Chapter XI: Preface (11)

Two men were once standing by a building on which a little boy
had climbed who was afraid to get down. Looking up at him, one
man opened his arms and, with a kind voice, said: “Jump, my
little fellow, and I will catch you.” But the boy shrank back
and would not jump. Then the other man opened his arms and said:
“Come, my boy, jump, and I will catch you.” Instantly the little
face cleared, a smile chased away the tears, and with a rush
he jumped and was safely caught in the outstretched arms. Why
was the boy afraid of one man and willing to trust the other?
Because the first man was a stranger and the second man was his
father. He knew his father would not let him fall.

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* * * * *

A story is told by Colonel William Conant Church, of the _Army and Navy Journal_, which illustrates how unshaken was the President’s confidence in Grant’s ability to march the army of the Potomac against the army of northern Virginia and capture the stronghold of the rebellion. The incident took place just before Grant established his headquarters in the field.

When he called upon the Secretary of War, the latter said:

“Well, General, I suppose you have left us enough men to
garrison the forts strongly?”

“No, I can’t do that,” was the General’s quiet reply.

“Why not? Why not?” repeated the nervous Secretary.

“Because I have already sent the men to the front, where they
are needed more than in Washington.”

“That won’t do,” said Stanton. “It’s contrary to my plans. I
will order the men back.”

Grant maintained a quiet determination, and replied:

“I shall need the men there, and you can not order them back.”

“Why not? Why not?” cried the Secretary.

“I believe I rank the Secretary of War in this matter,” remarked
Grant.

“Very well, we will see the President,” sharply responded the
Secretary.

“That’s right; he ranks us both.”

Going to the President, Secretary Stanton, turning to Grant,
said:

“General, state your case.”

But the General calmly replied:

“I have no case to state. I am satisfied as it is.”

When Stanton had given his view of the matter, Lincoln
crossed his legs, leaned back in his chair, and like the wise
philosopher that he was, said:

“Now, Mr. Secretary, you know we have been trying to manage this
army for nearly three years, and you know we haven’t done much
with it. We sent over the mountains and brought Mr. Grant, as
Mrs. Grant calls him, to manage it for us, and now I guess we’d
better let Mr. Grant have his own way.”

The winter of 1863 was a trying time for General Grant. It was a
winter of floods in the South, and a winter of discontent among
the people of the North. He could not move his army, and many
began the old cry after Donelson, “idle, incompetent, and unfit
to command in an emergency,” and again arose a clamor for his
removal. It was a season of false alarm and sensational rumors.

But there were two men in the land from whence came words of
cheer. One was listening quietly in a store in Cincinnati to a
great deal of rambling and grumbling talk about the way General
Grant was trying to take Vicksburg. When all others present had
given vent to their feelings, this man said in a moderate tone:
“I think he’ll take it. Yes, I know he’ll take it. ’Lis’ always
did what he set out to do. ’Lis’ is my boy, and he won’t fail.”

The other man who believed in General Grant was in the White
House. He was too good to be unkind, and too wise and prudent to
err. While men of large political influence were urging General
Grant’s removal for the good of the country, the philosopher
at the White House said: “I rather like the man; I think we’ll
try him a little longer.” By these thirteen words the fate of
Vicksburg was sealed.--Col. NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the
Man of Mystery.”

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* * * * *

When Alexander once was about to engage in battle with Darius,
having completed his arrangements, he lay down to sleep. Next
morning Tarmenio exprest surprize that he could sleep so soundly
when such vast issues were impending. “You seem as calm,” said
he, “as if you had had the battle and gained the victory.” “I
have done so,” replied Alexander, “for I consider the whole work
done when we have gained access to Darius and his forces, and
find him ready to give us battle.” (Text.)

(527)

See ESSENTIALS; VERSATILITY.

=Confidence in His Own Ability=--See VERSATILITY.

CONFIDENCE IN MEN

If a man can invest his hundreds of thousands of dollars on the
ocean or in distant countries, where men can not understand
the documents we write, it shows that there is trust between
man and man, buyers and sellers; and if there is trust between
them it is because experience has created the probabilities
of truthfulness in the actions of men and all the concordant
circumstances. If men did not believe in the truth of men,
they never would send to China, Japan or Mexico their great
properties and interests, with no other guarantee than that
the men are trustworthy. The shipmaster must be trustworthy,
the officers of the government must be trustworthy, and that
business goes on and increases the world over is a silent
testimony that, bad as men do lie, they do not lie bad enough to
separate man from man.--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

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CONFIDENCE, INSPIRING

In his reminiscences concerning his career, Mr. John D. Rockefeller says this in regard to a critical epoch in his fortunes:

I went to a bank president whom I knew, and who knew me. I
remember perfectly how anxious I was to get that loan and to
establish myself favorably with the banker. This gentleman
was T. P. Handy, a sweet and gentle old man, well known as
a highgrade, beautiful character. For fifty years he was
interested in young men. He knew me as a boy in the Cleveland
schools. I gave him all the particulars of our business,
telling him frankly about our affairs--what we wanted to use
the money for, etc., etc. I waited for the verdict with almost
trembling eagerness.

“How much do you want?” he said.

“Two thousand dollars.”

“All right, Mr. Rockefeller, you can have it,” he replied. “Just
give me your own warehouse receipts; they’re good enough for me.”

As I left that bank, my elation can hardly be imagined. I held
up my head--think of it, a bank had trusted me for $2,000! I
felt that I was now a man of importance in the community.

The confidence of the bank president in him and his business ventures had strengthened his own appreciation and confidence. So each man reacts on the other. (Text.)

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CONFIDENCE, LACK OF

Admiral Dupont was once explaining to Farragut the reason why he
failed to enter Charlestown harbor with his fleet of iron-clads.
He gave this reason and that reason and the other reason; and
Farragut remained silent until he had got through, and then
said, “Ah, Dupont, there was one more reason.” “What is that?”
“You didn’t believe you could do it.”

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CONFLICT, SPIRITUAL

Upon the side of the great entrance-hall of the Royal Museum
in Berlin is painted a colossal picture of Kaulbach’s. It
represents the last battle between the Romans and the Huns,
which decided the fate of European civilization. The spirits of
the slain, fierce and restless as before, rise from their bodies
and continue the battle in the air. In the shadowy combat the
forces are led by Attila, “the scourge of God,” borne aloft upon
a shield, and by Theodoric, the Roman chief, with sword in hand
and the cross behind.

The vivid portraiture is a symbol of the battle waging, not so much between brute forces as between the spirit of two opposing civilizations for the mastery of the world.

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=Conflict to Fellowship=--See ETERNAL, THE, AT HAND.

=Conflicts of Nature=--See STRONG AND WEAK.

CONFORMITY

Paul’s method of being all things to all men suggests that a wise and proper conformity to one’s surroundings, where it involves no sacrifice of principle, may be as useful as the white hue of animals in arctic regions described in this extract:

Wherever all the world around is remarkably uniform in color
and appearance, all the animals, birds, and insects alike
necessarily disguise themselves in its prevailing tint to escape
observation. It does not matter in the least whether they are
predatory or defenseless, the hunters or the hunted; if they are
to escape destruction or starvation, as the case may be, they
must assume the hue of all the rest of nature about them. In the
arctic snows, for example, all animals, without exception, must
needs be snow-white. The polar bear, if he were brown or black,
would immediately be observed among the unvaried ice-fields by
his expected prey, and could never get a chance of approaching
his quarry unperceived at close quarters. On the other hand,
the arctic hare must equally be drest in a snow-white coat, or
the arctic fox would too readily discover him and pounce down
upon him off-hand; while conversely, the fox himself, if red or
brown, could never creep upon the unwary hare without previous
detection, which would defeat his purpose. For this reason, the
ptarmigan and the willow-grouse become as white in winter as the
vast snow-fields under which they burrow; the ermine changes
his dusky summer coat for the expensive wintry suit beloved
of British Themis; the snow-bunting acquires his milk-white
plumage; and even the weasel assimilates himself more or less
in hue to the unvarying garb of arctic nature. To be out of the
fashion is there quite literally to be out of the world; no half
measures will suit the stern decree of polar biology; strict
compliance with the law of winter change is absolutely necessary
to success in the struggle for existence. (Text.)--_Cornhill
Magazine._

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=Congenital Neurasthenics=--See INEBRIETY, INCURABLE.

=Conjugal Rights=--See ROBBING JUSTIFIED.

CONNECTION

You can get no water from your old pump. When you try you get
only a painful wheezing. Pumps are not living things, but they,
too, suffer exhaustion. Must you give it up, and dig a new well?
Oh, no. The well is all right, and has given abundant and sweet
water for a generation. You look it over, and find that the old
leather valve is dry and worn out. Pour in a pitcher of water to
wet it, and the wheezing is cured. Put in a new valve and the
old pump is good for years to come. God’s supply of living water
is abundant as ever. It is only your connection with it that
failed.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(533)

CONQUEST BY MAN

These vehement elements, of air and water, demand to be wrestled
with and patiently mastered, by the vigorous soul, in order
that they may administer to our happiness. There is the wax.
In the soul is the seal, designed to impress it. There are the
materials, upon which and with which the spirit is to operate.
But no implements, even, are given it for its use. It must forge
them, as it wants them. They are not found ready fashioned
to the hand, as ornamental stones are, in the caverns and
rock-rifts. They must be conceived by our skill, and completed
by our labor. But the moment we begin, all is ready for our
progress.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

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CONQUEST, COMMONPLACE

Even the conquest of the North Pole takes on an aspect of the commonplace, especially after many years of hard work. The New York _Times_ quotes this entry from Peary’s journal:

The pole at last! The prize of three centuries, my dream and
goal for twenty years, mine at last! I can not bring myself to
realize it.

It all seems so simple and commonplace. As Bartlett said when
turning back, when speaking of his being in these exclusive
regions which no mortal had ever penetrated before:

“It is just like every day!”

(535)

=Conquest, Peaceful=--See EMIGRATION, CONQUEST BY.

CONQUEST, SEVERE

Death Valley is the most barren part of the Great American
Desert. More men have died in its arid wastes than on any
other equal area of the world’s surface, barring the great
battle-fields. It lies, a great sink in the sandy plain, about
250 miles north and east of Los Angeles, Cal., and within the
boundaries of that State. The valley received its sinister
name owing to the fact that in the early fifties a party of
emigrants, some hundred and twenty in number, traveling overland
by wagon from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Angeles, perished in
its awful solitudes, barely a man escaping.

In the _Wide World Magazine_ is given the story of a man
who, alone and unaided, conquered Death Valley in the hottest
month of the desert year. The tale of awful suffering endured by
this man, H. W. Manton, of Rhyolite, Cal., is told for the first
time in his own words.

For almost a week Manton was lost in the heart of Death Valley.
In three days he tramped eighty miles over sands so hot that he
could scarcely walk on them, tho shod with heavy shoes. During
those never-ending days he had no food, and but one drink of
water.

When he staggered up to Cub Lee’s Furnace Creek ranch, more dead
than alive, his tongue was swollen to such a size that his mouth
could no longer contain it. His lips and eyelids were cracked
open; his clothing was in tatters, and his shoes were coated
with a heavy incrustation of borax and other alkalines, which
had eaten great holes in the leather.

At first he could not drink, and the touch of water was as fire
to his parched lips and tongue. Kind-hearted ranchmen and miners
forced the precious fluid into his mouth with a straw, with a
spoon--any way to get him revived. And eventually he spoke,
telling the strange story of his crossing the dread pit; of
how he had wandered therein for many days, with no companions
save the lizards and the snakes of the barren sands.--Boston
_Transcript_.

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CONSCIENCE

There is an ingenious instrument used in testing the condition
of railroads whereby every slight deviation in the width or
levelness of the track, every defect of the rails, and even the
quality of the steel and manufacture are registered.

Is not a well-instructed and carefully cultivated conscience just such a dynograph?

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* * * * *

“Conscience makes cowards of us all.” The following rather amusing incident well illustrates this hackneyed observation of Shakespeare:

On one of Landseer’s early visits to Scotland the great painter
stopt at a village and took a great deal of notice of the dogs,
jotting down rapidly sketches of them on a piece of paper.
Next day, on resuming his journey, he was horrified to find
dogs suspended from trees in all directions or drowning in the
rivers, with stones around their necks. He stopt a weeping
urchin, who was hurrying off with a pet pup in his arms, and
learned to his dismay that he was supposed to be an excise
officer who was taking notes of all the dogs he saw in order to
prosecute the owners for unpaid taxes. (Text.)

(538)

* * * * *

The religious ferment of the age made a tremendous impression on
Bunyan’s sensitive imagination. He went to church occasionally,
only to find himself wrapt in terrors and in torments by some
fiery itinerant preacher; and he would rush violently away from
church to forget his fears by joining in Sunday sports on the
village green. As night came on the sports were forgotten, but
the terrors returned, multiplied like the evil spirits of the
parable. Visions of hell and the demons swarmed in his brain.
He would groan aloud in his remorse, and even years afterward
he bemoans the sins of his early life. When we look for them
fearfully, expecting some shocking crimes and misdemeanors, we
find that they consisted of playing ball on Sunday and swearing.
The latter sin, sad to say, was begun by listening to his father
cursing some obstinate kettle which refused to be tinkered,
and it was perfected in the Parliamentary army. One day his
terrible swearing scared a woman, “a very loose and ungodly
wretch,” as he tells us, who reprimanded him for his profanity.
The reproach of the poor woman went straight home, like the
voice of a prophet. All his profanity left him; he hung down
his head with shame. “I wished with all my heart,” he says,
“that I might be a little child again, that my father might
learn me to speak without this wicked way of swearing.” With
characteristic vehemence Bunyan hurls himself upon a promise of
Scripture, and instantly the reformation begins to work in his
soul. He casts out the habit, root and branch, and finds to his
astonishment that he can speak more freely and vigorously than
before. Nothing is more characteristic of the man than this
sudden seizing upon the text, which he had doubtless heard many
times before, and being suddenly raised up or cast down by its
influence.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(539)

See EYE, THE SEARCHING; MISSIONARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

CONSCIENCE A LIGHT

The woodsman carries a box of safety matches protected against
the rain and snow. In the arctic zone he knows that if he loses
the match and the light he has lost life itself. Man can lose
his health but not his conscience. But, if stumbling, the torch
has fallen, and the light flamed low, snatch it up, and relight
it, at the altars of God. So shall the light in thee wax into
greater light, until conscience is a true pillar of cloud by
day and a pillar of fire by night, guiding thee into the summer
land where man needs no light of the lamp, neither light of the
sun.--N. D. HILLIS.

(540)

CONSCIENCE A MONITOR

I remember when a boy my mother had a beautiful vase. I was
charged not to touch it. My fingers, however, boy-like, itched
to touch it. I frequently went around it, and peered behind it.
I wondered if there might not be some painting on the bottom of
it, as there was on the sides. In lifting ii up, one day, when
I had grown bolder, it fell to the hearthstone and broke into a
thousand pieces. I knew I had wounded the mother heart in that
moment. She heard the crash and came in. I knew that I deserved
punishment. But she only said, “My dear boy; do you see what
you have done.” It was burned into my memory then what it cost
to disobey law, and in all the sixty years that have elapsed
since then, when I have looked upon the treasures of others, I
have heard her voice saying to me, “Do you see what you have
done?”--Bishop D. A. GOODSELL.

(541)

CONSCIENCE A MORAL MENTOR

A writer speaks of a special form of the barometer, used generally by travelers, in which air supplies the place of mercury as a measuring medium. Speaking of its use, he says:

As the pressure of the outside air varies does it rise and
fall, and by a beautifully delicate apparatus this rising
and falling is magnified and represented upon the dial. Such
barometers are made small enough to be carried in the pocket,
and are very useful for measuring the heights of mountains; but
they are not quite so accurate as the mercurial barometer, and
are therefore not used for rigidly scientific measurements; but
for all ordinary purposes they are accurate enough, provided
they are occasionally compared with a standard mercurial
barometer, and adjusted by means of the watch-key axis provided
for that purpose, and seen on the back of the instrument. They
are sufficiently delicate to tell the traveler in a railway
whether he is ascending or descending an incline, and will
indicate the difference of height between the upper and lower
rooms of a three-story house. The unseen air in the aneroid is
a mark of the rise or fall in altitude of the possessor of the
instrument.

Conscience plays a like part in morals. It is always with us and always admonishes us of the varying moral altitudes to which we rise or fall.

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CONSCIENCE BENUMBED

One of the most astonishing things in prison life is said
to be the deficiency of conscience in criminals. Scenes of
heartrending despair are rarely witnessed among them. Their
sleep is broken by no uneasy dreams; on the contrary, it is easy
and sound: they have also excellent appetites. They have a sense
of self-righteousness, and feel, on the whole, that they have
been wronged. Recently the newspapers told us of the execution
of a grave-digger upon the Continent, who had been convicted of
four murders, five robberies, eight cases of incendiarism, and
other crimes. When he was informed that he would be hanged early
next morning, he said that he deserved his fate, but he assured
his judge that worse fellows than he were running about the
world.

To have no consciousness of sin, no proper consciousness of it, is no proof of our integrity; much more likely is it a proof that our conscience has become benumbed and indurated by years of worldliness and disobedience. (Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

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CONSCIENCE, CHRISTIAN

The following is told of Mr. Frank Crossley, a great promoter and founder of London missionary work:

Mr. Crossley was conscience incarnate. While yet a poor
apprentice he had got free admission to a theater through the
connivance of a fellow workman who kept the door; but when, as
a renewed man, conscience demanded reparation for this sort of
robbery, he reckoned up the entrance fee he had evaded, and
sent the theater company sixty pounds.--PIERSON, “The
Miracles of Missions.”

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CONSCIENCE, TROUBLED

A quiet, bashful sort of a young fellow was making a call on a
Capitol Hill girl one evening not so very long ago, when her
father came into the parlor with his watch in his hand. It was
about 9:30 o’clock. At the moment the young man was standing on
a chair straightening a picture over the piano. The girl had
asked him to fix it. As he turned, the old gentleman, a gruff,
stout fellow, said:

“Young man, do you know what time it is?”

The bashful youth got off the chair nervously. “Yes, sir,” he
replied. “I was just going.”

He went into the hall without any delay and took his hat and
coat. The girl’s father followed him. As the caller reached for
the doorknob, the old gentleman again asked him if he knew what
time it was.

“Yes, sir,” was the youth’s reply. “Good-night!” And he left
without waiting to put his coat on.

After the door had closed the old gentleman turned to the girl.

“What’s the matter with that fellow?” he asked. “My watch ran
down this afternoon and I wanted him to tell me the time, so
that I could set it.”--Denver _Post_.

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CONSCIOUSNESS

Is there any difference between the vibrations of sound on the tympanum of the ear and those on the surface of the water? Science does not seem to see a great difference, but Ruskin finds, in the differing effects, an illustration of the mystery of consciousness:

It is quite true that the tympanum of the ear vibrates under
sound, and that the surface of the water in a ditch vibrates,
too; but the ditch hears nothing for all that; and my hearing is
still to me as blest a mystery as ever, and the interval between
the ditch and me, quite as great. If the trembling sound in my
ears was once of the marriage-bell which begun my happiness, and
is now of the passing bell which ends it, the difference between
those two sounds to me can not be counted by the number of
concussions. There have been some curious speculations lately as
to the conveyance of mental consciousness by “brain-waves.” What
does it matter how it is conveyed? The consciousness itself is
not a wave. It may be accompanied here or there by any quantity
of quivers and shakes, up or down, of anything you can find in
the universe that is shakeable--what is that to me? My friend is
dead, and my--according to modern views--vibratory sorrow is not
one whit less, or less mysterious, to me, than my old quiet one.

(546)

CONSECRATION

A Chinese preacher, whose wages were twenty-two dollars a month,
refused the offer of the post of consul at fifty dollars, that
he might be free to preach the gospel to his countrymen. His
countrymen said of him: “There is no difference between him and
the Book.” (Text.)

(547)

CONSEQUENCES

Mr. Justice Burroughs, of the Common Pleas, used to resort to
the use of proverbs and parables in dealing with the juries.
One day at _nisi prius_, much talk was made about a
consequential issue in the case. He began to explain it to the
jury thus: “Gentlemen of the jury, you have been told that the
first is a consequential issue. Now, perhaps, you do not know
what a consequential issue means; but I dare say you understand
nine-pins. Well, then, if you deliver your bowl so as to strike
the front pin in a particular direction, down go the rest. Just
so it is with these counts. Knock down the first, and all the
rest will go to the ground; that’s what we call a consequential
issue. (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and
Lawyers.”

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CONSEQUENCES, IRREPARABLE

The doctrine of the following verse (unidentified) is quite doubtful. Is it not the hope of Christianity that men now broken by sin will yet, by God’s healing grace, soar even higher than ever?

I walked through the woodland meadows,
Where sweet the thrushes sing;
And I found on a bed of mosses
A bird with a broken wing.
I healed its wound, and each morning
It sang its old sweet strain,
But the bird with a broken pinion
Never soared as high again.

I found a young life broken
By sin’s seductive art;
And touched with a Christlike pity
I took him to my heart.
He lived with a noble purpose,
And struggled not in vain;
But the life that sin had stricken
Never soared as high again.

But the bird with a broken pinion
Kept another from the snare;
And the life that sin had stricken
Raised another from despair.
Each loss has its compensation,
There is healing for every pain;
But the bird with a broken pinion
Never soars as high again. (Text.)

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CONSEQUENCES, UNNOTICED

A little girl in Kansas has recently given the telegraph
companies a vast amount of trouble in a peculiar way. Her
daily duty was to herd a large drove of cattle on a range
through which passed the telegraph lines. For weeks, some hours
nearly every day, these lines absolutely failed to work, and
the trouble seemed to be in the vicinity of where this girl
herded her father’s cattle; but it was a long time before
they discovered the cause. Finally, they found out that in
order to get a better view of the herd the girl had driven
railroad-spikes into a telegraph-pole, and whenever she got
weary watching the cattle from the ground she would climb the
pole and seat herself on a board across the wires and watch
her herd from that lofty station. Whenever the board happened
to be damp it destroyed the electric current and cut off all
telegraphic communication between Denver and Kansas City.
(Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

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CONSERVATION

Under the iron law of conflict in the “survival of the fittest,”
the world finds a shipwrecked brother in its path and removes
him without ceremony and covers him with scorn and contempt.
Christ reverses this iron law.

Formerly when a war vessel discovered a derelict, the latter
was immediately destroyed by dynamite. The government has
now entered upon a new policy. Whenever it is possible, the
abandoned vessel is towed into the nearest port. Recently two
abandoned schooners were brought in, the value of the vessels
and their cargo being estimated at more than sixty thousand
dollars.

When Jesus finds a human derelict He does not destroy him. He
cleanses him and rehabilitates him, and makes him valuable in
the kingdom. (Text.)

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* * * * *

Christian treatment of the Indian not only has improved his character, but has saved him from threatened extinction.

The idea is prevalent that the red man is doomed to disappear
from the earth at no distant day. But the census tables give
no such indication. The first official count was taken about
seventy years ago, and gave the number as 253,461. In 1880
the figures had risen to 256,127, in 1900 to 272,073, and now
(1909), by actual count, the reservations are found to contain
284,000.

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* * * * *

A bundle of wood is placed in our kitchen stove to kindle the
fire. It is consumed. Its ashes represent what the tree took
from the soil. Its carbon goes up the chimney, restoring to
the air what some tree took from the air. Nothing was lost.
The earth received again what it originally gave. To the air
was restored its original contribution of carbonic acid gas,
which the leaf manufactured into wood. And so God has made a
universe of perennial youth, where nothing is lost nor can be
lost.--E. M. MCGUFFEY.

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CONSERVATION OF INFLUENCE

Dr. F. F. Shannon, commenting on the early death of a talented man, says:

“Such a man dead at 40?” you ask. “Why, to what purpose is this
waste?” Well, a man can make a match, but it takes God to make
a sun. We know the match must go out, the sun never does, tho
his shining face is often hidden from our eye. And so the sun
of this man’s genius--of any man’s genius--can never go out.
The flame is burning yet--in a few hearts still in the flesh,
and in countless glorified spirits before the throne. There is
not enough wind, loosed or unloosed, in the vast caverns of
the universe to blow out that flame, nor enough blackness in
the untenanted halls of space to swallow up its light! Do you
tell me that the God who is so strict in the economy of His
universe as to refuse a throb of energy to be lost, or an atom
to be wiped out of existence, or a few pieces of bread to perish
in the desert, will allow that genius, which is the breath of
His own being, to be wasted without contributing wealth to the
world, to the universe, to God Himself!

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CONSERVATION OF REMAINDERS

A man was in possession of a great farm. The abundant crops
finally failed, and other calamities came, and at last the wife
of the great landowner lost her reason. Nearly all had been
lost, and the farmer was left with only a few feet of ground
as his possession. I had not the courage to visit this man in
his destitution. After a lapse of time, however, I went to his
humble abode, and was amazed to see the little garden in the
highest state of cultivation. And I exclaimed: “Why, how is
this? How did you have the heart to do this, after you had lost
all?”

“Why, what would you have had me do?” was the reply. “This is
all I had, and I tried to make the best of it.”

So it is for us to strengthen that which is left in the Church and in ourselves as individuals.--OLIN A. CURTIS.

(555)

CONSERVATISM, FALSE

There stands the false conservative, anchored to the past.
Whatever is, for him, is right and good. He is constitutionally
opposed to change. Wagon-wheels make a rut an inch deep across
the prairie, but when this man is thirty he is in a rut up to
his eyebrows. When he dies, at seventy, you can truly say, that
his image is truth lying at the bottom of a well. He loves his
father’s house because it is old; he loves old tools; old laws;
old creeds. He stands at his gate, like an angry soldier, waving
his hands and shouting warnings to all who approach. He has
one injunction for every boy starting out to make his fortune:
“Watch your anchor, my son; don’t cast off your moorings”; as
if any Columbus, who spent all his time throwing out anchors,
could ever have crossed the sea! As if any world voyage could
be made by a captain who never dared cast off his moorings! In
the Arabian tale, when the sheik was lost in the desert, he
took off the bridle, and committed the camel to God and his
own instincts, trusting the beast to find its way to the water
springs. But if the old sheik had been a false conservative, he
would first of all have staked the camel down by a lariat, and
then committed himself to God, like these church dignitaries
and councils that stake the religious or political thinker
down by a lariat, which they then label in a humorous moment,
“liberty of thought,” and having made progress impossible, they
commit themselves to the care of the God of progress.--N. D.
HILLIS.

(556)

=Conservatism Natural=--See PROGRESS.

CONSIDERATENESS

This incident is from a source not identified:

A few days ago I was passing through a pretty, shady street,
where some boys were playing at baseball. Among their number was
a little lame fellow, seemingly about twelve years old--a pale,
sickly-looking child, supported on two crutches, who evidently
found much difficulty in walking, even with such assistance.

The lame boy wished to join the game, for he did not seem to see
how his infirmity would be in his own way, and how much it would
hinder the progress of such an active sport as baseball.

His companions, very good naturedly, tried to persuade him to
stand at one side and let another take his place; and I was glad
to notice that none of them hinted that he would be in the way,
but that they all objected for fear he would hurt himself.

“Why, Jimmy,” said one of them at last, “you can’t run, you
know.”

“Oh, hush!” said another--the tallest in the party; “never
mind, I’ll run for him,” and he took his place by Jimmy’s side,
prepared to act. “If you were like him,” he said, aside to the
other boy, “you wouldn’t want to be told of it all the time.”

As I passed on I thought to myself, “That boy is a true
gentleman.”

(557)

See KINDNESS; SERVICE, INTERESTED.

=Consideration for Others=--See OTHERS, CONSIDERATION FOR.

=Consideration for Weakness=--See WEAKNESS, CONSIDERATION FOR.

CONSISTENCY

Those who walk with God are sure to exercise a powerful effect, conscious or unconscious, upon their worldly friends and neighbors. It is said of certain of the apostles that those who watched them “took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”

A certain mill-owner was an infidel. He ran his mill seven days
in the week, yet on Sundays he stopt it for a short time in the
morning and again at noon. At length some one ventured to ask
him why he acted thus. His reply was, “It is because I know that
Deacon B. will pass at a certain time on his way to church, and
again on his way back. I do not mind the rest of you, for you
do not properly live what you profess, but I tell you I do mind
him, and to run my mill while he is passing would make me feel
bad here”--putting his hand upon his heart.

Theosophy in its mystic theories includes the concept that the
spirit within each individual forms a visible aura or halo
around him, which can be seen by many who possess the faculty of
discernment. The spirit of a true Christian is apprehended by
those about him far more accurately than might be imagined. For
the spirit inevitably impels the actions of the life.

(558)

CONSTITUTION IN OBSCURITY

A schoolboy in Brooklyn was asked: “What is the Constitution of
the United States?” He replied: “It is that part in small print
in the back of the book that nobody reads.”

(559)

=Constraint=--See ACQUIESCENCE TO PROVIDENCE.

=Consumption=--See TUBERCULOSIS.

=Consumption and Vocal Exercises=--See SINGING CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH.

CONTACT

If one’s heart be charged with sympathy, he will convey it by his handshaking, as if he carried with him this ingenious toy:

An “electric handshaker” to shock unsuspecting friends, has been
devised by a man in Paterson, N. J. The specification of the
patent that he has secured reads, according to _The Western
Electrician_: “It is intended that the cell or battery
and coil be concealed in the inside breast pocket or other
convenient hiding-place on the person intending to operate the
toy. The two wires are to be run down the sleeve of the operator
and the ring slipt on one of his fingers, the two contact
buttons being turned toward the palm of the hand. If now, the
circuit through the induction-coil and battery being closed, the
operator shakes hands or otherwise brings the two buttons on the
ring into contact with another person, this person receives a
most surprizing and effective electric shock. Owing to the small
size and the ingenious method of concealing the apparatus, the
recipient of the shock does not at once discover the source of
the discharge, and the toy is productive of much amusement.”
(Text.)

(560)

See SYMPATHY.

=Contact with the Blind=--See BLINDNESS AND CONTACT.

=Contagion=--See POST-MORTEM CONSEQUENCES.

=Contagion of Evil=--See EVIL, VIRULENCY OF.

CONTAMINATION

A party of young people were about to explore a coal-mine.
One of the young ladies appeared drest in white. A friend
remonstrated with her. Not liking the interference, she turned
to the old miner, who was to conduct them, and said:

“Can’t I wear a white dress down in the mine?”

“Yes, mum,” was his reply. “There is nothing to hinder you from
wearing a white frock down there, but there’ll be considerable
to keep you from wearing one back.”

There is nothing to hinder a Christian from conforming to the world’s standard of living, but there is a good deal to keep him from being unspotted if he does. Christians were put into the atmosphere of this world to purify it, and not to be poisoned by it.

(561)

* * * * *

Mr. Hilditch, of the Sheffield Laboratory of Bacteriology and
Hygiene, Yale University, has demonstrated that the average
number of bacteria in each of twenty-one bills was 142,000,
while by far the most common forms present were the varieties
of the pyogenic staphylococcus. These organisms were not in
possession of their full virulence, but merely produced a more
or less local reaction, on guinea-pig injection, with swelling
of the lymph glands of the groin. Their constant presence
on money is certainly of greater significance than merely
indicating the exposure to the bacterial contamination of the
air; they clearly indicate that the money has been contaminated
by handling and without regard to the virulence or the danger of
infection to which these particular organisms themselves expose
those who receive the money, they establish beyond question
the most fundamental and significant fact for scientific
demonstration, viz., that money is a medium of bacterial
communication from one individual to another.--_The Popular
Science Monthly._

(562)

CONTAMINATION, DEATH FROM

For the soldier in the far-away Philippines, death lurks in many places. Perhaps it is the enemy in the open, or the shot from the thicket, or the assassin’s knife in the dark. These are not the deadliest foes, however. The cholera is everywhere. Man can guard against the one, but he falls a victim to the other. Not long since a certain constabulary officer had met the enemy and defeated them. Before he reached camp on the return march, however, disease laid hold upon him for its own. Ere he reached the camp he was dead. In trying to explain that sudden demise, a companion of the march said:

When we stopt at shacks on the roadside and asked for water it
was furnished us in a coconut shell with the native’s thumb dipt
in and the water so muddy one could not see the bottom, but down
it went with some jest about a cool death.

The thumb of the native, dipt in the shell of water, brought death to the drinker. There is another sort of cup in which lurks the serpent of death--the wine cup.

(563)

=Contempt of Patriotism=--See MEMORIALS OF PATRIOTISM.

CONTENT

Robert Trowbridge wrote for _Scribner’s Magazine_ the following verse:

My neighbor hath a little field,
Small store of wine its presses yield,
And truly but a slender hoard
Its harvest brings for barn or board.
Yet tho a hundred fields are mine,
Fertile with olive, corn, and vine;
Tho autumn piles my garners high,
Still for that little field I sigh,
For, ah! methinks no other where
Is any field so good and fair.
Small tho it be, ’tis better far
Than all my fruitful vineyards are,
Amid whose plenty sad I pine--
“Ah, would that little field were mine!”

Large knowledge void of peace and rest,
And wealth with pining care possest--
These by my fertile lands are meant.
That little field is called Content.

(564)

CONTENTMENT

There is a story of an old woman who was very uncomfortable
in her temper. She was always fretting and worrying and
complaining. Nothing ever went right with her, and everybody was
tired of her continual crossness and grumbling.

At last, late in her life, there came a change over her, and
this cross, crabbed old woman grew gentle, patient and amiable.
She was so altered from her former self that one of her
neighbors took courage to ask her how it was that she, who had
always found life so full of prickles, now seemed to touch the
smooth and pleasant side of everything.

“Well,” said she, “I’ll tell you how it is. I’ve been all my
life a-struggling and a-striving for a contented mind, and now
I’ve made up my mind to sit down contented without it.”

(565)

See OPTIMISM.

=Contentment More than Raiment=--See CHARACTER MORE THAN CLOTHING.

=Contest, Made for=--See BODY, MASTERING THE.

=Contingency=--See COMMON PROBLEM, THE.

=Continuity of Life=--See LIFE, CONTINUED.

=Contraband Traffic=--See EVIDENCE, PROVIDENTIAL.

=Contraction of Stomach=--See ADAPTATION.

=Contrariness=--See DOURNESS.

CONTRAST NECESSARY TO INTEREST

In nature as well as in poetry the sense of beauty is stimulated
by contrast. If all women were pretty, how soon we should cease
to admire lovely eyes and fair complexions and the thousand
charms which make women in their weakness stronger than men
are in their strength; if all men were handsome fine features
would be disregarded. In climates which have months of perpetual
drought and heat, the blue sky becomes hateful, and the sun,
instead of being the best of friends, as in temperate lands, is
regarded as an enemy. An Englishman finds cloudy days depressing
because they are so frequent in his own land; his brothers in
tropical lands welcome them because they are so few. In animal
life, too, the same rule holds good, and I question if we should
admire the exquisite shape of a gazelle or of a well-bred horse,
and the superb plumage of the peacock and the secretary-bird,
were it not for the contrast afforded by the rhinoceros, the
hippopotamus, and the vulture.--_Illustrated London News._

(566)

=Contrasted Careers=--See CAREERS CONTRASTED.

=Contrasts, Shameful=--See EXTRAVAGANCE, CENSURABLE.

CONTROL, DIVINE

The late Prof. Henry Drummond was staying at the house of a
friend whose coachman had imperiled his career more than once
by drunkenness. “Do try and speak to him about it,” said the
lady to Professor Drummond. Driving to the station, Professor
Drummond sat beside the coachman. The carriage narrowly escaped
collision through the carelessness of another driver. “Didn’t
I manage that well?” said the coachman to Professor Drummond.
“You did, indeed. How was it?” “Because,” said the coachman, “I
understand the horses’ mouths exactly and they obey my slightest
guidance.” Drummond seized the opportunity immediately. “I have
only a minute,” he said, “but let me ask, Why don’t you throw
the reins of your life to God, who understands your mouth and
is ready and willing to guide you?” The word went home to the
coachman’s heart. (Text.)

(567)

CONTROL OF CIRCUMSTANCES

The time has not yet come when man may plow the atmosphere for
rain as he plows the soil for crops. If mines must be worked
and towns built in arid regions, let promoters of these schemes
be required to build aqueducts and bore wells sufficient in
advance to supply the needed water, not waiting until droughts
come and the people die. Every place on this globe has its rainy
years and its dry years. Areas of cold and heat, wind and calm,
rain and drought, appear and move and disappear in irregular
succession. We must prepare for them and provide against
disaster. We can not control the weather, but we may control
ourselves.

(568)

CONVERSION

Rev. J. Hawksley, a missionary among the Indians of the
Klondyke, was one evening holding a service and using a magic
lantern. He threw upon the screen a picture of Christ cleansing
the temple. An inveterate gambler in the audience was so imprest
with the attitude of Christ that the words in explanation went
straight to his heart. “If Christ was so angry at those who did
such things in His earthly temple, I am sure He would never let
such a sinner as I am come into His holy temple above. I will
give up my gambling and ask His pardon.” And the man kept his
word.

(569)

* * * * *

That man steeped in iniquity can be won back by the grace of Christ to a life of decency and service is one of the marvels of the world.

Luther Burbank, the well-known botanist, finds in nature this
renewing and generating quality. He can take a tree that shows
distinct evidence of decay, that looks as if it were beyond
recovery, and treat it, and treat it again, until he rescues
it from its bad habits of many years’ standing. He directs its
energies so that they flow in new channels and, as “if by the
shock of recreation,” what was once blighted and blasted becomes
beautiful, fragrant and fruitful. (Text.)

(570)

* * * * *

In 1855 some Hebrew Christians met in New York to observe the
Passover. The meal being over, one after the other rose to
testify to faith and love in Christ. One man sat with head dropt
between his hands, then sobs shook his body, and those around
saw that a mighty conflict was in progress in his soul. Suddenly
he leapt to his feet and cried, “I will no longer deny my Lord!
I will follow Him outside the camp.” God took that Polish
Jew--for it was Bishop Schereschewsky--and through him gave the
Mandarin Bible to the vast empire of China. The Passover had
become the Supper of the Lord.

(571)

* * * * *

Like a ship becalmed in tropic seas, whose sails hang useless
in the breathless air, whose sailors wearily, idly wander about
the decks or lean listlessly over the bulwarks looking into
the waveless, torpid sea, and over which the heavy gloom of
despair and hopeless waiting hangs like a stifling air, so is
many a soul arrested in the voyage of life. Its energies are
like the useless sails, its thoughts like the listless sailors,
the whole spirit of its life like the dull, weary scene of the
idly drifting ship. And when at length the welcome wind comes
rippling the sea’s dead calm, filling the drooping sails,
lifting the ship onward in its course, what music in the rustle
of its coming! what joy in the new force it brings to the
forceless ship! what animation of life, revival of hope, fleeing
of all the dull, dreary spirits which haunted the scene a moment
before! So is a soul who has lived with no great, good purpose
which gave progress, importance, and interest to life, when at
length it seizes on the great Christian purpose of living unto
God. (Text.)--W. R. BROOKS, _Baptist Examiner_.

(572)

See CREATURE, A NEW.

CONVERSION AND A BUTTON

In the life of Charles G. Finney there is an account of the
conversion of a prominent merchant. He went to hear Mr. Finney
preach and was powerfully affected. Mr. Arthur Tappan, the
eminent merchant, sat near him and noticed his agitation. In
telling his experience afterward he said that as he arose to
go, Mr. Tappan stept up and took him gently by the button of
his coat and asked him to stay for prayer and conversation. He
tried to excuse himself, but Mr. Tappan held on till he finally
yielded. He said afterward, “He held fast to my button, so that
an ounce weight at my button was the means of saving my soul.”

(573)

=Conversion, Evidence of=--See FAMILY RELIGION.

CONVERSION, GENUINE

The convert is known by his fruits. Conduct, conversation, and character, are the infallible tests of a personality transformed within.

In a large iron factory one of the worst men in the place was
converted. He had been a man of terrible temper, and could
scarcely speak without swearing and blaspheming against God.
After his conversion his comrades waited for his temper to break
out as before, and to hear him give utterance to a string of
oaths. But nothing of the sort occurred. So they prepared a trap
for him, which they felt sure would cause his downfall. They
heated a long bar of iron and tempered it so that it would look
as tho it were cold. Then they laid it on the floor when he was
absent, and waited for him to come in and pick it up. Presently
he returned, and, stooping over, grasped the hot iron with both
hands. His comrades now expected an explosion, for there was a
badly blistered strip of flesh on each hand. But the man simply
turned round and said quietly, “Men, I didn’t think you would do
that.”

At these words, so different from what they expected, tears
ran down the cheeks of those strong men; a revival broke out
then and there, and many of those ironworkers found salvation,
because that man had not lost his temper, but had shown the
reality of his transformation.

(574)

CONVERSION, NOT UNNATURAL

Why should people balk at conversion as if it was something foreign to the universe? The fact is that there is not a moment of time when the process ceases. Dr. W. L. Watkinson calls attention to it in this way:

You come away from your house leaving your inkpot with the sun
shining upon it. You go back. Where is your ink? Why, if you
look up into the sky to-morrow you will see it in the rainbow!
Nature is absolutely full of cleansings, of refinements,
of marvelous chemistries, upliftings, transformations,
transmutations, transfigurations! And do you mean to tell me
that in a world where you see every day the miracle of renewal,
the miracle of transfiguration--do you mean to tell me that the
only thing in it that can not be changed is the human soul, that
which it is most desirable to change? (Text.)

(575)

CONVERSION, SINCERE

Mr. C. T. Studd, a missionary to China, tells the following:

A white-haired old Chinaman, over fifty years of age, an old
opium-smoker, came to us, and having learned of Jesus Christ,
was converted, went home and took down his idols. The elders
of the village came to him for a subscription to their heathen
temples. “I now worship the true God and can not henceforth pay
any money for idol worship,” said the old man. When his reply
was known, his village and a neighboring village took counsel
and decided that they would kill him. One day, as the old man
sat in his chair, a mob surrounded his home yelling and cursing.
He sat quietly praying. One of the six men who stood at the door
ready to kill him shouted, “Now, old man, you come out.”

“No,” he replied quietly, “if you want me out, you must come and
pull me out.”

A dispute arose among the representatives of the villages as
to which should have precedence in this act of religious zeal,
and the contention waged so high that neither one dared to kill
the gray-haired old man. They dispersed to their homes, and
after living peacefully a while longer, the old Christian passed
quietly to his heavenly home in 1895.

(576)

CONVERTED BY THE COMET

The first conversion to Christianity by Halley’s comet was
recorded to-day. As far as the available records show, this is
the comet’s first convert.

At 4:30 o’clock yesterday morning a number of people who had
shortened their matutinal slumbers to watch the great sidereal
visitor from the roof of a Fourth Avenue apartment house were
startled by a loud cry from one of their party. The man, a
professional skeptic, was standing with arms outstretched to the
heavens, weeping profusely.