case is a damage suit of the survivors of victims of the _Tioga_ steamer explosion July 11, 1890. Since it was started the original lawyers on both sides have died. The _Tioga_ was moored in the Chicago River, between Washington and Randolph streets, when the explosion occurred, resulting in an estimate of thirty deaths.

The suit was filed in the Circuit Court, but was transferred to the United States District Court. Technical pleas and hearing of evidence before a master in chancery have consumed the years of litigation.

(1709)

* * * * *

As I passed down through India I saw two little rice-fields side by side. One was green and growing; the other was dead and dry. I looked for the cause. The great lake was full of water. There was no lack there. Into the one the living water was flowing, for the channel was open. The other was choked. Brother, is your life green and growing, fruitful and joyful, or barren and dry because the channel is choked?--G. S. EDDY, “Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,” 1910.

(1710)

JUSTICE, ETERNAL

Nations change their names, their boundaries, their creeds and their languages. The altars of yesterday are but the curios of to-day. The temples that have been raised to the worships that have now disappeared from the face of the earth but move our wonder that beliefs so simple and so transparent should have nerved the minds of men to raise such marvels of architecture. But tho creeds and dynasties and languages are ephemeral, the principles of justice are eternal; and this Government, founded and built upon them, will, I believe, last to the end of time.--WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN.

(1711)

JUVENILE COURT EXPERIENCE

Judge Ben Lindsey, who has been made famous by his remarkable work in the Juvenile Court of Denver, tells the following in _The Survey_:

A heart-broken mother whose child was becoming dependent can tell her own story: “My husband, judge, is a good man; he was steady at his employment as structural ironworker until recently. Now he is neglecting his home and his work. As soon as he quits work he goes down to the gambling-house and there he is being ruined. He used to go to mass with me on Sunday, and he was so good and loving to us all. Now he is indifferent, gloomy and melancholy. I am without clothes and the children have no shoes. He has gambled away two hundred dollars of the money that belongs to his union, for he was highly respected and elected its treasurer. I gave him fifty dollars to pay the chattel mortgage on our furniture, and I did not know that he had gambled it away until the chattel-mortgage man came and threatened to take the stove and furniture out of the house. I went to police headquarters and they were rude and insulting to me. But one of the officers came up to me and whispered confidentially to me that if I would go to the Juvenile Court they might help me out of my troubles.”

Of course the “big business” men who commercialize political

## parties had little concern about their part in the ruin of that

home and in the dependency and delinquency of that child. I sent for their political partner, the gambler who conducted the hell that was burning up that home. He admitted it all. I told him I would make a noise if he did not pay back that money to the poor mother. He paid it back. It would have been useless to talk about arrest and prosecution, for the public officials of that period would do neither.

(1712)

K

KEENNESS

The poets have celebrated the perfection of the Oriental steel; and it is recognized as the finest by Moore, Byron, Scott, Southey and many others. I have even heard a young advocate of the lost arts find an argument in Byron’s “Sennacherib,” from the fact that the mail of the warriors in that one short night had rusted before the trembling Jews stole out in the morning to behold the terrible work of the Lord. Scott, in his “Tales of the Crusaders,”--for Sir Walter was curious in his love of the lost arts--describes a meeting between Richard Coeur de Lion and Saladin. Saladin asks Richard to show him the wonderful strength for which he is famous, and the Norman monarch responds by severing a bar of iron which lies on the floor of his tent. Saladin says, “I can not do that”; but he takes an eider-down pillow from the sofa, and, drawing his keen blade across it, it falls in two pieces. Richard says, “This is the black art; it is magic; it is the devil; you can not cut that which has no resistance”; and Saladin, to show him that such is not the case, takes a scarf from his shoulders, which is so light that it almost floats in the air, and, tossing it up, severs it before it can descend. George Thompson told me he saw a man in Calcutta throw a handful of floss-silk into the air, and a Hindu sever it into pieces with his saber.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

(1713)

=Keenness from Use=--See PRACTISE.

KEY-NOTE OF LIFE

In tuning a piano the artist strikes his tuning-fork on a hard surface and holds it to his ear while at the same time he strikes the A key on the keyboard. Then he tightens or loosens the string until the key and the fork correspond. From this he proceeds to harmonize all the other keys.

For the harmony of human life we have One who furnishes the keynote. When we tune our life up to His all its chords become consonant.

(1714)

KEYS, FALSE

The notion that alcohol may do good because, for a moment, it seems to do good, was well answered by a physician’s response to a man who was somewhat too much given to the pleasures of the table. This man had said to the doctor:

“What do you think of the influence of alcohol on the digestion, doctor?”

“I think that its influence is bad,” said the physician.

“But a little whisky taken just before a meal is the only key that will open my appetite, doctor.”

“I don’t believe in opening things with false keys, sir!” answered the other.

Nor is alcohol the only false key in common use. Pretension, misrepresentation, any means not adapted to the desired end--all are false keys and must fail.

(1715)

=Kind Looks=--See _Face, An Inviting_.

KIND WORDS, VALUE OF

The influence exercised by kind words from certain people can not be measured. I have in mind a retiring, modest man, singular in aspect and manner, who every Sunday visited the house of a friend where the head of the family, a superior man of great position, always bade him “Good-evening,” and kindly asked after his health. His simple words were so valued by this lonely man that when his friend died and he could no longer receive his kindly greeting, he left his employment and the city, dying in his turn of sorrow, in some obscure and unknown place where he had sought refuge.--DORA MELEGARI, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

(1716)

KINDLINESS, SENSE OF

Few people possess the kindly sense of the French abbe mentioned in the memoirs of Madame Vig’ee de Brun, the celebrated portrait-painter of the last century. This gentleman was, unfortunately, extremely deformed, and, playing at cards with him, Madame de Brun was so struck by his strange figure that she inadvertently hummed a few bars of a tune called “The Hunchback.” Immediately recollecting herself, she stopt in confusion, whereupon the abbe turned to her with a kindly smile, “My dear madame, continue your tune. I assure you it does not offend me in the least; the association is so natural a one, that I believe it would have occurred to me in your place.”--London _Evening Standard_.

(1717)

KINDNESS

Several passengers on a hot day in June entered the train on the Columbia and Augusta Railroad. Among them were several young college boys who were on the way home from their summer vacation. They were stylish, well-drest lads, and were gay and happy, as boys usually are who have put books aside.

A party of merry girls already occupied the car, and in a little time the train seemed flooded with youth and sunshine. A very lean woman, with an ample lunch-basket, divided her time between eating chicken and boiled eggs and fanning vigorously with a turkey-tail fan, while a stout man in the corner mopped his face with a red bandanna, and remarked, by way of emphasis, “Hot, very hot!”

The girls and boys took in every incident, laughing and tittering all the while. Just across the aisle, opposite the boy, sat a woman holding a baby. A pale, tired, despairing look was on her face, and her eyes were full of suffering. The little one was fretful and cried piteously, but the young mother was too exhausted to try to quiet the baby.

“Oh, just listen to that young one. I think crying babies ought to be put out of the cars,” one of the girls said pertly.

“Yes, my head begins to ache,” said another, while the boys laughed; and the louder the child cried, the more merriment it caused among the young people; while the lean woman and the fat man scowled and complained.

“I do not see any cause for ridicule,” said Fred Weston, as he arose; and to the amazement of all the passengers, he crossed to where the woman sat, and with a courteous bow, extended his arms. “Please let me hold your baby a while,” he said; “I have a little sister just her age and she loves me dearly. You look so tired, ma’am.”

The child opened wide her big brown eyes and gazed into the handsome, bright face of the boy, as without hesitation she sprang forward into the outstretched arms. She ceased crying, and her lips puckered into a plaintive sob.

(1718)

* * * * *

A poor boy was taken from the poorhouse into the home of a farmer, a just man, who dealt justly by the boy; but, somehow, he never gave him any help, and the boy moped along hopelessly. One day a visitor came to that farmer, and as the orphan boy brought around his horse the visitor said a kind word that made the boy open his heart a little. “I see,” said the stranger, as he was mounting to go, “you have a pretty hard time; but keep a good heart and you will come out all right. I have noticed that a boy that has a great shock of red hair and a large nose and a freckled face, if he keeps a good heart, always comes out right.” It was the first kind word, but it made the boy and the man he grew to be, who told the story. The law can not put a man in the right way when he finds himself wrong, but sometimes a kind word can.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(1719)

* * * * *

Henry Clay was at one time considerably distrest by a large debt due to the bank. Some of his friends heard of it, and quietly raised the money and paid off the entire indebtedness, without notifying Mr. Clay. In utter ignorance of what had been going on, he went to the bank one day, and addressing the cashier, said, “I have called to see you in reference to that debt of mine to the bank.”

“You don’t owe us anything,” was the reply.

Mr. Clay looked inquiringly, and said: “You don’t understand me. I came to see you about that debt which I am owing the bank.”

“You don’t owe us anything.”

“Why! how am I to understand you?”

“A number of your friends have contributed and paid off that debt, and you do not owe this bank one dollar.”

Tears rushed to Mr. Clay’s eyes, and, unable to speak, he turned and walked out of the bank.

(1720)

* * * * *

In my journal of Friday evening, July 3, 1863, I made the following note, “At eight o’clock this morning hundreds of rebels were seen standing on their fortifications. Both armies laid down their arms. About noon I went with part of my company (H. 33d Wis.) near the enemy’s fort, which was hardly more than 200 yards from our line, and there the blue and the gray chatted pleasantly for a full hour. The meeting was so unrestrained and amicable as to make the scene exceedingly interesting and touching as well. My boys gave the contents of their haversacks to the rebels whom they had been fighting for nearly forty days and nights, and the defenders of the city deeply appreciated the kindness.”--NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(1721)

See FRIEND, A TRUE; PRESERVATION; TRAINING CHILDREN.

KINDNESS OF THE POOR

A touching story of how the poor help one another comes from one of the Claremont Crusaders. A man, destitute and homeless, had been found by him shivering on the Thames embankment. He gave him a ticket which would provide a night’s shelter at Medland Hall. An hour or two later the man ran up to the Crusader. “I have just done a job,” he said, “for which I earned sixpence. Take this ticket back. It will help some other chap.”

(1722)

=Kindness, Oil of=--See LUBRICATION, EFFECTIVE; SUNSHINE.

=Kindness Rewarded=--See RECOMPENSE FOR KINDNESS.

KINDNESS STIMULATING DEVOTION

In Mrs. Pickett’s memoirs of her husband, General George E. Pickett, of the Confederate Army, she relates this incident:

As my Soldier was riding toward Sailor’s Creek, a woman ran out of a house and handed him something to eat. He carried it in his hand as he rode on. Presently he came upon a soldier lying behind a log, and spoke to him. The man looked up, revealing a boyish face, scarcely more than a child’s--thin and pale.

“What’s the matter?” asked my Soldier.

“I’m starving, General,” the boy replied. “I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t keep up, so I just lay down here to die.”

“Take this,” handing the boy his luncheon; “and when you have eaten it and rested, go on back home. It would only waste another life for you to go on.”

The boy took the food eagerly, but replied: “No, Marse George. If I get strength enough to go at all, I’ll follow you to the last.”

He did, for he was killed a few days later at Sailor’s Creek.

(1723)

KINDNESS, THE POWER OF

“Provo Canyon” is one of those grandly picturesque mountain ravines which abound in Utah. In the solitude and sublimity of this cañon a mountaineer named W. W. Ferguson lived a hermit’s life. In the winter months his log-cabin was, in consequence of the deep snow, shut entirely out from intercourse with human beings. But he was not companionless, this mountain man--for he made friends with the wild animals and birds. He was their friend and they grew fond of him. They learned to recognize his voice, and not to be afraid at his approach. They would eat food from his hands, the pigeons and magpies flying from afar when he called them--the little squirrels playing about him like tame kittens.

A year ago a New York gentleman, on a pleasure trip, called at Mr. Ferguson’s cabin, and seeing the mountaineer with his bird and animal friends on such good terms, said:

“My friend, you have some power--some charm which these creatures obey. If you will tell me the secret I will give you a hundred dollars.”

The hermit, smiling, assured the traveler that the only secret was the kindness with which he always treated them. “They have learned,” he said, “that I am their friend, and I have never betrayed their friendship.”

(1724)

KINDNESS TO ANIMALS

In the woods near Walden Pond, Henry D. Thoreau built a house. It was a surprize to the raccoons and squirrels in the woods, But after a while the news went round that there was among them a man who would not do them any harm, and gradually they came closer and closer, and there grew to be a beautiful sympathy between him and the birds and animals. They would come at his call. On taking a squirrel from the tree, the little creature would refuse to leave him, and would hide in his pocket. A woodmouse, whose hole was under his house, would first run over his shoes, and at last became so tame that it would run up his sleeve, and round the table when he was at dinner. Such communion between man and beast has hardly been equaled.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1725)

KINDNESS VIOLATING TRUTH

I am convinced that many glaring crimes and endless cankers of the soul are due to lack of the trained will to face the full light of truth, and even more to perplexed thinking. An Irishman in my city, to help a stupid friend, very kindly passed the civil service examination for him, swearing falsely, of course, and forging his friend’s name. He was found out and sentenced, but the body of public opinion among his set excused and even commended him because his motives were kindly, and on being released from jail he was banqueted and re-elected to the Legislature. I think there was real confusion of thought in this case, and that this confusion will continue to disgrace our political life until we can bring the growing generation to see that kindness to an individual is not to be put ahead of truth or of loyalty to the laws of the nation.--ELLA LYMAN CABOT, “Proceedings of the National Education Association,” 1909.

(1726)

KING, HONORING A

Apropos of the King’s (Edward VII) visit to Biarritz, an incident is reported of a recent visit when his Majesty witnessed the arrival of cross-country competitors at Villa Machelon. Now, this villa belongs to a worthy and prosperous Biarritz butcher, who had been requested by the committee to place it at the King’s disposal. The butcher’s bosom friends held the view that it was absolutely indispensable that the master should do the honors of his villa to the King of England, his guest. So the butcher fetched out his Sunday suit, arranged his braces outside his knitted waistcoat which he invariably wears, stuck his hat over his ears, and, freely perspiring under the blazing sun, awaited his august visitor.

King Edward arrived and got down from his motor car. With fine scorn for the conventions, the butcher boldly walked up to his Majesty, tapped him on the shoulder and said in a drawling voice:

“Come in; don’t stop in the sun; go up to the salon.”

A friendly shove accompanied these words. The King grasped the situation at a glance, smiled and obeyed, leaving the butcher to chew proudly his penny havana on the doorstep. He had done the honors of his home, had seen and spoken to his guest, the King.

(1727)

=Kingdom of God Composite=--See MOSAIC OF THE KINGDOM.

=Kingdom of God Within=--See LOYALTY.

KING’S KINDNESS

During one of King Edward’s visits to Marienbad in Austria, this incident occurred:

A little girl of thirteen named Vera Caro, who has always had a great wish to see the King, was walking in the Kaiserstrasse, when she suddenly came face to face with his Majesty, who was seated on a bench. The little girl impulsively walked up to the King, and curtseying presented to him a few roses which she was carrying. The King took the flowers, shook hands with the child, and thanked her. His Majesty then requested Colonel Ponsonby to place the flowers in the carriage which was waiting near. The little girl, radiant with joy at the King’s kindness, rushed home to inform her parents of her good fortune.

(1728)

See LIKENESS OF GOD.

=Kingship of Christ=--See HOMAGE TO CHRIST.

KINSHIP

This poem has the ring of the right kind of sympathy. We do not know the author:

If you have a friend worth loving Love him, yes, and let him know That you love him, ere life’s evening Tinge his brow with sunset glow-- Why should good words ne’er be said, Of a friend, until he’s dead?

If you hear a song that thrills you, Sung by any child of song, Praise it. Do not let the singer Wait deserved praises long; Why should one who thrills your heart Lack the joy you may impart?

If you hear a prayer that moves you By its humble, pleading tone, Join in. Do not let the seeker Bow before his Lord alone; Why should not your brother share The strength of “two or three” in prayer?

If you see the hot tears falling From a brother’s weeping eyes, Share them, and by kindly sharing, Win your kinship with the skies. Why should any one be glad When his brother’s heart is sad?

If a silvery laugh goes rippling Through the sunshine on his face, Share it. ’Tis the wise man’s saying, For both grief and joy a place. There’s health and goodness in the mirth In which an honest laugh hath birth.

If your work is made more easy By a friendly helping hand, Say so. Speak out bravely, truly, Ere the darkness veil the land. Should a brother workman dear Falter for a word of cheer?

Scatter, then, your germs of kindness, All enriching as you go; Leave them. Trust the Harvest Giver, Who will make each germ to grow. So, until the happy end, Your life will never lack a friend.

(1729)

=Kissing in the East=--See HUSBAND AND WIFE, RELATIONS BETWEEN.

KNOWING AND DOING

The Rev. W. L. Watkinson says:

I read the other day in a paper that a Hindu will pass an examination in science; he understands sanitary laws perfectly, but some way or other he never seems to understand how to apply them. He will go complacently into his own dirty compound and break every sanitary law of which he is theoretically master. But you need not go to India to find a thing of that kind. You will find many men in this country who know the Lord’s will, but who never dream of doing it.

(1730)

KNOWING BETTER

“I did the best I knew!” protested the dressmaker’s apprentice sullenly, when she was sharply reprimanded for a piece of ill-judged work that ruined a valuable dress and vexed a valuable customer. “I don’t see what she’s blaming me for!”

“I’m not blaming you for doing the best you knew how!” said the employer, overhearing and turning on her crisply; “I’m blaming you for not knowing any better! You ought to--you’ve been here long enough. You mean well, but good intentions aren’t enough to carry on the dressmaking business.”

They are not enough in any business. It is an old proverb that good intentions pave a place of very disreputable character. “He meant well” is about the poorest thing one can say of a person, short of actual detraction; unless we except that other phrase of mild apology: “He did the best he knew how.” Whenever you hear either of these you know at once that it is a case of failure on somebody’s part to do the right thing at the right moment, and usually, if you look closely enough, there was fault behind the failure. To do the best we know how is not enough when we might know any better.--_Kind Words._

(1731)

KNOWLEDGE

Writing about Lincoln’s life in the Indiana wilderness Mr. James Morgan, in his life of Abraham Lincoln, says:

One day a wagon broke down in the road, and the wife and two daughters of the owner stayed at the Lincolns’ until it was repaired. “The woman had books,” as Abraham recalled in later life, “and read us stories. They were the first I ever heard.” There never had been a book or a newspaper in the house, and he never forgot the sight of those pages nor the woman who, by the chance of a breakdown on the road, opened to his mind the field of printed knowledge.

(1732)

=Knowledge, Ambition for=--See MOTHER LOVE.

=Knowledge a Necessity=--See DIRECTIONS.

KNOWLEDGE APPLIED

At least one Riverhead (L. I.) little boy, Everett Brown, aged about twelve years, son of Mr. and Mrs. Everett Brown, remembers to advantage some of the physiology he has studied at school.

Saturday afternoon he and Frank Terry, about his own age, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Terry, went into the woods to build a hut or something of that kind, and the ax that the Terry lad was wielding cut a bad gash in one of his feet.

It bled profusely and the Brown lad was afraid his chum would bleed to death, so he quickly got the shoe off of the foot and bound his handkerchief tightly, closing the wound and largely stopping the flow of blood until the wounded boy was gotten home, which was some distance away.

“I learned that in my physiology,” said the Brown boy when Mrs. Terry asked him how he thought of it.--Brooklyn _Eagle_.

(1733)

KNOWLEDGE BY INDIRECTION

One minister builded better than he knew, and one hearer learned more than was meant on the following occasion:

The preacher was showing that shade and light are both necessary in differing conditions. Said he: “Roses, heliotropes and geraniums need lots of sunshine, while fuchsias thrive best in the shade.” “Oh, doctor,” said a good woman at the close, “I’m so grateful to you for your sermon this morning. I never knew before what was the matter with my fuchsias.”

(1734)

KNOWLEDGE, COMPARATIVE

A missionary’s son, born on the field, was making his first visit to his parents’ home in a small Ohio town. One day a neighbor burst into the yard with the great news. “The circus is coming!”

“What’s a circus?” innocently inquired the young Korea-American.

“A circus! Don’t you know what a circus is? Haven’t you ever seen a circus?” And scorn passing words filled the Ohio lad’s voice, as he eyed in boundless contempt this queer visitor.

The boy from Korea was stung to the quick, and he retorted: “Well, what of that? Did you ever see the Pacific Ocean? Were you ever on a warship? Did you ever see Hongkong? Did you ever see the diving boys at Colombo? Were you ever in India? Did you ever see the pyramids? What do you know about London?”

Vengeance was complete. The devotee of the circus was silenced. Before these bigger wonders his traveling tent show grew very small indeed. Similarly, the man who follows the trail of the missionary may lose his intimate contact with some of the inconsequentialities of the day’s newspaper, but he will have big and abiding compensations.--WILLIAM T. ELLIS, “Men and Missions.”

(1735)

=Knowledge in Action=--See TEACHER, THE IDEAL AT WORK.

KNOWLEDGE, LIVING

Some one asked Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, why he continued to study for his pupils “as tho he should not have enough to give them.” “It is not,” was his reply, “because I fear I should not have enough to give them, but because I prefer that they should be supplied from a running stream rather than from a stagnant pool.”

“Stagnant pools” have been the ruin of many men in many walks of life.

(1736)

KNOWLEDGE, THIRST FOR

Thurlow Weed was so poor in boyhood that on a cold March day he had to wrap pieces of cloth about his bare feet in place of socks and shoes. Thus shod, he walked several miles in the wintry cold to borrow a history of the Reformation.

(1737)

* * * * *

William Elbert Munsey was born upon a Virginia mountain farm, which was so poor that a disturbance could not be raised upon it, much less the articles of food which produce a thrifty physical manhood. After toiling in the field all day, he would carry wood upon his tired, youthful back for a mile, that his widowed mother and five brothers and sisters might have warmth from the evening fire; he went to school only twelve months in his life, but he ate the heart out of every book that came within his reach; while plowing he would keep his book at the end of the furrow, and when he had plowed a “round,” he would talk with his tongueless companion for a few moments, “and then push on between the plow handles,” the great thoughts ringing in his soul like the tolling of a cathedral bell.

Well, what kind of a man did he make? Let one who heard him deliver his famous lecture on “Man” answer the question: “The vast amount of scientific knowledge he had stored his mind with was truly amazing.

He spoke as if he had been a professor in every branch of science for a lifetime. Every technical term was at his tongue’s end. Man was presented in spirit, soul and body as the most wonderful trichotomy of the universe; was analyzed, synthetized, exalted and glorified as the last and grandest work of God. He soared amid clouds and lightning and thunder and tempests; he was as familiar with anatomy as if he had been a Sir Charles Bell; with mental phenomena, as if he had been a John Locke; with mythology, as if he had been born a Greek and had lived in Greece a thousand years.” At the conclusion of his sermons, congregations have been so “bewildered as to rise up in an unconscious way, facing each other, and not knowing for some moments whether to remain or leave the room.” But how old was this wonderful man when he died? Just a little over forty years of age. Like David Livingstone in the African hut, William Elbert Munsey was found dead upon his knees by the side of his bed.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1738)

KNOWLEDGE THROUGH EXPERIENCE

A news item from Denver, Colorado, says:

Determined to learn at first hand where and how the homeless and shivering men live who slept on the street, E. A. Brown, cousin of President W. C. Brown, of the New York Central, and himself independently rich, has been haunting the railroad and stock-yards and the slums of Denver for weeks. Drest in shabby and threadbare clothes, he has mingled with the unemployed and shared their experiences. He will use this experience to aid in securing the establishment of a municipal lodging-house, which will shelter the homeless during the winter months.

This is the scientific method of the social student to-day. It was first, however, the method of Christ. “He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Text.)

(1739)

KNOWLEDGE, UNITY OF

The man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every carpenter carries about in his breeches pocket, tho ignorant of all other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its ultimate results, to have a truer, and, therefore, a better, conception of this wonderful universe, and of man’s relation to it, than the most learned student who is deep-read in the records of humanity and ignorant of those of nature. (Text.)--THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY.

(1740)

KNOWLEDGE VALUES

All wealth is intelligence applied to raw material. The piece of paper cost half a farthing, but Tennyson’s poem written thereupon made it worth a thousand dollars. Just as a little canvas, worth two or three francs, took on a value of $200,000 when Millet mixed the colors with his genius and spread them over the waiting cloth. Civilization is a height on which man climbs hand over hand up the golden rounds of wisdom and knowledge.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1741)

KONGO PIONEER MISSIONARY WORK

Up the Kongo we went. One day Mr. Lapsley, my comrade, was sick with fever. As we attempted to land, we saw women catching up their babies and running to the jungle and men getting arrows to shoot. I stood over Mr. Lapsley and called, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” and asked them if we could sleep there for the night. “To-morrow we go away,” I said. “No. Go away; go away,” they cried. So we started for the other side and landed on the sandy bank. We got out the tent and had Mr. Lapsley carefully moved into his bed. Walking up and down the river bank we could hear the excitement on the other side. At twelve o’clock at night it still was going on. At two in the morning, those people had not retired; nor had I. So we said, “In the morning something will happen.” Coming outside early, as we looked across the river we saw one of their war canoes filled with men starting up-stream, and then another. I ran to the tent and said to Mr. Lapsley, “Those people are coming; what shall I do?” He was there sick with fever, with no chance of running away. He said, “There is nothing that we can do.” He meant by this that the Master could do something. I came outside. They had started in our direction. I could hear their war-whoop. Just at this extremity a hippopotamus came. We shot him. Then the thought came, why not offer them this meat? They were crazy for meat. I waded in the water to my waist and beckoned to them, calling out: “Come this way, all of you. Don’t be afraid.” The nearest canoe approached me as I was wading in the water, and I surprized the first man by saying, “Leave your spear.” The next canoe load that followed I turned the hippopotamus over to, and then they began with their long knives to cut it up and fight over it. I went into the tent and told Mr. Lapsley that we were saved. It was no surprize to that servant of God. He was so near to the Master always that he believed He would save us.--WILLIAM SHEPPARD, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1742)

KOREA, WORK AMONG WOMEN IN

As I was going along a country road one day, I saw a woman going along with a hoe, and behind her was a man with a burden on his back; and this burden, as we drew closer, we saw to be the form of a baby. It was wrapt up according to the custom. They climbed the hill and put the burden on the ground, and the mother threw herself upon the dead form of the child and cried out her broken heart, while the father began to dig the grave. We tried to comfort her the best we could, but her grief seemed too deep, and she did not understand that Christ was the only one who could comfort her. The following Sunday I saw in our meeting one of our women who had been a Christian only about six months, a woman who had been told by her neighbors that if she became a Christian a very dangerous spirit would haunt her and bring calamity to her. She did not falter, but by and by her only child, a little girl, whom she dearly loved, was taken from her. This Sunday, as she stood with the tears streaming down her face, she told how the beautiful little girl had died, but that she did not grieve so much, because, as she said, “I am going to meet her there with Jesus.” I could not but think of that other woman whom I saw heart-broken on the mountain-side just a few days before.--LULU E. FREY, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1743)

See DAUGHTER’S ESTIMATED.

=Korean, The, as a Giver=--See GENEROSITY.

L

LABELS, MISLEADING

Not long ago this country woke up to the fact that with a good deal of our canned food we were not getting just what the colored label on the outside of the can led us to suppose. It was a shocking disillusionment to find that the label showed luscious peach jelly, when the inside of the can contained only some nicely prepared and flavored gelatine, quite innocent of any relation to peaches. The country at once had indigestion, and passed laws to keep the peaches and the labels in the neighborhood of the same can.

The labels on persons are also misleading, because one can see the label but not always the real person. The titles and degrees are supposed to be descriptive of the owner’s brains, and sometimes they are; but they are not always accurate, and they never make brains. A university might confer a B.A. or an LL.D. on a lineal descendant of Balaam’s beast of burden, and yet it would not make him wise.--JAMES M. STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

(1744)

See ENVY GRATIFIED; NEW, THE.

LABOR

This song of labor is by Caroline A. Lord:

They are working, beneath the sun, In its red-hot, blinding glare, In the dust from the toiling teams, In the noise of the thoroughfare See them swing and bend, far down to the end With the rhythm of the strokes they bear.

The cords of the sinewy arms Stand out like the cable’s twist; No blow shall miss and no stroke shall fail From the grasp of the brawny fist, As the shoulder swings when the pickax rings And the hand springs firm from the wrist.

Let the feet of the dainty shod Pass by on the other side, Where the youth of the slender back and limb Stands watching--the listless-eyed; While with sweat and with pain and the long day’s strain These toil--and are satisfied.

(1745)

=Labor, A Hero of=--See ENERGY INDOMITABLE.

LABOR, AVOIDING

“I like to sew where there is no thread in the machine, it runs so easily,” said a little girl.

A good many people, I think, are pretty fond of running their machines without thread.

When I hear a boy talking very largely of the grand things he would do if he only could and if things and circumstances were only different, and then neglecting every daily duty and avoiding work and lessons, I think he is running his machine without any thread.

When I see a girl very sweet and pleasant abroad, ready to do anything for a stranger, and cross and disagreeable in her home, she, too, is running her machine without any thread.

Ah, this sewing without thread is very easy indeed, and the life machine will make a great buzzing! But labor, time, and force will in the end be far worse than lost.--_The Friend._

(1746)

LABOR BY PATIENTS

Patient labor at the Elgin State Hospital (Illinois) has become one of the most striking features in any of the seventeen charitable institutions of Illinois.

Fiscal Supervisor Whipp, of the State Board of Administration, has just returned from Elgin, where he has been investigating the construction of buildings of cement blocks veneered with granite.

Patients have already built a cold storage room and bath-house, and now are at work on a cottage for the acute insane. They make the veneered blocks in the basement of the institution in winter. The process itself is comparatively new. It has been employed no more than a year at Elgin, but has worked out with remarkable success--Boston _Journal_.

(1747)

LABOR FOR THE COMMUNITY

The worker bee is never found loafing while the sun is shining. Their work is wholly for the hive; for the community that is, and they not infrequently work themselves to death gathering and carrying pollen, with which they load themselves down heavily.

The work of the truly unselfish life is a willingness to work, and even if need be, to die for the good of mankind.

(1748)

LABOR IN VAIN

The Pyramids of Egypt are among the seven wonders of the world. Cheops, said to be the largest of them all, covers an area of over thirteen acres, is larger than Madison Square, New York, and twice the height of Trinity Church spire. It contains enough material to build a city as large as Washington, including all its public buildings. Four hundred thousand men were employed twenty years to build it. The purpose of its erection was that it might be the tomb of kings.

How much better would have been the result if all this labor had been spent to serve those who were alive and the then future generations.

(1749)

LABOR, OPPORTUNITY FOR

The verses below carrying a helpful lesson, are by Ellen M. H. Gates:

If you can not on the ocean Sail among the swiftest fleet, Rocking on the highest billows, Laughing at the storms you meet You can stand among the sailors, Anchored yet within the bay; You can lend a hand to help them, As they launch their boats away.

If you are too weak to journey Up the mountain, steep and high, You can stand within the valley, While the multitudes go by; You can chant in happy measure, As they slowly pass along; Tho they may forget the singer, They will not forget the song.

* * * * *

Do not, then, stand idly waiting For some greater work to do; Fortune is a lazy goddess-- She will never come to you. Go and toil in any vineyard, Do not fear to do or dare; If you want a field of labor, You can find it anywhere. (Text.)

(1750)

LABOR-SAVING DEVICES

I have heard old men say that the mere easy use of friction-matches saves every day for each active man and woman ten minutes of life. I think that is true. You are not old enough to remember the adventures of the boy called out of his bed in the morning to go and fetch a pan of coals from the next neighbor’s. The lad tumbles into his clothes, plows through the snow, finds that Mrs. Smith’s luck has been better than his mother’s, and the careful ashes of her hearth have preserved the vestal fire. A glowing brand is given him in his warming-pan, and he returns in triumph home. The alternative would have been to strike flint against steel, not to say against knuckles, till a reluctant spark fell on tinder equally reluctant, till this was fanned by careful breath till it would light a match which would light a candle. The journey to Mrs. Smith’s was, on the whole, light in comparison. Does one trivial invention save twenty minutes a day in each household, ten minutes to a man, ten minutes to a woman? That is a saving for this nation of more than twice the amount of work which Cheops put upon his pyramid, and so much addition to the real resources of the world is made by that one invention.--EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

(1751)

See PRECAUTION.

=Lad with Ready Answer=--See EARLY RELIGION.

=Lamb, The, Slain=--See CHRIST THE LAMB.

LANGUAGE, FORMATION OF

For three centuries after the battle of Hastings French was the language of the upper classes, of courts and schools and literature; yet so tenaciously did the common people cling to their own strong speech that in the end English absorbed almost the whole body of French words and became the language of the land. It was the welding of Saxon and French into one speech that produced the wealth of our modern English.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(1752)

=Large-heartedness=--See FRIEND, THE ORPHAN’S.

=Larger, The, Extinguishing the Smaller=--See SUNLIGHT AND STARLIGHT.

LAST RESORT OF A WOMAN

“I am not Mrs. Nation; I have no hatchet; I am not crazy.”

These words came from the lips of a Lewis woman, as she met her husband face to face in a hotel barroom the other evening, says the Lewis _Pilot_. They were directed to the bartender and the loungers, as the former handed the woman’s husband a glass of whisky.

She continued: “That man has not done a day’s work this winter, and I am worn out trying to support him and the rest of the family. I want to know if something can not be done to keep him from destroying his own life and starving his family?”

The woman was thin and pale. Her lips quivered as she spoke. Her frail body could hardly stand the strain of the unfamiliar environment. As she finished the little girl by her side burst into tears, the bartender took back the whisky, the abashed husband stood with bowed head, one by one the loungers left the room. Presently the bartender, gazing at the poor woman, solemnly vowed that the man should not drink at his bar again.

It was a pathetic scene; it was the last resort of a desperate woman. As she left the hotel with her husband and the little girl there was a lesson too painful for any pen to picture.

(1753)

=Last Words=--See DEATH COMPELLING SINCERITY.

LATENT POSSIBILITIES

Beauty of character may be evolved out of the most unpromising material which only seems fit to be flung forth and burned. If a child cries we should try to make it laugh; if we meet melancholy folk, we should seek to cheer them; if they have to live in contact with evil tempers, we must endeavor to sweeten them.

At certain seasons of the year some great conservatories are full of ugly plants, with terrible spines sticking out of great, fat, succulent, selfish-looking leaves. These plants are cacti. They wear only a frightful and repellent aspect. Yet they are favorites of the horticulturist. He waters them and nurtures them. And suddenly the whole place is ablaze with their unspeakable loveliness. They have burst into glorious efflorescence, and spectators come to look on them with joy and wonder. Many of them bloom, especially in the night.

(1754)

See POSSIBILITIES, LATENT.

LATIN AMERICA AND THE GOSPEL

There are inhabitants of three hundred towns in the Philippine Islands to-day who are stretching out their hands to America for Christian missionaries, and there is not a single person to go. Do they need us? I reply by telling you an incident. I sent a man named Nicholas Zamora, one of our preachers, out about four or five miles from the city. The man has a good voice; it is like a bell, and you can hear it four or five blocks. They were singing for about ten minutes, when a policeman came along and rushed the whole company off to jail. We have a saying in the Philippines that our converts do not have any backbone until they have been in jail about three times. They did not have any regular jail, using instead the lower floor in the policeman’s house. When they arrived there, Nicholas said: “Well, we are here; I guess we might as well do something”; and they began to sing the first verse of “Nearer, my God, to Thee.” The policeman came down-stairs and said that singing must cease, and went back up-stairs. Nicholas said, “I guess we might as well have the second verse,” and they began to sing it. The policeman came down again in high dudgeon and berated them most vigorously; and having cooled off, he went up-stairs again. Nicholas said, “We will now have the third verse.” The policeman came down again as they were starting in strongly on the third verse. This was too much for the policeman, who said in anger: “Get out of here, and go right back to America. I don’t propose to have any psalm-singing Methodists in my jail.”--J. L. MCLAUGHLIN, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(1755)

LAUGHING PLANT, A

Palgrave, in his work on Central and Eastern Arabia, mentions a plant whose seeds produce effects analogous to those of laughing-gas. The plant is a native of Arabia. A dwarf variety is found at Kasum, and another variety at Oman, which attains a height of from three to four feet, with woody stems, wide-spreading branches, and light green foliage. The flowers are produced in clusters and are yellow in color. The seed-pods contain two or three black seeds of the size and shape of a French bean. Their flavor is a little like that of opium, the taste is sweet, and the odor from them produces a sickening sensation and is slightly offensive. These seeds, when pulverized and taken in small doses, operate on a person in a very peculiar manner. He begins to laugh loudly and boisterously, and then sings, dances, and cuts up all kinds of fantastic capers. The effect continues about an hour, and the patient is extremely comical. When the excitement ceases, the exhausted individual falls into a deep sleep, which continues for an hour or more, and when he awakens, he is utterly unconscious that any such demonstrations have been made by him.--_Scientific American._

(1756)

LAUGHTER

Albert J. Beveridge, United States Senator from Indiana, believes that the direction of his career was completely changed by a careless laugh. A writer in _Success_ quotes him as saying:

When I was a youth in Illinois I heard that the Congressman from our district intended to hold an examination to determine what young man he should appoint to West Point. I pitched in and studied hard for that examination, and found it easy when I came to take it. Most of the other fellows seemed to be still struggling with it when I had finished, and I was so confident that I had made few mistakes that I was in a pretty cheerful frame of mind. This is why I laughed when one of the strugglers asked a rather foolish question of the professor in charge. The latter evidently felt that the dignity of the occasion had been trifled with, for he scored one per cent against me. When the papers came to be corrected this loss caused me to fall one-fifth of one per cent below the boy who stood highest on the list. He is a captain in the army now, where I suppose I should be had it not been for that laugh. I believe in the power of cheerfulness. Looking back, I am rather glad that I laughed. (Text.)

(1757)

LAUGHTER AS A VENT

It might be said of Lamb, as of Abraham Lincoln, “laughter was his vent”; if he had not laughed, he would have died of a frenzied brain or of a broken heart. With Lamb the maddest mood of frolic was a rebound from the blackest mood of melancholia; a fact which Carlyle, who did know Lamb’s history, might have remembered before he used the phrase “diluted insanity,” which, in view of that sad history, is nothing less than brutal.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”

(1758)

LAUGHTER, PERILS OF

There is certainly no harm in a good laugh, and truly it is not forbidden to a jester to speak the truth. Yet the laugh must have the right ring to it. Socrates laughed, and Voltaire laughed, as Thomas Erskine remarked; yet, as he said, what a difference in the laugh of the two! And the man who laughs all the time will not know what to do when the hour of weeping comes. The laughing philosopher is a very shallow philosopher or else a very shallow laugher. An awful gravity which comes from a man taking himself too seriously is a thing which irresistibly invites a tweaking of the nose; but a ridicule which beats and splashes on all sides and at all times, fixing its pasquinades nightly on the statues of our national heroes, smirking in the presence of names and thoughts that ought to be shrouded in sacred reverence, is one of the things that no right soul can abide.--_Christian Union._

(1759)

LAUGHTER, PROVOKING

The doctor who could not laugh and make me laugh I should put down for a half-educated man. It is one of the duties of the profession to hunt for the material of a joke on every corner. Most of them have so esteemed it. Garth, Rabelais, Abernethy, and a hundred or so more too near to be named, what genial, liver-shaking, heart-quickening, wit-waking worthies they were and are! To the son who loves her best, nature reveals most her tricks of workmanship. He knows there is a prize in every package of commonplace and sadness, and he can find it--not only the bit of fun shining to the eye of a connoisseur like an unset jewel, but the eccentricity, the resemblance, the revelation, countless signs and tokens of the evanescent, amusing, pathetic creature we call the human.--A. B. WARD, _Scribner’s_.

(1760)

LAUGHTER, VALUE OF

To what a dreary, dismal complexion should we all come at last, were all fun and cachinnation expunged from our solemn and scientific planet! Care would soon overwhelm us; the heart would corrode; the river of life would be like the lake of the dismal swamp; we should begin our career with a sigh, and end it with a groan; while cadaverous faces and words to the tune of “The Dead March in Saul,” would make up the whole interlude of our existence. Hume, the historian, in examining a French manuscript containing accounts of some private disbursements of King Edward II of England, found, among others, one item of a crown paid to somebody for making the king laugh. Could one conceive of a wiser investment? Perhaps by paying one crown Edward saved another. “The most utterly lost of all days,” says Chamfort, “is that on which you have not once laughed.” Even that grimmest and most saturnine of men, who, tho he made others roar with merriment, was never known to smile, and who died “in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole”--Dean Swift--has called laughter “the most innocent of all diuretics.” (Text.)--WILLIAM MATTHEWS, _Home Magazine_.

(1761)

LAW AND GRACE

One of the notable figures in the history of the American Navy is that of Admiral Porter. Wise in counsel and daring in execution, he has left his impression very deep upon its development and traditions. At one time he was in command of the Naval Academy at Annapolis when the following incident occurred:

General Grant was on a visit to the Academy. As he stood watching the evolutions of the midshipmen, the general had his ever-present cigar in his mouth. The marine on duty walked up to the general and said, “General, I beg pardon, but it is against the rules to smoke in the academy.” “All right,” replied the general, and, with soldierly promptness, he proceeded to take the cigar from his mouth. At that instant Admiral Porter stept forward and said, “I abrogate that rule.” (Text.)

(1762)

LAW AND LOVE

A boisterous New-year’s eve reveler, by the name of Downey, was arrested on a Third Avenue elevated train in New York City:

After listening to the testimony Magistrate Cornell decided that Downey’s New-year’s enthusiasm had been excessive, and that he must pay ten dollars to the city treasury. Downey had used all his available cash in celebrating, and he was about to be led to the court prison, when his wife, who had been tearfully listening to the evidence, fell in a faint. She was lifted up by Callahan, the policeman who arrested her husband, and who revived her and then inquired if she had any money with which to pay the fine.

“Not a penny,” she replied, “and poor Jack will have to go to jail. He’s such a good husband, too,” and the little woman wept.

“I won’t let him go to jail,” said Callahan, and he drew a ten-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to the clerk. Thereupon the Downeys fell on his neck and wept for joy.

(1763)

* * * * *

Love is, in the spiritual world, what the powers of attraction, resulting in beautiful harmonies of combination and interrelation are seen to be in the physical. But the subject of the law which claims love from moral beings must freely accept its beneficent rule; while the crystal can not choose another finish for its angles, or the star select for itself a rule which will square it instead of rounding it.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1764)

LAW ENFORCED

Violating a petty township ordinance on a hunting expedition on Long Island, his friends were indignant when Garibaldi was hauled before a local magistrate, as described in a recent number of the _Century_. To the protests and condolences, the patriot replied: “No, friends, these officers of the law have done nothing more than their duty and I deserve the correction. The Americans make and enforce the laws proper to the regulating of their own communities, just as we hope some day to do with ours in Italy.”

(1765)

LAW FOR THE TRANSGRESSOR

In certain places we see regulations like these placarded: “No smoking allowed,” “No betting allowed,” “No swearing allowed”; and we perceive at once the kind of place we are in, and the kind of people who usually frequent them--that is sufficiently clear from the prohibitory legislation. We never think of putting up such regulations in a temple. So the commandments of Moses assume this to be a sinful world; they are addrest to sinners; there is in them the idiom of impeachment and condemnation.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1766)

=Law, Help=--See PROHIBITION AS A BENEFACTOR.

=Law, Impartial Enforcement of=--See IMPARTIALITY.

=Law in Earlier Times=--See PUNISHMENT, FORMER SEVERITY OF.

=Law, Invariable=--See GRAVITATION, LAW OF.

LAW, MORAL

We teach children that two and two are four, but not that it is wrong to tell lies as a bookkeeper. We teach them that fire burns, in science, but in morals we do not tell them that the boy who tries to satisfy his hunger for pleasure with sin, is one who eats red-hot coals when he is hungry. We tell the girl that hot water scalds, but we do not tell her that there are passions and pleasures through selfishness that blight the soul, and do not satisfy, just as scalding water and boiling oil, and carbolic acid will not satisfy thirst.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1767)

=Law More Than the Individual=--See IMPARTIALITY.

LAW, NATURAL

The laws of matter are simply the mode in which matter in virtue of its constitution acts. Oxygen unites chemically with hydrogen, in certain proportions, under certain conditions, simply because of the qualities or attributes wherewith these two gases are invested. It is not the law which determines the combination, but the qualities which determine the law. These elements act as they act, simply because they are what they are.

(1768)

LAW, OBEDIENCE TO

The world has no place in it for a lawless man. What we call liberty is really a form of obedience to law, and whatever you may achieve later in life will represent the discovery of law and the instant acceptance thereof. The Indian obeys one law--and can therefore swim the river. Obeying the law of fire, he achieves a canoe, hollowed out with the flame. Obeying the law of the wind, nature fills his sail, and releases him from bondage to the oar; obeying the law of steam, nature gives the man a ship. Obeying the law of electricity, his car doubles its speed. Obeying the law of the air, the man spreads his wings like a bird.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1769)

=Law Prohibiting Evil=--See COCAINE RESTRICTIONS.

LAW, SEVERITY OF ANCIENT

On February 9, 1810, Romilly, the great reformer, obtained leave to bring in three bills to repeal the acts which punish with death the crimes of stealing privately in a shop goods of the value of five shillings, and of stealing to the amount of forty shillings in dwelling-houses or on board vessels of navigable rivers. In May that relating to shops was passed, the two others were opposed by the Government. But on May 30 the former bill was rejected by the House of Lords by a majority of 31 to 11. There were no less than seven bishops who voted for the old cruel law. These learned Christian gentlemen devoutly believed that transportation for life was not a sufficiently severe punishment for the offense of pilfering what is of five shillings’ value (dollar and a quarter).--EDWARD GILLIAT, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

(1770)

=Lawless Business Men=--See MISERY AN EDUCATOR.

LAWLESSNESS

We see in the following incident how men who break law forfeit the right to secure the protection of the law:

A man in the preventive service on the south coast told this history to Mrs. Norton, the authoress. He said he had once been a smuggler. Desiring to reform he went to his smuggling companions and demanded his share (one-third) of the boat, as he wanted to leave the partnership. They refused, and laughed at his demand; tho he offered to refer the claim to an arbitrator, they only laughed the more. This exasperated him; so he went out one night and sawed off a third of the boat. This did him no good, but the expense to his companions would be more than his share if they had peaceably given it to him. Mrs. Norton made some comments on this method of redress, to which the man rejoined: “Yes, marm, but you see they darn’t nor I darn’t complain at law, ’cos it was a smuggling craft; and that’s how it would always be, if there was no law, a man wud try and right hisself, and if he couldn’t, he’d revenge hisself. That just it.” (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1771)

LAWLESSNESS, SPRINGS OF

It was recently my good fortune to be invited to talk to a club of Jewish boys. Among other matters I talked to them about law and lawlessness, and tried to show that the spirit of lawlessness, now so rife in this country, manifests itself at first in little ways. I reminded them of the wanton lawlessness of automobile drivers in exceeding speed limits, and then I sought to bring the illustration close home to them by asking if they ever saw a fellow at a ball-game, where scores of men were standing in line waiting for their turn to get a ticket, pass up to the head of the line and surreptitiously induce some friend there, or even a stranger, to buy a ticket for him, and thus take advantage of all those who had come before him. They all recognized the illustration. It is a very common incident in American life. Then I pointed out that such a proceeding is a rank violation of the law of courtesy and fair play, and that any one who would do that thing ruthlessly is sowing the seeds of lawlessness, and may some day expect to reap the consequences.--GEORGE W. COLEMAN, “Searchlights.”

(1772)

=Laymen, Opportunities of=--See PEW, IF I WERE IN THE.

LAZINESS, EXCUSE FOR

In the book of Proverbs is this verse: “The sluggard saith, ‘There is a lion without; I shall be slain in the street.’” This means that a lazy man did not wish to go to work, and so pretended that there was a lion in the street, and offered as an excuse for not going to work that the lion in the street would kill him if he went out.

It is a fact that every lazy boy and every indolent girl has a lion; that is, some excuse for not doing what is asked. A daughter is told to do her piano practising and exclaims: “Oh, I can’t! It is so cold in the parlor” (lazy man’s lion). A son is asked to run to the store on an errand and answers that his shoe hurts his foot when he walks (lazy man’s lion). On Sunday morning he can not go to church because it is rainy (lazy man’s lion). He can not study his lessons because his eyes hurt him (lazy man’s lion). She can not eat the crusts of her bread because her gums are sore (lazy man’s lion). She can not get up in time for breakfast because her throat pains her (lazy man’s lion).

Look out for the lazy man’s lion, that foolish excuse for not doing what we should do!--E. H. BYINGTON, _Congregationalist_.

(1773)

LEADERSHIP, FAITHFUL

Sir Garnet Wolseley, in his Egyptian campaign against Arabi Pasha at Tel-el-Kebir, selected a Scotch Highlander to lead his force over the desert sands by the light of the stars, so timing the silent march as to reach the point of assault at daybreak. March and assault were successful, but the poor Highlander fell mortally wounded. Sir Garnet, learning of this, went over to the brave man, who, seeing his commander, said: “Didn’t I lead them straight?”

Happy the Christian guide who in death can make a similar claim. (Text.)

(1774)

=Leaf, The Form of a=--See CREATION, A WITNESS OF.

=Leaners and Lifters=--See LIFTERS AND LEANERS.

LEARNING BY EXAMPLE

Prof. Lloyd Morgan made some interesting experiments in the instincts of birds, by rearing chickens and wild fowl from an incubator, so that they never could have learned anything from their parents. He found that they needed to be taught almost everything necessary to the proper conduct of their lives--not only to distinguish what was good to eat, but even the very acts of eating and drinking. They showed no fear of the human race, and plainly did not understand the language of their own mother when he placed them near her. The mothercluck of the hen had no meaning for the incubator chick, who nevertheless came promptly when he called. These experiments proved conclusively that young birds are taught--or learn by imitation, which is the same thing--to eat and drink, to understand their native tongue, to recognize and procure their food, and to fear mankind.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(1775)

LEARNING PROCESS, THE

A young boy learns to play golf largely by taking the sticks as he has seen some one hold them and whacking at the ball in a haphazard fashion. Sometimes he hits it squarely, and then he gets a satisfaction that tends to impress on him the memory of the movement resulting in this satisfaction. He tries the next time to reproduce this feeling and to locate the point of difference, tho he is or may be conscious of none of these efforts on his part. He keeps trying and trying until he succeeds, noting meanwhile the ways other people stand, hold their clubs, and swing, and comparing them with his way. An old man, on the other hand, tries this method but makes no such progress. He is not free to establish a dozen new ways of getting a swing as the boy is. He has one or two already established ways of turning on his feet and of swinging his arms, but these unfortunately are not such as to help him in his golf. He must, therefore, not merely recognize and strive for the details of the right way, but he must more or less consciously break up the old ways. His chances are poor of success unless he is wisely directed; _i.e._, taught.--STUART H. ROWE, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1907.

(1776)

=Learning Transformed Into Life=--See PRINCIPLES, MASTERING.

=Leisure=--See TIME, IMPROVING.

=Lessons, Class=--See ENCOURAGEMENT.

LETHARGY

In some parts of Africa the natives are attacked with “sleeping-sickness.” The first symptom is drowsiness, and the following days and weeks drift past in sleep. The sleep grows deeper and heavier until the sufferer has passed out into the unknown, to the sleep that knows no waking.

Sleeping-sickness, in a moral sense, is a common disease in the world. It is often as fatal to activity and character as the dread plague of Africa is to the body. The temperature of the heart falls, the soul sleep deepens, God is forgotten, Christ forsaken. (Text.)

(1777)

LETTER OF GOD

An incident is related of William Duncan, the “Apostle of Alaska”:

One day soon after Mr. Duncan had arrived among the Indians there, a fine-looking old Indian chief, Neyashtodoh, one of the chiefs of the Kitlahns, who had three sons, called upon him. “I have heard that you have come here with the letter of God. Is that so? Have you the letter of God with you?” asked the chief. “I have,” said Mr. Duncan. “Would you mind showing it to me?” “Certainly.” Mr. Duncan placed a large Bible on the table. “This is God’s Book.” The Indian caressed it reverently. “Is God’s letter for the Tsimsheans?” “Certainly. God sent this Book to your people, as well as to mine.” “Does that Book give God’s ‘heart’ to us?” “It does.” “And are you going to tell the Indians that?” “I am.” “It is good--it is good, chief,” was the answer of Neyashtodoh.

(1778)

LEVELING

“‘Washing a hill away’ is a process employed by a land-improvement company near Baltimore,” says _Indoors and Out_. “The summit of a hill was to be lowered about nine feet. The operations covered an area fifteen hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide. From a stream near by water was forced at eighty pounds pressure through eight-inch pipes to a five-inch reducing nozzle and then against the wall of earth. This fell in cartloads every few minutes, and so thin was it, with the water added, as to be easily conveyed through pipes to an abandoned pond which the company wished to fill as a part of the improvement plans.” (Text.)

The streams of Christian influence are leveling society by washing away human pride and building up the humble.

(1779)

=Levity=--See GRAVITY.

LIAR EXPOSED

In a large factory in which were employed several hundred persons, one of the workmen, in wielding his hammer, carelessly allowed it to slip from his hand. It flew half way across the room, and struck a fellow workman in the left eye. The man averred that his eye was blinded by the blow, altho a careful examination failed to reveal any injury, there being not a scratch visible. He brought a suit in the courts for compensation for the loss of half of his eyesight, and refused all offers of compromise. Under the law, the owner of the factory was responsible for an injury resulting from an accident of this kind, and altho he believed that the man was shamming, and that the whole case was an attempt at swindling, he had about made up his mind that he would be compelled to pay the claim. The day of the trial arrived, and in open court an eminent occulist retained by the defense examined the alleged injured member, and gave it as his opinion that it was as good as the right eye. Upon the plaintiff’s loud protest of his inability to see with his left eye, the occulist proved him a perjurer, and satisfied the court and jury of the falsity of his claim. And how do you suppose he did it? Why, simply by knowing that the colors green and red combined made black. He prepared a black card on which a few words were written with green ink. Then the plaintiff was ordered to put on a pair of spectacles with two different glasses, the one for the right eye being red and the one for the left eye consisting of ordinary glass. Then the card was handed him and he was ordered to read the writing on it. This he did without hesitation, and the cheat was at once exposed. The sound right eye, fitted with the red glass, was unable to distinguish the green writing on the black surface of the card, while the left eye, which he pretended was sightless, was the one with which the reading had to be done.--_Pottery Gazette._

(1780)

=Liberality=--See GENEROSITY.

LIBERALITY IN RELIGION

Father Mathew was going among a large number of his temperance converts, signing the cross on their foreheads, when a man on his knees looked up and said, “Father, here am I, an Orangeman, kneeling to you, and you blessing me.” “God bless you, my dear, I didn’t care if you were a lemon-man,” said Father Mathew.

(1781)

=Liberty=--See FREEDOM CHOSEN.

=Liberty, A Spider’s Struggle for=--See INGENUITY.

LIBERTY, INDIVIDUAL

Throughout his life Milton, tho profoundly religious, held aloof from the strife of sects. In belief, he belonged to the extreme Puritans, called Separatists, Independents, Congregationalists, of which our Pilgrim Fathers are the great examples; but he refused to be bound by any creed or Church discipline:

“As ever in my great Task-Master’s eye.”

In this last line of one of his sonnets is found Milton’s rejection of every form of outward religious authority in face of the supreme Puritan principle, the liberty of the individual soul before God.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(1782)

=Liberty, Promoting=--See EMANCIPATION.

LIBERTY, SPIRITUAL

Madam Guyon, in the Bastile, speaks to us still of patience in suffering. The walls of her prison were nine feet thick and a narrow slit through the massive masonry admitted all the light that ever reached her. The cell was narrow and dirty with the mold of ages. Dreary and cold in winter and suffocating in summer. No privileges, no books, no recreations or employments. But here was born that blithe bird-song of her captivity:

“My cage confines me round: Abroad I can not fly; But tho my wings are closely bound, My heart’s at liberty. My prison walls can not control The flight, the freedom of the soul. And in God’s mighty will I find The joy, the freedom of the mind.” (Text.)

(1783)

LIBERTY SYMBOLIZED

The other day I came down the East River on the steamer. I saw the Bartholdi statue, and my only comment on it, in voice or in thought, was upon its dingy appearance. I wondered that it had not been cleaned. When I sat in my house reading afterward, I came to an account of the ecstasy of an immigrant when first he saw the statue. It was to him the incarnation of all that he had hoped for. Its torch seemed to light his feet to the ways of peace and prosperity. It seemed to be calling a welcome from this land that is free. It seemed even to his devoted heart to be like the figure of the Christ beckoning him and promising him the liberty of a child of God. I wish it might be that we could never see it without similar emotion.--C. B. MCAFEE.

(1784)

=Liberty, Workers for=--See EMANCIPATION.

LIES IN BUSINESS

You, merchants, must not twine lies and sagacity with your threads in weaving, for every lie that is told in business is a rotten thread in the fabric, and tho it may look well when it first comes out of the loom, there will always be a hole there, first or last, when you come to wear it.--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

(1785)

LIFE

A lady occupied a whole year in searching for and fitting the following lines from English and American poets. The whole reads almost as if written at one time and by one author:

Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour?

--_Young_

Life’s a short summer--man is but a flower;

--_Dr. Johnson_

By turns we catch the fatal breath and die

--_Pope_

The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh!

--_Prior_

To be is better far than not to be,

--_Sewell_

Tho all man’s life may seem a tragedy;

--_Spencer_

But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb--

--_Daniel_

The bottom is but shallow whence they come.

--_Raleigh_

Your fate is but the common fate of all,

--_Longfellow_

Unmingled joys here to no man befall;

--_Southwell_

Nature to each allots his proper sphere.

--_Congreve_

Fortune makes folly her peculiar care.

--_Churchill_

Custom does often reason overrule

--_Rochester_

And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool;

--_Armstrong_

Live well--how long or short permit to heaven,

--_Milton_

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

--_Bailey_

Sin may be clasped so close we can not see its face;

--_French_

Vile intercourse where virtue has no place.

--_Somerville_

Then keep each passion down, however dear,

--_Thompson_

Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear:

--_Byron_

Her sensual snares let faithless pleasures lay,

--_Smollett_

With craft and skill to ruin and betray.

--_Crabbe_

Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise;

--_Massinger_

We masters grow of all that we despise.

--_Crowley_

Oh, then, renounce that impious self-esteem.

--_Beattie_

Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.

--_Cowper_

Think not ambition wise because ’tis brave--

--_Davenant_

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

--_Gray_

What is ambition? ’Tis a glorious cheat.

--_Willis_

Only destructive to the brave and great.

--_Addison_

What’s all the gaudy glitter of a crown?

--_Dryden_

The way to bliss lies not on beds of down.

--_Quarles_

How long we live, not years but actions tell.

--_Watkins_

That man lives twice, who lives the first life well.

--_Herrick_

Make, then, while yet ye may, your God your friend.

--_Mason_

Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend.

--_Hill_

The trust that’s given guard, and to yourself be just.

--_Dana_

For live howe’er we may, yet die we must.

--_Shakespeare_

--_Good Housekeeping._

(1786)

* * * * *

As I passed down through India I saw two little rice-fields side by side. One was green and growing; the other was dead and dry. I looked for the cause. The great lake was full of water. There was no lack there. Into the one the living water was flowing, for the channel was open. The other was choked. Brother, is your life green and growing, fruitful and joyful, or barren and dry because the channel is choked?--G. S. EDDY, “Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,” 1910.

(1787)

LIFE A CYCLE

An old man who was just one hundred and three years of age, recently died in Chester, England. Not long before his death he tried to get out of bed, and they said to him: “Father, where do you want to go? What do you want to do?” He answered, “Father is calling me to breakfast.” He repeated it two or three times--“Father is calling me to breakfast.” The old man had become a child again. He was in his little trundle-bed again hearing his father’s voice up the stairway calling him to come to breakfast.

So when we have traveled around the circle of life, we get into the childhood of our old age, and hear the voices of the friends of our youth, which is one of the evidences of the belief that we shall hear those voices again. We would not thus recall them nor remember them if we were not to hear them again.

(1788)

LIFE, A DEVOTED

Florence Nightingale, heroine of the Crimean War Nursing Service, as a child at Lea Hurst, was accustomed to minister to the sick poor, and it so happened that the clergyman of the parish was a man of considerable medical skill. Curiously enough, it was an animal that first turned her thoughts to nursing--the dog of her father’s shepherd. Poor Cap’s leg was thought to have been broken and he was about to be destroyed, when the girl, under the clergyman’s direction, prepared a simple hot compress and soon had the delight of seeing her patient convalescent. The fame of this exploit spread abroad, and many an animal was brought to her to be healed; perhaps that was why she always advocated that sick people should have dumb pets about them if possible. As she grew older, the little girl who had instinctively bandaged her broken dolls in the most professional manner was allowed to attend to the wounds and ailments of real people, and this at a time when ambulance classes were unheard of, and when the only sick nurses available were ignorant and untrained women. Miss Florence did not find the ordinary life of a girl in society appealed to her. With characteristic decision she gave it up and spent the next few years in visiting hospitals in England, Ireland and Scotland. It is easy to see now that the great want of those days was trained women nurses, but it required exceptional intelligence--indeed, we might almost say, a touch of genius, to see it then in the late forties. The question was how to supply the need; characteristically again, Miss Nightingale began with herself. In 1851 she entered the Society of Sisters of Mercy, a Protestant institution at Kaiserverth on the Rhine, for training deaconesses or nursing sisters. Here she thoroughly qualified herself as a nurse, and on her return to London she devoted much time and money to the Governesses’ Sanatorium in Harley Street.

The autumn of 1854 saw the beginning of the enterprise for which all this time she had been unconsciously preparing herself. The country was being horrified by the tidings which continually came home of the appalling mismanagement of the military hospitals in the Crimea. Our gallant soldiers were dying by hundreds for lack of the simplest and most elementary nursing. It seemed, as religious people say, a clear “call” to this country squire’s daughter, and that very evening she wrote to Mr. Sidney Herbert (afterward Lord Herbert of Lea), the Secretary at War, and sketched her plan. At the very same time Mr. Herbert himself was writing to her to ask if she would organize and take out a company of nurses and the two letters crossed in the post. In October, 1854, Miss Nightingale started for the East with thirty-eight nurses in her command, some of whom were naturally nuns. The day after her arrival came the wounded from Balaklava, quickly followed by six hundred wounded from Inkerman and in a few months she had ten thousand poor fellows under her care. She did much more than organize; she would traverse at night, her little lamp in her hand, the four miles of crowded hospital wards and Longfellow’s famous lines are no poetic fiction, many a dying man turned to kiss her shadow as it fell.

Miss Florence Nightingale was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit, the coveted distinction formerly reserved exclusively for men. She received the freedom of the City of London in 1908 and was a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.--Belfast (Ireland) _Telegram_.

(1789)

LIFE, A NOBLE

I have seen at midnight the gleaming headlight of a giant locomotive, rushing onward through the darkness, heedless of danger and uncertainty, and I have thought the spectacle grand. I have seen the light come over the eastern hills in glory, driving the lazy darkness, like mist before a sea-born gale, till leaf and tree and blade of grass sparkled as myriad diamonds in the morning rays, and I have thought that it was grand. I have seen the lightning leap at midnight athwart the storm-swept sky, shivering over chaotic clouds, ’mid howling winds, till cloud and darkness and the shadow-haunted earth flashed into midday splendor, and I have known that it was grand. But the grandest thing, next to the radiance that flows from the Almighty’s throne, is the light of a noble and beautiful life, shining in benediction upon the destines of men, and finding its home in the bosom of the everlasting God.--JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES.

(1790)

LIFE A TREE

A Scandinavian allegory represents human life as a tree, the “Igdrasil,” or the tree of existence, whose roots grow deep down in the soil of mystery; the trunk reaches above the clouds; its branches spread out over the globe. At the foot of it sit the Past, the Present and the Future, watering the roots. Its boughs spread out through all lands and all time; every leaf of the tree is a biography, every fiber a word, a thought or a deed; its boughs are the histories of nations; the rustle of it is the noise of human existence onward from of old; it grows amid the howling of the hurricane; it is the great tree of humanity.

(1791)

LIFE A VOYAGE

Into this world we come like ships, Launched from the docks and stocks and slips, For fortune fair or fatal. --THOMAS HOOD.

O Neptune! You may save me if you will; you may sink me if you will; but whatever happens I shall keep my rudder true. --SENECA’S “Pilot.”

Lowly faithful, banish fear, Right onward sail unharmed; The port, well worth the voyage, is near, And every wave is charmed. --R. W. EMERSON.

Thou hast embarked; thou hast made the voyage; thou art come to shore; now land! (Text.) --MARCUS AURELIUS.

(1792)

=Life and Faith United=--See RELIGION ALLAYING FEAR.

LIFE, APPRECIATION OF

Many who carelessly declare this life to be of no desirable value discover how strongly they hold to it if by chance they seem in danger of losing it. Thus Rev. Asa Bullard writes:

My father had a blacksmith-shop; and sometimes when not called away on professional duties, he would do little jobs in his shop in the evening. One evening, when I was a little boy, I asked him to let me go with him and see him make nails.

He said I would get sleepy and cry to come back. I thought I shouldn’t; and so was permitted to go with him. He fixt me a nice seat on the forge, where I could see him blow the bellows, heat the nail-rod red hot, and then hammer out the nails. It was real fun to watch him for some time.

By and by I began to grow tired and sleepy; and then I wished I was back at the house and in bed; but I did not dare to say anything about it. At length father looked up, and seeing that I was very sleepy and ready to cry, he asked:

“What is the matter, Asa?”

I said: “I wish I was never made!”

Father drew the hot nail-rod out of the fire and raised it as tho he was going to strike me, when I exclaimed:

“I don’t want to be killed, now I am made!” Then, with a hearty laugh, he took me home to mother.--“Incidents in a Busy Life.”

(1793)

=Life as Testimony=--See NATIVE CONVERTS.

=Life, Brevity of=--See BREVITY OF LIFE.

LIFE CHEAP

Mard Bird, in “Persian Women and Their Creed,” tells the following:

A Persian Haji’s baby had convulsions and the parents brought it to the Mohammedan village teacher, who said the child was possest, and the only remedy for her disease was for them to buy a prayer of the exact length of the child, and strap it on her back. The child was so long that the cost of the prayer was five dollars, and the parents decided that a girl baby was not worth that much and took her home to die.

(1794)

LIFE, CLINGING TO

They used to tell during the Civil War of a colonel who was ordered to assault a position which his regiment, when they had advanced far enough to get a good look at it, saw to be so impossible that they fell back and became immovable. Whereupon (so the story ran) the colonel, who took the same sense of the situation that his command did, yet must do his duty, called out in an ostensibly pleading and fervid voice: “Oh, don’t give it up so! Forward again! Forward! Charge! Great heavens, men, do you want to live forever?”--JOSEPH H. TWICHELL.

(1795)

LIFE, CONTINUED

A few years ago I was walking along the shore of the Susquehanna River, in Harrisburg, Pa., accompanied by the little boy of my friend, Dr. Hill. Night was fast closing down over the earth, when the little fellow looked up and said: “Brother Shannon, where does the river go to, when the night comes on?” I saw at once that the question was big with the wonder and mystery of a child’s mind. He had just come from his own home; he saw men and women going home; he saw the birds flying to their homes in the trees, and he wondered if the river had a home, too. Of course, I could have answered that the river has its home in the sea, but I said: “My child, the river flows on just the same through the night as through the day.” And men say: “Where does the soul go to when the night of death comes on?” The Master says: “It goes on just the same, thrilled with my joy, united with my destiny, and deathless in my life!”--F. F. SHANNON.

(1796)

LIFE, DESIRE FOR LONG

The enchanters of China promised the emperors of that country to find an elixir of long life that should efface the irreparable inroad of years. The astrologers and necromancers of the Middle Ages flattered themselves to have discovered the fountain of youth, in which a person had merely to bathe in order to recover his youth. All such dreams were long ago dispelled by the progress of science. Yet, in the heart of most men, there is such a desire to prolong their stay upon the earth that the art of living for a long time has not ceased to impassion a large number of persons who would be willing to endure all the evils of an indefinitely prolonged old age. We have several times had proof of this mania, which Dean Swift has so wittily stigmatized in his second voyage of Gulliver by showing in what a state of abjection the mortals of Laputa lived--those unfortunates who were condemned to survive their own selves through the loss of memory of what they had been. One of the perpetual secretaries of the Academy of Sciences has written a volume to prove that man should consider himself young up to eighty years of age. A noble Venetian named Cornaro spent twenty years in a scale-pan in order to ascertain what alimentary regimen was best adapted to him. We have known old men who, having learned that Mr. Chevreul had never drank anything but water, took the resolution to abstain wholly from wine, hoping in this way to exceed a hundred years. Fortunately, a rag-gatherer, who had reached the same age as the celebrated academician, spared them this sacrifice, by informing his confrére in longevity that he had never drank anything but wine.--_La Science Illustrée._

(1797)

=Life, Fecundity of=--See PROPAGATION, PROLIFIC.

LIFE, FEEDING THE

The Mississippi River, which empties its wealth of waters into the Gulf of Mexico, is fed by the Missouri, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Red River, and indirectly the Allegheny and Monongahela, and the Yellowstone and the Platte. The Amazon River drains an area of two and a half million square miles, or the waters of more than a third of all the South American continent. The River Nile is almost equally enriched by tributaries.

But no river is more fed by confluent currents than is that of a life which draws to itself all resources of knowledge and grace. (Text.)

(1798)

LIFE FROM DEATH

Clinton Scollard, in _The Outlook_, draws a lesson from the new-fallen snow:

The evanescent wonder of the snow Is round about us, and as in a cloud-- A vestiture inviolate--we walk. Earth seems bereft of song and shorn of sun, A cloistral world. Even the lyric throat Of the rapt brook is like a pulse-beat faint. The wood--white architrave on architrave-- Is as a temple where the lips of prayer Tremble upon the verge of utterance. Hush! In the heart of this great gulf of sleep, This void abysmal, may we not divine The inscrutable Presence clothed about with dreams, The immaculate Vision that is death yet life, For out of death comes life: the twain are one! (Text.)

(1799)

=Life, Inward=--See CHARACTER MORE THAN CLOTHING.

LIFE LEARNED FROM DEATH

Prof. G. Currie Martin draws this suggestive picture:

In the gallery at The Hague there hangs a wonderful picture by Rembrandt. When the visitor first looks at it the horror that it inspires seems too great to be borne, for there, in the very forefront of the canvas, so that the spectator imagines he could touch it, is the grim and ghastly form of a corpse lying livid and rigid upon the dissecting-table. To add still further to the sense of shrinking it evokes, the scalpel of the surgeon has been thrust into the flesh, and he is laying bare the muscles of the arm. But if the visitor has only patience and courage for a moment to overcome the first sense of repulsion, he will find that he goes away from an examination of the picture thinking no longer of death and its terror, but of life and its power. For the skill of the artist is shown in so presenting the great and eternal contrast between death and life that the latter triumphs. Above the figure of the corpse are grouped the faces of the great scientists and physicians who, as they listen to the words of the lecturer, are drinking in the new-found knowledge that is to make them the conquerors of disease, and those portraits are so wonderfully painted that the spectator finds himself ever afterward thinking of the power of life that they manifest and of the greatness of human knowledge that has wrested the secrets from death itself which make life more powerful and safe. (Text.)

(1800)

=Life-line, A=--See INGENUITY.

LIFE-LINE HYMN

A speaker at one of Evan Roberts’ remarkable revival services in Wales, was telling of a “vision” he had had, and of a voice which exhorted him to “Throw out the life-line,” when instantly the listeners sang the whole hymn together.

Mr. Ufford, the author of the lines, once sang them at a watch-service in California, and there he told how the _Elsie Smith_ was lost on Cape Cod in 1902, showing the very life-line that saved sixteen lives from the sea, and by chance one of the number was present at the service.

From a room, in a building hired for religious services in a Pennsylvania city, and where a series of revival meetings was being held, rang out, one night, the hymn, “Throw out the life-line,” in the hearing, next door, of a convivial card-party. It was a sweet female voice, followed in the chorus by other and louder voices chiming in. The result was the merriment ceased as one of the members of the card-party remarked: “If what they’re saying is right, then we’re wrong,” and the revelers broke up. An ex-member of that party is now an editor of a great city daily, and his fellows are all filling positions of responsibility. The life-line pulled them ashore.

In a Massachusetts city, twenty years ago, this hymn won to Christ a man who is now a prosperous manufacturer.

At a special service held at Gibraltar for the survivors of an emigrant ship that went ashore there during a storm, this hymn was sung with telling effect.

The story of that life-line is long enough and strong enough to tie up a large bundle of results wrought by it.

(1801)

=Life-material=--See MATERIAL FOR A GREAT LIFE.

LIFE, NEW, FROM GOD

In London there dwells a man interested in rare and exotic plants. A friend who had been in the Amazon brought him home a rare tree. In the winter he keeps it in the hothouse, but when summer comes, he carries it into his garden. So beautiful is the bloom that he gave garden-parties that men might behold the wondrous flower. One summer’s day he noticed a strange thing that set his pulses throbbing--a singular fruit had begun to set. Sending for an expert, they took counsel together. They knew that this was the only tree of the kind in Paris, and they could not understand from whence had come the pollen that had fertilized the plant. At length they published the story in the papers, and that story brought the explanation. A merchant wrote that years before he had brought to Marseilles a young plant from the Amazon. The pollen of that tree nearly four hundred miles away had been carried on the wings of the wind over hill and vale, and found out the blossom that awaited its coming.

And not otherwise is it with the soul. Because it is in His likeness, it shares with Him in those attributes named reason, wisdom, goodness, holiness and love. The soul waits. Without God it can do nothing. Its life is from afar. Expectant and full of longing, it hungers and thirsts, and desires His coming. That repentant youth, lying in the desert, with a stone for his pillow, waits, and then the light comes from God.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1802)

LIFE, ORIGIN OF

The old philosophers who held that all things originated in the sea were not far out of the way, if we are to believe some of the latest biological theories or speculations. That organic evolution began with marine creatures, Haeckel told us long ago. That sea-water is a particularly sympathetic medium for vital processes, has more lately been shown by Loeb in his experiments on the fertilization of the eggs of certain marine creatures. M. René Quinton, of the Laboratory of Pathologic Physiology of the College de France, has published a book, entitled “Sea-water as an Organic Medium,” in which he asserts that as the cell itself has persisted in living organisms, being practically the same in the human body as in our earliest marine predecessors, so the conditions of its life closely reproduce those of primordial times. The cell in our own bodies is bathed in a fluid that closely resembles sea-water in chemical composition and that approximates in temperature to that of the ocean when life first appeared in it. (Text.)

(1803)

LIFE, PASSION FOR

Ponce de Leon searched Florida for the spring of the elixir of life; thousands of alchemists have attempted to concoct it; innumerable patent medicines in every drugstore testify to the universal effort to prolong earthly existence; a miser will fling away his last piece of gold to save his life; lawyers will battle to the last device of law to save a client from execution if only to prolong his existence in a prison; and tho Bacon says “there is no passion so mean as that it can not mate and master the fear of death,” he was speaking only of sudden and occasional passions. The rule is that passion to live outmasters all other passions.

What a word then is this of Jesus when He says, “I came that they might have life.”

(1804)

LIFE, PERSISTENCE OF

A spring of air never loses its elasticity; but it never gains an energy which it had not at first. Tho prest a thousand years under incumbent weights, the instant they are removed it reassumes its original volume; but it gathers no more from the long repose. But the life in the seed tends constantly toward development, into the stalk, the blossom and the fruit. As long as the seed remains perfect and vital, this tendency remains, inhering in it; so that three thousand years after it was shaken from the wheat-ear on the Nile, if planted it develops and brings forth fruit in English gardens.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1805)

=Life Pictures=--See REALISM.

LIFE PROLONGED

“In the city of New York alone there are 150,000 people living to-day who would be dead if the mortality of fifty years ago still prevailed,” says a writer in _The Booklover’s Magazine_. “Popular opinion has scarcely yet come to realize what medical science has been doing in late years. People sicken and die, think the laity, and the efforts of the physician are just as futile as before the recent discoveries about which so much is said. This idea is, however, erroneous. I will venture to say there is scarcely an adult living to-day who has not experienced or will not experience an actual prolongation of life due to discoveries of the last fifty years.”

(1806)

LIFE PURPOSE

A story is told of Rubens that during his sojourn as ambassador to the Court of Philip in Spain, he was detected at work upon a painting by a courtier, who, not knowing much about his true fame, exclaimed in surprize, “What! does an ambassador to his Catholic Majesty amuse himself with painting pictures?” “No,” replied Rubens, “the painter sometimes amuses himself with diplomacy.”

The serious business of life is the producing of a good character; all else is pastime. (Text.)

(1807)

* * * * *

These noble ambitions for a true life are put in verse by H. H. Barston:

To face each day of life Nor flinch from any task; To front the moment’s strife And only courage ask. To be a man unawed By aught but heaven’s command; Tho men revile or plaud, To take a stand--and stand.

To fill my life with toil, With God’s free air and light; To shun the things that spoil, That hasten age and night; To sweat beneath my hod, Nor ask a better gift From self or man or God Than will and strength to lift.

To keep my spirit sweet Tho head and hand be tired; Each brother man to greet, Nor leave him uninspired; To keep my spirit fed On God unceasingly, That none may lack his bread Who walk this way with me. (Text.)

(1808)

LIFE RECRUDESCENT

Edith M. Thomas is the author of the lines below, found in the _Canadian Presbyterian_:

The apple-tree said, “You think I’m dead,” “Because I have never a leaf to show, Because I stoop, And my branches droop, And the dull, gray mosses over me grow; But I’m alive in trunk and shoot, The buds of next May I fold away, But I pity the withered grass at my root.”

“You think I’m dead,” The quick grass said, “Because I have parted with stem and blade, But under the ground I’m safe and sound, With the snow’s thick blanket over me laid. I’m all alive and ready to shoot Should the spring of the year Come dancing here, But I pity the flower without branch or root.”

“You think I’m dead,” A soft voice said, “Because not a branch or root I own. I never have died But close I hide In a plump seed that the wind has sown, Patient I wait through the long winter hours. You will see me again, I shall laugh at you then Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.”

(1809)

LIFE, RESPONSE OF

The touch of God upon men is not answered unless the soul be spiritually alive:

The sun shines down upon the dead twig that has fallen from the tree. All his rich and marvelous powers are exerted. He wraps it about with his mighty arms. He kisses it and bathes it in tides of summer warmth, and smiles upon it and beckons it to come--but it lies there a dead twig to the last. But a vine has peeped through the soil. The sun discovers it and whispers the secrets of the sky to its tiny quivering leaves, and out go the filmy tendrils, and up and up goes the loving plant, climbing the golden trellis of the sunbeam toward its lover, the sun.--JOHN K. WILLEY.

(1810)

LIFE-SAVING

Every man should try to be as alert and well prepared for helping and saving men as the steamers here described:

All Pacific mail-steamers are carefully protected by a rigid practise in fire and life-saving drills. At the tap of the bell, the crew spring to their places by boat and raft; each officer, with a pistol hung by his side, takes his station; and the precision and quickness with which it is all accompanied inspire the beholder with very comfortable feelings.

The life-drill is practised in case some one should fall overboard. Certain members of the crew are assigned to this duty, ready at any moment to throw out life-lines, buoys that strike a light when they hit the water, or man the emergency lifeboat that is kept in position to be lowered instantly.--MARSHALL P. WILDER, “Smiling ’Round the World.”

(1811)

See KNOWLEDGE APPLIED.

=Life-saving Attachment=--See ECONOMY OF ENERGY.

LIFE-SAVING BY WIRELESS

The former sound liner _Kentucky_ is at the bottom of the Atlantic at lat. 32.10, long. 76.30, which is more than a hundred miles off the South Carolina coast, south of Cape Hatteras. Her captain and crew of forty-six men are on their way to Key West on board the Mallory liner _Alamo_. It was the fourth rescue by wireless since that method of communication at sea has been in use. Called by the international distress signal, the _Alamo_ reached the sinking vessel just as the electricity died and but an hour before she sank.

In the meantime her distress calls, heard throughout Atlantic coast waters and sent by W. G. Maginnis, wireless operator, had started speeding toward her the United States Government battleship _Louisiana_, on a speed trial in the vicinity, the cruiser _Birmingham_ and the revenue cutters _Yamacraw_ and _Seminole_.

When 150 miles off Sandy Hook, at the very outset of her long journey, she sprang a leak. By working hard at the pumps Captain Moore managed to get her into Newport News with sixteen inches of water in her hold. She was repaired and certified safe and sound by the United States inspector there and Lloyds. Luckily, this little wooden ship, packed tight with coal, had been installed with wireless before she left. The international distress call, S. O. S., set the sound waves jumping all over the coast and the Atlantic. The United States Government received the message at the same time that every sea-captain on the ocean got it. The _Alamo_, bound for Key West, got it at 11:30 and headed dead for the source at once. Later this came through the air:

“We are sinking. Our lat. is 32 deg. 10 min.; long., 76 deg. 30 min.

“KENTUCKY.”

The _Alamo_ was sixty-five miles off. She had made the run by 3:50 o’clock, when the _Kentucky_ appeared in sight.

The boat was sinking rapidly and in half a gale the work of transferring the crew of the _Kentucky_ by lifeboat was accomplished. As the last man was taken off only the superstructure was visible above the water.

(1812)

LIFE, SELF-PROPAGATING

The yeast-plant is so small that it can be seen only under the microscope. Each yeast-plant consists of a closed sack or cell, containing a jelly-like liquid named “protoplasm.” Under the microscope the yeast-plant is seen to change in form. Sometimes little swellings grow out, like knobs on a potato, and these will by and by separate themselves from the parent and become other yeast-plants. It is alive and growing.

“What we need,” said McLeod, “is not life, (from galvanism), but the life of life”--Jesus himself. (Text.)

(1813)

LIFE, SOURCE OF MAN’S

The goddess of the Greek mythology springs from the crest of the curling sea. The spirit of poetic and legendary lore is born of moonbeams playing upon fountains. The glittering elf of the household story leaps up on the shaft of the quivering flame. The meteor is invoked, or the morning-star, to give birth to new spirits; the sunset-sheen on distant hills is imagined to become incorporate in them; or the west wind, toying over banks of flowers, to drop their delicate life from its wings. But when God forms the life, in each conscious soul, and fills this with its strange and unsearchable powers, he creates it by a ministry diverse from all these, and as distantly removed as it is possible to conceive from its own unique nature, and its height of prerogative. He creates it by the ministry of these fleshly forms, which are authors, under Him, of a life that transcends them; a life not limited as they are by space, not subject as they are to material assaults, and not dependent as they are on shelter or on food.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1814)

LIFE, SPENDING

A good life is never lost. It yields cumulative results. This rime expresses the truth:

A life spent with a purpose grand Has simply not been “spent”; It’s really an investment, and Will yield a large per cent. (Text.)

(1815)

LIFE, THE SIMPLE

Washington loved the simple life of home and countryside, of friend and neighbor, of master and servant. “To make and sell a little flour annually,” he wrote, “to repair houses going fast to ruin, to build one for the security of my papers of a public nature, will constitute employment for the few years I have to remain on this terrestrial globe.” But he was still ready for the summons of duty, whether it was to put his shoulder to the wheel of a stranger’s broken-down carriage on the roadside, to serve on the petty jury of his country, or to accept command of the army preparing to meet the French. Washington would never have identified effective citizenship with prominence. The citizen who was never mentioned in the news-letters might be quite as great as the general and President. At Ipswich, Mass., on one occasion, Mr. Cleaveland, the minister of the town, was presented to him. As he approached, hat in hand, Washington said, “Put on your hat, parson, and I will shake hands with you.” “I can not wear my hat in your presence, general,” said the minister, “when I think of what you have done for this country.” “You did as much as I,” said Washington. “No, no,” protested the parson. “Yes,” said Washington, “you did what you could, and I have done no more.”--A. MACCOLL, _Northwestern Christian Advocate_.

(1816)

=Life, The Whole, the Test of Character=--See CHARACTER, UNSEEN PLACES IN.

LIFE, THE WINGED

The story is told of how the birds received their wings. Created originally without wings, they hopped about, until one day God said to them: “You are beautiful and hop finely and sing sweetly, but I want you to fly. Let me give you wings.” At first they refused, saying that wings would be weights. Besides, they liked to hop. But at length they consented to receive wings and flew.

(1817)

LIFE, USES OF

In this world we have but brief glimpses of the best and brightest things. Sunset splendors linger but a little while; spring blossoms are scattered by the winds while we watch their unfolding; and autumn leaves soon fade and fall and dissolve into forest mold; the dull landscape glows for a time with supernal splendor, giving us a foretaste of the glory that shall be revealed; the wind passes over it and it is gone. For the leaves there are other and higher uses than to enrobe the branches with autumnal tints. They live and die to serve God in the mysterious economy of life. It is so with human destiny; our noblest achievements seem to perish in a day, but no life of faithful service can be lost in the consummation of God’s plan.--_The Living Church._

(1818)

LIFE AS AN ART

These verses are from a poem by John Kendrick Bangs in _The Century_:

He’d never heard of Phidias, He’d never heard of Byron; His tastes were not fastidious, His soul was not aspirin’: But he could tell you what the birds were whisp’ring in the trees, And he could find sweet music in the sounding of the seas, And he could joy in wintry snows, And summer’s sunny weather, And tell you all the names of those Who frolic in the heather.

He nothing knew of sciences, Of art, or eke of letters; Nor of those strange appliances That fill the world with debtors: But happiness he knew right well; he knew from A to Z The art of filling life with song, and others’ souls with glee; And he could joy in day and night, Heart full of pure thanksgiving-- I am not sure he was not right In using life for living.

(1819)

LIFE, VALUE OF

There is a suggestive and saddening passage in Miss Ellen Terry’s recent “Reminiscences.” The great actress was talking to Sir Henry Irving, her old comrade on the stage, as he lay ill. “Do you ever think, as I do sometimes, what have you got out of life?” asked Miss Terry. “What have I got out of it?” said Irving, stroking his chin and smiling slightly, “Let me see--well, a good cigar, a good glass of wine, good friends.”

And that summary satisfies many another. The pathetic futility of it all! Material things vanish, and then what remains? Life should be more rewarding than this. (Text.)

(1820)

LIFE, VENERATION FOR

Powhatan Bouldin’s “Home Reminiscences” has a story which shows John Randolph’s peculiar veneration for growing things. The incident is related by a friend of Randolph’s nephew:

When I was a boy I visited at Roanoke. The house was completely environed by trees and underwood, and seemed to be in a dense virgin forest. Mr. Randolph would not permit even a switch to be cut near the house.

Without being aware of this, one day I committed a serious trespass. My friend Tudor and I were roving about, when I, perceiving a straight young hickory about an inch thick, felled it. Tudor said that his uncle would be very angry, so I immediately went and informed him what I had ignorantly done, and exprest my regret. Mr. Randolph took the stick and looked pensively at it as if commiserating its fate. Then, gazing at me, he said:

“I would not have done this for fifty Spanish-milled dollars!”

I had seventy-five cents and had entertained some idea of offering it, but when I heard about the fifty dollars I was afraid of insulting him by such meager compensation.

“Did you want this for a cane?” asked Mr. Randolph. “No, sir.” “No, you are not old enough to need a cane. Did you want it for any particular purpose?” “No, sir. I only saw that it was a pretty stick and thought I’d cut it.” “We can be justified in taking animal life to furnish food or to remove a hurtful object. We can not be justified in taking even vegetable life without some useful object in view. Now, God Almighty planted this thing, and you have killed it without any adequate object. It would have grown into a large nut-tree and furnished food for many squirrels. I hope and believe you will never do so again.” “Never, sir, never!” I cried.

He put the stick into a corner, and I escaped to Tudor. It was some time before I could cut a switch or fishing-rod without feeling I was doing some sort of violence to the vegetable kingdom.

(1821)

=Life versus Business=--See RELIGION VERSUS BUSINESS.

LIFE VERSUS CHURCH

The manner in which Wesley by his zeal was pushed outside of the Church of England limits is told thus by the Rev. W. H. Fitchett:

But these two features of that work--open-air preaching and the itinerant nature of his ministry--determined many things. They determined, for example, the general question of Wesley’s relation to ecclesiastical order. For that order he had been, and still was, a zealot; but he was slowly learning that there were things more precious, as well as more urgent, than mere ecclesiastical use and wont. England was mapped out, for example, into parishes; and were these faint lines of ecclesiastical boundaries, drawn by human hands and guarding fancied human rights, to arrest such a work as Wesley was beginning? They were like films of cobweb drawn across a track of an earthquake! And many an ecclesiastical cobweb of the same kind had to be brushed aside to make room for the new religious life beginning to stir in Great Britain.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1822)

LIFE, WASTING

Henley’s brilliant epitaph on George Moreland sums up not only that artist’s life, but no less the life of too many before and since:

He coined himself into guineas, and so, like the reckless and passionate spendthrift he was, he flung away his genius and his life in handfuls, till nothing else was left him but the silence and the decency of death.

(1823)

LIFE, WATER OF

The _Scavatori_ from Naples, some years ago, dug up from among the ruins of Pompeii an urn of bronze filled with pure water, sweet to the taste and unaltered in quality. It had lost none of its pristine excellence after centuries of time.

Jesus described Himself as living water, and after two thousand years this has lost none of its purity or strength.

(1824)

LIFE WHAT WE MAKE IT

Life is what we make it. It varies in its prospect with the sort of eyes that see it. A writer remarks on this, as he takes his walk over the fields:

The laborer is coming along the road with his lumbering wagon; or the shepherd is standing by the gate of the field; or the gamekeeper is out to see to his snares; and you say to the countryman, whichever you meet, how beautiful the country is when the red berries so thickly stud the hedge.

“Beautiful enough,” he replies, “but it’s no pleasant sight for us poor folk; it means we shall have a hard winter.”

Because of this relation of the individual to the coloring of life, it behooves each one to make his own world beautiful and he will do so when his own life is in accord with truth. (Text.)

(1825)

LIFE WORK, CHOOSING A

In a current book a college president tells this story:

A traveler in Japan says that one day as he stood on the quay in Tokyo waiting for a steamer, he excited the attention of a coolie doing the work of a stevedore, who knew he was an American. As the coolie went by with his load, in his pigeon English he said, “Come buy cargo?” By which he meant, “Are you in Japan on business?” The man shook his head. The second time the coolie passed, he again asked, “Come look and see?” By which he meant to ask if the American were a tourist seeing the country. Receiving a negative reply, the next time he passed he tried one more question. “Spec’ die soon?” By which he meant to ask if the man was there for his health.

This the writer used to describe three different classes of people in the world. There is the young man who seems to be in the world for his health. They want to be coddled. There is the young man who seems to be in the world as a traveler. He wants to be amused. There are the young men who are in the world for business. They mean to do something and be somebody.--N. MCGEE WATERS.

(1826)

=Life Yet to Be=--See FUTURE, THE.

=Life’s Furrow=--See SYMBOL OF LIFE.

LIFE’S MELODY

A great pipe-organ has one or two thousand pipes. Some are twenty feet long, and large enough for a man to stand in, others are no bigger or longer than a common lead-pencil; some are made of wood, some of zinc, some of lead; and every one is set to make its own peculiar note. No pipe ever makes any other note than its own. But the organist is not limited to one tune. He can play any tune he may wish simply by changing the order of the notes which he sounds.

The laws of God’s world are fixt; but on that great organ He is master, and it obeys His will; and rest assured that He it is that is playing the melody of your life.--JAMES M. STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

(1827)

LIFE’S TURNING TIDE

Does the tide ever turn in the land of the dead? Shall we stir at the kiss of the wave rolling back, And lift, like the sea-weed, the death-draggled head, And toss with life’s flood, like the tangles of wrack?

We trust it is so; for the sea that God turns, And sends flooding back into river and bay-- Is the sea more divine than the spirit that yearns? And we will not believe that life’s tide ebbs for aye.

--JAMES BUCKHAM, _Frank Leslie’s_.

(1828)

LIFTERS AND LEANERS

A prosperous member of a church in Scotland had been besought often by his pastor to give to the work of evangelizing the poor in Glasgow, but would always reply: “Na, I need it for mysel’.” One night he dreamed that he was at the gate of heaven, which was only a few inches ajar. He tried to get in, but could not, and was in agony at his poor prospect. Just then the face of his minister appeared, who said: “Sandy, why stand ye glowering there? Why don’t ye gae in?” “I can’t; I am too large, and my pocketbook sticks out whichever way I turn.” “Sandy,” replied the minister, “think how mean ye have been to the Lord’s poor, and ye will be small enough to go through the eye of a needle.” Sandy awoke, and began to reduce both his pocketbook and his meanness by generously lifting forward the cause of his Lord.

We may depend upon it that it is the lifters and not the leaners who have the joy, and the peace, and the triumph of the Christian life.--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

(1829)

LIGHT

The traveler to the heavenly country will often set in contrast to the conditions described below, the time and scene in which “they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light” and “the Lamb is the light thereof.”

In any large city the small hours of the night, while most people are asleep, is the time when the bread is made and baked, the great newspapers printed, the food products, such as milk and vegetables, prepared and brought into the city. If we were obliged to dispense with our modern systems of illumination the world would be set back in its civilization beyond our power to imagine.

(1830)

* * * * *

Jesus stated long ago the philosophy of the paragraph below when He said “Neither cometh to the light lest their evil deeds should be reproved” and “men love darkness ... because their deeds are evil.”

The municipality had better take the cue, less light, more crime, more light, less crime. There are still dark spots to be found at night within the city limits where a few powerful arcs would wield an immediate influence. It is easy to see that arc-lights are cheaper than police officers and a brightly lit city the greatest imaginable offset to criminality in any stage or form. (Text.)--_Electricity._

(1831)

* * * * *

An English writer has this to say about the phosphorescent light cast by the sea-fish called the smelt:

Anybody desirous of seeing the sort of light which it emits may do so very easily by purchasing an unwashed smelt from the fishmonger, and allowing it to dry with its natural slime upon it, then looking at it in the dark. A sole or almost any other fish will answer the purpose, but I name the smelt from having found it the most reliable in the course of my own experiments. It emits a dull, ghostly light, with very little penetrating power, which shows the shape of the fish, but casts no perceptible light on objects around.

Here the light is so dim that it gives no illumination beyond outlining the fish. Many men are like that. They have a little light, but it never shines beyond themselves. It merely outlines their own lives and sometimes scarcely that. (Text.)

(1832)

* * * * *

It has been a long stride forward from producing light and heat by means of flint to producing it by matches. What would civilization do without matches? Few realize the immense labor, capital and material used to produce this tiny article of commerce. As a matter of fact, thousands of men are employed, millions of dollars invested and vast forests cut down to meet the demand in America of 700,000,000,000 a year. One plant alone on the Pacific coast covers 240 acres and uses 200,000 feet of sugar-pine and yellow-pine logs in a day. The odds and ends will not do. A constant search is in progress for large forests of perfect trees to meet the future need.

If such labor and pains are necessary to keep at hand the means of lighting that which at best is only a temporary flame, what should measure our diligence to keep our spiritual light burning? (Text.)

(1833)

See SHINING AS LAMPS.

LIGHT AFTER NIGHT

Mary Elliot interprets the moral cheer of recurring dawn in these musical lines:

Dawn of the red, red sun in a bleak, abandoned sky That the moon has lately left and the stars are fast forsaking-- The day is drawing the cloudy lids from his bloodshot eye, And the world impatient stirs--a tired old sleeper, waking.

O most unwearying prophet, ever-returning morn! Thou giv’st new life to a world grown old, and marred in making; With ever an old faith lost, and ever a pang new-born, But ever a new, new hope to hearts that were well-nigh breaking. (Text.)

--_The Metropolitan._

(1834)

LIGHT AND ACTIVITY

Those who would glow with the brightness of a blest life can not so shine unless they are luminous with activity.

We are passing along a country road on a dark evening and are arrested by seeing luminous points in the herbage at the foot of a hedgerow or side of a lane. We find on investigation that the beautiful little lights are emitted by glowworms. At first sight these appear to be stationary, but we find by patient waiting and watching that the little creatures are slowly moving as they shine and that each glowworm ceases to emit its lovely gleam directly it stops moving. And in human life are not the bright lights of society, of the family, of the Church, those persons who are incessantly in action? The sluggard is too dull to shine; the energetic souls go sparkling on their way and charm as well as help. (Text.)

(1835)

=Light and Darkness=--See BLIND GUIDES.

LIGHT AS A CURE

Dr. Hasselbach, of Copenhagen, has become convinced that the light treatment is effective in heart disease and affections of the nervous system. Dr. Hasselbach, after experimenting on his own perfectly normal organs, next experimented on two doctors. Both of these were complete invalids, one suffering from angina pectoris and the other from a nervous affection of the heart. This treatment, which lasted in one case for a month and in the others for six weeks, resulted in enabling both doctors to resume their practise. (Text.)

(1836)

=Light, Attraction of=--See SUICIDE PREVENTED.

LIGHT-BEARERS

Natural science has shown that the transmission of light to our globe is dependent on the luminous atmosphere surrounding the sun; and that light existed originally independent of the sun, and consisted of the undulations of a luminiferous ether. The latest theory maintains that the body of the sun is simply an irritant, having the property of setting the undulations of this ether into motion, but wholly devoid of light in itself.

Such a luminous atmosphere is the environment of one’s life, and capable of being made the means of constituting each man a luminary to the world.

(1837)

* * * * *

Annie Winsor Allen is the author of this cheering verse:

Bringers of hope to men, Bearers of light. Eager and radiant, Glad in the right, ’Tis from these souls aglow Man learns his path to know. They as they onward go Bear on the light.

What tho they fight to lose, Facing the night! Morning will find them still Seeking the height. What tho this stress and strain Makes all their hopes seem vain! They through the bitter pain Bear on the light.

Brothers of all that live, They aid us all. May our hearts, touched with fire, Leap to their call! Their voices, clear and strong, Ring like a rallying song, “Upward against the wrong! Bear on the light!”

(1838)

LIGHT, BENEFITS OF

If we company with Him who said, “I am the light of the world,” our moral natures will experience something corresponding to the physical benefits of light when it is applied in moderation.

Light acts as a stimulant to the bodies of men as well as of animals. The ability of the blood to carry through the system oxygen that is taken from the atmosphere during breathing is increased by exposure to light. The blood is assisted also, by the action of light on it, in giving off the carbonic-acid gas that the body has accumulated, and thus frees the system from the impurities out of the blood.

(1839)

LIGHT, CHRISTIAN

A lighthouse called the Pharos was built at Alexandria, Egypt. It ascended 550 feet in the air and sent its light over the sea for a distance of 100 miles. Its purpose was as a memorial to King Ptolemy.

An upright character is a lighthouse to this storm-tossed world. (Text.)

(1840)

LIGHT DEVELOPING BEAUTY

The human soul can only develop its full capacities when illumined. Light from without must call out the latent powers of the mind.

The sea-anemone is attractive only when light reaches them. In gloom or shadow they fold themselves up on their peduncles and look withered and repellent. In the sunshine that plays on the waters in their pools these strange creatures open out like blossoms expanding their petals. (Text.)

(1841)

LIGHT, DIVINE

In the oxy-hydrogen lantern the operator first lights the hydrogen burner, and it burns like any other gas-light. Then he turns slowly upon it a little jet of oxygen, under which at first the flame seems dying down. But presently the lime candle kindles, and its flame, concentrated by the condensers to a small jet, begins to glow with a brilliancy that darkens everything else and can not be endured to look on. So in the movement of the world--in the “coming age”--there is high character and grand heroism, and as one studies it he sees that it is not Stephen’s face that shone like an angel, or Moses’ which had to be veiled, but the ineffable Spirit that shone out in them both. The power of the coming age is not the power of any man, but the power of the God who made all things, and whose glory here glows and burns brighter than the sun, bringing out the littlest worthiness of human character in the concentrated light of love.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(1842)

=Light, Excess of=--See ADVICE DISREGARDED.

LIGHT FOR RESCUE

The recently improved buoy is a remarkable device now in use in the life-saving service of the United States. By means of the signal lights, its position will always be known to those on shore and on the wreck. The green light moving toward the vessel mutely tells the shipwrecked passengers that help is at hand and encourages them to hold on until the buoy reaches them.

How many imperiled mariners on the sea of life are lost in the darkness because they see not the helping hand stretched out to save them.

(1843)

LIGHT-GIVING

One of the first lessons that Jesus inculcated in the minds of His disciples who were to become His messengers, was that they should be lights in the midst of the moral and spiritual gloom.

A preacher one dark night lost his way in a corner of a strange neighborhood. Meeting a farm laborer and asking his way, he received for answer, “Follow that light and you will not have gone far before you hear the bells of the next village.”

(1844)

LIGHT, IMMORTAL

Richard Watson Gilder, who died in 1909, and whose dream is now reality, wrote this beautiful prayer:

O Thou the Lord and Maker of life and light! Full heavy are the burdens that do weigh Our spirits earthward, as through twilight gray We journey to the end and rest of night; Tho well we know to the deep inward sight, Darkness is but Thy shadow, and the day Where Thou art never dies, but sends its rays Through the wide universe with restless might.

O Lord of Light, steep Thou our souls in Thee! That when the daylight trembles into shade, And falls the silence of mortality, And all is done, we shall not be afraid, But pass from light to light; from earth’s dull gleam Into the very heart and heaven of our dream.

(1845)

=Light in Christ=--See CHRIST THE LIGHT.

LIGHT IN HUMILIATION

In the neighborhood of Nice the hills are cut and seamed with remarkable gorges, among which are found deep holes known as “star wells.” They are so called because of the belief that from their bottoms stars can be seen even in daylight. These abysses have been formed by the action of water. It is, often, only when looking up out of the deeps of our own humiliation that we can see the stars of hope shining in the sky.

(1846)

LIGHT, INCREASING

The light to which you come at length in the railway tunnel, and before you reach the end of the tunnel, is the very same light exactly, as far as its nature is concerned, as the light into which you come at the end of the tunnel; and the light which shines from the end into the tunnel increases more and more from its first shining until you reach the full light at the end. So the wise man says that the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The light of the perfect day is the same as the light that shines in the path all along, and that began to shine even ere the sun was up. The lights are in nowise different except in degree.--ALEXANDER MILLER, “Heaven and Hell Here.”

(1847)

LIGHT, INJURY FROM

In a moral sense it is better to face the light than to have it shine on us indirectly.

Do not make the mistake of supposing that brilliant lights are harmless except when looked at directly. As a matter of fact they are even more dangerous when so placed as to shine into the eyes sidewise or from above, since the eye is less accustomed to receive bright light from such directions. In other words, light from such direction falls upon the outer parts of the surface of the retina, which, being less accustomed to receive bright light, are the more quickly injured by it. Cases are on record where persons working in the vicinity of bare lamps so placed have entirely lost the sight of one or both eyes.--_The Illuminating Engineer._

(1848)

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Among the Tsimshean Indians of Alaska the following legend is current: “At first it was entirely dark. There was no light in the world. The people could see nothing, but were groping around in a continual night. Then the son of the heavenly chief came down to earth, and the people complained to him that it was so dark. He said he would help them, and then light came.”

A faint reflection, all this, of the story of Him who is indeed the Light of the world. (Text.)

(1849)

LIGHT PREVENTING CRIME

Many banks, stores, and warehouses turn on their lights at night, and leave their window-shutters wide open so that the entire interior may be seen by the policemen or watchman on the beat. This makes it possible to detect any change inside, or the presence of any one who might be bent on robbing. (Text.)

(1850)

LIGHT, SAFETY IN

“Let your light shine.” Do not go to places where your light will not shine. Sam P. Jones says: “Some years ago my father had two Irishmen digging a well for him. They went off on a drinking spree, after they had gotten the well about three-fourths done. They returned to finish up, but long experience and observation had taught them that what is known as ‘fire-damp’ or poisonous gases, sometimes accumulates in the bottom of a well. They came to the house and asked my mother for a bucket and a candle. They set the candle in the bottom of the bucket and lowered it slowly into the well, and the candle went out. Pat said, ‘Ah, Jamie, there is death in that hole.’ They got some pine brush, tied a rope to them and swished the well out with them. They again lowered the candle and it burned brightly clear to the bottom. And the Irishman said, ‘The candle burns bright; she’s safe now.’”--“Famous Stories of Sam P. Jones.”

(1851)

LIGHT, SOURCE OF

Light can not be seen. At great heights reached by aeronauts the heavens seem black, and the stars come out and twinkle against a background of jet. Yet this unfathomed deep of darkness is light and nothing but light. Whatever object the light falls upon shines; every object that produces it shines; but the light itself is not seen.

God is light. No man hath seen him at any time, but there is no glory that does not come from Him. No light shines on earth that did not come from heaven. Yet a man may sit by his little lamp and forget the sun and stars. (Text.)

(1852)

LIGHT THAT CHEERS

The Rev. C. A. S. Dwight says:

“During a damp, foggy evening along the New England shore, a summer resident who had been skirting the beach in a row-boat, was struggling at the oars, trying to drive his little craft through the waters despite the drag upon it of a heavy object towing on behind. It was a dismal evening, and he was tired and weary of his attempted task. But just when his depression was greatest he heard the voice of his little boy hailing him from the beach. Looking through the gloom he could discern the faint glow on the shore, while his boy called encouragingly, ‘Papa, I’ll cheer you with this lantern!’ The heart of the father was gladdened, and his work after that seemed light, for so great is the power of loving sympathy that it illumines all shadows and lightens all tasks.

“I’ll cheer you with this lantern!” We all of us hold in our hands some instrument of blessing, whether it be a lantern or not, by the use of which, if we are alert to note the changing necessities of those about us, we can every now and then cast a gladdening or directing ray over life’s dark waters, or extend some other “help in time of need” to a troubled brother.” (Text.)

(1853)

LIKENESS OF GOD

King Edward of England was driving along a country road in Scotland one day when he overtook an old market-woman struggling under a load which was more than she could well manage. “You might take part of this in your carriage,” she cried to the King whom she did not recognize. “Alas! my good woman,” replied his Majesty with royal courtesy, “I’m very sorry, but I’m not going the same way. However, let me give you the portrait of my mother.” “A lot of good that will do me,” said the woman testily. “Take it all the same,” said the King, smiling, and he put a sovereign, bearing Queen Victoria’s effigy, in the palm of the astonished old peasant.

That is exactly what every kind deed or generous gift is, a likeness of our Father. It is just like Him.

(1854)

=Likeness to Christ=--See FUTURE LIFE.

LIMITATION OF THE SENSES

Reasoning from the analogy of stretched strings and membranes, and of air vibrating in tubes, etc., we are justified in concluding that the smaller the drum or the tube the higher will be the note it produces when agitated, and the smaller and the more rapid the aerial wave to which it will respond. The drums of insect ears, and the tubes, etc., connected with them, are so minute that their world of sounds probably begins where ours ceases; that the sound which appears to us as continuous is to them a series of separated blows, just as vibrations of ten or twelve per second appear to us. We begin to hear such vibrations as continuous sounds when they amount to about thirty per second. The insect’s continuous sound probably begins beyond three thousand. The bluebottle fly may thus enjoy a whole world of exquisite music of which we know nothing. (Text.)--W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, “Science in Short Chapters.”

(1855)

LIMITATIONS GLORIFIED

We are apt to chafe at restrictions of all kinds, but these may be disguised blessings. Oftener the narrower the outward sphere, the more valuable the outcome. The lenses of a telescope are narrow, but through them we read the story of the stars. Darwin in the earthworm saw wonders which he spent several years in investigating. The wise botanist does not gather all the flowers in the garden at once; he confines himself to single specimens. One of Murillo’s finest pictures is in the Louvre at Paris. It shows us the interior of a convent kitchen; but doing the work there are not mortals in old dresses, but angels, white-winged and beautiful. One serenely puts the kettle on the fire to boil, and one is lifting up a pail of water with heavenly grace, and one is at the kitchen dresser reaching up for plates. As the painter puts it, all on the canvas are so busy, and working with such a will, and so refining the work as they do it, that somehow you forget that pans are pans and pots are pots, and only think of the angels, and how very natural and beautiful kitchen work is--just what the angels would do.

(1856)

=Lincoln and Children=--See CHILDREN, LINCOLN’S REGARD FOR.

=Lincoln Story=--See GOOD FOR EVIL.

=Lincoln’s First Dollar=--See MONEY, EARNING.

=Liquor=--See MONEY, HOW WE SPEND OUR.

LIQUOR-TRAFFIC

The following chart shows the cost of intoxicating liquors consumed in the United States for twenty years, and the relative yearly increase. The chart is from the _American Prohibition Yearbook_:

1888 $ 818,087,725 ================== 1889 840,880,849 ==================== 1890 902,645,867 ====================== 1891 979,582,803 ======================== 1892 1,014,894,364 ========================= 1893 1,079,483,172 =========================== 1894 1,024,621,491 ========================= 1895 970,947,333 ====================== 1896 962,094,975 ====================== 1897 993,203,557 ======================== 1898 1,041,562,868 ========================= 1899 1,070,689,978 =========================== 1900 1,172,226,614 ============================= 1901 1,219,997,990 =============================== 1902 1,347,783,644 ================================= 1903 1,410,610,218 ================================== 1904 1,463,678,530 ==================================== 1905 1,465,901,664 ==================================== 1906 1,608,021,917 ===================================== 1907 1,757,307,854 ======================================== 1908 1,675,838,197 =======================================

(1858)

LIQUOR REVENUE REFUSED

What a rebuke to this nation receiving millions of dollars annually from its revenue on liquors, is conveyed by the Queen of Madagascar when she says, “I can not consent, as your queen, to take a single penny of revenue from that which destroys the souls and bodies of my subjects.”--_Congregationalist._

(1857)

LISTENING FOR SIGNALS

A news item, referring to the wreck of the _Republic_, and the hearing of the first wireless news of the disaster by the operator at the station on Nantucket Island, says:

Imagine a lonely island in the middle of winter, thereon a lonely Marconi station, therein a lonely Marconi operator, with his telephones glued to his head watching the break of day, thinking of his past and future, listening for any sign of life in his telephones. Imagine that man suddenly startled with a faint, very faint, call from a ship using the recognized distress signal, giving her position and calling for help. Slowly, all too slowly, came the cry for urgent aid, each call seemingly taking an hour’s valuable time, yet in truth but a fraction of a second. Will he never sign? Who can it be? At last came the recognized code letters of the White Star _Republic_, and again the call for aid. With this information Operator Irwin, of the Marconi force at the station here, who was on duty at the time, immediately got the wires hot, knowing the revenue cutter _Acushnet_ to be lying at Wood’s Hole, and within one minute the captain was informed that his calls had been heard and aid was being rushed to him.

The soul attent to hear the world’s signals that call for help should be ready to serve and save the lost and needy.

(1859)

LITERALISM

“One of the stories of the ‘road’ that Mr. Joseph Jefferson delighted to tell grew out of an experience in an Indiana town, where he was presenting ‘Rip Van Winkle,’ many years ago.

“In the hotel where he stopt was an Irishman who was employed as a porter, but from the serious interest he took in the house he might have been clerk and proprietor rolled into one.

“At six in the morning Mr. Jefferson was startled by a violent thumping at his door. With slowly returning consciousness, he remembered that he had left no call on the night before, and naturally became indignant. His sleep was spoiled for the morning, so he arose and appeared before the clerk.

“‘See here,’ he demanded, ‘why have I been called at this unearthly hour?’

“‘I don’t know,” replied the clerk. ‘I’ll ask Mike.’

“The porter was summoned. ‘Mike, there was no call for Mr. Jefferson. Why did you disturb him?’ he was asked.

“Taking the clerk by his coat-sleeve, the Irishman led him to one side. ‘He was shnoring loike a horse, sir,’ he explained, ‘and I’d heered by the b’yes how onct he were after slapin’ for twinty years, so, says I to myself, it’s a coomin’ on to him agin, an’ it’s yer juty to git the crayther out o’ the house instantly!’”

(1860)

See KNOWLEDGE BY INDIRECTION; JUDGMENT, LACK OF.

=Literary Workman=--See ACQUISITION.

LITERATURE AND MIND EXPANSION

When Coleridge was a boy of eight, his father on a starry night explained to him the size and number of the heavenly bodies with their vast movements. He looked for surprize and wonder in the boy. But the poet tells us that he felt no special wonder, because his mind, through long, happy days of reading fairy-stories, had grown accustomed to feelings of the vast, and to having criteria for belief other than those of his senses. Literature accustoms the mind to feelings of sublimity, wonder, intricacy, and the constant workings of higher laws. These are noble contributions to the religious consciousness.--WILLIAM D. MACCLINTOCK, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1904.

(1861)

LITERATURE AS AN INSPIRATION

Literature is but one of the forms of art through which man’s aspiration, his ideals, are revealed. The soul of man takes the hues of that which environs it. It is literature which inspires; not linguistics, rhetoric, and grammar, valuable as these may be for other purposes. Witness the tributes of Darwin and Mill to the power of imaginative literature; these men mourned the fact that other things deprived them of that great power of culture of the feelings which the love of literature brought. Barrie has said that a young man may be better employed than in going to college; but when there, he is unfortunate if he does not meet some one who sends his life off at a new angle. “One such professor,” says he, “is the most any university may hope for in a single generation.” He says, “When you looked into my mother’s eyes, you knew why it was that God sent her into the world; it was to open the eyes of all who looked to beautiful thoughts, and that is the beginning and end of literature.” After having opened the eyes of people to beautiful thoughts, we must be willing to wait, for moral results do not come immediately.--A. J. GEORGE, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association.”

(1862)

LITERATURE, CURRENT

Current literature is like a garden I once saw. Its proud owner led me through a maze of smooth-trodden paths, and pointed out a vast number of horticultural achievements. There were sixty-seven varieties of dahlias, there were more than a hundred kinds of roses, there were untold wonders which at last my weary brain refused to record. Finally I escaped, exhausted, and sought refuge on a hillside I knew, from which I could look across the billowing green of a great rye-field, and there, given up to the beauty of its manifold simplicity, I invited my soul.

It is even so with our reading. When I go into one of our public reading-rooms, and survey the serried ranks of magazines and the long shelves full of “Recent fiction, not to be taken out for more than five days”--nay, even when I look at the library tables of some of my friends--my brain grows sick and I long for my rye-field.--_The Outlook._

(1863)

=Literature in Advertising=--See ADVERTISING.

=Literature in Prisons=--See PRISON LITERATURE.

=Literature, Short-lived=--See EVANESCENT LITERATURE.

=Little Deeds of Kindness=--See CHEER, SIGNALS OF.

=Little Evils=--See DESTRUCTIVENESS.

LITTLE GIFTS

An Australian missionary was addressing a band of children on the needs of the people among whom he was working. A little one slipt a sixpence shyly into his hand with the request that he use it for something special. He bought with it a prayer-book, and gave it to a poor workhouse girl who had been sent from England to go into service on an Australian farm. She promised to read it faithfully. Several weeks later a rough-looking man came and asked him if he were the person who had given his servant a prayer-book. His wife was very ill and wanted to see him. Altho it was twenty miles inland, the clergyman went and ministered to the poor woman. A little while later the man came once more to the minister and said that he and his neighbors had built a little church and paid for it and wanted him to come and conduct services among them. Thus an entirely new work was opened as a result of the little child’s sixpence.

(1864)

See CHILD’S GIFT.

LITTLE SINS

And I am afraid of little sins because they grow so great. No one can tell whereunto sin will lead. The beginnings of sin are like the leakings of water from a mighty reservoir; first an innocent ooze, then a drip, then a tiny stream, then a larger vein, then a flood, and the rampart gives way and the town is swept to ruin. The habits of sin are like the habits of burglars, who sometimes take a little fellow and put him through a window too small for a man to enter, and the child must open the door for the burglar gang to pass. So with little sins; they creep in and open the door for larger to enter. A little sin is the thin edge of the wedge, and when once inserted it can be driven home till it splits and ruins the life.--A. H. C. MORSE.

(1865)

* * * * *

I remember, when a lad, the so-called army-worms first swept across the fields. They went straight ahead, and moved like a mighty host with captains. They were little things, but when they were gone the fields looked as tho they had been swept by a fire. So a thousand little wrongs in the life can rob it of beauty as really as one great, blazing, public transgression.--A. H. C. MORSE.

(1866)

* * * * *

I am afraid of little sins because they involve a great principle. You go into a bank with a check for $1,000, and in his hurry the clerk passes out $1,100, and you walk out of the bank with that sum. You agree with me, I suppose, that you do a dishonest thing--that you have stolen $100. Would it not be the same if your check called for $5, and he gave you $6 by mistake? You ride on a train to Boston, and by some oversight your ticket is not collected, and you ride back on that very same ticket. You agree with me that the thing is wrong. Is it not the same when you ride on a trolley car and elude the conductor, or slip past the gateman and enter the train? In either case the man is a thief.--A. H. C. MORSE.

(1867)

LITTLE THINGS

We belong to a scheme of nature in which the chief factor is the infinitesimal. The composition of the elements depends on the multitudinous accretions of particles. We are most in danger when we overlook the power of mere atoms to affect us, and when we despise trivial causes of mischief.

A cathedral clock with its musical chimes suddenly stopt intoning its sacred and beautiful melodies. The cause was for a time a perplexity, as nothing could be discovered to have gone wrong with the machinery of the chimes. But at length it was found that a frail brown butterfly had become entangled in the wheelworks, and had brought to a complete standstill the clock and its chimes. (Text.)

(1868)

* * * * *

Dr. S. P. Henson says:

What a multitude of threads make up a fringe; and yet how beautiful and costly when completed! And here is found a beauty of the real Christian life. There are not a few who may be willing upon rare and notable occasions to do or suffer some great thing, but the ten thousand little things of life are entirely beneath their notice, as they also suppose them to be beneath the notice of the Lord. (Text.)

(1869)

See FAITH IN GOD.

=Lives Corresponding to the Bible=--See NATIVE CONVERTS.

LIVES THAT SHINE

Don’t waste your time in longing For bright, impossible things; Don’t sit supinely yearning For the swiftness of angel wings; Don’t spurn to be a rushlight Because you are not a star; But brighten some bit of darkness By shining just where you are.

There is need of the tiniest candle As well as the garish sun; The humblest deed is ennobled When it is worthily done. You may never be called to brighten The darkened regions afar; So fill, for the day, your mission By shining just where you are.

Just where you are, my brother, Just where God bids you stand, Tho down in the deepest shadow, Instead of the sunlit land; You may carry a brightness with you That no gloom or darkness can mar, For the light of a Christlike spirit Will be shining wherever you are.(Text.)

(1870)

=Living in the Faith of Jesus=--See CHRIST, FAITH IN.

LIVING IN THE SHADOW

The second Duke of Wellington inherited a great talent for reticence from his father, and did not succeed to his title until he was forty-five. He had served in the army and in the House of Commons without making his mark in either save by conscientious attention to duty. In the House of Lords, however, shortly after taking his seat, he delivered a speech revealing such an intimate knowledge of public business, and of such luminous good sense, as to occasion surprize. Among those who congratulated him was “the candid friend” always present on such occasions. This “candid friend” explained to the duke that the latter had been generally regarded as a “colorless” man, and congratulated him on disproving the charge. The duke made a reply, applicable to many, saying, “If you had sat in the shade of a great tree for almost fifty years very likely people would have regarded you as colorless, too.”

George V, like the second Duke of Wellington, has for almost half a century lived in the shadow of a great tree. From infancy up to his twenty-seventh year he was in the second rank of public interest. Not a negligible quantity, he yet could not be, while the Duke of Clarence lived, conspicuous. Moreover, he was wise to sink his royal personality in the discharge of his duty as a naval officer. The British have peculiar tastes and standards, and they do not altogether like to see a younger member of the royal family very conspicuous in public affairs. A “pushful” prince would be almost obnoxious to their traditions. A royal general or a royal admiral must not lead too much, or the old jealousy of militarism might crop out in the nation, which licenses the existence of its standing army only from year to year. Consequently George V, when Duke of York and subsequently when Prince of Wales, may have been called upon to dissemble, and he may yet demonstrate that his reputation as a colorless man is due to the public inability to understand what constitutes the spectrum of character.--Boston _Transcript_.

(1871)

LIVING, STRENGTH FOR

There was a time when low on bended knee, With outstretched hand and wet uplifted eye I cried: O Father, teach me how to die, And give me strength Death’s awful face to see And not to fear. Henceforth my prayer shall be; Help me to live. Stern life stalks by Relentless and inexorable, no cry For help or pity moveth her as she Gives to each one the burden of the day. Therefore, let us pray: Give us the strength we need to live, O Lord.

--JULIA C. R. DORR.

(1872)

=Living, The, as an Asset=--See MOTIVE, MERCENARY.

LIVING THE GOSPEL

An American teacher was employed in Japan in a government school, on the understanding that during school hours he should not utter a word on the subject of Christianity. The engagement was faithfully kept, and he lived before his students the Christ life, but never spoke of it to them. Not a word was said to influence the young men committed to his care, but so beautiful was his character, and so blameless his example, that forty of the students without his knowledge, met in a grove and signed a secret covenant to abandon idolatry. Twenty-five of them entered the Kyoto Christian Training School and some of them are now preaching the gospel which their teacher unconsciously commended.

(1873)

=Loads=--See OVERLOADING.

LOADS, BALKING UNDER

This morning I saw a pair of horses which had evidently become discouraged by being hitched to loads that were too heavy for them. At the start they did their best to go forward; when the driver struck them with his whip they made an effort to pull; but one could see that their spirit had been broken; the long struggle with unequal burdens had caused them to lose their confidence and their grip, and after a while they ceased to make any effort to move.

I have often seen other horses loaded beyond their strength; but no matter how heavy their load, they would pull again and again with all their might, stretching to the utmost every muscle, nerve, and fiber in them; and, altho they could not start the load, they would never give up trying.

Everywhere in life we find people like those horses. Some have become discouraged by trying to carry too heavy a load, and finally give up the struggle. They spurt a little now and again, but there is no heart, no spirit in their effort. The buoyancy and cheer and enthusiasm have gone out of their lives. They have been tugging away over heavy loads so long that they have become disheartened. There is no more fight in them.

There are others who, no matter how heavy their load, will never cease in their efforts to go forward. They will try a thousand times with all their might and main; they will tug away until completely exhausted; they will gather their strength and try again and again without losing heart or courage. Nothing will daunt them, or induce them to give up the struggle. When everybody else lets go, they stick because they are made of winning material, the mettle which never gives up.--_Success._

(1874)

LOCAL PRIDE

Augustine Burrell tells the following incident which goes to prove that things are great or small to men, according to very local points of view:

Bonnor, the Australian cricketer, told us that until that evening he had never heard of Dr. Johnson. Thereupon somebody was thoughtless enough to titter audibly. “Yes,” added Bonnor, in heightened tones, and drawing himself proudly up, “and what is more, I come from a great country, where you might ride a horse sixty miles a day for three months, and never meet anybody who had.”

(1875)

=Location=--See SENTIMENT MIXED.

=Location in Animals=--See DIRECTION, SENSE OF.

LOCUSTS AS FOOD

In the East, as elsewhere, since the Biblical days of John’s “locusts and honey,” locusts have been deemed more or less edible. In Palestine to this day they are considered a luxury. The Jews fry them in sesame oil, sesame being the grain of which mention is made in the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” a favorite tale in the _Arabian Nights_ entertainments.

In Arabia Petrea locusts are dried in the sun and then ground into a sort of flour for baking; and in Central Africa certain tribes employ locusts for making a thick brown soup.

In Madagascar they are baked in huge jars, fried in grease, and then mixed with rice, forming a dainty much affected by the dusky inhabitants of that big island.

The Algerians have a simpler method. They merely boil the locusts in water and salt them to the taste. The Arabians grind and bake the locusts as cakes, roast them in butter, or else crush them in a mixture of camel’s cheese and dates.

Locusts are also eaten, in times of famine, in southern Russia, generally by the poorest of the poor, among whom the insects are smoked like fish. In the preparation of locusts for food the legs and wings are invariably detached.

It is said that, while the flavor of locusts is strangely disagreeable in the raw state, this flavor is readily disguised and even becomes agreeable when the insect is cooked. Some of the locust soups are, we are told, scarcely to be distinguished from beef broth; and when the little insects are fried in their own oil and slightly salted they take on a pleasing nutty flavor. (Text.)--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1876)

LONELINESS, PERILS OF

Recently a London pastor preached a sermon on the after-business occupations of young people, in which he said that from 6 to 11 P.M. was the danger zone for young folks who are employed during the day. Speaking of the mesmeric glitter of London, and the fascination of its so-called amusements, he made the assertion that he believed that the theaters and music-halls should be controlled by the churches.

The Sunday-school _Chronicle_ sent an interviewer to ask him why he made this statement. His answer follows:

“First of all,” said the pastor, “I have been so deeply imprest by the sense of awful loneliness which is experienced by young people coming to central London from the provinces. I know for a fact that scores of young men and women go to the bad because of the absolute friendlessness of their lives. Six months ago I spent two days at the Old Bailey Sessions House trying to snatch a girl of nineteen from prison. She came to London motherless and friendless, and was spoken to kindly by a young man in Oxford street. She appreciated the apparent sympathy which this stranger extended to her--well, the rest of the story of her downfall may be imagined. Many of these young people have nowhere to go after business hours but the music-hall or the public-house, and the things they take away from these places and retail in their houses of business are the questionable jokes which they have heard. So for these young people I plead for churches that are homes and amusements that are healthy.”--_The Advance._

(1877)

=Lonesomeness Abated=--See REMINDERS.

LONGEVITY ACCOUNTED FOR

Senator Chauncey M. Depew, entertained at a dinner on the occasion of his seventy-sixth birthday, said:

Fifty-four years in public and semipublic life and upon the platform all over this country and in Europe for all sorts of objects in every department of human interest have given me a larger acquaintance than almost anybody living. The sum of observation and experience growing out of this opportunity is that granted normal conditions, no hereditary troubles, and barring accidents and plagues, the man who dies before seventy commits suicide. Mourning the loss of friends has led me to study the causes of their earlier departure. It could invariably be traced to intemperance in the broadest sense of that word; intemperance in eating, in drinking, in the gratification of desires, in work, and in irregularity of hours, crowning it all with unnecessary worry.--New York _Times_.

(1878)

=Longevity and Work=--See INDUSTRY AND LONGEVITY.

LONGEVITY, EXAMPLE OF

One of the most extraordinary incidents in the whole record of longevity is reported from Pesth, in Hungary, where a beggar, aged eighty-four, tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Danube because he was no longer able to support his father and mother, who are one hundred and fifteen and one hundred and ten years old, respectively. When he told this story, after his rescue, it was laughed at, but a police inquiry showed it to be true. The family are Magyars from the extreme south of Hungary.--_Public Opinion._

(1879)

LONGEVITY INCREASING

“It is estimated,” said Dr. Felton, the learned Georgia statesman, divine, and M.D., in an address before the graduating class of Atlanta Medical College, “that human life has increased twenty-five per cent in the past fifty years.” The average human life in Rome under Cæsar was eighteen years; now it is forty. The average in France fifty years ago was twenty-eight; the mean duration in 1887 was forty-five and one-half years. In Geneva during the thirteenth century a generation played its part upon the stage and disappeared in fourteen years; now the drama requires forty years before the curtain falls. During the golden reign of good Queen Bess, in London and all the large cities of merry old England, fifty out of every 1,000 paid the last debt to nature early, which means instead of threescore-and-ten, they averaged but one score. Now, in the city of London, the average is forty-seven years.--DR. TODD.

(1880)

See IMPROVED CONDITIONS.

LONGEVITY, RECIPES FOR

A complete list of infallible prescriptions for the prolongation of human life would fill a voluminous book, and would include some decidedly curious specifics. “To what do you ascribe your hale old age?” the Emperor Augustus asked a centenarian whom he found wrestling in the palestra and bandying jokes with the young athletes. “_Intus mulso, foris oleo_,” said the old fellow. “Oil for the skin and mead (water and honey) for the inner man.” Cardanus suggests that old age might be indefinitely postponed by a semifluid diet warmed (like mother’s milk) to the exact temperature of the human system; and Voltaire accuses his rival Maupertuis of having hoped to attain a similar result by varnishing his hide with a sort of resinous paint (_un poix resineux_) that would prevent the vital strength from evaporating by exhalation. Robert Burton recommends “oil of unaphar and dormouse fat”; Paracelsus rectified spirits of alcohol; Horace, olives and marshmallows. Dr. Zimmerman, the medical adviser of Frederick the Great, sums up the “Art of Longevity” in the following words: “Temperate habits, outdoor exercise, and steady industry, sweetened by occasional festivals.”(Text.)--FELIX OSWALD, _Bedford’s Magazine_.

(1881)

LONGING

The thing we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment, Before the present, poor and bare, Can make its sneering comment.

* * * * *

Longing is God’s fresh heavenward will With our poor earthward striving; We quench it that it may be still-- Content with merely living; But, would we learn that heart’s full scope, Which we are hourly wronging, Our lives must climb from hope to hope, And realize the longing.

--JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

(1882)

=Look, The Kind=--See FACE, AN INVITING.

LOOKING BOTH UP AND DOWN

“Your way is dark,” the angel said, “Because you downward gaze, Look up; the sun is overhead, Look up and learn to praise.” I looked; I learned. Who looks above Will find in heaven both light and love.

“Why upward gaze?” the angel said; “Have you not learned to know The light of God shines overhead That men may work below?” I learned. Who only looks above May miss below the work of love,

And thus I learned the lessons twain: The heart whose treasure is above Will gladly turn to earth again Because the heaven is love. Yea, love that framed the starry height Came down to earth and gave it light.

--BISHOP OF RIPON.

(1883)

LOOKING DOWN

It is usually the small-souled and narrow-minded man who can decry faults and failings with an eagle eye, but upon whom all the finer and grander qualities of humanity are lost. To him who ever walks with head bent and eyes on the ground the whole universe appears to be made of dust; but he who goes with head erect and eyes uplifted breathes the pure air and greets the rising sun, and forgets the dust that may be under his feet.--Philadelphia _Ledger_.

(1884)

LOOKING UP

In the early days of Britain, when the Christian Cuthbert and his companions were driven from the bitter land to sea, and then were cast upon a dreary shore by a terrible storm, they cried, “No path is open for us; let us perish: we are driven from land to sea and from sea to land.” And Cuthbert answered, “Have ye so little faith, my comrades?” and then lifting his eyes to heaven he prayed, “I thank Thee, Lord, that the way to heaven is still open.”

When there is no other way to look for help, we may look up. (Text.)

(1885)

=Loquacity=--See VERBIAGE.

LORD’S PRAYER INTERPRETED

A friend tells us an anecdote of Booth, the tragedian:

Booth and several friends had been invited to dine with an old gentleman in Baltimore, of distinguished kindness, urbanity, and piety. The host, altho disapproving of theaters and theater-going, had heard so much of Booth’s remarkable powers that curiosity to see the man had, in this instance, overcome all scruples and prejudices. After the entertainment was over, lamps lighted, and the company reseated in the drawing-room, some one requested Booth as a particular favor, and one which all present would doubtless appreciate, to read aloud the Lord’s Prayer. Booth exprest his willingness to do this, and all eyes were turned expectantly upon him. Booth rose slowly and reverently from his chair. It was wonderful to watch the play of emotions that convulsed his countenance. He became deathly pale, and his eyes, turned tremblingly upward, were wet with tears. And yet he had not spoken. The silence could be felt. It became absolutely painful, till at last the spell was broken as if by an electric shock, as his rich-toned voice, from white lips syllabled forth, “Our Father who art in heaven,” etc., with a pathos and solemnity that thrilled all hearers. He finished. The silence continued. Not a voice was heard or a muscle moved in his rapt audience, till from a remote corner of the room a subdued sob was heard, and the old gentleman, their host, stept forward, with streaming eyes and tottering frame, and seized Booth by the hand. “Sir,” said he, in broken accents, “you have afforded me a pleasure for which my whole future life will feel grateful. I am an old man, and every day from my boyhood to the present time I thought I had repeated the Lord’s prayer; but I have never heard it--never.” “You are right,” replied Booth; “to read that prayer as it should be read has caused me the severest study and labor for thirty years; and I am far from being satisfied with my rendering of that wonderful production.”--_The Millenarian._

(1886)

=Losing and Saving=--See MESSAGE, A TIMELY.

=Loss and Gain=--See COMPENSATION; DEPORTMENT; FAST LIVING.

LOSS AND PROFIT

It is said that the bursting of a pin in the driving-wheel of an engine in the Illinois Steel Company will cost the company $369,000, since the accident stopt the operation of the whole plant about six days and a half, and the loss involved by the stop was reckoned at about $40 a minute. This fable teaches that great business operations work both ways: where big profits are made big losses stand ready to overwhelm when something goes wrong.

(1887)

=Loss Creating Wealth=--See DISCOVERY, ACCIDENTAL.

LOSS, GAIN IN

When Mahamoud, the conqueror of India, took the city of Gujarat, he proceeded, as his custom was, to destroy the idols. One of these, standing fifteen feet high, the attendant priests and devotees begged him to spare. But, deaf to their entreaties, he seized a hammer and smote the idol, when to his amazement from the shattered image there rained a shower of gems--pearls and diamonds--treasures of fabulous value hidden within it. (Text.)

(1888)

=Loss Through Disuse=--See TALENTS, BURIED.

=Lost and Won=--See SUCCESS.

LOST CHORDS

How few of us have kept the early joy, and have continued in blest peace? Of course, you know the story of the lost chord? A woman, in the shadows of the twilight, when her heart was sad, gently touched the keys of a glorious organ. She did not know nor care what she was playing; her fingers lingered idly but caressingly upon the keys. Suddenly she struck a chord, and its wondrous melody as it filled the room was uplifting and transforming and heavenly.

It flooded the crimson twilight, Like the close of an angel’s psalm, And it lay on her fevered spirit With the touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow, Like love overcoming strife; It seemed the harmonious echo From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexed meanings Into one perfect peace, And trembled away in silence, As if it were loath to cease.

Something disturbed this woman and called her from the organ. As soon as possible she hurried back and began to play, but this divine chord was gone, and tho she kept on playing she could not bring it back again. (Text.)--CURTIS LEE LAWS.

(1889)

LOST, CRY OF THE

A drover in Dakota promised to bring home from his cattle sale a doll for his little girl. He was caught in a blizzard, and night found him still miles from home. In the darkness he heard a cry, possibly of a child lost in the storm. He was thankful for the warm house that sheltered his own child, but he could not leave that cry off in the dark, tho he knew he was risking his life lingering. It was hard tracing the feeble cry, and when at last he found it it was not crying. He gathered it up under his big overcoat and struggled homeward, stumbling, nearly perishing, but at last fell in over his own threshold, with his own child saved in his arms.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(1890)

LOST, FINDING THE

Shortly before the death of Eugene Field a friend from one of the Southern States told him a pathetic story of a girl who had wandered away from her home in the country and taken refuge in a large city, with the usual results of that dangerous step:

Her old father mourned for the girl he had lost; but in his simplicity it never occurred to him to try to find her, for the world beyond the limits of his township was vast and forbidding. But word came to him one day that somebody had seen his daughter in the city, one hundred miles away, and with only that to guide him he went in search of her.

Once in the city, he shrank from the noise and confusion of the crowds. He waited until night, and then when the streets were comparatively deserted, he roamed up and down from one street to another, giving the peculiar cry he had always used when looking for a lost lamb--a cry the girl herself had heard and given many times in her better days. A policeman stopt the old man and warned him that he was disturbing the peace, whereupon the father told his story and said:

“She will come to me if she hears that cry.”

The officer was moved by the old man’s simplicity and earnestness, and offered to accompany him in his search. So on they went up and down the thoroughfares and into the most abandoned sections of the city, the farmer giving the plaintive cry and the officer leading the way that seemed the most promising of success.

And success did come. The girl heard the cry, recognized it, and intuitively felt that it was for her. She rushed into the street and straight to her father’s arms. She confest the weariness and misery of her lot, and begged that he would take her back to the farm, where she might begin a new and better life. Together they left the city the next day. (Text.)

(1891)

=Lost, Not, but Gone Before=--See EVIDENCE, PROVIDENTIAL.

LOST, SEEKING THE

Years ago when Charley Ross was kidnapped, his broken-hearted father declared: “I will search for my lost boy while life lasts. I will go up and down the earth, and look into the face of this child and that to see if it is my lost boy.”

The great Father is engaged in a similar search; nor will He rest until the lost is found. (Text.)

(1892)

* * * * *

The Arab Waziers have a tradition as to their origin:

A certain ancestor had two sons, Issa and Missa, which may mean Jesus and Moses. Missa was a shepherd, and one day a lamb wandered away and was not to be found. For three days and nights Missa sought it far and near through the jungle. On the fourth morning he found it in a distant valley, and instead of being angry with the lamb for straying and giving him all his pains and anxiety, he took it in his arms, prest it to his bosom, kissed it tenderly and carried it back to the flock. For this humane act God greatly blest Missa and made him progenitor of the Wazir tribe. (Text.)

(1893)

=Lot, Consulting the Bible by=--See BIBLIOMANCY.

LOVE

To cease from egotistic ambition and learn love with a humble mind is the lesson of this verse by John G. Neehardt:

For my faith was the faith of dusk and riot, The faith of fevered blood and selfish lust; Until I learned that love is cool and quiet And not akin to dust.

For once as in Apocalyptic vision, Above my smoking altars did I see My god’s face, veilless, ugly with derision-- The shameless, magnified; projected--_Me_!

And I have left mine ancient fanes to crumble, And I have hurled my false gods from the sky; I wish to grasp the joy of being humble, To build great love an altar ere I die.

(1894)

* * * * *

Love is not merely a sentiment. It will have its material expression if it is real. The following from Dr. W. T. Grenfell refers to the fishermen of the North Sea Coast:

The intense cold of winter, and the inadequacy of the warm clothes with which the men, and especially the boys, were unable to provide themselves, claimed attention, and warm hearts of Christian ladies told all over England were moved by the tales of this great need. Hundreds and thousands of warm mittens, helmets, mufflers, and guernseys have been sent out during these past years, and have been true messages of love.

“Look ’ere,” said a grizzled skipper, pulling out three mufflers from his pocket, to three wild friends of his whom he was visiting, “look ’ere, will yer admit there’s love in those mufflers? Yer see them ladies never see’d yer, nor never knowed yer, yet they jest sent me these mufflers for you. Well, then, how much more must Christ Jesus ’ave loved yer, when He give His life blood to save yer.”

I have it from his own lips as well as one of theirs, that this was the beginning of leading those three men to God; and before he left the ship that night, they were trusting in Christ for pardon, and for strength to live as His children.

(1895)

* * * * *

Joseph Dana Miller shows how love socializes the solitary soul:

God pity those who know not the touch of hands-- Who dwell from all their fellows far apart, Who, isolated in unpeopled lands, Know not a friend’s communion, heart to heart!

But pity these--oh, pity these the more, Who of the populous town a desert make, Pent in a solitude upon whose shore The tides of sweet compassion never break!

These are the dread Saharas we enclose About our lives when love we put away; Amid life’s roses, not a scent of rose; Amid the blossoming, nothing but decay.

But if ’tis love we search for, knowledge comes, And love that passeth knowledge--God is there! Who seek the love of hearts find in their homes Peace at the threshold, angels on the stair. (Text.)

--_Munsey’s Magazine._

(1896)

* * * * *

The old fable of the bar of iron as an illustration of the superior power of love will never be superseded.

The bar of iron lay across a log to be broken. “I can make it yield,” boasted the hammer, but at the first blow the hammer flew from its handle helpless to the ground. The ax followed proudly, “I can succeed.” But after two or three strokes its edge was dulled without leaving any impression on the iron bar. “I, with my sharp teeth, will soon sever it,” said the saw, with a confident air; only to have all its teeth broken in the task. At length a quiet, warm flame said, “Let me try, it may yield to me.” And the little flame twined itself about the iron in a gentle, loving way, imparting an influence that finally made the strong bar yield and fall apart.

(1897)

* * * * *

The power of love to draw out what is best in men is poetically exprest by L. M. Montgomery:

Upon the marsh mud, dank and foul, A golden sunbeam softly fell, And from the noisome depths arose A lily miracle.

Upon a dark, bemired life A gleam of human love was flung. And lo, from that ungenial soil A noble deed upsprung.

(1898)

* * * * *

Upon the foundation of love a great work was done in Paris, France:

When Mr. McAll began his work he could utter but two sentences in the tongue of those workingmen. One was “God loves you,” and the other, “I love you”; and upon those two, as pillars, the whole arch rests.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(1899)

See PRODIGAL, THE.

LOVE A FINALITY

In his poem “Virgillia” Edwin Markham has these stanzas:

If this all is a dream, then perhaps our dreaming Can touch life’s height to a finer fire; Who knows but the heavens and all their seeming, Were made by the heart’s desire?

One thing shines clear in the heart’s own reason, One lightning over the chasm runs-- That to turn from love is the world’s one treason That treads down all the suns.

So I go to the long adventure, lifting My face to the far, mysterious goals, To the last assize, to the final sifting Of gods and stars and souls. (Text.)

--_The Cosmopolitan._

(1900)

LOVE A HARMONIZER

Life’s harmony must have its discords; but, as in music, pathos is tempered into pleasure by the pervading spirit of beauty, so are all life’s sounds tempered by love.--GEORGE HENRY LEWES.

(1901)

=Love, A Mother’s=--See MOTHER-LOVE.

LOVE, A PROOF OF

We can not permanently benefit men until we are willing to get near to them. The Christian method of charity is illustrated in this incident in the career of a notable promoter of London city missions:

Love is not fastidious; her hands are as busy as her heart is full. He (Frank Crossley) found five dirty youngsters (their father a sot, their mother in the sick ward), and he burned their old clothes and clad them in clean ones, and then sent them to play with his own boy! Is it any wonder if both their father and mother were won?--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(1902)

LOVE AND LAW

As to which was the first and greatest command, the rabbis were in grave doubt. Most agreed that the smallest and least command was the one concerning the bird’s nest, recorded in Deut. 22:6, 7; but when it came to the first and greatest, they were in doubt, whether it was the one respecting the observance of the Sabbath, or the law concerning circumcision, or the one concerning fringes and phylacteries, while still others contended that the omission of ceremonial ablutions was as bad as homicide. With these distinctions and differences and absurd hair-splittings in mind the young lawyer addrest the master with the question, “Which is the first commandment of all?” What a majestic answer was that which he received! Nothing in it about fringes and phylacteries, nothing about ceremonial washings, nothing about attitudes and genuflections; but the grand answer which will abide for all time to come: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, this is the first commandment.” This answer goes to the heart of the matter. Eighteen hundred years have not suggested any improvement or addition to the great answer, nor will eighteen hundred years to come, because it embraces all other answers and is the sum total of morality.--_The Golden Rule._

(1903)

LOVE AND TIME

Love that lasts is the power that binds heart to heart with the indissoluble bonds. Such love knows no limit of time. Dr. Van Dyke says:

Time is Too slow for those who wait, Too swift for those who fear, Too long for those who grieve, Too short for those who rejoice; But for those who love Time is not!

--_Church Advocate._

(1904)

=Love as a Converting Power=--See PERSECUTION AND PRAYER.

LOVE AS A SIDING

With our differing hereditary traits, educations, experience, and ways of living and thinking, it is quite impossible that there should not be collisions with those with whom we are living or working. We are like a number of trains trying to go in different directions on the same track. Congestions are certain to come, but a congestion need not degenerate into a collision and a wreck if we will remember that there are plenty of sidings. Now a “siding” is a sort of abbreviated second track whereby trains going in opposite directions may pass each other in safety. In material railways they bear various names; on the invisible pathway of life they are all called love. Sometimes they are nicknamed forbearance, tolerance, patience, or common sense; but these are all translations of the same thing. So in case of danger, remember the sidings.--JAMES M. STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

(1905)

=Love Compared=--See CHRIST’S LOVE.

LOVE, CONQUESTS OF

There is a story told In Eastern tents, when autumn nights grow cold And round the fire the Mongol shepherds sit With grave responses listening unto it: Once, on the errands of his mercy bent, Buddha, the holy and benevolent, Met a fell monster, huge and fierce of look, Whose awful voice the hills and forests shook. “O son of peace!” the giant cried, “thy fate Is sealed at last, and love shall yield to hate.” The unarmed Buddha, looking, with no trace Of fear or anger, in the monster’s face, In pity said: “Poor friend, even thee I love.” Lo! as he spake, the sky-tall terror sank To hand-breadth size; the huge abhorrence shrank Into the form and fashion of a dove; And where the thunder of its rage was heard, Circling above him, sweetly sang the bird: “Hate hath no harm for love,” so ran the song. “And peace unweaponed conquers every wrong!”

--GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN.

(1906)

=Love Dissolving Doubts=--See DOUBTS, DISSOLVING.

LOVE DRIVING OUT FEAR

Mr. Robert E. Speer stopt from a British India steamer at Muscat to visit Rev. Peter Zwemer, who was working there alone. Mr. Zwemer took his visitor up to his house, where, he said, his family were staying. There, sitting on benches about the room, were eighteen little black boys. They had been rescued from a slave-ship that had been coming up the eastern coast of Arabia with those little fellows, to be sold on the date plantations along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The British consul had seized them from the traders, and Mr. Zwemer had undertaken to keep them until they were eighteen years old, when they would be given their manumission papers.

“When I got them,” said Mr. Zwemer, “the whole eighteen huddled together in the middle of the floor, like jack-rabbits, and every time I came close, they huddled a little nearer. They mistrusted every one. On each little cheek-bone was the brand of the slave’s iron, and for months and months they had known nothing but hatred and beatings, and had been shut down in the hold of the slave-ship, in order that they might make no noise and betray their presence.”

As Mr. Speer saw them they looked happy and confident, and they sang for him, “Jesus loves me, this I know,” looking as if the realization that all their blessings had come from that divine Source had already sunk deep into their hearts. (Text.)

(1907)

LOVE, FILIAL

A boy of thirteen was often brought to Judge Lindsey’s Juvenile Court in Denver, charged with truancy. Notwithstanding the judge admonished him many times, it did not seem to do him any good. The teacher kept writing, “Tim will stay out of school to work.”

Once, when reproving him, the judge told him that there would be time enough to work when he was a man. “My father was a man,” replied the boy, “and he did not work. He went off and left mother and me. I guess that’s what killed her.”

Finally, Tim appeared in court one day with a happy face, and pulling a soiled and crumpled paper from his pocket, handed it to the judge. “I’m goin’ to remember all the things you told me and I’m goin’ to school regular, now I got that done,” he said, with some pride. Judge Lindsey examined the paper, which proved to be a receipted bill, and found that, little by little, Tim had paid fifty dollars for a headstone at his mother’s grave.

“My boy, is that what you’ve been doing all these months?”

“I wanted her to have a monument, judge.” Tim furtively wiped away the moisture in his eyes. “She done a lot for me; that’s all I could do for her now.”

(1908)

LOVE IN A NAME

James Hargreaves, sitting alone there in his little house in Yorkshire, finding that he could not get enough from the spinners of cotton to supply his wants as a weaver, cast about for a way to spin faster. After many weary days, and weeks, and months, he found out a method by which he could spin eight threads in the same time that one had previously been spun; and being asked for a name for the instrument, he looked lovingly upon his wife, and said: “We’ll call it Jenny”; and the modest Jenny has come down to posterity, and will go to remotest generations with the name of the “Spinning Jenny.”--GEORGE DAWSON.

(1909)

LOVE IN MAN

That trained horse that I saw in the World’s Fair, in seven years had learned twenty tricks. But that horse loved only one person, the master,/ and rushed with open her cheeks, and she said, “You must love in the animal world is a little tiny stream that trickles. Love in man is an ocean that rolls like the sea. Let us bow the forehead and smite upon the breast, and confess that man’s infinite capacity for love tells us he was made in the image of God.” (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1910)

LOVE INDESTRUCTIBLE

Asbestos is the most extraordinary of all minerals. It is of the nature of alabaster, but it may be drawn out into fine silken threads. It is indissoluble in water and unconsumed in fire. An asbestos handkerchief was presented to the Royal Society of England. It was thrown into an intensely hot fire and lost but two drams of its weight, and when thus heated was laid on white paper and did not burn it. Love is like asbestos. The waves of sorrow will not wash it away. The flames of tribulation will not burn it up. It is eternal and immortal. (Text.)

(1911)

LOVE INESCAPABLE

James Freeman Clarke, on his seventy-eighth birthday, wrote this significant bit of verse:

Be happy now and ever That from the love divine no power the soul shall sever: For not our feeble nor our stormy past, Nor shadows from the future backward cast; Not all the gulfs of evil far below, Nor mountain-peaks of good which soar on high Into the unstained sky, Nor any power the universe can know; Not the vast laws to whose control are given The blades of grass just springing from the sod, And stars within the unsounded depths of heaven-- Can touch the spirit hid with Christ in God. For nought that He has made, below, above, Can part us from His love.

(1912)

LOVE, INTERPRETATION BY

A story is told of an artist who painted the picture of the Crucifixion. When it was completed, he called in a lady friend to see it, and pulling the curtain aside, withdrew into the shade that he might see the effect on her face. He saw the tears running down her cheeks, and she said, “You must love Him to paint Him like that.” Her words touched his heart and he replied, “I hope I do, but as I love Him more I will paint Him better.”

(1913)

LOVE IS GOD’S NATURE

Why does this beautiful girl, that once was the center of attraction, in every reception, now hang over the cradle, refuse honors and give herself by day and by night to this little babe that puts helpless arms around the neck, that once flashed with jewels? We can only say that the mother is built that way. Why do robins sing? Why does the sunbeam warm? Why does summer ripen purple clusters? Why is a rose red? And a rainbow beautiful? When we can answer, we may be able to say why God loves His weak and sinful children. He loves them because it is His nature to love them.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1914)

LOVE-LETTER, ANCIENT

We possess many love-songs of the old Egyptians, but a genuine love-letter had not heretofore been found. Some years ago in Chaldea there was a love-letter found, written on clay. Tho the letter has much formality for such a missive, the reader can feel the tenderness that lies between its lines. The document was produced, we should say, in the year 2200 B.C., and was found in Sippara, the Biblical Sepharvani. Apparently the lady lived there, while her beloved was a resident of Babylon. The letter reads:

“To the lady, Kasbuya (little ewe) says Gimil Marduk (the favorite of Merodach) this: May the sun god of Marduk afford you eternal life. I write wishing that I may know how your health is. Oh, send me a message about it. I live in Babylon and have not seen you, and for this reason I am very anxious. Send me a message that will tell me when you will come to me, so that I may be happy. Come in Marchesvan. May you live long for my sake.”

(1915)

LOVE MAKES PATIENT

Ellen sat at the piano practising. The big clock in the corner was slowly ticking away the seconds, and the hands pointed to half-past ten.

“Oh, dear!” sighed Ellen. “A whole half hour more; and the clock seems to move more slowly than usual. How I hate this everlasting practising! I wish there were no such things as pianos in the world!”

“Why, Ellen!” said mama, who had entered the room in time to hear the last sentence. “A year ago you were coaxing father to buy you a piano. Are you growing tired of it so soon?”

The little girl’s face flushed. “I did not know it was such hard work, mama; and I can’t bear to stay in the house a whole hour this bright morning, just drumming at exercises. I would like to play pretty pieces.”

“You must be patient, dear,” answered her mother. “The pretty pieces will come in time. Think how delightful it will be, by and by, to entertain father when he comes home tired from the office! You know how he loves music. So keep up your courage, little daughter, for father’s sake.”

The words lingered in the child’s memory. “For father’s sake,” she would say to herself when the hours seemed long. And love gave her patience.

Love always brings patience. Life’s exercises are often hard and unmusical. But, little by little, they are preparing us for the heavenly harmonies above.

(1916)

LOVE OF CHRIST

After Lafayette’s devoted service to our country, he was equally devoted to the cause of liberty in France, helping with wise and unselfish service. But he was opposed bitterly by the extremists, and driven by them out of the country, and was imprisoned by the Emperor of Austria for five years in a loathsome dungeon at Olmutz. All Europe was moved to get him released, and his wife pleaded with ruler after ruler, and at length was permitted to share his dungeon, which she did for about two years. His life was despaired of, but Napoleon Bonaparte compelled his release. Our Lord shares the sinner’s dungeon, and spares no pain for his release. (Text.)

(1917)

LOVE OWNS ALL

We can not go so far That home is out of sight; The morn, the evening star, Will say, “Good-day!” “Good-night!” The heart that loves will never be alone; All earth, all heaven it reckons as its own.

(1918)

LOVE, PRACTICAL

A dutiful son of his widowed mother once said, “I love my mother with all my strength.” “How is that?” he was asked. Said he, “I’ll tell you. We live in a tenement, on the top floor four flights up, with no elevator; and my mother being busy, I carry up the coal in a scuttle, and I tell you, it takes all my strength to do it.” (Text.)

(1919)

LOVE, PRESERVATIVE

Botanists tell us that strongly scented plants are of longer duration than those destitute of smell.

This is as true in the gardens of soul as in the gardens of nature. Lives fragrant with helpfulness endure. Those wanting in the aroma of love, die. (Text.)--VYRNWY MORGAN, “The Cambro-American Pulpit.”

(1920)

LOVE RATHER THAN KNOWLEDGE

“Papa,” said the son of Bishop Berkeley, “what is the meaning of the words ‘cherubim’ and ‘seraphim’ in the Bible?” “Cherubim,” replied his father, “is a Hebrew word signifying knowledge; seraphim is another word of the same language, and signifies flame; whence it is supposed that the cherubim are angels who excel in knowledge, and that the seraphim are angels who excel in loving God.” “I hope, then,” said the little boy, “when I die I shall be a seraph; for I would rather love God than know all things.”

The child had the right sentiment, if not the right theology.

(1921)

LOVE RECLAIMING

Dr. Felix Adler has brought to light an old legend of two brothers who lived and played together. At last one of them left home and got into evil ways, and finally was, by an evil magician, changed into a wolf. For long the bereaved brother sought the wanderer, and one day returning home through the woods, he was set on by a wolf, and by the might of his love under the spell of that continued gaze the features of the wolf began to disappear, until at length the brother was restored to his senses and to his home.

(1922)

=Love, Rewards of=--See RESIGNATION.

LOVE, THE LANGUAGE OF

When William Duncan went among the Alaskan Indians to convert them to Christianity, he won them first by his kindness. He visited them, helped them with simple advice, and administered to their ailments from his medicine-chest. Long before he could make himself understood in words he spoke intelligibly in his works. They understood the language of his love and sympathy and kindness. By relieving their suffering he found a way at length to relieve their sins, in the gospel that he learned to utter in his message to them from the Word of God.

There is a gospel without words, as there is music without words; and he is the real linguist that can talk from the heart to the heart by a vibrant love.

(1923)

LOVE THE WORLD’S NEED

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in the _Century Magazine_, writes thus of the world’s need:

Oh, love is the need of the world! Down under its pride of power, Down under its lust of greed, for the joys that last but an hour, There lies forever its need. For love is the law and the creed; And love is the aim and the goal Of life, from the man to the mole. The need of the world is love.

(1924)

LOVE UPLIFTING

Jacob Riis, in “The Making of an American,” brings from his Danish homeland a most beautiful and significant phrase. There is scant sunlight over there in the long, cold winters, and it is not easy to make plants grow. Yet the poor have their window-boxes and winter blossoms, nevertheless, and their tender winter lesson. For when they speak of their flowers they do not say that they have been grown; instead, with finest insight, they say that they have been “loved up.”

Almost any man can be “loved up.” So it is with the child, the waif of society.

(1925)

LOVE’S ACCEPTABLE OFFERING

One of the family was a little lad who was weak-minded, and him the father and mother specially loved. Yet there was little response to their affection. But one day, when the other children were gathering flowers and bringing them to their parents, the poor little lad gathered a bundle of dry sticks and brought them to his father. “I valued those sticks,” said the father afterward, “far more than the fairest flowers.” We are not all equally gifted--some can bring lovely flowers to God’s service and honor; others can only gather dry sticks. But even the “cup of cold water” is accepted by Him. (Text.)

(1926)

LOVE’S CAREFULNESS

If I knew that a word of mine, A word not kind and true, Might leave its trace On a loved one’s face, I’d never speak harshly, would you?

If I knew the light of a smile Might linger the whole day through And brighten some heart With a heavier part, I wouldn’t withhold it, would you?

--UNIDENTIFIED.

(1927)

LOVE’S COMPLETENESS

That God’s love is without measure or limit is illustrated in the following incident:

In the home of a friend one day, as he reclined on the lounge opposite, and I in an easy chair, we were having a pleasant chat until dinner was called, when his little boy, named Neil, about three or four years old, came in. He went to his father’s side, and I heard him whisper, “Papa, get up and show Mr. Shields how much you love me.” I knew at once there was a secret between them, as it is fitting there should be between father and child, and that it was a secret in which the child rejoiced.

His father smiled, and said, “Oh, run away, Neil, and play; we are busy talking, and Mr. Shields knows I love you.” “Yes,” said the little fellow, “but I want you to show him how much.”

Again and again the father tried to put him off, but the child persisted in his plea that the visitor be shown “how much” the father loved.

At length the father yielded, and as he stood, the child stood between us, and, holding up his index-finger, with a glance first at his father, and then at me, he said, “Now you watch, till you see how much my papa loves me.”

His father was a tall and splendidly proportioned man. First he partially extended one arm, but the child exclaimed, “No, more than that.” Then the other arm was extended similarly, but the little fellow was not content, and demanded, “More than that.” Then one after the other both arms were outstretched to the full, only the fingers remaining closed. But still the child insisted, “More than that.” Then, in response to his repeated demands, as he playfully stamped his little foot and clapped his hands and cried, “No! No! It’s more than that!” One finger after another on either hand was extended, until his father’s arms were opened to their utmost reach, and to each was added the full hand-breadth. Then the child turned to me, and, gleefully clapping his hands, exclaimed, “See? That’s how much papa loves me.” Than he ran off to his play content.--C. C. SHIELDS.

(1928)

LOVING ENEMIES

Here is one more illustration of a moral power that occasionally came out of Confucianism. Ieyasu, the founder of the Shogunate, is regarded as perhaps the greatest hero Japan has produced. In his wars, his enemy, Mitsunari, was defeated, and fearing the revenge of Ieyasu’s seven generals, he sent to Ieyasu for pardon. The desired forgiveness was immediately granted, but the seven generals were indignant that such an enemy should escape death, and remonstrated with Ieyasu. The proverb he quoted to them shows how near the best hearts in all ages are to Christ’s “Love your enemies.” His reply was: “Even a hunter will have pity on a distrest bird when it seeks refuge in his bosom.”--JOHN H. DE FOREST, “Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom.”

(1929)

LOYALTY

On the deck of the _Republic_ (January, 1909), when the passengers had all departed, when Captain Sealby was left alone with his men, with his ship, he stood before them. His voice shook a little.

“Men of the _Republic_,” he said, “I am proud of you. You have acquitted yourselves like men. I look upon no coward. The darkness is drawing on”--it was then four o’clock Saturday afternoon--“and the passengers are gone. You have now the right to leave this vessel. She may sink; she may not--I can not say. But you have done your duty; the boats are at your disposal--”

“How about you, captain?” interrupted a voice.

“I shall stand by the ship,” was the reply.

And then, in chorus, came a great shout:

“And we’ll stand by with you, captain.”

So they did, until, later in the evening, the captain compelled all but fifty men to leave the vessel.

(1930)

* * * * *

The story of a little Boer boy who refused to betray his friends even on the threat of death, is told by Major Seely, M.P., as an illustration of deeply-rooted love of freedom and of country. It happened during the Boer war:

“I was asked,” said Major Seely, “to get some volunteers and try to capture a commandant at a place some twenty miles away. I got the men readily, and we set out. It was a rather desperate enterprise, but we got there all right. The Boer general had got away, but where had he gone? It was even a question of the general catching us, and not we catching the general. We rode down to the farmhouse, and there we saw a good-looking Boer boy and some yeomen. I asked the boy if the commandant had been there, and he said in Dutch, taken by surprize, ‘Yes.’ ‘Where has he gone?’ I said, and the boy became suspicious. He answered, ‘I will not say.’

“I decided to do a thing for which I hope I may be forgiven, because my men’s lives were in danger. I threatened the boy with death if he would not disclose the whereabouts of the general. He still refused, and I put him against a wall, and said I would have him shot. At the same time I whispered to my men, ‘For heaven’s sake, don’t shoot.’ The boy still refused, altho I could see he believed I was going to have him shot. I ordered the men to ‘Aim.’ Every rifle was leveled at the boy.

“‘Now,’ I said, ‘before I give the word, which way has the general gone?’ I remember the look in the boy’s face--a look such as I have never seen but once. He was transfigured before me. Something greater almost than anything human shone from his eyes. He threw back his head, and said in Dutch, ‘I will not say.’ There was nothing for it but to shake hands with the boy and go away.”--_Singapore Straits Budget._

(1931)

* * * * *

I remember once taking a walk by the river near where the falls of Niagara are, and I noticed a remarkable figure walking along the river bank. When he came a little closer, I saw he was wearing a kilt; when he came a little nearer still, I saw that he was drest exactly like a Highland soldier. When he came quite near, I said to him, “What are you doing here?” “Why should I not be here?” he said. “Don’t you know this is British soil? When you cross the river you come into Canada.” This soldier was thousands of miles from England, and yet he was in the kingdom of England.

Wherever there is an English heart beating loyal to the ruler of Britain, there is England. Wherever there is a man whose heart is loyal to the King of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is within him.--HENRY DRUMMOND.

(1932)

* * * * *

A young girl came to headquarters faint and exhausted, her body covered with marks of cruel beatings administered by her father and brother. It was their way of convincing her that she must accept the offer of her former employer to give her more than twice the wages that she had received before the shirt-waist strike in New York, 1909, and to send an automobile to take her to and from work if she would return to her former position. That she could decline an offer of such magnificence was conclusive proof to them that a girl is too stupid to make her own decisions; so they proceeded to decide for her and to communicate their decision in their own vigorous fashion.

“Will you go?” asked the little group surrounding her.

“Never till I die,” was the unfaltering response, “unless the other girls be taken back, and unless we may stay by the union. To that did not we all pledge our word?” “But,” she added wearily, “I think they will kill me. See! Here it is that yesterday they pulled out so much of my hair. To-day, again, they beat me. To-morrow, surely, they will kill me. I can not bear more.”

When offered a place of safety and protection, she hesitated for a little time, then said, “My mother, she is away at work. Not to find me when she comes home at evening--that would trouble her. I must go home to her.”

The will which could not be conquered by force was coupled with loyalty, with love, no less unconquerable. The friend who had offered her protection understood, for she, too, was a woman.

Shall the stone and mortar and machinery of factories or the bank accounts of their owners be ranked as assets of greater value to the nation than the life, the health, the welfare, of such womanhood?--_The World To-day._

(1933)

LOYALTY, SPIRIT OF

The spirit that leads to lying for the sake of a member of the clique or gang has been contemptuously called “honor among thieves.” Honor it is rightly styled. Many tests have shown that it is indeed the spirit of loyalty that occasions it. Such a lie is the lie heroic. Many a boy will persist in it and take a punishment cheerfully rather than betray his chum. The lie, of course, is wrong; but the spirit which prompts it is right--indeed, is at the very core of moral character. Instead of asking boy or girl to tell of the misdeeds of another, the one who has glimpsed God’s plan for the shaping of a character will ask the culprit to confess and save his comrades from suspicion. The boy who will lie and take a thrashing to save his friend will confess and take the penalty just as quickly, if the spirit of honor is fostered.

The spirit of hero worship is strong in both sexes at this time. Each one has his concrete ideal. Among the boys it may be the pugilist, the border outlaw, the soldier, or the statesman, but he is surely of the virile and aggressive type. Unconsciously the youth is selecting during these crucial years the models after whom his life is to be shaped.--E. P. ST. JOHN, _Sunday-school Times_.

(1934)

LOYALTY TO CHRIST

In “Gloria Christi” we read this statement concerning some early martyrs of Madagascar:

In 1849 nineteen Christians, four of them from the highest nobility and all of good birth, were condemned to die. Fifteen were ordered to be hurled to death over the cliffs of Ampamarinana, a wall of rock one hundred and fifty feet high, with a rocky ravine below. The queen looked at the sight from her palace windows. Idols were placed before the Christians as they hung suspended by a rope in mid-air over the cliff, and each was asked in turn, “Will you worship this god?” As they refused, the rope was cut, and the victim fell into the abyss.

(1935)

=Loyalty to Race=--See RACE LOYALTY.

LOYALTY TO THE CHURCH

President William McKinley was a member of the Sunday-school from the time that he became old enough to attend. He was converted and joined the Church before he was sixteen, and from that day maintained his Christian character through all the vicissitudes of his vigorous and busy life.

After the war he was admitted to the bar, and removed to Canton, Ohio. One of the first things he attended to was to call on the minister of his chosen church, present his church credentials, and, like the soldier he was, ask for assignment to duty. He was given a class in the Sunday-school, and was later elected its superintendent. It was not beneath his dignity to devote his life to the training of the young.

(1936)

See EVANGELISM, UNHERALDED.

LUBRICATION EFFECTIVE

An old Quaker was once visited by a garrulous neighbor, who complained that he had the worst servants in the world, and everybody seemed to conspire to make him miserable.

“My dear friend,” said the Quaker, “let me advise you to oil yourself a little.”

“What do you mean?” said the irritated old gentleman.

“Well,” said the Quaker, “I had a door in my house some time ago that was always creaking on its hinges, and I found that everybody avoided it, and altho it was the nearest way to most of the rooms, yet they went round some other way. So I just got some oil, and after a few applications it opened and shut without a creak or a jar, and now everybody just goes to that door and uses the old passage.”

Just oil yourself a little with the oil of kindness. Occasionally praise your servants for something they do well. Encourage your children more than you scold them, and you will be surprized to find that a little sunshine will wear out a lot of fog, and a little molasses is better than a great deal of vinegar.

(1937)

=Luck=--See DISCOVERY, FORTUNATE.

=Lunacy Undiscovered=--See HEADS, LOSING.

LUMINOSITY

Our characters ought to be like the luminous paint mentioned below and continue to shine in the night of misfortune and disaster just the same.

You have probably seen luminous paints applied to the surfaces of the match-boxes that are permanently fixt on the walls of a room. During their exposure to the light in the daytime, these paints are so affected that they will continue to shine during the greater part of the night, altho there is no other light in the room. One coming into the room can, therefore, readily see where the match-box is.--EDWIN J. HOUSTON, Ph.D., “The Wonder Book of Light.”

(1938)

LYING

Admiral Dewey was a great stickler for truth. He has stated of himself, “There is nothing that I detest so much in a man as lying. I don’t think a man ever gained anything by telling a lie.” A blue-jacket says of him, “We had not been at sea long with him before we got next to how he despised a liar.” One of the men was brought before Dewey, and told of being “sunstruck.” “You are lying, my man,” said Dewey. “You were very drunk last night. I don’t expect to find total abstinence, but I do expect to be told the truth. Had you told me candidly that you had taken a drop too much on your liberty, you would have gone free. For lying, you get ten days in irons.”--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1939)

See LOYALTY, SPIRIT OF.

LYING AROUND

“Yes, he lied about it. I’m sure of that, and can prove it.”

That’s a pretty serious matter, to call a man a liar. Doubly serious if you can prove it on him. It is very, very bad to be lying about anything whatsoever.

But I’m convinced that lying around is almost as bad as lying about. I said, “You were not out at church yesterday. What were you doing?”

“I was just lying around.” An excuse--offered as a reason--that I’ve heard scores of times.

Late to get out of bed Sunday morning. A very late breakfast. Everything starts behind, and never catches up. The men are lying around unshaved, unbathed, undrest. They look bad, and probably feel worse. An unclean skin and dirty clothes are not good to rest in.

Maybe the women are lying around with hair unbrushed, and dresses and aprons showing the stains of week-day work. Rather frowsy. If they don’t feel any better than they look, they are some points below normal.

Just lying around, not at church, not fit to be seen, not feeling much respect for oneself. Pretty low down, not much above the dirt level. Doing no good, getting no good out of the blest day.

Does plain lying about things hurt one more than this lying around on Sunday? It makes one almost trifling.

Don’t do it. On Sunday morning, get up, wash up, dress up, shave up, shine up, go up to church, think up toward God and the highest and best. The day will be worth much more to you. You’ll feel better Monday morning, better rested, better fitted for the work of the new week. Quit lying around, and try it.--_Presbyterian Advance._

(1940)

LYING PUNISHED

Some time ago in a case in New York a man gave false evidence under oath and upon that evidence the point at issue was sent to a referee and costs amounting to $1,759 were incurred. A certain judge to whom these facts became known fined the perjured man the full amount of the costs and directed that when the fine was paid it should be turned over to the aggrieved party. This

## action has recently been affirmed by the United States Court of

Appeals.

“This is hailed as a rebuke to a growing evil, that of lying under oath and nothing being thought of it if one can avoid detection or any civil consequences. The home, the school, the Church and the State should unite and compel greater attention to the dishonor of lying, and business concerns should be held strictly to account wherever misrepresentation or lying form a part of the business methods. Decent men should refuse to trade with the man who scolds his clerks for not making a sale and declares the failure was due to not lying hard enough.”

(1941)

M

MACHINE, AN ACCURATE

A fine clock, reminding a community of the lapse of time and of the value of the fleeting minutes and hours, is an object of much public interest. Some clocks have a particular historic interest due to their long and accurate service in behalf of a hurrying and often heedless humanity. A number of invited guests were recently privileged to be present one night in Strasburg Cathedral to observe the mechanism of the famous clock. For the first time since its construction in 1842, the machinery was called upon to indicate the first leap-year of a century, after an eight-year interval. At astronomical midnight the levers and trains of wheels began to move, the movable feasts of the year took their respective places and the admirable mechanism, calculated to indicate in perpetuity all the changes of the calendar, continued its regular movement. The man who can construct a great clock like that is indeed a mechanical genius.

(1942)

=Machine-shop Equipment=--See MODERNITY.

MACHINE TESTIMONY

In an article in the _Evening Post_ on “Manners Over the Wire,” the writer says:

Some little thing may reform an age, the adage runs, and so perhaps the phonograph recording device, which was installed recently in the Copenhagen telephone exchange to check the ill-natured remarks of subscribers to central, by convicting offenders out of their own mouths, may bring about a revolution in the Danish city’s manners.

Probably one of the first thoughts of the man who invented the telephone, and knew that he could project sound over distance, was that now he could tell his stronger neighbor his candid opinion without risking the dog and a possible thrashing; one of his second thoughts was to put his new-found power into practise. And who, after all, should be the object of most of the exasperated remarks, shading from complaint to embroidered profanity, but central herself?

This Copenhagen found out, and set herself to remedy. University professors there who discover another flaw in Dr. Cook’s records and ring up the rector right away, only to find that the wire is busy because half a dozen colleagues have similar messages, must not abuse central; the connection will be switched at once to the phonograph, which has no feelings and is an unprejudiced witness in court. Testimony of as a will recorded thus was recently held valid in Russia; and the notaries will invent another form: “Appeared before me this day Phonograph No. 123, said phonograph being turned on, deposed, etc. ... Polonius, notary; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, witnesses.” Polonius’ advice, “Give thy thoughts no tongue,” holds good, and better for the Danes than in the times when, in language of to-day, the party at Elsinore had no ’phone.

(1943)

=Machine versus Purpose=--See PURPOSE DISCERNED.

=Machine Work=--See MONOTONY.

=Machinery, Excess of=--See MASTER HAND LACKING.

MAGNANIMITY

The exercise of magnanimity and charity was as natural to General Grant as breathing; and he demonstrated on this occasion that the hand that wielded the sword was moved by kindness as well as by patriotism. The prisoners of war, who so long lived in hunger, now received abundant rations. So much kindness was shown them that when the Union troops entered the city, both sides “fraternized as if they had been fighting for the same cause.” And when the Confederates passed out of town between two lines of Federal soldiers, the scene was solemn and pathetic. Under instructions from General Grant, not a cheer or a word came from the conquerors that would humiliate the fallen foe or give them pain.--NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(1944)

* * * * *

Gen. Fitzhugh Lee witnessed the memorable meeting between his uncle, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Grant, and he frequently exprest his appreciation of the magnanimity displayed by the victorious commander on that occasion. The fact that General Grant refrained from asking for Gen. Robert E. Lee’s sword made a lasting impression on Fitzhugh Lee, who subsequently said: “General Grant not only refrained from demanding my uncle’s sword, as is customary, but he actually apologized to General Lee for not having his own sword on at the time.” (Text.)

(1945)

See GOOD FOR EVIL.

=Magnanimity, A Boy’s=--See VICARIOUS SACRIFICE.

=Magnanimity, A Nation’s=--See AMERICA’S ATTITUDE.

MAGNANIMITY, UNDISCIPLINED

Precipitancy of judgment and heat of temper are responsible for all the errors of Walter Savage Landor’s life. To recount these errors is neither wise, necessary, nor generous. One thing, however, is noticeable, that in every case the difficulties which he created for himself arose from a sort of undisciplined magnanimity of nature, a belief in impracticable ideals, a radical inability to adapt himself to the common convictions of life. He sinned against himself in a hundred instances, but against others never. His generosity was extreme and incessant. In his enormous agricultural experiments at Llanthony he squandered seventy thousand pounds in five years--J. W. DAWSON, “Makers of English Prose.”

(1946)

MAGNETISM

The use of powerful electromagnets for lifting pieces of iron in foundries is increasing. In _The American Machinist_, E. F. Lake gives some particulars of recent applications of electromagnetism to lifting, and discusses the economies effected thereby. He says:

“At the West Allis works of the Allis-Chalmers Company, lifting magnets are prest into service for saving the small pieces and even minute particles of iron and steel which have heretofore been allowed to go to waste without thought of the possibility of recovery.

“This is done periodically by hitching the magnets to traveling-cranes and allowing them to sweep over every inch of ground area, both in and around the works. It is a never-failing source of wonder to the shops’ management how much lost metal the magnets can find.” (Text.)

(1947)

=Magnificence=--See ICE BEAUTY.

MAGNIFYING A SACRED OFFICE

Increase Mather, in a sermon entitled “Be Very Courageous,” tells the story: “It has been reported that a minister, preaching to the Earl of Stratford, then lord deputy of Ireland, faithfully reproved some corruptions which that governor was known to be guilty of, but at which he was displeased; and the next day, in a great passion, he sent for the minister, and began his discourse thus: ‘Yesterday, when you were before me, you said such and such things.’ The minister replied to him: ‘You are mistaken, sir; I was not before you yesterday. I confess I am before your excellency to-day, but you were before me yesterday. You represent the kingdom; but yesterday I was made representative of the Almighty God, who is infinitely above the greatest kings on earth.’ Upon that, the earl was so affected as to dismiss the minister without saying anything more to him.” Here was a man who magnified his office, who spoke with authority, and not as the scribes.--_Christian Register._

(1948)

=Magnifying Objects=--See SCIENCE, IMPROVEMENTS BY.

=Mail, Handling=--See CARE IN PERFORMING DUTIES.

=Main Objects versus Incidentals=--See TASKS, THE REAL.

=Majority Not Always Right=--See CONVICTION, UNYIELDING.

=Majority-rule=--See JUSTICE BY MAJORITY; TACT.

MAKE-BELIEVE

If all difference could be atoned as easily as that described in this extract from the _Popular Magazine_, much bloodshed would be saved:

Not long ago a Paris journalist, who had by some criticism offended a politician, received from him the following letter:

“Sir--One does not send a challenge to a bandit of your species: one simply administers a cuff on the ears. Therefore, I hereby cuff both your ears. Be grateful to me for not having recourse to weapons.

“Yours truly, ----”

The journalist answered:

“My Dear Sir and Adversary--I thank you, according to your wish, for having sent me cuffs by post, instead of slaughtering me with weapons. Cuffed by post, I respond by dispatching you by post six bullets in the head. I kill you by letter. Please consider yourself dead from the first line of this epistle.

“With a respectful salutation to your corpse, I am,

“Very truly yours, ----.”

The intent to kill is present. Is not that reckoned in morals as bad as the overt act? (Text.)

(1949)

=Malaria, Stamping Out=--See IMMUNITY FROM DISEASE.

=Malice=--See MODESTY.

=Malingery=--See SHAM.

MAMMON WORSHIP

At Nashville, Tenn., there recently died an eccentric old lady, known in the neighborhood as a miser of the most pronounced type, tho possessing multiplied thousands. After her death the premises were searched for the money, known to be hidden in various places about the house. She had no confidence in banks, and therefore employed this method of concealing her treasures. For seventeen years she never left her home, lest some one get her money. Was ever a life more completely misspent? The joy she might have had by helping others, she missed because of her miserly disposition. She preferred to be poor--really poor--in the midst of her gold. She starved her soul that she might worship at the shrine of Mammon.--_The Gospel Messenger._

(1950)

MAN A CREATOR

The fork, the knife, the graver, the spade, they are merely steel fingers, iron hands, accumulating and prolonging the energy of those members. The rudder which the hand holds, it is in effect that hand itself, enlarged, and shielded from the wash of the waves. The telescope, with its wondrous space-penetrating power, the microscope, with its clear and searching lens, in which seems almost an image of Omniscience, are yet only adjutants and servitors to the eye, that more marvelous instrument which no hand can fashion. The soul of man, invisible itself, controls the eye. It creates the telescope, to be its assistant. The locomotive steam-engine, with its connected trains of cars, whose tread is like an earthquake traversing the surface, whose rush outruns in noise and power the plunge of the cataract--the soul has created that as a servant to the body, to move this on its errands, and to carry its burdens. The steamship flashing through night and storm, trampling the riotous waves beneath it, and drowning the strife and uproar of the winds, by its more measured and peremptory stroke, is a similar instrument sent forth on the seas. Each began in a thought. Each was born of the soul. And that which produced them has the power to work with them, for any effects.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1951)

MAN A TIMEKEEPER

There are many ways in which a man is like a watch, as this curious epitaph shows, which can be seen in the churchyard at Lydford, Devonshire, England:

Here lies in a horizontal position The outside case of George Routledge, watchmaker. Integrity was the main-spring and prudence the regulator of all the actions of his life; Humane, generous and liberal, His hand never stopt till he had relieved distress; So nicely regulated were his movements that he never went wrong, Except when set a-going by people who did not know his key;

Even then he was easily set right again. He had the art of disposing of his time so well That his hours glided away in one continued round of pleasure. Till, in an unlucky moment, his pulse stopt beating. He ran down Nov. 14, 1801, aged 57, In hopes of being taken in hand by his Maker, Thoroughly cleaned, repaired, wound up and set a-going, In the world to come, when time shall be no more.

(1952)

MAN AS A TEMPLE

My God, I heard this day That none doth build a stately habitation But he that means to dwell therein. What house more stately hath there been Or can be, than is man? To whose creation All things are in decay.

Since then, my God, Thou hast So brave a palace built, O dwell in it, That it may dwell with Thee at last! Till Thou afford us so much wit That, as the world serve us, we may serve Thee, And both Thy servants be. (Text.)

--GEORGE HERBERT.

(1953)

MAN GODLIKE

An unidentified writer here points out the greatness of man even tho often overthrown:

Swarming across the earthly crust, Delving deep in the yellow dust, Raising his ant-hills here and there, Scoring the soil for his humble fare, Braving the sea in his tiny boat-- Tireless he struggles, this human mote.

Tempests scatter his ant-hills wide, Vainly he braves the boiling tide, Fire will ruin his busy mart, Famine stilleth his throbbing heart, Trembles the earth and prone he falls, Crusht and tombed by his pigmy walls.

Heir of the kingdom ’neath the skies, Often he falls, yet falls to rise. Stumbling, bleeding, beaten back, Holding still to the upward track; Playing his part in creation’s plan, Godlike in image--this is man!

(1954)

=Man Imitating Nature=--See IMITATION OF NATURE.

MAN INDESTRUCTIBLE

Some time ago a Philadelphia anatomist announced to the world that the brain of Walt Whitman, through the carelessness of a hospital employee, had been lost to science. The jar that held the poet’s brain fell to the floor and was broken, so that not even the fragments of the organ were saved. Well, let the poet’s brain be shattered, if you will; the poet himself can not be touched. The flaming star-wheels can not crush him, the maddened oceans can not engulf him, the black caves of night can not hide him, the scorching flames of hell can not destroy him. Man is a spark of divinity the image of deity, an “emotion of God flashed into time.”--F. F. SHANNON.

(1955)

MAN MADE FOR ETERNITY

You can tell the difference between sea and land birds by the length and strength of their wings. The wings of the former are intended for long and sustained action in their sweep along the surface of the great ocean.

Man’s soul, in a similar manner, is not intended for this material world, but has long and strong wings of hope and affection wherewith to span the ocean of eternity.--VYRNWY MORGAN, “The Cambro-American Pulpit.”

(1956)

=Man Not a Puppet=--See MASTERY OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

=Man, Original=--See ORIGINALITY OF MAN.

MAN POSSESSING NATURE

Thomas Traherne, a poet, whose worth was discovered only after he was dead, is the author of the following:

The orb of light in its wide circuit moves, Corn for our food springs out of very mire. Our fuel grows in woods and groves; Choice herbs and flowers aspire To kiss our feet; beasts court our loves. How glorious is man’s fate! The laws of God, the works He did create, His ancient ways, are His and my estate.

(1957)

MAN, SLOW DEVELOPMENT OF

Robert Loveman takes a wide view of man in this verse:

A thousand years doth nature plan Upon the making of a man; She sweeps the generations through, To find the patient, strong, and true; She rends the surge of seven seas, Rearing an humble Socrates; She burns a hundred years of sun, Sealing the soul of Solomon.

A thousand years doth nature plan Upon the making of a Man; She sees the ages dawn apace, Ere Moses rouse his shackled race, Or Homer or sweet Shakespeare sing, Beside his deep eternal spring; The centuries rise in reverence when Buddha doth come unto his men.

A thousand years doth nature plan Upon the making of a man; She fills his heart with fire and faith, She leaves him loyal unto death; She lights his lustrous, loving eye With flashes of immortality; She adds one more undying name Upon the heated scroll of fame.

--“Songs from a Georgia Garden.”

(1958)

=Man, Superiority of=--See SPEECH.

=Man, The Manly=--See MANLINESS.

=Man the Product of Many Elements=--See DIVERSE INFLUENCES.

MAN, VALUE OF A

Years ago a Mr. Campbell, a British subject, was held a prisoner by Theodore, King of Abyssinia. England demanded his release, sending an army of ten thousand men who marched seven hundred miles, to Coomassie, and all at a cost of twenty-five million dollars--just to rescue a single man. (Text.)

(1959)

=Maneuvering by Birds=--See STRATAGEM BY BIRDS.

MANHOOD

We need not more machinery or institutions. What the world needs is men, as Rudyard Kipling shows in this verse:

The peace of shocked foundations flew Before his ribald questionings, He broke the oracles in two And bared the paltry wires and strings; He headed desert wanderings; He led his soul, his cause, his clan, A little from the ruck of things. Once on a time there was a man.

Thrones, powers, dominions block the view With episodes and underlings; The meek historian deems them true, Nor heeds the song that Clio sings, The simple central truth that stings The mob to boo, the priest to ban, Things never yet created things. Once on a time there was a man. (Text.)

--_Collier’s Weekly._

(1960)

MANHOOD RECOGNIZED

Jesus saw in the meanest man the possibilities of character. This is what Charles Wagner urges us to do in the following extract:

Maintain toward the poor man and the infirm a courtesy, an attentiveness; find in your heart and in your love a sign that makes him recollect that he is a man. His misery is like a tomb in which his self-respect sleeps buried. It is something to respect this tomb, to approach it with piety, to care for it and to keep a flower growing there; but each of these attentions is addrest to one that is dead, shows that you accept his death, and that you confirm it. Do more and do better. Remember that it is a living man that lies under the dust, slowly amassed, of days of suffering. Breathe upon this dust, disengage the human form; speak to Lazarus and make him come forth from the shrouds that surround him, from the night that covers him. (Text.)--“The Gospel of Life.”

(1961)

MANIFESTATION

Just as creation is the revelation of God--His avowal, as a poet has said--so in the same way the external life of man, when it follows its normal development, is the translation, in signs and symbols, of what he bears at the bottom of his being. It would be easier to keep the sap from mounting, the flowers from opening, the leaves from tearing apart their coverings, than human nature from manifesting itself. It is this need that gives man his distinction as a social and communicative being.--Charles Wagner, “The Gospel of Life.”

(1962)

MANLINESS

The world has room for the manly man, with the spirit of manly cheer; The world delights in the man who smiles when his eyes keep back the tear; It loves the man who, when things go wrong, can take his place and stand With his face to the fight and his eyes to the light, and toil with a willing hand; The manly man is the country’s need, and the moment’s need, forsooth, With a heart that beats to the pulsing tread of the lilied leagues of truth; The world is his and it waits for him, and it leaps to hear the ring Of the blow he strikes and the wheels he turns and the hammers he dares to swing; It likes the forward look in his face, the poise of his noble head, And the onward lunge of his tireless will and the sweeps of his dauntless tread! Hurrah for the manly man who comes with sunlight on his face, And the strength to do and the will to dare and the courage to find his place! The world delights in the manly man, and the weak and evil flee When the manly man goes forth to hold his own on land or sea! (Text.)

--_American Israelite._

(1963)

=Manner, The Orator’s=--See EARNESTNESS.

=Manners=--See CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF; DUAL CHARACTER; MACHINE TESTIMONY.

=Manners, Teaching Bad=--See POLITENESS.

MAN’S AGE ON EARTH

Some scientists reason that the Falls of Niagara must have been formed soon after the Glacial Epoch, and the time occupied in wearing the rock back to the present position therefore furnishes a basis for calculating the age of man on the earth, as he must have begun his career since that epoch:

In an address in Washington before the United States Geological Survey, Professor Gilbert gave the following interesting information regarding the recession of the ground under Niagara Falls: The estimate is that for the past forty-four years the falls have receded at the rate of twenty-four feet in a year. The Horseshoe Falls are at the head of the gorge and the American Falls at the eastern side, but the time was when both were together, before the little point called Goat Island was reached. The recession is more rapid at the center than on the sides. As the crest of the Horseshoe Falls retreats the water tends to concentrate there, and the time will probably come when the sides of the present falls will have become dry shores. The gorge is known to be 35,500 feet long. A calculation has shown that, on this basis, the falls began to wear away the rock of the escarpment near Lewiston about 7,900 years ago.--_Public Opinion._

(1964)

MAN’S CONQUEST OF ANIMALS

Man-eating tigers have for so long been regarded by the natives of most parts of India as invincible, or else protected by the native religions, that they have had things pretty much their own way. One determined hunter for every fifty frightened, unarmed men would scarcely serve to intimidate any animal. Many tribes of North American Indians looked upon the bear with veneration; but for all that, any bear so courageous as to let himself be seen by them got an arrow between his ribs right away, and in time the whole tribe of American bears learned that the chances were against them, just as the wolves and cougars arrived at a similar conclusion. Those that turned man-eaters might for a few seasons hunt their prey successfully, and if gifted with unusual cunning get away unscratched for a while, but the vengeance of the tribe would be certain to overtake them before very long, and only the more cowardly ones of their species would survive to perpetuate the race.--WITMER STONE and WILLIAM EVERETT CRAM, “American Animals.”

(1965)

=Man’s Greatness=--See SIZE NOT POWER.

MAN’S IMPORTANCE

The world is one thing to a bird, or a fish, but quite another thing to Cuvier or Agassiz. Then man entered the scene. Stretching out his hand he waved a wonder-working wand. He touched the wood, and it became a wagon; he touched the ore and it became an engine; he touched the boughs and they became the reeds of an organ; he touched the wild animal, and it became a burden-bearer for his weary feet; while his intellect turned the stone into geology, and the stars into astronomy, and the fields into husbandry, and his duties into ethics. When the flint and steel meet, something beyond either appears--a tongue of flame. And when man and nature met, something new emerged--art, industry, ethics, cities and civilization. There is nothing great in nature but man. Take man out of this wondrous city with its cathedrals, galleries, and homes, and Broadway would become a streak of iron-rust. The earth wears man upon her bosom as the circling ring wears a sparkling gem. The bog puts forth a white lily; genius is a flower rooted in earth, but borrowing its bloom and beauty from heaven.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1966)

=Man’s Part=--See EVANGELIZATION.

=Man’s Part in Religion=--See FAITH.

MAN’S PREEMINENCE

When you approach a great city at night and see only its tens of thousands of lights, you do not for a moment attach importance to those mechanical contrivances, the lights. The unseen inhabitants in the tens of thousands of lighted homes are the real objects of interest and worth. So the worlds, and not the suns, are the objects of true worth and interest in the universe; the worlds, the lighted and glowing houses of God’s children, not the mechanical contrivances for making them comfortable. Upon these must center our thought and interest. What is the fire which warms the man and cooks his dinner, compared with the man himself? What is the light and fire, compared with the home? What is the sun, compared with the world? Just here we begin to get some breath of assurance. While the worlds in our system differ very greatly in size and glory, while some of the great suns doubtless have correspondingly great worlds circling about them, yet we may reasonably suppose that among the worlds of the universe our earth is somewhere near the middle of the scale. And we earth-dwellers, intelligent children of the Father, are no mean citizens in the kingdom of our God. If He has built such a mansion of light for us, and kindled such a hearth-fire as our sun, and made us lords and masters of such a world as this, why may we not lift up our heads in love and triumph? (Text.)--JAMES H. ECOB.

(1967)

See SPEECH.

MAN’S SIZE

How big is a man, anyway? Well, he is smaller than an elephant, and an elephant is smaller than a mountain, and a mountain is smaller than the world, and the world is a mustard-seed compared with the sun, and the sun itself is a mere mote in the dust cloud of spheres that stretches out through the universe beyond the reach of thought.

Coleridge said bigness is not greatness. So while mountains and worlds are bigger than men, man can remove mountains if not worlds. It is not mere size that counts, but power and worth. (Text.)

(1968)

MAN’S WORKS

Mabel Earle writes of a bridge flung across from a cliff to an opposite shore as a symbol of man’s service, improving natural formations:

The cliff stood waiting, silent and alone, After the rending shock which gave it birth; Age upon age the waters wore the stone, And the long shadows wheeled across the earth, Swinging from west to east. Through sun and snow It kept God’s secret whispered long ago.

Once from its topmost crag a cable swung, And a face laughed against its frowning strength, The life of man in splendid risk outflung Fulfilling the slow centuries at length; On the bare rock to stamp his signet clear, God’s warrant witnessed by the engineer.

Then, with a flash of fire and blinding smoke, A peal that shook the mountain, base to crest, The silence of the waiting eons broke Into the thunder of that high behest, And on the steep where never foot had trod Men wrought a pathway for the will of God.

God of the cliff, from whom the whisper fell Of hope and hope’s fulfilment yet to be, Make good Thy promise unto us as well; Yoke Thou our pride in love’s captivity; And, tho it come through fire and scar and throe, Give us the crown of service, Lord, to know.

(1969)

* * * * *

The last ten summers have witnessed greater changes than the previous 10,000, for man has learned to work with nature and God. The old manuscripts and the grains and fruits depicted in old frescoes, tell us that the ancient world had all our grains and fruits. Centuries passed, but the same sheaves and boughs were ripened. It could not be otherwise. The wheat had no feet, the flowers had no hands. The tulip needed man. One day man decided to work together with the fruit. He took the most brilliant colors and carried the plants into a glass house and sealed the room tight. Then he went one hundred miles and brought another tulip, being feet thereto, and pollenized the one flower with the seed of the other. When ten years had passed, lo, there were 5,000 new flowers, never seen before, brilliant in hue, and of an unwonted perfume, growing in the fields of Holland. In Minnesota, using similar methods, the scientists have produced 2,000 new kinds of wheat, and three of these wheats have added enormous wealth to Minnesota and Dakota. Out in Illinois a professor selected corn with reference to the increase of the oil that heats, makes muscle and builds tissue. He carried the percentage of oil in a grain of corn from four hundredths to six hundredths, and this added some five hundred millions to the wealth of the great corn States in a single year. And he did it by tying tissue-paper over the tops of his selected cornstalks, after which he journeyed several hundred miles, to bring pollen with which to fertilize the stalks.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1970)

=Manual-training and Culture=--See COMPREHENSIVENESS IN EDUCATION.

=Many Strings Required=--See STRING, THE NEED OF MORE THAN ONE.

=Margin, The, and Character=--See CHARACTER, TEST OF.

MARGINS OF LIFE

It is the little greater care of the extra hour, the additional effort that constitutes the margin of advantage of one man over another. President Garfield said:

When I was in college, a certain young man was leading the class in Latin. I couldn’t see how he got the start of us all so. To us he seemed to have an infinite knowledge. He knew more than we did. Finally, one day, I asked him when he learned his Latin lesson. “At night,” he replied. I learned mine at the same time. His window was not far from mine, and I could see him from my own. I had finished my lesson the next night as well as usual, and, feeling sleepy, was about to go to bed. I happened to saunter to my window, and there I saw my classmate still bending diligently over his book. “There’s where he gets his margin on me,” I thought. “But he shall not have it for once,” I resolved. “I will study just a little longer than he does to night.” So I took down my books again, and, opening to the lesson, went to work with renewed vigor. I watched for the light to go out in my classmate’s room. In fifteen minutes it was all dark. “There is his margin,” I thought. It was fifteen minutes more time. It was hunting out fifteen minutes more of rules and root derivatives. How often, when a lesson is well prepared, just five minutes spent in perfecting it will make one the best in the class. The margin in such a case as that is very small, but it is all-important. The world is made up of little things. (Text.)

(1971)

MARKING TIME

Too much of human effort consists of merely going through motions without ever getting forward:

Bicycle races without leaving the starting-place, which are said to be the latest craze in places of amusement in Paris, are described in _Popular Mechanics_. Says this paper: “The wheel is fixt in a frame fastened to the floor. When the rider begins to pedal, a belt from the rear wheel drives a small electrical generator. The current thus produced is conducted to a motor on wheels and carrying a flag. The track on which the motor travels is marked in distances, and each foot of track requires as much work by the rider as would have carried the bicycle one mile had it been free to run as under ordinary conditions of use.” (Text.)

(1972)

MARKS, COVERING

When the physician prescribed blisters to Marie Bashkirtseff to check her consumptive tendency, the vain, cynical girl wrote: “I will put on as many blisters as thee like. I shall be able to hide the mark by bodices trimmed with flowers and lace and tulle, and a thousand other delightful things that are worn, without being required; it may even look pretty. Ah! I am comforted.” (Text.)

(1973)

MARKS OF CHARACTER

Admiration is sometimes exprest about the peaceful faces of nuns, sisters of charity, and similar devotees of the secluded life. But if you polish a piece of stone and keep it in a cabinet it will be smooth. The same stone set into a foundation will soon show marks of the weather. So marks on the face, lines of care, traces of sorrow, usually show that one has been doing something; has been of some use; has been developing character.

(1974)

=Marks, Removing=--See REMINDERS, UNPLEASANT.

MARRIAGE

Look at marriage as a divine plan for mutual compensation--each making up for the deficiencies of the other, somewhat as the two lenses of crown-glass and flint-glass combine in the achromatic lens. What one has the other has not, and so, by association, each gets the advantage of the other’s capacity, and finds relief from conscious lack and incompetency.--A. T. PIERSON.

(1975)

=Marriage and Divorce=--See BIRTH-RATE IN FRANCE; DIVORCE.

MARRIAGE CUSTOM, BRUTAL

The marriage ceremony of the Australian savages consists often in the simple process of stunning a stray female of a neighboring tribe by means of a club, and then dragging her away an unresisting captive, just as the males of the larger species of seal are said to attack and temporarily disable their intended mates.--FELIX OSWALD, _Good Health_.

(1976)

MARRIAGE RACING

A writer in the New York _Commercial Advertiser_, describing certain curious marriage customs, says:

In some cases the ceremony takes the form of what is called bride-racing. The girl is given a certain start and the lover is expected to overtake her. An observer among the Calmucks assures us that no Calmuck girl is ever caught “unless she have a

## partiality for her pursuer.” _Per contra_, Mr. Kennan tells

us of a bride-race among the Koriacks (northern Asia) which he witnest, where the girl went scampering, pursued by her lover, through a succession of compartments, called pologs, in a large tent. So nimble was the maid that she distanced her pursuer, but--she waited for him in the last polog! All of which goes to prove that the wise men of old knew what they were talking about when they said that the race is not always to the swift.

(1977)

MARRIAGE RELATIONS IN THE EAST

The third relation in Confucius’ teaching is that of “Husband and Wife.” Confucius expressly teaches that husband and wife are very “different” beings, which is in startling contrast to the teachings of Christ, who called the twain “one.” The husband of the East was carefully cautioned not to love his wife very much, as that showed an effeminate man. The kiss between husband and wife was wholly unknown, and when foreigners were first seen to show affection in this way, it was regarded as extremely funny. “Every time I see foreigners kiss, I catch a sick,” said a student who was trying to air his English.--JOHN H. DE FOREST, “Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom.”

(1978)

MARTYR SPIRIT

Bad things are said against the Japanese, with more or less truth. But yet, a nation whose history has so many moral heroes can not be bad at heart. Japan has produced one man who gave his life to save the people of his province from oppression and ruin. He was cruelly crucified, his innocent wife with him, and their children were barbarously executed before the parents’ eyes. Yet this man’s dying words on the cross were: “Had I five hundred lives, I’d gladly give them all for you, my people.” So far as I know, there is no other story in all history so closely resembling that of the crucifixion of Christ as this. The nation that can produce one such hero has the potency and promise of noble morality. This fearlessness of death in the face of duty runs all through the history of the people, which tells of wives who willingly died for their husbands, of children for their parents, of parents for their children, and of subjects for their lords.--JOHN H. DE FOREST, “Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom.”

(1979)

=Martyrdom=--See MISSIONARY MARTYRDOM.

MARTYRS

They never fail who die In a great cause; the block may soak their gore, Their heads may sodden in the sun, their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls, But still their spirits walk abroad, tho years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom; They but augment the deep and swelling thoughts That overpower all others, and conduct The world at last to freedom.

--BYRON.

(1980)

=Masks=--See EVIL, DISGUISED.

MASSES, AMONG THE

Alexander Irvine, author and lecturer, speaking before the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, said in part:

Speaking for the mass of the laborers, the men and women of the underworld, men and women not knowing or appreciating beauty in any form, men who know only the whip and spur, I speak feelingly, for I was one of them. I began work caring for the horses of a rich man and I wondered then why a horse was of more value than a man. I had then the ambition to have as good a life as the horse. I quit and went to a coalpit and worked for a shilling a day in merry England, and I saw there the same disparity. I was a miner’s mucker, and the mules were better and far more considered than the men. There was at the time a labor leader trying to organize the men to work for better wages and better hours. I tried to teach them the way to heaven. He was doing the better work, as those workmen in the mines could not have appreciated heaven.

In a lumber-camp I saw peonage at its worst. I was a peon myself, under the whip and lash and the butt-end of the whip was held in Wall Street, and the lash cut the backs of Anglo-Saxon men. Could I find a magazine to print my story of what I saw? I could not. The stocks of the magazine company were owned by the capitalists.--Brooklyn _Standard Union_.

(1981)

MASTER HAND, LACKING THE

Some years ago I was chairman of a church committee to purchase a new pipe-organ. We were an ambitious congregation, and nothing but the biggest and the best would suffice. We purchased a magnificent instrument--three manuals, tracker, pneumatic

## action, 1,944 pipes, and all the necessary swells and stops;

cost $5,000. It was a “thing of beauty,” and we expected it to be a “joy forever.” The congregation was pleased; the committee was delighted.

But somehow things did not go well. Sister Jones, the old organist, would not touch the new-fangled thing. “Too much machinery and too much show,” she said. Of course, we were adverse to going outside of the congregation for an organist. So we tried Minnie Wright, the deacon’s daughter; but Minnie could not manipulate the stops and swells. We next tried Josie Grayson, an orphan girl, who really needed the place. Now, Josie could play with her hands, but when it came to playing with her feet also she could not do it. We next tried Seth McGraw, who had been to college and who, in addition to his musical ability, was able-bodied and strong. Seth put all the power on the motor, pulled out all the stops, and kicked and pawed with might and main. The organ shrieked and bellowed and roared. As for noise, the bulls of Bashan were outclassed. But as for music--well, it requires more than a big organ and a big man to produce that. The congregation was disappointed, disgusted, and fast becoming desperate. They said that the organ was too big, too complicated, and that it had at least nineteen hundred pipes too many. There were charges of mismanagement and even fraud against the committee, and hints that “something might be doing.” Now, Indiana lies in the north central portion of the lynching belt of the United States, so the committee felt a trifle uncomfortable.

To my way of thinking, there is a marked similarity between the musical experience of this congregation and the educational experience of many communities in this country. We have built great schoolhouses and prepared elaborate courses of study, with more manuals, stops, and swells than characterized the great organ of Newtown. The old course of study, which was so simple that even Sister Jones could play it by ear, has given place to a new, elaborate, and highly organized course which is difficult--entirely too difficult--for the Minnie Wrights and Josie Graysons, no difference if the one is a relative of some member of the school-board and the other is the daughter of a poor widow. It requires more, too, than an able-bodied man to get proper results from the course of study, even if he has been to college and played fullback on the football team. He may make a great ado about it, but the results will be very similar to Seth McGraw’s music on the pipe-organ--calculated to incite a riot.--J. W. CARR.

(1982)

MASTER MIND, THE

Jesus, as the Master mind of the world, rules in it by controlling many other minds, as the master clock in this account controls many other clocks:

“A German has invented a new clock system which has some original features worthy of mention,” says _The American Inventor_. “The system is that of a master clock which controls electrically as many individual clock installations as may be required. The clock, which is installed in the house or place of business of the subscriber to the system, is similar to the ordinary one, inasmuch as it has a face and two hands; but the works are replaced by a couple of magnets and a balance-wheel. The master clock is provided with a transmitting apparatus designed to be operated by the movement of the hands. An impulse is sent from the wires when the hands of the master clock advance one minute on the face of the dial. This impulse affects the magnets in the small clocks in such a way that the hands are advanced the same amount as were the hands of the master clock. This operation is kept up indefinitely, and, of course, all of the small clocks keep exactly the same time as the master clock.” (Text.)

(1983)

=Master Revealed=--See CAPTAIN, THE DIVINE.

=Master, Thinking About His=--See DUTY.

MASTERY

One of those strong currents, always mysterious, and sometimes impossible to foresee, had set us into shore out of our course, and the ship was blindly beating on a dreary coast of sharp and craggy rocks.

Suddenly we heard a voice up in the fog in the direction of the wheel-house, ringing like a clarion above the roar of the waves, and the clashing sounds on shipboard, and it had in it an assuring, not a fearful tone. As the orders came distinctly and deliberately through the captain’s trumpet, to “shift the cargo,” to “back her,” to “keep her steady,” we felt somehow that the commander up there in the thick mist on the wheel-house knew what he was about, and that through his skill and courage, by the blessing of heaven, we should all be rescued. The man who saved us so far as human aid ever saves drowning mortals, was one fully competent to command a ship; and when, after weary days of anxious suspense, the vessel leaking badly, and the fires in danger of being put out, we arrived safely in Halifax, old Mr. Cunard, agent of the line, on hearing from the mail officer that the steamer had struck on the rocks and had been saved only by the captain’s presence of mind and courage, simply replied: “Just what might have been expected in such a disaster; Captain Harrison is always master of the situation.”--JAMES T. FIELDS.

(1984)

MASTERY BY INTELLIGENCE

The devil can always be beaten if we go about it seriously:

Morphy, the American chess-player, looking at the picture of a youth playing chess with Satan, and, apparently, doomed to inevitable defeat, studied the position, called for chessmen and board in reality, and by one move won the hypothetical game.

(1985)

=Mastery Necessary to Progress=--See CONQUEST BY MAN.

MASTERY OF CIRCUMSTANCES

One of Mr. Ingersoll’s most eloquent chapters is on “Man as an Automaton,” played upon by the blind forces of nature. A clot in the brain explains Benedict Arnold’s treason. A foul taint in the arteries that is like a fungus luring a merchant ship on the rocks. Penury and vicious environment fill our jails and must fill them. But the argument was born of a great man’s beautiful sympathy for his fellow sufferers. It did not issue from logic or nature or events. Indeed, all life and daily experience stood up and shouted against his affirmation. What! Man a puppet with whom nature plays an endless game of battledore and shuttlecock! Man a victim of heredity and environment! Some years ago I met a successful merchant, living in a beautiful house on one of the best avenues in his great city. His mother was an evil woman, his father a river thief, he was kicked around the river front until he was eight, slept in the loft of a livery stable until he was nine, killed a man when he was ten, taken home by one of the participants in the trial, became the partner of his benefactor and achieved universal recognition and honor.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1986)

See COLLEGE OR EXPERIENCE.

MASTERY OF NATURE

Until a generation ago our great lakes of the north were closed with the ice, which stopt all navigation until the thaw of the spring came. Now there are ice-boats, made of steel with powerful engines, that not only cut paths for themselves and the heavy freight which they carry, but also make a path for less powerful craft. They pound their way through the ice-fields, and thus make all-the-year-round navigation possible. The ports of northern Europe used to be locked with ice until these great ice-breaking ships were brought into use. There is nothing short of an iceberg which they can not overcome. Our lakes do not have bergs, of course, and hence these great ice-cutting ships have a marvelous mastery over the obstacles.

The mastery of the ice-fields by the hardy men and powerful ships of the north is another illustration of human genius and sovereignty. (Text.)

(1987)

MATERIAL FOR A GREAT LIFE

Do not try to do a great thing; you may waste all your life waiting for the opportunity which may never come. To be content to be a fountain in the midst of a wild valley of stones, nourishing a few lichens and wild flowers or now and again a thirsty sheep; and to do this always and not for the praise of man, but for the sake of God--this makes a great life.--F. B. MEYER.

(1988)

=Material, The, and the Spiritual=--See MYSTERY IN RELIGION.

MATERIALISM INADEQUATE

A machine can tell us something about its maker, but it can not produce another machine. The gospel of materialism is inadequate to explain the world.

“Give me matter,” said Kant, “and I will explain the formation of a world; but give me matter only, and I can not explain the formation of a caterpillar.”

The glory of the Creator has not descended to man and it will not. Matter, in all its inertia and helplessness but adds to the angelic refrain, “Worship God.”

(1989)

MATERNAL, GOD’S LOVE

The pagan Stoic poet, Cleanthes, who flourished B.C. 260, would seem to have caught a glimpse of the maternal quality of God. One of his prayers is:

“Merciful mother! bestow favor upon me, thy poor worshiper, whatever evil I may be guilty of. Thou hast a maternal nature, art gentle and patient, thou supreme one.” (Text.)

(1990)

=Maternal Love and Fiction=--See MOTHERS NOT IN FICTION.

MATURITY, SINS OF

Remember that the time is short, too short, to recover from mistakes. An old man’s broken limb heals slowly. The butterfly that tears its wing in the morning in August does not heal its wound. The mature goldfish may tear the hook loose, but the hurt can not be cured. The well-grown tree suffers grievously from the gash of an ax. Sin injures youth much, but scars maturity more. Saul pleased God in his youth, and lost his soul in his maturity.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1991)

MEALS, SIMPLICITY IN

It is related of Count von Haseler, who for twelve years commanded the Sixteenth German Army Corps at Metz, and enjoyed a high reputation in other countries besides his own, that when on a tour of inspection he arrived at a hotel where a sumptuous meal had been prepared for him. To the proprietor’s infinite disappointment he ordered a glass of milk and some bread and butter to be taken to his room, whence he did not emerge for the rest of the evening. This talented soldier, when nearing his seventieth year, spent whole days in the saddle in all weathers, and his untiring energy is still a favorite theme of conversation in German military circles.--_National Review._

(1992)

MEAN, THE GOLDEN

In arctic regions plants, which under more genial conditions would unfold themselves in a delightful perfection, remain stunted and mean, exhausting their vitality in withstanding the severities of the climate. The same is true of animal life. The Newfoundland dogs of Kane, in the Polar seas, became mad through the excruciating severity of the cold. The birds come to a certain strength and glory through the necessity of awareness, but there is often such a fearful blood-thirstiness in the tropical forest, such a profusion of cruel hawks, owls, serpents, and beasts of prey, that a bird’s life is one long terror, and it forgets its music. And this applies equally to man. He is all the better for a regulated conflict with his environment, but all the worse if the conflict attain undue severity. His conflict with nature may exhaust him. (Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(1993)

MEANING, LOGICAL

Take the English proverb, “Tenderden steeple is the cause of Goodwin Sands.” We said, “How ignorant a population!” But, when we went deeper into the history, we found that the proverb was not meant for logic, but was meant for sarcasm. One of the bishops had £50,000 given to him to build a breakwater to save the Goodwin Sands from the advancing sea; but the good bishop, instead of building the breakwater to keep out the sea, simply built a steeple; and this proverb was sarcastic, and not logical, that “Tenderden steeple was the cause of the Goodwin Sands.” When you contemplate the motive, there was the closest and best-welded logic in the proverb. So I think a large share of our criticism of old legends and old statements will be found in the end to be the ignorance that overleaps its own saddle and falls on the other side.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

(1994)

=Means and End=--See VALUES, STANDARD OF.

MEANS, LIVING WITHIN ONE’S

The man of five hundred dollars income is trying to live as tho he were sure of a thousand. Of course he is in straits and shallows. Instead of sailing on a fair sea, as he might within his own range, he is doomed to struggle perpetually with his head under water. To live generously is desirable when one has the means; but to attempt a scale of expenditure beyond our means is neither wise nor comfortable. How much more sensible to live in a modest way, agreeable to our fortune and suited to our condition! To follow this rule requires more courage than to besiege a city or fight a battle; but it is attainment for which we should aspire as a means of personal comfort and a guard against temptation.--_Zion’s Herald._

(1995)

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

“How is it, Mr. Brown,” said a miller to a farmer, “that when I came to measure those ten barrels of apples I bought from you I found them nearly two barrels short?” “Singular, very singular; for I sent them to you in ten of your own flour barrels.” (Text.)

(1996)

MEASUREMENT

Man’s power to solve the problems of the natural world is indicated by the feats of modern photography, of which O. H. Cloudy writes as follows:

Just think for an instant what the twelve-hundredth part of a second really means. A railroad train going sixty miles an hour, or eighty-eight feet per second, would move, in such an interval, less than one inch. A bullet, with a muzzle velocity of twelve hundred feet per second, would get but one short foot from the muzzle before a twelve-hundredth of a second had elapsed. Could two bells be rung, one twelve-hundredth of a second after the other, the sound-waves given out by them both would travel within five feet of each other, too close for any human ear to distinguish that there was more than one sound. Yet in this tiny bit of time the eye of the camera can record on the sensitive plate everything in front of it, with sufficient force to make a good negative. (Text.)--_The American Inventor._

(1997)

=Measurement of Morals=--See CONSCIENCE A MORAL MENTOR.

MEASUREMENT, SPIRITUAL

I must see your motives, your disposition, your loves and hates, your aspirations and longings and hopes, before I can say I see you. How tall are you? How much do you weigh? Six feet, you say, and weigh a hundred and fifty pounds? Both of us are wrong. You can’t measure the self by a foot-rule, nor weigh it in iron scales. Every time you aspire and hope and love you escape the body and live in the heights and distances. To estimate you aright I must gather up all your hopes and aspirations and faiths and loves; and if you have been wise enough to reach up and lay hold of the eternal I must weigh and measure the eternal in order to estimate you.--ROBERT MACDONALD.

(1998)

MECCA, INFLUENCE OF

The pilgrimage to Mecca is not only one of the pillars of the religion of Islam, but it has proved one of the strongest bonds of union and has always exercised a tremendous influence as a missionary agency. Even to-day the pilgrims who return from Mecca to their native villages in Java, India, and west Africa, are fanatical ambassadors of the greatness and glory of Islam. From an ethical standpoint, the Mecca pilgrimage, with its superstitious and childish ritual, is a blot upon Mohammedan monotheism. But as a great magnet to draw the Moslem world together with an annual and ever-widening _esprit de corps_, the Mecca pilgrimage is without a rival. The number of pilgrims that come to Mecca varies from year to year. The vast majority arrive by sea from Egypt, India, and the Malay Archipelago. The pilgrim caravan from Syria and Arabia by land is growing smaller every year, for the roads are very unsafe. It will probably increase again on the completion of the Hejaz railway from Damascus to Mecca. All told, the present number is from sixty to ninety thousand pilgrims each year.--SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, “The Moslem World.”

(1999)

MEDIATION

King Edward III, in 1347, besieged Calais and the French king, very unwilling to lose his town, sought to come to the help of his people, but in vain. King Edward refused to grant any conditions of peace. The people were hunger-bitten because of the protracted siege. The unrelenting king said, “You must give up yourselves to be dealt with as I will. Let six of the chief citizens of the town come to me with halters around their necks, their heads and feet bare, and the keys of the town and castle in their hands. With these I will deal as I please.” Accordingly these six, led by the governor, came to the king. Dropping on their knees before him, they implored him to spare their lives. King Edward refused to grant them mercy and ordered their instant death. His chief counselors and governor entreated him to spare these brave and valiant men, but his purpose was fixt. No merit that they might plead could cause him to change his mind, until finally, his consort, Queen Philippa knelt before him and said: “I pray you, sire, for the love that you bear me, to have mercy upon the men.” Then the king relented, saying: “I can not refuse the thing which you ask in this way. I give you, therefore, these men to do with them as you please.” The men were then taken to clean apartments to be well clothed and fed. (Text.)

(2000)

=Medical Missionaries=--See GOD SENDS GIFTS; INDIA, MEDICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN; MISSIONARIES, MEDICAL; SURGERY IN KOREA.

MEDICAL MISSIONS

Some of the best surgical work in the world is done by medical missionaries, who often have the poorest kind of equipment in the way of building and apparatus. Dr. H. N. Kinnear, at the head of a hospital in Fuchau, used the sitting-room of his own house for an operating-room, but in one year he performed over eight hundred operations, with only his wife and untrained natives for assistants. Of the nearly 18,000 patients treated last year, several came from high-class families, and they were most appreciative of what was done for them. A distinctive feature of this and all mission hospitals is the person, usually a native Christian, who acts as a kind of chaplain. Many of the patients have never heard the gospel story, and while they are being helped physically they listen willingly to what is told them. Religious services are also held every day in the room where people await their turn and receive the bamboo tallies that decide the order in which they are to be seen. Fees are ridiculously small, according to our American standard, five cents being the maximum, except in special cases, when the munificent sum of twenty cents is charged. This allows precedence to men who wear the long gown of the literati and object to waiting while laborers and women receive attention. Dr. Kinnear is a resourceful man, and often uses the Chinese queue to hold in place dressings of wounds about the head or as a sling for the support of injured or diseased hands and arms. He writes that he considers medical missionaries the most favored of all workers. Yet his salary is far below what he could earn as a surgeon in the United States.--Boston _Transcript_.

(2001)

See MISSIONS; MISSIONARIES, MEDICAL.

=Medical Science=--See LIFE PROLONGED.

=Meeting of Friends and Foes=--See AMITY AFTER WAR.

MELODY FROM DRUDGERY

When you go into some great cathedral across the sea, to watch the player on the keys, which away up in the tower are sounding forth their wondrous chime, down there you hear only the clatter of the wires, the deafening din of the reverberating bells, and the clanging of the wooden shoes he wears upon his hands with which to strike the keyboard, sending out away up there in the belfry the silvery notes which he himself can scarcely hear.

Ah, but they are heard. Many a tired soul stops on the distant hillside in his day’s toil to listen to those strains, and his heart is filled with a strange gladness and peace. And amid the din and tumult of your daily work, it may sometimes seem as tho you were doing naught which was worth the doing; down there in obscurity, unthought of and unnoticed by the great world, simply beating out the allotted task upon the clattering keyboard which the Master has set for you. But do it well. Do it as the violet smiles, as the bird sings, as Jesus lived, and you shall send out over land and sea music, which shall bless the generations afar off.--GEORGE T. DOWLING.

(2002)

=Membership, Church=--See BADGES.

=Membership of Churches, Distribution of=--See CHURCH STATISTICS.

=Memorial Day=--See DEAD, INFLUENCE OF; DECORATING SOLDIERS’ GRAVES; HONOR’S ROLL-CALL.

MEMORIAL OF LINCOLN

In the museum connected with the monument to Abraham Lincoln, at Springfield, Illinois, among other relics suggestive of the spirit and mission of the great emancipator, is treasured a piece of the rich gown worn by Laura Keene, the actress, in Ford’s Theater, Washington, on the tragic night when Lincoln fell. After the fatal shot of the assassin, Miss Keene sprang to the box and caught in her lap the head of the slain President, while the blood from the oozing wound saturated a portion of her garment. After the event, that blood-stained breadth was cut from the gown, sent to Springfield and preserved as the speaking symbol of the great sacrificial life which Lincoln lived even unto death, on behalf of the redemption of the black slaves of the South.--H. C. MABIE, “Methods in Evangelism.”

(2003)

=Memorial to Humble Helpers=--See NEGRO “MAMMY” REMEMBERED.

=Memorials of Genius=--See ECONOMY, DIVINE.

MEMORIALS OF PATRIOTISM

When the Paris Commune savagely threw down the Vendome column all the civilized world felt a shock of disgust. Why? Certainly not because all the world equally admired Napoleon, whose triumphs the column recorded. Certainly not alone for the reason that it was a noble work of art. It was because all intelligent and unprejudiced people instinctively recognized that the column had been reared as an emblem of patriotism. That column stood for something higher than the fame of an individual conqueror, and for something broader than any theory of government or reaction of parties. It stood for the glory and dignity of France. It typified the love of the native land--patriotism. Take, as another instance, the great Washington shaft at the capital. Long delayed, frequently jeered at before its completion, it now lifts its finished strength toward heaven in everlasting tribute to the great leader of the Revolution and the founder of our nation.--New York _Star_.

(2004)

MEMORY

God’s precepts should be as thoroughly stamped on the memory as the landscape mentioned below was on the artist’s mind:

A publisher ordered from Gustave Doré a picture, sending him a photograph of some Alpine scenery to be copied. The artist went away without his model, and the publisher was much provoked; but he was astonished when Doré appeared next day with the desired picture, having made it from memory. A few seconds’ examination of the photograph had sufficed to impress on his memory the slightest details and to enable him to reproduce them with not a rock or a tree lacking. (Text.)--L. MENARD, _Cosmos_.

(2005)

* * * * *

“What did I do with that memorandum?” said a distinguished-looking man, speaking half to himself but with his eyes on the clerk, who stood waiting for his order in a large city grocery. “What I’ve done with that memorandum this time I really can not imagine. But you just wait a minute.”

He began searching his pockets. From each of them came scraps of paper, big and little, old letters with pencil notes on them, envelops similarly decorated, two or three small note-books, a theater program, and a number of pieces evidently torn from the margin of a newspaper and covered with writing. He examined the scraps one after another and restored each bunch to its separate pocket. The clerk waited, and a customer farther along the counter eyed the display with curiosity.

“Gone,” said the gentleman, with an air of finality. “I’ll have to trust to memory.”

The clerk nodded.

“Six eggs?” he said, with an interrogative inflection.

“Right,” said the gentleman.

The clerk wrote it down. “A pound of butter?” he continued.

“A pound of butter,” agreed the gentleman.

“Bread?”

“Three loaves.”

“Coffee?”

The gentleman hesitated. “No,” he said, with decision. “Coffee enough on hand to last the rest of the week.” He smiled contentedly, watched the clerk write a name and address at the top of the order, and then went out of the shop whistling.

“How did you know what he wanted?” asked the other customer of the clerk.

“He lives just around the corner in an apartment, and he and his wife get their own breakfasts. Always the same things--never any change--but he always has to have it written down.”

“Do you know who he is?”

“His name is Bertini, I think. He’s a kind of professor. I believe he has a kind of memory system he teaches to people who can’t remember things.”

The other customer smiled, but the clerk was quite serious. He had no sense of humor.--_The Youth’s Companion._

(2006)

See ABSENT-MINDEDNESS.

MEMORY AND DISEASE

Many strange defects of memory are known to exist, and of these an interesting example may be given.

A business man of keen mind and good general memory, who was not paralyzed in any way, and was perfectly able to comprehend and engage in conversation, suddenly lost a part of his power of reading and of mathematical calculation.

The letters d, g, q, x, and y, tho seen perfectly, were in this case no longer recognized, and conveyed no more idea to him than Chinese characters would to most of us. He had difficulty in reading--was obliged to spell out all words, and could read no words containing three letters.

He could write the letters which he could read, but could not write the five letters mentioned. He could read and write certain numbers, but 6, 7, and 8, had been lost to him; and when asked to write them his only result, after many attempts, was to begin to write the words six, seven, and eight, not being able to finish these, as the first and last contained letters (x and g) which he did not know.

He could not add 7 and 5, or any two numbers whereof 6, 7, or 8 formed a part, for he could not call them to mind. Other numbers he knew well. He could no longer tell time by the watch.

For a week after the beginning of this curious condition he did not recognize his surroundings. On going out for the first time the streets of the city no longer seemed familiar; on coming back he did not know his own house. After a few weeks, however, all his memories had returned excepting those of the letters and figures named; but as the loss of these put a stop to his reading, and to all his business life, the small defect of memory was to him a serious thing.

Experience has shown that such a defect is due to a small area of disease in one part of the brain.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2007)

=Memory Elusive=--See HEADS, LOSING.

MEMORY FACULTY IN FISHES

Experiments recently made at Tortugas show that fishes have the faculty of remembering for at least twenty-four hours.

The fish studied at Tortugas are gray perch, whose favorite food is the little silver sardine. The experimenters painted some of the silver sardines light red; then they offered them to the gray perch mixed with the unpainted sardines. The perch snatched the silver sardines and ate them, then very deliberately and cautiously they nibbled at the painted sardines. Finding that the fish were the same whether red or silver, they devoured the red fish.

Having given proof of their intelligence, they were permitted to rest twenty-four hours. The experimenters offered them silver sardines, sardines painted red, and sardines painted blue. The perch quickly devoured the silver fish, then, without an instant’s hesitation, they devoured the red fish. Finally, gliding cautiously up to the blue fish, they took a bite and darted away. As the taste was favorable they returned to the blue fish, nibbled again, and devoured them.

The experimenters then tied sea-thistles to the blue sardines. The perch nibbled, then, disagreeably surprized, darted away. For twenty-four hours not a fish approached the painted blue fishes. They remembered the sea-thistles. But their memory is short; the day following again they snatched the blue fish.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2008)

MEMORY, MOURNFUL

Renan, in one of his books, recalls an old French legend of a buried city on the coast of Brittany. With its homes, public buildings, churches and thronged streets, it sank instantly into the sea. The legend says that the city’s life goes on as before down beneath the waves. The fishermen, when in calm weather they row over the place, sometimes think they can see the gleaming tips of the church-spires deep in the water, and fancy they can hear the chiming of the bells in the old belfries, and even the murmur of the city’s noises. There are men who in their later years seem to have an experience like this. Their life of youthful hopes, dreams, successes and joys has been sunk out of sight, submerged in misfortunes and adversities and has vanished altogether. All that remains is a memory. In their discouragement they seem to hear the echoes of the old songs of hope and gladness, and to catch visions of the old beauty and splendor, but that is all. They have nothing real left. They have grown hopeless and bitter.

(2009)

MEMORY RENEWED

Instances are on record in which those who had heard passages from a foreign and perfectly unintelligible tongue, which seemed, of course, to have passed at once from out their recollection, as the breath fades off from the polished mirror--have afterward recalled these in delirium or death, or at some moment of extraordinary excitement, with the utmost clearness and fullness of detail. And the instances are frequent, within our observation, in which aged men recall with vivid distinctness the poetry they recited, the problems they studied, the games they played, in the freshness of youth, or the arguments they made in the prime of their manhood; altho a thousand intervening events had taken a prominence before them since that, these never had seemed to have submerged those forever in their thoughts--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(2010)

MEMORY REVIVED BY SICKNESS

A case cited by Dr. Abercrombie confirms the suggestive theory that the stimulus which fever gives to the circulation (sign of the disease tho it is) may bring dormant mental impression into temporary activity. A boy at the age of four had undergone the operation of trepanning being at the time in a state of stupor from a severe fracture of the skull. After his recovery he retained no recollection either of the accident or of the operation. But at the age of fifteen, during an attack of fever, he gave his mother an account of the operation, describing the persons who were present, and even remembering details of their dress and other minute particulars.--RICHARD A. PROCTOR, New York _Mail and Express_.

(2011)

MEMORY, UNUSUAL

Pepys tells us of an Indian who could repeat a long passage in Greek or Hebrew after it had been recited to him only once, tho he was ignorant of either language. This man would doubtless have been able to repeat, so far as his vocal organs would permit him to imitate the sounds, the song of a nightingale or a lark, through all its ever-varying passages, during ten or twenty minutes, and with as much understanding of its significance as of the meaning of the Greek and Latin words he recited so glibly. We certainly need not envy that particular “poor Indian” his “untutored mind,” tho as certainly the power he possest would be of immense value to a philosopher.--RICHARD A. PROCTOR, New York _Mail and Express_.

(2012)

=Memory, Verbal=--See ROTE VERSUS REASON.

MEN

It would be difficult to think of a time when the sentiment exprest in this poem by J. G. Holland would not be appropriate. The important thing, however, is that it applies to our time.

God, give us men! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office can not buy; Men who possess opinions and a will, Men who have honor, men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagog, And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking; For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps!

(2013)

=Men are Gods=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

MENACES TO CIVILIZATION

In ancient Athens the Cave of the Furies was underneath the rock on whose top sat the court of the Areopagus.

May not modern civilization have an underside that harbors many kinds of moral furies?

(2014)

=Menagerie, A Moral=--See SELF-CONFLICT.

=Mental Device=--See PATIENCE.

=Mental Quickness=--See PRESENCE OF MIND.

=Mental States and Dress=--See DRESS AFFECTING MOODS.

MENTALITY, DEVELOPMENT OF

C. C. Abbot writes in the New York _Sun_:

Beasts and birds long ago became afraid of man, and afraid of him in a way wholly different from their fear of other forms of animal life. This demonstrates that they recognize a difference, as when I can not approach a snipe that will permit a cow almost to tread upon it. Fear being the sum of disastrous experiences, the birds that soonest learned the lesson of prudence left the most descendants. The fearless ones paid the price of their foolhardiness and died out. Such conditions did not call for anatomical changes, but mental ones, and this increased mentality that led to the preservation of the species is so near the border line of what Goldwin Smith calls self-improvement that it can be looked upon only as its forerunner, as birds and all beasts foreran the man who was to prove their arch enemy.

(2015)

=Mercenary Spirit, The=--See GOLD, TAINT OF.

MERCY, LIMITATION OF

Says the old hymn:

While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return.

An old Saxon king had some serious trouble with his subjects: they murmured against him and at last rose up in rebellion. The king set out to subdue them, and soon the well-disciplined troops won a decided victory over the tatterdemalion horde opposing them. Having conquered, the king determined to show mercy. He adopted the novel expedient of placing a candle in the window of his castle and proclaiming that all should be pardoned who returned “while the candle burns.” (Text.)

(2016)

=Merit=--See PRAISE, UNNECESSARY.

MERIT COUNTS

An instance of a work published not because of its merit, but “from a cold and calculating publisher’s point of view of very doubtful sale,” is McMaster’s “History of the United States.”

The manuscript of the first volume was sent to the house by the author without introduction or comment of any kind. The author was a young tutor in mathematics at Princeton, had published nothing on any historical subject, and as far as any one knew at Princeton, had made no special historical study. It appeared that one very prominent New York house had declined to risk the publication of the work, and the historical expert of the house could not bring himself to recommend it as a reasonable publishing venture. Finally, the senior member of the firm read the manuscript himself, and decided to undertake the venture, believing in its probable success. The author was written to, he presented himself for the first time, being personally unknown in the office, and arrangements for the publication of this most popular and successful work were concluded within ten minutes.--_Appleton’s Magazine._

(2017)

=Merit Recognized=--See INCONSPICUOUS WORKERS.

MERIT WINS

Dr. S. Parkes Cadman tells this story of the late Dudley Buck, the well-known musical composer:

He was offered a thousand dollars by the managers of the Cincinnati Festival for a score which should embody solos, choruses and the accompanying orchestration. He promptly refused the offer, because it was not an open one to all competitors. Thereupon the managers threw it open, and the result was that Mr. Buck sent in “Marmion” and his setting of “The Golden Legend” under a nom de plume, and, of course, its merits won the prize.

(2018)

=Merriment Misplaced=--See DRUNKENNESS, THE TRAGEDY OF.

MESSAGE, A TIMELY

In the “Life of Lord Tennyson,” by his son, a story is told of a New England clergyman who once wrote to Tennyson telling him how, one Sabbath, he was strangely imprest to drop his sermon, and recite “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The congregation were shocked and later dismissed the pastor. Subsequently, a stranger called upon this clergyman, and told him how on that

## particular Sunday he had wandered into his church and heard him

recite the famous poem; that he was in that charge; had fought at Gettysburg; and felt he had done something, and ought to be a man. Said the New England clergyman to the old England poet: “I lost my pulpit, but I saved a soul.”

(2019)

MESSAGE, A WELCOME

It is related that one day, when the arctic explorer Nansen was battling with the ice-floes in the Polar seas, a carrier-pigeon tapped at the window of Mrs. Nansen’s home at Christiania. Instantly the casement was opened, and the wife of the famous arctic explorer in another moment covered the little messenger with kisses and caresses. The carrier-pigeon had been away from the cottage thirty long months, but it had not forgotten the way home. It brought a note from Nansen stating that all was going well with him and his expedition in the Polar regions. He had fastened the message to the frail courier, and turned it loose into the frigid air. It flew like an arrow over a thousand miles of frozen waste, and then sped forward over another thousand miles of ocean and plain and forests, and one morning entered the window of the waiting mistress, and delivered the message for which she had been waiting so anxiously. (Text.)

(2020)

=Messengers, Business=--See TIME-SAVERS.

=Meteorites=--See HEAVENLY VISITORS.

=Meteorological Changes and Crime=--See CRIME, EPIDEMICS OF.

METHOD IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION

Mrs. Wesley carried her principle of method and a time-table into the realm of religion. She began surprizingly early. “The children were early made to distinguish the Sabbath from other days, and were soon taught to be still at family prayers, and to ask a blessing immediately afterward, which they used to do by signs, before they could kneel or speak!” The cells of each infantile brain were diligently stored with passages of Scripture, hymns, collects, etc. Prayer was woven into the fabric of every day’s life. The daily lesson of each child was set in a framework of hymns. Later, certain fixt hours were assigned to each member of the household, during which the mother talked with the particular child for whom that hour was set aside.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(2021)

=Method in Service=--See SERVICE, METHOD OF.

=Methods, Imperfect=--See GRAVITATION, LAW OF.

METHODS IN RELIGION

Francis Newman once tried to explain to Dr. Martineau the difference between his own religious attitude and that of his eminent brother, the cardinal. “It is a matter of faith,” he said. “I have faith, and the cardinal has none. The cardinal comes to a river, and believes that he can not possibly cross it unless he takes a particular boat with a particular name painted on it. But I believe that I can swim.” (Text.)--FRANCIS GRIBBLE, _The Fortnightly Review_.

(2022)

=Mettle that Wins=--See LOADS, BALKING UNDER.

=Microbes=--See CLEANSING, DIFFICULTY OF.

MILITANT EVANGELISM

Robert Collyer told me the other day of a big-hearted, big-fisted old clergyman in Yorkshire who was so determined to convert the wild, wicked dwellers on the moors that when they refused to come into church on Sunday, he would rush out of his pulpit, spring into a crowd of cock-fighters outside the chapel, knock some of them down with his brawny fist, collar them, drag them in, and then administer gospel truths right and left to the rascals.--JAMES T. FIELDS.

(2023)

MILITARISM

This is merely what eight years’ increase in army and navy has cost the American people:

Average annual cost of army and navy for the eight years preceding the Spanish War (1890–1898), $51,500,000.

Average annual cost of army and navy for the eight years since the Spanish War (1902–1910), $185,400,000.

Average yearly increase in the latter period as compared with the former, $134,000,000, making a total increase in eight years of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent.

This eight-year increase exceeds the national debt by $158,000,000.

It exceeds the entire budget of the United States for 1910.

It is twice as much as the highest estimate of carrying out the deep water-ways projects.

It is nearly three times the estimated cost of replanting the 56,000,000 acres of denuded forest land in the United States.

It is three times the estimated cost of the Panama Canal, including purchase price from the French company.

It is three times the cost of carrying out the whole irrigation program contemplated within a generation.

It is probably enough to banish tuberculosis from the United States within a reasonable time, if efficiently used to arouse and assist the people in their fight against this dread disease. More than 160,000 are dying yearly from this cause.

It is $60 for every family in the United States.

It lays a yearly tax of 1¼ per cent on the total wages paid in the United States, on the supposition that wages average $600 to the family; and we pay it in the higher price of our goods.

Interest on this sum at 4 per cent would give an income of $1,000 a year forever to 42,880 families--a city of 200,000.

The increase for 190–09 is only $13,000,000 less than all the gifts to charities, libraries, educational institutions, and other public causes in 1909, which reached the vast total of $185,000,000.

The cost of a battleship would build a macadam road of approved construction between the cities of Chicago and New York.

The Congressional Library at Washington, the finest library building in the world, was built for little over half the cost of a battleship, and is maintained for three-fourths the cost of keeping her afloat.

Fifty manual training-schools could be built and equipped with necessary tools and appliances for the cost of a battleship, teaching the rudiments of a trade to 75,000 young people each year.

The cost of a few battleships wisely spent in the fight against tuberculosis in New York City, coupled with proper legislation and cooperation of the people, would probably render this disease as rare in a generation or two as is smallpox to-day.--By courtesy of the Peace Society.

(2024)

See ARMIES OF THE WORLD, NAVAL POWERS AND ARMAMENTS; NAVIES OF THE WORLD; WAR AND RACIAL FERTILITY.

[Illustration: UNITED STATES S. S. NORTH DAKOTA]

Forty Y. M. C. A. buildings could be built and equipped throughout for the cost of a battleship, each building accommodating the young men in a city of 200,000 people.

One 26,000-ton battleship ($12,000,000) + 20 years’ upkeep at $800,000 a year,--$28,000,000: Then the junk heap.

$28,000,000: 1,400 churches at $20,000 each, 7,000 farms at $4,000 each, a college education for 14,000 men or women at $500 a year for four years.

For past wars and preparation for war, $423,000,000, or 70 per cent.

Left for other purposes, $181,000,000, or 30 per cent.

[Illustration: THE WAY OF MILITARISM

Which benefits a few trusts and contractors and gives temporary and uneconomical employment, but which is rapidly impoverishing the nations.

Ordinary income of the United States for 1908–09, $604,000,000.]

Our generation has not accepted Christ’s ideal of non-resistance, gentleness and humility. We believe in _Dreadnaughts_ and armed regiments. At our conferences in The Hague and Mohonk we plead for peace; at our capitals we vote uncounted millions for cannon and bombshells. Disclaiming hypocrisy, we excuse ourselves by saying that the best way to preserve peace is to prepare for war, when in our hearts we know that a man who carries a concealed revolver in his pocket is a thousand times more likely to slay any chance enemy than if he had left his weapon at home or hurled it into the sea. We admire and love the Quaker--but we want him to stay in Philadelphia; the man we send to Washington must argue for us that a nation needs a war about once in thirty years.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2025)

=Military Sagacity=--See RETREAT DISCOURAGED.

=Millennial Possibilities=--See FUTURE WELFARE.

=Mind=--See MASTERY.

MIND-ACTIVITY

Dr. R. S. Storrs points out the activity of the mind and its persistence under great limitations in these words:

A universal spasmodic disease masters the organs of locomotion, so that the arm or the limb will remain in any posture, however unnatural, in which it is placed. The senses are usually entirely sealed, of no more avail than if they were obliterated. And the continued pulsation, with the warmth which this maintains in the system, are the only indications that life remains. Yet there have been authentic instances in which the mind, thus shrouded from sight, instead of being destroyed, impaired, or even limited, in its central force, has been stimulated to a more amazing activity, by being thus crowded, as it were, into a corner of its realm; and has feared and agonized, or has triumphed and exulted, with a vividness of experience altogether unaccustomed.

(2026)

=Mind and Will Conquering Circumstances=--See PHYSICAL WEAKNESS OVERCOME.

MIND-HEALING

The story is told of a woman who called on a physician for nervous trouble. She was a woman whose ailments had worried and excited her to such a degree that she was threatened with nervous prostration. Said the doctor: “Madam, what you need is to read your Bible more.” She promptly began to take offense at the strange prescription. He told her he meant it. “Go home and read your Bible an hour a day; then come back to me a month from to-day.” She thought over the matter, recalled the fact that tho she was a professing Christian she had been neglecting to read her Bible, and so she decided to take his advice. At the end of the month she came back to the office a well woman. She felt like a different person. She needed no medicine. (Text.)

(2027)

MIND, THE HUMAN

In the yard stands the locomotive. It is a masterpiece of the mechanic’s art. Burnished and lubricated journals fit in boxes and connecting-rods are welded to connection. Valves, pistons and wheels are all ready for the harmonious interplay which makes this mass of metal a thing of power. The twin rails beckon it to be on its way; the machine itself pants impatiently; impulsively sobs the pop-valve. But the locomotive waits, must wait for the driver’s will. Not stoutest boiler or greatest head of steam can draw the train until the man reveals his mind to the locomotive.--T. C. MCCLELLAND.

(2028)

MINIATURE WORK

I have to-day a paper at home, as long as half my hand, on which was photographed the whole contents of a London newspaper. It was put under a dove’s wing, and sent into Paris, where they enlarged it, and read the news.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

(2029)

=Minister, The Little=--See CHILD RELIGION.

MINISTRY, DIFFICULTIES OF THE

It is sometimes in order for the members of one profession to plume themselves at the expense of another. Especially does it seem to be the thought at times that the ministry is peculiarly a profession of ease. That there is a truer and deeper view, however, is seen in the following:

A barrister, accustomed to practise in criminal courts, made sneering remarks concerning preachers. “If,” said he, “I were to address a jury in the average way you clergymen do I should never get a conviction.” The elderly clergyman to whom he spoke, replied: “If you had to address the same jury 104 times a year, and your object was not to get them to give a verdict against some other person--which they might be willing to do--but to induce them to convict themselves, I doubt if you would do any better than we do.” Silence on the part of the barrister. (Text.)

(2030)

MINUTE, IMPORTANCE OF A

’Twas only a minute that would not stay, But how many noticed its flight? And yet for one it parted the way, Betwixt life’s bloom and its blight.

It pointed the new-born baby’s breath, First felt on the mother’s breast; For another it sounded the summons of death And a weary one gone to his rest.

At that moment two souls were together wed Till death should call them apart; Another to virtue bowed his head And consecrated his heart.

Ah! big was the moment that flitted away, And hardly one noticed its flight; And hundreds of minutes make up the day, And hundreds are lost in the night.

--BENJAMIN REYNOLDS BULKELEY, _New England Magazine_.

(2031)

MIRACLES

Whether the miracles of Jesus really happened or are merely legendary I do not know, and, if I may say it without irreverence, I do not care. They are not necessary to my Christianity, which, to say the truth, can better do without them. What is it to me, and to such as me, whether, in the little village of Bethany, Jesus did or did not raise to life one poor dead body, when I know that in the centuries since he has raised to life millions of dead souls? And what, after all, does it matter whether on the shores of the lake of Galilee on a late afternoon nearly two thousand years ago he gave one meal to five thousand persons by feeding them with a few loaves and fishes, when I know that all the world over, every day, every night, this very night, he is feeding countless millions of the poor, the opprest and the broken-hearted, making them forget their hunger and thirst and all the sufferings of their earthly existence in the bread of the Spirit that is the bread of life?--HALL CAINE, _Christian Commonwealth_.

(2032)

* * * * *

Some wealthy Africans, with whom Kruger was traveling in the desert, found the food-hampers gone astray. “You are a great believer in miracles, Oom Paul,” said one of them. “Why can’t you arrange for heaven to send me victuals by the crows, as they were sent by the ravens to Elijah.” “Because,” said Oom, dryly, “Elijah was a prophet with a mission; you are a fool with an appetite.”

(2033)

MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF

Whatever effect or lack of effect miracles have on modern minds, the following account shows that they are of first value to simple-minded natives. The writer is Sophie B. Titterington:

When the rumor flew around Aniwa that “Missi” (Dr. John G. Paton), was trying to dig water out of the ground, the old Christian chief tenderly labored with him. “Oh, Missi, your head is going wrong. Don’t let our people hear you talking about going down into the earth for rain, or they will never listen to your word, or believe you again.”

But the island was greatly in need of good water, and Dr. Paton dug away at the well, single-handed. It was hard, weary work. He hired some of the natives with fish-hooks to get out three pailfuls each, still doing most of the heavy work himself. But when the well was twelve feet deep, one side of it caved in. This gave the loving, troubled old chief another plea. He represented that if Missi had been in the hole that night, he would have been killed, and an English warship would have come to find out what had happened to the white man. They would not believe that Missi had gone into that hole of his own accord, but would punish them for his supposed murder.

When he was thirty feet down the earth became damp. That evening he said to the old chief with earnest solemnity, “I think that Jehovah God will give us water to-morrow from that hole.”

“No, Missi,” the faithful old fellow sighed. “You will never get rain coming up from the earth in Aniwa. We expect daily, if you reach water, to see you drop into the sea where the sharks will eat you!”

At daybreak. Dr. Paton went down and made a little hole in the center of the bottom of his well. He says: “I trembled in every limb when the water rushed up and began to fill the hole. Muddy tho it was, I eagerly tasted it, and the little cup almost dropt from my hand in sheer joy, and I fell upon my knees in that muddy bottom to praise the Lord. It was water! It was living water from Jehovah’s well!”

With superstitious fear the people gazed upon the jugful their Missi carried up. The old chief shook it, touched it, tasted it. “Rain! rain. Yes, it is rain!”

The back of heathenism was broken. A new order of things began in Aniwa. Family prayers and reverence for the Sabbath spontaneously grew up. The wonderful transformation which was wrought in the Aniwans became household talk all over the world. All this was hastened because the ambassador of Jehovah God had done what none of the gods of the islanders could have done--brought up rain from the ground! (Text.)

(2034)

=Mirror, The, as a Revealer=--See SELF-INSPECTION.

MISCALCULATION

What is said to be the largest plow in the world was made some years ago at Bakersfield, Cal. This plow was the result of the ingenuity of a ranch superintendent, who had authority to make improvements, but not to introduce steam-plows. The superintendent had grown very tired of preparing three thousand acres of land for wheat with ordinary nine- or twelve-inch plows drawn by two horses.

He argued that if two horses could pull a twelve-inch plow, six horses could pull a plow thirty-six inches wide, and that eight horses could pull a plow forty-eight inches wide. He made the calculations carefully, and, being clever with his pencil, made drawings also, and sent for blacksmiths and machinists to construct a plow on his principle.

Some simple folk told him that his great plow would not work, but they contented themselves with saying this dogmatically, without giving any mathematical reason therefore. So the superintendent went on with his plans.

The blacksmiths and machinists finished the plow in due time. The share was made to cut a fifty-inch furrow; the top of it reached five feet above the ground, to give room to throw the earth. The beam was more than a foot thick; but the machine was constructed to run between two great wheels, so that it could be turned around easily; and on the axle between these wheels was the seat for the man who was to drive the ten horses which were hitched to it.

The plow was brought to the great field, the ten horses were attached to it, the handles were raised, the driver mounted his seat, and the team was started. But as soon as the share struck well into the ground the horses stopt short. They were stuck fast. And yet the plow had not gone too deeply into the earth. But it was evident that they could not pull the plow. More horses were brought out, but not until fifty were attached did the plow move along.

Even then it required four men to hold the handles, in order to keep the plow in the furrow. It was an economic failure.

Then the superintendent, through the intervention of some one who was a better mathematician than he, learned that he should have cubed the capacity of his twelve-inch plow every time he doubled the width of it.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2035)

MISER, A WORTHLESS

A certain John Hopkins, familiarly known in his day for his rapacity as “Vulture Hopkins,” lived a worthless life but died possest of a million and a half dollars, left so as not to be inherited until after the second generation, so that, as he said, “his heirs would be as long spending it as he had been in getting it.” Pope preserved his memory in this couplet:

“When Hopkins dies a thousand lights attend The wretch who, living, saved a candle’s end.”

Such a life is properly to be condemned, altho its results may be useful to a subsequent generation.

(2036)

=Miserliness=--See MAMMON-WORSHIP; SAVING DISAPPROVED.

MISERY AN EDUCATOR

How often I had traced the boy who had robbed the box-car with unerring precision to the big, lawless business man who controlled or directed a trust, debauched a legislature, bought a senatorship or united with the gamblers and dive-keepers to steal a public franchise. Why was there so much kindness and so little justice? Why were men good to children, to churches and universities, and still so unjust? And when the other fights were won, the fights for the playgrounds, the detention home school, the juvenile court and all it implies, the biggest fight of all was yet ahead. But that little fight helped us to see the necessity for the big fight. We were being educated through the misery and misfortune of the children.--BEN B. LINDSEY, _The Survey_.

(2037)

MISERY EXCITING SYMPATHY

The subjects which especially awakened the pencil of Thomas Rowlandson were the denizens of the squalid quarters of London. Muther says of him: “The cry of misery rising from the pavement of great cities had been first heard by Rowlandson, and the pages on which he drew the poor of London are a living dance of death of the most ghastly veracity.” (Text.)

(2038)

=Misfortune=--See DESIRES INORDINATE.

=Misfortune, Meeting=--See NATURE, ENJOYMENT OF.

MISFORTUNE, SUPERIORITY TO

The Caucasian mountaineers have this proverb: “Heroism is endurance for one moment more.” The fact is recognized that the human spirit, with its dominating force, the will, may be and ought to be superior to all bodily sensations and accidents of environment. In a recent psychological story called “My Friend Will,” Charles F. Lummis pays a striking tribute to the power of the human mind over accident and chance, when he makes his “friend Will” say: “I am bigger than anything that can happen to me; all those things--sorrow, misfortune and suffering--are outside my door. I’m in the house and I’ve got the key!” (Text.)

(2039)

=Misrepresentation Rebuked=--See HONESTY IN BUSINESS.

MISSION FRUIT

A young married woman, wife of a Mohammedan, was lying ill in one of the mission hospitals in North India. While there she was daily taught of the love and compassion of the Savior, and she soon desired to know and serve Him. Her husband was told of her wish and was exceedingly angry and had her removed immediately from the hospital. He prohibited the mission ladies from visiting her. But just before the conveyance came to take her away she called the doctor and missionary to her and said: “I can be taken away from you, but not from Christ, for I can pray to Him even behind the purdah, but I want you to remember my desire. You know Jesus well, I only know Him a little; when you meet me at the judgment seat of heaven, just go to Him and tell Him who I am and how anxious I was to publicly confess Him on earth. Make it plain to Him, please.”

(2040)

* * * * *

There is an old Indian legend that a poor man threw a bud of charity into Buddha’s bowl and it blossomed into a thousand flowers. So we throw the bud of Christian truth into isolated and scattered communities, into the far-off lands, and lo, it bursts forth into a thousand fragrant blossoms and bears fruit in every activity of human life.--J. A. HUNTLEY.

(2041)

* * * * *

The first fruits of the gospel on mission fields are growing and ripening by the river of the water of life, day by day. No more weighty proof of the success of missions can be found than the transformation of individual character and the every-day life.

One of the Chinese brethren is a ferryman, poor in money, but rich in faith. One evening he ferried a passenger over the river, who had a lot of things tied up in a cloth. After throwing the cash for his fare into the bottom of the boat, the man departed hurriedly. The Christian went to pick up the money, and found a pair of gold bracelets, worth $400, which the man had dropt. He tied up his boat and tried to find the man, but he was lost in the crowd. The boatman went home much troubled. According to Chinese law, he could keep them if unclaimed. After prayer, he decided to go to the chapel. The preacher heard the story. Said he: “Your passenger doubtless was a robber, and these things have been stolen. I will go with you to the mandarin, and we will give the bracelets up to him. A search will be made, and the owner found.”

This was done, and the mandarin said: “Well, I have never seen or heard anything like this. Your religion must be a true religion, and your God a living God, thus to influence a poor man to give up wealth for conscience’s sake.” (Text.)

(2042)

See TRANSFORMATION.

MISSION SURGERY

On many fields missionaries have found that ministry to the ills of the body has assisted in the conversion of souls. Thus in Formosa:

Dr. Mackay, a well-known medical missionary, has found it a help to his work to minister to bodily ills. He extracted twenty-one thousand teeth in twenty-one years, and thirty-nine thousand in all, and has dispensed considerable medicine. Extracting teeth is cheaper than dealing out medicine, for beyond the instrument there is no outlay. The natives have lost all faith in their old doctors.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(2043)

=Mission Work=--See SERVICE WITH HARDSHIP.

MISSIONARIES, MEDICAL

Africa has 135,000,000 inhabitants and 75 medical missionaries.

India has 300,000,000 inhabitants and 200 medical missionaries.

China has 350,000,000 inhabitants and 241 medical missionaries.

Japan has 42,000,000 inhabitants and 15 medical missionaries.

Turkey has 22,000,000 inhabitants and 38 medical missionaries.

Persia has 9,000,000 inhabitants and 11 medical missionaries.

Burmah has 7,500,000 inhabitants and 9 medical missionaries.

India alone contains 66,300 lunatics, 153,000 deaf and dumb, 354,000 blind and 400,000 lepers.

All missionary hospitals (Protestant) in the world can accommodate 100,000 in-patients and 2,500,000 outpatients annually.

These facts point to the need of men and means in order that the world may be Christianized.

(2044)

See MEDICAL MISSIONS.

MISSIONARIES’ MISTAKES

Prof. Harlan P. Beach, in an address before the Fifth International convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for foreign missions on the subject “Efficiency is limited and the kingdom is retarded by violating reasonable standards of taste or propriety,” said:

In speaking on this subject, I can show its importance, perhaps, by an incident which happened about twenty years ago near Peking. One night I heard a loud knocking at the outer gate of our compound. The gatekeeper went out and was astonished to see a dust-laden, wobegone new missionary. He had arrived at Tientsin, his station, about four days before. He found himself in a new community, where he could not get his bearings, and had come to our station to learn what to do from two of our prominent missionaries. I was glad to meet the newcomer, but I said, “Why did you arrive so late?” “Well,” he replied, “I couldn’t help it.” I looked at his cart; he had three mules attached to it tandem by a great tangle of ropes. He added: “The trouble is, I had hardly gotten started from Tientsin when this front mule, who is young, took a notion that he would desert the beaten track. He left the roadway suddenly before the carter could prevent it and made a dash straight for a china-shop. There was a terrific crash. The ropes got caught between the legs of the second mule and dragged him over into a great lot of jars which went to pieces, and even the wheel-mule, hemmed in by the vast timbers that do duty as shafts in China, yielding to the shock, crashed into the china-shop.” It took a long time to get that difficulty righted, and hence he was late.

This incident illustrates my subject in six respects: (1) Missionaries, like those mules, make many breaks; (2) they usually make them at the start; (3) the breaks are generally due to ignorance, or to wilfulness; (4) the work of missions is retarded greatly by these mistakes, just as my friend was delayed until late that night; (5) mistakes of missionaries involve their associates, as the action of this frisky front mule brought the whole outfit into disrepute; (6) what is most important of all, they bring loss to superiors. Those mules were mere animals, but there was a carter there and also my friend, who was anxious to hasten the coming of the kingdom that he took the trip at great inconvenience for that very purpose. Tho we missionaries are only rarely mules, we are all and always servants of a great Master, and are retarding His cause and bringing reproach upon His name and upon the Church of God, if we are guilty of such breaches of etiquette as are suggested by this parable.

(2045)

MISSIONARY, A, IN THE MAKING

At the age of ten, David Livingstone went to work in the cotton factory as a piecer, and after some years was promoted to be a spinner. The first half-crown he earned he gave to his mother. With part of his first week’s wages he bought a Latin text-book and studied that language with ardor in an evening class between eight and ten. He had to be in the factory at six in the morning and his work ended at eight at night. But by working at Latin until midnight he mastered Vergil and Horace by the time he was sixteen. He used to read in the factory by putting the book on the spinning-jenny so that he could catch a sentence at a time as he passed at his work. He was fond of botany and geology and zoology, and when he could get out would scour the country for specimens.--ROBERT E. SPEER, “Servants of the King.”

(2046)

MISSIONARY, A LITTLE

“I can not afford it,” said John Hale, the rich farmer, when asked to give to the cause of missions.

Harry, his wide-awake grandson, was grieved and indignant.

“But the poor heathen,” he replied; “is it not too bad they can not have churches and schoolhouses and books?”

“What do you know about the heathen?” exclaimed the old man testily. “Do you wish me to give away my hard earnings? I tell you, I can not afford it.”

But Harry was well posted in missionary intelligence, and day after day puzzled his curly head with plans for extracting money for the noble cause from his unwilling relative. At last, seizing an opportunity when his grandfather was in a good humor over the election news, he said: “Grandfather, if you do not feel able to give money to the missionary board, will you give a potato?”

“A potato?” ejaculated Mr. Hale, looking up from his paper.

“Yes, sir; and land enough to plant it in, and what it produces for four years?”

“Oh, yes!” replied the unsuspecting grandparent, settling his glasses on his calculating nose in such a way that showed he was glad to escape on such cheap terms from the lad’s persecution.

Harry planted the potato, and it rewarded him the first year by producing nine; these, the following season, became a peck; the next, seven and a half bushels, and when the fourth harvest came, lo, the potato had increased to seventy bushels. And, when sold, the amount realized was put with a glad heart into the treasury of the Lord. Even the aged farmer exclaimed: “Why, I did not feel that donation in the least! And, Harry, I’ve been thinking that if there were a little missionary like you in every house, and each one got a potato, or something else as productive, for the cause, there would be quite a large sum gathered.”--_Friend for Boys and Girls._

(2047)

MISSIONARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

When the American missionaries came to the Sandwich Islands, they struck off the shackles from the whole race, breaking the power of the kings and chiefs. They set the common man free, elevated his wife to a position of equality with him, and gave a piece of land to each to hold forever. They set up schools and churches, and imbued the people with the spirit of the Christian religion. If they had had the power to augment the capacities of the people, they could have made them perfect; and they would have done it, no doubt.

The missionaries taught the whole nation to read and write, with facility, in the native tongue. I don’t suppose there is to-day a single uneducated person above eight years of age in the Sandwich Islands! It is the best educated country in the world, I believe. That has been all done by the American missionaries. And in a large degree it was paid for by the American Sunday-school children with their pennies. I know that I contributed.--SAMUEL L. CLEMENS.

(2048)

MISSIONARY ADAPTATION

In 1881 James Robertson left the pastorate to accept the newly created post of superintendent of home missions for Manitoba and the Northwest. He set off at once on his first missionary tour, driving two thousand miles, at first through heat and dust and rain and then through frosts and blizzards. He preached where he could, and was not to be discouraged by any situation. Once, coming to a settlement late on a Saturday evening, where the largest building was the hotel and the largest room the bar, he inquired of the hotel man:

“Is there any place where I can hold a service to-morrow?” “Service?” “Yes, a preaching service.” “Preaching? Oh, yes, I’ll get you one,” he replied with genial heartiness. Next day Mr. Robertson came into the bar, which was crowded with men. “Well, have you found a room for my service?” he inquired of his genial host. “Here you are, boss, right here. Get in behind that bar and here’s your crowd. Give it to ’em. God knows they need it.”

Mr. Robertson caught the wink intended for the boys only. Behind the bar were bottles and kegs and other implements of the trade; before it men standing up for their drinks, chaffing, laughing, swearing. The atmosphere could hardly be called congenial, but the missionary was “on to his job,” as the boys afterward admiringly said. He gave out a hymn. Some of the men took off their hats and joined in the singing, one or two whistling the accompaniment. As he was getting into his sermon one of the men, evidently the smart one of the company, broke in:

“Say, boss,” he drawled, “I like yer nerve, but I don’t believe yer talk.” “All right,” replied Mr. Robertson, “give me a chance. When I get through you can ask any questions you like. If I can I will answer them; if I can’t I’ll do my best.”

The reply appealed to the sense of fair play in the crowd. They speedily shut up their companion and told the missionary to “fire ahead,” which he did, and to such good purpose that when he had finished there was no one ready to gibe or question. After the service was closed, however, one of them observed earnestly: “I believe every word you said, sir. I haven’t heard anything like that since I was a kid, from my Sunday-school teacher. I guess I gave her a pretty hard time. But look here, can’t you send us a missionary for ourselves? We’ll chip in, won’t we, boys?”--ROBERT E. SPEER, “Servants of the King.”

(2049)

=Missionary Beginnings=--See ONE, WINNING.

MISSIONARY CALL

Friends were trying to dissuade one whose ancestors were not three generations out of cannibalism from going as a missionary to one of the savage islands of Polynesia. They recounted all the hardships and dangers to be encountered. “Are there men there?” asked the volunteer.

“Men? Yes; horrible cannibals, who will probably kill you and eat you.”

“That settles it!” was the sublime rejoinder. “That settles it! Wherever there are men, there missionaries are bound to go!”

(2050)

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE

On October 15, 1819, in the Park Street Church, Boston, a mission to the Hawaiian Islands was organized with the following members: Messrs. Bingham and Thurston, ministers; Messrs. Whitney and Ruddles, teachers; Thomas Holman, physician; Elisha Loomis, printer; Daniel Chamberlain, farmer, together with their wives, and three Hawaiian young men from the Cornwall Missionary School. These seventeen went forth to erect a Christian civilization upon pagan shores, for they represented the Church, the common school, the printing-press, the medicine-chest, and the implements of agriculture. They set sail from Boston October 23, 1819, and reached the Hawaiian coast March 31, 1820, after somewhat more than five months.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(2051)

=Missionary Giving=--See CROWNING CHRIST.

=Missionary Good Sense=--See DIPLOMAT, A, AND MISSIONS.

MISSIONARY LITERATURE

There came into our office the other day a man who had only recently closed a very successful missionary pastorate of several years to become the minister of a large church which was not so strongly missionary. He ignored that fact, however, and began to employ his former methods, which included the observance of the monthly concert of prayer for missions. He made out his program, based on the missionary magazine of his denomination, and as he met one after another of those whom he had assigned to help him, he gave them their parts. One of the prominent members of the church he called to his study and said to him, “I want you to read such and such an article in your magazine and give us the gist of it at the next missionary meeting.” “My magazine,” replied the man. “I haven’t--I don’t take any magazine with that article in it.” “What, don’t you take the missionary magazine? Just look at it,” said he, laying it out before him. “Oh, is that it? Never saw it before. How much is it? Thirty-five cents? I guess if you are going to have this concert business every month, I might as well subscribe for it and have my own copy. Looks pretty good, too, doesn’t it? Didn’t know missions could be drest up so well. Cover looks like one of our regular magazines.” This pastor knows how to do it. Other wise pastors will mention the best missionary books; they will see that their people know of the latest missionary literature.--F. P. HAGGARD, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(2052)

MISSIONARY MARTYRDOM

A convert from Islam took advantage of the Ameer’s visit to Kandahar and crossed the frontier, unbidden and uninvited, to preach Christianity in Afghanistan. He was arrested, taken before the Ameer, and sent in chains to Kabul, but was murdered before reaching there. He was named Abdul Karim, and was at one time one of the workers at Bannu. Mrs. Pennell wrote that when he was taken prisoner and refused to repeat the “Kalima,” saying he was a Christian, he was taken to Kandahar. The Ameer questioned him, and on his again refusing to repeat the “Kalima,” and saying he had come to preach the gospel, he was ordered to be flogged, put in chains, and to be taken to Kabul, where he was to await the return of the Ameer, and unless he changed his mind would get due punishment.

Heavily chained hand and foot, he set out with an escort for Kabul; that at the villages he was spat upon, and the hairs of his beard pulled out--and at length the poor, weary sufferer, at a village before reaching Kabul, was murdered. (Text.)

(2053)

=Missionary Power=--See GOD IN MISSIONS.

MISSIONARY PRAYER

The late Joseph Cook is the author of this prayer in verse for the spread and triumph of God’s kingdom:

One field the wheeling world, Vast furrows open lie; Broadcast let seed be hurled By us before we die. Winds, east or west, Let no tares fall; Wide waft the best; God winnow all.

Heaven hath a single sun, All gates swing open wide; All lands at last are one, And seas no more divide. In every zone, Arise and shine; Earth’s only throne, Our God, be Thine.

On every desert rain, Make green earth’s flintiest sands; Above the land and main Reveal Thy pierced hands. Thy cross heaven wins; Lift it on high; And in his sins Let no man die.

(2054)

=Missionary Preaching=--See TEXT, POWER OF A.

MISSIONARY RESULTS

Charles Darwin, the scientist, described the Terra Del Fuegans as the most degraded specimens of humanity he had ever seen. He considered them beyond the reach of civilization. The missionaries carried the gospel to them, and Darwin, seeing the change wrought, said with great frankness and willing publicity, “Truly the missionary’s message is a magician’s wand.”

(2055)

* * * * *

Rev. Egerton R. Young, a missionary among the Indians of Canada, tells of an obdurate old man whose heart had been touched by the missionary whose ministrations had brought his child back to health:

He attended an open-air meeting standing at first a quarter of a mile off. At the next meeting he drew a bit nearer, then nearer still. Six weeks later he was among the circle kneeling at the foot of the cross, making his confession. “Missionary,” he said, “I was a fool, but now I have got the moss out of my ears, and the sand out of my eyes, and I see clearly, and I hear all right. I am so glad I came.”

Was it not of such scenes as these that the prophet was thinking when he wrote, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopt.” (Text.)

(2056)

See EVIL TURNED TO GOOD.

MISSIONARY SACRIFICE

San Quala was one of the first converts among the degraded Karens. From the lowest state the gospel raised him, with a rapidity that no civilization ever knew, to a noble Christian manhood. His first impulse was to tell others of Jesus. He helped to translate the Bible into the Karen tongue, for fifteen years guided the missionaries through the jungles, and then himself began to preach and to plant new churches. In one year he had formed nine, with 741 converts; in less than three years the nine had grown to thirty, with 2,000 converts. He did his work without salary, and when the English Government offered him a position, with large compensation, he at once declined, tho his poverty was such as prevented him from taking his wife with him in his missionary tours.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(2057)

See SACRIFICE FOR RELIGION.

=Missionary’s Gallant Action=--See COURAGE, CHRISTIAN.

=Missionary’s Liberation=--See INTERVENTION, DIVINE.

MISSIONARY TESTIMONY

Mr. Darwin was not regarded as a Christian, but he had the greatest respect for good in Christianity, and was candid enough to acknowledge it. This is the way in which he answered some shallow critics of foreign missionaries:

They forget, or will not remember, that human sacrifice and the power of an idolatrous priesthood; a system of profligacy unparalleled in any other part of the world; infanticide, a consequence of that system; bloody wars where the conquerors spared neither women nor children--that all these things have been abolished, and that dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness have been greatly reduced by the introduction of Christianity. For a voyager to forget these things is a base ingratitude; for should he chance to be at the point of shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will most devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may have extended thus far.

(2058)

* * * * *

F. A. McKenzie, the well-known foreign correspondent of the London _Mail_, says, in the London _Christian World_:

A stranger stopt me, one day. “I can not understand,” said he, “why you, a newspaper man, should advocate missionary work; it is not your business. Why do you meddle with it?”

“I do so because I am a Christian imperialist,” I replied. “The white man’s civilization is the best the world has seen, and the white man’s civilization is rooted in Christianity. I know that every missionary is an active campaigner, not merely for a new theology, but also for a new life, based on the foundation-stone of our civilization--the cross. I want the white man’s ideas to triumph not for the glory of the whites, but for the betterment of woman-life and child-life throughout the world.”

(2059)

=Missionary Work=--See SONG, EFFECTIVE.

=Missionary Work Admired by Atheist=--See ATHEIST’S GIFT TO MISSIONS.

MISSIONARY WORK AT HOME

Whitefield found himself in the presence of what seemed an urgent and overwhelming call to preach. Here were the Kingswood miners, a community ignorant, vicious, forgotten, who, beyond all others, needed the care and teaching of the Christian Church, and yet were left completely outside, not merely of its agencies, but even of its very remembrance. When Whitefield was setting out for America some wise and keen-sighted friend said to him, “If you have a mind to convert Indians, there are colliers enough in Kingswood.”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(2060)

MISSIONARY WORK, VALUE OF

Belle M. Brain tells the following in her book, “The Transformation of Hawaii”:

A visitor to the Hawaiian Islands a few years ago said to King Kamehameha V: “Really now, don’t you think things are in a worse condition than before the advent of the missionaries?”

“I leave you to judge,” answered the king. “Since you have come into my presence you have broken the ancient law of _tabu_ in three ways. You walked into my presence instead of crawling, you crossed my shadow, you are even now sitting before me. In the old days any one of these things would have cost you your life.”

(2061)

MISSIONARY ZEAL

If all Christians had the willing zeal of these poor South Sea islanders, the world would soon be converted to Christ:

On one occasion Mr. Williams explained the manner in which English Christians raised money to send the gospel to the heathen, and the natives of Raralonga exprest great regret at not having money that they might help in the same good work of causing the Word of God to grow. Mr. Williams replied: “If you have no money, you have something that takes the place of money; something to buy money with”; he then referred to the pigs that he had brought to the island on his first visit, and which had so increased that every family possest them; and he suggested that, if every family in the island would set apart a pig for causing the Word of God to grow, and, when the ships came, would sell the pigs for money, a large offering might be raised. The natives were delighted with the idea, and the next morning the squeaking of the pigs, which were receiving the “mark of the Lord” in their ears, was heard from one end of the settlement to the other.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(2062)

See COURAGE, CHRISTIAN.

MISSIONS

Carlyle, in his life of Cromwell, says that he ranks the foreign missionary and his convert with the greatest heroes in history. It is in his story of Kapiolani. These Christian teachers in the South Seas brought the queen to faith in God, and to the new ideas of home, school, government and social progress. But the people still worshiped the gods whose home was in the crater, whose column of fire was on the sky. So the missionary and the queen told the people that they would dare the native god. They made their way to the foot of the mountain. The people shrieked, wept, implored, but these two walked bravely on. They stood on the edge of the crater, breathing the sulfurous gases. The queen hurled stones into the abyss and shouted her threats and denials. When they came down, in safety, superstition was dead. Carlyle says that a Christian missionary slew a cult in that hour, and that the event will always rank in history with Elijah at Baal and the Christian convert who cut down the sacred oak of Thor for Germany. But foreign missions have produced scores of heroes and heroines like these. The history of missions is a sky that is ablaze with light that will shine forever and forever.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2063)

See ADVICE TO MISSIONARIES.

ATHEIST’S GIFT TO MISSIONS.

BARBARISM.

BIBLE FRUIT.

BIBLE, TESTIMONY TO.

CALLS AND CONVEYANCES IN THE EAST.

CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSIONS.

CHILD RELIGION, CHANGES WROUGHT BY.

CHRISTIANITY, PRACTICAL PROOF OF.

CONFESSIONS.

CONVERSION.

CHRISTIAN HONESTY.

CRUEL GREED.

CRUELTY, CHINESE.

DEATH-BED FAITH.

DECEIT WITH GOD.

DEMONOLOGY.

DIPLOMAT, A, AND MISSIONS.

EMBELLISHMENT OF PREACHING.

ENLIGHTENMENT.

EXPECTORATING.

FAITH AND SUPPORT.

FALSE INFERENCE.

FIDELITY, CHRISTIAN.

FOLLOWING CHRIST.

FUNCTIONS AND GIFTS IN THE EAST.

GESTURES AND USE OF HANDS IN THE EAST.

HARVEST FROM EARLY SOWING.

HEATHEN RECEPTIVENESS.

HEATHENDOM.

HUSBAND AND WIFE, RELATIONS BETWEEN.

IGNORANCE.

IGNORANCE, PALLIATIONS OF.

IMPRESSION BY PRACTISE.

INADEQUACY OF NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS.

INDIA, MEDICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN.

INTELLIGENCE OUTDOING IGNORANCE.

INVESTMENT RETURN.

KNOWLEDGE COMPARATIVE.

LIVING THE GOSPEL.

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF.

PERSISTENCE IN MISSIONARIES.

PRAYER FOR COMMON NEEDS.

PROOF.

PROPRIETY.

PROPRIETY, OBSERVING THE RULES OF.

RAPPORT.

RELIGIONS CONTRASTED.

RELIGIOUS INFRACTIONS OF PROPRIETY.

RESCUE.

RESERVATION.

REWARD, THOUSANDFOLD.

SABBATH, OBSERVING THE.

SACRIFICE.

SHUT-IN MISSIONARY WORK.

SONG, EFFECTIVE.

SPEECH AND MISSIONARIES.

STATESMAN ON MISSIONS.

SURGERY IN KOREA.

TABOOED TOPICS IN THE EAST.

TESTIMONY INDISPUTABLE.

WAY, THE RIGHT.

MISSIONS A SUCCESS

_The Christian Century_ says there are yet a few intellectual provincials that scoff at the missionary enterprise, but their ignorance is so coming to shame them that their dolorous and caustic voices are not often heard. No one but a moral agnostic, a medieval race-hater, or a dogmatic religious quack could be cynical about an enterprise that shows such amazing success as does the missionary propaganda. Here are some figures that show the growth of thirteen years:

1895. 1909.

Total amount given $13,470,318 $24,613,075 Given by native churches 1,458,464 4,859,605 (Not included in above.) Number of missionaries 11,033 21,834 Number of native workers 49,566 92,272 Number of stations 18,545 43,934 Number of actual church-members 1,030,776 2,097,963 Number of adherents 2,770,240 4,866,661 Number of accessions to church in year 62,256 135,141 Number of schools 19,384 29,190 Number of pupils 860,287 1,413,995

The grand total of receipts for the great cause is seen to be a total of nearly $30,000,000, and the number of workers employed to be more than 114,000. In each case the numbers have about doubled in the thirteen years, while the number of stations has increased in a like proportion. The total of actual communicants in the churches has more than doubled, while that of the adherents has fallen but little below the same rate of increase. As the missions grow older and the life of the communities about them is elevated, the number of church-members will advance in an increasing ratio over that of adherents. The total number now in the Christian communities in the foreign field reaches practically 7,000,000.

(2064)

MISSIONS AND COMMERCE

Commenting on the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Dr. N. D. Hillis says:

What if the American News Company should send a shipload of books to Borneo? The people can not read. What if they send a shipload of typewriters to western Africa? The people can not write. What if you send a cargo of sewing-machines to the Hottentots? Well, they do not wear clothes. Wealth comes through selling manufactured goods. But savages do not want these conveniences. Now, think of what this American Board has done. Once they sent out a band to civilize a South Sea island. In the band were six carpenters, two blacksmiths, two bricklayers, one architect, two tailors, two shoemakers, two weavers, two farmers, one physician, four preachers. In forty years after they landed, one ship a week unloaded its cargo at that port--that tells the whole story. Since then the trade from New England ports alone has yielded enough profit to merchants in a single year to pay for the entire missionary enterprise.

(2065)

MISSIONS APPROVED

Jacob A. Riis says that he once “growled against foreign missions, like many others who know no better.” He writes that now he has learned that “for every dollar you give away to convert the heathen abroad, God gives you ten dollars’ worth of purpose to deal with your heathen at home.”

(2066)

MISSIONS AS SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS

The influence of a Christian mission in safeguarding a community is set forth in the following:

“During the great dock strike September, 1889, which shook London to its center, the strikers--gaunt, grim and desperate--were marching _en masse_ past the mission premises, when a socialistic leader, who stood watching, turned to Mr. George Holland (a notable promoter of London missionary work), and said, ‘Do you know what keeps these men from sacking London?’ ‘What do you mean?’ was the reply. ‘Only this, it is the influence of such missions of mercy as yours.’ All thoughtful, observant men know that this witness is true.”

(2067)

=Missions, Medical=--See RENEWAL.

MISSIONS, REASONS FOR

In the Peninsular war, for every Frenchman killed there was sent out by England the weight of a man in lead and eight times his weight in iron, not to speak of the cost in blood and treasure. In the Indian wars in this country it has sometimes cost on the average a million dollars to kill an Indian, while an average expenditure of $200 was spent in converting them. There is no lack of money nor means to compass the evangelization of the world within the present century if there were but the spirit of enterprise to dare and undertake for our Redeemer. Talleyrand boasted that he “kept his watch ten minutes ahead of the rest of mankind.” The Christian Church should surpass rather than be surpast by others in her enterprise. The time will come when disciples will look back to this age of missions with as much surprize as we now look back to those days when a learned prelate in the House of Lords, and a defender of orthodoxy too, could calmly argue against sending missionaries to the Orient! or as we contemplate with amazement speeches against the suppression of the slave-trade that have no interest to us except as fossils and petrifactions of an antediluvian era!--A. T. PIERSON, _Missionary Review of the World_.

(2068)

MISSIONS, SUCCESSFUL

In the course of his cruising in the South Seas, Lord Byron (a cousin of the poet), landed on an island of which he thought he was the discoverer. Suddenly a canoe appeared. Instead of containing armed savages, its occupants were two noble-looking men, clothed in cotton shirts and very fine mats. They boarded the ship and presented a document from a missionary stating that they were native teachers employed in preaching the gospel to the people of the island. Lord Byron then went ashore. In the center of a wide lawn stood a spacious chapel, and neat native cottages peeped through the foliage of banana trees. On entering a cottage, he found on a table a portion of the New Testament in the native language.

This story of Lord Byron’s surprize visit was told at an overflow meeting in Exeter Hall at the anniversary of the Bible Society in 1836. When the speaker had concluded, a stranger arose and introduced himself to the audience as the missionary who had discovered the island, had made Christianity known to its people, and had translated the very portion of the Scripture which Lord Byron had found. It was John Williams, the heroic missionary of the London Missionary Society, whose noble work had drawn those savages from cannibalism and idolatry to the worship of the true God.

(2069)

MISSIONS, TESTIMONY TO

Edgar Wallace, the war correspondent of the London _Daily Mail_, writes in the highest terms of what he saw of the Kongo Balolo missions. He said in part:

“No battle I have ever witnessed, no prowess of arms, no exhibition of splendid courage in the face of overwhelming odds, has inspired me as has the work of these outposts of Christianity. People who talk glibly of work in the mission field are apt to associate that work merely with house-to-house visitations and devotional services and the distribution of charity. In reality it means all these things plus the building of the houses one visits, building of the church for the devotional services, and the inculcation in the native of a spirit of manliness which renders charity superfluous.

Somebody told me there was difficulty in getting men and women for the missionary work in Kongoland. Speaking frankly as a man of the world, I do not wonder. I would not be a missionary in the Kongo for five thousand pounds a year. That is a worldly point of view, and it is not a high standpoint. It is a simple confession that I prefer the “flesh-pots of Egypt” to the self-sacrifice that the missionary life claims. Yet were I a good Christian, and were I a missionary hesitating in my choice of a field, I would say, with _Desdemona_, “I do perceive here a divine duty.”

(2070)

* * * * *

A singular tribute to missions was that exprest to me by the editor of a North China newspaper: “Broadly speaking, it is a fact that the only white man who is in China for China’s good is the missionary. It never occurs to the average business man here that he has any obligation to the Chinese. Yet only on that ground can he justify his presence.”--WILLIAM T. ELLIS, _Men and Missions_.

(2071)

=Mistaken Spiritual Judgment=--See ILLUSION, SPIRITUAL.

MISTAKEN VIEW OF CAUSE

In winter, when millions of city dwellers breathe the air of ill-ventilated dwelling-houses, lung infections are more frequent than in midsummer, when ventilation is enforced by the horrors of stagnant heat. But the coincidence of frosts and catarrhs has decided the bias of the popular hypothesis, and in sixteen different European languages the word cold has become a synonym of an infection which the absolutely conclusive evidence of physiological facts proves to be a result of vitiated warm indoor air, and to be curable by cold outdoor air. In other words, the best remedy has been mistaken for the cause, and as a consequence catarrhs are considerably more frequent than all the other disorders of the human organism taken together.--FELIX OSWALD, _North American Review_.

(2072)

* * * * *

In October, when the first night-frosts expurgate the atmosphere of our Southern swamps, ague and yellow fever subside with a suddenness which would certainly have suggested the idea of curing climatic diseases by artificial refrigeration, if cold had not somehow become the hygienic bugbear of the Caucasian race. Gout, rheumatism, indigestion, toothaches and all sorts of pulmonary disorders are ascribed to the influence of a low temperature, with persistent disregard of the fact that the outdoor laborers of the highest latitudes are the halest representatives of our species. “Catching cold” is the stereotyped explanation for the consequences of our manifold sins against the health laws of nature; but the secret of the delusion can be traced to the curious mistakes which logicians used to sum up under the head of “_post hoc ergo propter hoc_” fallacy--the tendency of the human mind to mistake an incidental concomitance for a causal connection. Woodpeckers pick insects from the trunks of dead trees, and the logic of concomitance infers that the decay of the tree has been caused by the visits of the birds, which in our Southern States are known as “sap-suckers.” Young frogs emerge from their hiding-places when a long drought is broken by a brisk rain, and the coincidence of the two phenomena has not failed to evolve the theory of a frog-shower.--FELIX OSWALD, _North American Review_.

(2073)

=Mistakes of Missionaries=--See MISSIONARIES’ MISTAKES.

MISUSE OF TALENT

The life of Swift is a living tragedy. He had the power of gaining wealth, like the hero of the Jew of Malta; yet he used it scornfully, and in sad irony left what remained to him of a large property to found a hospital for lunatics. By hard work he won enormous literary power, and used it to satirize our common humanity. He wrested political power from the hands of the Tories, and used it to insult the very men who had helped him, and who held his fate in their hands. By his dominant personality he exercised a curious power over women, and used it brutally to make them feel their inferiority. Being loved supremely by two good women, he brought sorrow and death to both, and endless misery to himself. So his power brought always tragedy in its wake.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(2074)

=Mnemonics, An Exercise in=--See MEMORY.

=Mobility=--See MOVEMENT UNCEASING.

=Model, The Mouth as a=--See NATURE AS A MODEL.

MODELS

At the University of Glasgow stands a statue of James Watt; and by his side is the original model of a steam-engine, the identical engine, indeed, on which Watt exercised his inventive genius and the pattern substantially of every steam-engine in the world.

There is just as truly a model for every man in the world. (Text.)

(2075)

=Models in Nature=--See INSECT, A MODEL.

=Moderation in Diet=--See DIET AND ENDURANCE.

MODERN LIFE

Except his own immortal poem and a few suggestions of the art and architecture of his time, there is nothing on this continent that Homer, resurrected and transported here, would recognize as belonging to the world in which he lived. The steamships, railways, telegraphs, telephones, electric motors, printing-machines, factories, and, indeed, all that we use, all that we enjoy, on land or sea, in peace or war, in our homes, in our places of business, on our farms, in our mines, or wherever we toil or rest--all, all is new, all belongs to the new world. The inventions of recent years have so changed the world that the man of thirty is older than Methuselah--older in that he has seen more, experienced more than the oldest of all the ancients.--_Inventive Age._

(2076)

MODERNITY

Many a moral failure has resulted from not keeping up with God’s moral progress, just as this mechanic failed through not keeping up with the new inventions:

The very great changes that have been wrought in machine-shop equipment during the past few years have hit many of the older mechanics pretty hard. A good deal of significance is contained in the remark of one such man: “I have had to learn over my trade three times and I’m too old to learn it again.” He had been given a difficult job to do on a modern engine-lathe containing the latest useful mechanisms for saving labor and procuring accurate work, and because he did not understand the tool he failed in his efforts until a younger machinist came to his assistance. (Text.)

(2077)

MODESTY

Colonel Nicholas Smith, in “Grant, the Man of Mystery,” gives us the following side-light upon Grant’s character:

During a strenuous campaign, the opposition resorted to every means to discredit him and made the most virulent attacks upon his personal character. Grant remained silent and took no part in the campaign. He retired to his little home in Galena, received his friends, drove and walked about the streets, took tea and chatted in the most familiar way with his neighbors, and seemed totally unconscious of the fact that he was the central figure in one of the great political struggles of the century.

(2078)

* * * * *

Of Grant’s demeanor after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, Colonel Smith says:

The little man, in the dress of a private soldier, who commanded the armies which brought about this glorious consummation, was not among those who joined in the demonstration of joy. When he reached his camp that night he was none other than the real Grant--modest, quiet, regardless of the greatness of the occasion. General Horace Porter, who was with him at the time, says Grant had little to say about the surrender.

(2079)

* * * * *

A group of church-members, on a tour, were delayed at a railway station. One of them, after looking at a locomotive engine, asked his friends what part of the engine they would choose to be if it represented the Church. One replied, “I would be the brake, for that is often needed for safety.” Another said, “I would prefer to be the whistle, calling people’s attention to the fact that ‘the King’s business requireth haste.’” “And I would like to be the boiler, for that is an essential part of the engine.” “What would you like to be, brother?” said one to a quiet man who had not replied. “Oh,” said he, “I think I am only fit to be the coal, ready to be consumed so long as the engine moves.”

(2080)

* * * * *

A story is told among the friends of Gen. Samuel S. Sumner, U.S.A., retired, who was until recently the commanding officer of the Pacific Division.

General Sumner, after the San Francisco earthquake, went to San Rafael. There he was informed by one of the guiding spirits of the village that he must aid in patrolling and guarding against fire and unruly refugees. Something in General Sumner’s bearing evidently imprest the man, for after a moment’s thought he said: “I think I’ll make you a second lieutenant.” “Thank you,” answered General Sumner. “I don’t think any rank ever conferred upon me ever pleased me more unless it was when I was made a major-general in the regular army.” (Text.)

(2081)

* * * * *

The grace of modesty seems sometimes rare and its exhibition is always pleasing. An instance of modest reticence is given in this concerning a well-known author:

They had met in Brooklyn at a little evening party--the young man and an older one--and were coming back to Manhattan together. The young man inquired the elder’s vocation in life, and the elder replied that he had practised law for eighteen years.

“And, later,” he added, “I have done a little writing.”

“Ever get anything published?” asked the young man.

“Yes, a few things,” replied the elder.

“Write under your own name?”

“Yes.”

“By the way, I don’t believe I quite caught your name.”

“Thomas Nelson Page,” replied the other quietly.

(2082)

See HUMILITY OF A SCIENTIST.

=Mohammedans and the Bible=--See BIBLE, GRIP OF THE.

=Molding Children=--See RELIGIOUS TRAINING; TRAINING CHILDREN.

=Molding Men=--See TENDERNESS OF GOD.

MOMENTUM

The obstacles in a man’s way are determined by the gait he is going. An old negro driving a mule down the street three miles an hour has to get out of the way for everything, but when the chief of the fire department comes down the street a mile a minute everything roosts on the sidewalk and gives him the right of way.--_Famous Stories of Sam P. Jones._

(2083)

* * * * *

Many men fail to overcome sharp temptation because they have not by long previous habits acquired the momentum of right thought and right

## action. We can not fly unless we have learned to walk and to run.

“Any one who has ever watched a heavy bird rise from the ground,” says the _American Inventor_, “has doubtless noticed that it runs along the ground for a few feet before it rises; the bird must acquire some momentum before its wings can lift its heavy body into the air. The natives in certain parts of the Andes understand this fact very well and by means of it catch the great Andean vultures, the condors. A small space is shut in with a high fence and left open at the top. Then a lamb or a piece of carrion is placed on the ground inside. Presently a vulture sees the bait and swoops down upon it; but when once he finds he has alighted on the ground inside he can not get out, for he has no running space in which to acquire the momentum that is necessary before his wings can lift him.”

(2084)

=Money and Precedence=--See MEDICAL MISSIONS.

=Money, Discreditable Use of=--See VULGARITY IN THE RICH.

MONEY, EARNING

Mr. Lincoln earned his first dollar by taking two men and their trunks to a Mississippi steamer which waited for them in midstream.

“I was about eighteen years of age,” he said, “and belonged, as you know, to what they call down South the ‘scrubs.’ I was very glad to have the chance of earning something, and supposed each of the men would give me a couple of bits. I sculled them out to the steamer. They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on the deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out, ‘You have forgotten to pay me.’ Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat.

“You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.”--JAMES MORGAN, “Abraham Lincoln, The Boy and the Man.”

(2085)

=Money-getting, a Game=---See GAME OF GREED.

MONEY, GREED FOR

The individual man thinks in the beginning, “If I could only make myself worth a hundred thousand dollars, I should be willing to retire from business.” Not a bit of it. A hundred thousand dollars is only an index of five hundred thousand; and when he has come to five hundred thousand he is like Moses--and very unlike him--standing on the top of the mountain and looking over the promised land, and he says to himself, “A million! a million!” and a million draws another million, until at last he has more than he can use, more than is useful to him, and he won’t give it away--not till after his death.--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

(2086)

MONEY, IGNORANCE OF.

A sick-nurse in a Vienna hospital administered by nuns was observed burning up a bunch of paper money which she had found in the bed of a deceased patient.

She thought the bank-notes were rubbish, and it took the authority of the mother superior to convince her that the rubbish represented a small fortune.

Subsequently it turned out that the sister, who had lived in the nunnery since her third year, never went outside, and had nothing to do with the administration or with worldly things whatsoever, had never heard of the existence or use of money in any shape or form.--Boston _Post_.

(2088)

MONEY, HOW WE SPEND OUR

The diagram below is designed to show how much the people of the United States spend every year for the drink traffic as contrasted with church work, education and the leading standard articles of food, clothing and shelter.

Foreign Missions $10,000,000 = Brick 100,000,000 == Churches 175,000,000 === Potatoes 210,000,000 ==== Silk Goods 240,000,000 ==== Furniture 245,000,000 ===== Sugar and Molasses 310,000,000 ======= Public Education 325,000,000 ======== Boots and Shoes 450,000,000 ========== Flour 455,000,000 =========== Woolen and Worsted Goods 475,000,000 ============ Cotton Goods 675,000,000 ================= Lumber 700,000,000 ================== Printing and Publishing 750,000,000 ==================== Tobacco 825,000,000 ======================== Iron and Steel 1,035,000,000 =========================== Meat 1,550,000,000 =================================== Intoxicating Liquors 1,675,000,000 =======================================

The cost of liquors and tobacco is based upon the Internal Revenue reports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908. The other expenses are estimated for the year 1909 from the reports of the Secretary of Agriculture, the census of manufacturers for 1905, the report of the Commissioner of Education and other Government and census figures.--“American Prohibition Yearbook.”

(2087)

MONEY NO TEMPTATION

A certain Parson Scott was sent to Goldsmith to induce him to write in favor of the administration. “I found him,” says Scott, “in a miserable set of chambers in the temple. I told him of my authority; I told him that I was empowered to pay most liberally for his exertions, and, would you believe it, he was so absurd as to say, ‘I can earn as much as will supply my wants without writing for any party; the assistance you offer is therefore unnecessary to me.’ And so,” said the reverend plenipotentiary, with unstinted contempt, “I left him in his garret.” What Goldsmith’s exact earnings were at this time, it would be interesting to know: what sum it was that he found sufficient for his wants; but we know that this offer came at the close of twelve years’ desperate struggle for bread, during which his first work had brought him little profit, and “The Vicar of Wakefield” had been sold for £60 to pay his landlady.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”

(2089)

MONEY POWER IN CANADA

I wrote to a friend of mine in Toronto for some figures. I shall leave out the hundred thousands.

In 1881 the population of Canada was between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000; in 1901 it was 5,372,000; in 1908 it was 6,940,000; and in 1909, between 7,000,000 and 7,500,000. Now, then, what are their bank deposits? In 1880, thirty years ago, they were $96,000,000; in 1884, $131,000,000; in 1890, 176,000,000; in 1900, $358,000,000; in 1908, $593,000,000; in 1909, $917,000,000; showing an increase of almost 63 per cent. in one year.

What was the value of the farm products of the Dominion last year? $532,000,000, an increase of one hundred million in one year. They have the largest continuous wheat-field in the world. One field nine hundred miles by three hundred miles. I am talking about money, and this is Canadian money, with a population of between seven and seven and a half millions; and they have deposits of $917,000,000 in the bank.

We all know the phenomenal growth that Canada has had and is destined to have. When I asked, “What are the resources of Canada?” my friend replied, “I don’t know, Marling, but they are beyond the dreams of avarice.” Then I got this telegram from him to back it up:

“According to the census of 1901, the capital invested in Canada was $2,356,000,000 and the value of the products $992,200,000.”--ALFRED E. MARLING, “Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,” 1910.

(2090)

MONEY POWER IN THE UNITED STATES

Do you know how many people there were in the country in 1880, thirty years ago? There were fifty millions. Do you know what the wealth was then estimated to be? $43,000,000,000. Ten years afterward, in 1890, there were 62,000,000 persons living in this country; that is a growth of 24 per cent. in ten years. But the growth of the wealth in those ten years was from $43,000,000,000 to $65,000,000,000, which is a growth of 51 per cent. in that decade. Population grows 21 per cent.; wealth grows 51 per cent. In 1900 there were 76,000,000 people; a growth of 22 per cent. in ten years. The growth in wealth was $88,000,000,000, or 35 per cent. in those same ten years. In 1904, the year of our last census, the population was 82,000,000, showing an increase of 8 per cent.; and the growth in wealth was $107,000,000,000. That is 21 per cent. in wealth in four years, while the population was growing only 8 per cent.

The estimated average daily savings in the United States between 1900 and 1904 over and above all consumption, was thirteen millions of dollars.

In 1900, the savings-bank deposits in the United States were $2,300,000,000; and in 1908, eight years later, they were $3,400,000,000, an increase of 47 per cent.

I have it on the authority of the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of New York that the banking power of the United States is practically 40 per cent. of the banking power of the world. And this I read in a commercial review a few days ago: “The bank deposits of the United States amount to more than double the whole world’s known supply of gold. They are about equal to the whole volume of money in the world, counting gold, legal tender, currency, etc. They are greater in value than the world’s total amount of gold and silver since the discovery of America, and they would be sufficient to pay more than one-third of the entire debt of fifty leading nations of the world.”--ALFRED E. MARLING.--“Student Volunteer Movement,” 1910.

(2091)

=Money Safe With Men of Principle=--See PRINCIPLE.

MONEY, TAINTED

Dr. Watkinson tells us that some years ago two scientists of Vienna made a series of bacteriological experiments on a number of bank-notes which had been in circulation for some time. The result of their researches was sufficiently startling. On each bank-note they discovered the presence of 19,000 microbes of disease--some of tuberculosis, some of diphtheria, and some of erysipelas. More than that, they found one bacillus peculiar to the bank-note--the bank-note microbe, so to speak, because it is found nowhere else. It thrives and fattens and multiplies on the peculiar paper of which a bank-note is made. Is there not a parable here?

If every evil use that is made of money were to leave its mark on the coin or bill, how great would be the moral infection thus recorded.

(2092)

=Money Transmitting Disease=--See CONTAMINATION.

MONOTONY

Before each of a row of machines in a certain Pittsburg shop, as described in _Charities_, sits a girl. Each girl picks up a bolt with her left hand, takes it from the left with her right hand, feeds it point downward into the machine. When she has done this 16,000 times, she will have earned ninety-six cents. Unless she or the machine breaks down, such is her ten-hour day.

In these machine-made days, it is not the monotony of such a task which is most impressive. The girl of the 16,000 motions attracts and holds the attention.

With motions fewer in number but infinitely greater in variety, the day’s work of a family is done. The house-worker is not tied to a machine. She stands up to her tasks one moment and sits down the next. She may think of other things, and to-morrow will be in its duties and performances a little different from to-day.

The house-worker gets tired. Is it really the same grinding, breaking weariness as that of the girl who sits before the machine and makes 16,000 identical motions in a ten-hour day?

(2093)

=Monstrous Treatment=--See CRUEL GREED.

=Monument=--See LOVE, FILIAL.

=Monument of Christ=--See PEACE.

MONUMENTS, MEANING OF

A great monument is erected not because the man to whom it is dedicated needs it, nor because it will alleviate the bodily ailments of other human beings. It is erected in honor of the great ideas which the man represented. It is built for the future as much as for the past; even more for the future. It is raised above the earth as a lofty sign which will teach coming generations a great lesson in a way that books never can. The American sculptor, Greenough, who designed the Bunker Hill monument, wrote: “The obelisk has a singular aptitude in its form and character to call attention to a spot memorable in history. It says but one word, but it speaks loud. It says, ‘Here!’ That is enough. It claims the notice of every one. No matter how careless, how skeptical or illiterate the passer-by may be, he can not escape the appeal of a monument.”--New York _Star_.

(2094)

=Moods and Apparel=--See DRESS AFFECTING MOODS.

MOODS DETERMINING DESIRES

An unidentified writer points out how different moods affect our minds:

When I am tired and weary, And nothing goes my way. I thank the heavenly Father For two nights to every day.

But when, once more, I’m rested, And all the world looks bright, I thank Him that He sends me Two days to every night!

There’s the pause before the battle, There’s the respite from the fray; And that is how I reckon Two nights to every day.

When the sunset glow has faded, In a little while ’tis light! And that is how I reckon Two days to every night.

And so ’tis due, believe me, To the way we look at things, Whether we sigh and falter Or whether we soar on wings!

(2095)

MOODS OF THE SPIRIT

Pantheism, atheism, agnosticism, materialism, pessimism--how many ugly, dangerous words there are in the dictionary, and how many young men imagine that they have all these spiritual diseases when, as a matter of fact, they are only in the way of normal spiritual development. A man comes to say of certain things that are mysterious, of which he thought he knew, “I don’t know.” Then he labels himself or allows himself to be labeled an “Agnostic.” No religious life for him. Another man sees that the great God can not stand apart from His universe, but must be working in it and through it all. He labels himself “Pantheist,” or is so labeled. Another man suddenly discovers the abyss of actual wo in the world, the evil that, for the present at least, is without remedy. He is called a “Pessimist.” Another man looks to the right hand and to the left hand, and for the time he sees not God. The final word for him is “Atheist.” Now, we can not have a free expression of what people from time to time are actually believing until we get over our fear of all such names. We must have a faith that is wholesome enough and large enough to keep us from being afraid of our own thought. The fact is, that we are continually mistaking the passing moods of the spirit for the finalities of thought. These moods through which we pass have been familiar to the most profoundly religious minds.--SAMUEL M. CROTHERS.

(2096)

MOORINGS, SAFE

Before the era of steam, men used to tow their boats wearily up the lower Ohio, or the Mississippi, with a long line. At night it was not always safe for them to fasten their boats on the bank while they slept, because there was danger from the wash of the underflowing current that they would find themselves drifting and pulling a tree after them. Therefore, they sought out well-planted, solid, enduring trees, and tied to them, and the phrase became popular, “That man will do to tie to.”

(2097)

=Moral Contagion=--See RETORT, PERSONAL.

=Moral Decay=--See CORRUPTION, INNER.

=Moral Meaning of the World=--See FAITH IN A MORAL UNIVERSE.

=Moral Pervasiveness=--See CHARACTER IMPARTED.

MORAL SATISFACTION

Mr. Robert E. Speer says:

When I was in the city of Tokyo, I went to the house of a missionary to meet half a dozen of the leading native Christian men of Japan. They were thoughtful, well-read, thoroughly educated, keen students. There was scarcely a school of Christian thought with which they were not familiar. I asked them what it was in Christianity that had most appealed to them. I supposed, of course, they would answer that they were glad of their faith because it had thrown light on the dark, perplexing problems of life which Buddhism and Shintoism were unable to solve. Instead, every one said that what they valued most in Christianity was the moral rest that they had found there. The intellectual satisfaction was little compared with the sweet voice that was now sounding in their hearts, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

(2098)

=Morality, Sum Total of=--See LOVE AND LAW.

=Morally Weak, Financially Strong=--See DRINK, PERIL OF.

=Morning=--See DAWN OF CHRISTIAN LIGHT.

=Mortal Pomp=--See GLORY FADED.

MORTALITY RESISTED

The Christian would naturally call the attention of persons like those mentioned in the extract to Jesus’ words, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”:

A fantastic organization is described in _The British Medical Journal_. It is a league against illness and death, which has been formed, so we are assured, in the State of Iowa. Says the paper named above:

“Already several hundreds of persons have joined. A condition of membership is that every one on admission must sign a pledge that he or she will continually assert that it is nothing but custom and habit of thought that causes people to be sick, grow old, or die. Any member who is reported sick from any disease and is confined to his bed for a continuous period of three days is to be fined for the first offense; for a second offense he is to be suspended from membership; a third offense entails expulsion from the society.” (Text.)

(2099)

MOSAIC OF THE KINGDOM

Bishop Simpson gives this illustration of the composition of Christ’s completed kingdom:

In some of the great halls of Europe may be seen pictures not painted with the brush, but mosaics, which are made up of small pieces of stone, glass, or other material. The artist takes these little pieces, and, polishing and arranging them, he forms them into the grand and beautiful picture. Each individual part of the picture may be a little worthless piece of glass or marble or shell; but with each in its place, the whole constitutes the masterpiece of art. So I think it will be with humanity in the hands of the great artist. God is picking up the little worthless pieces of stone and brass, that might be trodden under foot unnoticed, and is making of them His great masterpiece.

(2100)

=Moslem Life=--See PERSIA, THE MOSLEM SITUATION IN.

MOTHER

So long as young men and maidens honor and love their parents there is hope and success awaiting them. We do not know the author of these lines:

Of all the names to memory dear, One name to me alone is dearest; Tho many names to me are near Yet this shall ever be the nearest. For on my heart’s most sacred place ’Tis deeper graved than any other; Nor naught from thence shall e’er erase The lovely, honored name of mother.

(2101)

* * * * *

Hester I. Radford, in _The Atlantic Monthly_, writes the following:

You struggled blindly for my soul And wept for me such bitter tears That through your faith my faith grew whole And fearless of the coming years.

For in the path of doubt and dread You would not let me walk alone, But prayed the prayers I left unsaid And sought the God I did disown.

You gave to me no word of blame But wrapt me in your love’s belief, Dear love, that burnt my sin like flame, And left me worthy of your grief.

(2102)

MOTHER, A BRAVE

From his mother Ben Jonson received certain strong characteristics, and by a single short reference in Jonson’s works we are led to see the kind of woman she was. It is while Jonson is telling Drummond (who wrote the records of his life) of the occasion when he was thrown into prison, because some passages in the comedy of “Eastward Ho!” gave offense to King James, and he was in danger of a horrible death, after having his ears and nose cut off. He tells us how, after his pardon, he was banqueting with his friends, when his “old mother” came in and showed a paper full of “lusty strong poison,” which she intended to mix with his drink just before the execution. And to show that she “was no churl,” she intended first to drink of the poison herself. The incident is all the more suggestive from the fact that Chapman and Marston, one his friend and the other his enemy, were first cast into prison as the authors of “Eastward Ho!” and rough Ben Jonson at once declared that he too had had a small hand in the writing and went to join them in prison.--WILLIAM J. LONG, _English Literature_.

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=Mother, A Heart Broken=--See JUVENILE COURT EXPERIENCE.

=Mother, A Reminder of=--See REMINDERS.

=Mother Caution=--See REASONING POWER IN ANIMALS.

MOTHER INSTINCT

A cow’s melancholy over the loss of her calf led to a strange incident at the home of Josiah Brown, near Mount Carmel.

Brown owned a cow with a spotted calf which was so peculiarly marked that some time ago, when it was killed for veal, the skin was made into a rug. The mother cow was downcast and bellowed continually.

Mrs. Brown went into her front parlor, and there on the floor lay the cow, placidly licking the calfskin rug. It is supposed the cow approached the house and by chance saw the calfskin through the window, then quietly pushed the doors open and walked in. One barred door had been forced open by the cow’s horns.--Boston _Journal_.

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MOTHER LOVE

Not long ago a woman fifty years old went to a teacher in School No. 2, and with tears in her eyes, begged permission to sit down with the little ones five to six years old, that she might learn to read and write. She explained that she had two boys in the West, and desired to learn her letters that she might be able to communicate with them. Her daughter had done this for her, but three years ago the daughter died, and now the hungry-hearted mother was willing to make any sacrifice to keep in touch with her sons. So she entered school without telling any one, even her husband. Four weeks from the day she entered she was able to read through the primer, first reader, and almost through the second. Now she can write so any one can easily read every word. She learns ten new words at home every day, and always knows her lesson perfectly. She has learned to begin and end a letter, and it will not be long before she can write a love-letter--a genuine mother love-letter--to her boys. Through the goodness of my friend, I have in my possession a yellow sheet of paper containing one of her writing exercises. Reading between the lines, there is something inexpressibly touching about it. The words are such as may be found in the copy-book of any schoolboy, but the mother, with her hard hands and tender heart, as she copied the words imagined herself writing a letter to one of her sons. After writing her address and the date, this imaginary epistle, brimming with a real love, reads: “My dear son Hugh:

Be the matter what it may, Always speak the truth. If at work or if at play, Always speak the truth.”

Surely there is no ordinary clay in this vessel! She may not be able to understand the plan of her soul’s divine Potter, but a brave trust and a high hope reside at the center of her being.--F. F. SHANNON.

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* * * * *

One calm, bright, sweet, sunshiny day an angel stole out of heaven and came down to this old world, and roamed field and forest, city and hamlet; and just as the sun went down he plumed his wings and said: “Now my visit is out, and I must go back to the world of light, but before I go I must gather some mementos of my visit here”; and he looked over into a beautiful flower-garden and said, “How lovely and fragrant these flowers are,” and he plucked the rarest roses, and made a bouquet, and said, “I see nothing more beautiful and fragrant than these; I will take them with me.” But he looked a little farther and there saw a little bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked babe, smiling into its mother’s face, and he said, “Oh, that baby’s smile is prettier than this bouquet; I will take that, too.” Then he looked just beyond the cradle, and there was a mother’s love pouring out like the gush of a river, toward the cradle and the baby, and he said, “Oh, that mother’s love is the prettiest thing I have seen on earth; I will carry that, too!” With the three treasures he winged his way to the pearly gates, and lit just on the outside, and said, “Before I go in I will examine my mementos,” and he looked at the flowers and they had withered; he looked at the baby’s smile and it had faded away; he looked at the mother’s love and there it was in all its pristine beauty and fragrance. He threw aside the withered flowers and the faded smile and winged his way through the gates and led all the hosts of heaven together and said, “Here is the only thing I found on earth that would keep its fragrance all the way to heaven--a mother’s love.”--“Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones.”

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See ARTIFICE; PRODIGAL, THE; WAYWARD, SEEKING THE.

MOTHER LOVE IN BIRDS

The loon, or great northern diver, is reported to have displayed her mother love and anxiety to a sportsman fishing in Sebago Lake in Maine: He surprized the mother with one young one near his canoe. She was employing every artifice to call the little one away, but the infant swam so near the boat that the fisherman took him aboard in his landing-net, and, holding him on his knee, gently stroked his downy coat, to the evident satisfaction of the youngster. Meanwhile the mother was in an agony of distress. At first, forgetting her native wildness and timidity in her mother love, she boldly approached the canoe, and, rising in the water till she appeared to stand upon it, furiously flapped her wings, uttering menacing cries. Finding this of no avail, she pretended that she was wounded, rolling over in the water and finally lying still as if dead, evidently to attract attention to herself and away from the young one. The fisherman, touched by these displays of motherly affection, put the young loon into the water, upon which the mother instantly came to life and again tried to entice her little one to go with her. (Text.)--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

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MOTHER, MEMORY OF

Lamar Fontaine, looking back after a long life of adventure, writes thus of a parting with his mother:

Those long-ago days now rise before me in all their vividness. As I pen these lines, nearing the seventy-seventh milestone in life’s rugged pathway, I feel the loving kiss yet burning on my lips where she prest it as she bade me “good-by.” There are some things in our life that time does not efface, and this is one of them. They are like the brand of red-hot iron that sears the tender hide of the bleating calf; once burned in, it lasts as long as life. I can see the last wave of her hand as she watched us move off across the prairie, and the picture is branded in my brain.--“My Life and My Lectures.”

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MOTHER, PRAYER OF A

John Wesley might well be expected to become, as he did, the great religious leader of his day with such a mother behind him.

“His mother, with the finer prescience that love gives to a mother, saw in her second son the hint of some great, unguessed future, and she writes in her diary under the head of ‘Evening, May 17, 1717, Son John:

“‘What shall I render to the Lord for all His mercies? I would offer myself and all that Thou hast given me; and I would resolve--oh, give me grace to do it!--that the residue of my life shall be all devoted to Thy service. And I do intend to be more particularly careful with the soul of this child, that Thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been; that I may instil into his mind the principles of true religion and virtue. Lord give me grace to do it sincerely and prudently.’”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

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=Mothers as Protectors=--See FATHER ANIMALS UNPARENTAL.

MOTHER’S INFLUENCE, A

Grant’s love for his family was one of the strongest and most attractive traits of his character. He never failed to appreciate the worth of his mother’s love, patience and wisdom during his early years at Georgetown. When she died in 1883, at Jersey City Heights, New Jersey, the General, when at the funeral, said to Dr. Howard Henderson, her pastor: “In the remarks which you make, speak of her only as a pure-minded, simple-hearted, earnest, Methodist Christian. Make no reference to me; she gained nothing by any position I have filled or honors that may have been paid me. I owe all this and all I am to her earnest, modest and sincere piety.”--NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

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* * * * *

In a letter written by Grover Cleveland on the eve of his election to the governorship of New York State, he stated to his brother:

“I have just voted, and I sit here in the office alone. If mother were alive I should be writing to her, and I feel as if it were time for me to write to some one who will believe what I write.... I shall have no idea of reelection or of any high political preferment in my head, but be very thankful and happy if I serve one term as the people’s governor. Do you know that if mother were alive I should feel so much safer. I have always thought her prayers had much to do with my successes. I shall expect you to help me in that way.”

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See TRUTHFULNESS REWARDED.

MOTHERS NOT IN FICTION

A sick youth was lying in bed, watching with quiet eyes his mother’s form moving gently about the room where for weeks she had been ministering to him with tenderest heart and hands. There had been stillness there for a little while, when the boy spoke: “I wonder why there are no mothers in fiction.” “Why, there are, dear; there must be,” the mother answered quickly, but when she tried to name one, she found that none came at the call. When she related me the little incident, I too immediately said that our memory must be strangely at fault that it did not furnish us with examples in plenty. Maternal love! Why, art was filled with illustrations of it, and so was literature. And yet, on making search, I too have failed to find the typical mother where it seems she would so easily be found.--_Atlantic Monthly._

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=Mother, The, and the Lambs=--See FATHER’S VOICE.

=Mother Wisdom=--See WEALTH AND WORK.

MOTHERHOOD

We can understand how Tennyson was preserved from the fatality of recklessness, how it is he wore the white flower of a blameless life, and ruled himself with chivalrous regard for womanhood, when we study his mother’s face. What such a woman must have been in the home, and what sort of home it must have been where she moved like a ministering spirit, we can readily imagine.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Poetry.”

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* * * * *

Alexander the Great never wore any garments save those made by his mother. These beautiful robes he showed to the Persian princes who came to visit his court as marks of the skill of Olympia, who was the daughter of a chieftain, the wife of a sovereign and the mother of a conqueror.

Every child does not have mother-made garments; but is it not true that every child is mother-made? And does he not more than continue the succession of her royal soul?

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MOTHERHOOD, DIVINE

I remember going one day into a great church in Paris and seeing, round back of the altar, in a little chapel sacred to the Virgin Mary and above a little altar in the little chapel, a bas relief. It represented the figure of a woman with a babe in her arms standing on the world; and under her feet, crusht and bleeding, was a serpent. It is only a woman with a babe in her arms that is going to crush the serpent after all.--HUGH BIRKHEAD.

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MOTHERHOOD IN ANIMALS

Louis Albert Banks tells of a man who killed a she bear and brought her young cubs home to train up as pets:

When they got to camp the motherless pets were put in a box and given something to eat; but eat they would not and yelp they would, making a distressing noise. He took a switch and whipt them, but they only cried the louder. At first every one was sorry for them; but by and by, as the crying was continued, everybody began to scold on account of the noise. He thought that on account of the noise they made he would have to kill them. At length, however, he brought the mother-bearskin, and covering this over something, he put it in a corner of the box. The men stept back so that they could see without being seen, and pretty soon each little cub had smelled the motherskin and had nestled up close to it as contented as could be, and soon they were sound asleep. (Text.)

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MOTION, CHANGE BY

The effect of rotation in changing the shape of plastic bodies can readily be shown in simple experiments. A light metal ring is mounted on a vertical axis about which it can be rotated with great rapidity. When the ring is at rest it is circular in shape, but when it is rotated it becomes flattened along the axis, bulging out at what we may call the equator. The faster the ring is rotated the greater and greater becomes its departure from circular shape.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

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=Motion Desired=--See HOME, CHOICE OF A.

MOTION WITHOUT PROGRESS

There’s one kind of an engine that’s always a nuisance to me, and that’s these little switching-engines down by the station. They run up and down side-tracks, shoving cars; and that’s all they do from week to week and from month to month. They’re always getting in the way of wagons and scaring horses. But when I see a grand locomotive start to the seacoast cities, there is music in her whistle. There is something which says she’s determined to land her passengers at their destination on time. There are a great many of us Christians just switching backward and forward on side-tracks.--“Famous Stories of Sam P. Jones.”

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=Motive, A Pure=--See PRIDE IN ONE’S TASK.

MOTIVE, MERCENARY

Portrait-painting was the deliberate choice of Sir Godfrey Kneller because it was profitable. It was said of him: “Where he offered one picture to fame, he sacrificed twenty to lucre.” He said of himself: “Painters of history make the dead live, and do not begin to live themselves till they are dead; I paint the living and they enable me to live.” And in this he succeeded, for he painted ten sovereigns, and among other celebrities, Marlborough, Newton and Dryden. He was rewarded, too, by poems written in his honor by Pope, Addison, Steele and others. King William got him to paint the beauties of Hampton Court. (Text.)

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=Mountain, The=--See VIEWPOINT, THE.

=Mourning=--See BIBLE CUSTOMS TO-DAY.

=Movement=--See SLOWNESS.

MOVEMENT UNCEASING

There is nothing absolutely stable in the universe. From the ultimate eon to the largest world in space everything is moving. If we believe in progress we shall say that everything is moving on. If anything should actually stop it would be instantly destroyed. If a man could go to the top of a high tower, or a mountain, and there could come to absolute rest, the atmosphere of our earth, light as it seems, but traveling about nineteen miles in a second, would by its friction probably reduce him in a second to a patch of flame and dissipate him as a fiery gas in every direction.

So, if in our life progress we should try to stop and live in a dead past, or turn back to old conditions, the world’s rush of progress would leave us behind, or its frictions would wear our spirits out.

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=Moving Pictures in Churches=--See CHURCHES AND THE CROWD.

=Much in Little=--See MINIATURE WORK; ECONOMY.

=Much in Little Space=--See USELESS LABOR.

=Multiformity of Life=--See INDIVIDUALITY.

MULTIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS

Newspaper readers have been furnished with the details of the case of the Rev. Ansel Bourne, which may be briefly recalled. Some years ago a stranger arrived in Norristown, Pa., rented a store, stocked it, and began business in a quiet, business-like way which attracted no attention and aroused no suspicion as to any mental difficulty. Some two months later one of his neighbors was startled by a call from the newcomer, who, in a bewildered way, demanded to know where he was, and after a time explained that he was a Rhode Island clergyman, could not account for his presence in Norristown, knew nothing of any of his actions while there, and could only recall that he had drawn some money from a bank in his native place two months before, after which his life was a blank. And yet, during the entire period his actions had been apparently rational, altho certainly in nowise suggestive of the clerical profession--rather the reverse. For two months he had been the sharp, shrewd business man during business hours, and a genial and by no means straight-laced companion after his store was closed. These instances of “multiplex personality” have been recognized by alienists since the time of the historic cases of Louis V and Felida X. In one state the patient is cheerful, frank, generous; in another, morose, taciturn, miserly; now belligerent and then the most peaceable of mortals; by turns mendacious and truthful, the soul of honor, and the most depraved of wretches, reveling in immorality, and leading the life of an ascetic. That the different states are due to changes in the psychical activity of different portions of the brain is now the accepted theory, borne out by experiment. This activity may be set up, modified, perverted, or totally arrested by disease; but it may also be caused by the influence of one will over another, as in the familiar illustrations of hypnotism. A few years ago Dr. Hammond hypnotized a young man before the New York Medico-Legal Society, causing him to commit imaginary thefts, assaults, etc., and the phenomena are now the common property of the medical lecture-room.--Chicago _News_.

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MUSIC

When Gainsborough was asked how he had obtained the marvelous expression of inward peace on the face of the “Parish Clerk,” he said he painted it in time and tune with the sweet singing of a voice next door, the movements of the brush forming the beautiful face, and that it was the music that looked out from the eyes and smiled on the mouth.--“Stories of the English Artists.”

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* * * * *

During the Civil War a Union regiment was camping in a Southern town, and the people stubbornly refused to fraternize with the men. Houses and shops were closed to them, and the citizens kept inside. The commanding officer ordered his band to strike up “Dixie.” Instantly, as if by magic, doors opened, shutters came down, and soon the street was alive with men, women and children--all merry and hospitable.

The music had unlocked their hearts.

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MUSIC AND CHILDREN

Music, especially singing, has a fascination and power over children that is truly wonderful. It soothes and subdues their passions and awakens every noble emotion. The school day is always brighter and better if it is begun with a stirring song. If the children are tired and nervous or ill-tempered, a song will quiet them as oil upon a troubled sea. “Music,” says Luther, “is the art of the prophets, the only art which can calm the agitation of the soul.” Its moral and religious power has long been recognized by the Church, but the school is just beginning to realize its value.--JOHN W. CARR, “Journal of the Religious Education Association,” 1903.

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=Music and History=--See HISTORY AND MUSIC CORRELATED.

MUSIC AND SPIDERS

While a gentleman was watching some spiders it occurred to him to try what effect a tuning-fork would have on the insects. He suspected that they would regard the sound just as they were in the habit of regarding the sound made by a fly. And sure enough they did. He selected a large, ugly spider that had been feasting on flies for two months. The spider was at one edge of its web. Sounding the fork, he touched a thread at the other side of the web and watched the result. Mr. Spider had the buzzing sound conveyed to him over his telephone wires, but how was he to know on which particular wire the sound was traveling? He ran to the center of the web very quickly, and felt all around until he touched the thread against the other end of which the fork was sounding; and taking another thread along, just as a man would take an extra piece of rope, he ran out to the fork and sprang upon it. Then he retreated a little way and looked at the fork. He was puzzled. He had expected to find a buzzing fly. He got on the fork again and danced with delight. He had caught the sound of the fly and it was music to him. It is said that spiders are so fond of music that they will stop their spinning to listen, and a man once said that when he retired to his room for quiet before dinner and played the flute, large spiders would come onto the table and remain quite still, “running away as fast as their legs could carry them” directly he had finished--_Electrical Review._

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MUSIC AS A THERAPEUTIC

Burton, in his “Anatomy of Melancholy,” says:

Besides the excellent power music hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. In proof of the truth of the foregoing, many well-authenticated instances may be cited. Among them may be mentioned the case of King Philip of Spain, who, when suffering from hopeless melancholia, was restored to health by the singing of Farinelli in an adjoining chamber, after every other remedy had proved futile.--Boston _Musical Herald_.

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* * * * *

Music has a vast future before it. We are only now beginning to find out some of its uses. It has been the toy of the rich; it has often been a source of mere degradation to both rich and poor; it has been treated as mere jingle and noise--supplying a rhythm for the dance, a kind of Terpsichorean tomtom--or serving to start a Bacchanalian chorus, the chief feature of which has certainly not been the music. And yet those who have their eyes and ears open may read in these primitive uses, while they run, the hints of music’s future destiny as a vast civilizer, recreator, health-giver, work-inspirer, and purifier of man’s life. The horse knows what he owes to his bells. The factory girls have been instinctively forced into singing, finding in it a solace and assistance in work. And for music, the health-giver, what an untrodden field is there! Have we never known an invalid to forget pain and weariness under the stimulus of music? Have you never seen a pale cheek flush up, a dull eye sparkle, an alertness and vigor take possession of the whole frame, and animation succeed to apathy? What does all this mean? It means a truth that we have not fully grasped, a truth pregnant with vast results to body and mind. It means that music attacks the nervous system directly, reaches and rouses where physic and change of air can neither reach nor rouse.--H. R. HAWEIS, “My Musical Memories.”

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MUSIC AS A TRANSFORMING POWER

No one denies the influence of music for good. A teacher told me of a boy, an incorrigible little fellow, who was almost entirely cured of his bad traits by a violet song.

Down in a green and mossy bed A modest violet grew; Its stalk was bent; it hung its head, As if to hide from view. And tho it was a lovely flower, Its colors bright and fair, It might have graced a rosy bower, Instead of hiding there.

He sang the violet song at home, on the street, on the playground, and in school. He loved and believed it; and its tender thought had helped him to become a noble young man.--ELIZABETH CASTERTON, “Journal of the National Educational Association,” 1905.

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MUSIC AS AN ANESTHETIC

A physician of Geneva, in Switzerland, has successfully employed music to soothe and tranquillize the dreams of persons who have taken ether or chloroform in order to undergo surgical operations.

The music is begun as soon as the anesthetic begins to take effect, and is continued until the patient awakes. It is said that not only does this treatment prevent the hysterical effects sometimes witnessed, but that the patient, on recovering, feels no nausea or illness.

Another physician uses blue light to produce anesthesia. The light from a sixteen-candle-power electric lamp, furnished with a blue bulb, is concentrated upon the patient’s eyes, but the head and the lamp are enveloped in a blue veil, to shut out extraneous light. Insensibility is produced in two or three minutes.--_Harper’s Weekly._

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MUSIC, CHARM OF

A bewitching way to win a mate is to charm her by music. This is the fashion of our little house-wren, who arrives first in the nesting region, selects a site for the home, and then draws a mate out of the vast unknown by his charm of voice. No one could do it better, for he is a delightful, tireless singer.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

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MUSIC ELEVATING

R. H. Haweis says:

I have known the oratorio of the Messiah draw the lowest dregs of Whitechapel into a church to hear it, and during the performance sobs have broken forth from the silent and attentive throng. Will any one say that for these people to have their feelings for once put through such a noble and long-sustained exercise as that could be otherwise than beneficial? If such performances of both sacred and secular music were more frequent, we should have less drunkenness, less wife-beating, less spending of summer gains, less pauperism in the winter.

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=Music from Pain=--See SUFFERING TRANSFORMED.

MUSIC, GOD’S

Since ever the world was fashioned, Water and air and sod, A music of divers meanings, Has flowed from the hand of God. In valley and gorge and upland, On stormy mountain height, He makes him a harp of the forest, He sweeps the chords with might. He puts forth his hand to the ocean, He speaks and the waters flow-- Now in a chorus of thunder, Now in a cadence low. He touches the waving flower-bells, He plays on the woodland streams-- A tender song--like a mother Sings to her child in dreams. But the music divinest and dearest, Since ever the world began, Is the manifold passionate music He draws from the heart of man.

--_Temple Bar._

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MUSIC, GOOD CHEER IN

It is related of James Nasmyth that the rhythmic sound of a merry little steam-engine introduced into his machine-shop so quickened the strokes of every hammer, chisel and file in his workmen’s hands that it nearly doubled the output of work for the same wages.

A master tailor employed a number of workmen, who, getting hold of a slow, doleful but catchy air, hummed it to the movement of their needles, much to the retarding of their work. Observing the secret, he treated the men to lively airs, having a merry swing and a rapid movement, and soon the deft and nimble fingers reverted to their accustomed quickness.

There is science as well as philosophy in singing over our tasks.

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MUSIC IN THE SOUL

The orchestra does not make music; it is only an instrument for conveying music from one spirit to other spirits. The orchestra no more makes the music which it conveys than the telegraph wire makes the message which it conveys. Music is not a volume of sound; it is an experience which sound transmits from one soul to another soul. The composer creates in himself the symphony. He translates this creation into symbolic language upon a sheet of paper. The orchestra translates this translation into chords. These chords received through the ear awaken in the hearer an experience similar to that which was in the soul of the original composer.--LYMAN ABBOTT, _The Outlook_.

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See SOUL MUSIC.

MUSIC OF DESPAIR AND OF HOPE

On the occasion of the funeral service of King Edward VII, William Maxwell, in the _Record and Mail_, of Glasgow, writes as follows concerning the pipes and song:

No music can express the abandonment of grief like the pipes, for none is so individual. Its notes are the tradition of centuries of wild freedom, and are bound by no ordinary system. No music is so personal, for the pipes are the retainers of the clans.

They, too, wear the tartan, and voice the feelings of their clan--its joy and grief, its triumph and despair; and none is more national, for it embodies the soul of a people, its strength and its passions.

They are famous ballads to which the music of sorrow has been wedded. For there are two national ballads known as “The Flowers of the Forest,” and both are written by women. The first version was written by Jane Elliot, of Minto, and bewails at Flodden Field--

I’ve heard the lilting at our ewe milking, Lasses a-lilting before the dawn of day; But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning, The flowers of the forest are a’ wede away.

The second song was written on the same subject by Alicia Rutherford, of Fernilie, afterward known as Mrs. Patrick Cockburn, and is generally regarded as the more effective in singing, if not in composition.

I’ve seen the forest, adorned the foremost, With flowers of the fairest, most pleasant and gay; Sae bonny was their blooming, Their scents the air perfuming, But now they are withered, and weeded away.

Oh, fickle fortune, why this cruel sporting? Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day? Nae mair your smiles can cheer me, Nae mair your frowns can fear me, For the flowers of the forest are a’ wede away.

The words are beautiful, and instinct with sorrow when spoken or sung. But it is the music of the pipes that gives them supreme interpretation, and makes them the expression of grief so profound that “The Flowers of the Forest” has become the national dirge. Nor is sorrow their only note.

The pipes can sound--and have sounded on many a stricken field and in many an hour of despair--the triumph of hope and of victory over death. They have stirred the blood and cleared the head, and given strength to the arm of many a soldier who has never dreamed of the eagle plume blended with the heather and never heard through the mists of memory the clash of the broadsword on the targe--

I hear the pibroch sounding Deep o’er the mountain glen, While light springing footsteps are trampling the heath-- ’Tis the march of the Cameron men.

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MUSIC OF NATURE

The Innuits, or Eskimos, of Smith Sound, Greenland, the most northerly people in the world, believe that the aurora borealis has a singing noise; and the inhabitants of the Orkneys, of Finmarken, and those in the region of Hudson Bay believe, with many competent observers, that a peculiar sound like the rustling of silk always accompanies it. The Lapps liken this sound to the cracking in the joints of moving reindeer. (Text.)

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MUSIC, POPULAR, VALUE OF

All history reveals the fact that music, wedded to stirring and patriotic words, has in every age had a powerful influence on the course of public events. Nor is this true alone of civilized peoples. Among almost all savage races, the warriors excite themselves to martial ardor by songs which thrill their souls. The war-dances alike of our North American Indians, of the African negroes, and of the semicivilized races which dwell in Asia, are accompanied by songs which, tho wild and incoherent to European ears, have an inspiring influence upon themselves. Carlyle wisely said, “The meaning of song goes deep”; and a more recent writer has declared that “it goes as deep as the heart of man, the throbbings of which it controls more readily and widely than do the speeches of statesmen, the sermons of preachers, or the writings of journalists.” It was clearly because the influence of legend and of patriotic appeal, joined with familiar tunes so strongly roused the emotions of the people, that the ancient bards of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales were held in such high honor in the old royal courts and princely castles of these lands, and were regarded with such veneration by the people everywhere. About two centuries ago Lord Wharton wrote a political ballad, which was set to music, the title of which was “Lillibulero.” It was very poor poetry, but somehow the rude verses struck a chord in the popular heart, and were sung everywhere. It was written in opposition to King James the Second; and so wide was its influence that Lord Wharton boasted, it is said, that it “sang James II out of three kingdoms.” The effect of the “Marseillaise” in arousing and exciting the revolutionary spirit of France is one of the prominent facts in the history of that country. To it, in no small degree, is attributed the success of the French arms against the allies who assailed the young republic. So potent, indeed, was the “Marseillaise” felt to be in kindling political passion, that both the Napoleons forbade it being sung or played in France during their reigns.--_Youth’s Companion._

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MUSIC REFLECTS THE SOUL

Welsh, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish, and Armenian music is apt to be pitched in plaintive, mournful, minor keys. A Welsh preacher explained to an English congregation why Welsh tunes were thus habitually pathetic. It is because for centuries liberties were lost under Saxon domination. So, in Russia, visitors were imprest by the tender and melancholy tho beautiful strains of the national melodies. People when opprest sing sadly; but liberty and joy emancipate even the music of a nation. (Text.)

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MUTATION

One of the blest effects of the flight of time is that old animosities are forgotten and the nobler things of reconciliation and peace are seen. An instance of this lately occurred in the South:

A group of gentlemen, soldiers of the present and the past, were gathered upon an historic Southern battle-field, Missionary Ridge. They stopt to read the inscription upon a tablet, simple and unpretentious, which marked the position of a Confederate battery. This tablet bore the name of “Luke E. Wright, Second Lieutenant.” Luke E. Wright, Secretary of War of the United States of America, surrounded by his officers and friends, paused a moment to read again this chapter from his youth. A distinguished general of the regular army laid his hand affectionately upon the shoulder of General Wright and remarked: “General, how queerly things turn out! Who could have foreseen that the boy in gray, who served his guns upon this spot, would one day be my chief, at the head of the Army of the United States?”

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* * * * *

The instability of all mundane things is suggested by the following account, which may also remind us of the utterance of Jesus: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.”

“When, in 1890, Germany bartered away Zanzibar in exchange for Heligoland, great was the rejoicing,” says _Shipping Illustrated_ (New York). “Much concern is now being manifested in Germany owing to the relentless attack of the sea, which has already reduced the island’s area nearly twenty-five per cent since it came under the German flag. At this rate the little island will, in another half-century, have melted entirely away. The North Sea has been from time immemorial an avaricious land-grabber. The Dogger Bank once reared its head above the surface, a fact proved by the bones of animals occasionally brought up in the fishermen’s nets. The eastern coast of England has suffered severely from its insatiable appetite. Dunwick, an important seaport during the Middle Ages, is now a part of the sea-bottom, and fishes and other marine denizens occupy the one-time habitation of men. Visitors to Felixstowe, once a Roman colony and now a modern seaside resort, opposite Harwich, have pointed out to them a rock a mile out to sea, on which the old church formerly stood. The Kaiser may yet live to see his cherished possession torn from his grasp.” (Text.)

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MUTUAL SUFFERING

There is no individual in society; it is one body corporate. If one member sin all suffer with him. The fearful forms of torture loom up yet out of the shadows, the paddle, the rack, the chair, the cangue collar, the strangle-ring, the shin-rod, and various forms of mutilation remind one of what we see in the Tower of London. Truly, we are brethren in cruelty if we go far enough into the dark past. But God, who is rich in mercy, when He transforms an Oriental, seems first of all to take out of his heart the poison of cruelty, and to leave the spirit of self-sacrifice and tenderness instead.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in Transition.”

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MUTUALISM

Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning? You were all alone, and got it yourself, did you say? Did you make the Irish linen in your napkin, or were your table furnishings the creations of an idle hour? Did you raise your own coffee? Did the melon grow in your garden, or was the beef fattened in your pasture? The very ends of the earth contributed to your simple meal, and for it you were dependent upon people you had never seen. Your breakfast-table was really a clearing-house for the ends of the earth, so that when you redecorate your dining-room, and are placing upon the walls the familiar legends, “Let good digestion wait on appetite,” and that famous quatrain of Robert Burns:

Some hae meat but can not eat, And some would eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eat, So let the Lord be thank it,

you might most appropriately add to these that thrilling confession of Paul’s, “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.” (Text.)--NEHEMIAH BOYNTON.

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As the astronomers tell us that it is probable that there are in the universe innumerable solar systems besides ours, to each of which myriads of utterly unknown and unseen stars belong, so it is certain that every man, however obscure, however far removed from the general recognition, is one of a group of men impressible for good, and impressible for evil, and that it is in the eternal nature of things that he can not really improve himself without in some degree improving other men.--CHARLES DICKENS.

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See BOY AND KING.

=Mutuality=--See SOCIAL INTERDEPENDENCE; SOCIAL STRENGTH.

=Mutuality, True=--See FAITHFULNESS.

MYSELF

What unto me is Nature after all? I pass her by and softly go my way. She is the remnant of my little day Upon this beautiful revolving ball.

I am the real being. At my beck, The seeming actual pays its vassalage; I am the reader and the world the page; I fling a halter round old matter’s neck.

Glad to be taught of things outside, yet I Find me indifferent to their transient touch; A life’s to-day is an eternity Seems not to please my spirit overmuch.

I may not fathom now the end or what The sweat and blood and tragedy may mean; But I can fight the fight and falter not. Above the clouds the hilltops are serene.

So if I stay here years or slip away While yet the early dawn is dim and dark, It matters not. I am that living spark That ever glows ’tho planets have their day.(Text.)

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MYSTERY IN NATURE

What determines which queen shall leave the hive with the swarm? What determines which five thousand out of fifteen thousand worker bees, all apparently similarly stimulated and excited, shall swarm out, and which ten thousand shall stay in? These are questions too hard for us to answer. We may take refuge in Maeterlinck’s poetical conception of the “spirit of the hive.” Let us say that the “spirit of the hive” decides these things; as well as what workers shall forage and what ones clean house; what bees shall ventilate and what make wax and build comb. Which is simply to say that we don’t know what decides all these things. (Text.)--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

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MYSTERY IN RELIGION

Here are wood, brass, my hand--any material things. Here are light, electricity, a magnet--things that we all have something to do with. Now let us ask the scientific people to look at them, weigh them, test them, analyze them, describe them--what will they report? Well, part of their report will be this: There is one thing without which all these other things are impossible, without which there could be no wood, no metal, no light, no electric current; and that thing is called ether. This ether is like nothing you have at hand. It is not solid, nor liquid, nor a gas. It does not weigh anything, nor does it move. It is not alive, nor is it capable of division. Yet it is everywhere. It is in the wood, in the brass, in the air. It fills what we call empty space. It is the road by which light travels. It is the medium of electricity. It is the home of magnetism. Well, when the scientist tells us this we can but gasp. It is nothing that we know, yet without it all we know would break down. It can not be seen, nor handled, nor heard, yet without it we could neither see, nor handle, nor hear. It is utterly beyond belief, so strange a bunch of contradictories it is; and yet if we assume it to be real, then and then only can all the things of life which we do know be properly explained.

If in the natural world we follow out carefully all that is before us, if we explore our narrow strip of experience thoroughly, we come to a region getting more and more remote. Send a traveler from Hampstead--he comes back to tell us of India or the Arctic Ocean. Send a scientist out into this world of matter and force, of wood and stone and electricity, and he comes back to tell us of the incredible wonders of the unseen world, of the fathomless mysteries of the ether.

If this is so with material things, how much more is it likely to be so with moral and spiritual things? If it be true of earthly things, how much more of heavenly things? If the findings of science are puzzling, contradictory, mysterious, will the findings of theology--the science of God--be simple and mere common sense? If when we have to do with wood and stones we stand amazed before the doctrine of ether, is it surprizing that when we have to do with Christ and His cross, God and His redemption, we come also to the wonderful teaching, not only of the divinity of Jesus, but of His preexistence from eternity with God? So, then, because the doctrine is marvelous, unheard of, difficult to grasp, do not, therefore, pass it by as incredible.--NEWTON H. MARSHALL.

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MYSTERY NO BAR TO BELIEF

Toads are said to have been found in rocks. Such cases are rare, but it would be as unreasonable to doubt them as to believe in some of the miraculous explanations that have been made of the matter. The phenomenon is marvelous, it is true, but it is supported by evidence that we are not able to contest; and skepticism, which is incompatible with science, will have to disappear if rigorous observation shall confirm it. The toad was observed, in one case, in the stone itself, and before recovering from its long lethargy, it had not made any motion. One of these toads was presented to an academy, with the stone which had served it as a coffin or habitation, and it was ascertained that the cavity seemed to correspond exactly with the dimensions and form of the animal. It is remarkable that these toad-stones are very hard and not at all porous, and show no signs of fissure. The mind, completely baffled in the presence of the fact, is equally embarrassed to explain how the toad could live in its singular prison, and how it became shut up there. M. Charles Richet had occasion to study this question some months ago, and came to the conclusion that the fact was real, observing that even if, in the actual condition of science, certain phenomena were still inexplicable, we were not warranted in denying their existence, for new discoveries might at any time furnish an explanation of them. (Text.)--_Popular Science Monthly._

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=Mystery of Regeneration=--See DISCERNMENT, LACK OF SPIRITUAL.

MYSTERY TO BE MADE CLEAR

Dr. Abbott tells how, after sailing on the muddy waters of Lake Huron, he came on deck one morning, and, looking over the prow, started back in instinctive terror, for, looking down into the clear waters of Lake Superior, it seemed as if the keel were just going to strike on the sharp pointed rocks below; but he was looking through fifty or sixty feet of clear water at the great rock-bed of the lake. Now we endeavor in vain to fathom God’s judgments. As by a great deep they are hidden from us. But by and by the sea will grow as clear as crystal, and through the mystery we shall see and shall understand. We shall know not only the life that was in the ocean, but shall trace the footprints of Him that walked thereon.

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MYSTERY, VALUE OF

Recently a man called on Edwin Markham, author of “The Man with the Hoe,” we are told by _Success_, and introduced himself as the writer of a book on which, he said, he had spent twenty-five years of study and research. Mr. Markham, who is unusually kind in listening to and counseling with amateur authors, immediately felt that one who has spent a quarter of a century on his work is rare, and he invited him to his study without delay.

“What is the nature of your work?” asked Mr. Markham.

“I have written the greatest book of the ages,” began the new author; “I have solved the mystery of the world. I know all about it. I am prepared to prove my statements. I know just why the world was made, who really made it, and I have laid bare the mysteries of creation. I--”

“My good man,” said Mr. Markham, interrupting him, “if you have come to me for advice, let me tell you to take your manuscript at once and burn it. If you have solved the mystery of this world, you are its greatest enemy. Why,” continued the poet, “if you have solved the mystery of the world you have robbed men of their greatest joy. You have left us nothing to work for, you have destroyed our ambition, you have reduced us to mere animals. It is the mysteries of the world that have made it great, and I, for one, don’t want to have them solved.”

Mr Markham’s visitor sat dumfounded for a moment. The vision of his twenty-five years of labor flitted before him as he said:

“I guess you’re right--I guess you’re right.” (Text.)

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N

=Name, A Good=--See REPUTATION.

=Nameless Pioneers=--See UNKNOWN WORKERS.

NAMES

Many of the names we bear, as well as names of many of the places we know and frequent, are derived from something done or some particular thing connected with the place. For example, there is a town about thirty-five miles from Paris by the name of Fontainebleu. It is said that when this town was originally founded, near the tenth century, that there was a beautiful fountain there, and from this it took the name of Fontainebleu, contracted from Fontaine Belle Eau (Fountain of beautiful water).

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NAMES, ENDURING

The Pharos of Alexandria was built by Sostratus, a Greek architect, in the reign of Ptolmey Philadelphus. Ptolemy ordered that a marble tablet be built into the wall with his name conspicuously inscribed upon it as the builder of the famous edifice. Instead, Sostratus cut in Greek characters his own name deep upon the face of the tablet, then covered the whole with an artificial composition, made of lime, to imitate the natural surface of the stone, and cut a new inscription in which he inserted the name of the king. In due time the lime moldered away, name and all, leaving his own name to come out to view and to remain as long as the lighthouse stood.

There are names that wear away, while others are made to endure. (Text.)

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=Names Handed Down=--See DYNASTIC NAMES.

=Nations, Destiny of=--See DESTINY OF NATIONS.

NATIVE CONVERTS

Bishop Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, used to tell the story of a wealthy Parsee in India whom he had persuaded to read the New Testament. Deeply imprest, the man declared that if he could find Christians who matched that Book he would join them. He sought among the white people for the life of the Book, but reported to Bishop Taylor that he had failed to find it to his satisfaction. The latter then sent him among the native converts, receiving his pledge that he would make as diligent search there as he had made among the Europeans. In a short time he returned with enthusiasm, to say that he had discovered men and women whose lives corresponded with the Book. He himself became a Christian and suffered the loss of wealth and friends for the sake of the Name, and when he died of violence in Bombay his last words were, “It is sweet to die for Jesus.” The story points to the tremendous truth that it is not in our conventialized Christendom that the New Testament experiences are being reproduced most closely, but in the communities of disciples who are freshly out of raw heathendom.--WILLIAM T. ELLIS, “Men and Missions.”

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NATURALIZATION

Citizenship in heaven is not nearly so difficult as that of getting out naturalization papers in America.

The National Liberal Immigration League has petitioned the Department of Commerce and Labor to establish a calendar in the naturalization bureaus, so that applicants for second, or final, papers may be notified and attended to in regular order, instead of by the present first-come-first-served method with its resultant confusion and delays. Such a calendar would simplify matters wonderfully for the coming citizen. A man getting his final papers is obliged to bring with him two citizens as witnesses, who will swear that they have known him to be a resident of the United States for at least five years, the last year a resident of the State in which he receives his papers, and that he is a person of good moral character, and qualified in every way to become a citizen. Imagine the degree of good-nature essential in the instances of these witnesses, who must get up long before daylight, night after night, to accompany the potential citizen and see him turned back over and over again. Indeed, more than good-nature is involved, for the witnesses are in most cases working men, who are making an actual sacrifice, in that they are losing the time that is money to them, and the sleep that is essential to their welfare.--_Harper’s Weekly._

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=Nature=--See HANDIWORK OF NATURE.

NATURE AIDING SCIENCE

The cultivation of certain species of spiders solely for the fine threads which they weave has an important bearing upon the work of the astronomer.

No substitute for the spider’s thread has yet been found for bisecting the screw of the micrometer used for determining the positions and motions of the stars; not only because of the remarkable fineness of the threads, but because of their durable qualities.

The threads of certain spiders raised for astronomical purposes withstand changes in temperature, so that often in measuring sunspots they are uninjured when the heat is so great that the lenses of the micrometer eye-pieces are cracked. These spider lines are only one-fifth to one-seventh of a thousandth of an inch in diameter, compared with which the threads of the silk-worm are large and clumsy.--_Harper’s Weekly._

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=Nature Altruistic=--See ALTRUISM IN NATURE.

=Nature and Man=--See STRUGGLE.

=Nature and Prayer=--See PRAYER AND THE BODY; PRAYER ANSWERED.

NATURE AS A CLUE TO SCIENCE

Man prides himself on his powers and attainments. Has he ever made a rose or produced a mechanism like the hand, or done a thousand things that Nature knows?

As an illustration of Nature’s superiority, the electric ray is cited.

The electric ray, or torpedo, has been provided with a battery which, while it closely resembles, yet in the beauty and compactness of its structure it greatly exceeds the batteries by which man has now learned to make the laws of electricity subservient to his will. In this battery there are no less than 940 hexagonal columns, like those of a bees’ comb, and each of these is subdivided by a series of horizontal plates, which appear to be analogous to the plates of the voltaic pile. The whole is supplied with an enormous amount of nervous matter, four great branches of which are as large as the animal’s spinal cord, and these spread out in a multitude of thread-like filaments round the prismatic columns, and finally pass into all the cells. A complete knowledge of all the mysteries which have been gradually unfolded from the days of Galvani to those of Faraday, and of many others which are still inscrutable to us, is exhibited in this structure.

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NATURE AS A MODEL

The voice of the singer travels forward more abundantly than backward, because he uses the roof, and, to some extent, the walls and floor of his mouth, as a sound reflector. The roof of his mouth being made of concave plates of bone with a thin velarium of integument stretched tightly over them, supplies a model sound-reflector. Every architect who has to build a concert- or lecture-room, or theater, should study the roof of his own mouth, and imitate it as nearly as he can in the roof of his building.

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* * * * *

The analogies which furnish means of expression to the art of building find their models in nature. That which we feel at the sight of an edifice, the artist has felt a hundred times in contemplating the shifting curves of a hill, the bold edge of a haughty peak, the immensity of an even plain, a ground hollow, or gently undulating sheet of water which loses itself in the mists of the horizon. All the effects produced by architecture are only an interpretation of natural ones. What is a pyramid? A hollow cavern in a mountain. What is a Greek temple with its porticoes and columns? A memory of the sacred woods where were drest the first altars. What do we feel in entering a Gothic cathedral? The shudder felt at the divine awfulness of the forests. And it is also from the natural world that architecture has taken its decorations. Columns and capitals, rosettes, flowers intertwinings, ovals, foliage medallions, all remind us of something seen in the fields and in the woods, in plants and animals.--VICTOR CHERBULIEZ, _Revue des deux Mondes_.

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See INSECT A MODEL.

NATURE DUAL IN MAN

Plato, in his “Phædrus,” pictures the two natures in man under the analogy of two horses, one black and raging, pulling him down; the other white and noble, with an upward look, and drawing him to pure and self-denying actions; both steeds harnessed to the same chariot while the man sits in the chariot driving. (Text.)

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NATURE, ENJOYMENT OF

One of the most interesting passages in modern literary history is that in which Audubon, the naturalist, met the sudden destruction, by the voracity of rats, of the treasures he had accumulated in fifteen years of incessant exploration. At the shock of what seemed the irremediable disaster, he was thrown into a fever, which had well-nigh proved fatal. “A burning heat,” as he described it, “rushed through my brain; and my days were oblivion.” But as consciousness returned, and the rally of nature fought back the sudden incursion of disease, there sang again through his wakening thoughts the wild notes he had heard in the bayous of Louisiana, the everglades of Florida, the savannahs of the Carolinas, and the forests that fringe the sides of the Alleghanies. He saw again the Washington eagle, as it soared and screamed from its far rocky eery. He startled again, from her perch on the firs, the brown warbler of Labrador. He traced in thought the magic hues on crest and wing that so often had shone before the dip of his rifle. And the passion for new expeditions and discoveries, arising afresh, was more to him than medicine. In three years more, passed far from home, he had filled once more the despoiled portfolios; and at every step, as he told his biographer, “it was not the desire of fame that prompted him; it was his exceeding enjoyment of nature!”--RICHARD S. STORRS.

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=Nature Malleable=--See CONQUEST BY MAN.

=Nature Merciless=--See GOD, NOT NATURE.

NATURE’S AGGRESSIVENESS

Winthrop Packard, in “Wild Pastures,” describes the way in which nature’s wild growths obliterate the marks of human labor:

Let but vigilance relax for a year, a spring month even, and bramble and bayberry, sweet-fern and wild-rose, daring scouts that they are, will have a foothold that they will yield only with death. Close upon these will follow the birches, the light infantry which rushes to the advance line as soon as the scouts have found the foothold. These entrench and hold the field desperately until pine and hickory, maple and oak, sturdy men of the main line of battle, arrive, and almost before you know it the farm is reclaimed. The wilderness has regained its lost ground, and the cosmos of the wild has wiped out that curious chaos which we call civilization.

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NATURE’S ANTIDOTES

An army surgeon, discussing the nature of cholera and the sort of precautions to take against the plague, says:

Our greatest defense against this disease is, as usual, provided by Nature herself. These organisms can not live in an acid medium; they soon perish in the stomach, when exposed to the

## action of the gastric juice, because of its acidity.

Thus is nature kindly. Thus is the kindness to man of nature’s God.

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NATURE’S CUNNING WORKS

Excellent natural pottery is manufactured by nature in the case of a certain cactus. Woodpeckers are apt to excavate nests in the trunk and branches, and, in order that it may protect itself against these incursions, the plant exudes a sticky juice, which hardens, forming a woody lining to the hole made by the birds. Eventually the cactus dies and withers away, but the wooden bowl remains.

As a weaver, nature is an exceedingly neat worker. Certain tree-barks and leaves furnish excellent cloth, such as, for instance, the famous tapa cloth used in the South Sea islands.

Nature is also a glass-maker. By discharging lightning into beds of quartz sand she forms exquisite little pipes of glass.

Nature does a bit in the rope-making line, too. These products of her handicraft may be seen in the shape of various tropical vines and creepers; and her skill as a lace-maker may be seen in the case of the lace-tree of the West Indies.--_Harper’s Weekly._

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=Nature’s Forgiveness=--See RESTORATION IN NATURE.

NATURE’S PROTECTION

Fish are, we are told, very light sleepers, and frequently assume singular positions; but the most remarkable fact concerning them is the change of color many of them undergo while asleep.

Usually their spots and stripes become darker and more distinct when they fall asleep. Occasionally the pattern of their coloration is entirely changed. The ordinary porgy, for instance, presents in the daytime beautiful iridescent hues playing over its silvery sides, but at night, on falling asleep, it takes on a dull bronze tint, and six conspicuous black bands make their appearance on its sides. If it is suddenly awakened by the turning up of lights in the aquarium it immediately resumes the silvery color that it shows by daylight. These changes have been ascribed to the principle of “protective coloration,” and it has been pointed out that the appearance of black bands and the deepening of the spots serve to conceal the fish from their enemies when lying amid eel-grass and seaweeds.--_Harper’s Weekly._

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NATURE’S RECUPERATIVE POWERS

A unique opportunity to study Nature’s processes in restoring the vegetation of a land swept clean by a great disaster was afforded after the eruption of a volcano on the little island of Krakatoa in 1883. All living organisms were destroyed. In 1886 a number of plants had already established themselves on the devastated island, those in the interior being remarkably different from those on the coast, ferns especially preponderating. In 1897 further progress had been made, and in 1906 the forest trees had advanced so far as to make it evident that within a short time the island will again be densely forested. It is believed that the first plants to establish themselves on the blasted soil--such as ferns, algae, mosses, compositæ, and grasses--were borne thither by the winds, and that ocean currents were probably agents in the importation of seeds and fruit.--San Francisco _Bulletin_.

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=Nature’s Renewing Qualities=--See CONVERSION.

=Nature-teaching to Children=--See RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

=Nature Witnessing to God=--See GOD REVEALED IN NATURE.

NATURE, WONDERS OF

The oak-galls are formed only where a gall-insect has pricked a live leaf or stem or twig with her sharp, sting-like little egg-layer, and has left an egg in the plant tissue. Nor does the gall begin to form even yet. It begins only after the young gall-insect is hatched from the egg, or at least begins to develop inside the egg. Then the gall grows rapidly. The tree sends an extra supply of sap to this spot, and the plant-cells multiply, and the house begins to form around the little white grub. Now this house or gall not only encloses and protects the insect, but it provides it with food in the form of plant-sap and a special mass or layer of soft, nutritious plant-tissue lying right around the grub. So the gall-insect not only lives in the house, but eats it!--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

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See REMAINS.

NATURE WORSHIP

Father Brebeuf, writing about the Hurons in 1636, tells of a certain rock which they passed on their way to Quebec, and to which they always offered tobacco, placing it in the cleft of the rock and addressing the demon who lived there with prayer for protection and success. When the Indian in crossing a lake finds himself in serious danger, he prays to the spirit of the lake, throwing an offering, perhaps a dog, into the water. When the sound of the thundering frightens him, he prays to the thunder-being for protection. When he needs rain, he directs his rites to the god of rain and thunder. Air and earth and water are alive with spirits, any one of which may be prayed to; but, as a matter of fact, certain ones are singled out for worship. Add to these the many animal deities which are invoked even more frequently than those of the elements in the sacred formulas of the Cherokees.

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See PLANT WORSHIP.

NAVAL POWERS AND ARMAMENTS

The following table shows the naval strength of the leading nations of the world:

==============+==========+=========+=========== | All war- | Battle- | Personnel POWERS | vessels | ships | Officers | | | and Men --------------+----------+---------+----------- Great Britain | 572 | 55 | 99,679 United States | 199 | 25 | 47,750 Germany | 228 | 24 | 33,500 Japan | 224 | 14 | 36,480 France | 537 | 25 | 25,500 Italy | 198 | 9 | 27,789 Russia | 212 | 11 | 60,000 --------------+----------+---------+-----------

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[Illustration: FORECAST FOR 1920 CONDITIONS IN 1909]

NAVIES OF THE WORLD

The naval strength of the principal countries of the world is shown in the chart and table here given. The total number of ships credited to Russia includes a disproportionate number of small and obsolete vessels. The chart gives a forecast of naval strength reckoned from the known naval progress of the powers. A comparison of the naval strength of the United States with Japan in this forecast shows how baseless are the notes of alarm of a “yellow peril.”

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=Nearness and Distance=--See RETROSPECT.

NEARNESS DISTRACTING

A visitor to Amsterdam, wishing to hear the wonderful music of the chimes of St. Nicholas, went up into the tower of the church to hear it. There he found a man with wooden gloves on his hands, pounding on a keyboard. All he could hear was the clanging of the keys when struck by the wooden gloves, and the harsh, deafening noise of the bells close over his head. He wondered why the people talked of the marvelous chimes of St. Nicholas. To his ear there was no music in them, nothing but terrible clatter and clanging. Yet all the while there floated out over and beyond the city the most entrancing music. Men in the fields paused in their work to listen, and were made glad. People in their homes and travelers on the highways were thrilled by the marvelous bell tones which fell from the tower.

There are many lives, which to those who dwell close beside them, seem to make no music; they pour out their strength in hard toil; they are shut up in narrow spheres; they dwell amid the noise and clatter of common task work; they think themselves that they are not of any use, that no blessing goes out from their life; they never dream that sweet music is made anywhere in the world by their noisy hammering. But out over the world, where the influence goes from their work and character, human lives are blest, and weary ones hear, with gladness, sweet, comforting music.

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NECESSITY AND PROGRESS

When God told Moses to speak to the children of Israel and bid them go forward there was another urgency to reenforce this injunction. The chariots of Egypt were behind them; they must go forward or die.

Has not the greater part of human progress been due to necessities urging from behind and below--hunger, necessity for shelter, climates, hardships, trials. By all these God has ever been driving men up out of their Egypt of sloth and slavery toward a higher destiny.

(2170)

=Need of the World=--See LOVE, THE WORLD’S NEED.

NEED, REFUSED IN THE HOUR OF

One of the most pathetic things in life is seen sometimes in country towns in the mountain regions of these United States--may be in some farming regions, too.

The scene is laid in a country store of a Saturday night. The busy salesmen were waiting on many customers--customers who buy vast quantities of calico and chewing-tobacco and Scotch snuff and plowgear, and always on credit.

Pretty much everybody from all about is in town. The elders have brought the youngsters, and these sturdy infants stare with wide eyes at everything.

But in this busy gathering, far back in the corner, a man from the country is talking earnestly to one of the partners. The partner wears a heavy gold chain across his vest, and is in his shirt sleeves. He shakes his head, whittling, meanwhile, a bit of box.

This man’s credit has run out. He is trying to persuade the merchant to carry him a little longer--just a little longer, but the merchant doesn’t see it that way. He wants money.

He goes to his book and calls the man from the country and shows him the things written there. Then he leans back and lights a fat cigar triumphantly.

The would-be customer makes one more effort and turns sadly away. He takes two children with him, one by each hand, and slowly goes out.

“Ain’t we goin’ to buy nothin’?” asks one of them. A spasm of pain shoots across the father’s face.

“Not jest now, boy,” he says; “after a bit--just you wait. There’ll be lots of boots’ boy size left--lots of ’em.”--Dallas _News_.

(2171)

=Need, The World’s=--See MANLINESS.

NEEDS, MEETING CHILDREN’S

There is no more exceptional educational institution in America than the Berry School for mountain whites, near Rome, Ga., and yet the whole work grew out of a little Sunday-school that Miss Martha Berry established in the mountains near Possum Trot, Ga., less than ten years ago. At that time Miss Berry was residing on an estate which was all that was left of the fortune of the Southern family to which she belonged. In taking her walks she was imprest by the desolate condition of the mountain children. Their parents were too poor to supply them with anything more than the barest necessities of life, and they were growing up in utter indifference to everything pertaining to education. To remedy this to a small degree, she invited a number of them to meet her every Sunday at a little cabin she owned, and there undertook to teach them a few of the things they most needed to know. At the time Miss Berry had no thought of establishing a permanent school. Instead of being a temporary affair, however, the school soon made itself an institution, practically without any effort on her part. So far as the children of the “poor whites” were concerned, they not only crowded her cabin to more than its full capacity every Sunday, but they finally came to her with the request that a day-school be added. For a time it looked as if the movement had come to a point beyond which it could not go, but finally Miss Berry screwed up sufficient courage to make a trip to the North that she might tell some of the rich philanthropists about her “poor white” boys and her mountain school. It was an interesting story that she had to tell, and she told it so well that she went back to her pupils with funds sufficient not only to maintain the school, but to enlarge it. To-day the school has one thousand acres of land, much of it under cultivation, and several fine buildings, in which fifteen teachers are kept busy instructing the one hundred and fifty pupils, not only in the studies of the ordinary school, but in the useful trades as well.--_Human Life._

(2172)

NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE CULTURE

The lesson of the following poem, by T. Berry Smith, is that if we cultivate the good diligently the evil will thereby be weeded out:

Two fields lay side by side. Only a hedge Which ran athwart the plain dissevered them. In one my title lay, and he who owned The other was my brother. Each alike Had generous part of one ancestral lot, And each alike due diligence displayed On that he called his own. At early spring Each with a shining share upturned the soil And gave it to the sun, the wind, the shower. Thenceforth we rested not. Busily we wrought And wiped our briny brows ’neath burning suns, Biding the time of one far-off event.

At summer’s end we each one came at last To find our recompense. Each had his own, The end for which he’d toiled. Through all those days My only thought had been no weeds should grow, But he had plowed ’mid rows of waving corn And in so doing killed the cumbering weeds That grew between. And now at summer’s close Behold! my field was verdureless and bare, While his was clad in vestiture of gold. How vain my toil! His recompense how full, Who reaped so much, yet plowed no more than I!

(2173)

NEGATIVE DISCIPLINE

A little boy went to school, and the teacher asked, “What is your name?” He replied, “Johnny Dont.” He had never heard his mother call him anything else and supposed that was his real name. There are too many parents who bring up their children on “don’ts.”

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NEGATIVE TEACHING

Professor Estabrook, the well-known educator, once told this story to teachers for the purpose of showing them the discouraging results that attend the negative form of command. A mother once sent her little boy to buy some eggs. “Take this basket,” she said, placing it in his small hand, “and don’t spill one or drop the basket. And don’t fall down.” As he was passing through the gate, she called after him, “Don’t be gone long and don’t break the eggs.” After the little fellow had his order filled and started home all he could think about was not breaking or spilling the eggs. A vivid picture of broken shells filled his mind. With a fearful looking into the basket as if afraid they would jump out of themselves, he did not notice the large stone in his path and naturally fell over it, spilling and breaking the contents of the basket.

Our human tasks are done most safely and effectively not while we are concerned with the task, but while we keep in mind the exemplary Way by whose guidance all tasks are made plain.

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* * * * *

The writer, some years ago, heard an educational worker at a teachers’ institute tell the story of the mother who, on going away from home for a while, called her children for a few final precautionary prohibitions. Her conference with the children ran as follows:

“Children, you are not to go up-stairs while I am away. But if you do go up-stairs, you are not to go into the back room. But if you do go into the back room, you are not to play with the beans piled there. But if you should play with the beans, do not put any into your noses.”

There is no need to finish the narrative for any persons who know child-life. The physician eventually succeeded in preventing the nasal cavities from becoming vegetable gardens.

The story seemed to have been made to order. But it is not at all improbable. The writer knows of kittens having been put “into the Baltimore heater,” and of little pigs having been run through a windmill after thoughtful parents had enjoined upon their children not to do these things. Thus does the law operate, as any fireside will abundantly verify.--A. B. BUNN VAN ORMER, “Studies in Religious Nurture.”

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NEGLECT

Men were once engaged in driving a railway tunnel under a large river. While they were pushing the shield of the tunnel on its submarine journey a defective steel plate broke. All escaped except one man, who stumbled and fell. Before he could regain his feet the water engulfed him. It was the defective plate that did it. Far away somewhere, the makers of that plate failed to do their duty, and through their failure this man’s life was lost.

(2177)

See DECAY; INDIFFERENCE TO THE GOOD.

NEGLECT, CONSEQUENCES OF

The cause of an epidemic of typhoid fever among the 1,000 inhabitants of Three Oaks, Mich., was discovered when a member of the Board of Health climbed to the top of the waterworks’ stand-pipe and found the bodies of several thousand young sparrows covering the surface of the water. Immediately the mayor gave instructions to empty the stand-pipe, scrub and paint it.

Hundreds of sparrow nests have been built on a ledge that runs around the summit of the stand-pipe and the young birds are supposed to have fallen in while trying to fly. The cover made for the stand-pipe when it was constructed was never put on. The result was twenty-one cases of typhoid in the town.

(2178)

=Neglect in Church Attendance=--See CHURCH SERVICES.

NEGLECT OF DUTY

John D. Rockefeller had for some months an expert greenhouse superintendent named Potts, who knew a good deal about greenhouse management. A recent visitor at the Rockefeller house missed Potts, and inquired for him. Then, according to _The Saturday Evening Post_, this conversation took place:

“Oh, Potts,” said Mr. Rockefeller. “Yes, he knew more about greenhouse plants than any man I ever saw.” “But where is he?” “Well, he’s gone. It was wonderful, his knowledge of plants.” “You must have hated to part with him.” “Yes, I did. But it had to be. You see, he kept coming later and later every day and going home earlier and earlier.” “Well, a man of his ability might have been worth retaining even on short hours.” “Perhaps, perhaps. First he came and stayed eight hours, then six, then four; then he got down to two.” “But two hours of such a man’s time was worth having.” “Yes, yes,” answered Mr. Rockefeller slowly. “Of course. I hope I appreciated Potts. I didn’t object to two hours’ service. But he got so he didn’t come at all--just sent his card; then I dispensed with him.”

(2179)

NEGLECT OF GENIUS

W. J. Dawson tells us in “The Makers of English Poetry” that Burns was sick, poor and in debt. The last letter he ever wrote was a pathetic appeal to his cousin to lend him ten pounds, and save him from the terrors of a debtor’s dungeon. It would not have been much to expect from that brilliant society of wealth and culture in Edinburgh that some help might have been forthcoming to soothe the dying hours of the man it had once received with adulation. But no help came. There he lay, wasted by fever, his dark hair threaded with untimely gray; poor, penniless, overwhelmed with difficulties, but to the last writing songs, which won him no remuneration then, but which are now recognized as the choicest wealth of the nation which let him die uncomforted.

(2180)

See UNREWARDED INVENTION.

NEGLECT OF OPPORTUNITY

James Buckham is the author of the following:

The day is done. And I, alas! have wrought no good, Performed no worthy task of thought or deed. Albeit small my power, and great my need, I have not done the little that I could. With shame o’er forfeit hours I brood,-- The day is done.

I can not tell! What good I might have done this day Of thought or deed that still, when I am gone, Had long, long years gone singing on and on, Like some sweet fountain by the dusty way, Perhaps some word that God would say-- I can not tell! (Text.)

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NEGLECT OF THE LIVING

On the 13th of July, 1816, occurred the funeral of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Many noblemen were present to pay a tribute to his extraordinary talents.

What a strange contrast! For some weeks before his death he was nearly destitute of the means of subsistence. Executions for debt were in the house; he passed his last days in the custody of sheriff’s officers who abstained from conveying him to prison merely because they were assured that to remove him would cause his immediate death! And now, when dead, a crowd of persons, the first in rank and station and opulence, were eager to attend him to his grave.... His death had been rapidly accelerated by grief, disappointment, and a deep sense of the neglect he had experienced.

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=Neglect Overcome=--See RANK, OBSEQUIOUSNESS TO.

NEGLECTED LIVES

What is sadder than a ruined house and a deserted farm? Last summer, in Maine, I looked upon such a one. The gate was broken down, the entrance was a mass of thorns. Weeds had ruined the roses, for ten years the apple trees had gone unpruned, the curb at the well had fallen in, the windows were out, the ceilings were wet, vermin crept under the floor. Decay was everywhere. Wild growths had sprung up in meadow and pasture and ruined the fields. Desolation was everywhere. At the gate one might have written this legend: “A place where man has ceased to work with God.” Sadder scene there is not than a ruined rose-garden and a deserted house, given over to mice and rats, where once there was laughter and the shouts of children, and good talk between brave men. One thing alone is sadder--the deserted spiritual life. Lift up your eyes and look around on men. You find the multitudes who are neglected harvest-fields. Selfishness in them is rank. Self-aggrandizement is an unpruned growth. Pleasures run rampant. Like the green bay-tree, they flourish. And yet, their prosperity is a sham, their happiness an illusion, their influence a bubble.--N. D. HILLIS.

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NEGLECTING THE HARVEST

It seems a very strange proceeding when a farmer plows and plants and cares for his crop through the summer and then lets it stand all winter in the fields, to be eaten by mice, pelted by storms, and go to waste; and yet he is quite as wise as the pastor who toils hard to persuade people to give their hearts to God and come into the Church, and then allows the converts to lapse into religious ruin through neglect.--_Western Christian Advocate._

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NEGRO EXCELLING

Estelle E. Gibbs, a negro girl, fourteen years old, living with her parents at No. 512 First Street, Hoboken, received to-day (Feb. 4, 1910), the first prize, a gold medal, at the graduating exercises of the Hoboken public school pupils, in the Gayety Theater. She had the highest average of any public-school scholar in the city--99⅓ per cent. in six subjects. The medal was presented by Mayor Gonzales.

There are 10,000 white pupils in the schools and only 15 negroes. Only eleven negro families live in Hoboken. Estelle is the daughter of a Pullman car porter on the Lackawanna Railroad. She is the only negro girl who has carried off such honors in Hoboken, and the only one to be graduated from the grammar school to the high school.

In all but one of her studies the girl was rated at 100. In geography she made 96. The five branches in which she reached the maximum were history, civics, spellings, arithmetic and grammar.

Eighteen questions were posted at the geography examinations, and the pupils had the privilege of selecting ten to answer. The teacher who conducted the examination says that Estelle picked out the ten hardest. The girl is rather small for her age, but can stand a lot of work.

While she was standing the final examination Estelle was so absorbed that she did not go home to lunch, but spent all the time, from nine o’clock until three, working on the questions.

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NEGRO “MAMMY” REMEMBERED

The praises of the faithful black nurses of the South have long been sung, but it has remained for Texas to be the first State to formally recognize their worth. The citizens of Galveston have inaugurated a movement to erect and dedicate a monument to the old negro “mammy” of the South. It is planned to build a marble monument of appropriate design to cost $500,000, nearly half of which is already pledged. Resolutions concerning the plan pay this tribute: “Rapidly passing from the stage of events in the South are the few remaining representatives of one of the grandest characters which the history of the world records. Indeed, so high above all chronicles of pure, unselfish and unfaltering devotion, noble self-sacrificing and splendid heroism do they stand that they may be almost denominated a race in themselves.” This is all much to the credit of Galveston and Texas. But would it not be better to erect, not a monument of marble, but an equally enduring memorial in the form of some splendid philanthropic institution for the uplift of the black race? Or a great hospital to care for suffering blacks? The tribute would then be both beautiful and useful.--_Christian Work._

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NEGRO PROGRESS

The Rev. Charles Edward Stowe, the son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, returning from a trip through the South, where he had been studying the industrial conditions, said:

“Do you realize that the cotton crop is 1,000,000 bales a year bigger than it was in the old slave days, and that as far back as 1884 the negroes owned 1,000,000 acres of land in Georgia? I saw a big negro shuffle into an Atlanta bank and say: ‘Boss, ah wondah of ah has dat fahm of mine paid foh yet?’ The banker looked up the darky’s account and found that he had not only paid for his land by his remittances, but that he had $700 to his credit.”

(2187)

* * * * *

Since the time the shackles were struck off the slaves, the negroes of the United States have had to their credit two Senators and seventeen Congressmen, besides scores of representatives in the diplomatic service and in official life, municipal, State and national. Negroes have won championships as pedestrians, bicycle-riders, and prize-fighters. As evidence of the intellectual endeavor and capacity of the race there are to-day (1908) 1,200,000 black children in the public schools, 30,000 in the higher institutions of learning, and 200 in northern and European colleges and universities. Over 2,000 have been graduated from colleges, and the professions show 30,000 school-teachers and professors, 2,000 lawyers, 1,500 doctors, dentists and pharmacists, and over 23,000 ministers of the gospel. In addition to all this, the negroes have taken out 500 patents, have published 400 books, composed numerous songs, and now own and edit 12 magazines and 300 newspapers. In a material way the negroes have also made noticeable progress. Besides many industrial establishments, they own and manage 26 banks, own 2½ per cent. of the total valuation of the farm property, produce six per cent. of the total farm products of the United States, and own $900,000,000 worth of real and personal property.--WILLIAM A. SINCLAIR, “The Aftermath of Slavery.”

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* * * * *

Booker T. Washington, writing on “Negro Homes” in _The Century_, says:

The first negro home that I remember was a log cabin about fourteen by sixteen feet square. It had a small, narrow door, which hung on rusty, worn-out hinges. The windows were mere openings in the wall, protected by a rickety shutter, which sometimes was closed in winter, but which usually hung dejectedly on uncertain hinges against the walls of the house. Such a thing as a glass window was unknown to this house. There was no floor, or, rather, there was a floor, but it was nothing more than the naked earth. There was only one room, which served as kitchen, parlor and bedroom for a family of five, which consisted of my mother, my elder brother, my sister, myself and the cat. In this cabin we all ate and slept, my mother being the cook on the place. My own bed was a heap of rags on the floor in the corner of the room next to the fireplace. It was not until after the emancipation that I enjoyed for the first time in my life the luxury of sleeping in a bed. It was at times, I suppose, somewhat crowded in those narrow quarters, tho I do not now remember having suffered on that account, especially as the cabin was always pretty thoroughly ventilated, particularly in winter, through the wide openings between the logs in the walls.

Probably there is no single object that so accurately represents and typifies the mental and moral condition of the larger proportion of the members of my race fifty years ago as this same little slave cabin. For the same reason it may be said that the best evidence of the progress which the race has made since emancipation is the character and quality of the homes which they are building for themselves to-day.

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NERVE

Altho almost completely paralyzed, Fred J. Daniels, an engineer on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, managed to save passenger train No. 2, which he was running, from colliding with the rear end of a freight train. The train was near Maxwell, Pa., when, leaning out of his cab window, Daniels saw the rear lights of a freight.

At the same time a bolt dropping from the locomotive struck the driving-rod and was hurled at him. It hit his forehead and drove him backward. His neck struck with great force against the brake lever, and he fell to the floor helpless. Despite the blow, however, he reached for the lever as he fell and in some manner threw it into a notch which set the safety-brakes, and the train stopt a few yards from the rear end of the freight.

When the fireman reached Daniels he was helpless, unable to move, and is now but little better.--Baltimore _American_.

(2190)

=Nerve Essential in Christian Work=--See MISSIONARY ADAPTATION.

NERVOUSNESS

Of the physical limitations under which Herbert Spencer worked many interesting glimpses are given. When writing his last book, “Facts and Comments,” published a short time before his death and the result of two years’ work, he was able to produce only ten lines a day. Even when a young man he was afflicted with a nervousness from which he sought relief in playing quoits and rackets. Each of these games he would play in some court attached to a house or pavilion, and after playing about twenty minutes would retire to cover and resume his writing until the nervousness returned, when he would play again. (Text.)

(2191)

NEW AND OLD

A professor of mathematics from America was visiting a college in North China. To a native professor there he said, “There is a new method in mathematics being taught in America. It is called the ‘short cut,’ and is a method of casting out the nines.” Imagine his surprize when the Chinese scholar replied, “The Chinese have been practising that method farther back than recorded history goes.” And he called a pupil up to prove it. Sure enough, it was the “short cut,” the casting out of the nines.

New things are not so new, and old things are coming to light. (Text.)

(2192)

See SAFETY VALVES.

NEW, APPETENCY FOR THE

Botanists tell us that when the tree ceases to make new wood it begins to die. Indeed, the only real live part of our northern trees is the part just under the bark. It may be even rotten and hollow on the inside, so long as the sap courses vigorously on the exterior the tree lives, grows and is young. So the mind begins to die when it loses its appetite for things new, when the heavenly hunger for variety ceases. (Text.)--VYRNWY MORGAN, “The Cambro-American Pulpit.”

(2193)

NEW BIRTH

Perhaps you have seen the earth dry and dusty, with her fields brown and her streams low. That night a storm-cloud walked across the face of the sky, and in torrents broke over all the land. The next morning when you went forth there were the same fields and streams, but it was not the same earth, for a new earth greeted you; and so it is when the life, light and energy of the Holy Spirit is let into a man’s life; he is still the same creature, formed in the likeness of his Maker, but he is not the same. He is a new man; he has been born again. (Text.)--ULYSSES G. WARREN.

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NEW FAITHS

When the simple conch is built its tenant adds a larger disk from the material provided in the sea; but after a time “the outgrown shell” is altogether left by “life’s unresting sea” and we find that empty shell cast on the shore. When the old temple has become obsolete humanity finds a spiritual home in new faith. (Text.)

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NEW, THE

To market old remedies that have gone out of fashion, or fallen into discredit, clever manufacturers give them another name and a new wrapper. Purchasers who go by the label, and they are in the majority, think that they have found a godsend, and take up the concoction eagerly.

One is occasionally tempted to have recourse to such a trick, in the interest of certain old practises, excellent in themselves, but disqualified by abuse.--CHARLES WAGNER, “The Gospel of Life.”

(2196)

=New Year=--See COURAGE OF HOPE; FORWARD; IMPROVEMENT; STRENGTH.

=New York’s Growth=--See CITY, GROWTH OF A GREAT.

=Newness Discloses Ignorance=--See DROUGHT, RESPONSIBILITY FOR.

NEWNESS OF EACH SOUL

Perhaps they laughed at Dante in his youth, Told him that truth Had unappealably been said In the great masterpieces of the dead. Perhaps he listened, and but bowed his head In acquiescent honor, while his heart Held natal tidings: that a new life is the part Of every man that’s born-- A new life never lived before, And a new expectant art, It is the variations of the morn That are forever, more and more, The single dawning of the single truth: So answers Dante to the heart of youth.

--WITTER BYNNER, _The Century_.

(2197)

=Newspaper Reporting=--See CLASSICS, STUDY OF; REPORTS TO ORDER.

NEWSPAPERS AND MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE

You can teach the missionary boards and secretaries a little sense as to the news value of missionary items. I know these missionary boards and officials; they are altogether respectable and useful members of society, but they do regard a reporter of the secular press as a nuisance. Of course many of them do not; there are a few here. But they usually say, “No, we have no news to-day.” I have been in the office when a representative of a newspaper came in. “Anything new?” “No.” And I knew that there was the best sort of a newspaper story right there; but it went into the drawer and stayed there three weeks until the whole matter was sent down to the monthly paper of the Church and buried. Anything that is of human interest is news. A man said to me, “I am going to quit _The Globe_ because it is giving out all this slush of the Torrey-Alexander meetings.” We gave from two to five columns a day to those meetings, and that man objected. I said to him, “Put up any sort of a meeting in that hall, and if you will fill that hall, afternoon and evening, I will give you from three to five columns.” Those things that have human interest the people want and need.--J. A. MACDONALD, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

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=Next Thing All Important=--See DEFEAT.

=Night Activities=--See LIGHT.

NIGHT FOR REST

Between the days, the weary days, He drops the darkness and the dew; Over tired eyes his hands he lays, And strength and hope and life renews. Thank God for rest between the days!

Else who could bear the battle stress, Or who withstand the tempest’s shocks, Who tread the dreary wilderness Among the pitfalls and the rocks; Came not the night with folded flocks?

The white light scorches and the plain Stretches before us, parched with the heat; But, by and by, the fierce beams wane; And lo! the nightfall, cool and sweet, With dews to bathe our aching feet!

For he remembereth our frame! Even for this I render praise. O, tender Master, slow to blame The falterer on life’s stormy ways, Abide with us--between the days!

--_The British Weekly._

(2199)

NIGHT, GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE

James Church Alvord writes these prayerful verses:

Not for to-morrow, Lord, I lift my eyes Up through the darkness which between us lies; Not ’gainst to-morrow’s terror, toil or woe; Not for to-morrow’s joy or glad surprize-- Just for to-night.

When the day breaks and far the shadows flee Strength for the conflict still shall come from Thee, I all Thy grace shall prove, Thy comfort know. O, let me feel this deep security-- Just for to-night.

Peace--’tis the gift Thou givest, peace and rest. Come, bid me droop my head upon Thy breast! Speak to me, Master, murmur soft and low, Flood all my soul with Thy communion blest-- Just for to-night.

Nay, I’ll not shun to-morrow’s wild alarms: Storms when Thou sendest, I’ll not ask for calms. Yet, I grow weary on the way I go: Put underneath the everlasting arms-- Just for to-night. (Text.)

(2200)

=Nightfall=--See GOD, SLEEPLESS CARE OF.

NO MAN’S LAND

There is a peculiar propriety in the name “No Man’s Land,” which has been applied to the group of rocky snow-clad islands four hundred miles to the north of the North Cape of Norway, once spoken of as East Greenland, and appearing on all modern maps as Spitzbergen. Wintering on these islands is practically impossible to civilized man. There are myriad petrels and gulls and wild geese in summer.

For two centuries the whalers and sealers--Swedes, Danes, Dutch, Norwegians--frequented these islands in summer months. The right whale disappeared. The seals became fewer. Visits to the islands became less frequent. Now coal has been discovered in such beds as to justify civilization in taking cognizance of “No Man’s Land.”

The United States accepted the invitation of Norway to take

## part in an international conference, at Christiana, to consider

the government of Spitzbergen. Russia, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany and Denmark were invited. There is not much doubt that a form of government will be devised and a full agreement reached.

This is a significant movement toward extending law in some form to every bit of territory on the earth’s surface. A century hence it will perhaps be impossible to find a square foot of earth that can be called “No Man’s Land.”--Brooklyn _Eagle_.

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=Nobility, Obscure=--See SPIRITUAL NOBILITY.

=Noise, Vain=--See PRETENSE.

=Nomenclature, Absurd=--See ABSURDITY IN NOMENCLATURE.

=Non-Christian Religions=--See INADEQUACY OF NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS.

NORMAL, THE, ARE THE HIGHEST

In the valley the sequoia is twenty feet in diameter, and this is natural. Now, climb the sides of the mountain, and the diameter drops to ten feet, to five feet, to two feet six inches, and finally you get an army of average six-inch sequoias. But don’t say now that because the average on this rocky soil and these storm-swept peaks is six inches, that the great tree in the valley is abnormal. On the mountain side, with the thin soil, roots that cling to rocks, snows that bite, winds breaking the boughs, thunderbolts that burn and blacken, the average tree is small.

But this stunted tree is abnormal and unnatural. Your Plato is the natural man in the intellect. Shakespeare is the normal man in imagination. Wendell Phillips is the ordinary speaker. The men you call supreme and extraordinary represent man as God made them.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2202)

=North Pole Conquest=--See CONQUEST, COMMONPLACE.

=Nose, the Human, Deteriorating=--See DETERIORATION BY DISUSE.

NOTE, A FALSE

Some friends were one evening sitting together in a happy circle listening to a phonograph as it reproduced the voices of a quartet of famous singers. Some of the listeners had ears sensitive to musical sounds and they shuddered at one point when a false note occurred. As often as the record returned the discordant jarring of that false note came in with repellent effect. In the midst of the beautiful strain this spoiled the harmony at each recurrence. It is so with character. A false moral concept unless corrected goes on forever producing falsehood in the life. (Text.)

(2203)

See SELF-CONFIDENCE.

=Nothing Lost in the Universe=--See CONSERVATION.

NOTORIETY

Only persons of cheap character would be likely to resort to such a device as the following:

With more than 10,000 persons intently watching proceedings, George Lenfers and Miss Ora D. Williams were married on the top of the gas company’s new giant smoke-stack, 222 feet from the ground, at high noon the other day. The streets and alleys for five blocks in every direction were jammed and high roofs were dotted with spectators as far as the eye could reach.

Thomas Englehard, the builder of the huge pile of concrete and steel, clasped a belt about the bride’s waist and tied a rope to a ring in it. The other end of the rope he tied about his own waist and proceeded with the girl up the ladder. The groom followed with Rev. C. J. Armentraut, pastor of the Emanuel Presbyterian Church. (Text.)

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NOURISHMENT FROM BENEATH

The soul that has its roots struck deep in the soil of God’s providence will live and flourish in the most hostile moral climates of this world.

Did you ever see a watercress-pond in the midst of winter? It is a very attractive sight. With the thermometer far below the freezing-point, and with deep snow covering the ground and the branches of the trees, the patch of watercress stands out in striking contrast--a spot of vivid green like a carpet on the surface of the pond. That the plants are able to grow and flourish under such apparently impossible conditions of weather is due entirely to the warm springs which feed the pond. The water welling forth from the warm heart of the earth saves them from freezing. (Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

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NOVELS GOOD AND BAD

To so affect a reader that his course of life becomes altered, must prove that the moving influence of fiction is strong indeed. With a weapon of such power placed in our hands, it rests with us to say how it shall be employed. If it has been used, carelessly so that low, selfish thoughts have been developed, it is our duty and joyous privilege to so write that lofty, noble sentiments shall rise and grow, tearing out all evil from the heart, as a growing tree splits a rock that once held it as a tiny seed in its moss-lined crevice. If the novel has inspired doubts as to the value, the grandeur, and joy of living, fostering that slow, insidious canker of pessimism which like the poisoned arrows of the Indian permeates the system with its virus, the novel must now be made to bring calm peace by presenting noble lives of heroism, self-forgetfulness and service by a high ideal consistently followed.--_Book Chat._

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See TIME, PRECIOUS.

NOVELTY, THE PASSION FOR

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in, A race that can’t stay still; So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will.

They range the field and they rove the flood, And they climb the mountain’s crest; Theirs is the curse of the gipsy blood, And they don’t know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far; They are strong and brave and true; But they’re always tired of the things that are, And they want the strange and new.

--ROBERT W. SERVICE, “The Spell of the Yukon.”

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NOW, DO IT

When you’ve got a job to do, do it now! If it’s one you wish was through, do it now! If you’re sure the job’s your own, just tackle it alone; don’t hem and haw and groan--do it now! Don’t put off a bit of work, do it now! It doesn’t pay to shirk, do it now! If you want to fill a place, and be useful in the race, just get up and take a brace, do it now! Don’t linger by the way, do it now! You’ll lose if you delay, do it now! If the other fellows wait, or postpone until it’s late, you hit up a faster gait--do it now!--_Intelligencer._

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=Numbers, Courage of=--See COWARDICE.

=Numbers Without Meaning=--See BIGNESS.

=Nurse, Florence Nightingale as a=--See LIFE, A DEVOTED.

NUTRIMENT OF THE SOUL

Last summer I went to an agricultural college. I had been under the delusion that black clods turned to strawberries, and that red clay ripened apples and wheat shocks. One day the professor handed me a large microscope to study two blades of corn, growing in a little pot of earth. Now there was something lacking in the soil. The little stock was yellow, sickly, and come to the moment of death. It throbbed a little, but the pulse beat low. What was the matter? All it needed was nitrogen. Nitrogen? Why there were billions of tons of nitrogen in the air, forty miles thick. When a man has pneumonia he dies, not because there are not billions of tons of oxygen above him, but because he can not absorb the oxygen. The soil could not help the dying corn plant. The rain could not help it--poor little plant that pants and pants, because it can not get that invisible nourishment in nitrogen. So we took a little liquor that held a few nodules from a nitrogenous alfalfa root, and poured it about the dying blade of corn. In a single hour the pulse began to beat true and firm; another morning came and the sickly yellow had changed to green. In a week the corn was growing like a weed. Out in the field were two acres of corn, sown broadcast. One acre was in the starved soil and yielded nine hundred pounds of fodder; the other acre yielded over ten thousand pounds, through that rich invisible food.

Not otherwise is it with the soul.--N. D. HILLIS.

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NUTRITION, PROPER

“With the exception of carbon, the food of plants comes from the soil and it is dissolved in the soil water. If the soil does not contain food enough, the plant can not grow well, even tho they have everything else they need. The ideal soil must have sufficient plant food in a form that can dissolve in water to supply the needs of crops grown on it.”

There must be religious nutriment in the soil of education and training in order to proper moral growth. (Text.)

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O

OASES

Among the African deserts are some fertile spots. They are occasioned by springs which arise in little dells and moisten the ground for some distance around them. They are islands of verdure and beauty and refreshing in an ocean of desolation. Some of them are very extensive and contain a considerable population. One of these is called the Great Oasis, consisting of a chain of fertile tracts of about a hundred miles in length. Another is the Oasis of Siwah, which has a population of eight thousand souls.

Is not life dotted with just such oases that gladden the desert expanse that surrounds so many pilgrims of earth? (Text.)

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OATHS

The primary idea of taking an oath is that we call upon the Deity to bear witness to the sincerity or truth of what we assert, and so, as it were, register our oath in heaven. When Abraham, for example, raised his hands to heaven while swearing an oath to the King of Sodom, he pointed to the supposed residence of the Creator. Afterward, when men set up inferior deities of their own, they appealed to the material images of symbols that represented them, whenever an oath was administered. The most usual form of swearing among the ancients was, however, by touching the altar of the gods. Other rites, such as libations, the burning of incense and sacrifices accompanied the touching of the altar. Demosthenes swore by the souls of those who fell at Marathon. Anciently, too, mariners swore by their ships, fishermen by their nets, soldiers by their spears, and kings by their scepters. The ancient Persians swore by the sun, which was the common object of their adoration, while the Scythians pledged themselves by the air they breathed and by their simitars. Descending to more modern times, the Saxons pledged themselves to support their homes and privileges by their arms; and the punishment for perjury or non-fulfilment of an oath was the loss of the hand that had held the weapon at the compact. The Spartans were wont to assemble around a brazier of fire, and, pointing their short swords to the sky, call upon the gods to bear witness to the compact. Swearing by the sword, in fact, retained its significance down to comparatively modern times, tho in a slightly modified form. Thus, while the pagans extended the point of the weapon toward the supposed residence of the gods, the warriors of Christianity after kissing it, directed the hilt--the true emblem of their faith--to heaven. A later form of oath was the pressing of the thumb upon the blade. Gradually, however, the practise became obsolete; and the kissing of the hilt, accompanying the words, “By this good sword!” was handed down almost to the time when the wearing of a sword by gentlemen was abolished, as one of the strictest codes of civil honor.--London _Standard_.

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OBEDIENCE

When the Duke of Wellington received a very intrepid battalion returning from a bloody campaign it was observed that he said nothing of their courage, praising only their discipline and subordination to command. Civilians were surprized. The field marshal’s reason was ready--Englishmen are expected to be brave, but obedience is a higher honor. War itself, as a science of slaughter, is not a lofty kind of work, as the most courageous warriors in later days always admit. Yet the military profession is an elevated one in civilized countries, because it is a discipline of character in the principle of authority.--BISHOP HUNTINGTON, _The Forum_.

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* * * * *

Hon. Richmond P. Hobson, in relating some of his experiences after he and his men were captured by the Spanish, tells the following story:

The next day, when it seemed uncertain whether or not a remnant of the Inquisition was to be revived, when the enemy did not know whether it was his fault or ours that a ship had been sunk, and rather inclined to the belief that he had sunk an American battleship and that we were the only survivors out of several hundred, the men were taken before the Spanish authorities and serious and impertinent questions put to them. Remember, they did not know what it might cost them to refuse to answer, Spanish soldiers of the guard standing before them, making significant gestures with their hands edgewise across their throats. Our seamen laughed in their faces. Then a Spanish major questioned Charette, because he spoke French, and asked him this question: “What was your object in coming here?”

And so long as I live I shall never forget the way Charette threw back his shoulders, proudly lifted his head and looked him in the eye as he said:

“In the United States Navy, sir, it is not the custom for the seamen to know, or to desire to know, the object of an action of his superior officer.”

Obedience to the right, is an all too rare virtue, yet upon it depend the foundations of society and the spread of God’s kingdom. We are privileged to know and also to obey.

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* * * * *

The Princess of Wales, according to _The Youth’s Companion_, has trained her children so carefully in habits of obedience and veracity that they are nearly models of what children should be in those particulars. Upon one occasion, however, they were sorely tempted. This was when their loving and beloved grandmother, Queen Alexandra, brought them a big box of bonbons. But when the sweets were offered to them, one child after another reluctantly but firmly declined to take any.

“We like them, but mother has forbidden us to eat them,” explained the eldest prince.

“You can have the sugar-plums if I say you may,” said the indulgent Queen. “I will tell mama all about it when she returns.”

Prince Eddie wavered momentarily, then reiterated his refusal.

“We’d like them,” he sighed, “but that’s what mother said.”

The Queen was slightly annoyed by this opposition.

“But if I say you may--” she said.

Prince Eddie stood his ground, a hero between two fires--the wishes of his adored mother and those of his equally adored grandmother. His sisters and his brothers followed his lead. When the Queen went away she put the bonbons on the nursery table and there they stayed for months untouched, a handsome monument to the thoroughness of the princess’s training and the respectful love and devotion of her children. (Text.)

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OBEDIENCE, A TYPE OF

Admiral Dewey served through the Civil War, and had the fortune to get always into the thickest of the fight. When in command of the _Dolphin_, he exhibited his ideas of obedience. One of his “Jacks” refused to obey an order of his lieutenant and was reported to Dewey. “What!” said Dewey, “you refuse? Do you know this is mutiny?” The man still remained stubborn. Thereupon Dewey told the captain to call the guard. He stood the obdurate seaman on the far side of the deck, and ordered the marines to load. Then he took out his watch and said, “Now my man, you have just five seconds to obey that order,” and began to count the seconds. At the fourth count the man moved off with alacrity to obey the order. The admiral was a man to be trusted implicitly to carry out orders, which fact had become a byword at the Navy Department, and he won fame from the custom he had formed of doing the thing expected of him.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

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OBEDIENCE AND GREATNESS

The moon calls to the Atlantic and the mighty seas lift themselves in great tidal waves as they follow their mistress round the globe. It calls with equal insistence to the wayside pool and this passing reminder of yesterday’s shower yields not an inch. The dust speck dances in the sunlight impudently or ignorantly defiant of the law which holds the earth with a grip of steel as it goes bounding along through a wilderness of stars held steady by the same hand. Be it big enough and noble enough, it knows how to obey.--JOHN H. WILLEY.

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OBEDIENCE IN SPIRIT

It is told of an Eastern king how, planning to visit a remote part of his kingdom, he sent ahead a trusted minister to build for his royal master a suitable palace to live in. When the royal courier reached the end of his journey he found a plague raging and the people dying by thousands. So instead of building the contemplated palace, he took the money and spent it in medicine and bread for the poor sufferers, dug graves and buried the dead, and bought clothing to protect the living. When the king came on and found what was done, instead of punishing his minister he commended him, saying, “Oh, faithful servant, you have builded for me a palace in the hearts of my people--built it out of the tombstones which you have erected over the graves of the dead; jeweled it with the tears you have wiped away, made it echo with songs out of the sobs which you have stilled.”

These servants followed the spirit of the king’s command, not the letter. Will not God be well pleased with a similar obedience from His children? (Text.)

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=Object-preaching=--See SERMON, SAVING A.

OBJECT-TEACHING

Many men could be brought to abandon their evil habits if they could have them as plainly pictured as the man did in the following incident:

A rich profligate kept two monkeys for his amusement. Once he peeped into his dining hall where he and his friends had been enjoying themselves in wine, and found his pets mimicking the recent party. They mounted the table, helped themselves to the wine, and gestured and jabbered as they had seen their master and his guests doing. Soon they got merry and jumped all about the room. Then they got to fighting on the floor and tearing each other’s hair. The master stood in amazement. “What,” he said, “is this a picture of me? Do even the brutes rebuke me?” Ever afterward he was a sober man.

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=Object-teaching, Successful=--See WARMTH, LOST.

=Objection Overcome=--See TACT.

OBLIGATION

George William Curtis exhibited an unusual honesty. Not only had he a fine sense of obligation where there was no legal or moral responsibility, but he considered himself bound by obligations made by others, in which he had no part. Upon his father’s death, Curtis assumed his liabilities, amounting to $20,000, which took many years of personal deprivation for him to pay; and later, upon the failure of a firm in which he was merely a special partner for only a small amount, and having no part in the management, he refused the immunity allowed under the law, and gave up almost his entire fortune to pay the firm’s indebtedness.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

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OBLIGATION TO THE CHURCH

There are some people who seem to think they have a through ticket on a vestibule train for heaven. Having paid their pew-rent, taken a seat in the church for a pleasing Sunday service, feeling no obligation to do anything to move the church onward spiritually, they consider themselves at liberty to find fault with the minister and the choir, just as the critical complaining passenger, who, having paid for his ticket and secured his berth, looks upon the train officers and all, as bound to be simply subservient to his individual fancy and pleasure. Is it not time that those who are divinely commended to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling got rid of the passenger notion of getting to heaven? (Text.)--_The Living Church._

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OBLIGATIONS, MEETING

No chapter in Mark Twain’s life gave more basis for the great love of his countrymen than that of his unsuccessful business affairs, his simple, uncomplaining facing of them, and his honest fulfilling of his debts to the last farthing. Coming upon him when sixty years of age, and with disheartening completeness, the failure of his publishing firm might well have bowed down a stronger man; and there can be no doubt but that his cheerful humor saved him, in bearing up under the disappointment, as it enabled him to pay his obligations in a financial way.

The firm of C. L. Webster & Co. was organized in 1884, and Mark Twain became president and chief stockholder. As head of the concern his essentially literary and unbusinesslike leanings led him to oversee only the broadest lines of the publishing policy, leaving the administrative details to other hands. Owing to the character of some of the works which the company put out, its ventures were more than ordinarily large; the memoirs of Gen. Grant netted between $250,000 and $300,000 in royalties alone to the general’s widow.

On April 14, 1894, after several reverses, the firm made an assignment for the benefit of its creditors. Mark Twain had already put in more than $65,000 of his own money in an attempt to save the company; he had also lost heavily in trying to develop a type-setting machine. Liquidation showed liabilities of $96,000. Sixty years old, with a wife and three daughters to provide for, Mark Twain voluntarily gave up all his personal assets as a partial satisfaction of his debts and accepted the burden of those remaining. He said, splendidly:

“The law recognizes no mortgage on a man’s brain, and a merchant who has given up his all may take advantage of the law of insolvency, and start free again for himself; but I am not a business man, and honor is a harder master than the law. It can not compromise for less than one hundred cents on the dollar.”--New York _Evening Post_.

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OBSCURANTISM

Literal fogs may be very detrimental, but it would be more valuable to clear away the fogs of ignorance and prejudice from human minds.

Fogs are not only disagreeable, but very expensive, especially in fog-bound London, where they are often the cause of great loss to merchants. During the week preceding Christmas in a recent year it is estimated that as a result of foggy weather at least $50,000,000 was lost in that city, business being paralyzed for the time being. This being the case, the invention of some means for clearing the air of fog would mean to the British merchant a very material increase of prosperity. The problem is one of such serious importance that experiments are now being carried on with a view of finding practical means for dispelling the dense atmospheric conditions.--W. RAYMOND, _The American Inventor_.

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OBSCURITY, LITERARY

Thomas Scott, the Biblical Commentator, once wrote a commentary on “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” He gave a copy of it to an old woman. Some time after he called to see her. “Have you been reading the