University of South Carolina Libraries
i '*V t be v. dr. talmage. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "The Clouds His Ohario;.*' Text: "Who maketh the clouds His Chariot."?Psalm civ., 3. Brutes are constructed so as to look down. Those earthly creatures that have wings when they rise from the earth still look down, and the eagle searches for mice in the erass and the raven for carcasses in the field. Man alone is ma le to look up. To induce t him to look up God makes the sky a picture gallery, a Dusseldorf, a Louvre, a Luxembourg, a Vatican that eclipses all that German, or French, or Italian art ever accomplished. But (Jod has failed so far to attract the attention of most of us by the scenery of the sky, We go into raptures flover owctrs in the soil, but have little or no appreciation i of the "morning glories" that bloom on the I wall of the sky at sunrise or the dahlias in I the clouds at sunset. We are in ecstasies over a gobelin tapestry or a bridal veil of rare fabric, or a snowbank of exquisite curve, but see not at all, or see without emotion, the bridal veil of mist that covers the face of the Catskills, or the swaying upholstery around the couch of the dying day, or the snowbanks of vapor piled up in the heavens. My text bids us lift our chin three or four inches and open the two telescop-s which under the forehead are put on swivel easily turned upward, and see that the clouds are not merely uninteresting signs of wet or dry weather, but that they are embroidered canopies of shade, that they are fhe conservatories of the sky, that they are thrones of pomp, that thoy are crystalline bars, that they are paintings in water co!or, tbnt they are the angels of the mist, that they are great cathedrals of light with broad aisles for angelic feet to walk through and bow at altars of amber and alabaster, that they are the mothers of the dew, that they are ladders for ascending and descending glories, Cotopaxis of belchinz flame, Niagaras of color, that they are the masterpieces of the Lord Hod Almighty. The clouds are a favorite Bible simile and the sacred writers have made much use of them. After the deluge God hung on a cloud in concentric bands the colors of the spectrum, saying: "I do set my bow in the clouds." As a mountain is sometimes entirely hidden by vapors, so, says God, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions." David measured the divine goodness and found it so high he apostrophized: '"Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds.' As sometimes there are thou -* " tfcn sanus ui uctrvcs vi ? ?| 'vi stun heavens, so, says Isaiah, will be the converts in the millenium, "as clouds and as doves." As in the wet season no sooner does the sky clear than there comes another obscuration, so, says Solomon, one ache or ailment of old folks has no more than gone than another pain comes "as clouds return in the rain." A column of illumined cloud led the Israelites across the wilderness. In the bonk of Job, Elihu, watchin? the clou ls. could not understand why they did not fall or why they did not all roll together, the laws of evaporation and condensation then not being understood, and he cries out: "Dost thou know the balancing of the clouds'!" When I read my text it suggests to me that the clouds are the Creator's eauipage, and their whirling masses are the wheels, and the tongue of the cloud is the pole of the celestial vehicle, and the winds are the harnessed steads, and God is the Royal occupant and driver "who maketh the clouds His chariot" To understand the psalmist's meaning in the text you must know that the chariot of old was sometimes a sculptured brilliancy made out of ivory, sometimes of solid silver, and rolled on two wheels which were fastened to the axle by stout pins, and the awful defeat of Genomaus by Pelops was caused by the fact that a traitorous charioteer had inserted a lin<b pin of wax instead of a linch pin of iron. All of the six hundred ' TDl*nnsvV* lnof ltr.nK nino in uuariuio vi J u^iavu iwt vuou uuva ?u the Red Sea, for the Bible says: "The Lord took off their wheels." Look at the long flash of Solomon's fourteen hundred ehario's, and the thirty thousand chariots of the Philistines If you have ever visited the buildings where a kin;? or queen keeps the coaches of state, as I have, you know that king; and queens have great varieties of turnout. The keeper tells you: "This is the state carriage, and used only on great ccasions." "This is the coronation carriage, and in it the king rode n the day he took the throne." "In this the Queen wont to open Parliament" "This is the coach in which the Czar and the Sultan rode on the occasion of their visit." All costly and tesselated and enriched and emblazoned are they, and v. hen the driver takes the reins of the ten white horses in his hands, and amid mounted troops and hands in full force sounding the national air, the splendor starts and rolls on under archer entwined with banners, and amid the huzza of hundreds of thousands of spectators the scene is memorable. But my text puts all such occasions into insignificance, as it represents the King of the Universe coming to the door of his palace, and the gilded vapors of the heavens rolling up to His feet, and He stop pin? in ami taking tho reins of the galloping winds in His hand starts in triumphal ride under the arch~s of sapphire, and over the atmospneric highways of opal and chrysolite, the clou ls His chariot. Mv hearers, do not think that God belittles Hims?lf when he takes such conveyance. Do you know that the clouds are among the most wondrous and majestic things in the whole universe? Do you know that they are flying lakes and rivers and oceans? God waved His hand over them and said: "Coma up higher!" and they obeyed the mandate. That cloud instead of being, as it seems, a email gathering of vapor a few yards wide and high is really seven or eight miles across, and is a mountain, from its base to its top, 15,000 feet, 18,000 feet, 20,000 feet, and rut through with ravines 50;K) feet deep. No. David did not make a fragile or unworthy representation of God in the text when he spoke of the clouds as His chariot. But as I suggested in tho case of an earthly king, He has His morning cloud chariot and evening cloud chariot?the cloud chariot in which He rode down to Sinai to onen the law, and the cloud chariot in which he rode down to Tabor to honor the gospel, and the cloud chariot in which He wj]l come to judgment. When He rides out in His morning chariot at th:s season, about six o'clock, he puts golden coronets on the dome of cities, and sil vers the rivers, and our. or tne aew manes a diamond ring for the finger of every prases blade, and bids good cheer to invalids ivho in the night said: "Would God it were morning." From this morning cloud chariot He distributes light, light for the earth and light for the heavens, light for the land and light for the sea, great bars of it, great wreathes of it, great columns of it. a world full of it. Hail Him in worship as every morning He drives out in His chariot of morning cloud, and cry with David: "My voice shalt Thou hoar in the morning: in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee nod look up" I rejoice in these Scripture ejaculations: "Joy corneth in the morning." '"Mv soul waiteth for Thee more than they that watch for the morning," "If 1 take the wing of the morning," "The eyelids of the morning," "The morning cometh," "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning;'' "His going forth is prepared as the morning," "As the morning spread on the mountains," That thou snoumst visit mm every morning." What a mighty thing the King throws from His chariot when He throws us the morning! Yea; He has his ovening cloud chariot. It is made out of the saffron and the gold and the purple and the orange and the vermilion and upshot flame of the sunset That is the place where the splendors that have marched through the day, having ended the procession, throw down the torches and set the heavens on fire. That is the only hour of the day when the atmosphere is clear enough to let us se9 the wall of the heavenly city with its twelve manner of precious stones, from foundation of jasper to middle strata of sardius and on up to the coping of amethyst At that hour wiili out any of Elisha's supernatural vision we see horses of fire and chariots of fire and banners of fire and ships of fire and cities of fire, seas of fire, and it seems as if the last conflagration had begun and there is a world on fire. When God makes these clouds Kis chariot let us all kneel. Another day past, what have we done with it? Anotbc-r day dead and this is its gorgeous catafalque. I No*v is the tim* for what David called the "evening sacrifice," or Daniel called the "evening oblation." Oh! oh! what, a chariot made out of evening cloud! Have you hung over the ta(Trail on the ocean and seen this cloudy vehicle roll over the pavements of a calm summer sea, the wheels dripping with the magnifioence? Have you from the top of Ben Lomond or the Cordilleras or the Berkshire hills seen the day pillowed for the night, and yet had no aspiration of praise and homage? Oh, what a rich God we have that He can Lr put on one evening sky pictures that excel Michael Angelo's "Last Judgment" and Ghirlandjo's "Adoration of the Magi" and -whole galleries of Madonnas, and lor only an nour, ana tueu away, and the next evening put on the same sky something that excels all that the Raphaels and the Titans and the Rembrandts ana the Corregios and the Leonardo da Vincis ever executed, and then draw a curtain of mist over them never again to be exhibited! How rich God must be to have a new chariot I of clouds every evening! But the Bible tells us that our King also has a black chariot. "Clouds and darkness." ! we are told, "are round about him." That ! chariot is cloven out of night, and that night j is troubla When He rides forth in that | black chariot pestilence and earthquake and famine and hurricane and woe attend Him. ! Then let the earth tremble. Then let na; tions pray. Again and again He has ridden ! forth in that chariot of black clouds, across i England, France, Italy. Russia, and America, ; and over all nations. That which men took ! for the sound of cannonading at Sehastopol, I at Sedan, at Gettysburg, at Tel-el-Kebir, at i Hunker Hill, were only the rumblings of the j black chariot of the Almighty. Ave, it is . the chariot of stormcloud armed with thun. derholts. and neither man nor angel nor devil | nor earth nor hell nor heaven can resist Him. j Un those boulewards of blue this chariot never turns out for anything. Aye, no one else drives there. Under one wheel o? i that chariot Babylon was crushed and Baalher>k fe!l deid and the Roman Empire was i prostrate I and Atlantis, a whole continent j that once connected Europe with America, I sank clear out of sight so that the longest anchor of ocean steamer cannot touch the top I of its highest mountains. The throne of tfte I Cresars was le?s than a pebble under the right wheel of this chariot, and the Austrian despotism less than a snowflake under the left wheel. And over destroyed worlds on worlds that chariot has rolled without a jar or .iolt. This black chai iot of war cloiifd rolled up to the northwest of Europe in 1812 and four j hundred thousand men marched to take Mosj cow, but that chariot of clouds rolled back, ! and only twenty-five thousand out of the four | hundred thousand troops lived to return. No j gr<=at snow storm like that had ever before or | has ever since visited Russia. Aye, the chariot : of the Lord is irresistible. There is ! only one thing that can halt or turn any of 1 His chariots, and that is prayer. Again and : azain it has stooped it, wheeled it around, j and the chariot of black clouds under that ! sanctified human breath has blossomed into such brightness and color that men and anzels had to veil their faces from its brightness. Mark you, the ancient chariot which j David uses as "a symbol in my text had only ! two wheels.aml that was that they might tarn I quickly, two wheels taking less than hal | the time to turn that four wheels would j have taken. And our Lord's chariot has j only two wheels, and that means instant re | versai, ana mscam neip, ana instant uenver- i lance. .While the combined forces of the u liverse in battle array could not stop his j ] black chariot a second or diverge it an inch, J j the driver of that chariot says: "Call upon j | Me in the day of trouble and I will dej liver thee." "While they are yet : speaking I will hear." Two-wheeled , chariot, one wheel .-justice and the other j wheel mercy. Aye. they are swift wheels, j A cloud, whether it belongs to the cirrhus, i the clouds that float the highest; or belongs i to the stratus, the central ranges; or to the ! ' cumulus, the lowest ranges, seems to move j j 3lowly along the sky if it moves at all. But ; ; many clouds eo at a speed that would make j a vestibule limited lightning express train ' seem lethargic, so swift is the chariot of our j God; j'ea, swifter than the storm, swifter ! than the light. Yet a child ten years old has been known to reash up, and with the hand j I of prayer take the courser of that chariot j by the bit and slow it up, or stop it, or turn | it aside, or turn it back. The boy Samuel I stopped it. Elijah stoppod it Hszelciah j ' stopped it. Daniel stopped it. Joshua I ' stopped it Esther stopped it Ruth stopped i it Hannah stopped it Mary stopped it : My father stoppea it My mother stopped it I 41v sister stODDed it We have in our Sab I bath-schools "children who again and again 1 and again have stopped it. | Notice that these old-time chariots, which i my text uses for symbol, had what we would I call a high dash-board at the front, but were j open behind. And the king would stand at the dash-board and drive with his own hands, ! And I am glad that He, whose chariot the | j clouds are, drives Himself. He does not let | I natural law drive, for natural law is deaf. He ; does not let fate drive, for fate is merciless, j Bat our Father King drives Himself. ! and He puts His loving hand on the reins of j the flying coursers, and He has a loving ear ! open to the cry of all who want to catch His attention. Oh, I am so glad that my Father | drives, and never drives too fast, and never | drives too slow, nnd never drives off the I j precipice, and that He controls,by a bit that : never breaks, the wildest and most raging j circumstancea I heard of a ship captain j who put out with his vessel with a large number of passengers from Buffalo on Lake j ! Erie, very early in the season and while ; there was" much ice. When they were well j : out the captain saw to his horror that the ice ; : was (jjusiug ill ua liilli 11 uiu an sji&oo, auu uo , j saw no way out from destruction and death. 1 He called into the cabin the passengers and j all the crew that could be spared from their | posts, and told them that th .' sh p must be lost j unless (iod interposed, and although he was not a Christian man ho said: '"Let us pray," and they all kDeit asking God to come "for their deliverance. They went back to the deck, and the man at the wheel shouted: "All I right, cap'n, it's blowing nor' by nor' west j now." A\ bile the prayer was -joing on in the rabin the wind changed and blew the ice out of the way. The mate asked^Shall Iputon more sail, cap'n?" "No!"' responded the captain. "Don't touch her. Some one else is managing this ship." Oh, men and women,shut in on all sides by icy troubles and misfortunes, in earnest j prayer put all your affairs in the hunds of I i>od. You will come out all riaht. Some one | Vse is managing the shin! It dirt w?1s m ! happen so that when Leyrlen was beseiged, ; and the Duke of Alva felt sure of his tri % -v . ?J i .1 A 4-1.A I umpn, suddenly iue wmu lumeu, auu mo | swollen waters compelled him to stop ' the siege. and the city wa9 saved, j God that night drove along the coast of the Netherlands in a black chariot of storm cloutL It did not merely happen so I that Luth<.;r rose from the place where he was sitting just in time to keen from Ix-ing I crush? I by a stone that the instant after fell | on the very spot. Hftd he not escaped where would have been the Information? it did not merely happen so that Columbus was saved trom drowning by an oar tint was floating on the waters. Otherwise, who woiul have unveiled America? Jt did not merely happen so that when (Jeor^e Washington was in Brooklyn a great fog settled down overall the place where this church stands, and over all this end of Long Island, and that under that fog he and his army escaped from the clutches of Generals 11 owe and Clinton. In a chariot of mist and cloud the God of American Independence Hn tl?of nillnw nf>nn?rt!a't,ion iwucaiung uvio. v>i buuv p<iiv<> vw.?v.~... I put down my head to sieop at night. On that soli.l foundation 1 builu when 1 see this nation in political paroxysm every four years, nor. been use tiiey care two cents about whether it is high tariff, or low tariff, or uo fcsriff at all, but only whether the Democrats or the Republicans shall have tha salaried offices. Yea, when European nations are holding their breath, wondering whether Russia or Germany will launch a war that will incarnadine a continent, I fall bank on the faith that my Father drives. Yes, I cast this as an anchor, and plant this as a column of strength, and iift this as a telescope, and build this as a fortress, and propose without any perturbation to launch upon an unknown future triumphant in the fact that my Father drives. Yes. He drives very near, i know that many of the clouds that you see in summer are far off, the bases of some of them five mihs above the earth. High on the highest peaks of the Andes travelers have seen clouds far higher than where they were standing. Gay Lussac, after he had risen in a balloon twenty-three thousand teet, still saw clouds above him. But t'.iere are clouds that touch the earth and discharge the.r rain, and. though the clouds out of which God's chariot is made may sometimes be far away, olten they are close by, and they touch our shoulders, and they touch our homt's, and they touch us all over. 1 have read of two r-des that tho Lord took in two different chariots of clouds, and of another that He will take. Une day, in a chariot ot clouds that were a mingling of fog and smoke and fire. Go! drove down to the top of a terrible crag fifteen huudred feet high, now called Jebel-Musa, then called Mount Sinai, and He stepped out of His chariot i among th* split shelvings of rock. The i mountairs shook as with an ague, and there : were ten volleys of thunder, each of the ten emphasizing a tremendous "Thou shalt," or "Thou shalt not." Then the Lord resumed His chariot of cloud aud drove up the hills of heaven. They were dark and portentous clouds that made that chariot at the giving of the law. But one day He took another ride, and this time down to Mount Tabor, the clouds out of which His chariot was made,were bright clouds, roseate clouds, illumiued clouds, and music rained from all of them, and tbe music was a mingling of carol and chant and triumphal march: ''This is My beloved iSon, in whom I am well pleased." Transfiguration chariot I "Oh," say hundreds of you, "I wish I could have sean those chariots?the black one that brought the Lord to Jebel-Musa ut the giving "''ha la 1*7 onri fch? white one that brought Him down to Tabor." Never mind, you will see something grander than that, and it will be a mightier mingling of th* sombre and the radiant, and the pomp of it will be such that the chariots in which Trajan, and Diocletian, and Zenobia, and Caesar, and Alexander, and all the conquerors of all the ages rode will be unworthy of mention; and what stirs me the most is that when he comes in that chariot of cloud and goes back, He will ask you and me to ride with Him both ways. How do I know that tiie judgment chariot will be made out of clouds/ Revelation L, 7: "Behold He cometh with clouds." Oh, He will not then ride through the heavens alone as He does now. He is going to bring along with Hiin escort of ten full regiments. Inspiration says: "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints." | But those figures simply mean that there i will be a great throng. And as we shall | probably through the atonement of Christ be in heaven before that, I hope that we can come down in that escort of chariots. Christ in the centre chariot, but chariots before Him to clear the j way, and chariots behind Him, and chariots ; , on either side of Him. Perhaps the proph- I ; ets and patriarchs gof the old dispensation j I may ride ahead each oua charioted?Abraham I I and Moses and Ezekiel and Dayid and Joohua, I * - I i who iorotoia nis nrst coming. \ju ohuci o???o > | of the central chariot apostles and martyrs ; who in the same or approximate centuries i I suffered for Him?Paul, Stephen, and Igna- j i tius, aud Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, and j : multitudes who went up in chariot of fire j : now coming in chariot of cloud, whiie in the | rear of the oentral chariot shall be the multi- j ' tudes of latter days and of our own timo who | have tried to serve the Lord, ourselves I hope : among them "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints." Yes, although all unworthy of such companionship we want to come with Him on that day to see the last of this old world which was our residence. Coming through the skies myriads of | chariots rolling on and rolling down. By that time how changed this world will be. : Its deserts all flowers, its rocks all mossed I and lichened, its poor houses all palaces, , its sorrows all joys, its sins all virtues, : and in the same pasture field lion and calf, and on the same perch hawk and dove. Now the chariots of cloud strike the earth, Ailing j all the valleys, and covering all the mountain s.'des, and halting in all the cemeteries and graveyards and over the waters deep where the dead sleep in coral sarcophagus. A loud blast of the resurrection trumpet is given and the bodies of the dead t I rise and join the spirits from which they have ; long been separated. Then Christ, our King, ' +1%A Ap rtlnn/1 wifh hie ! | I ISIU^ in buu tcuvci uuauvu wi viwuu| ??hm ? . j scarred hands waves the signal, and the I chariots wheel and come into line for glorious | ascent. Drive on! Drive up! Chariots of } cloud ahead of the King, chariots of I cloud on either side of the King, j chariots of cloud following the Kin?. Up- I ward and a past starry hosts, and through immensities, and across infinitudes, higher, higher, higher, unto the gates, the shining gates. Lift up your heads, ye Everlasting Gates, for Him who maketh the clouds His chariot, and who through condescending ana I uplifting grace invites us to mount and ride with Him! " TEMPERANCE. 1 Rally Bound the Banner. Rally rouud the temperance banner. Wake ; the echoes with your song. Shake the hills with your hosannaa. Swell ; the chorus loud" and long. Onward still the cause is speeding. Soon j will dawn a brighter day. _ Where humanity lies bleeding. Temperance i soon shall win the sway. Rally round the temperance standard. In | the war against this foe. "Who will lead the glorious vanguard? Who j will deal the conquering blow? Strike now in and out of season. Dash aside the poison bowl. Save immortal man his reason. Strike the \ fetters from his soul. Rally ropnd the temperance banner. On the hilltops let it wave. j Young and old, with loud hosannas. Cheer the hearts ye toil to save. j Wives and children join your praises. Fill j the air with glad refrain, As the daffodils and daisies breathe their , perfume after rain. G. H". Vouk,in "Battle Axe of Temperance." j Dr. B. W. Richardson on Alcohol. : In ]>Sii3. and for a year or two before, I had | been making some original researches into , the properties of a rare chemical substance named uitrite of amyL Then 1 went on to \ inquire into the methyl series, and so step by j step continued, reporting every year until, iu ; ISM, 1 began with the alcohols. It was at j one time supposed that there was only one of j these, but there are now known to be several. Now, the first great fact that startled ' me when examining "into the alcohols was i that they unque-tionably lowered the temperature of the body. 1 did not thon know j that any one else had noticed this before me; ! but 1 know now that two or three others? j Dr. John Davy (brother of .Sir Humphrey;, j Dr. Rae, the Arctic u.spiorer, and Dr. Lees, J of Leeds, hd all severally suspected this j fact: but they hud not proved it by experimental research. My great point was a dej monstrntion by scientific instruments?by the perfect thermometers now made. That was the first step?the startling fact that alcohol lowers temparature. Now for the second. This came tYon the study of anaesthetics. In watching t he action of alcoj hoi,I found there were just the same four de! grees or stages as in the action of anesthetics, | viz., simple excitement without insensibility; excitement with commencing insensibility; 1 insensibility absolute; and lastly, death-like , i insensibility. I came, therefore, to the con! elusion that alcohol does not act after the I manner of a food,but of a chemical substance j like an anaesthetic. This, then, was the ! second step. This was followed up by tracing j the changes and the modifications which j take place" in the body from the continued j use of alcohol. I reauhe 1 thus the third step I or third conclusion, viz., that alcohol is a prolific cause of death and of great harm to tae internal organs of the body; it is, in fact in its ordinary use, a slow poison. I can no more accept th'e alcohols as food3 than I can chloroform, or ether, or methvlal. That they produce a temporary excitement is true: but as their general action is quickly to reduce animal heat, I cannot see how they can supply animal force. I see clearly how they reduce animal power, and can show a reason for using th?m in order to stop physical pain or to stupefy mental pain; but that they give strength?i. e., that they supply j material for construction of fine tissue, or throw force into tissues supplied by other material?must be an error as solemn as it is widespread. The true character of the alcohols is that they are agcreeablo temporary shrouds. The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his restless energy under their shadow. The civilized man, overburdened with mental labor or with engrossing care, seeks the same shade; but it is shade, after all, in which, in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker retires from perfect natural life.?CasseWs Mayazins. A Monkey's Tcmperance Lesson. In my youth, says a writer to an exchange, I had a friend who Had a monkoy. We always took him out 011 our chestnut parties. He shook all our chestnuts for us. One day my friend stopped at a tavern, and gava Jack about half a glass of whiskey. .Jack took the glass and drank its contents, the effects of which soon set him skipping, hopping and dancing. Jack was drunk. We agreed to come to the tavern next day, and see if Jack would drink again. I called in the morning at my friend's ! but instead of being as usual on his box. Jack I was not to be seen. We looked inside, and | there he was. crouched up in a heup. "Come," said his master. Jack came out on throe legs, applying his fore-paw to his head. Jack had the headache. He was sick and couldn't go. Bo we put it off three days. We then met again at the tavern and provided a glass for Jack. But where was he? Skulking behind chairs. "Come here, Jack," said his master, holding the glass out to him. Jack retreated, and as the door opened he slipped oat and in a moment was on the top of the house. His master called him down. Jack refused to ol>ey. My friend got a whip and shook it at him". The monkey continued on the ridgepole. His master got a gun and pointed it at him. Jack slipped over to the back of the building. He then got two guns and had one pointed on each side of the house, when the monkey jumped upon the chimney and got down in one of the flues and held 011 by his four-paws. My friend kept that monkey twelve years afterwards, but never asked him again to take whisky. < . ; EELIGIOUS READING. The 2Hill? of (lie God*. Hark! How the mills are grinding, How the busy burrs go round, With a low and harmonic humming, Where the harvest grain is ground. See! how the chaff is winnowed, How the millsto' e's wond'rous might Sends forth on the floor before us The wheat in its robe of white, So the powers of the Fate are grinding, With a motion and plan fublime, Our mortal acts and motives, In the wonderful mills of time. The mills of the gods are grinding? Steadily, surely and slow? The wheat and the chaff dividing To the place where each should go And the hapless chaff is winnowed; But lives that are lived aiight,' Like the grain on the floor before us, Come forth all pure and white. Ro t.he rolHntr hours ore crindinc. And the pitiless years go round, "With a slow and solemn motion Where the mortal grain is ground. JI?lc ni a Daily Help. The sound of piano, flute, violin, or banjo is essentially a cheerful homo sound, indicating the absence of illness or affliction. In seasons of bereavement the voice of music is hushed. Whether or not the daughter shall ever play so skillfully that her performances can satisfy artistic critics, it is worth while for her to practice if she plays well enough only to please her father or mother. The household group in the evening, with Ella at the piano and the big brother by her side, singing and turning her leaves, the younger ones joining in the chorus, papa supplying a deep bass like the rumble of a wave, is pleasant to the eye as to the ear. Music is a daily help over hard places, a sweetener of toil, a soothing influence when there are signs of rough weather in the domestic sky. On the Sabbath evening, when the little ones are allowed to sit up a half hour later than on other days, bow charming it is to sing over the dear hymns familiar to us through many and varied experiences,linked in thought with stories of other days and with memories of dear ones whoBe voices now join in the choru3 beside the crystal sea. These home concerts on Sabbath evening are full of tender sweetness, and do much to hallow the home and make the home life V\lucoa/l rf h?*ieHon fnfalltrrarKVir lWUI Mirror*. We are mirrors. We can not help being reflec ors. We reflect in our characters every influence that touches our lives. I am Introduced to you. You speak one sentence ?I know that you are an Englishman or an American or a Spaniard. You are a combination of reflections. We become like those with whom we associate. Two boys in a university in England roomed together for eight years. Toward the end of that time these tw > boys were so much alike that it become remarkable. They had reflected and reflected until one was the image of the other. If you called on one and lound the other ono instead, you might talk to him on the same subjects and expect to receive the same answers that you would from the other. I once knew a girl who was growing so saintly that every one wondered. No one guessed her secret. She became very ill ana a dear friend of hers obtained permission to open a locket which ; she wore constantly about her neck. There she saw engraved on the inside of the locket ! the clue to the secret: "Whom having not seen we love." If we reflect the glory of Cnrist we shall be changed from glory to ; glory?th"t is fr >m character to character. How this is I cannot tell. Had Paul written in these times he would probably have used the photograph instead of the mirror as a symbol. I cannot tell how the shadow which appears on the plate is fastened there. No one can. And I can not tell how character is changed. We reflect Christ for a time, and then we are changed again and then again, and so on from glory to glory. First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear, and after that it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Do you not see the infinite possibilities of this? We are to go on and on. We are to be God's reflectors in this world.?[Prof. H. Drummond in Christian Mirror. 8uy So. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Let us testify to this iove of Christ How strange that some, who we can scarcely I doubt ore believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, their conduct is so graceful and gracious, refuse to take every opportunity of testifying to His love and grace. Do not think this command is written in vain: "Let God's redeemed say so." Some won't say so. They have been redeemed, yet they refuse to tell others of Him who loved them and gave Himself for them It is incredible; yet wo j know it is so Why it should be so wo can- | not tell. Because the remembrance of his goodness is not only helpful to ourselves, but strengthening to the f jith of others. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Very simple words these "say so." "My mother's ki s made me a painter," said Benjamin West, recording how when, as a boy, amusing himself with drawing and coloring, * * 1 ' 1 WAnm nn/1 A ! 1 nis motaer eutei uu mo iww, uuu, uu.ibukvu with his work, caught him up in her arms, and covered him with kisses So we might say we know not all Go 1 might be pleased to do for us did we but give Him the gratitude due to His name. Gratitude would bring us fresh assurance of help in every time of need: it would draw us nearer to God, and consequently nearer to one another. A French i cynic has said that men are very often thankful for trivial gifts, but are weighted down with great blessings, the sense of obligation not seldom making them enemies. Do not let it be so with us; God has conferred on us the highest of ail possible obligations in the gift of His Son?do not let it be said wo are unthankful. God has done great things for us, and let us siy so. Do not bo afraid to confess it in His presence and in the presence of our fellow-men. There is nothing to be concealed. Another French cynic I has said, "Language is given to conceal our thoughts.:l Do not let us use language to conceal our gratitude to our Heavenly Father. If we receive from heaven, no language can be - -. - _? u:? ??,l too empnatic to ten it out ueiwc mm a??.? before the universe. We can never do wrong in praising God for His mercies. Ingratitude is one of the crying sins of the day. Men ask and receive, yet seldom return thanks. One visiting an asylum for the insane was accosted by one of the inmates: "Have you thanke.l God this morning you are not mad?" "I never thought of it." So wo very of ten act. We forgot to think God for His common mercies, and even for His greatest and grandest of all mercies ?our deliverance from captivity, our redemption by the blood of His son; His guiding us as pilgrims. His bringing us out of the prison-house, his breaking the bars assunder, His raising us from deadly sickness, or preserving us from it; His stilling the storms and tempests of life, and His promise of leading us safe hoire to heaven at last. We do not think of these things?even the last and best, the gift of His own dear Bon, for us who deserve*! it not and desired it not. All this done for us so freely; and yet thousands have never gone to God and said, "I thank Thee for sending Thy Son to die for me; and that Thou didst find me by Thy grace and didst quicken me when dead in trespasses and sins." Thousands do not believe thesa things, and therefore do not say so: but thousands do believe, and yet do not say so. Surely there is nothing to be ashamed of in it There is nothing to make us shamefaced in His great love in giving His Son to die for us. Yet thousands know that Jesua died for their sins who will not say so for very nhame. There is plenty to make me ashamed of myself, hut there is nothing to be ashamod of iu God's love in giving His Son for me. Let the redeemed of the Lord say ol?[Rev. Dr. Paterson. The Real Despots. At a liquor dealers' banquet at Dalmonico's one evening last week, one of the afterdinner speakers is reported as saying that the world was too much governed and "not least by its own dear domestic despots, by its homes and firesides." The speaker, of course, omitted to sey how much the world was governed by those other despots, the rum bottle and the beer keg, \V hen it comes to a choice of governments wo are inclined to the belief that the world will prefer the "dear domestic despots" to the grog-shops every time. There are many, at least, who believe that it would be well to give the "dear domestic despots" a fair cUanco for a while.?New Yvrk Observer. WOMAN'S WORLD. PLEASANT LITERATURE FOR FEMININE READERS. Where Woman is Humbled. A** onort/lrtfo in 4V?o TT/vm/in'j uAm>7/7 A UUOVUV/bU 1U bUU ft \/HMV'I O F f V# W shows the attitude in Germany toward woman's part in puplic interests. At a call made by an English couple upon a German of eminence and his wife, talk arose upon the public question of the hour. The Engli-hman, perceiving that the German lady was being left out of the discussion, asked: "And what is your opinion, madam?" Before she could reply her Genhan lord made short work of it: "Leave the room, meine Liebc; these matters can be of no interest to you." The Oldest Woman Banker. A group of bankers in a downtown restaurant were discussing the question: "Is the banking business conducive to longevity?" when one of themaaid: "i don't believe men in our line of business are any more liable to die young than preachers or doctors. There are a dozen bank president'1, in New York who have passed their seventieth year and are still hale and active. Two or three of these men have reached their seventy-fifth year. There is a lady banker, however, who is smarter for her years than any of them. She is Mrs. | Deborah Poww *, the head of the banking firm of D. Power & !Son, at Laosingburg, N. Y., and her age is uinety-nine years. ?New York Teleyram. An Old Marriage Custom. A curious old marriage custom, which is still widely prevalent in Brittany, was recently interpreted in a novel and amusing manner. According to the custom, the bridegroom, immediately after the priest had wedded the couple, ' strikes his wife in the face, saying: j "This is how you will fare if you make i me angry," and then, kissing her, he savs: "And this is how you will fare if you treat me well." A short tim? ago a young Breton married a German girl, and after the ceremony was over began at once to practice the first part of the time-hoaored custom. The bride, who was ignorant of the "inner meaning" of what she considered an insult, turned round on her lord and master and returned the stroke, 9uying: "J.ook here, I do not approve of such behavior," after which the husband is said to have performed the second part of the ceremony q fKnn tV?o tkhq] flffprtion. Whims in Millinery. The American woman, in nothing, is go whimsical as in her bonnet. The decided Parisian styles are not popular in this country, even in New York city, the most Parisian city on this continent in its tastes. London fashions are more popular, but they are not followed closely. New York miliners order bonnets made in Paris to suit their trade here, and many ladies who have been abroad find that in New York city alone can they procure a bonnet which is not exj treme in taste and, above all, a bonnet which fits them, an item often overlooked by the Parisian hat maker. More extreme and striking styles are worn in Paris and London than will be tolerated in New York. A few weeks may change the entire complexion of the millinery I outlook of to-day. The drygoods man | can dictate to his customers what they I shall wear, The milliner cannot, and it \ is not always safe to predict that the I " ' -1 ?:n: ?.;ii ! j nrst jmpormuuus ui lumiucijr nm m- i J dicate what the fashions are to be.? ! Oootl Housekeeping. Lamentation of an Exiled Queen. } Marie, the exiled Queen of Naples, I lives the year around in Paris, in hired | apartments on a third floor, for which I Bhe pays *1200 a year rent. The house j is retired and unfashiouable, and the j rooms are furnished with almost meagre simplicity. This recluse-like life is fol- ! lowed by the Queen's own desire, to ! which her husband readily accedes. She j feels that she is an outcast from her. j former estate, and therefore is deter- j | mined to live like an outcast. "If," , I she once once remarked, 4,I remain at | the bottom of the ladder I shall at least; have no fear of falling further. If I j cherish no hopei I shall suffer no disap- j pointments. If I set ray heart on nothing I thall not be bereaved. I went to Naples a queen, and in a year I left an exile. My rooms in the palace there ; were scarcely put in order for me when I j was driven out by the revolution. Then | ! we went to Home. My husband owned ! a palace there, and made it our home. j i What then? In a few years Victor Em- j i manuel drove us out of it. We fled to i England and then to France. We were ! about to make a permanent home and devote ourselves to our only child, when that child died. Has not misfortune pressed us cruelly? Doubtless, if we were to purchase a house and seek to | make a permanent home it would be : taken from U3. If we were to make friends we would lose them. No, we are exiles and wanderers, and such we must ever remain."?New York News. The Trousseau Not So Elaborate. A good Parisian dressmaker says that the troussea has ceased to be the gigantic outlit which it used to be. Fashions j now change so rapidly that what is in i vogue to-aav may be antiquated six j month* hence. Half a-dozen dresses at j most are uow given to a bride ot tip-top : quality by her parents. The usual number is live, to wit: The dress, par excellence, which can be made to serve, divested of orange blossoms, at dinner parties and the opera; a traveling costume; a visiting gown; a morning gown, and a ball dress. There is the same economy shown in providing hats, bonnets and mantles, and underclothing j is only provided in a quantity amply necessary for cleanliness and comfort. It is found that the store-keeper is the best custodiau of feminine finery, aud that the less there is given over to | the safe-keeping of the servants, the! better. Then a quantity of lumbering | boxes are such a trial to temper, and j such an impediment to ruuning, accord- { I ing to one's humor, from crtie place to I ! another. It is a fearful responsibility for J a Frenchman entering the wedded state to have a wife with a voluminous trous- j seau. If she dies within three years ! after her marriage, he is bound (allowance j being made for wear and tear) to return j it to her parents. Whatever objects are j lost must be accounted for. He is furnished with a list of the garments, and | another is retained by the bride's family. The notaries of bride and bridegroom ' also receive one each. The struggle for : influence between the mother-in-law! designate begins when the bride-elect! must be placed in the hands of a dress- I maker for her outfit. One of the old j ladies wants her own favorite priestess j of fashion, and so does the other. There i is often such a tug of war that the match is broken off.?Argonaut. The Era of Hair Dressing. The era of hair dressing is at hand, days in which the simpler styles will be forgotten and women shall vie in the elaboration of their ti ssses as now they -* ''' * jRSBR do in the cut of their gowns. What is much nearer and surer is the prophesy of growing individuality in the arrange ment of the hair. Fashions in hair dressing are dangerous things to pass from hand to hand. What is one woman's beauty is the deformity of another. Good-bye and bon voyage to you, Psyche knot. The pug of Cupid's lady love has worn well with the summei girl. It is easy to arrange under sailor hats and easy to keep in place. But to wear it with a home toilet wants a face as regular as Sappho's, a figure poised like L*iana's, the lightness of movement and grace of a Hebe, the culture of an Aspasia and the clinging robes of a goddess or eastern queen. A.Ias for the commonplace and pug-nosed girl, the high-cheek boned, the long chinned girl, the girl of the Koman nose and hard featuies, when the Psyche knot walks abroad, degenerated into a hair club, with two corkscrew curls depending like the tassels of a patrolman's knob stick from the end. Hair is going higher; it is also coming lower, and neither style ought of necessity to matter much to you or me. Look at your face first and no fashion that suits it will be wrong. < f the simpler styles, which one need not call a nair-drcsser to arrange, a flat coil of smtill braids wound pancakc fashion against the back of the head threatens to come in. With a full,round cast of features and straying tendrils oJ front hair to relieve it, this plate coiffure sometimes goes "well. A small, round coil, low in the neck, but not resting on the collar is more generally becoming than any other suit of hair; it is almost indispensable when the ears are prominent or large, piling the hair on top ol the head, mak'ng, in such cases, the offending members more noticeable. Ill-shaped ears want the hair pulled loose above and behind them. For the evening toilet it is probable that the bang has received its death blow. It struggles bravely, but the Louis XV. and XVI. styles will kill it. It would not be surprising if a bare forehead were exhibited this winter by many women who can doit with impunity and some who can't. A coming style calls for a small soft roll over which the front hair is carried up in waves, the ends being coiled and fastend in round, wavy loops with small gold or amber combs. A curl or two is allowed to fall on the forehead, but not to hide the brow. With such a coiffure the home hail dresser twists the back hair into a fiattisb French loll, coiliiig the ends loosely on top. For occasions calling for more elabo rate arrangements as miny puns, twists and loopsas the mind of man ever devised are intricately entwined.?Detroit Free Press. Fashion Notes. Ribbon bonnets will be worn through the autumn. Many of the new felt bonnets have appliijue designs upon them. Gray and blue reseda and ruby art likewise effectively combined. Embroidered velvets appear among the novelties of the present season. Many of the autumn gowns have silk shirt waists, belted and worn with coats. Two colors of velvet are sometimes combined in the new toques, with excel lent effect. Cashmere colored brocaded ribbons art shown in widths for bonnet trimming: and sashes. Miniature brooms of green gold, with platinum handles, are worn as earrings by ladies of political proclivities. G.ltrsk*. KnU Kii/tlrloa worrinff frnm fwr. I VJ1X ? v.1 ugm k/uvuiv) w? j *"o ?f v to six inches in width, and simulating the antique in pattern, are now in vogue. New walking boots are laced in front, the uppers being made of the materia', of the dress, and foxed with russel leather. Ostrich feathers of all lengths are being restored to favor for trimming bonnets and large hats for autumn and winter. A novel garniture for bonnets consists of three Greek fillets, of gold, silver, 01 jet. banded across the top through puffs of velvet. Polonaises witii diagonal ironts are in high favor, and have the advantage oi being becoming alike to slender and stout figures. Long redingotes, plaited skirts, polonaises and Dircctoire coats are the leading characteristics of the nearly imported gowns. A favorite arrangement of colors in a costume is a brown polonaise over a green skirt, which is bordered with brown stripes. Large "picture hats," similar to those worn during the summer, are imported in felt and velvet for dressy autunrn and winter wear. Black and white onyx is the thing fot half mourning jewelry, while inch thick rings of jet are the proper caper for the earrings in the depth of woe. Satin-woven stripes appear in the new woolens, n:ainly in gray green aud gray blue shades, and are made up witn metal accessories, either galloon or embroidery. The fichu shawls of net, black 01 white, aod lace-edged, worn throughout the summer, are now supplemented with others of China crape, black, white or colored. Bad Boys Are a Mother's Pride. "Maybe you think," says a bachelot cynic, in the Times Democrat, "that mothers break their hearts over children who are holy terrors. But you aro wrong. As a matter of fact they are proud of the misdeeds of their small children. They are proud of terrors. They are always afraid their children will be goody-goody milksops. Don't you know a woman secretly likes a spice of wickedness in her offspring?that is, until they grow up? Of cour.-e. she will spank her boy for fighting with another boy, but she will spank him twice as hard if he has been licked as she will if he had the best of it. I believe the tenderest mother in the world likes to be rebelled against sometimes. It shows spirit, and a mother's awfully proud of spirited children. If she was sure her boy wouldn't get hurt she would like to go out and see him light another boy. They're queer things, women." Queen of Bntter Makers. A Holland-Frirsian cow of Crawford County, l'enn., registered (Shadeland Boon No. SS87), has ust beat the buttermaking record, having produced 12.1 pounds and twel.e ouives of unsaltcd butter in one month. This butter was made from I77^i pounds of milk which the gave during that period. For this remarkable word it required but 14.0!) pounds of milk for a pound of butter. The average for the whole time was over four pounds a day. For seven consecutive clays she produced 01 pounds loi ounces, or an average of 4 pounds OA ounces per day. During that week she gave 100.1 pounds of milk, and it took but 12.51 pounds of milk for a pound ot butter. For four consecutive days she lacked but 33 ounces of making ;i pounds of butter per day,--Timti* Demo rat. % j i.? WORDS OF WISDOM. _ Deal with the fortunate. Silence is the fence around wisdom. No man it impatient with his creditors. j The amenities qf life make the true beanty of living. Life is a continual routine whatever guise it assumes. <f3 A smile through tears is the soul'# rainbow of peace. The simple faith of a little child is the world's truest homage. Good breeding is ' like affection?one cannot have too much of it. TV/mma nro nfftimoa th<? fulfilment of *",v " ??vv * rssrjQ a prophecy within our3elves, The power of forgiveness is the n<xblest astribute in the human character. To be autocratic is to be unjust to , ouraelves. No- man is "sufficient unto himself." Despair and happiness are so closely linked that each is riven by the wealth of the other. Getting up in the morning is like getting up in the world. You ran not da either without more or less self-denial. Where a dam is weakened the water flows more freely?so a great flow of words may be the result of mental weakness. It is a curious fact that man willcondemn all the faults in others and excuse whatever habits ho may possess himself. With many, life is like a kettle of sap in maple sugar time, each bubble trying to swell up higher than the other, until it bursts. v ' Fools may say wise things, but they do not profit by them?so wise men may sometimes err. In either case the nature is not changed.! .. . Theories may be beautiful, they may contain some truth, but experience knows all their romance; on one side, and brings them to a test of- their real value. . Mysterious Indian Herb' Bemedieg. Without doubt men of a moneymaking turn might, with perseverance, acquire from the Indians knowledge of the mysterious herbs with: which, they cure, radically, some of thofle formidable diseases which batlle the greatest physicians of the world. From- Chispas and Tabasco up to Sonora- and Chihuahua, the Indians make good use of the herbs of the field and forest* The Indiaus who live around the little hill called the Penol, near, the City of Mexico, says a writer in the GloU-Democrat, can cure intermittent fevers much more easily than our physicians, and, ia the state of Queretaro, the IndiaBS have a remedy, known only to themselves, and the secret of which they most jeal- ' ously guard, which cures the worst forms of blood diseases, as many foreigners here can testify. So cunning are these Indians, that they employ, as I am told, a medicine which, has the property of paralyziDg temporarily the- sense of taste, and thus their patients oan get no clue to the nature of the herbs they are taking. Maleria yields quickly to the powerful remedies of the Indians, and these same rude practioners will oure bad cases of typhus fever. In the treatment of the smallpox the Indians are very successful, placing their patients in dark rooms, but permitting currents of air to be continnally passing over the - - * * ?* ' 1 1 .? body ot tne patient, wnne some ueruui remedy is continually administered. That the Indians of the country towns and of the little hamlets up in the Sierras are healthy is plainly to be seen. They live often to an incredible age, and say, themselves, that the white man is a sickly fellow who has gray hair while their own is still coal black. A recent patient of the Queretaro Indians said the remedy administered to him by the Indians seemed to take hold of him in every part of his body, and that for twenty days he was kept covered up and sweatiug profusely. It seemed to him that they were getting his blood < "washed out" and every organ of hisbody cleansed. At the end of the prescribed time he wa3 told that he was cured, and so found himself beyond any doubt. Many of the herbs used by the Indians are declared by them- to be of great value, owing to their scarcity, and it is certain that they cherish them, and will not part with them for a song. Even educated pfiysicians nere empiuy remedies not known in the United States. The horn ropaths use the poison of certain venomous snakes, and the activeprinciple of poisonous native-plants. It is possible that science will yet make good use of the weed with which Indian poisoners take away the wits of their enemies. A little of this powder in your soup, and away goes your intellect and reason. On the principle that "likecures like," it may be that hr this baleful weed there is a remedy for some forms of insanity, for we know very well that thetreatment of brain trouble is in its inr tancy,. so to say. The Lurentor of Invisible Patches aTramp. A. melancholy-looking man* with a shaggy beard, wearing an old slouch hat and trousers with deep fringe around the bottom and a big, shaggy overcoat, stood in front of the Philadelphia postoffice, holding his hands on his chests Everybody looked at him as they passed, and some young fellows jeored at him for wearing an overcoat. The melan* choly-looking man paid no attention to them. He wandered up Ninth street aimlessly and shambled up Market strei.-t ho'ding his hands over his chest as he walked. A reporter asked him what he woie an overcoat for with the tiiermometer at eighty degrees. He spoke in gasps and said: "Because I'm- always cold. I can't get my breath hardly half the time. I have been cold for years. I I used to work at ray trade for eighteen hours a day. I am a shoemaker. I caught cold about ten yeats agOy and I've had hard work to breathe ever since. Sometimes I'm afraid to go tosleop for fear I'll lose my breath I'ca tho man who invented the invisible patch on shoes. That's a good many years ago. lust think of if. I'm the inventor of the invisible patch and I haven't got a cent. I ought to be gettinga royalty from every shoemaker in the country. I was a soldier in the Prussian army. I made many a pair of boots for the officers. "Where am I going? Nowhere." The man laughed harshly. Then he coughed with a hacking sound and went wearily on his way. Rules for War and Tence. Congress declares war; that is, both Houses must act separately on a bill declaring war by the United States against some other country, and the bill must be signed by the President. The President aud tho Senate can make peace. Thus it takes three separate actions to declare war, and only two to make peaca. In 1812 the delaration of war agains* Groat Britain was entitled "An a:-t declaring war between Great Britain aj?d her Dependencies and the United, gtateq and i their Territories."?Sun. ' I