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? ~ ; ' "noon and night. the pool beneath the noon-day sun The trees their shadows throw, And the ripples seem to play and run Through branches green below. At night against the starry sky. Against the moon's bright bar, Each outlined branch which towers high Seems then to hold a star. ?Flavel Scott Mines, in Ledger. "UNFINISHED." BY E. E. CALDWELL. "These pictures!?well, I see, sir, they puzzle you. I never knew any one they didn't. People who have no love of art think them simply absurd. But the artists and you connoisseurs are just puzzled by them. I know what you are 6aying to yourself. It is: 'When the man could get qualities like that, could ?ee things in that astounding way, why, in the name of all that exists, did he not do more? what did he leave his things in that condition for? and what under the sun is the matter with them? I cau't pick out one that is not a failure, notwithstanding the delightful color, and that feeling in their execution, which is eo delicate and subtle as to be almost uncanny. But there is something wanting, something left undone, as though the hand had been aircstedin the making, so that a bit of the soul of the thing had beea left out. It is 50 "with the least scrap of a sketch you have here. Curious! Well, sir, I give those pictures that corner of my studio, and I usually let people look and marvel about them, but I have never fully explained them to any one. 1 'You, sir, say you are a metaphysician; that you are interested in the curiosities of human nature. I feel impelled to give you the history of the men who painted them. He was my chum when I was a student in Paris, ten years ago. I did not know him before, though we were both Americans. I was from California, and he was from the South?from Georgia. His name was Ralph Esby. I shall not Boon forget the day Ralph Esby came walking into the studio. "We were under - Bonnat?a splendid lot of young men, that class was?Americans, Frenchmen, English, Greeks, Danes, and I don't know what other nationalities. He came walking in, looking like a young god. A tall fellow, of about twenty-three, with a ror+iiin clonr^ornnec altliAiirrTi rntViPr strongly built. And he Lad a grace of movement which matched his beautiful . ? face. Yet, strange to say, he would sometimes do things in the most awkward and rigid way, as if to contradict the W assumption that be possessed this charming grace. For instance, he would throw himself back from his work to give it a _ critical look, with a motion in which there was more of an inspiration, to us fellows, than in the prettiest model we had. "When, suddenly, just as you felt an admiring thrill going over you, especially if you had conceived the enthusiasm forEsby which I had, he would give your ?ethetic nerves a shock by ' drawing himself up rigidly?snap!?as though something had left him. And ' Jie'd abandon his work, and off he'd go without a word to any one. There would 1 be his study, more of less finished? ' sometimes just sketched in, sometimes ] quite going on, and it would have in it y just such qualities as you see in these can- ' .'vases. I never knew him to put through ( the week on one model. Every one felt, * Esby would poly finish, he'd be the ? biggest man among us. "We had such a respect for him and ? bis work though, that no one said much that might look critical. Occasionally, * ? fellow, with more callous sensibilities * than common, would go up to his easel ? with: 'Isn't that jolly, now, now; but, * I say, Esby, why don't you finish!' He'd ^ just get a little red, sralle,with a strange s look in his eye?if he had let himself out c more you might have called it a hopeless * ?Bort of look?and he'd turn off with a ? joke about something no one ever .ventured to notice. This was a personal 1 peculiarity of his. The coat-sleeve of ? his left arm was empty. It had come 1 from no accident?he had beea born * without the arm. "What he would sav 3 was: 'You can't expect an unfinished * fellow to finish his picture.' It wasn't ' in character for him to make a joke of that kind. It rather jarred upon you. ( ^We used to wish those 'thick-skins' i would let him alone. s "Bonnat treated him with a great deal of courtesy. He was pleased encugh 1 ^with his work at first. I remembered 1 Bonnat once saying, about the ngurO of a boy he had commenced: 'C'est 1 Tharmante.' And afterward, when he t found his things never carried on, he < would pass him without much criticism, < but made no complaint?he seemed to < understand that it was something peculiar 1 and constitutional. "I attached myself to him from the i beginning. I am an enthusiastic person, i and naturally express what I feel. But, i in spite of my enthusiasm for Esby,which grew daily, there was always something i essential lacking in our friendship. It < reached a stage when you could grasp it as a solid fact?call it a completed friend- i ship, if one may so speak. And I could not help feeling that it was something in Esby himself, though I could not lay my finger on the reason. For I never thought of complaining of want of response to my affection, notwithstanding that he was so undemonstrative. No one could call him cold. I felt that he liked me to like him, and I felt thnf ? - - -- meiU, as 1 say, we never reached a complete understanding. After our intimacy came to a certain point, it stopped growing. And though there was a great deal woo irnrr rlolinrlitfnl fn mp in Irnnw. VTUibU " UO I VI J V4V4*^MV*M? ?V " ing him, something beautiful and exquisite iu our intercourse, which no other man could have given, I used to get quite melancholy over its lacks. I couldn't help connecting it with the way his painting was done?so much beautv,-nith that strange, unsatisfying quality. 'Although I never said anything to him about it, I thought he felt it, too. For there were times when we would get to talking on serious subjects?the immortality of the soul and that kind of thing?and in the earnestness of the tilk, we would begin to seem very near to each other. But as soon as this feeling of personal nearness?soul-companionship? made itself evident, Esby would break up the conversation, begin to get restless ?we were usually sitting over my fire, this fire here?tip back his chair, make 6ome indifferent remark quite off the beat of our talk, get up and walk aimlessly about, pretending to examine a sketch or something, then, with a bright -Goodnight,' he would leave my room. Yet I felt that whatever impulse made him act that way, the action was in some way an irresponsible one, and he would have *3 v ... ? w'*-. ' J. *' ''2.-1. . v; ' - * V1'-*.".. given anything "to have just Bat quietly there and gone on with our talk. At that time, I did not know much in regard tc his antecedents; he had the air of a person well brought up, and he told me his father had been a Georgia planter before the war. Evidently he was not a rich fellow, though he never seemed to want for means. He had an atelier, like many of us, and lived round at the restaurants. He had no friends in Paris outside of the class, aud I was the ocly one there whom he visited intimately. However, the fellows all felt honored by an invitation to Esby's atelier, and many a crust of bread we've broken there. There was a piano which Smith used to play, and we had some good voices, too. Esby himself never touch the piano before any one. Of course he only had one hand to play with, yet I've heard him making music, pretty,, strange and beautiful, as I've sometimes come up the -staiFS, which would stop as soon as he heard my step. He -wa6 particularly sensitive about his mu6ic. A song he never sang through with the fellows, though in particularly fine passages he would often join in, and hi6 voice had a rich quality. But if ever he sang more than a few notes there would be the consciousncss of something out of harmoiij in the singing-~something which you did not quite like to hear, though r off the tune or anything of that kind. He would immedi ately 6top himself then, with a slight, impatient movement, and probably not try it again the rest of the eveuing. There was one subject that we never broached at Esby's. That was 'the ladies.' It always fell flat, and wc learned by-and-bye tl it either Esby was totally indifferent the fair sex?his manner implied it?or else he had had a wound from Cupid which was not healed. The fellows speculated some about it. "Imagine, then, my surprise when I came in on him one evening and found him sitting over his fire with a letter in his hand, which he held in a listless, melancholy way. As he didn't put it away or make any effort to conceal his attitude of mind, the characteristic thing for him to do, of course, I looked at him inquiringly. I said: 'What's up, Esby?' He just handed over the letter, with Tm a rascal, Harry,' and then got im rnrl Knrvnn nnninr* flin T^Vi a IaI up auu u<.^au iiiu uuui iuu ititer was a delicate-scented thing, in a woman's hand writing. It ran thus: 41 'Sit Dear Ralph: You will be surprised to receive this letter so soon after my last, which I mailed but two days ago. But that last was like all the letters which I have been writing to you this winter, not a true, frank letter, but a kind of make-believe. And to-day I have determined to tell you ali I have been thinking, that for once more things may be open and real between us. For your letters, dear Ralph, have been make-believes too. Indeed, is it not so that our happy frankness had disappeared even before you said farewell? I felt it, although I would not believe it then. I cannot explain?I cannot understand it. Not in regard to you, Ralph. With another person it might be different. Oh! Ralph, my dear Ralph, you still love me?' "The letter was blistered with tears here, and there was no signature. 11Vnn moTT imomna T ^ol f rvtolnn/tTinln j. vu ijuckj laia^iug A IUU ui^iautuvij snough when I read that letter. "Esby came over an<J took it out of ny hand, saying: 'I shall write to her to | lome over, and I'll .give it a fair trial. ! Perhaps it will return to me. I thought ! t might by absence. But I'm afraid it's J ike the painting and everything else, I 'an't put anything more into it. It must je left unfinished. I'm afraid it's con- ! ititutional.' And Esby?reserved Esby 1 ?actually buried bis face in his hand | ind wept. "I felt sure that it was the first time le had candidly declared that last even ,0 himself. I left him weeping there, . tlthough full of sympathy for him; in j act, I was crying myself. But I knew, vith his temperament, the reaction would 1 loon come from such an extra amount of J :o'ifidence, and that it was by all means be roost delicate thing to leave him 1 ilone. "The month following this, Esby worked in a particularly spasmodic way, md he was in a more than usually re;icent frame oj mind. We had no conidential talks, he did not come to my i oom without one of the other fellows, ] ind I avoided surprising him alone in 1 bis. "But one evening he came in with the 1 expression of dejected determination, . ivhich had been growing on his face for >ix weeks,'a good deal deepened. " 'Bright,1 he said, 'I'd like you to neet some lriends of mine?Miss Hart;cy and her father?just come over.' "I understood perfectly who Miss | Hartley waSj and I was somewhat agita:ed by the invitation. After all, it was jnly a formal call that we made, but I /?! iv.i :e t>ninV. . _.u? I! ;ame away ieenug mat n nmw- eouia ;ease to love Mad~j Hartley, there must j be something normally wrong about him. A.11 his other peculiarities became as nothing in comparison with this strange incapacity, and my sympathy and pity for bim were dazed. I felt almost ready to call him a rascal, as he had called himself. That was when I thought of her eyes when she looked at him. But when I said good-night after our silent walk home through the streets of Paris, the moonlight showed me such a face, that I cried within me, 4God help him!' "For a whole week, Ralph and I saw Mr. Hartley and his daughter daily. We show them Paris?Ralph devotedly attended the lady, and I piloted the old gentleman. He And I kept up d pretty evttt now of spirits and conversation, but Ralph and his lady were a melancholy pair. As first she was alje to assume an interest in thinjrs, but ^ uavs wore On, her manner grew as absent as his,and she would look at one of the mast^pieces ' of the Louvre with scarcely more inter- ! est than if it had been a chromo in a second-hand furniture-store in New York. "Her father was not an observant person, but even he began to think there was that in the atmosphere beyond his ken, and he confided to me that he thought there must be something amiss between young Esby and his daughter. They used to be famous friends. "By Saturday morning I felt that I could not keep an indifferent look upon things much longer. Those two faces haunted me tragically when they were not before my eyes. I called for Esby at nine o'clock. "We were to take his friends to Versailles, by boat. A pleasant plan enough for people in really holiday hu- ( mor. "A second time Esby sat dejectedly in his chamber, with a letter in his hand. "He rose and said quickly: 'You'd better go to the class, Bright, and hear the criticism. Miss Hartley is not well, and we shall not go to Versailles. It's a shame to have kept you from work all this week?but you're a good fellow, Bright, a stunning good fellowJ' and ... C'-%'r'-?. Esby shook my hand with great warmth.' u 'Shan't we call or send some flowers, Ralph?' said I. I "'No!' he replied; 'I'll write her a note.' "I did go up to the atelier, but my thoughts were not much upon what Bonnat was saying, although the other fellows seemed more than usually interested. They twitted me a bit about having been kept away by one of the fair sex. 'We might have expected it of an impressionable creature like you, Bright, but what's taken hold of Esby?'. I wasn't in a joking nor a confiding humor, so I muttered something about Esby attending to his own affaire, and I went off for a walk by the Seine. I'm not often irritable, but the fellows jarred on me. "Esby rested on my mind, and I thought of Madge Hartley, shut in her room in this strange city, sad, despairing thoughts haunting her. Toward evening, I wandered up to Ralph's room. Pinned upon the door was a paper, and on it written: 'Go in, Bright.' I quickly turned the handle and entered. "The room was entirely vacant, but opposite me stood a portrait of Esby?a portrait which I had never 6een, yet immediately recognized as done with the most exaggerated peculiarities of hie brush. So strangely like my friend was it, yet a weird thing, uncanny, ghostly. He never did a piece of work more beautiful in color and full of a wonderfully strange inspiration. But the sadness and despair which shone through its rrhnfitJinfiss was so nreat that it was with a heart -stilled by premonition that I read a word painted beneath with a slender brush of carmine. This was the word 'Unfinished.' "I stood some time gazing upon the portrait in a blind kind of way, repeating, mechanically, 'Unfinished.' And gradually the terrible fear grew that Ralph had done something desperate. 1 Poor Ralph! No one in hi3 sane mind ever painted a portrait like that. "I rushed up to the Hartleys. Mr. Hartley received me with a grave face and gave me a letter. ' 'It was a letter from Ralph to Madge. He told her frankly wkat he had told me?the whde course of his feeling toward her: " 'And now,' be said, 'if you were a woman, to receive such a thing, I should offer myself as your husband, but to you I am well aware that would be useless, liany years ago. the suspicion of this strange peculiarity of my nature dawned upon me?this incapacity for completion, in any condition or action of my life. I have been ever since warding off an acknowledgment of it to myself. But how much braver, how infinitely better a thing it would have been to have acknowledged it, the pain which I have brought upon you and upon myself is witness. I can not even ask you to forgive me. Yet you will not deem that I am without realization of what I have ' done, when I tell you that, like Cain, I have ; gone into banishment, the brand upon me, that, hrnnrl civfin nfc mv birth?a man with out an arm, symbol of the incomplete. It is not ' the ending of a miserable life I am contemplating. It is but a complete retirement from life as it is, its daily contact with my fellow- | men. In the wilderness of some primitive , land, perhaps the good Lord will some day ] say 'Finished.' "It is ten years ago, sir, since I read : that, and that's the last I've seen of ! Ralph Esby. I've heard that his father j was killed in a duel, shot in the arm, and that his mother died when he was bora, 1 soop after. One can put two and two to- 1 sjether in regard to poor Ralph's pecu- ' Liaritiea^ AH theseyears wp haye Deep. ' won3ering" where Ratpli might be, but' j the uncertainty came to an end a year since, when a fellow from Australia came Into my studio and handed me a card, 1 upon which was written, in a feeble hand: 1 lHarry, my boy, I've finished!' " 'It was a wild colt finished him,' said the man. "Miss Hartley? Oh, she had a severe '11 Tk.-i. LvL(.tL.l ,1 T ?,?/I ! I11QC53. cut ucr laiuci auu i uuiscu u? through. For six years I did not say I roything to her in regard to the state of my feelings. Then I asked her to be my 1 svife. and we've been married four years aow. 'I wish we could have told Ralph." j ?Argonaut. Millions of Bads. In a land where roses are in bloom the year round, and where there is an endless variety of other flowers all the time, it might reasonably be expected that the women would bo fond of flowers; but to those from colder climates, unaccus- i tomed to such a wealth of flowers, the ingenuity, taste and patience of Siamese ! women in making floral decorations are j rery wonderful. On great occasions among the higher , classes the decorations are usually the j work of fJ?e wnmep. 01 tue uarera, anq being contincd to their own inventions, I \s they are, their success is such as to" j make one wish that their skill and labor j might be exercised on something more , lasting. Sometimes you will* see a large \ table covered with a lace-like spread which Is made entirely of flowers. The foundation part is a network made of a small, fragrant flower that they always use when it is in bud, and in that condition it is about the size and shape of an ordinary white bean. It seems as if millions of these little buds must have been neatly fastened together lirst, then larger flowers beautifully arranged for a fringe, then a border added, and then the heavier lace work in the middle, and all this is done so quickly that the flowers still look as fresh as if they had juzt been plucked from the stem. What a marvel of beauty it makes, and yet it is but one item among the numerous specimens of their skill ia this particular line.?Dcmoresfs Monthly. The Trade of jhet Amazon. The commcrce ol the Amazon RivtT i9 carried on under the JJrSzlTian flag. Foreigners are not allowed by law to own steamers or sailing vessels emplojed in inland navigation; hence it as necessary for capitalists who control the carrying trade of the river to assign their interest to Brazilians. "There are forty steamers owned by an English line, which receives a large mail subsidy from the Brazilian Government for plying between various ports and villages on the main tributaries; and in return for this financial support it is well satisfied to fly j the national flag. Another company has eight steamers under similar conditions, and there are j j as many as a dozen more on the river and j I +>-;ii.i4nrif>c wliiph sail under the Brazilian flag. These sixty steamers are j gradually opening up the Amazon valley i to commerce. Only the smaller vessels i are now running beyond Maonos, at the 1 junction of the Negro, but next year the | largest English vessels will make regular ] trips to Yquitos, a distance of 3750 miles j from the coast. This river trade is almost | completely in the hands of the Portu- i : guese merchants and the mercantile houses ] j represented at Para, a city of 50,000 in- J J habitants.?Bradstrett's. REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "Anffds." Text: ' And the angel did wondrously ?Judgts xiii., 19. Fire built on a rock. Manoah and his wife had there kindled the flames for sacrifice in praise of God and in honor of a guest whom they supposed to be a man. But as the flame rose higher and higher their stranger guest stepped into the flame and by one red leap ascended into the skies. Then they knew that he was an Angel of the Lord. "The angel did wondrously." Two hundred and forty-eight time6 does the Bible refer to the angels, yet I never heard or read a sermon on Angelology. The whole subject is relegated to the realm mythical, weird, spectral and unknown. Such adjournment is unseriptural and wicked. Gf their life, their character, their habits, their actions, their velocities, the Bible givos us full length portraits, and why this prolonged and absolute silence concerning .them!" Angelology is my theme. There are two nations of angels, and they are hostile to each other; the nation of good angels and the nation ol bad angeis. ur tne former I ehieflv speak to-day. Their capital, their headquarters, their grand rendezvous, is heaven, but their empire is the universe. They are a distinct race of creatures. No human being can ever join their confraternity. The little child who in -the Sabbath school sings, "I want to be an angel," will never have her wish gratified. Tliey are superhuman; but they are of different grades j and ranks, not all on the same level, or the same height. They have their superiors and inferiors and equals. I propose no guessing on this subject, but take the Bible for my only authority. Plato, the philosopher, guessed, and divided angels into super-celestial, celestial and sub-celestial. Diony6ius, tlw j Areopagiie, guereed, and divided them into , three classes?the supreme, the middle and the last?and each of these into three other ! classes, making nine in all. Philo said that the angels were related to God, as the rays to the sun. Fulgentius said that they were composed of body and spirit. Clement said they were incorporeal. Augustine said that they had been in danger of falliug, but now are beyond being tempted. But the only authority on this subject that i T respect says they are divided into Cheru- i Dim, Seraphim, Thrones, Dominations, Prin- i cipalities, Powers. Their commander-in- | chief is Michael. Daniel called him Michael. , St. Johu called him Michael. These supernal beiugs are more thorouglily organized than | ? ? ?*?> o a/T TUntr nra I UIJJ tximy i/iiat cvci jiuucucu. *u?j ***w | swifter than any cyclone that ever swept the sea. They are more radiant than any morning that ever came down the sky. They have more to do with your destiny and mine than any being in the universe except God. May the Angel of the New Covenant, who is the Lord Jesus, open our eyes, and touch our tongue, and rouse our soul, while we speak of their deathlessuess, their intelligence, their numbers, their strength, their achievements. Yes, deathless. They had a cradle, but will never have a grave. The Lord remembers when they were born, but no one shall eves see their eye extinguishedt or their momentum slow up, or their existence terminate. The oldest of them has not a wrinkle, or a decrepitude, or a hindrance; a9 young after six thousand years as at tne close of their first hour. Christ said of the good in heaven, "Neither cau they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels." Yes, deathless are these wonderful creatures of whom I speak. They will see world after world go out, but there shall be no fading of their own brilliance. Yea, after the last world has taken its last flight they will be ready for the widest circuit through immensity, taking a quadrillion of miles in one sweep as easy as a pigeon circles a dovecot. They are never sick. They are never exhausted. They need no sleep, tor they are never tired. At God's command they smote with death, in one nicht. one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host, but no fatality can smite them. Awake, agile, multipotent, deathless, immortal 1 A further characteristic of these radiant folk is intelligence. The woman of Tekoah was right when phe spoke to King David of the wisdom of an angel. We take in what little we know through eye and ear and nostril and touch; but those beings have no physical encasement and hence they are all senses. A wall five feet thick is not solid to them. Through it they go without disturbing flake of mortar or crystal of sand. Knowledge ! It flashes on them. They take it In at all points. They absorb it. They gather it up without any hinderment. No need of literature for them! The letters of their books are stars. The dashes of their books are meteors. The words of their books are < constellations. The paragraphs of their books are galaxies. The pictures of their books are sunrises, and sunsets, and midnight auroras, and the Conqueror On the .white horse with the moon unaer His feet, and seas of glass mingled with fire. Their library is an open universe. No need of telescope to see something millions of miles away, for instantlv they are there to inspect and explore it. All astronomies, all geologies, all botanies, all philosophies at their feet. What an opportunity for intelligence is theirs! What facilities for knowing everything and knowing it right away. There is only one thing that puts them to their wit's end, and the Bible says they have to study that. They have been studying it all through the ages, aud yet I warrant tncy have not fully grasped it?the wonders of Redemption. these wonders are so high, so deep, so grand, so stupendous, so magnificent, that even the intelligence of angelhood is confounded before it. The anostle savs: ''Which tilings t&e angels desire to look iuto." That ! is a subject that excites inquisitiveness on their part. That is a theme that strains their faculties to their utmost. That is higher than they can climb, and deeper than they can dive. They have a desire for something too big for tiieir comprehension. ''Which things the angels desire to look into." Bui that does ! " iot discredit their intelligence. No oin but God Himself can /ully understand the won- ' iers of Rst'.eniption, If all heaven should 1 study it for fifty eternities they would get no ; further than the A B C of that inexhaustible ! subject. But nearly all other realms of knowledge they have ransacked and explored *nd compassed. No one but God can tell them anything they do not know. They have ! read to the last word of the last line of the 1 last page of the last volume of investigation. ! And what delights me most is that all their 1 intelligence is to be at our disposal, and, com- J ing into their presence, they will tell us in five minutes more than we can learn by one < hundred years of earthly surmising. * A further characteristic of these im- * mortals is their velocity. This tho Bible * puts sometimes under the figure of wings, 11 sometimes under the figure of a flowing gar- ' meut, sometimes under the figure of naked s feet. As these supei'hutnans ave without ? bodies these expressions are of course figui'- ^ ative, and mean swiftness. The Bible tells us that Daniel was praying, and Gabriel flew from heaven and touched [n'm hefnrj he "oK up from his knees. How f?f, then, cHu the Angel Gabriel^ Jiflv* to fly in those .moments of Brunei's prayer? Heaven * is thou?1'.* to be the center of the uni- ' "Our sun and its plauots only the I rim of the wheel ot worlds. In a mo- e ment the Angel Gabriel flew from that center [ to this periphery. Jesus told Peter He could E instantly have sixty thousand angels present f if He called for them. What foot of antelope , or wing of albatross could equal that veloc- 1 ity? Law of gravitation, which grips all | things else, has no influence upon angelic | momentum. Immensities befoi d them open j and shut like a fan. That they are here is no , reason why they should not be a quintillion of miles hence the next minute. Our bodies hinriro' n? but our minds can circle the earth in a minute. Angelic beings are bodiless and liave no limitation. God may with His finger point down to some world j in trouble on the outmost limits of creation, and instantly an angelic cohort are there to help it. Or some celestial may be standing at the furthermost outpost of immensity, and God may say "Come!" and instantly it is in His bosom. Abraham, Elijah, Hagar, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, Paul, St. John, could tell of their unhindered I locomotion. Tho red feet of summer light- I ning are slow compared with their hegiras. This doubles up and compresses infinitudes | into infinitesimals. This puts all the astro- | nomical heavens into a.space like tho balls of ; _n child's rattle. This mingles into one tho "Here and the There, tho Now and tho Then, I the Beyond and the Yonder. Another remark I havo to make concerning these illustrious immortals is that they are multitudinous. Their census has never baen taken, and no one but God knows how many thoy are, but all the Biblo accounts suggest their immense numbers. Companies of themj regiments of them, armies of them, mountain tops haloed by them, skies popu 57 ' - - ~ ' ' - ". ....*> ;' -v* lous with them. John speaks of angels and other beings round tho throne as ten thousand times ten thousand. Now, according to my calculation, ten thousand times ten thousand are one hundred million. But these are only the angels in one place. David counted twenty thousand of them rolling down tho sky in chariots. When God came away from the riven rocks of Mount Sinai, tho Bible says Ho had the companionship of ten thousand angels. I think they are in every battle, in every exigency, at every birth, at every pillow, at every hour, at every moment. The earth full of them. The heavens full of them. They outnumber the human race in this world. They outnumber ransomed spirits in glory. When Abraham had his knife up lifted to slay Isaac, it was an angel who arrested the stroke, crying: "Abraham! Abraham !" It was a stairway of angels that Jacob saw while pillowed in the wilderness. W e are told an angel led the hosts of Israelites out of Egyptian serfdom. It was an angel that showed Hagar the fountain where she filled the bottle for the lad. It was an angel that took Lot out of doomed Sodom. It was an angel that Bhut up the mouth of the hungry monsters when Daniel was thrown into the caverns. It was an angel that fed Elijah under the juniper tree. It was an angel that announced to Mary the approaching nativity. They were angels that chanted when Christ was born. It was an angel that strengthened our Saviour in His agony. It was an angel that encouraged Paul in the Mediterranean shipwreck. It was an angel that burst open the prison, gate after gate, until Peter was liberated. It was an angel that stirred the Pool of Siloam where the sick were healed. It was an angel that John saw flying through the midst of heaven, and an angel with foot planted on the sea, and an angel that opened the book, and an angel that sounded the trumpet, ana an angel that xnrusc in me sicme, ana an angel tnatpoured out the vials, and an angel standing in the sun. It will be an angel with uplifted hand, swearing that time shall be no longer. In the great final harvest of the world, the reapers are the angels. Yea, the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with mighty angels. Oh, the numbers and the inteht and the glory of these supernals! Fleets of them! Squadrons of them! Host beyond host! Rank above rank! Millions on millions! And all on our 6ide if we will have them. This leads me to speak of the offices of these supernals. To defend, to cheer, to rescue. to escort, to give victory to the right, and overthrow the wrong; that is their business. Just as alert to-day and efficient as when in Bible times they spread wing, or unsheathed sword, or rocked down penitentiaries, or filled the mountains with horses of 5re hitched to chariots of fire and driven bv relnsmen of lire. They have turned your steps a hundred times, and you knew it not. 7ou wc on the way fco do some wrong thing, and they changed your course. They brought some thought of Christian parentige, or of loyalty to your own home, and that arrested you. They arranged that some >ne should meet you at that crisis, and propose something honorable and elevating, or :hey took from your pocket some ticket to jvil amusement, a ticket that you never found. It was an angel of God, and perhaps the very one that guided you to this service, md that now waits to report some holy impression to be this morning madlf apon your soul, tarrying with one foot upon the doorstep of your immortal spirit, ind the other foot lifted for ascent into the ikies. By some prayer detain him until he mn tell of a repentant and ransomed soul! Or you were some time borne down with trouble, bereavement, persecution, bankruptcy, sickness and all manner of troubles beating their discords in your heart and life, bfou gave up; you said: "I cannot stand it my longer. I believe I will take my life. Where is the rail train, or the deep wave, or ;he precipice that will end this torment of sarthly existence?" But suddenly your mind lightened. Courage came surging into rour heart like oceanic tides. You said: 'God is on my side, and all these adversities 3e can make turn out for my good." Sudienly you felt a peace, a deep peace, the seace of God that passeth all understanding. tVhat made the change? A sweet, and nighty, and comforting angel of the Lord net you. That was all. What an incentive to purity and righteousaess is this doctrine that we are continually inder angelic observation! Eyes ever on rou, so that the most secret misdeed is comnitted in the midst of an audience of imnortals. No doors so bolted, no darkness so Cimmerian as to hinder that supernal eyetight. Not critical eyesight not jealous syesight, not baleful eyesight, but friendly >yesight, sympathetic eyesight, helpful eyerTrvlif fVnflrfanfial nlArlr nf ftfnrA With esponsibility on your shoulder, and no one o applaud your work when you do it well, md sick with the world's ingratitude, think >f the angels in the counting-room raptured it your fidelity I Mother of household, fititchng, mending, cooking, dusting, planning, up islf the night or all night with the sick child, [ay in ana day out, year in and year out, rorn with the monotony of a life that no one eems to care for, think of the angels in the inreery, angels in all the rooms 01 your toilng, angels about the sick cradle and all in ympatuy I Railroad engineer, with hundreds of lives tanging on your wrist, standing amid the inders and the smutch, round the Sharp :urve and by appalling declivity, discharged ind disgraced if you make a mistake, but not >ne word of approval if you take all the rains in safety for ten years, think of the ingels by the throttle valve, angels by the oaring furnace of the engine, angels looking rom the overhanging crag, angels bracing he racing wheels off the precipice, angels vhen you mount the thunderbolt of a train - ??? j. i n md angeis wnen you dismount/1 vnu juu lot hear them, louder than the jamming of he car coupling, louder than the bell at the Tossing, loudei than the whistle that sounds ike the scream of a flying fiend, tho angelic "Dices saying: "You did it well! ?Tou did it well I" If I often speak )f eugineers it is because I ride so much vith tnera. I always accept their invitation A> join ihem on their locomotive, because I lot only gat to my destination sooner, but because they are about the grandest men ilive. Men and women of all circumstances, onlv mrtly appreciated, or not appreciated at all, iever feel lonely again, or unregarded again! Angels all around; angels to approve, angels X) help, angels to remember. Yea, while all the good angels are friends of the good, there is one special agent your body guard. This idea, until this preseut study of angelology, I supposed to be fanciful, but I find it clearly stated in the Bible. When the disciples were praying for Peter's deliverance from prison, and he appeared at the door of the prayer nnt h?]i?va it was Peter. OlWUUg, VUOJ WU<v? MV? _ __ They said: "It is his angel." So these dis:iples, in special nearness to Christ, evidently >elieved that every worthy soul has an angel, fesus said of His followers. "Their angels bei<?!d the face cf My Father." Elsewhere it s said: "He shall give His angels charge over hee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Angel hielded, angel protected, augel guarded, mgel canopied, art thou. No wonder that zharles Wesley hymned these words: Which of the petty Kings of earth Can boast a guard like ours. Encircled from our second birth With all the heavenly powers? Valerius and Itufinus were put to death for Christ's sake in the year 287, and, after the Jay when their bodies had been whipped and >ounded into a jelly, in the night in prison, md before the next dav when they were to je executed, they both thought they saw mgels standing with two glittering crowns >aying: "Be of good cheer, valiant soldiers ){ Jesus Christ! a little more of battle and then these crowns are yours." Aud I am glad to know that beford many of those who have passed through great sulforings in this life, some angel of God has held a blazing coronet of eternal reward. Yen; we are to have such a guardian angel to take us upward when our work is done. You know wo are told an angel conducted Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. That shows that none shall be so poor in dying he cannot afford anrrelic escort. It would be a long way to go alone, and up paths we have never trod, and amid blazing worlds swinging in unimaginablo momentiun.outandon through such distances and across such infinitudes of space, we should shudder at the thought of going alone. But the angelic escort will come to your languishing pillow, or the place of your fatal accident, and says: "Hail, immortal one! All is well: God hath sent me to take you home;" and without tremor or slightest sense of peril you will away an I upward, further on and further on, until after awhile heaven heaves in sight, and tlie rumble of chariot wheels, and the roll of mighty harmonies are heard in the distance, and nearer you come, and nearer still, until the brightness is like many mornings sufTused into one, aud the gates lift and you are inside the amethystine walls, and on the banks of the jasper sea, forever safe, forever free, forovor woll, forever rested, forever united, forever happy. Mothers, dou't i think your little children go alono when they quit this world. Out of your arms into an- J J ' - . i' 5?lic arras. Out of sickness into health. Out | of the cradle into a Saviour's bosom. Not an instant will the darlings be alone between the two kisses, the last kiss of earth and the first kiss of heaven. "Now, angels, do your work!" cried an expiring Christian. Yes, a guardian angel for each one of you. Put yourself now in accord with him. When he suggest the right, follow it. When he warns you against the wrong, shun it. Sent forth from God to help you in this great battle against sin and death, accept his deliverance. When tempted to a feeling of loneliness and disheartenment appreciate the promise: "The angel of the Lord encampelh around about them that fear Him and delivereth them." Ob, I am so glad that the spaces between here and heaven are thronged with these supernaturals taking tidings home, bringing messages here}rolling back obstacles from our path and giving us defense, for terrific are the forces who dispute our way. and if the nation of the good angels is on our side, the nation of bad angels is on the other side. Paul had it right when he said: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities, against Powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." In that awful fight may God send us mighty angelic re-enforcement 1 We want all their wings on our side, all their swords on our side, all their chariots on our side Thank God that those who are for us are mightier than those who are against us! And that thought makes me jubilant as to the final triumph. Belgium, you know, was the battle ground of England and France. Yea, Belgium more than once was the battle ground of opposing nations. It so happens that this world is the Belgium or battle ground between the angelic nations, good and baa Michael, the commander-in-chief on one side; Lucifer, as Byron calls him, or Mephistopheles, as Goethe calls bim, or Satan, as the Bible calls him, the commanderin-chief on the other side. All pure angelhood under the one leadership, and all abandoned angelhood under the other leadership. Many a skirmish have the two armies haa, but the great and decisive battle is yet to be 'jught. Either from our earthly homes or down from our supernal residences, may we come in on the right side; for on that side are God and heaven and victory. Meanwhile the battle is being set in array, and the forces celestial and demoniacal are confronting each other. Hear the boom of the great cannonade already opened! Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Dominations, Principalities and Powers are beginning to ride down their foes, and until the work is completed, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gideon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon!" TMPMANCE. WHEN THE TOPER DRINKS. When days are long or short or hot or cold or wet or dry A fellow for his stomach's sake should take a little rye. There's nothing when I'm by myself so much of lpnrlQ And nothing suits me better when I'm with a lot oi' friends. I couldn't do without it when I'm feeling lone and sad, And never fail to get it when my spirit's gay and glad. Tn fact while I can keep my feet I tarry at the cup. And then lake just a glass or two to help me sober up. TEMPERANCE WORK IN LUMBER CAMPS. The lumber camps of Wisconsin have been the scene of a remarkable work this season. The State AV. C. T. U. has kept an itinerant missionary constantly in the field and the camps have been supplied with the best of literature, by the various unions throughout the State. Croakers are informed that men-do read with eagerness all that they receive and are grateful for the interest shown in their welfare.?W. C. T. U. Bulletin. TEMPERANCE PROGRESS IN EUROPE. Principal Bancroft, of Phillips Academy, Audover, says in Zion's Herald that temperance principles are making great progress in European countries, that there is a marked increase in the number of gnests at hotels who do not take wine and that the number of students who do not use beer is growing while the number who do not use tobacco is already large. Everywhere the cafe is gaming on the saloon, and in the cafe tea, coffee, chocolate or cream are more likely to be ordered than wine or brandv. A nublic water supply is also being generally introduced, so that travelers now very seldom have the excuse that they must drink wine, the water is so bad. MB. DEPEW ON LIQCOR DRINKING. . Hon. Chauncey M. Depew will scarcely be accused of fanaticism on the question of liquor drinking. Here is Mr. Depew's experience as stated in a speech of his before a company of railroad men: "Twenty-five years ago I knew every man, woman and child in Peekskill. And it has been a study with me to mark boyf who started in every grade of life with myself, to see wbat has become of them. I was up last fall and began to count them over, and it was an instructive exhibit. Some of them became clerks, merchants, manu fact mere, lawyers, doctors. It is remarkable that every one of those that drank is dead; not one living of my age. Barring a few who were taken off by sickness, every one who proved a wreck and wrecked his family did it from rum aud no other cause. Of those who were church-going people, who were steady, -industrious and nardworking men, who were frugal and thrifty, every single one of them, without an exception, owns* l.n,,on m tt-liir.li lm livac nn/1 lilnlll. thing- laid by, theiuterest on which, with his house, would carry him through many a raiuy day. When a man becomes debased with gambling, rum or drink he doesn't care, all his finer feelings are crowded out. The poor women at home are the ones who suffer? suffer in their tenderest emotions; suffer in their affections for those whom they love better than life." PRESIDENT CORBIN'S EDICT. A recent dispatch from Philadelphia says: Not a Reading Railroad man took a drink in the saloons arouud the Ninth and Green street station last night. While crowds passed in and out of the brightly-lighted saloons on the south sido of Green street, a bunch of railroad men stood in front of the depot, talking of President Corbin's proclamation against the "boozers" of the road. President Corbin's edict of the afternoon was a firm one, and stirred up lively talk among the employes. In his order Mr. Corbin said: "All superintendents will be held strictly responsible for the enforcement of the rule relating to the use of iutoxicating liquors by employes. Men who violate it must be ? onrl nTWof that (jruilljjujr uutuai6w., r. a man goes insido a drinking place while on duty will be ample evidence to wan-ant his iminediata dismissal. Men known to drink to excess or to frequent drinking places while off duty must be discharged. When employing new men strict inquiry should be made as to their habits, and preference always given to those who do not use iutoxicating liquors at all. Heads of departments must keep informed as to the habits of the men under them, and make sure that these rules are strictly observed." This order applies to every one in Reading's army of employes, fro'm high officials with big salaries to the flagmen at crossings, and there were many different comments by the employes. "This is a propar order," said a prominent employe at Ninth and Green streets. ''There is an order in the book of rules of the company directed against intemperate employes, and Mr. Corbin is just reminding the division superintendents tuat i 3 rum must be strictly enforced. This is done to save the lives of (ho employes and passengers. while at the same time it saves tho hard earnings of mauy men who otherwise would spend them in saloons. President (,'orbin's positive stand against the drinking habit among employes of tho Reading is said to have been first prompted by observing mazy-minded aud shaky clerks wrestling with columns of liguras. When -Mr. Corbin bccame Fresid nt of the company it was the custom to furnish a free dinner to every clerk in the Fourth street office. When President Corliiu began to cuAail expenses he did away with the dinner, threequarters of an hour was given clerks to go outside of the office and buy their dinners. While out at dinner soni? of the clerks fell into tho habit of driuking, and at. times went back to their desks carrying what is vulgularly called a "load." An order was issued ! forbidding clerks to drink during office 1 hours, but the order of to-day is directed | against all employes of the Reading Railroad ' system. RELIGIOUS READING^" , Zr/Ji IN THE LONG BUN. In the long run fame finds the deserving man; The lucky wight may prosper for a day, But in good time true merit leads the van, And vain pretence, unnoticed, goes itsway; - -gjfl But fortune smiles on those who work ana wait, In the long run. / In the long run all godly sorrow pays; 1 There is no better tiling than righteous pain. The sleepless nights, the awful, thorncrowned day, V'jfri Bring sure reward to tortured soul and brain. Unmeaning joys enervate in the end, But sorrcA* yields a glorious dividend In iheong run. In the long run all hidden things aro known; X The eye of truth will penetrate the night, 1 And, good or ill, thy secret shall be known, However well 'tis guarded from the light; *' All the unspoken motives of the breast Are fathomed by the years, and stand confest In the long run. In the long run all love is paid by love; Though undervalued by the hearts of earth; The great eternal government above Keeps strict account and will redeem its work. Give thy love freely; do not count the cost; So beautiful a thing was never lost In the long run. ?Scleetcd. . 'v5B THE REMEDY. William E. Gladstone says: "If asked what is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human heart?what a man should chiefly look to in his progress through life as the* power that is to sustain him under trials and enable him manfully to confront his afflictions, I must point him to something which, in a well-known hymn, is called, "The old, old story," told of in an old, oid Book; and taught with an old, old teaching, which is the greatest and be3t gift ever given to mankind." """ THE ZEAL THAT TRIUMPHS. The more the Christian comes to understand the full import of the work of miseions, the heavier does the burden lie upon <4* his soul. Under the weight of such a work~32?B it is no marvel that Dr. Fuller, less than a century ago, when repul ed in his begging 1 from door to door for the money with which to send Carey to the heatheu, should retire to weep and pray; as he says, '*1 frequency retired from the more public streets to the back lanes that 1 might not be seen to weep over ray disappointments." The only '" > marvel is that so lew of Christ's followers have the same zeal. Dr. Durpin tells us of ~ '* a Moravian mother- who understood unrisis can ior workers in me wona s harvest: "A friend in much sadnesa said to her, 'Your son is gone.' Thomas gone to Heaven through the missionary life? Would to God that he would 1 call my son John! John went, and di?d. The committee were sad, but the old lady anticipated them, and exclaimed, 'Would that He would call my last son, William!' William went and fell. Then she exclaimed, 'Would that I had a thousand sons to give to God!' " How much are you giving for this work of reconciling the world to i God? All need Christ. God gave Him for | the world. He "tasted death for every man." - H He is the supreme need of every mortal. ia This is a Held where human knowledge I and speculations are of little value, and < J no authority. What God declares we can 1 trust. Bevond that nothine is certain. 'It. ' I is not necessary for us to ju3ge the heathen. It is safe for us to expect that the Judge of all the earth will do right; for "God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that fearetn Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." A JUDGE PAYS PRISONER'S FINK. "A criminal was brought before a Scottish judge, charged with a grave violation of the law, the penalty of which was a fine not exceeding ?500, or imprisonment until the fine was paid. As the poor, miserable criminal was brougl t in, he looked at the judge, and at once a bright smile took possession of his hitherto dejected countenance. It was also noticed that as the judge regarded \ the prisoner, a slight flash of recognition craned Us face. From that moment th? prisoner seemed to lose all anxiety. Witness after witness was called, and the case clearly proved, and now it only remained for the judge to pronounce the sentence, yet the prisoner ssemed to have no fear of the result. The judge and he had been old schoolfellows and close companions. The one by his energy had attained an honorable position on the bench, but the other went down step by step in the path of sin until he came to the criminal dock. The prisoner was called, and condemned to pay a fine of $500 and to be imprisoned until it was paid. As the prisonei heard it, he murmured, 'My old friend does not know me.' The officers remcvedhim, and as soon as he was gone the judge said to *Via Aiif fUn n?ic/tn. lilt liCIA Ui lliC tuuiif uuv buy piwmr er's discharge; I will pay the fine.' He paid when the day's busings was finished, and then he hastened alter his old friend, and, seizing him by the hand, said,'0,Donald!'? and there was tenderness in his voice as be continued?'when I was on the bench I was the representative of the law and must bt just, but here is your discharge; I have paid the fine. Come home with me till I can see what can be done for yon.' Sinners, if we stand before the law we must be condemned. God must condemn sin, but He has found a substitute, even Jesus Christ 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth'in Him should not parish, but have everlasting life.' " A FALLACY. We were earnestly remonstrating with a friend who had been brought under deep conviction of sin, on her intended participation in a certain very common bit of worldliness, for the sake of which she was poing to absent herself from the meetings in WHICH sue xiau uecuiue luicicatw IV! uvi B salvation. We tried to point out two things I to her. First, the folly of trifling witn I the work of the Holy Ghost in her soul; I and second, the sin of doing the M thing she was proposing to do. To the lattei -JM of which she replied: "But 1 am not siChristian yet. 1 admit that it would be a sin for me to engage m the affair if I were a Christian. After I become a Christian, I know I will have to give it up and many more things like it; but I thought so long as I was not a Chr stian it would not be a s!n." We are sure that many others are indulging in this kind of sophistry. It is a devil's lie. Sin is sin. Worldliness is sin whether n indulged in by sinners or professors of re- * ligion. It is a dreadful thing for Christians to be foui.d practicing the sins of the worldlings rs so many of them freely do; but it is none the less for a sinner to go on sinning. What a monstrous delusion sin is. How desperately wicked and deceitful the human heart is. The whole world lieth in the "wickcd one," and with him they curie be !?? Invp nf flrwl is nnt in them. Let US' utter this solemn warning to young people if any such mrf read this paragiapb, and older people also, that theft is a crime even if it is committed by a professional burglar, no less than if it is committed by a church-member. It is, no doubt, a shocking thing for a confessed disciple of Christ t-) be found defrauding his employer, but it is equally a crime for an unbeliever to do so. What an outcry is made when a Christian is found committing sin. Yet the act is not sinful because it is done by a Christian. (foil will not tolerate sin in His people?r.or will lie tolerate it in unbelievers. Sin is sin by whomsoever it is committed, nnd f?n?ivpii or nunished. W'ttoscever , comniitteih'sin is the servant ol aiti.? Ho/as S aii'l Weapon*. H PUBLICAN MORTALITY. The sanitary alitor of the New York In- fl dependent. Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, in a recent article on "The Perils of Occupation," says: H "It might seem some inducement to the publican or barkeeper to forsake his occupa tion when he finds the mortality of those of S his business to be greater than that of any S other class, and pretty closely followed by B| those of out-door occupations, such as calj. H men, who, as a rule, indulge freely iuspirituous and malt liquors."' fl^H Notwithstanding this risk to health and^' life emphasized by life insurance companies, V there seem to be plenty of men to fill the places I made vacant by others as publicans ana bar- H keepers. Many tempted by mouoy and ap- H petite, are ignorant of the peril involved. l?t there l?e light, and more light.?National S Advocate. . ... H