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, THE TONGUE. "The boneless tongue, so small atid weak, Can crush and kill,'* declared the Greek. "The tongue destroys a greater horde," The Turk asserts, "than does the sword." The Persian proverb wisely saith, "A lengthy tongue?an early death." Or sometimes takes this form instead: "Don't let your tongue cut off your head." "The tongue can speak a word whosa speed," o 3 ?? &ay tut' uutsinps iu^ stueu. While Arab sages this impart: "Th? tongue's great storehouse is the haart." From Hebrew wit the maxiuni sprung, "Though feet should slip, ns'er let the toDgue." The sacred writer crowns the whole, *^Tiio keeps his tongue doth keep his soul.'' ?New York World. zephyr's' dollar. _____ EY AMY RAXDOLrn. "Mother," said Farmer Croft, "where isZrphyr?" , Mrs. Croft looked sharply up from the , butter she was working over iu a wooden , bowl. She was one of those querulous, j complaining women whose very voice is i pitched in a minor key. j "Where is Zephyr?" she repeated, t "why, whore should she be? How do I , know. Staring out of the garret window, i I suppose, or picking yellow jonquils at < the foot of the garden, or mooniug away ( her time in anything but good, solid ^ work. I never did see such a shiftless j creettir!" c And Mrs. Croft gave the golden mass t of butter a slap first in this direction, and then in that, as if she were boxing some- s body's ears. t "The place is strange to her yet, "apol- t ogized Mr. Croft. "When she gets used j to things, she'll be different. You see she hasn't got over frettiug after her j mothrr vet." 1 "Humph!" said the woman. "I do v like people to show a little common sense! i; She'd ought to know that no amount of t * fretting can bring back any one that's dead and buried! She's got to go to v work and earn her own living, and the sooner she does it, the better! That's my ? way of lookin' at it!" t, And she glared grimly after her dc- 0 parting husband, as he meekly withdrew s] into the porch. rJ "Zephyr!" he called, softly, down the 9( garden path, "Zephyr!" 3( There was no answer. The sunshine was steeping the grass in gold. On the aj sheltered slope south of the wall one ai might tread on a blue carpet of violets. Farmer Croft shaded his eye3 with one g hand. h 1\t? l\or*lr " ooul i. ouc O uuwu uj iuv i&wi lyaunj ouiu 01 be. "Strange how she likes to set there, ^ and stare at the water goin' by." ^ Yes, Zephyr Lovell wa3 very discon- c; tented, very ungrateful, of course, g Ought not any girl to rejoice and be ex- C! ceedingly glad of the privilege of a hard <i bed in Mrs. Croft's attic bedroom, and a ?>, eeat at the table, -where cold pork was aj served a deal oftener than hot sausages? As for sympathetic glances, words of p gentle consolation, those unobtrusive, ? unstudied deeds of affection that are of- 0, ten sweeter than ary syllabled sentences ?what right had she to expect such? tl Even if Mrs. Croft had known what su?h m things meant, which she didn't, she was j] not very likely to waste them on herhus- j? band's penniless niece. n'/Of all things," said Mrs. Croft, "deliver me from genteel paupers." h "Zephyr!" the good farmer called u once more,as heneared the tall reeds and rushes that fringed the river shore; an d S?] a tall, slight figure, like an Undine, 01 Btarted up. b "Yes, uncle; is it you?" p, "Zephyr, what are you doing here?" n( CiT lrnnnr flio rrJrl lictlpcelv nn. ,i j. ?vu v o j u twcred. ''The air's kind o' chill, for all the sun ? shines so high," said Mr. Croft, anxiously. "I dunno as I'd stay here, if I was jc you, Zephyr. I'd go back to the house and ktep your aunt company, or help Miranda Jane with her quiltin'." Zephyr smiled. "My aunt and I don't seem to be much p company for each other, Uncle Croft," p said she; "and I did try to help Miranda m Jane; but she says my stitching and hers CJ don't match at all." p( "Zephyr," said the good man, with a w troubled air, "I'm afraid you ain't real ^ happy here on the farm." <j "*So, uncle, I am not," Zephyr frank- ai ]y admitted; "but it isn't your fault. It's Z( the fault of circumstances, and of myself, p t ? T om lik-o n fiah nut of water 1 SUppucv;. JL aui i4Mv ? ?? ~ or a poor butterfly drowning in the sea. v Don't look so distressed, uncle" (laying a] .her soft,flushed cheek against hi3 hand); rc "things will right themselves after a ^ while; they always do. But in the c: meantime," with a soft, appealing look, S( "could you lend me a dollar? I am so f( poor, so very poor, I haven't a penDy of jj my own in all the world?" p Mr. Croft's countenancc grew more c disturbed than ever. "Well, I swan to goodness if that ain't j too bad!" said he. "I gave mother the n last money I liad to pay a year's subserip- i j, tion to the Mmionary Trumpet, and I p don't ezactlv like to ask her to give it back." " '] 4'No, uncle, don't do that," said I j Zephyr. J t "But, I tell ye what, my girl," said j j the farmer cheerily, "the very next sil- j ^ ver dollar that comes my way, you shall c have." * ? Zephyr stood on tip-toe to kiss her c uncle, but she said nothing. Side by c side they walked up the broad garden- j path where the tiger-lilies were growing r up, side by side, past the hyacinths and t ?!nmnc i/Mtlinrr P-lfll nthpr ill I uamaaua v.uu.r jv^v....0 ? 4 fragrant strife. On the threshold they | met an olcl woman with a prodigious ; cap-frill and spectacles like moons. t "Here's the dollar we owe your folks | for vinegar, Neighbor Croft," said she. ( "I guess you thought it never was coming. But we've just got pay for them vests me and Mt liudy have been workin' on!" "No hurry, jNIIs Jenkins, no hurry," j i said Mr. Croft, good-hunioredly. , And as she tottered off, he turned to his < niecc: "See, Zephyr, there's your money!" j said he. "Everything comes, if we've j got patience to wait for it." "And I hain't no patience with you, Daniel Croft!" screeched a shrill voice, i in the petulant, complaining accents of ; 3Irs. Croft herself, who chanced to be 1 sweeping out the entry at that moment, and had witnessed the whole scene. "Is j dollars so plenty that you're givin' 'em j away to the light and to the left? If , Zephyr Lovell wants money, why don't ; a&e work and earn it?" Ii Zephyr turned scarlet, but she held the silver dollar tight in her hand, without offering to return it to the donor. Mr. Croft shrank before bis wife's words, as if they had been a keen north-east gale. "Geutly, mother; gently," said he. But Mrs. Croft's wrath was not so easily stemmed. When the avalanche of words was over, and honest Daniel looked around for his niece, Zephyr was gone. Gone for good and all. When daye and weeks passed by, and she did not return, Daniel Croft slowly anchored his iu iuu uuuvij uitu naa tuc nuo one) that the money had been spent to take Zephyr away from the farm. She had not been happy there, and she had left the place. "And good riddance to bad rubbish!" .Mrs. Croft had said, with a certain grim exultation, which was fully seconded by f her daughter, while the poor farmer sat i with a forlorn look on his face, as if \ Zephyr's going had somehow left a vacuum iu his heart. Zephyr Lovell's career was not exceptional. She went to New York, and, ifter sundry unsuccessful endeavors to obtain employment, got a place as attendant in a photograph gallery. The wages ivere small, but it was a home, and the proprietor and his wife were kind to her. ind, one day an invalid lady came in to ie photographed, who took a fancy to ;he pretty young girl with the sweet roice and the dove-like blue eyes. So Hiss Lovell was promoted to the rank of :oinpanion, and when Mrs. Ingraham lied, she became the wife of the wealthy vidower, after a suitable period of time lad elapsed. Here wb3 our poor little shrysalis blossomed out into brilliant buterfly-hood at last. "I must go down to Drysart Point and ee my Uncle Croft," said Zephyr, one lay. And, Mr. Ingraham, who was the lumblest of all slaves to his beautiful oung wife, assented to her plans. "I ought to have gone before/'said lephyr, reflectively. "Well, I did not ? * i J -1J I I lie to go until i couici pay my ueur uiu incle the dollar that I owe him?the dolar upoa which the hinges of my destiny urned." Farmer Croft was sitting alone on the cranda, when the carriage drove up to be door. The old house was unpainted, he fences had tumbled down, the shutsrs hung loose and the pin was lost out f the gate. The old man himself was habbily clothed, and the locks, once so xven black, were now whiter than the ;a-foam. He listened intently to the 5und of wheels and footsteps. "If it's Squire Leferts," said he, "it in't no use. I can't pay no interest, ad he'll hev' to foreclose. My wife is ist up from a sick-bed, and we haven't ot a dollar in the house. I've wrote to iy darter Miranda Jane, and her husand has wrote back that he hasn't no \ Loney to spare, nor he can't fool away is time coniin' to Drysart Point. So ye in see for yourself that it ain't no use, quire." But with one hand behind his ir, and dim anxious eyes upraised, Why don't you say something? I've een blind since la9t summer's fever, ad?" "Blind! Oh, Uncle Daniel!?blind! lOu't start back; it is I, your own ephyr, come to pay you back what I tve you." ' And in a second her arms were -about ' le old man's neck, her sunny tresses lingling with his snow white hair, [rs. Croft had hobbled out by this time, :aning on a caue, and staring in amaze- ' lent. That evening, when Zephyr and her usband were gone, old Daniel cried tri- ] mphantly to his wife: , "Miranda Jane, the darter that we icrificed everything to, has gone back a us, and so has the man she married; ut Zephyr has come between us aud the | , * fVtnf tTAII I I oornouse?nine quiet i.ejiuvi, uui juu ever had no patience with; and the ollar I gave her has been paid back with \ olden interest, eh, mother?" And Mrs. Croft answered, meekly: "I dunno but what you're right, Dan- J 1."?The Ledger. , Indian Tribes of the Amazon. Indian tribes of the Amazonian River i urus, the Pammarys are described by r. P. Ehrenreich as being pure waterien. Most of thsir life is spent in their ! inoes, and they are conspicuous by a eculiarity of their skin,which is covered ith black and white spots that cause tany of them to look as if they were appled. The same skin affcction exists nong other tribes of the western Ama>ns, and is very mysterious. The ammarys are industrious collectors of onrl onnaiva nnrl nrn 1UUL11XV/UV I*L1.VC ? ^ w |/.V ided themselves with many European rticles of commerce. The Jamamadis lake their homc3 in the forests; are ithout knowledge of navigation; are lever agriculturists; avoid trade with the jttlcrs, and seldom leave their dense jrests. They are still an uncorrupted, ; ospitable, frank, natural people. Their rincipal weapon is the blow-pipe, disharging poisoned arrows. The most iiportant nation on the Purus are the purinas, or Cangiti, who dwell iu umerous hordes, under different names, a the head-water regions. They are a roud, warlike race, of vindictive dislositions, cunning and treacherous. ?hey are still partly anthropoi)hagous. )omcstic animals are rarely kept among hem; tobacco is taken as snuff; and >oisoncd weapons arc generally used. Iu he region of the source of the Rio re ither Indian races of great interest to I ithnologists dwell, possessing richly j arved huts for ceremonies, stone figures j tud idols. The caoutchouc trade, with ts reckless gains, exercises a most dis- ! istrous effect upon the Indians; neverhelcss, that element might become of the lighest importance to the immense but ;hinly peopled province of the Amazon, f only a judicious and conscientious :reatmcnt was adopted as the means of jringing the aborigines within the bounds )f civilization.?Popular Science Monthly. Why an Iceberg Floats. Iceberg floats for the same reason that :he lump of ice in the pitcher remains jpou the surface, because its specific gravity is not so great a.3 that of the . water surrounding it; in other words, ice is lighter than water. This lightness is caused by air being imprisoned in the j water, and in the ice as it is forming- ; Water shrinks in cooling until it reaches ibout thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit. From this point it expands as it cools until the freezing point is reached, at fimn tl,0 Jr>n nnnnnipQ ft snRCG \V U1V/U KilUC l/UV ?vv vvvmk>?? ? __ ibout one-eleventh greater than its for- j tner bulk of water. An iceberg shows j only about one-eighth of its bulk; ona 300 feet high extends over 3000 feet into : the water below.?Boston Cultivator. ' REV. DB. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN DAY SERMON. Subject: "The Dead Sea and the River Jordan." Text: ".4 certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho?Luko x., 30. David the poet here pictures avolcano,and what Church's Cotopaxi doe3 on painter's canvas this author does in words. You see a hill, calm and still and for ages immovable, but the Lord out of the heavens puts His finger on the top of it and from it rise thick vapors intershot with fire. "He toucheth the hills and they smoke." God is the only being who can manage a volcano, and again and again has He employed volcanic action. The pictures on the walls of Pompeii, the exhumed Italian city, as we saw them last .November, demonstrate that the city was not fit to live. In the first century that city, engirdled with palaces, emparadised with gardens, pillared into architectural exquisiteness, was at the foot of a mountain, up the sides of which it ran, with vineyards and villas of merchant princes, and all that marble and bronze and imperial baths and arboriculture and rainbowed fountains, and a coliseum at the dedication of which nine thousand beasts had been slain, and a supernal landscape in which the shore gave roses to the sea and the sea gave crystals to the shore, yea, all that beauty and pomp and wealth could give was there to be seen or heard. But the bad morals of the city had shocked the world. In the year 79, on the 4th of August, a black column rose above the adjoining mountain and spread oat, Pliny gays, as he saw it, like a great pine tree, wider and wider, until it began to rain upou the city first thin ashes and then pumice stone, and sulphurous fumes scooped, and streams of mud poured through the streets till few people escapod, and tho city was buried, and some of the inhabitants eighteen hundred years after were found embalmed in the scoriae of that awful doom. The Lord called upon volcanic forces to obliterate that profligate city. He touched the hills and they smoked. Nothing but volcanic action can explain what I shall show you at the Dead Sea upcn which I looked last December, and of whoso waters I took a bitter and stinging taste. Concerning all that region there has been controversy enough to fill libraries, science saying one thing, revelation saying another thing. But admit volcanic action divinely employed and both testimonies are one and the same. Geology, chemistry, geography, astronomy, ichthyology, ornithology and zoology are coming one by one to confirm the Scriptures. Two leaves of one book are Revelation and Creation, and the penmanship is by the same divine hand. Our horseback ride will not be so steej?to-day, and you can stay on without clinging to the pommel of the saddle, but the scenes amid which we ride shall, if possible, be more thrilling, and by the time tlie horses snuff the sulphurous atmosphere of Ashaltites, or the Dead Sea, we will be ready to dismount and read from our Bibles about what was done that day by the Lord when He touched the hills and they smoked. Take a detour and pass along by the rocky fortress of Mo3ada, where occurred something more wonderful in the way of desperafian fVinm t-am nvrat* V*r?rl /\f iinlasa V/>11 llQVA WUU luau ?UU Ct CI UC41 U Vl, umw? j VI* V heard of * that. Herod built a palace amid these heaps of black and awful rocks which look like a tumbled midnight. A great band of robbers, about one thousand including their families, afterward held th9 fortress. When the Roman army stormed that steep and the bandits could no longer hold th3 place, their chieftain, Eleazar, made a powerful speech which persuaded them to die before they were captured. First th9 men kissed their families a loving and tearful good-by and then put a dagger into their hearts, and the women and children were slain. Then ten men were chosen by lot to slay all tho other men, and each man lay down by tho dead wife and children and waited for these executioners to do their work. This don?, one man of the ten killed the other nine. Then the survivor committed suicide. Two women and five children had hid themselves, and after all was over came forth to tell of the nine hundred and sixty slaughtered. Great and rugged natural scenery makes the most tremendous natures for good or evil. Great statesmen and great robbers, great orators and great butchers, were nearly all born or reared among mountain precipices. Strong natures are hardly evor born upon the plain. When men have anything greatly good or greatly ovil to do they come down on rue rocits. Pass on from under the shadow of Masada, the scene of concentrated diabolism, and come along where the salt crystals crackle under the horses' hoofs. You are near the most God forsaken region of all the earth. You to whom the word lake has heretofore suggested those bewitchments of beauty, Luzerne or Cayuga, some great pearl set by a loving God in the bosom of the luxuriant valley, change all your ideas about a lake, and see this sheet of water which the Bible calls the Salt Sea, or Sea of the Plain, and Josephus calls Lake Asphaltites. The muleteers will take care of the horses while we go down to the brink and dip up the liquid mixture in the palm of the hand, rhe waters are a commingling of brimstone and pitch, and have six times larger percentage of salt than those of the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean having four per cent, of salt and this lake 26j^ pei- cent. Lake Sir-i-kol, of India, is the nighest lake in the world. This lake, on the banks of which we kneel, is the lowest lake. It empties into no sea, among other things, for the simple reason that water cannot run up hill. It swallows up the river Jordan and makes no response of thanks, and never reports what it does with the twenty millions cubic feet of water annually received from that sacred river. It takes the tree branches and logs floated into it by the Jordan and pitches them on the banks of bitumen to decay there. The hot springs near its banks by the name of Callirhoe, where King Herod came to bathe off his illnesses, no sooner pour into this sea than they are poisoned. Not a fish scale swims it. Not an irsect walks it. It hates life, and if you attempt to swim there it lifts you by an unnatural buovancv to tne sur;ace,as niucu as tosaywe wane no life here, but death is our preference,death." Those who attempt to wade into this lake, aud submerge themselves, come out almost maddened, as with the sting of a hundred wasp?, and hornets, and with lips and eyelids swollen with the strange ablution. The sparkle of its waters is not like the Eparkle of beauty on other lakes, but a metallic lustre like unto the flash of a sworrl that would thrust you. The gazslles and the ibexos that live on the hills beside it, aud cranes and wild ducks that fly across? for, contrary to the old belief, birds do safely wing their way over it?and the Arab horses you have been riding, though thirsty enough, will not drink out of this dreadful mixture. A mist hovers over pai ts of it almost continually, which, though natural evaportion, seems like a wing of doom spread over liquid desolation. It is the rinsings of abomination. It is an aqueous monster coijed among the hills, or creeping with ripples, and stenchful with nauseatinc malodors. In these regions once stood four great cities of Assyria: Sodon, Uomorrah, Adnia and Zeboiiu. Tho Bible says they were destroyed by a tempest ot' fire and brimstone after these cities had filled up with wickedness. "No, that is absurd," cries some one; "it is evident that this was a region of salt and brimstone and pitch long before that." And so it was. The Bible says it was a region of sulphur long before tho great catastrope. ""Well, now," says some one, wanting to raise a quarrel between science and Revelation, "you have no right to say the cities of the plain were destroyed by a tempest of fire and sulphur and brimstone, because this region had these characteristics long before these cities wore destroyed." Volcanic action, is my reply. These cities had been built out of very combustible materials. The mortar was a bitumen easily icnited. and the waus Gripped witn pitcn most mnammaoie. They sat, I think, on a ridge of hills. They stood high up and conspicuous, radiant in their sins, ostentatious in their debaucheries, four hells on earth. One day there was a rumbling in the earth, J ?.TTTU~4.)~ 4-U~ auu a quaKUi^. uuais taut: *JIV tuo IUfrighted inhabitants. "What's that?' The foundations of the earth were giving way. A volcano, whose fires had been burning for ages, at God's command bursts forth, easily setting everything aflame, and first lifting these cities high In the air and then dashing them down in chasms fathomless. The fires of that eruption intershot the dense smoke and rolled unto the heavens, only to descend again. And all the configuration of that country was changed, and where there waa a hill tnere came a valley, and whero there had bsen the pomp of uncleanness came wide spread desolation. The red hot spade of volcanic action bad shoveled under the cities of the plain. Before the catastrophe the cities stood on the top of the salt and sulphur. After the catastrophe they were under the salt and sulphur. Science right; Revelation right. "Ho toucheth the hills and they smoke." I No science ever frightened believers in Rei velation so much as geology. They feared that the strata of the earth would contradict the Scriptures, and then Moses must go under.. But as in the Dead Sea instance so in all cases God's writing on the earth and Go:l's writing in the Bible are harmonious. The shelves of rock correspond with the shelves of the American Bible Society. Scienca digs into the earth and finds deep down the remains of plants, and so the Bible announces plants first. Science digs down and says. ''Marine animals next." and the Bible says, "Marine animals next." Scienca digs down and says, ''Land animals next." "Then comes man!" says science. "Then comes man!" responds the Bible. Science digs into the regions about the Dead Sea, and finds result of fire and masses of brimstone, and announces a wonderful geological formation. "Ob, yes," says the Bible, "Moses wrote thousands of years ago, 'The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from tne Lord otft of heaven,' and David wrote, 'He toucheth the hills and they smoke.'" So I guess we will hold on to our Bibles a little longer.' A gentleman in the ante-room of the White House, at Washington, having an appointment witb Mr. Lincoln at 5 o'clock in the morning, got there fifteen minutes early, and, asked the servant, "Who is talking In the next room?" "It is the President, sir." "Is anybody with him?" "No, sir; he is reading the Bible. He spends every morning from 4 to 5 o'clock reading the Scriptures." My text implies that God controls volcanoes, not with the full force of his hand, but with the tip of his finger. Etna, Stromboll and Vesuvius fawn at his feet like hounds before the hunter. These eruptions of the hills do not belong to Pluto's realm,as the ancients thought, but to the divine dominions. Humboldt counted two hundred of them, but since then the Indian archipelago has been found to have nine hundred of these great mouthpieces. They are on every continent and in all latitudes. That earthquake which shook all America about six or seven summers ago was only tho raving I around of volcanoes rushing against the sides of their rocky caverns trying to break out. They must come to the surface, but it will be at the divine call. They seem reserved for the punishment of one kind of sin. The seven cities they have obliterated were celebrated for one kind of transgression. Profligacy was the chief characteristic of the seven cities over which they put their smothering wing: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, Adma, Zeboim, Sodom and Gomorrah. If our American cities do not quit their profligacy, if in high life and low life dissoluteness does not cease to be a joke and bocome a crime, if wealthy libertinism continues to find so many doors of domestic life open to its faintest touch, if Russian ancl French and American literature steeped in pruriency does not get banished from ths news stands and ladies' parlors, God will let loose some of these suppressed monsters of the earth. And I tell these American cities that it will be mora tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, whether that day of judgment be in this present century or in the closing century of the earth's continuance. The volcanic forces are already in existence, but in the mercy of God they are chained in the kennels of subterraneous fire. Yet let profligacy, whether it stagger into a lazaretto or sit on a commercial throne, whether it laugh In a faded shawl under the street gas light or mn^nnnri in t.Vio flnpsfc arrav that foreieu W nia^/uu v-w ? ? loom ever wrought or lapidary ever impaarled, know right well that there is a volcano waiting for it, whether in domestic lifa or social life or political life or in the foundations of the earth from which sprang out the devastations that swallowed the cities of the plain. "He toucheth the hills and they smoke." But the dragoman was rejoiced when wo had seen enough of this volcanic region of Palestine, and he gladly tightens the girths ?or another march around tha horses which aro prancing and neighing for departure. We are off for the Jordon, only two hours away. We pass Bedouins whose stern features melt into a smile as we givo them the salutation Salaam Aleikoum, "Peace be with you," their smile sometimes leaving us in doubt as to whether it is caused by their gladnes3 to see us or by our poor pronunciation of the Arabic. Ob, they are a strange race, those Bedouins. Such a commingling of ruffanism and honor, of cowardice and courage, of cruelty and kindness! When a band of them came down upon a party in which Miss Whately was traveling, and were about to take pocketbooks and perhaps life, this lady, sitting upon her horse, took out her note-book ana pencil and began to sketch these brigands, and seeing this composure the baudits thought it something supernatural and fled. Christian womanliness or manliuess is all conquering. When Martin Luther was told that Duke George would kill him if he went to Leipsic, Luther replied: "I would go to Leir>sic if it rained Duke Georges nine days." Now we come through regions where there are hills cut into the shape of cathedrals, with altar and column and arch and chancel and pulpit and dome and architecture of the rocks that I think can hardly just happen so. Perhaps it is because God loves the church so well, he builds in the solitudes of Yellowstone park and Yosemite and Switzerland and Palestine these ecclesiastical piles. And who knows but that unsaen spirits may sometimes worship there? "Dragoman, when shall we see the Jordan?" I ask. All the time we were on the alert, and looking through tamarisk and willows for tha greatest river of all the earth. The Mississippi Is wider, the Ohio is deeper, the Amazon Is longer, the Hudson foils amid regions more pictifresque, the Thames has more splendor on its banks, the Tiber suggests more imperial procession, the Uyssus has more classic memories, and the Nile feeds greater populations by its irrigation, but the Jordan is the queen of rivers, and runs through all the Bible, a silver thread strung like treads with heroics, and before night we shall meet on its banks Elijah and Elisha and David and Jacob and Joshua and John and Jesus. At last between two trees t got a glimpsa of a river and said, "What is that?" "The Jordan," was the quick reply. And all along the line which had been lengthened by other pilgrims, some from America,au'l some from Europe, aud some from Asia, the cry was sounded "The Jordan? The Jordan!" Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have chanted on its banks and bathed in its waters. Many of them dip a wet gown in the waves and it nnt and carry it home for their own shroud. It is an impetuous stream and rushes on as though it were hasteuing to tell its story to the ages. Many an explorer has it whelmed and many a boat has it wrecked. Lieut. Moloneaux had copper bottomed crafts split upon its shelvings. Only one beat, that of Lieut. Lynch, ever lived to sail the whole length of it. At the season when the snows on Lebanon malt the rage of this stream is like Conemaugh when Johnstown perished, and the wild beasts that may be near run for the hills,explaining what Jeremiah say?, "Behold, he shall go up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan." No river so often changes its mind, for it turns and twists, traveling two hundred miles to do that which in a straight line might bo done in sixty miles. Among banks now low, now high, now on rocks, now of sand, laving the feet of the terebinths and oleanders and acacias aud reeds and pistachios and silver poplars. This river marries the Dead Sea to Lake Gallilee, and did ever so rough a groom tako the hand of so fair a bride? This is the river which parted to let an army of two million Israelites across. Hero the skilled major general of the Assyrian host at the seventh plunge dropped his leprosy not only by miraculous cure, but suggesting to all ages that water, and plenty of it, has much to do with the Fanitary improvement of the world. Here is where seme theological students of Elisha's time were cutting trees with which to build a theological seminary, and an axe nead, not sufficiently wedged to the handle, flew off into the river and sank, and the young man deplored not so much the loss of the axe head as the fact that it was not bis own, and cried, "Alas! it was borrowed," and the prophet threw a stick into the river, and in defiance of the law of gravitation the iron axe head came to the surface aud floated like a cork upon the water, and kept floating until the young man caught it. A miracle performed to give one an opportunity to return that which was borrowed, and a rebuke in all ages for those who borrow and never return, their bad habit in this respect: bo established that it would be a miracle if they did return it. Yea, from the bank of thi3 river Elijiah took a team of fire, shpwing that the most raging element is servant of th? good, and that there is no need that a child v. of God fear anything, for If the most destructive of all elements was that day fashioned into a vehiclc for a departing saint, nothing can ever hurt you who love and trust the Lord. I am so glad that that chariot of! Elijah was not made out of wood or crystal ior anything ordinarily pleasant, but out of fire, and yet he went up without having so much as to fan himself. When stepping from amid the foliage of these oleanders and tamarisks on the banks of the Jordan, he put his foot on the red step of the red equipage, and took the red rains of vapor in his hands, and spurred the galloping steeds toward the wide open gate of heaven, it was a scene forever memorable. So the hottest afflictions of your life may roll you heavenward. So the most burning persecutions, the most fiery troubles, may become uplifting. Only be sure that when you pull on the bits Of fire you drive up toward God and not down toward the Dead Sea. When Latimer and Eidley died at the stake they went up in a *-*- - ? -O TTTt D "D DII'm cnanoc OL ore. ?Y UCU my uicuu x.x. the Gospel singer, was consumed with the rail train than broke through Ashtabula bridge and then took flame, I said, "Another Elijah gone up in a chariot of fire!" But this river is a river of baptisms. Christ was here baptized and John baptized many thousands. Whether on these occasions the candidate for baptism and the officer of religion went into this river, and then while ootli were standing the water was dipped in the hand of one and sprinkled upon the forehead of the other, or whether the entire form of the one baptized disappeared for a moment beneath the surface of the flood, I do not now declare. While I cannot think without deep emotion of the fact that my parents held me in infancy to the baptismal font in the old meeting house at Soinerville and assumed vows on my behalf, I must tell you now of another mode of baptism observed in the river Jordan on that afternoon in last December, the particulars of which I now for the first time relate. It was a scene of unimaginable solemnity. A comrade in our Holy Land journey rode up by my side that day and told me that a young man who is now studying for the <3 ospel ministry would like to be baptized by me in the river Jordan. I got all the facta I could concerning his earnestness and faith, and through personal examination made myself confident he was a worthy candidate. There were among our Arab attendants two robe3 not unlike those used for American baptistries, and these were obtained. As we were to have a large group of different nationalities present I dictated to my daughter a few verses and had copies enough made to allow all to sing. Our dragoman had a man familiar with the river wade through and across to show the depth and the swiftness of the rf'anm and t.Via mn?fc annrnnriatfl nlftoa for the ceremony. Then I read from ttie Bible the accounts of baptisms in that sacred stream, and implored the presence of the Christ on whose head the dove descended at the Jordan. Then as the candidate and myself stepped into the waters the people on the banks sang in full and resounding voice: Oa Jordon'd stormy banks I atand And cast a wishful eye To Canaan's fair and happy land, Where my possessions lie. Ob, the transporting, rapturous scene That rises to my flight; Sweet fields arrayed In living green And rivers of delight. By this time we had reached the middle of the river. As the candidate sank under the floods and rose again under a baptism in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Gho3t, there rushed through our souls a tide of holy emotion such as we shall not probably feel again until we step into the Jordan that divides earth from heaven. "Will those waters be deep? Will those tides be strong? No matter if Jesus steps in with us. Friends on this shore to help us off. Friends on the other shore to see us land. See! They are coining down the hills on the other side to SOt us. How well we know their step! ow easily we distinguish their voices! From bank to bank we hail them with tears and they iail us with palm branches. They say to uj, "Is that you, father?" "Is that you mnfrVinr?" nnd wo answer bv askin<?. "Is that you, my darling?" How near they'seem, and ho tv narrow the stream that divi<? is u3l Could we bat stand where Moses stood And view the landscape o'er. No: Jordan's stream nor Death's cold flood Could fright ui from the shore. The Topsy-tnrry Japs. Located as they are on the other side of the earth, -what wonder is it that the Japanese should do things in a fashion ' that looks contrariwise to us? At any rate, this is indeed the case, and I will enumerate a few illustrations of the topsyturvy way in which they do things in that remote and remarkable land. The Japanese books begin upon the page where our books end; the page which we call the title page they utilize for the colophon or finis. In the subscription of a letter the Japanese begin with the name of the couutry to which the letter is to be sent; then follows the city, then the local address, and, finally, the name of the receiver, thus: America, Illinois, Chicago, 112 Jones street, Smith, John. This, after all, makes an easier job for the postofl&ce employes?this descent from the general into the particular. In Japan babies are carried not in the arm3 but upon the back. Etiquette compels the removal of the shoes rather than the doffing of the hat. Boats are stranded with j their sterns, inscead of their prows, on j the shore. Instead of saying northeast, or southwest, the Japanese say east-nortn or west-south. Wine is always drunk ] before, not after, dinner, and sweets are 1 served before the substantial viands of a 1 meal. Iu all books the foot-note3 occur j at the top of the page; keys turn to the , left, carpenters plane toward the body in- I 6tead of outward, and in cash accounts I the figures are written first and the corresponding item next. The Japanese mount the horse from the right side, the harness is fastened in all parts on that ( side, and the mane is brushed and made i to grow that way. In his stall the horse J is placed with his head outward and his j food is always served at the stable door < from a tub. In Japan women fall in love 1 with actor3, but never a man with an J actress. Among Japanese women the ] penchant is to sew on laces, cuffs, and < frills topsy-turvy and wrong side out.? : Chicago News, < iw i A Cheerful Old Pickpocket. { For a fine and chterful old pickpocket .? oommend me to Earl I.ehmann, aged 1 seventy-five years, who was condemned ] recently in Berlia, Germauy, to three i years' imprisonment for stealing a lady'3 ' purse while she was flourishing her hand- J kerchief at the Emperor duriug the pa- f rade of the cruards. Lehmann remarked t ^ j witli dignity^ mure iu ounuu iuuu *m i auger, when lie heard the seatencc: "I j ^ have served the State faithfully during I s thirty-five years' imprisonment and I am 1 obliged to you that it is three and not * six years. I shall no doubt survive this j sentence and get liberated in time to se- c cure an honest man's burial."?Chicago 1 News. j J rsT after nnclnight, a compositor in die office of the Bombay Gazette, who had been for three weeks on a spree, t imagined ho heard a strange noise, t Looking at a window over his head, he { saw a huge cobra slowly eutering the i composing room. He imagined that t the vision was caused by an attack of i delirium tremens, and that the snake ( was merely the product of a diseased ? brain. Still he was so terrified that he j 1 had to scream. His cry brought hia ( associates to his rescue, and the an&kt 1 was killed with an iron. bar. I ~RE LIGI0 US_R E A DI NGT THIS IS NOT YOUR REST. Not in this weary world of ours Can perfect rest oe found; Thorns mingle with the fairest flowers, Even on cultured crounil; Earth's pilgrim still his loins must gird To seek a lot more blest, A.nd tlrs must be his onward word? ' In Leaven alone is rest." ?LHernard Barton. "thcs saith the lord." The following from the London Commontvoolfh mnlil 1??* tr\ mlfontncP hu ROT11P preachers on this side of the Atlantic. "lie that hath a dream let him tell a drenm" it) the proper place, and with the honest declaration that it is a drenm. But he who is the ambassador for Christ, sent with offers of mercy ami forgiveness to rebels under condemnation, stands in too sacred a relation to God and to immortal souls to trifle away his time in such puerile and ruinous folly: as the rehearsing of learned speculations about the origin Of evil or the evolutions of creatures or post-mortem probation. He has pressing truths to declare, imperative demands to make, and soieniu accounts to render. He stands between the living and the dead; the destroying angel is or. the wing, and it is only the sprinkled.blood that can save. These are fearful realities, requiring instant attention, and if he is true to his Master, to himself, and to his audience, he will tfot turn aside 1 ke the prophet of Judah, at the invitation of any theory, however plausible, to say a word that cannot have the support of'-Thus saith the Lord." Thus only can he save himself and 1 hose who hear him. the lord's pay. Many pleasurable enjoyments are proper on the secular days of the week, in which Christians can and do engage without prejudice to their Christian profession. But when their convictions oblige them to object to these things on their eacred day, ought not tbeir scruples to be regarded? It must be remembered who these persons are. They are the supporters of good government; tLey are law-abiding citizens; they are those who seek the welfare of their fellow-men, and would not deny to others the benefit of their scruples touching any matter, so long as the general interests*of "society ami ti e convictions of tbe mnjority are not unuecessanly trampled upon. It is on this ground that Christians shonld be heard in reference to all forms of Sabbath desecration so common during the summer months. They object to nil things that obstruct sacred work in behalf of others; in training the youth in virtuous principles, and in efforts to" rescue the drunkard from his evil habits. It is safe to affirm?and we are more and more strengthened in this belief?that the working-man owes the preservation of his weekly rest-day to this very class; that is, to tb03C who hold that this is the Lord's day, and are endeavoring to act in accordance with that conviction.?[New York Christian advocate. THERE 13 SOMETHING WROJTQ. There is something wrong if the members of your family have to hear you talk iu c'ass meeting to find out that you are a Christian. There is something wrong if tbe people in your employ speak of you as an oldskinfliut. There is something wrong if you never go to church except when you feel like it. There is something wrong if you don't know to-day whether you would go to heaven or not in case of ileath. There is something wrong if you don't pay your debts, if you are able to. There is something wrong if you are always splitting hairs with the Lord in money matters. There is something wrong if you never mention the name of Jesus outside of prayer meeting. There is something wrong if you never pray except when you have to. There is something wrong if you never go to church in bad weather. There is something wrong if you haven't got any more religiou today than you had ten years ago. There is something wrong if you feel spiteful whenever you see another woman wearing a better hat than you do. There is something'wrong if you never tell your husband you are sorryr you blowed him up lor coining iuiu me iiuuae wim uiuuuj boots on. There is some thing wrong if you are not a geed deal more anxious about getting other people to heaven than you are to get there yourself ?[Ram's Horn. TIfE KINSHIP OF CHRISTIANS. Christ said: "Whosoever shall do tie will of my Father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother." How comprehensive and inclusive this is! It npeaks of vital kinship which exists between the unnumbered hosts of God's people in all the world. There is a spiritual unity, unseen by the natural eye, which pervades the vast company of the redeemed of God. Dr. Joseph Parker of London says: "The Christian rel:gion never divides men?never splits up the human family and belittles our human relations. The Christian religion would have us all brought into a common sympathy, united by a common spirit of loyalty to the sune saviour. ... Be nolonger strangers and foreigners, but of the household of God. We are not isolated individuals; we grasp hands- with the ages, the glorious company of the apostles, the holy band of the prophets before them, the noble army of martyrs uniting them both, the holy church, throughout all tlie world?' this is the household ot God. "Beauteous picture! Tender relationship!" And how sacral ought such a relationship to be held! Thiuk of the great truth that this kinship was made possible only by the lifeblood of the Son of God! His blood runs, as it were in the spiritual veins of all whoare his true brethren and listers. Surely, this fact ought to make all Christians love ?ach other with a true and tender and forbearing love. Let us strive to show that we ire worthy of such a kinship.?[Rev* C.IL VYetherbee.. PRACTICAL REr.rr.IOX. Practical Religion will yet rectify rr.echmi>ni ami toii. A time will conic "when a mar, will work, as faithfully by the job as he Joe3 by the day. You say when a thing is lightly done, 'Oh, that* was done by the ob." "You can tell bv the swiftness or slowness with which a hackman drives whether he is hired by the hour or by the fxcursion. It he is hired by the hour he irives very slowly so : ? to "make as many lours us possible. * If he is hired by the excursion lie whips up the horses so "as to get iround and get another customer. All styles of work have to be inspected, ships inspected, horses inspected, machinery in.?|Hcted? Boss to watch the journeyman". Capitalist coming down unexpectedly to iv;itch the b( ss. Conductor of a city car winding the bell-punch to prove his honesy as h passenger hands to him a dipped } lickel. All things must be watched and in pcciel. Imperfections in the wood covered ivith putty, (laments warranted to last intil you put tlum on the third time. >bot!dy in all kinds of clothing, ."hionios. Pinchbeck. Diamonds for i dollar and a half. Bookbindery hat holds on until yon read the third chaper. Spavined horses, by skilful dose of oefceys. for several days made to look spry. A'agon tires poorly put on. Horses ' poorly hod. Plastering that cracks without any >10vocation and falls oil". Plumbing that iceds to be plumbed. Impei feet car-wheel hat halts the whole train with a hot box. >o little practical religion in the mechanism .? .!? 1.1 Tl.?. r,f mnn will tipvor ?1 iilU AUiiUl I A1V, I44f? Vi . ectify these tilings. It will be the all-^erailin'g influence of the practical religion of fesus Christ that will make Ihe change for he better.?[Tahnage. Cl'ltus W. Field carries two watches, me a cheap affair, which he uses, and he other a timepiece worth $2,500, a jift of a friend, which he never takes roin its fob, because, his friends say, he lislikes vulgar show. People who have ead in the newspapers two-column ac:ounts of the dinuers which Cyrus now _a zl ? f?n- lmnnvv lov/la in II1U. lUUU IU i* AOT iillUjjlJ WW ... London, -which accounts Cyrus cables >ver very carefully at his own cost, will je glad to know that he is so free from the potty vice of vanity. 'V ' v ; N* < ... . ~SABBATH SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOB NOVEMBER 10. Lesson Text: "Jesus Condemned, ? Luke xAii., 13-23?Golden Text: Isa. liii.. 8?Commentary. 13. "And Pilate, when be had called to* gether the chief priests and the rulers and the people." Pilate has not escaped from his dilemma. Although he has made friendswith Herod, through Jesus rejected, he has not yet made friends with the Jews, and Jesus is again before him to be disposed of. There isa greater question than that of friendship or enmity with people either in high or low places ou this earth, and that question, "What shall I do with Jesus," Pilate must now attend to and settle forever. The same matter is before every one who has heard that Gospel, and while it may be postponed, and Goa in great mercy continue His long suffering, yet the time will come when it must be settled in one way or the other.. 14. "Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people; and, behold, I, having examined Him before vou, have found no fault in this man, touching those things whereof ye accuse Him." This is Pilate's second testimony to His innocence (see vs. 5), and on the Jews, who have plainly failed in their case against Jesus; for Pilate insists that their accusations against this man are unfounded, and that He is innocent of the things laid to His charge. What a record this is against th9 Jews and in favor of Jesus, and it stands in the eternal word of God. 15. "No, nor yet Herod, for I sent you to ' him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto Him." Here i3 the strong testimony of two Roman Governors against the accusation of the Jews and in favor of Jesus. Even though it had been otherwise,and both bad thought to hava found some cure of death in Him, while that would have made these governors to be on the side of the J?ws^ it would have proved nothing against Jv.'sus, for no man knoweth the Son save the Father. 10. "I will therefore chastise Him and release Him." Insisting that He was innocent,, yet ready to chastise Him, even though he should the next moment release Him. How strange and inexplainable it all Feems< And vet tney treated the apostles thus a little later, when, being able to prove nothinar against them, and being advised by Gamaliel to let them alone, before they let them go they took them and beat them. (Acts ? , 40.) 17. 'For of necessity he must release one nnto them at the feast." And gladly would he improve this opportunity to set Jeans free. John xviii., 39, states it thus: *'Yo have a custom that I should release unto you one at the passover. Will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jewsr We are not told how this custom afot^ nor how long it had been a custom* Mt when we remember that over two millions of people bad been released from cruel bondage by the first passover it is interesting to notice the faintest shadow of a reminder of this by the release of one prisoner from bondage at ? each passover feast; and it seems that.the'choice of prisoners lay with them. 18. "And they cried out all at once, sayings Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas." In Matty xivii., 20, it is said! that this was the advice of the chiefs priestt and elders. How they hated Jesus! How,, they thi rsted for His blood. Surely they are like wolves and lions, and the dogs which In a few moments left nothing of Jezabel but the skull and feet and palms of her hands (II Kings, be. 85). 19. ' 'Who for a certain sedition made in the city and for" murder was cast into prison.'' And this is the man of their choice. A robber (John xviii., 40) and a murderer. If like attracts like, then we see how it was. The/ were all robbers in the highest degree, fo* they were guilty of robbing God (Mai. iii., 8L 9), and had even made His temple a den of thieves or robbers (Luke xix.. 46). And as to their being murderers, 'be that natetu bis brother is a murderer'' (I John iil, 15), and tbey were not on]ly hating Jesus their brother, but Jesus their iftng and their God. Truly they were as He said, "Of their father theg devil, who was a murderer from the begin ning, a liar and the father of it" (John vifl., 44) And they were now acting like good children of such a father. 20. "Pilate therefore, willing to release ' Jesus, spake again to them." It may have been just here that they said: u We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." For when Pilate heard that saying he was the more afraid (John xix., 7, S). And as he talked with Jesus privately Jesus said: "Thou couldst have no power against Me, except it were given tliee from above; therefore he that delivered He unto thee hath the greater sin." It is said that from thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him (John xix., 11, 12) But if he was willing to release Him and sought to release Him, why did he not do it? If he could have pleased everybody by doing so it would have been done, but because he had not the courage to do right, because he could not do what he knew to be right and yet be pleasing to all, he hesitates and struggles on ia his vain endeavor. 21. ' But they cried, saying. Crucify Him, Crucify Him," or they continued crying Crucify Him." They had but one desire concerning Him, and to all else they were deaf and blind. Die He must, and they would not cease till it was accomplished. Ob, that the- followers of Jesus ha a in His ause the persistence and zeal which the fol wers of the devil have in hi*sarvi?a would the Gospel soon te preached in all the world for a witness,, and the kingdom would 22. "And be saidunto them the third tima Why what evil hath He done? I hare foona no'cause of death in-Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go."' Well, Pilata, what does your three-fold testimony to His innocouce and your two-fold threat to chastise Htm and let Him go-amount to if yoa do not let Him go? In the- name of all that is right, let Him go without chastisement, since .you are sure that He is innocent, or else cease your efforts. confess yourself a coward and gratify quickly these bloodthirsty dogs. 23. "And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that He might be crucified. . And the voices of them and of the chie^ priests prevailedJohn gives some additional arguments which the Jews used, probably about this time. ' 'The Jews criea out saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Ctpsar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself.a king speaketh against Caesar." When Pilate heard that he brought Jesus forth. And whea they added, "We have no king but Caesar,." that settled it (John xix., 12, 15). A little while before it was Barabbas. a robber and murderer, instead of Christ; and now it is this world's emperor instead of Christ. So the world and the devil prevailed, and still the Creator of all things humbles Himself to endure. 24. "And Pilate gave sentence that it .should be as thoy required." He knew no. higher power than Caesar, and him he will linmir (hut- rtnl*" t'lM-thft <s?k? of his nositionl. let who may go to the wall. But Pilate baa* not an easy conscience about it yet, for "he took water and washed his hands before th& multitude, saying, I am innocent of th? blood of this just person; see ye to it." 25. "And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they hail desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will." Read Matt, xrvii... 2ft31; and see your Jesus, your Saviour,, who loves you as father or mother never did uor could; see Him scourged (mark its meaning), crowned with thorns, spit upon, smitten, mocked;, and say do you care? is it anything to you? And it so, now much? How much cau you bear for His sake?^ How much can you meekly bear of the unkind or even cruel will of others? And are you so glad of the redemption which He thus purchased for you that you never cease telling of it from day to day??Lesson Helper. Theodore Tilton is described by a lady who recently saw him in the new Salon in Paris. He has grown stout, and his long while h??ir was pushed " * - " * i * ' 1-3 J. belima nis ears, ana msiace uau u resi?? fill look peculiar to men of leisure. Ha tvas sauntering around, seemingly un- ! concerned about people or pictures, anclQ only caring to -while away a moment o! annul ___ Even the caterpillar haa to hump himself if he wants to make any pro* gross. ?... -o?-- " '1 : . .