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I KEY. DR. TALMAGE. j THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "Vnoccupied Fields." [After the church was full of people, and I II the adjoining rooms packed, as many I people went away from the doors as got in.] ; Text: " Le*t / should build upon another , * - T? OA Is jounaaiion. ?ivuniaiis , -v. rring reports come from all parts of ; rica showing what a great work the ( :hes of God are doing, and I congratu- I hem and their pastors. Misapprehen- j have been going the rounds of some of eligious pre-s depreciating the gener- ' of this church ; $7$l,olti.:j4 have been ; jasn down in this church for religious j ind Christian work during the nineteen of mv ministry here. This church was ! by all denominations of Christians and ople from all lands, and hence we have ! raising money for many objects outside i lenomination, and that has sometimes [ ered with our contributions to the j Is of our denomination. Subscription : for all good objects. Christian, humani?, collegiate, and missionary, have been j as common as the daylight, and no j h in Christendom has l>een more con- : us in its benevolences than this. Be- j .hat we have received during th? year uls on profession of faiih in Christ, a | fiat I mention, not in boasting, but to | that this church has not been idle, j nost of our accessions have been from j itside world, so that, taking the idea of j xt, we have not been building on other fc'c fmiTwl II t :(1IK I In laying out the plan of his missionary | tour Paul sought out towns and cities which , bad not yet been preached to. He goes to j Corinth, a city mentioned for splendor and I Tico, and Jerusalem, where the priesthood | And the Sanhedrim were ready to leap with j both feet upon the Christian religion. He j feels he has especial work to do, and he means j to do it. What was the result? The grandest life of usefulne s tint a man ever lived. | We modern Christian workers ar > not apt to Imitate Paul. We build on other people's foundations. If we erect a church we prefer to have it filled with families, all of whom Lave been pious. Do we gather a Sabbath lohool class, we want good boys and girls, hair combed, faces washed, manners attract' 4-ltio /^ow io anf fn Ka EX> a CI1UIUU m bUU U?J w wr ?V lut of other churches. Some ministers all their time in fishing in other peojnds, and they throw the line into that i pond and jerk out a Methodist, and tne line into another church pond and jut a Presbyterian, and there is a rei row in some neighboring church, and e school of fish swim off from that ind' we take them all in with one sweep net. "What is gained ? Absolutely g for the general cause of Christ. It as in an army, when a regiment is >rred from one division to another, he Tennessee to the Potomac, it strengthens the army is new recruits. I have always desired is that while we nrteous to those coming from other we build our church not out of other ies, but out of the world, lest we build I >ther man's foundation. The fact is a big world. When, in our schoolboy ?e learned the diameter and circumfer' this planet we did not learn half. It latitude and longitude and diameter cumference of want and woe and sin > figures can calculate. This one spirratinent of wretchedness reaches across J8, and X I were called to give itsgeo?1 boundary I would say it is bounded north and south and east and west by at heart of God's sympathy and love, s a great world. Since 6 o'clock this g 60,800 persons have been born, and fiese muiupiiea populations tuo w i ed of the GospeL In England, or ur eastern American cities, we j ieing much crowded, and an acre of j d is of great value, but out West 500 >is a small farm, and 20,000 acres is no al possession. But there is a vast spin3eld here and everywhere unoccupied, ' of room for more, not building on er man's foundation. need, as churches, to stop bombarding 1 ironclad sinners that have been proo- j it thirty years of Christian assault. \ or that church which lacks the spirit of j elism, spending enough on one chande- j i light 500 souls to glory, and in one 1 pillar enough to have made a thousand 'pillars in the house of our God forand doing less good than many a log meeting house, with tallow candles in wooden sockets, and a minister who j aver seen college or known the differ- , between Greek and Choctaw. We I as churches to get into sympathy j the great outside world, and let them i that none are so broken hearted or j r bestead that will not be welcomed. I says some fastidious Christian, ''I I like to be crowdod in church. Don't j ly one in my pew." My brother, what [ 3Udo in heaven- When a great mul' -? -..-.to. I Li lilt iiu man iau nuiuuci caoouuacawo H they will put fifty in your pew. What are the select few to-day assembled in the Chris|H<tian churches compared to the mightier mill^H-ions outside of them, eight hundred thousand ^ ttn Brooklyn, but less than one hundred j ^B-thousand in the churches? Many of the i -churches are like a hospital that should ndver- j 3M~tise that its patients must have nothing i H worse than toothache or "run-rounds,''but no | "broken heads, no crushed ankles, no fractured j SB thighs. Give us for treatment moderate sinMjiers, velvet coated sinners and sinners with gloss on. It is as though a man had u ^H farm of three thousand acres and put all his 9 work on one acre. He may raise never so ; EH large ears of corn,never so big heads of wheat, ! he would remain poor. The church of God has j I|kbestowed its chief care on one acre, and has j raised splendid men and women in that small j lnclosure; but the field is the world. That j -means North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa and nil the islands of the j ilea. It is as though after a great battle there j were left 50,000 wounded and dying on the field, and three surgeons gave all their time to three patients under their charge. The Major General comes in and says to the doctors: "Come out here and look at the nearly j .50,000 dying for lack of surgical attendance.'' ''No," say the three doctors, standing there ] 'fanning their patients, "we have three im- i >?ortant cases here, and we are attending to j them, and when we are not positively busy j with their wounds, it takes all our time | to keep the flies off." In this awful bat- j -tie of sin and sorrow, where millions have j ;fallen on millions, do not let us spend all our 'time in taking care of a few people,and when the command comes: "Go into the world," say practically,"No, I cannot go; I have here ! i a lew choice cases, and I am busy keeping off "the flies:" There are multitudes to-day who have never had any Christian worker look them in the eye, and with earnestness in the 'accentuation, say: "Come!" or they would long ago have been in the kingdom. My (friends, religion is either a sham or a treraen'dous reality. If it be a sham, let us disband four churches and Christian association. If lit be a reality, then great populations are on 1 it.. V-.OT. r>t fir*! fnr thp definition: , "Justification is purely a forensic act. the act of a judge sitting in the forum, in which the Supreme Ruler and Judge, who is accountable to none, and who alone knows the 'manner in which the ends of His universal Government can b?st be obtained, reckons that which was done by the substitute in the same raannner as if it had been done by those who believe in the substitute, and not on account of anything done by them, but purely upon account or this gracious method of reckoning, grants them full remission o" their sins." Now. what is justification ? I will tell you what justification i'-^.vhen a sinner believes God lets him off. Ouo summer in Connecticut I went to a large factory, and I saw over the door written the words ; " No Admit-i Unce." I entered and saw over the next door: " No Admittance." Of course I entered. | I got inside and found it a pin factory,and they were making pins, very serviceable, fine and Q ! useful pins. So the spirit of exclusivenessj 1 J has practically written over the outside door. . of many a church : 41 No admittance." Andf j| I if the stranger enters he finds practically, c written over the second door: "No Admit-) tance:"andif he goes in. over all the pew. j, doors seems written: "No Admittance," while1 t the minister stands in the pulpit, hammering! p out his little niceties of belief, pounding out t the technicalities of religion, making pins. f In the most practical, commonsonse way. and l laying aside the non-essentials and the hard c definitions of religion, go out on the God- t given mission, telling the people what they t need and when and how they can get it. t Comparitively little effort has as yet been c made to save that large class of persons in i our midst called skeptics, and he who goes to a work here will not ba building upon another s man's foundation. There is a groat multi- fc tude of them. They are afraid of us and our p churches, for the reason we don't know how e to treat them. One of this class met Christ, t and hear with what tenderness, and pathos, \ and beauty, and success Christ dealt with s him: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ^ with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and s with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. s This is the first commandment, and the sec- s ond is like to this; namely, thou shalt love a thy neighbor as thyself. There is no s other commandment greater than this, t And the scribe said to him: "Well, c master, thou hast said the truth, t for there is one God, and to love ? him with all the heart, and all a the understanding, and all the soul, and all h the strength is more than whole burnt offer- it ingsand sacrifices. And when Jesus saw fi that he answered discreetly, he said unto h him: "Thou art not far from the kingdom s of God." So a skeptic was saved in one In- o terview. But few Christian people treat the b skeptic in that way. Instead of taking hold h of nim with the gentle hand of love, we are tl apt to take him with the iron pincers of ec- c clesiasticism. You would not be so rough on that man if st you knew by what process he had lost his o faith in Christianity. I have known men tl skeptical from the fact that they grew up in j cj houses where religion was overdone, sun- u day was the most awful day of the week, g They had religion driven into them with a h trip hammer. They were surfeited with si prayer meetings. They were stuffed and s< choked with catechisms. They were often w told they were the worst boys the parents p ever knew because they liked to ride down ti hill better than to read JBunyan's "Pilgrim's w Progress." "Whenever father and mother n talked of religion they drew down the corners S of their mouth and rolled up their eyes. If d any one thing will send a boy or girl to de- " struction sooner than another that is it. If I had had such a father ancl mother I fear I should have been an infidel. a Others were tripped up of skepticism from fj being grievously wronged by some man who f professed to be a Christian. They had a partner in business who turned out to be a first-class scoundrel, though a professed Christian. Twenty years ago they had lost all faith by what happened in an oil company which was formed amid the petroleum ex- 2 citement. The company owned no land, or if they did, there was no sign of oil produced. But the President of the company was a ^ Presbyterian elder, and the Treasurer was an * Episcopal vestryman, and one director was a {J1 Methodist class leader, and the other directors prominent members of Baptist and Congreg.itional churches. Circulars were gotten out telling what fabulous prospects opened be- Ci fore this company. Innocent men and X' women who had a little money to onH t.hnf. litfcln thoir all snid? "I don't know anything about this company, but so many good men are at the head of it that it must be excellent, and taking stock in it Vl almost as good as joining the church." So r( they bought the stock, and perhaps received one dividend so as to keep them still, but after a while they found that the company ?" had reorganized and had a different presi- ^ dent, and different treasurer, and different a' directors. It was said, by way of explana- p tion, that other engagements or ill health had caused the former officers of the company, with many regrets, to resign. And all that J11 the subscribers of that stock had to 'e show for their investment was a beauti- a fully ornamented certificate. Sometimes that man looking over his old papers comes across that certificate, and it is ai so suggestive that he vows ha wants none of ai the religion that the presidents and trustees t< and directors of that oil company professed, n: Of course their rejection of religion on such c< grounds was unphilosophical and unwise. I fc am told that one-third of the United States h< army deserts every year, and there are 12,000 hi court martial trials every year. Is that any- pj thing against the United States Government 1'c that swore thom in? And if soldiers of Jesus si Christ desert, is that anything against the O Christianity which they swore to support and al defend? How do you judge of the currency Re of a country? By a counterfeit bill? Oh, si you must have patience with those who have been swindled by religious pretenders. Live sa in the presance of others a frank, honest, earnest Christian life, that they may be attracted to the same Saviour upon whom your hopes depend. Remember skepticism always has some rea- H son, good or bad, for existing. Goethe's irre- C( ligion started when the news came to Ger- . many of the earthquake at Lisbon, Nov. . 1, 17T5. That 60,000 people should have per- f' ished in that earthquake and in the after V rising of the Tagus river so stirred his sym- S( pathies that be threw up his belief in the fl, goodness of God. Others have gone into skepticism from a ni natural persistence in asking the reason why. ' J) They have been fearfully stabbed ot the in- fl terrogation point. There are so many things they cannot get explained. They cannot , understand the Trinity, or how God j a can be sovereign, and yet man a 0 fi*pfi a front Neither can I. They say: ! o " I don't understand why a good God a, should have let sin come into the world.1' j Wither do I. You sav: "Why was ihal child started in life with such disadvan- tl tages, while others have all physical and tl mental equipment (" I cannot tell. They go out of church on Easter morning and say : "That doc trine of the resurrection confounded ? me." So it is to me a mystery beyond un- tl ravelment. I understand all the processes by w which men get into the dark. I know them n all. I have traveled with burning feet their i blistered way. The first word that children learn to utter is generally papa or mamma. 0 I think the first word I ever uttered was S( "Why" I know what it is to have a hun- h dred midnights pour their darkness into one hour. Such men are not to be ,, scoffed at, but helj-ed. Turn your back upon . a drowning man when you have th9 rope u with which to pull him ashore, and let that S woman in the tnird storv of a house perish in the flames * hen you have a ladder with which to help her out and help her down, rather than turn your back seo.Tmgly on a skeptic whose soul is in more peril than the 1 bodies of those other endangered one3 possi- 6( bly can be. Oh, skepticism is a dark land. There are men in this house who would give j a thousand worlds, if thev possessed them, ! to get back to the placid faith of their fathers anil mothers, and it is our place to help them, A and we may help them, never througn their t, heads, but always through their hearts. ' Those skeptics, when brought to Jesus, will be P niigiiuiy aua'ti'u?lar more bo vimn wiumj i who never examined the evidences of Chris- tv ; tianity. T!oi:a; Chalmers was once a skep- a tic, Robert Hall i; sk'i'tic, Kobert Newton a ? 'jptic, Christinas Evans a skeptic. 13ut when once wit 1 strong han 1 they took hold S of the chariot of the (iospel, they roiled it on IS with what momentum! If I address such p men and women today I throw out ^ no scoir. I implead them by tho memory of the Rood old days when at tneir .. mothers knee they said: "Now I lay me 11 down to sleep," and by those days and nights s] of scarlet fever in which she watched you, ci I giving you the medicine at just the right f I time and turning your pillow when it was . | hot, and with hands that many years ago 'J ! turned to dust soothed away your pain, and ? i with voice that you will never bear again, h unless you join her in the better country, ! told j ou to never mind, for you wold feel i better by and by, and by tint dying couch where she looked so pile and talked so slowly, catching her breath bet worn the words, and you felt an awful loneliness i.i ! coming over your soul; by all that, 1 hog ! you to come back and take the same relig- ? ion. It was good enough for her. It is good I: I l. r Vntr T liavo n Knffnr i\1ao f< oiiuu^ii lur )uu. A ??v?v. tJ j than that. I pload by all the wounds, and n i fflan and hlnad. And crroana. And <uranioa. and death throes of the Son or tiod, who ap- v j proaches you this moment with torn brow, o i and lacerated hand, and whipped back, and a ! saying: "Come unto me, all ye who arc weary f, j and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." j Again thero is a field of usefulness but S ! little touched occupied by those who are b j astray in their habits. All northern na- h tions, like those of North America and Eng- f I land and Scotland, that is in the colder r climates, are devastated by alcoholi ism. They take the fire to keep up n ; the warmth. In southern countries, like a ! Arabia and Spain, the blood is so they are n not tempted to fiery liquids. The great Ro- a man armies never drank anything stronger ^ han water tinned with vinegar, but imde mr northern climate the temptaion to heat ng stimulants is most mighty, and million uccumb. When a mans habits go wron; lie churc'i -Imps him. the social circle drop lim, pronri inluences drop him. we all d^o] iim. Of all the men who get off the track bu ew ever g?t on again. Near my sum'iie esidence there is a life-saving station on th >each. There are all the ropes and rocki'ts he boats, the machinery for getting peopl iff shipwrecks. Summer before last I sa\ here nfteen or twenty men who were break asting, after having just escaped with thei ives and nothing more. Up and down ou oasts are built these useful structures, am he mariners know it. and they feel that i hey are driven into the breakers there wi] >0 apt from shore to come a rescue. Th hurehes of God ought to be so many life sav ng stations, not so much to help those win re in smooth waters,but those who have beei hipwrecked. Come, let us run out the lif oats! And who will man them! We do no ??V n\on wo hflVA no 'I LML u oiivu^ll iv ouv/ii iiivm, " v nough faith in their release. Alas, if whei hey come to hear us we are laboriously try ng to show the difference between siiblap arianism and supralaprarianism while the] lave a thousand vipers of remorse and de pair coiling around and biting their immorta pirits. The church is not chiefly for goodisl ort of men whose proclivities are all right ,nd who could get to heaven praying ant inging in their own hom^s. It is on th< >each to help the drowning. Those bac ases are the cases that God like o take hold of. He can save t iig sinner as well as a small sinner nd when a man calls earnestly to God foi elp he will go out to deliver such a one. I 5 were necessary God would come dowi rom the sky, followed by all the artillery ol eaven and 1,000,000 angels with drawr words. Get 100 such redeemed men in eacl f your churches, and nothing could stanc efore them,forsucli men are generally warm earted and enthusiastic. No formal prayer ion. No heartless singing then. No colc onventionalisms then. Furthermore, the destitute children of th< ireet offer a field of work comparatively un ceupied. The uncared for children are ir iie majority in Brooklyn and most of our ities. When they grow up, if unreformed, iav will outvote vour children, and they wil! overn yoar children. The whisky ring wil atch out other whisky rings, and grog lops will kill with their horrid stench public jbriety, unless the church of God rises up "ith outstretched arras and enfolds this dying opulation in her bosom. Public schools can ot do it. Art galleries cannot do it. Blackrell's Island cannot do it. Almshouses can ot do it. New York Tombs and Raymond treet jail cannot do it. Sing Sing cannot o it. Church of God, wake up to your magificent mission. You can do it. Get some 'here, somehow to work. The Prussian cavalry mount by putting ieir right foot into the stirrup, while the .merican cavalrymen mount by putting ieir left foot into the stirrup. I don't care ow you mount your war charger,- if yoi nly get into this battle for God and get there >on, right stirrup, or left stirrup, 01 o stirrup at all. The unoccupied field; re all around us, and why should e build on another man's foundation] hat God has called this church tc ipecial work no one can doubt. Its his >ry has been miraculous. God has helped us t every step, and though the wheels of its istory have made many revolutions, tho\ ive all been forwarded,and never backward id now with our borders enlarged and with ni>ortant re-enforcements we start on a new unpaign. At Sharon Springs, nineteer ears ago, walking in the park, I asked God, il 9 had any particular work for mo to do, tc lake it plain and I would do it. He revealec > me the style of church wo wero to have,an 9 revealed to ine the architecture,and he re ealed to me the modes of worship, and h< jvealed to me my work,and, as far as in mj ;norance and weaknoss I have seen the riglil ay, I have tried to walk in it, ie decidcd that we want d it c >ul saving church, and it has beer Imost a constant outpouring of tho Holj host. Ye powers of darkness, ye devils it ell, we mean to snatch from your dominior ther multitudes, if God will help us. I hav< eard of what was called tho "thundering >gion." It was in 170 a part of the Romar rniy to which some Christians belonged, nd their prayers, it was said, were an .verod by thunder and lightning and hai id tempest, which overthrow an invading rmy and saved the empire. And I would ) God that this church may b j so lighty in prayer and work that it would b> )me a thundering legion before which the >rces of sin might be routed and the gates of >11 be made to tremble. Now that the autumn is come, and the gospel ship has been reiired and enlarged, it is time to launch her >r another voyage. Heave away now, lads I lake out the reefs in the foretopsail!. Come, iimvonlv winrt. and fill the canvas! Jesus aoard will assure our safety. Jesus on the a will beckon us forward. Jesus on the lining shore will welcome us into harbor. And so it oamo to pass that they all escaped tfe to land." A Great Flight of Hawks. A. recent invasion of hawks in Baj [undred, Talbot County, causes rnucl smment and not a little speculation a< ) the cause of the flight of the bird: om some other region. Mr. Frank G, frightson, of Bay Hundred, a very conjrvativc man, says: "I don't like tc ly it, but I honestly believe there wen ot only thousands but a million, anc erhaps inillious of these birds, flying in ocks northward up the eastern shore ol le Chesapeake 011 Friday and Saturay." Mr. Wrightson remembers anther but a much smaller flight of hawks vcr the same section some twenty year* jo. Thc>e hawks were somewhal nailer in body than the big hen hawk lat lives and thrives in this country, but le head, ulumaire. and talons were like lose of our native hawks. In their flight ortlnvard they met about the mouth oi )e Choptank River :i strong north wind, Inch drove them shoreward. They did ot come far into the interior, bul overed about the headlands and shores f the bay and the broad estuaries, and :emed to be ravenous for food. Fort} ours covered the period of their visit om the coming of the advance guard tc ic leaving of the stragglers, and on Sun ay not a hawk could beseen.?Baltimort un. The Ciirnssiw "There is something new," said a?Xen 'ork bird importer, pointing to whal :emed to be half-way between a turkej ad a pheasant. "What is it?" he was asked. "A curassow. It is a native of Soutt merica, and does not come north of th? sthmus. A few of them have been imorted to this country and they seemed ) take, and the probability is that thej ill become very popular. They arc bout the size of a pea fowl, and theii lumage varies from a glossy black tc ray, and there is occasionally one thai i mottled white and black. They have s eculiar tuft of feathers on top of tlieii cads, which they can raise and lower al ill. In Brazil these birds run at large ke wild turkeys, and it is good sporl footing them. They are easily domestiatcd, and are wonderfully fine eating, "here is such a demand for them that ? trge number will be brought up from outh America, and they will be exibitecl at the poultry shows this winter. -Mail and Ejrjvess. The Sultan's Expenses. The Sultan of Turkey has over sia lousand souls attached in some mannei r capacity to the palace, writes Olivei larner. and in his personal service, aside rota tiic soldiers, and the amount ol loney tb3 Sultan orders spent dailj ould bankrupt England in a month, nly as he is not very good at calculating nd his chief eunuch, chamberlain aud reasurer are, they put their heads to ether to cut down everybody's expense! ut their own, and of late years au efforl as been really made toward economy liongh sti41 volumes might be told ol ow money is lavished, for every wif< lust have her own separate apartment nd each as good as the other, and cacl ew child its' separate nurse and tutor nd all the caprices of the Sultan anc is imperial family must be humored, [ TEMPERANCE. rr s Cast Thim Out. P * * * * 0 The demon drink that stains the skin, I The evil spirits kept within, 3 Blot out the glory of the face. ' Let all who love what's just and right 0 Cast out these devils, black and white, 7 And help to save a suffering race. r Brandy and whisky, rum and gin, i" And wine and beer recei ved within, 1 Are evil spirits out of place. J Heaven grant to all the will and might II To cast out devils, black and white, 0 And drown them in the ocean's space. ?George Wr. Bunqau, in National Advocate. o J Why Neal Dow Hates Ram. t If a man wishes to engage in a business thai 6 insures long me itsi aim uecome a iniiu-iimn ? nered apostle of prohibition, writes the Port land correspondent of the Boston Herald, Here is General Neal Dow, now nearly eighty f four, as youthful and as fresh as at forty. - Whether yon are a Prohibitionist or not, yoi 1 would enjoy an evening with him. Sitting i in his study the other night he tol l me how . it happened that he first undertook the big i task of abolishing the liquor traffic, a I have never told the story in public, h? 1 said, nor has it ever been printed. It was e s good many years ago. I was sitting in this i iame house one evening quite late. In answer ing a knock at the door I found a lady whon: r I knew very well 83 the wife of a Govern f ment official in this city. He was a peri i odical drunkard, and on this very night wa; f down town on a spree. His wift i wished me to get him home quietly, t because if he was drunk the next I day he might lose his position. I started out and found him in the back room of a down J town saloon. That was in the days of li 1 cense in Maine. I said to the keeper in ? quiet way: "I wish you would sell no mon ) liquor to Mr. Blank." "Why, Mr. Dow," h< eoM "t.hia in mv hnsir?p.<w! 1 must surmlv m\ i customers." "That all may be," I* replied^ "but here is this gentleman with a large fam , ily depending on aim for support. If he goes 1 to his office to-morrow drunk he will lose hi: I place. 1 wish you would sell him nomore.' He became somewhat angry and told me thai ! he, too, had a family to support; that he had > a license to sell liquor to whoever he pleased and that he didn't care to have me meddling lo his business. "So you have a license, have you?' said 1, "and you support vour family by destroying I that man's. We'il see about this." I wenl i home thoroughly determined to devote mj life to suppressing the liquor traffic in the best way possible. The Maine law originated in that rum shop. There is a good deal that is remarkabh > about this old gentleman with but one idea ; Through business, through the war, and now > in his retired life, it has been prohibition anc l nothing but prohibition with him. > "I eat well, sleep well, and never fret," he * said in explaining his youthful old age. i "There is Jots of youth for the man whe I doesn't fret," and he lives up to his doctrine. ! ) His daily life is very regular, and by sunsel > he ends his work for the day. He invariably rises at five o'clock, and spends about twe ) hours with his papers, being careful not tc 3 miss anything touching on his favorite topic. - By this time breakfast is ready?a simple , meal, without coffee; but he does drink tea i He then clears up his correspondence, which t amounts to ten or fifteen letters a day. Ther i comes the regular drive down town. Aftei ' that he spends a couple of hours with his pen. i Just now he is writing a history of the Maine 1 law, which is soon to be published. He spends about four hours a day on this, and alter dinner he takes another drive and i spends the rest of the day in the library witt r his family. Nine o'clock finds him dreaming t of prohibition.?New York Gravhic. i The Results of Persuasion. 1 Years have been spent in persuading men ' to stOD drinking intoxicating liquors, says 1 George R. ScottT in the JVtfness. " Inebriate 1 Homes have also been started with the hope 1 that the influences there exerted, and the ! good food there given, might lead to a better ' way of living. One by one these Homes have i closed their aoors. The gin-mills outside have ; proved too powerful a temptation; and the ' doctrine of an appetito taken away has often failed the victim in his hour of need. While on a visit to one of these institutions a gentleman informed me that he had no doubt of the reforma;ion of his friend. '"In this estab| lishment he has spring chicken instead of scolding from his wife." After listening for about fifteen minutes to the history of the young inebriate and the way he had treated his wife, employer and children, I could not helpremarking:'"I don't think spring chicken will cure your friend; if this institution had a 1 cat-of-nine tails and a strong man to apply it 1 to his back there would be more hope of his 1 reform." Spring chicken as a premium for Ttrr-nnnr-Hniriff nilcrhf. to hrt "nlttVed-OUt1 bV thl9 time. Look over the list of drunkards that you are acquainted with; think of the mean acts they have committed, and tell me if you think they deserve spring chicken for break? fast. Some of that delicious dish for the poor t afflicted wives and ueglected children would j be more in keeping with common sense. I know many will say: "But, Mr. Scott, the ' men are sick?" Those who are afflicted with i the same disease, and have no friends, are sent to Black well's Island, where there are no > luxuries; but they soon get well and trim the scales with ten or twenty pounds added to . their weight on the day they lirst put in apI pearance there. i There has been enough of persuasion (good f as it is) to convert every drunkard in this country years ago. It rolls off them like water from a duck's back. They drink to get drunk, and drink to get sober. In a mal jority of coses a pale, sick, dying wife has j no power to change the course of the [ majority of them. The toes sticking out of the shoes of their children on a cold Novem' ber day is an argument that they will not ; heed. I once heard a drunkard tell his little ! girl to keep her toes warm by putting them ; in her mouth! Ought he to have chicken j meat or a kick from the toe of the first strong man wearing a No. 10 cow-hide boot? j Persuasion has been the rage for years, aud I still brute-making goes on?tne manufacturer L 1 hnMi laiiorhine t anu liiauuiauifui uu u? uimu.? 0 ^ , to scorn the public attempts to stop the facI tones. Why don't people try and persuade madr dogs to lie quietly in their kennels? Why ; don't people seek to protect themselves from > burglars by persuasion? Because they bava too much sense in these matters. ' A Jt'cw Questions to Liquor Dealers. Does not the cost of prosecuting liquor criminals, building jails, penitentiaries, poor houses, insane asylums to take care of r your victims, to say nothing of tho loss of t their effort in developing the State, amount r to many times more than your license fees? Is there not a code of morality higher than the civil code, which makes your trade l a sin, and to which you are responsible? ! Do you not in your business make mer chandise of the inexperience of youth, the [ inherited and acquired appetites of many r and the ignorance of others? Is not following your business like setting [ traps for the unwary, administering concealed Doison to the unsuspecting! How many men can you count on your ' fingers ruined by the drinks you have sold i them? If your business is honorable, why do you y carry it on behind green doors and under [ cover of night? ! Are you not guilty of murder by the ver? diet of your own conscience? If you were to give back to men all the profits on your business, would it repair the injury you have done? Would you not have more s-If-respect, 1 more respect of the best people, if you would get out of the business? Answer these questions in the light of your relation to time and eternity?Chattanooga Commercial. Tempcrance News and Notes. The three Grand Lodges of Good Templars in South Africa have each a lecturer in the field. > England's liquor bill, II converted iuw r sovereigns nnd laid in a line, would reach nearly a, 000 miles. The sail of every kind of liquor was abso> lately prohibited on and about the grounds ? of the great industrial exhibition iu Toronto. The W. C. T. U. of Allegheney County, 3 Pennsylvania, has secured the appointment t of a police matron at the fine new county jail. f The proof of the pudding is in the eating, says the Voice. The proof of Prohibition is in the bitter enmity the liquor meu evince ? toward it. 1 Eighty-one cities and counties have voted ? upon the Canadian tomperauoe act, and the I record shows 49,000 majority for the suppression of the liquor traffic, V RELIGIOUS READING. Begin with God. Begin the day with God I He is thy sun and day; He is the radience of thy dawn, To Him address thy lay. Sing thy first song to God I Not to thy fellow-man; Not to the creatures of His hand, But to the Glorious One. Take thy first meal with God! He is thy heavenly food! Feed with Him, on Him! He with thee XVtil fooof in KrnfliapVifwvl Take thy first walk with God! Let Him go forth with thee; By stream, or sea, or mountain path, t Seek still his company. Thy first transaction be With God himself above; So shall thy business prosper well, And all thy days be love. ?Horatius Bonar, Sin. Do you suppose that sin is to be driven out , of the human heart by some fine fancy, some sentiment, some easy method? Until you know what sin ?the Gospel will be an extravagant and unmeaning tragedy. If there is a mystery in redemption there is equally a mystery in sin. This is the medicine that follows the disease: Herein i? the solution of the mystery of the Cross. The ghastly Cross follows the ghastly sini; the i tragedy of redemption is God's answer to the tragedy of crime. You find nothing in the atonement in the way of mystery that you do not find in: the way of sin. God could, not guide us-aiway by soft words from the chains of hell. It could only be done by blood. You have been; thinking sin. a trifle. I wonder not then you. have been, thinking ' the Cross a tragedy extravagant beyond the i necessity of the case. If you have been cali tag sin "mnrmity," "mistake," i wonder not ' that you are frightened by the awful trans| actions that are here in the four gospels You need the whole blood of the whole heart \ of the dying Savior to help you to get rid of ' sin and to oe delivered from its- bondage;? i [Dr. Joseph Parker. , Who Will Got ! Once that question was asked in heaven on , our behalf. Christ answered, "Here am I, , send me." Once it was put to the Lord's I prophets. Isaiah answered, "Here am It send me." Now an ascendea Christ is conl cerned. Who will respond, "Here, Lord^ am T. send me: even to the ends of the earth will r I go at thy command?" Some of you have | decided already. The Lord make you strong In a holy purpose. The field needs you. One I thing or special importance I would say to you. Satisfy yourselves fully of the inspira, tion of the Scriptures. Don't go to war with a quiver full of arrows, the shafts of which ; are partly hickory and partly mullein-stocks. ' If a missionary believes the Scriptures are > inspired only in patches, the heathen will , trip up his heels as easily as if he were standing on ice. When you point them to i the stupid cosmogony of their sacred books, j and from thence argue their unreliability as i 1 religious guides, they will retort, "But you i say there are scientific errors in your Bible. and that the word of your God is contained in your Scriptures along with some rubbish. ? Now you know how to sympathize with us. ? , The divine truths of our religion are conI tained in our shastras. Unfortunately our 1 writers did not know everything, as you say i ' yours did not, and some rubbish has crept in ; ours, too." And so, brethren, be fully persuaded in your own minds. If you have any lame and halting, then keep them at home. You can bolster up their weakness better than we can. We want strong and ablebodied men, who know what they believe, and why they believe it, and are ready to | assert it with vigor.?{William Ashmore, j D.D. Oar Best Every Day. Our best every day. Is this,asks the Chrisj tian at Work, too much to demand of our selves? Do wo feel that it is too much of a strain to be always at concert pitch; that while we are willing now and then to do something tremendous, to put forth a spurt and make a spring forward, yet such an impulse cannot be expected of us every day? Well, yos, perhaps that is just what we do think in our inmost hearts. We know that we are careless about details, that we do not put on our Sunday gowns on Saturday, nor wear our best go-to-meeting bonnets when we run into a neighbor's for a half-hour's chat in tho twilight. We confess that w? give way to transient fits of irritability, and , succumb to the blues, when nobody is at home exooDt John, dear old fellow I and nobody can be hurt by our little tempers and tempests except Susy and the children. Why, wo wouldn't think of speak ing to our partners in business, nor to ine man next door, as we speak to our own wives and husbands at our own breakfasttables, going off respectively to our home occupations or the cares of the office with a little s >re spot in the heart which aches all I day, or frets like a hair shirt, all because self-control was not worth while, in our view, for just our own people. The person who succeeds in life is the person who does not take that course. The truly lovable man or woman takes such pains to be always lovable that habit has become a 6eeond nature. The homo manner is sweeter than the society manner. The gracious air I is worn for the family circlo as cortainly and I as easily as for the roomful of indifferent i acquaintances. The company gown may be l costlier than the home costume, but it shall ! not be neater, prettier or more becoming, , The true wisdom is to be at one's best every l day. ! In a very suggestive little essay bearing the significant title, "Blessed be Drudgery,'' ; William C. Gannett says: "Drudgery," by : which he means simply doing one's best, one's level best?pardon the slang?every 1 time, "is the gray angel of success. Look at the leaders in the professions, the solid men i in business, tho master workmen who begin as poor boys and end by building a town to j house their factory hands, they are drudges I of the single aim?'One thing I do.' Mr. ; Maydolo, the hammer-maker of Central New j York, was an artist. 'Yes,' said he, 'I have mttoe nammers lor twenty-eignt years.1 'Well, then, you ought to be able to make a pretty good hammer by this time.' 'No, sir,' was the answer, 'I never made a pretty good hammer?I make the best hammer made in the United States.'" If we have anything to do, it is worth while to do it in tho best way. The editor is always on the qui vive that the number on which ne is now at work may surpass any number that ho ever sent out in his life. The minister forgets the sermons of last week in his endeavor to preach straight into the souls of his people of to-day. The pedestrian's anxiety is to beat bis past record. Tho housekeeper is not conI tent with having cleaned house last year. I See is doing it over again now, and more thoroughly than ever. If we are serving the Mnstr, doing our best for Him every day, Ho will not say to us, sadly, "I have somewhat against you?you have left your first love." They do not leave their first love who every day do their best for Christ and humanity. Their words and ways and actions tell, tell for eternity. The way to speak and write what shall not | go out of fashion is to speak and write sincerely. ?{Emerson. | Beloved! God meets those who are in the I way; Satan moets those who are out of it.? [Harrington Evans. Those that can look with an undispleased . eye on another's sin never truly mourned for | their own.?[Bishop Hale. Nothing is more ruinous for a man than when he is mighty enough in any part to right himself without right.?[Jacobi. Each of God's soldiers bears A sword Divine; Stretch out thy trembling hands To-day for thine 1 How a Young Man May Be a Nobody. It is easy to be a nobody, and we will tell 1 you how to do it. (io to the drinking-saloon to spend your leisure time. You need not drink much now; just n little beer or some other drink. In the meantime plav doiui* j noes, eliec kers, or something else to kill time, i so that you will be sure not to read any usej ful books. If yon read anything, let it be I the dime novel of the day; thus goon keeping your stomach full and your head empty, and yourself playing time-killing games, and in a ' few years you will -be nobody, unless you should turn out a drunkard or a professions'* I gambler, either of which is worse than .10> body. There are a number of younfpnen ? ( hanging about saloons just ready to gjadtwta tmdb$ nobodiw.?Wakhman. l! A SINKING FARM. A TRACT OF LAND THAT IS SLOWLY DISAPPEARING. Queer Scismic Disturbance a Few Miles from Sterling. 111.?Farmers Puzzled to Find a Cause for the Phenomenon. A Sterling (in.) letter to the Chicago Herald says: The people of this locality have been for some time considerably exercised over an earthly phenomenon, visible about four miles due north of our little city, the explication of which ? utterly beyond their ken. Elkhora Creek is a stream which meanders for about forty miles through the most fertile portion of this continent, ] finally emptying itself into Rock lUver I ftf; ?v rvnint nhnnt. frvnr milns west of I Sterling, Along its course are some of J the most picturesque of spots?nearly perpendicular bluHs of bald rock here; . sloping, verdure-clad banks there; now 1 a forest of majestic oaks reach to the s very water's edge; then the scene opens ? i upon a broad undulatory prairie dotted with farm houses, orchards and fields ^ of wavy grain. It is hard by this beau- J tiful stream,, whose width and copious < water supply entitle it willingly to the < honor of being denominated a river, that i the phenomenon occurred, or is occurring. It is asinkiugof the land?a sub- 1 sidence that has been going on ever t since April' l'4y 1886, On that night, t Benjamin Bressler, whose little grist i mill is run by the waters of the Elkhorn, t was awakened from a sound' sleep by a t loud though rumbling noise, and by the rattling of the windows as well as a I guueiui iui;iviug? ui ii.10 m tiur tuimgo. no 1 knows nothing of seismic disturbances, c and although he spoke- o? the oceurrcnce j to such of his neighbors as brought grain j to his mill, it never occurred to him t there might be results manifest in old ? earth about him,, which for the half century of his residence on it andi in t this precise locality had behaved itself ? seemly and showed no disposition, to re- s cede from his view. c A few weeks later,, the frost having t disappeared, he instructed his hired man ^ j to plow a small field lying on the south j j fiide of a road running by his cottage, and a was astonished an hour later when the man approached the mill and informed r him that a portion of the field had sunk- ] en "three or four feet," as he said, ' 'with a great cracks alongside its edges what 8 seems to run clean down to nowhercs." j And this was true. The news soon c spread, and many visited the spot. In- . terest in the phenomenon might hare died { out, because men grow accustomed to t i anything, but the sinking has been slowj ly going on ever since. A day or two j ago your correspondent visited the de- ? pressed spot, and observed that it was j about five inches lower than when he saw j it some three months since. The depression is now about five feet t in depth, and its east boundary is about , sixty feet from the waters of the creek. ? Its greatest width is about seventy-five c feet, and its length, north to south, about five hundred feet. The sixty feet of ( earth between the creek and the sunken t area is not disturbed in the slightest. ^ The greater part of the depressed land is ( covered with trees, which, formerly erect, < now incline without exception westerly j at an angle of about forty-five degrees. a Many have been at great pains to de- , termine if the subsidence is due to the 2 ! influence of the waters of the creek, but c closest search up and down the stream g for miles fails to show any subterranean j inflow or outflow. At the point of dis1 turbance the land is about sixty ieet above the level of the water. Is the cause seismic, or is it due to ( aqueous agency? The miller has puz- s zled his head over the knotty problem in * vain for a long time. ? ? j A Fatal Habit of Speech. i I heard on State street an authentic j story of detective acuteness, says a writer , in the Boston Post. Everybody is familiar with the trick that many men have of 1 , capping whatever they hear said, when ' | they do not dissent, with some favorite ? expression. Thus, one mau says "pre- 1 cisely." another "exactly;" and there is a j considerable faction for whom the words "just so," or "to be sure," seem to fill ? the rfinuired need. Not loner ??ro a Bos- r [ ton man stole a large sum ofmcTneyfrom L his employers and fled to the West. A c description of him was sent to detectives and police superintendents generally, and . about a month after his escape a Minne- ? sota ofTiccr telegraphed that lie thought he had his eye upon the person wanted, j His appearance, however, was very different from that described in the circu- ? lar. The situation was a pressing one; if the supposed criminal was such in fact, , he might at any moment fly to Canada. On the other hand, to arrest an innocent " person would cause a good deal of trouble. The object was to identify the man if possible within a few hours. In this emergency the Boston detective in ?< *V./? nmo /.vnminf>rJ ?nd CfOSS- * KJL lliV VUOV examined the thiefs employers as to his ? peculiarities. They could hit upon nothing distinctive till finally the detective v inquired, in a moment of inspiration, if c he had any particular way of expressing T himself. "Yes," was the reply; "I never j* knew that fellow to talk three minutes without saying 'I believe you.'" In half I an hour the information was telegraphed to the West; within four hours tne Minnesota detective had a long chat with his I man, and before night the thief was ar- t rested. c ? t Plowing a Channel. I "Did you ever hear of plowing a chan- P nel in the Alabama River for a steamer to ? get through?" asked an old river en- c gincer yesterday. The reporter had heard many a tough \ yarn from the fresh-water salts who draw c the long bow on Front street between t trips, but this was brand-new, and he i * surrendered. | * "Well, last July the Carrier grounded i c on Yellowjacket Bar on a falling river. I g The crew pulled away on the capstan J P without moving the old boat an inch, 1 J i-i i-~ j c when the mate, seeing we wouiu ue uigu ; and dry in a few hours, got out a lot of ! I hoes that were in the freight and pari of : 11 the crew were set to digging alongside 11 the bottom of the boat, so us to wet her : s sides, while the rest were hauling away. ! 1 Old Dr. Harris, who lives about two ! v miles from the bar, and who lias a turn I c for civil engineering, asked Captain !c Newmaster if there wasn't a plow in j tl the freight. There was, and iu a minute j 1' a big deck hand was up to his waist in I c the channel above the bar holding the | plow handle^ which was hitchcd to the j T capstan rope, and the plow was hauled : tl to the boat a half-dozen times or so. I o Then tho rope was tied to a tree on the , t bank above and tho old Carrier went s over that bar like butter through a tin I "v horn. There's a heap of science in navi. j I gation."?Mobile liegister. t The people of this country spend 11 $S2.(K J.000 a year for silks. Less, than j j half of it is woven here. The rcjt comes! | from abroad. I ( ? ?? ?? WORDS OF WISDOM. Slander, like mud, dries and falls off. Never lie irritable or unkind to anybody. To wait and be patient soothes many s pang. He who gathers roses must not fear thorns. The smallest act of charity shall stand us in great stead. It is the summit of humility to bear the imputation of pride. He who has ceased to gain or grow has ceased to live?as he ought to live. A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, where there is no love. The highest point outward things can bring one into is the contentment of the mind, with which no estate is miserable. A Wnnt.ifnl pro malcps silpnnfi plontienfc: ? - 1 i a kind eye makes contradiction an assent; va enmged eye makes beauty deformed. To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned. we should have had no conscience. A great deal of talent is lost in the world for the want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number )f obscure men who have only remained )bscure because their timidity has prerented them from making a first effort. There is nothing so delightful as the leariog or the speaking of truth. For his reason, there is no conversation 80 igreeable as that of the man of integrity, vho hears without any intention to be;ray, and speaks without any intention :o deceive. Intelligent Dogs. A d?gbelonging to John Withe; spoon, >f Detroit, was taken with the family to Jfew Mexicoy nearly 2,000 miles away, >ut some weeks later turned up at his >ld home, having traveled, it is supjosed, the distance on foot. mu. i 1 r - J u J .i iV/> I lie LHtrii. uii 11 uuy nas ucaiu ? tuc uuvi >f the King's College Hospital, London, ind on being answered two terriers tood, one on each side of a wounded :ollie. When the porter stooped to wait ipon their friend the two terriers ran off. V cut on the collie's leg was dressed aijd wndaged, when the dog went away after i bark of thanks. A shepherd dog belonging to M. Maothers attacked a porcupine in the Biff Bend near Emigrant Springs, Cal., and bt once rolled over the ground and clawed it its mouth, eridently in great agony, ts mouth was full of qutlls, and it be:ame necessary to kill the dog. The >orcupine, rolled up like a dog, Jay still ipon the grbund, and was despatched tlso. Two valuable dogs frere chasing a rab>it near a drain and were suddenly lost, tay the London Field. After ten days a 'erret, with a string tied to him, was put nto the hole the rabbit was seen to enter, in a short time the ferret stopped, measlrement was made, and after a little digging the dogs were found firmly blocked, rhey were greatly emaciated, but recovered. A Norwich, Conn., bull dog was :harged with biting the neighbors' aninals and destroying property, but as he vas muzzled bis owner laughed at the :harges. Being carefully watched the log was seen, when ready for business, o slip the muzzle off iiis nose, cast w iround near his ear, go in and maim his victims, and quick as a flash slip the muz;le back with his paw, and act as inno:ent of wrong as a lamb. The muzzle traps are now drawn one hole tighter.? Yew York Sun. Vaucouyer Papooses. The natives of Vancouver's Island are lescribed by Mr. Stuart Cumberland as luperior to other tribes along the Northvest coast. He praises the beauty of iome of the childen; but, owing to the nanner of living, this beauty fades early. Vn Indian is old at thirty. Even the ihildren seem older than they really are, )ecause of the gravity they maintain. Children, he says, like brown rabbits, vere squatting about on the ground, ap)ca?ing to be, even at that early age, too olcmn and taciturn to romp or iudulge n childlike games. When they saw me ipproach, they were off as quick as rab>ils to their holes, and now and then I ould catch them watching me with urge, black, wondering eyes from belind a boat, a tree stump, or a halflosed door. Babies appeared to be plentiful, and, inlikc those in other places, they seemed o be both healthy and well nourished. ['heir lungs were certainly of the strongst, and their appetites were truly proligious. An Indian baby will yell at the lightest provocation?and, for the mater;of that, without provocation at all It is also equally remarkable that a 'papoose" will eat, or endeavor to do so, * Vlia lionrlq nn Once. .nyimu^ uc ttiu inj uu .......... , whilst I was endeavoring to raake myself inderstood to a wrinkled squaw, a velvet yed youngster, with aeffc fingers, natched a cigarette out of my hand and >roccedcd to devour it. At first he eemed to like it, but he did not go on ong with the job, for with a mighty yell, yhich would have startled anybody exept an Indian out of his boots, and rhich drove me out of the room, he dis(ossessed himself of his spoil, whilst he ancient dame proceeded to fill her lipe with what remained. Confiding Detectives. "With regard to forgers, wc learn tnat heir number, compared with other lasses of criminals, is small, only about wo dozen men being recognized as apilying their talents as penmen and en;ravers to the fabrication of spurious locuments. Photography is largely mploycd by them; and, by the irony of ate, the same art is now used for their dentilication. Their methods do not lilfer from those which have been deailed so often in our own courts of jusice, so that wc need not dwell upon hem. "Wc may, however, refer to the lever manner in which one gang of formers made the English criminal investi:ation department play into their hands, ['his gang had prepared an elaborate cheme for defrauding the English tanks by means of counterfeit circular 'shortlv after they left New York tv steamer en route for Britain, the theme was discovered, and the English iolice Wiis furnished by Atlantic cable ;ith all its details. The forgers were, of oursc, ignorant of this. Their audaious leader, upon arriving in London, liought it would be as well to make imsclf acquainted with the faces ot the hicf detectives, and, in the character of n American tourist, ue p?uu iuuu. .. 'hey were so taken oft their guard by tie pleasant manner of their visitor, that nc of the officers not only told him of he impending I rand, but actually howed them the New York telegram, ehich happened to ho lying on a desk, t need hardly be said that the forger, hu.s warned, did not tarry long in the nctropolis; he and his gang left London hat night.?Chambers $ Journal. Often one may learn more from a man's :rrors than from his virtues, r