ear vibrates under sound, and that the surface of the water in a ditch vibrates, too; but the ditch hears nothing for all that; and my hearing is still to me as blest a mystery as ever, and the interval between the ditch and me, quite as great. If the trembling sound in my ears was once of the marriage-bell which begun my happiness, and is now of the passing bell which ends it, the difference between those two sounds to me can not be counted by the number of concussions. There have been some curious speculations lately as to the conveyance of mental consciousness by "brain-waves." What does it matter how it is conveyed? The consciousness itself is not a wave. It may be accompanied here or there by any quantity of quivers and shakes, up or down, of anything you can find in the universe that is shakeable—what is that to me? My friend is dead, and my—according to modern views—vibratory sorrow is not one whit less, or less mysterious, to me, than my old quiet one.
(546)
CONSECRATION
A Chinese preacher, whose wages were
twenty-two dollars a month, refused the offer
of the post of consul at fifty dollars, that he
might be free to preach the gospel to his
countrymen. His countrymen said of him:
"There is no difference between him and
the Book." (Text.)
(547)
CONSEQUENCES
Mr. Justice Burroughs, of the Common
Pleas, used to resort to the use of proverbs
and parables in dealing with the juries. One
day at nisi prius, much talk was made about
a consequential issue in the case. He began
to explain it to the jury thus: "Gentlemen
of the jury, you have been told that the first
is a consequential issue. Now, perhaps, you
do not know what a consequential issue
means; but I dare say you understand nine-*pins.
Well, then, if you deliver your bowl
so as to strike the front pin in a particular
direction, down go the rest. Just so it is
with these counts. Knock down the first,
and all the rest will go to the ground; that's
what we call a consequential issue. (Text.)—Croake
James, "Curiosities of Law and
Lawyers."
(548)
CONSEQUENCES, IRREPARABLE
The doctrine of the following verse (unidentified) is quite doubtful. Is it not the hope of Christianity that men now broken by sin will yet, by God's healing grace, soar even higher than ever?
I walked through the woodland meadows,
Where sweet the thrushes sing;
And I found on a bed of mosses
A bird with a broken wing.
I healed its wound, and each morning
It sang its old sweet strain,
But the bird with a broken pinion
Never soared as high again.
I found a young life broken
By sin's seductive art;
And touched with a Christlike pity
I took him to my heart.
He lived with a noble purpose,
And struggled not in vain;
But the life that sin had stricken
Never soared as high again.
But the bird with a broken pinion
Kept another from the snare;
And the life that sin had stricken
Raised another from despair.
Each loss has its compensation,
There is healing for every pain;
But the bird with a broken pinion
Never soars as high again. (Text.)
(549)
CONSEQUENCES, UNNOTICED
A little girl in Kansas has recently given
the telegraph companies a vast amount of
trouble in a peculiar way. Her daily duty
was to herd a large drove of cattle on a
range through which passed the telegraph
lines. For weeks, some hours nearly every
day, these lines absolutely failed to work, and
the trouble seemed to be in the vicinity of
where this girl herded her father's cattle;
but it was a long time before they discovered
the cause. Finally, they found out that in
order to get a better view of the herd the
girl had driven railroad-spikes into a telegraph-pole,
and whenever she got weary
watching the cattle from the ground she
would climb the pole and seat herself on a
board across the wires and watch her herd
from that lofty station. Whenever the board
happened to be damp it destroyed the electric
current and cut off all telegraphic communication
between Denver and Kansas
City. (Text.)—Louis Albert Banks.
(550)
CONSERVATION
Under the iron law of conflict in the "survival
of the fittest," the world finds a ship-
