Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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fc, m ^ a -ffl A ^ ^ ?M| ^ ^ 'VT^^ The Abbeville Press and Banner. 1 BY HUGH WILSON. ABBEVILLE, S C., WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1889. VOLUME XXXIV. NO. 2. | I Wi ll IHI I 1 ! ! II Peace Hymn. Hush the loud cannon's roar. The Irunt'.ti warrior s call: Why should th'j earth be drenched with Core ? Are we uot brothers ail ? Want from tlie wretch depart. Chains from the captive lull; Sweet mercy, melt the oppressor's heart? Sutterers and brothers all. Churchcs and sects, strike down Each high partition wall; Let love each harsher feeling drown? Christians are brothers all. Let love and truth alone Hold human hearts in thrall; That heaven its work at length may own And men be brothers all. Imperial Footwashiug. Omitted fok the First Time ix Forty Years. A Vienna dispatch to the London I Times says : Monday and Thursday the ceremony of the t'ootwashing did not take place as usual at the Hofburg. X - -5- -ll. - I* This is the first time uunug uie r^mjuror's reign of forty years tlie function has not been discharged by his Majesty. Some years ago the Empress ceased to perform her part in the yearly ceremony owing to failing health, but last year the Emperor went through the formality of washing the feet of twelve old men. It will be remembered that the religious service of the footwashing was instituted in the middle ages as a lesson to humility to the proud Emperors of the Hapsburg dynasty, and every year for the last four centuries, with occasional exceptions, as in 1S4S, the reigning Emperor has wafehed the feet of twelve old men, while his consort has performed the same office for twelve old women. The present Emperor has always officiated at this ceremony with a remarkable and touching reverence, but there is no denying that the function had somewhat outgrown popular reverence, and was no longer in keeping with what strong-minded people call "the spirit of the age." It is therefore being asked to-day whether the ceremony will ever be witnessed again. The death of the Crown Prince, which has caused its discontinuance this year has possibly brought it to a linal extinction. The twelve old men and the twelve old women who had been selected, as usua', from among the poor of Vienna to figure in to-day's ceremony have received the customary bounties?that is, each a complete suit of clothes, a purse full of gold ain^ silver coins, and a dinner of four courses, with a silver cover, * ' 1 J-..- 'I'liinjo vvinp a gowei, anu a ?iucj?g. _ jugs being of a peculiar pattern, British collectors of curiosities who have any in their Possession may, in case the foot-wasMng should never be solemnized again, l>e advised to treasure the jugs of a date prior to lS8!i. Brave and Kind. There is a saying that "the bravest are the tenderest," and this saying ; seems to apply to dogs as well 03 men. Last spring, in Paris, there was reporteel in tlie papers a trial in which it was proved that a Newfoundland dog had saved the life of his mistress, Madame Brunot. She had been threatened by a burglar who had entered her house in the night. The dog flew at the burglar's throat like an enraged lion : the man succeeded in disengaging himself, and started down a stairway, but Patand?that is the dog's name?followed him, seized him by the coat, and held him until help had been summoned ; when the burglar was placed under arrest. "As soon as the affair was over," said Madame Brunot, in telling the story, "Patand went quietly and rfly V down under the table as if nothing F had happened?which I don't think, somehow, was much to his credit." nni,;0 Kmvt. Hnc's nor trait appeared 1UIO W4 I* V ?..JJ ^ r in the illustrated papers; it showed a handsome, good and kindly face.? And now another story is told of the same Newfoundland, which illustrates the other side of his character. Madame Biuuot possesses a cat, scarcely yet grown, for which Patand had an extremely warm aflection. I One day last year the cat suddenly disappeared. Patand showed great v concern, and even grief. Three days passed by* and he was still inconsolable. The fourth day Patand also disappeared, and his mistress was beginning to worry about his absence, when, toward evening, he returned with little Minet, the cat, in his mouth. Where or how he had found her, no one knows. Youth1 s Companion. K Ilcason Wliy. Messenger of Peace. Christians oppose war not only because it violates the command of God, "Thou slialt not kill," but because it violates nearly every command in the Decalogue. It can not exist; it canuot be carried on without violating these commands. General Sherman is reported to have said to the Mayor of Atlanta, during the Civil War, that "war is cruelty, and it can not be refined." If the cruelty is taken out of it, it ceases to be war. War unhesitating. ]y violates the command, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." It violates the command, "Thou! shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It does this both Nationally and individually. In private life, the man who obtains goods or other property on false pre_ tense is liable to a term in the penitentiary. In war, the General who is tlio greatest strategist, and can practice tlijf most deception and obtain a victory on false pretense, is the greatest hero, 1 > anu aceoumeu nwiuj w SiV,noo i honor. In private life deception a^iU fraud are accounted crimes. In n/ilitary tactics, they are not only allowable, but are accounted worthy off all commendation. "Love worketb! no ill to his neighbor." War worfcetli all the ill it possibly can to those whom it regards as enemies, j The s gospel says, "Love your enemies.'1 War savs, hate them. The gospe.1 says "If thy enemy hunger, lecd Jdm.' War says, starve him. The jrospe' says, "llecompense to no man tA il foi evil." War says, do him all the evil you can. Indeed we can not th)nk ol a single precept of tliegospH thn.t wai does not violate and trample ninl??r it; bloody feet. Then let all <"liri>iians all philanthropists, all humanitarians and all economists seek t<? settle al disputes between nations that maj arise in the future by arbitration, with out resorting to war. * Another instance of the expedience of peace principles occurred in tlx Irish Rebellion of 17! 18. Civil war i: generally the most merciless of al war, and the principle!- <>f Friend were put to a very servero test. Fev will probably deny at the present daj that the Irish had been treated witl great injustsee and cruelty , ami whei for a time they thought th?. y had ai opportunity of retaliation, it was natural to expect they would see their power with considerable violence. As Fi iends belonged to the same race and religion as their oppressors, they were looked upon by many as enemies; while the Orangemen and other Protettants looked on them as drones, who were not willing to support the government, but would wish to eDjoy the advantage when it was won. As early as 179-) and 1790 the signs of disturbance were so plain, that the quarterly meetings recommended their member's to destroy all their guns and other weapons as a proof of their determination to take no part in the slaughter on either side. The national meeting in 1790 confirmed the advice, i and nearly all cheerfully complied, while the few who refused had usually been so inconsistent in other respects that they were disowned. As it was commonly known that they had destroyed their guns, their houses were generally spared in the nightly raids mnrlft hv the rebels shortly after to secure all the guns in possession of the Protestants. One Friend in Ferns, who publicly destroyed his gun in the street, as an example to others, was called on by a clergyman and some magistrates who reproved him for not jiving it up to the government instead of destsoying it. Two of these men were murdered soon after, and one of the bodies was left in the street several days for the pigs to eat; while the Friend, whose course they condemned, lived on through all the danger of the rebellion, and was the means of saving tho lives of many 011 both sides, by the influence which his well known pacific principles gave him. A still larger number lie saved from distress and ill-usage; taking them into his own house wben their houses were burnt, although he was threatened with the burning of his own house for doing so. But though each party in turn, when they were in power, threatened him for the friendship he showed to the others, they were each glad, when the tide turned against them, to ask for his favor. There were fugitives from both sides in his house at once, for they considered themselves safer than al their homes. He exposed himself to danger and ill-will by refusing to sell ropes to the soldiers to hang the rebels, and refusing to take pay for the rope when they took it by force. .Much that has been said of this Friend was true of many others through the country. [to ]$e continued] . Vulgarity?The Power of Example. Emily ?S. Holt says, in her recent book, ''The King's Daughters" : There are some suvages?in Polynesia, 1 think?who decorate themselves by thrusting a wooden stick through their lips. To our European taste (hey look hideous. Honestly, I cannot see that they who make holes in their lips to ornament themselves are any worse at all than they wno mane holes in their ears for the same purpose. The one is just as thorough barbarism as the other. The hideous fringe and the exaggerated ostrich feather with which the factory girl and the feminine costermonger try to add attraction to their personal appearance would be, to a lady of good taste, vulgar in the extreme. Jiut to the angels, the elegant dress of the fashionable lady may appear no less vulgar. The real vulgarity lies not in the tastefulness or the clumsiness of the attire, but in the self-love, the vanity, the pride, of the I wearer. The lady who goes to read or speak to the employees in a warehouse or a work-room with her hands glittering with rings, or "ner head adorned with a miniature imitation of a church spire, is sowing the seeds ol vanity and self-love in the hearts of those less-cultured girls, which will bear bitter fruit. Probably the weeds will grow more quickly and more luxuriantly than the good seed, the word of the kingdom; and the unconscious influence of the lady's ornamentation affect the girls more powerfully than ""' 1 aamumaL nf lior 1 i r>Q lilt; WULU5J tlliu uunoriui \JL uvi ?I . -f Scowling. Don't scowl, it spoils fares. Before] you know it your forehead will resem-' bleu small railroad map. There is a errand trunk line now from your cowlick to the bridge of your nose, intersected by parallel lines running east and west, with curves arching your eyebrows; and oh! how much older you look for it. Scowling is a habit which steals upon us unawares. We frown when the light is too strong and when it is too weak. We tie our brows into a knot when we are thinking, and knit them even more tightly when we can not think. There is no denying there are plenty of things to scowl about. The baby in the cradle frowns when something fails to suit. "Constitutional scowl," we say. The little toddler who likes sugar on his bread and butter tells his trouble in the same way when you leave the sugar off. 'Cross" we say about the children, and "worried to death" about t he jjrown folks, and as for ourselves, we can't help it. But we must. Its ret',ex influences makes others unhap;l?y ; for face answereth unto face in life as well as in water. It belies our religion. We should possess our souls iu such peace that it will reflect ourselves in placid countenances. If your forehead is rigid with wrinkles before forty, what will it be at seventy ? There is one consoling thought about these marks of time and trouble?the death anjrel always erases them. Even the extremely aged, in death, often wear a smooth and peaceiui urow, mus leaving our last memories of them calm and tranquil. But our business" is 1 with life. Scowling is a kind of silent | scolding. It shows that our souls need sweetening. For pity's sake let ; us take a sad irou or a glad irou, or smoothing tool of some sort, and ; straighten those creases out of our faces before they become indellibly en; graven upon our visage. i ~ ; Ripeness in Character. , llev. Charles H. Spurgeon beauti4 fully illustrates the marks of ripeness in Christian character somewhat a> follows: One mark is beauty. Ripi 1 fruit has its own perfect beauty. As the fruit ripens, the sun tints it witl: . surpassing loveliness, and the colon deepen till the beauty of the fruil is equal to the beauty of the blossom . and in some respects superior. Then p is in ripe Christians the beauty of real s ized saunification, which the Word I of tiod knows by the name of "beautj s of holiness." v Another mark of ripe fruit is tender ? ness. The young, green fruit is hare [ and stone-like; but the ripe fruit is j soft, yields to the pressure, can almos j be moulded, retains the mark of th< finger. So it is with the matur< ' , '? **- '* V-'-*' ?v" SOm&ii&di : , . s-. - i I Christian; he is noted for tenderness of spirit. Another murk of ripeness is sweetness. The unripe fruit is sour, and perhaps it ought to be, or else we should eat all the fruits while they are [yet green. It may, therefore, be in I the order of grace a lit thing that iu | the youthful Christian some sharpoess should be formed which will ultimately be removed. As we grow in grace we jare sure to grow in charity, sympathy and love; we shall have greater and (more iu tense affection for I lie person of Him "whom having not seen, we j love;" we shall have greater delight in the precious thiugs of His gospel; the doctrines which perhaps we did not understand at first will become marrow and fatness to us as we advance in grace. We shall feel that there is honey dropping from the honeycomb iu J the deep things of our religion. We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness toward our fellow Christians. Bitter-spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature. Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet immature in heart. I kuow we who are young beginilers in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian church. We drag her before us and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and cer-j tianly less arrogant in our criticisms. A Protestant Lent Needed. One is half reconciled to the passionate license of the carnival by the comparative quietness of Lent. If brief self-restraint were not preceded and followed by greater dissipation, the forty-days abstinence would be commendable. Whatever faithful ritualists of Episcopal or Catholic connections may do, Protestants have no such time appointed and observed for penitence and devotion. Amusement in most of our communities are unarrested. Church fairs are about as likely to occur in March as in December. We noticed a pastor distributing from house] to house an advertising sheet, gotten up to help a church fair. The young people of one church after a whole winter's training selected the Lenten season to play "Pinafore" for the benefit of the church. One of those bishops, called Secretaries, lately objected to a pastor because he did not sufficiently countenance entertainments gotten up to pay his salary, under the name of "current expenses." A branch foreign missionary society recently gave a "Japanese Supper," to raise money for the heathen. We have not personally observed any lotteries countenanced by Congregational churches. But what of the entire system of which some kind of a chance venture so often forms a part? The avowed end is to secure money for deserving objects, and that is not a bad motive. But does the end justify the means? Not on the ground of "NTrt ninnev costs those who work for it harder labor. ^Nothing ex- [ huusts the time arid thought of those engaged in it more completely. The prayer-meeting suffers on fair week. The revival is suspended if not superseded. A pastor managing a business enterprise has small opportunity for study or pastoral wark. The late snippers give the older people dyspepsia and the children "cross" head-acnes. Articles are made and bought that are useless. ' The compensations are found in the social warmth generated which thaws [some penurious soul into spending money for finery or food, which otherwise he would have kept. On the other hand, some are disgusted and withhold. Others expend more than they honestly ought. Everybody is tired out when Sabbath returns, and_ the sole compensation left is the "good* time" and the money gained. But a "better time" could haye been enjoyed with less expenditure, and more money realized by simply giving it, if ? mflrn on fl iunrwpri nit; ^CUJJAC nciv ow The bad tendency is to substitute fancy fairs and late suppers in winter, and strawberry and other festivals in summer, as a means of raisingmoney, for simpler and better ways. Nothing can be done, but some one suggests an "entertainment." .Lectures, concerts, tableaux, operas, and other stage performances must be resorted to. People are thus spproached on the side of their selfishness. The appeal is made to appetite, ostentation, or vanity. The young are educated to give entertainments. The mature to give nothing without a tempting bait. Irregularity and disorder is introduced iuto church finances. The best people are greived. The worst are not won to Christ or to the churcn, but only to a table or a show. The minister becomes an auctioneer, a stage manager, or a buisness agent, and the church a corporation apparently organized to furnish a community with amusements inlerspersed with an occasional small business speculation of doubtful morality. Good people are doing these things. The churches vainly seek to rival the theaters. Amusements cease to be subordinate and come to the front as an end of life. The young associate "a vain show" with the vestry, and even the place of public worship, rather than any distinctively religious rite or solemn duty. Was this tho work to which Christ called and appointed his followers? Why not have a Protestant Lent? Don't Hark the Face Like a Railroad Map. The non-professional world is always more exacting of the professions than the members of a profession are likely to be of each other. It is the nrofessional man who feels most keenly the limits of his own science and his own power. The average patient expects ' more of the average physician than the - * ?" i-i ?i physician nimsen wouiu ui mc most accomplished aud distinguished member of his profession. So, too, the world is more exacting in its exEectations of what a Christian should e, and how a Christian should appear, ; than Christians themselves are likely . to be. Not that the world has a higli} er standard of Christ-likeness thau the i Christian has, or ought to have, but j that the professing Christian, knowing t the incessant struggle and toil and (* warfare of the Christ-ward life, is ? more likely to condone the failures of . his brothers in Christ. Just because the world is so exacting, it thereby of* fets to the Christian an increased opportunity to show himself a witness . for Christ. And because of its exaci tions, the Christian should be doubly 3 guarded of his actions in the presence t of uon-Christiaus. Aud yet it is in i the presence of the world that the j Christian is least likely to manifest ' himself as a Christian. The Christian is most likely to appear at his worst in the presence'of the world; it is there that he is least likely to seem Christ-like. The world may care little for his professed principles as Christian principles, but the world expects and demands that he shall live up to those principles. It is not in the sanctuary, not at the prayer-meeting or the Lenten service, that the Christian has the best opportunity of witnessing for Christ; hut it is in the presence of the unsympathizing, but the no less critical and exacting, world. Time-Table for Boiling Vegetables. Potatoes, half an hour, unless small, when rather less. Peas and asparagus twenty to twenty-five minutes. Cabbage and cauliflower, twenty-five minutes to half an hour. String beaus, if slit or sliced slantwise and thin, twenty-five minutes; if only snapped across, forty minutes. Green corn twenty to twenty-five minutes. Lima beans, if very young, half an hour, old, forty to forty-five minutes. Carrots and turnips, "forty-five minutes when young, one hour to one and a half in winter. Beets, one hour in summer, one hour and a half or two hours in winter. Very large ones take four hours. Onions, medium size, one hour. Rule.?All vegetables to go into fast boiling water to be quickly brought to the boiling point again, not left to steep in the hot water before boiling, which wilts them and destroys color aud flavor. This time-table must always be regulated by the hour at which the meat will be done. If the meat should have to wait five minutes for the vegetables, there will be a loss of punctuality, but the dinner will not be damaged; but if the vegetables are done, and wait for the meat, your dinner will certainly be much the worse, yet so general is the custom of over-boiling vegetables or putting them to cook in haphazard way, somewhere about the time, that very many people would not recognize the damage; they would quickly see the superiority of vegetables just cooked the right time but would attribute it to some superiority in the article itself, that they are fresher, and finer, not knowing that the finest and freshest, improperly cooked, are little better than the poor ones. Irreverence. Irreverence is one of the great evils of our times?flippancy, lightness is at a premium ; sobriety and all the reverent and solid graces are at a serious discount. It seems to be the case in Australia also. The Melbourne Spectator says: Sitting during prayer, and looking about, fidgeting with books during sermon, rising hastily the moment prayer is over, and almost before the benediction is finished, and other evidences of stupid unconcern are offences worthy of stern reproof. They show a shallow piety and an inconstancy of character that are to be deplored. Cannot such serious faults be cured ? For the sake of the voung people of i U 1.1 l.? uu a uiujiiicn, un uticiupi siiuuiu uc made to end the irreverence. We are alarmed when we think of the probability that another generation will perpetuate the indecency and disorder that are now so common. We desire nothing more elaborate in our form of worship; but we want its plain homeliness made more beautiful by a conscientious observance of the proprieties. The conclusion of the whole matter is this: The spirit of reverence, which is at the very foundation of piety, must be diligently cultivated. Our people must live more with God. More Work nnd Lew Money. This was what John Fletcher said of a church that was offered to him and lie refused it. He chose Madeley: more work and less money. The following notice of Samuel Rutherford shows the same spirit of much work and little money. His pay was about forty-five dollars, somewhat increased by gifts. But whose unshaken verdict was that the world was "not wortn a drink of water," loved his ministry not the less, but rathec more, that his people had little to offer him except affection. Kutherford's daily habit was to rise at three o'clock and spend the entire day in ministerial engagements. An aged contemporary eaid of him: "He seemed to be always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechizing, always writing and studying." Hegave himself to prayer, spending much of hid time in a plantation which stretched from the mansegate to the kirk. "There," he says, "I wrestled with the angel, and prevailed ; wood, three, meadows and bills are my witnesses, that I drew on a fair meeting between Christ and Anworth." In a letter dated 20th August 1633, he writes more explicity : "In private, on the 17th and 18th of August, I got a full answer of my Lord to be a graced minister and a chosen arrow hidden in his own quiver. But know," he adds significantly, "this assurance is not kept but by watching and prayer." Do Extreme** Sleet ? It is commonly said that extremes meet. More often is it true that apparent extremes are but different aspects of the same thing. The great violinist, Ole Bull, had a power of drawing his bow with such delicacy that his audiences were unable to perceive nnn+a/if ocflopH en tnaf; the WUCL1 IliU tvutovv vvmvvv%| -? lingering memory of a tone was indistinguishable from the tone itself. But this supremely delicate touch was the result of his herculean muscular strength, by which he conld toss a man of average weight backward over his head. It took muscle to move a light violin bow evenlv and delicately on the string, and to release its contact undetected. But the great delicacy and great force were not two extremes, they were two exhibitions of the same extreme of muscular strength. It takes moral muscle to be gentle, to be refined, to be true. It takes intellectual muscle to be accurate in statement and exact in thought. A man must be a strong man to be a child-like man; a child must be a strong child to be a manly child. He who is exalted or honored of God is humbled; and he who is truly humbled, God honors. S. S. Times. Less Labok.?Low wagons should be preferred on the farm. The difference in the labor required to load and unload a low wagon, as compared with a high one, is very great. Broad tires are also better than those that are nartoWT i In a Dead Man's Pocket. Stephen A. Price was a man who was liked and looked up to by all who knew him. He was honest, kind and true, a warm friend and a good neighbor. The hoys and girls all liked him because he never forgot that he had been young once himself. He became rich, was made mayor of New York city, and lived to be very old. He lost his life in a steamboat disaster. Those who found his dead body found a scrap of printed paper in his pocket book. It was so worn with oft reading that they could scarcely make out the words, but this was what was upon the paper: Keep good company or none. Never be idle. If your hands cannot be usefully employed attend to the cultivation of your mind. Always speak the truth. Make few promises. Live up to your engagements. Keep your own secrets, if you have "J-A J When you speak to a person look them in the face. Good company and good conversation are the very sinews of virtue. Good character is above all things else. . Your character cannot be essentially injured except by your own acts. If any one speak evil of you, let your life be so that none will believe him. Drink no kind of intoxicating liquors. Ever live (misfortune excepted) within your income. When you retire to bed, think over what you have been doing during the day. Slake no haste to be rich, if you would prosper. Small and steady gains give compe tency with tranquility of mind. Never play at any game of chance. Avoid temptation, through fear you may not withstand it. Earn money before you spend it. Never run into debt, unless you see plainly a way to get out again. Never borrow, if you can possibly avoid it. Do not marry until you are able to support u wife. ^ Never speak evil of anyone. Be just before you are generous. Read over the above maxims at least once a week. Camphor is made in Japan in this way : After a tree is felled to the earth, it is cut into chips, which are laid in a tub over a large iron pot partially tilled with water, ana placed over a slow fire. Through holes in the bottom of the tub steam slowly rises, and heating the chips generates oil and camphor. The tub has a closely-fitting cover;'from this a bamboo pipe leads to a succession of other tubs with bamboo connections, and the last of these tubs is divided into two compartments, one above the other, the dividing floor being perforated with small holes to allow the water and oil to pass to the lower compartment. The compartment is supplied with a straw layer, which catches and holds the camphor in crystal in deposit as it passes through the cooling process. The camphor is then separated from the straw, packed in wooden tubs, and is ready for market. The oil is used by the natives for illuminating, and other purposes.?Christian at Work. Mr. Moody has opened a training school in Chicago for lay workers. He states his case as follows: "One of the great faults of the clergy, I have been led to believe, is that they have been educated above the mass of the people and out of sympathy with them. When a young man has gone through college and then thrtfugh a theological seminary he is in a certain sense removed from those he wishes to serve. There is a gap which I have long been speculating how to fill. I believe there should be a body of workers between preachers and the people they seek to reachmen and women well qualified to teach religion, but still not preachers, and willing to go out into the wards of cities and do the preliminary work of redemption. I think they should be business and working men and wo men, who will perhaps, know better how to sympathize with and move the masses than the clergymen now in the pulpit. This body of assistants?layclergy if you plaese?is what I hope to create by the convention just opened." Dean Perowne, in a sermon on "Apostolic Succession|" preached recently in Peterborough Cathedral, gave utterance to the following Christian sentiment: The doctrine of Apostolic Succession, as it is now put forward?the exclusive claims that are now asserted for Episcapal government?are entirely novel, so far as the Church of England is concerned, and date from Oxford between the years 1830 and 1840. I desire that an entirely novel view of the claims of the church, one which has obtained currency only within the last fifty years?one which I believe Is opposed alike to Scripture and the Church of England?should not be accepted without a single word of protest. For myself, I would think and act the spirit of the High church prelate, Archoishop Bancroft, who enjoined the bishops and clergy of his day that they warmly and most affectionately exhort" our brethren, the Protestant Dissenters, to join with us in daily, fervent prayer to the God of Peace, for the universal blessed union of all Reformed churches, both at home and abroad, against our common enemies ; that all they who do confess the finiv noma of nnr dear Lord, and do agree in the truth, of His holy Word, may also meet in one communion, and live in perfect unity and godly loye. Homely Talk?.M. Spurgeon says: How very homely the Saviour's talk became with his disciples in consequence of his desire to cheer their hearts. Why, He talks, I have often thought, just in the way in which any one of us would have talked to our children when desirous to encourage them! There is nothing about the Saviour's language which makes you say to yourself, "What a grand speech! What a rhetorician! What an orator He is!" If any man makes you say that of him, suspect that he is off the lines a little.' He is forgetting the true object of a loving mind, and in seeking to be a fine speaker, and to impress people with the idea that he is saying something very wonderful, and sayingjit very grandly. Never lose your temper in governing an animal. Both suffer thereby, and nothing is gained. You may recover from your angry mood only after the beast is made ugly for life. > . . - .. .r How can the Best Time for Holding the Sessions of an Annual Conference be had or Approximated 1 It is not supposed that any specified time would be regarded as the best for every one concerned. All that-can be done is to fix on of approximate that time which will be the nest for a Conference as a whole. We doubt not that the desire and offort of the esteemed General Superintendents to accommodate the Annual Conferences, as far as they know and are abie. Is the present plan or law for fixing the time for an Annual Conference to hold its sessions the best? In other words, should not the law which gives the Bishops the authority to appoint the time be so changed as to give to every Annual Conference the authority to fix its own time of meeting, and having fixed on a specified time, adhere to that time every year alter ? If such time should not be exactly the best it will, in the course of a few years, become the best because of its fixedness and the gradual and necessary adjustment of the preachers, their plans and the several interests of the church to that time. This would leave the Bishops to so arrange as to meet, if not all, then a? many of the Conferences as may be practicable. The advantages of having a Bishop of tlm cpccinn r>f ?n Annual Confer ence are many and should not be underrated, nor would we have our esteemed chief pastors to suspect that the proposed change is intended in any wise as a reflection on them personally, or on their office or their administration. It is presumed, as has been already stated, that under the present law our Bishops do the best they can. Objection is not against the Bishops but against the law as it now stands. If each Annual Conference had thei authority to fix the time of its sessions, it possibly would fall out that some one. say even two or three might be without a Bishop, but the advantages which the Conferences as a whole would realize by the proposed change, would moie than balance the absence of a Bishop from that or those, left to be supplied as the Discipline provides. Or if it should be preferred increase the number of Bishops so as to have one at the session of each Conference. The support of the college of Bishops thus increased in number would be easier than the way it is now done with the present number. A statement of"fcome of the advantages which the proposed change would secure may suffice: 1. The Conference year would be twelve months long instead of eleven or thirteen months more or less. 2. Preachers and people would know before entering on a year how long the year would be?when it would begin ana when it would end?not having to wait until a year is about half gone before they know how long or how short the Conference year is to be. I. Every succeeding year would increase the prestige of age and influence of the Conference which would be known more and more as oue of the fixed and regular ecclesiastical organizations of the country. 4. The times for the meeting of Quarterly, District, Church and Sunday School Conferences, Missionary Societies and otber regular organizations connected with the church, could be fixed, if not like that of the Annual Conference, yet with more system and consequent advantage to officers and members and greater profit to the interests of the church. Besides the changing of preachers?the sum and substance of itinerancy?everything else in or connected with the church should be as nearly fixed or stationary as the necessaiy changing of preachers, will permit. 5. .Preachers on circuits knowing the time at their command could plan their "rounds"?Baptism, Communion, Conference Claims, Church Conerences, &c.,?with system and certainty, observing that "decency and order" which should obtain in both the spiritual and temporal interests of the church. 6. The beginning and ending of the Conference year being known the preachers could arrauge their family arid secular affairs to better advantage, particularly so with preachers who in the beginning of year that they will have to move at the end of that year. 8. The advantages to the stewards and others who have the management, more or less, of the financial affairs of the church will be manifest when a certain time is fixed for an Annual Conference to meet every year. Dignifying Folly. - - ? " c?1 A few years Dacn some iwi uiui ICU I out, "Is Christianity a failure?" Some persons who seemed not to know how to answer a fool according to his folly took up the blasphemous utterance and discussed it as they would some theory in agriculture, and in that way gave publicity to a bubble from a heart that says, "There is no God." On this wise the Tempter started out with the woman?putting his lie in the form of a question. The inability of those defenders ? of the faith to keep alive this "doctrine of devils" it withered and died back into its native soil. Now, from the same source, comes another question: "Is marriage a failure?" If judged by unfaithful husband and wives, by libertines and prostitutes and by divorced men and women who have been hastily and "unequally yoked together," and as hastily and as easily unyoked, the answer would be affirmative; but until some virtuous man or woman says marriage is a failure, the question and its answer may be relegated to the school whose creed is, There is no God, and whose habits have little pre-eminence over the beasts of the field. "The heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness." Prov. xii: 23. Efforts to suppress Mormonism will continue to be of little avail so long as inma pomnin ?ua thev are in uivuxvc iunu many States of the Union. Marriage and divorce as practiced by some men and women is simply Mormanism drawn out with slip-knots here and there along the line' Nothing is so narrowing, contracting, and hardening, as always to be moving in the same groove, with 110 thought beyond what we immediately gee and hear close around us. The real saint is a distributing saint. He lives at the base of supplies, and however little he receives, it is always more than he personally needs: and he commences distributing to the Lord's cause and the needs of others, and keeps at it all his life. i Life of Bishop Wightmau. Rev. S. A. Weber thinks that we should have a life of Bishop Wightman, and nominates Rev. A. Coke Smith as the author of such a work. We agree with Brother Weber in both particulars. The eminent ability, the life and the ministerial and administrative record of Bishop Wightman would furnish abundant material for an interesting and instructive volume,r such as Brother Smith could compile and write. Let us have the book. It is proper we should say that the Central Methodist does not agree with those who favor a collection for the entertainment of the first place there are few towns where board could be obtained, for pay, for so large a number of men and womeu, who attend the sessions. In the second place, the laity of the Church, wjio must pay the money to board the preachers, are also those who entertain them during the annual sessions. Until they demand a change, preferring to pay the moneys the question is hardly open for discussion. If the time ever comes that no town in the territory is willing to entertain the Conference, then it will be time to adopt a different method. ^enirai jneinoatsi. After the battle of Salamanca, Lord Hill observed a soldier leaning in a gloomy mood upon bis firelock, while round him lay mangled thousands of French and English, "What are you thinking of, my man ?" said his lordship. The soldier started, and after saluting his general, said, "I was thinking, my lord, how many widows and orphans I have this day made for one shilling." Ex-President Hayes has found a defender In the person of Governor Gordon of Georgia. In speaking of the situation in 1876, when he was trying to get the troops removed from the i State House at Columbia, Governor Gordon says: "I made an appeal day after day and week after week to President Hayes to sign the order removing the troops. Finally, after long and laborious effort and in the face of opposition by his own party followers, ne said to me, using language of this import, which struck me as worthy of any man who ever filled that high seat: " 'Gen. Gordon, if I take this action my own party will not sustain me, nor will your party uphold my hands. On ' the contrary the Democratic party will be glad of the opportunity to strike , a blow when I am deserted by any portion of my own party. The action, however, is right and I shall sign the order, knowing that my course will cause me to fail between the two par- V ties.' % "I repeat," continued Gen. Gordon with much emphasis, "that such cour- ;* age, such singleness of purpose to discharge a high obligation without reference to personal consequences have 'always impressed me with the belief that great injustice had been done a good and brave man." ^ ti TKa T Votlmn XT.?kKftl 1 e J. y Xiiv JLW*. X^Abuau 1XUUUC11, JLliU 1IU1 U1 . the Methodist Itinerant, New Haven, ,. J Conn., is organizing a Methodist excursion to Europe, Egypt and Pales- J, tine. The party will sail from New York, by the City of Rome, August 21, , for an extended tour of twelve weeks, at a cost of $350 and upward, including all expenses. Mr. Hubbell is a member of the New York East Confer- ?ence. "rfSB Henry D. Howren, a newspaper re1 porter of Charleston, who for years nad been under the dominion of drink, was recently converted. In a short j > while after conversion he appeared in an Opera House in Charleston as an evangelist. He receives many invitations to make addresses. He expeets to make a tour of this Htate and Isorth Carolina in the near future. The two lectures by Rev. J. J. Lafferty, D. D., April 29, 30, in this city were quite different from each other, yet both of them so a la Laflferty thai no one else need attempt to be like him. Some who heard both "The Old and the New" and "Luck and Pluck" thought the latter superior. J? A terriffic storm passed ovor Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio May 10. Farms were washed out, houses, fences, and trees along the streams swept away, and landslides on nearly every railroad leading out of Pittsburg. Two children were drowned? the only deaths reported. There is good reason to believe that the average American of this last quarter of the nineteenth century is longerlived than his ancestors of the last century. The most casual reader cannot fail to have been struck with the frequent notices in the daily press of men and women who have lived well on into the nineties, and promise well to become centenarians. The best medical opinion of the day is that the average duration of human life is not only being made longer by reason of the improved diet and better sanitary conditions of these latter days, but that it is capable of being still further lengthened by still greater improvements in , our ways and means of living. When the garden gets as much attention as the swine lot, and the fruit trees as much feed and care as the cattle, there will be more health and good humor on the farm, and just as much money. A grapevine over the out-building will not injure the building, will increase the attractiveness of the premises, and will furnish wholesome, agreeable food at slight cost. Clean water, warm quarters, good sound grain, plenty 01 grave*, ana green food makes glossy plumage; red combs, singing liens and plenty of eggs. Glass is expensive for hot-beds, and those who prefer something cheaper may use cotton cloth, giving it two coats of boiled linseed oil. It is better to have cows confined in stanchions, or otherwise, for milking, to avoid their moving about and to prevent accidents. Comfort and Health.?Never leave the mud on your horse over night and you will add to their comfort and health. When a man once gets in the habit of measuring merit by martyrdoms he discriminates less closely, and the bestabused man, for whatever cause, seems nearest to sainthood. The surest way to produce moral blindness is to neglect moral conviction. One who pursues this course will soon admire his own errors, credit his own lies, and take pleasure in his own wickedness. No one loves the man whom he fears... 3 t' '