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r:*-^ . BACKLOG DREAMS. Above the glowing embers __ I hear the backlog sing The music it remembers Of some remembered spring; Back to the branch forsaken I Return the jocund choir, And in the chimney wakeu A melody of fire. The sparks' red blossoms glisten And flash their glances brief At me who lean and listen And dream I hear a leaf On some May-morning sunny, Low lisping in thd tree? Or, in his haunt of honey, Abloom-enamoured bee: Or, 'tis the soft wind blowing Its sweetness from the South? A fragrant kiss bestowing Upon the rose's mouth; And ere the spell is broken Or darkness o'er it slips, I see the scarlet token Of love upon her lips. witnout, tne wiuu is uuwr, The snowflakes fill the night; W ithin, the embers glitter And gild the room with light; And in the fireplace gleaming The backlog sings away. And mingles all my dreaming With birds, and blooms, and May! ?Frank D. Sherman, in Scribner. FATALISM. Exquisite, the duck pic that the cook had served that morning for breakfast at the club! Too*exquisite, iu fact, for my friend Robert Mercier and I had made such a hole in it that, on rising from the table, we felt a vague seusation of sleepiness and congestion. "Will you take a walk with me?" asked Robert. "Let us go to my rooms. I want to show you two new pictures." "All right." It was long since I had had an opportunity of an hour's stroll with this good comrade, and it was a source of regret to me. It was but a few years before that he led an outdoor life, and one met him constantly. But suddenly he stopped going to the races, to the theatre, to the club, into society, without any apparent reason to explain this change. I was thinking of these thingsas I walked with him through the Champs-Elysees. It was one o'clock. At that hour of the day it was too late for the riders to be out, and too early for the flow of the elegant society equipages toward the Bois de Boulogne. The cold, deserted avenue had the freezing appearance of some broad country road. Scarcely were there a few cabs here and there, the drivers muffled up in red comforters, with their right hand, which held the reins, thrust iuto their coat. A file of dirt. rarts, loaded with the debris of the Exposition, was passing along. From time i to time, also, some sober and richly | cushioned landau, with a footman on the ] seat, and, inside, the long light hair of j children, and the sharp profile of a gov-: erncss. "We were walking very fast, oppressed . bv the cold, smoking our cigars with j rtrfiid puffs, and not saying much, when ' with a common movement we stopped to ' look at a superb bay cob, harnessed to a tilbury, who was coming in our direc- i tion at a gait that showed supple strength j and perfect rhythm. Just then we were ! opposite the Palaise de l'lndustrie, almost at the corner of the Avenue Marigny. A.t the precise moment when the horse was passing by us, he slipped with all four feet, and fell to the ground heavily. Passers-by came running up. Soon there was a group, talking and gesticulating. At last the horse was extricated, raised up and led away by the bridle. The carriage, one of the shafts of which was broken, was hauled to the nearest carriage-house by a team of officious bystanders, among them, of course, a kitchen maid. As we moved off, I said to my friend: "A fine invention, decidedly,this wooden pavement! At the least frost, the slightest drizzle, these horses are unable to jtanrl luv T hnvft spen snven nr pifrht. accidents myself, on this very spot, within a year."' Robert, turning very pale, answered me in a very strange voice, that was also a little hard: "If so many accidents happen on this ' spot, it is my fault." "Your fault ? You are mad ! " "No: but morally I am innocent." And he continued, for my air of amazement implied all possible interrogations for enlightenment : "Ah, my dear fellow, how Incidents of no apparent importance sometimes upset our whole lives! You must have a9kcd yourself why I have changed my why of liviog. I am going to tell you the story, which has opened my eyes to the invisible world." This phrase, and especially its conclulion, filled me with some anxiety. I Whether it was the duck pie, or the fear ; of seeing Robert go mad, I do not know, but I felt a disagreeable cramp iu my ! jtomach. With wandering eyes and con-' tracted brow he continued: "You remember George Sauviuiere aud his tragic death about two years and a half ago. Ou reachiug home one night, 1 I found a letter iu which he announced to me his intention of killing himself. I immediately hurried to the little hotel in the Hue des Saussaies, a dismal den where he had lived siuce his misfortune. 1 ar- j rived too late; he had hanged himself. , While the servant went iu search of a 1 useless doctor and to notify the police, I remained there, done with the body, which we had stretched upon tiie bed. Around the neck a very slight violet creak, a countenance that was almost nulling, the chin thrown a little forward, vs I took a few steps toward the mauteljce to light two candles, my foot caught the rope that we had cut and thrown . ou the ground. A curiosity seized me - curiosity that was mingled with a .. of timid respcct?to get a closer view, examine and feel this thiui*- that had !ed. It was u curtain cord, covered tii red worsted, and looking harmless ougli; and while I was handling it, linking 'What! it was this!" and tilled with that astonishment which always tomes from finding so paltry and simple the factors of the problem of death, which seems to us so gigantic, there came to my mind that old superstition which makes the rope with which a man has been hanged an infallible talisman of good luck." "Well, you took the rope. But I do not see the relation " "Wait! No, I did not take the rope. The police officer who was coming would ask to see it, and I should blush a little at tills fit of superstition. But I cutoff a little piece of it, two >r three inches in m . length, which, on reaching home, I carefully placed in my pocketbook." "And theu?" "Then, starting from the moment when I had this bit of rope in my pos; session. I began to digest badly, I had I constant nightmares, that took no particular form at first, and then, little by little, became more definite; and every night I again saw Sauviniere, with his little violet streak around his neck. It was dreadful. It came to a pass when I was afraid to go to sleep. I spent my nights in gambling at the club. And wL?t ill luck I had! You can imagine. Finally, I was taken sick. The doctors knew not what to do. You understand, of course, that I was not going to tell them my dreams. You know Marthe, my landlady. One day she told me that her cook knew a certain Saggi. You do not know him? A wonderful man, ray dear fellow, a sorcerer." Robert uttered this word with an indescribable expression of anxious respect. "Then this cook had Saggi consult the cards for her. Marthe wanted to see him and advised me to consult him. Let me t/>ll Ttrvii flint t-hifi Surrori is iistonishino frightfully, even. You have never paid any attention to sorcery?" ' Very little." "You are wrong. You sec, people laugh without realizing that they are playing with terrible things." ''Butthe rope,the rope!" I'cried. "Ah, yes, the rope?lam coming back to it. For a year I studied with Saggi, and all that time misfortune continued to rain upon me. I broke my leg iu falling J from a horse: I quarreled with three old j friends, and was neglected iu the will of i my uncle, who had made me play chess with him twice a week for fifteen years. Everything, in short, everything!" "But the rope! Where did that come in?" "The rope! Exactly; it was the ropel" "What! it brought ill luck?" "Yes, my dear fellow. You would never have believed it. But that's because you do not know. And at that time I "did uot know either. But uow!" And with an air that was at once triumphaut and sorrowful, Robert added: "I was always dreaming of the hanged man. I had a nervous disease. I have it yet, for that matter. Uuablc to stand it longer, I determined to tell all to Saggi, and he explained everything to me. Very bad, my rope! Deplorable! An absolute token of ill luck!" "Oh ho! auother illusion wiped out! Painful, very painful," I said in a conciliating tone. "Do not joke; it is a very serious matter. This was Saggi's explanation. The rope with which a man has been hanged does indeed bring luck, but on the express condition that the man hanged did not commit suicide, but was executed by a public hangman." "Prccious information! But the horse that we saw just now?'' "I am coming to that. The rope that has hanged a suicide brings, on che contrary, ill luck. Enlightened by this re velation, 1 wamcu logei 11a imraeai.nely of the rope which I had been keeping so carefully, and which was unquestionably the cause of all my misfortunes. But how to do it? It was not a thing to be done lightly. The talisman might fall into other hands, and become the misfortune of some one else. In that case the responsibility would be mine, and, you see, nothing obstructs the flow of the fluid portion of the soul like " "Thank you, I prefer to remain in ignorance. But what course did you take?" "I resolved to throw this cursed rope into the water. With that in view I left my house one night, holding the piece of red rope, which seemed to me to have a demoniacal tint. As I was crossing the crossing the Champs-Elysecs, at the place where we just saw the accident, I stumbled into a heap of sand?they were ju3t I then laying the wooden pavement?and fell so awkwardly that I again broke the leg which had suffered by my previous accident. In my fall I dropped the rope. I fainted, they carried me to my house, and I lay there flat on my back for three rv?/\r?fke TPVio rs\r\n romninprl in flip Viftlp "1UUI'U'?- ? - and they laid the pavement over it. And since that time all the horses fall at that spot, and there have been fatal accidents. It is frightful and queer, is it not?" "Terrifying," I said with an air of conviction. "But how about yourself? Have you got rid of your evil genius?" "Oh, you may be sure. I bought the whole rope with which Stramford, the English assassin, was hanged last summer iu London. I went to get it mysell. It cost me dear, but I do not regret it. Now I am in luck. And, in fact, I may announce it to you, I am going to be married."?Five Stories a Week. The Suicide Club. Wendell Baum, the Secretary of that unique organization, the Bridgeport (Conn.) Suicide Club, has fulfilled the membership agreement by killing himcnlf Th?> hi?tr?rir nf Hits .qstnnishinf/' society is one of intense interest to tlie studeut of morbid psychology. Four years ago live citizens of Bridgeport, all Germans, met one day while all were in low spirits, and half in jest organized the Suicide Club. The agreement whs that one member of the club should end his life that year, one the next, aa-l so oa until all were gone. The agreement has thus far been faithfully kept. When the meeting was held in January there were only two members to atteud it, the Secretary aud the President. It w;i3 proposed at this meeting by the Secretary that the President should make away with himself during the year, and the President made the ; same request of the Secretary. ! There beiug no way to settle the quesi tion, it was mutually decided that the ! polls be held open uutil a new member i was pledged and initiated. A letter carrier named May by talked seriously of becoming a member, and the President and Secretary had great hopes of him until one morning it was learned that he I had committed suicide without first join: ing the club. He carried, however, a handsome silk umbrella, which he bequeathed to the Secretary of the club, Bauni, and it was : accepted, but the longer Baum carried ! the umbrella the more unhappy he bei came, and, -when his friends tried to cheer him up, he said: "A cloud hangs i over me. Iam doomed." I Finally he sold his property, turned I the money over to his wife and gave the j umbrella into the charge of a friend, directing that it be sent to the President [ ol the club- He then cut his throat. The President of the club is now the only member left, and another year will show if he keeps his oath.?New Orleans Times-Democrat. REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SIJN DAY SERMON. Subject: "Nature's Voices." Text: "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir tree, the pine tree and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary."?Isa. lx., 13." On our way from Damascus we saw the' mountains of Lebanon white with snow, and the places from which the cedars were hewn and then drawn by ox teams down to the Mediterranean Sea. and then floated in great rafts to Joppa, and theu again drawn by ox teams up to Jerusalem to build Solomon's temple. Those mighty trees in my text are called the '"glory of Lebanon." Inanimate nature felt the effects of the first transgression. When Eve touched the forbidden tree it seems as if the sinful contact had smitten not only that tree, but as if the air caught the pollution from the leaves, and as if the sap nad carried the virus down into the very soil until the entire earth reekei with the leprosy. Under that sinful touch nature withered. The inanimate creation, as if aware of the damage done it, sent up the thorn and brier and nettle to wound and fiercely oppose the human race. Now as the physical earth felt the effects of the first transgression, so it shall also feel the effect of the Saviour's mission. A? from that one tree in Paradise a blight went forth through the entire earth, so from one tree on Calvary another toree shall speed out to mterpenetiate and check, subdue and override the evil. In the end it shall be found that the tree of Calvary has more potency than the tree of Paradise. As the nations are evangelized, I think a corresponding change will be effected in the natural world. I verily believe that the trees, and the birds, and the rivers, and the skies will have their millennium. If man's sin affected the ground, aud the vegetation, and th9 atmosphere, shall Christ's work be bss powerful or less extensive? Doubtless God will take the irregularity and fierceness from the elements so as to make them congenial to the race, yet to be so symmetrical and evangelized. The ground shall not be so lavish of weeds and sogrudgeful of grain. Soifs which now have peculiar proclivities toward certain forms of evil production will be delivered from their besetting sins. Steep mountains, plowed down into more gradual ascent, shall be girdled with flocks of sheep and shocks of corn. The wet marsh shall become the deep grassed meadow. Cattle shall eat unharmed by caverns once haunted of wild beasts. Children will build play houses in what was once a cave of serpents; and, as the Scripture saith: "The weaned child shall put his hand ou the cockatrice's den." Oh what harvests shall be reaped when neither drouth, nor excessive rain, nor mildew, nor infesting insects shall arrest the growth, and the utmost capacity of the fields tor production shall be tested by an intelli gent and athletic yeomanry. Thrift and competency characterizing the world's inhabitants, their dulling places shall be graceful and healthy and adorned. Tree and arbor and grove around about will loo!; as if Adam and Eve had got back to Paradise. Great cities, now neglected and unwashed, shall be orderly, adorued with architectural symmetry and connected with far distant seaports by present modes of transportation carried to their greatest perfection, or by new inventions yet to spring up out of the water or drop from the air at the beck of a Morse or a Robert Fultou belonging to future generations. Isaiah in my text seems to look forward to the future coudition of the physical earth as a condition of great beauty and excellence, and then prophesies that as the strongest and most ornamental timber in Lebanon was brought down to Jerusalem and constructed into the ancient temple, so all that is beautiful and excellent in the physical earth shall yet contribute to the church now being built m the world. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir tree, the pine tree, and ;he box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary." Much of this prophecy has already been fulfilled, and 1 proceed to some practical remarks upon the contributions which the natural world is making to the kingdom of God, and then draw some inferences. The fircf onnfrihiiHftn flint-, nahiro trivos In t.hA church is her testimony in behalf of the truth of Christianity. This is an age of profound research. Nature cannot evade man's inquiries as once. In chemist's laboratory she is put to torture and compelled to give up her mysteries. Hidden laws have como out of their hiding place. The earth and the heavens, since they have been ransacked by geologist and botanist and astronomer, a pear so different from what they once were that they may be called "the new heavens and the new earth." This research and discovery will have powerful effect upon the religious world. They must either advance or arrest Christianity, make men better or make them worse, be the church's honor or tha church's overthrow. Christians, aware of this in the early ages of, discovery, were nervous and fearful as to the progress of science. They feared that some natural law, bafore unknown, would suddenly spring into harsh collision with Christianity. Gunpowder and the gleam of swords would not so much have been feared by religionists as electric batteries, voltaic piles and astronomical apparatus. It was feared that Moses and the prophets would be run over by skeptical chemists and philosophers. Some of the followers of Aristole, after the invention of the telescope, refused to look through that instrument, lest what they saw would overthrow the teachings of that sreat philosopher. But the Christian religion has no such annrphension now. ! Bring on your telescopes and microscopes and spectroscopes?and the more the bettor. The God of nature is the God of the Bible, and in all the universe and in all the eternities He has never once contradicted Himself. Christian merchants endow universities, and in them Christian professors instruct the children of Christian communities. The warmest and most enthusiastic friends of Christ are the bravest and most enthusiastic friends of science. The church rejoices as much over every discovery as tho world rejoices. Good men have found that there is no war between science and religion. That which at first tias seemed to be the weapon of the infidel has turned out to bo "tho weapon of the Christian. Scientific discussions may be divided into those which are concluded, anil those which are still in progress, depending for decision upon future investigation. Those which are concluded have invariably rendered their verdict for Christianity, and we have faith to believe that those which are still in prosecution will come to as favorable a conclusion. The great systems of error are falling before these discoveries. They have crushed everything but the Bible, and that they have established. Mohammedanism and paganism in their ten thousand forms have been proved false, and by great natural laws shown to be impositions. Buried cities have been exhumed and the truth of God fouud written on their coffin lids. Bartlett, Robinson and Layard have been not more the apostles of science than the apostles of religion. The lina ..f fka r^r-??Qmirlc lmvA nnanpil tn preach the Gospelf-7 Expeditions have been fitted out for Palestino, and explorers have come back to say t hat they have tound among mountains and among ruins,and on the shore of waters, living and uudying evidences of our glorious Christianity. Men who have gone to Palestine infidels have come back Christians. They who were blind and deaf to tlio truth at home have seemed to see Christ again preaching upon Olivet, and have beheld in vivid imagination the Son of God again walking the hills about Jerusalem. Caviglia once rejected the truth, but afterward said: "I came to Egypt, and the Scriptures and the pyramids converted me." When I was in Beyrout, Syria, last December, our beloved American missionary, Rev. Dr. Jessup, told me of his friend who met a skeptic at Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem, and the unbeliever said to his friend: "I am going into the Holy Land to show up the folly or the Christian religion. I am going to visit all the so-called 'sacred places' and write them up, and show the world that the New Testament is an imposition upon the world's credulity." Months after Dr. Jessup's friend met the skeptic at Beyrout after he had completed his journey through the Holy Land. "Well, how is it?" said the aforesaid gentleman to the skeptic. The answer was: "I have seen it all, and I tell you the Bible is true I Yes; it is all true!" The man who went to destroy came back t* defend. And what I myself saw during my recent absence. I conclude that any one who can go through the Holy Land and remain an unbeliever is either a bad man or an imbecile. God employed men to write the Bible, but Ha took many of the same truths which they recorded and with His own almighty hand I ? .. > He gouged them into the rocks and drove them down into dismal depths, and, as documents are put in the corner stone of a temple, so in the very foundation of the earth He folded up and placed the records of heavenly truth. The earth's corner stone was laid, like that of other sacred edifices, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The author of revelation, standing among the great strata, looked upon Moses and said: "Let us record for future ages the world's history; you write it there on papyrus; I will write it here on the bowlders." Again, nature offers an invaluable contribution to Christianity by the illustration she makes of diviue truth. The inspired writers seized upon the advantages offered by the natural world. Trees and rivers and clouds and rocks broke forth into holy and enthusiastic utterances. Would Christ set forth the strength of faith, He points to the sycamore, whose roots spread out, and strike down, and clinch themselves amid great depths of earth, and He said that faith was strong enough to tear that up by the roots. At Hawarden, England, Mr. Gladstone, while showing me his trees during a prolonged walk through his magnificent park, pointed out a sycamore, and with a wave of the hand said: ''In your visit to the Holy Land did you see any sycamore more impressive than that?" I confessed that I had not. Its branches were not more remarkable than its roots. It was to such a tree as that Jesus pointed when He would illustrate the power of faith. "Ye might say unto this sycamore tree, 'Be thou plucked up by the root and be thou cast into, the sea,' and it would obey you." One reason why Christ has fascinated the world as no other teacher is b8cau.se instead of using severe argument He was althosa who make great profession of piety, but have: 110 fruit, He compares tuem to oarren fig trees, which have very lar^e and showy leaves, uud nothing but leaves. Would Job illustrate deceitful friendships, he speaks of brooks in those climes, that wind about in different directions, and dry up when you want to drink out of them: "My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away." David when lie would impress us with the despondency into which I12 had sunk, compares it to a quagmire of those regions, through which he had doubtless sometimes tr'ed to walk, but sunk in up to his neck, and he cried: "I sink in deep mire where there is no standing." Would Habakkuk set forth the capiclty which God gives the good man to walk safely amid the wildest perils, hepoint3 to the wild animal called the hind walking over slippery rocks, and leaping from wild crag to wild crag, by the peculiar make of its hoofs able calmly to sustain itself in the most dangerous places: "The Lord God is my strength, and m will make my feet like hind's feet." Job makes all natural objects pay tribute to the royalty of his book. As you go through some chapters of Job you feel as if it were a bright spring morning, and, as you see the glittering drops from the grass under your feet, you say with that patriarch: "Who hath begotten the drops of the dew?" And now, as you read ou, you seem in the silent midnight to behold the waving of a great light upon your path, and you look up to find it the aurora borealis, which Jobdescribed so long ago as "the bright light in the clouds and the sDlendor that cometh out of the north." As you read on, there is darkness hurtling in the heavens, and the showers break loose till the birds fly for hiding place and the mountain torrents in red fury foam over the reeky shelving, and with the same poet, you exclaim: "Whocan number the clouds in wisdom, or who can stay the bottles of heaven?" As you read on, you feel yourself coming in frosty climes, and, in faucy, wading through the snow, comparatively no meat 0:1 their bones. They seemed almost valueless, whether living or dead. Now, argues Christ, if my Father takes care of them, will He not take care of you? Christ wo all have the Christian, despondent over his slowness of religious developement, go to his corn field for a lesson. Ha watches first the green shoot pressing up through the clods, gradually strengthening intoastalk, and last of all the husk swelling out with the pressure of the corn: "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Would David set forth the freshness and beauty of genuine Christian character, be sees an eagle starting from its nest just after the molting season, its old feathers shed, and its wings and breast decked with new down and plumes, its body as fiuely feathered as that of her youn^ ones just beginning to try the speed cf their wings. Thus rejuvenated and replumed Is the Christian's faith and hope, by every season of communion with God. "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Would Solomon represent the aunoyance of a contentious woman's toagu ?. hex rwinfc frt a loilrutra in fr.h** fcnn ftf hi< hflllM or tant, whora, throughout the stormy day, tho water comes through, falling upon tho floor?drip! drip! drip! An-l he says: "A continual dripping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike." "Would Christ set forth the character of ways telling how something in the spiritual world was like unto something in the natural world. Oh, these wonderful "likes'' of our Lord! Like a grain of mustard seed. Like a treasure hid in a field. Like a merchant seeking goodly pearls. Like unto a net that was cast into the sea. Like unto a householder Would Christ teach tho precision with which He looks after you. He says He counts the hairs of your head. Well, that is a long and tedious count if the head have the average endowment. It has been found that if the hairs of the head be black there are about 130,000, or if they be flaxen there are about 140,000. But God knows the exact uuinbar: "The hairs of your head are all numbered/' Would Christ impress'us with the divine watchfulness and care, He speaks of the sparrows that wera a nuisance in those times. They were caught by the thousands in the net. They were thin and scrawny and had you say with that same inspired writer, "Hast thou entered into the treasures of tha snow?" And while the sharp sleet drives in ' J *?-- t?"I ... your iace, anu tucuau ivuig^juui juv? quote him again: "Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?'' Iu the Psalmist's writings I hear the voices of the sea: "Deep calleth uuto deep;" and the roar of forests: "The Lord shakethth.. .rilderness of Kad'sh;" and the loud peal of the black temp.-sr: "The God of glory thundereth;" and the r\stle of the long silk on the well filled 'luski.: "The valleys are covered with corn;" and the cry of wild beasts: "The young lions roar after their prev;" the hum of palm trees and cedars: "Ihe righteous shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Labanon;'' the sough of wings and the swirl of I fins: "Dominion over the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea." The truths of the Gospel might have been presented in technical terms, and by the means of dry definitions, but under these the world wouldnot have listened or felt. How could the safety of trusting upon Christ have beu-u presented, were it not the figure of a rock? How could the gladdening effect of the Gospel have been set forth, had hot Zacharias thought of the dawn of the morning, exclaiming, "The day spring from on ricito^ lie trv crivA lifrhfc to tllftiri that sit in dnrkness." How could the soul's intense longing for Christ have been presented so well as by the emblem of natural huuger and natural thirst? As the lake gathers into its bosom the shadow of hills around, and the gleam of stars above, so, in these great deeps of divine truth, all objects in nature are grandly reflected. We walk forth in the spring time, and everything j breathes of the Resurrection. Bright blos! lom and springing grass speak to us of the coming up of those whom we have loved, when in tne white robes of their joy and coronation they shall appear. And when in the autumn of the yuar nature preaches thousands of funeral sermons from the text, "We all do fade as a leaf," and scatters her elegies in our path, we cannot help but think of sickness and the tomn. Even winter, "being dead, yet speaketh." The world will not be argued into the right. t* w:n ?? illncft.o^'1 l'nhn f.lio riffht J.L Will UU LCI1UOI kj lliuaviuim^ >uWvr ?..v . -0? - Tell them what religion is like. When the mother tried to tell her dying; child what heaven was, she compared it to light. "But that hurts my eyes," said the dying girl. Then the mother compared heaven to music. "But any sound hurts me; lam so w^ak." said the dying child. Then she was told that heaven was like mother's arms. "Oh, take Hie there!" she said. "If it is like mother's arms, take me there!" The appropriate simile had been found at last. Another contribution which the natural world is making to the kingdom of Christ is the defense ana aid which the elements are compelled to give to the Christian personally. There is no law in nature but is sworn for the Christian's defense. In Job this thought is presented as a bargain made between the inanimate creation and the righteous man: "Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field." What a grand thought that the lightnings, and the tempests, and the hail, and the frosts, which are the enemies of unrighteousness, are all marshaled as the Christian's bodyguard. They fight for him, They strike with an arm of Iflre or clutch with their fingers of ice. Everlasting peace is declared between the fiercest elements of nature and the good man. They may in their fury seem to be indiscriminate, smiting down the righteous with the wicked, yet tniiy cannot damage the Christian's &oul, although they may shivel his body. The wintry blast that howls about your dwelling, you may call your brother, and the south wind coming up on a June day by way of a flower garden, you may call your sister. Though so mighty in circumference and diameter, the sun and the moon have a special charge concerning you. "The sun shall not unite thea by day, nor the moon by night." Elements and forces hidden in the earth are now harnessed and at work in producing for you food and clothing. Some grain field that you never saw presented you this day with your morning meal. Th*> greAt earth ana the heavens are the busy loom at work for you; and shooting light, and silvery stream, and sharp lightning are only woven threads in the great loom, with God's foot on the shuttle. The same spirit that converted your soul has also converted the elements fron enmity toward you into inviolable friendship, and furthest star and deepest cavern, regions of everlasting cold as well as climes of eternal summer, all have a mission of good, director indirect, for your spirit. Now I infer from this that the study of natural objects will increase our religious knowledge. If David and Job and John and Paul could not afford to let go without observation one passing cloud, or rift of snow, or spring blossom,you cannot afford to let them go without study. Men and women of God most eminent in all ages for faith and zeal indulged in such observations?Pay son and I Baxter and Doddridge and Hannah More. That man is not worthy the name of Christian who saunters listlessly among these magnificent disclosures of divine power around, beneath and abovo us, stupid and uninstructed. They are not worthy to live in a desert, for that has its fountains and palm trees; nor in regions of everlasting ice, for even there the stars kindle their lights, and auroras flash, and huge icebergs shiver in the morning light, and God's power sits upon them as upon a great white throne. Yet there are Christians in the church who look upon all such tendencies of mind and heart as soft sentimentalities, and because they believe this printed revelation of God are content to be infidels in regard to all that has been written in this great book of the universe, written in letters of stars, in paragraphs of constellations, and illustrated with sunset and thunder cloud and spring morning. I infer, also, the transcendent importance of Christ's religion. Nothing is so far down, and nothing is so high up, and nothing so far out but God makes it pay tax to the Christian religion. If snow and tempest and dragon are expected to praise God, suppose you He expects no homage from your soul? When God has written His truth upon everything around you, suppose you He did not mean you to open your eyes and read it? Finally, I learn from this subject what aa honorable position the Christian occupies when nothing is so great and glorious in nature but it is made to edify, defend and instruct him. Hold up your heads, sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, that I may 1 UA?? UnnAio ThiMiarVl tlrtW 5t5<3 LIU ?V y UU UCai jvui liuuui <?. u v* you may think yourself unbefriendea, this spring's soft wind, and next summer's harvest of barley, and next autumn's glowing fruits, and next winter's storms, all seasons, all elements, zephyr and euroclydou, rose's breath and thundercloud, gleaming light and thick darkness, are sworn to defend you, and cohorts of angels would fly to deliver you from peril, and the great God would unsheath His sword and arm the universe in your cause rather than that harm should touch you with one of its lightest fingers. "As the mountains around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is around about His people from this time forth for evermore." Oh for more sympathy with the natural world, and then we should always have a Bible open before us, and we could take a lesson from the most fleeting circumstances, as when a storm came down upon England Charles Wesley sat in a room watching it through an open window, and, frightened by the lightning and the thunder, a little bird I flow in and nestled in the bosom of the sacred poet, and, as he gently stroked it and felt the wild beating of its neart, be turned to his desk and wrot9 that hymn which will b? sung while the world lasts: Jesus, lover o? my soul. Let me to Thy bosom fly, While the billows near me*roll, While the tempest fitill is high; Hide, me, 0 my Saviour, hide. Till the storm of life be past. Safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last. CURIOUS FACTS. India rubber was discovered in Hayti by Columbus in 1493. The first English book was written by Sir Tnhn Afnnrlfiv-illfi in 1365. i A fashionable drink at night in Paris j is hot boiled milk, sugar and orange l water. I The largest telephone line in the j United States is between Buffalo and I Boston. If you have nothing else to do, see | how fast you can say "Soup soothes theosophists thoroughly." The first vessel of schooner rig is said to have been built in Gloucester, Mass., about the year 1713. Japanese chickens with tails from eleven to thirteen feet long are being imported into this country. Baal-zebub, the god of flies, worshiped by the Ekronites, was one of the best-known deities of the ancient world. A German dealer in rare old violins, who has gone out of business, says that the.man who pays over $10 for aiiy sort of violin get stuck. Losses in Battle. a .3^ tfenerai rncoaore a. i/uuge euus uuc of two arliccs on "Valor and Skill ia the Civil War," printed in the Century, as follows: And in this connection it may not be amiss once more to give our national selfesteem a tid-bit in the following table of losses in sundry battles in the eighteenth aud nineteenth centuries: Percentage of killed and wounded of number engaged. Prussians?Up to Waterloo, in eight battles 18.42 Prussians?At Koniggretz 3.86 Austrians?up to Waterloo, in seven battles 11.17 Austrians?Since in two 8.56 French?Up to Waterloo, in nine battles 22.38 French?Since in nine 8.86 Germans?Since 1745, in eight battles.. 11.53 English?In four battles 10.36 Federals?In eleven battles 12.89 Confederates?In eleven battles 14.16 From this table it is manifest that, excepting the troops of Frederick and Napoleon, the American voiunrccr ii.is shown himself equal to taking the severest punishment of any" trcops upon the field of battle. The wonderfully peuinacious tactics of those two great Captains, rather than the discipline of their troops, explains the excess of loss of their battles. And while the capacity to face heavy loss is but one of the elements which go to make up the soldier, it is perhaps of them all the most telling. An lee Mine. There is a mine just above Howardsville, Col., that is a curiosity to tenderfeet and a source of profit to the saloon mau who lives near by. It is an ice mine, and the ice is as clear aid pure as that to be obtained from the purest lake. The claim is owned by the Neigolds, who, in the early days, ran a tunnel through tho frozen ground and struck a spring beyond. As the water flows out of tho tunnel it freezes, and the tunnel is now filled nearly to the roof with the ice. It has long supplied all the saloons of Ho wards ville with ice, and, as it never thaws, winter or summer, the place is an objective point for curiosity seeke s SABBATH SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOR MAY 18. Lesson Text: "The Transfiguration," Luke li., 28-36?Golden Text: Luke ix., 35?Commentary. 28. "And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings." These sayings evidently refer to what is recorded in this chapter from verses 18 to 27, including the testimony of Peter concerning: Christ, Christ's own testimony concerning His approaching sufferings and death and resurrection, and that those who follow Him must be content to suffer with Him; but that there is a future glory awaiting all such which will more than recompense for all the suffering, and that some of them would not die till they had seen the glory of that kingdom. He also testified that if any preferred their life in this world they would lose the world to come, but if willing to renounce this world for His sake they would receive and forever enjoy the glory of the kingdom of God. "Ho took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray." These are the three whom H<J took with Him to see Jarius's daughter raised to life, and the same three He took nearest to Him in the garden of Gethsemane. He saw fit to elect these to be with Him on these occasions. He elected twelve out of all His followers whom He might qualify for special service. He has an elect nation through whom He yet purposes to make Himself known to the world, He is now gathering an elect church out of all nations which shall reign with Him ns priest-kings when through His elect Israel He will subdue the world unto Himself. Election, when understood, is jlorious. 29. "And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistening." Matthew and Mark say that He was transfigured; Matthew says that His face did shine as the sun; Mark says that His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, as no fuller on earth can wnite them; Matthew says His raiment was white as the light. Here was for a brief season the outshining of that glory which was hidden in that mortal body during His humiliation, reminding us of the Garden of Eden when man made in the image of God was clothed with light as with a garment; and pointing us forward to the resurrection and the time of the Kingdom, when we shall be like Him, for we stall see Him as He is; and the righteous shall shine forth as the snn in the Kingdom of their Father (I. John iii, 2; Matt, xiii, 43; Dan. xii, 3). 30. "And, behold, there talked with Him two men. which were Moses and Elias." Moses, the servant of the Lord, died on Mount Nebo 1480 years before this, and the Lord buried him in a valley in the land ot Mnflh (Dpiit; Tinrivl It wn5 nhniit-.Hrtn ronr? since Elijah was translated without dying (II. Ki. ii.): and jet here are both alive and well, and if Jude Lx., refers to the resurrection of Moses's body, then both stood here in their immortal bodies. Blessed be God for the life eternal and for the assurance that if we are in Christ we shall be alive and well 1000 years hence, 2000 years hence, yes, to all eternity, in increasing fellowship with Him. 31. "VVho appeared in glory, and spake of His decease wnich He should accomplish at Jerusalem." 7'his verse and the next are peculiar to Luke, Matthew and Mark, simply saying that Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus, and omitting all reference to the disciples being heavy with sleep. Let us draw near and listen to the subject of their conversation, for it must be the most important of all events that they speak of. They do not speak of the great Itomau empire, nor of the world's progress; they do not even speak of the condition of Israel, nor of the birth or baptism of Jesus, but of His death which is Boon to take place at Jerusale p . Tliat death of which He had Himself been speaking to the disciples only a week before: The sufferings of which He spake after His resurrection as being foretold by the prophets (Lu. xxiv., 25-27, 4447,) Moses aud Elijah, had already enjoyed hundreds of years of rest and bliss by virtue of these sufferings about to be accomplished. Ever} redeemed soul from Abel down had been redeemed, uot by blood of animals slain as sacrifices, but by this blood soon to" bo shed, the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot. All Scripture may be summed up under two heads, "The sufferings ot (jurist, ana tne glory that shall follow" (I. Pet. L, 11). The great event of the past is His death and resurection. The great event of the future is His coming in power and glory. 32. "But Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep." Here in the presence of His glory they are so drowsy that they can hardly keep awake; and iu Gethsemane, in the presence of His agony, they actually sleep, and yet these three were the most highly favored of the twelve. The man of sorrows could not find sympathy enough even in His most intimate frituds to keep thein awake either in the presence of His sufferings or His glory. "And when they were awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him." He was gracious unto them and suffered them not to lose all. 33. "And it came to pass, as they departed from Him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is gooil for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles; * * * uot knowing what he said." Had he been wide awake and heard the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah he would prebably have talked more wisely and have known what he was talking about. 34. "While He thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud." All through the wilderness "the Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud." When the Tnhornflplo wns nrnctod "a-cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle;" and when the Temple was dedicated the house was filled with a cloud and with the glory of the Lord (Ex. xiii.,21; xl., 34; II. C'hr. v.. 13, 14.) In the vision of Isaiah (vi., 4) the house was filled with smoke, and Ezekiel (i., 4) saw a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness aboivt it. A>t His ascension a cloud received Him, and when Be come< again it will be in the clouds of heaven (Acts i., 9; Matt, xxvi., 61). So also when the risen and translated saints meet Him in the air, it shall be in the clouds (I. Th. iv., 17). 35. "And there came a voice out of the | cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son; hear i Him." Matthew adds, ''In whom I am well pleased." TheR. V" says, '"This is my Son, | my chosen; hear ye Him." At His baptism the voice from Heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom 1 am well pleased." (Matt. iii.. 17; Mark i., 11; Luke iii., 32.) I On a third occasion when Jesus prayed. "Father. glorify Thy name," the voice from Heaven said, "I have both glorified it and will glorify itasaiu" (John xii. 28). So thai we have three distinct testimonies from the Father concerning His Son. 36. "And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone." Matthew says that when the disciples heard the voice they fell on their j face and were sore afraid; hut Jesus carue and touched them and said, "Arise and be not afraid," aud when they lifted up their eyes they saw r.o man save Jesus only. Not even Moses or Elijah ma}- be put on" a level with Jesus. There i3 no salvation in either of them. Moses and tho prophets wrote of Him, but He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, ana in Him in His first and second coinings is the fuilillmont of all prophecy. To Jesus only must we look for salvation: to Jesus only for grace to help in every time of need. Jesus only is to be our patience, our wisdom, our strength. "And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen." Matthew and Mark say that He charged them to tell the vision to no man till the Son of Man should bo risen from the dead. To those who would uot receive Him He would give no such tokens of His glory as | this: these revelations were only for those I who had accepted Him, and only lor a lew even of such.?Lesson Helper. In Belgium the umbrella is seemingly unknown. When it rains in that country the pe?ple either remain under cover until the storm is over or go out to get soaked. As a rule a rainy day has no effect on the people, though they do shelter their horses. Fishkrmkn say that Rush Lake, in Montmorency County, Mich., has been overstocked with wliitefish by the Fish Commission, and that they are starving to death by scores. \ fl RELIGIO USJIEADING. I FOR JESUS' SAKE. There It a word which, mui mured low 9 By humblest child of humati woe. Soars swiftest to the eternal ear M And angels hush their harps to hear"For Jesus' sake." It is the one true countersign H That passes even-guard divine; The goiden key that, borne from far, H The inner temple can unbar? ' For Jesus' sake." All precious things in earth or heaven fl The Father to the Son hath given; fl And we. through holy gates of prayer, May euter in and freely share? fl "For Jesus' take." 9 Though weary carcs oppress our year.!, fl And sorrow fills our cup with tears, B The hope that angels cannot know, fl The peace of God is ours below? fij "For Jesus' saKe." Ob, let us theu that watchword take, B And bear life's cross' "for Jesus' sako 1" fl And when we lay our burden down, fl Be ours the victory and the crown? fl "For Jesus' sake." fl ? [C'ougrcgatioualist , DIVIDING ori'. I Now, let us divide off. Lot those people fl who do not believe the Bible, and who are M critical of this and that part of it, go clear I (vvor (a th? Atlior iiiiin I of tlirm htunil be bind the devil's guns. There can be no compromise between infidelity and Christianity. Give us the out-and-out opposition of infidelity ratber than the work of tbose who believo the Bible and do not believe it. who accept the miracles and do not accept them, who believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures and do not believe m the inspiration of the Scriptures,?trimming their belief on oue side to suit tbe scepticism of the world, trimming their belief on tbe other side to suit the pride of their own hearts, and feeling th:it in order to demonstrate their courage they must make the Bible a target and .shoot at God. There is one thing that encourages me very much, and that is.' thai the Lord made out to manage this universe before they were born, and will probably make out to manage the universe a little while afler they are dead.""^B While I demand that the antagonists of the V Bible and the critics of the Bible go clear over where they belong.--on the devil's side, ?I ask that alftbc friends of this good Book come out openlv and above-board in behalf of it,?that Book, which was the best inheritance you ever received from your ancestry, and which will be tbe best legacy you will leave to your children when you bid them good-bv as you cross the ferry "to the golden city.?[De Witt Talmage, in N. Y. Observer. MANLY CHRISTIANITY. To be manly is to be strong, and Lf we would be really strong, we must bo steadfast in the faith, and constantly watch against all that would lure us from "it. Some people, nowadays, seem to imagine it is very manly to parade their doubts about tlie truth of the Bible, and to sit in judgment on the Oracles of God. To do so seems so honest, so intel?. - - *- i ? 4. m UgCUI. SO lmifJ-fllUCIH. out IS U OV, utu; anxious seeker after truth is sure to meet with doubts and difficulties in religion, and they are to the mind like gymnastic exercises to the body?a means of expanding our mental and spiritual energies, and developing our moral strength. But to be content to live in an atmosphere of uncertainty about matters of the deepest moment to ourselves and others, and never to strive to rise out of it, thin is a proof of weakness of character, whilst it imperils our eternal safety. In fact, indecision in religion, whatever may be its cause, is decidedly unmanly. "A double-minded man," writes St. James (1:8), "is unstable in all his ways." One who cannot make up his mind as to what course he will , take in life, and which master he will serve, but is always halting between two opinions, ' is sure to act feebly and inconsistently. Men will have no confidence either in his judge* ment or his principles. Belonging distinctly to neither the Church nor the world, he is viewed with suspicion by both. Tossed about by opposing currents, he is ready to be carried "down by the stream much father from the right and safe course than he ever ht intended. James the First of England and the Sixth m of Scotland was a man of this stamp. I Though conscious of this fatal defect, be is I said to have, on a certain occasion, appointed j ? tn nrnfl/'h hpforA hilll. who W^S I singularly apt In his choice of suitable texts. The preacher, with the utmost gravity, announced his text as from James the first aud sixth?"He that wavcreth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed." The witty monarch felt the force of the alluL*ion. and said aloud, "He is at me already!" What effect the discourse produced upou'bis mind we arc not told: hut it would be well if all waverers would take the warning to themselves.--[Uc v. William Burnet, in "Al." i WHAT IS SALVATION*? j As a practical question none exists concerning which there is greater misapprehension, while as a theological inquiry there i8 seldom any misconception. Salvation means deliverance from the power of sin. But what lies chielly In the mind, and is often the guiding, controling thought, is escape from punishment. Such escape cannot, however, he overlooked because it is essential. But it should not be the aim, as it is not the true end of salvation. Repentance is necessary to salvation, but It must be of a srodly sort that needeth not to - " - ---1? I. J)e repontea pi. 11 mc umv mu^ui ? deliverance from punishment* then it is not genuine repentance. Godly sorrow Las little or no thought of punishment. It desires purification of heart. It hates sin, and j longs for deliverance from its power. It is of the same spirit which tilled the heart of the apostle when he declared, "For I eonld wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the Uesh." It is not with the true convert, what shall become of me? but what shall I do? He forgets himself in his anxietv for the moral welfare of others. lie would not be saved in 1 his sias. To him that would be no salvation,L j for he knows that there can be i.? . v.ii and permanent joy while sin dominates tin-heart. And he knows as well that concern alone for -^1 the consequences of sin is not hatred of s n, whereby eternal salvation is secured. Xo intelligent mind wishing to lead a moral life is ignorant of this theory. But unhappily many such persons have not yet seen the plague of the r hearts, nor felt the ueed of the application of atoning blood to wash away their sins. Nor have they been brought to tile humble condition of the publican, who "would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smites upon his breast* saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." It was not ? alarm lest he should be punished. Of this he ' thought nothing. It was sin that troubled him, and from it he sought deliverance through the mercy of God. Let no one then make the fatal mistake of ? regarding alj.rm for tnc eonseiiueuvcs <jl aiu, as anxiety to be delivered from it? power? for one nibses, the other secures eternal life. ? [Kelhjious Herald. A religious newspaper printed in China lias the following: "At l'ek?<i there is a pious lady, tlie wife of a foreign merchant, who spends her time in doing good. One " . day she went on a visit to the home of a Manelut lady of high rank, She took copies of the Holy "Scriptures. A young lady was present who took great interest iu the conversation. She heard the old story of the Gospel of Jesus, who died for a world of sinners. The young lady bent forward to catch every word; and. when the Christian | visitor had concluded, she said: *1 am glad you have come to tell me this. Some day I "will have a place built where people can meet to worship this God and hear this gospel preached.'" This young lady is now the Kmoress of China. As impressive incident occurred during a recent sermon in Atlanta. The preacher wa3 eloquent and earnest, and the audience were listening in rapt attention. Suddenly an awful b peal of thunder smote upon all ears, ' and for a moment it looked as if a panic was imminent. But ia an instant the minister closed the book and said: *"When God speaks, man should be silent!" and the congregation was im- , i mediately calmed.