Appetite

 To be slain by appetite is a common fate with men, as it was with this serpent:

       A boa-constrictor woke up hungry from a three months' nap and caught a rabbit, which he bolted whole in the usual way. This did not satisfy the cravings of his capacious stomach, and so he went afield in search of further victuals, and presently came to a rail fence, which he essayed to get through. But the lump caused by the defunct tho undigested bunny stopt him, like a knot in a rope, when his head and a few feet only of his body had passed between the rails. Lying in this attitude, he caught and swallowed another rabbit which had incautiously ventured within his narrow sphere of action. Now, what was the state of affairs? He could neither go ahead nor astern through the fence, being jammed by his fore-and-aft inside passengers, and in this embarrassing position he was slain with ease.

''Repent, turn away from all your sins, or your own wickedness will be your downfall. You must get rid of all the guilty sins you have committed and clothe yourselves with a new heart and a new spirit." Ezekiel 18:30-32

Memory and Disease

        Many strange defects of memory are known to exist, and of these an interesting example may be given.

       A business man of keen mind and good general memory, who was not paralyzed in any way, and was perfectly able to comprehend and engage in conversation, suddenly lost a part of his power of reading and of mathematical calculation.
       The letters d, g, q, x, and y, tho seen perfectly, were in this case no longer recognized, and conveyed no more idea to him than Chinese characters would to most of us. He had difficulty in reading - was obliged to spell out all words, and could read no words containing three letters.
       He could write the letters which he could read, but could not write the five letters mentioned. He could read and write certain numbers, but 6, 7, and 8, had been lost to him; and when asked to write them his only result, after many attempts, was to be- gin to write the words six, seven, and eight, not being able to finish these, as the first and last contained letters (x and g) which he did not know.
       He could not add 7 and 5, or any two numbers whereof 6, 7, or 8 formed a part, for he could not call them to mind. Other numbers he knew well. He could no longer tell time by the watch.
       For a week after the beginning of this curious condition he did not recognize his surroundings. On going out for the first time the streets of the city no longer seemed familiar; on coming back he did not know his own house. After a few weeks, however, all his memories had returned excepting those of the letters and figures named; but as the loss of these put a stop to his reading, and to all his business life, the small defect of memory was to him a serious thing.
       Experience has shown that such a defect is due to a small area of disease in one part of the brain. Harper's Weekly.

''He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." Isaiah 40:11

Spiritual Measurement

       ''I must see your motives, your disposition, your loves and hates, your aspirations and longings and hopes, before I can say I see you. How tall are you? How much do you weigh? Six feet, you say, and weigh a hundred and fifty pounds? Both of us are wrong. You can't measure the self by a foot-rule, nor weigh it in iron scales. Every time you aspire and hope and love you escape the body and live in the heights and distances. To estimate you aright I must gather up all your hopes and aspirations and faiths and loves; and if you have been wise enough to reach up and lay hold of the eternal I must weigh and measure the eternal in order to estimate you.'' Robert MacDonald.

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

 

Measurement

        Man's power to solve the problems of the natural world is indicated by the feats of modern photography, of which O. H. Cloudy writes as follows:

       Just think for an instant what the twelve-hundredth part of a second really means. A railroad train going sixty miles an hour, or eighty-eight feet per second, would move, in such an interval, less than one inch. A bullet, with a muzzle velocity of twelve hundred feet per second, would get but one short foot from the muzzle before a twelve-hundredth of a second had elapsed. Could two bells be rung, one twelve-hundredth of a second after the other, the sound-waves given out by them both would travel within five feet of each other, too close for any human ear to distinguish that there was more than one sound. Yet in this tiny bit of time the eye of the camera can record on the sensitive plate everything in front of it, with sufficient force to make a good negative. The American Inventor.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.'' Romans 1:20

Living Within One's Means

        The man of five hundred dollars income is trying to live as tho he were sure of a thousand. Of course he is in straits and shallows. Instead of sailing on a fair sea, as he might within his own range, he is doomed to struggle perpetually with his head under water. To live generously is desirable when one has the means; but to attempt a scale of expenditure beyond our means is neither wise nor comfortable. How much more sensible to live in a modest way, agreeable to our fortune and suited to our condition! To follow this rule requires more courage than to besiege a city or fight a battle; but it is attainment for which we should aspire as a means of personal comfort and a guard against temptation.

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.'' 1 Timothy 6:10

Mournful Memory

       Renan, in one of his books, recalls an old French legend of a buried city on the coast of Brittany. With its homes, public buildings, churches and thronged streets, it sank instantly into the sea. The legend says that the city's life goes on as before down beneath the waves. The fishermen, when in calm weather they row over the place, sometimes think they can see the gleaming tips of the church-spires deep in the water and fancy they can hear the chiming of the bells in the old belfries, and even the murmur of the city's noises. There are men who in their later years seem to have an experience like this. Their life of youthful hopes, dreams, successes and joys has been sunk out of sight, submerged in misfortunes and adversities and has vanished altogether. All that remains is a memory. In their discouragement they seem to hear the echoes of the old songs of hope and gladness, and to catch visions of the old beauty and splendor, but that is all. They have nothing real left. They have grown hopeless and bitter. 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.'' 2 Corinthians 5:17

Our God is the God of Love and Mercy. 

Listen old men, and heed the words

for this is from the Christ.

The Golden Mean

        In arctic regions plants, which under more genial conditions would unfold themselves in a delightful perfection, remain stunted and mean, exhausting their vitality in withstanding the severities of the climate. The same is true of animal life. The Newfoundland dogs of Kane, in the Polar seas, became mad through the excruciating severity of the cold. The birds come to a certain strength and glory through the necessity of awareness, but there is often such a fearful blood-thirstiness in the tropical forest, such a profusion of cruel hawks, owls, serpents, and beasts of prey, that a bird's life is one long terror, and it forgets its music. And this applies equally to man. He is all the better for a regulated conflict with his environment, but all the worse if the conflict attain undue severity. His conflict with nature may exhaust him.  Watkinson

''Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.'' Romans 11:22

Melody From Drudgery

        When you go into some great cathedral across the sea, to watch the player on the keys, which away up in the tower are sounding forth their wondrous chime, down there you hear only the clatter of the wires, the deafening din of the reverberating bells, and the clanging of the wooden shoes he wears upon his hands with which to strike the keyboard, sending out away up there in the belfry the silvery notes which he himself can scarcely hear.
       Ah, but they are heard. Many a tired soul stops on the distant hillside in his day's toil to listen to those strains, and his heart is filled with a strange gladness and peace. And amid the din and tumult of your daily work, it may sometimes seem as tho you were doing naught which was worth the doing; down there in obscurity, unthought of and unnoticed by the great world, simply beating out the allotted task upon the clattering keyboard which the Master has set for you. But do it well. Do it as the violet smiles, as the bird sings, as Jesus lived, and you shall send out over land and sea music, which shall bless the generations afar off. George T. Dqwung.

''Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Perishableness

        At the Wold's Fair at St. Louis, Mo., the heroic statue of Joliet was so fine a work of art that a movement was set on foot to preserve it after the close of the fair. Many admirers of it subscribed for the expense, and it was removed to the entrance of O'Fallon Park. The figure was twenty-five feet high and fifteen feet long. The work of removal was difficult and cost nearly $2,000, but it was safely accomplished and it made an imposing addition to the beauties of the park. But it was made only of staff, and tho it was believed it would last for ten years, it was not supposed that it was permanent. Not long after, however, while hundreds of people stood admiring it in its new position, there was a sudden break in the image. A cloud of white dust arose, and when it cleared away the big statue had disappeared. A heap of white dust was all there was to show where it had been. It had absolutely crumbled to powder. All the work that had been expended on its formation and removal was lost in a moment. So it is with all human work, however beautiful and imposing. In God and His work alone is permanence. 

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.'' Matthew 24:35

Vital Faiths

       An institution has life in it. Cut any of the faiths of your fathers and they bleed. At the heart of a grain of wheat is a golden spot that holds the life, and a coming sheaf. You may strip off the outer hull, but touch that living heart at your peril. You may change the forms of your government, but, oh, guard the liberty of your fathers. You may change the wording of your fathers' creed, but at your peril touch the providence of God, His Fatherhood and love, the way of life through Christ, the hope of immortality. You may change the method of worship on Sunday, but at your peril do not destroy it, until in one wild orgy of drunken pleasure, your children become mere insect "skippers," dancing for a day on the surface of a poisoned pool, then to disappear forever. Hillis.

Aimlessness

       "And he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." What a picture comes into the mind as by the aid of the imagination we read these words. I think of a vast forest, with its winding trail, its deep shadows, its tangled underbrush, its decayed trunks here and there. I think of myself at the end of a long day's tramp. No opening in sight. The sun has gone down. The light coming through the openings above growing less and less. The sky overcast. Soon it is dark. I miss the trail. I get down on my hands and knees to feel for it. Presently no sound but the cracking of the underbrush. Suddenly it dawns upon me that I am lost in the woods. All sense of direction is gone. Any way I turn may be the wrong way. I am utterly aimless. Jesus says the end of the selfish man is utter aimlessness. That as a man in the woods wanders without aim so the selfish man wanders in the moral universe without aim, not knowing whither he goeth.''  Robert McLaughlin