Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1 TiLIACE'S SERMON. I CONGREGATIONAL SINGING. Text: "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord."?II. Chron. v. 13. The Temple was done. It was the very chorus of all magnificence and pomp. Splendor crowded against splendon. It was tha diamond necklace of the earth. From the huge pillars crowned with leaves of flowers and rows of pomegranate wrought out in burnished metal, down even to the tongs and snuffers made out of pure gold, everything was as complete as the God-directed architect could make it. It seemed as if a vision from heaven had alighted on the mountains. The day for dedication came. Tradition says that there were in and round about the temple on that day 200,000 silver trumpets, 40,000 harps, 40,000 timbrels and 200,000 singers; so that all modern demonstrations at Dusseldorf or Boston seem nothing compared with that. As this great souud surged up amid the precious stones of the Temple, it must have seemed like the river of life dashing against the amethyst of the wall of Heaven. The sound arose and God, as if to show that He was well pleased with the music which His children make in all ages, dropped iuto the midst of the Temple a cloud of glory so overpowering that the officiating priests were otfliged to stop in the midst of the services. Tiiere has been much discussion as to where music was born. I think that at the beginUing, when the morning stars sail g together and all the suns of God shouted fur joy, that the earth heard the echo. The cloud on which the angel stood to celebruto the creation was the Dirthplace of song. The stars that glitter at night are only so many keys Of celestial pearl on which God's li ugers play the music or the spheres. Inanim ate nature is full of God's stringed and wind instruments. Silence itself?perfect silence?is only a niusioal rest in God's great anthem cf worship. Wind among the leaves, insect humming in the summer air, the rush of billow upon beach, the ocean far out founding its everlasting psalm, the bobolink on the edge of the forest, the quail whistling up rrom tne grass, are music. While visiting Blackwell's Islund I heard coming from t:ie window of the lunatic asylum, a very sweet song. It was iung by one who bad lost her reason; and I have come to believe that even the deranged and disordered elements of nature would make music to ours ear, if we only had acuteness euough to listen. I suppose that even the sounds in nature that are discordaut and repulsive make harmony in God's ear. You know that you may come so near to an orchestra that the sounds ai-e painful instead of Sleasurable; and I think that we staud so near evastating storm and frightful whirlwind we cannot near that which makes to God's ar and the ear of the spirits above us a music as complete as it is tremendous. The Day of Judgment, which will be a day of uprcar and tumult, I suppose will bring no dissonance to the ears of those who can calmly listen; althougn it win be as wnen some ?Teat performer is executing a boisterous piece of music, he sometimes brealcs down the instrument on which he plays; so it may be on that last day that the grand march Of God, played by theflngers of thunder and earthquake and conflagration may break down the world upon which the music is executed. Not only is inanimate nature full of music but God has wonderfully organized the human voice, so that in the plainest throat and . lungs there are fourteen direct muscles which can make over sixteen thousand different sounds! Now, there are thirty indirect muscles which can make, it has been estimated, more than one hundred and seventy-three millions of sounds. Now, I say, when God has so constructed the human oice and when he has filled the whole earth yith harmony, and whenjhe recognized it in the ancient Temple, I have a right to come to the conclusion that God loves music. I propose this morning to speak about sacred music, first showing you its importance and then stating some cf the obstacles to its advancement. I draw the first argument for the importance of sacred music from the fact that God J.J ?i. mi U TX*,.l tl? 4.^11., 4-/-W commauueu it. iuiuu^u j. qui uc wm iu w admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; through David He cries out: "ting ye to God all ye kingdoms of the earth." And there are hundreds of other pas?ages I might name, proving that it is as $pncn a man's duty to sing as it is his duty to pray. Indeed I think there are more commands in the Bible to sing than thero are to pray. God not only asks for the human voice j ?ut for the instruments of music. He asks for i the cymbal and the harp and the trumpet. And I suppose that, in the last days of the I Church, the harp, the lute, the trumpet, and all the instruments of music that have given their chief aid to the theatre and bacchanal, will be brought by their masters and laid clown at the feet of Christ, and then sounded in the church's triumph on her way from Biifforino'into srlorv. '"Praise ve the Lord!" i Praise tlim with your voices. Praise Him with stringed instruments and with organs. I draw another argument for the importance of this exercise from the impressiveness the 'exercise. You kuow something of what secular music has achieved. You kuow it has made its impression upon governments, gion laws, upon literature, upon whole genetions. One inspiriting national air is worth thirty thousand men as a staudiug army. TTiere comes a time in the battle when one bugle is worth a thousand muskets. In the earlier part of ourcivil wargovernment proposed to economize in bands of music and many Of them were sent home: but the generals fti the army sent word to "Washington: "You are making a very great mistake. We are falling back and falling back. We have not enough music." Then the government cnanged its mind; more bands of music $ere seut to the field aud the day of sliumefnl r1afe>?t tprminatorl T have to tell VOU $hat n> nation or church can afford to severely economize in music. Why should we rob the programmes of worldly gayety when we have so many appropriate songs and tuues composed iu our awn day, as well as that magnificent inheritance of church psalmody which has come down fragrant with the devotions of other generations?tune > no more worn out than when our greatgrandfathers climbed up on them from the church pew to glory? Dear old souls, how they used to sing! When they were cheerful our grandfathers and grandmothers used to sing "Colchester." Wheu they were very meditative, then the meeting house rang with "South Street'' and "St. Edmonds." Were they struck through with creat tenderness, they sang "Woodstock." Were they wrapped In visions of the glory of the church, they sang "Zion." Were they overborne with the love and glor)'of Christ, they sang "Ariel." And in those days there were certain tuues ? ~i? Vitrmno ori/1 fViotf lumiltru IU UCi IttlU UJUUUI, emu uu>o I lived iu peace a great while, theso two old people, and we have no right to divorce them. ''What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." Born as we have been amid this great wealth of church music, augmented by the compositions of artists in our day, we ou^ht not to he tempted out of the sphere of Christian harmony and try to seek unconsoiTatecl sounds. It is absurd for a millionaire to steal. Many of you are illustrations of what sacred song can do. Through it you were brought into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. You stood out against the warning and tho Knf U'kfln in fVia cwooi' CU~g lUir; Ills UL \.L?V j ?uv.u m VMW u..vw? I words of Charles Wesley or John Newton or Toplady the love of Jesus was sung to your sou], then you surrendered, as armod castle that could not be taken by a host, lifts its window to listen to a harp's trill. There was a Scotch soldier dying in New Orleans aud a Scotch minister came in to give him the consolations of the Gospel. The man turned over on his pillow and said: . "Don't talk to me about religion." Then the Scotch minister began to sing a familiar fcymn of Scotland that was composed by Eiavid Dickenson, beginning with the words: "Oh mother, dear Jerusalem, When shall I come to thee?" +/* f V?c* fimo r\f A.nr1 ny duug w wuw uv v*. ?? oterybody in Scotland knows that; and as he t?gan to sing tho dying soldier turned over On his pillow and said to tho minister: 'Where did you learn that?" "Why," replied the minister, "my mother taught me that." "So did mine," said the dying Scotch soldier; and the very fouudation of his heart was upturned, and then and there he yielded himself to Christ. Oh, it has an irresitible power! Luther's sermons have been forgotten but his "Judgment Hymn" sings on through the a*es and will keep on sineine: until the Wast or the archangers trumpet snan bring about that very day which the hymn celebrates. I would to God that those who hear me to-day would take these songs of salvation as messages from heaven: for, just as certainly as the birds brought food to Elijah by the brook Cherith, j so these winged harmonies, God-sent, are I flying to your soul with the broad of life. i ! ! O^en your mouth and take it, O hungry E1II have also noticed the power of sacred song to soothe perturbation. You may have come in here with a great many worriments I and anxieties, yet perhaps in the singing of the first hymn you lost all those worriments and anxieties. You have read in the Bible of Saul, aud how he was sad and angry, and how the boy David came in and played the evil spirit out of him. A Spanish kins was melancholy. The windows were all closed. He sat in the darkness. Nothing could bring him forth until Franeli came and discoursed music for three or four days to him. On the fourth day he looked up and wept and rejoiced, and the windows were thrown open, and that oil fha enlenrlors of the court could not do, the power of song accomplished. If you have anxieties and worriments try this heavenly charm upon them. Do not sit down on the bank of the hymn, but plunge in, that the devil of care may be brought out of you. It also arouses to action. Do" you not know that a singing church is always" a triumphant church? If a congregation is silent during the exercise, or^partially silent, it is the silence of death. If when the hymn is given out you hear the faint hum of here and there a father and mother in Israel while the vast majority are silent, that minister of Christ who is presiding needs to have a very strong constitution if he does not get the chills. He neads not only the grace of God bat nerves like whalebone. It I Virkw soma neonle with voice I CU1K??AU^ uv" 4 enough to discharge all their duties in the j world, when they come into the house of God j have no voice to discharge this duty. I j really believe that if the church of Christ ( could rise up and sing as it ought to sing, ? that where we have a hundred souls brought t ftito the kingdom of Christ there would be a thousand- How was it in olden time? j Cajetan said: "Luther conquered us by his ( songs." ( But I must now speak of some of the ob- j staoles in the way of the advancement of this sacred music; and the first is. that it has \ been impressed into the service of supersti- ] tiou. I am far from believing tbat music ought always to be positively religious. Re- fined art has opened places where music has ( been secularized and lawfully* so. Tue draw ing-room, the musical club, the orchestra, the 3 concert, by the gratilTation of pure taste ] and the production of harmless amusement , tiioimnrwflmflnt of talent, have become , UU\ I VUV t very forces in the advancement of our civili- ] zation. Music has as much right to laugh in j Surrey Gardens as it has to pray in St. Paul's. , In the kingdom of nature we have the glad fifing of the winds as well as the long metre ; psalm of the thunder. But while all this is so, every observer has noticed that 1 this art, which God intended for the im- , nrovement of the ear and the voice and the ( head and the heart, has often been impressed ( into the service or error, lat um, tuo muor j cal composer, dreamed one night that Satan ( snatched from his hand an instrument and : played upon it something very sweet?a dream that has often been fulfilled in our , day. the voice and the instruments that ( ougnttohave been devoted to Christ, cap- j tured from the church and applied to pur- , poses of sin. 1 Another obstacle has been an inordinate ^ fear of criticism, The vast majority of peo- < pie singing in church never want anybody , els? to near them sing. Everybody is wait- , ing for somebody else to do his duty, I* we j all sing then the iuaccura'-ies that are evident , when only a few sing would be drowned out. ( God asks you to do as well as you can, and , then, if you get tho wrong pitch or keep j wrong time, he will forgive any deficiency of the ear and imperfections of the voice. ^ Angels will not laugh if you should ( lose your place in the musical scale, or come * J~ 1 L-? J ora tVirao in at ine ciose a mii ucuiuu. x un c ^ ( schools of singing, I am told?the German school, the Italian school and the French school of singing. Now, I would like to add j a fourth school, and that is the school of < Christ. The voice of a con trite, broken heart, f although it may not be able to stand human i criticism, makes better music to God's ear j than the most artistic performance when 4 the heart is wanting. I know it is < easier to preach oti this than it is . to practice; but I sing for two reasons? 1 first, because I like it and next be?ause I f want to encourage those who do not know ^ how. I have but very little faculty in that direction and no culture at all, yet I am re- 1 snlvfld to sine thoueh every note should go off like a Chinese gong. God has commanded I J it and I dare not be silent. He calls on the J beasts, on the cattle, on the dragons to * praise him, and we ought not to be behind ! the cattle and the dragons. ; Another obstacle that has been in the way f of the advancement of this holy art has beea 1 so much angry discussion on the subject of c music. There are those who would have this exercise conducted by musical instruments. In the same church there are those who do not like musical instruments, and so it is organ and no organ, and there is a fight In auother church it is a question whether the music shall be conducted by a precentor or by a drilled choir. Some want a drilled choir and some want a pre- | centor, and there is a fight. Then tnere I are tnose wuu wuum ni*o w wo u>vu have the organ played in a dull, lifeless, droning way, while there are others who would have it wreathed into fautastics, branching out into jets and spangles of sound, rolling and tossing in marvellous convolutions, as when in pyrotechnic display ? you think a piece is exhausted it breaks out * in wheels, rockets, blue lights and serpentine 1 demonstrations. Some would have the organ t played in almost inaudible sweetness, and 1 others would have it full of staccato e passages that make the audience jump, e with great eyes and hair on end,as though by | j a vision of the Witch of Endor; and he who p tries to please all will succeed in nothing. 3 Nevertheless you are to admit the fact that | c this contest which is going on in hundreds s n ~ '1 "c TT%-? !fA/1 Cfnfnc fn-zloTf ! r OIID6 CUUrUlICS Ul Liiu v> in la^vx uv-uw j , t, is a mightv hindrance to the advancement of d this art. In this way scores and scores of v lurches are entirely crippled as to all influ- o ?snce and the music is a damage rather than o a nraise. t "Another obstacle in the advancement ot n this art, has been the erroneous notion that j this part of the service could be conducted n by a delegation. Churches have said: "Oh. what an easy time *.ve shall have. The minister will do the preaching and the choir will do the singing and we will have nothing to do," And you know as well as I that there are a great multitude of churches all through J this land where the people are not expected 1 to sing. The whole work is done by delega- 8 tions of four or six or ten persons and the ^ audience is silent. In such a church in * Syracuse, an old elder psrsisted in 1 singing,(\nd so the choir appointed a commit- c tee to go aud ask the squire if he would not stop. You know that in a great multitude of churches the choir are exrected and do all the singing and the great masses of people are expected to be silent, and if you utter your voice you are interfering. There they t stand, the four, with opera-glasses dangling j. at their side, singing, "Hock ot Ages, cieit " for me," witn the" same spirit that the night c before, on the stage, they took their part in C the "Graud Duchess'' or "Don Giovanni." [ My Christian friends, have we a right to _ delegate to others the discharge of this duty which God demands of us? Suppose that 8 four wood thrushes propose to do all the sing- s ing some bright day when the woods are j ringing with bird voices. It is decided that ^ four wood thrushes shall do all the singing of the forest Let all other voices keep c silent. How beautifully the four warbled! e It is really fine music. But how long will vou keep the forest still? Why Chi-ist would c come into that forest and look ujj as he looked through the olives, and ha would raise his hand and say: "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord;" and keeping time with the stroke of innumerable wiugs there would be-five thousand bird voices leaping into the harmony. Suppose this delegation of musical performers were tried in heavon; suppose that four choice spirits should try to 1 do the singing of the upper temple. Hush now, tnrones and dominions and principalities. David, bo still, though you were the 'sweet singer or Israel.-' Paul, keep quiet, though you have come to that crown of rejoicing. Richard Baxter, ke.>pstill, though this is tae "Saints1 Everlasting Rest." Four spirits now do all 11 the singing. But how Icng would heaven be t! quiet? How long? "Hallelujah!" would cry some glorified Metho;list from under the altar, j "Praise the Lord!" would sing the martyrs . frnm amonr* tViA tVirrmoa >ig unto God who giveth us the victory!" a 0 great multitude of redeemed spirits ^ wouM cry?myriads of voices com- (. ing into the harmony aha the or? hundred and forty and four thousand breaking forth into one acclamation. Stop that loud singing! Stop! Oh, no; they cannot hear me. You might as well try to drown the thunder of the sky or beat back the roar of the sea, for every soul in heaven has resolved to do its own singing. Alas, that we t should have tried on earth that which they I cannot do in heaven, and instead of joining all our voices in the praise of the Most High God, delegating perhaps to unconsecrated men and women this most solemn and most delightful service. Now, in this church, we have resolved upon t the plan of conducting the music by a pre- j jentor. We do it for two reasons: One is that jy throwing the whole responsibility upon ;he mass of the people, making the great multitude the choir, we might rouse more loor+i'noei! Tho errant: frNnyrflCation COm ng on the Sabbath day feel that ;hey cannot delegate this part of the peat service to any one else, and ? they themselves assume it. We lave glorious congregational singing here. People have come many miles to hear it. rhey are not sure about the preaching, but ;hey can always depend on the singing. We lave heard the sound coming up like "the roice of many waters," but it will be done at i better rate after a while, when we shall ealize the height and the depth, and the imnensity of this privilege. Another reason why we adopted this plan: Wftdonot want a*iv choir auarrels. You enow very well that in scores of the churches Jiere has been perpetual contention in that lirection. The only church fight that ever >ccurred under my ministry was over a nelodeon in my first settlement. Have you lever been in church on the Sabbath day rod heard the choir sing and you said: "That s splendid music?" The next Sabbath you vere in the church and there was no choir at ill? Why? The leader was mad or his assistants were, or they were all mad together. Some of the choirs are made up of our jest Christen people! Some of the warmest 'riends I ti!Pe ever had have stood up in ;hem, Sabbath after Sabbath, conscientiously 1 ind successfully leading the praises of God. J But the majority of the choirs throughout ;he land are not made up of Christian peo)le, and three-fourths of the church fights wiVinnt-n in the ors-an loft. I take that back. md say nine-tenths. Many of our churches ire dying of choirs. ' Let us as a church Rive still more atten- c ;ion to the music. If a man with voice mough to sing keeps silent during this exer- a :ise, ho commits a crime against Gk)d and t insults the Almighty. Music ought to rush from the audience like 3 ;he water from a rock?clear, bright, spark- | [ing. If all the other part of the church service is dull do not have the music dull. r With so many thrilling things to sing about, f iway with all drawling and stupidity! rhere is nothing that makes me so r nervous as to sit in a pulpit and c look off on an audience with their syes three-fourths closed and their lips I ' <- ' -J. i i- xu- -: AC Mmost stinc, inuiiiuiiug tut) pruiaes ui j Grod. During my recent absence I preached bo a large audience, and. all the. music they made together did not equal one skylark! ( People do not sleep at a coronation. Do not let us sleep when we come to a Saviour's J crowning. In order to a proper discharge of t this duty let us stand up, save as age or weakness or fatigue excuse us. Seated in an ' sasjr pew we cannot do this duty half so well c is when, upright, we throw our whole body . into it. Let our song be like an acclamation 1 if victory. You have a right to sing. Do ] not surrender your prerogative. We want to rouse all our families upon 1 this subject. We want each family of our jongregation to be a singing school. Childish petulance, obduracy and intractability would be soothed if we had more singing in the household, and then our little ones would c be prepared for the great congregation on ; . Sabbath day, their voices uniting with our ! 1 voices in the praises of the Lord. After a | 1 shower there are scores of streams : . that come down the mountain side with ' voices rippling and silvery, pouring into t Dne river, and then rolling in united strength to the sea. So I would have all the i families in my church send forth the voice \ j 3f prayer and praise.pouring it into the .great | tide of public worship that rolls on and on to j 1 smpty into the great, wide heart of God. < Never can we have our church sing as it Duerht until our families sine as they ought, j ( There will be a great re volution on this . nib- ' f ject in all our churches. God will come down . by his spirit and rouse up the old hymns and ' Snines that have not been more than half < iwake since the time of our jrranrlfathers. ( rhe silent pews in the chur-h vvill break j 1 ?orth iuto music, and when the conductor < ;akes his place on the Sabbath day, . ;hcre will bs a great host of voices > mshing into the harmony. My Christian { 'riends, if we Inve no taste" for tkis iervice on earth, what will we do in Heaven I ivhere they all sing and sing forever? Let ] ne prophesy in regard to any one here who ; las no delight in the worship of Heaven?if j ' rou do not sing the praises of God on rarth 1 i 1 lo not believe you will ever sing them ill ; flory. I would that our singing to-day | J Mi'irVif ho lil-p tlio Ratnrdnv ni^ht rehearsal ! i 'or the Sabbath morning in the skies, and , night begin now by the strength and by the | lelp of God, to discharge a duty which none >f us have fully performed. "Let those refuse to sing "Who never knew our God; But children of the Heavenly king Should speak their joys abroad. "The hill of Zion yields A thousand sabred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields. Or walk the golden streets. "Then let our songs aboun 1, And every tear be diy; We're marching through Emanuel's ground To fairer worlds on high." Come now, clear your throats and get eady for this duty or you will never hear the >nd of this. I never shall foreet hearing a frenchman singing the Marseillaise Hymn on he Champ Elysees, Paris, just before the jattle of Sedan. I never saw such enthusiism before or since, as he sang that national Lir. Oh, how the Frenchmen shouted! Have o Unrl C 'Uucvci m aiiJUUgn^iiao^ciiivia^ urai u u i^t?uu ? )lay "God Save the Queenf" If you have j rou know something about the enthusiasm ?f a national air. Now, I tell you that thsse \ ongs we sing Sabbath by Sabbath are the < lational airs of Jesus Christ and of the kinglom of heaven. When Cromwell's army ' vent into battle, he stood at tho h?ad of them / me day and pave out the louse metre doxol>gy to the tune of '"Old Hundred." and f hat great host, company by company, reorient by regiment, battalion by battalion, \ oined in the doxologv: i 1 Praise God from whom all blessing flow, , Praise him all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. C Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost." ^ And while they sang they marched, and < vhile they marched they fought, and while hey fought they got the victory. 0, men j md women of Jesus Christ, let us go into all >ur conflicts singing the praises of God, and ? hen, instead of falling back as we often do, | rom defeat to defeat, we will be marching m from victory to victory. S c t Circumstances Alter Cases. [ "Strange tiling about people," said he talkative passenger to a glum-lookQg man; "just before I got on the r ;ars there was a runaway, and a bad 8 >ne. The driver wasn't hurt at all, r >ut the horse ran about half a mile, c ,nd then collided with a telegraph pole ( ,nd was killed. You ought to have een the people run to that telegraph E >ole. They went in droves. It seemed 1 o be human to desire to be in at the f leath. Haven't you noticed that in your t ;Apci iuu ui "Can't say that I have," replied the r jlum-looking passenger; "at least it's r lot so in my business." ( "What business are you in?" "Theatrical. Last night we had a lew play killed at our theater, and 1 here wasn't ten dollars in the house. ? ?eople didn't seem to want to ! e in at j he death worth a cuss."?Chicago j ZlAyr.!,/ i J. t/ / l4*fcVC ^ Tired Out. Quick young man?"Hanp it all, my ratch is an hour slow again! I'm goag to sell it if it keeps on losing like his." Sarcastic parent?"Oh, I wouldn't x .0 that, Ned. It was your grandather's watch, you know, and it is nly natural that it should have hard rork to keep up with you the way you ^ ive."?Somerville Journal. i2 I T.. V? U?Mlr tn llnni- Tt Ill 11V 11 111 I J IV Jll VUl At? "So you say that "Wagner's music is he music; of the future?" said a Brook- a yn man to a professor of music. 1 ** Vpa sir w v "Well, I'm glad of it." "Why so?" s "Because I shall have to die before r >eing compelled to listen to it."?New a Zork Journal, ( -s- ' ? Vi-.'-V.:.-.- '* ; . . ... A Happy Secret. Just to trust, and yet to ask Guidance still; fn~l?~ fV\o f ooTr ituu? luo VI anuug VA UUU wuuu As he will; Just to take the I03S or gain As he sends it; Just to take the joy or pain As he lends it He who formed thee for his praise Will not miss the gracious aim; So to-day and all thy days Shall be moulded for the same. Just to leave in his dear hand Little things, All we cannot understand, All that stings; i Just to let him take the care Sorely pressing, Finding all we let him bear Changed to blessing. This is all! and yet the way Marked by him who loved thee best, Secret of a happy day, Secret of his promised rest RELIGIOUS READING. To Good to Keep> A New Zealand girl was brought over o England to be educated. She be:ame a true Christian. "When she was ibout to return, some of her old playnates endeavored to dissuade her. They aid: Why do you go buck to New Zealand? You are accustomed to England low. You love its shadj lanes and clover iclds. It suits your health. Besides you nay be shipwrecked on the ocean. You nay be killed, and eaten by your own jeople. Everybody will have forgotton rou." "What!" she said, "do you think 1 :ould keep the good news to myself? Do rou think that I could be content with laving got pardon and peace and eternal ife for myself aud not go and tell my lear father and mother how they can get t too? I would go if I had to swim there! 3o not try to hinder me, for I must go md tell my people the good news." Three Crowns and all for Servants. Have you ever remarked that the three :rowns spoken of are all for servants? ?irst, there is a crown of righteousness: "I have fought the good fight, I have cept the faith; henceforth there is laid lp for me a crown which the righteous judge will give me in that day." There s a crown of life: "Be thou faithful into death, and I will give thee a crown 3f life." Then the climax?may we well ;laim it?you that feed the flock, you ihat go breaking the bread ol lite ana ;elling of the Saviour's love and trying ;o win others to life: "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall rcceive a :rown of glory that fadeth not away." [t is the business of a good master to iupply his servants. You do not expect pour servants to serve you out of their means, but out of your means. I have known the servants in a house? I wish ;here were more of them, but they are a generation that is fast dying out?that ;vore so incorporated into the fami ly, felt so dcntified with the property of the family, ;hat I have heard them speak of "our horses," "our coaches," "our children.' Brethren, your privilege as a servant >f God is to claim all he is and all he ma f/-k ofrpncrthpn vnn fnf vnnr snrvif!f?. vw """"O J J is not this a great privilege?the priviege of service??Ret. Mar cm Rainnjield. Our Fruit In Others. We live in the lives of others more ;han in our own. "Where is the handful of grain which we flung so recklessly tway upon the new-plowed field a little .vhile ago ? There it is, in the green ield, and in the ripening grain, and, in i little while, in full corn in the ear. \.nd where arc the toils, and tears, and ;elf-denials which we have expended for ;he Lord ? Yonder, in those disciples vhom we have brought to the Lord. 'Except a kernel of wheat fall into the p-ound and die, it abideth alone," says Christ ; "but if it die, it bringeth 'orth much fruit." The same is as true thft diseinle as of the Lord. "We die n expanded energy, in exhausting ;oil In tiresome self-denial for the good )f others ; but thus do we minister life ;o others. As the apostle has written, 'So then death worketh in us, but life n you." It was on this ground that he :ould say to his converts, "But now we ive if ye stand fast." Each of us is but i branch of "the true vine." If our lubstance has been taken to nourish and nake fruitful some other branch, we lave but followed the Master. John Newton received into his church i young and uncouth Scotch lad, who ioon attracted his attention; for, though udc of speech, the love of Christ shone :onspicuously in his words. The gooJ ninister got one of his wealthy parishon>rs to o-ivn him .in education. and fit him or the ministry. A few years passed, ind that young man was in India, cnown as Claudius Buchanan?a name nore illustrious in the annals of British ule in India, than those of Hastings and }live. It was he who wrote the "Star )f the East,-" whose beams lured Adonram Judson to Burmah, to preach the <ospel to the heathen, and with him and ifter him scores of others. If when John tfewton lay dying some one had come icar to him and said, "Well, good sir, rour work is done; your life is ended," le might have pointed across the sea to Buchanan, and said, "I live in that man ronder whom I brought to Christ, and jrepared for service in the great work of ntssions."?Dr. fi'.rchn. AVhv n. Snnatnr Dnoa Vnt, Drinlc. United States Senator Spooner is ateeotaler, and has never had much to say lithcr one way or the other about temjerance, but it is a fact that he never n /lmn aT ISmiiah nT nntr lrmrl UUClll'u, \ji iiijuui ui a Li j iviuu, iVbencver he is questione 1 about it aud ,bout the general subject of temperance ie replies indifferently : "I have three )oys that I love. They have never melled liquor in my bieath, and they lever shall." That's the only temper.nce argnment that he has ever made.? , JalvsslM Haas, % TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT. Temperance Freedom. Master of myself Fll be, This at last is liberty I Iproclaim to all around How true freedom I have found. Free all good things to select, x ree aii poison to reject, Free from pain and free from debt, Free all hone3t gains to get. Free to ride, or row, or race, Free to walk with sober grace. Free from pipe and free from bowl, Free in body, mind and soul. Free from clamoring appetite, Ruling all ray habits right, Free to serve the God 1 love, Free to seek my home above. ?Julia Colman, in Temperance BannerModeration in Drinking. M. L. Hoi brook, M. D., writes as follows in the Temperance Advocate: There has always been a class of people who were in favor of the moderate use of alcohol. If you will only be moderate in your drinking, they say, there will De no drunkards. This brings up the question as to what moderation is. Has any moderate drinker ever deflned it? I think not. But the London Lancet has finally given us a definition of moderation which ought to be read by everybody, and especially those who think they are moderate drinkers. I will condense it as follows: "1. It is not drinking in public. "2. It is not drinking on the sly. "3. It is not drinking early in the morning. "4. It is not drinking by one's self other than at meal-times. "5. It is not drinking to procure sleep or relieve pain. * 'All men, and especially all women, who do these things are not moderate drinkers, and had better beware. ."The moderate drinker takes a very limited quantity of alcohol once, or at most twice, a day with food. The quantity is so small it does not make him either stupid or sleepy,but such as leaves him cool and unexcited. The moderate drinker takes the mildest form of alcohol, and that with the greatest care. He ! M 1 J Knows its power to produce disease, and is on the constant lookout for indications of harm. It is terrible to see how soon a dunkard is made by thoughtless drinking,and how complete is his or her physical destruction even before he comes to the notice of the medical man. Jaundice, dropsy, albuminaria, or delirium tremens may have been reached before his friends will send for a medical adviser and make a clean breast of it. There is a great deal of tippling that does not intoxicate, but wrecks and destroys more rapidly than an occasional debauch. This is not moderate drinking, but mortal, thoughtless drinking." Now that we have a definition of moderate drinking by the highest medical authority, and find it to be at most taking a very small quantity of very light alcoholic drink at one meal, not enough to excite or affect in any way, all the time watching to see if any bad symptom comes up, we shall all know just what to do, and that will be, not to drink alcohol at all. Moderate drinking is practically in. How many would ever touch alcothol in any form under such restrictions? Not many. Fidelity of Miss Cleveland. Though the control of the White House, so far as the President is concerned with respcct to wine3, etc., is beyond Miss Cleveland's jurisdiction, she deserves much commendation for maintaking, under obviously trying and difficult circumstances, her own individuality in the matter of the disuse of wine on all occasions, and in not providing it for her own guests at her luncheons for ladies. ? i. ~c i i?it OI1U U1 UUI ICUC.lb lliwtju |JU1 UC3 lb n as reported in some journals th.it wines were provided. In response to an inquiry concerning the truths of these reports, addressed to her by Mrs. La Fetra, President of the Washington Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Miss Cleveland gave them a very explicit and unqualified denial. Her brother's wines at dinner, while she does not share them, it is beyond her province to exclude. As, for the time being, officially ' i i M _ i? i j *2. tne "iirsi iany ox uiu juhu, il j? guuuji to her credit that she mantuins her own personal abstinence and excludes intoxicants from her own White House entertainments. Iler praiseworthy example in this respect cannot but bs very helpful to many.?National Temperance Advocate. _ TWO Hi VI IS. When the two evils?intemperance and oleomargarine?are forever stamped out, the community of Chester County will have every reason for rejoicing. One is depriving homes of al. comforts and happiness; the other is depreciating the value of land and cattle. It seems, however, that something is continually arising with which honesty and sobriety have to contend, and it may be that even when these obstacles are removed, there will spring up a new crouuie not yetcuuceivcd of. But, still, if counterfeit butter and rum are excluded from the marts, a great gain will be made, and still further improvements made manifest. These two evils are the present drawbacks.? West Grove (Perm.) independint. Temperance Notes. Francis Murphy has made 3,000 temperance advocates in Tiffin, Ohio. Ti??r\ni'on^ . lc nuenn'w* - ? n i. J, > ? n rl ivio. lLlll|;v-ia..v. iuw.JU .t ....v. j?,? sion's bridle, the strength of the soul, and the foundation of virtue. A single block in the vicinity of Castle Garden, New York, contains no less than thirty-five saloons, or places where liquors can be obtained. The Hon. Vm. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, thinks he was the first public man in America to make a speech for woman suffrage. It was forty-five years ago, and he has firmly believed in the j cause ever since. I * 4- ; ?a ' i is* A FAKM IN CEYLON. AGRICULTURE ON AN ISLAND IN THE INDIAN OCEAN. An American juaays visit to a nan> tation?Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate Growing on Bushes?Chili Peppers and. Croton OiL Anna Ballard writes from Ceylon, Indian Ocean, a letter to the Chicago Inter- Ocein, describing a plantation owned by J. Lewthaite Dewar, a newspaper writer of Columbo, the capital of the island. The following extracts from Miss Ballard's letter describe some of the leading products and methods of Orient agriculture: Mr. Dewar showed me the chocolate tree, as I should call it; scientifically, it is theobroma cacao. The rich fruit con taining tne nine nuts inai; matee our cnocolate "tell for themselves what the tree is; ana to sail clear of confusion we can at least be understood by saying chocolate tree instead of the corrupt "coco," or the proper enough "coca," which the plant is called in Spanish America, where it grows. The preferred terra should be the poetical, scientific, proper, and euphonious theobroma, which means "food for the gods." From t\ie chocolate bough which I brought homs one of the larger leaves is about a foot l->ng, and nearly half as wide. Young leaves at the top ends of the twigs, like the youngest leaves of several other trees and shrubs here, are tender-looking, delicately red, instead of green, being grown very fast by our heat and moisture. The ''chocolate nibs" are in a large, shapely, ruby-red fruit. These seeds have an adherent, sirupy coating, which is tart and toothsome. When the nib is divested of its sour coat and is dry, it has a browu, brittle, film, a covering which easily shells off from the solid, shining, polished-brown nut which is the final and true ktrnel, delicious to munch, and which only needs pulverizing, and then treating in the various ways practiced by various people to make the chocolate cakes of commerce. Some manufacturers put in a vanilla flavoring. Some put in sand, to make it weighty, etc. Kernel and filmy shell are both oily, the film being the "shells" of the retail merchant of food^. They are often incorrectly termed "cocoa shells." It should be coca shells or chocolate shells. The specimen fruit now lying on my table is eleven inche.3 in c rcumference, and eight and a half inches long. Cutting it open I find thirty-1 wo kernels within the tough, pulpy case, which is five-eighths of an inch deep, is straw-colored, has a ruby-red skin, and is five-lobed; each lobe having a very minor subdivision, hardly more than an indentation. When the harvesters have cut open the 'fruit, crosswise, not longitudinally, they adroitly and instantly scoop out the seeds. Then the ruby-red and delicate yellow pnsr> lr(;ps its hennt.v. drip* lin. and makes a pair of hard, strong, serviceable cups. Coffee trees by th'j hundreds of acres have been cut down, and their slender, white stumps remain. The present naked state shows how at much labor these trees have been protected. An embankment of well-built stone wall stands around ths lower side of each tree to keep the soil from being washed away down the steep hill. Tea requires only three or four years of growth to become a fortune-bearer; and the old coffee estates are now being covered with tea-plants, at present mere saplings, on which the planters have hung their hopes. They expect therefrnm tn rp.vel in rrrp&tfir inromfis thsin were enjoyed from the coffee of the past. We turned from one new species of tropical field plant to another, too fast for my intelligence to pick up their distinguishing appearance. Mr. Dewar culled boughs of the "Cinchona Saccirubra"andthe "Cinchona Seedgeriana" ?varieties of the plant which furnish the billious world with "fever bark," which enters the sick chamber in the shape of quinine. This tree I learned to recognize by sight the quickest of all the tropic field growths. Our remedial quinine comes from a not large tree, having a broad, bright green leaf, too often red" making it a picture-bush. The castor-oil plant, banana trees, and sugar cane for sweet chewing are grown at Roseneath, in a Tamil garden, which occupies the ravine below "the store." Every estate has a large building termed "the store," which stores the products of the ground, the tools, and wagons. It has a drying-loft, and near it there is a large, level, prepared area, for the first spreading out, the drying, and other pro cesses. ' The laborers on Ceylon estates are generally, and until the recent hard jtimes exclusively, Tamils. The Tamils are from Southern Hindustan, whence they are coming and going from year to year; while, also, there are some whose fathers have lived here: and in the North, at Jaffna, there has long existed a permanent Tamil colony. In the English Orient Empire there is only one more numerous people, and few or none so historically interesting and fascinating. The structure of the language of the Tamils shows an ancient culture; something more than civilization?a culture. On a plantation their huts are in groups, here and there, or oftcnerall together. Such aorroiiT) is called "the lines." We speak O J, t M. of going to "the lines," meaning to the lines of dwellings, equivalent to the negro "quarters" we l ead of on Louisiana plantations in slavery times. No drones are in the-c coolie families. Laborers are termed "coolies," from the Hindu word "kuli," meaning a general lnlir>!-nr Thp Tmnsn kuli runs on errands. sweeps, lifts, washes dishes, and does whatever the servants above him bid, he being the "servant of servant?." Equally with their men, the kali women work among the coffee stamps, pulling up weeds, planting the proper growth, or gathering the planter's harvest of leaves, or of fruit, or of bark, the "fever bark," as it is often termed here. It is the "Peruvian bark" of America. Branching oil from the exceptionally excellent roads made by thq government thri;u!>-hout Ceylon, there are "estate roads," well made, leading to the planter's bungalow, his "store," and all over the plantation. As we drive through his cultivated acres, all without enclosure, and wind around the rugged slopes, we sec men, women, and also children of all ages. The least ones are scattered around the stove or near their mother in the field. Children in these circumstances are no trouble to raise, no obstacle to daily work. A very young mother stands in the picture before my eye. She is standing among the rich leaves of a quinine tree (cinchona). She wears simple clothing? a dress without a stitch?a few yards of cloth, draped in the graceful manner of her people. In the midday of sunnv toil, her hair, without her effort of thought, looks just as a Western belle of Europe or America would take much pains to make her hair stay through an important occasion by aid of bandoline and other tricks. Her feet are bare. They never had on a shoe, and never ' ' m will, not even a sandal. But they are coquettishly adorned ; at least three toes bear toe-rings, funny and heavy, of some uncorrosive mixed metal. More simple than even the clothing of % the mother is the apparel of the child. It wears absolutely nothing excepts its ornaments. The leaden rings drag open the hole in the lobe mnch more than wiHo onnnnli +n VinlH nil toIiiVIi t.ViA fll. ture woman will carry by her ear. It wears also a necklace, armlets and brace- a lets. The armlet, which is above the elbow, and the necklace are of assorted beads. Mr. Dewar put into a great bouquet of branchlets, a bough of the croton oil plant, which yields the croton oil of commerce; also twigs of ''Chili pepper,n and stalks of "citronella grass." "The citronella is a perfume-grass, much used ft for its oil. which is cood for soaDs' hair- ; oil and rheumatism. The "Chili" is a bright red pepper, not longer and more :M slender than your little toe, and violently hot. More beautifully interesting than all the other fine growths is a mature and thrifty grove of nutmeg trees, glossyleaved, symmetrically rounded, -with their beautiful fruit thereon. The nutmeg upon the tree is about as large as a peach and is a more regular globe, has a light yellow exteriory covering a paler stratum, which is a half inch or more deep, a tough pulp. It 1 opens when the fruit is ready to leave the tree. The combination of colors in this J8 little globe i9 then striking. Inside * is a polished, glossy, leather-colored nut, which is the basis for the loveliest branching, bright-red embroidery, an en closure which lies close around the shin- v^jjs ing kernel. I have no words to tell how pretty this fruit is, in its peeping crevice in me iresn-cieavea, aeucate, corn-cuiored case. The red branchlet, this close vjj envelop, is the "mace" of commerce and of pudding, custards and cake. In drying it loses its glow of color. ' ^ In our path through a sunny ravine a "stag-moss" was too pretty to leave under-foot. A lime tree hung in my M way, its ripened fruit, a small, green, perfeet globe, which makes delicious lemonade, or limeade; and one of whose spicy leaves, ingeniously cut and curled, lies ;V'?aB UavttI net A n f?A?!r%r? +a Kn tS 1U Li LLC YJVJ VYI 00 a iiOTUililg SfSJ l/UU ^ and lip water at the end of the thnce> Vdaily feasts of the Yungalo. The lime is '-1 the presentation fruit of our Tamils on great days, such as New Year or ,a bridal visit upon our veranda. Origin of Horse Bacingr. In ' 'Racing and Steeple Chasing"- the author?the Earl of Suffolk?tells us $8| that the earliest mention of race or running horses occurs in the ninth century. i nese were sent dy nugn uapet 01 xtuquq as a present to King Athelstane. With the coming of William the Conqueror, \ '::M the breed of horses was considerably im- m proved, and new stock was imported from Normandy and other countries. A breed of large and heavy horses was introduced from Spain. In the time of Henry II. horse racing had come to be a , Vy$ popular sport. Edward HI. was a great ?$| lover of hordes, and paid what in our money would be eight hundred dollars '' 7% each for several choice racers. In this age it was considered dishonorable and disgraceful for a knight or gentleman to ride a mare; while, on the other hand, "/S| the clergy rode upon no other horse. Under Henry VIII. there was a law regarding the breeding of horses which ' ?$? would be considered in these days very severe. Constables and keepers Os were authorized and commanded to each year examine tne Horses 01 tne pa country and kill and bury all that were not up to a certain standard. This and other acts of Parliament had the effect of killing out the small breed of horses in Cornwall and Wales. Some of the laws which compelled men to keep a certain number of trotting horses according to { their wealth or rank, are very curious. * Stealing a horse was punishable with 'fl death, without benefit of the clergy. .. During the reign of Elizabeth, racing fell into disrepute, and so little attention was paid to horse-breeding that when "England was threatened bv the SDanish ' armada not more than 3,000 cavalry could be mustered in the whole kingdom. In the re'gn of James, however, the sport of racing was revived, and with it the breeding of horses. King James imported the first Arabian horse, for which he paid ?500. Under Charles II. the sport became national, the "merry monarch" taking active part in the great races which were established at Newmarket, bestowing a r?yal gift upon the winner. Since that time the "races" at the various great English courses have formed as much a part of English social life and habit as if they had been enforced and guaranteed by the English constitution. ?Boston Transcript.j yjjja -i-m Advantages of Low Ceilings. Rooms with low ceilings, or with ceilings even with the window-tops, are more readily and completely ventilated than those with high ceilings, says the Scientific Monthly. The leakage of air which is always going on keeps all parts of the air in motion in such rooms, whereas if the ceiling is higher only the lower part of the air is moved, and an inverted lake of foul and hot air is left J floating in the space above the windowtops. To have the currents of fresh air circulating only in the lower parts of the room, while the upper portion of the air' is left unaffected, is really the worst way of ventilating; for the stagnant atmospheric lake under the ceiling, although motionless,keeps actively at work, under the law of the diffusion of gases, fouling the fresh currents circulating beneath it. TT ' 1 1 ? ? ^ 1*. ' -nrin/^ATra V> ltn low ceilings unu nigu iriuuu??o no such accumulation of air is possible, for the whole height of the room is swept by the currents as the dust of the floor is swept with a broom. Low ceilings have also the advantage of enabling the room to be warmed with less expediture of heat and less cost for fuel. Latest Thing in Late Suppers. "The latest craze," said Mr. William Ottman, of Fulton Market, New York City, to a Mail and Express reporter, "is grilled marrow bones and old ale for a late supper. There are several uptown rosorts which have alreadv made a specialty of this sort of thing. The bones are grilled in the usual way and arc served up ou hot plates. The marrow is extracted by means of a long spoon shaped like a gouge, which is made especially for the purpose in England. The marrow is eaten on slices of fresh white bread, seasoned with salt and pepper." A Sharp Contrast. There lives an old man in Montana, Just lately arrived from Havana, He wears six suits of clothes. And a muff on his nose; Yet between fits of sneezing, He vows he is freezing; This frigid old man in Montana. i! ? T mere lives au uiu uuu 1U nutauo, Just lately arrived from Montana, He is dressed very thin in An ulster of linen; While two big fans, revolving, Keep the heat from dissolving This torrid old man in Havana. ?Mary C. Bell, in Wide Awake. 1' . ' V