University of South Carolina Libraries
- - ^ JrEV. B1TAL1IAGE. | RTHE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN- j V DAY SERMON. , (1 Sublet: "Gospel of the Weather." i / Text: "Hath the rain, a father?"?Job anviii.. 2S. I j Tlys Boo!: of Job has been the subject ofunbounded theological wrangle. Men have ' made it the ring in which to display their tecclcsiastical pugilism. Some say that the Book of Job is a true history; others, that it / b an allegory; others, that it is an epic Ej: others, that it is a drama. Some say Job lived eighteen hundred years beChrist, others say that he never lived at IllL Some say that the author of this book gras Job; others, David; others, Solomon, the discussion has l :n leri some in blank inIdaJity. Now, I have no trouble with the Jooks of Job or Revelation?the two most mysterious books in the Bible?because of a rule I adopted some years ago. f I wade down into "a Scripture passage as long as I can touch bottom, and wheu I canT troika nnf. T ncoH fn in lintnl t was over my head and then I got drowned, t study a passage of Scripture so long as it Is a comfort and help to my soul, but when (? fcecomes a perplexity and a spiritual upturning I quit. In other words, we ought to frade in up to our heart, but never wade in until it is over our head. No man should sver expect to swim across this great ocean Df divine truth. 1 go down into that ocean as I go down into the Atlantic Ocean at East Hampton, Long Inland, just far enough to bathe; then I come out. 1 never had any Idea that with my weak hand a ad foot I could strike my way clear over to Liverpool. I suppose you understand your family genealogy. You know soaieting about your parents, your grandparents, your greatgrandparents. Perhaps you know where they where born, or where they died. Have jfou ever studied the parentage of the show BT, "Hath not the rain a father?" This question is not asked by a poet ister or a scien list, but by the head of the universe, to uumtand to save Job God asks him fourteen stions: About the world's architecture, ut the refraction of the sun's rajs, about tide?, about the snow crystal, about the tilings, and then He arraigns him with (the interrogation of the text, "Hath the rain ft father?' "With the scientific wonders of the rain I nave nothing to do. A minister gets through with that kind of sermons within the first uiree years, and if he has piety enough he gets through with it in the first thrca months. A sermon has come to me to mean bne word of four letters, "help!" You all know that the rain is not an orphan. You know it is not cast out of the gates of heaven .k foundling. You would answer the question of ray text in the affirmative. Safely Loused during the storm, you hear the rain beating against the window pane. ?na you nua 11 se&rcnmg an tuu crev n-ca ul 'ttxe window sill. It first comes down in solijbary crop?, Dattering the dust, and then it deluges the fields and angers the mountain yorrents, and makes tha traveler implore .- belter. Yon know that the rain is not an mccidentof the world's economy. You know It was born ot the cloud. You know it was .Crocked in the cradle of the wind. You know It was sung to sleep by the storm. You know [that it is a flying evangel from heaven to -.earth. You know it is the gospel of the reather. You know that God is Its father. If this be true, then how wicked is our Eurmuring about climatic changes. The st fleven Sabbaths after I entered the ... {ministry it stormed. Through the week it pas clear weather, but on the Sabbaths tha -old country meetinghouse looked like Noah's - ark before it landed. A few drenched paoble sat before a drenched pastor; but most of fhe farmers stayed at home and thanked -jDo J that what was bad for the church was good for the crops. I committed a good deal Of sin in those days in denouncing the Weather Ministers of the Gospel sometimes pet about stormy Sabbaths or not Sabbaths, ^ or inflprnent Sabbaths. Thev forget tho bet that the same God who ordained the Sabbath and seat forth bis ministers to an* ; bounce salvation also ordained tha weather, ^'flath the rain a father:'"' P Merchants, also, with their stores flllei E'th new goods, and their clerks hanging y around the counter?, commit the same fcrangression. Therehave been seasons when ?|he whole spring and fall trade has been trained by protracted wet weather. Tha pi ere bams then examined the "weather probabilities" with mors interest than they -read their Bible?. They watched for a batch of blu9 sky. They went complaining so the store and came conplaining home - Sagaiu. In all that season of wet feat and gripping garments and impassable streets nai'ow Anna aclfa^ tho nilftcrinn "Hnt.ll UCUi VU\.C VOAbU buv the raia a father?" f So agriculturists commit this sin. Thero 4s nothing more annoying than to liavo planted corn rot in the ground because of loo much moisture, or nay all ready for the plow dashed o? a shower, or wheat almost ready for the sickle spoiled with the rust. How hard it is to bear the agricultural disappointments. God has infinite resources, but I do not think He has capacity to make [weather to please all the farmers. Soine|Umes it is too hot, or it is too cold; it is too jwet, or it is too dry; it is too early, or it is |too late. They forget that the God who (promised seed time and harvest, summer and {winter, cold and hear, also ordained all climatic changes. Thtre is one question that rought to be written on every barn, on every ?? rt*TA??T- koT*efa/il> An ororr t'flrm. (house, "Hath the rain a father!' ^If you only knew what a vast enterprise is to provide appropriate weather for this orld wfe would not be so critical of the Lord. Isaac Watts at ten years of ape complained j , that he did not like the hymns that were ' suns: in the English chapel. "Well," said his ^father, "Isaac, instead of your complaining ! about the hymns, go and make hymns that are better." And he did go and make hymns i that were better. Now, I say to you i! you do not like the weather get up a weather company and have a president, and a secre| tary, and a treasurer, and a board of direc; tors, and ten million dollars of stock, and i then provide weather that will suit us all. . There is a man who has a weak head, and ha |cannot stand the glare of the sun. You must have a cloud always hovering over him. I like the sunshine; I cannot live without , plenty of sunlight, so you must always^iave enough light for me. Two ships meet in mid-Atlantic. The one is going to Southampton and the other is coming to New York. Provide weather that, while it is abaft for one ship, it is not a head wind for ,'the other. There is a farm that is dried up for the lack of rain, and there is a pleasure part/going out for a field excursion. Provide weather that will suit the dry farm and the pleasure excursion. No. sirs," I will not take one dollar of stock in your weather j company. There is only one feeing in the universe who knows enough to provide the right kind of weather for this world. "Hath ! the rain a father?" My text also suggests Goi's minute suporvisal. You see the divine Sonship in every | drop of rain. The jewels of the showed are i not flung away by a spendthrift who knows not how many he throws or where they fall. ! They are all shining princes of heaven. ) Thev all have eternal lineage. Thev are all the children of a king. "Hath the rain a father?'' Well, then, I say if Go I takes notice of every minute raindrop He will take notice of the most insignificant affair of my life. It is the astronomical iew of things that bothers me. We look up into the night heavens, and we say, "Worlds! worlds!1' and how iusigniflcant we feel! We stand at the foot of Mount Washington or Mont Blanc, and we feel that we are only insects, and then we say to ourselves, "Though the world is so large, the sun is one million four hundred thousand times larger." "Oh!" we ?iy, "it is no use, if God wheels that great ni ichinery Ihrouzh immensity He will not take the trouble to look down at me." Infidel conclusion. Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter are no more rounded and weighed and swunz bv i the hand of God than are the globules on ! a lilac bush the morning after a shower. God is no more in magnitudes than He is in minutiae. If He has scales to weigh the mountains, He has balance? delicate enough jto weigh the iafinitesimal. You can no 'more see Him through the telescope than you Can see Him through the microscope; no more when you look up than when you look Sown. Are not the hairs of your head all numbered? And if Himalaya has a God, !)'Hath not the rain a father?" I take this doctrine of a particular Providence, and I tnrusxrrc mto tne very mtaso or your everyday life. If God fathers a raindrop, is there anything so insignificant in your affairs that God will not father that? When Druyse. the gunsmith, invented the needle gun, which decided the battle of Sadowa, was it a mere accident? When a farmer's boy showed Blutcher a short cut by which he eoatci brin* his- army up soon enough to deci io 'Waterloo for England, was it a mere accident When Lord Byron took a piece of money and tossed it up to decide whether or not "he should be aftiaaced to Miss Millbank, was it a mere accident which sido of the money was up and which was down? When the Christian army was b?siged at Baxiers, and a drunken drummer came in at midnight an^rang the alarm bell, not knowing what he was doing, but waking up the nosrm tmrs to irgnrtnerr enemres mar moment arriving, was it was accident? When in one of the Irish wars a starving mother, flying with her starving child, sank down and fainted on the rocks in the night aud her hand fell on a warm bottle of milk, did that just happen so? God is either in the affairs of men or our religion is worth nothing at all, ani you had. better take it away from us; ani instead of this- Bible, which teaches the doctrine, give us a secular book, and let us, as the famous Mr. Fox, the member of parliament, in his last hour, cry out:. ".Read me the eighth book of Virgil." Oh! my friends, let us rouse up to an appreciation of the fact that all tho affairs of our life are under a king's command and under a father's watch. Alexander's war horsa, Bucephalus, would allow anybody to mount him when he was unharnessed, but as soon as they pat on that war horse, Bucephalus, the saddle and trappings of the conqueror he would allow no one but Alexander *? u Anrl if a cnulless horsA Could IU LUUUU UiUi? rtuu ??. %? have so much pride in his owner, shall not we immortals exult in the fact that we are owned by a king? "Hath the rain a father?" Again my subject teaches mo that God's dealings with us are inexplicable. That was the original force of my text. Tha rain was a great mystery to the ancients. They could not understand how the water should get into the cloud, and getting there, how it should be suspended, or falling, why it should come down in drops. Modern science come3 along and says there are two portions of air of different temperature, and they are charged with moisture, and the one portion of air decreases in temperature so the water may no longer beheld m vapor, and it falls. And they tells us that some of the clouds that look to be only as large as a man's hand, and to bo almost quiet in the heavens, are great mountains of mist four thousand feet from base to top, and that they rush miles a minute. But after all the brilliant experiments of Dr. James Hutton, and Saussure, and other scientists, there is an infinite mystery about the rain. There is an oceau of the unfathnmnKJa in svorr ruinrlron. and God SaVS tO day as Ho said in the tini9 of Job, "ft you cannot understand one drop of rain, do not be surprised if Mr dealines %vitb you are inexplicable." Why does that azed man, decrepit, beggared, vicious, sick of the world, anl the world sick of him, live on, while here is a man in mid life, consecrated t j God, bard working, useful in every respact, who dies? Why doe:-: that old gossip, gadding along the street about everybody's business but her own, have such good health, while the Christian mother, with a flock of little one3 about her whom she is prepariug for usefulness and for heaven?the mother who you think could not be spared au hour from that household?why does she lie down and die with a cancer? Why does that man, selfish to the com, go on adding fortune to fortune, consuming everything on himself, continue to prosper, while that man, who has been giving ten per cent, of all his income to God and the church, goes into bankruptcy? Before we make stark fools of ourselves, let U3 stop pressing this everlasting "why." Lit us worship where we cannot understand. Let a man take that one question, "Why?" and follow it far enough, and push it, and he will land in wretchedness ana perdition. We want in our theology fewer interrogation marks and more exclamation points. Heaven i? the place for explanation. Earth is the place for trust. If you cannot understand so minuto a thing as a raindrop, how can you expect to understand God's dealings? "Hath the rain a father?'' Again, ray text makes me think that the rain of tears is of divine origin. Great clouds of trouble sometimes hover over us They are black, and they are gorged, and they are thunderous. They are more portentious than Sal vator or Claude ever painted?clouds of poverty, or persecution, or breavement. They hover over us, and they ^get darker and blacker, and after awhile a tear starts, and we think by an extra presure of the eyelid to stop it. Others follow, and after awhile there is a shower of tearful emotion. Yea, there is a raiu of tears. "Hath that raiu a father?" "Oh," you say. "a tear is nothing but a drop of limpid fluid secreted by the lachrymal glana?it is only a sign of weaic eyes." Great mistake. It is one ot the Lord's richest benedictions to the world. There are people in Blackwell's Island insane asylum, and at Utica, and at all the asylums of thi3 land, who were demented by the fact that they could not cry at th9 right time. Said a maniac in ons of our public institutions, under a gospel sermon that started the tears "Do you sae that tear? that w the fir3t I hava wept for twelve years. I think i* will help my brain." There are a great many in the grave who could not stand any longer under the glacier of trouble. If that glacier had only melted into weeping they could have endured it. There have been times in your life when you would have given the world, if you had possessed it, for one tear. You cou'.d shriek-, you could blaspheme, but you could not cry. Have you never seen a man holding the hand of a dead wife, who had been all the world to him? The temples livid with excitement, the eye dry and frantic, no moisture on the upper or lower lid. You saw there were boits of anger in the cloud, but no rain. To your Christian comfort, he said, "Don't talk to me about God; there is no God, or if there is I hate Him; don't talk to me about God;would He have left me and these motherless children" But a few hours or days aftsr, comiag across some lead pencil that she owned in life, or some letters whica she wrote when he was away from home, with an outcry that appals, there bursts the fountain of tears, and as the sunlight of God's consolation strikes that fountain of tears, you find out that it is a tender-hearted, merciful, pitiful and all compassionate God who was the Father of that rain. "Oh," you say, "it is absurd to think that God is going jto watch over tears." No, my friend?, ihere ara three or four kinds of them that God counts, bottles and eternizes. First, there are all parental tears, and there are more of these than any other kind, because the most of the race die in infancy, and that keeps parents mourning all around the world. They never get over it. They may live to shout and sing afterward, but there is always a corridor in the soul that is silent, though it once resoundod. My parents never mentioned the death of a child who died fifty years before without a tremor in the voice and a sigb, oh, how deep fetched! It was better she should die. Itv.as a mercy she should die. She would have be?n a lifelong invalid. But you cannot argue away a parent's grief. How often you hear the moan: "Oh, my child, my child P' Then tb?re are the filial tears. Little children soon get over the loss of parents. They are easily diverted with a new toy. But where is th'3 man that ha3 come to thirty or forty or fifty yearstof age, who can think of the old people without having all the fountains of his soul stirred up? You may have had to take (fere of her a good many years, but you never can forget how she used to take care of you. There have been many sea captains converted in our church, and the peculiarity of them was that they were nearly all prayed ashore by their mothers, though the mothers went into the dust soon after they went to sea. Have you never heard an old man in delirium of some sickness call for his mother? The fact is we get so used to calling for her the first tea years of our life we never get over it, and when she goes away from us it make3 deep sorrow. You sometimes, perhaps, la days of trouble and darkness, when the world would say, "You ought to be able to take care of yoursell"?you wake up from your dreams finding yourself saying, "Oh, mother! mother!" Have these tears no divine origin? Why, take all the warm hearts that ever beat in all lauds, and in all ages, and put them together and their united throb would be weak compared with the throb of God's eternal sympathy. Yes, God also is father of all that rain of repentance. Did you ever sea a rain of repentance? Do you know what it is that makes a man repent? I see people going around trying to repent. They cannot repent. Do you know no man can repent until God helps him to repent? How do I know? By this passage, "Him hath God exalted to be a priDce and a Saviour to give repentance." Oh, it is a tromtndous hour when one wakes up and says: "I am a bad man. I have not sinned against the laws of the land, but f have wasted my life; God asked me for my services and I haven't given those services. Oh, my sins; God forgive me." "When that tear starts it thrills all heaven. An angel cannot keep his eyes off it) and the church of God assembles 1 around; and1 there'iaa rommraglmg of tears, and God is the Father of th&raia. the LorJ, long suffering, merciful and gracious. Ih a religious assemblage a man arose and said:; "I have been, a very wicked man; I broke my mother's heart. I became an inndel, but I have seen my evil way, and I hare surrendered my heart to God, but it is a grief that I never can get over that my parents should never have heard of my Salvation I don't know whether they are living or dead." While he was yet standinz in the audience a> voice from the gallery said, "Oh. my son, my son!" He looked up and he recognized her. It was his old mother. She had been praying for him a great many years, and when at the foot of the cross the prodigal son and the praying mother embraced each other, there was a rain, a tremendous rain, of tearsy and God was the Father of those tears. On, that God would break: us- down with a sense of our sin, and then lift us up with an appreciation of His mercy. Tears over our wasted life. Tears over a greived spirit. Tears over an injured father. Oh, that God would move upon this audionce with a great wave of religious emotion i The king of Carthage was dethroned. His people rebelled against him. He was driven into banishment. His wife and children were outrageously abused. Years went by, and the king of Carthage made many friends. He gathered up a great army. He marched again toward Carthage. Reaching the gates of Carthage the test men of the place came out barefooted and bareheaded and with ropes around their necks, crying for mercy. They said. "We abused you and we abused your family, but we cry for mercy." Tha king of Carthage looked down upon the peopl9 from his chariot and said: "I came to bless, I didn't come to destroy. You drove me out, but this day I pronounce | pardoa tor an una psopie. upeu tau gauca and let the army come in." The king marched in and took the throne, and the ! psople all shouted, "Long livo the king!" I My friends, you have driven the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of tli3 church, away from your heart; you have been maltreating Him all these years; but He comes back today. He stands in front of the gates of your soul. If you will only pray for His pardon He will meet you with His gracious spirit and He will say: "Thy sins and thina iniquities I will remember no more. Open wid'e the gate I will take the throne. My peace I give unto you." And then, all through this audience, from the young and from the old, there will be a rain of tears, and God will be the father of that rait I How to Care For a Razor. "Been shaving yourself, sir?" asked the barber in a tone offensively patronizing. "Yes; how could you tell T' "Oh, that's easy enough. I can follow your tracks. Your neck shows it." "Well," said I, apologetically, feeling as if I bad committed a crime, "the trouble is I can't keep my razor in order." The barber smiled in that superior manner barbers have, and said nothing I for a few strokes. "How do you keep a razor in order?" I asked with humility, whereupon seeing himself approached with becoming respect, the barber delivered the following extempore address on the subject of cariDg for razors: "It would take you a long time to understand the razor," said he, as if deciphering hieroglyphics were child's play in comparison. "In the first place, you must learn to hone your razor. See," and he drew forth tenderly a white, smooth stone, and applying to it the fiat blade moved it diagonally back and forth with a scientific motion. Then he laid the keen edge against his thumb nail and made an observation. "Now it's right," he said triumphantly, "just alike from end to end, but it's hard to get it so. You would spoil that edge with half a dozen strokes. "The next thing is to know how to strop your razor when you've got the edge right. And the hard part of that is to keep your strop in order. Look at this one." (Two broad straps of leather and canvass used alternately). "Notice how soft they are. That is because I keep them oiled jast enough. I pay a dollar for a bran new strop, and six months later I would not sell it for two dollars, because I've had the trouble of breaking it in. It's the same way with razors; they're worth twice as much afterthey've been U9ed. "Another thing you amateurs don't understand is that a man needs a uull razor in shaving just as much as a sharp one. Didn't you notice that I changed razors in going over your face the second time? Well, the second one I used was dull. I could not have used it all the fiist time over no more than I could have mftfl thn sham ono thfl second time. You ? r .. must have a keen edge to get off the bulk of the beard, but for shaving close the edge mu3t be rounded. Why is that? Oh, I am not giving explanations; I'm simply stating fact3. "Well, good day, sir. Next!"?New York Herald. Color of Eyes In 3Icu aud Womon. M. de Candolie, a French investigator, hae come to the conclusion from his researches that women have a larger proportion of brown eyes than men. He also finds that where both parents have ey es of a like color the chances arc eighty-eight to twelve that their children, when they arrive at the age of ten (when the color of the eyes is fired), will have eyes of the same color. When the parents have eyes of different colors the chances are fiftyfive to forty-five in favor of brown as against blue or gray eye3 in the children. He is also of the opinion that the health of the brunette type is, as a rule, euuerior to that of the blonde.?St. Louit Republic. The truth of the germ theory of disease would seem to be demonstrated, at least with regard to some diseases, by the researches of Dr. Koch. In cases of a few diseases, notably splcnio fever, there accumulates in the blood and tissues, but more especially in the spleen, a peculiar kind of bacteria. Where auimals are inoculated with fluid containing either the bacilla themselves or their spore3, he has produced all the phenomena of spleuio fever. From this hypothesis the now celebrated micrologist has deduced the fact that by inoculating people suffering with tubercular diseases with a lymph the bacteria of this particular disease?admitting such to be of baoterian origin?are destroyed effect' aally. All Paris is laughing over the joke about an American inventor who is s&id to have patented a corset that is j to bring atout the reign of morality at once. If one of these articles is pressed | by a lover's arm it at once emits a shriek like the whistle of a railroad engine; and the inventor claims that he has already married three of his ! daughters, owing to the publicity thus thrust upon a backward lover. But the wits of Paris, carrying out the joke to its utmost, profess to fear that soon the parlors will become unbearable, owing to the simultaneous and continued whistling of the corsets. m.A nC ^ a ..If Til. v ! a ill' "isuuu aujer riieuuuienaj. One of the most ?urious wind1 ph'e?nomenons is the "sand augers" whiohi are observed on wide plains where the atmosphere is hot and dry. Whom the Union Pacific Railway was being con-- . structed the workmen had frequent opportunities of witnessing tho formation and progress of these 4'sand-auger" Whirlwinds. They were especially frequent in the Lodge Pole Creek Valley, through which the railway, leaving the Platte River, runs in a northerly direction? The first indications of the near approach of one of these "augers" would be the formation here and there in-thevalley of little dust whirlwinds,or baby cyclones. These would be whisked away by strong currents of. cool air, coming from no one knows.w<hew?i. but all drawing across the valley towards the eastern range of hills, their places, being almost instantly occupied; by aifast-advancing, funnel-rhaped cloud, likft that observed hanging over' watec-spouta forming at sea. I From under the surface of* this lowlyini! cloud a swaving; tongue-of lead colored vapor would prolong itself towards the earth, from, which* as if to meet the monster of the air,, would rise a cloud of dust nndi sand. Thi3 earth 1 column would rise higher- and higher, ? with a swift, whirling-motion, becoming ( more compact all- the. while, until the blue-blank v:ipor from above and the brown mass from, below would unite and form the typiejd '-'sand auger of the plains." The dianuiter of these augers seldem exceeded fifteen or twenty feet at the ground, b?t their bulk increased with their height,, until they were merged into the broad surface of the thick, murky vapor of the eloud above. "When tViia lin-Hf-ninrr flfishpq Wrtllld sport about the upper stratum of the cloud and immense hailstones be formed m the dark point beneath. When all conditions were favorable these hailstones would be thrown, by centrifugal force, out from the revolving cloud. Theso hailstones were almost invariably i of a flat disc shape, from three to six | inche3 in diameter, an inch to an inch and a half thick, and made up of alternate layers of sand and ice.?St. Louis ' Republic. A Piano Played by Electricity. A number of well-known musical peo- j pie and newspaper men met.inoneof ' the parlors of the Brunswick Hotel in re- 1 sponse to invitations to a musical recep- , tion by an automatic piano company, i Two upright pianos were in sight, and ' when the hour arrived at which the | mus'cal programme had been scheduled : to begin no performers had put in an I appearance. At length, A. B. de Frece ! pressed an electric button, and on the | instant there came from one of the in- I struments the notes of the march from 1 Mendelssohn's ''Midsummer Night's ] Dream." I The ivory keys of the piano worked j 1 up aud down as they do when a musi- 1 ciau pres3 s them. Following the march came a selection from "Tannhauser." It was aa if an invisible hand were working the keys, and the effect was wierd and uncanny. J But there was nothing uncanny about ] the performance. Within the pianos : < had been placed a machine which ; worked by electricity. It wa* very sim- | j pie. A long strip ot heavy paper or i thin cardboard haft been perforated with holes and little slots representing the ' notes of the selections. This was ar- \ ranged to pass over a series of metallic < points with springs under them. As the J strip passed along, these points were t firmly nressed down until one of the < holes or slots came along, when the , 1 spring forced the iroa point upward j through the hole and it struck one of the 1 hammers of the piano. The slots and i holes represented all the notes of all tho j parts of the musical piece3. A little j electric motor, worked by a storage bat- ' terv just behind tho piano turned the rollers and kept the strip of paper mov- | ing. The pianos were fitted with cranks which served the same purpose if the operator cared to shut-of! the current and do the work by hand. , Many pieces of musis were played ye3teraay, including waives, marcnes, and familiar airs.?New York Times. Sun Spots and Weather. ??: Mr. Tacchini, the Roman astronomer, has been devoting a good deal of time and attention to the study of the sun and its relations to the earth. He says that of the heat radiated from the sun the earth receives but one twenty-two hundred millionth. Mr. Tacchini has been engaged during the past winter in observing what is going on in the sun. He has found the solar disc in an extremely disturbed condition. "During the first ' three months of 1891," says Mr. Tac- j : * in. ~ e j I CUIUl, LUC pUUUULUCUUU Ul BpULS UQU | ! faculae was much more pronounced than I J in the previous three months, and, by l reason of the greater activity of the sun, I the number of days without spots has * been much smaller than before." Dur- ' ing February the activity was particularly i marked, metallic eruptions being among ( the striking phenomena noted by the ob- ) server. The temperature of its radiating surface and the temperature of the earth's i surface must, according to the prevalent theory, be thereby affected. The ia- | t crease of the sun's power may be very , 1 minute, but a very slight addition to it-j would produce a considerable difference d in the meteorological condition of our '' globe:"?Picayune. """ ii Cape Cod Is Disappearing. Theie isn't the least doubt but that P Capo Cod, Mass., is gradually being eaten up by the greedy ocean. Less than 100 years ago a lighthouse wa3 placed c on the headland by the Government. i< The original deed calls for a plat of ten 1 acres in extent. At the present time the enclosure embraces hardly six acres. On j1 a point just north of the marine stations si at Highland light the face of the bluff | ti has moved iu nearly 230 feet in the last seven years. A this rate it is only a jj question of time when Cape Cod will be a a thing of the past.?St. Louis Republic, h Best Way to l'unish Children. i " One of the best ways to punish a \ i, child is to find out what the child wants u to do and then prohibit it lrorn doing n that thing for a while. Perhaps it ^ may be well to prohibit a certain kind of d food of which the child is fond, as pun- o' ishment for misdemeanor. The going without will teach him self-control and be a constant reminder of his error. a Some method of this sort is much better ii than corporal punishment, which usually ? hurts only for a few momeuts and the ^ chief effect of which is to make the , u child angry.?Dr. J. H. Kellogg. j b TEMPERANCE. LTTTLE BY LITTLE. Little by little all things grow. Plants-and trees from the seed we sow; Th& beginning of life is under tho ground, . I? darkness and silence all profound; men a tiny 3noot comes up ro tne ugnu And the plant increases in beauty and migbti. Little- by little bad habits grow; How they begin we scarcely know; A little wrong act, just one false word, One pleasant drink in the wine-cup stirred.' Repeated once in a while and again, Ann, lo l we are fast in a cruel chain. LfttLe by little good principles grow, Steady and sure, though sometimes slow; A. little act done because it is right Soon conies to be choice?a real delight?1 rill our second nature it grows to be, And we walk in its light and liberty. Little by littlexrar life wears on; Days, weeks and years, and the whole ha: gone; rhe days are made up of minutes so small, ro do onr true work we have need of all. rhen carefully fill each tiny space, 11 you would have joy at tne end o? the race. ?Temperance Banner. BEER I2T A BIO FACTORY:. At the great factory of the Singer Manu'acturing Company, at Elizibethport, N. J., i half hour 13 allowed for the noonrday meai md it is invariahlv taken in thn>shan<i. nr in ;he immediate vicinity. The whistle sounds, ind instantly 500 cr more bpys or young nen appear on a run armed wiih tin pails, iome carrying a dozen. Th&y immediately epair to some adjoining saloons, where the jails are filled with beer, which shortly beore has been drawn into tubs so as to allow >f expeditious dipping. The beer is then :arried to waiting comrades in the factories, -Scientific American. a surgeon's wish. Dr. T. Gaillard Thomas, who with Drs Emmett and Sims makes the brilliant trie )f specialists which has well-nigh wroughi niracles in the fiel l of surgery for women, frill, by this utterance in a recent address nake friends with a host of women who hav< 20 use for his, beneficent knife; "Were i )ffered to-day by some great power the ac :omplishmeat of one wish, I think I woulc lelect the destruction of the process by whici ilcohol is created. Putting advantages and lisadvantages into mental scales, 1 should (elect, as the wish nesting closest to mj leart, the abolition of alcohol,"?'Union Sig ial, world's fair temperance exhibit. Temperance will have a great exhibit at he World's Columbian Exposition. Temper mce drinks, temperance literature and tx le tt7 i 11 ha fontnroQ n f t.ViP CLL1UCI aiiUO UV3^ii.aio ?im uu WW v-. w?% lisplay. Installation Secretary Hirst has received ipplication for space for the exhibit. Mis: Fosephine E. N. Nicholls, of Indianapolis, nade the application on behalf of the Wo nan's Christian Temperance Union and th< Woman's Temperance Publication Associa lion. Nor will the exhibit be restricted t< :emperance subjects only. A model crechf >vill be established, with nurses and cribs foi :he care of children whose parents will leav* ;hemfora few hours; the hospital will b< 3tted for the care of emergency cases, tb< treatment to be without the use of alcoholi< stimulants. A large pavilion will be flttec up with fountains, flags and banners fron thirty-eight nationsil unions. The entiri display is to be tho result of female laboi ma will be most elaborate in all its details E.YFORCED TEHPERANCZ. The agency of the railroad companies I promoting temperance Is not generally ap predated. They employ 639,912 persons, no counting those who mine the coal and iron make the rails or locomotives, or build th cars and carriages used by the road. Th freight and passenger traffic of the countr is practically controlled by 000 of these cor porations, and of these 000 no fewer thai 375 prohibit the use of intoxicating liquor by their employes, among the number bf ing most of the largest companies. Th Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers use its influence in the same direction. "When jver a membsr of the Order is known to b iissipate I," says Mr. Arthur Long, the hea* 3f the organization, "we not only expel o suspen 1 him, but notify his employers," an; luring the last year 375 members were ex palled for this caus\ This is only one ijlus trution of the way in which practical busi aess considerations are operating to promofc the spread of temperanc?. It is purely < matter of business with the railroad com panie3. They simply cannot afford to em ploy a man who is liable any day to ge irunk and precipitate some terrible disaster rhe average man can thus see that it ii "money in his pocket," in more senses thai jne, if ha keeps out ot the saloon; and th uoral is not lost upoa him.?The Nation. EEUr. DF.IiVKING Kf TUB SLtni3. It is interesting to an observer of humat nature to walk through the slums of Nev 5Tork nowadays and watch the unfortunate Iwellers there in their endeavors to keej jool. On a warm summer r.fternoon all thi windows and doors of thj tenements an ivide open, and hundreds of heads may b< seen hanging from them in the hopes o: Pitching stray whifs of air. The atonch ol the region, intensified by the close atmos Dhere there, is augmented by the odors ol looking which come steaming through everj iperturc. Many women huddle togethei an the stoops of the houses and gos3ip anc wrangle, and in the excitement of their chat:er forget for a time their troubles. Scores >f babies play about in the gutters, happj u their satisfaction with their surroundings t.Vioit* ifrnrtronM nf nntrfhin:* Thore arc, of courso, plenty of idle men it :ho poor districts. The chief meeting places jf these aro the liquor stores, whicih a&ound ?very where around. Every few moments a ?irl or a woman wearing a plaid shawl ovei ler head, which also envelops most of hei jody and conceal.1: thu tin can which she :arries in lior hand, darts into one of the sa oons and in a tor/ moments darts out ajair., >ut with a more careful movement than bafore lest slio loso any of the precious liquor. Sometimes she takes it to ouo of the groups >f women on the sidewalk, who pass it from nouth to mouth, not forgetting to give sip= )f it to tho children who come clamoring irouad for their share.?New York Tele jram. TEMP2RAXCE NEWS AN'D .VOTE3. The Bompeh (South Africa) W. C. T. U. iassent$10 to tho Woman's Temperance 'emple Fund. In Cambridge, Mass., tho aldermen have ecided to grant one druggist ticanse where orty were granted betore. Dr. C. L. Dana, visiting physician to Belleue Hospital, says: "There is no salvation a malt liquors and light wine9." Des Moines, Iowa, is a city of 60,000 peole, and has not an open saloon withiu its mits, nor within the caunty in which it ia ituated. The twenty-first general convention of the latholic Total Abstinence Union of Anier:a will meet in the city of Washinton, ). C., August 5th. A temperance lecturer says that three imes as many people drink intoxicants toay as ten years ago, but the amount conained is less by one-half than it was at that ime. Mrs. Mary Clement Leavitt, Correspondlg Secretary of tho World's W. C. 1. U., as been absent from America eight years, nd has in that time organized 112 societies, eld over sixteen hundred meetings, traveled JO,000 miles and has had the services of 229 iterpreters in forty-seven languages. The new administration in Vincennes, nd.. having ordered saloon-keepers to close p on Sundays, the latter, who aro in the lajority in "councils, retaliate by reviving n old ordmauca requiring that all business e suspended on Sunday. As a consequence rug stores, cigar stands, barber shops, lem nnde stands, ice-cream parlors, ctc., are losed on tho sacred day. A despatch from Topeka, Kansas, says aat the prohibition leaders are delighto.l t the result of the Supreme Court decision i the Rohrer Original Package case, holdlg the Wilson bill constitutional. County attorney Welch, who had dropped his prosoations of the men charged with continuing j sell liquor after the passage of tho Wilson ill, will now continue, aud the war will be 'aged with determination. j SlBSATlf SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOIt JULY 20. Iicsson Text-:- "Christ and Nicode[; mas," John ill.,. 1-17? Golden Text: John iii.r 10? Commentary. 1; "There waa a man of the Pharisees * named Nicodemus,. a ruler of the Jews." After the miracle ati Cana Jesus tarried in Capernaum a few daysi, and. then went up to Jerusalem to the Passover (chapter ii., 12, 13); and there wrought miracles which caused many in some ssnse to believe in Him; but Jesus did not< readily beliera in them, or commit Himself untofco.them* for He knew all men, and knew what was in man (chapter ii., 23-25). "Now there was a man" (R. v.), and Jesus knew him and what was in him. I. His name (according to Young) signifies "innocent blood." It is. found three times in our lesson, and elsewhere only in chapters vii., 50; xix., 39. He belonged to the most religious sect among the Jews, and we may > hope-that he was an exception to the description .gi yen'by the Saviour in Math, xxiii., 5, 28, He was highly esteemed among men, for he was a member of their great council. 2. "The same came, to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest except God bo with him." See him now in the pre31 cnce of Jesus, probably a sincere, upright, religious man, but a man without life (I John v., 12). As to his body, he may be ; physically perfect; and as to his soul or intellectual part, he may be comparatively perfect also; but as to his spirit, or that > which knows and enjoys and communes with God. he is dead. But ho is mtnrAsterl and ' I he is thoughtful and inquiring. He has seen i. I some of the wonders wrought by Jesus, and ?. he is persuadod that Jesus is no ordinary mail. In fact ha believes that God is with Him and has sent Him, and he wants to know Him better. 3. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, bo '.unnot see the kingdom of ) God.'' Here is the second double verily, t which we find twenty-Sve times in this gos, pel, and only here. It is in chapter i? 51, and , three times in our lesson (versas 3, 5, 11). It s is literally ''Amen, amen," or "Truly, truly," [ and gives the greatest possible emphasis to - the words spoken. "I say unto you*' is equal L to the Old Testament expression "Thussait'a l the Lord," for it is the same person who I then spoke through the prophets that now I speaks face to face with Nieodemus (see Rev. r xxii., 6-16). Regardless of Nicodemus's flattering words Ho sees the need of his heart, and at once tells him the only way by which | it can be met; he must be born from above (margin), or anew (R. V.). 4. "Nieodemus saith unto Him, How can a j i man be born when ho is old? Can he entar j the second time into his mother's womb and I I be born?" This ronlv proves that Nicoi&* > mus is only a natural mm; ha does not understand spiritual things, they are folishness I unto him (I Cor. ii., 14). Ha has not yet 1 iearned the A, B, C of true religion. 5. "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say * unto thee, Except a man be born of water > and of the Spirit, ho cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." Jesu3 now repeats what ' He had said before, but enlarges by explain5 ing that the new birth is by water and the * Spirit. * C. "That which is born of the fbsh is flesh, 3 and that which is born of the Spirit ia ' Spirit/' If a person could be born again in 2 a natural way a dozen times he would be no 1 near the kingdom, for ever since Adam 1 sinned all, without exception, are born in 3 sin, and are by nature children of wrath r (Rom. v., 12; Eph. ii., 3). 7. "Marvel not that 1 said unto thee, Ya must be boru again." Whea God sayj "mu3t" there can be no other way. He ha3 therefore forever settled it that every soul u not born from above is excluded from tho i kingdom. 8. "The wind bloweth whero it listeth, i and thou hsarest tho sound thereof, but e canst not tell whence it cometh and waither 0 it goeth; so is evory one that is born of the y Spirit." The wind is His messenger, doing . His work a3 pleaseth Kfim, an-1 is visible only Q by its effect?. So the Spirit of God works in 3 the soul, sometimes by the word preached, y sometimes by the word read, somatomes e ' through a human instrument, sometimas s ! apart from any human instrumentality; but . the effects become in duo time visible to all. e 9. "Nicodemus answered and said unto 1 Him, How can these things bsF' Ho is still a r natural man trying to s.?e spiritual things; a i blind man wondering what tho light is like; UU till uuij luau [JUii/ica uvi* ?wui?j . things; an intellectual, religious man lacking tbe one tbing needful; but thank God he 9 is inquiring, and be has com9 to Jesus, a though he has not yet recaived Him. 10. "Jesusanswered and said unto him, Ai t . thou a master (ths teacher?P.. V.) of Israel, t and knoweth not these things?'' As a teacher . of Israel he should have known that God r> s garded the heart moro than tha outwardapi pearanc9; that circumcision referred to tlia s inner life moro than to the body; that naw_ moons aud Sabbaths and sacritica3 weivT nothing without true f-v'-h ia God and trus heart worship of Hitu. 1J, "Verily, vjrily, I say unto the?, We 1 speak that we do know, and testify that wa r have seen; aud ye receive uot our witness." j In anoth9r placo He so speaks o! His onaness j with the Father, and of the Father's spaak3 ing the words and doing the works through 9 Him (John xiv., 10), that I conclude that the 3 ive" here refers to the Father and Himself. | E 13. "If I have told you earthly things, an! | r - ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell I you heavenly things?" Nicodemus was puz r zled over what He said about the wind, which was a matter in connection with the earth. I The new birth also was matter in connection with the earth, for it must take place here 3 on the earth in our mortal bodies or not at r all. But the open heaven, and the ascending i | and descending angels of which Be haa spoken to believing Nathanae), these were i I heavenly things of which He could not speak i to reasoning Nicodemus. L 13. "Ana no man bath ascended up to t heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven." In chapter i., 18, John spoke of Him as "in ) the bosom of the Father," and here He speaks of Himself a3 "the Son of Man which is in heaven." Although now seated at the Father's right hand in heaven, yet wherever two or three meet in His name He is in the i midst, and He says to His obedient disciples, t "Lo, I am with you alway" (Matt, xviii., , 20; xxviii., 20). > 14. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent ! in the wilderness, even so much the Son of Man be lifted up." Here is the other "must," to which we referred in versa 7, and if this "must" had never become an accomplished fact the new birth had been an impossibility. 15. "'That whosoaver balioveth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." Israel murmured at God's way and God's bread (Num. xxi, 4, 5). He then sent serpents to bite them, and much people died. VVe are all bitten by the serpent; the sting of death is (in, all have sinned, death has passed upon all, but Jesus lifted up shows us the serpent harmless, for He received the sting for all in His own body. "He was made sin for us who knew no sin." "His own self bare our sins in His own body on fcx*60 " lf>. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not parish, but have everlasting life." There was no other way to save sinners *han that some on ) without sin should become the sinner's substitute. 17. "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." "Herein is Love." ' Behold what manner of Love." "See the Great Love wherewith He loved us." "The Sou of God loved me and fave Himself for me (I John iv., 10; iii., 1: Iph. ii., 4; Gal. ii., 20). But half the world does not know about it yet, although He came to save the world.?Lesson Helper. Farming by telephone is a new industry. The man who knows how oats, peas, beans and barley grow may sit in his comfortable farm-house and read his weekly paper and do his farming by tho "hello" arrangement. If I the practice became general theie would be no more candidates of the hornv-handed order and the honest son of toil would be represented by the farmer's hired man at the other end of the hollo plan. It isn't a bad idea bi half. v- v '? - V '- &?| ' RELIGIOUS READING. 1 HOEIXO AND PRAYING. Said Farmer Jones in a whining tone, To bis good o'd neighbor Gray, ' I've worn my knees through,to.the bone. Rut it ain't no nsfl to nr;iv_ ' Your corn looks just twice ns good as mine. Though you don't pretend to be A shinin' iight it) tlie church to shine, Au' tell salvation's free. 'I've prayed to the Lord a thousand times For to make that 'ere corn grow; An' why your*n beats it so aud climbs I'd give a deal to kuow." --sgfi Said Farmer Gray to his neighbor Jones, In his quiet and enay way, "When prayers get mixed with lazy boM? They don t make farm in' pay * < "Your weeds, I notice, are goo&aad tall, * In spite of all your prayers You may pmy for corn till the-heavens fidU If you don't dig up the taresv "I mix my prayers with a.little-toll, Along in every row; An' I work this mixture into, the soil, Quite vig'rous with a hoa; <lAn' I've discovered, thouglkstill in sin, As sure as jou arc born,. This kiud of compost-well vrorked in, ViiItao nvafftr - nnim ' ' pitubj uvwut vviavk "So while I'm praying-1] ese my hoe, An' do my level'best, To keep down the weeds along each row, ,'J An' the Lord, he do?& the rest. ? "-ffh "It'8 well for to prawvboth night an' morn. As every farmer knows; But the place to pray for thrifty corn Is right between, your row's. "You must use your hands while praying, though, '.it If an answer you would get, For prayer-wora knees an' a rusty hoe Never" raised a big crop yet. "An' so I belfeve, my good old friend, If you mean to win the day. From ploughing, clean to the harvest's end* You mu-si hoe as well as pray." -[Selected. % ??? TRUSTING A BOY. It is an axiom of common life that ono way to drive a person to untrustworthinesa is to distrust him. Conversely, the throw* ing one on his sense of undivided person*! responsibi.ity is likely to increase- bis efficiency in any form of work committed to him. A certain clear-headed, true-neanea mother, who thoroughly understood how to help her boy by showing her conflk:-^ dence iu him, wo* one day reassured in her attitude of confidence by his saying to her: : % "<lA fellow can't do anything wrong whea. his mother trusts him so." Many anothep JA boy would feel that, even though be did noifcv quite say it, ifonly he were granted the opportunity to feel what it means to be trumed?[Philadelphia Sunday-School Times. STEALING U0PS. Infidelity comes to men and demands ot them to surrender their religion and hope at the future, enforcing the demand by endear * > oring to bring into contempt the soturt* f'r-i from which they get their idea of Ood ana ' justice. But it never brings forth anything 1 to supply the vacancy caused by the departed hope, which once held the storm-tossed sool $ to the distant shore o' the great unknovhi. He who creeps into my yard and steals my horse is called a thief, and the law do- mands that he should be punished. And he, who by wicked endeavors and low canning, surrounds a man with false logic, and by sophistry, bewilders him and steals hf?-^ hope of Heaven and the blessing of present < - ligion, is a thief who steals life's greatest bleak ing, and ought to be shunned by all lovers at Him who planted hope to spring eternal iat the human breast. -/ The worst thieveo in existence are tbatt wbo steal the happiness of mind and aoul? who prowl around the land robbing mankind of the dearest treasure to which men are bete. Men who are so destitute of moral prindpi* that they can blaspheme God and the Bible, , and assail pure ana undefiled religion, woald^ naturally, if not prevented by civil law, dulge in anything which their brutish appetites might crave. Virtue, home and pnip~ 1 erty are only saved from such men by dw law vigorously prosecuted, _ COURTESY TO SERVANTS- . ** Tj The servant's rij?ht to l>e politely treated is just as absolute and indefensible as that of the Queen. She is a child of the greatKing; and to her applies the royal law,according to the Scripture,''Thou shalt love thv neighbor aa thyself.'' That law, which is MM? highest of all, surely iucludcs politeness. It we are bound to love our neighbors as our* selves, we are bound to treat them courteously at any rate. That is the first and most rudimental of our duties to tbem. Your servant, dear madanx, is your neighbor?the nearest of all your neighbors. She has a right, then, underwit this royal law?which is itself the spirit of iiUjust laws?to be courteously trcnto} bj you. It is no more condeaceiisiou for ySa to u?c rospect and gentleness in your inty- ' course with her, than it is for her Jo swefpf*,> . your floors or to build your fires. You are entitled to no more credit for speaking kindly to her, than you are for not stealing her t__i , n j pocKuc DaiiaKcrvuicia* xi juu uu uui> ^utuu yourself, in all your conversation with her, by the same laws of courtesy which yoo observe in your conversation with, the callers in our parlors, ydtf g| I are a very, vulgar person. The- Sg | maid in your kitchen is a woman; the gamt in your parlor is nothing more. Will yow I give to silks, and feathers, and a purser what you deny to womanhoo'l? 'I bat is the very essence of vulgarity. Do not say that 3 the guest never tries your temper as tb? servant doe*. You know that many of thee* whom you greet with smiles, tell lies about ; _* you when they are beyond your sight. Th? laws of gQod manners lead you to treat thair deceitfulness with forbearance. Should they not require equal forbearance toward the Ignorant servant girl in our kitchen?? [Hearth and Home. don't hear everything. Tbe art of not Wearing should be learned by all. It is fully as important to domestic happiness as a cultivated ear, for which so much money and time are expended. There . are so many tbings which it is painful to hear, vvrv many of which, if heard, will disturb the temper, corrupt simplicity and modesty, detract from contentment and happiness, that every one should be educated to taKc in or shut oiit souuds, according to his pleasure. If a man falls into a violent passion, and calls us all manner of names, at the first word we should shut our cars and hear no more. If, in a quiet voyage of life we find ourselves caught oi.e of those domestic whirlwinds of scoldiflg, we should shut our ears as a sailor wontd furl his sails, and making all tight, send bfr fore the gile. If a hot and restless man begins to inflame our feelings, we should consider what mischief tbe fiery sparks may do in our magezine below, where our temper ia kept, and instantly close the door. If, u has been remarked, all the petty things said of one by heedless or ill-natured idlers wet* to be brought home to him, he would become a mere walking pin-cushion stuck full of sharp remarks. If we would be happy, when among good men we should open our ears; wbeu among bad men shut them. It Is not worth while to hear what our neighbors say about our children, what our rivals say about our business, our dress or our affaira. The art of uot hearing, though untaught in our school", is by no means unpracticed in society. We have noticed that a well-bred woman never hears a vulgar or impertinent remark. A kind of discreet deafness saves one from many insults, from much blame; from not a little connivauce in dishonorable conversation.?[Treasure Trove. A St. Petersburg lady of fashion has invented aa improvement iu liar turnout which, the local papers say. is likely to become popular with ail ladies of rank. She has a mirror fastened to the girdle of her driver tv hen she takes a drive. This enables fcer not only to see whether her headgear and dress are in perfect order, but even to notice the carriagea and the people who are comiog up behind her vehicle.