portant that he should be encumbered with as little baggage as possible. He took with him no orderly, nor horse, nor a servant, nor an overcoat, nor a camp-chest, nor even a clean shirt. His entire baggage for the six days—I was with him at that time—was a tooth-brush! He fared like the commonest soldier in his command, partaking of his rations and sleeping on the ground with no covering except the canopy of heaven."
(2948)
See Life, The Simple; Tact.
SIMPLICITY AND TRUTH
The first rule of evidence in courts is that
the easiest explanation is the most probable
one. The court always rejects the far-fetched
as the improbable. If the snow
should fall to-night, and to-morrow morning
at daylight footprints in the snow should be
found, you could explain the footprints in
the easiest possible way—namely, a man went
down the street. A far-fetched explanation
would be that an aeroplane came along, that
a man leaned out of the basket, and holding
a shoe in either hand carefully made these
footprints so as to create the impression that
some one had walked down Orange Street.
We reject the explanation because it is involved.
We choose the easiest explanation
and the simplest.—N. D. Hillis.
(2949)
SIMULATION
There are many insects, birds and beasts
that preserve their being by simulating what
they are not, that they may remain undistinguishable
and escape the pitfalls that may
lie in wait for them; also to catch the unobservant
and destroy them. Among these
are the "specter insect," the "walking-stick
insect," and the "praying insect" (Mantis religiosa), which is so constructed, with its
forelegs stiff and thrust into the air to resemble
a withered twig, that it may escape
foes from this very resemblance, also that
it may catch any unwary insect that ventures
near for its own subsistence, thus simulating
an attitude of patient endurance quite like
those scavengers of the human race—pious
beggars who simulate faith and patient endurance,
but are really burglars and robbers.
The sphinx caterpillar also simulates
what it is not, and escapes its enemies by
putting on a false appearance, and also attracts
its food in a like manner.—Mrs. M. J.
Gorton, Popular Science News.
(2950)
Sin, Bondage to—See Bondage to Sin.
SIN-CONSCIOUSNESS
The Rev. James Guthrie, one of the Scottish
Covenanters, had a man-servant who
was much humbled and perplexed by hearing
his master pray regularly in family worship
for one who was present that his sins might
be forgiven. There were few, of course,
in the household circle, and the man naturally
thought that it was he who was prayed
for. After Mr. Guthrie had one night been
especially fervent in supplication for this
person present, the man could bear it no
longer and spoke to his master, wishing to
know wherein he had come short. Judge of
the astonishment of both when Mr. Guthrie
said it was himself he had been praying for.
(2951)
A deacon in a Jacobite church near Tripoli, Syria, was seeking relief for his sin-*burdened conscience. He heard of a woman who wrote out all her sins on a paper and laid it on the tomb of St. Ephraim. When she found the paper later, there were no traces of writing on it, so she knew her sins had been erased. The deacon wrote his, and placed them under the altar-cloth beneath the sacred wafer which he believed to be the very body of Christ; but the ink showed no signs of dimness. He was disappointed and discouraged, but just at that time he found a tract entitled "Looking unto Jesus," which showed him a better way.
(2952)
See Experience and Bible.
SIN COVERED
In the old days the gutters were open in
the streets, but in modern towns they are
put underground; so society is always forcing
vices and abuses underground, covering them
up by a variety of regulations that they no
longer shock the public sense. Still, on occasion,
the covered drain may prove its
deadly virus, and the covered sin of the
community is still there, working and threatening
mischief.—W. L. Watkinson, "The
Transfigured Sackcloth."
(2953)
Sin Exposed—See Exposure.
SIN, FASCINATION OF
Let the young especially beware of the insidious approacher of evil. Says Lady Montague:
I have sat on the shore and waited for the
gradual approach of the sea, and have seen
its dancing waves and white surf, and lin-
