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Rev. dr. talmage. CHE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SEUMON. abject: "Barnlike Birthplaces." H^BText: 4,I"e shall find the babe wrapjyed Xtnnrifl/inri t*l/itln?v /ninn ?'? rr milliner. Ifnd suddenly there tms with the antjel a UUitude of the heavenly host."?Luke iL, I At midnight from one of the galleries of fce sky a chant broke. To an ordinary ob[rver there was no reason for such a celestial bmonstration. A poor man and wife? "avelers, Joseph and Mary by name?had tdged in an outhouse of an unimportant vilRe. The supreme hour of solemnity had Sssed, and upon the pallid forehead and aeelc of Mary God had set the dignity, the randeur, the tenderness, the everlasting and [vine significance of motherhood. I But such scenes had often occurred in ethlehem, yet never before had a star been [lfixed, or had a baton of light marshaled rer the hills a winged orchestra. If there ?d been such brilliant and mighty recognion at an advent in the house of Pharaoh, * at an advent in the house of Csrsar, or the )use of Hapsburg, or the house of Stuart, e would not so much have wondered; but a jrn seems too poor a center for such debit? and arcbangelic circumference. The age seems too small for so great an act, the usic too grand for such unappreciative editors, the window of the stable too rude I be serenaded by other worlds. No, sir. No, madam. It is my joy this orning to tell you what was born that ghtin the villnee barn; and, as I want to ike ruy discourse accumulative ana cliniacic, I begin, in the first place, by telling i that, that night, in the Bethlehem Dger, was born (I.) encouragement for all poorly started. He had only two friends hey His parents. No satin lined cradle, no icate attentions, but straw, and the cattle, L the coarse joke and banter of the camel rers. No wonder the mediaeval painters resent the oxen as kneeling before the int Jesus, for there were no men there at t time to worship. From the depths of it poverty He rose,until to day He s honi in all Christendom, and sits on the Imial throne in Heaven. That name is mightiest to-day in Christen1? Jesus. Who has more friends on ;h than any other being? Jesus. Before >m do the most thousands kneel in chapel church and cathedral this hour* Jesus, whom could one hundred million souls narshaled, ready to tight or die? Jesus, m what depths of poverty to what height snowa! And so let all those who are poorly ted remember that they cannot be more rly born, or more disadvantageously 1 this Christ Let them look up to His tnple while they have time and eternity nitate it. o you knoW that the vast majority of the ld'a deliverers had barnlike birthplaces? her, the emancipator of religion, bora among me mines. oDonopjui o, mo cjuaiuipator of literature, born in a humble borne at Stratford-on-Avon. Columbus, the discoverer of a world, born in poverty at Genoa. Hogarth, the discoverer of how tD make art accumulative and administrative of virtue, born in a humble home at Westmoreland. Kitto and Prideaux. whese keys unlocked new apartments in the Holy Scriptures which had never been entered, born in want Yea, I have to tell you that nine out of ten of the world's deliverers, nine out of ten of the world's messiahs?the m?ssiahs of science, the messiahs of law, the messiahs of medicine, the messiahs of poverty, the messiahs of grand benevolence?were born in want 1 suppose that when Herschel, the great astronomer, was born in the home of a poor musician, not only one star, but all the stars he afterward discovered, pointed down to his manger. I suppose when Haydn, the German composer, was born in the humble home of a poor wheelwright that all the angels of music chanted over the manger. Oh, what encouragement for those who are poorly started. Ye who think yourselves far down aspire to go high up! 1 stir your holy ambitions to-day, and I want to tell you, although the whole world may be opposed to you, and inside and out i side of your occupations or professions there may be"those who would hinder your ascent, on your side and enlisted in your behalf are the sympathetic heart and the almighty arm of One who. one Christmas night about eighteen hundred and eighty-eight years ago, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Oh, what magnificent ancouragement for the poorly started! II. Again, I have to tell you that in that village bam that night was born good will to men, whether you call it kindness, or forbearance, or forgiveness, or geniality, or affection, or love. It was uo sport of high heaven to send its favorite to that humiliation. It was a sacrifice for a rebellious world. After the calamity in Paradise, not only did the ox begin to core, ?\nd the adder to stinjj. and the elephant to smite with his tusk, and the lion to put to bad rise tooth and paw. but under the very tree from which the forbidden fruit was plucked were hatched out war and revenge, and malice and envy and jealousy, and the whole brood of cockatrices. But against that scene I set the Bethlehem manger, which soys: ' Bless rather than curse, endure rather than assault,"' and that Christmas night puts out vindictivenoss. It says: '"Sheathe your sword, dismount your | guns, dismantle your batteries, t urn the war : ?hip Constellation,that carried shot and shell, j into a grain ship to take food to famished i Ireland, hook your cavalry horses to the plow, use jour neuaiy guuj.*j?i;ei iu uia-iun^ rocks and in patriotic celebration, stop your lawsuits, quit writing anonymous letters, extract the sting from your sarcasm, let your wit coruscate but never burn, drop all the harsh words from your vocabulary?'GooJ will to mm."' "Oh'n you say, "I can't exercise it; I won't exercise it until they apologize; 1 won't forgive them until they ask me to forgive them." You are no Christian then?I say you are no Christian, or you are a very inconsistent Christian. If you forgive not men tbeir trespasses, how can you expect your Heavenly Father to forgive you? Forgive them if they ask your forgiveness, and forgive them anyhow. Shake hands all around. "Good will to men." Oh, my Lord Jesus, drop that spirit into our hearts this Christmas hour. I tell you what the world wants more than anything else?more helping hands, more sympathetic hearts, more kind words that never die, more disposition to give other people a ride, and to carry the heavy end of the load and give other people the light end, and to ascribe good motives instead of bad, and to find our Happiness in making others happy. Out of that Bethlehem crib let the bear and the lion eat straw like au ox. "Good will to men." That principle will yet settle all controversies, and under it the world will keep on itnproviug until there will be only two antagonists in ail the earth, and they will side by side take the jubilant sleigh ride int mated by the prophet when he said: ''Holiness shall be on the bells of the horses." III. Again,I remark that born that Christmas night in the village baru was svm pathetic union with other worids. The only skepticism I have ever had about Christianity was an astronomical skepticism which said: "Why would God out of the heavens and amid the Jupiters and Saturns of the universe have chosen our little bit of a world for the achievements of His only begotten Son when He might have had a vaster scale and vaster worlds'" But my skepticism Is all gone as I come to the manger and watch its surroundings. Now 1 see all the worlds are sisters, and that when one weeps they all weep and when one sings they all sing. Frcm lhat supernatuial grouping in the cloud bank3 over Bethelehein, aud irom the espial trains that ran down to the scene, I find that our world is beautifully and gloriously and magnificently surrounded. The meteors are with us, for one of them ran to point down to the birthplace. The heavens are with us, because at the thought of our redemption they roll hosannas out of the midnight sky. Oh! yes; I do not know but our world may be better surrounded than we have sometimes imagined; and when a child is born angels fetch it, and when it dies angels take it, and when an old man bends under the weight of years angels upuold him, ana wiien a heart breaks angels soothe it. Angels in the hospital to take care of the sick. Angels in the cemetery to watch our dead. Angels in church ready to tly heavenward with the news of repentant souls. Angels above the world. Angels under the world. Angels all around the world. Kub the dust of human imperfection out of your eyes, and look into the heavens and see angels of pity, angels of mercy, angels of pardoff, angels or nelp, angels crowned, angels charioted. The world defended by angels, girdled by angels, cohorted by angels ?clouds of angels. Hear l)avid cry out: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand. Even thousands of angels." But the mightiest angel stood not that night in the clouds over Bethlehem; the mightiest angel that night lay among the cattle?the Angel of the new covenant. 1 As the clean, white linen sent in by some motherly villager was being wrapped around the little form of that Child Emperor not a cherub, not a seraph, not an angel, not a world but wept aud thrilled and shouted. (Jh! yes, our world is only a silver ruug of a great ladder, at the top of which is our Fathers's house. No more stellar solitariness for our world, not a friendless planet spun out into space to freeze, but a world in the bosom of divine maternity. A star harnesed to a manger. T Mmorlr Hint that niirht bom I , *? ? o , in that village baru was the offender's hope. I Some sermouizers may say 1 ought to have projected this thought at the beginning of the sermon. Oh, no. I wanted you to rise toward it I wanted you to examine the cornelians and the jaspers and the emeralds and the chrysalis before I showed you the Kohinoor?the crown jewel of the ages. Oh! That jewel had a very poor setting. The cub of bear is bom amid the grand old pillars of the forest, the whelp of the lion takes its first step from the jungle of luxuriant leaf and wild flower, the kid of goat is born in cavern chandellered with stalactite and pillared with stalagmite. Christ was born in a bare barn. Yet that nativity was the offender s hope. Over the door of heaven are written these words: "None but the sinless may enter here." "Oh, horror," you say, "that shuts us all out" No. Christ came to the world in one door and He departed through another door. He came through the door of the manger and He departed through the door of the sepulcher, and His one business was so to wash aws.y our sins that one second after we are dead there will be no more sin about us than about the eternal God. i know that is putting it strongly, but that Is what I understand by full remission. All erased, all washed away, all scoured out, all gone. That undergirding and overreaching and irradiating ana imparaaising possiDuity for you and for me and for the whole rac? was given on that Christmas night. Do you wonder we bring flowers to-day to celebrate such an event' Do you wonder that we take organ and cornet and youthful voice and queenly soloist to celebrate it.' Do you wonder that Raphael and Rubens, and Titian and Giotto and Ghirlandajo, and all the old Italian and German painters gave the mightiest stroke of the pencil to sketch the Madonna, Mary and her boy? Oh! now I see what the manger was. Not so high as the gilded and jeweled and embroidered cradle of the Henrys of England, or the Louises of France, or the Fredericks of Prussia. Now I find out of that Bethlehem crib fed not so much the oxen of the stall as the white horses of Apocalyptic viaion. Now I find the swaddling clothes enlarging and emblazoning into an imperial roi e for a conqueror. Now I find that the star of that Christmas night was only the diamond sandal of Him who hath the moon under His feet. Now I como to understand that the music of that night was not complete song, but only the stringing of the instruments for a great chorus of two worlds, the bass to be carried by earthly nations saved, and the soprano by kingdoms of glory won. 4'0h, heaven, heaven, heaven! I shall meet you there. After all our imperfections are gone I shall meet you there. I look out to- | day, through the mist of years, through the fog that rises from the cold Jordan, through the wide open door of solid pearl, to that reunion. I expect to see you there as certainly as I see you here. "What a time we shall have in "high converse, talking over sins pardoned. and sorrows comforted, and battles triumphant! 1 am going in. I am going to take all my family with me. I am going to take all my church with me. I am going to take all my friends and neighbors with me. .1 have so much faith in manger and cross I feel sure of it. I am going to coax you in. I am going to push you in. By holy strategem I am going to surprise you in. V ea. with all the concentrated energy of my nature?physical, mental, spiritual and immortal?I am going to compel you to go in. I like you so well I want to spend eternity with you! Some of your children have already gone. Some time ago I buried one of them, and though people passing along the street and seeing white crape on the doorbell may have said: "It is only a child," yet when the broken hearted father came to solicit my service he said: "Come around and comfort us, for though sbe was only fifteen months' old we loved her so much." Ah! it does not take Ions for a child to get its arms around the parent's whole nature. What a Christmas morning it will make flmsa witK wKnm vmi iiQar? fn boon thfl holidays are all around you in heaven! Silver haired old father young again, and mother who had so many aches and pains and decrepitude? well asrain. and all your brothers and sisters and the little ones. How glad they will be to see you! They have been waiting. The last time they saw your face it was covered with tears and distress, and pallid from long watchinz, and one of them 1 can imagine to-day, with one hand holding fast 'he shining gate, and the other hand swung out toward you, saying: Steer this way, father, steer Ptraisht for me; Here safe in heaven I cm wailing for thee. Oh! those Bethelehem angels, when they went back after the concert that night over the hills, forgot to shut the door. All the secret is out No more use of trying to bide from us the glories to come. It is too late to shut the gate. It is blocked wide open with hosannas marching this way and hallelujahs marching that way. What almost unmans me is the thought that it is provided for such sinners as you ! and I have been. If it had been provided I only for those who had always thought I right, and spoken ri^ht and acted right, you ' and I would have had no interest in it, had j no share in it; you and I would have stuck j to the raft mid-ocean, and let the ship sail Ktt Aorrx-inrr narfanf, frnm a npp. I/J, f 1> ? I? J feet life on earth to a perfect life in heaven, j Oh! I have heard the Commander of that ship is the same great and glorious and sympathatic One who hushed the tempest around the boat on Galilee, and I have heard that all the passengers on the ship are sinners saved by grace. And so we hail the ship, and it bears down this way. and we coio by the side of it and ask the Captain two questions: '-Who art Thou? and whence?" and He savs: "lam Captain of Salvation, and I am from the manger." Oh! bright Christmas morning of my soul's delight Chime all the bells. Wreathe all tho garlands. Rouse all the anthems. Shake hands in all the congratulations. Merry Christmas! Merry with the thought of sins forgiven, merry with the idea of sorrows comforted, merry with the raptures to come. Oh! lift that Christ from the manger and lay Him down in all our hearts. W? may not bring to Him as costly a present as j the magi brought, but we bring to His feet j *.nd to tns manger to-dav the frankincense i of ous joy, the pearia of our tears, the kiss of our love, the prostration of our worship. Down at His feet, all churches, all ages, all earth,all heaven. Down at His feet the fourand-twenty elders on their faces. Down the "great multitude that no man can number." Down Michael, the archangel! Down all worlds at His feet and worship. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men'" "The Death of Clear Thought. "Some of the old poets thought the drinkfng-cup was a cup of poetry and eloquence, but that delusion has died uuder the accumulating witnesses of all times. Each glass of spirituous drink is the death of clear and beautiful thought. The tongue thickeps, the words lose their sharp outlino, the eye its flash under even the best of wines. When God made man He declared a partnership betwen temperance and inspiration and made a cup of water the emblem of all clear thought. It is a singular incident that while Anacreon and Horace drank wine heavily they made Helicon send forth only streams of pure water for their nine muses to drink. There were many of these fountains: Helicon, 1'indus, I'arnassus, which could lend inspiration to the god or the mortal who should taste their crystal drops. These fabled springs were located by men who knew that tbo wine cup was an eclipse of the intellect, a stup r not to be endured by a god. What a wonderful logic was that which planned Pierian Springs for all highborn beings, and which gave Anacreon a flagon of wine! What a wisdom still is that by which our scholars send the nine muses to a spring of pure water for securing a new afhatus, and then seek their own inspiration in a barrel of wRisky. What is so good for the muses ought to be good for man. All intoxicating drinks take away that soul which relates man to the Creator. Wine is the paralvnis of thought"?Prof. David Swi.ij. At Aukland, New Zealand, the Board of Education recently passed a resolution requiring a half hour's temperance lesson to be taught each week in all the public schools of the district. This law comes into force next April. ?? Eighty-live per cent, of the whole number of churches in the State of New York, now use uufeftnented wine, an advance of fifteen per oeaX. over last year. . ' i TEMPERANCE "It's Nofhinff to Me." "It'snothing tome," the mother said, "I have no fear that my boy will tread The downward path of sin and shame, And crush my heart and darken his name." It was something to her when her only son From the path of right was early won And madly cast in the (lowing bowl A ruined body and shipwrecked souL "It's nothing to me," the young man cried; In his eyes was a flash of scorn and pride? "I heed not the dreadful things you tell; I can rule myself, 1 know full well." 'Twas something to him when in prison he lay, The victim of drink?life ebbing away As he thought of the wretched child and wife. And the mournful wreck of his wasted life. "It's nothing to me," the voter said, "Tho party's loss is my greatest dread," Then he gave his vote for the liquor trade, Though hearts were crushed ana drunkards made. It was something to him in after life, When his daughter becamo a drunkard's wife, And her hungry children cried for bread. And trembled to hear their father's tread. Tho Danger of Cifler. it is a great temptation for farmers' boys to have cider to which th-jy can have continual access in the cellar. Many a drunkard began his slavery to strong drink by going to the cider-barrel in the cellar of tho old farm-house. A cidet-drunkard is said to be the crossest kind of a drunkard. Perhaps you farmers can take a glass of cider now and then, and stop there; but you may have men in your employ, or boys growing up, who will take more than they ought to. The strong must put 110 barriers iu the way of the weak. If you put cider in your cellars keep it for vinegar, and you will always have a pure article on hand to put up your pickles with, and use for your pork and beans. HRKa VIntlmA AftllA GnlAATI. Speaking of the Sunday saloon, Andrew Paxton. agent of the Citizens' League, Chicago, said a few days ago: "It is the wife and mother who has to suffer from the Sunday saloon. It is the undeserving and helpless who are made its victims. I remember one case of that kind. It was over in the Desplaines street polico court. A good looking young man was in the dock charged with drunkenness and disorderly conduct. His wife appeared against him, a young woman with a baby in her arms. 'A better husband and a kinder lather and a more industrious and capable workman never lived than my husband when the liquor is out of him. All through the week we live happily, and he is sober because he is busy. But when Sunday comes he has time and money, and when he gets drunk he abuses mo and the children till he is that stupid he falls asleep. I dread to have Sunday come.' Her name is Mary Rogers. Think of it! In a land called Christian the laws for the protection of the pople are ignored, and the Christian Sabbath that most people look to as a day of rest and comfort, a day of rejoicing, is made a dreadful thing and a terror to the helpless. rt.nu mere are wo uiuusuuu e>uuu wuiueu ua Mary Rogers iu Chicago." Death Due to the Use of Liquor. The following testimony from W. Wynn Wescott, M. D., Deputy Coroner for Central Middlesex, lately appeared iu the London Lancet: ''Promptod by my friend. Dr. Norman Kerr, 1 have made an analysis of 1200 consecutive inquests held by'me" in London, and I cannot retrain from making tho results public. I am not, and never have been, a total abstainer, or an advocate of that cause, so there need be no fear that the figures are exaggerated. Of 1200 cases of death, including death from violence, sudden deaths, persons found dead and deaths with regard to which no medical certificate is forthcoming, 470 were infants, children and persons l elow the ago of sixteen years. These may bo presumably removed from the deaths from alcoholic excess. Of the remaining 750 deaths, no less than 143are recorded as being the result of chronic alcoholic disease, acute alcoholism, delirium tremens, suicides caused by drink or of accidents arising because of incapacity when intoxicated; that is. one death in every 01 Hf thou* UfS f-nsps 21 were suicidal. '.3 accidental, and Oil tho result, more or iess sudden, of syncope, appoplexy, etc., due to disease of thd heart, liver and kidneys, stated in sworn evidence as due to alcoholic excess. Of the 143 cases. 9 died suffocated during.the stupor of alcohol, 3 died of syncope due to degenerative cardiac muscular tissue, and three were run over by vehicles in the streets. Only 9 of the cases were of persons under thirty years of age. but 21 cases were of persons over sixty years of age." Intoxicants and. 1'ellow Fever. There is conclusive testimony that intoxicants, judiciously prescribed or indulged in, have added largely to the mortality in connection with tho yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville. A Jacksonville correspondent, in the Metropolis, of that city, under the head of "Too Much Brandy," writes: "The casa of Mr. W. F. Sandy, as reported in your yesterday's issue, and in the TimesUnion this morning, shows that 'too much brandy' was the cause of death. This appears to be acknowledged by the attending physician. "If the truth could be learned, it would be found that more than half of the deaths dur ing this epidemic were from the same source. I have passed through several yellow fever epidemics, and I know from twenty years experience that brandy and other spirituous liquors are not good for yellow fever patients; and in nine cases out of ten they will do more harm than good, often causing de.ith, and yet some physicians persist in administering them. "Some are wondering why so small a number of the colored people are dyin? from the plague. The answer is, because they have had no champagne, brandy and other liquors that have been lavishly used in other quarters during this epidemic. 44 4We live to learn,' is an old adage often quoted, but how many heed what thoy have lived to learn in this connection is exemplified by the doctors, who, although they know from experience, that brandy will kill a yellow fever patient, still run the risk of trying not to give them ,4too much brandy.'" The Metropolis, of Jacksonville, also quotes an eminent physician of the Medical Bureau of that city as saying: 4'In all the cases I have attended of yellow fever I have found those persons addicted to strong drink the most stubborn to subdue, and I have lost several from no other cause but drinking against my directions wmie convalescing.' Temperance News and Notes. The AW C. T. U., of Tennessee, is actively engaged in work for the colored population. Mure than :!0,000 children of school age in the city of Chicago are said to be addicted to tho use of strong drink. A children's organization, composed of about ten thousand members, is connected with the Norwegian Total Abstinence Society. Thomas JefTerson said: '"To the use of ardent spirits is to be attributed much evil legislation. If I were again placed in a position to do so, my first question to a candidate for otlice would be: "Do you drink ardent spirits;'" " When you feel a course is wrong, And conscience tells you so; Though a friend should bid you err Be firm, and answer No! Thus, in every step of life, A good example show. Nor l'ear to speak that little wordNo! No! No!" There are thirty rum-shops to every school throughout Western Siber.a and thirty-live ruin-shops to every school throughout Eastern Siberia, and in a country where there exists such a disproportion between tho facilities for education and the facilities for intoxication, one cannot reasonably expect to iiud clean, orderly or prosperous villages, snvs Ciporcn Tvi?nnan in Centum. At a recent meeting of the Scottish Temperance League, Mrs. Mair, who has been engaged in mission work in Africa, told how she remonstrated with a chief for accepting a present ot' rum and giving it his people. The chief replied by asking her a question to which she had no answer. He said: "Don't the rum come from the same country that God's Word comes from/ If we arc to receive God's Word from that countty, why cannot we drink God's rum to make us feel good?' A striking commentary on why the saloon don't ro is furnished by an incident which occurred at Blackburn, England. A house was built for a beer shop at an expense of a thousand pounds. A wealthy man living near the intended public house objected to a license being granted. The magistrates refused tho license as long as this man lived there, but when he lert, although a petition signed by several hundred porsona was presented, the working people objecting to the demoralizing influence for their children, yet the lioense was immediately granted. .. i r..~- / RELIGIOUS BEADING. Wonderful Words. Wonderful words, our Father has given, Sent to show plainly the pathway to heaven; Wonderful Bible, so simple that even A child can understand. Wonderful words, so simple and plain, Yet, as we read them Again and again, How they grow deeper! and who can retain Fully, their meaning so grand? Wonderful book and more wonderful love ftently descending on wings of a dove, From the bright glory and beauty above, Down to this sin-darkened land. Wonderful! "Wonderful! Howcanitboi Wonderful home that is waiting for me. Wonderful glory, our glad eyes shall see, When we are at his r.ght hnnd. ?[Anna E. Ryder. Wast?d Years. What a remarkable promise that is of the Lord to bis repentant people: "I will restore to you the years that the locust bath eaten, the canker worm, the caterpiller, and the palmer worm." The past years of unfruitful ness may be restored. Christian, it may be that with you the sun is going down. You have but one life to live. Count up the years of your Christian life that the locust of worlaliness and the canker worm of the care of the world, and tbe caterpillar of sinful pleasure, and the palmer worm of secret sin have devoured and mode unfruitful 1 How dreary the reeordl Can thev be restored to you? There's the promise. " Claim it. Fly to Christ. Henceforth know nothing among men but him cruc fled. Die unto the world Live unto righteousness. Fray for the restoration of these devoured years. It may be that oven you may reap a harvest that will gladden your heart through all eternity. There is no tima for anything else.?[Cuaplain C. C. ITCabe. Do the Next Thing. A writer in the Evangelist offers this sensible piece of advice to the great multitude of people who are inclined to cross bridges before they come to them: There are more persons who worry about matters that, belong altogether to the future than there are who are nnxious to do well the duty of the present moment. If we would simply do always the next thing, we should be relieved of all perplexity. Thi9 would also insure our doing well whatever God gives us to do. Instead of looking far on for. our duty, we should then find it always close before us. Instead of trying to make out what we ought to do next year, or six years hence, we should ask only what we shall do the present hour. Instead of looking for our duty in lsrge sections, we should then receive it in detail. The law of divine guidance is "step by step" One who carries a lantern on a count y road at night sees only one step before him. If he take; that, he carries his lantern forward, and thus makes another step plain. At length he reaches his destination in safety, without once stepDing into darkness. Tne whole way has been made light for him, though only a single step or it at a time. This illustrates tho usual method of God's guidance. His Word "is a lamp unto the feet." It is a lamp, not a blazing sun, not even a lighthouse, but a plain, common lamp or lantern which one can carry about in bis band. It is a lamp "unto the feet," not throwing its beams afar, not illumining a hemisphere, but shining only on the one little bit of road on which the pilgrim's feet are walking. Praying and Working. There is the closest relation subsisting between effectual prayer and earnest work. No one can come to an habitual experience of prayer who is willing to be a slothful servant. No one can work for God without drawing His strength directly from Him in heavenly intercourse. The Rev. Andrew Murray, in his recent book, entitled Witd Christ in the School of Prayer, truthfully says: "He that would do the works of Jesus must pray in His name. He that would pray in His name must work in His name. Alas! how much working there is in the work of God, in which there is little or nothing to be seen of the power to do anything like Christ's works, not to speak of greater works. There can be but one reason; the believing on Him, the believing prayer in His name, this is so much wanting. Effectual working needs first effectual prayer. "And now for the second lesson: He who would pray must work. It is in working that the power for the effectual prayer of faith will be gained. It is the disciple who gives himself wholly to live for Jesus's work and kingdom, for His will and honor, to whom the powor will come to appropriate the promises. He that would fain grasp the promises when he wants something very special for himself, will bo disappointed, because he would make Jesus the servant of his own comfort. But to him who seeks to pray the effectual prayer of faith, because ne needs it for the work of the Master, to him it will be givon'to learn it; because he has made himself the servant of his Lord's interests. Prayer not only teaches and strengthens to work; work teaches and strengthens to pray-" Make Hasto. Some years ago when traveling through Palestine, we were nearly benighted. We bad left Hebron in the morning, and had come leisurely along, passing .through Bethlehem, and visiting the gardens of Solomon on the way. The sun began to get low ero we caught our first glimpse of Jerusalem, and on reaching the plain of Rephaim we had to increase our speed. In a little time the sun set, and we saw a man come out from the Jaffi gate and stand upon a hillock, shouting with all his might, as if forewarning of danger, and gesticulating wildly, as if to call our attention to what he was announcing. "What is the man saying?" we asked our guide. "Ho is shouting, 'Yellahl' Yellahl'" "What does that mean?" "Come alongl Come along!" We now found we were about to be shut out, and this messenger had come out to warn us that the gate was about to be closed. We made haste, as we did not at all relish the thought^of being kept all night outside the walla. We were just in time, no more. "We outeied, and the gate closed behind us. "The door was shut" (Matt, xxv; 10.) The lesson we learnod was, "Make haste!" ?a lesson which some of us never forgot. So near being shut out of the earthly Jerusalem! What if it were to be not almost but altogether shut out of the Heavenly City! No time to lose. Too much lost already! A few days after a similar incident occurred, which furnished another lesson. We had been wandering nil the afternoon on the Mount of Olives, not heeding the time. But ot last we saw the sun going down. We hastened to the nearest gate, on the east sida of the city. It was closed. There was no Admittance. Wo hastened round the wall! to the other gate, which we knew to bo kept open a little longer. When we reached it we found ourselves excluded. The gate was shut. We were told, however, that possibly the gatekeeper might relent and let us in. Alas! the keys had gone to the governor. What were we to do! It was suggested that a piece of silver might soft-m the guard's heart, and bring the keys back ag'iin. So we thrust a suitable coin in at the keyhole and waited. In a few minutes the gate in TI10 hrihft hnH ujiuiicu, auu wo piiasuu m. tuu v*?Vw prevailed. Cut our admission was against law. The lesson for us was, " Be in time." The gato stands opm. Tho entrance is free. The way is plain. Lose not a moment. Upon one lost moment eternity hinges; and? "It is no trifle to lose eternity." Eternal joy, oternnl sorrow?such is th9 alternative.?fDr. Bonar. The Country's Liquor Supply. Apart from the 70,000,000 gallons of whi9ky this country consumed nearly 25,000,00.) barrels of beer during the past year. This is two barrols for every adult male, which, added to the five gallons of whisky, make9 a tolerably fair supply and quite an abundant on?! with the wine,gin, rum and brandy made at homo or imported from abroad added. It is safe to remark,however, that there is more intoxication in five gallons of whisky than in two barrols of beer, and that the whisky has not yet been displaced as the national beverage. ?Brooklyn Citiz*>>. It is estimated that the Boston stockholders of two great; Western railroads have lost $83,000,000 by the shrinkage in the value of their securities in the last fifteen months. I A "ROUND-UP." HOW THE COWBOYS COLLECT AND BRAND CATTLE. The Cattle Led Into the CorralBurned Sides, Punched Ears and Ears Cut Off as Branding Marks. The word "round-up," so often seen in print, is known by most people to be a Western term, but its real significance is not generally known. On the Northern ranges in Dakota. Montana ana Wyoming Territories, the cattle are all allowed to run at large through the winter and summer. They do not stray a great distance otF, however, and, unless stampeded, may | usually be found within thirty miles or | jo of their respective ranches. To collect these immense herds of cattle in the spring and fall is no easy matter, and to do this a 'round-up" is formed. This is made up by the owners of the ranches which are on the same range, sending a "round-up" outfit and their quota of cowboys. A '-round-up" outfit consists of, besides the indispensable cowboys, a campwagon drawn by four horses or mules, at least five horses for each cowboy, branding irons, cooking utensils, and last, but not least, a cook, who generally drives the wagon. These respective representatives of the different ranches meet at the end of their range or district and slowly go through the country, collecting and branding the cattle and j calves. The wagons do not drive more than ten or fifteen miles a day, but the cowboys in search of cattle ude sixty or seventy miles. This is where the necessity for each cowboy having so many horses comes in. The cattle collected during a day's j riding are all driven to the nearest ranch where there is a corral. Cattle are not1 collected every day, as the cowboys stop every other day to brand tho cattle caught. The cattle collected in a day's rirlo htr ft "rrmnfJ-iin" nf thirtv fiowbovs WJ " #* " ??? ? X' * - ?r - j make an immense herd. This herd is watched very carcfully during the night, and the next morning the work of "rounding them out" begins. "Rounding out" is the term applied to separating the cattle of diiterent brands from the herd. This is difficult J work and is done only by very expert cowboys. They ride iqto the herd, and when they find one of their own brand they slowly drive it out from the ounch. When it is driven out it is taken in charge by another cowboy, who drive3 it to a small herd, which is entirely composed of cattle of its own brand. It will take two or three to eet the lar<*e herd separated into as many small herds as these brands are represented in the "round up." After the small herd is separated the cows with calves and unbranded cattle are rounded out from the branded cattle. The branded cattle are put into a herd and driven several miles back over the same grouud and turned loose. A Bre is built in a corner of the corral, where the "round up" i s. the bars are let down, and one of the herds of cows with calves and unbranded cattle are driven in. Two ropers walk their ponies into the corral, the bars are put up, the I nf tVio mnn wlin nmn thr> rattle in the coiral ore heated in the fire. The work of branding begins. The ropers ride around the corral, swinging their ropes around their heads. As they see single calves on the edge of the herd their lassoes leave their hands with a snap and wind around the calves' two hind legs. This is called "heeling" and is a great deal more difficult to do than to cutch them by the neck. The calre3 when caught are dragged up to the fire, where they are held and branded. Branding docs not take long, aud soon the corral is ready for the next herd. The ropers are quite expert with the lnsso and keep the men at the lire busy. The calvcs are not only branded to m3rk them, but some owners cut their ears in different shapes. Other owners even go so far a9 to cut one of the ears oif entirely. After a herd that is marked this way has left the corral the ground is sometimes covered with ear*. In almost every herd that is driven into the corral there are some cattle that were not branded the year before, and these have to be handled more carefully or else they gore the handler. One of the rovers walks his horse around until he sees a pood chance, when, quick as a flash, he catche3 the steer by the hind 16gs. The steer knows he is caught and turns to run at the man who caught him. As soon as he turns the other roper throws his lasso around the animal's horns, which holds him fast. The steer is thus held fast, and in that condition is branded. When done, the lasso around his head is taken off and lie is allowed to rise. The men all get out of the way, and then the rope is taken off the steer's hind legs by a skillful twist of the roper's hand. When the whole herd is branded they are driven out of the corral, and the next herd is put through the same process. When all the cattle are branded they are driven back over the sam<! ground that the "round-up" traversed the day before and turned loose. On the "round-up" each man leaves his horse to the care of men called "wranglers," who keep the horses in J herds, which are easily guarded. Every morning one of the herds is driven in i near the wagons, and after breakfast j some gocd lasso-thrower stands near the herd, and, as the cowboys come after horses, he catches ponies for them. So the cowboys do not ride their own horses, but have to take whatever is I ^iven to them. Some ot tne norses are | "bucking broncho?." Any one may l>e the unfortunate man that gets a "bucking broncho." Breakfast on round-up is at three j ! o'clock, and by four the wagons are all j moving and the cowboys are riding off in different directions. They ride all I morning, and at noon stop an hour for i dinner. After dinner they change horses and start out agiiin. Life on the round-up is hard work, j The cowboys are in all sorts of danger, have to sieep 011 the ground, rain or snow, ride hard one day ?nd work hard the next at branding.?Philadelphia Press. Geese and Tlielr Feathers. It is printed that the annual consumption of feathers in this country for bedding purposes is estimated to amount to <},000,OUU pounci3. 10 ]urnisn mis :},000,000 healthy geese must give up their feathers in a year. The geese furnishing these downy pillows and beds of ease are to be found mainly in Southern Illinois, Missuri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. The climate is cold enough to cause the feathers to be tine and soft, and not too cold to make their care a matter of unprofitable labor to farmers. Below this territory the feathers are quilty and free from down; above, the cold winters make geesefarming unprofitable, for when the goose can't find food for herself, because of frozen land and water, she has to be fed, and she'll eat as much corn as a ibeep. / WORDS OF WISDOM. Don't be a grumbler. Don't try to get a'uead of time. Extravagance is not generosity. Truth is like a torch; when shaken it shines. To do so no more is the truest repentance. There is a vast deal of vital air in loving words. Were words ideas, what an ideal world this would be. Character is a diamond that scratchcs every other stone. A friend without discretion is more to be feared than an enemy in armor. Be gentle! The sea is held in check, not by a wall of brick, but by a beach of sand. Abuse may not be criticism, but sometimes the latter sounds very much like the former. No consciousness of rectitude will entirely take away the sting of being cruelly misjudged. A man who is willing to enter society as a beneticiary is mean, and does not deserve recognition. There are fewer sadder sights in this world than that of mates whom the passage of years have mis-mated. Society is not very particular what a man does, so that it proves him to be a man; it will then bow to him and make room for him. When the storms of life are upon us, we forget that they pass successively away; and when they are gone, we wonder that we should not have been calmed and composed by this long-known i truth. Economy does not consist in borrowing n.n nlrL brokeu-facsd hammer, and mashing your thumb-nail with it, so you will be a cripple for a week, when a new hammer could bo bought for half a dollar. Discovered Russia's Great Secret. In one of the stores on Broadway lately I noticed some fine Kussia leather goods of various kinds, and was tempted through curiosity to take a closer look at them. 'Whyis it," I asked the proprietor, | "that these goods cannot be manufactured in this country as well a3 in Russia?" | "Bless your heart," he said, "these ! goods are made right here, in this counI try, and neither Hussia nor any other place can make them any better. You see, for a long while Russia enjoyed a J monopoly at this sort of work until a I Connecticut Yankee happened on the i scene and caught on, so to speak, to the j secret of its manufacture. This leather was manufactured in a large factory situated in one of the towns of Northern | Russia. The owners possessed some secret about curing the leather which they jealously guarded. England and other ' * * 1 ?.!!-.? 4 A i countries sent operatives iu mm iutwij j to learn the secret, but when a man once entered the factory it was a life job with j him. He had to stay there. Other men j were sent there disguised, but so careI fully was the place watched that nothing ; could be learned, and finally all attempts at discovering the secret were aban doned and the Russians were allowed to i continue their 'monopoly' undisturbed, 1 although many imitations of it were manufactured. "About this time the late Marshall P. : Jewell was Minister to Russia from this ! country. Mr. .'ewell had been brought | up in the leather business and was then ! the owner of several tanneries in Con; necticut. Of course he had heard of this ; now famous factory, and, more from cu riosity than from any desire to learn the ; secret of the business, he expressed a ; wish to inspect the works. The Russian i authorities never suspected that Mr. Jewell was interested in tho leather I business himself, and the factory own! ers, who were aided by the Government --- - 1?2 ?rntKnr l in maimuiuiug iuuii itiu | complimented that Mr. .Jewell should ! have expressed such a desire, and ac{cordin^ly Mr. Jewell, as it were, was ; given the 'freedom of the factory.' For j three days the United States Minister re! mained in the Russian town and visited J the factory many times. He was quick ! to 'catch on,' and he did 'catch on' so : much so that on his return to the United States he determined to put the knowl, edge he had thus acquired to a practical > test. The result was that Mr. Jewell waj soon manufacturing '.Russia leather' on j his own account. His first experiment i was a perfect success, aud now, as a con, sequence, this sort of leather, as you will ; perceivc, is manufactured in this country equal in every respect to the best that Russia can turn out."?Xew York Herald. Antomatic Oil Life Float. The new life float, which is supplied with a reservoir of oil in order to support bodies in the water, is based on the J recent ca>es of successful experience with /wornnminor the newer of WAVe3. ! aiid thus saving property and life from i destruction. The reservoir in this case ! is provided with an outlet, by means of : which the oil may escape automatically, ; no macter on which side the float, or buoy, may be turned when thrown into the water, or to which it may be impelled by the waves when in the water. Thus, by msans of the escaping oil. the surrounding water is expected to become sufficiently calm to enable the float ! to be discovered at a greater distance than it otherwise could be, and a calm spot secured around the float for the preservation of life. ? Chicago Uerald, Greece is Still Pastoral. There are only seven cities in Greece that can boast of more than 10,000 inhabitants. Athens leads the list at 84,SiOil; Patras comes next with 25,494; then follow Piraus with 21,005, Hermoupolis with 21,245, Corfu with 10,! 51.*, Zante with 16,280, and I.arissa with 1:3,1G9. Argos, Pyrgos, Argostoli, Galamata, Chalcis, Spetsai, Hydra, and I Mesolounghi follow in order ranging I from 1)801 inhabitants to 9;*24. These I fifteen cities together contain only aboul [ 2.10,000 people, or about one-ninth ol I | the whole population of Greece. Counting in every town that approaches the dignity of a city in the Kingdom, we should find that full seven-eights of the people of the land must be classed as rural.?New York Post. lo as a Wood-Worker. Carpentry was the trade of the American aborigines?Indians and mound builders. Xlr. II. F. McLeod, of the Smithsonian Institution, states that the tent-poles of the !?ioux Indians even now show pretty specimens of work; and the Moqui Indians, since long before the landing of Columbus, have known how to mortise timber to make ladders, and to swing doors on hinges from the top. The chisel they push rather than hammer, and they work the board up and dowa on a fixed saw; but the results are creditable. The Aztecs made a good glass which they used for their best cut- 1 ting blades, swords, daggers, spears, saws, chiscls and axes. They sharpened theae by olearing off the dull edges.? i Washington Star. ' ' ''v.' ' " ' A Kotablo Trip In a Balloon. ? Mr. 0. A. Gager, the New York chine merchant, is famous in aeronautics, because of the fact that he was one of the four who made the longest balloon trip ou record, 1150 miles, from St. Louis to a point in Jefferson County in this State. This was away back in '59, but the record has never been broken. Mr.. Gager believes it will be some day, however, for he has liim faith that the oceaq can be crossed in safety and in less than forty-eight hourj' time, whenever the conditions are observed. In speaking of the Campbell experi-1 ments in air navigation, he gave an! interesting account of his first venture in ballooning and how Mr. La Mountain guided the machine in which they made* ' tiie ascent, They startea lrom .Bennington, VtM and sailing eastward were sooa approaching the Connecticut River at Brattldboro. "See that field?" remarked Mr. La Mountain. "I'm going to land there." To change the course of the balloon so as to accomplish this purpose thai aeronaut took oft his hat and waved it gently to and fro under the mouth of ther balloon. This slight and crude "propeller'' was quite powerful enough to change the altitude and bring the ballooninto a different current of air, which brought the voyagers to the exact spot indicated. "We landed so safely we wouldn't have broken an egg," said Mr. Gager. Subsequently a propeller, constructed on principles developed by Mr. La. Mountain, was attached to the "Wise / balloon as part of its equipment for its memorable journey. The apparatus wad disabled, however, by one of the party stepping on a fragile part. That was a great journey," said Mr. Gager. "We went lloli mile3 in nineteen hours. It was quiet enough till we struck the tornado. When we heard itz folic and wot ill St WO WC1C ucai XI in^oia * w thought it was the noise of that cataract. We went 12(J miles in fifty minutes,; passing the whole length of Lake Ontario in that time. "When it became apparent that we must make a landing,, Professor Wise gave us the choice to drop to the lake, so the boat would drag, and, in Wise's own words, 'let the balloon drag berself ashore like an ex-, hausted elephant,' or trust to the anchor* and make a shore landing. We took the latter chance. But when the anchor caught it snapped like a pin-book, and we rushed through the tops of the trees with the full force of the tornado. Our path through the forest looked as if two locomotives had torn through the foliage. But we landed without a scratch.''? New Turk Sun. ? I Mexican System of Peonage. ' New Mexico is in the process of one of the greatest, but most earnest and important revolutions she has ever known. The transition from Mexican to United States rule in 1.^46 was effected without the firing of a shot or the loss of a drop of blood, and so quietly that many knew nothing of it until it was all over. The abolition of peonage and the emancipation of the peons by the act of Congress a mooQiiPA nf mat im. J11 1QU 1 | bUUU^u a V* * ws.* mm-m portance to the Territory, was mora nominal than actual; and the generation that has since elapsed has not even yet fully wiped out the old-time system which was as genuine a slavery as was that of the Southern negroes. To-day for the first time there is a cheering ' probability that these last liDks of bondage will soon be broken, in fact as they long have been in the fiction of the law.. For at last an organized effort is growing in New Mexico to clean out the old and arrogant Mexicln bosses. The old system of peonage was in outline this: One of the rich old families? which were scattered at considerable distances apart throughout the Territorywas the arbiter of power for its locality. It dictated the politics and the personalities of its poor neighbors, even to the point of life or death. The complaisant ' bpanish law put the whip in their hands, and they were not coy in the use of it. The great amo?"boss," as we would iay?was always ready and frequently called upon to lend some poor devil of a paisano $40 or $50 or so. Having > , made the loan, the amo took care that th<> borrower should come to labor for him in payment of the debt. When the debtor had worked out the $40 or $50 at $2.50 per month?the standard wages then for such labor?he found that he had, like the frog in the welL, fallen back two feet for every foot he had jumped. /.^? He owed the amo by this time $20u or ?300?and that meant that he was in for a lifetime of peonage. If he refused to |>ay or work out the debt, the amo could clap him into jail and keep him there kncl make the children work until the debt should be satisfied?which meant for life.?San Francisco Chronicle. Extinction or an Alaskan Tribe. Mrs. Voorhees, an Alaskan missionary, tells about the extinction of a whole tribe of Indians at Sitka. That happened about eight years ago on St. Louis Island, a knot of hills and valleys perhaps 300 miles north of St. Paul and bOO or 900 miles west of Sitka in Behring Sea. A trading vessel visited the island that autumn after the departure of the ur)meA Kncinocg in fVirt revcuuc wuiivi, ? iiwwv Vuw?4ivww .MW neighborhood, was the running down of marauding vessels that trade firearms, ammunition and liquor to the natives of the Hundred Islands. This craft traded the natives of St. Louis barrels of whisky for their furs, and they, with an avidity that would have done credit to their more enlightened brother, hastened to get outside of the aforesaid liquor without first taking heed for the morrow, which in this case was an extremely cold winter, with little fuel in store and less provisions and clothing. They not only didn't go home till morning, they kept full for a week and longer. Before their x.eads had diminished to the normal size the whole population of the island, eighty men. women, children and pap-' pooses, bad been frozen to death. Some of the deadbodies were in the huts and ' some outside. That would seem to be evidence that a portion had recovered consciousness enough to break away from their enslaving surroundings aud seek to save their lives by finding food and waimth.?New York l*resx. Sloisjh-Itiding by Gaslight. From Alexandria, Ind., to Anderson is twelve miles, along the Anderson and Alexandria turnpike. This winter the beaux of the two places have an opportunity to give the girls sleigh rides by gaslight for that whole distance, with no extra charge for the illumination. The pike runs through a wealthy and thickly settled community, and the farmers are already well supplied with eras from wells that they have drilled on their farms. They have for some time kept flambeaux burning all night in front of each house for the convenience of travelers, and now they propose to reduce the thing to a system and establish a regular line of lights for the whole twelve miles. All that it will cost will be the laying of a little tubing to get the light* at regular intervals, and the price of a few boxes of matches with which to touch the torches oil every evening. The gas comas free.