Chapter VII: Preface (7)

CAPTAIN, OUR

Every ship has a captain. Some captains are good, some bad.
Years ago, I went by steamer from Quebec through the lower St.
Lawrence and around the Dominion coast. Our captain was under
the influence of liquor the whole way, and you can easily
imagine that I was glad to get ashore safely. One of the ocean
steamship lines once dismissed a captain who, tho thoroughly
capable when he was sober, was given to drink. Another ocean
line took him up, hoping that he had reformed. Unfortunately,
this was not the case. Bringing his steamer across the Atlantic,
and being under the influence of drink, he ran her too far north
and on a winter’s night rushed his steamer on to the rocks. That
night 532 people found a watery grave. Surely that is not the
kind of captain with whom we would ever care to sail. On the
other hand, there was in my earlier days a captain of the Cunard
Steamship Company--Captain Cook by name--careful, capable,
endlessly vigilant. The passengers felt safe while he was on the
bridge.

Some one has charge of us in all our life’s voyage, and either we are under the command of Jesus Christ as Captain of our salvation, or under the command of Satan, the captain of ruin and death and despair.--A. F. SCHAUFFLER in _The Christian Herald_.

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CAPTAIN, THE DIVINE

A vessel lies at the wharf. Her timbers are sound, her masts are
stanch, her canvas is bent. The tide coaxes her seaward; the
winds plead with her to move. The ship itself strains at her
moorings to be leaping over the ocean. But the vessel must wait,
wait for the skipper’s will. Not best timbers or fullest tide
can carry that ship to the distant port until the master reveals
his mind to the vessel. The earnest expectation of the vessel
waiteth for the revealing of the captain.

So, here is the world; the master-builder has fitted it with
all things needful for its consummation; it is ready for its
wonder purpose; but it must wait; something is needed for the
accomplishment of that end. The earnest expectation of the
creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.--T.
C. MCCLELLAND.

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=Card-playing=--See AMUSEMENTS.

CARE IN PERFORMING DUTIES

The postal-clerk must know the various mail routes as familiarly
as he does the faces of his best friends. His car, with its tier
over tier of pigeon-holes, and its ranks of yawning mail-bags,
is to him no labyrinth of mysteries. His eyes are in his
fingers, and the skilful musician’s touch is not more accurate
than the aim of this wizard of the mail-car. The department
rules are exacting, and if an occasional error results from
the hurried manner in which the mail is thrown, in course of
distribution, it is sure to be detected by the next clerk into
whose hands the stray piece of mail falls, and a report of it
is at once sent to the division superintendent to be charged
against the clerk making the error. During a given year the
number of letters and other pieces of mail matter distributed
was 5,329,521,475. The number of errors made in handling this
vast quantity of matter was only 1,260,443. The number of pieces
handled for each error committed were 4,228, thus making the
percentage of correct distribution 99.98. All employees are
required to attest their skill by frequent examinations, and
for this purpose much of the leisure time of each is devoted to
studying the mail schemes of the various States attaching to
the division in which he is employed--JOHN M. BISHOP,
_Magazine of American History_.

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CARE OF GOD, THE

There are winter times with blight and cold and fruitlessness
and storm for us all; times when we do not see that the
wonder-workings of the divine care are on us. But they are on
us, definitely, “all the days.” The sun was not only bringing
the earth around all winter to a time when spring should break
forth; but the coal you burned to expel the winter’s cold that
same sun had caused to grow in ancient ages in its original
vegetation; the wood that enclosed the comforts of your home
and shut out the driving storm, that sun had caused to grow in
recent years; day by day all the winter through the sun sent
light to cheer your rooms while snows lay deep and winds were
wild; and day by day the sun purified the air and sterilized
germs of disease, and so made it possible for you to baffle
sickness and nurse your loved one back to health. The sun
was working for your good all the time. Even so our Lord is
ever working in us and in our lives to will and to do of his
good pleasure.--Monday Club, “Sermons on the International
Sunday-school Lessons for 1904.”

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CARE-FREE

The Baroness Burdette-Coutts inherited from her grandfather, of
the Coutts Bank, a fortune of about $20,000,000. She managed it
ably, but devoted it to great works of charity during her long
and busy life. Not long before her death she said:

“I seem to be living in a transitional age. Every one is in such
a hurry nowadays, and I don’t ever remember being in a hurry.
The weather never depresses me. I don’t mind noise and rather
enjoy the rush of the motor-busses past Holly Lodge. I don’t
myself know what nerves are, and yet I’ve had to send Tip, my
fox-terrier, to a restcure.” (Text.)

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=Carefulness=--See HEADWORK.

=Careless Work=--See ANYHOW, THE LAND OF.

CARELESSNESS

Down in the fire-room of a big steamer that was lying at the
wharf in New York, a young man was told to do a certain piece of
work in connection with the pumps. There were two pumps close
together in the room--one for feeding the boiler and the other
to use in case the ship should take fire. This latter one was
capable of throwing a volume of water as large as a man’s body.
The young man, who had been employed on the ship for three
years, and who, when he concentrated his attention on it, knew
all that was necessary concerning the work in hand, went to the
wrong pump and removed the cap from the fire-pump. In a moment
he discovered his error, but the force of the water was so great
that he could not replace the cap on the pump. Without a word
he ran to the deck, left the steamer, and took the cars for his
home in another State. Before the accident was discovered the
water had filled the hold of the vessel, and in spite of every
effort the vessel sank, and many thousands of dollars of damage
was done.--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

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See IGNORANCE.

CARELESSNESS, COST OF

The city of Butte, Montana, is built over a mine which has been
on fire for seventeen years, not blazing out, but smoldering
quietly, every effort being made to keep out the air, without
which it can not spread very rapidly.

As to the origin of this fire the story is that a miner named
Henshaw left his candle burning on a pine beam in the mine when
he finished work one day seventeen years ago.

“Goin’ to leave the glim there, Bill?” his partner queried.

“Sure; what’s the difference?”

“Oh, nothin’, only there’ll be nobody round here for quite a
while and I was just thinkin’ that if a fire started it might
spread.”

“Well, we’ll take chances; let’s go!” was the glum response.

They went out, but the fire didn’t. A set of timbers caught and
the flames spread quickly.

Since that time thousands of men have been engaged in fighting
this fire without complete success, for it still burns, and a
fortune has been expended in the conflict.

What a price to pay for a foolish act! All acts of carelessness are not followed by such serious consequences, but there is always an element of risk in doing the wrong thing.

In how many lives has the fire of sin been kindled by some deed of folly in early life, and it still smolders in the soul, cursing the man’s whole being.--_Onward._

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CAREERS CONTRASTED

In the year 1877 two young men stood up with the rest of their
class at Bowdoin University to receive diplomas. One was called
Bob, the other was called Charlie. They were Maine boys, both of
them, and of about the same age. Within the last few weeks those
two boys, now grown into grizzled men in the early fifties, have
been conspicuous in the news of the day.

One of them, Bob, went in for fame, and after devoting the best
years of his life to wrestling with arctic storms, throwing dice
with death, enduring the very limits of privation and hardship,
more than once glad to chew tanned leather or bite into rancid
blubber, he emerged the other day with a story of discovery
which thrilled the whole world, and will send his name, Robert
E. Peary, sounding down the ages to the end of time.

The other boy, Charlie, went in for fortune. He had already
developed the knack of the money-maker, and he did not tie up
his talent in a napkin. He sold candy. He sold ice. He sold
lumber. He acquired banks and trust companies and juggled stocks
and bonds until he amassed a fortune of twenty millions. Then
something happened. On the day after New-year’s day of this
year (1910), his money gone, his reputation destroyed, his
liberty lost, he took the 10:43 train on the Southern Limited,
escorted by a United States marshal and two deputies, on the
way to the Federal prison at Atlanta, Ga., to which he had been
sentenced for a term of fifteen years. Every legal device to
save him had been tried, and had failed, and Charles Wyman Morse
has now become convict Number 2814--that is all.--_Current
Literature._

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CARGOES THAT WRECK

Every ship has a cargo, or if no cargo it is seeking for cargo.
Some cargoes are safe and some dangerous. In olden time they
used to load grain in bulk, which was dangerous, for if the
grain shifted in a storm it was apt to throw the ship on her
beam ends. Cotton is a dangerous cargo, and many steamship lines
advertise, “These ships carry no cotton.” Some years ago, an
evil-minded man tried to ship an infernal machine on one of the
steamers of a transatlantic line. His intention was that the
clockwork in the machine should go off while the ship was in
mid-ocean, and blow her to pieces. Fortunately, the clockwork
went off while the infernal machine was on the dock. It blew off
the stern of the steamer and killed thirteen men. Surely that
would have been a dangerous cargo to carry.

Just so every man carries a cargo. By this I mean a cargo of opinions, passions, appetites, and these are sure to wreck any young man who carries them.--A. F. SCHAUFFLER, _The Christian Herald_.

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CASTE

Dr. Pauline Root, of India, gives this example of the tenacity of the Hindus to their rules of caste:

The Brahman custom which prescribes for every man and woman
the ceremonial bath every day also prescribes that during
any illness the bath shall be omitted. A woman who is ill is
banished to a little room and left to take care of herself
unless a hired person is sent to be her nurse. I had under my
care a young girl of high caste who was ill with an illness
which had already carried off the mother and two sisters. The
father was ready to make almost any concessions to me if I would
only come and save his daughter’s life. I insisted that she be
brought out into one of the main rooms of the home, and that she
be given a cot to sleep upon. When she grew better she wanted me
with her most of the time to sit beside her and hold her hand. I
really thought she was succumbing before love. Finally, I told
her that she was convalescent enough to have her ceremonial
bath. The next morning her father met me with a munificent gift.
I saw the girl arrayed in her beautiful dresses, but a great
distance had been put between us, and when I held out my hand
she refused it, saying, “Please don’t touch me; I have taken my
bath.”

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=Catalepsy=--See PATHOLOGICAL CONDITION.

=Catching Souls=--See FISHERS OF MEN.

CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSIONS

Probably few people outside the Catholic Church know what that
body is doing for the evangelization of heathen lands. And if
we are to believe the Catholic leaders and writers, their own
people have shared to some degree this lack of information and
interest, for the Catholic missionaries have had to struggle
on with little support from home compared with the generous
gifts the Protestant missionaries receive. A report has just
been issued by Monsignor Freri, general director of the Society
for the Propagation of the Faith, that is full of information
on this subject. It is summarized in the New York _Evening
Sun_ and _Post_ and many Catholic journals. Its figures
afford some interesting comparisons. While an unmarried
Protestant missionary receives about $600, the income of the
Catholic missionary, who receives no stated salary, is less than
$111. While the Northern Methodists of America alone last year
subscribed over $2,000,000 in missionary funds, and all American
Protestants more than $11,000,000, Catholics the world over
contributed in all but $1,342,292.27.

Monsignor Freri’s report shows the actual receipts for 1909
to be $61,755.02 in excess of those of the preceding year.
He directs special attention to the zeal of the Catholics of
France, who, in spite of the extraordinary burdens imposed
upon them by the confiscation of religious property and the
separation of Church and State, contributed $630,688.51, almost
half of the total.

The United States and its insular possessions hold the second
place with the gift of $220,637.78. This is an increase of
$27,583.38 over 1908. Germany gave $140,530.92; Belgium,
$71,529.40; the Argentine Republic, $47,448.97; Italy,
$46,898.74; Spain, $39,080.42; Mexico, $24,149.60; Switzerland,
$18,532.74; Chile, $16,403.93, and the British Isles donated a
trifle above $25,000, of which Ireland gave $15,478.92.

It is estimated that the number of Catholic missionaries in the
foreign field, exclusive of converted natives who have taken up
the work, is 54,000, of whom 10,000 are priests, 4,000 teaching
brothers, and 45,000 nuns. In addition to their share of the
general fund, the missionaries receive alms and contributions
from various sources. Yet, to quote an address delivered by
Monsignor Freri before the Catholic Missionary Congress:

“Including all these sources of income, and after consultation
with many heads of missions, I think I am far within the truth
when I say that the total contribution for missions, from all
sources, is less than $6,000,000 a year. If we reckon 10,000
priests, 4,000 brothers, and 40,000 nuns, this would give an
average of less than $111 per capita. With this they must
support themselves, build churches, maintain schools, hospitals,
asylums, colleges, pay the transportation of missionaries, etc.”

One of the chief missionary bands is that of the “White
Fathers,” or Algerian missionaries, whose missions in Uganda
Mr. Roosevelt visited in his African travels. According to the
report, the total number of baptisms within the jurisdiction of
this one organization during the year beginning July, 1908, was
10,000.

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CATHOLICITY, A KING’S

His (Edward VII) catholicity, the object of both praise and
censure, was proverbial. An instance of this was given in a
letter written by Archbishop Magee, in December, 1873. Speaking
of a week-end visit to Sandringham, where Edward, then Prince
of Wales, attended his services, he said: “Just returned from
church, where I preached for twenty-six minutes (Romans, 8:28).
The church is a very small country one, close to the grounds.
The house, as I saw it by daylight, is a handsome country house
of red stone with white facings, standing well and looking
quietly comfortable and suitable. I find the company pleasant
and civil, but we are a curious mixture. Two Jews, Sir A.
Rothschild and his daughter; a Roman Catholic, Col. Higgins;
an Italian duchess, who is an English woman, and her daughter
brought up as a Roman Catholic and now turning Protestant; a set
of young lords, and a bishop. The Jewess came to church; so did
the half-Protestant lady. Dizzy (Disraeli) did the same, and
was profuse in his praises of my sermon.”--New York _Evening
Post_.

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CAUSALITY IN CHILDREN

A few illustrations will suffice to make clear the instinct of
causality in children. I draw first of all upon notes taken on
the religious development of a boy between the age of three and
six years. At the end of the third year, while visiting Niagara
Falls with his parents, this boy showed his first interest
in the cause of things. While watching the water of the falls
from Prospect Park, he said: “Mama, who pours the water over
Niagara Falls?” We may imagine similar questions being asked
by the American Indian ages previously, and answered in terms
of “Gitchie Manitou, the Mighty.” From this beginning, the boy
during the next three years seemed to be trying to make himself
clear upon the question of where things come from originally,
and who keeps the world going. “Who makes the birds?” “Who made
the very first bird?” “Who fixt their wings so they can fly?”
“Who takes care of the birds and rabbits in the winter when snow
is on the ground?” “Who makes the grass grow?” “Who makes the
trees?” “Who makes them shed their leaves and then get them back
again?” “Who makes it thunder?” “Who put the moon in the sky?”
“Who made the whole world?” “Who made people?” “Who made me?”
“Does God make everything?” “Who made God?” “Was God already
made?” “Is God everywhere?” Such were the questions asked again
and again, with all sorts of comments in reply to the answers
that were given him. The question of what is the origin of
things was seldom or never asked. It was always who; and when
the personal cause he was seeking was named “God” in connection
with numerous objects, he finally generalized by asking if God
makes everything.--GEORGE E. DAWSON, “The Child and His
Religion.”

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=Causative Sense Instructive=--See AUTOMATIC EXPERIENCE.

CAUSES CURED

A bitter fountain comes rushing down the mountain side, and
drinking thereof, the people of the city are poisoned. Along
comes a man who says: “I will build a lime factory just above
the city, and pour a stream of lime-water into the bitter
fountain.” Jesus’ method was simpler. Go higher up, into the
mountain of God, and strike the rock, that sweet waters may gush
forth, to flow through the land, carrying health and happiness
to all that stand upon the banks of this river of water of
life. Jesus reformed institutions by reforming human nature.
He was a fundamental thinker. He dealt with causes.--N. D.
HILLIS.

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=Caution in Revealing Truth=--See TRUTH FATAL.

CEMETERY, THE EARTH AS A

Again and again this old poetic fancy of the earth as one great
cemetery buried several times deep with dead men, women and
children, has been refuted by figures. But great is the error
and will prevail, unless the truth be well and steadily upheld.
The population of the earth is now about 1,500,000,000. Suppose
the human race to have existed for 6,000 years and you have
sixty centuries. In each century you may count three generations
of mankind, or one hundred and eighty generations in all, each
being a generation of 1,500,000,000. Now, lay out a cemetery
for one generation. It will be a huge estimate to give to every
man, woman, and child a grave five feet by two, or ten square.
You want for your graveyard, then, 15,000,000,000 square feet of
ground. A square mile contains something less than 28,000,000
square feet. You want, then, a graveyard fifty-five miles long
by ten wide for your whole generation. Now multiply this by one
hundred and eighty and you have your burial-ground for 6,000
years of mankind. That is, a strip of land, 1,800 miles long
by 55 miles wide will be ample. In other words, a cemetery
containing 100,000 square miles would be sufficient for the
entire human race to lie side by side. The estimate which I
have given you of continuous population is obviously enormously
large. The estimate of the size of each grave is very large. A
strictly correct estimate would reduce the size of the required
cemetery more than one-half. But enormous as it is, you could
lay out your burial-ground for all men who have lived on earth,
so that they could lie side by side in Arizona or in California,
or you could lay it out in Texas large enough to accommodate
the race of 6,000 years past, and also the race for 6,000 years
yet to come, all sleeping in the soil of that one State of this
Union. But some one says the race of man has been on the earth
100,000 years. That is a pure imagination and there is not, so
far as I know, a fact on which to rest it. But suppose it is
true, and suppose the population always what it is now, you
have provided for 6,000 years of it. You want nearly seventeen
times as large a cemetery for the generations of a thousand
centuries. That is, you want 1,700,000 square miles in it. Lay
it out whenever you please, 1,700 miles long by 1,000 miles
wide. It is but part of the United States. And so enormously
large have been the rough estimates thus far used, it is safe
to say that if the human race has been in existence 100,000
years, a separate grave could be provided for every individual
of the race within a part of the United States east of the
Mississippi River.--W. C. PRIME, New York _Journal of
Commerce_.

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=Censure, Misplaced=--See REFLECTION, IMPERFECT.

=Census-taking, Primitive=--See COLLECTIVE LABOR.

CENTER OF LIFE

Some men have a Ptolemaic notion of life; their little earth is
the center around which all things move. If I have been of that
sort, I will remember that the age has outgrown that. It is time
to reconstruct one’s life on the Copernican theory, admitting
that ours is only a little earth in the great universe, and
finding our true solar center in the great moral gravitation of
the divine love.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, D.D., “Sermons in
Illustration.”

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=Ceremonial Purging=--See PREJUDICE, RELIGIOUS.

CEREMONY, USELESSNESS OF

At Teschen, which town Stephen Schultz, missionary to the Jews,
visited several times, he entered the store of a Jewish merchant
to buy some articles. He conversed with one of the Jewish clerks
on the necessity of an atonement for sin, when the Jew asserted
that every man can atone for his own sins. Schultz made him
agree to the statement that we are all become altogether as an
unclean thing, and then asked him:

“How, then, can we pay our debts to God or atone for our sins?”
“We must pray, fast, give alms, etc., for altho we dare not
now offer any sacrifices, yet if we read over the institution
and rites of sacrifices, it will be accepted.” Schultz,
without paying any attention to this absurd statement at this
time, asked: “How much do I owe for these articles I bought?”
“Fifty-seven cents.” “Please write it down upon the counter,
lest I forget it.” The Jew did so, and Schultz read ten times:
“Fifty-seven cents,” and then walked toward the door as if he
would depart. The clerk called him back, saying: “You have not
paid me.” “What! Have not yet paid? Have I not read over ten
times just what you wrote?” “Yes, but that will not pay your
debt.” “And will you then deal so treacherously with God, and
think to pay your debts to Him by repeating some prayers?”
(Text.)--_Missionary Review of the World._

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CHAINS

David had twenty-four columns of marble around his banqueting
room, and he chained a bandit and an old enemy to each column,
and in the presence of his enemies feasted. Christ enables the
soul to chain hate, envy, lying, avarice, gluttony, jealousy,
evil-speaking, sloth, and then the soul exclaims, Thou hast
spread me a table in the midst of mine enemies! (Text.)--N.
D. HILLIS.

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CHALLENGE

The outburst of the matchless hymnic genius of Isaac Watts
was the response to a challenge. When a youth of eighteen he
complained to his father, who was a deacon in an Independent
church at Southampton, England, of the poor quality of the hymns
sung in the nonconformist services of the time. “Suppose you
make a few,” said his father, with more than a suggestion of
gentle sarcasm. Taking up the challenge, the poet retired; and
soon, out from his seclusion where he had put on his “singing
robes,” came the hymn: “Behold the Glories of the Lamb,”
which was sung at an early meeting; and so began a career of
hymn-writing which continued through the author’s life, and
which later aroused to song a whole nest of singing-birds.

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=Chance and Work=--See TOIL AND PROVIDENCE.

=Chance, Decision by=--See COINCIDENCE AND SUPERSTITION.

CHANCE FOR THE BOY

From _Congregational Work_ is taken the following incident:

Patrick A. Collins, Mayor of Boston for a number of years past,
believed that a boy’s word is worth listening to. One time
complaint was made to him that a saloon was located too near a
certain public school. The politicians and others interested
in keeping the place open urged him not to interfere with the
resort. The school authorities desired it closed and removed.

After the Mayor had listened to arguments from both sides, he
said:

“Well, I’m going to let the boys of the school tell me what they
think of the place. Send me,” he said to the principal of the
school, “half a dozen of your brightest boys. I’ll listen to
them.”

The next day half a dozen of the boys, ranging from ten to
fifteen years of age, called on the Mayor. Each boy gave some
reason why he believed the saloon ought to be taken away, until
it came to the last one, a youngster of twelve. He looked the
Mayor squarely in the eye, and gave as his reason:

“My school gives me a chance to be Mayor of Boston some day; the
saloon can’t. I think us boys ought to have all the show we can
get to be Mayor. That’s all I know about it.”

The Mayor threw himself back in his chair and laughed heartily;
then, straightening up, he said to the last spokesman:

“My boy, you have said more than did all the politicians and the
teachers. You shall have the show to be Mayor. That saloon will
have to quit business at once.”

The boys gave the Mayor a hearty cheer, and marched out of his
office. They had conquered, and were consequently happy and
triumphant.

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CHANGE RENOVATES

Police captains find that if they change every man around to a
different position about once in so often, it is good for the
entire force. The managers of some business offices say that a
good big jar is beneficial to almost everybody, and especially
for those in danger of believing that they are indispensable.
It is a most remarkable boy who is not improved, on occasions,
by a genuine “calling down.”--JAMES M. STIFLER, “The
Fighting Saint.”

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=Change Wrought by Time=--See TIME, CHANGES OF.

=Changes in China=--See CHINESE PROGRESS.

CHANGES WROUGHT BY CHRIST

The geologist tells us that ages ago vast and horrible creatures
filled the air and waters--fierce and hideous monsters swarmed
and fought in the primeval slime; but in due time God swept away
mastodon, mammoth, megatherium, and filled the world with mild
and beautiful forms of life.

To-day we see moral changes wrought far more wonderful than any to which the petrifactions of the geologist witness; we see the power of Christ destroying passions far more terrible than the lizards, serpents, and crocodiles of the antediluvian world, creating graces sweeter and fairer than the choicest forms of perfected nature.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

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=Channels, Choked=--See LIFE.

CHARACTER

That a life tells more than a creed is shown in this incident told in the _Young Man_:

Mr. John Morley said to a Presbyterian minister who was his
guest: “How was it that your Church tolerated Drummond? His
views were surely not those of the Free Church.” “No,” said the
minister, “but we never took him seriously as a thinker. No
one believed that he would shape the theological opinions of
the Church. We regarded him rather as a religious influence.”
“Ah, yes,” said Mr. Morley, “you are quite right; he wasn’t
a thinker.” After some talk on other matters he returned to
the subject: “You said a little while ago that Drummond was a
religious influence. How did he show that?” “Well,” replied the
minister, “for one thing, he cleansed Edinburgh University life
for several years.” “Ah,” said Mr. Morley thoughtfully, “that’s
better than being a thinker.” It is never easy for the Church to
drive out heretics who are not thinkers, but who purify by love
the sources of spiritual life in men.

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* * * * *

As the light is rayed back from the flower and the wave, from
the rock and the roadside, from all objects in nature and all
ornaments of art, no matter from what center it emanated first,
so the excellence of a character, when serenely and brightly
exprest through life, attracts an immediate and instinctive
response from all natures around it.--RICHARD S. STORRS.

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See APPEARANCE; TRUST.

=Character and Evil=--See EVIL GERMINAL.

CHARACTER AND FAME

Fame is what you have taken,
Character is what you give;
When to this truth you awaken,
Then you begin to live.

--BAYARD TAYLOR.

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=Character and Manners=--See DUAL CHARACTER.

CHARACTER-BUILDING

Men might as well try to erect a skyscraper on a bog as to
attempt to build a character on anything less enduring than
Jesus. Every little while some one makes a new religion with
Jesus omitted. These structures dot the plains of nineteen
centuries. For a time they appear attractive. But, sooner or
later, their tenants discover that there is something wrong
with the underpinning. Happy they if they can succeed in moving
out before the flimsy fabrics collapse and bury their misguided
occupants beneath unseemly ruins.--JOEL B. SLOCUM.

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See DAILY CHARACTER WORK.

CHARACTER CONDITIONED BY THE PHYSICAL

A news item from Toledo, Ohio, reads:

Skilled surgeons at St. Vincent’s hospital have transformed
Harold Hurley, the bad boy, into Harold Hurley, the good boy.

A few days ago, Harold, aged twelve, who was slated for the
Lancaster reform school, was taken to the hospital. To-day he
was taken home, a changed boy, different in thought, acts, and
even appearance.

Harold has been a problem to his mother and to the juvenile
court officers for some time. Probation Officer Dilgart got a
look at Harold recently and discovered a peculiar scar on the
boy’s forehead. Inquiry developed that when five years of age
Harold stumbled, and striking his head upon a stone, sustained a
fracture of the skull. Gradually he became bad; but instead of
being sent to Lancaster, he was removed to the hospital, where
the pressure of a broken bone on his brain was removed.

After the operation the lad’s faculties gathered slowly.
Dr. James Donnelly states that the pressure of the piece
of bone upon the brain had gradually dulled all the higher
sensibilities, and if it had gone on Harold would in time have
become an utter degenerate. (Text.)

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CHARACTER, CROWN OF

That all men may attain the crown of a Godlike character is the lesson of this poem by Edwin Markham:

When punctual death comes knocking at the door,
To lead the soul upon the unknown road,
There is one crown, one only, never flung
Back to the dust by his fastidious hand.
Touched by this crown, a man is king indeed,
And carries fate and freedom in his breast;
And when his house of clay falls ruining,
His soul is out upon the path of stars!
This is the one thing stronger than the years
That tear the kingdoms down. Imperious time,
Pressing a wasteful hand on mortal things,
Reveals this young eternity in man.

The peasant, he may earn it with the king,
And tread an equal palace full of light.
Fleet youth may seize this crown: slow-footed age
May wear its immortality. Behold!
Its power can turn bare rafters to a home
Hallowed with hopes and hushed with memories;
Can turn a field of ruin to a place
Where pilgrims keep the watches of the night.

(340)

CHARACTER IMPARTED

Said a young lady to her hostess: “I want to scent my lace
handkerchief and I have no sachet with me.” The handkerchief
was taken by the lady and placed inside a great rose-jar. “Your
handkerchief will be scented in a few hours and the fragrance
will never depart from it.” And it never did. The lady explained
that the jar had been obtained in China and had been a rose-jar
for generations. But when it came into her possession she
spent a large sum of money on attar of roses to penetrate the
inner glazing of the glass and her object was fulfilled. The
fragrance would never depart from it and was communicated to
any object placed in it for a few hours. Roman Catholic priests
remark that if they can have charge of a child until he is ten
years of age he will never depart from the faith. Certainly the
pervasive influence of the moral atmosphere is a mighty power in
determining character.

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=Character Impugned=--See MODESTY.

=Character in Pictures=--See GENIUS, PORTRAYING.

=Character Like the Diamond=--See REFLECTION OF GOD.

CHARACTER MORE THAN CLOTHING

A Scotch nobleman, seeing an old gardener of his establishment
with a very ragged coat, made some passing remarks on its
condition. “It’s a verra guid coat,” said the honest old man.
“I can not agree with you there,” said his lordship. “Ah, it’s
just a verra guid coat,” persisted the old man; “it covers a
contented spirit, and a body that owes no man anything, and
that’s mair than mony a man can say of his coat.” (Text.)

(342)

CHARACTER NOT PURCHASABLE

In an address, made not long before his death, Bishop Potter, of New York, said:

About a year ago there came into my study in New York some one
whom I had never seen, a stranger whose name sent in upon his
card I did not recognize, and whose errand I could not divine.
“Sir,” he said, “I am from such and such a part of the country.
In that part of the country a very fierce political campaign
is now in progress. One of your clergy is attacking from the
pulpit the moral character and moral standards of a gentleman, a
candidate there for a very high office, whom I represent.”

I said: “I have not got any clergymen out in that part of the
world. I have no more jurisdiction there than you have.” He
said: “Perhaps not in the sense you mean, but it is one of your
men.” “Thank God for that,” said I. “As he came from here he
believes in you, and he thinks that sort of talk is his duty.”
“What do you want me to do?” I asked. “I want you to stop it,”
said he, “and I am authorized by the distinguished gentleman
whom I represent to say that if you will stop it he will make it
worth your while.”

I felt like saying, “I will come high.” I got up and walked to
the door. I opened it and stood there. He looked there a moment
in some perplexity. I said: “Does it not occur to you, sir, that
this interview is at an end.” He went out.

I mention that incident as a proof of the statement I have made
here. Here was a person in a distant part of the country, a
candidate for a very high position, who had not the smallest
hesitation in sending an emissary to me with an intimation
that if I were prepared to silence a speaker who was saying
disagreeable things that money would be put to make it worth my
while. I am saying that with that symptomatic you can not ignore
the appalling significance of such a condition of things. (Text.)

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CHARACTER POTS

I had sometimes caught a glimpse of the small scullery-maid at
my boarding-house; but one day, slipping to the kitchen for a
cup of hot water, I had a queer bit of a chat with her. She was
scouring granite pots with a vim and vigor which were bound to
bring results, and all the while her face was as shining as her
finished work.

“Do you like them, Alice?” I asked.

“No, I hate them,” she replied emphatically.

“What makes you smile so over them, then?” I asked, curiously.

“Because they’re ‘character pots,’” the child replied at once.

“What?” I inquired, thinking I had misunderstood.

“‘Character pots,’ miss. You see, I used to only half clean
them. I often cried over them, but Miss Mary told me as how, if
I made them real shiny, they’d help to build my character. And
ever since then I’ve tried hard, miss; and, oh, it’s been so
much easier since I’ve known they were ‘character pots.’”

I said a word or two of encouragement, and went on my way,
knowing that I had been rubbing up against a real heroine.
Everyday life is brimful of disagreeable duties. Why not turn
them every one into “character pots?”--_East and West._

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CHARACTER SELF-COMMENDING

It is told of Antipater, an officer in Alexander’s army and a
favorite in his court, that one day Philip of Macedon, placed in
a position which required special vigilance, made his appearance
at a late hour in the morning, with the apology: “I have slept
rather late this morning, but then I knew that Antipater was
awake.” And at another time, when some person exprest surprize
that Antipater did not clothe himself in a purple robe, the
badge of nobility and greatness, as the other commanders and
ministers of state were accustomed to do, Alexander replied:
“Those men wear purple on the outside, but Antipater is purple
within.”

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CHARACTER SHOWN IN THE FEET

Distinctions of character are not seen, really, in the feet
themselves, but in what the owner does with them. Sometimes it
is significant that their owner does not know what to do with
them. He is vulgarly, defiantly self-sufficient and despises
ceremony, so when he smokes a cigar he puts his feet on the
mantel-piece, out of the way. Or he is a country-bumpkin,
painfully self-conscious, so he stands on one foot and then on
the other, and shifts them about, perplexed what to do with
them, as ill-bred folks, when they sit idle and sociable, are
perplexed by possessing a pair of hands. On the contrary, the
fop--whose feet are clad without spot or speck, and regardless
of expense--knows very well what to do with them; they are part
of the exhibition which is his constant care. In general, it is
a sign of vanity to thrust forward habitually a neat foot when
one is at rest. A conceited man nurses a leg and admires a foot,
which he twitches and twirls beneath his delighted eyes--quite
unconsciously, and in a different manner from the fop; for
the vain man thinks of the effect produced upon other people,
but the conceited man is satisfied with himself, without any
regard to the ordinary mortals who may chance to be observing
him. Very different is the generous mind of the philanthropist,
who thinks constantly of the rest of the world, and not of
himself. There is nothing cramped about any of his ideas or of
his possessions. He forgets such small matters as fashion and
details of appearance. Except on state occasions, he considers
neatness to be a hindrance; everything about him is large, from
his benevolent schemes down to his well-worn shoes. His stand
is not alert, but patient, well set on the ground; he is ready
and steady; he waits to give what he can, and to do what he
can, and while he thinks of weighty matters, personal details
are forgotten. He may walk flat-footed in old shoes; insteps
and heels are infinitely beneath his consideration, so his foot
is not the type that the dancing-master believes to be the one
thing necessary for a gentleman; but he has already flattened
injustice under his feet, and the horror of the dancing-master
shall never reach his ears.--_Cassell’s Family Magazine._

(346)

=Character, Springs of=--See SPRINGS OF CHARACTER.

CHARACTER, SUPPORT OF

A man once purchased a vacant lot on which stood a gigantic
elm-tree.

So much did he admire the elm that when he erected his house he
built it around the trunk. He did not care to mutilate it or cut
it down, but desired that it should constantly exhale its aroma
and moisture in his drawing-room. The silence of its growth
and steady expansion would be a constant source of interest to
himself and to his friends. The opening in the roof was capped
to shut out the insect enemies and to shut in the fragrance.
When a cyclone swept over the village and the lightning flashed
around, the house had shelter and protection in the tree. Other
houses might fall, but not that one.

We are all builders of character. Whether that character will
stand the tests of life or not depends on whether we have built
Christ into our character or not. If He is in us a real and
living personality, we shall never fail. (Text.)

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CHARACTER, TEST OF

You can not read a man so well during his busy hours as by what
he does after supper, or from the closing hour of business to
bedtime. You can not gage his character so well by the money
he spends for necessaries or the living of his family as by
that little overplus of money which is left after the necessary
expenses are paid. What does he do with his spare money, that
margin left over from business and from living expenses? What
he does with that margin will throw a wonderful light upon his
character.

The largest part of every active life must be devoted to getting
a living, attending to one’s affairs, and this is done by most
people in a routine sort of a way. You can not tell much about
the real man during these hours, because he has a system, his
regular daily routine, and he does very much the same thing
every day. But the moment he is free, he is quite a different
man. Then his real propensities come out. People are not natural
until they are free from restraint.

Watch the boy and the girl when they are free from their regular
duties, and see how they spend their evenings, what society they
keep, what companionships they form, what they do. This will be
a pretty good test of their character.--_Success._

(348)

=Character that Shines=--See LUMINOSITY.

=Character Unaffected by Death=--See DEATH DOES NOT CHANGE
CHARACTER.

CHARACTER, UNSEEN PLACES IN

The editor of the _Central Presbyterian_ moralizes on flowers from a back yard as follows:

A lovely flower came to us last week from the back yard of a
home in the city. It was a white hyacinth, large and full, white
as the driven snow, and sweetly perfumed. And it came not from
the florist’s hothouse, nor from the fine plot at the front of
a good home, but from the little yard at the rear. What a thing
of beauty and fragrance to spring up in this homely place,
common, soiled and trampled! It is a happy thought, not uncommon
nowadays, to make the back yard, not often seen by other’s eyes,
a place of beauty and sweetness, turning the common and the
obscure into a source of pleasure and all that is wholesome and
inspiring.

One may do well to look after the back yard of his own life. He
has sometimes a front that all men see and admire. Toward his
friends and neighbors he is careful to make a fair exhibition
of good morals and courteous manner. He maintains a front with
which no fault can be found. But can the rear, the small and
commonplace, the every-day and out-of-sight part of character
and conduct, bear the same careful inspection? Are there any
fair and fragrant flowers that spring up where no man ever
looks, and only God’s eye can see?

(349)

=Character Wrought by Hardship=--See SAVED IN SERVICE.

CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS

A look, a touch, a word is enough, not infrequently, to betray the man back of it, the unconscious being the characteristic.

Mendelssohn once revealed his masterhand as a musician to
the organ-keeper in Strasburg Cathedral by the way he made
the instrument speak, just as Giotto, as an artist, did to a
stranger on one occasion by drawing a perfect circle at a stroke.

(350)

=Characteristics Revealing Authorship=--See RECOGNITION BY ONE’S
WORK.

=Characterization, Improper=--See BADNESS IN BOYS.

CHARITY

Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life,
And, even when you find them,
It’s wise and kind to be somewhat blind,
And search for the light behind them.

(351)

See OTHER SIDE, THE.

=Charity, Inadequate=--See INJUSTICE.

CHARITY, LOGIC OF

Put a Chinaman into your hospital and he will get treated. You
may lie awake at night drawing up reasons for doing something
different with this disgusting Chinaman--who somehow is in
the world and is thrown into your care, your hospital, your
thought--but the machinery of your own being is so constructed
that if you take any other course with him than that which you
take with your own people, your institution will instantly lose
its meaning; you would not have the face to beg money for its
continuance in the following year. The logic of this, which, if
you like, is the logic of self-protection under the illusion of
self-sacrifice, is the logic which is at the bottom of all human
progress. The utility of hospitals is not to cure the sick. It
is to teach mercy. The veneration for hospitals is not because
they cure the sick, it is because they stand for love, and
responsibility.--JOHN JAY CHAPMAN.

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CHARITY RESPECTED

It is reported that during the late disturbances in southern
China consequent upon the French expedition to Tonquin, a small
Wesleyan mission station at Fatshan was at the mercy of a
riotous mob. The chapel was wrecked. The hospital for days was
menaced and was hourly expected to fall, but here, for the first
time, the rioters appeared to hesitate. Some of the sick were
removed before their eyes; others, they knew, could not leave
the building. They constantly threatened assault, but the blow
never came, and amid their angry menaces the doctor was allowed
to pass freely to and from the hospital. A finer touch than
that which compelled a kindred feeling between this rabble and
its foreign benefactors does not exist in nature. The Chinese
mob probably did not include many acute controversialists in
theology, but it did, as a whole, recognize the presence
of that charity which is rightly regarded as the essence of
religion.--London _Lancet_.

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=Charm, A, Surrendered=--See RESERVATION.

=Chastening=--See AFFLICTION, USES OF.

=Chastisement=--See DISCIPLINE.

CHEER, GOOD

Eben E. Rexford writes this cheering philosophy:

Tell me, what’s the use of fretting when we think that things go
wrong?
It never makes them better; but I’ve heard it said a song
Makes the heavy load seem lighter, and will cheer the troubled
heart
Till it quite forgets its worries, and its vexing cares depart--
As the wind that sweeps the marshes where the fog hangs, chill and
gray,
Moves the mists that mar the morning till it blows them all away.

So, whenever storm-clouds gather till they hide the sun from sight,
And it’s darker in the morning than it ought to be at night,
Then let’s sing about the sunshine that is on the other side
Of the darkest cloud, my comrade. Let the song ring far and wide
On the listening ear of others who climb the hill with you.
Till the rifted clouds are scattered, and the gray old world seems
new.

(354)

CHEER, SIGNALS OF

Sailors who navigate the seas on the South Atlantic coast are
always glad when they near the harbor of Savannah, for that
means that they will pass within saluting distance of the
“little lighthouse girl.” This is the officially accepted title
of Florence Martus, who has for the last eleven years waved a
friendly signal to every craft passing between the city and the
sea. It is a hobby of this young girl to greet the ships that go
and wish them a safe return, and greet the ships that come and
congratulate them on their voyage.

The Martus dwelling is the only habitation on Elba Island. There
is no landing wharf, and visitors arrive on an average once a
year. The barks, the steamers, and the various other craft never
get near enough for an exchange of greetings other than that
most expressive form of good will, the waving of a handkerchief
by day and of a lantern by night. And as the girl sends out her
welcome, the seamen who know all about her, and who would resent
the elimination of the ceremony which she so popularized, send
back an answering salute, three “toots” of the steam-whistle.
Then Miss Martus is as happy as a belle at a debutante party.

It is her desire that no vessel shall pass the lighthouse
without receiving a salute. She never overlooks a sail in the
daytime, and her handkerchief is ever ready for its service
of cordiality. She says it is her ambition to signal every
ship that touches at Savannah. She was asked her reason for
signalling the passing sea throng, and she answered that it was
to cheer the crew.

This beautiful and unselfish ministry illustrates how a noble heart invents ways to scatter sunshine. The world passes us like ships on the sea. How much interest do we take in others? How far a kind word, or smile, or handshake goes to help the friendless and hopeless. It is not the great acts but the little deeds of kindness that make human beings happy. (Text.)

(355)

* * * * *

“That boy,” said the foreman in the machine-shop, “will make a
good workman. He always whistles at his work.” (Text.)

(356)

=Cherubim=--See LOVE RATHER THAN KNOWLEDGE.

=Child, A, as Reconciler=--See GOOD WILL.

=Child, A Little=--See SOUL, YOUR.

CHILD, FAITH OF A

The prediction that “a little child shall lead them” applies in this poem to a skeptic rather than to ravenous beasts.

A little child walked by my side,
I had lost faith in God and man,
He prattled of his joys and hopes
As only little children can.
I did not try to blast his hopes,
I did not tell him of my pain,
And, somehow, when our walk was done,
My shattered faith was whole again.

--RENA HURD INGHAM, _Congregationalist_.
(Text.)

(357)

=Child, Influence of a=--See PARDON FOR A CHILD’S SAKE.

CHILD LABOR

The National Child Labor Committee was organized in 1904. Up
to that time very little had been done toward preventing the
employment of children in many industries, the worst of these
being the work of coal-breaking in mines and long days of labor
in textile factories. A summary of the work accomplished by the
committee in six years will show the gains that are being made
in saving children from the too heavy burdens of labor at a
tender age, under which their growth is often stunted, and their
education interrupted or prevented.

Eight-hour day for children under 16 established in 10 States
and District of Columbia (in many or all industries).

Hours of employment for children reduced in 13 more States.

Child labor laws passed for the first time in 6 States.

Age limit of 14 years applied to factories and stores: In 1904,
12 States; in 1910, 19 States.

Also from factories and stores the limit in 1910 extends to
offices, laundries, hotels, bowling-alleys, etc.

Age limit of 16 for work in coal-mines; 1904 none. In 1910 6
States fixt limit of 16 years; 18 States at 14, and 8 States at
12.

Employment forbidden during school hours: 1904 in 14 States;
1910 in 23 States.

Night-work prohibited: 1904 in 13 States, the age limit in some
being as low as 12 years. 1910: 24 States with 16-year limit,
7 States with 14-year limit, 2 States with 12-year limit, 1
State (in certain industries) with 18-year limit. New York
prohibited night work in messenger service 10 P.M. to 5
A.M. to all minors.

Compulsory education: Laws for the first time in 6 States. Age
limit for attendance raised in 6 (more) States.

Child-labor laws now (1910) exist in every State except Nevada.
They are being steadily improved.

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See MISSIONARIES IN THE MAKING.

CHILD, LEADING OF A