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HAPPINESS. "Thou shalt bo happy!" So I told my heart One summer morning many a year ago, "Thou shalt bo happy; thou shalt have thy part T Of mirth and feastingsin the great world's show; Thou shalt have health and wealth, high jr> fame and praise: '' Thy place shall be with those who sit above; Thou shalt have sunshine on the dullest days; ' And, lest of all, my heart, thou shalt have love." Thus, in the morning of mv ilavs. I snake Unto my heart, and gladly it replied: "The world is all before us; we can mako 1 Joy for ourselves, a never-ebbing tide." So we set out, ray heart and I, in mirth, To seek for happiness?upon the earth. God gave us health and wealth; and we wero glad Thus, for a season, waiting ioys to coma, God gave us fame aud praise; a little sad We were, my heart and I, amid the hum Of voices lauding us, till one, more dear Than all the rest, spako gentle words and sweet. Then wo grew jubilant with right good cheer; Ani happiness came on with flying feet, Drew near?but passed. Alas! my heart and I, We could not hold the radiant wanderer fast. Ono rose-touch of her lips in fleeting by Was onrs?one precious look?the first, the last She will return, we said, with love's new birth; There must be happiness Tor us on earth. We lost fair health, my heart and I, and fell Sore sick; wero sorrowful, found dreary ways. ?V e lost our wealth, and none drew near to tell 01 comfort waiting us in better clays. But where is happiness? Alack! we find She is not ours to beckon as we list; TVe hare no magic spell wherewith to bind This rare, bright visitant to earth. "We missed The royal road to happiness; but lo! Something is saved us from the wreck of all; We have content, though doubtful blessings And peace entwines our crosses great and small. "Wo learn, my heart and I, the world's true worth, | And seek for happiness?but not on earth. ?All the Year Round. , TP LIVING CHESS-MEN | 1 BT GEORGE E. WALSH. "This game reminds me of a great i chess-game that I once played," said the j captain, as ne cnecKinatea qis oppo- < nent's king, and drew back his chair to t begin a story. <:Itwas the great game t of my life," he continued, "and I shall \ never forget it. In fact, we were play- i ing with living chess-men. You don't l believe it, eh? "Well, just listen to my < fitory, aud you'll think such playing as this mere fooling." "We had been playing for nearly two hours, and the Captain's skill had won. His love for the game of chess was only Becocd to his love for his profession, and his life as a soldier had given him plenty of opportunities to gratify hi3 passion in this particular. "You remember I spent n couple years in India, when a youug fellow, and durIngthattime Jmet with many adventures that none of you have ever heard. Although I have seen considerable service Bince then,and some hard work and fight- ] ing,I think, on the whole, that these two years were the most exciting of my i life. We were on the constant go, s then, and if wc weren't hunting men, ( ^ve were hunting wild beasts in the jun- ! f gles. r My friend Captain Rawden was an ( English officer stationed at Calcutta at t the time he invited me to visit him. He t bad just taken a wife in that far-off ] . country, and they were living happily in a neat little place a short distance out of t the city. He wanted me to come out ? and see him, and, above all, to select a ( wife from among the English ladies that < were living there at the time. Jack al- $ Kays took a fatherly interest me in this j . -way, but unfortanatcly his plans never worked out well. 1 .. "Well, to make a long story short, I < Trent out to Cnlcutta one year, and found t everything just as my friend represented f it. It was a delightful place for hunting, j and we did some pretty rough riding < over the country and through the jungles i In pursuit of game. I managed to secure < my first man-eater shortly after I arrived, t and several other tough customers. Jack < rrtfimeH nvrr milntrr TcitVi m? wlion. ever he could get away from his duty, ? and together we succeeded in having a t pretty lively time. Jack's wife was a ] pretty, piquant-looking lady, the daugh- j Jer of an old Eoglish officer who had oied in the East Indian service. She i took a great friendly interest in me, and i I returned her feelings with interest. ; When were not hunting we would j epend hours listening to Evelyn's playing 1 or singing, which was truly delightful < recreation. j v- ?j-x,:? ? ? -V jiAUbVitli IlitUU3UJ^ IUU3 jjigw \ and we all three began to look ahead and j regret the time of our parting. My duty called mc back to America in a few months, and I was almost as loath to leave as they were to have me go. Jack vainly implored rcc to enter into business in Calcutta, and take up my permanent abode 1 there; but I told him that I had other ties and interests to draw me away; yet I should have almost decidcd to stay with them longer, if an incident had not occurred which made me rather tired of India. "One day rumor3 came in that there was trouble with the Hindoos. They were risings in various parts of the country, and the British residents began to tremble for their lives. Jack, as Captain in the army, had to leave his home to help quell the rebellions. I, of course, j was left to protect his home and wife. I: i Thc?e was little or no disturbance around I i Calcutta at the time, but the insurgents j i soon rose- u;j around us on every side, until we were completely hemmed in. The soldiers were oil in another part of the country, and Jack's home was loft in a helpless condition. 'The result was that one day we were surrouuded, and after a brave defense we were captured by a party of natives, and carried away a hundred miles or so into the interior. After our capture I did not get another glimpse of Jack's wife lor along time, and I felt considerably worried about her fate. I was carrted before a Rajah, or uat've Prince, who had rebelled against the British rule. The Rajah was a great chcss . player, and he had been indulging in his 4^ favorite game before I was orougut into k bis presence. Tho chess-board was standing before bim, while a member of his court was studying out the problem of checkmating the Rajah's king. In fact, the Prince's men were cornered, and the same seemed to be lost. I had always taken a lively interest in chess, and when I saw the predicament in which the Rajah had gotten his men, I began to study the positions of the pieces while the rest of the prisoners were being examined. "Well, in my eagerness I forgot my position, and when I discovered an avenue of escape for the nearly checkmated king1, I stepped forward and made a move with the Rajah's bishop. The court player looked at me in astonishment for a moment, and then moved one of his pawns. I followed it up with another move, and iu less than fifteen minutes I had his king checkmated. I clapped my hands iu triumph then, and on looking up saw the Rajah watching me closely. He had been an interested spectator of the game. "That game of chess saved my life for a short time. I was sent to prison, but not condemued to death. The next day, and in fact every day for several weeks, I was brought out of the prison and commanded to play chess with the Prince. He was far from being a poor player; but after I had met him several times I felt confident that I could beat hirn. From policy's sake, however, I let him wiu most of the games, which seemed to please him immensely. This sort of thiug went on for a long time, until I began to get restless and nuxious to learn what my fate was to be. I began to look around to discover some means of escape; but the prison was guarded so carefully that my chances were very poor. "One "day I was calledinto the Rajah's presence earlier in the day than common, and I instinctively felt that I was going there to learn my fate. I was led into another part of the royal quarters, a place that I had never entered before. I was conductcd between two lines of soldiers, 4.:i ~ U Li LI i tl S?JUi;iUll9 UttltUUJ, \> UU1C uuu ivajau was sitting was reached. The balcony overlooked a great court-yard, which was thronged with people and native soldiers. In the centre of the court-yard was a large vacant space, divided up into large squares of alterating black and white marble. It was, in fact a huge chessboard, laid out in the most costly way. "As a great lover of the game, I in3tinctly uttered an exclamation of surprise and pleasure. My position was such that I could see every one of the sixtyfour squares. "While I was still looking, the crowd at one side fell ba?k, and four ;lephants, two draped with black and ;wo with white, entered, and took their places at the four corners of the strange :hess-board. Small castle-shaped struc:ures were on their backs, which made :nem look like the castles of the chessboard. Then came in the knights, two lorsemen on white steeds, and two on black. These also took their proper portions on the chess-board. Fools, or ;lows,then took the places of the bishops, vhich is the custom in the Oriental :ountnes. Two were Hindoos, and the )ther two were captured Englishmen, rhen eight Hiudoo soldiers took the llaccs of the pawns on one side, and light English soldiers were placed in a ow on the opposite side. The two king3 jext entered, one a white man, and tho )ther a Hindoo, and both richly dressed n magnificent robes'. The two queens nllnwprl nnrriprl in nn sedan chairs. One vas a Hiadoo maiden, and the other? veil, one glance was sufficient?was Evelyn, Jack's wife! "The whole matter was getting pretty nteresting by this time, aud I felt myself worked up to a feverish heat. The :hes3-mcn were all living ones, and they vere in position, ready for the players, rhe Rajah then told me that 1 had but >ne chance for my life. If I won in ;his game of chess I could have my liber;y, and also that of the white Queen, if [ saved her. "My heart jumped into my throat, so ;o speak, and I began "to study out the jume, determined to make it the game )f my life. I felt more confident than jver that I could defeat the Rajah, and >o I summoned all ray courage to steady ny nerves. "The play soon began. The Rajah lad thefhst move; aud one of his pawns, >r English soldiers, he having chosen ;he whites, came out two squares. I 'ollowed with one of my Hindoo soldiers. Yfter three or four moves there was an ixchango of pawns. The two soldiers ivcre carried out, and in si^ht of every >nc they were executed. This blood;hirsty act unsettled my nerves so that I :oald hardly collcct my thoughts; but vhen I was informed that the Hindoo soldiers were traitors condemned to leath, and that the English soldiers had ikewise been sentenaed to execution, I partly recovered my composure. "The game then proceeded. The ivhite queen of the Rijah soon began to nake great havoc with my black men, ind it seemed necessary to take her if I intended to win. Then the terrible :liought that if I took her she would be executed the same as the rest of the living chess-men made the cold sweat stand Dut on my forehead. I could not sentence Jack's wife to the executioner's sword, not even if I lost the game and ray life with it. The Rajah seemed to understand this, and he moved his queen iround recklessly among my men, taking pawn after pawn. The game became ioubly difficult, for I felt that I could not take the Rajah's strongest piece. "I bent my whole mind to the game, md tried to lay some trap for the Rajah's men. After little mauoeuvering I succeeded in taking two of his bishops, one castle, tnd both of his knights; but the reckless queen \va3 still hedging me in on every side, putting herself in positions where f could easily have taken her if it had not been a question of life or death with her. Evelyn's face was pale aud anxious as she watched me play, Mid I tried to give her a reassuring smile uow aud then. But she saw how difficult .. f a _ !.l 1-1-!.. - 1 JY it. _ it was I or me 10 avoiu inning ucr on me chess-board and having her executed so that I could win the game aud thus save ray own life. "The Rajah, seeing my difficulty, soon became reckless in his playing with his other pieces. I studied to take advantage of his folly. I suddenly saw an advantage that his reckless playing had given me, and I worked it up carefully. I made a move: he fell into t'ue trap with the very next move. Two or three swift moves followed,and the Rajah's king was checkmated. "It so astonished the native Prince that he jumped to his feet and made a circle or two around his head with a heavy sword. But he was a man of his word; and after "looking at the chessboard a minute or two te convince him self there -was no cheating, he turned to me find told me that I had played well. In reward of ray good playing I was to have ray liberty, along with the remaining white chess-men on the board. These consisted of the queen, Jack's wife, and three English soldiers. "The Rajah was true to his word, and that afternoon we were conducted out of the Rajah's territory, and started safely on our way to Calcutta. The rebellion had been quelled there, and the English were again in power. When we reached the city we had no difficulty in finding Jack, who was nearly desperate over the loss of his wife. "You can easily imagine the meeting that took place between them; and it is needless to say that I was their ideal hero ever afterwards. They heaped all sorts of kindness upon me, and made mo really ashamed of myself. Every Christmas I am now reminded of that game with living chessmen and of Jack and his wife, by receiving some elaborate present from India. The present, though, that I value the most highly, is a small ivory chessboard with pieces in exact imitation of those living chessmen who played in that memorable game. Whenever I play with it I think of that critical timo in my life when there was only a straw j between me and death."?DemoresP' Magazine. Making Canes and Umbrella Handle. The art of making walking-sticks and umbrella handles has been greatly developed during the last forty years. Formerly, only a few native woods and some foreign species were used for these purposes. There is now hardly any limit to the material that can be turned to account for the purpose under consideration, and manufacturers keep a keen lookout for new sources of material and novelties in sticks and fashion. The cultivation of sticks for the market has been taken up as a business at some places in continental Europe, and special attention is often paid to making the roots grow into shapely forms for the handles. A London manufacturing establishment, the floor space of which nearly covers an acre, have extensive storehouses filled with native and foreign sticks, from which stock is drawn as it is wanted, for the shop3. These, as they grow, are often very crooked, and have to be straightened. A heap of sand is provided on the top of a very hot stove, into which the sticks are plunged, and kept till they have become pliable. "The workman then takes the crooked stick while it is still hot and inserts it in a notch cut in a stout board, placed at an angle inclined from him," where ho bends and strains it. When it has become perfectly straight it is thrown down to cool, after which it bccomcs rigid and permanent in its lines. Heat is an important element in this matter, and produces different effects on the several kinds of wood, the degree of heat necessary to straighten one kind of stick bang often sufficient to spoil another kind. The same power which makes a crooked stick straight is applied to make a straight one crooked; so we find that the rigid stems of bamboos, partridge canes, and all the various kind of sticks that are required to bo curled or twisted, are Dy ine application 01 neat muue 10 assume almost any kind of shape or form. Thus we often see ladies' sun-shade handles twisted and even tied into double knots. By far the largest number of sticks used are those known as natural sticks?that is, saplings of trees or climbing plants, when the roots have sufficient character to form handles or knots. These are always more in demand than sticks cut from solid wood. Tho finished cancs are sometimes mounted with preeious metals, stores such as onyx, jasper, marbles, even precious stones, ivory, and horns of all kinds.?Popular ScUncc Monthly. A Homing Raca by Bess. How insccts, especially bees and ants, find their way back home is one of the marvels of natural history. My wife keeps bees and my little boy has a taste for entomology and is always making experiments of one kind or another with them and other insects, no has beoa trying to find out how far away a beo can be taken and not get lost, but has not yet succeeded. I live in the country, fourteen miles from the court house, and uuring tne summer turn uuy uuu uecii iu town with me a dozen times, and on cach occasion he brought some bees along in a little tin box. Ho eolored their wings with violet ink, so that he would know the insects again, and let them go in the heart of the city. The first time he did it he released six bees at the Biddle street market and I believe they got home be- i fore we did, because they were all on hand attending to business the next i morning, just a3 though they took a ! fourteen mile journey every day. Occasionally a bee fails to come back, but in nearly every instance they return in a few hours. Once he let five, whose wing3 had been colored red, out of their j box at 6 o'clock in the morning, on the corner of Fourth aud Biddle, while his little sister watched the hive at home. One arrived, tired almost to death, and dropped at the door of the hive a little belore 2, and three more came before 5 in the evening, all apparently much fnfcinriiprl. F-Tia ATtv>rim?nt.s with a nnsfc of largo black ants have been equally satisfactory, for some marked ants have found their way home after being released more than a mile distant from the hollow tree in which they lived. IIow i they do it is a question, but they gecer. ally do, and so it is likely the travels of both ants and bees are much wider than is generally supposed.?St. Louis GlolcDemocrat. The Phantom Tumor. A curious phenomenon which is sometimes met with is the so-called tumor. It appears iu the abdomen and feels unrlnr fVin Vinnrl PV<I??Hv like n truf> n.l)? dominal tuaior. This occurs almost exclusively in very uervous, hysterical wo- j men and is the result of muscular spasm | of tlrj abdominal walls and possibly the J intestines. In some cases it persists for | a long time, in others it remains only for a short time, then disappears, very likely to return again.? Washington Star. The First Trotting Ilftces. Tho Greeks were the first to establish trotting races, says Flebl aiul Far-a. Pausanius, in his "Description of Greece," shows that the Greeks did this at their celebrated Olympiau, games as early as the seventy-first Olympian, continuing them to the eighty-fourth? 140 to 492?a period of fifty-two years. Pausanius flourished 174 years after Christ, traveled throughout Greece and wrote u minute account of all he saw. KEV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'3 SUN ^ DAY SERMON. Subject: "Croolced Things." ? Text : "The crooked shall be madt straight."?1$&. si., 4. ' Geometry, from the time it was discovered on the banks of the Nile, which, by its overflow annually obliterated the landmarks, and the restoration of these landmarks made U : T ma rr fcUL'ii u aUiUUUO licvjcaaaij'?x oo/ ^GUIUCVIJ ever since then has been busy with lines, straight lines, curved lines, lines iu anglea and cones and spheres, but has never been able to evolve any beauty from a line that was merely crooked. The circle and the square was always considered admirable. Isaiah recognizes the circle antl says, "Tho Lord sits upon the circle of the earth." The altar of tho ancient tabernacle was "four square," and the breast plate of the priests "lour square," nnd heaven, according to St. John, is "four square." But the Bible has no admiration for lines that are merely crooked. Indeed my text in prophesying tho world's complete rectification declares, "The crooked 6hall be made straight." There have been so many moral earthquakes that many things have got into a terrible twist?crooked laws, crooked Governments, crooked fortunes, crooked dispositions ?and many of the efforts to straighten things have only made them more crooked. And some good people sit down in despair and become pessimistic, and give up life, and the church and the world as dead failures. With such lachrymose behavoir I have no sympathy. It is a promise of the Lord Almighty, "The crookcd shall be made straight." I propose, as I may ba divinely helped, to mention some of the crooked ( ings tnai, are going 10 ue suai^uwucu. Much of the wealtn of the world is in the hands of the profligate, while many of the best people are subjected to distressing privation, and there is going to be a redistribution of property. If it were possible it would be a bad thing to have things divided equally. Some men are able to endure more success than others, and prosperity that might not unbalance you njight destroy me. The Declaration of American Independence declares that all men are born equal, but the opposite is the truth, foi they are born unequal. In no respect lg) this more evident than in their capacity to endure success, financial or social. J nave seen men by the acquisition of $50,(K)0 made arrogant and overbearing, and j have known others with their millions of dollars childlike and unassuming and Christian. We would all be affluent, but the Lord cannot trust us. I am glad there are those He can trust. Much is said against capitalists, but the world would be a very shaky world without them. Who built the great railroads which, while they givo such facilities of travel, employ tens of thousands of laborers, supporting them and their families? Capitalists. Who built great ships that stir the rivers and bridge the ocean? Capitalists. Who reared tho thousands of factories all over the land in which hundreds of thousands of employes earn their daily bread? Capitalists. Who onrinwM roup onlloces and ononed free li braries and built asylums for the orphan,the crippled and the insane? Capitalists. But for tnem there would not bo an academy of music, or a picture gallery, or a free library, or a steamboat, or a railroad in America. Who put the world on seventy-five yeara bevond what it would have been in enterprise, in comforts, in eduoational advantage, in good things without number? Capitalists. The more money a man gets the better, if It comes honestly and i6 employed righteously. Nevertheless wo all see that there needs to be a redistribution of property. Communism proposes to make that distribution by torch and dagger and dynamite. Throw the midnight express train off the track and put the factory into conflagration. Disrupt society, burglarize, assassinate. Such people believe neither in God nor man nor woman, and they know how to make things worse, but never have made and never can make anything better. I tell you how there will come a redistribution of property. Under the divine blessing good people will get more alertness and acumen and assiduity. Many good people are kept in straitened circumstances because they have been indolent or lacked courage to take honest advantage of circumstances, and were too stupid to get on. With the very same surroundings others went on to competency. In the better days to coma good men will have their faculties wakened, and will in consequence rise to larger share of prosperity. On the other hand, estates wrongfully accumulated will dissolve. If not the sons, tben the grandsons will make the money fly, and it will gradually scatter in their hands and become a part of the general wealth. Then, as to vast properties righteously gathered?and there are thousands of them ?such estates will contribute toward helping the unfortunate, not more by charities than by helping struggling people into lucrative business, and the man who has amassed enough and a surplus will say, "There is a young mercnant wuuoui any capium; j. win start him on Fulton street;" and ''There is a young mechanic who has no means of his own, and I will put him on a career of prosperity;" and "There is a farther with too big a mortgage on his land, and I will help him lift the encumbrance." The fact is that if the kindliness and generosity manifested by moneyed men toward the struggling during the last fifty years increases in the same ratic for the r.ext fifty years there will be a condition of society paradisiac. We are going to have a multiplication of William E" Dodge; and Peter Coopers and James Lenoxes and George reaboays. ao win come redistribution, and the crooked will be made straight. Mind this: God never yet undertook a failure. The old book, which is worth all other books put together, makes it plain that God nas undertaken to regulate this world bv gospel influences, and if He has the power He will do what He says He will, and no one *ho amounts to anything will deny HLs power. God has said a hundred times "I will," but never once has said "I cannot." We may with our tack hammers pound away trying to mend and improve and straighten the financial condition of the world, and be disappointed in the result, because our arm is too weak and the hammer we wield too small: but the most defiant difficulty will flatten and disappear when God with a hammer made of summer thunderbolts strikes it, saymg, "The crooked shall be made straight." hi your business concerns there are influences perplexing. Your affairs may Beem all right to outsiders, for business firms do not advertise their private troubles; but where one firm has everything just us it wants it there are a hundred firms at their ??a ,,-Vint +r> rir> icit-.h that rmrtner who Wil3 CUU ?? uau iv uw , draws more than his share of the profits* or with that stockholder who comes in just often enough to upset things, or with that disap{ earance of funds which you cannot account or, although you have suspicions you cannot mention; or with that investment which was made contrary to your judgment because there was a determination to push it through, or because you are going behind month by month, without any prospect of extrication. The trouble is putting a wrinkle on your forehead that ought not to appear there for ten years yet, and you will be rorty years old when you ought to be only thirty, or sixty when you ou:ht to be only fifty, or spvpntv when vou ought to be only sixty. Stop worrying; either By the dissolution of that firm or bv readjusting matters j'ou will bo brought safely through if you put your trust in God. When commercial houses fail the suspension is advertised, but of the tens of thousands of men who are every day extricated no public mention is made. Yesterday was Saturday, and I warrant that at the windows of banks, and in counting rooms of stores, and on every street of every city God appeared for the deliverance of good men as certainly as wheu with His right foot He trod Lake Galilee into placidity, and made Eaniel as safe among tho lions as thoueh they had been House (logs asleep on a rug before a win ter's fire. Throw yourself on the text, or a hundred other texts meaning about the same thing. I never yet asked God to do anything but He did it, if it were best, and in all tho cases whero my prayer has not been answered 1 have fpunci out afterward that It was best not to have been answered in my way. Bu1 none of us has tested tho full power of prayer. It is a forco very like somo of the forces of nature that were in existence but not employe:!. For ages electiicity was thought good for notaing buc to bum barn3 and kill people with one fell stroke. The lightning rod on tho top of house3 was the spear with 4-1^t\ tvakM rtVinfKn fKnn/lar. tv UlVU tuu MU11U vuui VU "UU VUUUUVistorm, as much a9 to say: "If you dare to come this way I will hurl you into the ground." But now electricity lightens homes and churches and cities and Christendom, and moves rail cars, and he is a rash man who mentions anything as impossible to this natural energy. So the power of prayer was to the world rather a frightful power, if it was any powerat all. But that has been changed, and men begin to use it in some things, and the time will come when it will be used in all things, and there will ba a Bible in every counting room, and supplication will ascend from every commercial establishment, and ( when business firms are formed the question will not only be asked as to how much this one and that one put in of capital, but the question will ba asked: "Do you know how 1 to pray?' Mightier agent than any natural fore3 yet developed will be this Gospel elec1 I tricity flashing heavenward for help, flashI ing earthward with divine response. Goi iu ! business life. God in agricultural life. God I in mechanical life. God in artistic life. God in every kind of life. I Your religion for the most part is hung up ! ?0 high you cannot reach it. It is hung up I on tho cloudy rafters of th9 sky, whera yoii expect to snatch it up as you finally go through for heavenly residenca. Oh, have your religion within easy reach now! Religion is not for heaven, but for this world. Once in heaven we will need no prayer, for we shall have everything wo want. Wo will | neei no repentance, for we shall have forever got rid of our sins. We shall have no need of comfort, for there will be no trouble. I The Christian religion is not for heaven, | where everything is all right, but for this | world, where so many things are all wrong. Washington Allston, whose name you I recogniz3 as that of a great American i painter, was reduced to extreme poverty, | and one day got on his knees ani asked for a loaf of bread for himself and his starving I family. While he was bowed in that prayer I there was a knock at the door, and a man | came in and said : "How about your painting, the 'Angel Uriel," that received the j prize at the royal academy? Has it been sold?' "No," said Al&Son. "How much do you want for it?" Allston replied: "I am done fixing a price, for I cannot get it." "Will four hundred pounds be enough?" asked the stranger. "Why, that is more fhan I asked," said Allston. The four hundred pounds (two thousand dollars) were paid, and the purchaser introduced himself as the Marquis of Stafford, who thereafter was one of the most liberal patrons of the rescued artist. "Oh, that all Just happened so!" Did it? Tell that to some ignorant man. snmfl henichted woman, who has nerer read the promise, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee," or that other promise, "The crooked shall be straight." "Well," says one, "yon don't apply thi3 in every direction." x es, i ao. iaKe r.ne most uncertain thing on earth?the weather. The Bible distinctly says that prayer controls the weather. James v., 17, 18: "Elias was a mau snbject to like passion? as we are, and he prayed earnestly tnat it might not rain, ana it rained not on the earth lor the space of three years and six months; and he prayed again and the heavens gave rain." Do you 6=y that was the weather of olden tiin9? There have bean instances in modern times just as marvelous. There's not a Christian ship captain but could give you instances of divine interference with the weather in answer to prayer. It has been my good fortune to know many ship captains. They are all in our services. They leave their vessels on Sunday mornings and join us in worship. I warrant there are enough of them present this morning to take a whole fleet in j safety across the Atlantic. Whenever I have heard them testify it has mightily confirmed me in what I knew before, that God answers Erayer concerning the weather. And there ave been cyclones that started up from the Caribbean Sea, sweeping down every sail and every smokestack and every mast in their course, which in answer to specific petition bare been diverted and made to curve around some particular snip, leaving tnat in calm waters, and then resuming their original path of destruction. The weather probabilities again and again have announced a tempest, and we were all ready for it, but to the surprise of most people the next day we saw the announcement that the atmospheric 1 - * * ? mi 1 I_JI tury naa caangea 119 course. iue pruuauuity is it struck a prayer and glanced off. If Elias's prayer affected the weather of Palestine for forty-two months, I should tliiuk somebody now might have a prayer that would affect it for a couple of days. John Easter was many years ago an evangelist in Virginia. A large oat-door meeting was being held in that State. Many thousands had assembled in the open air, and heavy storm clouds began to gather. There | was no shelter to which the multitude could ] retreat. The rain had already reached the adjoining fields when John E*ster cried out, "Brethren, be still while I call upon God to stay the storm till the Gospel is preached to this multitude." Then he knelt and prayed ! that the audience might be spared from the j rain, and that after they had gone to their homes there might come refreshing showers. B?hold, the clou is parted as they came near and passed to either side of the crowd and then closed again, leaving the place dry where the audience had assembled, and the next day the postponed showers came upon the ground that had been the day before omitted. Do you say it only happened so? I cannot see what you keep your Bibles for, and the God you worship is not my God. Your God is an autocrat, and he is so far off and so far up that the world cannot touch him, and his throne is an eternal iceberg. My God is a father, here and now. and a father will f' ivo his child what he asks for if it is best for im to have it. Pray about everything that concerns you, secularitie3 as well as spiritualities. Take to God all your annoyances and perplexities. The crooked shall be made straight. Some people talk as though God controlled things in general but not in par ticular; that He started everytmng unuer certain laws and then let it take care of itself, as an englnser might start nis locomotive on an iron railroad track and then jump off. What would happen to such a locomotive is what would long ago have happened to our world if God had smarted it and afterward allowed it to look out for itself. There is no such thing as a general providence. It is a particular providence. God has no general care for a forest. It is a care of every coll of every leaf and root in that forest. Go i has no general care of the ocean. It is a care of every drop of water iu the liquid magnitude. God has no general care for tho human race. It is a oara of every individual of that race, and of every item of individual history. I preach Him, a God in infinitesimals, an every day God, a God responsive, and one breath of earnest prayer, tnough that breath should not be strong enough to make a candle flicker, will absord more of the divine attention than if the archangel stan ling at tho foot of the throne should flap both wings. It is remarkable how many crooked things t re in tho providence of God beiug made straight. About thirty years ago our national affairs were as crooked as depraved American politics and bad men and Satan " - ? - a K r_: could make them, .from tne top 01 iuuiuc to the foot of Florida the nation was red with wrath, It was wrangle and fight all the way through, and one of the mildest things that the North and South promised each other was assassiuation. During thisumrcer I have traveled through New Tor. and Ohio and Illinois and Indiana and Mir nesota and Kansas and Nebraska and 311 6ouri and Texas and Louisiana and Geo:and North and South Carolina and Virginii and Pennsylvania, and I have shaken handi with tens of thousands of people and talked with men of all sections and degrees, and I have to tell you it is all peace, and in all the States of the Union you could not now marshall a military company of one hundret soldiers to fight against the United States Government unless you got your men out of the penitentiary. Did the corrupt and gangrened political parties do this work of rectification and pacification? No! It w is by divine interposition that the crooked has been made straight. On the 2d of December, 1S31, Louis Napoleon Bonaparto ro le down the Ch imps i Elysee of Paris, and under the hoofs of his | horse a republic was trampled as the ri ler i j wont to take a throne, it was the outrage of the century. For nineteen long years the I wroncr triumDhed. The will of one man who wanted to remain Emperor kept dowu ft nation who wanted a republic. But September, 1S70, arrive!, and Sedan unrollei its crimson scroll. Tho Emperor surrenders I with 83,000 troops. 419 field jruns, WOO I horses and 00,000 muskets. From tbat flay i the ballot box was up and tho throne w I down. Free institutions kavo been substiI fnr an infamous monarchy. Thank God! The crooked has been made straight. Bat why go so far to find fulflllmoat of my text? In all our lives there are crooked things that need to ba made straight, and each hearer or reader will enumerate for himself or herself. With one iti? dilapidated physical health, and you are saying, "Whv cannot I be in good health when 1 have sucn i opportunities and such responsibilities?" Alas i for the sick headaches, and the rheumatic joints, and the neuralgic thrusts, aaci tns lame foot! But you will be well soon. Life at the longest is an abbreviated durance. There is a black doctor that will cure you. Some people call him death. No disease was ever able to stand before his touch. Use all the means afforded for ohysical recuperation, but if they fail the hour of release is not far away. There need be no incurables. There is no sorrow that heaven cannot cure. Those who in this world have always been well will not get the best part of heaven. They will not have the advantage of contrast. Thsy were well be fore they left this world, and why should they be so gratulated at being well in the next world? But those who on earth were hindered or broken down in health what a contrast as they step into that domain where there has never been an aching brow, 01* lame foot, or Inflamed muscle, or disordered nerve! For forty years there may have been a stooping in the back, or a twisted muscle, or a curved spine, or a crooked limb, but the promise has been fulfilled, "The crooked shall be made straight." In manv a domestic life are difficulties to toe removed. There are thousands of Hatches that were not made in heaven. Some of the loveliest women have been united to some of the meanest m?n. and some of the grandest men to the most worthless women. There may be no sufficient causa of divorcement, but there has never been any accord. For them the wedding march ought never to have been played. The twain divergent in sentiment, the north polo and the south pole might just as well have been married. A twist of nettles would have been more appropriate than a garian I of orange blossoms. The unutterable mistake was made to please parents, or for the acquisition j? estate, or for Heightening ot social position, or from thorough thoughtlessness. I call the attention of such to the rapid dissolution ot families. This thought, which is a sadness to a happy marital state, might be a consolation to those unequally yoked. A very short path is the path of life. The rolling years will give quick emancipation. Everybody for discipline must havo some kind of trouble, and that is your trouble. Put in a song now and theflto cheer vour spirit. _ Make the best of tliifigs. Find in God that peace which 110 one else can bestow. The days and months and years are crowding past, and the last of the procession so far as you are concerned will soon have gone by. Remember that some of the best men and women who have ever I lived have had the same lifetime misfortune. | They bore up under it, and so can you. The expiration or tne lire or one ol you wm aiter i a while remove the affliction. Let the one that remains make no hypocritical mourning at the obsequies of the one that goes, or imitate those whom we have all noticed who fought like cats and dogs all their married state and then could not get enough orgaus to sound dfrge3 doleful enouzh, or furnishing stores to prepare weeds black enough, or tombstone cutters to chisal epitaphs eulogistic enough. It is a matter of congratulation that the nnhappiest conjugal relation will terminate. The crooked shall be made straight. In the ages of the world when people lived five or six or eight or nine hundred years such consolation for any kind of trouble would have been inapt. It would have brought no relief to some of those old patriarchs to say "you will have onlv seven hundred more years of this." But life has been abbreviated by the cutting off of century after century until we can console people, whether their trouble be financial or social or domestic, by saying it will not be long before the crookod shall ba made straight. But to those who were once happily united ! on earth, but are now separated, the same I ! thought comes in a good chesr. Not long separated! Tradition says that two bells were molded and sent from Spain for a distant laud to chime in a church tower. But while in a storm at sea one of these bells was wrecked and only one reached the shore and was hung in the church tower. And some people thought that, when standing on the land, they heard that bsll ringing for worship or in a wedding peal they could at the same time hear from the sea the lost bell ringing as if in response. Some of our friends ana I kinarea nave cro3sea taa stormy ssa auu ma in th9 tower of God oa high. But we are still in the temoest, and sometimes the surges beat over us, Due our soma are sew m accora with those who are gone, and they ring down to U3 and we ring up to them, and there is a sympathy bit wean us that cannot die. 4'Oh," says same one, "the crook in my lot you have not mentioned, ani I sit clear outside of all the consolations you have offered." Well, I will take after you with Gospel comfort and reach you before I close. Do you think your wound is so deep the Dl- J | vine Surgeon cannot treat it? Havs you a trouble that overmasters God? Is your an| noyanee of such nature that you must supj press it? Ah, that is what is killing you. | i Trouble must be told, or it stints to death the I one who carries it. If there is no man or ) woman that you can trust with the secret | you can trust God. Hie away to Him. Tell I | Him all about it. Lock your door and tell ! Him aloud, and if you do not get relief you will be the first soul in the six thousand years of the world's existence and the only one of the hundreds of millions of the human race, who ever called on God for help ] and did not zet it. In all the universe, in all eternity there is not an exception, otup brooding and commence praying. I bless my God in that, while there are many crooked things in life, there are some I thincra so straight GoJ Himse'f could not | make them straighter. Diving help comes i straight to thosa who will have it. The angels of mercy fly straight when they undertake a rescue. Tho hour of your final deliverance marches straight outof the eternities. And as the carpenter puts down his rub on a piece of timber, and with his axe hews away until the last inequality and irregularity disappears, ! so when God in the last groat day shall put down His unfailing measuring rule bs3ide that event which seamed tho most twisted in our lives or iu the world, it will b3 found out chat the last diaerapancy has vanished, and the last wrong has Dean righted, and th9 last crooked thing has bean made straight. Cougar Fights. I have often wondered what hindered the cougars from being very plentiful. ! They are monarchs of the woods, and are J very sly, with plenty of game and cattle ! to live on. This spring I was talking with an old cruiser (a man who hunts for timber and good land claims), wbo had followed the business for the last twenty years in Oregon. He never takes a gun, but carries only a blanket and a small axe. He related that one night when he was camping in the head of a ravine about dark he heard a cougar scream on one of the ridges, and this one was an| swercd by another on the opposite ridge. | They kept working toward the head, " ~ - i' OilO until nnttuy tncycame to?utm;r auuuuuv yards above him in some quaking aspen, and such a row and racket as they made he had never heard before. They rolled down within 100 yards of him, and he says he was pretty well scared, but ho kept up a big fire and stayed behind that. They quieted down in a couple of hours, ? and the next morning, when it was light j enough, he went on to the battle-ground, j lie found one of them lying there dead, | all cut and torn to pieces. It was a very i lar<;e one. Four days afterward, as he was coming back the same way, some 500 yards from where lie had found the first one, ho | stumbled upon the other one, dead, j Tin'? tnrv was nil p.nt and torn as the first J had beeu. At another time he heard a I : big light going on, but did not go to see j j the results. He was stopping one night I with an old Indian, who had hunted and I trapped all his life, and was telling him | about the fight, when the Iudian said I that that was the way when two old i males met; one or the other was killed, find very often both; and that whenever the male would find the young ones and the mother absent he would kill the last one of them, but if the mother were with them she would keep hiru off. That must ! be the reason that the mother goe.i with the young until they are nearly two years old. They say that all the cat kind will kill their young. We know that this is so with the domestic cat.?Forut and Stream. r'' V I SABBATH SCHOOL. v> ??? INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOB OCTOBER 12. jfe Lesson Text: "The Lord's Sapper," Lake xxH., 7-20?Golden Text: I. Cor. xi., 20?Commen !nrr\ * 7. "Thon came the day of unleavened bread when the passover must be killed.'' Or, as in the first verse, "The feast of unleavened bread drew nigh which is called the passover." This takes us back to Ex. xii., where we have the record of the last night in Egyptian bondage and their deliverance by the mighty power of God. We find there that the rassover lamb was slain on the fourteenth day of the month, at even* ing, and then followed seven dajra daring which they ate unleavened bread; there was to bo no leaven found in their houses during these days (Ex. xii., 0,15,19). Everything about this feast is of the deepest interest,and most practical as regards our salvation and daily life. It is the beginning of life to us when we are redeemed from a worse than Egyptian bondage by the blood of the Lamb (Christ our passover, 1 Cor. v^ 7); then we are for the full period of our stay here (symbolized by seven days) to put away all evil (leaven is always in scripture a symbol of evil), end with loins girded be ever ready for the Master's call to service or suffering, or to nteot Him in the air. 8. "And Ho sent Peter and John, saying, n.r\ artA nrnnorn i?o tVirt noo?AT?or f Uaf tva matr uv uuu_l;l v]>ui v uo iuu jsciajv (Ci, vuav n U iuaj eat." These two we have found specially privileged on several other occasions: at the raising of the ruler's daughter and at the transfiguration, and we shall And them again in Gethsemane. They also are the prominent two in'Acts iii. and iv. in connection with the healing of the lamo man and the conversion of Ave thousand. 9. "And they said unto Him, "Where wilt Thou that we prepare?" This is as it alwayi should be with a disciple of Christ Where wilt Thou? What wilt Thou I Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Thy way, not mine. "Trust in the Lord with ail thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding"^? (Prov. iii., 5). 10. "And He said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, thereshall . i a man meet you bearing a pitcher of wateri follow him into the house where he entereth in." As when He told them by His omniscience just where and how they would find the ass and the colt- and as when Samuel by the same omniscient spirit told Saul ' just whom ho would meet and what they would say and'do (Luke.xix., SO; L Sam. x., 3-9). So now knowing all things He directs them. 11. "And ye shall say unto the good man of the house, The Master saith unto thee, where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?" He not only tells us when and where to go and how to act, but Ho also tells us what to say. * 12. "And He shall show you a large upper room furnished; there made ready." Here is a willing owner of a house: it looks as if he must bo a disciple; he will offer a largo furnished room, and do it cheerfully. Are mir homes as checrfullv ulaced at the Mas ter's disposal, and is everything excluded from tbe horro that Ho would not like? 13. "And they went and found as He bad said unto them; and they made ready the passover." Prompt and cheerful obedience is our part as His followers. 14. "And when the hour was come, He eat down, and the twelve apostles with Him." With God there is a time for everything, and He is never too fast nor too slow. ''When the fullness of time had come He sent forth His Son." He has appointed a day in which Ho will judge the world" (Gal. iv., 4; Acta, xvii., 31). Many a time they tried to take Jesus to put Him to death, but they could not touch Him till the appointed time came, and then He gave Himself into their hands. 15. "And Ho said unto tliom. With desire* I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer;" or, as in the margin, "I have heartily desired." We think of Him at the passover, at the age of twelve and at the first passover of His public ministry. W o look awav back to tko first passover in Egypt, and think of tho one in the wilder* t ness, and at Gilgal, and the great ones of Hezekiah and Josiah and Ezra; but thiscne^^ which He desired so greatly to eat with > them was the greatest of nil, for it was the fulfillment of all, and He who uow ate it with them was on the morrow to bo Himself slain, the great antetype of all the passovers that were ever kept, tho true Lamb of God in whom alone is redemption and deliverance from tho great oppressor. 1p>. "Tor I fn v unto voil I will not anv more eat thereof until itlw fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." If He is the true Paschal Lamb, and His death about to be accomplished, the fulfillment of all the types, then what is this He says about a fulfillment in the Kingdom of Ucd? If tbo church is the Kingdom, as so many teach, and the King* dom has already come, then let somo ona j who so believes please explain this verse. But if the Kingdom is postponed till His return, as He taught in cliap. six., 11-15: and if at His return there is to bo a great gathering of Israel, from all the corners of the earth, as all the prophets teach; and if it shall be according to the days of their coming out of Egypt (Mic. vii., 15), then it seems to me all plain. The first passover was in connection with their deliverance from Egypt; but according to Jer. xxiii., 5-8, the coming out of all countries when the passover shall have its kingdom fulfillment will be so glorious that the former shall not be mentioned. 17. "And ho took the cup and gave thanks, and raid, Take this and divide 't amone ' yourselves." According to Geikie there were four cups of wine at tho passover feast, and this is said to bs one of the four, a part of the passover. Some one has suggested that He ate the passover, symbol of suffering, but did not drink tho passover wine, which was a symbol of joy. While Ho was sustained by the joy set before Him. yet the next hours of the night and of the day following were to bring such suffering as earth never saw either before or since; ana it would be no wonder if He was filled with the immediate prospect and soma what overcome. 18. "For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of tlie viue until the Kingdom of God shall coma." Then shall all Israel's fast days become joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Then the ransomed of tha Lord shall , return and come to Zioa with songs and ' everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and . sighing shall flee away. 19. And Ho took bread and gave . thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me." Having kept the passover He now institutes a new feast which wo call The Lord's Supper, or The Communion. And as written in I. Cor. xi., 20, "As often as yeeat this bread and drink this cup vo do shew the Lord's death till He come." This feast, like the passover, points backward and forward ?His death?till He come. But while the passover was kept only once a year He leaves no rule how often this is to be kept. It would seem from the book of Acts that the disciples were in tha habit of keeping it on the first day of each week. Whenever we do keep it * - i 1 ~9 tXfa lot lis as we reeeivo iaa uroau, spnuui m body, broken for us. feed upon Him in our hearts by faith, and yield our bodies to ba broken in His service. 'JO. "Likewise also the cap after suppsr, saying, This eup is tho new testament in ily Wood which is shed for you." In the same sense tbat Ho is the door, tho true vine, the Jiving bread, in that ssnse only is the bread and wine His body and blood, and wo partake of each iu grateful remombrauce of His sufferings for us, whereby we become mem^ * 1? 3 ? ?J 1? I- fr. Hia ocrs 01 IX1S UOU}, ituu twn 1UKIUIU m coming when we shall be perfected in His likeness. Let u3, when we partake of the wine, think of Eis blood shed for us, and pray to be such faithful witnesses that we shall be willing to seal our testimony with our blood, not loving our lives unto tho death.?Lesson Helper. j If we can believe a Nova Scotia sea captain, the sea serpent, or at least a , sea serpent, is dead. The captain avers that ho saw the carcass of the monster floating on the water, and ho gave a minute description of him. Granting that (he captain is not romanoinjr, he neglected a great opportunity to make a great name for himself, to get much money and to do an Inffllmlehlfl nervica to science. Ho shorJd ha7o to^vad the dead monator Into horbor, and thus he \roald havo been tlio ccr.ior of tho mariuo sensation of the sea*v>-it .... , V