An English writer says:
About fifty years ago two eminent French chemists visited
London, and rather “astonished the natives” by a curious feature
of their dress. They wore on their hats large patches of colored
paper. It was litmus paper, and their object in attaching it to
their hats was to test the impurities of the London atmosphere.
Blue litmus paper, as everybody knows nowadays, turns red when
exposed to an acid. The French chemists found that their hat
decorations changed color, and indicated the presence of acid
in the air of London; but when they left the metropolis and
wandered in the open fields their blue litmus paper retained
its original color. By using alkaline paper they contrived to
collect enough of the acid to test its composition. They found
it to be the acid which is formed by the burning of sulfur, and
attributed its existence to the sulfur of our coal.
It would be well if we all had some kind of moral “litmus paper” with
which to test our moral atmosphere. Is not God’s spirit in us such a
testing instrument? (Text.)
(3206)
* * * * *
Oriental cloth merchants call in the sun as an expert witness
in determining the quality of the finer products of the loom.
Servants of the seller pass the web slowly between the purchaser
and the sun. If no blemish is revealed by the flood of light
which this incorruptible witness pours through warp and woof,
the piece is passed and paid for as perfect. Every language
used by these dealers has its word meaning, “judged by the sun.”
Greek merchants, in New Testament times, advertised “sun-judged”
cloth in all the market-places. (Text.)
Paul uses this practise as a figure of speech in Phil. 1:10. To be
“sincere and without offense,” means to be able to pass severe tests
like the sun test.
(3207)
* * * * *
_The Chautauquan_ gives an account of Greek coins from which is
taken the following extract:
In spite of the guarantee that might be afforded by the mark
of a state or a prince, we find the Greeks applying certain
tests to determine the genuineness of the currency offered to
them. Plating was easily detected by jabbing the suspected coin
with some sharp instrument. At other times the touch-stone was
used. One which was known as the “Lydian stone” was supposed
to reveal a proportion of foreign metal as small as a barley
corn in a stater. Another test, in the case of silver, was to
polish the coin, and then breathe on it. If the moisture quickly
disappeared the metal was pure. Yet another way to detect alloy
was to heat the coin, or coins, on red-hot iron. If the metal
was unalloyed it remained bright; if mixt with other substances,
it turned black or red according as it was more or less impure.
(Text.)
(3208)
See IDEAS, POWER OF.