Chapter VIII: Preface (8)

A young mother who had lost her firstborn, sat fondling its icy
hands, and amid her tears said, “If ever I get to heaven, it
will be these little fingers that will pull me there.” (Text.)

(359)

=Child Nature=--See ANIMISM.

CHILD RELIGION

There is a striking story of a certain missionary who was
sent for on one occasion to go to a little village in an
out-of-the-way corner of India to baptize and receive into
church fellowship sixty or seventy adult converts from Hinduism.

At the commencement of the proceedings he had noticed a boy
about fifteen years of age sitting in a back corner, looking
very anxiously and listening very wistfully. He now came
forward. “What, my boy? Do you want to join the Church?” “Yes,
sir.” “But you are very young, and if I were to receive you into
fellowship with the Church to-day, and then you were to slip
aside, it would bring discredit upon this church and do great
injury to the cause of Christ. I shall be coming this way again
in about six months. Now you be very loyal to the Lord Jesus
Christ during that time, and if when I come again at the end of
the half year I find you still stedfast and true, I will baptize
and receive you gladly.”

No sooner was this said than all the people rose to their feet,
and, some speaking for the rest, said: “Why, sir, it is he who
has taught us all that we know about Jesus Christ.”

And so it turned out to be. This was the little minister of the
little church the honored instrument in the hand of God for
saving all the rest for Jesus Christ.

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CHILD, SAVED BY A

Dr. George Grenfell, who did much to open up to civilization and
to Christianity the hinterland of the Kongo, was traveling in
the little steamer called the _Peace_ up a great tributary
of the Kongo which had never before been navigated by a white
man. Suddenly the craft was stopt and surrounded by a crowd
of canoes filled with natives. These were armed with spears
and their attitude was hostile and malignant. Dr. Grenfell
momentarily expected that some of the murderous weapons would be
hurled at him. But by a happy inspiration he called to his wife
who was in the cabin, “Show them the baby!” She rushed forward
and held out the infant she was nursing. The savages, amazed at
the sight of the first light-colored baby they had ever seen,
and charmed with its smiles and its entire lack of fear, dropt
their spears, smiled in their turn with delight, and at once
became the sincere friends of the missionaries. Thus once again
was verified the prediction, “A little child shall lead them.”

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CHILD, THE

The value and possibilities of a new-born child are thus set forth by James Oppenheim:

You may be Christ or Shakespeare, little child,
A savior or a sun to the lost world.
There is no babe born but may carry furled
Strength to make bloom the world’s disastrous wild.
Oh, what then must our labors be to mold you,
To open the heart, to build with dream the brain,
To strengthen the young soul in toil and pain,
Till our age-aching hands no longer hold you!

Vision far-dreamed! But soft! If your last goal
Be low, if you are only common clay,
What then? Toil lost? Were our toil trebled, nay!
You are a soul, you are a human soul,
A greater than the skies ten-trillion starred--
Shakespeare no greater, O you slip of God!

(Text.)--_Cosmopolitan._

(362)

See FAITH, A CHILD’S.

=Child, The, as an Educator=--See HOME, FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC.

=Child Training=--See PRODIGY, A; TRAINING CHILDREN.

=Child’s View of God=--See ANTHROPOMORPHISM.

=Childhood and Nature=--See GOD IN THE CHILD MIND.

CHILDLIKE TRUST AND MATURITY

A few days since, just after the recent snow-storm, I passed
in the street a little fellow drawing a sled; a little,
rosy-cheeked boy, who was so full of perfect happiness that
his entire face was crinkled into a smile. He made a beautiful
picture. That sled was his only responsibility, and that, along
with the snow, made out for him a perfect heaven. I watched the
lad and wished I were a boy again. It was a foolish wish, and
yet not altogether foolish. There was something exquisite in the
situation which one would have been not only foolish but stupid
not to appreciate. He had no burden. His sled was unloaded, and
slipt along over the frosty pavement almost of its own momentum.
He had no anxieties. The little fellow’s heart is sometimes
bruised, I suppose, but child bruises do not last as long as
older bruises.

But I had not gone many steps past him before I revised my wish,
and thought only how beautiful it would be to have the innocence
of the boy and his simple trust, and along with that the mature
equipment opening out into the vast opportunities that form the
heritage of years that are ripe.--CHARLES H. PARKHURST.

(363)

=Children=--See CRUELTY TO CHILDREN.

CHILDREN AND CIVIC SERVICE

Two hundred clubs of children on the New York East Side
cooperate with the street-cleaning department in keeping clean
streets in their respective neighborhoods. They hand prepared
cards furnished by the city to every one seen throwing rubbish
in the street, which read as follows:

Give your banana-peels to a horse. Horses like them.
Orange-peels, peanut-shells, newspapers and other rubbish must
not be thrown in the street. Keep yours and throw them in the
receptacle placed at street corners for that purpose. You should
sprinkle your sidewalk before sweeping. Don’t raise the dust,
as it breeds disease. It is against the law to throw rubbish
from the windows to the street. Don’t put paper, rags and other
rubbish either in the ash-can or garbage-can.

A badge is given to each child to wear on which is inscribed the
motto: “We are for clean streets.” Thus thousands of children
are learning to take pride in their city.

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CHILDREN AND GARDENS

Professor Hanna, head of the Department of Natural History of
the Board of Education, New York, divided an open lot into some
three hundred little garden plots, took boys from the Bowery
district, and girls as well. Each child spaded up its own
ground, planted its seeds, pulled out the weeds, and watched
the ruddy vegetables grow. A thousand questions arose to these
city-born children. Given a black clod and a drop of rain-water,
and a few seeds, how does the same clod make a beet red, and a
carrot a golden hue? How could one clod condense the smells of
a whole soap factory, into one little onion? How does a potato
come to have starch in it? If one bunch of green weeds is worth
ten cents for spinach, why doesn’t everybody in Wall Street go
to farming? When some of the boys reached the Bowery Saturday
night, the first question they asked their fathers was: “How
much it would take to buy a ticket to Dakota.” Ah, Wordsworth,
looking across the field, and writing, “My heart with rapture
thrills and dances with the daffodils,” and Ruskin with his
confession of what the fields and brooks did for his culture,
throw a pathetic light on the lives of the little waifs of
the tenement-house, starved for an outlook on the grass and
the wave, and the shrub and the flower. Plainly the child has
a right to its outlook upon the world of nature.--N. D.
HILLIS.

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=Children and Music=--See MUSIC AND CHILDREN.

=Children and the Bible=--See ADAPTING THE BIBLE.

CHILDREN FORMING PARENTS’ CHARACTER

A friend once said to me: “So long as my children were little,
I lived at peace with my faults and bad habits. Perhaps they
were annoying to others, but they caused me no uneasiness. But
since my children have grown up, I am ashamed to meet their
eyes, for I know they judge me, observe my attitude, my manner
of acting, and measure my words. Nothing escapes them; neither
the little ‘white lie,’ nor my illogical reasoning; neither
unjustifiable irritation, nor any of the thousand imperfections
I formerly indulged in. I require now to be constantly on my
guard, and what will finally happen is this, that, instead
of my having trained them, my children will have formed my
character.”--DORA MELEGARI, “Makers of Sorrow and
Makers of Joy.”

(366)

CHILDREN, LINCOLN’S REGARD FOR

When Lincoln, on his way by train from Washington to Gettysburg,
was halted at a station, a little girl was lifted up to an
open window of the car, and handing a bouquet of rosebuds to
him, said: “Flowers for the President!” Mr. Lincoln took the
rosebuds, bent down and kissed the child, saying, “You’re a
sweet little rosebud yourself. I hope your life will open into
perpetual beauty and goodness.”

(367)

=Children Missionaries=--See SONG, EFFECTIVE.

=Children, Neglecting the=--See HOME, THE OLD AND THE NEW.

=Children, Religious Nature of=--See ANIMISM.

CHILDREN, ROMAN CATHOLIC CARE OF

Bishop Fowler, in the _Christian Advocate_, describes the method by which Roman Catholic institutions in South America receive and care for foundlings:

No thoughtful man can watch the long processions of children
which the sisters are teaching, and believe that Romanism
is closing its career. She takes the utmost care of all the
children she can obtain. In the great cities she has her
foundling institutions. The arrangement for receiving foundlings
is unique. It reminds one of the standard advertisements for
stolen property, “No questions asked.” There is a rotary dummy
in the side of the building above the sidewalk. This contrivance
turns round instead of moving on pulleys. The outside is simply
flush with the wall. Any one can turn it around. On the other
side is a little bed. The waif is placed in this bed, the trap
is turned back to its place, a bell is rung, a servant comes to
the bed, takes out the waif, and no one is the wiser. The party
depositing the child may be round the corner and gone in the
darkness. The child is cared for, soon put to work, soon hired
out, and becomes a source of income to the institution, and adds
one more to the rolls of the church.

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CHILDREN SAFE

An old sexton in a cemetery took special pains with the little
graves. When asked why, he said: “Sir, about those larger graves
I don’t know who are the Lord’s saints, and who are not; but you
know, sir, it’s different with the bairns.” (Text.)

(369)

CHILDREN, SAVING

Judge Benjamin B. Lindsey speaks as follows of his work in dealing with juvenile delinquents:

I have often been asked how it is if I can trust a youthful
burglar to go alone to a reformatory why can not I trust him to
go alone to work?

The answer is that the individual is weak rather than vicious.
He is strong enough to last over night, but not strong enough to
last a month. He goes to the institution. He learns the trade
of a carpenter or a stone-cutter--then he has some incentive in
life. He gets out of the habit of being bad. When he comes out
he is proud of his job, and as soon as we get him work he wants
to show how well he can do it--the past is behind him forever.

This new children’s crusade started in 1900. We are now going
on the theory that the law is not one-tenth of the problem.
Psychology, for want of a better word, is the other nine-tenths.
The solution of the problem of child delinquents lies chiefly
in knowing how to get at truth, in getting loyalty to the state
and to the law. Once you get a boy to go regularly to school
the problem is solved. On the other hand, we do not want him to
think that the court is a brute or dead easy.

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CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS

A CHILD’S PRAYER

Please, God, grandpa has gone to you. Take good care of him.
Please always mind and shut the door, because he can’t stand
drafts.

(371)

A PRAYER TO THE DEVIL

A little child was seen to bury a piece of paper in the ground.
On examination of the paper by a curious adult, it was seen to
contain the following: “Dear devil, please come and take aunt. I
can’t stand her much longer.”

(372)

MEN ARE GODS

Seeing a group of workmen, a child said:

“Mama, are these gods?”

“Gods? Why?”

“Because they make houses and churches, same as God makes moons
and people and ickle dogs.”

(373)

A WRESTLE WITH OMNIPRESENCE

A girl who had been taught that God is everywhere said, one day:

“Mama, me don’t see God. I dess He’s don to take a walk.”

(374)

GOD POSSESSES A BODY.

A child who heard the expression, “this footstool,” used in a
conversation, asked the man on whose knees she sat at the time
the meaning of the expression. On being told that the earth is
often spoken of as “God’s footstool,” she exclaimed:

“O-h-h! what long legs!”

Another child drew a picture of Jesus and of God, making God
have very long arms.

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HEAVENLY MAIL FACILITIES

A child whose grandmother had just died asked her mother if God
had a street and a number. When asked why she wanted to know,
she replied:

“Nothing, only I wanted to write a letter to Him to send grandma
back again.”

(376)

A COWORKER WITH GOD

A three-year-old boy was with a woman whose home was a second
home to him. They were in the flower-garden. Seeing a crocus in
bloom, and remembering that the previous fall he had put the
bulb into the ground (as one of his age so often does things, by
the help of others), he asked, “Did I make that flower grow?”
When told that God sent the rain and the sunshine which made it
grow, he insisted that he had had a part in the process, and
finally dropt the subject by saying:

“God and I make the flowers grow.”--A. B. BUNN VAN ORMER,
“Studies in Religious Nurture.”

(377)

=Children’s Thoughts About God=--See ANTHROPOMORPHISM.

CHINA AND AMERICA COMPARED

They tell a story of President Sheffield, of North China
College, and a great military official, who is his friend. I
met the general once during the Chinese New-year holidays. He
is a large, fine-looking man, very liberal and progressive, and
much interested in Western customs. One day, when calling, he
was discussing these. Suddenly he drew his chair very close to
Dr. Sheffield and said in a confidential whisper: “Tell me, is
it true that in your country the woman and not the man is the
head of the household?” Dr. Sheffield drew a little nearer and
answered in the same manner: “Well, I will tell you just how
it is. Sometimes it is the one, and sometimes it is the other.
It just depends on who is the stronger.” “Ah!” and the general
leaned back with a sigh of relief. “That is just the way it is
with us.”--FRANCES B. PATTERSON, “Student Volunteer
Movement,” 1906.

(378)

CHINESE PROGRESS

The Rev. Dr. J. Walter Lowrie, returning to the field after
a furlough prolonged by ill-health, writes in amazement that
the changes that had taken place during his absence of twenty
months were greater than had taken place during the preceding
twenty years of his residence in China. Of course, there is
commotion. You could not expect one-third of the human race to
rouse itself from the sleep of ages without having more or less
disturbance in various places. But the disturbances in China
to-day are signs of progress. They mean that at last China is
awake. We remember that of old, the dying Francis Xavier lifted
up his hands and said: “Oh, rock! rock! when wilt thou open?”
For nearly a hundred years Protestantism has been hammering
upon that rock. Now it has opened.--A. JUDSON BROWN,
“Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.

(379)

CHIVALRY

The days of the Crusades are gone, but the spirit of chivalry abides to-day as then.

When Captain Moreu, of the Spanish cruiser _Cristobal
Colon_, was in New York, he was interviewed by a reporter
who, in the excess of his patriotism, put this rather indelicate
question to the vanquished naval officer: “What do you think,
Captain Moreu, of the chivalry of a nation whose women greet the
admiral of a hostile power with kisses and flowers?” a reference
to the way Admiral Cervera was lionized by American women on
his way to a military prison. The bluff old captain of the
_Colon_, who spoke English fluently, lifted his eyebrows,
and, smiling indulgently, politely replied: “And what do you
think of an admiral who could draw your brave Hobson from the
water and kiss him in admiration of his courage? Remember, young
man, chivalry is the monopoly of no nation.” (Text.)

(380)

CHOICE

Not what we have, but what we use,
Not what we see, but what we choose;
These are the things that mar, or bless,
The sum of human happiness.

The thing near by, not that afar;
Not what we seem, but what we are;
These are the things that make or break,
That give the heart its joy or ache.

Not what seems fair, but what is true;
Not what we dream, but good we do;
These are the things that shine like gems,
Like stars in fortune’s diadems.

Not as we take, but as we give,
Not as we pray, but as we live;
These are the things that make for peace
Both now and after time shall cease.

--_The Outlook._

(381)

=Choice by Chance=--See DEVIL, THE, CHOSEN.

=Choice, Everything Depends on=--See EXPERIENCE, VALUE OF.

CHOICE IN PRIMITIVE ORGANISMS

Headly, in his book on “Life and Evolution,” instances our old
friend, the ameba, which we have since childhood all agreed to
be one of the most primitive forms of life. This microscopic
creature, a unicellular morsel of protoplasm, undoubtedly has
the power of choice. It exercises this power whenever it eats.
Diatoms enveloped in flint are its favorite food. When an ameba
comes in contact with one of these minute vegetables it swallows
it through an aperture--a mouth--which it conveniently makes at
whichever point an aperture is required. But when, on the other
hand, the ameba comes in contact with a small grain of flint he
leaves it severely alone; he does not treat it as he does the
flinty envelop of the diatom.

(382)

=Choice, Right=--See WAY, THE RIGHT.

CHOICE UNFORESEEN

Men for high positions are not always chosen because of previous preeminence, but frequently through circumstances of situations or from expediency:

There are Presidential candidates and aspirants who have an
erroneous idea of the candidacy, similar to that of many persons
on the subject of wines and cigars, who consider the oldest
as the best; while the real connoisseur knows perfectly well
that such commodities are not permitted to exceed a certain age
without losing rather than gaining in quality. Some keep their
Presidential aspirations constantly before the people--as, for
instance, Blaine and Sherman for several years. Others get up a
drumming and fifing as soon as the year for the nomination comes
on? If most of these people would poke their noses a little into
the political history of this country, they would find that for
a generation or more we have had no President whose reputation
and “boom” was two years older than the hour of his election.
When the Democrats nominated James K. Polk as their candidate,
the politicians, surprized and disillusioned, inquired, “Who is
James K. Polk?” The name of the Whig President, Zachary Taylor,
was famous scarcely one year before the election. Pierce and
Buchanan were absolutely less known than their rivals, Marcy
and Cass, and before Lincoln’s nomination there was nowhere
any talk about him; every one was thinking of Seward. Who, in
1862, would have prophesied that U. S. Grant would one day
become General-in-chief and President of the Republic? Such an
individual would have been regarded as fit subject of a lunatic
asylum. Hayes owed his nomination to his hard-won victory of the
year previous over the Democrat, Allen, in the gubernatorial
campaign in Ohio; and no one had thought of Garfield two days
before his nomination.--_Der Deutsche Correspondent._

(383)

=Choices=--See MODESTY.

CHOIR, THE

Church choirs are often a source of trouble to a pastor. A colored minister down South takes hold of the situation thus:

De choir will now sing dat beautiful piece, “We ain’t got
long to stay heah,” after which dey will consider demselves
discha’ged and will file out quietly, one by one. We’se gwine to
hab con’gational singin’ heahaftah in dis yere chu’ch.

(384)

CHOKED

It is a dreadful thing to be choked. Those who have either by
accident or design suffered partial strangulation tell us that
it is one of the most dreadful experiences. It must, to the
all-seeing eye of God, be a dreadful thing to behold so many
of His children gasping for a breath of life, being choked
by the evil weeds, thorns, and tares indigenous to the flesh
or diligently planted there by the enemy of souls while they
sleep. It is a sad thing to see the corners of a corn-field left
unreaped during the harvest (because the grain growing there
among the thorns is not worth reaping), afterward reaped down
and bound in bundles and burned, the thorns and choked product
of a good seed together. It is a sadder thing to behold the
lives of not a few Christians all overgrown and choked with
thorns and weeds just ripening for the fire of destruction,
because they are shriveled and choked and not fit to be gathered
into our Lord’s garner. (Text.)--_The Independent._

(385)

CHRIST A GUIDE TO THE FATHER

Mr. Robert E. Speer met a poor blind Christian in Korea
whose only knowledge of the word of God had come through the
kindnesses of his friends, when they would read, translating
out of a Chinese Bible and giving chapter and verse as they
read. His knowledge of the life of Christ was wonderful, and
when Mr. Speer asked him what incident he liked best of all
in the gospel, he said, “I like best the ninth chapter of the
Gospel of John, that tells the story of the blind man to whom
the Lord restored his sight.” Mr. Speer asked the man what he
looked forward to most, and he replied, “I look forward most to
Christ’s meeting me at the gate of heaven. I wouldn’t dare to go
up to see the Father alone, a poor blind man from Korea, but I
shall wait at the gate, and He will find me out just as he did
that poor blind man in the ninth of John, and He will lead me up
to his Father and mine.”

(386)

CHRIST APPROVED

In London City Temple, Dr. Joseph Parker was troubled by the
absence of workingmen from church, and invited hundreds to lunch
there. He said: “Bring your dinner buckets, and your pipes if
you want to; I want to have a good talk with you.” Stepping out
in front of them, he said:

“Men, why don’t you come to church?”

A leader among them said: “The Church is not for the likes
of us, the Church is for the rich, and the Church is for the
prosperous. You don’t want us there; that is what is the matter
with the Church.”

Dr. Parker then said, “Men, what is the matter with Jesus of
Nazareth?”

Instantly a working man swung his cap and said: “He is all
right.” And a thousand or more working men kept swinging their
caps and saying, “He is all right, He is all right.” (Text.)

(387)

=Christ a Protector=--See PROTECTION.

CHRIST, A THERAPEUTIC

An experiment in treating neurotic patients was tried in the
Massillon State Hospital, Ohio, when a picture entitled,
“Christ Knocking at the Door,” a copy of Hofmann’s masterpiece,
was unveiled during the religious services. The painting was
life-size, on cathedral glass, and illuminated by electric
lights. The hope was that by flashing the lights suddenly on the
picture a beneficial therapeutic effect would be produced on the
minds of the inmates of the hospital. (Text.)

(388)

=Christ as Pattern=--See FOLLOWING CHRIST.

CHRIST, DESTROYER OF SIN

Recent science has enabled us to solve enigmas of the physical
universe which once seemed forever impenetrable. Cholera has
been, for example, through long ages “a pestilence walking in
darkness.” There was no denying the plague; it demonstrated
itself in the most awful manner, but none could divine its
active principle, the secret of its power. But at last the
cholera-germ has been tracked out, and the fatal pest never
before seen by human eyes can now be studied under a powerful
microscope, large as the human hand. The immense significance of
this discovery to our race who may say?

For ages sin has been preeminently the pestilence walking at noonday, and the world has stood aghast before the obscure and terrible destroyer; but the glass of revelation in the hand of Jesus Christ has shown large and vivid the fatal principle which has tainted and decimated the race.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.” (Text.)

(389)

CHRIST, FAITH IN

The last hours of the great Archbishop Whately are a brilliant testimony to the simplicity of his faith and complete devotion to Christ.

To one who observed his sufferings and asked him if he suffered
much pain, he said:

“Some time ago I should have thought it great pain, but now I
am enabled to bear it.” His intellect was unclouded by illness.
He could think and speak. Some one said to him, “You are dying
as you have lived, great to the last.” The reply was, “I am
dying as I lived, in the faith of Jesus.” Another said, “What a
blessing your glorious intellect is unimpaired.” He answered,
“Do not call intellect glorious; there is nothing glorious out
of Christ!” Another said, “The great fortitude of your character
supports you.” “No, it is not the fortitude of my character
supports me, but my faith in Christ.” (Text.)

(390)

CHRIST FOR ALL

In an Austrian city there are twelve figures of Christ, each
representing a different aspect. The country folk, crossing
the bridge to the city in the morning, worship them as they
pass. The stockmen pray to the image of Christ the Shepherd,
the artizans to Christ the Carpenter, the market-gardeners to
Christ the Sower, the ailing and infirm to Christ the Physician,
the fishermen to Christ the Pilot, etc. “Enlightened minds will
never forget that there is but one Christ, and yet to each
follower the thought of Him that is born of a special need will
always be the one that makes His image in the soul.”

(391)

=Christ, Glory of=--See GLORY OF CHRIST.

CHRIST, GOODNESS OF

A missionary was speaking with a Tibetan Lama about Christ. The
Lama exprest himself charmed with the gospel story and then
added, “Our saint Tsong K’aba was like Christ. He went about
teaching and leading the people, and he was persecuted, too.”
Then he added, “Even to-day it isn’t wise for a Lama to be too
good!” (Text.)

(392)

CHRIST IN THE CONGREGATION

Dr. George A. Gordon, the Boston preacher, tells of a dream that transformed his ministry:

I was in the pulpit before a great congregation, just ready to
begin my sermon, when a stranger entered and passed slowly up
the left aisle of the church, looking first to one side and then
to the other, as tho silently asking with his eyes that some one
would give him a seat. He had proceeded nearly half-way up the
aisle when a gentleman stept out and offered him a place in his
pew, which was quietly accepted. I remembered his face wore
a peculiarly serious look, as of one who had known some great
sorrow. His bearing, too, was exceedingly humble, his dress poor
and plain, and from the beginning to the end of the service he
gave the most respectful attention to the preacher. To myself
I constantly asked, “Who can that stranger be?” And then I
mentally resolved to find out by going up to him directly the
service was over. But before I could reach him he had left the
house. The gentleman with whom he sat, however, remained behind,
and approaching him I asked, “Can you tell me who that stranger
was who sat in your pew this morning?” He replied: “Why, do you
not know that man? It was Jesus of Nazareth.”

One had been present in the church for an hour who could tell
me all that I so longed to know; who could point out to me the
imperfections of my service; who could reveal to me my real
self, to whom, perhaps, I am most a stranger; who could correct
the errors in our worship, to which long usage and accepted
traditions may have rendered us insensible. While I had been
preaching for half an hour He had been there and listening,
who could have told me all this, and infinitely more, and my
eyes had been holden and I knew Him not, and now He was gone.
And then I awoke, for behold, it was a dream. No, it was not a
dream. It was a vision of the deepest reality, a miniature of an
actual ministry. (Text.)

(393)

CHRIST, INTIMACY WITH

“I know Jesus Christ,” said Bushnell, “better than I know any
man in the city of Hartford, and if He should be walking along
the street and see me, He would say, ‘There goes a friend of
mine.’” (Text.)

(394)

CHRIST INVITING MEN

In the Doré Gallery in London is the artist’s last picture,
left unfinished. It is entitled, “The Vale of Tears,” and was
intended to illustrate the words, “Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden.” Jesus is in the distance pointing
to Himself. Over Him is a deep mist spanned by a rainbow whose
light in varying degrees falls upon the multitude of faces and
forms before Him, some just touched, others beaming and aglow
with radiance.

(395)

=Christ, Monument to=--See PEACE.

CHRIST OUR PILOT

Passengers from Europe to New York know that when the steamer
reaches a point fifteen miles from Sandy Hook the pilot comes
on board to superintend the navigation into New York harbor.
The great steamer slows down and the pilot climbs on board. If
this happens in the darkness of night the passengers looking
down from the deck can see a lantern on the surface of the ocean
where the pilot’s boat is lying. Presently he emerges from the
blackness and is soon on deck. From that moment the anxieties of
the captain and the officers are at an end. So when Christ is on
board our life, the government is upon His shoulders. (Text.)

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CHRIST STILL PRESENT

A common and comforting Christian belief is put into verse by Edith Hickman Duvall:

He has not changed through all the years.
We know
That He remembers all the weight of wo
Which once opprest Him and the lonely way
Through which His tired feet journeyed day by day,
The pain He bore, the weariness and strife,
The toil and care of His own human life.

He is as near to human hearts to-day
As when He journeyed on the earthly way;
So near that all our wants are known to Him,
So near that, tho our faith, grown cold and dim,
Fails oftentimes to grasp the truth, He knows
The secret story of our hidden woes. (Text.)

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CHRIST THE CONQUEROR

Priscilla Leonard writes this verse on Christ’s method of establishing His reign:

Kings choose their soldiers from the strong and sound
And hurl them forth to battle at command.
Across the centuries, o’er sea and land,
Age after age, the shouts of war resound;
Yet, at the end, the whole wide world around,
Each empty empire, once so proudly planned,
Melts through Time’s fingers like the dropping sand.

But once a King--despised, forsaken, crowned
Only with thorns--chose in the face of loss
Earth’s poor, her weak, her outcast, gave them love,
And sent them forth to conquer in His name
The world that crucified Him, and proclaim
His empire. Lo! Pride’s vanished thrones above
Behold the enduring banner of the cross!

(Text.)--_The Outlook._

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CHRIST THE DOOR

This poem by Mary M. Redding, is based on an actual incident of one of Dr. George Adam Smith’s Syrian journeys:

A traveler once, when skies were rose and gold
With Syrian sunset, paused beside the fold
Where an Arabian shepherd housed his flock;
Only a circling wall of rough gray rock--
No door, no gate, but just an opening wide
Enough for snowy, huddling sheep to come inside.
“So,” questioned he, “then no wild beasts you dread?”
“Ah, yes, the wolf is near,” the shepherd said.

“But”--strange and sweet the voice divine of yore
Fell on his startled ear--“I am the door!
When skies are sown with stars, and I may trace
The velvet shadows, in this narrow space
I lay me down. No silly sheep may go
Without the fold but I, the shepherd, know.
Nor need my cherished flock, close-sheltered, warm,
Fear ravening wolf, save o’er my prostrate form.”

O word of Christ--illumined evermore
For us His timid sheep--“I am the door!”

(Text.)--_Sunday-school Times._

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* * * * *

Outside one of the beautiful gateways of the magnificent mosque
of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, there is a picture of an open
Bible with this inscription: “The Lord said, I am the door; by
me if any man enter in he shall be saved.” The Mohammedans left
this inscription when they took the beautiful temple from the
Christians; because they could see no reference in it to Jesus
Christ. Everything else that suggested Christianity or the
cross was obliterated. There is a twentieth-century spirit that
would obliterate Jesus Christ and the necessity of His saving
work. But meanwhile He, the strong Son of God, calmly waits
for the world’s recognition. He has presented His proofs, and
the responsibility is ours. There is no other gospel, no other
road, no other Christ. For his own convenience man has invented
a number of “short cuts.” But it remains as true to-day as when
Jesus Himself spoke the words, that he who climbs up some other
way is “a thief and a robber.”--JOEL B. SLOCUM.

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CHRIST, THE FIGURE OF

Monsignor Bonomelli, in a letter read at the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, June, 1910, said:

Jesus has, in reality, not vanished either from history, or from
the life of Christianity. He lives at all times in millions of
souls, He is enthroned as King in all hearts. The figure of
Christ has not the cold splendor of a distant star, but the
warmth of a heart which is near us, a flame burning in the soul
of believers and keeping alive their consciences. Putting aside
certain opinions, which, honored at the moment, may possibly be
abandoned to-morrow, criticism had hoped to effect a complete
demolition of the conception of Christ, but what criticism
really demolished was merely irrelevant matter. The figure of
Christ, after all the onslaughts of criticism, now stands forth
more pure and divine than ever and compels our adoration.

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CHRIST, THE INDEFATIGABLE

From the _Catholic World_ we clip Cornelius Clifford’s sonnet on “The Indefatigable Christ”:

Go where thou wilt, His heart shalt find thee out;
Be thou in quest of wealth, or power, or fame.
Above life’s tumult shall He call thy name;
His care shall compass thee with grief about;
And thou shalt know Him in thine hours of doubt,
When faith shall pierce thy darkness like a flame,
O dull of sense to Time’s imperious claim,
His love shall prove thy rainfall after drought!

For He shall come in many a blinding shower
To dye thy sick leaves to a healthier hue,
Till the scant years of youth’s once ample dower
Requicken with late fruitage rare to view;
Yea, He must shape thee by thine own heart’s power,
And fashion all this ruined life anew.

(402)

CHRIST THE LAMB

The figure of a lamb slain dominates the whole aspect of the religion of redemption. Nature and grace seem to blend in harmonious echoes of this ideal presentation.

High up on the old German church of Werden is carved the image
of a lamb, concerning which the villagers tell this story. Many
years ago, a mason was at work on the portion of wall where now
this figure stands, when the cord by which his plank seat was
suspended snapt, and he was hurled down to what seemed instant
death, for masses of rough stone lay thick on the ground below,
the building being under repair. He arose unhurt, for there
among the stone-heaps a little lamb had been nibbling at scanty
tufts of herbage, and on this animal he had fallen safe and
softly, while the lamb lay crusht to death. The man so strangely
saved had the monument erected in grateful, lasting memory of
his deliverance from a cruel death, and of the innocent creature
to whom he owed it. (Text.)

(403)

CHRIST THE LEADER

Mrs. A. E. Hawkins sings of “The March of Life” in these lines:

Sometimes the order comes to “Forward march!”
And falling into line my step I keep
Beside my comrades, o’er the toilsome road,
Nor think of rest or sleep.

Then suddenly the order comes to “Halt!”
And steadily I plant my feet and stand,
I know not why or wherefore--I can trust
The Captain in command.

* * * * *

But suddenly the bugle sounds, “To arms!”
I gird my armor on, and join the fray,
Following my Leader through the battle-smoke
Until we win the day.

For well I know that, march and battle o’er,
Will come the great Commander’s grand review,
And then the lights of home, and the reunion
Of loyal hearts and true.

(404)

CHRIST THE LIGHT

In the life story of Helen Keller, a picture of the governess
and her famous pupil is shown with the blind girl leaning her
head on her teacher’s shoulder. This is a fair representation
of the way in which life with its deeper and hidden meaning
unfolded itself to the child. She drew so near to her teacher
that her hand could touch eye, ear and lip. Before her teacher
came to her, existence seemed like a dense fog and a great
darkness, while her very soul cried out, Light, light! But when
her education began, the way grew clearer and the truth plain as
the “light of the teacher’s love shone upon her.”

There are men who are spiritually blind. They are shipwrecked
mariners at sea in a dense fog. They are without compass and
have nothing stable from which they can take their bearings. But
when Christ comes into their lives their heart-cry for light is
answered. (Text.)

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CHRIST, THE REJECTED

At the exhibition of the Royal Academy, in London, the great canvas by Sigismund Goetze, entitled “Despised and Rejected of Men,” has created an artistic sensation. It is declared to be a “powerful and terribly realistic presentment of Christ” in a modern setting, and is described by a writer in _The Christian Commonwealth_ (London), as follows:

In the center of the canvas is the Christ, standing on a
pedestal, bound with ropes, while on either side passes the
heedless crowd. A prominent figure is a richly vested priest,
proudly conscious of the perfection of the ritual with which he
is starving his higher life. Over the shoulder of the priest
looks a stern-faced divine of a very different type. Bible in
hand, he turns to look at the divine figure, but the onlooker is
conscious that this stern preacher of the letter of the gospel
has missed its spirit, and is as far astray as the priest whose
ceremonial is to him anathema. The startled look on the face
of the hospital nurse in the foreground is very realistic;
so is the absorption of the man of science, so intent on the
contents of his test-tube that he had not a glance for the
Christ at his side. One of the most striking figures is that of
the thoughtless beauty hurrying from one scene of pleasure to
another; and spurning the sweet-faced little ragged child who
is offering a bunch of violets. In rejecting the plea of the
child we know that the proud woman is rejecting the Christ who
has identified himself forever with the least of these little
ones. The only person in the whole picture who has found time
to pause is the mother seated on the steps of the pedestal with
her baby in her arms, and we can not but feel that when she has
ministered to the wants of her child she will spare a moment
for the lover of little children who is so close to her. In the
background stands an angel with bowed head, holding the cup
which the world He loved to the death is still compelling the
Christ to drink, while a cloud of angel faces look down upon the
scene with wonder. As the visitor turns away he is haunted with
the music of Stainer’s “Crucifixion,” “Is it nothing to you, all
ye that pass by?” (Text.)

(406)

CHRIST, THE SEARCHING

A pastor tells of a talk he once had with an artist over the
unsatisfactoriness of the pictured faces of Christ. In reply,
the artist took up a crayon and rapidly sketched the picture of
a woman with a broom in one hand and a lighted candle in the
other, and a look of intense anxiety on her face.

“It is a fine representation of the woman seeking for the lost
bit of silver,” said the pastor.

“You do not understand my picture,” was the quick response.
“That is my conception of the Christ.”

Ah, what a conception! A searching Christ! Seeking in dark,
dusty corners for His own!--SOPHIE B. TITTERINGTON.

(407)

=Christ Transforming=--See CHANGES WROUGHT BY CHRIST.

CHRIST UNAVOIDABLE

A learned native of Saxony all his life long has attacked Jesus
and His gospel. But in his old days he doubted if he had been
right, and yet fought against his doubts and against Christ.
Often he would stop before a picture of Jesus, and say, “After
all, thou wast only a man!” Then, “What dost thou say? that thou
camest from above? How terribly thou eyest me! oh, thou art
dreadful! But thou art only a man, after all.” He would go away,
then with faltering step return and cry out, “What! art thou in
reality the Son of God?” That scene was often renewed until the
unhappy man, struck by paralysis, died. (Text.)

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CHRIST, UNION WITH

Christ is necessary to the Christian, but is not the obverse true also. If both are bound up in the same life, can one be injured without suffering to the other? This is the lesson which a recent writer finds taught by the ivy:

Some of the creeping plants, it is said, such as the ivy,
entwine themselves so intimately with the masonry to which
they cling that it would be unsafe to try to remove them--the
building would be injured by their being torn away. And so our
Lord Christ, with reverence, be it said, can not endure the loss
of one of His members: He would be injured, mutilated, by only
one of them being taken away, so close is the union between Him
and them. (Text.)

(409)

CHRIST’S EFFECT ON BARABBAS

A picture that may not be all imaginary is given by Margaret Ashmun in this poem from _The New England Magazine_:

And they released Barabbas, and he went
Forth from his dungeon, joying in the grace
Of life regained; yet, as he passed, a face
Shone out from the dim corridor, and bent
Its gaze upon him; questioning, intent.
He knew that brow where anguish had its place,
Those lips prophetic, sealed now for a space,
Those eyes, deep-welled with awful, still content.
The robber paused to marvel at the Man
Whose death should serve for his; nor spoke aloud
The foul jest in his throat. He stayed to scan
Once more that visage calm; then, trembling, bowed
With fear and harsh soul-harrowing grief, he ran
And hid himself, sick-hearted, in the crowd.

(410)

CHRIST’S FACE

The hymn beginning:

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress:
’Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head,

was written by Zinzendorf, whose culture and piety appear so
conspicuously in the more than two thousand hymns which came
from his pen. It was suggested by a picture in the Düseldorf
Gallery, “Ecce Homo,” representing Jesus crowned with thorns.
From the pathetic face above he turned to the legend beneath:
“All this I have done for thee; what hast thou for me?” The
vision and the question led him to adopt for his life motto: “I
have but one passion, and that is He, and only He.” (Text.)

(411)

=Christ’s Fulness=--See FULNESS, CHRIST’S.

CHRIST’S LOVE

Cyrus, the Persian, loved Lysander, one of his great generals,
so much that, it is said, he exprest his readiness to melt down
his throne of massive gold and give it to him.

But Christ, our King, left His throne for the love of the humblest soul. (Text.)

(412)

=Christian Currents=--See CURRENTS OF LIFE.

=Christian Experience=--See PARADOX.

CHRISTIAN FULNESS

A Christian is an unfailing spiritual Niagara, not a cow-track
pool to be drunk dry by a thirsty sunbeam.--F. F.
SHANNON.

(413)

CHRISTIAN HONESTY

A Chinese Christian ferryman, poor in money but rich in faith,
one night ferried a man over the river. After throwing the cash
for his fare into the bottom of the boat, the passenger departed
hurriedly. The Christian went to pick up the money and found a
magnificent pair of gold bracelets which the man had dropt. He
tied up his boat and tried to find his passenger, but he was
lost in the crowd. According to the Chinese law, he could keep
the bracelets, but he did not feel comfortable in doing this.
He went to the preacher and together they took the bracelets to
the mandarin, and later it was found that a wealthy Chinese had
been robbed and the man who dropt the bracelets was a thief.
The owner received them very thankfully and gave the mandarin a
small reward for the finder. The incident imprest the official
very much. “I have never seen or heard anything like this,” he
said. “Your religion must be a true religion and your God a
loving God, thus to influence a poor man to give up wealth for
conscience sake.” He praised the boatman, who went to his poor,
damp, mud hut on the bank of the river with a contented mind.

(414)

CHRISTIAN SPIRIT, THE

The King of Italy displayed a truly royal spirit when he went to the earthquake region at Messina and Reggio, and personally assisted the sufferers. An account in the press says of this:

The King has made himself dear to all his subjects, especially
to those in the earthquake zone, by his prompt and personal aid
in times of disaster. This makes plausible a story told by his
companions to-day, who say that as the royal pair and the crowd
surrounding them made their way through the ruins a man pinned
under a great block of stone and supposed to be dead raised his
head, repeated the cries of acclaim and dropt back dead. (Text.)

(415)

=Christian, The, and Christ=--See CHRIST, UNION WITH.

=Christian Travelers in Foreign Lands=--See SUNDAY DESECRATION BY
CHRISTIANS.

CHRISTIAN UNITY

The Rev. John Fawcett, D.D., wrote the hymn, “Blest be the tie
that binds”--perhaps the noblest hymnic expression of Christian
brotherhood; and the author is himself one of the best examples
of its sentiment. Brought to God by the Methodists, under the
ministry of Whitefield, he joined that body, and became later
pastor of a Baptist church in Bradford, England, and finally was
settled at Wainsgate. Receiving a call to succeed the celebrated
Dr. Gill in London, he had his goods packed ready for removal,
when his loving people gathered, weeping, to say farewell, which
so touched him and his good wife that he said, “I will stay;
you may unpack my goods, and we will live for the Lord lovingly
together.” This experience, it was, which led the author to
compose the now popular hymn. (Text.)

(416)

CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION

In Livingstonia, an industrial mission in Africa, an engineering
feat was accomplished in bringing a supply of pure water a
distance of three miles across a valley 300 feet deep. The
natives did not believe the water could possibly travel. They
thought the Europeans were deceiving them when they talked of
water running down one hill and up another. The two or three
preliminary tests did not succeed, and this increased the
natives’ incredulity. But one afternoon in January, 1904, a
nozzle was screwed on to a hydrant, and the engineering staff
awaited results with certainty. The screw was turned and, true
enough, the water had climbed over the hill, for a jet of it
rose in the air amid cheers. Think of the enormous benefit
Christian civilization is in the dark places of the earth.
(Text.)

(417)

=Christianity and Survival=--See SOCIAL STRENGTH.

CHRISTIANITY AS A CIVILIZER

James Chalmers, the martyred missionary of New Guinea, said:

I have had twenty-one years’ experience among the South Sea
Islanders, and for at least nine years of my life I have lived
with the savages of New Guinea. I have seen the semi-civilized
and the uncivilized; I have lived with the Christian native,
and I have lived, dined and slept with the cannibal. But I
have never yet met a single man or woman, or a single people,
that your civilization without Christianity has civilized.
Wherever there has been the slightest spark of civilized life
in the Southern Seas, it has been because the gospel has been
preached there; and wherever you find in the island of New
Guinea a friendly people, or a people that will welcome you,
there the missionaries of the cross have been preaching Christ.
(Text.)--_Missionary Review of the World._

(418)

CHRISTIANITY, CRITICISM OF

There is a humorous poem by John Godfrey Saxe about the four
blind Hindus who went to see an elephant. They could not see
the elephant, but they told what they had seen. One happened to
lean against the elephant and declared it was much like a wall.
Another got hold of his tail and described him as being like a
rope. Another got his trunk and said he was like a serpent, and
the fourth ran against his tusk and said he was shaped very much
like a spear. The fact is that they had not seen the elephant at
all.

So there are objectors who have never seen Christianity at all. They have seen mere fragments. Their criticism is correspondingly worthless.

(419)

CHRISTIANITY, EARLY INFLUENCE OF

Let the temperature of a lake fall to the freezing-point;
apply a piece of ice to it and see the radiating lines of
crystallization shoot singing from that center of force in all
directions, while other rays start from their thousand nodes of
maximum intensity, until the whole surface of the water becomes
a solid sheet of ice. Just so the Roman empires, east and west,
were subjected to a superficial crystallization of Christianity
started in Judea by Jesus Christ.--J. P. LESLEY, _The
Forum_.

(420)

CHRISTIANITY, EFFECT OF

The thoroughgoing effect of the Christian religion upon a black chief of Africa is seen in the following account:

When, after many provocations, the crisis came, and
notwithstanding oft-repeated warnings, there was drunken
violence and uproar, the good Khama wore a stern face which
always meant fixt purpose. He went and saw with his own eyes how
his laws were trampled on, and then he said: “You despise my
laws because I am a black man. Well, if I am black, I am chief
of my own country, and I rule here and shall maintain my laws.
Go back to your own country. Take all that is yours, and go.
If there is any other white man who does not like my laws, let
him go, too. I am trying to lead my people to act according to
the Word of God, which we have received from you white people,
and you, white people, show them an example of wickedness such
as we never knew. You know that some of my own brothers have
learned to like the drink, and that I do not want them even to
see it that they may forget the habit; and yet you not only
bring it and offer it to them, but try to tempt me with it. I
make an end of it to-day. Go, leave my town, and never come
back!”--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(421)

=Christianity in the Home=--See FAMILY RELIGION.

CHRISTIANITY INVINCIBLE