{"product_id":"2940013191464","title":"A Wonderful Night","description":"I. An Age of Wonders\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[Transcriber's note: The first letter of each chapter is in the form of\u003cbr\u003ean illustrated dropped capital.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe live in an age of wonders. Great discoveries and startling events\u003cbr\u003ecrowd upon us so fast that we have scarcely recovered from the\u003cbr\u003ebewildering effects of one before another comes, and we are thus kept in\u003cbr\u003ea constant whirl of excitement. The heavens are full of shooting stars,\u003cbr\u003eand while watching one we are distracted by another. So frequent is this\u003cbr\u003eexperience that our nerves almost refuse to respond to the shock of a\u003cbr\u003enew sensation. We are no longer surprised at surprises. The marvelous\u003cbr\u003ehas become the commonplace, and the unexpected is what we now expect.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet we are not to suppose that our age is the only one that has had its\u003cbr\u003ewonders. Other times had theirs also, only these old-time wonders have\u003cbr\u003ebecome familiar to us and ceased to be wonderful; but in their day they\u003cbr\u003ewere marvelous, and some of them equalled if they did not surpass any\u003cbr\u003ewonders we have witnessed. The Great War was the most cataclysmic\u003cbr\u003eeruption that has ever convulsed the world, but it was not more\u003cbr\u003erevolutionary and sensational in the twentieth century than the French\u003cbr\u003eRevolution was in the eighteenth and the Reformation was in the\u003cbr\u003esixteenth century. The discovery of America in the fifteenth century\u003cbr\u003ecreated immense excitement and was relatively a more colossal and\u003cbr\u003estartling occurrence than anything that has happened since.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe telescope and the Copernican theory were as great achievements in\u003cbr\u003etheir day as the spectroscope and the nebular hypothesis are in our day.\u003cbr\u003eThe most useful inventions and the most marvelous products of the human\u003cbr\u003ebrain are not the railway and telegraph after all. The art of printing,\u003cbr\u003ewhich infinitely multiplies thought and sows it in the very air and\u003cbr\u003eevery morning photographs the world anew, is a more useful invention and\u003cbr\u003ein its day was a great wonder. Still farther back, hidden in the mists\u003cbr\u003eof antiquity, lies the invention of the alphabet that is even more\u003cbr\u003euseful and marvelous. It is when we get back to the oldest tools, the\u003cbr\u003ehammer and plough and loom, that we come to inventions of the greatest\u003cbr\u003efundamental utility, and we could better afford to give up all our\u003cbr\u003emodern magic machines than to part with these.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe oldest literature is ever the ripest, richest and best, and Homer\u003cbr\u003eand Shakespeare overtop all our modern writers as the Alps overshadow\u003cbr\u003ethe hills lying around their feet. What modern preacher can compare in\u003cbr\u003eeloquence and power with Paul and Isaiah? Nature is ever full of new\u003cbr\u003ewonders, and yet the grass was as green and the mountains as grand and\u003cbr\u003ethe golden nets and silver fringes of the clouds were as resplendent in\u003cbr\u003ethe days of Abraham as they are to-day. We are the heirs of the ages,\u003cbr\u003ebut wonder and wisdom were not born with us, and with us they will not\u003cbr\u003edie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhere must we go to find the greatest wonder? Not to the scientist's\u003cbr\u003ediscoveries and the inventor's cunning devices: the greatest marvel is\u003cbr\u003enot material but spiritual; and to find it we must not look into the\u003cbr\u003epresent or future, but go back to the first Christmas morning. On that\u003cbr\u003emorning the Judean shepherds had a story to tell which all they that\u003cbr\u003eheard it wondered at and which is still the wonder and song of the\u003cbr\u003eworld. The birth of Jesus is absolutely the greatest event of all time.\u003cbr\u003eWhatever view is taken of him he has become the Master of the world.\u003cbr\u003eChrist has created Christendom, silently lifting its moral level as\u003cbr\u003emountains are heaved up against the sky from beneath. The coming of such\u003cbr\u003ea unique and powerful personality into the world is an infinitely\u003cbr\u003egreater wonder than the discovery of a new continent or the blazing out\u003cbr\u003eof a new star in the sky.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073711915248,"sku":"2940013191464","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013191464_p0.jpg?v=1763577804","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013191464","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}