One of the strangest wills ever made was that of George Brown, Jr., the noted gambler and race-horse man, which was filed in the Probate Court at Kansas City, Mo., recently. "It is my desire, as far as possible," a clause of the will reads, "to repay every person, man, woman and child, any money which I may have won from him by gambling during my lifetime; and I direct my executor to make efforts to learn their names and reimburse them to the full amount, with interest from the day the money was won." This penitent gambler has set an example here which it would be well for those to follow who make larger pretensions to integrity. There are some wrongs to fellow men which never can be repaired, but there are others that can and should be made right. (Text.)
(2745)
General John Gibson, of Ohio, in old age was asked what he was doing. Said he: "Well, I am a very old man, and I suppose that most people would think I am not doing much of anything. But, to tell the truth, I am trying to hunt up every person whom I have wronged in life, and if I can find them, to ask their forgiveness and make atonement for all the wrongs I have done. And I am trying to be as good and kind and loving to all my neighbors as I know how. And I am becoming one of the biggest beggars for mercy at the Bank of Grace you ever saw. In short, during the little time that is left me on earth, I am fixing up for a mighty big funeral."
It is no small duty to make amends
for all the wrong-doing of a life whether
long or short.
(2746)
RESTORATION
The following illustration is from a sermon by Dr. Henry Van Dyke;
The portrait of Dante is painted on the
walls of the Bargello, at Florence. For
many years it was supposed that the picture
had utterly perished. Men had heard of it
but no one living had ever seen it. But
presently came an artist who was determined
to find it again. He went into the place
where tradition said that it had been painted.
The room was used as a storeroom for lumber
and straw. The walls were covered with
dirty whitewash. He had the heaps of
rubbish carried away, and patiently and
carefully removed the whitewash from the
wall. Lines and colors long hidden began to
appear, and at last the grave, lofty, noble
face of the great poet looked out again upon
the world of light.
"That was wonderful," you say; "that was beautiful!" Not half so wonderful as the work which Christ came to do in the heart of man—to restore the forgotten image of God and bring the divine image to the light.
(2747)
The blood of Christ is a symbol under which is often described the vitality of divine life restoring the image of God in the soul of the sinner. An illustration from nature of this process may be found in this extract:
A valuable discovery has been made
whereby the faded ink on old parchments
may be so restored as to render the writing
perfectly legible. The process consists in
moistening the paper with water, and then
passing over the lines in writing a brush
which has been wet in a solution of ammonia.
The writing will immediately appear
quite dark in color; and this color, in the
case of parchment, it will preserve. On paper,
however, the color gradually fades again;
but it may be restored at pleasure by the
application of the sulfid. The explanation
of the action of this substance is very
simple. The iron which enters into the composition
of the ink is transformed by the
reaction into black sulfid.—Electrical Review.
(2748)
See Nature's Recuperative Powers.
RESTORATION IN NATURE
"It is a libel on Nature," says Dr. Ambrose Shepherd, "to declare that it never forgives. On the contrary, Nature is ever seeking to repair injuries and to forgive errors."
Every surgeon knows that but for nature's
restoring tendencies his skill would be applied
in vain. Illustrative demonstrations of
these beneficent proclivities multiply daily.
When an accident happens in which a limb
is broken, what follows? With surgical assistance
the fracture is set and the limb is
bound up and left to rest for a time. Nature
instantly, delicately, but powerfully and unerringly
begins the beautiful and wonderful
