If we were to note that, suddenly and in the same proportions, the distance between two points on this earth had increased, that all the planets had moved farther from each other, that all objects around us had become larger, that we ourselves had become taller, and that the distance traveled by light in the duration of a vibration had become greater, we should not hesitate to think ourselves the victims of an illusion, that in reality all these distances had remained fixt, and that all these appearances were due to a shortening of the rule which we had used as the standard for measuring the lengths.—Lucian Poincare, "The New Physics and Its Evolution."
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Releasing the Word of Life—See Word of God Freed. RELIC VALUED Byron's remains rest in an old leaden coffin, side by side with those of his mother, and close by lies his daughter, Ada, Countess of Lovelace, who died in 1852. When the vault was opened to permit of the interment of Lady Lovelace many persons visited the church in order to catch a glimpse of the coffin. Upon one occasion a little girl was prevailed upon to descend by the stone staircase into the vault and she returned carrying a narrow strip of faded velvet in her hand, torn from the poet's coffin. Among the group around the mouth of the graves was a tall, dark foreigner, who eagerly questioned the child as to her possession, and finally, in exchange for a piece of gold, received the strip of cloth. That man was Kossuth.—Frank Leslie's.
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Relief by Crying—See Crying Beneficial.
Religion—See Altar, The; Character.
RELIGION A GROWTH
Time goes to the making of the oak, and the man and the Christian. Moral development is slow. We must not be surprized nor disappointed to find it so. As one says:
The sunrise is gradual, as we have seen—there
are many tremulous gleams before the
wheels of his chariot are moving over the
sea. And so we should beware in a measure
of momentary impulsive religion: the idea
that we can pass in a moment from deadness,
darkness, worldliness, to the full assurance
of the favor of God. There are such cases,
but they are rare, and the religion of sudden
emotion is apt with many to prove not
lasting.
If religion is a growth, let us be patient
in the process.
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RELIGION, A TEST OF
Addressing a big Methodist camp-meeting,
Bishop Quayle informed his audience how to
discern a Christian by street-car manners.
"If you are hanging on a strap in a crowded
street-car, and the conductor calls out 'Step
forward, please,' and there is no place in
front where you can step forward, the way
you act will be a test of your religion. If
you are a woman, and a man gives you his
seat, and you act as if you thought it was
your right and not his kindness that gave
you the seat, the way you act will test you
more than answering questions in theology.
It is not how you treat some big body, but
how you treat a little urchin, dirty in tears,
that tests your religion. What you do when
you are off duty—that's what counts. What
if the people who see us at church and at
weddings should see us in the betweens?
What we Christians do ofttimes kills faith
in the Church. Anybody can see a rose-*garden
in the daytime, but we can also smell
it in the dark. What we do when nobody
sees us ought to be as beautiful as what we
do in the open."
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RELIGION ALLAYING FEAR
Athens had two cities—down in the plain
was the city of work, with shops, ox carts,
plows and hoes, on the hillside were the
shops where men bought and sold. But the
crags above were crowned with temples,
where beauty and worship had their home.
Oft in the hours of tumult and strife, when
the workers feared the coming of enemies,
they turned their thoughts upward toward
the Parthenon, and drank in the beauty of
Athena's face, and her calm, white hand
seemed to fall upon the brow, to allay the
fear, and breathe peace to the frightened
working men. Greek culture and character
represented the interplay of the upper and
the lower city. So it is that man's life of
work, and his invisible life of faith and worship
are knitted together. The inventor, the
