Chapter V: Preface (5)

We have given up announcing the miracle of transubstantiation
or putting to flight storms and demons or managing exorcism
by bell, book and candle, but bells as sweet as the Angelus
still ring over our English fields and woodlands on Sunday.
The passing-bell in a country churchyard is full of pathos and
memory, breaking the stillness and arresting for a moment the
busy hay-makers as they pause to listen, and remember some old
comrade who will no more be seen in their ranks. The solemn
bell at our midnight services, now so customary on the last
evening in each year throughout the land, is also charged with
hallowed thoughts; indeed, I know few things more thrilling
than that watch-night bell, which seems as the crowd kneels
within to beat away on its waves of sound the hopes and fears,
and tumultuous passions of the dead year when its echoes have
ceased those kneeling crowds feel that one more chapter in the
book of life has been written, that ringing voice has sealed the
troubled past and heralded in with its iron, inexorable, tho
trembling lips the unknown future. What with the dinner-bell,
safety yard bell, school, factory and jail bells, small cupola
spring-bells, safety electric bells, not to forget baby’s coral
and bells, bell-rattles, last reminiscence of the extinct fool’s
cap and bells, and fool’s wand, with its crown of jingling
baubles, we seem never to hear the last of bells. Bells are
the landmarks of history as well as the daily ministers to our
religious and secular life. The bell’s tongue is impartial and
passionless as fate. It tolls for the king’s death “_Le roi
est mort_.” It rings in his successor, “_Vive le roi_.”
The cynical bells rang out as Henry VIII led wife after wife to
the altar, the loyal bells rang out for the birth of Charles I,
and the disloyal ones tolled again for his execution. The bells
of Chester rang a peal for Trafalgar, alternated with a deep
toll for the death of Nelson, and some of us can remember the
tolling of St. Paul’s bell as the Iron Duke’s funeral passed
up Ludgate Hill. The long green bell which announced to the
Pisans that the wretched Ugolino, starved to death in the bottom
dungeon, had at length ceased to breathe, still hangs in the
famous leaning tower of Pisa.

At the ringing of the Sicilian Vespers in the Easter of 1282,
8,000 French were massacred in cold blood by John of Procida.
The midnight bells of Paris gave the sign for the massacre of
St. Bartholomew’s day, August 24, 1471, when 100,000 persons are
said to have perished. The great towers of Christendom have all
their eloquent bell tongues, and as we pass in imagination from
one to the other we not only catch the mingled refrain of life
and death as it floats upward from the fleeting generations of
men, but we may literally from those lofty summits contemplate
all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them.--H. R.
HAWEIS, _English Illustrated Magazine_.

(207)

=Benefaction in Kind=--See CONDITIONS SUGGEST COURSES.

BENEFACTION OF ANESTHETICS

A fine sculpture in the Boston Public Garden is a marble group
representing the Good Samaritan helping the man who had fallen
among thieves. But more beautiful than the fine work of the
sculptor is the inscription showing how the monument was erected
to commemorate the earliest use of anesthetics in surgery at the
Massachusetts General Hospital, with these texts from Scripture
appended:

“Neither shall there be any more pain.”

“This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is
wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.”--FRANKLIN
NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(208)

BENEFIT, COMPULSORY

The following paragraph appeared recently in _The Medical Record_ (New York):

Because of the opposition of his parents to the operation,
surgeons of the County Hospital of Chicago were compelled to
obtain an order from the court directing the amputation of the
arm of a fourteen-year-old boy recently. Gangrene following a
fracture made the operation necessary, but neither the boy nor
his parents would consent.

Sometimes it is legitimate to do a man good against his will.

(209)

BENEVOLENCE

He is dead whose hand is not open wide
To help the need of a human brother;
He doubles the length of his lifelong ride
Who of his fortune gives to another;
And a thousand million lives are his
Who carries the world in his sympathies.

(210)

* * * * *

Kosciusko, the famous Polish patriot and general, was very
benevolent. Sending a messenger on a hurried errand, he bade him
ride his own horse. But the man was long gone, and returning
said that next time he must take another horse, for that one
insisted on stopping at every poor hovel and with every beggar
by the way, as if he had stopt to give alms at every wayside
call. Even a horse can learn the way of giving.--FRANKLIN
NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”

(211)

=Benevolence, Christian=--See UNSELFISHNESS, POWER OF.

BENEVOLENCE, MODEST

One of Baron Rothschild’s peculiarities was to conceal his
benevolence. He gave away a great deal of money, but if the one
who received it ever mentioned the fact so that it came back to
the baron’s ears, he never got any more. His contributions to
general benevolence were always anonymous or passed through the
hands of others. His name never appeared upon any benevolent
list.

(212)

=Benevolence, Practical=--See SENTIMENT, USELESS.

=Best, Getting the=--See BUYING, GOOD.

BEST, MAKING THE

Drudgery is the gray angel of success.... Look at the leaders in
the professions, the solid men in business, the master-workmen
who begin as poor boys and end by building a town to house their
factory-hands; they are drudges of the single aim.... “One thing
I do.”... Mr. Maydole, the hammer-maker of central New York, was
an artist. “Yes,” he said, “I have made hammers for twenty-eight
years.” “Well, then, you ought to be able to make a pretty good
hammer by this time.” “No, sir,” was the answer. “I never made
a pretty good hammer; I make the best hammer made in the United
States.”--WILLIAM C. GANNETT.

(213)

=Best, The, is Brief Here=--See LIFE, USES OF.

=Betrayal=--See DISPLACEMENT.

=Betting=--See GAMBLING.

BIBLE

Charles A. Dana was a great editor and thinker. This is his fine tribute to a book that has influenced the life and destiny of more men than any other literature:

There is perhaps no book whose style is more suggestive and more
instructive, from which you learn more directly that sublime
simplicity which never exaggerates, which recounts the greatest
event with solemnity, of course, but without sentimentality or
affectation, none which you open with such confidence and lay
down with such reverence: there is no book like the Bible. When
you get into a controversy and want exactly the right answer,
when you are looking for an expression, what is there that
closes a dispute like a verse from the Bible? What is it that
sets up the right principle for you, which pleads for a policy,
for a cause, so much as the right passage of Holy Scripture?

(214)

See DIRECTIONS; LETTER OF GOD; WAY, DIRECTION OF; WORD THE, A
HAMMER.

=Bible a Book of Directions=--See DIRECTIONS.

=Bible a Book of Life=--See HIGHER CRITICISM.

=Bible Adaptation=--See ADAPTING THE BIBLE.

BIBLE A HANDBOOK

Primarily the Bible is a handbook setting forth the way of God
with individuals. When an inventor sells his sewing-machine, or
car, he accompanies the mechanism with an illustrated handbook
describing each wheel, each lever and hidden spring. Now the
Bible is an illustrated handbook that accompanies the mechanism
of the soul, with all its mental levers and moral springs.
Having first stated the facts about life and duty and destiny,
the Bible goes on to illustrate these facts. (Text.)--N. D.
HILLIS.

(215)

BIBLE A LAMP

This book is a lamp, but lamps are not to be pulled in pieces;
lamps are to be read by. When you go down into the valley and
the shadow, you will need a light. In that long journey down
into the darkness of death you will travel alone. And here is a
lamp that will light your path and bring you out of the chill
and the damp and the dark into the morning, and the dawn shall
be followed by day and the day shall deepen into high noon, the
noon of God’s heaven. (Text.)--N. D. HILLIS.

(216)

BIBLE AMONG HEATHEN

The eagerness of the Tahitians to have and read the Bible is indicated by the following account:

For years Mr. Nott had been translating the Gospel of Luke into
Tahitian, assisted by Pomare and while the book was in press the
natives often constrained Mr. Ellis to stop printing to explain
to them what they read. The missionaries wished to bind the
books before they were distributed, but the impatience of the
people constrained them to give up waiting for proper binding
materials. The natives, however, did not suffer these precious
books to remain without proper protection; dogs and cats and
goats were killed so that their skins might be prepared for
covers, and the greatest anxiety was manifested to obtain these
new copies of the Word of God.--PIERSON, “The Miracles
of Missions.”

(217)

=Bible and Experience=--See EXPERIENCE AND BIBLE.

BIBLE AND HUMAN NATURE

Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, of India, went to a native city where
the name of Jesus had never been heard. He began to explain to
them the first chapter of Romans, that chapter which describes
the heart of man wandering away from God and into sin, and
conceiving evil conceptions of God, until at last, “Tho they
know the judgment of God--that they which do such things are
worthy of death--not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them that do them.” The most intelligent man in the audience, a
Brahman, stept forward and said to Dr. Chamberlain, “Sir, that
chapter must have been written for us Hindus. It describes us
exactly.”

(218)

BIBLE AS A CHART

Dr. W. L. Watkinson, commending the Bible as the chart of life, gives this illustration:

A famous Swiss guide was once interviewed. He was a man who
had never suffered an accident. Invariably he had brought his
parties successfully through the most ambitious undertakings.
The man who interviewed him spoke of the failures of other
guides. His reply to that was, “There are guides and guides.
One takes you up and trusts to luck. He is ready for anything,
but he does not know what is coming. He guesses where he is
when you ask him, ‘Where is the top?’ I never do that. Before I
start on a new track, or one I have not made before, I study it
thoroughly. I watch it through the glass until I know it. I make
a map of it. When I say, ‘Go,’ then I can see what is before me.
On the mountain I must always know where I am. If you come to
me for science, it is no good; but I must carry my map with me
and point, ‘We are here.’ I never start without my compass, my
thermometer, and my aneroid; so that when you come to me at any
moment and ask, ‘Where are we?’ I can say, ‘Here! and it is so
many feet to the top.’”

(219)

BIBLE AS A COMPASS

Every ship has a compass. No captain would dream of going to
sea without a compass, for there are times when neither sun nor
stars appear and steering must be done by the compass alone.
So every man should have a compass. The Bible is the Christian
mariner’s compass, and by it he must steer.

(220)

=Bible as a Mind-cure=--See MIND-HEALING.

BIBLE AS BREAD

A year ago in Austria a Bible was baked in a loaf of bread. Some
wicked men came into the house to find the Bible and burn it,
but the good woman of the home, who was just going to bake bread
for her family, rolled up her Bible in a big loaf and put it in
the oven. When the intruders went away she took out the loaf,
and the Bible was uninjured.

The Bible is bread. A good loaf to hide the Bible in is a warm heart. The Bible is best baked in a good life. (Text.)

(221)

BIBLE CUSTOMS TO-DAY

How far away the Bible seems to us when it tells of sack-cloth
and ashes, and about Jacob and Mordecai and Isaiah, who marked
their desolation by these signs! In Korea sack-cloth is still
such a mark, and with hair unbound and their persons wrapt about
with these coarse folds of bagging they sit like Job and cry,
“Aigo, aigo.” “And the mourners go about the streets.” From the
writer’s house we look out on one of the main thoroughfares of
the city; and frequently, as the sun goes down, there comes
a procession bearing lanterns and a long line of mourners in
sack-cloth following the dead with mournful wailings. Is there
not a thought and a providence underlying the oneness of these
things with all the settings of the Scripture?

(222)

* * * * *

“Take up thy bed and walk,” seemed to the writer in his
boyhood days as a most extraordinary expression. He pictured a
four-posted bed being tugged out of a bedroom by one poor man
only just recovered of his sickness; but when he came to Korea,
he understood it all. The bed was just a little mattress spread
out on the floor of the living-room, and to roll it up and put
it away was the common act of every morning when the sleeper
awoke. Morning light and consciousness had come into the life of
the poor invalid, so he would roll up his sleeping-mat and walk
off to where it was put for the day. So, in many of the common
acts of life in Korea we were in touch with the days of our Lord
on earth.

(223)

* * * * *

Then there is the footgear or sandals. Neither China nor Japan
so markedly reflects Scripture in this respect as Korea. Here
are the strings tied over the instep, here the humble servant is
called to bow down and unloose them. As in Judea, they are never
worn indoors, but are dropt off on the entrance-mat.

(224)

* * * * *

The expression, “Girt about the breasts with a golden girdle,”
is never quite clear to a young Bible reader at home, and China
and Japan cast no special light upon it; but in Korea there
was the long white robe down to the feet, and round the breast
the embroidered girdle. It remained until after the missionary
arrived, and then in the changes of the new century the girdle
was swept away. The white robes, too, find their corresponding
part in Scripture, and the expression, “So as no fuller on
earth can whiten them,” often came to mind in the old days, when
out of the little squalid huts came forth coats that shone like
polished marble.--The above four illustrations from JAMES S.
GALE, “Korea in Transition.”

(225)

BIBLE, EFFECT OF

The Rev. E. W. Burt, of the Baptist mission in Shantung, says
that three men came from a distant village in the hills begging
the missionary to visit them. He expected to find some lawsuit
at the bottom of their eagerness, but instead found a chapel
built and everything ready for a splendid work in their midst.
Three years before a colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible
Society had sold them Bibles, and without any human instruction
they had come to believe in Christ.

(226)

=Bible for Missions=--See GOSPEL, SENDING THE.

BIBLE FROM GOD

At a large dinner given in New York, Mrs. Margaret Bottome, for
a long time head of the King’s Daughters Circle, sat beside a
German professor of science. In the course of conversation, Mrs.
Bottome said quite naturally for her:

“The Bible says so and so.”

“The Bible,” remarked the professor. “You don’t believe the
Bible!”

“Yes, indeed, I believe it,” replied Mrs. Bottome.

“Why, I didn’t suppose that any intelligent person to-day
believed the Bible!”

“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Bottome said, “I believe it all. I know the
Author.”

(227)

BIBLE FROM HEATHEN VIEWPOINTS

Certain parts of the Bible appeal with unexpected force to
various races, and to men in different stages of civilization,
who read the Scriptures with other eyes than ours. We may
illustrate this point by a few actual examples.

When Dr. Kilgour was translating the Old Testament into Nepali
(India), he found it an arduous, not to say a tedious, task, to
render the long chapters of ritual regulations in Leviticus; he
was surprized, however, to discover that his Nepalese assistant
considered these chapters to be among the most interesting and
important in the whole Pentateuch.

So, again, the Chinese, who lay enormous stress on reverence for
ancestors, are profoundly imprest by the first chapter of St.
Matthew’s Gospel, because it begins with the genealogy of our
Lord, which, as a colporteur wrote last year, “goes back to our
Chinese Hsia dynasty.”

In Egypt, Moslems are attracted by the Book of Genesis, which
they call “the history of the creation of the world.” In the
south of Europe the Book of Proverbs is often purchased eagerly
by Freemasons, who look back to King Solomon as the legendary
founder of their craft.

In heathen countries it is by no means uncommon for the
missionaries, who are translating the Old Testament, first to
make a version of the Psalter and perhaps of Genesis, and then
to translate the Book of Jonah before attempting any other of
the prophets. They realize--what we sometimes forget--that Jonah
is the one thoroughly missionary book in the Old Testament, and
they find that its message comes home to their converts with
peculiar power.--_The Lutheran._

(228)

BIBLE FRUIT

The following incident is related in an issue of the _Illustrated Missionary News_:

One day a Chinese scholar named Ch’u paid a visit to an old
friend, Chang, who was priest of a Buddhist temple among the
mountains of Shansi. As he looked over the library his eye fell
upon a book of unusual appearance lying on a dusty shelf, and
he inquired of the priest what book it was. “Ah,” replied his
friend, “that is a strange book I picked up on a journey--a
foreign classic. You will not think much of it.” It was a copy
of the Gospel of Mark, and Ch’u became interested in some things
he read in it. He had never heard of Christ before, and now that
life so simple and sublime laid hold on him. He came again and
again to the temple to read that little book until he knew it
almost by heart. But no one else could tell him more, for no
Christian had ever penetrated to that lonely mountain. Could
all this story about Jesus be true? If so, when did it happen?
Where were His followers whom He told to preach His gospel?
Could Jesus help men now? At length, after long waiting and much
inquiry, he learned that there were some Christians in a town
three days’ journey away, and he set off to seek them. There he
met Pastor Hsi, a Chinese evangelist, who was able to tell him
that Jesus Christ was alive and he could trust Him. Once again
he visited the Buddhist temple, this time to tell his old friend
of the grace of Christ, and Chang also became a believer. When
some years later a Christian missionary went to this place,
there was a community of saved men and women, and a little
church gathered together through the agency of the message of
that one little book.

(229)

BIBLE, GRIP OF THE

At one time I gave a Mohammedan a New Testament on condition
that he would read it. He was a Turkish official, but he
promised that he would do so. I saw him a year later, when he
came to me like Nicodemus by night. I said to him, “Have you
read the book I gave you?” He replied, “Yes, I have read it
through four times, and it gets hold of me every time right
here”--putting his hand upon his heart. “I believe that is the
religion which must ultimately be accepted by the world as the
true religion; it seems to me that it is the only religion.”
He went out and away and he is to-day an official of the
Turkish Government. He is a representative of a great class in
the Mohammedan world who are beginning to have an intelligent
knowledge of Christianity.--JAMES L. BARTON, “Student
Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(230)

BIBLE, INTEREST IN

A laboring man had come up from the country for a holiday in
London. He seemed strong and active, tho his hair was gray; and
standing in the Roman Gallery, he looked wonderingly at the long
line of statues and busts of the Roman emperors. As I pointed
out one and another to a friend with me, he stept forward and
said, “Have they got Julius Cæsar here?” I at once told him that
the bust stood at the end of the gallery and he walked toward
it, but soon came back again, evidently not quite satisfied. I
asked him if he had found it.

“No,” he said, “I couldn’t see him.” So I took the old man back
to where it stood, and pointed it out.

“You are interested in these things?” I inquired.

“Yes,” he replied, “and now I can tell folks when I go home
that I’ve seen him. Which is the one that was alive when Jesus
Christ was crucified?” I soon showed him Tiberius Cæsar, and
then Augustus, telling him how God had through his means set
the whole Roman world in motion, in order that according to
prophecy Christ might be born in Bethlehem. And then I asked him
if he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. With a bright, satisfied look
lighting up his fine old face, he said, “Ah, yes! one gets to
know summat of Him in a lifetime.”

There were many things to be seen in London, but evidently the
British Museum stood first and foremost in his estimation,
because he could there see portraits of those about whom he read
in the Bible.--ADA R. HABERSHON, “The Bible and the
British Museum.”

(231)

BIBLE, LIVING ON THE

We never fully realize the value of the Bible till it becomes our very life. The way to deal with the Bible is not merely to study it or to meditate upon it, but actually to live on it, as that squirrel lives on his beech-tree.

A preacher, one day, resting under a beech-tree, pondering on
the divine wisdom that had created it, saw a squirrel running
round the trunk and up the branches, and he said to himself,
“Ah! little creature, this beech-tree is much more to you than
it is to me, for it is your home, your living, and your all.”
Its big branches were the main streets of his city and its
little boughs were the lanes. Somewhere in that tree he had his
house and the beechnuts were his daily food.

(232)

BIBLE NOT OUT OF DATE

A trader passing a converted cannibal in Africa, asked him what
he was doing. “Oh, I am reading the Bible,” was the reply. “That
book is out of date in my country,” said the foreigner. “If it
had been out of date here,” said the African to the European,
“you’d have been eaten long ago.”

(233)

BIBLE, OFFENSE OF THE

A New York City missionary, accustomed to speak in the lowest
sections of the city, was going to hold an open-air meeting in
Paradise Park. Before he began to preach he heard a man in the
crowd say, “Damn the Bible, anyhow.” He mounted his barrel and
announced, “My text to-day is ‘Damn the Bible, anyhow.’” That
made that man and every other man eager to hear what he was
going to say next. Then he told why the devil wanted the Bible
damned: because it closed up all liquor stores and brothels,
cleaned men’s lives and taught truth and salvation.

(234)

BIBLE OUTWEARS ASSAULT

Dr. John Clifford puts into the following verse the vanity and failure of all assaults on the Bible:

Last eve I paused beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil sing the vesper chime;
Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I,
“To wear and batter all those hammers so?”
“Just one,” he said; then, with a twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”

And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, tho the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed--the hammers gone.

(235)

BIBLE, POPULARITY OF

The Bible continues to be the most popular of books, as shown
by the report of the American Bible Society for 1909. The total
number of issues amounted to 2,826,831, of which 1,427,247
came from the Bible House in New York, and 1,399,584 from the
society’s agencies abroad, in Turkey, Syria, Siam, China,
Japan, etc. These issues consisted of 327,636 Bibles, 545,743
New Testaments, and 1,953,452 Scripture portions. The number of
volumes was 673,803 in excess of the issues of a year ago, and
590,076 in excess of any year in its history.

(236)

BIBLE, REENFORCED

Recent dispatches from Denmark tell of remarkable experiments,
carried on in the sound between Denmark and Sweden, for
the purpose of testing the seaworthiness of a vessel built
according to the dimensions of Noah’s Ark, as given in Gen.
6:15. According to the Copenhagen _Daily Dannebrog_, Naval
Architect Vogt, who has experimented for a long time with the
dimensions of Noah’s Ark as given in the Bible, has recently
completed a model of that ancient craft. It measures 30 feet
in length by 5 feet in width by 3 feet in height, the actual
measurements of the ark of Noah being 300×50×30. The model is
built in the shape of an old-fashioned saddle-roof, so that a
cross-section represents an isosceles triangle. When this queer
craft was released from the tugboat which had towed it outside
the harbor and left to face the weather on its own account, it
developed remarkable sea-going qualities. It drifted sideways
with the tide, creating a belt of calm water to leeward, and the
test proved conclusively that a vessel of this primitive make
might be perfectly seaworthy for a long voyage. It is well known
that the proportionate dimensions used by modern ship-builders
are identical with those of the diluvian vessel. (Text.)

(237)

BIBLE, REGARD FOR

Rev. Egerton R. Young says of the Canadian Indians among whom he worked:

Often I have been made ashamed of the littleness of my love
by the devotion of these Indians and their love for the
Bible. One of our Indians came with his son from the distant
hunting-grounds to fish on the shores of our Great Lakes,
gathering their supplies for the winter. “My son,” said the
father, “we leave for home to-morrow morning early; put the
Book of Heaven in your pack.” So the young man put it in, and
after doing so, an uncle came and said, “Nephew, lend me the
Book of Heaven that I may read a little. I have loaned mine.”
So the pack was opened and the Bible taken out, and the uncle
put it on the blankets after finishing with it, instead of into
the pack. The next morning the father and son strapped on their
snow-shoes and walked thirty-five miles toward home, dug a hole
in the snow at night, cooked some rabbits, had their prayers and
lay down and slept. The next morning after prayers they pushed
on thirty-five miles more, and made their home. That night the
father said, “We are home now in our wigwam. Son, give me the
Book of Heaven, that the mother and the rest may read the word
and have prayers.” They searched for the book, but it was not in
the pack and the son told of his uncle’s request to borrow it.
The father was disappointed, but said little. The next morning
he arose early, put a few cooked rabbits in his pack and started
off. That day he walked seventy-five miles, found his precious
book and returned the whole distance the following day, having
walked in snow-shoes one hundred and fifty miles through the
wild forest of the north-west to regain his copy of the Word of
God! (Text.)

(238)

BIBLE REMEMBERED

Years ago when Bibles were scarce in Mexico, a man chanced upon
one, and it seemed to him interesting and of good moral tone, so
he told his son he might read it. The boy read and read and was
delighted. He memorized large portions of it, and came to love
it dearly. He thought it was the only book of its kind in the
world, and when he was twelve or fourteen he carried his book as
a proud possession to school to show it to his teacher. What was
his consternation when the teacher threw up his hands in horror
and cried, “Ave Maria, boy, where did you get that book? Don’t
you know it is one of those accurst Protestant books? Give it to
me this instant?”

He seized the volume and carried it to the priest. The boy went
home inconsolable and wept most of the night. The next day he
met the priest, who told him the book was a dangerous teacher of
false doctrines and that he had burned it. From that day the boy
lost interest in everything. He led a careless, dissolute life,
wandering from place to place. At length he was working in El
Paso, Texas, and was invited by a man to attend a gathering in
a near-by hall. As he entered, a man was standing on a platform
at a desk reading from a book. Instantly the boy recognized
some of the words he had memorized from the Bible and in a
trice he was down in front of the reader, demanding, “Sir, have
the kindness to give me back my book. That is my book that you
are reading from. They took it away from me years ago, but it
is mine.” As he stretched out his hand toward the preacher to
receive his treasure he said, “I can prove to you that it is
mine--I will tell you what it says.” And he began and repeated
passages that he had learned years before. They gave him “his
book,” as he truly thought it was--and it changed his life. He
became an honored doctor in the city of Mexico and a member of
an evangelical church.

(239)

BIBLES REQUIRED

By act of Parliament in 1579 every Scotch householder with
$2,500 to his credit had to provide, under penalty of $50, “a
Bible and Psalme buke in vulgare language in their houssis for
the better instruction of thame selffis and their famelijes
in the knowledge of God.” The condition of the times gave
added value to such a regulation. Books were few and the
Bible was a treat. Being compelled to buy it may have been a
financial hardship, but having it and next to no other book
at all made opportunity for good intellectual and spiritual
delight.--_Northwestern Christian Advocate._

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BIBLE STORIES, VALUE OF

Egerton Young tells how he interested the Indians of British Columbia through the Old Testament stories:

Some of the Indians are huge fellows, over six feet tall,
and they pride themselves on their stature. As they talked
about their height, I would say, “Listen, I have a book that
tells about a man as tall as if one of you were seated on the
shoulders of the tallest among you.” “Oh, what a story; what
talk is that, missionary?” “Well, come and listen.” Then I
talked to them about Goliath, and got them interested, and
the gospel follows. In my work among these people I found one
reason, at least, why those stories were in the Bible. Benjamin
would not listen, but he became interested in the stories, and
then he listened to the gospel.--PIERSON, “Miracles of
Missions.”

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BIBLE, TESTIMONY TO

In the district of Allahabad some conversions had taken place
among the women and girls which had greatly stirred up the
opposition of the men. The reading circles in the zenanas had to
be stopt and the missionaries were prohibited from visiting the
women. One old woman, explaining the situation, said: “Our men
say you come and take us away. It is not you who take our women
away and make them Christians; it is your Book. There are such
wonderful words in it; when they sink into the heart nothing can
take them out again.”

(242)

BIBLE, TRANSLATING THE

When the armies of King Philip of Spain were seeking to crush
liberty and life out of the people of the Netherlands, an
evangelist named Philippe de Marnix was flung into prison by the
Spaniards. The captive acted as did Luther in the castle of the
Wartburg, and as did John Bunyan in Bedford jail, for he at once
commenced the translation of the Bible into his native Dutch
language. And just as Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible
became the regenerating agency in Germany, so did the version
of Marnix prove to be the corner-stone of the Dutch republic.

(243)

=Bible, Translation of, into Life=--See VERSION, HIS MOTHER’S.

=Bible, Use of=--See RELIGION DIFFUSED.

BIBLIOMANCY

Whitefield had to sail for Georgia, and he summoned Wesley to
leave London and come to Bristol to take up the strange work
begun there. In the little society in Fetter Lane that call was
heard with dread. Some dim sense of great issues hanging upon
the answer to it disquieted the minds of the little company.
The Bible was consulted by lot, and repeatedly, in search of a
text which might be accepted as a decision. But only the most
alarming passages emerged. “Get thee up into this mountain
and die on the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered
to thy people,” ran one. When one chance-selected text proved
disquieting in this fashion the lot was cast again and yet
again, but always with the same result. There was a quaint
mixture of superstition and simplicity in the Bibliomancy of the
early Methodists. If the text which presented itself did not
please, it was rejected, and the sacred pages were interrogated
by chance afresh, in the hope of more welcome results.--W.
H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(244)

BIGNESS

The size of a gathering is not the important thing, it is the spirit and purpose of it.

Some years ago at a meeting of Congregationalist ministers in
Windham County, Conn., one of their number arose and proposed
that arrangements be made for a great convocation of all the
ministers and churches in all that county and vicinity. He
expatiated largely upon the importance of such an assembly, tho
without giving any very definite evidence as to the value of the
results that might be attained; and closed by recommending the
project to the favorable consideration of the brotherhood.

An old and well-known and somewhat eccentric preacher, Thomas
Williams, arose in his place and spoke in substance as follows:

“A man once said: ‘If all the iron in the world were made into
one ax, what a great ax that would be! And if all the water in
the world were poured into one pond, what a great pond that
would be! And if all the wood in the world were made into one
tree, what a great tree that would be! And if all the men in the
world were made into one man, what a great man that would be!’
And then,” drawled out the speaker, “if that great man should
take that great ax, and fell that great tree into that great
pond, what a great splosh there would be!”

The old man sat down, and nothing more was heard of the “great
splosh” or the great meeting.

(245)

=Bigness and Littleness Relative=--See COMPARATIVE, THE.

=Bigness Obscured by Littleness=--See PROPORTION.

BIGOTRY, RELIGIOUS

Thomas Jefferson was fiercely assailed by the Federal party,
including nearly all of the clergy of the country, as not only
depraved in heart and life, but as a blatant infidel, for whom
the yawning abyss of wo, with its eternal torments, was none
too severe a doom. Not long since a man died at Rhinebeck who,
when an infant, was taken into the Reformed Dutch Church in that
town to be baptized. After the clergyman had received the child
in his arms the father gave the name to be applied as “Thomas
Jefferson,” who was then President. “It would be blasphemy,”
said the minister, “to call that name in the house of God; this
child’s name is John,” and he finished the christening, the boy
bearing the name thus given to the day of his death.--New York
_Journal of Commerce_.

(246)

BIRD NOTES

Most of our song-birds have three notes expressive of love,
alarm, and fellowship. The last call seems to keep them in
touch with one another. I might perhaps add to this list the
scream of distress which most birds utter when caught by a cat
or a hawk--the voice of uncontrolled terror and pain which is
nearly the same in all species--dissonant and piercing. The
other notes and calls are characteristic, but this last is the
simple screech of common terrified nature. (Text.)--JOHN
BURROUGHS, _Country Life in America_.

(247)

See DARKNESS, INFLUENCE OF.

=Birds=--See CRUELTY TO BIRDS.

=Birds, Resemblances of, to Men=--See HUMAN TRAITS IN BIRDS.

BIRDS, VALUE OF

The bird is not only our brother--he is far more. He is our
benefactor, our preserver, for the simple reason that he alone
is able to hold in check the most powerful race on earth--the
insects. It is well known to scientific men that the insect
tribes, unchecked, would control the earth. Innumerable,
multiplying with a rapidity that defies figures and even
comprehension, devouring everything that has, or has had, life,
from the vegetable to the man, and living but to eat, these
myriads would soon, if left to themselves, reduce our planet to
a barren wilderness, uninhabitable by man or beast.--OLIVE
THORNE MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(248)

BIRTH CEREMONIES

On the birth of a Parsee child a magian and a fire-priest, who
is always an astrologer, are called in to predict the future
life of the babe. The magian, drest in a strange robe of many
colors, a pointed cap with jingling bells, and armed with a
long broom made of beresma twigs (which is thought to have the
power of putting evil spirits to flight), enters the chamber
of the Parsee mother and babe and setting the end of his broom
on fire dances around, exorcising the evil spirits; finally
he flourishes his firebrand over the mother and child and in
all the corners of the room. This done, the fire-priest draws
a number of squares on a blackboard; in one corner of each
square he draws a curious figure of bird, beast, fish or insect,
each of which stands for some mental, physical, or spiritual
characteristic, together with its appropriate star or planet.
The magian then proceeds by means of spells and incantations
to exercise any evil spirit that may be lurking unseen in the
blackboard. Next the fire-priest begins to count and recount
the stars under whose influence the child is supposed to be
born, and then with closed eyes and solemn voice he predicts
the future life of the babe. Next he prepares a horoscope or
birth-paper and hands it to the father. Then, placing the babe
on his knees, he waves over it the sacred flame, sprinkles it
with holy water, fills its ears and nostrils with seasalt to
keep out the evil spirits, and finally returns the screaming
infant to its mother’s arms.--MRS. LEONOWENS, _Wide
Awake_.

(249)

BIRTH-RATE IN FRANCE

Will the French nation live to the twenty-first or twenty-second century or will they by that time have committed suicide? asks Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu, French deputy, professor in the Free School of Political Science, and assistant editor of the important _Économiste Français_ (Paris), in which he writes with patriotic passion in the following strain, apropos of the recently published Government Census returns:

There is no doubt whatever that the French people are rushing
to suicide. If they continue on this course, the French nation,
those of French stock, will have lost a fifth of their number
before the expiration of the present century and will absolutely
have vanished from Europe by the end of the twenty-second
century; that is, in two hundred years. It is now twenty years
ago that we first stated this frightful fact. So far we have
been a voice in the wilderness. While people are eternally
discussing the advantages of secular education and the beauty
of the income tax, and all the grand democratic reforms that
are to come, amid all the fine speeches of sophistical cranks,
the French people are gradually committing suicide. They are
tightening the cord about the national neck; the breath of life
is becoming feebler and now is but a gasp which must soon end in
silence.

This writer says that marriage still exists in France, but it is no longer an institution “intended,” according to the language of the Book of Common Prayer, “for the procreation of children.” On this aspect of the question he remarks:

People still marry in France almost as frequently as in other
countries. But this does not result in the multiplication
of children. In 1909 marriages to the number of 307,954
were celebrated, which amounted to 7.85 for every thousand
inhabitants, a slightly less proportion than during the years
immediately preceding.

But divorce with all its consequences is on the increase in France, and we read:

If the marriage-rate remains normal in France, divorces are
becoming more and more common. There were 12,847 divorces in
1909, against 11,515 in 1908; 10,938 in 1907; 10,573 in 1906,
and 7,157 in 1900. Thus in eight years divorces have increased
at the rate of 80 per cent. Taking into consideration the
facility with which a divorce may be obtained from the courts,
the number of those who ask for and gain this release is sure
to increase rapidly. After a short time divorce will be common
in rural districts, which so far have rebelled against it, and
doubtless the number will grow to 20,000 or 30,000, if not more,
per annum.

GROWTH OF DIVORCE IN FRANCE

7,157
1900+------------
|
| 10,573
1906+----------------
|
| 10,938
1907+------------------
|
| 11,515
1908+-------------------
|
| 12,847
1909+----------------------

Mr. Leroy-Beaulieu observes that divorces might lead to remarrying and so far be in the interest of a larger population. This, however, is not the case. The great sore of France is the dwindling birth-rate. He tells us:

When we come to the birth-rate of France here we find the hurt,
the deadly hurt, from which our country suffers. The birth-rate
in France has been declining for a century. This decline has
become so accelerated during the past ten or fifteen years that,
as I feel bound to repeat, we stand confronted by an impending
suicide of the nation.

He gives the following figures to confirm his deduction:

1835–1869
30
+----------------------
| 26
+-------------------
| 1876–1900
| 26
+-------------------
| 22
+----------------
| AT PRESENT
| 20
+--------------

During the first thirty years of the nineteenth century
France recorded more than 30 births per thousand inhabitants;
from 1835 to 1869 the birth-rate oscillated between 30 and
26 per thousand. Leaving out the depopulating years of the
Franco-Prussian War, 1870–71, and years succeeding, which
suffered from this scourge, we find that from 1876 to 1900
the birth-rate was on the decline and ranged from 26 to 22
per thousand. In 1900 it had sunk to 21, and by the latest
statistics it is at present only 20 per thousand inhabitants.

This writer tells us that while in 1801 the birth-rate in France exceeded the death-rate by 5.1 per thousand inhabitants, the excess last year was merely 0.3 per thousand. He admits that hygienic improvements and decreasing deaths among children have lowered the death-rate, but this can not remedy the decrease of the birth-rate:

If ten homes do not contain among them more than fifteen
children to take the place of twenty parents, there is no
reduction in the death-rate which can prevent the final
diminution of the national population.

(250)

BLACK, TURNING

Character can be made black as easily, but not as easily restored, as the skin of the lady mentioned in the extract below:

A celebrated Parisian belle, says the _Popular Science News_,
who had acquired the habit of whitewashing herself, so to
speak, from the soles of her feet to the roots of her hair,
with chemically-prepared cosmetics, one day took a medicated
bath, and on emerging from it she was horrified to find herself
as black as an Ethiopian. The transformation was complete;
not a vestige of the “supreme Caucasian race” was left. Her
physician was sent for in alarm and haste. On his arrival he
laughed immoderately and said, “Madame, you are not ill, you
are a chemical product. You are no longer a woman, but you are
a ‘sulfid.’ It is not now a question of medical treatment,
but a simple chemical reaction. I shall subject you to a bath
of sulfuric acid diluted with water. The acid will have the
honor of combining with you; it will take up the sulfur, the
metal will produce a ‘sulfurate,’ and we shall find as a
‘precipitate’ a very pretty woman.” The good-natured physician
went through with his reaction, and the belle was restored to
her membership with the white race.

(251)

=Blasted Hopes=--See DISAPPOINTMENT.

=Bleeding in Old Times=--See SURGERY, IMPROVEMENT IN.

BLESSING THE ROPES

Every summer, at the beginning of the climbing season in the
Swiss mountains, a solemn service is held among the guides, many
of whom are godly men, who know they take their lives in their
hands when they ascend the Alps. So they bring their ropes with
them and lay them at the foot of one of the mountains. Old and
new ropes are piled in a heap, and then they are “blessed” by
the pastor. Prayer is offered that the old ropes may still bear
the strain safely, and that the new ropes may prove equal to all
the stress placed upon them. The guides are commended to the
mercy of God that in their daily ascents they may be kept safely
and that they may succor the travelers who trust in them. (Text.)

(252)

BLESSINGS, CONQUERING

Goethe uttered a true word where he sings:

Yes! to this thought I hold with firm persistence;
The last result of wisdom stamps it true:
He only earns his freedom and existence
Who daily conquers them anew. (Text.)

(253)

BLESSINGS COUNTED

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprize you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold,
Count your many blessings, money can not buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high. (Text.)

(254)

BLESSINGS FROM TRIAL

The naturalist reminds us how the furious eagerness of the
winged insects, which seem to be the agents of death, is
frequently a cause of life. By an incessant persecution of the
sick flocks, enfeebled by hot, damp airs, they insure their
safety. Otherwise they would remain stupidly resigned, and hour
by hour become less capable of motion until they could rise
no more. The inexorable spur of the furious insects knows,
however, the secrets of putting the flocks on their legs; tho
with trembling limbs, they take to flight; the insect never
quits them, presses them, urges them, bleeding, to the wholesome
regions of the dry lands and the living waters where their
afflictions cease.

On life’s lower plains, living lives of ease and indulgence, the strength and dignity of the soul would perish; but the ills of life disturb us, sting us, incessantly attack and pursue us, until bleeding we find the higher planes of thought and life, until at last we reach the sweet table-lands of which God Himself is sun and moon. The fiery law is a chariot of fire, lifting true souls into heavenly places.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(255)

=Blessings Shared=--See RESPONSIBILITY.

=Blessings Unappreciated=--See APPRECIATION, LACK OF.

“=Blest Be the Tie that Binds=”--See CHRISTIAN UNITY.

=Blind Children in India=--See INDIA, MEDICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN.

BLIND GUIDES

I have read of a blind lamp-lighter. This poor man had mastered
the long street in his city, and obtained the position of
lamp-lighter. He would go up and down the street, opening the
gas key and lighting the flame. Tired men went home from work
in the light that he had lit. The blind man found the street
dark; he left it a blaze of light for the tired multitudes. And
yet, when he had lighted all the lamps, he felt his own way back
home. Oh, pathetic scene! telling us how science looks down
at the clods, works over iron and ore, matter and force, and
stumbles forward in the very moment when the whole world is a
blaze of light.--N. D. HILLIS.

(256)

=Blind, The, and Christ=--See CHRIST A GUIDE TO THE FATHER.

BLINDNESS

Edward Wilbur Mason in the following verses shows how men miss the best things because they are spiritually blind as to the things nearest to them.

We seek for beauty on the height afar;
But on the earth it glimmers all the while:
Tis in the garden where the roses are;
’Tis in the glory of a mother’s smile.

We seek for God in every distant place;
But lo, beside us He forever stands:
We meet Him guised as sunlight face to face;
We touch Him when we take a brother’s hands.

(257)

See DARKNESS; GENIUS PERSECUTED.

BLINDNESS A BLESSING

Moses endured, it is said, as “seeing Him who is invisible.” And “there are others,” thank God!

Fanny Crosby, in the eighties, has fulfilled the vow which she
made at eight, and has never mourned over the fact that she is
blind. What an impressive lesson of trust and resignation is her
declaration that her blindness has proved not a deprivation, but
a real blessing!

If the gift of sight were offered her now she has said that she
would elect to remain as she is. For she says cheerfully:

“If I had not been deprived of sight, I should never have
received so good an education, nor have cultivated so fine a
memory, nor have been able to do good to so many people.” (Text.)

(258)

BLINDNESS AND CONTACT

Mr. W. H. Levy, who is blind, says in his book, “Blindness and
the Blind,” that he can tell when he is opposite an object, and
can perceive whether it is tall or short, slender or bulky.
He can also determine whether it be a solitary object or a
continuous fence; whether a close fence or an open one, and
sometimes whether a wooden fence, a stone wall, or a hedge.
None of the five senses has anything to do with this perceptive
power, but the impressions are made on the skin of his face,
and by it transmitted to the brain. He therefore names this
unrecognized sense facial perception. The presence of a fog
interferes with facial perception, and makes the impressions
faint and untrustworthy; but darkness is no impediment. A noise
which distracts the attention interferes with the impressions.
In passing along the street he can distinguish stores from
private houses, and doors from windows, if the windows consist
of a number of panes, and not of a single sheet of glass. A
remarkable fact, bearing on the subject of an unrecognized sense
is mentioned by Mr. Levy. A naturalist extracted the eyes of
several bats and covered the empty sockets with leather. In
this condition the bats flew about the room, avoiding the sides
and flying out of the door without touching the door-case. In
flying through a sewer which made a right angle, they turned
at the proper point. They flew through threads suspended
from the ceiling without touching them, tho they were only
far enough apart to admit the passage of the bats’ extended
wings.--_Youth’s Companion._

(259)

BLINDNESS CURED

The blind man whom Jesus cured said, “I see men as trees walking.” Christianity is a “convex” lens helping men to see, but it is too much to expect a newly enlightened convert to see accurately all at once.

Convex spectacles are made for the use of patients who have
undergone the operation of removal of a cataract. A cataract
is merely the crystalline lens of the eye become opaque.
The convex lens of the spectacles supplies the place of the
crystalline lens. But the patient is obliged to learn distances
and dimensions after sight is thus restored, and during this
experience he often suffers illusions.

(260)

BLINDNESS, MORAL