Chapter M: B. Banks writes a missionary lesson after the style of “Mother (4)

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: