Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

THE TWO MYSTERIES. We know what it is, dear, this sleep so deep and still; The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek so pale and chiil, The lids that will not lift again, though we may call and call, The strange white solitude of peace that settles over all. We know what it means, dear, this desolate heart pain. The dread to take oar daily way, and walk in it again, We know not to what sphere the loved who leave us go. Nor whv we're left to wander still, nor whv we do not know. But this we know: our loved and lost, if they should come this day, Should come and ask us. What is life? not one of us could say. Life is a mystery as deep as death can ever be; Yet oh, how sweet it is to us, this life we live and see! Then might they say, tho33 vanished ones, and blessed is the thought. So death is sweet to us, beloved, though we may tell you naught. We may not tell it to the quick, this mystery of death; Ye may not tell it if ye would, the mystery of breath. The child that enters life comes not with knowledge or intent; 80 those who enter death must go as little children sent. Nothing is known, but I believe that God is overhead; And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead. ?Mary Mapes Dodge, in Boston Transcript. { CHATTY'S ESCAPE. It was a showery summer afternoon at Cedar Hall. Cedar Hall was well named. It was a square stone building, utterly devoid of architectural attraction, and completely hidden in funereal pine and cedar wood. iOtbe ravine below brawled a noisy river, upon whose steep banks stood the ruinous walls of an old snuff mill, whose rotting wheel had in its time piled up the glittering tower of Miss Bagg's fortunes. For Mi3S Bagg was very rich. She had long ago sold out the business, and lived hero in the cedar woods like an old fairy with a golden wand, and her niece, Coraline Culver, lived with her. Coraline Culver was a very quiet person. Miss Bagg herself was not a great talker; and sometimes?as old Dorcas, the housekeeper, said?it did seem as if a spell or silence brooaea over the whole place. "And I shall be awful glad," said Dorcas, "when that other young lady comc9. Shan't you be glad, Misi Coraline, dear, for a bit of fresh life about , ?? the place?" , "I don't know," said Coralinc. "I'm used to aunty, you see." , That "other young lady" was quite a different person from soft-voiced Coralinc. Her name was Charlotte Bagg? , called "Chatty" for short?and she was the daughter of Miss Bagg's only brother, , and she was sent here to the green glooua ( of Cedar Hall to get her out of the way !, of a penniless lover who had had the 11 audacity to make eyes at her. To soft-voiced Coraline, it seemed as : j if the coming of this new clement into i , the monotony of her daily life would ] create a new existence. , When Chatty arrived?a brown- , haired, hazel-eyed girl with very rosy cheeks, and a sort of exuberant vitality ] in ever' look and motion?she eyed the , old hall with surprise and disfavor. j t:A perfect old dungeon," said ahe. , "Why don't Aunt Bagg cut down some of the trees? Why don't she pull down , that ghost-haunted old ruin .by the ] river?" ] 'I'm sorry you don't like it," said j Miss Bagg, compressing her lips. I X "Oh, I beg your pardon!" said Chatty, ( f coloring, "I didn't know you heard. , ^ Bift the rooms do smell musty, you ] know!" , In vain Coraline motioned the im- j < t. ~:i /ii..ti? puucuu iiu?*Luuici IU aacutc. v/tJuiijr either did not or would not understand ( the signals. , "And the place could be made to look bo pretty, you know/' said she, "with a j veranda all around it, and a wide strip , of light and sunshine opened to the river, . and?" "I was sixty last week," said Miss . Bagg, stiffening herself up, "and I am , perhaps capable of managing my own affairs without the advice and counsel of , others." "Now I've done it!" said Chatty to ( herself. "I'm always doiug it! I somehow seem to offend everybody!" Meek Coralinc looked on in grieved ; amazement. In all her uneventful life Bhc had never made so many blunders or , given so much umbrage as Chatty did within twenty four hours. "Coralinc," said Chatty, in a stage whisper, alter she had been about a week ct Cedar Hall, "the parrot has llown out of the window." "The parrot!" "Vpc Ymi sof? t thrmnrlih TM f,?orl him this morning and make friends with him, and the horrid beast nearly bit my finger oil; aod when I opened the cage door to cuff his ears soundly he just tiew away." ' Oh, Chatty?and Aunt Bagg is so fond of the parrot!" "I know it!" sighed Chatty. "But we'll put some corn on the window sill, and perhaps he'll come back. Oh, Coraline, how crooked that picture of old Judge Bagg hangs! Wait half a minute; I'll straighten it. I do hate to see things askew!" "Don't, Chatty?don't!" cried Coraline. "Because?" But Chatty, in her enthusiasm, paid no heed to Coraline's restraining words. She pulled up a big Gothic chair under the picture, and springing lightly upon it, gave the cumbrous gilded frame a twitch. The cord w<3 nearly worn through by age ana promptly gave way. Down came old Judge Bagg on the heads of his descendants, and over went Chattv. big chair and all. Aunt Bagg's indignation was too deep for words. Nevertheless she expressed tersclf verbally. "The meddling little minx!" cried she. "The cauvos is clear slit through, and the chair is broken to splinters, and?" "I'm so sorry," said Chatty. "I didn't mean any harm. Please to forgive me!" Aunt Bagg glared at her. "I've a great mind," said she, "to sead you back to Albany." Chatty claspsd her hands appealingly. J 'Vi" .V; - - - "Oh, please don't!" saic 9hc. "I've written to Eric Townsend to comc here and see me!" ''What!" cried Aunt Bagg. "Thcv won't let him into the house at home, you know," pleaded Chatty. "And I love him, and he loves me?" "Fiddlesticks 1" almost shouted Aunt Bagg. "Love, indeed! I wonder you're not ashamed to talk in that way. If that young man presumt* to come here, he shall be packed o2 the premises quicker than lightning." "Oh!" gasped Chatty, "you wouldu't be so cruel!" "You'll see whether I will or not," said Miss Bagg, inexorably. Coralinc looked on with a perturbed face. Did love always make so much trouble na 4-Viie? f'Knffn woo rvrnffxr on/1 <40 IU.O . VUUH.J T? VW IV1J MUM she had come into Cedar Hall like a sudheam, but what a terrible commotion she was creating! "Then," said Chatty, with an audacity that turned Coraline's blood to ice, "you're a wicked, cruel old woman! And I won't stay here any longer!" "Please yourself about that," grimly remarked Aunt Bagg. Chatty's small stock of self-control could not endure further. She ran out into the showers of the sultry August day. "Oh, aunty, call her back!" cricd Coraline, who had the tenderest of tender hearts. "Don't you see how it is raining?" "It won't hurt her," said Aunt Bagg. "She has got her waterproof cloak on her arm. And she's wise enough to run into the old ruin, you sec!" "Poor darling!" sighed Coraline. "Pert minx!" said Aunt Bagg. "Hero comes poor Polly through the rain? there's one good thing. But my grandfather's picture is spoiled, and the old Gothic chair that belonged to ray mother's ancestors is only fit for the wood-pile. Yes, lot her run away, if that's her notion. I never want to see her again!" "But," cried Coraline, "it isn't wicked to be in love, is it?" Aunt Bagg turned away with a whisk of her skirts. "Come, Polly," said she?"come to your cage." But as the time crept on and the storm grew fiercer, Coraline's heart quailed. "What will she do for her lunch, auntie?" said she, piteously. "When bhe gets starved out, she'll come back, I suppose," said Miss Bagg. All at once a jagged stream of livid lightning seemed to descend perpendicularly into the river; a thunderbolt, like an earnest of Jove's wrath, crashed above *>""" tliow mac ii riimlOinorPrho. a filoild I cutuj, mviv " > " o , | of dry dust rising into the air. Peter, the man of all work, rushed into the room. "I believe in my soul, ma'am," said Peter, "the old mill is struck?" ( Aunt Bagg and Coraline stood looking at each other, then they both hurried out into the storm. "Chatty?my Cousin Chatty!" wailed Coraline. "The poor, pretty creature!" cried Miss Bagg. "And to think tint I spoke jo cross to her!" Peter's prediction proved true. The walls of the old mill still stood, but the chimney had collapsed into a heap of ruins, from which the skirt of poor Dhatty's waterproof still fluttered. "Soyoung!" cried Miss Bagg, wringing her hands?"so pretty! Oh, if I :ould undo the past, she should have her lover and everything she wanted! Get a spade, Peter! Call the men! Lot us recover the?the body at once!" "Bless us and save us, ma'am," said Peter, "if once we began to dig there, ;ve'd soon have the whole place toppling iround us! But I'll go for the coroner, na'arn, if vou please." "That isn't at all necessary, Peter," jaid a sweet youug voice, and Chatty herself sprang down from one of the iiollow window casing3, and running up to Miss Bagg, nearly suffocated her by the warmth of her embrace. "I'm not iead at all," cried she, "and there's no use digging for me! When it began to lighten so, I threw off my hat and cloak, ind climbed up here to see how lovely the river looked in the blue gleam3, and when the crash came, I was half-frightsned out of my wits. I could neither jpeak nor move until I saw you come in. Did jou really mean it, Aunt Bagg? Can [ have Eric? And may he come here? Oh, you are the swestest, dearest, darlingist aunt in all the world?" After all, what could one refuse to a girl who, to all intents and purposes, svas just risen from the dead? Aunt Bagg felt the difficulties of her position ind surrendered. Mr. Eric Townsend arrived the next tlay, and luckily chauced to find favor in Miss Bagg's eyes. She interested herself at once in getting a good position for him, as impccuniosity proved to be his worst failing, and Chatty declared that she was a guardian angel. "And now, my dear," said Aunt Bagg to Coralinc, "since your cousin is settled, it's high time for me to be looking out for you. I don't sec why you shouldn't be married, too." "I'm sure, nunt, I never thought of such a thing," said Caroline, blushing. "Then it's high time you should be thinkiDg," said Miss Bagg. "One old maid is enough in the family." And so contagious was Chatty's example that within the year pretty Coraline was married to the young minister of the nearest church. "Two responsibilities off ray hands," said Miss Bagg. "But it does seem rather loneaome here without them."? Saturday Niqht. Events That Occurred on Friday. Washington was b^m on Friday. Queen Victoria was married on Friday. INapoicon uonapar:e was uora ou rriday. Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on Friday. America was discovered on Friday. Mayflower landed on Friday. Joau of Arc was burned at the stake on Friday. Battle of Waterloo was fought on Friday. Bastile was burned on Friday. Declaration of Independence was signed on Friday. Battle of Marengo was fought on Friday. Julius Ctcsar was assassinated on Friday. Moscow was burned on Friday. Shakespeare was born on Friday. King Charles I. was beheaded on Friday. Battle of New Orleans was fought on Friday. T TTTOQ acanaoinafori rtn FridaXT. I MUiVVlU 1TUO WWWW4MWvv? ? - 4 " REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON, Subjcct: "One Thing Lacking." Text: "One thing thou lackest."?Mark x., 21. The young man of the text was a splendid nature. We fall in love with hiui at the first glance. He was amiable and frank and earnest and educated and refined and?respectabla and moral, and yet he was not a Christian. And s9 Christ addresses him in the words that I have read to you, "One thing thou lackest." I suppose that tliat text I was no more applicable to t'ao young man of whom i have spoKen tuan id is appropriate i to a large multitude of people in this audience. There are many things in which you are Jacking. For instance, you are not lacking in a good home. It is perhaps no more than an nour ago that you closed the door, j returning to see whether it was well fastened, of one of the best homes of this city. Th? younger children of the house already asVeep, the older ones, hearing your returning footsteps, will rush to the door to meet you. Aud in these long evenings the children at the stand with their games, the wife plying the needle and you reading the book or the paper, you feel that you have a good home. Neither are you lacking in the refinements and courtesies of life. You understand the polite phraseology of invitation, regard and apology. You have an appropriate apparel. I shall wear no better dress at the wedding than when I come to the marriage of the king's son. If I am well clothed on other occasions I will be so in a religious audience. However reckless I may be about my personal appearance at other times, when I come into a consecrated assemblage I shall have on the best dress I have. We all understand the proprieties of every-day life and the proprieties of Sabbath life. Neither are you lacking in worldly success. You have not made as much money bs you would like to make, but you have ah jincome. While others are false when they say they have no income, or are making no [money, you have never told that falsehood. You have had a livelihood, or you have (fallen upon old resources, which is just tho pame thing, for God is just as good to us "when Ho takes care of us by a surplus of the " WIT nMAnnnf fUAAoa? tUai*a O P/l I past aa UJ picocUV 3uvv,ro:. * uuo vuv.10 wio jthousands of men with hunger tearing at the throat with the strength of a tiger's paw, not one of you is hungry. Neither are they 'lacking in pleasant friendship. You have real good friends. If the scarlet fever Bhould come to-night to your house you know very well who would come in and sit up with the sick one; or, if death should come, you know who would come in and take your hand tight in theirs with that peculiar crip which means "I'll standby you;" and, after the life is fled from the loved one, take you by the arm and lead you into the next room, and while you are gone to Greenwood they would stay in the house and put aside the garments and the playthings that might bring to your mind too severely your great loss. Friends? You all have friends. Neither are you lacking in your admiration of the Christian religion. There is nothing that makes you so angry as to have a man malign Christ. You get red in the face, and you say, "Sir, I want you to understand though I am not mvself a Christian. I don't like such things said as that in my store;" and the man goes off, giving you a parting salutation, but you hardly answer nira. You are provoked beyond all bounds. Many of you have been supporters of religion f and have given more to the cause of Christ I than some who profess His faith. There is nothing that would please you more than to see your son or daughter standing at the r jker of Christ, taking the vows of the Chris I l.alJ. | It might be a little hard on you, and might make you nervous and agitated for a little while, but you would bo man enough to say: "My child, that is right. Go on. I am glad you haven't been kept back by my example. I hope some day to join you." \ ou believe all the doctrines of religion. A man out yonder says, "I am a sinner." You respond, "So am I." Some one says, "I believe that Christ camo to save the world." You say, "So do I." Lookinr at your character, at your surroundings, I find a thousand thing3 about which to congratulate you, and yet I must tell you in the love and fear of God, and" with reference to my last account, "One thing thou lackest." You need, my friends, in the first place, I the element of happiness. Some day you feel wretched. You <:o not kuow what is the matter with you. You say, "I did not sleep last night. 1 think that mu~t be the reason of my restlessnessor, "I have eaten something that di i not agree with me, and I think that must be t'.;e reasoD." And you are unhappy. Ob, my friends, happiness f'oes not depend upon physical condition. Some of tlio harmiest n?or)'e I have ever known have been those who have been v.rappaJ in consumption, or stung with neuralgia, or burning with the slow fire of soma lever. I shall never forget on3 man in ray first parish, who in excruciation of body cried out: "-tlr. Talma^e, I forget all my pain in the love and joy of Jesus Christ. I can't think of my sufferings w'u2n I think of Christ." Why, his laca was illumined. There are young men in this house who would give testimony to show that thera i3 no happiness outside of Christ, while there is great yoy in His service. There are young men v. ho have not been Christians mor3 than six months who would stand up to-night, if I should ask them, and sjy in those six months they have hail more joy and satisfaction thau in all the vears oi their frivohtv aud dissioation. Go to t'1-! door of that gin shop to-' night, and when the gang of young men come out ask thani whether they are happy.' They laugh along the street, and they jeer r.nd they shout, but nobody has any idea they are happy. 1 ctuld call upon the aged men in this house to give testimony. There are aged rr.f>n hprp who tried the world, and thev tried religion, and they are willing to testify on cur side. It was not long ago that an aged man arose in a praying circle and said: "Brethren^ lost luy son just as he graduated from coilege, and it broke my heart; but I am glad now lie is gone. He i3 at rest, es? 1 capei from all sorrow and from all trouble. And then, in 1857, I lost all my property,and j you see 1 am getting old, and it is rather [ fiard upon me; but I am sure God will not ' let mo suffer. He has not taken care of me , for se veuty-five years now to let me drop out of His hands." , I went into the room of an aged man?his { eyesight nearly gone, his hearing nearly gone | ?arnt what do you suppose ho was talking about? The goodness of God and the joys of religion. He said: "I would like to go over and join my wife on the other side of the flood, and 1 am waiting until the Lord calls ino. 1 am happy now. I shall be happy there." What is it that gave that aged m in i so much satisfaction and peac?? Physical i exuberance? No, it has all gone. Sunshine! He cannot see it. The voices of frieirls? He i cannot hear them. It Is tho grace of God, thatis brighter than sunshine and that is sweeter than music. If a harpist takes a harp and find that all the strings are broken but one string, he does not try to play upon ' it. Yet her? I will show you an aged man the strings of whose joy are all broken save one, and yet ho thrums it with such satisfaction, such melody that the angels of God i stop the swift stroke of their wiugs and hover about the place until the music ceases. Oh, religion's "ways are ways of pleasantness* > and all her paths are peace." And if you i have not the satisfaction that is to be found i in Jesus Christ, I must tell you, with all the ] concentrated emphasis of my soul: "One thing thou lackest." i I remark, again, that you lack the ele- j ments of usefulness. Where is your business? You say it is No. 45 such a street, or No, '200 1 such a street, or No. 300 such a street. My i friend immortal, your business is wherever i there is a tear to be wiped a-.vay or a soul to ! be saveJ. You may, before oniing to Christ, do a great many noble things. You take a j loaf of bread to that starving man iu the i alley, but he wants immortal broad. You take a pound of candles to that dark shanty, j They want the light that springs from tho ( throne of God, and you cannot take it bo- | cause you have it not in your own heart. You know that the flight of an arrow de- 1 pends very much upon the strength of the j bow, anil I hn va to tell yen that the best bow that was ever made was made out of tho cross of Christ; and when religion ta'ces a ' onrl nutc it r>n Hin>. nnrl nulls if.hacknnrl lets it fly. every time it brings down a Saul or Goliath. ( There are people here of high social posi- , tion, and largo means, and cultured minds, ( who, if they would come into tho kingdom j of &od, would set the city on Are with relig- | ious awakening. Oh, hear you not the mora ( than million voices of those in these two j 1 cities who are unconyerted? Voices of those who In these two cities are dying in tbeir | sins? They want light. They want bread. They want Christ. They want heaven. Oh, that the Lord would make you a flaming evangel! As for mvself. I have sworn before I high heaven that t will preach this gospel as well as I can, in all Its fullness, until every fiber of my body, and every faculty of my miud, and every expression of my soul is exhausted. But we all have work to do. I cannot do your work, nor can you do my work. God points us out the places where wo are to serve, and yet are there no people in this house who are thirty, forty, fifty and sixty years of age, and yet have not begun the great work for which they were created? With every worldly equipment, "One thing thou lackest." Again, you lack the element of personal safety, where are those people who associated wTEB you twenty years" ago? W ti'ere are those people that fifteen years ago used to cross South ferry or Fulton ferry with you to New York? Walk down the street where you were in business fifteen years ago and see how all the signs have changed. Where are the people gone? How many of them are landed in eternity I cannot say, but many, many. I went to tn9 village of my! boyhood. The houses were all changed. I passed one house in which once resided a man who had lived an earnest, useful life, and he is in glory now. In the next house a miser UVCU. nw UCVUUICU nmuns uvuou, HUU spent his wholo life in trying to make the world worse and worse. And he is gone?the good man and the miser both gone to the same place. Ah, did they go to the same place? It is an inflnito absurdity to suppose them both in the same place. If the miser had a harp, what tune did he play on it* Oh, my friends, I commend you to this religion as the only personal safety! When ;rou die. where are you going to? When we eave all these scenes, upon what scenes will we enter? When we were on shipboard, and we all felt that we must all go to the bottom, was I rijrht in saying to one next me: "I wonder It we wiu reacn neaven 11 we ao go down to-night?" Was I wise or unwise in asking that question? I tell you that man is a fool who never thinks of the great future. If you pay your money you take a receipt. If you buy land you record the deed. Why? Because everything is so uncertain, you want it down in black and white, you say. For a house audlot twenty-five feet front by one hundred feet deep, all security; but for a soul vast as eternity nothing, nothing! If! ak w?Amor? cfonHino- in Qnmfl nf. ' ouuio uiau vi nv/iuau uvuuuau^ ??- ?; , these aisles should drop down, where would you go to? Which is your destiny? Suppose a man is prepared for the future*worlu, what difference does it make to him whether he goes to his home to-day or goes into glory? Only this difference?If he dies he is better off. Where he had one joy on earth he will have a million in heaven. When he has a email sphere here he will have a grand sphere "there. Perhaps it would cost you sixty, or one hundred, or one hundred and fifty dollars to have your physical life insured, and yet free of charge I offer you insurance on your immortal life, payable not at your decease, but now and to-morrow and every day and always. My hope in Christ is not so bright a3 many Christians, I know, but I would not give it up for the whole universe, in one cash payment, if it were offered me. It has been so much comfort to me in time or trouoie, u has been so much strength to me when I have been assailed, it has been so much rest to me when I have been perplexed, and it is around my heart such an incasement of satisfaction and blessedness that I can stand here before God and say: "Take away my health, take away my life, take everything rather than rob me of this hope, this plain, simple hope which I have in Jesus Christ, my Lord. I must have this robe when tho last chill fkrAnfh mo T mnaf. horo thia llcht when all other lights go out ia the blast tfiat comes up from the cold Jordan. I must have this sword with which to fight my way through all thosa foe3 on my way heavenward." When I was ia London I saw there the wonderful armor of Henry VIII. and Edward III. And yet I have to tell you that there is nothing in chain mail or bras3 plate or gauutlot or halberd that makes a man so safe as the armor in which the Lord Ciod clothes His dear children. Oh. there is a safety in religion I You will ride down all your foe3. Look out for that man who has the strength of the Lord ftod with him. In * ! 4-Virt Hnrsaman naaH tr\ riHfl In til UlUCU Ul UJOJ WMW . . battle with lifted lances, and the enemy fled the field. The Lord on th9 white horse of victory and with lifted lances of divine strength rides into the battle, an 1 down goes the spiritual foe, while the victor shouts the triumph through the Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of personal safety,my dear friends, you must have this religion. I apply my subject to several classes of people before me. First, to that great multitude of young people in this house. Some of these young men are in boarding houses. They have but few social advantages. They think that no one cares for their souls. Many of them are on small salaries, and they are cramped and bothered perpetually, and sometimes their heart fails their, "toung man, to-night at your bedroom door on the third floor you will hear a knock. It will ba the hasd of Jesus Christ, the young man's friend, saying, '*Oh, young man,let Me come In; I will help thee. I will comfort theo, I will deliver thea." Take the Bible out of tno trunk if it has been hidden away. If you have not the courage tJ lay it on the 6helf "' "Wo fnb-a fVin Rihlft that was civen to you by soma loved one, take it out of the trunk and lay it down on the bottom of the chair, then kneel down beside it, and read and pray and pray and read until all your disturbance is gono and you feel that peace which neither earth nor hell can rob you of. Thy father's God, thy mother's God, waits for thee, 0 young man. "Escape for thy lifeT' Escape now 1 "One thing thou lackasi-1" But I apply this subject to the age.1?not many here?not many in any assemblage. People do not live to get old. That is the general rule. Here and there an aged man in the house. I tell you the truth. Y ou have lived long enough in this world to know that it cannot satisfy an immortal nature. I must talk to you more reverentially than I do to these otiier people, while at the same time I speak with great plainness. Oh, father of the weary step, Oh, mother bant down under the ailments of life, has thy God ever forsaken tbee? Through all these years who has been your best friend? Seventy years of mercies! Seventy years of food and clothing! Oh, how many bright mornings! How many glorious evening hours you have seen! Oh, father, mother, God has been very good to you. Do you feel it? Some of you have children and grandchildren; the former cheered your young life, the latter twine your gray locks in their tiny fingers. Has all the goodness that God has been making pass belore you producsd no change in your feelings, aud must it bo said of you, notwithstanding all this, "One thing thou lac.'cest?" Oh, if you could only feel the hand of Christ smoothiug the cares out of wrinkled faces! Oh, if you could only fe?l tha warm arm of Christ steadying your tottering steps! I lift my voice loud enough to break through the deafness of the ear while 1 cry out. "One thing thou iackest." It was an importunate appeal a young man made in a prayer meeting when he rose up and said: "Do pray for my old father. He is seventy years of age, And he don't love Christ." That father passed a few more stap3 on iu life, and then he went down. He never gave any intimation that ho had chosen Jesus. It Lo a verv hard thin? for an old man to be come a Christian. I know it is. It is so hard a thing that it cannot be done by any human work; but God Almighty can do it by His omnipotent grace; He can bring you at the eleventh hour?at half-past eleven?atone minute of twelve He can bring you to the peace and the joys of the glorious gosoel. I must make application of this subject also to those who are prospered. Have you, my friends, found that dollars and cents a re no permanent consolation to the soul? You have large worldly resources, but have you no treasures, no heaven? Is an embroidered pillow all that you want to put poor dying head on? You have heard people all last week talk about earthly values. Hear a plain man talk about the heavenly. Do you not know it will be worse for you, O prospered man, if you reject Christ, and reject Him finally?that it will be worse for you than those who had it hard in this world, bejauso the contrast will make the discomfiture so much more appalling? As the hart d0uh03 tot me water orooK?, as me roo <poeds down the hillside, spee.l thou to Jhrist. ''Escape for thv life, look iiot behind thee, neither stay thou in all tho plain; escape to tho inountaiu lest thou be consumed!" 1 must make my application to anotupr ?loss of persons?the poor. When you canlot pay your rent when it is due, liavo you lobody but tho landlord to talk to? When she flour has gone out of the barrel, and you jave not ten cents with which to go to tho Daker, and your children are tugging at jour iress for something to eat, have you nothing 3ut tho world's charities to appeal to? j ? Wlsn winter corner and there ara no coals, and the ash barrels have no more cinders, who take3 care of you? Have you nobody but the overseer of the poor? But I preach to you a poor man's Christ. If you do not have in the winter blankets enough to cover you in the night, I want to tell you of Him who had not where to lay His head. If you lie on the bare floor, I want to tell you of Him who had for a pillow a hard cross, and whose foot bath was the streaming blood of His own heart. Oh, you poor man! Oh, your poor woman! Jesus understands your case altogether. Talk it right out to Him to-night. Get down on your floor and say: "Lord Jesus Christ, Thou wast poor and I am poor. Help me. Thou art rich now, and bring me up to Thy riches!" Do you think God would cast you off? Will He?. You might as well think that I it LJtr.uei uvu.-i tuT mim ma. .ujiia ua j her breast and dash its life out, as to think that God would put aside roughly those who have fled to Him for pity ana compassion. Yea, the prophet says, "A woman may forget her sucking child, that she would not have comnassion on the son of her womb, but I will not forget thee." If you have ever been on the sea you have been surprised in the first voyage to find there are so few sails in sight. Sometimes you go along two, three, four, five, six and seven days, and do not see a single sail, but when a vessel does come In sight the sea glasses are lifted to the eye, the vessel is watched, and if it come very near then the captain, through the trumpet, ciies loudly ? "? +-e\? U\A7 ki+VlAT* K/Min/19" Srt UUiU29 CUD ft utuuw k/wuuu? i^w . you and x meet on the sea of life. We come and we go. Som6 of us have never I met uerore. arcme or tRr wni nerar nrnnr again. But I hall you across the sea, and with reference to the last great day, and with reference to the two great worlds, I cry across the water: "Whither bound? whither bonnd?" I know what service that craft was made for, but hastthou thrown overboard the compass? Is there no helm to guide it? Is the ship at the mercy of the tempest? Is there no gun of distress booming through the storm? With priceless treasures?with treasures aboard worth more than all the Indies ?wilt thou never come up out of the trough of the sea? 0 Lord God, lay hold of that man! Son of God, if thou wert ever needed anywhere, thou art needed here. There are so many sins to be pardoned. There are so many wounds to be healed. There are so many souls to be saved. Help, Jesus! Help, Holy Ghost! Help, ministering angels from the throne I Help, all sweet memories of the past! Help, all prayers for our future de iiverancel Oh. that now, in tnis ino ac- i cepted time and the day of salvation, you would hear the voice of mercy and live I Taste and sea that the Lord is gracious. In this closing moment of the service, when everything in the house is so favorable, when everything is so still, when God is so loving and heaven is so near, drop your sins and take Jesus. Do not cheat yourself out of heaven. Do not do that. God forbid that at the last, when it is too late to correct th<* mistake, a voice should rise from the pillow or drop from the throne, uttering just four words?four sad, annihilating words, "One [ thing thou lackest." I CURIOUS FACTS. I | Cloth is made from wood. Artificial musk is now being manufactured in Germany. It is the women who do the proposing in Dahomey, Africa. The Chinese are great prize-fighter3. In 1819 the United States purchased Florida from Spain. A hen in Salem, Mass., has adopted a litter of five kittens which sleep contentedly under her wings. In London one woman in every twenty is a pauper, one in every thirteeu is illiterate, and one in every sixty is a gin drinker. Under. a late law made in Egypt the man who marries need not keep his own name, but take that of the woman, if he so desires. There is a Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor in the Wisconsin State Prison, which has more than 100 members and is doing good work. The Grind Canyon of the Colorado is simply the chaanel worn by the action of^ running water to a depth of 5000 or 6000 feet; the side3 are perpendicular cliffs. Artificial eyes are supplied to all the world from Thuringia, Germany. Nearly all the grown inhabitants of some of I Tvillnnroa o r/? onrrnororl in mOJIll. I VU6 """5V, ? ? facture. "Friendship teeth" is the latest fad. One of the Gardiner shoe factory girls has been presented with an artificial set of teeth, each of her associates giving her a tooth and naming the same. About a century ago it wa3 estimated that Paris had only about fifty pickpockets; now the police reports show that their number has reached 4000 in in the metropolis alone and about 10,000 in the rest of France. Two Portuguese pugilists recently engaged in a prize fight of 1127 rounds. They fought six hour3 a day, stopping at noon to eat and smoke. The battle would have lasted over a week, but both agreed to close on Saturday night to as to attend a bull fight. \ Electricity derives its name from the Greek word for amber, electron, because Thales, about 600 B. C. discovered that amber, when, rubbed, attracts light and dry bodies, and iu the twelfth century the scientific priests of Etruria drew lightning from the clouds with iron rods. Berlin's population was first counted in about 1(500 and it had then 12,000 inhabitants. In 1640 the thirty years' war had cut down the number to 7000. Under the Great Elector the population swelled to 20,000,and under Frederick I] to 173,000. In 18(50 the populate was 600,000. Now it is 1,574,000. Leando, Gnlindo, believed to be th? last member of a once noted Spanish California family, died in the the Alameda County Infirmary recently. Tha Galindos once owned about half of Alameda County, includiug the site of the present city of Oakland. lie was a squirrel hunter, and lived on the bounty of three cents a pelt that he received from the county. A Japanese chef, or fancy coolc, finds employment from his own nationality in preparing the fi3h dinners which are so prominent a feature of life in the land of the Mikado. One of his pet masterpieces consists of a large bluefish which, when served, has not a single scalc broken,and which, when opened, contains a sea bas3, and that in turn one or two smaller tiahes ia equally perfect conditiou. "William Waldorf Astor was offered five cents a work for a st^ry of 12,000 ? xr.. ,V=t-nr t.h<! olfcr. I Wv/iua* I'll . wvvv(,..^ , conditional upon his being able to hud a good theme during his present trip abroad. lie said the pay was not of much consequence to him, but he would accept the houorarium and devote to it some worthy object. Dr.. C.vrl Eigexmann has been collecting fish in San Diego for Bomo years. In making up ft eollectiou recently for the British Museum ho found a new specimen of herring that has pocket membranes for slipping in the ; dorsal pectoral and ventral fins. The scales are large, the eyes have a glassy covering and most of the head is traus* D&reat. .-=> 1 -i ~'f- ' - . \i ~ - V.,V'>"V : . St, "religIous reading. WHERE TO SOW. 'Angel of the Spring-time," said she, "Show me where to sow my grain. Shall I plant it round rav door-step, Or afar there on the pfaia?" "At thy feet!" the angel answered, ''Sow at once the ntarest He'd! First, thy door-yard, then beyond it. Let new fields new furrows yield. "Fill the nearest spot with gladness, Fill the home with goodness sweet; Wider fields shall ask thy ao'ving, If thou first sow at thy feet! "Thus for thee shall widening harvests Wave their manifolding grain, Till the sixty-fold, the hundred. Gild the door-vard and the plain!" ?"[ Christian Intelligencer. WHEN SIIAI.I. THE CHILDREN BE TACORV. Tt T?D A V ^ To wait, as some people illogically advise until children are old enough to understand about God before teaching them to pray, ii to behave as nobodv behaves in regard t( any other thing under the sun. The sensi ble way is to do as a mother whose childret arc among the best trained and best beliavec I know, tells me she always does: namely long before the child can talk, in the verj dawning of intellgence, to clasp tbe tinj hand in hers, and say the little prayer whi.'t yet it can only be the mother'n saying. The habit may be established by tbe tim? the baby is talking and walking, the blessed thing about it then being that tbe wholi conscious life of the child will be fast hound to God. Tliere will never be the memory 01 the time when the heart's burden was noi rolled off at his feet, when the day did noi begin and the evening close with a sweet Amen. As children grow older tliey shoulc learn to repeat reverently the Lor.l's Prayer and should be encouraged in the tender bed time talks with mamma.which are mamma'! most precious opportunity for winning tbeii confidence, and keeping them close to herself to make prayers of their own A child's (lay, like the day of a grown per son, has its lights and shadows, its trials anc anxietirs. Temptation has met the little om in the plav-ground, the street, or the school room, and she has had ber fits of naugliti ncs.?, her gusts of temper, or ber disappoint ments. as great to ber as her father's to him So the child, as well as the adult, may lean the conjrort or just resting on mat urci-u/u: truth, ''lie knows."?[Margaret E. Sangster DIVERSION AS A RKMEI>Y. There is a remedy to which many resop when in trouble. Some great affliction liai been visited upon them. A dear friend ha* been removed by death. Thus has a widi vo'd been made in their hearts The work has become to them a changed world. I seems empty nnd desolate. It does not aft'orc them the happiness' that they have been ac customed to find in it. They arc deprefsec in spirit, and go on their way sail and lonely They need something to cheer and to com fort them. Their burden is too heavy to fci borne; and unless somehow gotten rid of > they may be crushed beneath it. In such circumstances there is often a re | sort to various methods. A common methoc i9 to seek to divert one's mind from hii troubles?to forget them. Some hav? 11 ki> mnntia r\f AufapfniniiK I 3UU?Ul IU UV IU13 U> 1UV.IIMO V* ViUVtkHiui..; . books; sonic by a niorj diligent attention tc I business; some by foreign travel, and sonn even by a resort to the intoxicating cup. But "no one of these is the Christian raeth oil. which is the wisest and best of all meth o !s. The Author of our afflictions woulc not have us divert our minds from them He has sent tbem for a purpos?. He hai meant them for our good. He has in them all a wise and benevolent design. H< would have them "work for us a tar mori exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Hi would have it to be our experience, as it hai heen in thousands of instances, that it hai been good for us that we have been afflicted To seek to divert our minds from our afliic tions would be to take a course to counter act their intended design. A more excellent way would be to go witl our affliction to our heavenly Father, who we are ussured. ''pitieth them that fea, him," and to seek his irrace to bear it, am to be profited by it. This we are encourage* to do by the precious promises and assur ancesof his Word. "Cast thy burden on tb. Lord, and be will sustain thee." ''God i. our refuge and strength, a very present helj in trouble." "Conut unto me all ye tha labor and arc heavy l: den, and Iwillgivi you rest." 4,BlcsseJ are they that mourn, fo: thev slmll be comforted/' -- -- - IJelieve tnese gracious asaiuainjc?. tbc eternal God your refuge. Freely tel Him all your griefs, and He will impart uut( you a peace that the world cannot give; no> take away. This has been tried by thou sands, and it has proved a remedy fo: trouble far exceeding all others. Thus lint the aching void in their hearts been filled and they have gone on their way rejoicing ?[New York Observer. NECESSITY A SCHOOL-MASTER. Mr. Joseph Parker, in his comment ot Ruth 1: 1,?"There was a famine in tb? laud," makes the following observations: Necessity diives men forth, and is there fore to be regarded as a blessing rather thai a curse. It is prosperity that may be lookec upon, in some senses and uuder obvlou! limitations, as a danger if not a malediction "Necessity is the mother of invention." YV< we nearly ail we have to necessity: w< owe next to nothing to prosperity. Whj do men haste to the city every morning pouring in great living floods out of eveij railway terminus, and hastening awaj srareelv SDeakine to one another, scarcelj knowing one another' What is tbc expla nation of this rush antl tumult ami speech less haste? Necessity?necessity of som? kind, necessity real and proper, or some thing that is mistaken necessity: still, neec is the word of explanation and solution Why are all those ships upon the sea, ful of meD, women, and little children? What is the meaning of this leaving fatherland, this cutting asunder of themselves and vital associations? Necessity Men are going out to make lands, to creati civilizations. to establish themselves in free independent, secure and happy life. Pros perity does not drive men out: prosperity keeps them at home. Hardship is the rea' blessing of life when properly measured ant properly received. All children of this daj are being ruined. They are being con fee tinned and coddled to death. By the tinn tbev are fifteen years of age they have ?eet everything, there is nothing to be seen; the? nave iraveieu over me picuuc ^muiivo v. Europe; tliey have heard all the great speak ers, musicians and others they have seen al the great sights: they are overpowered wit! weariness. This should not bo so. But it must eon tioue to be so until the parents sec the real ity of the ease. Five years in the workshop the expenses being discharged by the par ents. from Jive years of age to "ten, woult j make men of the children. How they wcu'c then enjoy daisies, butte.cups, little birds half a day's rollicking freedom in the greet meadow. * How pleased they would bo wit! any oeeasional d duty food upon the table How doubly valuable the sweet kiss! Bu we will not have it so. Heme, the ohildrei are brought tip to be pests to themselvei and nuisances to the public. (?od. however takes this matter into his own hands, and In graciously sends famine and need and dilti eulty, sickness end death, and a thousaiu black teachers down into his great publii school, to show men the real charm of lift | and to bring to boar upon them the mos sacred and enobling impulse, which can in spire and sanctify their Industry. Duty be thv|polar guideDo the right whate'er betide! Haste not! rest not! conflicts past! God shall crown thy work al la*f. ?(From the ernian. A legal light who is interested in the recent African horrors has called -u ?A-? ol-n+nfa in in T!n. ktlltuitiun tKJ a, - J gland providing that "whoa any mur-1 ler shall be committed ou laud out ol tho United Kingdom the criminal ma? | be tried and punished in any part oJ j England or Ircl?-^ where he may bs apprehended." Roller-skating is to be introduced into fashionable Boston society. The . Hub evidently feels the need of relax"w?" corora montnl strain con- I t* UAVyjj. uiVbi vuw WVI V?w ? ?? ? soqaent upon the Browning and Tolstoi fads. ? - - 3B SABBATfl SCHOOL. ^ . INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOR FEBRUARY 22. ^ Lesson Text: "Elijah's Snccesor," II Kings, II., 12-22?Golden Text; Zech. iv., 6?Commentary. / 12. "And Elisha saw it." He had asked for a double portion of the spirit of Elijah, and the reply was, "If thou see me taken from thee, it shall bo so unto thee" (vs. 10). Now we aro told that he saw the chariot and horses of fire, and the whirlwind which took Elijah to heaven, and we will expect, there* fore, to see in him the spirit of Elijah. Ana ne cnea, my iainer, my iacneri tna chariot of Israel and tho horsemen thereof." When Israel went down to Egypt to Joseph his son, wo read that wagons were ' sent from Egypt to bring him and nis boosthold, and that Joseph went out in a chariot to meet him; but these are the horsee and chariots of heaven, sent down to meet the servant of God and carry him to glory. 'And he saw him no more." Separated v for tbe present, one gone out to walk with Gcd in glory, and the other left to contimxa as a witness for God on earth. How often is it so still? And though we may hare to lay away the bodies of our loved ones, as Eliaha's' was laid away, we may be sure that theme* sengers of God have welcomed them homo (Luke rvi., 22). 12, 13. "And he took hold of his owa 1 clothes and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan." Thus he discards himself, puts __ himself off and puts on Elijah. Jesus our ~ Master has ascended, and lias left on earth many who believe in Him to be His witnesses. He has also sent down the Holy -L-i Spirit to live in us, and be in us the power for service and testimony, and the work can be done only as our golden text tells o? (Zech. iv., 6). ? 14. " And he took the mantle of Elijah that } fell from him, and smote the waters and said: Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" Ho now acts in the name of Elijah, using the mantle of Elijah, and looking to the Lord God of Elijah. So did Peter and John v '~ when they said to the lame man: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts iii., 6). Or to take an older '~'illustration, so did David when he said to Goliath: "I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of \ Israel" (I Sam. xvii., 45). "And when he also had smitten the waters. they parted hither and thither, and />. . iuisna went over." ine same power emu had been manifested on behalf of million*, and so recently on behalf of two men, is now put forth on behalf of Elisha only. God will lavish His omnipotence on one man who 1j willing to stand for Him; but it was not ? ; simply for the sake of one man, bat for the sake of many that He might be glorified. 15. "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha." Thus testified the sons of the prophets who from Jericho had witnessed the dividing of the waters. When the .priest came out from ministering in the holy place, the odor of the incense ever burning there, and which would cling to his gar* ments, would quickly tell wher# he nacf been. "And they came to meet him, and bowed w" themselves to the ground before him." They worshiped God in Elisha, or as Paul says, . "They glorified God in me" (Gal. 1., 24). . Thus Potiphar saw God in Joseph, and so also did the keeper of the prison and Pharaoh the king (Gen. xxxix, 2, 3, 33; xll., 88). 10. "Let them go. we pray thee, and seek thy master; lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or mw some vnuay. The sons of the prophets request that fifty strong men should go and rescue Elijah from possible difficulties in which the Spirit of the Lord might have left him; How little those who live afar off (vs. 7) understand the ways and wonders of the lore of God. 17. "They sent, therefore, fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not." At first Elisha refused to allow them to go, but when they urged and insisted he firully consented, and this is the result. In Heb. xi., 5, it is written that Enoch "was not >? found," from which we would naturally Infer that he too was sought for, but in vain. There will be maoy searching parties for missing ones in that day when I Cor. xv., 51, 52; I The<s, iv., 1C, 17, shall have been fulfilled, but they will not be found- any more. than Enoch and Elijah were found, for they * shall have gone to meet the Lord in the aur to be forever with Him. 18. "And when they came again to him (for ho tarried at Jericho) he said onto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?' The energy of the flesh can only be shown its folly by allowing it to prove its helplessness. Theso fifty were sure that they knew better than Elisha, but their vain efforts have now done for them what they would not let his words do, that is, convince them of their folly. They had wasted three days' tiras and strength and accomplished nothing Many Christian workers are wasting much time and strength and accomplishing little or nothing because they live far off from tfoa ana Know not tne power >jl wmj spirit. Elislm bad tbree oats' rest from th? I company of such prophets, which most ha v< S been a great relief to him, and afforded hia I time for quiet communion with God. I 19. "Behold, I pray thee, the situation oi this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth; but the water is naught and the ground barren." H Pleasant to the eyes, but unfruitfulness '"d B death was in it; how like the tree of tU Q knowledge of good and evil in the garden oi fl Eden. There is onlv life and fruitfulnas I where the Spirit of God la, and howorei - pleasant or attractive a person or a wort may appear, without the Spirit all is death B and barrenness. H 20. "And he said, Bring me anew cruse, B and put salt therein. And they brought it *.B to him." In Deut xxix., 23; Jer. xvfi., 6; B Zeph. ii., 9, salt is associated with desolation B and barrenness, and every Bible reader it B familiar with the Salt Sea (Qen. xiv., 3; B Josb. iii., 16, etc.,) in which it issaid nothing B can live. But in Lev. ii., 13, we read thai B every offering to the Lord required salt; in. B Num. xviii., 19, we read of a covenant oJ B salt, aDd in Matt, v., IS, believers are called B the salt of the earth, while in Col. iv., 6, wa B ore told that our conversation should be sea- B soncd with salt. We need not stumble oval B these seeming contradictions when we *9 member that Jesus Himself is to some 3 B savor of death unto death and to others a B savor of life unto life (II Oor. ii., 15,16.) tm 21. "And he went forth unto the spring oi '^Bj the waters and cast the salt in there." Not B the stream, but the fountain whence the B - * 1 m'nnof stream flows must ue neaieu. ?uc om^v. _ cannot be healed by any mere reformation H of conduct; he must be born again, or have H placed in him an entirely new fountain,born Nj from above (John ni., 7, margin). And IB even after that we may find that there seerni H to come from the same fountain both sweet H water and bitter (Jas. iii., 10,11), but wi must learn that his need is to be filled with * H the Spirit of God, and only then shall the old H nature which gives bitter water be effectual- H ly sealed up and prevented from flowing. 8z " "Thus saith the Lord, I have healed tbesi H waters." Not Elisha, not tho salt, bat O Jehovah that healeth thee" (Ex. it? 26k H The salt was the symbol, Elisha the inatru- H ment, but the worker, the healer, the power, H was Jehovah Himself. From the throne of God and of the Lamb flows the river of the jBB water of life (Rev. xxii., 1) -"H 21, 22. "There shall not bs from thence flH any more death or barren land. So the 9 the waters were healed." All earthly M streams produce only barrenness and death, M but when the waters issue forth from the H sanctuary then everything shall live whither H the river cometh (Ez. xlvii., 9, 13). Happy the soul that can say, "All my springs are BB in The?" (Pp. Ixxxvii., 7). Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, "He that abideth M in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do noth- H ing" (John xv., 5). If the fruit of the Spirit abound in us we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful (II Fet. i? 8.?Lesson Helver. A Kansas man sunk a shaft on his nB farm the other dav, and in going down 100 feet it is said struck two five-foot veins of mineral paint, a tea-foot stra- n turn of brick clay, a twenty-inch vein H of coal, and a five-foot stratum of H marble. mm Lv the last nine Presidential eleo- jHj tions New York went Republican six times and Democratic three times. In El the same elections Indiana went F.e- En publican six times and Democratio B | three ? ' ??' Hj