In a sawmill in Canada, while the head sawyer was eating his dinner, a big bear came and sat on the log ready for sawing, and began to eat the sawyer's dinner. As the log moved up the saw gave him a slight rub; he growled and went on eating. Presently the saw gave him another dig and he turned round and hugged it, and there was a bear sawed in two.
This reminds us of the enemies of
Christ trying to stop the work He came
to do. He uttered truths which cut
them, but they continued in their opposition.
They have gone to their own
place, but the gracious work of Christ
continues. (Text.)
(422)
Christianity, Moral—See Moral Satisfaction.
CHRISTIANITY, PRACTICAL PROOF OF
An unbeliever confronted a converted Fiji
cannibal chief, saying, "You are a great
chief, and it is really a pity that you have
been so foolish as to listen to the missionaries.
Nobody believes any longer in that
old book called the Bible, or in that story of
Jesus Christ. They have all learned better,
and I am sorry for you that you have been
So foolish as to take it in."
The chief's eyes flashed as he said: "Do you see that great stone over there? On that stone we smashed the heads of our victims to death. Do you see that native oven yonder? In that oven we roasted the human bodies for our great feasts. Now, if it hadn't been for the good missionaries, and that old book and the love of Jesus Christ, which has changed us from savages into God's children, you would never leave this spot. You have to thank God for the gospel, for without it we should have killed you, and roasted you in yonder oven, and have feasted upon you in no time."
(423)
Christianity, Reasonable—See Reasonable Religion.
CHRISTIANITY SHAMED
Vessels from Christian lands that touched
at the Hawaiian group first introduced there
the damnable liquid fires of alcohol, and
their licentious crews first made the harbors
of Hawaii the hells of the most abandoned
and shameless vice. Sin was literally bringing
forth death.—Pierson, "The Miracles of
Missions."
(424)
CHRISTIANITY, SOCIAL
Civilized man must often go a great distance
for many of the things he needs. His
wants are too diversified to be met within
the small radius of his immediate dwelling-place.
As heat and sunshine are unequally
distributed over the earth, they produce
differences of climate and consequently many
varieties of vegetation. There is wheat in
the temperate zones, cotton and rubber-plants
of warmer regions. Some sections are also
far poorer in useful rocks and minerals than
others. Thus Holland has no building stone.
Switzerland no coal and the United States
much less sulfur than it needs. There must
be a constant interchange of productions that
each nation have its needs supplied.
Paul tells us that each man is the recipient of spiritual gifts differing in kind and degree from that of another. But it is all of the same spirit and all are members of one body. The Christianity of the future will be a brotherhood; it will be social. (Text.)
(425)
CHRISTIANITY SUCCEEDING BARBARISM
Geologists say that the Bay of Naples is
in reality the crater of an extinct volcano.
In the cycles of ages past it was a great,
deep, roaring pit of fire and burning lava.
The fires subsided and the lava ceased to
flow. The great sea overflowed it and now
the calm waters smile back in sunshine by
day and in starlight at evening. Christianity
is a great calm sea that is gradually quenching
and covering the old volcanoes and roaring
pits of barbarism. (Text.)
(426)
CHRISTIANITY, SUCCESS OF
Admiral Prevost gives this picture of the change wrought in the British Columbia tribes by the Metlakahtla Mission:
Peter Simpson had been chief of a cannibal
tribe. Canoes were all drawn up on
the beach on the Lord's day, and not a sound
was heard, save the hurrying of the whole
population to the house of prayer. The admiral
watched the incoming of throngs—here
a notorious gambler, there a reclaimed
drunkard, a lecherous leper, a defiant thief,
