The Principles of Affluence

        The structural provisions of the living organism are not built on the principle of economy. On the contrary, the super-abundance of tissues and mechanisms indicates clearly that safety is the goal of the animal organism. We may safely state that the living animal organism is provided in its structures with factors of safety at least as abundantly as any human-made machine.
       The moral drawn from these facts is that to govern the supply of tissue and energy by means of food, nature indicates for us the same principle of affluence which controls the entire construction of the animal for the safety of its life and the perpetuation of its species. In other words, we should eat not just enough to preserve life, but a good deal more. In such cases safety is more important than economy. 

 

''But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.''' Mathew 4:4

Altruism

 Little ones, take lesson from him
Be not overbold;
Stop and think that glittering things
Are not always gold.

by Elizabeth Hill

       The Venus fly trap is small and shaped as if you placed your two open palms side by side. Its surface is plastered with honey and the other palm has sharp needles pointing outward. The "silly fly" yields to the attraction of the sweets and is immediately shut in as the two palms close upon him. He is instantly stung to death by the needles.
       How alluring evil can appear at times. Satan himself can pose as an angel of light. Evil often presents its most subtle attraction to the young. But sin in any guise is the soul's death-trap.

Fatal Allurement

       The Judas-tree, so-called, is a remarkable plant. Its blossoms appear before its leaves, and are a most brilliant crimson. The flowers flaming forth, attract innumerable insects. The bee, for instance, in quest of honey, is drawn to it. But searching the petals for nectar, it imbibes a fatal opiate. Beneath this Judas-tree the ground is strewn with the victims of its deadly fascination.

Flicker-flick,
Above the wick.
Burned the candle flame.
Through the open window-shutter
Young Moth Miller came.
Straight he fluttered toward the yellow.
Bright, alluring thing.
And, alas, poor foolish fellow
Scorched his downy wing!

How to Deal With The Thorn

       Paul had a great many successes; his splendid genius gave him great power over men everywhere. Heathen cities were turned upside down at his coming. The most learned and influential men waited on his eloquence with admiration. Kings and governors trembled at his passionate appeals. His devotion, too, was rewarded with marvelous visions of spiritual beauty, and Paul says that, lest he should become puffed up by all these triumphs, there was given unto him "a thorn in the flesh." There have been many curious ideas with regard to what that thorn was. Some commentators have thought it was a scolding wife, though the more common opinion is that Paul was a bachelor. A late writer of great note thinks it was a malarial fever; it is a case in which one man's guess is as' good as another, but the way Paul dealt with it is the interesting point. He earnestly besought God, again and again, that he might get rid of it. This is the answer that he received from heaven: 

"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." "Most gladly, therefore, " said Paul, " will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9
 

Manisfestation

        ''Just as creation is the revelation of God, his avowal, as a poet has said; so in the same way the external life of man, when it follows its normal development, is the translation, in signs and symbols, of what he bears at the bottom of his being. It would be easier to keep the sap from mounting, the flowers from opening, the leaves from tearing apart their coverings, than human nature from manifesting itself. It is this need that gives man his distinction as a social and communicative being.'' Charles Wagner

Defending The Weak

        A young lady went out with a little girl eight years old for a walk in the mountains in Pennsylvania. Becoming weary, she seated herself and beguiled the time by reading. The child was playing near. Suddenly the woman was startled by an agonized cry, and was horrified to see an eagle trying to carry the child away. She went to the rescue. When the fierce bird saw her it left the child, and with a swoop came down with terrific force on her shoulders. Then began a desperate struggle. The girl tried to drive the eagle away. As often as it was beaten off it would return with a swoop, tearing her clothes. When almost exhausted she succeeded in getting a tight hold of the eagle's head. This proved her salvation, for the eagle, in its struggle to get free, broke its neck. Covered with blood, she led the child, which was but little hurt, and dragged the eagle a mile to her home.
       If we are to share the sufferings of our Savior, we must stand ready to defend the weak and the tempted from the fierce birds of prey that swoop down upon them in this wicked world. Every day we come in contact with those who are being torn and wounded by the cruel talons of sin. To go to their rescue, and bare our shoulders to their danger, and conquer their enemies in Christ's strength, is our blessed privilege.

       If we share with Christ in suffering, we shall also share with Him in victory. "Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.'' Romans 8:17-18

Christian Fellowship

       In the New York City aquarium long ago there was what was called a "happy family." In a wooden box, the bottom of which is covered with sand, there are a number of fiddler-crabs from local waters, a dozen or more climbing crabs or land-hermits from St. Kitts, and a small diamond-backed terrapin from Georgia. Although these little creatures live together happily, they were each fed on different food, and their habits and nature were by no means the same.
       The distinguishing characteristic of the Christian Church is that, though men and women are gathered from every kind of sinful past, they are transformed in their spirit by the grace of God, so that they feed upon the same spiritual food and are one in their love for Christ, who, as Paul says, "hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.'' Acts 2:42

The Last Days of Autumn...

THE LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN.

Sir Walter Scott.

Autumn departs — but still his mantle's fold

Rests on the groves of noble Somerville,

Beneath a shroud of russet dropp'd with gold,

Tweed and his tributaries mingle still;

Hoarser the wind, and deeper sounds the rill,

Yet lingering notes of sylvan music swell,

The deep-toned cushat, and the redbreast shrill;

And yet some tints of summer splendor tell

When the broad sun sinks down on Ettrick's western

fell.

Autumn departs — from Gala's fields no more

Come rural sounds our kindred banks to cheer;

Blent with the stream, and gale that wafts it o'er,

No more the distant reaper's mirth we hear.

The last blithe shout hath died upon our ear,

And harvest home hath hush'd the clanging wain,

On the waste hill no forms of life appear,

Save where sad laggard of the autumnal train,

Some age-struck wanderer gleans few ears of scat-

tered grain.

Deem'st thou these sadden'd scenes have pleasure

still,

Lovest thou through Autumn's fading realms to

stray,

To see the heath-flower wither'd on the hill,

To listen to the wood's expiring lay,

To note the red leaf shivering on the spray,

To mark the last bright tints the mountain stain,

On the waste fields to trace the gleaner's way,

And moralize on mortal joy and pain? —

Oh ! if such scenes thou lov'st, scorn not the minstrel

strain!

Heaven A Locality

       I am at a loss to understand why there should be difficulty in receiving the idea of heaven a locality - a fact of materiality, within the domain of physics, equally positive with the existence of Jupiter or Saturn, Venus or Uranus. The telescope, it is most true, has given wondrous revelations of the magnitude and the magnificence of God's glorious universe; but even that has not been able to reveal the secrets of the milky way, nor to calculate the distances of the nearest of the fixed stars, as the astronomer will tell you. But when we come to think, as is most probably true in fact, that with all the wonders thus laid open to our view - and they are most stupendous - we stand as yet but within the vestibule of God's great temple. Like Newton, we saunter along picking up here and there a pebble from the shore, the great ocean of truth meanwhile lying all unexplored beyond us. I doubt not that, could we but see them, as in prophetic vision, we should behold myriads upon myriads of shining orbs peopling the infinitudes of space, and of which the most accurate of all the sciences has not conceived the most remote idea. Inasmuch, then, as we as yet know nothing in comparison of what yet remains to be revealed to the eye of science, how dare we presume to say that the idea of heaven as a locality is a Utopian figment of the imagination - a mere poetic creation? We have picked up a sand or two from the beach, and say these are all there is of them! We have become slightly acquainted with the wonders of this, our own solar universe, and from that premise attempt the impossible feat of proving a negative, predicating the non-existence of any other!

       Most assuredly, since God has found place for the worlds we do see, He is of might sufficient to the finding of room in the vast depths of space for the heaven or heavens which at present we do not see? Rev. W. H. Cooper, D. D.

•  Where is Heaven Right Now?
  

Fragrant Buds...

       There is an old Indian legend that a poor man threw a bud of charity into Buddha's bowl and it blossomed into a thousand flowers. So we throw the bud of Christian truth into isolated and scattered communities, into the far-off lands, and lo, it bursts forth into a thousand fragrant blossoms and bears fruit in every activity of human life. -- J. A. Huntley.

• Ready-made community: The growth of Christianity in China
• Christianity grows in North Korea despite persecution
• Finding God where you least expect Him

O Word of God Incarnate

O Word of God Incarnate

by William How

O Word of God incarnate,

O Wisdom from on high,

O Truth unchanged, unchanging,

O Light of our dark sky!

We praise Thee for the radiance

That from the hallowed page,

A lamp to guide our footsteps,

Shines on from age to age.

The church from her dear Master

Received the gift divine,

And still that light she lifteth

O'er all the earth to shine.

It is the golden casket

Where gems of truth are stored;

It is the heaven-drawn picture

Of Christ the living Word.

Utilizing Seed

       "There isn't one man in ten thousand who has the remotest idea of the vast number of uses to which the once despised cottonseed is now being put," said Captain B. J. Holmes, of New Orleans.

       "From the clean seed are obtained linters and meats and hulls, the hulls making the best and most fattening feed for cattle that has yet been found. From the linters are gathered material for mattresses, felt wads, papers, rope, and a grade of underwear, and likewise cellulose, out of which gun-cotton is made. The meats furnish oil and meal, the oil after refining being now in almost universal use in the kitchens of this and other countries. Before refinement to the edible stage, the oil is known under many names, such as salad-oil, stearine, winter-oil and white-oil, oleomargarine being the product of stearine. The white-oil is the chief ingredient in compound lards. The original oil, also known as soap stock, has fatty acids used in the manufacture of soaps, roofing- tar, paints and glycerine, and from this comes the explosive nitroglycerine. I might also add that the meal, aside from its use as cattle provender, is transformed into bread, cake, crackers and even candy. Last of all come the doctors, who are saying that this wonderful seed is a boon to the sick, since from its oils an emulsion is prepared that has been known to be of value in tuberculosis and other ailments."  Baltimore American.

• Planting Seeds by Pastor John Lindell
• Never Underestimate the Power of a Seed...
• Good Seeds, Good Soil by Emily C. Heath