MEASUREMENT
Man's power to solve the problems of the natural world is indicated by the feats of modern photography, of which O. H. Cloudy writes as follows:
Just think for an instant what the twelve-hundredth
part of a second really means. A
railroad train going sixty miles an hour, or
eighty-eight feet per second, would move, in
such an interval, less than one inch. A bullet,
with a muzzle velocity of twelve hundred
feet per second, would get but one short foot
from the muzzle before a twelve-hundredth
of a second had elapsed. Could two bells be
rung, one twelve-hundredth of a second after
the other, the sound-waves given out by
them both would travel within five feet of
each other, too close for any human ear to
distinguish that there was more than one
sound. Yet in this tiny bit of time the eye
of the camera can record on the sensitive
plate everything in front of it, with sufficient
force to make a good negative. (Text.)—The American Inventor.
(1997)
Measurement of Morals—See Conscience a Moral Mentor.
MEASUREMENT, SPIRITUAL
I must see your motives, your disposition,
your loves and hates, your aspirations and
longings and hopes, before I can say I see
you. How tall are you? How much do
you weigh? Six feet, you say, and weigh a
hundred and fifty pounds? Both of us are
wrong. You can't measure the self by a
foot-rule, nor weigh it in iron scales. Every
time you aspire and hope and love you escape
the body and live in the heights and distances.
To estimate you aright I must gather
up all your hopes and aspirations and faiths
and loves; and if you have been wise enough
to reach up and lay hold of the eternal I
must weigh and measure the eternal in order
to estimate you.—Robert MacDonald.
(1998)
MECCA, INFLUENCE OF
The pilgrimage to Mecca is not only one
of the pillars of the religion of Islam, but
it has proved one of the strongest bonds of
union and has always exercised a tremendous
influence as a missionary agency. Even to-*day
the pilgrims who return from Mecca
to their native villages in Java, India, and
west Africa, are fanatical ambassadors of the
greatness and glory of Islam. From an
ethical standpoint, the Mecca pilgrimage,
with its superstitious and childish ritual, is
a blot upon Mohammedan monotheism. But
as a great magnet to draw the Moslem
world together with an annual and ever-widening
esprit de corps, the Mecca pilgrimage
is without a rival. The number of
pilgrims that come to Mecca varies from
year to year. The vast majority arrive by
sea from Egypt, India, and the Malay
Archipelago. The pilgrim caravan from Syria
and Arabia by land is growing smaller every
year, for the roads are very unsafe. It will
probably increase again on the completion of
the Hejaz railway from Damascus to Mecca.
All told, the present number is from sixty to
ninety thousand pilgrims each year.—Samuel
M. Zwemer, "The Moslem World."
(1999)
MEDIATION
King Edward III, in 1347, besieged Calais
and the French king, very unwilling to lose
his town, sought to come to the help of his
people, but in vain. King Edward refused
to grant any conditions of peace. The people
were hunger-bitten because of the protracted
siege. The unrelenting king said,
"You must give up yourselves to be dealt
with as I will. Let six of the chief citizens
of the town come to me with halters around
their necks, their heads and feet bare, and
the keys of the town and castle in their
hands. With these I will deal as I please."
Accordingly these six, led by the governor,
came to the king. Dropping on their knees
before him, they implored him to spare their
lives. King Edward refused to grant them
mercy and ordered their instant death. His
chief counselors and governor entreated
him to spare these brave and valiant men,
but his purpose was fixt. No merit that they
might plead could cause him to change his
mind, until finally, his consort, Queen Philippa
knelt before him and said: "I pray you,
sire, for the love that you bear me, to have
mercy upon the men." Then the king relented,
saying: "I can not refuse the thing
which you ask in this way. I give you, therefore,
these men to do with them as you
please." The men were then taken to clean
apartments to be well clothed and fed.
(Text.)
(2000)
Medical Missionaries—See God Sends Gifts; India, Medical Opportunities in; Missionaries, Medical; Surgery in Korea.
