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REV. M, TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN* DIVIXE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "The Moonlight Ride." Text: uThen I irent up in the night by the brook, nnd viewed Ike wall and turned back, and enterc I by (he gate of the valley, and so returned*?>Toheiniah ii!, 13. A dead city is more suggestivo than a living city?past Home than preseut Romeruins rather than newly frescoed cathedral. But the best time to visit a ruin is by moonlight. The Coliseum is far more fascinating to the traveler after sundown than before. You may stand by daylight amid the monastic ruiD.s of Melrose Abbey, and study shafted oriel, and resetted stone aud mullion, bat they throw their strongest witchery by moonlight. Some of you remember what the enchanter of Scotland said in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel:" A'nnlilat thou view fnir Vclrnse aripht. Go visit it by the pale moonlight. Washington li ving describes tho Anda- | lusian moonlight upon the Alhambra ruins as amounting to ail enchantment. My text ? resents you Jerusalem in ruins. The tower own. The gates clown. The walls down. Everything down. Nehemiah on horseback, by moonlight looking upon the ruins. While be rides, there are some friends on foot going with him. for they do not want the many horses to disturb the suspicions of the people. These people do no know the secret of Nehemiah's heart, hut they are going as a sort ot body guard. I hear the clicking hoof of the horse on which Nehemiah rides,as he guides it this way and that, into this gate and out of that, winding through that gate amid tho debris of once freat Jerusalem. Now the norss comes to a ead halt at the tumbled masonry where ho cannot pass. Now he shies off at the charred timbers. Now he comes along where the water under the moonlight flashes from the mouth cf the brazen dragon after which tho gate was named. Heavy hearted Nehemiah! Riding in and cut, now by his old homo desolated, now by the defacad temple, now amid the scars of tho city that had gone down under battering ram and conflagration. The escorting party knows not what Nehemiah means. Is he getting crazy? Havo bis own personal sorrows, addei to tho sorrows of the natiou, unbalanced his intellect? Still the midnight exploration goes on. Nehemiah on horseback rides through the flsh gate, by the tower of the furnaces, by the King's pool, by the dragon well, in and out, in and out, until tho midnight ride is completed, and Nehemiah dismounts from his horse, and to the amazed and confoundod and incredulous body guard, declares tho dead secret of his heart when he says: "Come, now, let us build Jerusalem." "What, Nehemiah, have you any money?" "No," "Have you any kingly authority?" "No." "Have you any eloquence?"' "No." Yet that midnight, moonlight ride of Nehemiah resulted in the glorious rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem, The people knew not how the thing was to bo J?! ?? AnfknAiAem fkftw UUUUy L/Uii gioau uunuujiuom nuvj vnw<4 out: "Let us rise up no wand build thecity." Some people laughed and said it could not be done. Some people were infuriate and offered physical violence, saying the thing should not be dene. But the workmen went right on, standing on the -wall, trowel in one hand sword in the other until the work was gloriously completed. At that very time, in Greece. Xenophon was writing a history, and Plato was making philosophy, and Demosthenes was rattling his rhetorical thunder, but all of them together did not do so much for the world us this midnight, moonlight ride of praying,courageous, homesick, close-mouthed Nehemiali. My subject first impresses mo with the idea what an intense thing is church affection. Seize the bridle of that horse and stop Nehetniah. Why are you risking your life hero in the night? Your horse willstumble over thase ruins and fall on you. Stop this useless exposure of your life. No; Nehemiali will not stop. He at last tells us the whole story. He lets us know he was an exile in a Tar distant land,and he was a servant, a cupbearer in the palace of Artaxerxos Lougimanus, and one day. while he was handing the cup of w;ue to the King, the King said to him: ' What is the matter with you? You are not sick. I kaow you must have some great trouble. What is the matter with rour Then he told the King how that beloved Jerusalem was broken down: how that his father's tomb had been desecrated: how that the Temple had Iboen dishonored and defaced; how that the walla were scattered and broken. "Well," says KiDg Artaxerxes, "what do you want?" "Well," said the cupbearer Nehemiah, "I want to go home. I want to fix up the grave of ray father. I want to restore the beauty of the Temple. I want to rebuild the masonry of the city wall. Besides, I want passports so that I shall not be hindered in my journey. And betides that," as you will find in tho context, "I want an order on tho man who keeps your forest for just so much timber as I may need for the rebuilding of the city." "How long shall you be gone?" said the King. The time of absence is arranged. In hot baste this seeming adventurer comcs to Jerusalem, and in my text wo And him on horseback, in the midnight, riding around the ruins. It is through the spectaolos of this scene that wo discover the ardent at' achment of Nehemiah for sacred Jerusalem, which in all ages has been the type of the church of Go J, our Jerusalem, which wo love just as much as Nehemiah loved his Jerusalem. The fact is that you love the church of God 10 much that there is no sjiot on earth so sacred, unless it is your own fireside. The church has i sen to you s ? much comfort and illumination thaf lh?r*> i?; noth'ng that mates you so Irate as to have it talked against. If there have been times when you have be?n carried into captivity by oir?trr? aeo vah f/\*? fit* AhnnAli' fi oar boiy Jerusalem, just as much as ? Nebemiah longed for his Jerusalem, aud the first day you came out you came to the H house of tna Lord. When the Temple was in ruins as oure was years ago, like NehcH miab, you walked around and looked at it. 9j and iu the moonlight you stood listening if ? you could not hear the voice of the dead B -organ, the psalm of the expired Sabbaths. What Jerusalem was to Nehemiab, the chnrch of God is to you. BW Skeptics and iufideLs may sootE at the church BE as au obsolete affair, as a relic of the dark -ages, * convention of goody goody people, but all the impression they have ever made V on your mwd against the church of God is HT absolutely noihing. You would make more sacrifices for it to-day tUan for any other institution, and if it were nee<lful you would die in its defence. You can take the words of the kingly poes I^Hushesaid: "If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, ^?let my right hand forget her cunning.'' You understand in your owe experience tho pathos, the homesickness, the courage, the holy enthusiasm of Nebemiah in his midnight, moonlight ride around the ruins of bis beloved Jerusalem. Again, my text impresses me with the fact that before reconstruction there must be au exploration of ruins. Why was not Nehemiah asleep under the covers? Why was not his horse stabled in the midnight? Let tho nolioft rtf tho pit.tr Arraah this mirimpht. rirloi* rfrat on some mischief. No. Nehemiah is going to rebuild the city, and he is making th9 preliminary exploration. in this gate, out that gate, oast, west, north, south. All through the ruins. The ruins must be explored before the work of reconstruction can begin. The reason that so many people in this day, apparently converted, do not stay converted is because thay did not first explore the ruins of their own heart. Tho reason that there are so many professe I I Christians who in this day lie and for^o and steal, and commit aiultery, and go to the penitentiary, is because they first do not learn the ruin of their own heart. Thoy have not found out that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." They had an idea that they were almost right, and they built religion as a sort of oxten3ion, ! r as an ornamental cupola. There was a super | 4 structure of religion built on a substratum or unrepjntoJ sins. The trouble with a good deal of modern theology is that instead of building oa tho right foundation, it builds on the debris of an unregenjratsd nature. They attjmpt to rebuild Jerusalem bofore, in the midnight of conviction, they have seen the ghastil mass of the ruin. Thay have such a poor foundation for their religion th.it the first northeast storm of temptation blows then* down, i have no faith iu a man's conversion if he is not converted in tin old fashioned way?John Banyan's way, John Wesley's way, John Calvin's way, Paul's way. Christ's wav. ' God's way. A d<>ntist oucj said to me: "Does that hurt?" Said I: "Of course it hurts. It is in yoar business as it is in my profession. We have to hurt before we cau help." You will never understand redemption natil you understand ruin. A man tells ; me that tome one is a member of the church. It makes no impression on my mind I at all. 1 simply want lo know whether ha was converted in the o'.d fashionol way, or whether ha was converted in the nowfashioned way. it' he was converted in fclio old fashioned way ho will stand. If ho was converted in tho new fashioned way ho will not staud. That is all tiiero is aboiit it. A man comes to mo to talk about religion. The first question I ask him is: "Do you fepl yourself to be a sinnerIf he sav: '"Well I? yes.'' the hesitancy makes me feol that that man wants a ride on Nehemiah's hois 3 by midnight through the ruins?in by the gato of his affections, out by the gato of his will: and before he bas got through with that midnight ride ho will drop the reigns on the horss's neck, and will take his right haud and smite on his heart and say: "God bo merciful to me a sinner;" and before he has stabled his horse I10 will take his feot out of the stirrups, and ho will slide down on the ground, and he will kneel, crying: "Have mercy on me, 0 God, according to Thy loving kindness, according unto tho multitude of Thy tender mercies; blot out my transgressions, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sins are ever beforo Thee.'' Ah, my friends, you see this is not a complimentary gospel. That is what makes some people so mad. It comes to a man of a million dollars and impenitent in his sins .and says: "You're a pauper." It comos to a woman of fairest cheek who has never repented, and says: "You're a sinner." It conies to a man priding himself on his independence and says: 'You're bound hand and foot by the devil." It comes to our entire raco and says: "You're a ruin, a ghastly ruin, an illimitable ruin." Satan sometimes says to me: "Why do you preach that truth? Why don't you preach a gostel with no repentance in it? Why don't you flatter men's hearts so that you make them feel all right? Why don't you preach a humanitarian gospel with no repentance in it, saying nothing about ttie ruin, talking all the time about redemption?" I say: "Get thee behind me, Satan." I would rather I lead five souls the right way than twenty thousand the wrong way. The redemption of the gospel is a per- j feet farce if there is no ruin. "The whole | need not a physician, but they that are sick." ! "If any one, though ho be an angel from heaven, preach by any other gospel than this," says the apostle, "let him be accursed." There must be the midnight ride over the ruins before Jerusalem can be built. There must be the clicking of the hoofs before thore can be the ringing of the trowels. Again. My subject gives me a specimen of busy and triumphant sadness. If there was any man in the world who bad a right to mope and give up every tiling as lost, it was lyehomiah. You say: "H-> was a cupbearer in the palace of Shushan, and it was a gran 1 place." So U was. The hall of that palace was two hundred feet square, and the roof hovered over thirty-six marble pillars, each pillar sixty feat high: and the intense blue of the sky, and the deep green of the forest foliage, and th9 white of the driven snow, all hung trembling in the upholstery. But, my friends, you know very well that fine architecture will not put down homesickness. Yofc Nehemiah did not give up. Then when you see him going among these desolated streets, and by these dismantled towers, and by the torn up grave of his father, you would suppose that he would have been disheartened, and that he would have dismounted from his horse and gone to his room and said: "Woe is me! My father's frAi*n im Tha Tomnlflic Hichnnnr^rl The walls are broken down. I have no money with which to rebuild. I wisli I had nev o been born. 1 wish I were doal." Not so says Nehemiah. Although he had a grief so intonse that it excited the commentary of his King, yet that panniiess, expatriated Nehemiah rouses himself up to rebuild the city. He gets his permission of absence. He gets his passports. He hastens away to Jerusalem. By night on horseback he rides through the ruins. He overcomes ths most rerocious opposition. He arous93 the piety and patriotism of the people, and in less than two months, namely, in flfty-two days, Jerusalem was rebuilt. That's" what I call busy and triumphant sadness. My friends, the whole temptation is with you, when you have trouble, to do just the opposite to the behavior of Nehemiah, and that is to give up. You say: "I have lost my child and can never smile again." You say: "I have lost my property, and I never can repair my fortuaes." You say: "I have fallen into sin, and I never can start again for a new life." If Satan can make you form that resolution, and make you keep it, he has ruined you. Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to arouse you, to animate you, to propol you. The blacksmith does not thrust the iron into the forge and then blow away with the bellows, and then bring the hot iron out on tho anvil and beat with stroke after stroke to ruin the iron, but to prepare it for a better use. Oh, that the Lord God of Nehemiah would rouse up all broken-hearted people to rebuild. Whipped, betrayed, shipwrecked, imprisoned Paul went right on. The Italian martyr I Algorius sits in his dungeon writing a letter, and be dates it "From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison.' That is what I call triumphant sadness. I knew a mother who buried her baby on Friday and on Sabbath appeared in the houso of Goi and said: "Uive me a class; give m9 a Sabbath school class. I have no child now left me, and I would like to have a class of littlo children. Give mo raal poor children. Give me a class ofT the back str^V That, I say, is beautiful. That is triumphant sadness. At 3 o'clock this afternoon, in a beautiful parlor in Philadelphia? a parlor pictured and statuetted?thare will bo from ten to twentv destituts children of tho street. It has been so every Sabbath afternoon at .'1 o'clock for many years. Those destitute children receive religious instruction, concluding with cakes and sandwichas. ilow do I know that that has be 211 going on for many years? I knew it in this way. That was the Grst home in Philadelphia where I was called to comfort a great sor row. Tbey bad a splendid boy and he had been drowued at Long Brand). The father and mother almost idolized the boy, and the sob and shriek of that lather and mother as they hung over the roffiu resound in my oars to day. Tlierv seemed to be no use of praying, for when j knelt down to pray, the outcry in the room drowned out all the pray. But the Lord comforted that sorrow. They did not forget their trouble. If you should go on the snowiest winter afternoon into Laurel Hill you would find a momument with the word 'Walter' inscribed upon it, and a wreath of fresh flowers around the name. I thinlc there has not been an hour all these years, winter or summer, when therj was not a wrcatli c-f :resh flowers around Walter's nv LJut the Christian mother who sends those flowers there, having no child left, Sabbath afternoons others ten or twenty of the lost ones of the street. That is beautiful. That is what I call busy and triumphant sadness. Here is a man who has lost his property. He does not go to hard drinking. He does not destroy his own life. He comes and says: "Harness me for Christian work. Sly money's gone. I have no treasures ; ou earth. 1 want treasurer in heaven. I : have a voice and a heart to serve God." You say that that man has failed. He has not failed?ho has triumphed. Oh, I wish I could persuade all tho people who have any kind of trouble never to give up. I wish they would look at the midnight rider of the text, ind that the four hoofs of that l.e*st on which Nehemiah rode .mgut cut to pieces all your discouragements and hardships and trials. Give up! "Who is going to give up, when on the bosom of God ho can have all his troubles hushed? Give up! Never think of giving up. Aro you borne down with poverty# A little child was found holding her dea "l mother's hand in the darkness of a tenement house, and soma one comincc in, th.? little girl looked up, while holding li6r dead mother's hand, and said: "Oh, I <lo wish that God had made moro light for poor folks." My dear, God will be your light, God will be your shelter, Go 1 will be your home. Are you borne do*n with tho bereavements ol' life; Is the house lonely now that the child is gone? Do not give up. Think of i what tbe oiu sexton saw wnen me mioisrer asked him why lie put so much care on the little graves in the cemetery?so much moro care than en tho larger craves, and the old sexton said: "Sir, you know that 'of such is the kingdom of hsaven,' and I think the Saviour is pleased when Ha sees so much white clover growing around these little graves." But when the minister pressed the old sexton for a more satisfactory uuswer, tbi old sexton said: "Sir, ;il>out I theso larger graves, I don't know who are the Lord's saints and who are not; but you know, sir, it is clean different with the bairns." Ob, if you have had keen, tender, indescribable sorrow that comes from the loss of a child, do not give up. The old sexton was right It is all well with the bairns. Or, if you have sinned, if you have sinned gnevously?sinned until you have been cast out by the church, sinned until you hare been cast out by society, do not give up. Perhaps there may be in this house one that could truth fully utter the lamentation of another: <-a>~.... irjc-.-i\'-~i Once I was pare as tlie snow, bat I fell? Tell lilcc a snow/like, f rom heaven to hellFell, to bo-trampled as filth in the streetFell to be scoffed at, spit 011 and biat; Praying, cursinz, wishiug to die, Selling my foul 10 whoever would bay, Dealing in shame for a morsel of breacl, Hating tlie living and fearing the dead. Do not give up. One like unto tho Son of Go I conies to you to-day, saying: "Go and sin no moro," while ho crie3 out to your assailants: "Let him that is without sin cast tho firststone at har." Oh! thero is no reason why any ona in this hous*, by reason of any trouble or sin, should give ud. Are you a foreigner, and in a strange lana? Nehemiah was an exile. Are you penniless? Nehemiah was poor. Aro you homesick? Nehemiah was homesick. Are you brokenhearted? Nehemiah was broken-hearted. But just see him in tho text, ridins: alon? tho sacrilejed jravo of his father, and by tho dragon well, and through the fish gate, and by the King's pool, in and out. in and out, the moonlight falling 011 the broken masonry, which throws a long shadow at which the horse shies, and at the same time that moonlight kindling up the features of this man till you see not only the mark of sad reminiscence, but the courage, the hope, the enthusiasm of a man who knows that Jerusalem will be rabuilded. I pick you up to-day out of your sius and out of your sorrow, and I put you against the warm heart of Christ. "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arras." CURIOUS FACTS. There are only live bedrooms in the White House. The languages of the world number about nine hundred. A mine of natural shoe blacking has 1 j a UUC11 U15<JU> CL UU 1U Liau. Tlie Declaration of Indepenaance was written with a quill pen. The French army on peace footing consists of half a million men. When an animal tamer wishes to subdue a tiger he hits him on the uose. A cat nineteen years old is to be seen in the family of JT. 1?. Shaw, Acra, 2s". Y. Fishermen have discovered that cod at tlie Fishing Banks will bite at artificial bate. Joseph Witcher, of Warren, New Hampshire's veteran hunter, has a record of forty-two bears killed. A Georgia man has a hen which lays double eggs, each one having an eg/ within an egg, as it were. Some Japanese chestnut trees at Sautn Rosa, Cal., yield enormous fruit. One dozen nuts weigh a pouad. A Poughkeepsie (X. Y.) woman has a glass necktie, which, it is said, can be tied in any kind of a knot. A grocer in New York advertises his business by stenciling his name and address in red ink on every eg^ he seiis. In London the windows of private houses are washed by a limited liability company at the rate of eight cents a window. A California paper asserts that one o! the tramps of the Santa Cru: chain ganjj wears kid gloves when creeping the streets. Ten colored men acted as pall-bearer.at the funeral of a prominent white 1-Jpis copal clergyman the other day in lolum bus, S. C. A bouquet of white roses hung 0:1 ti:i bell-knob of the house of a dead person, along with the crape, is a new idea in trappings of woe. "When a man coming to this country gives an assumed name, being onh known by it and naturalized under it, it becomes his legal name. A boy bom abroad of American paten's may become President of the United States before taking out naturalization papers, as he is a citi^cn without naturalization. The time occupied in the passage ol an electric cable message between New York and London is not of appreciable duration. It is instantaneous, like { lightning flash. A Georgia couple, believing in the saying that a fruit cake improves with age. kept their wedding cake until last week, when, with their children, they ate it The cake was sixteen years old; Tf ia cowl fViof o Pnrf Tvtrr/in V ^ XW ? SttlU VUMU t* x V4 V JU<TV\?U. ^ 1 . a. . y man, who is fond of animals, has purchased a hammock, in which his canine sleeps at night. He has taught the dog to catch one end of the rope in his teetb and swiug itself asleep. Charles Vail, an undertaker of Madison, Ind., is proud of the fact that he has buried more than 20,000 people; or, as he claims, more than auy other man in the world. He has beeu in the business sixty years and is eighty years o) age. The Arkansas Gmctle, in order tc locate the largest family in its State, offers $50 for the mother, $25 for the father and a solid silver mug for the youngest child. The family must consist of father, mother and living chil dren. A Brewer (Me.)-woman, while hauging out her wash, discovered what appeared to be a patch in the hem of a shirt, and, investigating, found it to be a bill, which she had long before sewed into the hem for safe keeping and forgotten. One very comfortable piece of statistic? been furnished Iw the Ohautail. qua Association, to the effect that over three thousand years would be required for any one person to read all the literary works now in existence that are recognized as standard. The Chinaman bears his father's name: the woman, on marrying, takes her husband's name and adds her father's to it. Thu3, -when Miss Wang marries Mr. Ly, while she might usually be called Mrs. Ly, she must in formal acts sign hersell Ly-Wang. People of the lower classcs have names, the character of whicb varies in different places. Do People J)ie or Joy? A few weeks ngo the international press mentioned tiie case of a poor German widow who died in the arms of o son who had just returned from America and hoped to make his sudden arrival a joyful surprise to a family who had long mourned him dead: and the presence of several hundred thousand spectators seems to leave no doubt in the truth oi that famous episode in tbe history of the Olympic festivals, when o!d Diagoras, the Knodiati, sank down dead in the tt*V?im tlin c)iAnf r?f occnmKlrt/1 nation greeted the ainouucement thai his two sons had won the entire pentathlon, i. e., carried oft the live prizes for which the Grecian athletes of Europe and Western Asia had been training for four years. A more remarkable, if well established, case would be the story of the Moslem hero who had risen by personal bravery to ever prouder heights of military renown. but who died from emotion, in the flower of hie youth, on receipt of his promotion to the supreme command of an army gathered for the conquest of Armenia. Such at least is the account of contemporary chroniclers, though subsequent historians incline to the view which traces the tradition to a fiction of the Caliph Walid, whose jealously had encompassed the death of his j ablest lieutenant?probably by the same j means by which the despot Tiberius con- . trived to terminate the career of his popular kinsman,?Open, Court? I ! RELIGIOUS READING. A Suggestion. Let tho wilfl rose bloom. Though not to thee So delicately perfect as the white And unwed lily drooping in t;io light; Though sh has known the kisses of the be3 And tells her amorous tale to pas-ers by, In perfumed whispers and with untaught i race, Stiil let tho red rose bloom in her own place; Sh; could not bo tho lily should she try! Why to tho wondrous nightingale cry, "Hush," Or bid her cease her wild, heart breaking lay And tune her voi o to imitate the way; The wh ppoorwill makes music, or the thrush? All heirs of sorrow to one theme belong, And passion is n t copyrighted. Yet Each h art writes its own music. Why not let The nightingale uncliided sing her s^ng? Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Women Workers in the Church. Usually many of ths most efficient and persistent workers arc to bo found among the won en. The most timid and hesitating among these may be encouraged by learning more fully of Deborah, the Judge; and Anna, the prophetess; of Mary, in her devoted service to Christ; and of Dc.rcas, in her ministrations to . he needs of the poor. It was the women who were last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre. Priscilla could hospitably entertain Paul, and success ully teach A{ olios. Both the Old an 1 the New Testaments oliAmul in inctonnoc Trlioro wnmnn TPflC ItOTl ored with dcvine commi sions which she discharge i wit:i marked accept jnce and success. Nor were they without their place in the early church, laboring as deaconesses, (Rom. 10:1), and as indispensable helpers in ca> rying forward the great work of Christ in the world ?"Methods of Church Work.' When the Day is Over. It is wise at night to read?but for a few minuter?some books which will compose and sootho the mind; which will bring us face to face with the true fa ts ot life, deatb and eternity; which will make us remember that man doth not live by bread alone; which will give us before we sleep a few thoughts wortny of a Chri tian man with an immortal soul in him. And thank God, no one need go far to find such books. I do not mean merely religious books, excellent as they are in theco days; I mean a ly "b oks which he'n to make us better aud wiser anu soberer and more charitable persons; any books which will teach us to despite what is vulgar and mean, foul and cruel, and to love what is noble and highminde 1, pure and just. In our own English language we may re id by hundreds books which will tell of all virtue and of all praise: ihe stories of good and brave men ana women; of gillant and heroic actions: of deeds which wo ourselves should be proud of doing; of pers >ns whom we feel to be better, wist-r, nobler than we are ourselves.?Canon ttinyoivy. Training- Children. The Sunday School Times enjoins upon parents to mako clear thj distinction that marks, in the child's mind, tho Sabb <th as the day of days in the week's history. The child may be differently dressed, or differently washed, or differently handled, on that day, from any other. Somo more disagreeable detail of its morning toilet, or of its day's management, might cn that day be omitted, as a means of marking the day. There may bo a sweeter song sung in its hearing, or a brighter exhibit of some kind made in its sight, or a peculiar favor of some sort granted to it, which links a special joy with that day in comparison witti the days on either side of it. S<> soon as the child is old enough to grasp a rattle or to play with a toy, th.-re ought to be a difference between his Sabba h rattle or other toy and his weekday delights in the same line. By one means or another he should have tho SabDaths to look back upen as his brightest memory, and to look forward to as his fondest anticipation. And in this way he can bo trained to enjoy the Sabbath, enn before he can know why It is made a joy fo\ him. A child is well started in tho line of" wise training when he is carried along as far as this.? Religious Herald. Indebted to Christ. Thorn nrr> mpn nrul ffnmpn who would have been dead twenty years ago but for j Jesus. They have pone through trial i enough to exhaust ten times their physical strength. Their property went, their health went, their families were scattered. God only knows what they suffered. They are au amazement to themselves that they have been able to stand it. They look at their once happy home surrounded by all comfort. Gone! Ti ey think of the timo when they used to rise strong in the morning and walk vigorously d wn the street an 1 had experienced a health they thoug t inexhaustible. Gone! Everything gone but Jesus. He has pitied them. His eye has watchod them. His omnipotence has defended them. Yes, He has been with them. They have gona through disaster and He was a pillar of fire by ni. ht. They have gone across stormy Galilee, but Christ had His foot on the neck o the storm. They felt the waves of trouble coming up around them gradually, and they began to climb into the strong rock of God's defense, and then they sang as they looked over the waters: "God is ouriefuge and slrength, an ever present help in time jf txvitble; therefore we will not fear though the earth be removed, though the mountains bo carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roir and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.'? Talmage. "Well Ordered Prayer. A'as for the sad errors characterizing multitudes of our prayers to God! We ask and receive not, because we ask amiss. There is too much of making speeches before Him?especially in our public and social prayer.*. Are we not often more solicitous in these prayers to please those who hear us pray, than to receive from the D.vino Hand the things name.I in our prayers? Such prayers are but mere ceremonies, and are so regarded by the multitudo; and they may be pronounced useless and worso than useles , inasmuch as they cannot be otherwise than displeasing in the sight of Go l, while of him who thus professes to pray, the solemn language of St. James is sadly appropriate: "Let not that m** think that he shall receive anything of thj Lord." What, then, shall wo do? and how shall we order our j ravers ro that ihey may be accepted? Go '.o Him in i:.finite lowliness and trustfulness. Let the mind and soul riso into His blessed presence, and spe .k to Him. As he is ever and always whispering to yo % and saying, uAsk of Me;" "Make known your requests;" "Call upon Me;" "Come to Me;" so make your re p<mses to these pro ous words, and saj', "Lord, 1 do ask of Thee?I do call?I do cocio?I do tell Th h; al!. Be merciful to me, nnd always help me as I need." Thus "converse" with Him. His words to us, p^or sinnors, may bo considered perpetual words. They are not merely once spoken, but always spoken In those blisslul promises which were first uttered to the ancient saints, He i> ever and always S| eaking?sp: akin.? to thee. Let your ra-pons ' S UC CflllUIiy COI1S. HIll?. JJU Ui ? uj r? V.VUW1 with Him. Tell Him everything. 'Tour out your heart before Him." Tell him all your see: ets?yo;ir keenest, deepest trials? matters which'yr.u withhold from your dearest ea: thly friend. Tulk with Him of everything that interests you, and f'Tget not that Ho is more deeply interested than you in those matters. Does Ho caro for the sparrow? Does He number the hairs of your head? D es He love you with an inconceivable love? Then fear not to walk and talk with Him ev ermure?ZiovCs Herald. Alcohol and Patteria Dr. Ridge has made an experiment. He took bacteria, putting some into glasses of cold water and some into others with cold water and a certain quantity of alcohol. He found that the alcohol greatly assisted the growth of the bacteria. The action of bacteria upon tissues is of a very destructive nature and not constructive; and alcohol is of the series of destructive agents, and aids the action of the bacteria. So when a man exposed to the infections of typhus fever or cholera takes a little brandy, instead of the alcohol enabling him better to resist infection, it actually prepares the soil for the development of the dangerous organisms.? Alliance News. .* - ... J ... w: _ _-v, TEMPERANCE. A Bu9y Tra<lf!. 1 deal in liquid firo 'tis true, But what would many others do If rum and ale ware swept away, "Where would the lawyer get his p.v? The judge would then be seldom seen The docket would appear so lean, And you might hear the sheriff wail For pay to keep an empty jail. So now, when every side you view, You see my trade is useful, too. Altho' I own the traffic's wrong, It helps the busy world along. ?New York ro.'c? That SaloonKeep away from that saloon, boys. It is a bad place for you. Some things you can see, others you can not. Beer, whisky, cigars, candy and sometimes fruits and nuts are seen. These are seen where the windows are clear, and somebody cleans the handle of that big front door. Ther* is another room whej^e papers are provided for reading, and games played for checks, redeemable at the counter in the outer room. This may be all you will see if you go in there a few times; but by-and-by you will see a grinning, dulleyed creature staring at you from the mirror nn wall 'PArhans ha will mnlrn his nn. pearance while you are waiting for more beer, and you will never think it is a reflection of yourself. But there is worse in that saloon. There is poverty, disgrace and death sold over that counter, paid for often in money which should buy bread for starving ones. Yet this is an elegant saloon, furnished in palatial style, brilliantly lighted and regaled with music. The evil spirit seems to bave spent nis greatest cunning in disguising the horrors of intemperance. Boys will go into . such a saloon who would not think of going into a common drinking cellar. But thousands who have taken their first glass in such a saloon have ended in the lowest groggeries. Boys, do nob do as they have done. Don't exchange your good thoughts, your bright hopes for intoxicating drink. Don't shorten half your life and make the other half contemptible. Live as God intended you should live. If you begin to drink, no matter how small the quantity or how weak the quality, you cannot tell where you will stop. I read in the papsr the other day of a man serving a life-sentence iu prison for the murder of a friend. He began to drink as a boy, so little at first he never thought of danger. When a young man, on one occasion he drank too much, and his brain was on fire: a word angered him, he struck a blow which made him a murderer. In paying for liquor he paid for his murderous disposition. It was one of the things not seen. My dear hoys, as you value your life and happiness, keep out of that saloon.? Farm, Field and Stockman. Temperance Amons the Ancients. The history of Europe, for a long series of centuries has, indeed, been a history of mental regeneration by science, and physical degeneration by alcohol. The frequent bold denials of the latter fact justify a brief review of the development-of the alcohol vice among the nations of the Caucasian race. The often repeated assertion that our pagan forefathers contrived to combine a robust physique with habitual excess in th3 use of intoxicating beverages, is founded upon a twofold delusion. In the lirst place, the testimony of contemporary historians furnishes abundant proof that the alcohol orgies of the latter centuries of pagan civilization avenged themselves by a rapid decline in all the essential endowments of that physical vigor that had made Rome and Greece almost invincible bulwarks against the inroads of Eastern barbarism. In the century of Leonidas, when temperance lessons went hand in hand with the athletic training of the i Spartan gymnasia, one Spattan warrior was considered a match for two wine-drinking ! Athenians, and for at least a dozen wine and beer guzzling Asiatics. In Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Apulia) where Grecian civilization attained its zenith of material prosperity, absolute abstinence from intoxicating drinks was enforced by the precepts of Pythagoras, whose philosophy had acquired almost the authority of an established j religion. The athlete Mi!o who could break j a bull's head with a blow of his fist and use j his arms as prop3 for the pillars of a falling j temple, was a disciple of that school, and his native city, Crotona, recognized temperance as a chief condition of election to numerous offices of public trust. Similar laws prevailed in Agrigentum, and in Syracuse, the champion city of the southern Caucasians and the last refuge of freedom when the A fn'no ottflmnbH thp OOnnilPJ5fc of the Grecian colonies. A thousand years later, when all southern Europa was suuk in alqo- | holism, while tho temperance lessons of Mo- | hammcrl had steeled' the manhood of th9 | Semitic l ac-s. the descendants of those Sici- i lian herors were vanquished again and again by small detachments of Saracen warriors. ? 1'oicc. Beer Drinking in Chicago. There are eighteen breweries in Chicago which makes on an average 1,500,000 barrels of beer annually. About 300,01)0 barrels come here from Milwaukee and other cities. I Nearly all the beer made here is consumed | here, so that we drink 1,800,000 barrels each j year. As each pint bottle makes two glasses, j if I remember correctly, there would be six- i teen glasses in a gallon, or 49G glasses in a ' barrel of thirty gallons?a grand total of 892,000,0J0 gias-er. That seems to be a wonderful lot of beer. Suppose there are 1,500,000 people in Chicago and its suburbs?aud that is where all thes9 l,S00,o:J0 barrels are consumed annually?each man, woman and j child would get, on a fair apportionment, a j little more than 595 glasses or nearly two a j day. I know lots of paople who don't drink that much beer in all their lives, so there must be some who drink pretty industriously. 1 am told that good, fat beer drinkers of industry and skill in the business habitually get away with fifty and sixty glasses a day. A few hundred people of this kind would, of course, do a great deal to lower the general average.?Chicago News. How Hospitals are Filled. Numerous and well-equipped hospitals are among the highlv creditable exponents of modern Christian benevolence. They are at ! present all needed, and more. But why are j so many rendered necessary? A member of i the medical staff in a London hospital1 being i ool-o^ Ktr o r^nnrfpr nf ihrt Pall Mali Gazette how many of the cases treated in the institution are attributable to intemperance, replied: "It would be difficult to estimate ths number, but it is unquestionably great. We sometimes find ev>. ; children with drunkards' livers, due to the habit of giving infants gin to soothe them while teething. Drink is with us a source of much trouble. If the public houses were shut we should have to close half our wards, or rather we should be able to take twice as many patients!" Temperance News and Notes. The ladies of the TV. C. T. 17. iu Crete, Neb., serve a ten cent lunch every Saturday. Dr. H. Grattan Guinnoss of London, in an address delivered before the Congregational min iters of Chicago recently, sa d that th? friends of Africa even dread the buil-ling of the proposed Congo railroad bec<:u?e of the greater facilities it will provide for transporting the awful curse of rum into that country. "The League of the Cross" is a society just i organized in New York. Its members pledge { themselves not to treat or accept a treat to anything to drink. It is believed that the league will be a powerful temperance factor, besides savin? its members a good deal of money. The treating custom is responsible A\Ji U1UUUU1 U1C iuvciljyci?>i\.e *?? VM.0 | The 1'opular Science Monthly gives the following: "AT. Marambcl reports that of [ 30:10 convicts in Franco examined with re- i soect to their habits of drunkenness or temperance. seventy-nine pel-cent, of vagabonds, from fifty to fifty-seven percent, of assassins and incsndiaries, fifty-three nor cent, of offenders against morals, seventy-one per cent.of thieves and shar^rsand seventy-seveD per cent, of offenders against property were drunkards. Drunkards are nearly as numerous among youths under twenty as among adults.'' The New Republic, says: "It takes about fifteen cents worth of corn to make fifteen dollars worth of whisky, and the farmer's share of the outcome of the whisky business is too small to warrant any very extensive stretchings of bis conscience. The distillers only use a little over one per cent of the corn grown and what they do use takes the place of other com for fattening hogs and cattle. If the world can get away with ninetv-nine bushels of good corn and one bushel of slop, we think they will be able to manage the whole hundred in sound corn without any break in the market." - A? ----- - ' ^ -Vivl | ON A MAN-OJMVTRT daily routine of duty ox AMERICAN WARSHIPS. A Visit to One of Our Naval Vessels? The Pennant Always Flies, and an OlTicer is Ercr on Deck. The instant it is officially announced that a United States man-of-war is ordered into commission a pennant i9 run up to the masthead, and this bit of bunting never comes down until the vessel is temporarily or permanently retired from active service. So long as j the pennant flies the quarter-deck must ! be.patroled by an officer in uniform, j This vigilance is never relaxed night or ; day, whether the ship is sailing hostile I waters in war time or tied to a navyyard wharf in a period of absolute peace. For twenty-four years the United States have been at peace with themselves aud all the world, yet in all that time there has not been an instant, night or day, when the officer of the deck has not kept watch _v:_ : uu crcrjr snip IU \;uiumiosivu. i^i3cipixuct j order, precedence, cleanliness are tbe ' gospel of the United States man-or- j war. Here lies a ship in commission, moored i at a navy-yard wharf. Step on board, ! and see how all is done. An orderly ; halts you, learns jour business and per- j mits you to pass the gang-plank. It is ' y o'clock in the morning. The fires in i the cook's galley have been lighted since ! 2:30, and it is nearly four hours since the drum and fife sounded the reveille i that brought all hands on deck. At I this sound the seamen awake, dress, j lash up their hammocks and make ready \ | for bread and coffee. Then, after a short season of smoking, i I the men "turn to" and wash down the j j decks. All is done at the boatswain's ! I whistle. Two hundred stout seamen | j with hose and what not can make a ship's de:k very clean, but for a time ex- J tremely uncomfortable. While this oper- j ation goes on the imperturbable officer ; of the deck, in rubber boots, or, shock- ! ing to say, sometimes in bare feet, keeps ! i up his ceaseless tramp. At 7:o0 the ! squegees, long handed boards with rub- I "ber strips on the lower edge, arc applied I: to the decks, and the water disappears. At 8 o'clock the seamen have their breakfast of oatmeal, sausage and coffee, or perhaps of hominy, canned meat and chocolate. Jack is very well fed, and the witticism that "one man's canned meat is another man's poison," inspired by the horrors of the British ! commissariat in the Crimea, has not been applied to the food of the United States man-of-war's mau. At this hour the colors are hoisted; that is, if it be a ; week day the United States flag is sent' i up to the gaff, or if it be a Sunday or a j I holiday the Union Jack is displayed at ' the bow. At 8:30 the men have finished ( ' breakfast, and at 9:15 they are ready for t j work. At this hour the "sick call" i ; sounds, and those who are unwell visit ! ! 4-V.o si.?r?oAn in tho "eiolr haw" nr sliin's I bUb OUigWu w-.w " ?? "~*~J ? - ? ? | | hospital, a tiny space well up in the eve J | of the ship. By this time the "uniform of the day'' j has been announced to the officers. It j may be any one of half a dozen outfits, \ and there is a disposition to accuse the ! powers that be of ordering white duck j on cold days in the north and blue cloth in the tropics. The Captain decides upon the uniform of the day unless his ship be in the presence of an Admiral, in which case the uniform is signaled from the flagship to all the other vessels lying in the same port. Odd stories are told to illustrate the rigidity of discipline in the matter of j dres3. Should an officer present himself above the gangplank clad with the j slightest deviation from the uniform of j i the day he would be instantly ordered ; below by the officer of the deck. The wrong hat, the wrong tie or a single 1 button out of place would procure this . reprimand. At 0:15 the decks are cleared for i "quarters," and at 9:30 the call is j sounded for that interesting perform- j' ance. 'Quarters'' is simply' the assem- : bling of all on board at their proper ' posts. "When the sound to quarters is ' heard there is a scurrying iato uuiforms and a buckling on of swords in the ward ' room. The line officers rush on deck, the j 1 nnrmntfer ct?nds 1>v Iris safe and the 1 l""J -J surgeon looks to his knives. In five rain- J1 utes the line officers return to the ward < room with the annouacement that the j country is saved on. e more. Drill fol- J1 lows quarters. It may be with small , < arms, with musket or what not. One ;! thing is assured, and that is that no sea- !1 man shall long remain in the possession 11 of leisure. If nothing needs to be done, j i employment is invented. There is paint- j ing, mending, washing, splicing and a dozen other more or less useful things of which a landsman would not dream. I At 11:110 the officers, who have had 1 coffee and eggs some hours before, are , served with a regular br eakfast. A? it j' is paid for by themselves it may be as I. goud or bad * aa they choose. At the IJ same hour the ship's cook solemnly ap- ! proaches the officer of the deck and pre- ! sents for his examination samples of the J seamen's dinner. The officer with equal I! solemnity tastes each dish, and mayhap j! makes a hearty meal. The dinner con- 1 sists of excellent soup, some sort of 1' fresh or salt meat, two or three vegeta- ] bles, perhaps coffee and bread. The . * meal is served at noon and followed by j. pipes and tobacco. At 1 p. >r. the sea- 1 ' men are again ready for work. More j drill follows and the afternoon is filled ;' up with whatever needs to be done or j can be invented. At four o'clock the ! men take a light supper, and from five 1 to six they ''stand by" to do whatever j| work is provided. At six the boatswain i1 pipes down hammocks, and the men ! take the hammocks from the place on ; deck where they have been airing all 11 day long. Pipes, music and yarn ( spinning follow until nine o'clock, when 1 all lights in the forcastle are extinguished and the men are supposed to 1 have turned in. After that all must be quiet. At 10 o'clock the ship's Corporal en- j ters the wardroom, or oncers' quarters, ? and, turning out the lights, says: ''Ten o'clock, gentlemen. ' He then asks each officer whether he wishes permission to keep a light for some time longer in his room. Au extension of two hours may be granted. The Corporal repot ts the wishes of the officers to the o:t;cer of the deck, the officer of the deck reports them to the Orderly, the Orderly reports them to the Captain, and the Captain, if he approve, says: "Very good." The Orderly says to the officer of the deck: "Very good, sir;" the o i'.cerof the de:-k says to the Corporal: "Very good,"' and the Corporal says to each o i'cer who has asked for an extension: "Very good, sir." This occurs Mo times in each ordinary year and times in leap year. Xo officer dares to keep his liqht burning after 10 o'clock without the Corporal's "Very good, sir.''?New York Scar. ; The Dowager Empress Augusta has bestowed during the past elevan years diplomas bearing her autograph signature and gold crosses, upon lEtfo female servants remaining forty years with one family. | 2a*-*; ' ?v " 1 * ' The Talking Doll. While the phonograph has been affording all sorts of amusement for the big folks a Boston gentleman has been adapting it to the entertainment of tho little people. By its aid there has been produced a talking doll, whose vocabulary includes many more words than the squeaky 'mamma," whichba3 thrown so many children into ecstasies of delight. Moother Goose's Melodies and other standard poems, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," are recited in the very best style by these remarkable elo cutionists. The dolls are very obliging, too, and will repeat their performances as often as the audience signifies its desire for a repetition by winding them up. The inventor is a Bostonian of means, a great traveler, and quite an inventive genius, and a member of oae of Boston's very oldest families. He has been for some years engaged in perfecting his invention. The dolls are ahout one foot in height. The phonographic apparatus, occupying the body of the doll, has a space perhaps two to three inches in diameter in which to operate. The dolls are brought from _ 11 * tJ - "V: jMirope, uui me iai?Liug iimcmueijr la manufactured and inserted here. As each doll reaches the proper age it is turned over to a governess specially employed to train its phonographic ideas how to shoot. This, lady gives the most careful attention to the education of the dolls. She recognizes the value of individual training, and imparts separate instruction to every doll. Knowing the great imitative power of little folks, she is particular to modulate her voice to just the pitch which she wishes theirs to assume. The doll pupils are required to repeat her words until every accent and inflection is satisfactory, i'he dolls have such wonderful memories that not only do they repeat their lessons with accuracy, but they even "hold the voice." This faculty of theirs compelled the employment of lady instructors. The deep, gruff voice of a man reciting , ^ ''Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" had rather a gruesome effect when issuing from the lip3 of a rosy cheeked little dollie. Their voices are strong, and their articulation so clear that their conversation can be heard up one flight of stairs with distinctness?somewhat more perfect, in fact, than when close by, as then there is a little z-r-r-r of the "machinery which is not noticed at a distance. ?Ntw York Times. General Grant's Self-Reliance. General Grant was an eminent illustration of self-reliance from his boyhood. His wonderful tact aided him in this direction, and, at the same time, his y self-reliance gave expression to his tact. He was only eight years old when he took his father's unbroken colt, put the harness on him for the first time, and drew brush with him all day long, without any fracas with the untrained animal. At another time, he Mas drawing logs from the woods for the frame of the new jail. Several choppers were in the woods, who loaded the logs for him. But one rainy morning, he went to the woods, and no choppers were there. Should ho return without the logs? Never. That would not be like the Grant family. He looked about for a moment, and resolved what to do. Seeing a half-fallen sugar maple, with its top lodged in another, its trunk slanting just enough for him to haul the hewn logs up to a proper height upon it, with the horse, he proceeded to load. Hitching the horse to the logs, one after another, he diew them up,resting one end of each on the inclined plane, which the fallen tree formed. Then backing his wagon up to them, and fastening a chain to one, the horse drew it into the wagon-easily; and so on, until the load was complete. His self-reliant spirit appears more remarkable when the fact is stated that it had taken four men to load the logs hitherto, and they accomplished it by takiDg the wheels oif on one side, and letting the axles rest on the ground; then, li'ting the logs on with hand 3pikes, raised up the axles with levers. and put back the wneeis. me seu-reuaat boy showed more common sense than the four men together possessed. Selfreliance will thus make tact and push tell. He wa3 but nine years old when he used twenty dollars, which he had laid by for the purchase of a colt. He did it with his father's consent; and the latter thought that the bargain was a good Dne. Less than two yeard afterward, his father sent him to another town to purchase a horse for him. He was but eleven years old when he drove a pair of horses, carrying passengers to Cincinnati, forty miles distant, going one day and returning the next.? Yankee Blade. J The Dahlia. The prime period of the dahlia cultivation was probably between 1830 and 1S50. The first double one was raised in Germany in 1S09. Its ancestor was a wild plant from the sandy plains of M Mexico. A drawing in an old Spanish book called "The History of Mexico," by Hernandez, and published in 105!, has, jays an exchange, been identified as a jingle dahlia. Cervantes, the curator of the botanic garden of Mexico, was the cultivator of the flower, and ho sent a plant to Spain in 179$. There it was Jj ieen in blossom by the Abbe Cavanilles, svho described it, and named it alter Professor Dahl, of Stockholm. In 1S02 the Abbe sent roots to the Tardic de3 Plan tea, in Paris, and in 1 SOi 'he flower was raised in England from seeds sent from Madrid. When Humboldt visited Mexico in the same year he found the dahlia growing wild, and forwarded seeds to Berlin and i aris. Our iahlia are said to have sprung from Humboldt's plants, and the first flowers ivere collected in England in 1S01?. In lue course the double dahlia was developed, and the flower is cow one of ;he most stately ornaments of our gar- * j lens.?Prairie Farmer. ?? ? Signaling at Sea. ,..V It is an extraordinary fact that there ;ecftis to be no definitely-established :ode of sigualing at sea, by which ships can communicate with each other at light, or make known their requirencnts to people on shore. To this remarkable deficiency the loss of many ships and hundreds of lives must be atributed, and last week another melancholy instance occurred of the urgent lecessity for promptly settling a comprehensive code. At Ilfracombe flash ights were obssrved from one ship in he channel, but the coastguards thought hat she was merely signaling for a pilot. Late, however, information was received hat the steamship l.ymington was oa he Pensborue rock, and the coastguards started to her assistance with the ocket apparatus; but before they arived the vessel sank with her crew, the ripq nf the drowning men being heard listinctly on shore. " There can hardly )e a doubt that, if the vessel's signals lad been understood, some at least of he victims would have escaped, and heir deaths are certainly due to tho :ulpable apathy of the authorities who leglect to reform the signaling code.?? London Truth, ( j v; -Js . . y - - - j^j