Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/767



were exposed to intense cold. But it was discovered that radium when immersed in liquid air, which is extremely cold, immediately evolved more light, heat, and electricity. Then it was plunged into liquid hydrogen, of which the coldness is almost incalculable and inconceivable. The radium only glowed still more intensely with its emanations of light, heat and electricity.

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TRIAL REFINES

In the English county of Cornwall are great beds of what is called "china clay." You may take up a lump of this substance and examine it in vain with the view of discovering anything admirable or beautiful. But one day you may be traveling in the English midlands, where you may be invited to inspect the factories in which are made the exquisite Royal Worcester porcelain or the equally precious Wedgwood ware. You will be fascinated by everything you see. The same dead, cold, repellent, ugly clay you saw in Cornwall you are now admiring with ecstasy. It has been brought to the potteries, and touched by the fire, and painted by the artist, so that it rivals even the loveliest flowers in delicacy and beauty.

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TRIBULATION THE PATH TO GLORY

But know for all time this: There's blood upon the way the saints have trod, The singer of a day shall pass and die. The world itself shall pass, who passed them by; But they of the exceeding bitter cry, When Death itself is dead and life is bliss, Shall stand in heaven and sing their songs to God. (Text.)

—, The Outlook (London).

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TRIUMPH BY SELECTION

A moral reason for the survival of the fittest is given by Walton W. Battershall in the Critic:

The weak give way that stronger may have room For sovereign brain and soul to quell the brute. Thus, in the epic of this earth, harsh rhythms Are woven, that break the triumph song with moans And death-cries. Still rolls the eternal song, Setting God's theme to grander, sweeter notes, For us to strike; fighting old savageries That linger in the twilights of the dawn. (Text.)

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TRIUMPH IN DEATH

In the Boxer riots many Chinese Christian converts laid down their lives with cheerful courage "for the sake of the Name." One Chinaman who was captured by the Boxers and was told he was about to be put to death, asked permission to put on his best clothes. "For," said the martyr, "I am going to the palace of the King." His wonderful and serene faith so imprest the cruel murderers that, after his death, they dug out his heart to try and find the secret of his courage. In North China the blood of the martyrs has proved, indeed, the seed of the Church.

"To the palace of the King" is whither all Christians are wending their way. (Text.)

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TRIUMPH IN DEFEAT

Out of seeming defeat often springs the truest triumph, and even despair has often been the prelude to genuine victory. Especially does the sacrifice of self achieve glorious conquest.

One of the noblest of the world's heroes was Vercingetorix, who roused Gaul against Cæsar. Tho he lost his own life, he saved thousands of other lives. When he perceived that the war was lost he had the fortitude to acknowledge defeat and to recognize that he was the man whom the Roman commander most desired to capture. Assembling his officers, he informed them that he was willing to sacrifice himself in order to save them all. In due time he was led in chains through Rome, as part of Cæsar's triumphant procession and stabbed to death afterward in the darkness of his prison cell. To-day, on his rock-fortress, known now as Alise St. Reine, stands a gigantic bronze statue of him, proud, fearless, and strong, as on that last day of his freedom, with his hands on his sword-hilt, and his head turned toward the little hill across the valley where his allies were scattered and his cause was slain.

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