Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/57

 To enlarge upon it, certain spiders prey upon certain caterpillars, regularly inhabit their abodes, and kill so many of them that often whole colonies of the insects are wiped out of existence. These caterpillars normally feed upon the leaves of trees, bushes, and shrubs, frequently denuding a plant entirely. If they were plentiful enough to exhaust their common food they would turn to the weeds and grasses. Without check of any kind they would overrun the earth and destroy every green and growing thing. The spiders beautifully preserve the balance of nature. Kill all the spiders and mankind is doomed.—Collier's Weekly.

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BALLOT A DUTY

"Arrow," in the Christian Endeavor World, reads this lesson to Christian voters:

"Well, I suppose it's Alderman Smith to-day."

"Alderman—nothing!"

"What? Do you mean to say Smith wasn't elected?"

"Precisely. Lost it by forty-one votes."

"Well, well, well! Why, I thought Smith was popular, such a nice, clean fellow; and smart, too."

"He is popular."

"And I thought his opponent was a scallawag."

"He is. The rummies were all for him, and he celebrated his victory with a big free-for-all debauch. I guess our ward'll be open enough now, all right."

"But what was the matter? I suppose Smith lay back and took it easy."

"No, sir! He got out and hustled for himself."

"Then he probably had no machine to back him."

"Ah, but he had; and some of the best politicians in the city worked for him. Why, nearly all the strongest men in the ward signed a paper in his interest, and every one got a copy a day before the election."

"But they couldn't have known the issue at stake—between decency and indecency, character and hoodlumism."

"They did, if words could make it clear."

"Then why, in the name of all that is reasonable, in that pious ward of yours, wasn't Smith elected?"

"Just because about sixty of the pious men stayed at home or let their sons neglect to vote. We know the names of that many who didn't vote. Tried to get them to come out, telephone and all that; but no good. Too busy. Or they 'weren't needed.' And the other side got out every man."

"Those pious men go to prayer-meeting?"

"Well, I don't know what you think about it, but I'd rather have one X opposite Smith's name on that ballot than ten years of prayer-meeting eloquence without it."

"Yes, most of them; and my! but they shine when the topic is a patriotic one."

"So'd I." (Text.)

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Banks, Making, Useful—See.

BAPTISM

Dr. R. F. Horton, in the Christian Endeavor World, tells the following story:

There is a scene in my earlier ministry that used to make the best woman I ever knew laugh till the tears ran down her cheeks whenever she recalled it.

A father, a tall and dignified man, with his wife, a gentle, quiet little lady, had brought the baby to the font that Sunday morning. As I read the opening words, the baby woke and began to scream. For my own part I was imperturbable, nor was the mother upset. But the tall, dignified man could not endure it; and just as I was approaching the actual rite, and required the baby, what the congregation saw was the father rapidly striding to a side door, with the white clothes of the screaming infant streaming behind in the haste of the flight. Happily parental authority worked miracles in the corridor, and the infant, vastly pacified, was brought back just in time to save the service from being a fiasco. And the humor turns into a deeper joy when now I see that child grown up into a beautiful girl, the joy of her parents and of all who behold her.

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BAPTISM INTERPRETED

At the Student Volunteer Convention in Toronto, Dr. Horace G. Underwood told the following incident:

A copy of the Book of the Acts fell into the hands of a Korean, whose heart was touched by the truths. He gathered his villagers together and taught them its contents and they sent for missionaries to come to them. It was impossible for them to go at once, but they sent copies of the Gospels. The eager Koreans read and studied as well