Chapter 38

The headquarters of the George Yard Missions, London, are pitched on an extinct volcano; the main block being built on the site of an ancient distillery, and the shelter on the ground formerly occupied by the infamous “Black Horse”—that rendezvous of highwaymen, robbers, and murderers.—Pierson, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(1265)

GOOD, FAITH IN

In the following verse Eugene Lee-Hamilton shows the result of losing faith in the good:

There is a tale of Faustus—that one day,Lucretia, the Venetian, then his love,Had, while he slept, the rashness to removeHis magic ring, when fair as god he lay;And that a sudden horrible decayO’erspread his face; a hundred wrinkles woveTheir network on his cheek; while she aboveHis slumber crouched, and watched him shrivel away.There is upon Life’s hand a magic ring—The ring of Faith-in-Good, Life’s gold of gold;Remove it not, lest all Life’s charm take wing;Remove it not, lest straightway you beholdLife’s cheek fall in, and every earthly thingGrow all at once unutterably old.

There is a tale of Faustus—that one day,

Lucretia, the Venetian, then his love,

Had, while he slept, the rashness to remove

His magic ring, when fair as god he lay;

And that a sudden horrible decay

O’erspread his face; a hundred wrinkles wove

Their network on his cheek; while she above

His slumber crouched, and watched him shrivel away.

There is upon Life’s hand a magic ring—The ring of Faith-in-Good, Life’s gold of gold;Remove it not, lest all Life’s charm take wing;Remove it not, lest straightway you beholdLife’s cheek fall in, and every earthly thingGrow all at once unutterably old.

There is upon Life’s hand a magic ring—

The ring of Faith-in-Good, Life’s gold of gold;

Remove it not, lest all Life’s charm take wing;

Remove it not, lest straightway you behold

Life’s cheek fall in, and every earthly thing

Grow all at once unutterably old.

(1266)

GOOD FOR EVIL

Mr. Lincoln took from his pocket a paper he had prepared in the case, which comprized eleven reasons why he should be appointed commissioner of the General Land Office. Among other things, Mr. Lincoln presented the fact that he had been a member of Congress from Illinois two years; that his location was in the West, where the Government lands were; that he was a native of the West, and had been reared under Western influences. He gave reasons why the appointment should be given to Illinois, and particularly to the southern part of the State. Major Wilcox says that he was forcibly struck by the clear, convincing, and methodical statement of Mr. Lincoln as contained in these eleven reasons why he should have the appointment. But it was given to his competitor, Mr. Justin Butterfield. After Mr. Lincoln became President, a member of Congress asked for an appointment in the army in behalf of a son of the same Justin Butterfield. When the application was presented, the President paused, and, after a moment’s silence, said: “Mr. Justin Butterfield once obtained an appointment I very much wanted, and to which my friends thought I was fairly entitled; and I hardly ever felt so bad at any failure in my life. But I am glad of an opportunity of doing a service to his son.” And he made an order for the commission. The son was General Dan Butterfield, afterward the dashing and efficient chief of staff of the Army of the Potomac. (Text.)—Browne, “Everyday Life of Lincoln.”

(1267)

GOOD, IMMORTALITY OF

Over one of the town-gates of ancient Warwick, in England, stands a home for old men, known as the Hospital of St. John. It was founded three centuries ago by the ambitious Earl of Leicester and Lord of Kenilworth Castle. That castle is now in ruins, and for his perfidy the name of the earl is a byword and a reproach; but this endowment, after long centuries, still remains living and beneficent, shining through the dark to show for future ages that

“So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”

(1268)

GOOD IN ALL MEN

Our fellow man is as valuable as we. He may be down, but he has it in him to stand. A writer says of the windfalls of apples:

We remember that in the windfalls a sweetness remains. That fruit, fallen untimely, or cast earthward by the storm, yet has not lost its flavor; often it is still sweet and pleasant to the taste. And, therefore, mindful of this, let us not think that the human windfalls have lost all their sweetness. Let us remember some good is left in all, and seek to gather them up. (Text.)

(1269)

Good, Making—SeeReformation.

GOOD, NOURISHING THE

Mr. Kaye Robinson, the brilliant English naturalist, describes a competition witnessed by him in the fields:

Owing to a peculiarity of weather the poppies had managed to get a start of an inch or so in the matter of height over the wheat and barley, and the obnoxious flowers were just beginning to burst into bloom that would have converted the stunted grain into lakes of scarlet, when down came the rain; in a single day and night the wheat shot up above the poppies, and for the rest of the season the poisonous things were overwhelmed in a wavy sea of prosperous green and yellow gold.

The best way to improve the world is not to fight against the evil directly, but to so nourish and cultivate the good that evil will be crowded out. (Text.)

(1270)

Good Old Times—SeeScience Shattering Superstition.

GOOD OUT OF EVIL

Again and again is it demonstrated how God makes the wrath of man to praise him.

When he was seeking to do evil only, in the pursuit of his cruel and tyrannical policy, Sultan Abdul Hamid was all the time unconsciously promoting some of the great designs of divine Providence. He did good in ways altogether unintended, never for a moment foreseeing how his own policy in the end would recoil upon himself. For he banished hundreds of the most enlightened and patriotic of his subjects to various provinces, little thinking how their influence would work against himself. The head of the revolutionary party, Ahmed Riza, for twenty years quietly and steadily during his exile worked in the cause of liberty. And this heroic man toiled on in face of the depressing obstacles furnished by what seemed to be an utterly unresponsive country. When he was living in dire poverty in France he refused to accept £2,000 a month from the Sultan, and at one crisis he just as firmly and indignantly rejected an offered bribe of a million pounds simply to shut his mouth. (Text.)

(1271)

GOOD OUTWEIGHING THE BAD

It was a quiet little town, nestling snugly at the foot of a big hill. Many of the streets were lined with shade-trees. On one of the principal thoroughfares there stood a magnificent tree. Its shade and beauty evoked the admiration of the passers-by. It stood squarely on the middle of the sidewalk, and might be regarded as an obstruction. There were some who would have liked to see that tree taken down, because it was not where it should be, but the great majority decided to let it remain because of its beauty, its shade and its symmetry. So is it with individuals. Sometimes a man is very irregular at his business or he is careless in some of his habits, and the question comes up, what shall be done with that man. His good qualities are considered and they discover that they far outweigh his bad qualities, and thus he is allowed to remain.

(1272)Good Results from Bad Environment—SeeMissionary Adaptation.

GOOD SAMARITAN IN PARAPHRASE

The following is a Hindu version of the parable of the Good Samaritan given by a schoolgirl in the mission at Sukkur:

There was once a rich merchant going home through a forest. He was suddenly attacked by robbers, who beat him and robbed him of all his money, leaving him half dead. A Brahman passed by, and seeing the man, said to himself, “He is only a sweeper,” and went away. A Mohammedan also came that way, but he said, “This man is no relation or friend of mine; why should I have any concern for him?” and so he went away. At last a Christian came, ridingon horseback, and taking pity on the poor man, bound up his wounds with strips of cloth torn from his own turban, and placing him on his horse, took him to a hospital, and, giving the doctor sahib two rupees, said, “Make this man well, and when I return, you will get from me twenty rupees more!”

(1273)

GOOD, SEEING THE

It is the best art of the teacher to see the good in mixed human nature and give it encouragement:

Several years ago one of the New York producing managers received the manuscript of a play from an utterly unknown author. It was crudely written and most of the situations were utterly impossible. Produced in the form in which it came from its creator’s pen it could have been only a dismal failure. The manager was not for a moment tempted to produce the play he had received, but he saw possibilities in the author’s plot. He sent for him and pointed out a few of the more glaring defects and suggested that the manuscript be turned over to a professional dramatist.This was done, and the rewritten play, only faintly suggesting the original manuscript, was produced and immediately achieved success. The amateur playwright applied himself to a close study of practical playwriting, and is to-day the author of numerous successful dramas. He realizes now just how hopeless that first play must have appeared in the original form, and appreciates the patience and good judgment of the manager who discerned the dramatic nugget buried in a desert of dreary dialog.

This was done, and the rewritten play, only faintly suggesting the original manuscript, was produced and immediately achieved success. The amateur playwright applied himself to a close study of practical playwriting, and is to-day the author of numerous successful dramas. He realizes now just how hopeless that first play must have appeared in the original form, and appreciates the patience and good judgment of the manager who discerned the dramatic nugget buried in a desert of dreary dialog.

(1274)

GOOD SHALL PREVAIL

Near Geneva two great rivers meet but do not mingle. Here the Rhone pours out its waters of heavenly blue, and there the Arve, partly from the glaciers from which it largely comes, and partly from the clay soil that it upheaves, meet and run side by side for miles, with no barriers save their own innate repulsions, each encroaching now and then into the province of the other, but beaten back again instantly into its own domain.

Like mighty rival forces of good and evil do these rivers seem, and for long the issue is doubtful; but far down the stream the muddy Arve is mastered, and the Rhone has colored the whole surface of the stream with its own tinge of blue. So in the end the good shall prevail. (Text.)

(1275)

Good Shepherd—SeeFold, The, of Christ.

GOOD VICTORIOUS

In all the upward march of matter and force, there has never been one single crisis and conflict where the higher has not been victorious over the lower. Witness the first struggle, between the mineral and the vegetable. The marble is hard, and the moss seeks to spread its robe of olive and velvet thereupon; slowly the marble crumbles, and dies; the moss lives and grows—it could not be otherwise; the moss is the higher and therefore victorious. The husbandman plants his seed of corn. The seed dies, the little plant lives, and becomes a great stalk, with corn in the milk, and then the full corn in the ear—it could not be otherwise; the golden stalk is the higher, and must be victorious. In the forest there grow a hundred kinds of jack-grapes, small, black and aciduous, and a thousand orange-trees are there, bitter, and with acid that sets the teeth on edge. But on the edge of the forest, steeped in sunshine and blest with room, there grows one grape that is purple and one orange that is sweet. And at last all the thousand acid vines and the ten thousand bitter orange-trees perish, while the one purple vine survives, takes feet to itself and journeys to all vineyards, while the orange of the golden heart gets wings for itself and crosses vale and mountain—it could not be otherwise, they are the higher. And never once has the law been reversed.—N. D. HILLIS.

(1276)

GOOD WILL

By a divine birth long ago, peace and good will came between those that had been at enmity. An earthly suggestion of this is that related by Mrs. Pickett, widow of Confederate General George E. Pickett, on the occasion of the birth of a son:

General Grant had been a dear friend of my Soldier’s ever since the Mexican War. At the time our first baby was born, the two armies were encamped facing each other. Bonfires were lighted in celebration all along Pickett’s line. Grant saw them, and sentscouts to learn the cause. When they reported, he said to General Ingalls:“Haven’t we some kindling on this side of the line? Why don’t we strike a light for the young Pickett?”In a little while bonfires were flaming from the Federal line. A few days later there was taken through the lines a baby’s silver service, engraved: “To George E. Pickett, Jr., from his father’s friends, U. S. Grant, Rufus Ingalls, George Buckley.” (Text.)

“Haven’t we some kindling on this side of the line? Why don’t we strike a light for the young Pickett?”

In a little while bonfires were flaming from the Federal line. A few days later there was taken through the lines a baby’s silver service, engraved: “To George E. Pickett, Jr., from his father’s friends, U. S. Grant, Rufus Ingalls, George Buckley.” (Text.)

(1277)

SeeChristmas.

GOODNESS FROM GOD

When we see the million rain-drops of the shower we say, with reason, there must be one great sea from which all these drops come. And when we see, as it were, countless drops and countless rays of goodness scattered about in the world, a little good in this man, and a little good in that, shall we not say, there must be one great sea, one central sun of goodness, from whence all human goodness comes? And where can that center of goodness be, but in the very character of God Himself? (Text.)—Charles Kingsley.

(1278)

GOODNESS IN THE BAD

That human nature is a kaleidoscope of good and bad, rather than one stripe of plain color, receives a striking illustration in the case of one Vinzenzo Juliano, who was confined in the Newark jail on a charge of murder. According to a report, it was noticed that the prisoner grew weaker and more meager day by day. His wife visited him regularly, and she invariably carried away a small parcel. The suspicions of the warden were aroused and he made an inspection of the bundle, to find it contained the ration of food with which the prisoner had been supplied. Inquiries followed, and it appeared the prisoner was starving himself to provide food for his wife and children, who had no other means of support. On learning this fact, the warden doubled the ration, and took further steps to keep the family of the prisoner from utter destitution.—New YorkCommercial Advertiser.

(1279)

Goodness, Peril of—SeeChrist, Goodness of.

GOSPEL, A MEDICATED

An ingenious Frenchman, it is said, has been experimenting in the manufacture of medicated honey. He keeps his bees under glass, giving them only flowers that contain the desired properties. In this way, he claims to obtain different kinds of honey—for influenza, for indigestion, for asthma, and for many other forms of ills that flesh is heir to.

Better than medicated honey is a medicated gospel that meets the multiform and variegated moral and social ills that afflict our world. (Text.)

(1280)

Gospel, Influence of the—SeeChristianity, Practical Proof of.

Gospel in the Philippines—SeeLatin America and the Gospel.

GOSPEL MAGNIFIED

The scientist tells us that rich meteoric dust first fell on our earth as soil for the earliest vegetable life. And ascending from the scenes they loved, the apostles, with their memories, the musicians with their solemn Te Deums, the artists with their transfigurations and crucifixions, the cathedral-builders with their sublime conceptions of worship, the philosophers, and the poets, rained the richest associations down upon that gospel, whose ideas had lent them their greatness.—N. D. Hillis.

(1281)

Gospel, No Substitutes for—SeePreaching Gospel.

GOSPEL, SENDING THE

M. B. Banks writes a missionary lesson after the style of “Mother Goose”:

Little Jack HornerSat in a cornerEating a very queer pie;He saw in a triceIt held everything niceFrom the lands where the mission fields lie.From Ceylon came the spice,And from China the rice,And bananas from African highlands;There were nutmegs and clovesSent from Borneo’s groves,And yams from the South Sea Islands.There were nuts from BrazilAll the corners to fill,And sugar and sago from Siam;And from Turkey a figThat was really so big,Jack’s mouth thought, “It’s larger than I am.”There were pomegranates fairGrown in Persia’s soft air,And tortillas from Mexico found there;And there did appearGrapes and grains from Korea,And all of the things that abound there.A Syrian dateDid not turn up too late;He need not for tea to Japan go;Tamerinds were not few,There were oranges too,And from India many a mango.“Now,” thought little Jack,“What shall I send backTo these lands for their presents to me?The Bible, indeed,Is what they all needSo that shall go over the sea.”

Little Jack HornerSat in a cornerEating a very queer pie;He saw in a triceIt held everything niceFrom the lands where the mission fields lie.

Little Jack Horner

Sat in a corner

Eating a very queer pie;

He saw in a trice

It held everything nice

From the lands where the mission fields lie.

From Ceylon came the spice,And from China the rice,And bananas from African highlands;There were nutmegs and clovesSent from Borneo’s groves,And yams from the South Sea Islands.

From Ceylon came the spice,

And from China the rice,

And bananas from African highlands;

There were nutmegs and cloves

Sent from Borneo’s groves,

And yams from the South Sea Islands.

There were nuts from BrazilAll the corners to fill,And sugar and sago from Siam;And from Turkey a figThat was really so big,Jack’s mouth thought, “It’s larger than I am.”

There were nuts from Brazil

All the corners to fill,

And sugar and sago from Siam;

And from Turkey a fig

That was really so big,

Jack’s mouth thought, “It’s larger than I am.”

There were pomegranates fairGrown in Persia’s soft air,And tortillas from Mexico found there;And there did appearGrapes and grains from Korea,And all of the things that abound there.

There were pomegranates fair

Grown in Persia’s soft air,

And tortillas from Mexico found there;

And there did appear

Grapes and grains from Korea,

And all of the things that abound there.

A Syrian dateDid not turn up too late;He need not for tea to Japan go;Tamerinds were not few,There were oranges too,And from India many a mango.

A Syrian date

Did not turn up too late;

He need not for tea to Japan go;

Tamerinds were not few,

There were oranges too,

And from India many a mango.

“Now,” thought little Jack,“What shall I send backTo these lands for their presents to me?The Bible, indeed,Is what they all needSo that shall go over the sea.”

“Now,” thought little Jack,

“What shall I send back

To these lands for their presents to me?

The Bible, indeed,

Is what they all need

So that shall go over the sea.”

(1282)

Gospel, Spread the—SeeStory, Power of the Old.

GOSPEL SUCCESS

Mr. Nagota, Japanese pastor of the Episcopal Church in Tsu, gives the following account of his conversion to Christianity: A colporteur was trying to persuade a soldier to buy a gospel. He was rebuffed by gross insults and most uncalled for anger. The colporteur bore the indignity with so much meekness that Mr. Nagota, who chanced to be passing by, was amazed, and bought the gospel for the sake of the maligned man. He took the little volume home and read it carefully, and through reading, became a Christian.

(1283)

GOSPEL, TRANSFORMING POWER OF THE

A striking illustration of this is found in the history of the noted African chief, Africaner, notorious in his day until reached by the gospel:

In 1819, finding it necessary to go to Cape Town, Moffat determined to take Africaner with him, attired as his attendant. The chief was an outlaw, with a price of one thousand rix-dollars upon his head, but finally agreed tc go. As they passed through the Dutch farms on his way, Moffat found that he was supposed to have been long before murdered by Africaner. One man told him that he had seen Moffat’s bones. Moffat told a farmer that Africaner (the chief being still in disguise) he knew to be a truly good man. This the man could not credit, and said that his one wish was to see that terror before he himself should die; whereupon Moffat turned and said quietly, pointing to his mild attendant, “This, then, is Africaner.” The farmer, looking at the Christian man before him, exclaimed: “O God, what a miracle of Thy power! What can not Thy grace accomplish!”

That which Africaner exhibited of the power of the gospel in character, is shown by a host of redeemed ones, such as Jerry McAuley, who through their careers, have magnified the power that saved them.—“Gloria Christi.”

(1284)

Gospel Truth Written in Faces—SeeFace, The, Revealing the Gospel.

Gossip—SeeOther Side, The.

GRACE

Grace in human agents is manifested in doing the good we are under no just obligation to do:

The Plymouth Congregational Church, of Cleveland, Ohio, years ago built themselves a beautiful church edifice. The contractor drew the money due for work done, and instead of paying his workmen, left for parts unknown, carrying the funds with him. These workmen had not a shadow of a claim upon the trustees, and expected nothing from them. But thirteen hundred dollars were due them from the absconded contractor, and they needed the money. The pastor, Rev. Mr. Collins, said to his people: “True, we do not owe these men a farthing; still, let us make an effort to give them what their dishonest employer owes them, and never let it be said that unrequited toil went into the rearing of this temple of the Most High.” And all the people said, Amen. The laborers went that night to their homes rejoicing, carrying their lost and found pieces of silver with them.

(1285)

SeeLaw and Grace.

GRACE, NOT GROWTH

Touch a piece of black coal, and flaky soot falls off; fuse that coal with fire, and nature makes it impossible for the carbon to throw off blackness, but only light and heat. One of the biggest facts in human experience is this, that a new heart is possible for badmen. Salvation is a gift. Once a bitter orange, growth and culture only increases the size and flavor of the bitter orange. The husbandman grafts, as a free gift, the new sweet fruit into the old root. Every tree in the modern orchard represents a twig cut from a tested apple, and grafted into the wild root. Education, the passing years, simply increase the size of the selfish man, the avaricious man, the pleasure-loving man, but the new impulse is an exotic from heaven, grafted into life. Not growth, but grace saves us. (Text.)—N. D. Hillis.

(1286)

GRACE, PERSEVERING

Polycrates, a prosperous prince of the Egean shore long centuries ago, to ward off misfortune, caused a very valuable signet ring which he kept among his treasures, set in gold and of exquisite workmanship, to be carried far out to sea in a fifty-oared galley fully manned, and cast overboard. He saw it sink, to rise, as he supposed, no more. A few days afterward a fisherman plying his profession on that coast, caught a fish of extraordinary size and beauty, and took it to Polycrates, who was amazed to discover, on opening the fish, his own precious ring.

It is just as hard to lose divine grace and love which we are so apt to throw away, but which persists in returning to us.

(1287)

GRACE SUFFICIENT

An eccentric divine preaching from “I will run in the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart,” began, “Well, David, what is your first remark? ‘I will run.’ Run away, David! What hinders you? What is your next word? ‘In the way of thy commandments.’ Better yet, David. And what next? ‘When thou shalt enlarge my heart.’ No thanks to you, David. We could all run as well as you with such help.”

(1288)

GRACIOUSNESS IN WOMEN

Some club women interested in civic reform were gathered in the office of a city executive waiting for an interview. They were charming, clever women, well drest, and at ease in any surroundings. As they waited they chatted of various things, and one told that her little son had been quite badly burned a few days before. The others spoke sympathetically. On the opposite side of the office sat a poor, battered wreck of womanhood, there on an errand widely different from theirs.“The next time your little boy gets burned you put linseed-oil and lime-water on it. You ought to keep it handy. There ain’t nothing like it to take out the fire,” said the poor creature.It was her assertion of sisterhood in the common trials of humanity.Most of the women froze instantly, indignant that she had dared address them in a familiar way. But the one faced her frankly. “Yes,” she said, “that is good. It is just what the doctor told me to use. It is kind of you to tell me about it.”There was no familiarity in her manner, nor was there a hint of superiority. She, too, recognized the universal sisterhood, and spoke to the woman across from her on that level.She was one of the women who always do the gracious thing because of an abiding grace within. There are too many women who appear charming in their own circle, but who must snub those they consider inferior. Manners at their best are but a poor substitute for the real graciousness that comes from the heart that has kindly thoughts for all.—The Housekeeper.

“The next time your little boy gets burned you put linseed-oil and lime-water on it. You ought to keep it handy. There ain’t nothing like it to take out the fire,” said the poor creature.

It was her assertion of sisterhood in the common trials of humanity.

Most of the women froze instantly, indignant that she had dared address them in a familiar way. But the one faced her frankly. “Yes,” she said, “that is good. It is just what the doctor told me to use. It is kind of you to tell me about it.”

There was no familiarity in her manner, nor was there a hint of superiority. She, too, recognized the universal sisterhood, and spoke to the woman across from her on that level.

She was one of the women who always do the gracious thing because of an abiding grace within. There are too many women who appear charming in their own circle, but who must snub those they consider inferior. Manners at their best are but a poor substitute for the real graciousness that comes from the heart that has kindly thoughts for all.—The Housekeeper.

(1289)

Gradualness of Evil—SeeDestructiveness.

Graft Rebuked—SeeCharacter Not Purchasable.

GRAIN

The burning pen of inspiration, ranging heaven and earth for a similitude, to convey to our poor minds some not inadequate idea of the mighty doctrine of the resurrection, can find no symbol so expressive as “bare grain, it may chance of wheat or some other grain.” To-day a senseless plant, to-morrow it is human bone and muscle, vein and artery, sinew and nerve; beating pulse, heaving lungs, toiling, ah, sometimes overtoiling brain. Last June, it sucked from the cold breast of the earth the watery nourishment of its distending sap-vessels; and now it clothes the manly form with warm, cordial flesh; quivers and thrills with the five-fold mystery of sense; purveys and administers to the higher mystery of thought. Heaped up in your granaries this week, the next it will strike in the stalwart arm, and glow in the blushing cheek, and flash in the beaming eye; till we learn at last to realizethat the slender stalk, which we have seen shaken by the summer breeze, bending in the corn-field under the yellow burden of harvest, is indeed the “staff of life,” which, since the world began, has supported the toiling and struggling myriads of humanity on the mighty pilgrimage of being.—Edward Everett.

(1290)

GRATITUDE

A young girl in Scotland was in danger of perishing in a storm, when the stream was in flood. She vowed that if God would save her life and help her in the future, she would build a bridge over the dangerous chasm. Her prayer was heard. She lived to build the bridge, and to leave an endowment for the poor of the parish. On the keystone of the bridge were written these words: “God and We.” That was the secret of success in her life-work.

(1291)

A missionary in China met an aged man who was measuring with the length of his body a pilgrimage of one hundred miles. He would kotow; that is, bump his head three times upon the ground, then prostrate himself full length; get up, repeat, and still repeat. When asked why he was doing this he said: “My son was very ill. I prayed and vowed to the god of health that if he would spare my son, I would measure with my body every mile of this pilgrimage to the tombs of my ancestors. He was spared to me. I must keep my vow. No one can help me. I must go alone.”

Was he not presenting his body a living sacrifice, mistaken, of course, in form, but faithful in spirit?

(1292)

Out of gratitude to the girl who saved the lives of his three children when fire occurred at his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, William Landsberg cheerfully submitted himself to physicians at the Long Island College Hospital and allowed them to take forty square inches of skin from his body in order that it might be grafted upon the burned body of Miss Elsie Wobetta, who had been employed as a domestic at his home.Landsberg agreed to the operation when he learned that it was necessary in order to save the girl’s life. Earlier in the morning the physicians had already taken twenty square inches of skin from the unburnt portions of Miss Wobetta’s body, but this was not nearly enough to cover her frightful burns, and her condition was too precarious to submit her to another shock.Landsberg was notified, and he immediately quit work and went to the hospital, where he placed himself at the disposal of the surgeons.“It is the least I can do for the girl who saved the lives of my little ones,” he said calmly, when the doctors told him that the test would be a severe one.He was placed on the operating table and the operation of removing the skin was performed. Strips of skin an inch wide and five inches long were taken from Landsberg’s body.The operation brought to light the heroic act on the part of Miss Wobetta that should entitle her to a Carnegie medal. Some time ago fire broke out in the Landsberg home. The upper part of the house was soon in flames and during all the excitement—it was early in the morning—no one seemed to think of the three children of Landsberg except this young domestic, who fought her way through the stifling smoke and flames until she reached the nursery. There, altho her own clothing was aflame and she was almost stifled by the smoke, she rescued the three small children and helped carry them to a place of safety.She was frightfully burned on the arms, breast, side and back, and it was not thought for a long time that she could survive. For several weeks she lingered and the surgeons agreed that all that could save her life would be the grafting of new skin on the burned places that would not heal.

Landsberg agreed to the operation when he learned that it was necessary in order to save the girl’s life. Earlier in the morning the physicians had already taken twenty square inches of skin from the unburnt portions of Miss Wobetta’s body, but this was not nearly enough to cover her frightful burns, and her condition was too precarious to submit her to another shock.

Landsberg was notified, and he immediately quit work and went to the hospital, where he placed himself at the disposal of the surgeons.

“It is the least I can do for the girl who saved the lives of my little ones,” he said calmly, when the doctors told him that the test would be a severe one.

He was placed on the operating table and the operation of removing the skin was performed. Strips of skin an inch wide and five inches long were taken from Landsberg’s body.

The operation brought to light the heroic act on the part of Miss Wobetta that should entitle her to a Carnegie medal. Some time ago fire broke out in the Landsberg home. The upper part of the house was soon in flames and during all the excitement—it was early in the morning—no one seemed to think of the three children of Landsberg except this young domestic, who fought her way through the stifling smoke and flames until she reached the nursery. There, altho her own clothing was aflame and she was almost stifled by the smoke, she rescued the three small children and helped carry them to a place of safety.

She was frightfully burned on the arms, breast, side and back, and it was not thought for a long time that she could survive. For several weeks she lingered and the surgeons agreed that all that could save her life would be the grafting of new skin on the burned places that would not heal.

(1293)

SeeInvestment Return;Rescue;Unselfishness.

GRATITUDE, UNCALCULATING

Henry Van Dyke, inThe Outlook, expresses the spontaneous nature of true gratitude:

Do you give thanks for this, or that? No, God be thanked,I am not gratefulIn that cold calculating way, with blessings rankedAs one, two, three, and four—that would be hateful!I only know that every day brings good aboveMy poor deserving;I only feel that on the road of life true LoveIs leading me along and never swerving.Whatever turn the path may take to left or right,I think it followsThe tracing of a wiser hand, through dark and light,Across the hills and in the shady hollows.Whatever gifts the hours bestow, or great or small,I would not measureAs worth a certain price in praise, but take them allAnd use them all, with simple, heartfelt pleasure.For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we blessThe hand that feeds us;And when we walk along life’s way in cheerfulness,Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us.

Do you give thanks for this, or that? No, God be thanked,I am not gratefulIn that cold calculating way, with blessings rankedAs one, two, three, and four—that would be hateful!

Do you give thanks for this, or that? No, God be thanked,

I am not grateful

In that cold calculating way, with blessings ranked

As one, two, three, and four—that would be hateful!

I only know that every day brings good aboveMy poor deserving;I only feel that on the road of life true LoveIs leading me along and never swerving.

I only know that every day brings good above

My poor deserving;

I only feel that on the road of life true Love

Is leading me along and never swerving.

Whatever turn the path may take to left or right,I think it followsThe tracing of a wiser hand, through dark and light,Across the hills and in the shady hollows.

Whatever turn the path may take to left or right,

I think it follows

The tracing of a wiser hand, through dark and light,

Across the hills and in the shady hollows.

Whatever gifts the hours bestow, or great or small,I would not measureAs worth a certain price in praise, but take them allAnd use them all, with simple, heartfelt pleasure.

Whatever gifts the hours bestow, or great or small,

I would not measure

As worth a certain price in praise, but take them all

And use them all, with simple, heartfelt pleasure.

For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we blessThe hand that feeds us;And when we walk along life’s way in cheerfulness,Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us.

For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we bless

The hand that feeds us;

And when we walk along life’s way in cheerfulness,

Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us.

(1294)

Gratuities—SeeRidicule, Apt.

GRAVITATION AND ICEBERGS

The hundreds of thousands of icebergs that every spring and summer terrify our ocean steamers are simply detachments from the glaciers that perpetually cover the face of northern lands. As far as can be learned, the interior of Greenland has a surface of tall hills and deep gulches, with an elevated range rather on the eastern side, running from north to south. Hence, if the climate of the interior of Greenland were mild, this extended range would serve as a watershed diverting streams to the sea on both sides. But the temperature some distance inland is nearly always below the freezing point, so that the almost constant snowfall and the brief midsummer rains remain on the surface, accumulating year after year, till there are formed thousands of square miles of blue compact ice, some of it over 1,500 feet thick. This enormous body of ice, like water, is subject to the laws of gravitation, and is eternally on the march to the sea. But its rate of travel is so slow as to be in most places imperceptible to the eye. So deep is this mass of inland ice that after a couple of days’ march from the sea there are no longer any hills visible, the entire landscape being white and naked. The ice from the higher ground is being constantly forced into the valleys and most of these valleys terminate toward the sea in very deep fjords. These fjords are in reality the launchways for most of the ice-floes and a great many of the bergs. You might lie for hours in your boat by most of the glaciers where they enter the sea, and not be aware that they were moving; but each one pushes constantly, and at a regular rate of speed, outward and outward into the sea, till the buoyancy of the water under it causes it to break at the shore, and sets it free to rove the ocean for thousands of miles, till it melts in Southern latitudes.—Edmund Collins,Harper’s Weekly.

(1295)

GRAVITATION, LAW OF

Time after time astronomers have found seeming irregularities in the planets’ motions, which they could not explain by, nor deduce from this law of Newton’s (law of gravitation). In every case, however, later investigations showed the fault to lie in the imperfections of their methods; their calculations, or their assumptions in regard to the number and size of the planets were in error, not the law of gravitation. A discrepancy of only two minutes between the observed and theoretical places of Uranus led to the discovery of Neptune, and possibly the minute discrepancy in the motions of Mercury may lead to important discoveries regarding the properties or distribution of matter in the neighborhood of the sun.—Charles Lane Poor, “The Solar System.”

(1296)

GRAVITATION, MORAL

When the strata of the earth forms, the heaviest elements work down to the bottom, the next heaviest fall on these, and so on to the top, where the lightest will be found.

The same is true of men. You do not have to do anything to men to put them down or lift them up. Every man sooner or later goes “to his own place.”

(1297)

GRAVITY

Shiel told Moore of a good thing said by Keller, an Irish barrister. Keller, meeting some judge, an old friend of his, a steady, solemn fellow who had succeeded as much in his profession as Keller had failed, said to him: “In opposition to all the laws ofnatural philosophy, you have risen by your gravity, while I have sunk by my levity!” (Text.)—Croake James, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(1298)

GREAT MEN SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR

We can not secure the great man’s arrival, but when he has come we can show that we know him and appreciate him, as the bees know and appreciate the one who is, of all others, most valuable to the hive. When “Dexter,” the famous race-horse owned by Robert Bonner, was found drawing a clay-cart, and the signs of speed in him were unmistakable, what a world of excitement there was! No harness was too fine, no stable too good for him. He had valets to attend his most delicate wants—watchers by night and by day. I do not say there was the slightest unappropriateness in this. I merely ask if the man of wonderful possibilities is not of as much account and deserving of as much care as the wonderful horse. The great man, or man of genius, will forego yachts and palaces and the muniments of wealth, tho he could enjoy them. What he needs at once is that sure provision which shall give him subsistence and leave him free from worldly toil and worry, as a prerequisite to prosecuting his work.—Joel Benton,Lippincott’s.

(1299)

GREAT MEN’S BEGINNINGS

The parents of Isaac Barrow, the celebrated English divine, conceived so mean an opinion of his temper and parts when he was a boy at the Charterhouse School, that his father used to say, if it pleased God to take from him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaac, the least promising. Adam Clarke’s father was equally uncomplimentary to his own flesh and blood when he proclaimed his son to be “a grievous dunce.” Poe, at West Point, was a laughing-stock to his schoolmates. Sheridan’s mother presented him to a new tutor as “an incorrigible dunce.” Byron, at Harrow, was in no wise distinguished above his fellows. Napoleon and Wellington in their schooldays were distinguished only for dulness.—Lippincott’s Magazine.

(1300)

Great, The, and Little Contrasted—SeeSins, Accumulated.

Greater, The, Controlling the Lesser—SeeMaster-mind, The.

GREATNESS

Homer makes his hero, like Saul, a head and shoulders taller than the soldiers around him. And Egyptian artists paint their conquering monarch twenty times as tall as the pigmy enemy whom he is destroying at a single blow.

True greatness is more than stature.

(1301)

Upon his return to Washington, Grant made preparations to leave immediately for the West, but at the close of a consultation with the President and the Secretary of War, he was informed that Mrs. Lincoln expected his presence the same evening at a military dinner to be given in his honor, at which twelve distinguished officers, then in the city, were to be present. Frank B. Carpenter, who was then at the White House, working on his celebrated painting, “Lincoln and His Cabinet,” says Grant turned to the President and said that it would be impossible for him to remain over as he must be in Tennessee at a given time. The President insisted that he could not be excused, and here we have another manifestation of Grant’s independence and willpower. He said to Lincoln: “But the time is very precious just now, and really, Mr. President, I believe I have had enough of this show business.”So, while the man of deeds—indifferent to blandishments and caring nothing for receptions—was speeding on his way to Nashville to meet Sherman and talk over the momentous business of trying to end the war, the twelve “distinguished” officers were banqueted without a guest of honor. But perhaps in the feasting and the merrymaking of the night, they could not but ponder over the strange things which had come to pass that day—a general so devoted to his duties in the field as to have no time or desire to be received by Congress or banqueted by the wife of a President; a man who had been out of the position of a common store-clerk hardly three years, given command of all the Union forces on land and sea; a great load lifted from the long-burdened heart of Lincoln; the bells of time ringing in a better day for the cause of the Union.—Col.Nicholas Smith, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

So, while the man of deeds—indifferent to blandishments and caring nothing for receptions—was speeding on his way to Nashville to meet Sherman and talk over the momentous business of trying to end the war, the twelve “distinguished” officers were banqueted without a guest of honor. But perhaps in the feasting and the merrymaking of the night, they could not but ponder over the strange things which had come to pass that day—a general so devoted to his duties in the field as to have no time or desire to be received by Congress or banqueted by the wife of a President; a man who had been out of the position of a common store-clerk hardly three years, given command of all the Union forces on land and sea; a great load lifted from the long-burdened heart of Lincoln; the bells of time ringing in a better day for the cause of the Union.—Col.Nicholas Smith, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(1302)

GREATNESS APPRECIATED

Mr. Moore, writing inThe Congregationaliston “The Benediction of a Statue,” says:

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