Chapter D: L. Moody told this story of missionary self-sacrifice (1)

A good many years ago I was stopping in a house in the West,
and saw there a bright boy of thirteen who didn’t bear the name
of the family he was living with, and yet was treated like one
of the family. In answer to my inquiries, the lady said, “He
is the son of a missionary. His parents couldn’t educate their
children in India, so they came back here. But they had learned
the language of India, and they did not feel that it was right
for them to stay in this country. Finally, the husband said,
‘You stay here, wife, and educate the children and I will go
back.’ The mother said, ‘No; God has used me there with you--we
will go back together.’ ‘But,’ the father said, ‘you can’t give
up those children. You never have been separated from them
since they were born. How can you leave them in this country
and go back?’ She replied, bravely, ‘I can do it if Christ
wants me to.’ They made it a matter of prayer and put notices
in the papers that they were going to leave their children, and
asked Christian people to take them and educate them. I saw the
notice and wrote that I would take one child and bring it up for
Christ’s sake. The mother came and stayed a week in our home and
observed everything. She watched the order and discipline of the
family, and after she was convinced that it was a safe place to
leave her boy, she set the day for departing. My room adjoined
hers, and when the time came to start, I heard her pray, ‘Lord
Jesus, help me now. I need Thee. Help me to give up this dear
boy without a tear, that I may leave him with a smile. Oh, God,
give me strength.’ She was helped to leave with a bright smile
on her face. She went to five homes in the same way and went
back to India, leaving her five children. Some time afterward,”
Mr. Moody continued, “I was in Hartford and found a young man
busy in the good work of picking up the rough boys of the
streets and bringing them to my meetings and trying to lead them
to Christ. It pleased me very much and I asked who he was. He
was studying in the theological seminary, and I found he was one
of those five sons of that brave woman, and all of the five were
expecting to return to India to carry on their father’s work.”

(2304)

PARENTHOOD AMONG SAVAGES

An Australian mother will coddle her baby with ape-like
fondness, and hardly ever let it stray out of sight for the
first four years; but as soon as the toddling little imp seems
able to take care of itself, its debt of gratitude to its
progenitors has to be paid by the worst kind of slavery. At the
first sign of insubordination a half-grown boy is apt to be
kicked out, if not killed, by his own father. (Text.)--FELIX
OSWALD, _Good Health_.

(2305)

=Parentless=--See SYMPATHY, PRACTICAL.

=Parents=--See EXAMPLE OF PARENTS.

PARENTS AS TEACHERS OF RELIGION

The teaching and preaching by fathers and mothers in the
seclusion of the home circle are doing much more to determine
the fate of souls than the eloquent sermons and elaborate
lessons in pulpit and Sunday-school. Parents are touching
life at its beginnings, making impressions that can never be
obliterated. The family is the natural and divinely appointed
school of religion because it has the first opportunity. The
smallest thing at the beginning of life affects all the future.
A child but a year old slipt and fell on a wet floor, and tho
that was seventy years ago, the man is lame yet. And the moral
nature is as easily crippled as the body. The moral lameness
we see in the old or middle-aged is often caused by some
mistaught or neglected lesson in infancy.--_The Cumberland
Presbyterian._

(2306)

=Parents, Example of=--See FAMILY RELIGION.

PARSIMONY IN GIVING

On one occasion a new silver dollar found itself in the same
plate with a penny with the head of an Indian upon it. And the
goddess of Liberty looked down upon the Indian, and said: “You
miserable, copper-faced, feather-trimmed heathen, what are you
doing in this plate, in the same company with me?” And the
copper coin, with the Indian’s face, responded: “I am found in a
great many more missionary gatherings than you are!”

(2307)

PARTIALITY

Chief Justice Marshall, of the United States, was all his
life an ardent votary of quoits. He was an active member
of the Barbecue or Quoit Club for forty years, their main
amusement being quoits and backgammon. Great respect was paid
to the veteran lawyer in these contests. Once an old Scotch
gentleman was called in to decide between him and a keen rival
as to the winner, and after a most careful measurement that
oracle gave his decision thus: “Maister Mairshall has it a
leetle,” tho every bystander saw it was quite the other way.
(Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(2308)

=Pass, Let it=--See EVIL, IGNORING.

=Passengers to Heaven=--See OBLIGATIONS TO THE CHURCH.

PASSING OF LIFE

And this is life--to-day we here abide,
Perchance to-morrow we must step aside,
We master not our own; no vain regret
Can change the path for us which God has set.

Then let our footsteps be toward the light,
With loving words and deeds make each day bright.
Let charity progress to wider plan,
Lend gracious ear to creed of every man.

--S. D. GARDNER.

(2309)

PASSION, GROWTH OF

An old man was once walking with a little boy. They came across
four shrubs. The old man said to his youthful companion:

“Pull up the least one.”

He obeyed with ease.

“Now the next.”

He obeyed, but it did not come so easily.

“And the third.”

It took all his strength to move its roots, but he succeeded.

“Now the fourth.”

In vain the lad put forth all his strength. He only made the
leaves tremble. He could not move the roots. They had gone
strongly into the earth, and no effort could dislodge them.

Then the wise old man said to the ardent youth:

“This, my son, is just what happens with our passions. When they
are young and weak one may by a little watchfulness over self
and the help of a little self-denial easily tear them up, but
if we let them cast their roots deep into our souls there is no
human power can uproot them. For this reason, my child, watch
well over the first movements of your soul and study by acts of
virtue to keep your passions well in check.” (Text.)

(2310)

=Passport, Value of a=--See TOKEN, VALUE OF A.

=Past and Present Compared=--See RELIGION DIFFUSED.

PASTOR, THE IDEAL

Give me the pastor whose graces shall possess
Of an ambassador the just address;
A father’s tenderness, a shepherd’s care,
A leader’s courage, which the cross can bear;
A ruler’s awe, a watchman’s wakeful eye,
A fisher’s patience, and a laborer’s toil;
A guide’s dexterity to disembroil;
A prophet’s inspiration from above;
A teacher’s knowledge, and a Savior’s love.

--BISHOP HARE.

(2311)

=Path, Narrow=--See PROMISES.

PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS

A Viennese lady, who had suffered for a long time from
cataleptic or lethargic attacks, was finally buried in one of
her trances. The sexton, who fortunately happened to be a thief
in this instance, had reopened the grave and was busy removing
her clothes during the ensuing night, when a resurrection of the
dead took place. Stricken with terror, he was running away, when
the woman called him back, requesting to be taken to her doctor.

* * * * *

A little girl, mentioned by Tissot, shocked at her sister
having helped herself to a coveted morsel, remained stiff
and motionless for an hour, a spoon in her hand, and her arm
outstretched toward the dish.

* * * * *

A soldier, quarreling with a companion, in a fit of passion
seized a bottle to throw at him; cataleptic rigidity fixt him in
this attitude, motionless, unconscious, his eyes full of anger
and defiance.

* * * * *

In another case a magistrate on the bench, insulted in the
middle of his summing up, remained as if petrified in an
attitude of indignation and threat at his insulter.

* * * * *

Again, we read of priests being cataleptized at the altar in the
attitude of elevating the sacrament.--A. DE WATTEVILLE,
_Fortnightly Review_.

(2312)

PATHS, KEEPING ONE’S OWN

Some twenty years ago a United States naval officer conceived
the idea that if vessels eastbound took one ocean path and
vessels westbound another, collisions would be avoided.
Steamship lines eagerly fell in with the suggestion, and
the result is that ingoing and outgoing liners may follow
well-defined lanes of traffic. Separate paths are laid out for
vessels of high power. Slow vessels, freighters and the like,
have their special steaming zones. Since that time no collision
on the high seas between two liners has occurred.

If every man would be equally careful to keep in his own territory moral collisions and many of life’s catastrophes would be avoided.

(2313)

PATIENCE

Edward Collins Downing bids us to wait through earth’s night for the coming day of God’s accomplishments:

To those who sit and watch at night
And look to God alone for strength,
There will arise, I know, at length,
A foregleam of eternal light.

The morning does not hesitate;
The glory of its hour is fixt,
Tho sorrow has been strangely mixt
In all our lives, there is no fate

That can retard the coming day.
Be patient. In His perfect time
God’s purpose will unfold, sublime,
And light and joy shall have their way.(Text.)

(2314)

* * * * *

Lady Henry Somerset has told how her attention was first called to the work of relieving the sufferings of poor city children.

“I was moved in that direction by the rare patience and
imagination of one little boy. His example convinced me that
patience was one of the qualities I needed most, and in seeking
it I grew into that work. I was in a hospital on visiting day
while the doctors were changing a plaster-cast which held the
crippled boy’s limb. The operation was exceedingly painful, I
was told. To my surprize the little sufferer neither stirred nor
winced, but made a curious buzzing sound with his mouth. After
the doctors left him, I said:

“‘How could you possibly stand it?’

“‘That’s nothin’,’ he answered; ‘why, I just made believe that a
bee was stingin’ me. Bees don’t hurt very much, you know. And I
kept buzzin’ because I was afraid I’d forget about its being a
bee if I didn’t.’”

(2315)

* * * * *

When the quality most needed in a prime minister, who
should be fully master of the situation, was the subject of
conversation in the presence of Mr. Pitt, one of the speakers
said it was eloquence, another said it was knowledge, a third
said it was toil. “No,” said Pitt, “it is patience.” And
patience is undoubtedly a prime quality of mastery in any
situation.--JAMES T. FIELDS.

(2316)

See WAIT AND SEE; WAITING.

=Patriot, Acting the Part of a=--See PRETENSE.

PATRIOTISM

The spirit of Lincoln, who struck hard blows at the Southern cause but always spoke charitably of the Southern people, is embodied in this poem:

The foe that strikes thee,
For thy country’s sake
Strike him with all thy might;
But while thou strikest,
Forget not still to love him. (Text.)

--His Majesty the Emperor MUTSU HITO
of Japan. Translated by ARTHUR LLOYD.

(2317)

* * * * *

A Japanese mother had given her three sons to the war. The
first was reported slain. She smiled and said, “It is well.
I am happy.” The second lay dead upon the field. She smiled
again and said, “I am still happy.” The third gave up his life
and they said to her, “At last you weep!” “Yes,” she said,
“but it is because I have no more sons to give to my beloved
country!”--MARSHALL P. WILDER, “Smiling ’Round the
World.”

(2318)

See FIDELITY; HOME WHERE THE HEART IS; SYMBOL, POWER OF A.

PATRIOTISM, DISINTERESTED

A rather refreshing sight for this year of our Lord would be a
repetition of the office seeking the man as in “Saul’s” case,
where it was said, “They sought him (to make him king) but he
could not be found.”

It is said of Abraham Lincoln that, fully expecting, owing to
the meager success of the Union armies up to that time, that he
would fail of reelection as President, he resolutely set about
putting the governmental departments in order for his successor.
He took special pains that as little inconvenience as possible
(and detriment to the country’s interests) should be experienced
in the transfer of power. How differently he might have acted
but for his distinguishing patriotism! Washington once said: “It
is of little consequence that my closing days be embittered if
only the liberties of my country be conserved.” (Text.)

(2319)

=Patriotism, Early=--See LOYALTY.

=Patriotism, Emblem of=--See MEMORIALS OF PATRIOTISM.

PATRIOTISM, LACK OF

A significant punishment was administered recently to a man
in Hoboken, N. J., for an act of disrespect to the Stars and
Stripes. He was returning from an entertainment in the early
morning hours, when he noticed a large flag flying from a pole
in a citizen’s yard. In a spirit of mischief he opened his
pocket-knife and cut the halyards and the flag came fluttering
to the ground. A policeman saw it fall and promptly arrested the
man. When asked by the recorder before whom he was arraigned
why he had done the mischief, he had nothing to say but that he
objected to see the flag flying at that time in the morning.
The recorder answered that it was right to have that flag
flying at any time, and he would pass a sentence that would
teach the offender a lesson of respect. He ordered him to climb
the forty-foot pole and replace the flag, and instructed two
policemen to see that it was done. The news of the sentence
attracted a crowd and the man was jeered as he clumsily climbed
the pole and put the flag back. It is a curious fact that the
man who cut the flag down was an American, but it was flying in
the yard of a Frenchman, and the arrest was made by an Irish
policeman, and the recorder who pronounced sentence is said to
be of English descent.

Every one has a contempt for a man who lowers the symbol of his nation’s honor. But it is too often forgotten that dishonorable conduct and unprincipled trickery do more to dishonor the nation to which a man belongs than any insult to his flag.

(2320)

=Patriotism Scorned=--See MEMORIALS OF PATRIOTISM.

=Patrons Cared for=--See DEPORTMENT.

PATTERN, PERFECT

We must not look for truth from men and women whose souls are out of sympathy with truth. The trouble with us all as human beings is that none of our natural virtues are wholly sound and perfect. There is at least a little untruth in all our truth, a little jealousy even in our best praise, a little pride even in our piety, a little superciliousness in our forbearance. Jesus alone could properly claim to be a type for all human character.

In a bullet foundry the first anxiety does not concern the
bullets themselves. Of course it is absolutely necessary that
each one should be perfectly spherical in shape. The essential
antecedent condition is a perfect mold. If the bullet-mold is
deformed, every bullet will share its deformity. Therefore the
first need is to make the mold right, and then every bullet will
share its rectitude.

(2321)

PATTERN, THE DIVINE

“Tapestry Weavers,” the poem by Dr. A. G. Chester, on page 535, has been translated into Japanese and published in the leading magazine of the country, which circulates over 50,000 copies, and the lines have also been printed in its English form upon large cards, which are distributed throughout the schools of Japan.

A returned missionary from China, who was recently introduced to Doctor Chester, remarked: “I am delighted to make the acquaintance of the author of ‘The Tapestry Weavers,’ a poem I have loved and admired and used by way of illustration for many years.”

In connection with a fair lately held at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York City, for the benefit of the Home for Crippled Children, a number of copies of the poem, printed upon tinted paper and bearing the author’s autograph, sold readily and realized a handsome sum.

I

Let us take to our hearts a lesson--no lesson can braver be--
From the ways of the tapestry weavers on the other side of the sea.

Above their heads the pattern hangs, they study it with care,
The while their fingers deftly move, their eyes are fastened there.

They tell this curious thing besides of the patient, plodding
weaver;
He works on the wrong side evermore, but works for the right side
ever.

It is only when the weaving stops, and the web is loosed and
turned,
That he sees his real handiwork, that his marvelous skill is
learned.

Ah, the sight of its delicate beauty, how it pays him for all his
cost!
No rarer, daintier work than his was ever done by the frost.

Then the master bringeth him golden hire, and giveth him praise as
well,
And how happy the heart of the weaver is, no tongue but his own can
tell.

II

The years of man are the looms of God, let down from the place of
the sun,
Wherein we are weaving ever, till the mystic web is done.

Weaving blindly, but weaving surely, each for himself his fate--
We may not see how the right side looks, we can only weave and
wait.

But, looking above for the pattern, no weaver hath need to fear,
Only let him look clear into heaven--the Perfect Pattern is there.

If he keeps the face of the Savior forever and always in sight
His toil shall be sweeter than honey, his weaving is sure to be
right.

And when the work is ended, and the web is turned and shown,
He shall hear the voice of the Master; it shall say unto him, “Well
done!”

And the white-winged angel of heaven, to bear him thence shall come
down;
And God shall give him gold for his hire--not coin but a glowing
crown.
(Text.)

(2322)

PAYMENT OF DEBTS

In a suit lately tried in a Maryland court, the plaintiff
testified that his financial position had always been a good
one. The opposing counsel took him in hand for cross-examination
and undertook to break down his testimony upon this point.

“Have you ever been bankrupt?” asked the counsel. “I have not.”
“Now, be careful,” admonished the lawyer, with raised finger.
“Did you ever stop payment?” “Yes.” “Ah, I thought we should
get at the truth,” observed counsel, with an unpleasant smile.
“When did this suspension of payment occur?” “When I had paid
all I owed,” was the naive reply of the plaintiff.--_Success
Magazine._

(2323)

PEACE

The following outlook toward universal peace was written by George Frederick Knowles:

When navies are forgotten
And fleets are useless things,
When the dove shall warm her bosom
Beneath the eagle’s wings;

When memory of battles
At last is strange and old,
When nations have one banner
And creeds have found one fold;

When the Hand that sprinkles midnight
With its powdered drifts of suns
Has hushed this tiny tumult
Of sects and swords and guns;

Then hate’s last note of discord
In all God’s worlds shall cease,
In the conquest which is service,
In the victory which is peace.

(2324)

* * * * *

“The inauguration of a monument of Christ, the Redeemer, on the
Cordillera of the Andes,” says Carolina Huidobro, in _The
Christian Herald_ (New York), “has a grand significance, at
once political and social. The colossal statue upon a pinnacle
14,000 feet above the sea, surrounded by peaks of perpetual
snow, dominating as it does the two countries which stretch out
on either side of the mountain range, is a tangible witness
of international brotherhood.... Chile and Argentina have not
only created a symbol; they have inculcated into the minds of
men for all ages an idea of greater significance than any other
in our contemporary age, by erecting that colossal monument
to the Christ, with the inscription on its granite pedestal:
‘Sooner shall these mountains crumble to dust than Argentines
and Chileans break the peace which, at the feet of Christ, the
Redeemer, they have sworn to maintain.’ On the opposite side
of the base are the words of the angels’ song over Bethlehem:
‘Peace on earth, good-will to all men.’ The statue cost about
$100,000, and was paid for by popular subscription, the working
classes contributing liberally.” (Text.)

(2325)

See CHRISTMAS; MILITARISM.

PEACE PACT

When William Penn made his treaty with the Indians under the
spreading branches of an elm-tree on the banks of the Delaware,
it was not for lands, but for peace and friendship. “We meet,”
said Penn, “in the broad pathway of good faith and good will;
no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be
openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents
sometimes chide their children too severely; nor brothers only,
for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will
not compare to a chain, for that the rains might rust, or the
falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man’s body
were to be divided into two parts; we are all one flesh and
blood.” The Indians replied: “We will live in love with William
Penn and his children as long as the sun and moon shall endure.”

Such a peace pact does God make with men; and such a pact ought man and man, and nation and nation to make with each other.

(2326)

=Peace Predicted=--See AGE, THE NEW.

PEACEFUL INSTINCT OF SIMIANS

The acquisitive energy of a monkey-swarm must be witnessed to be
credited. In the banana-gardens of the _tierra caliente_ a
Mexican capuchin monkey will exhaust his business opportunities
with the dispatch of a Cincinnati bank cashier; but, in his
attempt to reach the Canadian side of the hedge with a good
armful of plunder, so often falls a victim to the pursuing
dogs that monkey-trappers frequently rent an orchard for the
special purpose of capturing the retreating marauders. In
spite of their mischievous petulance, nearly all the Old World
species of our four-handed kinsmen are emotionally sympathetic
and ever ready to rescue their wounded friends at the risk of
their own lives. At the cry of a captured baby baboon the whole
tribe of passionate four-fisters will rush in regardless of
consequences, and a similar tendency of cooperation may have
given our hairy forefathers a superior chance of survival and
secured their victory in their struggle for existence against
their feline rivals. Their list of original sins may have
included gluttony, covetousness and violence of temper, but
hardly a penchant for wanton bloodshed. With the exception of
the fox-headed lemurs and the ultra-stupid marmosets, nearly
all our simian relatives evince symptoms of a character-trait
which might be defined as an instinctive aversion to cruelty.
Menagerie monkeys indulge their love of gymnastics by frequent
scuffles; but the sight of a bona fide fight awakens a chorus of
shrieks expressing a general protest rather than an emotion of
fear or even partizan interest, for in an open arena the stouter
members of the obstreperous community are sure to rush in and
part the combatants.--FELIX OSWALD, _Popular Science
Monthly_.

(2327)

PEACEMAKER, THE

Just in the shade of the arena’s gate,
They trooped and paused; and to the ranks of eyes
That questioned ere they drove them on to fate,
Steel-swift, steel-steady, did their answers rise--
“I fight to break the tyranny I hate!”
“I come to tear the veil from ancient lies!”
“I seize the odds! Let others share the prize!”
“I fail, that some may conquer, soon or late!”
But one who bore, within that radiant line,
A look as cool as joy, as firm as pain,
And touched his sword, as some rapt village swain
Touches the cup that holds his wedding wine,
Spoke not, until they urged: “What aim is thine?”
“I fight, that none may ever fight again!”

--G. M. HORT, London _Nation_.

(2328)

=Pearl, The Unexpected=--See DISCOVERY, FORTUNATE.

=Pearls=--See APPRECIATION.

=Peccability of Men=--See VINCIBLENESS.

=Pedagog Rebuked=--See UNNATURAL EDUCATION.

PEDIGREE

Shells keeping their form and delicate color and delicate
wings of insects are preserved in stone, embedded there ages
ago, “Trees waved, butterflies flitted on brilliant wings and
hosts of creatures basked in the sunlight long before human
foot trod the earth,” says Edith Carrington in “Ages Ago.”
Some pique themselves in being able to trace descent through
a few centuries. But there is a humble creature haunting our
back-yards counting his pedigree by millions of years. The
common wood-louse, tho shy and modest, might boast if he
liked--the scion of an ancient and noble family, the trilobites,
once the monarchs of the world and the most numerous and highly
organized creatures in it. (Text.)

(2329)

=Penalty from Mistaken Ideas=--See INDIVIDUALISM, EXCESSIVE.

PENTECOST, MODERN

The Hawaiian Islands are among the greatest of the marvels of missionary success.

During the five years ending June, 1841, 7,557 persons were
received into the Church at Hilo, constituting three-fourths
of the whole adult population of the parish. When Titus Coan
left Hilo, in 1870, he had himself received and baptized 11,960
persons.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(2330)

=Penuriousness=--See SIGHT, IMPERFECT.

=People, Contact With=--See SPEECH, COMMON.

=Perfection=--See COMPLIMENT.

=Peril and Reward, Ignoring=--See PRIDE IN ONE’S TASK.

PERISHABLENESS

At the World’s Fair at St. Louis, Mo., the heroic statue of
Joliet was so fine a work of art that a movement was set on
foot to preserve it after the close of the fair. Many admirers
of it subscribed for the expense, and it was removed to the
entrance of O’Fallon Park. The figure was twenty-five feet high
and fifteen feet long. The work of removal was difficult and
cost nearly $2,000, but it was safely accomplished and it made
an imposing addition to the beauties of the park. But it was
made only of staff, and tho it was believed it would last for
ten years, it was not supposed that it was permanent. Not long
after, however, while hundreds of people stood admiring it in
its new position, there was a sudden break in the image. A cloud
of white dust arose, and when it cleared away the big statue
had disappeared. A heap of white dust was all there was to show
where it had been. It had absolutely crumbled to powder. All
the work that had been expended on its formation and removal
was lost in a moment. So it is with all human work, however
beautiful and imposing. In God and His work alone is permanence.
(Text.)

(2331)

=Permanence of the Spirit=--See RECORD, LIVING.

PERMANENCY

“The first lizard possest the snout of a dolphin, the head of
a lizard, the teeth and jaws of a crocodile, the backbone of a
fish, paddles like those of a whale and the trunk and tail of a
quadruped--a very monarch of the early seas. Kill or be killed
must have been the rule of his life,” says the great French
novelist Currie. But it would seem the coat of mail worn by the
tortoises and turtles was a better protection than the powerful
claws and jaws of the fish-lizard, which was short-lived. The
former are alive and flourishing to this day--the latter have
altogether vanished. On the grave of John Keats are the words,
“Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” (Text.)

(2332)

=Permanent Impressions=--See TEACHER’S FUNCTION, THE.

PERMANENT, THE

Rev. Robert P. Wilder, missionary to India, gives the following account of a vivid dream he had while working in the mission field:

“I thought the Master came to me and said, ‘Take heed how ye
build.’ I asked Him to show me the pattern. The veil was removed
and I saw the pattern; but I saw that very much of my work was
not in line with the pattern. Presently He took me into a little
room and showed me a very small column of silver, and He said,
‘That will abide the test. When the fire comes, that will not be
destroyed.’ I asked Him what it represented, and He said, ‘That
represents the little gifts to the needy ones.’ ‘Inasmuch as you
have done it to one of these little ones you have done it to
me, and inasmuch as the left hand did not know what the right
hand gave, it is precious.’ Then He showed me another little
column of gold, and He said, ‘That also will abide the test.
That represents the hours of prayer alone with your Master.’ At
last we passed into a great room, and I pointed out to Him the
elaborate carving in the woodwork. I had spent many months on
it, but the Master said, ‘Yes, it is well done, but it is wood,
and when the fire strikes, the wood, hay and stubble will go.’”
(Text.)

(2333)

PERSECUTION AND PRAYER

When holding services in a little chapel on the edge of Manila,
we had a young convert named Candido, about nineteen or twenty
years old, in charge. We had to meet out under the trees, and
there was an old man who lived close by where we were holding
the services--an old gambler, sixty years old, named Marcelina.
Of all the vile brutes I ever saw, that old Marcelina was the
worst. He would go at night, and while we were holding services
he would throw stones and brickbats. If there ever was a devil
incarnate, he was one. We had patience with him for a long time.
One day Candido came into my office and sat down in a chair and
was looking greatly discouraged. Finally he said: “What shall
we do with that old Marcelina? He came in last night and hit
one of the little girls on the head with a stone, and she is
seriously injured.” I replied, “I don’t know what you ought to
do. I believe if Jesus were on earth, He would pray for that
old man.” “That is a doctrine which you don’t find until you
take the gospel,” he answered. “With us, it is an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth, and stab the other fellow in the
back.” It cheered my heart to hear that little fellow say that.
He went out and gathered twelve or thirteen young men in a room
as a praying-band, and for two long months they met every single
night to pray for the conversion of that old man. Marcelina,
hearing of it, came up and asked, “What are you doing?” “We are
praying for you, that God will give you love in your heart.” He
rushed out, raving and swearing, and the next time they held a
service, he threw clubs and stones. Still the boys did not give
up. After that Marcelina could not sleep; and one night he got
up when everybody else was asleep and stole like a sentry to
where Candido lived and called him out. He said, “Candido, I
wish you would tell me what it is that you have which I haven’t
got; how can you treat me so kindly, when I am a brute to you?”
They walked up under the palm-trees and bananas at the other
side of the house, and that nineteen-year-old boy and the proud
old gambler knelt down side by side to pray. I do not explain
these things, but I know what happened that night. Marcelina
knelt down and God took away that stony heart which he had had
for fifty years and gave him as new and tender a heart as a
young child ever had. Later there stood up thirty-seven people
for baptism, and when I looked at Marcelina my heart seemed
to come into my throat. I knew the struggles that he had gone
through, and after I had baptized him, he said: “I beg your
pardon; I thought that I was doing good when I threw stones; I
did not know any better.” Before he sat down I put my hand on
his shoulder and said: “Wait, one word more; what must we do
to win a fellow man for Jesus?” He looked around and sat down,
crying like a little child, and we all wept with him; we could
not help it. In a moment he arose and gave this testimony, with
the tears streaming down his cheeks and his voice shaking:
“Pastor, we can not win men by throwing stones at them; we
can not win them by treating them as I have been treating
you; we must love them to Jesus.” That is what we must do in
Latin-America for those people who do not love Jesus; we must
step over the barrier and help them and “love them to Jesus.”
Do they need us?--J. MCLAUGHLIN, “Student Volunteer
Movement,” 1906.

(2334)

PERSECUTION, RELIGIOUS

It was during the latter half of the eighteenth century in
Europe that some statesmen commenced the much-needed work of
reform. Conspicuous among them was Joseph II of had the right
to regulate the religion of his subjects. In Bohemia a certain
sect was formed, made up of thrifty, honest and hard-working
peasants, who believed in God and named themselves deists. This
offended the Emperor and he gave instructions to have them
brought to justice; those who determined to stand by their
belief were to receive twenty-five lashes “not because they are
deists,” said Joseph, “but because they declare themselves to be
something which they do not comprehend.” The lash did not prove
effective, so he deported them.

(2335)

PERSEVERANCE

The gentlest and least noticed efforts if repeated persistently enough will have their effect in due time. This is a lesson to be learned by those who are trying forward movements of reform:

In a gun-factory a great bar of steel, weighing five hundred
pounds, and eight feet in length, was suspended vertically by a
very delicate chain. Near by a common bottle-cork was suspended
by a silk thread. The purpose was to show that the cork could
set the steel bar in motion. It seemed impossible. The cork was
swung gently against the steel bar, and the steel bar remained
motionless. But it was done again and again and again for ten
minutes, and lo! at the end of that time the bar gave evidence
of feeling uncomfortable; a sort of nervous chill ran over it.
Ten minutes later, and the chill was followed by vibrations.
At the end of half an hour the great bar was swinging like the
pendulum of a clock. (Text.)

(2336)

* * * * *

It is not clear that Paganini owed much to any one but
himself--his indomitable perseverance and his incessant study.
His method is to be noted. For ten or twelve hours he would
try passages over and over again in different ways with such
absorption and intensity that at nightfall he would sink into
utter prostration through excessive exhaustion and fatigue. Tho
delicate, like Mendelssohn, he ate at times ravenously and slept
soundly. When about ten he wrote twenty-four fugues, and soon
afterward composed some violin music, of such difficulty that he
was unable at first to play it, until incessant practise gave
him the mastery.--H. R. HAWEIS, “My Musical Memories.”

(2337)

* * * * *

I once thought I would like to test the perseverance of a large
moth in performing its first upward journey; and as it was
one from a chrysalis to be found in nature at the foot of a
tree that attains some considerable height, I was, of course,
prepared to exercise a little patience myself.

As soon as the moth had emerged, I placed it at the bottom of
a window curtain that hung about eight feet high to the floor.
In less than half a minute it had reached the top and was
struggling hard to get still higher. I took it down and again
placed it at the bottom. Up it went as fast as before, and this
was repeated nine times with exactly the same result.--W.
FURNEAUX, “Butterflies and Moths.”

(2338)

* * * * *

“Years of fruitless and apparently hopeless toil had almost
determined the directors of the London Missionary Society to
abandon altogether the work at Tahiti. Dr. Haweis, chaplain to
the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the founders of the society,
and the father and liberal supporter of the South Sea Mission,
earnestly opposed such abandonment of the field, and backed
his arguments by a further donation of a thousand dollars. The
Rev. Matthew Wilks, the pastor of John Williams, declared that
he would sell the clothes from his back rather than give up
the mission, and proposed, instead, a season of special prayer
for the divine blessing. Such a season was observed; letters
of encouragement were written to the missionaries, and--mark
it!--while the vessel was on her way to carry these letters to
Tahiti, another ship passed her in mid-ocean, which conveyed
to Great Britain, October, 1813, the news that idolatry was
entirely overthrown on the island, and bore to London the
rejected idols of the people.” (Text.)--PIERSON, “The
Miracles of Missions.”

(2339)

* * * * *

A young girl sat singing at the piano. “Sing it again,” said the
singing teacher, and the tired girl sang it again and again and
again. “But you do not sing it properly, and I question if you
will ever make a great singer.” But the little girl tried hard
and practised the next day and the next; the next week and the
next; the next year and the next. One day she stood before 5,000
men and women, and she sang till she seemed to take them out of
themselves and to carry them up in the clouds of enchantment,
over seas of melody, into an ecstasy of delight, until the
people wept from the excess of their emotions. That girl was
Lillian Nordica.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(2340)

* * * * *

A pious woman, when it was decided to close the prayer-meeting
in a certain village, declared it should not be, for she would
be there if no one else was. True to her word, when, the
next morning, some one asked her jestingly, “Did you have a
prayer-meeting last night?” “Ah, that we did!” she replied.
“How many were present?” “Four,” she said. “Why, I heard you
were there all alone.” “No, I was the only one visible; but the
Father was there, and the Son was there, and the Holy Spirit was
there, and we were all agreed in prayer.” Before long others
took shame to themselves at the earnest perseverance of the poor
woman, the prayer-meeting was revived and the church prospered.
(Text.)

(2341)

See CRIMINALS, TRACING; PERSISTENCE.

=Perseverance in Saving=--See PERSISTENCE IN DOING GOOD.

=Perseverance, Unexampled=--See AERIAL ACHIEVEMENT.

PERSIA, THE MOSLEM SITUATION IN

Perhaps I can not illustrate the degraded condition of the
people in Persia better than by referring to the condition of
women, because the key to the condition of the entire people
is the condition occupied by their women. I will illustrate
it by describing the manner of cultivating rice in northern
Persia, in that portion bordering on the Caspian Sea. Among
the people there, the planter as a rule marries as many women
as he needs for the cultivation of his rice. They prepare the
fields and sow broadcast in a seed-plot. These fields are not
very large usually. The women further prepare it for cultivation
by flooding the fields with water and then by plowing and
cross-plowing under the water, standing in the great pools
knee-deep or more. When the rice has grown to the height of
six inches or more, the women go out in the early dawn and
often they work with their babes strapt on their backs. It is
necessary for them to transplant the little blades that have
come up in the seed-plot; so they pull the rice plants up by the
handful and transplant them, a few plants at a time, working
steadily all day long until the evening twilight deepens and it
is too dark to work any more, when they take refuge on a little
elevation that may or may not be protected by a booth. There
they remain during the night and are ready to start work again
at the dawn. This they do, day after day. And when the harvest
has come, and the crops have been gathered and safely placed in
the storehouses, these women are probably divorced and turned
out to live lives of misery and shame and degradation, until
they may be so fortunate, as they would consider it, as to
become the wives of other planters.

I will give you another illustration of their condition.
Not long ago I was sitting in my study when a department
representative came to me and said that, lying out in the open,
behind the Legation, was a poor old sick woman; and he thought
perhaps I might be able to do something for her, as she needed
attention very badly. I went and investigated the case and found
a poor, decrepit old woman. I say old woman, for tho she was
only about thirty-five years of age, at thirty-five in Persia
they become broken down and decrepit. I investigated her case,
and my investigation revealed this story. She had been the
wife of a certain man and had gradually been getting blind.
She had also fallen and broken her hip-joint, and, being no
longer able to do his work, he had carried her out in the open
desert and left her to die there. We took her in our hospital,
where our doctor cared for her; and when they washed her in
order to dress her wounds, they found that she had maggoted
bed-sores on her body. We did everything we could for her, and
God in His mercy relieved her of her physical sufferings. It
was His mercy that placed her in our hands for the last few
days of her life, in order that she might hear the story of the
love of Christ.--LEWIS F. ESSELST, “Student Volunteer
Movement,” 1906.

(2342)

PERSISTENCE

If the wind is in the east with a blue hazy atmosphere it
seems to affect the fish in some unaccountable way, and while
it lasts a rise can rarely be got out of them. I have noticed
this hundreds of times, often when the water was in splendid
fishing order, and the river full of new run fish, but whatever
quarter the wind blows from there is always a chance while the
fly is in the water, and to insure success the angler must
make up his mind to have many blank days. He must never tire
of throwing his fly, and never be put out by failure.--H.
CHOLMONDELEY-PENNELL, “Fishing.”

(2343)

* * * * *

Mutsuhito, Emperor of Japan, is the author of the following quatrain:

Amatari ni
Kubomishi noki no
Ishi mite mo
Kataki waza tote
Omoi sute me ya?

See, how the tiny rain-drops from the eaves
Hollow the stones beneath, with constant drip,
Then why should we abandon well-formed plans
Simply, forsooth, because we find them hard?

(2344)

* * * * *

It is the men who stick to it that secure the sweets of fortune.

“I never was in New Hampshire but once,” said Mr. Lincoln,
“and that was in the fall of the year--a cold, rough day, and
a high wind was blowing. Just outside the city I noticed a
big bull-thistle, and on this thistle was a bumblebee trying
to extract honey from the blossom. The wind blew the thistle
every which way, but the bumblebee stuck. I have come to the
conclusion that persistency is characteristic of everything
in New Hampshire, whether men or bumblebees.” (Text.)--_The
Youth’s Companion._

(2345)

See RESOLUTENESS.

PERSISTENCE IN DOING GOOD

Some of the Christians in Uganda are very faithful in pleading
with others to give up their sins. One man, named Matayo, was
giving way to drink. His Christian friends reminded him of his
wound in the war. “You have a big wound in your soul, caused
by drunkenness. Give up drink, or assuredly the wound will get
worse and kill you eternally.” Matayo replied: “Why can’t you
leave me alone?” Mika Sematimba answered, “When you were shot,
did we not pick you up and carry you home? Did you then think
we hated you? You are shot now, and we want to carry you home.
Do you remember, when we were carrying you, how you said, ‘Let
me walk; your carrying makes the wound hurt me?’ We didn’t let
you walk. We knew you could not walk, but that you would faint
on the road; and now we know you can not keep sober, and we want
to help you. You say, ‘Leave me alone,’ but we won’t leave you
alone. We know you will get worse if we do.”

(2346)

PERSISTENCE IN MISSIONARIES

Several attempts were made to open missionary work in Lua Niua,
which was inhabited by a Polynesian race, speaking a language
similar to that spoken by the Tongans and Samoans; but the
heathen priests prevented it. Finally the Rev. J. F. Goldy,
chairman of the Solomon Islands District, took with him a
Christian Tongan teacher named Semisi Nau and a Christian Samoan
named Pologa.

The people, incited by the heathen priests, refused them
permission to land and Mr. Goldy was about to return, when these
two brave men positively refused to leave, saying, “If the
people will not allow us to come ashore we will live in the boat
and preach from the water; but these people _must_ hear of
God’s love for them.”

For three months they lived there, anchoring close to the beach.
They were abused and harried by the people on the land and were
unable to go ashore. There is no fresh water on this island,
and their only drink is coconut milk. Day after day these two
faithful men suffered from thirst, but God touched the heart of
a native who swam out to their boat under cover of night, and
brought them coconuts.

Finally, a friendly chief at the other end of the lagoon invited
them to come ashore and he and his people listened willingly and
eagerly to the story of the gospel. A church has been built and
the gospel has captured that end of the land. (Text.)

(2347)

PERSISTENCE PAYS

“I [John Wesley] remember to have heard my father ask my mother,
‘How could you have the patience to tell that blockhead the same
thing twenty times over?’ She answered, ‘Why, if I had told him
but nineteen times, I should have lost all my labor.’”--W.
H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(2348)

PERSISTENCY REWARDED

Eighty-eight letters to Andrew Carnegie, asking him to buy an
organ for the Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church of St. Louis,
written in the last eight months, brought a check at last for
$1,125 from the philanthropist.

The check was accompanied only by a printed receipt form, and
the church-members, while jubilant over getting the price of
the organ, are wondering whether Mr. Carnegie really wanted
to give the money, or did so to put an end to the series of
letters. The letters were first sent at intervals of two weeks
by different officials and members of the church, the intervals
decreasing to one day, as the appeals for aid brought no reply.

(2349)

* * * * *

A San Francisco lad, Cleve T. Shaffer, of the Potrero district,
has perfected a soaring machine that he is now manufacturing
for the market. He has the first airship factory in the West
and is advertising for business. The Shaffer glider is marketed
as a pleasure device. The pastime of scudding over fields
at lightning speed is recommended as entirely safe and most
exhilarating. Shaffer is twenty years old.

While building his gliders for the trade Shaffer, in a shop
established in the rear of his home, is fitting an enlarged
glider with a power motor which he declares will make of it a
biplane-aeroplane superior to those of the Wrights, Bleriot,
Curtiss, Latham, Paulhan and the other aviators already famous.

Shaffer is secretary of the Pacific Aero Club, the lively
little organization of air-travel zealots which has sprung from
the widespread interest in the new field of experimentation
in San Francisco. The story of Shaffer’s efforts to solve the
aviation problem is inspiring. Tho a mere boy, he is a “pioneer”
in aerial experimentation. Without funds and without any
suggestion, support or encouragement from older persons, Shaffer
as a boy of fifteen years, at a time when aviation was a subject
engaging the attention of only a handful of men in the entire
world, began persistent and systematic experiments. The lad
became the laughing-stock of his home district in the Potrero
hills. He was looked upon as a freak, a child with something
wrong in his make-up--because of his unquenchable mania for
air-travel experiments.--_Sunset Magazine._

(2350)

=Persistent Effort=--See DIFFICULTIES, OVERCOMING.

=Personal Application=--See ODD ONE, THE.

PERSONAL ELEMENT IN LITERATURE

As no glass is colorless, but tinges more or less deeply the
reflections from its surface, so no author can interpret human
life without unconsciously giving to it the native hue of his
own soul. It is this intensely personal element that constitutes
style.--WILLIAM J. LONG, “English Literature.”

(2351)

PERSONAL ELEMENT, THE

A great violinist being announced to play on his $5,000
instrument, the building was taxed to its utmost capacity to
hold the eager throng. As he began to play they cheered his
efforts and listened as if spellbound while he drew forth the
rich strains of melody. Suddenly the character of the music
changed and it was apparent to the people that something was
wrong with the violin. The artist frowned, raised it high in air
and in a tragic manner brought it down against a stand with such
force that the instrument was shivered and flew in a thousand
pieces.

The people were horrified that the man should, in a moment of
ill temper, thus destroy a $5,000 instrument. As the manager
gathered up the fragments, the musician exclaimed, “Friends,
this instrument was a $2 violin I purchased on my way here and
played on that you might know that it is not the price of the
instrument which determines the value of the music. That depends
on the player’s touch. I will now play on my $5,000 violin.”

So everywhere it is “the man behind the gun” that counts in the final results. (Text.)

(2352)

PERSONAL EVANGELISM

President Woodrow Wilson, of Princeton, gives this incident of Dwight L. Moody:

Whenever I came into contact with Mr. Moody I got the impression
that he was coming separately into contact with one person at
a time. I remember that I was once in a very plebeian place; I
was in a barbershop, lying in a chair, and I was aware that a
personality had entered the room. A man came quietly in upon
the same errand that I had come in on and sat in the chair next
to me. Every word that he uttered, tho it was not in the least
didactic, showed a personal and vital interest in the man who
was serving him, and before I got through with what was being
done to me I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic
service, because Mr. Moody was in the next chair. I purposely
lingered in the room after he left and noted the singular effect
his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. They talked in
undertones. They did not know his name. They did not know who
had been there, but they knew that something had elevated their
thought. And I felt that I left that place as I should have
left a place of worship. Mr. Moody always sought and found the
individual. (Text.)

(2353)

PERSONAL INFLUENCE