witness-box, and see how quickly the judge will rule him out. It is
the man who tells the plain, simple truth that has the most influence
with the jury.
Suppose that Moses had prepared a speech for Pharaoh, and had got his
hair all smoothly brushed, and had stood before the looking-glass, or
had gone to an elocutionist to be taught how to make an oratorical
speech and how to make gestures. Suppose that he had buttoned his
coat, put one hand in his chest, had struck an attitude, and begun:
"The God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has
commanded me to come into the presence of the noble King of Egypt."
I think they would have taken his head right off! They had Egyptians
who could be as eloquent as Moses. It was not eloquence they wanted.
To Which Class Do You Belong?
Some one has said that there are three classes of people: the "wills,"
the "won'ts," and the "can'ts"; the first accomplish everything, the
second oppose everything, and the third fail in everything.
Sunday Work
A Christian man was once urged by his employer to work on Sunday.
"Does not your Bible say that if your ass falls into a pit on the
Sabbath, you may pull him out?"
"Yes," replied the other; "but if the ass had the habit of falling
into the same pit every Sabbath, I would either fill up the pit or
sell the ass."
There Must Be Roots
Suppose I hire two men to set out trees, and after a day or two I go
out to see how they are getting along. I find that one man has set out
a hundred trees, and the other only ten. I say:
"Look here; what does this mean? That man has set out a hundred trees,
and you have set out only ten. What does it mean?"
"Yes, but he has cut off all the roots, and, just stuck the tops into
the ground."
I go to the other man, and say: "What does this mean? Why have you
planted all of these trees without roots?"
"I don't believe in roots; they are of no account. My trees look just
as well as his."
But when the sun blazes upon the trees, they all wither and die.
There are a lot of people running around who haven't got any roots. A
good many live on negations. They are always telling what they _don't_
believe. I want a man to tell me what he _does_ believe, not what he
does not believe. And I like to meet a positive man. We just want to
know what men do believe. We don't want trees that haven't any roots,
for they will dry up when the sun blazes on them. There are a good
many
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