4144<\/b> The Search Of Ali Hafed<\/b><\/p>\n
Many have wonderful opportunities surrounding them but do not see them. They are like Ali Hafed, the Persian farmer, who sold his fertile farm and traveled over the world in an unsuccessful search for diamonds, and finally died in poverty and despair in a distant land, while the far-famed diamond beds or Golconda had been discovered on his despised farm. <\/p>\n
\u2014Orison S. Marden<\/p>\n
4145<\/b> Biggest Lump Of Gold<\/b><\/p>\n
A big lump of something, a stone supposedly, laid for centuries two feet under a shallow, limpid brook in North Carolina. People passing that way saw only an ugly lump, and passed on. A poor man passing one day saw a heavy lump, a good thing to hold his door ajar, and he took it home. A geologist who stopped at the poor man\u2019s door one day saw a lump of gold\u2014the biggest lump of gold ever found east of the Rockies. It has been valued at Tiffany\u2019s at over $100,000. <\/p>\n
4146<\/b> \u201cLast Chance Gulch\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Many fortune seekers passing over the \u201cLast Chance Gulch,\u201d where now is Helena, Montana, were unconscious of its wealth, until a miner, driven almost to desperation by his need, began vigorously to dig. In a short time more than eight million dollars worth of gold was brought to the surface. <\/p>\n
4147<\/b> A Child\u2019s Estimate<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the first diamonds found on the South Africa diamond fields was picked up by the child of a small farmer, as he was playing beside a brook near his father\u2019s cottage. Some months afterwards a peddler came to the cottage with a pack on his back. As he was displaying his wares, the peddler spied the stone on a shelf in the room. He took it up and examined it, and then asked the mother what she would take for it. She pointed to the child and said, laughing, \u201cIt belongs to that bairn, not to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The peddler then offered the boy a box of wooden soldiers, worth a few cents, in exchange for the stone, and the child gladly accepted the offer. That stone was a very precious jewel. The peddler took it to Capetown, where he sold it for a large sum to a jeweler. When the jeweler sent it to Europe to be sold, he obtained $125,000 for it, and it now adorns a royal neck. Neither the child nor his parents were wise enough to know its value. <\/p>\n
\u2014James E. Denton<\/p>\n
4148<\/b> Largest Ruby<\/b><\/p>\n
A remarkable story is told about an exceedingly costly jewel that for many years was considered of no more value than a mere pebble. <\/p>\n
Gustaf Gillman, a Chicago lapidary, was at work in his shop, according to the narrative, when John Mihok, of Omaha, entered. Mihok, who was a laborer, drew out of his pocket a rough, red stone and handed it to Gillman. \u201cI want you to cut and polish this,\u201d said Mihok. \u201cWhere did you get it?\u201d gasped Gillman, as his eyes almost popped out of his head. \u201cMy father picked it up in Hungary fifty years ago,\u201d was the reply of Mihok. \u201cHe thought it was a pretty pebble. When I landed in this country, I found it in my valise. It has been lying around the house ever since. The children played with it. My last baby cut his teeth on it. One night I dreamed it was a diamond worth a lot of money, but it\u2019s not a diamond. It\u2019s red.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it\u2019s a pigeon-blood ruby,\u201d said Gillman. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat might it be worth?\u201d was the question of Mihok. \u201cI\u2019d say anywhere from one hundred thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,\u201d answered Gillman; and Mihok leaned against the door. <\/p>\n
The big, rough stone, we are told, cut to a flawless ruby of 23-and-nine-tenths carats. It is believed to be the largest ruby in this country and possibly the largest in the world. <\/p>\n
\u2014Moody Monthly<\/i><\/p>\n
4149<\/b> The Return Party<\/b><\/p>\n
The story is told that certain Brazilian goatherds, after listening to the fascinating story of a wandering Indian, organized a party to travel on foot to California to dig gold. Each took with him a small leather bag of glasslike rocks with which to play their favorite gambling game. The journey was long and wearisome. Some died on the way, among them an elderly man who gave his son his bag of pebbles as his only possession. In San Francisco the boy discovered that the glasslike pebbles in the bag were really choice diamonds in the rough, which resulted in the organization of a return party to go to Brazil to hunt diamonds. <\/p>\n
4150<\/b> Biggest Diamond Mine<\/b><\/p>\n
There was a pagan priest who owned a compound in South Africa. Through the compound ran a little creek. The priest often became impatient when his camel laboriously nuzzled away the glittering stones in the shallow water to make a hole deep enough for him to drink comfortably. The \u201cdiamond fever\u201d was spreading over South Africa. Caught up in the excitement, he sold the compound and went with the others in search of diamonds. Years later, frustrated and unsuccessful, he returned to find that the biggest diamond mine of the country was on his old compound. <\/p>\n
4151<\/b> $50 To Half Million Dollar Painting<\/b><\/p>\n
It had hung on the wall of her modest living room for fifteen years. It pictured the temptation of Eve by the Devil. Mrs. Rosemary Cattrell, an Edinburgh art teacher, found out the real value of the painting when she decided to sell it to raise a deposit for a car. Then she discovered that her painting was by a 16th-century German artist, Hans Baldung. The painting, once valued at $50, was auctioned for $537,600. <\/p>\n
4152<\/b> The Blot On Handkerchief<\/b><\/p>\n
A friend once showed John Ruskin a costly handkerchief on which a blot of ink had been made. Nothing can be done with it now,\u201d said the owner. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely worthless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruskin made no reply, but carried the handkerchief away with him. After a time he sent it back, to the great surprise of his friend, who could scarcely recognize it. In a most skillful and artistic way Ruskin had made a design in India ink, using the blot as a basis and making the handkerchief more valuable than ever. <\/p>\n
\u2014War Cry<\/i><\/p>\n
4153<\/b> The Prized Picture Of Czar<\/b><\/p>\n
Some time ago, one of the Czars of Russia offered a prize of thirty thousand dollars for the best portrait of himself. All the painters in the empire were invited to compete, and nearly a thousand complied with the invitation. A few days before the time appointed for awarding the prize, the committee was passing through the gallery where the pictures were being hung, and, noticing a picture leaning against a post, one of the committee said to the others, \u201cThere is no use in hanging that daub.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI beg your pardon,\u201d said the artist, who overheard the remark, \u201cI painted that picture, and I claim the privilege of hanging it in the proper light, at the proper distance, and then you may pass judgment upon it.\u201d The committee of course, felt the demand was reasonable, and when the award was given, the picture had the prize. <\/p>\n
\u2014Sermon Illustrator<\/i><\/p>\n
4154<\/b> From Stone To \u201cDavid\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Agostino d\u2019 Antonio, a sculptor of Florence, Italy, wrought diligently but unsuccessfully on a large piece of marble. \u201cI can do nothing with it,\u201d he finally said. Other sculptors, too, worked with the piece of marble, but they, too, gave up the task. The stone was discarded. It lay on a rubbish heap for forty years. <\/p>\n
Out strolling one day, Michelangelo saw the stone and the latent possibilities in it. It was brought to his studio. He began to work on it. Ultimately, his vision and work were crowned with success. From that seemingly worthless stone was carved one of the world\u2019s masterpieces of sculpture\u2014\u201dDavid!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
4155<\/b> Fred The Unknown<\/b><\/p>\n
For years a white marble bust, affectionately known as Fred, was used as a hatstand by regulars at a Yorkshire barber\u2019s shop. The present proprietor, however, plans to sell Fred\u2014for $100,000 or more. Experts have identified the work as the bust of Frederick Augustus, son of King Edward III, by sculptor Joseph Nollekens.<\/p>\n
4156<\/b> The Rare Dish<\/b><\/p>\n
In England Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Alderman paid 80 pence ($41.64) at a jumble sale for a moth-eaten velvet cape, a pair of rugby boots, an old army jacket, and a \u201cdirty little dish.\u201d Later the dish was sold at Sotheby\u2019s auctionhouse for 9,000 pounds ($18,450). It turned out to be a rare silver-gilt piece made in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. <\/p>\n
4157<\/b> Window Out Of Broken Glass<\/b><\/p>\n
In one of the cathedrals of England there is a beautiful window through which the sunlight streams. It displays the facts and personalities of the Old and New Testaments and the glorious truths and doctrines of the Christian revelation. This window was fabricated by the artist out of broken bits of glass which another artist had discarded. <\/p>\n
4158<\/b> Rose Perfume From Foul Gas<\/b><\/p>\n
Not many years ago the manufacturers of lighting gas were puzzled to know how to dispose of the coal tar left in the retorts. A more useless, nauseous substance was hardly known to exist. Chemistry came to the rescue, and today not less than thirty-six marketable articles are produced from this black, vile, sticky slime\u2014solvents, oils, salts, colors, flavors. You eat a bit of delicious confectionery, happily unconscious that the exquisite taste which you enjoy so keenly comes from coal tar; you buy at the druggist\u2019s a tiny phial of what is labeled \u201cAttar of Roses,\u201d little dreaming that the delicious perfume is wafted, not from \u201cthe fields of Araby,\u201d but from the foul gas retort. <\/p>\n
4159<\/b> The Lost Stradivari Violin<\/b><\/p>\n
On a wintry day at twilight, a ragged man entered a little music shop on a side street in London. Under his arm was an old violin. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m starving,\u201d said he to Mr. Betts, the owner of the shop. \u201cDo please buy this old violin so I can get something to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Betts offered him a guinea, worth about five dollars at that time. The man gratefully received it and then shuffled out into the frigid night. <\/p>\n
When Mr. Betts drew a bow across the strings of the old violin, it produced a rich, mellow tone. How astonished he was! Lighting a candle, he peered intently into the inside of the instrument. There he observed the magic name\u2014Antonio Stradivari\u2014and the date, 1704! He knew instantly that this was the famous Stradivarius that had been missing for a hundred years. The attics of Europe had been diligently searched for this missing violin, but in vain. <\/p>\n
Subsequently the famous violin changed hands several times and brought as much as $100,000. <\/p>\n
For years, the penniless man didn\u2019t know the value of what he possessed. He lived in poverty on the edge of starvation. <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
4160<\/b> Lower The Buckets! <\/b><\/p>\n
An advertisement of the Tennessee Gas Transmission Company pictures four men, the lone survivors of a sea tragedy, afloat in an open lifeboat. They are attempting to catch a few rain drops in a piece of canvas. Tortured by thirst. \u2026 Yet, where they drifted, the Amazon carries its fresh water many miles to sea. To drink, they had only to lower their buckets.<\/p>\n
4161<\/b> Valuable Ancient Coin<\/b><\/p>\n
Sometime ago a lot of cents were received at the Treasury Department for redemption. Among them was a coin which was rejected. A clerk redeemed it and gave it to a congressman of North Dakota, who sent it to the Smithsonian Institute for identification. Later he received word that the coin belonged to the year A.D. 284, and was circulated in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. <\/p>\n
This valuable relic is now worth many times its weight in gold. <\/p>\n
4162<\/b> Rockefeller Was There<\/b><\/p>\n
Some years ago at a resort area along the east coast, a small community was having an open town meeting about some financial problems facing their town. Among the two dozen or so people was one man no one seemed to know who was apparently visiting in that area and had just dropped in on the meeting. He started to make a comment once as various projects were considered, but he was interrupted; so for the rest of the time he kept still, and he left early. <\/p>\n
Just as he went out someone arriving late came in, and said breathlessly, \u201cWhat was he doing here? Is he going to help us?\u201d<\/p>\n
The rest said, \u201cWhom are you talking about? Who was that man?\u201d<\/p>\n
The person who had just arrived said, \u201cYou mean you don\u2019t know? That was John D. Rockefeller. His yacht is in our harbour. Didn\u2019t you get his help?\u201d<\/p>\n
In despair someone said, \u201cNo, we didn\u2019t get his help; we didn\u2019t know who he was.\u201d<\/p>\n
4163<\/b> No Film, Lots Of Trouble<\/b><\/p>\n
The Student Volunteer Band of the Moody Bible Institute met at a nearby photographer\u2019s to have their pictures taken in a group. The photographer selected the tallest of the band and placed them with their backs to the wall just across the room, but immediately opposite the camera. The next in height he placed just in front and thus he continued until a perfect group was formed. He then spent considerable time in changing shades, turning faces, etc. In fact he spent so much time trying to form a perfect group that some of us were about ready to give up. <\/p>\n
Finally, however, he announced that \u201call was ready.\u201d One, two, three. \u201cAll right Gentlemen, I will have the proofs ready tomorrow.\u201d Early in the afternoon of the same day we were informed that the photographer failed to get a picture\u2014all of his work, grouping, sighting, shading, etc., was for nothing, owing to the fact that he had neglected one thing. He had neglected to place a film in the camera. <\/p>\n
\u2014J. T. Moody<\/p>\n
4164<\/b> Highly Undervalued Painting<\/b><\/p>\n
The managers of a Young Men\u2019s Christian Association once missed a great opportunity by not knowing the value of a certain painting. A friend of the institution had given a picture for the walls of the building, not having suitable room for it in his own home. One day he offered to sell it to them asking fifty dollars for it. When they declined the offer he said they might have it for twenty-five dollars; but they still declined to purchase it. <\/p>\n
Not long afterwards he died. Disposing of the estate, his executors took the picture from the building and sent it to a picture-mart. There it was soon recognized as the work of a master, and identified. Thirty-five thousand dollars was offered for it, and later fifty thousand more. Fifty thousand for a picture once offered for twenty-five dollars! <\/p>\n
\u2014Aquilla Webb<\/p>\n
4165<\/b> The Forgotten Fifth Bite<\/b><\/p>\n
Dr. Frederick Fox, who devoted his life to the treatment of snake bites, met his death at Calcutta, India, as the result of experimenting with a snake of the deadly krait variety. In British India before this species of snake caused thirty-five thousand deaths every year. <\/p>\n
To prove the value of his cure Dr. Fox permitted one of these reptiles to inflict five punctures in his arm. With a confident smile he cut out four of the bites, but the fifth one escaped his notice. The signs of poisoning soon appeared. He quickly applied his remedy but it was too late. He died like thousands of others who had been bitten by the krait. <\/p>\n
\u2014Arthur Tonne<\/p>\n
4166<\/b> Waterloo\u2019s Dip In The Road<\/b><\/p>\n
There is a modern picture by Stanley Berkley, entitled \u201cThe Hidden Danger.\u201d which deals with an interesting event at the Battle of Waterloo. This battle decided the fate of Napoleon; upon which issue hung the destinies of Europe, and there occurred in it a crucial moment. Throughout the day Napoleon kept his famous cavalry in reserve. They were the finest soldiers in the world, the \u201cOld Guard,\u201d who had never known defeat, and impatiently they awaited the command to charge. Napoleon, seeing the issue going against him, gave at last the order, and hurled them against the thin British lines. <\/p>\n
On they came in gallant neck-to-neck, seemingly invincible. But there was a dip in the road, a sunken part neither they nor Napoleon knew, but of which Wellington had taken advantage by filling it with his sharpshooters. As the thundering lines came on they were met by an unexpected and decimating volley. They wavered for a moment; then forming once more, came on at hand the gallop, but the fire was too deadly, and when the lines were reached their force was spent. <\/p>\n
Waterloo was lost; the fate of Napoleon and Europe was decided by a dip in the road, by that hidden danger on which Napoleon had not counted. This one weak spot ruined him, and turned victory into defeat. <\/p>\n
\u2014James Burns<\/p>\n
4167<\/b> Epigram On Overlooking <\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing. <\/p>\n
\u2014Einstein<\/p>\n
\u2022 Four things come not back\u2014the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity. <\/p>\n
\u2014Survey Bulletin<\/i><\/p>\n
\u2022 A big handicap is a small fault that was neglected. <\/p>\n
\u2014The Bible Friend<\/i><\/p>\n
P <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
4144 The Search Of Ali Hafed Many have wonderful opportunities surrounding them but do not see them. They are like Ali Hafed, the Persian farmer, who sold his fertile farm and traveled over the world in an unsuccessful search for diamonds, and finally died in poverty and despair in a distant land, while the far-famed … Continue reading “OVERLOOKING”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}