Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/520

 For he remembereth our frame! Even for this I render praise. O, tender Master, slow to blame The falterer on life's stormy ways, Abide with us—between the days!

—The British Weekly.

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NIGHT, GOD'S PRESENCE IN THE

James Church Alvord writes these prayerful verses:

Not for to-morrow, Lord, I lift my eyes Up through the darkness which between us lies; Not 'gainst to-morrow's terror, toil or woe; Not for to-morrow's joy or glad surprize— Just for to-night.

When the day breaks and far the shadows flee Strength for the conflict still shall come from Thee, I all Thy grace shall prove, Thy comfort know. O, let me feel this deep security— Just for to-night.

Peace—'tis the gift Thou givest, peace and rest. Come, bid me droop my head upon Thy breast! Speak to me, Master, murmur soft and low, Flood all my soul with Thy communion blest— Just for to-night.

Nay, I'll not shun to-morrow's wild alarms: Storms when Thou sendest, I'll not ask for calms. Yet, I grow weary on the way I go: Put underneath the everlasting arms— Just for to-night. (Text.)

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Nightfall—See.

NO MAN'S LAND

There is a peculiar propriety in the name "No Man's Land," which has been applied to the group of rocky snow-clad islands four hundred miles to the north of the North Cape of Norway, once spoken of as East Greenland, and appearing on all modern maps as Spitzbergen. Wintering on these islands is practically impossible to civilized man. There are myriad petrels and gulls and wild geese in summer.

For two centuries the whalers and sealers—Swedes, Danes, Dutch, Norwegians—frequented these islands in summer months. The right whale disappeared. The seals became fewer. Visits to the islands became less frequent. Now coal has been discovered in such beds as to justify civilization in taking cognizance of "No Man's Land."

The United States accepted the invitation of Norway to take part in an international conference, at Christiana, to consider the government of Spitzbergen. Russia, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany and Denmark were invited. There is not much doubt that a form of government will be devised and a full agreement reached.

This is a significant movement toward extending law in some form to every bit of territory on the earth's surface. A century hence it will perhaps be impossible to find a square foot of earth that can be called "No Man's Land."—Brooklyn Eagle.

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Nobility, Obscure—See.

Noise, Vain—See.

Nomenclature, Absurd—See.

Non-Christian Religions—See.

NORMAL, THE, ARE THE HIGHEST

In the valley the sequoia is twenty feet in diameter, and this is natural. Now, climb the sides of the mountain, and the diameter drops to ten feet, to five feet, to two feet six inches, and finally you get an army of average six-inch sequoias. But don't say now that because the average on this rocky soil and these storm-swept peaks is six inches, that the great tree in the valley is abnormal. On the mountain side, with the thin soil, roots that cling to rocks, snows that bite, winds breaking the boughs, thunderbolts that burn and blacken, the average tree is small.

But this stunted tree is abnormal and unnatural. Your Plato is the natural man in the intellect. Shakespeare is the normal man in imagination. Wendell Phillips is the ordinary speaker. The men you call supreme and extraordinary represent man as God made them.—

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North Pole Conquest—See.

Nose, the Human, Deteriorating—See .