ned himself. Bajazet was carried
about by Tamerlane in an iron cage which he intended for Tamerlane.
Maximinus put out the eyes of thousands of Christians; soon after a
fearful disease of the eyes broke out among his people, of which he
himself died in great agony. Valens caused about eighty Christians
to be sent to sea in a ship and burnt alive: he was defeated by the
Goths and fled to a cottage, where he was burnt alive.

Alexander VI. was poisoned by wine he had prepared for another.
Henry III. of France was stabbed in the same chamber where he had
helped to contrive the cruel massacre of French Protestants. Marie
Antoinette, riding to Notre Dame Cathedral for her bridal, bade the
soldiers command all beggars, cripples, and ragged people to leave
the line of the procession. She could not endure the sight of these
miserable ones. Soon after, bound in the executioner's cart, she was
riding toward the place of execution amidst crowds who gazed on her
with hearts as cold as ice and hard as granite. When Foulon was
asked how the starving populace was to live, he said: "Let them eat
grass." Afterward, the mob, maddened with rage, caught him in the
streets of Paris, hung him, stuck his head upon a pike and filled
his mouth with grass.

A MAN REAPS MORE THAN HE SOWS.

"_But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a
hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold_."--Matt. xiii: 8.

CHAPTER V.

A Man Reaps More Than He Sows.

If I sow a bushel, I expect to reap ten or twenty bushels. I can sow
in one day what will take ten men to reap. The Spaniards have this
proverb: "Sow a thought and reap an act. Sow an act, and reap a
habit. Sow a habit, and reap a character. Sow a character and reap a
destiny." _And it takes a longer time to reap than to sow_. I have
heard of a certain kind of bean that reproduces itself a thousand
fold. One thistle-down which blew from the deck of a vessel is said
to have covered with thistles the entire surface of a South Sea
island. The oak springs from an acorn, the mighty Mississippi from a
little spring.

One glass of whisky may lead to a drunkard's death. One lie may ruin
a man's career. One error in youth may follow a man all through
life. Some one has said that many a Christian spends half his time
trying to keep down the sprouts of seed sown in his young days.
Unless it is held in check, the desire to "have a drink" will become
a consuming thirst; the desir