Mrs. Wesley carried her principle of method and a time-table into the realm of religion. She began surprizingly early. "The children were early made to distinguish the Sabbath from other days, and were soon taught to be still at family prayers, and to ask a blessing immediately afterward, which they used to do by signs, before they could kneel or speak!" The cells of each infantile brain were diligently stored with passages of Scripture, hymns, collects, etc. Prayer was woven into the fabric of every day's life. The daily lesson of each child was set in a framework of hymns. Later, certain fixt hours were assigned to each member of the household, during which the mother talked with the particular child for whom that hour was set aside.—W. H. Fitchett, "Wesley and His Century."
(2021)
Method in Service—See Service, Method of.
Methods, Imperfect—See Gravitation,
Law of.
METHODS IN RELIGION
Francis Newman once tried to explain to
Dr. Martineau the difference between his
own religious attitude and that of his eminent
brother, the cardinal. "It is a matter
of faith," he said. "I have faith, and the
cardinal has none. The cardinal comes to
a river, and believes that he can not possibly
cross it unless he takes a particular boat
with a particular name painted on it. But
I believe that I can swim." (Text.)—Francis
Gribble, The Fortnightly Review.
(2022)
Mettle that Wins—See Loads, Balking Under.
Microbes—See Cleansing, Difficulty of.
MILITANT EVANGELISM
Robert Collyer told me the other day of a
big-hearted, big-fisted old clergyman in
Yorkshire who was so determined to convert
the wild, wicked dwellers on the moors
that when they refused to come into church
on Sunday, he would rush out of his pulpit,
spring into a crowd of cock-fighters outside
the chapel, knock some of them down with
his brawny fist, collar them, drag them in,
and then administer gospel truths right and
left to the rascals.—James T. Fields.
(2023)
MILITARISM
This is merely what eight years' increase in army and navy has cost the American people:
Average annual cost of army and navy for
the eight years preceding the Spanish War
(1890-1898), $51,500,000.
Average annual cost of army and navy for the eight years since the Spanish War (1902-1910), $185,400,000.
Average yearly increase in the latter period as compared with the former, $134,000,000, making a total increase in eight years of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent.
This eight-year increase exceeds the national debt by $158,000,000.
It exceeds the entire budget of the United States for 1910.
It is twice as much as the highest estimate of carrying out the deep water-ways projects.
It is nearly three times the estimated cost of replanting the 56,000,000 acres of denuded forest land in the United States.
It is three times the estimated cost of the Panama Canal, including purchase price from the French company.
It is three times the cost of carrying out the whole irrigation program contemplated within a generation.
It is probably enough to banish tuberculosis from the United States within a reasonable time, if efficiently used to arouse and assist the people in their fight against this dread disease. More than 160,000 are dying yearly from this cause.
It is $60 for every family in the United States.
It lays a yearly tax of 1-1/4 per cent on the total wages paid in the United States, on the supposition that wages average $600 to the family; and we pay it in the higher price of our goods.
Interest on this sum at 4 per cent would give an income of $1,000 a year forever to 42,880 families—a city of 200,000.
The increase for 1908-09 is only $13,000,000 less than all the gifts to charities, libraries, educational institutions, and other public causes in 1909, which reached the vast total of $185,000,000.
The cost of a battleship would build a macadam road of approved construction between the cities of Chicago and New York.
The Congressional Library at Washington, the finest library building in the world,
