Animism

The child's religious nature, like that of primitive man, is animistic. Professor Dawson, in "The Child and His Religion," says:

       It is hard for children to resist the feeling that a summer shower comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illustrated this feeling on a certain occasion. There was a thunder-shower after a long dry spell. The rain was pattering on the sidewalk outside the house. The child stretched forth her hands toward the rain- drops and said: "Come, good rain, and water our plants!" Flowers and trees have individuality for most children, if not for all. Ruth's mama found her sitting among the wild geraniums, some distance from the house. "What are you doing, Ruth?" "I'm sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and like to have me with them, don't you know?" At another time she said: "Mama, these daisies seem to look up at me and talk to me. Perhaps they want us to kiss them." On one occasion she said to her brother, who was in the act of gathering some flowers she claimed for herself, ''I don't think it nice to break off those poor flowers. They like to live just as well as you do." The boy thus chided by his sister for gathering her flowers was generally very fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite human companionship in them. He could not bear to see flowering plants hanging in a broken condition, or lying crusht upon the sidewalk. Even at the age of ten years, he would still work solicitously over flowers like the violets, bluets, and crowfoots, with evident concern for their comfort.

Altruism In Insects

        A gentleman, while reading the newspaper, feeling bothered by the buzzing of a wasp about his head, beat it down. It fell through the open window and lay on the sill as if dead. A few seconds afterward, to his great surprise, a large wasp flew on to the window-sill, and after buzzing around his wounded brother for a few minutes, began to lick him all over. The sick wasp seemed to revive under this treatment, and his friend then gently dragged him to the edge, grasped him round the body and flew away with him. It was plain that the stranger, finding a wounded comrade, gave him "first aid," as well as he could, and then bore him away home. This is one of many cases in which the law of altruism is traceable in the world of living things below man. How much more should intelligent man exercise this spirit of helpfulness in the rescue of his fallen brother.

"the King will reply, 'I tell you  the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40

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.

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

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

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

Earth Cry

      M. Guyau, in his "Sketch of Morality," relates a dream that he had. He felt himself soaring in heaven, far above the earth, and heard a weary sound ascending as of torrents amid mountain silence and solitude. He could distinguish human voices - sobs mingled with thanksgiving, and groans interrupted by benedictions; all melting into one heartrending symphony. The sky seemed darkened. To one with him he asked, "Do you hear that?" The angel answered, "These are the prayers of men,  ascending from the earth to God." Beginning to cry like a child, the dreamer exclaimed, "What tears I should shed were I that God!" Guyau adds: "I loosened the hand of the angel, and let myself fall down again to the earth, thinking there remained in me too much humanity to make it possible for me to live in heaven." 

It is that earth-cry that brings God down to help the needy.

• Crying Out for Rescue
• Crying Out to a God Who Answers
• Why Won't God Answer My Cries For Help?
• Prayer Out of Pain
• Cry Out To Jesus

Growth In Darkness

      There is a darkness which helps and sweetens. Disappointments, difficulties, discouragements, and all things dark, come to us apparently to depress us, but these are part of the experience which helps us. Black charcoal will keep water sweet. Bulbs must be buried in the darkness if they are to grow. In the winter a florist endeavored with success to grow some bulbs without placing them in the ground. He gathered some small stones and put them into basins, placing the bulbs on the top of the stones. Then he poured in sufficient water to touch the bulbs, and to conserve the sweetness of the water he introduced little pieces of charcoal among the stones. He then placed the basin in a dark cupboard and kept them there for ten weeks, and when he took them out the green leaves of the bulbs were showing. (Text.)

• Blessed In The Dark Places
• Growing through a Dark Night of the Soul

Mystery No Bar To Belief

      Toads are said to have been found in rocks. Such cases are rare, but it would be as unreasonable to doubt them as to believe in some of the miraculous explanations that have been made of the matter. The phenomenon is marvelous, it is true, but it is supported by evidence that we are not able to contest; and skepticism, which is incompatible with science, will have to disappear if rigorous observation shall confirm it. The toad was observed, in one case, in the stone itself, and before recovering from its long lethargy, it had not made any motion. One of these toads was presented to an academy, with the stone which had served it as a coffin or habitation, and it was ascertained that the cavity seemed to correspond exactly with the dimensions and form of the animal. It is remarkable that these toad-stones are very hard and not at all porous, and show no signs of fissure. The mind, completely baffled in the presence of the fact, is equally embarrassed to explain how the toad could live in its singular prison, and how it be- came shut up there. M. Charles Richet had occasion to study this question some months ago, and came to the conclusion that the fact was real, observing that even if, in the actual condition of science, certain phenomena were still inexplicable, we were not warranted in denying their existence, for new discoveries might at any time furnish an explanation of them.  Popular Science Monthly

Truth, sometimes, is stranger than fiction.

• The Theology of Creation
• The Mystery of Creation
• Does The Bible Teach Science? 

Obedience And Greatness

       The moon calls to the Atlantic and the mighty seas lift themselves in great tidal waves as they follow their mistress round the globe. It calls with equal insistence to the wayside pool and this passing reminder of yesterday's shower yields not an inch. The dust speck dances in the sunlight impudently or ignorantly defiant of the law which holds the earth with a grip of steel as it goes bounding along through a wilderness of stars held steady by the same hand. Be it big enough and noble enough, it knows how to obey.  John H. Willey

Capacity

       "You do not preach to the acorn that it is its duty to become a large tree; you do not preach to the art-pupil that it is his duty to become a Holbein. You plant your acorn in favorable soil, where it can have light and air, and be sheltered from the wind, you remove the superfluous branches, you train the
strength into the leading shoots. The acorn will then become as fine a tree as it has vital force to become. The difference between men and other things is only in the largeness and variety of man's capacities." - James Anthony Froude.

• Man's Threefold Needs
• Having the Capacity to Truly See
• Developing a Heart for God

Freedom Of Soul

       What a remarkable invention is the airship! In it are wrapped almost boundless possibilities for good or evil. The Christian bound on his sacred mission may yet be able to use the viewless air for his highway, transport himself through its soundless solitudes, hundreds of miles before the dawning. He may transport himself with ease from place to place and behold all the marvels of creation on earth, having cut loose from gravitation and being free in the infinite ocean of starlight and sunlight.

"The ideal of man is perfect freedom of the soul."

Fear Of Man

       Ex-President Roosevelt is usually pictured as proof against fear, but the New York Times tells of an occasion when he admits that he was badly frightened.

       It was on the evening of his first diplomatic reception as President, and the long and brilliant line headed by ambassadors, foreign ministers and attaches, and distinguished army and naval officers in gorgeous uniforms, was passing slowly before him. In this procession was a lady who knew the President quite well, and who confidently expected a hearty greeting. To her surprize, Mr. Roosevelt merely inclined his head over her hand, and bowed her on with the throng.

       An hour later she met the President in the reception-room, and he spoke to her in the friendliest way.

       "Why didn't you come in time for the reception?" he asked.

       "I did," she replied, "and you did not even recognize me!"

       "Impossible!" exclaimed the President, "but," and set his teeth together hard and whispered, "to tell you the truth, Mrs. -----, I was so fearful I wouldn't do the right thing I could not think of anybody except myself!"

Jeremy Camp sings "Christ In Me"

Jesus is God following us up.

       You see, the heart of God had been breaking - is breaking over the ways things have been going  down on this planet. Folk fail to understand  Him. Worse yet, they misunderstand Him, and  feel free to criticize Him. Nobody has been so much slandered as God. Many are utterly ignorant of Him. Many others who are not ignorant yet ignore Him. They turn their faces and backs. Some give Him the cut direct. The great crowd in every part of the world is yearning after Him: piteously, pathetically, most often speechlessly yearning, blindly groping along, with an intense inner tug after Him. They know the yearning. They feel the inner, upward tug. They don't understand what it is for which they yearn, nor what will satisfy.

       For man was made to live in closest touch with God. That is his native air. Out of that air his lungs are badly affected. This other air is too heavy. It's malarial, and full of gases and germy dust. In it he chokes and gasps. Yet he knows not why. He gropes about in the night made by his own shut eyes. He doesn't seem to know enough to open them. And sometimes he will not open them. For the hinge of the eye-lid is in the will. And having shut the light out, he gets tangled up in his ideas as to what is light. He puts darkness for light, and light for darkness.

       Once man knew God well; close up. And that means loved, gladly, freely. For here to know is to love. But one day a bad choice was made. And the choice made an ugly kink in his will. The whole trouble began there. A man sees through his will. That is his medium for the transmission of light. If it be twisted, his seeing, his understanding, is twisted. The twist in the will regulates the twist in the eye. Both ways, too, for a good change in the will in turn changes the eyes back to seeing straight. He that is willing to do the right shall clearly see the light.

       But that first kink seems to have been getting worse kinked ever since. And so man does not see God as He is. Man is cross-eyed Godward, but doesn't know it. Man is color-blind toward God. The blue of God's truth is to him an arousing, angering red. The soft, soothing green of His love becomes a noisy, irritating yellow. Nobody has been so much misunderstood as God. He has suffered misrepresentation from two quarters: His enemies and His friends. More from - which? Hard to tell. Jesus is God trying to tell men plainly what He is really like.

       The world turned down the wrong lane, and has been going that way pell-mell ever since. Yet so close is the wrong lane to the right that a single step will change lanes. Though many results of being in the wrong lane will not be changed by the change of lanes. It takes time to rest up the feet made sore by the roughness of the wrong lane. And some of the scars, where men have measured their length, seem to stay.

       The result of that wrong turning has been pitiable. Separation from God, so far as man could make separation. There is no separation on God's part. He has never changed. He remains in the world, but because of man's turning his face away, He remains as a stranger, unrecognized. He remains just where man left Him. And any one going back to that point in the road will find Him standing waiting with an eager light glistening in His eyes. No! That's not accurate. He is a hit nearer than ever He was. He is following us up. He is only a step off. Jesus is God eagerly following us up. S. D. Gordon

Death Does Not Change Character

       When corn is cut down and is lying on the ground, and is afterward put into the granary, it is the very same corn as had grown up to full maturity in the earth. So also souls in the granary above are the very same souls as had grown up to maturity in heaven on earth. When they are transferred to heaven above, they are not tares which had been cut down on earth, and which somehow in the process of cutting had been transformed into corn or wheat. Unless wheat will grow up as wheat in the earth, and be harvested as wheat, it will not turn into wheat in the act of cutting, or while it is being removed to the granary. -- Alexander Miller, "Heaven and Hell Here."

• Questions about Heaven, Hell, and Eternity 
• The Truth About Hell 
• Surviving Hell on Earth