The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, February 20, 1889, Image 7
I
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY
SEIIMON.
Subject: "Joy! Joy! Joy!" (A Jubilee
Sermon.)
[This jubilee sermon was preached by the
Rev. T. De Witt Ta'.mage, D.D., at an es|>ecial
communion for the reception of 240
persons, making the present communicant
membership of the Brooklyn Tabernacle
440S. This was also moving day in that
church. The annual rental of pews had just
occurred and many of the congregation occupied
new places. The pews brought higher
premiums this year than ever before, and the
income of the church this year will be $33,.
804. But both plans are observed in the
church. A vast space is kept free from all
expense and only a part of the building is
mapped off for rent. Dr. Talmage took his
text from Luke xvM Si: "Bring hither the
fatted calf and kill it. "J
Joy! Joy! Joy! We banquet to-day over
this accession of a multitude of souls.
In all ages of the world it has been customarv
to celebrate iovful events by festivity
?the signing of treaties, tbe proclamation
of peace, tho Christmas, the marriage. However
much on other days of the year our table
may have stinted supply, on Thanksgiving
Day there must be something bountedus.
And all the comfortable homes of Christendom
have nt some time celebrated joyful
events by banquet and festivity.
Something has happened iu the old homestead
greater than anything that has ever
happened before. A favorite son whom the
world supposed would become a vagabond
and outlaw forever has got tired of sightseeing
and has returned to his father's house.
The world said he never would come back.
The old man always said his son would com9.
He had been looking for him day after day
and year after year. He knew he would
come back. Now, having returned to his
father's house, the father proclaims celebration.
There is a calf in the paddock that has
been kept up and fed to utmost capacity so
as to De reaay ior some occasion ui joy moo
might come along. Ah! there never will be
a' grander day on the old homestead than this
day. Let the butchers do their work,
and the housekeepers bring into the table
the smoking meat The musiciaus will
take their places, and the gay groups
will move up and down the floor. All
the friends and neighbors are gathered in,
and extra supply is sent out to the
table of the servants. The father presides at
table, and says grace, and tlmuks God that
his long-absent boy is home again. Oh!
how they missed him; how glad they are to
have him back. One brother indeed stands
pouting at the back door and says: "This is
a great ado about nothing; this bad boy
should liav6 been chastened instead '
of greeted; veal is too good
for him!" But the father says:
"Nothing is too good, nothing is good
enough." There sits the young man, glad at
the hearty reception, but a shadow of sorrow
flittint* across his brow at the remembrance
of the trouble he has seen. All ready
now. Lrf>t the cover* lift. Music. He was
(lead and he is alive again! He was lost and
he is found! By such bold imagery dee* the
Bible set forth'the merry-making when a
soul comes home to God.
I. First of all there is the new convert's
* ? *?fA Konnma a
jvy, Jl> 19 II\J Millie iu&il? W UVVWUIV c* VU? M
tian. The most tremendous moment iu a
man's life is when he surrenders himself to
Ood. The grandest time on the father's
faomestead is when the boy comes back.
Among the great throng who in the parlors
of this church professed Christ one night was
a young man who next morning rang my
door bell and said: "Sir, I cannot contain
myself with the joy I feel: I came here this
morning to express it. I have found more
joy in five minutes in serving God than in
all the years of my prodigality, and I came
to say so."
You have seen, perhaps, a man running
for his physical liberty and the officers of the
law after "him, and you saw him escape, or
Afterward you heard the judge had pardoned
him. and how preat was the glee of that rescued
man; but it is a very tame thing that,
compared with the running for one's everlasting
life?the terrors of the law after him.
but Christ coming in to pardon and bless and
rescue and save. You remember Johu Bunyan
in his great story tell* how
the Pilgrim put his fingers in
his ears, and ran, crying: "Li'e. life, eternal
life!"' A poor car-dr.ver in this ci'-y some
years ago, after having had a struggle to
support nis iamuy, suuaemy was liuoruea
that a large inheritance was his, and there
was .ioy amounting to bewilderment; but
that is a small thing compared with the experience
of one when he has put in his hands
the title-deed to the joys, tho raptures, the
plendors of heaven, and he can tru y say:
'Its mansions are mine, its temples are
mine, its songs are mine, its God is mine!'
Oh, it is no tame thing to become a Christian.
It is a merry-making. It is the killing
of the fatted calf. It is jubilee. You
know the Bible never compares it to a funeral,
but always compares it to something
bright It is more apt to be compared to a
banquet than anything else. It is compared
in the Bible to the water?bright, flashing
water; to the morning?roseate, fireworked,
mountain-transrigured morning.
I wish I could to-day take
all the Bible expressions about pardon
and peace and life and comfort and hope
and Heaven and twist them into one gar.
land, and put it on the brow of the humblest
child of God in this assemblage, and cry:
Wearit. wear it now, wear it forever, son
of God, daughter of the Lord God Almighty."
Ob, the joy of the new convert!
Ob, the gladness of the Christian service!
You have seen sometimes a man in a religious
assembly get up and give his experience.
Well, Paul gave his experience. He
arose in the presence of two churches, the
church on earth and the church in heaven,
and he said: "Now this is my experience:
Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing?poor, yet
making many rich?having nothing, yet pospossing
all things." If the people in this
house this morning knew the joy3 of the
Christian religion, they would all pass
over into the kingdom of God the
next moment. When Daniel Sandeman was
dying of cholera his attendant said : "Have
Jou mu: h p lin I" " Oh,:' he replied, " since
found the Lord I have never had any pain
except sin.'* Then they said to him: "Would
you like to send a message to your friends ?"
^"Yes, I would ; tell them that only last
oight the love of Jesus came rushing into my
oul like the surges of the sea, and I bad to
dry out : * Stop, lx>rd. it is enough ; stop,
Lord, enough !'" Oh, the joys of this Christian
religion !
Just pass over from those tame joys in
"" which you are indulging?joys of this world
?into the raptures of the GospeL The world
cannot satisfy you: you have found that out?
Alexander longing for other worlds to conquer.
and yet drowned in his own bottle;
Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world ; Voltaire cursing his own
oul while all the streets of Paris were
applauding him; Henry IL consuming
with hatred against poor Thomas a
Beckett?eill illustrations of the fact this
world cannot make a man happy. The very
man who poisoned the pommel of the saddh
on which Queen Elizabeth rode, shouted la
the street: "God Save the Queen!" One
moment the world applauds and the next
moment the world anathematizes. Oh.come
over into th'S proater joy, this sublime
solace, this magnificent beatitude The night
after the battle of Shiloh, and there were
thousands of wounded on the field, and the
ambulances had not come, one Christian
soldier lying th're a dying under tho star
I light began to sing:
"There a land of pnre de'.lght,"
And when he came to the next line there
were scores of voices uniting:
Where paints immortal reiim."
The song was caught up a'l through the
fields among the wounded, until it was said
there were at loast ten thousand wounded
men reuniting their \ oices as they came to
the verse:
"There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withciinsr flowers;
Death like a narrow stream divides
That heavenly land from ours."
Oh. it is a great religion to live by. and it is
a great religion to die by. There is only one
heart-throb between you and that religion
this morninc. Just look into the face of your
rardoninz God, and surrender yourself for
time and for eternitv. and He is yonrs. and
neaven is yonrs. and all is yours. Some of
you, like the young man of the text, have gone
far astray. I know not the history, but you
know it, you know it. When a young man
went fortb into life, the legend says, his
guardian angel went forth with him, and
getting him into a field the guardian angol
swept a circle clear around where the yo ung
man stood. It was a circle of virtue and
honor, and he must not step beyond that circle.
Armed foes came down, but were
obliged to halt at the circle?they
could not pass. But one day a
temptress with diamonded hand stretched
forth and crossed that circle with the hand,
and the tempted soul took it,and by that one
fell grip was brought beyond the circle and
died. Some of vou have stepped bevond that
circle. AVould you not like this day by the
grace of God to step back? This, I say to
you, is your hour of salvation. There was in
the closing hours of Queen Anne what is
called the clock scene. Flat down on the
pillow in helpless sickness she could not
move her head or move her hand.
She was waiting for the hour when
the Ministers of State should
gather in angry contest, and, worried and
worn out by the coming hour, and in momentary
absence of the nurse, in the power,
the strange power which delirium sometimes
gives one, she arose and stood in front of the
clock, and stood there watching the clock
when the nurse returned. The nurse said:
"Do you see anything peculiar about
that clock?" She made no answer,
but soon died. There is a clock
scene in every history. If some of you
would rise from the bed of lethargy and
come out from your delirium of sin and look
on the clock of your destiny this morning, |
you would see and hear something you have 1
not seen or heard before, and every tick of |
the minute, and every stroke of the hour, I
and every swing of the pendulum would '|
say: "Now, now, now, now!" Oh, come home \
to your Father's house. Coine home, oh, |
prodigal, from the wilderness. Come home, i
come home!
II. But I notice that when the prodigal
came there was the father's ^oV. He did not I
greot him with any formal "How do you do?" |
Hedid not come out and say: "You are un- |
fit to enter: go out and wash in the trough I
by the well, and then you can come in; we |
have had enough trouble with you." Ah! I
no. When the proprietor of that estate pro- i
claimed festival, it was an outburst of a
father's love and a father's joy. God is your
Father. I have not much sympathy with
that description of God I sometimes hear, as
though He were a Turkish Sultan, hard and i
unsympathetic, and listening not to the cry of
His subjects. A man told me he saw in one
of the eastern lands a King riding along, and
k?n men wnrn in altercation and one charged
the other with having eaten his rice; and the
King said: "Then slay the man and by postmortem
examination find whether ho has
eaten the rice." And he was slain. Ah! the
cruelty of a scene like that. Our God is not
a Sultan, not a Czar, not a despot, but a
Father?kind, loving, forgiving, and He
makes all heaven ring again when a nrodieal
comes Back. "1 have no pleasure," he says,
"in the death of him that dietb."
If a man does not get to heaven it is because
he will not go there. No difference
the color, no difference the history, no difference
the antecedents, no difference the surroundings,
no difference the sin. When the
white horses of Christ's victory are brought ,
out to celebrate theeternal triumph you may
ride one of them, and as God is greater than ,
all, His joy is greater, and when a soul comes
back there is in his heart the surgin? of an
infinite ocean of gladness, and to express that (
gladness it takes all the rivers of pleasure,
and all the thrones of pomp, and all the ages
of eternity. It is a joy deeper than all depth,
and higher than all height, and wider tnan
all width, and vaster than all immensity. It
overtops, it undergirds, it outweighs all the
united splendor and joy of the universe. Who
can tell what God's joy is ?
You remember reading the story of a
King, who ou some great day of festivity
scattered silver and gold among the people,
and sent valuable Dresents to bis courtiers:
but methinks when a soul comes back, God
is so glad that to express His joy He flings
out new worlds into space, and kindles up
new suns, and rolls among the white robed
anthems of the redeemed a greater hallelujah,
while with a voic9 that reverberates among
the mountains of frankincense and is
echoed back from the everlasting gates, He
cries: "This, my son, was dead, and he is
alive again."
At the opening of the Exposition in Now
Orleans, I saw a Mexican flutist, and he
played the solo, and then afterward the eight
or ten bands of music, accompanied by the
great organ, came in: but the sound of that
one flute as compared with all the orchestra
was greater than all the combined joy of th% i
universe when compared with the resounding
heart of Almighty God.
For ten years a father went three times a
day to the depot. His son went off in aggravating
circumstances, but the father saia:
"He will come back." The strain was too
much, and his mind parted, and three times
a day the father went. In the early morning
be watched the train, its arrival, the stepping
out of the passengers, and then
the departure of the train. At noon
he was there again watching the advance
of the train, watching the departure.
As night, there again; watching the
coming, watching the going for ten years.
Ho was sure his son would come back. God
bas been watcnra? ana waning ror some 01 i
you, my brothers, ten years, twenty years, |
thirty yeare, forty years, perhaps fifty years
?waiting, waiting, watching, watching; and
if this morning the prodigal should come
home, what a scene of gladness and festivity,
and how the great Father's heart would rejoice
at your coming home. You will come,
some of you, will you not? You will, you
willl
III. I notice also that when a prodigal
comes home there is the joy of the ministers
of religion. Oh, it is a grand thing to preach
this Gospel. I know there has been a great
deal said about the trials and the hardships
of the Christian ministry. I wish somebody
would wr.te a good, rouoing book about the
joys of the Christian ministry. Since I entered
the profession I have seen more of the
goodness of God than I will be able to
celebrate in all eternity. I know some boast
about their equilibrium, and they do not rise
iuto enthusiasm, and they do not break down
with emotion: but I confess to you plainly
that when I see a man coming to God. nrd
giving up his sin I feel in body,mind,and sou
a transport. When I see a man who is bound
hand and foot in evil habit emancipated,
I rejoice over it as though it were my own
emancipation. When to-day in our communion
service such throngs of young and
old stand at these altars, and in the presenc?
of heaven and earth and hell attest their allegiance
to Jesus Christ, I feel a joy something
akin to that which the apostle de
scribes when he say*: "Whether in the body
I cannot tell, or out of the body I cannot
tell: God knoweth."
Oh, have not ministers a ri^ht to rejoice
when a prodigal comes home J They blew
the trumpet, and ought they not to bo glad
of the gathering of the host? They pointed
to the full supply, and ought they not to rejoice
when souls pant as the fiart for the
water-brooks? They come forth saying: "All
things are now ready;" ought they not tc
rejoice when the prodigal sits down at the
banquet?
Life insurance men will all tell you that
ministers of religion as a class live longer
than any other. It is confirmed by the statistics
of all those who calculate upou human
longevity. Why is it ? There is more draft
upon the nervous system than in any other
frofession, and their toil is more exhausting.
have seen ministers kept on miserable stipends
by parsimonious congregations who
wondered at the dullness of the sermons, when
the men of God were perplexed almost to
death by questions of livelihood, and had not
enough nutritious food to keep any tire in
the:r temperament No fuel, no fire. I have
sometimes seen the inside of the life of many
ot the American clergyman?never accepting
their hospitality, because they cannot
afford it; but I have seen them struggle on
with salaries of five and six hundred dollars
a year?the average less than that
?their struggle well depicted by '
the Western m:ssionary who says i
in a letter: "Thank you for your last remit
lance; uniu it came we mm uui>aujr meat m
our house for one year; and all last winter,
although it was a severe winter, our children
wore their summer clothes." And these men
of God I find in different parts of the land,
struggling against annoyances and exasperations
innumerable; some of them week after
week entertaining agents who have maps
to sell, and submitting themselves to all
styles of annoyance, and yet without complaint,
and cheerful of souL How do you
account for the fact that these life insurance
men tell us that ministers as a class live !
longer than any others* It is because of the I
joy of tlieir work, the joy of the harvest
field, the joy of greeting prodigals home to
their Father's house.
We are in sympathy with all innocent
hilarities. We can enjoy a hearty song, ana
we can be merry with the merriest; but
those of us who have toiled in the service are
ready to testify that nil these joys are tame
compared with the satisfaction of seeing men
enter the kingdom of God. The great eras
of every minister are the outpourings of the
iioly Ghost, and I thank Uod 1 have seen
eighteeu of them. Thank God, thank God!
IV". I notice also when the prodigal comes
back all earnest Christians rejoice. If you
stood on Montauk Point and there was a
hurricane at sea, and it was blowing toward
the shore, and a vessel crashed into the rocks
and you saw people get ashore in the life
boats and the very last man got on the rocks
in safety, you could not control your joy.
And it is a glad time when the Church of
God sees men who are tossed on the ocean of
(heir sins plant their feet on the rock Cnrist
Jesus.
Oh, when prodigals come home just hear
those Christians sine. Just) hear those Christians
pray. It is not a stereotyped supplication
we have heard over and over again for
twenty years, but a putting of the case in
the hands of Cod with an importunate pleading.
No long prayers. Men never pray at
great length unless they have nothing to
say and their hearts are hard and cold. All
the prayers in the Bible that were answered
were short prayers: "God be merciful to me
a sinner." "Lord, that I may receive my
sight." "Lord, save me or I perish." The
longest prayer, Solomon's prayer at the
dedication of the Temple, less than eight
minutes in length, according to the ordinary
rate of enunciation.
And just hear them pray now that the
prodigals are coming home. Just see them
shake hands. No putting forth of the four
tips of the fingers in a formal way, but a
hearty grasp, where the muscles of the heart
seem to clench the fingers of one hand around
- * 1 * * iUnaa Pkpiofian
CD0 otner. cidu men tuvso vmww<MM
faces, bow illuminod they are. And see that
old mar^ get up and with the same voice that
he sang fifty years ago in trie old country
meeting-house, say: "Now, Lord, lettest Thou
Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes
have seen Thy salvation." There was a man
Df Keith who was hurled into prison in time
of persecution, and one day he got off hi
shackles and he came and stood by the prison
door, and wheu the jailer was opening the
door, with one stroke he struck down the
man who had incarcerated him. Passing
along the streets of London, he wondered
where his family was. He did not dare
to ask lest he excite suspicion, but,
passing along a little way from tho
prison, he saw a Keith tankard, a cup that
belonged to the family from generation to
generation?he saw it in a window. His
family, hoping that some day he would get
clt-ar, came and lived as near as they could
to tl>e prison house, and they set that Keith
tankard in the window, hoping he would see
it; and he came along and saw it, and
knocked at the door, and went in,
and the long-absent family were all
together again. Oh, if you would start
for the kingdom of God to-day, I think some
of you would find nearly all your friends and
and nearly all your families around the holy
tankard of the holy communion?fathers,
mothers, brothers, sisters around that sacrecl
tankard which commemorates the love of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, it will be a great
communion day when your whole family sits
around the sacred tankard. One on earth,
one in heaven.
V. Once more I reraork, that when the
prodigal gets back the inhabitants of heaven
keep festival. I am very certain of it.
If you have never seen a telegraphic
chart, you have no idea how many cities are
connected together and how manv lands.
Nearly all the neighborhoods of the earth
Beem articulated, and news flies from city to
city, and from continent to continent
But more rapidly go the tidings from
earth to heaven, and when a prodigal
returns it is announced before the throne of
God. And if these souls this morning should
enter the kingdom there would be some one
in the heavenly kingdom to say: "That my's
father," "that's my mother*" "that's my
son." that'3 my daughter," "that's my
friend," "that the one I used to pray for,"
"that's the one for whom I wept so many
tears," and one soul would say, "Hosanna!"
and another soul would say, "Hallelujah!"
"Pleased with the news the saints bjlow
Iu accgs thetrtongue* employ;
Beyond the skies the tiding* no,
And Heaven is flilea wita joy.
"Nor aneeU can their joy contain,
But kindle with new fire:
The alurier lost is fonnd, they sing,
And strike the sounding lyre."
At the banquet ot Lucullus sat Cicero the
orator, at the Macedonian festal sat Philip
the conqueror, at the Grecian banquet sat
Socrates the philosopher; but at our Father's
table sit all the returned prodigals, more
than conquerors. The table is so wide its
leaves reach across seas and across lands.
Its guests are the redeemed of earth and
the glorified of heaven. The ring of
God's forgiveness on every hand, the robe of
a Saviour's righteousness adronp from every
shoulder. The wine that glows in the cups
ia from the bowls of ten thousand sacraments.
Let all the redeemed of earth and all tha
glorified of heaven rise, and with gleaming
chalice drink to the return of a thousand
prodigals. Singl singl sing! "Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive blessing
and riches and honor and glory and power,
world without end."
"Honob thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long in the land,"
were the words which figured most
pruuimt'iiiiv uu o* nu.uo|/tticu\,j juoi
outside the railroad depot at Breslau
on the occasion of Kaiser Wilhelm'a
recent visit to that city. The young
monarch was deeply incensed at this
strange want of tact on the part of the
local authorities. He chose to regard
the transparency as an intentional allusion
to his unfilial behavior to his
parents, and has vowed never again to
set liia foot in the ancient capital of
Silesia.
The Earl of Onslow, the new Governor
of New Zealand, is an alert,
terrier-like little man, with keen, intelligent
eyes, a narrow profile, crisp
manners, and brindled hair. He thoroughly
understands the art of diniug,
and can drive four horses respectably; j
loves children, hates the sea, and has '
1 * A A' P
UUiilc Y cU a uiuuiuuiu vi c*u
amateur photographer. Lord Onslow
has no intention of permanently interrupting
his "promising political career."
At Newton. Kan., a young man was
caught robbing a neighbor's hen rocst,
and in the melee which ensued lost hid
hat and a boot, which were kept by the
owner of the chickens as a clue to the
robber. The next morning the young
man called around and demanded his
hat and boot, and meeting with a refusal,
threatened to bring down the
law on the possessor for taking them
by force on the public highway. The
property was civen up.
Among the many wonderful sights
which are being organized for the
Paris Exposition next year is an unprecedented
flight of carrier pigeons
from the Champs de Mara. All the
cA/tiafioa nf HQ T^ronnaiaoa"
OVVtwV^a VA vviviuA iUMvwiuvii
Lave promised to take part in the
affair, and it is calculated tliat over
40,000 pigeons will be released simultaneously
for their flight to all parts ol
France and the continent.
Last summer, a 13-year-old hoy,
while pulling fodder on the farm ol
liis father, George G. Brogdon, ol
Gwinnett, Ga., unearthed a rock described
as "full of irold." Tbis fall Mr.
Brogdcn had the vein tested by an experienced
miner, who says it is a remarkably
promising vein. It is opened
for ten feet, is a foot thick, and will
yield from ?30 to $50 p<*r ton.
Georoe White, of Atkinson, Neb.,
a veteran of the last war, who has
been poverty stricken for; everal years,
has just fallen heir to $25,000 through
the death of his aged father. The latter
lived in New York, bat had not
heard from his son for some time.
t V-. yj5 7V-.
HELIGiOUS READING.
No Separation.
Give dust to dust, and here we leave
The earthly seed to die,
That so this mortal may receive
Its immortality.
Spirits to spirits purified!
And his hath soared on high,
Hath joined the meml?ers glorified,
The brethren in the sky.
Saviour, thy love unites us all,
The living and the dead;
Tis but one body mystical,
And butqflp glorious Heftfl
Keep us in fellowship of soul
With the dear saint that's gone,
Make us in worship, service, love,
Like those before the throne.
And now to Him who conquered death
United praise be given?
Amidst the parting tears of earth
The welcome-palms of heaven.
?George Hawson.
Earnestness of Chinese Christians.
It is said that the Chinese Christians are,
almost to a man, ready to pray in public, to
exhort one another at their meetings, and to
speak for Christ to their neighbors. "I can
witness in behalf of hundreds," writes the
Rev. Hunter Corbett, "to their child-like
faith in the power and willingness of God to
fulfill every promise in the Bible, to their
unshaken faith in the efficacy of prayer,
their love for the Scriptures, and
tho'r honest and faithful effort to live blame,
less lives. Not a few, including some well
advanced lusuch life, have persevered in the
study cf the S riptures until they are able,
with the gr<iat.'bt ease, to repeat chapter
after chapter, tnd sometimes entire books,
from both Old and New Testaments. Not
only have they committed large portions to
memory, but they are able to explain them."
The Church and Amusements.
Mr. Greenhough, of Leicester, one of the
most robust and liberal thinkers in the Baptist
pulpit, has arrived at the conclusion that
the church ought to have as little as possible
to do with the providing of what are called
amusements. Referring to his own denomination,
he said their history had been one
prolonged witness against the secularization
of the church?an incessant endeavor to keep
it separate from the frivolities and lighter
thoughts of each passing generation, and to
concentrate its energies on purely religious
objects. The ona business of the
church is to cultivate the religious faculty
in men. Its work is not moral in the
first place, but religious?religious preeminently,
moral only by consequence. Their
final aim onsrht to be. not to trot their church
buildings filled, but to get the many or the
few who ccme imbued with religious principles.
Mr. Greenhough's experience is either
that the more solid and religious things are
entirely neglected when game*! are provided,
or two entirely different classes of young
people support the one and the other respectively.
He is convinced that the lighter
things when carried on as part of the church
work, tend to lower and secularize the whole
atmosphere of a church.
Put on the Buffers.
Did you ever notice the way in which a
train of railroad car3 are fastened together?
At the end of each car is a huge bolt, which
slides in and out a little way, to which is
hooked another bolt just like it on the next
car. When the engineer backs and the two
cars come together, they do not strike with a
hard bump, jolting the passengers out of
their seats; but the two fastening?; meet,each
slides in a few inches, breaking the force of
the blow, and the two cars come together
easily and gently. These slides are called
buffers. because they buff each other, and
save the cars from many a bump. Now do
you know that everybody can carry with
him a buffer, which will help him to avoid
hard hits with other people. That buffer ii
kindnafS.
A kind wcrd, spoken gently, even in an
swer to an uiikuiu ouo; u. t.iuu atuuu, deriving
the good of another; above all, a kinc
heart, full of love, will make all around ui
friendly, and fill the world with sunshine.
You remember how Joseph went out oi
his prison to become a prince. If he had
moped and sulked in Pot iphar's house, as he
had some reason for doing, or had sat down
in the prison cross and snappish, do you suppose
he would ever have risen to greatness?
No, with all his ability, but for his kindness
and cheerful, helpful spirit, you and I would
never have heard of his namo. Kindness
will often succeed where eminent ability
wdi fail.?Raleigh C. Advocate.
Family Worship?An Incident.
Ten years ago I boarded in the family of a
pious woman whose husband was not a
Christian. There was a daughter of nineteen,
another of fourteen, and a son of ten.
Every morning I heard that humble woman
gather her family in the kitchen, and read
with them a chapter, verse about, in the
Bible. Then, as I could not help listening,
there was a peculiarity of service that mysti
fied me.
At last I asked one day if I might remain.
She hesitated; her daughter blushed, but she
said I could do so if I really desired it. So I
sat down with the rest. They gave me a
Testament, and we read a verse in turn
Then kneeling on the floor, that mother be
gan her prayer audibly, for her dear one;
there, her husband, and herself; and then
pausing a moment, as if to gather energies 01
wing her faith, uttered a tender, affectionate
supplication for me.
She closed, and her daughter began to
pray. Poor girl; she was afraid of me. 1
was from college; I was her teach*.r; but she
tremulously asked for a blessing as usual
Then camo the other daughter, and at laf- j
the son, the youngest of that circle, who only
rep?ated the Lord's prayir, with on) i etiticn
of his own.
His amen was said, but no one cro.-e. I
knew on the instant they were waiting for
me. And I, poor prayerless I, bad no word
to say. It almost broke my heart. I hurried
from the room, de olate and guilty.
A few weeks only passxl, wi-en I a ked
their permission to como in one; more; au'l
then I prayed, too, and thanked my dear,
patient Saviour for the hope in my li^art and
tho new gong on my lips.
Drinking at Snx
Tho Xow York Mitrmr .lonrna!, in n
timely art.cl?, "The Karat Sea," rails public
attention to the urgent need of tnm|Wiiiiin
reform on hoard our lirst class foreign
steamers. It says: "Tho receipts of the
lar on a lirst-chiss foreign steamer out of
this port to Ktiro|Ht will amount, it is said, to
three or four thousand dollars every trip.
This will give some iilea ol the amount of
drinking done in the week the ship is at sea
by the passengers. '1 here is too much of a
disposition to make the voyage o spree, if not
a drunken del audi."
A.i act toprohibit tho manufacture and sale
of alcuhlic liquors as a beverage has heen presented
for the consideration of the Missouri
legislature bv Mrs. Anna S. Cairns, on behalf
of 5000 Christian Temperance women of
Ihe State. Under the present local option
law there are -SCO dramshops in the State.
' ' < ,
' ,\ / v ; - - . -- - ;/;t v'.- .v
-v?'' *' ** . ** ' y
' t ' * ' *? j *_ ' . ji
1 TEMPERANCE. I
Drink and Danger.
Write It on the liquor store,
Write it on the prison door;
Write it on the gin shop fine:
Write, oh! write this truthful line;
Where there's drink there's danger.
Write it on the workhouse gate,
Write it on the school-boy's .slate;
Write it 011 the copy hook,
That, the young may in it look:
Where there's drink there's danger.
Write it on the churchyard mound
Where the drink slain dead are lound,
Write it on the gallows high,
Write for all passers-by;
Where there's drink there's danger.
Write it underneath your feet,
Write it on the busy street,
Wri(:e it for the great ami small
In the mansion, cot or hall.
Where there's drink there's danger.
Write it on our ships which sail
Home along by steam and gale;
Write it in large letters plain,
U'er our mn i ana cross me main,
Where there's drink there's danger.
Wril.e it always in thehome,
Write it where our drunkard's roam,
"Year by year from good arid right,
Proving with resistless might,
W tiere there's drink there's danger.
Write it for the rising youth,
Write it for the cause of truth,
Writs it for the fatherland,
Write, 'tis duty's stern command,
Where there's drink there's danger.
Why a State is Taxed Heavily.
Massachusetts, according to the reccnt
annual report of the State Board of Lunacy
and Charity, has ?>0 city and town almshouses,
and nearly 3000 paupers residing in
these anci State institutions. Of the inmates
of the reformatory establishments of the
State the proportion of those who are children
of foreign parentage is stated as fully
90 per cent The poverty, insanity and
crime, for which the property of the Commonwealth
is so heavily taxed, owes its
origin, to a large extent, to the injurious
social drinking usages and to the liquor
traffic. The State could well afford, as a
matter of dollars and cents, to close all the
drinking places, and support, instead of their
pauperized victims, the saloon-keepers,
brewers and distillery from the public
treasury. ?National Advocate.
Depot Ism or the Poluon-Vice.
All poison-habits avenge tbemselvpi by
their tyranny over the will-power of their
victims. For weeks, often indeed for years,
the monitions of instinct resist the yviles of
the tempter; a boy may be coaxed or forced
to swallow a spoonful of rum every day, and:
yet abhor its taste at the end of a month as
plainly as on the day of the first attempt;
Nature protests against the incipience of a!
life-endangering vice, and is apt to enforce:
her voto by such arguments as nausea and,
sick-headache; but if those warnings are!
disregarded too often, the sinner is at last'
abandoned to his fate, and his will becomesi
a slave toan unnatural passion for the same!
poison which at lirst formed Lbo object of a;
violent aversion. There is an exception to:
that rule- Chemistry knows no poison,'
botany no deadliest weed, which by persist-i
ent obtrusion iuto the reluctant organism;
cannot be made the object of a passionate
craving. Millions of men have become des-'
perately addicted to the use of arsenic and.
opium; the natives of Kamt.'chatbu fuddle
with an infusion of poisonous mushrooms;!
the Indians of eastern Yucatan with acuta,:
tha Kvrisn* with hash-1
?esh, the Tartar* with fermented mare's!
milk, the miners of the Peruvian sierras'
with antimrciy and sugar of lend, the Malays'
with the acrid leaves of the betel plant.
It would be mere sophistry to object that
"a man may contract a penchant for any ar-j
tide of diet." The predilection for harmless
or nutritive substances will never assume
the form of a mind-enslaving and exclusive
passion. A jierson may become very fond!
of ripe grapes without l>eing tempted to slay
bis mother for a bunch or blue Catawbas.
He will not risk his life in a midnight mid
to plunder the vineyards on Kellev's Island.
His green-grocers will not be knocked down
for a crate of Concords; be will not board a
freight train and fall like a famished wolf
upon the content! of the grape car. If grapes
should be out of season he will not stiller the
tortures of Hades till the object of his mania
can be imported from distant dimes. In de- |
fault of graps, ripe bananas or a quart of<
red raspberries will suit his purpose just at
woll.
The passion of the poison slave will accept
tio such compromise. In tho absence of his
wonted tipple the grief of a laudanum
drinker refuses to l>e comforted by all the
dainties <>f a Parisian restaurant. A hasheesh
filler won d turn away in disgust from
all the tree iniits of Paradise. Now the ali
rolmi hnhil. is rbanu-teri/ed by an exactly
analogous iii.liienco upon the passions of its
victims. Continued topers loathe whole1
some food and drink while the unsatisfied
i rage'of the poisoit-liunger is gnawing at their
vitals. In pursuit of its gratification that
hankering can rise to a passion overpowering
nvnrv boLttsr instinct, the instinct of self
preservation hardly excepted. I have known
[ rum to cause soldiers to leave their post and
make a rush for Ihe dramshop across the
5 border, with the full knowledge of running
the risk of being shot for desertion. Baffled
> topers will not husitate to cheat their neigltj
bors apd friends; they will deceive their
' benefactors by the inennest tricks; they
) will not shrink from filching the pennies
of a sleeping child. Dr. Isaac Jennings
quotes the case of a tippler who wns set
to work in a Massachusetts almshouse:
"Within a few days he had devised various
expedients to procure rum, but failed. At
length he hit upcn one that proved successful.
He went into the woodyard of the esi
tablisbment, placed one baud upon a block,
and with an aje in the other struck it olT at a
single blow. With the stump raised and
streaming, he ran into the house, crying:
'Get socie rum! get some rum! my hand is
off!' In the confusion and bustle of the occasion
a bowl of rum was brought, into
which he plunged the bleeding member of
his body, then raising the bowl to his month,
1 drank freely, and exultingly exclaimed:
'Now I am satisfied.'" Yet there is no doubt
that the hero of the above exploit might have
gratified his craving for various other arti1
cles of food or drink without a sacrifice of
J DJOtMl. 21 bUiUier WII/II t\ U1 U3i Ui uioau lit ...?
pocket would not drentn of risking his life
for tile pleasure of buttering that bread. The
experience of daily life would furnish nti
abundance of similar cases to illustrate the
fact that no natural appetite is characterized
by the exclnsiveness of the alcohol passion.?
Dr. Oswald, ?? the Voire.
W. C. T. U. Kul let in.
''Stampede the Christian womanhood of
' tho nation and the saloon w safe."
Fifty-four new Loyal Temperance Legions
were organized in Nebraska lost year,
i A 'Prayer Alliance" for the extinction of
the saloon has beeu orgauizcd in ?rio Coun1
ty, l'enn.
Dr. S. S. Thorne says: In regard to surgii
cal operations every physician dreads to
huve anything to do with beer-drinkers. It
is dangerous,for a buor driuker to oven cut
1 his linger.
Miss Mary A. Woodbridge, American Seci
retary of the World's W\ C. T. U., will visit
Kngland in t.hu spring to attend the annual
meeting of the British Woman's Temperance
; Association.
Wine is almost universally used by the
Japanese in celebrating the Mikado's uirthday,
Novemlier but the Japanese residents
of Honolulu conducted their last festivities
in lienor of this occasion without the
use of any stimulant.
Dr. Strong is authority for the statement
that in t.he States between the Mississippi
River and the Kooky Mountains there is on
tho average one saloon to every fortv-tnree
?ii. ,\f fka Mid jivvpfttyfl
is oue saloon to 107 voters.
- In Sheffield, Ala., says the Nashville Issue,
the licensed saloon supports the public
schools. One man who asserted that both
Ins sons were strong auti prohibitionists,
upon Ixing asked why, saiil: ' Because they
are indebted tu tlio saloon for their schooling."
A good work is in progres? among the
hundreds of Italians employed in the iron
and coal mines and limestone quarries of
Newcastle, Fenn. Mr. and Mrs. ISurde, Italian
evangelists from New York e.ty. have
been employed by the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union of Newcastle, lo work
among these people who are notably god less,
ignorant ami quarrelsome. Mrs. Nnnle is
blind, but is led from house to iiotwe by her
husband as they visit these neglected Italian
families holding cottage services,
A new way of fighting the litiuor traffic
has lately been tried with success oy some of
the Catholic jrie>ts of Brooklyn, N. Y.
Hundreds of boys and youn^ men have been
pledged to shun the saloons aud cigar stores
for a stated number of years.
. y,r- . . > ' r.S ; V,
. . y : -rWORDS
OP WISDOM.
Woman is bom for love.
Tbink well before taking action.
Live to explain thy doctrine by thy
life.
Happiness ia not perfected until it is
shared.
The tender, humble, broken heart is
the best thank offering.
He who wisely uses his wealth need
not leave it for his tombstone.
Do the truth you know, and you shall
learn the truth you need to know.
The sight of a man's money is ofttimes
the antidote for the odor of a very
bad character.
The most delicate, the most sensible of
all pleasures, consists in promoting the
pleasures of others.
A woman may be ugly, ill-shaped,
wicked, ignorant, silly and stupid, but
hardly ever ridiculous.
Do not wait for extraordinary opportunities
for good actions, but make use
of common situations.
But the path of the just, as a shining
light, goetn forward, and increaseth even
to perfect day. The way of the wicked
is darksome; they know not where they
fall.
The things which thy eyes have seen
utter not hastily in a quarrel, lest afterward
thou mayst not be able to make
amends, when thou hast dishonored thy
friend.
No one can ask honestly or hopefully
to be delivered from temptation unless
he has himself honestly and firmly determined
to do the best ho can to keep
out of it.
Spanish Ragamuffin Soldiers.
Onpo fftr +Vi*. anlra nf t.VlA
and diversion, I joined Don Carlos, the
Pretender to the throne of 8pain, writes
General Crawford, of the United 8tates
army, at Los Arcos in the mountains of
Navarre, and accompanied his troops to
Vienna, on the Ebro, and was a witness
to the attack and capture of the place.
They were a tatterdemalion lot of soldiers,
and no mistake, clothed in every
conceivable garment and armed with
every conceivable weapon, from a pitchfork
to a broken scythe strapped on a
stick, and from an antiquated out-ofdate
army musket to the latest improved
American breechloader. But nondescript
and incongruous as they were, they had
stout hearts in their ill-nurtured bodies,
and when put to it and spurred on by
the presence of their Prince, they would
fight an gallantly and desperately as only
brave men can. As for artillery, they
had none; but that did not appear to affect
them one way or the other.
I stood by the side of Don Carlos on a
rustic bridge one dismal and rainy morning
as his devoted followers filed by on
the march, and I was much struck by
seeing a number of wagons in the line
loaded down with barrels. I asked Don
Carlos what they contained, and he care
lessly answered in liis most nonchalant
manner, with just a trace of a smile on
hid handsome face:
"The / contain petroleum."
"And what earthly use," I asked,
"have you for petroleum on the march?"
"What use!" he answered1. "Why,
much use to be sure. That's our artillery.
We employ it to smoke out our
enemiea from barricaded strongholds,
and I can assure you it's been tried and
found very effective in case a conflagration
is deemed desirable." And then
after a moment's pause and a look at my
face, "Oh, yes, I can assure you, General
Crawford, petroleum makes very good
artillery on a pinch, very good indeed."
?New York Star.
Cotton Seed Oil.
In the United j$tatC3 cotton oil is
made from the decorticated and crushed
upland cotton-seed, by expression this
process yielding an odorless dark
brownish-green oil having a specific
aravity of about 0224. Being then
treated with alkaline solutions ("generally
containing potash or soda), the
clear yellow oil, which is odorless and
flavorless and has the same specific
gravity as the crude, is drawn off by
racking, and the residuum, which is
called soap stock, is treated in a suitable
manner.
The present consumption of cotton
^ ml wolrinrp nnrnAQAQ 1ft A?inilt
CCCU XUl Vtl'u<aaiug -w ,
800,000 toa3 a year, from which there
are made about 28,000,000 gallons,
worth about thirty cents per gallon in |
the refined condition.
The principal use to which it is put is
for food purposes. The well-established |
fact that it is not only healthful, but
more easily digested than almost any
other article of food, accounts for the
rapid increase of its use for culinary
purposes, which to-day simounts to a
very large proportion of the entire production.
It is safe to say that of the
2f, 000,000 gallons made each year, ninetenths
enter into the composition of
food products, principally refined lard
and salad and cooking oil. It is also
used for illuminating; in the manufacture
of nuts and bolts; lor wool
soap; for soap for laundry, bath and
toilet purposes; as an emulsiou in medicine,
to take the place of olive oil; as a
substitute for cod liver oil; in packing
sardines, and for dozens of other purposes
as a substitute for olive oil.?
Dicie.
New Readings.
There was once a little girl whose
1" "HAM Avnallanf h o f
reacting m scuuui wiu su
she was always called upon to display
her abilities when visitors were present
On one such occasion, says Youth's
Companion, she rose, "puffed up with
majestick pride," to repeat a poem be- I
ginning:
"Daffodils! daffodils!"
But pride had a fall that time, for the
words got twisted, and she enunciated
with emphasis:
"Daddyfoils! daddyfoils!"
Many are the ludicrous mistakes belonging
to reading classes. A little girl
one day attempted the sentence:"Cortes,
with a handful of followers, went to
Mexico," but the r-.'ad, in all gravity:
"Cortes, with a handful of flowers, went
to Mexico."
Another child delivered, with great
expression, the lines from "Lord Lilin's
.Daughter:"
"AVho will cheer my bony bride.
When thoy have slain her lover!"
The Origin of Halloo and Hurrah.
Among other exclamations in common
use "Halloo!" and "Hurrah!" have curious
origins attributed to them. It is
sa d by the author ci "The Queen's
?uglisft" tnai tnc peopi*; vt iu?hj?vuuu
Forost, Leicestershire. when they desired
to hrul a person at a distance called
out not halloo." but ' halloup!" This
he iungincs is a survival of the times
when one cried to another "a loup!
a loup!" or as we would now say:
Wolf! wolf!" "Hurrah!" again according
to M. Littre, is derived from the
Slavonic huraj, "to Paradise," which
signifies that all soldiers who fell fighting
valiautly went straight to heaven.
"PrUhee" is obviously a corruption of
"I pray thee;" while "marry" was
originally a method of swearing" by the
Virein Mary.?All the Year Round.
" ' ; ' Wf' ':r?7,j
CLEVELAND'S FUTUBET i M
Tlie President to Enter a Large
New York Law Firm. . j
Ee Will Begin Practice as Soon
as His Term Ezpires.
A Washington dispatch states that "on
Tuesday, March 5, Grover Cleveland, now I '/jffS
President of the United States, will be-j
:ome a resident of tho city of New York and
i member of the law firm of Bangs, Stetson,;
Tracy & MacVeagh. The President haj
JUttll UUUtCIIipittl/lLlJJ bills aoouvmuvu &w? i , '
some time, but only completed his ar-!
rangements recently, during a visit to J ?
;he White House of Mr. *rancis Lynda \ ;
Stetson, with whom he is so soon to be con*
aected in business. He will take the placo
is counsel with the firm of Mr. Wayne Mac*
Teagh. the father of Mr. Charles MacVeagh, . %
whose name appears in the firm designation.
The President's name is not to be incorporated
in that of the firm, and he is not expecting - -;M
50 appear in court.
"Tne President has not yet selected a permanent
residence, but he will live in Ne^r gj
York city and not in New Jersey or Brook* '7?
lyn. The idea of living in New Jersey had a
ijreat deal of attraction, but the inconvenience
of travel was decided to be
a sufficient objection to the plan of living
on the Orange Mountain. For /
the present the President will'
live in a hotel near Madison Square and he
will seek to maintain his present good health
by walking from his hotel to his office ill
William street He has been in training for
these walks, for he has of late resorted to
this plan of finishing his afternoon ride by
being set down a mile or two from the v'fj
White House and 'footing it' the rest of the
distance.
"Mrs. Cleveland and Mra Folsom wiH ,
find a large circle of old and new friends
ready to welcome them to the soeiepr of the
metropolis, xne country uoumj ut wo*. ?.. ,
which the President bought in anticipation
of his marriage will not be occupied by him
again. It has been closed since the Christ* . .f
mas holidays, when the family came to the
White House for the winter. The President
will probably retain it until an advantageous- " ?
opportunity is presented of selling it , .
"Two other persons who have been doselr
identified with the Administration will
take up their residence in New York
at the same time that the President
foes to that city. Secretary of the Treasury
airchild has purchased a house near Washington
Square, and soon after he has occupied
It he will take charge of an important
business undertaking now organizing and'
With which some of the most substantial men > \ ,'3J|
of the city are identified. It is not s lair ;
business, but the Secretary's legal attain- :;i
ments will make him more valuable as th? . \
head of a concern in which the experience of
the Secretary of the Treasury will perhaps
constitute a greater recommendation for > .*>?
employment.
"Colonel D. S. Lamont, the President's
private secretary, will also take hold of private
business on March 5,and in a line winch
he expects to be an agreeable and profitable
change after four years of servitude in ne- .>
tional politics. He and the President will
I -?:ii AAmiMininiK fnr thftV exnect
Dlllil W -V- J ?rC
| to lire at the same hotel until . ;^JS
i they have selected permanent resi- m
j tiences. Mr. Lamont will not go Into the
insurance business as has been reported, but
Into one more attractive to him, in which be
will be the associate of intimate friends who ifi
have * proved ability in ventures requiring
discretion, energy and capital. He is not vel
prepared to go more fully into his plans, but : ,-\p
they are understood to be m the direction of >
railroad development."
Mr. Stetson, the New York lawyer referred
to in the above dispatch, in an interview
corroborates the information therein contained
concerning Mr. Cleveland's occupa*
tion after h.'s retirement from the Presidency.
<JM 7^
THE LATE CBOWN PEINCE. J
Rudolph's Body Lyin? in State?A.
Simple Barial.
The body of the late Crown Prince of Austria
lay in state in the private chapel of tha
Hofburg, Vienna, for two days, when it was
decided that it should be deposited in the
vaults of the church, the heart in- * $
closed in a silver urn, placed in St.
Augustine's and the intestine), in a
silver vase, in St Stephen's Cathedral. The
funeral procession, without pomp, it was de- .
cided should go the shortest route.
At the funeral of the Prince all the honors
befitting the exalted rank of the deceased
I ""?a Kii^ flicus TVAO nft arf-ronrHinirV {+
"CIO paiu, UUV ?"?ww HIM uv VAm j
display of funeral pomp.
Requiem mass was said at the Capuziner
Church, which was filled with the dignitaries
of the court and state. The Emperor
knelt alone at the foot of the catafalque.
Behind and around him were
a number of Archdukes and other members
of the Imperial family. To therm
succeeded Ministers and high officers of the
state, the army and navy. The rest of the
congregation consisted of the Imperial household,
the burgomasters of Vienna and Pestb,
and members of the corporation in their
robes shrouded with mourning, the diplomatic
corps to the number of seventy-five,
and a few representatives of the home and
foreign pres9.
Tne religious ceremonies were the only - ;
elaborate feature of the funeral. All the
rest, in accordance witfc the Emperor's desire,
was comparatively simple. The procession,
preceded by troops and bands with
muffled drums, and including in due order
all the people within the church, began to
move at 4 o'clock. The streets through
which it passid were crowded with
mourning spectators from curb to housetop.
The painful silence of the vast crowds was
broken only by half suppressed sobs. Intense
emotion was manifested everywhere.
The pleasure-loving populace were subdued
UJ aauuvn vfiuwuw.j ?9??%rw*w?
The Empress, having taken a last look at
her son in the morning, when the coffin was
closed forever, did not attend the funeral,bat %
with the Crown Princess Stephanie and the
Princesses Gesels and Valerie remained at
prayer in the chapel of the Hofburg.
THE PARNILL COMMISSION.
_ *
Sensational Evidence of a Man One?
a Prominent Fenian.
The most sensational testimony yet adduced
before the Parnell Commission in London
has been given bv Dr. Thomas Philip
Beach, better known as Major Le Caron,
who has been connected with Fenian organizations
since istio.and is said to have been in
the pay of the British and Canadian Governments
for a number of years. He said
he attended meetings of the United Brotherhood,
or Clan-na-(iael, in America, at which
Messrs. Parnell and Dillon were present. The
witness was informed by Patrick Egan that
Mr. Parnell wanted to join the organization, ?
but feareJ his accession might impair its usefulness.
Le laron said he afterward had two interviews
with Parnell: the first in the house of
I A. M. Sullivan at Clapham, and the second
in the lobby of the House of Common. "Doctor."
said the Irish leader. ' ! have long
since cea'ei to believe that anything but
force of arms can ever bring abouo
the redemption of Ireland." He did
not see, he continued, why there could
not be a successful revolution in Ireland.
The League treasury had ?10),000 for the
purpose, and the people might contribute
more. The witness, in interviews with
Messrs. Sexton and Kenney, discussed an
uprising.
A London dispatch states that on the second
day of his appearance on the witness
stand Le Caron "told what purported to be
the story of how Fenianism developed into a
dynamite conspiracy, and nt wearisome
length detailed the proceedings at the Chicago
Convention and other historical gatherings
of American Irish. The names of Parnell
and less prominent members of the Irish
Parliamentary party were freely bandied
nbout, but even if to-dav's evidence be accepted
as truthful, which requires an exerciaa
of phenomenal faith, it proves no more than
that the Land League leaders from the tirst
endeavored to sever themselves from the part
nf vinlen^o mid tried ti> convert the revolu
tionists to faith in constitutional raathoJs."
The Navajo Indians of Arizona are very
successful in raisin# stock. According to
the figures of the reservation agent, they
own ,'i-"),0.;0 horses and ponies, 600 mules,
li'jOO cattle. 800,000 goats, and 500 burros.
Their wool clippings for the year amounted
to 1,200,000 pounds,and they also sold 300,00?
sheep pelts and 100,000goat skins,
- ! ...1 "l