University of South Carolina Libraries
i. IF HSARTS WERE ROSES. tf hearts were roses and life wore spring, How prodigal to the earth we'd fling Our precious prize of the white or re<\? the one for the living, the one for the dead; We'd think 'twere folly to forbear. When roses and spring are everywhere, To grudge to the world this frail, fair thing? U hearts were roses and life were spring. tf hearts were roses, and winter life. How miserly from the world of strife We'd hide our prize of the red or white? t*be cue for bliss and the or.? for blight; For, iaith, we'd think it were ill to spare Such iv tender thing to the piercing air; We'd shield it safe from tho blasts full rife? If l ec~ts were roses and winter life. ?Jdie M. Lipmann, in Travelers Record. fii? TXT? - C O.T T)?J ine SYUOiiig ui LiitJ niuuess. A F.ABBIXICAL LEGEM). Who could be happier than Solomon? His land was at peace; his treasury full; his power acknowledged by the nations; his fleet covered the seas; his court attracted the best and wisest. Learning and science, art and the industries, flourished. Jerusalem, the capital, shone with -unexampled splendor; its Temple and edifices were the glory of the age, and thousands of strangers drew near from all corners ot the earth. Yet Solomon was ill at ease, despite his grandeur. His wisdom, the source of his strength, was also the secret of his weakness. He knew all languages, spoke three thousand proverbs, and sang a multitude of songs. He knew the speech of birds and beasts, and the mystery of frnoc onrl floirprs Tf his knowledge h&d ttvw not passed these limits, all would have been -well, but it transcended things of earth and penetrated tho secrets of the spheres above. It was his familiarity with the stars that gave him poignant unrest. What, then, did the stars tell him? What dreadful catastrophe was Ihieatened his house? Those goldeneved forget-me-nots shining in the firmament of blue so peacefully and trustfulllv, could they presage woe? Solomon was blessed not only with power and wisdom, but algo with a daughter of surpassing loveliness. When the evening shadows fell upon Zion's hills he loved to sing to her his choicest song. In the morning hours his converse with her wa3 his sole recreation. His soul was knitted to hers. She was his inspiration and solace, as was her mother in the days of his youth, when to wed the maiden of his heart ho left throne and people, ana wanaerea, a foot-sore pilgaim, until he met Naama and plighted his troth. The years had passed rapidly since then?as rapidly as the shadow of a bird in flight; but Solomon lived again his old-time romance as he saw Naama's eyes in his daughter's countenance. And the Princess repaid the father's love by a daughter's devotion. - / One evening Solomon was observing the stars the thought occurred to him to discover who- was destined to be the Princess's husband. Long and intently he gazed at the constellations. Silent and profound were his meditations in the watches of the night; and then, just as the first dim light spanned the far east, and the morning stars were singing their " * - * * _ ; craclle-song ior rne new aay, me monarch's heart felt an unaccustomed pang. He read the secret of his daughter's /ate. There it stood blazoned on the fiery constellation?she was to wed the poorest man in Israel!?she, a Psincess, and his daughter! With agonized soul Solomon left his watchtower. For once the rising day possessed no charm for him. Bird-note, flower-fragrance, the music of rippling waters, the magnificence of his surroundings, his books and songs and favorite pastimes, palled upon him. His lovely daughter in vain strove to soothe his disturbed spirit. Each fresh endearment only increased his irritation. Her voice, once so gentle, seemed to him as harsh as the scream of the condor. The maiden's * ^ _ J ? J ? -1 J i nearn was irouoieu xuueeu as sue uuuicu the change in the King, and she withdrew, weeping, from his presence. ,lIt o'hall not be!" Solomon exclaimed. "My daughter wed a beggar! A pauper's child to sit upon the throne of David! Nav, I shall defeat the Almighty. I rial!?" imd there fell a deep silence on his rsrit. A picture from the past arose before his vision. It was a King hurled from his throne on account of his pride, And doomed to wander unknown, and to Buffer severe privations, until he had learned to control himself and trust the Almighty. He saw the ring which he gave Ashmodai, and heard the fierce yell of triumph as the demon ascended the throne, while he?Solomon the Great? sank down, down into an unfathomable abyss. Then another picture arose in memory?the weary fugitive spurned on py* . all sides, famine-stricken and rick at heart, until the lesson of peace was 'r-J- learned. "Forgive me, forgive me, Almighty!" he cried. "Must I learn again the cost of mortal pride? Forgive me for doubting Thy purposes and measuring my puny powers with the Infinite! Let Thy will be done. I shall watch Thy wisdom and ubide by the result. My heart has lost its anguish and its fear." Upon the' rocky sea-coast Solomon had , a lofty tower constructed. Walls high ' and inaccessible surrounded it on all rides. People wondered at the building, ! but Solomon continued the work until it was completed. Thither one night he had the Princess brought, and placed her in charge of seventy aged custodians. "This shall be your home," said he to the eldest and trustiest. It is provisioned for years to come. There is no door to the fortress, so no one can enter without : the sentinel s knowledge. Be vigilant. Your head shall be the price of your remissness !" The days, the weeks, the months flew by. One night a poor traveler was wan- I dering along, tired and hungry, his cloth-> ing tattered, his heart utterly cast down, t At last he could walk no farther, such was his exhaustion, and seeking a spot to rest, he saw the skeleton of an ox in a : neighboring field. . Thankful for the j shelter-from the wind, he crept inside, ! and with a silent prayer to God, fell; asleep. The elements raged without, but j he cared not for the storm. He forgot j his cares and sufferings in blessed, lest- I ful sleep. While the traveler thus slept, all, un- j conscious of what was preparing for him, | a huge bird with mighty pinions j alighted from the distant hills, and lift- j ing up the skeleton with the youth at I rest, bore them aloft to the very top of Solomon's tower. The burden then proving too heavy, it was set down on &i. . .... the roof before the door of the beautiful Princess. Then the bird flew away with a shrill scream that awakened the young traveler. He arose iu terror, gazed about him, and began to walk up and down the roof, from which he could descry only the rocks below and the clouds about. In the distance he saw the fastdisappearing pinions of the bird that had brought him there, and o sharp pang smote his heart as the full measure of his wretchedness was realized. Suddenly he descries a woman advancing toward him. She is young and beautiful, and with a commanding air, yet gracious and kind. It was the Princess taking her daily stroll on the roof, whe, astonished at the sight of the youth, exclaimed: "Who art thou? How earnest thou here?'' "I am a Jew of Acco," was the reply. "It was a bird that brought me." "But you are tired and tattered," she continued. "Your face bears the marks of misery. You look troubled and suffering. Come, tell me your history." He told her of his wanderings, and how he had. sunt to rest in tne sseiecoa of an ox, and then of his flight through the air. And she listened entranced to his story, admiring his courage and sympathizing with his sorrows. She had him clothed iu new garments. Her servants bathed and anointed him. Then his eyes shone with new radiance and his whole being assumed a lovelier aspect. As they spoke aud strolled together kindred tastes were revealed. For the first time the Princess realized the beauty in her fathers words which he had written decades before: "My friend i3 mine and I am his," while the youth, as he contemplated the solitary tower and the imprisoned maiden, exclaimed with Solomon: "A lock-up garden is my sisterbride, alocked-up spring, a sealed fountain!". The north wind blew and the south wind blew. They loved, for both were beautiful to each other, and the world was before them. What should they do? I Fly and seek happiness in some distant er?r?f fnr nw?v from the TCin/r? "Nay, nay, beloved!" she exclaimed. "My father's wisdom would discover our hidng-place, and his chieftain Benaiah would drag us back to Jerusalem." "There is one resource, dearest," he rejoined, after a pause. "Marry me here." "Marry you? Yes, that I will; but how can we marry according to the law of Israel? Wnerc is the ink with which to write the marriage certificate?" "Despair not, beloved. I am prepared for every emergency." He bared his arm, and opening a small vein, used his blood as ink, and the marriage was secretly solemnized, with the words: "May God be my witness to-day, and the angels Michael and Gabriel." Their spell of happiness was brief. The custodians of the Princess were thrown inlo the wildest consternation when they discovered what had taken placc. They stormed, they raged they threatened. But it was too late to arguo with the pair. No more time was to be ljst, so they hastily sent the swiftest footed of their number to the royal pal- I - ? ? wrftfl OAAVt fAl/1 UL'tTj it LIU. IUC oixjij jiao ovvu wiu* Solomon at once ordered his mantle to be brought. It was of green silk, interwoven with fine gold aud embroidered with images of all kinds. He sat upon it, and swiftly was borne on the wind to the solitarry tower. "Where is the youth," he cried, as he gained entrance, "who has dared marry my daughter?'' "Nay, father," the Princess pleaded, "be not angry with him. Reproach me, but spare him, for love is our master, and thou didst write in thy 'Song of Songs,' 'love is as strong as death.'" "So thou art the man who has presumed to marry a Princess!" he exclaimed, scornfully, a3 the youth was brought to him. "O King, be not too severe. I but nkrtTTarl r\f ft/\1/\mrvn 'Mq7\TT UUCJVU bUW nuiUiJ v/* WUIV4UVU t I waters are not able to quench love, nor can the rivers flood it ?way.' " "Who is thy father, and where thy dwelling place?" inquired the King. "I am the son of a poor Jew of Acco," was the answer. "Altamar is his name." And the youth's heart grieved as he' thought of his family's poverty. "WhatI" quickly rejoined the King. "The son Altamar of Acco, the poorest man in Israel?" "Yes, 0 King;" and the youth trembled, but regained his courage as he saw the Princess step forward and take her place proudly at 'lis side. "He is my husb?id," she exclaimed, according to the laws of Israel. With his blood he has sealed out troth." "He is indeed thy hu3band and my son" said Solomon, beckoning both to V*Jo fKronft UTKnti nrf fVi o ap^iwa^u mo buiiruu* xuvu MAW VUU very man who the stars told me was destined for my daughter. Thy name, thy lineage, thy estate proclaim thee the same. God is the ruler of the universe. Blessed is He whogiveth a wife to man." ?Harper's Bazar. Tennis in the Far West. "I am suffering a great deal of anxiety for our fence up in Virginia City during all these terrible storms," said the Colonel to a San Francisco Examiner man. "What fence?" asked the Major. "Our lawn-tennis fence," explained the Colonel. "You see, we have a fine court up on A street and there's a fence thirty feet high on the west side of it." "What in the name of reason do you want such a fence as that for? Why, it's as high as the one out at Woodward's Gardens." "Higher, at first it was only five feet high, but there was no protection in that at all. The boys would sit a few feet away on the side of Mount Davidson and guy us in our leggings and blazers and flannel shirts and things. Then we raised hpr five fept. and the hrwa rp<ipntpd t.hafc. They retired up the mountain side a little to a commanding position and began to peg rocks at us. We called in the police and that put the reporters onto us, and when we turned out next time in all our glory there were 300 men up on the hill to help the boys make our lives miserable. "So we kept sticking five feet'at a time on to that fence till wo drove the boys practically out of range. It is only occasionally now that a rock hits us, and that must be thrown by a man. The thing got so hot at one time that the Grand Jury threatened to indict the whole tennis club." "What for?" "For conduct calculated to excite riot and tumult. There's a prejudice against refined amusements on the Comstock." "Well," said Major Whiting, "it's lucky for you, Colonel, that you didn't i open such a game as that down in my town of Tombstone. You wouldn't have got off with rocks. You'd have been hunted with guns like jack-rabbits." KEV. DB. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "A Dead Lion." Text: 11A living dog is better than a dtacl Eccles. ix., 4. The Bible is the strangest, the loveliest, the mightiest, the weirdest, the best of books. Written by Moses the lawyer, Joshua tha soldier, Samuel the judge, Ezra the builder, Job the poet, David the shepherd, Daniel the prime minister, Amos t'-ie herdsman, Matthew the custom house officer, Luke the doctor, Paul the scholar, John the exile;and yet a complete harmony from the middle verse of the Bible, which is the eighth verse of the one hundred and seventeenth Psalm, both ways to the upper and lower lids, and from the shortest passage, which is the thirty-fifth verse of the eleventh chapter of John, to the longest verse, which is the ninth verse of the eighth chapter of Esther, and yet not an imperfection in all the 773,693 words which it is composed of. It not only reaches over the past, but over the future; has in it a ferryboat, as in second Samuel; *nd ft teteeraDhic wire, as in Job; and a rail road train, as in Nahuin; and introduces ns to a foundryman by the name of Tabul Cain, and a shipbuilder by the name of Noah, and an architect by the name of Aholiab, and tells us bow many stables Solomon had to take care of his horses, and how much he paid for those horses. But few things in this versatile and comprehensive book interest me so much as its apothegms, those short, terse, sententious, epigrammatic sayings, of which my text is one: "A living dog is better than a dead lion." Here the lion stands for nobility, and the dog for meanness. You must know that the dog mentioned in the test Is not one of our American or European or Scottish dogs that, in our mind, is a synonym for the beautiful, the graceful, tho affectionate, the sagacious and the true. The St. Bernard dog is a hero, and if you doubt it, ask the snows of the Alps, out of which he picked the exhausted traveler. The shepherd dog is a poem, and if you doubt it, ask the Highlands of Scotland. The Arctic dog is the rescue of explorers, and if you doubt it, ask Dr. Kane's expedition. The watch dog is a living protection, and if you doubt it, ask ten thousand homesteads over whose safety he watched last nigh*. But Solomon, the author J of my text, lived in Jerusalem, and the dog I he speaks of in the text was a dog in Jerusa- | lem. Last December 1 passed days and nights within a stone's throw of where Solomon wrote this text, and from what I saw of the canines of Jenisalem by day, and heard of " * !"vt T the slight mem uy ui^uu, x uu?v.? appreciation my text puts upon the dog of j Palestine. It is lean and snarly and disgusting, and afflicted with parasites, and takes revenge on the human race by filling the nights with clamor. All up and down the Bible, the most of which was written in Palestine or Dyria, or contiguous lands, the do<* is used in contemptuous comparison. Hazael said: "Is j thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" In self abnegation the Syro-Phoenician woman said: "Even the dogs eat of the j crumbs which fall from the Master's table." Paul says, in Philippians: "Beware of dogs," I and St. John, speaking of heaven, says: "Without are dogs." On the other hand, the lion is healthy, strong, and loud voiced, and at its roar the < forests echo and the mountains tremble. It i is marvelous for strength, and when its hide is removed the muscular compactness is | something wonderful, and the knife of the J dissector, bounds back from the tendons. By | the clearing off of the forests of Palestine j and the use of firearms, of which the lion is j particularly afraid, they have disappeared - K?* I from places wnere onue uuej mu^u, , they were very bold in olden times. They { attacked an army of Xerxes while marching { through Macedonia. They were so numerous that one thousand lions were slain in forty years in th? amphiteatre of Rome.- The Barbary lion, the (Jape lion, the Senegal lion, the Assyrian lion, make up a most absorbing and exciting chapter in natural history. As most of the Bible was written in regions lion haunted, this creature appears in almost all parts of tne Bible as a simile. David understood its habits of night prowling and day slumbering, as is seen from his description: "The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens." And again he cries out, 1'My soul is among lions." Moses knew them and said, "Judah is couched like a lion." Sampson knew them, for he took honey from the carcass of a slain lion. Solomon knew them and says, "The King's wrath is as the roar of a lion," and again, "The slothful man says, There is a lion in the way." Isaiah kuew I them, and says, in the millennium, "The lion shall eat straw like an ox." Ezekiel l .iTko third wns as the Knew mem, uuu say * u? face of a lion." "'Paul knew them, and says. "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Peter knew them, and says, "The devil as a roaring lion walk-eth about." St. John knew them, and says of Christ, "Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah!" Now, what does my text mean when it puts a living dog and a dead lion side bv side, and says the former is better than the latter? It means that small faculties actively used are of more value than great faculties unemployed. How often you see it: Some man with limited capacity vastly useful. He takes that which God has given him and says: "My mental endowment is not !ar;e and the world would not rate me h:gh for my intelligence*, and my vocabulary i; imited, and my education was defective, but here goes what I have for God and salvatioD, and the making of the world good and happy." He puts in a word here and a word there, encourages a faint hearted man, gives a Scripture passage in consolation to some ueren, woman, picks up a child fallen iu the street and help him brush off the dust and puts a five cent piece In his hand, telling him not to cry, so that the boy is singing before he gets round the corner; waiting on everybody t that has a letter to carry or a message to ' deliver; comes into a rail train, or stage coach, or depot, or shop, with a smiling face that sets everybody to thinking: "If that man can, with what appears small equipment iu life, bo happy, why canuot I, possessing far moi'e than be has, be equally happy?" One day of that kind of doing things may not amount to much, but forty year's of that?no one but God Himself cau appreciate its immensity. There are tens of thousands of such people. Their circle of acquaintance is small. The man is known over at the store. He is clerk or weigher or drayman, and he is known among those who sit uear him clear back in the church under the galleries, and at the ferry gates where he comes in knocking the snow from his shoes, and threshing his arms around his body to revive^ circulation, on some January morning. But if he uhouia die to-morrow there would not be a hundred people who would know about it. He will never have his name in the newspapers but once, and that will be the announcement of his death, if some one will pay for the insertion, so much a liuo for the two lines. But he will come up gloriously on the other side, and the God who has watched him all through will give him a higher seat and a better mansion and a grander eternity than many a man who had on earth, before his name, the word honorable, and after his name LL.D. aud F. R. S. Christ said in Luke, the sixth chapter, that in heaven some who had it hard here would laugh there. And I think a laugh of delight and congratulation will run around the h<. .venly circles when this humble one of whom 1 spoke shall go up and take the preccdence of many Christians who in this world felt themselves to be of ninety-nine per cent, mora importance. The whisper will go round the galleries of the upper temple: "Can it be possible that that was the weigher in our store?" "Can it be possible that that was the car-driver on our street?'' "Can it be Rosstble that was the sexton of our church?" Can it be possible -hat is the man that heaved coal into pur cellar?" "I never could have thought it. What a reversal of things I We were clear ahead of him on eartb, but he is clear ahead of us in heaven. Why, we had ten times more brains than he had, we had a thousand times more money than he had, we had social position a mile higher than he had, we had innumerable opportunities more than he had, but it seems now that he accomplished more with his one talent than we did with our ten;" while Solomon, standing among the thrones, overhears the whisper, and sees the wonderment, and will, with benignant and all-suggestive smile, say, "Yes, it is as I told the world many centuries ago?bett^F is small faculty actively used than great talent unemployed, 'better is a living dog than a dead lion.'" r The simple fact is that the world has been, and the world is now, full of dead lions. , i- . .. v ' v'.V *- ' / ,-^v a / They are people of great capacity ana large opportunity, doing nothing for tha improvement of society, nothing for the overthrow of evil, nothing for the salvation of souls. Some of them are monetary lions. They have accumulated so many hundreds of thousands of dollars that you can feel their tread when they walk through any street or come into any circle. They can by one financial move upset the money market. Instead of | the ten per cent, of their incomo vmnra vav j Bible lays down as the proper proportion of their contribution to the cause of God, they I do not give five per cent., or three per cent., or two per cent., or one per cent, or a half per cent., or a quarter per cent. That they are lions, no one doubts. When they roar, Wall street, State street, Lombard street and the Bourse tremble. In a few years they will lie down and die. They will have a great funeral; ana a long row of fine carriages, and mightiest requiems will roll from the organ, and polished shaft of Aberdeen granite will indicate where their dust lies, but for all use to the world that man might as well have never lived. As an experiment as to how much he can carry with him, put a ten cent piece in the palm of his dead hand, and five years after open the tomb, and you will find he has dropped even the ten' cent piece. A lion! Yes, but a dead lion! He left all his treasures on earth, and has no treasures in heaven. What shall the stone cutter put upon the obelisk over hrn? I suggest, let it be the man's name, then the date of his birth, then the date of his Heath than tha aDDronriate Scripture | passage: 'Better is a living dog than a dead I lion." But I thank God that we are having just , sow an outburst of splendid beneficence that ts to increase until the earth is girdled with it. It is spreading with the sp^ed of an epidemic, but with just the opposite effect of an epidemic. Do you not notice how wealthy men are opening free libraries and building churches in their native village? Have you not seen how men of large means, instead of leaving great philanthropies in their I wills for disappointed heirs to quarrel about and the orphau courts to swamp, are becoming their own executors ana administrators? After piloting aside enough for their families (for "he that provideth not for his own, and especially those of his own household, is worse than an infidel"), they are saying: "What can I do, not after I am dead, but while living and in full possession of nay faculties, to properly direct the building of the churches, or tho hospitals, or the colleges, or the libraries that I design for the public welfare, and while yet I nave full capacity to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the good accomplished?" There are bad faaV onyl rrnnrl fa ch inn a anrl whether ZOOd or bad, fashions are mighty. One of the good fashions novr starting will sweep the earth?the fashion for wealthy men to distribute, while yet alive, their surplus accumulation. It is being helped by the fact that so many large estates have, immediately after the testator's death, gone into litigation. Attorneys with large fees are employed on both sides, and the case goes on month after month, and year aCter year, and after one court decides it ascends to another court and is decided in the opposite direction, and then new evidence is found, and the trials are all repeated. The children, who at the father's funeral seemed to have an uncontrolable grief, after the will is read go into elaborate process to prove that the father was crazy, and therefore incompetent to make a will; and there are men on the jury who think that the fact that the testator gave so much of his money to the Bible society, and the missionary society, or the opening of a free library is proof positive that he was insane, and that ne knew not what he was signing when he subscribed to the words: "Inthe name of God, amen. I, being of sound mind, do make this my last will and testament." The torn wills, the fraudulent wills, the broken wills have recently been made such a spectacle to angels and to men that all over the land successful men are calling in archi UCVta UUU OHJIUg W VUW1M* ? ? would it cost for me to build a picture gallery for our town?" or, "What plans can you draw me out for a concert ball?' or, "I am specially interested in 'the incurables,' and how large a building would accommodate three hundred of such patients?" or, ''The church of God has been a great help to me all my lite, and I want you to draw me a plan for a church, commodious, beautiful, well ventilated, and with plenty of windows to let in the light; I want you to get right at work in making out plans of such a building, for, though I am well now, life is uncertain, and before I leave the world I want to' see something done that will be an appropriate acknowledgment of the goodness of (rod to me and mine: now when can I hear from you?" Iu our own city we have many examples of this. What a grandeur of beneficence has our fellow citizen, Mr. Pratt, demonstrated, building educational institutions which will put their hands on the Nineteenth century, aud the Twentieth century, and all the centuries I All honor to such a man! Do not say so when he is dead, say it now. It would be a good thing if some of the eulogies we chisel 011 tombstones were written on pa4)sr in time for the philanthropists to read them white I yet they are alive. Liess pose morieai yi aisv, and more ante-mortem; A poor Scotch lad came to America at twelve years of age, and went to Pittsburg. He looked around for work, and became an engineer in a cellar, then rose to become a telegraph messenger boy, then ros3 to a position in a railroad office, then rose to a place in a telegraph office, then rose to be superintendent of a railroad, then rose till he became an iron and steel manufacturer, then rose until he opened free libraries in his nat've land and last month a free library in Allegheny City, and now offers two million dollars for a free library in Pittsburg. This example will be catching until the earth is revolutionized. How majestic such men in comparison with some I wot of, who amas3 wealth and clutch it with both hands until death begins to feel for their heart strings, and then they dictate to an attorney a last will and testament, in which they spite some daughter because she married against ber father's * - ? ] wish, ana mng a iew crusss u? uou suffering humanity, as much as to say: '"I have kept t'xis surplus property, through all these severe winters, and through all these long years, from a needy and suffering world, and would keep it longer if I could, but as I must give.it up, take it, and much good may it do you!" N<?w w?.begin to understand the text: "Better is a livmg dog than a dead lion.7' ^ | Who would attempt to write the obituary of the dead lions of commerce, the dead lions of law, the dead lions of medicine, the dead lions of social influence? Vast capacity had they, and mighty range, and other men iu their presence were as powerless as the antelope or heifer or giraff* when from the jnngle a Numidian lion springs upon its prey. But they get through with life. They lav down in their magnificent lair. They have made their last sharp bargain. They have spoken their last hard word. They have committed their last mean act. When a tawny inhabitant of the desert rolls ove:' helpless, the lioness and whelps fills the air witli shrieks and howls, and lash themselves into lamentation, and it is a genuine grief for the poor things. But when this dead lion of monstrous uselessnes3 expires, there is nothing but dramatized woe, for "Better is a living dog than a dead lion." My text also means that an opportunity of the living present is better than a great opportunity passed.. We spend much of our time in saying. "If I only had." We can all look back and see some occasion where we might have done a great deed, or might have effected an important rescue, or w? might have dealt a stroke that would have accomplished a vast result. Through stupidity or lack of appreciation of the crisis, or through procrastination, we let the chance go bv. Jtiowmucu time we nave wastea in thinking of what we might have said or might have done-1 We spend hours and days ana years iu walking around that dead lion. We cannot resuscitate it. It will never open its eyes again. There will never be another spring in its paw. Dead as any feline terror of South Africa, through whose heart thirty years ago Gordon Gumming sent the slug. Don't let us give any more time to the deploring of the dead past. There are other great opportunities remaining. They may not be as great, but they are worthy our attention. Small opportunities all around, opportunities for the saying of kind words ana doing of kind deeds. Helplessness to be helped. Disheartened ones to be encourged. Lost ones to be found. Though the present may be insignificant as compared with the past, ' Better is a living dog "than a dead lion. The most useless and painful feeling is the one of regret. Repent of lost opportunities we must, and get pardon we may, but regrets weaken, dishearten and cripple for future work. If a sea Captain who once had charge of a White Star steamer across the Atlantic Ocean, one foggy night runs on a rock off Newfoundland, and passengers and ship perish, shall he refuse to take command at a email boat up the North River, and say: 1 "I never will go oil the water again unless I can run one of the White Star line:'' Shall the engineer of a lightning express, who at the station misread the telegram of the train dispatcher and went into collision, and for that has been put down to the work of ' engineering on a freight train, say: "I never will again mount an engine un- , less I can run a vestibule express?" Take what you have of opportunity left. Do youi? , b&3t with what remains. Your shortest winter day is worth more to you than can be the longest day of a previous summer. Your opportunity now, as compared with previous opportunities, may be small as a rat terrier compared with the lion which at Matabosa, ( fatally wounded by the gun of David Liv- ' ingstone, in its death agony leaped upon the missionary explorer and with its jaws crushed the bone of his arm to splinters, and then rolled over and expired, but, '-Better is a living dog than a dead lion." j My text also meaus that the condition of the most wretched man alive is better than # that of the most favored sinners departed. * I The chance of these last is gone. Where they [ are they cannot make any earthly assets available. After Charlemagne was dead be ' was set in an ornamented sepulcher on a golden throne, and a crown was put on his cold brow, and a scepter in his stiff hand, but that gave him no dominion in the next world. One of the most intensely interesting things I saw last winter in Egypt was Pharaoh of olden times, the very Pharaon who oppressed the Israelites. The inscriptions on his sarcophagus and the writing on his mummy bandages prove bevond controversy that he was the Pharaoh of Bible times. 1 All the Egyptologists and the explorations ? aM cnAiin/fpol himaolf vuaw aw la uio v/iu owuuvww* ^ visible are the very teeth with which hi flashed against the Israelitish brick makers. here are the sockets of the merciless eyes with which he looked upon the overburdened people of God. There is the hair that floated in the breeze off the Red Sea. There are the very lips with which he commanded them to make bricks without straw. Thousands of years afterward, when the wrappings of the mummy were unrolled, old Pharoah lifted up his arm a3 if in imploration, but his skinny bones cannot again clutch his shattered sceptre. He is a dead lion. And is not any man now living, in the fact that he has op portunity of repentance and salvation, better off than any of those departed ones who, by authority or possessions of influence, were positively leonine, and yet wicked? What a thing to congratulate you on is your life! Why, it is worth more than all the gems of the universe kindled into one precious stone. I am alive! What does that mean? Why, it means that I still have all opportunity of being saved myself and helping others to be saved. To be alive! Why. it means that I have yet another chance to correct my past mistakes and make sure work for heaven. Alive, are we? Come, let us celebrate it by new resolutions, new self examination, new cunsecrauuu auu a ucn career. The smallest and most insignificant to-day is worth to us more than five hundred yesterdays. Taking advantage of the present, let us get pardon for all the past and security for all the future. Where are our forgiven sins? I don't know. God don't know either. He says: "Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more." What encouragement in the text for all Christian workers I Despair of no one's salvation. While there is life there is hope. When in England a young lady asked for a class in a Sunday-school, the superintendent said, "Better go out on the street and get your own class." She brought in a ragged and filthy boy. The superintendent gave him good apparel. In a few Sundays h< absented himself. Inquiry discovered that in a street fight he had his decent apparel torn off. He wa3 brought in and a second time respectably clad. After a few Sundays . he again disappeared, and it was found that 1? ?? an/1 orrafolin^ ''Thftn " I Lie vras agaiu la^gcuauu utvwuwu. said the teacher, ,lwe can do nothing with him." But the superintendent fitted nim up again and started him again. After awhile the gospel took hold of him and his heart changed. He started for the ministry and became a foreign missionary, and on "heathen grounds lived and translated the Scriptures, and preached, until among the most illustrious names of the chnrch on earth and in heaven is the name of glorious Robert Morrison. Go forth and save the lost, and remember however depraved, however ragged, and however filthy and undone a cnild is, or a man is, or a woman is, thay are worth an effort. I would rather have theii opportunity than any that will ever be given to those who lived in magnificent sin and splendid unrighteousness and then wrap their gorgeous tapestry around them and without a prayer expired. "Better is a living dog than a dead lion. In the great day it will ba found that the last shall be first. There are in the grog shops and in the haunts of iniquity to-day those who will yet be models of holiness and nraach Christ to the DeoDle. In vonder erouo of young men who came here with no useful purpose, there is one who will yet live for Uhrist and perhaps die for him. Iu a pulpit stood a stranger preaching, and he said: "The last time I was in this church was fifte3n years ago, and the circumstances were peculiar. Three young men had come expecting to disturb the service, and they had stones in their pockets which they expected to hurl at the preacher. One of the vounz men reterrea to refused to take part in the assault, and the others, in disgust at his cowardice, left the building. One of the three was hanged for forgery. Another is in prison, condemned to death for murder. I was the third, but the grace of God saved me." My hearers, give no one up. The case may seem desperate, but the grace of God likes to undertake a dead lift. I proclaim it this day to all the people?Free uracel _Living and dying, be that my theme?r ree lirace! Sound it across the continent, sound it across the seas?Free Grace! Spell out those words in flowers, lift them in arches, build them in thrones, roll them in oratorios?Free Grace! That will yet Edenize the earth and people heaven with nations redeemed. Free G race Salvation! Oh, the joyfu! sound, 'Tis pleasant to oar ears. A sovereign balm for every wound, A cordial for our fears. Buried in sorrow ar.d in sin At death's dark door we lay. But we arise by grace divine To sea a heavenly day. During the season of. 1889 a mosf remarkable crop was raised by David Drew, at Plymouth, N. H. In 1888 Mr. Drew came into possession o] some corn grains found wrapped with a mummy in Egypt, supposed to b6 4,000 years old. These were planted and grew. It had many of the characteristics of real corn; the leaves were alternate; it grew to be over six feet high; the mid-ribs were white; but the product of the stock, there is where ! the curious part comes in. Instead ol growing in an ear like modern maize, it liung in heavy clusters at the top, i on spikelets; there was no tassel, no 1 silk, each sprig was thickly studded | with grains, each provided with a separate husk, like wheat grains. ?_ I The more nervous tne temperament 1 the more sleep is required. Sleep is \ better than any stimulant. If all those J who work mentally would take time in the middle of the day, say for half an hour, and would accustom themselves i to go to sleep, they would find that J they would wear better, last longer < and do their work much better. Sleep , is a remedial agent. Brain workers ] require more sleep than physical work- ' ers. They should go to sleep at tea o'clock at night and should have their breakfast at eight. Tennysox wrote not long ago in a letter, sent on the occasion of the sudden death of a Methodist minister on his way to chapel in the Isle of Wight: "I cannot but look upon his death as a I happy one?sudden, painless, while he was on his way to his chapel to rendet thanks and praise to his Maker. Oui liturgy prays against sudden death; but I myself could pray for such a death as Isaac Porter's." .-i; .. . . RELIGIOUSJEADING. ALL THINGS NEW. Old sorrows that sit at the heart's sealed gate, Like sentinels grim and sad, While ont in the night-damp, weary and late, The Kin? with a gift divinely great, Is waiting to make us glad. Did fears that hang like a changing cloud Over a sunless day; Old burdens that keep the spirit bowed. Old wrongs that rankle and clamor loud, Shall pass like a dream away. [n the world without aid the world within He maketh the old things new; The touch of sorrow, the stain of sin, Shall flee from the gate when the King comes in, From the chill night's damp and dew. Anew in the heavens the sweet stars shine, On earth new blossoms spring; The old life lost in the life divine, "Thy will be mine, my will be thine," Is the song which the new hearts sing. ?Mary Lotoe Dickinson, in Union Signal. "LOOKINQ r.TTO JE3173." We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that Rives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by "looking unto Jesus." Keep* Hilno axr?% oi'mnlw nn TJtm lot- Mia /loafIt Hi<t sufferings. His'merits, Hi* glories, His intercessions be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest In the morning, lo&k to Him; when thoa liest down at night, look to Him. Oh! let not thy hones or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after Him, and He will never fail thee.? fipurgeon. AN EVER-PRESENT SAVIOR. ' Lo! I am with you alwav, even unto the end of the world," said the Master, in the hour when the cloud r ce'.ved Him out of the sight of His grieving disciples. The promise has been ever since in daily process of fulfilment. To hundreds and thousands of His dear children and servants Jesus is more really present ev<?ry day than he could be were He in the flesh, domiciled in some great city or palace of the world, or dwelling in some temple flaming with precious stones or Rold. This is not difficult to understand. It is a fact of our conscious experience, and it is paralleled by experiences in and upon the lower atmospheres and planes of human friendships. Often a human friend is as present with us in absence, by memory, by letters, and by the potential influence of his character, as are those who sit with us at the family table. T.ofr. na frtr tr* rofilirA ?n fhp rnmino VPflP more vividly thau ever the presence of the Lord. SENSIBLE WORDS. The best antidote to all dangerous places and pleasures is to find safe ones. Where and what are tney? A who'esome home, of course, stands first. As long as you are tethered there, you may live in happy ignorance of manifold things which a pure heart should not wish to kr.ow; for blessed is the youth who does not know too much. No matter how plain or cheap your boardingquarters may be, ray young friend, if you have plenty of good books, you may spend many an evening in company fit for a King. Secure a ticket in a public library, and then bring to your room such authors as you can afford to be intimate with. Shun every book that stirs lewd passion, or that shakes your faith in your mother's God, as you would shun a rattlesnake. Some of the best educated men?Horace Greeley, for example?never went to college; but they had eyes in their head, and books well stud ed brought a university up into their scantily furnished rooms. Don't <isk to be everlastingly amused, it is the mark of a baby mind when a voune man cares for nothing but fun and frolic.?-Dr. T. L. Cu'jler. THE ATONEMENT. Dr. Joseph Parker of the City Temple, London, has recentlv made this fresh de liverance of his views concerning the Atonement. We quote from the British Weekly: "I have no theory of the atonement?no mere philosophy of it?no narrow sectarian conception. I only feel that I need it all. I have sinned enough to need the whole cross. No fine character in history can help me. My case goes infinitely beyond the reach of mere ethical example, how sublime soever it may be. I need my Savior. I need his precious blood. If I had sinned less, I might have nee led it less. But ray soul has wholly lost itself in sin,and therefore it cries out for more than an examplar, more than a teacher, more than a sympathizer; it cries in bitterest distress for One who did something for me which I could never do for mvself. I trust we shall be able to discuss all these subjects in their own sacred and tender spirit. Soul shW.d speak to soul in the confidence of truest love. We should speak one to another so that the Lord Himself migh. hearken and hear, and love us the more because of our reverence and teachableness. Calvary will be to us what we are to Calvary. I cannot but feel that personal testimony should occupy a place in every large discussion of the work of Christ. I have given mine. Christ could never be to me what He is as a teacher, were He not first, what He is as a Saviour. His example, lived within a short period, and inclose 1 by peculiar conditions, would be pointless?would, indeed, . 1 e l_f. Hitf fnr ue a mucker) Ul uuuiaii nwoauww .W* the eternity which surrounds it, glorifies it, and makes it unique in aspect and in inspiration. IX TIME OF NEED. How many hearts will respond to the following simple words of Dr. J. R. Macdulfl They are taken from a little volume of his called Ripples In the Twilight: Yes, you may ij> without your Bible9 in tjig heyaav of prosperity; th? shines, ana the birds sing, and no? if prefctn ruffles the surface of your su nnier sea. You m.y then possibly afford to rest sati-fied with barren theoretic views, or the chill of skeptic creed?to regard the Sacred Oracles as tne effete record of a by-gone economyantiquated sophistries?some writings of Palestine peasants and fishermen which the superstition of an after age has palmed upon a too creduloua world. But wait till the sky is c'o-jded, and the wind moans, and the hurricane of trial is let loose; and where are you without these discredited pages then? No poetry, no philosophy can hush the soriows, and satisfy the yearnings of the crushed and broken spirit, as that Book of books has done. When no other panacea is of any avail, it has put courage into fainting hearts, and Seace into troubled hearts, and hope into espairing hearts. Greece and Rome! Socrales, Cicero and Plato! You have, we illow, served us heirs to many golden maxims?beautiful fantasies which read pleasingly in the sunshine, lulled by the ripples of the brook and the music of the grove?life all ecstasy and rapture. But for the soul which, in its hour of bitter desolation craves for realities, com mend me to the Psalms of David and tne promises of Isaiah?above all, to the living, loving balm-words of Him who said, 'Come unto me all ye that labor, and are ieavy laden, and I will give you rest." Every other world oracle is a Delphic one. rt is either dumb, or its utterancfs are perplexing. dubious, misleading. But ''Thy lestimonies are very sure." "The Word of the Lord is tried." "This is my comfort in tuine affliction, for thy Word hath quickined me!" "Read, read the Bible," said William Wilberforce on his death-bed. 'Through all my perplexities and d!stresses [ never read anv other book, and I never eel the want of any othe appalling statistics. "Statistics may not be interesting but they are sometimes serious"?appalling are these from a recent paper by G. S. Gritfeth, President of the Maryland Prisoner's Aid Society: "During the past ten years I have kept an accurate account of the number of serious fights, riots, murders, suicides, etc., as reported in our daily press, and it shows that out of 4fi0 cases 32tj were caused by drunkenuess. But the wrecks of sin, made haggard and hideous by this vice, are not confined to men. In our city jail were received during the year 1887, 1530 female prisouers, of whom 190 were committed for assault and larceny, and 1330 for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. The arrests in Baltimore in 1888 numbered 29,789. Of these 18,949 were for 'Qtoxication and disorderly conduct." CURIOUS FACTS. 8 An Altoon* (Penn.) horse received! fl two 1300-volt shocks from a broken wire) 9 and was unhurt. fl In Siam magistrates are said to be the, fl biggest liars and the police the greatesU^^^H thieves in the country. One hundred and twenty walnut trees, fl standing in the forest near Delphi, lad., fl were sold lately for $10,000 V A Boston sufferer from rheumatism! ftj claims to have been cured by carrying an' old electric light carbon in his pocket, j . R At Cherokee, Ga.,a 'squire recently fl united a very young couple. The groom H was eighteen and the bride twelve years fl of age. I There are a dozen factories in Amster* fl dam, Holland, kept night and day mak- fl ing genuine old spoons, knives and forks' fl for foolish tourists. fl Louis Johnson, of Galesburg, I1L, was -".fl attacked in bed by a rat and severely fl bitten. Johnson was exhausted from fl fright the next morning. I fl A shorthand reporter in Placer Coun? fl ty, Cal., charged for punctuation marks fl as if they were words, and the county , fl wants $104.80 refunded. a J-^jfl There are two birds at the London Zoo g that have great reputations as ventrilo quists. One is a crane-like bird called the trumpeter and the other is the emu. I The late Dr. Dollinger, the eminent I scientist, in childhood was able to diatin guish every species of flying insect on tho I wing, and all his pocket-money went to I the book-sellers. The grave of Nathaniel Harrison, tho B ancestor of President Harrison, has been B desecrated by relic hunters. It is located I on the north side of the James Rivee -? Road, near Sunken Meadow, Va. J The Chinese in Saa Jose, Cal.f lease property from a white man for twelreJl^B| months in the year and charge thei^ tenants for thirteen months, there being w this many months in the Chinese year, j At a meeting of a Freemasons' lodge I at Lahore, India, recently, there was only about twenty members present, yet speeches were made in no fewer than six European and seven Oriental languages.' The Zambesi Falls in Southern Africa are thrice as high as those of Niagara, and situated in the midst of glowing tropical verdure. The waterfall, there-} fore, is not open to view, as is its American rival. :h & -V ' v* * ?>5 Flowers are "rented" instead of purchased at Washington, D. C., and a clever florist recently used the same flowers at an early afternoon lunch, at a 5 o'clock tea and at a card reception in the evening. ; :? ? A humpbacked man in Chicago makes a living by selling the time of day. He has a chronometer which is warranted to keep the correct time. He covers a cer- ^ tain district each week, and receives ten cents a visit. . Rev. J. M. Deitzler, of Annville,Penn., pulled from his pocket a $10 bill re cently and threw it into the lire, under the impression that it was a slip of paper containing the numbers of the hymns he had that day announced from the pulpit.' A Pan-Handle engineer discovered a little child seated on a tie against the rail as his train was going into Hartford Ci|;y, Ind. Climbing down onto the . pilot, he succeeded in pushing the little one out of the way ol the engine wit^-^ his foot. The child was unhurt.- > 'To display a diamond properly," says a prominent American jeweler, "it must be worn alone. Few people seem to understand this. If a solitaire is pure it is obvious that if worn next to a ruby it will reflect the hue of th? >1 latter, and thus its value will be obscured." ___ On Turning New Leaves. I Turning new leaves is not always at> tended with the happy results so often read of. The boy who was poking around after hickory nuts, unmindful of the sign ? ,* ; beWaRe Of the bul : " j Would hare been a large man to-day, with whiskers, had he not been so ambitious to turn over new leaves. He turned leaf after leaf, each revealing such hidden treasure that he got excited and let his thoughts winder. He didn't know for many days what planted him over in the middle of the adjoining cornfield. His friends knew it wasjhg _X?ere,9re oJheU^tahceT." > A small boy listened so.attentively to his teacher's remarks on the subject of turning new leaves that she complimented him, and said she hoped he would profit by her suggestions^ He went^tci his qeftt ajd turned over four newTeaveg I rtf vniomr fractions. &nd said to himself: ' 1 < I'll take it eSsy now till the class fl catch u??' but whea^n^^undertook to * explain his ci? class time, is u.v. ? work. The rest of the 7eTlow3 played shinny that night after school, on the ice. He didn't. Another boy was in the tip-top of a cherry tree, well out toward the end of a slender limb." He was timing leaf after leaf in search of fruit pretty well picked beforehand. He was about to come down, "lmt first," - , said, he "I'll turn over one more new v leaf." He reached away out beyond any former attempt, and with the tip end of his finger nail managed to turn one more leaf. Nothing but his grandfather's grindstone prevented his falling to the ground. He struck that, and felt the shock for many a day. These are but a few of the many instances that go to prove, what has been often -asserted, that the best of rules have their exceptions. In turning over new leaves lookout for snakes.?Detroit Free Press. _ A Queer Sheep. George Sevingle, of Stoverton,Ohio, is the owner of a rare specimen 01 tne sheep kind. It has the nose and feet of a dog, but is in all other respects a sheep. Instead of having the ordinary teeth of the sheep species the animal's mouth, both upper and lower jaws, is filled with long and sharp wolf-like fangs, rendering it extremely difficult for it to pick grass like other shcop. It gets its chief subsistence from twigs and young shrubs, the bark and tender wood of which it devours greedily.?St. Louit Republic. An Impromptu. A Miss Wise having married a Mr. f' ! Young, there was born to the couple a son whose resemblance to his mother was thus, says Harper's Monthly, immortalized in rhyme: Yon have your mother's bonny faoe, A joy to all beholders; 4.h, yours should be a winning pace Wao've Wise froad on Young shoulders..