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A CHARACTER. Everything pleased my neighbor Jim, "When it rained He never complained, -But said the weather suited him. "There's never loo much rain for me, And this is something like," said he. When earth was dry as a powder mill, lie did not sigh Because it was dry, Hut said if he could have his will It would be his chief, supreme delight To live where the sun shone day and night, When winter came, with its snow aud ice, He did not scold Because it was cold, But said: "Now this is real nice; If ever from home I'm forced to go, I'll move up north with the Esquimau." A cyclone whirled along its track; And did him harmIt broke his arm, Aod stripped the coat from off his back; "Anc? I would zive another limb To nee such a b'.ow again," said Jim. And when at lengt> his years were told, And his body bent, And his strength all spent, And Jim was very weak and old; "I long have wanted to know," he said, "How it feels to die,'1 and Jim was dead. The angel of death had summoned hioa To heaven, or?well, I cannot tell; But I know that the climate suited Jim; And, hot or cold, it mattered not? It was to him the long-sought spot. ?0. F. Feavre,in Bloomington Pantograph. Andy Claim's New Girl. Andy Clafin's promotion from the office of poster of advertisements on the "L" road to that of gateman was celebrated by his friends of Seventh avenue ! with much enthusiasm, at great length j and at Andy's expense. Instead of traveling over the line every I day with a heavy canvas bag full of ! lithographs and a paste bucket, he re- ! ceived a uniform and the responsibility of deciding whether or not he should bang the gate in the face of an overheated and excited citizen who might be trying to catch the last ferryboat at Cortlandt street. 1 he new jod pleased Andy immensely, j He did not mind the rain, and he did j enjoy the sua and the big double panorarnn that rolled past him so many times a day from the Battery to Fifty-eighth street. He soon learned to look as if he had not seen the wild rush of his latest victim when lie slammed the iron gate upon him and turned his back in such a way as to hide his badge number and whistled "Annie Iiooney" while the citizen pauted and raged. Ke soon made the acquaintance of many of the regular passengers, and gathered in their morning papers and cigars with a readiness and easy grace that made him popular. His greatest success, however, and his greatest pleasure lay with the beautiful young women along Sixth avenue, who sat sewing at the second story windows. He was a very handsome lad, was Acdy Clafiu, and his uniform was new and fitted him well. He uoco his j hat in a most knowing and jaunty man- I rer over one eye and winked pleasantly ! witfe-'tlie other. His grin was most in- | gratiating, and before he had been at \ the gate a month lie hid so many girls j waiting to smile at him that it kept him j busy dodging from one side of the platform to the other. They were of every age and appearance and nationality, fnr Amlv wns moat impartial. All he asked was that they should be pretty. ! There was a plump, blond German girl in lileecker street who sewed buttojs on men's coats, and a Jewess with brilliant black eyes and black hair, just above Eighth street, and a very haughty beauty at Fourteenth. These were his especial favorites, and : "he was most particularly careful not to : miss any of these th:ee, although the -others were little less attractive. Occasionally he would shake his head and take himself to task for so heedlessly devastating the peace of mind of so many innocent maidens. "It 'tain't right," he would soliloquise solemnly. "It 'tain't Tight. There's no use putting foolish ideers in those girls' heads aud making 'em think of matrimony when they aiu't out of their 'teens. They might just as : vreil fall in love with a sailor as an L ' road brakeman, for we've a girl at every j station, and we're never stuck on one for more'n one block at a time. It :taiut j right, and next trip I'll keep me eyes inside the car.'' But on the next trip it seemed so 1 ^ A. A. - -1 .1 J carmicss jusi 10 nou anu say "uooa morning, ray dear," that Andy always nodded, and could not heln throwiug with the i ? nod a glance of deep and unutterable pas- . Bion, which is a very difficult thing to do i fifl'ectively, as you will see if you try it, ' -on an L train going at the average rate J of speed. One day the haughty beauty above j Fourteenth street disappeared, and her j place was taken by another. This new j -comer did not look up as the train passed i by, but Audy could see her profile bent j over her sewing machine, and he thought j it the daintiest, sweetest fa?e he had ever ?ecn. It tnfjde him gasp it surprised him ! so, and then lie whistled, which was his way of expressing his deep admiration. He was still wondering over this vision of | beauty and industry when he reached i Eighteenth street, and quite forgot to cpen the sates. She was there on there- : turn trin. but as she was on the further j side be could not see her so well. She j was just as beautiful though at that dis taucr, and he wondered why anything so Ira-iif and pretty should have to work. | > It seemed a long time before they i reached Hector street and came up town j agitin, but he was rewarded for the long wait by her glancing up and looking at him calmly as he swept by. He tried to throw all bis admiration into that one fleeting glance, but doubted if it had been successful, for she did not look af- j ter him but continued sewing. It v as a week before he could get l;cr to ihoiV the least interest in his progress _ by the window. This piqued bim, and he determined to smile at an imaginary girl in the window above, and see if he could not awaken her jealousy. But the window above was occupied by au old j woman at least sixty years oil, and he 1 accordingly gave up the ide:i au I throw j the bundle of morning papers to her in- i stead. They hit her on the shriikler, aud ho could not see what she did, as , they were behind tiaie an I going rapidly. On the next trip she looked up and j bowed over 30 slightly and flushed as j slightly. Andy made a deop an 1 1 reveret>t bo v which was not fiuWhel before hs'ul reac'ie I Eight.'-* 1:1 strjjt. Aftvr -hai it was laore or easy. He , , ... > ' threw all the papers he coukl collect that were not too much rumpled, and even purchased the comic papers for her, at the Fifty-eighth street station. To a large and choicely selected package of these he attached a note, with much fear and trepidation, which read: "Would you do the writer the pleasure of taking you to the Eden Musee this evening? If so, will be pleased to wait for you at foot of Twenty-third street station, south side, this evening, halfpast seveu. Axdy Clafix." He tossed this in through the window on his 10:30 trip up, and was disappointed at not finding her at the wiudow on his return down-town, but on his way up he saw her there, and as he passed she threw a package bark to him, and he caught it gladly and with numerous no3s and smiles. He had not played first base on the Ilarlem Tarricrs baseball nine for nothing. He tore open the paper covering anxiously, and found to his dismay that the package consisted of the periodicals for which he had paid $1.15, and that his note was returned with the words 'No, thank you," written across it in pencil. Andy hurled the comic papers down on the head of an unfortunate and unoffending old lady oa the street below, and banged the gate on another old lady's skirts because she did not get out quickly enough. After that rebuil there were no more papers tossed iu, and Andy turned his back when lie passed the window. He fouud this harder for him than for her after a week of it, and continued to look in at her window; but with such a deep and dreadful scowl that even had the young girl wished to smile she would have been seared out of it. Then Andy fouud his romance was causing him great unhappiness. He took 110 pleasure in shouting airy persiflages at the ticket choppers or iu smiling at the blonde German girl or the Jewess, and he became so gentle and civil that tli2 passengers decided that he must be ill, and imposed upon his good nature in consequence. He thought she did not look very happy herself, and her profile, which was all ho ever saw of her now, grew somewhat pinched and sharp. He wondered if she was pining away for him, or whether she had another "feller" who was not treating her well. He felt inclined to punch this other feller's head. And then one day, just as the car drew out of Fourteenth street station, he saw a man running to the fire alarm btx, and looking up the street saw smoke coming out of a third story in the middle of the block, her block! And as the train drew on he saw that it was from her house that the fire came. She was at the window as he passed, with a dark background of black smoke sweeping up behind and arouud her. She had one knee on the sill and both hands against the sides of the window. She was white with fear, and trembling, and she could hear the people below shouting to her not to jump. " Hold oa," he called-to her ; " don't let go for God^sake, wait !" When the train slowed up at Eighteenth street he was out of it and down stairs like a madman and through the crowd about the blazing shop-front as though they had been so many stalks of corn. He went blindly up the stairs through the smoke and across the floor that crackled and bent under his weight. He could see her dimly through the curtain of smoke that blinded and choked him, but he reached her just in tim;, so they told him afterward, as she fell back fainting. He put one arm arouud her and felt his way back to the door with the otaei, and stumbled down the stairs. At the bottom the flames rose up iu front of him suddenly and cut off the way, but he jumped from the Sfth or sixth step out and over them and fell into the aims of two brawny firemen, one of whom picked up the girl as though she had been a baby, while the other threw Andy over his shoulder with a quick twist and, holding him by the left wrist and the right leg, rau stooping with him through the hall to the pavement. The newspapers made a great deal of rescue the next dav and Audv was forgiven for deserting his train, as the results seemed to justify so flagrant a breach of discipline. Since then there have been among the visitors to the Eden Musee a young man of prepossessing appearance, carrying one arm in a sling, who was accompauicd by a remarkably pretty girl hanging on the other one. And one has only to look at them to see that they are engaged.?Neu: York Ettainj Sun. The Perfection of Politeness. In a company in which I found myself lately the conversation turned upon politeness, which some one well defined as "timely thoughtfulness, with human sympathy behind it." One member of the party told of the most thorough bit of true politeness he over saw. 'Some time a^o," said lie, "a friend of mine gave a little dinner, to which a young friend, his wife and their little child were invited. The child, only three year.3 old, was a very precocious, bashful and terribly sensitive little one. During the dinner she upset a glass of water upon the table cloth, and hastily noticing the looks in her direction, her little lip quivered and her eyes tilled with tears. "At that moment my friend who gave -i: 1 -I..4 U?<, tue UlllllUi KUUUtVUU XJWl UIO v/??u with fi crash that drew every eye in his direction. He laughed over the matter, said it made no difference, etc., and completely succeeded in withdrawing the attention from the child, who soon smiled again. "That I consider to have been the perfection of politeness."?yeio York Star. Dissipated Ducks. During the past week the men on Burphee's Forkhook seed farm, a short distance west of Doylestuwn, have been gathering tomatoes and extracting the -'jjd. The vegetable is first ground and then p'.ace.l where the mass is allowed ti> ferment. It is then put through a washer, allowing the pulp to float away, while the seed settles at the bottom of the machine. The work is done on the margin of a small brook which emptics>into :i iirmil frpnuonted hv a handsome llock of white Pekin ducks. The ducks contracted the habit of coining up to the l'iicuth of the stream and drinking the fermented juice of the torr.ntoes, which contains the most salicDt characteristics of 4'.Jersey lightning." They soon become drunk and stagger about in the most ludicrous manner. They have become so fond of the stuff t'.vit n genuine o'.d spree is of daily occurrence. ?Uoyientoicn {Penn.) Vaiuc. at. REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "The Holy Land in Winter." Test: "A certain man went down from, 1 Jerusalem to Jericho."?Lukes., 30. It is the morning of December 5 in Jerusalem, and we take stirrups for the road along which the wayfarer of old fell among thieves, who left him wounded and half dead. Job's picture of the horse in the orient as having neck "clothed with thunder" is not true of most horses now in Palestine. There is no thunder on their necks, though there is some lighthing in their heels. Poorly fed and unmercifully whacked, they sometimes retort. To Americans and English, who are accustomed to guide horses by the bridle, these horses of the orient, guided only by foot and voice, make equestrianism an uncertainty, and the pull on the bridle that you intend for slowing up of the pace may be mistaken for a hint that you want to outgallop the wind or wheel iu swift circles like the hawk. But , they can climb steps and descend precipices with skilled foot, and the one I choose for our journey in Palestiue shall have the praise of going for weeks without one stumbling step and amid rocky steeps, where en ordinary lior.;e would not for an hour maintain surefooteduess. There were eighteen of our party, and twenty-two beasts of burden carried our camp equipment. We are led by an Arab sheik, with his black Nubiau servant carrying a loaded gun in full sight, Lut it is the fact that this sheik represents the Turkish Government which assures the safety of the caravan. We cross the Jelioshaphat Valley, which, If it bad not been memorable in history and were only now discovered would excite the admiration of all who look upon it. It is like the gorges of the Yosemite or the chasms of the Yellowstone Park. The sides of this Jelioshaphat Valley are tunneled with graves and overlooked by Jerusalem walls?cu eternity of depths overshadowed by an eternity of architecture. Within sight of Mount Olivet and Gethsemaue and with the heavens and the earth full of sunshine, wo start out on the very road mentioned in the text rrhou it says: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves." No road that I ever saw was so | well constructed for brigandage ? deep gullevs, sharp turns, caves on either side. There are fifty places on this road where a highwayman might surprise and overpower an unarmed pilgrim. His cry for help, his shriek of pain, his death groan would be answered only by the echoes. On this road today we met groups of men, who, judging from their countenances, have in their veins the blood of many generations of Rob Roys. Joeephus says that Herod at one time discharged from the service of the temple forty thousand men, and that the great part of them became robbers. So late as 1820 Sir Frederick Henmker, an English tourist, was attacked ou this very road from Jerusaiem to Jericho and shot and almost slain. There ha? never been anv scarcity of bandits akmg the road we travel to-day. With the fresh memory of soma recent violence in their minds" Christ t-alls the people of tie good Samaritan who came along that way and took caro of a poor fellow that bad been set upon by villainous Arabs and robbed an T pounded and cut. We encamped for lunch that noon closo by an old 6tono building, said to lo the tavern where the scene spoken of in the Bible culminated. Tumbled in the dust and ghastly with j wounds the victim of this highway robbery lav in the middle of the road?a f*ct of wruch I am certain, because the Bible says the people passed by on either side. There were 13,000 priests living at Jericho, and they had to go to Jerusalem to officiate at the temple. And ouo of these ministers of religion, I suppose, was on his way to the temple service, and he is Btartled as he sees thia bleeding victim in tho middle of thr road. "Oh," he says, "here is a man that nas been attacked of thieves. Why don't you go home?"' says the minister. The man, in a comatose state, makes no answer, or, with a half dazed look, puts his wounded hand to his gashed foreb?5?d, and drawls out, "What?" "Well," says the minister, "I must hurry on to my duties at Jerusalem. I hare to kill a lamb and two pigeons in sacrifice to-day. I cannot sp9Ud any more time with this unfortunate. I gue?s some- < body else will take care of him. Bnt this is one of the things that cannot be helped, anyhow. Beside that, my business i? with souls and not with bodies. Good morning I vTJien you get well enough to sit up I will be glad to see you at tbe temple." And tho minister curves his way out toward the overhanging tides of the road and passes. Ton hypocrite I Ona of tbe chief officers of religion is to head wounds. You might have done nere a kindness that would have been more acceptable to God than all the incense that will smoke up from you censer for the next three weeks, and you missed the chance. Go on your way?execrated by the centuries. Soon afterward a Levite came upon tho scene. The Lrvitf-s looked after the music of t"he temple and waited upon the priests and provided the supplies of the temple. This Levite, passing along this road where we are to-day, took a look at the maw of bruises and laceration in the middle of tho road. "My! my."' says the Levite, "this man is awfully hurt and he ought to be 1 * * * t _T i.1.^ oeipeu. J3uc my uusmess is mj siug m bus choir at the temple. If I am not there no one will carry my part. Besides that there may not be enough frankincense for the censers and the wine or oil may have given out, and what a fear ul balk in the service that would make. Then one of the priests mijht gethig breastplate on crooked. But it seams too bad to leave this man in this condition. Perhaps I had better try to stanch this bleeding and give him a little stimulant. But no I The ceremony at Jerusalem is of more importance than taking care of the wounds of a man who will probably soon be dead any* how. This highway robbery ought to be stopped, for it hinders us Le-vitee on our way up to the t?rat>le. There, I have lost Ave minutes alreftoy! Go along, you beast!" he shouts as be strikes his heels into the sides of the animal carrying him, and the dust rising from the road soon hides the hard hearted official. But a third person is coming along this road. You cannot expect him to do anything by way of alleviation, because he and the wounded man belong to different na I tions which have abominated each other I for centuries. The wounded man is an Israelite, and the stranger now coming on the scene of suffering is a Samaritan. They belong to nations which hated each other with an objurgation and malediction diabolic. They had opposition temples?one on Mount Uc-rizim and the other on Mount Moriah?and I guess this Samaritan, w:ien he comes up,'will give the lalien Israelite another clip and say: "Good for you! I will just finish the work these bandits be^au, and give you one mere kick that wiJl put you out of your misery. And herd is a ra^ of your coat that they did not steal, and I wiJl take that. What! Do you dare to appeal to me for mercy? Hush up! Why, your ancestors worshiped at Jerusalem whan trey ought to have worshiped at Gerizim. Now, take that! and that! and that!" will eay the Samaritan as he pounds the fallen Israelite. No: the Samaritan rides up to the scene of suffering, gets off his beast and steps down and looks into the face of the wounded man audsays: "This poor fellow does not belong to rav nation, and our ancestors worshiped in different places, but he is a man, and tnat makes us brothers. God pity him, as I do." And he get down on his knees and begins to examine his wounds and straighten out his limbs to see if any of his bones are broken, and says: "My dear fellow, cheer up; you need have no more care about yourself, for I am going to take care of you. I<et ma fuel I of your pulse! Let me listen to your breath i iug! I have in these bottles two liquids? i that will help you. The one is oil. and than Will soothe the paia of the^e wounds, auritiie other is wine, and your pulse is feeble aud you feel faiut, and that will stimulate you. Now I must get you to the nearest tavern." "Ob, no," says the man, "I can't walk; let me stay hero and die." "Nonsense!" says the Samaritan. "You are not going to die. I am going to put you on this b?ast, and I will hold you on "till I get you to a place where vou can have a soft mattress and an easv pillow.'' Now the Samaritan has got the wounded man on his feet, and with much tugging and lifting puts him on the beis$, for it is astonishinz how strong the spirit of kindness will make one, as you have seen a mother after three weeks of sleepless watching of her boy, down with scarlet fever, lift that half grown boy, heavier than herself, from couch to louuzo. And so this sympathetic Samaritan has unaided put the wounded man iu the i 6addle, and at slow ..pace the extemporized j | ambulance Is moving toward tha tavern. "You feel batter now, I think." says the Samaritan to the Hebrew. "Yes," ho says, "I do feel better." "Halloo, you landlord! help [ me carry this man in and make him comfortable." That night the Samaritan sat up with the Jew, giving him water whenever he felt thirsty and turning his pillow whenever it got hot, and in the morning before j the Samaritan started on his journey ho spid. "Landlord, now I am obliged to go. Take Rood care of this man, and I will ba along here soon again and pay you for all you do for him. Meanwhile here is something to meet present expenses." The "two nonpfl" travft the landlord sounds small, t>ut ft was as much as ten dollars hare and now, considering what it would there and tben buy of food and lodging. As on that December noon we sat under the shadow of the tavern where this scene of mercy had occurred, and just Having passad along the road whore the tragedy had happened, I could, as plainly as I now see the nearest man to this platform, see that Bible i story re-enacted, and I said aloud to our [ group, under the tent: NiOne drop of prac- | tical Christianity isworth more than a templeful of ecclesiasticism, and that good Samaritan had more religion in Ave minutes than that minister and that Levite had in a lifetime, and the most accursed thing on earth is national prejudice, and I bless God that X live in America, where Gentile and Jew, Protestant and Catholic can live together without quarrel, and where in the great national crucible the differences of sect and tribe and people are being molded into a great brotherhood, and that the question which the lawyer flung at Christ, and which brought forth this incident of the eood Samaritau? 'Who is my neighbor? is bringing forth the answer, 'My neighbor is the first man I meet in trouble,' ana a wound close at hand calls louder than a temple seventeen miles off, though it covered nineteen acres." I saw in London the vast procession which one day last January moved to St. Paul's Cathedral at the burial of that Christian hero Lord Napier. The day after at Hawarden, in conversation on various themes, I asked Mr. Gladstone if he did not think that many who were under the shadow of false religions might not nevertheless be at heart really Christian. Mr. Gladstona replied: "Yes; my old friend Lord Napier, who was yesterday buried, after he returne 1 from his Abvssiman campaign, visited us here at Hawardeu, and waiffing in this park where we are now walking he told me a very beautiful incident. He said: 'After the war in Africa was over we were on the march, and wo had a soldier with a bro!:en leg who was not strong enough to go along with us, and wo did not dare to leave him to be taken caro of by savages, but wo found we were compelled to leave him, and f we went into the house of a woman who was i said to be a very kind woman, though of the j race of savages, and we said, "Here is ! a sick man, and if you will take care of him till he gets well we wili pay you very largely," and then wo offered her five times that which would ordinarily be offered, hoping by the excess of pay to secure for him great kindness. The woman replied: "I will not take care of him for the money you offer. I do not want your money. But leave him here, and I wili take care of him for the sake of the love of God."'" Mr. Gladstone turned to me and said, "Dr. Talmage. don't you think that though she belonged to a race of savages that was pure religionf" And I answered, "Ido; I do." May God multiply all the world over the number of good Samaritans! In Philadelphia a voung woman was dying. She was a wreck. Sunken into the depths of depravity, there was no lower depth for her to reach. Word came to tbe midnight mission that she was dying in a haunt of iniquity uear by. Who would go to tall her of the Christ of Mary Magdalen? This one refused and that one refused, saying, "I dare not go there." A Christian woman, her white locks tvDical of her Duritv of soul, said, "1 will go, and 1 will go now." Sha went and sat down by the dying girl and told of Christ who came to seek and save that which was lost. First to the forlorn one cams the tears 01 repentance, ana then the smile, as though she had begun to hope for the pardon of Him who came to save to the uttermost. Then just before she breathed her last she said to the augel of mercy bending over her pillow, "TVouid you kiss "me*" "i will," said the Christian woman, as she put upon her cheek the last salutation before, in the heavenly world, I think, God gave her th9 welcoming kiss. Th?.t was religion! Yes, that was religion. Good Samaritans along every street and along every road as well as this one on th? road to Jericho. But our procession of sightseers is again in line, and here wa pass through a deep ' ravine, and I cry to the dragoman: "David, what placo do you call this?" and he replied: "This is the Brook Cherith, where Elijah was fed by the ravens." And in that answer he overthrew my life long notions of the place where Elijah was waited on by the black servants of the sky. A j brook to me had meant a slight depression j of ground and a stream fordable, and perhaps fifteen feet wide. But here was a chasm that an earthquake must have scooped out with its biggest shovel or split with its mightiest battle ax. Six hundred feet deep is it, and the brook Cherith is a river which, when in full force, is a silver wedge ; splitting the mountains into precipices. The j feathered descendants of Elijah's ravens still j wing their way across this raviue, but are not like the crows we supposed them to be. They areas large as eagles, and one of them could carry iu its beak and clinched claw at once enough food for a half dozen Elijahs. No thanks to the ravens; th-y are carniverous, and would rather have picke I out the eves of Elijah, whom they found at the mouth of the cave on th9 side of Cherith waiting'for his breakfast, having drunk his moraine beverage from tl? rushinc stream beneath, than have been his butlers and ' purveyors. But God compelled them, as He al way9 has compelled and always will compel black and cruel and overshadowing providences to carry help to His children if they only have faith enough to catch the blessing as it drops from the seeming adversity, too greatest blessing ahvays coming not with white wings but black wings. Black wings of conviction, bringing pardon to the sinner. Black wings of crucifixion over Calvary, bringiug redemption for the world. Black wings of American revolution, bringing free institutions to a continent, clack wings of American civil war, bringing unification and solidarity to the republic. Black wings of the judgment day bringing resurrection to an entombed human, race. And in the last day, when all your life and mine will be summed up, we will find that the gr?atest blessing we ever received c&mo ou the wings of the black ravens of disaster. Bless God for trouble! Bless God for sickness! Bless God for persecution! Bless God for poverty I You never heard of any man or woman of great usa to the world wiio had not had lots of trouble. The diamond must be cut; the wheat must be threshed; the black ravens must fly. Who are these nearest the throne? "These are they who come out of great tribulation, and bad their robss Washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb " But look! Look what at 4 o'clock in the afternoon bursts upon our vision?the plain of Jericho, and the valley of Jordan, and the Dead Sea. We have come to a place where the horses not so mach walk as slide up on their haunches, and wo all dismount, for the steep descent is simply terrific, though a Princess of Wallac'iia who fell here and wa* rinncrMvmslv iniurg'l. o f tor recovery spent a large amount mon-jy in trying to make tho road passable. Down and down! till we saw the white tents pitched for us by our muleteersamid the ruins of ancirnt Jericho, which fell at tho sound of poor music played on a "ram's horn," that anciont instrument which, taken from the head of the leader of the flock of sheep, is perforated and prepared to be fingered by the musical performer, and blown upon when pressed to tho lips. As in another sermon I have fully described that scane, I w.ll only say that every day for seven days tho ministers of religion went round tha city of Jericho blowing upou those rams' horns, and on tho seventh day, without tho roll of u war chariot, or tho stroke of a catapult, or tho swing of a ballista, crasii! crash! crash! went the walls of that magnificent capital 1 ~ '* - ? T\ f. T?.? UD loo evening ui i/cccuiuut u ??w amid the brick and mortar of that shattered city, and I said to mysolf: All this done by poor music biost of God, for it was not a harp, or a flute, or a clapping cymbal, or an organ played, at the kouuu of which the cily surrendered to destruction, but a rude instrument making rude music blest of Gcd, to t.ho demolition of that wicked place which, had for centuries deiiod the Almighty. And I said, if all this was by the blessing of God on poor music, what mightier things could be done by ths blessing of God on good music, skill ful music, gospel music. If all the good tbat has already bean done by music wefe subtracted from tbd world I believe threefourths of its religion would be gone. The lullabys of mothers which keep sounding on, though the lips that sang them forty years ago became ashes; the old hymns in log cabin churches and country meeting houses, and psalms in Rouse's version in Scotch kirks; the anthem in English cathedrals; the roll of organs that will never let Handel or Haydn or Beethoven die; the thump of harps, the Bweep of the bow across bass viols, the son? of Sabbath schools storming the heaven3,tha doxology of great assemblages?why, a thousand Jerichos of sin have by them all been brought down. Seated by the warmth of our campfires that evening of December 6, amid the bricks and debris of Jericho.and thinking what poor music has done and what mightier things could be accomplished bv the blessings of God on good music, I said to myself: Ministers have been doing a grand work, and sermons have been blessed, but wouid it not be well for us to put more emphasis on music? Oh, for a campaign of "Old Hundred!" Oh, for a brigade of Mount Pisgahs! Oh. for a cavalry charge of "Coronations!" Oh, for an army of Antiochs and St. Martins and Arielsl Oh, for enough orchestral batons lifted to marshal all nations! As Jericho was surrounded by poor music for seven days, and was conquered, , so let our earth be surrounded seven days I *? -J fKn i*nuni4 nlflnof I uy gUUU ^uapci IUU31V;, uuu WUO tuuuu will be takea for God. Not a wall of oppoI sition, not a throne of tyranny, not a palace of sin, not an enterprise of unrighteousI ness, could stand the mighty throb of such | atmospheric pulsation. Music! It sounded at the laying of creation's corner stone when the morning stars sanyj together. Music! It will bo the last reverberation, when the archangel's trumpet shall wake the dead. Music! Let its full power be now tested to comfort and bless and arouse and save. While our evening meal is being prepared in the tents we walk out for a moment to the "Fountain ofElisha," the one into which the prophet threw the salt because the waters were poisonous and bitter, and lo! they became sweet and healthy; and ever since with gurgle and laughter, they have rushed down the hill and leaped from the rocks, the only cheerful object in all that region being these waters. Now on this plain of Jericho the sun is setting, making tho mountains look like balustrades and battlements of amber and maroon and gold; and the moon, just above the crests, seems to be a window of heaven through which immortals might be loooking down upon the scene. Threa Arabs as watchmen sit beside the camp fire at the door of my tent, their low conversation in a strange lauguago all night long a soothing rather than an interruption. I had a dream that night never to be foromirl fKa nnmnlofi rui'rta gut-Lou, iua?uin?ui?iiuu vuw of Jericho. Its past grandeur returned, and I saw the city as it was when Mark Antony gave it to Cleopatra aud Herod bought it from her. And I heard the hoofs of its swift steeds and the rumbling of its chariots and the shouts of excited spectators in its amphitheatre. And there was white marblo amid green grove3 of palm and balsam; cold stone warmed with sculptured foliage; hard pillars cut into soft lace; Iliads and Odysseysin granite; basalt jet as the night mounted by carbuncle flaming as the morning; upholstery dyed as though dipped in the blood of battle fields: robes encrusted with diamond; mosaics wmte as sea foam flashed on by auroras; gayeties which the sun saw by day rivaled by revels the moon saw by night; blashphemy built against the sky; ceilings stellar as the midnight heavens; grandeurs turreted, archivoltcd and intercolumnar; wickedness so appalling that established vocabulary fails, and we must make an adjectiv* and call it Herodie. The region round about the city walls seemed to me white with cotton such as Thenius describes as once growing there, end sweet with sugar cane, and luscious with orange and figs and pomegranates, and redolent with such flora as can only grow where a tropical sun kisses tho earth, Aud the hour came back to me when in the midst of all that splendor Herod died, commanding his sister Salome immediately after his death to secure the assassination of all the chief Jews whom he had brought to the city and shut ip in a circus for that purpose, and the news :ame to the auiience m tho theatre as some )iie took the stage and announced to the exnted multitude: "Herod is dead! Herod is lead!" Then in my dream all the pomp of Tericho vanished, and gloom wa3 added to ;loo:n, and desolation to desolation, aud woe a woe, until, perhaps the ripphng waters )f the fountain of Elisha suggesting it?as :ouuds will sometinas give direction to a lream?I thought that the waters of Christ's alvation and the fountains ''open for sin ind uncleann.'iss" were rolling through that >iain and across the continent, aud rolling ouui the earth, until on either side of their janks all the thorns became flowers, and ill the deserts gardens, and all tho iov?ls mansions, and all the fulerals bridal processions, aud all the blood of vvar was turned iuto dahlias, and all the n-oans became anthems, and Dante's "Ineruo" becima Dante's '\Divina Commedia," inii "Paradise Lost" was submerged by 'Paradise Regained," and tears b3catm crystals, cruel swords came out of foundries glistening plowshares, and in my dream at the blast of a trumpet the prostrated walls of Jericho rose again. And some one told ma that as these walls in Joshua's time at the sounding trumpets of doom went dowD, now at the sounding trumpet of the gospel they come up again. And I thought a man appeared at the door of my tent, and I said, "Who are you and from whence have you come?" and he said, "I am the Samaritan you heard of at the tavern on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, as taking care of the man who fell among thieves, and i have iust come from healing the last wound of the last unfortunate in all the earth." Aud I rose from my pillow in the tent to greet him, and my dream broke and I realized it was only a dream, but a dream which shall become a glorious reality as surely as God is ! truo ana Christ's gospel is the world's Ca- J tholicon. "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was at the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world withcut end. Amen." Area of Foreign Possessions in Africa. An endeavor is made by the Economist to estimate the area of territory in Africa uossessed bv England, France and Ger i." ? W many. The calculation is a difficult one, since although the regions assigned to France and Germany under recent treaties are clearly defined, there is no fixed boundary to the sphere of British influence which may expand in various directions. The Economist, however, arrives at the following result: Area ofaquara niiie-i. Fjjulatlon. British dominions, protectorates and sphere of influence 1,650,000 30,000,000 French dominions and sphere of influence... 2,7:20,000 17,000,000 German dominions and sphere of influence.... 2,650,000 (?) In the above estimate, Egypt, as far ns Wady Haifa is assigned to England. The French sphere of influence includes, of course, the Sahara, with an area of 1,700,000 square mile3 and a possible population of 7,000,000. Entertaining the Workmen. Cuban workmen are so addictcd to conversation and gesture, that, if left to themselves, they would lose half the:r working hours in social intercourse. To prevent this loss, according to a longestablished custom, the cigar-workera employ a lector, or reader, who, from his desk in the centre of the work-room, entertains his employers with the lute=t Havana newspapers in the morning, and with Spanish novels and ballads in the latter pait of the day. Although payment is voluntary, andcome3 in the form of a small present of money from each operator at the cud of the week, it is seldom evaded, and makes up a very good salary for the reader. The owners do not object to this plan, and sometimes even provide a platform and readingdesk for the purpose.? 'I he Ledger, FwtNrr D. Millet, the artist, who ! has returned to Europe, was an art critic. His taste for gunpowder, contracted in the civil war, led him to join the staff of a London paper during the Buaso-Turkidk war. - -:;x RELIGI0US_READ1NG. forgiven'. The dew of the Blood of God Has washed me clean As the daisy star on the sod. The singing brook on the green, The young dove snowy and bright, The silver cloud in the sky. _ His scarlet has washed me white? His lamb, even I. I couM sing with the bird on the bough A little innocent song; I could leap with the young lambs now The fleecy mothers "among; I could laugh so careless and wild, With the youngest child in the sun, I, with the heart of a child, Christ's little one. Ilark! how it flutters and sings, Clothed in white, The soul that hath known dark things? Somewhere, far out of sight! As a bird goes home to its nest, I fly with never a word To His breast that will give me restChrist's 9inging-bird. resurrection power. Many years ago there died in the city of Hnnover a young countess or pronounced infidel prodi vites. She deuied the doctrine of the resurrection in toto. and perhaps in a vain effort to defy any supernatural power that she thought might have a possib'e existence, sle ordered that her body should be laid beneath a solid, and.in her" judgment, atf impregnable structure. Her wishes were strictly carried out. and there seemed a reasonable expectation that the pile would remain jnlact for many generations at least, and the hones of the sceptical countess rest in the oblivion she desi-ed. But it was strangely ordered otherwise. A tiny seed shared the woman's restingplace, and in its resurrection might bad burst its shell, sent its small roots into the ground, and slowlv gathering strength and proportions with the years, had wrenched open its prison doors, "severed in twain the massive granite slabs, and. having rcached the light, had spread itself heavenward, until it has become a great tree. A RSMFDY FOR RESTLFSSXESS. A crcat many remedies are suggested for restlessness, wiiich in many a case has been caused bv giving way to anxious md forebodine thoughts, indulging in such mental worrv by day that night is a time of tos.simr ! 1 foil -in,l Will unrtTM. iiiiu iuc intui-uv ??n ..... the stars'a re shining, let us in spirit steal nmiil the qnie'ude to him who i< Eternal l.ight. the Giver of calm, the Divine Comforter: let us remember the Lonl in the stillness, and we shall prove it true that "Darkness shows us worlds of light We never saw by day." Let ns think, alone w'th Jesus, what he is. in whom is all the fullness of God. "I will strip thee of all earthly comforts," said a persecutor once to a Christian martyr. "Christ is mine," was the an?wer, "yru cannot strip me of him." Christ is yours, friend, yours through t' e d 'rkest shadowChrist, who is Rest and Refuge, the King of Kings, the great Physician. Money cannot purchase re-t, but it "conies to you with Jesus; there is no pillow so comforting as the Redeemer's love, and on this you may trustfully repose. Some one asked a poor infirm old man. uDo you think you can r'ost a little now?"?"It is all rest." he said, "beoausc God's arms are beneath me."? fQuinry. ' jiecwimze urdn aspirations. Deep down in the hearts of chi'dren and of men there are nobler and truer standards of livinsr than their outward lives are wont to exhibit. Many persons wait for their fellows to recosnizc their biirhor and better aspirations before thev are willine to art up to th'se aspirations. He whose higher motives and deeper lonsines are unknown may have l.io tn!?lii(ornrnfeil ! but hp wllOSS best si>irit is appreciated is more likely to bave his acts interpreted by the spiiit. A school teacher on seeing a young scholar misbehave, said to him: 'Tm norry you did this, because I had formed a very good opinion of you." The boy wpnt home and confessed to his mother th.it if he had known what a eo?d opinion his te;:cl:er had of him, he would not have done wrong. Had this teacher said.'"I've had my eye on you for some time, and now I've caught you." the hoy would simply have been confirmed in his suspicion that no one expects a boy to do anvthing but the wrnn<? thing. It ought to be n simp'e matter to show a child or a man ths t our fir*t impulse toward him is tnat of tri st, rather than distrust. And when one has gore wrong, he will be better helped bv showing that we appreciate the fact that he has gone wrorg in spite oflhegood we bel'cvrd him capable of. rather in accordance with our suspicions of him.?rSuuday-scbool Times. "my beloved is mixe.'' Hehasmade a high attainment who fs able to u^e this language in the "full assurance of faith." It is a possible attainment. It has been made in the past, and what others have done we can do. Job had made it when he said, "I know that my IJedecmer liveth." So had Thomas, when he exclaimed. "My Lord and my God." So had Paul, "I know whom I have believed, nml am persuaded that fie is able to keep that I have committed unto him against that day." This attainment is not "so difficult to make as many Christians seem to think. How comcs it to Dass that any man has the riirbt to call the Saviour his own? This question is answered in the Scriptures. Christ i3 the believer's by the gift of God. What is the record? ''God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." ' lie gave him to be the head over all things to the church/' These words, and there are many others of a similar import, are plain, and "they lie at the foundation of all assurance. They have gone far astray who say they have "gained or may gain any right *o an Interest in Christ by their obedience. Whatever they may do or may fail to do. they cannot in themselves, cl iim any part in tt<c j iron of God. But we have not a right to what God {rives us? Who will call this right | in que*tfon? The only question is. has God j given Ill's Son? There cannot be two opinions on this point; the word is plain. Christ is ours by virtue of tlie gift of the Father. No one need set up his unworthiness as an objection: this has nothing to do with tlie matter. A king may bcs'ow a gift 011 a beggar as wi ll ns on a noble, and the latter has no more mht to I.i? gift than the former ban to his. In the one ease as in the other, the right to tl.e gift depends 011 the will of the giver, and not 011 the merit of the receiver. Christ is the believer's by his acceptance of this gift. What is acceptance? It is not joy or holine?s or meekness. There may be acceptance without my iarge measure of these irraees. Acceptance is jus! acceptance. Minis crs of Christ, when they leadi this point in preaching the Gospel, are often in perp!exitv and sometimes in despair. Men will ask. What is it to accept Christ? How can I accept Christ? Xo one needs ny instruction on this point. Every one knows what it is to accept a gift; any explanation only darkens counsel with words. If a m in asks. How can I eat? we only reply,You know how to eat; eat ami live. So when one says, How can I accept Christ? we have only tli's answer. Von know wh:it it is to accept a gift: accept Christ and He is yours. It ts. therefore, evident that the assurance, which finds expression ill the words, "My Beloved Is mine,*' re*ts on the fai t that Christ is the gift of divine love. This is the reason why th's attainment is an easy one to make. It its possession depended on ourselves, it would he among the things for which it is useless to hoje. B it rmyone can receive a gift. As Christ is the free;;iftof himself and of His Father, a'! wr have to do is'o accept Him. and then we ran sav, ' Thank* !>? unto (rod for his unspeakable gift."?fUnited Presbyterian. The meanest man yet is a I'lttstvurj doctor. He is a German, and his vie tirns are newly arrived German girls He meets them, tells them ho needs ar assistant in his business, proposes mar riage, and then borrows what monei and valuables they have an.l is seen nc more. He does not propose to more thai one girl at a time, but managed to en gage himself to two each day until the police nabbed him. His excuse wa3 thai he needed money, f SABBATH SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL EESSON FOR NOVEMBER 9. Lesson Text: Jesus Before Pilate and Herod, Luke xxiiL, 1-12? Golden Text: Lnke xxiiL, 4?Commentary. 1. "And the whole multitude of them arose, and led Him onto Pilate." It it written in Ps. ii., 1, that the Gentilea rage and the kings of the earth set them' selves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed; so that to fulfill the Scriptures Jesus had to pass through the hands of Gentiles aa well as JewB. And there we find Him in this lesson. There was no doubt a fulfillment of this in the part oppressions of God's anointed Israel by Egypt, Assyria and other nations; there will "be a fulfill* ment in the great tribulation of the latter days when, just before the appearing of Christ in glory with His saints, all nations shall be gathered against the Holy City and people (Zech. xiv., 1-5; Joel, iil, 1. 2; Jer. xxx., 7-0); but the great central -fulfillment is now before us.for through whatever sufferings either Israel or the church have passed, or may yet pass, all are as nothing when compared with the sufferings of Him who is King of Israel and the great Head of the church; who by His sufferings made reconciliation for the sins of the whole world (I John ii., 2), on whom was laid the iniquity of us alL 2. "And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribate to Ccesar, saying that He Himself is Christ a King." Thus the rulers of the Jews accused Jesus before Pilate. What an accusation! Two lies and one truth in that which is here written. Just think of accusing Him of forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, who commanded them to give tribute to whom tribute was due; and ol saying that He who ever taught righteous ness and always spake openly was guilty of perverting the people. See His own wordsi ''Render therefore unto Cserar the tliingi which are Caesar's" (Matt, xxii., 21). So that what He really said is left out and He is accused of just the opposite. 3. "And Pilate asked Him, saying, Art fTHrtri fho TTino* nf .Tatvb? And He ATiRWfiiN ed him, and said, Thou sayest it." The a? counts in Matthew and Mark agree with thiSj but John gives the additional information that Jesus said to Pilate. "Sayest thou thii thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee oi Mef (John xviii., 34). See also the othel words of Jesns to Pilate concerning His Kin? dom in John xviii., S6, 37. The words "Mj Kingdom is not of thi9 world" are sometime! quoted against us when we speak of Jesui coming back again to establish His Kingdom on this earth. But observe the context, "Now h My Kingdom not from hence." His Kingdom is not from earth, but from heaven* it will not be set up in this world, but in the world to come?tflal is on this earth made 'new io the regeneration (Matt, xix., 18; II Pet. ill, 18. 14; Heb. vi., 5). In reference to the other accusations of the chief priests, which were lies, Jesus answered neither them noi Pilate anything (Matt, xxvii., 13-14; Mark xv., 3-5). Let us treat lies about ourselvej in the same wav. Let ns not b9 troubled by them; neither let us think them worth replying to. But let us boar witness unto thi truth. 4. "Than said Pilate to the chief priesta and to the people, I find no fanlt in thii man." According to the account In John, Pilate said theee words three different times (John xviii., 38; zlx., 4, 6), thus giving a threefold direct testimony to the innooenci of Jesus. And thii from the Roman govern nor, who was certainly suppos3d to be capabli of forming a somewhat coirect judgment concerning a person's guilt cr innocence. 5. "And they were the more fierce, say* ing, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place." Afraid of losing their orey, they lie more vehemently concerning Hiu>. (J. "When Pilate heard of Galilee he asked whether the man were a Galilean." He saw himself in a difficult position and was glad of the possibility of escape from it. He nad before him an innocent man, and also a cruel and bloodthirsty people crying for the death of thai innocent man. How could il 1 be that from Galilee to Jerusalem all the people were stirred up against Caesar by this man's teaching and the Roman governor never hare heard of it. Pilate sees how foolish and ungrounded this accusation is and he pays no need to it. He is only anxious for some way out of his difficulty. 7. "And as soon as he knew that He belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time." In chap, iii., 1, we read that Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod tefcrarch of Galilee. Herod's being in Jerusalem at this time was no doubt of God. that he, too, a? another Gentile ruler, might see and testify to the innocence of Jesus, thus providing two witnesses from among the Gentile rulers (Deut. xvii., 6; xix., 15). The most of the three years' public ministry of Jesus had been in Galilee, and there had the majority of His many mighty works been wrought. 8. "And when Herod saw Jesu3 tie was exceedingly glad, for he was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him; and he hopad to have seen some miracle done by film." Ia chape, ix., 9, we learn that after beheading John, Herod heard of Jesus and desired to se? Him. In Mark vi, 14, we read that Herod thought that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead, and that that accounted for His mighty works. Jesus the Nazarene was evidently talkel about even at Herod's court, but it must have been as some wonder worker among the poor, of whom tha rich and the great knew very little. 9. "Then he questioned with Him in many words, but He answered him nothing." Jesus is quietly going forward to His death. He is in the bands of Hn enemies, and neither in the heart of Herod nor in the heart of any one of His accusers is there the least desire to hear the truth to which He came to bear witness. So He is silent. Herod would like to be eutartained; the Jews want only His death; entertainment Jesus will not give; He came not for that purpose; He came to give eternal life, but that Herod doei not want. # 10. "Aud the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him.n Representativoo nf tViA rrrpAt accuser from whom all thl followers o? Jesus suffer, the father of lies, the accuser of the brethren, let us not fear either Him or His, nor be in the least moved) they can only go as far cs God permits, but * hair of our heads they cannot hurt beyond this present time. Our real life is beyond their power, for Christ is our life? and though Him they crucified, yet He rose from tn< dead perfect in soul and body; and so shall it e wirh us. 11. "And Herod with his men of war set Him at naught, and mccked Him, and arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and ssnt Him again to Pilate, Thus is His meekness rewarded by.these cruel ones. He will not gratify their curiosity nor entertain, them with His wonders, and this is their revenze. and He suffers it meekly, like all the rest of their 01 treatment. 12. "And the sam> day Piiate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves." It is not strange that two such as Pilate and Herod should be at enmity, far they knew not the Prince of Peace; bat it u strange indeed when those who baar the Pit'nAA rrt Pmm hm among themselves and will not unite in service; yet such things are often seen. They will unite against Him, and often be brought together by some scheme which dishonors Him, but Is on the side of His enemies; but to humble before Him for united effort for His glory, some will not do it. Blessed are all such as are made friends on His behalf.?Lesson Helper. Stammerers rarely, If over, show any impediment to speech when speakiDg in whispers. On this fact a new method of treatment has been founded, which is as follows: In the first ten j days speaking is prohibited. This wi^jp allow rest lo the voice, and constitute tho preliminary stato of treatment, Duiing the next ten days speaking ia permissible in the whispering voice, aud in the course of the next fifteen days the ordinary conversational tool may be craduallj employed,