by the roadside attracted my attention. On stopping to examine, there was a glow-worm whose little flame had hollowed out of the immensity of darkness a small sphere of light, into which the grasses bent, all beaded with crystal drops. A most exquisite picture. Shelley speaks of a "glow-worm golden in a dell of dew." To go back to our camp-fire: After supper I stept down to the shore of the lake and there, far across its invisible surface, gleamed a little point of light. I knew that other campers were making themselves comfortable and happy in the little sphere of light and warmth which their fire had hollowed out of the all-embracing darkness.
Now, that precisely is the business of
a sun. It is nothing more or less than
a great fire built, as only God knows
how, for the purpose of hollowing out
of the eternal darkness and cold of
space a sphere of light and warmth
large enough for a group or family of
worlds to live in. The sun is as purely
a mechanical contrivance as your household
fire. In fact, it is just that. Our
sun is the family hearth, in whose light
and heat our group of worlds live as in
a home.—James H. Ecob.
(3107)
SUNDAY DESECRATION BY CHRISTIANS
Many years ago in Kyoto, Japan, the question
was asked me, "Are there many Christians
in America?" You can imagine how
pathetic it was. I said, "Why do you ask
that question?" My questioner was a fine,
handsome, educated man, one of the finest
of the Japanese type. He said, "Some years
ago I became a Christian. I kept the finest
store in Kyoto, as the tourists thought. I
had gathered a great quantity of old relics
from the temples and the homes that are so
scarce now in Japan. I always used to keep
my store closed on Sunday, but many Americans
and Englishmen and Germans came
through here and said, 'If you can not open
your store for us on Sunday, we will not
trade with you, as we have to leave on Monday.'
By and by I had to keep my store
open." He has kept it open ever since, and
he added, "My neighbor, the shoemaker, is a
Christian, and keeps his store shut all the
time on Sunday." I suppose the reason was
that there was not a large demand for Japanese
shoes on the part of American and English
travelers. That is a genuine touch of
human nature.—Edward B. Sturges, "Student
Volunteer Movement," 1906.
(3108)
See Sabbath, Observing the.
Sunday Habit, A Bad—See Lying
Around.
SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS
When Dr. Charles J. Young, pastor of the Church of the Puritans, New York, was waited upon by a lady reporter of a secular journal, for a snappy article on the subject of Sunday newspapers, this is what she got:
"As a matter of fact," said Dr. Young, "I
actually believe in the Ten Commandments
as divine enactments, and this is how I feel
about it: Suppose you invite me as a friend
to dine at your house and I accept. You
would make special preparation for my coming.
It is woman's way to give her best
where she gives her confidence and friendship.
So there you have a rich repast all
ready against my coming. Now imagine my
stopping at a street corner on the way to
your home and gorging myself from the
peanut-stand of the noble Roman who deals
out his wares to all who come without a care
of the consequences; I ask this common-*sense
question: What condition would I
be in to enjoy your luscious viands, and what
kind of courtesy or appreciation would this
be for all your kindness in preparing for me?
Well, my friend, you see the application of
this without my making it. There across the
street stands the house of the dearest Friend
I have ever had. One day out of seven He
invites me there to meet with Him and to
commune with Him and to receive from
Him such supply as He has especially provided
and adapted to my hungry, needy, immortal
soul. I ask again, is it consistent
with a spiritual worship, is it conducive to a
devotional mind, is it either courteous to
God or just to myself, if on the morning of
that sacred day I fill my thoughts with the
secularities, the commercialisms, the gossips,
the scandal, the general excrescences of
every-day rough-and-tumble life in this
mammon-loving age?
"My interviewer was silent for a surprizing length of time. Maybe I was wrong, but I fancied she looked up from the floor with a moistened eye and said in a quivering voice: 'I have never thought of this view of the
