SHORT-SIGHTED | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 18, 1881

SHORT-SIGHTED.

There were two short-sighted men, Ching and Chang, who were always quarreling as to which of them could see best. As they had heard there was to be a tablet erected at the gate of a neighboring temple, they determined that they would visit it together on a given day, and put their powers of eyesight to the test. But each desiring to take advantage of the other, Ching went by stealth to the temple; and looking quite close to the tablet, he saw an inscription, with the words, "To the great man of the past and the future." Chang also went, prying yet closer, and in addition to the inscription, "To the great man of the past and the future," he read in smaller characters, "This tablet is erected by the family of Ling in honor of the great man."

On the day appointed, standing at a distance from which neither could read, Ching exclaimed, "The inscription is, 'To the great man of the past and the future.'"

"True," said Chang; "but you have left out a part of the inscription, which I can read, but you cannot, and which is written in small letters: 'Erected by the family of Ling in honor of the great man.'"

"There is no such inscription !" said Ching.

"There is !" said Chang.

So they waxed wroth; and after abusing one another, they agreed to refer the matter to the high priest of the temple. He heard their story, and quietly said: "There is no tablet to read. It was taken into the interior of the temple yesterday."—Chatterbox.