done to stir the sinners to repentance, so he prepared a strong sermon on the second coming of Christ. He told how the world would go on in its sin and wickedness, and at last Gabriel would sound his trumpet and time would come to an end. He described the horrors of the lost and the joys of those who were saved. The sermon grew in intensity, and he brought his people up to a grand climax, when suddenly the sound of a trumpet smote the ears of the anxious throng.
There was a great sensation, and many fell upon their knees in terror and began to repent and pray. Women screamed and strong men groaned. Pandemonium was let loose for a few minutes. After the terror had somewhat ceased the preacher called to a man up a tree, and he descended with a long tin horn in his hand. The speaker then turned in fierce wrath and upbraided the people. He cried out in stentorian tones that, if a man with a tin horn up a tree could frighten them so, how would it be in the last great end when Gabriel's trumpet sounded the knell of the world! The sermon had a great effect upon the vast audience, and many hundreds flocked to the front and were converted.
(133)
AROUSEMENT BY A THOUGHT
It is not infrequent to find a really great
mind sunk in apathy for want of a compelling
thought, a dominant idea, a commensurate
ambition. Then something
rouses such a mind, and at the touch of a
magic wand its slumber is broken. Some
hint drops like a seed into its prepared
soil, and the mind becomes so renewed
and vitalized that henceforth it scarcely
seems the same. This was precisely the
history of Gibbon's intellect. The moment
when his imaginative sympathy was
touched with the thought of the past glory
and present degradation of Rome, was the
moment that freed all the latent powers of
his genius, as ice is thawed by the sudden
burst of summer warmth. And in that
moment, also, his years of wide and irregular
study bore fruit.—W. J. Dawson,
"The Makers of English Prose."
(134)
Arousing an Undutiful Son—See Worshiper, A Mother.
Arrested Development—See Retardation.
Arriving—See Ambition.
Art—See Home Values; Picture, Record
Price for; Realism.
Art, Age in—See Enduring Art.
Art as a Transformer—See Beautiful,
Influence of the.
ART, DECLINE OF
As long as a family thought itself comfortably
furnished with a chest or two, a
wardrobe, a box-bedstead, a dozen earthenware
pots of different sizes, and three or
four vessels of pewter or copper, each one
of these objects of utility might become
a vehicle for a good deal of artistic
thought. The piece would be handed
down from mother to daughter, from
father to son. At all events, it would be
made with that possibility in mind. It
was made to last, and in an artistic community
it would be the object of a good
deal of careful consideration as to its
form and as to the little adornments that
might be added to it. Now, however, when
the poorest family requires two hundred
utensils of one and another kind, and
finds, moreover, that these utensils are
furnished at an incredibly low price by
great companies which make them by the
thousand and force them upon the customer
with favorable opportunities for immediate
delivery and gradual payment, the
possibility of having the common objects
of life beautiful has gone.—Russell
Sturgis, "Lubke's History of Art."
(135)
ART, DEVOTION TO
The secret of success in any calling is an enthusiasm for our work like that of this artist:
The steamer was anchored in Glacier Bay,
and he [R. Swain Gifford] was alone on the
beach near Muir inlet, sketching. He was
making a sketch of the Muir glacier, which
was 250 feet above water and two miles wide.
Suddenly he noticed an enormous mass of
ice breaking away from the glacier. It was
several hundred yards long, and Gifford
quickly realized that he was witnessing something
few men had seen. He saw his danger
if he stayed on the beach, but he wanted a
picture of that huge detached mass of ice.
He had his camera with him; he quickly adjusted
it and took a snap-shot. He didn't
lose a minute then in collecting his tools and
running as fast as he could to the high
ground.
