Chapter D: W. Whittle tells of a soldier who was posted in a forest to (9)

Mrs. Burnett has written a sweet and powerful story that turns
around an old woman in a London slum. She had not lived a good
life, and, in her wicked old age, lying on a hospital cot, some
visitor had told her the gospel story. She simply believed it;
no more than that. One who saw her afterward, at a time of dire
need, says: “Her poor little misspent life has changed itself
into a shining thing, tho it shines and glows only in this
hideous place. She believes that her Deity is in Apple Blossom
Court--in the dire holes its people live in, on the broken
stairway, in every nook and cranny of it--a great glory we would
not see--only waiting to be called and to answer.” --JAMES
M. STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

(1237)

GOD IN ALL CHANGES

I went back to the little town where I was born. I saw the
friends of my childhood, and later I went out to God’s acre.
There stood the little schoolhouse, and the old academy. The
great oak-trees swayed above the house where I was born. The
little brook still rippled over the stones; once more the
fruit was ripe in the orchard and the nuts brown in the forest
trees; again the shouts of the old companions were heard on the
hillside and the laughter of the skaters filled the air; and yet
all was changed. Gone the old minister, who baptized me! Gone
the old professors and teachers who taught us. In the little
graveyard slept the fathers. The stars shone over the mounds,
the graves were silent, but God was over all. And all is well.
For our times have been in God’s hands.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1238)

=God in Creation=--See CREATION, JOY IN.

GOD INDWELLING

The late Maltbie D. Babcock is the author of these verses:

No distant Lord have I,
Loving afar to be;
Made flesh for me, He can not rest
Until He rests in me.

Brother in joy and pain,
Bone of my bone was He,
Now--intimacy closer still,
He dwells Himself in me.

I need not journey far
This dearest friend to see,
Companionship is always mine,
He makes His home with me.

(1239)

=God in Human Instinct=--See RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION DENIED.

GOD IN INDIAN BELIEF

Of all the different kinds of people among whom I have lived
the Indians of northern California carry the memory of their
dead the longest, and, I had almost written, feel their loss
the most. I have seen old women, bent with age, rocking their
bodies to and fro with grief in some dry, grass-covered ditch,
moaning as if their hearts were breaking, and upon inquiry have
been told that they were mourning for a husband or children dead
perhaps for years. But from amid the moans of Rachel sorrowing
for her dead children the whisper of hope beyond the grave has
always been present. For underneath the driftwood of their dim
traditions and wild fables handed from father to son from time
immemorial, around the camp-fires at night, with addition here,
subtraction there, and darkness all around, I have always found
among all the tribes that grand conception of a divine being
who created all and who in the hereafter will reward the good
and punish the bad. Everywhere my footsteps have wandered--on
the Klamath and on the Trinity, from the Golden Gate to the
Oregon line--I have encountered the Man-maker, who lives among
the stars and loves his red children--A. G. TASSIN,
_Overland_.

(1240)

GOD IN MAN’S WORK

Dr. Henry Van Dyke enforces the lesson that God is in all the common tasks of life, after this fashion:

There was a man who wanted to find Christ, and he imagined he
must leave his work. He was a carpenter, builder, perhaps, or a
stone-mason. He imagined he could only be a Christian by going
to the desert and living a hermit’s life. He never found Christ
there. He then thought he must never go outside the cloisters
of the church, or walls of the temple. He did not find Christ
there. There was something defective about that man’s life. He
was heedless of his children and his fellow men. He was seeking
Christ for himself and not for others. The voice of the Savior
came:

“You did not need to go to the desert to find me; lift the stone
and thou shalt find me. Do your regular work as a stone-mason
and as you do your work you shall find me in your daily labor.
Cleave the wood and there am I. As you lift the timbers, sing
out the song of praise.” Christ is with you in your daily task.

(1241)

GOD IN MISSIONS

The captain of the _Trident_, the ship on which Morrison,
the missionary, sailed, and who knew something of the
impenetrable conservatism of the Chinese, said: “And so, Mr.
Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression
upon the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire?” “No, sir,”
returned Mr. Morrison, severely, “I expect God will.”

(1242)

=God, Instinctive Sense of=--See RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION DENIED.

GOD IN THE CHILD MIND

I have in mind a four-year-old girl, favored in many things, but
especially happy in that she spends her summers on an island
in a beautiful lake, mountain-rimmed. She has always been
privileged to walk with her father and mother in the fields
and woods; to “go a-trudging,” as she called it, has been her
chief delight. “Where did the trees get their red and yellow
leaves?” she asked. “Who made them red and yellow?” Her question
answered, she ran to her mother with her chubby hands filled
with her new treasures, saying, “See, mama! I have brought you
some of God’s beautiful leaves!”

“How came the island here?” she asked. “Who brought the rocks
and the trees?” She was told how the island was lifted into
its place; how the soil was formed, the trees planted, and the
island made ready for the birds, for the trees, for the rabbits,
for the squirrels, and for her--just as her father had built
the house for her, in which she lived. As the time for her
return to her home approached, she sat one evening watching the
sunset and the early evening stars, and said, “Don’t you hope
that God will be at home when we get there, just as He has been
here this summer?” So linked with her love of the beautiful
in the world was her reverent thought of Him who had made it
beautiful--SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD, “Proceedings of the
Religious Education Association,” 1905.

(1243)

GOD IN THE DARKNESS

Robert E. Speer writes the following:

I was awakened the other morning about four o’clock in my room
by a little voice just beside my bed in the dark asking for a
drink. I got the little lad a drink, and he lay quiet for a
moment, and then asked, “Father, may I sing myself asleep?”
And I said, “Yes, dear, go ahead.” But soon he got up so much
enthusiasm that I told him he would better stop, or none of the
rest of us could sleep. Then he was quiet awhile, but soon I
heard his little voice again in the perfect stillness of the
night, “Father, have you got your face turned toward me?” And I
said, “Yes, little boy,” and the darkness was as the light of
day to him.

(1244)

GOD IS LIGHT

As there are no darkened rooms for the child when mother is
near, so there can be no darkened worlds for the spirit as long
as God is in them.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1245)

GOD, LIVING FOR

Among the thirty-two “Sacred Songs” by Thomas Moore is the following exquisite lyric:

Since first Thy word awaked my heart,
Like new life dawning o’er me,
Where’er I turn mine eyes Thou art,
All light and love before me;
Naught else I feel, or hear, or see--
All bonds of earth I sever;
Thee, O God! and only Thee
I live for now and ever.

Like him whose fetters dropt away,
When light shone o’er his prison,
My spirit, touched by Mercy’s ray,
Hath from her chains arisen;
And shall a soul Thou bidd’st be free,
Return to bondage? Never!
Thee, O God! and only Thee
I live for, now and ever. (Text.)

(1246)

=God Maternal=--See MATERNAL, GOD’S LOVE.

GOD, NOT NATURE

A great teacher of England, passing through a hospital, stopt
beside a little wan-faced crippled boy, who was dying. The
handsomest man in England stooped to that little stranger,
saying, “My boy, God loves you.” An hour later, the little
cripple, in a wonder of happiness, called one nurse after
another to his side, exclaiming, “He said, ‘God loves me!’” and
with smiles wreathing his face, the dying boy repeated the magic
word. But to go toward the god of nature is to lie down in a bed
of nettles. Nature exhibits God as a purple earthquake. Going
toward nature is going toward a sheaf of red-hot swords. Man
subdues nature’s fire and wind and water, and makes them serve.
Back of these rude physical forces that are to help man’s body
stands the infinite Father. Man’s body, on a snowy day, needs a
blazing fire on the hearth, and man’s heart needs God’s love,
that redeems, guides, and forever saves.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1247)

=God Our Guide=--See GUIDANCE, GOD’S.

GOD OUR STRENGTH

At one time during the war of the Revolution, Washington sent
Lee and Lafayette to meet the British at Englishtown. After a
brief skirmish, Lee, without any apparent reason, except that it
was for jealousy, ordered a retreat. Soon the American troops
were all in disorder and were fleeing before the oncoming foe.
Everything was in confusion and chaos.

Lafayette saw the condition, but he did not dare disobey. He
hastily sent a message to the commander-in-chief, informing
him of the state of things and beseeching him to come as soon
as possible. In an incredibly short time, Washington appeared
with fresh troops. He met the soldiers retreating. Giving Lee a
cutting rebuke, he began to retrieve the error of the morning.
When the soldiers saw Washington, riding back and forth on his
white horse, almost under the banner of the enemy, they faced
about as they cried, “Long live Washington.” His presence
brought order and determined the victory.

In our moral warfare, when the enemy is pressing toward us,
when the forces of righteousness within and without seem on the
retreat, if we will send a message, lift up a prayer to the
Captain of the Lord’s host, He will answer while we are yet
speaking, and will get the victory with His own right arm, for
He is a God of battles. (Text.)

(1248)

=God Possesses a Body=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

=God, Presence of=--See PRESENCE OF GOD.

=God Proved=--See CORN VERSUS GOLD.

GOD, RECOGNIZING

Dwight L. Moody in his sermons used to tell of a mother who had
an only child that was an idiot. When it was fourteen years
of age a neighbor came in and found the mother weeping in the
bitterness of her soul. Asking what was the matter, the mother
answered: “For fourteen years I have cared for that child day
and night; I have given up society and spent my time with her,
and to-day she does not know me from you. If she would only
recognize me once it would pay me for all I have ever done for
her.”

Mr. Moody would add: “How many are there over whom the Son of God has watched and cared for and blest, and who have never once recognized Him, have never once looked up into His face and said, “Thank you, Lord Jesus.”

(1249)

GOD REVEALED IN NATURE

The mosses on the rock, as well as the trees that bend stately
above them, the birds that fly and sing in heaven, as well as
the clouds that gather and dissolve there, the mimosa that
closes its sensitive petals if a footfall approaches, and the
stars that reign silent on empyreal thrones--each must in turn
give witness to the Most High; till the frame of creation shall
be all eclaircised, not so much a pillar engraven around with
the trophies of omnipotence, as a solid but transparent sphere
of crystal, lighted from within by the calm thought of God!
(Text.)--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(1250)

See ATOM, THE, A WITNESS TO GOD.

=God Self-revealed=--See DEMONSTRATION.

GOD SENDS GIFTS

A lady physician in one of the mission fields restored to health
a beloved child of a native. In gratitude the parents knelt at
her feet and not only thanked but worshiped her as a god. She
remonstrated, saying that she was a mortal like themselves and
worship belonged only to God. They replied that no one but a
god could have saved their loved one from death. “Whom would
you thank and praise,” the missionary replied, “for a princely
gift sent by the hand of a coolie--the servant or his generous
master, the giver? I am but God’s coolie by whose hand He has
been pleased to send you this great gift of healing.” (Text.)

(1251)

GOD, SLEEPLESS CARE OF

This song of nightfall is by the Rev. Archibald Haddon:

The tangled threads, the untilled field,
The words unsaid, the tasks half done,
Battles unfought, and wounds unhealed,
Must wait until another sun.

Stars move, the tides and rivers roll,
Grass grows, rain falls on vale and hill.
And deep in my unconscious soul
The sleepless life of God works still.

I rest on thy unwearied mind;
Thy planning and thy love go on,
Nor dost thou leave me far behind;
I’m carried to another dawn.

The new day breaks. From earth’s old mold
Fresh flowers grow along my way.
New light is flashed on problems old;
On ancient life new forces play.

O wondrous, wakeful Warden! When
The last great nightfall comes to me,
From that deep slumber rouse me then,
That I Thy tireless child may be. (Text.)

(1252)

GOD SURROUNDING THE SOUL

Constant communion will surround us with an atmosphere through
which none of the many influences which threaten our Christian
life and our Christian work can penetrate. As the diver in his
bell sits dry at the bottom of the sea, and draws a pure air
from the free heavens far above him, and is parted from that
murderous waste of green death that clings so closely round the
translucent crystal walls which keep him safe, so we, enclosed
in God, shall repel from ourselves all that would overflow to
destroy us and our work, and may by His grace lay deeper than
the waters some courses in the great building that shall one
day rise, stately and many-mansioned, from out of the conquered
waves. (Text.)--ALEXANDER MCLAREN.

(1253)

GOD, THE OVERSEEING

The steamer _Samaritan_, on the St. Lawrence, was suddenly
enveloped in a heavy fog, completely hiding the shore and
every object from view. Yet the ship continued in full speed.
The passengers became frightened and censured Captain Dutton
and complained to the first mate. He replied, smiling, “Don’t
be frightened; the fog only extends a certain height, and the
captain is up above the fog running the vessel.”

We who fear the dangers of time and the world, often forget that God, the great Captain, is above the fog and knows just where and whither He is steering the life ship.

(1254)

GOD, THE SENSE OF

No wonder you yawn and know not what to do next if you have no
God, for ennui is the mark of godlessness.

Nothing is worth while but God.

The very naming of God gives zest to life.

I love to feel God love the world through me, until I am fairly
washed away by the current.

Of what moment is it whether I live or die so long as that goes
on?--ERNEST CROSBY, “Swords and Plowshares.”

(1255)

=God the Source of Goodness=--See GOODNESS FROM GOD.

GOD, THE UNSLEEPING

The Sleeping Buddha is one of the famous temples of China. A
long avenue of large trees, with a stone pavement passageway,
leads up to its entrance. Before it is an imposing gateway of
colored tiles. But the pride of its interior is the wonderful
figure of Buddha. A monster it is! Gross, indeed, must have been
the mind which conceived it. There, lying on his side, with
calm face, closed eyes, and head resting upon his hand, is a
gilded wooden figure thirty feet long. It is well proportioned.
His left arm is resting upon his body, and his bare feet are
placed one upon the other. This Buddha is sleeping upon a
Chinese _K’ang_. Standing about him are twelve crowned
and beautifully drest images, and in front are the symbols of
sacrifices for burning incense. But Buddha is asleep!

Contrast this with the conception of the God who never “slumbers nor sleeps.” (Text.)

(1256)

=God the Weaver=--See WEB OF LIFE.

=God, Walking with=--See WALKING WITH GOD.

GODLIKENESS OF MAN

Leroy T. Weeks somewhat enlarges upon the saying of Kepler in the following verses:

We think Thy thoughts, O mighty God!
Thy thoughts, that thrill through space afar,
That hold in place each twinkling star,
And permeate the teeming sod.

We think Thy thoughts, and live thy life;
Our souls are fathered by Thine own,
And high as is Thy holy throne,
So high we mount from sin and strife.

We live Thy life, and love Thy love;
The tendrils of our souls entwine,
Entwines and draws us all above,
Our fellow men, as love divine.

We think and live and love and grow
Like Thee, in ever-bright’ning ways;
We are God-kind, and all our days
Are in His hands who made us so. (Text.)

(1257)

=God’s Bridge=--See SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS.

GOD’S CARE

Mary E. Allbright, in the _Christian Advocate_, writes in rime the same lesson Jesus taught His disciples when He told them that the very hairs of their heads were numbered, and that Paul exprest when he said “for He (God) careth for you”:

O! strange and wild is the world of men
Which the eyes of the Lord must see--
With continents, islands, tribes, and tongues,
With multitudes, bond and free!
All kings of the earth bow down to him,
And yet--He can think of me.

For none can measure the mind of God
Or the bounds of eternity.
He knows each life that has come from Him,
To the tiniest bird and bee;
And the love of His heart is so deep and wide
That takes in even me.

(1257_a_)

What cares the babe for the blackness and the wild storm if only
the mother holds it to her bosom and croons the hymn of peace.
And in the hour when the world reels beneath his feet, frail man
becomes almost omnipotent in the thought that beneath this world
are the everlasting arms. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(1258)

=God’s House for All=--See AMERICANISM, TRUE.

=God’s Image=--See RESTORING GOD’S IMAGE.

GOD’S INSCRUTABILITY

Incompetent to the making of a single cherry-seed, as Luther remarks, how can we expect to fathom the works and wisdom of an infinite God?

“I am not so much of a farmer as some people claim,” said Hon.
W. J. Bryan in his lecture on “The Prince of Peace,” “but I have
observed the watermelon-seed. It has the power of drawing from
the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight, and when
you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors
an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms
inside of it a white rind and within again a red heart, thickly
inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of
drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight--when you can
explain to me the mystery of a watermelon, you can ask me to
explain the mystery of God.” (Text.)

(1259)

GOD’S PRESENCE

It is said that on the doors of Linnæus’ home at Hammarby,
near Upsala, these words were written, “_Innocue vivito;
numen adest_”--“Live blameless; Deity is here.” “This,” said
Linnæus, “is the wisdom of my life.” “Thou God seest me.”

(1260)

GOD’S WAYS

God’s ways seem dark, but, soon or late,
They touch the shining hills of day;
The sinner can not brook delay--
The good can well afford to wait.

--WHITTIER.

(1261)

GOLD, TAINT OF

The ancient fable of King Midas and his gift of turning
everything he laid his hands upon into gold has been exactly
reversed in these modern days. This good king was delighted
with the gift the gods gave him until one day he turned his
daughter into a golden image by a careless use of his power, and
the counterfeit presentment was so utterly worthless compared
with his child of flesh and blood that henceforth his charm
was a horrible curse. Now it is our brightest and best which
come under the spell of gold itself, and how it does harden
and fossilize them! Our artists paint, our literary men write,
our business men take hazardous and doubtful ventures, our
young men and maidens marry, all for gold. How bright was the
promise of Bret Harte until he began to command high prices for
his stories? Howells, James and Stockton all delighted us, but
presently we found ourselves wading through such stories as
“April Hopes” and the “Hundredth Man.” As soon as one begins to
preach good sermons in the pulpit he immediately attracts the
attention of some rich congregation and becomes a high-priced
man. Everywhere the test of excellence is price, and all the
choicest spirits are sought out and put into the livery of our
sovereign gold.--Providence _Journal_.

(1262)

GOLD USELESS

It is true the California gold will last forever unchanged, if
its owner chooses; but, while it so lasts, it is of no use; no,
not as much as its value in pig iron, which makes the best of
ballast; whereas gold, while it is gold, is good for little or
nothing. You can neither eat it, nor drink it, nor smoke it. You
can neither wear it, nor burn it as fuel, nor build a house with
it; it is really useless till you exchange it for consumable,
perishable goods; and the more plentiful it is the less its
exchangeable value--EDWARD EVERETT.

(1263)

GOLDEN AGE, THE

That the golden age is not in the past nor in the future, but now, is the refrain of these verses:

There are no days for me in long ago,
No days in which to work and love and pray,
No richly freighted hours where sweet winds blow.
There is no treasure for me but to-day.

There is no field where I may sow my seed
Beyond the reach of evening’s setting sun.
If to this soil to-day I pay no heed,
The future’s fertile fields may ne’er be sown.

The age of iron, of bronze, they are not now,
The bright-gemmed present is my golden age,
In which I think and live and love and do
What deeds are worth life’s brave and noble wage.

And finding in to-day my age of gold
To-morrow glows with promise and delight,
As if the happy isles oft dreamed of old
Were dawning now upon my blissful sight. (Text.)

(1264)

=Golden Rule, The=--See CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF;
CONSIDERATENESS.

=Good and Evil=--See NATURE, DUAL, IN MAN.

GOOD DISPLACING EVIL

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

(1265)

GOOD, FAITH IN

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

There is a tale of Faustus--that one day,
Lucretia, the Venetian, then his love,
Had, while he slept, the rashness to remove
His magic ring, when fair as god he lay;
And that a sudden horrible decay
O’erspread his face; a hundred wrinkles wove
Their network on his cheek; while she above
His slumber crouched, and watched him shrivel away.

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

(1266)

GOOD FOR EVIL

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

(1267)

GOOD, IMMORTALITY OF

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

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

(1268)

GOOD IN ALL MEN

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

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

(1269)

=Good, Making=--See REFORMATION.

GOOD, NOURISHING THE

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

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

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

(1270)

=Good Old Times=--See SCIENCE SHATTERING SUPERSTITION.

GOOD OUT OF EVIL

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

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

(1271)

GOOD OUTWEIGHING THE BAD

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

(1272)

=Good Results from Bad Environment=--See MISSIONARY ADAPTATION.

GOOD SAMARITAN IN PARAPHRASE

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

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

(1273)

GOOD, SEEING THE

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

Several years ago one of the New York producing managers
received the manuscript of a play from an utterly unknown
author. It was crudely written and most of the situations were
utterly impossible. Produced in the form in which it came from
its creator’s pen it could have been only a dismal failure. The
manager was not for a moment tempted to produce the play he had
received, but he saw possibilities in the author’s plot. He sent
for him and pointed out a few of the more glaring defects and
suggested that the manuscript be turned over to a professional
dramatist.

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

(1274)

GOOD SHALL PREVAIL

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

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

(1275)

=Good Shepherd=--See FOLD, THE, OF CHRIST.

GOOD VICTORIOUS

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

(1276)

GOOD WILL

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

General Grant had been a dear friend of my Soldier’s ever since
the Mexican War. At the time our first baby was born, the two
armies were encamped facing each other. Bonfires were lighted
in celebration all along Pickett’s line. Grant saw them, and
sent scouts to learn the cause. When they reported, he said to
General Ingalls:

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

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

(1277)

See CHRISTMAS.

GOODNESS FROM GOD

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

(1278)

GOODNESS IN THE BAD

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

(1279)

=Goodness, Peril of=--See CHRIST, GOODNESS OF.

GOSPEL, A MEDICATED

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

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

(1280)

=Gospel, Influence of the=--See CHRISTIANITY, PRACTICAL PROOF OF.

=Gospel in the Philippines=--See LATIN AMERICA AND THE GOSPEL.

GOSPEL MAGNIFIED

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

(1281)

=Gospel, No Substitutes for=--See PREACHING GOSPEL.

GOSPEL, SENDING THE