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[Illustration: EFFECT of HEAT.

Frontispiece.]


CURIOSITIES OF HEAT.

by

REV. LYMAN B. TEFFT.







Philadelphia:
The Bible and Publication Society,
530 Arch Street.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
The Bible and Publication Society,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Westcott & Thomson,
Stereotypers, Philada.




CONTENTS.


                                              PAGE

  CHAPTER I.

    MR. WILTON'S BIBLE CLASS                     7

  CHAPTER II.

    NEW THOUGHTS FOR THE SCHOLARS               26

  CHAPTER III.

    A DIFFICULT QUESTION                        58

  CHAPTER IV.

    HEAT A GIFT OF GOD                          83

  CHAPTER V.

    CONVEYANCE AND VARIETIES OF HEAT           100

  CHAPTER VI.

    MANAGEMENT AND SOURCES OF HEAT             120

  CHAPTER VII.

    PRESERVATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF HEAT      152

  CHAPTER VIII.

    MODIFICATION OF TEMPERATURE                176

  CHAPTER IX.

    THE MINISTRY OF SUFFERING                  190

  CHAPTER X.

    TRANSPORTATION OF HEAT                     213

  CHAPTER XI.

    AN EFFECTIVE SERMON                        233

  CHAPTER XII.

    TRANSFER OF HEAT IN SPACE                  254

  CHAPTER XIII.

    OCEAN CURRENTS AND ICEBERGS                272

  CHAPTER XIV.

    COMBUSTION.--COAL-BEDS                     292

  CHAPTER XV.

    ECONOMY OF HEAT                            305

  CHAPTER XVI.

    A DAY OF JOY AND GLADNESS                  320




CURIOSITIES OF HEAT.




CHAPTER I.

MR. WILTON'S BIBLE CLASS.


"The book of Nature is my Bible. I agree with old Cicero: I count Nature
the best guide, and follow her as if she were a god, and wish for no
other."

These were the words of Mr. Hume, an infidel, spoken in the village store.
It was Monday evening. By some strange freak, or led by a divine impulse,
he had determined, the previous Sunday afternoon, to go to church and hear
what the minister had to say. So the Christian people were all surprised
to see Mr. Hume walk into their assembly--a thing which had not been seen
before in a twelvemonth. Mr. Hume did not shun the church from a dislike
of the minister. He believed Mr. Wilton to be a good man, and he knew him
to be kind and earnest, well instructed in every kind of knowledge and
mighty in the Scriptures. He kept aloof because he hated the Bible. He had
been instructed in the Scriptures when a boy, and many Bible truths still
clung to his memory which he would have been glad to banish. He could not
forget those stirring words which have come down to us from the Lord
Jesus, and from prophets and apostles, and they sorely troubled his
conscience. He counted the Bible an enemy, and determined that he would
not believe it.

At that time there was an increasing religious interest in the church. Mr.
Wilton had seen many an eye grow tearful as he unfolded the love of Christ
and urged upon his hearers the claims of the exalted Redeemer. He found an
increasing readiness to listen when he talked with the young people of his
congregation. The prayer-meetings were filling up, and becoming more
interesting and solemn. The impenitent dropped in to these meetings more
frequently than was their wont. Mr. Wilton himself felt the power of
Christ coming upon him and girding him as if for some great spiritual
conflict. His heart was filled with an unspeakable yearning to see
sinners converted and Christ glorified. He seemed to himself to work
without fatigue. His sermons came to him as if by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. He felt a new sense of his call from God to preach the gospel to
men, and spoke as an ambassador of Christ, praying men tenderly,
persuadingly, to be reconciled to God, yet as one that has a right to
speak, and the authority to announce to man the conditions of salvation.

A few of the spiritual-minded saw this little cloud rising, but the people
in general knew nothing of it. Least of all did Mr. Hume suspect such an
undercurrent of religious interest; yet for some reason, he hardly knew
what, he felt inclined to go to church.

That afternoon the preacher spoke as if his soul were awed, yet lifted to
heavenly heights, by the presence of God and Christ. Reading as his text
the words, "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself"
(Ps. l. 21), he showed, first, the false notions which men form of God,
and then unfolded, with great power and pungency, the Scripture revelation
of the one infinite, personal, living, holy, just, and gracious Jehovah.
This was the very theme which Mr. Hume wished most of all not to hear.
That very name, Jehovah, of all the names applied to God, was most
disagreeable; it suggested the idea of the living God who manifested
himself in olden time and wrought wonders before the eyes of men. But the
infidel, with his active mind, could not help listening, nor could he
loosen his conscience from the grasp of the truth. Yet he could fight
against it, and this he did, determined that he would not believe in such
a God--a God who held him accountable, and would bring him into judgment
in the last great day. In this state of mind he dropped into Deacon
Gregory's store.

Deacon Gregory was accustomed to obey Paul's injunction to Timothy: "Be
instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long
suffering and doctrine." Having taken Mr. Hume's orders for groceries, he
said, "I was glad to see you at church yesterday, Mr. Hume. How were you
interested in the sermon?"

"I like Mr. Wilton," answered Mr. Hume; "I think him a very earnest and
good man."

"But were you not interested and pleased with the discourse? It seems to
me that I shall never lose the impression of God's existence and
character which that discourse made upon me. I almost felt that Mr. Wilton
spoke from inspiration."

"I suppose he was inspired just as much as the writers of that book which
men call 'the Bible.'"

"But can you wholly get rid of the conviction that the Bible is the word
of God, written by holy men inspired by the Holy Spirit?"

"You know, Deacon Gregory, that I do not believe what you profess to
believe. The book of Nature is my Bible. I agree with old Cicero: I count
Nature the best guide, and follow her as if she were a god, and wish no
other."

Deacon Gregory had never read Cicero, and of course did not attempt to
show, as he might otherwise have done, that Cicero did not mean to deny
the existence of a living, personal God, who governs the world.

"But," said he, "does not the book of Nature--your Bible, as you call
it--have something to say of God? Does it not speak of an infinitely wise
and good Creator and Governor? Do not the works of Nature tell of the same
God whose being and character were preached to us yesterday from the Holy
Scriptures?"

"Nature has never spoken to me of any God except herself. What need is
there of a creator? Who can prove that the universe did not exist from
eternity? Nature has her laws of development, and under those laws all the
operations of nature go on. You had better read Darwin. If one must find
the character of God in nature, he may as well picture an evil creator and
governor as one that is good and righteous. Does Nature punish those whom
you call the wicked? Does Nature reward the righteous? Do not the laws of
Nature bring suffering to the good and the bad alike, and happiness also
to all classes of men? Would you, if you had power, create a world like
this--a world in which danger, pain,