STORY OF THE LIFE OF JESUS. FOR THE YOUNG. PALESTINE. Peo There have What a strange fact it is that we hear so much more about one country than we do about another! Have you ever thought why it was? There must be a reason for it. Think of the vast continent of Africa. Yet how little we have ever heard of it! Remember, too, that great island or continent of Australia! ple have lived there for untold ages. been many things of interest there for travelers to see and to write about; yet how little we hear of that great country! On the other hand, the peninsula of Greece is scarcely more than a mere spot on the map of Europe. During those early ages there were a great many other people scattered in countries north, east and west, along the rivers, in the forests, or by the sea. And yet we know almost nothing about those people. But next to one other country, we are told more about Greece than about any other land, great or small, throughout the world. The one small city of Athens has become better known and been more talked about, excepting one, than any of the great cities of the earth. Now can you think why it is? I fancy it is because more great men have been born or lived in one country than in another. We do not have so much told to us about Africa, because so few great persons have arisen in that country. Little has come down to us from early times about the people who lived in the north and west and east of Europe, because only ordinary people lived there at that time. We have been told very little about Australia, because, in spite of all the wonders of that great island in the Pacific, no man of that country has been of so much service to the human race as to have made his name known to the world. On the contrary, when we think of America we are reminded of Lincoln and Washington. When we are asked about Germany, at once there come to us the names of Luther and Goethe and Frederick the Great. If any one mentions early Greece, we recall Socrates and Pericles. When some one refers to Rome, at once the people who have read history think of Cato and Marcus Aurelius. We speak of Italy, and we think of the great artists Raphael and Michael Angelo. If any one mentions the name of England, we at once connect it with Darwin or Shakespeare. Great men are what make a country great. All the wonders of natural scenery, mountains, rivers, lakes and forests, climate and skies; none of these have so much effect as one great man, in giving a great name to a country. You may ask me what it is that makes a great man, what it is that causes one person to be of more importance than another, or what it is that goes to make up the idea of greatness. You can only get an answer to that question by reading and thinking and studying about the lives of the truly great men of history. You noticed that we made one exception when we said that Athens had been the most talked-about city in the world, and Greece the most talked-about country |