Christianity, like its Founder, is the enemy of all false pretense.
Jesus’s denunciations were severest against hypocrites:
The amount of pain and discomfort which malingerers are willing
to endure to obtain their discharge is almost incredible, but
the facts are well attested. A limb has been held in a fixt
position for many months and not even the application of the
actual cautery has sufficed to move it. Many men have chopped
off some fingers and have claimed that it was an accident.
Mental derangement of one sort or another is a favorite form
of malingery, but the results usually resemble the popular or
stage idea of insanity rather than the true products of mental
alienation.
The threat of the application of the actual cautery has cured
paralysis, but cases have been recorded where malingerers have
endured the cautery on several occasions. A man who simulated
blindness was placed on the edge of a jetty and told to walk
straight forward. He stept out and fell into the water, for he
knew that those who were testing him dared not let him drown.
In another case, however, a man who seemed to have paralysis of
an arm allowed the amputating knife to be placed to it without
flinching, but when thrown into the river he struck out with
both arms and swam. (Text.)
(2930)
* * * * *
Musical connoisseurs often express disappointment at the sound
of some imposing-looking organ. The instrument with the great
dimensions of its outer frame and the gorgeous show of its great
gilded pipes in front would give the impression of great power.
But those pipes, instead of being of hollow and sonorous metal,
are solid pieces of wood. They are decorated dummies, incapable
of giving forth a single sound. The musical pipes in such an
instrument are hidden from view but they alone are of service.
In the world we must expect shams of character and ostentations,
impositions, but in the Church of God there should be no such thing as
“folly that is set in great dignity.” (Text.)
(2931)
* * * * *
Examination of the premises occupied by a Los Angeles private
bank, lately closed for lack of funds, showed that the supposed
vault was a big door without any opening behind it. The door
was of steel, with plate-glass knobs, shiny combination dials
and all the features of an imposing safe protecting quantities
of money. Just how such a sham affair could be put in without
becoming a matter of comment is hard to see. Or do workmen set
such doors often enough not to be surprized by them? (Text.)
(2932)
=Sharing Blessings=--See RESPONSIBILITY.