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9 A Blues i ROMANI / - N?s - -X ? -K ~x/"? -?*\/v~ /*^w?vrsj By Miss An> CHAPTER XV. r Continued. "How siiouia yon: -no aiiuuuurf tiH'ut was put in the newspapers, and, fcr reasons that you cau understand, 1 did not care about writing to my friends, although to ycu, perhaps, a letter would have been easier than 10 most people. Ab. Mrs. Chester," she runs on, with the frank self-absorption, the unaffected egotism tbat renders the society of newly married persons so dismal to the rest cf humau kind, "do you recollect a conversation we bad in your own room?all roses, and white dimity, and full of the smell of seaweed, that Inst evening I was at Fiefde-la-Reine?" Yes, Daphne remembers the conversion accurately, word for word. "I dont mind confessing that I felt the least, just the very least, degree bitter against you tbat evening." ."Bitter?against me?" "You seemed so contented with the jvorld and the world with you, and my own spirit so heavy, and?well, if the truth be told, it did appear to me, weighing our lots, one against the other, that I hr.d some 'small reason to feel iealous.'' So Aunt Hosie "was right. Human nature remains the same always. Clementina's love for Severno, lukewarm though it may have been, contained just sufficient vitality to admit of that old-fashioned sentiment, jealousy. "I recollect one thing with great clearness: that I prophesied your happiness," says Daphne, a little fiousoience stricken. "And how you extolled Sir John! Well, looking at his character now with unprejudiced eyes, I can say, honestly and dispassionately, that I think he deserved every word of your eulogies; I can, indeed, poor 'ellow!" "Up springs the blood iuto Daphne Chester's face. Something in Clemen- j 4ina's half-pitying tone wounds her to the quick. As though she had a right to feel wounded, 1:0 take any lingering Interest whatsoever, either in Sir John Seveme or in hiif wife's eftimate of him! I "Only his merits were not made for me. There was the pity of it. The fact was, we became engaged much too young. I felt it instinctively that first -moment when we met again, r.on't you remember, Mrs. Chester, how Felix and I broke in upon a little sketching lesson Sir John was giving you under the rocks? And every hour we spent together afterward convinced me more and more of our mistake." Daphne Chester's cheeks burn like fire. She has heard rumors, even at Fief-de-la-Reine, of the rapid pace, the emancipated doctrine, of youthful matrons of the day. Confidences like these, confidences from the lips cf a . Wife not two montbs married, positively stagger her. "You must have guessed, I am sure, neeing so much of us as you did." And now it is Clementina's turn to show embarrassment; she casts down her eyes, she turns herxbright new wedding ring round and round upon her finger. ' You must have guessed?that I cared -for my Cousin Felix." "Your Cousin Felix!" repeats Daphne Chester, by this time too thoroughly mystified to do more than re-utter the fcride's own words. "He is not brilliant as far as books go; it may be good judges would say lie has not got Sir John Severne's solid qualities, and he is certainly poor, while Sir John Severne, as certainly, nas piemy 01 tuis wofias gouus. jdui you see one cannot reason about caring for people! I?I think I have cared for Felix always," says Clementina, the ? sweetest flush of womanly feeling staining all her face, "and I know that to be with him. poor, abroad, anyhow, twill be the only possible happiness of my life." Daphne bad turned first red, then pale, then red again, during Mrs. Broughton's confession?for it is time to call the bride by the name she wears *o joyously. No word of congratula- j lion can she speak. Bewilderment, scarcely yet enlightened, the dawning of a new wild personal hope, combine together to render her dumb. "Your Cousin Felix, I?I mean Mr. Broughton, is with you?" she asks, at length, stammering as guiltily as though her heart owned a secret passion for Clementina's husband. "Yes, he is at the hotel, and later on 5n the day you will see him?that is. if you will let us invite ourselves to a -Fief-de-la-Reine high tea. Felix reauires a cood many hours for break fast and rest, after the horrors of a Channel steamer, and, as Sir John was ready to escort me, I thought I had better drive on first and give you . warning of onr advent," "Sir John Severne is?is traveling fwith you, then?" * Surely, were Clementina's lips absolutely engrossed in herseli and her Felix, she must decipher the meaning of Daphne Chester's treinhliug voice and rapidly changing color! "Traveling with us? Well, that 5$ a comical idea. Do you think we could endure to have any other society than our own? No; onr crossing over toninhf tvqc rnmlr PfMflrvnln I feci Aid iflj'l *? 11 WJ ^vv.v^^^w. I never knew Sir John was on board until wo got past the Needles, and then the vessel began to roll, and every one was fee'ir.g so wretched, that it quite took away the awkwardness of meeting." "Awkwardness!"' ropeats Dnpnne, mechanically. Amidst the chaos of. feelings that beset her, blank wonder certainly predominates; wonder how any woman, learned or ignorant, could discard Severne, without a pang, to become the ,v ife of Felix Broughton. "I can tell by your face that you think very badly of me, of course. And yet my own heart tells me if ever there , was a case in which to break an engagement would be more honorable ahan to hold it, that case was mine. To ?r^Vi-'-V. . stocking;!* ' i 3e | reality, f 6^ 1 : lh< ~? - - ; i;* , for wE EDV/ABDS. jig ; cri ] begin with, I have a haunting fancy : ]or that Sir John Severne will not be in- j J consoJable. j Daphne rises hastily and moves ' wp, across to a side window. Away on ; th< the orchard terrace she can see Sev- | tat erne's figure. just as in the old happy J cj^ days, with Paul in his arms. Aunt lnj Hosie is in conversation with him? ! bo animated, eager conversation, a look j ^ of mingled surprise and happiness on j "j.01 her sunburnt face. of "I was thinking badly of no one," she ves rrcirnrc -row lnw "I WflS OnlV WOU- 1?? taiP--"' -- -- - | ter "Over the unaccountably foolish : hai choice of Clementina Hardcastle. Ah- j well," says Mrs. Broughton, falling j e]e back upon one of lier stiff little blue- ! wb stocking phrases, "the depth of human j perversity in these matters seems still [ ^ to be an undetermined quantity. You j the must remember, if you wish to be char- ? roe itable." she adds, "that I did not go from my word quite without a strug- j Bha gle. Aftor I returned to London in ' dei June it was a settled thing that I i should marry Sir John; and I let the j dreary farce go on?let Mrs. Hard- j mu castle busy herself over dresses and ! not bonnets, and the lawyers and papa j a?c addle their heads over settlements, | ^ without telling any of them that my | per heart was breaking. I had only to j We think of the error of giving up a rich us? lover?there was the shame of aban- j doning a cause! As Lady Severne, , to with money, with influence, I might hai have founded scholarships for my sex, laid the first stone of a new college or mo two, and, perhaps, in time, have i Loi stepped into the lecturer's chair my- the self. As it was?as it was. Mrs. Ches- ?r pre ter, I broke down suddenly one day, jajj just as the miliner was to have fitted wh on my wedding gown! I broke down, me; confessed everything, wrote to Sir ^ John, who was away in Scotland, and mo whs sent off, in disgrace, to do pen- anc ance with Cousin Etlielberta, the cross- j E grained typical old maid of my moth- ! ^ er's family in Devonshire." j to ' And Mr. Broughton, what had be- | her come of *Mr. Broughton all this time?" j "Felix was in Paris, poor fellow, ex- I pecting daily, so he says, to be asked ; nig' over, as best man, to the wedding. ; eve However this may be, he made his ap- I pearance in Devonshire just one week | js v after I arrived there. Old Ethelberta, J Th< to our wild amazement, turned out a I n"r brick! Yes, a brick," says Clementina, I with tears in her eyes, and, for the [ g0< [ first time in her mortal life, stooping ' Nal to a word of slang. "When she heard j I my story, and how I had given up j hoy I money for love, Ethelberta declared I I it j bad behaved as people. did in her j to 1 youtb, and received Felix with open j arm.?. You can imagine tbe rest. g( Without bridesmaids, -white satin, or j tur< settlements, we were married one j min summer morning in the village church, | a| Cousin Etheiberta acting as -witness, ' |ov( the parish clerk giving me away, and ' say have lived happily and contentedly j * 8 ever since." be e The bride pauses. bea "And your own iamlly?" asks ilso Daphne, '"the people who care for you sJ'ni most? Has your marriage been kept ! a secret from them all?" ! cess "Well, in time, naturally, we had to ceri write penitential supplications, not only for forgiveness, but for money; con] Mrs. Hardcastle sent me down my- any trousseau, without a word or message *cei ?the irony of twenty-four silk dresses. all with trains, to people who want |0V( bread! Papa inclosed a check for five C hundred pounds, and begged we would I [?F look upon the gift as a final one. These j are our material prospects," says j we Clementina, cheerfully. "Ethelberta, j Ing however?who looks as If she would j live another half century?hints that j ' we are to be her heirs, and Felix ' nra thinks he will some day be made Sec-j raie ond Secretary, with a salary of three hundred and fifty pounds a year, in ' car( Vienna! For this winter, we are going ; thoi to economize in Italy, lou joo^ grave ,UB; still, Mrs. Chester?" ; "I am thinking of your father?and ' wjj{ of Sir John," is Daphne's answer. I ing: "Papa has begun to relent already. ] I had a kind little note from him, written, you may be sure, without Mrs. | llardcastle's leave, the evening before ! ; I left Devonshire. As for Sir John?I j confidently look to the Lady Severne [ of the future, that unknown but 'not j j impossible She,'" says Clementina, i with meaning, "to restore bis hap? , no piness. Do you despair of my predic- j Btat tion being fulfilled?" i ^ But Sir John and Paul having by 0f j this time reached the parlor window. Got Mrs. Chester's answer remains forcv-i reui unspoken. ^?eu <The End.) cal I tha Long-Lived Family. Mrs. Elizabeth Chapman, widow cf a I doctor well known in Nottinghamshire ^ lor forty years, died at the residence of tj10 her son in New Mills, Derbyshire, at of i the advanced age of ninety-one years, bav having lived in the reigns of live Brit- -F ish monarchs, well remembering the Writ coronation of Ceorge IV. She be- of longed to a family remarkable for the nor longevity of its members. Her father reucueu me age oi ninety-seven, uui [jie her mother was eighty-six at the time ma; of her demise, and her father-in-law . J"awas 100 years old when ho died. 6?v tliii A Keuiarkal>Ie jVfau. lo A fact more remarkable that cen. nnr tenanan longevity itself is reported m jze the case of a man of Italian birth wh named Antonio Novorini, who has just mC died at Serajevo, in Bosnia, at tbe age ??u nf 1 0."> Tt is rpcnrridtl nf liim flint nulv c last year, being then 104, he cut a new the set of teeth. Xovoriui was born in *>n Padua and entered the service of a J^eei Moslem land owner in Bosnia about jy sixty years ago. He had never known he what illness was and died suddenly m'' while drinking a glass of aerated [g'a water. fail t<5o The cathedral at Ulni. Wnrttem- Wi berg, possesses the highest church ?^a SDire in the world. It ir. 333 feet high- 6U SERMON FOR SUNDAY STRONG DISCOURSE ENTITLED. "THE KNOWLEDCE OF COD." e K?t. LiTincKton L. Taylor Tell* Why Kollgion is an Affair of the Sonl and Ooi? Sectarian, Dogmatic Insistence Ik Perilous. Jrooklyk, N. Y.?Sunday evening, in i Puritan Congregational Church, the ?tor, the Kev. Livingston L. Taylor, had the subject of his sermon, The lowledge of Cod." The test was from ilm lxxxiv:2: "My heart and my flesh pth nut fnr flip livinc God." Mr. Tav said: [ come back to this pulpit in no uncernty of mind with reference to what my ssage should be. 1 know, at any rate, ere it must begin. _ Unless I mistake ! terms of my commission, unless I mis;e the nature of the means placed at my posal, which are the Bible and the ireh, unless 1 mistake the example of ' Master, it is my business to help men, far as in me lies, to find God. Inhere is no mistaking my own mind, r what the summer has done to confirm in this conviction. To me, as to many you, the glory of the Lord has been relied anew in earth and 6ky and sea. To , as to many of you, has come the op:tunity to read and to think and to eninto the thoughts of other persons. We :e gone out of doors with our religion. ; have taken our ideas of God and life iy from home with us. We have travd far afield with them in the books ich we have read. How have they cd? \)r myself I did not by any means get of Jeremiah'e words by preaching on :m last Sunday morning. They stay by , as they began to stay by me in the ly summer. "The gods that have not de the heavens and the earth, these .11 perish from the earth and from un> + V?r? KoowonD " Poov7on fin/1 onrf h timony against every inadequate idea of d. We must bave a God whom nothing heaven or on earth can dethrone. We st have a God our faith in whom need ; be shaken by anything we may learn >ut nature, or about the Bible, or about i life of men and nations. We must 'e a God who will not break down and ish out of our souls in the hour of trial. : must have a God who shall be God to our God, even when we can only cry h Job, "Oh, that I knew where 1 rht find Him!" We must bave a God whom we may say, '"Father, into Thy ids I commend my spirit" in the very ir in which we may have cried "My d, my God, why hast Thou forsaken ?" Such is the God and Father of our rd and Saviour Jesus Christ. Such is God from whom nothing in the heights in the depths, nothing in the past, the sent or the future could detach the ;h of Paul. Such is the God our need of om may be revealed to us at any moot by the lightning flash of some great unity. Such is the God our need of om will bear down upon our minds re and more heavily as we face more I more frankly the facts of life. [ere is a man who has been summoned a midnight message to the bedside of child. As he goes from ferry to ferry ascertain by what route he can react) illobu quictLiy, every man lie auuresaea ds ]>is secret and shows him kindness, mections are close. Over every signal it that delays him the engineer sees a ht lamp in a sick room that tells him ry second lost must be made up. The ductor nervously hurries passengers off [ on the train at every stop. Tne race ron. The father stands beside his child. :re are the doctors. There are the sea. There are friends. Everything t human love and sympathy and skill suggest is being done. Where is thy 1? I say, father, where is thy God? :ure says to him, "I have contrived a le sack in your child's body. I have d it with poison. Within twenty-four rs I propose to break iti If I break our child will die. If you are willing ,ake other chances, let the surgeons re e it. Then I will do the best I can you." ome men tell me that their God is na?. Does your God thus speak His whole d? Why, that room where a father is ring up his mind \yhat answer to give lature's ultimatum is flooded with pure :. Everybody cures. Are you ready to "Everybody cares but God?" There is ick child there to be accounted for. re is a harsh ultimatum of nature to accounted for. But there are loving rts in that room to be accounted for, . And there is a universal capacity for innthw nnrl )iplnfnl ar-Hnn fn a r? nted for. It is a scene which fairly resents the tragedy of the world pro* i. In which aspects of it do you dis1 the working of the iiigher law?in the ciless progress of the disease or in l? is being done to save, to heal, to ifort? If there is any purpose, or even tendency, to be discovered in Buch a le, is it the triumph of pain and the fecting of cruelty that is being pro;ed? or is it the perfecting of faith and >9 hristians should know where to look God in such scenes. They will find i in precisely the place in which they ild look for Jesus Christ. Sometimes wonder why so many miracles of healare recorded, in the gospels. May it be because God wants us to know ;re to place Him when we are confrontby the elemental questions which sicki and pain and death are certain to e in our minds'/ It is the higher law cli should ever speak to us of God. s with life and healing, with love and ?, that we are taught to associate the aght of God. In the midst of life's conons we know in part When that eh is perfect is come it will prove to -lnvp Wp ran PVf>n think iif ntirctlw^o >n it is all over, looking back and sayWith mercy and with judgment My web of time He wove, And aye the dev.s cf sorrow Were lustered with J lis love; ['11 bless the band that guided, I'll bless the heart that p'anned, When throned where glory dwelleth, In Emmanuel's iand." like to think of the positive aspects of First Commandment: "Thou shalt have other God before Me." That means, ;ed positively: Thou shalt have a God, thou shalt have Me for thy God. >u shalt have a God. It is the first law he soul's own life. Thou shalt have a 1 whom nothing can ever make it unsonablc for you to trust. It is the l's law of self preservation. How do know when we are going to be in critineed of faith like Paul's?of faith like t of our dying Lord? Every man who ers needs it. Every man who thinks ds it. say that every man who thinks needs 1. We are thinking here to-night. We e been thinking some of the very ughfs which have stolen away the faith many a man and many a woman. We e been facing facts which throw the id into an agony. We have been dealing h conditions which faith has to reckon h. I have talked with men. the tumult whose minds made me think of the th coast waves, as Robert Louis Steson describes them, in all the terror of m, in all the power of them to wreck Jlclll Uill iVS 111 W (liCH IJH.11 V .1 licit v be minds incapable 6f tumult. There V be people who cannot understand v any question relating to religion can stir the mind. A young man who nks and who knows how to think said me not long ago: *"1 am swimming for life." And he reproached Christian listers for their a pa rent failure to rea!tiiat there are multitudes like himself, 0 are wrestling with the great under.'yquestions of God or 110 God. soul or no 1, immortality or annihilation, iiberty necessity. uch a man wrote a little while ago to editor of a well-known periodical, iver, the Bible, Christ, miracles, these ie the subjects in thinking about which had become bewildered. He calls loudfor help. It would be easy to say that had simply got himself into "a state of id" and that it. would do no good to son with-him. Bat what would be easy not always sure to be what would he r ar.d right. Faith has sometimes had 1 great a fondness for "Easy Method th Doubters." This man says: "Most the religious discussions that 1 hear or d seem to me to deal with mere side is:s?why young men don't attend church ?how to reach the masses?while I vent to hear land never do hear)?about the fundamental, elementary principles of religion. Is man immortal? Is there a God, and if so, why does He leave us in doubt? What is the Christian religion reduced to its simplest expression? 1 am sick of platitudes, evasions and glittering generalities. I want to be treated with sincerity. I want to hear the simple truth, not "as to a little child," but as to a grown man, who must reason as well as feel, a man who has sinned and suffered and now fain would find a safe anchorace for his soul in this sea of doubt and trouble." The editorial article written in answer to this communication breathes the spirit ox Him who went to His disciples in the storm with which they were battling on Galilee. It Bays very little about the troublesome questions the man has raised. It takes God and the soul for granted. It reduces relifcion to its simplest terms and lets it go at that for the present. Whether it has accomplished anything for the storm-tossed correspondent I do not know. But I do know some whom it has helped and others whom it is likely to help. Men of whose spiritual vicissitudes I have pome knowledge have spoken of it with gratitude. The narrower method of sectarian, dogmatic insistence is perilous. The existence of b denomination may depend upon the observance of the eevenih day of the week as the Sabbath. But it is a ruinous thin? for a young person to get the idea that the existence of God is wrapped up in that dogma ami that he might as well abandon the religious life altogether as to let that dogma go. It ha6 been an element of denominational strength to have certain fixed ideas with reference to the proper mode and subjects of baptism. But it is a spiritual misfortune if a young Baptist has not a pastor wise enough to tell him, if he lets go this doctrine, that religious life is quite possible witkoHt it. It is possible.to cherish nnd to insist on views of the Bible, the modification of which seems to some, when they find it necessary, to threaten the very foundations of tbeir faith in God. Religion is an affair of the soul and God. The Bible, the ehurch, the creeds, the sacraments are designed to serve the soul and God in this high and holy relationship. God has a life in the souIb of men which these means are meant to promote and never to hinder. They do not come between the soul and God. Some sweet old mystic has said: "The eye by which I see God is the same eye by which He sees me." And we way say, also: "The longing with which we long for God is the longing with which He longs for us. The love with which we love Him is from the fountain of His love-for us." In a relationship which ii _ ? ii.. i a.*a i:f. u.ii is me BnariDg, uie luenuiy ui m*. yvuao room ts there for intermediary means and ministeries? We have precious documents, precious doctrines, precious sacraments ana ordinances. But it is not they that give life to the soul. They do minister richly to that life, but it is, as it were, from without that they minister. If the soul ever really knows God at all. it knows Him as it knows itself. The 60ul is sure of itself. By the same sort of certitude it i? sure of God. Don't cet the idea that you can prove the existence of God. Some day you may fall in with a man who is a better reasoner who will take the other side. Then, if you really think you believe in God because you can prove that He exists, you may find your faith badly shaken. "Every one that loveth is begotten of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." We know God with that immediate kind of knowledge with which we know the feelings of our own hearts. If it is possible for us to love, it is possible for us to know God and to know that we know Him. And John tells us that the proof there is a God and to be known and that we know Him, is the same kind of proof, the very same proof, that we must give, if we say that we love. Luke tells us how Jesus sent out seventy of Hie disciples to do in all t'.ie town? of Galilee as they had seen Him do. They healed the sick. They preached the gospel of the kingdom. Men and devils nave heed to them. They returned to Him with great joy to tell Him ail. As He listened to them, as He looked into their faces, He rejoiced. They had understood Him. It was then that He ."aid: "I thank Thee. 0 leather- Lord of Heaven and Earth, that Thou didst hide these things irom' the wise and prudent and didst reveal them unto babes." He has succeeded. Plain ! men, seventy of thcin, had ccme to know God throuch Him. To every minister of His, to every follower. .Tesu9 is savins: "Enter into this supreme joy of thy Lord. This is the joy for you to seek; tin's is the success for which you should work and pray; that through you men may come to know God." It was for this very thine that He cave thanks the nisrht before He died. > To some He knew He- had given eternal life. And what j could He say in His thankseiviug that j would be move pleasing to His Father than what He did say? "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God. and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." As we becrin our work, the words of the beautiful old prayer ring in my ears: "0 God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels and all just works do proceed?i We v/ant our fellowship in service to be j prompted and accompanied by ho!y desires,' guided by good counsels and abounding in just works. The desire to know God is i the holiest of all desires, the deepest fountain of good counsel, the most effective inspiration of just works. May it be the honest and the constant desire of our hearts! Knew Hovr.i All was quiet in the invalid's room, un- J til a step was heard coming up the stairs, i Then a faint voice cailcd: "Alfred, is it you?" "No," answered another member of the | family, looking in and then approaching | the bed. "But what is it you are want- ! ingr cannot i uo ltr; "I only wanted to be lifted and turned a j little," v;as the reply. "I think I'll wait a ' few minutes for Alfred to come. He knows just how." Alfred was only a boy, a merry, healthy young fellow of eighteen or twenty, full of ' his studies and out-door pursuits, wanted j on the cricket field and in all parties of young friends, but he was no stranger in that sick room. He had thought it worth while to learn "just how" to minister to the .sufferer, and his strong, young arm a were the chosen ones to lift the grandmother's wasted, pain-racked form many times daily. Was not that tender little service the very crown of manliness? It was Bayard Taylor who wrote: "The bravest arc the teuderest."?Young People's Paper. Bon Do We took at It ? No man deserves to live upon earth at all who lives as though this world were all. The individual who in a moral sense builds here below instead of, pilgrim-like. simply pitching his tent upon earth, will finally be mocked by the utter ruia of all his ! proud architectures. Here we have no continuing city, but at i most an encampment in the desert, a collection of tents, which shall soon be struck. I The early Greek philosophy's in their j crude way sought for the principle of the i Changelnss behind the changes. What they have in their blindness groped alter, the Bible clearly reveals, namely, the abiding of a personal God, whose arms hear creation up, and whose heart hears creation's cry. The. only "Changeless" is the Creator, j Sir.ce Cod is. and is fjr ever, the transitor......... -I 11.. ' lor the believer.?New Yor^ Observer. Hew to M?Ue tlie AVorlcl ?ir. We can not change the world, taking oat ail lis 1 horns, making its ta^ks easy and its ha:*.!ens light. modulating all its dfseoids into harmonies, transforming i!s nglme?8 into beauty, but we can have our j own hearts renewed by t!ie ?iace of God, | and thus the world wiil be made over for ; us. A new heait make? all things new. A | heart oi love will find love everywhere; a | son! of Konu will iind sweet music every whefc.?J- K. Miller. D. D. Onr Weat;ne?H. God never makes us sensible of our I weakness, except to give us of His strength. | We must be disturbed by what is involun- i <tary The great point is, never to act in opposition to'lhe inward light, arid to be willing to go as J'r.t as God would have us. ?Petition. I THE SUNDAY SCHOOL | INTERNATIONAL LfSSON COMMENTS FOR DECEMBER 18. i JlcrifW of th? Fourth Quarter ? Read rsalms lxill., 1-11? Golden Text, Lake | j iv., t! ? Topic: Israel's Decline and j . Kali.' I Lesson T. Topic: Elisha entering u^ion : j this work as a prophet. Place: Uilead, I east of the Jordan. Elisha saw Elijah i I when he was translated, and cried, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel ; I and the horsemen thereof." Elisha took ' I up Elijah's mantle; returned to the Jor- i j dan; smote the waters- the river was ' divided; Elisha crossed over on dry [ I ground; the spirit of Elijah rested on ; Elisha; fifty sons of the prophets asked the privilege of seeking El'jab: Elisha re- I fused; they urged until Elisha was | j ashamed: he permitted them to go; they I i sought three days, but found him not. j j The men of Jericho told Elisha that the ! water of the city was poor; Elisha cast < I salt into the spring of the waters, and the j ; waters were neaiea. I II. Topic: Elisha relieving a poor j I widow and her family. Place: Not known. i I A woman in trouble came to Elisha and j | said that she had been the wife of one | ! of the prophets, but tbat her husband . | was now dead and the creditor had come , to take her sons as bondsmen. Elisha said: "What shall I do for thee? Tell me, [ what hast thou in the house?" She replied I that she had nothing save a pot of oil. j ! Elieha instructed her to borrow vessels ; \ of her neighbors, "hot a few." She was i then told to pour out oil into all the bor- ! rowed vessels, and set aside those which were filled. She did so and all of the ves- ! sels which she had borrowed were filled; j the prophet instructed her to sell the oil ! and pay the debt, and to use what re- j mained over for lierself and children. III. Topic: Restoring the life of a dead ! child. Places: 1. Shunem. 2, Mount i Carmel. Eiisha in his work as a prophet j traveled from place to place; he frequently j visited the village of Shunem: was en- | tertained by one of the leading families of i the place; as a reward for this woman's j kindness Elisha promised that within a | year she should embrace a son; when the j child was four or five years old it was in j tne harvest helds with its lather; it was suddenly taken sick; carried to the house; died at noon; the mother went to find Elisha; the woman told Elisha about her great affliction; Elisha went with her; the child was restored to life. IV. Topic: The healing of' a leper. Places: 1. Damascus. 2. Samaria. These cities were about 110 miles apart. Naaman i was a leper. The Syrians had taken captive a little maid who waited on Naaman s j wife. This child told her mistress about ' the prophet in Samaria. It was probably j Naaman who told the king of Syria what i the captive girl had said. The king sent j Naaman to the king of Israel. The king j of Israel rent his clothes; thought the j king of Syria sought a quarrel with him; < Elisha sent to the king asking that Naaman be sent to him; Elisha instructed him to wash in the Jordan seven times; Naaman was healed. V. Topic Divine protection. Places: 1. Samaria. 2. Dothan. The king of Syria was warring against Israel; Eiisha warned the king of Israel of the plans j of the Syrians; Israel was thus saved from j defeat by the Syrians; the king of Syria j asked his servants to show which of them | was informing the king of Israel; they | replied that none of them were acting as : traitors, but that Elisha, the prophet, was j telling the king of Israel the words which ; he spoke in his bedchamber; the king of Syria sought JElisha; found him in Dothan; i .sent horses and chariots and a great host to take him; the Syrians were smitten with blindness; Elisha. led them to Sa- ! raaria; the king of Israel asked if he should, j smite th^m; filisha provided for their i necessities; sent them home; the Syrians came no more unto the land of Israel. Vi. Topic: Joash made king. Place: | Jerusalem, the capital of the southern j kingdom. Our lessons now return to the ! kingdom of Judah. At the death of Jehoram, Ahaziah became king; at his death t Athaliah usurped the throne; she com- j manded that all the members of the royal | family be put to death; in the midst of : the general slaughter, Joash was hidden j in the temple, where he remained con! cealed for six year*; Jehoiada the high Sjriest then brought him out and made him cing. VII. Topic: God's house repaired. Place: Jerusalem. As soon as Joash became king steps were taken to inaugurate a great reformation, and a solemn covenant was made between the Lord, the king t and the people; Baal worship was overthrown, and the priests and the Levites ' were appointed to serve in the temple; | a cheat was placed beside the altar in the > priests' court, and the people were asked to put their offerings in the chest. In this I way mucn money was raised, ana me lempie was repaired. VIII. Topic: Isaiah warning Judah. ! Place: Jerusalem, the prophet's home. There was great prosperity in Judab, but in the midst of it the people were rebel- ; lious and profligate, the claims of God ! were forgotten, and His worship ignored. Isaiah saW that because of their wickedness the Lord would soon permit heathen i nations to carry them away captive; he ! warns the people. IX. Topic: The evil effects of strong drink. Isaiah shows that the people were especially given to drunkenness. The land j was filled with filthir.ess, and God pronounced a woe upon them because of thi's. To-day the liquor traffic is like a cancer j eating the very life out of society; it destroys the morals of the country and. ; blights wherever it touches. The man who i sanctions this iniquitous business is a par- j taker of all the evil connected with it. X. Topic: The temple rededicated. Place: Jerusalem. Hezekiah was the twelfth king of Judah; he sought the Lord earnestly; under Alias the people had become exceedingly wicked, and the kingdom was fast going into decay, but now Hezekiah cleansed the temple; ..made great offerings unto the Lord; he and the people worshiped the Lord; the singers sang; tho people brought sacrifices in such great j numbers that it became necessary for ihe | Levites to assist the priests. XI.. Topic: The cause o^ the captm;y. Place: Samaria. Hezekiah was king of Judah; Hoshea was king of Israel; the kingdom of Israel had become thoroughly corrupt and the government was now overthrown, and the people were carried away captive; Shalmaneser and the Syrian array came upon then and besieged Sanaria for three years; Samaria was taken; Shalmaneser was succeeded by Sargon, oDe of his generals. Although Israel was very wicked yet God put forth every e.7ort possible to save them; they bad bee.i warned by f the prophets and urged to repent, hut Israel was rebellions and wou'd not listen, therefore tiie Lcnl removed the tc i tribes out cf the holy lai <1 r.'nd noie but the tribes of Judah and Ecnjauin v/r.a Jeli. i Walked to the i'nir. In the steerage of the Holland-America 1 ileaiuship Statcndam, arriving in New | York City, from Rotterdam and Boulogne, , tame Mauritius Hechter, a student in the Bulgarian University, who traveled aiont, J with a short re?t on shipboard, to St. j Louis, Mo., on a wager with the Tourists' Club of the university. Fourteen months ( ago Mauritius declared that he would get | to the St. Louis Exposition in eighteen j months, riding only where the unbridged j water spaces were too deep to wade. He | has tramped through parts of Koumania, Germany, Switzerland and France. When j he irot to Bouioene he boarded the Staten* j ilam. He had four months to make Louis t? win .$5000, and he was sure that he would do it and have time to snare if he did not fall ill or meet with acident. He had enough money to live while oa the way by practicing frugality. I Hnlr Whitened 111 a Night. As Mr. John Burrows, organist of Tay Square United Free Church. Dundee, was descending the cellar steps in the church with a lighted taper in his hand a tremendous explosion occurred., and he was thrown "down the steps with such force that he was stunned. Every window in the church was shattered^ a wall thrown down and great interior' damage done. !Mr. .Burrows' hau, which was previously j dark, had turned u> white, thougk his I beard retains its natural color. j THE GREAT DESTROYER SOME STARTUNC FACTS ABOUT THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE. Confcsalcn of n Whi*hy Manufacturer? "None or Sly Employes Drink tl?e Stuff" ?They Know It is rolion"?Drunk, nrrtt Mast Find Salvation Within. The man who is a slave to physical force buffers within himself. The tblows fall on him alone. It is not so with the wbiekv slave. He suffers, it is true, "but he finds occasional forgetfulness. and while 'his brain is drowned he has his moments of exaltation and recompense. ''"here is no such iorgetfulness for those b:m. And, when he knows himself, he horrified and ashamed because of his awful part in the sufferings of those that have not deserved it. The blows fall upon his wife and children. Huncjry faces, dependents badly clothed, badly housed, meet him when he comes back from the delirium of whisky into real life. The disgrace that falls upon him' is felt more keenly by his wife and his children. No man knows the struggles drunkards have made before giving in and going down helplessly at last. It has been said truly that the virtuous man who sees a drunkard falling into the flutter has probably never in his life made tis hard an effort to better himself as that drunkard has made. Whisky and circumstances .are stronger than the individual.will?that is the 6tory ?and the will ia attacked first of all. It is easy to criticise and customary to despise the drunkard. It is easy to pass by on tbe other side and look down upon tie man whose weakness happens to be different from your own. Perhaps the world would., be better off if more of us looked at the problem from the side of the man who drinks, and tried to help him instead of telling him bow low he has fallen. How can a man be freed from the* clutch of whisky? * Obviously the shortest, simplest way would be to do for him in a good and helpful way that which whisky does for him in a vile and destructive way. Nine-tenths of all drunkenness is based on poverty, worry, the mental weariness that comes of hopeless struggle against material conditions. Free the world from poverty and yon "will lessen the hold of whisky upon millions. Fortunately, that is the glorious work which a slowly advancing civilization is doing, and' it can truly be said that the present day is temperance itself compared with the past. Take away worry from men, and you will take the desire for drink from a great majority of them. Next in number to the great army of drunkards who drink for the sake of forgetfulness are those who drink because they crave excitement and because they lack satisfactory mental occupation. Idleness accounts for much drunkenness. V This is proved by the great number of idlers, spending inherited money, that drink to excess. If the man that finds it hard to resist drinking because life is dull would force . himself into some kind ?f occupation? something to keep hiin going all the time ?he could forget the craving for drink eventually. ' Lack of excitement in life is one great cause of drunkenness. Take the average drunkard on an expedition to the North Pole, where there are danger and an opportunity for individual achievement, and that man, with something worth while, something to stimulate, to occupy him, would give up ; drink ?md become energetic. The lack of rational amusements on Sunday accounts for a great deal of drunkenness. In the big cities hundreds of thousands | of young men lind themselves idle on one I day of the week, with nothing really interesting to do. The saloon welcomes i them, and drunkenness begins with friend- | ly conversation and Sunday talk?close to ! a whisky bottle. The bicycle was a great promoter of sobriety and health. A revival of its popularity would be an excellent thing for the country. ' Wholesome Sunday sports of all kinds, outdoor occupations, and especially opportunities for rational Sunday recreation in the city, would lessen the hojd of whisky considerably. Every drinking man who feels that whisky is getting too strong for him should study his own individual ease. He should try especially to discovei substitutes for the excitement of whisky in other occupations. When his nerves crave alcohol?or when he thinks that they crave it?he should make up his mind to give them something eke. If the man who feels that he must have a drink in the morning will take two or three glasses of hot milk he will 10 long-, er want to drink. Tf fVio mo-n irlin (oola 1 Ka Trmof. hftVA something to drink before he eats Trill control tnat desire, eat his food slowly, and eat plenty of *t, he will discover at the end of the ,aeal that 'he craving for alcohol is gone. Thousands of those who drink mistake simple ht'nger for a desire to drink whisky. Postponing the drink and satisfying the hunger, in nine cases out of ten, will diminish the vhisky craving or destroy it altogether. The drinking man. as a matter of fact, must find his salvation within himself? in his own strength of character. The moment a man really wants not to drink, the moment he wills noi to, he stops. But be must help the will intelligently. The drinking man says that life is dull. He himself is all that he knows of life, his own existence is all that he posesses. He would not think his life dull i? he were in danger of losing it eveiy minute from the attack of some savage IndiaD or wild beast. How can it he dull when ne has constantly before him the danger of destruction through an enemy inside of himself? He ought to find interesting occupation in devising plans to get the better of whisky. > He ought to find the excitement that he lacks in making a successful fight against the power that has destroyed millions. To young men we say: Keep away from whisky. Its friendships are false, its artificial warmth ends in cold destruction. . It means failure, disgrace, smpwrecK. One of the greatest whisky manufacturers in the world was asked if he had any difficulty in keeping his employes | from drinking whisky. He owns one of the most famous of the popular brands. "No," he said; "there is no danger of my people drinking whiskv?they know. the stuff is poison."?New York Evening Journal. The Crwsaile in Brief. TTotels and drug stores in 2)ost on, selling : liquor to women have suffered the penalty I of withdrawal of their licenses. The Birmingham correspondent of the i Daily News says that seventy-five per cent of the drinking which goes on in the many fashionable restaurants in the heart of the city is indulged in by women. The saloons of San Francisco cost the i taxpayers of that city $18,500,000 per year The city receives from the saloons in license $280,000; or, if you please, the saloons of San Francisco cost the people I1S.240.000 a year more than they get out of them. . The employment of barmaids in Calcutta j is now forbidden, and even in Budapesth j the capital of Hungary, it is decreed thai no woman under forty years of age shall b? I employed in the cafes of that city. The need of mining towns for religioui ! , and temperance work is very great. With I in 200 miles of Chicago is a mining town o! , 1000 people without a church or any kinc | ^ of a religious service. Another town neai } by has 1200 people, thirty-seven saloona, j ] but not a church. , General Corronnat, commander-in-chie) ! of the French troops in Indo-China, ii I making especial effort to suppress drunk i enness among the soldiers. He expressei j his regret that warnings concerning thi a serious effects of drinking habits upon th? j health are u.ot heeded. ' "In Christ." BBM IT C. MAUD BATTER8BT. HH Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:4, 5; Eph. 2:6; .BBS 7:39. H We died with Thee upon the cross. We live because Thou livest stiU.. '^^9 How can we shrink from scorn and loa^HS Who watched on Calvary's solemn hHH In crucifixion's awful . hour, mBH When weakness was transformed to po^RB We lay with Thee within the tomb,' ^B9 The door was closed?and cloeed^^HS eyes; Oh, surely, 'twas a narrow room mBm From whence the Lord of Life rise! / The stone moved hack. The angels shoi^Hj Their glory bade the night begone. We rose with Thee, 0 glorious King, ISM And cast our grave-clothes all away. BH The women ran such news to bring, VCfl And some believed, while joroe "JN ay" (And some still ask. Can dea^h depart Can ^ grace renew a buried heart?) SRQfl And now?We take the Spirit's fire. We draw from Thee, Salvation's, Weil^^B We go?wher'er. Thou dost desire, ^BBj The story of Thy love to tell; 5flB Pour out on us Thv richest store - , B9 That we may drink and thirst no more.^BK ?London ChristiaaHB f v The Power of Personal Influence. ^H| Spurgeon used to tell of a man in Si^Bg land who had come under the terrible p^H| er of strong drink. One-day he wentHn the tavern, and took his little girl him to lead him home after he had becc^^H drunk. He carried her on-his shoulc^HH The poor child, as they approached BN tavern, heard from within the sound^K| shouting and fighting, and begged father not to go in. As she pieadedH tear from her eye fell on the man's cVie^H Big man as he was, the influence of that HB tie tear saved him to a temperate lifeAi^H he became one of the engineers of the railroad bridge across the Firth at Eq^Hl bur eh. One of the most delightful of oar stu<^^| op in heaven, I fancy, wifl.be the hist^H| of the influence of little words and dee^H We shall find the prbzress of the wd^H^ has depended on these f^r more than ^Rfi prhat the world thinks great. How intflH sting will be the revised histories in fl?| libraries of heaven!. dM It is literally tme that every word we ^H| lets in motion vibrations of ether tiHfl widen out and go on beating forever. the same way every act of ours, th'V.flH lone in secret, makes an impression OH aothing can efface. Somewhere-'thers^H ringing every sentence .that fell from \9 dps of our Lord; somewhere there are pressions of eveiy act of Judas. w9 Now if this ts literally true, as ev<^H itudent of physics knows, of our words a^HB ieeds, it is true also of the spiritual resi^B )f whatever "we do and say. Every act i^HQ lome influence, for good or evil, and iV^H in unending influence. As Henry Burt^K rang; MM "Never a word is said 4 But it trembles in the air, And the truant voice has sped HB To vibrate everywhere; And perhaps far off in eternal yenrsflg The echo may nog upon our cars." When we go to bed at night, do we tbiiH| #f our'day's work 09 dene? It is nevlB ione; it hai? only begun. That cross woiH| is still at work, poisoning some life whiH ire are Asleep. That kind smile is still H9 work, making some life sweeter, thou JP ve hare forgotten all about it. -oHj Do such thoughts make our lives t<^H lolemn? Do you feel that you never rtop to think of the influence of your evejH|| ?rord and deed? IBM You need not. Only make the hea^B right and all your influence will be riglf^H for "out of the heart 'are the issues S| The brook does not need to plan all >H| iovely curves, its dancing ripples, its.piea^M ?nt sonss as it flows over its stony be^H the drinks it gives to thirsty passers-b^M :be contributions it makes to the mi^H wheel and the great river and the oceaflH rhe brook merely flows on, from a pui^B tource, and the rest takes care of itge?H But if some one should put a package <H| irsenic in the source of the brook. ho'^H tadly all this would be changed? Yet eve^B then the brook would not plan the hariHJ It would do; it would only flow on, out <^E >n impure source.?Amos R. Wells, in Sal^B Data jteauing. m What Is the Meaning of <rLove ?" Love is the test thing in the worhi^H Love is about the worst thine in tb^E world. Love is of God, and love is, in tense, Godlike. Love again draws rne^H away from God' and sets men again Love is a much misunderstood an^K greatly misused term. Love is'sometime^f used as if it were lust, or selfish desir^H but real love has no connection with lusH| Dr selfish desire. fiflj There are two contradictory and incon^H patible ideas connected with our EnghJH word love. There should be two differe^H words in use to express those two ideol^H There are two Hebrew words, and ther^H are two Greek words. The misuse of tb^E two words in the Bible?both being tran^H lated l<vve?is one cause of the confusio^B in the common mind. fin It jb sometimes said that & young mafl| kills a woman because he loves her; bu^P a man who acts in that way never loved^J nor is he, perhaps, capable of lovinp. Th^B world would be a better world if mai^H kind learned the meaning of the wom^J love. It would be a gain to the be*t B us to realize that meaning. Do we undc^H stand it??Sunday-School Times. Opening the Heart. There was a little boy whose heart waHj touched by a sermon on the words. "B^H hold. I stand at the door and knock." His mother said to him: "Robert, wB^Hj would you say to any one who knock^^g at the door of your heart it you wisfia him to come in?" He answered: would say, "Come in!" She said to 'him: "Then say to the Lor< Jesus. 'Come in!"' Next morning there was a brightnen and a joy about Robert's face that mad his father ask: "What makes you ? glad to-day?" He replied: "I awoke in the night. an? I felt that Jesia was still knocking at th door of my heart and I said. "Lord Jesus come in!' and I think He has comein. feel happier thiu morning than I tve was before." Soul Cultivation. This new department is for every Sab bath, for everybody, fox every denomina tion unci God-like faith. Our earnest de sire to make this column helpful an< uplifting to all. and we invite the co-oper ation of cur folks. Ericf. suitable con tnbutions will be welcomed. Surely, ciea friends. .-soul cultivation is as ihnportan as soil cultivation Let us not forge*. True Uelljlon. i True religion slnws its influence it etcry part of our conduct; it is like tlx sap <m' a living tree, which penetrates toe most distant bought;. ' To Celebrate realc'.. Discovery. One of the most elaborate celebrations ver planned in Colorado is beins oonsid;red by the residents of Colorado .Springs lo commemorate the discovery of jpike's Peak. The centennial anniversary of Zebilon Pike's first view of this famous moun;ain falls on November 6. 3908. and already the people of Colorado Springs have segun prepaiation? for a fitting celebration >f the day. j An Octocen&rinn Clnb. Seven men. all over eighty-one year* ofice have formed an octogenarians' jusoiation at Butler. Fa.