Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/74

 Tired men went home from work in the light that he had lit. The blind man found the street dark; he left it a blaze of light for the tired multitudes. And yet, when he had lighted all the lamps, he felt his own way back home. Oh, pathetic scene! telling us how science looks down at the clods, works over iron and ore, matter and force, and stumbles forward in the very moment when the whole world is a blaze of light.—

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Blind, The, and Christ—See. BLINDNESS Edward Wilbur Mason in the following verses shows how men miss the best things because they are spiritually blind as to the things nearest to them. We seek for beauty on the height afar;  But on the earth it glimmers all the while: Tis in the garden where the roses are;   'Tis in the glory of a mother's smile. We seek for God in every distant place;  But lo, beside us He forever stands: We meet Him guised as sunlight face to face;   We touch Him when we take a brother's hands. (257)  See ;. BLINDNESS A BLESSING Moses endured, it is said, as "seeing Him who is invisible." And "there are others," thank God! Fanny Crosby, in the eighties, has fulfilled the vow which she made at eight, and has never mourned over the fact that she is blind. What an impressive lesson of trust and resignation is her declaration that her blindness has proved not a deprivation, but a real blessing! If the gift of sight were offered her now she has said that she would elect to remain as she is. For she says cheerfully: "If I had not been deprived of sight, I should never have received so good an education, nor have cultivated so fine a memory, nor have been able to do good to so many people." (Text.)  (258)   BLINDNESS AND CONTACT   Mr. W. H. Levy, who is blind, says in his book, "Blindness and the Blind," that he can tell when he is opposite an object, and can perceive whether it is tall or short, slender or bulky. He can also determine whether it be a solitary object or a continuous fence; whether a close fence or an open one, and sometimes whether a wooden fence, a stone wall, or a hedge. None of the five senses has anything to do with this perceptive power, but the impressions are made on the skin of his face, and by it transmitted to the brain. He therefore names this unrecognized sense facial perception. The presence of a fog interferes with facial perception, and makes the impressions faint and untrustworthy; but darkness is no impediment. A noise which distracts the attention interferes with the impressions. In passing along the street he can distinguish stores from private houses, and doors from windows, if the windows consist of a number of panes, and not of a single sheet of glass. A remarkable fact, bearing on the subject of an unrecognized sense is mentioned by Mr. Levy. A naturalist extracted the eyes of several bats and covered the empty sockets with leather. In this condition the bats flew about the room, avoiding the sides and flying out of the door without touching the door-case. In flying through a sewer which made a right angle, they turned at the proper point. They flew through threads suspended from the ceiling without touching them, tho they were only far enough apart to admit the passage of the bats' extended wings.—Youth's Companion.

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BLINDNESS CURED

The blind man whom Jesus cured said, "I see men as trees walking." Christianity is a "convex" lens helping men to see, but it is too much to expect a newly enlightened convert to see accurately all at once.

Convex spectacles are made for the use of patients who have undergone the operation of removal of a cataract. A cataract is merely the crystalline lens of the eye become opaque. The convex lens of the spectacles supplies the place of the crystalline lens. But the patient is obliged to learn distances and dimensions after sight is thus restored, and during this experience he often suffers illusions.

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BLINDNESS, MORAL

There came a day when, in her solemn assembly, France voted to cast off the recognition of Almighty God. She lifted up in-