Growth of Passion

   An old man was once walking with a little boy. They came across four shrubs. The old man said to his youthful companion:

   "Pull up the least one."
   He obeyed with ease.
   "Now the next."
   He obeyed, but it did not come so easily.
   "And the third."
   It took all his strength to move its roots, but he succeeded.
   "Now the fourth."
   In vain the lad put forth all his strength. He only made the leaves tremble. He could not move the roots. They had gone strongly into the earth, and no effort could dislodge them.
   Then the wise old man said to the ardent youth:
   "This, my son, is just what happens with our passions. When they are young and weak one may by a little watchfulness over self and the help of a little self-denial easily tear them up, but if we let them cast their roots deep into our souls there is no human power can uproot them. For this reason, my child, watch well over the first movements of your soul and study by acts of virtue to keep your passions well in check."

Necessity And Progress

When God told Moses to speak to the children of Israel and bid them go forward there was another urgency to reinforce this injunction. The chariots of Egypt were behind them; they must go forward or die.

Has not the greater part of human progress been due to necessities urging from behind and below - hunger, necessity for shelter, climates, hardships, trials. By all these God has ever been driving men up out of their Egypt of sloth and slavery toward a higher destiny.

"The Necessity of an Enemy Part 1", from the series
 "Fight to Win". Destined to Win with Pastor Frank Santora

Accidental Discovery

       Argand, the inventor of the famous lamp which bears his name, had been experimenting for some time in trying to increase the light given out by his lamp, but all to no purpose. On a table before him one night lay an oil-flask which had accidentally got the bottom broken off, leaving a long-necked, funnel-shaped tube. This Argand took up carelessly from the table and placed almost without thought, as he afterward related, over the flame. A brilliant white light was the magical result. It is needless to add that the hint was not lost by the experimenter, who proceeded to put his discovery into practical use by "inventing" the common glass lamp-chimney. Hundreds of discoveries which have been heralded to the world as the acme of human genius have been the result of merest accident, the auger, calico printing and vulcanization of rubber being among the number. 

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