A Wonderful Night
I. An Age of Wonders
[Transcriber's note: The first letter of each chapter is in the form of
an illustrated dropped capital.]
We live in an age of wonders. Great discoveries and startling events
crowd upon us so fast that we have scarcely recovered from the
bewildering effects of one before another comes, and we are thus kept in
a constant whirl of excitement. The heavens are full of shooting stars,
and while watching one we are distracted by another. So frequent is this
experience that our nerves almost refuse to respond to the shock of a
new sensation. We are no longer surprised at surprises. The marvelous
has become the commonplace, and the unexpected is what we now expect.
Yet we are not to suppose that our age is the only one that has had its
wonders. Other times had theirs also, only these old-time wonders have
become familiar to us and ceased to be wonderful; but in their day they
were marvelous, and some of them equalled if they did not surpass any
wonders we have witnessed. The Great War was the most cataclysmic
eruption that has ever convulsed the world, but it was not more
revolutionary and sensational in the twentieth century than the French
Revolution was in the eighteenth and the Reformation was in the
sixteenth century. The discovery of America in the fifteenth century
created immense excitement and was relatively a more colossal and
startling occurrence than anything that has happened since.
The telescope and the Copernican theory were as great achievements in
their day as the spectroscope and the nebular hypothesis are in our day.
The most useful inventions and the most marvelous products of the human
brain are not the railway and telegraph after all. The art of printing,
which infinitely multiplies thought and sows it in the very air and
every morning photographs the world anew, is a more useful invention and
in its day was a great wonder. Still farther back, hidden in the mists
of antiquity, lies the invention of the alphabet that is even more
useful and marvelous. It is when we get back to the oldest tools, the
hammer and plough and loom, that we come to inventions of the greatest
fundamental utility, and we could better afford to give up all our
modern magic machines than to part with these.
The oldest literature is ever the ripest, richest and best, and Homer
and Shakespeare overtop all our modern writers as the Alps overshadow
the hills lying around their feet. What modern preacher can compare in
eloquence and power with Paul and Isaiah? Nature is ever full of new
wonders, and yet the grass was as green and the mountains as grand and
the golden nets and silver fringes of the clouds were as resplendent in
the days of Abraham as they are to-day. We are the heirs of the ages,
but wonder and wisdom were not born with us, and with us they will not
die.
Where must we go to find the greatest wonder? Not to the scientist's
discoveries and the inventor's cunning devices: the greatest marvel is
not material but spiritual; and to find it we must not look into the
present or future, but go back to the first Christmas morning. On that
morning the Judean shepherds had a story to tell which all they that
heard it wondered at and which is still the wonder and song of the
world. The birth of Jesus is absolutely the greatest event of all time.
Whatever view is taken of him he has become the Master of the world.
Christ has created Christendom, silently lifting its moral level as
mountains are heaved up against the sky from beneath. The coming of such
a unique and powerful personality into the world is an infinitely
greater wonder than the discovery of a new continent or the blazing out
of a new star in the sky.
"1100705918"
[Transcriber's note: The first letter of each chapter is in the form of
an illustrated dropped capital.]
We live in an age of wonders. Great discoveries and startling events
crowd upon us so fast that we have scarcely recovered from the
bewildering effects of one before another comes, and we are thus kept in
a constant whirl of excitement. The heavens are full of shooting stars,
and while watching one we are distracted by another. So frequent is this
experience that our nerves almost refuse to respond to the shock of a
new sensation. We are no longer surprised at surprises. The marvelous
has become the commonplace, and the unexpected is what we now expect.
Yet we are not to suppose that our age is the only one that has had its
wonders. Other times had theirs also, only these old-time wonders have
become familiar to us and ceased to be wonderful; but in their day they
were marvelous, and some of them equalled if they did not surpass any
wonders we have witnessed. The Great War was the most cataclysmic
eruption that has ever convulsed the world, but it was not more
revolutionary and sensational in the twentieth century than the French
Revolution was in the eighteenth and the Reformation was in the
sixteenth century. The discovery of America in the fifteenth century
created immense excitement and was relatively a more colossal and
startling occurrence than anything that has happened since.
The telescope and the Copernican theory were as great achievements in
their day as the spectroscope and the nebular hypothesis are in our day.
The most useful inventions and the most marvelous products of the human
brain are not the railway and telegraph after all. The art of printing,
which infinitely multiplies thought and sows it in the very air and
every morning photographs the world anew, is a more useful invention and
in its day was a great wonder. Still farther back, hidden in the mists
of antiquity, lies the invention of the alphabet that is even more
useful and marvelous. It is when we get back to the oldest tools, the
hammer and plough and loom, that we come to inventions of the greatest
fundamental utility, and we could better afford to give up all our
modern magic machines than to part with these.
The oldest literature is ever the ripest, richest and best, and Homer
and Shakespeare overtop all our modern writers as the Alps overshadow
the hills lying around their feet. What modern preacher can compare in
eloquence and power with Paul and Isaiah? Nature is ever full of new
wonders, and yet the grass was as green and the mountains as grand and
the golden nets and silver fringes of the clouds were as resplendent in
the days of Abraham as they are to-day. We are the heirs of the ages,
but wonder and wisdom were not born with us, and with us they will not
die.
Where must we go to find the greatest wonder? Not to the scientist's
discoveries and the inventor's cunning devices: the greatest marvel is
not material but spiritual; and to find it we must not look into the
present or future, but go back to the first Christmas morning. On that
morning the Judean shepherds had a story to tell which all they that
heard it wondered at and which is still the wonder and song of the
world. The birth of Jesus is absolutely the greatest event of all time.
Whatever view is taken of him he has become the Master of the world.
Christ has created Christendom, silently lifting its moral level as
mountains are heaved up against the sky from beneath. The coming of such
a unique and powerful personality into the world is an infinitely
greater wonder than the discovery of a new continent or the blazing out
of a new star in the sky.
A Wonderful Night
I. An Age of Wonders
[Transcriber's note: The first letter of each chapter is in the form of
an illustrated dropped capital.]
We live in an age of wonders. Great discoveries and startling events
crowd upon us so fast that we have scarcely recovered from the
bewildering effects of one before another comes, and we are thus kept in
a constant whirl of excitement. The heavens are full of shooting stars,
and while watching one we are distracted by another. So frequent is this
experience that our nerves almost refuse to respond to the shock of a
new sensation. We are no longer surprised at surprises. The marvelous
has become the commonplace, and the unexpected is what we now expect.
Yet we are not to suppose that our age is the only one that has had its
wonders. Other times had theirs also, only these old-time wonders have
become familiar to us and ceased to be wonderful; but in their day they
were marvelous, and some of them equalled if they did not surpass any
wonders we have witnessed. The Great War was the most cataclysmic
eruption that has ever convulsed the world, but it was not more
revolutionary and sensational in the twentieth century than the French
Revolution was in the eighteenth and the Reformation was in the
sixteenth century. The discovery of America in the fifteenth century
created immense excitement and was relatively a more colossal and
startling occurrence than anything that has happened since.
The telescope and the Copernican theory were as great achievements in
their day as the spectroscope and the nebular hypothesis are in our day.
The most useful inventions and the most marvelous products of the human
brain are not the railway and telegraph after all. The art of printing,
which infinitely multiplies thought and sows it in the very air and
every morning photographs the world anew, is a more useful invention and
in its day was a great wonder. Still farther back, hidden in the mists
of antiquity, lies the invention of the alphabet that is even more
useful and marvelous. It is when we get back to the oldest tools, the
hammer and plough and loom, that we come to inventions of the greatest
fundamental utility, and we could better afford to give up all our
modern magic machines than to part with these.
The oldest literature is ever the ripest, richest and best, and Homer
and Shakespeare overtop all our modern writers as the Alps overshadow
the hills lying around their feet. What modern preacher can compare in
eloquence and power with Paul and Isaiah? Nature is ever full of new
wonders, and yet the grass was as green and the mountains as grand and
the golden nets and silver fringes of the clouds were as resplendent in
the days of Abraham as they are to-day. We are the heirs of the ages,
but wonder and wisdom were not born with us, and with us they will not
die.
Where must we go to find the greatest wonder? Not to the scientist's
discoveries and the inventor's cunning devices: the greatest marvel is
not material but spiritual; and to find it we must not look into the
present or future, but go back to the first Christmas morning. On that
morning the Judean shepherds had a story to tell which all they that
heard it wondered at and which is still the wonder and song of the
world. The birth of Jesus is absolutely the greatest event of all time.
Whatever view is taken of him he has become the Master of the world.
Christ has created Christendom, silently lifting its moral level as
mountains are heaved up against the sky from beneath. The coming of such
a unique and powerful personality into the world is an infinitely
greater wonder than the discovery of a new continent or the blazing out
of a new star in the sky.
[Transcriber's note: The first letter of each chapter is in the form of
an illustrated dropped capital.]
We live in an age of wonders. Great discoveries and startling events
crowd upon us so fast that we have scarcely recovered from the
bewildering effects of one before another comes, and we are thus kept in
a constant whirl of excitement. The heavens are full of shooting stars,
and while watching one we are distracted by another. So frequent is this
experience that our nerves almost refuse to respond to the shock of a
new sensation. We are no longer surprised at surprises. The marvelous
has become the commonplace, and the unexpected is what we now expect.
Yet we are not to suppose that our age is the only one that has had its
wonders. Other times had theirs also, only these old-time wonders have
become familiar to us and ceased to be wonderful; but in their day they
were marvelous, and some of them equalled if they did not surpass any
wonders we have witnessed. The Great War was the most cataclysmic
eruption that has ever convulsed the world, but it was not more
revolutionary and sensational in the twentieth century than the French
Revolution was in the eighteenth and the Reformation was in the
sixteenth century. The discovery of America in the fifteenth century
created immense excitement and was relatively a more colossal and
startling occurrence than anything that has happened since.
The telescope and the Copernican theory were as great achievements in
their day as the spectroscope and the nebular hypothesis are in our day.
The most useful inventions and the most marvelous products of the human
brain are not the railway and telegraph after all. The art of printing,
which infinitely multiplies thought and sows it in the very air and
every morning photographs the world anew, is a more useful invention and
in its day was a great wonder. Still farther back, hidden in the mists
of antiquity, lies the invention of the alphabet that is even more
useful and marvelous. It is when we get back to the oldest tools, the
hammer and plough and loom, that we come to inventions of the greatest
fundamental utility, and we could better afford to give up all our
modern magic machines than to part with these.
The oldest literature is ever the ripest, richest and best, and Homer
and Shakespeare overtop all our modern writers as the Alps overshadow
the hills lying around their feet. What modern preacher can compare in
eloquence and power with Paul and Isaiah? Nature is ever full of new
wonders, and yet the grass was as green and the mountains as grand and
the golden nets and silver fringes of the clouds were as resplendent in
the days of Abraham as they are to-day. We are the heirs of the ages,
but wonder and wisdom were not born with us, and with us they will not
die.
Where must we go to find the greatest wonder? Not to the scientist's
discoveries and the inventor's cunning devices: the greatest marvel is
not material but spiritual; and to find it we must not look into the
present or future, but go back to the first Christmas morning. On that
morning the Judean shepherds had a story to tell which all they that
heard it wondered at and which is still the wonder and song of the
world. The birth of Jesus is absolutely the greatest event of all time.
Whatever view is taken of him he has become the Master of the world.
Christ has created Christendom, silently lifting its moral level as
mountains are heaved up against the sky from beneath. The coming of such
a unique and powerful personality into the world is an infinitely
greater wonder than the discovery of a new continent or the blazing out
of a new star in the sky.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940013191464 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | SAP |
| Publication date: | 07/31/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 37 KB |
| Age Range: | 6 - 8 Years |
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