The Living Bible

Professor Plateau, of Ghent, who was well known for his remarkable series of observations and experiments on the relations between insects and flowers, tells of an interesting fact in his researches. For a certain purpose he determined to find out how far insects could be attracted by the reflection of flowers in a mirror. A mirror being placed behind the plant in flower so as to give a good reflection, the visitants were watched. It was all in vain; the insects went straight to the real flowers, and occupied themselves on them without paying any attention to the reflection.

Whilst duly appreciative of all aids to Biblical interpretation, let them not divert you from the living flowers wet with dew, rich with honey, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (John vi. 63).—Dr. W. L.

WATKINSON. GOD’S JEWELS A newspaper not long ago contained an article on “The Humble Gems.”

It was directed to condemn the prevailing fashion of affecting rare and garish jewellery, whilst the more modest gems were neglected. The article proceeded to explain that numbers of jewels hitherto known only to the lapidary are yet of exceeding beauty. “Cinnamon stones,” which afford a perfect series of chrome shades from fiery red to golden orange, the white sapphire, the blue spinel, the whole chromatic gamut of zircons, white and pink topazes, and many other tertiary-tinted gems, we were assured await the prevalence of a purer taste.

The writer proceeded to say that in Ceylon there is a perfect waste of most beautiful material. Part of a railway is ballasted with white crystalline limestone studded with lovely blue spinels; the foundations of a bridge were laid in a bed containing myriads of decomposed rubies in rose-red flakes of singular beauty; sapphires were found in the broken metal used to mend the roads; and whole lengths of rose “Truth Embodied in a Tale” quartz were laid in the ruts to be ground to powder by bullock carts.

Just as there are heaps of modest jewels of special beauty entirely overlooked, and cart-ruts gleaming with disregarded treasure, so are there humbler gems of humanity whose strong pure life is the poetry of city street and obscure hamlet. These lowly toilers reveal the rarest qualities of conscience and heart; and although they do not captivate the carnal eye as do fashionable brilliants and historic diamonds, yet are they His jewels who knows the exact value of us all, and they shall have their honoured place in His diadem in the great day (Mal. iii.

17).-DR. W. L. WATKINSON.

The illustrations given should open the preacher’s eyes to the use he can make of facts of science, art and industry. The study of science and nature books will have the incidental advantage of opening his eyes to the wonders of the world he lives in, and he will cultivate his own powers of observation in order to collect original illustrations, for none are so effective as those of the preacher’s own finding. The late Dr. C.

A. Berry was keenly interested in machinery, and often drew illustrations from what he had noticed at a railway station or in going over some works. He used to tell how once he went over a works and was nearly deafened by the rattle of the machinery. He was finally taken into a room where there was very little noise, although powerful engines were at work.

“This,” he was told, “is the power house, that keeps all the machinery going.” The spiritual power house, Dr. Berry said, is the prayer meeting or the chamber where the Christian in secret pours out his soul in prayer. All there is quiet, a solemn hush, and apparently little is being done or produced; but stop the engine of prayer, and all the machinery will come B The Art of Sermon Illustration to a standstill; let down the fires in the power house, and all the machinery will slacken.

Another excellent machinery illustration, teaching a