Chapter M: E. Hume-Griffith, in her “Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish (2)

Does some Napoleon “wade through slaughter to a throne, and
shut the gates of mercy on mankind,” and break the hearts of a
million peasant women, and handicap the careers of ten millions
of orphan children? Recently when I used Napoleon in an address
as an illustration of unbridled and selfish ambition, and spoke
of him as a man raised up to correct the abuses of the French
Revolution, who ought to have imitated Washington and Jefferson,
and as a man of patriotism all compact concluded his career
without a mixture of meanness and sin, a score of people wrote
protesting against judging Napoleon by the ordinary standards
of morality. Does Goethe forget the law of marriage? For thirty
years cast the reins loose on the neck of passion? Use a score
of women as material and dynamic for literary work? It is said
Goethe was too great to be held down to the ordinary petty
rules that control the limited career of peasant souls. Does
Byron forget the law of sobriety, and fling himself into wild
excesses and lift the cup of flame to his lips? It is said that
Byron is a child of genius, quite beyond the pale of convention.
Does some Crœsus with the money-making gift get his hands on
the reins of power use his secret knowledge to secure exemption
from taxes and enjoy special privileges, freeing himself from
economic duties that his competitors must bear, not only for
themselves alone but for him? The excuse is that the moral laws
that hold for those that buy and sell a few pounds of groceries
are to be laid on the table and abrogated in the presence of the
merchant princes owning uncounted millions.

The biographies of great men are filled with excuses for great
generals who have been selfish, of poets who have been wild
and lawless, apologies for statesmen who have been drunken,
merchants who have been false. And the whole world has suffered
through this misconception. As men go toward greatness they go
toward responsibility and obligation. It is true that the great
man with his gifts must not be judged by ordinary rules--he must
be held to extraordinary rules and standards doubly severe.
Selfishness can be pardoned in a peasant soldier, not in a great
general.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2740)

=Responsibility of Privilege=--See PRIVILEGE INVOLVES
RESPONSIBILITY.

=Responsibility, Personal=--See PLACE, FILLING ONE’S.

=Responsibility, Sense of=--See PERSONAL PREACHING.

RESPONSIBILITY, UNDESIRABLE

The following Lincoln anecdote is quoted in the _Literary Digest_:

One evening, just before the close of the Civil War, he had
some visitors at the White House, among them some Senators and
members of Congress. One of the guests asked the President what
he would do with Jefferson Davis if he were captured. Crossing
his legs and looking at his friends with that peculiar twinkle
in his eyes, he said: “Gentlemen, that reminds me of an incident
of my home in Illinois. One morning, when I was on my way to the
office, I saw a small boy standing on a street corner crying as
if his heart would break. I asked him what was the cause of his
sorrow. He said, ‘Mister, don’t you see that coon?’ pointing to
a poor little beast that he had tied to a string. ‘Well, that
animal has given me a heap of trouble all the way along, and now
he has nearly gnawed the string in two. I wish to goodness he
would gnaw it in two and get away, so I could go home and tell
my folks he had escaped from me.’”

(2741)

RESPONSIVENESS

One of the wonders of China is the Bell Temple near Peking. Its
great curiosity is the great bell. It was cast five centuries
ago and weighs fifty-three and a half tons--the largest hanging
bell in the world. It is covered all over with extracts from
the Buddhist canon, in Chinese characters. It is rung by means
of a huge hanging timber swung against it, calling forth tones
the sweetest, most melodious, and resounding, as if echoing the
chords of eternity. But the striking thing about this great
bell is that its tones vary in proportion to the quality of the
sounding-board receiving them.

Does not a ringing truth or a loving deed depend upon the response it gets?

(2742)

* * * * *

We are told that if one were to suspend a bell weighing a
hundred tons, and a little child were to stand beneath it and
play upon a flute, the vibrations of the air produced by the
playing of the flute would cause the bell to tremble like a
living thing and resound through all its mass.

As bell responds to flute, so the heart of the Christian responds to the music of the message that issues from that manger cradle of the Babe of Bethlehem. The time will come when the music from that manger shall melt into itself all earth’s Babel sounds and fill the world with harmony.--J. D. FREEMAN, “Concerning the Christ.”

(2743)

REST

There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music
in it. In our whole life-melody the music is broken off here
and there by “rests,” and we foolishly think that we have come
to the end of the time. God sends a time of forced leisure,
sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts, and makes a
sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives, and we lament
that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the
music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. How does the
musician read the rest? See him beat the time with unvarying
counts and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no
breaking place had come between. Not without design does God
write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and
not be dismayed at the “rests.” They are not to be slurred over,
not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the
keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us.
With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and
clear. If we say sadly to ourselves, “There is no music in a
rest,” let us not forget “there is making of music in it.”

(2744)

=Rest-day, Weekly=--See SUNDAY WORK DISCONTINUED.

RESTITUTION

One of the strangest wills ever made was that of George Brown,
Jr., the noted gambler and race-horse man, which was filed in
the Probate Court at Kansas City, Mo., recently. “It is my
desire, as far as possible,” a clause of the will reads, “to
repay every person, man, woman and child, any money which I may
have won from him by gambling during my lifetime; and I direct
my executor to make efforts to learn their names and reimburse
them to the full amount, with interest from the day the money
was won.” This penitent gambler has set an example here which it
would be well for those to follow who make larger pretensions to
integrity. There are some wrongs to fellow men which never can
be repaired, but there are others that can and should be made
right. (Text.)

(2745)

* * * * *

General John Gibson, of Ohio, in old age was asked what he was
doing. Said he: “Well, I am a very old man, and I suppose that
most people would think I am not doing much of anything. But,
to tell the truth, I am trying to hunt up every person whom
I have wronged in life, and if I can find them, to ask their
forgiveness and make atonement for all the wrongs I have done.
And I am trying to be as good and kind and loving to all my
neighbors as I know how. And I am becoming one of the biggest
beggars for mercy at the Bank of Grace you ever saw. In short,
during the little time that is left me on earth, I am fixing up
for a mighty big funeral.”

It is no small duty to make amends for all the wrong-doing of a life whether long or short.

(2746)

RESTORATION

The following illustration is from a sermon by Dr. Henry Van Dyke;

The portrait of Dante is painted on the walls of the Bargello,
at Florence. For many years it was supposed that the picture had
utterly perished. Men had heard of it but no one living had ever
seen it. But presently came an artist who was determined to find
it again. He went into the place where tradition said that it
had been painted. The room was used as a storeroom for lumber
and straw. The walls were covered with dirty whitewash. He had
the heaps of rubbish carried away, and patiently and carefully
removed the whitewash from the wall. Lines and colors long
hidden began to appear, and at last the grave, lofty, noble face
of the great poet looked out again upon the world of light.

“That was wonderful,” you say; “that was beautiful!” Not half so
wonderful as the work which Christ came to do in the heart of
man--to restore the forgotten image of God and bring the divine
image to the light.

(2747)

* * * * *

The blood of Christ is a symbol under which is often described the vitality of divine life restoring the image of God in the soul of the sinner. An illustration from nature of this process may be found in this extract:

A valuable discovery has been made whereby the faded ink on
old parchments may be so restored as to render the writing
perfectly legible. The process consists in moistening the paper
with water, and then passing over the lines in writing a brush
which has been wet in a solution of ammonia. The writing will
immediately appear quite dark in color; and this color, in the
case of parchment, it will preserve. On paper, however, the
color gradually fades again; but it may be restored at pleasure
by the application of the sulfid. The explanation of the action
of this substance is very simple. The iron which enters into the
composition of the ink is transformed by the reaction into black
sulfid.--_Electrical Review._

(2748)

See NATURE’S RECUPERATIVE POWERS.

RESTORATION IN NATURE

“It is a libel on Nature,” says Dr. Ambrose Shepherd, “to declare that it never forgives. On the contrary, Nature is ever seeking to repair injuries and to forgive errors.”

Every surgeon knows that but for nature’s restoring tendencies
his skill would be applied in vain. Illustrative demonstrations
of these beneficent proclivities multiply daily. When an
accident happens in which a limb is broken, what follows? With
surgical assistance the fracture is set and the limb is bound up
and left to rest for a time. Nature instantly, delicately, but
powerfully and unerringly begins the beautiful and wonderful
process of reparation. The cementing of the broken parts is
mysteriously inaugurated. But, of course, much depends on a
man’s previous life. If he has been a wise man, nature works
rapidly; if a fool, more slowly; but nature always seeks to work
in the direction of restoration. (Text.)

(2749)

RESTORING GOD’S IMAGE

Not long ago, a lady living in Hartford, Conn., bought at an
auction in New York a painting begrimed with smoke and dirt. Her
friends laughed at her for buying such a “worthless daub,” but
she took the picture to a restorer of old paintings, who, after
hours of patient labor in removing the dirt, brought to view a
beautiful sixteenth century painting, representing a mother with
her children. The painting is of almost priceless value. The
penny they brought the Master was coined from base metal, but
the image on it gave it value.

We are made in the image of God, and that makes us precious in His sight. The skin may be black or yellow, or brown or white--it matters not. Sin may have obscured the image, but we are Christ’s coins; He paid a great price for us, and seeks in every possible way to restore in us the image of Himself. (Text.)

(2750)

RESTRAINT

A traveler among the Alpine heights says:

We were at the foot of Mt. Blanc, in the village of Chamouni. A
sad thing had happened the day before we reached the village.
A young physician, of Boston, had determined to reach the
heights of Mt. Blanc. He accomplished the feat, and the little
village was illuminated in his honor; the flag was flying from
the little hut on the mountain side--that all who have visited
Chamouni well remember--that told of his victory. But after he
had ascended and descended in safety, as far as the hut, he
wanted then to be relieved from his guide; he wanted to be free
from the rope, and he insisted that he could go alone. The guide
remonstrated with him, told him it was not safe, but he was
tired of the rope and declared he would be free of it. The guide
had to yield. The young man had only gone a short distance when
his foot slipt on the ice and he could not stop himself from
sliding down the inclined icy steeps. The rope was gone so the
guide could not hold him or pull him back. And out on a shelving
piece of ice lay the dead body of the young physician, as it
was pointed out to me. The bells had been rung, the village
illuminated in honor of his success, but, alas, in a fatal
moment he refused to be guided; he was tired of the rope.

The restraints of life are usually salutary. Those of the gospel always so. (Text.)

(2751)

* * * * *

Wild forces may be sublime and majestic, but it is when force submits to authority that it becomes power for usefulness, for service, for benefit.

Venice lies in a lovely and gentle series of lagoons. The sea,
which is terrible in storms when it is uncircumscribed, has here
built barriers of sand in which it becomes self-restrained. In
the lagoons the Adriatic is tamed to rest, and even in furious
weather it remains tranquil. It has lost its recklessness
and terror but has gained in beauty, reflecting everything
in pictures of incomparable loveliness. The sea at Venice by
sacrifice enters into service and ministers both utility and
charm to humanity. Over the quiet lagoons are built scores
of bridges, and along their borders stand lines of stately
edifices, and here stands in its matchless beauty a city unique
in the world. (Text.)

(2752)

See PROHIBITION.

RESULTS AS EVIDENCE

I get into what were once the Black Lands, of Arizona, known
as the great American desert, and I find it blossoming with
fertility, and I say, “How is this?” The reply is that
irrigation has been established. How can you prove it? Look
about you. It is interesting to know what engineers built the
reservoirs on the mountain tops and how much they cost, but
the evidence that they have been built are the rills of water
running through the land and the crops growing there. Now I
look upon the world that nineteen centuries ago was desert and
I see flowers of hope and fruits of love and visions of faith
springing up. That is the evidence.--LYMAN ABBOTT.

(2753)

RESULTS ENLARGED BY GOD

When David Livingstone went to Africa there was a Scottish woman
by the name of Mrs. MacRobert who was quite advanced in years.
As she was unable to go herself she gave Livingstone thirty
pounds which she had saved and said, “When you go into Africa I
want you to spare yourself unnecessary exposure and bodily toil
by hiring some competent servant, who shall go with you wherever
you go and share your sacrifices and your exposures.” With that
money he hired the faithful Sebalwe, who saved him from death
by a lion, and this added those last thirty years of wonderful
service to the world.

(2754)

=Results not Processes=--See SILENT PROCESSES.

RESULTS OF GOOD DEEDS

Charles Mackay writes of the good that is done by apparently insignificant services:

A little stream had lost its way
Amid the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scooped a well,
Where weary men might turn;
He walled it in and hung with care
A ladle at the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
But judged that all might drink.
He passed again, and lo! the well,
By summer never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues,
And saved a life beside.

A nameless man, amid a crowd
That thronged the daily mart
Let fall a word of hope and love,
Unstudied from the heart;
A whisper on the tumult thrown,
A transitory breath--
It raised a brother from the dust,
It saved a soul from death.
O germ! O fount! O word of love!
O thought at random cast!
Ye were but little at the first,
But mighty at the last.

(2755)

=Results Unforeseen=--See ONE, WINNING.

RESULTS VERSUS DISPLAY

It is not by the number of discourses that you can test the
effect of the ministry of any preacher, but has it brought those
who heard him nearer to the divine life, nearer to the life
in God? Sir Astley Cooper, when in Paris once, met the chief
surgeon in France, who told him about a difficult operation he
had performed. He said: “I have performed this operation 160
times; how often have you performed it?” Sir Astley replied:
“I have performed it thirteen times.” “And how many of your
operations were successful?” “Eleven of my cases have lived.”
said Sir Astley; “how many of yours?” The great French surgeon
replied: “All my 160 cases have died, but the operation was most
brilliant.”

(2756)

RESURRECTION

The following gives an idea of the strong faith of D. L. Moody; it is the law of the resurrection in operation:

“Some day,” he said, “you will read in the papers that D. L.
Moody is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. At that moment
I shall be more alive than I am now. That which is born of the
spirit will live forever.” (Text.)

(2757)

See JUDGMENT DAY.

RESUSCITATION

Lamar Fontaine describes his sensations when he was about to be buried alive after being desperately wounded on the battle-field:

Some time in the night I heard the approach of voices and the
tramp of men. Soon I heard the sound of picks and spades and
caught the gleam of lanterns, and knew a burial-party was on
the field, and that surgeons, with their attendants, had come
to pick up and care for the wounded. Again and again I tried
to speak, but no sound came. Presently I felt the jar of the
picks and spades as they dug a grave by my side, and then I felt
a strong hand grasp my head and another my feet, and lift me
clear of the ground. There was a sharp click, and then a loud
buzzing sound in my ears, and my whole body was in an agony of
pain. A fearful thirst tortured me. I spoke, and my friends let
me drop suddenly to the ground. The jar awoke every faculty to
life. I asked for water, and at once a strong light was flashed
in my face, a rubber canteen applied to my lips, and I felt
a life-giving stream of cold, refreshing water flow down my
swollen throat, and seemingly into every part of my frame.--“My
Life and My Lectures.”

(2758)

RETALIATION

During the South African War, when that country was under
martial law, every letter which was sent home had to pass
through the hands of the press censor.

A private in the Yorkshire Volunteers had sent four or five
letters home, telling his parents about the doings of the
regiment, which portions had been obliterated by the censor, and
were therefore unreadable on their arrival at the destination.

He decided to get square with the censor, and at the foot of the
next letter he wrote the following words:

“Please look under the stamp.”

“At the censor’s office the letter was opened and read as usual.
The officer in charge spent some time in steaming the stamp
from the envelop so that he could read the message which he was
certain he would find there.

At last his patience was rewarded; but his feelings can be
better imagined than described when he read these words:

“Was it hard to get off?”--_Tid-Bits._

(2759)

* * * * *

We never can tell when rudeness and ill-manners may return upon our own heads:

George Ade, in the early days of his career, before his
“Fables in Slang” had brought him fame, says the New York
_Tribune_, called one morning in Chicago upon a Sunday
editor, on a mission from a theatrical manager.

“I have brought you this manuscript,” he began, but the editor,
looking up at the tall, timid youth, interrupted:

“Just throw the manuscript in the waste-basket, please,” he
said. “I’m very busy just now, and haven’t time to do it myself.”

Mr. Ade obeyed calmly. He resumed:

“I have come from the ---- Theater, and the manuscript I have
just thrown in the waste-basket is your comic farce of ‘The
Erring Son,’ which the manager asks me to return to you with
thanks. He suggests that you sell it to an undertaker, to be
read at funerals.”

Then Mr. Ade smiled gently and withdrew.

(2760)

RETARDATION

Many Christians converted years ago show no more progress than the subject of this sketch:

“There is a young man in England,” says _The Dietetic and
Hygienic Gazette_, “who at the age of twenty-four is
developing at the rate of only one-sixth of that of the average
human being. At present he is learning his alphabet and can
count up to ten only. During the last nineteen years he has
eaten but three meals a week, has slept twenty-four hours and
played twenty-four hours, without the slightest variation. In
spite of his twenty-four years he looks no older than a boy of
four or five and is only thirty-six inches in height. For the
same period his development physically and mentally has been at
only one-sixth the ordinary rate, while absolutely regular and
perfect in every other way. At his birth this child weighed ten
pounds and in no way differed from any other child. He grew and
thrived in the usual way until he attained the age of five. Then
his progress was suddenly and mysteriously arrested, and since
then six years have been the same to him as one year to the
normal person. He has attracted the attention of many medical
and scientific men, more than one of whom has exprest the
conviction that this remarkable man will live to be no less than
three centuries old.” (Text.)

(2761)

RETICENCE

There are times and circumstances in which one may well refuse to be pumped of what he knows.

A Scotch laddie was summoned to give evidence against his
father. “Come, my wee mon, tell us what ye ken aboot this
affair.” “Weel, ye ken Inverness Street?” “I do, laddie,” said
his worship. “Weel, ye gang along and turn into the square.”
“Yes, yes.” “Turn to the right up into High Street till ye come
to a pump.” “I know the old pump well,” said his honor. “Weel,”
added the laddie, “ye may gang and pump it, for ye’ll no pump
me.”

(2762)

RETORT, A

President Taft was hissed by a number of women when he was
courageous enough to confess at the convention of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association that he was not altogether
in favor of women having the right to vote. President Taft was
welcoming the delegates to Washington, but told them frankly
that he was not altogether in sympathy with the suffrage
movement. He said he thought one of the dangers in granting
suffrage to women is that women as a whole are not interested
in it, and that the power of the ballot, so far as women
are concerned, would be controlled “by the least desirable
citizens.” When these words fell from the President’s lips
the walls of the convention hall echoed a chorus of feminine
hisses. It was no feeble demonstration of protest. The combined
hisses sounded as if a valve on a steam-engine had broken,
according to one correspondent. President Taft stood unmoved
during the demonstration of hostilities, for the hisses lasted
only a moment, and then smiling as he spoke he answered the
unfavorable greeting with this retort: “Now, my dear ladies,
you must show yourself capable of suffrage by exercising
that degree of restraint which is necessary in the conduct
of government affairs, by not hissing.” The women who had
made the demonstration were duly rebuked. The suffrage cause
was undoubtedly hurt by the demonstration, as the President,
regardless of his personal views, is entitled to consideration
and respectful attention.--_Wisconsin Farmer._

(2763)

=Retort Effecting a Change=--See ECCENTRICITY.

RETORT, PERSONAL

Victor Hugo did not love the brilliant son of Alexander Dumas,
and when the latter was a boy the poet was very fond of snubbing
him. It is on record that one day young Dumas asked Victor
Hugo why he did not allow his children to take walks and have
talks with him. “It is,” answered the poet, “because Mme. Hugo
is alarmed about your morals. She is afraid you will lead away
the boys; in short, you pass for having violent passions.”
“Monsieur,” said the young Dumas, looking the poet in the eye,
“if one has no passions at twenty he is likely to have vices
at forty.” A day or two afterward the elder Dumas, meeting
with Hugo, said: “How do you like my son? Do you not think he
is witty?” “Yes,” said Hugo, “but he makes very bad use of his
wit.”--Philadelphia _Press_.

(2764)

=Retracing Steps=--See BARRIERS.

RETREAT DISCOURAGED

The battle of the Cowpens, altho hardly more than a skirmish
when tried by modern standards, was in its day, according to the
British historian Stedman, “a very principal link in the chain
of circumstances which led to the independence of America.” To
draw up an inferior force for a pitched battle directly in front
of a broad river has always seemed to the military critics very
imprudent. But this very act showed the daring and the foresight
of Morgan. When blamed he afterward answered: “I would not have
had a swamp in view of my militia on any consideration; they
would have made for it, and nothing could have detained them
from it.... As to retreat, it was the very thing I wished to cut
off all hope of. I would have thanked Tarleton had he surrounded
me with his cavalry.” Braver and shrewder words never were
spoken by a military commander.--THOMAS W. HIGGINSON.

(2765)

RETRIBUTION IN THE INDIVIDUAL

What is true of the mass is first true of the atom; what is
true of the ocean is first true of the drop. It is easy to see
the law of retribution when it is exemplified in the broad
effects of national calamity, but not so easy to apprehend its
action in the individual fortune. We stand in awe over the
shattered greatness and buried splendor of Egypt, Babylon,
Judea, Phoenicia, Greece; but the ruin that sin works in the
individual destiny is just as certain, and infinitely more
awful. If we could once see a soul in ruins, we should never
speak again of Nineveh, Memphis, Jerusalem, Tyre, Athens.
“Deceive not yourselves.” (Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON,
“The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(2766)

RETRIBUTION INEVITABLE

With great injustice and cruelty the French drove out the
Huguenots, but in expelling these sons of faith, genius,
industry, virtue, the French fatally impoverished their national
life, and they are suffering to-day from these missing elements
which none may restore. It is impossible for a people to
increase in material wealth and political consideration while
its true grandeur, its greatness of soul, is gradually passing
away. Very strange and subtle are the causes of the decay of
nations, and little by little, quite unconsciously, does a
people lose the great qualities which made it. Poets lose their
fire, artists their imagination, merchants their enterprise,
statesmen their sagacity, soldiers their heroism, the people
their self-control; literature becomes commonplace, art
lifeless, great men dwindle into mediocrities, good men perish
from the land, and the glory of a nation departs, leaving only a
shell, a shadow, a memory. Retribution may not come suddenly,
but it will come.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured
Sackcloth.”

(2767)

=Retribution, Just=--See RESPONSIBILITY EVADED.

RETRIBUTION, THE LAW OF

For centuries did the kings and nobles of France oppress the
peasantry. It is impossible for us to think adequately of the
vast, hopeless wretchedness of the people from the cradle to the
grave. When Louis XVI came to the throne it seemed incredible
that the long-suffering people would ever avenge themselves
upon the powerful classes by whom they were ground to the dust,
and yet by a marvelous series of events the “wounded men”
arose in awful wrath, burning palaces with fire and trampling
greatness under foot. “Pierced through” were those hungry,
hopeless millions; but the day of doom came, and every bleeding
wretch arose invincible with torch and sword.--W. L.
WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(2768)

RETRIEVED SITUATION, A

When Senator Hanna was walking through his factory in Cleveland
some years ago, says _The National Magazine_, on the
lookout for new ideas, or anything which would aid the progress
of business, he overheard a little red-headed lad remark:

“Wish I had old Hanna’s money, and he was in the poorhouse.”

The Senator returned to his office and rang to have the boy
sent to him. The boy came to the office timidly, just a bit
conscience-stricken, wondering if his remark had been overheard
and ready for the penalty. As the lad twisted his hands and
nervously stood on one foot before the gaze of those twinkling
dark eyes fixt on him by the man at the desk, he felt the hand
of Uncle Mark on his shoulder.

“So you wish you had old Hanna’s money, and he was in the
poorhouse, eh? Suppose your wish should be granted, what would
you do?”

“Why,” stammered the lad, “the first thing I would do, sir,
would be to get you out of the poorhouse.”

The Senator laughed and sent the boy back to his work. To-day he
is one of the managers of a large factory, but he never tires of
telling the story that held his first job.

(2769)

=Retrogression=--See DOWN GRADE, THE.

RETROSPECT

We all know what distance does. Standing on the floor of a
cathedral in St. Petersburg, the loud conversation of the
multitudes surging in and out seems to roar in the ear. But
standing in the tiny dome, three hundred feet above, all the
harshness is strained out and the sounds become song. Those who
dwell inland know how the trees strain out the roughness, and
the surge and the roar of the waves turn to music, falling on
the fluted tree-tops. Near at hand the frescoes in the cathedral
dome are blotches of blue and red; from the floor beneath they
melt into the most exquisite tints, and shaded lines proclaim
the genius of an artist. For the architect planned that dome to
be seen from afar, and God plans the events of childhood and
youth to be surveyed from the summit of maturity.--N. D.
HILLIS.

(2770)

=Reunion=--See FUTURE REUNION.

=Revealing Stolen Property=--See EXPOSURE.

=Revelation=--See UTTERANCE.

=Revenge=--See ANGER, FUTILE.

REVENGE, A CHRISTIAN’S

A bed in the Bannu mission hospital in India is known as “The
Christian’s Revenge.” It is supported by a sister of Captain
Conolly, who was cruelly murdered by order of the Ameer of
Bokhara after long incarceration and many tortures, because he
refused to become a Mussulman. She endowed this bed twenty-one
years after the captain’s death, when a full account of his
sufferings, written by his own hand in prison, came unexpectedly
to light, a little prayer-book containing the record coming into
the hands of his relatives.

That bed is an object-lesson to the inmates and visitors of the hospital, teaching the gentle and forgiving spirit that the gospel of Jesus ever breathes and inculcates.

(2771)

REVERENCE FOR PARENTS

The family of Jonathan Edwards consisted of three sons and
eight daughters. It is said that when Mr. Edwards and his wife
entered the room the children rose and remained standing until
father and mother were seated. (Text.)

(2772)

REVERSED ATTITUDE

The moral health of some could be restored only by turning their thoughts and inclinations upside down, as patients are treated according to this description:

In France, when a patient is under chloroform, on the slightest
symptom appearing of failure of the heart, they turn him nearly
upside down--that is, with his head downward and his heels
in the air. This, they say, always restores him; and such is
their faith in the efficacy of this method that the operating
tables in the Paris hospitals are made so that in an instant
they can be elevated with one end in the air, so as to bring
the patient into a position resembling that of standing on the
head.--_Scientific American._

(2773)

=Reversion of Nature=--See CIRCULATION IMPEDED.

REVIVAL

In some neglected church-yards there are old inscriptions so
moss-grown and weather-beaten that they can no longer be easily
deciphered. So there are men who in early life were marked by
high and noble principles, which the wear of the world has
almost destroyed in them. They need a thorough regeneration to
revive the old lines and ideals of duty and character.

(2774)

* * * * *

Like pneumatic tires, the Church needs to be “pumped up” by special efforts from time to time. The same is true of the individual.

Pneumatic tires, whether on a bicycle or an automobile, always
become more or less deflated in the course of time, even when
there is no puncture and the valves are perfectly tight. All
cyclists and chauffeurs know that a tire needs pumping up, from
time to time, to keep it hard and rigid. This is because the
enclosed air constantly tends to escape through the envelop; the
phenomenon, which is due to what chemists call osmose, is quite
complex and is worth attention. (Text.)--_Cosmos._

(2775)

=Reviving the Forgotten=--See MEMORY RENEWED.

REVOLUTION, CAUSES OF

It becomes us to watch carefully against crowding society to
that point of compression where the mass of men have nothing to
lose and little to live for, with the balance rather in favor
of dying. Then the last argument, the bayonet, fails against a
people whom it is of no use to kill. They are the innumerable
majority. A citizen soldiery sickens at the work of slaughter,
and like the soldiers of France in the Revolution, will walk
over to the mob, guns and all. Then, what are you going to do?
How far are our great cities from that condition? Go through
the “slums” and see. Look at the wan faces leaning from high
windows for a breath of what is not the air of heaven. See the
pallid little children in broken rocking-chairs sitting out
on the balconies of the fire-escapes, or the five-year-old
holding the two-year-old from falling out as they lean over the
window-sill. Coming on the elevated road through such a scene
one sultry evening lately, the writer saw a woman sitting near a
window with a look of unutterable sadness; and, while we looked,
a stout man in shirt sleeves came across the room, stooped down
and kissed her. She looked up at him pitifully but despairingly,
shook her head, and began wiping away the tears. Then the swift
train whirled us from where hearts were breaking. It is ill for
such men to reach the point where they know that no toil, no
frugality, no self-denial can make things any better to-morrow,
or next year, or ten years hence--that no work of arm or brain
can lift his face from the grindstone, and that this--or
worse--is all the inheritance he can leave his children. Then
the sight of a carriage with gold-caparisoned horses, a flash
of a diamond, or the sweep of a silk dress will make that man
clench his fist. Thousands of such will pull down a Bastile with
their bare hands. And in the midst of all this, social leaders
withdraw into a little clique and parade and proclaim their
fewness--they are “the Four Hundred.”--J. C. FERNALD,
_The Statesman_.

(2776)

=Reward for Service=--See COURAGE, MORAL.

REWARD, RIDICULOUS

During the heavy rains and floods in the cantons of Geneva and
Vaud at the end of January (1910), a Swiss railway gatekeeper at
level crossing named Allaman, hearing an unusual hissing sound,
walked along the lines, having a presentiment that there was
something wrong. He found that a stream flowing from the Jura
mountains into Lake Geneva had become a torrent, and overflowing
its banks had swept away about thirty yards of the permanent
way, leaving the rails suspended in the air.

As the Geneva-Lausanne express traveling at sixty miles an hour
was due in a few minutes and would be precipitated into the
torrent with its sixty passengers, Allaman ran to his little
house for a red flag and stopt the express fifty yards from
the suspended rails, and then returned home pleased with the
fact that he had prevented a terrible accident. Some days ago
the news of the affair arrived at the Bern headquarters of the
Federal Railway Company, and the Swiss managers thought that
such an act on the part of a gatekeeper should be rewarded.

Allaman received his reward this morning for saving the express
and its sixty travelers from destruction. The reward was 8s.,
which works out at 1½d. a life.

If the accident had occurred the Federal Railway Company
would have been obliged to pay between £8,000 and £10,000
damages.--Pittsburg _Sun_.

(2777)

REWARD, THOUSANDFOLD

In India a number of years ago there lived a good Christian
English judge who was a warm supporter of missions. It came to
his ears that a certain rich native, possessor of an indigo
farm, had been cast out of his home and had lost everything
because of acknowledging Christ as Lord. “Let him come to me,”
said the judge, “I will employ him as a household servant.” So
Norbuder came and was child’s attendant in the judge’s family.
Every evening after dinner the judge assembled the household for
family prayers, and read the Scripture from the native version.
One day he came to the verse, “There is no man that hath left
home or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom
of God’s sake who shall not receive an hundredfold and shall
inherit everlasting life.” The judge paused and looked at the
dark eyes fixt on him, and said, “None of us have left houses or
lands or wife or children for Christ’s sake but you, Norbuder.
Will you tell us, is it true what this verse says?” Quietly
Norbuder took up the Mahratti Testament and read the verse
through. Then he raised his hand and said, “He says He gives a
hundredfold; I know He gives a thousandfold.”

(2778)

=Rewards, Pecuniary=--See MOTIVE, MERCENARY.

REWARDS, SPIRITUAL

Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out the shop to-morrow morning,
finds sixpence lying among the orange-boxes. Well, nobody has
missed it. He puts it in his pocket, and it begins to burn a
hole there. By breakfast-time he wishes that sixpence were
in his master’s pocket. And by and by he goes to his master.
He says (to himself, and not to his master), “I was at the
Boys’ Brigade yesterday, and I was to seek first that which
was right.” Then he says to his master, “Please, sir, here is
sixpence that I found upon the floor.” The master puts it in the
till. What has the boy got in his pocket? Nothing; but he has
got the kingdom of God in his heart. He has laid up treasure in
heaven, which is of infinitely more worth than sixpence. Now,
that boy does not find a shilling on his way home. I have known
that to happen, but that is not what is meant by “adding.” It
does not mean that God is going to pay him in his own coin, for
He pays in better coin. (Text.)--HENRY DRUMMOND.

(2779)

=Rhythm=--See MUSIC, GOOD CHEER IN.

=Riches=--See WEALTH, COMPARATIVE.

RICHES, IMAGINARY

A Russian folk-story tells of a man who entered a diamond-mine
in quest of riches. He filled his pockets with precious stones,
and forthwith flung them all away to make room for larger ones.
Thirst coming on, he was dismayed to find that there was no
water. In his delirium he imagined he could hear the flow of
water, which proved, however, to be the flow of gems and jewels
running in rivers and falling in cascades.

Only one thing could meet his need in his dire distress, and that was, not imaginary wealth, but real water. So it is with the soul. (Text.)

(2780)

RICHES UNREALIZED

George MacDonald, in one of his stories, tells of a father and
his daughter who lived in an old Scotch castle in poverty, while
all the time in a secret cupboard were masses of jewels which
had been put there by an ancestor long years before.

Many a soul is living in poverty of life and experience equally ignorant of the wealth of joy and service that has been laid up for him in the purpose of God. (Text.)

(2781)

=Riddles of Life=--See SPHINX, THE.

RIDICULE, APT

A very self-respecting and self-asserting bon vivant showed his
desire to cut down the fees of waiters to a minimum and at the
same time to ridicule the whole system. As the waiter held out
his itching palm for the gratuity the epicure dropt a cent into
it. “Oh, sir, you’ve made a mistake!” blurted out the waiter.
“No,” replied the donor, with an air of dignified benevolence;
“I never give less.”--TAVERNER, Boston _Post_.

(2782)

=Ridicule Rebuked=--See KINDNESS.

=Right and Wrong=--See ETHICAL PRINCIPLE.

RIGHT LIVING

What is right living? Just to do your best
When worst seems easiest. To bear the ills
Of daily life with patient cheerfulness,
Nor waste dear time recounting them. To talk
Of hopeful things when doubt is in the air.
To count your blessings often, giving thanks,
And to accept your sorrows silently,
Nor question why you suffer. To accept
The whole of life as one perfected plan,
And welcome each event as part of it.
To work, and love your work; to trust, to pray
For larger usefulness and clearer sight,
This is right living, pleasing in God’s eyes.

--ANONYMOUS.

(2783)

RIGHT, TRIUMPH OF

Too apt are we to forget the need of patience and to lose sight of the promise of a sure reward to those who are not weary in well-doing.

For two generations in the Turkish Empire, during the latter
half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the
twentieth, the world at large took little notice of the obscure
party known as the Young Turks, seeing that its representatives
for a long period consisted mainly of exiles whose lot seemed
to be hopeless. But one day it was reported to the amazement of
the whole world that six hundred young officers of the Turkish
army had gone up to the mountains at Monastir, and had startled
the Sultan by sending a telegram to Constantinople demanding
the convocation of the Parliament which he had supprest long
before. Rigid orders were immediately sent from the capital to
shoot them to the very last man. Now these officers formed the
flower and hope of the country. They were brave, cultured, and
patriotic, and the rest of the army well-knew their quality.
The regiment from Anatolia sent to shoot them not only refused
to raise arms against their brethren, but immediately joined
them, and regiment after regiment followed suit. Then came the
revolution and the reward of those who had waited so long.
(Text.)

(2784)

RIGHT VERSUS EXPEDIENCY

During the unparalleled excitement caused by Wilkes’ outlawry
in 1768, Lord Mansfield, on pronouncing the judgment of the
King’s Bench reversing the outlawry, discoursed on the terrors
held out against judges, and the attempts at intimidating
them. He said: “I honor the king and respect the people, but
many things acquired by the favor of either are in my account
objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is that
popularity which follows not that which is run after; it
is that popularity which sooner or later never fails to do
justice to the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will
not do that which my conscience tells me is wrong upon this
occasion to gain the huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise
of all the papers which come from the press. I will not avoid
doing what I think is right tho it should draw on me the
whole artillery of libels--all that falsehood and malice can
invent, or the credulity of a deluded populace can swallow.”
(Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(2785)

=Righteousness=--See CONVICTIONS, STRONG.

=Rights Preferred to Privilege=--See POLITENESS.

RISK

It is better to go down on the great seas which human hearts
were made to sail than to rot at the wharves in ignoble
anchorage.--HAMILTON W. MABIE.

(2786)

RISK SHIFTED

A young lady, in giving her reasons for preferring a particular
church, remarked that she “liked it best because it allowed
its members to dance.” She had been brought up to regard this
as inconsistent for a professor of religion. She could not help
feeling that it was running a risk to try to get to heaven and
carry the world with her. But here was comfort. She had found a
religious guide on which she could, as she fancied, shift off
the responsibility. Instead of deciding for herself, in the
light of Christ’s teachings, she chose to take a second-hand
opinion of a mere man as a rule.

One is reminded of an incident related by Dr. Whately, of
an old bridge which had long been thought unsafe even for
foot passengers. People usually went a considerable distance
around rather than venture upon it. But one evening a woman in
great haste came up to the bridge before she reflected on its
unsafe condition. It was late, and she had yet to dress for a
party. She could not go all the way around, tho still afraid
to venture. At last a happy thought seemed to strike her. She
called for a sedan chair, and was carried over. Now the young
lady who desired to follow the world and go to heaven too, was
afraid to trust her own judgment on the subject of dancing.
She feared the tottering arch might give way, and she be lost
forever. To make all safe, she added to the weight of her own
chance of error the additional chances of her human authority
being wrong also.

(2787)

=Risking Life=--See COOLNESS IN DANGER.

=Rivalry=--See STIMULUS FROM RIVALRY.

RIVERS OF GOD

The Rev. Thomas G. Selby says:

Copious and unfailing rivers run just beneath the burning
desolations of the Sahara. Twenty or thirty feet under the
sand-drifts there is an impervious sheet of rock which prevents
the escape of the collected rain-waters. It is easy to see the
oasis, but not so easy to track the windings of the hidden
river. The skilled engineer can get at the river, bring it
up through his wells, and change the desert into an earthly
paradise.

Society at large is not the dreary, all-devouring, illimitable
ethical waste we often imagine. The rivers of God flow under
natures we call reprobate, and create penitential moods which
are the earnest of a coming righteousness. It is easy to map out
the strips of moral fruitfulness which appear here and there in
the world, but not so easy to find the deep secret contrition of
those who are often classed as abandoned outcasts. The Savior
of the world has an insight into character which enables him to
see promise where men less sympathetic and discerning see the
black marks of reprobation; and the angels share the visions of
the Lord on whom they wait. It is by His art, as the Prophet
of coming good, that the desert is made to bloom.--“The Divine
Craftsman.”

(2788)

=Robbery, Moral=--See REPENTANCE, LATE.

ROBBING JUSTIFIED

A wife has a right to rob her husband, in some cases, according
to a decision of Judge Gemmell in the Municipal Court (Chicago).
Gustave H. DeKolkey had had his wife arrested for taking money
from him by force.

“My wife robbed me right in my own home,” said DeKolkey. “She
got a boarder and her brother to help hold me. Then she went
through my pockets and got $11.”

Mrs. DeKolkey was led up in front of the court’s desk.

“Did you rob him?” asked the judge.

“Yes, I did,” she said. “There was no other way to get money out
of him. He hasn’t given me a cent for over a year. So I decided
to rob him. I called my brother and we held him and I got what
was in his pockets.”

“This is a plain case of robbery,” said the judge, “but it was
perfectly justifiable under the circumstances. The defendant is
discharged. A wife has the right to hold up her husband when
he squanders his wages and does not give her enough for her
support.”

(2789)

=Rock of Ages=--See SECURITY.

=Room Enough=--See UPWARD, LOOK.

ROOT CONNECTION

To-day I have been transplanting magnolia-trees. There is one
that stands among the earliest I planted, twenty years ago, and
now it is a vast ball of white. I suppose five hundred thousand
magnificent cups are exhaling thanksgiving to God after the long
winter has passed. Now, no man need tell me that the root that
nestles in the ground is as handsome or smells as sweet as these
vases in the air; but I should like to know what would become of
all these white cups in the air if the connection between those
dirt-covered roots and the blossoms should be cut to-night.
The root is the prime provider, and there can be no life and
no blossom where there is no root connection.--HENRY WARD
BEECHER.

(2790)

ROTE VERSUS REASON

Soon after I had left school--and when I was a freshman at college--I made the acquaintance of a young man of about my own age who possest a most marvelous memory, while he also showed most marvelous mental density. He had occasion to pass examination in Euclid, as we all of us did at the university at those times, and one would have said that he would have been singularly successful in these examinations, for, tho he had only read through our college Euclid once, he could recite or write out the whole of it; or, if preferred, he could begin at any point where one might start him and reproduce any quantity _verbatim et literatim_--_atque punctuatim_--so far as that was concerned. But not only was he utterly unable to understand a word of it all, he had not even brains enough to keep his real ignorance of Euclid to himself. He was always forgetting the good old rule _ne quid nimis_, and as he did not know where to stop in his marvelous recitations, the examiners naturally came to the conclusion, perfectly justified by the facts, that he knew his Euclid by heart, but knew nothing about geometry.--RICHARD A. PROCTOR, New York _Mail and Express_.

(2791)

ROUTINE

Commenting on the well-known dislike of the late Russell Sage
for vacations, _Forest and Stream_ says: “An office dig
who digs voluntarily is as uneasy and as unhappy on a holiday
as were those Pennsylvania mine mules which, on the occasion of
the coal strike, were for the first time in many years lifted
to the surface and turned out into the green fields in the
sunlight. The poor creatures were in actual pain until they got
back again into the darkness and the close atmosphere in the
mine. The trouble with them was, that their whole nature as
surface-dwellers had been supplanted by the attributes common to
moles and the blind fishes of Mammoth Cave, and they could not
stand in the open air and the light. So with a human being under
the obsession of inordinate money-getting. The loss of time is
only one component of the restlessness which attacks him after
he gets away from the rut. His nature has become so molded and
restricted to the ruling passion that he has lost capacity for
finding employment in other things, least of all in vacation
surroundings and vacation ways.”

(2792)

ROYALTY

Where was the real royalty as between the two individuals mentioned in this historic incident?