Chapter M: E. Hume-Griffith, in her “Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish (5)

The ordinance has also exterminated the car boor. When a lady
steps inside all the men in the car spring to their feet and
offer her their seats. The conductor has to refund the fare of
the man that loses his seat in this way. The amusing part of the
situation, however, is that very often the lady wishes to stand
herself, especially if she is economical.

The whole plan smacks of exasperation. The only good point
about it is the fact that the council feels that something
ought to be done to force a public-service company to serve
the public. Some cities have tried the plan of a lower fare
for the man that has to stand, which undoubtedly is the better
plan.--RIPPLE, _Christian Endeavor World_.

(2898)

=Selfishness, Getting Rid of=--See ETERNAL LIFE, MAKING
ROOM FOR.

SELFISHNESS REBUKED

A hard bargainer sent the following advertisement to a paper: “A
lady in delicate health wishes to meet with a useful companion.
She must be domestic, musical, an early riser, amiable, of
good appearance, and have some experience in nursing. A total
abstainer preferred. Comfortable home. No salary.” A few days
afterward the advertiser received by express a basket, labeled,
“This side up, with care; perishable.” On opening it, she found
a tabby cat with a letter tied to its tail. It ran thus:

“Madam, in response to your advertisement, I am happy to furnish
you with a very useful companion, which you will find exactly
suited to your requirements. She is domestic, a good vocalist,
an early riser, possesses an amiable disposition, and is
considered handsome. She has had great experience as a nurse,
having brought up a large family. I need scarcely add that she
is a total abstainer. As salary is no object to her, she will
serve you faithfully in return for a comfortable home.” (Text.)

(2899)

SELFNESS

Our life not being an emanation from God, but a personal
self-containing product of his power, we are not born to a
perception of truth which floods our capacities as soon as
they are opened, as the tides of a sea pour up each inlet that
is scooped out to receive them; we do not receive pleasure,
and utter it mechanically, as the pipes of the organ pour out
without partaking the harmonies that breathe through them. But
we, each one of us, as our life is unfolded, separate from all
others, radically discriminated in its vital unity from that of
every other, must set up for ourselves on the theater of the
universe.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(2900)

=Sense Impressions=--See PICTURES, INFLUENCE OF.

=Senses, Limited=--See LIMITATION OF THE SENSES.

=Senses, The, as Indicators of Men=--See CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS.

SENSITIVENESS

The sensitive plant, that shrinks from the touch, is rightly
regarded as occupying a high place in the vegetable world. When
its delicate leaves are seen drooping from contact with the
finger, we might fancy it gifted with a sort of consciousness,
by which it can not only feel and perhaps suffer, but also
visibly attempt to withdraw from suffering. It is an interesting
object to notice, whatever may be our speculations in regard
to it, and we naturally have strong interest in a plant so
curiously endowed. Some men and women in our most civilized
communities seem to be very much akin to this little shrub.
Their one distinguishing characteristic is sensitiveness.
They are easily hurt, easily irritated, easily offended. They
translate every touch, however innocent or even friendly, into
an intent to trouble or annoy them. They are constantly fancying
slights, suspecting insults, imagining ridicule, dreading
censure.--_Public Ledger._

(2901)

* * * * *

Moral shocks are communicated to the whole world as certainly as earth tremors to the whole earth. No man can do a wrong deed or a right one without affecting every other man.

That the earth is extremely sensitive even to the slightest
shocks, contractions, or alterations is shown by the tremendous
rapidity with which the indications of these are transmitted
to various parts of the globe. A few minutes after the first
shock was felt in San Francisco the seismographic instruments at
Washington recorded the tremor. (Text.)

(2902)

* * * * *

A most remarkable example of a peculiar sensitiveness has been
observed in certain moths of the family _Bombyces_--notably
the Oak Eggar, the Emperor, and the Kentish Glory. Take a
newly emerged female of either of these species, shut her up
in a small box, conceal the box in your pocket, and then walk
about in some country spot known to you as being one of the
haunts of that species of moth. Then, if any of the males of
the same species happen to be in the neighborhood, they will
settle or hover about close to the female which, altho still
concealed and quite out of their reach, has attracted them to
the spot.--W. FURNEAUX, “Butterflies and Moths.”

(2903)

* * * * *

“An Apology for My Twilight Rambles” was the original title
of the tender hymn: “I love to steal away a while,” by Phebe
Hinsdale Brown. The story in a word is this: Phebe was left
an orphan in her Canaan home (New York), and fell under the
cruel care of a relative who caused her to grow up timid and
retiring to a painful degree. Marrying Timothy H. Brown, she
made her home for some time in Ellington, Conn., caring for a
growing family. At sunset, one day, she stole away from her
cares for a little relief and for communion with God, in a
rich neighbor’s flower garden, which, indeed, was her favorite
resort. Her trespass was reported to the mistress of the house,
who accosted her with: “If you want anything, why don’t you come
in?” meaning, “Get out!” Next day, with a wounded spirit and
filled with tears, holding her baby to her bosom, she wrote the
lines above, nine stanzas in all, and sent them to the feminine
churl who was so little of a neighbor and belied the odor of the
flowers that blest her garden. (Text.)

(2904)

=Sensitiveness to Pain=--See PAIN IN ANIMALS.

SENTIMENT, MIXED

In a home designed to get men and boys on their feet and become independent and self-supporting, there was found in the pocket of one of the boys the following poem:

I sometimes think it hardly fair
That I am here, while you are there.
Still I am perfectly aware
You might come here or I go there.

And I would just as soon be there
Or here; or have you here or there
So I suppose I scarcely care;
In fact, its neither here or there.

(2905)

SENTIMENT, USELESS

A gentleman was one day relating to a Quaker a tale of deep
distress, and concluded very pathetically by saying, “I could
not but feel for him.” “Verily, friend,” replied the Quaker,
“thou didst right in that thou didst feel for thy neighbor,
but didst thou feel in the right place--didst thou feel in thy
pocket?” (Text.)

(2906)

=Sentiment versus Sentimentalism=--See FEELINGS, RESERVED.

=Sentiments of a Dying Soldier=--See ESSENTIALS.

SEPARATION

The South Sea islanders have a singular tradition to account
for the existence of the dew. The legend relates that in the
beginning the earth touched the sky, that being the golden age
when all was beautiful and glad; then some dreadful tragedy
occurred, the primal unity was broken up, the earth and the sky
were torn asunder as we see them now, and the dew-drops of the
morning are the tears that nature sheds over the sad divorce.
(Text.)

(2907)

=Seraphim=--See LOVE RATHER THAN KNOWLEDGE.

SERENITY IN LIFE

Oh, heart of mine, we shouldn’t
Worry so!
What we’ve missed of calm we couldn’t
Have, you know!
What we’ve met of stormy pain
We can better meet again,
If it blow.

For we know not every morrow
Can be sad;
So, forgetting all the sorrow
We have had,
Let us fold away our fears,
And through all the coming years
Just be glad. (Text.)

(2908)

SERMON, A BRIEF

The longest sermon on record was preached by the Rev. Isaac Barrow, a Puritan preacher of the seventeenth century, who once delivered a sermon in Westminster Abbey lasting three hours and a half; and the shortest sermon ever preached was perhaps the sermon which Doctor Whewell was fond of repeating from the text, “Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.”

The sermon occupied barely a minute in delivery, the following being a verbatim report:

I shall divide the discourse into three heads: (1) Man’s ingress
into the world; (2) His progress through the world; (3) His
egress out of the world.

Firstly, his ingress into the world is naked and bare.

Secondly, his progress through the world is trouble and care.

Thirdly, his egress out of the world is nobody knows where.

To conclude:

If we live well here, we shall live well there.

I can tell you no more if I preach a year. Then he gave the
benediction.

(2909)

=Sermon, Eccentric=--See GRACE SUFFICIENT.

SERMON HEADS

Preaching a trial sermon in presence of an audience of only
two persons must in any case be a trial to one’s nerves, but
especially so when the two happen to be the Archbishop of
Canterbury (Dr. Tait) and Dean Stanley. We read of such an
unfortunate young “candidate for priest’s orders” so preaching
in that rather awful presence. In his confusion he stammered
out, as he began, “I will divide my congregation into two--the
converted and the unconverted.” Dr. Tait interrupted him with:
“I think sir, as there are only two of us, you had better say
which is which.”--Chicago _Standard_.

(2910)

SERMON, SAVING A

When pastor of Park Avenue Church, Brooklyn, New York, I was
preaching one Sunday morning to a languid audience, for it
was a hot, sultry day in summer. The windows were all open
for ventilation, but scarcely a breath of air was felt. The
atmosphere was oppressive, and the service dragged. When about
half way through my sermon, a sparrow flew through one of the
open windows, and startled the drowsy audience by flying round
the church, at times threatening to light on one or other of the
ladies’ bonnets. At length it lighted on the communion-rail,
directly in front of the pulpit and in full view of the
audience, and there settled down quietly. All eyes were intent
upon it. My discourse had been rudely interrupted, but as if by
inspiration I was seized with the thought to change my theme,
speak of God’s care for His children, and use the little bird
as an object-lesson. This I did, quoting the Savior’s words in
Matthew 6:26: “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” The
audience was intensely interested, every mind was alert, every
soul thirsty for the comforting truth. The little creature
remained perfectly quiet, and seemed as interested as any of
the rest of us. Just before I closed he flew out of one of the
windows, having left a message of hope and comfort to tired
hearts. I have felt a warmer place in my heart ever since for
“God’s sparrows.”--ELIJAH HUMPHRIES, _Our Dumb
Animals_.

(2911)

=Sermon, The Effect of a=--See CREATURE, A NEW.

=Sermon versus Salmon=--See PREACHING, RESPONSIBILITY IN.

=Sermons in Candles=--See ILLUSTRATIONS FROM CANDLES.

SERVICE

Service is labor baptized and anointed, and consecrated to high ends.

William Carey, cobbling shoes in that dingy little room in
Leicester, tho he was never a skilful workman, yet cobbling
them as best he could, putting in honest leather and sound pegs
and strong stitches, and consecrating the toil to the service
of God’s kingdom, was as truly in the Father’s business as was
Dr. William Carey, the distinguished Oriental scholar, when
translating languages, preaching the gospel, and baptizing
converts in India. That little workshop, with its hammers and
awls and scraps of leather, represented a department of the
heavenly Father’s business. (Text.)

(2912)

* * * * *

Dr. Grenfell, whose devoted labors among deep-sea fishermen
are known and appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic, was
converted at a mission conducted in England by D. L. Moody.
Meeting the evangelist many years afterward, Dr. Grenfell
recalled the circumstance. Immediately Mr. Moody asked Dr.
Grenfell, “And what have you been doing since?” Christians must
not live on their past experiences. “What have you been doing
since?” will be the Master’s question.

(2913)

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. A similar spirit was manifested by H. B. Gibbud with excellent results, as told by him in this extract:

I was going from cell to cell among the prisoners, when one man
called me back, and asked if I remembered him. I did not.

“Well,” said he, “I remember you. You got me out of the ‘dives’
in Mulberry Bend in New York City about twelve years ago, took
me to the Florence Mission, and gave me a note to the Home of
Intemperate Men. Do you remember?”

I was unable to place him, as I had done a similar act for quite
a number.

“You will remember me, I think, when I tell you the
circumstances. I was nearly naked; you got some clothes for
me. I was shivering with delirium tremens, and could not dress
myself, so you drest me. Now you remember me, don’t you?”

I was still unable to recollect him.

“Well, there is one thing more, and that is what broke me up.
After you had drest me, you said, ‘You want to look nice, so
I’ll black your boots’; and you did.

“Now I could not tell, to save my neck, what you said about
Christ; I did not want to do better; I did not go to the home;
all I wanted was what I could get out of you. But your blacking
my boots--I have never been able to get away from that.”

“I did not want your religion, but to think that you cared
enough about my soul to black my boots, that has followed me all
these years, and when I have been drunk and stupid that thing
would haunt me. I have thought of it hundreds of times, and now
I thank God has brought me here to meet you again, and I want
you to pray for me.” (Text.)

(2914)

* * * * *

The whole material universe is ever compulsorily engaged in mutual service. The spheres wait on earth, air, sun, clouds, and sky. But the spiritual universe has for its grace and its glory the principle of service consciously rendered by love and sacrifice.

Two ragged street urchins stood one day before the window of a
picture store in London, and one cried out, “Look, Jim, look!”
“What is it?” Jim asked, and the little fellow answered, “Why,
there he is. That’s our earl.” It was the photograph of the Earl
of Shaftesbury, in truth the earl of the poor and opprest. The
motto of his family is “Love--Serve,” and nobly did he live up
to his motto. At his funeral a laboring man was heard to say in
a choking voice, “Our earl’s gone. God A’mighty knows he loved
us. We sha’n’t see his likes again.” (Text.)

(2915)

* * * * *

The flowers got into a debate one morning as to which of them
was the flower of God, and the rose said: “I am the flower of
God, for I am the fairest and the most perfect in beauty and
variety of form and delicacy of fragrance of all the flowers.”
And the crocus said: “No, you are not the flower of God. Why, I
was blooming long before you bloomed. I am the primitive flower;
I am the first one.” And the lily of the valley said modestly:
“I am small, but I am white; perhaps I am the flower of God.”
And the trailing arbutus said: “Before any of you came forth I
was blooming under the leaves and under the snow. Am I not the
flower of God?” And all the flowers cried out: “No, you are
no flower at all; you are a come-outer.” And then God’s wind,
blowing on the garden, brought this message to them: “Little
flowers, do you not know that every flower that answers God’s
spring call, and comes out of the cold, dark earth, and lifts
its head above the sod and blooms forth, catching the sunlight
from God and flinging it back to men, taking the sweet south
wind from God and giving it back to others in sweet and blest
fragrance--do you not know they are all God’s flowers?”

(2916)

=Service and Age=--See AGE AND EXPERIENCE.

SERVICE AND SACRIFICE

An old Roman coin bore the design of an ox standing between a
plow and an altar, thus signifying its readiness for either
service or sacrifice. No symbol could more beautifully represent
the attitude of the true servant of Christ--ready, while the
Master wills, to bow the neck to the yoke and toil in his
service; and just as ready when the call comes, to sacrifice
everything, even life itself. (Text.)--_Zion’s Herald._

(2917)

=Service as Testimony=--See WITNESS OF SERVICE.

SERVICE, AUXILIARY

Many a humble parent or teacher might find comfort in the following pretty fable:

A taper lay in a drawer, when its owner took it and climbed a
winding stair in a tower. “Where are you taking me?” asked the
taper complainingly. “I am going to show big ships their way
over the sea,” answered the owner. “Why, no ship could see me or
my little light,” said the taper. “Leave that to me,” added the
owner as he lighted the big lantern, and then blew the taper out.

(2918)

SERVICE, HUMBLE

Our service ought to be positive. Every day brings with it
some chance to help. If your service can not be great, let
it be small, only let it be service in some way for the good
of another and for the glory of God. An old Scotch woman in
Edinburgh was arrested as a suspicious character. She was seen
furtively picking some things from the sidewalk and putting them
beneath her shawl. On examination it was found that the articles
were only little bits of glass. Questioned, she replied that she
was only picking up the stray pieces of glass that they might
not cut the bairnies’ feet.

Remember, there is glass to be taken from life’s highways; there
are thorns to be uprooted and roses to be planted.--JOEL B.
SLOCUM.

(2919)

See EARTHEN VESSEL.

SERVICE, INTERESTED

Washington housekeepers are inclined to think that T. B.
Witherspoon, of St. Louis, was romancing recently when he told
of a negro servant who has been in his employ for fifteen years.
It appears that the negro was given ten days’ leave and money to
spend for a trip down to New Orleans, but in three days turned
up again, and here is the way Mr. Witherspoon explains the
negro’s return, quoting the servant:

“‘You see, suh, it done get mighty miserably cold night after
I lef’ you, and I knows dat Miss Kate (my wife) ain’t got no
business tryin’ to work dat furnace, and I know you ain’t gwine
to bother with it. Nary one of you got enny business with a
dirty old furnace, least of all Miss Kate, who ain’t got no
right to soil her little han’s. I couldn’t sleep good thinkin’
about it, an’ dat’s why I gits back quicker’n I ’spected.’

“There is a specimen act of an old-time, true-hearted darky,
whose first thought is of the comfort of his employer.”

(2920)

=Service, Lowly=--See EXAMPLE.

SERVICE, METHOD OF

When Jael served her yellow-hued dainty to Sisera in that fine
dish, she set an example that is worthy of being followed in
more ways than in that hospitable one. Milton in his noble
thoughts set in his lofty style has served his “butter in a
lordly dish.” A kindness or a benefaction dealt in a courteous
spirit and in fine chivalry is equally “butter in a lordly
dish.” Above all, a life lived in the exercise of a character
that is sterling and pure gold--serving viands of soul in
divinest thoughts and sublimest virtues and inspirations that
gods might envy, is “butter in a lordly dish.” The substance of
a deed is heightened in merit by its service when the mettle of
the dish matches the quality of the meat.

(2921)

SERVICE, RELIGIOUS

If a child finds itself in want of anything, it runs in and
asks its father for it--does it call that doing its father a
service? If it begs for a toy or a piece of cake--does it call
that serving its father? That, with God, is prayer, and He likes
to hear it. He likes you to ask Him for cake when you want it;
but He doesn’t call that “serving Him.” Begging is not serving;
God likes mere beggars as little as you do; He likes honest
servants, not beggars. So when a child loves its father very
much, and is very happy, it may sing little songs about him;
but it doesn’t call that serving its father; neither is singing
songs about God, serving God. It is enjoying ourselves, if it’s
anything; most probably it is nothing; but if it’s anything, it
is serving ourselves, not God.--JOHN RUSKIN.

(2922)

=Service Unnoticed=-See RESULTS OF GOOD DEEDS.

SERVICE, UNSEEN

I heard of a young woman, a domestic in a home, who loved her
Savior and whose heart He had filled with a love for her fellow
men. Opportunities for service such as the world recognizes
were few, but every night she was accustomed to gather the
daily papers after they had been thrown aside. Taking these to
her room she used to cut from them the list of death notices,
and laying these before her she knelt and in prayer commended
those in sorrow to the gracious help of her Father in heaven.
She did not know them, but they were in sorrow, and in the only
way she could she ministered to them. We are not judges, but I
much mistake if in the eyes of Him who judges not as man judges,
such service as that does not rank high up above the princely
gifts that attract the attention of the world.--ROBERT
JOHNSTON.

(2923)

SERVICE WITH HARDSHIP

In a recent number of _Forward_ the story is told of a
young Chinese slave girl whose mistress brought her to the
Presbyterian Mission Hospital at Canton. She was doomed to
blindness and lameness, so her mistress abandoned her. The
doctors amputated her leg and gave her little tasks to perform
about the place and taught her about the heavenly Father and
Savior. She developed leprosy and was forced to leave these
friends whom she had learned to love, and go to the darkness
and horror of a leper settlement. But she went a Christian,
and in two years that blind, crippled leper built up a band
of Christians in that leper settlement, and in five years a
church grew out of her work. That poor crippled invalid life is
to-day a center of joy and service, and other leper villages are
sending to her to ask about the wonderful good news which can
bring joy even to outcasts.

(2924)

=Service, Wrong Conception of=--See SEEKING SERVICE.

SHADOW

In sylviculture the growth and fiber qualities of young conifers
are artificially improved by shutting off the sunlight and
leaving the trees in very dark places.

There are many virtues in human character that seem to develop more robustly and come to finer strength in the shadows of adversity.

(2925)

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE

A terrible shadow in Coleridge’s life was the apparent cause
of most of his dejection. In early life he suffered from
neuralgia, and to ease the pain began to use opiates. The
result on such a temperament was almost inevitable. He became a
slave to the drug habit; his naturally weak will lost all its
directing and sustaining force, until, after fifteen years of
pain and struggle and despair, he gave up and put himself in
charge of a physician, one Mr. Gillman, of Highgate. Carlyle,
who visited him at this time, calls him “a king of men,” but
records that “he gave you the idea of a life that had been
full of sufferings, a life heavy-laden, half-vanquished, still
swimming painfully in seas of manifold physical and other
bewilderment.”--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(2926)

=Shadow of a Great Life=--See LIVING IN THE SHADOW.

SHADOWS

We are made sure that the sun shines not necessarily by seeing
it, but often by noting the shadows it casts.

So the presence of God in our lives may often be indicated by the shadows of sorrow and trial.

(2927)

SHAKING-UP

Many a man will confess that a sound thrashing at the hands of
some other lad in the days of his youth was the beginning of his
moral development; that, after the ache was over, it set him to
thinking. Nature abhors monotony almost as much as a vacuum, and
seems to have provided that at various times a general shaking
up is necessary to maintain the proper standard.--JAMES M.
STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

(2928)

SHAME

If our deeds were all to be put on a canvas for men to see, should we be as much ashamed of some as them, as the man in this anecdote?

There was once a rich landlord who cruelly opprest a poor
widow. Her son, then a little boy of eight years, witnessed it.
He became a great painter, and painted a likeness of the dark
scene. Years afterward he placed it where the cruel man saw it.
He recognized himself in the shameful picture, turned pale,
trembled in every joint, and offered a large sum to purchase it
that he might put it out of sight. (Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT
BANKS.

(2929)

SHAMS

Christianity, like its Founder, is the enemy of all false pretense. Jesus’s denunciations were severest against hypocrites:

The amount of pain and discomfort which malingerers are willing
to endure to obtain their discharge is almost incredible, but
the facts are well attested. A limb has been held in a fixt
position for many months and not even the application of the
actual cautery has sufficed to move it. Many men have chopped
off some fingers and have claimed that it was an accident.
Mental derangement of one sort or another is a favorite form
of malingery, but the results usually resemble the popular or
stage idea of insanity rather than the true products of mental
alienation.

The threat of the application of the actual cautery has cured
paralysis, but cases have been recorded where malingerers have
endured the cautery on several occasions. A man who simulated
blindness was placed on the edge of a jetty and told to walk
straight forward. He stept out and fell into the water, for he
knew that those who were testing him dared not let him drown.
In another case, however, a man who seemed to have paralysis of
an arm allowed the amputating knife to be placed to it without
flinching, but when thrown into the river he struck out with
both arms and swam. (Text.)

(2930)

* * * * *

Musical connoisseurs often express disappointment at the sound
of some imposing-looking organ. The instrument with the great
dimensions of its outer frame and the gorgeous show of its great
gilded pipes in front would give the impression of great power.
But those pipes, instead of being of hollow and sonorous metal,
are solid pieces of wood. They are decorated dummies, incapable
of giving forth a single sound. The musical pipes in such an
instrument are hidden from view but they alone are of service.

In the world we must expect shams of character and ostentations, impositions, but in the Church of God there should be no such thing as “folly that is set in great dignity.” (Text.)

(2931)

* * * * *

Examination of the premises occupied by a Los Angeles private
bank, lately closed for lack of funds, showed that the supposed
vault was a big door without any opening behind it. The door
was of steel, with plate-glass knobs, shiny combination dials
and all the features of an imposing safe protecting quantities
of money. Just how such a sham affair could be put in without
becoming a matter of comment is hard to see. Or do workmen set
such doors often enough not to be surprized by them? (Text.)

(2932)

=Sharing Blessings=--See RESPONSIBILITY.

SHELTER

He was only a butterfly, one of those beautiful, large,
bluish-black ones that we so often see about the garden, but he
knew enough to get in out of the wet.

It was during one of the heavy showers that so frequently, in
the hot days of midsummer, come suddenly upon us, driving every
one to the nearest cover. To escape the downpour, which meant
great injury, if not destruction, to so delicate a creature, he
quickly flew to a near-by Balm of Gilead tree, where, alighting
on the under side of a large leaf, he clung with wings closely
drawn together and hanging straight downward, using the big
leaf as an umbrella to shield him from the great drops falling
all around. High and dry, here he remained until the shower had
passed, and the blue sky and warm sun called him once again to
his favorite haunts.--_St. Nicholas._

(2933)

See COMPENSATION.

SHEPHERD, THE GOOD

A gentleman traveling in the lonely part of the highlands of
Scotland was attracted by the bleating of a ewe, as the animal
came from the roadside, as if to meet him. When nearer she
redoubled her cries and looked up into his face as if to ask
for assistance. He alighted from his gig and followed her to
a considerable distance from the road, where he found a lamb
completely wedged in betwixt two large stones, and struggling
with its legs uppermost. He took out the sufferer and placed it
on the green sward, when the mother, seemingly overjoyed, poured
forth her thanks in a long-continued bleat.

The good Shepherd giveth His life for His sheep. He rejoices
more at the safety of the lost sheep than over the ninety and
nine that were safe in the fold. (Text.)

(2934)

=Shining=--See LIVES THAT SHINE.

SHINING AS LAMPS

The _British Weekly_ prints this:

His lamps are we,
To shine where He shall say,
And lamps are not for sunny rooms,
Not for the light of day,
But for the dark places of the earth,
Where shame and wrong and crime have birth;
Or for the murky twilight gray,
Where wandering sheep have gone astray;
Or where the light of faith grows dim,
And souls are groping after Him.
And as sometimes a flame we find,
Clear shining through the night--
So bright we do not see the lamp,
But only see the light,
So we may shine--His light the flame,
That men may glorify His name.

(2935)

=Shining Wherever You Are=--See LIVES THAT SHINE.

=Ships, Watching the=--See CHEER, SIGNALS OF.

SHORING UP

When building a house it is common for the carpenters to insert
timbers under the ground-sills pending the time when the stone
foundations can conveniently be placed.

Similarly we may employ expedients in character-building. Children may not be ready as yet to grasp principles of conduct; but meanwhile we give them rules, detail commands, and minute precepts; these serve to “shore up” the life while the principles are being formed.

(2936)

SHRINKAGE

If a man tries to live on his own moral resources, without new supplies of divine grace, he will experience a shrinkage of character like that of the sun, as described in this extract:

The sun is gradually falling into itself, the outer layers
are falling toward the center; the sun is shrinking, growing
smaller; and this contraction, this falling in of the outer
particles, produces the immense outflow of energy. The whole
sun contracts, every particle of its whole mass falls toward
the center and contributes its mite to the total supply of
heat. The surface particles move, of course, through a much
greater distance than do those within the sphere. On account
of the tremendous mass of the sun a very slight contraction
will suffice to maintain its supply of heat. A shrinkage in the
solar diameter of some 300 feet a year is all that is necessary
to account for the great outpour of energy.--CHARLES LANE
POOR, “The Solar System.”

(2937)

“SHUT-IN” MISSIONARY WORK

In 1891, Miss Mary Ashton, a “shut-in,” zealous for the
spreading of the gospel in foreign lands, and desirous to do
her share, began the sale of ribbon bookmarks and leaflets on
which were printed Scripture texts and choice poems. With a few
helpers, the sales and her income increased from year to year,
so that, at her death in 1899, she was supporting a Bible woman
in China, another in India, and four missionaries in those
countries.

After her death, Miss Theodosia Haine, of Warren, O., also
a member of the “Shut-in” Society, volunteered to undertake
Miss Ashton’s work. This she is successfully doing and much
literature is being disseminated through her efforts. The
profits resulting from the sale of Miss Haine’s work go to the
Mary Ashton Fund of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of
the Methodist Episcopal Church.--_Record of Christian Work._

(2938)

SICK, MIRROR AN AID TO THE

The looking-glass, whether a plus or a minus quantity, plays
a more important part in the sick-room than most nurses and
physicians give it credit for.

“All things considered, I think it a good plan to give a sick
person a chance to look at himself occasionally,” said a
prominent doctor, recently. “Of course, the indulgence must be
granted with discretion. If a patient is really looking seedy,
a turn at the looking-glass is equivalent to signing his death
warrant; but if taken at a time when braced up by some stimulant
or a natural ebullition of vital force, a few minutes of
communion with his own visage beats any tonic I can prescribe.
It thrills the patient with new hope. It makes him feel that he
isn’t quite so far gone as he had thought, and that possibly a
fight for life is, after all, worth while. Being thus sensitive,
a persistent withholding of a mirror convinces the patient
that he must be too horrible for contemplation, and he promptly
decides that the best thing for him to do is to give up the
ghost and get out of the way.

“That is one of the mistakes hospitals were apt to make up
to a few years ago. When I was a young fellow, getting my
first practise after graduation, I served on the staff of
several hospitals, and in all, especially in the free wards,
those aids to vanity were strictly forbidden.”--Cleveland
_Plain-Dealer_.

(2939)

=Sick-room, Atmosphere of the=--See TALKING AND SICKNESS.

SIDE, CHOOSING THE RIGHT

Not many years ago I was asked to go to a Georgia county and
speak, and when I got there some saloon-keepers came in and
stood up by the wall on one side of me, their object being to
intimidate me. I said, “Neighbors, you have sent for me to come
and speak to you on the whisky issue. I am no orator; I am no
Brutus. I am not going to tell you which side of this question I
am on, but you just step up to God and ask which side He is on;
go to Christ and put me down on His side. Go out there to the
graveyard, and take up that mother who has buried her husband
and sons in drunkards’ graves, and ask her which side she is
on--and then put me down on her side. Put me down on the side of
God and Christ, and the women and children of this land.”

The leading saloon man in the crowd wiped the tears from his
eyes. He had just buried a sweet wife and child, and he walked
out and said, “Boys, I’m done; I throw up the sponge.” The next
election in that county the prohibition element carried the day
by five hundred majority.--SAM P. JONES.

(2940)

SIGHT, IMPERFECT

A rich man, of very miserly character, was found to be suffering
from cataract in both eyes. Blindness ensued, and he was at last
compelled to consult a famous oculist. He was appalled by the
costly fee which was required for an operation, but reluctantly
assented to an operation on one eye. This restored his sight
in one eye, and the oculist advised a similar operation on the
other. “Oh, no,” said the miser; “it’s far too expensive. I
will manage with the sight of one eye.” Most people would not
hesitate to call such a man a fool, yet are not many men and
women contented with semi-blindness? One eye may enable us to
see material things, but not spiritual things.

(2941)

=Sight, Sacrificed=--See SCIENCE, DEVOTION TO.

=Sign of Distinction=--See EMBELLISHMENT OF PREACHING.

=Signs=--See SUPERSTITION.

SIGNALS

We should be as alert to hear God’s voice in the soul as these ship-masters are to hear the signals:

Experiments in the conductivity of sound through liquids were
begun many years ago by Prof. Elisha Gray, and in 1901 a
system of signals based thereon, designed by A. J. Mundy, was
successfully tested in Boston Harbor. Steamships plying between
Boston and New York have been equipped with the apparatus, and
are said to use it very frequently in signaling.

Our representative, while on the _Herman Winter_, observed
the perfect operation of the apparatus when approaching,
passing, and leaving the Pollock Rip lightship. It had been
prearranged that the signal should be the number 73, the number
of the lightship. This locality was reached shortly before
daylight, yet when the ship was seven miles from the lightship,
tossed by tempestuous seas, the signal, seven strokes, then
three, was faintly but distinctly heard. Within two miles it
was quite loud, and the peculiar A musical note of the bell
was plainly noticeable. It is feasible to signal words with a
special code, and no doubt such a system of communication will
soon be perfected. (Text.)--_The Scientific American._

(2942)

See LISTENING FOR SIGNALS.

SIGNALS UNHEEDED

The engineer of the Philadelphia and Reading flyer, which on
the night of January 27, 1903, plowed its death-dealing way
without warning into the splintered cars of the Eastern express
on the New Jersey Central Railroad, near Westfield, N. J., was
extricated from the wreck suffering terribly from wounds from
which he afterward died. When first carried to the hospital
and questioned concerning the cause of the wreck, he could
give no clear idea of how it happened that he ran by the red
signal. In his agony he kept murmuring: “I saw nothing!” His
later testimony was somewhat confused, but it hardly added to
or subtracted from the force of that short, sad lament, “I saw
nothing!” Many a mortal spirit rushes through this world seeing
nothing, speeding on and on toward eternity, and recklessly
running by signal after signal set by merciful hands to warn it
of the dangers ahead.--_Grace and Truth._

(2943)

SILENCE

The purple flushing of the eastern sky;
The stately progress of the sun toward even;
Night’s mantle dropping from the quiet heaven;
The holy hush which brings God’s presence nigh;
The dusky woods where cooling shadows lie,
Where birds are still and Nature to repose
Sinks gently down; dews falling on the rose;
Mountains sublime in distance looming high;
The smile of friends when love surpasses speech;
The hand-clasp, given when sorrow is too deep
For words. Ah me, the silence of life
Are mightier far, and higher lessons teach
Than all its noisy clamor! Let us reap
The bliss of those who keep themselves from strife.

--FREDERICK E. SNOW, _The Outlook_.

(2944)

SILENCE AND SPEECH

A young man who was an inveterate talker was sent by his parents
to Socrates to learn oratory. On being presented to Socrates the
young man spoke so much that Socrates was out of patience. When
the bargain came to be struck, Socrates asked him double the
price. “Why charge me double?” asked the young man. “Because,”
said Socrates, “I must teach you two sciences; the one to hold
your tongue, and the other how to speak.”

Silence may be as eloquent as speech. The art of the matter is practise, each at the right time and in the right place.

(2945)

=Silence Under Provocation=--See PROVOCATION, SILENCE UNDER.

SILENT PROCESSES

When I was a boy the new shoe (it was a boot then) was a
mortification wherever I went. It announced my coming like a
brass band. It was unescapable. To a modest man it was an agony.
Even an assertive man found it inconvenient at times.

But now the shoes, even the newest of shoes, shoes worn for the
first time, do not squeak one little squeak. They would not
disturb the typical but mythical pin-fall silence.

Where has the squeak gone? It has been taken up by a layer of
some sort of cloth or soft fiber between the two layers of
leather. It is a very simple device, and the wonder, as with so
many other simple devices, is that it was not thought of before.

What I want to do is to apply the non-squeak method to my life.
I want to put something between the rubbing surfaces of my
thoughts and words and actions that will make them noiseless. I
want the operation of my brain and the energy of my life to be
silent. I shall be glad when the world sees results, but I do
not care to have it see processes.

I want my shoes to “get there,” but I don’t want them to squeak
on the way.--ARROW, _Christian Endeavor World_.

(2946)

SIMPLE-MINDEDNESS

An army examiner once had a very stupid candidate before him,
who apparently was unable to answer the simplest question. At
last the examiner lost his temper, and with sarcastic emphasis,
quite lost on the youth before him, queried.

“Suppose, sir, that you were a captain in command of a company
of infantry; that in your rear was an unpassable abyss; that on
either side of you towered perpendicular rocks of untraversable
height; that before you stood the enemy, one hundred men to each
one of yours; what, sir, would you do in this emergency?”

“General,” said the aspirant to military honors, “I should
resign.”--_Tit-Bits._

(2947)

SIMPLICITY

Hon. E. B. Washburne says: “When Grant left his headquarters at
Smith’s plantation (a short distance above New Carthage, on the
Louisiana side) to enter on the greatest campaign in history,
he did not take with him the trappings and paraphernalia so
common among military men. All depended on the quickness of the
movement. It was important that he should be encumbered with
as little baggage as possible. He took with him no orderly, nor
horse, nor a servant, nor an overcoat, nor a camp-chest, nor
even a clean shirt. His entire baggage for the six days--I was
with him at that time--was a tooth-brush! He fared like the
commonest soldier in his command, partaking of his rations and
sleeping on the ground with no covering except the canopy of
heaven.”

(2948)

See LIFE, THE SIMPLE; TACT.

SIMPLICITY AND TRUTH

The first rule of evidence in courts is that the easiest
explanation is the most probable one. The court always rejects
the far-fetched as the improbable. If the snow should fall
to-night, and to-morrow morning at daylight footprints in the
snow should be found, you could explain the footprints in the
easiest possible way--namely, a man went down the street. A
far-fetched explanation would be that an aeroplane came along,
that a man leaned out of the basket, and holding a shoe in
either hand carefully made these footprints so as to create
the impression that some one had walked down Orange Street. We
reject the explanation because it is involved. We choose the
easiest explanation and the simplest.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2949)

SIMULATION

There are many insects, birds and beasts that preserve their
being by simulating what they are not, that they may remain
undistinguishable and escape the pitfalls that may lie in wait
for them; also to catch the unobservant and destroy them. Among
these are the “specter insect,” the “walking-stick insect,”
and the “praying insect” (_Mantis religiosa_), which is
so constructed, with its fore-legs stiff and thrust into the
air to resemble a withered twig, that it may escape foes from
this very resemblance, also that it may catch any unwary insect
that ventures near for its own subsistence, thus simulating an
attitude of patient endurance quite like those scavengers of
the human race--pious beggars who simulate faith and patient
endurance, but are really burglars and robbers. The sphinx
caterpillar also simulates what it is not, and escapes its
enemies by putting on a false appearance, and also attracts its
food in a like manner.--Mrs. M. J. GORTON, _Popular
Science News_.

(2950)

=Sin, Bondage to=--See BONDAGE TO SIN.

SIN-CONSCIOUSNESS

The Rev. James Guthrie, one of the Scottish Covenanters, had a
man-servant who was much humbled and perplexed by hearing his
master pray regularly in family worship for one who was present
that his sins might be forgiven. There were few, of course, in
the household circle, and the man naturally thought that it was
he who was prayed for. After Mr. Guthrie had one night been
especially fervent in supplication for this person present, the
man could bear it no longer and spoke to his master, wishing to
know wherein he had come short. Judge of the astonishment of
both when Mr. Guthrie said it was himself he had been praying
for.

(2951)

* * * * *

A deacon in a Jacobite church near Tripoli, Syria, was seeking
relief for his sin-burdened conscience. He heard of a woman who
wrote out all her sins on a paper and laid it on the tomb of St.
Ephraim. When she found the paper later, there were no traces of
writing on it, so she knew her sins had been erased. The deacon
wrote his, and placed them under the altar-cloth beneath the
sacred wafer which he believed to be the very body of Christ;
but the ink showed no signs of dimness. He was disappointed and
discouraged, but just at that time he found a tract entitled
“Looking unto Jesus,” which showed him a better way.

(2952)

See EXPERIENCE AND BIBLE.

SIN COVERED

In the old days the gutters were open in the streets, but
in modern towns they are put underground; so society is
always forcing vices and abuses underground, covering them
up by a variety of regulations that they no longer shock
the public sense. Still, on occasion, the covered drain may
prove its deadly virus, and the covered sin of the community
is still there, working and threatening mischief.--W. L.
WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(2953)

=Sin Exposed=--See EXPOSURE.

SIN, FASCINATION OF

Let the young especially beware of the insidious approacher of evil. Says Lady Montague:

I have sat on the shore and waited for the gradual approach
of the sea, and have seen its dancing waves and white surf,
and lingered till its gentle notes grew into billows and had
well-nigh swept me from my firmest footing. So have I seen a
heedless youth gazing with a too curious spirit on the sweet
motions and gentle approaches of an inviting pleasure, till it
has detained his eye, and imprisoned his feet, and swelled upon
his soul and swept him to a swift destruction. (Text.)

(2954)

SIN, HIDDEN

Donald Sage Mackay, in “The Religion of the Threshold,” writes in substance as follows:

Henry Drummond vividly describes the ravages of the African
white ant. One may never see the insect possibly in the flesh,
for it lives underground. But its ravages confront one at every
turn. You build your house, perhaps, and for a few months fancy
you have pitched on the one solitary site in the country where
there are no white ants. But one day suddenly the door-post
totters, and lintel and rafter come down together with a crash.
You look at a section of the wrecked timbers and discover that
the whole inside is eaten clean away. The apparently solid logs
of which the rest of the house is built are now mere cylinders
of bark, and through the thickest of them you can push your
little finger. It is a vivid picture of the way in which
concealed sins eat out the pith of the soul. To the outward eye
everything may remain the same, but the fiber of character has
been punctured through and through, till the whole nature is
corroded.

(2955)

=Sin, Ineffaceable=--See CONSEQUENCES, IRREPARABLE.

SIN, ORIGINAL

What a strange misuse of language to speak of sacred writers
as inventing original sin! Can we say that Jenner invented the
smallpox, or that Pasteur invented the rabies, or that any of
the celebrated physicians invented the maladies which are known
by their names? What these famous men did was to successfully
diagnose, characterize, and treat diseases which already
existed, and which proved their malignant power by carrying
thousands of men and women to the grave. (Text.)--W. L.
WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(2956)

SIN, SENSE OF

It is popular in some quarters to pooh-pooh, the sense of sin, or to smile away the seriousness of sin.

Alfred de Musset, when he was young (the same fact is told of
Merimee), once, being very much scolded for a childish freak,
went away in tears, deeply penitent, when he heard his parents
say, after the door was shut: “Poor boy, he thinks himself
quite a criminal!” The thought that his misdeed was not so very
serious, and that his repentance was mere childishness, wounded
him deeply, and the impression remained engraved on his memory
forever. (Text.)

(2957)

SIN, SUBTLETY OF

Our scientists, by the aid of powerful lenses, intense lights,
exquisite adjustments, have succeeded in rendering visible the
germs of several terrible maladies which decimate us, and these
ardent naturalists hope ultimately to discover germs still more
minute and obscure. But can any one believe that a bacteria
of immorality will ever be revealed by the microscope as the
germs of disease have been? Fever and cholera germs, germs of
consumption, hydrophobia, erysipelas, have been disclosed by
the fierce light of modern research; but no one will suppose
that the germs of intemperance, impurity, anger, covetousness,
deceit, pride, murder, foolishness, will ever be thrown on the
screen, and an antidote be found for them in the pharmacopoeia.
If it were thus possible to exhibit the secret of our sins, how
we should shudder at the sight of the naked human heart, and
shrink from the ghastly things which nestle there! But such a
spectacle is not possible, and we are sure that it never will
be. The germs of moral disease are in the soul itself; no glass
of science may make them visible, no physician may deal with
them, no medicine may purge them.--W. L. WATKINSON,
“The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(2958)

SIN WITHOUT ATONEMENT

A writer, speaking of the wasteful use of coal in England, and the consequent diminishing of the national store, says:

Our stock of coal is a definite and limited quantity that was
placed in the present storehouse long before human beings
came upon the earth. Every ton of coal that is wasted is lost
forever, and can not be replaced by any human effort, while
bread is a product of human industry, and its waste may be
replaced by additional human labor. The sin of bread-wasting
does admit of agricultural atonement, while there is no form of
practical repentance that can positively and directly replace a
hundredweight of wasted coal.

Here is an instance of a sin without atonement. Man can not reproduce the coal that he has once wasted. Grace has a kindlier word for our moral waters. The “years that the locust eaten” may be restored. (Text.)

(2959)

SINNERS AND GOD

The following is taken from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” The sinners are given a dreadful warning.

The wrath of God burns against them; their damnation don’t
slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the
furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now
rage and glow. The devils watch them; they are ever by them,
at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy,
hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but
are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw His hand,
by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon
their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens
its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it,
they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. The God that holds
you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some
loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully
provoked; His wrath toward you burns like fire; He looks upon
you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire;
He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight; you
are ten times so abominable in His eyes as the most hateful and
venomous serpent is in ours.

Jonathan Edwards was born October 5, 1703. What a difference time makes in religious thinking.

(2960)

SINS, ACCUMULATED