Adolescent Folly—See Kindness. Adoption—See Sympathy, Practical. ADVANCEMENT, RAPID When things all move so fast, Christian men must be wide-awake if they would have morals and religion keep pace with material progress: Such is the pace at which we live to day that, while millions of people in this country have not yet got up to the stage of "civilization" represented by the use of gas, but when they encounter it casually employ it suicidally, other millions have outgrown and discarded it, and will have none of it even for a curling-iron or a chafing-dish, let alone for lighting. To put it briefly, the use of electricity for lighting in New York State alone has increased over 2,000 per cent in ten years, and the use of electricity for power, also from central stations, has increased in the decade nearly 1,200 per cent. And yet the electricians are inclined to think they have only just started in. (Text.)—The Electrical World and Engineer.
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ADVANTAGE, WORKING TO THE
BEST
If we all worked at what we could do best, not only would more work be done, but most of life's friction and worry would be eliminated.
The English are a ballad-loving people,
and few singers could sing a ballad like
Antoinette Sterling. She sometimes, but
rarely, sang classical music. She knew where
she was the strongest, and she wisely kept
in that direction, with the result that she
shared the same popularity which the English
people extended to Sims Reeves, the
favorite tenor balladist. It was enough to
insure the success of a new song to have it
sung by Madam Sterling, and success in
London means heavy royalties to singer as
well as composer. (Text.)—Chicago Tribune.
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ADVERSITY
The whole tenor of the New Testament inculcates the principle of resignation under adverse conditions, and more. For the follower of Jesus Christ must not be merely a passive sufferer but a strenuous and persevering combatant against opposing force
Tourists along the shores of the Mediterranean
express their surprize at the
insipidity of the fishes served up for food.
This flavorless quality is easily accounted
for. The fish around the shores of Spain,
Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor are mostly
caught in the quiet lagoons or calm waters
of protected bays and gulfs, where they
swim lazily and slowly, or bask indolently
in the quietude. How different is the life
of battling with storm and tempest on the
part of the creatures that inhabit the
rough waters around the Orkneys, the
Shetlands, and the Hebrides of Scotland!
Fish caught there is always delicious.
(Text.)
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See Affliction Producing Virtue.
ADVERSITY HELPING GENIUS
There is an apprenticeship to difficulty,
which is better for excellence sometimes
than years of ease and comfort. A great
musician once said of a promising but passionless
young singer who was being educated
for the stage: "She sings well, but
she lacks something which is everything.
If she were married to a tyrant who would
maltreat her and break her heart, in six
months she would be the greatest singer in
Europe."—James T. Fields.
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ADVERTISING
Mr. George Hibbard discovers a new literature in process of development, born of the needs of modern advertising. In The Booklover's Magazine he writes:
The modern advertisement is worth looking
at, whether it is the sounding proclamation
of some big corporation, with facts and
figures both weighty and impressive, or the
light eye-catching notice of some simple
trade or contrivance. All forms of literary
composition find place in the advertising
pages: history, story, verse. Many advertisements
measure up to the test of good
literature. In truth, there is often an uncommon
amount of character in them. A
word here or a phrase there is often singularly
vivid as "local color," and behind
many an advertisement it is possible to see a
vigorous personality. Nor are there lacking
in this new literature qualities of humor,
both intentional and unintentional. One gen-
