Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/64



to be able to make a pretty good hammer by this time." "No, sir," was the answer. "I never made a pretty good hammer; I make the best hammer made in the United States."—

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Best, The, is Brief Here—See.

Betrayal—See.

Betting—See.

BIBLE

Charles A. Dana was a great editor and thinker. This is his fine tribute to a book that has influenced the life and destiny of more men than any other literature:

There is perhaps no book whose style is more suggestive and more instructive, from which you learn more directly that sublime simplicity which never exaggerates, which recounts the greatest event with solemnity, of course, but without sentimentality or affectation, none which you open with such confidence and lay down with such reverence: there is no book like the Bible. When you get into a controversy and want exactly the right answer, when you are looking for an expression, what is there that closes a dispute like a verse from the Bible? What is it that sets up the right principle for you, which pleads for a policy, for a cause, so much as the right passage of Holy Scripture?

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See ; ; ;.

Bible a Book of Directions—See.

Bible a Book of Life—See.

Bible Adaptation—See.

BIBLE A HANDBOOK

Primarily the Bible is a handbook setting forth the way of God with individuals. When an inventor sells his sewing-machine, or car, he accompanies the mechanism with an illustrated handbook describing each wheel, each lever and hidden spring. Now the Bible is an illustrated handbook that accompanies the mechanism of the soul, with all its mental levers and moral springs. Having first stated the facts about life and duty and destiny, the Bible goes on to illustrate these facts. (Text.)—

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BIBLE A LAMP

This book is a lamp, but lamps are not to be pulled in pieces; lamps are to be read by. When you go down into the valley and the shadow, you will need a light. In that long journey down into the darkness of death you will travel alone. And here is a lamp that will light your path and bring you out of the chill and the damp and the dark into the morning, and the dawn shall be followed by day and the day shall deepen into high noon, the noon of God's heaven. (Text.)—

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BIBLE AMONG HEATHEN

The eagerness of the Tahitians to have and read the Bible is indicated by the following account:

For years Mr. Nott had been translating the Gospel of Luke into Tahitian, assisted by Pomare and while the book was in press the natives often constrained Mr. Ellis to stop printing to explain to them what they read. The missionaries wished to bind the books before they were distributed, but the impatience of the people constrained them to give up waiting for proper binding materials. The natives, however, did not suffer these precious books to remain without proper protection; dogs and cats and goats were killed so that their skins might be prepared for covers, and the greatest anxiety was manifested to obtain these new copies of the Word of God.—, "The Miracles of Missions."

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Bible and Experience—See.

BIBLE AND HUMAN NATURE

Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, of India, went to a native city where the name of Jesus had never been heard. He began to explain to them the first chapter of Romans, that chapter which describes the heart of man wandering away from God and into sin, and conceiving evil conceptions of God, until at last, "Tho they know the judgment of God—that they which do such things are worthy of death—not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." The most intelligent man in the audience, a Brahman, stept forward and said to Dr. Chamberlain, "Sir, that chapter must have been written for us Hindus. It describes us exactly."

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