when he is traveling he sits down with his book and, beginning the first day with the letter A, utters each name aloud and repeats to himself the individual circumstances of each in which prayer and help are otherwise needed. He continues this daily until he has exhausted the list. His idea in doing this is to recall to his mental vision the face of each. "And thus," said the one who told me this, "no wonder Mr. Wanamaker knows us all by name, calls us all by our first names—Tom and Harry and Jim—and remembers the particular troubles or joys of each." (Text.)—The Christian Herald.
(1484)
Identification, Descriptive—See Individuality.
IDENTIFICATION MARKS
There are men as well as garments whom it would be difficult to identify if they were to be (morally) cleansed.
In foreign countries some strange methods
are adopted for identifying the contents of
the wash-tub. In some parts of France linen
is defaced with the whole name and address
of the laundry stamped upon it, and an additional
geometrical design to indicate the
owner of the property. In Bavaria every
patron of the wash-tub has a number stamped
in large characters on his linen. In Bulgaria
every laundry has a large number of stamps
engraved with designs, and in Russia the
laundries mark linen with threads worked in
arrow shapes. In some Russian towns the
police periodically issue regulations for
laundries. In Odessa books of marks are
furnished annually to the laundry proprietors,
and these marks and no others can be used
to identify them.—Albany Journal.
(1485)
IDLENESS
Says George S. Hilliard:
The ruin of most men dates from some
vacant hour. Occupation is the armor of
the soul, and the train of idleness is borne
up by all the vices. I remember a satirical
poem in which the devil is represented as
fishing for men and adapting his bait to the
taste and temperament of his prey; but the
idler, he said, pleased him most, because he
bit the naked hook.
(1486)
Killing time? I would as soon think of cutting an angel's throat that I met on God's highway, coming straight from His throne. Pleasure-mongering! Somebody to entertain them! As if life were a cheese and men were maggots boring in it! Are there not thousands of foreigners asking to be taught? Are not the Spaniards knocking at our door, asking us to organize for them a school of morals, a Bible school, a school of religion, a school of patriotism, on Sunday afternoon? Are there not social settlements that ask for hundreds of workers and teachers? How would it look if a regiment of soldiers at a critical moment at Gettysburg had sat down on the grass and looked for a cool tree and paid some man to come in with a jew's-harp and play to them, while the struggle for liberty went on? (Text.)—N. D. Hillis.
(1487)
Idol-worship—See Fetishism.
Idols Destroyed—See Renunciation,
Complete.
IDOLS IN CHRISTIAN SERVICE
Havelock, the English general in India,
once held a wonderful prayer-meeting in the
idol temple at Rangoon. In the hand of each
of the idol gods that lined the sides of the
great apartment, his men put a torch, and
by the light of these torches in the idols'
hands they held their worship.
(1488)
IGNORANCE
The contrast between heathen and civilized men is indicated by this incident:
"Why did we not think of heating the hard
stuff," the natives exclaimed when they saw
the welding of iron, "instead of beating it
with stones?"
(1489)
However wise a man may himself be, he does well to guard himself against the ignorance of others:
Ah Wing Lee was walking down the street
the other morning when a dog ran up behind
him, yelping and barking horribly. The
end of the Celestial's pigtail rose in the
breeze as he leapt aside in great alarm.
A benevolent passer-by, seeing the terror painted upon the yellow countenance, hastened to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder.
"Come, come, my friend, you need not be afraid. The dog won't hurt you. Don't you know the old proverb, 'A barking dog never bites?' Surely you—"
