Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers (part 4 of 8)

Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers (part 4 of 8)

A little Korean boy named Twee-Sungie was brought by his Christian mother to church Sunday by Sunday and learned about Christ and accepted Him as his Savior. His father was a heathen and worked seven days a week, and forced little Twee-Sungie to do the same. The boy was broken-hearted at being deprived of attending the church services, but he also felt that he was sinning deeply in desecrating God’s day. Calamities came upon the family. A younger brother died, another, Twee-Sungie, was taken ill. As his strength failed he seemed to lose all desire to live. “If I live on in this world, father makes me break God’s commandments, and I will only add sin to sin, so it is better for me to die and go to Jesus.” He tried to turn his father’s thoughts Godward, but the man’s heart was full of evil and bitterness. When the boy died, the relatives proposed that they bury with him the Testament and hymn-book which he loved, for, said they, these books were the cause of his change, and if they are put away, his mother will return to the worship of spirits. So there lies in the grave of the little boy believer, outside the walls of Seoul, the printed page whose message the little lad wished so much to obey.

(1095)

FIDELITY, MISTAKEN

A pathetic story is told by the Savannah News of a tragedy caused by the terrible storm which swept the Southern coast. Captain Matheson, of the schooner Nellie Floyd, is the hero. The story runs thus:

When the Floyd foundered and it was certain that she must leave her bones in that marine graveyard off the North Carolina coast, a life-raft of hatches was constructed, and the crew, including the captain, piled on it. As they were about to push off, trusting to fortune to be picked up by a passing ship, Captain Matheson looked back upon his beloved schooner, then in its death-throes. His heart smote him. He felt like a deserter. The suffering but inanimate bulk called to him, and he could not resist the call. “I am going back, boys,” he said; “good-by, and good luck to you.” Then he scrambled back to the decks, by that time awash and fast settling. And in sight of the crew the ship and her captain went down to their fate.

(1096)

FIDELITY REWARDED

An English farmer sent his hired boy to prevent a party of gentlemen from riding over his fields. The leader of the huntsmen peremptorily ordered him to open the gate. Upon his refusal, he said shortly, “Boy, do you know who I am? I am the Duke of Wellington, and I am not accustomed to disobedience. I command you to open this gate.” The boy lifted his cap and stood unawed before the “man of iron will,” and said in a firm voice, “I am sure the Duke of Wellington would not wish me to disobey the orders of my employer, who tells me not to suffer any one to pass.” The Duke sat his horse for a moment, and then looking stedfastly at the boy, lifted his own hat and replied, “I honor the man or boy who is faithful to his duty, and who can neither be bribed or frightened into doing wrong.” He handed a bright new sovereign to the boy, who had done what Napoleon could not do; he had kept back the Duke of Wellington.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

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FIDELITY TO COUNTRY

In the fight of Trautenau (Austro-Prussian War, 1866), a young officer, hard hit, was lying on his back in a ditch, where he begged his foes to let him remain. Shortly after, he died. Then it was found that, even with his life ebbing fast, his body had served to protect the “bit of rag” which on the morning of that day had been the standard of the regiment. He had carefully folded it up, and laid down upon it to die. “One thing” was in that soldier’s heart--to save his country’s colors from capture and disgrace.

(1098)

FIDELITY TO DUTY

The wrecking of the Maine, happening at night, was so sudden and the convulsion was over in so brief a time, that a chance for a display of heroism seemed next to impossible; and yet, in the terror of that awful scene, every surviving man immediately recovered himself and stood to his discipline. Not one comrade was forsaken by another. The last seen of the lost lieutenant was at the turret under his charge, weak and staggering with his wounds. The marine on duty, true to his habit of service, rushed through a dark passage flooded with water, and reported that the ship had been blown up and was sinking. It did not occur to him to save himself until his duty was done. Officers and men, in danger of being swamped by the death struggle of the ship, rowed around her, trying to save life, and careless of their own. The captain was the last to leave the ship. No man sought his own safety at the sacrifice of another, nor sought it first.--Youth’s Companion.

(1099)

FIDELITY TO THE RIGHT

Lydia M. Child said she would never work on a winning side. Lydia Maria Child was a writer in the full tide of popularity when she devoted herself to the anti-slavery cause. She was subjected to social and literary ostracism. Her books were returned, her friends forsook her, and Church and press denounced her. But this did not daunt her spirit nor swerve her for one instant from the cause she felt was right, and she consecrated the rest of her life to its support. Words can not describe the deprivation to which she was subjected, but she felt no loss. As the inspiration spread, mothers sent their children from house to house with her “appeal,” and vitally assisted the great movement.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1100)

=Fidelity to the Thing Undertaken=--See THOROUGHNESS.

=Fighting=--See BOYS’ ADJUSTING THEIR TROUBLES; STRATEGY.

=Fighting, Causes for=--See PEACEMAKER, THE.

=Fighting Qualities Admired=--See ACCOMPLISHMENT.

FIGUREHEADS

The time is ripe for abolishing figureheads in the moral, ecclesiastical and social world, as well as in the navy.

Secretary Meyer has approved an order originating in the United States Bureau of Construction for the removal from all the vessels of the Atlantic fleet of their figureheads. This action is based purely on war-service reasons. It is urged that in time of peace for maneuver purposes the figureheads, if gilded, afford a shining mark to reveal to the constructive enemy the whereabouts of the ship and in time of war, if painted with the protective war color, the artistic value of the figurehead is wholly lost. Furthermore, figureheads cost a good deal of money and have a good deal of weight, and serve no practical value whatever in warfare.

Even as far back as the times of the Greeks and Romans, and the Phœnicians and Egyptians, figureheads, made often in the image of the gods of war, were regarded as important to their triremes as oars or rudders. Great Britain has at her navy-yards at Southampton, Portsmouth and other points arranged figureheads from the old wooden ships of her navies as a feature of naval museums. Of course, the figureheads from American battleships would be a different thing. Most of them are made of brass, and are in some cases fine works of art.

The figurehead on the Olympia, which was designed by St. Gaudens, cost $12,000; that on the Cincinnati, which embodied the design of the Olympia’s figurehead, cost $5,700. The figurehead on the cruiser New York is a very fine model of the coat-of-arms of the State. Some of the largest of the figureheads weigh several tons, and in that respect are objectionable.

(1101)

=Financially Strong, Morally Weak=--See DRINK, PERIL OF.

FINITENESS

The tiny dew-drops as they rest At morning on the flow’ret’s breast Are children of the mighty sea, Small gleams of its immensity.

The candle shining in the night From the great sun derives its light; Its little beams are truly fire, And upward to their source aspire.

No less the humblest son of earth May lay a claim to heavenly birth; We are not born of senseless clod, But children of the living God.

But after all is said and done, The spark of fire is not the sun, The drop of dew is not the sea, Nor is the best man deity.

--CHARLES WILLIAM PEARSON, “A Threefold Cord.”

(1102)

FIRE, COST OF

Fire levies upon Americans each year an enormous tax, calculated by government officials at almost a million and a half dollars a day and 1,499 lives a year.

As a result of an investigation by officials of the geological survey, it has been ascertained that cheaper fireproof materials can be used to advantage in construction, that three to six times the necessary amount of material is habitually used in structural work, that the building codes are laxly enforced, that the fire loss in the United States is eight times as much per capita as in any country in Europe, and that the great fire waste in the United States is due, principally, to the predominance of frame buildings and to defective construction and equipment.

Contrast between the small losses by fire to government buildings and the immense losses reported from the country as a whole, led the geological survey to make an inquiry.

Not one person in a thousand knows that the United States Government owns buildings that cost more than $300,000,000, and is spending $20,000,000 a year for new buildings. It will be a surprize to every one, too, to learn that not one cent of insurance against loss by fire is carried on these valuable buildings. Insurance at the ordinary rate would cost more than half a million dollars a year, and the government avoids this great tax by constructing buildings that are securely fireproof.

After a careful investigation, it has been determined that the total cost of fires in the United States in 1907, excluding that of forest fires and the marine losses (in themselves extensive), but including excess cost of fire protection due to bad construction and excess premiums over insurance paid, amounted to the enormous sum of $456,485,000, a tax on the American people exceeding the total value of all the gold, silver, copper and petroleum produced in the United States in that year.

The cost of building construction in 1907 in forty-nine leading cities of the United States, reporting a total population of less than 18,000,000, amounted to $661,076,286, and the cost of building construction for the entire country is conservatively estimated at $1,000,000,000. Thus it will be seen that nearly one-half of the value of all the new buildings constructed within one year is destroyed by fire. The annual fire cost is greater than the value of the real property and improvements in either Maine, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alabama, Louisiana or Montana. In addition to this waste of wealth and natural resources, 1,499 persons were killed and many thousands were injured in fires in the United States in 1907.

The actual fire loss in the United States due to destruction of buildings and their contents amounted to $215,084,709 in 1907. This was $2.51 loss per capita. The per capita loss in the cities of the six leading European countries amounted to but 33 cents. Comparisons of the total cost of fires, which includes the items already stated, show that if buildings in the United States were as nearly fireproof as those in Europe, the annual fire cost would be $90,000,000 instead of $456,000,000. (Text.)--Pittsburg Leader.

(1103)

FIRE, HEAVENLY

It was the first engine on the new railroad running through the wilderness. At night, the puffing, snorting monster, belching forth fire and smoke, came dashing out of a dark forest with its one shining eye in front. As it fairly leapt along the track like a thing of life, green reptiles wriggled out of sight, vultures fled to the tree-tops, and wild beasts ran snarling into the jungle. The fire inside of the engine was what did it.

When the fire of inspiration gets inside of a man, how much he is like a steam-engine. He moves straight ahead, keeps on the right track, has his eye single to the forward line and his whole soul is full of light and heat. The creatures of darkness flee before him as he emerges into the light that shall never fade. (Text.)

(1104)

=Fire Peril=--See SELF-RESTRAINT.

=First Aid=--See KNOWLEDGE APPLIED.

FIRST FRUITS

Have you been watching the buds open their eyes these spring days? They seem to have come out just to see what is going on in this wonderful world. Their number is increasing daily, but if you had put your ear close to the first and tiniest bud of spring, it would have whispered: “I am a hint of what all buds will be when waked out of their wintry sleep.” Will not the children sing for joy when the daisies come? Well, if you could somehow find the first daisy that peeps through the sod, it would say: “I am a sample of what the daisy harvest will be when Mother Summer has drest us all up in robes of gold.” On the brow of a certain hill, I once enjoyed more than a passing acquaintance with a June apple-tree. I used to watch for the coming of its fruit as they that watch for the morning. Now, there was a tradition that June apples were not good until they fell of their own accord. Sometimes, in spying out the land, I would find only one apple upon the ground. Of course, one apple to a growing boy is little more than a delusion and a snare, and it required more than Eve-like fortitude not to shake the tree. But after these many years, what I remember most of all is the taste of that one first apple. Precious in itself and very scarce, so it seemed to me, still it told of the good times coming when its luscious, juicy brothers would yield up their secrets, too.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1105)

=Fishermen Superstitious=--See SUPERSTITIOUS.

FISHERS OF MEN

In the Crystal Palace at Munich there is a little picture called “The Red Fisherman.” Satan is elegantly accoutered in red costumes, and he is fishing in a pond for men. For his hook he has a great variety of bait--gold, money, pearls, crowns, swords and wines. Apparently he has been fishing with some success, for the bait is much after the sort that men are wont to follow. To compete with the prince of evil, Christians who would be successful “fishers of men” must use bait that will really allure them. (Text.)

(1106)

* * * * *

In her “Fishin’ Jimmy,” Mrs. Slosson tells of a little French-Canadian girl. Her mother was a tramp, and the girl had developed into a wild little heathen. The mother fell suddenly dead near the village one day, and the child was found clinging to her mother’s body. The girl’s soul was shaken by bitter sobs, and when they tried to take her away she fought like a young tigress. There was in the crowd a small boy who knew “Fishin’ Jimmy.” With a child’s faith in his big friend, he hurried away and brought “Fishin’ Jimmy” to the spot. Very tenderly he lifted the child in his arms and took her away. Nobody seems to have known anything about the taming of the little savage, but a short time afterward she and “Fishin’ Jimmy” were seen on the margin of Black Brook, each with a fish-pole. He kept the child for weeks, and when she went at last to a good home, she had exchanged her wildness for a tender, affectionate nature. Then people wondered how the change was wrought. They asked Jimmy, but his explanation seemed to breathe an air of mystery. “’Twas fishin’ done it,” he said, “on’y fishin’; it allers works. The Christian r’liging itself had to begin with fishin’, ye know.” Yes, the religion of our Master had to begin with fishing; it will continue with fishing, and it will end with fishing, for this is indeed life’s divinest task. (Text.)--F. F. SHANNON.

(1107)

FITNESS

One of John Wesley’s friends was terribly shocked to hear him preach to a well-groomed congregation a merciless sermon from the text, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” “Sir,” said Wesley’s friend angrily, “such a sermon would have been suitable in Billingsgate; but it is highly improper here.” Wesley replied, “If I had been in Billingsgate, my text should have been, ‘Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.’”

(1108)

See UNFITNESS.

=Fitness, Lack of=--See ACCOMMODATION.

=Flag, Dishonoring the=--See PATRIOTISM, LACK OF.

=Flag, Rescuing the=--See SYMBOLS, THE VALUE OF.

=Flaws=--See CHARITY.

=Flight and Vision=--See ELEVATION AND VISION.

=Flight of the Soul=--See SOUL FLIGHT.

FLOOD-TIDE, SPIRITUAL

I stood on the coast of England, and looked out over a stretch of oozy slime and ill-smelling mud. There were the barges high and dry, lying on their sides--no matter what cargo they carried or how skilful the captain, they were on the mud. It would have availed them nothing to heave the anchor or hoist the sail. And I thought, What is the remedy? Were it any use for the corporation to pass a by-law that every citizen should bring kettles filled with water, and pour it out upon the stretch of mud?

But as I watched I saw the remedy. God turned the tide. In swept the waters of the sea, and buried the mud, and then came the breath of sweetness and life. And it flowed in about the barges, and instantly all was activity. Then heave-ho with the anchor, then hoist the sails, then forth upon some errand of good. So it is that we stand looking out upon many a dreadful evil which fills us with dismay--drunkenness, gambling, impurity. Is there any remedy? And the churches, so very respectable, but, alas, high and dry on the muddy beach--for these, too, what is the remedy? We want the flood-tide--the gracious outpouring of the Spirit; then must come the roused and quickened churches, the Christians transformed into Christ-like men and women who shall demand righteousness.--MARK GUY PEARCE.

(1109)

=Flowers=--See SERVICE.

=Flowers, Fond of=--See GENEROSITY.

FLOWERS, MEANINGS OF

The most remarkable of the floral emblems is the passion-flower--the common blue one. Its leaves are thought to represent the head of the spear by which Christ’s side was pierced; the five points, the five sacred wounds; the tendrils, the cords which bound Him; the ten petals, the ten faithful apostles, omitting the one who denied Him (Peter); the pillar in the center is the cross, the stamens, the hammers; the styles, the nails; the circle around the pillar, the crown of thorns; the radiance, the glory. It is used on Holy Thursday. The fleur-de-lis, or conventional form of the lily, is the symbol of the Virgin Mary, adopted in the Middle Ages. It is also an emblem of purity. It is always placed by the medieval painters in the hand of the Angel Gabriel, and sometimes in the hand of the Infant Savior, and of St. Joseph. Lilies-of-the-valley are the floral emblem of Christ. “The Rose of Sharon” and the “Lily-of-the-valley” are emblems of humility. The rose is also an emblem of Christ. The laurel is an emblem of victory and glory, also of constancy, as the leaf changes only in death. Ivy denotes immortality. The laurestinus has the same meaning. (Text.)--The Decorator and Furnisher.

(1110)

FLUENCY, THE PERIL OF

The fluent speaker is sometimes reminded that his gifts are fatal; and here is a bright tip from the Atlantic to the fluent writer: “The writer who is unusually fluent should take warning from the instruction which accompanies his fountain pen: ‘When this pen flows too freely, it is a sign that it is nearly empty and should be filled.’”

(1111)

FLY, THE COMMON HOUSE.

The house-fly has developed along with the human dwelling. If we had no closed-in dwelling places, it is doubtful if the house-fly, as at present constituted, could continue to exist. It thrives simply because we afford it food, and a breeding-place.

At first he is only a little worm, wriggling his tiny grub-like form in some incubating pile of filth, usually the manure pile, the outhouse, or the mound of rubbish or garbage in the back yard. In this condition he is easily killed, and it should be the duty of every person to kill him then. The house-fly could not exist if everything were kept perfectly clean and sanitary. Exterminate the fly-worms, do away with their breeding places, and there will be no flies.

The common house-fly is coming to be known as the “typhoid fly,” and when the term becomes universal, greater care will be exercised in protecting the house from his presence. Flies swallow the germs of typhoid in countless millions while feeding on excreta. They spread a thousand times more typhoid germs in their excreta than on their feet.

As soon as the fly comes out of his shell he is full grown and starts out in the world to make a living, and if your home is not clean, he knows it; for the fly can discern an unclean odor for miles. A pleasant-smelling substance--the fragrance of flowers, geraniums, mignonette, lavender, or any perfumery--will drive them away.

Look at the picture of the fly. The feet, each of them, is equipped with two claws and two light-colored pads. The fly clings to rough surfaces by means of the claws and to smooth surfaces by a combined action of the claws and pads. The fly’s pads are covered with thousands of minute short hairs sticky at the end. There is no suction--merely adhesion. All his grown-up life, the fly has to manage with sticky feet. These are constantly becoming clogged with adhering substances, and this contamination the fly must assiduously remove if his feet are to act properly in supporting him on slippery places. If this contamination is too sticky to rub off, the fly laps it off, and it then passes off through the stomach.

The fly lays her eggs in the manure-pile or some other filthy place. All the germs--all the microbes--fasten themselves on the spongy feet. The fly brings them into the house and wipes them off. The fly that you see walking over your food is covered with filth and germs.

If there is any dirt in your house, or about your premises, or those of your neighbors, he has just come from it. Watch him, as he stands on the sugar, industriously wiping his feet. He is getting rid of disease germs, rubbing them on the sugar that you are going to eat, leaving the poison for you to swallow.

This does more to spread typhoid-fever, cholera infantum and other intestinal diseases than any other cause.

Intestinal diseases are more frequent whenever and wherever flies are most abundant, and they, and not the summer heat, are the active agents of the spread of such diseases. There is special danger when flies drop into such fluid as milk. This forms an ideal culture material for the bacillus. A few germs washed from the body of one fly may develop into millions within a few hours.--B. M. CLINEDINST, The Christian Herald.

(1112)

See PEST, CONTAGIOUS.

=Flying-machine=--See TENDENCIES, INHERITED.

FOCUSING THE EYE

I can look one moment at a 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.

(1196)

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.

(1200)

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

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:

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