Centuries ago where the City of London now stands, a tribe of benighted people lived. When they wished to start on a pilgrimage of murder and plunder, and did not know which way to go to find the greatest spoil, they placed a little maiden in a large basket, and pierced it through with a sword slaying the little one, and they watched to see through which side of the basket the blood would flow first. This, they declared, indicated the direction in which they were to go on their murderous pilgrimage. They had all been drinking from the black bottle of ignorance. Yes, you say, that might all be true of heathen tribes. But it would be well to remember also that the black bottle of ignorance is found with the wiser people of this day also. The placing of the horseshoe over the door, the fear of the black cat which crosses our path at night, the dread of the number 13 and the day Friday, are all drops from the bottle of ignorance; and so it appears that civilized people are often influenced by these things. Our colonial fathers when they spilt salt at the table, threw a pinch of it over the left shoulder to keep the witches away; so it seems that often this black bottle of ignorance finds a place on our table of daily bread. Let us seek knowledge and light always. Learn something every day, and keep far away from this bottle of dark ignorance. Remember the mountaintop window of light is to know God aright, and to love him and keep his commandments. If this we do, the cup of life will be so full that ignorance will find no place to dwell in it. The liquid night cannot reign where we all love Jesus and walk in his light. The third bottle is labeled "War." Load this bottle with a red liquid which can be produced by red ink or from regular dye-stuff. This liquid represents the blood that war has shed. As you pour this out into the glass say, Modern war is murder made lawful by the nations, but it is unlawful by the laws of God. War is sin, it is an enemy to Jesus. He came to give peace on earth and good-will among men. That was his way among men. "Put up thy sword" is one of the commandments of the New Testament. It is the word of the Prince of Peace. All the world questions should be settled by arbitration. "Come let us reason together" is God's good way to settle questions with the sinner or the nations. The spirit of this bad black bottle has slain its countless trillions, and if all the human skulls through which war bullets have crashed could be assembled in one great Potter's Field they would cover an acre of Towers of Babel. If all of the bones of the slain by war could by some magic magnet be thrown together they would well nigh cover the civilized acres of the world. Put the stopper into this bottle and say, Paralyzed be the hand that ever draws out the stopper of the bloody bottle of war.