John B. Kissinger submitted to the bite of a yellow fever
mosquito in the interest of science while in the army in Cuba
and was for years almost helpless.
Kissinger was bitten by mosquitoes carrying yellow fever germs
and was then treated by the best medical experts in the army. It
was supposed he had recovered his health and that as a result
of the experiment yellow fever could be guarded against, but he
later suffered a breakdown and became a physical wreck, unable
to use his feet and legs.
Is not the willingness to suffer for man the very spirit of Christ?
(Text.)
(2804)
Rev. E. J. Marsh, missionary at Hay River, Alaska, told his
Indian boarding-school children about the needs of the leper
children in China. They were moved to help, and asked Mr. Marsh
how they could do so. Their clothing and food were all supplied
them by the mission, and they had nothing to give. After a
little they proposed that they should give up their pudding
on Sunday. Their fare consisted of fish three times a day,
sometimes potatoes, but on Sunday as a special treat they had
rice pudding without sugar. They were so insistent, that they
were allowed to go without it every second Sunday and at the end
of the year a gift of two pounds was sent to the leper children
in China.
(2805)
* * * * *
One of the New York dailies printed in one of its issues as a
sort of sensational advertisement, coupons, which served, when
filled out, as life insurance policies for the remainder of
the day on which they were issued. One of the newsboys read it
over and over, then called some of his companions and wanted to
know if they supposed that “was on the level”; if the newspaper
“would make good.” He decided at last that the proposition was
one to be trusted and he cut out the coupon, tucked it away
in the pocket of his ragged coat. A half-hour later he threw
himself beneath the wheels of one of the surface electric cars
and was instantly crusht to almost a shapeless mass. In his
pocket was the coupon, together with a letter, stating that his
mother was sick and in need of such assistance as he had not
been able to obtain for her, and so had sacrificed his life for
the insurance money that was to be paid to her.
As we read the story one does not think of the grimy hands and the
unwashed face and the ragged coat. He does not hear the roar of the
elevated trains above or the tumult and voices of the street below, but
his eyes catch the glory of a second calvary and the soul is hushed
before the divine and the eternal that beat in that little heart behind
that stained and tattered coat. (Text.)
(2806)
See OFFERINGS, EXTRAVAGANT; SCIENCE, DEVOTION TO.