found them neglecting their books. Thus he writes to one:
"Your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep. There is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with daily meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian."—W. H. Fitchett, "Wesley and His Century."
(881)
Educational Growth—See Need, Meeting Children's.
EFFACEMENT OF SINS
We are reminded of the promise that God will "blot out" our transgressions by the following incident:
John Maynard was in an old-time country
schoolhouse. Most of the year he had
drifted carelessly along, but in midwinter
some kind words from his teacher roused
him to take a new start, and he became distinctly
a different boy, and made up for the
earlier faults. At the closing examination
he passed well, to the great joy of his father
and mother, who were present. But the
copy-books used through the year were all
laid on a table for the visitors to look at;
and John remembered that his copy-book,
fair enough in its latter pages, had been a
dreary mass of blots and bad work before.
He watched his mother looking over those
books, and his heart was sick. But she
seemed, to his surprize, quite pleased with
what she saw, and called his father to look
with her; and afterward John found that
his kind teacher had thoughtfully torn out
all those bad, blotted leaves, and made his
copy-book begin where he started to do better.
(Text.)—Franklin Noble, "Sermons
in Illustration."
(882)
Effects from Other's Deeds—See Vicariousness.
Effort, Progress by—See Want Brings
Progress.
Effort Renewed—See Extremity Not
Final.
EGOISM
It is Nietzsche's philosophy that each man should care only for himself. This philosophy is applied in the following incident. Many still apply it in their social conduct:
It was no very unusual sight in China,
to see a thief running for all he was worth,
pursued by two or three vociferating men or
lads. But the crowd always made way for
the thief, and never a foot nor a hand was
put out to stop him, "He did not rob me;
why should I stop him?" (Text.)
(883)
EGOTISM
Miss Gordon Cumming tells how she
heard in Japan a bird which seemed to have
for its sole note, "Me! Me! Me!" She and
her party called it "the me-bird."
There are numerous "me birds" that
belong to the human family. They
might also be called "ay, ay birds."
(884)
In Delhi once stood a temple whose ceiling was set with diamonds, and beneath which stood the throne of the divine peacock. The jewels in this temple were worth $30,000,000. On the marble pedestal of the throne, in Arabic, were these words, "If ever there were paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here." But the facts are that this temple was built by poor slaves, many of whom died of starvation and cruelty while in the act of building it. This temple represents intensity without breadth. Treasures and education have been concentrated to produce an awful kind of egotism. Men and women have been known to be sublimely beautiful within themselves, but in relation to others ugly, hollow, and deformed, their narrowness grating rudely on the finer sensibilities. (Text.)—Vyrnwy Morgan, "The Cambro-American Pulpit."
(885)
See Self-measurement.
Egyptian Builders—See Builders, Ancient.
ELECT, THE
Two modern statements of the doctrine of
"election," neither of which would quite
satisfy John Calvin or Jonathan Edwards,
are given in The Congregationalist.
One was Henry Ward Beecher's epigrammatic and convincing phrase: "The elect are whosoever will; the non-elect are whosoever won't."
Good as this is, there is another explanation that is a star of equal magnitude. It was made by a colored divine, who said:
