Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/790



A Bible-class teacher was telling of the various translations of the Bible and their different excellences. The class was much interested, and one of the young men that evening was talking to a friend about it.

"I think I prefer the King James version for my part," he said, "tho, of course, the Revised is more scholarly."

His friend smiled. "I prefer my mother's translation of the Bible myself to any other version," he said.

"Your mother's?" cried the first young man, thinking his companion had suddenly gone crazy. "What do you mean, Fred?"

"I mean that my mother has translated the Bible into the language of daily life for me ever since I was old enough to understand it. She translates it straight, too, and gives its full meaning. There has never been any obscurity about her version. Whatever printed version of the Bible I may study, my mother's is always the one that clears up my difficulties."

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Vessels—See. VIBRATION The jar and discord of life may often be modified by balancing one discord against another or by changing the rate of effort. Sometimes to go faster in one direction or slower in another brings harmony and peace. It is rather interesting to call attention to the recent improvement in the running conditions of the steamship Mauretania, which, it will be remembered, is driven by four steam turbines, and which recently damaged one of her propellers. While repairing the latter, advantage was taken of the opportunity to change the propeller-blades a little, and it is said the change reduced very appreciably the vibration of the vessel. It seems that there was more or less resonance between the vibration caused by the propeller-blades and the speed at which they were driven; so by throwing the two out of harmony, the effect is damped out. Doubtless similar conditions exist elsewhere and frequently are the cause of the entire trouble due to vibration, and by some slight change, throwing the apparatus or its support out of tune, the effect is removed.—The Electrical Review.

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See.

VICARIOUS SACRIFICE

Dr. Turner, in his book on the Samoan Islands, tells the following incident:

The people were cannibals, the King, Mahetoa, leading in the horrible practise. His young son, Polu, hated the heathenish and brutal custom, and one day, when he saw a poor boy waiting to be killed and served as a tender morsel for the King's dinner, he was touched with pity and said, "Don't cry; I will try and save you." So he drest himself in coconut leaves and had himself served just as tho he had been killed and roasted whole. The King came to the table, and looked down at the cannibal dish, saw two bright eyes looking up at him. He recognized his son, and the thought flashed through his heathen mind, "What if it were, indeed, my dear son, whose body had been cooked for my meal!" He was touched, too, by the magnanimity of his boy, taking the other lad's place, and he abolished cannibalism by law from his kingdom from that day. (Text.)

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VICARIOUS SALVATION IMPOSSIBLE

There was a man who dreamed that he died and, seeking admission to paradise, was refused. He attempted to excuse his lack of religious faith and fidelity by the old pretext that, while he looked after worldly affairs, his wife went to church for both. "Well," said the gatekeeper, "she has gone in for both!"

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Vicarious Sight—See.

VICARIOUSNESS

There are men who reap consequences without having the advantages of the causes that brought them about. For instance, it takes the gout a good long time to grow in a family, but it does grow, and it often grows from a good cellar of port in the possession of an ancestor. Now, what I think hard is that a man should have the port without having the gout; and what I think more tragic still, is that another man should have the gout without having had the port. But still that is one of the great laws of life. We can not avoid it, and we dare not impugn its wisdom. Did we, we should be like the great civic functionary who determined to have a south wall built all around his garden.—

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