Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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'? REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. I Subject: "Superfluities a Hinderancc." Text: "A man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were f our and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he a'so was the son of the giant. But when he defiled Israel. Jonathan, the son o/Shimra, David's bro'her. slew him."?I. Chronicles xx., 5, 6 and 7. Malformation photographed, and for what reason: J>i?I not this passage slip in by a mistake into the Sacred Scriptures, as sometimes a paragraph utterly obnoxious to the editor gets into his newspaper during his absence.' Is not this Scriptural errata/ No, no; there is nothing haphazard about the Bible. This passage of Scripture was as certainly intended to be nut in the Bible as the passage: "In the beginning God created the Leavens and the eartii," or, "God so loved the "world that He gave his only bejrottun son." Ami I select it for my text to-day be.-ause it is charged with practical and tremendous meaning. By the people of God the Philistines had been conquered.with the exception of a few giants. The raceof giants is mostly extinct,lam glad to say. There is no use for giants now except to enlarge the income of museums. But there were many of them in olden times. Goliath was, according to the Bible, eleven feet, four and a half inches hi^h. Or. if j yuu uu nut uruuve mo a>.u v, tiie lamiun Pliny, a secular writer. declares that at Crete by an earthquake a luciiument was broken open, discovering the remains cf a giant forty-six cubits long, or sixty-nine fret * high. So, whether you prefer sacred or profane history, you must come to the conclusion that there wore in those olden times cases of human altitude | monstrous and appalling. David had smashed the skull of one of thesa giants, but there were other giants that the Davidcan wars had not )'et subdued, and one of tiiem stands in my text He was not only ot Alpine stature, but had a surplus of digits. To the ordinary lingers was annexed an additional finger ana the foot h id also a superfluous addendum. He had twenty- | four terminations to hands and feet where others have twenty. It was not the only instance of the kind. Tavernier, the learned writer, says that the Emperor of Java had a son endowed with thesamenumber of extremities. Volcatius, the poet, had six fingers on each hand. MauB?tius in his celebrated letters speaks of two ^^amilies near Berlin, similarly equipped of hand and foot All of which I can believe "or I have seen two cases of the same physi? 1 K A n??- r.ionf .*f |MU ou^iauuuuaucc. mjuw vino ^lanu vi vuu i text is in battle, and as David, the dwarf warrior, had dispatched one giant, the brother of David slays this monster of my text, and there he lies after the battle in Gath, a dead giant. His stature did not save him, and his superfluous appendices of hand and foot did not save him. The probability was that in the battle his sixth finger on his hand made him clumsy in the use of his weapon, and his sixth toe crippled his gait. Behold the prostrate and /malformated giant of the text: "A man great of stature, whose fingers and toes were Four and twenty, six on each hand, and six >n each foot; and he also was the son of the iant. But w>en he defied Israel. Jonathan, ae son of Shimea, David's brother, slew lim." Behold how superfluities are a hinderance rather than a help! In all the battle at 3ath that day there was not a man with >rdinary hand and ordinary foot and >rdinary stature that was not better off than this physical curiosity of my text As physical size is apt to run in families the >robability is that this brother of David who did the work was of an abbreviated Btature. A dwarf on the right side is stronger than a giant on the wrong side, and >11 the body, and mind, and estate, and opportunity that you cannot use for Gal and the betterment of the world is a sixth finger and a sixth toe, and a terrific hinderance. The most of the good done in the world, and I the most of those who win the battles for the right, are ordinary people. Count the fingers jf their right hand and they have just five? ao more and no less. One Doctor Duff imong missionaries, but three thousand mislionaries that would tell you they have only lomraon endowment. One Florence Nightingale to nurse the sick in conspicuous places, bub ten thousand women who are just as 7ood nurses though never heard of. The 'Swamp Angel" was a big gun that during the war made a big noise, buC muskets of orlinary calibre and shells of ordinary ieft did the execution. President Tyler ind his cabinet go down the Potomac "one lay to experiment with the Peacemaker, a rreat iron gun that was to affright with its founder foreign navies. The gunner touches fc off and it explodes and leaves cabinet minsters dead on the deck, while at that time all ip>and down our coasts were cannon of ordilary bore able to be the defense of the nation, ind ready/it the first touch to waken to duty. The curse of the world is big guns. After ;he politicians who have made all the noise jo home hoarse from angry discussion on the ivening of the first Monday in November, he next day the people with the silent ballots vill settle everything, aud settle it right, a nillion of the white slips of paper they drop naking about as much noise as the fail of in apple blossom. Clear back in the country to-dav th*re are nothers in plain apron, and shoes fashioned in ?. rnnrrh last, bv the shoemaker at the end Df the lane, rocking babies that are to be the Martin Lutbers, and the Faradays, and the Edisons, and the Bismarcks, and the Gladstones, and the Washington*, and the George Whitefields of the year IWS, and who will make the 20th century so bright that this much lauded nineteenth in comparison will Beem like the dark ages. The longei ' I live the more 1 like common i folks. They do the world's work, bear- ! ing the world's burdens, wet-pine the j world's sympathies, carrying the world's consolation. Among lawyers we see rise up a ! Rufus Choate, or a William Wirt, or a Sam- i uel Southand, but society would go to pieces to-morrow if there were not thousands of j common lawyers to see that men and women j get their rights. A Valentine Mott or a ; Willard Parker rises up eminent in the medi | cal profession, but what an unlimited I sweep would pneumonia, a-*,i diphtheria, | I ana "scarlet fever, liave lu tne world I if it were not for ten thousand ; oommon doctors. The old physician in his , gie rolling up the lane of the farmhouse, or j riding on horseback, his medicines in the i paddle-bags, arriving on the ninth day of the | fever, and coming in to take hold of the ! pulse of the patient, while the family, pale with anxiety, are looking on and waiting for his decision in regard to the patient, and hearing him say: "Thank God, I have bastere.1 the case, he is getting well," excites I In me an admiration quite equal to the men I lion of the names of the great metropolitan I doctors, Pancoast or Gross, or Joseph C. I Hutchinson, of the past, or the illustrioue j living men of the present. T Yet what do we see in all departments? | People not satisfied with ordinary spheres of i ^eork an<f ordinary duties. Instead of try- | fog to see what they can do with a hand j of five fingers they want six. Instead of j Usual endowment of twenty manual and j pedal addenda they want twenty-four. A [ certain amount of money for livelihood and t tor the supply of those whom we leave be- j lind us after we have departed this life is mportant, for we have the best authority I 'or saying: "He that provideth not for his j >wn, and especially those of his own ! ?ouseho!d is worse than an infidel." | >ut the large and fabulous sums for which nany struggle, if obtained would be a hindrance rather than an advantage. The inxietit'3 and annoyances that those have fhose estates have become plethoric can only j ? told by those who possess them. It wiil ? a good thing when through your industry md public prosperities you can own the louse in which you live. But suppose you iwn fifty houses and you have all those rents o collect ami all those tenants to please. Suppose you have branched out a business successes until in almost very direction you have investments. Hie fire bell rings at nishc: you rush upitairs to look out of the window to see if it is n an}' of yrair mills. Epidemic of crime :onies and there are embezzlements and abicondings in all directions, and you wonder whether any of your bookkeepers will prove 'ecreant. A panic strikes the financial forld, and you are like a hen un ler a sky ull of hawks and trying with anxious cluck o get your overgrown chickens safely under ?ing. After a certain stage of sue- | ess has been reached you have to trust o many important things to others bat you are apt to become tho prey of ; there, and you are swindled and d'?fraude l. nd the anxi?tv you had on your brow whon cu were earning your first thousand dollars ?not equal to the anxiety on your brow now bat you have won your three hundred thoumd. The trouble with such a one is he is spread out like the unfortunate one m my text. You have more fingers and toes than you know what to do with. Twenty were useful, twenty-four is a hindering: superfluity. Disraeli says that a King of Poland abdicated his throne and joined tlie people and became a porter to carry burdens. And some one asked him why he did so and he replied: "Upon my honor, gentlemen, the load which I quit is by far heavier than the one you see me carry. The weightiest is but a straw when compared to that world under which 1 labored. I have slept more in four nights than I have during all my reign. I begin to be a King myself. Elect whom you choose, for me who am so well it would be madness to return to court." - ? It 1 "Well," says someooay, suca gveriuauou I persons ought to be pitied, for their worriI ments are real and their insomnia and their I nervous prostration are genuine." I reply that thov could get rid of the bothersome I surplus by giving it away. If a man his I more houses than ha can carry without | vexation, let him drop a few of them. If his estate is so great ho cannot manage it with| out getting nervous dvsnepsia from having too much, let him divide up with those who have nervous dvsoepsia bec\u?e thev cannot get enough. No! they guard their sixth finger with more care tlinn they did t lie original five. They go limping with what they call gout, and know not that, like the sriaut of my text, they are lamed by a superfluous toe. A few of them by !?rgc clinrities bleed themselves of this fmanrial obesity and monetary plethora, but many of them hang on to the hindering superfluity till death, and then as they nre compelled to 1 give the money up anyhow, in their last will j and testament thev generously give some j of it to th"> Lord, expecting no doubt j that Ho will feel much obliged to them. Thank God that once in a while we have a Peter Cooper,who, owningan interest in the iron works at Trenton, s iid to Mr. T ocloi- "T fin not fgu ' rmif-n p?5V flhnut the amount we are making. Working under one of our patents, w? have <* mononolv which s'eins tome something wrong, fcverylody has to come to us for it and we are making money too fast.1' So they re luced the pri^e. and this %vhile our philanthropist was building Cooper Institute,which mothers a hundred institutes of kindness and mercy all over the land. But the world had to wait five thousand eight hundred years for Peter Cooper. I am glad for the benevolent institutions that get a legacy from men who during thoir life were as stingy as death, but who in their last will and testament bestowed money on hospitals and missionary societies; but for such testators I have no respact. They would have taken every cent of it with them if they could, and bought up half of heaven and let it out at ruinous rent, or loaned the money to celestial citizens at two per cent a month and got a corner on harps and trumpets. They lived in this world fifty or sixty years in the presence of appalling suffering and want, and made no effort for their relief. The charities of such people are for the most part in "paulo-post future" tense and they are going to do them. The probability is that if such a one in his last will by a donation to benevolent societies tries to atone for his life-time close-fistedness, the heirs at law will try to break the will bv proving that the old man was senile ? 1 ui ua/i), nun iiiu uaj;oiiou vi uuo ni/i^aiiuu will about leave in the lawyers' hands what was meant for the American Bible Society. O ye overweighted successful business men, whether this sermon reach your ear or your eye, let me say that if you are prostrated with axieties about keeping or investing these tremendous fortunes, I can tell you how you can do more to get your health back and yonr spirits raised than by drinking gallons of bad-tasting water at Saratoga, Homburg or Carlsbad?give to God and humanity and the Bible ten per cent, of all your income, and it will make a new man of you, and from restless walking of the floor at night you shall have eight hours' sleep without the help of bromide of potassium, and from no appetUe you will hardly be able to wait your rasrular meals, and your wan cheek will till up, and when you die the blessings of those who but for you would have perished will bloom all over your grave with violets if it be spring, or gladiolus, if it be antumn. Perhaps some of you will take this advice, but the mast of you"will not And you will try to cure your swollen hand by getting on it more lingers, and your rheumatic foot by getting on it more toes, and there will be a sigh of relief when you are gone out of the world: aud when over your remains the minister recites the words: ''Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord," persons who have keen appreciation of the ludicrous will hardly be able to keep their lace straight. But wcetuer in mac airecrion my woras uo gooa or not, I am anxious that ail who have only ordinary equipment be thankful for what they have and rightly empioy it. I think you all have, figuratively as well as literally, fingers enough. Do not Jong for hindering superfluities. Standing in the presence of this fallen giant of my text and in this post-mortem examination of him, let us learn how much better off we are with just the usual hand, the usual foot. You have thanked God for a thousand things, but I warrant you never thanked Him for those two implements of work and locomotion, that no one but the Infinite and Omnipotent God could have ever planned or marie, the hand and the foot. Only that soldier or that mechanic who in a battle or through machinery has lost them knows anything about their valua, and only the Christian scientist can have any appreciation of what divine masterpieces they are. Sir Charles Bell, The English surgeon, on tho battlefield of Waterloo, while engaged in amputations of tht; wounded was so impressed with the wondrous construction of the human hand that when tho Earl of Bridgewater gave forty thousand dollars for essays on the wisdom and goodness of God, and eight books were written, Sir Charles Bell wrote his entire book on the wisdom and goodness of God as displaved in the human hand. The twenty-seven bones in hand and wrist, with cartilages and ligaments and phalanges of the fingers, all made just ready to knit, to sew, to build up, to pull down, to weave, to write, to plow, to pound, to wheel, to battle, to givo friendly salutation. The tips of the lingers aro so many telegraph offices by reason of their sensitiveness of tou -h. The bridges, the tunnels, the cities of the whole earth are the victories of the hand. The hands are not dumb, but often speak as distinctly as the lips. With our hands we invite, we repel, we invoke, we entreat, we wring them in grief or clasp them in joy, or spread them abroad in benediction. The malformation of the giant's baud in the text glorifies the usual hand. Fashioned of Cod more equisitely and wondrouslv than any human mechanism .*.?* /?Anf*.i'wA^ T nUfwcra vnil 11QO ifc for God and the lifting of the world out of its moral predicament. Employ it in the sublime work of gospel handshaking. You can see the hand is just made for that. Four finders just set right to touch vour neighbor's hand on one side and your thumb set so as to clench it on the other side. By all its bones,and joints, and muscles, and cartilages, and ligaments, the voice of nature joins with the voice of God commanding yon to shake hands. The custom is as" old as the Bible, anyhow. Jehu said to Jehonadeb: "Is thine heart right as my heart is with thine heart? If it be, give me thine baud." When hands join in Christian silutationa gospel electricity thrills across the palm from heart to heart, and from the shoulder of ono to the shoulder of the other. Shake hands all around. With tho timid and for their encouragement, shake hands. With the troubled and in warm-hearted sympathy, shake hands. W itu the young man just entering business, and discouraged at the small sales and the largo expenses, shake hands. With the child who is new from God, and started on unending journey for which he needs to gather great suoply of strength, and who can hardly reach up to you now because you are so much taller, shake hands. Across cradles and "lying beds and graves, shake hands. With your enemies, who hav9 done all to defanto and hurt you, but whom you can afford to forgive, shake hands. At the door of churches where people come in. and at the door of churches where people go out. shake hands Let pulpit shake hands with pi?w, and Sabbath day shake ban Is with week day. and earth shake hands with hoaven. Oh the strange, the mighty, t.he undefined, the mysterious, the eternal powor of an honest handshaking. The difference between these times and the millennial times is that now some shako hands, but then all will shake hands, throne and fcot-stool, across seas nation with nation, God and man, church militant and church triumphant. Yea; the malformation of this fallen giant's foot glorifies the ordinary foot, for which I fear you have never once thanked God. The twenty-six bones of the foot are the admiration of the anatomist. The arch of the foot fashioned with a grace and a yioise that Trajan's arch at Beneventum, or Constantino's arch at Rome, or arch of Triumph at the end of Champs Elvsees could not equal. Those arches stand where they were planted, but this arch of the foot is an adjustable arch,a yielding arch, a flying arch, and ready for movements innumerable. The human foot so fashioned as to enable man to stand upright as no other creature, and leave the hand that I would otherwise have to help in balancing the body free for anything it chooses. The . foot of the camel fashioned for the I sand, the foot of the bird fashioned for , the tree branch, the foot of the hind fashioned i for the slippery rock, the foot of the lion fashioned to rend its prey, the foot of the i horse fashioned for the solid earth, but the i foot of roan made to cross the desert, or - climb the tree, or scale the cliff, or walk the [ earth, or go where he needs to go. With that i divine triumph of anatomy in your possession i where do you walk? In what path of righteousness or what path of sin have you i set it down? Where have vou left the mark of your footsteps? Amid the petrifactions In the rocks have been found the mark of the feet of birds and beasts of thousands of years ago. And God can trace out all the footsteps of your lifetime, and those you made fifty years ago are as plain as those made in the last soft weather, all of them petrified i for tilt; Judgment Day. Oh, the foot! How i divinely honored not only in its construction j but in the fact that God represents Himself i in the Bible as having feet: "The coulds on I the dust of His feet;" "Darkness was under ! His feet;" "The earth is My footstool." And representing cyclones and euroclydons and whirlwinds and hurricanes as winged creatures, He describes Himself as putting His foot on these monsters of the air and walking from pinion to pinion, saying: "He | walketh upon the wings of the wind." "Thou hast put all things under His feet," cries the psalmist Oh, the foot! Give me the autobiography of your foot from the time you | stepped out of the craddle until to day and ! 1 will tell your exact character now and I ; i Hiiai are your prospects lor mo woriu uj j j come. That there might be no doubt about j ; the fa^t that both t!ie?e piece3 of divine j mechanism, hand and foot, belong to Christ's ' I service, both bauds of Christ and both ' j feet of Christ were spiked on the j cross. Right through the arch of i I both His feet to the hollow of I I His instep went the iron of torture, and from the palm of his hand to the back of it, and thnre is not a muscle or nerve, or bone among the twenty-seven bones of hand and | wrist, or among the twenty-six bones of the foot but it belongs to Him now and forever. Charles Reade, the great writer, lost the I joint of his Joretinger by feeding a | bear. Look out that your whole hand gets ] not into the maw of the old Cerberus of perdition. Sir Thomas Trowbridge, at the battle of Inkermann, lost his foot and when the soldiers would carry him away, he said: "No, I do not move until the battle is won.'' So if our foot be lamed or lost let it be in the service of our God, our home or our country. That is the most beautiful foot that goes | | about paths of greatest usefulness, and that j the most beautiful hand that does the most | to help others. I was reading of three women j who were in rivalry about the appearance of the hand. And the one reddened her hand ; with berries, and said the beautiful tinge made hers the most beautiful And another put her hand in the mountain brook, and said as the waters dripped off, that her hand was the most beautiful. And another plucked flowers off the bank, and under the bloom contended that her hand was the most Affvnnfira TliAn o nnni* nIH trnmon an. a(/U a\ WHO. AU<.u u JA/V* Vi? II v?uu>u "K peared, and looking up in her decrepitude asked for alms. And a woman who had not taken part in the rivalry gave her alms. And all the women resolved to leave to this beggar the question as to which of all the hands j present was the most attractive, and she 1 said: "The most beautiful of them all is the : one that gave reiics to my necessities," and | as she so said her wrinkles and I raxs and her decrepitude and her body dis- | appeared, and in place thereof stood the | Christ who long ago said: "Inasmuch as ye | did it to one of the least of these ye did it to I Me!'' and who to purchase the service of our hand and foot here oil earth or in resurrection state, had His own hand and foot lacerated. TEMPERANCE.' The Lemonade Drinker. They drink iheir whisky and beer, To Bacchnt they ben<ied the knee, And often they said with a sneer, "A lemonade drinker is he." He never would with them "go round," He left them to frolic at will; They're all ot' them under the ground? He's drinking his lemonade still. ?Murray's Magazine, Steeples, and Quicksands. In the county of Kent. Englar*?., says the ! Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, in the \uice, is the little borough of Tenterden, containing about five thousand inhabitants. About thirty miles away, in early times, was the j estate of Earl Godwine, on the sea coast. Half a century after the Earl's death, about 801) years ago, the bishop of the diocese built a steeple to Tenterden church. A lew months afterwards the sea swept through the dikes and carried away the Earl's estate, which be came a dangerous quicksaud. known since as I Goodwin Sands. No sooner had the angry sea carried off his prey than the villagers j gathered together to ask themselves why the j calamity had occurred- The older men of the j village were asked for their opinions in turn. | | At length one old man, pointing to tne j l steeple thirty miles away, said solemnly, "Tenterden steeple was the cause of Goodwin j Sands." The remark was greeted with a i burst of laughter, and for centnries was used i as a proverb whenever any one foil into i the illogical argument known as post hoc, I erflo, propter hoc?after this, therefore, be- j cause of this. But later explorations prove j | that the old man was right. Historic docu- ; j znents show that revenues previously ae- | | voted to keeping the sea-wall in repair were ! I taken by the bishop, because the sea had been | I quiet for a year or two. to build the church \ I steeple, and so the dike had been neglected, | j and gave way before the wild charge of the i I waves, and a fair estate became a deadly j quick-sand. i Why have the floods of intemperance in i the last thirty years captured so much of j j our national estate, and made it a quicksand j ! full of licensed pits of death.1 "Tenterden i ! steeple was the cause of Goodwin Sands." j Our churches have given too much of their ! time and money and energy to building ; steeples of ecclesiasticisin, arid too little to j the practical dike-building of prevent.ve reform work. Let us not put into the steeplei building of church pride the money and I effort and work that is more imperatively I needed to make every Sabbath-school a regiI ment or company in the Cold Water Army; 1 to make every Christian an abstainer and I an advocate of abstinence. Down there j in the pews there are men and j even boys whose flushed faces and j beery breath proclaim that the alcoholic | flood is breaking through upon them. What j is the minister doing up there in the pulpit? j ! Steeple-building?preaching about future ! j probation for dead heathen that cannot be ; | helpad by any theories we may devise. Man | ! of God. hark! Do you not hear the crash of j Via wilrlcon An t)iA YianrlAnfcwl Hvl'na nlnoo of; i hand? Do you not see men and bovs?aye, j ' women and girls?right before whose fair | i estate of health and home and hope will soon I | be the drunkard's quicksand, if you do not I strengthen the old dikes of the pledge and I Prohibition? Come down from your steeples, 0 men of ! God, preachers, teachers, parents, and i strengthen these dikes. ' Thiak of a preacher's meeting discussing ! i "The Politics of Calvin" when the politics of ! | the devil, with its mad waves of rum, is | dashing against their very doors! Well has < it been said that a pulpit silent on the temper- j i ance question discredits itself as much as a ! I pulpit silent about dishonesty. Jloth of these questions are "in polities'' as subjects of leg- ] I islation. Let not that fact make conserva- : | tives neglect the dike of Prohibition, nor I I radicals the equally important dike of the ! : pledge. Consumption of Malt Liqnors. The consumption of malt liquors is incrcas! ing with great rapidity. In 1H0 in this | country there were consumed :i:i,000,000 gali Ions ot malt liquors or l.iiii per capita. In j ISoO there was no rud.cal change in ths figures, in luCO the increase set in in earnest, j In that year the amount of beer drank was i 101,1.00.(too gallons against 110,0('0,000 gallons | of hard liquors and 11,000,000 gallons of wine. The per capita consumption of malt I liquors was exactly equal to tl.ci of the hard liquors and wines. In 1370 the consumption of malt liquors had double I in amount. The I amount consumed per capita was 5..'!l g ilj Ions. The per capita consumption of wines ! and hard liquors iu the same time was 2.40 | gallons. "lhe ligures for liW7 show a trej mendous growth in tlie beer drinking habit, j The total consumption in that year was I 717,74S.&51 gallons of malt liquors against | Gl-,807,7^0 in l!JNi. The greater part oi the | beer consumed was made in this country, | about 2,oUO,000 gallons having been import ed. The per capita is now 11.Its gallons. I American beer is fast driving out tho native | rum and whisky. Iu 1S.*>0 the German citizens were the beer drinkers. Now the Americans can vie with the Germaus in that line? I Detroit Free tress. * <, *: * - . ;t* EELIGIOUS READING. ! xup JDiemnf 01 c*unn, 1What a friend we have in Jesus," Sang a little child one day. And a weary woman listened To the darling's happy lay. All her life seemed dark and gloomy, All her heart was sad with care; Sweetly rang out baby's tremble? "All her sins and griefs to bear." She was pointing out the Saviour, Who could carry every woe; And the one who sadly listened Needed that dear Helper so! Sin and grief were heavy burdens For a fainting soul to bear; But the baby, singing, bade her "Take it to the Lord in prayer." With a simple, trusting spirit, Weak and worn she turned to God, Asking Christ to take her burden, As Be was the sinner's Lord. Jesus was the only rfefuge, He could take her sin and care, And he blessed the weary woman When she camo to Him in prayer. And the happy child, still singing, Little knew she had a part In God's wondrous work of bringing Peace unto a troubled heart. ?[Christian Observer. I*rar?r JIotlT???. All prayer, whatever may bo its form, or whatever it may include in its scope, is actuated by some kind of a motive. When a person prays there is some reason why he does so. But whatever may be the motive, it is very certain that it should be a good one. And we may be very sure that whenever a prayer is truly and wholly indited by the Holy Spirit, every motive which underlies that pr.nyer is good. But we are compelled to admit that not all of the prayer3 of even Christian people are governed by good motives and pure purposes. So gre it are our infirmities that our motives are often more or less corrupt,?they are vitiated by personal ambitions and gross selfishness. We have an illustration of an unworthy motive in the epistle of James, iv., 3, where he says: "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasure." (R. V.) In the preceding verse the apostle says: "Ye have not, because ye ask not." Now these two statements amount to the same thing, so far as the receiving is concerned. In neither case is there anything received. In one case there is no praying, and, consequently there ie nrv ror>Qi'vtn(T Tn t.ho ftther OftSA there it prayer, and yet there is no receiving, because the prayer is amiss,?it is faulty, improper and wrong. It is a selfish and vicious motive. The petitioners are represented as asking God tor favors for the purpose of spending them for the gratification of their mere pleasures and unholy desires. Such a motive must of necessity, corrupt all prayer and turn it into a solemn mockery. We have another illustration of an unworthy motive in prayer in the case of James and John, who sought personal promotion in the kingdom of Christ Their prayer was, that one of them might be seated at the right hand of Christ, and the other at His left in His kingdom. There is no evidence that there was any wicked design in their making such a petition; but their motive was entirely improper, and this so weakened it and corrupted it that it was not acceptable. And how often is selfishness busily working at the very roots of prayer.'Often we pray for things which if receiv d would minister to our pride, our capricious ambition, and our personal glory! We may not always be truly conscious of this. We may not always stop to think whnt the real character of our motive is. But so much the more do we need the Holy Spirit to help our infirmities and teach us how to pray. Many a prayer is worse than useless for want of a proper motive and true governing principle. It is owing to such a lack as this that people often pray for things which, if they were received, would prove a damage and even a curse to them. They pray for things which, if answered, would involve themselves and their friends in unending trouble. The true motive is found in the words of our Saviour, when He said: "Not my will, but Thine, be done." This is the supreme a.: u UlULlVt) WIIIUU SUUUIU^UVVIII OVOIJ V/U1 isi/iUii heart. Wo should how our wilh without reserve to the will of God, and desire no other power to rule us, and no other will to master us. Let us learn that will by praying the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. If we pray according to God's will, then our prayer will always be answered.?[Hartford Religious Herald. Tlie Lnm>liii(>?< of Joiini, Though in the world, Jesus was not of the world. He was born unlike other children, and all his life he was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separato from sinners." But a singie incident of his boyhood is recorded, and that shows he must have been quite in advance of all tho boys of his age, and quite uuliko them in his taste3. He may have associated with them, and have joined with them in their innocent diversions; but we think that it could not have bien very hpnrtilv for even then ha had meat to eat that they knew not of. Ho had joys as well as sorrows to which thoy were strangers. As he grow up to manhood, and as he entered on the great work for which he came into the world?"to seek and to save that which was lost"?he must have become less and less of the world. Ho became more separated from his brethren according to the flesh. They could not comprohand him, nor sympathize with him in hi3 ereat undertaking, nor did they believe on him. His chosen disciples were not without their imperfections. Thoy wore ignorant, ambitious and unbelieving. Nor was there perfection in that hospitable home at Bethany, which was so often his chosen retreat. And by his fellowmen generally he was "despised and rejocted." Tney had no love for him, and uo sympathy. His roal friends were few aud of humb:e condition; his enemies were many and bitter. He was scorned and coldly treated by the prouil Pharisees. When invited to partake of their hospitality it was with ovil designs. They wore ever on the watch to find something agaiust him. His most bonevolent deeds were misinterpreted. All manner of false accusations were brought against him. It was said of him that, in a bad sense, he was "a friend of publicans and sinners." and he was charged with casting out devils by Beelzebub, the priuce of devils. In such a world, with such surroundings, the Saviour must have led a lonely life. | Ndno could say as be could, "I am a stranger | in tho earkh." "The world know bim not." hero be was out of his element; ho was not at homo. Wo wonder not that lie should so often retire from the world to tho solitary mountains to I.old communiun with his Father. Ho was alone, uud yet not alone, because tho Father was with bim. Precious must have been those seasons of intercourse with Him, when, withdrawn from all converse with men, ho could pour out his soul in unrestrained fioedom in close nearness to Him. Doubtless tho Saviour was here often homesick for boaven. Doubtless he often anticipated the time when, the work for which be came all accomplished, be co ild return to the bosom of the Father irom whom he came. Happy, unspeakably happy the moment wh n at length bo could triumphantly exclaim: "It is finished!" Unspeakably happy the hour when, having given bis last groat commission and his part- | ing benediction to his disciples, he could renscand to bis native heaven. Escorted by I legions of rejoicing angels, he enters tho everlasting doors lifted up to give bim admittance, and, welcomed by the Father and all the heavenly hosts, the burden of loneliness forever rolled away from his soul, once more at homo in tho many mansions, be is unspeakably blessed.--[H. S. in N. Y. Observer. A Merited Rebuke. A Harvard student who bad been on an especially outrageous spree came into a room where a number of men were gathered. He looked very badly used up. and it was evident enough that bo was making the most of bis looks; but nobody commented upon his appearance. At length he could not stand it longer, and howled out: "Why don't you fellows ask me what I've been doing One terribly keen chap looked up and answered: "Because we know you've been getting confoundedly drunk so as to bo able able to talk about it." The rebuke was so well merited, and everybody so well understood it, that, it almost worked a great moral reform in the young man by making him shy of talking about his excesses.?Boston Letter to the Providence Journal. ;* vv--' - -sv.y '. HOUSEHOLD MATTERS. Food for Fcatliered. Pets. To make food for singing birds, knead together three pounds of split peas, ground or beaten to tiour, one and a half pounds of fine crumbs of bread,the same quantity of coarse sugar, the ravr yolks of six eggs and six ounces of fresh butter. Put about a third of the mixture at a time in a frying pan over a gentle fi? ? ?J - i- ?.iJl a 1?4-41a U?Anrno/^ Villf UrCf UUU 5tiX it U Ll til a llLUO uiunubu,vuv I not burned. When the other two parts are done and all cold, add to the whole six ounces of maw seed and six pounds of bruised hemp seed,separated from the husks. Mix together, and it will be found excellent food for thrushes, robins, larks, linnets, canaries, finches and most other singing birds, preserving them in both song and feather. Cheese StrawsThere are various recipes for making cheese straws, but an English authority on culinary matters claims that the following is the genuine original way of making this now fashionable delicacy: Take two ounces, of best pastry flour and mix with it a little pepper and salt, together with just a dust of cayenne, liub in two ounces of butter as for piecrust, and when these are thoroughly incorporated add two ounces of grated 1 cheese (Parmesan preferable, but any dry. strong sort will do.) Work the mix ture to a smooth paste with the yolk or aii egg. Should there not be sufficient moisture in the yolk of one egg, use part of another, or a very little leiaon-juice, but on no account add water, which has a tendency to make the crust tough, j Work the paste till it is smooth and > stiff, and roli it out till about one-eighth j of an inch thick. Then cut iuto straws *j about five inches long and one-quarter of an inch wide.?Ne o York World. To Wash Blankets. Put a pint of household ammonia in the bottom of your tub, having had the blaukets well beaten to remove all clinging dust before you get the tubs out. i Then lay the blanket lightly on over the ammonia, and pour upon it a sufficient quantity of warm water to cover the blanket entirely. Then with a stick or the hand, Hop the blanket about in the solution, pressing all the water that will come out of it against the side of the tub, without wringing as you remove it to the rinse water. \ ou wiil be amazed to sec the dissolved dirt coming out through the fibres, as no washing or rubbing with aoap suds will bring it- out. Itinse in the same way, in the same moderately warm water (not boiling water), and by simply pushing the blankets about in the tub. i ress through the wringer and hung out to dry in a windy place not in the sun. As the blanket hang3 there dryiug, a little water will collect in the four corners, which it is rather an amusement to squeeze out to help the drying process. If you do not care to put another blanket in the first ammoniiited water, which must be done promptly, as the ammonia evaporates quickly, divide the quantity, talcing half a pint for each one of the two tubs, and wash two blankets at once. The evaporating ammonia, released by the warmth of the water, can only escape through the blanket which is laid over it in the tub before the water is applied. Hence you get the value of every drop of it. In ordinary cleaning with ammonia, for i aint, brasses, silver, etc., mix it with cold water first, and then add a little warm water to the pail.?Ledger. Marmalade*. Fruits that are too ripe for preserves , UI UUllll 11J?? iixaj w U3CU iu maac Uiaimalades, -which will be found delicious. .Only very ripe fruit is good for mar- j malode. It should be cut in pieces and put in a preserve kettle with a layer of sugar at the bottom. For marmalades made of peaches, pears, grapes, quinces, pine apples or plums, three-quarters of a pound of sugar should be allowed to a pound and a quarter of ripe fruit. No water should be added if the fruit is juicy, as it should be. Care is necessary in order to prevent the marmalade from burning \ while cooking. Different fruits require j a dili'ere ?t length of time in b.filing, but whenever the fruit begins to look clean and thick it is done, and may be taken up and put in jars at once. Quince Marmalade.?Peel the quince, weigh and put in a very little water. Boil tender, work and add tbree-quarters of a pound of sugar to each pound and a quarter of fruit, boil about one hour, stirring", and pour into glasses or small jelly molds, cover with -waxed paper and turn out on a plate when needed. Peach Marmalade.?Peel and quarter ten pounds of soft peaches, put in a Kettle with ten pounds of sugar, boil and stir until thick and clear. Plum Marmalade.?Boil ripe plums ia a very little water, ruu through a colandcr, add half a pound of sugar to a j pound of the pulp, and boil until clear ! and thick. Orange Marmalade.?Take ten pounds of sour oranges, wash and peel, put the peelings in a kettle with a little water and boil several nours, cut me oranges and squeeze out all the juice and pulp. When the peel is tender, drain from the water and pound very fine. Put the whole, with seven pounds of loaf sugar, in a preserve kettle and boil one hour. When it jellies, put in small glasses and cover with paper. Lemon Marmalade. ?Take large, perfect lemons, and extract the s. ed. Boil -* * ? T- - J -1 i.L. tne peel until very sou, mtisn, uuu me juice and pulp with a pouud of sugar to i pound of lemon. Boil until thick, put in glasses and cover. ? Courier-Journal. Mermaids In Captivity. Quitb accidentally the other day, says a writer in the New York N<icst 1 came across an exhibition of sea cows, or manatees, and willingly paid my dime . to have a look at them; particularly as a red-faced and fog-horn voiced seaman at the door assured me that they were genuine mermaids and "a wonderful beast they was," too. The manatee is nothing more nor less than an amphibious cow, without legs or horns. He has a blunt, oblong head, a short neck and a countenance Wrinkled like that of au old man. They pass their entire existence in the water and are not uncommonly found in the shallow rivers and bays of South America, while they are now and then seen along the shores of some of the West India Islands, or along the Florida coast. The males have a bristling mustache on their upper lip, and a most commanding appearance; while mariners declare that the females carry their young about in their arms like any mother, and on rare occasion? are to be heard singing lullabys. Manatees do not live long in captivity, though I once saw a pair at the Brighton Aquarium in 1'ngland that had fieen kept for some years. The owner of the South street mermaids tells me that he makes a business of catching them, and that if they are \ plentifully supplied with fresh water, and given an abundaucc of lettuce, tur- I nip, or cabbage, thev will live for an J indefinite period. They are certainly j very intelligent creatures, not at all shy, j and answer to a coaxing word or gentle i whistle ' A PUEBLO FEAST. |l A CRUEL ABORIGINAL. PICNIC IN NEW MEXICO. f i Indian Foot Races?Leaping for a 1 itooster Haspenaeu iroio ? Lariat?Dismembered Alire and then Eaten Raw. The Pueblo Indiana of New Mexico have so many feasts that there is hardly any season of the year when one need wait long to enjoy an aboriginal picnic. And such a day in a Pueblo town is not Boon to be forgotten. Its exact dupli- j cate will not be found elsewhere in the world, nor anything approaching it elsewhere in the United States. It is the most picturesque affair in America. We have just finished celebrating the feast of San .luan in Aconia, says a correspondent of the S?u Francisco Chronicle. When first the gray sky in the east turned to opal on Sunday morning all Acoma was awake. At eight o'clock fhn wnre alive. Stronir-faced. . athletic men, modest and comely women, ' ] erect as queens and with a breadth and 1 " depth of chest simply superb, were at j every corner. A little after noon the leisurely crowd j began to drift slowly over to the north , street, the narrowest but smoothest of j all. Where a cross street comes in, a I ] half hundred of the leading old meu of '1 the pueblo squatted upon the rocks, j. while around hung clusters of children. ] The surrounding housetops were a per- ^ feet kaleidoscope of gorgeous color and gleaming silver. The solemn faced j alguazil, with a gay, green drum oi' j ^ rawhide slung at his side, glanced ! ( around bim in a self-sufficient way, and 1} began to belabor the protesting instru- i ( ment with two aldermanic drumsticks. I ] Directly & group of boys of six to fifteen ! ] years coated themselves with a film of I , white clay from a big unaja. Then the j j smaller youngsters repaired to the upper ' j end of the street and stood there in a i j huddle. The drummer gave a vicious thump < upon his drum head, and called out a 1 < *? m I | , disjointed oraer. iwo ooys sprauguum | the ground and came flying down the ; t street, lithe and agile as youngantelopes. : j The smaller was bent on winning. His ; ] long black hair floated out behind: his \ dark eyes shone like stars, and his chub- | j by legs fairly twinkled along the gray \ ( rocky tioor. The large boy ran to wiu, ' < too, but he was more infirm of purpose. < The housetop crowds caught his eyes, J ( and the encouraging shouts of the men ] tickled him. He led easily to within : < thirty yards of the winning pest, and ! t then, in a beautiful spurt, the little fel- j low fairly sailed to the fore and won by | j a yard, amid loud applause. Before the breathless boy could sink \ \ upon a little bed of soft, white sand, the ' j drummer had yelled again, and another! ] pair of biped meteors came Hashing down : i th?tr?rif And so it went till each i < couple of fifty boys had run the 300 yard !, course twice. I j Meanwhile two very important look-1 < ing fellows with the soberest faces in the i \ world had brought forth two slender, ) s strong poles of about eighteen feet in j j length and tied to each, near the top, ! ] the end of a twenty-foot horsehair lariat, j One of them then produced a loudly ob-1 jecting rooster, tied his feet together1 with a buckskin thong and fastened the 1 thong to a loop in the middle of the pen- j j dant lariat. j j The two standard bearers then grasped , each his pole and drew it toward him till! ( the intervening lariat was taut. The un- j ; fortunate rooster then dandled headlong \ at a height of about ten feet from the j ] ground. The previous racers now fcli 11 into line a little way down the street, 11 the tiniest of them in the lead. A crowd ] of grown-up boys and men dropped in :' behind in the order of their altitude. < 1 Housing his drum from its sleepy' gruntiug to a hoarse ratue me aigua-.n | i shouted the signal for the sport to be- i gin. In mechanical unanimity the long i < procession?there were in it 10'J persons, j j ranging in height from six feet two 1 inches in the rear to two feet six inches : in front?with that peculiar hop-stamp, ! i hop-stamp so familiar to all who have j seen any sort of an aboriginal dance, j j moved forward with deliberate precision, i ] passing between the poles and under the j chicken in single file. Each runuer had a little branch of chaparo, and as he j, passed under the flapping chanticleer he would leap high in the air, with a clear j; treble "eevoop!" with a simultaneous j wild swipe with his stick at the rooster, j , which by able ducking evaded most of , these offers. Still in line, the runners now rested a i moment. The pole holders stepped each ! a step inward, so that the rooster hung , several feet neater the ground. Again 1 the drummer signaled, and again the ' running began. Suddenly a tall, nicely- i built fellow made a superhuman lunge 1 into the air and caught the rooster by the ' neck before the guards could swing it < aloft. With a single powerful thrust of 1 his arm he broke the buckskin thong, ' and with a wild yell broke from the ' line and was olf like a deer, swinging 1 the astounded bird triumphantly above I ills UCUU. The whole pack was at his heels in an instant, and, amid the excited shrieks j of the spectators, the chase swept down ' j the street and around the corner of the 11 houses, bound aud round the house i they ran, the pursued doubling and turu- i ing like a jackrabbit to elude the wild j grabs of his pursuers. When at la t the < tremendous pace began to tell even on ( his deep lungs, he whirled and brought 1 the chicken down with a resounding . thump upon the bare shoulders of the ? foremost of the field. < The youth thus challenged seized the i tiophy and Hew ahead with it, the crowd ; following him as before. For nearly half ? an hour this remarkable running con- j tinued, all at a live minute gait or less, | the rooster chauging hands live times ] meanwhile. ] Then the runners came to a dead stop ' in the wide spot in front of the open ' place, and the one who held the rooster, 1 turning to the nearest of his companions, i began to assault him with the rooster with great vehemence. The youug man ' thus belabored grappled with his assail- ' and a hard struggle ensued, the attacked party finally getting hold of one leg of * the now thoroughly demoralized chicken. < A violent bracing apart, a sharp sc'nuille, i and the chicken was torn in two. Loud were the cries of 'Tut/.-eesh! putz-eesh!" as the two now rushed upon two others and began walloping them with the sun- r dered side of the chicken. I Time after time the bleeding flesh was s forcibly subdivided by the excited con- s tenants, and with each new piece the c number of lighters was augmented. Some ; t of the big fellows handed their gillina- ' c ccous cluhs to the youngsters, until at; i last two chubby tots, not over three c years old, were struggling like little 1 wildcats over a bedraggled "drumstick." J 1 All around the blows were the hardest; ( the dealers kept in stock, yet neither . ' bastcr nor basted ever got angry. On t the contrary, both were laughing as long 1 as they had any breath, and when at last [ 1 the violent sport had worn itself out, 11 the victors sat down and guawed the | < * /J ,w-~ r- .. V, . : " r,.- ; VS ... "'-y# ', ' 1fT ujww^ifTO >yr1^WtffTp!j3 .:. ? jd t =jp iusty and well-marc erated flesh, whiclt i9 oenevea 10 nave sovereign ijiuuamoo. ? Hawaii's Leper Colony. From a communication just received from the Attorney-General of Hawaii we ire enabled, says the PaU MdU Gazette, :o gather the latest official information egarding the spread of leprosy in King ivaiakaua's dominions. On April 1,1886, ;here were 426 male and 227 female?or i total of 653?lepers at the settlement )n the island of Molokai, where they are segregated by law from the rest of the population of Hawaii. From that date :o July, 1887, 24 male and 3 female epers were sent in. Owing apparently ;o a strict enforcement of ithe law, 186 , naleand 113 female lepers were added to ;he settlement between July, 1887, and March 1, 1888. The deaths in'two years lumbered 230, and 711) leper3 remained tlive upon Jlolokai?402 male3 and 257 femalej? on the 1st of April last. At :he ghospital at Kaka-ako there were at he Knmp rint.fl 5:1 leners. and it is offi >iaily estimated that upward of 400 nhers were at large at that period. The disease is spreading, owing, it is illeged, to the refusal of the native ' Uawaiians to believe it contagious. .They jfter a stolid, passive resistance to the aw requiring lepers to be sent toMolo\ai, henca the discovery of new cases i? endered extremely difficult to the inipectors and "leper detectives" of Hono*. ulu. In some cases the Government alows healthy persons, near relatives of the diseased ones, to accompany them to xnd serve them at the quarantine settlement at Molokai. Much difficulty is found in limiting the number of ' koknas" or helpers, for many of the healthy wish to go with their deceased friends not only from affection but to obtain rations aud shelter and clothing it the Government expense; That the lisease is contagious i9 andnference from ' lothing but its spread. Many personsive for years in the closest relations ivith lepers without becoming--leprous* , i 4 ,-j Father i.amien, the priest, who heretofore devoted his life to the-Molokai set- < lomonf Vioirinrr liwoH omnnfr thft afflir.tfld. people for over ten years before he became aTected with the contagion. Children of leprous parents have often jeen know, in Honolulu and othtfr por:ions of the Hawaiian groups, to have emained untainted till the end of their ives. The mystery as to the maimer of :he communication of leprosy, and 'the act that no plain case of the disease has ;ver been cured, add to the horror at it? gradual advance. Still the impression >f the Hawaiian authorities is that xhey :ould succeed in stamping it out if the aw allowed them to segregate to the rnd of their lives not only lepers and mspected lepers, but all who have lived n intimacy with the diseased. The support of the unfortunates is very costly, to King Kalakaua's Government, and threatens to impoverish it within & measurable period unless the spread of eprosy be in some way checked. A Gorman savant alleges that he has dis- , . J, :overed a cure, but so far it has served jnly to alleviate the distress of a few . mfferers. There is some talk in of.cial V circles in Honolulu of inviting 31. Jfas:eur to study the disease, with a view to suggesting some means of either curing it or abating to some extent its viru- ' .ence. : ? -.i . ? ?? Shoes Have Kicked Out Loots. "The evolution of the shoe," said Bryan McSwyny to a New York Hun, nan. "furnishes an interesting subject for consideration. Sixteen years ago you wouldn't find a shoe in the stofes of this :ity. The shops were filled with boot#. Now you caunot get a boot except through a special order. The shoe was brought into general use by the retail traders. .Next the manufacturers took to manufacturing shoes until the boot iias been entirely superseded by the shoe. The first style of shoe constructed was the congress gaiter. It was ludicrous to witness the attempts of those who had' been accustomed to wearing boots when they tried to put on a congress gaiter. Gradually the congress gaiter was super- . seded bythe button and the laced shoe. The latter is more generally worn at the present day than any other style. When O'Leary, the pedestrian, walked his famous match with Weston at Chicago, he wore boots, and as a consequence he lost four toe nails. But in his next contest he wore laced shoes, and when the week was ended his feet were, in prime condition. There used to be an old idea that bootlegs helped to keep the lower limbs warm, and that they also assisted in supporting the ankles. These talla ' --?--3 MfltAM 4"V? A cies, However, were uispruvcu nucu IUO shoe came into general use. It was found that all that was necessary to insure warmth was to keep the ankle warm. In order to achieve this result the gaiter tops were invented. But laterexperience bas demonstrated that even these were unnecessary in order to obtain this result. Xo," continued Mr. McSwyny, as be looked around at his well-filled shelves, "I have 000 worth of shoes on hand, but not one pair of leather boots. The only calls I have for boots rouie from those who are going into the wiids of Texas or some new country, or from some old-fashioned man to whom boots are a necessity from early habit." Seeking: a Model Cavalry Morse. Although the Arab horse is celebrated Fni- v>u fnars of endurance-and courage, the impression prevails in array circles in this country that the Arab blood so common in American horses must be modified by a reinfusion of the strain of steeds. It is becoming dillicult in this :ouutry, where horses are so plentiful, to mount our 10,000 cavalry, a3 the desideratum of an animal which uuitcs great jpeed with weight, carrying power and endurance, is hard to pick out from the inimals brought before the purchasing irmy. The formation of a government ? stud, modeled on those of Frauee. Gcr- * many and Austria, lias been suggested by cavalry o.'iicers, who find plenty of heavy horses, and plenty of speedy bor-cs, but few that arc both heavy and speedy. The same trouble is experienced in England, where it is said that the horses oil'ered to the purchasing o'.iicera xre altogether too "line'' for the service. cVustria seems to have some nearness to solving the problem of producing the uodel cavalry horse in Hungary. Proud is Turkey is of its possession of the Arab stock, it buys largely in Austria when it :an raise the niouey to procure cavalry (. mounts. - Boston Transcript. Owners ol Terlcct Feet. A firm of shoemakers iu the HaynarUet, London, have hit upou a novel )!an of advertising. They putupaconpicuous sign, announcing: "L'est boots md shoes at ready money prices, made >n selected lasts of the following genlemcn, perfect feet only having been :hosen forsuch models." Following this s a list of names of the lucky possessors )f 4'perfect feet," and among the uum>er such notables as the I)uke of I.'oxmrghe, the .Marquis of Hamilton, Karl i.'adogan, Prince Dolgoroki, and others. The scheme, which has inesistable at- ' ractions for the snobs, offers the cus:omer the chance of being chosen as a "stock model," and thus having his iame enrolled on the list of distinguished )wner3 of pcrfect feet.?t'/iicuqo News. , \ ^ . , 1 J; U'-.