Bartholomew's, at that time one of the smaller Episcopal parishes, while it was stubbornly holding its place, was gradually weakening. And so it was, comparatively inactive, half forsaken, when Dr. Greer came to it.
Dr. Greer left St. Bartholomew's recently perhaps the most powerful single Protestant organization in the world, a church that spends more than two hundred thousand dollars a year, the old edifice remodeled and crowded to the doors of a Sunday morning, a parish house in the midst of the maelstrom of East Side life; six Sunday-schools aggregating two thousand members, two in English, one in Armenian, one in Chinese, one in German, one in Swedish; industrial schools, clubs, an employment bureau that obtains positions for one hundred people a week, a clinic that cares for one hundred and fifty people a day, a boarding-house for girls, and many other important cogs in an immense and constantly active machine of religious and philanthropic endeavor. It was built up piece by piece, getting greater support as it proved itself, just as any factory or business grows. (Text.)—Arthur Goodrich,
Leslie's Monthly.
(2258)
There is an Indian legend of a good spirit who, wishing to benefit a young princess, led her into a ripe and golden corn-field. "See these ears of corn, my daughter; if thou wilt pluck them diligently, they will turn to precious jewels; the richer the ear of corn, the brighter the gem. But thou mayest only once pass through this cornfield, and canst not return the same way." The maiden gladly accepted the offer. As she went on, many ripe and full ears of corn she found in her path, but she did not pluck them, always hoping to find better ones farther on. But presently the stems grew thinner, the ears poorer, with scarcely any grains of wheat on them; further on they were blighted, and she did not think them worth picking. Sorrowfully she stood at the end of the field, for she could not go back the same way, regretting the loss of the golden ears she had overlooked and lost. To each of us are golden opportunities offered; life speeds on to the goal from which there is no return; let us redeem the time, for fields are white to harvest.—Illustrated Missionary News.
(2259)
Opportunity, American—See American Opportunity.
Opportunity, Business—See Business
Chances.
OPPORTUNITY IN THE ORIENT
Let me remind you of that great painting
called "Anno Domini," which perhaps some
of you have seen, and which vividly illustrates
the unprecedented opportunity to-day
in the extreme Orient. It represents an
Egyptian temple from whose spacious courts
a brilliant procession of soldiers, statesmen,
philosophers, artists, musicians, and priests is
advancing in triumphal march, bearing a
huge idol, the challenge and the boast of
heathenism. Across the pathway of the procession
is an ass, whose bridle is held by a
reverent-looking man, and upon whose back
is a fair young mother with her infant child.
It is Jesus entering Egypt in flight from the
wrath of Herod, and thus crossing the path
of aggressive heathenism. The clock strikes
and the Christian era begins.—Arthur Judson
Brown, "Student Volunteer Movement,"
1906.
(2260)
OPPORTUNITY LOST
Everybody knows now of the telephone and its large usefulness. It was not so, however, back in the seventies. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell had hard work to arouse interest, and harder yet to enlist capital, in his invention. In an account of the struggles of those early days, the following incident appears:
He resolved on a desperate move, and he
went to Chauncey M. Depew and offered
him a one-sixth interest in the company if
he would loan $10,000 to put the company
on its feet. Depew took a week to consider
the proposition. At the end of the week he
wrote back that the incident might be considered
closed. The telephone was a clever
idea, but it was utterly lacking in commercial
possibilities, and $10,000 was far too big a
sum to risk in marketing an instrument that
at best could never be more than a source of
amusement.
Thus Depew let slip an opportunity to acquire for $10,000 an interest that to-day could not be bought for less than $25,000,000.
(2261)
The New York Sun is authority for the following story:
A Provincetown man, out on his first trip
as captain of a whaling-vessel, about thirty
