The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, July 20, 1887, Image 3
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THK UKUUKLXfl mvinjCiS ove%DAY
SERMON.
:Subject: "Holding the Rope."?
(Preached at Martha's
Vineyard.)
Text: "Through a window in a basket
tvas I let down by the wall."?II Cor. xi., 33.
Sermons on Paul in jail, Paul on Mars Hill,
Paul in shipwreck, Paid before the Sanhedrim,
, Paul before Felix are plentiful, but in my
text we have Paul in a basket. Damascus is
a city of white and glistening architecture,
sometimes called "the eye of the East," sometimes
called "pearl surrounded by emeralds,"
at one time distinguished for swords of
the best material, called Damascus blades,
and upholstery of richest fabric called
damasks. A horseman by the name of
Saul, riding toward this city, had been
thrown from the saddle. The horse had
dropped under a flash from the sky, which
at the same time was so bright it blinded
the rider for many days, and, 1 think, so permanently
injured his eyesight that this defect
of vision became the thorn in the flesh he
afterw ard speaks of. He started for Damascus
to butcher Christians, but after that hard
fall from bis horse he was a changed man
and preached Christ in Damascus till the city
was shaken to its foundation.
The Mayor gives authority for his arrest,
And the popular cry is "Kill him! hill him!"
The city is surrounded by a high wall and the
gates are watched by the police lest the
Cicilian preacher escape. Many of the houses
were built on the wall,and their balconies projected
clear over and hovered above the gardens
outside. It was customary to lower caskets
out of these balconies and pull up fruits
and flowers from the gardens. To this day
visitors at the monastery at Mount Sinai are
lifted and let down in baskets. Detectives
prowled around from house to house looking
for Paul, but his friends hid him, now in one
place, now in another. He is no coward,
as fifty incidents in his life demonstrates.
But he feels his work
is not done yet, and so he evades assassinaC4
T? fKa fAQITI.
LIULl. xs luau yi uiuuu uu u vuw
ing mob shout at one house door. " Is that
fanatic here ?" the police shout at another
house door. Sometimes on the street incognito
he passes through a crowd of clenched
li3ts ana sometimes he secretes himself on
the housetops. At last the infuriated
populace get on sure track of him. They
have positive evidence that he is in the
house of one of the Christians, the balcony
of whose home reaches over the wall.
Here he is! Here he is!" The
vociferation and blasphemy and howling of
the pursuers are at the front door. They break
in. "Fetch out that gospelizer, and let us
bang his head on the city gate. Where is he!" I
The emergency was terrible. Providentially
there was a good stout basket in the house. [
Paul's friends fasten a rope to the basket.
Paul steps into it The basset is lif te 1 to the
edge of the balcony on the wall, and then
while Paul holds on to the rope with both
hands, his friends lower away, carefully and
cautiously, slowly but surely, further "down
and further down, until the basket strikes
the earth and the apostle steps out, and afoot
and alone starts on that famous missionary
tour, the story of which has astonished earth
and heaven. Appropriate entry in Paul's
diary of travels: "Through a window in a
basket was I let down by the wall."
Observe, first, on what a slender tenure
great results hang. The ropemaker who
twisted that cord fastened to that lowering
basket never knew how much would depend
upon the strength of it How if it had been
broken and the apostle's life had been dashed
out? What would have become of the Christian
church? All that magnificent missionary
work in Pamphilia, Cappadocia, Galatia,
Macedonia would never have been accomplished.
All his writings that make up so
indispensable and enchanting a part of the
New Testament would never have been written.
The story of resurrection would never
have been so gloriously told as he told it.
That example of heroic and triumphant
endurance at Philippi, in the Mediterranean
Euroclydon, under flagellation and at his
beheading, would not have kindled the
courage of ten thousand martyrdoms. But
that rope holding that basket, how much depended
on it! So, again and again, great
results have hung on what seemed slender
circumstances.
Did ever ship of many thousand tons crossing
the sea have such important passenger as
had once a boat of leaves from taffrail to
stern, only three or four feet, the vessel made
waterproof by a coat of bitumen, and floating
on the Nile with the infant lawgiver of the
Jews on board? What if some crocodile
should crunch it? What if some of the cattle
wading in for a drink should sink it? Vessels
of war sometimes carry forty guns looking
through the port holes, ready to open battle.
But that tiny craft on the ]Silo seems to be
armed with all the guns of thunder that bombarded
Sinai at the lawgiving. On how
fragile craft sailed how much historical im'
nnrtiinMi
The parsonage at Epworth, England, is
on fire in the night, and the father rusned
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children are out and safe on
the ground, but one remains in the consuming
building. That one wakes, and finding his
bed on fire and the building crnmbling, comes
to the window, and two peasants make a ladder
of their bodies, one peasant standing on
the shoulder of the other, and down the human
ladder the boy dscends?John Wesley.
If you would know how much depended on
that ladder of psasants, ask the millions of
Methodists on both sides of the sea. Ask
their mission stations all around the world.
Ask their hundreds of thousands already ascended
to join their founder, who would have
perished but far the living stairs of peasants'
shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn Island
and right in the midst of surroundcannibalism
and squalor the passengers discovered
a Christian colony of churches and schools
and beautiful homes and highest style of religion
and civilization. For fiftyyears no m ssionary
and no Christian influence had landed
there. Why this oasis of light amid a desert
of heathendom? Sixty years before a ship
had met disaster and one of the sailors, unable
to save anything else went to his
trunk and took out a Bible which
his mother had placed there and swam
ashore, the Bible held in his teeth. The book
was read on all sides until the rough and
vicious population were evangelized, and a
church was started and an enlightened commonwealth
established, and the world's
History nas no more oriiuaut pa^e man mau
which tells of the transformation of a nation
by one book. It did not seem of much
importance whether the sailor continued to
hold the book in his teeth or let it fall in the
breakers, but upon what small circumstance
depended what mighty results!
Practical inference: There are no insignificances
in our lives. The minutest thing is
part of a magnitude. Infinity is made up of
infinitesimals. Great things an aggregation
of small things. Bethlehem manger pulling
on a star in the eastern sky. One book in a
drenched sailor's mouth the evangelization
of a multitude. One boat of papyrus on the
Nile freighted with events for all ages. The
fate of Christendom in a basket let down
from a window 011 the wall. What you do,
do well. If you make a rope make it strong
and true, for you know not how much
may depend 011 your workmanship. If
you fashion a boat let it be waterproof,
lor you know not who may sail in it. If
{ou put a Bible in the trunk of your boy as
e goes from home, let it be heard in your
prayers, for it may have a mission as far
reaching as the book which the sailor carried
in bis teetti to ttie ntcairn oeacn. ? ue plainest
man's life is an island between two eternities?eternity
past rippling against his
shoulders, eternity to come touching his
brow. The casual, the accidental, that
which merely happened so, are parts of a
great plan, and the rope that lets the fugitive
apostle fl-wui the Damascus wall is the cable
that holds to its mooring the ship of the
church in the northeast storm of the centuries.
Again, notice unrecognized and unrecorded
services. Who spun that rope!
Who tied it to the basket ? Who steadied
the illustrious preacher as he stepped into
u ? Who relaxed not a muscle of the arm
?r dismissed an anxious look from his face
until the basket touched tho ground and
discharged its magnificsnt cargo ? Not
one of their names has come to us, l?ut there
was no worK aone mat- uay iu ^
in all the earth compared with the importance
of their work. "What if they
had in the agitation tied a knot that
could slip ? What if the sound of the mob
at the door had led them to say: " Paul
must take care of himself, and we "will take
care of ourselves?1' No, no! They held the
rope, and in doing so did more for the Chris- J
tian church than any thousand of us will
?ver accomplish. But God knows and has
made eternal record of their undertaking, j
And they know. How exultant they must I
have felt when they read his letters to the
Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, '
to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to Cbe
Collossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy,
to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews, and
when they heard how he walked out of
prison with the earthquake unlocking the
door for him, and took command of the
Alexandrian corn ship when the sailors were
nearly scared to death, and prea. hed a sermon
thrit nearly shook Felix off his judgment
seat. I hear the men and women who helped
him down throuzh the window and over tha
wall talking in private over the matter, and
saying? ''How glad I am that we effected that
rescue! In coming times other's may get the
glory of Paul's work, but no one shall rob
us of the satisfaction of knowing that we
held the rope.
Once for thirty-six hours we expected
everj* moment to go to the bottom of the
o.'ean. The waves struck through the skyj
lights and rushed down into the hold of the
ship and hissed against the boilers. It was an
j awful time; but, by the blessing of God and
the faithfulness of the men in charge, we
came out of the cyclone and we arrived at
home. Each one before leaving the ship
thanked Captain Andrews. I do not think
there was a man or woman that went off
I that ship without thanking Captain Andrews,
j and when years after I heard of his death
I was impelled to write a letter of condoi
lenco to his family in Liverpool. Evi
erybody recognized the goodness, the cour!
age, the kindness of Captain Andrews; but
j it occurs to me now that we never thanked
the engineer. He stood away down in the
| darkness amid the hissing furnaces doing his
| whole duty, ivosody tnanKea cne engineer,
but God recognized liis heroism and his continuance
and his fidelity, and there will
bo just as high reward for the engineer who
worked out of sight as for the captain who
! stood on the bridge of the ship in the midst
j of the howling temre;t.
There are said to be about 69,000 ministers
of religion in this country. About 50,000 I
warrant came from early homes which had
I to struggle for the necessaries of life. The
sons of rich bankers and merchants generally
become bankers and merchants. The most
of those who become ministers are the sons of
| those who had terrific struggle to get their
everyday bread. The collegiate and theologij
cal education of that son took every luxury
I from the parental table for eight years. The
other children were more scantily appareled.
The sou at college every little wnile got a
I bundle from home. In it were the socks that
mother had knit, sitting up late at
night, her sight not as good as once
it was. And there also were some
' delicacies from the sister's hand for
the voracious appetite of a hungry student.
The father swung the heavy cradle through
the wheat, the sweat rolling from his chin bedewing
every step of the way, and then sitting
down under the cherry tree at noon
thinking to himself: "I am fearfully tired,but
it will pay if I can once see that boy through
college, and if I can know that he will be
preaching the Gospel after I am dead." The
younger children* want to know why they
can't nave this and that as others do, and the
mother says: "Be patient, my children, until
your brother graduates, and then you shall
have more luxuries; but we must see that
boy through."
The years go by, and the son has been
ordained ana is preaching the glorious
Gospel, and a great revival comes, and souls
by scores and hundreds accept the Gospel
from the lips of that young preacher, and
father and mother, quite old now, are visiting
the son at that villago parsonage, and at the
close of a Sabbath of mighty blessing father
and mother retire to their room, the son
lighting the way and asking them if he can
do anything to make them more comfortable,
saying if they want anything in the night
just to knock on the walL And then, all
alone, father and mother talk oyer the
gracious influences of the day and say:
"Well, it was worth all we went through
to educate that boy. It was a hard pull, but
we held on till the work was done. The
world may not know it, but, mother, we held
the rope, didn't we*" And the voice, tremulous
with joyful emotion, responds: 4"Yes,
father, we held the ropa. I feel my work is
done. Now, Lor J, lett st Thou Thy servant
depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation. ''Pshaw!" says the father. "I
never felt so much like living in my life as
now. I want to S3e what that fellow is going
on tu uu, ue iius uegun so wen.
Something occurs to me quite personal. I
was the youngest of a large family of children.
My parents were neither rich nor poor;
four of the sons wanted collegiate education,
and four obtained it, but not without great
home straggle. We never heard the old ueople
say once that they were denying themselves
to effect this, but I remember now th it my
parents always looked tired. I don't think
they ever got rested until they lay down
in the Somerville cemetery. Mother would
sit down in the evening and say: "Well,
I don't kuow what makes me feel fo
tired!" Father would fall immediate'y
to sleep, seated by the evening stand
overcome with the day's fatigues. One of
the four brothers, after preaching the gospel
for about fifty years, entered upon his heavenly
rest. Another of the four is on the
other side of the earth, a missionary of the
cross. Two of us are in this land in the home
ministry, and I think all of us are willing to
acknowledge our obligations to the old folks
at home. About twenty-one years ago the
one, and about twenty-three years ago the
other, put down the burdens of this life, but
+
bUCJ ana UU1U UI1C X
O, men and women here assemblad, you
brag sometimes how you have fought your
way in the world, but I think there have been
helpful influences that you have never fully
acknowledged. Has there not been some influence
in your early or present home that
the world cannot see? Does there not reach
to you from among the New England hills,
or from western prairie, or from southern
plantation, or from English or Scottish or
Irish home a cord of influence that has kept
you right when you would have gone astray,
and which, after you had made a crooked
track, recalled you? The rope may be as
long as thirty years, or five hundred miles
long, or three thousand miles long, but hands
that went out of mortal sight long ago will
hold the rope. You want a very
swift horse, and you need to rowel
him with sharpest spurs, and to let the
reins lie loose upon the neck, and to give a
shout to the racer, if you are going to ride
out of reach of your mother's prayers. Why,
a ship crossing the Atlantic in six days can't
sail away from that. A sailor finds them on
the lookout as he takes his place, and finds
them on the mast as he climbs the ratlines to
disentangle a rope in the tempest, and finds
them swinging on the hammock when he
turns in. Why not be frank and acknowledge
it?the most of us would long ago have
been dashed to pieces had not gracious and
loving hands steadily, lovingly and mightly
held the rope.
But there must como a time when we shall
find out who these Damascenes were who
lowered Paul in the basket, and greet them
and all thosa who have rendered to God and
the world unrecognized and unrecorded
services. That is going to be one of tho glad
excitements of heaven, the hunting up and
picking out of those who did great good on
earth and got no credit for it. Here the
church has Deen going on for nineteen centuries.
and yet the world has not recognized
the services or the people in taat Damascus
balcony. Charles G. Finney said to a dying
Christian : ' Give my love to St. Paul when
you meet him." When you and I meet him,
as we will, I shall ask him to introduce me
to those people who got him out of the '
Damascene peril. \
We go into long sermons to prove that we
win be able to recognize people in heaven,
when there is one reason we fail to present,
and that isbett;r than all?God will intro- ,
duce us. We shall have them all pointed out. j
You would not be guilty of the impoliteness i
of having friends in your parlor not introduced,
and celestial politeness will demand
that we be made acquainted with all the
heavenly household. vVhat rehearsal of old
times and recital of stirring reminiscences!
If others fail to give introduction, God will
take us through, and before our first
twenty-four hours in heaven?if it were
calculated by earthly timepieces?have
passed, we shall meet and talk with more
heavenly celebrities than in our entire mortal
state we met with earthly celebrities. Many
who made great noise of usefulness will sit
on the last seat by the front door of the
heavenly temple, while right up within
arm's reach of the heavenly throne will be
many who, though they could not preach
themselves or do great exploits for God,
Vinlrl fV?r> rnra
UC?Ci baoicoo HViu VMW ** '1 v*
Come, let us go right up and accost thos;>
on ttiis circle of heavenly thrones. Surely
they must have killed in battle a million men.
burely they must have been buried with all
the cathedrals sounding a dirge and all the
towers of all the cities tolling the national
grief. Who art thou, mighty one of heaven?
"I lived by choice the unmarried daughter in
an humble home that I might take care of my
parents in their old age. and I endured without
complaint all their querulousness and administered
to all their wants for twenty
years."
Let us pass on round the circle of thrones.
"Who art thou, mighty one of heaven? "I
was for thirty years a Christian invalid, and
suffered all the while, occasionally writing a
| note of sympathy for those worse off than I,
and was general confident of all those who
had trouble, and once in a while I was strong
enough to make a garment for that poor family
in the back lane." Pass on to another
throne. Who art thou, mighty one of heaven?
"I was the mother who raised a whole family
of children for God, and they are out in the
world Christian merchants, Christian mechanics,
Christian wives, and I have had full
reward of all my toil." Let us pass on in
the circles of thrones. "I had a Sabbathschool
class, and they were always on my
God. and I am waiting for their arrival."
But who art thou, the mighty one of heaven
on this other throne. "In time of bitter persecution
I owned a house in Damascus, a
house on the wall. A man who preached
Christ was hounded from street to street and I
hid him from the assassins, and when I found
them breaking in my house and I could no
j longer keap him safely, I advised him to flee
i for his life, and a basket was let down over
I the wall with the maltreated man in it and I
j was one who helped hold the rope." And I
! said: "Is that all?" And he answered: ' That
is all." And while I was lost in amazement
I heard a strong voice that sounded as
though it might once have been hoarse
from many exposures and triumphant as
though it might have belonged to one of
the martyrs, and it said: "Not many mighty,
not many noble are called, but God nath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base
things of the world and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea and thing3
which are not to bring to naught things
which are, that no flesh should glory in His
presence." And I looked to see from whence
ohc voice come, and lot it was the very one
who had said: "Through a window in a basket
was I let down by the wall."
Henceforth-think of nothing as insignificant.
A little thing may decide your all. A
Cunarder put out from England for New
York. It was well equipped, out in putting
nn n sf.nvn in t-.hfi nilnf. hr>T n nnil wns ririvpn
too near the compass. You know how* that
nail would affect the compass. The ship's
officer, deceived by that distracted compass,
put the ship 200 miles off her course, and suddenly
the man on the lookout cried: "Land
ho!" and the ship wa,s halted within a few
yards of her demolition on Nantucket shoals.
A sixpenny nail came near wrecking a Cunarder.
Small ropes hold mighty destinies.
A minister seated in Boston at his table,
lacking a word puts his hand bihind his
head and tilts back his chair to think, and the
ceiling falls and crushes the table and would
have crushed him. A minister in Jamaica,
at night by the light of an insect, called the
candle fly, is kept from stepping over a precipice
a hundred feet. F. W. Robertson, the
celebrated English- clergyman, said that he
entered the ministry from a train of circumstances
started by the barking of a dog. Had
the wind blown one way on a certain day, the
Spanish Inquisition would have been established
in England; but it blew the other way,
and that dropped the accursed institution
with 75,000 tons of shipping to the bottom oi .
the sea, or flung the splintered logs on the
rocks.
Nothing unimportant in your life or mine.
Three noughts placed on the right side of the
figure one make a thousand, and six noughts
on the right side of the figure one million,
and our nothingness placed on the right sid?
may be augmentation illimitable. All th?
ages of time and eternity a floe ted by the basket
let down from a Damascus balcony.
FACTS i'OK THIS LLIUVLS.
The Vedic hymns are an old Hindostanee
collection of songs dating back
probably 4,000 years.
In Laredo, Texas, they raise onions
weighing two and one-half pounds and
measuring twenty inches in circumference.
A curfew ordinance at Tombstone,
Arizona, requires every one under eighteen
years of age to go home at the ringing
of a bell at 8 :i>0 p. M.
Egypt declined with the rise of Greece;
in fact, she never recovered from the effects
of the atrocious Persian invasion
under Cambyses, 52-5 B. C.
The first auction ever held was in Great
Britain, in 1700, when Elishur, a Governor
of Fort George, in the East Indies,
publicly sold the goods he had brought
home to the highest bidder.
mi *1 i-U ~ J
mere was receuuy uucanucu ui nutn.souville,
111., while excavations were being
made for the asylum for the insane,
an apple which is believed to have been
buried fourteen years. The apple was in
good condition considering its age.
In the strawberry regions of New Jersey
a cigar box is nailed on a tree close
to the roadside in front of every farmhouse.
It is placed there to receive the
latest quotations for fruit. These quotations
are telegraphed from the leading
cities three times a day, and are distributed
by messengers mounted on bicycle.
The fruit grower determines by the quotations
whether he will ship his day's
picking.
The First Balloon.
This narrow belt of level ground at
Avignon between the foot of the wall and
the brink of the Rhone witnessed 105
years ago a very strange and memorable
spectacle, writes a correspondent of the
New York Times. One fine morning in
1782, just about the time when many of
the Frenchmen who had been fighting
for American independence were beginning
to straggle home again, there was a
great excitement in Avignon. Through
the river gate the townspeople came
pouring by hundreds and by thousands to
crowd around a group of local officials
and scientific experts who were standing
on the bank beside a large silken bag,
which was heaving and bulging in a
curious way as if it were gradually inflated
with air. The better informed
among the crowd eagerly announced to
their neighbors that the two men who
were so busvwith this basrof silk?"two
crazy fellows named Montgolfier"?had
undertaken to send it up iuto the air as
au experiment, having beeu foolish
enough to assert the possibility of making
similar bags of larger si/.c to navigate the
sky just as ships navigate the sea, carrying
with them a number of men fully
equipped with all necessary stores and
implements. The general laugh which
greeted the thought of such an extravagant
absurdity lud scarcely died
away when the unbelievers were confounded
to see the silken case (which
the "two crazy fellows" had fully inflated
by this time) give one final heave
and then sail slowly upward into the air,
f)as>ing over the town at a hight of several
uindred feet. The first balloon had been
launched into space.
Ice Lenses.
The London correspondent of T.e Moniteur
de la Photographic writes to* that
journal that in the middle of the winter
which has just elapsed a student had
made a lense of ice. with which he lit
r *1 V.rt
tllG pipCS 01 SUII1U U1 LUC aivuicia uu vuv
Serpentine by means of the solar ray, an
experiment, he says, which was first performed
in the Polar region by Dr. Scoresby,
to the great astonishment of the sailors,
for they could not understand why
the ice did not freeze the beams of the
sun. We may remark that Professor
Tyndall at times would set fire, at the
Royal Institution, to a little heap of
gunpowder with rays from the clectric
arc concentrated upon the powder by
means of a lens of ice. His explanation
was that,although the ice absorbs rays of
j certain wave lengths, and is gradually
melted thereby, other waves it does not
absorb, and these latter produce the heating
effect at the focus of the lens. It is
wholly a question of the relative motions
of the molecules of frozen water and the
motions of the waves of light; when
there is discord between the two, the
discordant waves pass through the ice
without absorption.?British Journal of
Photography.
MAUNA LOA.
A TRIP TO THF FAMOUS HAWAIIAN
VOLCANO.
Views of the Subterranean ITnQnenchable
Fires?A Cease
less Tide of Fiery Waves
Fifty Feet High.
A writer for the Boston Herald describes
a visit which he paid to Manna
I Loa, the celebrated volcano in the Sandwich
Islands. The journey to the crater
was made from Hilo on horseback and
took two days. Taking up the writer's
account of the second day's trip, we
quote as follows:
For another day we endured the discomforts
of the saddle, and exposed our
well-burned noses to the scorching sun,
galloping over the rough lava plains
with a rattle of hoofs and jingling of
Mexican spurs. Most of the way on this
last day, however, was a steady ascent
through a forest of large ferns. As
we approach the active fires of the
volcano the face of the country looks
older aud less volcanic than that more
distant. The last ten miles are over a
level grassy plain 4,000 feet above the
the soa, full of low bushes and ferns.
The guide points to the column of
smoke rolling up from the top of Mauna
Loa, and exclaims, "Kilauea," and we
begin to feel excitement at this evidence
of the subterranean, unquenchable fires,
which have had so much to do with the
formation of the whole group of the
Sandwich Tsllinils Our ia
communicated to our horses through the
spur, and they break into a gallop which
soon brings us to thc-edgeof the crater, and
at the same time to the dooryard of a
small house caHcd the "Volcano Hotel,"
| standing in a green and level expanse of
lawn, with pretty flower beds and a hedge
of roses blooming bountifully and fragrantly
iu sweet and smiling contrast to
the mouth of the infernal regions so close
at hand. Riding through several little
clouds and jets of steam issuing from
hidden crevices among the bushes, we
approach the crater's edge and look eagerly
over into the pit below. "We are
unon thn ni'lnrp nf n rvrnn!r>i/><? Qflft
-x? o rvv'i"v"'
feet high, surrounding a pit or sunken
hole with an irregular circurafercnce of
about nine and a width of about four miles.
The. bottom appears to be a floor of
black, dead cinder, smooth for the
greater part, but near the opposite side
swelling up into a tapering hill or cone
with a broken, ragged top, from which
pour the rolling clouds of smoke which
we saw on our way here.
In the morning, before beginning the
ascent, we have time to stroll about in
search of sulphur crystals, or, if so inclined.
to take a sulphur bath. The descent
into the crater is much facilitated
by a terraced formation of the
sides of the pit, but it is still
a steep and difficult path, even more
noticeable on returning. When at
1a?4. ?.-v - 1. 11-- K-i.il J iV -
iaoi> * C IC'UUIl U1U UULlUILi WU LLI1U. IUU
floor, which from above looked smooth,
to be a rough and broken mass of lavablocks,
or a brittle cinder which crunches
under our feet like a frozen crust of j
snow, through which the foot every now j
and then breaks, sinking from 6 to 28 J
inches to a harder surface beneath. Great,
cracks yawn on every side, many of them
difficult to leap across, from which issue
puffs of steam or smoke. In one place
the floor for a large s'pace has 3unk some
200 feet, breaking off abrubtly from the
rest, leaving a dangerous and ugly chasm.
After about three miles of walking in a
circuitous route, we - reach and climb
the hiil forming the present crater,
within which the forces of j
the volcano are most actively at work, j
and from which the thick clouds of j
smoke come. Here the crusts are very j
brittle, and it is impossible to avoid fre- i
quently breaking into hot and steaming |
holes. Near the toD of the hill are some
acres covered with a carpet of natural,
y)un glass, or fibrous obsidian, four or
five inches thick, and the fine needle-like
points of the broker) fibres are very ]
troublesome to tnosc unfortunate enough
to have ou low shoes. Nwiring the top, '
we hear a sound like the dashing of I
waves, and cautiously creeping as near as ;
we dare to the brittle and crumbling j
edge, we look down upon, a boiling lake j
of molten stone or lava, about 150 feet i
below us, and half a mile wide. The heat
is so intense we cannot look for more
than a very few moments at ij. time with-1
out screening the face. It is a ffery sea of j
melted lava, whose billows,, dirivcn by i
some unknown force, continually roll
across to the opposite side and dash
against the perpendicular walls of the
cliff with the roar and action
of breakers, and toss their golden
spray 50 feet in the air in drops of liquid
fire of a brilliant yellow, changing gradually
into a glowing orange;, blood red, i
and finally having coolcd and hardened ;
into globules of dark stone, fall back
again like a spatteriug rain into- the sea
of fire. This ceaseless tide of fiery waves
is continually beating on these cliffs,
and has kindled the lower part of them
into a glowing incandescence. At intervals
there is an increased commotion in
the centre of the lake, a sudden increase ;
mnseouution, wnicn swells up tneuquia |
mass into angry, boiling an<i seething i
waves 30 or 40 feet above the general
level, and bursting upward tbrows up a
tremendous shower of fiery, golden
drops to the huight of 200- feet above
the lake, and far higher than where we
stand, awestruck at the magnificent
spectacle. This shower of glittering
jewels passes like all the
others through the various changes
of color, from yellow to orange, red and
dull red, until it agains falls back dull
bits of hardening stone into the lake, to
be there ;igain melted and tossed upward j
in the ceaseless round of volcanic action.
The fiery sea itself as well is constantly
changing its hues and appearance, prei?
J ! / 1 i..
seating new ana vaneu iorm:i 01 ueauiy
antl splendor, at which we gaze as long
and as well as our scorched eyes will permit,
with a never ending wonder and
admiration, when at last night fell and
the short tropical twilight turned quickly
into darkness, the glow of the boiling
cauldron, the flashing of the waves and
the glitter of theskowersof golden spray,
and the changing hues of the falling
globules only gained in intensity, brilliancy
and weird strangeness, and it was
with great reluctance and regret that we
at last turned our faces toward the
rugged homeward journey. The beauty
of the spectacle is perhaps even
more remarkable and impressive
than its mysterious and awful j
grandeur, and the lovely coloring
of the lake, the clills, the showers of
spray, in their many variations impress
r>?n no VMltnll flip mlmIH1< if?ll lit- <1in
wonderful working of those tremendous
forces which had so much to do with the
formation of these islands and perhaps of
the whole earth, but of which we know
so little.
The way back out of these jaws of hell
is excessively fatiguing,and at night dangerous,
and if we had realized this we
ahculd have brought blaukets with us
and passed the night at the crater; but,
having set out, we pushed oa, aad. -with
very grcnt labor and many narrow escape!
from dangerous boles and crevices,
we reached the hotel at midnight, panting
and utterly exhausted. But after a
good sleep for the rest of the night we
set oat in the morning for Hilo, bidding
an et ernal adieu to the fires of Kilauea.
Cuba as It Is.
The island has more fine harbors than
any other country of its size, and it is no
wonder that the buccaneers of the Spanish
main, selected it as the center of their
piratical enterprises. It has two hundred
and sixty rivers and plenty of fresh
water springs. It never snows in Cuba,
though the ice sometimes forms upon the
mouutains. The babies can go naked
here the year round, and a9 for the
stocking trade of Havana, its customers
arc confined to the higher classes.
Neither stockings nor suspenders are
used bv the laborers, and I doubt
whether there are one thousand pairs of
suspenders worn by the one million five
hundred thousand people who make up
that island's population. They use instead
a belt-strap, and the majority of
the workingmen of the island confine
their apparel to an undershirt and trowsers.
The better class of men dress in
white duck, with Panama hats.
The lower class of '^mcn wear few
underclothes, and a calico wrapper and a
pair of heelless slippers are a wardrobe.
There are no carpets on the floors nor
plaster on ceilings. Iron bars take the
place of glass windows, and there is not
a chimney nor a cooking stove in Havana.
There are no barns, and the
horses are washed in the harbors instead
of being curried. There are no bricks
used in the sidewalks, and the average
sidewalk is three feet wide and of stone.
The building stone used is a porous one,
and this is covcred with stucco. Havana
has parks, but there is 110 grass in them,
and as for shade, it can be got only by
going to the mountains.
The policemen carry swords and guns,
and the offices of all kinds are filled by
Spaniards. There are no mattresses ou
the Cuban beds, and as for feather pillows,
there are not feathers enough used
here to make a wad for the earache.
There are few china pitchers used in
tr .3 i.1. _ 1 _ r
.tiavana, ana-me urmKingmug is 01 porous
clay, with a hole at the top, out of
which the water is poured into the mouth
in a trickling stream. Red brick tiles
take the place of shingles and the tops
of the houses are used in the evenings
for sitting rooms. The gardens of Havana
are inside the houses, instead of be'
hind them.
The Cuban takes oranges, bread and
! butter and coffee for breakfast. He
j pares his oranges as we do apples, and
! you find plates of pared oranges before
! you on the table when you sit down to
j the morning meal. The way to eat these
oranges is to drive a fork into them,
! plant your teeth firmly into the luscious
fruit and suck the juice. The Cuban
breakfast is taken on rising, and there is
another breakfast about 9 or 10 o'clock.
This is more like the American meal, and
| the whole city knocks off for it. Passing
i along the street at this time you may see
i families at their meals through the open
I windows and doors, and an hour or two 1
later me wnoie town seems 10 oe uiKing
a siesta. Dinner is eaten between 5 and (
6 o'clock, and the stores keep open un- ,
til about 9 o'clock in the evening.?
lime Journal
?
Varioii9 Kinds of Cork-Screws. j
One would hardly think that more than ]
three or four varieties were required, but
there are about forty on the market. J
They include the ring handle, steel wire
iK-rews for demijhons and large bottles;
irhe double-Ting, handily-encased pocket
screw; the folding screw and the broad
wire-handle screw. Some time ago an
ice-pick and a cigar-box opener wasmade
with a screw , concealed in the steel tube
handle. The tube can be slipped off and
the ice pick forms the handle of the
screw. Another novelty has a brush ia
the handle, so that the colored waiter is
not obliged to run his fingers around the *
inside of the neck of a wine bottle to
remove the particles of cork and dust.
For champagne bottles a screw is made J
with a Waicle in one end of the handle to- j
cut the twiae around the cork. Another t
handle contains both the knife and brush ?
on the handle. The power corkscrew is 1
an ingenious arrangement which saves J
i:hc knees and arms from a tussel with j!
ati obstinate and fractious cork.^ A cone j
of steel fits over the neck of the bottle, e
and the screw draws the cork while the 1
cone presses-on> the'bottle. In addition J
to his corkscrew patents, a Newark man v
amused lnmseit t>y twisting up wire into c
almost every conceivable shape, thereby r
supplying the five-cent counters with
novelties and himself with a comfortable jj
income, in additioo to that previously v
made by his ingenious faculties. The v
spiral thumb screw, which can be pushed a
into a board and easily removed, after *
serving as a temporary hat rack, is one of r
his inventions}. It is only a piece of a
twisted wire; Spiral paper hooks, wall 1
hooks, hat and coat racks, spiral picture 8
nailSj spiral carpcft tacks and stair but- ?
tons, card suspenders and holders, bill 6
files, soap holders, pickle forks, toasting li
and vegetable forks and shoe -button /
hooks are his inventions, and are manu- "
factured in Newark.?New York Mail p
and Express.
ii
The Cat anil the Iron Pot. ?
There was once a cat who had a strong; b
pull with the cook, and for this reason a
lived in the delusion that she was run- ?
ning the whole kitchen. o
And old iron pot which had incurred r
the ill-will of this cat was peacefully | n
resting ou the floor after its morning; j
labors, when the cat approached and insolently*
demanded that the pot should
not sing on the stove while her catship> 0
was taking her morning nap.
"I sing over my work because I Like f,
it," said the pot, "and I shall not stop S
for such a Ia?y, selfish, yawning creature
as you." ! t]
This so enragtd the cat that she lifted G
her paw and nulled the pot over; but it ?
was half fillea with cold soup, and with
a shriek of dismay the cat fled to the j
melancholy solitudes of the cellar, and j,
has ever since been trying to clean her- o
self up. t
Moral: Don't attempt to iujtire any- 6
body without first considering the consequences.?Judge.
n
A Blacksmith's Expedient. ti
The other day a Philadelphia Call re- ^
porter saw a blacksmith examining an ax s
from which he had been asked to remove
a portion of the handle which had been 0
broken off close to the iron. The wood o
could not be driven out, and as nails had v
been driven in at the end it could not "
be bored out. "What will you do?" ?
asked the reporter. "I'll burn it out" b
was the reply. "But, you'll injure the
temper of the steel," suggested there- C
porter. "Well, may be not," said the tsraith.
Ho drove the cutting edge into
the moist earth, and built a fire around ?
the projecting part. The wood bocame n
charred and was easily removed, while si
the tempered part of the stained P
HQ injury. ? J
TEMPERANCE.
The Fourth of July.
God bless our rockbound coast,
The land we love the most,
Our native land;
Land where our noble sires
Lit freedom's beacon-fires
And shook with bells the spires,
A patriot band.
And when they died 'twas well
r Their starry mantle fell
On heroes free;
And to their colors true,
The red, the white, and blue,
The white light shining through
On Liberty.
'Tis here our fathers sought
The boon their valor bought
With bleeding scars.
Firm as the granite hills
Were their unbending wills,
And now sweet freedom fills
Our flag with stars.
Now let us break the chains
And wash away the stains
Without delay.
Intemperance is a sin
That strikes the heart within.
A good day to begin
Is Freedom's day.
When the saloon is sealed,
And broken hearts are healed,
And speech is dumb
That would," if uttered, be
Filth and profanity,
Then our glad eyes shall see
God's kingdom come.
?George W. Bungay, in National Advocate.
Save the Youth.
The supreme demand and work of the
present aay, says the Rev. L. F. Bickford in
the Pioneer, is to save the yonth. Why let
them grow up in dissipation, to ruin themselves
and cast a blight over the lives of parents
and friends, aud become a disgrace to
the community? Why suffer them to become
confirmed in evil habits, bound by the strong
chain of appetite, and then, with agony ana
teal's, and prayers try to rescue them, while
the open saloon, unchecked, is continuing its
deadly and ruinous work, and spreading its
fiery devastations all over the land?
Tne youth must bo taught reverence and
respect for morals and religion. They must
learn that these are their true safeguards,and
that it is a noble thing to stand on the side of
morality and religion against all forms of
vice and evil. We must teach them the same
with reference to the home: that home is a
sacred citadel, ever to be guarded from the
foul touch of that ruthless destroyer, the
liquor traffic.
If a man cannot protect his home.his name,
his character, his children from defilement,
temptation and vice, then public sentiment is
at a low ebb, and law and government are
meaningless things.
Public sentiment depends upon the kind of
teachers it has. Government depends upon
the kind3 of hands it falls into. If we would
have these become what they should be, we
must see to it that the youth maintain a high
respect for virtue, morality, religion and law.
If we would save the youth, we must not
only rescue aud protect them, but we must
root out the cause of their ruin. And the
majesty of law and the power of Government
must be invoked "to do this. Law must
be respected and obeyed. A nation of lawbreaker'would
ba the greatest way-mark of
sin and folly ever set upon the pathway of
nations, as they march on to their destiny.
To demand of Government to take cognizance
of the moral welfare of the community
is the right of the people, and when
they speak demanding certain enactments it
should mean something. When they express
their wish for the enactment of certain laws
to protect that which is dearest to them?
their homes, their sons, and the holy Sabbath?these
laws must be made to mean
everything they say. And the liquor power,
mighty as it is in money and influence, must
not be permitted to stay the execution nor
continue a violator of the law. The fact is,
sven under the present imperfect laws against
liniinr.callinc morn than half the linuor
traffic is in violation of law. It is the great
law breaker of the land, the outlaw of outlaws.
Let the people make it a complete outlaw,
and make it feel that it is amendable to
law, and it will have to bow to the will of the
people.
The only remedy by which to save the
jrouth, to save the hom?r to save the nation,
is complete and uncompromising constitu;ional
Prohibition of the liquor traffic. As
Christians we recognize that our religion
leaches us to be true to the highest interests
)f our fellow-men both in their private and
National capacity. There is before us to be
drought out the greatest triumph of our
Christian civilization, and w must keep it a
Christian civilization. I mean the triumph
>f the people over the heart-desolating, liomelestroying,
youth-ruining, man-slaying,
iquor-tratlic; and this Christian nineteenth
rentury of light shall not close until it be
Lone.
Prohibition Prohibits fn Maine.
The National Temperance Advocate says :
Articles have recently appeared* in the newspapers
purporting to be written by prolibitionists
from Maine, attempting to snow
ihat prohibition is a failure, is not enforced,
ind not a finger raised for its enforcement.
Chese articles are freely copied into the liquor
iresft over the country, and in Texas and
Ceruieseee are scattered by tho- hundred
mousaua to aeieac tne amenumeuc uc vu
States No one pretends that all illegal sales
ire entirely suppressed, but the law as a
vhole, outside two or three cities, is a pernanent
and wonderful success. We sent
iiese articles to Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr.,
vho imperfectly familiar with the workings
if the law, and an entirely trustworthy witless
in the case. He says.:
" The letter is a most gross perversion of
hefactsv As a matter of fact thela.wwas
lever better enforced than it is now, as a.
ehole?the- exceptions being a few cities
vhere the foreign element is very large. The
intendments to the law adopted by the last
legislature are aiding us wonderfully."
The Lewiston (Me.) Journal saysc '"The
nore the Maine rumseller looks over the
.mended prohibitory law of Maine the less
le is inclined to overlook it. It has the real
;rip to it- Our Rockland special gives the
ommenfc of an Eastern Maine rumseller who
ouldi stand the fires of the old law but who
urrendered to Prima facie. We congratuate
himoo his surrender. There is- prima
acie evidence that he has abandoned a
aighty mean business. Let him now start a
eal cold-water mineral spring and go in
icace-!
" The attempt to evade the law byimportag
'original packages' of grog is also fraught
Fith peril. The Augusta and Bar Harbor
uinsel!?rs who attempt thu3 to sell mav yet
e amenable to the law; there is some doubt
.bout their rizht to do thus even under judi
ial decisions; but it is settled that they canal;
seH packages of less than a dozen bottles
r less than fourteen gallons. The fact is, the
rog sbope in Maine are pretty well cor.erecL"
Temperance News and! Notea.
Since prohibition went into effect over :;,00o
liles of railroads have been built in the State
f Kansas.
The Second International Temperance Conjrence
will be held at Zurich, Switzerland,
ieptember 9 and 10.
Mr. C. S. Salmon states ? the Scotsman
bat two of the four races inhabitating the
raboon district, Africa, are rapidly dying
ut because of the abouiiuaJbla driuk supplied
aem.
A speaker at a great temperance meeting in
leading, England,said that if each teetotaller
i? the United Kingdom were to secure anther
and the process were annually repeated,
lie entire population would become teetotains
in four years.
What a rebuke to this nation, receiving
lillicnsof dollars annually from its revenue
n liquors, is conveyed by the Queen of Madaascar,
when she says, in a recent proclama- j
ion: "I cannot consent, as your Queen, to
ike a single penny of revenue from that
I'hieh destroys the seals and bodies of my
ubjects."?Congrerjationalist.
Dr. Prudden says that an ordinary grass
f water may contain hundreds of thousands
f bacteria, but nobody should quit drinking
/ater oa that account and take up with the
ther thing. A bushel of bacteria in his
tomaeh will play far less havoc with a man's
atnral history than ever so small a snake in
is boot.?Wushimjlon Critic.
Philip A. Nolan, General Secretary of the
;. T. A. Union, gives a list of eleven new
Inions admitted to the national body since
ie issue of the previous " bulletin." Thes?
ggegate 568 members, and they make the j
dtal number of local Unions 9!M. If these j
ew Unions show a fair average of memberbip,
the total would reach over 50,000. The
led^e is "total abstinence for the indi-iflimlmanv
of the members a<l<i to this;
'au<i prohibitioa for tire State." '
..
RELIGIOUS READING!
?
Recompense.
We are quit* aura
That Ha will giv# them back?bright, par*
and beautif ul?
We know He will but keep
Our own and Hia until we fall asleetx
We know He does not mean
To break the strands reaching between.
The Here and There,
He does not mean?though Heaven bo
fairTo
change the spirits entertaining, there,
that they forget
The eyes upraised and wet,
The lips toosiill for prayer,
The mute despair.
He will not take
The spirits whioh He gave, and make
The glorified so new
That they are lost to me and you.
I do believe '33
They will receive . .
Us?you and me?and be so glai
To meet us that when most I would grow sad
I just begin to think about that gladness,
And the day
When they shall tell us all about the way
That they have learned to goHeaven's
pathways show.
My lo3t, my own, and I
Shall have so much to see together by* _
and-by, '
I do not believe that just the same sweet
face,
But glorified is waiting in the place
Where we shall meet if only I
Am counted worthy in that by and by.
I do believe that Ood will give a sweet surprise
To tear-stained, saddened eyes,
And that His Heaven will be
Most glad, most tided through with 'jay for
you and me,
As we have suffered most. God never
made,
Bpirit for spirit, answering shade for
shade,
And placed them side by side.
So wrought in one, though separate, mystl*
fled,
And meant to break
The quivering thread between. When we
shall wake,
I am quite sure, wo will be very glad
That for a little while we were so sad.
--George Klingle*
A. Family Bible.
A missionary writes from Tinnevelly,
British India: *'Passing up the main
street of Palamcotta, we noticed the neat
houses of the native Christians; over the
door of one were the words, 'Welcome:
Peace be with you all.' We accepted
the general invitation and entered the
house and saw a resnectable. hannv
family. On the tabic was the family
Bible, in which we noticed several
slips of paper as markers. We were
told one marked the portion for family
prayer; another was the husband's mark
for private reading, another the wife's,
ar\? another the children's. It was a
family Bible indeed!"
One Summer Morntnff.
The following extract from a private '
letter will have a special interest to the
friends of "Irenoeus" and Mark Hopkins.
This morning early as I sat at my window,
I saw some one coming up tbe
porch steps of our cottage. Knowing
that the servants were not yet up, I
spoke, and our neighbor, Mr. C ,
said, "I have brought you some roses witb
the dew on tbem, and I will leave them
at the door." I thanked him and spoke
of the still beauty of the earlr dav"Yes,"
he answered, "but it will be *
sad day for Williamstown, for just now,
at sunrise, Dr. Mark Hopkins passed
away." For the hour that followed, I sat
looking across the waving fields, with
only tbe song of birds on the breeze, to
that hom; from which a great a good man
had gone to join the company of kindred
spirits I thought of that other summer
day, just two years ago, when
"Irensus" went home from these New
England hills, and of how he was loved
and honored here, and I tried to picture
the loveliness of the dear country that
can surpass such & scene as this, where
one arter another of the fathers
who have led us pass on, and meet out
ol our sight.
Just then the-chapel bell rang sweetly
the call to morning prayer, and I joined
the number that were silently gathering
from every part of the village. After
all were seated, the president entered,
followed by the senior class in their
gowns and caps significant of their
having completed their course of study.
President Carter opened the service by
saying that it was his sad duty to announce
to the college the death of Dr.
Hopkins, and in a few sentences he
touched a'.l hearts by his own deep feel?
ing and evident loss. "In a sense," he
said, it seems as if the starngth of the
hills had gone from us, but the influence
of the life we have cherished has
gone into all the world and will linger
here as a stimulus and benediction forever;
and to this Senior Class who have
had his instruction to the very close of
his life it will be a memorable season.'*
There will be much said and written,
about the death of Dr. Hopkins, but
nothing mo<e heartful or touching will
be offered to. his memory than that early v
morning service.
TLe students with loving hands had
already dra|>ed the desk of the chapel
in black, and as with bowed heads they
joined in prayer, few eyes were dry, and
then they rose, and their voicea
rang out in a glorious hymn of praise.
Human things must be known in order
to be loved; divine things loved ia
rder to> be known.
The Drink Evil ia France.
The French Senate recently discussed th0
report of the Committee en Consumption or
Spirits. M. Claude said that the Commute?
Had come to the conclusion that the drinking
of spirits in France had. reached such a height
as to be a social darker. Alcohol was essentially
a dutiable article, and it behoved the
State to preveut its.excessive consumption, at
the same time securing the utmost profit to
the treasury by ti^suppression of adulteration
and other frauds. M. Rouier approved tha
Committee's rvport He said the Government;
would prosecute fraud wherever discovered,
aud that the revenue collectors would be
instructed to take vigorous action against
imposition.
, A mean temperature?Ten degree*
oelow zero.
A