Chapter XIII: Preface (13)

One of the most brilliant of our younger poets was descanting on
the Chinook vocabulary, in which a Chinook calls an Englishman a
Chinhog to this day, in memory of King George. And this writer
says that when they have a young chief whose warpaint is very
perfect, whose blanket is thoroughly embroidered, whose leggings
are tied up with exactly the right colors, and who has the
right kind of star upon his forehead and cheeks, but who never
took a scalp, never fired an arrow, and never smelled powder,
but was always found at home in the lodges whenever there was
anything that scented of war--he says the Chinooks called that
man by the name of “Boston Cultus.” You have seen these people,
as I have seen them, as everybody has seen them--people who
sat in Parker’s and discust every movement of the campaign in
the late war, and told us that it was all wrong, that we were
going to the bad, but who never shouldered a musket. They are
people who tell us that the immigration, that the pope of Rome,
or the German element, or the Irish element, is going to play
the dogs with our social system, and yet they never met an
immigrant on the wharf or had a word of comfort to say to a
foreigner.--EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

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=Cross Anticipated=--See CALVARY, ANTICIPATING.

CROSS CENTRAL

It is said that two famous enemies of Christianity were once
talking together of a plan for the reconstruction of religion.
They believed only in the enjoyment of the life that now is.
They talked of the building of a temple which would express
the religious impulse and yet lay stress on the glory of the
life that now is. And after they had talked of marvelous music,
forever in the major key, they admitted that something was
lacking in their scheme. “I know what it is,” finally declared
one. “It is that hymn, ‘O Sacred Head Now Wounded.’ Without
that there is a fatal lack of beauty and of power.” And this
goes down pretty far toward the center. The compelling beauty
of Christianity is in its doctrine of self-sacrifice. The
cross sets the Christian teaching on high.--FRANCIS J.
MCCONNELL.

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CROSS, CHARM OF THE

Rev. Edward Payson Scott, Baptist missionary in Assam, was
strongly moved to visit a wild hill tribe--the Nagas--three
days’ journey from his station, whereas yet he had made only a
start in the Naga language and had to take a Naga teacher along.
He was strongly urged by the British resident officer not to run
such risk, but he could not be deterred; and, when an escort of
soldiers was offered him, he firmly declined, as it would defeat
the very end in view, which was to go as a messenger of peace.
A military escort would give a false impression of his whole
spirit and motive.

So with a native companion he set out, and when they reached the
base of the mountain ridge where the native village crowned the
summit, and began the ascent, the alarmed villagers forming in
battle-line, waved their spears in menace, the chief crying out,
“Halt! we know you! You are the man of the British Queen, come
to make us prisoners and carry off our children. Come no nearer!”

The missionary drew out his violin, and began to sing in the
native tongue, “Alas, and did my Savior bleed!” When he had sung
one verse, the chief and his warriors had already thrust their
spears into the ground and broken ranks. As Mr. Scott sang
on, about the amazing pity, grace, love shown when the Maker
died for the sin of the creature, the wild men began to creep
down the hillside, nearer and nearer; and the chief cried out,
“Where did you learn that? Sing us more; we never heard the like
before.” The savages were subdued. The stranger was safe from
their spears, and welcomed to their huts and best hospitality.
The cross has never lost its charm. (Text.)--_Missionary
Review of the World._

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CROSS GLORIOUS

My God, I have never thanked thee for my thorn. I have thanked
thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn.
I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get
compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross
as itself a present glory. Thou divine Love whose human path
has been perfected through sufferings, teach me the glory of my
cross, teach me the value of my thorn.--GEORGE MATHESON.

(631)

CROSS IMPERISHABLE

Matthew Arnold had a brother-in-law, Mr. Cropper, who lived
in Liverpool, and attended Sefton Park Church, where Dr. John
Watson (“Ian Maclaren”) ministered. Visiting Mr. Cropper, Mr.
Arnold accompanied him to church one Sunday morning, which
proved to be Arnold’s last Sunday on earth. Dr. Watson preached
on “The Shadow of the Cross”; and the congregation afterward
sang the familiar hymn, “When I survey the wondrous cross.” At
lunch that day Mr. Arnold referred to an illustration which
the preacher had drawn from the Riviera earthquake. “In one
village,” said Dr. Watson, “the huge crucifix above the altar,
with a part of the chancel, remained unshaken amid the ruins,
and round the cross the people sheltered.” “Yes,” remarked
Arnold in speaking of this, “the cross remains, and in the
straits of the soul makes its ancient appeal.” (Text.)

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CROSS, THE

Many preachers, while they do not ignore the cross, dim or obscure it by eliminating from it the element of redemption. But however obscured, it will emerge in human life, for the cross is the center of faith.

One of the most magnificent ecclesiastical structures in the
world is the mosque of Hagia Sophia, or “Holy Wisdom,” commonly
known in our language as St. Sophia. This was originally the
famous temple erected by Constantine in 325, as a Christian
church. But it was destroyed by fire in 404 in a riot connected
with the exile of Chrysostom. Rebuilt at once, in 530 it was
again burnt to the ground, and the present edifice was reared
by Justinian, and on Christmas day of 537 was dedicated as a
Christian cathedral. In 1453 it was converted into a mosque.
Jesus was put aside for Mohammed, the cross was supplanted by
the crescent, and the Bible was dethroned by the Koran. Yet tho
in many places the cross is wholly hidden under plaster with
fine filigree work, here and there it can be perceived. (Text.)

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CROSS, THE VEILED

The cross of Jesus Christ was to the Greeks foolishness and a
stumbling-block of the Jews. They could not see its meaning;
just as I have walked out on the porch of a north Georgia home
two hours before day, and in the dim starlight I could see
only the faint outline of mountain and hill. I could not tell
what they were. It was an indistinct picture that had in it no
meaning to me. I have gone back to my room and after a while
have walked out on the porch again. The sun had risen on the
scene and bathed hill and mountain and valley in a flood of
light, and then I looked and saw hills and mountains and valleys
and streams that mine eyes had never seen before.--“Famous
Stories of Sam P. Jones.”

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CROWD AND THE EXCEPTION

Sam Walter Foss sings of the man who comes up from the crowd in these verses:

There’s a dead hum of voices all saying the same thing,
And our forefathers’ songs are the songs that we sing,
And the deeds by our fathers and grandfathers done
Are done by the son of the son of the son,
And our heads in contrition are bowed.
And lo, a call for a man who shall make all things new
Goes down through the throng. See! he rises in view!
Make room for the man who shall make all things new!
For the man comes up from the crowd.

And where is the man who comes up from the throng,
Who does the new deed and sings the new song,
Who makes the old world as a world that is new?
And who is the man? It is you! It is you!
And our praise is exultant and proud.
We are waiting for you there--for you are the man!
Come up from the jostle as soon as you can;
Come up from the crowd there, for you are the man--
The man who comes up from the crowd. (Text.)

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CROWN, THE CHRISTIAN’S

A true Christian gladly works for the souls of the people without hope of any earthly fee or reward, but such an elevated policy naturally appears aimless to the selfish or unenlightened worldling.

Gipsy Smith says: “My father was once preaching in the open air
at Leytonstone. A coster in his donkey-cart shouted out, ‘Go it,
old party, you will get ’arf a crown for that job.’ My father
stopt his address for a moment, and said quietly, ‘No, young
man, you are wrong; my Master never gives half-crowns. He gives
whole crowns.’” (Text.)

(636)

CROWNING CHRIST

“Why did you put your five-dollar goldpiece in the missionary
collection, instead of some silver?” Davie was asked. “Because,”
he replied, “as the congregation sang, ‘Bring forth the royal
diadem, and crown him Lord of all,’ I imagined that I could hear
his steps coming down the aisle to receive his crown, and I did
not want Him to wear a copper crown, or a silver crown, but a
gold crown.” A part of the missionary work is giving gold for
Christ’s coronation.

(637)

=Crucified=--See MARTYR SPIRIT.

CRUEL GREED

A missionary from a north China city wrote to the _Missionary Review of the World_:

Recently some professional procurers going the rounds of the
cities of northern China buying girls for the brothels of
Shanghai stopt here in their diabolical quest. They negotiated
a sale with a mother living near us for her seventeen-year-old
daughter. As this daughter’s feet were not small enough to
command the sum desired, the mother arose at midnight while
the children were sleeping and proceeded to beat the feet of
the daughter in question to a pulp. The agonizing pain, the
heartrending screams were of no avail. The feet were bound into
a smaller compass by this process and a more advantageous sale
expedited.

(638)

* * * * *

Dr. William H. Leslie, for many years a missionary in the Kongo, recently confirmed many of the stories of the atrocities that have marked the rule of the Belgians in that country. This is what he says:

With my own eyes I have witnessed many of the most horrible
examples of cruelty practised upon the poor natives in that
country. I have seen natives with one hand cut off and I have
seen them with both cut off, and in many cases the poor victims
were children.

Dr. Leslie also said that much of the cruelty had been practised
in order to impress upon the blacks the necessity of their
bringing to market the rubber wanted by their persecutors, and
to emphasize the dire results that would follow their failure to
do so.

(639)

CRUELTY, CHINESE

There is a cruel custom which prevails in some districts in
South China in time of drought. A large collection of brass
locks is made, and each is marked with a Chinese character.
One iron lock is added to the pile, and duplicate slips are
distributed among all the male population of the villages. The
unfortunate man whose slip holds the same writing on it as the
iron lock must have a slit made in the front of his throat and
through this, the bar of the iron lock passed. He is considered
to be in some way the cause of the drought and must wear this
lock until rain comes. Blood-poisoning often carries the victim
off before the drought is broken.

As fast as Christian mission work prevails in China, these cruelties disappear.

(640)

=Cruelty from the Past=--See MUTUAL SUFFERING.

CRUELTY IN WORSHIP

Rev. W. B. Simpson, missionary among the Tamil people, writes of
a most inhuman sacrifice, which was being offered in a village
near Kumbakonam. A goat is brought, and its mouth tied up to
prevent its crying out. Nails are driven into its nostrils, its
mouth, ears, eyes, and the other two openings of the body. Then
a hand-beating on its poor body takes place, which must be kept
up till death comes to free the animal. This, the people claim,
is worshiping God according to the Vedas, altho there is no
foundation for it in any of its pages.

(641)

CRUELTY TO BIRDS

The following is reported by the _Daily Sentinel_, of Fairmount, Minnesota:

A mother dove had been the target of some small boy. The
bullet had passed through her breast, and had left her only
strength enough to flutter homeward and reach the nest, where a
half-grown fledgling awaited her coming.

Dying, she had snuggled up against her little one, her
life-blood pulsing out over her own white breast and against
that of her young. And there, with eyes staring wide, she
breathed her last, and the fledgling starved, and then froze.
The two were found with their heads prest together as in a last
embrace.

The owner of the dove-house brought them down-town just as they
rested in the nest, and the sight and the suffering of which it
spoke were enough to melt the hardest heart.

The boy with the rifle may cause a like tragedy again, and many
times.

(642)

CRUELTY TO CHILDREN

Edward Gilleat tells of some of the horrors of the African slave-trade:

Children are thrown with the baggage on the camels if unable to
walk; but if they are five or six years of age the poor little
creatures are obliged to trot on all day with bleeding feet.
The daily allowance of food was sometimes a quart of dates in
the morning and half a pint of flour, made into a bazeen, in
the evening. None of the owners ever moved without their whips,
which were in constant use. Drinking too much water, bringing
too little wood, or falling asleep before the cooking was
finished were considered almost capital crimes. No excuses were
taken; the whip exacted a fearful penalty. Sometimes the little
children would cry bitterly for water when the hot east wind was
blowing; if they fell down, the Moors would haul them up roughly
and drag them along violently, beating them incessantly till
they had overtaken the camels.--“Heroes of Modern Crusades.”

(643)

CRYING BENEFICIAL

A French physician contends that groaning and crying are two
grand operations by which nature allays anguish; that those
patients who give way to their natural feelings more speedily
recover from accidents and operations than those who suppose it
unworthy in a man to betray such symptoms of cowardice as either
to groan or cry. He tells of a man who reduced his pulse from
126 to 60 in the course of a few hours by giving full vent to
his emotion. If people are unhappy about anything, let them go
into their rooms and comfort themselves with a loud boo-hoo,
and they will feel one hundred per cent better afterward. In
accordance with this, the crying of children should not be too
greatly discouraged. What is natural is nearly always useful.
(Text.)--_American Homeopathist._

(644)

=Cultivation=--See SELECTION BY PURPOSE; SUCCESS BY EXPERIMENTATION.

=Culture Counts=--See TRAINING.

=Culture Not Everything=--See GENIUS.

CUNNING

Almost always when you meet a fox in the woods he pretends not
to see you, but changes his course casually, as if, perhaps,
he had just heard a mouse over there among the stumps. He does
not increase his speed in the slightest degree until he is
behind some tree or rock; then away he goes at a tremendous
rate, always keeping the tree between you and himself until well
out of gunshot.--WITMER STONE and WILLIAM EVERETT
CRAM, “American Animals.”

(645)

=Cunning Among Animals=--See SUBTLETY AMONG ANIMALS.

=Cure by Reversal=--See REVERSED ATTITUDE.

=Cure from Bible Reading=--See MIND-HEALING.

CURIOSITY

The catbird has the courage of his convictions, and one of these
convictions is that he has the right to the satisfaction of an
ungovernable and enormous curiosity. Bait your bird-trap in the
woods with something which strikes a bird as a curiosity that
courts immediate investigation and you will catch a catbird.
Other birds might start for it, but the catbird would distance
them.--WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild Pastures.”

(646)

=Curiosity in a Boy=--See CONSCIENCE A MONITOR.

CURIOSITY, RATIONALE OF

When the child learns that he can appeal to others to eke out
his store of experiences, so that, if objects fail to respond
interestingly to his experiments, he may call upon persons to
provide interesting material, a new epoch sets in. “What is
that?” “Why?” become the unfailing signs of a child’s presence.
At first this questioning is hardly more than a projection into
social relations of the physical overflow which earlier kept
the child pushing and pulling, opening and shutting. He asks in
succession what holds up the house, what holds up the soil that
holds the house, what holds up the earth that holds the soil;
but his questions are not evidence of any genuine consciousness
of rational connections. His why is not a demand for scientific
explanation; the motive behind it is simply eagerness for a
larger acquaintance with the mysterious world in which he is
placed. The search is not for a law or principle, but only for a
bigger fact. Yet there is more than a desire to accumulate just
information or heap up disconnected items, altho sometimes the
interrogating habit threatens to degenerate into a mere disease
of language. In the feeling, however dim, that the facts which
directly meet the senses are not the whole story, that there is
more behind them and more to come from them, lies the germ of
intellectual curiosity.--JOHN DEWEY, “How We Think.”

(647)

=Current, Double=--See JOY AND SORROW.

CURRENTS OF LIFE

The waters of the Pacific are tempered for a certain width
with a warm current flowing north from the tropics. The
temperature of Alaska is affected by it, and the result of its
genial influence is increased vegetation and civilization. But
for this life-giving stream Alaska would be as destitute and
uninhabitable as Labrador.

But for the enriching stream of Christian life the whole world would now be a moral Labrador. (Text.)

(648)

CURRENTS, UTILIZING

Sir Wyville Thompson and, later, Sir John Murray, unraveled some
of the mysteries of the hidden depths of the sea, such as the
Gulf stream and the waters that wash the Cape of Good Hope. They
have found that there are currents flowing over one another in
different directions, as in the case of air-currents above us.
The aim is to be able to utilize these cross-currents, both of
air and water, for the benefit of man.

Still more were it wise to use the many and even the contrary currents of life so as to make all serve man’s best interests.

(649)

=Curse of Drink=--See DRINK AND NATIVE RACES.

CURSING FORBIDDEN

Bishop Benzler used to be a great favorite of the German
Emperor, but recently the bishop fell into one of those quarrels
about burial-grounds that in Germany, as well as in England
and Wales, seem to have a great power of making people forget
Christian charity. The bishop, because a Protestant had been
buried in this ground, went to the extreme step of declaring
that the ground had been desecrated, and decided to curse it.

The Emperor was furious when he heard of this, and when the
bishop was imprudent enough to demand an audience, he let
loose upon the head of the unfortunate ecclesiastic a flood
of eloquent wrath which submerged him. Here is the principal
passage:

“Your Reverence,” said the Emperor, “has asked for an audience,
and I have granted it because I, also, have a few words to
say to you. Before leaving Alsace-Lorraine I must tell your
Reverence that your attitude has greatly displeased me. You were
represented to me as a mild and peaceable man; your actions
prove the contrary. You have done worse things than the worst
fanatic. You have curst a cemetery situated on German soil, the
German soil over which I rule. Do not forget, your Reverence,
that I, as German Emperor, will never tolerate that even one
inch of German soil should be curst--no, not one inch! It is a
bishop’s duty to bless, and the moment you begin to curse you
cease to be fit for your high position.” (Text.)

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CURVES OF TEMPTATION

An efficient baseball player tries to get at the secret of the
pitcher’s curves; and the player in the game of life will look
well to the curves of the world. This is a good world, and the
men and women in it are of royal lineage--we are of God; but the
glorious gift of liberty makes possible temptation and sin.

Because you ought to do right it is possible that you may
yield to temptation, and failing to overcome a world curve be
compelled to give up your place at the homeplate.--T. E.
POTTERTON.

(651)

CUSTOM

Whether in architecture, or in education, or in dress, or in
other affairs of life, custom rules in Korea. Custom explains
everything.

“What about this absurdity?” “Oh, it’s custom.” “Yes, but see
here, why are the dead propt up on sticks and not buried?” “Oh,
it’s custom.” “Do you sometimes marry off children as early as
nine years of age?” “Yes, that’s custom.”

The reader must learn this word if he would understand old
Korea, and if he would read into much of the life of the East
still The forefather may have been an imbecile, or may have
walked in his sleep, but what he did has come down, down to the
present, and custom maintains that it is the sane and right
thing to do.

“Why do you feed all these idle tramps, who come calling at your
door, and you a poor man?” I once asked of my host.

He replied, “It’s custom, and for my life I can’t get out of
it.” “What about these dolmens set up all through these valleys
here like tables of the gods; what do they mean?” “They were set
up by the Chinese invader, thousands of years ago, to crush out
the ground influence that brought forth Korean warriors.”

“You mean that they have stifled out the life of the nation
for all these centuries?” “Yes.” “Then why don’t you roll them
off and get back your lost vigor?” “Oh, that’s no use now,
never do.” “As it was, is now, and ever shall be,” is the only
reply.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in Transition.”

(652)

=Custom, Disregarded=--See PILOT, NEED OF.

CUSTOM, FORCE OF

Dr. Harlan P. Beach says:

In China there are customs which are more important than
etiquette. I met a man who had been shaking from head to
feet “You have had chills and fever, haven’t you?” I said
sympathizingly. He came very near taking my head off, because
there is a special god who runs chills and fever, and if he
hears a man has chills and fever and is getting over it, he
will give him another shake. I had gone against their deadly
custom. Another incident of the same sort happened one day when
a doctor of divinity saw a cheap sedan chair and bought it. A
millionaire globe-trotter used it that day for sight-seeing,
and when he reached the missionary compound, he exclaimed, “I
have been outrageously treated by the heathen. The whole city
was out laughing at me. As soon as I appeared, every man rushed
out of his shop, and the streets were in an uproar.” The doctor
of divinity asked his native teacher for an explanation. Now,
a teacher is never supposed to smile from one day’s end to
another, but that dignified teacher, glass, goggles, and all,
doubled up with laughter when he saw the chair. “You really must
excuse me,” he said, “but that kind of a chair is used only in
funeral processions for the spirit of the dead to ride in.” It
was as tho a man should ride through our city sitting up in a
hearse.

(653)

=Custom Upheld=--See EXPERIENCE A HARD TEACHER.

=Customs, Oriental=--See GESTURES AND USE OF THE HANDS IN THE EAST.

=Customs, Value of=--See EXPERIENCE A HARD TEACHER.

=Cycles in Nature=--See INVISIBLE, THE, MADE VISIBLE.

CYNIC REBUKED

The late A. T. Gordon, D.D., told this incident:

A certain infidel, a blacksmith, was in the habit when any one
came into his shop of telling what some Christian brother or
deacon or minister had done, and say, “That is one of their
fine Christians we hear so much about!”

An old gentleman, an eminent Christian, one day went into the
shop; the infidel soon began about what some Christians had
done. The old deacon stood a few moments, and listened, and then
quietly asked the infidel if he had read the story in the Bible
about the rich man and Lazarus.

“Yes, many a time; and what of it?”

“Well, you remember about the dogs; how they came and licked the
sores of Lazarus? Now,” said the deacon, “do you know, you just
remind me of those dogs--content to merely lick the Christian’s
sores.”

The blacksmith grew suddenly pensive, and hasn’t had much to say
about failing Christians since. (Text.)

(654)

D

DAILY CHARACTER WORK

In character-building, just as in housebuilding, every day’s
work ought to count for good. If the house builders do one day’s
work carelessly, dishonestly, or in violation of the architect’s
plan, the result is liable to be serious, no matter how well the
work is done thereafter. An unsound spot in the wall, a beam
not properly placed, or any other feature of a misspent working
day, will render questionable the soundness and safety of the
entire structure when the strain of use and occupation comes. So
the wasted day of one’s life may fix a flaw in the character,
which will expose that character to grave perils, when certain
temptations and trials assail it.--_The Interior._

(655)

=Dancing=--See DEGRADATION; RISK SHIFTED.

=Danger=--See LOVE AS A SIDING; QUIETNESS IN DANGER.

DANGER, AVOIDING

Birds who sleep on the water--and they are numerous--are
always in danger of drifting to the shore, where lies their
greatest danger. In the Zoological Gardens of London it has
been discovered that ducks and other water-lovers have evolved
a way of avoiding this danger. Tucking one foot up among their
feathers, they keep the other in the water and gently paddle,
with the result that they revolve in circles and keep at a
safe distance from land, a kind of sleepwalking turned to good
account.--OLIVE THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(656)

DANGER, COURTING

A few years ago a tenderfoot went out West looking for grizzly.
He was all togged out in the newest style of hunting-suit, and
dawned like an incredible vision, on the astonished inhabitants
west of the Missouri. He asked them where he could find a
grizzly, and they told him reverently that at a certain place
not far from there grizzlies were numerous and would come if you
whistled. Light-heartedly he took his way to the place indicated
and two days later they buried his mangled remains in the local
cemetery. Over his innocent young head they erected a tombstone
whereon they rudely carved this epitaph:

“He whistled for the grizzly, and the grizzly came.”

(657)

DANGER FROM BELOW

Moral disaster to character is often wrought by the inrush of animal tendencies stored in the lower nature of man.

At various times during the construction of the Simplon Tunnel
work has been retarded by the influx of water from underground
springs. In the autumn of 1901 a stream of water burst into
the Italian workings, and, attaining a discharge of nearly
8,000 gallons per minute, speedily converted the two headings
into canals. Several months elapsed before the flow could be
overcome. (Text.)--_The Scientific American._

(658)

DANGER LESSENED

The danger of fire on the great transatlantic steamship is no
longer to be dreaded. Fire in a compartment can be isolated
by the closing of the bulkhead doors, and the flames may then
be fought by forcing into the burning section of the hull
carbonic-acid gas, steam and water. Fires occur from time to
time on liners but they are extinguished so readily, and are
so easily confined, that the passengers seldom know anything
about them. Should an explosion take place in the engine-room
of a modern steamship, the doors would close automatically,
preventing the escape of steam and fire.

No such devices avail with the human soul. A man can not allow the fire of lust or sin in one compartment of his being and then keep it out of the remainder. The old doctrine of total depravity was based on this unity and totality of character, such that a taint at one point was believed to be a taint of the whole nature.

(659)

=Danger, Rushing Into=--See WILFULNESS.

DANGER STIMULATING EXERTION

In the homeward voyage of the Atlantic fleet, on its cruise around the world, a historian of its experiences tells of a rescue of one of the sailors in a great storm that arose. The storm was at its height and there ran through the fleet a report that the _Minnesota_ had lost a man overboard. The signal, indicating that fact, went up to the foremast and the fleet stopt.

Could they save the man? It was noticed that the _Minnesota_
swung around a little, as if to afford a lee, and the _Vermont_
following held true. A life-buoy had been thrown to the
struggling man, and he, being a good swimmer, caught it, and
drifted down toward the _Vermont_. Those on the _Vermont_ saw
him and ran their bow up close to him, turned it a little so
as to afford shelter, and were preparing to lower a boat for
him. A life-line was thrown overboard, and, to the astonishment
of those on the _Vermont_, the man left the life-buoy and swam
for the line. Those on board shouted to him not to do it; but
he took the chance, swam to the life-line and wrapt it around
his wrist and was drawn on board the _Vermont_. The next day we
heard that there was a similar rescue by the _Kentucky_ of a man
lost from the _Kearsarge_.

The imminent danger caused strenuous exertion. Similarly the man in moral peril can only keep out of danger by exerting all his powers. (Text.)

(660)

DARKNESS

It is one of the many marvels of wireless telegraphy that the
ether waves which carry its messages, unlike light waves,
suffer no absorption in mist or fog. Quite the opposite, in
fact, is the case, for the effect on them of clear sunshine is
so marked that they can be sent with equal initial power only
less than half the distance by day as by night. For this reason
press dispatches and long-distance messages sent by wireless
telegraphy are, whenever possible, committed to the ether waves
after sunset.

“He knoweth what is in the darkness.” This is what the prophet says in connection with the affirmation, “He revealeth the deep and secret things.” We must not imagine that darkness is symbolical only of evil. The shadow is as beneficent as the sunbeam. (Text.)

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* * * * *

The love of evil prowlers for the darkness is not confined to the insects named in the extract. It is also a characteristic of those who hunt men’s souls; the saloon-keeper thrives best by his night trade.

Tarantulas are night prowlers; they do all their hunting after
dark, dig their holes, and, indeed, carry on all the various
business of their life in the night-time. The occasional one
found walking about in daytime has made a mistake, someway,
and he blunders around quite like an owl in the sunshine.
(Text.)--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

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* * * * *

A whimsical treatise entitled, “William Ramsay’s Vindication of
Astrology,” propounds the absurd theory that the absence of the
sun is not the cause of night, but that there are tenebrificous
stars by whose influence night is brought on, and which ray out
darkness and obscurity upon the earth as the sun does light.

Are there not some men and some institutions that shed darkness rather than light on the world? (Text.)

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Those who love darkness rather than light are morally blind. Here is a case of physical blindness:

Richmond, Va., has a nineteen-year-old boy, Audrey Wilson, who
is totally blind in the day, but can see like a cat at night.
He can speed a bicycle where ordinary persons have to walk with
caution; but in the day he gropes about, able only vaguely
to distinguish any object and with no discrimination as to
colors. He is quite a possum hunter. He can easily distinguish
the animals in the trees without the aid of a lantern.
Needless to say, young Wilson is in great demand by possum
hunters.--_Leslie’s Weekly._

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See SHADOW; SOLITUDE, LESSON OF.

DARKNESS DEVELOPING CHARACTER

Darkness seems to be as necessary to life and growth in this
world as is light. An earnest, tireless worker for Christ who
has recently suffered through months of illness, writes a cheery
word of sympathy to a fellow sufferer, and adds about herself:
“It is a long time since I have done a day’s work; it is only a
half-hour’s work, or maybe fifteen minutes at a time. And many
days have been in a dark room. I wonder, sometimes, if a ‘dark
room’ is as necessary for the developing of character as it is
for the developing of negatives. If so, perhaps a time will come
when I can look back upon the dark-room days with thankfulness.
Just now, I want to work.” To wait and to trust, if God directs
that, even while one longs to be out in the light and at work,
is to gain and grow in the development which only the dark room
can give. (Text.)

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=Darkness Frightens=--See FEAR OF MAN.

DARKNESS, GROWTH IN

There is a darkness which helps and sweetens. Disappointments,
difficulties, discouragements, and all things dark, come to us
apparently to depress us, but these are part of the experience
which helps us. Black charcoal will keep water sweet. Bulbs must
be buried in the darkness if they are to grow. In the winter
a florist endeavored with success to grow some bulbs without
placing them in the ground. He gathered some small stones and
put them into basins, placing the bulbs on the top of the
stones. Then he poured in sufficient water to touch the bulbs,
and to conserve the sweetness of the water he introduced little
pieces of charcoal among the stones. He then placed the basin in
a dark cupboard and kept them there for ten weeks, and when he
took them out the green leaves of the bulbs were showing. (Text.)

(666)

DARKNESS, INFLUENCE OF

The nature of most birds seems so full of vitality and gladness
that the nocturnal habits of certain species make a more
melancholy impression than is their due. The nightingale’s song
is essentially strong and spirited; but the bird has acquired
a lasting reputation for dolorousness, partly owing to the
influence of darkness and solitude on the mind of the midnight
listener, but largely because of its apparent preference for
night over day. Half the impression of melancholy vanishes from
the nightingale’s nocturnal song, once the hearer has learned
to recognize the same music in the confusing midday chorus. The
owl’s reputation, which is sinister rather than merely mournful,
is equally little deserved. We do not set down the jackdaw as a
maleficent fowl for haunting church-yards and ruins, or the jay
for its harshness of voice; but both these qualities have been
enough to excite an historic prejudice against owls. Yet, if
once the associations of old superstitions are dispelled, owls
are recognized as among the most companionable of birds, and
their cries in the winter nights as some of the most heartening
sounds in nature.--London _Times_.

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DAUGHTERS ESTIMATED

The woman’s place in Korea is, first as daughter, one of
contempt. A missionary’s little six-year-old once came to him
with tears in her eyes and said: “Papa, I have a question.”
“Yes, what is it?” “Are you sorry that I wasn’t a boy?” “Well, I
should say not; I wouldn’t trade you for a dozen boys. But why
do you ask?”

She said, “The Koreans were talking just now, and they pointed
at me and said, ‘What a pity that she wasn’t a boy!’”--JAMES
S. GALE, “Korea in Transition.”

(668)

=Dawn Eternal=--See SOUL FLIGHT.

DAWN OF CHRISTIAN LIGHT

It is related that near the North Pole, the night lasting for
months, when the people expect the day is about to dawn,
some messengers go up to the highest point to watch; and when
they see the first streak of day, they put on their brightest
possible apparel, and embrace each other and say, “Behold the
sun.” The cry goes all around the land, “Behold the sun.” We see
signs and wonders being done through Jesus. And as we see the
dawning of the light in almost every nation under heaven, let us
cry out to every human soul, “Behold the sun.” (Text.)

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DAYBREAK

The poem found below, by P. Habberton Fulham, in London _Outlook_, gives a striking figure that would well symbolize a human experience in passing from a season of darkness and trouble into one of joy and light:

As some great captain, ere the morn be red,
Might watch his tired ranks sleeping in the dew,
Linger a moment, with some sense of rue,
Then bid réveillé sound o’er quick and dead--
So the loth sun-god leaves his cloudy bed,
Then, swift the heavy hangings striding through,
Bids the dawn’s silver bugles sound anew,
His golden banners streaming overhead--
Like camp-fire smoke the mist of morning stirs,
Like strewed arms seem the dewy glistenings,
And, as that shining clarion peals on high,
Up spring the trees like bright-faced warriors,
Behind him each his cloak of shadow flings,
And one great shout of color shakes the sky! (Text.)

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DAY BY DAY LIVING

These words found in the _Church Advocate_ are by Adelaide A. Proctor:

Do not look at life’s long sorrow;
See how small each moment’s pain;
God will help thee for to-morrow,
So each day begin again.
Every hour that fleets so slowly
Has its task to do or bear;
Luminous the crown and holy,
When each gem is set with care.

Do not linger with regretting,
Or for passing hours despond;
Nor, thy daily toil forgetting,
Look too eagerly beyond.
Hours are golden links, God’s token,
Reaching heaven; but, one by one,
Take them, lest the chain be broken
Ere the pilgrimage be done.

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DAY-BY-DAY VIRTUES

The prayer contained in these verses, by Ethelwyn Wetherald, is a good one for everybody to offer:

For strength we ask
For the ten thousand times repeated task,
The endless smallnesses of every day.

No, not to lay
My life down in the cause I cherish most,
That were too easy. But whate’er it cost,

To fail no more
In gentleness toward the ungentle, nor
In love toward the unlovely, and to give

Each day I live,
To every hour with outstretched hand its meed
Of not-to-be-regretted thought or deed.

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DAY, THE BASKET OF THE

Priscilla Leonard is the author of these lines found in the Pittsburg _Christian Advocate_:

Into the basket of thy day
Put each thing good and each thing gay
That thou canst find along thy way.

Neglect no joy, however small,
And it shall verily befall
Thy day can scarcely hold them all.

Within the basket of thy day
Let nothing evil find its way,
And let no frets and worries stay.

So shall each day be brave and fair,
Holding of joy its happy share,
And finding blessings everywhere.

(673)

=Deaconesses=--See PERSONAL WORK.

DEAD, INFLUENCE OF

Oh, tell me not that they are dead--that generous host, that
airy army of invisible heroes! They hover as a cloud of
witnesses above this nation. Are they dead that yet speak louder
than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they
dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society,
and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic
patriotism? Every mountain and hill shall have its treasured
name, every river shall keep some solemn title, every valley
and every lake shall cherish its honored register; and, till
the mountains are worn out, and the rivers forget to flow, till
the clouds are weary of replenishing springs, and the springs
forget to gush, and the rills to sing, shall their names be
kept fresh with reverent honors which are inscribed upon the
book of national remembrance.--HENRY WARD BEECHER,
_Evangelical Messenger_.

(674)

=Dead, Number of the=--See CEMETERY, THE EARTH AS A.

DEAD, RESPECT FOR THE

The Chinese have such respect for the dead that they will live
in poverty during life to pay for elaborate ceremonies at the
time of death. An old carpenter whose shop adjoined the church
in Tsicheo, in a time of business prosperity acquired for
himself a beautiful coffin valued at four hundred thousand cash.
(About $800.) Flood, disease and two worthless sons brought him
to poverty, so that he was unable to pay the yearly rental of
twenty-two dollars for his shop. Nevertheless, he was unwilling
to part with his coffin, tho it would have given him a roof over
his head for ten years.

In this same town a very poor Christian woman was forced to
become a beneficiary of the church, because relatives who owed
her a year’s wages would not pay. When she passed away, however,
they paid their long-standing debt in a coffin and funeral
accessories ungrudgingly.

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DEAD, THE, LIVE BEYOND

He is not dead, but only lieth sleeping
In the sweet refuge of his Master’s breast,
And far away from sorrow, toil, and weeping
He is not dead, but only taking rest.

What tho the highest hopes he dearly cherished
All faded gently as the setting sun;
What tho our own fond expectations perished
Ere yet life’s noblest labors seemed begun.

What tho he standeth at no earthly altar,
Yet in white raiment, on the golden floor,
Where love is perfect, and no step can falter,
He serveth as a priest for evermore!

O glorious end of life’s short day of sadness,
O blessed course so well and nobly run!
O home of true and everlasting gladness,
O crown unfading! and so early won!

Tho tears will fall we bless thee, O our Father,
For the dear one forever with the blest,
And wait the Easter dawn when thou shalt gather
Thine own, long parted, to their endless rest. (Text.)

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DEAD THO ALIVE

There are many “dead” men walking about who do not know they are dead.

An illustration of the logic of Judge O’Connor is best shown
in the case of a man who had looked long and lovingly on the
flowing bowl. He fell into a deep pit dug by workmen while
fixing the bridge over the Mohawk River. Several policemen with
ropes got the man out and he was arrested. Drunk and disorderly
was the charge against him when he stood before Judge O’Connor
somewhat sobered and chastened. “You were drunk last night,”
said the court. “No, sir, your honor, I wasn’t drunk.” “Why, you
must have been drunk,” said the court. “If you had not been, you
would have been killed by that fall.” “Shure, I wazzent drunk,”
persisted the culprit. “Then you are a dead man, so what are you
doing here,” declared the judge; and the man, taking the hint,
walked out somewhat amazed.

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* * * * *

A marvelous thing for these times is reported from
Weathersfield, Conn. A convict who has served a sentence of
fifty years in the State prison receives his liberty at this
Christmas season (1909). In 1859, when he was twenty-one, he
murdered his wife, who was only a young girl of eighteen. He is
seventy-one now. Every one of the great occurrences in American
life which make our modern civilization what it is belongs to
that half-century for which this man has been behind prison
bars. Into what a changed world he will come. What can he do?
His friends are dead. His generation has passed. His own State
does not know him. One would suppose he would almost want to
commit some crime that would take him back to his home of fifty
years. What can he do? Society punished him, now what will
society do for him? There is no asylum for him. He knows nothing
of the business methods of the day. He is a living dead man.
Would it not have been more merciful for society by capital
punishment to have made him a dead man fifty years ago?

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* * * * *

There is a very real “death” other than the merely natural, as the following paragraph from the _Scrap Book_ will show:

Emperor Francis Joseph’s only surviving brother, Archduke Louis
Victor, was confined a lunatic, in a mountain castle hidden
away in one of the remotest corners of the Austrian Tyrol. He
himself, to all intents, is dead as far as the imperial family
and the great world at Vienna are concerned. (Text.)

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=Dead Valued More than Living=--See ANCESTOR WORSHIP.

=Deafness=--See ARTICULATION.

DEATH

We are too stupid about death. We will not learn
How it is wages paid to those who earn,
How it is the gift for which on earth we yearn,
To be set free from the bondage to the flesh;
How it is turning seed-corn into grain,
How it is winning heaven’s eternal gain,
How it means freedom evermore from pain,
How it untangles every mortal mesh.

We are so selfish about death. We count our grief
Far more than we consider their relief
Whom the great Reaper gathers in the sheaf,
No more to know the seasons’ constant change;
And we forget that it means only life,
Life with all joy, peace, rest, and glory rife,
The victory won, and ended all the strife,
And heaven no longer far away or strange.

Their Lent is over, and their Easter won,
Waiting till over paradise the sun
Shall rise in majesty, and life begun
Shall grow in glory, as the perfect day
Moves on, to hold its endless, deathless sway.

--WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, _The Outlook_.

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DEATH AS A SHADOW

Did not Jesus show us glimpses of what is behind the shadow into which our friends have gone?

My neighbor’s lamp, across the way,
Throws dancing lights upon my wall;
They come and go in passing play,
And then the sudden shadows fall.

My friend’s white soul through eyes and lips
Shone out on me but yesterday
In radiant warmth; now swift eclipse
Has left those windows cold and gray.

Ah, if I could but look behind
The still, dark barrier of that night,
And there-undimmed, unwavering-find
That life and love were all alight! (Text.)

--CHARLES BUXTON GOING, _Munsey’s Magazine_.

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DEATH-BED FAITH

John G. Paton tells in his autobiography of the death-bed of Nerwa, the converted chief of Aniwa.

On my last visit to Nerwa his strength had gone very low, but
he drew me near his face and whispered, “Missi, my Missi, I am
glad to see you. You see that group of young men? They came to
sympathize with me, but they never once have spoken the name of
Jesus, tho they have spoken about everything else. They could
not have weakened me so if they had spoken about Jesus! Read me
the story of Jesus. Pray for me to Jesus. No, stop, let us call
them and let me speak with them before I go!” I called them all
around him and he said, “After I am gone let there be no bad
talk, no heathen ways. Sing Jehovah’s songs and pray to Jesus,
and bury me as a Christian. Take good care of my Missi, and help
him all you can. I am dying happy and going to be with Jesus,
and it was Missi that showed me this way. And who among you will
take my place in the village school and in the church? Who among
you will stand up for Jesus?” Many were shedding tears, but
there was no reply, after which the dying chief proceeded, “Now
let my last work on earth be this: We will read a chapter of the
Book, verse about, and then I will pray for you all, and the
Missi will pray for me, and God will let me go while the song is
still sounding in my heart.”

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DEATH, CHEERFULNESS BEFORE

The following is a glimpse of Maximilian on the day of his execution:

Miramon slept three hours; he then arose, drank a cup of
chocolate, and drest himself with care; at six o’clock he was
ready to start, accompanied by a priest, M. Ladron de Guevara.
In the corridor he found Maximilian bidding his lawyer, Eulalio
Ortega, farewell. The sun was already high in the heavens, and
his warm beams shot down brilliantly on the Quaretaro Valley;
flashes of sunlight penetrated into the narrow courtyard of the
convent. “What a splendid day, Don Eulalio!” said Maximilian;
“it is on such a day as this I should have chosen to die.” A
few bugle-notes were heard, and Maximilian, not knowing how to
interpret them, questioned Miramon: “Miguel, will that be for
the execution?” “I have not the slightest idea, sire; it will be
the first time I shall ever have been shot.” This reply brought
a smile to the Emperor’s lips.--Paris _Figaro_.

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* * * * *

The officer in command of the file of execution approached
Maximilian and asked his pardon for having to fulfil his duty.
The Emperor distributed several pieces of gold bearing his
effigy to the soldiers, recommending them not to aim at his
face. He then embraced the Generals Mejia and Miramon, and,
as the latter had placed himself on his right, he said to him
aloud: “Brave men should be respected by their sovereigns to
the brink of the grave. General, pass to the place of honor.”
Miramon stept to the center. Then, with a firm voice, the
Emperor addrest the crowd: “Mexicans! Men of my race and origin
are born either to make a people’s happiness or to be martyrs.
God grant that my blood may be the last shed for the redemption
of this unhappy country. Long live Mexico!” Immediately General
Miramon, at the top of his voice, as when he commanded his
troops on the battle-field, cried: “Mexicans! Before the
court-martial my defenders only sought to save my life. At the
moment I am about to appear before my God I protest against the
name of traitor, which they have thrown in my face to justify
my condemnation. Let this spot of infamy be removed from my
children’s name, and God grant that my country may be happy.
Long live Mexico!” General Mejia raised his eyes toward the
heavens: “Very Holy Mother, I beseech thy Son to pardon me, as I
pardon those who are about to sacrifice me.” A volley rung out
from the file of soldiers, and amidst the cloud of smoke, which
slowly drifted away, Maximilian appeared writhing convulsively
in a pool of blood, and groaning, “Hay Hombre!”--Paris
_Figaro_.

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DEATH, CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE TOWARD

Prof. G. Currie Martin points out the difference between the Christian and the unchristian views of death.

In the old days, when the plague swept over Italy, the ladies
and gentlemen of fashion used sometimes to withdraw into some
beautiful country residence, with its surrounding park, and
behind its high walls shut themselves off from all thought
of the misery and sorrow that surrounded them. Death, they
imagined, could no longer reach them, until suddenly the
spectral figure stalked into their midst, no one knew whence,
and the false safety was shattered at a blow. The power of
Christianity is found in the fact that it can say such brave and
hopeful words about life, while all the time it is perfectly
conscious of death. (Text.)

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DEATH, CHRISTIAN VIEW OF