The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, April 27, 1887, Image 3
RET. DR. TALMAGE. |
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN- !
DAY SERMON
Subject: "The Overthrow of the
Monster."
Text : 'He trill swallow up death in vie- '
ton/."?Isaiah xxr., 8.
About eighteen hundred and fifty-three
Easter mornings have wakened the "earth.
In Prance for three centuries the almanacs ;
made the year begin at Easter, until Charles !
IX. made the year begin at January 1st. In
the Tower of London there is a royal payroll
of Edward I., on which there '
is an entry of eighteen pence for four j
hundred colored and pictured Easter |
eggs, with which the people sported. |
In Russia, slaves were fed and alms were dis- I
tributed on Easter. Ecclesiastical councils |
met atPontus, at Gaul, at Rome, at Achaia '
to decide the particular day, and after a con- J
troversy, more animated than gracious, decided
it, and now through all Christendom,
in some way the first Sunday after the full
moon which happens upon or next after
March 21, is filled with Easter rejoicing.
The Royal Court of the Sabbaths is made i
ud of fifty-two. Fifty-oue are princes in the !
royal household, but Easter is queen. She I
wears richer diadem, and sways a more J
jeweled sceptre, and in her smile nations are
irradiated. Unusually welcome this year be- |
cause of the harsh winter and the late spring,
she seems to step out of the snow-bank
rather than the conservatory, come out of the j
North instead of the South, out of the Arctic j
rather than the tropics, dismounting from the .
icy equinox; but welcome this queenly day, j
holding high up in her right hand the :
wrenched-off bolt of Christ's sepulchre, and !
holding high up in her left hand the key to
all the cemeteries in Christendom.
It is an exciting thing to see an army
routed and flying. They run each other down. !
They scatter everything valuable in the track, j
Unwheeled artillery. Hoof of horse on breast j
f wounded and dying man. You have read j
of the French failing back from Sedan, or
Napoleon's track of 90,000 corpses in the 1
anow-banks of Russia, or of the retreat !
of our own armies from Manassas, or of I
the live kings tumbling over the rocks of Be- i
thoran with their armies, while the hailstorms
of heaven and the swords of Joshua's
hast struck them with their fury. In my text
a It sopms that a black
giant proposed to conquer the earth. He
gathered for hi3 host all the aches and pains
nd malarias and cancers and distempers
and epidemics of the ages. He marched
them down, drilling thorn in the northwind
amid the slush
of '.empeats. He threw up barricades of gravemound.
He pitched tent of charnel bouse.
Some of the troops marched with slow tread
commanded by consumptions, some in doublequick,
commanded by pneumonias. Some he
took by long besiegement of ?evil habit, and
some by one stroke of the battle axe of casualty.
With bony bands he pounded
at the door of hospitals and sick rooms,
And won all the victories in all the great
battlefields of all the fire continents. Forward
march, the conqueror of conquerors, and all !
the Generals and Commanders-in-Chief, and |
all Presidents and Kings and Sultans and
Czars drop under the feet of his war-charger.
But one Christmas night his antagonist waa
born. As most of the plagues and sicknesaes
and despotisms come out
of the East, it was appropriate that
the new conqueror shoula come out of i
tbesapie quarter. Power is given Him to i
awaken all the fallen of all the centuries and j
of all lands, and marshal them against the <
black giant. Fields have already Deen won, I
but the last day of the world's exist- |
ence wm see me decisive oaisie. rv nea i
Christ shall lead forth His two brigades,
the brigade of the risen dead and the brigade I
of the celestial host, the black giant will fall I
back, and the brigade from the riven I
sepulchres will take Him from beneath and |
the brigade of descending immortals will take '
Him from above, and death shall be sw&l- :
lowed up in victory.
The old braggart that threatened the conquest
and demolition of tho planet has lost
his throne, has lost his sceptre, hug lost his !
palace, has lost his prestige, and the one word j
written over all the gates of mausoleum and |
catacomb and necropolis, on cenotaph and
sarcophagus, on the lonely khan of the Arc- '
tic explorer and on the catafalque ot great
cathedral, written in capitals of azalea
and calla lily, written in musical cadence,
written in doxology of great assemblages,
written on the sculptured door of the family
ault, is "victory." Coronal word, embannered
word, apocalyptic'woYd, chief word of
the triumphal arch under which conquerors j
return.
Victory! Word shouted at Culloden and !
Balaklnva and Blenheim, at Megiddo and Sol- |
ferino, at Marathon, where the Athenians i
drove back the Medes; at Poictiers, where I
VUOJ too iuai wi Uiv w buo IUUIO KJL tuo Oola* I
oens; at Sal amis, where Themistocles in |
the great sea - fight confounded the ;
Persians, and at tho door of the j
Eastern cavern of chiseled rock, where
Christ came out tl trough a recess and
throttled the King of Terrors and put him I
back in the niche from which the celestial
Conqueror had just emerged. Aha J,when
the jaws of the Eastern mausoleum took
down the black giant "death was swallowed
up in victory.n I proclaim the abolition of
death.
.The old antagonist is driven back into mythology
with all the lore about Stvgian ferry
and Charon with oar and boa't. Melrose
Abbey and Kenilworth Castle are no more in
ruins than is the sepulchre: We shall have
no more to do with death than we have
with the cloak-room at a Governor's or
President's levee. We stop at such cloakroom
and leave in charge of a servant our
Overcoat, our oversnoss, our outwara apparel,
that we may not be impeded in the ;
Brilliant round of the drawing-room. Well, ]
my friends, when we go out of this world we j
are going to a king's banquet, and to a recep- j
won ot monarcns. ana at me uwor 01 me wuiu i
we leave the cloak of flesh and tho wrappings j
with which we meet the storms of this |
world. At'the close of an earthly reception,
onfler the brush and broom of 'the porter the [.
?oat or hat may be handed to us better than |
when we resigned it^and the cloak of human- |
Sty will finally be returned to us improved i
and brightened and purified and glorined, j
You and I d? not w?_nt our bodtti returned :
as tu5y are now. We Witnt to get flu 6* &Ii }
their weakenesses and all their susceptibilities i
to fatigue and all their slowness of locomotion, j
They will bo put through a chemistry i
of soil and heat and cold and changing
seasons out of which God will
reconstruct them as much better than
they are now as the body of the rosiest
ana healthiest child that bounds over the
lawn at Prospeck Park is better than the
sickest patient in Bellevue Hospital. But as
to our soul, we will cross right over, not
waiting for obsequies, independent of
obituary, into a state in every way
better, with wider room and velocities
beyond computation; the dullest of us into
companionship with the very best spirits in
their very best mood, in the very parlor of
the universe, the four walls burnished and
paneled and pictured and glodified with all
the splendors that the infinite God in all the i
-i.u VW^rv'
(k^t? u? uvcu uuio w mivuv. ? .
This view of course makes it of but little
importance whether we are cremated or
sepultured. If the latter is dust to dust, the
former is ashes to ashes. If any prefer incineration
let them have it without caricature.
The world may become so crowded that
cremation may be universally adopted
by law as well as by general consent
Many of the mightiest and
best spirits have gone through this process.
Thousands and tons of thousands of God's j
children have been cremated?P. P. Bliss and
wife, the evangelistic singers, cremated by (
accident at Ashtabula Bridge; John Rodgers, j
cremated by persecution; Latimer and i
Ridley, cremated at Oxford; Pothinus, I
and Blandida, a slave, and Alexan- I
dcr, a physician, and their comrades j
cremated at the order of Marcus Aurelius?at j
least a hundred thousand of Christ's disciples .
cremated?and there can be no doubt about |
tiie resurrection of their bodies. If the world ;
lasts as much longer as it has already been j
ouut, tnere pernap3 may oe no room ror tne j
large acreage set apart for the^resting-places, |
dus iuat time aas 1101 uuu:o. a icuvj m i uuiu t
yet, and the race need not pass that bridge 1
of lira until it comes to it. The most of us |
prefer the old way. But whether out of j
natural disintegration or cremation we shall
get that luminous, buoyant, gladsome, transcendent,
magiiiiieeut, inexplicable structure
called the resurrection body, you will have
it, I will have it.. I say to you to-day, as Paul
said to Aerippa: "Why should it be thouelit a
Wiing incredible with you, that God should
raise the dead?" Ths far-up cloud, higher
than the hawk flies, higher than the eagle
fiiea what is it made of i Drops of water from
the Hudson, other drops from the East River,
!other drops from a stagnant pool out on Newlark
flats?up yonder there, embodied ia a
cloud, and the sun kindles it. If God can make
such a lustrous cloud out of water drop3, many
I of them soiled and impure and fetched from
| miles away, can He not transport the fragi
ments of a human body from the earth and
out of them build a radiant body? Cannot
God, who owns all the material out of which
bones and muscle and flesh are made, set
them up again if they have fallen? If a
manufacturer of telescopes drop a telescope
on the floor and it breaks, can he not
mend it again so you can see through
it? And if God drops the human eye
into the dust, the eye which he originally
fashioned, can He not restore it? Aye, if
the manufacturer of the telescope by a
change of the glass and a change of focus can
make a better glass than that which was
originally constructed, and actually improve
it, do you not think the fashioner oi the
human" eye may improve its sight and
multiply the natural eye by the thousandfold
rf tha rOv-iirrupfinn AVA)
UUUIUIULUU 1-VJi uro \J J. wuo AW WJ W.
"Why should it be thought with you an incredible
thing that God should "raise the
dead?' Things all around us suggest it. Out
of what grew all these flowers.4 Out of the
mould and the earth. Resurrected! Resurrected!
The radiant butterfly, where
did it come from? The loathsome
caterpillar. That albatross, that smites
the tempest with its wing, where
did it come from? A senseless shell.
Near Bo rgerac, France, in a Celtic tomb
under a block were found flower seed that
had been buried two thousand years. The
explorer took the flower seed and planted
it, and it came up; it bloomed in bluebell and
heliotrope. Two thousand years ago buried,
yet resurrected. A traveler says he found in
n mummy-pit in Egypt garden peas that had
baen buried there three thousand years ago;
He brought them out and on the 4th of June,
1844, he planted them, and in thirty days
tney sprang up. buried three thousand
years, yet resurrected. "Why should it be
thought a thing incredible with you that God
should raise the dead r
Where did all this silk come from?the silk
that adorns your persons and vour homes if
In the hollow of a staff a Greek missionary
brought from China to Europe the progenitors
of those worms that now supply the silk
market of many nations. The pageantry of
bannered host and the luxurious articles
of commercial emporium blazing out
from the silk worms. And who shall be
surprised if out of this insignificant earthly
body, this insignificant earthly life, our
bodies unfold into something worthy of the
coming eternities. Put silver into diluted
nitro and it dissolves. Is the silver gone forever?
No. Put in somo pieces of copper and
the silver reappears. If one force dissolves
another force organizes.
''Why should it bo thought a thing incredible
with you that God should raise the dead?"
The insects flew and the worms crawled last
autumn feebler and feebler, and then stopped.
They have taken no food, they want none.
Thoy lay dormant and insensible, but soon
the south wind will blow the resurrection
trumpet, and the air and the earth will
be full of them. Do you not think
'1 ?-* - J J 1- C-" i i:? XJ/*
iiiab uoa can uu as luuuu iur uur iaaaics ^ juo
does for the wasps and the spiders and the ,
snails.' This morning at 4:30 o'clock there was
a resurrection. Out of the night, the day. In
a few weeks there will be a resurrection in all
our gardens. Why not some day a resurrection
amid all the graves?
Ever and anon there are instances of men
and women entranced.
A.trance is death followed by resurrection
after a few days1 total suspension of mental
??wer and voluntary, action. Rev. William
ennent, a great evangelist of the last generation,
of whom Dr. Archibald Alexander,
a man far from being sentimental, wrote in
most eulogistic terms?Rev. William Tennent
seemed to die. His spirit departed.
People came in day after day and said:
"He is dead, he is dead." But thesoul that
fled returned, and William Tennent lived to
write out the experiences of what he had seen
while his soul was gone. It may be found
some time that what is called suspended animation
or comatose state is brief death, giving
the soul an excursion into the next world
from which it cotnes back, a furlough of
o ?
a LTjrf LIKSUI 5 11UU1 l/UO tUUlUV,*
of life to which it must return. Do not this
waking up of men from trance, and this waking
up of insects from winter lifeiessness, and
this waking up of grains buried three thousand
years ago, make it easier for you
to believe that your body and mina
after the vacation of the grave shall
rouse and rally, though there be three
thousand years between our last breath and
the sounding of the archangelic reveille?
Physiologists tell us that while the most of
our bodies are built with such wonderful
economy that we can spare nothing, and the
loss of a finger is a hinderment, and the
injury of a toe-joint makes us lame,
still that we have two or three useless
physical apparati, and no anatomist
or physiologist has never been able to tell
what they are for. They are no doubt the
foundation of the resurrection body, worth
nothing to us in this state, to be indispensably
valuable in the next state. The Jewish
rabbins had only a hint of this suggestion
when they said that in the
human frame there was a small bone which
was to be the basis of the resurrection
body. Perhaps that may have been a delusion.
But this thing is certain, the
Christian scientists of our day have found out
that there are two or three suparfluities of
body that are something gloriously suggestive
of another state.
I called at my friend's house one summer
day. I found the yard all piled up. with the
rubbish of carpenter and mason's work. The
door was off. The plumbers had torn up the
floor. * The roof was being lifted in
cupola. All the pictures were gone, and
the paper-hangers were doing their work.
All the modern improvements were being
introduced into that dwelling. There was
not a room in the house fit to live in at that
time, although a month before when I visited
that house everytlung was so beautiful I
could not have suggested an improvement.
My friend had gone with his family to
tho Rnl v I.anH orno/>f i n cr nnmo
back at the . end of six months,
when the building was to be done. And
oh, what was his joy when at the end of six
months, he returned and the old house was
enlarged and improved and glorified! That
is your body. It looks well now?all the
rooms filled with health, and we could hardly
make a suggestion. But after awhile your soul
will go to the Holy Land, and while you are
gone the old house of your tabernacle will
be entirely reconstructed from cellar to attic,
and every nerve, muscle and bone and tissue
and artery must be hauled over, and the old
structure will be burnished and adorned and
raised and cupolaed and enlarged, and all the
improvements of heaven Introduced and you
will move into it on resurrection day. "For
***e know that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens." They are
very fond of each other. Did your body ever
have pain and your soul not pity it? or your
body have a joy and your soul not
ra-echo it i or. chanzinir the aua*don,
did your soul ever tiave any
trouble" and your body not sympathize
with it, growing wan and weak under the
depressing influence? Or did your soul ever
havo a gladness but your body celebrated it
with kindled eye and cheek and elastic step?
surely uoa never intenaea two sucn gooa
friends to be very long separated. And so
when the world's" last Easter morning shall
come tho soul will descend, crying: "Whereis
my body J" and the body will ascend, saying:
"Where is my soul?' and the Lord of the resurrection
will bring them together, and it will
be a perfect soul in a perfect body, introduced
bjr a perrect tnrist into a perfect heaven.
Victory! Do you wonder that to-day
we swathe this house, with garlands?
Do you wondor we celebrate it with the
most consecrated voice of song that we can
invite, and with doxologies that beat these
arches with the billows of sound as the sea
smites the basalt at Giant's Causeway? Only
the bad disapprove of the resurrection.
A cruel heathen warrior heard Mr. Moffat,
the missionary, preach about the resurrection,
and he said to the missionary: "Will my
father rise in the last day?' "Yes," said the
missionary. "Will all the dead in battle
rise;" said the cruel chieftain." "Yes," said
flm miv*QiATiBrv uThpn " oniri fcha u*nr.
rior, "let me hear no moro about the
resurrection day. There can be no resurrection,
there shall be no resurrection. I have
slain thousands in battle. Will they rise ("
Ah, there will be more to rise on that day
than those want to see whose crimes have
never been repented of. But for all others
who allowed Chi ist to be their pardon and
their life aud their resurrection it will be a J
day of victory.
The thunders of the last day will be ine
salvo that greets you into harbor. The lightnings
will tie only the torches of triumphal
E recession marching down to escort you
orne. The burning worlds flashing through
immensity will be the rockets celebrating
your coronation on thrones where you
will reign forever and forever and
forever. Wnere is death ? What have we to
do with death ? As your reunited body and
soul swing off from this planet on that last
day you mil see deep gashes all up and down
the hills, deep gashes all through the valleys,
and they will be the emptied graves,
they will be the abandoned sepulchres,
-
with rough ground tossed on either side of
them, and slabs will lie uneven on the rent
hillocks, and there will be fallen monuments
and cenotaphs, and then for the first time you
will appreciate the full exhilaration of the
text: "He will swallow up death in victory."
"Hail the Lord of earth and heaven! .
Praise to Thee by both be given
Thee we greet thriumphant now,
Hail the resurrection Thou!"
TEMPERANCE.
Cider and Beer.
Harmless] Cider and beer?
Now isn't it queer
That men can oe fooled so; when every one
knows
That the river of death swallows thousands
each year,
And the springs of that river are cider and
beer?
Harmless? Ciderandbeer?
I think it is queer.
When boys are so sharp, and the stuff is so
vile, j
That they'll fool with the mocker, and find
out too late
That wine, beer, and cider are only death's
gate.
Now the cider and beer
You have no need to fear
If you'll boycott them, boys, and get up a
strike,
That you never, no, never, will help, or go
near
The places where men sell the cider and beer.
?E. J. Richmond, in Tcmpei anc Banner.
Effects of the Liquor Traffic on
Wages.
"Hard times" is a common cry now-adays,
especially among mechanics and
laboring men.
Low wages is a common complaint,
and "strikes," "lock-outs," etc., are th?
results of this dissatisfied feeling among
the working men.
And ye.'; it is a fact that the workingman
is the greatest consumer of liquor
and the stanchest supporter of the traffic
and its agents, and if we were to tell him
that the liquor traffic is largely the cause
of low wages, and the so-called depres- i
sion in business, he would probably sneer
and disbelieve the statement.
According to the Government figures,
wo brewed and sold in the United States
last year 642,000,000 gallons of beer. If 1
we assume that each glass contains half a ,
pint (which they do not by a long shot),
we find that we spent for beer, during a 1
year of hard times, the enormous sum of
over five hundred and thirteen million j
dollars.
For 70,763,000 gallons of whisky we i
spent $440,000,000! i
These figures do not include wines I
made in the United States, nor do they !
include the spirits, wines, ales, etc., im- |
ported into this country. These amount 1
annually to over fifty millions of dol- 1
lars!
Add these sums together, and we find j
that we spent last year over one thousand I
million dollars for intoxicating liquor.
But you will say, what has this to do !
O 4.1 .i.i A- 1? -1
v> iLLi nages? tucac &iabeuieuu> uuiy auuw
that men spend their money foolishly,
after they have earned it.
One hundred dollars spent in the goods
named pays to the workingman the proportion
stated opposite:
Boots and shoes $20 17
Clothing 18 $4
Hardware 23 17
Furniture 24 17
But if he spends $100 for liquor, he
has only paid to the workingman $1.23.
According to the brewers' and distil- |
lers' own figures, furnished to the census
enumerators in 1880, the total wages paid
by them for one year was only fifteen ,
million dollars, and this included the (
wages of men not directly employed in 1
the manufacture of the accursed stuff.
Now, it is pretty well known that the ,
men who spend their money for liquor . '
do not spend a great deal for food,
clothes, furniture, carpets, boots and
shoes.
If this money?one thousand million
dollars?now "worse than wasted" in the
purchase of liquor, was directed into the
channels of legitimate trade, and would
be, as it ought to be and would if the
saloons were closed, in the purchase of
good food, good clothing, furniture, carpets,
etc., it would return to the workingman
not less than $200,000,000, instead
of less than $15,000,000, as it does
now.
Nor would this be all. The figures ]
given above do not include the wages of 1
salesmen, etc.; they simply mean the j
amounts paid the workingmen for the (
manufacture. <
A liquor store that sells $300 worth of 1
liquor per day would not require but one j
or two bartenders; but a retail dry goods ]
or boot and shoe store that sold that i
amount daily would require the services '
of at least double the number of salesmen (
that the saloon does. j
T. V. Powderly, Master Workman of <
the Knights of Labor, says: "Close the <
rum-shops, and there will not be an idle
mill or factory in tho whole country, ^
and the railroads cannot handle the busi
ness." '
It is true, absolutely true. Close the
saloons; start the mills; spend the money '
for food, clothing, and the comforts and
luxuries of life, and there will be no' 'hard_ ;
times," no "depression of business," but
sober men and happy homes.?Central
Good Templar.
4,The Saloon is a Tiger."
Rev. Dr. Crosby, in his spcech not
long since on high license, asked the question
of his audienee, if it would not be
better to restrict a tiger to a certain locality
than to give him the freedom of a
whole city, whereupon a good brother
replied with stentorian voice: ''Shoot
him!" What the tiger, whose jaws reek
! with human gore, needs, is a good dose
| of cold lead. Shoot him dead in his
I tracks! Curtail his freedom by cutting
off his tail just behind his cars! The
saloon is a tiger whetting his appetite
with fresh victims every day, and there is
no adequate treatment for this monster
but death physical, and death temporal,
and death eternal. We believe the duty
of government is to kill this saloon tiger
on sight, to use the old simile: "Till he
is as dead as a door nail," Here is our 1
hand for the extermination of this ravenous
beast.? Cincinnati Liahtu 1
. ... . - ... ,- f
RELIGIOUS READING.
The Bubble at the Brim,
Oh. see it gayly smiling.
And lightly dancing up;
How winsome and beguiling
It peeps across the cup!
Beware cr 'twill enchant you
As it bjckons fro u the rim:
"Come, kiss me. darling, can't you?'1
Laughs the bubbleat the brim.
How tenderly it flashes,
How modestly it flle3l
It apes a maiden's blushes
When dreams of love arise.
It softly uings and glistens,
Like the shining seraphim?
But wee to him who listens
To the bubble at the brim.
Perhaps 'tis Beauty^ finger
That fills the rosy glassy
How sweet it is to linger,
How hard it is to pass!
'Tis late 1:0 curse the revel
When the lights are burning dim;
You are liartered to the devil
By the bubble at the brim.
?[Samuel Minturn Peck.
Seek Joj fin Religion.
Walking with Q-od one may have all
other honorable pleasures also. Religion
goes well with domestic happiness,
and intellectual pursuits and improvements,
and foithetic pleasures and all
other real good. We shall never be able
to get the highest good out of these
lower joys until we know the Lord. lie
will loud us to every fountain of living
waters. But mere worldly good without
Him is empty. Thcso lower
pleasures flash and fade like the meteor.
TfTl *_ ii. iL-i a. 1 L 1_ 1 i..
tv ny is 11 mas mose wno Bees iiajipiuc-ss
in the world alone are forever flying
from one pleasure to another? This
winter there will be a craze for one kind
of pleasure or amusement. Last wintef
it was something else and next winter it
will be something different again. Why
this perpetual change? It ii because it
does not take long to get all the sweetnesj
out of these worldly pleasures, and
then they aro dry and tasteless and something
new must be invented.
Tuere is a joy which is everlasting. It
is the joy of the Lord. It sweetens and
sanctities every other joy. In the possession
of this joy may -every reader
have "a Happy New Year."?[Pitts-*
burg Advocate.
How to iiet Faith.
I hear a great many people say, "How
am I to get faith? I would como to
Christ, but I don't know how to get
foifh " Tf. txrmils? faLrn mnnfVia on/1
IMIWUt A W II V U IN* VWIW (UVUWUU HIIV*
years to get that. Now, I waa a loug
time setting faith. I was anxious to
work for the Lord, but I wanted faith.
I wanted to get faith, but I went about
it in the wrong way. I prayed for it
and did nothing else. That isn't
the way to get faith?to pray for it and
neglect the Word of God The way to
;ret faith is to know who God is; and I
never knew a man or woman that was
well acquainted with God that wanted
faith. Some one said to a Scotch
wowan, "You are a woman o great
faith." "No," she says, "I am a
woman of little faith, but I have a
^reat God." Now would you just turn
\ moment to the twentieth chapter of
the Gospel of John and the thirty-first
verse: "But these are written, that ye
might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God; and that believiing, ye
might have life through his name."
Now the whole Gospel of Johnwa*
written for one purpose. John took up
tris pen, and he wrote that gospel that
sve might believe ihit Jesus Christ was
the Son of God, and that by believiug
we might have eternal life. And so, injtead
of praying for faith, and mourning
because we haven't got faith, let us
jtudy the word of God and get acquainted
with the God of Israel, and
hen we will have faith in him. You
:an't find a man or woman that is acquainted
with God but that has strong
faith in God.?D. L. Moody.
Rrllgtou Trifling.
We are not afraid to be examined upon
iny thing in the Word of God; but wc
Iread a cavilling spirit. I, for one, be,ieve
that the more the Word of God has
seen sifted, the more fully has it been
confirmed. The result has been the
better understanding of its teaching,
rhe pure gold has shone the more
brightly for being placed in the crucible.
But there is a habit which begins
:hus: "I do not see this; and I do not
inderstand that; and I do not approve of
ihis; and I question that." It makes
ife a tangle of thoirns and briers, where
ten thousand sharp points of doubts are
constantly tearing the mind. Thb
Joubtlng state reminds one of the old
lerpent's ''Yea hath God said?"
If tho statement made had been the
jpposite the gentleman had questioned
,t; for he is bound to doubt everything.
He is one who could take either sidexnd
efute, but neither side and defend.
There are minds so constructed that they
;an act in every way except that of
plain up and down. T.ieir machinery
s eccentric; it would puzzle the ablest
*>ngue to describe it. I like the oldfashioned
conscwtices that go up and
lown, yes and no, right and wrong,
;rue and false?the kind which are simple
and need no great intellect to underitand
their methods. We are growing
10 cultured now that many have becomo
ike the old serpen t,?"more subtle than
my beast of the field." T.ie new fashonod
consciences act upon the principle
5f compromise and policy, which is no
principle at all. T> each inquiry they
inswer "Yes or no; what is the time of
3ay?" for it is yes or no according to the
:lock, or according to the climate, or
? 1 '? I- ? i? IKA IwaaaKAQ
more geuurany uccjruia^ iw buo u?<;\.vuva
pocket, for so much depends upon that.
Practically many arc saying: ''Upon
which side of the bread is the butter?
Tell us this, and then we will tell you
what we believe.''?Rev. C. H. SpurQjeon.
Here, in my opinion, lies one of the
greatest secrets of practical godlines?,
and the highest attainment in close
walking with God?to come daily aud
wa-h, an'l ye to keep as great a V}i!uc
for this disc iv. ry of forgiveness, as if it
were once only obtained and no more.?
[Thomas Llalyburton (nbout 1G93).
They, who like the thunder of a sultry day,
Smite to restore,
And they, who like the gentle wind, uplift
The petals of the dew-, wet iiowers, aim a rue
Their perfume on the air,
Alike may serve Him, each with their ow/
gift,
Making their lives a prayer.
-?Wh!ttior?
The Iowa Register says: li There's a
whole temperance sermon in the reply ol
a butcher who was asked for a dollar toward
navinsr a temperance lecturer:
L~ * w '
There's your dollar,' said he; ' I've
sold more meat in one day since this I
town went no-license than I used to in a
week when we had saloons.' "
Some Southern towns report an increase
of 500 per cent, in trade in
women's and children's clothing since
the adoption of prohibition.
J
i ' '- x.
A HORSE RANCH.
m. /in nrvr/i A nnA*r%ri?i ati *T/\*ncif^
A utvurniv avwun r ur nunori
BREEDING IX MONTANA.
Itanch Life During Cold Weather?
What a Horse Camp is Like
?Looking After the Animals?Hardy
Horses.
Writing from a ranch near Powderville,
in Custer County, Montana, a correspondent
of the New York Times says:
The lay of the land, here is peculiar and
would at once attract the attention of a
man from the Eastern States. Generally
it is hilly, but there are many perfectly
level tracts, with an area of two or three
miles, small steppes, as it were, and then
there are curious cone shaped mounds entirely
devoid of vegetation. These
mounds have a certain precise regularity
of form, and are from ten to twenty feet
high, and some ten feet wide at the base.
Within sight of the rauch are bad lands.
When these ridges are seen stretching
across the horizon they give an idea ol
sieruuy, DUion some 01 muse apparouwjr
barren lands the richest grasses grow, on
which our cattlc feed and take on fat and
substancc.
The greater part of Custer County rises
to an elevation of 2,500 feet above the
level of the sea. The air is wouderfully
dry and pure, and so excellent is it that
lung troubles are quite unknown, and
coughs and colds almost unheard of.
What is good for a man is good for a
beast, and, strange to say, wind-broken
horses are never met with. Cold weather
comes on gradually, and stays about three
or four weeks. In the middle of the
night and at daybreak the thermometer
will fall to 40 degrees below zero. At
mid-day, with the sun, the temperature
rises rapidly, so that by 12 o'clock the
thermometer will stand at from zero to
10 degrees above. You do not fuel the
cold as much in Montana as in the New
England or Middle States. It is a steady,
dry cold. Dressed warmly, you do not
care for it. With the least exercise you
entirely forget how low down is the mer/Mir-ir
Thia ir<>rtr hfta hfifin exneotional for
J? r
the continuance and depth of the snowfall.
The severity rf the winter has
made game very abundant, and more deer
and antelopes have been killed than for
many year previous. A herd of 200 antelopes
paused within two miles of the
ranch early this month, and I often see
from the house what we call here white
tail deer.
This section of Mo ntana, I think, must
become the great horse raising centre of
this country. English thoroughbreds,
Kentucky trotting stock, ana good
blooded Clydes, Normans,and Pcrcherons
can all live here through the winter on
the open ranges. A. horse camp, as it is
called in Montana, is generally inactive
during winter. Pomp of stables does
not exiiit. A small log house or "shack,"
built o( cottonwood logs, a storehouse,
and barn, all constructed of logs, with
a strong corral, make up a horse camp.
In winter a man who is callcd a "horse
wrangler" remains alone in charge of the
animals. The horse wrangler only "keeps
up" one or two horses, because horses
' ? * C. J l _ _ J
thus Kept nave to oe ieu uu najr auu
grain, both of which have to be hauled a
long distance to the camp, and a horse
breeder cannot afford to feed any more
horses than is strictly necessary. In winter
the horse wrangler rides over the
range, where the horses are, and keeps
count of them. Horses are more easily
handled than cattle. During bad weather
they seem to be more active, for cattle
will do what is callcd "hump" themselves,
hunching their backs caracl fashion,
and so stand motionless .and
take the storm, while horses will
move about seeking shelter. The
horse uses his feet and paws, up
the snow to feed on the herbage, while
the cattle push aside the snow with their
noses. When there is a stiff crust of
snow cattle will soon have sore noses, and
be forced to stop feeding, whereas the
horse will find something to eat all day
' nnn ovan nutflo orA
1UI1JJ. I\UU^C uuiaua auu vtwu w?vuv> Uiv i
often fatter and in better condition after '
a winter of an ordinary kind than animals
which, have been "kept up" during
the same time. A good deal has been
said about the poor cattle of the plains,
but I have seen far sorrier stock turned
out in the Spring when kept during the
winter on a New England farm.
Montana horses are rarely broken before
they are four or six years old, and
consequently ia-t longer than Eastern
horses. Our animals are exceptionally
hardy, and we often ride a horse 300
miles on a stretch, and all he has to eat is
the grass he gets while grazing at night
or wnile hi3 rider is preparing his own
food. About thirty miles day in and day
out these horses will stand without any 1
trouble. A horse is always broken to the 1
saddle, and then he goes naturally into 1
harness. It takes about two weeks to 1
break him thoroughly. Mares are seldom I
ridden, all of them being kept for breed- ]
ing purposes. The style of the cowboy
may not be replete with grace, but no
other rider in the world has a more certain
seat or gi eater command of his horse.
He uses the left hand, and the horses are
trained to turn by the pressure of the
reins on the neck. The slightest movement
is at once understood by the horse.
Montana is too far distant yet from i
Chicago or New Yoik to supply the horse '
markets in those placcs now, because the
cost of transportation is too high; but i
the time will come when Montana horses <
will be sent to the Atlantic coast. Today
there is a big demand for horses in
Dakota for farming purposes, and many
of our animals are sold there. There is i
a marked tendency among Montana i
breeders to improve their stock. Every '
year better imported stock is coming, i
Great attention is being paid to the production
of aUarger form of horses. The i
demand for a cross bctweeu the native <
stock and a good foreign one is on the 1
increase. A cross between the Indian i
and Cayuse and a well-bred stallion i
makes the best horse for the ''cattle out- i
fit " Tn the '-round ud" hard riding and 1
heavy saddles u?e<np a grchl many horses,
and new and fresh horses are always
wanted to replace old aud broken down
ones. These small horses are cheaper, and
even quicker than the larger breeds, and
answer every purpose.
The Percheron and Norman seem to
be the favorite strains, and crossing them
with native stock has for product an excellent
all-round horse. Last ye.tr some
very fine Kentucky blood was brought
into the Territory. A good many horses
found their way here from Oregon and
some few from Washington Territory.
When a man buys "a bunch of horses" it
is hard to say where they come from. By
a btiuch is meant any number from 50 to
300 head. A buyer has to take them as '
they come. Some few may be old and '
worn out, with some scrubs, but generally
there are many good horses in the bunch
and some in fine condition. Horses
brought into the Territory, and sold in a
buuch bring from $20 to $100 a head. A
Cayuse is worth $20; a good cross, with
fair blood and some size, $70; and a
really prime animal, $100. Horse.? sold i
in a "bunch11 are usually unbroken. j
HOUSEHOLD HATTERS.
A Presidential Breakfast.
A standing dish for the White House
morning meal, which was inaugurated bj
n n i. ?.iT-jl i
rnxuueat urauc, auu ui wuiuu uo waa
inordinately fond, and which is relished
by President Cleveland, is breakfast bacon
and fried apples. The method of
cooking the bacon and apples is to cut
thin strips from a moderately lean piece
of well cured bacon of the best quality
and fry until brown and crisp. Take a
dozen or more tart hard apples, greenings
preferred; peal and slice into
eighths; fry in some of the fat of the
bacon until they are well browned.
Place the mass on a flat dish over a
strainer, and with a fork lay the strips of
bacon comparatively dry upright around
the fried applies. The fat strains from
the apples and bacon. The apples are
thus relieved from the excesssive richness
of the bacon juice.
A Warning to Honsekeepers.
A writer in the New York Evangelism
gives the following warning to house keepers:
"I wish I could proclaim to
everyone who does not already know it
a thing that perhaps most everyone besides
myself always knew, namely: That
hot grease or oil will melt lead, will unsolder
any soldered dish or vessel. I have
lately learned this to my great danger and
me uaugur ui my nome. I oung nousekeepers,
beware! I, being a 'young
housekeeper,' find that the rule is 'live
and learn,' and, as not to know the latest
thing I have learned may be the death and
destruction to the unknowing, I hereby
warn all not to heat fat or oil in any tin
or any soldered dish. I did it, and had
a flood of grease and fire. I escaped
with only a terrible smoke, a slignt burn
and a great job of cleaning up. One
thing more, and never forget it: Soapstone
will explode! It will; it did. I took
my sonpstonc out of its dry wraps, and
laid it atop of my stove. I sat close to
the stove buttoning my shoes,when bang!
went that soapstone, and it left the top of
the stove in 1,000 atoms; in fact, it waa
tflown to powder. The chimney was
brickcd up, and-it all went that way
against the bricks. Had it come my
way, I had not been trying to warn you.
Soon as I could move, 60 astounded was
I, I ran to call the family. *1 thought it |
-was a gun,' said one of the men; 11
heard it up-stairs.' All were surprised.
Not one of us had ever heard that soapstone
would explode; but there it lay.
About one-third of it remained upon the
stove. Now, dear readers, do be careful.
Do not trust too far in soapstones nor in
hot fat."
Hints and and Suggestions.
Grained woods should be washed with
cold tea and then, after being wiped dry,
rubbed with linseed oil.
A simple plan of stopping bleeding of
the nose has lately been advised. Grasp
firmly the nose with the finger and thumb
for ten or fifteen minutes; by thus completely
stopping the movement of air
through the nose (which displaces freshlv-formed
clots'), vou.will favor the clot
ting of the blood and will frequently stop
hemorrhage.
Hot lemonade, taKen just oeiore retiring,
is a well-known remedy for a cold in
its first stages. Everybody, however, ii
not familiar with the lemon cure for an
acute attack of hoarseness. For this purpose,
first roast a lemon in the oven,
turning it now and then, that all sides
may be equally cooked. It should not
crack or burst, but be soft all through.
While the lemon is still very hot, cut a
piece from the top, fill it with as much
Bu^ar as it will hold and eat on going to
The Auction Thleres.
"I notice that Inspector Byrnes says
nothing in his book about auction
thieves," said a well-known auctioneer to
a New >'ork Sun reporter.
"Auction thieves!"
"Yes. There are thousands of them
in the city, and they are a big nuisance
to us."
"How does the auction thief work?"
"His principal method is to damage
goods, and buy them cheap in consequcnce.
You see we always nave a lot of
goods on exhibition, and it is impossible
for us to watch them closely. The auction
thief waits for a good chance, and
then steals some essential part of an article.
When the thing is sold he buys it
cheap, bccause it is imperfect. Then he
addsSthe missing part, and sells it again
at the full price. They will steal the
weights from a pair of scales, the pendulum
of a clock, the grate out of a stove, |
or anything which will cripple it."
"Do you ever catch these thieves?"
"Oh, yea; now and then. But what
can you do to a man for stealing a few
cents' wcrth? It wouldn't pay to prosecute
him, so we just turn him over to a
porter, and he gets of! with a good kicking.
But they're a great nuisance, and I
think I'll send the next one I catch to the
Island."
Palmetto Branches for Churches.
Within a few years past, several New
York florists have been importing small
quantities of the sable palmetto from
Cuba, which were eagerly taken by the
New York churches and finally superseded
the coacoa palms and the common
evergreens, as they are reasonably cheap
and quite as appropriate. The fashion
spread, and florists generally in the larger
cities began supplying the palmetto
branches to the churches. The leaf is of
Gne grain and is a beautiful dark green
- ' j ' - - .1?J^ |
wliile iresn, ana nas me uuvamuge ui ?vtaining
its color longer than most plants
of the same specios, bccause of the hard,
woody^ character of its fibres, and consequent
absence of sap. The Philadelphia
Record says: "It is estimated that nearly
50,000 of these palmetto heads are used
every year in tha Catholic churches of
ftiat vicinity and in a few churches of
other denominations. Most of the plants
are now procurred from the Everglades
of Florida and the swampy islands along
the coast of the Oarolinas and Georgia,
where they grow in abundance and are as
much of a' nuisance to the natives as the
briar weeds are to the farmers of the
North. The work of supplying the palmettoes
has originated a considerable iniustrv
in Florida and the coast islands.
The plants can be had for the gathering, j
md their preparation for market furnishes
jmployment to quite a number of persona
it remunerative priccs. They are pur- ,
chased by shippers at Charleston and St. ' !
Augustine, who pay <hc gatherers about (
Lwenty-livc cents per dozen heads. They J
are then shipped to New York, from J
which point they are distributed all over ,
the East and West at a cost of from $3 to (
$5 per dozen heads to the purchaser, j
One shipper alone in New York takes annually
over 500,000 head.
Mutual Regrets.
He:
My first wife was my pet,
Much better she than yoc
Her death I must regret.
She;
Oh, I regret it, too.
?Tid-Bits. I
- IFthe
stockade.
A. CONFEDERATE CAPTIVE'S ADVENTURE
IN PRISON.
Five Thousand Prisoners Trying
to Keep Warm?Digging: ?
Tunnel to Escape?Why
the Plan Failed. B-Ja
. . ? ' m
I made my entry into Camp Douglass,
near Chicago, the 3d day of January, 1863,
says ' 4Ex-Rebel" in the Detroit Free
Preis} and I may be pardoned for the remark
that it was a cold day for me in more
senses than one. Two weeks previous to
my debut in Chicago society I was in
Arkansas, uniformed in the hap-hazard
fashion of the Confederates of that
period, and when I came to be railroaded
up North and found the thermometer
down to nine degrees below zero, I couUl
hardly hold my teeth in my head. There
were about 5,000 prisoners in the stockade,
which was simply a board fence
twelve feet high, and they were provided
with rough shanties and stoves. A 38
Northern man would have kept comfortably
warm in the quarters, but it was
hard work for the prisoners to keep fingers
and toes away from Jack Frost. * y?f%
Indeed, there were many cases of actual
suffering, though the Federal Government
made the best arrangements possible.
The trouble was at the camp Instead
of at Washington. After a certain , y
hour of the evening all lights must bd
out and everybody in bed, and when tho
stoves grew cold the frost and wind
drove into the shanties at a hundred
points.
There were only six of us in the shanty
to which I was assigned, while some held
eight, ten, and twelve. We were within
seven feet of the fence, and as we were all
men from one regiment, and all captured
at the same time, we felt that we could
trust each other. The idea of an escape
was broached in February, but it was the
15th of April when the first real move
was made.' The only show was to tunnel
under the fence and come out by night.
There was a guard stationed on elevated
platforms about tho enclosure by day,
and at night a chain of sentinels walked
rearular beats outside the fence. We cal- 'J.Ji
ciliated on a tunnel not less than thirtj; feet
long, and it was begun by taking up
some of the flooring in the back ena of
our shanty. Visits of inspection were
held twice per week, but there was not 4
day in which some official was not liable Wm
to come poking around.
The floor of our shanty rested on sleeps
ers clear of the ground. We could there-:
fore stow away a great deal of the dirt
under the floor. We worked only at
night, and that in reliefs of two. We
first went,down four feet, and then started
off on a straight line for the fence beyond.
We were almost at the fence before we
had to carry any of the dirt out doors. ' ' ?
We managed to scatter a quantity around ^
our house without exciting suspicion,
and the rest had to be accumulated during
the night and carried out in our pock- ets.
It was slow work when we reached *>*3|
tnat point, ana on two or inree amerens *$?
occasions we came very near being exposed
by officials dropping in on ui. %
There were several rainy days about the
time we were under the fence, and for a
week our tunnel was full of water. When
that soaked away we went at our worlt V.^
again, and on the morning of the 14th of
May the last man to crawfish oat of the
hole reported that our tunnel was well
beyond the sentinels' beat and ready for
the breaking of fhe crust.
If we had had the making of the
weather, we could not have planned for
a better night. It was dark and misty,
with every chance in our favor. During
the afternoon we drew lots to see who . . 1
should go first, and it fell to me. We had \v>;
nothinglo pack up, and the whole six of
us had only eighty cents in money between
us. It was planned that we
should separate as soon as clear dt the
1 J ~ /v/
iiuiu, uuu eiiuu wi? iu uinc tuic \ji nuir
self 03 best he could. That was a long
afternoon, I can tell you, and even when
it wore away and night came we had to
wait many hours yet. Some were for going
at 11 and others at 1 o'clock, but we
finally moved at 11:15. We fastened tife
door of the shanty and crept intoihe tunnel
one after the other, and I was soon at
the far end of it and digging upward. I - :
was hard at this work when I felt the
ground break through behind me, some
one uttered a yell, and then came th?
cry: ' 21*3
"Corporal of the Guard ? Post No.
i3!" \.,:m
This was repeated several times, and
pretty soon the corporal and a couple of
guards from the relief arrived. The sentinel
on the beat, who was a big, heavy
mail, had broken through into our tutt???1
on/1 iri fho fall Kan hrntpli hu) 1 PtfT.
While I was held prisoner in the hole, the - i
others crawled back, knowing that the
jig was up. It did not take the corporal
many minutes to discover the true'state
of affairs, and then I was hauled out by
the neck and made the butt of ridicule?
When escorted back to the shanty, the
five men were found fast "asleep," but
were turned out and sent to the guardhouse
to keep me company. We were
reduced to half rations for thirty days,
but no further punishment was meted out
to us.
A Persian's Chief Subject of Coniersation.
? -! i -- *_:i:?
i ne Persians umve uue jjuici-muuig
subject of conversation; that subject is
their health. The pleasure of talking
about the weather is denied by them;
for, as eleven months out of the twelve _ v ^
are fine in Persia, the subject does not
present sufficient variety. But a Persian,
to whatever class of society he may belong,
is never tired of talking about his
ailments, real or supposed. In his eyes
all Feringhis (Europeans) are doctors,
and th European doctor is the very best
of all. For many years at Shiraz there
lived an old Swede who had walked into
Persia in his youth. He knew nothing
* . ht%+ firvdinflf
oi meuituue uu uu oiikdi, ?
that the natives constantly solicited his
advice, he bought a few medical books
and literally acquired a certain amount
of knowledge by carrying out the good
old principle of "Fiat experimcntum in
corpore vili." Happily the Hakim Sahib
also believed in the "vis medicatrix natural."
As a rule his drugs were harmless.
"I have different colored liquids,'*
said he, "and as long as there is bread
and water to be had I am never at a loss
for a pill." The pills were floured for the
common people and gilded for the rich.
A.t seventy years of age the Hakim Sahib
died. He held the position of physician
to the forces of the province, and was
- - . ? -~j
deservedly respected ?y natives auu
Europeans.?St. James's Gazette.
Simple Test for Gold.
Take a piece of fiiut and rub against it
the metallic object to be tested, until the
latter leaves a sufficiently marked trace
upon the stone. Upon bringing the ^
flame of a sulphur match in contact with
the spot, the latter will remain intact if
it has been made with gold, but will disappear
if the contrary be the ease.?IA
Science en Famillt. >
" 'iM
!! ? ^ III I