Chapter M: E. Hume-Griffith, in her “Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish (8)

Of course, they cried “Play on it. Play the old tunes.” “I can
not,” he said, “for it has only one string.” When he tried it
he could only pick out with three notes a tune. Then he said,
“If it had two strings, I could play six tunes, and if it had
not only a G string, but a D string and an A string, and an E
string, I could play all the tunes. You can not play real music
with one string.”--N. MCGEE WATERS.

(3077)

=Stress and Storm Gains=--See ADVERSITY.

=Striving=--See STRAIN, NERVOUS.

STRONG AND WEAK

The idea of the big ones swallowing up the little ones, or the idea of the trusts, is not by any means confined to land, as we may see from reading the following:

As the sea covers three-fifths of the surface of the globe,
its fauna is similarly greater than the living forms on land.
When a naturalist inspects a little pool not larger than a
billiard-table which is filled by the splashing waves of the
Mediterranean, he finds it teeming with more varied and busy
forms of life than can be found in a square mile of ordinary
land. But in all that living marine world there is not a trace
of goodness! All fishes are murderers and cannibals, and as in
fresh water big trout relish eating small trout, so, in the
wider waters of the ocean, wo to the small fry when a larger
father or brother catches sight of them!

Science has boldly penetrated these dark, still abysses
and finds that they abound with life. But such life! Many
of the abysmal forms have large, movable jaws with rows of
teeth all pointing backward, making escape impossible when
once any creature is caught by them. The scientists of the
_Challenger_ were once puzzled to make out what a thing
was which came up in their trawl, until it proved to be a fish
caught by a smaller fish who was swallowed by its larger brother
by gradually pulling itself glove fashion over its victim by
means of barbed teeth--somewhat like a child being slowly
swallowed alive by a large expanding toad. In those black depths
some forms have phosphorescent lights not unlike burglars’
dark-lanterns, with which to hunt their prey.

Only among those animals which originally used to tread the
solid earth and then took to the sea, like the whale, seal, and
walrus, is there any sign of any falling off in all-devouring
selfishness; these are mammals, and hence show affection
for their young. But they live where they have to encounter
the hideous swordfish, or their own relative who has been
transformed into the cruel grampus, and so must fight for
life.--W. HANNA THOMSON, M.D., _Everybody’s_.

(3078)

=Strongest Quality Cultivated=--See ADVANTAGE, WORKING
TO THE BEST.

STRUGGLE

Contending with the globe, we are like Jacob wrestling with
the angel. The fight is long and hard amid the mystery and the
darkness, and the great Power seems reluctant to bless us; but
the breaking of the day comes, and we find ourselves blest with
corn, wine, oil, purple, feasts, flowers. Ah! and with gifts
far beyond those of basket and store--ripened intelligence,
self-reliance, courage, skill, manliness, virtue. Of course,
man suffers in the conflict, as the patriarch did. When we see
the farm laborer bent double with rheumatism, or the collier
mutilated by the explosion in the mine, or the grinder with
his lung gone, or the weaver with his enfeebled physique, or
the seaman prematurely old through his battle with wind and
wave, or any of the million workers who carry pathetic signs
of the arduousness of toil, we see the limp of the victorious
wrestler. In the South Seas the natives lie on their backs and
the bread-fruit drops into their mouths. But these make a poor
show in the grand procession of the ages.

The law of life is truly severe which enjoins that man shall eat bread in the sweat of his face, but in this struggle for life our great antagonist is our great helper; we are leaving barbarism behind us; we are undergoing a magnificent transformation; we are becoming princes of God and heirs of all things.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(3079)

See ADVERSITY.

STRUGGLE AND GROWTH

Life in crystals can be explained by the struggle for existence,
which is ardent even here. In fact, if during their growth
two crystals come into contact, the weaker will completely
disappear, absorbed by the stronger.--_Revue Scientifique._

(3080)

STUDY OVERDONE

When I see a morning procession of pallid schoolboys staggering
to school under a load of text-books almost too heavy to be
held together by the strap that encircles them, or a bevy of
young girls, bound on the same educational errand, more pallid
and more exhausted by the eight or ten pounds of torture in
the shape of grammars, dictionaries, geographies, arithmetics,
geometries and philosophies, they, too, tug along the streets,
I wish their piles of knowledge might be reduced one-half, for
I can not but feel that with fewer books there would be more
culture, that too many studies produce too little scholarship,
and that the intellect which is forced will rarely be
expanded.--JAMES T. FIELDS.

(3081)

=Style=--See PERSONAL ELEMENT IN LITERATURE.

SUBCONSCIOUS ABSORPTION

Coleridge relates in his “Literaria Biographia” that in a Roman
Catholic town in Germany a young woman who could neither read
nor write was seized with a fever, during which, according to
the priests, she was possest by a polyglot devil. For she talked
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, besides uttering sounds which, tho not
understood by her hearers, had doubtless, meaning, but belonged
to languages unknown to them. “Whole sheets of her ravings
were written out,” says Coleridge, “and were found to consist
of sentences intelligible in themselves, but having slight
connection with each other.” Fortunately, a physician who, being
skeptically inclined, was disposed to question the theory of the
polyglot spirit, “determined to trace back the girl’s history.
After much trouble he discovered that at the age of nine she
had been charitably taken by an old Protestant pastor, a great
Hebrew scholar, in whose house she lived till his death. On
further inquiry, it appeared to have been the old man’s custom
for years to walk up and down a passage of his house, into which
the kitchen opened, and to read to himself in a loud voice out
of his books. The books were ransacked, and among them were
found several of the Greek and Latin fathers, together with
a collection of rabbinical writings. In these works so many
of the passages taken down at the young woman’s bedside were
identified that there could be no reasonable doubt as to their
source.”--Prof. RICHARD A. PROCTOR, New York _Mail
and Express_.

(3082)

=Subjects a Necessity=--See FAME, QUALIFYING FOR.

SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW

When Elihu Root was about to enter the Roosevelt Cabinet as
Secretary of State, a friend wrote to him: “Why not wait three
years and get the substance instead of taking the shadow now?”
in allusion to the presidency. Mr. Root replied: “I have always
thought that the opportunity to do something worth doing was the
substance and the trying to get something was the shadow.”

(3083)

SUBSTANCES, PENETRATING

Scientific men declare that there is no barricade like snow. A
bullet fired from a distance of fifty yards will not penetrate
a wall of snow a few feet thick, but the same missile passes
through dense earthworks and shatters trees when discharged
from a much greater distance. A bag of cotton is a much more
efficient resistant than a steel plate. A swordsman can cut a
sheep in two at a stroke, but he is baffled at once if he seeks
to cut through a pillow of fine feathers. (Text.)

(3084)

SUBSTITUTION

The following incident, related by Edward Gilliat, illustrates the truth of Christ bearing our sins:

Louis XIII, finding the Brittany fleet too weak to attack La
Rochelle, had ordered the Mediterranean galleys to pass through
the Straits of Gibraltar. M. de Gondi put out to sea, but left
ten galleys at Marseilles to be equipped and made up to their
full numbers. But there were not enough galley-slaves to fill up
the places, so prisoners from ordinary prisons were drafted in
to serve on the galleys.

Among these latter Vincent de Paul noticed one young man who
was sobbing and crying piteously. He asked him the cause of his
misery, and was answered, “It is because I am leaving my wife
and little children in great poverty; and now who will work for
them? I have not deserved so great a punishment for my slight
offense against the law.” The chaplain made further inquiries,
found that the slave had spoken the truth, but, as the galley
was on the point of starting, he could not get him reprieved.
There was only one thing to be done; it was not lawful, but pity
mastered prudence. He somehow managed to exchange places with
the galley-slave, got himself chained to the seat, and sent
off the prisoner in his soutane. He was not recognized until
some time afterward, and hastened to leave Marseilles, as his
biographer says, “more ashamed of his virtue than others of
their vice.”--“Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

(3085)

* * * * *

More than eighty years ago a fierce war raged in India between
the English and Tippoo Sahib. On one occasion several English
officers were taken prisoners. Among them was one named Baird.
One day the native officer brought in fetters to be put upon
each of the prisoners, the wounded not excepted. Baird had been
severely wounded and was suffering from pain and weakness.

A gray-haired officer said to the native official, “You do not
think of putting chains upon that wounded man?”

“There are just as many pairs of fetters as there are
prisoners,” was the answer, “and every pair must be worn.”

“Then,” said the noble officer, “put two pairs on me. I will
wear his as well as my own.” This was done. Strange to say,
Baird lived to regain his freedom, and lived to take that city;
but his noble, unselfish friend died in prison.

Up to his death he wore two pairs of fetters. But what if he had
worn the fetters of all the prisoners? What if, instead of being
a captive himself, he had quitted a glorious palace, to live in
their loathsome dungeon, to wear their chains, to bear their
stripes, to suffer and die for them, that they might go free,
and free forever? (Text.)

(3086)

=Substitution Unacceptable=--See VICARIOUS SALVATION IMPOSSIBLE.

=Subterfuges=--See REASONS VERSUS EXCUSES.

SUBTLETY

The fer-de-lance is found on the islands of Martinique and Santa
Lucia. The basis of its gruesome reputation seems to be the fact
that it does not warn the intruders of its haunts after the
manner of the cobra or the rattlesnake, but flattens its coils
and with slightly vibrating tail, awaits events.

If the unsuspecting traveler should show no sign of hostile
intent he may be allowed to pass unharmed within two yards
of the coiled matadore, but a closer approach is apt to be
construed as a challenge, and the serpent, suddenly rearing
its ugly head, may scare the trespasser into some motion of
self-defense. He may lift his foot or brandish his stick in a
menacing manner. If he does, he is lost. The lower coils will
expand, bringing the business end, neck and all a few feet
nearer; the head points like a leveled rifle, then darts forward
with electric swiftness, guided by an unerring instinct for the
selection of the least-protected parts of the body. (Text.)

(3087)

SUBTLETY AMONG ANIMALS

It is said that when wolves meditate an attack upon the wild
horses of the Mexican plains they are very subtle in their
maneuvers. First, two wolves come out of the woods and begin to
play together like two kittens. They gambol about each other and
run backward and forward. Then the herd of horses raise their
frightened heads in readiness for a stampede. But the wolves
seem to be so playful that the horses, after watching them a
while, forget their fears and continue to graze, at perfect ease
in their eating. Then the wolves, in their play, come nearer and
nearer, while other wolves slowly and stealthily creep after
them. Then suddenly the enemies encircle the herd, and with one
lunge the doomed horses are in the pitiless grasp of the wily
foe. They desperately fight a losing battle as the fierce brutes
sink their fangs in the horses’ throats.

In a similar way evil companions seek to lay a snare for those whom they would entrap.

(3088)

SUCCESS

It often turns out that our apparent successes are really our undoing. Croake James tells this incident:

I was mightily delighted with the whim I was shown on a sign
at a village not far from this capital, tho it is too serious
a truth to excite one’s risibility. On one side is painted a
man stark naked, with this motto: “I am the man who went to law
and lost my cause.” On the reverse is a fellow all in tatters,
looking most dismally with this motto: “I am the man who went to
law and won my cause.” (Text.)--“Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(3089)

* * * * *

A Nebraska woman won a prize of $250 for this essay on “What Constitutes Success,” written in competition with many others:

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and
loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children; who has filled his niche and
accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he
found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a
rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s
beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the
best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an
inspiration; whose memory a benediction.

(3090)

SUCCESS AND CIRCUMSTANCES

I remember Thackeray saying to me, concerning a certain chapter
in one of his books that the critics agreed in accusing of
carelessness: “Careless? If I’ve written that chapter once, I’ve
written it a dozen times--and each time worse than the last!”
a proof that labor did not assist in his case. When an artist
fails it is not so much from carelessness--to do his best is not
only profitable to him, but a joy. But it is not given to every
man--not, indeed, to any--to succeed whenever and however he
tries. The best painter that ever lived never entirely succeeded
more than four or five times; that is to say, no artist ever
painted more than four or five masterpieces, however high his
general average may have been, for such success depends on the
coincidence, not only of genius and inspiration, but of health
and mood and a hundred other mysterious contingencies.--Sir
JOHN MILLAIS, _Magazine of Art_.

(3091)

SUCCESS BY EXPERIMENTATION

A few years ago the cotton-boll weevil, which had increased
steadily from year to year, reached a point at which it
destroyed in Texas over $30,000,000 worth of cotton in
one season. Many men in southern Texas were bankrupted,
cotton-planting was given up in certain places, and it looked
as if this great wealth-producing industry were doomed in Texas
and probably also in time over the entire South. The practical
farmers were completely overwhelmed. Here the Department of
Agriculture started three lines of experimentation; first, to
find some other harmless insect or parasite that would destroy
the boll weevil as the white scale had been destroyed in
California; second, to develop a species of cotton that could
resist weevil attack; and third, to find a method of cultivation
that would lessen the injury of the attack of the weevil when
made. The ants, which the department brought from South America
to eat up the boll weevil, proved a failure, but the development
of a better method of cultivation and the use of better
adapted varieties of cotton proved so successful that Texas
farmers now, following the methods worked out by the department
investigators, again raise their magnificent crops of cotton, in
spite of the boll weevil.--_The Evening Post._

(3092)

SUCCESS FROM LABOR

“Paradise Lost” was finished in 1665, after seven years’ labor
in darkness. With great difficulty Milton found a publisher, and
for the great work, now the most honored poem in our literature,
he received less than certain verse-makers of our day receive
for a little song in one of our popular magazines. Its success
was immediate, tho, like all his work, it met with venomous
criticism.

The work stamped him as one of the world’s great writers, and
from England and the Continent pilgrims came in increasing
numbers to speak their gratitude.--WILLIAM J. LONG,
“English Literature.”

(3093)

SUCCESS IN FAILURE

_Success Magazine_ appropriately publishes these lines:

There is no failure. God’s immortal plan
Accounts no loss a lesson learned for man.
Defeat is oft the discipline we need
To save us from the wrong, or teaching heed
To errors which would else more dearly cost--
A lesson learned is ne’er a battle lost.
Whene’er the cause is right, be not afraid;
Defeat is then but victory delayed--
And e’en the greatest vic’tries of the world
Are often won when battle-flags are furled.

(3094)

See FAILURE LEADING TO SUCCESS.

SUCCESS INSPIRES CONFIDENCE

Because Paul Armstrong in five days wrote “Alias Jimmy
Valentine,” a New York success, another play, as yet unread
by Liebler & Co., has been accepted by that firm. The exact
conversation confirming this business deal is worthy of
recording because of the brevity of it. Mr. Armstrong called
at the office of the managers just as Mr. George C. Tyler, the
managing editor, was getting ready to leave for Rochester, where
“A Certain Party” was to open.

“I have written a play,” said Mr. Armstrong.

“What is it called?” asked Mr. Tyler.

“It has no name,” said the author.

“How long did it take you to write it?” asked Mr. Tyler.

“Four days,” said Mr. Armstrong. “I wrote it in a day’s less
time than ‘Jimmy Valentine.’”

“I’ll accept it,” said Mr. Tyler, and shook hands on the
bargain.--Philadelphia _Enquirer_.

(3095)

SUCCESS TOO DEAR

Judge Baldwin, of Indiana, it is said, in giving his advice
to lawyers upon one occasion, told them that the course to be
pursued by a lawyer was first to get on, second to get honor,
and third to get honest. A man who follows that policy, in
my judgment, is not such a lawyer as should be let loose in
politics. (Text.)--GEORGE M. PALMER.

(3096)

=Success, Ultimate=--See EXPERIMENT.

SUFFERING

Oberlin, the illustrious pastor of the Ban de la Roche, used the following figure in comforting the sorrow of an afflicted lady:

Dear madam, I have now before me two stones; they are alike in
color, they are of the same water, clear, pure and clean. But
there is a great difference between them; one has a dazzling
brightness, the other is quite dull. What is the reason of this
difference? The one has been carefully cut, the other hardly
touched. Now, had these stones been endowed with life, so as to
have been capable of feeling what they underwent, the one which
had received eighty cuts would have thought itself very unhappy,
and would have envied the fate of the other, which, having
received but eight, had undergone but a tenth part of its own
sufferings. Yet the stone which had suffered little is dim and
lusterless; the stone which has suffered greatly shines forth in
dazzling brilliancy.

(3097)

SUFFERING, FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST’S

John B. Tabb expresses the requirement laid on true disciples of Jesus, in this verse:

In patience, as in labor, must thou be
A follower of me,
Whose hands and feet, when most I wrought for thee,
Were nailed unto a tree. (Text.)

--_The Independent._

(3098)

SUFFERING FOR LOVE

He who for love has undergone
The worst that can befall,
Is happier thousandfold than one
Who never loved at all.
A grace within his soul has reigned
Which nothing else can bring;
Thank God for all that I have gained
By that high suffering.

--LORD HOUGHTON.

(3099)

=Suffering Ignored=--See HEARTLESS PAGANS.

=Suffering that Develops=--See ADVERSITY HELPING GENIUS.

SUFFERING TRANSFORMED

Christ teaches us how, under the redemptive government of God,
suffering has become a subtle and magnificent process for the
full and final perfecting of human character. Science tells us
how the bird-music, which is one of nature’s foremost charms,
has arisen out of the bird’s cry of distress in the morning of
time; how originally the music of field and forest was nothing
more than an exclamation caused by the bird’s bodily pain and
fear, and how through the ages the primal note of anguish
has been evolved and differentiated until it has risen into
the ecstasy of the lark, melted into the silver note of the
dove, swelled into the rapture of the nightingale, unfolded
into the vast and varied music of the sky and the summer. So
Christ shows us that out of the personal sorrow which now rends
the believer’s heart he shall arise in moral and infinite
perfection; that out of the cry of anguish wrung from us by the
present distress shall spring the supreme music of the future.
(Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(3100)

SUFFERING TURNED TO SONG

In Edinburgh when they were celebrating the life of Dr. George
Matheson, the blind preacher, Robertson Nicoll said that he
was the greatest Scotsman since Thomas Chalmers. Divide that
statement in two in the middle, and you still have a great man.
At twenty the youth left a surgeon’s office, with these words
echoing in the porches of the ear, “Better see your friends
quickly, for soon the darkness will settle, and you will see
them no more forever.” Then his biographer tells us that the
youth went on with his studies, by listening while others read
or recited. Had Matheson been able to read early church history,
he would have been a great scholar. Had he been able to read
the story of the thinkers and system-builders, he would have
been a great philosopher. But the greatest thing he ever did, it
seems, was in life. We are told that there came a day when his
visions dissolved, and he realized that he must go alone across
the years. The storm tore down the perfumed vines that were
climbing about the doorway of man’s soul. And the vine suffered
grievously. But the youth coerced his lips to silence, went
apart and hid himself for a day. When he came out it was with
suffering turned to song. What will they celebrate as the blind
preacher’s greatest achievement, in that memorial service in
Edinburgh? Listen to the exploit of a faith-man, singing in the
hour when love dwells amidst her ruins:

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

--N. D. HILLIS.

(3101)

SUFFERING UNIVERSAL

In the great earthquake which a large part of California
experienced all animate nature suffered. For hours after the
principal shock domestic animals manifested the utmost terror.
Cattle lowed continuously; dogs barked long and lustily; cats
crawled away and hid, and remained in hiding a large part
of the day; and when they finally came forth, would crawl
along crouching with bodies nearly touching the ground. Even
the following night their fear had not left them. During the
first half of the night we listened to a continuous chorus of
howls and barkings, in which every dog in the city joined.
About midnight the dogs ceased and the roosters took up the
fear-inspired chant. It seemed as if every chicken in the city
and surrounding country had joined this nocturnal orchestra,
whose members scarcely stopt to take breath.

In driving along the road, the writer noticed a large flock of
barn-swallows around a small mud-puddle in the middle of the
road. As they alighted they kept their wings extended straight
up in the air and fluttering, while they drove their bills
almost fiercely into the mud. A bystander explained that all
their nests had been shaken down and they were rebuilding. To
them calamity had come in the loss of their nests, their eggs,
and mayhap their little ones. This little indication of common
suffering made the feathered family seem much closer to the
human. (Text.)

(3102)

=Suffering, Unnecessary=--See HELP UNRECOGNIZED.

=Suffrage, Woman=--See RETORT, A.

SUGGESTION

A few years ago in a certain part of England the weather was so
continuously beastly--that’s the term they used--that at last,
wearying of looking at the barometers day after day, week in and
week out, the entire inhabitants of a certain seaport town, in
sheer disgust, gathered up their weather-glasses and dumped them
into the old junk shops. Both the weather and the barometers
flooded them with disagreeable suggestions. They could not do
away with the weather, but they could with their barometers
that seemed to serve no better purpose than to accentuate their
discontent.--ROBERT MACDONALD.

(3103)

* * * * *

Sometimes a word or phrase will do in literature what a sketch will do in charcoal, defining a character and suggesting a whole line of possibilities. An instance of this is in the following from _Everybody’s Magazine_:

After a certain jury had been out an inordinately long time on
a very simple case, they filed into the court-room, and the
foreman told the judge they were unable to agree upon a verdict.
The latter rebuked them, saying the case was a very clear one,
and remanded them back to the jury-room for a second attempt,
adding, “If you are there too long I will have to send you in
twelve suppers.”

The foreman, in a rather irritated tone, spoke up and said: “May
it please your honor, you might send in eleven suppers and one
bundle of hay.”

(3104)

See NEGATIVE TEACHING.

=Suggestion, Unhealthy=--See TALKING AND SICKNESS.

SUICIDE PREVENTED

Some time since a young man who had spent his substance in
riotous living was reduced to poverty. He wandered away from
home, and being unable to support himself, he resolved upon
self-destruction. He filled his pockets with lead, and,
determined to drown himself, went to the river. Deciding to wait
until dark, he was attracted by a light in the window of a house
at no great distance, and went to it. The people were singing
hymns. He listened at the door until a chapter from the Bible
was read and prayer was offered to God. When the prayer was
ended he knocked at the door and was admitted. The passage under
consideration that evening was, “Do thyself no harm.” When the
services were concluded the stranger asked them how they came
to know his thoughts, for he had not mentioned his intention.
The members of the meeting were equally surprized, as they had
never before seen him. The young man then told them his design
of taking his life and how he had been prevented. He became an
eminent Christian. (Text.)

(3105)

SUMMER IN THE HEART

Springtime may lose its freshest tints,
And autumn-leaves their gold.
The bitter blast and snowy wreath
May sweep across the wold;
But the years are full of splendors
That never will depart,
For they shed eternal fragrance
When there’s summer in the heart.

The shadows linger on the earth,
The sunbeams hide away;
The sad mists fold their chill white hands
About the face of day;
The tumult and the rush of life
Sound ay in street and mart;
But they can not drown life’s music
When there’s summer in the heart.

The city towers are crumbling fast,
And totter to their fall;
The ivied castle on the height
Shows many a ruined wall;
But men build eternal buildings
With strange and wondrous art;
They are shrines for the immortals
When there’s summer in the heart.

--Montreal _Star_.

(3106)

=Sun The, as a Witness=--See TESTS.

SUN, THE BUSINESS OF A

I remember walking in Switzerland, late in the evening in a
raging thunder-storm. The darkness could be felt as well as
the rain. Little points of light now and then by the roadside
attracted my attention. On stopping to examine, there was a
glowworm whose little flame had hollowed out of the immensity
of darkness a small sphere of light, into which the grasses
bent, all beaded with crystal drops. A most exquisite picture.
Shelley speaks of a “glowworm golden in a dell of dew.” To
go back to our camp-fire: After supper I stept down to the
shore of the lake and there, far across its invisible surface,
gleamed a little point of light. I knew that other campers were
making themselves comfortable and happy in the little sphere
of light and warmth which their fire had hollowed out of the
all-embracing darkness.

Now, that precisely is the business of a sun. It is nothing more or less than a great fire built, as only God knows how, for the purpose of hollowing out of the eternal darkness and cold of space a sphere of light and warmth large enough for a group or family of worlds to live in. The sun is as purely a mechanical contrivance as your household fire. In fact, it is just that. Our sun is the family hearth, in whose light and heat our group of worlds live as in a home.--JAMES H. ECOB.

(3107)

SUNDAY DESECRATION BY CHRISTIANS

Many years ago in Kyoto, Japan, the question was asked me, “Are
there many Christians in America?” You can imagine how pathetic
it was. I said, “Why do you ask that question?” My questioner
was a fine, handsome, educated man, one of the finest of the
Japanese type. He said, “Some years ago I became a Christian. I
kept the finest store in Kyoto, as the tourists thought. I had
gathered a great quantity of old relics from the temples and the
homes that are so scarce now in Japan. I always used to keep my
store closed on Sunday, but many Americans and Englishmen and
Germans came through here and said, ‘If you can not open your
store for us on Sunday, we will not trade with you, as we have
to leave on Monday.’ By and by I had to keep my store open.” He
has kept it open ever since, and he added, “My neighbor, the
shoemaker, is a Christian, and keeps his store shut all the time
on Sunday.” I suppose the reason was that there was not a large
demand for Japanese shoes on the part of American and English
travelers. That is a genuine touch of human nature.--EDWARD
B. STURGES, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(3108)

See SABBATH, OBSERVING THE.

=Sunday Habit, A Bad=--See LYING AROUND.

SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS

When Dr. Charles J. Young, pastor of the Church of the Puritans, New York, was waited upon by a lady reporter of a secular journal, for a snappy article on the subject of Sunday newspapers, this is what she got:

“As a matter of fact,” said Dr. Young, “I actually believe in
the Ten Commandments as divine enactments, and this is how I
feel about it: Suppose you invite me as a friend to dine at
your house and I accept. You would make special preparation
for my coming. It is woman’s way to give her best where she
gives her confidence and friendship. So there you have a rich
repast all ready against my coming. Now imagine my stopping at
a street corner on the way to your home and gorging myself from
the peanut-stand of the noble Roman who deals out his wares to
all who come without a care of the consequences; I ask this
common-sense question: What condition would I be in to enjoy
your luscious viands, and what kind of courtesy or appreciation
would this be for all your kindness in preparing for me? Well,
my friend, you see the application of this without my making
it. There across the street stands the house of the dearest
Friend I have ever had. One day out of seven He invites me there
to meet with Him and to commune with Him and to receive from
Him such supply as He has especially provided and adapted to
my hungry, needy, immortal soul. I ask again, is it consistent
with a spiritual worship, is it conducive to a devotional
mind, is it either courteous to God or just to myself, if on
the morning of that sacred day I fill my thoughts with the
secularities, the commercialisms, the gossips, the scandal, the
general excrescences of every-day rough-and-tumble life in this
mammon-loving age?

“My interviewer was silent for a surprizing length of time.
Maybe I was wrong, but I fancied she looked up from the floor
with a moistened eye and said in a quivering voice: ‘I have
never thought of this view of the matter before, and I confess
I am able now to see but one fair answer to your question: It
can not be.’”--_Sunday-school Illustrator._

(3109)

SUNDAY RECORDED

Rev. Egerton R. Young tells of a big Indian chieftainess who
came to see him one day. Her people lived a fortnight’s journey
away, but she had heard of the paleface and his wife, who, with
their wonderful Book, had come to live down among the Saulteaux.
She did not believe what she heard but she came to find out.
Her curiosity and her desire to learn were both insatiable. She
would talk morning, noon and night. At last she was returning,
satisfied that what the paleface said was true and determining
to go back to pray to the true God. Mr. Young said to her, “Now,
if you are going back to live as a Christian, you must keep one
day in seven as God’s day. Do not attend to worldly matters on
that day, but worship God.” He gave her a sheet of paper and
told her each day to make a mark so | until there were six of
them | | | | | |, and then to make a big heavy mark =|=, and
when that day came, to leave the gun and the rifle quiet in the
wigwam. He told her to work hard on Saturday, to get enough food
for Sunday, so she could be free to think about the Great Spirit
and pray to the living Father.

Five months later Mr. Young made his first visit to the tribe of
this great chieftainess, and she drew from her bosom a soiled,
greasy paper, on which was the record of the days as he had
bidden her to keep them, and she knew just how many days more
must be counted before the next “praying day” should come.
(Text.)

(3110)

=Sunday Rules=--See PEW, IF I WERE IN THE.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL IN EARLY DAYS

I have a very definite picture of my own grandmother, when quite
advanced in years, patiently teaching one or two illiterates to
spell and to read, in the Sunday-school of an Episcopal church
in a little country village in Vermont, where she was then
residing; and as late as 1837 one object of the Sunday-school
Society of Ireland was “to supply spelling-books and copies of
the Scriptures” to the various Sunday-schools of the island. In
fact, most of the early work was the teaching of reading and
morality, and the Sunday-school was a sort of mission school
among the unfortunate, the vicious, and the illiterate. Others
did not attend, and it was only by very definite effort that
the change to the present status was finally brought about.
I remember hearing an army officer say that as late as 1845,
in central New York, where he then resided as a boy of some
twelve years of age, he was soundly whipt by his father because
he had exprest his unwillingness to attend one of the “ragged
schools”--as the Sunday-schools in his vicinity were then
called; and he added that his impressions of the low caste of
the school were so definite that he took his whipping like a man
and without complaint.--JAMES H. CANFIELD, “Proceedings
of the Religious Education Association,” 1904.

(3111)

=Sunday-school Missionary Work=--See BOYS’ MISSIONARY EFFORTS.

SUNDAY WORK DISCONTINUED

Over four years ago the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company
decided to carry no more Sunday excursions; to run only such
Sunday freight trains as were necessary to carry live stock
and certain perishable goods; and to stop all Sunday work in
freight-yards and sheds for twelve hours every Sunday.

There was great opposition to this action. A boycott was
threatened by brewers and other shippers, while the adverse
criticisms were abundant and scathing.

The last annual report of this railway gives striking
endorsement as to the success of this policy of reduction of
Sunday business. We are informed that the financial profits of
the roads have increased 100 per cent during these four years;
also, that last year not one life was lost on the whole line
covering several thousand miles, with its many fast express,
mail and freight trains; and there are practically no complaints
from shippers and receivers of freight as to delays for cars, or
delivery of goods.--_The Christian Statesman._

(3113)

See SABBATH, OBSERVING THE.

SUNLIGHT AND STARLIGHT

There is a Sun of Righteousness, before whose shining all the lesser human lights are dimmed, as starlight by the sunshine.

The extinction of “starlight” in the daylight is not due to
the vapors of the atmosphere, but to the stronger vibrations
of sunlight, which prevent our eyes perceiving the weaker
vibrations of the starlight, exactly as a stronger sound, say
a cannon-shot, prevents us from hearing a smaller noise, say
a mouse piping; or, as is well known, a larger disturbance in
water extinguishes a smaller one. The smaller noise, the smaller
sound waves, and the smaller light vibrations are not perceived
by our senses when the greater impressions or disturbances
occupy them. (Text.)

(3114)

SUNDAY-SCHOOL STATISTICS

From the United States “Bureau of Census” Bulletin 103 are taken
the following statistics of Sunday-schools in the continental
United States:

Of the 178,214 Sunday-schools conducted by church organizations,
165,128, or 92.7 per cent., are returned by the Protestant
bodies; 11,172 or 6.3 per cent. by the Roman Catholic Church and
1,914, or 1.1 per cent., by the remaining bodies.

Among the Protestant bodies, the Methodist bodies rank first,
with 57,464 Sunday-schools, or 32.2 per cent. of the total,
and the Baptist bodies come next with 43,178 or 24.2 per cent.
of the total the two families together reporting considerably
more than one-half the entire number of denominational
Sunday-schools. If to these be added the Presbyterian bodies,
with 14,452 Sunday-schools, the Lutheran bodies with 9,450, and
the Disciples or Christians with 8,078, the 5 bodies combined
report 132,622 Sunday-schools or nearly three-fourths (74.4 per
cent.) of the entire number and more than four-fifths (80.3 per
cent.) of all those reported by Protestant bodies.

(3112)

=Sunday School, The, As a Seed=--See NEEDS, MEETING CHILDREN’S.

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES

Denomination Key:

A: All denominations
B: Protestant bodies
C: Adventist bodies
D: Baptist bodies
E: Christians (Christian Connection)
F: Church of Christ, Scientist
G: Congregationalist
H: Disciples or Christians
I: Dunkers or German Bapt. Brethren.
J: Evangelical bodies
K: Friends
L: German Evangelical Synod of N. A.
M: Independent churches
N: Lutheran bodies
O: Mennonite bodies
P: Methodist bodies
Q: Presbyterian bodies
R: Protestant Episcopal Church
S: Reformed bodies
T: Unitarians
U: United Brethren bodies
V: Universalists
W: Other Protestant bodies
X: Roman Catholic Church
Y: Jewish congregations
Z: Latter-day Saints
AA: Eastern Orthodox Churches
BB: All other bodies

+---------------++---------------++-----------------++------------------
| ORGANIZATIONS || SUNDAY-SCHOOLS|| SUNDAY-SCHOOL || SUNDAY-SCHOOL
| REPORTING || REPORTED || OFFICERS AND || SCHOLARS
| SUNDAY-SCHOOLS|| || TEACHERS ||
+-------+-------++-------+-------++---------+-------++----------+-------
| |Per ct.|| |Per ct.|| |Per ct.|| |Per ct.
| Number| of || Number|distri-|| Number |distri-|| Number |distri-
| | total || | bution|| | bution|| | bution
---+-------+-------++-------+-------++---------+-------++----------+-------
| | || | || | || |
A |167,574| 79.0 ||178,214| 100.0 ||1,648,664| 100.0 ||14,685,997| 100.0
===+=======+=======++=======+=======++=========+=======++==========+=======
| | || | || | || |
B |156,437| 80.0 ||165,128| 92.7 ||1,564,821| 94.9 ||13,018,434| 88.6
---+-------+-------++-------+-------++---------+-------++----------+-------
C | 2,078| 81.5 || 2,242| 1.3 || 14,286| 0.9 || 69,110| 0.5
D | 41,165| 75.0 || 43,178| 24.2 || 323,473| 19.6 || 2,898,914| 19.7
E | 1,136| 82.4 || 1,149| 0.6 || 10,510| 0.6 || 72,963| 0.5
F | 550| 86.2 || 551| 0.3 || 3,155| 0.2 || 16,116| 0.1
G | 5,327| 93.2 || 5,741| 3.2 || 75,801| 4.6 || 638,089| 4.3
| | || | || | || |
H | 7,901| 72.2 || 8,078| 4.5 || 70,476| 4.3 || 634,504| 4.3
I | 866| 78.9 || 1,223| 0.7 || 10,789| 0.7 || 78,575| 0.5
J | 2,454| 89.6 || 2,549| 1.4 || 32,113| 1.9 || 214,998| 1.5
K | 846| 73.8 || 887| 0.5 || 7,735| 0.5 || 53,761| 0.4
| | || | || | || |
L | 1,086| 90.1 || 1,111| 0.6 || 12,079| 0.7 || 116,106| 0.8
M | 826| 76.6 || 922| 0.5 || 6,732| 0.4 || 57,680| 0.4
N | 8,682| 68.3 || 9,450| 5.3 || 83,891| 5.1 || 782,786| 5.3
O | 411| 68.0 || 439| 0.2 || 5,041| 0.3 || 44,922| 0.3
| | || | || | || |
P | 55,227| 85.4 || 57,464| 32.2 || 569,296| 34.5 || 4,472,930| 30.5
Q | 13,048| 84.1 || 14,452| 8.1 || 176,647| 10.7 || 1,511,175| 10.3
R | 5,211| 76.1 || 5,601| 3.1 || 51,048| 3.1 || 464,351| 3.2
S | 2,345| 90.7 || 2,588| 1.5 || 38,710| 2.3 || 361,548| 2.5
| | || | || | || |
T | 358| 77.7 || 364| 0.2 || 3,592| 0.2 || 24,005| 0.2
U | 3,777| 87.8 || 3,870| 2.2 || 42,169| 2.6 || 301,320| 2.1
V | 596| 70.4 || 600| 0.3 || 6,585| 0.4 || 42,201| 0.3
W | 2,547| 68.9 || 2,669| 1.5 || 20,693| 1.3 || 162,380| 1.1
| | || | || | || |
X | 9,406| 75.4 || 11,172| 6.3 || 62,470| 3.8 || 1,481,535| 10.1
Y | 561| 31.7 || 600| 0.3 || 2,239| 0.1 || 49,514| 0.3
Z | 1,036| 87.5 || 1,169| 0.7 || 18,507| 1.1 || 130,085| 0.9
AA | 7| 1.7 || 7| [1] || 10| [1] || 509| [1]
BB | 127| 16.6 || 138| 0.1 || 617| [1] || 5,920| [14]
---+-------+-------++-------+-------++---------+-------++----------+-------

[14] Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.

SUNS, THE SIZE OF

How large are some of our neighbor suns? Alpha Centauri, our
nearest neighbor, with its double sun, gives twice as much
light as we receive; great Sirius equals sixty-three of our
suns; the Pole Star eighty-six. “Think of an eighty-fold sun.
However, some are still more astonishing: Vega blazes with the
light of three hundred and forty-four suns; Capella with the
light of four hundred and thirty; Arcturus with the light of
five hundred and sixteen, while mighty Alcyone, the glorious
center around which we all, suns and worlds, are supposed to
circle, blazes with the light of twelve thousand of our suns!”
If our little sun can boast of a family with worlds of such
beauty and greatness as Venus and Earth and glorious Saturn and
mighty Jupiter, how shall we measure the number, the splendor
and the magnitude of the worlds which circle about such centers
as Sirius, Vega, Capella, Arcturus and Alcyone?--JAMES H.
ECOB.

(3115)

SUNSHINE

The sunshine of Persia forms one of its greatest attractions.
The natives are very much alarmed when an eclipse of the sun
takes place, as they are afraid they are going to lose their
benefactor. A Persian gentleman once visited England, and on his
return to his native country was questioned by his friends as
to which was the better land to live in. His reply was to the
effect that in England the houses were grander, the scenery more
beautiful, but that there was no sunshine.

A worldly life may have more show, but the Christian life has more shine. (Text.)

(3116)

SUNSHINE IN THE CHURCH

On Mount Sinai, in a noted convent, is the chapel of the Burning
Bush. A feature of this chapel is a window so situated that the
sun shines through it only on one day in every year.

But the church that would really light human life must have sunshine in all its windows every day in the year.

(3117)

SUNSHINE, SCATTERING

During the “cotton famine” in Lancashire, England, in 1865,
just after our civil war, one of the mill-owners called his
operatives together and told them he must close the mills. It
meant poverty to him and ruin to them. Flickering hope sank in
black despair. Presently a delicate, sweet girl, thin and pale
with suffering--she was a Sunday-school teacher--started and
sang two stanzas of this hymn:

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

A sunburst of hope came over the despairing company when the
touching and comforting strain was ended. It proved a prophecy.
The proprietor determined to struggle on a while longer, and
soon the mill was running again at full work.

(3118)

See CHEER, SIGNALS OF.

=Sunstroke, Warding Off=--See PROTECTION.

SUPERIOR MEN

Without the presence of the superior man, the “paradise of the
average man,” as this country has been called, would become
a purgatory to all those who care chiefly, not for success,
but for freedom and power and beauty. One of the greatest
privileges of the average man is to recognize and honor the
superior man, because the superior man makes it worth while
to belong to the race by giving life a dignity and splendor
which constitute a common capital for all who live. The respect
paid to men like Washington and Lincoln, Marshall and Lee, Poe
and Hawthorne, affords a true measure of civilization in a
community.--HAMILTON FISH MABIE.

(3119)

SUPERIORITY OF POSITION

In Java sitting down is a mark of respect; in the Mariana
Islands the inferior squats to speak to a superior who would
consider himself degraded by sitting in the presence of one who
should be objectively as well as figuratively “below” him. The
punctilios relating to the fundamental rule that rank is defined
by elevation are carried to absurdity in the Orient. When an
English carriage was procured for the Rajah of Lombok, it was
found impossible to use it because the driver’s seat was the
highest, and for the same reason successive kings of Ava refused
to ride in the carriages presented to them by ambassadors. In
Burmah, that a floor overhead should be occupied would be felt
as a degradation, contrary to civilized ideas that the lower
stories are the most honorable. In Siam, on the principle that
no man can raise his head to the level of his superiors, he must
not cross a bridge if one of higher rank chances to be passing
below, and no mean person may walk upon a floor above that
occupied by his betters.--GARRICK MALLERY, _Popular
Science Monthly_.

(3120)

SUPERSTITION

There is a man named Uonosuke Yamamoto, whose daily vocation for
fifty years has been to gather up and to sell at a high price
all the dust which is left in the Kannon temple in Asakusa by
the thousands of visitors who daily go there to worship.

The superstitious purchasers sprinkle small patches of this
dust in front of their own doors, believing it will bring them
blessings and immunity from plague and famine.

(3121)

* * * * *

The rude and unread of past ages have always connected natural
phenomena with supernatural agencies, adoring the sun and the
moon with altar fires on high places and in groves, of which
the witches’ Sabbath was a fancied descendant; and even in
the twelfth century there were remnants of these forms in the
fire-worship supposed to be led by old women, one of whom was
called the night-queen, and who, as old women will, cherished
traditions and forms to such an extent that the bishops were
finally ordered to have them watched. It was but a little more
than three hundred years ago when it was generally believed that
the appearance of a huge comet was the work of Satan, and its
disappearance was the work of the Church. Perhaps we have not
left all these follies quite behind us yet. People who nowadays
make a wish at the first sight of the evening star, expecting to
receive the thing wished for, who are particular about seeing
the new moon, not through glass, and with silver in their
pockets, and who hold that the position of the slender horn
signifies either a dry month or a wet one, as it may be--such
people have hardly any right to call in question the demonology
believed in by the people of the Middle Ages and the old dames
of later days.--_Harper’s Bazar._

(3122)

* * * * *

“Refuse old wives’ fables,” is a good Biblical rule. Christianity is slowly dispelling such foolish beliefs as the following:

There are still some places where people believe a felon on the
finger is caused by having pointed the finger at the moon, and
that some headaches are caused by having one’s hair cut while
the moon is crescent.

(3123)

* * * * *

“They who believe not in God will believe in ghosts.” This is the nature of superstition, of which these Tahitians are an example:

The Tahitians had great confidence in the power of red feathers,
attributing large success in fishing to their presence on the
canoes, but had little conception of the soul or of duty; and,
while faithless toward God, they were credulous toward the
most absurd imposture, placing their trust in fortune-tellers,
dreams, and signs of good or ill luck.--PIERSON, “The
Miracles of Missions.”

(3124)

* * * * *

Fishermen the world over are as prone to superstition as sailors
are, and many curious notions prevail among them as to what
shall be done to court luck in their catches.

One of the strangest notions in this respect is that held by the
Indians in British Columbia. With great ceremony and solemnity
these red men go out to meet “the first salmon,” endeavoring in
flattering tones to win the favor of the fish by addressing them
as “great chiefs.”

The salmon fisheries in California used to be responsible for
a queer custom on the part of the Indians. Every spring they
would “dance for salmon.” If the fish did not appear with that
celerity deemed appropriate there would be employed a “wise
man,” who made an image of a swimming fish which was placed in
the water in the hope of attracting live fish to the bait.

The Japanese fishermen have the quaint notion that silence must
be observed, and even the women left at home are not permitted
to talk lest the fish should hear and disapprove. Among the
members of the primitive race of the Ainos, the first fish
caught is brought in through a window instead of a door, so that
the other fish “may not see.”

Among the Eskimos it is held that bad luck will come should
their women sew while the men are fishing. If the necessity for
mending arises the women must do the job shut up in little tents
out of sight of the fishermen.

The fishermen off the northeast coast of Scotland will, under
no circumstances, allow a fisherman at sea to make mention of
certain objects on land, such as, for instance, “dog,” “swine,”
“cow,” etc. If on land chickens are not to be counted before
they are hatched, so at sea fish must not be counted till the
catch be completed. The Scots think that it is good luck to find
a rat gnawing at a net; also a horseshoe nailed to the mast
will help; but the greatest good luck of all is to see a mouse
aboard.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(3125)

See BARRIERS; DECEIT WITH GOD; EYE, THE EVIL; FEAR; JUNK;
SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA; THIRTEEN SUPERSTITION, THE; WITCHES,
BELIEF IN.

SUPERSTITION CONDEMNED

The belief that a particular house or day or gem is “unlucky”
and fraught with evil runs counter to any rational theory of the
government of the universe. How can those who believe in the
rule of a Supreme Being--a conscious and just and omniscient
intelligence--picture their God as capable of such caprice,
such impish malevolence, as to make one dwelling out of ten
thousand fatefully “unlucky” to its inhabitants, or to visit
with misfortune those of his creatures who break a looking-glass
or who start on a journey on a Friday--an artificial designation
in a mushroom calendar news of which can hardly yet have
reached the dial of the skies? Or, accepting the other theory
of a government of law, is it conceivable that the ordainments
of immutable nature are subject to whimsical and malevolent
manipulations to harass and distress human beings? Civilized
voodooism is an impugnment of the Power that rules the universe.
It is degrading to the intellect of man. It is an affront to
common sense.--New York _World_.

(3126)

=Superstition Overcome=--See INTELLIGENCE OUTDOING IGNORANCE.

=Superstitions, Chinese=--See EARTHQUAKE, SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT.

SUPPLIES, BRINGING UP