FOR a period of one thousand two hundred and sixty years, according to divine prophecy and secular history, the bishop of Rome was, under the papal system, and by the consent of the civil power, "HEAD OVER ALL THE CHURCHES" and "TRUE AND ONLY CORRECTOR OF HERETICS." This period began in A.D. 538, when Justinian's decree to that effect went into force by the plucking up of the last opposing power, the Arian Ostrogoths. The period ended in 1798, when France, through General Berthier, took Pius VI. prisoner, and destroyed the political power of the Papacy. The pope was no longer the acknowledged "Head over All the Churches." The wounding by the Reformation, the loss of influence resulting from that, culminated in a deadly wound in 1798. Since that time the Papacy has uttered her anathemas, has pronounced what she considered the deserved punishment; but no power has executed her decrees. The union was broken. She was left a widow.
But the prophecy declares that this wound shall be healed; that the Papacy shall gain its former prestige and power, and the woman on the Tiber shall sing, in the joy of her heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." Rev. 18:7; 13:3.
It is of interest to note the strength of the Papacy at two periods in that land that chiefly inflicted the deadly wound, the first in 1789, prior to the infliction of that wound, and the second at the present time. It will be remembered by students of history what a tremendous and unbearable burden the Roman Catholic Church was in France previous to the Revolution, and that that was one of the things that hastened the upheaval of the last century in that country.
Last week we quoted from an article by M. Urbain Gohier, editor of L'Aurore, Paris, showing the situation of the French republic in the face of militarism. In the Independent of October 18, M. Gohier has another article on "Roman Clericalism in the French Republic," the first paragraph of which sums up the military conditions in the following words:—
"Financial ruin, physical degradation, economical decay, intellectual abasement, are the first consequences of the military régime that the French nation has been suffering for the last half century. The end will be political slavery, established by an inevitable and imminent assault."
But great as is all this military danger under which the nation is staggering, M. Gohier sees another greater. He continues:—
"Now the military danger to which France is exposed is to be so much dreaded on account of its complication with the clerical danger. The factious military men are only the agents and instruments of a much more intelligent power than they, and still more hostile to the modern spirit, justice, and liberty in all forms, than they—viz., the Catholic Church as represented by the Roman Congregations."
And the reader will note that this is not an infidel attack on religion. M. Gohier says:—
"But the reader should observe that it is not a question here of the high and pure Christian religion, which inspires respect even in the incredulous, and which is for believers a source of consolation, of comfort, of self-denial and charity; that it is not even a question of the Christian Church, which has fulfilled for centuries noble duties, kept the last foci of civilization in the midst of the barbarian ages, and maintained the rights of the mind over brute force. No, it is a question of clericalism in the worst sense of the word."
Roman Catholicism in France in 1789.
The strength of Roman Catholicism in France just previous to the Revolution, as measured by the various orders and the wealth of the church, is thus given by M. Gohier:—
"In 1789 there were about 60,000 monks and nuns in France; the ecclesiastical wealth was worth about $800,000,000 (present value)."
A few years later came the swift, awful, and sure revolution. As its result monastic vows were interdicted, convents were closed, monks and nuns were dispersed, and the ecclesiastical wealth was nationalized.
Present Conditions.
"To-day," says M. Gohier, "they are not only reconstituted, but they have become, within one century, three times stronger than during the long, prosperous centuries under the ancient system." That is to say, the Roman Catholic Church in France has prospered three times more during the last 100 years, with tremendous antagonistic influences, than she did during the Medieval Ages, when France was considered one of the very pillars of the church among the nations. Here is what M. Gohier says as to this:—
"To-day, altho the population of France has not doubled, the inmates of monasteries have been tripled. In 1900 there are more than 180,000 monks and nuns. They constitute 1,468 different religious orders, of which half only are authorized by the State, while 694 live in perpetual violation of the law. Their well-known wealth amounts to nearly ten thousand million francs, which make $2,000,000,000 in absolute value, the much more in reality if estimated in America. In addition to this well-known wealth, registered by the public administration, it is possible that the various orders conceal as much by means of fictitious owners."
Of the control of the clergy by the Vatican, of its grasp of the educational system of the country, of its influence in industrial lines, of its power through the press and politics, our author thus writes:—
"The Congregations—the whole of the [Roman Catholic] religious orders being included in this title—hold all the political, administrative, and economical machinery of the French Society. It is traditional that the magistracy has always been recruited among the agents of the clerical party, and that is a point which has no need to be insisted upon. But the Congregations hold in their power the parochial clergy, public instruction, an important part of industry, almost all the press, and absolutely all the command of the army and navy. A few details on these points will fully explain them.
"The French parochial clergy, the vicars and curates, who have charge of the parishes, either town or country, belong generally to the middle or lower classes. They could be, therefore, easily devoted to the doctrines and aspirations of the democracy, if they were left to themselves. But, under the conventions which bind France to the pope, ecclesiastical officials of any importance are only appointed with the consent of the holy father. At Rome the Congregations are almighty, led by the generals of three or four Congregations, chiefly by the general of the Jesuits. The bishops and their vicar-generals, therefore, who govern in every diocese, the French clergy, and the professors of seminaries who educate the French priests, are necessarily the agents of the Congregations. They would never have succeeded in obtaining the functions with which they are now occupied if they had not given full and complete proofs of their perfect devotion to the Roman Congregations. Whatever may be their real feelings, the French priests are thus held in a slavery by a foreign power, and obliged to carry out the plans of the Congregations, with their immense influence over the people.
"The monks have also a strong grasp over the education of the new generation, which decides the future of the country. Wherever the State opens a lay university, a Congregational university is immediately erected by its side. In the second degree of education, where all the children designed to occupy some social position, such as managers of shops or workshops, magistrates, officers, officials, physicians, lawyers, engineers, are educated, in comparison with 338 lay establishments, there are 418 Congregational establishments much more prosperous than the others. And in the elementary instruction, where the children of the working classes are taught the rudiments of education, the Congregations are in competition with the lay schools in the whole country, and in some parts they absolutely overpower them."
Control of Industry.
"In regard to industry, the enormous capital held by the Congregations naturally gives them supremacy. Not only do they deal in ecclesiastical products, such as masses, indulgences, rosaries, scapulars, miraculous waters, and benedictions of the pope, bishops, etc., but they manufacture in their workshops all that can be manufactured in the world, and sell, by dint of much advertisement, chocolates, teas, wines, brandies, sweets, digestives, or medicinal waters, strengthening jams, tooth powder, oil, vinegar, preserved fish and meat, soaps, fruits, dried plums, and a thousand other alimentary, chemical, or sanitary products.
"As they are always acquiring and never alienating, the Congregations must necessarily end in possessing the whole capital of the nation. The remedy for the monopoly of capital by multi-millionaire individuals is to be found in the division of the inheritances, and in the prodigality of the heirs. But the Congregation—a fictitious and eternal person—never divides or breaks up his property, which constitutes a dreadful economical danger."
Its Influence through the Press.
"The effect of the political power and social working of the Congregation is that it has monopolized, among other things, the instrument which leads public opinion,—the press,—its wealth having permitted it to buy up the principal journals or to enter into partnership with their editors, as well as to buy up the principal manufactures and to enter into partnership with their managers. According as it is to its interest to play a masked role or not, it either takes the papers entirely under its control, or has them directed by its agents, who are sometimes so clever that, while mocking irreverently at religion, they play the part of the Roman Congregation with all fidelity. Almost all French papers with large circulations belong openly or secretly to the Congregation. The principal of this new press is La Croix, a journal controlled by a comparatively new, but already formidable Congregation, that of the 'Pères de l'Assomption.' These supporters of the clerical reaction have had the genius to employ the most modern inventions and methods in order to lead the people of France back to the middle ages. They have founded such a paper with which they have inundated the country, so that in the less enlightened parts the peasants do not believe that any other paper exists. At the top of these papers Christ is always represented on His cross, and the articles are signed 'The Monk.' Between the pious signature and the picture of the God of love and peace are spread atrocious calumnies against every thinking citizen, terrible libels, anathemas, and threats against Jews, Protestants, and free-thinkers. In the space of a few years the Congregational papers have created in France a state of mind which can only be compared to the worst crises of fanaticism in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries."
Influence in the Army.
"The Congregations bring up and educate all the children of the nobles, so numerous in this strange French republic; the modern aristocracy of finance, of industry, and even all the comfortable middle classes, dreaming of joining their offspring to the offspring of the ancient families, confide them likewise to the monks, in order to have them educated together. And it is from these Congregational schools that are chiefly recruited the principal military schools, from where almost all the French officers and absolutely all the officers destined to the higher grades are chosen.
"Now the great strength of the Congregational educators is that they never lose sight of the men they have modeled; they keep them under their eye; they follow them all their lives, arrange rich marriages for them, and look after their advancement. Throughout the entire French army the command is in the power of the Congregation, so that the few officers who have not come from the Congregational schools are obliged to bow the head before the monks or to leave the army. But you would hardly understand what is the military spirit, if you did not guess that the clerical fanaticism of the chiefs in highest command excites a universal emulation of clericalism in the whole body of officers."
Of this illustrations are given of a division commander consecrating his brigadier belt to St. Anne d'Auray, and of the admiral, the chief of the staff of the French navy, consecrating the fleet to "the Archangel St. Michael," and employing "his authority in extorting subscriptions from the naval officers, in order to erect a church" to that being. This admiral is now president of "a great international pilgrimage organized by the Jesuits, to bear the worship of the whole world to Paray le Monial, to the holy heart of Jesus, as it appeared in that place to the blessed Marie Alacoque."
M. Gohier thus concludes this article of interest to every student of prophecy:—
"Soon, no doubt, the military coup d'état, the political slavery of the nation through the sword in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church, will crown the deadly work. The world will look with pity on the great country that once was France, and consider it as on the level of the unfortunate Spain, if not below. Militarism and Roman Catholicism are two diseases which do not spare the patient."
The seilings of God through Daniel represent the kingdoms of earth as the blind horns of a brute, knowing only the present; but the Papacy is represented by a horn with eyes like those of man, observing, far-seeing, measuring, weighing, comparing, behind which is the mind, which plans and9controls the blind horns to do its will. The governments of earth, filled with political schemers who plan for self, are blind as to the future. They see only the active present. As one great French diplomat recently expressed it, "No one has time to think of the future, not even of the immediate future." But on the great chess-board of the world Rome thinks of the future, near and distant, and she is yielding her puppet pawns so pleasing to the nations, but she is gathering knights and castles, kings and queens, empires and republics. And herein is a warning for all.
HUSKS INSTEAD OF GRAIN.
By L. A. Prescott
IN its Boston notes the Christian Advocate of October 18 asks a number of very pertinent questions concerning the fad of Passion Play lectures that seems to have taken hold of many ministers of that place. The idea is not limited to Boston, inasmuch as it is the season for the return of vacationers, and those who visited Ober-Ammergau, in Germany, to witness this celebrated play. The notes referred to say:—
"What effect will it have upon the revival work of the twentieth-century movement? Broader yet is the question of the effect on the minds of the church congregation as to the patronage of the theater. Our pulpit [Methodist] has been a unit in the condemnation of theater patronage. What will be the effect of ministers Sunday after Sunday discoursing on a Sunday theatrical play representing the most solemn events in human history, and including the impersonation of the most sacred characters, and even of 'God manifest in the flesh'? It is not a question of the religious character of the actors, who are said to be devout Roman Catholics, or of the people to whom the Passion Play is a serious service. But what of its effect upon the visitors from Protestant America? Roman Catholics are accustomed to show and ceremony, the gorgeous and the spectacular, in their worship. Will the Passion Play serve to familiarize Protestants with like forms and give them a taste for them?
"One more question: Is all this enthusiasm of Protestant ministers over the play aroused by its religious character, or are they intoxicated by their unhampered first visit to the theater? Is it their unconscious surrender to the tragic drama, or to the fascination of Roman Catholic ceremony?"
Preaching on just such themes as this, and possibly worse, is largely responsible for the sad lack of power in the church to-day. To souls longing for the food that builds spiritually are given the husks of sentimentality, and thousands become disgusted, and become scoffers, who are looking for godliness where it ought to be found, and do not find it. Aside from the class to which the topic belongs, there is a very suggestive thought for Protestants in the queries touching the ceremonies and shows of the Catholic ritual. Is it not enough that the principles of Romanism are insidiously and otherwise finding their way into professed Protestantism, without placing one's self deliberately under her seductive spell?
THE Christian Cynosure, in its October issue, gives a list of deaths and serious injuries resulting from initiation ceremonies in different secret societies, which illustrate the wicked folly of such cruel, senseless sport. The list, in part, is as follows: At Kalamazoo, Mich., a seventeen-year-old boy died as a result of his initiation into the Kappa Gamma Society of the high school. He was severely burned with nitrate of silver. In Dubuque, Iowa, during an initiation into the order of Modern Woodmen, an initiate was so severely handled that he has lost the use of his arm and is losing his memory. At New York, while initiating a member into the lodge of Foresters, one of the initiators received a broken shoulder. At Syracuse, N. Y., one of the initiates was accidentally shot, and died soon after from blood-poisoning. In Cincinnati, recently, a man was probably fatally injured while being initiated into a secret society. At Guthrie, Oklahoma, an initiate was so roughly handled that he has been left with a stiff neck, a badly-injured spine, and his brain so injured that he is unable to concentrate his mind upon any subject. The Cynosure well says, "The sacredness of the human body is made the jest of secret societies." The Christian will be too busy about his Master's business ever to be found indulging in such vicious pastime, or encouraging others to do so by his own membership in such organizations.
AUSTRIA'S OPPORTUNITY.
By Charles M. Stone
A LITTLE light is breaking in Austria in the matter of relief from Catholic influence in governmental affairs. Austria has been practically ruled by the Papacy, so subservient has the government been to the interests of the great hierarchy. Now Austria has taken action toward freeing the public schools from ecclesiastical control, and in Hungary legislation has been enacted favorable to civil marriages. To say that this is displeasing to Rome is to state the matter mildly. This, taken in connection with the fact that Protestantism has of late been making considerable gains in that country, is a source of deep indignation at the Vatican, and is echoed throughout the Catholic world. But the people of Austria will have an opportunity to hear the Gospel of Christ before the decree goes forth that fixes the fate of mankind and ushers in the eternal world. That opportunity is now being presented to the people of that long-neglected land. It will not be pleasing to Rome. It will not be pleasing to those who have considered the government a part of their church organization; but it must come. The people of Austria, like those of many another dark portion of the earth, will have an opportunity to choose between witnessing for Christ or turning their backs upon His last message to the world. Now, while the door is opening, is the time for the faithful bearers of the Gospel message to scatter the seeds of truth in Austria. C. M. S.
Boer Revival in South Africa
A DESPATCH from Cape Town, dated November 5, says that Lord Roberts has taken his sick daughter to Johannesburg, leaving Lord Kitchener in command. The long-talked-of return of the commander-in-chief to England appears yet to be of uncertain date, as Boer activities continue, and almost daily attacks are made on trains. The losses of the British are heavy. During the month of October, 167 were killed in action and died of wounds, while 367 died of disease, 22 from accidents, and 97 were either captured or missing. London papers speak of the situation as a "Boer revival," and look for six months more of the guerrilla warfare.
Russia’s Central Asian Railway Plans
THE Russian minister of railroads has caused it to be announced that Russia is not planning to build the Central Asian railway from Samarkand to Hankow; also that the proposed line from Samarkand to Tomsk has been abandoned. But this announcement, especially the Hankow feature, does not signify anything. If it means anything, it is meant for a blind. Hankow is not the only city in China, and Russia is not spending millions on a great railroad to let it end somewhere in the deserts and wilds of Central Asia.
Non-Flesh Food for Athletes
MR. EUSTACE H. MILES, formerly lecturer and honors coach at Cambridge University, England, tells us, in the Saturday Evening Post, that he finds the food best suited to him as an athlete, mental worker, and all, a non-flesh food. He aims to get the right proportions of proteid or albumen from pure sources every day, and by adding a certain amount of bread, fruit, and vegetables. After a test of years under differing conditions he finds it satisfactory. Return to flesh diet in part always affects him unfavorably.
Spain’s Trouble With the Carlists
SPAIN is again in trouble with the Carlists. During the past few days two large bands, numbering about 800 each, engaged government troops in the district of Catalonia. The disturbance is but a local outbreak of the general revolutionary spirit all through the country. The government has decided to adopt vigorous measures, and has begun the suppression of Carlist clubs everywhere, and is instituting vigorous questioning and searches among all sympathizers.
President Kruger’s Arrival in France
THE Dutch cruiser Gelderland, with President Kruger on board, is not expected to arrive at Marseilles before the 15th of this month, owing to the reported sickness of the distinguished passenger. The Nationalist group in the French Chamber of Deputies has appointed a delegation to meet the Transvaal president on his arrival in France. The municipal council of Paris will also present an expression of sympathy and admiration for the Boers.
Compact Foods Tested for Army Rations
The War Department is making a test of compact foods for the army. A detachment of soldiers has just left Fort Reno, O. T., for this purpose, and will subsist on the new foods for a number of days, under march. A single ration is supposed to contain enough food to sustain a man for one day, and, in its package, weighs about a pound. This is one of the demands of war, especially where an army is invading an enemy's country.
Uprising on the Admiralty Islands
ADVICES via Victoria state that there has been an uprising of the natives on the Admiralty Islands. The crew of the German ship Metzke was murdered, and the rifles of her stores used in a tribal war. The German cruiser Moeve, with a posse of native police, was sent to the scene of the fight, and after considerable difficulty landed a force, drove off the natives, and destroyed a village. Further trouble is anticipated.
Consolidation of Armour Packing Concerns
A CONSOLIDATION of the Armour packing concerns in Chicago and Kansas City has just taken place, and the joint capital stock increased from $20,000,000 to $35,000,000. This new corporation will be almost double the size of its largest competitor.
Archbishop Ireland Receives Legion of Honor
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND has had bestowed upon him the cross of the Legion of Honor, the badge of the order founded by Napoleon to honor his most courageous soldiers. It was bestowed by M. Cambore, the French minister to Washington.
Earthquakes in Florida, Venezuela, and California
ON October 31 eight earthquake shocks were felt at Jacksonville, Fla. Two days before portions of Venezuela, S. A., were shaken up, and much damage was done. Railroad and wire service was interrupted in places, and some lives were lost. On the 5th inst. Mendocino County, Cal., was visited by temblors, which caused a number of mud volcanoes near Cahto to belch forth mud and vapor.
Revolutionary Uprising in Colombia
MR. C. B. HART, U.S. Minister to Colombia, in an interview a few days ago, says there is a serious uprising again in that restless South American republic, this time in the department of Cauca. General Prospero Pinzon commands the government forces, and General Rafael Uribe the revolutionists. Severe engagements have occurred, with considerable loss to both sides.
Bible Society’s Record Scripture Distribution
The British and Foreign Bible Society issued, during the year ending last March, 5,047,000 copies of the Scriptures. This amount is more than 500,000 larger than the number put out the preceding year, and is the largest thus far issued in one year. The society prints the Bible in 400 languages. Nearly one-third of the above number of Bibles was printed in English.
Enrollment in American Educational Institutions
According to the last annual report of the Commissioner of Education, there are now enrolled in the various educational institutions of the country 16,738,362 pupils. Of these more than 15,000,000 are enrolled in the common schools. This report shows that more than twenty-one per cent. of the entire population of the United States is attending school.
St. Paul Loses Her Propeller
On her last trip into New York, the liner St. Paul lost her starboard propeller. So far as known, the ship brushed against a derelict, thus causing the accident. The damage to the shaft and engines will amount to several hundred thousand dollars, and the ship will be out of commission for four or five months undergoing repairs.
Yukon Natives in Desperate Circumstances
The commander of the U. S. revenue cutter Nunivak, which has been commissioned to carry supplies to the destitute natives along the Yukon River, reports that nine-tenths of them are sick, and deaths are rapid. He estimates that there are about 2,600 natives in the Yukon district, and all are in desperate circumstances.
The Fast Yacht Arrow
THE private yacht Arrow, owned by Charles L. Flint, and just launched at the Myers' shipyard at Nyack, N. Y., is built for a regular speed of forty-two miles an hour, and fifty under pressure. By some it is supposed she will ultimately be purchased by a South American Government and outfitted as a torpedo-boat.
Embargo on Delagoa Bay Gold
A DESPATCH from Hamburg says that the Provincial Court has laid an embargo upon a cargo of bar gold from Delagoa Bay to the value of 2,500,000 marks. It is claimed that this step is taken to reimburse German insurance companies for gold withheld by the Transvaal Government during the war.
Boers Planning Another Trek
REPORTS from Pretoria say that there are indications that the irreconcilable Boers are planning another trek, this time to the west coast of Africa. Cecil Rhodes is said to have said that he will oppose settlement of the Boers in Damaraland, but will welcome them to Rhodesia.
Court Denounces Board of Trade
Judge Vail, of the Circuit Court in Chicago, has just rendered a decision denying the right of the board of trade to refuse to publish its market quotations. In his denunciation of the methods of the board, the judge characterized it as a gambling shop, and hit near the mark.
Explosion in West Virginia Coal Mine
A HEAVY explosion occurred in the mines of the Southern Coal and Transportation Company, at Berrysburg, near Philippi, W. Va., on the morning of November 3. At last reports twelve bodies had been taken out of the shaft, and twenty men were missing.
Excavations Planned Around the Sphinx
George E. Raum, a well-known Egyptologist, has made formal application to the khedive of Egypt for permission to excavate around the base of the sphinx, where he expects to find much valuable data in reference to the early history of Egypt.
Austro-Hungarian and Montenegrin Border Collision
A DESPATCH from Vienna says a collision has taken place between an Austro-Hungarian military patrol and a force of Montenegrin soldiers over a boundary dispute, resulting in killing one and wounding several soldiers.
New Zealand Renews San Francisco Mail Service
The New Zealand Government has asked its Parliament to approve the agreement with the Spreckels Steamship line for a continuance of the San Francisco mail service once every three weeks instead of four weeks, as formerly.
Hawaiian Laws Upheld by Judge Estee
In a recent decision Judge Estee holds that the laws and customs of the Hawaiian Islands are in legal force except where they conflict with the U. S. Constitution, or until they are changed by Congress.
Chinese Smuggled in a Hay Shipment
Six Chinese were discovered in a car-load of baled hay at Rensselaer, N. Y., recently, by a night patrolman. They said they were shipped into the United States in this manner by an agent in Montreal.
Korea’s Gift to Allied Forces
THE king of Korea has just made a gift to the allied forces in China. It consists of 3,116 sacks of flour, 986 sacks of rice, and 2,000 boxes of cigarets, to be divided equally among the allies.
Albury Proposed as Australian Capital
ADVICES from Australia indicate the probable selection of Albury, New South Wales, as the capital of Federated Australia.
INDIAN CORN: A WONDER LESSON.
By J. P. McCaskey
[J. P. McCaskey, in Pennsylvania School Journal.]
Do you want a subject for a wonder lesson? You are embarrassed by riches. They are here on every hand by tens of thousands. Almost anything will do. I know nothing more common or more striking than the Indian corn growing in our gardens and in the fields everywhere about us, one of the most widely known and most useful grains in the world. What a wonder story you can tell of this marvelous plant! "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." When, as a child, I used to read these familiar words in the Bible, I always thought it meant our yellow corn planted in the spring-time and gathered to the crib in the autumn. Years later I was surprised to learn that this "corn" was a kind of wheat or barley, and that all the wealth of Jerusalem could not in those days have bought an ear of our common corn.
There is a story told of a selfish farmer who had gotten a new variety of Indian corn, and to a neighbor who wanted to buy a little of it, he replied, "Not a grain." In his ignorance he thought he could keep it all on his own farm. He did not know of stamen and pistil, pollen and ovary—perhaps only of horses and hogs and dollars—knowledge very good to have it a small fraction of a large unit, but if it be all a man has, then of little value in the great account. His neighbor, more knowing than he, taught him a lesson in botany, and had the corn, both without buying it, without his consent, and without risk of a lawsuit. The new corn happened to be planted along the line fence between the farms. The neighbor, seeing this, selected the best grains from the middle of some of his best ears for seed, and planted them on the other side of the fence. The land was equally good; the rains fell, and the sun shone alike on each field. The corn grew and flourished and neared the time when the staminate blossoms of the tassel would shed their pollen upon the silken bloom below. He noted the right moment, and then cut the plume (the tassel, Gray calls it) from every stock of his own corn, so that no pollen from his own field should fertilize his corn—it must all come from the other side of the fence. The new corn was rich in pollen, which floated on the air and fell here and there with little regard to line fences. The life forces went on working out their results in the laboratory of nature, and when the husking-time came, both hauled to their barns nearly the same kind of corn—much to the chagrin and somewhat to the edification of the stingy farmer.
The lesson of the pollen is in this story, and a deeper lesson yet for the growing boy and girl. It is good teaching. But we want to look at the corn. Take the circuit from the seed dropped into the ground in the late spring to the seed from the ear in the fall. The green shoot comes up; the leaves of the beautiful, vigorous thing are rapidly developed—in the warm June days after a rain how they grow!—then the rustling, two-edged sword-blades of July; the light yellow plume of staminate blossoms, whose pollen is grains of pearl under the microscope; and the floss silk of the pistillate flower (the ear), pink in color, soft in texture, with its broad, close-fitting sheath (the husk) for protection to the ovary.
This long silken tassel is for use much more than for beauty, tho it is very beautiful. We go to market and buy our dozen ears of corn, husk them, and strip down their soft and glossy threads of silk, without a thought of Almighty design. Look closer! Remove your husk carefully, so that no thread of silk is disturbed. Start with the grain farthest from the silken tassel; take the next, the next, the next; each has its own thread in orderly succession, and it stands at one end of that thread—where is the other end? Outside of the sheath, each thread ending in its stigma, a wonderful structure, hundreds of them together making up the soft, rich, silken tassel, swaying in the breeze and kissed by the sunlight, waiting for the touch of the new life and energy that must come from above. The pollen boxes burst, and shed abroad their treasure of pearls—for the shape is pearl. As the fine shower falls through this warm summer air, these waiting stigmas grasp it eagerly, gather of it abundantly, and through the long style (the thread of silk) connecting the light and life without with the embryo seed within, the vitalizing influence passes—how, no man can tell—until every ovule is fertilized, and develops in God's good way into a seed, that can be sown the next season, to repeat the old tale of marvel as from the beginning—another link in a chain of apparently endless succession.
And you and I and the farmer may be as little interested in this marvel, as ignorant of it and as blind to it, as are the horses and the cattle, or the trees and the stones. Let us get this thought clearly into our own minds, and then preach this great gospel of wonder to our children. But if you can not feel it, you will not do much with it. Go away and pray God to give you the seeing eye, the hearing ear, the feeling heart. Alas for our children when the only things we can teach them are a little ciphering, which we call arithmetic; the cast-iron order of letters in words, which we call spelling; some sounding of words from the printed page, which we call reading; a little geography and history, most of which is soon forgotten; some rules in grammar that we ourselves too often violate and hear others violate almost without thought or silent protest!
Let us know and try to teach things that may startle and awaken and bless, things that have in them the enduring quality. The world about us is full of marvels, suggesting the Divine. I have taken but one. Look at the cherry tree or any other tree in fruit. How different from the corn, but no less wonderful! Look at the strawberry or any other berry—at anything that has life and law behind it, or law without life. Be a poet when you talk of these things, that is, full of the spirit of wonder and reverence—feeling somewhat as Moses felt when from out the burning bush the Almighty spake to him. From out field and bush and tree the same God speaks to us as to him. Can we too see and hear? If we can not, then let us pray that some healer may come to touch our blind eyes, and unstop our deaf ears, if not for ourselves at least for our children, that their finer sensibilities may be awakened, and their lives be blessed.
