And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience and experience, hope.
—Romans 5:3
6862 Hurt But Not Injured
Sometimes we are helped by being hurt. A skilled physician about to perform a delicate operation upon the ear said reassuringly, “I may hurt you, but I will not injure you.” How often the great Physician speaks to us the same message if we would only listen! Richer life, more abundant health for every child of His, is His only purpose. Why defeat that purpose?
—Sunday School Times
6863 That That Is Is
Without proper punctuation, sentences can be meaningless. Take these fourteen words as an example: “That that is is that that is not is not is not that it it is.” Now punctuate them, and they read: That that is, is; that that is not, is not! Is not that it? It is. The significance of the fourteen unpunctuated words is not what they say but what they don’t say. They say nothing because they are not punctuated.
Life is that way. Unpunctuated, it is monotonous and meaningless. It takes the exclamation points, question marks, and dashes to make life rich and relevant.
—Ray O. Jones
6864 Production Of Greatest Minds
Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt comes from the darkest storm.
—Colton
6865 “Changing Pastures”
I saw the other day a painting of a large boat laden with cattle that was being ferried across an angry, swollen river in time of storm. The artist had so cleverly pictured the dark, threatening clouds and the play of the treacherous, jagged lightning that I immediately concluded that the freight of poor, dumb cattle was marked for destruction. But the title of the picture was simply, “Changing Pastures.”
—Harold P. Barker
6866 Burden Becomes Bridge
A biologist tells how he watched an ant carrying a piece of straw which seemed a big burden for it. The ant came to a crack in the earth which was too wide for it to cross. It stood for a time as though pondering the situation, then put the straw across the crack and walked over upon it.
Here is a lesson for all mankind! A man’s burden can be made a bridge for his progress.
6867 “Home, Sweet Home”
If he had not been a homeless wanderer, probably John Howard Payne never would have voiced the homesickness of humanity in his tender lyric, “Home, Sweet Home.”
—Cut Gems
6868 From Prison All
Paul’s sweetest epistles are from prison cells; John’s Revelation was written in exile; Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress came from the Bedford jail; Luther’s translation of the German Bible was in Wartburg Castle; Madam Guyon’s sweetest poems and deepest experiences were from long imprisonments.
6869 No More Rheumatism In Prison!
John Bradford, the famous martyr, was plagued by aches and pains and an unexplainable feeling of sadness. But while confined in a damp dungeon, he wrote, “It is an amazing thing that ever since I have been in this prison, and have other trials to bear, I have had no touch of my rheumatism or my depression of spirit.”
—Paul R. Van Gorder
6870 What if …
God disappoints us and baffles us sometimes in order to make us succeed. If Phillips Brooks had succeeded as a schoolmaster, he would never have stood in the pulpit to move men with his mighty ministry. If Frederick Robertson had got his commission in the British army, he would never have written the sermons which still throb with his great and yearning spirit. If Hawthorne had been retained at the customhouse, he never would have written those wonderful studies in the deep places of human sorrow and love and sin.
6871 The Girl’s Giggle
E. Stanley Jones’ mind went blank when he started to preach his first sermon in Baltimore, and as he was about to sit down in dismay, the giggle of a girl put fire into him.
6872 Blessings Of Bubonic Plague
In times gone by, the glittering potentates of India stood shocked and aghast when they heard that the young prince, heir to the throne of Gondal, had determined to study the Englishman’s medicine. Everybody was opposed. The young prince disappeared. He was away for five years, taking his degrees in the medical schools of Scotland.
Then he returned. He was almost an outcast, but no one could contest his right to the throne. So when his father died, he became the Maharajah, and proceeded to make his kingdom sanitary. That shocked the sensibilities of the orthodox Hindus. He compelled the women of his court to unveil. He said the immemorial habit of veiling women in India was unsanitary.
He was about as popular as a cobra—until the bubonic plague came sweeping like the sickle of death. That was when the Maharajah of Medicine came into his own. He rushed the sick to hospitals, procured trained nurses to take care of them, and dispensed medicines right and left. His subjects were his patients. In plague time he was not a prince of India riding on a panoplied elephant, but a physician caring for the sick.
He checked the ravages of the bubonic horror. Victoria, Queen Empress, decorated him for his work. And what about his subjects? Well, in celebrating his fiftieth anniversary, they gave him his weight in gold. He was a thin, old man, a light-weight, just fifty thousand dollars’ worth. He turned the gold over to a hospital.
—Lowell Thomas
6873 Never A Song Written
The following poem was selected by the great editor of The British Weekly, Sir William Robertson Nicoll, near the close of his long labors, for insertion in that periodical. The writer is the wife of a minister whose religious pageants are widely-known.
Greatly gifted, she has also known long periods of suffering. Hence the poem reflects her own triumphant faith.
There hath never a song been written
But hath its minor strain,
There was never a life so bouyant
But had its hour of pain.
The singer stood in the chancel
And her vibrant voice dropped low,
And I listened with rapt attention,
While my soul responded, “E’en So.”
And I sighed in acquiescence,
So oft had the tale proved true
A hurricane blasting the meadows,
A bolt plunging out of the blue.
But listen! the song is not ended,
There’s a change in the singer’s tone,
A note of triumph has sounded,
A paean instead of a moan.
There’s a climax of exquisite beauty
As she sings of stars in the night,
Of the rainbow over the cloud-tops.
Of love through the world alight.
And my soul leaps up with gladness
And soars on the wings of the song;
My faith and my hope are victorious,
My life shall be evermore strong.
—Bernice Hall Legg
6874 Impossible With Security
During the early days of his career, when funds were low, Sherwood Anderson’s publisher thought to encourage him by sending him each Friday a check big enough to meet his week’s expenses. Anderson stood it for three weeks and then brought the newest check, unopened, back to the publisher’s office. “It’s no use,” he said. “I find it impossible to write with security staring me in the face.”
—Boston Globe
6875 Exotic Plants Came To Denmark
A famous Danish sculptor went to Rome to produce his works of art because choice marble was available there. When he finished, he put his masterpiece in crates, using hay and straw to protect them for shipping. Then he hurried back to Denmark. The day his treasures arrived, he was away on business. After uncrating the statues, his resentful servants deliberately scattered the packing material over his well-tilled garden, hoping the weeds which were lodged in the chaff would take root in the fertile soil. Exotic plants native to Rome sprang up instead, and today they are some of Copenhagen’s most beautiful flowers.
—Henry G. Bosch
6876 Thanking Man Who Fired Him
Wallace Johnson, builder of numerous Holiday Inn motels and convalescent hospitals, said, “When I was forty years old. I worked in a sawmill. One morning the boss told me. “You’re fired!” Depressed and discouraged, I felt like the world had caved in on me. It was during the depression, and my wife and I greatly needed the small wages I had been earning.
“When I went home, I told my wife what had happened. She asked, “What are you going to do now?”
“I replied, “I’m going to mortgage our little home, and go into the building business.”
“My first venture was the construction of two small buildings. Within five years, I was a multi-millionaire!
“Today, if I could locate the man who fired me, I would sincerely thank him for what he did. At the time it happened, I didn’t understand why I was fired. Later, I saw that it was God’s unerring and wondrous plan to get me into the way of His choosing!”
6877 Story Of Cervantes
There was a man who wrote novels and stories and poems by the hundreds. Then he joined up as a mercenary in an European army, and his side was beaten, so he was imprisoned. He was glad; now he had time to write, without worrying too much about his meals or about his wife, who seemed to specialize in aggravating him. So he began a novel. He finished one chapter and read it to his fellow- prisoners; they liked it. He finished another chapter and read this one also to the prisoners; they loved it. He finished the book. It is called Don Quixote. The author’s name is Cervantes. He was then in his fifties.
—Charles Angoff
6878 She Kept The Thrown Brick
Samuel L. Brengle’s little classic, Helps to Holiness, was originally written as a series of articles and penned during a period of convalescence after a tough threw a whole paving brick at the author’s head. The Brengles used to say:
If there had been no little brick,
There would have been no little book.
Mrs. Brengle kept the brick and painted a text on it. The text: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
6879 How He Learned Portuguese
When Lord Clive, as a young man, in the spirit of adventure set out from his British home for India, the ship upon which he sailed was caught in a terrific storm. Continuous adverse gales drove it far off the course, until it finally limped into a South American harbour. There he had to remain for many months before being able to get passage to India.
But during the long wait he acquired the Portuguese language. This qualified him when he did reach India to take an important position with the East India Company, ultimately resulting in his being appointed by the Crown as Governor General of India. Do not deplore the upsets; they may be God’s messengers.
—Prairie Overcomer
6880 To Paint Dog’s Froth
Protegenes, an early painter and sculptor, spent seven years in finishing his picture of Ialysus, living only upon the simplest diet in the meantime, hoping thus to elevate his powers of conception and execution. He designed to represent in the piece a dog panting, and with froth in his mouth. But after a hundred vain attempts to do, he gave up in despair, and in a fit of anger threw his sponge upon the picture.
Chance brought to perfection what the labour of the artist could not accomplish; the fall of the sponge upon the picture represented the froth at the mouth of the dog in the most perfect and lifelike manner, and the artist’s picture was universally admired.
6881 Flying Stone And Live Wire
In the city of Pottsville, Pa., the broken end of a high voltage wire was lying upon the pavement, along which the engineer, Mr. Hildebrand, was walking, unmindful of the fact. Mr. Schlitzer saw the danger and yelled to warn him, but his voice was drowned by the noise around. Picking up a stone he threw it, and hit Hildebrand on the chest. He looked up and avoided the wire just as he was about to step upon it. With tears streaming down his face he thanked Schlitzer for saving his life. How often the Lord in the use of the chastening rod saves us from some terrible calamity.
—C. F Reitzel
6882 One Cottage Burned
Years ago a fishing fleet went out from a small harbor on the east coast of Newfoundland. In the afternoon there came up a great storm. When night settled down not a single vessel of all the fleet had found its way into port. All night long wives, mothers, children, and sweethearts paced up and down the beach, wringing their hands and calling on God to save their loved ones. To add to the horror of the situation, one of the cottages caught fire. Since the men were all away, it was impossible to save the home.
When the morning broke, to the joy of all, the entire fleet found safe harbor in the bay. But there was one face which was a picture of despair—the wife of the man whose home had been destroyed. Meeting her husband as he landed, she cried, “Oh, husband, we are ruined! Our home and all it contained was destroyed by fire!” But the man exclaimed, “Thank God for the fire! It was the light of our burning cottage that guided the whole fleet into port!”
—W. W. Weeks
6883 Burned Hut And Smoke Signal
The story is told of an only survivor of a wreck who was thrown on an uninhabited island. After a while he managed to build himself a hut, in which he placed the little that he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing ship. One day on returning from a hunt for food he was horrified to find his hut in flames—all he had had gone up in smoke. The worst had happened it seemed. But that which seemed to have happened for the worst was in reality for the best. The next day a ship arrived. “We saw your smoke signal,” the captain said. If our lives are in God’s hands “all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28).
—Western Recorder
6884 Disfiguring His Painting
As is well-known, Sir James Thornhill painted the inside of the cupola of St. Paul’s Cathedral. After having finished one of the compartments, he gradually retired backwards, to see how it looked at a distance. Intent on the painting, he had approached to the very edge of the scaffolding, and was in the utmost danger of falling from it, when a person, perceiving his situation, and fearing to alarm him by calling out, snatched up a brush and disfigured his painting. The artist sprang forward in great displeasure, but was soon impressed with gratitude, when he discovered the danger in which he had been placed, and saw that, by this way, his life had been preserved.
—Walter Baxendale
6885 The Master’s Erasure
A young artist had produced an exquisite picture, the most successful of all his efforts, and even his master found nothing in it to criticize. But the young artist was so enraptured with it that he incessantly gazed at his work of art, and really believed that he would never be able to excel what he had already produced.
One morning, as he was about to enjoy anew the contemplation of his picture, he found his master had entirely erased his work of art. Angry, and in tears, he ran to his master and asked the cause of this cruel treatment.
The master answered, “I did it with wise forethought. The painting was good, but it was at the same time your ruin.” “How so?” asked the young artist. “My beloved pupil,” replied the master, “you love no longer your art in your picture, but only yourself. Believe me, it was not perfect, even if it did appear so; it was only a study attempt. Take your pencil and see what your new creation will be, and do not repent of the sacrifice.”
The student seized his pencil and produced his masterpiece, “The Sacrifice of Iphigenia.” His name was Timanthes.
—Christian Age
6886 Mother Hides Herself
Sometime ago, when it became necessary to break her of the habit of sleeping with me, I laid my little child in her crib, kissed her good-night, and turned out the light. She cried long and bitterly, thinking that I did not hear her cry and that I did not love her, not knowing that I was in reality not far away—only hidden by the darkness—and that my mother-heart was aching for her. I indeed heard her cries and longed to do what she wanted, but for her own good I must hide myself.
—Grace C. W. Groben
6887 Spectacles No Longer Nuisance
Recently I read an interesting story telling how God shielded former President Theodore Roosevelt from the bullet of a would-be assassin.
The Chief of State was very nearsighted and always carried two pairs of glasses, one for close-up work and the other for seeing things at a distance. While speaking in the city of Milwaukee during his last great political campaign, he was shot by a man named Shrenk. Roosevelt was hurt but insisted on finishing his speech. Later, when a surgeon was examining his wound, he discovered that the steel spectacle case in his vest pocket has saved his life, for it had deflected the bullet from his heart.
“That’s remarkable!” said the President as he carefully inspected the bent container with its shattered contents. “I’ve always considered it a nuisance to carry two pairs of glasses, especially those thick, heavy ones I kept in that metal case. Yet tonight, God used it to save my life.”
—Henry G. Bosch
6888 To Cross A Stream
Dr. Lambie, medical missionary, formerly of Abyssinia, has forded many swift and bridgeless streams in Africa. The danger in crossing such a stream lies in being swept off one’s feet and carried down the stream to greater depths or hurled to death against the hidden rocks. Dr. Lambie learned from the natives the best way to make such a hazardous crossing. The man about to cross finds a large stone, the heavier the better, lifts it to his shoulder, and carries it across the stream as “ballast.” The extra weight of the stone keeps his feet solid on the bed of the stream and he can cross safely without being swept away.
Dr. Lambie drew this application: While crossing the dangerous stream of life, enemies constantly seek to overthrow us and rush us down to ruin. We need the ballast of burden-bearing, a load of affliction, to keep us from being swept off our feet.
—Christian Victory
6889 Those Horses On Level Road
Lord Leverhulme, the great English manufacturer in a letter to a friend, quoted this story of Gladstone: “During the early coaching days, Gladstone used to inquire from the coaches that went out of London through Barnet and St. Albans, whether it was not hard on the horses, and whether the alternative road, which goes through Slough and is fairly level, were not better.
“And he was surprised to find that the horses on the Highgate road lasted half again as long as the horses on the level Slough road. From which he drew the inference that it was variety and change—collarwork at one point and no collarwork at another—that was best for the health of a horse, and in his experience, best for the health of a man.”
6890 The Hopi Runners
It is probable that the Hopi Indians in Arizona are the finest long-distance runners in the world. Through years of practice, running is now their natural gait. This is due to two causes. The character of the country in which they live renders walking a slow method of progress, and they have developed an ability to run through the heavy sands with the expenditure of far less energy than walking would consume. Their fields also are situated at so great a distance from their villages that they are obliged to run in order to get to them, accomplish their work, and return the same day.
Some of their feats are astounding. Talash-ya-tua, the finest runner among the Hopis, has run as far as eighty miles in less than nine hours. He is also credited with having run fifty miles through the sand in five hours. The country in which the Hopis live is very uneven, and in some places extremely rugged, but, no matter how steep the grade, the runner never slackens his pace.
—Current Anecdotes
6891 Shooting Up A Spring
During the siege of Sebastopol, a Russian shell buried itself in the side of a hill without the city, and opened a spring. A little fountain bubbled forth where the cannon shot had fallen, and during the remainder of the siege afforded to the thirsty troops who were stationed in that vicinity, an abundant supply of pure, cold water. Thus the missile of death from an enemy, under the direction of an overruling Providence, proved a supplier of mercy to the parched and weary soldiers of the Allies.
6892 Crimean War Incident
It was one of the incidents in the Crimean War that a soldier lay famishing with thirst, and complaining bitterly, as a cannonball tore past him, that he was still left under fire. Meantime, the missile of iron buried itself in the cliffside behind him, splintered the rock, disclosed a spring, and sent close to his hot lips a full stream of water for his refreshment.
—C. S. Robinson
6893 Spinning The Lace
In one of the famous lace shops of Brussels there are certain rooms devoted to the spinning of the finest and most delicate lace patterns. These rooms are altogether darkened, save for the light from one very small window falling directly upon the pattern. There is only one spinner in the room, and he sits where the narrow stream of light falls upon the threads that he is weaving.
“Thus,” you are told by the guide, “do we secure our choicest products. Lace is always more delicately and beautifully woven when the worker himself is in the dark, and only his pattern is in the light.”
6894 When Wesley’s Carriage Stuck In Mud
Wesley, when traveling in a carriage one day along a narrow road filled with ruts, became stuck in the mud. The delay especially disturbed him because he was eager to preach at the next town. While some helpers tried to get the vehicle moving, another Christian came by.
Wesley talked with him a moment and perceived that the poor fellow was deeply troubled. Asking why he was so distressed, he learned that because of a crop failure, the man was almost destitute. “I haven’t been able to get the money together to pay the rent,” he said despairingly. “The landlord is ready to turn us out, and I don’t know where to go with my wife and children.” “How much do you owe?” Wesley inquired—”Well,” said Wesley, “I believe we can handle that. The Lord evidently wanted me to meet you.”
Taking the money from his wallet, he handed it to the man and said, “Here, go and be happy!” Then turning to his companions, he exclaimed, “Now I see why our carriage had to get stuck in the mud. Our steps were halted so that we might help that needy family.”
—Henry G. Bosch
6895 Source Of Greek Soldier’s Bravery
There is an old Greek story of a soldier under Antigonus who had a disease that was extremely painful and likely at any time to destroy his life. In every campaign he was in the forefront of the hottest battle. His pain prompted him to fight in death to forget it, and his expectation of death at any time made him court death on the martial field.
His general, Antigonus so admired the bravery of the man that he had him cured of his malady by a renowned physician. From that moment the valiant soldier was no longer seen at the front. He avoided danger instead of seeking it, and sought to protect his life instead of risking it on the field. His tribulation made him fight well; his health and comfort destroyed his usefulness as a soldier.
Were you relieved of some burden, or healed of some disease, or set free from some worry, you might lose in moral and spiritual power and influence.
—C. E. Macartney
6896 Whitefield Wore Robber’s Clothes
Taking a sizeable sum of money to a widow with a large family, Whitefield asked a friend to accompany him.
The two travelers proceeded on their journey, and before long, encountered a highwayman, who demanded their money, which they gave. Whitefield now turned the tables on his friend and reminded him how much better it was for the poor widow to have the five guineas than the thief, who had just robbed them. They had not long resumed their travel, before the man returned and demanded Whitefield’s coat which was much more respectable than his own. His request was granted, Whitefield accepting the robber’s ragged garment till he could procure a better one.
Presently they perceived the robber again galloping towards them most furiously; and now fearing that their lives were threatened, they spurred their horses, and, fortunately arrived at some cottages, before the highwayman could stop them. The thief was balked and no doubt, was immensely frustrated, for when Whitefield took off the man’s tattered coat, he found in one of its pockets a carefully wrapped parcel containing one hundred guineas.
—Gospel Magazine
6897 Forced To Oatmeal Diet
A certain missionary found herself seriously ill in the outpost where the Lord had stationed her. To add to her sorrow her check had not arrived and she was forced day after day to do without the good food she needed and to live on a miserable diet of oatmeal and canned milk. In spite of everything, the lady mis sionary got better, and after 30 days of steady oatmeal diet, she finally got her check and was able to get something different on the table.
During her illness she had “a little, sneaking suspicion” that the Lord was not doing her right. When furlough time came, she told of her great trial to an eager audience. At the close of the meeting, a kindly doctor inquired as to the nature of her ailment. On hearing what the digestional malfunction was, he said, “Well, if your check had arrived, you would not be here talking to me today. And the diet we always prescribe for that trouble is a 30-day oatmeal diet.”
—Christian Victory
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE NATURAL WORLD
6898 On Healthy Frustration
On the theory that frustration impedes learning, educators use teaching machines designed to prevent all errors and reward all successes. Columbia University psychologist Herbert Terrace has asserted that the theory is wrong; his experiments with pigeons demonstrate that it is not frustration but a complete lack of it that blocks the process of learning.
The trouble with “errorless” machines is that they fail to prepare students for the real world. There, “you don’t always get paid off for doing the right thing, and you have to cope when you make a mistake.”
In support of his view, Terrace cites the reactions of 200 pigeons, which were taught to distinguish red from green; they were rewarded with food when they pecked in response to a red light, but food was withheld when they pecked at the sight of green. Half got food every time they recognized the red light; for the others, reward was erratic.
When pigeons trained by the consistent method were switched to irregular reward, “they went to pieces,” hitting their heads against the walls, flapping their wings, and pecking wildly at everything in sight. By contrast, birds trained on the intermittent system did not go wild when a correct peck failed to produce food. Instead, they stayed calm, continued to peck only at red, and soon were rewarded with the “deserved” snack.
6899 Easy Life Is Short
A team of Russian scientists have been conducting experiments aimed at discovering whether a life of ease shortens or lengthens life. A report on the outcome claims:
“A series of experiments were staged on animal life spans. Some animals were provided with ideal conditions of life—quiet, fresh air, plenty of food, and no cares whatever. Sleep if you like, play if you want. The fur of the animals began to gloss.”
“Another group of animals was placed in conditions that involved cares and joy, setbacks and surprises of all kinds.
“Researchers found the first to fall sick and break down were animals existing in seemingly ideal conditions.
“Now the Soviet researchers are trying to establish whether the same holds good for human beings.”
6900 Emperor Moth’s Struggle
The cocoon of the emperor moth is flask-shaped. In order for the perfect insect to appear it must force its way through the neck of the cocoon in hours of intense struggling. It is believed that the pressure to which the moth’s body is subjected is a provision of nature for forcing the juices into the vessels of the wings.
A person was witnessing this struggle once, and out of pity took the point of some scissors and snipped the confining threads to make the exit easier, but the moth’s wings never developed, and it spent its brief span of life crawling instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings.
Look not with false pity on God’s children who suffer. As men we are inclined to be shortsighted. God would have us inspire their courage in the midst of it by remembering His love, and then looking for the glory to come out of it.
—Garden of Prayer
6901 Stone Starts Nightingale Song
In his “Hunting for the Nightingale in England,” John Burroughs tells of listening one dark night to the song of the sedge warbler in the hedge. It was a singular medley of notes, hurried chirps, trills, calls, warbles. When it stopped singing, a stone flung into the bush set it going again, its song now being so persistently animated as to fill the gloom and darkness with joy. Samuel Rutherford’s most gladsome letters are those from his prison. The saints have sung their sweetest when the thorn has pierced their hearts. Sorrow produces songs in the night.
—Best Modern Illustrations
6902 Singing Canaries Trained In Dark
We have read that during World War I, when it was no longer possible to import those beautiful singing canaries from the Harz Mountains, Germany, a dealer in New York decided to start a system of training canaries to sing. He had bird songs put on records, and these proved of value.
But one day he made a real discovery which meant success. He found that if he covered the cages with thick cloths, completely shutting out the light, the birds learned their song. God sometimes teaches His children to sing in darkness. Verily, “He giveth songs in the night.”
—Moody Monthly
6903 When Flying Against Wind
Ornithologists assure us that the eagle, the condor of the Andes, the albatross of the Pacific, and even the swiftly-flying little dove, like many other birds that are strong on the wing, can fly more swiftly against a wind than in a gentle breeze. It may be that this is because they are stimulated to exert the muscular strength of their pinions. But however this may be, it is a fact that the fires of a steamship burn much more fiercely under the boilers when the vessel is going against a headwind.
6904 Stirring Up The Nest
The eagle is an interesting bird. She builds her nest in the tallest trees or on the loftiest mountain ledges. One who has watched her construct her nest relates that she first lays down thorns, jagged stones, and all manner of sharp objects, which seem utterly incredible materials for the purpose. Then she covers it thickly with wool, feathers, and fur of animals she has killed. The nesting place thus becomes soft and comfortable, a delightful home for the birds which the mother will hatch.
But the little creatures are not destined to remain in this inviting cradle so laboriously prepared for them. The time will come when the mother will stir up the nest. With her sharp talons she will begin to point the sharp protrusions in their flesh. Up to this time the tiny creatures have had their food delivered and dropped into their mouths. After the nest has been stirred up, the eagles become so miserable and unhappy they are willing to get out, and go somewhere else.
This is the mother’s objective in picking out from the nest all the downy material with which it was originally lined and casting it to the wind. It is not cruelty on her part, but rather an effort to produce discontent with the old life of ease, and to whet their desire to move on to maturity.
—Mrs. Ruby Miller
6905 Struggle Of The Bee
A beekeeper told me a story of a hive—how, when the little bee is in the first stage, it is put into a hexagonal cell, and enough honey is stored there for its use until it reaches maturity. The honey is sealed with a capsule of wax, and when the tiny bee has fed itself on the honey and exhausted the supply, the time has come for it to emerge into the open. But, oh, the wrestle, the tussle, the straining to get through that wax! It is the straight gate for the bee, so straight that in the agony of exit the bee rubs off the membrane that hid its wings, and on the other side is able to fly!
—F. B. Meyer
6906 Violin Wood
A maker of violins searched all his life for wood that would serve for making violins with a certain beautiful and haunting resonance. At last he succeeded when he came into possession of wood gathered from the timberline, the last stand of the trees of the Rockies, 12,000 feet above sea level. Up there where the winds blow so fiercely and steadily that the bark to windward has no chance to grow, where the branches all point one way, and where a tree to live must stay on its knees all through its life, that is where the world’s most resonant wood for violins is born and lives and dies.
—W. Hayden Ambrose
6907 Source Of Sweetest Perfumes
Some of the sweetest perfumes are made from vile-smelling substances. Capronic acid, which smells like goats, is transformed by chemists into an entrancing odor. Butyric acid, which gives rancid butter its terrific stench, is changed to a flower-like fragrance. One of the most expensive materials used in costly perfumes is ambergris, which comes from sick sperm whales. Such whales bring prices as high as $40,000 from perfume factories.
6908 Roses Gathered At Midnight
It is said that the world’s best supply of perfume comes from roses on the Balkan Mountains. The flowers from which the lovely fragrance is distilled must be gathered in the darkest part of the night! The laborers therefore start shortly after 12 o’clock and conclude their picking within two hours. The brevity of the work period is based on scientific tests which have proved that during this gloomy interval the blossoms give their most pleasing scent, while 40 percent of their aroma disappear in the light of day.
6909 Pluck The Roses Freely
During the summer a clergyman called on a lady who had a very fine collection of roses. She took him out to see them—white roses, red roses, yellow roses, climbing roses, and roses in pots, the gay giant of battles and the modest moss rose—every species he had ever heard of, and a great many he had never heard of, were there in rich profusion. The lady began plucking, right and left. Some bushes with but a single flower she despoiled.
The clergyman remonstrated. “You are robbing yourself, dear madam.” “Ah,” she said, “do you not know that the way to make the rosebush is to pluck its flowers freely? I lose nothing by what I give away.” This is a universal law. We never lose anything by what we give away.
—Clerical Library
6910 Husbandman’s Pruning Knife
Dr. Isaac Page, told afterward of traveling one day through the fruit regions in the West. There he saw how the growers pruned their trees in order to get a maximum yield. He noticed in particular an apricot orchard where the owner was busy cutting back the branches. To one who knew nothing about raising fruit, this activity looked like a needlework of mutilation. But the man doing the job knew exactly what was needed to get the best results.
Dr. Page learned that the next spring the same trees were pruned again, though not so severely. When the fruit was fully formed, the farmer carefully thinned out the crop. Then by autumn harvest-time, the trees were laden with delicious apricots. The pruning knife of the husbandman had accomplished its intended purpose.
—Paul R. Van Garden
6911 Vase Which Took The Fire
When the late King George was visiting a pottery plant some years ago, two special vases were shown to him. Both were made of the same material and both had been painted in the same style and manner, but one was a beautiful ornament, and the other blurred and unsightly. And the reason? One had taken the fire and the other had not!
—J. J. Oswald Sanders
6912 Tabernacle’s Materials
In the materials for the tabernacle, almost all of them were secured through pressure. The metals had to go through fire; the dyes, doubtless, were secured through pressure; the fine linen had to go through many a trying process from the flax stage; the goats had to be prepared to surrender their ornament—hair; the rams and badgers must die; the wood had to be felled and shaped; the oil and spices were secured through pressure and the precious stones, too, were the result of great heat. Is there an element in the system in which God will dwell and be displayed that has not been secured through pressure? I doubt it.
6913 Tungsten Filament’s Value
The most common form of artificial light is the ordinary incandescent bulb with the tungsten filament.
Tungsten metal is the best filament material because it withstands the necessary heat better than any other substance. It is produced from an ore called wolframite.
At the time the crude ore is worth forty dollars a ton. After it has been reduced to bars of tungsten in the electric furnace it is worth four thousand dollars a ton, and after it has been drawn into filament wire, which is stronger than steel and not much larger than a human hair, it is worth seventy dollars a pound, or one hundred and forty thousand dollars a ton.
From forty dollars a ton to one hundred and forty thousand dollars a ton is quite an increase in value.
6914 Beach Pebbles
On the coast of Pascadero, California, is the famed Pebble Beach. There the waves dash with a ceaseless roar and thunder among the stones on the beach. The pitiless waves toss and grind the stones together and hurl them against the rugged cliffs. Day and night, the wearing down of the stones continues unabated. Tourists from all over the world gather the beautiful, round, polished stones for ornaments on mantels.
Near Pebble Beach is a towering cliff which breaks the force of the dashing waves. In the quiet cove, sheltered by the cliff, is an abundance of stones. These are unsought, unwanted. They have escaped the turmoil and beating of the waves. Hence they are rough, angular and devoid of beauty.
Billows of sorrow and trouble polish and refine us, and give to us the opportunity to prove the genuineness of the Saviour’s comforting, healing words.
—Selected
6915 The Milled Cylinder Head
Some automobiles are equipped with motors of 325 horsepower. How is this increased power produced?
The cylinder head is milled, or grounded, as much as a twenty-thousandth of an inch to give a smaller cubic inch displacement in the cylinder head of the engine. This results in an increase in the compression ratio and a substantial increase in horsepower. To say it more simply, the greater the pressure, the greater the power.
6916 Epigram On Troubles (Blessings)
• The brook would lose its song if we removed the rocks.
• The triumph song of life would lose its melody without its minor keys.
—Sunshine
• What sea has no waves? What land has no rain?
• The existence of sea means the existence of pirates.
—Malay Proverbs
• There is no education like adversity.
—Benjamin Disraeli
• Difficulties strengthen the mind as labour does the body.
—Seneca
• Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.
—Victor Hugo
• Even a misfortune may prove useful in three years.
—Japanese Proverb
• The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution.
• I saw a star, I reached for it, I missed. So I accepted the sky.
• There was never a picture painted,
There was never a poem sung,
But the soul of the artist fainted,
And the poet’s heart was wrung.
• The ancients used an interesting little instrument, called the tribulum, to beat grain to divide the chaff from the wheat. The word “tribulation” comes from this word. Tribulations truly separate the chaff from the wheat in human character.
See also: Joy ; Trust.