Guide and Traveler—See Confidence.
GUIDE, THE PERFECT
Once I was out with a guide climbing a
mountain, and the guide himself lost his way.
He was compelled, greatly chagrined, to
beat about for quite a while till he found it.
This could never happen to Christ.
Sometimes a guide in the Alps, in spite of all his care, loses the life of a traveler. The unfortunate man may slip and the rope may break; or, if the rope holds, he may be heavy enough to drag down his guide with him into the crevasse.
When a traveler hesitated to place his foot in the hand of a guide who asked him to step upon it out over a precipice when rounding a perilous turn, the guide reassured him by saying, "This hand never lost a life." That was true of the guide, but it did not prove that he never would lose a life.
Of Christ's hand stretched out to help
us it may be said truly: "This hand
never lost a life, and never can lose
one."—Amos R. Wells, in The Christian Endeavor World.
(1327)
Guides—See Experience, Value of.
Guides and Prayer—See Blessing the
Ropes.
GUILT
The only thing needed to show guilt or innocence is sufficient light:
Aaron Burr once defended a prisoner
charged with murder, and as the trial proceeded
it became too manifest to him that
the guilt of the murder lay between the
prisoner and one of the witnesses for the
prosecution. He accordingly subjected this
witness to a searching and relentless cross-examination;
and then, as he addrest the
jury in the gathering dusk of evening, he
brought into strong relief every fact that
bore against this witness, and suddenly
seizing two candelabra from the table, he
threw a glare of light on the witness's face,
and exclaimed, "Behold the murderer, gentlemen!"
Alarmed and conscience-stricken,
the man reeled as from a blow, turned
ghastly pale, and left the court. The advocate
concluded his speech in a tone of
triumph, and the jury acquitted the prisoner.
(Text.)—Croake James, "Curiosities of
Law and Lawyers."
(1328)
H
HABIT
Says Jeremiah, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to evil." The last chapter in the biography of habits is its enthronement, its tyranny over the will. The tragedy of every habit is that instead of being an aid to the will, it becomes its master. Donald Sage Mackay, in "The Religion of the Threshold," says:
Henry Drummond once told of a man
who had gone to a London physician to consult
about his eyes. The physician looked
into the man's eyes with a delicate ophthalmoscope,
and then said quietly to the
man. "My friend, you are practising a certain
sin, and unless you give it up, in six
months you will be blind." For a moment
the man stood trembling in the agony of
discovery, and then, turning to the sunlit
window, he looked out and exclaimed, "Farewell,
sweet light, farewell!"
(1329)
A man named Patch, having been charged with murder, his solicitor carefully examined the premises and situation, and came to the conclusion that the murderer must have been a left-handed man. The solicitor informed Sergeant Best, in consultation, that he had noticed Patch, when taking his dinner, using his knife with the left hand. In a conference before the trial, the sergeant prest the prisoner to say whether he was not left-handed, but he protested he was not. When the prisoner was arraigned at the bar on the day of trial, and was called on to plead, he answered, "Not guilty," and at once, of course unconsciously, held up his left hand.—Croake James, "Curiosities of Law and Lawyers."
(1330)
