Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I REV. DR. TALMAGE. BB THE BROOKLYN1 DIVIVE'3 SUXBB| DAY SERMON'. BM -Subject: "A Son <; Concerning My iW Beloved." |h Text: "Now will I sing to my u-ell beSBn loved a. song of my beloved."?Isaiah, v., 1. HA The most fascinating themo for a heart UH properly attuned is the Saviour. There is Bra something in the morning light to suggest Him, and something in the evening shadow BR? to speak His praise. The flower breathes HH Him, the star shines him, the cascade pro- j qE claims Him, all the voices of nature chant j BB Him. Whatever is grand, bright and j BHI beautiful, if you only iisteu to it^ I will speak His praise. ?tien x j come in the summer time and pluck a flower, I think of Him who is "the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley." When I see in the fields a iamb, I say: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." When, in very hot weather, I come under a projecting cliff, 1 say: Rock of Ages, cleft for :ue, Let me hide myself in thee: Over the old-fashioned pulpits there wa<? a bounding board. The voice of the minister j rose to the sounding board and then was 1 struck back again upon the ears of the people, j I. SO tDe 1611 tD0USana yUI<-"W3 Ul Wll m x 13ing up find the heavens a sounding board, which strike back to the ear of all the nations the praises of Christ. The heavens tell his glory and the earth shows his handiwork. The Bitiie thrills with one great story of redemption. Upon a blasted and faded paradise is poured the light of a glorious restoration. It locked upon Abraham from the ram caught in the thicket. It spoke in the bleating of the herd? driven down to Jerusalem for sacrifice. It put infinite pathos into thesp?ech of uncouth fishermen. It lifted Paul into the seventh heaven, and it broke opon the ear of St John with the brazen trumpets and the doxology of the elders and | the rushing wings of the seraphim. Instead of waiting until you get sick and ?v.#? ? ??i, i I Worn (JUL W1UIU JUU tuu ptwi^w i Christ, while your heart is happiest, and your step is lightest, and your fortunes smile, and ' your pathway blossoms, and the overarching heavens drop upon you their benediction, epeak the praise of Jesus. The old Greek orators, when they saw their audiences innattentive and slumbering, had one word with which they would rouse them up to the groatest enthusiasm. In the midst or their orations they would stop and cry out, "Marathon!" and the people's enthusiasm would be unbounded. My hearers, though you may have been borne down with sin. and | though trouble, and trials, and temptation i may nave come upon you, and you feel hardly like looking up, methinks there is one j grand, royal, imperial word that ought to : 'v inflwlfo faimVinor ftnn f.hnfc ' ruuw JUUl OVUl IV iUUuivo *wjv4V4Ma, ? word is "Jesus!" Taking the suggestion of the text, I shall ; ?peak to you of Christ, our song. I remark, j in the first place, that Christ ought to be the j cradle song. What our mothers sang to us I when they put U3 to sleep is singing yet. We may have forgotten the words, but they i went into the fiber of our soul, and will for- i ever be a part of it. It is not so much what you formally teach your children as what yousiugto them. A hymn has wings and can fly everywhither. One hundred and fifty years after you are dead, and "Old Mortality" has worn out his chisel in recutting your name on the tombstone, your great grandchildren will be singing the song which this afternoon you sing to your little : ones gathered about your knee. There is a j I place in Switzerland where, it you distinctly j utter your voice, there come back ten or firteen distinct echoes, and every Christian i song sung by a mother in the ear of her ! child shall have ten thousand echoes coming j back from all the gates of heaven. Oh, if j mothers only knew the power of this sacred spell, how much oftener tbe little ones would j be gathered, and all our homes would chime I with the songs of Jesus! We want some counteracting influence I upon our cniiaren. xuo very luuiuruu jiuui i child. steps into the street, he steps into the i path of temptation. There are foul mouthed i children who would like to besoil your little ones. It will not do to keep your boys and j girls in the house and make them house I plants; they must have fresh air and recrea- j tion. God save your children from the scathing, blasting, damning influence of the j streets! I know of no counteracting influ- ] ence but the power of Christian culture and j example. Ho:d before your little ones the j pure life of Jesus; let that name be the word that shall exorcise evil from their hearts, i Give to your instruction all the fascination I of music, morning, noon and night; let it be | Jesus, the cradle song. This is important if j your children grow up, but perhaps thev j may not. Their pathway may be short, J Jesus may be wanting that child. Then | there will be a soundless step in the dwelling, and the youthful pulse will begin /? o?)4? and litHn hands will be w nuuwi , WUM ? ? ?- ? . lifted for help. You cau not help. And a great agony will pinch at your heart, and the cradle will be empty, and the nursery will be empty, and the world will ba empty, and your soul will be empty. No little feet standing on the stairs. No toys scattered on the carpet. No quick following from room to room. No strange aud wondering questions. No upturned face, with laugh ing blue eyes, comes for a kiss; and a sighing at nightfall with no one to put to bed, and a wet pillow,and a grave,and a wreath of white , blossoms on the top of it. The heavenly Shepherd will take that lamb safely anyhow, j whether you have been faithful or unfaithful ; but would it not have been pleasanter if you could have heard from tnose lips the praises of Christ? I never read anything more beautiful than this about a child's departure. The account said: "She folded her Lands, kissed her mother good-by, sang her hymn, turned her face to the wall, said her little prayer, and then died." Oh, if 1 could gather up in one paragraph the last words of the little ones who halve fone out from all these Christian circles, and could picture the calm looks, and the folded hands, and sweet departure, methinks it would be grand and beautiful as one of heaven's great doxo'.ogies! I next speak of Christ as the old man's i song. Quick music loses its charm for the I agea ear. The school girl asks for a sehottische or a glee; but her grandmother asks for "Balerma" or the "Portuguese Hymn.' Fifty years of trouble have tamed the spirit, and the keys of the music board must have a solemn tread. Though the voice may be tremulous, so that grandfather will not trust 1 it in church, stiil he has the psalm book open before him, and he sings witu ins soui ne hums his grandchild asleep with the sama tune he sang forty years ago in the old country meeting house. Some day the choir sings a tune so old that the young people do not know it; but it starts the tears down the cheek of the aged man, for it reminds him of the revival scene in which he participated, and of the radiant faces that long since went to dust, and of the gray haired minister leaning over the pulpit, and sounding the good tidings of great joy. I was one Thankgsgivin^ day in my pulpit, in Syracuse, N. Y., and Rev. Daniel Waldo, at ninety-eight years of age, stood beside me. The choir sang a tunc. Isaid: "I am sorry ;?nf that new tune: nobody seems U. know it.57 "Bless you, my son," "said the old man. "I heard that seventy years ago:" There was a song to-day that touched the life of the a-^ed with holy fire and kindled a glory on their vision that our younger eyesight cannot see. It was the song of salvation?Jesus, who fed them all their lives long; Jesus, who wiped away their tears; Jesus, who stood by them when all else failed; Jesus, in whose name their marriage was consecrated, and whose resurrection has poured light upon the graves of their departed. Blessea the Bible in which spectacled old age reads the promise: "I will never leave you, never forsake you!" Blessed the staff on which the worn out pilgrim totters on toward the welcome of his Redeemer! Blessed the hymn book in which the faltering tongue and the failing eyes find Jesus, fcUO UlU UtOJl O OV115. I speak to you again of Jesus as the night song. Job speaks of him who giveth songs in the night. John Welch, the old Scotch minister, used to put a plaid across his bed on cold nights, and some one asked him why he put that there, He said: '"Oh, sometimes in the night I want to sing the praise of Jesus, and to get down and pray; then I just take that plaid and wrap it aroun 1 me to keep myself from the cold." Songs in the night! Night of trouble has come down upon many of you. Commercial losses put out one star, slanderous abuse puts out another star, domestic bereavement has put out a thousand lights, and gloom has been added to gloom, and chill to chill, and sting to sting, and one midnight has seemed to Dorrow the fold from another midnight to wrap itself in more unbearable darkness; but Christ has spoken peace to your heart, and you can sing: ?-- ' . : ,Ai ..... . . . Jeans, !over of my soul. Lot me to Thy bosom II7. While the billows near mc roll. While the tempest atill in hi^h. Hide me, oh. my Saviour: hide Till the storm of life Is psst, , Safe into the haven guide: O, receive my soul at last. Song3 in the night! Songs in the night! ! For the sick, who have no one to turn the hot i pillow, no one to put the taper on the stand, I no one to put ice 011 the temple, or pour out the ?pothing auojlyne. oc utter. Qiio_cheerful 1 word?yet Song3 In the night T For t&e poor, who freeze in the winter's cold, and swelter in the summer's heat, and munch the hard crusts that bleed the sore gums, and shiver under blankets that cannot any longer be I patched, and tremble because rent day is 1 j.1?? ? ? ? Anf An flio cirlo. come ana uibjt iuajr uo vu? v.. ..... ?~ walk, and looking into the starved face of the child and seeing famine there and death there, coming home from the bakery, and saying, in the presence of the little famished ones: "Oh, mj God, flour has gone up!'' | Yet songs in the night! Songs in the ; night I For the widow who goes to get the ; back pay of her husband, slain by the "sharp ! shooters," and knows it is the last help she will have, moving out of a comfortable home in desolation, death turning back from j the exhausting cough, and the pale cheek, j and the lusterless eye, and refusing all re- . lief. Yet songs in the night! Songs in the 1 night! For the soldier in the field nospital, ! no surgeon to bind up the gun shot fracture, j no water for the hot lips, no kind hand to i brush away the flies from the fresh wound, no one to take the loving farewell, the groaning of others poured into his own groan, the j blasphemy of others plowing up his own | spirit, the condensed bitterness of dying away from home among strangers. Yet I ?5?i CAnnm in fha rntrhfc! * songs in IUO UlgUbl uvu^g ui .uv -.0 " Ah!" said one dying soldier, " tell my j mother that last night there was not one cloud between my soul and Jesus. Songs in < the night! Songs in the night! The Sabbath day has come. From the j altars of ten thousand churches has smoked ! up the savor of sacrifice. Ministers of the j gospel are now preaching in plain English, i in broad Scotch, in flowing Italian, in harsh ! Choctaw. God's people have assembled in I Hindoo temple, and Moravian church, and ' Quaker meeting house, and sailor's bethel, i and king's chapel, and high towered cathe- I dral. They sang, and the song floated off | amidst the spice groves, or struck the icebergs, or floated off into tho western pines, or j was drowned in the clamor of the great cities, i Lumbermen sang it, and the factory girls, | and the children in the Sabbath class, ! and the trained choirs in great as- ! semblages. Trappers, with the same voice 1 with which they shouted yesterday in : the stag bunt, ana manners wigu luiuaw that only a few days ago sounded in the j hoarse blast of the sea hurricane, they sang i it. One theme for the sermons. One burden j for the song. Jesus for the invocation, j Jesus for-the Scripture lesson. Jesus for the ; baptismal foDt. Jesus for the sacramental 1 cup. Jesus for the benediction. But the day j will go by. It will roll away on swift wheels of light and love. Again the churches will . be kghted. Tides of people again setting I down the streets. Whole families coming up ! the church aisle. We must have one more j sermon, two prayers, three songs, and one j benediction. What shall we preach to-night? . What shall we read? What shall it be, chil- | dren? Aged men and women, what shall it I be? Young men and maidens, what shall it be? If you dared to break the silence of this j auditory there would come up thousands of I quick and jubilant voices crying out, "Let it j be Jesus! Jesus: We sing His birth?the barn that sheltered j Him, the mother that nursed Him, the cattle that fed beside Him, the angels that woke up ! the shepherds, shaking light over the mid- j night hills. We sing His ministry?the tears j He wiped away from the eye s of the orpbaus: j the lame men that forgot their crutches; the i damsel who from the bier bounded out into j the sunlight, her locks shaking down over , the flushed cheek; the hungry thousand who broke the bread as it blossomed into larger ; loaves?the miracle by which a boy with five loaves and two fishes became the sutler j ? nr. Hie IOI~ a WUUltS unujr. >i o 3?"iS '"" V" stone bruised feet, His aching heart, His ; mountain loneliness, His deserc hunger, His j storm-pelted body, the eternity of angnish j that shot through His last moments, ana the immeasurable ocean of torment that heaved j up against His cross in one foaming, wrath- j ful, omnipotent surge, the sun dashed out, and the dead, shroud wrapped, breaking open | their sepulchres, and rushing out to see what , was the matter. We sing His resurrection? j the guard that could not keep Him; thesor- | ro-.r of His disciples: the clouds piling up on j either side in pillared splendor as He went j through, treading the pathless air, higher j and higher, until He came to the foot of the ! throne, and all heaven kept jubilee at the | return of the Conqueror. I say once more, Christ is the everlasting { song." The very best singers sometimes get weary, and many who sang very sweetly do nnt sine now. hut I hone bv the errace of God ! we will, after a wbile, go up and sing the , praises of Christ where we will never bo weary. You know there are some songs that are especially appropriate for the home circle, j They stir the soul, they start the tears, they j turn the heart in on itself, and keep sounding ! after the tune has stopped, like some cathe- i aril l>ell which, long after the tap of the j brazen tongue has ceased, keeps throbbing on ; the air. Well, it will be a home song in | heaven; all the sweeter because those who ] sang with us in the domestic circle on earth j shall join that great harmony. Jerusalem, my happy home Name ever dear to mi When shall my labors have an end In joy and peace in thee. On earth we sang harvest songs a3 the "Knot, curno into th? h?rn_ and the barracks were filled You know there is no such time on a farm as when they get the crop3 in; and j so in heaven it will be a harvest song on the ) part of those who on earth sowed in tears I and reaped in joy. Lift up your heads, ye J everlasting gates, and let the sheaves come j in! Angels shout all through the heavens, and multitudes come down the hills crying: | "Harvest home! harvest home!" There is nothing more bewitching to one's I ear than the song of sailors far out at sea, : whether in day or night, as they pull away at the ropos: the music is weird and thrilling, j So the song in heaven will be a sailor's song. ! They were voyagers once, and thought they i could never get to shore, and before they ; could get things snug and trim the cyclone struck them. But now they are safe. Once they went with damaged rigging, guns of , distress booming through the storm; but the | pilot came aboard, und ne brought them into the harbor. Now they sing of the breakers j past, the lighthouses that showed them where I to sail, the pilot that took them through the straits, the eternal shore on wmcti tney landed. Ay, it will be the children's song. You j know very well that the vast majority of 1 our race die in infancy, and it is estimated j that eighteen thousand millions of the little j ones are standing before God. When they shall rise up about the throne to sing, the j millions and the millions of the little ones? j ah! that will be music for you! These played in the streets of Babylon and Thebes; these i plucked lilies from the foot of Olivet while ; Christ was preaching about them ;thesu waded in Siloam; these were victims of Herod's massacre; these were thrown to crocodiles or into the fire; these came up from Christian j home3, and these were foundlings on the city j commons?children everywhere in all that , land; children in the towers, children on the seas of glass, children on the battlements. Ah, if you do not like children, do not go there. They are in vast majority, and what j a song when they lift it around about the I throne! The Christian singers and composers of all j ages will be there to join in the song. Thomas j Hastings will be there. Lowell Mason will be there. Bradbury will be there. Beetho- i ven and Mozart will be there. They who ' sounded the cymbals and the trumpets in the j ancient temples will be there. The forty thousand harpers that stood at th3 ancient j dedication will be there. The two hundred singers that assisted on that day will be thare. i Patriarchs who lived amidst threshing j floors, shepherds who watched amidst Chat- j dean hills, prophets who walked, with long | pearas ana coarse apparei, pronouncing wuo I against ancient abominations, will meet the | more recent martyrs who went up with leap- ; ing cohorts of fire; and some will speak of the Jesus of whom they prophesied, and j others of the Jesus for whom they died. Oh, i what a song! It came to John upon Patmos; j it came to Calvin in the prison: it dropped I to John Knox in the fire, and sometimes that j song has come to your ear, perhaps, for I ' really do think it sometimes breaks over j the battlements of heaven. A Christian woman, the wife of a minister of the gospel, was dying in the parsonage near the old church, where on Saturday night the choir used to assemble and rehearse for the following Sabbath, and she said: "How strangely sweet the choir rehearses to-night; they have been rehearsing there for an hour." "No," said some one about her "the choir isnot rehearsing to-night." "Yes," she said, "I know they are, I hear them sing; how very sweetly they sing!" Now it was not a choir of earth that she heard, but the choir of heaven. I think that Jesus some I times seta ajar the door of heaven, and a | ' passage of rapture greets our ears. The . j minstrels of heaven strike such a tremendous I strain, the walls of jasper cannot hold it. I I wonder, will you sing that song ! Will I ' sing it ? Not unless our sins are pardoned, j and we learn now to sing the praise of Christ, | will we ever sing it there. The first great j concert that I ever attended was in New ' York, when Julien, in the Crystal Palace, ' stood before hundreds of singers and hundreds j i of players upon instruments. Soma of you I may remember the occasion; it was the first ! ; one of that kind at which I was present, and j j I shall never forget it. I saw that one man standing, and with the hand and foot wield that great harmony,beating the time. It was to me overwhelming. But oh, the grander scene when they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, "a great multitude thp.t no man can number,'' into the temple of the skies, host beyond host, rank beyond rank,. gallery aoove ganory, u:iu ?jesus siiau swtau before that great host to conduct the harmony, with his wounded hands and his wounded feet. Like tho voice of many wateis, like the voice of mightv thunderings, they shall cry: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessings, and riches, and j honor, and glory, and power, world without ' end. Amen and amen!" Oh, if my ear shall ] hear no other sweet sounds, mav I hear that! | If I join no other glad assemblage, may I join that. I was reading of tho battle of Agincourt, in which Henry V figured; and it is said after the battle was won, gloriously won, the ! King wanted to acknowledge the divine in- ; terposition, and he ordered the chaplain to ! read the Psalm of David; and when became ! to the words: "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name be praise," the king dismounted, and all the cavalry dismounted, and all the great host, officers and men, threw themselves on their faces. O, at the story of the Savior's love and the Savior's deliverance, shall we not prostrate ourselves before him now, hosts of earth and hosts of i heaven, falling upon our faces, and crying: | "Not unto ua. not unto us, but unto thy | name be the glory!" TEMPERANCE. What Are We Going to Do? What are we going to do, sweet friends, In the year that is to come, To baffle that frightful fiend of death Whose messenger is rum? Shall we fold our hands and bid hini pass As he has passed before, Leaving his aeadly-poisoned draught At ever}' unbarred door? What are we going to do, sweet friends, Still wait for crime and pafn. Then bind the bruises, and heal the wound, And soothe the woe again? Let the fiend still torture the weary wife, Still poison the coming child, Still break the suffering mother's heart, Still drive the sister wild? Still bring to the grave the gray-haired sire, Still martyr the Drave young soul, Till the waters of death, like a burning stream. O'er the whole great nation roll: And poverty take the place of wealth, Ana sin and crime and shame Drag down to the very depth* of hell The highest and proudest name i Is this our mission on earth, sweet friends, In the years that are to corned If not, let us rouse and do the work Against this spirit of rum. There is not a soul so poor and weak, In all this goodly land, But against this evil a word may speak, And lift a warning hand. And lift a warning hand, sweet friends, With a cry for homo and hearth. Adding voice to voice, till the sound shall ! sweep. Like ruin's death-knell, o'er the earth, And the weak and wav ering shall hear, And the faint grow brave and strong, And the true and good and great and wise Join hands to right this wrong. ?Good Times. I Bad Substitutes. It is the theory of not a f?w opponents of j the saloon that the way to diminish the evil ; effects of intemperance is to substitute beer i and wine for alcoholic beverages. We have never had any faith in this theory. In the first place, the tendency of both wine ; beer is to promote the appetite for the I stronger drinks, as is clearly demonstrated j by several facts. For example, to name ! a few, the number of saloons licensed to sell ! beer and wine only is very small in proportion to the number licensed to sell j both distilled and fermented drinks; ab- ] sinthe, a destructive alcoholic liquor, is tak- ' ing the place of wine in France, the land of i cliampagne; the alcoholic evil became so | great in wine-producing Switzerland as to j compel the Republic to take stringent meas- ' ures for the repression of the traffic; and the j fri'a&tffit fiouTitfv In the frofI3 Iias'nGt been able to prevent" increased consumption I of spirits. It was only a few weeks ago that Bismarck, in making liis great speech before the Reichstag, refreshed himself at fre- J quent intervals, not with the na- { tional drink, but with brandy. In the j second place there is plenty of drunkenness j in beer, and it is a question whether it is npt j quite as deadly a foe to th? physical arid : mental man as rum. In the third place, the ! beer theory has been abundantly proved a | delusion. The English Beer Act of 181)0 was j expected to do wonders in the way of driving ! out the stronger drinks and furnishing the : people with a "wholesome bevftrage." The j Duke of Wellington, who was a special advo- | cate of it, declared it a greater achievement ; than any of his military victories. And so I it was, in one sense. It destroyed more peo- , pie than the Duke's armies ever destroyed. ' Sidney Smith was also a supporter of the bill; j but subsequently he lost confidence in it. j "The New Beer Bil!," he_wrote, "has j begun its operations. Everybody is drunk; those who are not singing I are sprawling. The sovereign peop'e are in j a beastly state." If there are any reputable ; people in England to-day who have confi- 1 dence in the beer theory they do not assert f their confidence. We notice, on the contrary, j in the Contemporary Review, in an article by Francis Peek, author of "Social Wreck- < age'' and other studies, this incidental reference to the beer act: "The establishment of beer-shops, intended to stay the consumption of spirits and drunkenness, in the end vastlv j increased both." The writer of these words is not classed among the temperance fanatics j in England. It is disinterested testimony.? I Temperance in the Senate. Correct information is the basis of all valuable legislation. It lias long been evi dent that the temperance cause would make ! more rapid progress if the facts relating tc ! the use and sale of liquor could be authorita- i tively ascertained and put before the people. I If liquor selling and liquor drinking are the | cause of all our crime, and the taxes that re- | suit therefrom, the court costs, the penitcn* j tiary and jail expenses, etc., if our insane asylums are filled up by the same cause and we are compelled thereby to build additional and larger ones,and yearly increase the already j enormous expense; if our pauperism, with | all its attendant misery and taxes is mainly traceable to liquor, then the common-sense j people of this country have only to have these facts clearly put before them, from un- I disputed authority, anatney win riseiumeir j might and abolish the saloonas surely and irrevocably as they abolished slavery. The move in the United States Senate is, j therefore, in the right direction. A tele- J gram states that after listening to an angu- j m*nt from Mr. A. M. Powell, President of I the National Temperance Society, the Hen- j ate Committee on Education, by a unani mous vote, instructed Senator Wilson, of j Iowa, to report favorably the bill providing for the appointment of a commission of j five persons, all of whom shall not be advo- i cates of total abstinence, to investigate the j alcoholic liquor traffic,its relation to revenue and taxation, and its general economic, crirn- | inal, moral and scientific aspects in connec- j tion with pauperism, crime, social vice, the | public health and general welfare of the peo- j -i-. ?..i inninni mi/) tnlrn bKtimnnr I ( piu; dim aiov vw uivjutiv m*.v> ??..v . .. ^ as to the practical result of license and pro- I bibitory legislation for the prevention or in- { temperance in the several States of the Un on. This will lay the foundation for effective ' work, or shall we say a successful campaign, j or annihilating war on the liquor trafllc.? i Farm, Field and Stockman. The amount of liquors coasumed for thirteen years in the United States from 1860 to lb72 inclusive, wus two billion seven hundred and sixty-two millions hide hundred and sixty-two thousand and sixty-six gallons. The cost to the consumer was Jo,TOO, 101,803. If put in wagons?ten barrels to the wagonwould extend 45,SCO miles?nearly twica I around the earth, or half why to the moon. 1 - . ' _ - . % : a. .. - \ ' * : gw 9 RELIGIOUS BEADING, i The Unceasing- Helody. Like some pink shell, that will not ceaM Its murmu?pf the sea, My heart sing3 on without release, This anthem full and5ree: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace Whose mind is stayed on Thee." The music of the melody Has floated down the years, A soul-subduing harmony, It elevates and cheersAnd like the voice of deity, It dissipates all fears. Boyond the sounds of early strife, Beyond the frown and sigh, Beyond the world with discord rife, ^ It lifts the soul on high? io nna a caim ana resuui are, By faith in Christ brought nigh. There perfect peace surrounds the soul Whose trust on God is stayed; While pressing onward to tne goal, It hears, all undismayed, The deep notes of the music roll Through sunlight and through shade. And this is why, without release, My heart sings full and free, The anthem that will never cease Through oil eternity; "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace Whose mind is stayed on Thee." ?[Parish Record. Preparation for Church. The value of the services of the Lord's house depends, to a large extent, upon the frame of mind in which one participates in them. Take two men who have come to church, the one from secret prayer, or the family altar, or the morning prayer meeting, the other from miscellaneous occupations, from miscellaneous thoughts furnished by the Sunday newspaper, or from hurried preparation. Will there be no difference between the two in the bene fits derived from the Lord's house? 'Tis true, 'tis better to come from hurry and worry than not to come at all; but how much more philosophical to prepare the heart and mind for hearing by a period of prayer! What think you of the farm r who sows the ?eed without first preparing the soil? Such is the man who without prayer 1 comes into the sanctuary to hear the gospel. | While some of the good seed may possibly | take root, so far at least as he is concerned, a part of it will be wasted.? [Golden Rule. I Mow to Answer Them. It is a bright suggestion of Archdeacon j Farrar's to meet the questions of infidelity with harder questions. To most of the points , raised by skeptics Christendom frankly re- , sponds, "I do not know." Now let the tables be turned. "Where did the matter come 1 from? Can a dead thing create itself? I Where did motion come tromi wnere life came from save the finger-tip , of Omnipotence? Whence came the ex quisite order of design of nature? If cne ! told you that millions of printers' types ; should fortuitously shape themselves into the | divine comedy of Dante, or the plays of Shakespeare, would you not think him a madman? Whence came consciousness? Who i gave you free will? Whence came con- j science?" Dr. Farrar truly says: "He , who denies the existence of God in the face ! of such questions as these, talks simply stu- 1 pendous nonsense." To concede that we can- ' not comprehend infinity can never weaken the position of a Christian. Clearly apprehend it, and the belief in God's power and his ! providence logically follow.?[New York 1 Advocate. I I Victorious Urinff. Jesu3, walking on the stormy sea as if Jt i had been a marble floor, was a picture of the victoriouaness of His living in all His ex- . periences. Thus he walked on all waves. There were rivers of trial in His path but I His feet never sank into their waters. He 1 came at the last to a black sea of sorrow, , whosebillows rolled like mountains about but He trod them under His feet and passed in quiet ma jest}- to the other side. Or, to drop I the figure, He was always victorious in living. He was never defeated by life's enmi- | ties or antagonisms. In this the life of Christ is a type of what . every Christian life should be?victorious al- 1 ways. Jesus Himself said: "In the world ye ' shall have tribulations, but be of eood cheer; | I have overcome the'world." St Paul in | speaking of the trials and troubles that beset the Christian,?tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, sword,?asked: I "Shall these separate us from the love of | Christ?" and answered his own question, "Nay, in all tbese things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved usl" 1 rnese antagonistic mnuences snouia never be allowed to defeat or crush us. In- ] stead of being vanquished by the ills, trials, ftnd enmities of life, we should overcome them, ana be more than mere conquerors, that is, should be triumphant conquerors, through Him that loved us. Nothing should ever defeat us, nothing can defeat us, if we realize our privilege as Christians. "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, oven our faith."?[Presbyterian. a Jump* Brainard Taylor. Ho was a graduate of Princeton, and only twenty-eight when he died, yet he did work that any man might envy. He got hold of the idea that there was something in this doctrine of the eaduement of the Spirit. Stndving this subiect. he became nerfectlv sure tnat tue Hoiy uuosc mi^nt come upon bim as upon the original disciples. So he prayed, and his prayers were answered. Whenever ho went out he stirred all with whom he came in contact. Sinners used to fall before his preaching as grass before tho j scythe. It was spontaneous. Ho could not I help speaking to men, and his words were I mighty. There is one very beautiful incident in his life. One day he was j out driving, and he drew his | horse up to a watering-trough. It so happened that another young man was doing the same thing. While the horses' heads met in the trough, he turned to the young man and said. "I hope you love the Lord. If you aon c l want to commend mm to you as your best friend. Seek Him with all your heart." That was all; they turned and went their ways. But what was the result? The young man thus spoken to was converted, was educated for the ministry and went as a missionary to Africa. Said this missionary J afterwards: "Over and over again I wished ' I knew who that man was who spoke I x j U T>..4. I to mo at ice wacenng-wuugu. out I never knew till some one sent to me in Africa a box of books. I opened them, saw a little black-covered book, opened it, turned to the title page, and there I saw a portrait?a beautiful face. 'Ah,' said I, 'that is the man. That is the man who preached the gospel to me at the watering trough; to him I owe my salvation,"'ana that of how many more on the dark continent. What we want to-day is to be filled with the Spirit. We are filled with so many other things?pride, selfishness, ambition and vain glory. May the Lord enable us to empty our heirts and havo them filled as by a mighty rushing wind.?[Dr. A. J. Gordon. It is hard to say whether God discovers more love in preparing heavenly mansions j for the soul than in preparing tne soul for heavenly mansions.?[Seeker. That you may be weanel from the world which fascinates your heart, pray for the love of God, that the light and paltry things of the world will be tasteless and irksome. What do our heavy hearts prove but that other things are sweeter to us than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our freedom, that our sonship is still but faintly roalized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known? Our consent would turn all our trials into obedience. By consenting ; we make them our own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him.?fDr. Mannins. ijtqnor ana wajre-Karners. A public-spirited preacher in Troy, N. Y., Mr. Henry L. Lamb, has been gathering statistics as to how the self-imposed litjuor !a? afflicts and keeps down the laboring clashes in that manufacturing centre. He estimate' that there were, perhaps, 4,00.) who earned an average of $!0 per week for forty wuek< in the year, a total of $1,(100,000. Employers said that many of these men expended r>(J per cent, of their wages for liquor and tobacco. while tho average amount spent by this class of men was found to be about 28 per cent, or 8448,000. And it was estimated that the laborers who averaged $7 {>er week spent at least 'JO per ceui. in tiw saiue way. CURIOUS FACTS. There sare 2,750 languages. A stofttt move3 thirty-six miles pel hour. V -Ci.- v*?^- ^ The death pew^y,**? abolished io Michigan previous* ft? ^850. ^ A Maryland fa the? ton '"Wad out" hil son; a Maryland mothd* cannot. * ^ Book-keeping was first iwtrodued into England from Italy by Peele' kt1569. ^ n The Japauese have only one sweai word and that is no more expressive than our "bv-gosh." Julius Hildebrand, who for sixteen year3 was the body servant of Bismarck, 1:..:? r< 13 II V IU^ 1U vuitu^w, Signal to be used at sea were first contrived by James II., when he was Duke of York, in 1665. Charles Breck, of Milton, Mass., owns, and sometimes wears, a pair of shoes made by his father 53 years ago. Over 1,000 skunk skin3 went <" t ol Scrunton, Penn., for Germany the othei day, where they will be made into ?rena< dier caps. Warren, Penn., claims the oldest member of the 6. A. R. in the country. His name is D. T. Van Vechten, and ha was bom in 1799. The City of London, England, proper, covers an ar?a ot laa square mnes. Philadelphia covers more territory, spreading over 129 square miles. Notaries Public were first appointed by the Fathers of the Christian Church to ma'ce a collection of the acts of memoirs of martyrs in the first century. liecently au elk was shot in Galicia. It is now 130 years since the last of these animals was killed in Austria. It is believed that the one referred to had come from Lithuania. Three men, over six hundred milea apart, invented an egg-beater on the same day and their applications for a patent arrived in Washington within two hours of each other. An Englishman has given up his home facing Hyde Park in London because a strange lady used to walk in the park at 10 o'clock every morning wearing green gloves on her hands. There is in the vicinity or Vaughnsrille, S. CM an infant a few months old whose mother is seventeen, grandmother thirty-two, grandfather thirty-seven and jreat grandmother fifty-one. A New York merchant estimates that 5,000.000 bushels of peanuts were consumed in this country last year. The :ost to the consumers was $10,000,000, fully half of which was profit. An old man living near Wabash, Ind., :ut a railway telegraph wire, run the line into his house, and was utilizing the jlectricity as a cure for rheumatism when the linemen discovered where the break was. Martin P. Rogan, cashier of thePlantjrs' House, in St. Louis, picked out a nandsome pearl from the shell of a clam le was eating iu the Planters' Mouse caie ;he other dtty. It is about the size of a imall pea, and a jeweler says it is worth ?30. There is a woman at Port Jarvis, New V'ork, who goes into convuls:ons every l,ime she hears any one sing the air of i4 Old I.ang Syne," and a neighbor tvoman has just been mulcted in the tuna if $400 for singing it with malite afore;hought. At the trial of a Wooster, unio, man for murder, it was brought out in the jourse of the testimony that at the outbreak of the war he had himself connoted of stealing sheep in order that he I aiight avoid military service by going to the penitentiary. Raw silk is said to have been first j made in China about 100 B. C. It was , first brought from India in 274, and a pound of it that time was worth a pound of gold. The manufacture of raw silk was introduced into Europe from India by some Monks in 550. Silk dresses were tirst worn iu 1455. Another edition of the Siamese twins has just seen the light of the world. The wife of a poor workman at Misslitz, in Moravia, was delivered of triplets, two of the babies grown together by the ribs and having a common breastbone. The rest of the two little bodies is perfectly developed in every part. -x'-flr ' . : : An Illustrious Skinflint. An illustrious skinflint is coining as such to the front. I mean the Prince of Monaco. That sovereignlet, I need hardly say, has followed the example of the Landgravine of Hesse, the Dukes of Nassau, the Grand Dukes of Baden and the Princes of Waldeck-Pyrmont in making money out of a hell. His gambling concession to the Monaco Company and his share in the profits of the roulette tables bring him in, and have hrniirrhf him in for vears. an income that "O V amounts on an average to ?600 a day. He is a widower, blind, keeps up no sort of style or state at his country seat of La Marchais or at liis hereditary place of Monaco, and has but one son and a grandson to provide for. I do not suppose he spends ?5.000 a year. "Well, when Inst winter earthquakes shook the Riviera, Monaco not escaping, the first thought of the Prince and his partners ;vas to keep their source of wealth up to its usual money-producing mark, so they caused telegrams to be sent to the newspapers everywhere to make believe that, as the earthquakes did not trouble Monaco, gamblers need not stay away in dread. It was only when things had got back into the old rut, and the roulette tables were in full swing, that any thought was given to uWimq nf the earthquake.and means resorted to for clearing up shattered houses. A subscription was set on foot, which the Prince was asked to head, and he led off with a sum of ?400?less than a single day's income. He stipulated, moreover, that a half?namely ?200? was to be spent at Mentone, on his own tenants there, a town which once was under his sway, and in which he has still valuable property. The-overeignty of Mentone he sold for ?100,000 to Napoleon III.?a sum represented by a perpetual income from France of ?3,000 a year out of the 3 per cents. The Casino, or Hell, Company wa3 not mucn more liberal than the blind old Prince. It subscribed ?1,400, which is less tban a day's profit on one of the six roulette tables, and this is to be rccoupcd (and more) by another table.''?Modern Society. The Big Hats of C'orea. "What signifies such wide brims?" Asked a correspondent of Mrs. Allen, who has spent much time in C'orea. "Surely the Corcans are not Quakers." "Thereby hangs a tale," she said. "Long years ago the King ordered his subjects to wear hats with enormous brims, three or four feet in width. The nHW.t was to nrevent conspiracy. The room9 in Corea are small, and with such hats on not more than four men could get into the same room at once. But with the passing of generations the brim9 of the Corean hats have been growing gradually smaller until they have reached j their present dimensions.'' "' ' ' *- ' ";ry^u I THE ROGUE'S RUSE. h>. '***-*2.T.'ao^. ' ''f*A- Z'fZZfT-^ . A NEW YORK HOUSEHOLDER'S VERY QUEER VISITOR, v?.. -"* > _ Starting With Epilepsy, Drifting to Thieving, Wandering to Inventions, and Ending With a Surprise. There is a plain house in Eighteenth street, noi far from Fourth avenue, which is distinguished from its substantial fellows of brewnstone only by a particular episode which happened within its doori. Two or three n/ghts ago, a lank, palefaced man, dressed in a suit of biacK so harfltr /?nf fViof if in nKnnf vu\*ij vuw iuuv a w uu'u^ la i vtug him, mounted the steps of this particular house. He rang the beli, which was answered by a maid servant, who ran away in a fright when she saw the man and called loudly for the master of the house. He came and was startled out of his everv-day polite manner by the wild appearance of the stradger, who said, while he trembled in every limb and his ; teeth chattered: "Beg pardon, sir, but would you mind my having a fit in your vestibule? I'm sub:ect to them and hate to make a spectacle of myself in the street.'' , This extraordinary request floored the ] householder. It was not within the pale . of his experience at all. He had never ( been subject to epilepsy himself and did ] not know what co do with an utter ] stranger suffering with the disease. But ] in the kindness of his heart he sent the < servant for a doctor who lived across the , way and went up stairs to his wife for ( her advice and a camphor bottle. As he < glanced over the balustrade on his way , up, he saw the stranger writhing in ap- j Earent agony on the lounge in the lower ] all, where he had left him. He hastened in his search and reached the head of the 1 stairs on the way down just in time to , see the man of fits get up, look stealthily ( arnnnd and then sneak into the Dftrlor. , The householder, descending the stairs J cautiously, reached a point where he j could see the stranger helping himself to some small Japanese vases and rare , china cups which adorned the mantel in j the dimly-lighted room. Then there ] was a shout: ( " What are you doing with those , things?" The lank man dropped his booty, and, i after the crash of china, said calmly: " 1 beg pardon, but I'm a kleptomaniac.1' i The householder was even more aston- ] ished at this statement than at the request of the man which led to his intro- j auction into the house. < "Don't use any violence," said the man ; ft a Knrflf 1 nf A fpflTQ <lT,11 tftll 1 Vi UID) I*-J uu i/iuuv ?u?v WMaw. .. ?... t you my story if you will promise to let j me go afterward, and to-morrow, if you care to come to my room, I will show ] you some of the most wonderful inventions of the age." j The householder, assuring himself that , he was dealing with a crank, finally con- i sented to let the man go if he would tell his story: " I may as well confess,'* said the lank 1 man, as he sat down, '"that the fit business is all put on. I don't have fits, but j ] I suffer with a passion for art, and I have j worked that fit scheme to get into houses j] II A'? V?nmorla mtr I 1013 01 Utiles, UUU 111CU UUll/ wauc rnjr escape. You see I am frank with you. < I love bric-a-brac, but I a:n poor and < have to supply myself from the mantels ] of the rich. Better than art, though, ( and bric-a-brac I love invention. I am , i an inventor myself, and, as I promised, [ ] I will show you at my room to-morrow j some remarkable things." At this point the servant returned, say- | j ing that the doctor was not at home, and ] as she looked at the odd stranger, seated comfortably in the parlor, her face be- < I came a blooming interrogation point. i "A? T WTOQ onvincr " continued the 1 A shabby man, with an engaging smile, "I have a number of inventions, some of which I am sure are destined to make countless thousands happy." "You go to the theatre, of course? Ah! I thought so, and you dislike tall hats ? Right again, I see. I have perfected a plan for relieving ladies of their hats which cannot fail of meeting their approval, and which will place the theatrical manager who adopts it upon a | throne of popularity where he will re- j ceive the homage of all men. You have | 1 ' ' - " J - I I seen the wires ana cups ust-u iwr unus-,, ' porting change from the counter to the ' cashier in our large retail dry-goods houses ? Certainly. It is my purpose to j1 adapt this invention to the needs of the | theatre. I have at my room an excellent j i working model of my invention. I pro- i pose the stringing of wires across the ': theatre which shall lead to a check room. J! On these wires I intend to place handsome gilded cages large enough to con- J tain a lady's hat. I have a cage to hmg 1 over every other seat, and springs to pro- ' pel it to a place in the check room. The lady arrives, takes her seat in the theatre, j languidly removes her headgear, hands it i to her escort, who places it in a conve- i I nient cage, pulls the spring, and shoots ! ! the hat to the check room, where it re- i ' mains until after the performance, when j! it is shot back over the wire to its owner. : i [ Nice idea, isn't it ? You shall see the method of its working to-inorrow." I At this point the householder, lost in i admira.ion of his strange guest, offered ' him a cigar. "Now, I have at my rooms," said the guest, as he puffed rings of smoke from j his cigar, "and you shall see that, too, a very simple invention, which I have not patented, but which has everything to commend it. There is a fortune in its manufacture if I can get it patented. It ! is a paper shirt bosom, but not like those | which have been made before. Mine is j composed of from twenty to fifty sheets j of linen paper pressed, together like a ! pad of writing paper. When one sraooxn front becomes soiled all a man has to do is to rip it off, and then he has a beautiful, clean, fresh surface to display to the l world. These fronts will be a nice thing for busy business men and fafter a pause] for reporters. When they,happen to be I without writing paper all they have to do will be to tear off a front and go to work." There was a flash of silence after this speech which was brokeu again by the ingeuious guest. "With ray other accomplishments I am proud to place that of sleight-ofhand," said he. Then he arose and walked timidly toward the householder. "I touch you," here he seemed to tap lightly on the waistcoat of the man he was entertaining, "and now I take your watch out of my coat-tail pockct." He pulled the watch out of his pockct, to the astonishment of its owner, and handed it to him. Then, writing an address on a piece of Eaper, lie banded it to his host and umbly begged leave to d?part. The I man of the house begged to know how he got the watch. "Please do no not ask me that," he eaid, as he backed to the door. "It is a matter of practice, that is all."' "I will give you $10," said the owner of the watch, who had replaced his timeE' iecein his pocket, "if you will tell me ow you did that trick." r *""'r '' r' ' > ' '. .D ; .-y gijg , 1 -.. -y By this time both men were at th# front door. "Well," said the pale man, "$10 is a good deal. I'll take it and do the trick again"perhaps you can crtdl on this time." He approached the gentleman agaifly lightly tapped him on the waistcoat pocket, and produced the watch as be^ fore. j v\<? "Didn't yon see how that was doner No? Well, I'll put it back in your pocket again." I This he appeared to do deliberately, saying, with a weary smile: "Now, if you will call at my room to-morrow I'll show you just how I did the trick. It is too late for me to show you to-night" I Fascinatcd by the man's deftness, for-;' getting how he had entered the house,' nn/1 irvn/Mn'n/# ki'a ^An/lrlof fVidi auu i^uk/ixu^ uia fsvisUAiai IUJAV&MI/vp wuv householder said he would be ou hand sure the next morning. Then he opened! the door, bade his visitor a cordial goodnight, and returned to hb comfortable fireside. Soon he had occasion to -consult his watch. It was gone, and tho $10, and the man too, who had given him an address which of course proved fictitious. This is the story the householdee^ tells to his bosom friends now that he has given up search for tike skillful thief who stole his watch.?NeurYork Times. . The Gunner's Cottage. The story is told, in a French newspaper, of Pierre Barlat, a humble laborer, who lived at Sevres, near Paris,' with his wife Jeanne and their three iliiMran Tniliiafpinuo frilffftl Irnnwinff <y nothing of the way to the wine shop, Pierre saved his spare money, working harder and harder, and at last bought the tiny cottage in which he and hit wife lived. It was a tiny cottage, in- / "? ieed; built of stones, however, with "f. tiled roof, standing amid shrubs, and covered with clematis. It always at- , - 'riSa tracted the eye of the traveler, on the left, as he crossed the Sevres bridge. Pierre and Jeanne scrimped and saved until the little cottage was paid for, and made a feast, when it vas all done, to iVtAia AtfmA?olt?n A ^ ^CiGUIULO bUCll UVTU?IOUi|/* A 1HUUVV4 proprietor, to be sure, does not mind ail >ccasional expenditure to entertain his friends I I All this Pierre and Jeanne had accomplished juat before the war of 1870 with Germany broke out. The conscription fell upon Pierre, who, moreover, was an ->ld soldier, and beloneed to the re serves. A gunner he hacl been, famous for his skill in hitting a mark with a jhell. r.^S Serres had fallen into the hands of the Germans, but the French guns were pounding away at them from the fort 011 Mount Valerian. Pierre Barlat was a gunner at that fort, and was standing jne wintry day by his gun, when General Noel, the commander, came up, and leveled his field-glass at the Sevres ? vg bridge. "Gunner!" said he, sharply, without looking at Pierre. "General!" said Pierre, respectfully, jiving the military salute. **"Do you see the Sevres bridge over there?" *'v*Kel 'I see it very well, air." "And that little cottage there, in & thicket of shrubs at the left?" "I see it, sir," said Pierre, turning pale. "It is a nest of Prussians. Try it with, i shell, my man." Pierre turned paler still, and, in spite >f the cold wind that made the officers shiver in their great coats, one might iave seen big drops of sweat standing jut on his forehead; but nobody noticed ? :he gunner's emotion. He sighted his aiece deliberately, carefully?ttien fired! it. ! The officers, with their glasses marked the effect of the shot, after the smoke lad cleared away. "Well hit, my man?well hit!" ex- claimed the General, looking at Pierre cvith a smile. "The cottage couldn't nave been very solid. It is completely smashed now." He was surprised to see a great tear running down each of the gunner's cheeks. "What's the matter, man?" the Gen- *\ ;ral asked, rather roughly. "Pardon me, General," said Pierre, recovering himself. "It was my house? 2 very thing I had in the world. ( | A. Horse that Draws Drinking Water. The sagacity exhibited by some of the horses employed by the fire department in New York is very remarkalble, and their exploits have been frequently described in oar daily newspapers. But for the first time we read in one of our evening contemporaries of a horse in the service of our ambulance corps, which is not far behind any nre engine horse we have read of in point of intelligence. The horse pulls the ambulance in search of patients for the New York Hospital,0 J and during the whole period of his philantbropic career as an ambulance horse he has never once been given a drink by any of the stable hands. He believes in the maxim that God helps those who help themselves, and helps himself accordingly. m ' ? As\r*w 1% frt aaa A leiegratn reporter wcui, uut>u iW ?vv how he queuched his thirst-, and was edified by the intellectual behavior of the animal, which he describes as follows: There is an ordinary faucet with the pail under it in the stable, and to this faucet the horse made a bee line. First he dipped his nose in the pail to 3ee if there was any water there, but V finding there was none, he proceeded to open the valve by turning the handle with his nose. He did not turn it on quite enough at the first attempt, so he gave it another nudge, and held his nose under the spigot while the water poured over it to his apparent immense satisfaction. <;But what a lot of water will be ..? wasted when he leaves it running tha moment lie has had enough!" ejaculated the reporter. '*Wnit and sec.'' answered the driver. And there was no water wasted, for the moment the horse had concluded his drink, he went at the faucet again with his nose and shut off the flow completely. "Does he always do that?" again queried the newspaper man. ' (.'ertaiuly," answered the driver, as ? he patted his four-footed friend on tho shoulder. "As long as I've known him, that horse has never had a drink that he did not draw from the tap for himself, just as you have seen him do this time. '?O- itneijic nmcnwn. A Fatal Feast of Sausajes. Trichini&sis is making a terrible onslaught on the population of Cunewaide, near Loeban, Saxony. The fire brigade of the city gave a ball, at which little sausages were served, aud every one who partook of them was prostrated with trichiuiasis. The butcher who supplied them maintained that every hog he slaughtered was duly examined, and ne paid the penalty for the mishap by suffering a severe attack of the disease upon his own person. In some houses ten persons were laid up, aud altogether two hundred were stricken, ten of whom have already died. The government has delegated a commission of doctors to assist the sick and find out the canse ot tha visitation.?C/ivavo Htrald.