Chapter C: G. D. Roberts tells of the capture of a great eagle at the (2)

John Wesley’s toils as a preacher were interspaced with frequent
islets of leisure. This man, who seemed to live in crowds,
had yet in his life wide spaces of solitude. He preached to
his five-o’clock-in-the-morning congregation, then mounted
his horse, or stepped into his chaise, and rode or drove off
to the next gathering. Betwixt the two crowds he had hours of
solitude--to think, to read, to plan. He was the master, it may
be added, of the perilous art of reading on horseback. His work
itself was a physical tonic.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley
and His Century.”

(3240)

TIME-KEEPING WITH FLOWERS

A curiosity among timepieces is a clock of flowers. It is well
known that every blossom has its precise hour for opening its
petals and for closing them. Some open at sunrise and close at
sunset; but as a matter of fact, there is not an hour of the day
nor of the night even but some flower begins or ends its period.
In Pliny’s time forty-six such flowers were known. The number
since then has very largely increased. From these a floral
timepiece has been made.

Man’s life and deeds, like these flowers, ought to keep God’s time.

(3241)

=Time, Killing=--See IDLENESS.

TIME PRECIOUS

Mere amusement, a pleasing invention to kill time, is not a
high aim for a novel. Killing time is the worst kind of murder.
Remember while we are killing it, it is surely killing us. We
need no books to help us. Rather give us books that will enable
us to make time live, so that every moment in life will bear
its own blossom. Then will we value each hour as the miser does
his golden disks, letting each slip through his fingers slowly
and longingly, for its power and worth is known to him so well.
Naturalism will never help us. Dredging stagnant ponds does not
purify them. It merely sets the filth in circulation.--_Book
Chat._

(3242)

See NOVELS, GOOD AND BAD.

=Time, Redeeming=--See KNOWLEDGE, THIRST FOR; PAINSTAKING.

TIME SAVERS

Harry Harm, the son of a Columbia grocer, has found a practical
use for a lot of carrier-pigeons. It used to take him half a
day to gather orders, half a day to fill them, and half a day
to deliver; but now, thanks to the pigeons, the work is done in
one day. When Mr. Harm starts he takes a crate of pigeons along
in his wagon, and after he secures a few orders he takes the
duplicate order-slips, which are of thin paper, puts them in a
tiny roll on a pigeon’s leg, and the bird is liberated. It at
once flies to its loft at the store, where the clerks relieve it
of its orders. This plan is followed until the man covers his
entire route, and when he returns to the store the clerks have
the goods ready for delivery.--Philadelphia _Press_.

(3243)

TIME, THE PRESENT

When I have time, so many things I’ll do
To make life happier and more fair
For those whose lives are crowded full with care;
I’ll help to lift them up from their despair--
When I have time.

When I have time, the friend I love so well
Shall know no more these weary toiling days;
I’ll lead her feet in pleasant paths always,
And cheer her heart with sweetest words of praise--
When I have time.

When you have time, the friend you loved so dear
May be beyond the reach of your intent;
May never know that you so kindly meant
To fill her life with ever sweet content--
When you had time.

Now is the time. Ah, friend, no longer wait
To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer
To those around whose lives are now so drear;
They may not need you in the coming year--
Now is the time. (Text.)

(3244)

=Time too Short=--See FAME AND TIME.

TIMELINESS OF GOD

His wisdom is sublime;
His heart supremely kind;
God never is before His time
And never is behind. (Text.)

(3245)

TIMIDITY

May T. McKean, in _Zion’s Advocate_, reports an acquaintance as saying to her:

I wish I could say the thoughts that come to me, but I could no
more speak in a meeting than I could fly. I could not preside
at even the smallest meeting. Indeed, I can scarcely make a
motion in our own little circle. The sound of my own voice
frightens me; it sounds queer and hollow and far off, and I
forget everything I had in mind before. But, honestly, I believe
I could be a more useful woman in Christ’s kingdom if I were not
so timid. I guess I did not begin right. I was always afraid
I would not say or do the right thing, and now I can not do
anything. (Text.)

(3246)

* * * * *

A master in Italian music was Arcangelo Corelli. He was once
performing with Handel, and on another occasion with Scarlatti,
in the presence of the King in Naples, when his cunning failed
him and he made certain faults in execution which so chagrined
the artist that he died broken-hearted from brooding over his
mistakes.

(3247)

See GENIUS DISCOUNTED; SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS; TACT.

=Tipping=--See RIDICULE, APT.

=Tithes=--See GIVING, FAITHFUL.

=Titles=--See LABELS, MISLEADING.

=Toast, Witty=--See WASHINGTON, GEORGE.

TOBACCO HABIT

Rev. W. F. Crafts is authority for the statement that
four-fifths of the men who now fill positions of large
responsibility in our land did not use tobacco before they
were sixteen years of age, and even those who did, with three
exceptions, mention the fact with regret.

(3248)

TO-DAY

The following is from _The British Weekly_:

Just this day in all I do
To be true;
Little loaf takes little leaven;
Duty for this day, not seven,
That is all of earth and heaven,
If we knew.

Oh, how needlessly we gaze
Down the days,
Troubled for next week, next year,
Overlooking now and here.
“Heart, the only sure is near,”
Wisdom says.

Step by step, and day by day,
All the way,
So the pilgrim’s soul wins through,
Finds each morn the strength to do
All God asks for me or you--
This obey. (Text.)

(3249)

TOIL ACCEPTED

An unidentified writer pens this brave poem:

I ask not
When shall the day be done and rest come on;
I pray not
That soon from me the “curse of toil” be gone;
I seek not
A sluggard’s couch with drowsy curtains drawn.
But give me
Time to fight the battle out as best I may;
And give me
Strength and place to labor still at evening’s gray;
Then let me
Rest as one who toiled a-field through all the day.

(3250)

TOIL AND PROVIDENCE

God helps those who help themselves.

It is common to attribute the great discoveries in science and
industry to accident or sudden inspiration. But however suddenly
discoveries are made, in some sense they are usually a result of
long and patient toil and experimentation. Daguerre worked for
many years trying to make the light print a likeness on glass or
metal before an accidental hint gave him the clue.

(3251)

=Toil and Study=--See MISSIONARY, A, IN THE MAKING.

TOKEN, VALUE OF A

The following incident appeared in a New York daily:

Bent with age but bright-eyed and alert, James Swift,
eighty-four years old, was committed at his own request to the
almshouse yesterday by Magistrate Krotel, sitting in Yorkville
Court.

“I’m goin’ to start for California just as soon as I come out
of the almshouse,” Swift told the magistrate. The old man
displayed a silver watch with copper chain, which, he said, was
a perpetual pass over the Union Pacific Railroad. It had been
given him as a token that he was one of the men engaged in the
construction of the road, the presentation being made on the
occasion of the driving of the last spike in May, 1866. All he
had to do, he said, when he wanted to ride over the road was to
show the timepiece to the conductor.

(3252)

TO-MORROW, UNCERTAINTY OF

To-morrow? Shall the fleeting years
Abide our questioning? They go
All heedless of our hopes and fears.
To-morrow? ’Tis not ours to know
That we again shall see the flowers.
To-morrow is the gods’--but, oh,
To-day is ours! (Text.)

--CHARLES EDMUND MERRILL, JR., _Scribner’s Magazine_.

(3253)

TONGUE, A SWEARING

A long, long time ago, in the summer-time, a man was stung in
the face by a bee. This made him mad, and he swore and swore
and then swore again. The swear was so hot that his kettle of
time boiled over and he wasted half an hour swearing at the
bee. A friend who was sorry to hear him swear, said: “Jim, I am
sorry for you. I think that bee might have stung you in a better
place.” Again the kettle boiled over. “Where might it have stung
me?” asked the swearer. “Why, it would have been better for you
if it had stung you on the tip of your tongue.” Read the third
chapter of James and then think of the need of a bee on the tip
of the tongue--J. M. FARRAR.

(3254)

TONGUE, THE

Would not the world be benefited by the surgery suggested in the following anecdote:

An old lady of his flock once called upon Dr. John Gill, a
London preacher, with a grievance. The doctor’s neckbands were
too long for her ideas of ministerial humility, and after a
long harangue on the sin of pride, she intimated that she had
brought a pair of scissors with her, and would be pleased if her
dear pastor would permit her to cut them down to her notions of
propriety.

The doctor not only listened patiently, but handed over the
offending white bands to be operated upon. When she had cut them
to her satisfaction and returned the bits, it was the doctor’s
turn. “Now,” said he, “you must do me a good turn also.” “Yes,
that I will, doctor. What can it be?” “Well, you have something
about you which is a deal too long and which causes me no end
of trouble, and I should like to see it shorter.” “Indeed, dear
sir, I will not hesitate. What is it? Here are the scissors; use
them as you please.” “Come then,” said the sturdy divine; “good
sister, put out your tongue.” (Text.)--_Tit-Bits._

(3255)

* * * * *

Sarcasm, ridicule, and all forms of bitter speech may be compared to the weapon described below:

The falarica, an ancient weapon, was a sort of javelin,
consisting of a shaft of wood, with a long point of iron. This
point was three feet long. Near the end were wound round the
wooden shaft long bands of tow saturated with pitch and other
combustibles, and this inflammable band was set on fire just
before the javelin was thrown. As the missile flew the wind
fanned the flames, and striking the shield of the soldier
opposing it, it could not be pulled out and the shield was
destroyed. (Text.)

(3256)

* * * * *

The words of James (3:8) about the “deadly poison” of the tongue when “set on fire of hell” are called to mind by the following caution:

You may keep your feet from slipping,
And your hands from evil deeds,
But to guard your tongue from tripping,
What unceasing care it needs!
Be you old or be you young,
Oh, beware,
Take good care,
Of the tittle-tattle, tell-tale tongue!

(3257)

TOOLS

Dr. David Gregg says:

Tool-makers are the powers in this world. The Jewish legend
sets this into the light. When Solomon completed his great
temple he prepared a luxurious feast to which he invited the
artificers who had been employed in its construction. But in
unveiling the throne, it was discovered that a stalwart smith,
with his sledge-hammer, had usurped the place of honor at the
king’s right hand. Whereupon the people made an outcry, and
the guards rushed in to cut down the intruder. “Hold, let him
speak,” commanded Solomon, “and explain if he can his great
presumption.” “O King,” answered the smith, “thou hast invited
to the banquet all the craftsmen but me. Yet how could these
builders have reared the temple without the tools which I
furnished?” “True,” exclaimed the king; “the seat of honor is
his by right, and he shall hold it; for back of all great and
effective work are tools.” What is said of the trades may be
said of the professions. The best professional work is done,
other things being equal, by those who command the best tools.

(3258)

See GENIUS VERSUS TOOLS.

=Tools and Man=--See MAN A CREATOR.

TOOLS, MORAL

What matter a few troubles and pains now, if it is only the work
of the chisel and hammer cutting away the hindering crust, to
reveal the diamond?--J. R. MILLER.

(3259)

=Topics Tabooed=--See TABOOED TOPICS IN THE EAST.

TOTAL ABSTAINERS IN DEMAND

The other day I picked up a newspaper and, glancing over the
advertisements for help, read as follows:

“Wanted--A bartender. Must be a total abstainer. Apply,” etc.

Is not that a curious advertisement? What should we think of
such an advertisement in another line of business? How would an
advertisement like this look?

“Wanted--A barber who has never had his hair cut. Apply at the
barbershop on the corner.”

Or this?

“Wanted--A salesman in a shoe-store. He must go barefooted while
on duty. Apply at Bank’s shoe-store.”

What other business finds it necessary or desirable to advertise
for help pledged to make no use of the goods sold? Can it
be that the liquor traffic finds it has wrought so great
demoralization among its followers that it is forced to draw
upon temperance or total abstinence “fanatics” in order to
continue its business?--_California Voice._

(3260)

See ABSTAINERS LIVE LONG.

=Total Abstinence=--See PERSONAL INFLUENCE.

TOTAL ABSTINENCE, VALUE OF

Here is testimony from the medical examiners of prominent life insurance companies as to the value of abstinence from alcohol:

(1) I note that you ask whether or not we believe, other things
being equal, that the use of alcoholic drinks is a personal
handicap and increases the actuarial risk. In reply to this
question we must certainly answer in the affirmative. There have
been numerous articles written and numerous statistics compiled
on the effect of total abstinence, and they show without
question that the mortality experienced among total abstainers
has been decidedly less than that experienced among moderate
drinkers.

(2) This company prefers total abstainers for insurance risks.
This is from a selfish standpoint, as we are forced to believe
they are better risks for the company. We are imprest by the
large number of applicants living in the States of Alabama and
Georgia who say they drank periodically or regularly before
prohibition went into effect, but do not drink anything now. If
prohibition in Alabama and Georgia and the “dry” counties of
Indiana has done nothing else, it has made a difference in the
answers given by applicants to this company.

(3) We thoroughly agree with all authorities that the moderate
use of alcohol tends to shorten life and increases the hazard
incident to life insurance.--_Prohibition Year Book._

(3261)

See ABSTAINERS LIVE LONG.

=Touch=--See SYMPATHY.

TOUCH, POWER OF

There is a legend, setting forth the power of touch, caught in
the amber of old Greek pages. From their palace on Olympus,
the gods looked down on barren fields. At last they sent Ceres
down, clothing her with the power of touch. She touched the
sand plain and it became a clover-field. She touched the bog
and it became the spring that widened into a river. She touched
the fallen log and it was clothed with moss and snow-drops.
She touched a thorn-bush and it became an olive, and the brier
ripened figs. Soon the gods, looking down, beheld hillsides
soft with flush of grass and clustered food. Oh, wondrous power
of the divine touch, setting forth the power of Christ and His
disciples upon the souls of men. Jesus touched a prodigal, and
he became a beautiful son; touched the Magdalen and she became
a sweet saint and the angel of purity; touched the murderer and
he became a hero, and dying, Jesus communicated the power of
touch to His disciples. Peter and John touched three thousand
enemies, and they became a church; touched slaves, gladiators,
Roman soldiers, and they became disciples of righteousness
and peace. And so the evangel of love spread, like a blest
contagion.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3262)

TOUCHINESS, FOOLISH

Could any touchiness exceed that of Robert Duke of Normandy?
According to Holinshed, the king, in trying on a new cloak,
with a hood, and finding it too tight for him, directed that
the garment should be taken to his brother (the duke), who was
a smaller man. A slight rent, however, had been made in the
garment, and the duke perceiving it, and hearing that the cloak
had been tried on by the king, indignantly exclaimed, “Now I
perceive I have lived too long, since my brother clothes me like
an almsman in his cast-rent garments,” and refusing all food,
starved himself to death.--London _Evening Standard_.

(3263)

TOUGHNESS

The path of safety in the moral as in the physical realm is not so much the avoidance of risks as the training of the faculties to resist.

It is a question well worth considering what it is that makes
the savage so hardy. He lives nearer to nature than does the
civilized man, and that is the reason he is hardier, tougher,
and more enduring. Civilized men have departed far from the
natural order of life, and they are suffering the penalty--a
shortened and a feeble life.

Unfortunately, the majority of civilized human beings subject
themselves to a hothouse regimen, apparently thinking that the
most important thing in winter is to keep away the cold. A
cold day is a dangerous thing to one who is not ready for it.
January and February are deadly months to those who are not
prepared for them. During these months many people are carried
off by pneumonia. After people have reached the age of forty or
fifty years, they are particularly susceptible to this disease,
because of the lowered power of resistance. Toughness is the
result of the body’s power of resistance. (Text.)--Dr. J. H.
KELLOGG, _Good Health_.

(3264)

=Trades Exempt from Disease=--See DISEASE, EXEMPTION FROM.

TRADITION

Custom makes laws harder to break than those of the land in which we may happen to live. It frequently happens that these laws are founded on experience, on mature judgment, on good sense, but occasionally they are founded on old superstitions which in other forms have passed away. Among the unfortunate customs that still linger is the habit of crippling the left hand.

If a child in shaking hands offers the left, the horrified
mother or nurse at once corrects the blunder and apologizes for
it to the bystanders. She does not know why she does this beyond
the fact that “it is the custom”; she does not know that in
medieval times the right hand was the “dextrous” hand, the hand
of good faith, while the left was the “sinister” hand, the hand
of bad faith. We have crystallized these beliefs in our present
interpretation of these words; if we are “dextrous” we are doing
things in a right-handed way, while the mildest meaning given to
“sinister” is “unfortunate or awkward.” So the child is crippled
in its left hand to conform to a custom which has been discarded
and forgotten. (Text.)--_The Medical Times._

(3265)

See CUSTOM.

TRADITION, UNMEANING

One of the oldest customs in the navy and one that is often
puzzling to the landsman is that of “saluting the quarter-deck.”
Many have the hazy idea that the national colors are its object
and that it is merely a naval fad. While to a certain extent
it is a fad, it is one of hoary antiquity, being a survival of
the days when a crucifix was placed on the stern of a ship and
was always saluted as a matter of course. When the crucifix was
taken away the old feeling still remained, and men continued
to salute the place where it had been. The younger generation
imitated their elders, and the salute became a habit and
continues until this day, (Text.)

(3266)

TRAINING

Commander Robert E. Peary was asked what training was necessary for arctic exploration work. This was his reply:

One can train for arctic exploration as one would train for a
prize-fight. The training consists of good habits, with sound,
healthy body as a basis to work on. One must be sound of wind
and limb, to use the horseman’s phrase, and he must not be a
quitter. That’s the kind of training that finds the pole. (Text.)

(3267)

* * * * *

There is little room, or only inferior positions in the world for men who are not trained, at least in some respects.

Look at the well-trained blacksmith; he goes across the shop,
picks up the horse’s foot, takes a squint, returns to his anvil,
forges the shoe, and it exactly fits the foot. Contrast him with
the bungler who looks at the foot, then forges a shoe, then fits
the foot to it, often to the ruin of a fine horse. Now, the
fault lies in ever allowing himself to put a shoe on that is
not in proper shape for the foot; he should determine to make
the shoe fit the foot in place of the foot fitting the shoe,
and he should follow it up until the object is accomplished.
A very good way to discipline the mechanical eye is to first
measure an inch with the eye, and then prove it with the rule,
then measure a half inch, then an eighth, and so on, and you
will soon be able to discover at a glance the difference between
a twelfth and a sixteenth of an inch; then go to three inches,
six, twelve, and so on. Some call this guessing; there is no
guesswork about it. It is measuring with the eye and the mind.
If you can not see things mechanically, do not blame the eye
for it; it is no more to blame than the mouth is because we
can not read, or the fingers because we can not write. Every
occupation in life requires a mechanically-trained eye, and we
should realize more than we do the great importance of properly
training that organ.--_Mining and Scientific Press._

(3268)

* * * * *

Training counts, culture adds strength. Sixty per cent of our
Congressmen have been college men; 79 per cent of our Senators
have been college men; 90 per cent of our supreme judges have
been college men; 92 per cent of our presidents have been
college men. Training counts; training makes leadership.--N.
MCGEE WATERS.

(3269)

See PRACTISE, GRADUATED.

TRAINING CHILDREN

It is hard to conceive of a more unpromising specimen of a child
than one who was placed a few years ago in the Babies’ Hospital
of New York. “Criminal” was plainly marked on the face of this
eighteen-months-old boy. Heredity and environment had done their
worst for him. He was actually vicious. He slapt, pinched,
scratched the other children without provocation. At meal time,
after satisfying his own hunger, he would grab the food from
the others, or with one or two sweeps of his small arms shove
the food from the low table to the floor, and then would either
step on it or, lying flat on his stomach, gather it under him in
order to deprive the others.

A careful eye was kept on him to keep him from doing harm, and
whenever he started out on his little journeyings of lawlessness
and mischief he was not forcibly restrained, but his attention
was diverted in some pleasant way from his wrong intentions. The
attendants were not allowed, by word, look or action, ever to be
hasty or unkind; coercion in any form or under any circumstances
was to be avoided.

The superintendent of the hospital says of him: “In a
surprizingly short time this child began to yield to the
influence which surrounded him; one by one his little vicious
tricks or habits were forgotten, and an occasional smile--a
sweet one it was, too--began to reward our efforts, instead of
the snarls and frowns which had heretofore greeted us. Absolute
cleanliness and regular habits were instituted as a part of the
cure.

“For nearly five years it was my good fortune to be able to keep
the boy with me, and a more attractive, happy and lovable child
it would be hard to find anywhere. He was absolutely obedient;
in fact, it never seemed to occur to him to be otherwise.

“In the course of time our little charge not only grew to be
the oldest inhabitant, but the oldest in point of age, and as
new little ones came and went, his attitude toward them was
lovely. He looked well after the needs of the tiny ones and took
great pains to initiate the older ones into orderly and careful
habits. He shared with them, without a thought of selfishness,
toys, books, or dainties. Surely, heredity did not endow this
child with all his good qualities; they were cultivated at an
early age, and so deeply rooted were these good habits that
they are likely to remain with him through life.”--_Jewish
Exponent._

(3270)

See PRODIGY, A.

=Traits Revealed=--See CHARACTER, TEST OF.

=Transfigured Ugliness=--See BEAUTY IN COMMON LIFE.

TRANSFORMATION

When Central Park, New York, was laid out the engineers
encountered an immense heap of rocks. What to do with it was
the question. To move it would cost thousands of dollars.
Finally, honeysuckles and other vines were planted about it and
made to climb up and shade it. And now that spot in the park is
the loveliest and most fragrant anywhere about.

The best education is that which in like manner makes use of even unlovely traits in building character.

(3271)

* * * * *

The emergence of the soul clothed in its spiritual body is suggested by this account of the May-flies by Vernon L. Kellogg:

Young May-flies--the ones that don’t get eaten by dragons,
stone-flies, water-tigers, and other May-flies--grow larger
slowly, and wing-pads begin to grow on their backs. In a year,
maybe, or two years for some kinds, they are ready for their
great change. And this comes very suddenly. Some late afternoon
or early evening thousands of young May-flies of the same kind,
living in the same lake or river, swim up to the surface of the
water, and, after resting there a few moments, suddenly split
their skin along the back of the head and perhaps a little way
farther along the back, and like a flash squirm out of this
old skin, spread out their gauzy wings and fly away.--“Insect
Stories.”

(3272)

* * * * *

Here is a hint of what Christianity is constantly trying to do with wild human nature--transforming it by training off its moral “spines” and prickles:

The spineless cactus, the latest plant marvel originated by Mr.
Burbank, probably gives greater promise of usefulness to man
than any other of Mr. Burbank’s creations. The spineless cactus
is an improved variety of the ordinary wild cactus known as the
prickly pear, of which there are numerous species and more than
a thousand varieties. (Text.)--_The World To-day._

(3273)

* * * * *

The transformation accomplished by true religion is complete. It changes the whole nature by the importation of a new agency, a conquering power, an overmastering principle. We become incandescent by the energy of the Holy Spirit.

A carbon coil is a perfectly black substance. It is an emblem of
utter darkness. But into it is poured an electric current and
instantly it becomes a reservoir of light. There once lay in the
earth a dull, dark bit of carbon. It suddenly became the subject
of the intense transforming energy of volcanic fire. Ever since
that it has been a diamond in which lives dazzling light. (Text.)

(3274)

* * * * *

Tohong (Peach-red) was a low-class dancing-girl, bought and
sold. Restoration was a word not applicable to her, for she
never was right. She was born lapsed and lived lapsed. Over the
walls of the world that encircled her came the story of Jesus,
a man, a wise and pure man, pure as God is pure; in fact, a God
as God is God, yet it was said that he loved lost and fallen
women. Peach-red had never before heard of such a being. Her
soul was sick, and she wondered if she could but meet Him what
He would say to “the likes of her,” and if He really could cure
soul-sickness. When or where or how Peach-red met Jesus I know
not; that she met Him I most assuredly know. Seven years had
rolled away, and out of my life passed the name of Peach-red.
It was forgotten in the multitude of names that crowded on me.
One Sunday, after service in a great meeting-house of some two
thousand people, with this and that one coming forward to say
“Peace,” there appeared before me a smiling face known and yet
not known. “Don’t you remember me? Baptized me seven years ago.
My old name was Peach-red.” Here was this woman in value once
less than zero, crowned with the light and liberty and growth
in grace of seven years.--JAMES S. GALE, “Korea in
Transition.”

(3275)

See BEAUTIFUL, INFLUENCE OF THE; BEAUTY, DECEIVED BY;
ENVIRONMENT THAT TRANSFORMS; REFORMATION.

TRANSFORMATION BY RENEWING

It is thought by many that time and discipline are alone
wanted to bring out of this poor nature a perfect man. When
the good things are planted in us they may be cherished and
trained into glorious perfection, but they must be planted
first. Least of all will any mere decoration suffice. A watch
failing to keep time will not be corrected by any jeweling
of the case; painting the organ-pipes will not improve the
music; whitewashing the pump will not purify the water. Society
in various ways seeks to gild the exterior, but what we need
is beauty of life springing from truth in the inward parts.
(Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(3276)

=Transformation by Surgery=--See RENEWAL.

TRANSFORMATION OF SOULS

The soul is stored with ungrown seeds and chilled roots and
frozen sentiments, and they need only the light and warmth
of the love and truth of God to turn bareness into beauty,
ignorance into culture, sin into obedience and self-sacrifice.
Travelers tell us about the sand wastes in Idaho, that under the
soft touch of a stream of water they are turned into a garden,
waving with flowers and fruit. All this is a symbol of the
transformation of the soul. These far-off lands and darkened
peoples that are now deserts shall to-morrow become pools of
water, and oases, filled with palm-trees and fountains.--N.
D. HILLIS.

(3277)

=Transformation Through Operation=--See CHARACTER CONDITIONED
BY THE PHYSICAL.

TRANSIENCY OF THE EARTH

He who said that “Heaven and earth shall pass away” uttered no meaningless hyperbole, as the changes of a few hundred years indicate:

Coast erosion following severe storms within recent years
has been so marked at many points on the English coast that
after extended press discussion a parliamentary commission has
been appointed to thoroughly investigate the subject, and if
possible to devise means for the abatement of the injury....
There can be no doubt that coast erosion is causing serious
loss of land at many points, particularly on the south and east
coasts, notwithstanding that the areas gained artificially at
other points almost compensate for it. It has been estimated
that in the thousand years from 900 to 1900, an area of nearly
550 square miles has been worn away by the erosive action
of the waves and ocean currents. (Text.)--_The Scientific
American._

(3278)

TRANSIENT, THE

The transient nature of all material things and of all mortal fame is exprest in this poem by Alfred Noyes:

No more, proud singers, boast no more!
Your high, immortal throne
Will scarce outlast a king’s!
Time is a sea that knows no shore
Wherein death idly flings
Your fame like some small pebble-stone
That sinks to rise no more.
Then boast no more, proud singers,
Your high immortal throne!

This earth, this little grain of dust
Drifting among the stars
With her invisible wars,
Her love, her hate, her lust;
This microscopic ball
Whereof you scan a part so small
Outlasts but little even your own dust.
Then boast no more, proud singers,
Your high immortal throne!

That golden spark of light must die
Which now you call your sun;
Soon will its race be run
Around its trivial sky!
What hand shall then unroll
Dead Maro’s little golden scroll
When earth and sun in one wide charnal lie?
Boast no more, proud singers;
Your high immortal throne
Will scarce outlast a king’s! (Text.)

--ALFRED NOYES, _The Bookman_.

(3279)

See PERISHABLENESS.

=Transition=--See ETERNAL, THE, AT HAND.

=Transitoriness=--See PERMANENCY.

TRANSMISSION

Even among the lower orders of creation, a law of transmission obtains.

A writer in an Australian quarterly for April, 1906, tells of a
magpie near Melbourne, which while a captive had been taught to
whistle “Merrily danced the Quaker’s wife, merrily danced the
Quaker,” and passed the song on to its young, through whom, in a
more or less fragmentary way, it was transmitted to subsequent
generations, so that there are “many now in the forest who
still conclude their beautiful wild notes with the ascending
notes which terminate the old air.” (Text.)

(3280)

TRANSMUTATION

A black character is not changed in a day to white saintliness, any more than a black berry to a white one.

In turning out the white blackberry Mr. Burbank is said to have
applied the Darwinian theory inversely. He kept on selecting
berries which, in ripening, did not become pure black, and
finally got a bush in which the fruit changed from the green
of immaturity to pure white. This involved the examination of
some 25,000 bushes several times in several succeeding years.
The painstaking energy necessary in such a search is merely
suggested by such figures.--_The Strand Magazine._

(3281)

TRANSMUTATION BY GENIUS

Many of Burns’ songs were already in existence in the lips
and minds of the people, rough and coarse, and obscene. Our
benefactor takes them, and with a touch of inspired alchemy
transmutes them and leaves them pure gold. He loved the old
catches and the old tunes, and into these gracious molds he
poured his exquisite gifts of thought and expression. But for
him these ancient airs, often wedded to words which no decent
man could recite, would have perished from that corruption
if not from neglect. He rescued them for us by his songs,
and in doing so he hallowed life and sweetened the breath of
Scotland.--LORD ROSEBERY.

(3282)

=Trap, A Natural=--See DEVICES, FATAL.

=Traps=--See BARRIERS; ENEMIES.

TRAPS FOR GIRLS

Among the many methods used by these fiends in human form to
trap girls into houses of sin, is courtship and false marriage.
These men go into the country districts, and, under the guise
of commercial men, board at the best hotels, dress handsomely,
cultivate the most captivating manners, and then look for their
prey. Upon the streets they see a pretty girl and immediately
lay plans to become acquainted. Then the courtship begins. In
the present condition of society it is a very easy thing for
well-reared girls to begin a promiscuous acquaintance, with
ample opportunity for courtship. There was never a time when
the bars were so low. With the public dance, or even the more
exclusive german, the skating-rink and the moving-picture
arcades, all of which lend themselves to the making of intimate
and promiscuous acquaintances under questionable surroundings,
it is easy for a man to come into a community and in a few days
meet even the best class of girls, to say nothing of the girls
who are earning a living and who have no home influence. These
girls are flattered by the handsome, well-drest stranger paying
them marked attention, and are quick to accept invitations
to the theater or to walk or drive with him. If the girl
is religious, he is not above using the cloak of religion,
expressing fondness for church- and prayer-meetings, and is
frequently to be found at such places. When a girl’s confidence
and affection have been won, it is a comparatively easy thing
to accomplish her ruin, by proposing an elopement. Her scruples
and arguments are easily overcome by the skilled deceiver, and
trusting him implicitly as her accepted lover, she unwittingly
goes to her doom. (Text.)--ERNEST A. BELL, “War on the
White Slave Trade.”

(3283)

=Traveling in the Heights=--See CONFIDENCE.

TRAVELING, PROGRESS IN

For the first time in the history of transatlantic travel,
people were able to leave London on Saturday and Queenstown on
Sunday, and eat dinner in New York on Thursday night (September
2, 1909). The six-day boat set the early records more than
twenty-five years ago. The five-day boat came along ten years
later. Friday landings in New York have been common ever since
the christening days of _Lucania_ and _Campania_,
fifteen years ago. Now the four-day boat is a fact.

The remarkable speed made by the _Lusitania_ was attributed
to the effect of the new propellers, which were fitted to the
four turbine shafts in July.

(3284)

TREACHERY PUNISHED

At Kerman, Persia, is a fortress called Galah i Doukhta, or the
Fort of the Maiden, named after the beautiful traitoress of
Kerman. When the Moslems laid siege to the city a daughter of
the king, a beautiful woman and the idol of her father, fell
madly in love with an Arab prince who was an officer among the
invaders, and to win him found opportunity to deliver the castle
into his hands. Curious to learn the motive of such treachery he
asked the maiden why she had betrayed her father. “For love of
you,” was the answer. The prince enraged at such guilt ordered
his men to bind her with cords, face downward, on the back of a
wild horse and turn horse and rider into the desert. So perished
without pity the beautiful traitoress of Kerman--an example of
remorseless retribution.

(3285)

TREASURES LAID UP

During the reign of King Munbaz there came a most grievous
famine. The people had parted with their all and were in
the utmost distress. The king, touched by their affliction,
ordered his minister to expend the treasures which he and
his ancestors had amassed in the purchase of corn and other
necessaries and distribute among the needy. The king’s brothers
were not of a generous disposition, being grieved to see
such vast sums of money spent, reproached him with want of
economy. “Thy forefathers,” said they, “took care to add to the
treasures which were left them, but thou--thou not only dost
not add, but dost squander what they have left thee.” “You are
mistaken, my dear brethren,” replied the generous king, “I,
too, preserve treasures, as did my ancestors before me. The
only difference is this: they preserved earthly, but I heavenly
treasures; they preserved gold and silver, but I have preserved
lives.”--BAXENDALE.

(3286)

* * * * *

We allow no immigrant to land in New York as a pauper. He is
admitted only when he brings with him a little store, and can
be self-supporting. Do not, I beseech of you, go toward the end
of your career without having laid up much treasure in heaven,
and sent forward great possessions, having made yourself to be
waited for, expected, beyond, as you enter into glory and honor
and immortal life.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3287)

See REWARDS, SPIRITUAL.

=Treatment All-important=--See TACT.

TREE A SPIRITUAL SYMBOL

Undoubtedly you know how it feels to behold a cluster of young
birches bending gracefully over a sky-mirroring sheet of blue
water. Other trees are somberly beautiful like the pines, or
inspiringly majestic like the elms, both of which I love dearly.
But the sharply pointed cone of the pine suggests the earth on
which its broad base rests rather than the sky toward which
its top tends a little too urgently. And the elm represents
the material side of man in the utmost development attainable,
while the spirit still remains in comparative subordination. The
birch, on the other hand, is all spirit, it seems to me--but
without sacrifice of the indispensable material foundation.
Its subtly tapering lines send the eye irresistibly upward and
onward to the things that lie ahead and above--things which are
neither alien nor hostile to those of the present place and
moment, but which, instead, represent the ideal fulfilment of
the latter. The birch, therefore, approaches more closely than
anything else I can think of toward being a true symbol of life
at its best.--EDWIN BJORKMAN, _Collier’s Weekly_.

(3288)

TREE AND FRUIT

There is no frost hath power to blight
The tree God shields;
The roots are warm beneath soft snows,
And when spring comes it surely knows,
And every bud to blossom grows.
The tree God shields
Grows on apace by day and night,
Till sweet to taste and fair to sight
Its fruit it yields.

There is no storm hath power to blast
The tree God knows;
No thunderbolt, nor beating rain,
Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane--
When they are spent it doth remain.
The tree God knows
Through every tempest standeth fast,
And from its first day to its last
Still fairer grows. (Text.)

(3289)

TRIAL A MEANS OF GRACE

Troubles and afflictions are intended under the dispensation of divine grace to bring out the deeper capacities of the soul. Experiences which are calculated to deaden the careless mind will develop consecration, zeal, and devotion in the thoughtful.

Scientists subject radium to every conceivable test. In an
ordinary temperature it never ceases emitting light, heat,
and electricity. It was at first imagined that this perpetual
threefold emanation would cease, or at any rate be diminished,
if the substance were exposed to intense cold. But it was
discovered that radium when immersed in liquid air, which is
extremely cold, immediately evolved more light, heat, and
electricity. Then it was plunged into liquid hydrogen, of which
the coldness is almost incalculable and inconceivable. The
radium only glowed still more intensely with its emanations of
light, heat and electricity.

(3290)

TRIAL REFINES

In the English county of Cornwall are great beds of what is
called “china clay.” You may take up a lump of this substance
and examine it in vain with the view of discovering anything
admirable or beautiful. But one day you may be traveling in
the English midlands, where you may be invited to inspect the
factories in which are made the exquisite Royal Worcester
porcelain or the equally precious Wedgwood ware. You will
be fascinated by everything you see. The same dead, cold,
repellent, ugly clay you saw in Cornwall you are now admiring
with ecstasy. It has been brought to the potteries, and touched
by the fire, and painted by the artist, so that it rivals even
the loveliest flowers in delicacy and beauty.

(3291)

TRIBULATION THE PATH TO GLORY

But know for all time this:
There’s blood upon the way the saints have trod,
The singer of a day shall pass and die.
The world itself shall pass, who passed them by;
But they of the exceeding bitter cry,
When Death itself is dead and life is bliss,
Shall stand in heaven and sing their songs to God. (Text.)

--ETHEL EDWARDS, _The Outlook_ (London).

(3292)

TRIUMPH BY SELECTION

A moral reason for the survival of the fittest is given by Walton W. Battershall in the _Critic_:

The weak give way that stronger may have room
For sovereign brain and soul to quell the brute.
Thus, in the epic of this earth, harsh rhythms
Are woven, that break the triumph song with moans
And death-cries. Still rolls the eternal song,
Setting God’s theme to grander, sweeter notes,
For us to strike; fighting old savageries
That linger in the twilights of the dawn.(Text.)

(3293)

TRIUMPH IN DEATH

In the Boxer riots many Chinese Christian converts laid down
their lives with cheerful courage “for the sake of the Name.”
One Chinaman who was captured by the Boxers and was told he was
about to be put to death, asked permission to put on his best
clothes. “For,” said the martyr, “I am going to the palace of
the King.” His wonderful and serene faith so imprest the cruel
murderers that, after his death, they dug out his heart to try
and find the secret of his courage. In North China the blood of
the martyrs has proved, indeed, the seed of the Church.

“To the palace of the King” is whither all Christians are wending their way. (Text.)

(3294)

TRIUMPH IN DEFEAT

Out of seeming defeat often springs the truest triumph, and even despair has often been the prelude to genuine victory. Especially does the sacrifice of self achieve glorious conquest.

One of the noblest of the world’s heroes was Vercingetorix, who
roused Gaul against Cæsar. Tho he lost his own life, he saved
thousands of other lives. When he perceived that the war was
lost he had the fortitude to acknowledge defeat and to recognize
that he was the man whom the Roman commander most desired to
capture. Assembling his officers, he informed them that he was
willing to sacrifice himself in order to save them all. In due
time he was led in chains through Rome, as part of Cæsar’s
triumphant procession and stabbed to death afterward in the
darkness of his prison cell. To-day, on his rock-fortress, known
now as Alise St. Reine, stands a gigantic bronze statue of him,
proud, fearless, and strong, as on that last day of his freedom,
with his hands on his sword-hilt, and his head turned toward the
little hill across the valley where his allies were scattered
and his cause was slain.

(3295)

TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY

The World’s Sunday-school Convention in Rome was a great
occasion and a notable success. Poetically significant was the
gathering amid the memorable ruins of the Colosseum. Here on
the very sands that have been soaked with the blood of early
Christian martyrs, where thousands have met the fierce Numidian
lion and been torn to pieces for Christ’s sake, over a thousand
delegates peacefully assembled to bear witness to the very
Nazarene in whose cause those martyrs suffered. The pagan Roman
persecutors sought to wipe out the remembrance of His name from
the earth; and here this great company of Christian delegates
meet to celebrate His name, never before so widely worshiped and
adored as to-day.

(3296)

TRIVIAL CAUSES

The clock of the Potsdam Garrison Church, which Frederick the
Great in his day had placed in the tower of that cathedral, and
which hourly chimed familiar strains, suddenly stopt. The cause
of this sudden cessation of both its works and its music was the
intrusion of a brown butterfly, which alighted in its wheelworks.

Is it not often thus with the heart of man, out of which well songs of joy and praise--songs suddenly and unexpectedly reduced to silence? The cause of it often is so insignificant a thing as a transient thought, a carking care, which becomes entangled in the delicate spiritual works and brings the heavenly music to a standstill.

(3297)

TROUBLE

Blest is that person who can make the following lines part of his philosophy:

’Tis easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the one worth while
Is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.

For the test of the heart is trouble,
And that always comes with years,
And the smile that is worth
All the praises of earth
Is the smile that smiles through tears.

(3298)

* * * * *

We must not always interpret our destiny by the aspect of the present. If we contend patiently and bravely with current adversity, out of the darkness prosperity may be brought to light.

A certain great company runs a copper-smelting plant. The sulfur
fumes generated in this plant were seriously injuring vegetation
in the surrounding country. The State brought suit to compel
the company to prevent this injury to vegetation, and won the
suit. The company was put to much trouble and expense, but in
its effort to find some method of preventing that injury to
its neighbors it discovered that the gases could be captured
and converted into sulfuric acid. Thus, out of what was not
only a waste product but an injurious product, this company has
discovered a new source of great profit. And all because it “got
into trouble.” The “afterward” of all the troubles that come to
us in life has never yet been dreamed of by the wisest seer.
(Text.)

(3299)

TROUBLE, BORROWED

Dr. S. B. Dunn gives some good advice in this bit of verse:

The heart too often hath quailed with dread,
And quite its courage lost,
By casting its glance too far ahead
For the bridge that never was crossed.

The toughest fight, the bitterest dregs,
The stormiest sea that tossed,
Was the passage-at-arms--no, the passage-at-legs,
Of the bridge that never was crossed.

A wind that withers wherever it goes,
And biting as winter frost;
Is the icy blast that constantly blows
From the bridge that never was crossed.

What folly for mortals to travel that way,
As many have found to their cost--
To tempt the terrors by night or by day
Of the bridge that never was crossed.

The adage is old and worn a bit,
But worthy of being embossed--
Never cross a bridge till you come to it--
The bridge that must be crossed.

(3300)

* * * * *

Nobody is made so uncomfortable by borrowing trouble as the
borrower himself, altho, of course, everybody in the region
is disturbed and vexed by the habit. There is an ancient
Welsh legend which has always seemed to us a case in point.
“There were two kings formerly in Britain,” the legend says,
“named Nynniaw and Peibiaw. As these two ranged the fields one
starlit night, ‘See,’ said Nynniaw (who at this point seems
something of a poet), ‘what a beautiful and extensive field I
possess.’ ‘Where is it?’ said Peibiaw. ‘The whole firmament,’
said Nynniaw, ‘far as vision can extend.’ ‘And dost thou see,’
said Peibiaw, ‘what countless herds and flocks of cattle and
sheep I have depasturing thy field?’ ‘Where are they?’ said
Nynniaw. ‘Why, the whole host of stars which thou seest,’ said
Peibiaw, ‘and each of golden effulgence, with the moon for their
shepherdess to superintend their wanderings.’ ‘They shall not
graze in my pasture,’ said Nynniaw (who now appears to have been
fitly named). ‘They shall,’ said Peibiaw. ‘They shall not,’
said one. ‘They shall,’ said the other, repeatedly, bandying
contradiction, until at last it arose to wild contention
between them, and from contention it came to furious war, until
armies and subjects of both were nearly annihilated in the
desolation.”--_Harper’s Bazar._

(3301)

TROUBLE BRAVELY MET

There is a manuscript letter written by Thomas More to his wife,
Alyce, when the news came that the great mansion at Chelsea,
with its offices and huge granaries, had been almost destroyed
by fire. Instead of lamenting his loss, he writes, “I pray you,
Alyce, with my children, be merry in God. Find out if any poor
neighbors stored their corn in the granaries, and recompense
them. Discharge no servant until he have another abiding-place.
Be of good cheer. Take all the household with you to church, and
thank God for what He hath taken and what He hath left.”

(3302)

See COURAGE IN LIFE.

=Trouble Conquered=--See FAITH.

=Trouble, Ignoring=--See EVIL, IGNORING.

TROUBLE UPLIFTS

The aviators tell us that the first rule of flight is to turn
the flying-machine against the wind, and let it lift you into
the heights. When the bird is flying for pleasure it flies
with the wind, but if you lift a club toward the bird, and it
wishes to rise, it turns and flies against the wind, and upward
soars toward the sun. Trouble is a divine wind, let loose
to lift man into the heights, where eternal beauty hath her
dwelling-place.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3303)

=Troubles=--See TOOLS, MORAL.

TROUBLES, MEETING

I have recently read this story about an unhappy woman. She
was, indeed, very miserable, and for years her complaints were
loud and constant. But one day she happened to read of a naval
disaster: the ship was doomed, but the officers set the band
playing, the flags flying, and, drest in full uniform, with
their white gloves on, waited for the ship to go down.

She thought of herself, and was ashamed. Never had she met
disaster except with tears and complaints. “I won’t be as I
have been any more,” she said to herself. “When troubles come
to me, tho I perish as those officers did, I will meet them as
they did, with flags flying, the band playing, and my white
gloves on.” And new troubles came; but with each one she said to
herself, “The flags must fly to-day, the band play, and I must
have my white gloves on.” And, if the trial were very severe,
she would actually put on her best clothes, and with smiling
face go out to perform some act of cheerful kindness.