Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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KEY. DR.TALMAGK. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SIN*. DAY' SERMON Subject: "A Iiivc Church." Text : " Unto the angel of the Church in Smyrna write: These things snith the first a/fci the last, which ivas dead, and is alive." ?Revelation, ii, S. Smyrna was a great city of the ancients, bounded on three sides by mountains. It was the central emporium of the Levantine trade. In that prosperous and brilliant city there was a Christian Church established. After it had existed for a while, it was rocked flown -by an earthquake. It was rebuilt. Then it was consumed by a conflagration that swept over the entire city. Tliat Church went j through fire, and trouble, ;md disaster, but j kept on to great spiritual prosperity. The fact was, that Church had the grace of God, an ever active principle. Had it been otherwise, all the grandeur of architecture and all the pomp of surroundings would only have been the ornament of death?the garlands of a coffin, the plumes of a hearse. It may be profitable to consider what are the elements of a live Church. I remark in the first place, tliat one characteristic of such a Church is punctuality in meeting its engagements. All ecclesiastical institutions have financial relations, and they ought to meet their obligations just as cer- i tainly as men meet their obligations at the I bank. When a Church of God is not as faithful j in its promises as the Bauk of England, it I ceases to be a Church of God. It ought to be j understood that prayers cannot paint a i Church, and prayers cannot pay the winter's I coal bill, and prayers cannot meet the insurance; and that, while prayers can do a i thousand things, there are a thousand things that prayers cannot do. Prayer for any particular Church will never reach heaven high unless it goes down pocket deep. In my Church at the "West, there was a man of comfortable means, who used to pray for his pastor in such elongated style that he became a nuisance to the prayer- i meeting: asking God, in a prayer that was almost without ceasing, that the pastor might be blessed in his basket and in his store, while the fact was he never paid anything. If we pray for the advancement of the Church, and do not out of our means contribute for its advancement, our prayer is only mockery. Let the Church of God then meet its obligations on the outside, and let the members of every congregation meet the obligations on the in- i side, and the Church will be financially pros- | perous. Let m? say, also, that there must be punctuality in theattendance on the house of the Lord. If the service begins at half past ten in the morning, the regular congregation of a live church will not come at a quarter to eleven. If the service is to begin at half past j seven in the evening, the regular congrega- I tion of a live church will not -come at a quarter to eight. In some churches I have noticed the people are always tardy. There are some people who are always late. They were born too late, and the probability is they will die too late. The rustling of dresses up the aisle, and the slamming of doors, ana the treading of heavy feet, is poor inspiration for a minister. It requires great abstraction in a pastor's mind to proceed with I the preliminary exercises of the Church when j one-half of the audience seated are looking around to see the other half come in. Such a difference of attendance upon the house j of God may be a difference of time-pieces; but the live Church of which I am speaking ought to go by railroad time, and that is pretty well understood in all our communities. There is one hymn that ought to be sunp in a great many Christian families on Sabbath morning: "Early, my God, without delay, 1 haste to seek Thy face." Another characteristic of a live church is i the fact that all the people participate in the i exercises. A stranger can tell by the way the first tune starts whether there is any life j there. A church that does not sing is a dead i church. It is awful to find a cold drizzle of j music coming down from the organ loft, while all the people beneath sit in silence. When a tune wanders around, lonely and un. befriended, and is finally lost amid the arches because the people do not join in it, there is nftf.rniiMi m<iWlv mn/Jft nntn t.hn T,nrH Tn Heaven they all sing, though some there cannot sing half as well as others. The Methodist Church has sung all around the world, and gone from conquest to conquest, among other things because it is a singing church; and any Christian church organization that with enthusiasm performs this part of its duty will go on from triumph to triumph. A church of God that can sine, can do anything that ought to be done. We go forth into this holy war with the Bible in one hand and a hymn-book in the other. Oh! ye who used to sing the praises of the Lord aiid | have got out of the habit, take your harps down irom the willows. I am glad to know that, as a church, we are making advancement in this respect. When I came to be your pastor we had an excellent choir in the little chapel, and they sang very sweetly to us Sabbath by Sabbath; but ever and anon there was trouble, for you know that the choirs in the United States are the v\ aterloos where the great battles go on. One Sunday they will sing like angels, ami the next Sunday they will be mad, and will not sing at all. We resolved to settle all the difficulties, find have one skillful man at the orgau, and one man to do tbe work of a precentor; and now, from Sabbath to Sabbath, the song comes up like the voice of mighty thunderings. " Let those refuse to sing Who never knew our God; But children of the Heavenly King Should speak their joys abroad." On the way to triumph that never ends, and ; pleasures that never tlie?sing! Another characteristic of a live church is a flourishing Sabbath-school. It is too late litthe history of the Christian Church to argue the benefit of such an institution. The Sabbath-school is not a supplement to the Church; it is its right arm. But you say there are dead churches that have Sabbath-schools. Voq Vinf flm oro Haail It is a dead mother holding in her arms a dead child. But when superintendent, and teachers, and scholars come on Sabbath afternoons together, their faces glowing with interest and enthusiasm, and their songs are heard all through the exercises, and at the close they go away feeling that they have been on the Mount of Transfiguration?that is a live school, and it is characteristic of a live Church. There is only one thing I have against the Sabbath-schools of this country, And that is, they are too respectable. "\\ e gather into our schools the children of the refined and the cultured, And the educated; but alas for the great multitude of the children of the abandoned and the lost! A few of them are gathered into our Sabbath-schools; but what About the 70.0U) destitute children of New York, and the score of thousands of des titute children of Brooklyn, around whom are thrown no benign, and heavenly, and Christian influences' It is a tremendous question, what is too become of the destitute ehil-1?a* i Wo o/-f nti thnm urvu <JL inroc uuw. ?? c *uu.iv w?. v v?. ????? or they will act on us. We will either Christianize them, or they will heathenize us. It is it question not more for the Christian than for thb philanthropist and the statesmen. -Oh I if we conld have all these suffering little ones gathered together, what a scene of hunger, and wretchedness, and rags, and sin, and trouble, and darkness! If we could see those little feet on the broad road to death, which through Christian charity ought to be pressiug the narrow path of life; it we could near those voices in blasphemy, which ought to be singing the praises of Uo<l; if we could see those litt.e hearts, which at lliat ago ought not to be soiled with one unclean thought, becoming the sewers lor every attomiuaiion; if we could see those suffering lktle ones, sacri ficed ou tne altar or every iniquitous passion and baptized with lire from the lava of the pit, we would recoil, crying out: "Avaunt, tiiou dream of hell!" They are not always going to Lhj chiluren. They are coming up to be ihe men ami women of this country. That spar* of iniquity that might now be put out witn one drop or tue water of lile, win become the conflagration of every green thing tnai tiod ever planted in the soul. That wliich ought to have been a temple 01 tne nui.v vjuusu mu ucwmo <* scarred and biasteU ruin?every light quenched and every altar in the dust. That petty thief, who slips into your store and ta.ves a yard oI Cloth Irom your counter, wiU become the highwayman of the forest, or the burglar at midnight, picking the Iock 01 your money safe And blowing up the store to liiUe the villainy. A great army, with staggering step, and bloodshot eye, and drunken boot, tney are coming on?gathering recruits from every grog shop and den of imarny in the land, to take the ballot-box and hurrah at the elections. The hard-knuckled fist of ruffianism will have more power than the gentle hand of intelligence and sobriety. Men bloated, and with the signature of sin burned in from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the ctiin, will look honest men out of countenance. Moral corpses, which ought to bo buried a hundred feet deep to keep them from poisoning the air, win roi iu the face of the sun at noonday. Industry iu her plain frock will l>e unappreciated, while thousands of men will wander in idleness, with their hands on their hips, saying: " The world owes us a living." O, what a tremendous power there is in iniquity when uneducated, and unrestrained, and unblanched it goe? on concentrating, and deepening, and widening, and gathering momentum until it swings ahead with a very triumph of desolation, drowning like surges, scorching like llanies, crushing like rocks! What are you going to do with this abandoned population of the streets? Will you gather them in your ! Churches? It is not the will of your Heaveuly Father that one of theso little ones should perish. If you have ten resj>ectable ciiildren in your class, gather in ten that are not respectable. If in your Bible-class there be twenty young men who have come from Christian homes and elegant surroundings, let those twenty young men g?? out and gather in twenty more of the young men of the city who are lost to God and lost to society. This outside i>opulation, unless ed| cated and restrained, will work terror in agos that are to come. Years ago, at New Orleans, when the cholera was raging fearfully, a steamboat put out just before nightfall, crowded with passengers who were trying to escape from the pestilence. After the boat had been out a little while the engineer fell with the cholera. The captain, in consideration, went down among the passengers and asked: "Is there any one here who knows anything about engineering?"' A Swarthy man replied: "I am an engineer." "Well," said the Captain, "I would be verv gJad if you would take charge of this boat." The man went to the engine. The steamer moved more rapidly, until, alter awhile, the Captain and some possanger were alarmed, and they went to see what was the matter, and they found that this was a maniac engineer, and that he was. peeping down the safety-valve; and, as they came to him, he said: "I am commissioned of Satan to drive this steamer to hell!" and he j flourished his pistol, and would not come 1 down. But after awhile, through some j stratagem, he was brought from his position, j and the lives of the pa.-sengers were saved. O, my friends! that steamer had no such j peril as our institutions are threatened with, if the ignorant and ' unrestrained children of this land shall , come up in their ignorance and their crime . to engineer our civil and religious institutions, and drive them on the rocks. Educate i this abandoned population, or they will over- i throw the Institutions or this land. Gather J them into your Sabbath-schools. I con- j gratulate you that many have been j gathered. Go forth, teachers, in the j name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and j on the coming Sabbath may there be | found gathered scores and hundreds of these ! wanderers, and instead of eighteen hundred in the Sabbath-school, we shall see tliree i thousand or four thousand, and the grace of God will come down upon them, and the Holy Spirit will bring them all into the truth. Another characteristic of a live church is one with appropriate architecture. In the ! far West and amid destitute population, a j log church is very appropriate?the people , living in log houses. But in communities j where people live in comfortable abodes, a ! church uncommodious or lacking in beauty is j a moral nuisance. Because Christ was born in a manger is no reason why we should worship j Him in a barn. Let the churches of Jesus Christ be not only comfortable, but ornate. I Years ago we resolved to have a comfortable J church. We resolved that it should be amphi- j theatrical in shape. The prominent archi- j tects of the country, after figuring on the ' matter a good while, said that suc-h a church ! would not be churchly, and they would have j nothing to do with the enterprise, j But after awhile we found an architect will- j ing to risk his reputation. He put up for us | the first tabernacle, in amphitheatrical style, j We liked it. All who came liked it. This building followed in the same style. We be- i lieve it is appropriate and adapted. An an- j eular church will have an angular theology, i The Church of Jesus Christ ought to be a great : family circle, the pulpit only the fire-place, I around which they are gathered in sweet and , domestic communion.. But when our first tabernacle went up, 0 the caricature and the . scoffing! They said: "It's a hippodrome! \ It's a holy cirdus ! It's Talmage's theatre !" But the Lord came down with power upon j that old building, and made it a gate of j heaven to a great many. And this building i followed. That we were right in persisting i in the style of architecture is proved j by the fact that now there vre sixty or seventy churches in the United States i in the same style. Indeed, our tabernacle has revolutionized Church architecture in this | country. A live Church must have a commodious, a comfortable, an adapted building. ( "How amiable are Thy Tabernacles, O Lord J of Hosts! I would rather bo a door-keeper in j the house of my God than to dwell in the tents j of wickedness." Again, the characteristic of a lire church must be that it is a soul-saving church. It must be the old Gospel of Christ. "Uh," say j some people, the Gospel of Christ allows but j a small swing for a man's faculties, and some i men have left the ministry with that idea." ! One such said to Rowland Hill: "I have j left the ministry because I don't want to > hide my talents any longer." "Well," re- j Elied Rowland Hill, "I think the more you ide your talents the better." Why, there is no field on earth so grand as that which is | open before the Gospel ministry. Have you j powers of analysis? Exhaust them here. Have j ?ou unconquerable logic? Let it grapple with ! aul's Epistle to the Romans. Have you strong imagination? Let it dis- ! course on the rsalnis of David, or | John's Apocalyptic Vision. Have you great , power of pathos? Exhaust it in telling the story of a Saviour's love. Have you a bold , ttyle of thinking? Then follow Ezekiel's wheel, | full of eyes,and hear through his chapters the j rush of the wings of the saraphim. All ve j who want a graii'l field in which to work for | God, come into the Gospel ministry. At any rate, come into Christian circles, i and somewhere and somehow declare the j grace of God. Pardon for all sin. Comfort for all trouble. Eternal life for all the dead. O, my soul! preach it for ever. It lias beeu my ambition, and 1 l>elieve it has been yours, mv ili.nr normlA in t,hp?a> Vttftrs of mv ministry, to have this a soul-saving Church, j and we never yet threw out the Gospel net i but wo drew in a great multitude. They I have come, a hundred at a time; and two j hundred and fifty at a time; and I expect | the day will apj>ear when, in some service, j there will be ihrej thousand souls accepting . the offers of eternal life. I wish I i could tell you the circumstances that have come under my observation proving the fact that God has blessed the prayers of these people in behalf of souls immortal. I could tell you of one night, when I stood at the end of the platform, and a gentleman passed me, his cheek bronzed with the sea, and as he went into the inquiry-room he said to me: "I am an Englishman." I said: "I am very glad to see you; walk in." That nizht he cave his heart to the Lord. It was a clear case of quick but thorough conversion. Passing out at the close of the inquiry meeting, I said: "How long have you Xy>n in this country f He said: "I arrived bv steamer this morning at eleven o'clock." 1 said: \ "How long will you lie in the city?" He said: "I leave to-morrow for Canada, and thence I I go to Halifax, and thence to Europe, and I'll j never be here nsrain." I said: "I think you | must have come to this country to have your I soul saved." He said: "That certainly was ii t~ 4U..4 -4.1 iuc i ctunm. iu tiicti/ uuier ruimi, uut; iu^uv, at the close of the service, there sat among other persons three persons, looking so cheerful that I said to myself: "These are not anxious inquirers." I said to the man: "Areyou a Christian?" Ho said: "lam." I said: "When did you become a Christian?" He said: "To-night." His wife sat next to him. I said to her: "Are you a'Christian?" She said: "Iain." I said: "When did you become a Christian?' She said: "To night" I remarked: "Is this young lady your daughter;" They said: "Yes." I said" to her: "Are you a Christian?" She said: "Yes." I said: "When did you become a Christian?" She said: "To-night." I said to them: "From whence caino you!" They said: "We are from Charleston, South Carolina." I said: "When did you earner" They said: "We came yesterday." "How long are you going to remainP We Ko to-morrow. We have never been here before, and shall never be hero again." 1 have heard from them since. They aro members of the Church of Jesus Christ, in good and regular standing, eminent for consistency and piety. And so God has made it a soul-saving Church. But I could tell you of a tragic scene, when once at the close of the service I found a man in one of these front scats, wrought upon most mightily. I said to hiin: "What is the matter-" Ho replied: "I am a captive of strong drink; I came from the West; I thought, perhaps, you could do me some good; 1 find you can't do me any good; I find there is no hope for me." I said: "Come into this ^ = ' ' J side room and we will talk together." "Oh, i no!" he said, "there's no need if my going in ; I am a lost man ; I have a beautiful wife ; I have four beautiful children ; I had a fine profession; I have had a thorough education ; I had every opportunity a man ever had, but I am a captive of strong drink ; God only knows what I suffer.I said: "He encouraged; coine in here, and we'll talk togethor about it." "No," he said, "I can't come; you can't do me me auy good. I was on the Hudson River Railroad yesterday, and coming down, I resolved never again to touch a drop of strong drink. While I sat | there a nmn came in?a low creature?and sat by me; bo had a whiskey flask, and he said to me:' Will you take a drink I said no; but oh how I wanted it! and as I said no, it seemed that the liquor curled up around the I mouth of the flash and begged: 'Take me: | take me! take me!' I felt I couldn't resist it, I and yet I was determined not to drink, and I rushed out on the platform of the car, and I thought I would jump off; we were going at the rate of forty mile.1: ' an hour, and I didn't dare to jump; the paroxysm of thirst went off, and I air here to-night.I said: "Come in, I'll pray for you, and commend you to God." He came in trembling. Some of you remember. After the service, wo walked out and up the street. I said: '"You have an awful struggle; I'll take you into a drug store: perhaps the doctor can give you some ; medicine that will help you in your struggle, j though, after all, you "will havo to depend ! upon the grace of God." I said to the docI tor: "Can you givo this man something tc help him in his battle against strong drink ?" i "I can," replied the doctor, and he prej pared a bottle of medicine. I said: ! "There is no alcohol in this?no strong drinkf' "None at all," said the doctor. "How long will this last?" I inquired. "It will last him a week." "0," I said, "give us another bottle." We passed out into the j street and stood under the gaslight. It was | getting late, and I said to the man: "I must [ part with you. Put your trust in the Lord, | and He will see you through. You will make I use of this medicine when the paroxysm of thirst comes on." A few weeks passed away. and I got a letter from Boston saying: "Dear friend, I inclose the money you paid for tlmt medicine. I have never used any of it. The thirst for strong drink has entirely gone away from me. I send you two or three newspapers to show you what I have been doing since I came to Boston." I opnied the newspajters and saw accounts of meetings of two or three thousand people to whom this man had been prcaching righteousness, temperance, ana judgment to come. I have heard from him again and again since. He is faithful now, and will bo, I know, faithful to the last. O. this work of soul saving! Would God that out of this audience to-day 500 men might hear the voice of the Son of God bidding them come to a glorious resurrection! All the offers of the Gospel are extended to you, "without money and without price,'1 and you are conscious of the fact that these opportunities will soon be gone forever. The conductor of a rail-train was telling me of the fact that he was one night standing by his train on n side track, his train bavins? been switched off so that the express train might dart past unhindered. He said while he stood there in the darkness, beside his train on the side-track, he heard the thunder of the express in the distance. Then he saw the flash of the headlight. Tho train came with fearful velocity, nearer find nearer, until after awhile, when"it came very near, by the flash of the headlight, he saw that the switchman, either through intoxication or indifference, had not attended to his duty, and that the train, unless something were done immediately, would rush on the side track and dash the other train to atoms. He shouted to the switchman: ''Set up that switch!" and with one stroke the switch went back, and the express thundered on. 0, men and women, going on toward the eternal world, swift as the years, swift as the months, swift as the days, swift as the hours, swift as the minutes, swift as tho seconds?on what track are you running? Toward light or darkness? Toward victory or defeat; Toward heaven or bell? Set up that switch. Cry aloud to God. ''Now is the day of salvation." Jackson's Duel With Dickinson. In a naner in the Southern Bitouac the following conversation between General Harding and General Andrew Jackson, relative to Jackson's duel with Dickinson, is given: "In conversation with General Jackson one day I said: 'General, is a brave man ever frightened ?' " 'I don't know that I am competent to answer that question,'said he. I replied : 'The world accords you as much bravery as is possessed by any man.' " 'If that be so, sir,' said the General. 'I would say I have been as badly frightened as a gentleman ought ever to be.' "I said, 'I presume that was in some of your Indian fights?' " 'No, said he. 'it was when I went on the field with Dickinson. I knew him to be a cool, brave, determined man, and the best shot I ever saw, and 1 never expected to leave the field alive. I owe my life to the fashion of the day?the fullbreasted coat. This and the peculiar conformation of mv much-sunken chest were r?ll fKaf mn TUpL-inonn'o hllllpf*. struck what appeared to be the centre of my body under the right arm, and the ball grazed my breastbone, I had gone upon the field determined not to fire at Dickinson, but to discharge my pistol in the air, having no ground of quarrel with him, and not wishing to hurt a hair of his head. My quarrel was with his fatherin-law, Ervin; but when I felt myself j shot, under the impression that I had received a mortal wound, and smarting under this belief and the physical pain, I fired the fatal shot, and no act of my life have I ever regretted so much. " 'Under the conditions of the meeting we had a right to reserve the fire, because I knew that Dickinson could shoot so much more quickly than I could. It lias been asserted in the public prints,' said Old Hickory, 'that I advanced on Dickinson to deliver my shot and that he gave back, both of which statements are false, sir. I stood in my place when I fired and Dickinson remained in his, re1 ceiving my shot like a cool, brave man as ne was. General Harding said that at this same interview, which was the hist he ever had with General Jackson, the latter said to him: " 'The world is greatly miataken about my having an ungovernable temper. I never gave an exhibition of temper without my judgment approved it. I sometimes found it neees?iry even to prevent the shedding of blood.' " Eaten by Land Crabs. In Zola's "Ventre de Paris" the hero Florent, who has escaped from Cayenne, tells a story of one of his comrades who 6tuck in the mud while trying to get away irom uic pi-nm auiucuicui, anu n?; devoured by land crabs. The story ia founded 011 fact, for M. Ranc relates thai the fate which overtook Florent's friend reaally befell Pianori, the 6on of the Italian shoemaker, who in 18Go attempted to shoot the Emperor Napoleon III. at the opera, and was afterward executed. Pianori, Jr., was in London at the time, but when lie came to Paris, says a London Tvlegruph correspondent, he was arrested by order of the imperial government as a dangerous person, lie was banished to Cayenne, and was placed, with fortj others, all Republicans,on Devil's Island, a place from which it was difficult to escape. The Republicans, however, vowed to have their freedom or death, and a raft was constructed with which they expected to reach Dutch Guiana. Out ol the forty, thirty-five only reached tlicit destination, and these were raving maliimmtr tliitut hnnt. nnil uiuia, wM privation, Three died from sunstroke, imd two?a Pole named Boginski and Pianori?tried to get ashore on some marsliy island, but they sank in the fetid mud up to their mouths, and were found some days afterward by negroes, theii faces and bodies having been partially eaten away by monster crabs. RELIGIOUS READING. The Soul's Distress. Out of the depths, O Lord, to Thee I cry, Out of the depths of sin and misery; Here Thou ray voice. Unto my supplications bend Thine ear, Lift up my sinking soul, and calm my fear; Bid me rejoice. [f Thou to mark our sin extreme should be, What man should stand bafore Thee? But with Thee Is mercy stillForgiveness?and though in our heart is fear, I Yet love shall cast it out and bring good cheer Our souls to fill. I wait, O Lord, for Thee, as in the night The watchers wait and watch for morning's light. Lo! in Thy Word I hope, and hoping, wait till Thou forgive, Blot out ray sins, and bid my spirit live In Thee, my Lord. Out of the depths to Thee, O Christ, I cry, Thou, Who, that I migkt live, Thyself didsl die Upon the tree, Ohljby Thy precious death of pain and scorn, The glories of Thy resurrection morn, Deliver me! Out of tlm ftanfha D TTnlv CHinaf- rrr To Thee my soul to cleanse and sanctify. Spirit divine, Breathe Thou Thy quickening breath 'into my heart, And all Thy gifts of holiness impart, And make me Thine. Out of the depths, 0 blessed Trinity, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, I cry; Make Thou me whole. Work Thou Thy tbre?fold work in me: create * Anew my life, redeem, regenerate Body, spirit, souL Out of the depths I cry, O God, at last Raise me by Thy great power, when life is past: And in Thy love My ransomed soul into the heavenlies raise My cry of sorrow turn to song of praise To Thee above. ?[John F. Waller, in the Quiver for August A Rare Gift. Most persons have opinions. Now and then a person has convictions, A man with an opinion is of small consequence for or against a cause about which he has an opinion. A man with a conviction is always a power in the direction of lus convictions. As a rule, the men who have opinions ar2 waiting to be led by men who have convictions. Commonly one man with a conviction can lead, say from one hundred to five million men who merely have opinions. It's a great thing to have a well grounded conviction?on any subject; and it is comparatively a rare thing.?[SundaySchool Times. The Lord's Secretary. A Christian lady, on hearing from a friend of blessing received through the ministry of the pen, wrote: "The Lord's secretary I He will always tell thee what to write when He has business for thee to do." And how true this, is! There is not half enough importance attached to the wording of the every day letters and notes that grow into hundreds under our hands. One of old wrote: ' Set a watch, O Lord, before the door of my lips," and many writers have grown eloquent on the power of spoken -words; but few have discoursed of the mighty influence of the tons ol written language that pass annually through the post in Great Britain alone. Yet every Christian should be one of the Lord's secretaries. Letter-writing as an every day means of conveying thought between individuals is on the rapid increase. What glorious opportunities are here, then, for Christian letter-writers to become the Lord's secretaries 1 And oppotunityrnians responsibility. Every letter written by the Christian should bear the Royal Treasury stamp?the paper, "without spot or blemish;"?the quill, a plume pointed with the confidence that, though you arc the instrument in his hand, "He shall cover thee with his feathers," and reveal Himself only upon hn The in If avmnnthpfip ro. membering that He i3 "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and is "full of compassion." The blotter?ah, think then of the words, "Ihave blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions," and how tender this will make you as you write I Perhaps it is the first letter to a new friend ?it may influence the whole of the friendship hereafter and through eternity think of this and ask for wisdom. Or it may be, the letter 19 to one whose guile has pained you?be gentle with the sinner, and let the Lord write about the sin, for his secretary must be faithful. n 1 i? - I x'uruuuuuu vuu urt; writing iu uuc . whom you know to be in the perilou9 position of those who are "without God and without hope in the world." A young lady was once writing to a young man indulging in vicious courses, whom she desired to warn and counsel; but before she began her letter, she sought her greatest friend. In s-uch a spirit was it written that the recipient, in his reply said: "Surely God dictated that letter; bad as I am, I yet understand every word of it, and could believe it was written with a quill from an angel's wing." The young man was led, by that letter, to give up his evil companions, and to seek the Lord with all his heart. A beautiful letter-writer once wrote: "I live between the folds of a sheet of paper." "I live"?how suggestive I How easy to make it, "I live, yet not I, but ChristI" To some, whose chief literature is friends' letters, what a blessing is the life thus revealed "be tween the folds of a sheet of paper I" In that Psalm xlv. of instruction (margin) for the son9 of Korah, where the writer ends by saying he will make his Lord's name to be remembered through all generations, the opening words are: "My heart is inditing (bubbleth up) a good matter; I speak of the things which I have made touching the kin^." Here is a lexi li>r tins Jjoru** secretaries: "Things touching the king." A letter will reach where iminn />nnnnt linrW" I CI 1 IP lll'iml ft lf'tfpr may be rea l not due, but often, and each time under d fferent circumstances, iu varying moods, so that if not approcinted at first, it may speak with fresh power iu a second reading. Let these thoughts stimulate us to rccousecration in the matter of our pen work and that we may "count it all joy" to be used of God iu this way, for among some of his most >urces<sful missionaries ai;d faithful ministers arc those who, writing in his name, are indeed the Lord's secretaries.?fLondon Christian. It is said that the National Liquor As. sociation has contributed fTS.OOO to fight the Prohibitory amendment in Tennessee, and a much larger sura is known to have bren sent to Michigan for the same purpose. Preparations arc being made for the Temperance Convention, to be held at Lake Bluff in July. It is hoped that this may be the most notable meeting of work* . crs yet held. AGRICULTURAL TOPICS OF INTEREST RELATIVE TO FARM AND GARDEN. Clover and Timothy. Clover and timothy are the main rc liancc of most farmers for meadows and pastures, with the hope that the natural grasses will "come in" and lake the place of the kinds sown when they die out, as they often do in a few years. Clover scarcely survives longer than two years, and the timothy lingers along, gradually disappearing, until in a few years, on light soils, it is all gone. Where the Bftermath of timothy is not pastured off, the roots will retain their hold on the soil longer; but when the crowns arc left bare, it is not uncommon to see a whole field killed out in one winter. In very rich ground clover may be kept alive for several years, but it cannot be depended upon longer than for a second crop. More hay can be had from the usual seeding of clover and timothy than from any other. The clover occupies the first year almost exclusively; the following year it becomes thinner, anil the timothy forms most of the crop each year afterward. Then its place is gradually taken by Redtop, Blue-grass, or the more common wire grass natural to all ol' the Eastern and Middle States.?American Jyricullurisl. About Celery Blanching. Dr. II. L. Stewart, Tccumsch, Mich., i-..i r ail I'Api'l ICUU'U UUU 3UUA031UI U1 celery, who maintains that earth blauohing is "fatal to the best results," gave, in a recent address before the Lenawee County Horticultural Society, a dcscrij>tion of what he regards as his better way. Wc quoto from the report in the Adrian Times: "For blanching he has found darkness all that is necessary. Tliis he secures either by use of tile or of paper. For applying these he uses a 'folder,' made of tin or sheet iron, made just as a tile would be if sawed jopen from top to bottom, and then hinged together on one side and open at the other; this he folds around the plants after it is drawn up in shajx;, then drops the tile over it, and draws out the folder for use on the next plant. If paper i$uscd take heavy brown paper, 1x2 feet iu size, and wrap twice around the folder, then fasten by twisting a No. 24 wire around the paper near the top, after which remove the folder and leave the plant in the paper. He uses 3 1-2 inch tile, which would be found about right for celery, making a good Btrong growth. The tile can be used year after year, if cared for, while the paper can be used only once. About twelve days arc required foi blanching j.. ?.i A.li u..i iu.. UUlIllg 3llllilili;i ilUU itlil, Ull L <19 11LU weather becomes cooler, longer time is necessary. If earth blanching is to be practised, the rows should be 4 or 4 1-2 feet apart, while three feet is ample with tile or paper." Smut in Oat?. Experiments made at the New York Agricultural Station at Geneva, N. Y., to determine methods for reducing the los3 caused by the. vegetable parasite "smul" in outs, give results of importance to our farmers. It is worthy of remarl: that in every one of the experiments the testimony is positive in demonstrating that good has resulted from the treatment of seed. This fact in connection with the ease with which the remedies tried can be adopted on a large scale is worthy of consideration. Copper sulphate can l?e purchased nt retail for about 15 cents per pound, and its use ;sattended with very little tioublc. Seed soaked seventeen and one-half hours i:n this solution were found to produce a slight amount of smut. Soaked forty hours all genus of the fungus were killed. Caustic potash, a cheap sub stance, for sale iu most groceries, or easily obtained by leaching wood ashes, was most effective in destroying all smut witbin seventeen and one-half hours. A solution of Castile soap iu water with enough quicklimc to color the liquid milky white, proved quite effective, destroying nearly all the smut. Cattle urine, which has boen recommended by some farmers, is always accessible, and can be profitably used. Referring to these figures, it would seem that, considering the ease with which most farmers can procure most of the substancc tried, there can be no reasonable excuse for loss of grain from smut, provided no attempt is made to check the development of the same. The treatment of the grain with <Le various substances seemed to produce no injurious effects on the plants, for all *ere as equally strong and healthy as the untreated seed.?New York World. Odors in Milk. Wo do not allude to the odors absorbed bv the milk, but to those immited to it immediately at the time of milking. .Again we ask, as we have done before: "How many wash the udders of the cows before milking them?" Some will even read with astonishment our inquiry, for it is well known that all over this great country, with but few exceptions, the attendant goes to stalls and milks the cows without washing the udders, and carries the milk to the milk-room. Yet in the short period of time before the milk can even cool, it has received greater damage than can occur fo it in any other manner. In the first place, where the cows are kept in stalls, it is not an easy matter to have them drop the solid or liquid maunures to the rear, and entirely out of the stall. Even then a portion may spatter upon the cow's bed, and if the cow ad justs herself for rust during the night she will probably get more or less of the offensive matter on her'uddcr and tints. This can not be prevented, and exists as a stern fact,as all well know that frequently the whole side of the body is covered with Qltli. The cow also perspires, and though the perspiration may be insensible, yet every pore of her body is eliminating odors, matter being exuded that is really injurious. There is no more dircct channel downward for this eliminated matter than that which leads to the udder and teats. True, a portion may evaporate, but there is, nevertheless, a proportion on I it 4 . mose jj;ii i>. A cow also sheds her hair, or rubs ofl some of it from her skin. In doing so she also looosens more or less dirt from | her hide, which may be as easily dusted upon the udder as elsewhere, while the loosened hairs find a lodgment alsc wherever they fall. Then there is the saliva from the tongue when she licks herself, to say nothing of the kicks and scraches received from the feet, whicL throw lilth in every direction. Will the dairyman remove this filtli with the strainer? It is an impossibility for him to do so even if he strained tin milk a hundred tim-.'S. The strainer may arrest the hairs, but the moist hand ol <i.? milkman will remove the dirt froir the tents and lower part of tho udder wliich will dissolve, and they can nomort be strained out than cream. The begin ning of improving dairying is at the pail and plenty of water, clean hands, a drj t towel, and a good washin/ of tho udde; and teats is the first essential.?Fury1Field, and Stockman. , Farm and Garden Notes. The wcll-fcd tree is likely to prove tho long-lived tree. The proper time to graft is just as .the buds start vigorously. If the strawberry bed3 are mulched with such anhstanrfi nsminks down c lose ly, loosen it up to prevent smothering the ' plants. Cut off the sprouts which spring up at the base of your fruit trees, plum trees especially; they are, to say the least, unsightly. * Keep all the suckers tlmt start from the roots of trees removed. They not only make the tree very unsightly,but will injure its growth. An extensive fruit grower, who has set 30,000 trees, says, as to peaches, pears and plums, ho prefers them at one year old, and apples at two years. When cleaning the perchcs in the poultry house it is necessary to apply the mixture of kesoscnc oil and grease to the under side as well as the top. Experience has conclusively shown that the public taste for fruit keeps pace with the increased production. Desirable fruit products are uow almost constant articles of diet. In Northern climates gardens and orchards should be screened from the cold winds by good hedges. The protection thus all'ordcd is much better than high walls. Soon the reports will begin to come in, as they do every spring, and all the pcach buds are killed ; but what heavy and delicious fruit crops wc continue to get from dead buds. Sheep in the field seek the highest knolls for sleeping places. These are generally poor, but sheep will soon enrich (licni. The grass is sweeter there and the sheep are most healthy in such localities. The farmer who riiscs^but a limited number of swiue should make it a point to have them of one of the quick-growing breeds that will grow to medium size and fatten between, say March and New Year, or earlier. E. Williams, of New Jersey, is of the opnion that while variableness in quality of fruits is generally attributed to poor culture, uncongenial soil or soil lacking in fertility, there are times when inferior quality is beyond the skill of the cultivator and entirely due to the season. Beets may be sown very early in the spring?as soon as the ground can be worked. According to W. D. Philbrick they sometimes come up early | enough to be killed by frost in May, but arc usually hardy enough to escape such light frosts as occur at that time of year. "When a man gives a eow he is fattening four quarts of corn meal at a mess, twice or three times a day, he is wasting material. It is not all digested, and the cow does not need so much of the fatfornnug food. Give her two quarts of corn meal and four quarts of bran, and she will digest it and gain faster. Geraniums are the very best of bedding plants, and they are found in endless variety. Some arc very ornamental in foliage, others very fragrant. A large bed of blooming geraniums interspersed with the Golden Self, Bronze Zonale, Golden Tri-color, silver margined for ornamental foliage, and the fragrant for bouquets, cannot fail to be a very attractive one. Of course you've been told twenty times to plant plum trees in your poultry yard; but here is something new. Spread a lattice-work Of laths upon the ground with the stem of the tree in the centre, and tack the laths together where they cross. This relieves the hens of the work of having to scratch the roots, and gives them more time to look after curculios. Farms in some sections of Pennsylvania maintain the fertility of their soils by applying 100 bushels of slacked lime to the acre once in five years. It is said that fields which have been subjected to this treatment for the past 100 years are as productive now as when the experiment was first tried. This application depends for its value much upon the original char acter 01 me son. The soil of woods is covcrcd with ! mosses and layers of leaves in dilTcrent stages of decomposition, whic:h act as sponges in retaining the water for the gradual supply of springs. If we destroy a grove around a springxm the hillside wc not only lose a supply of pure water, but we may also cause the little mill on the creek, fed in part by this same spring, to be abandoned. Salt itself is too strong for hogs; mixed with ashes it is still more so. They will eat but very little in that way. Put ono gallon of salt to about two gallons of strong wood ashes put in a tight trough, then put in three or four gallons of water. Do not put in anything to encourage them to cat it, as they will eat enough anyway. Keep this mixture by your hogs all the time, and you will not have many sick nog*, n any. The following preparation applied to | the surface will prevent any rusting oil ploughs or any oilier metal surface. Melt one ounce of resin iu a gill of linseed oil, and when hot mix with two quarts of kerosene oil. This can be kept on hand and applied in a moment with a brush or rag to the metal surface of any tool that is not going to be used for a few days, preventing any rust, and saving much vexation when the time comes to use it again. A philosophical old farmer says: "I never knew a whistling laborer who gave any trouble about his food, lodging or any little extra work. Such men are generally kind and genial to children and to animals of all degrees; they come around them without fear. Generally such men have cleer consciences, clean tongues and morals, and arc safer among tho young people than the majority of strolling hands arc, whose presence among them, when not guarded, is pollution and perdition. The moral is obvious. When I engaging a farm hand, keep your eyes i open for one who whistles." No garden, however richly stocked I with bedding and bulbous plants, is rc, plote without the roses. There are three | species which ought to be in every collcc1 tion. Hybrid perpetuals, hybrid teas, 1 and the polyantha roses, as all these arc ; perfectly hardy. The hybrid teas, as yet 1 j but little known, being a cross between ' | the hybrid perpetuals and the tender, 1 j lovely teas, combine the beauty and fra? i prance of the one with the hardiness and j largeness of bloom of (lie outer, na-vi 11 are also constant bloomers, the true per! peHtals. The polyantha roses, also of 1 i late introduction, are the miniature rose; ' i profuse in flowering anil very sweet. "Wo ' j have tested these two species of roses for r. two winters, and tluy have proved per| ! fectly hardy. ; The silver maple is a rapid growing - tree, often attaining a diameter of ten , inchcs in ten years. It thrives well on f! sandy soils,- requires but littlo care, and r I hua few iuseot enemies, I TEMPERANCE. 1 M s Truthful Jingles. H -"vc^?jr As 6Hft, and one make always two, Wm So thosd who drink are sure to rue. > 't- '? Aa two and two make always four, MB So surely one glass leads to more. As three and three are always six, bH As surely drink is spoiled by "sticks." v As sure as four and (our make eight, "Will rum bring trouble soon or late. H As five and five are always ten, So surely drink makes drunken men. Ifl ?Edward Carswell. in Temperance Banner, ! Beer in the National Soldiers1 Home. A member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, who has visited the jH National Soldiers' Home at Dayton,Ohio, 9 " You ask me if there is any truth in the statement made in the slip you sent me in regard to the beer saloon in tha H iiomc! l'es, it is all true; but the halt has not been told. The saloon was first opened on the 12th day of last July, and jH lias been running successfully ever since. It is opened every day, except Sunday, from eight o'clock in the morning until H five in the evening. It is in a large v- building, fully 150 feet long by thirty 9 feet wide; it has a counter running through the entire length, which is fitted flfl up with all the appliances of an ordinary saloon. Twenty or thirty clerks and n waiters are in attendance. A board par- 9 tition runs along the entire length of the H room, and behind this partition the beer- M barrels are arranged at every few feet with faucets leading from them into the room. This place is crowded from the H time it opens until it closes. The clerks M are all kept busy as they can possibly be S drawing and handing out the beer. There . B is a steady stream of the old vets going ' and coming all day. From twenty to fl thirty barrels (not kegs, but large barrels) ~B of beer are sold every day. The thirst of fl the old heroes is wonderful; they drink S and drink, and still calWor more. It is .-Jj t.-.? y Isold to them .at five cents a glass; the glasses are very large?real schooners. 9 I The beer is much stronger, or in some ? j way different from any beer we get at any ? other place. A brewery at Cincinnati S has the contract for furnishing it, and it 9 is said to be mode especially for the Home, 9 and is different from other beer. The 9 old vets get howling drunk on it. It is 9 a disgrace to the State and the nation." 9 An Appeal to Liquor Sellers. fl An address has been sent to brew- 9 ers, distillers, rectifiers, wholesale deal- 9 ers and saloon-keepers by the officers of the National W. C. T. U. It is fi most kindly throughout, and appeals H to them as brothers to give up their 9 nefarious business. It says: "We bo H lieve indeed that your own mental fl vision is dimmed, and the . voice of conscience in your breasts is deadened fl by alcoholic poison. Lifted out of the 9 smoke and fumes of your present environment we believe your perception of 'the relation which your business holds to the ->189 interests of the homes and the citizenship of the Republic would so appal you that all of you, who are not hopelessly dwarfed by greed of gain, would flee the traffic in alcoholic poisons ns you would the pestilence. Whatever you favor we must condemn, and steadfastly antagonize your principle of liccnse?wherever we en- w'JgsEM counter it?by the principle of prohibition. Brothe.s, the end is near; the doom of the liquor traffic is sealed; the clock of God has struck the hour of the rsjjjjjW people's deliverance. Will you not come with us in the great fight fora clear brain : : a protected home? Will you not, of free ' ' CjfflB choice, do that'which must ere long be done under compulsion of the vox populi, which echoes the vox Dei? For this we earnestly ask, for this we will fervently Railroads as Tempcrance Allies. llfl The managers of railways are bccom- J ! ing, from economic considerations chief lv, important allies of the temperance re- B form. Commenting thereon the Amen- 1 can, of this city, says: "The railway manager? of the country are proving to I be most efficient, because the most prac- E tical, of tcmperancc reformers. Many of I them have prohibited the employment of M men for train service or in other responsi- ; tvVin ncA liminr in anv form. 8 UIU ^UOlliVUvJ HMW ?vw y Now they are beginning to prohibit the . ? sale of liquor on grounds owned by their I railroads. President Robert Harris, of J the Northern Pacific, has lately issued an 1 I order prohibiting the sale of liquor on any property controlled by that compa- - ny." By and by these railway managers, fl many of whom, presumably, are not now 9 total abstainers, it may be hoped will see it their duty to become such, and to help I more than hitherto to promote the needed . - J total-abstinence propagandisra and the I crusade against alcoholic driuking and I I the drink traffic. Railway investments g will improve in value as the drink peril Is banished from the community at large. iAationa.1 Temverance Advocate. M A Breeder of Disease and Crime. ;.Jj In the recent number of Brain, Dr. - ^ Clarke has published some statistics showing that alcoholism of parents is a predisposing cause of crime and epilepsy in their children. Forty-four per cent, of the cpilcptic criminals were the children of drunken parents. The proportion of epilectic and insane relatives is found to I be very much greater with criminals than I with ordinary epileptics. The convic- :Sj tions for bastardy are three times as numerous among cpileptics as among non epileptics. The statistics are that the amount of crime, as indicated by the I number of convictions, is greater among epilcptics than among ordinary criminals. "fc One of the most successful organiza- % tions for temperance work in Great Britain is ''The Travelers Total Abstainer's Union," a gospel temperance mission amongst show people. Over 4,200 actors have uni'.ed with the society and find it a grea'. source of strength in their lives usually open to temptation.