Chapter C: C. Abbot writes in the New York Sun (5)

Louis Agassiz, after he had spent fifteen years as a teacher of
science in this country, when asked what was the best result
of his efforts, replied: “I have educated five observers,”
referring to the five senses. He claimed that the noblest
profession in the world was that of teacher; and that especially
in science, the teacher’s most important work was to train the
student in habits of observation. Lowell called it a divine
art--that of seeing what others only look at.

Educate the five senses and you make them fit teachers to educate you.

(2226)

OBSTACLES

Apparently some people are ignorant, and others have forgotten,
that we have no sense that is capable of discriminating between
high and low speed, or even between motion and rest, except
by noting the usual accompaniments of motion, such as the
apparent movement of surrounding objects, the resistance of the
atmosphere, or the jolting due to obstacles in the path. If our
surroundings move with us and the motion is smooth, our methods
of detecting it fail. Thus, we can not feel the great velocity
with which the earth is moving through space. In like manner, a
train on a rough road seems to be going faster at forty miles
an hour than one on a smooth road at sixty. The sensations of
high-speed travel depend largely, therefore, on the conditions
of that travel.

In the same way our moral progress can only be measured by the obstacles we meet and overcome.

(2227)

See HAPPINESS; REBUFFS A STIMULANT.

=Obstacles Overcome=--See ENERGY, INDOMITABLE.

OBSTACLES, UNEXPECTED

Dr. Cecil Carus-Wilson described before the Linnean Society
in London recently some singular observations concerning the
inclusion of stones in the roots and stems of trees.

Oaks growing in a gravel pit in Kent had so many stones imbedded
in their roots that they resisted attempts to saw them. Some of
the roots are described as consisting of “a conglomerate formed
of flints inclosed in a woody matrix.” In one specimen 67 flints
were found, the largest weighing several pounds. In Norton
churchyard, near Faversham, are three old yew-trees, in two of
which flints and fragments of tiles have been seen at a height
of seven feet above the ground. In Molash churchyard are other
yew-trees which have flints imbedded in their trunks as much as
eight feet above the ground. The tissues of the wood appear to
have grown round the stones, which have been carried upward with
the growth of the trees.

(2228)

=Obstinacy=--See SUGGESTION.

=Obstruction=--See LITTLE THINGS.

=Occasion, Equal to the=--See RANK, OBSEQUIOUSNESS TO.

OCCUPATION AND HEALTH

There are some occupations that ought to be salvatory to those that engage in them, as that of the physician or the minister. Yet all occupations may so serve, if the man who works in them thus determines. As an instance of service salvatory to the worker, an English writer refers to the immunity from disease of those who work in the oil-fields:

There is no difficulty in accounting for this. Carbolic acid,
one of the most powerful of our disinfectants, is abundantly
produced in the oilworks, and this is carried by the clothes of
the men, and with the fumes of the oil into the dwellings of the
workmen and through all the atmosphere of the neighborhood, and
has thereby counteracted some of the most deadly agencies of
organic poisons. Besides this, the paraffin oil itself is a good
disinfectant.

(2229)

OCCUPATION OF THE MIND

A certain boy who was distinctly bad in the Sunday-school class
was observed to be one of the best in the industrial class held
on Saturday. “How is it,” said the teacher, “that you cut up
so in Sunday-school and behave so well here?” “Well,” said the
boy, “here I have something to occupy my mind; in Sunday-school
I don’t.”--WALTER L. HARVEY, “Journal of the Religious
Education Association,” 1903.

(2230)

=Occupation, Slavery to=--See ENGROSSMENT IN BUSINESS.

=Occupation, Wrong=--See SYMPATHY ROYAL.

=Occupations, Comparing=--See VALUES, STANDARD OF.

=Occupations of Women=--See ALUMNÆ OCCUPATIONS.

ODD BEHAVIOR

Paul Veronese, like many other painters, was given to
eccentric moods and odd habits. On one occasion he accepted
the hospitality of a family at their beautiful country villa.
He assumed great liberties during his visit, claiming absolute
possession of his room, allowing not even a servant to enter.
He would not suffer the maid to make his bed, and the sweepings
of the room were left every morning outside of the door for her
to remove. He slipt away without bidding the family good-by.
On entering the room the servant found the sheets of the bed
missing and at once reported that the painter must have stolen
them. After careful search a roll was found in a corner, which
proved to be a magnificent picture of “Alexander in the tent of
Darius.” It was painted on the missing sheets of the bed, and
the artist had chosen this curious way of recompensing his hosts
for their generous hospitality.--FRANK H. STAUFFER,
_The Epoch_.

(2231)

ODD ONE, THE

“As every one who has visited London knows,” said a young man
formerly attached to our embassy at the British capital, “the
number of passengers carried on certain ’busses is limited by
regulation.

“Once a kindly Irish conductor, tho quite aware that his ’bus
was full, had permitted a young and sickly woman to squeeze in.
The ’bus had not proceeded far before the usual crank spoke up.
‘Conductah!’ he exclaimed, ‘You’ve one over your number, y’know.’

“‘Have I, sir?’ asked the conductor with affected concern.
Then, beginning to count from the opposite end, leaving the
complainant until the last, he repeated: ‘Wan, two, three, four,
foive, six, sivin, eight, noine, tin, ’lefen, twelve, thir--so I
have sir, an’, be the Lord Harry, ye’re the wan. Out ye go!’

“And out he did go.”--Boston _Transcript_.

(2232)

ODORS

As each nation has its peculiar cut of dress, so each has its national odors apart from race odor. Esson Third says:

The Korean gentleman carries about with him two odors that are
specially noticeable to a newcomer. I once made a journey with a
Western friend who had a somewhat highly keyed sense of smell,
and I remember his stopping short on the road as we walked
along, tapping me on the arm and with a long sniff saying:
“There it is again.” “What is it?” I asked. “That peculiar
smell,” said he. I sniffed long and hard, but there was nothing
but the fresh morning breeze and the delightful odors of hill
and field. “I’ve smelt it before,” said he, “and I’ll tell you
later when I smell it again.”

We tracked that odor for two days, and then we discovered that
it came from the black lacquer hat. The odor of lacquer is one
of Korea’s national smells. The second smell is due to a mixture
of garlic, onions, cabbage, salt, fish, and other ingredients,
that make up the Korean pickle so greatly enjoyed with their
rice. This odor clings like that of Limburger cheese, and
follows the native to church and into all the other walks of
life.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in Transition.”

(2233)

OFFENDED FEELINGS

To think about something else is the best and only sure cure for
offended feelings. To think about the offense--its unkindness,
its injustice, its meanness of spirit, and all its other ugly
aspects--only adds to its sting and deepens our own suffering
or anger. This hurts us, and helps no one. Eggs are not the
only things that are given added life and power by being
brooded over. If we want to enlarge and multiply everything
unpleasant in that which has offended us, brooding over it will
do it. If we want to have done with it and get it out of our
life as quickly as possible, to turn deliberately away from
it and concentrate our thought and energy upon something else
is our sure road to success. “When any one has offended me, I
try to raise my soul so high that the offense can not reach
it,” Descartes is credited with saying. But we can not lift
ourselves by mere will power. We can lose ourselves by devotion
to something else--and thus we can lose the offense.--_Sunday
School Times._

(2234)

OFFENSE, ROCK OF

Fred J. Atwood voices the regret of those who, by failing to live, will lead others astray:

Because, professing still to be
A follower of the Lamb of God,
I walk in devious paths where he
Is never seen, has never trod,
E’en thus it is that some, through me,
The Master’s face may never see.

Because, professing to be wise,
And to have found the Truth, the Way,
I oft am seen in Folly’s guise,
Unmindful whom I thus betray,--
Yet so it is that some, through me,
To heaven’s gate may lose the key.

Because, professing his dear name
Whose love is infinitely great,
My tongue will even friends defame,
And flashing eyes oft tell of hate,--
Alas, alas, that some, through me,
May, hopeless, face eternity!

(2235)

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

OFFERINGS, EXTRAVAGANT

When Alexander was a young man, he was one day present at the
offering of sacrifices, and Leonnatus, one of his teachers,
who was standing by, thought he was rather profuse in his
consumption of frankincense and myrrh, for he was taking it up
by handfuls and throwing it on the fire. Leonnatus reproved him
for his extravagance, adding that when he became master of the
countries where these costly gums were procured he might be as
prodigal of them as he pleased. Alexander remembered the reproof
years later, and finding vast stores of these gums in Gaza, he
sent to Leonnatus large quantities of them, telling him that he
might not have occasion to be so sparing for the future in his
sacrifice to the gods. (Text.)

(2236)

OFFERINGS, THE POOREST

In the middle of the summer season tails of sick cattle are
principal native offerings at Saint Herbot, a small parish not
far from Paris, France. The annual cattle fair brings together
a great number of dealers from all parts of Brittany. Business
goes on from early morning until three o’clock in the afternoon,
when every one adjourns to the church and joins in the service,
at which the benediction of heaven on the worshipers’ heads is
implored. The custom is for the breeders to cut off the tails of
sick animals and lay the tails on the altar, the idea being that
this ceremony will restore the sick animals to health. The tails
are afterward sold and considerable money realized from the sale.

Many people are just this way toward God. The poorest products of their life they give to God, and make themselves believe that is giving. To give the tailings of the threshing floor is to give chaff. To give the tailings of the reduction mill is to give the low-grade ore. To give the tail ends of anything is to give the poorest.

(2237)

OFFERINGS, UNWORTHY

At the heathen festivals in India, the traffickers in
sacrificial goods resort to all sorts of devices. Low-caste men
have baskets containing little pigs from two days to a month
old. These they sell to the high-caste worshipers, cutting the
throat of the pig in the presence of the buyer and smearing
some blood upon his pious forehead. But by a trick known to the
salesman, the windpipe is not severed, so he sells the pig over
and over. In the same way coconuts are sold whose milk has been
dry for years, and rotten fruit and blind animals are bought at
bargains--anything is good enough for offerings to the gods!

(2238)

OFFICE-SEEKING

Some Missouri Republican, hungry for an office, resorted
to rather a novel method of attracting the attention of
Governor-elect Hadley. He cut away the sole from an old shoe,
carefully removed the pegs, and then, with a lead-pencil,
addrest a letter on the worn side of the surface. Unfortunately,
his signature could not be deciphered, nor was the address
legible.

Curiosity on the part of those who handled this missive may have
been in part responsible for its condition when it reached the
attorney-general’s office. This much could be made out:

“I am a Republican and want a piece of pie. Anything will do me
from guard at the penitentiary up as high as you will go. If
you can’t give me a slice of pie, please save me a bite of the
crust.”

So long as the spirit of the writer of this unusual epistle is abroad in the land, politics will be degraded and a better state of things retarded.

(2239)

=Oil on the Waters=--See EXPERIMENT.

=Old Age=--See IMMORTALITY.

=Old Age and Work=--See FAME AND TIME.

OLD AGE CHEERED

The incident related below by the Rev. Asa Bullard is an example that ought frequently to be imitated:

At the “Old People’s Day” in 1881, I was invited to be with Mr.
Batt. The house was quite full on the occasion. There were sixty
people present who were over sixty years of age, and twenty-five
who were eighty years of age or more. A bouquet was presented
to each of these twenty-five. They arose, as their names were
called, and received the bouquets as they were presented by
the hands of children. At the close of the meeting one of
those addrest said: “It knocked twenty years right off from my
age.”--“Incidents in a Busy Life.”

(2240)

OLD AGE INCURABLE

The following story is told of John Hay:

He had been ailing one time, and a friend made bold to ask what
the trouble was. “I am suffering from an incurable disease,”
answered Mr. Hay bravely.

A sense of delicacy prevented the friend from making further
inquiry; but he told the story to many of his associates,
nearly all of whom were acquainted with Mr. Hay, and the report
soon spread around Washington that a deadly disease held the
Secretary of State within its grasp. One intimate acquaintance
of Mr. Hay determined to find out the nature of the secretary’s
ailment, and addrest him one day with the remark: “I have been
told that you are suffering from an incurable disease. Is it
true?” “It is,” said Mr. Hay, in a sad tone. “What is the
incurable disease?” then asked the insistent acquaintance. “Old
age,” exclaimed Mr. Hay, with a chuckle. (Text.)--Milwaukee
_Free Press_.

(2241)

OLD, ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE

To feel young and able to take on new duties and perform them satisfactorily at the age of 73 should put heart into every discouraged person who is nearing the seventies. Such a person was the matron of the “rest home” for working girls, Arrity Hale.

When Arrity Hale was seventy-three years old, her husband having
died some time before, she began to find it hard work keeping
her small house going. She never told any one of this, but
neighbors began to suspect it. A well-known New York family had
a country-place near the village, and they had always been on
friendly terms with Mrs. Hale. One member of this family was
connected with the Working Girls’ Vacation Society, and she,
with some other women, was contemplating the foundation of a
home in the neighborhood as a branch of the society.

The woman in question and her friends interested with her in
the project, were all alumnæ of Miss Green’s school in this
city. Miss Green was a famous preceptress a generation or so
ago, and she numbered in her classes at No. 1 Fifth Avenue
many of the girls who are now the society matrons of the city.
After teaching three generations of pupils, and when she was
considerably more than seventy years old, she decided to give up
her work.

Her old pupils determined to do something in her honor,
something that would be a lasting tribute to her, and acting
upon a suggestion from her, they determined to purchase a
cottage in the country to be used as a rest-home for working
girls during their summer vacations. That was how the “L. M.
Green Cottage” was established.

Knowing that Arrity Hale was not in the best of circumstances,
they approached her with an offer to buy her farm and establish
her in it as matron. She eagerly accepted, and the plan was at
once put in operation. Some of the members of the society were
rather dubious about putting a woman over seventy years old
in charge of a houseful of girls, but in a season or two this
feeling had entirely disappeared. Mrs. Hale had no trouble at
all.

Every girl who visited the Green Cottage left with a regret that
she could not spend all her life there. (Text.)

(2242)

OLD, HOW TO GROW

Softly, oh, softly the years have swept by thee,
Touching thee lightly with tenderest care;
Sorrow and death they have often brought nigh thee,
Yet have they left thee but beauty to wear.
Growing old gracefully,
Gracefully fair.

Far from the storms that are lashing the ocean,
Nearer each day to that pleasant home-light;
Far from the waves that are big with commotion,
Under full sail and the harbor in sight;
Growing old cheerfully,
Cheerful and bright.

Past all the winds that were adverse and chilling,
Past all the islands that lured thee to rest,
Past all the currents that lured thee unwilling
Far from thy course to the Land of the Blest;
Growing old peacefully,
Peaceful and blest.

Never a feeling of envy or sorrow
When the bright faces of children are seen,
Never a year from the young wouldst thou borrow--
Thou dost remember what lieth between;
Growing old willingly,
Thankful, serene.

Rich in experience that angels might covet;
Rich in a faith that has grown with thy years,
Rich in a love that grew from and about it,
Soothing thy sorrows and hushing thy fears;
Growing old wealthily,
Loving and dear.

Hearts at the sound of thy coming are lightened,
Ready and willing thy hand to relieve;
Many a face at thy kind word has brightened;
“It is more blessed to give than receive.”
Growing old happily,
Ceasing to grieve.

(2243)

OLD-TIME REVELS

Talk about dissipations, ye who have ever seen the old-fashioned
sideboard! Did I not have an old relative who always, when
visitors came, used to go up-stairs and take a drink through
economical habits, not offering anything to his visitors? On
the old-fashioned training-days the most sober men were apt
to take a day to themselves. Many of the familiar drinks of
to-day were unknown to them, but their hard cider, mint julep,
metheglin, hot toddy and lemonade in which the lemon was not at
all prominent, sometimes made lively work for the broad-brimmed
hats and silver knee-buckles. Talk of dissipating parties of
to-day and keeping of late hours! Why, did they not have their
“bees” and sausage-stuffings and tea-parties and dances, that
for heartiness and uproar utterly eclipsed all the waltzes,
lanciers, redowas and breakdowns of the nineteenth century, and
they never went home till morning.--T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

(2244)

=Old Truths=--See SOLIDITY OF OLD TRUTHS.

OLD-YEAR MEMORIES

Let us forget the things that vext and tried us,
The worrying things that caused our souls to fret;
The hopes that, cherished long, were still denied us
Let us forget.

Let us forget the little slights that pained us,
The greater wrongs that rankle sometimes yet;
The pride with which some lofty one disdained us
Let us forget.

Let us forget our brother’s fault and failing,
The yielding to temptation that beset,
That he perchance, tho grief be unavailing,
Can not forget.

But blessings manifold, past all deserving,
Kind words and helpful deeds, a countless throng,
The fault o’ercome, the rectitude unswerving,
Let us remember long.

The sacrifice of love, the generous giving,
When friends were few, the hand-clasp warm and strong,
The fragrance of each life of holy living,
Let us remember long.

Whatever things were good and true and gracious,
Whate’er of right has triumphed over wrong,
What love of God or man has rendered precious,
Let us remember long.

So, pondering well the lessons it has taught us,
We tenderly may bid the year “Good-by,”
Holding in memory the good it brought us,
Letting the evil die. (Text.)

--SUSAN E. GAMMON, _Christian Advocate_.

(2245)

=Omens=--See SUPERSTITION.

OMNISCIENCE

Here is a sentiment of the Psalms repeated in distant Japan by one who, perhaps, had never read about the all-seeing One who “understandeth our thoughts afar off”:

Take heed unto thyself; the mighty God
That is the soul of nature, sees the good
And bad that man in his most secret heart
Thinks by himself, and brings it to the light.
(Text.)--Her Majesty the Empress HARUKO
of Japan. Translated by ARTHUR LLOYD.

(2246)

* * * * *

There was in my regiment during the Civil War--I was chaplain--a
certain corporal, a gay-hearted fellow and a good soldier, of
whom I was very fond--with whom on occasion of his recovery
from a dangerous sickness I felt it my duty to have a serious
pastoral talk; and while he convalesced I watched for an
opportunity for it. As I sat one day on the side of his bed
in the hospital tent chatting with him, he asked me what the
campaign, when by and by spring opened, was going to be. I
told him that I didn’t know. “Well,” said he, “I suppose that
General McClellan knows all about it.” (This was away back in
1861, not long after we went to the field.) I answered: “General
McClellan has his plans, of course, but he doesn’t know. Things
may not turn out as he expects.” “But,” said the corporal,
“President Lincoln knows, doesn’t he?” “No,” I said, “he doesn’t
know, either. He has his ideas, but he can’t see ahead any more
than General McClellan can.” “Dear me,” said the corporal,
“it would be a great comfort if there was somebody that did
know about things”--and I saw my chance. “True, corporal,”
I observed, “that’s a very natural feeling; and the blest
fact is there is One who does know everything, both past and
future, about you and me, and about this army; who knows when
we are going to move, and where to, and what’s going to happen;
knows the whole thing.” “Oh,” says the corporal, “you mean old
Scott!”--JOSEPH H. TWICHELL.

(2247)

=Omnipresence, A Wrestle with=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

=One Idea, The Man With=--See ENGROSSMENT IN BUSINESS.

ONE, WINNING

In St. John’s Church, in the little town of Beverley, England,
one stormy evening in December, 1853, a meeting of the church
missionary society was being held at which a scant audience
was present, including just one young man, who on the Sunday
previous had been particularly invited to attend. The vicar
of the church, the Rev. A. T. Carr, suggested a postponement,
but the speaker, a venerable rector of a near-by town, replied
that those who had braved the storm were entitled to hear the
message intended for them. The service over, that lone young
man trudged homeward, when the thought came to him: “I was the
only young man there. Why should not I become a missionary? May
not the Lord have something for me to do in heathen lands?” The
resolution was made. That young man was William Duncan, now
known as “The Apostle of Alaska,” whose missionary triumphs
among the Indians of the Alaskan coast have won the admiration
of the world.

To win the one is sometimes to win the many. (Text.)

(2248)

=Open Allegiance=--See CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.

=Open Door to China=--See CHINESE PROGRESS.

OPENNESS OF MIND

The Mediterranean is practically a tideless sea, and yet the
visitor to its waters is puzzled at the discovery of what
appears to be a tide. But the explanation is that there is a
connection between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean
Sea, so that what seems to be a tide at Gibraltar is simply the
rolling waves from the tide of the mighty Atlantic into the sea
that washes the shores of southern Europe and northern Africa.
As long as the channel at the Straits of Gibraltar is open,
so long will there be this rolling in, and so there will be a
constant influx of blessing while communication with God is
unhindered.

(2249)

See SOURCE OF BLESSING.

OPINION, CHANGED

When General Ewell was asked what he thought of Jackson’s
generalship in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, he replied:

“When he began it, I thought him crazy. Before he got through, I
thought him inspired.” --_The Sunday Magazine._

(2250)

=Opinionatedness=--See INDIVIDUALISM, EXCESSIVE.

OPINIONS

Wesley himself said once to his preachers, “I have no more right
to object to a man for holding a different opinion from my own
than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I
wear my own hair, tho I have a right to object if he shakes the
powder about my eyes.”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His
Century.”

(2251)

OPPORTUNITIES, IMPROVED

Whitefield preached under conditions and to audiences known to
no other orators. Passing over Hampton Common, he finds a crowd
of 12,000 people collected to see a man hung in chains. Here is
an audience, a pulpit, a text; and straightway he captures the
crowd! He preaches to another vast multitude assembled to see a
man hanged, and the hangman himself suspends his office while
Whitefield discourses. Some wandering players have set up their
stage at a country fair; the crowd rushes together to grin and
jest. But Whitefield suddenly appears, turns the whole scene
to religious uses, spoils the players’ harvest, and preaches a
sermon of overwhelming power.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley
and His Century.”

(2252)

OPPORTUNITIES UNUTILIZED

The Macon _Telegraph_ says that Macon men in Florida laugh to
see natives opening canned tomatoes in sight of tomato plants
loaded with ripe fruit. Then the said Macon men go to their
own homes and buy Florida shad, at Washington Market prices,
altho their own river is full of them; and the _Telegraph_
asks: “Is it not a little singular?” Bless you, no! The same
sort of thing is going on all over the country. There is not
a year when hams and bacon do not bring higher prices in some
great pork-producing counties of the West than they do in New
York. There are Southern counties where the watermelon grows
so easily that the small boy scorns to steal it, yet in some
towns in these counties a watermelon costs twice as much as in
any Northern city. There are cattle-ranches in the West where
milk, when there is any, brings fifty cents a quart, and great
grain farms on the prairies whose owners never in their lives
tasted an ear of sweet-corn. And, coming back to the shad, there
are times when these fish are running up our own river by tens
of thousands that a breakfast of shad costs more than one of
beefsteak, altho the shad comes right to town and needs only
to be taken from a net, while the beef has to be fed at least
three years and then brought half-way across the continent by
rail. No, there’s nothing singular about it, except in the fact
that where food products most abound human nature seems most
incompetent to make full use of its opportunities. America is,
above all others, a land of plenty, but no one would imagine
it after looking at a price-list of family supplies.--New York
_Herald_.

(2253)

OPPORTUNITY

Senator J. J. Ingalls wrote the first of these poems not long before he died, the only poetry he is known to have composed. In reply, Walter Malone wrote the second selection:

I

Master of human destinies am I,
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait,
Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock, unbidden, once at every gate:
If sleeping, wake--if feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
And they who follow me, reach every state
Mortals desire and conquer every foe
Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury, and wo;
Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore:
I answer not, and I return no more.

II

They do me wrong who say I come no more,
When once I knock and fail to find you in;
For every day I stand outside your door,
And bid you wake to ride, to fight, and win.
Wail not for precious chances passed away,
Weep not for golden ages on the wane!
Each night I burn the records of the day,
At sunrise every soul is born again.
Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped,
To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb;
My judgment seal the dead past with its dead,
But never bind a moment yet to come.
Tho deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep:
I lend my arm to all who say, “I can!”
No shamefaced outcast ever sank so deep,
But yet might rise and be again a man.
Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast?
Dost reel from righteous retribution’s blow?
Then turn from blotted archives of the past,
And find the future’s pages white as snow.
Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell!
Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven.
Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell,
Each night a star to guide thy feet to heaven.

(2254)

* * * * *

The importance of seizing opportunities as they pass by is realized by astronomers who study the sun’s corona:

The study of the corona of the sun is limited to the few brief
moments of total solar eclipse; to some five or six minutes
every few years. For this purpose expeditions are fitted out and
sent to the most favorable locations; and the astro-physicist
utilizes every moment of totality in obtaining photographs and
spectographs for measurements and study.--CHARLES LANE
POOR, “The Solar System.”

(2255)

* * * * *

Howard B. Gross, pleading for better conditions for the “submerged” classes, says:

The other day, after Easter, I took a lily which I had bought
for my wife--it had withered and grown yellow--I took the ugly
thing and threw it into the back yard, and as I threw it the pot
broke, and I saw a thousand little rootlets beating against the
pot, hungry for air and moisture, and I planted that ugly thing
in the soft and tender soil, where the morning sun could smile
upon it, and the noonday sun not smite it, and the fairest thing
which ever grew in the garden grew out of that despised and
dried thing which had no chance to grow. All these people need
is the full, free, fair chance that we have had.

(2256)

* * * * *

Single acts and moments are fraught with destiny.

Esau filled his life with regret for trifling one day; Esther’s
was full of glory for one day’s courage. Peter slept one hour
and lost a matchless opportunity; Mary’s name is fragrant
forever for the loving deed of a day. Do your best now.
(Text.)--MALTBIE BABCOCK.

(2257)

* * * * *

Some men make their opportunities.

Less than sixteen years ago a clergyman was called to two
New York parishes. One was thriving, the other was standing
still, the duty of existence growing heavier with each year of
inactivity. He chose the latter church, because, as he said,
“there was more work to do.” At that time his congregation
was never large and bad weather often made it very small. It
had a Sunday-school of less than fifty members and the Sunday
services were practically the end of the week’s labor. People
were moving rapidly farther uptown; the churches were going with
them, and St. Bartholomew’s, at that time one of the smaller
Episcopal parishes, while it was stubbornly holding its place,
was gradually weakening. And so it was, comparatively inactive,
half forsaken, when Dr. Greer came to it.

Dr. Greer left St. Bartholomew’s recently perhaps the most
powerful single Protestant organization in the world, a church
that spends more than two hundred thousand dollars a year, the
old edifice remodeled and crowded to the doors of a Sunday
morning, a parish house in the midst of the maelstrom of
East Side life; six Sunday-schools aggregating two thousand
members, two in English, one in Armenian, one in Chinese,
one in German, one in Swedish; industrial schools, clubs, an
employment bureau that obtains positions for one hundred people
a week, a clinic that cares for one hundred and fifty people a
day, a boarding-house for girls, and many other important cogs
in an immense and constantly active machine of religious and
philanthropic endeavor. It was built up piece by piece, getting
greater support as it proved itself, just as any factory or
business grows. (Text.)--ARTHUR GOODRICH, _Leslie’s
Monthly_.

(2258)

* * * * *

There is an Indian legend of a good spirit who, wishing to
benefit a young princess, led her into a ripe and golden
corn-field. “See these ears of corn, my daughter; if thou wilt
pluck them diligently, they will turn to precious jewels; the
richer the ear of corn, the brighter the gem. But thou mayest
only once pass through this corn-field, and canst not return the
same way.” The maiden gladly accepted the offer. As she went on,
many ripe and full ears of corn she found in her path, but she
did not pluck them, always hoping to find better ones farther
on. But presently the stems grew thinner, the ears poorer, with
scarcely any grains of wheat on them; further on they were
blighted, and she did not think them worth picking. Sorrowfully
she stood at the end of the field, for she could not go back
the same way, regretting the loss of the golden ears she had
overlooked and lost.

To each of us are golden opportunities offered; life speeds on to the goal from which there is no return; let us redeem the time, for fields are white to harvest.--_Illustrated Missionary News._

(2259)

=Opportunity, American=--See AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY.

=Opportunity, Business=--See BUSINESS CHANCES.

OPPORTUNITY IN THE ORIENT

Let me remind you of that great painting called “Anno Domini,”
which perhaps some of you have seen, and which vividly
illustrates the unprecedented opportunity to-day in the
extreme Orient. It represents an Egyptian temple from whose
spacious courts a brilliant procession of soldiers, statesmen,
philosophers, artists, musicians, and priests is advancing in
triumphal march, bearing a huge idol, the challenge and the
boast of heathenism. Across the pathway of the procession is an
ass, whose bridle is held by a reverent-looking man, and upon
whose back is a fair young mother with her infant child. It is
Jesus entering Egypt in flight from the wrath of Herod, and thus
crossing the path of aggressive heathenism. The clock strikes
and the Christian era begins.--ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN,
“Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(2260)

OPPORTUNITY LOST

Everybody knows now of the telephone and its large usefulness. It was not so, however, back in the seventies. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell had hard work to arouse interest, and harder yet to enlist capital, in his invention. In an account of the struggles of those early days, the following incident appears:

He resolved on a desperate move, and he went to Chauncey M.
Depew and offered him a one-sixth interest in the company if he
would loan $10,000 to put the company on its feet. Depew took
a week to consider the proposition. At the end of the week he
wrote back that the incident might be considered closed. The
telephone was a clever idea, but it was utterly lacking in
commercial possibilities, and $10,000 was far too big a sum to
risk in marketing an instrument that at best could never be more
than a source of amusement.

Thus Depew let slip an opportunity to acquire for $10,000
an interest that to-day could not be bought for less than
$25,000,000.

(2261)

* * * * *

The New York _Sun_ is authority for the following story:

A Provincetown man, out on his first trip as captain of a
whaling-vessel, about thirty years ago, stopt at one of the
West India Islands on his way home. One of the natives offered
him five small lumps of a dirty-looking substance which the
native asserted was good for something. The native further
informed the captain that he had got these pieces from a dead
whale which was ashore on a certain beach and that there was
plenty more in the carcass.

Did the captain hoist all sail and get to that dead whale as
fast as the winds of Providence would permit? Not a bit of it.
He had been made captain for the purpose of going after sperm
oil, and he concluded that he’d better stick to his job. So he
gave the native a pair of blue overalls and a jumper for the
five dirty lumps and went on his way.

After he had made port he showed the five lumps to Mr. Stull,
and when the latter gave him $700 for them he almost had a fit.
Still that shock was nothing to what he got a little later, for
he learned that another captain had heard of the dead whale, had
got what ambergris still remained in the carcass and had sold it
in New York for $30,000. It was estimated that this whale must
have contained in all at least $50,000 worth of ambergris.

(2262)

=Opportunity Seized=--See SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

OPPOSITION

Ornithologists assure us that the eagle, the condor of the
Andes, the albatross of the Pacific, and even the swiftly-flying
little dove, like many other birds that are strong on the wing,
can fly more swiftly against a wind than in a gentle breeze. It
may be that this is because they are thus stimulated to exert
the muscular strength of their pinions. But, however this may
be, it is a fact that the fires of a steamship burn much more
fiercely under the boilers when the vessel is going against a
head-wind.

Christian effort of the right kind is at its best when opposition is faced, for this very condition brings us into contact with the divine resources which are ever on our side.

(2263)

OPPOSITION TO MISSIONARY WORK

I heard a little while ago of a member of one of our churches
in Pennsylvania whose son graduated from a theological seminary
and sent word home to his father that he had decided to be a
missionary, and asking him for his approval; and the father
sat down in a towering rage and wrote back to him something
like this: “This is absolutely the saddest message I have ever
received from you. I could have wished that you had died in
infancy, as your brother did, rather than that things should
come to such a pass as this. You never will get my consent
to do such a rash and foolish thing. I will cut you entirely
off from any share in my inheritance, unless you give up this
idea forever; and I do not care to see your face again until
you have given it up.” Imagine that kind of an answer from a
professing Christian! In spite of it, the man is in Japan as a
missionary to-day. Would it not be far more Christlike to take
the attitude that my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Paton did over at
Pittsburg three years ago, when their only child, a beautiful,
clever, tender girl, came to them one day and said she wanted to
be a missionary out in Africa? And they were so much in sympathy
with Christ that they said, “We shall be very glad to have you
go.” Then, as they thought and prayed over it for a few days,
they decided that they could not let anybody else support their
daughter, and so they sent word to the mission board that they
wanted to have the privilege for the rest of their lives of
paying their daughter’s salary while she worked over yonder in
Africa. And when one and another of their friends came to them,
protesting against this madness in sending their only child away
off to bury her life in the heart of Africa, their simple answer
to these critics was in words like these, “Our Lord has given
His best to us, and our best is not too good for Him.”--J.
CAMPBELL WHITE, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(2264)

OPTIMISM

The following verses are by M. A. Kidder:

There is many a rest in the road of life,
If we only would stop to take it,
And many a tone from the better land,
If the querulous heart would wake it.
To the sunny soul that is full of hope,
And whose beautiful trust ne’er faileth,
The grass is green and the flowers are bright,
Tho the wintry storm prevaileth.

There is ever a gem in the path of life,
Which we pass in our idle pleasure,
That is richer far than the jeweled crown,
Or the miser’s hoarded treasure.
It may be the love of a little child;
Or a mother’s prayers to heaven;
Or only a beggar’s grateful thanks
For a cup of water given.

Better to weave in the web of life
A bright and golden filling,
And to do God’s will with a ready heart
And hands that are swift and willing,
Than to snap the delicate, slender threads
Of our curious lives asunder.
And then blame heaven for the tangled ends,
And sit, and grieve, and wonder.

(2265)

* * * * *

Kate Sanborn tells of an old lady of her acquaintance,
eighty-three years of age, who is famous among all who know her
for her happy cheerfulness. One day when she was choked by a
bread-crumb at the table, she said to the frightened waiter as
soon as she could regain her breath: “Never mind if that did go
down the wrong way. A great many good things have gone down the
right way this winter.” (Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

(2266)

* * * * *

In answer to the question, “What is optimism?” this humorous instance was recently given:

A man lost his balance and fell from the fortieth story of the
Singer Building, Broadway, New York. As he passed each story
going down he said to himself, “It is all right so far.” That
was optimism.

(2267)

* * * * *

Once I got hard up and went down and sold the best suit I had
to get bread, and I had my shoes half-soled, and that night
some fellow stole my shoes, and the next morning the snow was
ten inches deep, and I got up, and looked out of the window,
and I said, “I would rather have feet and no shoes than shoes
with no feet.” I like the fellow that goes along without
growling.--“Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones.”

(2268)

* * * * *

Dr. A. E. Winship tells this story:

It was eleven o’clock on as disagreeable a night as Chicago knew
last winter that I ordered a cab to take me to the Northwestern
Station. Carriages were scarce, and I was asked to ride with
another man.

“A good night this!”

“Humph,” I replied, “if anybody likes this kind, I don’t.”

“It is just the tonic I need for my eighty-two years. It blows
the blues all out of a man if he ever had them, which I never
do.”

“Do you often ride nights at your time of life?”

“Nearly every night; it does me good.”

“Oh, I beg your pardon. This is Doctor Willetts.”

“Certainly, and I would have been nursing old age twenty years
ago if I had ever found anything bad in life. A night like this!
Why, to growl about it, it would take a year off my life.”

Thanks to Doctor Willetts I have not seen bad weather since, and
I never shall.

(2269)

See PROPHECY.

=Optimists, The, and the Pessimists=--See LOADS, BALKING UNDER.

ORATORY

There are men in legislative assemblies who speak often, but
are never masters of any situation. They have great powers
of utterance, but nothing to say. The orator whose burning
sentences become the very proverbs of freedom is not he who
consumes the most time and employs the selectest paragraphs. I
have seen men in Congress often on their legs and buzzing about
like able-bodied darning-needles, but they never managed, even
by accident, to sting anybody into attention.--JAMES T.
FIELDS.

(2270)

=Order=--See SYSTEM IN LABOR.

=Order, The Natural=--See PLAN IN NATURE.

ORGANIZATION, INDUSTRIAL

The farmer who tills his own soil, the man in the shop who
is his own employer, the proprietor of the small factory, as
well as the manager of the greatest manufacturing corporation
and his subordinates, are each concerned with the problems of
organization in their special work.

Thousands of farmers to-day are eking out a scanty subsistence
because of a lack of intelligence in the proper organization
of the activities of farm life. Thousands of manufacturing
establishments are upon the verge of bankruptcy or are reducing
dividends for the same reason. Industrial education confined
to the production of skilled workmen might prolong the agony,
but would not avert the final disaster, because of lack of
intelligence in the organization of means to ends in the
particular productive enterprise. Thousands of firms concerned
with the distribution of products fail annually, not because of
lack of interest on the part of those who are managing them, but
because of lack of skilful organization of the various forces
whose action is necessary to success.

The schools do not exist to-day which undertake to give
instruction in these particular fields. Even the body of
knowledge which would form the proper field of study has not
been organized and put into teachable form. Even the beginnings
have hardly been made toward industrial education in this
particular field.--LORENZO D. HARVEY, “Proceedings of
the National Education Association,” 1909.

(2271)

ORGANIZING FOR WORK

The difference between a locomotive engine and a pile of
scrap-iron is that the one is organized and the other is not.
In the case of the engine machinery, side arms, driving-wheels
and whistle--all have their place and part. So have driver and
stoker. And it is the organized power and effort that bring
results.

Many men have enough good moral material for a fine character, but have not yet put it in effective order, and so can not bring it to bear. (Text.)

(2272)

=Orient, The, and Opportunity=--See OPPORTUNITY IN THE ORIENT.

=Original Sin=--See SIN, ORIGINAL.

ORIGINAL SOURCES

The history of the Christian religion might conceivably be written as was this history named below:

Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet found the histories of the American
Revolution so full of errors that, in his disgust, he resolved
to make some history that could not lie. The result was the
unique folios now in the keeping of the Lenox library, in which
the author has never written a word, but has told the story
by the assembling of original documents and letters. He never
allowed himself to insert a copy, no matter how many hundred
dollars the original document might cost him.

(2273)

ORIGINALITY

A really fertile creative mind has got to produce--wheat and
tares, flowers and weeds--all springing from a rich soil.
Contrary to the general belief, there is nothing so deadly to
the writer of creative power as a too early development of
the critical faculty. That is why the young man who is always
conscious of Lowell and Emerson looking over his shoulder never
is original.--ROBERT BRIDGES, _Collier’s Weekly_.

(2274)

* * * * *

As Plutarch tells us, “it is well to go for a light to another
man’s fire, but not to tarry by it, instead of kindling a torch
of one’s own.” A torch of one’s own!--that is a possession
worth having, whether it be a flaming beacon on the hilltop or
a tiny taper in the window. We can not tell how far a little
candle throws its beams, nor who is laying his course by its
flickering light. The most that we can do--and it is also the
least we should do--is to tend the flame carefully and to keep
it steady.--BRANDER MATTHEWS.

(2275)

See NEWNESS OF EACH SOUL.

ORIGINALITY OF MAN

If we mean by individuality differences in character and
disposition, then is there a fair measure of individuality
among the animals. No two animals are just alike, any more than
any two trees are just alike. But if we mean the possession
of striking original traits, unique powers and capacities, as
among men, then there is very little. Animals do not differ in
the degree that men differ. What one does all of its kind will
sooner or later do. Anything you can learn of one bird or beast
that is not true of every member of its species is unimportant.

I, myself, like to dwell upon what seems like individual
differences in the manners and characters of the birds and the
mammals. We all love the specific and characteristic; but we
are aware of these differences mainly because we have a few
birds or mammals under observation and not the whole class.
Some day we shall observe the same trait or habit in another of
the same class. We see something in the eye or the face of a
member of one’s own family and think it peculiar and original;
then, in the face of an Eskimo or a Cossack, we see the same
look.--JOHN BURROUGHS, _The Independent_.

(2276)

=Origins, Unknown=--See UNKNOWN REALITIES.

OSSIFICATION

The London _Mail_ reports this sad case:

An honored guest at most of the London hospitals is a tall, slim
man, with a thin face, who has to move about with extreme care,
because if he happened to fall down he might break in several
places.

He is literally a fragile man, who has to walk with something of
the stiffness of “La Poupée.” A violent fall would be disastrous
to him. He is suffering from a rare and painless disease which,
in the words of one of the doctors who has seen him, turns him
into “a porcelain man.” Alban Rushbrook, aged thirty-five, has
for seven years been suffering from _myositis ossificans_;
his muscles are turning into bone. He can walk, but he can not
sit in a chair, and it is difficult for him to turn his head far
to the right or left. The muscles of his chest, back and thighs
are all turning to bone. He lies flat in bed. When he desires to
rise he is shifted to the edge of the bed, and his rigid body is
tipped up till his feet touch the floor. A stick is placed in
his hand, and he can then make his way in a straight line ahead.

(2277)

OSTENTATION

The boxes in the temple treasury were shaped like trumpets.
Jesus said, “Do not make a trumpet of the box; it looks like
one, but do not use it for the purpose of calling attention to
what you are about to put into it.” (Text.)

(2278)

OSTENTATION, SNOBBISH

Occasionally great wealth publishes itself in an unbecoming and distasteful manner, as the following suggests:

The son of the New York millionaire, John W. Gates, dislikes to
have bills of such small denomination as $100 littering up his
pockets, says the Philadelphia _Press_.

The last time Mr. and Mrs. Gates came to this city in their
automobile they stopt at the Bellevue-Stratford. When he asked
for his bill he found it amounted to a paltry $70. Opening a
huge wallet, he handed out a thousand-dollar note. This was
fondly laid away and the cashier began to count hundred-dollar
bills in change.

“My word,” said Mr. Gates, dropping into the vernacular of the
metropolis, “I can’t carry that truck around with me. Send my
bill to New York and I will mail you a check.”

Calling hundred-dollar bills “truck” was more than the porters
who heard it could stand. If they had not been so well trained
they would have forgotten to carry Mr. Gates’ dress-suit case
out to his automobile.

(2279)

OTHER SIDE, THE

“There’s another side,” said the minister’s wife softly.

“How do you know?” asked the visitor who had told the
discreditable little tale strictly in confidence, as she herself
had learned it in the bosom of the Wednesday afternoon sewing
circle. The minister’s wife had not been present, and it was
only right that she should be put right about this family of
newcomers in the parish. “Some things had come to the ears of
the sewing circle that were not--well, not exactly--”

“There’s another side!” repeated the minister’s wife, not so
softly this time. In fact, there was a noticeable little ring of
indignation in her tone, which died out in a sort of wondering
pity as she noticed the challenging look of her caller. “You’re
glad there is another side, aren’t you? Why, of course you are.
And, you see, I know all about it.”

“You weren’t at the meeting,” said the other stiffly. “If you
had been, you--”

“No, I was there--at the house. And I saw--I saw--oh, Mrs.
Babbitt, if you could have seen what I saw.”

“I saw, too--with my own eyes! That daughter of theirs is an
opium--”