Chapter D: L. Moody told this story of missionary self-sacrifice (6)

=Prosperity and Temperance=--See PROHIBITION.

PROSPERITY AS AN ADVERTISEMENT

The United States Immigration Commission informs the American
Congress that savings of immigrants to the amount of
$275,000,000 are annually sent abroad to be used in foreign
countries, and the commission says in its report: “The sum is
sent abroad for the purpose of supporting families in foreign
countries, for bringing other immigrants to the United States,
for the payment of debts or for savings and investment in the
countries from which the immigrants come.”

More than 2,300,000 persons throughout the United States are
doing an unregulated banking business, handling yearly hundreds
of millions of dollars, their customers being found wholly among
immigrant laborers who for the most part do not speak English.

The money actually sent abroad is thus distributed according to
countries: Italy, $85,000,000; Austria-Hungary, $75,000,000;
Russia, including Finland, $25,000,000; Great Britain,
$25,000,000; Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, $25,000,000; Germany,
$15,000,000; Greece, $5,000,000; the Balkan States, $5,000,000;
Japan, $5,000,000; China, $5,000,000; all other countries,
$5,000,000.

Even reducing the amount estimated as being too large, there
must be an immense outflow of money from the United States in
the direction indicated, and it helps explain why there is an
excess of commodity exports, averaging $400,000,000 annually,
over imports, to settle the invisible indebtedness of the
country abroad.

The great outflow of cash sent home by immigrants serves one
useful purpose: it advertises the general prosperity of the
great republic, and so helps keep up the volume of emigration
from Europe. A growing country requires people as well as
capital.

It has been estimated that every able-bodied immigrant is worth
to the country $5,000; the Northern republic is receiving nearly
a million immigrants annually, and allowing that a fifth part
are workers of sound physique the gain to the United States is
$1,000,000,000, gold, value a year.--_Mexican Herald._

(2564)

PROSPERITY, PERIL OF

The following extract points a needed caution to those who are blest with prosperity:

Some time ago we saw a tree that had been struck by lightning
and actually rent asunder. It had been blown open as perfectly
as if the pith of the tree had been lined with gunpowder and
touched off. The reason for this is easily explained. The tree
had been struck by lightning before it had been wet by the
storm. Consequently the lightning bolt followed the line of
least resistance, which was the damp wood under the bark. The
electric current heated the sap, and, converting it so quickly
into steam, the explosion was the result.

How very like that tree are a great many people! Prosperity
is the electric current. Coming upon them so suddenly, as is
so often the case, they are unable to bear the pressure of
elevation and honor and distinction, and are rent asunder with a
crash. They “go down” with a thud.

As the forest tree that has been struck by the killing bolt
drops only to rot, so does the man who has been overelated by
prosperity.

(2565)

PROTECTION

One of the artizan class of Manchester was the owner of a very
pretty black spaniel dog. The little thing followed him and
nestled to his side as a child might, and by many endearing
ways evinced the winsomeness of its disposition. It happened
that the man was worse for drink, became irritated by the
affectionate attentions of his dog and vowed he would throw her
into the lion’s den in Manchester; went there for the purpose,
and reaching out, took up the little fawning thing and flung
her through the bars of the cage. The spectators expected that
the lion with one muscular movement of its paw would stun and
kill it, but the dog fawned up to the lion and the lion turned
and licked her. They became good friends, and when presently
the lion’s food was brought, the dog even snarled at her new
protector and began to partake first, keeping the lord of
creation waiting. So it went on for some weeks. The papers were
full of it; crowds came to see. The news came to the man; he
repented of his rash act; he went to the gardens and said to
the keeper, “I want my dog.” The keeper said, “I don’t dare
to attempt to bring your dog out of the den.” “Oh,” the man
said, “of course I must have it.” “Well,” said the keeper, “if
you want it, you must get it yourself.” But when he called to
the dog, the dog slunk closer to her new protector, and when
presently he tried to exert force, the lion gave such an ominous
growl that the man shrank back. From that moment the lion and
the dog lived together, and any attempt made to extricate the
dog was met instantly by the low growl of the lion.

You have been too long the slave of lusts, of passion, of pride, of sin. I want you to get under the covert of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and then if your old enemy shall endeavor to induce you and get you back, remember that the Lion of the tribe of Judah is going to interpose between you and your old master.--F. B. MEYER.

(2566)

* * * * *

There are ways of escaping evil influences, just as there are of protecting oneself from sunstroke:

Attention is called in the New York _Medical Journal_ to
the fact that sunstroke is due to the chemical, and not to the
heat rays, as generally supposed. The writer’s argument is based
on “the fact that no one ever gets heat-stroke from exposure to
a dark source of heat, and when there is an absence of chemical
rays. The actinic rays are the dangerous ones. They will pass
through anything except an interposed color filter. It is
therefore necessary, in order to ward off sunstroke, to treat
the body as a photographer treats his plates, and surround it
with red or yellow. He mentions the case of an Egyptian army
officer, who had had several sunstrokes, and avoided further
difficulty of the kind during five years’ exposure by lining his
helmet and coat with yellow. (Text.)

(2567)

* * * * *

The queer Chinese change pigeons into song-birds by fastening
whistles to their breasts. The wind of their flight then causes
a weird and plaintive music that is seldom silenced in the
pigeon-haunted cities of Peking and Canton. The Belgians, great
pigeon-fliers, fasten whistles beneath the wings of valuable
racing carriers, claiming that the shrill noise is a sure
protection against hawks and other birds of prey. As a similar
protection, reeds, emitting an odd wailing sound, are fixt to
the tail-feathers of the dispatch-bearing pigeons of the German
army.

Hannibal’s army withdrew from Rome, it is said, at the sound of a tumultuous laughter inside the walls. Luther said: “The devil hates music.” (Text.)

(2568)

* * * * *

Paul speaks of a breast-plate even more secure than that mentioned in the extract:

The authors who tell us of the conquests of Cortez say that to
protect his soldiers from the arrows of the Mexicans, which
could pierce the cuirasses of hammered iron that they wore, he
replaced these with thick breast-plates of wool prest between
two layers of linen. In fact, he practically covered his men
with mattresses, and they were thus enabled to defy the arrows
and lances of the Mexicans. (Text.)--Dr. BATTANDIER,
_Cosmos_.

(2569)

* * * * *

The birds were the red- and blue-headed parrakeets. When
frightened they always flew to a curious tree which, tho bare
of leaves, was sparsely covered with an odd-looking, long, and
four-sided fruit of a green color. Under such circumstances
they alighted all together, and unlike their usual custom of
perching in pairs, they scattered all over the tree, stood very
upright, and remained motionless. From a distance of fifty feet
it was impossible to distinguish parrakeet from fruit, so close
was the resemblance. A hawk dashed down once and carried away a
bird, but the others remained as still as if they were inanimate
fruit. This silent trust in the protective resemblance of the
green fruit was most remarkable, when we remembered the frantic
shrieks which these birds always set up at the approach of
danger, when they happened to be caught away from one of these
parrot-fruit trees.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our
Brother.”

(2570)

See NATURE’S PROTECTION.

* * * * *

In the tropics of Mexico, where torrential rains fall a part of
each year, raincoats are a very necessary part of man’s apparel.
Owing to the intense heat which prevails in the summer season,
the ordinary rubber raincoat can not be worn. A rain-proof
coat is made from native grasses. The grasses are woven close
together, and it is impossible for the rain to beat through
them, no matter how hard the storm may be. It would be the
height of folly for a man in that part of Mexico to fail in
providing himself with this most necessary part of his raiment.
“The fiery darts of the wicked one” may be shed by a certain
breast-plate mentioned by Paul.

(2571)

PROTECTION, UNSEEN

A butterfly was once seen behind a window-pane fluttering in
fear of a sparrow outside that was pecking at it in an attempt
to get at its victim, which, after all, was beyond the sparrow’s
reach.

That window-pane was an unseen protector. (Text.)

(2572)

=Protective Coloration=--See NATURE’S PROTECTION.

=Protective Occupations=--See DISEASE, EXEMPTION FROM.

PROVIDENTIAL INTERPOSITION

I had an experience a while ago on a Chautauqua platform that I
never shall forget.

It was a very large assembly, and it was held in a place where
I had never been before, and where I had no old friends on hand
to serve as “claqueurs.” I discovered very soon after beginning
my lecture that for some unaccountable reason I was not _en
rapport_ with my audience, who listened to me, as it were,
out of the corners of their eyes and with half-averted faces.

I felt instinctively that that lecture was foredoomed to failure
unless in some way Providence interposed for my deliverance.

Well, Providence did; for presently a big dog entered the
auditorium, and gazed wistfully about him. Then, facing the
platform and seeing me hard at work, he compassionately
concluded to come up and help me. And on he came, straight up
the aisle, and climbed the platform steps, while everybody
watched him.

He walked around me, sized me up, and then deliberately planted
himself in front of me, sat down, and pricked up his ears like a
pulpit committee listening to a candidate.

I ceased addressing the audience, and, turning to the dog, I
said: “I am delighted to welcome you to this platform. I have
been anxiously waiting for you, and had begun to fear that
you would not be here. You have come to the kingdom for just
this time, and I am happy to discover that in this large and
evidently critical audience I have at last found one hearer who
has sense enough to appreciate a good thing when he hears it.”

The dog seemed to understand that he was addrest; and so he
howled, and then the people howled, and I went on howling. The
dog went his way without ever knowing that he saved my life that
day.--P. S. HENSON, _Christian Endeavor World_.

(2573)

=Providential Rescue=--See KONGO PIONEER MISSIONARY WORK.

=Providing Against Disaster=--See CONTROL OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

=Providing for Great Men=--See GREAT MEN SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR.

PROVIDENCE

Men who know all the risks attending an unguided machine going eighty miles an hour will calmly tell you that a planetary system moving thousands of times as fast needs no guidance of God.

When these racing motor cars reach a speed of eighty miles an
hour, they must drive themselves, for no human brain is capable
of dealing with all the emergencies that may arise should
that rate be maintained for any period worth speaking of. The
human animal is not designed to travel eighty miles an hour.
Neither the human brain nor the human eye can keep pace with it.
The brain declines to respond to the tax upon it; so the big
racing-car dashes on minus the brain by which it is supposed
to be controlled, and the unexpected obstruction is smashed
up, or the car is, before the mental activities come into
play.--FORBES WINSLOW, _The Automobile Magazine_.

(2574)

* * * * *

Grant planned, but a power unseen disposed. It was his firm
purpose not to remain in the army. He could not warm up to
the profession of arms. He saw nothing in it for one of his
temperament and bent of mind. So he resolved to prepare himself
for the chair of mathematics in some college, preferably a
professorship in the military academy. He wrote a letter
to Professor Church, at West Point, asking to become his
assistant when the next detail should be made. The answer was
satisfactory, and the lieutenant was hopeful. He began to review
his West Point course, but this was as far as he ever got
toward the goal of his ambition. As the stars in their courses
fought against Sisera, so the course of events defeated all his
cherished plans to escape an army life. The trouble with Mexico
began before Professor Church saw an opportunity to give the
lieutenant an assistant professorship, and his hope of ever
being ordered to the academy vanished forever.--NICHOLAS
SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(2575)

See FAITH AND SUPPORT.

PROVIDENCE, DIVINE

Wordsworth expresses the thought of an infinite and beneficent power guiding the affairs of men in the following lines:

One adequate support
For the calamities of mortal life
Exists--one only; an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, howe’er
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good.

(2576)

=Providence, Unswerving=--See STEADINESS OF PROVIDENCE.

PROVINCIALISM

Provincialism is local pride unduly inflated. It is the temper
that is ready to hail as a Swan of Avon any local gosling who
has taught himself to make an unnatural use of his own quills.
It is always tempting us to stand on tiptoe to proclaim our
own superiority. It prevents our seeing ourselves in proper
proportion to the rest of the world. It leads to the preparation
of school manuals in which the threescore years and ten of
American literature are made equal in importance to the thousand
years of literature produced in Great Britain. It tends to
render a modest writer, like Longfellow, ridiculous by comparing
him implicitly with the half-dozen world poets. In the final
resort, no doubt, every people must be the judge of its own
authors; but before that final judgment is rendered every people
consults the precedents, and measures its own local favorites
by the cosmopolitan and eternal standards.--BRANDER
MATTHEWS.

(2577)

PROVOCATION, SILENCE UNDER

I have read somewhere the following arrangement for avoiding
quarrels: “You see, sir,” said an old man, speaking of a couple
who lived in perfect harmony in his neighborhood, “they’d agreed
between themselves that whenever he came home a little contrary
and out of temper, he wore his hat on the back of his head, and
then she never said a word; and if she came in a little cross
and crooked, she threw her shawl over her left shoulder, and
then he never said a word.” As it takes two to make a quarrel,
either the husband or the wife might often prevent one by
stepping out of the room at the nick of time; by endeavoring to
divert attention and conversation from the burning question; by
breathing an instantaneous prayer to God for calmness before
making any reply; in a word, by learning to put in practise on
certain occasions the science of silence. Robert Burton tells
of a woman who, hearing one of her “gossips” complain of her
husband’s impatience, told her an excellent remedy for it. She
gave her a glass of water which, when he brawled, she should
hold still in her mouth. She did so two or three times with
great success, and, at length, seeing her neighbor, she thanked
her for it, and asked to know the ingredients. She told her that
it was “fair water” and nothing more; for it was not the water,
but her silence which performed the cure. (Text.)--J. E.
HARDY, _The Quiver_.

(2578)

=Pruning=--See IGNORANCE, THE COST OF; SOUL SURGERY.

PRUNING TO DESTROY

Said Luther: “Sin is like the beard, the oftener it is cut off,
the more shaving seems to be necessary!”

Perennial weeds continue to live and bear seeds from year to
year. Some weeds of this class, as the quack-grass, sow-thistle,
and the wild morning-glory, multiply from buds on underground
parts as well as by seeds. They are the hardest of all to
destroy. As the leaves manufacture the food that nourishes
roots, by preventing the leaves from growing, the roots will
starve--the surest way to kill perennial weeds, tho often hard
to carry out. (Text.)

(2579)

=Psychical Activity=--See MULTIPLE CONSCIOUSNESS.

=Psychology in Penology=--See CHILDREN, SAVING.

=Psychology of Suggestion=--See NEGATIVE TEACHING.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

A greenhorn, who had never seen a great banquet, came to the
city, and, looking through the door, said to his friends who
were showing him the sights: “Who are those gentlemen who are
eating so heartily?” The answer was: “They are the men who pay
for the dinner.” “And who are those gentlemen up there on the
elevation looking so pale and frightened and eating nothing?”
“Oh,” said his friend, “those are the fellows who make the
speeches.”--T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

(2580)

PUBLICITY

A woman took a pair of gloves to Wanamaker’s not long ago,
insisting that she bought them there, notwithstanding that the
head of the department told her the house never carried that
make of gloves. She insisted, however, and the gloves were taken
and she was given the money for them. The manager says that he
knew the woman was telling an untruth, but that he did not want
to quarrel with her, and he regarded the transaction as a very
good advertisement for the house, because she would probably
many times tell her friends how she beat Wanamaker’s, and that
this publicity would be worth more than the gloves.--_Success
Magazine._

(2581)

=Pulpit Raving=--See HEADS, LOSING.

PUNCTILIOUSNESS

Concerning whistling on Sunday in Scotland, two men, who had
done a house-breaking job on Saturday night, went on Sunday
morning into a wood to divide the plunder. One of them began
to whistle over the sharing out when his companion said, with
horror: “Hoot, mon, I would no have come out wi’ ye if I had
known you would whustle on the Sawbath.” (Text.)

(2582)

* * * * *

When Justice Lovell, a Welsh judge, was traveling over the
sands at Beaumaris, while going his circuit about 1730, he
was overtaken at night by the tide, and the coach stuck in a
quicksand. The water rose in the coach, to the horror of the
registrar and other officers, who crept out of the windows
and scrambled on the top behind the coach-box. They urged his
lordship to do the same, but with great dignity and gravity
he sat till the water rose to his lips, and then he was just
able to exclaim, “I will follow your counsel if you can quote
to me any precedent for a judge mounting on a coach-box.” No
“authority” could be produced, owing to the darkness of the
night! (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and
Lawyers.”

(2583)

PUNCTILIOUSNESS IN LITTLE THINGS

The late Edmund Clarence Stedman told of his experiences as a clerk in the office of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad:

Finding his cash short one day, to the extent of two cents,
Stedman took the money out of his pocket and dropt it into the
till. After he had left the employment of the company he met in
the street one day the treasurer of the company, who asked him
whether his cash account was right every time while he was with
the company. When the treasurer’s attention was called to the
exception he exclaimed, “Confound you, Stedman, we have had the
whole force of the office at work for weeks trying to find that
two cents.”

(2584)

PUNCTUALITY

A New York motorman is the subject of the following news item in a daily paper:

For the first time in thirty years Robert Willoughby failed to
wake up this morning when his thirty clocks, simultaneously
setting off a series of gongs, gave their customary alarms at
six o’clock. He had died some time during the night of Bright’s
disease.

Willoughby was fifty-seven years old and had been employed as a
motorman by the Third Avenue Elevated Railway. He was the most
punctual employee in the service. No matter what the weather
was, Willoughby was never late.

The secret of his punctuality came to light when his room was
inspected to-day. Ranged round his bed were thirty clocks of
different sizes and makes. All struck the same hour at the same
time.

(2585)

=Punishment=--See CRIME EXPOSED.

=Punishment Escaped=--See DISCIPLINE EVADED.

=Punishment Fitting Offense=--See PATRIOTISM, LACK OF.

PUNISHMENT, FORMER SEVERITY OF

In the reign of Henry VIII, 72,000 thieves were hanged, being
at the rate of 2,000 a year. In the reign of George III,
twenty persons were executed on the same morning in London for
stealing. In 1785, ninety-seven persons were executed in London
for stealing from a shop to the value of five shillings or more.
If the amount were less than five shillings the punishment was
not capital.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the punishment of
death might be inflicted for more than two hundred crimes. These
are some of the offenses that were punished with death: Picking
a man’s pocket, taking a rabbit from a warren, stealing five
shillings or more from a shop, cutting down a tree, catching and
stealing a fish, personating a Greenwich pensioner, stealing a
sheep or horse, harboring an offender against the revenue acts.

(2586)

=Punishment in China=--See CRIME EXPOSED.

=Punishment of Sinners=--See SINNERS AND GOD.

PUNISHMENT, PROFITABLE

Oscar Wilde wrote:

I want to get to the point when I shall be able to say
quite simply, and without affectation, that the two great
turning-points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford,
and when society sent me to prison. I will not say that prison
is the best thing that could have happened to me; for that
phrase would savor of too great bitterness toward myself. I
would sooner say or hear it said of me that I was so typical a
child of my age that, in my perversity and for that perversity’s
sake, I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil
things of my life to good.

And if I then am not ashamed of my punishment, as I hope not to
be, I shall be able to think, and walk, and live with freedom.

In the very fact that people will recognize me wherever I
go, and know all about my life, as far as its follies go, I
can discern something good for me. It will force on me the
necessity of again asserting myself as an artist, and as soon as
I possibly can. If I can produce only one beautiful work of art
I shall be able to rob malice of its venom, and cowardice of its
sneer, and to pluck out the tongue of scorn by the roots. (Text.)

(2587)

PUPILS OF CHRIST

It is customary for students who have been attending colleges
and academies to return home during the summer vacation or
during the Christmas or Easter holidays, when they will recount
to their father their trials and triumphs in the field of
literature, and express to him their gratitude for the education
they receive. They will gladly listen to his counsel, and will
sit once more with joy at the family table.

We all are, or we ought to be, pupils of Christ, preparing
ourselves during this life of probation to receive a
diploma of sanctity which will admit us to the kingdom of
heaven.--CARDINAL GIBBONS.

(2588)

PURIFICATION

Moral life is often purified by storms, as the air by a rainy day:

The health-giving properties of rain are not appreciated by
the general public. Rain is an essential to physical vigor
in localities that have any extensive population. Man and
his occupations load the air with countless and unclassified
impurities. The generous, kindly rain absorbs them, even as
a washerwoman extracts the dirt from soiled clothes. The
ammoniacal exhalations, the gases resultant from combustion and
decay, are all quietly absorbed by a brisk shower. People talk
about a “dry climate,” but it is a snare and a delusion. There
is nothing in it. A very dry climate will never support a large
population, for it would soon become so poisoned that it would
be fatal to the human race. A scattering few might inhabit it,
but not the multitude.--_Colliery Guardian._

(2589)

* * * * *

The life of God, if allowed to sweep through the earth unhindered, would purify man’s life, as ocean waves, described below, purify the lands they reach:

The air of the sea, taken at a great distance from land, or even
on the shore and in ports when the wind blows from the open sea,
is in an almost perfect state of purity. Near continents the
land winds drive before them an atmosphere always impure, but at
100 kilometers from the coasts this impurity has disappeared.
The sea rapidly purifies the pestilential atmosphere of
continents; hence every expanse of water of a certain breadth
becomes an absolute obstacle to the propagation of epidemics.
Marine atmospheres driven upon land purify sensibly the air
of the regions which they traverse; this purification can be
recognized as far as Paris. The sea is the tomb of molds and of
aerial schizophytes.--_Public Opinion._

(2590)

* * * * *

Longfellow pictures life as a wave hastening to cleanse itself in the ocean:

Whither, thou turbid wave?
Whither with so much haste,
As if a thief wert thou?
I am the Wave of Life
Stained with my margin’s dust;
From the struggle and the strife
Of the narrow stream I fly
To the sea’s immensity,
To wash from me the slime
Of the muddy banks of time.

(2591)

* * * * *

God uses many unseen agencies to offset the moral poisons of the universe:

“A device has been perfected by the chemist of the mechanical
department of the Erie Railroad,” says _The Railway and
Engineering Review_ (Chicago), “by which all the cars on
the Chicago limited train are thoroughly sterilized at Jersey
City after each round trip between Jersey City and Chicago, a
run of about 2,000 miles. Experiments looking to this method of
cleaning cars so as to kill all disease germs and destroy all
bad odors have been in progress for some time. A deodorizing
apparatus has also been devised which is placed under the
seats in the cars, out of sight of passengers, and gives off
an odorless gas, which combines with the stale tobacco-smoke
or other offensive odors which may accumulate in the cars, and
serves to completely nullify them. This treatment has been so
effective that it is expected it will be extended to all the
passenger cars in the Erie service.”

(2592)

See EVIL, PURGING FROM.

PURIFICATION BY PRESSURE

The man in narrow circumstances, or prest severely with many cares may be purified by such pressure like the water described in this extract:

The best water is that which has gone deepest in the earth,
where there is the tightest pressure, atmospheric and telluric.
Continued and intensified filtration has refined it; but it is
here, and not in its open-air exposure, before or after, that
the water gets effective oxidation. The remarkable fact that
water absorbs oxygen in something like a geometrical ratio
to the increase of pressure, coupled with the other equally
important fact that under a certain pressure and temperature
organic germs cease to exist; both these conditions, protracted
for the water by a long detention in the depths of the earth,
secure the rarest refinement and also vitalization of the
element.--_The Sanitary Era._

(2593)

PURITANISM, POETRY OF

How is it, then, that out of the hard soil of the Puritan
thought and character, out of the sterile rocks of the New
England conscience, have sprung flowers of poetry? From those
songless beginnings have burst, in later generations, melodies
that charm and uplift our land--now a deep organ peal filling
the air with music, now a trumpet blast thrilling the blood of
patriotism, now a drum-beat to which duty delights to march, now
a joyous fantasy of the violin bringing smiles to the lips, now
the soft vibrations of the harp that fill the eyes with tears.
What is it in the Puritan heritage, externally so bare and cold,
that makes it intrinsically so poetic and inspired?--SAMUEL
A. ELIOT.

(2594)

PURITY

A pastor visiting in the home of a laundress exprest admiration
of the whiteness of the linen hung out upon the lines. They
gleamed in beautiful purity as compared with the dark slates
on the roof of the house behind them. But presently snow fell
and quickly covered the roofs and streets with an absolutely
unsullied mantle, and now the linen clothes seemed actually
to have lost all their whiteness. The preacher said to the
laundress that the clothes did not look anything like so white
as before. She replied, “Ah, sir, the clothes are just as white
as they were, but what can stand against God Almighty’s white?”

It is a fact that the whitest sheet of paper looks yellow and dingy when placed on freshly fallen snow. So looks the morality of ordinary man beside the sinlessness of Jesus. (Text.)

(2595)

* * * * *

The ermine, whose fur is so famed for its perfect whiteness, has
been taken as the emblem of the integrity and incorruptibility
that should characterize the judiciary. Thus a judge is spoken
of as wearing the ermine. The dainty little creature makes
it the business of its life to keep clean. So strong is this
instinct that it will suffer capture or welcome death rather
than defilement. Knowing this, trappers and others seeking its
fur will smear the paths it might take to escape, and it keeps
itself unspotted, tho it yields its life. (Text.)

(2596)

See ASSOCIATIONS MOLD MEN.

PURITY OF ASSOCIATIONS

Most people would like to be reckoned with the good and true of earth, but they often overlook the necessity of a change in their moral conditions before that which they hope for can come to pass. A mother, speaking on this point, says:

As a companion for my children there was brought into the family
a little lamb, to which, in its helplessness, our hearts went
out in love. We were about to take it in our arms to love and
cherish when we discovered it was alive with what are commonly
called “ticks.” Horrified, I ordered the lamb tied to a tree,
and forbade the children, or any one, in fact, to go near
it until it could be cleansed. I stood with my children on
the piazza, watching it with mingled emotions. Its pathetic
bleatings made us long to take it in our arms and caress it,
“mother” it, in its separation and loneliness. But I and my
children were clean. The lamb was not. Far from being clean,
it was alive with filth. The standard of approach to me, as
to all cleanly people, was cleanliness. Much as we yearned
over the lamb and longed to care for it, until purified with a
cleansing wash, communication could not be established. When the
conditions were fulfilled, children and lamb, the latter white
as newly-fallen snow, “clean every whit,” played together in
happy companionship. (Text.)

(2597)

PURPOSE

The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder; a
waif, a nothing, no man. Have a purpose in life, if it is only
to kill and divide and sell oxen well, but have a purpose; and
having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work
as God has given you.--THOMAS CARLYLE.

(2598)

See RESOLUTENESS.

PURPOSE DISCERNED

A stone-mason may be a mere machine for breaking rock or he
may be an architect’s assistant. It all depends on his point
of view. If he is absolutely ignorant of the purpose of the
stone which he hammers he will be the machine. But if he has
even a remote idea that his block of stone is going to be set
somewhere between the base line and the finial of a cathedral
of a thousand years his work graduates into the artistic. The
knowledge that the earnest expectation of the cathedral waits
for his chunk of stone makes that stone mean something more than
stone to him.--T. C. MCCLELLAND.

(2599)

=Purpose of God=--See PLANS, HUMAN, TRANSCENDED.

=Purpose, Organic=--See DESIGN OF GOD.

=Puzzling, Things that are=--See MYSTERY IN RELIGION.

Q

=Qualities Admired=--See APPRECIATION OF CHARACTER.

QUARRELSOMENESS

The New York _Times_ comments upon a disagreeable trait in a great artist:

The quarrelsomeness of Whistler began with a combination of
nervous fastidiousness and temperamental gaiety of disposition.
That spring, that elasticity of mind which kept his hand so full
of craftsmanship, was the source of his eternal youth, his quips
and cranks and love of teasing. In time the habit became fixt
and Whistler developed a Mephistophelean dexterity in touching
the raw, ever losing thereby one friend after another. Like the
dog that has a reputation for biting, the genial master made
a desert about his den, but consoled himself with noting how
efficacious this reputation was in holding off bores.

(2600)

QUIBBLING

Many a man makes excuses for his errors that are no more reasonable than those of the lawyer whose client was sentenced by Judge Kent, the well-known jurist:

A man was indicted for burglary, and the evidence showed that
his burglary consisted in cutting a hole through a tent in
which several persons were sleeping and then projecting his
head and arm through the hole and abstracting various articles
of value. It was claimed by his counsel that, inasmuch as he
did not actually enter the tent with his whole body, he had
not committed the offense charged, and must, therefore, be
discharged. Judge Kent, in reply to this plea, told the jury
that if they were not satisfied that the whole man was involved
in the crime, they might bring in a verdict of guilty against
so much of him as was thus involved. The jury, after a brief
consultation, found the right arm, the right shoulder and the
head of the prisoner guilty of the offense of burglary. The
judge sentenced the right arm, the right shoulder and head to
imprisonment with hard labor in the State prison for two years,
remarking that as to the rest of his body he might do with it
what he pleased. (Text.)

(2601)

QUICKENING

An old legend tells that Adam lay buried on the very spot on
which the cross of Christ was planted and that a drop of blood
trickling down touched him instantly starting him into life. It
is in allusion to this curious legend that in very old paintings
of the crucifixion a skull is introduced. (Text.)

(2602)

=Quiet=--See SOUNDS.

QUIET, STUDY TO BE

One of the darkest and most trying experiences of the war was at the time Lincoln relieved McClellan of his command:

Loud cries of dissatisfaction arose in the north. Men came
to Lincoln clamoring for changes in commands and plans and
policies. “Gentlemen,” he said to one delegation of advisers,
“suppose all the property you were worth was in gold and you
had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara
River on a rope. Would you shake the cable or keep shouting at
him, ‘Blondin, stand up a little straighter; Blondin, stoop
a little more; go a little faster; lean a little more to the
north; lean a little more to the south’? No, you would hold your
breath as well as your tongue and keep your hands off until he
was safe over. The Government is carrying an enormous weight.
Untold treasures are in our hands; we are doing the very best
we can. Don’t badger us. Keep silence and we will get you safe
across.”--JAMES MORGAN, “Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and
the Man.”

(2603)

QUIETNESS

Scientific authorities are generally agreed that the night
air contains less dust and fewer germs than the atmosphere
during the day time. This is, of course, due to the fact that
greater quietness prevails at night, and the traffic of the
street is practically at a standstill. The still night air is
more wholesome to breathe and is in a purer state than the air
obtained in the daytime.

For the enjoyment of the best spiritual conditions we need frequently to seek intervals of retreat from the restless distracting world. (Text.)

(2604)

QUIETNESS IN DANGER

A lion in India had stolen a man and ran away with him to the
jungle. A young officer loaded his weapon and followed in close
pursuit. He discharged his piece full at the lion, which caused
the animal and his victim to fall to the ground at once. While
the officer was reloading his weapon, the lion began to crunch
the captain’s arm. Notwithstanding the pain, the brave man,
knowing the lion’s habits, resolved to lie perfectly still. The
beast freed the man’s arm and crouched down with his paws on the
thigh of the fallen foe.

While in this dangerous situation, the captain unthinkingly
raised his hand to support his head. The moment he moved, the
prostrate man’s lacerated arm was seized the second time and
crunched as before. This second painful lesson was sufficient
to enable him to keep quiet until the young officer arrived and
rescued him.

Quietness in time of danger has saved many a man from sad consequences. (Text.)

(2605)

=Quietude=--See SILENCE.

R

=Race Improvement=--See IMPROVEMENT.

RACE LOYALTY

Lieut. David J. Gilmer, of the Forty-ninth Volunteer Infantry (colored), commanding a detachment at Linao, was crediting his men for some good work they had done.

When he concluded, one of his men asked the lieutenant if he
thought the Forty-ninth would be sent to China. The lieutenant
said: “I don’t know, but I hope so.” Then some other soldier
said: “Why, lieutenant, don’t you think we are doing enough?”
The lieutenant said: “No! I wish that we could take part in all
wars for our country; for the more good work we do the more
benefit our race derives from it. If to sacrifice my life would
cause our race to receive the same consideration in public
affairs in the United States as other races, I would gladly walk
out to any selected place and accept the death penalty.” (Text.)

(2606)

=Race Prejudice Overcome=--See CIVICS.

=Race-track, The=--See GAMBLING.

RACE TRAITS

All the white race have teeth vertical, the jaw short; and
the manner in which the teeth fit one upon the other is
perpendicularly, so that when we close the mouth we bring the
lower teeth against the upper teeth in such a juxtaposition that
the two sets stand vertical, one above the other. The races of
men which have that kind of dentition are called orthognate;
that is, straight-jawed races; while there are other races--and,
among others, all the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands and
all the inhabitants of Africa south of the Atlas--that have
their front teeth inclined, so that the upper teeth and the
lower teeth, when brought against one another, form an angle
and the mouth is more prominent; these men are called prognate.
And that difference is a constant one. All the races of men
with prognate jaws have also thicker and more prominent lips.
They have also flat noses, which I have already described, with
broad partitions between the nostrils, and the nostrils opening
sideways.--Prof. LOUIS AGASSIZ.

(2607)

RADIANCE, REFLECTED

The human soul may see God as veiled in the incarnation, tho we are told that none can look on Him (in His full glory) and live:

Lighting by “glow,” or by the reflection of rays from a dull
white surface, is becoming more and more common. According to
the writer of an article in _The American Magazine_, this
was first done on a large scale at the Chicago Exposition in
1893, where it was adopted by Luther Stieringer. The cafe of
the Adams House in Boston is lighted by a domed ceiling that
glows gently and evenly with the reflected light of hundreds
of invisible incandescent bulbs hidden around its base. In the
great blue dome of the great pillared reading-room of Columbia
University Library--the noblest educational building in the
country--hangs what is locally known as “the mothball,” a huge
globe of ground glass. It is perhaps a hundred feet above the
floor, yet at night, when four calcium lights are turned on it,
its subdued, reflected radiance fills the whole hall.

(2608)

RADIATION

God is eternally radiating His life into the universe as the sun from its glowing center rays forth heat:

The most recent estimates place the effective temperature of the
sun’s radiating surface at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

This vast globe of gases and vapors is radiating heat into
space, is cooling off. The intensely heated particles of the
interior rise to the surface, give off their heat, and sink back
again, just as do the bubbles of steam in a kettle of boiling
water. This circulation from within outward takes place over
the whole of the sun and, as a rule, it proceeds steadily and
quietly, without any marked disturbance.--CHARLES LANE
POOR, “The Solar System.”

(2609)

RANK, OBSEQUIOUSNESS TO

“In Europe, and especially in France, people have the greatest
regard for any one who has received a medal or other decoration
of honor,” said Dr. Helms, of Buffalo, in the course of a sermon
on “France and the French.” And to prove this he related a
little anecdote. “A friend of mine,” said Dr. Helms, “visiting
a popular summer resort in southern France, became annoyed at
the manner in which he was neglected in the dining-room. Men
who came in long after he did would be served, while he sat
unnoticed. Finally he became curious to know the reason for
this, and slipping a coin into the hand of a friendly-looking
waiter, he asked him why it was.

“‘Because,’ replied the waiter, ‘Mr. So-and-So belongs to the
Legion of Honor, and Mr. Blank has received the Order of St.
Michael, and Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones and all the others have
some decoration.’

“My friend was equal to the occasion,” added Mr. Helms. “In his
trunk up-stairs was the badge he had worn at the Republican
convention which nominated President Taft, and he wore it
prominently displaced on his coat lapel when he came down to
dine again. Thereafter he had no occasion to complain about
the service and nothing in the dining-room was too good for
him.”--Buffalo _Evening News_.

(2610)

=Rapidity in Nature=--See GROWTH IN NATURE.

RAPPORT

In missionary work, first and foremost, confidence must be
established and the heart won. The missionary may be learned,
may be hard-working and godly, may be earnest as John Knox, and
indefatigable as Mr. Moody, but if the people do not love him,
they will not listen to his doctrine. It is a terrible fact
that there are some missionaries on the field who are not loved
by the people. While unlovely and unloved, all they do is as
wood, hay, and stubble. As in wireless telegraphy, there must
be harmony of note between despatcher and receiver, so, ere
messages to the soul pass, despatcher missionary and receiver
Oriental must be in tune. What wonders you can do when the heart
is won! The multitude may hold you in its grip, from dawn till
sunset, still next day you are full of hope again. It is the
missionary in tune with God and with the heart of the East who
does the work. Let much emphasis be put on the right key as to
the heart, for therein lies the secret.--JAMES S. GALE,
“Korea in Transition.”

(2611)

=Rated High, Brought Low by Drink=--See DRINK, PERIL OF.

=Reaction, The Law of=--See CONFIDENCE, INSPIRING.

READINESS IN RETORT

Jedediah Burchard, the brilliant evangelist of the middle years
of the nineteenth century, who swept like a flame over New York
and New England, was holding great prayer-meetings at Danbury,
Conn., before his preaching services. At one of these crowded
prayer services, when many were asking prayers for unsaved
relatives and friends, and a young man had earnestly besought
prayer for an aged father, a blatant infidel who haunted the
meetings simply to interrupt, jumped up and said, “Mr. Burchard!
I want to ask prayers for--the Devil!” “Go right on praying,
brethren,” said Mr. Burchard, “this man also wants his father
prayed for!” That interrupter never again was heard of at a
meeting.

(2612)

READING BY SCHEDULE

Rev. W. H. Fitchett writes about a great Methodist pioneer a paragraph that shows how an education may be acquired by regular and persistent toil.

The Staffordshire peasant, Francis Asbury, traveling five
thousand miles a year, preaching incessantly, spending three
hours a day in prayer, and without a settled home, yet had it
as a fixt rule to read a hundred pages daily. He made himself a
scholar, and mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.--“Wesley and His
Century.”

(2613)

=Reading Current Literature=--See LITERATURE, CURRENT.

=Reading, Eloquent=--See LORD’S PRAYER INTERPRETED.

=Reading Indispensable=--See EDUCATION TO BE PRIZED.

=Reading the Gospel in Faces=--See FACE, THE, REVEALING
THE GOSPEL.

REALISM

The art of painting pictures so near to life as to deceive the
naked eye is very old. Pliny relates that Zeuxis once painted
some grapes so naturally that birds used to come and peck at
them, and that Parrhasius once painted a curtain so artfully
that Zeuxis desired to draw it aside so that he could see the
picture it hid. Discovering his error, he confest himself
outdone, as he had only imposed on birds, whereas Parrhasius had
deceived the human intellect. Another time Zeuxis painted a boy
with some grapes, and when the birds again flew at the grapes he
was very angry, saying that he was certainly at fault with the
picture. He reasoned that had it been perfect the birds would
have been frightened away by the boy.

Caius Valerius Flaccus says that Zeuxis’ death was occasioned by
an immoderate fit of laughter on looking at the comic picture he
had drawn of an old woman.--Philadelphia _Ledger_.

(2614)

REALISM, REFRAINING FROM

He came unto the door of heaven,
Free as of old and gay;
“What hast thou done,” the porter cried,
“That thou should’st pass this way?”

“Hast fed the hungry, clothed the poor?”
The vagrant shook his head.
“I drank my wine and I was glad,
But I did not give them bread.”

“Hast prayed upon the altar steps?”
“Nay, but I loved the sun.”
“Hast wept?” “The blossoms of the spring
I gathered every one.”

“But what fair deed can’st thou present?
Like light, one radiant beam?”
“I robbed no child of his fairy-tale,
No dreamer of his dream.”

--ANNA MCCLURE SHOLL, _Appleton’s_.

(2615)

REALITIES INVISIBLE

The schoolboy writes these figures on his slate: 2+2=4, and
says two and two make four. But the two and the two which he
has written on the slate do not make the four which he has
written on the slate. For both the twos are there unchanged,
and the four also. The two and two that make four are in his
head--invisible. The figures on the slate are not the realities,
they are only symbols which interpret the realities, and the
realities are invisible--LYMAN ABBOTT, _The Outlook_.

(2616)

REALITY

It takes actual experience to bring realization of many things that we thought we knew before. This is the way one of the passengers of the illfated steamship _Republic_ (January 23, 1909) speaks of her experience:

“I have read sea stories,” she said, “and have read time and
again of the command, ‘to the boats; women first,’ but, let me
tell you, I knew what it meant last Saturday morning for the
first time. Out of the fog-hidden night it came; I could not
trace the speaker at first, as we all huddled on the deck. Out
of the dark it came, straight and true and strong, and with
all the chivalry of man at his highest behind it. ‘Women and
children will enter the boat first.’ I think more of bravery now
that I know what it means; I think more of manhood. I am glad I
heard that command, as Captain Sealby hurled it at us through
his megaphone.”

(2617)

=Reality Exprest in a Dream=--See CHRIST IN THE CONGREGATION.

REALITY VERSUS ILLUSION

We should steer clear of a credulity that accepts ghosts and visions because some good people testify about them.

A whole ship’s company was thrown into the utmost consternation
by the apparition of the cook who had died a few days before. He
was distinctly seen walking ahead of the ship, with a peculiar
gait by which he was distinguished when alive, through having
one of his legs shorter than the other. On steering the ship
toward the object, it was found to be a piece of floating wreck.

It is not surprizing, therefore, that there are apparently
well-authenticated stories of ghosts who have been seen under
different circumstances by people, and, moreover, by people
of unquestioned mental ability, people of strong mentality
concerning whose integrity and reliability there can be no
question.--EDWIN J. HOUSTON, “The Wonder Book of Light.”

(2618)

=Reason, The Real=--See CONFIDENCE, LACK OF.

REASON VERSUS INSTINCT

A boy was asked to explain the difference between animal
instinct and human intelligence. “If we had instinct,” he said,
“we should know everything we needed to know without learning
it; but we’ve got reason, and so we have to study ourselves
’most blind or be a fool.”

(2619)

REASONABLE RELIGION

Mr. Robert E. Speer tells of going to the house of a friend in
Japan to meet a number of old Biblewomen who were being trained
for Christian service, some of whom were fifty or sixty years
of age before they found Christ. Mr. Speer asked them what
they found dearest in Christianity. He supposed they would say
that what they valued most was the moral peace and joy that it
brought them. Instead, these old women, some of whom had not
been able to read before they became Christians, said instantly
that what they prized most in Christianity was the intellectual
solution of their difficulties that it had brought. They had
come into contact with a Savior who had set their minds free.
Moral rest and peace were sweet, but it was sweeter still to
realize that they were at last serving a reasonable Master.
(Text.)

(2620)

REASONING POWER IN ANIMALS