when opprest sing sadly; but liberty and joy emancipate even the music of a nation. (Text.)
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MUTATION
One of the blest effects of the flight of time is that old animosities are forgotten and the nobler things of reconciliation and peace are seen. An instance of this lately occurred in the South:
A group of gentlemen, soldiers of the
present and the past, were gathered upon an
historic Southern battle-field, Missionary
Ridge. They stopt to read the inscription
upon a tablet, simple and unpretentious,
which marked the position of a Confederate
battery. This tablet bore the name of "Luke
E. Wright, Second Lieutenant." Luke E.
Wright, Secretary of War of the United
States of America, surrounded by his officers
and friends, paused a moment to read again
this chapter from his youth. A distinguished
general of the regular army laid his hand
affectionately upon the shoulder of General
Wright and remarked: "General, how
queerly things turn out! Who could have
foreseen that the boy in gray, who served
his guns upon this spot, would one day be
my chief, at the head of the Army of the
United States?"
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The instability of all mundane things is suggested by the following account, which may also remind us of the utterance of Jesus: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away."
"When, in 1890, Germany bartered away
Zanzibar in exchange for Heligoland, great
was the rejoicing," says Shipping Illustrated
(New York). "Much concern is now being
manifested in Germany owing to the relentless
attack of the sea, which has already reduced
the island's area nearly twenty-five
per cent since it came under the German
flag. At this rate the little island will, in
another half-century, have melted entirely
away. The North Sea has been from time
immemorial an avaricious land-grabber. The
Dogger Bank once reared its head above the
surface, a fact proved by the bones of animals
occasionally brought up in the fishermen's
nets. The eastern coast of England
has suffered severely from its insatiable
appetite. Dunwick, an important seaport
during the Middle Ages, is now a part of
the sea-bottom, and fishes and other marine
denizens occupy the one-time habitation of
men. Visitors to Felixstowe, once a Roman
colony and now a modern seaside resort,
opposite Harwich, have pointed out to them
a rock a mile out to sea, on which the old
church formerly stood. The Kaiser may yet
live to see his cherished possession torn from
his grasp." (Text.)
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MUTUAL SUFFERING
There is no individual in society; it is one
body corporate. If one member sin all
suffer with him. The fearful forms of torture
loom up yet out of the shadows, the
paddle, the rack, the chair, the cangue collar,
the strangle-ring, the shin-rod, and various
forms of mutilation remind one of what we
see in the Tower of London. Truly, we are
brethren in cruelty if we go far enough into
the dark past. But God, who is rich in
mercy, when He transforms an Oriental,
seems first of all to take out of his heart the
poison of cruelty, and to leave the spirit of
self-sacrifice and tenderness instead.—James
S. Gale, "Korea in Transition."
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MUTUALISM
Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning?
You were all alone, and got it yourself,
did you say? Did you make the Irish
linen in your napkin, or were your table
furnishings the creations of an idle hour?
Did you raise your own coffee? Did the
melon grow in your garden, or was the beef
fattened in your pasture? The very ends of
the earth contributed to your simple meal,
and for it you were dependent upon people
you had never seen. Your breakfast-table
was really a clearing-house for the ends of
the earth, so that when you redecorate your
dining-room, and are placing upon the walls
the familiar legends, "Let good digestion
wait on appetite," and that famous quatrain
of Robert Burns:
Some hae meat but can not eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thank it,
you might most appropriately add to these that thrilling confession of Paul's, "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." (Text.)—Nehemiah Boynton.
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