Chapter M: E. Hume-Griffith, in her “Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish (7)

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at the door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labor you shall find the sum.

--ROSSETTI.

(3018)

=Soul-revival=--See CONVERSION.

SOUL-SATISFACTION

Ellen Glasgow writes of the contentment of a soul on friendly terms with itself:

Since my soul and I are friends,
I go laughing on my road;
Whether up or down it wends,
I have never felt my load.

(3019)

SOUL-SURGERY

In the corn-field you find the juicy ear overtaken by the deadly
fungus. The farmer lifts his knife, and cuts away one-half of
the ear, that he may save the sweet corn on the other half. From
the prodigal, Jesus cut away his sins, that He might save the
boy’s soul.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3020)

SOUL, YOUR

A very little girl, having received some dim impression
regarding the soul, was asking her mother what it was. “Can you
feel the soul, mother; can you hear it?” she asked, and then,
“can you see it?” The mother answered that the soul could not
be felt or heard, but that sometimes it seemed as if we could
see it in the eyes. “Let me see yours,” said the little one, and
gazing into the mother’s dear eyes she saw there the tiny image
of herself, and exclaimed, “O mother, your soul is a little
child!”

It would be profitable to all of us if we would ask ourselves this question, “Is my soul a little child?” (Text.)

(3021)

SOUNDS

Compared with the Western world, with its indescribable hubbub,
Korea is a land of the most reposeful silence. There are no
harsh pavements over which horses are tugging their lives out,
no jostling of carts or dray-wagons, no hateful clamor that
forbids quiet conversation, but a repose that is inherent and
eternally restful. The rattle of the ironing-sticks is not
nerve-racking, but rather serves as a soporific to put all the
world to sleep. Apart from this, one hears nothing but the few
calls and echoes of human voices. What a delightfully quiet land
is Korea! In the very heart of its great city, Seoul, you might
experiment at midday in the latest methods of restcure and have
all the world to help you.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in
Transition.”

(3022)

SOWING AND REAPING

Plant blessings, and blessings will bloom;
Plant hate and hate will grow;
You can sow to-day--to-morrow will bring
The blossom that proves what sort of a thing
Is the seed, the seed that you sow. (Text.)

(3023)

SOWING BY SONG

“What shall the harvest be?” the composition of Mrs. Emily
Oakey, and as sung by Mr. Sankey, won to Christ and to the
gospel ministry the Rev. W. O. Lattimore, long pastor in
Evanston, Ill. Young Lattimore joined the army in 1861 a moral
youth of eighteen years, but later, a first lieutenant, he fell
into drink, becoming a physical wreck. But one day in 1876, in
the gallery of Moody’s Tabernacle in Chicago, dazed from drink,
the voice of Sankey in this pathetic song aroused in him new
emotions, particularly the words:

“Sowing the seed of a lingering pain,
Sowing the seed of a maddened brain,
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name,
Sowing the seed of eternal shame,
O, what shall the harvest be?”

The seed was sown--good seed this time; and from the saloon
to which he withdrew, he returned to the Tabernacle, found a
Savior, rejoined wife and child whom he had long abandoned, and
after a successful pastorate of twenty years, died in 1899--a
whole harvest to the seed-sowing of Christian song.

(3024)

SPACE NOT VACANT

The idea that the vast spaces between the sun and the various
planets are void and untenanted now belongs only to the history
of science. To-day it is known that these spaces are filled
with vast swarms of minute, dust-like bodies, each and every
one revolving about the sun in vast ellipses, each one being,
in fact, a microscopic planet. These bodies make their presence
known not only as meteors or shooting-stars, but also by their
power to reflect sunlight, and thus produce the peculiar evening
glow of the zodiacal light.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The
Solar System.”

(3025)

=Sparrow and Sermon=--See SERMON, SAVING A.

=Speaking Extemporaneously=--See TACT.

SPEAKING, PUBLIC

To talk to a crowd of 5,000 people--few living speakers know
what that means; the expenditure of nervous force, the strain
on throat and brain, on body and soul. But Wesley did this, not
only every day, but often twice and three times in a day. He did
it for fifty years, and the strain did not kill him!

Gladstone’s Midlothian campaign in 1879 is famous in history;
but it was confined to a little patch of Scotland; it lasted
fifteen days, and represented perhaps twenty speeches. But
Wesley carried on his campaign on a scale which leaves Mr.
Gladstone’s performances dwarfed into insignificance. He did
it on the great stage of the three kingdoms, and he maintained
it without a break for more than fifty years!--W. H.
FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(3026)

See TACT.

SPEAKING TO DO GOOD

A writer in the London _Mail_ has this to say concerning Theodore Roosevelt while in Egypt:

At Cairo he was asked to leave out his reference to the murder
of the Prime Minister. “No,” he answered, “that is just what
I want to say. If you do not care about it let us call the
engagement off.”

There spoke the essential Roosevelt, not the politician, but the
preacher. His object in speaking is to do good. To give advice,
to stiffen healthy instincts, to strengthen public opinion
against meanness and cruelty, to induce every man and every
woman to make the best of themselves--those are the essential
Roosevelt aims. His style smacks more of the pulpit than the
platform.... “If I had been a Methodist,” he once declared, “I
should have applied for a license as a lay preacher.” Since then
he has obtained his license to preach--but from a greater body
than the Methodist Conference. He is preacher-in-general to the
whole civilized world.

(3027)

SPEECH

Compare the golden oriole, swinging in the sunshine, and filling
the house with flashing melodies, with the infant, moaning in
his yet inarticulate speech, that lies beneath! The bird was
made for enjoyment first; for work, subordinately. The infant
was created for an enjoyment to be realized through fervent
operation. The bird has a beauty of the Mind which created him.
The gloss upon his breast, and the brilliance on his wings,
were put there by God’s pencil. His gushing song warbles a
tribute to Him who gave him power to sing. But the child has a
struggling capacity within him, as much grander than this as the
spiritual and divine are always grander than the physical. He
hath in his being the germs of speech. And speech can represent
the most delicate feeling. It can set forth the mightiest
process of thought. It can furnish an image for all that is
conceived. It can take up and interpret the very thoughts of the
infinite, translating them into language for the immortals to
hear.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

(3028)

See SILENCE AND SPEECH.

SPEECH AND MISSIONARIES

We very frequently disgust people because of our seven-by-nine
vocabulary. When the missionaries first went to the Hawaiian
Islands it was perfectly proper for them to call the horse the
“not pig,” because they knew no horse and the newcomers were
obliged to describe a horse in some way; but it is infantile for
a missionary in countries where horses are common, because they
do not happen to know the word for “horse” and do know the words
for “not pig,” to call a horse the “not pig.” There is too much
guesswork about that kind of talk, and you offend people by so
doing.

Vulgarity of speech is a very common fault with many. We do not
realize, perhaps, how our language has been purified, but in
most of the missionary countries the language is vile beyond
expression. A missionary adopts a word heard because he wants to
use the language of the people; and he picks up something that
is very greatly soiled. I recall a meeting that was electrified
and horrified by a missionary who, in reading a hymn, repeatedly
used an obscene word through sheer carelessness.--H. P.
BEACH, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(3029)

=Speech and Practise=--See PROFESSION VERSUS CHARACTER.

SPEECH, COMMON

John Wesley believed in the people, and one of the chief secrets
of his success lay in his power to learn from the masses how
to speak to them and influence them. On one occasion he was
walking with his scarcely less famous brother, Charles Wesley,
the hymn-writer, in a humble street in London, when they came
face to face with a crowd of fishwomen who were in a row, and
were cursing and swearing in a most excited fashion. Charles
Wesley, more timid than his brother, turned to John and said:
“Brother, let us go up this other street and escape from this
mob.” But John Wesley thought Charles needed more contact with
the people, and taking him by both shoulders faced around toward
the quarreling women, saying, “You stand there, Charles Wesley,
and learn how to preach!”--_Everybody’s Magazine._

(3030)

=Speech, The Effect of Earnest=--See EARNESTNESS.

=Speed=--See SWIFTNESS OF BIRDS.

=Speed in Travel=--See TRAVELING, PROGRESS IN.

=Speed Increased by Reducing Delays=--See DELAY.

=Speed, Sensation of=--See OBSTACLES.

SPEED, THE SECRET OF

In attacking some evils the best way to sweep them down, is often to use our greatest bulk and energy at the outset; as a ship, according to M. C. L. Meyher, moves fastest when the bow is made larger than the stern.

It should be noted in passing that all creatures that are
called upon to move rapidly through a fluid are much slenderer
behind than before, and it should be added that forms that
are too slender in front are quite unsuited for great speeds.
This may easily be demonstrated, but would take us too far
from our subject for the moment. We should only say that it is
difficult to understand why designers so often persist in giving
to vessels forms that are more slender in the bow than in the
stern, when the contrary should be the case.--_Revue Generale
des Sciences._

(3031)

=Spelling at Fault=--See ILLITERACY.

SPHINX, THE

Out of the changeful fury of the tide-rifts streaming by
Wilt build thee, O world, a place of peace, and show God by and by?
Or all the riot of roses and the loves that escape control,
Are they rainbows shed on a melting cloud from the central sun of
my soul?

O musical storms and stars, do ye strike wild chords unplanned?
Or is there a master-musician, who leads with uplifted hand?
If a God’s will shape the heavens, is He perfect, boundless, free?
Or feel He the bondage of violent dust? Does He suffer and strive
like me?

I know that I never shall answer the riddles that haunt the mind,
I see but a spark of the infinite flame--to all the rest born
blind.
Yet envy I not the gazers who boast of their clearer sight;
For safer I walk if I know I am blind, than calling the darkness
light.

For all my riddle unanswered, for all my blindness known,
I would rather keep asking the secret than to make it all my own.
I believe that the stir of the questions is the spirit’s ultimate
breath.
All life is a passionate question. Wilt thou not answer it, Death?

--THEODORE C. WILLIAMS, _Unity_.

(3032)

=Spiders and Music=--See MUSIC AND SPIDERS.

=Spider as a Barometer=--See INDICATOR, AN INSECT.

=Spiders, The Value of=--See BALANCE PRESERVED IN NATURE.

SPIRIT AND FORM

Religion may be compared to a banana. The real heart religion
is the juicy pulp; the forms and ceremonies are the skin. While
the two are united and undivided the banana keeps good until it
is used. And so it is with religion. Separate the forms from the
spirit, and the one will be of no more value than the banana
husk, while the latter will speedily decay and become corrupt,
apart from the outward expression.--ARTHUR T. PIERSON.

(3033)

SPIRIT, FRUIT OF

How beautiful on paper are the flowers delineated in many a
seedman’s catalog, but what disappointment sometimes ensues
when it is found that their actual growth comes far short of
the printed description! It is never so with the fruits of the
Spirit, of which Paul gives a list. All the grace described
in his catalog brings forth glory that answers fully to the
promise. The divine Spirit never disappoints and the grace of
God can not fail. (Text.)

(3034)

=Spirit Manifestation a Power=--See CONSISTENCY.

SPIRIT MORE THAN BODY

One of America’s prominent astronomers is only four feet high,
and would hardly outweigh a boy of ten years. But there are few
who could outweigh him in intellect and achievement. Alexander
H. Stephens, with a dwarf’s body, did a giant’s work. With only
a broken scythe, by sheer force of will and work, he overmatched
in the harvest those who had fine mowing-machines.

(3035)

SPIRIT, THE SPARK OF

Recently, I visited Fort Monroe and was taken through those
interesting barracks. An officer pointing out a great gun said
to me, “With that we could tear to pieces yonder wall of stone
and destroy many lives thousands of yards away.” A friend
standing near said, “Not so, that gun in itself is powerless.”
“Oh,” the officer exclaimed, “of course, we must first place
the powder and the shell in it, and then the disastrous work
will be done.” The reply was made, “All of your guns and powder
and shell are absolutely powerless to make any impression in
themselves. There is one thing lacking.” “Yes,” he said, “but a
spark of fire would hurl forth the missile of death and bring
about the great destruction.” We may have big guns in the
pulpit, and in the pew, we may have the finest machinery and
external equipment; but unless we have the fire of the Spirit
we can never shatter the strongholds of Satan and bring in the
reign of our spiritual King.--H. ALLEN TUPPER.

(3036)

SPIRIT, WINDS OF THE

Many a pilgrim has been lost in the world’s deserts. A wanderer who had lost his bearing in a wilderness, altho he had in his hand a compass, knew not whether its needle pointed toward a place of rest and refreshment, or only to a spot where he might lie down in despair.

He sank down on the arid sand. But presently a green leaf was
wafted close to his feet. On seeing that it was perfectly green
and fresh, he reasoned that it must have come from some not
distant place where water, shade, and food could be found, and
of course the breeze indicated the right direction. Facing the
wind he soon discovered an oasis where he quenched his thirst at
a spring.

So the promises from the word of God, fresh with the dew of the Spirit of life, flutter to us on what seems to be the chance currents of life. Often thus when our hearts are weary, and joy has faded, and hope is weak, we are encouraged with revived strength and are made to understand which way to turn.

(3037)

=Spirit’s Permanence=--See RECORD, LIVING.

=Spirit’s Presence, The=--See PRESENCE OF GOD.

SPIRITS, WATCHING

The influence exerted by belief in invisible presences is illustrated by Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, who says that it is extremely difficult for a Western mind to apprehend the full meaning of ancestor-worship as a family religion, and cites as the nearest parallel the nature of the old Greek piety:

Each member of the family supposes himself or herself under
perpetual ghostly surveillance. Spirit eyes are watching every
act; spirit ears are listening to every word. Thoughts, too,
not less than deeds, are visible to the gaze of the dead; the
heart must be pure, the mind must be under control, within the
presence of the spirits. Probably the influence of such beliefs,
uninterruptedly exerted upon conduct during thousands of years,
did much to form the charming side of Japanese character. (Text.)

(3038)

SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

In an article on apparitions written by Andrew Lang, in the second volume of the “Encyclopedia Britannica,” ninth edition, he says:

“The writer once met, as he believed, a well-known and learned
member of an English university who was really dying at a place
more than a hundred miles distant from that in which he was
seen.”

To determine whether or not it was a case of mistaken identity
is very important, but no opportunity is given in the passage
quoted. If it was a subjective impression, the coincidence
would be curious and nothing else; and not more so than many
coincidences in trifles, and many other circumstances absolutely
disconnected, and many subjective impressions without any
coincidences. Mr. Lang refers to the superstitious horror shown
by a dog at the moment of a supposed apparition to his master.
That the dog exhibited horror when his owner thought he saw
an apparition may be readily believed. Any one familiar with
dogs knows that nothing will terrify them more than a great
appearance of alarm on the part of their masters without any
visible cause. Of the same nature is the remark concerning
the mysterious disturbances at the house of the Wesleys. “The
mastiff was more afraid than any of the children.” The volatile
imagination of children have never shown any great horror of
the mysteries; they were sustained, too, by confidence in their
parents. But the dog heard mysterious noises, which naturally
greatly agitated him. Many persons fancy that mysterious
noises that will appear to respond to questions, to make raps
or answer raps, conclusively prove that they are directed by
intelligence. Sometimes they may, and the intelligence is quite
likely to be of human origin; but the noises of atmospheric,
chemical, or electrical origin may furnish astonishing
coincidences, just as the fissures in the rocks are extremely
difficult to be distinguished from hieroglyphics. Some years ago
an alphabet based on the spiritualistic alphabet was applied
to the successive gusts of wind of a stormy autumn day, and
the coincidences were astonishing. Whole sentences of a very
significant character at times appeared to respond to the
arbitrary standard. And in any case the conclusion that a noise,
the cause of which is not yet understood, must be supernatural
is a process of reasoning _ab ignorantia_.--J. M.
BUCKLEY, _Century_.

(3039)

=Spiritual Culture=--See APPRECIATION, SPIRITUAL.

SPIRITUAL DECLENSION

“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” issued from the consecrated
genius of Robert Robinson, a native of Norfolk, England, who was
converted under Whitefield’s powerful preaching, and himself
became a minister of the gospel.

It was while on a stage journey once, in company with an unknown
lady passenger, that he heard her begin singing the above lyric
to divert her attention, when he said to her: “Madam, I am the
unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago; and I would
give a thousand worlds if I had them, if I could feel as I felt
then.” (Text.)

(3040)

=Spiritual Development=--See MOODS OF THE SPIRIT.

SPIRITUAL GUNNERY

After carefully loading his gun for the kind of game which seems
to require his immediate and special attention, the spiritual
gunner should be sure to take particularly good aim at it. A
good aim is an essential to success. The gunner who aims at
nothing in particular, who closes both eyes and fires at random,
will hit nothing in particular, unless it be by accident, and
will receive no commendation for his skill. In fact, he is
very apt to hit what he does not wish to hit, and what he will
do more harm than good by hitting. Again, in these days sin
and sinners--the game the spiritual gunner is after--are so
uncommonly lively that they must be hit on the wing, if hit
at all. The spiritual gunner must, therefore, learn to aim
accurately at “arm’s length,” and quickly. If he trusts to a
“dead rest” aim, the game will be very apt to get out of range
before his gun goes off, and his work and ammunition will both
be wasted--and that is not creditable to a gunner. Long-range
shooting should also be avoided, and the gunner should quietly
work his way as near as possible to his game and fire at the
shortest possible range. A well-loaded gun, fired at short-range
and with steady aim, will generally hit the mark and do
execution.--_The Evangelist._

(3041)

* * * * *

The spiritual gunner who has a reasonably fair appreciation
of his important and responsible business will not try to use
the same kind of gun for all kinds of game. He will adapt his
gun to the kind of game he has specially in view, and he will
always have in view game of some kind if he is anxious to become
“a mighty hunter before the Lord.” He will not bring out a
loaded Armstrong, or Columbiad, or Gatling for very small game
and reserve his smallest arms for game of the largest and most
dangerous kind if he wishes to bear home any trophies of his
working skill. Every professional gunner--every pulpit gunner
especially--who wishes to do efficient work will not only have
large guns and small guns ready loaded, where he can lay his
hands on them at once, but will know just when and how to use
each kind. He will also be careful not to use kicking guns and
overloaded guns, which always do a great deal more harm to
those behind them than they do to those just in front. A gun
that shoots straight ahead without much scattering, instead of
backward or sideways, that is well aimed, and that carries true
to its aim, is the only gun for the spiritual hunter, whether it
be large or small.--_The Evangelist._

(3042)

SPIRITUAL NOBILITY

A touching tribute to one of nature’s noblewomen appeared in the _Pall Mall Gazette_:

She walks unnoticed in the street.
The casual eye
Sees nothing in her fair or sweet.
The world goes by
Unconscious that an angel’s feet
Are passing nigh.

She little has of beauty’s wealth,
Truth will allow;
Only her priceless youth and health,
Her broad, white brow;
Yet grows she on the heart by stealth,
I scarce know how.

She does a thousand kindly things
That no one knows.
A loving woman’s heart she brings
To human woes,
And to her face the sunlight clings
Where’er she goes.

And so she walks her quiet ways
With that content
That only comes to sinless days
And innocent.
A life devoid of fame or praise,
Yet nobly spent. (Text.)

(3043)

SPIRITUAL PERTURBATION

After Bunyan’s marriage the record of the next few years is like
a nightmare, so terrible is his spiritual struggle. One day he
feels himself an outcast; the next the companion of angels; the
third he tries experiments with the Almighty in order to put his
salvation to the proof. As he goes along the road to Bedford he
thinks he will work a miracle, like Gideon with his fleece. He
will say to the little puddles of water in the horses’ tracks,
“Be ye dry”; and to all the dry tracks he will say, “Be ye
puddles.” As he is about to perform the miracle a thought occurs
to him. “But go first under yonder hedge and pray that the Lord
will make you able to perform a miracle.” He goes promptly and
prays. Then he is afraid of the test, and goes on his way more
troubled than before.

After years of such struggle, chased about between heaven and
hell, Bunyan at last emerges into a saner atmosphere, even as
Pilgrim came out of the horrible Valley of the Shadow. Soon,
led by his intense feelings, he becomes an open-air preacher,
and crowds of laborers gather about him on the village green.
They listen in silence to his words; they end in groans and
tears; scores of them amend their sinful lives.--WILLIAM J.
LONG, “English Literature.”

(3044)

=Spiritual Power the True Estimate=--See MEASUREMENT,
SPIRITUAL.

SPIRITUAL VALUES

Jesus asked, “How much is a man better than a sheep?” Here are some estimates:

The deepest needs of the world are spiritual needs. One man
invested $100,000 in India. It resulted in the conversion of
50,000 in that district--one soul saved for every two dollars
invested. Christ’s standard of greatness was service. On the
Kongo a man’s value is estimated in cattle; on the Hudson, in
social standing; but by the river of life, by what he is, and
the standard is helpfulness.

(3045)

SPIRITUALITY, RATIONAL

On some clear evening when the stars shrink back before the
pathway of the ascending moon, and night is almost transformed
to day, we are moved to admiration and pleasure; yet all this
attractive light, focused to the smallest compass, could not
dissolve the most delicate petal of frost or melt the tiniest
snowflake.

Such is science without sentiment, the intellect without the heart, religion without spirituality. But on the other hand, the true church is one which combines both; which is purely rational, yet deeply religious; which is perfectly tolerant and catholic; which yet extends its fraternal hand to the needy, opprest, and downtrodden of every class; which is bound to no creed whatsoever, but is genuinely, rationally, vitally spiritual.--GEORGE C. CRESSEY.

(3046)

SPRING AS TYPE OF LIFE

When I am gone, somehow I hope that spring
Will typify my life, my optimism,
My hope of victory through the years,
My nerve of step, my clear and visioned eye.
The early flowers, the robins singing in
The rain (may they not sing since they have wings?),
The increasing light, the slowly opening buds,
The almond blooms, the trees in vernal dress
Are like the silver crown upon my head:
A prophecy of heaven’s summer time.
Yes, when I die, it shall be springtime then
Of my great immortality.

When I am gone, let men say, He was always young;
Not even Sorrow, with his ruthless plow;
Nor base ingratitude, nor brothers false,
Nor slander’s venomed tooth, nor poverty,
Could rend rude furrows in his springlike soul
That soon arrayed itself with lovely vines
And fragrant flowers that added beauties new
To one who, ripe in years, knew not old age.

--_Western Christian Advocate._

(3047)

SPRINGS FROM GOD

You remember the masonry in Prospect Park (Brooklyn), built to
hold that huge bank in its place? Well, when that solid wall
was completed, a hidden spring broke out, and the walls moved
and cracked. Pulling the masonry down a second time, it was
again rebuilt. This time a little drain tube and faucet were
put in. But the mouth became stopt up, and a second time the
pressure of the hidden waters moved the wall. Then another tube
and pipe were put through the wall. What was the power that put
such immeasurable pressure upon masonry and moved it? It was
the hidden water--silently, steadily, irresistibly, crowding
all before it. To-day the hidden waters may manifest themselves
through one tube, and to-morrow they may gush through another
tube, but the power is in the water and the reservoir behind
it, and not in the tube through which it appears. And that
power that lifted the Hebrew slaves and swept them forward and
buoyed them up, now revealed itself through the lips of Moses,
and now speaks through the life of Joshua, transforming the
people, is not in Moses, nor in Joshua, it is in God.--N. D.
HILLIS.

(3048)

* * * * *

Salvation is by character, but character is the gift of God.
Far up on the northeastern coast of Maine there is a little
spring; through all the hours of a sunny afternoon it poured its
crystal flood that ran singing toward the sea. Then, the briny
sea turned to a salt the spring. The waves with their bitterness
came in and buried it, and the sweet water seemed lost forever.
Then in the eastern sky God hung His orb of light, and silently
by that invisible pull, and with its secret voice it called to
the waves of salt, and drew back the briny flood with its mire
and filth, that ebbed away, and lo, the little spring flowed on,
fed by the pure fountains on the hillside far above the ocean’s
brine. And the soul’s life comes down from the mountains, where
its hidden springs are in God. Aspiration, hope and love gush
on forever pure. Temptations may rise, like the tide. Troubles,
ingratitudes and hatreds may sweep on like hungry waves, the
world may cast up its mire, but soon these troubles will recede,
and leave the spring of life within the soul, to gush forth once
more. It is the river of God, the well that springs up into
everlasting life.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3049)

SPRINGS OF LIFE

In ancient pagan religions there was a peculiar sacredness attached to running water in springs or rivers. The famous oracle of Delphi was beside the Castalian spring; and in the haunted grotto of Egeria, inspired by the murmurs of its beautiful fountain, the first king of Rome received from the celestial nymph the laws and the religious rites which he imparted to the primitive community. Rivers in prehistoric times were everywhere worshiped; shrines were erected on their banks, and they had priests of their own. Men swore by them, for the spirit of the waters could drown those who proved false to their word; and the most awful form of oath is that which the Hindu still takes who swears by a divine river more sacred even than the Ganges--of which the Ganges is only an earthly manifestation. The office of the Hebrew prophets received its name in the original from a root signifying the bursting forth and the overflowing of a copious fountain. As the spring bursts forth from the heart of the rock in full flood, so the inspiration of God bursts forth from the heart of the prophet. This origin of the name would indicate that springs and rivers were at first chosen as the medium of a divine revelation--_The Quiver._

(3050)

=Spurious Virtue=--See PRETENSE.

=Stage to Pulpit=--See EVANGELISM, UNUSUAL.

STAGNANCY

Sailors tell us that there is a dead spot in the Caribbean Sea.
It lies midway between Carthagena in Columbia and Kingston,
Jamaica. It is out of the track of steamers and the action of
the great currents going one way and another has left a space of
stagnant water without any real movement at all. Anything that
gets into “the dead spot” is apt to stay there unless driven
out by some big storm, and will simply drift round and round,
gathering sea-grass and barnacles.

Is there not “a dead spot” in the sea of life, a place out of the currents of earnest activities where souls drift and gather worthless accretions? (Text.)

(3051)

STAINS

The three ghosts on the lonesome road
Spake each to one another,
“Whence came that stain about your mouth
No lifted hand may cover?”
“From eating of forbidden fruit,
Brother, my brother.”

The three ghosts on the sunless road
Spake each to one another,
“Whence came that red burn on your foot
No dust nor ash may cover?”
“I stamped a neighbor’s hearth-flame out,
Brother, my brother.”

The three ghosts on the windless road
Spake each to one another,
“Whence came that blood upon your hand
No other hand may cover?”
“From breaking of a woman’s heart,
Brother, my brother.”

“Yet on the earth clean men we walked,
Glutton and Thief and Lover;
White flesh and fair it hid our stains
That no man might discover.”
“Naked the soul goes up to God,
Brother, my brother.”

--THEODOSIA GARRISON, _Zion’s Herald_.

(3052)

STANDARDS

For measuring a base line (in calculating a parallax) metal bars
or rods are used. These are carefully compared in the laboratory
with the standards and their lengths at a definite temperature
determined. Unfortunately, when these rods are taken into the
field for actual use they are exposed to constantly varying
temperatures, and they expand and contract in a very troublesome
way. Various devices have been used to eliminate the errors thus
introduced, the simplest and best being the Woodward “ice-bar
apparatus” used by the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In this the
metal measuring-bar is supported in a trough and completely
packed in ice, and thus maintained at the uniform temperature
of 32 degrees Fahr. With such an apparatus a base line can
be measured with an error of only a fortieth of an inch in a
mile, or one part in two and a half million.--CHARLES LANE
POOR, “The Solar System.”

(3053)

See EXCELLENCE IS COMPARATIVE.

=Standing by the Ship=--See LOYALTY.

=Stars and Stripes, Disrespect to the=--See PATRIOTISM,
LACK OF.

=Stars Converting a Skeptic=--See CONVERTED BY THE COMET.

=Stars, Gate of the=--See GATE, THE, OF STARS.

=State, The, More Than the Individual=--See REPRESENTATIVE DIGNITY.

STATESMAN ON MISSIONS

In visiting India, Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks, former
vice-president of the United States, took pains to aline himself
with the Christian missionary movement in that country. In
a public address he said: “I believe the greatest influence
to-day--I speak from the standpoint of a layman but with
measured utterance--is the Christian religion. The largest
progress made in America has been under the influence of men
who have been profound believers in the Bible and its thoughts.
And what I say of America may also be said of other Christian
nations; the experience of one is the experience of another.
I wish to express my profound admiration--it goes beyond mere
respect--for the workers in the great missionary field. I
have seen many a work; I have seen the rich, abundant harvest
they have gathered and are gathering. They are evangels of a
new order of things. They are doing much to knit the peoples
together, and have earned their right to the gratitude of
mankind for their noble self-sacrifice.”

(3054)

STATESMANSHIP

The _Manchester Guardian_, in an editorial on the one hundredth anniversary of Gladstone’s birth (December 29), had the following fine appreciation of the great statesman’s international spirit:

To him the line of State boundaries formed no limit beyond which
the writ of conscience ceased to run. He held national duties
to be as sacred as personal duties, and judged national honor
by the same standard as personal honor. From the debate on the
opium war in 1840 to the last speech on behalf of the dying
Armenians in 1896, Gladstone maintained this ideal in the face
of Europe. He could not always carry it through against his
own colleagues in government. No man at the head of affairs can
have his way in all things; but he closed his public career
by resigning office rather than associate himself with an
increase of armaments which he judged unnecessary, and therefore
injurious to the cause with which his name is indelibly
associated.

(3055)

STATIC PROGRESS

Life is not always by motion; sometimes it is improved by
waiting. The boat in the lock stands still in order to be lifted
higher.

(3056)

=Stationary Lives=--See MARKING TIME.

=Stationary, The Effect of Things=--See INFLUENCE.

=Statistics, Divorce=--See DIVORCE.

=Statistics of Churches=--See CHURCH STATISTICS.

=Statistics of Sunday-schools=--See SUNDAY-SCHOOL STATISTICS.

=Statues, The Value of=--See BEAUTIFUL, INFLUENCE OF THE.

=Stature and Situation=--See DISPROPORTION.

=Stature not Greatness=--See GREATNESS.

STEADINESS OF PROVIDENCE

In a poem, “The World Runs On,” Edmund Vance Cook, in _The Independent_, thus expresses the calm steadiness of God’s providences:

So many good people find fault with God,
Tho admitting He’s doing the best He can,
But still they consider it somewhat odd
That He doesn’t consult them concerning His plan.
But the sun sinks down and the sun climbs back,
And the world runs round and round its track.

Or they say God doesn’t precisely steer
This world in the way they think it best,
And if He would listen to them, He’d veer
A hair to the sou’ sou’west by west.
But the world sails on and it never turns back
And the Mariner makes never a tack.

So many good people are quite inclined
To favor God with their best advices,
And consider they’re something more than kind
In helping Him out of critical crises.
But the world runs on, as it ran before,
And eternally shall run evermore.

So many good people, like you and me,
Are deeply concerned for the sins of others,
And conceive it their duty that God should be
Apprised of the lack in erring brothers.
And the myriad sun-stars seed the skies
And look at us out of their calm, clear eyes.
(Text.)

(3057)

STEADY WORKING

Among the country boys who pick berries there are two kinds:
one keeps steadily picking through thick and thin, moving only
when there are no berries in sight; and the other one runs about
looking for the places where berries are thick. But the boy of
the first kind is the first one to fill his pail.

(3058)

STEDFASTNESS

It was the standing of Jackson’s brigade so firmly as to attract
the attention of a Confederate officer at Bull Run that led the
soubriquet to be applied to him of “Stonewall” Jackson. (Text.)

(3059)

* * * * *

Be firm! One constant element in luck
Is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck;
See yon tall shaft; it felt the earthquake’s thrill,
Clung to its base, and greets the sunrise still.

--O. W. HOLMES.

(3060)

STEPS UPWARD

When one is climbing a mountain whose lofty peak he has long
admired from a distance there is an arduous ascent and one with
many steps to be made; but how good and wholesome is the way.
The path which winds through grassy meadows, the bridge which
crosses the rushing stream pouring down from the heights, the
slow and toilful ascent, repaid by the purer air and the rarer
flowers and the wider vision, over obstacles, and then, at last,
the height itself, different from the rest only in this, that
it is the culmination! There can be no Parnassus without the
steps that lead to it.--GEORGE CLARK COE.

(3061)

=Stewardship=--See CLAIM, GOD’S.

STICKING TO IT

A friend, a former colleague of mine, told me that he was, many
years ago, traveling up to London with an owner of race horses
who was accompanied by his trainer. When they arrived at the
station near the metropolis where the tickets are collected,
the ticket-collector came, and my friend said, “My servant has
my ticket in the next carriage.” The ticket-collector retired
and presently came back rather angry and said, “I can not find
him.” My friend said, “He is in the next carriage--or the next
carriage but one; he is there.” As soon as the ticket-collector
retired for the second time the trainer leaned forward and
said, “Stick to it, my lord, you will tire him out.”--Lord
HERSCHELL.

(3062)

STIGMATA

Francis, Duke of Guise, bore the common name of _Le Balafré_,
or “The Scarred.” In a skirmish with the English invaders
he received a wound the most severe from which any one ever
recovered. A lance entered above the right eye, declining toward
the nose, and piercing through on the other side, between the
nape and the ear. The weapon was broken off, a part remaining in
the dreadful wound. The surgeon took the pincers of a blacksmith
and tore out the barbed iron, leaving a frightful scar which was
shown as a signal badge of honor.

When Thomas tested the wounds of the risen Savior he cried, “My Lord and my God.”

(3063)

=Stimulus=--See OPPOSITION; SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY.

STIMULUS FROM RIVALRY

Social rivalry brings its rich compensations. It is so with the
international rivalry. America and Australia at this moment are
sending into this country (England) corn, meats, fruits, and
our farmers declare that they are being ruined. But the fact
is men have to be ruined that they may be made over again, and
fashioned on a grander pattern. Our husbandmen will be compelled
to put away all droning; they must go to school again, they
must invent new methods, they must adopt new machines, sow
choicer seeds, breed superior cattle; they must grub up the old
canker-eaten, lichen-laden orchards, and plant fresh fruit-trees
of the best varieties. The pressure of the times will lift the
national husbandry to a higher plane. And this international
rivalry will have the same stimulating effect on city
life.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(3064)

=Stomach Contraction=--See ADAPTATION.

=Stones, Comparing=--See COMMON THINGS.

=Stored Energy=--See RESERVE POWER.

STORY, THE POWER OF THE OLD

Do you remember the story of Paul Du Chaillu, the great African
traveler, in the heart of the Dark Continent? On one occasion he
told the “old, old story” to a poor slave woman; then he went on
his way and forgot all about the incident. He came back a few
months later to that town and the slave-traders had just made a
raid on it. In the fight this woman was injured. She sent for
him and he went to see her. As he knelt down beside her, she
said, “Tell it again.” “Tell what again?” he said. “Oh, tell
me that story again.” Then once more he told her the old, old
story of Jesus and His love. As he finished it, she said to
him, “Is it true?” “Yes,” he replied, “it is true.” “Do your
people believe that?” “Yes, they believe that.” “Oh,” she said,
“tell them to send us that story a little faster.”--A. S.
WILSON, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(3065)

STRAIGHT CHARACTER

“Is he straight?”

“Straight as a gun-barrel. You can depend upon him in every spot
and place.”

This was said of a boy who had asked for a place and had given
as a reference the gentleman who made this firm reply.

How straight is a gun-barrel? In the factory where guns are made
the metal is rolled and prest and ground and polished until the
most practised eye can not detect the slightest curve in it
anywhere. Not until it is so can it be permitted to go out of
the factory. Over and over again it must be tested and tried
until it is as perfect as men and machines can make it. If the
gun-barrel were not straight, no one ever could hit what he
aimed at; the bullet could not help flying wide of the mark.

And hitting the mark is the thing. “Straight” is a homely word,
but it is full of the deepest meaning. No one can ever reach
his aim, be it ever so high, unless he always does the true,
manly thing. One little mean, underhanded act, and his life
may be marred forever. The world wants men who are straight.
(Text.)--EDGAR L. VINCENT, _The Visitor_.

(3066)

STRAIN, NERVOUS

Jack Tattersall, the wireless man of the steamship _Baltic_, which went to the aid of the _Republic_ on January 23, 1909, is said to have sat at his key for 52 hours. In relating his experience he said:

It wasn’t the actual work that bothered me, you know. That’s not
so difficult.

No; it’s the awful nervous strain of striving, always striving,
to get the message right, when half a dozen gigantic batteries
are jerking flashes to you at the same time, drowning each other
out, pounding in your ears, making the night seem to swarm with
sparks before your eyes. That’s what gets on a man’s nerves;
that’s what makes you next to insane. I hardly knew what to do,
with the _Republic_ signaling me, faintly, so faintly that
I could not make out whether they were saying, “We are sinking,”
or “All safe.” (Text.)

(3067)

STRATAGEM BY BIRDS

A gentleman had a fine setter-dog who was accustomed to take
his daily bone, with due allowance of meat adhering, to the
lawn to enjoy at his leisure. On one occasion he observed
several magpies planning to get a share of the dainty. They
quietly approached the dog and placed themselves one at the
head, about two feet from the animal, who was too busy to notice
them, a second near the tail, and one or two by his side. When
all were placed, the bird near the dog’s tail gave a sudden
nip to that member. The dog, of course, wheeled to catch the
offender, who fled, while his hungry comrades rushed to the
bone, hastily snatching what they could. The fleeing magpie led
the outraged dog to some distance, drawing him on by fluttering
as if injured, without really taking flight.--OLIVE THORNE
MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(3068)

STRATAGEM TO ESCAPE ENEMIES

One of his (the fox’s) favorite tricks is to cross over deep
water on thin ice just strong enough to bear him, knowing that
in all probability the hounds will break through, and perhaps be
swept under the ice if the current is strong enough. More than
one valuable dog has been drowned in this manner, but I have
never known a fox to miscalculate the strength of the ice and
break through himself. If the stream is not wholly frozen over,
he runs along at the very edge of the deep water, where the ice
is thin and treacherous, until he comes to a place where he can
jump across to the thin ice that reaches out from the opposite
bank.--WITMER STONE and WILLIAM EVERETT CRAM,
“American Animals.”

(3069)

STRATEGY

The best strategy in life is frequently to take advantage of an enemy’s mistakes.

In Mark Twain’s “Autobiography,” in the _North American
Review_, is General Grant’s own opinion in regard to the
inception of Sherman’s march to the sea.

“Neither of us originated the idea of Sherman’s march to the
sea. The enemy did it,” said Grant.

He went on to say that the enemy necessarily originated a great
many of the plans that the general on the opposite side gets the
credit for. In this case, Sherman had a plan all thought out,
of course. He meant to destroy the two remaining railroads in
that part of the country, and that would finish up that region.
But General Hood made a dive at Chattanooga. This left the march
to the sea open to Sherman, and so, after sending part of his
army to defend and hold what he had acquired in the Chattanooga
region, he was perfectly free to proceed with the rest of it
through Georgia. He saw the opportunity, and he would not have
been fit for his place if he had not seized it.

(3070)

* * * * *

Grant was always aggressive. It was not possible with him that
retreat, or any inaction could form any part of his program. But
while the campaign from Culpepper to Cold Harbor was boldly,
even daringly, offensive, it was so conducted that in nearly
every conflict the enemy was obliged to become the attacking
party; and this plan of campaign against Lee recalls this
colloquy between two Roman generals: “If thou art a great
general come down and fight me.” “If thou art a great general
make me come down and fight thee.” And it will be observed that
four times out of five--for the army had fought on five distinct
lines--Grant, by a single march, had made Lee come down and
fight him.--NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”

(3071)

* * * * *

This is the fable of a spider as quoted from _Blackwood’s Magazine_:

A spider, it seems, had occasion to borrow a sum of money.
A journey round to the generously disposed brought him two
thousand cowries each from the cat, the dog, the hyena, the
leopard, and the lion. When pay-day came round, the spider
remained at home to receive the visits of the creditors in
a certain prearranged order. First came the cat to claim
repayment of his loan. “Hush!” said the spider. “I hear a noise
outside--it is a dog come to see me; you must hide under this
calabash for safety.” The cat was scarcely hidden when the dog,
coming in, made a similar request for his money. Says Master
Spider, “There is a cat under that calabash; take him, and
consider the debt paid.” No sooner said than done. Just then
a snuffling and scraping were heard at the door. The third
creditor, the hyena, had arrived. “Don’t be alarmed, my dear
dog, but hide here till he has left,” and the spider bustled him
under the calabash. “I smell a dog,” said the hyena, routing
about. “Under that calabash,” the spider replied. “Eat him
up, and your debt is paid.” The dog paid the penalty of his
simplicity, and all was quiet once more. The hyena was preparing
to leave, when he heard an ominous sound that sent him crouching
against the wall. It was the pattering of the leopard’s feet
at the door. “Quick! Under this calabash,” cried his host, and
the hyena curls up in the fatal cache, only to meet a like fate
from his more courageous enemy. “My debt is repaid!” said the
leopard, and ran against the lion coming in. A terrible fight
ensued, for the leopard and the lion are equal in strength, so
the natives say. While blood and dust make havoc in the house,
and both animals are exhausting their strength, the spider is
busy at the fire. Seizing a pot of boiling grease, he pours it
over the clawing mass. Leopard and lion roll apart in their
death agony, and the spider has only to straighten and clean up
before resuming once more the humdrum life of fly-catching.

(3072)

=Strategy of Enemies=--See SUBTLETY AMONG ANIMALS.

STRATEGY, SOCIAL

Not all the strategy of life is on the fields of diplomacy or war.

An official tells a good story of the time when Hamilton
Fish was Secretary of State. It had been said that Mrs. Fish
sometimes carried her high ideas of courtesy too far--that it
was Quixotic.

One of her rules, for instance, was to return every call she
received. Her husband was continually holding public receptions,
and to these, out of courtesy, many women would come who had
no desire that Mrs. Fish should call upon them--who were in no
position to receive her properly if she did call.

One such woman attended a Fish reception, left her card, and
a little later was duly honored by a call from Mrs. Fish. The
Fish equipage dashed down the narrow street and halted before
the woman’s shabby little house. The footman opened the carriage
door and Mrs. Fish descended.

The poor woman of the house was in a dreadful predicament. She
was, alas, kneeling on the sidewalk beside a bucket of hot
water. Her sleeves were rolled back. She had a scrubbing-brush
in one hand and a cake of soap in the other. She was scrubbing
the front steps.

Bending graciously over her, Mrs. Fish asked politely:

“Is Mrs. Henry Robinson at home?”

And Mrs. Henry Robinson replied: “No, mum, she ain’t,” and went
on scrubbing.

(3073)

=Streams, Living and Dying=--See EARLY PROMISE.

STRENGTH

William Herbert Hudnut writes this virile advice for New Year’s time:

Quit you like men, be strong;
There’s a burden to bear,
There’s a grief to share,
There’s a heart that breaks ’neath a load of care--
But fare ye forth with a song.

Quit you like men, be strong;
There’s a battle to fight,
There’s a wrong to right,
There’s a God who blesses the good with might--
So fare ye forth with a song.

Quit you like men, be strong;
There’s a work to do,
There’s a world to make new,
There’s a call for men who are brave and true--
On! on with a song!

Quit you like men, be strong;
There’s a year of grace,
There’s a God to face,
There’s another heat in the great world race--
Speed! speed with a song!

(3074)

STRENGTH FROM RESISTED EVIL

In general, every evil to which we do not succumb, is a
benefactor. As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength
and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we
gain the strength of the temptation we resist.--Philadelphia
_Ledger_.

(3075)

=Strength of the Weak=--See WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH.

STRENGTH, SECRET SOURCE OF

Numa Pompilius, the second and the wisest King of Rome, was
accustomed to retire to the forest, and receive wisdom and
instruction from the goddess Egeria--who met him in secret--and
then came forth to triumph in government and over his enemies.
(Text.)

(3076)

STRING, THE NEED OF MORE THAN ONE

Thomas K. Beecher tells a story of finding his father’s old
fiddle in the garret, where on a rainy day he had taken some
children to play. It was all covered with dust and had only one
string. And Mr. Beecher held it up to the children and told
them how he used to hear his father play on it the old tunes,
“Merrily, Oh,” and “Pompey Ducklegs.”