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jg- FOREVER YOUNG. The wild world hastens on its way; The gray haired century nears its close; | Its sorrow deepens day by day; The summer blush forsakes the rose. But. darling', while your voice I hear. And while your dark brown eyes I sea, Sad months and sunless seasons drear Are all the same, all glad to me. Despair can never reach me While your soft hand I hold; While your eyes love ac'l teach me I shall never grow old They say that love forsakes the old. That passion pales and fades away; That even love's bright locks of gold Must lose their charm and change to gray. But, darling, while your heart is mine, And while I feel that you are true, For me the skies will ever shins With summer light and tenderest blue. Vet, let old age deride me! I scorn his mocking tongue; Dear love, with you b?side me, I am forever young. ?Be'.qravia. AN ESCAPED BOA. Mrs. Peak had always had a t;holy ! horror," as she termed it, of a circus. But when the immense posters of Awlpaws's "Combination Menagerie and Cireus" were spread out upon the two sides j of her husband's blacksmith shop, their wonderful attractions proved overwhelm- , U: ins- I Not only did the school-children | linger to pore over them at the expense of j their studies, but the older people of the village made the spot where the highly- ; colored announcement was displayed a I gathering place. At last Mrs. Peak herself felt obliged^fcciook into the matter. | The resvjlttf-is that, as the time for the j drew near, she broached the sub- | (ect to her husband. t " 'Zek'l," she insinuatingly remarked, '''pears to me most all the an'mals in ! ireation air goin' to be there. I must say j I wouldn't mind seem' ou "em fer once in i jay life myself." "Deac'n Pusley's goin' to take his yran'chil'ren," Mr. Peak briefly replied. "Lah, now! you uon't say so? Well, -1 any rate, a body don't haf to look onter* the objection'ble doin's. What do i fou think, 'Zek'l, 'bout us goin'?" "I aint doin' much thinkin'," he \ warily answered, "but if you've got it into your cran'um to go, it's more'n j likely we're goin'." "Well, if the rest go, I don't see what's to hinder us. J can borrer Polly Meekum's chil'ren, if chil'ren's what's aecessarv. I know they'd like to see 'em, too, an' I heerd Elder Phiuney say jest . fisterday such a c'lection was reelly an eddication. I kuow myscif I'd never 'a' knowed them jumpiu' creeturs keeried tneir young-uns 'round with 'em in their ; pockets if I hain't seen it with my own j eyes when I was a gal. I'm gittin' old, j au' I'd reelly like to see one of them j V rioters?boas?things they say wrop I f.*!! ?? in fViAir foile on' pahocK 'om fA I l"lCVd up m lutu iano au o^uaou v<u w ueath 'fore they swaller 'em." "Can't say my taste runs that way," observed Mr. Peak. "I'd ruther see that j four-headed calf than a hull passcl o' snakes. That's soraethin' cur'us." TLev went to the circus, or rather to i * the menagerie, for Mrs. Peak con- | scientiously refrained from patronizing i the other portion of the exhibition, and j insisted rigidly upon spending her whole \ time about the cages and enclosures ! where the animals were kept, though her i husband was allowed to visit the side- | show which held the four-headed calf, j Mrs. Peak had her great desire grati- j ied?she saw the "stricters." But she did not foresee what was to follow, or probably she would not have gazed so long upon their huge folds. The keeper thiew into the cage a live rabbit, and she saw the poor creature crushed and swallowed. The horrid sight was more than she j had bargained for. Her heart was i touched, and her conscience as well, and j -i j r J i?<- u?ll..\, ! sue immcumiciy iciusuu iu ict a uwj a children remaiu longer; so Mr. Peak was | sought for, and they set oat for home ! long before their neighbors had left the fascinating precinct. "I didn't keer for the re3t, nohow, 's Ionj's I'd seen thet calf," Mr. Peak announced, as he cheerfully joined his wife, "an1 I hev my s'picions of thet?the thing didn't look one mite nat'ral." - "I'd 'a' liked it all 'cept thet last. I i can't git it outeu my head. It's sp'iled it all," she answered, as they rode horne*r*rd. It certainly had spoiled it, for her state of mind grew amazingly, and that night she had visions innumerable, much to Mr. Peak's discomfort. The next morning she arose burdened with remorse, though her husband endeavored to allay \t with a bit of philosophy. ''I don't see nary use of your takin' ; thet critter's doin's on yourself, 's long's you ain't done nothiu'." 'But I hev! I hadn't orter stirred one sol'tary step to thet circus if the hull church'd went," she groaued. That aftcrDOff?* she was convinced of it when her husband brought in a handbill which had been left iu his shop, and j which contained the following announce- i merit: AN ESCAPED BOA. Through the carelesn?ss of one of the keep- | ers, a snake of the boa species has escaped, j A liberal reward will be paid to any one notifying the management of its whereabouts. "I might V knowu it," ejaculated j Mrs. Peak. "There won't be a duck ner i a goose ner nothin' safe till it's found, j I'm goin' right now an' see to thet old i blue hen thet's jest come off. These furs ! need airin' awhile longer, anyhow." j She dropped the tobacco stems she was sorting out to pack Ihe furs away in. UI j wouldn't be one speck s'prised if we | had a visitation from it this very night!" " 'Tain't likely it'll travel a mile jest ; to see us, dryly returned her husband. "You can't tell what thet thing "11 do. Anything thet'll gulp down a hull live rabbit at one swaller'll do most anything. I 'xpect somethin, to happen fer goin' to thet circus, an' I sha'n't rest till thet critter's shet up ag4in." "Now, Nancy, dou't git sot on thet, fer you won't be easy till thcr' does," he said, as he went back to the forge, and resumed a discussion with the shoemaker , upon the function of the camel's hump. | "Zek'l, did you put up the calf?'' i Mrs. Peak shook her snoring husband ! that night to ask the question. There j was no answer. "Anyway them chick- ' ens air safe,'' she remarked to herself, abandoning the attempt to waken him. "Zek'l Peak, I say, wake up!'' i It. was a full hour later when his energetic wife cried thus again in his ears, cutting oil a snore abruptly, and causing him to start up with an a if righted gasp :ts she vigorously nudge I him. "Landy Gosheu, Nancy! Where? r ?fe.. ~ \ what?whew! What a sweat I'm in!" He sat upright. "I was bill-posten' fer that Awl paws concern, an" I'd got the catncls an' giraffes upside down, when the plaguy things let all their feet fly right in my ribs. Did you punch me, Nancy? What you want?" "I want you to listen; there's somethin'in the house," she breathlessly answered. ' Pooh! Jest your imaginin'! Quit your fussin' 'bout snakes an things, or you'll be rassl'n' with more'u I hev. Go to sleep an' don't punch tnc any more." 'But there is! I heard it. Somethin' dropping" she persisted. But >Ir. Peak had taken his own advice and had dropped again '.o sleep. Not satisfied, but hearing nothing more, Mrs. Peak's courage rose to the point of investigating for herself. Quietly slipping out of bed, she opened the chamber door and tiptoed to the scairrailing which overlooked the long, oldfashioued hall below. The moon shone in through the narrow windows on either side of the door at its end and threw its pale light within, so that, as Mrs. Peak peered down into the open space, it was easy to see all there : was to be seen. And what she did sec curdled the blood iu her veins. < "'Zek'l!" : It was an unearthly shriek which i aroused the long-suffering raau this time. "What oa airth is it now, Nancy!" he exclaimed, half-duzed by the sudden awakening. "0, 'Zek'l Peak! I said so, an' it's ! happened. It's down there!" i "What's--rlown?where?" he de- : mandc-u, testily. ' "That?'scaped?boa! Down in? < our?front hall?this blessed minute!" she managed to articulate. "Git right ; up. Mebbe it's climbin' the stairs right ] now. Hurry on your clothes; here they 1 be. i "I dida't know's they dumb," he re- ^ plied, nervously, reaching for the gar- ' * Ji- J tl.~ meats sue exciieaiy rmug ujjju mu uuu. "Clumb! They can do anything, I tell you. Don't get out there!" she 1 screamed, as she started for the door. ^ "I've got to see were 'tis." ' He flung open the door and stepped to the railing, followed closely by his ' wile, clinging to his suspender. There, ' below him, partially knotted in graceful ' coils, certainly lay a long black object. "Don't you stir a step down there, J 'Zek'l Peak, less'n you want to see me ( worse'n a widder fore your face an'eyes!" ^ she exclaimed, and seized him by the ; arm, as he took one step downward. ''Git the ncighburs." ? "How'rn Igoin' to git neighbus less'n J I do go dowu there, i'd like to know?" he returned, hesitating. * "Git out o' the winder. Oh, who'd 'a' thought it! Jc3t as I expected!" she 1 moaned, inconsistently, the next mo- ? meat. " 'Pears co me it's mitey still. Sure 1 it's thet suakc, Nancy?" "Sure! Aint it plain to be seen? Do * you want it to ketch you 'fore you'll i( b'leeve it? Tnet's the way they do? ! ( nlitv thr>v'ro .an' erab vou UD with I'""J """J I" O * l their tail?an' see where that tail is," she added, convincingly. Sure enough, behind the coils trailed a , tail inclose proximity to the lowest stair; ( and Mr. Peck prudently allowed his j wife's counsel to prevail. , Outside the chamber window was the , woodshed roof, which sloped down to a , long board, which in turn ended in the ( big rain-barrel. Down this he cautious- j ly crept. Narrowly escaping a plunge , in the water he managed to reach the ? grouud, and stood undecided. j " 'Taint so late but there's folks at the . grocery. Call fer help an' don't you , leave me here aloue,'' she directed, from ^ the window above. "Hullo!"' he fiually called out. "Xobody'U never'll hear that in all , creation. Louder! Hoo, there! Help! ( help!" , "Why, Nancy, folks'll surely think , you're on the p'nit of bein' murdered." "An'aintwe? What's the difl'rence > 'tween bein' cut to pieces an' bein' swal- ; 1 J T II Tl.l 1:1 lereu uuu, 1 u inte vu nuun s uuu ? u go, 'Zek'll," she implored. i There was no need of his going. Mrs. : Peak's shrill cries had reached the near . grocery, and a group of men and boys issued forth in response to them and rushed to the house. A few deprecatory < words from Mr. Peak, interspersed with explanation from Mrs. Peak, enlightened them as to the danger of the situation. "Git a club," advised one. "It may take a gun," said another. "Lasso it an' take it alive?there's the reward," a third thriftily suggested, while Mrs. Peak urged them to "do something right off." In a short time a collection of articles with which the boa was either to be captured or killed was at the back door. "Let us in, Nancy," shouted her husband. ".Lancjy saKesi now do i goin to, 'thout goin' right inter the jaws?er tail of death, I should say? You'll haf to git at it through the hall winders?ev'ry door an' winder's fast hut tliein." "How'd the thing git iu, then?" asked j the shoemaker. "Now, Nate Simley," replied Mrs. Peak, "don't you go to wastin' time ar- j gyfyin' at this criticlc minute how it got i in. It's in, an' it's a wonder we aint in ! it, too, an' mebbe I shall be if you don't hurry." "'Taint stirred," said Mr. Peak, as the! windows were reached and raised. "Throw somethin'at it an'sec if it'll | move." Thud! went a good-sized stick upon the hall floor aud upon the dreadful ob- i jeet. i "Oh gracious!" screamed Mrs. Peak, ' who had ventured out iuto the upper ] hall once more, to watch ana direct operations below. "It's gathered all up in a ' K<r?a r* poq^t fr* liimn SKaa'" uvut" ???? * J j ? | j Down went the lire shovel, which she ! had seized for self defence, landing in i the midst of the disturbed coils, which , suddenly straightened out. "Kill it, it's coniin' straight after me," she screamed, aud darted back to ', her chamber. "I don't see's you can do anything but shoot it," after a few momentsspeut i in parleying, during which the creature lay motionless. " 'Zek'l Peak, don't you fire neither. I don't want them hall walls all spat- ' I tered up with that critter's thrashin' ;! 'round." exclaimed Mrs. Peak, peering 1 out from her retreat with a change of 1 mind as to the fate of it. " 'Taint mov- i! in' now, ketch it." "Ketch it! Who's agoin' to do it, I'd |' like to know. 'Pears to me, Nancy, if ! you're so tierce all of a sudden 'bout ,1 ketchiu' it, you might come down a step ,1 er two, ter shew a body how. I'm gittiu' ! tired a-foolin'," Mr. Peak returned, impatiently. "I'll ketch it." The shoemaker's son had thrust his body far through the window as he spoke. "Joe aint 'fraid o' nary thing livin'!" asserted his father, admiringly. "Jest onlock this 'ere door's soon's you git in, so's you can run if you wanter," he advised. "Lasserit!" added another, pushing the rope in after hiin. But Joe, inside, refused the rope, and, following his father's advice, flung open the door, into which the crowd outside pushed its way, while he boldly advanced toward the object lying at the other end of the hall. "O Joe, be keerful ! Don't you tech it !" warned Mrs. Peak, aa he suddenly 3tooped over an.1 bravely grasped it. "Landy massey, if he haint got it?by the?tail!" she ended in a hysterical screech. f'Here's your' 'scaped boa,' Mis' Peak!" he shouted, as, with a dexterous twirl, he wrapped the long black folds about himself, and stepped back into the full view of all present. "Oh, my suz alive! If 'taint my grandmother's old fur boa!" Mrs. Peak, half-way down the staircase as she caught sight of it, turned sharply with the exclamation on her lips, and fled as a loud burst of laughter broke from the rescuing party. "An' it 4 'scaped' from the upstairs bannisters, where she hung it yisterday fer an airin'. Much pW?fir?pd ^ yoa all fer jer help in capterm' the critter," was ill that Mr. Peak said as he flung the fur boa back in the corner and grimly closed the front door on the laughing crowd. "Jest to think what a reedic'lous mess you've got us into!" he exclaimcd, reproachfully, as he lay down again. To think of my goin' down the water-spout ind wakin' the hull neighborhood up, jest fer your grandmother's old ncck5xin's?" "But, 'Zek'l," Mrs. Peak returned, yvith more humility than usual, "it night 'a' ben 'tother one. You know ['ve heen lookin' fer it ever sence thet jircus!" "That's jest it!" he returned, sharply. "You was sot to go, ai' sotter to come lomc, an' sottist a-lookiu' fer a boa, an' [tou see what's come of it." "Well, I found one, too, didu't I?" she retorted. "But, 'Zek'i Peak," she continued, decidedly, sitting up and carefully retying her nightcap stiings, "I'm .otter'n ever jest now 'bout another thing: i'ou couldn't hire me to wear thet thing tgin. It gives me the magrums jest ;hinkin' of it. 'Taint no use talkin'. Twas jest a special prov'dence 'twa'n't ;he circus one." The real boa was found by the managenent the day that its disappearance was tdvertised snugly coiled up in an overooked box outside the tent. It was not nissed, therefore, from the combination's ittractionj; but none of these in any ;orm ever again proved sufficient to overcome Mrs. Peak's objections to a menagjrie. ? Youth's Companion. gj The Somals. The Somals are "kittle cattle" to deal ;vith. Armed to the teeth with spears. daggers and club3, they are equally skillful and reckless in the use of them. The nen live to fight and to talk; what work jets done is done by the women. Tribal tvars are incessant; sanguinary social juarrels are of everyday occurrence, and i death seldom ensues, it is because the clansmen on either side are zealous to ;eparate the combatants before the fine for homicide, borne in common by the relatives of a manslayer, is incurred. Camel driving is almost the only form of masculine industry, yet it doe3 not appear that time hangs heavy on the Somal's iiands. Hairdrcssing and dyeing (for he ispires to a blonde chevelure) agreeably occupy a good deal of it; and his portentous and inexhaustible loquacity is ofteu indulged at the expense of sleep. Ethnologically, the Soinals may be described as Arabized Gallas. Although not aboriginal, since traces of a prior tumulus-building and fish-eating people abound near the coast, they have probnnmini'nH tlidir nrocont. tnrritnrv for some millenniums. Through the example of Greek merchants trading to Mosylon for myrrh and ivory, the Somals substituted for a partial clothing of skins (which e~en now survives among some of their outcasts) the dignified "sagum Arsinoeticumand their present national costume is perhaps the most purely classical to be met with outside the sphere of antique statuary. It consists, for men and women alike, of a "tobe," or straight picce of cotton cloth (printed, or white with a crimson border) two breadths wide and some twelve feet long, draped in graceful folds about the body and fastened on the left shoulder. Sandals are worn on the feet, strings of gaudy beads about the neck, amulets in the most suitable situations for warding off malefic influences. The physiognomy of this people is of a high type, debased by the brutality of ages. The color of their skin runs through all the shades of brown. Their figures are tall and slender, yet strong and well poised. They are often skilled in horsemanship and adepts in elephant hunting, yet, through dig nicy or laziness, wmpiuy iuw-uuh: muco armed with poisoned arrows, to bring down their game.?Edinburgh Review. Where Marbles Are 3Iade. Marbles arc made in great quantities in Saxony for export to India, China and the United States. A hard calcareous stone is used. This is broken into square blocks, and about one hundred and fifty of these blocks are thrown into a mill, in | which is a flat slab of stone with numerous concentric furrows on its face. A block of oak of the same diameter as the stone, a part of which rests on the small stones, is made to revolve on the slab while water flows upon it. The whole process requires but a quarter of an hour, tmd one mill can turn out 20,000 marbles 11 week. The mills at Oberstein, on the Nahe, in Germauv, manufacture marbles und agates especially for the American market.?Chic<i/jo Herald. A Korean Wall. The Koreans have a peculiar way of building a wall by electing two parallel partitions, between which they pour plaster or mud and then remove the partitions, when the material solidifies. When I was in Seoul an examination of students occurred, and the subject then uhoseu was a text from one of the classic mthors to the effect that as the boards serve to give shape to the mortar so honest and upright statesmen mold the fabric of the nation. The students were all required, I was told, to write a poem in blank verse upon this subject.? Washington Star. REV. DE. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "Narrow Escapes." Text: "Jam escaped with the skin of my teeth."?Jobxix.. 20. Job had it hard. What with boils and bereavements and bankruptcy, and a fool of a wife, he wished he was dead, and I do not blame him. His flesh was gone, and his bones were dry; His teeth wasted away until nothing but the enamel seemed left. He cries out: "I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." There has been some difference of opinion about this passage. St. Jerome and Schultens, and Drs. Good ana Poole and Barnes have all tried their forceps on Job's teeth. You deny my interpretation and say: "What did Job know about the enamel of the teeth?" He knew everything about it. Dental surgery is almost as old as the earth. The mummies of Egypt, thousands of years old, are fnnnH tnjluv wifV? rrrvl/1 fillinrr ir? fhoir faafh Ovid and Horaeo and Solomon and Moses wrote about these important factors of the body. To other provoking complaints, Job, I think, has added an exasperating toothache, and putting his hand against the inflamed face, he says, "I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." A very narrow escape, you say, for Job's body and soul; but there are thousands of men who make just as narrow escape for their soul. There was a time when the partition between them and ruin was no thicker than a tooth's enamel; but as Job finally escape.!, so have they. Thank God! thank God! Paul expresses the same idea by a diiTorent figure when he says* that some people are ' ?AT?!d as by fire."" A vessel at sea is in fiames. You go to the stern of the vessel. Th6 boats have shoved off. The flames advance, you can endure the heat no longer on your face. You slide down on the side of the vessel, and hold on with your fingers, until the forked tongue of the fire begins to lick the back of your hand, and you feel that you must fall, when one of the life-boats comes back, and the passengers say they think they have room for one more. The boat swings under you?you drop into it?you are saved. So some men are pursued by temptation until they are partially consumed, but, after all, get off?i;saved as by fire." But I like the figure of Job a little better than that of Paul, because the pulpit has not worn it out; and I want to show you, if God will help, that some men make narrow escape3 for their souls, and are saved as "with tne skin of their teeth." It is as easy for some people to look to the cross as for you to look to this pulpit. Mild, gentle, tractable, loving, you expect them to become Christians. You go over to the store and say: "Grandon joined the church yesterday." Your business comrades say:, "That is just what might have been expected; he always was of that turn of mind." In youth this person whom I describe was always good. He never broke things. He never laughed when it was improper to laugh. At seven, ha could sit in hour in church, perfectly quiet, looking aeither to the right hand nor to tha left, but straight into the eyes of the minister, as though he understood the whole discussion about the eternal decrees. He never upset things nor lost them. He floated into the kingdom of God so gradually that it is uncertain just whon the matter was decided. Here is another one, who started in life with an uncontrolable ipirit. He kept the nursery in an uproar. His mother found aim walkingon the edge of the house roof to see if he could balance himself. There was no horse that he dared not ride?no tree he could not climb. His boyhood was a long series of predicaments; his manhoou was reckless; his midlife very wayward. But now he is converted, and you jo over to the store and say, "Arkwright joined the church yesterday." Your friends say, "It is not possible! You must be joking." You say: "No, I tell you the truth. He joined the church." Then they reply, "Thi:re is hope for any of us if old Arkwright has become a Christian!" In other words, we will admit that it is more difficult for some iu:u to accept the Gospel than for others. I may be preaching to some who have cut loose l'rom churches and Bibles and Sundays, und who have come in here with no intention of becoming Christians themselves, but just to see what is going on, snd yet you may find yourself escaping, be- . fore jou leave this house, as "with the skin of your teetk." I do not expect to waste this hour. 1 have seen boats go off from Cape May or Long Branch and drop their nets, and after awhile come ashore, pulling in their nets, without having caught a single fish. It was not a good day, or they had not the right kind of a net. But we expect no such excursion to-day. The water is full of 3sh, the wind is in the right direction, the Gospel net is strong. Oh, Thou who didst help Simon and Andrew to fish, show us today how to cast the net on the right side of the shipl Some of you, in coming to God, will have to run against skeptical notions. It is useless for people to say sharp and cutting things to those who reject the Christian re? T nnnn/\f ?!?? f Km (Yf RtT Q f X UUUUUb ?ljr OU^U uum^o. jlsj tiuav process of temptation or trial or betrayal you have come to your present state I know Qot. There are two gates to your nature? the gate of the head and the gate of the heart. The gate of your head is locked with bolts and bars that an archangel could not break, but the gate of your heart swings jasily on its binges. If I assaulted your body with weapons you would meet me with weapons, and it would be sword stroke for sword stroke, and wound for wound, and blood for blood; but if I come and knock at the door of your house you open it, and give me tlie best seat in your parlor. If I should come at you now with an argument you would answer me tvith an argument; if with sarcasm, you \vould answer mo with sarcasm; blow for blow, stroke for stroke; but when I come ind knock at the door fit your heart you open it and say, "Come in, iny brother, and tell me all you know about Christ and heaven." Listen to two or three questions: Ara you as happy as you used to bo when you believed in the truth of the Christian religion? Would you like to have your children travel on in the road in which you are now traveling? You had a relative who professed to be a Christian, and was thoroughly consistent, living and dying in the faith of the Gospel. "Would you not like to live the =aine quiet life, and die tbr* same peaceful death? I have a letter, sent me by one who has rejected the Christian religion. It says: UT -T-J f/% L-tir.w f.hnf. f.VlA "iiWS J. U11I U1U ciiuu^ju tr\j auv? VMMV J-Jand pleasures of life are evanescent, and to realize the fact that it must be comfortable in old age to believe in something relative to the future, an:i to have a faith in some system that proposes to save. I am free to confess that I would be happier if I could exercise the simple and beautiful faith that is possessed by many whom I know. I am not willingly out of tho church or out of the faith. My stat9 of uncertanty is one of unrest . Sometimes I doubt my immortality, and look upon tho death bed as the closing scene, after which there is nothing. What shall I do that I have not done?" Ah! skepticism is a dark anil doleful land. Iiet me say that this Bible is either true or false. If it be false, we are as well off as you; if it be true, then which oi us is safer. Let ine also ask whether your trouble Las not been that you confounded Christianity with the inconsistent character of some who profess it. You are a lawyer. In your profession there are mean and dishonest mea. Is that anything against the law? You are a doctor. There are unskilled and cont*>mntib!e men 111 vour profession. Is that anything against medicine? You are a merchant. There are thievas and defrauders in your business. Is that anything against merchandise? behold, then, the unfairness of charging upon Christianity the wickedness of its disciples. Wo admit some of tl? cli;iices against those who profess religion Some of the most gigantic swindles of the Cresent day have been carried on by memers of tho church. There are men standing in tho front rank in the churches who would not be trusted for five dollars without good collateral security. They leave their business dishonesties in the vestibule of tho church as they go in and sit at the communion. Having concluded the sacrament, they get up, wipe the wine from the lips, go out, and take up their sins where they left off. To serve the devil is their regular work; to servo God, a sort of play spoil. With a Sunday sponge they expect to wipe off from their business slate all tho past week's inconsistencies. You have no more right to take such a man's life as a specimen of religion than you havo to tako the twisted irons aud split timburs that lie on the beach at Coney Island as a specimen of au American ship. It is time that we IP" draw a nne oetween rengion anrrrrre iramrea of those who profess it. Do you not feel that the Bible, take it all in all, is about the bast book that the world has ever seen? Do you know any book that has as much in it? Do you not think, upon the whole, that its influence has been beneficent? I come to you with both hauls extended toward you. In one hand I have the ^ib'.e. and in the other I have nothing. This Bioie iu one nana 1 wm surrender rurtsver just as soon as in my other hand you can put a book that is better. To day I invite you back into the good old fashioned religion of your fathers?to the God whom they worshiped, to the Bible they read, to the promise.-! on which thoy leaned, to the cross on which they hung their eternal expectations. You have not been happy a day since you swung off; you will not be happy a minute until you swing back. A?aiu: There may w t>Jme 01 you who, in the attempt after a Christian life, will have to run against powerful passions and appetites. Perhaps it is a disposition to an^er that you nave to contend against; anu perhaps, while in a very serious mood, you hear of something thit makes you feel that you must swear or die. I know a Christian man who was once so exasperated that he said to a mean customer: "I cannot swear at you myself, for I am a member of the church; but if you will go down stairs my partner in business will swear at you." All your good resolutions hereto lore nave ueen torn to caners uy e&piusiuu of temper. Now there is no harm in setting mad if you only get mad at sin. You need to bridle and saddle those hot breathed passions, and with them ride down injustice and wron;. There are a thousand things in the world that we ought to be mad at. There is no harm in getting red hot if you ouly bring to the forge that which needs hammering. A man who has no power of righteous indignation is an imbecile. But be sure it is a righteous indiguation, and not a petulancy that blurs and unravels and depletes the soul. There is a large class of persans in mid-life who have still in them appetites that were aroused iu early manhood, at a time when they prided themselves on being a "little fast," "'high livers," "free ani easy," i:hail fellows well met." They are now paying, in compound interest, for troubles they collected twenty years a?o. Some of you are trying to escape, and you will?yet very narrowly, "as with the skin of your teeth." God and your own soul only know what the struggle is. Omnipotent graca has pulled out many a soul that was deeper in the inira than you are. Thoy liue the beach of heaven?the multitude whom God has rescued from the thrall of suicidal habits. If you this day turn yoar back on the wrong and start anew, God will help you. Ch, the weakness of human help! Men will symoathiza for a while, and than turn you off. If you ask for thsii- their pardon, they will give it, aui say they will try you again; but, falling away again under the power of temptation, they cast you off fora7er. But God forgives seventy tima.-i seven; yea, savea hundred times; yea, though this be the tenthousandth time, He is more earnest, more sympathetic, more helpful, this last time than when you took your first misstep. If, with all the influences favorable for a right life, men make so many mistakes, how much harder it is when, for instance, some appatite thrusts its iron grapple into the roots of the tongue, and pulls a man down with hands of destruction! If, under such circumstances, he break away, there will be no sport in the undertaking, no holiday enjoyment, but a struggle in which the wrestlers move from side to side, and bend and twist, and watch for an opportunity to get in a heavier stroke, until with one final effort, in which the muscles are distended, and the veins stand out, and the blood starts, the swarthy habit falls under the knee of the victor?escaped at last as "with the skin of his teeth." The ship Emma, bound from Gottenburg m Harwich, was sailing on, when the man on oae 100 tout saw southing that In pronounced a vessel bottom up. Thara was something on it that looked like a sea-gull, but was afterward found to ba a waving handkerchief. In tha small boat tin crew pushed out to the wreck, and founi that it was a capsized vessel, and that three man hirl hp*n (Wtrcrxnrr tlioir wjv ruif fha bottom of tLe ship. When the vassal caosized thay had no means of escapa. Ths captain took his penknife aud dug away through the planks until his knife broke. Then an old nail was found, with which they attempted to scrape their way out of the darkness, each one working until his hand was well nigh paralyzed and he sank back faint and sick. After long and tedious work the light broke through the bottom of tha 9hip. A handkerchief was hoisted. Help came. They wore taken on board the vassal and saved. Did ever men come so near a watery grave wit'.iout dropping into it? How narrowly they escaped!? ascapcd only "with the skin of their teeth." There are men who have been capsized of evil passions, and capsized mid-ocaan, and they are a thousand miles away from any shore of help. They have for years baau trying to dig their way out. They have bean digging away and digging away, but thay can never ba delivered unless they will hoisc some signal of distress. However weak and feeble it may be, Christ will saa it,and bear down upon the helpless craft, and take them oa board, and it will ba known in earth and in heaven how narrowly thay escaped?"escaped as with the skin of their teeth." There are others who in attempting to come to G-od must run between a great many business perplexities. If a man go over to business at 10 o'clock in the morning, and comes away at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, he has some time for religion; but how shall you find time for religious contemplation whan you are driven from sun rise to sunset, and have been for five years zoing bohind in business, and are frequently dunned by creditors whom you cannot pay, and when, from Monday morning until Saturday night, you are dodging bill9 that you cannot ni33t? You walk day bj day in uncertainties that have kept you brain on fire for tin past three years. Somi with less business troubles than you havi gone crazy. The clerk has heard a noise ii the back counting-room, and gone in, and found the chief man of the firm a ravina maniac; or the wife has heard the bang ol a pistol iu the back parlor, and gone in, stumbling over the dead body of her husband?a suicide. There are in this hous! to-day thr?9 hundred men pursued, harrasse', trodden down and scalped of business perplexities, and which way to turl next they do not know. Now God will nol be bard on you. He knows what obstacle! are in the way of your being a Christian, anl your first effort in the right direction He will crown with success. Do not let SiJofnn fVi -\r? Ko1ac> An<4 a ? rl Vl f\rra. Uviiciu, rrtuii uv;i/iiua umcs auu nogo, oau uvm* i heads and counters and stocks of unsalable goods, block up your way to heaven. Gathei up all your energies. Tighten the girdle about your loins. Take an agonizing look iutothe face of God, and then say: "Here goes one grand effort for life eternal!" and then bound away for heaven, escaping as "with the skin of your teetb." In the last flay it will be found that Hugh Latimer and John Knox and Huss and Ridley were not the greatest martyrs, but Christian men who went up incorrupt from th? contaminations and perplexities of "Wal street, Water street, Pearl street, Broai street, Stato street and Third street. On earth they were civlled brokers, or stock jobbers, 01 retailers, or importers; but in heaven, Chri# tian heroes. No fagots were heaped about their feet; no inquisition demanded from their recantation, no soldier aimed a pike at their heart; but they had mental tortures, compared with which all physical consuming is as the breath of a spring morning. I find in the community a large class of men who have been so cheated, so lied about, so outrageously wronged, that they have lost their faith in everything. In a world where everything seems so topsy turvy they do not see how there can be any God. Thoy are confounded and frenzied and misanthropic. Elaborate arguments to prove to them the truth of Christianity, or the truth of anything else, touch them nowhere. Hear me, all such ineu. I preach to you no rounded periods, no ornamental discourse; but put my hand on your shoulder, and invito you into the peace of the Gospel Here is a rock on which you may stand firm, though the waves dash against it harder than the Atlantic pitching its surf clear above Eddystone Lighthouse. Do not charge upon God all these troubles of the world. As long as thu world stuck to God, God stuck to the world; but the earth seced >d from his government, an I hence all theso outrages and all these woes. God is good. For many hundreds of Sears He had been coaxing the world toeome nek to Him, but the more He has coaxed the more violent havo men been in their resistance, and they have stepped back and stepped back until they have dropped into ruin. Try this God, ye who have had tho bloodhounds after you, and who have thought that God had forgotten you. Try Him, and see if He will not help. Try Him, and see if Ho will not pardon. Try Him, and see if He will not save. The flowers of spring have no bloom so sweat as the - r^"-r -l/-flowering of Christ's affections. The sun hath no warmth compared with the glow of His heart. The waters have no refreshment like the fountain that will slake the thirst of thy soul. At the moment the reindeer stands with his lips and nostril thrust in the cool mountain torrent the hunter may be coming through the thicket. Without crackling a stick under his foot, he comes close by the stag, aims his gun, draws the trigger and the poor thing reare in its death agony and falls backward, its antlers crashing on the rocks, bat the panting hart that ariuks from the water brooks of God's promise shall never be fatally wounded and shall never die. This world is a poor portion for your soul, oh business man! An eastern King had graven on his tomb two fingers, represented as sounding upon each other with a snap, and under them the motto: "All is not worth that." Apicius Coelius hanged himsalf because his steward informed him that he had only eighty thousand pounds sterling left. All of this world's riches make but a small inheritance for a soul. Robespierre attempted to win the applause of the world, but when he was dying, a woman came rushing through the crowd, crying to him: "Murderer of my kindred, descend to hell, covered with the curses of every mother in Franc?." Many who have expected the plaudits of the world have died under its Anathema Maranatha. Oh, find your p*ace in God. Make one strong pull for heaven. No half way work drill Ho it. Thorn <ar?mat;imf? comes fl tiineon shipboard when everything must be sacrificed to save the passengers. The Tar go is nothing; the rigging nothing. The captain, puts the trunpet to his lips and shouts, ''Cut away the mast!" Soma of you have been tossed and driven, and you have, in your efforts to keep the world, wall-nigh lo3t your soul. Until youhave decided this matter, let everything else go. Overboard with all those other anxieties and burdens! You will have to drop the sails of your pride an 1 cut away the mast I With one earnest cry ior help, put your cause into the hand of Him who helped Paul out of the breakers af Melita and who, above the shrill blast of the wrathiest tempest that ever blackened the sky or shook the ocean can hear the faintest imploration for mercy. I shall go home to-day feeling that some of !rou, who have considered your case as hopeess, will take heart again, and that, with a blood red earnestness, sucli as you have never experienced before, you will start for the good land of the Gospel?at last to look back saying: "What a great risk I ran! Almost lost, but saved! Just got through, and' no morel Escaped by the skin of my teeth.* Knocked Out By a Flying Fish. Persons who have not experienced some seafaring among the West India Islands and become to some extent familiarized with the tricks and antics of the flying fish which abound in these waters will be surprised at the velocity ii 11-:- Tl,? mey UI/U11U 1U w;u 3UUU ixiyuiw. 1UC fish will never leave the water unless compelled to do so by their natural enemies, the dolphins, and when they do fly they shoot through the air like a rocket. Some years ago, while on a voyage to Rio Janeiro, I had an experience off the Cuban coast with a flying fish that I am not likely to forget, and which made me the subject of considerable merriment among my older companions. The majority of them were old sailor3 who had visited these waters many times before and were well acquainted with the tricks of the winged fish. They prefer flying at night, and it was during the midnight watch that I met with my adventure. The night was one of those balmy evenings peculiar to sub-tropical waters, seldom if ever experienced in the north. The full moon was shining so brightly th*t one could .1 * c?i ;< ? rpu? f?ll_ cUIUUSL 1CCL 113 iajs. i UC uuu inuen away completely, allowing the sails to flap lazily against the spars in accompaniment to the monotonous squeaking of the vessel as she wallowed lazily in the trough of the long ground swell. As far as eye could reach around the horizon not a ripple was visible on the surface of the sea. The very elements appeared to be slumbering. The whole watch, with the exception of the man at the wheel and I, were gathered around the combings of the forehatch gambling away their tobacco, spinning yarns and smoking. J was seated up on the capstan on the "look-out," but the somnolence of the very atmosphere itself kept me in a drowsy state just between waking and slcepiug. This, together with the musical chirping of the "Mother Carey's chickens" in the forerigging, proved too I much for my feeble efforts at wakeful* I ness, and several times I came within an ace of falling overboard. This continued until near the end of ray watch, when as I peacefully dozed off I heard a sudden "swish,"and before I was aware of what had happened, I received a terrible blow between the eyes, the forcc of which knocked me of! the capstan over the windlass and down to the deck among the players. I leaped up, seized a belaying pin and demanded to know who hit me. My answer was a burst of laughter, and one of the men pointed to the top-gallant forecastle at a large flying fish flapping on the deck. It had struck me while flying over the ship, and raised a lump the size of a hen's egg between my eyes. "We fried the fish the next morning and breakfasted oS of it,?New York Herald. I Crowned Oue?n After Death. The is no more remarkable page in all history, says the St. Louis Iiepublie, than the one which tells of the crowning of Inez de Castro's fleshless skull as Queen of Portugal. She had been married clandestinely to young Don Pedro, and was murdered three year's later by assassins instigated by her father-in-law. When the young Don heard of her death he was beside himself with grief and rage. Two of the assassins fell into his hand3 and suffered t rriblo torture, which only ended by their hearts being torn out while they were yet alive. When Pedro came to the throne a few years later ho had the bones of Inez taken from the grave, placed upon a magnificent throne, robed in royal purple, and actually crowned Queen of Portugal. Tho court was summoned and compelled to do her homage, just as if she were a real living Queen. One fleshless hand held the seep tie aad the other the orb of royalty, un the second night of this weird ceremony the fioshless Queen was borne before a grand funeral cortege extending several miles, each person holding a torch. Lying in her rich robes, her crown upon her grinning skull, in a chariot drawn by twenty coal-black mules, Queen Inez, the only Queen who never knew her royal station, was driven to the royal abbey of Alcobaca, where the boues were interred witli as much pomp ns though she had died but yesterday. The monument erected to the Queen, who was never a Queen during life, is still to be seen in the abbey, standing near the one erected to her loyal husband, "Pedro the Just." It has been discovered that the nickelin-thc-slot machine was an old Egyptian device for dispensing the purifying water in the temples. The apparatus was described by Hero, of Alexander, who lived 200 years B. C. So many poets send their verses to j , Oliver Wendell Holmes that he has come to the conclusion that everybody iu the United States writes poetry. / RELIGIOUSJEADING. ^ A XIXO'S DAUGUTEB. I do not now possess The grandeur or the dress, The jewels rich acd rare, The crown that I shall wear, Yet I am a King's daughter I am not now at home, I have no lordly dome, I have no palace great, , I have no vast estate. Yet I am a King's daughter. v? My Father's kingdom Iie3 . ] In realms beyond the skies, And while I tarry here He doth for me prepare For I am a King's daughter. - -'3 My Elder Brother's love My Futher's heart did move To cover with His dress My whole unrighteousness, So I am a King's daughter. I had gone far astray; In guilt and ruin lay, In utter misery. In foul depravitv, Even me, the King's daughter. Mv Elder Brother saw Til. i i |,.M. xiis raiucr n iuukcii ian, And 'aid His robes aside? And for my sake He died; Thus am I the King's daughter. I'll reach my home some day, And there I'll praise aiway The love, the gracc, the power, That gave me all ray dower. Even me, the King's daughter. con's WAY OF BLESSING THE WORLD. $ How much of the world's history that tiny coffer among the reeds held! How different that history would have been if, as might easily have happened, it had floated away, or "if flie feeble life within it had waifed itself dead unheard! The solemn oossibiiities folded ami slumbering in an infant are always awful to a thoughtful mind. But, except the manager at Bethlehem, did cradle ever hold the seed of so much as did that pnpyrus chest? The set of opinion at present minimizes the importance of the individual and exalts the spirit of the J period, as a factor in history. Standing beside Miriam", we may learn a f ~ truer view, ntid see that epochs" require jreat men, and that without such for leaders, no solid advance in the world's progress is achieved. Think of the strange cradle floating on the Nile, then thinK or the strange grave among the raountaius of Moab, and of all between, and ponder the same lesson as is taught in yet higher fashion by Bethlehem and Calvary, that God's way of blessing the world is to fill men with bis message, and let others draw from them. Whether it be the "law," or "grace and truth," a man is needed through whom (t may fructify to al1.?[Dr. Alexander Mao laren. GOD'S UNCHANGING LOYI. At the very moment that these words fall beneath the eyes of their many readers, hundr< da of them arc in some visible and burdensome trial or perplexity. Grief has been approaching with inevitable step; loss and business perplexity have deepened; misunderstanding and" estrangement have embittered the passing days; children have ?one amiss and cloucleJ the hopes resting upon them; increasing age seems not rich, -,i but barren; or men and women are burdened with that never-dying sense of unworthiness, of talents hoarded, not improved,'of lives selfishly incomplete. The one thing constant in crosses is the love of our ever-comnassiouate ana paternally pitiful God; tnc truth on which rharge may never comc is th3 gospel of the Son,"which is the eternal embodiment of affection from above, fallingearthward, and of aspiration from below, rising heavenward. There is no waking or sane instant when we cannot get a/1 the strength we need from this unfailing source. There is no instant of time in which the breath in the lungs, the blood in the veins, is not necessary to the simplest vital act; so there is no time when the love of God and the undying message and mediatorship of Jesus Christ arc not needful in the Christian's life, whether of joy or sadness, or greatness or littleness, of strength or decline.? [Sunday m School Timts. ^ "HEIGHTEN OCR IXTKLLECT8." Once a week the lady teachers of Knoxvillc G'ol'ege meet with tbc girls in praying circles. Some of their unconverted schoolmates arc taken by the girls as objects of prayer. It is very" seldom that any one is absent from her circle on Tuesday evening. Thou who with thine own arm of strength didst deliver from a cruel bedily enslavement, these, the creatures of thy land, deliver, we pray thee, their souls from the bondage of the evil one, and brighten their intellects with a knowledge of thyself, which alone can make them wise unto sal-'vation.?[Selected. THK PREACHER AJfD THE BEI.LMAJf. In the Christian we find the following quoted from the narrative which Charles Stanley gives of his experience on one occasion : "I was crossing the country one day from Bristol, where I had been preaching, to Tet* bury. I had never been in that part of the country before. On arriving at Wotton-nnder-Edge, I had some time to spare before going on. It was about 5 o'clock on a hot uay in the midst of harvest. There wag scarcely a person to be seen in the little town. " I was very distinctly impressed from the Lord that 1 must preach the gospel there that af'/ rnoon, yet there appeared to be no people to preach to. Nearly all seemed to b? out in the harvest field. Yet the conviction deepened that I must preach. I took a few tracts and gave them where I could find any one. I was standing in a little shop, speaking to a woman about hei soul.wuen a man came runnine up the road, the perspiration streaming off his face. He turned into the shop, and said: 'PjC2??; ?!l; are you a preacher of the gospel J1' Yes,-' J said, 'I am, through the Lord's mercy, but why do you ask?' lie replied,'I am the bell man, and if you will preacn tnc gospei nere today I will cry it.' 'Well,' I said, 'it was JH very'much laid on my heart to Dreach here today, but I do not see any to preach to. ? Tell "me, bow is it you came" in such baste and asked me the question?' "He replied. 'I was working in the field, and a woman camc past and told me someone was distributing tracts in Wot ton, and it was just as if a voice had said to me, You must run and there must be preaching in Wotton to-day. That is why I left my work, and came immediately.' "As he was the bellman, I involuntarily put my hand in my pocket to give him a shilling*. 'Oh, dear no, sir,' he said, 'I don't want the money, 1 want souls to be saved;' and the earnestness and solemnity of the man confirmed his words. In half an hour he had washed himself, cricd the preaching, and we were on the way to the Chipping to preach." The prayers are, for the most part, very earnest, thoughtful and importunate. I have been greatly benefited by them and made strong for iiuty by listening to the child-like confidence with which our heavenlv Father was addressed bv these sincere suppliants. One evening this petition fell upon my ear with a peculiar and strange force. One of the girls was praying for wisdom and God's help in their studies, and used this expression: "O Lord, brighten our intellects." What does that not reveal? thought I. To whom could she go but to the Great Being who is Wisdom and Strength? ' Brighten our intellects!" which have been clouded by ignorance and superstitiou, by years of boniiage imposed upon us by our fellowmen! u uoa, win mou not uem <wu answer ihis praver graciously?even exceedingly anil abundantly above all we ask or tniuk. A Mas at Tiflis, llussia, paid ail assassin $75 to kill au enemy, and $-0 more when the assassin brought an ear iu proof of hi3 crime. The assas&in ?.jnt to the enemy and obtained $100 for revealing the plot and produced a ^ lygus ear. The man who paid to have I bis enomy assassinated is now suing the ''swindler" to recover the money ha )aid. A woman's strange gait may not a\ WftTs be caused by her gaiter. ^ . . ' .-Ad