Catching Sun-Spots.


IF an India-rubber ball be thrown against

a hard surface, it will be thrown back or 

rebounded.

So if rays of sunlight fall on a piece

of glass, they will be reflected, and, if in a

room, the point on the wall or ceiling where

they are thrown will be marked by a bright

spot. An active person may catch the ball

when it rebounds, and so if the glass is held

still, we may place our hand or finger on the

sun-spot. But the sun-spot is not a substance

like the ball. One we can grasp and hold,

the other we can not. As soon as the glass

is moved, the latter angle varies, and no matter

how hard we press upon the sun-spot, it

will leave us and flit about, here, there, 

everywhere.

A group of schoolboys have been observed

with pieces of glass amusing themselves by

trying to catch sun-spots, and by "making

them fight," as they expressed it, on the ceiling

and walls of the school-room. One little

fellow enjoys the sport so much that he

sometimes forgets his lessons, and during

study hours slyly takes his piece of glass out

of his desk, as slyly transfers it to the sun's

rays, and then cautiously looks at the teacher

and for the fairy bird at the same glance.

Then a dark frown near the teacher's desk

scares the sunny creature off, and perhaps it

does not venture back until recess or the

next morning.

Many persons besides school-boys try to

catch sun-spots. With not a few the attempt

is no less enthusiastic, but far less innocent.

To catch a sun-spot has been the all absorbing

pursuits of many a misspent life.

Some seem to attain their object. The little

boy presses the spot and rejoices in his

fancied possession. The glass moves and

the sunbeams flit away. So it is in real life.

Many of the things so diligently sought, and

so highly prized, are mere shadowy nothings.

They flit away.

As the little boy forgot school duties, so

men often forget those higher duties that

concern them. The great Teacher frowns;

but, unlike the school-boy, they heed it not.

The rod of affliction is often needed to turn

their minds from the enjoyment of their

sun-spot to the discharge of duty.

Fashion is a sun-spot. Many declare that it

is better to be out of the world than out of

fashion. But, unless very rich, even they

will sometimes be either out of fashion or out

of means. By the time a garment has been

fairly cut and made, the glass has slightly

moved, the spot has flitted, the garment is

out of fashion. The longer the reflected

rays, the more easily and rapidly the spot

may be made to flit about. Fashion's rays,

reflected from the corrupt and now besieged

city of Paris, are as long as the

ocean is wide. At Paris the reflector is

held by a fickle and fiendish goddess whose

aim and delight is to amuse and enrich herself

at the expense of those who stupidly bow

at her shrine. These proud, but silly, creatures

spend their lives and God-given energies

in trying to keep pace with what all the

wings of the feathery tribe would not enable

them to overtake! How easily the goddess

baffles her blind votaries in France! And how

her sides shake with merriment at the queer

figures cut on this side of the Atlantic by

those in city and hamlet who deform themselves

in their eagerness to imitate her Paris

worshipers! It is not better to be out of

fashion than to be out of breath, chasing 

a sunspot,

especially if the pursuit has lead you so

far from home that not enough of strength

remains to enable you to return before overtaken

by the night of death?

Wealth is a sun-spot. To very many this

sun-spot is so dazzling that their whole life is

little else than a continual scramble to obtain

it. They bustle around in the morning in

time to awaken the cock chase their phantom

all day, and continue to make random

efforts to grasp after the sun has withdrawn

and the lamps have been lit and hung out in

the sky. All the week they toil and sweat,

and on the Sabbath perhaps lay plans for the

next week's campaign. The favorite topic

of thought and conversation is the sun-spot.

Worshipers of the one true God find time

to serve mammon before and after the appointed

services, and on the way to and from

the house of prayer. Their lips are attuned

to melody, but their hearts appreciate no

other music so much as the jingle of money.

Like the sun-spot, wealth often deserts us

when we imagine it to be in fullest possession.

We have too often for our praise, naught but

disappointment---disappointment too that

comes too late in life to be retrieved. Vanity,

vanity, all is vanity, will be the cry of all

who have no higher aim in life than to possess

a sun-spot. 



Pious Youth.