- ganizations. And yet there are many persons
who seem to be ashamed to own their Lord and to confess His cause. (Text.)—The Mid-Continent.
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Bad Company—See Companions, Evil.
Bad to Worse—See Down Grade, The.
BADNESS IN BOYS
"He is a bad boy" may mean so many
things. In the eyes of some teachers a boy
is "bad" if he talks repeatedly to his
neighbor. The boy who has a fight with
another boy is "bad." The boy who does
not study his lessons is "bad." The boy who
goes to a moving-picture show is "bad." The
boy who throws ink across the room is "bad."
The boy who "answers back" is "bad." The
boy who rifles the teacher's desk is "bad."
The boy who disobeys school rules is "bad."
"Give a dog a bad name and hang him"
should now read, "Give a boy a bad name
and ruin him."
All school types of "badness" need classification. Many of them under careful classification would no longer be considered "bad." A boy's wrong acts are often due not so much to deliberate choosing of wrong after he knows right, but to the lack of any sense of right or wrong. Children's so-called "badness" is due to unmorality oftener than to immorality. Until a boy's moral nature has been roused and developed, it is absurd to think that one can find the basis of appeal in theoretic ethics or right for right's sake. Who is to blame when blind, unquestioning obedience to short-sighted, arbitrary school rules is made the basis of a child's conduct and reputation?
When children go through school learning nothing except what can be given to hundreds simultaneously, in classes so large that undue emphasis is laid upon order and quiet, who is to blame if the majority leave school with morals that alarm those interested? Go through the list of "bad boys" in your school or your town. Classify their offenses. Is immorality or unmorality responsible? If the latter, what share of the blame for this condition belongs to the school? Why consider a boy hopeless or degenerate because he commits a moral offense? Do we consider him intellectually hopeless or defective because of his errors in spelling or arithmetic?—Julia Richman, "Proceedings of the National Education Association," 1909.
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BALANCE, A LOOSE
Many men think they can rely in a general way upon fate or fortune to square their moral accounts, but in the long run a man must face his record.
Mr. Moody tells of a young couple who on
commencing to keep house started to keep
an account of their family expenses. After
a few months the young husband said to his
wife: "Darling, I'll spend the evening at
home to-night, and we will look over the account
together." The young husband found
frequent entries like this: "G.K.W., one
dollar and a half"; and a little later on,
"G.K.W., two dollars"; and after a little,
"G.K.W., three dollars." Becoming a little
suspicious, he demanded, "Who is this
'G.K.W.' you have spent so much on?"
"Oh," said she, "I never could make the accounts
come out right, so I lumped all together
that wouldn't balance, and called it
G.K.W.—Goodness Knows What!" (Text.)—Louis
Albert Banks.
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BALANCE OF JESUS' MIND
In our earth, the two hemispheres are balanced
to a hair and leaf! But what man
save Jesus has balanced his radicalism that
was sound by a conservatism that is true?—N.
D. Hillis.
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BALANCE PRESERVED IN NATURE
Since times prehistoric, ever since the
human species developed the sense of comparison
and an eye for form, all spiders, with
a resemblance to the big, hairy, ugly creatures
reputed to be poisonous and now generally
known by the name "tarantula," have been
the victims of the crushing heel.
I think it can be said that there never has been one absolutely authentic case of spider bite. The so-called spider bites received occasionally, and generally in early summer, often in bed, are inflicted by certain bloodsucking insects of several species, large and small. The mandibles of the average-sized spiders are hardly powerful enough to pierce the human skin, and all of the poison contained in an arachnid's glands, injected into the flesh of a human being, will not make as much fuss as a respectable bee-sting. Moreover, spiders are not mammal blood-suckers, and wouldn't bite if they could. So much for the negative qualities of spiders.
If it were not for the spiders we should all promptly starve to death. Perhaps this is a little startling; it is none the less true.
