we receive; great Sirius equals sixty-three of our suns; the Pole Star eighty-six. "Think of an eighty-fold sun. However, some are still more astonishing: Vega blazes with the light of three hundred and forty-four suns; Capella with the light of four hundred and thirty; Arcturus with the light of five hundred and sixteen, while mighty Alcyone, the glorious center around which we all, suns and worlds, are supposed to circle, blazes with the light of twelve thousand of our suns!" If our little sun can boast of a family with worlds of such beauty and greatness as Venus and Earth and glorious Saturn and mighty Jupiter, how shall we measure the number, the splendor and the magnitude of the worlds which circle about such centers as Sirius, Vega, Capella, Arcturus and Alcyone?—James H. Ecob.
(3115)
SUNSHINE
The sunshine of Persia forms one of its
greatest attractions. The natives are very
much alarmed when an eclipse of the sun
takes place, as they are afraid they are going
to lose their benefactor. A Persian gentleman
once visited England, and on his return
to his native country was questioned by his
friends as to which was the better land to
live in. His reply was to the effect that in
England the houses were grander, the scenery
more beautiful, but that there was no
sunshine.
A worldly life may have more show,
but the Christian life has more shine.
(Text.)
(3116)
SUNSHINE IN THE CHURCH
On Mount Sinai, in a noted convent, is
the chapel of the Burning Bush. A feature
of this chapel is a window so situated that
the sun shines through it only on one day
in every year.
But the church that would really light
human life must have sunshine in all its
windows every day in the year.
(3117)
SUNSHINE, SCATTERING
During the "cotton famine" in Lancashire,
England, in 1865, just after our civil war,
one of the mill-owners called his operatives
together and told them he must close the
mills. It meant poverty to him and ruin to
them. Flickering hope sank in black despair.
Presently a delicate, sweet girl, thin and pale
with suffering—she was a Sunday-school
teacher—started and sang two stanzas of
this hymn:
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.
A sunburst of hope came over the despairing company when the touching and comforting strain was ended. It proved a prophecy. The proprietor determined to struggle on a while longer, and soon the mill was running again at full work.
(3118)
See Cheer, Signals of.
Sunstroke, Warding Off—See Protection.
SUPERIOR MEN
Without the presence of the superior man,
the "paradise of the average man," as this
country has been called, would become a
purgatory to all those who care chiefly, not
for success, but for freedom and power and
beauty. One of the greatest privileges of
the average man is to recognize and honor
the superior man, because the superior man
makes it worth while to belong to the race
by giving life a dignity and splendor which
constitute a common capital for all who live.
The respect paid to men like Washington
and Lincoln, Marshall and Lee, Poe and
Hawthorne, affords a true measure of civilization
in a community.—Hamilton Fish Mabie.
(3119)
SUPERIORITY OF POSITION
In Java sitting down is a mark of respect;
in the Mariana Islands the inferior squats
to speak to a superior who would consider
himself degraded by sitting in the presence
of one who should be objectively as well as
figuratively "below" him. The punctilios relating
to the fundamental rule that rank is
defined by elevation are carried to absurdity
in the Orient. When an English carriage
was procured for the Rajah of Lombok, it
was found impossible to use it because the
driver's seat was the highest, and for the
same reason successive kings of Ava refused
to ride in the carriages presented to
them by ambassadors. In Burmah, that a
floor overhead should be occupied would be
