Chapter 69

Walter Camp was talking about football at a dinner at the New York Athletic Club.“Had we not reformed our football,” he said, “it would have fallen into grave disrepute—into such grave disrepute as surrounded cricket and football both during the Boer War, when Kipling wrote his poem about

Walter Camp was talking about football at a dinner at the New York Athletic Club.

“Had we not reformed our football,” he said, “it would have fallen into grave disrepute—into such grave disrepute as surrounded cricket and football both during the Boer War, when Kipling wrote his poem about

“‘The flannel fools at the wicket,The muddied oafs at the goal.’

“‘The flannel fools at the wicket,

The muddied oafs at the goal.’

“That poem hit the English ‘footers’ hard. One of the English ‘footers’ during their visit to us told me how he was walking one day to his club in football clothes, when a newsboy hailed him.“‘Paper, sir?’“The footballer walked on; whereupon the boy yelled after him:“‘Yah, ye muddied oaf! Like as not ye can’t even read!’”

“‘Paper, sir?’

“The footballer walked on; whereupon the boy yelled after him:

“‘Yah, ye muddied oaf! Like as not ye can’t even read!’”

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Poet’s Insight—SeeViewpoint, The.

POINT OF VIEW

The ancient Athenians demanded a last statue by their great sculptors, Alcamenes and Phidias. When the two Minervas were unveiled in the public square, the people declared the statue of Alcamenes to be perfect, believing it to be living. The judges were about to award the prize. Phidias calmly approached the tribunal and said: “Is it not for the top of a column the chosen statue is designed?” “Certainly,” replied the magistrates. “Then,” said Phidias, “is it not from the effects produced by its height that judgment should be pronounced?” The statues were raised to their positions by machinery. The Minerva of Alcamenes lost her charms in the ascent. The statue of Phidias, which had shocked the spectators by its massive, unpolished appearance in the Forum, from the column’s height took on such grandeur and majesty that the multitudes shouted with one accord, “Phidias is the sculptor of the gods!” (Text.)

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In “Stories of English Artists” we are told that Gainsborough’s pictures can only be properly appreciated when viewed at the right distance. As Sir Joshua Reynolds remarked in one of his famous “Discourses,” all those odd scratches and marks which on close examination are so observable in Gainsborough’s pictures, and which even to experiencedpainters appear rather the effect of accident than design, this chaos, this uncouth and shapeless appearance by a kind of magic at a certain distance assume form, and all the parts seem to drop into their proper places.

No doubt the apparent chaos and disorder of human events and careers, and of the natural world, would fall into order and express to us God’s wise designs if we could place ourselves at the right point of view!

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Two old darkies, lounging on a street corner in Richmond, Va., one day, were suddenly aroused by a runaway team that came dashing toward them at breakneck speed. The driver, scared nearly to death, had abandoned his reins, and was awkwardly climbing out of the wagon at the rear end. One of the old negroes said: “Brer’ Johnson, sure as you born, man, de runaway horse am powerful gran’ and a monstrous fine sight to see.” Johnson shook his head doubtfully, and then replied, philosophically, “Dat ’pends berry much, nigger, on whedder you be standin’ on de corner obsarvin’ of him, or be gittin’ ober de tail-board ob de waggin.”—Marion J. Verdery.

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SeeDistance.

A skilful artist was traveling in Egypt, painting pictures as he went. One day he showed to a gentleman who had lived in that country for many years one of his pictures of the Nile. The friend criticized the picture somewhat severely, maintaining that it was not true to nature. Here on the canvas the Nile appeared blue and clear; whereas, through all the years of his residence by the very banks of the river, he had never seen its waters otherwise than brown and muddy. The artist replied that he had painted it as it had appeared to him. He invited his friend to a place situated at some distance from the stream and then turned round to look back. To the astonishment of the critic, there lay the river, clear, blue, and sparkling; however muddy it might be at close quarters, when surveyed from afar its surface reflected the brilliance of the sky overhead. The gentleman admitted that he had always been content to gaze down into the muddy waters by the bank and so had missed the charm of the best view of the Nile.

Would it not be better for many of us, supposing some things seem to be unpleasant, or ugly, or unnecessary, to view them from a more favorable position?

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Poison, Disguised—SeeDeath Masked in Beauty.

POISON DRINK

An officer from Japan, visiting America, one day, while looking about a big city, saw a man stop a milk-wagon.“Is he going to arrest the man?” he asked.“No,” was the answer; “he must see that the milk sold by this man is pure, with no water or chalk mixed with it.”“Would chalk or water poison the milk?”“No; but people want pure milk if they pay for it.”Passing a whisky saloon, a man staggered out, struck his head against a lamp-post, and fell to the sidewalk.“What is the matter with that man?”“He is full of bad whisky.”“Is it poison?”“Yes; a deadly poison,” was the answer.“Do you watch the selling of whisky as you do the milk?” asked the Japanese.“No.”At the markets they found a man looking at the meat to see if it was healthy.“I can’t understand your country,” said the Japanese. “You watch the meat and the milk, and let men sell whisky as much as they please.”

An officer from Japan, visiting America, one day, while looking about a big city, saw a man stop a milk-wagon.

“Is he going to arrest the man?” he asked.

“No,” was the answer; “he must see that the milk sold by this man is pure, with no water or chalk mixed with it.”

“Would chalk or water poison the milk?”

“No; but people want pure milk if they pay for it.”

Passing a whisky saloon, a man staggered out, struck his head against a lamp-post, and fell to the sidewalk.

“What is the matter with that man?”

“He is full of bad whisky.”

“Is it poison?”

“Yes; a deadly poison,” was the answer.

“Do you watch the selling of whisky as you do the milk?” asked the Japanese.

“No.”

At the markets they found a man looking at the meat to see if it was healthy.

“I can’t understand your country,” said the Japanese. “You watch the meat and the milk, and let men sell whisky as much as they please.”

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Poison Pleasures—SeePleasures, Poisonous.

POISONS AND MEDICINES

Almost all medicines are poisons. That which saves life in one dose causes death in another. There is no more useful medicine in the modern pharmacopoeia than arsenic; yet three out of five women who poison themselves do so with arsenic. Strychnine is a terrible poison, but nux vomica is a most valuable drug. In Greece criminals were sometimes forced to take their own lives by drinking a cup of hellebore; we in our day cure many diseases of the stomach with veratrum. If a drug which destroys life under given conditions saves it in others, why may not a disease germ whichis noxious in one set of circumstances prove beneficial when the circumstances are changed and the exhibition of the germ regulated by scientific principles.—San FranciscoCall.

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POLICY, SELFISH

There is much that passes muster as acts of generosity which, if spiritually analyzed, would be found to be merely selfish policy, like that exercised by the spider:

The moment an ill-starred fly or other insect comes in contact with the net of the spider, it is sprung upon with the rapidity of lightning, and if the captured insect be of small size the spider conveys it at once to the place of slaughter, and having at its leisure sucked all its juice, throws out the carcass. If the insect be large and struggles to escape, the spider envelops its prey in a mesh of thread, and its legs and wings secured, it is conveyed to its den and devoured. But when a bee or large fly, too powerful to be mastered by the spider, gets entangled in its toils, then the wary animal, conscious of its incapacity to contend with such fearful odds, makes no attempt to seize or embarrass the victim. On the contrary, it assists the entangled captive in its efforts to free itself, and often goes so far as to break that part of the web from which it is suspended. This act has upon it the color of generosity, but it is really nothing more than the performance of selfish cunning. The tyrant, feeling himself incapable of doing an injury, determines to have no molestation. To this end he performs an act of manumission.

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Polish—SeeEducation.

POLITENESS

“Women should not complain that they have to stand in street-cars and other public conveyances,” said an old gentleman. “Children learn common politeness at home, if they learn it at all.“On the car that I just left was a handsomely drest woman and her son, a fine-looking boy of ten. The car was crowded when I got on and the little man and his mother sat near the door. As soon as I entered the boy made a motion to get up, but his mother held him down.“‘Mama, the man is lame,’ I heard him whisper. ‘I don’t care if he is; you have paid for your seat and have a right to it,’ she answered him pettishly. The little fellow blushed at his mother’s remark.“Now, that woman will probably read the riot act to the next man who refrains from giving her a seat in a crowded car, but what can she expect when she teaches her own son to be discourteous to the lame and the halt?” (Text.)

“Women should not complain that they have to stand in street-cars and other public conveyances,” said an old gentleman. “Children learn common politeness at home, if they learn it at all.

“On the car that I just left was a handsomely drest woman and her son, a fine-looking boy of ten. The car was crowded when I got on and the little man and his mother sat near the door. As soon as I entered the boy made a motion to get up, but his mother held him down.

“‘Mama, the man is lame,’ I heard him whisper. ‘I don’t care if he is; you have paid for your seat and have a right to it,’ she answered him pettishly. The little fellow blushed at his mother’s remark.

“Now, that woman will probably read the riot act to the next man who refrains from giving her a seat in a crowded car, but what can she expect when she teaches her own son to be discourteous to the lame and the halt?” (Text.)

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Politics—SeeInterests, Significant.

Politics a Duty—SeeBallot a Duty.

POLITICS IN DISFAVOR

While the science of politics ought to be held in the highest esteem for what its true nature and possibilities are, yet in actual life and practise the reverse is often true. As an instance of popular disfavor, the following incident inSuccessis in point:

Representative Lorimer, of Chicago, who is a great walker, was out for a tramp along the conduit road leading from Washington, when, after going a few miles, he sat down to rest.“Want a lift, mister?” asked a good-natured Maryland farmer driving that way.“Thank you,” responded Mr. Lorimer, “I will avail myself of your kind offer.”The two rode in silence for a while. Presently the teamster asked: “Professional man?”“Yes,” answered Lorimer, who was thinking of a bill he had pending before the House.After another long pause, the farmer observed: “Say, you ain’t a lawyer or you’d be talkin’; you ain’t a doctor ’cause you ain’t got no satchel, and you shore ain’t a preacher, from the looks of you. What is your profession, anyhow?”“I am a politician,” replied Lorimer.The Marylander gave a snort of disgust “Politics ain’t no profession; politics is a disorder.”

Representative Lorimer, of Chicago, who is a great walker, was out for a tramp along the conduit road leading from Washington, when, after going a few miles, he sat down to rest.

“Want a lift, mister?” asked a good-natured Maryland farmer driving that way.

“Thank you,” responded Mr. Lorimer, “I will avail myself of your kind offer.”

The two rode in silence for a while. Presently the teamster asked: “Professional man?”

“Yes,” answered Lorimer, who was thinking of a bill he had pending before the House.

After another long pause, the farmer observed: “Say, you ain’t a lawyer or you’d be talkin’; you ain’t a doctor ’cause you ain’t got no satchel, and you shore ain’t a preacher, from the looks of you. What is your profession, anyhow?”

“I am a politician,” replied Lorimer.

The Marylander gave a snort of disgust “Politics ain’t no profession; politics is a disorder.”

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POPULARITY

John Wesley keenly appreciated the dangers that attend public favor.

Among the quaint but intensely practical counsels he gives are some as to the art of escaping popularity:How shall we avoid popularity? We mean such esteem and love from the people as is not for the glory of God. 1. Earnestly prayfor a piercing sense of the danger and the sinfulness of it. 2. Take care how you ingratiate yourself with any people by slackness of discipline. 3. Or by any method which another preacher can not follow. 4. Warn the people among whom you are most of esteeming or loving you too much. 5. Converse sparingly with those who are particularly fond of you.Times and men are strangely changed since those words were written. What preacher to-day has to study anxiously “how to avoid popularity,” or finds any necessity for warning the people among whom he labors against “esteeming him or loving him too much!”—W. H. Fitchett, “Wesley and His Century.”

Among the quaint but intensely practical counsels he gives are some as to the art of escaping popularity:

How shall we avoid popularity? We mean such esteem and love from the people as is not for the glory of God. 1. Earnestly prayfor a piercing sense of the danger and the sinfulness of it. 2. Take care how you ingratiate yourself with any people by slackness of discipline. 3. Or by any method which another preacher can not follow. 4. Warn the people among whom you are most of esteeming or loving you too much. 5. Converse sparingly with those who are particularly fond of you.

Times and men are strangely changed since those words were written. What preacher to-day has to study anxiously “how to avoid popularity,” or finds any necessity for warning the people among whom he labors against “esteeming him or loving him too much!”—W. H. Fitchett, “Wesley and His Century.”

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Population—SeeCities of the World;City, Growth of a Great.

Population, Non-Church and Church-Membership—SeeChurch Statistics.

Population, Over-—SeeSurvival.

Populations, Religious, of World—SeeReligious Conditions of the World.

Position, Advantage of—SeeFavoritism.

Position and Worth—SeeWorth, Estimating.

POSSESSION

When the Australian miner was drowned because he had heavy bags of gold round his waist, while trying to swim ashore from the wreck, it was an open question which possest which. Just so I am quite convinced that men stuffed with information or “the science of the day” are not always possest of true wisdom. Wisdom itself, anyhow, is not an end but a tool to work with.

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Possessions—SeeAmbition.

POSSESSIONS, UNDESIRABLE

“The regular practise of the Christian is exceptional with the world,” says a writer in thePacific Monthly.“Out in Kansas when the bottom dropt out of the great boom in real estate some years ago, men found it harder to get rid of property than to acquire it. A lawyer going through the country one day met an old friend leading a reluctant cow toward town. Inquiry brought out the information that the cow had been secured in exchange for a city lot. ‘And do you know,’ said the new owner of the bovine, ‘that I turned a neat trick on the old granger! He can’t read a word, and in the deed I worked off two lots on him instead of one.’”

“The regular practise of the Christian is exceptional with the world,” says a writer in thePacific Monthly.

“Out in Kansas when the bottom dropt out of the great boom in real estate some years ago, men found it harder to get rid of property than to acquire it. A lawyer going through the country one day met an old friend leading a reluctant cow toward town. Inquiry brought out the information that the cow had been secured in exchange for a city lot. ‘And do you know,’ said the new owner of the bovine, ‘that I turned a neat trick on the old granger! He can’t read a word, and in the deed I worked off two lots on him instead of one.’”

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POSSIBILITIES, LATENT

The diamond unworn is still a diamond. And the power unused is not therefore less real, or less majestic. What men do, is by no means the measure of what they might do, if they used with a rational energy their powers.—Richard S. Storrs.

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Posthumous Blessing—SeeRevenge, A Christian’s.

POST-MORTEM CONSEQUENCES

The start of tuberculosis in France in a serious sense may be traced to the great importance of mummies and mummy-cases at the time of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, and this start gave the disease its first great foothold in Europe, whence it has spread all over the Eastern world and throughout the Western hemisphere as well. Dead bodies preserved in the manner peculiar to the Egyptians of the time of the Pharaohs are undoubtedly favorite lodging-places for the tubercular bacilli. (Text.)

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POVERTY

This letter was left by Miss Alice Law, aged 26, an editor employed by a local publishing firm in Chicago, who committed suicide by asphyxiation:

I am ending my life because I am seized with an acute disinclination to live, and I believe I have an absolute right to end my life if I wish. The struggle is too hard. There is too much work, too much monotony, too much weariness and not enough art, music, recreation and rest.I am to change it. I am in my right mind. My reasoning powers are as good as ever. I go because I want to. The chief reason is because I am too near starved. Let the State pay my expenses. If I were blind, crippled or had an incurable disease the State would be obliged to take care of me. So I think I will take advantage of my rights and be buried at the public expense, as I have no money to defray the putting of me under ground.The prices charged for a casket and burial are too exorbitant for persons in moderate circumstances. It just keeps the family inbankruptcy for a year. This condition is outrageous, and I do not want this injustice in my case.

I am to change it. I am in my right mind. My reasoning powers are as good as ever. I go because I want to. The chief reason is because I am too near starved. Let the State pay my expenses. If I were blind, crippled or had an incurable disease the State would be obliged to take care of me. So I think I will take advantage of my rights and be buried at the public expense, as I have no money to defray the putting of me under ground.

The prices charged for a casket and burial are too exorbitant for persons in moderate circumstances. It just keeps the family inbankruptcy for a year. This condition is outrageous, and I do not want this injustice in my case.

Doubtless Christianity has achieved much, but in the light of such a revelation of suffering and despair, under conditions of modern life, there would seem yet much to do.

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At a dinner given in honor of Mr. Carnegie by the surviving members of the United States Military Telegraph Corps of the Civil War, he said:

Comrades, I was born in poverty, and would not exchange its sacred memories with the richest millionaire’s son who ever breathed. What does he know about mother or father? These are mere names to him. Give me the life of the boy whose mother is nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, teacher, angel, and saint, all in one, and whose father is guide, exemplar, and friend. No servants to come between. These are the boys who are born to the best fortune. Some men think that poverty is a dreadful burden, and that wealth leads to happiness. What do they know about it? They know only one side; they imagine the other. I have lived both, and I know there is very little in wealth that can add to human happiness beyond the small comforts of life. Millionaires who laugh are very rare. My experience is that wealth is apt to take the smiles away. (Text.)

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The reason the Yankees are smart is because they have to wrest a precarious subsistence from a reluctant soil. “What shall I do to make my son get forward in the world?” asked an English lord of a bishop. “Give him poverty and parts.” Well, that’s the reason the sons of the Pilgrims have all got on in the world.—John R. Paxton.

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Poverty as a Stimulus—SeeCompensation in Trials.

POVERTY, CHRISTIAN

When before in history was there such an inexpensive order of preachers as these early helpers of Wesley? They laid up much treasure in heaven, but had very empty pockets on earth. One of them, John Lane, died at Epworth. His entire wardrobe was insufficient to pay his funeral expenses, which amounted to £1 17s. 3d. All the money he possest was 1s. 4d., “enough,” records Wesley briefly, “for any unmarried preacher of the gospel to leave to his executors.” (Text.)—W. H. Fitchett, “Wesley and His Century.”

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POVERTY, EARLY, OF UNITED STATES

The present great wealth of this country forms a striking contrast to the facts given below:

So low were the funds in the public treasury of the United States at the close of 1789 that the Attorney-General and several Congressmen were indebted to the private credit of Alexander Hamilton, their Secretary of State, to discharge their personal expenses. President Washington was obliged to pass a note to Tobias Leer, his private secretary, to meet his household expenses, the note being discounted at the rate of two per cent per month, and members of Congress were paid in due-bills.

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Poverty to Wealth—SeeAmerican Opportunity.

Power by Faith—SeeFaith and Power.

POWER CONTROLLED

These verses on the locomotive are from the New YorkChristian Advocate:

Steed, with the heart of fire! Steed, with the sinews of steel!Full-blooded courser, careering onward, with rail and with wheel;Black with fuliginous breathing—panting of wo and of weal.Firm be his muscle who mounts thee, clear and true be his eye;Generous his heart with compassion, willing if need be to die,Who sets thy hot blood a-dancing, and forces thy clarion cry!For he reins a mightier stallion—a swifter creature of awe,Stronger and darker and wilder than the old Arabian saw—His neck clothed with the thunder, and ravin and rage his law!Like a planet out of its orbit he moves when he leaps his rail:Hold him and guide him, O rider! thy purpose he will not fail;But loose him, and man lies groaning, and women and children wail.O mighty creature of commerce! That bringest the world its bread,And bearest the journeying peoples with limbs of thunder and dread,To thee my life is committed, and safely let me be sped!Thou steed of fire and of iron, that bearest me on my way,Is life or death in thy destined course, is rapture or sorrow—say?O Christ of God, hold the driving-rod, and mount this steed to-day!

Steed, with the heart of fire! Steed, with the sinews of steel!Full-blooded courser, careering onward, with rail and with wheel;Black with fuliginous breathing—panting of wo and of weal.

Steed, with the heart of fire! Steed, with the sinews of steel!

Full-blooded courser, careering onward, with rail and with wheel;

Black with fuliginous breathing—panting of wo and of weal.

Firm be his muscle who mounts thee, clear and true be his eye;Generous his heart with compassion, willing if need be to die,Who sets thy hot blood a-dancing, and forces thy clarion cry!

Firm be his muscle who mounts thee, clear and true be his eye;

Generous his heart with compassion, willing if need be to die,

Who sets thy hot blood a-dancing, and forces thy clarion cry!

For he reins a mightier stallion—a swifter creature of awe,Stronger and darker and wilder than the old Arabian saw—His neck clothed with the thunder, and ravin and rage his law!

For he reins a mightier stallion—a swifter creature of awe,

Stronger and darker and wilder than the old Arabian saw—

His neck clothed with the thunder, and ravin and rage his law!

Like a planet out of its orbit he moves when he leaps his rail:Hold him and guide him, O rider! thy purpose he will not fail;But loose him, and man lies groaning, and women and children wail.

Like a planet out of its orbit he moves when he leaps his rail:

Hold him and guide him, O rider! thy purpose he will not fail;

But loose him, and man lies groaning, and women and children wail.

O mighty creature of commerce! That bringest the world its bread,And bearest the journeying peoples with limbs of thunder and dread,To thee my life is committed, and safely let me be sped!

O mighty creature of commerce! That bringest the world its bread,

And bearest the journeying peoples with limbs of thunder and dread,

To thee my life is committed, and safely let me be sped!

Thou steed of fire and of iron, that bearest me on my way,Is life or death in thy destined course, is rapture or sorrow—say?O Christ of God, hold the driving-rod, and mount this steed to-day!

Thou steed of fire and of iron, that bearest me on my way,

Is life or death in thy destined course, is rapture or sorrow—say?

O Christ of God, hold the driving-rod, and mount this steed to-day!

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Power from God—SeeSprings from God.

POWER IN SELF-REPRESSION

Says a recent journal:

Many years ago, in the lecture-room of President Woolsey, of Yale University, a young man who did not know his lesson ventured to make a mock recitation and to give an impertinent answer. The president was a man of fiery temper, tho it had been curbed and subdued by the discipline of years. On this occasion his face turned white; he bowed his head upon the desk before him. There was a half-minute’s silence of death; he raised his head, called upon another man, and the recitation went on. He knew that if he spoke to the offender he would speak too much, so he said nothing.The students of that class knew well what a lava-flood was penned up there. Self-repression did not seem to them a sign of weakness—it was the greatest evidence of power.Shall we call it a sign of weakness in God that he bears with the sins of men? When God humbles himself to behold and to forbear, shall we not see in this voluntary self-limitation one of the proofs of his greatness? (Text.)

The students of that class knew well what a lava-flood was penned up there. Self-repression did not seem to them a sign of weakness—it was the greatest evidence of power.

Shall we call it a sign of weakness in God that he bears with the sins of men? When God humbles himself to behold and to forbear, shall we not see in this voluntary self-limitation one of the proofs of his greatness? (Text.)

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POWER, SUSPENDED

In the early spring of 1848 occurred a natural phenomenon so strange, so sudden, and so stupendous that the older inhabitants of western New York still speak of it with awe and wonder. This phenomenon was nothing less than the running dry of Niagara Falls.The winter of 1847 and 1848 had been one of extreme severity. Ice of such thickness had never been known as formed on Lake Erie that season. When the break-up came, toward the end of March, a strong northeast wind was blowing, which piled the great fields of ice in floes, and then in banks as high as miniature icebergs. Toward night on March 30 the wind suddenly changed to the opposite direction and increased to a terrific gale, which hurled back the piled-up ice and drove it into the entrance of Niagara River with such force that a huge and almost impenetrable dam was formed. For a whole day the source of the river was stopt up, and the stream was drained of its supply. By the morning of the 31st the river was practically dry, and thus for twenty-four hours the roar of Niagara Falls was stilled. Then in the early morning of April 1, the ice-pack gave way under the tremendous pressure from above, and the long-restrained volume of water rushed down and reclaimed its own.

The winter of 1847 and 1848 had been one of extreme severity. Ice of such thickness had never been known as formed on Lake Erie that season. When the break-up came, toward the end of March, a strong northeast wind was blowing, which piled the great fields of ice in floes, and then in banks as high as miniature icebergs. Toward night on March 30 the wind suddenly changed to the opposite direction and increased to a terrific gale, which hurled back the piled-up ice and drove it into the entrance of Niagara River with such force that a huge and almost impenetrable dam was formed. For a whole day the source of the river was stopt up, and the stream was drained of its supply. By the morning of the 31st the river was practically dry, and thus for twenty-four hours the roar of Niagara Falls was stilled. Then in the early morning of April 1, the ice-pack gave way under the tremendous pressure from above, and the long-restrained volume of water rushed down and reclaimed its own.

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POWER THROUGH UNION WITH GOD

It is only when we link ourselves with the power that lifts that we can accomplish results which are beyond our strength.

A great weight was to be lifted a little way out from the shore. Vain efforts had been made to bring it to the surface. Great chains had been wrapt about the mass and stout steam-tugs had puffed and strained without avail, and engines from the shore had exerted all their power with no result. A young man offered to raise the weight and he was told to try. A great flat barge was towed out over the sunken hulk, about which chains had been passed, and these were fastened to the barge. When the tide was out, the chains were wrapt still closer; then the young man sat down and waited. In the night the tide came in and the barge rose steadily with the incoming tide, bringing with it the burden to which it was chained. Higher and higher it rose, till at last it was out of the mud and mire. The seemingly impossible had been accomplished by linking the obstacle to the power of the tide. (Text.)

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POWER WITHIN

Men and churches often wait for outside help to draw them along. They need the lesson taught in this anecdote:

When an engineer in Bolivia brought over the Cordilleras the first locomotive ever seen in these latitudes, the native Indians came up from the Amazon basin to see this sight, and sat on their haunches discussing what this strange monster could be. They said: “It is made to go; let’s make it go”; and so they lassoed the buffers, and about thirty of them began to pull, and drew the locomotive a few yards. They exclaimed, “Ay-ay-ay-ay Tatai Tatito.” “The great and little father hath enabled us to do something wonderful!”The next day the engineer got up steam and hitched a couple of cattle trucks to the locomotive and, when the Indians came again, put them into the trucks and locked them in. Then he stood on the fire-plate of the locomotive and opened the regulator, and let the steam into the cylinder, and it began to move the piston, and the piston the crank, and the crank the wheel, and the wheel the locomotive; and the locomotive carried the Indians along ten miles an hour! What did they not say to their “great and little father!” But they learned this great lesson—that locomotives are not made to be moved along by outside human power, but by means of a power within, and so to carry human beings along.

The next day the engineer got up steam and hitched a couple of cattle trucks to the locomotive and, when the Indians came again, put them into the trucks and locked them in. Then he stood on the fire-plate of the locomotive and opened the regulator, and let the steam into the cylinder, and it began to move the piston, and the piston the crank, and the crank the wheel, and the wheel the locomotive; and the locomotive carried the Indians along ten miles an hour! What did they not say to their “great and little father!” But they learned this great lesson—that locomotives are not made to be moved along by outside human power, but by means of a power within, and so to carry human beings along.

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Practicable and Impracticable—SeePrediction, False.

PRACTICAL RESPONSES CLARIFY CONFUSION

The acquisition of definiteness and of coherency (or constancy) of meanings is derived primarily from practical activities. By rolling an object, the child makes its roundness appreciable; by bouncing it, he singles out its elasticity; by throwing it, he makes weight its conspicuous distinctive factor. Not through the senses, but by means of the reaction, the responsive adjustment, is the impression made distinctive, and given a character marked off from other qualities that call out unlike reactions. Children, for example, are usually quite slow in apprehending differences of color. Differences from the standpoint of the adult so glaring that it is impossible not to note them are recognized and recalled with great difficulty. Doubtless they do not all feel alike, but there is no intellectual recognition of what makes the difference. The redness or greenness or blueness of the object does not tend to call out a reaction that is sufficiently peculiar to give prominence or distinction to the color trait. Gradually, however, certain characteristic habitual responses associate themselves with certain things; the white becomes the sign, say, of milk and sugar to which the child reacts favorably; blue becomes the sign of a dress that the child likes to wear, and so on, and the distinctive reactions tend to single out color qualities from other things in which they had been submerged.—John Dewey, “How We Think.”

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PRACTICAL, THE

According to Mr. Bliss Perry, the greatest idealists are the most practical workers:

Take those men of the transcendental epoch, whose individuality has been fortunately transmitted to us through our literature. They were in love with life, enraptured of its opportunities and possibilities. No matter to what task a man set his hand, he could gain a livelihood without loss of self-respect or the respect of the community. Let him try teaching school, Emerson would advise; let him farm it a while, drive a tin-pedler’s cart for a season or two, keep store, go to Congress, live the “experimental life.” Emerson himself could muse upon the oversoul, but he also raised the best Baldwin apples and Bartlett pears in Concord, and got the highest current prices for them in the Boston market. His friend Thoreau supported himself by making sandpaper or lead-pencils, by surveying farms or by hoeing that immortal patch of beans; his true vocation being steadily that of the philosopher, the seeker. (Text.)—Atlantic Monthly.

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PRACTISE

No man ever yet learned by having somebody else learn for him. A man learns arithmetic by blunder in and blunder out, but at last he gets it. A man learns to write through scrawling; a man learns to swim by going into the water, and a man learns to vote by voting.—Henry Ward Beecher.

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“Did you know this telephone business has resulted in a telephone ear?” said a clerk whose work called him constantly to the telephone, according toThe Tribune, New York. “I don’t mean that our hearing is injured, but that the left ear becomes more keen than the right. If you’ll notice, all the telephones are left-handed. That is, the instruments are so placed that we hold the receiver with the left hand, so that we may have the right hand free to use in taking notes of messages, I presume. Of course, one naturally claps the receiver to his left ear, as it would be almost impossible to twist it around to his right ear. Consequently, the left ear gradually becomes much sharper in catching sounds than the right ear. If you don’t believe it, just try holding the receiver in your right hand some time and use your right ear. You’ll find that conversation which was perfectly distinct to the left ear sounds confused and muffled to the right, and there is a distinct effort to understand. It is simply that the left ear is a trained telephone ear, while the right ear is not.” (Text.)

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Rubenstein—that thunderer of the keyboard—is credited with the following dictum: “If I do not practise for a day I know it; if I miss two days my friends know it; and if I miss three days the public knows it.” (Text.)

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PRACTISE AND INDUSTRIAL TRAINING

Many children outside of the Sunday-school will learn the Bible from Christian parents or will study it for themselves; but there is no way, so far as I can conceive, of learning the industrial work of the church except in some such training-school as the young people’s society furnishes. For this work can be learned only by doing it. It can not be taught by text-books, or imparted by instruction. Like every other kind of industrial training, it must be gained by practise. The carpenter learns to build a house with saw and hammer and nails in hand, not by reading an elaborate treatise on housebuilding. The painter takes his easel and brush, and practises long and patiently, if he would be an artist; there is no other way. It is exactly the same with the necessary activities of church life. If the church is worth sustaining, if its work is to be done in the future, if we are to have prayer-meetings and missionary activities and an earnest religious life, if the Church is to be a power for good citizenship and righteous living, it must have some such industrial training-school.—Francis E. Clark, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1903.

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PRACTISE, GRADUATED

In drilling recruits for the Chinese army, each man is required to carry sand in his knapsack. For the first day he carries two ounces; on each succeeding day he increases this amount two ounces, until at last he is carrying sixteen pounds. These men can run at a dog-trot for ten consecutive hours and arrive at the end of that time in a fit condition for fighting.—Marshall P. Wilder, “Smiling ’Round the World.”

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Practising What They Preach—SeeEvil, Self-destructive.

PRAISE

Ruby T. Weyburn, inThe Youth’s Companion, gives this fanciful origin of the music of praise:

The Jews have an old tradition that when the world was done,And God from His work was resting, He called to Him, one by one,The shining troops of the angels, and showing the wonder wrought,The Master asked of His servants what they of the vision thought.Then one white angel, dreaming o’er the marvel before him spread,Bent low in humble obeisance, lifted his voice, and said:“One thing only is lacking—praise from the new-born tongue,The sound of a hallelujah by the great creation sung.”So God created music—the voices of land and sea,And the song of the stars revolving in one vast harmony.Out of the deep uprising, out from the ether sent,The song of the destined ages thrilled through the firmament.So the rivers among the valleys, the murmur of wind-swept hill,The seas and the bird-thrilled woodlands utter their voices still;Songs of stars and of waters, echoes of vale and shore—The voice of primeval nature praising Him evermore.And the instruments men have fashioned since time and the world were young,With gifted fingers giving the metal and wood a tongue,With the human voice translating the soul’s wild joy and pain,Have swelled the undying paean, have raised the immortal strain!

The Jews have an old tradition that when the world was done,

And God from His work was resting, He called to Him, one by one,

The shining troops of the angels, and showing the wonder wrought,

The Master asked of His servants what they of the vision thought.

Then one white angel, dreaming o’er the marvel before him spread,Bent low in humble obeisance, lifted his voice, and said:“One thing only is lacking—praise from the new-born tongue,The sound of a hallelujah by the great creation sung.”

Then one white angel, dreaming o’er the marvel before him spread,

Bent low in humble obeisance, lifted his voice, and said:

“One thing only is lacking—praise from the new-born tongue,

The sound of a hallelujah by the great creation sung.”

So God created music—the voices of land and sea,And the song of the stars revolving in one vast harmony.Out of the deep uprising, out from the ether sent,The song of the destined ages thrilled through the firmament.

So God created music—the voices of land and sea,

And the song of the stars revolving in one vast harmony.

Out of the deep uprising, out from the ether sent,

The song of the destined ages thrilled through the firmament.

So the rivers among the valleys, the murmur of wind-swept hill,The seas and the bird-thrilled woodlands utter their voices still;Songs of stars and of waters, echoes of vale and shore—The voice of primeval nature praising Him evermore.

So the rivers among the valleys, the murmur of wind-swept hill,

The seas and the bird-thrilled woodlands utter their voices still;

Songs of stars and of waters, echoes of vale and shore—

The voice of primeval nature praising Him evermore.

And the instruments men have fashioned since time and the world were young,With gifted fingers giving the metal and wood a tongue,With the human voice translating the soul’s wild joy and pain,Have swelled the undying paean, have raised the immortal strain!

And the instruments men have fashioned since time and the world were young,

With gifted fingers giving the metal and wood a tongue,

With the human voice translating the soul’s wild joy and pain,

Have swelled the undying paean, have raised the immortal strain!

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Perhaps in nothing connected with religious practise are opportunities more neglected than with regard to the praise of God. Multitudes who receive the bounties of Providence know nothing of the emotion of gratitude, and many awaken too late to a sense of their own ingratitude.

Billy Bray, the Cornish preacher, was a constant visitor among the sick and dying. On one occasion he was sitting by the bedside of a Christian brother who had always been very reticent and afraid to confess joyously his faith in Christ. Now, however, he was filled with gladness. Turning to Billy, whose beaming face and sunny words had done much to produce this joy, he said, “Oh, Mr. Bray, I am so happy that if I had the power I’d shout ‘Glory.’” “Ah, mon,” said Billy, “what a pity it was thee didn’t shout ‘Glory’ when thee hadst the power.” (Text.)

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SeeThanksgiving.

PRAISE DEPENDENT ON SUCCESS

Toward the close of his second administration, Grant thus reviewed, in a private conversation with Henry Clay Trumbull, the criticisms of his public career:

I don’t wonder that people differ with me, and that they think I am not doing the best that could be done. I can understand how they may blame me for a lack of knowledge or judgment. But what hurts me is to have them talk as if I didn’t love my country and wasn’t doing the best I knew how. It was just that way in war-time. I didn’t do as well as might have been done. A great many times I didn’t do as well as I was trying to do. Often I didn’t do as well as I expected to do. But I had my plans and was trying to carry them out. They called me “fool” and “butcher.” They said I didn’t know anything and hadn’t any plans. But I kept on and kept on, and by and by Richmond was taken, and I was at Appomattox Court House, and then they couldn’t find words enough to praise me. I suppose it will be so now. In spite of mistakes and failures I shall keep at it. By and by we’ll have specie payments resumed, reconstruction will be complete, good feeling will be restored between North and South; we shall be at Appomattox again, and then I suppose they’ll praise me.

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Praise Helpful—SeeEncouragement.

Praise, Judicious—SeeHeart-hunger, Satisfying.

PRAISE, SEEKING

A delicate woman, without children, and married to a superior but occupied and preoccupied man, suffered intensely when her husband neither perceived nor commented upon a new costume, or upon some ornament she had added to the drawing-room. Never a word of praise escaped his lips. One day she told him the sorrow this caused her. “But what do you want?” he replied, distrest. “I don’t know how to observe such things. What must I do?”The wife reflected a moment, and then the two arranged that when there was anything unusual the wife was to make him a certain sign. His attention called, he would then understand, look, and admire. “And now I am satisfied,” she said, a little ashamed of her childishness. “What he says will not be spontaneous, I know, and yet I shall be pleased to hear it; it will brighten my life.”This absurd, and yet touching incident reveals a state of mind that certain natures can not understand, but which is, nevertheless, more common than we think.—Dora Melegari, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

The wife reflected a moment, and then the two arranged that when there was anything unusual the wife was to make him a certain sign. His attention called, he would then understand, look, and admire. “And now I am satisfied,” she said, a little ashamed of her childishness. “What he says will not be spontaneous, I know, and yet I shall be pleased to hear it; it will brighten my life.”

This absurd, and yet touching incident reveals a state of mind that certain natures can not understand, but which is, nevertheless, more common than we think.—Dora Melegari, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”

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PRAISE-SPIRIT, THE

When Epictetus was a boy and a slave his angry master twisted his leg in an instrument of torture until it broke.

“Do you think,” he says after he has worked out his philosophy of contentment, “that because my soul happens to have one little lame leg I am to find fault with God’s universe? Ought we not when we dig, and when we plow, and when we eat, to sing this hymn to God, because He hath given us these implements whereby we may till the soil? Great is God because He hath given us hands, and the means of nourishment and food; and insensible growth, and breathing sleep; these things we ought to hymn, because He hath given us the power to appreciate these blessings and continuously to use them. And, since the most of you are blinded, ought there not to be one to fulfil this song for you, and on behalf of all to sing a hymn of happiness to God? And what else can I do, who am a lame old man, except sing praises to God?”This was the epitaph given him: “Epictetus, a slave maimed in body, a beggar through poverty, and dear unto the immortals.” (Text.)

This was the epitaph given him: “Epictetus, a slave maimed in body, a beggar through poverty, and dear unto the immortals.” (Text.)

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PRAISE, TIMELY

Mrs. Marion Hutson indicates in this verse the desirability of praising the worthy while they are alive to appreciate it:

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