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r The Washington Lobbyists. A great deal is said and written about the "Washington lobbyist which is pure imagination. The lobbyist of to-day is not the Sara Ward. The day has gone past in Washington when a vote can be purchased for a dinner. Dinners are too plentiful and votes are too scarce for such an excliangc. The dinner of to-day is oftentimes used as a vehicle for the exchange of views by the friends of any particular measure. The lobbyist first secures his game, and then draws them 'together where, after the guests have Btowed away several bottles undor their honorable jacket, the chances of the success of the undertaking are discussed end various plans suggested that will tend to improve them. The dinner is in flin V*nnrlc r\f flio Bill! UU UUIU HCUJIUU lu luu u.wivto V> lobbyist, but he uses it guardedly and without ostentation. A very prominent lobbyist here, who is reported to be worth a cool half million, keeps a sort of bachelor's hall in a fashionable neighborhood. His house is magnificently furnished, and the rarest taste has been expended in its adornments. Some of the pictures are said to have cost fabulous sums. Here he lives like a prince and entertains his congressional friends in royal style. For the past ten /years his card parties have been the talk of a certain portion of the town. Occasionally a game of draw poker ;s played here in which the stakes run up to large amounts, but the host is ahvay3 careful that his guests do not lose too much at the table. He is one of the best card players in the city, but he seldom wins, uf he finds that one of his guests is losing too much to another, he invariably plays tto that the unlucky one will win from him VipfnrA hp Ipftvos the table. He uses cards as an attraction and an amusement, and takes care th. it nothing shall transipire which wouid even lend the color of suspicion that his house is a place where gambling is the chief source of revenue. This man is what >s culled a ''bear lobbyist." If he tried he could probably <do but little toward the success of any ^particular project, but anions his fellows lie is said to be able to give any scheme a black eye in case he is not properly '"seen," so to speak. His power with Congressmen is entirely i egativc. A scheme involving the expenditure of imoney out of the public treasury must jpass his gaze and meet his approval provided there is-a job in it, otherwise he will set his dogs on it. He is shrewd enougn 10 K11UW lUillll is muni tnsiti IU ikill a measure than it is to force it through Congress.?Bo3to/i Traveler. From Coach-Box to Pulpit. The Rev. and Mrs. Swan Carl Franzene tave. left Ardmore for their new home in Minnesota, where Mr. Franzene will labor as a missionary among the Swedish isettlers. Their recent wedding has unade public the history of a romantic courtship. The bride is the daughter of ithe late Charles Kagler, of Ardmore, for imany vears State senator from Mont " t i iA ? gomery coumy auu iuul; iui-uuw:u ?ru ithe Lutheran Church and Publication (Society. Her sister is Dr. Annie Ivugler, .now a missionary in India and recently assistant resident physician in the female department of the Norristown Insane asylum. While Miss Florence was still a schoolgirl (pupil of the Friends'school, at Fifteenth and Race streets) she formed the acquaintance of the coachman of Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, who spends his summers at his country place, near Ayimore. This coachman was a Swede of ordinary education, not at all, in the eyes of the "world, the prop.y; mate for a young ladv of Miss Kugler's position, education and prospective fortune. Nevertheless, she declared her determination either to marry the coachman or go with her sister ^ as a missionary to India. The young lady's relatives and friends, of course, opposed- the match. The coachman was too sensible to imitate Hulscamp and resolved that if the girl could nQt come down to his level he would rise to hers. Accordingly he reVkirt e%Z 4-n r* 4-? /%*> n o l^r A f*nn \\T ' a B1??LLCU. 1-113 suuuuuu ao ?jl. iiguv n t coachman and catered upon the studies required for the Lutheran ministry. During his theological course Miss Florence patiently waited. At last the young Swede's efforts were crowned with success. He was ordained, all opposition gave way and Ardmore was entertained with a pretty wedding in the Lutheran church. As the demand for Lutheran ministers to labor among the Swedish emigrants in the West is largely in excess of the supply, the young missionary has every opportunity to keep his present position and become useful if not also eminent.?Philadelphia Times. An Art or Shadowing. "Shadowing/' says a Chicago detective, "is the most difficult and the most scientific work in my profession. If a man is well shadowed for two weeks so much can be discovered concerning his habits, his associates, his inclinations, Becret acts, in short, of his inner life, that almost a perfect biography of him Cau be written. Every man does many Characteristic things when he thinks lie is alone that he never would do in company, nnd the shadow learns a man's true character by witnessing his natural life. Wore people than you imagine have been lhadowed for the information of both friends and enemies. Nearly every man in Chicago prominent in bu3iness, politics, or religion has been shadowed, and there is somewhere filed away a document that would make the eyes of the subject open could he read it. "Every man connected with a bank, from the president down, is shadowed. Large business firms get periodical reports on the private lives of trusted employes. I suppose Marshall Field can ^11 r\f. Kno^a r\f rlonnrfmnnta in iULi ailj Ul IUV UV/UUd Vi V?V|/M> VIMVU(W his store whether they drink brandy or mead, smoke cigarettes or opium, play penny ante in a friend's parlor or faro in a gambling house. "I know that the head of a well-known detective agency in Chicago has' been Bhadowed bv nearly every other agency, and they all have his record. ("It is hard work to shadow a man. You have to get up an hour earlier than he does in order to get your breakfast and lay for him at his home. You follow him to his office, to lunch, on his business rounds?everywhere. When he is on the street you never take your eyes off him, and I tell you this makes your head flWim. 1 OU ioiiow mm numu iu supper, End down tcwn again in the evening, tyou note everybody he speaks with aud every lady to whom he bows. You must ptav with him till he goes to bed, and then write out your report before you get to sleep. "Men are oftenest shadowed when they are in trouble, and they rush here and there, talk to scores of men, enter scores of places, and get up early and go to bed late. A good lively subject will Sead the shadow a wild and merry dance, and two weeks of it will wear a good toan out."?Chicajo News. Butternut wood is largely used for miking shoes to wear in breweries and other damp placcs. Less than one-third of the earth and b debris that covered Pompeii so long remains in place. WORDS OF WISDOM. He benefits himself who doeth good j to otners. { The way to keep money is to earn it : fairly and honestly. It is error only, and not truth, that ! shrinks from inquiry. i The investigation and pursuit of truth ] is the special duty of man. I Our acts make or mar us; we are the | children of our own deeds. j It is a great blindness and a great j misery to seek rest where it is impossible to find it. [ A rule for living happily with others j is to avoid having stock subjects of disi putation. j It is as hard to satirize well a man oi avmoo on tn nraise avcII a I UI^UU^UiOM\/V4 itvvw ?.- y __ I man of distinguished virtues. ' A snob is that man or woman who is j always pretending to be something better?especially richer or more fashionable ?than they are. Misfortune is not always misery. A mau can possess an unrutHed m:nd and a contenicd heart in the midst of the most untoward circumstances. It is a deep working out of love to say or do from true love that which may cause the object of love to manifest hate to us and yet to love him in spite of his hate. Let there be in every man's life a time for silence and for holding his tongue, of keeping it back, like David, eveu from good words, even though itbepaiu nad grief to him. The Miseducation of Elephants. I The huge performing elephant, Em' press, lately ki.led a watchman in the j winter quarters of Forcpaugh's circus n j Philadelphia, completing, so far, a tally of three men killed, aud more than a dozen meu and women woun led. We desire to call attention to two facts. Empress, with this record of victims, was a performing elephant; Jumbo, whose docility aud very good nature was a proverb, so far as American experience of him went, was not. These facts entirely coincide with the scientific fact that the elephantine train, which is practically non-convoluted, is not adapted to the comprehension of the sort of tricks exhibited in the circus. I This, acrain, is proved by the extraordi nary difficulty experienced in educating an animal noted for its almost human intelligence in some directions above a line of conduct wholly foreign to its nature. It is an established fact that in such directions as ro.id building, engineering, and even attack and defense the elephants sagacity shows itself spontaneously; on the other hand, in the range of circus tricks only the most atrocious cruelty can succeed in teaching the animal. Perfected education is continuously practiced; the whole nervous system is deranged,.and a memory of the wrongs endured and suflerings inflicted may well tend to establish a misanthropy that is always smouldering and may at any time break out. Elephantine tricks are difficult; in the language of good old I)r. Johnson the spectator may well I wish thev were impossible. Nor have they any justification. "When one goes to the circus it is not to see the teacher. ?The oulv excuse for keeping a beast in captivity is that it serves to educate the public iu zoology. But a trick elephant is abnormal and ron-instructive, it is ten parts trainer and only one part elephant. Mr. Bergh and his sympathizers could do nothing more sensible and humane than address themselves to the indefensible folly of miseducating elephants.?Brooklyn Eagle. Italian Industries in the Metropolis. The humble sons of Italy in the manu- j facture of macaroni and vcrmicilli have almost a monopoly in New York. Floui and saffron are the principal ingredients of these edibles and the component parts are cut into small pieces or threads like worms (vermicelli) by forcing the mixture with a piston through little holes in the end of a pipe. The kneading ol the flour is done by a wooden pole attached to a part fixed in the ground and worked up and down as a lever, under nnn nnrl nf wViiph llfiqfn is lll.TPOfl. The dough is sometimes piled up and after being trodden, is rolled by a rolling-pin in the ordinary method. Subsequently this paste is forced through an iron arrangement full of holes. The largest rolls are macaroni, the second largest vcrmicelli and the smallest fedclini. The flour generally used in Minnesota, as it approaches in quality to Italian flour, full of gluten or starch. The saffron used at present is -wholesome vegetable matter. The Italians who arc seen in Crosby, Mott, Elm and Baxter streets, carryiug bags of dilapidated boots and shoes, are far from being paupers. They get thirty cents per 100 pounds for these apparently worthless soles, and thus do they support the body, mainly by indulging in native wine and the manufacture above referred to. The Italian, fortified with these two articles, can save money on A maviAan *trs\ills3 small CUlUIll^), nuci&au aiugiitiiu ?tvmi\* starve. The Italians who arc a grade above the la/.zaroni or beggars, take the world very easy, and travel as they say. con commodo?i. e., at a "convenient" rate of speed. "Where do they sell the old shoes?" Mostly in Newark, where the leather is burned to make prussiate of potash, which by the way, has almost driven Prussian blue from the market. Of the five firms in the United States manufacturing prussiate of potash, two are located at Newark.?New York World Baseball Statistic % The amount of wood consumed in one year in making bats is almost incrediblc. It would make 131,479 hoe-handles, o27,34;> ax-helves; or, converted into toothpicks, wTould supply every freelunch fiend in Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati tor years to come. The loss to agricultural interests and mechanical industries by the employment of ablebodied men in baseball service is enormous, and at the lowest calculation may be put down at $23,470,345 per annum. The expenditure of muscular energy in one hotly contested game alone has been estimated to be sufficient to break two tons of stone, saw five cords of wood, cu hoe seven acres of ground. The employment it directly or indirectly gives 4-/-v +Viq ti'nrlno on^ -nrnfoeeinnc mildf not I however, be overlooked; for, as nine oul of ten baseball players get broken noses, sustain severe internal injuries, or lose i their teeth, the surgical and dental professions would regretfully look upon its decline.?Richmond Baton. A rat gnawing a hole, complained thai while there were so many holes in the world there were none where he wanted one. "You have the choice," was the reply, "to go where there is a hole, or to make one where you want it." The total number of cattle sent out from Ireland last year was about 834.000 head, some 700,000 of which went to I England, and the rest to Scotland. FERRETS AS RAT-CATCHERS. How the lively Little Animals are Trained lo Kill Kodents. "If you want to clear a house or vessel of rats, nowadays," said Rat-catcher and Vermin Exterminator Tsaacsen to a reporter for the Mail and Express, "you mustn't depend on cats. They.arc too slow and old fashioned for this kind of work, and like everything else that is j antiquated, they are bound to go. "What has taken the place of the cat? ] "Why, the ferret to be sure. It is the I only sure-pop remedy for these pests. A few years ago ferrets were only used for , amusement in rat baits and things of , that sort, but now ferret raising has be- I come a regular business, which is grow- i ( innf all the time. Last year over 2,000 | j ferrets were sold in this city, and this year I am raising over 3,000 myself, and several fanciers are devoting much time and attention to improving the breed." "Do they require special training?" "Bless your soul, of course they do. In the tirst place they are probably the stupidest animals that were ever created. The only thing about them that seems to be common to all is pluck, and an obstinacy like that cf a bulldog. When they once get their teeth in the carcass of another animal, or even a piece of meat, you cannot make them let go without almost killing them, so great is the strength of their jaws and neck, which, after half a minute or so produces stupefaction, and then their jaws will relax. They will, of course, naturally fight a rat or any animal when they see it, but the difliculty is to train them to hunt for rats." "Mow is that done?" "The best way is by imitation. We take young ferrets about six months old. :is recruits, and put tnem wun aD i older ferret, which ha3 been trained to 1 enter rat-holes without any coaxing J being required. The younger ones will j follow the example of the experienced ( hunter, and when they have become 1 used to the sport they enjoy it and will usually take to rat holes as a duck to \ water. It often takes a good many ( weeks, however, to make them proficient j in the work, and sometimes we have to < give it up. Once in a rat-hole they never leave it until every rat his been driven out or killed. The old animals which i have been carefully trained and have shown exceptionally fine points are very | desirable for the purpose of 'working in' the young ferrets, ana are very vaiuaoie. I That animal in the cage," he continued, , pointing to a small-sized brown-striped 1 ferret, apparently differing in no respect ; from the others in the room, "is one of ' the finest rat-catchers I ever had. I j would not take $30 for her. She is three j years old, and has an unlimited amount ? of pluck, requiring no coaxing to start on a foray. Beside this her chief point J is her small size, which you will observe ; in comparing her with the other ferrets I near by. This enables her to follow th? \ rats through the smallest crevices with out difficulty, when a larger ferret would , be obliged to give up the chase. She has i been in a great many fights and the princi- : pal danger has been the possibility that J in a contest with a number of large rats ( she might be overpowered aud Killed, j for when a rat is cornered he will show 1 as much fight as a ferret. Her pluck has ] always saved her, however. When sho 1 is used for rat hunting, we always put a j larger animal with her for protection, for two ferrets can get away with any number of rats without difficulty. 1 "It sometimes takes several days, or a week even, to clear the rats out of a ( building. The rats are smarter animals, i and can scent ferrets as soon as they i are brought into the house, and will * leave it at once if there is any way of ] escane. It is therefore necessarv to keep < the ferrets in the house some time, so ] that the rats gradually lose their fear ? when they find they are not attacked, ' and will return to their old haunts. A j couple of ferrets can clear the largest i warehouse of rats in one night if they < can get at them. But even if they are \ not all killed the remainder will seldom return to the house which has once been j ransacked by ferrets, for several months i at least. Many owners of large drygoods < j houses keep ferrets in their cellars all the 1 time, in the same way as they would ! keep a cat, which is a continual i protection against these destruc- i tive pests. In hunting rats 1 on board ship great care must be taken ? ? J f lrtfti- T lin nfKnv ' ui tuis iuncts win uo luoi, # a uo ubui^i ^ day I lost several valuable ferret9 in ] making such an experiment. The rata collected in the bow of the vessel, and | when the ferrets attacked them they ( went overboard in a body, pouring in a 3 stream out of one of the hawselioles. i The ferrets went after them of course, 1 and were drowned. Put a big rat in a ' room with a ferret and he will always j back up in a corner and defend himself i to the last. You cau alway3 bet on the ferret though, for he is bound sooner or j later^o fasten his teeth in the neck of his ( antagonist. "Where a siugle ferret is ? placed in a stall with a large number of c rats the latter will crowd together in a 1 corner and try to hide under each other. T This makes it very easy work for the j ferret, but reverse the operation, and put s in a solitary rat with three or four fer- i rets, and they will leave the rat entire 8 and fight with each other for the prize. J I have known ferrets to kill each other t in fighting for the possession of a choice | morsel which neither is willing to share i with the other. 1 "How much will a trained ferret \ bring?" t < PC o " r Ktif A f c 1 LIU USUUl JHH/O 19 '?>AU ? j/Cfc 11 j vt a courae, the better trained animals will bring higher prices. They are usually ? sold in pairs because two will hunt bet- a ter together than a single one. ( "Great care is to be used in haudling c ferrets on account of their vicious habit * of biting everything that come3 in their ^ way. The size of the enemy makes no c difference, and they will hang on to the \ I lip of a dog until they have been literally chawed to pieces. If they become t used to a person, however, who takes c I carc of them they will not bite him un- s | less provoked by rough treatment." e In order to exhibit their strength and c tenacity of grip, Mr. Isaacson attached a ? small piece of raw meat to the end of a ^ pair of tongs and lowered it into a cage a where three of the animals were scuttling t about. As soon as they caught sight of v the morsel they all jumped for it with | the ferocity of tigers. As soon as they c had obtained their grip he drew the t struggling and writhing bunch out of F the cage, and let tbem hang suspended ? for several minutes. Then taking the r smallest one by the body, he removed flin tniiffQ nn<l lot it, sunnort the weight t *vv"O" " ~ I * ' o of the other two, none of them showing 8 the slightest disposition to let go, al- J though they soon ceased kicking and t clawing when they found themselves c' without support. ? "They would hang on this way for an * indefinite length of time," said the rat- f catcher, as he proceeded to remove his s pets by squeezing their necks until they c gasped for breath, and finally opened s their traplikc jaws, and were dropped 1 one by one into their box again.?Neu \ York Mail and Express t There are only eleven theatres in the 1 entire State of Virginia. i 1 TALMAGB'S SERMON. POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY. The text was from Ecclesiastes xi., 3: "If the tree fail toward the south or toward the north, in tho place where the tree falleth tbero it shall be." "There is a hovering hope," said tue preacher, "in the minds of a vast multitude that there will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of this; that if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life it will be on a shore up which we may walk to a palaco; that, as a defendant may lose his casa in the Circuit Court and carry ' it up to the Supremo Court or Court of Chancery and get a reversal of judgment in hia behalf, all tli3 costs being thrown over on the other party, so if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of eternity have the judgment of the lower :ourt set aside, all tho costs remitted, and we be victorious defendants forever. My abject in this sermon is to show that common sense, as well as my text, declares that such in expectation is chimerical. You say that the impenitent man having got into the next rt?r\r?M onrl cooiixy fhft #113 A.<t.PT*. will M fl. Tft suit of that ditasier, turn, the pain the cause af his reformation. But you can find ten thousand instances in this world of men who have done wrong and distress overtook them suddenly. Did the distress heal them/ JN'o, they went right on. " 'You must stop drinking,' said the doctor, 'and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will destroy you.' lhe patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm, but under skilful medical treatment he begins to set up, begins to walk about the room, begins :o go to Business. And, lo! he goes back to the same ;rog shops for his morning dram and his avening dram and the drams between. Fiat iown again. Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same medical warning. Isow the illness is more protracted, the liver is more stubborn, the stomach more irritable and the digestive organs are more rebellious. But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dram-shopg, and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health. He sees that his downward course is ruining his household; that his life is a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow; that that brokenhearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife that he married, that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons are to be taunted for a lifetime by the father's drunkenness, that the daughters are to pass into life under the salification of a disroputablo ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their prospects for this life and perhaps for the life to come. Sometimes an appreciation of what he i3 doing comes upon him. His nervous system is all in a jangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one aching, rasping, crucifying, damning torture. Where is he? In hell on earth. Does it reform him? Alter a while he has delirium tremens, when a whole jnugle of hissing reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors as he dashes out of his bed, crying: 'Take these things off of me!' As he sits, fale and convalescent^ the doctor says: 'Now want to have a plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The nexc attack of this kind you will have, you will be beyond all medical skill and you will die.' He gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time medicine takes no effect Consultation of physicians agree in saying there is no hope. Death ends the scene. That process of inebriation. warning and dissolution is going on in all the neighborhoods of Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suffering does not reform. What is true in one sense is true in ill senses and will forever be so, and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. Take up the printed reports Df the prisons of the United States and you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been there before, some of them four, nve, six times. With a million illustrations all working the other way in this world psople are expecting that distress in the next state will be salvable. You cannot imagine any worse torture in any other world than that which some men have suffered here and tYilXlUUL UllJ DaiUvfli JT UVIIOUVJUCIIUOI ' Furthermore, the prospect of a reformation in the next world is more improbable than a reformation here. In this worla the life started with innocence of infancy. In the case supposed the other life will open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. Surely, it is easier to build a strong ship out of new timber than out of an }ld hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If, with innocence to start with in this life a man does not become godly, what prospect is there that in the next world, starting with a sin, a seraph should be avoluted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of making a fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than out of an old black rock seamed and tracked with the storms of a half century. Surely upon a clean white sheet of paper it is easier to write a deed or a will than upon a sheet of paper all scribbled and blotted and ;orn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out badly, the next life will succeed though it starts with i dead failura 'But,' says some one, 'I think ive ought to have a chance in the next lite, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood of the one almost touching the marble j 3f the other.' But do you know what made ' * * - 1 Ti. 4UA I LUe ancient cieiuge n net/essay r ?n naa tuo longevity of the antediluvians. They were worse in the second century of their lifetime than in the first hundred years, and still worse in the third century, and still worse all the way on to seven, eignt and nine hundred years, and the earth had to be washed and scrubbed and soaked and anchored clear DUt of sight for more than a month before ic could be made fit i'or decent people to live in. Longevity never cure3 impeniteney. All the pictures of Time represent him with a scythe to cut, but I never saw any picture of Time with a case of m/Jicines to heal. Sensca says that Nero lor the lirst five years of his public ife was set up for an example of clemency ind kindness, but his path all the way descended. until at sixty-oight he becani3 a sui:ide. If 81)0 years did not make antediluvians any better, but only made them vorse, the ages of eternity could have 10 effect except prolongation of depravity. But,' says some one, 'in the future state evil urroundings will be withdrawn and elevated nfluences substituted, and hence expurgation md sublimation and glorification.' But the ighteous, all their sins forgiven, have passed >n into n. beatific state, and conseauentlv the insaved will be left alone. It cannot bo ex)ected that Dr. Ddff, who exhausted himself n teaching Hindoos the way to Heaven, and 3r. Abeel. who gave his life in the evangoli?tion of China, and Adoniram Judson, who oiled for the redemption of Borneo, should )e sent down by soms celestial missionary ociety to educate those who wasted all their sarthly existence. Evangelistic and missiontry efforts are ended. The entire kingdom >f the morally bankrupt by themselves, where ire the savable influences to come from I }au one speckled and bad apple in a barrel >f diseased apples turn the other applo3 good? >an those who are thomselves down help othirs up ? Can those who have themselves ailed in the business of the soul pay the debts >f their spiritual insolvents ? Can a million vrongs make one right ? " Poneropolis was a city where King Philip >f Thracia put all the bad people of his kiuglom. If any man had opened a primary chool at Poneropolis I do not think the parmts from other cities would have sent their ihUdren there. Instead of amendment in the fther world all the associations, now that the rood are evolved, will be degenerating and lown. You won id not want to send a man to i cholera or yellow-fever hospital for his lealth, and the groat Iaziratto of tho next vorld, containing tha disoased and pla^uatruck. will be a poor pla?e for moral rocovry. If tin surrou iditig^ iu this world were rowded of temptation, tho surroun lings in ho nsxt world after tiio righteous have rissed up and on will be a thousand percent, mre crowded of temptation. Tho (Sunt of Miat?aubrinnd mub his little son sleep at light at the top of a castle turret, wliere tho vinds howled and where spectres were said o haunt the pla?e, and while tho mother and isters almost died with fright the son toll? is that tha process gave him nerves that could jot tremble and a courage that never falered. But I don't think that the towers of larkness and the spectral world swept by Sirocco an 1 Euroclydon will ever fit ono for ,ho land of eternal sunshina I wonder what s tho curriculum of that college of Inorno, whore, after proper preparation by the iins of this life, the candidate enters, passing m from the freshman elass of depravity to ophomore of abandonment, and from soplionore to junior, and from junior to senior, ind day of graduation comes, and with liploma signed by Satan, tho president, md other professorial demoniacs, attestng that the candidate has been one enough under their drill, he passes lp to enter heaven. Pandemonium a pre narative coarse for heavenly admission I Ah. my friends, Satan and his cohorts have fitted uncounted multitudes for ruin, but never fitted one soul for happiness. Furthermore: It would not be safe for this world if men had another chance in the next If it had been announced that however wickedly a man might act in this world he could fix it up all right in the next, society would be terribly demoralized and the human race demolished in a few years. The fear that if we are bad and unforgiven here it will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight savagery to extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all nations, Christian and heatlion, that there is no future chance for those who have wasted this. Multitudes of men wno are kept within bounds would say: 'Go to, now; lot me get all out of this life there is in it Come gluttony and inebriation, and uncleanliness, and revenge, and all sensualities, and wait upon me. My life mav be somewhat shortanftd in this w.irld by dissoluteness, but that will only make heavenly indulgence on a larger scale the sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at last, and will enter the heavenly temple only a little later than those who behaved thf-mselves here. I will on my way to heaven take a little wider excursion than those who were on earth pious, and I shall go to heaven via Gehenna and via SheoL' "Another chance in the next world means free license and wild abandonment in this. Supposa you were a party in an important cas? at law, and you knew from consultation with judges and attorneys that it would b3 tried twics and the first trial would ba of little importance, but that the second would decide everything, for which trial you would make the most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which b3 most anxious about the attendance of witnesses? Yoa rtnf ?11 flta efpnco iir\An. fViO tfinl VVUUIU puu au bug a uigoo u^wu vuv ww^wuv* > ? ?* all the anxiety, the expenditure, saying, 'The first is nothing, the last is everythiag.' Give the race assuranco of a second an 1 more important trial in the subsequent life, and all the preparation for eternity wou'-1 be postmortem, po3t-funeral, post-sepulchral, and the world with one jerk be pitched off into impiety and godlessne3?. Furthermore: Let me ask why a chance in the next world, if we have refused innumerable chances in this? Suppose you give a banquet and invite a vast number of friends, but one man declines to come or treats your invitation with indifference. Yoa, in the course of twenty years, give twenty banquets, and the same man is invited to them all and treats thom all In the same obnoxious way. After a while you remove to another house, larger and better,and you again invito your friends, but send no invitation to the man who declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you to blame? Has he a right to expect to be invited after all the indignities he has done you? God in this world has invited us all to the banquet of His grace. He invited U3 by His Providence and His Spirit 305 days of every year since we knew our right hand from our'loft. If wo declined it every time, or treated the invitation with indifference, and gave twenty or forty or fifty years of indignity on our part toward the banqueter, anl at last bespreads the banquet in a more luxuriant ana kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens, have we a right to expect him to invito U3 again, and have we a right to blame him if he does not invite us? "If twelve gates of salvation stood open twenty years or fifty years for our admission, inrl nh t.hA anrl nf that time thev are closed. can we complain of it and say: 'These gates ought to be open again. Give us another chance.' If the steamer is to sail for Hamburg, and wo want to get to Germany by that line, and we read in every evening and every morning newspaper that it will sail on a certain day, for two weeks we have the advertisetnetitbefore our eyes, and then wo go down to the dosks fifteen minutes after it has shoved off into tne stream and say, 'Com9 back. Give me another chance. It is not fair to treat me in this way. Swing up to the dock again and throw out the planks and let me come oh board,' such behavior would invite arre3t as a madman. And if, after the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for years and years and years, and all tho benign voices of earth and heaven have urged us to get on board, a3 she might sail away at any moment, and after a while she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to come back ? You might a? well go out on the highlands at Navesink and hail the Aurania after she had been three days out, and expect her to return, as to call back ! an opportunity for heaven when it once j has spad away. All heaven offerel us j a? a gratuity, and for a lifetime we refuse to ! " * - * ?' *- *?--?! ~ P I t*?il?6 lty El 11'A DQRn rusa UH ul uauy- | vah's buckler demanding another chance. There ought to he, there can be, there will be no such thing as posthuraou3 opportunity. Thu3 our common sense agrees with my text: J If the tree falls toward tha south or toward j the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be.' You see that this tree lifts this world up from an 'unimportant way station to a platform of stupendous issues, and makes all eternity whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation must be made in this world, or never, never made at all. That piles up all the emphasis and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life here. No other chancel Oh, how that augments the value and the importance of this chance! Alexander with his army used to surround a city and then would lift a great light in token to the people that, if they surrendered before that light went out, all would be well, but if once the light went out then the battering rams would swing against th3 1 wall, and demolition and disaster would fol- i low. Well, all we need to do for our present and everlasting safety, is to make surrender j * to Christ, the king and conqueror, surrender i 1 of our hearts, surronder of our lives, surren- j , 1? - ? A nJ Iiq lraana ft orpflat [ * C19r Ol OVBrjr uuuifc. au>a ~ light burning?light of Gospel invitation, light kindled with tha wood of the cross and flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender while that great light 1 continues to burn, for after it goes out , there will be no other opportunity of making ' peace with God through our Lord Jesus < Christ. Talk of another chance! In the time of Edward the VI., at tho battle of Musselburgh, a private soldier, seeing that the earl i of Huntley had lost his helmet, took off his own helmet and put it upon the head of tha earl; and the head of the private uncovered, J he was soon slain, while the commander , rode safely out of the battle. But in the our case, instead of a private soldier offer- j ing helmet to an earl, it is a king putting his ( crown upon an unworthy subject, the king ' dying that we might live. Tell it to all points 1 of the compass. Tell it to night and day. Tell it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all centuries, all ages, all millenniums, that we have such a magnificent chance in this world that we need no other chance in the next. "A dream: I am in the burnished judgment hall of the last day. A great white throne is lifted, but-the judge has not yet taken it. *TT| ?*?i-.'- T VV H1IG W0 are waiULlg iur Ilia amvai x uoai immortal spirits in conversation. 'What are you waiting here for?' says a soul that went up from Madagascar to a soul that ascended i from America. The latter says: 'I cama i from America, where for forty years I heard the gospel preached and the Bible read and 1 from the prayer I learned in infancy at my . mother's knee until my last hour I had gospal advantages; but for some reason I did not ] make the Christian choice, and I am here j waiting for the Judge to give me a new trial and another chance.' 'Strange,' says the t other, 'I had but one gospel call in Madagascar, and I accepted ,it, ani I do not need another chance.' 'Why are you here?' says < one who on earth had feeblest intellect to one i who had groat brain and silvery tongue and sceptres of influence. The latter responds; 1 'Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I mas- y tered libraries and had learned titles from colleges, and my name was a synonym for { eloquence and power. And yet L neglected t my soul, and I am here waiting for a 'ontfj tho nnflfif Hift fflpllla ] 11U umi, MUlUll^U, earthly capacity, 'I knew but little of worldly j knowledge, but I knew Christ and made him my partner, and I have no need of another chance.' Now the ground tromblos with the t approaching chariot. The great folding doors t of the hall swing open. 'Stand back!' cry the celestial ushers. 'Stand back an I let the c Judge of quick and dead pass through.' He takes the throne, and, looking over the throng of nations, he says: 'Come to the judgment, the last judgment, the only judgment!' By one flash of the throne all the history of each one flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. 'Divide!' says the Judge to the assembly. 'Divido!' echo the ' walls. 'Divide!' cry the guards angelic. And now the immortals separate, rushing this way and that, and after a while there is 1 a great aisle between them and a great vac- j uum widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on one side, says: 'He * that is righteous let him be righteous still, ! j and ho that is holy let him be holy still;' and j then turning toward tho throng on tho oppo- j 1 site side, he says: 'He that is unjust let him j ] bo unjust still,' and then lifting ono hand toward each group he declares, 'If tho tree 1 fall toward the south or toward the north, t in tho place where tho tree falleth there it . shall be.' And I hear something jar with a ] great sound. It is the closing of the book of judgment. The Judge ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is cleared and shut. The high court of eternity adjourned forever." TEMPERANCE TOPICS. "II It Was Not for tUo Drink.'* 'Tis close upon the midnight chimes, The fire is burning low, My eyes are blinded so with tears I cannot see to sew; I'm faint and hungry, and I fain Would eat a crust of bread, But I must leave it till the morn, The children must be fed. I sent them early to their bed, Their hunger to forget, And stole to see them as they slept. But still their cheeks Were wet. I little thought five years ago, That wo to this 6hould sink? And we might all ba happy still, If it was not for the drink. We hive but rags upon us now, Our clothes are all in pawn, And one by one the things I loved For rent and food are gone. There's nothing but my shadow now Across the empty space Where our old clock stood, year after year, With its round and cheery face. I used to like to hear it tick, And to see the hour draw on That brought ray Joe again to me When his day's work was done. But when I hear his footstep now My heart begins to sink; Yet he would be so kind and good If it was not for the drink. I'm thankful that your mother's lot Can never rest on you, My Lizzie with the flaxen curls, A i ur..? Aim eyes su iui?U auu uiuo. There seemed no bitterness in death, As I stood beside your grave, For the Heavenly Shepherd had stooped down, The weakest lamb to save. You'll never cry again, my child, With hunger or with cold, For the sound of weeping is not hear' In the city all of gold. Yet still I miss your little face, And the tears fall as I think I might have had you with me still, If there had not been the drink." Ohl sometimes when I'm sitting here I wish that 1 were dead, And resting in the quiet grave My weary heart and head; But then again I look around On Johnnie and on Kate, And call the wish back as I think Of what would be their fate, Without ray hands to wash and mend Without my hands to strive To earn a little bit of bread To keep us just alive, For it's very, very seldom now, That I hear Joe's wages chink But he would bring them all to me, If it was not for the drink. Ah me! it is a bitter grief To feel one's love and trust Have leaned upon a broken reed, And built upon the dust I This bruise is sore?but, ohl my heart Is sorer still to know, And try to hide, whose hand it was That struck the cruel blow. For the drink has got that hold on Joe, That he can't tell wrong from right; He's dark and sullen in the morn, But he's worse, far worse, at night. And wicked words he often says That make me start and shrink? But they would never pass his lips, If it was not for the drink. I feel ashamed to go to church, Though a comfort it would be, For the folk would think I came to bog, If they my rags should see. 'Tis very long since I have had A gown that was not old, And my bonnet has been soaked with rain, And my Sunday shawl is sold; And so I have to stay at home, And silently to pray That God would pity my poor Joe, And take bis sin away; While ho sits sleeping heavily Without the power to think; Yet he would think, and he would pray, If it wasndt for the drink. It makes me mad to see the man, Who sells the curse go by With his glittering rings and chain of gold, Holding his head so high. 'Tis hard to see his wife and girls In silks and satins shine, And to know the money that they spend Should some of it be mine. And I'm ready oftentimes to wish That all the drink could be, With those that make and those that sell, Flung down into the sea; For almost all tbe country's woo And crime would with them sink,. And men might have the chance for good, If it was not for tfee driuk. ?A. L. Westcombe. Effects of moderate Drinking on Health* "Wc ask any candid inan, does the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage do any good under auy circumstances? I could give the views of the ablest and best physicians on this point and they ill concur in the opinion that the habit ual use of distilled liquors in any case, whatever, is wholly unnecessary; that they neither supported the human body igainst the morbid cffects of heat or cold, nor rendered labor more easy or more productive; that there were many articles of drink and diet not only safe ind salutary, but in all respects more favorable for the purposes aforesaid? that a great portion of the most obstinate, painful, and mortal maladies which ifflict the human body, were produced by distilled liquors; that the use of them was not only destructive to health, but tended to degrade us as intelligent beings; that a very large proportion of human misery arising from poverty, disease, and crime were produced by the use of fermented and distilled liquors, and that a total and universal abstinence from all such liquors, whether in the shape of wine, beer, cider or spirits, would greatly contribute to the health, happiness and prosperity of the humau family, and that they might bo discontinued entirely ind at once with safety. That alcohol should be classed with Dther powerful drugs, and that when prescribed medicinally it should be done tvith the most conscientious caution and >vith the gravest sense of responsibility, md that we are of the opinion that the lse of alcohoiic liquor as a beverage is oroductive of a large amouut of mental ind physical disease; that it entails disused appetites and enfeebled constituions upon the offspring, and that it is he cause or a large percentage of the :rime and pauperism of our large cities, md of the country.? Good Templar. Alcohol a PoI*on? J. S. Nowlin, M. I)., in the Nashville ^Tenu.) Cumberland Presbyterian, writes: "Alcohol is poison to the body. It njures the mind, and transmits its baneful influence to the progeny of its lover. No ouc at this day who has looked into ;he effects of alcohol deuics that it is a poison?slow, certainly, but ncvertheess sure. The peculiar direction the poison may take depends upon the imount, the rapidity with which it is .ntroduccd, the length of time it is kept jp, and the susceptibility of the person.1 *r- V; A FAIRY FANCY. A dainty, tiny fairy q\jpen Came to me last night in a dream, And told me of garden fair, J And of a red rose .blooming there. ; .3 Then told I to the fairy queen Of a sweet girl that I had seen, With laughing eyes and waving hair, And rosy-cheeked and young and fair. "Why, I know," cried the fairy quean, The lovely girl that you have seen; Her bright cheek is my garden fair, My own red rose is blooming there!" ?Malvin Revilo, in Courier Journa, religious' reading. My Prayer. What is my prayer to-night? A meek, sab- -3 missive heart is what I crave, A heart from pride set free, from passion clean, A life true, constant, brave, wherein is seen Likeness to Him who came our lives to save; But dftre I ask ? Obedience' price in suffering, -j] A r>r? T linifo mna nnrl biihaj ?mIti/tU T - "i jl uavo jujo auu ncuouica r/ui?,u i v?uuv? \ lose, My heart so closely holds them. -Can I bid Thee choose For rae, and wait thy will, unfaltering? And I would see tlio shining ol thy l'aco, But shall I find it in a servant's place ? My pride rebels, my human heart is weak To take upon itself the life I seek; One only thing I ask, for this alone I pray, Lord, make mo willing to be holyr wilUng t? obey. ?Selected. Christian Certitude. Christianity is self-evidencing ; it carries its own evidence with it to the \ mind and heart of the sincere and earnest man. As it is not a mere idea r j but a living reality, not merely a fact of the past but a present power, it impresses itself upon the conscientious man by its very nature. As it is not merely doctrine concerning divine* 7;^ truth, but the actual revelation of the truth itself; as it is the divine reality m personally manifested by the living, present Saviour of men, it is not de- >3 pendent upon the conclusions of any . ^ processes of reasoning in a discursive ~;| understanding, or upon the ever pro- J ^ gressive movements of science. As it is . not a mere inference from a past his- S torical fact, but a living, present, abiding power operating on human nature, and becoming, wherever men yield to its impres- :?* sions, a matter of experience in ^ consciousness, it produces, in addition to the historial faith, in which there . ^ may be many doubts, an experimental faith which shuts out all further question of reality, and produces inner certitude of truth. It has historical faith, but it is not dependent upon the removal of all historical doubts, 3 does*not need, for the validity of Its claim, to wait and see what historical criticism may accomplish. If Christianity like other religions were separable from the person of its founder, it might be obliged to rest entirely upon, such grounds, might have t<r be proved, beyond all possible doubt, from historical evidence, mig"ht have to meet all claims of science and phil- | osophy, before it could produce living / certainty in the soul. But Christ is not the mere founder oE a religion. jJ.; He is that religion itself. Christianity is inseparable from his person. He is ~ .-;J| the present, living reality in our re ' TJ. 1_ 1 ? t 1 3 _ Tl 2 ? 3f. ugion. it is ouiy uecauae ue is. it is not only because he once was, but because he is now. It lives only because he lives. It lives not only because he once lived, but because he now lives. It will be always only '-'M because he will ever be?because "he was, and is, and *is to come." Other religions might exist even if their founders were unknown, or after they had been forgotten, but Christianity is nothing without Christ. And as it is Christ himself in contact with men through his word and spirit, and is thus a living reality actually operating upon them, they may have actual experience of his saving power, a real consciousness of his gracious presence, and consequently the knowledge which is inseparable fro^ conscious experience, and this is ceititude of faith. When the writer, bidding farewell to his friends on leaving the Seminary r v. ? ?v.? iui ma liiao uiiaiyc, butti> gicuu mau, Thaddeus Stevens, said to him: "Young man, if'l were going out to > preach as you are, I would not try to prove the gospel, I would just try to preach it." The writer thought at the time that possibly this might be a sneer. But the experience of nearly half a century has taught him, that that astute mind more probably meant to express the great truth that the gospel does not need to be proved? that it is self-evidencing, proves itself; and that ho meant just what Luther indicates when he declares that "where the gospel is preached there will be believers." The writer has become so deeply impressed with the truth and importance of the recognition of this self-authenticating power of Christianity that he would say, as the result of nearly fifty years of experience, to every young minister, do not be too much concerned about the fate of the gospel; it will take care of itself and mainf-uin it_? PYist.pn^ft. Don't snfind your time and strength in finding proofs and erecting guarantees for the gospel; but preach it, preach it with personal certitude of its saving power ^ and with perfect codfidence in its efficacy, and you will not fail to lead many souls to faith in Christianity? to experience its power and to realize the certainty of its truth.?Prof. S. Sprecher, in Lutheran Quarterly. "What others did I can do," was the mental exclamation of an unconverted man on reading a tract published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and given to him by his pastor. The tract is entitled HI w ish I were a Christian." He said, "others had become Christians, and by the grace of God what others did I can do." He f A Qnd f"A IJCgUll lillilJ CUmu^A J ccr ymjf cu*u vv/ pray for a revival. Early iQ the following winter a work of grace was ^ experienced, and he and his son were amoDg the first to confess Christ. He J set up the family altar, to the joy of J his wife, and the good of his children, M ascribing his conversion, under God, 1 to that tract. This occurred in a con- m gregation in the Presbytery of West fl Virginia. The pastor had received fl tracts from the Board for free distri- fl bntion, and this was one of the many good results. The tract was given at the funeral of a prominent elder of the church, whose place in the elder-. Bhip will soon be filled, it is expected* by him who received the tract, and who, through its influence, was converted.