"Brethren, it is this way. The Lord, He is always voting for a man; and the devil, he is always voting against him. Then the man himself votes, and that breaks the tie." (Text.)
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Electricity and Tree-cutting—See Improvement.
ELECTRICITY, WONDERS OF
In 1856 Dr. R. S. Storrs said:
Not a century has passed since Franklin
first drew the lightning from the skies; and
yet already man prints with it, paints with
it, writes with it, engraves with it, talks with
it, cures with it, and is ever finding out new
uses for its strength. The cunning Hermes
has himself come to earth, to run on errands
for men, and no more for the gods. His
traveling-rod, enwreathed with serpents, is
now a wire, transmitting thoughts. His
golden sandals are sparks of lightning; and
he forwards our commerce, as he never
could the ancient.
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ELECTRIFICATION, SPIRITUAL
From the following illustration of electrical contact, Rev. William Arthur draws the moral that if we would be spiritually electrified we must draw nigh to God.
When a lecturer on electricity wants to
show an example of a human body surcharged
with his fire, he places a person on
a stool with glass legs. The glass serves
to isolate him from the earth, because it
will not conduct the fire—the electric fluid.
Were it not for this, however much might be
poured into his frame, it would be carried
away by the earth; but, when thus isolated
from it, he retains all that enters him. You
see no fire, you hear no fire; but you are
told that it is pouring into him. Presently,
you are challenged to the proof, asked to
come near, and hold your hand close to his
person; when you do so, a spark of fire
shoots out toward you.
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Elements and Structures—See Destruction, Gradual.
ELEVATION
Many of life's hidden mysteries would be clear to us, if we could see them as God does—from above.
Many times aeronauts, carried out to sea,
have made this curious observation: the
higher they are, the more pellucid the water
seems, enabling them to see, more and more
clearly, the bottom, with its rocks and seaweed.
In crossing the English Channel,
which is not very deep, especially near Calais,
the bottom may be easily seen, and a submarine
could be followed there in all its
evolutions. (Text.)—Ernest Constet,
Revue Scientifique.
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I remember an old woodsman in the Adirondack forest who used to say that he wanted to go to the top of a certain mountain as often as his legs would carry him because it gave him such a feeling of "heaven-up-histedness." That is an uncouth, humble, eloquent phrase to describe the function of a great literature.
Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!
I want the books that help me out of the vacancy and despair of a frivolous mind, out of the tangle and confusion of a society that is busied in bric-a-brac, out of the meanness of unfeeling mockery and the heaviness of incessant mirth, into a higher and serener region, where through the clear air of serious thoughts I can learn to look soberly and bravely upon the mingled misery and splendor of human existence, and then go down with a cheerful courage to play a man's part in the life which Christ has forever ennobled by His divine presence. (Text.)—Henry Van Dyke, The British Weekly.
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ELEVATION AND VISION
A man once brought a young eagle home
for his boys to play with. They were delighted
and took it out to the barnyard to
see it fly. But the eaglet would rather walk
about among the hens and pick up wheat.
The boys tossed it up in the air, but all their
efforts were only in vain, for it flapped its
great wings awkwardly, as if not knowing
what to do with them and dropt back to the
earth. The boys told their father of their
inability to make the bird fly. Taking the
eaglet under his arm, he called the boys with
him to the mountain. As they were ascending
the summit the bird began to open its
eyes wider and wider. When they reached
the peak, the eaglet began to expand its
wings, and as it caught a vision of the unfettered
blue bathed in the light of the rising
sun, it soared away out of sight.
So it is in human life. It requires a vision of the heights to inspire a soul to its best flight. (Text.)
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