bench, a society had sprung up called "The Society for the Suppression of Vice or the Reformation of manners" (and probably it still exists), and they resolved to prosecute for indecency one of the famous singers of the day named Leveridge. This artist used to sing Dryden's ode, "The Praise of Love and Wine," so as to excite great enthusiasm among the depraved votaries of the theater by his peculiar manner of execution. The judge saw the craze under which the prosecutor acted, and resolved to defeat them by the following course: He said to the jury that he had read carefully the words of the song, and he could see nothing very culpable in the words, and therefore he could only come to the conclusion that it must be the manner in which the ode was sung that had occasioned this prosecution. The fairest manner, therefore, to all parties would be for the defendant to sing the song in presence of the court and jury, when they could readily determine the matter in a satisfactory way. The performer took this hint, and, of course, sang with his very greatest power and good taste, so that not only the jury, without leaving the box, acquitted him, but the mob insisted on carrying him home on their shoulders. (Text.)—Croake James, "Curiosities of Law and Lawyers."
(732)
Tolstoy, in his "Coffee-house Parable," tells of how some men of different faiths had met in a place of public resort and had, after a time, begun to argue about God, each claiming alone to possess a true knowledge of Him, to have alone received His revelation. One, wiser than the others, led them all forth at last till they stood in the sunlight. That sun is a great fact and manifests itself to every creature on earth. Man sees it, or does not see it, being blind, yet is ever cheered by it; the earth is kissed by its rays till it blossoms and brings forth its fruit; even the hard, inanimate things, like the rocks, are warmed by the sun's rays. And God is the great central fact of life.
(733)
See Appeal, A Living; Proof.
DEPENDENCE
There are many, like John Wesley, who fear to trust their Christian faith to guide them, but must lean on the faith and strength of others. But faith thus treated is certain to fail the soul in any great crisis.
Wesley's first consideration, he declares,
is "which way of life will conduce most to
my own improvement?" He needs daily
converse with his friends, and he knows "no
other place under heaven, save Oxford,
where I can have always at hand half-a-dozen
persons of my own judgment and engaged
in the same studies. To have such a
number of such friends constantly watching
over my soul" is a blessing which, in a word,
Wesley can not bring himself to give up.
"Half Christians," he declares, would kill
him. "They undermine insensibly all my resolutions
and quite steal from me the little
fervor I have. I never come from among
these 'saints of the world' but faint, dissipated,
and shorn of all my strength." Except
he can crouch beneath the shelter of
a stronger faith than his own, John Wesley
protests he must die; so he will not venture
from Oxford.—W. H. Fitchett, "Wesley
and His Century."
(734)
DEPENDENCE ON GOD
The will of God is like a rope thrown to
us as we struggle among the untamed waves.
To remain "independent" is to repulse all
succor, all salvation; it is to wander without
a compass and without a chart through the
fury of the storm. To obey is to seize the
rope, to face the blast, to brave the storm, to
advance against the confederate waves, to
let oneself be irresistibly drawn toward
the invisible harbor where our heavenly
Father awaits us.—Monroe.
(735)
Depopulation—See Birth-rate in France.
DEPORTMENT
One effect of the high standard of deportment
enforced by the railroads is seen in
the extent to which women and children
travel alone, without fear. An illustration of
this is the experience of a Western woman
who was coming to New York for the first
time. With her husband, she left Buffalo
for New York on the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
When they reached Mauch Chunk,
Pa., the husband got out to walk up and
down the platform, and somehow the train
pulled out without him. The woman, left
alone, never having been east of Chicago before,
was on the verge of panic. Her husband
had all the money; the train was to
reach New York in the night; she didn't
know what hotel to go to, and, if she had
known, couldn't have found her way there.
So the conductor took her in charge, had her
carried to a good hotel, and arranged to
have the bill guaranteed. The husband,
