PHILIP GIDDINGS by Philip Giddings

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 20, 1913

PHILIP GIDDINGS

By Philip Giddings

Morsels

PHILIP GIDDINGS

“Mozart says in his letters that whenever he saw a grand mountain or a wonderful piece of scenery, it said to him, ‘Turn me into music, play me on the organ.’ So is every performer on the different instruments in the varied departments of life’s orchestra, who is full of his subject and attuned to it. Tone replies to every note, music is transposed from musing, and he turns every text into sermonic texture.

Some people want education as children want toys,—to play with; others like sharp tools to work with.

Notion, or even emotion without motion, does not carry. Sentiment is good when there is sense to it. Feelings for others to be felt by them must be handled. “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled”—with nothing—is the platitude of an empty plate, a crusty piety not worth the pity of a pie crust.

“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.” Prov. 3:27, 28.

If all rich men would connect thoughts on coffer with coffin (and coffin was the earlier form of coffer), remembering that “we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Tim. 6:7), they would see the wisdom for that better trade where “godliness with contentment is great gain”—which kind we can carry out.

There is a fixed life-and-death policy in which an undertaking relates to undertaker. As you bury your soul in coffer, so you will be in your coffin. How you live on earth decides how you leave it.

The electrical genius and wizard, Thomas Alva Edison, has invented many wonders in his line, but his phonomotor, or vocal engine, which will saw wood with the power exerted when one speaks, strikes us as an invention with an acted moral that speaks louder than words.

You are worth what your work says you are worth. “How you do” is the answer to “Who are you?” The how proves the who. An Israelite indeed is an Israelite indeed. Abraham’s children do deeds—of Abraham. The manner proves the man. The superior race are those in superior running. To be great, one must do greatly, for the verb to be is only the copula to join the subject to the real predicate; so see to it that thou be doing. High-school boys should be high schoolboys.

“And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people . . . ? And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee. And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Beth-shean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only: but the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.” Joshua 17:14-18.

What the children of Israel need to prove their greatness is not simply a mouthophone, but a phonomotor. Vocal energy without a vocal engine goes on an errantry instead of an errand. Powder without shot may fire off, but it shoots nothing. Don’t try to hatch a chicken without an egg. The incubator may be ever so perfect, and the temperature ever so exact, but Fahrenheit alone never produces feather. Give matter to the manner. Direct your thoughts and words in channels of usefulness. It is not the fussing, but the fusing; not so much “to-do” as to do.

To some education is only headication that puffeth up,—a head knowledge of mere folio as a tree of mere foliage. But true education is a “tree of knowledge” whose branches bear fruit. It is a “tree of life”—a life-tree rooted deeper than head-soil, into heart-soil; a tree of righteousness bearing much fruit by which God is glorified.

True education edifies. It builds, with the combined labor of head, heart, and hand, an edifice for eternity.

It is good to be spiritual, but with a spiritual understanding.

Motive qualifies motion. The upright on earth reach right up into heaven.

Look and live, but live where you look, lest you be among those who “feared the Lord, and served their own gods.” 2 Kings 17:33.

Latent energy, like hidden talent, needs the friction of application to ignite it. Scratch the match.

The time to be is the golden medium now. Will be has not yet come; was is passed. Now is the accepted time. “Now is the day of salvation.”