and also for enriching waste land. It thrives in a soil where other plants would fail because of its power to find water. Roots in search of moisture have been found that were eighteen inches in length. The stalk makes heavy drafts on the surrounding air for nitrogen. Its powers of assimilation are remarkable. Its rapid and sturdy growth is a result of its habit of drawing upon all the surrounding air and the soil to build itself up.
If we wish to grow we must avail ourselves
of every possible means. Soul
culture depends not only upon hearing
the truth, but upon assimilating the
truth. (Text.)
(152)
Are there not moral and religious "bolters and chewers." Some men try to get their religious pabulum by "bolting" all their experience in a revival; others, with a more quiet deliberation, are intent upon growing in grace through the years.
In an address at the Royal Dental Hospital,
London, Dr. Osler, as reported in The Hospital (London), asserted that the public
may be divided into two great groups, the
bolters and chewers. Says this paper: "He
maintains that it is the business of dental
students to endeavor to convert the overwhelming
percentage of bolters into a select
group of chewers. This is their mission of
utility; but Professor Osler also affirms that
they have a mission to beautify the race. He
holds that if there is one thing more beautiful
than another under heaven it is a
beautiful set of teeth. To promote these missions
he would have attached to every elementary
school a dental surgeon to inspect
the mouths of the children; and total abstainers
will learn with a shock, that he considers
the question of teeth more a national
problem than that of alcohol. If people generally
had good teeth instead of bad, the
chewers would be many and the bolters few,
and a potent cause of human suffering and
physical deterioration would be arrested."
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Assistance—See Helpfulness.
ASSOCIATION
There are localities in Switzerland
where the canary is caged with a nightingale
so that it may catch the sweetness
and breathe into its notes that harmonious
melody that delights all tourists in
Europe. It is a demonstration of the
power of association. This canary-bird
had been trained by a nightingale.
So men may make their lives strong,
pure, sweet and holy in thought, word
and deed by unbroken association with
those who live on a higher plane.
(Text.)
(154)
Association, Christian—See Warmth,
Lost.
ASSOCIATION, LAW OF
My father remembered the last clergyman
in New England who still continued to
wear the wig. At first it became a singularity
and at last a monstrosity, and the good doctor
concluded to leave it off. But there was one
poor woman among his parishioners who
lamented this sadly; and waylaying the
clergyman as he came out of church, she
said, "Oh, dear doctor, I have always listened
to your sermon with the greatest edification
and comfort, but now that the wig
is gone all is gone."—James Russell Lowell.
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ASSOCIATION, LEARNING BY
A gentleman had in his bird-room a deformed
blue jay, who was reared from the
nest and never associated with his kind.
In the room was also a cardinal grosbeak,
one of the finest singers of his family. The
young blue jay learned the song of the
cardinal so perfectly that the gentleman
could not tell it from the cardinal's own.
"Even when hearing the two performers
almost together, I could distinguish only
a slight difference, which was not in the
cardinal's favor."—Olive Thorne Miller,
"The Bird Our Brother."
(156)
ASSOCIATIONS MOLD MEN
Among the doctrines of Belial is the theory that we must familiarize ourselves with evil if we would have power to resist it.
Jean François Millet in the middle of
the last century was engaged on his early
pictures. As they appeared one after another
they astonished and delighted all
lovers of art throughout the world.
What were the subjects of these wonderful
paintings? They were all deeply
