Chapter D: W. Whittle tells of a soldier who was posted in a forest to (6)

On our last trip a boy fell overboard from the deck. I didn’t
know who he was, and the crew hastened out to save him. They
brought him on board the ship, took off his outer garments,
turned him over a few times, and worked his hands and his feet.
When they had done all they knew how to do, I came up to be of
assistance, and they said he was dead and beyond help. I turned
away as I said to them, “I think you’ve done all you could”; but
just then a sudden impulse told me I ought to go over and see
what I could do. I went over and looked down into the boy’s face
and discovered that it was my own boy. Well, you may believe I
didn’t think the last thing had been done. I pulled off my coat
and bent over that boy; I blew in his nostrils and breathed into
his mouth; I turned him over and over, and simply begged God to
bring him back to life, and for four long hours I worked, until
just at sunset I began to see the least flutter of breath that
told me he lived. Oh, I will never see another boy drown without
taking off my coat in the first instance and going to him and
trying to save him as if I knew he were my own boy.

(1071)

* * * * *

There was once a Quaker, John Hartman, whose son enlisted in the
army. Not long after he had marched away as a soldier, a battle
was fought. In the list of the missing appeared the Quaker’s
son’s name. The father went to the field of carnage, and scanned
the many upturned faces. He listened to the faintest cry of the
wounded to discover if it were the voice of his son. More than
one lying in the agony of death thought, “I wish that were my
father.”

After the darkness of night fell he lighted his lantern and
continued his search. Then the wind began to blow and his
light went out. A new thought came to him. Forming a trumpet
of his hands he called, “John Hartman, thy father calleth for
thee.” There was no answer. Going on farther he called again,
“John Hartman, thy father calleth for thee.” There was a faint
moan and a “Here I am father.” How gladly that father hastened
forward and brought his son home!

Many are being beaten down in the fierce battle of sin and evil.
They have fallen in the darkness and are perishing. The loving
heavenly Father is calling to them. If they make the faintest
cry of response, “Lord, here I am,” how gladly will He hasten to
their relief. (Text.)

(1072)

See CONFIDENCE.

FATHERHOOD THE KEY

The other day I had a cipher telegram. Glancing it over, I could
read every separate word. But once I rearranged the words with
the key, a hidden meaning and beauty flamed forth. Moses, Job,
Isaiah, Plato, Confucius, astronomers, poets, philosophers, all
read the separate words, but when Christ came the key-word, “Our
Heavenly Father,” is given, and the whole heavens flamed with
the love of God.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1073)

=Father-love=--See LOST, FINDING THE; LOVE’S COMPLETENESS.

FATHER, OUR

Miss Lilly Ryder Gracey, in _The Missionary Review of the World_, in a sketch of the life and work of the Rev. Egerton R. Young, in the land of the Cree and Salteaus Indians, of Canada, gives this incident:

“Missionary,” said a savage, stalwart-looking Indian to him,
“gray hairs here, and grandchildren in the wigwam, tell me that
I am getting to be an old man; and yet I never before heard such
things as you have told us to-day. I am so glad I did not die
before I heard this wonderful story. Yet I am getting old. Gray
hairs here, and grandchildren yonder, tell the story. Stay as
long as you can, missionary; tell us much of these things; and
when you have to go away, come back soon.”

“He turned as tho he would go back to his place and sit down,”
said Dr. Young in narrating the story, “but he only went a step
or two ere he turned round and said:

“‘Missionary, may I say more?’

“‘Talk on,’ I replied; ‘I am here now to listen.’

“‘You said just now, “Notawenan” (Our Father).’

“‘Yes, I did say, “Our Father.”’

“‘That is very new and sweet to us,’ he replied. ‘We never
thought of the Great Spirit as Father. We heard Him in the
thunder, and saw Him in the lightning and tempest and blizzard,
and we were afraid. So, when you tell us of the Great Spirit as
Father--that is very beautiful to us.’

“Hesitating a moment, he stood there, a wild, picturesque
Indian; yet my heart had strangely gone out in loving interest
and sympathy to him. Lifting up his eyes to mine again, he said:

“‘May I say more?’

“‘Yes,’ I answered; ‘say on.’

“‘You say, “Notawenan” (Our Father); He is your Father?’

“‘Yes, He is my Father.’

“Then he said, while his eyes and voice yearned for the answer:

“‘Does it mean He is my Father--poor Indian’s Father?’

“‘Yes, oh yes!’ I exclaimed, ‘He is your Father, too.’

“‘Your Father--missionary’s Father--and Indian’s Father, too?’
he repeated.

“‘Yes, that is true.’

“‘Then we are brothers!’ he almost shouted out.

“‘Yes, we are brothers,’ I replied.

“The excitement in the audience had become something wonderful,
and when the conversation with the old man had reached this
point, and in such an unexpected and yet dramatic manner had so
clearly brought out, not only the fatherhood of God, but the
oneness of the human family, the people could hardly restrain
their expressions of delight.

“The old man, however, had not yet finished, and so, quietly
restraining the most demonstrative ones, he again turned and
said:

“‘May I say more?’

“‘Yes, say on; say all that is in your heart.’

“Then came his last question, which millions of weary souls
dissatisfied with their false régimes are asking:

“‘Missionary, I do not want to be rude, but why has my white
brother been so long time in coming with that great Book and its
wonderful story?’”

(1074)

=Father’s Sake, For=--See LOVE MAKES PATIENT.

FATHER’S VOICE

I was watching the sheep, and two little lambs got lost from
their mother. They were black lambs, and didn’t know they were
lost; but I did, and so did the mother. I stood and watched
while the old mother sheep called and called and called. But the
little black lambs didn’t answer--they didn’t know they were
lost. So I continued to watch, and directly the lambs heard
the mother calling. And there must have been something in the
mother-voice that told the lambs they were lost, for they began
bleating and crying and running about as if mad, so frightened
were they. Finally, the mother and the lambs saw each other, and
truly it was a poem of nature to see the mother leaping toward
the lambs and the lambs running toward her! It reminded me of
the meeting of that old father and the prodigal son when the boy
came back home from the far country. And do you know that meadow
scene made me turn my eyes everywhither--earthward, skyward,
spaceward! And I said, “Oh, my soul, if lambs hear and answer
the voice of their mother, wilt not thou hear and answer the
voice of thy Father? Oh, soul, lambs are not afraid when mother
is near. Why shouldst thou be afraid when thy Father is near,
and God is everywhere?” (Text.)--F. F. SHANNON.

(1075)

FATIGUE

Dr. Luther H. Gulick describes some effects of fatigue:

Fatigue promptly attacks and destroys our sense of proportion.
I know no better illustration of this than the way we will
leave our professional work. When I am really fatigued it is
very difficult for me to go home when the time comes. It is, of
course, true that there are always little things remaining to
be done; but when I am especially tired I can not distinguish
between those which are important enough to keep me and those
which are not. I only see how many things are still undone; and
I tend to go on and on.

If I see a scrap of paper on the floor, I can not help going
out of my chair and taking time to pick up that wretched thing
and put it in my waste-basket. It assumes, somehow, the same
importance in my mind with that of thinking out my to-morrow’s
schedule. I will stay and putter about little things that do
not need attention. My sense of balance, of proportion, and
perspective is gone. I’ve lost my eye for the cash value of
things.--“Mind and Work.”

(1076)

=Faults Blotted Out=--See EFFACEMENT OF SINS.

=Faults, How to See=--See LOOKING DOWN.

FAULTS OF THE GREAT

When the great Duke of Marlborough died and one began to speak
of his avarice, “He was so great a man,” said Bolingbroke, “I
had forgotten that he had that fault.”

(1077)

=Faults, Unconscious=--See SELF-ESTIMATES.

FAVORITISM

The advantage of position is well illustrated in the following incident:

When Louis XIV was at play with some courtiers, a dispute
arose in regard to one of the turns of the game. The king was
eager, and his opponent seemed resolute to resist; and the rest
of the court stood round maintaining a dignified neutrality,
and none venturing a remark. At that moment Count de Grammont
was seen entering the apartment, whereon the king called out,
“Come hither, Grammont, and decide this dispute between us.”
“Your majesty is in the wrong,” said the count, the moment he
approached. “How can you say I am in the wrong!” cried the king,
“when you have not heard what is the point in dispute?” “Why,
sire,” said Grammont, “if the point had been doubtful, all these
gentlemen who are standing round silent would have decided in
your favor long ago.”--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of
Law and Lawyers.”

(1078)

FEAR

Several thousand mine workers of the anthracite region, chiefly
foreigners, refused to enter the mines to-day because they had
a superstitious fear that the earth would be destroyed when
enveloped in the tail of Halley’s comet to-night, May 18, 1910.

Efforts of the English-speaking miners, [at Wilkesbarre, Penn.]
to get them to go to work were futile, and they said that if the
world came to an end they wanted to be on the surface where they
could see, instead of in the depths of the mines. A number of
them spent most of the day in prayer, and many of them were in a
condition of great fear and nervousness. A number of collieries
were so short handed that they had to shut down for the day.

(1079)

FEAR AS A MOTIVE

The late George T. Angell, in “Our Dumb Animals,” gives this incident, showing that fear of unseen authority, is a forcible motive, even with would-be transgressors:

The incident occurred on the rise of land near Park Street
Church (Boston). A horse, evidently laboring under the
impression that he was overloaded, stopt and refused to go any
farther, and a crowd gathered. Just then one voice called out
from the crowd:

“Why don’t you whip him?”

“Whip him,” said the driver--“whip him! How do I know that there
ain’t an agent of that darned old Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals standin’ right here in this crowd?”

We have never considered it good policy to send out any of our
agents in uniform, and so any respectable citizen who seems
to be interested in the protection of horses is liable to be
suspected of being one of our agents. (Text.)

(1080)

FEAR OF GOD

Of all the memorials found in Westminster Abbey, there is not
one that gives a nobler thought than the life lesson from the
monument to Lord Lawrence. Simply his name and date of his
death, and these words: “He feared man so little because he
feared God so much.” Here is one great secret of victory. The
prayer of the Rugby boy, John Laing Bickersteth, found locked up
in his desk after his death, was: “Oh God, give me courage that
I may fear none but thee.” (Text.)

(1081)

FEAR OF MAN

Ex-President Roosevelt is usually pictured as proof against
fear, but the New York _Times_ tells of an occasion when he
admits that he was badly frightened.

It was on the evening of his first diplomatic reception
as President, and the long and brilliant line headed by
ambassadors, foreign ministers and attaches, and distinguished
army and naval officers in gorgeous uniforms, was passing slowly
before him. In this procession was a lady who knew the President
quite well, and who confidently expected a hearty greeting. To
her surprize, Mr. Roosevelt merely inclined his head over her
hand, and bowed her on with the throng.

An hour later she met the President in the reception-room, and
he spoke to her in the friendliest way.

“Why didn’t you come in time for the reception?” he asked.

“I did,” she replied, “and you did not even recognize me!”

“Impossible!” exclaimed the President, “but,” and he set his
teeth together hard and whispered, “to tell you the truth, Mrs.
----, I was so fearful I wouldn’t do the right thing I could not
think of anybody except myself!”

(1082)

* * * * *

Kindness, justice and a little heavenly wisdom would guard a ruler far more effectually than the precautions mentioned below:

The Sultan is chiefly afraid of the darkness, and it costs him
$900 per night to have his bedroom guarded. This sum is split
up between the eight generals entrusted with the work and their
supernumeraries. Two generals take the long watch every night
outside his door, and receive $200 apiece for it; beneath them
is a colonel who is paid $150 a night, and guards receiving
smaller amounts. All they have to do to earn their princely
salaries is to tramp up and down the corridor with their eyes on
the beautiful satin-wood door inlaid with mother-of-pearl which
took an expert two years to inlay. (Text.)--_Tid-Bits._

(1083)

=Fear, Paralyzing=--See HOPELESS FEAR.

FEAR, RELIGIOUS

The missing qualities in Wesley’s religious state at this time
[at Oxford] are obvious, It utterly lacked the element of joy.
Religion is meant to have for the spiritual landscape the office
of sunshine, but in Wesley’s spiritual sky burned no divine
light, whether of certainty or of hope. He imagined he could
distil the rich wine of spiritual gladness out of mechanical
religious exercises; but he found himself, to his own distress,
and in his own words, “dull, flat, and unaffected in the use of
the most solemn ordinances.” Fear, too, like a shadow, haunted
his mind: fear that he was not accepted before God; fear that he
might lose what grace he had; fear both of life and of death.
He dare not grant himself, he declared, the liberty that others
enjoyed. His brother Samuel, whose letters are always rich in
the salt of common sense, had remonstrated with his younger
brother for the austerities he practised and the rigors of
alarmed self-interrogation under which he lived. John Wesley
defends himself by the plea--in which there is an unconscious
pathos--that he lacks his brother’s strength and dare take no
risks.

“Mirth, I grant,” he says, “is very fit for you. But does it
follow that it is fit for me? If you are to rejoice evermore
because you have put your enemies to flight, am I to do the same
while they continually assault me? You are very glad because
you have passed from death to life. Well! but let him be afraid
who knows not whether he is to live or die. Whether this be my
condition or no, who can tell better than myself?”--W. H.
FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(1084)

=Fearlessness of Death=--See MARTYR SPIRIT.

=Feast of the Soul=--See CHAINS.

=Fecundity=--See DESTRUCTION NECESSARY.

FECUNDITY OF LIFE

An English naturalist has figured out that a single-stem mother
of the common aphids, or “green-fly” of the rose, would give
origin, at its regular rate of multiplication and provided each
individual born lived out its natural life, which is only a few
days at best, to over thirty-three quintrillions of rose aphids
in a single season, equal in weight to more than a billion and
a half of men. Of course such a thing never happens, because
so many of the young aphids get eaten by lady-bird beetles and
flower-fly larvæ and other enemies before they come to be old
enough to produce young.--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect
Stories.”

(1085)

FEEDING TOO MUCH

The apostle James puts the emphasis of religion on doing,
not hearing alone. The one definition of religion we have in
Scripture, and that given by him, is suggestive of the divine
order--the best way to keep oneself unspotted from the world
is to be occupied in ministry to others. A good deacon once
complained to Thomas Dixon that his sermons placed too much
emphasis on doing and reminded him of Jesus’ command to Peter,
“Feed my sheep.” Mr. Dixon replied: “That is what is the
matter with you; I have fed you until you are so fat you can
not walk.”--CHARLES LUTHER KLOSS, “Proceedings of The
Religious Education Association,” 1904.

(1086)

FEELING A FOUNTAIN

Feeling is a fountain that gushes life. Emotions in the soul are
like songs, pouring forth from the birds in the thicket. Orange
groves and peach orchards exhale perfume, and feeling is the
soul’s fragrance, rising toward God and its fellows. The seas
send up their whitest mists, and the soul ought to send up its
emotions in whitest clouds of incense toward the throne of God
and toward man’s soul.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1087)

FEELING AND PRINCIPLE

You know the difference between feeling and principle. Yonder
is an old sailboat out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and
when the wind blows, she travels ten miles an hour, but let the
wind lull, and she will lie there two weeks, within a hundred
yards of where the wind left her. She doesn’t go anywhere. That
is feeling. When the wind blows, off she goes.

What is principle? Yonder is a grand old ocean steamer, and
when the wind blows she spreads her sails and works her steam,
and on she goes; and when the wind lulls, the engineer pulls
his throttle wider open, and she goes at the rate of fifteen
miles an hour, whether the wind blows or not. And that is the
difference between principle and feeling.--“Famous Stories of
Sam P. Jones.”

(1088)

=Feeling the Christian Spirit=--See CONSISTENCY.

FEELINGS RESERVED

Among Scotch qualities, the deepest rooted, apart from the fear
of God, is sentiment. And yet we do not receive credit for it
because we have not sentimentalism, which is the caricature and
ghost of sentiment. The sentiment of the Scotch is of the heart
and not of the lips. If I saw a couple of Scotchmen kissing
each other good-by, I wouldn’t lend five shillings to either
of them. It is not an uncommon thing to see such an exhibition
among Italians. I do not blame them. They are as God made them
and so they must be. People doubt whether we have any sentiment
at all. Some think we are hard-hearted and cold-blooded. Our
manner is less than genial and not effusive. Our misfortune is
not to be able to express our feelings. This inability is allied
to our strength; strong people conceal their feelings.--JOHN
WATSON.

(1089)

=Fees=--See RIDICULE, APT.

=Feet Showing Character=--See CHARACTER SHOWN IN THE FEET.

=Female Animals Unprotected=--See FATHER ANIMALS UNPARENTAL.

FENCING OUT ENEMIES

Moral evils are kept out not by a thorn fence, but by holy ideals and loving activities. These are quite as effective for character as this Arizona device for excluding rattlesnakes:

Did you ever hear of a rattlesnake fence--not one made of
rattlesnakes, of course not, but one made of prickly thorns to
protect one from the rattlers and keep them away? That is what
the Arizona campers build, and the only way to keep these deadly
poisoners away is by building one of these fences of oktea, a
shrub covered with thorns which grows on the desert.

As the tents have no doors and are not set much above the
ground, it would appear easy for Mr. Rattler to effect an
entrance. Imagine the sensation of crawling into bed some cold
night to strike against the clammy skin of a snake, and this
is just where Mr. Snake likes to snuggle, in among the warm
blankets.

To avoid this men who work in the mines have found that a snake
will not go near this oktea, and they have built closely knit
fences around their tents, with little gates to go in and out,
and beyond this the rattler will not penetrate. It was first the
Indians of the desert who discovered this deadly shrub, and they
got the secret from birds and animals, which, to protect their
young, travel sometimes many miles back and forth, bringing
the thorns with which to cover their little nests. Gophers and
other small animals there cover their nests in this manner.--Los
Angeles _Times_.

(1090)

FERTILITY

These lines are by Edward Rowland Sill:

Clear water on smooth rock
Could give no foothold for a single flower,
Or slenderest shaft of grain:
The stone must crumble under storm and rain,
The forests crash beneath the whirlwind’s power,
And broken boughs from any a tempest-shock,
And fallen leaves from many a wintry hour,
Must mingle in the mold,
Before the harvest whitens on the plain,
Bearing a hundredfold.
Patience, O weary heart!
Let all thy sparkling hours depart,
And all thy hopes be withered with the frost,
And every effort tempest-tossed--
So when all life’s green leaves
Are fallen, and moldered underneath the sod,
Thou shalt not go too lightly to thy God,
But heavy with full sheaves. (Text.)

(1091)

FETISHISM

Miss F. M. Dennis writes from Ebu Owerri, a place about seventy miles southeast of Onitsha, North Africa:

It is a custom in this Ibo country when a child is born for the
parents to go into the bush, cut a stick from a tree and plant
it. When the child is old enough to walk and know anything it
worships this young tree. All the Ibo people have them. But
until the child comes to man’s estate and has a household, this
is the only idol he has.

(1092)

The negroes of the Gold and Slave Coasts, like every other
people low in the stage of civilization, believe that inanimate,
as well as animate, objects have souls or ghosts, a belief which
is proved by the practise of burying arms, implements, utensils,
etc., for the use of the dead in Dead-land, and there continues
the former pursuit of the man, using the souls or ghosts of
the weapons buried with him; but the negroes have gone beyond
this, and just as they believe man to possess a third element,
or indwelling spirit, so do they believe that every natural
object, everything not made by human hands, has, in addition to
its soul or ghost, a third element of spiritual individuality.
They hold that just as, when the man dies, the kra of the man
enters a new-born child, and the soul, or ghost-man, goes to
Dead-land; so, when the tree dies, the kra, so to speak, of
the tree enters a seedling, and the ghost-tree goes to join
the ranks of the shadowy forest in Dead-land. And it is these
animating or spiritual tenants of natural objects and natural
features that the negro fears and consequently worships.--A.
B. ELLIS, _The Popular Science Monthly_.

(1093)

=Fetters Worn for Others=--See HARDSHIP VICARIOUSLY BORNE.

=Fickleness in Work=--See ATTAINMENT SUPERFICIAL.

FIDELITY AMONG ANIMALS

Instances of almost human fidelity are common among deer. We
have several times been witness of them. On one occasion we had
wounded a good stag late in the evening; the herd broke away,
leaving him alone. In a few minutes another fine stag, evidently
his friend, detached himself from the herd and galloped back to
where the first lay wounded in a burn (brook). It got so dark
that we could only tell the whereabouts of the wounded beast
by seeing the other standing by his side. We crawled up to
about a hundred yards of him, but still could not see the one
we had shot. We stood up, expecting he would jump up and make
a run for it, but he was too badly hit. Walking on, we at last
saw his gray head in the heather, and a bullet finished him.
Still the devoted friend kept close by and would not leave the
spot. We had not the heart to shoot the poor beast after he
had given proof of such wonderful fidelity, and at last had
almost to drive him away.--Lord Walsingham and Sir RALPH
PAYNE-GALLWEY, “Shooting.”

(1094)

FIDELITY, CHRISTIAN

A little Korean boy named Twee-Sungie was brought by his
Christian mother to church Sunday by Sunday and learned about
Christ and accepted Him as his Savior. His father was a heathen
and worked seven days a week, and forced little Twee-Sungie to
do the same. The boy was broken-hearted at being deprived of
attending the church services, but he also felt that he was
sinning deeply in desecrating God’s day. Calamities came upon
the family. A younger brother died, another, Twee-Sungie, was
taken ill. As his strength failed he seemed to lose all desire
to live. “If I live on in this world, father makes me break
God’s commandments, and I will only add sin to sin, so it is
better for me to die and go to Jesus.” He tried to turn his
father’s thoughts Godward, but the man’s heart was full of evil
and bitterness. When the boy died, the relatives proposed that
they bury with him the Testament and hymn-book which he loved,
for, said they, these books were the cause of his change, and
if they are put away, his mother will return to the worship of
spirits. So there lies in the grave of the little boy believer,
outside the walls of Seoul, the printed page whose message the
little lad wished so much to obey.

(1095)

FIDELITY, MISTAKEN

A pathetic story is told by the Savannah _News_ of a tragedy caused by the terrible storm which swept the Southern coast. Captain Matheson, of the schooner _Nellie Floyd_, is the hero. The story runs thus:

When the _Floyd_ foundered and it was certain that she must
leave her bones in that marine graveyard off the North Carolina
coast, a life-raft of hatches was constructed, and the crew,
including the captain, piled on it. As they were about to push
off, trusting to fortune to be picked up by a passing ship,
Captain Matheson looked back upon his beloved schooner, then in
its death-throes. His heart smote him. He felt like a deserter.
The suffering but inanimate bulk called to him, and he could not
resist the call. “I am going back, boys,” he said; “good-by, and
good luck to you.” Then he scrambled back to the decks, by that
time awash and fast settling. And in sight of the crew the ship
and her captain went down to their fate.

(1096)

FIDELITY REWARDED

An English farmer sent his hired boy to prevent a party of
gentlemen from riding over his fields. The leader of the
huntsmen peremptorily ordered him to open the gate. Upon his
refusal, he said shortly, “Boy, do you know who I am? I am the
Duke of Wellington, and I am not accustomed to disobedience. I
command you to open this gate.” The boy lifted his cap and stood
unawed before the “man of iron will,” and said in a firm voice,
“I am sure the Duke of Wellington would not wish me to disobey
the orders of my employer, who tells me not to suffer any one
to pass.” The Duke sat his horse for a moment, and then looking
stedfastly at the boy, lifted his own hat and replied, “I honor
the man or boy who is faithful to his duty, and who can neither
be bribed or frightened into doing wrong.” He handed a bright
new sovereign to the boy, who had done what Napoleon could not
do; he had kept back the Duke of Wellington.--JAMES T.
WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1097)

FIDELITY TO COUNTRY

In the fight of Trautenau (Austro-Prussian War, 1866), a young
officer, hard hit, was lying on his back in a ditch, where he
begged his foes to let him remain. Shortly after, he died. Then
it was found that, even with his life ebbing fast, his body had
served to protect the “bit of rag” which on the morning of that
day had been the standard of the regiment. He had carefully
folded it up, and laid down upon it to die. “One thing” was in
that soldier’s heart--to save his country’s colors from capture
and disgrace.

(1098)

FIDELITY TO DUTY

The wrecking of the _Maine_, happening at night, was so
sudden and the convulsion was over in so brief a time, that
a chance for a display of heroism seemed next to impossible;
and yet, in the terror of that awful scene, every surviving
man immediately recovered himself and stood to his discipline.
Not one comrade was forsaken by another. The last seen of the
lost lieutenant was at the turret under his charge, weak and
staggering with his wounds. The marine on duty, true to his
habit of service, rushed through a dark passage flooded with
water, and reported that the ship had been blown up and was
sinking. It did not occur to him to save himself until his duty
was done. Officers and men, in danger of being swamped by the
death struggle of the ship, rowed around her, trying to save
life, and careless of their own. The captain was the last to
leave the ship. No man sought his own safety at the sacrifice of
another, nor sought it first.--_Youth’s Companion._

(1099)

FIDELITY TO THE RIGHT

Lydia M. Child said she would never work on a winning side.
Lydia Maria Child was a writer in the full tide of popularity
when she devoted herself to the anti-slavery cause. She was
subjected to social and literary ostracism. Her books were
returned, her friends forsook her, and Church and press
denounced her. But this did not daunt her spirit nor swerve
her for one instant from the cause she felt was right, and
she consecrated the rest of her life to its support. Words
can not describe the deprivation to which she was subjected,
but she felt no loss. As the inspiration spread, mothers sent
their children from house to house with her “appeal,” and
vitally assisted the great movement.--JAMES T. WHITE,
“Character Lessons.”

(1100)

=Fidelity to the Thing Undertaken=--See THOROUGHNESS.

=Fighting=--See BOYS’ ADJUSTING THEIR TROUBLES; STRATEGY.

=Fighting, Causes for=--See PEACEMAKER, THE.

=Fighting Qualities Admired=--See ACCOMPLISHMENT.

FIGUREHEADS

The time is ripe for abolishing figureheads in the moral, ecclesiastical and social world, as well as in the navy.

Secretary Meyer has approved an order originating in the United
States Bureau of Construction for the removal from all the
vessels of the Atlantic fleet of their figureheads. This action
is based purely on war-service reasons. It is urged that in
time of peace for maneuver purposes the figureheads, if gilded,
afford a shining mark to reveal to the constructive enemy the
whereabouts of the ship and in time of war, if painted with the
protective war color, the artistic value of the figurehead is
wholly lost. Furthermore, figureheads cost a good deal of money
and have a good deal of weight, and serve no practical value
whatever in warfare.

Even as far back as the times of the Greeks and Romans, and the
Phœnicians and Egyptians, figureheads, made often in the image
of the gods of war, were regarded as important to their triremes
as oars or rudders. Great Britain has at her navy-yards at
Southampton, Portsmouth and other points arranged figureheads
from the old wooden ships of her navies as a feature of naval
museums. Of course, the figureheads from American battleships
would be a different thing. Most of them are made of brass, and
are in some cases fine works of art.

The figurehead on the _Olympia_, which was designed by St.
Gaudens, cost $12,000; that on the _Cincinnati_, which
embodied the design of the _Olympia’s_ figurehead, cost
$5,700. The figurehead on the cruiser _New York_ is a very
fine model of the coat-of-arms of the State. Some of the largest
of the figureheads weigh several tons, and in that respect are
objectionable.

(1101)

=Financially Strong, Morally Weak=--See DRINK, PERIL OF.

FINITENESS

The tiny dew-drops as they rest
At morning on the flow’ret’s breast
Are children of the mighty sea,
Small gleams of its immensity.

The candle shining in the night
From the great sun derives its light;
Its little beams are truly fire,
And upward to their source aspire.

No less the humblest son of earth
May lay a claim to heavenly birth;
We are not born of senseless clod,
But children of the living God.

But after all is said and done,
The spark of fire is not the sun,
The drop of dew is not the sea,
Nor is the best man deity.

--CHARLES WILLIAM PEARSON, “A Threefold Cord.”

(1102)

FIRE, COST OF

Fire levies upon Americans each year an enormous tax, calculated
by government officials at almost a million and a half dollars a
day and 1,499 lives a year.

As a result of an investigation by officials of the geological
survey, it has been ascertained that cheaper fireproof materials
can be used to advantage in construction, that three to six
times the necessary amount of material is habitually used in
structural work, that the building codes are laxly enforced,
that the fire loss in the United States is eight times as much
per capita as in any country in Europe, and that the great
fire waste in the United States is due, principally, to the
predominance of frame buildings and to defective construction
and equipment.

Contrast between the small losses by fire to government
buildings and the immense losses reported from the country as a
whole, led the geological survey to make an inquiry.

Not one person in a thousand knows that the United States
Government owns buildings that cost more than $300,000,000,
and is spending $20,000,000 a year for new buildings. It will
be a surprize to every one, too, to learn that not one cent of
insurance against loss by fire is carried on these valuable
buildings. Insurance at the ordinary rate would cost more than
half a million dollars a year, and the government avoids this
great tax by constructing buildings that are securely fireproof.

After a careful investigation, it has been determined that the
total cost of fires in the United States in 1907, excluding that
of forest fires and the marine losses (in themselves extensive),
but including excess cost of fire protection due to bad
construction and excess premiums over insurance paid, amounted
to the enormous sum of $456,485,000, a tax on the American
people exceeding the total value of all the gold, silver, copper
and petroleum produced in the United States in that year.

The cost of building construction in 1907 in forty-nine leading
cities of the United States, reporting a total population of
less than 18,000,000, amounted to $661,076,286, and the cost of
building construction for the entire country is conservatively
estimated at $1,000,000,000. Thus it will be seen that nearly
one-half of the value of all the new buildings constructed
within one year is destroyed by fire. The annual fire cost is
greater than the value of the real property and improvements in
either Maine, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Alabama, Louisiana or Montana. In addition to this waste
of wealth and natural resources, 1,499 persons were killed and
many thousands were injured in fires in the United States in
1907.

The actual fire loss in the United States due to destruction
of buildings and their contents amounted to $215,084,709 in
1907. This was $2.51 loss per capita. The per capita loss in
the cities of the six leading European countries amounted to
but 33 cents. Comparisons of the total cost of fires, which
includes the items already stated, show that if buildings in the
United States were as nearly fireproof as those in Europe, the
annual fire cost would be $90,000,000 instead of $456,000,000.
(Text.)--Pittsburg _Leader_.

(1103)

FIRE, HEAVENLY

It was the first engine on the new railroad running through the
wilderness. At night, the puffing, snorting monster, belching
forth fire and smoke, came dashing out of a dark forest with its
one shining eye in front. As it fairly leapt along the track
like a thing of life, green reptiles wriggled out of sight,
vultures fled to the tree-tops, and wild beasts ran snarling
into the jungle. The fire inside of the engine was what did it.

When the fire of inspiration gets inside of a man, how much he
is like a steam-engine. He moves straight ahead, keeps on the
right track, has his eye single to the forward line and his
whole soul is full of light and heat. The creatures of darkness
flee before him as he emerges into the light that shall never
fade. (Text.)

(1104)

=Fire Peril=--See SELF-RESTRAINT.

=First Aid=--See KNOWLEDGE APPLIED.

FIRST FRUITS

Have you been watching the buds open their eyes these spring
days? They seem to have come out just to see what is going on
in this wonderful world. Their number is increasing daily, but
if you had put your ear close to the first and tiniest bud
of spring, it would have whispered: “I am a hint of what all
buds will be when waked out of their wintry sleep.” Will not
the children sing for joy when the daisies come? Well, if you
could somehow find the first daisy that peeps through the sod,
it would say: “I am a sample of what the daisy harvest will be
when Mother Summer has drest us all up in robes of gold.” On
the brow of a certain hill, I once enjoyed more than a passing
acquaintance with a June apple-tree. I used to watch for the
coming of its fruit as they that watch for the morning. Now,
there was a tradition that June apples were not good until they
fell of their own accord. Sometimes, in spying out the land, I
would find only one apple upon the ground. Of course, one apple
to a growing boy is little more than a delusion and a snare,
and it required more than Eve-like fortitude not to shake the
tree. But after these many years, what I remember most of all
is the taste of that one first apple. Precious in itself and
very scarce, so it seemed to me, still it told of the good times
coming when its luscious, juicy brothers would yield up their
secrets, too.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1105)

=Fishermen Superstitious=--See SUPERSTITIOUS.

FISHERS OF MEN

In the Crystal Palace at Munich there is a little picture called
“The Red Fisherman.” Satan is elegantly accoutered in red
costumes, and he is fishing in a pond for men. For his hook he
has a great variety of bait--gold, money, pearls, crowns, swords
and wines. Apparently he has been fishing with some success, for
the bait is much after the sort that men are wont to follow.
To compete with the prince of evil, Christians who would be
successful “fishers of men” must use bait that will really
allure them. (Text.)

(1106)

* * * * *

In her “Fishin’ Jimmy,” Mrs. Slosson tells of a little
French-Canadian girl. Her mother was a tramp, and the girl had
developed into a wild little heathen. The mother fell suddenly
dead near the village one day, and the child was found clinging
to her mother’s body. The girl’s soul was shaken by bitter sobs,
and when they tried to take her away she fought like a young
tigress. There was in the crowd a small boy who knew “Fishin’
Jimmy.” With a child’s faith in his big friend, he hurried away
and brought “Fishin’ Jimmy” to the spot. Very tenderly he lifted
the child in his arms and took her away. Nobody seems to have
known anything about the taming of the little savage, but a
short time afterward she and “Fishin’ Jimmy” were seen on the
margin of Black Brook, each with a fish-pole. He kept the child
for weeks, and when she went at last to a good home, she had
exchanged her wildness for a tender, affectionate nature. Then
people wondered how the change was wrought. They asked Jimmy,
but his explanation seemed to breathe an air of mystery. “’Twas
fishin’ done it,” he said, “on’y fishin’; it allers works. The
Christian r’liging itself had to begin with fishin’, ye know.”
Yes, the religion of our Master had to begin with fishing;
it will continue with fishing, and it will end with fishing,
for this is indeed life’s divinest task. (Text.)--F. F.
SHANNON.

(1107)

FITNESS

One of John Wesley’s friends was terribly shocked to hear
him preach to a well-groomed congregation a merciless sermon
from the text, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how
can ye escape the damnation of hell?” “Sir,” said Wesley’s
friend angrily, “such a sermon would have been suitable in
Billingsgate; but it is highly improper here.” Wesley replied,
“If I had been in Billingsgate, my text should have been,
‘Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the
world.’”

(1108)

See UNFITNESS.

=Fitness, Lack of=--See ACCOMMODATION.

=Flag, Dishonoring the=--See PATRIOTISM, LACK OF.

=Flag, Rescuing the=--See SYMBOLS, THE VALUE OF.

=Flaws=--See CHARITY.

=Flight and Vision=--See ELEVATION AND VISION.

=Flight of the Soul=--See SOUL FLIGHT.

FLOOD-TIDE, SPIRITUAL

I stood on the coast of England, and looked out over a stretch
of oozy slime and ill-smelling mud. There were the barges high
and dry, lying on their sides--no matter what cargo they carried
or how skilful the captain, they were on the mud. It would have
availed them nothing to heave the anchor or hoist the sail.
And I thought, What is the remedy? Were it any use for the
corporation to pass a by-law that every citizen should bring
kettles filled with water, and pour it out upon the stretch of
mud?

But as I watched I saw the remedy. God turned the tide. In swept
the waters of the sea, and buried the mud, and then came the
breath of sweetness and life. And it flowed in about the barges,
and instantly all was activity. Then heave-ho with the anchor,
then hoist the sails, then forth upon some errand of good. So
it is that we stand looking out upon many a dreadful evil which
fills us with dismay--drunkenness, gambling, impurity. Is there
any remedy? And the churches, so very respectable, but, alas,
high and dry on the muddy beach--for these, too, what is the
remedy? We want the flood-tide--the gracious outpouring of the
Spirit; then must come the roused and quickened churches, the
Christians transformed into Christ-like men and women who shall
demand righteousness.--MARK GUY PEARCE.

(1109)

=Flowers=--See SERVICE.

=Flowers, Fond of=--See GENEROSITY.

FLOWERS, MEANINGS OF

The most remarkable of the floral emblems is the
passion-flower--the common blue one. Its leaves are thought
to represent the head of the spear by which Christ’s side was
pierced; the five points, the five sacred wounds; the tendrils,
the cords which bound Him; the ten petals, the ten faithful
apostles, omitting the one who denied Him (Peter); the pillar in
the center is the cross, the stamens, the hammers; the styles,
the nails; the circle around the pillar, the crown of thorns;
the radiance, the glory. It is used on Holy Thursday. The
fleur-de-lis, or conventional form of the lily, is the symbol
of the Virgin Mary, adopted in the Middle Ages. It is also an
emblem of purity. It is always placed by the medieval painters
in the hand of the Angel Gabriel, and sometimes in the hand
of the Infant Savior, and of St. Joseph. Lilies-of-the-valley
are the floral emblem of Christ. “The Rose of Sharon” and the
“Lily-of-the-valley” are emblems of humility. The rose is also
an emblem of Christ. The laurel is an emblem of victory and
glory, also of constancy, as the leaf changes only in death.
Ivy denotes immortality. The laurestinus has the same meaning.
(Text.)--_The Decorator and Furnisher._

(1110)

FLUENCY, THE PERIL OF

The fluent speaker is sometimes reminded that his gifts are
fatal; and here is a bright tip from the _Atlantic_ to the
fluent writer: “The writer who is unusually fluent should take
warning from the instruction which accompanies his fountain pen:
‘When this pen flows too freely, it is a sign that it is nearly
empty and should be filled.’”

(1111)

FLY, THE COMMON HOUSE.

The house-fly has developed along with the human dwelling.
If we had no closed-in dwelling places, it is doubtful if
the house-fly, as at present constituted, could continue to
exist. It thrives simply because we afford it food, and a
breeding-place.

At first he is only a little worm, wriggling his tiny grub-like
form in some incubating pile of filth, usually the manure pile,
the outhouse, or the mound of rubbish or garbage in the back
yard. In this condition he is easily killed, and it should be
the duty of every person to kill him then. The house-fly could
not exist if everything were kept perfectly clean and sanitary.
Exterminate the fly-worms, do away with their breeding places,
and there will be no flies.

The common house-fly is coming to be known as the “typhoid
fly,” and when the term becomes universal, greater care will
be exercised in protecting the house from his presence. Flies
swallow the germs of typhoid in countless millions while feeding
on excreta. They spread a thousand times more typhoid germs in
their excreta than on their feet.

As soon as the fly comes out of his shell he is full grown and
starts out in the world to make a living, and if your home is
not clean, he knows it; for the fly can discern an unclean odor
for miles. A pleasant-smelling substance--the fragrance of
flowers, geraniums, mignonette, lavender, or any perfumery--will
drive them away.

Look at the picture of the fly. The feet, each of them, is
equipped with two claws and two light-colored pads. The fly
clings to rough surfaces by means of the claws and to smooth
surfaces by a combined action of the claws and pads. The fly’s
pads are covered with thousands of minute short hairs sticky
at the end. There is no suction--merely adhesion. All his
grown-up life, the fly has to manage with sticky feet. These are
constantly becoming clogged with adhering substances, and this
contamination the fly must assiduously remove if his feet are
to act properly in supporting him on slippery places. If this
contamination is too sticky to rub off, the fly laps it off, and
it then passes off through the stomach.

The fly lays her eggs in the manure-pile or some other filthy
place. All the germs--all the microbes--fasten themselves on the
spongy feet. The fly brings them into the house and wipes them
off. The fly that you see walking over your food is covered with
filth and germs.

If there is any dirt in your house, or about your premises, or
those of your neighbors, he has just come from it. Watch him,
as he stands on the sugar, industriously wiping his feet. He is
getting rid of disease germs, rubbing them on the sugar that you
are going to eat, leaving the poison for you to swallow.

This does more to spread typhoid-fever, cholera infantum and
other intestinal diseases than any other cause.

Intestinal diseases are more frequent whenever and wherever
flies are most abundant, and they, and not the summer heat,
are the active agents of the spread of such diseases. There is
special danger when flies drop into such fluid as milk. This
forms an ideal culture material for the bacillus. A few germs
washed from the body of one fly may develop into millions within
a few hours.--B. M. CLINEDINST, _The Christian
Herald_.

(1112)

See PEST, CONTAGIOUS.

=Flying-machine=--See TENDENCIES, INHERITED.

FOCUSING THE EYE

I can look one moment at a book six inches from my sight, at
the next I can with ease look on a tree 200 yards away, and the
next I can raise my eyes and view the sun millions of miles away
in the upper heavens. As easily should Christians, compelled
to look at the things close at hand, lift their thoughts and
prayers to God. But it is hard to refocus the eye of the soul
on the divine and eternal if the affections are too much set on
things on the earth. “Where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.” (Text.)

(1113)

=Foes Fraternize=--See KINDNESS.

FOLD, THE, OF CHRIST

When the Savior proclaimed Himself as the Good Shepherd, He was not only describing His own character in one of its most beautiful aspects, but was by implication suggesting very much more. The fact of a fold implies not only protection and provision, but also restraint, oversight, authority, and order.

A traveler who recently arrived in a remote region of Uganda,
relates how amazed he was to see immense numbers of all sorts
of wild animals, some in great herds, others in smaller groups.
That was not a fold. But if the same traveler had looked across
the great pampas or llanos of South America he would have seen
vast flocks and herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, roaming
and grazing over the immense expanse of prairie. It might seem
to him at first that those thousands of animals were wandering
about at their own will. But the spectator would quickly
discover that they were in reality under close attention on the
part of ranchmen, cowboys, and shepherds. Further, he would find
that the vast pasture-lands were enclosed by wire. So that here
is a fold under shepherds.

(1114)

FOLLOWING CHRIST

A missionary doctor at Shanghai was lying one night in his bed
fast asleep, when he was awakened by a loud knocking at his
front door. Even Chinese grown men are very much afraid of the
dark, so he was very much surprized to see two little lads from
a village five miles distant standing at his door. They said
their school-teacher had been taken ill, and they had come for
some medicine to help him. “Why didn’t some men come on this
errand?” the missionary asked. “Because they were afraid,” said
the boys. “Why were not you afraid?” “We were,” said the boys,
“but we thought it was what Jesus Christ would like us to do, so
we came.” (Text.)

(1115)

FOLLOWING, INEXACT

Two persons were walking together one very dark night, when one
said to the other, who knew the road well, “I shall follow you
so as to be right.” He soon fell into a ditch and blamed the
other for his fall. The other said, “Then you did not follow me
exactly, for I walked safely.” (Text.)

(1116)

FOLLY

Are there not people comparable to those discribed below, who, instead of seeking the substance of religion, are content with the mere breath of theology; and others who, instead of seeing and facing the world’s evils, “take out their eyes” whenever anything disagreeable happens along?

Lucian says the people on the moon lived on frogs that they
cooked over a fire, but that, instead of eating the flesh, they
simply breathed in the smell that came from the cooking; and
that they had a custom of taking their eyes out of their heads
to save them from seeing anything that might displease them.

(1117)

See CARELESSNESS, COST OF; MIRACLES.

FOOD AND CULTURE

A careful study of historical statistics shows the great
influence that food and the laws of menu have exerted on the
world’s progress. Did not an uncooked apple drive the human
race out of Paradise? Did not a mess of pottage differentiate a
nation? Did not a fit of indigestion lose the battle of Leipsic
and check the career which threatened to change the face of
Europe? Did not tea found the American Republic? The history of
the dinner table is the history of civilization. The culture
of any people may be gaged by its cooking and the amount of
sentiment thrown into and around its daily meals.--ETHEL A.
LENNON, _The Epoch_.

(1118)

FOOD AND EXERCISE

The instruction of the pulpit and Sunday-school may well be
likened to the food provided at the family table. It is, very
likely, abundant in quantity, and nutritious in quality, but
food without exercise makes the sickly, dyspeptic child. Food
without exercise in the church is apt to produce no better
results.